Where the formal, and therefore up to a certain point, conventional panegyrics have to be pronounced in the senate, he is honestly ill at ease and would rather go away. To the senator who seeks to stay him, he answers:
Your honour’s pardon:
I had rather have my wounds to heal again
Than hear say how I got them.
(iI. ii. 72.)
And he adds, as he actually leaves his seat:
I had rather have one scratch my head i’ the sun
When the alarum were struck, than idly sit
To hear my nothings monster’d.
(iI. ii. 79.)