Shakespeare The Medic

January 8, 1999

Some of you on the Musings list know how my mother used folk remedies, some of them strange, to say the least. When I was a lad, I cut my finger almost to the bone. I was bleeding profusely. She went down into the cellar, collected cobwebs, put them on the cut, and then bandaged the finger. The flow of blood stopped rather quickly; and the cut healed without infection.

My mother’s parents, my grandparents, were Swedish immigrants. For many years I assumed that the cobwebs were a remedy she learned from her parents and their native culture.

I have just been re-reading parts of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and was astonished when Bottom, in conversation with the Elves, Peablossom, Cob, Moth and Mustardseed, says to Cobweb:

“I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb, if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.” (Act III, Sc. 1)

Shakespeare probably wrote the “Dream” about 404 years ago. He obviously knew of the clotting and healing properties of cobwebs in having Bottom speak as he did to the Elve. Maybe Will’s mother used the method on him. (All boys get cuts.)

So if an immigrant Swedish family knew this remedy, and it was known in England four centuries ago, how widespread was that knowledge? Throughout Europe? the World? Older than recorded history? Who knows!!

What about many other folk remedies: certain herbs, leaves, roots? With all the research and development in the laboratories of the pharmaceutical companies, are we overlooking what the “old folks” know? I’m not going to get into the “alternative medicine” issue; I don’t know enough. However, ancient skills and wisdom need examination, not scorn or derision.

And, as I read Shakespeare, as I do again and again, I shall try to be alert to instances of “the Medic.”