When was the four humours invented

This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Shakespeare and the Four Humors: The Humors. Report a problem. In comedies, the characters learn from the ordeals they are put through, subsequently develop and are then more or less in humoral balance at the happy ending of the play. In tragedies, the characters usually start out with a normal excess of their temperamental humour, but thru their actions and reactions their excess is built up, leading to more and more extreme behaviour until all hope of restoring balance is lost.

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Wellcome Collection. Stories Part of The Four Humours. William Shakespeare: profile. Drawing, c. Attribution 4. What are the four humours? Astrological man, A 14th century astrological man.

Henry IV and the theory of humorism One play really stands out when it comes to the subject of humours. A melancholic is often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it. This temperament describes the depressed phase of a bipolar disorder.

A phlegmatic lungs person is calm and unemotional. Phlegmatic means pertaining to phlegm and corresponds to the season of winter wet and cold , and connotes the element of water. While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change.

They are very consistent, relaxed, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. But the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend. The theory experienced widespread popularity throughout the Middle Ages and was eventually termed humorism also humoralism.

Humoral practitioners actively used theory to explain many illnesses of the time. Use of various remedies became commonplace, especially when a person was considered to have too much of a particular fluid. For example, blood letting from veins was performed when certain conditions were reported. By the 18th Century medicine was advancing rapidly. The discoveries of the functions of the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems served to discount the four humors theory as a realistic practice of medicine.

However, it remained important in terms of designating personality. Swiss physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater used the four humors to advance four specific persona types as dictated by their respective facial structures, expressions and colourations. Lavater also assigned certain characteristics, such as jollity, generosity and kindness to some types, while brooding, introspection and contemplation were assigned to others.

He referred to the four temperaments as the sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic , preserving etymology of these terms having their origins in antiquity. He also summed up the four types in his writings. For the sanguine type he noted:. He means to keep his promises but fails to do so because he never considered deeply enough beforehand whether he would be able to keep them.

He is good natured enough to help others but is a bad debtor and constantly asks for time to pay. He is very sociable, given to pranks, contented, does not take anything very seriously and has many, many friends.