You tell your doctor, that y' are ill;
And what does he, but write a bill?
Of which you need not read one letter;
The worse the scrawl, the dose the better,
For if you knew but what you take,
Though you recover, he must break.
_Alma, Canto III_. M. PRIOR.
But when ill indeed,
E'en dismissing the doctor don't always succeed.
_Lodgings for Single Gentlemen_. G. COLEMAN, _the Younger_.
"Is there no hope?" the sick man said.
The silent doctor shook his head
And took his leave with signs of sorrow,
Despairing of his fee to-morrow.
_The Sick Man and the Angel_. J. GAY.