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Resumo

This essay examines the relationship between humanist ideas, medical theories of the passions, and the problem of counsel in early modern England. It focuses on the humanist attempt to cure the “frenzy” of inadequate counsel through the promotion of reason and self-knowledge. The essay argues that the humanist project was complicated by the medical discourse of the passions, which suggested that reason could be overwhelmed by powerful emotions. This tension between reason and passion is explored through a reading of Thomas Elyot’s The Governor and Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. The essay concludes that the humanist attempt to cure the “frenzy” of counsel was ultimately unsuccessful, but that it nevertheless contributed to a new understanding of the relationship between reason, passion, and political judgment.

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