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Medicine/Health during the Elizabethan Era
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Health in the Elizabethan Era: An Era of Superstition
by Hanin Mahmoud
The excessive and extreme unsanitary conditions that were present in the 16th century gave the full opportunity for disease to ravage amongst the masses, killing millions of people all over England. It wasn't expected from a country that hasn't even developed ideas of sewage disposal and constantly interchanged the terms barber and doctor to be able to face these horrifying diseases without completely succumbing to the spread or making it far worse.
Intro
In this presentation, I wanted to highlight quite an interesting aspect of this topic. As we know, in the absence of science and proper knowledge comes mythological reasoning that rarely correlates to any illness whatsoever. Hence, I chose to explore some of the beliefs that Elizabethan people held regarding illnesses.
When Elizabethan people assessed any psychologically unusual activity that appeared on someone, they used what was known as the Four Humors. These humors were actually developed by Greek physician, Hippocrates. According to him, the Four Humors affected a person's psychological well being, their emotions and their physical health.
Believe it or not
When a person maintained balance within these humors, then consequently they would be in good health, however, if they reach an imbalance in any of these humors, then they were bound to get mentally or physically ill.
These Four Humors were black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. If blood is present excessively, a person will have a sanguine temperament, the yellow bile makes you choleric, the black bile leads to melancholy, and the phlegm leads you to being phlegmatic.
In this theory, we are told that emotions are the results of physical imbalances. For example, according to Hippocratic treatise, The Sacred Disease, "those maddened through bile are noisy, evil-doers and restless, always doing something inopportune".
Witchcraft, healing, and illnesses:
Believe it or not
When the Black Plague, a dreadful pandemic, fell on the Elizabethan people, they could not identify the source of this disease. Consequently, they had to pick someone to blame for their misery, and of course they chose witches.
Witch Hunters targeted: Old, poor, unprotected single women or widows.
In reality, these poor and powerless women were expected to find cures for the illnesses that appeared in their households, however, they did not have the availability of doctors nor medicines. Hence, they turned to herbs. Things like mandrake, datura, monkshood, cannabis, belladonna, henbane and hemlock were all ingredients that were used in their liniments and brews.
WITCHES
The use of herbs was deemed by Catholic churches as a clear renouncement of God. That was because the herbs or plants that were used as cures did not have powerful effects by nature, and so in order to stir up these effects, it was believed that it had to be done through a pact with the Devil.
A Scottish minister who lead witch hunts had ordered that witches are to be condemned for they have "renounced god, his king and the governor, and [have] bound [themselves] by other laws to the service of the enemies of God and his Church."
Although these women were supposedly "supernatural" healers of multiple deadly diseases, they were still persecuted and hunted for. For example, St. Andrews, the archbishop sent out to Alison Peirsoun of Byre-hill to cure his "psychosomatic" disorders. When she did, instead of repaying her, he ordered for her to be arrested and then later executed.
Conclusion
Moreover, Elizabethan people had thoroughly developed irrational reasoning for their mental and physical illnesses due to the lack of scientific knowledge
Conclusion
Not only did people widely accept the theory of the Four Humors and believed in the evil doings of witches, but the superstitions that they have developed back then can still be seen in society today. For instance, the widely spread belief that black cats bring bad luck because they are associated with witches and devils is still persistent today.
It's safe to say that in times that lacked proper education, superstition and unreasonable ideologies reigned. Lastly, I would like to conclude with the mention of two Shakespearean plays that portrayed both the Four Humors and Witchcraft during the Elizabethan era.
- Henry VI Part one and two (Four main characters portrayed the four temperaments)
- Macbeth (The Weird Sisters)
Bonus!
Queen Elizabeth, who had almost died from Smallpox, covered her remaining scars with heavy white lead which is why she's portrayed as an extremely pale faced woman in movies and TV shows. It is also said that the Smallpox was the reason the Queen had lost the majority of her hair, forcing her to wear a red wig instead.