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The Palgrave Handbook of Early Modern Literature and Science pp 311–335Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Robert Boyle’s ‘Accidents of an Ague’ and Its Precursors

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Abstract

In 1623–4 John Donne suffered a life-threatening illness characterised by ‘pyrexia’ (fever), spots, rheum, and various sequelae such as insomnia and general weakness. Either typhus or relapsing fever, or possibly both in sequence, the acute phase of the illness continued for about a fortnight, followed by a period of convalescence. The entire episode lasted 23 days.1 In the meditation that commences each of the 23 chronological sections of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) he narrates the progress of this illness and recovery, collecting from his observed symptoms, from their diagnosis and treatment by physicians, and from his contingent reflections upon them a spiritual self-assessment that makes an analogy of the work of the physician and of the meditating intellect. Medical narrative, reflectional meditation, spiritual autobiography, and mundane life-writing meet in this devotional fusion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Claire Preston

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  1. Claire Preston
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Rutgers University–Camden, Camden, NJ, USA

    Howard Marchitello

  2. Department of English, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Evelyn Tribble

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Preston, C. (2017). Robert Boyle’s ‘Accidents of an Ague’ and Its Precursors. In: Marchitello, H., Tribble, E. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Early Modern Literature and Science . Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46361-6_15

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