Literary notes about Distemper (AI summary)
The term “distemper” in literature takes on a variety of meanings that reflect both literal and metaphorical ailments. In some contexts, it denotes an actual medical condition or disease—as seen in references to animal illnesses [1, 2, 3] and human afflictions [4, 5, 6]—while in others it is used figuratively to represent a corruption of spirit or societal disorder [7, 8, 9]. Authors have also applied the word to the world of art, specifically describing a cheap or water‐colour type of paint known as distemper in which figures or panels are rendered [10, 11, 12, 13]. Moreover, the term extends into the realm of mental states, indicating disturbed or “diseased” thoughts and moods [14, 15, 16]. Thus, across a broad spectrum of genres—from historical treatises to fables and poetry—“distemper” is employed both to comment on physical decay and to critique moral or political maladies, underscoring its fluidity and richly layered connotations in the literary canon [17, 18, 19].
- Thus white terriers suffer more than those of any other colour from the fatal distemper.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop - one of Thompson's horses is either choked this morning or has the distemper very badly I fear he is to be of no further service to us.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - one of Thompsons horses is either choked this morning or has the distemper badly.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - He also enjoined her, when she came to him, to inquire concerning the child, as if she were a stranger, whether he should escape this distemper.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - 35—before I proceed any further in the cure of her distemper.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - At first his distemper was but gentle; but as that distemper increased upon him, he had small or no hopes of recovery.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus - For a corruption of the mind is far more a plague than any pestilential distemper or change in the surrounding air we breathe.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - A moral distemper, like crime, it finds there its most fertile soil.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis - There is, in my opinion, a peculiar venom and malignity in this political distemper beyond any that I have heard or read of.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - It is said that he also sent to Volterra a panel in distemper which was much praised in that city.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) by Giorgio Vasari - Afterwards he betook himself to Milan, where he wrought many works in distemper and in fresco, and there finally he died.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) by Giorgio Vasari - The figures, which were badly designed, were coloured in distemper, and the explanatory text was in Latin rhyme.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The ink is merely a distemper or water-colour, which will partly wash out by the application of hot water, and its colour is a kind of sepia.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - No sleep can fasten on my watchful eyes, Nor quiet enter my distemper'd thoughts,
— from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe - Reason, and not enthusiasm, is the true guide of man; he is only inspired when he is demented by some distemper or possession.
— from Timaeus by Plato - Her piercing cries Sad Hecuba renews, and then replies: "Ah! whither wanders thy distemper'd mind?
— from The Iliad by Homer - I appeal to you, whether these Dishonours are to be done to the Distemper of the Great and the Polite.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - I appeal to you, whether these Dishonours are to be done to the Distemper of the Great and the Polite.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele - Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
