ck it out."

In the celebrated scene in "Julius Caesar" (iv. 3), in which the
reconciliation between Brutus and Cassius is effected, the word is used
in a similar sense:

"I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish."[588]

[588] Cf. "Titus Andronicus," ii. 3; "Henry VIII.," iii. 3.

_Water-Fly._ This little insect, which, on a sunny day, may be seen
almost on every pool, dimpling the glassy surface of the water, is used
as a term of reproach by Shakespeare. Thus, Hamlet (v. 2), speaking of
Osric, asks Horatio, "Dost know this water-fly?" In "Troilus and
Cressida" (v. 1), Thersites exclaims: "Ah, how the poor world is
pestered with such water-flies, diminutives of nature." Johnson says it
is the proper emblem of a busy trifler, because it skips up and down
upon the surface of the water without any apparent purpose.

CHAPTER X.

FOLK-MEDICINE.

Without discussing the extent of Shakespeare's technical medical
knowledge, the following pages will suffice to show that he was fully
acquainted with many of the popular notions prevalent in his day
respecting certain diseases and their cures. These, no doubt, he
collected partly from the literature of the period, with which he was so
fully conversant, besides gathering a good deal of information on the
subject from daily observation. Anyhow, he has bequeathed to us some
interesting particulars relating to the folk-medicine of bygone times,
which is of value, in so far as it helps to illustrate the history of
medicine in past years. In Shakespeare's day the condition of medical
science was very unlike that at the present day. As Mr. Goadby, in his
"England of Shakespeare" (1881, p. 104), remarks, "the man of science
was always more or less of an alchemist, and the students of medicine
were usually extensive dealers in charms and philtres." If a man wanted
bleeding he went to a barber-surgeon, and when he required medicine he
consulted an apothecary; the shop of the latter being well described by
Romeo (v. 1):

"And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Remnants of pack-thread and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scattered, to make up a show."

Such a man was as ready "to sell love-philtres to a maiden as narcotics
to a friar."

_Bleedi