Out of my heart I cross thee; love and women
Out of my thoughts.”
This is the burden of his discourse. Paulo encourages him by mild half-contradictions:
“And yet I’ve heard of many virtuous women.”
But Cardenes’ new-learned philosophy remains unchanged:
“Not many, doctor; there your reading fails you:
Would there were more, and in their loves less dangers.”
The treatment recommended for this “strange melancholy” by the physician, who is of good reputation and has received many gifts from the Duke of Messina and others, is most noteworthy. He is no friend of prevailing customs: The patient “must take air.” Though, as the surgeons protest, “he hath lost already . . . much blood,”
“To choke up his spirits in a dark room,
Is far more dangerous.”