‘Wilt Break My Heart?’ Takotsubo Syndrome and Shakespeare’s Discourse of Heartbreak in Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear

Abstract

ABSTRACT Shakespeare’s characters knew well the dangers and causes of an overcharged heart. This article places representations of heartbreak in Shakespeare’s canon in dialogue with twenty-first-century medical understanding of heartbreak or Takotsubo syndrome (TTS). Over thirty years since its coinage in cardiac medicine, heartbreak syndrome or TTS remains poorly understood. In response to this dearth of information around TTS, this article turns to early modern accounts of heartbreak – particularly its dramatic representation in King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra – and examines these alongside unfolding research into TTS. The essay illuminates a contagious inter-heart dynamic at play in King Lear and analyses best practice treatments for supportive management of stress-induced cardiomyopathy in Antony and Cleopatra. This comparative analysis of broken hearts in Shakespeare and in twenty-first century medical knowledge of TTS aims to offer mutual enlightenment across Shakespeare studies and cardiac medicine.