ALCON

Is't possible that a society Can with so little noise, and sweat subsist? No man can wish a better place then this To practice in my art, for here they will Be sick for company, they are so kind. I have now twenty patients at this time, That know not what they ail, no more do I, And they have physic all accordingly. First Phillis God running at Barleibreak A little cold, which I with certain drugs I ministered, was thought to remedy, Doris saw that, how Phillis physic wrought (For Phillis had told her, she never took So delicate a thing in all her life That more revived her heart, and cleared her blood,) Doris would needs be sick too, and take some. Melina seeing that, she would the Like, And so she had the very same receipt, For to say tr that I have no more but that, And one poor pill I use for great cures. But this is only sweet and delicate, Fit for young women, and is Like herb John, Does neither good nor hurt, but that's all one, For if they but conceive it does, it does, And it is that Physicians hold the chief In all their cures, conceit, and strong belief: Besides I am a stranger come from far Which does add much unto opinion too. For who now but the Arabian or the Jew In foreign lands, are held the only men, Although their knowledge be no more then mine. Then am I as abstruse and mystical In Character, and giving my receipt Observing still th'odd number in my pills, And certain hours to gather and compound My simples, and make all t'attend the Moon. Then do I show what rare ingredients I use for some great cures, when needs requires, The liver of a Wolf, the Lions gall, The leaft side of a Mole, the Foxes heart, The right foot of a Tortoise, Dragons blood, And such strange savage stuff, as even the names Are physic of them selves, to move a man. And all the drugs I use, must come from far, Beyond the Ocean, and the Sun at least, Or else it hath no virtue Physical, These homebred simples do no good at all. 'Tis true, and now to see with what a strange And gluttonous desire, th'exhaust the same How infinite, and how in atiably, They do devour intoxicating fume, You would admire, as if their spirits thereby Were taken, and enchanted, or transformed, By some infused philter in the drug. For whereas heretofore they wonted were At all they meetings, and their eastiualls, To pass the time in elling witty tales, In questions, riddles, and in purposes, Now do they nothing else, but fit and suck, And spit and sla er, all the time they fit. That I go by, and laugh unto my self, And think that this will one day make some work For me or others, but I fear it will B'another age will find the hurt of this. But sure the time's to come, when they look back On this, will wonder with themselves to think That men of sense could ever be so mad, To suck so gross a vapour, that consumes Their spirits, spends nature, dries up memory, Corrupts the blood, and in a vanity. Welcome, fair nymph, come let me try your pulse. I cannot blame you, hold your self not well. Some thing amiss quoth you, here's all amiss, Whole Fabric of your self distempered is, The Systole, and Dyastole of your pulse, Do show your passion most historical, It seems you have not very careful be, T'obserue the prophilactick regiment Of your own body, so that we must now Descend unto the Theraphentica l; That so we may prevent the syndrome Of Symptoms, and may afterwards apply Some analepticall Elexipharmacum, That may be proper for your malady: It seems fai e Nymph you dream much in the night. I know you are. You have great heaviness about your heart. I know you have. You wake oft in the night. All this I know you do. And this unless by physic you prevent, Think whereto it may bring you in the end. And therefore you must first euacua e All those Colaxicall hight humour which Disturb your heart, and then refrigerate Your blood by some Menalchian Cordials, Which you must take, and you shall straight find ease, And in the morning I will visit you. But Lincus, let not this discourage us, That this poor people jealous of their rest, Exile us thus, for we no doubt shall find Nations enough, that will most ready be To entertain our skill, and cherish us. And worthier people too, of subtler spirits, Then these unfashioned, and uncombed rude swain. What my friend Lincus? now in troth well met. In troth I longed to hear how you proceed, In your new practice, here among, these swains, For you and I must grace each others Art; Though you knew me, when I in Pa ras dwelled, And waited on a poor Physicians man, And I knew you a Pronotories boy, That wrote Indentum es at the Town house door. Yet are you here, now a great man of law, And I a graven Physician ull of skill, And here we two are held the only men. But how thrive you in your new practice now? 'Tis marvel, that there long and easy peace That fosters plenty, and gives nought to do, Should not with them beget contention too, As well as other where we see it does. But now in faith I have found out a trick, That will perpetually so feed their rheums, And entertain their idle weaknesses, As nothing in the world could do the Like, For lately being at Corinth, 'twas my chance T'incounter with a Seaman, new arrived Of Alexandria, who from India came, And brought a certain herb wrapped up in rolls, From l S and of Nicosia, where it grows: Infused I think in some pestiferous juice, (Produced in that contagious burning climb, Contrarious to our nature, and our spirits) Or else sleeped in the fuming sap, it self Does yield, t'inforce th'infecting power thereof, And this in powder made, and fired, he sucks Out of a little hollow instrument Of calcinated clay, the smoke thereof: Which either he conveys out of his nose, Or down into his stomach with a whiff. And this he said a wondrous virtue had, To pu ge the head, and cure the great Cata e, And to dry up all other meaner rheums, Which when I saw, I straight way thought how well This new fantastical devise would please The foolish people here grown humeto S. And up I took all this commodity, And here have taught them how to use the same. Lintus there does indeed, therefore away. Leave me alone, for I must now resume My surly, graven, and Doctoral aspect. This wench I know, 'tis Duphne who hath wronged Her love Menalcas, and played fast and lose With Colax, who revealed the whole to me. I know you do, You're troubled much with thought. Fair Nymph, you must, if you will use my art, Let me alone, to give what I think good, I knew what fitted Phillis malady, And so, I think, I know what will serve you. Oh what a wondrous skilful man is this? Why he knows all? Oh God, who ever thought Any man living, could have told so right A woman's grief in all points as he hath? Why this is strange that by thy very pulse, He should know all I ail, as well as I. Beside I fear he sees too m changed in me, More then I would that any man should see. Me thought (although I could not well conceive His words, he spoke so learned and so strange) He said I had misr ld my body much, As if he meant that in some wanton sort, I had abused my body with some man. Oh how should he know that what is my pulse Become th'intelligencer of my shame? Or are my looks the index of my heart? Sure so he said, and me thought too, he named Menalcas, or else some thing very Like, And likewise named that cunning treacherous wretch That hath undone me, Colax, that vile devil, Who is indeed the cause of all my grief, For which I now seek physic, but o what Can physic do, to cure that hideous wound My lustest have given my Conscience? which I see Is that which only is diseased with in And not my body now, that's it does so Disquiet all the lodging of my spirits, As keeps me waking, that is, it presents, Those ugly forms of terror that affright My broken sleeps, that lays upon my heart This heavy load that weighs it down with grief; And no disease beside, for which there is No cure I see at all, nor no redress. Didst thou allege vile man to my weak youth, How that those vows I made unto my love Were bans of custom, and could not lay on Those manacles on nature, which should keep Her freedom prisoner by our dome of breath? Oimpious wretch now nature gives the lie To thy foul heart, and tells my grieved soul, I have done wrong, to falsify that vow I first to my deer love Menalcas made. And says th'assurance and the faith is given By band on earth, the same is sealed in heaven. And therefore how Menalcas can these eyes That now abhor to look upon my self, Dare ever view that wronged face of thine, Who hast relied on this false heart of mine? Yea and I doubt not while there shall be found Fantastic puling wenches in the world, But I shall flourish, and live jollily, For such as I by women must begin To gain a name, and reputation win. Which when we have attained to, you know then How easily the women draw on men.