Laudator Temporis Acti

Andrea Walkden, "RONSARD, PIERRE DE (1524–85)," in Elizabeth Chesney Zegura, ed., The Rabelais Encyclopedia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004), p. 215:

Ronsard includes an epitaph for Rabelais ("Epithafe de François Rabelais") in his 1554 collection, Le Bocage, published the year following the older writer's death. Part encomium, part burlesque, the poem begins with a Bacchic vine sprouting out of Rabelais's decomposing paunch. Retrospective intoxication ensues before death enters to sober up the proceedings and the epitaph ends by urging the reader to scatter food and drink, not flowers, upon Rabelais's grave. Taken as a whole, it confirms Rabelais's reputation as a bon vivant without telling us too much about what Ronsard thought of him.

Pierre de Ronsard, "Epitaph for François Rabelais" (tr. Malcolm Quainton and Elizabeth Vinestock):

[1-8]
If Nature engenders something from a dead man who lies rotting, and if generation comes from corruption, a vine will be born from the stomach and belly of our worthy Rabelais, who drank constantly while he was alive,

[9-14]
for with a single swig his great gob would by itself have drunk more wine, draining it, nose first, in two shakes, than a pig drinks sweet milk, or than Iris drinks rivers, or than the tawny shore drinks waves.

[15-20]
Never, however early in the morning, did the Sun see him when he had not been drinking, and never in the evening, however late, did black night see him not drinking, for, being parched, the good fellow drank night and day without a break.

[21-36]
But when the blazing Dog Days brought round the burning season, he rolled up his sleeves, leaving his arms half bare, and lay spread-eagled on the rush-strewn floor amid the drinking vessels, and without any shame, becoming filthy among greasy dishes, he wallowed in the wine like a frog in the mire; then, drunk, he sang the praises of his friend, good Bacchus, recounting how the Thebans were subjugated by him, and how his mother was visited by his father too hotly, who instead of doing it to her, burned her alive, alas!

[37-48]
He sang of the great club and the mare of Gargantua, of great Panurge, and the land of the credulous Papimanes, their laws, their ways and their homes, and of Jean des Entommeures, and of Epistemon's battles. But Death, who was not a drinker, hauled the drinker out of this world, and now makes him drink from the water that flows murkily into the bosom of the wide river Acheron.

[49-56]
Now, you who pass by, whoever you may be, hang drinking vessels over his grave, hang some sparkling wine there, and some bottles, sausages and hams; for, if beneath his tombstone his soul still has some feeling, he prefers these to lilies, however freshly they are picked.

---

Si d'un mort qui pourri repose
Nature engendre quelque chose,
Et si la generation
Est faite de la corruption,
Une vigne prendra naissance        5
De l'estomac et de la pance
Du bon Rabelais, qui boivoit
Tousjours ce-pendant qu'il vivoit,

Car d'un seul trait sa grande gueule
Eust plus beu de vin toute seule,        10
L'épuisant du nez en deux cous,
Qu'un porc ne hume de lait dous,
Qu'Iris de fleuves, ne qu'encore
De vagues le rivage more.

Jamais le Soleil ne l'a veu,        15
Tant fust-il matin, qu'il n'eust beu;
Et jamais au soir la nuit noire,
Tant fust tard, ne l'a veu sans boire,
Car alteré, sans nul sejour,
Le galant boivoit nuit et jour.        20

Mais quand l'ardente Canicule
Ramenoit la saison qui brule,
Demi-nus se troussoit les bras,
Et se couchoit tout plat à bas
Sur la jonchée entre les tasses,        25
Et, parmi des escuelles grasses
Sans nulle honte se touillant,
Alloit dans le vin barbouillant
Comme une grenouille en la fange:
Puis yvre chantoit la louange        30
De son ami le bon Bacchus,
Comme sous luy furent vaincus
Les Thebains, et comme sa mere
Trop chaudement receut son pere,
Qui en lieu de faire cela,        35
Las! toute vive la brula.

Il chantoit la grande massue,
Et la jument de Gargantue,
Le grand Panurge, et le païs
Des Papimanes ébaïs,        40
Leurs loix, leurs façons et demeures;
Et frere Jean des Antoumeures
Et d'Episteme les combas.
Mais la Mort, qui ne boivoit pas,
Tira le beuveur de ce monde,        45
Et ores le fait boire en l'onde
Qui fuit trouble dans le giron
Du large fleuve d'Acheron.

Or toy, quiconque sois, qui passes,
Sur sa fosse répen des taces,        50
Répen du bril et des flacons,
Des cervelas et des jambons:
Car si encor dessous la lame
Quelque sentiment a son ame,
Il les aime mieus que des lis,        55
Tant soyent ils fraichement cueillis.

See Samuel F. Will, "A Note on Ronsard's Epitafe de François Rabelais," Modern Language Notes 51.7 (November, 1936) 455-458.