4 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2025
    1. Most dear Son,—Amongst the gifts, graces, and prerogatives, with which the sovereign plasmator God Almighty hath endowed and adorned human nature at the beginning, that seems to me most singular and excellent by which we may in a mortal state attain to a kind of immortality, and in the course of this transitory life perpetuate our name and seed, which is done by a progeny issued from us in the lawful bonds of matrimony.

      The letter here is out of place as it is more serious compared to the rest of the story. "At no point is there any kind of tonal contrast or disjunction between what is articulated and how it is articulated" https://www.jstor.org/stable/26283863

    2. I doubt me, that you do not thoroughly believe the truth of this strange nativity. Though you believe it not, I care not much: but an honest man, and of good judgment, believeth still what is told him, and that which he finds written.

      The last line is a bit of a mockery of those who believe in the various superstitions as this story is a "vehicle for ridicule of the follies and superstitions of the times." https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gargantua-and-Pantagruel

  2. Feb 2025
    1. “O Zeus, O Earth, O Light:” The cry of a bride forlorn Heard ye, and wailing born Of lost delight?

      Here "[t]he cry of a bride forlorn" is referring to Medea's cry over the fact that Jason has left her for another despite everything she did to aid him on his quest for the Golden Fleece. "wailing born Of Lost delight" likely refers to how their relationship was once good, but now it is not. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346093