HIS WORKS. liii 



that even from remote antiquity, and by common consent, 

 mankind had recognized the blood to be in motion. We have 

 this fact declared to us by all antiquity, and it is even par- 

 ticularly referred to in various passages of the grand observer 

 of his age, the depositary of the popular science of .all preceding 

 ages Shakespeare. Brutus speaks thus to Portia : 



" You are my true and honourable wife ; 

 As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 

 That visit my sad heart ;"' 



language not more touching and beautiful than physiologi- 

 cally correct. And again, with more of involution and ellipsis, 

 yet with a meaning that is unmistakable, Warwick, by the 

 bedside of the murdered Gloster, proceeds, 



" See how the blood is settled in his face ! 

 Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, 

 Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale and bloodless, 

 Being all descended to the labouring heart, 

 Who in the conflict that he holds with death, 

 Attracts the same for aidance gainst the enemy ; 

 Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth 

 To blush and beautify the cheek again 

 But see, his face is black and full of blood," &c. 



These passages have actually been cited, to prove that 

 Shakespeare was not unacquainted with the circulation ; and 

 there have not been wanting some 1 who have even argued that 

 Shakespeare had his knowledge direct from the fountain-head 

 from Harvey himself, with whom, for several years at least, he 

 was contemporaneous. 2 



The passages quoted above are referred to all the more 

 willingly, from their having preceded the teaching of Harvey 

 by a few years only ; but Shakespeare probably referred to 



1 Thomas Nimmo, Esq., of New Amsterdam, Berbice : " On a passage in Shake- 

 speare's Julius Caesar." The Shakespeare Society's Papers, vol. ii, p. 109. 



3 Shakespeare died in 1616, the year when Harvey began to lecture at the Col- 

 lege of Physicians. Harvey and Shakespeare may very well have been acquainted, 

 let us hope that they were, but there is no authority for saying that they were 

 friends. 



