Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Mantua | | The Apothecary | | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
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I DO remember an apothecary— | |
| And hereabouts he dwells—whom late I noted | |
| In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, | |
| Culling of simples. Meagre were his looks; | |
| Sharp misery had worn him to the bones; | 5 |
| And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, | |
| An alligator stuff’d, and other skins | |
| Of ill-shap’d fishes; and about his shelves | |
| A beggarly account of empty boxes, | |
| Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, | 10 |
| Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, | |
| Were thinly scatter’d to make up a show. | |
| Noting this penury, to myself I said, | |
| And if a man did need a poison now— | |
| Whose sale is present death in Mantua— | 15 |
| Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him. | |
| O, this same thought did but forerun my need; | |
| And this same needy man must sell it me. | |
| As I remember, this should be the house; | |
| Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut.— | 20 |
| What, ho! apothecary! | | | | |
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