https://collation.folger.edu/2023/01/corpse-medicine/ * Folger[FSL_LimitedSpace_Lockup2_RedF_ReverseWhiteSig_RGB] * About * Shakespeare * Tools * Learn * Events [ ] [submit] The Collation Research and Exploration at the Folger * Home * About * Past posts * Contact * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * RSS Feed [ ] [] manuscripts Corpse Medicine January 17, 2023 | By Guest Author a guest post by Bradley Irish Content note: medical cannibalism In the process of writing a book about disgust in Shakespeare's world and works, I encountered a number of revolting things: the brutal mutilation of condemned criminals, the secret dissection of human corpses in private residences, the festering rot of infectious diseases. But I was perhaps most fascinated (and made most queasy) to learn about the contemporary practice that modern scholars call corpse medicine: that is, the early modern willingness to use the body parts of once-living people in pharmaceutical compounds that they both prepared and often ingested. While there is some fantastic scholarship on corpse medicine in Shakespeare's England--such as Louis Noble's Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture and Richard Sugg's Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians - the concept was entirely new to me, and has been equally unfamiliar to many with whom I've shared my research. But as Wendy Wall puts it , not only does it seem like "human remains visibly circulated in the early modern world', but surviving documents like contemporary recipe books and medicinal manuals actually suggest 'how customary it was to think of body parts in the kitchen" of early modern residences. Corpse medicine, then, was a common feature of Shakespeare's world--and the history of this remarkable practice is amply recorded by the Folger's holdings. The Folger is home to a large number of early modern recipe books and medical manuals, many of which have been extensively cataloged and transcribed. When you dive into these manuscripts, you can find countless examples of human body parts being utilized in the various remedies that are compiled. "For a corn" on the foot, for example, you might "rub the place affected with the bone of a dead man" ( V.a.452, 86); to "stanch bleeding" of a wound, you might apply a compound containing "the Moss growing on dead mens sculls" (V.a.452, 406). I personally find that creepy enough--but what's more, many recipes call for the actual ingestion of corpse matter, a more specific act that scholars have deemed medicinal cannibalism. We may look to one such "medicine for the Flux," which advises to "lett the sick man drink" a boiled substance containing "as much dead mans scull made into powder as much as yow can putt upon a six pence" ( V.b.400, 54). A "medecine for the blacke Iaunders" (i.e. jaundice) calls for "halfe a spoonefull of the powder" from "the scull of a dead mann dryed fayre" (X.d.469, 38). And "a Powder for the Mother" contains the grindings "of a mans Scull as much as at a tyme as will ly on a groate [a type of coin]" (V.a.21, 312). (Mother was another name for what early moderns called hysteria.) [165399-599x750]Folger V.b.400, 54 But corpse medicine seems to have been most regularly used in remedies for various kinds of convulsions or seizures, symptoms of what Shakespeare describes as "the falling sickness" in Julius Caesar and as "epilepsy" in Othello. The use of human bones to treat epilepsy goes back to the classical period, and the practice stayed routinely prescribed in early modern England. For example, one "receipt for the falling sickness" uses "the powder of a dead mans scull" (V.a.452, 115); another requires "the substance, or oyle that is extracted from the skull of a dead man" (V.a.21, 3); a third asks for "a mans scull, un buried, one ounce" (V.b.366, 36); a fourth demands "thirty grains of the Moss of a dead mans scull" (V.a.396, 41 v). Some mixtures, in fact, called for both "thirty grains of the Moss that grows on Dead mens sculls, And thirty Grains of the scull itself finely powderd (E.a.4, 255). [112263-750x577]Folger V.b.366, 36 and 37 Many recipes for convulsions and seizures give more specific instructions about how the skull should be prepared. "The Scull muste be fyled very fyne and beaten very well in a morter" (V.a.388, 242), one tells us, while another calls for "the powder of mans skull finely beaten and searced" (V.a.361, 151r). Margaret Baker reminds that the "dead mans head" should "hath binn washed very cleane in water & dryed in a window" (V.a.619, 102). Katherine Brown recommends that we take "a mans skull that hath bin dead but one yeare" and "bury it in the Aches behind the fier, and lett it burne vntill it bee white" (V.a.397, 41v). And an anonymous compiler warns that "the skull... must be hung in a clean linen cloath before the fire, so as it may get but a moderate drought, before it be pulveriz'd" (V.a.697, 47). Furthermore, the kind of skull mattered for falling sickness--though there was some controversy on the proper procedure. Many instructions require the skull of a particularly gendered corpse, but there was no consensus on how should this should relate to the patient's identity; one recipe, for example, advises "the scull of a dead man, if it be a man that hath it; and a woman if a woman" ( V.a.452, 113), while another says "for a Male, Take the Scull of a female.... And for a Female, the Scull of a male" (V.a.697, 47). More generally, however, it was recommended that "the Scull of a person strangled, or put to any violent death, is much better than theirs who dye of any disease" (V.a.697, 47). [166252-671x750]Folger V.a.697, 47 And while body parts were surprisingly common in the early modern kitchen, they weren't always on hand; one recipe for "Convulsion fitts" thus recommends the powder of "dead mans skull (if it may be had)" (V.a.361, 161r). There was however, always one option, at least for those who could stomach it: an anonymous writer's instructions for a "falling Sicknes" remedy begins by saying "take the skull of a man that is verrie Throughly Rotted in the graue & with a hatchet or Chopping knife cut out nothing but the top of the Skull which is called the Scalpe a hand breadth & beate it into verrie fine powder" (V.a.21, 239). Most people, however, probably preferred commerce to scavenging, so Catherine Bacon helpfully reminds that "dead mens skull...you May have at the Apothecaries" ( V.a.621, 120). As should be clear, the use of human skulls in remedies for falling sickness was a primary site of corpse medicine in early modern England. But I would be remiss to not mention one other contemporary practice: the Renaissance use of mummia. The use of so called "mummy" originated in ancient practices of employing bituminous materials in medical compounds--but as Karl H. Dannenfeldt explains, a series of mistranslations and misunderstandings in the medieval period led to the early modern European habit of making medicine first from actual mummified Egyptian corpses, and then, from any kind of corpses that were available. Charred body parts sold as mummy were thus featured in storefronts across Renaissance England; in 1565, the surgeon John Hall noted that it was common "nowe among our Apothecaries" to feature in their shops "the very flesh of mans body, as it weare burned to a cole: for both whole armes and whole legges, haue been here not rarly seene, being dryed as blacke as a cole." A remedy for "a vein that is broken" thus says to first "take mummy which is mans flesh which is to be prepared by the Apothecaries" (V.a.621, 123). Mummy is also well-represented in the Folger recipe holdings, whether in the instructions for a healing "plaister" that calls for "mummie half an ounce" (X.d.746, 1r), or in those for "A Secrett Quintessence" that requires "mummia one ounce" (V.a.456, 36r). Finally, it must be noted that contemporary evidence suggests that early modern subjects had a very ambivalent attitude toward corpse medicine. This is specifically indicated in one recipe "to stop a flux," which calls for part of "a Dead mans scull in Very fine powder"--but "let not," the transcriber warns, "the party know to whom You give itt" (V.b.286, 89). So it's not simply that people who lived in Shakespeare's age had a different disgust threshold than many of us do today. While this is undoubtedly true to some extent, the fact remains that some, or perhaps many, individuals were still somewhat grossed out by corpse medicine--and they weren't hesitant to complain about the "dead bodies [that] the Phisitians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make vs to swallow." While disgust seems to be a pretty ubiquitous feature of human psychology, the specific things that trigger disgust, and the degree of disgust that such things elicit, seem to change across time and place. That corpse medicine was a regular feature, however reluctant, of early modern life is a fantastic example of the malleability of disgust. As the recipe books in the Folger make clear, a sick person in Shakespeare's England might end up encountering some medicines rather revolting to many of us living today! Bradley J. Irish is an Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University. He is the author of Emotion in the Tudor Court: Literature, History, and Early Modern Feeling (Northwestern UP, 2018) and the forthcoming Shakespeare and Disgust: The History and Science of Early Modern Revulsion (Bloomsbury, 2023). He is currently writing a monograph on envy and jealousy in early modern literary culture. Share this: * Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) * Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) * --------------------------------------------------------------------- You May Also Like: "To the right Wor[shipfu]ll and my very louinge freinde the Lady Powell ...": A 17th Century Letter Collection By: Guest Author A Bill of Lading and a Merchant of London (and of Venice) By: Guest Author --------------------------------------------------------------------- Guest Author is the byline used for guests at The Collation, including Folger fellows, program participants, and readers who wish to share their research on collection items. Please see the end of each post for information about that author. --------------------------------------------------------------------- One Comment --------------------------------------------------------------------- * Steve May says: January 17, 2023 at 3:48 pm This is a very useful bibliography on the subject. Your analysis clarifies, for instance, how Donne may have come up with that final insult in 'Loves Alchymie'. Reply --------------------------------------------------------------------- Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. * Name (required) [ ] * Mail (required) [ ] (will not be published) * Website [ ] [ ] [Submit] STAY CONNECTED Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address [ ] Subscribe Categories Categories[Select Category ] Recent comments * Elisabeth Chaghafi on A Bill of Lading and a Merchant of London (and of Venice) * Jonathan sawday on A Bill of Lading and a Merchant of London (and of Venice) * Kurt Schreyer on A Bill of Lading and a Merchant of London (and of Venice) * Steve May on Corpse Medicine * Claire Preston on A Bill of Lading and a Merchant of London (and of Venice) [] 1 - Play. 2 - Ham. retreats twice followed by Laer 1 - Play.2 - Ham. retreats twice followed by Laer.3 - Laer. retreats twice followed by Ham.4 - Laer. thrusts in quarte. Ham. parriesStage combat require careful notetaking! Actor Lark Taylor created this souvenir prompt book as a record of John Barrymore's acclaimed 1922 Broadway production of "Hamlet." On the left, Taylor transcribes Hamlet's Act 5 duel with Laertes. Folger PROMPT Ham. 30 #FolgerFinds....#Hamlet # Onstage #StageCombat #FightChoreography #StageViolence #Fencing # Laertes #JohnBarrymore #Barrymore #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare # swordfight #swordfighting #swordplay #ActorLife #FakeFighting Swing into the season with our Summer Solstice Sal Swing into the season with our Summer Solstice Sale! Save 20% on tickets to Folger Theatre's upcoming "A Midsummer Night's Dream" using the code SUMMER20 now through Thursday. Don't miss the show of the summer, kicking off July 12 at the National Building Museum. Tap the link in our bio to book now. #FolgerDream #LinkInBio .: Jacob Ming-Trent as Bottom. Photo: Peggy Ryan....#MidsummerNightsDream #Summer # SummerSolstice #Solstice #Bottom #AMidsummerNightsDream #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #SummerShakespeare #DCTheatre #DCTheater #Theater #TheaterLife #TheatreLife #ActorLife #Onstage #Production Celebrate #Juneteenth with poets Melanie Henderson Celebrate # Juneteenth with poets Melanie Henderson and Kenneth Carroll, actress Fatima Quander, and artist Halim A. Flowers, who share their families' stories of emancipation, joy, and freedom. Tap the link in our bio to watch on-demand now! Folger Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" opens Folger Theatre's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" opens July 12 at the National Building Museum! Tickets start at just $20. Tap the link in our bio to book yours and enter the dream. #FolgerDream.....#AMidsummerNightsDream # Midsummer #MidsummerNightsDream #LordWhatFoolsTheseMortalsBe #Puck # RobinGoodfellow #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #Shakespearelover # TheatreLife #TheaterLife #ActorLife #DCTheatre #DCArts From our collection: a program for the 1976 season From our collection: a program for the 1976 season of Shakespeare in the Park. The productions featured a few actors you might be familiar with: Sam Waterston, William Hurt, John Cazale, and Meryl Streep, who played Isabella in "Measure for Measure" and Katherine, the Princess of France, in "Henry V." Shakespeare in the Park turns 60 years old this year; tap the link in our bio to listen to our interview with Kenneth Turan, former film critic for @latimes and @morningedition, about Shakespeare in the Park founder Joe Papp and his work to bring free Shakespeare to the people of New York City. #FolgerFinds # ShakespeareUnlimited #LinkInBio....#JoePapp #ShakespeareInThePark # PublicTheatre #ThePublicTheatre #DelacorteTheater #Theater # Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #SpecColl #SpecialCollections # LibrariesOfInstagram Start your summer with a little news about air con Start your summer with a little news about air conditioning. The Folger's renovation gives us the opportunity to update vital HVAC systems. Tap the link in our bio to learn about the artistry that goes into fitting together the AC systems that help preserve our collection and deliver fresh air to you. : Lloyd Wolf #FolgerRenovation #LinkInBio....# DCArchitecture #MyDCCool #IGDC #FolgerShakespeareLibrary #MuseSocial #SpecColl #SpecialCollections #LibrariesOfDC This weekend, the United Kingdom celebrates Queen This weekend, the United Kingdom celebrates Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70 years on the throne. Tap the link in our bio to take a look at five Folger collection items featuring jubilees, coronations, and royal processions. #FolgerFindsThis is Francis Sandford's 1687 "The history of the coronation of the most high, most mighty, and most excellent monarch, James II." The book makes you feel like you were at the spectacular event, thanks to the fine details it records, whether it be a diagram of the place settings at dinner, a map of the procession route, or the intricate drawings of royal regalia arrayed for the occasion. ...#PlatinumJubilee #Royals #QEII #QueenElizabethII #QueenElizabeth #Royal #CrownJewels The Wonder of Will: The Campaign for the Folger Sh The Wonder of Will: The Campaign for the Folger Shakespeare Library supports the Folger's renovation and the incredible programming that will fill our new spaces when they are complete. Step behind the construction fences to discover how our renovated building will welcome generations to come.Tap the link in our bio to learn more and support the campaign......#FolgerShakespeareLibrary #Shakespeare #MyDCCool # washingtondc #FolgerRenovation From the Folger's collection: a lute, built in 159 From the Folger's collection: a lute, built in 1598 in Padua by Michielle Harton. It's one of the most valuable three-dimensional objects in the collection, and one of the few surviving examples of luthier Harton's work. # FolgerFinds...#Music #EarlyMusic #Instrument #Instruments #Lute # Luthier #MichielleHarton #MuseumFromHome #MuseumAtHome #MuseSocial # LibrariesOfInstagram Does your book club keep a scrapbook? Now's the ti Does your book club keep a scrapbook? Now's the time to start! From our collection: this scrapbook, begun in 1959, records moments in the long (and continuing) life of the Grand Rapids Shakespeariana Society, which was founded in 1887. Compiled by Society Historian Lorna Wilson, it includes newspaper and magazine clippings relating to the literary society's history, as well as Shakespeare, his era, and productions of his plays. #FolgerFinds....#Scrapbooking #Scrapbook # GrandRapidsShakespearianaSociety #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare # History #LocalHistory #BookClub #BookClubbing @Marvel's "The Avengers" premiered ten years ago t @Marvel's "The Avengers" premiered ten years ago today. Celebrate with an excerpt from author @IanDoescher's latest blank-verse adaptation, "William Shakespeare's Avengers: The Complete Works." Tap the link in our bio to read! Illustration: Danny Schlitz. (c) 2021 MARVEL. .....#Avengers # BardsAvengers #WilliamShakespeare #Shakespeare #IronMan #SteveRogers #CaptainAmerica #BlackWidow #Hulk #ThorLoveAndThunder #Thor #Loki From our collection: These hand-colored pear bloss From our collection: These hand-colored pear blossoms can be found in Elizabeth Blackwell's "A Curious Herbal," one of the earliest botanical books compiled by a woman. Blackwell was a Scottish botanical illustrator; her herbal was designed as a medical reference work. This 1739 copy is a reissue of the 1737 edition. Tap the link in our bio to find a springtime bouquet, picked from the Folger's collection. #FolgerFinds....#LibrariesOfInstagram #IGLibraries # MuseumFromHome #MuseumAtHome #MuseSocial #Flowers #PearBlossoms # Pears #Botanical #BotanicalIllustration #ElizabethBlackwell From our collection, costume designs for "Romeo an From our collection, costume designs for "Romeo and Juliet" by Percy Anderson, watercolor, late 19th- or early 20th-century. Folger ART Box A548 nos. 14, 1, 35, 16, and 28 (size S)......#Watercolor #Shakespeare # RomeoAndJuliet #Art #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare # ShakespeareLover #ShakespeareLove #LibrariesOfInstagram #IGLibrary # MuseumFromHome #museumathome #MuseSocial How are you celebrating Shakespeare's birthday tod How are you celebrating Shakespeare's birthday today? Tap the link in our bio to check out our ideas, including speaking the speech, cooking up something Shakespearean, and catching a play! Share your celebration with us on social media with #ShareYourShakespeare. This weekend, Folger Consort performs music from "The Roman de Fauvel," a 14th-century manuscript about a society so rife with injustice, even an evil horse can become king. Medieval music from France, plus world premiere works by composer Juri Seo. Tap the link in our bio to get tickets and learn more about the marvelously strange manuscript. #LinkInBio #FolgerConsort....[?]:@GallicaBNF # Manuscript #TheRomanDeFauvel #EarlyMusic #DCArts #ClassicalMusic # ClassicalMusicDC #EarlyMusicDC Artist Missy Dunaway joins us on a new episode of Artist Missy Dunaway joins us on a new episode of the Shakespeare Lightning Round! We talk about her project The Birds of Shakespeare, her 2021 Folger Institute Artist-in-Residence fellowship, and her hot takes on Shakespeare. What are Shakespeare's best and worst birds? Find out! # ShakespeareLightningRound In Shakespeare's time, some people believed that b In Shakespeare's time, some people believed that barnacle geese hatched from... actual barnacles! This painting comes from 2021 Folger Artist-in-Residence fellow Missy Dunaway's Birds of Shakespeare series. Tap the link in our bio to read Dunaway's new piece about geese, and tune in at 5 pm ET when she joins us on the [?]Shakespeare Lightning Round[?] live here on Instagram! @missydunaway @portlandartgallery # ShakespeareLightningRound....#Art #AcrylicInk #ArtOnInstagram # MissyDunaway #PortlandArtGalleryOfMaine #Bird #Birds #Birdwatching # Birder #Birdwatcher #Geese #BarnacleGoose #Live #LinkInBio # Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare This Wednesday, Folger Artist-in-Residence fellow This Wednesday, Folger Artist-in-Residence fellow Missy Dunaway joins us on a new episode of the Shakespeare Lightning Round! She'll tell us about her Birds of Shakespeare painting series and answer our thirty lightning-fast questions about Shakespeare. Tune in live, right here on Instagram. #ShakespeareLightningRound ...#BirdsOfShakespeare # Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #MissyDunaway #AcrylicInk #Art # ArtOnInstagram #Artist #FolgerFellow #Painting #Birds Gather your team and put on your thinking caps. We Gather your team and put on your thinking caps. We're celebrating the Bard's birthday with a free virtual trivia game! Tap the link in our bio to reserve your spot. #LinkInBio #ShareYourShakespeare It's springtime and the weather is warm--Why not It's springtime and the weather is warm--Why not head out to the garden and plant a forged letter about garters?.From our collection: Olivia's garden, A Scene from "Twelfth Night," attributed to George Cruikshank, watercolor and pencil, mid-19th century. ART Box C955 no.62 (size S). #FolgerFinds Follow on Instagram This error message is only visible to WordPress admins Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved. Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details. Folger Links * Hamnet * Digital Image Collection * Folgerpedia * Research at the Folger * Become a Reader * Folger Institute * Images and Permissions The Folger Shakespeare Library Recent Tweets My Tweets Loading Comments... Write a Comment... [ ] Email (Required) [ ] Name (Required) [ ] Website [ ] [Post Comment] Send to Email Address [ ] Your Name [ ] Your Email Address [ ] [ ] loading [Send Email] Cancel Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Quantcast