A Sense Of Humour

Funny to think that Shakespeare and his contemporaries based their understanding of human psychology on a theory of 'humours' that was entirely wrong. How did they ever come to be so dazzling in their insights? I suppose it was above all their analysis of Melancholia that rings so true across the centuries. As if they had divined something new yet ancient about the soul and the human condition.

I was mulling over this whilst reading Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. A completely over-the-top-and-down-the-other-side drama that manages to shed light on the darkest places of the soul. The fact that it is never too far from the ridiculous actually adds to its power. You come away from it feeling oddly guilty, as if disturbed by the contents of a dream that tells you rather more about yourself than you really want to know.