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Antidotes for Melancholy in Early Modern England
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In 1602, Nicholas Breton issued another volume with a very descriptive title: Wonders worth the hearing, Which being read or heard in a winters evening, by a good fire, or a summers morning, in the greene fields: may serve both to purge melancholy from the minde, & grosse humours from the body. The works compiled in these books covered a broad range of topics: from politics and recent history to toasts in honor of members of the royal family and the nobility, and also funny verses about love, marriage, sex, or drinking, and lampoons on doctors and other professionals. A bit like watching episodes of The Office or Gilmore Girls, or another “comfort show”, to relieve stress, or playing your favorite music to reduce anxiety (top of my list is Johan Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations).
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