well moistened in this house with the sweet wine and
must. By G—, I drink to all men freely,
and at all fords, like a proctor or promoter’s
horse. Friar John, said Gymnast, take away the
snot that hangs at your nose. Ha, ha, said the
monk, am not I in danger of drowning, seeing I am
in water even to the nose? No, no, Quare?
Quia, though some water come out from thence, there
never goes in any; for it is well antidoted with pot-proof
armour and syrup of the vine-leaf.
Oh, my friend, he that hath winter-boots made of such
leather may boldly fish for oysters, for they will
never take water. What is the cause, said Gargantua,
that Friar John hath such a fair nose? Because,
said Grangousier, that God would have it so, who frameth
us in such form and for such end as is most agreeable
with his divine will, even as a potter fashioneth
his vessels. Because, said Ponocrates, he came
with the first to the fair of noses, and therefore
made choice of the fairest and the greatest.
Pish, said the monk, that is not the reason of it,
but, according to the true monastical philosophy,
it is because my nurse had soft teats, by virtue whereof,
whilst she gave me suck, my nose did sink in as in
so much butter. The hard breasts of nurses make
children short-nosed. But hey, gay, Ad formam
nasi cognoscitur ad te levavi. I never eat any
confections, page, whilst I am at the bibbery.
Item, bring me rather some toasts.
Chapter 1.XLI.
How the Monk made Gargantua sleep, and of his hours
and breviaries.
Supper being ended, they consulted of the business
in hand, and concluded that about midnight they should
fall unawares upon the enemy, to know what manner
of watch and ward they kept, and that in the meanwhile
they should take a little rest the better to refresh
themselves. But Gargantua could not sleep by
any means, on which side soever he turned himself.
Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly
but when I am at sermon or prayers. Let us therefore
begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to
try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep.
The conceit pleased Gargantua very well, and, beginning
the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to
the words Beati quorum they fell asleep, both the one
and the other. But the monk, for his being formerly
accustomed to the hour of claustral matins, failed
not to awake a little before midnight, and, being
up himself, awaked all the rest, in singing aloud,
and with a full clear voice, the song:
Awake, O Reinian, ho, awake!
Awake, O Reinian, ho!
Get up, you no more sleep must take;
Get up, for we must go.
