Shakespeare and Renaissance Medicine: The Limitations of Physic and Remedy in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Other Plays Amelia Coen College

The purpose of this essay is to discuss Shakespeare’s intention in using medical detail within his plays. The use of medical allusion is a frequent occurrence in Shakespeare’s works, touching upon a wide variety of topics in the sphere of physic; modern physician R.R. Simpson concludes that the plays contain 440 major medical references (Hoeniger 1992: 11). However, the focus of this essay shall be on the theme of remedy and curative methods, beginning with a discussion centred on these concepts in Hamlet (c.1599) and Macbeth (c.1606). The discussion shall then be expanded out to consider the connection between playwright and purgation or healing, and also the attitude towards physicians in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean era.

Before engaging in the proposed discussion, it is important to initially consider the general extent of medical understanding and physical knowledge during the period. Medical knowledge in the early modern era derived from the dominant theory of practice established by Ancient Greek physicians, such as Hippocrates and Galen. As trained physicians were scarce in Shakespeare’s England, most Tudor noblemen and gentlemen owned a number of medical books and many housewives regarded it as their duty to...