The Anatomy of Melancholy

Marcellus Donatus, book 2 of his Medical History, chapter 1, tells a story from Alessandro Benedetti to confirm this: a young woman who was mad “because her menstrual flow had stopped, having found her way into a brothel, was had by fifteen men in the same night; after a copious menstrual discharge, which had been held back for several years, she left in the morning restored to her senses, though deeply ashamed.”

But this must be understood cautiously; for, as Arnoldus objects in book 1 of the Breviary, chapter 18, “What has intercourse to do with the melancholic humour?” What connection have these two? Unless it is clear that an excess of seed or fullness of blood is a cause, or that love or an extraordinary sexual desire preceded the illness; or unless, as Luis Mercado allows, they suffer greatly from wind and have otherwise been accustomed to intercourse.

Montalto, chapter 27, will not allow even moderate sexual activity to those with gout, paralysis, epilepsy or melancholy, unless they are very vigorous and full of blood. Lodovicus Antonius, in his book of medical miscellanies, in the chapter on sexual activity, forbids it altogether to wrestlers, ditch-diggers, manual labourers and the like.

Ficino and Marsilius Cognatus count sexual activity among the five deadly enemies of a student: it consumes the spirits and weakens the brain. Haly Abbas the Arabian, Theory, 5, chapter 36, and Jason Pratensis make it the source of most diseases, but especially harmful to people who are cold and dry. A melancholy person must not engage in it except in certain cases.

Plutarch, in his book On Preserving Health, counts moderation in this respect among the three chief signs and safeguards of health: to leave the table with an appetite, to be ready for work, and to abstain from sex are “three most healthful things”—three things most conducive to health.

We see how harmful their opposites are to humankind: as with all other creatures, they bring death and many deadly diseases. “The immoderate have a short life and seldom reach old age.” Aristotle gives sparrows as an example: they are “short-lived because of their lust”—short-lived because of their very frequent sexual activity, as Scopius in his work on the Priapeia will explain more fully.

Since both extremes are bad, the middle course should be kept, though it cannot easily be determined. Some can sustain more: people who are hot and moist, phlegmatic, as Hippocrates suggests; some who are strong, vigorous and well fed, like Hercules, the emperor Proculus, lusty Laurence, or the empress Messalina, “a brothel of a woman,” who use every means to increase their capacity, with love potions and stimulating foods of that kind.