Last Thursday, October 29, I attended the opening reception
of a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine at the Shiffman
Medical Library at Wayne State University in Detroit. The exhibition is titled,
“’And there’s the humor of it’ Shakespeare and the four humors”.
As its name implies, this is an exhibition of Shakespeare’s
references to the theory of the four humors regulating the body’s health and
also a person’s character or temperament.
The exhibit, while small (only 6 standing panels) is well
done and informative. It will be on display at the Shiffman Medical Library
until November 28 (free admission). Most of the information (i.e. copies of
most of what is on each panel) can be found on the online guide that the Wayne
State University library system has prepared at http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/Shakespeare.
This guide also has information on local places to see
performances of the plays as well as links to classroom teaching aids. Although
the section on “About Shakespeare” has the traditional biography of the author,
it also includes a link to a YouTube presentation called “William Shakespeare:
The Conspiracy Theories”.
Despite the name of this presentation, it is actually mostly
“Antistratfordian”, but it is really about Marlowe as the author (deVere is
only mentioned near the end for about 10 seconds). However, when you follow the link to
this YouTube video other authorship videos come up on the side that you can
then view on all sides of the issue, including the Frontline program.
The library guide to this exhibition also links to the new
book by Peter Rush, Hidden in Plain Sight,
another take on the Sonnets, based on the work of Hank Whittemore.
Anyway, back to what happened at the opening reception:
There was a talk by Dr. Eric Ash, Associate Professor and
Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at Wayne State
University. This was about a 30 minute presentation on the theory of the four
humors as understood in Shakespeare’s time and how Shakespeare refers to it
frequently in the plays, both in regards to actual illness and in regard to
personality types in his characters. It was a well-done presentation.
After the talk, there was a reception with appetizers and
also a showing of some of the books held in the Historical Collection of the
Shiffman Library. It was nice to see these books (I didn’t know that the
library had them). Included were Gerard’s Herball of 1597 and two works on
anatomy by Vesalius (1551 and 1568). All of these works are believed to have
been in the libraries of Thomas Smith or William Cecil, where Edward deVere
would have had access to them.
I had made a copy of Frank Davis’s article from Volume 3
(2000) of The Oxfordian,
“Shakespeare’s Medical Knowledge: How Did He Acquire It?”, available at http://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/Oxfordian2000_Davis_Medical_Knowledge.pdf
and also Chapter 9, “How Did Shakespeare Learn the Art of
Medicine?”, written by Earl Showerman, from Shakespeare
Beyond Doubt? An Industry in Denial (2013, ed. by John Shahan and Alexander
Waugh), available from Amazon and other retailers.
I gave these copies to Dr. Ash and gave him a very quick
summary of how the plays of Shakespeare show a great knowledge of the medicine
of his time (including some newer ideas which were being developed in Italy and
the “continent”, but had not yet penetrated to medical practice in England) and
how it seems extremely unlikely that someone with Shakspere of Stratford’s
background and education (and lack of travel) would have learned of any of
this. Dr. Ash seemed interested and said he would read the articles.
I also got to talk with Dr. Sandra Yee, the Dean of the
Wayne State University Library System, who was also at the reception. I wished
that I had made another copy of the two articles to give her, but I told her I
would email them to her.
She told me (as I already knew) that this particular exhibit
at the Medical Library was part of a whole series of displays and presentations
to be done at various venues at Wayne State University as companions to the
upcoming national exhibition by the Folger Library of copies of the First Folio
(coming to Detroit March 7-April 1, 2016).
She directed me to a listing of some upcoming events from
the “library blog” at http://library.wayne.edu/blog/?p=9480.
I will be trying to attend as many of these as I can and I hope members of our
Oberon group will do so as well. A more specific website devoted to these
events will be forthcoming, she said.
I would particularly direct your attention to the event on
March 18, “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Shakespeare But Were
Afraid to Ask” by Dr. Athur F. Marotti, a “distinguished professor of English
emeritus at Wayne State University”, talking about various interesting topics
of Shakespearean research. However, the write up of this lecture specifically
mentions that the “following non-debatable topics” will not be discussed: The
Shakespearean authorship controversy, Evolution and Natural Selection, and
Climate Change. I guess Dr. Marotti might be described as “close-minded”.
Despite this particular lecture I believe that our Oberon
group and other open-minded individuals might still be able to make some of our
views known through questions to lecturers or even handing out “literature”
(but not too subversive).
I mentioned to Dr. Yee that I, along with the Oberon group,
would like to participate as much as we can in all of the “festivities”
associated with the Folio Tour, even to the point of doing our own
presentations if that were possible. She did not turn me down right away and appreciated my interest,
telling me that the full program of events had not yet been finalized. She did
point out to me her belief that libraries should be open to all inquiries,
whereupon I informed her that “free exchange of ideas” does not seem to apply
to the English Departments of universities.
Anyway, I hope that my initial contacts with Dr. Ash and Dr.
Yee may prove useful in the future in trying to “get the word out” that there
is definitely room for doubt when it comes to determining the authorship of the
works of Shakespeare.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.