Oh, God, how pain strangles me today! It paves my skull! I am on fire! Such useless misery! Pain is the greatest cheat. Pain, your friendship is much too covetous! Pain—you old prostitute—swallow your own hemlock for a change!
Henley Street, Stratford
January 20
I am too hard on friend Hall!
I’ve spent hours there, puttering, talking, laughing, entertained by his curious, Indian cow’s tail, stones cut from men’s bladders, uterine balls of hair, paw of a bear, and skeleton of a pigmy.
This year, he is publishing a treatise on the Wounds of the Abdomen. He’s as clever with his scalpel as his concoctions of wormwood, rosarum and menthol. Around Stratford, he is best known for his treatment of dropsy.
Stratford
January 23, 1616