Recreation in the Renaissance

The Medical Discourse 33
After a survey of a series of means of transport, and their effect on
the human body, a specific chapter is on the subject du jeu. From its
very beginning, the author stresses parallels and interactions between
medical and moral discourse. Play brings with it pleasure, which is perceived
as harmless but open to abuse. Morals, acting as a spiritual medicine,
have therefore introduced laws and instructions to regulate
players’ behaviour; medicine proper has followed the same path, and
fixed its own rules. These are enumerated in a list of nine articles, consisting
of situations to be avoided, and of miscellaneous observations
on the relationship between play and health. One should avoid: (i)
playing games that are too serious or (ii) games only determined by luck
(the sudden changes of mood they bring with them tend to upset the
humoral balance), as well as (iii) contention (it triggers one’s bile), (iv)
subsequent disappointment, and (v) war simulations. Subsequent
remarks include the indication that (vi) ‘from play you can tell the inclination
and temperament of the players’ (and that everyone should
choose the most appropriate to his or her constitution); that (vii) ‘the
force of imagination is the cause of the excesses we find in play’; (viii)
that ‘one feels stunned and heavy after playing’; and last, according to
astrology, (ix) ‘Venus, Mars and Saturn are the masters of play’. On the
whole, the reader is given the impression that the moral concern,
expressed by Bicaise at the beginning of these pages, had firmly oriented
his scrutiny and led him to discover rather les maux than les biens of
play and games.
In the following chapters he discusses a broad series of specific
amusements and physical activities: dance, military exercises, hunting,
comedy, music, laughter, walks, and horse-riding. After the concern
expressed about play and games, an enthusiastic assessment of dance
brings a sudden change of mood, while reminding us of the emergence
of the importance of dance in French society, which was already visible
in Duchesne. Dancing loosens the whole body, being the best preparation
for gymnastics; makes you moderately thin; and helps transpiration,
which is particularly useful for the health of women. Above all,
while other sorts of exercise only employ one limb, the whole body participates
in dance, whose harmonious movements favour a salutary
equilibrium. With his last remark Bicaise has joined the game of choosing
which exercise is best for you. While his preference for dance originated
outside medical literature, it even antedated Galen’s ‘small ball’:
it had in fact been advanced by an ageing Socrates in a well-known
passage from Xenophon’s Banquet. 26
Once he has listed the range of physical benefits, Bicaise moves to