owing to the belief that the
person saved would, sooner or later, injure the man who saved him. Thus,
in Sir Walter Scott's "Pirate," Bryce, the pedler, warns the hero not to
attempt to resuscitate an inanimate form which the waves had washed
ashore on the mainland of Shetland. "'Are you mad,' exclaimed the
pedler, 'you that have lived sae lang in Zetland, to risk the saving of
a drowning man? Wot ye not if ye bring him to life again he will do you
some capital injury?'"

[603] "Handbook Index to Shakespeare," p. 150. See "Notes and
Queries" for superstitions connected with drowning, 5th series,
vol. ix. pp. 111, 218, 478, 516; vol. x. pp. 38, 276; vol. xi.
pp. 119, 278.

_Epilepsy._ A popular name for this terrible malady was the
"falling-sickness," because, when attacked with one of these fits, the
patient falls suddenly to the ground. In "Julius Caesar" (i. 2) it is
thus mentioned in the following dialogue:

"_Cassius._ But, soft, I pray you: what, did Caesar swoon?

_Casca._ He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth,
and was speechless.

_Brutus._ 'Tis very like; he hath the falling-sickness.

_Cassius._ No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness."

_Fistula._ At the present day a fistula means an abscess external to the
rectum, but in Shakespeare's day it was used in a more general
signification for a burrowing abscess in any situation.[604] The play of
"All's Well that Ends Well" has a special interest, because, as Dr.
Bucknill says, its very plot may be said to be medical. "The orphan
daughter of a physician cures the king of a fistula by means of a secret
remedy left to her as a great treasure by her father. The royal reward
is the choice of a husband among the nobles of the court, and 'thereby
hangs the tale.'" The story is taken from the tale of Gilletta of
Narbonne, in the "Decameron" of Boccaccio. It came to Shakespeare
through the medium of Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," and is to be found
in the first volume, which was printed as early as 1566.[605] The story
is thus introduced by Shakespeare in the following dialogue (i. 1),
where the Countess of Rousillon is represented as inquiring:

"What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?

_Laf._ He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose
practices he hath persecuted time with hope; and finds no
other advantage in the p