Ill composed: sickness, gender, and belief in early modern England

292 Pages·2016·14.388 MB·English

by  Weisser, Olivia

Ill Composed
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Ill Composed
Sickness, Gender, and Belief
in Early Modern En gland
Olivia Weisser
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.
Copyright © 2015 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015931442
ISBN: 978-0-300-20070-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
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Contents
Ac know ledg ments vii
Introduction 1
1. Curing and Caring for the
Early Modern Body 16
2. Learning How to Be Ill 46
3. Emotional Causes of Illness 81
4. Suff ering on the Sickbed 104
5. Perceptions of Pain 129
6. Illness Narratives by the Poor 159
Conclusions 180
List of Abbreviations 187
Appendixes 189
Notes 203
Bibliography 243
Index 273
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Ac know ledg ments
A few words here cannot fully express my im mense gratitude to Mary Fissell,
who has supported this project in so many ways. I fi rst spoke to Mary on the
phone as an undergraduate student, and in the fourteen years since that
phone call she has transformed my thinking and writing. I am deeply in-
debted to Mary for her attentive, critical reading of my work, for her good
humor and sage advice, and for her unfl agging encouragement. A student
could not ask for a more generous mentor. Several others at Johns Hopkins
University have given feedback and guidance that have deeply informed this
book and my growth as a historian. I am incredibly grateful to John Marshall
for all that he has taught me about early modern Eng land and for his enthu-
siastic support over the years. Gianna Pomata and Toby Ditz read e very
chapter of this book long before it was a book, and their advice has been in-
valuable. This project has also greatly benefi ted from perceptive feedback
by Randy Packard, whose mentorship means so much to me. Harry Marks
was one of my chief advocates at Hopkins, as well as one of my toughest crit-
ics. I miss him, and I can only imagine how he would have helped me make
this book stronger.
I fi rst learned the joys of history long before graduate school. Judy Pit-
tenger instilled in me a passion for studying the past, and she modeled how
to do so with inquisitiveness and zeal. While I was an undergraduate student
at Wesleyan University, Richard Buel, Stewart Gillmor, Gary Shaw, Suzy
Taraba, and Jennifer Tucker taught me the thrill of archival research. Under
their guidance, I made my fi rst trip to the archives and discovered the his-
tory of medicine. A number of additional mentors, colleagues, and friends
have helped with this project over the years in a range of ways. Versions of
individual chapters benefi ted from insightful comments by Chris Close,
vii
viii Ac know ledg ments
Sana Haroon, Ben Johnson, Lauren Kassell, Laura Knoppers, and Seth
LeJacq. David Hunt read numerous chapters of the manuscript, and his
thoughtful observations helped direct my revisions. Lynn Botelho and Craig
Horner generously shared transcriptions of primary sources with me, and
Laura Gowing pointed me toward sources at the British Library and the
London Metropolitan Archives, a few of which became central to the proj-
ect. I owe thanks to many more who have shared wisdom, feedback, a shoul-
der to lean on, or tips about sources, or have supported my work in other
ways: Wendy Belcher, Sandra Eder, Marta Hanson, Amanda Herbert, Abby
Markoe, Liza McCahill, Ruth Miller, Margaret Pelling, Massimo Petrozzi,
Christine Ruggere, Jimmy Schafer, Dan Todes, Amanda Irwin Wilkins,
and Mara Willard. I am especially grateful to my writing partner, Rachel
Galvin, who continually inspires me to keep writing, even if I can only man-
age a few minutes a day. Tova Goodman graciously made the map in chapter 6
and off ered helpful edits on the introduction. I also thank the two anonymous
reviewers for their incredibly useful feedback, Juliana Froggatt for her care-
ful copy edits, as well as Chris Rogers, Christina Tucker, Ann- Marie Imbor-
noni, and Erica Hanson at Yale University Press. Many thanks also to my
colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Boston for creating such a
warm and collegial work environment as I completed the book.
I am indebted to participants at a number of institutions where I gave
talks or presented material from this project. While I cannot thank everyone
individually, I would like to acknowledge the illuminating questions and advice
I received at the University of Oxford, Swarthmore College, the University
of Minnesota, Wesleyan University, the Prince ton Writing Program works-
in- progress seminar, the Johns Hopkins University gender history seminar,
and the “Vernacular Health and Healing” and “Forms of Religious Experi-
ence in the Atlantic World” colloquia at the Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington DC. I was able to travel to Eng land to undertake preliminary
research thanks to a generous Mellon Fellowship from the Institute of His-
torical Research. I returned for longer stints with support from a Berna-
dotte E. Schmitt Grant from the American Historical Association, the
Theodora Bosanquet Bursary, a Sheldon Hanft Travel Award from the
Southern Council on British Studies, and a research grant from the Program
for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity. The Prince ton University Tuck Fund enabled me to return to En-
gland to conduct research on paupers in provincial record offi ces, and the
Ac know ledg ments ix
Huntington Library provided a beautiful and intellectually stimulating en-
vironment for subsequent research and writing. I am deeply appreciative
of the curators, librarians, and staff at all of the archives I consulted, most
especially those at the British Library, Folger Library, and Huntington Li-
brary. Portions of chapter 3 are reprinted from my article “Grieved and
Disordered: Gender and Emotion in Early Modern Patient Narratives” in
the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies by kind permission of Duke
University Press.
Finally, a hearty thanks to my family and to my dearest friends, who
have cheered successes and softened letdowns— most especially Rehanna
Chaudhri, who has hosted me on countless trips to the United Kingdom. I
hold the warmest appreciation for Christopher Willard, for his patience, en-
couragement, thorough edits, and cooking. After a long day immersed in
the past, there is no one I would rather have welcome me back to the present.