(V. ii. 95.)
And again he tells Aufidius:
This last old man,
Whom with a crack’d heart I have sent to Rome,
Loved me above the measure of a father;
Nay, godded me, indeed.
(V. iii. 8.)
But the last expression may give an explanation both of the young man’s condescension to fondness and of the unprofitableness of Menenius’ influence. He is too much dazzled by the glories of his splendid adoptive son. His enthusiasm knows no bounds. No lover is more enraptured at receiving a billet doux from his mistress, than is the old man when the youth on whom he dotes, deigns to write to him.
A letter for me! it gives me an estate of seven years’ health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician; the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench.
(II. i. 125.)