“ Keep running after a dog, and he will never bite you; drink always before the thirst, and it will never come upon you. ”
François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). copy citation
| Author | François Rabelais |
|---|---|
| Source | Gargantua and Pantagruel |
| Topic | drinking thirst |
| Date | 1534 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm |
Context
“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.”
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Meaning and analysis
