ABSTRACT
As young boys giggle at the mention of ‘ratacuntarseing’ (p. 13) and ‘the dignity of codpieces’ (p. 3), in the prologue to the book Rabelais distinguishes his endeavours from being only about surface hilarity of ribaldry (p. 4) – this is not just the ‘Renaissance equivalent of knob-jokes, farts, potty humour and fl atulent booziness’ (Brown 2003: p. xii). The ‘marrow’ that Rabelais dares us to suck on is not something he has placed there as a ‘secret’ to be discovered – ‘shit on him!’ (Rabelais 1534/2003: 4) says Rabelais to anyone who might accuse him of such a thing. As the poem says, it is the laughter itself that is the marrow – Rabelais seeks the ‘honour and glory … of being called a real
joker’ (p. 5). The honour of such an endeavour is to be ‘merry and bright’ (p. 6); to laugh in the face of the self-serious ‘monkish’ knowledge of the ‘Brother Boobius’ and the ‘bacon-fi lcher’ (p. 6).
