tion>FRONTISPIECE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
1. Democritus Abderites 2. Zelotypia 3. Solitudo 4. Inamorato 5. Hypocondriacus 6. Superstitiosus 7. Maniacus 8. Borage 9. Hellebor 10. Democritus Junior THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several cures of it. In three Partitions, with their several Sections, numbers, and subsections. Philosophically, medicinally, Histori-cally, opened and cut up. By Democritus Junior With a Satyrical Preface conducing to the following Discourse. The Sixth Edition, corrected and augmented by the Author. Omne tulit punctum, qui miscit utile dulce. London Printed & to be sold by Hen. Crips & Lodo Lloyd at their shop in Popes-head Alley. 1652">
THE
ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, WHAT IT IS,
WITH
ALL THE KINDS, CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, PROGNOSTICS, AND SEVERAL CURES OF IT. IN THREE PARTITIONS.
WITH THEIR SEVERAL
SECTIONS, MEMBERS, AND SUBSECTIONS, PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICALLY, HISTORICALLY OPENED AND CUT UP.
BY DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR. WITH
A SATIRICAL PREFACE, CONDUCING TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE. A NEW EDITION,
CORRECTED, AND ENRICHED BY TRANSLATIONS OF THE NUMEROUS CLASSICAL EXTRACTS. BY DEMOCRITUS MINOR.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci. He that joins instruction with delight,
Profit with pleasure, carries all the votes.
HONORATISSIMO DOMINO
NON MINVS VIRTUTE SUA, QUAM GENERIS SPLENDORE, ILLVSTRISSIMO,
GEORGIO BEKKLEIO,
MILITI DE BALNEO, BARONI DE BERKLEY, MOUBREY, SEGRAVE, D. DE BRUSE,
DOMINO SUO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO,
1
HANC SUAM
MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN, JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D.D. DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LAST LONDON EDITION.
The work now restored to public notice has had an extraordinary fate. At the time of its original publication it obtained a great celebrity, which continued more than half a century. During that period few books were more read, or more deservedly applauded. It was the delight of the learned, the solace of the indolent, and the refuge of the uninformed. It passed through at least eight editions, by which the bookseller, as WOOD records, got an estate; and, notwithstanding the objection sometimes opposed against it, of a quaint style, and too great an accumulation of authorities, the fascination of its wit, fancy, and sterling sense, have borne down all censures, and extorted praise from the first Writers in the English language. The grave JOHNSON has praised it in the warmest terms, and the ludicrous STERNE has interwoven many parts of it into his own popular performance. MILTON did not disdain to build two of his finest poems on it; and a host of inferior writers have embellished their works with beauties not their own, culled from a performance which they had not the justice even to mention. Change of times, and the frivolity of fashion, suspended, in
some degree, that fame which had lasted near a century; and the succeeding generation affected indifference towards an author, who at length was only looked into by the plunderers of literature, the poachers in obscure volumes. The plagiarisms of Tristram Shandy, so successfully brought to light by DR. FERRIAR, at length drew the attention of the public towards a writer, who, though then little known, might, without impeachment of modesty, lay claim to every mark of respect; and inquiry proved, beyond a doubt, that the calls of justice had been little attended to by others, as well as the facetious YORICK. WOOD observed, more than a century ago, that several authors had unmercifully stolen matter from BURTON without any acknowledgment. The time, however, at length arrived, when the merits of the Anatomy of Melancholy were to receive their due praise. The book was again sought for and read, and again it became an applauded performance. Its excellencies once more stood confessed, in the increased price which every copy offered for sale produced; and the increased demand pointed out the necessity of a new edition. This is now presented to the public in a manner not disgraceful to the memory of the author; and the publisher relies with confidence, that so valuable a repository of
amusement and information will continue to hold the rank to which it has been restored, firmly supported by its own merit, and safe
from the influence and blight of any future caprices of fashion. To open its valuable mysteries to those who have not had the advantage of a classical education, translations of the countless quotations from ancient writers which occur in the work, are now for the first time given, and obsolete orthography is in all instances modernized.
ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Robert Burton was the son of Ralph Burton, of an ancient and genteel family at Lindley, in Leicestershire, and was born there on the 8th of February 1576. [1]He received the first rudiments of learning at the free school of Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire [2] from whence he was, at the age of seventeen, in the long vacation, 1593, sent to Brazen Nose College, in the condition of a commoner, where he made considerable progress in logic and philosophy. In 1599 he was elected student of Christ Church, and, for form's sake, was put under the tuition of Dr. John Bancroft, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. In 1614 he was admitted to the reading of the Sentences, and on the 29th of November, 1616, had the vicarage of St. Thomas, in the west suburb of Oxford, conferred on him by the dean and canons of Christ Church, which, with the rectory of Segrave, in Leicestershire, given to him in the year
1636, by George, Lord Berkeley, he kept, to use the words of the Oxford antiquary, with much ado to his dying day. He seems to have been first beneficed at Walsby, in Lincolnshire, through the munificence of his noble patroness, Frances, Countess Dowager of Exeter, but resigned the same, as he tells us, for some special reasons. At his vicarage he is remarked to have always given the
sacrament in wafers. Wood's character of him is, that he was an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and one that understood the surveying of lands well. As he was by many accounted a severe student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humorous person; so by others, who knew him well, a person of great honesty, plain dealing and charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ Church often say, that his company was very merry, facete, and juvenile; and no man in his time did surpass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding his common discourses among them with verses from the poets, or sentences from classic authors; which being then all the fashion in the University, made his company the more acceptable. He appears to have been a universal reader of all kinds of books, and availed himself of his multifarious studies
in a very extraordinary manner. From the information of Hearne, we learn that John Rouse, the Bodleian librarian, furnished him with choice books for the prosecution of his work. The subject of his labour and amusement, seems to have been adopted from the infirmities of his own habit and constitution. Mr. Granger says, He composed this book with a view of relieving his own melancholy, but increased it to such a degree, that nothing could make him laugh, but going to the bridge-foot and hearing the ribaldry of the bargemen, which rarely failed to throw him into a violent fit of laughter. Before he was overcome with this horrid disorder, he, in the intervals of his vapours, was esteemed one of the most facetious companions in the University.
2
His residence was chiefly at Oxford; where, in his chamber in Christ Church College, he departed
