William Hazlitt (1778-1830), the English essayist, once wrote:
If we wish to know the form of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to know the insignificance of human learning, we may read his commentators.
Shakespeare often surprises us by his prescience about many medical discoveries which were not appreciated until centuries after his death. That he was cognizant of the rudiments of genetics seems clear from this passage from The Winter's Tale:
. . . Behold, my lords,
although the print be little, the whole matter and copy of the father; eye, nose, lip, the trick of's frown, his forehead, nay, the valley,
the pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, his smiles,
the very mould and frame of hand, nail, fingers... The Winter's Tale, I, Sc. 7
The Journals of Sarah and William Hazlitt, 1822-1831
