“A most incomparable delight it is so to melancholise, and build castles in the air,” he comments. Melancholy can start out pleasantly enough: a person might want to spend time in solitary contemplation, wandering alone in woods or down by the river. He describes it as like a Siren, that mythical creature who lured sailors to their watery deaths through her sweet singing. Yet being melancholy was far from a safe occupation, as Burton knew all too well. Read more | Can the work of a 17th-century scholar help us understand mental illness?.Put simply, it looked good to be melancholy. This brand of melancholy gave a dark glamour to the condition: it was a source of inspiration to artists and writers, while young gentlemen of the Tudor period fashioned themselves – like Hamlet – as lone, pensive figures, wearing black. Drawing on astrological theory, he claimed that Saturn cast its influence over deep thinkers, bringing contemplative wisdom but also a kind of holy madness. In the late 15th century, the Italian Neoplatonist scholar Marsilio Ficino argued that melancholy was the companion of scholarly introspection.
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