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FRONTISPIECE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION

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.

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,

HANC SUAM

MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN,

JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D.D.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

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. He received the first rudiments of learning at the free school of Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire 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."

His residence was chiefly at Oxford; where, in his chamber in Christ Church College, he departed this life, at or very near the time which he had some years before foretold, from the calculation of his own nativity, and which, says Wood, "being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves, that rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck." Whether this suggestion is founded in truth, we have no other evidence than an obscure hint in the epitaph hereafter inserted, which was written by the author himself, a short time before his death. His body, with due solemnity, was buried near that of Dr. Robert Weston, in the north aisle which joins next to the choir of the cathedral of Christ Church, on the 27th of January 1639-40. Over his grave was soon after erected a comely monument, on the upper pillar of the said aisle, with his bust, painted to the life. On the right hand is the following calculation of his nativity:

and under the bust, this inscription of his own composition:--

Arms:--Azure on a bend O. between three dogs' heads O. a crescent G.

A few months before his death, he made his will, of which the following is a copy:

EXTRACTED FROM THE REGISTRY OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY.

An Appendix to this my Will if I die in Oxford or whilst I am of Christ Church and with good Mr. Paynes August the Fifteenth 1639.

Probatum fuit Testamentum suprascriptum, &c. 11? 1640 Juramento Willmi Burton Fris' et Executoris cui &c. de bene et fideliter administrand. &c. coram Mag'ris Nathanaele Stephens Rectore Eccl. de Drayton, et Edwardo Farmer, Clericis, vigore commissionis, &c.

The copy from which the present is reprinted, is that of 1651-2; at the conclusion of which is the following address:

"TO THE READER.

H. C.

The following testimonies of various authors will serve to show the estimation in which this work has been held:--

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR AD LIBRUM SUUM.

Vade liber, qualis, non ausum dicere, felix, Te nisi felicem fecerit Alma dies. Vade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per oras, Et Genium Domini fac imitere tui. I blandas inter Charites, mystamque saluta Musarum quemvis, si tibi lector erit. Rura colas, urbem, subeasve palatia regum, Submisse, placide, te sine dente geras. Nobilis, aut si quis te forte inspexerit heros, Da te morigerum, perlegat usque lubet. Est quod nobilitas, est quod desideret heros, Gratior haec forsan charta placere potest. Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator, Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit, Sive magistratus, tum te reverenter habeto; Sed nullus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae. Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere nugis, Nec tales cupio; par mihi lector erit. Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc, Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legat: Est quod displiceat, placeat quod forsitan illis, Ingerere his noli te modo, pande tamen. At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas Tangere, sive schedis haereat illa tuis: Da modo te facilem, et quaedam folia esse memento Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis. Si generosa ancilla tuos aut alma puella Visura est ludos, annue, pande lubens. Dic utinam nunc ipse meus In praesens esset conspiciendus herus. Ignotus notusve mihi de gente togata Sive aget in ludis, pulpita sive colet, Sive in Lycaeo, et nugas evolverit istas, Si quasdam mendas viderit inspiciens, Da veniam Authori, dices; nam plurima vellet Expungi, quae jam displicuisse sciat. Sive Melancholicus quisquam, seu blandus Amator, Aulicus aut Civis, seu bene comptus eques Huc appellat, age et tuto te crede legenti, Multa istic forsan non male nata leget. Quod fugiat, caveat, quodque amplexabitur, ista Pagina fortassis promere multa potest. At si quis Medicus coram te sistet, amice Fac circumspecte, et te sine labe geras: Inveniet namque ipse meis quoque plurima scriptis, Non leve subsidium quae sibi forsan erunt. Si quis Causidicus chartas impingat in istas, Nil mihi vobiscum, pessima turba vale; Sit nisi vir bonus, et juris sine fraude peritus, Tum legat, et forsan doctior inde siet. Si quis cordatus, facilis, lectorque benignus Huc oculos vertat, quae velit ipse legat; Candidus ignoscet, metuas nil, pande libenter, Offensus mendis non erit ille tuis, Laudabit nonnulla. Venit si Rhetor ineptus, Limata et tersa, et qui bene cocta petit, Claude citus librum; nulla hic nisi ferrea verba, Offendent stomachum quae minus apta suum. At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta, Annue; namque istic plurima ficta leget. Nos sumus e numero, nullus mihi spirat Apollo, Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit. Si Criticus Lector, tumidus Censorque molestus, Zoilus et Momus, si rabiosa cohors: Ringe, freme, et noli tum pandere, turba malignis Si occurrat sannis invidiosa suis: Fac fugias; si nulla tibi sit copia eundi, Contemnes, tacite scommata quaeque feres. Frendeat, allatret, vacuas gannitibus auras Impleat, haud cures; his placuisse nefas. Verum age si forsan divertat purior hospes, Cuique sales, ludi, displiceantque joci, Objiciatque tibi sordes, lascivaque: dices, Lasciva est Domino et Musa jocosa tuo, Nec lasciva tamen, si pensitet omne; sed esto; Sit lasciva licet pagina, vita proba est. Barbarus, indoctusque rudis spectator in istam Si messem intrudat, fuste fugabis eum, Fungum pelle procul nam quid mihi fungo? Conveniunt stomacho non minus ista suo. Sed nec pelle tamen; laeto omnes accipe vultu, Quos, quas, vel quales, inde vel unde viros. Gratus erit quicunque venit, gratissimus hospes Quisquis erit, facilis difficilisque mihi. Nam si culparit, quaedam culpasse juvabit, Culpando faciet me meliora sequi. Sed si laudarit, neque laudibus efferar ullis, Sit satis hisce malis opposuisse bonum. Haec sunt quae nostro placuit mandare libello, Et quae dimittens dicere jussit Herus.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO HIS BOOK

PARAPHRASTIC METRICAL TRANSLATION.

THE ARGUMENT OF THE FRONTISPIECE.

Ten distinct Squares here seen apart, Are joined in one by Cutter's art.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO THE READER.

"Non hic Centaurus, non Gorgonas, Harpyasque Invenies, hominem pagina nostra sapit."

"No Centaurs here, or Gorgons look to find, My subject is of man and human kind."

Thou thyself art the subject of my discourse.

"Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli."

"Whate'er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport, Joys, wand'rings, are the sum of my report."

My intent is no otherwise to use his name, than Mercurius Gallobelgicus, Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mercury, Democritus Christianus, &c.; although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked myself under this vizard, and some peculiar respect which I cannot so well express, until I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus, what he was, with an epitome of his life.

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