Propositions pour deux expressions du Quart Livre à partir de Cotgrave

For the Portuguese translator of Rabelais, two expressions in the Fourth Book—“contrefaire le loup en paille” (Chapter LXVI) and “cela” (Chapter XLVII)—pose some formidable problems. The various annotated editions are of no help, and versions in other languages—generally guided by a sometimes inventive pragmatism—simply gloss over the problem rather than illuminating it. Cotgrave, however, gives us a precious clue with which to elucidate these two “mysteries.”