＂But stirr'd by Cleopatra＂: The Ambivalent Role of Foreign Drugs in Antony and Cleopatra

《安東尼與克麗歐佩特拉》與外來藥物

Ying-chiao Lin

《Tamkang Review》 52卷1期 (2021/12) Pp. 45-68

https://doi.org/10.6184/TKR.202112_52(1).0003

摘要

This study looks at Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra primarily as a text expressing medical concerns about imported foreign drugs in early modern Europe, more specifically in 16^(th)-17^(th) century England. Through an investigation of the play's dramatic atmosphere, juxtaposed with early modern beliefs about foreign drugs embodied by the images of Cleopatra, this article will demonstrate how Antony and Cleopatra is concerned with imported foreign medicines, and with how Shakespeare has placed various medicinal messages in a drama focusing on a romance and on political ambitions. Antony and Cleopatra is, then, a discourse on social pathology, on the desire for foreign drugs that could be both beneficial and fatal.

關鍵字

Antony and Cleopatra ； Early Modern medicine ； foreign drugs ； xenophobia

並列摘要

本文透過檢視莎翁劇作《安東尼與克麗歐佩特拉》，來探討西方早期時的歐洲社會中，特別是十六和十七世紀的英國，對於來自境外藥物所持的態度，其可視為一種文化現象。本文指出此時期的英國社會，對於外來的新進藥物的態度，乃是存著一種摻和期待和焦慮的矛盾感受。此一論點乃透過討論代表外來藥物意象的埃及皇后克麗歐佩特拉。本文對比分析她在莎翁劇中和歷史上的意象呈現。在劇中，安東尼與克麗歐佩特拉的剪不斷、理還亂的情節，正相映於當時醫學立場上對於境外藥物的兩極紛擾態度，其激辯程度如同劇中的戰爭場景。亦即，本文嘗試說明此一觀點：莎劇《安東尼與克麗歐佩特拉》實乃一深深相關於醫學的劇作，特別著眼於既治病又致命的外來藥物。

並列關鍵字

《安東尼與克麗歐佩特拉》 ； 西方早期醫學 ； 帕拉塞爾塞思 ； 外來藥物 ； 外來恐懼症

參考文獻

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Boccaccio, Giovanni. De Claris Mulieribus [Concerning Famous Women]. Translated by Guido A. Guarino, Allen and Unwin, 1964.

Bright, Timothie. A Treatise: Wherein is Declared the Sufficiencie of English Medicines, for Cure of all Diseases Cured with Medicines. London, 1580.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Legend of Good Women. Translated by Ann McMillan, Rice UP, 1987.