or I will,—No, no, drink, I beseech you
(Ou je vous, je vous prie.). Sparrows will not
eat unless you bob them on the tail, nor can I drink
if I be not fairly spoke to. The concavities
of my body are like another Hell for their capacity.
Lagonaedatera (lagon lateris cavitas: aides
orcus: and eteros alter.). There is not
a corner, nor coney-burrow in all my body, where this
wine doth not ferret out my thirst. Ho, this
will bang it soundly. But this shall banish
it utterly. Let us wind our horns by the sound
of flagons and bottles, and cry aloud, that whoever
hath lost his thirst come not hither to seek it.
Long clysters of drinking are to be voided without
doors. The great God made the planets, and we
make the platters neat. I have the word of the
gospel in my mouth, Sitio. The stone called
asbestos is not more unquenchable than the thirst of
my paternity. Appetite comes with eating, says
Angeston, but the thirst goes away with drinking.
I have a remedy against thirst, quite contrary to
that which is good against the biting of a mad dog.
Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite
you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never
come upon you. There I catch you, I awake you.
Argus had a hundred eyes for his sight, a butler
should have (like Briareus) a hundred hands wherewith
to fill us wine indefatigably. Hey now, lads,
let us moisten ourselves, it will be time to dry hereafter.
White wine here, wine, boys! Pour out all in
the name of Lucifer, fill here, you, fill and fill
(peascods on you) till it be full. My tongue
peels. Lans trinque; to thee, countryman, I
drink to thee, good fellow, comrade to thee, lusty,
lively! Ha, la, la, that was drunk to some purpose,
and bravely gulped over. O lachryma Christi,
it is of the best grape! I’faith, pure
Greek, Greek! O the fine white wine! upon my
conscience, it is a kind of taffetas wine,—hin,
hin, it is of one ear, well wrought, and of good wool.
Courage, comrade, up thy heart, billy! We will
not be beasted at this bout, for I have got one trick.
Ex hoc in hoc. There is no enchantment nor
charm there, every one of you hath seen it. My
’prenticeship is out, I am a free man at this
trade. I am prester mast (Prestre mace, maistre
passe.), Prish, Brum! I should say, master past.
O the drinkers, those that are a-dry, O poor thirsty
souls! Good page, my friend, fill me here some,
and crown the wine, I pray thee. Like a cardinal!
Natura abhorret vacuum. Would you say that
a fly could drink in this? This is after the
fashion of Switzerland. Clear off, neat, supernaculum!
Come, therefore, blades, to this divine liquor and
celestial juice, swill it over heartily, and spare
not! It is a decoction of nectar and ambrosia.
How Gargantua was born in a strange manner.
