Rabelais lubricating An eel seller

An eel seller

as at Sandown Castle

'Breaking of the Bread'

Half-length portrait of John Smeaton dressed in a grey suit with white shirt and neck-cloth and a short grey wig

Rabelais lubricating An eel seller'Rabelais', 1882. Francois Rabelais (c1495 1553) was a French writer, satirist, humanist, doctor and monk. Born at Chinon in Touraine, he is best remembered as the author of the romance La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel (The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel) which appeared in four volumes between 1532 and 1552. A fifth work appeared posthumously in 1554 but is of doubtful authenticity. These four comic novels tell the story of the giants