III.─Middle Ages and Modern Times.
A very long interval occurs here, during which period I cannot discover any Notable Suicides: on passing to the next series a great change will be noticed as to causation, the days of suicide for honour are passed: Misery has become the mainspring.
Richard II., King of England, 1399. Some historians, as Walsingham, Otterbourne, and Peter of Blois, say that this king starved himself to death.
Charles VII., King of France, 1461, starved himself, because he feared the Dauphin would poison him.
Acosta, Uriel, 1647, a Jew who became a Christian, but becoming involved in the toils of the Inquisition, destroyed himself.
Burton, Robert, 1660, author of the “Anatomy of Melancholy,” committed suicide to verify the prophecy he had made as to the date of his death.
Temple, John, 1689, Secretary of State for War.
Creech, Thomas, 1700, the learned translator of “Lucretius,” killed himself in imitation of the author whose works he translated.
Budgell, Eustace, 1714, author, threw himself from a boat into the Thames.
Scarborough, Lord, 1727, killed himself in the dilemma which of two ladies to associate with.
Green, W., 1750, a weaver, jumped off the Monument, London.
Chatterton, Thomas, 1770, Poet, by poison, from poverty.
Clive, Lord, 1774, shot himself; he had been ungratefully treated; he had, however, made two attempts on his life in his youth.
Cardan, Jerome, 1575, Physician and Astrologer, having foretold his death for a certain date, and finding himself still well, killed himself to verify his prophecy.
Rousseau, J. J., 1778. Some authorities say he poisoned himself by arsenic.
Craddock, T., 1780, a baker, jumped off the top of the Monument, London.
Claviere, E., 1793, the Girondin, stabbed himself; and his wife killed herself after him.
Condorcet, M. J. A., 1794, French Mathematician, killed himself in prison.
Roland, 1795, French Minister, by a sword thrust.
Romme, 1795, French Statesman, by stabbing.
Pichegru, C., 1804, French General, strangled himself with his scarf when in prison, accused of plotting against the government.
Villeneuve, P., French Admiral, 1806, stabbed himself when suffering from melancholia.
Levy, Lyon, 1810, a Jewish diamond merchant, jumped off the Monument, London.
Williams, 1811, the murderer of the Marr family.
Kleist, H. Von., 1811, German author, shot himself after killing a lady to whom he was much attached, at her request.
Berthier, L. A., 1815, French General.
Romilly, Sir S., 1818, Jurist and M.P., killed himself three days after the death of his wife.
Christophe, 1820, King of Hayti.
Englishman, an, 1820, threw himself into the crater of Vesuvius.
Campbell, Sir G., 1821, English Admiral.
Castlereagh, Lord, 1822, cut his throat.
Saint Simon, C. H., 1822, a Frenchman, founder of a religious sect.
Brachmann, Luise, 1822, German poetess.
Montgomery, 1828, took prussic acid, when a prisoner for forgery, in Newgate.
Condé, Prince de, 1830, hanged himself.
Robert Leopold, 1835, painter, cut his throat, from jealousy.
Gros, Baron, 1835, painter, drowned himself from disappointment.
Colton, C. C., 1832, an eccentric clergyman, author of “Lacon.”
Moyes, Miss E., 1839, jumped off the Monument, London, because her father, being reduced in circumstances, it was decided that she should earn her own living.
Beresford, Lord James, 1841.
Munster, Earl of, 1842, son of William IV.
Blanchard, Laman, 1845, journalist.
Haydon, B. R., 1846, painter, on account of money troubles, shot himself.
Praslin, Duc de, 1847, his wife was found murdered; he was arrested on suspicion, and was found self-slain in prison.
Watts, Walter, 1850, Lessee of the Olympic Theatre.
Bourg, St. Edme, 1851, author; found strangled by his scarf.
Layard, Lieut.-Col., 1853, of “Nineveh” fame.
Robinson, Rev. T., 1854, threw himself off the cliffs at Dover.
Franks, Dr., 1855, editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung, after killing his son.
Sadleir, John, M.P., 1856, by prussic acid, when found guilty of Bank frauds.
Smart, A., 1856, a watchmaker, threw himself down from the Whispering Gallery in St. Paul’s.
Miller, Hugh, 1856, geologist, from overwork.
Russell, Chas., 1856, Chairman of the Great Western Railway.
Moser, Isaac, 1861, a millionaire Jew.
Fitzroy, Admiral, 1865, meteorologist.
Green, G. W., 1867, a merchant, jumped off Suspension Bridge at Clifton.
Warder, Dr. A. W., 1867, at Brighton, after murdering his wife.
Theodore, Emperor of Abyssinia, 1868.
Lee, Thomas, 1868, threw himself from the North Tower of the Crystal Palace.
Prevost-Paradol, 1870, French Minister.
Bowley, R. K., 1870, Manager of the Crystal Palace.
Matthiessen, Dr., 1870, eminent chemist.
Willes, Sir James S., 1872, eminent judge, from overwork.
Delawarr, Earl, 1873, when insane.
Abdul Aziz, 1876, Sultan of Turkey, veins of the bend of the arm opened by scissors.
Lyttleton, Lord George, 1876, eminent scholar, when insane.
Butcher, Dr. Sam., 1876, Bishop of Meath, when insane.
Brandon, Raphael, 1877, architect.
Mahomed, Ismail Khan, 1883, an Afghan surgeon, by prussic acid.
[CHAPTER IV.]
LITERATURE.
The Literature of the subject is of very diverse character. France, Italy, and Germany have produced many works on suicide as a fact. England has been content with one work on suicide, that of Forbes Winslow, “The Anatomy of Suicide,” dated 1840. “It is an interesting collection of anecdotes, arranged without much regard to method or authenticity.” (Athenæum.)
The thoroughly scientific statistical work of H. Morselli, of Turin, has been recently published in an English form, but it is hardly a readable book, consisting almost entirely of statistics; and the subject, moreover, is treated from an Italian standpoint, and for these reasons has not found many readers in this country.
There are, however, plenty of references to suicide in English literature, and some essays, chiefly in its defence. Some of these I catalogue here, and also several references from French literature. I also add a few examples of authors of Greece and Rome who concerned themselves with the subject. Of foreign works relating to suicide, a list will be found in the Bibliographical Index.
Among the authors of Greek and Roman civilization, in favour of allowing suicide to be committed, were─
Aristippus, circa 360 B.C., founder of the Cyrenaic philosophy.
Hegesias, a Cyrenaic philosopher, circa 300 B.C.
Epicurus, d. 270 B.C., founder of the Epicurean philosophy.
Zeno, d. 264 B.C., founder of the Stoic philosophy.
Cleanthes, d. 240 B.C., a pupil of Zeno.
Cicero, d. 43 B.C.
Seneca, d. A.D. 65.
Pliny the Elder, d. A.D. 79.
Epictetus, d. circa A.D. 100.
Plutarch, d. A.D. 140.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, a Stoic, d. A.D. 180.
Diogenes Laertius, circa A.D. 200.
The following famous authors denied its permissibility, and condemned those who practised it:─
Pythagoras, d. 520 B.C.
Socrates, d. 399 B.C.
Plato, d. 348 B.C.
Aristotle, d. 321 B.C.
Æschines, d. 314 B.C.
Virgil, d. 19 B.C. (See Æneid, vi. 434.)
Pliny the Younger, A.D. 116.
Lucian, d. A.D. 180.
Plotinus, d. A.D. 270.
According to Morselli of Turin, the word “suicide” originated in France, in the middle of the last century.
In this matter he apparently copied French authors who claim that it was first used in the “Dictionnaire de Trevoux” (the town of Trevoux), by Desfontaines, in 1752. It appears along with Parricide in the “Dictionnaire de l’Academie Française,” of 1762.
Richelet, in his famous French Dictionary of 1680, has, I find, Parricide, but not Suicide.
So much for France. With regard to England, Archbishop Trench says, “Up to the middle of the seventeenth century our good writers use self-homicide, never suicide.” Nathan Bailey, in his English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1736, gives the word “suicide.”
But the word is much older even than that; in the introduction to Edward Phillips’ “New World of Words,” dated 1662, these remarks are to be found: “One barbarous word I shall produce, which is suicide, a word which I had rather should be derived from sus, a sow, than from the pronoun sui, unless there be some mystery in it; as if it were a swinish part for a man to kill himself.” Some English Dictionaries, such as Wright’s, give the obsolete word “suicism.”
“Suicidium” looks like a Latin word, but is not so, although Nathan Bailey in the 30th edition of his Dictionary says it is; the modern term “Suicide,” is of course derived from the Latin words “sui,” self, and “cædo” to kill; but the ancient Romans, although familiar with the fact, used a phrase to express it. They said, “sibi mortem consciscere” (Cicero, Oratio pro Cluentio), “to procure his own death”; and “veneno mortem sibi consciscere” for “to poison himself,” or “to procure death for himself by poison.” They also used as alternative phrases “vim sibi inferre,” “to cause violence to himself,” Velleius Paterculus; “sua manu cadere,” Tacitus, Annales; and “mors voluntaria,” Cicero, Epistolæ ad familiares.
The ancient Greek phrase for “suicide,” was απολακτισμος βιου, Æschylus; “a suicide” was αυτοφονος, Æschylus; for our phrase “to commit suicide” they used a verb αυτοκτονεω, Sophocles.
Euripides uses αυτοκτονος: in Plato is found αυτοχειρια, and also in Euripides; two other forms of speech were εμαυτον διαχραομαι, Æschines, and εμαυτον βιαζομαι, Plato.
The Germans use the term “Selbstmord,” the Italians “il suicidio.”
The following English Authors have either written treatises on suicide, or else have made mention of it in their works.
The list is of course not complete, but it represents the views of many writers of eminence from the time of Henry the Eighth to a recent date.
Sir Thomas More, in his “Utopia,” dated 1516, Book II., writes: “But yf the disease be not onelye yncurable, but also full of contynuall payne and anguishe; ... and seinge his lyffe to him is but a tormente, that he wyl not bee vnwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to him, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out of a prison, or racke of torment, or elles suffer hymselfe wyllinglye to be ridde oute of it by other.”
These lines are from the English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551.
Shakespeare (d. 1616) in “Julius Cæsar,” Act V. Scene 1., makes Brutus say:─
“Even by the rule of that philosophy,
By which I did blame Cato for the death
He gave himself:─I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life:─arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.”
And in “Hamlet,” Act I., Scene 2, writes:─
“O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew;
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self slaughter, O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world.”
And in Act III., Scene 1, is found the long passage commencing, “To be, or not to be; that is the question;─” in which the relative merits of life and death are discussed.
In “Othello,” Act I., Scene 3, he makes Roderigo say, “I will incontinently drown myself.” “It is silliness to live when to live is a torment;” to which Iago replies, “a pox on drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.”
Dr. John Donne, d. 1631, wrote an essay on this subject, entitled ‘βιαθανατοσ, or That self-slaying is not so naturally sin that it may never be otherwise.
Massinger, the Dramatist, d. 1640.
“This Roman resolution of self-murder
Will not hold water at the High Tribunal
When it comes to be argued; my good genius
Prompts me to this consideration. He
That kills himself t’avoid misery, fears it;
And at the best shows a bastard valour.”
Milton, d. 1674, says:─
“Nor love thy life, nor hate: but what thou liv’st
Live well; how long or short permit to Heaven.”
Sir Thomas Browne, d. 1682, author of “Religio Medici,” wrote, “Suicide is, not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life.”
Sir Wm. Temple, d. 1699, said, “A man should depart this life when he has no further pleasure in remaining.”
Henry Dodwell, the learned Non-juror, d. 1711, was the author of an “Apology for Suicide.”
Robert Fleming, d. 1716, Nonconformist Minister, wrote “The command ‘thou shalt not kill’ forbids suicide as well as homicide.”
George Sewell, d. 1726, in a poem called “The Suicide,” writes:─
“When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward shrinks to death, the brave live on.”
Richard Savage, d. 1743. In his poem “The Wanderer” are these lines:─
“From me (she cries), pale wretch, thy comfort claim,
Born of despair, and Suicide my name!
Why should thy life a moment’s pain endure?
Here every object proffers grief a cure.
She points where leaves of hemlock blackening shoot!
Fear not, pluck! eat (said she) the sovereign root!
Or leap yon rock, possess a watery grave,
And leave thy sorrow to the wind and wave!
Or mark─this poniard thus from misery frees!
She wounds her breast!...”
Samuel Richardson, in “Clarissa Harlowe,” 1749: “To be cut off by the sword of injured friendship is the most dreadful of all deaths, next to suicide.”
Edward Young, d. 1765, in his “Night Thoughts,” Night V., The Relapse:
“The bad on each punctilious pique of pride,
Or gloom of humour, would give rage the rein;
Bound o’er the barrier, rush into the dark,
And mar the schemes of Providence below.
O Britain, infamous for suicide!”
Dr. Johnson, in 1773, was asked: “Suppose that a man is sure that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society, should he make away with himself?” and he answered, “Then, let him go abroad to a distant country, let him go to some place where he is not known. Don’t let him go to the Devil, where he is known.”
Hume, David, d. 1776, the historian, was unable to condemn the practice, and indeed wrote an “Essay on Suicide,” showing that it was consistent with our duty.
Blackstone, d. 1780, “Commentaries,” Book IV., cap. 14: “The suicide is guilty of a double offence: one spiritual in evading the prerogative of the Almighty; the other temporal, against the king, who hath an interest in the preservation of his subjects.”
Dryden, d. 1700, writes:
“Brutus and Cato might discharge their souls,
And give them furloughs for another world;
But we like sentries, are obliged to stand
In starless nights, and wait th’appointed hour.”
And in his Fables speaks of Suicide in terms of abhorrence:
“The slayer of himself too, saw I there:
The gore, congealed, was clotted in his hair.
With eyes half closed, and mouth wide ope, he lay,
And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away.”
Gibbon, Edw., the historian, d. 1794, was in favour of its permissibility under certain circumstances.
Mason, William, d. 1797, writes:
“Unlicensed to eternity! Think! think!
And let the thought restrain thy impious hand.”
Paley, Rev. Wm., d. 1805, the great Biblical scholar, discusses the question of Suicide. He concludes that its commission argues against our reverence for the Deity, exhibits a want of religious fortitude, and a deficiency of regard for our future state.
Tom Paine, d. 1809, in his “Age of Reason,” approves of Suicide, and more than one case has been traced directly to the mental and moral effect of reading this work.
Lord Byron, d. 1824, in his “Don Juan,” c. xiv., v. 4, writes:
“A sleep without dreams after a rough day
Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet
How clay shrinks back from mere quiescent clay!
The very Suicide that pays his debt
At once without instalments (an old way
Of paying debts, which creditors regret),
Lets out impatiently his rushing breath,
Less from disgust of life, than dread of death.”
Sir Chas. Morgan writes: “What poetical suicides and sublime despair might have been prevented by a timely dose of blue pill, or the offer of a Loge aux Italiens!”
Colton, d. 1832, in his “Lacon,” writes: “Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it: since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.”
It has been affirmed that the works of Robert Owen, of Lanark, d. 1858, manufacturer and social economist, who was author of several visionary schemes for the mutual advancement of men, have, like those of Tom Paine, led to the commission of self-destruction.
.....?
“We are the fools of time and terror: Days
Steal on us, and steal from us, yet we live
Loathing our life, and dreading still to die
In all the days of this detested yoke─
This vital weight upon the struggling heart,
Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain,
Or joy that ends in agony, or faintness─
In all the days of past and future, for
In life there is no present, we can number
How few,─how less than few, wherein the soul
Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back
As from a stream in winter, though the chill
Be but a moment’s....”
Dr. Henry Maudsley writes: “Any poor creature from the gutter can put an end to himself; there is no nobility in the act, and no great amount of courage required for it. It is a deed rather of cowardice shirking duty, generated in a monstrous feeling of self, and accomplished in the most sinful, because wicked ignorance. Even if the act of Cato did not speak for itself, he was far too self-conscious. Montaigne tells us that he was given to drinking, and the Catos, as a race, were noted for rigid severity of character, which mostly signifies narrowness of vision, self-love, and conceit.”