In the human body, the interaction of the four humors explained differences of age, gender, emotions, and disposition. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. Curator Gail Kern Paster explains "The four humors were an early typology for human personality. . Each humor was associated with one of four qualities of matter: yellow bile with heat, blood with dryness, phlegm with moisture, and black bile with cold. Hysteria Symptoms & Historical Origin | What is Hysteria in Personality? By this time, the Renaissance had spread to other European countries, and ideas about our ability to fully understand the human experience became more skeptical. Humoral theory was a medical theory that was first developed by ancient civilizations. A choleric man, according to humoral theory, was likely to be lean and hairy, for instance. Hamlet's Antic Disposition: Is Hamlet's Madness Real? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.. 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. Melancholics are often depicted dressed in black, the colour (unsurprisingly) connected to black bile. hbbd```b``{A$G9d"&"A qTI 9l!9$'``]`Jim10l0 w Choleric. Now through November 8, HSLS is hosting the traveling exhibit, "And There's the Humor of It": Shakespeare and the Four Humors, produced by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and coordinated by the American Library Association. The Norway (Fortinbras) Subplot Retrieved from, (O. Powell, Trans.). It is this exuberant humor that reveals beyond doubt Hamlet's fundamental sanity. Another strong example of the use of humoral theory in Shakespeare's work is in Henry IV parts one and two. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/four-humors-112072. 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. 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. Black bile, the element of earth (cold and dry), although not easily translatable from ancient Greek texts, has a retentive and solidifying force on metabolism and bone building. 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). We use a third party provider, dotdigital, to deliver our newsletters. These four humours are best described as semi-imaginary. As a result, those who had too much yellow bile were considered choleric. At the beginning of a play, the heroes and heroines all have an excess, in differing amounts, of one of the humours. A 2 x 2 table of Hippocrates' four (4) temperaments: Melancholic. 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. Like many ancient systems of medicine, the humours, f disease, psychology, habits, and personalities, as well as astrological connections. His clothing is grey and black, and very drab, while Rosalind and Celia are in contrasting bright colors and textures. She has been teaching English in Canada and Taiwan for seven years. 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. 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 . 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. 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. Cesare Ripa, 1610. The union of. Information offered on Herbal Academy websites is for educational purposes only. 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 young warrior's choler gave him courage but phlegm produced cowards. His first meeting with Horatio furnishes opportunity. Retrieved from. . 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. Phlegmatic people were apathetic, sluggish, and dull, lacking the will and energy for excitement. Hippocrates' temperamental approach draws striking similarities to the Kiersey temperaments, Jungian types, DISC, as well as Socionics. Theres a daisy. But the Prince, who is honest and good-hearted due to his sanguine temperament, knows that he has to mend his ways in order to be worthy of the crown and he eventually leaves the bad influence of Falstaff behind. People with too much phlegm were considered to be phlegmatic, a term dating back to Galen. Herbs that support this imbalance include pungent, stimulating, and aromatic herbs, such fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), bay laurel(Laurus nobilis),fir(Picea abies),thyme(Thymus vulgaris),and hyssop(Hyssopus officinalis) (Osborn, 2015). balance of his humors: blood and phlegm noted as "judgment." He goes on to talk about how a . The humours affect your whole being, from your health and feelings to your looks and actions. And there is pansies, thats for thoughts Theres fennel for you, and columbines. FOOTNOTE 1: Humor in Tragedy, by Sir Herbert Tree. Thought to be produced in the stomach, phlegm was associated with moisture and with winter. What were the humours according to the Theory of the Four Humours? Jones, Trans.). Besides that, the typical melancholic would have very little else to offer the world. Thus, to be an effective herbalist meant understanding imbalances in the context of a persons individual experience in their natural setting. Drawing, c.1793.'. Black bile, the humour that dominated this temperament, was connected to the cold and dry element earth, to old age, and all things dying and rotting. 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. humour, also spelled Humor, (from Latin "liquid," or "fluid"), in early Western physiological theory, one of the four fluids of the body that were thought to determine a person's temperament and features. The Elder Hamlet: The Kingship of Hamlet's Father And that rottenness is the cause of this tragedy. 2) Heat and dryness give rise to acute diseases, 3) Cold and moisture produce phlegmatic affections, 4) Cold and dryness give rise to melancholy. This is an interactive personality test of the "Four Temperaments", an idea from Ancient Greek medicine. And they all have roughlythe same number of lines. Hamlet talks about his reasons for admiring and trusting Horatio here, noting specifically the . Retrieved from https://www.passionsandtempers.com, Galen (2003). He has given Hamlet nearly all varieties of humor, from the playful to the sardonic. ), "Even in dying," as Sir Herbert Tree says, "he breaks into a sweet irony of humor, in meeting the 'fell serjeant death.' If the humours were in balance, then the body was in health. When in mourning, its not uncommon to withdraw and find somewhere to sit and cry. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates wrote about the humors in conjunction with various diseases. IT . Today, this Shakespeare quote is often adapted for humorous effect. Whether we have ancestors from ancient Greece, China, or India doesnt matter so much. (W.H.S. Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? King Henry IV is melancholic and despondent. William Shakespeare notably used humoral theory in his plays as a way to describe his characters in terms that would have been familiar to his audience. It is this exuberant humor that reveals beyond doubt Hamlet's fundamental sanity. Learn what the four humors of the body are along with the humoral theory. It referred to the four fluids thought to be present in the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night (3.2.380-91) Hamlet's Melancholy: The Transformation of the Prince He became so popular that Shakespeare later wrote him his own play,The Merry Wives of Windsor. 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. Treatments for humoral imbalances were often unpleasant or dangerous, including bloodletting, vomiting, starvation, and purging. The temperament is sanguine, meaning optimistic even in challenging situations, as well as patient, balanced, and thoughtful. The black bile would weigh on you, and make you passive, sad, dull and indecisive. Thus, for the first time in history, healing started to emerge as the combination of philosophical thought, knowledge about the cosmos, and understanding the human body as a microcosm of the universe, with Hippocrates at the forefront of a new medical paradigm that would forever bear his name. Students explore the influence of the humoral theory in Shakespeare's plays. This is the humour of regeneration and is supported by herbs that are either cooling and drying to help regulate blood, such as agrimony (Agrimonia spp. Hippocrates: Volume IV (W.H.S. So the play itself is very close to the ideal humoral balance. , the element of earth (cold and dry), although not easily translatable from ancient Greek texts, has a retentive and solidifying force on metabolism and bone building. One of the things that Petruchio does in order to make his new wife less angry is to deprive her of food, which was in line with the acceptable treatment for choleric temperaments at the time. But in the tragedies they are more often the leading characters, generally elderly men. Retrieved from, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Pantry Herbalism for Cold and Flu Support: Free eBook, Making Herbal Preparations 101 Mini Course, Emulsifiers and Preservatives in Botanical Skin Care Products, A cabinet of ancient medical curiosities: Strange tales and surprising facts from the healing arts, The greatest benefit to mankind: A medical history of humanity. English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) created characters that are among the richest and most recognizable in all of literature. Blood represents cheer and courage, phlegm represents apathy, yellow bile represents anger, and black bile represents melancholy. balance these conditions. Theres rue for you, and heres some for me. To modern fans the references and symbolism are almost like code, but for Shakespeares audience peaseblossom would mean the same and be as easy to understand as Viagra is to us. The Hamlet and Ophelia Subplot This will turn your body cold and dry and, of course, build up your levels of black bile. The phlegmatic and sanguine temperaments have a lot in common. Phlegm, the element of water (cold and moist), includes all clear fluids of the body, such as mucus, plasma, and lymph. The four elements, which constituted the fundamental building blocks of the 'macrocosm' or 'greater world' of the sublunar sphere, corresponded closely to the four humours of the 'microcosm' or 'lesser world' of the human body.. Each of the humours originated in a different bodily organ.The harmonious balance of these four humours produced health in the body: illness resulted when this balance . According to humoralism, four bodily fluidsblood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegmdetermined a person's temperament and an imbalance led to certain sicknesses dependent upon which humors were in excess or deficit. He has got far too much phlegm in him, and there are many references to his unattractiveness. He first Analysis: To be, or not to be (3.1.64-98), Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night (3.2.380-91), Soliloquy Analysis: Now might I do it pat (3.3.77-100), Soliloquy Analysis: How all occasions do inform against me (4.4.35-69). Mary McMahon. y-axis (horizontal): Thinking - Feeling scale. Revenge in Hamlet Woodcut of two men drinking, over-consuming and vomiting. Ben Jonson. endstream endobj 110 0 obj <>>> endobj 111 0 obj <. However, should one fluid overpower the others, the body becomes out of balance and causes medical and psychological illness. He is working on his PhD. Those unions result in the four humors: 1) melancholic. You can unsubscribe at any time using links in the emails you receive. Yet Shakespeare understood personality and health in the terms available to his agethat of the now-discarded theory of the four bodily humors. There are many famous melancholics - the author of Ecclesiastes was one, so was Hamlet (Shakespeare probably had read an . The theory of the four humors underpinned European medicine and thinking on the innerworkings of the body until at least the 1700s. even though there are, and must be pages on anatomy and physiology. Black bile was associated with a melancholy temperament. Jack Falstaff is fat, lazy, cowardly, dishonest and sentimental, but the audience loved him despite all his faults. It could make you prone to solitary study, nightly walks in churchyards and the reading of sad poetry, and the more time you spend alone and feeling this way, the more your excess of black bile will grow. 2. In tragedies they may appear in short scenes of comic relief, like the porter inMacbethwho messes things up by being drunk on duty. Find out whats on, read our latest stories and get involved. 0 Arikha, N. (2007). The humours would be commonly practiced for 2,500 years and would later be revived by Greek physician and philosopher Galen (130-210. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. 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). 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