Подтирался я еще курицей, петухом, цыпленком, телячьей шкурой, зайцем, голубем, бакланом, адвокатским мешком, капюшоном, чепцом, чучелом птицы. В зак… - François Rabelais

Advice to Readers

Good friends who come to read this book,
Strip yourselves first of affectation;
Do not assume a pained, shocked look,
For it contains no foul infection,
Yet teaches you no great perfection,
But lessons in the mirthful art,
The only subject for my heart.
When I see grief consume and rot
You, mirth's my theme and tears are not,
For laughter is man's proper lot.

Then fail not most carefully to peruse the books of the Greek, Arabian, and Latin physicians, not despising the Talmudists and Cabalists; and by frequent anatomies get thee the perfect knowledge of that other world, called the microcosm, which is man. And at some of the hours of the day apply thy mind to the study of the Holy Scriptures; first, in Greek, the New Testament, with the Epistles of the Apostles;: and then the Old Testament in Hebrew. In brief, let me see thee an abyss and bottomless pit of knowledge; for from henceforward, as thou growest great and becomest a man, thou must part from this tranquillity and rest of study, thou must learn chivalry, warfare, and the exercises of the field, the better thereby to defend my house and our friends, and to succour and protect them at all their needs against the invasion and assaults of evildoers.

Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-être.