BRIGHT | A Treatise of Melancholy, 1586

Property from the Library at Spetchley Park

BRIGHT, TIMOTHY

A treatise of melancholy. Contayning the causes thereof, and reasons of the straynge effects it worketh in our minds and bodies: with the physicke cure, and spirituall consolation for such as have thereto adioyned afflicted conscience. John Windet, 1586

8vo (138 x 88 mm.), second edition, woodcut initials, a few early manuscript annotations or markings, later calf gilt, spine in six compartments, marbled endpapers, a few minor edge-tears, some slight soiling, binding worn at edges and on spine, upper joint split and upper cover starting

THE FIRST ENGLISH TREATISE ON MENTAL ILLNESS AND A KEY SOURCE FOR SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET.

This second edition was published in the same year as the first. It was the best available text for Shakespeare when writing Hamlet, with Professor Dover Wilson and Kenneth Muir (among other Shakespeare scholars) making strong arguments that the playwright read Bright's book when creating the character, even down to reproducing and echoing many of Bright's phrases (see Muir, The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays, p.166ff.)

LITERATURE:

STC 3748; Keynes, Bright 15

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