2

some do in their morning sleep, Marcellus Donatus knew such a Gentlewoman in Mantua, called Elionora Meliorina, that constantly beleeved she was married to a King, and "would kneel down and talk with him, as if he had been there present with his associates; and if she had found by chance a peece of glass in a muck-hill or in the street, she would say that it was a jewell sent from her Lord and husband.” If devout and religious, he is all for fasting, prayer, ceremo n'es, almes, interpretations, visions, prophecies, revelations, he is inspired by the Holy Ghost, full of the spirit: one while he is saved, another while damned, or still troubled in minde for his sinnes, the divell will surely have him, &c. more of these in the third Partition of love-Melancholy. A Scho lar's minde is busied about his studies, he applaudes himself for that he hath done, or hopes to do, one while fearing to be out in his next exercise, another while contemning all censures; envies one, emulates another; or else with indefatigable paines and meditation, consumes himself. So of the rest, all which vary according to the more remiss and violent impression of the object, or as the humor it self is intended or remitted. For some are so gently melancholy, that in all their carriage, and to the outward apprehension of others, it can hardly be discerned, yet to them an intolerable burden, and not to be endured. Quædam occulta, quædam manifesta, some signes are manifest and obvious to all at all times, some to few, or seldome, or hardly perceived; let them keep their own coun cell, none will take notice or suspect them. They doe not expresse in outward shew their depraved imaginations," as *Hercules de Saxonia observes, " but conceal them wholly to themselves, and are very wise men, as I have often seen: some fear, some do not fear at all, as such as think themselves kings or dead, some have more signs, some fewer, some great, some less, some vex, fret, still fear, grieve, lament, suspect, laugh, sing, weep, chafe, &c. by fits (as I have said) or more during and permanent," Some dote in one thing, are most childish and ridiculous, and to be wondred at in that, and yet for all other matters, most discreet and wise. To some it is in disposition, to another in habit; and as they write of heat and cold, we may say of this humour, one is melancholicus ad acto, a second two degrees less, a third half way. 'Tis super

a

De hist. Med. mirab. lib. 2. cap. 1. * Genibus flexis loqui cum illo vo-. luit, & adstarc jam tum putavit, &c. * Gordonius, quod sit propheta, & inftatus à spiritu sancto. Qui forensibus causis insudat, nil nisi arresta cogitat, & supplices libellos, alius non nisi versus facit. P. Forestus. a Gordo*Verbo non exprimunt, nec opere, sed alta mente recondunt, & sunt vir prudentissimi, quos ego sæpe novi, cum multi sint sine timore, ut qui se reges & mortuos putant, plura signa quidam habent, pauciora, majora, minora. particular,

nius.

particular, sesquialtera, sesquitertia, and superbipartiens tertias, quintas Melancholia, &c. all those Geometricall pros portions are too little to expresse it. ❝b It comes to many by fits, and goes; to others it is continuate: many (saith Faventinus) in Spring and fall only are molested, some once a year, as that Roman Galen speaks of: one, at the conjunction of the Moon alone, or some unfortunate aspects, at such and such set hours and times, like the sea-tides, to some women when they be with child, as * Plater notes, never otherwise: to others 'tis settled and fixed: to one led about and variable still by that ignis fatuus of phantasie, like an arthritis or running gout, 'tis here and there, and in everie joynt, alwaies molesting some part or other; or if the body be free, in a myriad of forms exercising the minde. A second once peradventure in his life hath a most grievous fit, once in seven years, once in five years, even to the extremitie of madnesse, death, or dotage, and that upon some ferall accident or perturbation, terrible object, and that for a time, never perhaps so before, never after. A third is moved upon all such troublesome objects, crosse fortune, disaster and violent passions, otherwise free, once troubled in three or four years. A fourth, if things be to his minde, or he in action, well pleased, in good company, is most jocund, and of a good complexion: if idle, or alone, a la mort, or carried away wholly with pleasant dreams and phantasies, but if once crossed and displeased,

"Pectore concipict nil nisi triste suo.”

his countenance is altered on a sudden, his hart heavie, irksome thoughts crucifie his soul, and in an instant he is moped or wearie of his life, he will kill himself. A fifth complains in his youth, a sixth in his middle age, the last in his old age.

Generally thus much we may conclude of melancholy: That it is most pleasant at first, I say, mentis gratissimus error, a most delightsome humor, to be alone, dwel alone, walk alone, meditate, lye in bed whole daies, dreaming awake as it were, and frame a thousand phantastical imaginations unto themselves. They are never better pleased then when they are so doing, they are in Paradise for the time, and cannot well endure to be interrupt; with him in the Poet,

8 pol me occidistis amici, Non servàstis ait?"

you have undone him, he complains, if you trouble him: tell

Trallianus, lib. 1. 16. alii intervalla quædam habent, ut etiam consueta administrent, alii in continuo delitio sunt, &c. Prac. mag. Vere tantum & Lib de humeribus. * De mentis alienat. Levinus Lemaius, Jason Pratensis, blanda ab initio. 8 Hor.

Rutumno,

сар. 3.

• Guianerius.

him what inconvenience will follow, what will be the event, all is one, canis ad vomitum, * 'tis so pleasant, he cannot refrain. He may thus continue peradventure many years by reason of a strong temperature, or some mixture of business, which may divert his cogitations: but at the last lesa Imaginatio, his phantasie is crased, and now habituated to such toyes, cannot but work still like a fate, the Scene alters upon a sudden, Fear and Sorrow supplant those pleasing thoughts, suspition, discontent, and perpetuall anxiety succeed in their places; so by little and little, by that shoeing horn of idleness, and voluntary solitariness, Melancholy this feral fiend is drawn on,

quantum vertice ad auras Ethereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit, it was not so delicious at first, as now it is bitter and harsh: a cankered soul macerated with cares and discontents, tædium vitæ, impatience, agony, inconstancy, irresolution, precipitate them unto unspeakable miseries. They cannot endure company, light, or life it self, some; unfit for action, and the like. Their bodies are lean and dryed up, withered, ugly, their looks harsh, very dull, and their souls tormented, as they are more or less intangled, as the humour hath been intended, or according to the continuance of time they have been troubled.

i

To discern all which symptomes the better, Rhasis the Arabian makes three degrees of them. The first is, falsa cogitatio, false conceits and idle thoughts: to misconstrue and amplifie, aggravating every thing they conceive or fear: the second is, falso cogitata loqui, to talk to themselves, or to use inarticulate, incondite voices, speeches, obsolete gestures, and plainly to utter their minds and conceits of their hearts by their words and actions, as to laugh, weep, to be silent, not to sleep, eat their meat, &c. the third is to put in practice1 that which they think or speak. Savanorola Rub. 11. tract. 8. cap. 1. de ægritudine, confirms as much when he begins to express that in words, which he conceives in his heart, or talks idly, or goes from one thing to another," which "Gordonius cals nec caput habentia, nec caudam, he is in the middle way: "but when he begins to act it likewise, and to put his fopperies in execution, he is then in the extent of melancholy, or madness it self." This progress of melancholy you shall

*Facilis descensus averni.

Ꮒ Virg.

cariosa est facies mea præ ægritudine animæ.

m

i Corpus cadaverosum. Psa. 67. * Lib. 9. ad Almansorem. Practica majore. Quum ore loquitur quæ corde concepit, quum subito de una re ad aliud transit, neq; rationem de aliquo reddit, tunc est in med:o, at quum incipit operari quæ loquitur, in summo gradu est. Cap. 19. Partic. 2. Loquitur secum & ad alios, ac si vere præsentes. Aug. cap. 11. li. de cura pro mortuis gerenda. Rhasis. Quum res ad hoc devenit, ut ea quæ cogitare caperit, ore promat, atq; acta permisceat, tum perfecta melancholia est.

n

easily observe in them that have been so affected, they go smiling to themselves at first, at length they laugh out; at first solitary, at last they can endure no company: or if they do, they are now dizards, past sense and shame, quite moped, they care not what they say or do, all their actions, words, gestures, are furious or ridiculous. At first his mind is troubled, he doth not attend what is said, if you tell him a tale, he cries at last, what said you? but in the end he mutters to himself, as old women do many times, or old men when they sit alone, upon a sudden they laugh, whoop, hollow, or run away, and swear they see or hear players, Devils, Hobgoblins, Ghosts, strike, or strut, &c. grow humorous in the end: Like him in the Poet, sæpe ducentos, sæpe decem servos, he will dress himself, and undress, careless at last, growes insensible, stupid or mad. He howles like a woolf, barks like a dog, and raves like Ajax and Orestes, hears Musick and outcries, which no man else hears. As he did whom Amatus Lusitanus mentioneth cent. 3. cura. 55. or that woman in Springer, that spake many languages, and said she was possessed: That Farmer in Prosper Calenius, that disputed and discoursed learnedly in Philosophy and Astronomy, with Alexander Achilles his master, at Boloigne in Italy. But of these I have already spoken.

t

Who can sufficiently speak of these symptomes, or prescribe rules to comprehend them? as Eccho to the painter in Ausonius, vane quid affectas, &c. foolish fellow; what wilt? if you must needs paint me, paint a voice, & similem si vis pingere, pinge sonum; if you will describe melancholy, describe a phantasticall conceipt, a corrupt imagination, vain thoughts and different, which who can do! The four and twenty letters make no more variety of words in divers languages, than melancholy conceipts produce diversity of symptomes in several persons. They are irregular, obscure, various, so infinite, Proteus himself is not so divers, you may as well make the Moon a new coat, as a true character of a melancholy man; as soon finde the motion of a birde in the aire, as the heart of man, a melancholy man. They are so confused, I say, divers, intermixt with other diseases. As the species be confounded (which I have shewed) so are the symptomes; Sometimes with headache, Cacexia, dropsie, stone; as you may perceive by those several examples and illustrations, collected by Hildesheim speciel. 2. Mercurialis consil. 118. cap. 6 & 11. with

X

Melancholicus se videre & audire putat demones. Lavater de spectris part. 3. cap. 2. Wierus lib. 3. cap. 31. Michael à musian. • Malico malef. Lib. de atra bile. Part. 1. Subs. 2. Memb. 2. * De delirio, melancholia & mania.

headache,

headache, Epilepsie, Priapismus. Trincavelius consil. 12. lib. 1. consil. 49. with gout: caninus appetitus. Montanus consil. 26. &c. 23. 234. 249. with falling sicknesse, headach, Vertigo, Lycanthropia, &c. I. Cæsar Claudinus consult. 4. consult. 89. & 116. with gout, agues, Hemrods, stone, &c. who can distinguish these melancholy symptomes so intermixt with others, or apply them to their severall kinds, confine them into method? 'Tis hard I confesse, yet I have disposed of them as I could, and will descend to particularize them according to their species. For hitherto I have expatiated in more generall listsor termes, speaking promiscuously of such ordinary signes, which occur amongst writers. Not that they are all to be found in one man, for that were to paint a monster or Chimera, not a man: but some in one, some in another, and that succes-sively or at severall times.

Which I have been the more curious to expresse and report; not to upbraid any miserable man, of by way of derision, ([ rather pitty them) but the better to discern, to apply remedies unto them; and to shew that the best and soundest of us all, is in great danger; how much we ought to fear our own fickle estates, remember our miseries and vanities, examine and humiliate ourselves, seek to God, and call to him for mercy, that needs not look for any rods to scourge our selves, since we carry them in our bowels, and that our souls are in a miserable captivity, if the light of grace and heavenly truth doth not shine continually upon us: and by our discretion to moderate ourselves, to be more circumspect and wary in the midst of these dangers.

MEMB. II. SUBSECT. I.

Symptomes of Head-Melancholy.

FY no Symptoms appear about the stomack, nor the blood I be misaffected, and fear and sorrow continue, it is to be thought the Brain it self is troubled, by reason of a melancholy juyce bred in it, or otherways conveyed into it, and that evil juyce is from the distemperature of the part, or left after some inflammation," Thus far Piso. But this is not always true, for blood and hypocondries both are often affected even in head-melancholy. Hercules de Saxonia differs here from the common current of Writers, putting peculiar signs of head

> Nicholas Piso. Si signa circa ventriculum non apparent, nec sanguis mále affectus, & adsunt timor & moestitia, cerebrum ipsum existimandum est, &c. * Tract, de mel. cap. 13. &c. Ex intemperic spirituum, & cerebri motu, tenebrositate.

melancholy,