Kill him whose wretched hap shall be the poison to devour.”

The wretch by covetisse is won and doth assent

To sell the thing whose sale ere long too late he doth repent.

In haste he poison sought and closely he it bound

And then began in whisp’ring voice thus in his ear to round:

“Fair Sir (quoth he), be sure this is the speeding gear,

And more there is than you shall need; for half of that is there

Will serve, I undertake, in less than half an hour

To kill the strongest man alive. Such is the poison’s power.”

Shakespeare’s First Rendering.