Chapter 16

1ST PHY. He has forced through every obstacle I had placed to hinder him, and has fled from the remedies I was beginning to prepare for him.

SBRI. To avoid remedies so salutary as yours is to be a great enemy to oneself.

1ST PHY. It is the mark of a disturbed brain and of a depraved reason to be unwilling to be cured.

SBRI. You would have cured him, for certain, in no time.

1ST PHY. Certainly; though there had been the complication of a dozen diseases.

SBRI. With all that he makes you lose those fifty well-earned pistoles.

1ST PHY. I have no intention of losing them; and I am determined to cure him in spite of himself. He is bound and engaged to take my remedies; and I will have him seized, wherever I can find him, as a deserter from physic and an infringer of my prescriptions.

SBRI. You are right. Your medicines were sure of their effect; and it is so much money he takes from you.

1ST PHY. Where could I find him?

SBRI. No doubt, at the house of that goodman Oronte, whose daughter he comes to marry; and who, knowing nothing of the infirmity of his future son-in-law, will perhaps be in a hurry to conclude the marriage.

1ST PHY. I will go and speak to him at once.

SBRI. You should, in justice to yourself.

1ST PHY. He is in need of my consultations; and a patient must not make a fool of his doctor.

SBRI. That is well said; and, if I were you, I would not suffer him to marry till you have physicked him to your heart's content.

1ST PHY. Leave that to me.

SBRI. (_aside, and going_). For my part, I will bring another battery into play; for the father-in-law is as much of a dupe as the son-in-law.