When Pantagruel was born, there was none more astonished and perplexed than was his father Gargantua; for of the one side seeing his wife Badebec dead, and on the other side his son Pantagruel born, so fair and so great, he knew not what to say nor what to do.  And the doubt that troubled his brain was to know whether he should cry for the death of his wife or laugh for the joy of his son.  He was hinc inde choked with sophistical arguments, for he framed them very well in modo et figura, but he could not resolve them, remaining pestered and entangled by this means, like a mouse caught in a trap or kite snared in a gin.  Shall I weep? said he.  Yes, for why?  My so good wife is dead, who was the most this, the most that, that ever was in the world.  Never shall I see her, never shall I recover such another; it is unto me an inestimable loss!  O my good God, what had I done that thou shouldest thus punish me?  Why didst thou not take me away before her, seeing for me to live without her is but to languish?  Ah, Badebec, Badebec, my minion, my dear heart, my sugar, my sweeting, my honey, my little c—­ (yet it had in circumference full six acres, three rods, five poles, four yards, two foot, one inch and a half of good woodland measure), my tender peggy, my codpiece darling, my bob and hit, my slipshoe-lovey, never shall I see thee!  Ah, poor Pantagruel, thou hast lost thy good mother, thy sweet nurse, thy well-beloved lady!  O false death, how injurious and despiteful hast thou been to me!  How malicious and outrageous have I found thee in taking her from me, my well-beloved wife, to whom immortality did of right belong!

With these words he did cry like a cow, but on a sudden fell a-laughing like a calf, when Pantagruel came into his mind.  Ha, my little son, said he, my childilolly, fedlifondy, dandlichucky, my ballocky, my pretty rogue!  O how jolly thou art, and how much am I bound to my gracious God, that hath been pleased to bestow on me a son so fair, so spriteful, so lively, so smiling, so pleasant, and so gentle!  Ho, ho, ho, ho, how glad I am!  Let us drink, ho, and put away melancholy!  Bring of the best, rinse the glasses, lay the cloth, drive out these dogs, blow this fire, light candles, shut that door there, cut this bread in sippets for brewis, send away these poor folks in giving them what they ask, hold my gown.  I will strip myself into my doublet (en cuerpo), to make the gossips merry, and keep them company.

As he spake this, he heard the litanies and the mementos of the priests that carried his wife to be buried, upon which he left the good purpose he was in, and was suddenly ravished another way, saying, Lord God! must I again contrist myself?  This grieves me.  I am no longer young, I grow old, the weather is dangerous; I may perhaps take an ague, then shall I be foiled, if not quite undone.  By the faith of a gentleman, it were better to cry less, and drink more.  My wife is dead, well, by G—! (da