...juice of cursed hebonon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leprous distillment, whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man...natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigor it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood. So did...

...juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man...wholesome blood. So did it mine; And a most instant tetter barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping,...

...shall see in chapter 5, in Hamlet the ghost of Hamlet's father describes the action of poison upon his body: "And with a sudden vigour it doth posset / And...droppings into milk, / The thin and wholesome blood" (1.5.68-70) and King John refers to "that surly spirit, melancholy" making blood "heavy, thick, / Which...

...into the jugular, say, might work like Hamlet's hebona." His voice deepened. "That leperous distilment whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man...swift as quicksilver it courses through . . . the body, and with a sudden vigor. . . curdles the thin and wholesome blood." It made sense. Maxine and...