Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/57

Rh 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 particularly 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:

language not more touching and beautiful than physiologically 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,—

These passages have actually been cited, to prove that Shakespeare was not unacquainted with the circulation; and there have not been wanting some 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.

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