WHIPS, HAIR-SHIRTS AND HALTERS
Cure of Love Melancholy, by Labour, Diet, Physic, Fasting, etc.
Although it be controverted by some, whether love melancholy may be cured, because it is so irresistible and violent a passion; yet without question, if it be taken in time, it may be helped and by many good remedies amended. The first rule to be observed in this stubborn and unbridled passion, is exercise and diet. As an idle sedentary life, liberal feeding, are great causes of it, so the opposite, labour, slender and sparing diet, with continual business, are the best and most ordinary means to prevent it. No better physic than to be always occupied, seriously intent.
“Why, dost thou ask, poor folks are often free
And dainty places still molested be?”
Because poor people fare coarsely, work hard, go wolward and bare. Guianerius therefore prescribes his patient, “go with hair-cloth next his skin, to go bare-footed, and bare-legged in cold weather, to whip himself now and then, as monks do, but above all to fast. Not with sweet wine, mutton and pottage, as many of those tender-bellies do, howsoever they put on Lenten faces, and whatsoever they pretend, but from all manner of meat.” Fasting is an all-sufficient remedy of itself; for, as Jason Pratensis holds, the bodies of such persons that feed liberally and live at ease, “are full of bad spirits and devils and devilish thoughts; no better physic for such parties, than to fast.” Hildesheim to this of hunger, adds, “often baths, much exercise and sweat,” but hunger and fasting he prescribes before the rest. By this means thos Indian Brahmins kept themselves continent: they lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the red-shanks do on heather, and dieted themselves sparingly on one dish, which Guianerius would have all young men put in practice, and if that will not serve, Gordonius “would have them soundly whipped, or, to cool their courage, kept in prison,” and there fed with bread and water until they acknowledge their error, and become of another mind. If imprisonment and hunger will not take them down, according to the directions of that Theban Crates, “time must wear it out; if time will not, the last refuge is a halter.” But this, you will say, is comically spoken.
Robert Burton (1621) The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Brings to mind, as kind of counterpoint, a passage from the opening the Decameron:
Ma sí come a Colui piacque il quale, essendo Egli infinito, diede per legge incommutabile a tutte le cose mondane aver fine, il mio amore, oltre a ogn’altro fervente e il quale niuna forza di proponimento o di consiglio o di vergogna evidente, o pericolo che seguir ne potesse, aveva potuto né rompere né piegare, per se medesimo in processo di tempo si diminuí in guisa, che sol di sé nella mente m’ha al presente lasciato quel piacere che egli è usato di porgere a chi troppo non si mette ne’ suoi piú cupi pelaghi navigando; per che, dove faticoso esser solea, ogni affanno togliendo via, dilettevole il sento esser rimaso.
But, as it pleased Him, who, being infinite, has assigned by immutable law an end to all things mundane, my love, beyond all other fervent, and neither to be broken nor bent by any force of determination, or counsel of prudence, or fear of manifest shame or ensuing danger, did nevertheless in course of time abate of its own accord, in such wise that it has now left nought of itself in my mind but that pleasure which it is wont to afford to him who does not adventure too far out in navigating its deep seas; so that, whereas it was used to be grievous, now, all discomfort being done away, I find that which remains to be delightful.
I like to think of this as a kind of entropic undoing of the final sonnetto of Dante’s Vita Nuova, “Oltre la spera che piu larga gira / passa ‘l sospiro ch’esce del mio core . . .”
Wonderful blog, just found it. And since you are interested in mourning, melancholy I am moved to recommend, among many other possibilities, the Chilean acoustic doom metal band Uaral.
Cheers,
Nicola Masciandaro
http://thewhim.blogspot.com
Thanks Nicola - fascinating connection! And an interesting blog of yours too. Chilean acoustic doom metal … hmmmm! will have to check it out!!