Shame

Abstract

The idea that we blush with shame is an old one. References are found in the King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611, for example:

And he said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. (Ezra 9: 6)

In the following excerpt from Shakespeare’s Richard III (Act I, Scene II) Lady Anne addresses Gloucester, who has murdered her father and her husband, and demands that he blushes for his actions. The blood in the blusher’s face is linked with the references to spilt blood and she claims that the presence of the murderer causes the corpse to bleed again.