Sir Andrew. Very sweet and contagious, i’ faith.
Sir Toby. To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion.”
Insanity. That is a common idea that the symptoms of madness are increased by the full moon. Shakespeare mentions this popular fallacy in “Othello” (v. 2), where he tells us that the moon makes men insane when she comes nearer the earth than she was wont.[611]
Music as a cure for madness is, perhaps, referred to in “King Lear” (iv. 7), where the physician of the king says: “Louder the music there.”[612] Mr. Singer, however, has this note: “Shakespeare considered soft music favorable to sleep. Lear, we may suppose, had been thus composed to rest; and now the physician desires louder music to be played, for the purpose of waking him.”
So, in “Richard II.” (v. 5), the king says:
“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.”
The power of music as a medical agency has been recognized from the earliest times, and in mental cases has often been highly efficacious.[613] Referring to music as inducing sleep, we may quote the touching passage in “2 Henry IV.” (iv. 5), where the king says:
“Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
Unless some dull and favourable hand
Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
Warwick. Call for the music in the other room.”
Ariel, in “The Tempest” (ii. 1), enters playing solemn music to produce this effect.