Her blue blood changed to black in every vein, Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed, Show’d life imprison’d in a body dead. Lucrece.
Corrupted blood some watery token shows; And blood untainted still doth red abide, Blushing at that which is so putrefied. Lucrece.
Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast A harmful knife, * * * * * * And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide In two slow rivers, that the crimson blood Circles her body in on every side, * * * Some of her blood still pure and red remain’d, And some look’d black. Lucrece.
But are you flesh and blood? Have you a working pulse? Pericles, Act V., Sc. I.
I drink the air before me, and return Or e’er your pulse twice beat. Tempest, Act V., Sc. I.
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. Hamlet, Act III., Sc. IV.
Your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire. Henry IV—2d, Act II., Sc. IV.
Even as my life, or blood that fosters it. Pericles, Act II., Sc. V.
Swill as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body. Hamlet, Act I., Sc. V.
Shakespeare died in 1610. Harvey first published his theory in 1619. It must be remembered that at this time many ideas were afloat concerning the circulation. Among the older theories were those of Hippocrates, Praxagoras, and Erasistratus, who held that the arteries contained air, and that, therefore, the veins were the only blood-holding vessels, and that they had their origin in the liver. Galen, the most celebrated of ancient medical writers, who lived as early as 150 A. D. taught that the left ventricle of the heart was the common origin of all arteries, and that the arteries of living animals contained blood, not air; but he did not advance with his studies so as to learn in what direction the blood flowed, or whether it was movable or stationary. The distinguished Michael Servetus, who was burned with his books, by order of Calvin, in 1553, taught that the blood flowed from the right ventricle, through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, and thence through the pulmonary vein and left auricle into the corresponding ventricle from which it was conveyed by the aorta to all parts of the body. Dr. Bucknill is of the opinion that Shakespeare followed Hippocrates in his theory that the veins were the only blood vessels and that they came from the liver. It is very evident, from the many allusions given below, that he did at different periods adhere to this belief.