The Plague of Athens, which hapned in the second year of the Peloponnesian Warre · Thomas Sprat
XV.
Physicians now could nought prevail, They the first spoils to the proud Victor fall, Nor would the Plague their knowledge trust, But feared their skill, and therefore slew them first: So Tyrants when they would confirm their yoke, First make the chiefest men to feel the stroke, The chiefest and the wisest heads, least they Should soonest disobey, Should first rebell, and others learn from them the way. No aid of herbs, or juyces power, None of _Apollo’s_ art could cure, But helpt the Plague the speedier to devour. Physick it self was a disease, Physick the fatal tortures did increase, Prescriptions did the pains renew, And _Æsculapius_ to the sick did come, As afterwards to _Rome_, In form of Serpent, brought new poysons with him too.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.