Dépression et mélancholie

Depression and Melancholy, 1660-1800

General Editors: Leigh Wetherall Dickson and Allan Ingram
Volume Editors: David Walker, Anita O'Connell and Michelle Faubert
Advisory Editor: Stuart Sim

4 volumes 

• Hardcover: 1264 pages
• Éditeur: Pickering & Chatto Ltd (31 juillet 2012)
• Langue: English
• ISBN-10: 1848930860
• ISBN-13: 978-1848930865

As a psychiatric term 'depression' dates back only as far as the mid-nineteenth century. Before then a wide range of terms were used to describe the experience of lowness of spirits. 'Melancholy' carried enormous weight, culturally and medically and was one of the two confirmed forms of eighteenth-century insanity, both professionally and culturally. The twin statues 'Melancholy Madness' and 'Raving Madness' stood outside Bethlem Hospital as they had since the 1670s, patterns of diagnosis as much as of popular perception. At the same time the melancholy perspective could be associated culturally with enhanced sensitivity, as in the work of the poet Thomas Gray, with creative genius and intelligence - a belief that Johnson was later to warn Boswell against - and even with being in the height of fashion, as satirized by Pope in the 'Cave of Spleen' episode of Rape of the Lock. In the work of the poet William Cowper melancholy assumed an almost wholly religious aspect, with suicide as the only apparent release. 

This four-volume primary resource collection will be the first large-scale study of depression across an extensive period. It will be divided chronologically, with each volume addressing a particular theme. The first volume examines the relationship between religion and melancholy with particular emphasis on Methodism and evangelical Protestantism. The literature of Methodism in particular abounds with references to the sense of psychological despair experienced by those who believe themselves to have been forsaken by God. Volume two depicts a period of radical change in medical understanding, as attitudes towards the body and its functions became increasingly evidence-based, while volume three explores the ways in which depression was identified, experienced and described from the inside. Finally, the fourth volume will bring together a range of publications, including broadsides, songs, poems and essays in order to reconstruct the cultural context of depression at the close of the eighteenth century.

• Presents key texts from medicine, religion and popular culture for the first time since original publication
• Most texts from autobiographical sources have never been published
• Provides rigorous examination of the relationship between illness, culture and society
• Full editorial apparatus: general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes and endnotes
• Consolidated index

Volume 1: Religious Writings

Henry More, Divine Dialogues (1668); Edward Fowler, The Principles and Practices of Certain Moderate Divines of the Church of England (1670); Richard Baxter, God’s Goodness Vindicated(1671); Joseph Glanvill, Anti-Fanatical Religion, and Free Philosophy (1676); Richard Baxter, The Cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow by Faith and Physick (1683); Frances Norton,Memento Mori: or, Meditations on Death (1705); Richard Davies,An Account of the Convincement, Exercises, Services and Travels of that Ancient Servant of the Lord, Richard Davies (1710); John Stevenson, A Rare Soul Strengthning (1729); William Crawford,Zion’s Traveller: or, The Soul’s Progress to Heaven (1729); Samuel Clarke, Sermon XIV. Of Religious Melancholy (1731); Anne Dutton,A Brief Account of the Gracious Dealings of God with a Poor, Sinful, Unworthy Creature (1750); John Wesley, The Wilderness State. Heaviness thro' Manifold Temptations (1760); John Langhorne,Letters on Religious Retirement, Melancholy and Enthusiasm(1762); Elisabeth West, Memoirs, or Spiritual Exercises of Elisabeth West (1766); Benjamin Fawcett, Observations on the Nature, Causes and Cure of Melancholy (1780); John Howie, Memoirs of the Life of John Howie (1796)

Volume 2: Medical Writings

Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus: or, The Anatomy of Consumptions (1666); Thomas Willis, Dr. Willis’s Receipts for the Cure of all Distempers (1701); David Irish, Levamen Infirmi: or, Cordial Counsel to the Sick and Diseased (1700); 'Sir John Midriff',Observations on the Spleen and Vapours (1721); Anon., A Treatise of Diseases of the Head, Brain, and Nerves (1721); William Stukely,Of the Spleen (1723); Sir Richard Blackmore, A Treatise of the Spleen and Vapours (1725); John Woodward, Select Cases, and Consultations, in Physick (1757); Richard Browne, Medicina Musica (1729); Edward Synge, Sober Thoughts for the Cure of Melancholy, especially that which is Religious (1749); Anon., A Treatise on the Dismal Effects of Low-Spiritedness (1750); Robert Whytt, Observations on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of those Disorders which have been commonly called Nervous Hypochondriac, or Hysteric (1765); William Smith, A Dissertation upon the Nerves (1768); 'William Wishwell', A Cure for Melancholy(1777); John Leake, Medical Instructions Towards the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases Peculiar to Women (1781); Benjamin Fawcett, Observations on the Nature, Causes and Cure of Melancholy (1780); Friedrich Hoffman, A System of the Practice of Medicine (1783); John Wesley, Thoughts on Nervous Disorders(1784); William Perfect, Cases of Insanity, the Epilepsy, Hypochondriacal Affection, Hysteric Passion, and Nervous Disorders (1785); William Rowley, A Treatise on Female, Nervous, Hysterical, Hypochondriacal, Bilious, Convulsive Diseases (1788)

Volume 3: Autobiographical Writings

Antony Wood, The Life of Anthony à Wood (1637–69); Alice Thornton, A Booke of Remembrances (1660–1); Edmund Berry Godfrey, Letters to Valentine Greatracks (1666–71); Elizabeth Freke, Some Few Remembrances of my Misffortuns (1671–1713); Anon, An Abstract of the Remarkable Passages in the Life of a Private Gentleman (1715); George Drummond, Diary (1736); Thomas Blacklock, 'An Hymn to Fortitude' (1754); Andrew Erskine, 'Ode I. To Indolence' (1762); Andrew Erskine, Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and James Boswell Esquire (1763); Sylas Neville, Journals and Letters (1767–73); Charlotte Forman, Letters to John Wilkes (1768–9); Georgiana Cavendish, Letter to Mary Graham (1778); John Logan, Letters to Alexander Carlyle (1781); James Boswell, Letter to Edmund Burke (1782); Robert Burns, Robert Burns' Commonplace Book (1783–5); John Gambold, The Rev J G To E V Esq (1740); John Gambold, 'On Lowness of Spirits' (1789); John Gambold, 'A Piece Written at a Time when under Apprehension of Losing his Senses' (1789); Joseph Wright, Letters to John Leigh Phillips (1799–96); Hannah Robertson, The Life of Mrs Robertson (1791)

Volume 4: Popular Culture

Anon, The Lovers Mad Fits and Fancies ([c.1663–5]); Anon, The Discontented Plow-Man ([c.1674–9]); Anon, The Love-Sick Maid; or Cordelia's Lament ([c.1670]); Anon, The Love-Sick Maid of Waping([c.1682–8]); Charles Gildon, The Post-Boy Robb'd of his Mail(1706); Edward Ward, Nuptial Dialogues and Debates (1710); Thomas D’Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote (1729); Thomas Gordon, The Humourist. Essays upon Several Subjects(1730); Anon, The Hyp (1737); Wetenhall Wilkes, The Humours of the Black-Dog (1737); Anon., The Temple of Dulness (1745); Thomas Sheridan, The Simile: or, Woman a Cloud. A Poem (1748); Anon, ‘Society of the Court of Comus’ (1757); Joseph Bromehead,The Melancholy Student. An Elegiac Poem ([1765/9]); Ashley Cowper, ‘To a Lady’ (1767); Pierre John Grosley, A Tour to London(1772); [Matthew Green], The Wag: or Life of Honour, and the Soul of Whim. 'The Spleen An Epistle' (1773); J M [James Murray], The Travels of the Imagination. A True Journey from Newcastle to London (1773); Anon., Mirth, A Poem in Answer to Warton's Pleasures of Melancholy ([1774]); George Colman, The Spleen, or Islington Spa (1776); John Rubrick [William Kenrick], The Spleen, or the Offspring of Folly (1776); H Bate Dudley [Sir Henry Bate], The Magic Picture, A Play (1783); Robert Sadler, Wanley Penson; or, The Melancholy Man (1792); Edward Walsh, 'Ode to Hypochondria' (1793); Thomas Bellamy, Sadaski; or, The Wandering Penitent(1798); John Macgowen, Infernal Conference, or, Dialogues with Devils (1799); Anon., The Budget of Momus (1800); C C, A Melancholy but True Story ([1800]); Charles Kemble, The Point of Honour (1800); Anon., 'The Man of Spleen', The Governess, or Evening Amusements at a Boarding School (1800)