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Document In Madness Nov. 10, 2006 ] 8:36 PM Madness was a form of illness. It was seen as a form of demonic possession or a form of sickness in the soul. Robert Burton wrote that "this humour of melancholy is called the Devil's Bath; the Devil, spying his opportunity of such humours, drives them (i.e. men who have a preponderance of melancholy) many times to despair, fury, rage & c., mingling himself among these humours". Cornelia in The White Devil becomes insane, mirroring two of Shakespeare's most famous lunatics, Lady Macbeth and Ophelia. In Cornelia's situation, her madness is not so much an illness but an infliction brought upon by the actions of her two children. In Ophelia's case, it is unrequited love and sexual desire, abandonment and passive aggression. Lady Macbeth succumbed to guilt, fear and thwarted ambition. wax ] wane