  Shakespeare paid much more attention to the practice of medicine and obstetrics than to surgery. Perhaps the cause of this was that at that time surgery had not reached its present perfection. A more probable reason is that his son-in-law, Dr. John Hall, may not have been a surgeon. Iago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant? Cas. Ay, past all surgery. Othello, Act II., Sc. III. Can honour set a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. Henry IV., Act V., Sc. I. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover. Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V., Sc. I. Let me have surgeons; I am cut to the brains. King Lear, Act IV., Sc. VI. The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day, and cry all——We died at such a place; some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some, upon their wives left poor behind them. Patr. Who keeps the tent now? Ther. The surgeon’s box, or the patient’s wound. Troilus and Cressida, Act V., Sc. 1. Give physic to the sick, ease to the pain’d: The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee. Lucrece. What opposite discoveries we have seen! (Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets;) One makes new noses, one a guillotine, One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets. Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse CXXIX. The lawyer’s brief is like the surgeon’s knife Dissecting the whole inside of a question, And with it all the process of digestion. Byron—Don Juan, Canto X., Verse XIV. All feel the ill, yet shun the cure. Can sense this paradox endure? Swift. Syphilis is frequently referred to, and he represents several of his characters as having it; among them Falstaff and Dame Quickly. Lysimachus to keeper of a bawdy house: Have you that a man may deal withal and defy the surgeon? Pericles, Act IV., Sc. VI. You help to make the diseases, Doll: We catch of you, Doll, we catch of you. Henry IV—2d, Act II., Sc. IV. Boult. Do you know the French knight that cowers i’ the hams? * * * Bawd. As for him he brought his disease hither. Pericles, Act IV., Sc. II. Doth fortune play the huswife with me now? News have I, that my Nell is dead i’ the spital Of malady of France. Henry V., Act V., Sc. I. In this sty, where, since I came, Diseases have been sold dearer than physic. Pericles, Act IV., Sc. VI. With tomboys, * * * with diseas’d ventures, That play with all infirmities for gold, Which rottenness can lend nature! Such boil’d stuff As well might poison poison! Cymbeline, Act I., Sc. VI. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to * * * * three thousand dollars a year. Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo The means of weakness and debility. As You Like It, Act II., Sc. III. If we two be one, and thou play false, I do digest the poison of thy flesh. Comedy of Errors, Act II., Sc. II. Consumptions sow In hollow bones of men; strike their sharp shins, And mar men’s spurring. Crack the lawyer’s voice, That he may never more false title plead, Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen, That scolds against the quality of flesh, And not believes himself: down with the nose, Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away, Of him that, his particular to foresee, Smells from the general weal: make curl’d pate ruffians bald; And let the unscarr’d braggarts of the war Derive some pain from you. Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. The symptoms of secondary and tertiary syphilis are accurately expressed in this curse of Timon’s. Leprosy is referred to in the sentence “hoar the flamen,” or in other words, make white the priest. Shakespeare here shows a very fine point by using these most dreaded of all diseases: leprosy, syphilis, and consumption—maladies that are hereditary, incurable, and contagious. They are certainly lasting, as he wishes the curse to be. A pox on ’t! A common expression scattered through many of his plays. A man can no more separate age and covetousness than he can part young limbs and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other. I’faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in), he will last you some eight year or nine year. She hath eaten up all her beef, and is herself in the tub. To the spital go, And from the powdering-tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar-kite of Cressid’s kind, Doll Tearsheet she by name. Henry V., Act II., Sc. I. Be a whore still: * * * * Give them diseases, * * * * * * * Season the slaves For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth To the tub-fast, and the diet. Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. Dr. Macdonnell, of Canada, has thrown much light on these quotations in his works on Syphilis. He says: “It appears to have been the custom to prescribe for syphilitic patients, in addition to inunction, a prolonged diaphoresis and a very low diet. On the continent the patient was placed in a cave, oven, or dungeon, and Wiseman says it was the custom in England to use a tub for this purpose.” In the footnote to the passage in Johnson & Steven’s edition of Shakespeare’s works the following quotations from old plays are given: “——you had better match a ruin’d bawd, One ten times cur’d by sweating and the tub.” Jaspar Maines, 1639. Again, in the Family of Love, (1608), a doctor says: “O for one of the hoops of my Cornelius’ tub, I shall burst myself with laughing else.” In Monsieur d’Olive, (1606): “Our embassage is into France, there may be employment for thee: Hast thou a tub?” She, whom the spital-house, and ulcerous sores Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices To the April day again. Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. ’Tis I who taint the sweetest joy, And in the shape of love destroy. My shanks, sunk eyes, and noseless face, Prove my pretension to the place. Gay. Pox take him and his wit. Swift. Constant to nought—save hazard and a whore, Yet cursing both—for both have made him sore; Unread—unless, since books beguile disease, The pox becomes his passage to degrees. Byron—Hints from Horace. I said small-pox had gone out of late; Perhaps it will be followed by the great. ’Tis said the great came from America; Perhaps it may set out on its return,— The population there so spreads, they say, ’Tis grown high time to thin it in its turn, With war, or plague, or famine, any way, So that civilization they may learn; And which in ravage the more loathsome evil is— Their real lues, or our pseudo-syphilis? Byron—Don Juan, Canto I., Verse CXXX. He’ll feel the weight of it many a day. Cowley. A little attention is paid to diseases of the eye, thus in Winter’s Tale: Wishing all eyes Blind with the pin and web, but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked. Act I., Sc. II. Commentators have the thought that Shakespeare wished to express the idea of cataract by the term pin and web—this is, without doubt, a mistake; he did not intend to make lovers so cruel that they should desire to deprive every one else of sight. Pin and web (being a varicose excrescence of the conjunctiva, sometimes to such an extent as to totally prevent vision), was meant to express a veil, or in other words, the eyelid. Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes? O heaven! that there were but a mote in yours, A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair, Any annoyance in that precious sense! Then, feeling what small things are boist’rous there, Your vile intent must needs seem horrible. King John, Act IV., Sc. I. The term “sand-blind” was meant to express a dimness of sight, as if sand had been thrown in the eyes. Launcelot. O heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not. Gobbo. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind, I know you not. Merchant of Venice, Act II., Sc. II. I remember thine eyes well enough Dost thou squiny at me? King Lear, Act. IV., Sc. VI. He gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip. King Lear, Act III., Sc. IV. Thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye. Troilus and Cressida, Act V., Sc. I. A merry, cock-eyed, curious looking sprite. Byron—Vision of Judgment. To no one muse does she her glance confine, But has an eye, at once, to all the nine. Tom Moore. The subject of wounds has received frequent mention. A scratch, a scratch; marry, ’tis enough; * * * go, villain, fetch a surgeon. * * * ’Tis not deep as a well, nor as wide as a church door; but ’tis enough, * * * ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. Have by some surgeon * * * To stop his wounds lest he do bleed to death. Merchant of Venice, Act IV., Sc. I. For the love of God, a surgeon! send one presently to Sir Toby. * * * H’as broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too: for the love of God your help! Romeo. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. Benvolio. For what, I pray thee? Romeo.For thy broken shin. Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. II. Moth. A wonder, master; here’s a Costard broken in a shin. Armado. Some enigma, some riddle: come,—thy l’envoy; begin. Costard. No egma, no riddle, no l’envoy; no salve in the male, sir; O sir, plantain, a plain plantain; * * * no salve, sir, but a plantain! Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act III., Sc. I. The sovereign’st thing on earth Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise. Henry IV., Act I., Sc. III. I do beseech your majesty, may salve The long-grown wounds of my intemperance. Henry IV., Act III., Sc. II. Let us hence, my sovereign, to provide A salve for any sore that may betide. Henry VI—3d, Act. IV., Sc. VI. Here is a letter, lady; The paper as the body of my friend, And every word in it a gaping wound, Issuing life-blood. Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. II. He jests at scars, that never felt a wound. Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Sc. II. Dercetas.This is his sword; I robb’d his wound of it. * * * CÆsar.* * * We do lance Diseases in our bodies. Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. I. Men. Where is he wounded? Vol. I’ the shoulder and i’ the left arm: There will be large cicatrices to show the people. Coriolanus, Act II., Sc. I. What wound did ever heal but by degrees? Othello, Act II., Sc. III. To see the salve doth make the wound ache more. Lucrece. Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains Some scar of it. As You Like It, Act III., Sc. V. The new-heal’d wound * * * should break out, Which would be so much the more dangerous. Richard III., Act II., Sc. II. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III., Sc. I. I’ll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs To apply to ’s bleeding face. King Lear, Act III., Sc. VII. Go, get a white of an egg and a little flax, and close the breach of the head; it is the most conducible thing that can be. Ben Jonson—“The Case is Altered.” Act II., Sc. IV,. One’s hip he slash’d, and split the other’s shoulder, And drove them with their brutal yells to seek If there might be chirurgeons who could solder The wounds they richly merited. Byron—Don Juan, Canto VIII., Verse XCIV. Many surgical subjects receive but little attention from him. Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? Laf. A fistula, my lord. All’s Well, Act I., Sc. I. Fal. Why, sirs, I am almost out at heels. Pist. Why, then, let kibes ensue. Merry Wives, Act I., Sc. III. The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. Hamlet, Act V., Sc. I. If it were a kibe ’Twould put me to my slipper. Tempest, Act II., Sc. I. If a man’s brains were in ’s heels, were ’t not in danger of kibes? King Lear, Act I., Sc. V. Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city? Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. I. Thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint. Henry IV—2d, Act V., Sc. IV. Were ’t my fitness To let these hands obey my blood, They are apt enough to dislocate and tear Thy flesh and bones:—howe’er thou art a fiend, A woman’s shape doth shield thee. King Lear, Act IV., Sc. II. Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, * * * * there is little hope of life in him. As You Like It, Act I., Sc. II. It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. As You Like It, Act I., Sc. II. On her left breast A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops I’ the bottom of a cowslip. Cymbeline, Act II., Sc. II. Under her breast (Worthy the pressing) lies a mole, right proud Of that most delicate lodging. Cymbeline, Act II., Sc. IV. If thou wert * * * * Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, Patch’d with foul moles and eye offending marks, I would not care. * * * King John, Act III., Sc. I. In case of a recent burn it was the custom to place the part near the fire, thus upholding the old homoeopathic doctrine that what hurts will cure. And falsehood falsehood cures; as fire cools fire Within the scorched veins of one new burn’d. King John, Act III., Sc. I. One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights founder, strength by strengths do fail. Coriolanus, Act IV., Sc. VII. One fire burns out another’s burning, One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish. Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. II. Even as one heat another heat expels, Or as one nail by strength drives out another, So the remembrance of my former love Is by a newer object quite forgotten. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II., Sc. IV. I must not break my back to heal his finger. Timon of Athens, Act II., Sc. I. That bottled spider, that foul, bunch-back’d toad. Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV. Where’s that valiant crook-back prodigy? Henry VI—3d, Act I., Sc. IV. Ladies, that have their toes Unplagu’d with corns, will have a bout with you. * * * * * Which of you all Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, She, I’ll swear, hath corns. Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. V. Strangely-visited people, All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery. Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. III. Fell sorrow’s tooth doth never rankle more Than when it bites but lanceth not the sore. Richard II., Act I., Sc. III. You rub the sore, When you should bring the plaster. Tempest, Act II., Sc. I. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place. Hamlet, Act III., Sc. IV. Men.The service of the foot Being once gangren’d is not then respected For what before it was. Bru. Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence, Lest his infection, being of catching nature, Spread further. Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. Sic. He’s a disease that must be cut away. Men. O he’s a limb that has but a disease; Moral, to cut it off; to cure it easy. Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. Falstaff. Boy, tell him I am deaf. Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf. Falstaff. * * * it is a kind of deafness. Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you, * * * and I care not if I do become your physician. Falstaff. * * * I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself. Henry IV—2d, Act I., Sc. II. The surgery described in Titus Andronicus is, of course, impossible. With gaping mouth. Spenser. Madame scolded one day so long, She sudden lost all use of tongue. The doctor came—with hem and haw, Pronounced the affection a lock’d jaw. ———— Let firm, well-hammered soles protect thy feet Through freezing snows, and rains, and soaking sleet. Should the big last extend the shoe too wide, Each stone will wrench the unwary step aside; The sudden turn may stretch the swelling vein, The cracking joint unhinge, or ankle sprain; And when too short the modish shoes are worn, You’ll judge the seasons by your shooting corn Gay. Leeches stick, nor quit the bleeding wound, Till off they drop with skinfuls to the ground. Swift. Think of the thunderer’s falling down below Carotid-artery-cutting Castlereagh! Alas! that glory should be chill’d by snow! Byron—Don Juan, Canto X., Verse LIX. The surgeon had his instruments and bled Pedrillo, and so gently ebb’d his breath, You hardly could perceive when he was dead. And first a little crucifix he kissed, And then held out his jugular and wrist. Byron—Don Juan, Canto II., Verse LXXVI. |
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