Fraszka jako gatunek somatyczny

The article comments on the therapeutical properties of the epigram (and other short, comical poetic genres). Laughter was considered one the best remedies for melancholy, the most serious of the psychosomatic syndromes in the diagnostics of humoral medicine, based on the Ancient theory of four humors. Because of its direct infl uence on the spleen – the organ responsible for secretion of black bile – laughter was supposed to alleviate melancholy. Epigrams, considered by the Old-Polish authors to be a poetic genre written “for the body”, were to be relaxing, and listening or reading them – especially in a group of friends – was supposed to be a therapeutic medicinal practice.