The Four Humours and Literature
Primary Qualities and Simple Bodies
Para1Dating back to ancient Greece, philosophers have investigated the nature of matter
and how to categorize it. In the fifth century BCE, Empedocles of Acragas pioneered
the influential theory that four stable elements (fire, air, water and earth) were
the foundation to all matter. His theory held that these elements created everything
in the visible world. These four distinct divisions provided the foundation for further
understanding and categorization of nature’s elements.
Para2The ancient Greek physician Galen (129–216 CE) speculated that the four primary elements
expressed themselves as combinations of more basic qualities which he called simple
bodies. The simple bodies were categorized into hot, cold, dry, and moist. He suggested
that the combination of any two of these basic qualities produces one of the four
primary elements. His work shows a preliminary attempt at understanding and explaining
chemical changes.
| Fire | Hot + Dry |
| Air | Hot + Moist |
| Water | Cold + Moist |
| Earth | Cold + Dry |
The Four Humours
Para3The most famous physicians of ancient Greece, Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) and later
Galen, hypothesized the human body was exclusively composed of a mixture of the four
humours. Hippocrates suggested that the four humours were by-products of simple bodies,
like all matter found in nature.
While Hippocrates linked the fluid humors to the combination of natural elements,
Galen suggested that an individual’s personality and temperament is the result of
an imbalance, either excess or deficiency, of one or two of the humors.
| Phlegm | Cold + Moist |
| Black Bile | Cold + Dry |
| Blood | Hot + Moist |
| Yellow Bile | Hot + Dry |
Para4The early modern period incorporated Hippocrates and Galen’s concepts into medical
practices. Physicians believed that health was dependent on a humoral equilibrium
in the body, so disease was the result of a humour that was out of balance. Often,
treatment was rooted in rebalancing humours in the body by means of diet. For example,
if an individual had an excess of phlegm, which is a combination of cold and moist,
it would be treated by eating foods with the opposite combination of simple bodies
(hot and dry).
The Four Humours and Temperament
Para5Early modern English medicine believed that all individuals possessed a complexion
or temperament that reflected their unique blend of qualities and humours. A slightly
higher level of one of the humours resulted in a positive presentation of the humour.
However, a great overabundance of one humour resulted in a more intense and negative
characteristic.
| Humoural Temperment | Cause | Associated Organ | Characteristics | Shakespeare Characters |
| Melancholic | Excess black bile | Spleen | Pessimism, gloom, depression, introspection, moodiness, hypochondria | Hamlet, Benedick, Romeo |
| Choleric | Excess yellow bile | Gall bladder | Anger, violence, volatility, resentment, rage, spite, ambition, vengefulness | Lady Macbeth, Petruchio, Katerina Minola |
| Phlegmatic | Excess phlegm | Brain | Laziness, apathy, impassivity, calmness, sleepiness, cowardice | Sir John Falstaff, Sir Toby Belch |
| Sanguine | Excess blood | Heart | Optimism, passion, boldness, kindness, courage, youth, overindulgence | Prince Hal (Henry V), Rosalind |
Para6This summary based on Cummings and Ekstrom
Humours and Shakespearean Cosmology
Para7In her article
Altogether Governed by Humors: The Four Ancient Temperaments in Shakespeare,Caitlyn Fahey asserts that Shakespeare used the theory of the four humours to develop many of his characters throughout his work. She says that many figures display several humoral traits while other characters distinctly depict an overabundance of one humour in particular.
Para8The melancholy temperament appears prominently in Elizabethan literature and can be
easily recognized in Shakespeare’s works. Hamlet tells the tragic story of a man grieving the loss of his father, the recent remarriage
of his mother to his uncle, and a turbulent love affair. Hamlet is a melancholic character.
After the death of his father, his mother does his best to cheer him up when she says,
Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off(1.2.71). She tells him to release the darkness (melancholy) that is consuming his disposition, as well as asking him to change his clothes from the mourning garb he has been wearing (Fahey 10).
Para9A strong example of a phlegmatic character in Shakespeare’s work is Sir John Falstaff
in Henry IV, Part 1. A quote from Prince Hal illuminates the temperament of Falstaff’s character:
Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sac, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of day.(1.2.2–11)
Para10Prince Hal describes Falstaff as lazy, sleepy, apathetic, drunk, fat, and old, which
are all key characteristics of a phlegmatic temperament (18).
Para11For a choleric temperament, one can look to Lady Macbeth. In the play Macbeth, she convinces her husband to murder the king so that they can have a chance at the
crown. Her actions are ambitious, vengeful, and violent. Her choleric character type
is on full display when Lady Macbeth orders the spirits to
Take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers(1.5.48). The gall bladder is associated with a choleric temperament and the production of yellow bile. In essence, Lady Macbeth instructs the spirits to take the milk from her breasts to make room for yellow bile that will fill her with ruthlessness and rage (Fahey 28).
Para12Characters with sanguine temperamentare are much more difficult to distinguish. Perhaps
the clearest example is Viola from Twelfth Night. Viola is a passionate, devoted, and optimistic character. She is determined to win
the heart of Orsino, who is in love with the countess Olivia. Several lines in the
play make references to the liver, an organ associated with blood and thereby a sanguine
complexion. In disguise as a young man called Caersario, Olivia suggests to the duke
that another woman could love him as strongly as Olivia, to which he responds,
Their love may be called appetite, no motion of the liver, but the palate(2.4.56–7). Humoral theory holds that passion is a by-product an excess of blood in the liver. By saying this, Orsino explains that another could love him but that it could not match the passion he feels for Olivia. Despite being rejected, Viola stays true to her optimistic and bold temperament and, in the end, does win the duke’s heart (36).
Key Print Sources
Hoeniger, F. David. Medicine and Shakespeare in the English Renaissance. University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Nutton, Vivian. Ancient Medicine. Routledge, 2004.
Shakespeare, William. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth. Ed. David Bevington. The Necessary Shakespeare, Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. pp. 373–411.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. David Bevington. The Necessary Shakespeare, Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. pp. 552–604.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. David Bevington. The Necessary Shakespeare, Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. pp. 715–747.
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. David Bevington. The Necessary Shakespeare, Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. pp. 194–226.
Key Online Sources
Brander, Elizabeth. Humouralism and the Seasons. Becker Medical Library. Washngton University School of Medicine, 30 Oct. 2020. https://becker.wustl.edu/news/humoralism-and-the-seasons/.
Ekstrom, Nelly.
Shakespeare and the Four Humours.The Wellcome Collection. 11 Dec. 2016. https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/W-MM-xUAAAinxgs3.
Fahey, Caitlyn.
Altogether Governed by Humors: The Four Ancient Temperaments in Shakespeare.University of South Florida Graduate Thesis and Dissertations. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=etd.
Kingsley, K., and R. Parry.
Empedocles.Ed. Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Summer 2020. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Advice. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/empedocles/.
Hankinson, J. Robert.
Substance, Element, Quality, Mixture: Galen’s Physics and His Hippocratic Inheritance.2017. Open Edition Journals. 10.4000/aitia.1863.
Lyon, Karen.
The Four Humours: Eating in the Renaissance.Shakespeare and Beyond. 4 Dec. 2015. https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/the-four-humors-eating-in-the-renaissance/.
Singer, P. N.
Galen.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Winter 2021. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Advice. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/galen/#ElemPrinMatt.
Prosopography
Kate McPherson
Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley
University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity
in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities
Institute,
Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom,at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.
Leah Hamby
Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed
several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from
Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her
other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.
Mackenzie Carter
Mackenzie Carter was a student at the University of Fraser Valley.
Melissa Walter
Melissa Walter is Associate Professor of English at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Her research focuses on early modern English drama and English and European prose
fiction. She is the author of The Italian Novella and Shakespeare’s Comic Heroines (U of Toronto, 2019), and co-editor, with Dennis Britton, of Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Authors, Audiences, Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018). Her work on English theatre and the European novella has appeared
in several edited collections, including Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2008), and Transnational Mobility in Early Modern Theater (Ashgate, 2012). She has also written about
Translation and Identity in the Dialogues in English and Malaiane Languages(Indographies, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris. Palgrave 2012). At the University of the Fraser Valley, she is a lead coordinator of UFV’s Shakespeare and Reconciliation Garden.
Michael Best
Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the
Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the
ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery,
a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on
Electronic Shakespeares,and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.
Navarra Houldin
Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual
remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major
in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary
research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They
are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice
Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.
Orgography
LEMDO Team (LEMD1)
The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project
director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators,
encoders, and remediating editors.
University of Victoria (UVIC1)
https://www.uvic.ca/Metadata
| Authority title | The Four Humours and Literature |
| Type of text | Critical |
| Publisher | University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform |
| Series | Early Modern England Encyclopedia |
| Source |
By Mackenzie Carter, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
|
| Editorial declaration | This document uses Canadian English spelling |
| Edition | Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a |
| Sponsor(s) |
Early Modern England EncyclopediaAnthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
|
| Encoding description | Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines |
| Document status | published |
| Funder(s) |
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University |
| License/availability |
Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions:
(1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of
the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3)
the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes
of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without
the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor
the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion
into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are
considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.
|