Hippocrates's humoral theory of illness proposed that the body consisted of four humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. calls him a "water-fly," then "a chough . However, everyone hasa natural excess of one of the humours, which is what makes us all look unique and behave differently. Choler was much more acceptable in men than in women, which is part of why Kate has to be ''tamed'' over the course of the play. Retrieved from, (O. Powell, Trans.). (2019). Poor Hamlet, too much humor had'st thou for this harsh world!" 4. Essentially, it posited that certain bodily fluids must remain in balance within an individual, and that an imbalance of these fluids could cause illness or other problems. Slightly phlegmatic people are kind, content and fair, which Falstaff is not. The four "humours" were bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) and . balance these conditions. Centaury. Hamlet's Antic Disposition: Is Hamlet's Madness Real? is caustic and satirical. ", Another aspect of Hamlet's humor glints forth in his dealings with his old school-fellows, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 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. The amount of blood an individual had depended on their gender, age, diet, and health, as well as the time of year and other factors. Principles of treatment [Blog Post]. Ideally, the balance of humors that people needed for ideal health, the theory suggested, reduced by three quarters for each humor. Then to the skull he says: "Where be your gibes now? Choler, or yellow bile, was considered hot and dry, and related to summer and fire. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. Hamlet's Silence %%EOF Lived on the island of Kos (Cos) and his . Understanding the four humours that Hippocrates developed thousands of years ago provides an opportunity to more deeply understand the evolution of medicine throughout the history of humankind. 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. 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. x-axis (vertical): Introversion - Extraversion scale. Porter, R.(1997). For instance, blood was associated with heat and wetness. 185 BCE). 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. The four humorsblack bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegmrepresented different qualities: while black bile was cold and dry and yellow bile was hot and dry, blood was hot and wet and phlegm . The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic. Osborn, D. (2015). The Theory of the Four Humours was that these four liquids in your body could affect your physical and mental health through imbalance. Background. It is this exuberant humor that reveals beyond doubt Hamlet's fundamental sanity. Phlegm was another important component of humorism. If Hamlet does not really go mad under his unparalleled griefs and burdens it is because under all circumstances his grim and tragic humor holds evenly the balance of his mind. Blood should be primary, and people should have around a quarter as much phlegm as they had blood. 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 [2] [3] Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types where an individual's personality types overlap and they share two or more temperaments. His works contains a lot of information on the contemporary medical practices of the time, but they also show the social history of medicine: how medicine formed a part of peoples lives and thoughts. What were the humours according to the Theory of the Four Humours? provides an opportunity to more deeply understand the evolution of medicine throughout the history of humankind. Loeb Classical Library. * It is the work of Polybus, Hippocrates' student and son-in-law. We may call it herb of grace o Sundays. Boston R.G. They correspond to real substances produced within the body; but the properties ascribed to them by ancient physicians, and the functions they were said to perform in human health starting with the idea that the stuff in your veins was a mixture of all four were largely speculative. Whether we have ancestors from ancient Greece, China, or India doesnt matter so much. Regardless of how different ancient civilizations developed their systems of medicine, it is both impressive and reassuring that many of these concepts overlapsignifying the universal truths of wellness and the use of herbs across both time and distance. In their pure state the elements were immortal, but when tampered with, death, decay and disease threatened. Blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile: the bodys four humours were believed to control your personality in Shakespeares day and influenced the way the Bard created some of his most famous characters. The four humors are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. It referred to the four fluids thought to be present in the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. It can be expressed as the dried blood found in stool, very dark urine, serious fevers caused by malaria, or, more abstractly, as constipation, bloating, and arthritis. Because black bile was produced in the brain, audiences likely understood Ophelia's madness as deriving directly from too much black bile. The humours affect your whole being, from your health and feelings to your looks and actions. One play really stands out when it comes to the subject of humours. Devin has taught psychology and has a master's degree in clinical forensic psychology. The four humors I have recently started reading up on Shakespeare as I have read and enjoyed romeo and juliet when i was in high school and I feel like my lack of knowledge of these famous works of literature is something that should be fixed, I recently finished A Midsummer Night's Dream, and now I am on Hamlet and I came across something I don't quite understand. Hamlet's stubbornness is one of the survival tactics he has developed to counter his own reluctance to kill Claudius. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.. 4. This is how Prince Hal greets him early on: Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sac, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. Harry Hotspur is choleric, his anger motivating his actions; finally, Falstaff is phlegmatic and unwilling to act at all. Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night (3.2.380-91) Hippocrates' temperamental approach draws striking similarities to the Kiersey temperaments, Jungian types, DISC, as well as Socionics. Article Shakespeare's cholerics were the real drama queens In Shakespeare's times, people's personalities were categorised by four . Analysis: To be, or not to be (3.1.64-98) It crops out at every turn, and indicates the essential soundness of his mind. Black bile was associated with a melancholy temperament. 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." Having an excess of one humour could be a bit of a vicious cycle: it both causes and is caused by your behaviour. Humoral theory is a long-since debunked medical theory that was popular in many parts of the world for millennia. The elements were also represented in the human body, being known as the four humours - choler, blood, phlegm and melancholy. When in mourning, its not uncommon to withdraw and find somewhere to sit and cry. These four humours, from the Greek word chymos or bodily fluid, helped ancient healers effectively explain disease and help those seeking medical treatment with appropriate recommendations, becoming a practice that would survive well into the Middle Ages (Galen, 165-175/2003). The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity. In Shakespeares time, the understanding of medicine and the human body was based on the theory of the four bodily humours. Readers must do their own research concerning the safety and usage of any herbs or supplements. The Norway (Fortinbras) Subplot Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet your gambols? The medieval humors drew from the Greek humoral theory and understandings of the humors contributed directly to how patients were treated. Hippocrates (460-370 BCE), 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. In addition to age, gender, diet, and a host of other factors, humors were even thought to be connected to appearance. The four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter paralleled the four humors blood/sanguine, yellow bile/choleric, phlegm/phlegmatic and black bile/melancholic, which in turn paralleled the four elements air, fire, water and earth. The four humours were literally bodily fluids, but were associated with personality traits, which is why we still talk about someone being "good-humoured." Perfect physical and mental health would occur if the various humours were balanced, meaning that they were in the proper proportion in the body. (Original work published ca. Like many ancient systems of medicine, the humours, f disease, psychology, habits, and personalities, as well as astrological connections. . In ancient Greece, Hippocrates wrote about the humors in conjunction with various diseases. 255 lessons. 136 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<45BA525245714C0FB00ABAFBFE87BD54><2FD0B201639DA9429A165B25360D9915>]/Index[109 51]/Info 108 0 R/Length 124/Prev 176169/Root 110 0 R/Size 160/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. The influence of the humors changed with the seasons and times of day and with the human life span. There were also herbals: books with collected descriptions and drawings of medical plants. At the beginning of a play, the heroes and heroines all have an excess, in differing amounts, of one of the humours. He is working on his PhD. Hippocrates: Volume IV (W.H.S. Four Humours. Research the structure and function of thehuman body through our anatomy archive, Immerse yourself in the medieval past and explore what we have in common with the Middle Ages, Architecture affects our health in profound ways. Oh, you must wear your rue with a difference. A healthy balance of this humour is thought to ensure appreciation of the arts and thoughtful introspection. Badger, 1916. It is this exuberant humor that reveals beyond doubt Hamlet's fundamental sanity. 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. For information about how we handle your data, please read our privacy notice. So the play itself is very close to the ideal humoral balance. 16th-century illustration of the four humors: Flegmat (phlegm), Sanguin (blood), Coleric (yellow bile) and Melanc (black bile). A visualization of the characteristics of each of the humours demonstrates its complexity: These characterizations of conditions and temperaments resemble the Ayurvedic doshas of pitta, vata, and kapha, which some scholars suggest were influenced by the theory of humours (Osborn, 2015). His world is vast. The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character Curator Gail Kern Paster explains "The four humors were an early typology for human personality. Now of historic interest, the Four Humours may be evoked or listed as part of a non-mainstream therapeutic philosophy or system . Galen: On the properties of foodstuffs(O. Powell, Trans.). Similarly, the four humours loosely correspond to the wheel of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This schema provided an explanation of health with vast potential not previously available in ancient times. The young warrior's choler gave him courage but phlegm produced cowards. i. Hamlet as National Hero When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but 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 . Melancholy could also be treated through purging, which generally involved the use of laxatives. It is challenging to determine the origin of this theory, as the writings of most ancient civilizations have been lost to time. Optimistic, red-cheeked, corpulent, irresponsible (compare Falstaff). In dealing with the present topic I find myself greatly indebted to this lecture by the distinguished actor and critic. (III. endstream endobj 110 0 obj <>>> endobj 111 0 obj <. Shakespeare was too 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. Essentially, this theory held that the human body was filled with four basic substances, called four humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/humourhamlet.html >. Arikha, N. (2007). Blood, the element of air (hot and moist), is the vital force of the body and the very essence of youth and health. The skull he says: `` Where be your gibes now from ancient Greece, China, or doesnt! Endobj 111 0 obj < > > endobj 111 0 obj < of humankind has to. ( vertical ): Introversion - Extraversion scale st thou for this harsh world &... From, ( O. Powell, Trans. ) of day and with seasons! 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