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{"id":24115,"date":"2022-06-23T11:00:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=24115"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:44:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T20:44:44","slug":"shakespeare-and-the-four-humors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/23\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare and the Four Humors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Erika Mills ~<\/em><\/p>\n<p>English poet and playwright <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/shakespeares-life\">William Shakespeare<\/a> (1564\u20131616) created characters that are among the richest and most recognizable in all of literature. Yet Shakespeare understood personality and health in the terms available to his age\u2014that of the now-discarded theory of the four bodily humors. The belief that blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm within a body determined a person\u2019s temperament and proclivity to disease pervaded society. Shakespeare\u2019s works reflect this conception of the inner workings of the body and their connection to disposition. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/index.html#homesummary\">“And there’s the humor of it”: Shakespeare and the four humors<\/a>,<\/em> an online exhibition from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), explores the language of the four humors and their influence in Shakespeare\u2019s plays.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"24121\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/23\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/four-humors-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"960,960\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"four-humors-2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>The Four Humors<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?fit=840%2C840&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24121 size-full\" title=\"The Four Humors, Choloric, Melancholic, Sanguine, Phlegmatic\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=840%2C840&ssl=1\" alt=\"Chart detailing the Theory of the Four Humors\" width=\"840\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?w=960&ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=800%2C800&ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/four-humors-2.png?resize=840%2C840&ssl=1 840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>“And there’s the humor of it” <\/em>is a refresh of a 2012 exhibition of the same name, guest curated by Theodore Brown, PhD, a historian at the University of Rochester and Gail Kern Paster, PhD, a Shakespeare scholar and historian. The online exhibition features rare books from from the historical collections at NLM and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.folger.edu\/\">Folger Shakespeare Library<\/a> and includes one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/resource-detail1.html\">university level<\/a> and K-12 class resources for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/resource-detail2.html\">middle school<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/resource-detail3.html\">high school<\/a>, as well as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/digitalgallery.html\">digital gallery<\/a> of NLM collection items on humoralism dating back to the 13th century.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some highlights from the exhibition:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24119\" style=\"width: 753px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"24119\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/23\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/ob1612_b\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?fit=753%2C700&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"753,700\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"OB1612_b\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>esserse<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?fit=300%2C279&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?fit=753%2C700&ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24119\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?resize=753%2C700&ssl=1\" alt=\"An open book with an illustrated page of 8 vignettes\" width=\"753\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?w=753&ssl=1 753w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1612_b.png?resize=300%2C279&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 753px) 100vw, 753px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The Anatomy of Melancholy<\/em>, Robert Burton, 1628 <br \/><em><a href=\"http:\/\/resource.nlm.nih.gov\/8909832\">National Library of Medicine #8909832<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24120\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"24120\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/23\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/ob1884\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?fit=472%2C700&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"472,700\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"Not for Reproduction Without Written Permission\\nFolger Shakespeare Library\\n201 East Capitol Street, SE\\nWashington, D.C. 20003\\n20","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"OB1884\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>retertrer<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?fit=202%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?fit=472%2C700&ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-24120\" title=\"As people with choleric natures, Kate and Petruchio would have an abundance of hot dryness\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?resize=350%2C519&ssl=1\" alt=\"Petruchio with a sword on his right hand and drags his wife Katherine who is on her knees, with his left hand\" width=\"350\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?w=472&ssl=1 472w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB1884.jpg?resize=202%2C300&ssl=1 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Petruchio entertains his wife at dinner<\/em>, drawing by Louis Rhead, ca. 1918 <br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/hamnet.folger.edu\/cgi-bin\/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=242942\"><em>Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>English Renaissance cleric and scholar Robert Burton (1577\u20131640) explored different forms of melancholy through a humoral lens in this medical and philosophical text. According to Burton, unmarried gentlewomen lacked the social purpose conferred by marriage and were afflicted with a depressive \u201ctorrent of inward humours\u201d thusly.<\/p>\n<p>Ophelia\u2019s arc from <em>Hamlet <\/em>serves as an example of such a predicament. Her isolation at court, her overbearing father’s commands, and Hamlet’s withdrawal of attention from her drive her to virginal melancholy.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Taming of the Shrew, <\/em>headstrong protagonists Kate and Petruchio, both quick to anger, are described as being choleric by nature. \u201cCholer\u201d refers to yellow bile, an excess of which was thought to cause irascibility and irrational behavior. In this illustration, Petruchio denies Kate dinner, claiming that roasted meat is not good for her. He deprives her of the pleasure of new clothes and of female companionship, wearing her down until by the end of the play, she is willing to submit to him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24118\" style=\"width: 711px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"24118\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/23\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/ob2047\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?fit=711%2C700&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"711,700\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}\" data-image-title=\"OB2047\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"<p>fefeefe<\/p>\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?fit=300%2C295&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?fit=711%2C700&ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-24118 size-full\" title=\"Marsilio Ficino himself had a melancholic disposition and concerned himself with ways to be more vital\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?resize=711%2C700&ssl=1\" alt=\"An open book showing two pages of text\" width=\"711\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?w=711&ssl=1 711w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/OB2047.png?resize=300%2C295&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marsilio Ficino, <em>De vita libri tres (Three Books on Life)<\/em>, 1529 <br \/><em><a href=\"http:\/\/resource.nlm.nih.gov\/2236046R\">National Library of Medicine #2236046R<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The middle-aged character Shylock from <em>The Merchant of Venice <\/em>exhibits melancholic characteristics, like suspicion of others, a lack of sociality, and a long memory. Shakespeare and his contemporaries saw aging as a gradual cooling and desiccating of the humors\u2014a progression toward melancholy. Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433\u20131499) was interested in warming, moistening therapies for vitality. In his <em>De vita libri tres <\/em>(<em>Three Books on Life<\/em>), he recommended that older people drink the warm milk of a young, cheerful woman and take spicy cordials to maintain a youthful spirit.<\/p>\n<p>To see more of \u201c<em>And there\u2019s the humor or it!\u201d: Shakespeare and the Four Humors,<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/shakespeare-and-the-four-humors\/index.html\">visit the exhibition online<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/erika2.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"732\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2013\/07\/05\/an-exhibition-program-welcome-and-george-washingtons-teeth\/erika2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/erika2.jpg?fit=2400%2C3000&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2400,3000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"NIKON D800","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1372435305","copyright":"","focal_length":"85","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"Erika Mills\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/erika2.jpg?fit=240%2C300&ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/erika2.jpg?fit=819%2C1024&ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-732 alignleft\" title=\"Erika Mills\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/erika2.jpg?resize=80%2C100&ssl=1\" alt=\"Erika Mills\" width=\"80\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>Erika Mills is an exhibit specialist in the Exhibition Program, History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Erika Mills ~ English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564\u20131616) created characters that are among the richest and most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57991628,"featured_media":24127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2029,347145303],"tags":[678875905,275516,28150,1040765,678875873,678875904],"class_list":["post-24115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions","category-rare-books-journals","tag-and-theres-the-humor-of-it","tag-1600s","tag-emotion","tag-four-humors","tag-history-of-medicine","tag-william-shakespeare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Shakespeare-feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-6gX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57991628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24115"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24195,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115\/revisions\/24195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} 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