Fie! Shakespeare Blamed for Pimple Woe

A new study by British dermatologists suggests that Shakespeare is to blame for our obsession with clear skin. However-- according to Jacket Copy-- writers at The Guardian and The Independent, and a scholar at the Shakespeare Institute, remain unconvinced. From Jacket Copy--

Sure, it was a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth who cried "Out, damned spot," but a new dermatological study says Shakespeare's words might as easily apply to acne. According to a report by British dermatologists, Shakespeare is to blame for our obsession with clear skin.

That's because his plays are so full of insults related to skin disease.

"Thou art a boil, A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle," King Lear says to his daughter Goneril. "A pox upon him," a phrase that's lasted through the centuries, comes from "All's Well That Ends Well." In "King John," Constance says she could not love a man "Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains... Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks." A curse in "Coriolanus" promises blemishes and hate: "Boils and plagues Plaster you o'er, that you may be abhorr'd.” [...]

Learn more without becoming TOO entangled in this controversy (lest ye become "patch'd with foul moles"!) at Jacket Copy. Then again, thou art more lovely and more temperate than a summer's day, boils or non.