Epigraph

There’s a dark lantern of the spirit,
Which none see by but those who bear it,
That makes them in the dark see visions
And hag themselves with apparitions,
Find racks for their own minds, and vaunt
Of their own misery and want.

Samuel Butler

Matthew	Oh! it’s your only fine humour, sir. Your true melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit, sir. I am melancholy myself, divers times, sir; and then do I no more but take pen and paper presently, and overflow you half a score or a dozen of sonnets at a sitting.
Stephen	Truly, sir, and I love such things out of measure.
Matthew	Why, I pray you, sir, make use of my study: it’s at your service.
Stephen	I thank you, sir, I shall be bold, I warrant you. Have you a stool there, to be melancholy upon?

Ben Johnson, Every Man in His Humour, Act 3, Scene I

Ay esleu gazouiller et siffler oye, comme dit le commun proverbe, entre les cygnes, plutoust que d’estre entre tant de gentils poëtes et faconds orateurs mut du tout estimé.

Rabelais, Prol. L. 5