The Cunning Man

Everybody's speech has a tune, and it is always revealing. For social chat it may be a light schertzando, but when in the consulting-room it turns to themes of lower-back pain, of haemorrhaoids, of gas pains, of frequent getting-up in the night, it will turn to andante lamentoso; in it the attentive physician's ear discerns the cry of the infant, or the toddler who wants mother to kiss it and make it better. Or it may be the sound of deep grievance, of one who has been dealt a rotten hand in the game of life, one who sees unworthy people prosper while he or she is sinking in illness and decline. Tunes and tunes.

Robertson Davies

The Cunning Man

New York: Viking; 1995

Submitted by:

Barbara H. Chaffee, MD

Binghamton, NY 13905

• Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians