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Food in Shakespeare: early modern dietaries and the plays

2008; Association of College and Research Libraries; Volume: 45; Issue: 06 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5860/choice.45-3066

1943-5975

Joan Fitzpatrick,

Culinary Culture and Tourism

and Lisa Hopkins for their general support over the years.Last, but not least, I'd like to thank Gabriel Egan who encouraged some of my better ideas and saved me from myself on some of the madder ones.Food in Shakespeare bile); the variant mixtures of these humours in different persons determined their 'complexions', or 'temperaments', their physical and mental qualities, and their dispositions.The ideal person had the ideally proportioned mixture of the four; a predominance of one produced a person who was sanguine (Latin sanguis, 'blood'), phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic.In the early modern period Galen's model of humoral theory dominated.As late as 1653 Nicholas Culpepper's translation of, and commentary upon, Galen's Art of physick outlined the specific characteristics of each complexion, characteristics broadly typical of those outlined in dietaries.The sanguine man or woman is considered one in whose body heat and moisture abounds ... such are usually of a middle Stature, strong composed Bodies, Fleshy but not Fat, great veins, smooth Skins, hot and moist in feeling, their Body is Hairy, if they be Men they have soon Beards ... there is a redness intermingled with white in their Cheeks, their hair is usually of a blackish brown, yet sometimes flaxed, their Appetite is good, their Digestion quick.... As for their Conditions they are merry cheerful Creatures, bounteful, pitiful, merciful, courteous, bold, trusty, given much to the games of Venus ... .(Galen & Culpepper 1653, F2v-F3r) What the sanguine man should eat and drink and, perhaps more importantly, what he should avoid eating and drinking, is also outlined: They need not be very scrupulous in the quality of their Diet, provided they exceed not in quantity, because the Digestive Vertue is so strong.Excess in small Beer engendreth clammy and sweet Flegm in such Complexions, which by stopping the pores of the Body, engenders Quotidian Agues, the Chollick and stone, and pains in the Back.Inordinate drinking of strong Beer, Ale and Wine, breeds hot Rhewms Scabs and Itch, St. Anthonies fire ... Inflamations, Feavers, and red pimples.Violent Exercise is to be avoided because it inflames the Blood, and breeds one-day Feavers.(Galen & Culpepper 1653, F2v-F3r) The choleric man or woman is considered hot and dry, usually short, also hairy (at least the men were), not fat, and with yellow, red, or blonde curly hair and tawny skin; they also have a nasty disposition: "they dream of fighting, quarelling, fire, and burning", not especially surprising perhaps given that "they are usually costive", that is, constipated (Galen & Culpepper 1653, F3v).Such individuals are advised to avoid fasting: "let such eat meates hard of Digestion, as Beef, Pork, &c. and leave Danties for weaker Stomachs" (Galen & Culpepper 1653, F3v).The moderate consumption of small, that is weak, beer "cools the fiery heat of his Nature" but such a person should avoid wine and strong beer "for they inflame the liver and breed burning and hectick feavers, Choller and hot Dropsies, and bring a man to his Grave in the prime of his Age".As with the sanguine person, too much exercise is thought to be harmful.The melancholy person is considered cold and dry "usually slender and not very tall" with little hair on their bodies and the hair on their heads usually "dusky brown" in colour.They are prone to bad dreams and "Covetous, self-lovers, cowards . . .fearful, careful, solitary . .