that even from remote antiquity, and by common consent, mankind had recognized the blood to be in motion. We have this fact declared to us by all antiquity, and it is even particularly referred to in various passages of the grand observer of his age, the depositary of the popular science of all preceding ages—Shakespeare. Brutus speaks thus to Portia:
"You are my true and honourable wife;
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart;"
language not more touching and beautiful than physiologically correct. And again, with more of involution and ellipsis, yet with a meaning that is unmistakable, Warwick, by the bedside of the murdered Gloster, proceeds,—
"See how the blood is settled in his face!
—Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost,
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale and bloodless,
—Being all descended to the labouring heart,
Who in the conflict that he holds with death,
Attracts the same for aidance gainst the enemy;
Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again—
—But see, his face is black and full of blood," &c.
These passages have actually been cited, to prove that Shakespeare was not unacquainted with the circulation; and there have not been wanting some[1] who have even argued that Shakespeare had his knowledge direct from the fountain-head—from Harvey himself, with whom, for several years at least, he was contemporaneous.[2]
The passages quoted above are referred to all the more willingly, from their having preceded the teaching of Harvey by a few years only; but Shakespeare probably referred to
- ↑ Thomas Nimmo, Esq., of New Amsterdam, Berbice: "On a passage in Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar." The Shakespeare Society's Papers, vol. ii, p. 109.
- ↑ Shakespeare died in 1616, the year when Harvey began to lecture at the College of Physicians. Harvey and Shakespeare may very well have been acquainted,—let us hope that they were,—but there is no authority for saying that they were friends.
