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The Bard on the Brain

Understanding the Mind Through the Art of Shakespeare and the Science of Brain Imaging

By Paul M. Matthews and Jeffrey McQuain, Ph.D.

In this beautifully illustrated full-color book, Paul Matthews, director of brain imaging at Oxford University, and Jeffrey McQuain, scholar of Shakespeare's language, explore  the beauty and mystery of the human mind and the workings of the brain, following the paths the Bard pointed out in 35 of the most famous speeches from his plays.

On the magical isle of The Tempest, Miranda's joy at seeing others like her takes us to the discovery of how our brain is shaped by development and experience. In Richard III, Richard's chilling description of his villainous character and evil intentions raises the question of what in the brain enables us to make moral choices. The French princess Katherine's struggle to communicate with her English future husband in Henry V leads to the wonder of how our brain masters language. And in Macbeth, Macbeth's anguished appeal to his wife's doctor, "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased...?" points to urgent discoveries we still must make.

Illustrating the book are performance photos from the plays--with acclaimed British and American actors such as Morgan Freeman as Petruchio, Sir Ian McKellan as Prospero, Alfre Woodard as Paulina, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as King Lear--and stunning images of the brain from researchers around the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword: On the Bard's Brain by Diane Ackerman

Introduction

A Map of the Brain

Chapter 1: Minds and Brains

The Wonder of the Human Brain (The Tempest, 5.1)

Seeing the Man Through His Brain (Hamlet, 5.1)

We Share a Common Humanity (The Merchant of Venice, 3.1)

Chapter 2: Seeing, Smelling, Feeling

Finding a Face (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2)

Smell: A Direct Link to the Emotional Brain (Hamlet, 3.3)

Heat and Cold: As much in the Mind As on the Skin (Hamlet, 5.2)

Chapter 3: Decision and Action

Battle of the Sexes (The Taming of the Shrew, 2.1)

Movement Begins in the Mind (Henry V, 3.1)

"Let me Clutch Thee" (Macbeth, 2.1)

Learning and Growing (Love's Labour's Lost, 4.3)

Judgment and Control (Henry IV, Part I, 1.2)

Motivation and Morality (Richard III, 1.1)

Chapter 4: Language and Numbers

A Muse of Fire (Henry V, Prologue)

A Subtle Voice (The Merchant of Venice, 4.1)

What Is a Word? (Henry IV, Part I, 5.1)

Binding Qualities in Meaning (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2)

Putting an English Tongue in a French Brain (Henry V, 5.2)

Numbers on the Mind (Julius Caesar, 2.1)

Chapter 5: Our Inner World

Development and Memory (The Tempest, 1.2)

Music As a Call to Life (The Winter's Tale, 5.3)

What Makes Music Sweet? (Twelfth Night, 1.1)

A Fearful Anticipation (Macbeth, 5.8)

Building a World in the Mind (The Tempest, 4.1)

Chapter 6: The Seventh Age of Man: Disease, Aging, and Death

Brain Sickness and the Seven Ages of Man (As You Like It, 2.7)

The Falling Sickness (Julius Caesar, 1.2)

A Strange Commotion in the Brain (Henry VIII, 3.2)

The Blackness of Depression (Richard II, 3.2)

Tempests in the Mind (King Lear, 3.4)

Chapter 7: Drugs and the Brain

A Celebration of Alcohol (Henry IV, Part II, 4.3)

Miming Death (Romeo and Juliet, 4.3)

The Seduction of Drugs (Othello, 1.2)

Treating Depression (Hamlet, 3.1)

The Promise of Treatment (Macbeth, 5.3)

Scientific Sources

Credits

Index

Endorsements

"The Bard on the Brain is a valuable way in for anyone eager to learn about the mysteries of the mind and the latest exciting developments in brain science"

-New Scientist

"A remarkable journey into the mysterious labyrinth of the brain and its interactions with the world around us, and our guide is none other then William Shakespeare."

-Harry Hamlin

"A heady combination of old-fashioned Bard-worship and cutting edge science."

-Times Literary Supplement

Excerpts

THE WONDER OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

Alonso: If this prove

A vision of the island, one dear son

Shall I twice lose . . . .

Miranda: O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,

That has such people in ‘t!

Prospero: ‘Tis new to thee.

The Tempest, 5.1

 

Shakespeare lived intimately with a rich world of imagination, which he communicated to others through words and stage action. The “brave new world” that Miranda sees in her mind is a world of possibilities. It is through perception and reflection that she links herself to the new visitors. Like that of the Elizabethans, whose horizons were expanding with their growing naval power, Miranda’s world has suddenly exploded in size. That this could happen in a moment to Miranda—with little real change in the physical world about her—is one of the wonders of the brain on which Shakespeare bases his art.

The folded surface of the brain (called the cortex) is where neurons are found. Here lie the major mechanisms that allow learning and thus both intellectual and moral growth. Shakespeare explored the theme of development in The Tempest in several ways. Most obviously, the young Miranda is being observed during her early emotional maturation into womanhood. We feel a special tenderness toward Miranda because her lack of experience of the world makes her still a child in many ways.

Here Shakespeare appeals to our own direct experiences of the slow maturation of the human mind and brain. The human brain is much slower to develop than that of most animals. It increases more than fourfold in size from birth to the adult average volume of 1,400 cubic centimeters (about 85 cubic inches), about as big as a medium-size cantaloupe. The cortex continues to enlarge after birth not because more cells are added but because branching arms on the nerve cells expand to accommodate the 10,000 or so connections that eventually reach each neuron in the mature brain. In addition to changes in size, a key anatomical feature of this maturation, which can be followed using brain imaging methods like MRI, is the development of a special coating (myelin) around the long connections (axons) between neurons. This coating allows the very rapid conduction of electrical signals between neurons that is necessary for quickness in thought and action. You can appreciate that in an organ with 28,000,000,000 cells and more than 10,000,000,000,000 connections (thousands of times greater than the entire population of this planet!), it is important that the “wiring” be efficient.

However, not only Miranda’s development is chronicled in the play. The Tempest also tells us how her mysterious father, Prospero, has grown in scholarship to become a great wizard. Intellectually vigorous himself, Shakespeare must have reveled in how much a man could continue to mature emotionally and grow intellectually even into old age. A remarkable aspect of the human brain is its tremendous plasticity, which allows learning and adaptation to occur throughout life. But unlike the development that occurs early in life, these changes in the adult brain occur not so much because of changes in its overall structure but because of changes in the way it functions. The evidence of his plays suggests that Shakespeare closely studied the process by which human beings learn and change their behavior.

 
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