Synopses & Reviews
Quack, conjurer, sex fiend, murdererand#8212;Simon Forman has been called all these things, and worse, ever since he was implicated (two years after his death) in the Overbury poisoning scandal that rocked the court of King James. But as Barbara Traister shows in this fascinating book, Forman's own unpublished manuscriptsand#8212;considered here in their entirety for the first timeand#8212;paint a quite different picture of the works and days of this notorious astrological physician of London.
Although he received no formal medical education, Forman built a thriving practice. His success rankled the College of Physicians of London, who hounded Forman with fines and jail terms for nearly two decades. In addition to detailing case histories of his medical practiceand#8212;the first such records known from Londonand#8212;as well as his run-ins with the College, Forman's manuscripts cover a wide variety of other matters, from astrology and alchemy to gardening and the theater. His autobiographical writings are among the earliest English examples of their genre and display an abiding passion for reworking his personal history in the best possible light, even though they show little evidence that Forman ever intended to publish them.
Fantastic as many of Forman's manuscripts are, it is their more mundane aspects that make them such a priceless record of what daily life was like for ordinary inhabitants of Shakespeare's London. Forman's descriptions of the stench of a privy, the paralyzed limbs of a child, a lost bitch dog with a velvet collar all offer tantalizing glimpses of a world that seems at once very far away and intimately familiar. Anyone who wants to reclaim that world will enjoy this book.
Review
"I suspect that very few readers know much—if anything—concerning Simon Forman (1552—1611). Alternately known as a physician, astrologer, magician, and pervert, Forman remains an illusive character. One remarkable fact for which we are all in Forman's debt is his detailed manuscripts and autobiographical writings. Having had no formal medical training, yet maintaining a prosperous practice, Forman spent several decades being hounded by the College of Physicians of London. Forman's writings make for an esoteric, sometimes bizarre catalogue of his professional experiences, obsessions, and sexual escapades—not unlike a later diarist named James Boswell. Traister's research and overview of Forman's work provides a fascinating glimpse into both Elizabethan and Jacobean England." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
About the Author
Barbara Howard Traister is a professor of English at Lehigh University. She is the author of Heavenly Necromancers: The Magician in Early Renaissance Drama.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. A Self-Conscious Life
2. Medical Theories: A Physician Evolves
3. Forman's London Practice
4. Troubles with the College of Physicians
5. Forman's Occultism
6. Forman and His Books
7. Forman in Society
8. Forman and Public Events
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index