This study presents a reconstruction of the performance of the melancholic character in Golden Age theater. It argues that critics have overlooked the way this character type was acted on the original stage. Using Lope’s El Príncipe melancólico [The Melancholic Prince] as a case-study to speculate on the actor’s paralinguistic gestures and movements, information that is extracted from the text, the character’s symptoms can be divided into two categories: fiery melancholia and saddened melancholia. These are compared with two pseudo-medical treaties and Carducho’s Diálogos, as well as three illustrative paintings. The conclusion correlates the dramatic features of the two types of melancholia with two widely-known cases of this pathology in the political panorama of Lope’s time.