Mithridate - an antidote fit for a king

摘要

During a walk among the blue remembered hills of Shropshire I rested for a while in the Devil's Chair on the Stiperstones and opened my old copy of'A Shropshire lad". It seemed to be an ideal moment to read A. E. Housman's work again. As I read, a word leapt from the page before me - Mithridates. It looked odd but sounded familiar. Is it a medical condition? Could it be a drug name? Was I confusing it with a similar sounding word - Mydrilate perhaps?