My first masters have used me to it, saying that to breakfast made a good memory, and therefore they drank first. I am very well after it, and dine but the better. And Master Tubal, who was the first licenciate at Paris, told me that it was not enough to run apace, but to set forth betimes: so doth not the total welfare of our humanity depend upon perpetual drinking in a ribble rabble, like ducks, but on drinking early in the morning; unde versus, To rise betimes is no good hour, To drink betimes is better sure.”
Throughout the story of Gargantua and Pantagruel we see the importance of drinking. Gargantuas first words even being "drink, drink, drink". Here Gargantua is explaining to Ponocrates the importance of drinking early in the morning as opposed to doing exercise as the first thing. He says he was told that by drinking first thing before breakfast, you will have an even more memorable breakfast. The author, Rabelais, clearly shows his sense of humor here as well as his love of drinking. "Rabelais, who was a practicing doctor in Lyon, used moderate wine-drinking as a curative means of eliminating diseases of tension, and he believed, also, that laughter—here, no limits were prescribed—had a similar curative effect, on both the soul and the body" (Beaudry).<br /> Beaudry, Pierre. "What Does It Mean To Be Rabelaisian?" The Schiller Institute. Nov. 4, 2000. https://archive.schillerinstitute.com/fid_97-01/004_rabelaisian.html