Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: Jessica Slights
Peer Reviewed

Additional Notes on Othello

TLN 1054: choler,

According to humoralism, a theory of human psychophysiology developed by classical physicians that dominated until the advent of modern medicine, a person's health and disposition is determined by a balance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Diseases and disabilities were held to result from an excess or a deficit of one or more of these four humors, each of which was identified with a particular temperament. Choler, a distemper resulting from an excess of yellow bile, was said to produce irascibility. Learn more about choler.