The Anatomy of Melancholy

Our modern histories provide many notable examples. Henry III of France, jealous of Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, had him murdered in his own chamber in 1588. Louis XI was so suspicious that he dared not trust his children; he suspected everyone around him of being a traitor. Commynes tells many strange stories of his behaviour.

How jealous was our Henry IV of King Richard II, for as long as Richard lived after his deposition? And of his own son Henry in his later days? The prince, clearly perceiving this, visited his sick father in a pale-blue velvet gown covered in eyelet holes with needles stuck in them, as an emblem of jealousy. By this means, and after speeches and assurances made for that purpose, he calmed his suspicious father.

Lifelong imprisonment, such as that of Robert, Duke of Normandy, in Henry I’s time; forbidding certain people to marry; and similar decrees and prohibitions are common in all states.

In a word, as he said, three things cause jealousy: a powerful position, a rich treasury, and a beautiful wife; or a doubtful title, much tyranny and many oppressive levies. In our country, being free from all these fears and miseries, we may be entirely secure and happy under the reign of our fortunate prince.

His good fortune has made him indebted to no one Except his people as a whole, And to them only for their love, Which they consider worthily bestowed. He is so firmly placed that he has no cause For jealousy or fear of disloyalty; The pedestal on which his greatness stands Is supported by all our hearts and all our hands.

But I wander, I admit. These different meanings of jealousy, and many similar things that torment human souls, are not what is properly meant here or included in our classification. We mean only the jealousy concerned with beauty and directed towards love, in which people can tolerate no rival or endure any sharing. This jealousy belongs to animals as well as human beings.

Some creatures, says Vives—swans, doves, cocks, bulls and so forth—are jealous just as human beings are, and equally disturbed by the fear of sharing their mates.

Young bulls fight for the whole herd; If they fear for their mates, Timid stags demand battle, And their bellowing reveals the fury they have conceived.

In Venus’s cause, what mighty battles Your raging bulls wage, what commotion for their herds! And stags and bucks, though so timid, Will fight and roar once they become jealous.

This is most clearly seen in bulls, horses and goats, especially bulls: “he admits no other to the pasture”; he will not allow another bull to feed in the same pasture, says Oppian. Stephen Báthory, the late king of Poland, used this as an emblem with the motto “A kingdom has no room for two.”