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form it is only a revifion of an earlier compofition, perhaps even an
unacknowledged work of Rabelais himfelf, which had been preferved in
manufcript in Beroald's family.
Pantagruelifm, or, if you like, Rabelaifm, did not, during the iixteenth
century, make much progrefs beyond the limits of France. In the
Teutonic countries of Europe, and in England, the fceptical fentiment
was fmall in cornparifon with the religious feeling, and the only fatirical
work at all refembling thofe we have been defcribing, was the " Utopia "
of Sir Thomas More, a work comparatively fpiritlefs, and which produced
a very {light fenfation. In Spain, the itate of focial feeling was {till lefs
favourable to the writings of Rabelais, yet he had there a worthy and true
reprefentative in the author of Don Quixote. It was only in the feven-
teenth century that the works of Rabelais were tranflated into Engliih;
but we mutt not forget that our tatiritts of the laft century, fuch as Swift
and Sterne, derived their infpiration chiefly from Rabelais, and from the
Pantagrueliitic writers of the latter half of the iixteenth century. Thefe
latter were molt of them poor imitators of their original, and, like all
poor imitators, purfued to exaggeration his leaft worthy charaoteriitics.
There is {till fome humour in the writings of 'Tabourot, the iieur des
Accords, efpecially in his " Bigarrures," but the later productions, which
appeared under fuch names as Brufcambille and Tabarin, ink into mere
dull ribaldry.
There had arifen, however, by the tide of this Iiitire which fmelt
fomewhat too much of the tavern, another fatire, more ferious, which {till
contained a little of the iiyle of Rabelais. The French Proteftants at iirlt
looked upon Rabelais as one of their towers of Itrength, and embraced
with gratitude the powerful proteotion they received from the graceful
queen of Navarre; but their gratitude failed them, when Marguerite,
though {he never ceafed to give them her protection, conformed out-
wardly, from attachment to her brother, to the forms of the Catholic
faith, and they rejected the fchool of Rabelais as a mere fchool of Atheiits.
Among them arofe another fchool of fatire, a fort of branch from the
other, which was reprefented in its infancy by the celebrated fcholar and
printer, Henri Eitienne, better known among us as Henry Stephens.
The