Surprise might perhaps be expressed that Shakespeare should make such large use of this “humour”; it would be expected that he, whom we have shewn to be familiar with all kinds of insanity, would conceive of melancholia more nearly after the fashion of the present-day physician. The explanation is simple. Shakespeare knew perfectly well that melancholy could be a disease, and has described it as such. Let us remember the quotations, given above,[139:2] from “Twelfth Night” and “King John.” And who was it that “besieged with sable-coloured melancholy . . . did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most
wholesome physic of thy health-giving air?”[140:1] Yet Shakespeare was equally well acquainted with that hypochondriacal melancholia and that temperamental depression which play a large part in modern life, and both of these, to say nothing of the love-melancholy which varies from slight depression to acute mania, he found it convenient to use. The contemporary dramatists, however great or small their knowledge, usually preferred the “love melancholy” and used it almost exclusively.
The melancholy of Achilles is quite superficial. He is “lion sick of a proud heart”[140:2] just as Ajax is “melancholy without cause,” and nobody in the play interprets his behaviour otherwise. The estimate just quoted of him is one of the least violent of the opinions of Ajax; Agamemnon calls him “over-proud and under-honest”;[140:3] Ulysses says that he is
“possess’d . . . with greatness
And speaks not to himself but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath.”[140:4]
Ulysses’ descriptions of the general’s occupations, of his jests at Agamemnon and the Greeks, of his delight in Patroclus’ imitations, and the “loud applause” which comes from his “deep chest”[140:5] are sufficient proof that his malady is not very serious. Certainly, judging from the
care with which Shakespeare demonstrates the nature of its source, we shall conclude that this melancholy is presented to us as a “humour.”
The “Merchant of Venice” is coloured by the sadness of its hero, even at the height of his prosperity. At the outset of the play he declares to his friends:
“In sooth, I know not why I am so sad;