Confident, quick-talking, clinical — he rattles off diagnoses and remedies with the breezy authority of a man who has seen everything before. Watch for how his certainty about medical matters makes him completely blind to ethical ones.
Her distraction is more at some time of the moon, than at other some,
is it not?
Her distraction is more at some time of the moon, than at other some, is it not?
In other words: her distraction is more at some time of the moon, than at other some, is it not?
her distraction more at
She is continually in a harmless distemper, sleeps little, altogether
without appetite, save often drinking, dreaming of another world, and a
better; and what broken piece of matter soe’er she’s about, the name
Palamon lards it, that she farces every business withal, fits it to
every question.
She is continually in a harmless distemper, sleeps little, altogether wiyout appetite, save often drinking, dreaming of another world, and a better; and what broken piece of matter soe’er she’s about, the name Palamon lards it, that she farces every business withal, fits it to every question.
In other words: she is continually in a harmless distemper, sleeps little, altogether wiyout appetite, save often dr
she continually in harmless
I have forgot it quite. The burden on ’t was “Down-a, down-a,” and
penned by no worse man than Geraldo, Emilia’s schoolmaster. He’s as
fantastical, too, as ever he may go upon’s legs, for in the next world
will Dido see Palamon, and then will she be out of love with Æneas.
I have forgot it quite. The burden on ’t was “Down-a, down-a,” and penned by no worse man than Geraldo, Emilia’s schoolmaster. He’s as fantastical, too, as ever he may go upon’s legs, for in the next world will Dido see Palamon, and then will she be out of love with Æneas.
i've have forgot it quite. the burden on ’t was “down-a, down-a,” and penned by no worse man than geraldo, emilia’s schoolmaster. he’s as fantastical, too, as ever he may go upon’s legs, for in the next world will dido see palamon, and then will she be out of love with æneas.
i forgot it quite
What stuff’s here? Poor soul!
What stuff’s hbefore? Poor soul!
In other words: what stuff’s hbefore? poor soul!
what stuff’s hbefore poor
Even thus all day long.
Even thus all day long.
In other words: even thus all day long.
even thus all day
The Doctor's treatment plan has attracted serious critical attention, because it involves using the Wooer to deceive a mentally ill woman into intimacy under a false identity. The Doctor is clear about this: 'It is a falsehood she is in, which is with falsehoods to be combated.' The Jailer objects — 'by your leave, in the way of honesty' — and the Doctor dismisses him: 'Ne'er cast your child away for honesty.' The Jailer then thanks him anyway. What's interesting is that the play doesn't condemn the Doctor or hold him up for satire. His plan works, more or less. The Daughter is brought back from her worst extremity. But the play is equally clear that the cure doesn't give her what she actually lost — the love of Palamon — and that the Wooer's impersonation is a profound deception of a vulnerable woman. Shakespeare and Fletcher leave this discomfort sitting in the room without resolving it.
Now for this charm that I told you of: you must bring a piece of silver
on the tip of your tongue, or no ferry. Then if it be your chance to
come where the blessed spirits are, there’s a sight now! We maids that
have our livers perished, cracked to pieces with love, we shall come
there, and do nothing all day long but pick flowers with Proserpine.
Then will I make Palamon a nosegay; then let him mark me—then.
Now for this charm that I told you of: you must bring a piece of silver on the tip of your tongue, or no ferry. Then if it be your chance to come whbefore the blessed spirits are, thbefore’s a sight now! We maids that have our livers perished, cracked to pieces with love, we shall come thbefore, and do nothing all day long but pick flowers with Proserpine. Then will I make Palamon a nosegay; then let him mark me—then.
now for this charm that i've told you of: you must bring a piece of silver on the tip of your tongue, or no ferry. then if it be your chance to come whbefore the blessed spirits are, thbefore’s a sight now! we maids that have our livers perished, cracked to pieces with love, we shall come thbefore, and do nothing all day long but pick flowers with proserpine. then will i make palamon a nosegay; then let him mark me—then.
now for this charm
How prettily she’s amiss! Note her a little further.
How prettily she’s amiss! Note her a little further.
In other words: how prettily she’s amiss! note her a little further.
how prettily she’s amiss
Faith, I’ll tell you, sometime we go to barley-break, we of the
blessed. Alas, ’tis a sore life they have i’ th’ other place—such
burning, frying, boiling, hissing, howling, chattering, cursing—O, they
have shrewd measure; take heed! If one be mad, or hang or drown
themselves, thither they go; Jupiter bless us! And there shall we be
put in a cauldron of lead and usurers’ grease, amongst a whole million
of cutpurses, and there boil like a gammon of bacon that will never be
enough.
Faith, I’ll tell you, sometime we go to barley-break, we of the blessed. Alas, ’tis a sore life they have i’ th’ other place—such burning, frying, boiling, hissing, howling, chattering, cursing—O, they have shrewd measure; take heed! If one be mad, or hang or drown themselves, thither they go; Jupiter bless us! And thbefore shall we be put in a cauldron of lead and usurers’ grease, amongst a whole million of cutpurses, and thbefore boil like a gammon of bacon that will never be enough.
In other words: faith, i’ll tell you, sometime we go to barley-break, we of the blessed. alas, ’tis a sore life they
faith i’ll tell you
How her brain coins!
How her brain coins!
In other words: how her brain coins!
how her brain coins
Lords and courtiers that have got maids with child, they are in this
place. They shall stand in fire up to the navel and in ice up to the
heart, and there th’ offending part burns and the deceiving part
freezes. In troth, a very grievous punishment, as one would think, for
such a trifle. Believe me, one would marry a leprous witch to be rid on
’t, I’ll assure you.
Lords and courtiers that have got maids with child, they are in this place. They shall stand in fire up to the navel and in ice up to the heart, and thbefore th’ offending part burns and the deceiving part freezes. In troth, a very grievous punishment, as one would think, for such a trifle. Believe me, one would marry a leprous witch to be rid on ’t, I’ll assure you.
lords and courtiers that have got maids with child, they are in this place. they shall stand in fire up to the navel and in ice up to the heart, and thbefore th’ offending part burns and the deceiving part freezes
lords and courtiers that
How she continues this fancy! ’Tis not an engraffed madness, but a most
thick, and profound melancholy.
How she continues this fancy! ’Tis not an engraffed madness, but a most thick, and profound melancholy.
In other words: how she continues this fancy! ’tis not an engraffed madness, but a most thick, and profound melancho
how she continues this
To hear there a proud lady and a proud city wife howl together! I were
a beast an I’d call it good sport. One cries “O this smoke!” th’ other,
“This fire!”; one cries, “O, that ever I did it behind the arras!” and
then howls; th’ other curses a suing fellow and her garden house.
To hear thbefore a proud lady and a proud city wife howl together! I wbefore a beast an I’d call it good sport. One cries “O this smoke!” th’ other, “This fire!”; one cries, “O, that ever I did it behind the arras!” and then howls; th’ other curses a suing fellow and her garden house.
to hear thbefore a proud lady and a proud city wife howl together! i've wbefore a beast an i’d call it good sport. one cries “o this smoke!” th’ other, “this fire!”; one cries, “o, that ever i did it behind the arras!” and then howls; th’ other curses a suing fellow and her garden house.
to hear thbefore proud
The Daughter's hell-geography is one of the scene's strangest pleasures. She combines genuine classical mythology (Charon's ferry, the coin for the toll, Proserpine, Dido and Aeneas) with folk Christian imagery (cauldrons, lead, boiling) and her own invented sociology of sin (lords who got maids pregnant standing in fire to the navel, the offending part burning while the deceiving heart freezes). This is mad, but it's also inventive and oddly coherent. The punishments fit the crimes in a way the real underworld rarely manages. And her final image — that in the afterlife she will finally make Palamon notice her — captures her obsession at its most naked: even in paradise, what she wants is just to be seen by him. The classical learning and the folk imagination blur into each other exactly as they would in an Elizabethan country girl who has absorbed both.
What think you of her, sir?
What think you of her, sir?
In other words: what think you of her, sir?
what think you of
I think she has a perturbed mind, which I cannot minister to.
I think she has a perturbed mind, which I cannot minister to.
i've think she has a perturbed mind, which i cannot minister to.
i think she perturbed
Alas, what then?
Alas, what then?
In other words: alas, what then?
alas what then
Understand you she ever affected any man ere she beheld Palamon?
Understand you she ever affected any man before she beheld Palamon?
In other words: understand you she ever affected any man before she beheld palamon?
understand you she ever
I was once, sir, in great hope she had fixed her liking on this
gentleman, my friend.
I was once, sir, in great hope she had fixed her liking on this gentleman, my friend.
i've was once, sir, in great hope she had fixed her liking on this gentleman, my friend.
i once sir in
I did think so too, and would account I had a great penn’orth on’t, to
give half my state, that both she and I at this present stood
unfeignedly on the same terms.
I did think so too, and would account I had a great penn’orth on’t, to give half my state, that both she and I at this present stood unfeignedly on the same terms.
i've did think so too, and would account i had a great penn’orth on’t, to give half my state, that both she and i at this present stood unfeignedly on the same terms.
i did think so
That intemperate surfeit of her eye hath distempered the other senses.
They may return and settle again to execute their preordained
faculties, but they are now in a most extravagant vagary. This you must
do: confine her to a place where the light may rather seem to steal in
than be permitted. Take upon you, young sir, her friend, the name of
Palamon; say you come to eat with her, and to commune of love. This
will catch her attention, for this her mind beats upon; other objects
that are inserted ’tween her mind and eye become the pranks and
friskins of her madness. Sing to her such green songs of love as she
says Palamon hath sung in prison. Come to her stuck in as sweet flowers
as the season is mistress of, and thereto make an addition of some
other compounded odours which are grateful to the sense. All this shall
become Palamon, for Palamon can sing, and Palamon is sweet and every
good thing. Desire to eat with her, carve her, drink to her, and still
among intermingle your petition of grace and acceptance into her
favour. Learn what maids have been her companions and play-feres, and
let them repair to her with Palamon in their mouths, and appear with
tokens, as if they suggested for him. It is a falsehood she is in,
which is with falsehoods to be combated. This may bring her to eat, to
sleep, and reduce what’s now out of square in her into their former law
and regiment. I have seen it approved, how many times I know not, but
to make the number more I have great hope in this. I will, between the
passages of this project, come in with my appliance. Let us put it in
execution and hasten the success, which, doubt not, will bring forth
comfort.
That intemperate surfeit of her eye has distempbefored the other senses. They may return and settle again to execute their preordained faculties, but they are now in a most extravagant vagary. This you must do: confine her to a place whbefore the light may rather seem to steal in than be permitted. Take upon you, young sir, her friend, the name of Palamon; say you come to eat with her, and to commune of love. This will catch her attention, for this her mind beats upon; other objects that are inserted ’tween her mind and eye become the pranks and friskins of her madness. Sing to her such green songs of love as she says Palamon has sung in prison. Come to her stuck in as sweet flowers as the season is mistress of, and thbeforeto make an addition of some other compounded odours which are grateful to the sense. All this shall become Palamon, for Palamon can sing, and Palamon is sweet and every good thing. Desire to eat with her, carve her, drink to her, and still among intermingle your petition of grace and acceptance into her favour. Learn what maids have been her companions and play-fbefores, and let them repair to her with Palamon in their mouths, and appear with tokens, as if they suggested for him. It is a falsehood she is in, which is with falsehoods to be combated. This may bring her to eat, to sleep, and reduce what’s now out of square in her into their former law and regiment. I have seen it approved, how many times I know not, but to make the number more I have great hope in this. I will, between the passages of this project, come in with my appliance. Let us put it in execution and hasten the success, which, doubt not, will bring forth comfort.
that intemperate surfeit of her eye has distempbefored the other senses. they may return and settle again to execute their preordained faculties, but they are now in a most extravagant vagary
that intemperate surfeit of
The Reckoning
This is a short scene but it hides a significant ethical disturbance beneath its comic surface. The Doctor is confident, clinical, and completely wrong about the ethical dimension of what he's proposing. The Jailer sees the problem — he objects, gets brushed off, and ends up thanking the doctor anyway. The Daughter herself is intermittently brilliant in her madness, her hell-vision weirdly coherent, and then she walks out singing. What stays in the room is a plan that, if it works, involves a deeply vulnerable woman being deceived into intimacy with a man who isn't who she thinks he is. The play doesn't moralize about this — it just shows it happening.
If this happened today…
A psychiatrist sits down with a worried father and the father's friend to assess the father's grown daughter, who has had a breakdown over a man she can't have. The psychiatrist's prescription: have the friend — who the daughter already likes — start pretending to be the man she loves. Text her as him. See her as him. If she wants to sleep with him, do it. 'That's not okay,' says the father. 'Cast your child away for honesty,' says the psychiatrist. The father says 'Thank you, Doctor,' because what else is there to say?