his keenest darts, struck his hardest blows. Laughing with full throat and full breast, Rabelais had the laughers on his side, always a large class. Drinking freely, jesting freely, Rabelais appeared nothing more than a good fellow, with a dash of the buffoon; and it is not usually buffoons who are hanged or burned. The work so original, and yet more monstrous than original, of Rabelais, has been translated into all languages. Of the translations into English, that by Urquhart has long been admitted as a masterpiece. It were harsh to say that what for three centuries has been enthroned among the foremost productions of universal literature is overpraised. Yet in the "Gargantua and Pantagruel" the obscenity often exceeds the phantasy, the wit, and the humour. And unless there is to be delight in pollution for pollution's sake, few, even of the robustest stomach, will care to read the work of Rabelais more than once. To the completest and best edition of the writings of Rabelais which has appeared in France, there is a supplementary volume of plates reputed to be from etchings by Rabelais himself. It is impossible to conceive anything more hideous, more revolting. For Rabelais it has been pleaded that the age was one of most cynical outspokenness, and that, even from the pulpit, things fitted to wound delicate ears were often uttered. Let it be so. We are thereby, nevertheless, only furnished with a partial vindication of Rabelais. Erasmus and the authors of the Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum clothed bestialities in a Latin garb. That highest reverence which has been spoken of as due to the young, thus suffered no attaint. No imagination was fed with foul pictures, which was not already familiar with pictures still fouler, from the hand of ancient Greek and Latin authors. But by writing in the vulgar tongue Rabelais cast the filth by shovelfuls into the midst of a multitude just lettered enough to relish licentious jeers. It is unfortunate both for the literature and the morality of France, that the first truly classical composition in French prose is scandalously, disgustingly indecent. For three centuries a poison of corruption, derived from the pages of Rabelais, has been burning and festering in the veins of the French community. But for Rabelais, it is questionable whether France would have been contaminated and disgraced by utterances so abominable as Voltaire's Pucelle and Parny's War of the Gods, not to speak of that lasciviousness of idea, that pruriency of imagination, with which, only with too much justice. Frenchmen have been reproached. Yet there are numerous and sufficing reasons why the "Gargantua and Pantagruel" of Rabelais will always maintain its popularity. First of all it is one of those colossal creations which own no predecessor; it is a miracle of invention. Secondly, the comic pith, if extravagant and brutal, is genuine. Thirdly, the work vividly illustrates the first half of the sixteenth century, alike in its reforming and in its social aspects. Fourthly, this curious compound of dirt and delirium has a deep interest to him who desires to study the growth of the French language, the development of French literature. Fifthly, Rabelais was a man of the shrewdest, soundest sense, and could even rise to a wisdom and an insight rare in his time. All generations can learn from him lessons of tolerance, and still profounder and diviner lessons. Rabelais commends, after Plato, the dog as the most philosophical of animals, for the manner in which he deals with a marrow bone. So would he have us deal with his own book. Perhaps, however, the enthusiastic French admirers of Rabelais sometimes see marrow where there is only mud. It is not easy for us to believe that Rabelais had the presentiment of all modern reforms, political and religious liberty, organization of finances, destruction of privileges, perfectionment of legal procedure. He might burst into indignation against the furred cats of the parliament and Griffe-Minaud their archduke, yet not discern the improvement of which law was capable after breaking its mediæval fetters. The discourse of Grandgousier and his ambassador against the sanguinary madness of wars of invasion, may be as notable for sagacity as for eloquence. But neither to Rabelais nor to any of his contemporaries could war, when unjust, be that horrible thing which it is to the enlightened thinkers of our own day. Bearing on the youth of Gargantua, the treatise of Rabelais on education may be wonderful as coming from the sixteenth century; but surely it is wrong to maintain that Locke, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and all the chief theoretical or practical educationists, have merely developed germs offered by the puissant thought of the great humourist. Enough of glory, however, remains for Rabelais after the most strictly Rhadamanthine appreciation of his merits; enough of glory, even if he had only scourged with his scorn papegaut, éresgaux, cardingaux, the abuses of religion, and the vices of its ministers.—W. M—l.
RABENER, Gottlieb Wilhelm, a distinguished German satirist, was born on his father's estate of Wachau, near Leipsic, September 17, 1714, and received a careful education. Whilst a student at Leipsic he was admitted into the friendship of Gellert, and began his literary career as a contributor to the Bremische Beiträge, the foremost German magazine of its time. He then obtained an office of trust in the excise, first at Leipsic, and afterwards at Dresden, where he died March 22, 1771. In his satirical essays and letters he carefully abstained from attacking individuals or sacred institutions, and both for this reason and on account of his blameless life enjoyed the unmingled respect of his fellow-citizens. His works, however popular in their day, have now sunk into oblivion.—(Life and Correspondence by C. F. Weisse, Leipsic, 1772.)—K. E.
RABUS, Peter, a Dutch writer, author of a poem entitled "Verlost Britannic, or Britain Delivered," for which William III. presented him with a gold medal, was born in 1660 at Rotterdam, and died in 1702. He also published an edition of the Colloquies of Erasmus, and a Latin dictionary entitled "Basilii Fabri Serani Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticæ."
RABUTIN. See Bussy-Rabutin.
RACAN, Honorat de Bueil, Marquis de, a French poet, born in 1589 at Roche-Racan in Touraine, was a page at the court of Henry IV., then became a soldier, and after obtaining the rank of lieutenant-general, quitted the service and devoted himself to literature. A pupil and friend of Malherbe, he published a memoir of that poet. Of his poetical works, generally feeble, the "Bergeries," a collection of idyls, are the most popular. It was praised by Boileau and Menage. His works were collected and published at Paris in 1724. Racan, though he was ignorant of Latin, was a member of the Academy from its foundation in 1635.—J. S., G.
RACHEL (Mademoiselle), was the theatrical designation of Rachel Felix, the most celebrated tragic actress of modern France. Her father was a Jew pedlar, French by birth, and in the course of her parents' professional wanderings she was born at the village of Munf, in the canton of Aarau, Switzerland, on the 24th of March, 1821. During her early childhood the family settled for a time at Lyons, where her mother opened an old clothes shop, and Rachel's elder sister, Sarah, sang in the streets and cafés, while the future tragédienne collected the sous which were the result. About 1830 the Felix family removed to Paris, where Sarah and Rachel plied their vocation as at Lyons. The curiosity of an amateur in a café was roused by Sarah's singing: he inquired into the circumstances of the sisters, and procured the elder one admission into the conservatory of sacred music, then presided over by his friend Chêron. Rachel followed her sister, and in time her talent for declamation attracted attention. She made her début at the Gymnase on the 24th April, 1837; and in spite of her puny and meagre person and gruff voice, she met with some success. On the 12th of June in the following year, she appeared at the Théatre Français in what became one of her most celebrated parts, Camille, in Corneille's Horaces. Her real histrionic genius was first discovered by Jules Janin, who, in his feuilleton in the Journal des Débats of the 10th September, 1838, proclaimed it to the world, and Rachel's fame was made. She soon took rank as one of the greatest actresses of her time; and the verdict of Paris was confirmed by that of London, where she played in the May of 1841. In 1853 she went to St. Petersburg with a most lucrative engagement; and in 1855 she made a theatrical tour in the United States. There she displayed the first symptoms of the disease of the lungs, of which, after her return home and a journey in search of health to Cairo, she died at Cannet, near Cannes, on the 3rd of January, 1858. Rachel's most thrilling effects were produced by simple means, a tone, a gesture, a look; she had little of the declaimer about her. In her relations with managers she was sordid and litigious; and her private character was, to say the least of it, not all that could be desired. English Memoirs of Rachel, by Madame de B., were published in 1858.—F. E.
RACINE, Jean, the French dramatist, was born at Ferte-Milon on the 21st December, 1639. His father held an appointment under government in the salt-office, and his mother, Jeanne Sconin, was the daughter of a commissioner of woods and forests
