{"id":13724,"date":"2022-05-16T13:01:22","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=13724"},"modified":"2022-05-16T13:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:01:22","slug":"a-journey-into-the-elizabethan-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/2022\/05\/16\/a-journey-into-the-elizabethan-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"A journey into the Elizabethan mind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE ELIZABETHAN MIND<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

A journey into the Elizabethan mind<\/span><\/h2>\n\n
The Elizabethans were desperate to untangle the mystery of their \u201cinward selves\u201d. Helen Hackett<\/span> <\/strong>reveals how they used ancient teachings, Christian doctrine and new scientific discoveries to make sense of the mind<\/h5>\n\n
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Full of ideas<\/span><\/strong> A woodcut of the brain from Andreas Vesalius\u2019s groundbreaking 1543 treatise On the Fabric of the Human Body<\/em>. The Elizabethans subscribed to both new scientific theories and ancient beliefs about the workings of the mind <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cF<\/span>or him that hath lost his mind,\u201d the bestselling Tudor writer Thomas Moulton recommended shaving the top of the patient\u2019s head, then applying a mat of plant fibre to the bald patch. After a sleep, he reassured, \u201che shall be right weak, and sober enough\u201d. While this treatment seems bizarre today, it reveals a crucial element of Elizabethan beliefs about mental wellbeing: the mind and body were intrinsically connected, so any disorders of the brain could be treated via remedies that were applied to the body.<\/p>\n\n

As well as consulting medical books such as Moulton\u2019s, many Elizabethans sought the advice of Simon Forman, a popular London physician. Forman, too, sometimes prescribed physiological remedies for mental afflictions. But his chief diagnostic method was \u2013 to our eyes \u2013 decidedly unusual. He always began by casting a patient\u2019s astrological chart, reflecting the contemporary belief that both mind and body were affected by the movements of the stars and planets.<\/p>\n\n

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Sample study<\/span><\/strong> A doctor examines a patient\u2019s urine in this 1519 woodcut. The physician Simon Forman said \u201cthe diseases of the mind are not seen in a piss-pot\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

These practices exemplify the co-existence of diverse explanations for mental conditions in this period. They could be caused by internal factors, especially wayward humours \u2013 bodily fluids whose proportions and balance determined character and mood \u2013 or by external forces such as astral influences.<\/p>\n\n

Other examples from Forman\u2019s casebooks reveal yet more competing theories about the mind. One woman brought him a urine sample for analysis, but Forman \u201cfound no other disease in her body, but only in her head\u201d. He told her that \u201cthe diseases of the mind are not seen in a piss-pot\u201d, and that what she needed was \u201cgood counsel\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

Another patient, Susan Crosbe, whom he described as suffering from a \u201cdesperate melancholy disease\u201d, engaged in what we would call self-harm. She \u201ccould abide no knives nor pins nor shears nor needles nor nails, but she must cut herself or thrust the pins into her flesh\u201d, and she was tormented by suicidal thoughts. Yet in her case Forman diagnosed supernatural intervention, saying \u201cthe devil would speak oftentimes within her\u201d, inciting her to self-destruction.<\/p>\n\n

Mental conditions were thought to be caused by wayward humours and the position of the stars<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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Out of balance <\/span><\/strong>Sixteenth-century personifications of the four humours (L\u2013R): blood, associated with cheerfulness; yellow bile, linked to anger; phlegm, connected with inactivity; and black bile, identified with the intellect. Too much of one humour was thought to result in disease, with black bile causing melancholy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Theories of the mind <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Elizabethans were keen to understand the \u201cinward self \u201d. Much as today many of us seek to manage our minds by reading books on self-help and mindfulness, in a similar way the burgeoning print industry of the Elizabethan era produced a host of works concerned with the inner functions of the mind. Titles such as Thomas Rogers\u2019s 1576 The Anatomy of the Mind, <\/em>and The <\/em>Passions <\/em>of <\/em>the Mind <\/em>by Thomas Wright (1601) flooded the market. These texts contained an intense and tumultuous ferment of ideas drawn from disparate intellectual frameworks, making this a fascinating period in the history of ideas about the mind. Medieval medical theories vied with revived classical philosophies, while new religious practices jostled against emerging scientific discoveries.<\/p>\n\n

Take the Elizabethans\u2019 understanding of brain anatomy. The traditional model divided the brain into three ventricles or chambers, with Imagination at the front, Reason in the middle, and Memory at the back. That classical system was still widely taught in the period, but in 1543 it was upended when Vesalius published his anatomical discoveries based on human dissections. These included a radically new, more accurate account of brain structure, identifying two large ventricles to the left and right, another two below them in the centre, and, controversially, no \u201cspecial cavity\u201d for reason to distinguish human brains from those of animals. These conflicting theories co-existed in Tudor England: in 1553, the illustrations for Vesalius\u2019s work were published alongside incompatible text from medieval anatomy books that subscribed to the classical three-chamber model.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Way with words<\/span><\/strong> Anne Cooke Bacon in a c1600 painting. Despite her achievements and those of other female scholars, Elizabethans tended to believe that women were too phlegmatic to be intelligent <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The Elizabethans also attributed different types of mind to different categories of people. Women in general were thought to have a humoral constitution that was cold and moist, or phlegmatic. This was good for fertility, but bad for the intellect. Disparagement of the female mind was commonplace: in 1597, for instance, a work named The <\/em>Haven <\/em>of <\/em>Pleasure <\/em>deplored \u201cthe weakness of [women\u2019s] minds, and the imbecility of their understandings and judgments\u201d. This seems astonishing in view of the impressive accomplishments of female scholars of the period, such as Anne Cooke Bacon, who translated from Latin John Jewel\u2019s <\/span>Apology <\/em>of <\/em>the <\/em>Church <\/em>of <\/em>England, <\/em>a major theological work.<\/p>\n\n

Localised disorders<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Because the humours were connected to temperature and moisture, it was also believed that geographical origin affected mental disposition. Many authorities, including the French philosopher Jean Bodin, asserted that the hot climate of Africa had an evaporating effect on its people, leaving them cold and dry, and hence melancholic: not only inclined to sadness, but also endowed with acute intellect. On stage this produced characters such as Aaron the Moor in Shakespeare\u2019s Titus <\/em>Andronicus <\/em>(c1592), and Eleazar in The <\/em>Spanish <\/em>Moor\u2019s <\/em>Tragedy <\/em>(1600), each of them by far the cleverest character in their play. The abhorrent forms of racism associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade had not yet fully emerged, but the Elizabethans were not free of racial prejudice: these stage-Moors were ruthless villains, using their intellectual gifts to devise torments for their enemies. Nevertheless, they were among the most compelling characters on the Elizabethan stage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Complex character<\/span><\/strong> Aaron the Moor brandishes a knife in Titus Andronicus<\/em>. Shakespeare and other Elizabethan playwrights often presented Africans as ruthless and intelligent villains<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Frenzies of rage <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Elizabethans had many anxieties about the mind\u2019s potential to go wrong and felt the passions must be strenuously governed by reason. In The <\/em>Castle <\/em>of <\/em>Health <\/em>by Sir Thomas Elyot, one of the most popular medical books of the period, the author warned of the \u201capoplexies, or privation of senses, trembling palsies\u2026 frenzies, [and] deformity of visage\u201d arising from rage. The reader could avoid these if \u201cbefore he speak or do anything in anger, he do recite in order, all the letters of the A. B. C., and remove somewhat out of the place that he is in, and seek occasion to be otherwise occupied\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

The imagination, too, was thought to be a destabilising force. Today we celebrate the imagination as an exciting creative power, but 16th-century belief in the link between mind and body meant that it could have alarming effects. If a woman saw a striking image at the moment of conceiving a child, or during pregnancy, the force of her imagination would imprint this on the infant. Many medical books attributed the case of \u201ca maid, rough and covered with hair like a bear\u201d to her mother\u2019s eyes having fallen, during sex, on a picture at the foot of her bed of St John the Baptist \u201cclothed with a beast\u2019s skin\u201d.<\/p>\n\n

The Elizabethans followed the Bible\u2019s teaching that \u201cthe imagination of man\u2019s heart is evil, even from his youth\u201d \u2013 it was unruly, deceptive and a provocation to sin. This was especially so in dreams: in waking hours the imagination formed mental images from sense-impressions of the real world, but in sleep it became \u201cfantasy\u201d or \u201cfancy\u201d, drawing on its own resources to produce images that were false and bizarre. <\/span>According to Thomas Nashe in The <\/em>Terrors <\/em>of <\/em>the <\/em>Night <\/em>(1594): \u201cA dream is nothing else but a bubbling scum or froth of the fancy, which the day hath left undigested; or an after-feast made of the fragments of idle imaginations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The Elizabethans devoutly followed the Bible\u2019s teaching that \u201cthe imagination of man\u2019s heart is evil, even from his youth\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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Star signs<\/span><\/strong> A woodcut from 1512 showing the parts of the body with which Zodiac signs were associated \u2013 for example, Aries was thought to govern the head. Elizabethans set much store in the movement of the stars, with astrological charts used to help diagnose maladies <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Meanwhile, other Elizabethans persisted in ancient beliefs that some special dreams could be prophetic messages from God, making Thomas Hill\u2019s 1576 manual <\/span>The <\/em>Interpretation <\/em>of <\/em>Dreams <\/em>a bestseller. According to Hill, to dream of drinking mustard meant that one was about to be accused of murder; to dream of a white ox \u201csignifieth honour or advancement\u201d; but to dream of elephants \u201csignifieth sorrow\u201d. <\/span>However, even dream-interpreters like Hill acknowledged the difficulty of determining whether any particular dream was of the meaningful or meaningless type.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The imagination was thought to be especially over-active and uncontrolled in those whose reason was weak, such as melancholics and women. Medical works eagerly recounted the delusions of melancholics. According to The <\/em>Touchstone <\/em>of <\/em>Complexions <\/em>(1576), one \u201cthought himself to have a nose so big, and of such a prodigious length, that he thought he carried about with him the snout or muzzle of an elephant\u201d. Another patient \u201cthought his buttocks were made of glass, insomuch that he durst not do anything but standing, for fear lest if he should sit, he should break his rump, and the glass fly into pieces\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Reginald Scot, author of The <\/em>Discovery <\/em>of <\/em>Witchcraft <\/em>(1584), dismissed supposed witches as \u201cpoor melancholic women\u201d suffering foolish fantasies of magical powers; \u201cthe stopping of their monthly melancholic <\/span>flux or issue of blood\u201d (the menopause) had made them cold and dry, hence melancholic, and vulnerable to disordered imaginations.<\/p>\n\n

Scot was on the sceptical side of a raging debate about the role of supernatural factors in mental disorders. So was Edward Jorden, a physician who tried to exonerate Elizabeth Jackson, on trial for witchcraft in 1602, by proposing a medical explanation for the strange symptoms of her supposed victim, Mary Glover. Jorden argued that \u201csuffocation of the mother\u201d \u2013 the supposed volatility and mobility of the womb within the body \u2013 affected the mind, causing \u201cfrenzies, convulsions, hiccups, laughing, singing, weeping, crying, etc\u201d. (This would later be called \u201chysteria\u201d.) Jorden\u2019s defence of Jackson failed in court, but many shared his doubts about her guilt, and she was released after a short time in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

One author dismissed supposed witches as \u201cpoor melancholic women\u201d suffering foolish fantasies of magical powers<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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Highway to hell<\/span> <\/span><\/strong>Demons carry off a soul in this 1573 woodcut from A Booke Declaring the Fearfull Vexasion of one Alexander Nyndge<\/em>. He was apparently possessed, with his \u201cback bending inward to his belly\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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Devil\u2019s work<\/span><\/strong> An illustration from the Breviary of Health<\/em>, which discussed demonic possession <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

In thrall to demons <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Many Elizabethans attributed mental instability to the devil. A discussion of madness in Andrew Boorde\u2019s mid-16th-century Breviary <\/em>of <\/em>Health <\/em>distinguished between \u201cmaniac persons\u201d, whose condition \u201ccometh of infirmities of the body\u201d, and \u201cdemoniac persons\u201d, who were \u201cpossessed of some evil spirit\u201d. Among the victims of demonic possession was one Alexander Nyndge, who in 1573 was apparently terrifyingly transformed, \u201chis chest and body swelling, with his eyes staring, and his back bending inward to his belly\u201d. A hollow voice intoned from within him: \u201cI come for his soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Sceptics questioned the reality of demonic possession; indeed, some supposed de-moniacs confessed to faking symptoms. Yet there was general assent that all minds were vulnerable to incursions by Satan, for whom black bile \u2013 the substance in the body that caused melancholy \u2013 was thought to provide a congenial habitat. <\/span>The <\/em>Touchstone <\/em>of <\/em>Complexions <\/em>explained how evil spirits could \u201cslyly and secretly glide into the body\u201d like a \u201cfulsome stench\u201d or \u201ca noisome and ill air\u201d, then interfere with the \u201cinward dispositions and thoughts\u201d, introducing sinful and criminal intentions. One of the chief reasons for the Elizabethans\u2019 intense interest in the mind was the need for everyone to be on constant guard against evil thoughts implanted by the devil, by looking within and assiduously monitoring their own mental and spiritual state.<\/p>\n\n

Elizabethan beliefs about supernatural influences on the mind, as well as their medical theories, can seem remote from our modern age of psychology and neuroscience. Yet they were wrestling with many questions about the relations between mind, body and selfhood that continue to perplex us today. <\/span>Poised at the intersection between classical, medieval and emerging scientific systems of thought, this was a momentous period in the history of ideas about the mind.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Helen Hackett <\/strong>is a professor of English literature at University College London. Her latest book is <\/span>The Elizabethan Mind (<\/em>Yale <\/em>University Press, 2022)<\/p>\n\n

MORE FROM US<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

For the latest articles on the era, sign up to our Tudor newsletter. <\/strong>historyextra.com\/newsletter<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

PICTURE CREDITS: AKG-IMAGES\/ALAMY\/BRIDGEMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE ELIZABETHAN MIND A journey into the Elizabethan mind The Elizabethans were desperate to untangle the mystery of their \u201cinward selves\u201d. Helen Hackett reveals how they used ancient teachings, Christian doctrine and new scientific discoveries to make sense of the mind \u201cFor him that hath lost his mind,\u201d the bestselling Tudor writer Thomas Moulton recommended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"60","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"60","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_60-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_60-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"June-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"June-2022","purple_external_id":"June-2022-60-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"June-2022-60-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000085632||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000085632||","purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.282","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"de2d4977-6998-4200-99aa-454f8dbebdf9","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-16T11:01:30Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"24bd5e6b-b614-4067-9d3a-de2229f2c4db","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-16T11:01:31Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJL1ea7YUQGedOt4iKfLE2w","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[17],"tags":[49,46],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"11","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100.jpg",1052,1404,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100-225x300.jpg",225,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100-768x1025.jpg",768,1025,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100-767x1024.jpg",767,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-1536x1165.jpg",1536,1165,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/GettyImages-615292182_cmyk-e1651659023100.jpg",1052,1404,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"THE ELIZABETHAN MIND A journey into the Elizabethan mind The Elizabethans were desperate to untangle the mystery of their \u201cinward selves\u201d. Helen Hackett reveals how they used ancient teachings, Christian doctrine and new scientific discoveries to make sense of the mind \u201cFor him that hath lost his mind,\u201d the bestselling Tudor writer Thomas Moulton recommended…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13724"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14331,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13724\/revisions\/14331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}