Abstract
IT would be indeed a difficult problem to conceive of any new point of view from which to study Shakespeare's works. In the Scientific Monthly for January, Prof. Fraser-Harris has made a study of the world's greatest poet and dramatist from the point of view of biology, and though the topic is not a new one—there is a public garden in Manchester where nearly all the plants, wild and cultivated, mentioned in Shakespeare are grown, and references given—the method is new, in that Prof. Fraser-Harris has aimed, not at giving a catalogue of plants and animals, but at considering a few allusions which are of distinctly physiological or psychological interest. For example, Prof. Fraser-Harris claims four participating factors in sleep—chemical, vascular, sensory, and ideational; arid Shakespeare recognises two of these in the famous soliloquy of the king in “Henry IV”. Although Shakespeare was a contemporary of Harvey, there is no reference in his works to blood circulation, and though one might express surprise at this, Prof. Fraser-Harris gives sufficient argument why Shakespeare was ignorant of the then new discovery. These are only two examples of how Shakespearean lines embody deep biological truths; many more, with the appropriate quotations and commentaries, are given by Prof. Fraser-Harris in his interesting article.
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Biology in Shakespeare. Nature 129, 232 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129232a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129232a0