Now, Master Doctor, have you brought those drugs?
Queen
Now, Master Doctor, have you brought those drugs?
Cornelius
Pleaseth your Highness, ay. Here they are, madam.
He hands her a small box.
But I beseech your Grace, without offense—
My conscience bids me ask—wherefore you have
Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds,
Which are the movers of a languishing death,
But though slow, deadly.
She is fooled
With a most false effect, and I the truer
So to be false with her.
Queen
I wonder, doctor,
Thou ask’st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learned me how
To make perfumes, distil, preserve—yea, so
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
Unless thou think’st me devilish, is ’t not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in
Other conclusions? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging—but none human—
To try the vigor of them and apply
Allayments to their act, and by them gather
Their several virtues and effects.
Cornelius
Your Highness
Shall from this practice but make hard your heart.
Besides, the seeing these effects will be
Both noisome and infectious.
Queen
O, content thee.
Enter Pisanio.
Aside. Here comes a flattering rascal. Upon him
Will I first work. He’s for his master
And enemy to my son.—How now, Pisanio?—
Doctor, your service for this time is ended.
Take your own way.
Cornelius, aside
I do suspect you, madam,
But you shall do no harm.
Queen, to Pisanio
Hark thee, a word.
Cornelius, aside
I do not like her. She doth think she has
Strange ling’ring poisons. I do know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her malice with
A drug of such damned nature. Those she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile,
Which first perchance she’ll prove on cats and dogs,
Then afterward up higher. But there is
No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking-up the spirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fooled
With a most false effect, and I the truer
So to be false with her.
Queen
No further service, doctor,
Until I send for thee.
Cornelius
I humbly take my leave.
He exits.