The Problem of Early Modern Melancholy*

Gowland, Angus

doi:10.1093/pastj/gtj012

Cited by 49 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Proof microcosm -passions were "seditions", [and] the cause of "Civil Dissension" in the soul'. 74 Indeed, Ferrand asserted that 'the diverse and violent peturbations of love-melancholy which afflict the mind of a passionate lover [deprived of a loved one] are the causes of greater mischiefs than any other passion of the mind whatsoever'. 75 Melancholic diseases, brought about by the disappointment of royalist affections, not only threatened the mental health of individuals, they endangered the well-being of the whole body politic.…”

Section: Angela Mcshane 203mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Extraordinary Case of the Blood-Drinking and Flesh-Eating Cavaliers

McShane¹

2010

The Extraordinary and the Everyday in Early Modern England

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In May 1650, A Perfect Diurnall of Some Passages and Proceedings of Parliament and in Relation to the Armies in England and Ireland reported that 'very lately […] at Milton in Barkeshire' a 'company of [5] Royalists at an alehouse, being drunke, they out of zeale of affection to their King at Bredagh, would drink his health in blood, and to effect this, unanimously agreed to cut a peece of their Buttocks, and fry their flesh that was cut off on a grid-iron'. The group were discovered when one man's 'excessive bleeding' forced his companions to call a surgeon. In turn, this alerted another man's wife who lived nearby. She burst into the room and 'laid about her' with a pair of tongs 'so sav[ing] her husband cutting of his flesh'. The ensuing commotion drew the attention of the authorities. The men were questioned by the Governor of Wallingford, Major Arthur Evelyn, and were bound over to appear before the next Quarter Sessions. 2 Little further information about the case remains. Although the reporter anticipated a hearing before the Berkshire sessions, records do not survive for this period, and no clear reference to the case has been found elsewhere. The village of Milton was situated on the road between Wallingford and Wantage. It had one major inn near the church, known in the lateseventeenth century as 'The Dogg'. 3 During and after the civil war, local loyalties ranged from ardent Anglican royalism to Presbyterian and sectarian radicalism. Nevertheless, the county was a royalist stronghold until 1646, when, after a long siege ending in the surrender of the castle to General Fairfax, Major Arthur Evelyn was appointed Governor of Wallingford. After that time, the castle was used to confine dissidents and concerns about a royalist resurgence in the area were high. 4 In what follows, the cultural contexts in which this remarkable episode in Milton took place, and from which contemporary behaviours and their meanings were inevitably constructed, will be explored. We will see how such events, rather than simply appealing to our taste for the bizarre and spectacular, can illuminate something of the everyday experience of royalists in interregnum England. On one hand, multiple imaginary readings of 192 This file is to be used only for a purpose specified by Palgrave Macmillan, such as checking proofs, preparing an index, reviewing, endorsing or planning coursework/other institutional needs. You may store and print the file and share it with others helping you with the specified purpose, but under no circumstances may the file be distributed or otherwise made accessible to any other third parties without the express prior permission of Palgrave Macmillan. Please contact rights@palgrave.com if you have any queries regarding use of the file.

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Section: Angela Mcshane 203mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Extraordinary Case of the Blood-Drinking and Flesh-Eating Cavaliers

McShane¹

2010

The Extraordinary and the Everyday in Early Modern England

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“…Gowland explores another medical phenomenon often noted by writers in the seventeenth century: melancholy. Some, particularly the contemporary writer Henry Burton, saw it as the besetting disorder of the age.…”

Section: (Iii) 1500–1700 Henry French Universityof Exetermentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature published in 2006

Pratt¹,

Schofield²,

French

et al. 2008

The Economic History Review

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Early Anglo-Saxon settlement sites have been revealed by several excavations. Dickens et al. report a substantial village and associated cemetery at Bloodmoor Hill, Suffolk. Finds included evidence for textile manufacture, but not specialist commodity production; occupation appears to have ceased in the late seventh or early eighth century. The settlement at Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, published by Murray and McDonald, yielded an enclosed farmstead and cemetery, both in use until c.800. Evidence for textile production and the presence of Ipswich ware suggests the site's participation in an active trading network. Wright, on Orton Waterville, Peterborough, reports a long-lived settlement generating relatively modest material remains. The site at Shepperton, Middlesex, described by Poulton, appears to have been regularly laid out in the later Anglo-Saxon period, replacing a flourishing earlier settlement. Parallel ditches point to the 'toft and croft' arrangement of medieval villages.Debate continues over early population movement. Casting doubt on the historicity of Irish migration to western Britain in the fourth or fifth centuries, Dark postulates the pre-existing presence there of spoken Irish. This would contrast with the evidence for Anglo-Saxon migration, particularly to 'Anglian' areas, considered more secure. Bartholemew offers grounds for identifying 'Angulus', Continental homeland of the Angli described by Bede, as modern Frisia. Possible connections with Procopius's account, usually treated with scepticism, might suggest Frisia as the starting-point for a substantial part of the Anglo-Saxon migration into Britain. Addressing the subject of river-names, generally considered a good indicator of Anglo-Saxon displacement in lowland areas, Yeates offers evidence from the Cotswolds area showing the loss of Brittonic river-names occurring over a far longer period.Though not necessarily incompatible with the orthodox view, this may suggest a greater survival of Brittonic nomenclature originally in the west.In funerary archaeology, Hamerow explores the 'special' deposition of human and animal remains within areas of occupation. The relatively high percentage of dogs and horses, together with cattle, strengthens the impression of ritualistic activity, possibly directed towards fertility, while an association with sunken-featured buildings would make sense if such structures had been used for storage. Reconstructing the ritual of human cremation, Williams places the deceased body at the centre of an elaborate visual spectacle. Rather than a mourner-centred approach to interpretation, the body itself may have had some agency in a complex interrelationship between the living and the dead. Chester-Kadwell, evaluating metal-detector finds in Norfolk, suggests that if used carefully these can supplement the existing corpus of known early cemeteries. Lee's study of textile evidence in funerary contexts shows its value not only in relation to gender but also as an indicator of social status. The model of a 'final phase' o...

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“…As a group, nuns were particularly prone to forms of melancholy, a term that enjoyed tremendous plasticity throughout the Renaissance. 51 By the sixteenth century, melancholy simultaneously denoted a humoral temperament, a physical illness, and a dangerous spiritual condition arising from a disordered imagination. Religious celibates were considered to be at greater risk for melancholy because they were denied the health-giving, purgative effects of sexual intercourse.…”

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confidence: 99%

Women on the Edge: Madness, Possession, and Suicide in Early Modern Convents

Strocchia¹

2015

Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies

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This essay examines suicidal behaviors in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Catholic convents in light of the new attitudes toward voluntary death emerging across Europe between 1500 and 1700. Focusing on Italy, which housed the greatest number of enclosed religious women on the Continent, the essay probes the causal links between mental anguish, suicide, and forced professions. Despite challenges in quantifying convent suicide cases, it is clear that suicidal behaviors were not uncommon in Italian convents. Much was at stake from both a social and salvific standpoint when a “bride of Christ” killed herself or threatened to do so. Such willful deaths not only contravened basic religious precepts but also reneged on the promise to sacrifice oneself continuously for God, city, and family. Motivations for self-harm ranged from deep despair with convent life to madness and demonic possession, all of which were expressed in similar ways. Nuns also used suicide threats instrumentally to further their claims as spiritual aspirants singled out by the devil. Enlarging the scope of inquiry beyond Protestant Europe, the essay demonstrates the constitutive role Catholic nuns played in constructing new understandings of suicide in the early modern period.

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The Problem of Early Modern Melancholy*

Cited by 49 publications

References 78 publications

The Extraordinary Case of the Blood-Drinking and Flesh-Eating Cavaliers

The Extraordinary Case of the Blood-Drinking and Flesh-Eating Cavaliers

Review of periodical literature published in 2006

Women on the Edge: Madness, Possession, and Suicide in Early Modern Convents

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