Abstract
AbstractThis article re‐evaluates the account of the mental turmoil expressed by the poet William Cowper in his spiritual autobiography Adelphi. The article considers Adelphi in the context of eighteenth‐century theological works written on the subject of religious melancholy prior to its being penned. It suggests that Cowper may have feigned the illness and provides evidence that Cowper borrowed heavily from such works in order to portray himself as a religious melancholic. The article argues that religious melancholy was a well‐recognised illness in the eighteenth century and that it was exploited because of the tolerance shown towards sufferers.
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