How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
But physic yet could never reach
The maladies thou me dost teach; (31-32)
The body makes no bones (get it?) about this emotional knowledge: it's bad and painful. By comparing it to diseases—and incurable ones at that—the body pathologizes emotions. In other words, it defines feeling as not normal and never good.
Quote #2
Whom first the cramp of hope does tear,
And then the palsy shakes of fear; (33-34)
This is the body's first pairing of good emotion and bad emotion. But notice that there's no difference in opinion. The body feels exactly the same about hope as it does about fear: they both feel bad. What's up with that? Can the body really not tell the difference? Or do all emotions end up feeling the same way?
Quote #3
The pestilence of love does heat,
Or hatred's hidden ulcer eat; (35-36)
The body's obviously put some time into thinking up appropriate metaphors that really capture the qualities of these emotions. It compares love to a "pestilence," which means some super-aggressive contagious disease (see: plague). And when you're in love, it sometimes does feel as if passionate crush-obsession is taking over your mind like some kind of monster rash. Hatred, on the other hand, eats away at you secretly, like a stomach ulcer, amirite?