The Two Sick Men
Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Politics
Describes the illnesses of Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid of Turkey and Pope Pius IX who are being treated by the same French doctor (Emperor Napoleon III) who tells his patients that 'both must be bled, / And take more steel, by which he swears, / Exhibited with lead'. The pope and sultan agree that neither the medicine nor the doctor will help them, and Punch ends by hoping that they could both 'break up quietly, / And leave the world in peace'. The poem is an allegory reflecting the dire situations of the Vatican and the Ottoman Empire, and Napoleon's involvement in both.
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