Shakespeare lived well before the rise of modern medicine. The physicians who make brief appearances in his plays were little more than quacks. But his work offers insight into the eternal issues that assail both humanity and medicine.

And dying is one of them. 

He writes about dying a lot – probably because so many of the characters get knocked off in one way or another. 

His overall stage death body count is 75. Not much performed today despite its lusty graphic violence, but Titus Andronicus tops the list with 14 deaths, including a nurse and a clown along with a serving of home-cooked cannibalism.