Shakespearean Melancholy by J.F. Bernard

Author:J.F. Bernard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

You would be [weary], sweet madam, if your miseries

were in the same abundance as your good fortunes

are; and yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit

with too much as they are that starve with nothing. It is

no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated in the

mean. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but

competency lives longer.

(I, ii, 3–9)

The implication is that any excessive display of emotion is not beneficial, no matter the affect, and that a measured countenance will provide an individual with optimal health. Portia rapidly accepts Nerissa’s suggestion and moves on to more pressing concerns.

Rather than succumb to languishing introspective qualms, Portia proceeds to lambast a list of suitors read out by Nerissa, taking issue in each case with a dominant personality trait she deems abhorrent. One of those critiques concerns the County Palatine, a suitor who, Portia declares

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