Professor Nigel Wood: 'The Englishman's Malady: Goldsmith and Civilised
Needs' takes its title from the eighteenth-century doctor George
Cheyne's famous book, 'The English Malady', in which Cheyne attempted
to explain why all conditions involving lowness of spirits were
known by foreigners 'in Derision' as 'the ENGLISH MALADY'. Cheyne
put the blame on the English lifestyle. This lecture develops the
connections between melancholy and the civilised state with particular
reference to the popular and prolific writer Oliver Goldsmith, author
of 'She Stoops to Conquer', 'The Vicar of Wakefield' and 'The Citizen
of the World'.
