[447] “Mad Nat Lee,” who was for a long time an inmate of Bedlam, minutely describes the insanity of genius in his poems; e.g., in Cæsar Borgia:—
“Like a poor lunatic that makes his moan,
And, for a while, beguiles his lookers-on,
He reasons well. His eyes their wildness lose,
He vows his keepers his wronged sense abuse,
But if you hit the cause that hurts his brain,
Then his teeth gnash, he foams, he shakes his chain.”
See Winslow, Obscure Diseases of the Brain, p. 210, London, 1863. See also the chapter “On the Art of Insanity,” for proofs of a like tendency on the part of insane painters.
“Vi son dei giorni che il mio cor vien meno
E il fango mi conquista.”
“Venga l’obbrobrio—dell’uomo sobrio;
Venga il disprezzo del genere umano;
Venga l’inferno—del Padre Eterno;
Vi scenderò col mio bicchiere in mano.”
[450] See Dilthey, Dichterische Einbildungskraft und Wahnsinn, Leipzig, 1886.
[451] Letter from Edmond de Goncourt to Emile Zola (Lettres de Jules de Goncourt, Paris, 1885).
[452] Déjerine, De l’Hérédité dans les Maladies, 1886; Ribot, De l’Hérédité, 1878; Ireland, The Blot upon the Brain, 1885.