It was formerly supposed that our bodies consisted of the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water, and that all diseases arose from derangement in the due proportion of these elements. Thus, in Antony’s eulogium on Brutus, in “Julius Cæsar” (v. 5), this theory is alluded to:
“His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix’d in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’”
In “Twelfth Night” (ii. 3) it is also noticed:
“Sir Toby. Do not our lives consist of the four elements?
Sir Andrew. ’Faith, so they say; but I think, it rather consists of eating and drinking.
Sir Toby. Thou art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. Marian, I say!—a stoop of wine!”
In “Antony and Cleopatra” (v. 2), Shakespeare makes the latter say:
“I am fire, and air, my other elements
I give to baser life.”
This theory is the subject, too, of Sonnets xliv. and xlv., and is set forth at large in its connection with physic in Sir Philip Sidney’s “Arcadia:”
“O elements, by whose (men say) contention,
Our bodies be in living power maintained,
Was this man’s death the fruit of your dissension?
O physic’s power, which (some say) hath restrained
Approach of death, alas, thou keepest meagerly,
When once one is for Atropos distrained.
Great be physicians’ brags, but aide is beggarly
When rooted moisture fails, or groweth drie;
They leave off all, and say, death comes too eagerly.
They are but words therefore that men doe buy
Of any, since God Esculapius ceased.”