Such a man was as ready “to sell love-philtres to a maiden as narcotics to a friar.”
Bleeding. Various remedies were in use in Shakespeare’s day to stop bleeding. Thus, a key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was often employed; hence the term “key-cold” became proverbial, and is referred to by many old writers. In “Richard III.” (i. 2), Lady Anne, speaking of the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, says
“Poor key-cold figure of a holy king.”
In the “Rape of Lucrece” (l. 1774) the same expression is used:
“And then in key-cold Lucrece’ bleeding stream
He falls, and bathes the pale fear in his face.”
In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Wild Goose Chase” (iv. 3) we read: “For till they be key-cold dead, there’s no trusting of ’em.”[589]
Another common remedy was the one alluded to in “King Lear” (iii. 7), where one of the servants says:
“I’ll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs,
To apply to his bleeding face.”
This passage has been thought to be parodied in Ben Jonson’s play, “The Case is Altered” (ii. 4): “Go, get a white of an egg and a little flax, and close the breach of the head; it is the most conducible thing that can be.” Mr. Gifford, however, has shown the incorrectness of this assertion, pointing out that Jonson’s play was written in 1599, some years before “King Lear” appeared, while the allusion is “to a method of cure common in Jonson’s time to every barber-surgeon and old woman in the kingdom.”[590]
Cobwebs are still used to stanch the bleeding from small wounds, and Bottom’s words seem to refer to this remedy of domestic surgery: “I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb; if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.”