The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England

According to Trevor, with the editorial glosses and the dispersal of Spenser's own authorial identity with the convention of E. K., the poet protects himself from any association with the melancholic temperament. According to Trevor, the sidenotes serve a "therapeutic function in that they affirm the viability of the written cure, however qualified by one's humorial tendencies" (111). According to Trevor, Burton's appropriation of multiple discourses in his treatise is an early modern form of sociology. According to Trevor, Milton's favorable attitude toward solitariness and his experience with new medical theories of the day led to his dismissal of the Galenic body.