We accuse others of madness, of folly, and are the veriest dizzards ourselves.
When all are mad, where all are like opprest,
Who can discern one madman from the rest?
Can all the hellebore in the Anticyrae cure these men? No, sure, “an acre of hellebore will not do it.”
In the olden days, helleborus was used to treat melancholia, so it is on almost every page of The Anatomy of Melancholia. It is poison. Do not eat an acre of hellebore. It will kill you.
This post is part of a long, tedious, and illustrated read-along of Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy – more info here and follow along on Facebook here.