A curse on all my teachers, from the one who taught me to read to the one who turned me loose with a box on the ear, dazzled and full of words!
For they took me when I was only a child and they gave me dirt to eat.
A curse on my father and on my mother also!
A curse on the food they gave me, and on their ignorance, and on the example they set me!
The King: Madman, be still!
The Fifth Watcher: Why did you waken me, old man? Now you shall not silence me!
Whom else shall I curse? I am full of malediction!
My bile pours forth in a flood and boils up even to my eyes!
And so great is the spasm that shakes me
That my ribs are cracking with it and my bones are riven apart!