The Anatomy of Melancholy

In Muscovy, where people live in heated rooms and houses all winter and seldom go outdoors, chess is, on the other hand, very necessary; hence, says Herberstein, it is much played there. At Fez in Africa, where heat similarly obliges people to stay indoors, it is highly commendable and, according to Leo Africanus, just as widely played.

It is a suitable pastime for gentlewomen with nothing to do, soldiers in garrison, and courtiers who have nothing but love affairs to occupy them, though not altogether so suitable for students. I may say the same of Cl. Bruxer’s Philosophers’ Game, Dr Fulke’s Metromachia and his Ouronomachia, and the other intricate astrological and geometrical inventions, especially for those with mathematical interests, along with the rest of those elaborate games.

Dancing, singing, masques, mumming, and stage plays, however harshly some stern Catos condemn them, may rightly be approved when enjoyed at a proper time and in moderation. “It is better to dig than to dance,” says Augustine; but what does that matter if people enjoy dancing? “No one dances sober.” But what kind of dance are we talking about?

I know these pastimes have many opponents, with volumes written against them, though everything they say, properly considered, merely misses the point. Others, now old, stubborn, and past such pleasures themselves, find fault with every youthful pastime in other people, like the man in the comedy: they expect them “to be born old men at once,” and so forth.

Some, in their misguided zeal, frequently raise trivial objections and would abolish a thing’s good use because it is sometimes abused—as though they should forbid wine because it makes people drunk. In my judgement, they are too stern. There is a time for everything: “a time to mourn, a time to dance,” Ecclesiastes 3:4; “a time to embrace, a time not to embrace,” verse 5; and “nothing better than that a person should rejoice in their own works,” verse 22.

For my part, I support the king’s declaration, and have always thought that May festivities, parish wakes, Whitsun ales, and the like may rightly be permitted, provided they take place at suitable hours. Let people feast, sing, and dance freely; let them have their puppet plays, hobby-horses, tabors, fiddles, bagpipes, and so forth; let them play ball, barley-break, and whatever sports and recreations they like best.