BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS
The Medical Mind of Shakespeare
Author: Dr. Aubrey C. Kail
Publisher: Williams & Wilkins, Adis Pty Ltd.,
Australia (1986)
Reviewed by The Ambassadors Research Foundation
Dr. Aubrey Kail is emphatic that no literary corpus, other than major religious books, has endured as many post-mortem examinations as the works of William Shakespeare. This beautifully- written book shows that for over 300 years, people have responded to Shakespeare's (1564-1616) plays and speculated about the man who wrote them. Today, the names of some of Shakespeare's characters - Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth - are house hold names, familiar to people who have never read his plays or even seen them acted. Certainly few have been examined from so many desperate professional aspects; Shakespeare has been studied specifically from the viewpoints of the lawyer, the doctor, the classical mythologist, the religionist, the historian, the political scientist and the botanist, not to mention as an angler, archer, and apothecary. Dr. Kail was interested in the critical analysis of 37 plays of the gifted encyclopedic Elizabethan dramatist of Stratford, William Shakespeare. The book interesting explorative chapters on mental illness, venereal diseases, pregnancy and childhood, herbal medicine, geriatrics, spatial senses, pharmacology, sexology, traumatology, etc.
Portions of this 20-chapter, 297-page book were published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1983 and were reprinted in Spain in 1986. The author is a member of the Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians, who holds a Scottish post-graduate diploma and was an immigrant to Australia. The forward to his fascinating book was written by Dr. Brian Gandevia (Chairman of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Prince Henry and Prince of Wales Hospitals in Sydney), a man with a deep interest in the history of medicine and who is the author of a paper studying illusions in Shakespeare's plays.
Dr. Kail notes how Shakespeare mentions all the diseases and drugs that were known in those days. "Shakespeare's plays bare witness to profound knowledge of contemporary physiology and psychology and he employed medical terms in a manner which would have been beyond the powers of any ordinary playwright or physician. His plays revealed many current doctrines, including the Doctrine of the Humours." Kail states that Shakespeare's legal and medical learning, amongst other expressions of his universal genius, added to an alleged allegorical and political interpretation of the plays "to prove" that Francis Bacon, a lawyer and philosopher of science, was the real author.
Shakespeare and His Son-in-Law
Susanna, the eldest daughter of Shakespeare, married a physician known as Dr. Hall in 1607. Arguably, Dr. Hall must have provided his father-in-law with an extensive amount of medical information. However, in 1600, by time Hall arrived in Stanford, Shakespeare had already written about 20 plays and the remainder were written between 1600-1613. Shakespeare had already shown an extraordinary depth of understanding in medicine, nature, music, philosophy and many other subjects even prior to engagement with Hall. Kail asserts that this knowledge is a product of his unique mind.
William Shakespeare's 8 Medical Characters
Generally, Shakespeare spoke of physicians and medical matters with respect. He introduced 8 medical characters in 7 of his plays. Four of the eight physicians were named: Butts, Caius, Cerimon, and Cornelius. Dr. Butts, physician to the king in King Henry VIII, Dr. Caius, a French physician in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Cerimon in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and Cornelius in Cymbeline. He presented English and Scottish doctors in Macbeth and in King Lear, and Helena the clever daughter of a dead doctor in All is Well That Ends Well.
Some believe that Shakespeare wrote Pericles, Prince of Tyre, about the same time Dr. John Hall married his daughter and that in this play, he portrayed his son-in-law as Cerimon not only as a good physician, but also a noble man, a lord Ephesus and a mystic who was endowed with extraordinary healing powers.
There have been suggestions that William Shakespeare had some acquaintance with Dr. Timothy Bright's book entitled Treatise on Melancholy published in London (1586), and that Shakespeare drew on the information in this book to create his psychological delineations. In The Merchant of Venice, Antonio the merchant was presented as melancholic. Lady Macbeth, a high class murderess, was portrayed as suffering from neurotic disorder. King Lear's illness was an example of progressive mental deterioration ending in senile dementia. In Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare used the word "complexion," a term which remained dormant in a psychological sense until resurrected by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, three hundred years later.
Interestingly, Dr. Hall mentioned that his wife Susanna Shakespeare suffered from neurosis, possibly a complication from scurvy. He wrote about her in his notes, "wife was troubled scurvy, accompanied with melancholy, wind, cardiac passion, laziness, difficulty in breathing, fear..."
The Elizabethan audience enjoyed seeing maniacs and imbeciles in Shakespeare's dramas. The audience saw the melancholy of Jacques, the hallucinations of Macbeth, and the somnambulism of Lady Macbeth. Other mentally-affected characters were Caliban, Bottom the weaver, Malvolio, Lancelot Gobbo, Touchstone, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Othello was racked with jealousy, until his senses gave way, and though it did not drive him to madness, it did to suicide.
Shakespeare portrayed the borderline between madness and normality. For example, King Lear can be described as an example of a man with mental deterioration. He was an old man of violent temper, with no reserve of emotion or restraint - known as progressive senile dementia. Hamlet was portrayed by Shakespeare with some features of depression and suicidal thoughts. In Timon of Athens, he presented a man whose generosity outstripped his capacity to provide who behaves as a person deprived of reason whose body and brain were affected by late stage syphilis.
"The Sacred Disease" is an ancient name for epilepsy and is probably one of the oldest disorders known in man. Shakespeare introduced epilepsy as an illness suffered by Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Othello. Othello's epileptic fit appeared when we has finally convinced of his wife's unfaithfulness. Shakespeare was also acutely aware and accurately depicted geriatric progression. Shakespeare deals with the traditional wisdom of old age in As You Like It, where he presents a sympathetic picture of an old character named Adam, who was struggling to overcome physical infirmities.
Alternative Medicine
Friar Lawrence, who spoke the foregoing lines in Romeo and
Juliet, was an example of the traditional priest-physician-apothecary. He was considered to have knowledge of the use of herbs and drugs, as well as the
means of curing those who sought his help.
The extent of superstition in Shakespeare's day can be estimated from the several references to the mandrake and other hallucinatory herbs like opium, hashish, cannabis, morphine and cocaine.
Shakespeare and Humoral Pathology
In
Shakespeare's time, as it was in Hippocrates' (460-377 BC) and Galen's (129-200
AD) eras, there was a belief that all matter in the universe consisted of
four basic elements: earth, air, fire and water. Though they were considered
hostile to each other, they could exist in harmony when in proper proportions.
Each element produced a corresponding temperament, which was expressed as man's
complexion. An excessive earth produced the melancholic humour, which was cold
and dry; an excessive of air the sanguine humour, which was hot and moist; an
excessive of fire the choleric humour, which was hot and dry; an excessive water
the phlegmatic humour, which was cold and moist. In a healthy body, the four
humours were perfectly balanced and in harmony with each other. However, if one
or more humours was predominant or deficient, the individual became physically
ill or mentally unbalanced. Shakespeare mentioned all the humours in his plays.
Aside from this theory, there was heavy reliance on astrology and uroscopy.
Shakespeare's Home in Stratford
William Shakespeare retired in Stratford in 1611, and died 5
years later, being buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon in
England. For almost 4 centuries, this church has become a place of pilgrimage
for countless millions from all over the globe, who get to read the following
four lines inscribed on his grave:
Good friend, for Jesus' sake
forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones.
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
Overall, we highly recommend this book, which is enriched with numerous rare photographs
and illustrations, to all readers with an interest in classical English
literature, medicine, and history. It serves as a unique study of a very
particular and intriguing aspect of Shakespeare's life, philosophy and
intellect. This volume is a unique and worthy addition to the canon on
Shakespeare, as it exposes the acutely perceptive and encyclopedia mind of this
greatest of playwrights.
Galen between Hippocrates and Avicenna, the "greats" of medical antiquity.
Further Readings
Bucknille, J.C. (1860). The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare. London: Longmans.
Bucknille, J.C. (1867). The Mad Folk of Shakespeare. London: Macmillan.
Davidson, A. (1963). "Shakespeare: Some Medical Problems," Scottish Social History Medicine. Pg. 14.
Draper, J.W. (1964). "The Humors- Some Psychological Aspects of Shakespeare's Tragedies," Journal of the American Medical Association. 188: 259.
Editorial. (1964). "The Doctor in Shakespeare," Canadian Medical Association Journal. 90: 792.
Getchelle, A.C. (1907). "The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare," Boston Medical Surgery. 156: 65.
James, T. (1961). "Madness in Shakespeare," South African Medical Journal. 35: 154.
Martin, W.S. (1965). "Shakespeare, Medicine and the Law," Canadian Medical Association Journal. 93: 255.
McGoch, A.H. (1955). "Shakespeare the Dermatologist," Australian Journal of Dermatology. 3: 53.
McGoch, A.H. (1960). "Shakespeare the Syphilologist," Medical Journal of Australia. 1: 348.
Rogers, L.W. (1972). The Ghosts in Shakespeare. New York: Theo Book Co.
Rowse, A.L. (1974). Sex and Societies in Shakespeare's Age. New York: Scribner.
Ryden, M. (1978). Shakespearean Plant Names. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Simpson, R.R. (1959). Shakespeare and Medicine. Edinburgh: Livingstone.
Wilson, F.P. (1927). The Plague in Shakespeare's London. Oxford University Press.
