Till the good father’s face did shine,
Enrich’d with ruby beams of wine.
Alcæus, the famous poet, never sat down to compose tragedy till he was tipsy. The disciples of the great Paracelsus took the opportunity, when he was fuddled, to make him dictate. The venerable Messire Francis Rabelais composed over the bottle the acts and jests of Gargantua, and his son Pantagruel, a work which gained him such great reputation. “Pontius de Thiard, bishop of Chalons sur Saone, had greater obligations to Bacchus than Apollo for his good verses; who, not reckoning what wine he drank all day long, never slept without drinking a pretty large bottle[11].” So true is it, that
“A la fontaine ou s’enyvre Boileau
Le grand Corneille et le sacré troupeau
De ces auteurs que l’on ne trouve guere
Un bon rimeur doit boire a pleine éguyere,
S’il veut donner un bon tour au rondeau[12].”
At that rich fountain where the great Boileau,
Corneille, Racine, to whom so much we owe,