Feeling, Feeding, and Feigning Humors: Shakespeare, Jonson, and Early Modern Humoral Theory

Abstract

In this dissertation, I argue that the humors are a productive way to read early modern drama and that using them as a productive means of analysis allows for much richer cultural knowledge about medicine to come through the chosen plays. As a result, I undertake a deep exploration into how dramatists were using the humoral theory to understand larger and more abstract medical and social movements like the expansion of England’s national identity through the geohumoral theory, the fashionability of medicine, the growth of the economic markets in London, the connection between a singular body and the body politic, and the diversification of carekeeping practices. Specifically, I chose to engage with Shakespeare and Jonson to understand the greater spectrum of the humoral theory on stage and to capture the similarities between the two playwrights’ approaches. I also draw on Jonson and Shakespeare to demonstrate larger patterns of commentary and critique around medicine, the humoral theory, and the cultural manifestations of the humors. To embody the humoral theory, I crafted the four chapters of this dissertation to represent each of the major humoral dispositions: phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, and melancholic. Along the way, I attempt to thread the humors together to show the inner workings of Galen’s ideas and to demonstrate their flexibility throughout the period. Further, I take inspiration from the early modern period to employ a host of methodological and theoretical techniques. The dissertation begins with a look at Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the historical tension between the Scottish and English and how Shakespeare draws on the larger geohumoral theory to firmly characterize the Macbeths as phlegmatic Scots who are influenced by their equally phlegmatic environment, a supernatural force of evil, and the invading, moderate English. The second chapter focuses on Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, the excess of blood, sanguineness, and the shifting economic marketplace in London. The third chapter also focuses on Jonson and the marketplace, but with a keen eye on the fashionability of the choler humor that the young men perform in Every Man in His Humour. Finally, the dissertation revisits the body politic in Shakespeare’s The Winter's Tale and looks at the complexity of melancholy and how it requires a similarly complex, multifaceted healer—Paulina—to address the disposition in its entirety. Throughout the dissertation, I aim to show that Shakespeare’s demystification of the humors tends to be probative, frequently tentative, and often simultaneously done as he stages humoral realities for the audience, whilst Jonson’s demystification is more robust and direct, which may not immediately suggest that he disregards the humoral theory, but that he aims to continuously critique its cultural displays. Both playwrights demonstrate the heterogenous dramatic interpretation of the theory but with distinct, often shared lines of inquiry, skepticism, and critique.