I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,

The sleepless soul that perished in his pride;

Of him who walked in glory and in joy,

Following his plough, along the mountain-side.

By our own spirits we are deified;

We Poets in our youth begin in gladness,

But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Resolution and Independence. Stanza 7.

Go! you may call it madness, folly;

You shall not chase my gloom away!

There's such a charm in melancholy

I would not if I could be gay.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855): To ——.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 163.

Alas! they had been friends in youth;

But whispering tongues can poison truth,

And constancy lives in realms above;

And life is thorny, and youth is vain,

And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): Christabel. Part ii.

Oh, that way madness lies; let me shun that.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iii. Sc. 4.

Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

This is very midsummer madness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 4.

And moody madness laughing wild

Amid severest woe.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 8.

Moping melancholy

And moon-struck madness.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book xi. Line 485.

Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Thoughts on Various Subjects.

For that fine madness still he did retain

Which rightly should possess a poet's brain.

Michael Drayton (1563-1631): (Said of Marlowe.) To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy.

Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night i. Line 390.

Bring me to the test,

And I the matter will re-word; which madness

Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.