Notes and Questions on the NAEL Excerpt from Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy
For the final exam, write one essay on how style and meaning, function and form, are interrelated in the nonfiction prose of the NAEL selection of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, or in the nonfiction prose of either Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici or Sir Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia or Urn-Burial. (Note that all of Ch. 5 of Browne's Hydriotaphia must be included in the analysis; the remainder of paragraphs 1-4 is printed in the Notes and Questions on Sir Thomas Browne.) Essays should be typed or wordprocessed, and use MLA format (a Works Cited page is optional). As with the first essay on the excerpt from Lyly, (a) use MLA format, and (b) refer in parenthetical documentation-within your own sentences, in your essay--to sentences (using the abbreviation "sent.") and paragraphs (using the abbreviation "par."), rather than just page numbers in NAEL.
For essays about the interrelation of style and meaning, function and form, in the nonfiction prose selections in NAEL of Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy and Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici or Hydriotaphia or Urn Burial, read the entries on each author in Harmon's and Holman's Handbook to Literature, as well as Prinsky's Checklist of Prose Style (on the back of the assignment on the first six paragraphs of John Lyly's Euphues), and Prinsky's N&Q and lecture material on the NAEL excerpt of Sir Thomas More's History of Richard III, as well as the NAEL introductions to Burton and Browne. (If you have NAEL7, look also at the introduction to the seventeenth-century prose selections, "The Science of Self and World," pp. 1528-29. If you have NAEL6, look at paragraphs 7-10 of Adams' and Logan's "Birth and Death of Literary Forms" in "The Early Seventeenth Century, 1603-1660: Introduction" [NAEL6 1077-78], and paragraphs 5-8 of Adams' and Logan's "Literary Modes of the Early Seventeenth Century" [NAEL6 1653-54].) Give phrasal credit within your essays to any ideas or details you derive from any aforementioned published sources (no need for a formal Works Cited page).
As with the analysis of the first six paragraphs of John Lyly's Euphues, don't overlook the use of figurative language, symbolism, and such poetic devices (cf. the entries on "prose" and "prose rhythm" in HTL or PDLT) as alliteration, assonance, consonance, or rhyme, though the writings by Burton and Browne are nonfiction prose. Also helpful are the discussions of nonfiction prose (from grammar and sentence, through paragraph and overall organization) in a good composition handbook (500 + pages, such as Harbrace College Handbook; Little, Brown Handbook; Scott, Foresman Handbook; Simon and Schuster Handbook; St. Martin's Handbook). Rembmer that grammar is expressive (e.g., active versus passive in framing a sentence, or one sentence structure versus another sentence structure). Also, look up discourse, oration, and speech in HTL or PDLT.
N & Q on the NAEL Excerpt from Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy
John Carey in his "Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Prose," Ch. 12 of The Sphere History of Literature in the English Language, Volume 2: English Poetry and Prose, 1540-1674 (London: Sphere Books, 1970) notes that Burton uses nearly 1100 sources in The Anatomy of Melancholy. Holbrook Jackson, editor of the Everyman Library edition of the work, passes on the estimate that Burton's personal library comprised an astonishing number, especially for his time, of two thousand volumes. This sheer number of sources, reflected in the NAEL selection, is one facet of Burton's prose style, and relates to or helps express his dealing with his subject overall, as well as in the particular NAEL selection. In the three-volume Everyman Library edition, the work comprises 1132 pages of text (and another 206 pages of notes, mostly Latin citations or quotations by Burton, plus the editor's glossary and index). The four-paragraph excerpt "Democritus Junior to the Reader" (only in NAEL7) represents an excerpt from the first four paragraphs (only part of paragraph 4 is given in NAEL7) of the fourth of six prefatory parts to the book, "Democritus Junior to the Reader": "Democritus Junior to His Book" (pp.3-6 of Jackson ed.), "The Argument of the Frontispiece" (pp. 7-10), "The Author's Abstract of Melancholy" (pp. 11-13), "Democritus Junior to the Reader" (pp. 15-123; 109 pages!), "To the Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill" (pp. 124-25), and "The Synopsis of the First Partition" (pp. 126-129). The four-paragraph excerpt in both NAEL6 and NAEL7, "From Love Melancholy," is paragraphs 6-9 of Partition 3, Section 2, Member 1, Subsection 2 of The Anatomy. (Below in these Notes and Questions are listed all the parts of the Anatomy, so that where this excerpt fits in, in the Third Partition, or Partition 3, can be seen.) Paragraph 1 of this 9-paragraph Subsection provides a transition in the discussion from love in animals to that in humanity; paragraph 2 discusses the positive and negative effects of love in human history, culture, and society; paragraph 3 discusses perversions (in Burton's view) into homosexuality and bestiality; paragraph 4 is an enormous compendium of Latin quotations and references exemplifying paragraph 3; and paragraph 5 discusses proper "heroical love," manifested in marriage, as well as (unsurprisingly) providing examples. The remainder of this Subsection, paragraphs 6-9, is what has been excerpted for the NAEL selection.
Robert Adams in his introduction to Burton in NAEL6 is inexact (following the partition titles supplied in the handy 1927/1930 edition of Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan-Smith) in the humorously clever observation that Burton withholds the melancholy of love to the last in the work; actually, as the following table of contents, laboriously, if with melancholic joy, compiled by your professor shows, Burton treats love-melancholy as next-to-last. Scan the table of contents and discover what Burton reserves for the ultimate melancholy, in more than one sense of ultimate: a view Burton shares with several of the authors assigned in Eng. 3002/6315 -- and with many others in Europe during the Renaissance era.
Following is
a laboriously, joyously-melancholically compiled table of contents (supplied
by paging through the three volumes of the work in the Jackson edition
and finding Burton's section titles), to give an idea of where things fit
in this enormous work. (A more convenient table of contents is found
in the Dell and Jordan-Smith edition. Burton himself supplies a graphical
detailed [of course!] outline of each part, which would be hard to reproduce
except by a computer scanner.) Be sure to pay close attention to First
Partition, Section 2, Member 3, Subsection 15, as well as First Partition,
Section 2, Member 4, Subsection 2:
Democritus Junior to His Book [one of six prefatory parts]
The Argument of the Frontispiece
The Author's Abstract of Melancholy
Democritus Junior to the Reader << partial
excerpt in NAEL >>
To the Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill
The Synopsis of the First Partition
The First Partition
Section 1: Of Diseases in General and of Melancholy; with
a Digression on Anatomy
Member 1, Subsection 1: Man's Excellency,
Fall, Miseries, Infirmities, the Causes of Them
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: The Definition, Number,
Division of Diseases
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Division of the Diseases
of the Head
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Dotage, Madness,
Frenzy, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropia, Chorus Sancti Viti, Ecstasis
Mem. 1, Subs. 5: Melancholy in Disposition,
Improperly So Called; Equivocations
Member 2, Subsection 1: Digression
of Anatomy
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Division of the Body,
Humors, Spirits
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Similar Parts
Mem. 2, Subs. 4: Dissimilar Parts
Mem. 2, Subs. 5: Of the Soul and Her
Faculties
Mem. 2, Subs. 6: Of the Sensible Soul
Mem. 2, Subs. 7: Of the Inward Senses
Mem. 2, Subs. 8: Of the Moving Faculty
Mem. 2, Subs. 9: Of the Rational Soul
Mem. 2, Subs. 10: Of the Understanding
Mem. 2, Subs. 11: Of the Will
Member 3, Subsection 1: Definition
of Melancholy Name, Difference
Mem. 3, Subs. 2: Of the Part Affected;
Affection; Parties Affected
Mem. 3, Subs. 3: Of the Matter of
Melancholy
Mem. 3, Subs. 4: Of the Species or
Kinds of Melancholy
Section 2, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Causes of Melancholy; God a Cause
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: A Digression of the
Nature of Spirits, Bad Angels, or Devils, and How they Cause Melancholy
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Of Witches and Magicians,
How they Cause Melancholy
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Stars a Cause; Signs
from Physiognomy, Metoposcopy, Chiromancy
Mem. 1, Subs. 5: Old Age a Cause
Mem. 1, Subs. 6: Parents a Cause by
Propogataion
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Bad Diet a Cause;
Substance; Quality of Meats
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Quality of Diet a
Cause
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Custom of Diet, Delight,
Appetite Necessity, How They Cause or Hinder
Mem. 2, Subs. 4: Retention and Evacuation
a Cause, and How
Mem. 2, Subs. 5: Bad Air a Cause of
Melancholy
Mem. 2, Subs. 6: Immoderate Exercise
a Cause, and How; Solitariness, Idleness
Mem. 2, Subs. 7: Sleeping and Waking,
Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 1: Passions and Perturbations
of the Mind, How They Cause Melancholy
Mem. 3, Subs. 2: Of the Force of Imagination
Mem. 3, Subs. 3: Division of Perturbations
Mem. 3, Subs. 4: Sorrow a Cause of
Melancholy
Mem. 3, Subs. 5: Fear a Cause
Mem. 3, Subs. 6: Shame and Disgrace,
Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 7: Envy, Malice, Hatred,
Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 8: Emulation, Hatred,
Faction, Desire of Revenge, Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 9: Anger a Cause
Mem. 3, Subs. 10: Discontents, Cares,
Miseries, etc., Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 11: Concupisciple Appetite,
as Desires, Ambition, Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 12: Philarygyria, Covetousness,
a Cause
Mem. 3, Subs. 13: Love of Gaming,
etc., and Pleasure Immoderate, Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 14: Philautia, or Self-Love,
Vainglory, Praise, Honor, Immoderate Applause, Pride, Overmuch Joy, etc.,
Causes
Mem. 3, Subs. 15: Love of Learning,
or Overmuch Study; with a Digression of the Misery of Scholars, and Why
the Muses
Are Melancholy
Member 4, Subs. 1: Non-necessary, Remote,
Outward, Adventitious, or Accidental Causes: As First from the Nurse
Mem. 4, Subs. 2: Education a Cause
of Melancholy
Mem. 4, Subs. 3: Terrors and Affrights,
Causes of Melancholy
Mem. 4, Subs. 4: Scoffs, Callumnies,
Bitter Jests, How They Cause Melancholy
Mem. 4, Subs. 5: Loss of Liberty,
Servitude, Imprisonment, How They Cause Melancholy
Mem. 4, Subs. 6: Poverty and Want,
Causes of Melancholy
Mem. 4, Subs. 7: An Heap of Other
Accidents Causing Melancholy, Death of Friends, Losses, etc. [Loss of Goods,
Fears
of the Future,
Superfluous Industry, Unfortunate Marriage, Disgraces, Infirmities, Various
Accidents]
Member 5, Subs. 1: Continent, Inward,
Antecedent, Next Causes, and How the Body Works on the Mind
Mem. 5, Subs. 2: Distemperature of
Particular Parts, Causes
Mem. 5, Subs. 3: Causes of Head-Melancholy
Mem. 5, Subs. 4: Causes of Hypochondriacal
or Windy Melancholy
Mem. 5, Subs. 5: Causes of Melancholy
from the Whole Body
Section 3, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Symptoms or Signs of Melancholy in the Body
Member 1, Subs. 2: Symptoms or Signs
in the Mind
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Particular Symptoms
from the Influence of Stars, Parts of the Body, and Humors
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Symptoms from Education,
Custom, Continuance of Time, Our Condition, Mixed with Other Diseases,
by Fits, Inclination,
etc.
Member 2, Subs. 1: Symptoms of Head
Melancholy
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Symptoms of Windy
Hypochondriacal Melancholy
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Symptoms of Melancholy
Abounding in the Whole Body
Mem. 2, Subs. 4: Symptoms of Maids;
Nuns; and Widows' Melancholy
Member 3: Immediate Cause of These Precedent Symptoms
Section 4, Mem. 1: Prognostics of Melancholy [and Self
Violence, Whether Lawful]
The Synopsis of the Second Partition
The Second Partition
Section 1, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Unlawful Cures Rejected
Mem. 2: Lawful Cures, First from God
Mem. 3: Whether It Be Lawful to Seek
to Saints for Aid in This Disease
Mem. 4, Subs. 1: Physician, Patient,
Physic
Mem. 4, Subs. 2: Concerning the Patient
Mem. 4, Subs. 3: Concerning Physic
Section 2, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Diet Rectified in Substance
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Diet Rectified in
Quantity
Mem. 2: Retention and Evacuation Rectified
Mem. 3: Air Rectified, with a Digression
of the Air
Mem. 4: Exercise Rectified of Body
and Mind
Mem. 5: Waking and Terrible Dreams
Rectified
Mem. 6, Subs. 1: Perturbations of
the Mind Rectified, from Himself, by Resisting to the Utmost, Confessing
His Grief to a
Friend, etc.
Mem. 6, Subs. 2: Help from Friends
by Counsel, Comfort, Fair and Foul Means, Witty Devices, Satisfaction,
Alteration of
His Course
of Life, Removing Objects, etc.
Mem. 6, Subs. 3: Music a Remedy Mem.
6, Subs. 4: Mirth and Merry Company, Fair Objects, Remedies
Section 3, Mem. 2, Subs. 1: A Consolatory Digression,
Containing the Remedies of All Manner of Discontents
Mem. 2: Deformity of Body, Sickness,
Baseness of Birth, Peculiar Discontents
Mem. 3: Against Poverty and Want,
with Such Other Adversities
Mem. 4: Against Servitude, Loss of
Liberty, Imprisonment, Banishment
Mem. 5: Against Sorrow for Death of
Friends or Otherwise, Vain Fear, etc.
Mem. 6: Against Envy, Livor, Emulation,
Hatred, Ambition, Self-Love, and All Other Affections
Mem. 7: Against Repulse, ABuses, Injuries,
Contempts, Disgraces, Contumelies, Slanders, Scoffs, etc.
Mem. 8: Against Melancholy Itself
Section 4, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Of Physic Which Cureth with
Medicines
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Simples Proper to
Melancholy; Against Exotic Simples
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Alteratives, Herbs,
Other Vegetals, etc.
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Precious Stones,
Metals, Minerals, Alteratives
Mem. 1, Subs. 5: Compound Alteratives;
Censure of Compounds and Mixed Physic
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Purging Simples Upward
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Simples Purging Melancholy
Downward
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Compound Purges
Mem. 3: Chiurgical Remedies
Section 5, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Particular Cure of the Three
Several Kinds; Of Head-Melancholy
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Blood-letting
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Preparatives and
Purgers
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Averters
Mem. 1, Subs. 5: Alteratives and Cordials,
Corroborating, Resolving the Relics, and Mending the Temperament
Mem. 1, Subs. 6: Correctors of Accidents
to Procure Sleep; Against Fearful Dreams, Redness, etc.
Mem. 2: Cure of Melancholy Over All the Body
Mem. 3, Subs. 1: Cure of Hypochondriacal Melancholy
Mem. 3, Subs. 2: Correctors to Expel Wind; Against Costiveness,
etc.
The Synopsis of the Third Partition
The Third Partition
Section 1, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Preface
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Love's Beginning,
Object, Definition, Division
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Love of Men, Which
Varies as His Objects, Profitable, Pleasant, Honest
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Pleasant Objects
of Love
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Honest Objects of
Love
Section 2, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Heroical Love Causing Melancholy;
His Pedigree, Power, and Extent
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: How Love Tyrannizeth
Over Men; Love, or Heroical Melancholy, His Definition, Part Affected
<< partial
excerpt in NAEL >>
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Causes of Heroical
Love, Temperature, Full Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, etc.
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Other Causes of Love-Melancholy,
Sight, Beauty from the Face, Eyes, Other Parts, and How It Pierceth
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Artificial Allurements
of Love, Causes and Provocations to Lust; Gestures, Clothes, Dower, etc.
Mem. 2, Subs. 4: Importunity and Opportunity
of Time, Place, Conference, Discourse, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous
Tales, Objects,
Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Presents, Bribes, Promises, Protestations,
Tears
Mem. 2, Subs. 5: Bawds, Philters,
Causes
Mem. 3: Symptoms or Signs of Love-Melancholy,
in Body, Mind, Good, Bad, etc.
Mem. 4: Prognostics of Love-Melancholy
Mem. 5, Subs. 1: Cure of Love-Melancholy,
by Labour, Diet, Physic, Fasting, etc.
Mem. 5, Subs. 2: Withstand the Beginnings,
Avoid Occasions, Change His Place: Fair and Foul Means, Contrary Passions,
with Witty
Inventions: To Bring in Another, and Discommend the Former
Mem. 5, Subs. 3: By Counsel and Persuasion,
Foulness of the Fact, Men's Women's Faults, Miseries of Marriage, Events
of Lust,
etc.
Mem. 5, Subs. 4: Philters, Magical
and Poetical Cures
Mem. 5, Subs. 5: The Last and Best
Cure of Love-Melancholy Is, To Let Them Have Their Desire
Section 3, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Jealousy, Its Equivocations,
Name, Definition, Extent, Several Kinds; Of Princes, Parents,
Friends; In Beasts, Men; Before Marriage,
as Corrivals; or After, As in This Place
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Causes of Jealousy;
Who Are Most Apt, Idleness, Melancholy, Impotency, Long Absence, Beauty,
Wantonness,
Naught Themselves, Allurements from Time, Place, Persons, Bad Usage, Causes
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Symptoms of Jealousy:
Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Strange Actions, Gestures, Outrages, Locking Up,
Oaths, Trials,
Laws, etc.
Mem. 3: Prognostics of Jealousy, Despair,
Madness, to Make Away Themselves and Others
Mem. 4, Subs. 1: Cure of Jealousy:
By Avoiding Occasions, Not to Be Idle; by Good Counsel; to Contemn It,
Not to
Watch or Lock
Them Up; to Dissemble It, etc.
Mem. 4, Subs. 2: By Prevention Before
or After Marriage, Plato's Community, Marry a Courtesan, Philters, Stews,
to
Marry One
Equal in Years, Fortunes, of a Good Family, Education, Good Place, to Use
Them Well, etc.
Section 4, Mem. 1, Subs. 1: Religious Melancholy; Its
object God; What His Beauty Is; How It Allureth; The Parts
and Parties Affected
Mem. 1, Subs. 2: Causes of Religious
Melancholy; From the Devil by Miracles, Apparitions, Oracles; His Instruments
or
Factors, Politicians,
Priests, Impostors, Heretics, Blind Guides; In Them Simplicity, Fear, Blind
Zeal, Ignorance,
Solitariness,
Curiosity, Pride, Vainglory, Presumption, etc.; His Engines, Fasting, Solitariness,
Hope, Fear, etc.
Mem. 1, Subs. 3: Symptoms General,
Love to Their Own Sect, Hate of All Other Religions, Obstinacy, Peevishness,
Ready to Undergo
Any Danger or Cross for It; Martyrs, Blind Zeal, Blind Obedience, Fastings,
Vows, Belief of
Incredibilities,
Impossibilities; Particular of Gentiles, Mahometans, Jews, Christians;
and in Them, Heretics Old and New,
Schismatics,
Schoolmeen, Prophets, Enthusiasts, etc.
Mem. 1, Subs. 4: Prognostics of Religious
Melancholy
Mem. 1, Subs. 5: Cure of Religious
Melancholy
Mem. 2, Subs. 1: Religious Melancholy
in Defect; Parties Affected, Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, Worldly Secure,
Carnalistic,
All Impious Persons, Impenitent Sinners, etc.
Mem. 2, Subs. 2: Despair, Despairs,
Equivocations, Definitions, Parties and Parts Affected
Mem. 2, Subs. 3: Causes of Despair,
the Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Rigid Ministers,
Misunderstanding
Scriptures, Guilty Consciences, etc.
Mem. 2, Subs. 4: Symptoms of Despair,
Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Anxiety, Horror of Conscience, Fearful Dreams
and
Visions
Mem. 2, Subs. 5: Prognostics of Despair,
Atheism, Blasphemy, Violent Death, etc.
Mem. 2, Subs. 6: Cure of Despair by
Physic, Good Counsel, Comforts, etc.
Further Prinsky Notes and Questions on NAEL Selections from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy
1. Some material in the NAEL excerpt not annotated (likewise in Holbrook Jackson's edition) needs to be. Quaest., short for Latin quaestion or quaestiones--"question" or "questions," would be a section or subsection heading in a prose treatise; cap. is short for Latin caput, "chapter"; lib. is short for Latin librum or libros, "book" or "books": main divisions in a prose (or possibly poetical) treatise; Onomast. is short for Greek Onomasticon, "[study of] origins of names or words" [such treatises were close to encyclopedias and often read or studied as such in the Renaissance; onomastics is still the technical term for this branch of study today]; Josue is the older form of the name Joshua (as used in P6, the book in the Bible); Jeremy is incorrectly footnoted in NAEL as "St. Jerome": in fact, it is the older form of Jeremiah (the book by the prophet of that name in the Old Testament); v. or V. is the abbreviation for "verse"; "tenent" (P6) is an archaic form of "tenet"; "honing" (P7) means "moaning" or "longing"; "fen." (P8) occurs in the Latin translation of the Arabic medical work by Avicenna, from Arabic fann, meaning "species" or "class," and used as a section or subsection heading in this medical work; "tract." from Latin tractus, "part" (section or subsection in a prose treatise"); "Med. epist." (P8) = Latin abbreviations for "Epistle[s] about Medicine"; "prob." (P9), abbreviation for "problem[s]," a section or subsection of a prose treatise; "Noct. med." = Latin abbreviation for "Nocturnal medicine." Also, "haven" ( ) = "harbor"; and "want" ( ) = "lack."
2. For students with NAEL7, how does the excerpt from "Democritus Junior to the Reader" somewhat differ in prose style from the second excerpt on love melancholy, because of its somewhat different function than the second excerpt? (See my Table of Contents of the work, above.) How does the first excerpt in some ways have some of the same stylistic characteristics as the second excerpt, and for what thematic or functionally expressive reasons? This excerpt has five paragraphs; par. 1 has 9 sentences (counting "Although, as he said . . . who can compel me?" as one sent., since the English translation completes the Latin; and counting the English couplet translation "No centaurs here . . . " as sent. 9 ); par. 2 has 2 sentences ("Thou thyself . . . discourse" = sentence 1, and the couplet translation "Whate'er men do," counting as the completion of sentence 2); par. 3 is one sentence ; par. 4 has 8 sentences, and par. 5 has 18 sentences (actually sent. 18 is cut off, with no acknowledgment, in the NAEL7 excerpt; the whole paragraph has 24 sentences, six of which are deleted from the NAEL excerpt). The remainder of sentence 18, omitted without acknowledgment in NAEL is as follows, continuing after the word "observation" (with a translation supplied by editor Holbrook Jackson): "non tam sagax observator, ac simplex recitator [less by way of shrewd remark than of simple statement of fact], not as they did, to scoff or laugh at all, but with a mixed passion." In addition to considering long vs. short sentences, and why each length is appropriate to its content, and to the excerpt ("Democritus Junior") as a whole (so far as is presented), consideration should also be given to paragraph length: why is the long length appropriate to the content of a paragraph or the short length appropriate to the content of another paragraph in the excerpt? Where within a paragraph in the excerpt from "Democritus Junior to the Reader" does Burton -- or Democritus Junior -- often place a short sentence, and how do placement and length help express the particular idea or ideas of the sentence and paragraph?
3. As already noted, sent. 18 of par. 5
of "Democritus Junior to the Reader" is cut off somewhat misleadingly by
the NAEL excerpt. Also, the remainder of pars. 6-7 should be considered
and included for those students choosing to write about the Burton excerpt
for the final essay, since these paragraphs help to complete Burton's initial
explanation of his purpose and method:
[The Rest of Sent. 18 in Par. 5 of Burton's "Democritus to the Reader," Plus the Remainder of Par. 5; Also, Par. 6 and Part of Par. 7]
Thus I daily hear, and such-like,
both private and public news; amidst the gallantry and misery of the world--jollity,
pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and villainy; subtlety, knavery,
candor and integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves--I rub on
privus
privatus [in complete privacy]; as I have still lived, so I now continue,
statu
quo prius, left to a solitary life and mine own domestic discontents
: saving that sometimes, ne quid mentiar [not to conceal anything],
as Diogenes went into the city and Democritus to the haven to see fashions,
I did for my recreation now and then walk abroad, look into the world,
and could not choose but make some little observation,
non tain sagax
observator, ac simplex recitator [less by way of shrewd remark than
of simple statement of fact], not as they did, to scoff or laugh at all,
but with a mixed passion.
Bilem saepe, jocum vestri movers tumultus.1
[Your fond heats have been,
How oft! the objects of my mirth and spleen.]
I did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, and satirically tax with Menippus, lament with Heraclitus, sometimes again I was petulanti splene cachinno2 [with mocking temper moved to laughter loud], and then again, urere bilis jecur3 [my liver was aflame with gall], I was much moved to see that abuse which I could not mend. In which passion howsoever I may sympathize with him or them, 'tis for no such respect I shroud myself under his name ; but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his Epistle to Damagetus, wherein he doth express, how coming to visit him one day, he found Democritus in his garden at Abdera, in the suburbs, under a shady bower,4 with a book on his knees, busy at his study,6 sometimes writing, sometimes walking. The subject of his book was melancholy and madness ; about him lay the carcasses of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and anatomized; not that he did contemn God's creatures, as he told Hippocrates, but to find out the seat of this atra bills, or melancholy, whence it proceeds, and how it was engendered in men's bodies, to the intent he might better cure it in himself, and by his writings and observations teach others how to prevent and avoid it.1 Which good intent of his, Hippocrates highly commended : Democritus Junior is therefore bold to imitate, and because he left it unperfect, and it is now lost, quasi succenturiator Democriti [as a substitute for Democritus], to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this treatise.
[6] You have had a reason of the name. If the title and inscription offend your gravity, were it a sufficient justification to accuse others, I could produce many sober treatises, even sermons themselves, which in their fronts carry more phantastical names. Howsoever, it is a kind of policy in these days, to prefix a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold ; for, as larks come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing like silly passengers at an antic picture in a painter's shop, that will not look at a judicious piece. And, indeed, as Scaliger observes,2 " nothing more invites a reader than an argument unlocked for, unthought of, and sells better than a scurrile pamphlet," turn maxime cum novitas excitat palatum [most of all when it has the spice of novelty]. "Many men," saith Gellius,3 " are very conceited in their inscriptions," " and able" (as Pliny quotes out of Seneca 4) "to make him loiter by the way that went in haste to fetch a midwife for his daughter, now ready to lie down." For my part, I have honorable precedents for this which I have done: 5 I will cite one for all, Anthony Zara, Pap. Episc., his Anatomy of Wit, in four sections, members, subsections, etc., to be read in our libraries.
[7] If any man except against the matter or manner of treating of this
my subject, and will demand a reason of it, I can allege more than one.
I write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater
cause of melancholy than idleness, " no better cure than business," as
Rhasis holds :6 and howbeit stultus labor est ineptiarum,
to be busy in toys is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca,
better
aliud agere quam nihil, better do to no end than nothing.
I writ therefore, and busied myself in this playing labor, oliosaque
diligentia ut vitarem torporem feriandi [to escape the ennui of idleness
by a leisurely kind of employment], with Vectius in Macrobius, atque
otium in utile verterem negotium [and so turn leisure to good account].
[Notes: 1 Horace.
2
Persius. 3 Horace. 4 Latin text supplied by Burton.
5
Latin text supplied by Burton. 1 Latin text supplied by Burton.
2 Scaliger, Ep. ad Patisonem, and Latin text -- supplied by Burton.
3 Lib. 20, cap. 11, and Latin text -- supplied by Burton.
4
Prafefat. Nat. Hist., and Latin text -- supplied by Burton. 5 Anatomy
of Popery, Anatomy of Immortality, Angelus Salas' Anatomy of Antimony,
etc. -- note supplied by Burton. 6 Cont. lib. 4, cap. 9, and Latin
text -- supplied by Burton.]
4. (a) Paragraph 6 (= first paragraph in the NAEL selection, which is actually par. 6 of the subsection in the work) of Part 3, Sec. 2, Memb. 1, Subsec. 2 of "Love Melancholy" has 18 sentences (including the Latin quotation at the paragraph's end); P7 has 11 sentences ("Who so furious?" should be S7: as printed in the Everyman Library edition); P8 has 9 sentences; P9 has 11 sentences. (b) What principal point or subject is Burton treating in each of these paragraphs (study the synopsis, above, of pars. 1-5)? (c) See my Table of Contents, above, for where this excerpt is located in Burton's whole work.
5. Harmon and Holman, or J.A. Cuddon, in the article on the Anatomy literary form in HTL or PDLT (respectively), in a sense link Burton's work with Lyly's Euphues; how so? As suggested in a couple of articles in HTL or PDLT containing reference to Burton, as well as in the passage itself, how has the Anatomy (including its occurrence in Lyly's novel) often been associated with satire? How are some facets of Burton's prose style related to satire? What specific things does Burton's prose style help Burton satirize, as well as anatomize (take apart, analyze, classify, subdivide), and how? Is Burton equal or unequal in his treatment of the genders in the passage?
6. How is Burton's prose style part academic or scholastic, and part satiric and literary and argumentative or persuasive? (One standard division of nonfiction prose writing is into the "four modes": narration, description, expository, and argumentative or persuasive.) How does this blend help Burton convey his ideas or content in the NAEL selection?
7. (a) Where and how, helping to express what particular
points (as well as, cumulatively, his overall points or point of view),
does Burton use: metaphor, allusion, quotation, series sentence, parallelism,
long sentence, short sentence, interrogative sentence or rhetorical question,
balance, antithesis, paradox, inverted sentence order (hyperbaton), regular
or straightforward sentence structure, parenthesis (of some sort, including
parenthetical sentence structures, not just the punctuation marks), rhyme,
prose rhythm (patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables; alliteration;
assonance), Latinate words, Anglo-Saxon derived words? (b) Which of these
components are repeated (how often?), and why, given Burton's particular
or general points or purposes? (c) Where and how often do any of these
stylistic components occur in combination, and why? (d) What kind of sentence
openers are repeated in the passage, and for what purposes, both in the
particular paragraph and overall in the passage? (e) What key thematic
word is repeated in P6, and why? What key thematic word is repeated in
pars. 6-8, and why? (f) What differences in accumulation of stylistic devices
or components occur in different paragraphs, and why? (g) How often in
the passage does Burton himself paraphrase or translate the Latin he quotes?
What, relative to his ideas or purposes, might be suggested here? (h) How
many words exactly in the longest sentence (and relationship of length
to content or meaning)? In the shortest sentence (and relationship of length
to content or meaning)? (i-1) How many different authors or works (the
latter, especially, in the case of anonymous works), exactly , are cited
by name or title in the passage(s)? (i-2) Greatest number of authors or
works cited in one sentence? (j) Patterns or connections in allusions,
figures of speech, or imagery (or in the combination of these)?