"It Is No Small Presumption to Dismember the Image of God": Early Modern Leg Amputation on the Barber-Surgeon's Table and the Dramatist's Page.

Abstract

Using the multiple versions of Doctor Faustus's fraudulent leg removal presented in texts A and B of Christopher Marlowe's tragedy, along with The English Faust Book (a source text for Marlowe), and examining an extensive number of early modern surgical manuals, this essay discusses leg amputation in the early modern period. As well as attempting to understand the circumstances that would cause a surgeon to proceed with such an extreme course of action, the essay also explores the operation itself, its evolution through the early modern period, the instruments used, the life prospects of an amputee in terms of mobility and prosthetics, and finally the social implications and moral responsibilities of removing a limb in the context of a society that placed great importance in the idea of corporeal integrity in the afterlife.