And offered thanks for having played so kind a part.
The sick man, on the contrary, was all on fire:
“Whence comes this malice? Who has roused his soul to ire?”150
So, turning in his mind the matter o’er and o’er,
A message he determines that shall pay the score.
Just so, a man who’s eaten ill-digesting food,
Can have no rest till it’s ejected, well and good.
Long-suffering is thy better part, reject it not;
With patience, thou shalt find soft words best heal a plot.
But our sick man found no such solace for his mind;