* * * Being lunatic He rush’d into my house, and took perforce My ring away. Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Sc. III.
These dangerous unsafe lunes. Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. II.
With great imagination, Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, And, winking, leap’d into destruction. Henry IV—2d, Act. I., Sc. III.
Oft the eye mistakes, the brain being troubled. Venus and Adonis.
To see his nobleness! Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, He straight declin’d, droop’d, took it deeply; Fasten’d and fix’d the shame on’t in himself; Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, And downright languish’d. Winter’s Tale, Act II., Sc. III.
His siege is now Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds With many legions of strange fantasies, Which, in their throng and press to that last hold, Confound themselves. King John, Act V., Sc. VII.
Shakespeare certainly had the true idea of the great value of sleep, and he also knew of its importance in the treatment of brain diseases. Sleep serves as an excellent stimulant, promoting the growth of the brain. The infant, during the first ten weeks of its life, sleeps most of the time and hence during that period its brain is overdeveloped in proportion to its size.
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose, The which he lacks; that to provoke in him, Are many simples operative, whose power Will close the eye of anguish. King Lear, Act IV., Sc. IV.
O sleep, gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse, King Henry IV—2d, Act III., Sc. I.
Sleep, that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher of life’s feast. Macbeth, Act II., Sc. I.