SHAKSPER 2000: Re: "Doctors"

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 01/12/00 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0065  Wednesday, 12 January 2000.

[1]     From:   Marti Markus <martim@balcab.ch>
        Date:   Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 20:03:01 +0100
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"

[2]     From:   John Velz <jvelz@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
        Date:   Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 13:25:08 -0600
        Subj:   real doctors

[3]     From:   Mary Jane Miller <mjmiller@spartan.ac.brocku.ca>
        Date:   Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 14:57:28 -0500
        Subj:   Re: SHK 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"

[4]     From:   Stefan Kirby <kirby@venturalink.net>
        Date:   Tuesday, 11 Jan 1994 23:17:58 -0800
        Subj:   Re: Doctors


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Marti Markus <martim@balcab.ch>
Date:           Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 20:03:01 +0100
Subject: 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"

>Who cares about comparatives?

Doctissimus Markus Marti.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Velz <jvelz@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
Date:           Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 13:25:08 -0600
Subject:        real doctors

I had Christmas dinner along with 25 family-less persons half a century
ago nearly hosted by a generous Shakespeare professor of a somewhat
pompous demeanor.  Watch chain across vest over rotund belly etc.
Turkey at one end of the table and a huge beef roast at the other end.
He was carving busily.  His daughter was a senior Intern in obgyn at a
local hospital and she had invited a bevy of candy striped aides.  The
rest of us were graduate students in English.  Came a lull in the
conversation, a dead lull, and a candy-striped voice addressed the M.D.
daughter.  "Oh Dr. X . . ." and the Shakespeare professor harrumphed
"Yes?"  and Candy stripe without thinking said "Oh, I mean the real
doctor."  He blinked and went on carving.  I have always since thought
of myself as, like him, an "unreal doctor".

Cheers for Christmas dinners,
John

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Mary Jane Miller <mjmiller@spartan.ac.brocku.ca>
Date:           Tuesday, 11 Jan 2000 14:57:28 -0500
Subject: 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.0051 Re: "Doctors"

I  have always used  "Dr" because:

in 1973 there were few women with Ph.Ds and the point needed to be made
in a variety of contexts that yes- 'we' could do that too. My woman
mentor, a Shakespeare scholar called Marion Smith  had been refused
airline tickets when she went to pick them up because she could not be
Dr.M.B Smith, until she produced identification.

and as others have said,  the PhD preceded the M.D by centuries.

and because, although I admire medical doctors very much and have a
couple in my family, I am tired of the supercilious - are you a 'real
doctor' - to which I always answer 'yes - like many others for  the last
600 years'.  Mind you I don't have much time for Oxford and Cambridge
who do not recognise the PhDs of most other institutions. Academe can be
just as supercilious.

Dottore may be a figure of fun in the Commedia, as 'profs' are today,
but it is still an honourable title which somehow has been ceded to a
fraction of those who have earned it.

Mary Jane

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stefan Kirby <kirby@venturalink.net>
Date:           Tuesday, 11 Jan 1994 23:17:58 -0800
Subject:        Re: Doctors

> ...predecessors were doctors when theirs were leech salesmen.

(and barbers)

~Stefan Kirby


about SHAKSPER | current postings | submitted papers | browse SHAKSPER | search SHAKSPER
  
Copyright © 2002, Hardy M. Cook, design by Eric Luhrs. All rights reserved.