Rue

Suffusos oculos iunctos caligine Ruta,
Discutit, exacuit visum; committit abortum,
Et partum perimit; prodest morbisq; caducis;
Discutit, & crudum stomachum, capitisq; dolores
Thoracisq; itidem soluit, tussique medetur;
Inflatis stomachis prodest, veteresque dolores
Mitigat haec stomachi, vuluas aperitq; valetq;
Pectoris, & laterum, & lumborum auferre dolorem,
Hydropicosq; iuuat, serpentum obstatq; venenis:
Pulmonum & Iecoris vitiis, renumq; medetur;
Torminibus confert, tollit suspiria, sistit
Sanguinem ab articulis, eadem cohibetque dolores:
Serpentesque fugat suffitu, dentibus inde
Collutis prodest, atque auribus; ac sacer ignis
Emendatur: ei ceditque acrimonia cepe:
Formicasque, thymosque leuat, concorporat albas
Et maculas, ventrisque animalia noxia pellit.
Vlceraque emendat serpentia: succus & eius
Contra aconita valet, quos & dat Aranea, Vespae
Scorpius atque ictus, rabidique in morsibus idem
Potatur Catuli, sed vim tenet ipse veneni
Largius assumptus: succo tamen inde Cicutae
Tollitur: vt possis etiam censere venena
Esse venenorum: quando succusque cicute
Adiuuat, & manibus rutam prodesse legentis
Ipse potest. Ruta se munit, praelia diris
Cum Mustella mouet serpentibus.

Rue scatters the eyes that are clouded and joined in mist, and sharpens the sight; it brings on miscarriage and destroys the birth; it does good in the falling sickness; it scatters a raw stomach, and loosens the pains of the head and of the chest alike, and cures the cough; it helps swollen stomachs and eases the old pains of the stomach; it opens the womb, and has power to take away the pain of the breast, the sides, and the loins; it helps the dropsical, and stands against the venoms of serpents; it cures the ills of the lungs, the liver, and the kidneys; it helps the gripes, takes away sighing, stops the blood from the joints, and holds back their pains; it drives off serpents with its smoke; as a wash it does good to the teeth and the ears; St Anthony’s fire is mended by it; the sharpness of the onion gives way to it; it lifts warts and the thyme-warts, makes one body of white spots, and drives the harmful animals out of the belly. It mends creeping ulcers; and its juice prevails against aconite, and against what the spider gives, and the stings of wasps and scorpions; and the same is drunk for the bites of a mad dog. But taken too largely it has the force of a poison itself; yet that is taken away by the juice of hemlock, so that you might even think poisons to be the poisons of poisons, since the juice of hemlock helps too, and can make the rue do good to the hands of whoever gathers it. With rue the weasel arms itself when it goes to battle with the dreadful serpents.