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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

A Question: How did depression come to be known as the 'Black Dog'?

“For he was speechless, ghastly, wan,
Like him of whom the story ran,
Who spoke the spectre hound in man.”
Sir Walter Scott, The lay of the last minstrel, Canto VI, v.26.

"Like one that on a lonesome road doth walk in fear and dread... because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread."
Samuel Taylor Colleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Ever since Sir Winston Churchill used the phrase ‘black dog’ to refer to his own periodic bouts of depression, the term has become a cliché for describing dark moods and melancholy.

However, the term did not originate with Churchill. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1870, cites the expression - ‘a black dog has walked over him/me’ – to describe being in a state of mental depression.

Earlier still, Samuel Johnson used the term to describe his attacks of melancholia. In a letter to Mrs Thrale, 28th June 1783, he wrote:

“The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used to help me. When I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking, except that Dr Brocklesby for a little keeps him at a distance. Night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from a habitation like this?”

(R. W. Chapman (ed.) Letters of Samuel Johnson (1952) vol. 3)

It is thought that the earliest origins of the expression date back to the myth described by Horace (Roman poet and satirist, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC) in which the sight of a black dog with pups was an unlucky omen.

In Horace’s SATIRE VII. Davus says the following:

“Then too you cannot spend an hour alone;
No company's more hateful than your own;
You dodge and give yourself the slip; you seek
In bed or in your cups from care to sneak:
In vain: the black dog follows you, and hangs
Close on your flying skirts with hungry fangs.”



Black Dogs in folklore and literature

Quite apart from their descriptive association with depression, black dogs have for centuries been fiendish and threatening symbols in the superstitions and folklore of various cultures.

In Henry Gilbert's "King Arthur's Knights", chapter II, "How Lancelot was Made a Knight", part 2, Lancelot has his adventure to the Chapel Perilous foreshadowed:

"Then he rode a great while in a deep and dark forest, and as he followed the winding ways, suddenly he saw a black hound before him, with its nose to the ground as if seeking a scent. He followed the beast...."

Merlin later tells Lancelot, "All that hath befallen thee hath been done by evil magic. The black dog that led thee to the manor was a fiend...."

The Encyclopedia of the Celts has a brief entry on "Black Dogs":

"Stories of Black Dogs are to be found all over the country. They are generally dangerous, but sometimes helpful. As a rule, the black dogs are large and shaggy, about the size of a calf, with fiery eyes. If anyone speaks to them or strikes at them they have power to blast, like the Mauthe Doog, the Black Dog of Peel Castle in the Isle of Man."

The entry on "The Devil in Wales" says:

"He was sometimes known as Andreas or Y Fall and was always described as black or very dark, appearing sometimes in the shape of a man with horns and cloven hooves or even taking animal form. Often he was said to resemble a hegoat and in witch-lore he appeared as a very black male goat with fiery eyes. In some old stories of Wales he took the form of a raven, a black dog, a black cock, a horse or a black pig. In fact it was believed that he could assume any form but that of a white sheep. However, he could easily appear as a black sheep or lamb. Sometimes he appeared in the shape of a fish or as a ball of fire or a huge stone rolling downhill, or as a mysterious and terrifying presence without form. ..."

Such beasts recur throughout Britain’s folklore, with almost every county having at least one example: the Yorkshire legend of the "Barguest" (The Barguest is a large, black hound or bear with sharp claws and eyes like embers. It appears during the night on roads, and the mere sight of it can bring disaster or death to those unfortunate enough to see it. The Barguest's howling would provoke all hounds in whatever city could here it, heralding the death of an important figure); the Lyme Regis Black Dog Legend (commemorated in the sign of a small roadside inn there, "The Black Dog"); and another that appeared in Bungay in 1577).

In Catalan myth, Dip is an evil, black, hairy dog, an emissary of the Devil, who sucks people's blood. Like other figures associated with demons in Catalan myth, he is lame in one leg. Dip is pictured on the escutcheon of Pratdip.

In Goethe's story of Faust a black dog represents the host of Mephistopheles, the infernal deity that is sworn to challenge God in an attempt for Faust's soul. The dog is found following Faust and Wagner (Faust's student) through the streets and manages to get through Faust's sigils in front of his studio, then hiding behind the stove soon turns himself into Mephistopheles who immediately proposes to Faust redemption of his boredom by the exchange of his soul for the power of youth and experience.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, taking the form of a huge black dog Dracula leaps from the deck of his ship as it crashes onto the beach at Whitby. Landing on the sand it races up the 199 steps and disappears among the gravestones of the churchyard. Today, The Black Dog Brewery takes it name from the tale.

Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes's adventure with the Hound of the Baskervilles was the folk tale of a phantom black dog on Dartmoor.

Does anyone know any more about the origins of the association of the term 'black dog' with depression? If so, please add what you know in the comments to this post.

Posted by Nick @ 20:34 GMT

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