SOS. Good gracious! Gently, gently! If I appear pleased, you must
believe that I have a very strong private reason for it; without
thinking of it, I never did better than in using you in such a manner as I did.

CLE. Are you laughing at me, you villain?

SOS. No, I am speaking openly to you. I was in a wretched state. I
had a certain load, which your words have lifted from my soul. I was
very apprehensive, and feared that I had played the fool with you.

CLE. What is this fear? Come, let us know what you mean.

SOS. The doctors say that, when one is drunk, one should abstain
from one's wife, for, in that condition we can only have children
who are dull, and who cannot live. Think, if my heart had not armed
itself with coldness, what troubles might have followed!

CLE. I do not care a fig for doctors, with their insipid reasonings.
Let them rule those who are sick without wishing to govern healthy
people. They meddle with too many affairs when they seek to rein in
our chaste desires; in addition to the dog days, and their strict
rules, they tell us a hundred ridiculous stories into the bargain.

SOS. Gently.

CLE. No; I maintain theirs is a worthless conclusion: those reasons
come from idiotic brains. Neither wine nor time ought to prevent the
duties of conjugal love from being fulfilled; doctors are donkeys.