This notion was substantially adopted by Galen, and embraced by the physicians of the olden times.[898]
Blood. In old phraseology this word was popularly used for disposition or temperament. In “Timon of Athens” (iv. 2), Flavius says:
“Strange, unusual blood,
When man’s worst sin is, he does too much good!”
In the opening passage of “Cymbeline” it occurs in the same sense:
“You do not meet a man but frowns: our bloods
No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king,”
the meaning evidently being that “our dispositions no longer obey the influences of heaven; they are courtiers, and still seem to resemble the disposition the king is in.”
Again, in “Much Ado About Nothing” (ii. 3): “wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory.”
Once more, in “King Lear” (iv. 2), the Duke of Albany says to Goneril:
“Were’t my fitness
To let these hands obey my blood,
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear
Thy flesh and bones.”
Again, the phrase “to be in blood” was a term of the chase, meaning, to be in good condition, to be vigorous. In “1 Henry VI.” (iv. 2), Talbot exclaims: