As I wandered through "Anatomy of Melancholy"

[Robin Landseadel]

. . .I ran across this musing on music, something that
might even have some meaning to our beloved author:

           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.
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