Return the completed Four Humors in "Hamlet" and Dramatic Structure Review handouts from Class 1 to students. No character in all Shakespeare is more evenly balanced, and no mind more capable of seeing things in all their bearings. In Shakespeares time, the understanding of medicine and the human body was based on the theory of the four bodily humours. ), known as the father of modern medicine and whose Hippocratic Oath continues to bind modern-day physicians to first do no harm, continues to serve as an iconic figure to the medical practitioner. Poor Hamlet, too much humor had'st thou for this harsh world!" Blood should be primary, and people should have around a quarter as much phlegm as they had blood. Similarly, the four humours loosely correspond to the wheel of Traditional Chinese Medicine. (III. moment again that "it is very sultry and hot." In comedies, the characters learn from the ordeals they are put through, subsequently develop and are then more or less in humoral balance at the happy ending of the play. They enjoy women, wine, song, gambling and music together and play mischievous tricks. What he should be doing is trying to restore the balance by switching to a warming and drying diet and engaging in warming and drying activities. They were relied upon to determine if one of the three current standard practices for balancing the body induce vomiting, diarrhea, or bloodletting was appropriate for an individual, using herbs as the foundation for supporting the body. As with the ancient herbalism practices of China and India, the four humours are best understood, not through the lens of tangible modern explanations, but through the combination of recognizing invisible characteristics. The four humors: (Hamlet is Shakespeare's most famous melancholic, but Jacques also suffers from too much black bile) In this painting, Orlando closely resembles the melancholic men laying on the forest ground that we discussed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Principles of treatment [Blog Post]. Curator Gail Kern Paster explains "The four humors were an early typology for human personality. All diseases and disabilities resulted from an excess or deficit of one of these four humors. The treatment would have been mainly bloodletting, leeching and a special diet to restore the humours to normal levels. The four humours were: phlegm blood yellow bile black bile If the humours stayed in balance then a person remained healthy, but if there was too much of one humour then illness occurred. The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity. Words by Nelly EkstrmAverage reading time 4 minutes 11 December 2016 Article Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. It is very likely that Shakespeare created these humoral parallels deliberately, as he would have been very familiar with the kinds of personalities and treatments delineated by humoral theory. x-axis (vertical): Introversion - Extraversion scale. In Act IV, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, the black humor of Hamlet's comments about the dead Polonius stem from his treatment of the serious issue of death in a . These fluidsproduced by the body's organs and tissueswere black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Humoral theory was popular for a long time, but what are the four humors? (2019). The roots of humorism go back to Empedocles (c.495-435 BCE), a Greek philosopher who suggested that different qualities of the four basic elementsearth (cold Analysis of the Characters in Hamlet The 4 humors corresponded in their natures to earth, air, fire, and waterthe 4 elements of which all matter was composed, according the Greek philosopher Empedocles, a contemporary of Hippocrates. The Elizabethans believed in The Four Humours, A traditional theory of physiology in which health, mind and character was dependant upon the balance of four fluids in your body, and four elements. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: the Four Humors (A) Main idea: Hamlet is not mad. | Melancholy Temperament. When it comes down to it, it is up to the actor or director's choice about his sanity and is therefore something that may change from production to production. ), In the graveyard scene with the clowns Hamlet indulges freely in a grim and melancholy humor. Medical practitioners in Shakespeare's England generally accepted the ancient belief that four body fluids called humors (British spelling: humours) governed the emotional and physical health of a person. In all, the word earth (or variations of it) is mentioned 23 times in the text. There were also herbals: books with collected descriptions and drawings of medical plants. 109 0 obj <> endobj THE FOUR HUMOURS OF MAN: CHOLERIC Humour-Choleric Body Substance-Yellow Bile Produced By-Gall Bladder Season-Summer Element-Fire Qualities-Hot & Dry Complexion & Body Type-Red Haired, Thin Ambitious Leader-like Aggressive A lot of Energy & Passion Able to dominate others Dont choose paths between, only extremes Prone to mood swings SANGUINE Hippocrates believed the human body is home to four types of liquids which, if imbalanced in any way, could cause mental and physical health problems in the individual. y-axis (horizontal): Thinking - Feeling scale. Share Cite. Those unions result in the four humors: 1) melancholic. Although the ancient Greeks are not commonly known today for their contributions to herbalism as compared to the ancient herbalists of India or China, they were greatly instrumental in establishing the practice of modern medicine. This unfailing humor that toys with life's comedies and tragedies alike does not come from madness, but from sanity and self-possession. Today, the well-recognized ancient traditions of Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine remain instrumental as effective herbal practices. Four Humours. Each one of them a symbol, carrying a message to the person she hands it to. Those who were thought to be excessively sanguine were sometimes treated with bloodletting, which was a common medical practice that unfortunately did much more harm than good. The immortal gods were gradually replaced with scientific medical theories, including the four humours, all of which heavily relied on the power of plants (Porter, 1997). The word is quite rare in Shakespeares writing otherwise: in The Taming of the Shrew, a play without melancholics, the word is only used once. (Original work published 165-175 CE), Gill, N.S. Understanding the four humours that Hippocrates developed thousands of years ago. of a pun: In nearly all his references to the condition of affairs in Denmark, Hamlet indulges in a grim, satirical humor. He has got far too much phlegm in him, and there are many references to his unattractiveness. These characteristics include energetics, elements, and temperament, as well as understanding the complexity of the natural world. Hysteria Symptoms & Historical Origin | What is Hysteria in Personality? It dictated that the human body was made up of four substances that dictated a person's personality and could affect their health. Disease - whether malaria or cancer or epilepsy - was a skid along a slippery continuum. Retrieved from https://www.passionsandtempers.com, Galen (2003). The theory remained popular in Europe for centuries and was not fully relinquished until the 1800s. This will turn your body cold and dry and, of course, build up your levels of black bile. This is how Laertes prepares to revenge his fathers murder in a duel with Hamlet: I will dot./And for that purpose Ill anoint my sword./I bought an unction of a mountebank,/So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,/Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,/Collected from all simples that have virtue/Under the moon, can save the thing from death/That is but scratched withal. Theres a daisy. I would give you some violets, But they withered all when my father died.. Jones, Trans.). Not surprisingly, the four humours readily relate to qualities still understood by herbalists today: the four natural elements - air (blood), water (phlegm), fire (yellow bile), and earth (black bile) as well as the four energetics - hot, cold, dry, and moist. Drawing, c.1793. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 For instance, blood was associated with heat and wetness. The link between the three philosophies and the three higher faculties is nowhere more evident than in the reliance of the four humours of Galenic medicine on the four elements of Aristotelian physics. Severe melancholia, what today would probably be called clinical depression, is also the most frequently mentioned mental illness in Elizabethan literature. The union of. What were the humours according to the Theory of the Four Humours? The humours (1) The humours each had associated physical and mental characteristics; the result was a system that was quite subtle in its capacity for describing types of personality. Soliloquy Analysis: Now might I do it pat (3.3.77-100) Shakespeare was too The point of humoral theory was that it gave a reason for ailments not clearly understood. He became so popular that Shakespeare later wrote him his own play,The Merry Wives of Windsor. Then he suggests that Rosencrantz is only "a sponge . In Shakespeares day, only very wealthy people could afford a doctor and the medicines or treatments he would recommend. And they all have roughlythe same number of lines. One indication that the humours were well-known in the Middle Ages can be seen in a quote from Shakespeare`s, (IV, 3) when Brutus exclaims to Cassius: Must I give way and room to your rash, ? Shakespeareswriting is one of the most important sources for the knowledge we have about medicine in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. The theory of the four humours was central to the teachings of Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen. Find out whats on, read our latest stories and get involved. After being refused by Ophelia, Polonius explains that Hamlet: Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, Today, this Shakespeare quote is often adapted for humorous effect. "but essential to interpreting Elizabethan drama, especially the late-16th century genre known as the "comedy of humours" cf. Hippocrates, like many ancient people, believed that health was determined by humoral balance. Hamlet is a play. Pray you, love, remember. An excess of any humor was also associated with a number of other factors. Speaking of the king, Hamlet's humor When these unconscionable spies come to him to inquire what he had done with the dead body of Polonius, he first answers: "Compounded it with dust, whereto 't is kin." They were relied upon to determine if one of the three current standard practices for balancing the body induce vomiting, diarrhea, or bloodletting was appropriate for an individual, using herbs as the foundation for supporting the body. Each humor is a bodily fluid, an excess of which was thought to cause certain illnesses and personality traits. . Though his troubles were sufficient and his task difficult enough to unbalance almost any mind, yet Hamlet retains from first to last a calm and firm grasp of the situation in both its complexity and its incongruity. Sanity is humor." It referred to the four fluids thought to be present in the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Hamlet's Relationship with the Ghost A cabinet of ancient medical curiosities: Strange tales and surprising facts from the healing arts. Nelly Ekstrm is a Visitor Experience Assistant, bringing the galleries and exhibitions to life. Just as we now believe that mental illnesses may in part be due to an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, Elizabethan doctors similarly believed that certain personality traits stemmed . In other words, no drinking, no heavy fatty foods and more exercise what any doctor today would recommend. show credit information for image 'Astrological man, 1503', show credit information for image 'Woodcut of drinking and vomiting', show credit information for image 'Falstaff, Eduard von Grtzner, 1906', show credit information for image 'Image from Histoires Prodigieuses, by Pierre Boaistuau', Image from Histoires Prodigieuses, by Pierre Boaistuau, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. As Sir Herbert Tree has recently said: "But for humor he should go mad. Falstaff imagined by artist Eduard von Grtzner, 1906. A natural excess of black bile could make you cautious and analytical. All the temperaments have their good and bad sides. In all alike he is sane and thoughtful. your songs? However, everyone hasa natural excess of one of the humours, which is what makes us all look unique and behave differently. Hippocrates (460-370. Besides Falstaff, who has the largest number of lines inHenry IV, they usually function in the subplot of the comedies, like the duos Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch inTwelfth Nightor Stephano and Trinculo inThe Tempest. In Hamlet, the advisor Polonius, misreading the causes of the Prince's apparent lunacy as romantic rejection, offers a neat analysis of his illness that makes the relationship between love and madness very clear. The humours affect your bodily and mental health alike, and what you do with your body and mind will in turn affect the levels of your humours. Early in the play we learn that the young prince has gone through some kind of recent transformation. 'The rest is silence.' Hed probably agree with fellow phlegmatic Sir Toby Belch: I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.. Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. This is an interactive personality test of the "Four Temperaments", an idea from Ancient Greek medicine. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. Learn what the four humors of the body are along with the humoral theory. Elizabethans believed that the balance of the four humors would keep them healthy. Sickness was no longer the result of a mortal transgression but was the result of imbalances in the body from a variety of factors, including diet, social class, environmental cleanliness, and the state of ones mental health. Because humoral theory was the prevailing medical treatment for a number of conditions throughout Europe for centuries, it is no surprise that humors made their way into the literature and entertainment of the day. What is Phlebotomy? These humours in turn were composed of four qualities (hot, dry, cold and . In the ancient physiological theory still current in the European Middle Ages and later, the four cardinal humours were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black . Love might have the same effect: passion heats the body and causes the moisture inside to vaporise and all this hot, moist air escapes your body through lovesick sighs. On Like many ancient systems of medicine, the humours, f disease, psychology, habits, and personalities, as well as astrological connections. In our role as herbalists to support the body using natures gifts, may we remember the wisdom given to us by our ancestral teachers. 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