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 spectacles, the crystal mirror, and the mechanical clock—which, it is argued, transformed the experience and representation of growing old by calling into question certain biological and social givens. By marking a convergence between early modern and post-modern engagements with science and technology, the dissertation highlights Shakespeare’s contribution to current scholarly debates about the relationship between technology and aged embodiment.