François Rabelais

Pray, how came you to know that men were formerly fools? How did you find that they are now wise? . . .

Now answer me, an’t please you: I dare not adjure you in stronger terms, reverend sirs, lest I make your pious fatherly worships in the least uneasy. Come, pluck up a good heart; speak the truth and shame the devil, that enemy to paradise, that enemy to truth: be cheery, my lads; and if you are for me, take me off three or five bumpers of the best, while I make an halt at the first part of the sermon; then answer my question.

François Rabelais, Gargantua & Pantagruel (from the “Faithfully Translated” Gustave Doré edition), Book V, author’s prologue. The Doré illustration is of “Messire Oudart.”