That Shakespeare Life

In a 16th century painting by Casper Stromayr, two men, presumably doctors, are standing behind a table on which a set of surgical instruments are laid out very neatly. In the notes for the painting we discover that some of the instruments are specifically for surgery of the eye.    Cataract surgery like the one being prepared for in this painting was just becoming widespread in Shakespeare’s lifetime and was performed to remove the pearly film that developed over the surface of the eye.    In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Ferdinand uses the phrase “Those are pearls that were his eyes:” Again in Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare calls attention to pearly eyes when he writes “His eye drops fire, no water thence proceeds; Those round clear pearls of his…”    Additionally, in both King Lear and Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part II, there are references in the dialogue to specific procedures and even specific diseases of the eye. The novelty of this new surgery, combined with the very public and performative nature of the proc