The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-23 00:00:00

Shakspere's Doctors,

(From to-day's Lancet.)
Six doctors are reinenenteo in Shakspere's
dramas. The allusions to physicians and surgeons
are very frequent, but six only actually appear
upon the stage in propria persona,

In the play of " Henry the Eighth" Dr. Butts
appears. This is the only occasion upon which
Shakspere has introduced a physician who had
really figured in history. William Butts, we lear❑
from Dr. Munk's "Roll of the College of Physi-
cians," was educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge,
of which he became a Fellow. He was physician
to Henry VIII,, and enjoyed his confidence to a re-
markable degree, being knighted by the Kieg
under the title of Sir William Butts, of Norfolk.
Shakspere pictures in a few words the physician's
powerful influence with the monarch. Cranmer's
enemies at court have contrived that he shall be
kept waiting amidst the servants outside the door
of the cuuncil chamber. Butts remarking this, says—
" This is a piece of malice. lam glad
I came this way so happily; the king
Shall understand it presently."
Crammer, upon this, exclaims—

" 'Tie Butts,
The king's physician : as he passed along,
How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me
Pray Heaven he sound not my disgrace!"
Dr. Caine, who plays such a prominent part in the
" Merry Wives of Windsor," is described as a French
physician. The character seems to have been de-
vised simply for the sake of the fun which is got
out of the foreigner's broken English. In the whole
play there is scarcely an allusion to the doctor's
profession, and he might for all practical purposes
have belonged to any other. Oar laughter is entirely
directed against the man, in no respect against the
physician.

The poisoned goblet over accompanies the dagger
as en emblem of the tragic muse. The treacherous
draught has been, from earliest times, employed by
the dramatist as the most terrible of all the means
by which life is taken upon the stage. Shakspere
makes frequent use of this agency. One might be
led to expect that occasions of this nature would
furnish opportunities for the introduction of the
physician into the play; but, curiously enough,
this only happens once—in the play of " Cymbe-
line." When the Queen is plotting the destruction
of her step daughter Imogen, she applies to Corne-
lius, her physician, for some poisonous drugs.
The physician cautions an unskilled woman
against experiments which seem to be dictated by
curiosity and can lead to no useful result. Had
not the action of drugs been tested by himself or
some other skilled observer, he would not have
been in a position to substitute in safety those he
gave her for the poisonous kinds which she desired,
and Imogen would have perished miserably. He
communicates (to the audience) the reason of his
justifiable deception in the following passage;--
"I do not like her. She does think she has

Strange lingering poisons: I do know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her malice with

A drug of such damn'd nature, Those she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile :

Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and dogs;
Then afterwards up higher ; but there is

No danger in what show of death it makes,
More than the locking up the spirits a time,
To be more fresh, reviving."

It is interesting to contrast the eonduct of Corne-
lius with that of the Apothecary in "Romeo and
Juliet," under somewhat similar circumstance—
" Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones,"

The poor wretch, starving and over-tempted by
Romeo, makes but a brief resistance to the bribe
of forty ducats; but, as he parts with the poison,
there is evidence of a painful struggle in his excla-
mation—

"My poverty, but not my will, consents 1"

Following Dr. Johnson's example, we might here
express a hope that Romeo, were he living now in
London, might find as much trouble in procuring a
dose of poison a 3 he did in Mantua. We fancy,
however, that he would not need either to seek out
a starving drug vendor, or to give him such a sum
as 40 ducats, so much have we improved in these
matters during the last three or four centuries.

Two doctors figure in "Macbeth','—=n English-
nasal, and a,...,500t. The former has very little to do.
He merely describes to Malcolm how the King
(Edward the Confessor) is curing a crowd of per-
sons affected with " the evil" by a touch of his royal
hand. The latter has a much more important part.
He is present with a waiting gentlewoman when
Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep. Not a gesture
escapes his attention; and with judicious care, when
Lady Macbeth speaks, he takes written notes of her
words. He is soon struck by their terrible import.
The physician sees in the condition of mind of his
patient a danger of suicide, and properly takes pre-
cautions against it. To Macbeth's inquiry, shortly
afterwards—
" How does your patient, doctor?"