Oppressed nature sleeps:— This rest might yet have balm’d thy broken senses, Which, if convenient will not allow, Stand in hard cure. King Lear, Act III., Sc. VI.
Man’s rich restorative; his balmy bath, That supplies, lubricates and keeps in play The various movements of that nice machine, Which asks such frequent periods of repair. Young’s Night Thoughts.
Music was held as one of the remedies in the treatment of insanity. It plays an important part in King Lear, (IV-VII), and finds mention as a remedy in other plays.
This music mads me, let it sound no more; For, though it have holp madmen to their wits, In me it seems it will make wise men mad. Richard II., Act V., Sc. V.
Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; Unless some dull and favourable hand Will whisper music to my weary spirit. Henry IV—2d, Act IV., Sc. IV.
Your honour’s players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy, For so your doctors hold it very meet. Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy; Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play, And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life. Taming of the Shrew, Ind., Sc. II.
Your physicians have expressly charg’d, In peril to incur your former malady, That I should yet absent me from your bed. Taming of the Shrew, Ind., Sc. II.
This closing with him fits his lunacy: Whate’er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits, Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches. Titus Andronicus, Act V., Sc. II.
Dispute not with her, she is lunatic. Richard III., Act I., Sc. III.
* * Deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do. As You Like It, Act III., Sc. II.