Quote #52757
I that am of your blood was taken from you
For your better health; look no more upon’t,
But cast it to the ground regardlessly,
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
For your better health; look no more upon’t,
But cast it to the ground regardlessly,
Let the common sewer take it from distinction.
Thomas Middleton
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
The speaker identifies themself as literally “of your blood,” then reframes what has been “taken” as a therapeutic act done for the other person’s “better health.” The insistence—“look no more upon’t… cast it to the ground… Let the common sewer take it”—pushes the addressee to treat the removed blood (or blood-linked substance) as waste rather than as something precious or identity-bearing. The language dramatizes an early modern tension between blood as lineage/honor and blood as bodily matter: what signifies distinction in social terms becomes, in physical terms, something to be discarded. The passage also carries a moral edge, urging detachment and the stripping away of status.




