From Anatomy of Melancholy

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Or, why Bodine?

". . . But to leave all declamatory speeches in praise of divine music, I will confine myself to my proper subject: besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a Rhodian fiddler in Philostratus, when Apollonius was inquisitive to know what he could do with his pipe, told him, "that he would make a melancholy man merry, and him that was merry much merrier than before, a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by music alone: as now they do those, saith Bodine, that are troubled with St. Vitus' Bedlam dance. . ."