Book contents
- A User’s Guide to Melancholy
- A User’s Guide to Melancholy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part 1 Causes
- Part 2 Symptoms
- Part 3 Cures
- 7 The Non-Naturals
- 8 Medicine and Surgery
- 9 Lifting the Spirits
- Robert Burton, ‘The Author’s Abstract of Melancholy’
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- Further Reading
- Index
Conclusion
The Two Faces of Melancholy
from Part 3 - Cures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2021
- A User’s Guide to Melancholy
- A User’s Guide to Melancholy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part 1 Causes
- Part 2 Symptoms
- Part 3 Cures
- 7 The Non-Naturals
- 8 Medicine and Surgery
- 9 Lifting the Spirits
- Robert Burton, ‘The Author’s Abstract of Melancholy’
- Conclusion
- Endnotes
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Before Robert Burton begins to anatomise the causes, symptoms, and cures of melancholy, he offers his reader a poem. Or is it a song? The refrain might make us want to sing along, and when Stan’s Cafe adapted The Anatomy of Melancholy for the stage (Figure 10.1), they did exactly that – to the accompaniment of a lute. While the odd verses end with ‘sweet’ melancholy, elevated to ‘divine’ at the end, the even ones only decline: the closing line goes from ‘mad’ and ‘sour’ to ‘damned’ melancholy.
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- A User's Guide to Melancholy , pp. 227 - 234Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021