A later work than any of his, the Novelle of Bandello, should be kept in mind—­for the writer was Bishop of Agen, and his work was translated into French—­as also the Dames Galantes of Brantome.  Read the Journal of Heroard, that honest doctor, who day by day wrote down the details concerning the health of Louis XIII. from his birth, and you will understand the tone of the conversation of Henry iv.  The jokes at a country wedding are trifles compared with this royal coarseness.  Le Moyen de Parvenir is nothing but a tissue and a mass of filth, and the too celebrated Cabinet Satyrique proves what, under Louis XIII., could be written, printed, and read.  The collection of songs formed by Clairambault shows that the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were no purer than the sixteenth.  Some of the most ribald songs are actually the work of Princesses of the royal House.

It is, therefore, altogether unjust to make Rabelais the scapegoat, to charge him alone with the sins of everybody else.  He spoke as those of his time used to speak; when amusing them he used their language to make himself understood, and to slip in his asides, which without this sauce would never have been accepted, would have found neither eyes nor ears.  Let us blame not him, therefore, but the manners of his time.

Besides, his gaiety, however coarse it may appear to us—­and how rare a thing is gaiety!—­has, after all, nothing unwholesome about it; and this is too often overlooked.  Where does he tempt one to stray from duty?  Where, even indirectly, does he give pernicious advice?  Whom has he led to evil ways?  Does he ever inspire feelings that breed misconduct and vice, or is he ever the apologist of these?  Many poets and romance writers, under cover of a fastidious style, without one coarse expression, have been really and actively hurtful; and of that it is impossible to accuse Rabelais.  Women in particular quickly revolt from him, and turn away repulsed at once by the archaic form of the language and by the outspokenness of the words.  But if he be read aloud to them, omitting the rougher parts and modernizing the pronunciation, it will be seen that they too are impressed by his lively wit as by the loftiness of his thought.  It would be possible, too, to extract, for young persons, without modification, admirable passages of incomparable force.  But those who have brought out expurgated editions of him, or who have thought to improve him by trying to rewrite him in modern French, have been fools for their pains, and their insulting attempts have had, and always will have, the success they deserve.