Melancholy

“In sooth I know not why I am so sad.

It wearies me, you say it wearies you.

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,

What stuff ‘tis made of, whereof it is born,

I am to learn.

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me

That I have much ado to know myself.”

The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare

Antonio’s opening soliloquy strikes a philosophical note and attempts to portray the nature of melancholy—the sadness without an apparent or a traceable cause.

‘Much ado about nothing’ but that ‘nothing’ can sometimes be wearying & compels one to grapple with the dilemma of truly understanding one’s self.