John Hall & His Patients

John Hall, William Shakespeare's son-in-law, was an eminently successful Stratford physician of the early seventeenth century. His surviving medical case notes for the years 1611-35 describe how he treated 155 patients of all classes, from aristocrat to pauper, the majority within a 15-mile radius of Stratford. He recorded symptoms, medications and the outcome of his attentions, providing a rare picture of provincial medical practice in Stuart England as well as interesting details on persons close to Shakespeare (his daughter, Susanna, who was Hall's wife; his granddaughter, Elizabeth; the poet Michael Drayton; and members of the Greene, Combe, Sturley and Quiney families, all friends of Shakespeare).This new edition comprises a facsimile of an early printed version of Hall's Select Observations with facing commentary on patients and their treatments; there is also an extended introduction to Hall and his work, and an index of medicines. The commentary concentrates on identifying the patients Hall attended (two-thirds are given detailed profiles for the first time) and interpreting and explaining Hall's treatment in the context of medical practice in his time.