Over the years, various scholars have argued that William Shakespeare was not only a playwright but also a lawyer, an astrologer, a sailor, a soldier and even a spy.
But Dr John Brine believes that Shakespeare was a doctor and he has spent more than 10 years studying The Bard’s works to prove it.
In his book His Medical Footprints: Introducing Dr William Arden Shakespeare, An Essay in Detection, Dr Brine argues that Shakespeare’s plays show a depth of medical knowledge which could only have coming from training and experience.
Shakespeare’s work contains more than 200 medical references, and 712 allusions to physical and mental ailments.
These include descriptions of symptoms and medical procedures which would only be recognised by someone with medical training, Dr Brine argues.
Dr Brine contends that Shakespeare deliberately linked medical conditions to a character or plot, often drawing on a factual situation or person.
According to Dr Brine, Hamlet was suffering or feigning depression or bipolar disorder, Ophelia showed symptoms of schizophrenia and Othello’s behaviour could be explained by his epilepsy.
Shakespeare also demonstrated a knowledge of botany, alchemy, astrology, psychiatry, theology and toxicology, all familiar topics for a medical man of his time.
When Shakespeare describes how Hamlet’s father was murdered by pouring poison into his ear, he was demonstrating a knowledge of the tube which connects the throat, a recent discovery in Shakespeare’s time.
Although Shakespeare left few letters or documents that tell about his life, Dr Brine believes that the writer left clues in his works which show that he gained his medical knowledge at the healing shrine of Holywell and later as an apprentice “butcher surgeon” with the army.
Dr Brine said the combination of medical and military experience would explain Shakespeare’s profound understanding of human nature and military strategy, as well as giving him the opportunity to travel and meet people who inspired many of his later plays.
Centuries before Underbelly, Shakespeare’s experiences allowed him to create characters who were, in Dr Brine’s words “dangerous to themselves and others, or at least difficult to work with, and certainly entertaining on stage”.
Dr Brine, a consultant physician who is based in Katoomba and regularly visits Mudgee, said his theory could be regarded as a ‘pilot study’, intended spark debate among other scholars.
He admits that his theory is based in part on “speculative deductions”, but makes no apologies.
He compares his method to instances where doctors, faced with frustratingly difficult cases, put up theories that seem unlikely at the time, but after careful assessment of the patient’s past history, are found to be valid.
“When doctors put stethoscopes and ultrasound to Shakespeare’s very lively heartbeat as they read the man, they many well learn that he, like them, had been trained and this training was based on medical principles that still apply today: find out as much as you can for yourself; never accept anything second hand; authenticity alone leads to authority,” Dr Brine said.
His Medical Footprints, published by Melrose Books (UK) is available in Katoomba bookshops or through Amazon.
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