Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/b24857087 Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). In the original, some text is printed in a larger font than the surrounding text. Text with larger font is surrounded by plus signs (+larger font+). A row of asterisks represents a thought break. A complete list of corrections follows the text. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA AND ITS MAD FOLK * * * * * * [Illustration: Logo] London Agents: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Ltd. * * * * * * ELIZABETHAN DRAMA AND ITS MAD FOLK The Harness Prize Essay for 1913 by EDGAR ALLISON PEERS, B.A. Late Scholar of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd. 1914 TO MY MOTHER CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE PREFACE I. INTRODUCTORY 1 II. THE PRESENTATION OF MADNESS—FROM THE STANDPOINT OF HISTORY 8 III. THE PRESENTATION OF MADNESS—FROM THE STANDPOINT OF LITERATURE 42 IV. MAD FOLK IN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY—(i) THE MANIACS 60 V. MAD FOLK IN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY—(ii) IMBECILITY 118 VI. MAD FOLK IN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY—(iii) MELANCHOLY 126 VII. MAD FOLK IN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY—(iv) DELUSIONS, HALLUCINATIONS, AND OTHER ABNORMAL STATES 150 VIII. MAD FOLK IN TRAGEDY AND COMEDY—(v) THE PRETENDERS 167 IX. CONCLUSION 176 PREFACE. The bulk of this essay is the result of research work along lines which, so far as the author knows, have not been previously traversed. The arrangement and the general treatment of the work are therefore original. Certain books, notably Tuke’s “History of the Insane in the British Isles,” Bucknill’s “Mad Folk of Shakespeare,” Bradley’s “Shakespearean Tragedy,” and Ward’s “English Dramatic Literature,” have been of special utility in places where reference is made to them. The critical judgments of these authors, however, have by no means always been followed. The original title of the essay was “The Mad Folk of English Comedy and Tragedy down to 1642.” It has been shortened for purposes of convenience, and the term Elizabethan extended in order to take in a few plays which belong to the next two reigns. The term is, however, generally recognised to be an elastic one, and most of the plays dealt with fall easily within it.