84 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



Mouth, and if the perpetual Motion be not there, let them never 

 hope to find it"/'® 



In his practice as a physician, Drench, like the Greshamites, 

 "works by natural causes".^" 



The process here is obvious. Lacy has succeeded in pouring a 

 little new wine into the old mne-skins without loss. He freely 

 confesses his obligations to other wits and apologizes for his adapta- 

 tions on the ground that he cannot help it. "There is a kind of 

 charm in poetry — 'tis like tobacco and chemistry; for if you once 

 take the one and undertake the other, you are fixed to the freehold 

 never to be parted "."^^ The dramatist has gathered a few scraps 

 from the table of the new scientists and patched up the old char- 

 acter of the astrological physician. 



. This comic situation and this character reappear in Mrs. Cent- 

 livre's Love's Contrivance (1703), and in Fielding's Mock Doctor 

 (1732). In the latter comedy Gregory, as Drench is there called, 

 has a touch of the new science in him. He had once been a servant 

 at the university, and being quick of wit, had absorbed some Latin 

 and some scientific jargon. 



"Gregory, — Sir, I can cure anything. Hark ye, ]\Ir. Apothecary, 

 you see that the love she has for Leander is entirely contrary 

 to the will of her father, and that an inunediate remedy is 

 necessary. For my part, I know of but one ; which is a dose of 

 purgative running away, mixt with two drams of pills of mat- 

 rimoniacy and three large handfuls of arbor vitae ; perhaps she 

 will make some difficulty to take them; but as you are an able 

 apothecary, I shall trust you for the success. Go, make her 

 walk in the garden ; be sure to lose no time ; to the remedy quick ; 

 to the remedy specific. 



Sir Jasper, — ^What drugs. Sir, were those I heard you mention, 

 for I don't remember I ever heard them spoke of before? 

 Gregory, — They are some, Sir, lately discovered by the Royal 

 Society ".«2 



"Ibid. Act II, sc. 1. 

 "> Ibid. 



" Epistle to the Reader. 

 «> The Dumb Lady, Act II. 



