E22 Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Description: 
An immersive reading of Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with reflection on small pox, appearances and responding to illness.

Website:
https://anauscultation.wordpress.com/ 

Work:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

' How am I chang'd ! alas ! how am I grown
' A frightful spectre, to myself unknown !
' Where's my Complexion ? where the radiant Bloom,
' That promis'd happiness for Years to come ?
' Then with what pleasure I this face survey'd !
' To look once more, my visits oft delay'd !
' Charm'd with the view, a fresher red would rise,
' And a new life shot sparkling from my eyes !

[…]

' Ye, cruel Chymists, what with-held your aid !
' Could no pomatums save a trembling maid ?
' How false and trifling is that art you boast ;
' No art can give me back my beauty lost.
' In tears, surrounded by my friends I lay,
' Mask'd o'er and trembled at the sight of day;
' MIRMILLO came my fortune to deplore,
' (A golden headed cane, well carv'd he bore)
' Cordials, he cried, my spirits must restore :
' Beauty is fled, and spirit is no more !

' GALEN, the grave ; officious SQUIRT was there,
' With fruitless grief and unavailing care :
' MACHAON too, the great MACHAON, known
' By his red cloak and his superior frown ;
' And why, he cry'd, this grief and this despair ?
' You shall again be well, again be fair ;
' Believe my oath ; (with that an oath he swore)
' False was his oath ; my beauty is no more !

References:
Town Eclogues: Saturday; The Small-Pox https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44766/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox 

 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lady-mary-wortley-montagu 

 https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/town-eclogues-saturday-the-small-pox-summary-analysis.html#.Y7bqEuzML54 

Small Pox: https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/index.html 

 Ehrenpreis JE, Ehrenpreis ED. A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population. Am J Med Sci. 2022 Apr;363(4):288-294.

Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan;18(1):21-5.

 Gibbs D. When a cane was the necessary complement of a physician. J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1999 Jan-Feb;33(1):85-9.

 Filippou D, Tsoucalas G, Panagouli E, Thomaidis V, Fiska A. Machaon, Son of Asclepius, the Father of Surgery. Cureus. 2020 Feb 19;12(2):e7038.

 https://www.randomactsofflowers.org/images/documents/RAFNational-Study-HomeEcologyofFlowersStudy.pdf