The Anatomy of Melancholy

Now if it be death it self, another Hell, to be glutted with one kind of sport, dieted with one dish, tied to one place; though they have all things otherwise as they can desire, and are in Heaven to another mans opinion, what misery & discontent shall they have, that live in slavery, or in prison it self? Quod tristius morte, in servitute vivendum, as Hermolaus told Alexander in Curtius, worse then death is bondage: hoc animo scito omnes fortes, ut mortem servituti anteponant, All brave men at arms (Tully holdes) are so affected. Equidem ego is sum, qui servitutem extremum omnium malorum esse arbitror: I am he (saith Boterus) that accompt servitude, the extremity of misery.

And what calamity do they endure, that live with those hard taskmasters, in gold mines, (like those 30000 Indian slaves at Potosa in Peru) tin-mines, lead-mines, stone-quarries, cole-pits, like so many mouldwarps under ground, condemned to the gallies, to perpetuall drudgery, hunger, thirst, and stripes, without all hope of delivery?

How are those women in Turkie affected, that most part of the year come not abroad; those Italian and Spanish Dames, that are mewed up like Hawks, and lockt up by their jealous husbands? how tedious is it to them that live in Stoves and Caves half a year together? as in Island, Muscovy, or under the Pole it self, where they have six moneths perpetuall night.

Nay, what misery and discontent do they endure, that are in prison? They want all those six non-naturall things at once, good ayr, good dyet, exercise, company, sleep, rest, ease, &c. that are bound in chains all day long, suffer hunger, and (as Lucian describes it) must abide that filthy stink, and ratling of chains, howlings, pitifull out-cryes, that prisoners usually make: these things are not only troublesome, but intolerable.

They lie nastily amongst toads and frogs in a dark dungeon, in their own dung, in pain of body, in pain of soul, as Joseph did, Psal. 105.18. They hurt his feet in the stocks, the iron entred his soul. They live solitary, alone, sequestred from all company but heart-eating melancholy, and for want of meat, must eat that bread of affliction, prey upon themselves.

Well might Arculanus put long imprisonment for a cause, especially to such as have lived jovially, in all sensuality and lust, upon a sudden are estranged and debarred from all manner of pleasures: as were Huniades, Edward, and Richard the second, Valerian the Emperour, Bajazet the Turk.

If it be irksome to miss our ordinary companions & repast for once a day, or an hour, what shall it be to lose them for ever? If it be so great a delight to live at liberty, and to enjoy that variety of objects the world affords; what misery and discontent must it needs bring to him, that shall now be cast headlong into that Spanish Inquisition, to fall from Heaven to Hell, to be cubbed up upon a sudden, how shall he be perplexed, what shall become of him?