The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc. — John Shaqi
The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
History
The Doctor in History, Literature, Folk-Lore, Etc.
Literature and medicine; Physicians; Physicians in literature
A change of title occurred in 1540, and it was then named the Company of
Barber-Surgeons. Holbein painted a picture of Henry VIII. and the
Barber-Surgeons. The painting is still preserved, and may be seen at the
Barber-Surgeons' Hall, Monkwell Street, London. We give a carefully
executed wood engraving of the celebrated picture. Pepys calls this "not a
pleasant though a good picture." It is the largest and last painting of
Holbein. In the _Leisure Hour_ for September 1895, are some interesting
details respecting it, that are well worth reproducing. "It is painted,"
we are told, "on vertical oak boards, being 5ft. 11in. high by 10ft. 2in.
long. It seems to have been begun about 1541, and finished after
Holbein's death in 1543, and it has evidently been altered since its first
delivery. The tablet, for instance, was not always in the background, for
the old engraving in the College of Surgeons has a window in its place,
showing the old tower of St. Bride's, and thus indicating Bridewell as the
site of the ceremony. The outermost figure to the left, too, is omitted,
and, according to some critics, the back row of heads are all
post-Holbeinic. The names over the heads appear to have been added in
Charles I.'s time, and it is significant that only two portraits in the
back row are so distinguished." The king is represented wearing his robes,
and is seated on a chair of state, holding erect his sword of state, and
about him are the leading members of the fraternity. "The men whose
portraits appear in the picture," says the _Leisure Hour_, "are not
nonentities. The first figure to the king's right, with his hands in his
gown, is Dr. John Chambre, king's physician, Fellow and Warden of Merton,
and happy in his multitudinous appointments, both clerical and lay. Behind
him is the Doctor Butts of Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII.'--the Sir William
Butts who was the king's and Princess Mary's physician, and whose wife is
known by Holbein's splendid portrait of her. Behind Butts is Alsop, the
king's apothecary. To the king's left the first figure is Thomas Vicary,
surgeon to Bartholomew's Hospital, serjeant-surgeon to the king, and
author of 'The Anatomie of the Bodie of Man.' Next to him is Sir John
Ayleff, an exceptionally good portrait. Then come in the undernamed:
Nicholas Simpson, Edmund Harman (one of the witnesses to the king's will),
James Monforde (who gave the company the silver hammer still used by the
Master in presiding at the courts), John Pen (another fine portrait),
Nicholas Alcocke, and Richard Ferris (also serjeant-surgeon to the king).
In the back row the only names given are those of Christopher Salmond and
William Tilley."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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