![]() ![]() ![]() Shut doors after you./ Fast bind, fast find-/ A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ca. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is reviled by anti-Semitic Venetians who might have seen him as a pathological case of unnatural melancholy or “melancholy adust.” When the body’s natural heat and moisture were burned up by vengefulness like Shylock’s against his Venetian enemies, the naturally clear fluids of the brain became darkened, resulting in an excess of the melancholy humor and what we might recognize as depression and unresolved anger. In old age, the body developed an excess of melancholy and the sad, unforgiving, and close-fisted disposition that accompanied that retentive bodily humor. The body’s supply of blood diminished as individuals approached the final coldness and dryness of death. “They are apt to loathe, dislike, disdaine, to be weary of every object, each thing almost is odious to them, they pine away, void of counsel, apt to weep and tremble, timorous, fearful, sad, and out of all hopes of better fortunes.” Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, 1632 The Tragedy of Hamletįor William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, aging was a process of gradual drying of the flesh and cooling of bodily humors. Robert Burtons Anatomy of Melancholy is divided into three major partitions. The eyes are the harbingers of love, and the first step of love is sight. In Hamlet, Ophelia becomes a classic case of the melancholy virgin because of her isolation at court, her overbearing father's commands, and Hamlet's withdrawal of attention from her. All my griefs to this are folly, Naught so fierce as melancholy. The cold, dry temperament was considered the least desirable of the four, yet melancholy was also traditionally associated with genius and the life of scholarship. His most famous work, the enormous Anatomy of Melancholy, was first published in 1621 and expanded in further editions throughout Burtons life. In his satirical preface to the reader, Burtons persona Democritus Junior explains, I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy. Share with your friends the best quotes from The Anatomy of Melancholy. Melancholy is the most complex of emotions for Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as it was for the ancients. Robert Burton (Author) Robert Burton (1577-1640) spent most of his life in Oxford, first as a student and later as a scholar. Collection of sourced quotations from The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton (). “They are apt to loathe, dislike, disdaine, to be weary of every object, each thing almost is odious to them, they pine away, void of counsel, apt to weep and tremble, timorous, fearful, sad, and out of all hopes of better fortunes.” Robert Burtons The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) has cast a long, shimmering shadow, on Milton (LAllegro and Il Penseroso in particular), on the wits of. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |