Re: FTR:

[Hans Åberg]

> On 29 Apr 2020, at 19:06, Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> On 4/28/20 10:58 PM, Akim Demaille wrote:
>> I think
>> the cure is worse than the disease, as some "great" leader loves to
>> put it...
> 
> I know this is irrelevant but I tried to chase down the first use of the 
> phrase
> "cure is worse than the disease". Here's the earliest I found in Google Books:
> 
> "Foure rules were offered by the Reverend Brother, as tending to Unity, and to
> the healing of the preſent Controverſies about Church-Government.  But in 
> truth
> his cure is worſe than the diſeaſe : and inſtead of making any agreement, he 
> is
> like to have his hand againſt every man,and every mans hand againſt him."
> 
> This quote is from:
> 
> George Gillespie. A Brotherly Examination of ſome paſſages of Mr. Colemans 
> late
> Sermon upon Iob 11.20. London: Robert Bostock (1645).

The phrase itself is translation of Latin aegrescit medendo, from Virgil, 
Aeneid XII, 46, The combat between Aeneas and Turnus.

https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/5147/what-is-the-opposite-of-aegrescit-medendo