Tag Archives: medicine

Catching the plague

  The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has been one of the most alarming continuing stories of 2014. Seven thousand people have died and the West has been accused of being slow to respond. It is heartening to hear … Continue reading

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Simon Forman, Shakespeare and the stage

12 September is the anniversary of the death of the colourful astrologer-cum-physician Simon Forman – or perhaps it was 11 September, or even 5 September, accounts vary.  Whichever is correct, Forman was a well-known, even notorious figure in Shakespeare’s London, said to be … Continue reading

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Shakespeare and the alchemists

I’ve recently been investigating a website that allows us to get a close look at the medical world of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. The Casebooks Project “aims to make available the astrological records of Simon Forman and Richard Napier — … Continue reading

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Shakespeare, medicine and science, 450 years on

A new book is just about to be published linking Shakespeare and science, a pairing that still doesn’t happen very often in the study of Shakespeare.  This is at least partly because scientific methods based on experimentation and logical enquiry were … Continue reading

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Shakespeare’s minds diseased: mental illness and its treatment

Shakespeare was clearly fascinated by mental illness, many characters displaying a variety of symptoms from Lear’s madness, Jaques’ melancholy, Timon’s bitter cursing, Macbeth’s visions and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking, to the obsessiveness of Leontes.  It’s usually accepted that Shakespeare was influenced in medical matters by … Continue reading

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What can doctors learn from Shakespeare?

It’s long been acknowledged that Shakespeare took a great interest in medicine and psychology, and this week the BBC picked up a new article written by Dr Kenneth Heaton indicating that doctors might do well to study Shakespeare to improve … Continue reading

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Simon Forman, Shakespeare and the stage

12 September 2011 is the 400th anniversary of the death of the colourful astrologer-cum-physician Simon Forman – or perhaps it was 11 September, or even 5 September, accounts vary.  Whichever is correct, Forman was a well-known, even notorious figure in Shakespeare’s … Continue reading

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Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Simon Forman, Shakespeare and the stage