Study on Representation of Madness in the English Renaissace Society and the Elizabethan Drama.

本课题旨在研究疯狂在英国文艺复兴时期的社会和莎士比亚戏剧中的表现，尤其是莎士比亚的戏剧。在中世纪社会，由于某些“疯”（如附身）是无法用医学治愈的，疯引起了严重的社会焦虑。此外，尽管当时颁布了激进的济贫法，“疯子”几乎不能指望得到任何政府和法律的保护。本项目分析了当代广泛的生理学和医学文献，并明确指出莎士比亚的灵感来自劳伦提斯对忧郁和老年的研究和国王詹姆斯一世的苏格兰新闻。莎士比亚对疯狂的描述在很大程度上得益于当代医学研究，无论是在疯狂的症状还是在他们有趣的令人费解的叙述中。

The aim of this project is to research representation of madness in the English Renaissance society and the Elizabethan drama, especially Shakespeare's. In the Elizabethan society, madness aroused serious social anxiety because some kinds of "madness", such as possession, could not be medically cured. Moreover, "mad" man could not expect almost any governmental and legal protection though radical Poor Laws were issued then.This project has analysed a broad range of contemporary physiological and medical literature, and made it clear that Shakespeare were inspired by Laurentius's study on melancholy and old age and King James the First's News from Scotland. Shakespeare's representation of madness is much indebted to contemporary medical studies both in symptoms of madness and in their interesting mind-bending narratives.