Bellario replies:
“Alas, my lord, your pulse keeps madman’s time!
So does your tongue.”[19:3]
That these tests were inadequate is proved by a simple illustration—in the “Comedy of Errors,”
Pinch the exorcist, mistakes Antipholus’ anger for madness. Luciana cries:
“Alas, how fiery and how sharp he looks!”
And a courtezan,
“Mark, how he trembles in his ecstasy!”[20:1]
Pinch attempts to feel the “madman’s” pulse, but in any case he knows that both man and master are possessed:
“I know it by their pale and deadly looks.”[20:2]