Cardano's Consoltation

TRIGGER WARNING: This post mentions Hamlet's To Be or Not To Be soliloquy and the dark themes contained therein. If you are currently feeling life to be a "sea of troubles," you may want to skip this post and find a different one to read. Wishing you well, dear reader!

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

 

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

On the title page of Cardano's Three Books of Consolation English'd is printed the statement, "Of great use in these times." This is the 1683 English translation of the 1542 original, which had also been translated into English in 1573, and which I read in 2026, and I would say it is of great use in all these times.

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

Reading this book by Cardano put me in mind of the poem If Still Your Orchards Bear by Edna St. Vincent Millay that ends with the stanza

I think you will have need of tears;

I think they will not flow;

Supposing in ten thousand years

Men ache, as they do now.

Both her poem and this book are testimonie to me that the experience of being human doesn't change - not with decades and not with centuries - no matter the rise and fall of empires or advances in technology. We still feel joy and sorrow, still experience loss and gain, still feel hope and despair. We still wonder about the purpose of life and what, if anything, comes after it.

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

This small volume consists of three "books," each of which is broken up into chapters. At the head of each chapter is a summary of what the chapter is about. For example, in the picture below, we see that in chapter 1 of book 1 we will find: Good discourses a necessary remedy against all misfortunes. Opinion makes many things good or evil.

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

Though Cardano does cover many areas of human experience, I'm moving here into a deep diver into his reflections on death - hence the "trigger warning" at the beginning of this post. In chapter 1 of book 2 some potentially familiar sentiments. As you read them, see if they remind you of anything else you've come across elsewhere in literature:

I have felt more grief than pleasure in this world. Seeing then this love of life availeth nothing, nay tho it were desirable, tis better to cast off this burden of cares . . .

 . . . what can Death be better compared to than a Dream?

Death may be fitly compared to a sound sleep.

What is our life by continual toil, perpetually attended with labor, suspicious, and dangers . . .

If what comes to mind is Hamlet's To Be or Not to Be soliloquy, you are not alone. In that soliloquy, Shakespeare speaks through Hamlet of the "sea of troubles" and the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" that we experience in life and of the "heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to." He ponders further: "To die - to sleep; to sleep, perhance to dream."

While there is currently no scholarship providing a direct link between Shakespeare and Cardano's book, this book has been included by some academics in lists of potential influences on Shakespeare - as one of the widely circulating humanist texts that drew on stoic philosophy and belonged to the tradition of books of consolation.

I work hard to keep my posts as factual as possible, but I hope I can be allowed a small, reasonable flight of fancy on occasion - fully acknowledged as such. I like to think that there IS a link here. Here is some of my thinking on the matter:

Girolamo Cardano and John Dee had met - Cardano's writing did circulate widely - Dee was influential in Elizabethan circles - and Shakespeare and Dee (though decades apart in age) both moved in those Elizabethan circles - I, personally, like to think that the book Shakespeare has Hamlet holding in Act 2, Scene 2, when Polonius walks in and asks, "What do you read, my lord?" is Cardano's book. This scene is followed not long after by Act 3, Scene 1 where Hamlet speaks the To Be or Not To Be soliloquy.

The Globe Theatre, London

The Globe Theatre, London

Again, just to be clear, there is no PROOF that this is THE book that Hamlet is holding (though there's no evidence against it either), but when I read or see Hamlet, I think of it being Cardano's book in his hands. Though not proven (and probably not provable), it is certainly plausible.

Here are two further glimpses into Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9). These pages form the closest connection for me between Cardano's thoughts and Hamlet's speech.

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

Cardan His Three Books of Consolation English'd (British Library Shelfmark 8405.a.9)

Well, the Hamlet connection became a rather lengthy side-trip from where I began. But I'll end by zooming out a bit once more. Cardano writes of so many things in this book. He touches on how without experiencing illness we cannot appreciate health, and without having experienced troubles, we cannot fully appreciate ease. He puts things in perspective. He addresses our appetites, writing, "whatsoever is profitable or necessary to any creature that is naturally desirable in which desires brute beasts (who are guided only by sense) do not transgress. Whereas man, who has most reason in his understanding has least in his actions, for [man] eats, drinks, and sleeps more than either conveniency or necessity require."

He addresses poverty and riches and our perspectives on them: "Should it come to pass now as it did in the time of Noah that all money, provisions, cattle, and other commodities were carried away in a universal Flood, I believe then no man would think himself injured by poverty. Why then dost thou complain having whereon to live? This plainly evidences 'tis not poverty but envy that molests thee."

I'll close out with some comparisons he makes - the last line of which made me laugh out loud.

“Perhaps thou wilt say I would have Pleasure without Pain: ‘Tis contrary to nature, for Joy is continually attended by Sorrow, Glory with Envy, Wisdom is not gotten without labor, Wealth is not obtain’d without care, Children are kept with trouble, Banqueting is attended by sickness, Ease with poverty, Power with envy, Quiet with weariness. Every man has something to complain of. Some be afflicted with Poverty, others want Children, this man is Sick, that man wants a Wife, and this man would be rid of his.”

Our dear mathematician Cardano had many thoughts on many subjects, and these are but some of them. If interested, and perhaps headed to London, here is a link to this item in the catalogue of the British Library.