Falling Sickness

Epilepsy, in which the patient falls suddenly to the ground.

“Brutus.—He [i.e. Cæsar] hath the falling-sickness.

Cassius.—No, Cæsar hath it not: but you, and I,

And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.”

Shakespeare: Julius Cœsar, i. 2.

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.