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BURTON, ROBERT (1577-1640)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 866 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BURTON, See also:ROBERT (1577-1640) , See also:English writer, author of The See also:Anatomy of See also:Melancholy, son of a See also:country See also:gentleman, See also:Ralph Burton, was See also:born at See also:Lindley in See also:Leicestershire on the 8th of See also:February 1576-7. He was educated at the See also:free school of See also:Sutton Coldfield and at See also:Nuneaton See also:grammar school; became in 1593 a commoner of Brasenose See also:College, and in 1599 was elected student at See also:Christ See also:Church, where he continued to reside for the See also:rest of his See also:life. The See also:dean and See also:chapter of Christ Church appointed him, in See also:November 1616, See also:vicar of St See also:Thomas in the See also:west suburbs, and about 163o his See also:patron, See also:Lord See also:Berkeley, presented him to the rectory of See also:Segrave in Leicestershire. He held the two livings " with much See also:ado to his dying See also:day " (says Antony a See also:Wood, the See also:Oxford historian, somewhat mysteriously); and he was buried in the See also:north See also:aisle of Christ Church See also:cathedral, where his See also:elder See also:brother See also:William Burton, author of a See also:History of Leicestershire, raised to his memory a See also:monument, with his bust in See also:colour. The See also:epitaph that he had written for himself was carved beneath the bust: Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus, hic jacet See also:Democritus Junior, cui vitam dedit et mortem See also:Melancholia. Some years before his See also:death he had predicted, by the calculation of his nativity, that the approach of his See also:climacteric See also:year (sixty-three) would prove fatal; and the prediction came true, for he died on the 25th of See also:January 1639-40 (some gossips surmising that he had " sent up his soul to See also:heaven through a noose about his See also:neck " to avoid the chagrin of seeing his calculations falsified). His II portrait in Brasenose College shows the See also:face of a See also:scholar, shrewd, contemplative, humorous. A Latin See also:comedy, Philosophaster, originally written by Robert Burton in 1606 and acted at Christ Church in 1617, was See also:long supposed to be lost; but in 1862 it was printed for the See also:Roxburghe See also:Club from a See also:manuscript belonging to the Rev. W. E. Buckley, who edited it with elaborate care and appended a collection of the academical exercises that Burton had contributed to various Oxford miscellanies (" Natalia," " Parentalia," &c.). Philosophaster is a vivacious exposure of charlatanism.

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Desiderius, See also:duke of See also:Osuna, invites learned men from all parts of See also:Europe to repair to the university which he has re-established; and a See also:crowd of shifty adventurers avail themselves of the invitation. There are points of resemblance to Philosophaster in See also:Ben See also:Jonson's Alchemist and Tomkis's See also:Albumazar, but in the See also:prologue Burton is careful to See also:state that his was the earlier See also:play. (Another manuscript of Philosophaster, a presentation copy to William Burton from the author, has since been found in the library of Lord Mostyn.) In 1621 was issued at Oxford the first edition, a See also:quarto, of The Anatomy of Melancholy . . . by Democritus Junior. Later See also:editions, in See also:folio, were published in 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638, 1651, 1652, 166o, 1676. Burton was for ever engaged in revising his See also:treatise. In the third edition (where first appeared the engraved emblematical See also:title-See also:page by C. Le Blond) he declared that he would make no further alterations. But the See also:fourth edition again See also:bore marks of revision; the fifth differed from the fourth; and the See also:sixth edition was posthumously printed from a copy containing his latest corrections. Not the least interesting See also:part of the Anatomy is the long See also:preface, " Democritus to the Reader," in which Burton sets out his reasons for See also:writing the treatise and for assuming the name of Democritus Junior. He had been elected a student of " the most flourishing college of Europe " and he designed to show his gratitude by writing something that should be worthy of that See also:noble society. He had read much; he was neither See also:rich • nor poor; living in studious seclusion, he had been a critically observant spectator of the See also:world's affairs.

The philosopher Democritus, who was by nature very melancholy, " averse from See also:

company in his latter days and much given to solitariness," spent his closing years in the suburbs of See also:Abdera. There See also:Hippo-See also:crates once found him studying in his See also:garden, the subject of his study being the causes and cure of " this atra bilis or melancholy." Burton would not compare himself with so famous a philosopher, but he aimed at carrying out the See also:design which Democritus had planned and See also:Hippocrates had commended. It is stated that he actually set himself to reproduce the old philosopher's reputed eccentricities of conduct. When he was attacked by a See also:fit of melancholy he would go to the See also:bridge See also:foot at Oxford and shake his sides with See also:laughter to hear the bargemen See also:swearing at one another, just as Democritus used to walk down to the haven at Abdera and pick See also:matter for mirth out of the humours of waterside life. Burton anticipates the objections of captious critics. He allows that he has " collected this See also:cento out of See also:divers authors " and has borrowed from innumerable books, but he claims that " the See also:composition and method is ours only, and shows a scholar." It had been his See also:original intention to write in Latin, but no publisher would take the See also:risk of issuing in Latin so voluminous a treatise. He humorously apologizes for faults of See also:style on the ground that he had to See also:work single-handed (unlike See also:Origen who was allowed by Ambrosius six or seven amanuenses) and See also:digest his notes as best he might. If any See also:object to his choice of subject, urging that he would be better employed in writing on divinity, his See also:defence is that far too many commentaries, expositions, sermons, &c., are already in existence. Besides, divinity and See also:medicine are closely allied; and, melancholy being both a spiritual and bodily infirmity, the divine and the physician must unite to cure it. The preface is followed by a See also:tabular synopsis of the First See also:Partition with its several Sections, Members and Subsections. After various preliminary digressions Burton sets himself todefine what Melancholy is and what are its See also:species and kinds. Then he discusses the Causes, supernatural and natural, of the disorder, and afterwards proceeds to set down the Symptoms (which cannot be briefly summarized, "for the See also:Tower of See also:Babel never yielded such confusion of See also:tongues as the See also:Chaos of Melancholy Both of Symptoms ").

The Second Partition is devoted to the Cure of Melancholy. As it is of See also:

great importance that we should live in See also:good See also:air, a chapter deals with " Air Rectified. With a Digression of the Air." Burton never travelled, but the study of cosmography had been his See also:constant delight; and over See also:sea and See also:land, north, See also:east, west, south—in this enchanting chapter—he sends his vagrant See also:fancy flying. In the disquisition on " Exercise rectified of See also:body and mind " he dwells gleefully on the pleasures of country life, and on the content that scholars find in the pursuit of their favourite studies. Love-Melancholy is the subject of the first Three Sections of the Third Partition, See also:antimony are the merry tales with which these pages are seasoned. The Fourth (and concluding) See also:Section treats, in graver See also:mood, of Religious Melancholy; and to the Cure of Despair " he devotes his deepest meditations. The Anatomy, widely read in the 17th See also:century, for a See also:time lapsed into obscurity, though even " the wits of See also:Queen See also:Anne's reign and the beginning of See also:George I. were not a little beholden to Robert Burton" (See also:Archbishop See also:Herring). Dr See also:Johnson deeply admired the work; and See also:Sterne laid it heavily under contribution. But the noble and impassioned devotion of See also:Charles See also:Lamb has been the most powerful help towards keeping alive the memory of the " fantastic great old See also:man." Burton's See also:odd turns and quirks of expression, his whimsical and affectate fancies, his kindly See also:sarcasm, his far-fetched conceits, his deep-lying pathos, descended by See also:inheritance of See also:genius to Lamb. , The See also:enthusiasm of Burton's admirers will not be chilled by the disparagement of unsympathetic critics (See also:Macaulay and See also:Hallam among them) who have consulted his pages in vain; but through good and evil See also:report he will remain, their well-loved See also:companion to the end. The best of the See also:modern editions of Burton was published in 1896, 3 vols. 8vo (See also:Bell and Sons), under the editorship of A.

R. See also:

Shilleto, who identified a large number of the classical quotations and many passages from See also:post-classical authors. Prof. See also:Bensley, of the university of See also:Adelaide, has since contributed to the ninth and tenth See also:series of Notes and Queries many valuable notes on the Anatomy. Dr Aldis See also:Wright has long been engaged on the preparation of a definitive edition. (A. H.

End of Article: BURTON, ROBERT (1577-1640)

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