J.F. Bernard teaches in the English department at Champlain College, Canada. He specializes in Renaissance drama and its philosophical, cultural, and social points of intersection. He is also interested in ideas of cultural production, adaptions and storytelling, particularly at it relates to contemporary engagements with Shakespeare’s plays. He was the project coordinator for the city of Montreal’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

In this highly original discussion, J. F. Bernard provides a comprehensive analysis of Shakespeare’s distinctive understanding of melancholia. Working with a range of classical and early modern sources, he reveals a complex tension in the comedies between melancholy as disease and the melancholy temperament as a powerful resource for creativity.

• AcknowledgementsSeries Editor’s Preface1. What’s so Funny about Humours? Melancholy, Comedy and Revisionist Philosophy2. Comic Symmetry and English Melancholy3. Melancholic Dissonance and the Limits of Psycho-Humouralism4. Melancholic Ambience at the Comic Close5. Melancomic Time in Late Shakespeare6. The Philosophical Afterlives of Shakespearean MelancholyWorks CitedIndex

J.F. Bernard teaches in the English department at Champlain College, Canada. He specializes in Renaissance drama and its philosophical, cultural, and social points of intersection. He is also interested in ideas of cultural production, adaptions and storytelling, particularly at it relates to contemporary engagements with Shakespeare’s plays. He was the project coordinator for the city of Montreal’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

In this highly original discussion, J. F. Bernard provides a comprehensive analysis of Shakespeare’s distinctive understanding of melancholia. Working with a range of classical and early modern sources, he reveals a complex tension in the comedies between melancholy as disease and the melancholy temperament as a powerful resource for creativity.

• AcknowledgementsSeries Editor’s Preface1. What’s so Funny about Humours? Melancholy, Comedy and Revisionist Philosophy2. Comic Symmetry and English Melancholy3. Melancholic Dissonance and the Limits of Psycho-Humouralism4. Melancholic Ambience at the Comic Close5. Melancomic Time in Late Shakespeare6. The Philosophical Afterlives of Shakespearean MelancholyWorks CitedIndex

J.F. Bernard teaches in the English department at Champlain College, Canada. He specializes in Renaissance drama and its philosophical, cultural, and social points of intersection. He is also interested in ideas of cultural production, adaptions and storytelling, particularly at it relates to contemporary engagements with Shakespeare’s plays. He was the project coordinator for the city of Montreal’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016.

In this highly original discussion, J. F. Bernard provides a comprehensive analysis of Shakespeare’s distinctive understanding of melancholia. Working with a range of classical and early modern sources, he reveals a complex tension in the comedies between melancholy as disease and the melancholy temperament as a powerful resource for creativity.

• AcknowledgementsSeries Editor’s Preface1. What’s so Funny about Humours? Melancholy, Comedy and Revisionist Philosophy2. Comic Symmetry and English Melancholy3. Melancholic Dissonance and the Limits of Psycho-Humouralism4. Melancholic Ambience at the Comic Close5. Melancomic Time in Late Shakespeare6. The Philosophical Afterlives of Shakespearean MelancholyWorks CitedIndex