King Macb. How does your patient, doctor? Doct. Not so sick, my lord, As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, King Macb. Cure her of that: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd; Doct. Therein the patient Must minister to himself. King Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. Act V., Sc. I. Macbeth, Act V., Sc. III. In King Lear also appears a physician worthy of the name. The last scene of the fourth act shows his excellent skill in treat ing Lear's case. Dr. Bucknill, of England, in writing of it twenty-five years ago, says: "We confess, almost with shame, that although near two centuries and a half have passed since Shakespeare thus wrote we have very little to add to his method of treating the insane as thus pointed out." Dr. Butts, in Henry VIII, and Dr. Caius, in Merry Wives, play rather unimportant parts. He compliments the profession by putting this speech in the mouth of a madman: Timon to Banditti : Trust not the physician; His antidotes are poison, and he slays More than you rob. Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. And bringing this one from the lips of an ignorant prostitute: Nay, will you cast away your child on a fool and a physician? Merry Wives, Act III., Sc. IV. His friends, like physicians, thrice give him over. Timon of Athens, Act III., Sc. III. He is the wiser man, master doctor; he is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies. Merry Wives, Act II., Sc. III. A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain All's Well, Act II., Sc. III. Doctors, less famous for their cures than fees. Byron-Don Juan, Canto XIV., Verse XLVIII. Like a port sculler, one physician plies This is the way physicians mend or end us, Byron-Don Juan, Canto X, Verse XLII. God and the doctor we alike adore, The doctor says so * * * * * * ** ** : ** *they sometimes Are soothsayers and always cunning men. Ben Jonson-Magnetic Lady, Act II., Sc. I. A side thrust at the experimenters in the profession is found in Cymbeline. I do know her spirit, And will not trust one of her malice with A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and dogs, Then afterwards up higher. Act I., Sc. V. Henry VI.-3d, Act III., Sc. II. I can smile, and murder whiles I smile. He has in several plays shown his contempt for the "prating They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-fac'd villain, A mere anatomy, a mountebank, A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller; A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch, I say we must not Comedy of Errors, Act V., Sc. I. So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malady To empirics; or to dissever so Our great self and our credit, to esteem A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. All's Well, Act II., Sc. I. TRIVERSITY CALIFORNIA PART II. PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. Shakespeare's maladies are many and the symptoms very well defined. Diseases of the nervous system seem to have been a favorite study, especially insanity; Lear, Timon, and Hamlet being excellent examples. And he * * * (a short tale to make), Hamlet, Act II., Sc. II. He took me by the wrist and held me hard; As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so; At last, a little shaking of mine arm, And thrice his head thus waving up and down, That it did seem to shatter all his bulk, Alas, how is it with you, Hamlet, Act II., Sc. I. That you do bend your eye on vacancy, Hamlet, Act III., Sc. IV. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword: The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observed of all observers,-quite, quite down! Whereto our health is bound; we are not ourselves, When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind To suffer with the body: I'll forbear; And am fall'n out with my more headier will, To take the indispos'd and sickly fit For the sound man. King Lear, Act II., Sc. IV. This is in thee a nature but infected; Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. |