Introduction

The four bodily humors—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—were understood by Shakespeare, and generations before him, to define people’s physical and mental health, and to determine an individual’s personality, as well.

'And there’s the humor of it’: Shakespeare and the four humours, a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine, explores the role played by the four humors in several of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays through beautiful imagery and rare books from both the National Library of Medicine and the Folger Shakespeare Library and examines more modern interpretations of the four humors in contemporary medicine.

Events

Lecture by Catherine Belling, Associate Professor of Medical Education - "Bleeding is Good for You! Humoral Physiology and Therapeutic Violence in Shakespeare"

Credits

Guest curators: Gail Kern Paster, PhD, Folger Shakespeare Library; Theodore M. Brown, PhD, University of Rochester