Atrabile, Vagrancy and Latency in the Post-War Novels of D. H. Lawrence

Is there such a thing as Prophetic melancholy? In its later, technical sense of atrabile, or black bile, the term carries pathological connotations which are at odds with the god-inspired posture of Biblical prophecy. Still, one does wonder, at times, why Jeremiah, who so lamented his coming into the world, or Ezekiel, broken by the loss of the “desire of his heart” (Ezekiel 24:16), or the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, did not simply commit suicide. Theirs was inspired melancholy, the melancho...