Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio (1504-1573), from Egle, Act I Scene IV:
Sileno:
A Dio, compagni cari.
Ma io vi prego intanto a raccordarvi
Che ‘l vino è medicina a ogni gran cura
E che impossibil è che chi ben beve
Con ogni grave duol non faccia tregua.
Silenus:
Adieu, my dear friends.
But in the meantime, I beg you to commit yourselves
to the fact that wine is medicine for every great worry
and that it is impossible for those who drink well
not to make peace with every serious sorrow they suffer.
Notes:
Giambattista Giraldi Cinzio, Egle; Lettera sovra il comporre le Satire atte alla scena; Favola Pastorale, ed. by Carla Molinari (Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1985), pp. 27-28. My translation.
‘Give strong drink to them that are sad: and wine to them that are grieved in mind’ Proverbs 31:6.
Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656), Triumph of Silenus, wikicommons (Louvre)