Medical metaphors, body politic and John Hart’s conceptualisation of orthographic reform

Abstract

ABSTRACT Within the context of the mid-sixteenth-century movement of spelling standardisation in England, John Hart (c. 1501–1574) wrote three linguistic texts in English (rather than in Latin), on orthographic reform focused on phonetic principles: one letter only represents one sound, and vice versa. This paper aims to examine how Hart appealed to medical imagery in his discussion of English orthography. First, Tudor concepts of medicine (such as the theory of ‘elements’ and ‘humours’) were employed to frame his expounding of orthographic problems; second, the procedure of medical treatment was transferred to organise the structure of his argument, i.e. to set up the steps of orthographic reform and to treat specific orthographic problems. The former focuses on the content aspect of his argument while the latter on the structural aspect. Moreover, Hart was very much of his time in his fascination with appropriating political language. During the English Renaissance, medical metaphors were widely used in both political and religious texts, and they were borrowed by Hart and constituted a constant feature of his linguistic writings, published or unpublished. Drawing upon contemporary political tracts, I will demonstrate the religio-political nature of his medical metaphor and how his use of this type of metaphor facilitated communication on spelling reform.