All _savants_ who have studied the literary and historical part of
medicine fully recognize the powerful interest it offers, especially
that medicine portrayed in the works of poets and dramatic authors of
the Middle Ages. It is in the works of these writers, in fact, that we
find the most exact appreciation of medical ideas of the epoch, because
we can judge their morals, criticise their faults, account for their
tendencies—all without bringing in medical science at any given moment,
with its teachings, errors, and prejudices.
In all that concerns the Middle Ages, we shall find this first in
the writings of philosophers, in certain dramatic works, known under
the name of _Moralities_, because their purport was to demonstrate,
under the form of an allegory, a precept of morality. The personages
of such dramatic scenes always represent ideas, often abstract and
usually fantastic,—The World, Justice, Good Company, Gourmands, Dinner,
Banquet, Experience, Gout, Jaundice, Dropsy, and Apoplexy. A second
class, errors and prejudices, are seldom wanting in some poetical
works, in _comedies and farces_, _satirical_ and _indecent_ poems, that
recall some of the early productions of the Latin Theatre. Eventually
impressed with the Gallic spirit of levity, these short pieces,
enjoyed by clerks and small tradesmen, contain cutting criticisms on
the weaknesses of mankind, doctors in particular. These plays are
considered the embryo of the French stage, which, later, has been
immortalized by the most illustrious of our writers of comedy.
An unaffected gayety often breaks out in brilliant, sparkling dialogues
in these frivolous farces, and assures the instant success of the
play. The public laughed in high glee, without prudery, at the broad I
insinuations and comical acts in such representations. So the writers
of that period went into raptures when they chanced to make a hit with
their satirical tirades, that amused the passing age. Sometimes the
clergy were satirized as well as the doctor; even the Pope himself
received the attention of the comedians, as witness the carnival of
1511. Even the avarice of Louis XII. was ridiculed. Comedy’s procession
represented Justice by its attorneys, shysters and police; but, above
all, comedy delighted to burlesque the doctor, _Facultas saluberrema
medicinæ parisiensis_, ridiculing them like the rest of the world,
without the least respect for their robe or bonnet.
Pray, what do these jolly, railing spirits of the Middle Ages say of
our medical ancestors of the good old times? Master Jehan Bouchet, for
example, with his piece, _Traverseur des voyes perilleuses_, and Pierre
Gringore under the pseudonym of _Mere Sotte_, and Nicholas Rousset and
Coustellier, and Jacques Grevin and Pierre Blanchet, and all other
members of that joyous group without care, without pretension, but
not without talent. If professional honor was never really put on
trial by these wits, the pedantic gravity of our medical forefathers,
their formidable doctoral accoutrement, their consultations, sentences
formulated in horrible and barbarous Latin, were all the objects of
raillery and piquant epigrams. We shall find also, in other works we
propose to analyze, the same false ideas of the public regarding the
healing art as exists to-day; the same tendency to always lead one into
error, and unjustly accuse the medical profession of all the accidents
that happen to a patient—this, too, notwithstanding all ancient codes
of hygiene and all the ages of experience.
When a physician prescribed, for example, in the case of one attacked
by fever, the daily libations were stopped, and we always find the
neighbors and boon companions of the sufferer enter the sick room for
the purpose of criticizing the doctor’s prescriptions and orders,
and such persons excited the patient by their remarks on medical
despotism. This has always been the case since doctors and patients
were created, not only in the Middle Ages, but at all epochs. Olivier
Basselin bears testimony to this fact in one of his charming _Vaux de
Vire_[95] poetical compositions, roundelays and Bacchic songs, dating
back to the sixteenth century; this sonnet is not long;[96] it relates
to a drunkard to whom only barley water is given, and who recovers his
health, according to the veracious poet, through a charitable friend,
who breaks the doctor’s orders and fills the patient up with wine. We
have often read this poem with pleasure, and give a condensed extract:
One of my neighbors sick was lying,
Gasping with weak and feverish breath:
“Alas! they’ll kill me,” said he, sighing,
“Forbidding wine; and barley water’s death.
“Alas! my thirst is great, annoying;
I’d like one drink before I die;
Neighbor, with you one glass enjoying;
Pray quickly to the vintner’s hie.
“Dear friend, my wish don’t be denying,
Always to me you’ve been a brother;
Now, for the wine in haste go flying,
We’ll take one parting glass together.
“Since doctors made me quit a-drinking,
My flask I’ve left yon in my will.
These doctors, I can’t help a-thinking,
Don’t cure as often as they kill.”
Thus spoke my neighbor, sick and weary.
Of wine he drank full bottles five;
The fever left him blithe and cheery;
He’s still a-drinking, and _alive_.
The Bibliotheque of the French Theatre contains a great number of other
dramatic compositions, as well as comedies and farces, in which doctors
carry principal _roles_, it is true, but more often are introduced for
the mere purpose of giving the author a chance for pleasantry at the
expense of medicine; and these characters sometimes exceed the limit of
license. Some of these works are gems of literary art. We may cite, for
instance, the “Farce of the Doctor who Cures all Diseases,” by Nicholas
Rousset; the “Discours Facetieux” of Coustellier; “The true Physician,
who Cures all Known Diseases;” and several besides, “La Medecine de
Maistre Grimache,” “Le Triomphe de treshaulte et tres puissante Dame
Verolle,” of Francois Juste; “Mary and the Doctor,” “The Sweetheart of
the Family Physician,” as well as some farces by Tabarin—works dating
back to the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
But we shall only take up the study of a few works that have a
veritable literary medical interest, and shall confine ourselves
to the study of the “Farces de Maitre Pathelin, du Munyer et de la
Folie du Monde;” to the moralities of “A’aveugle et du Boiteux, de
Folie et d’Amour;” to the comedies of “La Tresoriere et de Lucelle;”
to the tragedy “De la Goutte,” and to the book of “Gargantua et de
Pantagruel.” This will suffice to give an idea of medicine as portrayed
in the literature of the Middle Ages.