The Philosopher’s Toothache proposes that early modern Stoicism constituted a radical mode of performance. Stoicism—with its focus on bodily sensation, imagined spectatorship, and daily mental and physical exercise—exists as what the philosopher Pierre Hadot calls a “way of life,” a set of habits and practices. To be a Stoic is not to espouse doctrine but to act.

Informed by work in both classical philosophy and performance studies, Donovan Sherman argues that Stoicism infused the complex theatrical culture of early modern England. Plays written and performed during this period gave life to Stoic exercises that instructed audiences to cultivate their virtue, self-awareness, and creativity. By foregrounding Stoicism’s embodied nature, Sherman recovers a vital dimension too often lost in reductive portrayals of the Stoics by early modern writers and contemporary scholars alike. The Philosopher’s Toothache features readings of dramatic works by William Shakespeare, Cyril Tourneur, and John Marston alongside considerations of early modern adaptations of classical Stoics (Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius) and Neo-Stoics such as Justus Lipsius. These plays model Stoic virtues like unpredictability, indifference, vulnerability, and dependence—attributes often framed as negative but that can also rekindle a sense of responsible public action.
 

“. . . an ambitious and often ingenious bid to reopen the boundaries of a long-established field of study.” —Adam Rzepka, contributor to Knowing Shakespeare: Senses, Embodiment and Cognition— -

“In The Philosopher’s Toothache, Donovan Sherman brilliantly exposes the inherent theatricality of Stoic philosophical practice: one imitates virtues only knowable through their enactment; Stoic practitioners are actors embodying scripted techniques. These crucial insights allow for fresh encounters with the stock or wooden Stoics of the early modern stage and for the discovery of a more dynamic Stoicism in unexpected forms and places, some delightful and some devastating. Sherman probes the complexity of a theatrical Stoicism that, on the one hand, promotes an ethics of care in the care one takes for how one’s performance is perceived and, and on the other, founds itself in opposition to a chillingly aestheticized notion of unfreedom that he critiques with great sensitivity.” —Stephanie Shirilan, author of Robert Burton and the Transformative Powers of Melancholy— -

“In this striking and original study, Donovan Sherman deftly brings into focus the performative nature of Stoic practical ethics—most notably, its encouragement toward habitual, even if imperfect, practice and its more humane concessions to embodiment than caricatures of the Stoic sage normally allow—in order to persuasively rewrite the history of early modern theater’s engagement with Stoic philosophy. Alert to the nuances of intellectual history as well as to the material conditions of performance, The Philosopher’s Toothache will prove indispensable for anyone interested in the intersections of classical philosophy and the Renaissance stage.” —Christopher Crosbie, author of Revenge Tragedy and Classical Philosophy on the Early Modern Stage— -