William Shakespeare wrote a farce, All’s Well that Ends Well, in which the French king’s fistula plays a central role. Songs and jokes appeared making fun of Louis’s fistula. Everyone was talking about it. The success of the fistulotomy exposed the lack of proficiency of doctors with their purgatives, rinses, potions and bloodletting. In the century after the royal operation, the popularity of surgeons reached unprecedented heights.
