Melancholy:
The Evolution of the English Malady, c. 1550-1750
Keywords:
Melancholy, Identity, HistoryAbstract
This article argues that the spread of transnational medical theories had a significant effect on how the English perceived the condition of melancholy and, by extension, themselves in the early modern era. The point is made by studying the spread of ideas on melancholy expressed in a popular late-fifteenth-century Italian text, De vita libri tres by the philosopher Marsilio Ficino. By examining how Ficino’s theories of inspired, or genial, melancholy influenced the English medical landscape, this article attempts to highlight the potential for foreign opinion to shape part of what would become known as the essential English character by the eighteenth century.
References
Primary Sources
Ascham, Roger. 1564. The Schoolmaster. London: Cassell and Company, Limited, 1909.
Boswell, James. “The Hypochondriack. No. V.” The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Influencer, 47 (1778): 58-60.
Bright, Timothie. A Treatise of Melancholie. London: Printed by Thomas Vautrollier, dwelling in the Blackfriars, 1586.
Bright, Timothy. 1586. A Treatise of Melancholy. Reproduced from the 1586 edition printed by Thomas Vautrollier, with an introduction by Hardin Craig. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.
Bright, Timothie. A Treatise wherein is declared the Sufficiencie of English Medicines, for cure of all Diseases, cured with Medicines. London: Printed by H.L. for Tho. Man., 1615.
Boswell, James. “The Hypochondriack. No. V.” The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Influencer, 47 (1778).
Burton, Robert. 1621. The Anatomy of Melancholy: What It Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms, Prognostics, and Several Cures of It. In Three Partitions. A New Edition. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862.
Cheyne, George. 1733. The English Malady: or a Treatise of Nervous Disease of All Kinds; As Spleen, Vapours, Lowness of Spirits, Hypochondriacal, and Hysterical Distempers, c. In three parts. London, 1734.
Cheyne, George. George Cheyne: The English Malady (1733). Edited with an Introduction by Roy Porter. London: Routledge, 1991.
Defoe, Daniel. The True-Born Englishman: A Satire, in British Literature 1640-1789: An Anthology. Edited by Robert Demaria Jr. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Ficino, Marsilio. 1489. Three books on Life: a critical edition and translation with Introduction and Notes. Edited by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Tempe Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002.
Higden, Ranulph. 1364. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, Monachi Cestrensis; Together With the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century. Edited by Churchill Babington and J. Rawson Lumby, translated by John Trevisa. Vol.1. London: Longman et al., 1865.
Howell, James. 1642. Instructions for forreine travell. Edited by Edward Arber. London: 5 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, W.C., 1869.
Lemnius, Levinus. 1576. The touchstone of complexions: generally applicable, expedient and profitable for all such, as be desirous carefull of
their bodylye health. Translated by Thomas Newton. London: Printed by E[dward A[lde for Michael Sparke]], 1633.
Rankins, William. The English Ape, the Italian imitation, the Foote steppes of Fraunce. London: Printed by Robert Robinson for Richard Jones, 1588.
Walkington, Thomas. The Optick Glasse of Humors. Or The touchstone of a golden temperature , or the Philosophers stone to make a golden temper. London: Printed by JohnWindet for Martin Clerke, 1607.
Willis, Thomas. 1660-67. Thomas Willis’s Oxford Lectures. Edited by Kenneth Dewhurst. Oxford: Sandford Publications, 1980.
Wright, Thomas. 1601. The passions of the minde in generall. Corrected, enlarged, and with sundry new discourses amended. With a treatise thereto adioyning of the clymatericall yeare, occasioned by the death of Queene Elizabeth. London: Printed by Valentine Simmes forWalter Burre, 1604. Secondary Sources
Babb, Lawrence. The Elizabethan Malady: A Study of Melancholia in English Literature from 1580 to 1642. East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1951.
Bamborough, J. B. “Burton, Robert (1577-1640), writer”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb-.com/view/10.1093/ ref:odnb/ 9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4137 (accessed 16 March, 2019).
Brann, Noel. The Debate over the Origin of Genius during the Italian Renaissance. The Theories of Supernatural Frenzy and Natural Melancholy in Accord and in Conflict on the Threshold of the Scientific Revolution. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2001.
Chaney, Edward. The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations Since the Renaissance. London: Frank Cass, 1998.
“Depression”. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/50451?redirectedFrom=depression#eid. Accessed 26 April, 2019.
Floyd-Wilson, Mary. English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Gowland, Angus. “The Problem of Early Modern Melancholy”. Past Present 191 (2006): 77-120
Gowland, Angus. The Worlds of Renaissance Melancholy: Robert Burton in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Guerrini, Anita. Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment: The Life and Times of George Cheyne. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.
Iriye, Akira. “Transnational History”. Contemporary European History 13, vol. 2 (2004): 211-22.
Kinsman, Robert. “Folly, Melancholy, and Madness: A Study in Shifting Styles of Medical Analysis and Treatment, 1450-1675”. In The Darker Vision of the Renaissance: Beyond the Fields of Reason, edited by
Robert Kinsman, 273-320. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl (eds). Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and Art. London: Thomas Nelson Sons Ltd, 1964.
Porter, Roy. “The Rage of Party: A Glorious Revolution in English Psychiatry?” Medical History 21, no. 1 (1983): 35-50.
Radden, Jennifer (ed.) The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Warneke, Sara. “Educational Travelers: Popular Imagery and Public Criticism in Early Modern England.” Journal of Popular Culture, 28, no.3 (1994): 71-94.
Wear, Andrew. Knowledge Practice of English Medicine, 1550-1680. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Ascham, Roger. 1564. The Schoolmaster. London: Cassell and Company, Limited, 1909.
Boswell, James. “The Hypochondriack. No. V.” The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Influencer, 47 (1778): 58-60.
Bright, Timothie. A Treatise of Melancholie. London: Printed by Thomas Vautrollier, dwelling in the Blackfriars, 1586.
Bright, Timothy. 1586. A Treatise of Melancholy. Reproduced from the 1586 edition printed by Thomas Vautrollier, with an introduction by Hardin Craig. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.
Bright, Timothie. A Treatise wherein is declared the Sufficiencie of English Medicines, for cure of all Diseases, cured with Medicines. London: Printed by H.L. for Tho. Man., 1615.
Boswell, James. “The Hypochondriack. No. V.” The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman’s Monthly Influencer, 47 (1778).
Burton, Robert. 1621. The Anatomy of Melancholy: What It Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms, Prognostics, and Several Cures of It. In Three Partitions. A New Edition. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1862.
Cheyne, George. 1733. The English Malady: or a Treatise of Nervous Disease of All Kinds; As Spleen, Vapours, Lowness of Spirits, Hypochondriacal, and Hysterical Distempers, c. In three parts. London, 1734.
Cheyne, George. George Cheyne: The English Malady (1733). Edited with an Introduction by Roy Porter. London: Routledge, 1991.
Defoe, Daniel. The True-Born Englishman: A Satire, in British Literature 1640-1789: An Anthology. Edited by Robert Demaria Jr. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Ficino, Marsilio. 1489. Three books on Life: a critical edition and translation with Introduction and Notes. Edited by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Tempe Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002.
Higden, Ranulph. 1364. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, Monachi Cestrensis; Together With the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century. Edited by Churchill Babington and J. Rawson Lumby, translated by John Trevisa. Vol.1. London: Longman et al., 1865.
Howell, James. 1642. Instructions for forreine travell. Edited by Edward Arber. London: 5 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, W.C., 1869.
Lemnius, Levinus. 1576. The touchstone of complexions: generally applicable, expedient and profitable for all such, as be desirous carefull of
their bodylye health. Translated by Thomas Newton. London: Printed by E[dward A[lde for Michael Sparke]], 1633.
Rankins, William. The English Ape, the Italian imitation, the Foote steppes of Fraunce. London: Printed by Robert Robinson for Richard Jones, 1588.
Walkington, Thomas. The Optick Glasse of Humors. Or The touchstone of a golden temperature , or the Philosophers stone to make a golden temper. London: Printed by JohnWindet for Martin Clerke, 1607.
Willis, Thomas. 1660-67. Thomas Willis’s Oxford Lectures. Edited by Kenneth Dewhurst. Oxford: Sandford Publications, 1980.
Wright, Thomas. 1601. The passions of the minde in generall. Corrected, enlarged, and with sundry new discourses amended. With a treatise thereto adioyning of the clymatericall yeare, occasioned by the death of Queene Elizabeth. London: Printed by Valentine Simmes forWalter Burre, 1604. Secondary Sources
Babb, Lawrence. The Elizabethan Malady: A Study of Melancholia in English Literature from 1580 to 1642. East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1951.
Bamborough, J. B. “Burton, Robert (1577-1640), writer”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb-.com/view/10.1093/ ref:odnb/ 9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4137 (accessed 16 March, 2019).
Brann, Noel. The Debate over the Origin of Genius during the Italian Renaissance. The Theories of Supernatural Frenzy and Natural Melancholy in Accord and in Conflict on the Threshold of the Scientific Revolution. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2001.
Chaney, Edward. The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations Since the Renaissance. London: Frank Cass, 1998.
“Depression”. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/50451?redirectedFrom=depression#eid. Accessed 26 April, 2019.
Floyd-Wilson, Mary. English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Gowland, Angus. “The Problem of Early Modern Melancholy”. Past Present 191 (2006): 77-120
Gowland, Angus. The Worlds of Renaissance Melancholy: Robert Burton in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Guerrini, Anita. Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment: The Life and Times of George Cheyne. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.
Iriye, Akira. “Transnational History”. Contemporary European History 13, vol. 2 (2004): 211-22.
Kinsman, Robert. “Folly, Melancholy, and Madness: A Study in Shifting Styles of Medical Analysis and Treatment, 1450-1675”. In The Darker Vision of the Renaissance: Beyond the Fields of Reason, edited by
Robert Kinsman, 273-320. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl (eds). Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and Art. London: Thomas Nelson Sons Ltd, 1964.
Porter, Roy. “The Rage of Party: A Glorious Revolution in English Psychiatry?” Medical History 21, no. 1 (1983): 35-50.
Radden, Jennifer (ed.) The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Warneke, Sara. “Educational Travelers: Popular Imagery and Public Criticism in Early Modern England.” Journal of Popular Culture, 28, no.3 (1994): 71-94.
Wear, Andrew. Knowledge Practice of English Medicine, 1550-1680. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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Published
2019-11-24
How to Cite
Betz, E. . (2019). Melancholy:: The Evolution of the English Malady, c. 1550-1750. Trinity Postgraduate Review Journal, 18(1), 95–113. Retrieved from https://ojs.tchpc.tcd.ie/index.php/tpr/article/view/1308
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