103 Gesnerus 63 (2006) 103–112 ‘Long Grief, dark Melancholy, hopeless natural Love’: Clarissa, Cheyne and Narratives of Body and Soul Clark Lawlor Summary The paper deals with Clarissa’s wasting combination of love and religious melancholy, and the way in which ailments of the mind have an immediate effect on the body in this period. George Cheyne’s theories of melancholy and hypochondria explain at least some of the mechanisms by which the eighteenth century understood this phenomenon. ‘Clarissa’ is an important text because it influenced so many later representations of melancholy, especially as it is gendered feminine in Richardson’s newly feminised dis- course of sensibility. Keywords: George Cheyne (1671?–1743); Samuel Richardson (1689–1761); love melancholy; religious melancholy; consumption “You must see that I have been consuming from day to day.”Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady 1 Melancholy is a condition that bridges the mind and body in the Early Modern period: medical theorists from Burton onwards assumed this to be the case, and popular or at least non-medical representations of the condition in literature almost always followed the logic of a unified human entity. I will be substantiating this claim in my paper by examining Samuel Richardson’s monumental and highly influential novel Clarissa (1751) by way of popular society doctor George Cheyne’s writings. Cheyne knew many of the literary figures of his day and certainly inspired them via his theories of melancholy 1 Richardson 1751, vol. 7, XCVIII, 376. Dr Clark Lawlor, English Division, School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of North- umbria, Lipman Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK (clark.lawlor@northumbria. ac.uk).