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ROBERT BURTON (1577-1640)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 866 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERT See also:BURTON (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 See also: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 See also: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, See also: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: ROBERT BURTON (1577-1640)
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