In the third scene of the tragedy, the Demon Gout, recalls to the memory of the doctors of the Middle Ages, its illustrious victims of antiquity. “Priam, disposed to run, had gout; Achilles was too lame to get about; Bellerophon’s saddle toes complained; Ædipus had big joints that pained; Plisthenes on his feet, all swollen stood, Cursing the gout that coursed with his blood.” How many other of the great have wept with the gout? Then calling his faithful servitors, Pain, Insomnia, and Indigestion, the Demon Gout bids them plunge his fiery darts into his enemies, to burn them with an unquenchable flame: “Toy, brule ici par des douleurs nouvelles Le chef premier, les cuisses et tendons, Toy, convertis leur nerfs en noir charbons, Et vous aussi, d’une fureur soudaine, Froissez leurs mains, rendez leur drogue vaine.” With this superb peroration, he afflicts all good doctors with the gout and rheumatism. Since that day physicians the world over, says our talented author, J. D. L. Blambeausaut, have been the victims of this horrible malady. Let us now turn to the consideration of a curious hygienic play, no less interesting than that of the Gout, CONDEMNATION OF HIGH LIVING AND PRAISE OF DIET AND SOBRIETY.[99] This moral play, to which we might give the title of hygienic poetry, appeared in 1507, under the name of its author, Nicolas de la Chesnaye, along with another work, the latter in prose, on the “Government of the Human Body.”