Mere mortals : $b Medico-historical essays — John Shaqi
Mere mortals : $b Medico-historical essaysMacLaurin, C. (Charles)
History
Mere mortals : $b Medico-historical essays
MacLaurin, C. (Charles)
Biography; Pathology
Her amazing personality is best explained by the new science of the
ductless glands—endocrinology.[9] Sometimes she seems to have had all
the male qualities, such as swearing, roughness of speech, freedom from
convention. Sometimes she seems to have behaved like a doting old maid,
in her inordinate love of dress, jewellery, and flattery. Rather than
believe that she was abnormal in form, which I think to be impossible
considering the known facts of her physiology, I find it easier to
believe that in some way her “endocrine balance” was abnormal. It is
now rather more than suspected that no individual is entirely male or
entirely female; the psychic qualities of both sexes are more or less
mingled in everybody, and thus we could easily explain the remarkable
fact noted by Professor Pollard that no man ever seems to have fallen
in love with Elizabeth sufficiently to risk his head for her. A century
before, Owen Tudor fell in love with Katherine of Valois(7), and risked
death by marrying her secretly. But no such vehement lover appeared for
Elizabeth; and, if he had, her want of “endocrine balance” would not
have prevented her from child-bearing. When she shouted to Sir Nicholas
Throckmorton, “God’s death, villain, I’ll have thy head,”(3) the violence
of the male in her came to the surface; when she fondled and fooled with
the Duke of Alençon and called him her “little frog”(6) and other silly
names, the doting old maid in her was paramount. Major Hume considers
that it was with the Duke of Alençon that Elizabeth was in love for the
first and only time in her life; and it is quite possible.
The only thing that my speculation does not explain is the bitter cry
from the heart that was wrung from her when she heard of the birth of
King James I to her great rival, Mary Queen of Scots: “The Queen of Scots
is the lighter of a fair son, but I am a barren stock!”(3) How did she
know? Was she thinking of the amazing number of miscarriages that befell
two of her father’s wives, which to us now appear such certain evidence
that he was probably suffering from constitutional syphilis? That is the
best suggestion I am able to make.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account