THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 85 



An amusing travesty on dissection is found in Ravenscrof t 'a 

 The Anatomist; or the Sham Doctor (1697). The comic situation 

 is conventional enough. Old Gerard loves the young daughter of 

 Monsieur Le Medecin, whose wife and daughter by the way are 

 wholly English in name and speech. The doctor consents to the 

 match for money; but the wife, who "wears the breeches", refuses. 

 Young Gerard, who has been sent to college to prevent his becoming 

 a rival to his father, loves Angelica, and is loved by her. Crispin, 

 the mock doctor, is the servant of young Gerard and in love with 

 Beatrice, the servant of Angelica. These two servants carry on 

 the intrigues. Two of the scenes are laid in the laboratory where 

 a body is to be brought for dissection. Crispin is first caught in 

 here by Monsieur Le Medecin and is compelled to lie on the dissect 

 ing table simulating the corpse for dissection. The only thing that 

 prevents his discovery or dismemberment is the hiding of the doc 

 tor's instruments by Beatrice. Once out of this predicament he 

 resolves never to undergo such an experience again. The doctor re 

 turns before he can escape ; he dons the dress of a physician, which 

 he finds hanging on the wall, recalls a few phrases that he heard 

 while lying on the table, and pretends to be a physician come to 

 witness the dissection. Crispin is now the sham doctor, "medi- 

 cus sum" with a suddenly developed knowledge of astrology. 

 He considers himself no unworthy member of the profession. ' * The 

 world belies 'em or there are many physicians as great fools as 

 myself". 63 He compels Old Gerard, who has come clandestinely 

 to see Angelica, to lie on the dissecting table to avoid detection. 

 Thereupon he frightens him with threats of "amputation" and 

 "incisions", of deep carvings from the "Systole to the Diastole". 

 He dispenses pills to all the patients, "to find a lap-dog gone 

 astray, to win the love of a serving girl for a love-lorn swain". 

 All in all this is a roaring farce, full of fun and with the laboratory 

 for the first time used with splendid comic effect. Although the 

 knowledge of astrology clings still to the character of the physician, 

 he is modern in his anatomy; the heart motions are known, the 

 blood circulates, the microscope is in use. 



Mention, at least, must be made here of The New Athenian 

 Comedy (1693) by Elkanah Settle. It is a satire on the "Athenian 

 Society," that, with Dunton at its head, promised to answer all 



63 The Anatomist, Act I, sc. 2. 



