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Bright, Timothy (1550-1615) A Treatise of Melancholy. Containing the Causes thereof and Reasons of the Strange Effects it Worketh in our Minds and Bodies.
London: Printed by William Stansby, 1613.
Second edition, first published in 1586, octavo, with initial blank; bound in later half red morocco; headlines cropped; 5 3/8 x 3 1/2 in.
"Bright's Treatise of Melancholie was, in Shakespeare's day, the most important work on the subject. Melancholy, the ‘sadde and fearful' humour, was a common, even fashionable malady in Elizabethan England, especially after 1580. It was associated with sadness and abnormal psychology, but also refinement and male intellect. [...] Bright explores the causes and treatments of ‘feare, sadness, desperation, teares, weeping, sobbing, sighing', as well as irrational laughter; and he makes a subtle distinction between melancholy and conscience which often ‘nourish' each other. In his discussion of melancholy, Bright suggests that the mind and body are interdependent; melancholy affects not only the ‘bodely sense' but also the ‘soule and spirite'." (Quoted from Bright's Treatise of Melancholy, 1586 published on the British Library's Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance blog: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/brights-treatise-of-melancholy-1586)
