Abstract: The dissertation examines the role that early modern science plays in the construction of aging bodies in Shakespeare���s works. Some scholars have analyzed Shakespeare���s elders within the context of contemporary discourses on senescence, particularly those drawing from Galenic medicine, while others have examined the poet���s use of scientific metaphors. This project combines multiple approaches and archives to widen the historiography of old age to focus on early modern material culture���inventions such as spectacle...
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