Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/99

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CANTERBURY TALES.
75

complaint being discovered, he would quickly set the patient on his legs again. His apothecaries were ever at his beck and call, to pour in their drugs and electuaries—for they played into each others' hands. Their friendship was of long standing. He was well read in the old authors Esculapius, Dioscorides, and Rufus; Old Galen, Halius, and Hippocrates, and a host besides. He was very measured and exact in his diet, avoiding superfluity, and always selecting that which was most nourishing and digestible. His Bible he studied but little. His dress was a rose-coloured Persian, lined with thin silk, or taffeta; yet he was but easy in his circumstances. He carefully laid by all his gains during the pestilence; for gold is well known to be a cordial in medicine; gold therefore he held in especial reverence.

A good Wife of Bath made one of our company. She was unfortunately rather deaf, and had lost some of her teeth. She carried on a trade in cloth-making, which excelled the manufactures of Ypres and Ghent. No wife in all the parish could take precedence of