GARGANTUA IS DOSED BY PONOCRATES, AND FORGETS ALL THAT HOLOFERNES HAD
TAUGHT HIM.
[Illustration: Initial W.]
While the two hundred and fifteen games, taking up just that number of
days, were being played, Master Ponocrates had not been at all idle. He
had already consulted with Master Theodore--a wise physician of that
time--and knew just what he was going to do when he had said:--
"To-morrow Your Highness will begin with ME."
The first thing was to dose Gargantua with a mysterious herb,
which made him forget all that he had ever learned under his old
teacher. This was not an original idea at all with either Theodore
or Ponocrates, for Thimotes, the music-master of Miletus, had long
before dosed, in the same way, such disciples of his as had been
unlucky enough to have first learned their notes under other musicians.
Gargantua, when asked by Ponocrates to meet certain scientific
gentlemen of Paris who had been specially invited to inspire the royal
Giant with love of knowledge, was so weak and pale after his dose that
he could only bow his head, while wondering lazily to himself what all
these heavy talks about Science had to do with the Latin, which his
good old Father Grandgousier had been so anxious for him to learn.
[Illustration: PONOCRATES DOSES GARGANTUA.]
When he had been dosed enough to forget his old studies, and even to
look up with a mild surprise when his dearly-loved Master Holofernes
was mentioned, Gargantua was put through a course of study, in which
he did not lose a single hour of the day. Only think how much he must
have learned each day! First, he was roused up, whether he wanted or
not, at four o'clock every morning, when he said his prayers. While the
attendants were rubbing his body down, a young page would read, in a
loud voice, so as to be heard above the scrubbing, some extracts from
a book of good doctrine. After this, being not more than half-dressed
yet, his practice was to visit each of his companions in his room,
and with a gentle "Get thee up, my boy! get thee up!" awake the lazy
fellow from his slumbers. Then he returned to his room, where he found
Ponocrates always ready to explain what was doubtful in the chapters
that had been read to him, and to ask him whether he had noted, as he
should, what signs the sun was entering that morning, and what aspect
he thought the moon would have that night.
It was only after this that his attendants began to dress him, to
perfume him, to curl him, and to powder him--Gargantua all the while
not once venturing to use that large, well-thumbed German comb of which
he had once been so proud. While all this was going on, the same page
would repeat the lesson of the day. Gargantua, thoroughly dosed and
brought down to a most anxious desire for study, learned after two or
three days to repeat the lessons by heart. Everybody looked glad at
this--none more so than good Master Ponocrates himself--especially when
the debate touched on such a question as the "Human State," which was
made the special lesson for two or three hours. While Gargantua was
still puzzling over the reading of the "Human State," and learning all
around the best talk about it, the big clock would strike eleven; and
then he would, with all his friends, walk soberly to the ground where
they would play at the good old game of ball, exercising their bodies
till all their muscles grew tired. From the field it was an easy way to
the house, where Gargantua, being first rubbed down and after a change
of shirt, would walk meekly, surrounded by his friends, towards the
kitchen to ask if the dinner was ready. While waiting for the cook--now
no longer in a stew, and therefore growing fatter and greasier than
ever--to send up the meal, they would recite clearly and eloquently
such sentences as had been retained from the morning-lecture. However,
Mister Appetite is stronger than Knowledge; and when dinner was ready,
they soon dropped their wise talk and began to look with eyes as big
as their stomachs towards the dining-room. Once seated at table some
one would begin to read a pleasant history of ancient heroism, and
continue reading until the wine was served. Then, if the party seemed
in a mood for it, Ponocrates would set them to chatting merrily about
the nature of all that they had before them on the table, the bread,
the wine, the water, the salt, the meats, the fish, the fruits, herbs,
roots and the mode of preparing all these. Doing this every day,
Gargantua soon learned all the passages relating to them to be found
in old classic writers, who were as dry as they were wise. Sometimes,
when the quotation did not run smooth, the old, musty, yellow parchment
itself, with its nearly rubbed-out Gothic letters, would be brought in
to settle the question; and the result was that, in a marvelously short
time, no learned doctor was Gargantua's equal in all this--no, not by
one-half.
[Illustration: GARGANTUA AT HIS LESSONS.]
They would once more take up in an easy talk the lessons read during
the morning, and, after finishing their dinner with some well-made
marmalade of quinces, would clean their teeth with a twig of the
mastic tree, and wash their hands and eyes with fresh water. Which
being done, cards were brought, not to play with, but to teach a
thousand fresh tricks and inventions which sprang directly, not only
from Architecture, but from Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. After
that, with a word from the good Master, Gargantua would make himself
merry in singing with his comrades some songs selected by himself,
accompanied by such instruments as the lute, the spinet, the harp, the
German nine-holed flute, the viol, and the sackbut, when would come
three hours given to exercises in writing antique and Roman letters,
and, lastly, to the main study, which would have made old Father
Grandgousier's heart swell with gladness if he could only have known
it.