Introduction
Eighteenth-century Bath was a fashionable spa city to which the Quality would retire for ‘the cure’. However, the health-giving waters were seemingly not enough by themselves, and doctors clustered round with all the medical treatments visitors could possibly want or need — plus a good many more.
THE physicians here are very numerous, but very good-natured. To these charitable gentlemen I owe, that I was cured, in a week’s time, of more distempers than I ever had in my life. They had almost killed me with their humanity. A learned fellow-lodger prescribed me a little something, at my first coming, to keep up my spirits; and the next morning I was so much enlivened by another, as to have an order to bleed for my fever.* I was proffered a cure for the scurvy by a third, and had a recipe for the dropsy gratis before night.
In vain did I modestly decline these favours; for I was awakened early in the morning by an apothecary, who brought me a dose from one of my well-wishers. I paid him, but withal told him severely, that I never took physic. My landlord hereupon took me for an Italian merchant that suspected poison; but the apothecary, with more sagacity, guessed that I was certainly a physician myself.*
Blood-letting involved drawing blood from the arm in the hope that as the body internally replenished the supply the infected system would be purified. It was a risky and almost certainly useless procedure.
Implying that the apothecary (an archaic term for a pharmacist) and the doctors all knew the remedies were useless. In fact Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) was neither a paranoid Italian nor a cynical MD, but an Irish essayist, soldier and playwright, born in Dublin. Together with his friend Joseph Addison he founded ‘The Tatler’ in 1709, ‘The Spectator’ in 1711 and ‘The Guardian’ (not the newspaper) two years later. He was MP for Stockbridge in Hampshire from 1713, and campaigned for George of Hanover to succeed Queen Anne; when he did so the following year, Steele was rewarded with a knighthood and responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He was elected MP for Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, in 1715.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
On a visit to the fashionable spa town of Bath in the reign of Queen Anne, Richard Steele found himself plied with medicines by the many doctors who shared his lodgings. Steele politely refused to take any of them, from which the pharmacist who delivered them to his rooms deduced that Steele must himself be a doctor. (57 / 60 words)
On a visit to the fashionable spa town of Bath in the reign of Queen Anne, Richard Steele found himself plied with medicines by the many doctors who shared his lodgings. Steele politely refused to take any of them, from which the pharmacist who delivered them to his rooms deduced that Steele must himself be a doctor.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, may, not, or, since, unless, whereas.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 My. Next. Sagacity.
2 Do. Enliven. First.
3 Morning. Myself. Prescribe.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
Post Box : Ask Nicholas
Grok : Ask Grok
You are welcome to share your creativity with me, or ask for help with any of the exercises on Clay Lane. Write to me at this address:
See more at Post Box.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
Related Posts
Charles II was thinking about handing Bombay back to the Portuguese, when an Indian rebel stepped in.
Picture: © Chinmaya Panda, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted September 30 2019
The Dutch explorer ran across two islands in the Pacific of which Europeans knew nothing, but his chief desire was to get past them.
Picture: © Krzysztof Golik, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted December 28 2018
Picture: © Martin Jernberg, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted February 22 2018