Poor martyr! he’s been sick a week.
But the draper refuses to accept the explanation. It cannot be a week, he says, for
“’Tis only this afternoon, you see,
Your husband bought cloth from me.”
Then the voice of the attorney is heard in the next room shouting to his wife:
“Guillemette? Un peu d’eue rose!
Haussez moy, serrez-moy derriere!
Trut! a qui parlay. Je? L’esguiere?
A boire? Frottez moy la plante.”
Rose water in that century was employed to reanimate the strength of sick people. Among apothecaries it was called aqua cordialis temperata. Rose water was prescribed in the following cases: “In mortis subitis et malignis, ubicunque magnus est virium lapsus præscribitur; quemadmodum etiam prodest a morbo convalescentibus, ad vires instaurandas.”