Melancholy

One of the four temperaments in Greek ancient medicine, melancholy represents a disease of the mind, body and soul. The word 'melancholy' derives from the Greek word for the humour black bile (μελαν- dark,+ χολή bile). In Elizabethan England, a common, fashionable though elusive malady, associated with intellect and artistic genius. Among the melancholic figures of the day, Shakespeare's Hamlet is perhaps the most famous, but the condition can also be linked to Romeo, Jacques in As You Like It as well as Don John and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.

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Sources:

https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2021/04/09/renaissance-melancholy-better-than-laughing/

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/brights-treatise-of-melancholy-1586#:~:text=Melancholy%2C%20the%20'sadde%20and%20fearful,also%20refinement%20and%20male%20intellect.

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. 1621. Ed. and introd. by Angus Gowland. London: Penguin, 2021.

Lund, Mary Ann. A User's Guide to Melancholy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2021.