FUL. I pry thee, Anselm, but observe this fellow;
Doest not hear him? he would die for love;
That misshap'd love thou wouldst condemn in him,
I see in thee: I prythee, note him well.
ANS. Were I assur'd that I were such a lover
I should be with myself quite out of love:
I prythee, let's persuade him still to live.
FUL. That were a dangerous case, perhaps the fellow
In desperation would, to soothe us up,
Promise repentant recantation,
And after fall into that desperate course,
Both which I will prevent with policy.
AMIN. O death! come with thy dart! come, death, when I bid thee!
Mors, veni: veni, mors! and from this misery rid me;
She whom I lov'd—whom I lov'd, even she—my sweet pretty Mary,
Doth but flout and mock, and jest and dissimulary.
FUL. I'll fit him finely; in this paper is
The juice of mandrake, by a doctor made
To cast a man, whose leg should be cut off,
Into a deep, a cold, and senseless sleep;
Of such approved operation
That whoso takes it, is for twice twelve hours
Breathless, and to all men's judgments past all sense;
This will I give the pedant but in sport;
For when 'tis known to take effect in him,
The world will but esteem it as a jest;
Besides, it may be a means to save his life,
For being [not] perfect poison, as it seems
His meaning is, some covetous slave for coin
Will sell it him,[17] though it be held by law
To be no better than flat felony.
ANS. Uphold the jest—but he hath spied us; peace!
AMIN. Gentles, God save you!
Here is a man I have noted oft, most learn'd in physic,
One man he help'd of the cough, another he heal'd of the pthisic,
And I will board him thus, salve, O salve, magister!
FUL. Gratus mihi advenis! quid mecum vis?
AMIN. Optatus venis; paucis te volo.
FUL. Si quid industria nostra tibi faciet, dic, quaeso.