HOW GARGANTUA WAS MADE NOT TO LOSE ONE HOUR OF THE DAY.
[Illustration: Initial E.]
Everybody knows that Giants are very queer people and require a great
deal of care, even when they are the mildest, and Gargantua was such
a Giant that the measures of all the Tailors of Paris at that time
couldn't have told him how tall he was, and all the weights known in
his day couldn't possibly have balanced his big body.
Master Ponocrates, who had no idea of making the Prince's mind
strong at the expense of his body,--being too good a teacher for
that,--arranged it in such a way that, every day after the Latin
lesson, Gargantua was allowed, after changing his clothes, to leave his
hotel with his Squire Gymnaste, who had been chosen specially to teach
him the noble art of horsemanship. Once on horseback, Gargantua would
first give his steed full rein; then make him leap high in air; then
jump a ditch; then scale a fence; then turn quickly in one half of a
circle, and back again around the other half, before one could count
thirty seconds. Then calling for a lance--the keenest, the sharpest,
and the strongest that could be had--he would ride full-tilt against
the heaviest door or the stoutest oak, piercing the one through and
through, or uprooting the other by sheer force with as much ease as a
common man would tear up a sapling. As for the flourishes on horseback,
no one could compete with Gargantua. The great acrobat of Ferrara was
only a monkey in comparison with him. Gargantua was taught to leap from
one horse to another while both were at full gallop, without touching
the ground, or, with lance at rest, mounting each horse without
stirrup or bridle, and guiding it as he pleased. As Ponocrates said,
"all these things help to make a good soldier."
Yet this was only a trifle. Every fine day the Prince would go hunting.
He would shine as brightly there as he had done in horsemanship. He
would always be the first when the chasing the deer, the doe, the boar,
the partridge, the pheasant, and the bustard.
Next to hunting came swimming. Gargantua, being so bulky, never would
strike a stroke unless he was in deep waters. He would play such tricks
in the water as only good swimmers know--swimming on his back, or
sideways, or with all his body, or sometimes with his feet only. He
laughed at the idea of crossing the Seine. It was his daily pastime,
holding a book with one hand high above the water, to reach the other
side without wetting a single page of it. One day, Gargantua, being
praised for all this, was asked if he had any model. All he said was:--
"Perhaps, Julius Cæsar used to do something of the same kind."
[Illustration: GARGANTUA LEARNS TO SHOOT.]
On coming out of the water, he would of course feel chilled through,
and then to get well warmed he would run up a hill, and then rush
down, taking the trees on the way, up which he would dart like a cat,
leaping from one branch to the other like a squirrel, and breaking down
great limbs to the right and left like Milo of old. He would next pay
his attention to the houses which, with the aid of two steel poniards,
he would climb, jumping down from them without ever being the worse for
it. After this he would exercise with the bow, often strongest bows in
drawing, shooting at targets from below upwards, from above downwards,
sideways, and at last behind him, like the Parthians.
[Illustration: GARGANTUA LEARNS TO CLIMB.]
But there was something more. Every day after these feats were over,
they would drop a big cable from some high tower to the ground.
Gargantua would go hand over hand up this chain, and descend it with
so sure a grip that, among the active men of Paris, there could not
be found his equal. Then came what Ponocrates called strengthening
his nerves. For this purpose, two great weights of lead had been
specially made--each one weighing eight hundred and seventy thousand
pounds--which Gargantua would take up, one in each hand, raise them
above his head, and keep them there, without moving, three quarters
of an hour and more. All who saw this great feat wondered, and swore
that the like of it had not been seen in the world. Being still out in
the open air, he would exercise his throat and his lungs by shouting
like a wild man. Why, he was one day heard calling Eudemon from the
Gate of Saint Victor, by a man who was standing in the street at
Montmartre,--any map of Paris will show you how far that is. Everybody
has heard about Stentor and his great voice. Well, Stentor never had
such a voice at the siege of Troy as Gargantua had at the gate of St.
Victor.
When the weather was bright, he would play a game in which he would
imitate Milo, the famous strong man, by standing on his feet, and
daring any number of the strongest men to make him move. This was the
last of the hard work for the day. He would be allowed to rest time
enough to be bathed, rubbed down, and given clean clothes. He and
his companions would return very slowly home, stopping on the way by
certain fields or grassy plains, where they examined the trees and
plants, consulting over them with the books of old-time greybeards who
had written about them, their arms full of specimens which they would
throw to the page Rhizotome, who was charged to take good care of them,
together with the pickaxes, hoes, spades, scrapers, pruning-knives, and
other implements which his master had used in the work.
Of course this had brought them home, where they had to wait sometimes
for supper. If they happened to wait, they would repeat certain
passages from what had been read or spoken of at dinner. At the
supper-table, they would continue their wise talk. After supper they
used to sing musically, to play on harmonious instruments, and to pass
the time away in those little games which wise men know how to play
with cards, dice, and goblets. His companions never found these very
interesting. No more did Gargantua.
[Illustration: GARGANTUA STUDIES ASTRONOMY.]
When bed-time came, Gargantua used to walk with Ponocrates as far as
the lodge, looking upon the open street, whence they could better
see the face of the sky. There he watched the comet--there happened
to be one then--and the figure, situation and aspect, opposition and
conjunction of the stars. Then, with his good teacher, he would briefly
sum up in the way of the Pythagoreans all that he had read, seen,
known, thought, and done in the course of the day.
Then the tired young Giant, tucking his bedclothes lazily around him,
would commend himself to Heaven, and stretch his big limbs out on a bed
that I am afraid was rather short for him.