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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Subsection 9. Anger as a Cause.

Subsection 9. Anger as a cause.

Anger is a disturbance that carries the spirits outwards, predisposing the body to melancholy and even to madness: “Anger is a brief madness.” Piccolomini counts it among the three most violent passions. Aretaeus names it as a particular cause of this illness, as does Seneca, letter 18, book 1. Magninus gives the reason: “Frequent anger heats them beyond measure”; it overheats their bodies, and, if too frequent, breaks out into manifest madness, says Saint Ambrose.

It is a familiar saying: “Patience too often injured turns to fury.” Even the most patient spirit, repeatedly provoked, will be driven mad with anger; it will make a devil of a saint. Presumably that is why Basil, in his homily On Anger, calls it “the darkness of reason, a disease of the soul, and a most evil demon”—the darkening of our understanding, and an evil angel.

Lucian, in The Disowned Son, volume 1, holds that this passion has that effect especially in old men and women. Anger and slander, he says, disturb them at first and after a while break out into open madness. Many things cause frenzy in women, especially excessive love or hatred, envy, deep grief or anger; these things gradually lead them into this illness. From a disposition they advance to a settled condition, for during his fit there is no difference between a madman and an angry man.

Anger, as Lactantius describes it in On the Anger of God, addressed to Donatus, chapter 5, is “a savage storm of the mind,” and so on—a cruel tempest of the mind, making a man’s eyes flash fire and stare, his teeth grind, his tongue stammer, his face turn pale or red. What uglier likeness of a madman could there be?

Faces swell with anger, veins boil with blood; Eyes flash more fiercely than a Gorgon’s snake.

For the time being they are without reason, unyielding and blind, like beasts and monsters. They say and do they know not what: curse, swear, abuse, fight—what do they not do? How could a madman do more? As the character says in the comedy, “Anger puts me beside myself”—I am not my own man. If these fits are excessive, prolonged or frequent, they undoubtedly bring on madness.

Montanus, in consultation 21, had a Jewish patient suffering from melancholy, and ascribes his illness principally to this cause: “He became angry over trifles”—he was easily moved to anger. Ajax’s madness had no other beginning. And Charles VI, that mentally deranged French king, fell into this condition through the extremity of his passion, his desire for revenge and his malice. Enraged against the Duke of Brittany, he could neither eat, drink nor sleep for several days together. Finally, about the first of July 1392, he went mad on horseback, drawing his sword and striking indiscriminately at anyone who came near him; and he continued so for the rest of his life. Aemilius, French History, book 10.

Hegesippus, On the Destruction of Jerusalem, book 1, chapter 37, tells a similar story of Herod: in a fit of anger he went mad, leaped from his bed and killed Josephus, and performed many such mad acts. For a long time afterwards the entire court could not control him. Sometimes, “after his anger had cooled,” he was sorry and repentant, deeply grieved by what he had done; a moment later he was raging again.

In hot, choleric bodies nothing causes madness more quickly than anger, besides many other diseases, as Pelesius observes in On the Causes of Human Emotions, book 1, chapter 21: “It diminishes the blood and increases the bile.” And, as Valesius discusses in Medical Controversies, book 5, controversy 8, it often kills people outright. If this were its worst effect, it would be more tolerable. But it ruins and overthrows whole towns, cities, families and kingdoms. “No plague has cost humankind more,” says Seneca in On Anger, book 1. No plague has done humanity so much harm.

Look into our histories and you will find scarcely any other subject than what a crowd of hotheads have done in their rage. We might therefore do well to include this among the petitions in our litany: From all blindness of heart, from pride, vainglory and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred and malice, anger and all such destructive passions, good Lord, deliver us.

2963.“Spirits” are the subtle bodily agents of early modern physiology. “Anger is a brief madness” occurs in Horace, Epistles 1.2.62. Seneca, Letter 18.14, quotes Epicurus’s maxim that excessive anger produces madness; it appears in book 2 in the consulted division, rather than Burton’s book 1. Burton’s edition remains unidentified. The Piccolomini, Aretaeus, Magninus and Ambrose passages still require collation. Burton’s movement between temporary frenzy and lasting illness does not follow modern diagnostic distinctions.

2965.Lucian’s Abdicatus, The Disowned Son, is a rhetorical speech involving a physician and his father. Burton’s note names Gilbert Cousin as the Latin translator. “Habit” here means an established condition rather than a routine action. Burton’s assertions about age and sex are retained as historical claims; the complete speech and Cousin’s wording still require collation.

2967.Lactantius, On the Anger of God, chapter 5, sets out the Stoic argument that anger is incompatible with divine blessedness before contesting its conclusion. Burton extracts its vivid account of human anger. It should not be mistaken for Lactantius’s final denial that God can be angry.

2969.Compare Ovid, The Art of Love 3.503–504. The consulted Latin has nigrescunt, “grow dark,” and Gorgoneo … igne, “Gorgonian fire”; Burton prints fervescunt, “boil,” and Gorgonio … angue, “a Gorgon’s snake.” The translation follows Burton’s printed wording. Gorgons are mythical figures associated with terrifying faces and snakes.

2971.“I am not mine own man” means that the speaker has lost self-command. Terence is cited without a play or line; the exact locus remains unverified. “Madness” translates Burton’s broad term and does not supply a modern diagnosis.

2973.“Duke of Britain” means the Duke of Brittany. The Calends are the first day of a month. Burton and his margin give July 1392; the well-known forest episode of Charles VI is dated 5 August 1392 in the historical study listed below. His account of continuing illness is left as written. Ajax is the Greek hero whose rage and madness form a classical literary example.

2975.In the work now commonly called Pseudo-Hegesippus, On the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1.37, Joseph is Herod’s brother-in-law, married to Salome—not the historian Josephus. The narrative says Herod ordered Joseph and Mariamne killed; Burton compresses this to “he killed Josephus.” The scan’s “became made” is rendered “went mad.” “Bedlam” supplies a conventional image of frenzied behaviour.

2979.“Choleric” refers to a hot constitution associated with bile. The medical claims belong to Burton’s humoral explanation; Pelesius’s and Valesius’s passages remain uncollated. Seneca’s statement about anger’s cost to humanity is at On Anger 1.2.1, followed by examples of cities and peoples destroyed.

2981.“Procession” refers here to the litany, a form of public prayer. Burton adapts the Book of Common Prayer’s petition against blindness of heart, pride, vainglory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred and malice, adding anger and destructive passions. The movement from histories of violence to communal prayer closes the subsection.