FIGURING MELANCHOLY: FROM JEAN DE MEUN TO MOLIERE, VIA MONTAIGNE, DESCARTES, ROTROU AND CORNEILLE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Dorothée Mertz-Weigel, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Sarah-Grace Heller, Adviser Professor Christiane Laeufer _______________________ Professor Geoffrey Turnovsky Adviser French and Italian Graduate Program Copyright by Dorothée Mertz-Weigel 2005 ABSTRACT To examine how melancholy has been represented in French writing from the medieval period to the seventeenth century, this dissertation attempts to compare its depiction in literary works with contemporary original medical texts. The historical knowledge of the periods in question is used as a tool in order to seek to understand the literature, or literary discourse, in a fuller way, and to situate it more clearly in the evolving context of both medical and literary practices with respect to the concept of melancholy and its transformation. Melancholy appeared as an illness of the upper-class, and the writers of the thirteenth to the seventeenth century chosen for this study were writing primarily for this particular audience. In chapter one, the study of descriptions of melancholy and related states in the Roman de la rose, as well as fabliaux and nouvelles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, suggests that humor and divertissement, or entertainment, are indispensable for the good health of human beings. Without them, people risk becoming melancholic. Chapter two explores how Montaigne, through his study of human nature and thanks to melancholy, discovers that mind and body need to be kept together at all times when portraying or studying man. If this is not respected, man can become a “fool,” which can lead to melancholy. Chapter three examines how for Descartes, melancholy is the illness which best represents man’s weakness, its seat being the very union of body ii and soul. In chapter four, I argue that the medical and literary knowledge about melancholy discovered in the first chapters is synthesized in the comedies chosen. The authors studied here use melancholy to understand, define, represent, in other words, to figure human nature, and examine human weaknesses at a deeper level than does any other disease. This illness can be countered by “entertaining” the mind, and consequently can be treated with laughter and entertainment, which prove to be the best remedy against it, according to many sources. Intrinsically, without being aware of it, the authors of melancholy produced a unique kind of literature, crossing over traditional literary genres. iii Dedicated to my husband, Pavel, my parents, Eveline and Jean-Michel, my sister Eléonore, and my late grand parents. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to my adviser, Professor Sarah-Grace Heller, who graciously took over direction of this thesis, and whose excellent advice, intellectual support, encouragement, and enthusiasm have assured the completion of this thesis. I also would like to thank her for her patience in correcting both my stylistic and scholastic errors. I also wish to thank Professor Charles Williams for introducing me to seventeenth century theater and to the tradition which it represents, as well as for inspiring me the topic of this dissertation. I would like to thank Professor Christiane Laeufer for her constant support and encouragement throughout my studies at the Ohio State University, as well as Professor Turnovsky who agreed to join my committee although this project was already under way. I finally would like to thank all of those who supported me and encouraged me throughout the writing process of this project. v VITA June 9, 1976 ………………. Born- Colmar, France 1998 ………………………. B.A. English Literature and Spanish, Otterbein College 2000 ………………………. M.A. French Literature, The Ohio State University 1998-2005 ………………… G.T.A. Department of French and Italian, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Areas of Emphasis: Medieval and early modern French literature vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ……………………………………………………………………….…………. ii Dedication …………………………………………………………………….………… iv Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………..…………. ...v Vita ……………………………………………………………………….………………vi Chapters 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 1 2. The Perfect Cure ……………..……………………………………………………… 40 3. Diversion through Poetry ……..……………………………..…………………… 89 4. A Trialism Discovered through Melancholy………………………….…………... 128 5. A Remedy for the Mal du Siècle ………………….…..………………………….. 178 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 226 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 235 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION " La mélancolie est de toutes ces maladies la plus difficile, celle dont l’origine est la plus discutable, celle dont la définition est, semble-t-il, la plus vague."1 Problematic : Why another study of melancholy? Doctors and medicine are a frequent subject of French literature. Often, these doctors are the center of a comedy based around them and their (lousy) skills. Surprisingly, not only is medicine exploited for comic purposes, but also a particular illness that has mesmerized writers, philosophers, artists, and doctors for centuries: melancholy. Melancholy, now called depression, associated with sadness, despondency and even suicide, is often a focus in various works through the ages, and is sometimes surrounded by a comical atmosphere, as if to diminish its importance or the effect it has on people. Is it not easier to laugh about something frightening, such as an illness, or minimize its importance and impact? Melancholy could be less impressive when presented in a comical or minimizing way. Is it possible to find relief, or even a cure, in a way, by making fun of a potentially damaging, even fatal condition? Andrew Solomon, a sufferer of depression who relates his illness in his work The Noonday Demon and talks about his recovery, reflects that, “A sense of humor is the best indicator that you will recover; it is often the best indicator that people will love you. Sustain that and you have hope.”2 Humor or entertainment often surround melancholy in 1 Pigeaud, Aristote, p. 71. 2 Solomon, Noonday Demon, p. 430. 1 French literature from the Middle Ages to the Ancien Régime. Melancholy appears to be an important factor in the lives of authors such as Montaigne and Molière, and in the way they deal with literature. It seems to be a source of inspiration for them, in the characters and situations they choose to examine. Literature also seems to be an outlet of expression for their melancholy. All this considered, melancholy may be the tie among the Roman de la Rose, Montaigne’s Essays, Descartes’s Les Passions de l’âme as wel as his correspondence with Elisabeth of Bohemia, and a few seventeenth century comedies by Rotrou, Corneille, and Molière. Melancholy may also be a tie in the authors’ lives, and in the way they perceive literature. It can be theorized that a sense of humor, or some kind of entertainment, fills the gap that had been made in the illness observed: it allowed the authors to make a definite connection between mind and body. A dialogue across centuries “To figure” It can be argued that melancholy has figured in the educated culture, medicine and even literature of France since Roman times, when Greek treatises of the Fifth century B.C. were disseminated through the schools of Gaul. Until the Middle Ages, these author’s accounts were studied, interpreted, translated, especially by Arabic doctors. In the Renaissance, specialists on melancholy such as Ambroise Paré or André Du Laurens were aware of what was written before them, and they, in turn, were read by the authors who followed, such as Robert Burton or Hyppolite Jules Pinet De La Mesnardière. Melancholy has been the subject of a constant dialogue between such authors/doctors, because it is an ailment, a disease, a condition that provokes questioning, and is the 2 source of many misconceptions. This is why “to figure” is the best verb to describe what will be done in this dissertation. “To figure” not only means to represent, but it also means to define and to understand. A diachronic study of melancholy in French literature However, melancholy is not a medical concern only. It has also been used and studied in art and in literary texts. This is why the major texts chosen to figure melancholy in this study are Le Roman de la rose, anonymous fabliaux and nouvelles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Montaigne’s Essays, Descartes’ Le Discours de la Méthode, Les Passions de l’âme as well as the Letters of his correspondence with Elisabeth of Bohemia, and a number of seventeenth century comedies: Rotrou’s L’Hypocondriaque ou le Mort Amoureux, Corneille’s La Place Royalle, and Molière’s Le Misanthrope and Le Malade Imaginaire. These works present different kinds of conduct necessary for the proper development and good life, without which melancholy takes over. In the seventeenth century, Molière and other playwrights, influenced by what had been discovered before them, present a synthesis of the accumulated knowledge on human nature and melancholy. This literature presents a study of the human condition, usually, and concentrates on what human nature consists of. There is usually an internal fight dealing with the separation of body and soul. This is also where melancholy could be an important factor in the personal lives of the authors, because it allowed them to study the effect of the mind on the body. Montaigne and Descartes, for example, had a first-hand experience of this effect. Melancholy made them more aware of the human 3 condition and how humans function. They realized that human life consists in physical existence and also enjoying life (spiritual), and these two fundamentals could not be divided or separated. With their condition, they had to make a special effort to achieve this second constituent of human nature. Melancholy is a central theme, whether implicitly or explicitly, to all the literary works chosen for this study.