POX: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis

Excerpt from Schubert chapter:


Schubert's described his misery after being infected with syphilis:

In a word, I feel I’m the most unhappy, most wretched man in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be sound again and who in despair only makes it worse and not better; imagine a man, I say, whose most shining hopes have come to naught, for whom the bliss of love and friendship offers nothing but the greatest pain, for whom the passion (at least something stimulating) for beauty threatens to die away, and ask yourself then if that isn’t one wretched, unhappy man?—“My peace is gone, heavy is my heart, find it again shall I never, never again,” this I can certainly sing now every day, for every night when I go to bed I hope I’ll never wake up, and every morning only reminds me of yesterday’s grief."