Men's lovesickness in Iberian chivalric romances in English: Anthony Munday's Palmendos (1589) and Primaleon of Greece, Book 1 (1595)

Abstract

This article explores the language of love disease in two Iberian romances translated by Anthony Munday, namely Palmendos (1589) and Primaleon of Greece (1595). Special attention is paid to the way the personality of male types develops through the narrative, describing it by means of the medical vocabulary of melancholy. A comparative analysis of Munday's translations and their Spanish and French sources (published in 1511 and 1550, respectively) is carried out, thus offering a wider view of the discourse on melancholy in different European countries and at different stages during the sixteenth century.