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The Anatomy of Melancholy Flashcards

Robert Burton · Public domain edition · 434 cards · 117 chapters

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy argues that melancholy is a complex condition requiring medical, philosophical, and religious treatment, presented through an eccentric, digressive narrator. This deck covers the book's editorial history, Burton's biography, frontispiece symbolism, and his defenses of borrowing, style, and authorial method.

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Chapter 1 · Question

What editorial problems did the Gutenberg editor find in the nineteenth-century base text?

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Section 14 cards

What editorial problems did the Gutenberg editor find in the nineteenth-century base text?
The editor found that the modernizer left some words in original spelling (especially unusual words), mistook parts of book titles for proper names and proper names for titles or Latin words, and introduced misprints into the Latin. The editor therefore re-edited the text against images of the 1638 edition, correcting errors not present in that earlier edition.
Chapter 1
How does the Advertisement describe the book's reception and later revival?
The Advertisement says the work gained great celebrity for over half a century, passing through at least eight editions, then declined as fashion changed. It was revived partly after Dr. Ferriar exposed Sterne's plagiarisms from it. Wood had noted earlier that several authors stole from Burton without acknowledgment. The piece argues the book's wit and sense eventually restored its reputation.
Chapter 1
According to Wood's character, what kind of person was Burton?
Wood describes Burton as an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and skilled in surveying lands. Some accounted him a severe student, a devourer of authors, and a melancholy, humorous person; others who knew him well called him honest, plain-dealing, and charitable. Acquaintances recalled his company as merry, facete, and juvenile.
Chapter 1
What does the Account say about Burton's death and the suspicion surrounding it?
Burton died in his chamber at Christ Church, at or near the time he had foretold from his own nativity calculation. Wood says that because the calculation proved exact, some students whispered that he hanged himself so the prediction would not fail. The account notes the only other evidence is an obscure hint in his self-written epitaph. He was buried in Christ Church cathedral on 27 January 1639-40.
Chapter 1

Section 24 cards

Why does Democritus Junior say he adopted the name Democritus?
He explains he uses the name not to present a satire or absurd paradoxes, as impostors have done under famous philosophers' names, but because his subject is man and human kind. He compares his borrowed name to how Mercury-named publications use Mercury, and says he has other private reasons he cannot fully express.
Chapter 2
How does the author respond to critics who call his language too free or smutty?
He asks the critic to consider the context, saying thought chastens thought, and to judge again. He adds that although his master's pen may wander into devious paths, his life is pure and beyond slander, so the fault should be pardoned as merely his way.
Chapter 2
What does the frontispiece's tenth square show, and why?
The tenth square presents the Author's face in the habit he wears. The verse says no art can express his mind, which readers may guess from his writings, and that it was not pride or vainglory but the Printer who insisted on including it.
Chapter 2
What two plants fill squares eight and nine of the frontispiece, and what are they for?
Borage and Hellebor fill the two scenes. They are called sovereign plants to purge the veins of melancholy, cheer the heart, and clear the brain of misty fogs that dull the senses and clog the soul. The verse calls them the best medicine God made for this malady, if well assayed.
Chapter 2

Section 34 cards

What does Burton say about the proliferation of books in his age?
The author argues that the age is oppressed by a vast chaos and confusion of books, with new works pouring out twice a year at the Frankfort and domestic marts. He complains that eyes ache with reading and fingers with turning, and that unless a prince's edicts restrain this liberty, it will run on infinitely. He cites Gesner's desire for speedy reformation.
Chapter 3
How does Burton defend his practice of borrowing from other writers?
He claims Omne meum, nihil meum — all mine and none mine — comparing himself to a housewife weaving one cloth from many fleeces and a bee gathering honey from many flowers. He says he cites and quotes his authors, giving every man his own, unlike those who steal whole pages and conceal names. He insists the method alone is his own.
Chapter 3
What does Burton say about why readers judge books so differently?
The author argues that censures are as various as palates, quoting quot homines, tot sententiae. Some readers want matter, others words; some admire what another rejects. He notes some come as bees for honey and some as spiders for poison, and that readers often value the author's rank or titles rather than the work itself.
Chapter 3
How does Burton respond to critics who call his work a mere collection without invention?
He concedes all the faults charged — barbarism, tautology, apish imitation, a rhapsody of rags — saying it is partly affected and he thinks no worse of himself than they do. His defense is precedent: others have done as much, and he cites the dwarf on the giant's shoulders seeing farther than the giant. He invites readers who dislike it to read something else.
Chapter 3

Section 44 cards

Why does Burton say he studied physic (medicine)?
Burton explains he is a divine by profession and a physician by inclination, saying with Beroaldus that he is not a physician nor wholly ignorant of medicine. He took pains in the theory of physic not to practice, but to satisfy himself, and this was one cause of his first undertaking the subject of melancholy.
Chapter 4
What warning does Burton give to readers who are actually melancholy?
Burton cautions the present or future reader who is actually melancholy not to read the symptoms or prognostics in the following tract. He fears such a reader will apply what he reads to himself, aggravating and appropriating general statements to his own person, as melancholy men mostly do, and so trouble or hurt himself, getting more harm than good. He advises wary perusal of that tract.
Chapter 4
How does Burton argue that melancholy and madness are universal?
Burton urges the reader to survey the world as from a high mountain and see that all the world is mad and melancholy. He cites authorities who confound folly, melancholy, and madness as one disease differing only in degree, and the Stoic paradox that all fools are mad. He argues kingdoms, cities, families, and all conditions are out of tune and need physic.
Chapter 4
What does Burton say about how the world judges wise men versus fools?
Burton argues the world's judgment is corrupt: people esteem princes, magistrates, and rich men as wise, and account honest, devout, plain-dealing men as idiots or fools. He illustrates with Democritus's letter to Hippocrates, where the Abderites account virtue madness, and with the tale of Fortune and Folly defeating Virtue and Wisdom, so knaves and fools fare best in worldlings' eyes.
Chapter 4

Section 54 cards

In the opening, why does Burton say one Democritus is no longer enough?
Burton argues that there is now more cause for laughter than in Democritus's day, since there are more fools and madmen. He says we now need a Democritus to laugh at Democritus, one jester to flout another, and a giant Democritus as big as the Rhodian Colossus, because the whole world plays the fool.
Chapter 5
What does Burton say changes over time and what stays the same?
Citing Petrarch, Burton says we change language, habits, laws, customs, and manners, but not vices, diseases, or the symptoms of folly and madness, which remain the same. He compares this to a river that keeps its name and place but not its water, and to animals that make the same sounds as of old.
Chapter 5
What does Burton claim about the causes and conduct of wars?
Burton argues wars begin through the persuasion of a few debauched, hungry captains and parasitical fawners, to satisfy one man's private spleen, lust, ambition, or avarice. He says princes and statesmen stay secure at home while poor soldiers endure wounds, hunger, and thirst, and that God's and men's laws are trampled underfoot, with the sword determining all.
Chapter 5
What religious abuses does Burton imagine Democritus would laugh at?
Burton imagines Democritus seeing religious madness: many professed Christians but few imitators of Christ, much knowledge but little conscience, and absurd ceremonies. He lists Capuchins, Franciscans, a Pharisaical Jesuit, the Pope treading on emperors' necks, pilgrims creeping to counterfeit relics, and Jesuits professing poverty while holding more lands than princes.
Chapter 5

Section 64 cards

According to Burton, what causes many poor men and younger brothers to beg or steal?
The author argues that bad policy and idle education—since such men are likely brought up in no calling—compel many poor men and younger brothers to beg or steal, and they are then hanged for theft. He calls this more ignominious than anything, quoting that it is the governor's fault, and says they should remove the occasions of theft rather than let offenders run to destruction.
Chapter 6
What does Burton say about the world and the market, quoting Anacharsis?
The author describes the market, according to Anacharsis, as a place where people cozen one another, a trap. He extends this to the world itself: a vast chaos, a confusion of manners, a turbulent troop full of impurities, the theatre of hypocrisy, a shop of knavery, a nursery of villainy, and a warfare in which one must either conquer or succumb—kill or be killed.
Chapter 6
What is Burton's summum bonum, and what does he say is truly respected among men?
The author argues that our summum bonum is commodity, and the goddess adored is Dea moneta, Queen money, which steers hearts, hands, and affections. He claims it is not virtue (a bonum theatrale), wisdom, valour, learning, honesty, or religion for which men are respected, but money, greatness, office, honour, and authority. Honesty is accounted folly and knavery policy; men are admired out of opinion, not as they are.
Chapter 6
How does Burton describe hypocrites and men who act many parts for advantage?
He depicts men who turn themselves into all shapes like a chameleon or Proteus, acting twenty parts at once for advantage, temporizing like Mercury—good with good, bad with bad—with a several face and character for everyone they meet. He calls them hypocrites, ambidexters, outsides, and turning pictures: a lion on one side, a lamb on the other.
Chapter 6

Section 84 cards

According to Burton, what kind of followers do profane or ambitious leaders attract?
Burton argues that the common people tend to imitate their leaders' vices: if rulers are profane, lascivious, covetous, or ambitious, the commons become idle, prone to lust, drunken, and poor. Poverty then breeds sedition and villainy, making such people ready to mutiny, rebel, complain, and commit outrages, thefts, and treasons. He cites Catiline's rebel followers and rebels like Jack Cade and Tom Straw as examples.
Chapter 8
What does Burton say many lawyers, lawsuits, and physicians signify about a state?
Burton, following Plato, argues that a swarm of lawyers, lawsuits, physicians, and discord is a manifest sign of a distempered, melancholy state. Such men create more work for themselves and sicken an otherwise sound body politic. He calls lawyers a purse-milking, litigious generation who prolong suits until clients are beggared, and quotes Livy that they do more harm than foreign wars, famine, or disease.
Chapter 8
How did earlier ages handle legal conveyances and disputes, according to Burton?
Burton says forefathers used a few golden crosses and lines in verse to make conveyances, and a whole manor could be conveyed in about twenty lines, praising Laconic brevity since 'there is much more certainty in fewer words.' He notes the Swiss had common arbitrators or daysmen in every town for friendly composition, and Fez in Africa had no lawyers, cases being heard once by the chief judge without appeals.
Chapter 8
What remedy does Burton cite from Christ and Paul concerning lawsuits?
Burton invokes Paul's rebuke to the Corinthians—that there is fault among them when brother goes to law with brother, asking whether there is no wise man to judge between brethren. He also cites Christ's counsel in Matthew 5:25 to agree with thine adversary quickly, saying it was never so fit to be inculcated as in that age. He concludes that where good government and wise princes rule, peace and prosperity follow.
Chapter 8

Section 94 cards

According to Burton, what is the state of English towns other than London?
Burton claims that among English towns only London resembles a true city, a famous emporium and noble mart. The rest, with few exceptions, are in mean estate, mostly ruinous, poor, and full of beggars. He attributes this to decayed trades, neglected or bad policy, idle inhabitants, and riot, with people preferring to beg or loiter rather than work.
Chapter 9
What remedies does Burton mention for countries overstocked with people?
Burton says overstocked countries formerly relieved themselves by sending out colonies or by wars, as the old Romans did, or by employing people at home on public works such as bridges and roadways. He cites Augustus Caesar at Rome and the Spaniards in their Indian mines at Potosi, where some 30,000 men work with 6,000 furnaces boiling.
Chapter 9
What does Burton say about England's navigable rivers and havens?
Burton argues navigable rivers are mostly neglected in England. He admits English streams are not great because the island is narrow, but says they run smoothly and gently, unlike violent rivers abroad, and many could be repaired, such as Wye, Trent, Ouse, and the Thames at Oxford. He also notes England has excellent havens like Falmouth, Portsmouth, and Milford that lack traffic.
Chapter 9
What does Burton conclude about reforming the world's disorders?
Burton calls such reform difficult, impossible, and beyond Hercules' labours. He says all must be as it is, and people will play knaves and fools as long as they can wag their beards. Since the world cannot be redressed, he resolves to satisfy himself by making a Utopia of his own, a new Atlantis, a poetical commonwealth where he freely domineers.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

According to Burton, how should the able-bodied poor and idle persons be treated?
Burton says he will suffer no beggars, rogues, vagabonds, or idle persons who cannot give an account of how they maintain themselves. The impotent, lame, blind, and single shall be maintained in hospitals; the married and infirm shall be relieved with corn, free house-rent, or pensions; but those who are able shall be enforced to work.
Chapter 10
What marriage rules does Burton propose regarding age, dowries, and who may not marry?
No man shall marry before 25, no woman before 20, unless otherwise dispensed. A widow or widower must wait six months. Dowries shall be none or very little, rated by supervisors, with the foul receiving more and the fair little or none. The dismembered, grievously deformed, or those with enormous hereditary disease shall not marry, and other order taken for them.
Chapter 10
What is Burton's position on usury, and under what conditions does he allow it?
Burton says he will not admit biting usurers, yet tolerates some usury because we converse with men, not gods, and for the hardness of men's hearts. He allows it only to orphans, maids, widows, and those ignorant of trading, who must bring their money to a common bank at 5 to 8 percent, and money may be borrowed only by merchants and tradesmen, not prodigals.
Chapter 10
According to Burton, what causes noble families to be ruined, and what does he say about hospitality?
Burton blames riot in building, profuse spending, gaming, excess of pleasure, and prodigious riot in apparel, which bring debt, want, and beggary. He argues that what is called bounty and hospitality is often abused, being really riot and prodigality, and that such open housekeeping beyond one's means devours families as Actaeon was devoured by his hounds.
Chapter 10

Section 113 cards

What does the author say about Stoics and the Stoic sage?
The author mocks the Stoic sage, citing Plutarch's scoffing: the sage claims to be subject to no perturbations, never vexed by torments, fire, or enemies, and beautiful and kinglike in conceit though not worth a groat. The author says he was mad to say so, needing to be bored like Anticyra's patients. Chrysippus concedes virtue may be lost through drunkenness or melancholy.
Chapter 11
Whom does the author except from his universal catalogue of fools, and why?
The author jokingly excepts Nicholas Nemo (Monsieur Nobody) because no one is wise at all hours or free from vice; then the silent, since few words breed wisdom; then senators and magistrates, because fortunate men are counted wise and great men must not be spoken against. He also excepts Lipsius, whom he calls a teacher of mankind, and the Pope, who cannot err in cathedra.
Chapter 11
Why does the author undertake to anatomize melancholy, and how does he defend his satirical style?
The author says melancholy is a disease so frequent and common in his times that few feel not its smart; Julius Caesar Claudinus calls it the fountain of all other diseases, scarce one in a thousand free. He aims to show causes, symptoms, and cures so it may be better avoided. Against charges of levity, he answers with Erasmus: it is not he but Democritus who speaks, an assumed persona.
Chapter 11

Section 124 cards

According to Burton, what three degrees mark the progression of melancholy?
Burton lists three degrees: first, falsa cogitatio (false thinking); second, cogitata loqui (speaking of what one has thought); third, exequi loquutum (acting on what has been spoken). He describes melancholy as pleasant and hardly discerned at first, but afterwards harsh and intolerable if it becomes inveterate.
Chapter 12
What bodily and mental symptoms does Burton attribute to head melancholy?
In body: headache, binding and heaviness, vertigo, lightness, singing of the ears, much waking, fixed eyes, high colour, red eyes, hard belly, dry body, with no great sign of melancholy elsewhere. In mind: continual fear, sorrow, suspicion, discontent, superfluous cares, solicitude, anxiety, and perpetual cogitation of such toys they are possessed with, with thoughts like dreams.
Chapter 12
Which signs does Burton say suggest melancholy will tend toward good?
Burton lists morphew, scabs, itch, breaking out, black jaundice, hemorrhoids opening voluntarily, and the appearance of varices as tending to good. Tending to evil are leanness, dryness, hollow eyes; inveterate melancholy is incurable; if cold it often degenerates into epilepsy, apoplexy, dotage, or blindness; if hot, into madness, despair, and violent death.
Chapter 12
What does Burton identify as the impulsive cause of man's miseries and infirmities?
Burton identifies the sin of our first parent Adam—eating the forbidden fruit by the devil's instigation—as the impulsive cause: his disobedience, pride, ambition, intemperance, incredulity, and curiosity, from which original sin and mankind's general corruption flowed. He compares this to Pandora's box, opened through curiosity, filling the world with diseases.
Chapter 12

Section 133 cards

How does Burton distinguish frenzy (phrenitis) from melancholy and madness?
Burton defines frenzy as a disease of the mind with continual madness or dotage accompanied by an acute fever, or inflammation of the brain or its membranes with acute fever. It differs from melancholy and madness because their dotage occurs without a fever; frenzy is continual, with waking and decayed memory. Melancholy is mostly silent, while frenzy is clamorous, among other differences assigned by physicians.
Chapter 13
What is lycanthropia, and which writers does Burton cite as witnesses?
Lycanthropia, called cucubuth by Avicenna and wolf-madness by others, is when men run howling about graves and fields at night and believe they are wolves or such beasts. Aetius and Paulus call it a kind of melancholy, but Burton refers it to madness. Donat ab Altomari claims he saw two cases; Wierus tells of one at Padua in 1541 and a Spaniard who thought himself a bear; Forrestus confirms it with examples.
Chapter 13
What signs and timeline does Burton give for hydrophobia after a mad dog bite?
Hydrophobia comes from the bite or scratch of a mad dog, sometimes touch or smell alone, and the affected cannot endure the sight of water or liquor, imagining a mad dog in it, and will die rather than drink. Fear of water begins about fourteen days after biting, to some not until forty or sixty days. Commonly around twenty days they rave, fly water and glasses, look red, swell, wake, see visions, bark, howl, and swoon.
Chapter 13

Section 144 cards

According to Laurentius, what are the three noble principal parts of the body?
Laurentius divides inward organic parts into noble and ignoble. The three principal noble parts are the brain, heart, and liver, to which all other parts belong and serve. Their locations create three regions of the body: the head (animal organs), the chest (vital organs), and the lower belly (natural organs).
Chapter 14
What role does Burton assign to the heart in the middle region?
Burton calls the heart the seat and fountain of life, heat, spirits, pulse, and respiration—the sun of the body and its king. He says it is the seat of all passions, moving humours like a chariot: in sorrow it calls blood in, in anger it stirs choler, in joy it sends blood outward. It lives first and dies last.
Chapter 14
How does Burton describe the brain and its ventricles?
Burton calls the brain the most noble organ under heaven, the dwelling-house of the soul and seat of wisdom, memory, judgment, and reason. It is covered by the dura mater and pia mater. Its fore part has three ventricles—right, left, and middle—held to be the seat of common sense, imagination, and cogitation; the fourth creek behind is where memory is said to be seated.
Chapter 14
What is the common division of the soul into faculties, and how do they relate?
The common division is into three principal faculties: vegetal, sensitive, and rational, making plants, beasts, and men respectively. The inferior may exist alone, but the superior cannot subsist without it; so sensitive includes vegetal, and rational includes both, as a triangle is contained in a quadrangle. Burton notes many philosophers dispute the soul's essence and seat.
Chapter 14

Section 154 cards

How does Burton divide the moving faculty of the sensitive soul?
Burton divides the moving faculty into two powers: appetite and local motion. Appetite he further splits threefold—natural (vegetal actions like hunger and thirst), sensitive (common to men and brutes), and voluntary or intellective, which should curb the other two but is mostly captivated by them, so men are led like beasts by sense.
Chapter 15
What are the concupiscible and irascible powers, and what affections arise from them?
The appetite divides into concupiscible, which covets pleasant things and abhors the distasteful, and irascible, which avoids things with anger and indignation. Burton holds all affections arise from these two fountains and, against the Stoics, are natural and not to be resisted. Good objects present cause joy; absent, hope, love, and desire; bad present cause sorrow, future cause fear.
Chapter 15
What three things are required for local motion, and what moves man versus brutes?
Local motion requires that which moves, by what it moves, and that which is moved. The end is the desired or eschewed object; the efficient cause in man is reason or subordinate phantasy, in brutes imagination alone, which moves appetite, appetite the faculty, and the faculty the organs—nerves, muscles, and cords contracted and relaxed by the spirits.
Chapter 15
What differing opinions does Burton report on the soul's origin and immortality?
Burton reports many views: some hold the soul is ex traduce, begotten with the body, as Tertullian and Hippocrates; Galen thought it a temperament; Pythagoreans defended metempsychosis; others denied immortality, including Pomponatus, Pliny, Seneca, and Lucretius. Jerome, Augustine, and the Fathers hold it immortal, created of nothing and infused into the embryo six months after conception.
Chapter 15

Section 164 cards

According to the chapter, what two main divisions of melancholy does Montanus hold?
Montanus holds melancholy to be either material or immaterial. Material melancholy is one of the four natural humours; the immaterial, also called adventitious, acquisite, redundant, unnatural, or artificial, Hercules de Saxonia says resides in the spirits alone and proceeds from a hot, cold, dry, or moist distemperature that alters the brain without matter. Paracelsus rejects the four-humour division, but the Galenists generally approve Montanus's opinion.
Chapter 16
Which humours do Galen and his followers say can engender melancholy, and who disagrees?
Galen holds melancholy matter may be engendered of three humours alone, excluding phlegm, since white cannot become black; Valesius, Menardus, Fuschius, Montaltus, and Montanus stiffly maintain this. Hercules de Saxonia and Cardan take the opposite part, allowing phlegm, though it seldom comes to pass; Guianerius, Laurentius, Melancthon (who calls it dull, swinish melancholy), and Wecker agree with them.
Chapter 16
What threefold division of melancholy does the chapter call most received?
The most received division is into three kinds: head melancholy, proceeding from the sole fault of the brain; a second proceeding sympathetically from the whole body when the whole temperature is melancholy; and hypochondriacal or windy melancholy, arising from the bowels, liver, spleen, or mesenterium, which Laurentius subdivides into hepatic, splenetic, and mesaraic. Love melancholy and lycanthropia are commonly included in head melancholy.
Chapter 16
Why does the author say distinguishing the three species of melancholy is so hard?
The author confesses it is a hard matter to distinguish the three species, express their causes, symptoms, and cures, since they are so often confounded among themselves and have such affinity that even the most accurate physicians can scarce discern them, and they are often intermixed with other diseases. He cites physicians who disagreed over single patients, and concludes the species are commonly mixed in patients' bodies, as forms of commonwealth are in practice.
Chapter 16

Section 172 cards

What did Psellus and other ancient authorities believe about the bodies and mortality of spirits?
Psellus, a Christian and tutor to Emperor Michael Parapinatius, held that spirits are corporeal, have aerial bodies, are mortal, are nourished and have excrements, and feel pain if hurt. Austin, Jerome, Origen, Tertullian, and Lactantius approved that in their fall their bodies changed into a grosser aerial substance. Cardan confirmed spirits feel pain; Scaliger mocked him for it.
Chapter 17
What does the chapter say about spirits foretelling secrets of men's hearts?
The chapter says Thomas, Durand, and others grant spirits have understanding far beyond men, can conjecture and foretell many things, cause and cure diseases, and have skill in arts and sciences. But Bodine's claim that they can tell the secrets of a man's heart or thoughts is called most false; his reasons are weak and are confuted by Zanchius, Jerome, Athanasius, and others.
Chapter 17

Section 184 cards

According to Psellus, how many kinds of sublunary devils are there and what are they?
Psellus makes six kinds of sublunary devils: fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, and similar beings. Burton notes that others divide them differently according to their several places and offices. These sublunary spirits are confined until the day of judgment to this lower world and can work no farther than the four elements, and only as God permits them.
Chapter 18
What does Burton say about the number of ethereal spirits compared to devils?
Burton reports that Thomas Albertus and most authorities hold there are far more angels than devils. He also cites the claim that if a stone fell from the starry heaven at a hundred miles an hour, it would take 65 years to reach earth, since heaven is said to contain 170 million 800 miles, plus other heavens. From this some conclude the number of ethereal spirits must be infinite.
Chapter 18
What are aerial devils said to cause, and what does Burton think about storms?
Aerial devils are said to keep mostly in the air and cause tempests, thunder, lightning, tear oaks, fire steeples, strike men and beasts, and make it rain stones, wool, or frogs. They are also said to counterfeit armies and strange noises in the air. Though meteorologists generally refer storms to natural causes, Burton says he is of Bodine's mind that they are more often caused by aerial devils in their quarters.
Chapter 18
What are terrestrial devils, and what examples of household spirits does Burton give?
Terrestrial devils include Lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, and Robin Goodfellows, and Burton says they are most conversant with men and do the most harm. He describes hobgoblins that would grind corn for a mess of milk or cut wood, and foliots that haunt forlorn houses, make noises, fling stones, and rattle chains, which Cardan holds are mostly harmless.
Chapter 18

Section 194 cards

According to Erastus, when would the devil refrain from harming men and cattle?
Erastus argues that the devil would not inflict diseases on men or cattle if witches would leave him alone. He holds that much harm would never have been done had the devil not been provoked by witches, citing the Witch of Endor and Pharaoh's magicians as examples where human instruments urged him on.
Chapter 19
Which professions and authorities does Burton list as believing in witches, versus those who deny them?
Burton says Wierus, Lerchemer, Biarmanus, Ewichius, Euwaldus and the Englishman Scot deny witches can harm, laughing at such stories. On the contrary, he lists most lawyers, divines, physicians and philosophers as believers, including Austin, Hemingius, Danaeus, Chytraeus, Zanchius, Aretius, Delrio, Springer, Niderius, Bodine, Godelman, Paracelsus and Erastus.
Chapter 19
What limits does Burton place on the power of magicians and devils?
Citing Lipsius, Burton says neither magicians nor devils can take gold or letters from his or Crassus's chest, nor give money to clients, alter judges' decrees, or touch kings' councils and secrets. These lower spirits cannot do it; higher powers reserve such things to themselves. Magicians are mostly base, poor and contemptible.
Chapter 19
What is Burton's stated view on whether the stars compel melancholy?
Burton says the stars incline but do not compel: agunt non cogunt, with no necessity at all. They incline so gently that a wise man may resist them; sapiens dominabitur astris — they rule us, but God rules them. He calls the heavens God's instrument, a book whose letters are the stars, or a harp played by a skilled musician.
Chapter 19

Section 204 cards

According to Burton, what are the six non-natural things that cause melancholy?
Burton lists the six non-natural things as diet, retention and evacuation, air, exercise, sleeping and waking, and perturbations of the mind. He calls them necessary remote causes because we cannot avoid them, though they may be used or abused. Physicians like Montanus and Frisemelica blamed patients for offending in one or all of these six.
Chapter 20
Why does Burton rank diet as the most material of the six causes?
Burton says diet is more material than the other causes because it makes new matter or is conversant in keeping or expelling it, while air, exercise, sleep, and passions only alter the matter. Following Fernelius, he holds diet has power in begetting diseases and yields their matter and sustenance, calling it the mother of diseases.
Chapter 20
Which meats does Burton say breed gross melancholy blood?
Beef is condemned by Galen and succeeding authors to breed gross melancholy blood, though good for sound, strong, laboring men. Pork is too moist and may breed quartan ague. Hare is black, melancholy, hard of digestion, and causes fearful dreams. Venison is called melancholy and bad, and conies are of the nature of hares.
Chapter 20
What did Forestus observe about Carthusian friars and fish?
Burton reports that Forestus, sometimes physician ordinary at Delft in Holland, found Carthusian friars, whose living is mostly fish, more subject to melancholy than any other order. He cites one Buscodnese, a ruddy, well-looking Carthusian who became misaffected through solitary living and fish-eating.
Chapter 20

Section 211 cards

What does Burton say about the opposite extreme of overly strict diet?
Burton says some draw mischief on themselves by too ceremonious and strict diet, being over-precise and curious about meats and times—weighing ounces at dinner and supper, taking diet-drinks and broths. To sounder bodies this is too nice and absurd. Others offend by overmuch fasting; he cites Guianerius that anchorites and monks through immoderate fasting have frequently gone mad.
Chapter 21

Section 223 cards

What remedies does Burton cite for melancholy people regarding air?
Montanus advises melancholy persons to avoid tempestuous and rough air, and all night air, walking abroad only on a pleasant day. He would allow no windows opened at night and especially discommends the south wind and nocturnal air. Lemnius discommends south and east winds but commends the north. Plutarch likewise links night and darkness to sadness.
Chapter 22
Why does Burton consider immoderate exercise a cause of melancholy?
Burton says nothing is better than timely exercise for preserving the body, but nothing worse if unseasonable, violent, or excessive. Citing Fernelius out of Galen, he says much exercise and weariness consumes the spirits and substance, refrigerates the body, and stirs up humours Nature would otherwise concoct and expel, which then trouble body and mind. Exercise right after meals is especially condemned.
Chapter 22
Why does Burton call idleness a chief cause of melancholy?
Burton calls idleness the bane of body and mind, the devil's cushion, and a sole cause of many maladies. The mind cannot rest unless occupied with honest business, so it rushes into melancholy of its own accord. He cites Rhasis, Montaltus, Plutarch, and Mercurialis as holding idleness the greatest or a chief cause, and says idle persons can never be pleased.
Chapter 22

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What does Burton claim imagination can produce in melancholy persons?
The author argues imagination rages most in melancholy persons, keeping the species of objects so long, mistaking and amplifying them by continual strong meditation, until it produces real effects in some parties and causes this and many other maladies. Though phantasy should be ruled by reason, distempered or defective organs make it unapt or hindered.
Chapter 23
How does Burton explain the nightmare of the incubus?
He says those troubled with incubus, or witch-ridden, lying on their backs suppose an old woman rides and sits so hard upon them they are almost stifled for want of breath, when nothing offends but a concourse of bad humours troubling the phantasy. He similarly explains sleepwalkers: vapours move the phantasy, the phantasy the appetite, which moves the animal spirits, causing the body to walk.
Chapter 23
What examples does Burton give of imagination affecting pregnancy?
He cites Persina, the Ethiopian queen in Heliodorus, who by seeing a picture of Perseus and Andromeda was brought to bed of a fair white child; a deformed Greek who hung the fairest pictures in his chamber so his wife might bear like children; and Lemnius's claim that a woman thinking of another man at conception bears a child like him. Vives cautions pregnant women to avoid absurd conceits.
Chapter 23
How does Burton explain cures by charms and the weapon salve?
The author argues there is no virtue in such charms or cures, but a strong conceit and opinion alone, which forces a motion of the humours, spirits, and blood, removing the cause of the malady from the affected parts. He notes an empiric or silly surgeon often does stranger cures than a rational physician because the patient puts confidence in him, which Avicenna prefers before art and all remedies.
Chapter 23

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According to Burton, what is envy in essence, and how does it differ from mercy?
Burton defines envy as Tristitia de bonis alienis — sorrow for other men's good, present, past, or to come — plus gaudium de adversis, joy at their harms. He calls it opposite to mercy, which grieves at other men's mischances. He cites Damascen, Thomas, Aristotle, Plato, Tully, Basil and others as holding this definition, and notes it afflicts the body in another kind.
Chapter 24
How does Burton distinguish honest emulation from the vice of immoderate emulation?
Burton says honest emulation in studies and all callings is not to be disliked: it is the whetstone of wit, the nurse of wit and valour, and noble Romans did brave exploits from it. There is a modest ambition, as Themistocles was roused by Miltiades' glory. But immoderate emulation is a plague and miserable pain, consuming substance in lawsuits, feasting and fine clothes.
Chapter 24
What does Burton say anger does to the body and mind, and whom does Lucian say it especially affects?
Burton calls anger a perturbation carrying the spirits outwards, preparing the body to melancholy and madness; Ira furor brevis est, anger is temporary madness. Magninus says frequent anger overheats the body and breaks out into manifest madness. Lucian, in Abdicato, holds this passion works especially in old men and women, troubling them first with anger and calumny, then breaking out into madness.
Chapter 24

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According to Burton, what does Polybius observe commonly follows renowned actions?
Burton cites Polybius's observation that grievous enmities and bitter calumnies commonly follow renowned actions. He illustrates this with figures like Caesar and Alcibiades, first crowned and admired, then having their statues demolished, being hissed out and massacred, and with Magnus Gonsalva, first honoured then confined and banished.
Chapter 25
How does Burton describe the condition of kings and princes despite their apparent happiness?
Burton argues kings, princes, and magistrates seem most happy but are actually most encumbered with cares, in perpetual fear, agony, suspicion, and jealousy. Citing Chrysostom and Gregory, he says sovereignty is a tempest of the soul, and that if men knew the discontents of a crown they would not stoop to take it up.
Chapter 25
What does Burton say about the concupiscible appetite when it is moderate versus exorbitant?
Burton holds, following Austin, that the concupiscible and irascible appetites are both good if moderate and both pernicious if exorbitant. Desire itself has no rest, is endless, and is called a perpetual rack or horse-mill. When immoderate, it tortures and is, according to Plater and others, an especial cause of melancholy.
Chapter 25
How does Burton define ambition and what does he say it does to those who pursue it?
Burton calls ambition a proud covetousness, a dry thirst of honour, a great torture of the mind composed of envy, pride, and covetousness, a gallant madness. Citing Ambrose and Bernard, he terms it a canker of the soul, a hidden plague, a secret poison, the mother of hypocrisy, and a cause of madness. Seneca calls it a vain, solicitous, fearful thing.
Chapter 25

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According to Burton, what is the common end of sensual epicures and prodigal spendthrifts?
The author argues that immoderate lust, gaming, pleasure, and riot commonly reduce well-descended people to rags, begging, and a painful life of discontent and grief of body and mind. He cites Cebes, St. Ambrose, and Lucian's picture of Opulentia, where suitors are entertained while money lasts, then thrust out a back door to shame, reproach, and despair.
Chapter 26
Which pastimes does Burton call the ordinary rocks on which prodigals impinge?
He names cards, dice, hawks, and hounds, plus mad fantastical buildings such as galleries, cloisters, terraces, orchards, gardens, and pools. These are the rocks when unseasonably used, imprudently handled, and beyond one's fortune. He notes such delights may ornament great men but are the sole overthrow of others' estates, citing Forestus's melancholy patient ruined by unprofitable building.
Chapter 26
How does the story of the Milan physician illustrate the folly of hunting?
A recovered patient at the physician's door asks a mounted hunter the worth of the fowl he kills yearly; the hunter says five or ten crowns. Asked what his dogs, horse, and hawks cost, he answers 400 crowns. The patient tells him to flee, lest the master find him and put him in the pit among madmen up to the chin, thereby taxing such vain sportsmen.
Chapter 26
What does Burton say about the effects of wine and women as causes of melancholy?
He calls wine and women the two main plagues and common dotages of humankind, which go commonly together. Citing Solomon, Jeremy, and Augustine, he says drink causes torture, poverty, shame, and madness, making wise men do they know not what. Of women he cites the wise man that she is pleasant at first but bitter as wormwood in the end, leading to death.
Chapter 26

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According to Burton, why are scholars more prone to melancholy than other men?
Burton gives two main reasons: scholars live a sedentary, solitary life free from the bodily exercise and ordinary recreations other men enjoy, and they suffer from overmuch study. The common cause is excessive study, which dries the brain and extinguishes natural heat; while the spirits are intent on meditation, the stomach and liver are left destitute, producing black blood and crudities.
Chapter 27
What does Burton say happens to scholars who neglect their brains?
Burton compares scholars unfavorably to other workers: a painter washes his pencils, a smith tends his hammer and anvil, a husbandman mends his plough-irons, a falconer cares for his hawks and hounds. Only scholars neglect the instrument they daily use—their brain and spirits—which is consumed by much study. He cites Lucian's warning not to twist the rope so hard that it breaks.
Chapter 27
How does Burton describe the outward behavior and worldly standing of great students?
Burton argues that the greatest students are commonly silly, soft fellows in outward behavior, absurd and ridiculous to others, and no whit experienced in worldly business. They can measure the heavens and teach others wisdom, yet in bargains and contracts they are circumvented by every base tradesman. He quotes Aeneas Sylvius, who knew many excellent scholars so rude they lacked common civility.
Chapter 27
What examples does Burton give of scholars so absorbed in study they lost awareness?
Burton cites Thomas Aquinas, who at supper with King Lewis of France suddenly struck the table and cried 'conclusum est contra Manichaeos,' then was abashed at his error. Archimedes, having solved the crown problem, ran naked from the bath crying 'I have found,' and later took no notice when soldiers came to rifle his house. St. Bernard rode all day by the Lemnian lake and asked where he was.
Chapter 27

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According to the passage, what is the main cause of the clergy's misery?
The author argues the chief cause is the covetousness of griping patrons who buy and sell livings and detain church revenues. He does not fully excuse the clergy, saying both are faulty, but judges the patrons' fault greater and more to be condemned. He names covetousness first as the root of these mischiefs.
Chapter 28
What does the author say happens to families that practice simony?
He claims they are commonly unfortunate families, accursed in their progeny and in all their proceedings, citing common experience. He compares ill-gotten goods to an eagle's feathers that consume the rest of one's substance, and to Aesop's eagle whose stolen flesh carried a burning coal that consumed her young, nest, and all.
Chapter 28
What is the second cause of contempt for learning, and who perceived it?
The second cause is ignorance, from which contempt and hatred of learning proceed. The author cites Junius as having well perceived this. He argues that because such men are themselves barbarous, illiterate, and proud, they esteem others accordingly, and being unable to judge a scholar's worth, they cannot distinguish a true scholar from a drone.
Chapter 28
How does the author respond to offers of preferment, citing Alexander and Libanius?
He says friends have used such speeches to him, but he replies with Alexander that he has enough, perhaps more than he deserves, and with Libanius, who preferred to remain a sophist rather than become a magistrate. He would rather stay Democritus junior and privus privatus than become such a Doctor or Dominus.
Chapter 28

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According to Burton, what must a well-qualified candidate often do to gain a patron's preferment?
Burton says that even a well-qualified man who pleads affinity, consanguinity, or sufficiency must serve seven years, as Jacob did for Rachel, before receiving it. If entering at first, he must pass through a "Simoniacal gate," come off soundly, and put in good security to perform all covenants, otherwise the patron will not deal with or admit him.
Chapter 29
Whom does Burton say patrons prefer over university men, and why?
Burton argues patrons prefer a poor scholar or trencher chaplain who will take the living "to the halves, thirds," or accept whatever is given, because he is conformable and preaches as the patron wishes. He cites Chrysostom's complaint that rich men keep such lecturers like dogs at their tables, filling them with offals and making them say what the rich propose.
Chapter 29
What troubles does Burton list after a minister finally obtains a small benefice?
Burton says misery begins afresh: the minister faces flesh, world, and devil; comes to a ruinous house needing repair at his own cost; must sue for dilapidations or be sued; and is called on for a predecessor's arrearages, first-fruits, tenths, subsidies, benevolence, and procurations. He may also light on a cracked title, as Clenard of Brabant did, and after ten years' suit give it up.
Chapter 29
What does Burton identify as the root cause of corruption in the Church and the neglect of learned men?
Burton argues the fault lies with the academics themselves—their negligence and avarice—for admitting poor, unworthy candidates to degrees without selection, and for professors promoting their own profit from public expense. He says such men, lacking true learning, rush into theology for gain, while worthy scholars remain poor and obscure, and he insists this does not detract from the many excellent clergy the English Church still has.
Chapter 29

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According to Burton, what effects can terrifying sights or sounds have on the mind?
Burton reports that sudden fires, earthquakes, corpses, monsters, or dreadful news can so disturb people that they become melancholy, lose their wits, or even die. He cites children frightened by a hanged malefactor's stirring corpse, a gentlewoman disturbed by a hog's entrails, and a servant driven to madness and suicide by an earthquake. He holds that hearing especially moves the body and mind, and that such fears may recur for life.
Chapter 30
What does Burton say about the power of hearing compared with other senses?
Burton, following Plutarch, asserts that hearing produces the greatest disturbances in body and mind: auditus maximos motus in corpore facit. Unexpected speech or news, good or bad, can take away sleep and appetite and overturn a person. He cites panic fears from sudden noises that drove men out of their wits temporarily or permanently, and Livia falling dead on hearing Virgil's verses.
Chapter 30
How does Burton describe the harm caused by scoffs, calumnies, and bitter jests?
Burton argues that a word-blow strikes deeper than a sword-blow: calumnies, satires, and scurrilous jests wound as much as any misfortune. Princes fear a railing satirist more than an enemy in the field. He says such jests are a mortal sin, should never be used, especially against superiors or the distressed, and that melancholy people are most sensitive to them, meditating on the injury until it becomes a perpetual corrosive.
Chapter 30
What does Burton say about the motives and character of those who habitually scoff?
Burton describes scoffers as having a petulant spleen and a sarcastic habit, unable to speak without biting; they would rather lose a friend than a jest, and they mock inferiors and dependents to amuse themselves. He says their wit serves only to break scurrile jests, which Tully calls the froth of wit, while they are dull in all other discourse. He cites Pope Leo X's delight in gulling foolish men into madness.
Chapter 30

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According to Burton, what privileges and services does wealth command for its owner?
The author argues that the rich man may sail and temper his estate at pleasure, enjoying music, dainty fare, fine clothes, soft beds, and the labor of thousands of artificers. Divines, lawyers, physicians, philosophers, and scholars are devoted to his service, every man seeks his acquaintance, and he may marry whom he will. Fish, fowl, spices, perfumes, and all sports are at his command.
Chapter 31
What does Burton say happens to a poor man who is honest, wise, and well-deserving?
The author argues that if he is poor and unlikely to rise, he is contemned, neglected, and forsaken, though honest, wise, learned, noble by birth, and of excellent parts. If he speaks, men ask what babbler he is; his nobility without wealth is worthless, and to be poor is to be counted a knave, fool, and wretch.
Chapter 31
Why does Burton say poverty causes sedition and rebellion in commonwealths?
The author argues that poor men are preyed on by polling officers and tyrannizing landlords, fleeced by exactions, and cannot live though they drudge and starve their genius. Fear of this misery compelled the old Romans to resist their governors, and in all ages it has caused uproars, murmurings, seditions, rebellions, thefts, murders, and mutinies.
Chapter 31
What happens to a poor man's friends when misfortune strikes, according to Burton?
The author argues that once a man is in distress he is forsaken by his fellows and left to himself, as Terence was by Scipio, Laelius, and Furius. Friends flee like from a rotten wall ready to fall, and while fortune favors they smile, but when it falls they turn away. His brethren and neighbors hate him if he is poor.
Chapter 31

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According to Burton, what is the effect of losing money compared to other losses?
The author argues that loss of temporal goods, money, and fortune is the greatest torture, causing habitual melancholy. He cites Guianerius and Arnoldus Villanovanus, who list loss of goods and friends as special causes of melancholy. He claims lost money wrings true tears and that want alone can make a man mad, and that such grief continues long and can become a habit.
Chapter 32
What example does Burton give of a man who went to hang himself but found money?
Burton recounts a poor fellow who went to hang himself but found a pot of money, flung away the rope, and went home merry. The man who had hidden the gold, finding it gone, hanged himself with that same rope in a discontented humour. Burton cites Ausonius's epigram as expressing this elegantly, illustrating how want and penury produce such accidents.
Chapter 32
What does Burton say about superstitious fear caused by prodigies?
Burton describes superstitious fear as one of Aristotle's three great causes of fear, stirred by prodigies like a hare crossing one's path, a mouse gnawing clothes, or a black spot on nails. He argues such people, through imagination and the devil's craft, pull the misfortunes they suspect onto themselves, citing Solomon and Isaiah that what they fear shall come upon them.
Chapter 32
What does Burton say about curiosity and unprofitable study?
Burton calls curiosity a tyrannising care and superfluous industry about unprofitable things, an itching to see what should not be seen and know secrets that should not be known. He argues school divinity, superstition, philosophy, astrology, magic, and alchemy are needless troubles, citing Socrates, who held such cavillers mad because they sought things neither perceivable nor profitable.
Chapter 32

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According to Burton, how do outward causes produce melancholy when they act alone versus together?
Burton holds that single causes considered alone can do little by themselves and seldom act apart, like an old oak not felled at a blow, though many times each is sufficient. But when they concur, as often they do, their united force is stronger; many grains and small sands sink a ship, and many dispositions produce a habit.
Chapter 33
What does Burton say about how body and soul affect each other in causing melancholy?
Burton argues the mind's distraction alters the body's temperature, and the body's distemper causes distemperature of the soul, making it hard to decide which harms the other more. He cites Plato and Cyprian blaming the soul, others blaming the body, and notes Galen's view that manners follow the body's temperature.
Chapter 33
Which bodily parts does Burton list as capable of causing melancholy when distempered?
Burton says almost no part of the body fails to cause this malady when distempered: the brain and its parts, heart, liver, spleen, stomach, womb, pylorus, mirach, mesentery, hypochondries, and mesaraic veins. Citing Arculanus, he notes no part is exempt, either because it is adust or fails to expel superfluous nutriment.
Chapter 33
What does Burton conclude about whether adventitious melancholy's efficient cause is hot and dry or cold and dry?
Burton reports Montaltus holds the efficient cause of melancholy to be hot and dry, not cold and dry, because heat roasts the blood and spices, study, and waking inflame it. Burton concludes this may be true of non-natural melancholy producing madness, but natural melancholy is colder and produces gentle dotage, an opinion Geraldus de Solo maintains.
Chapter 33

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According to Burton, what are the two chief mental symptoms of melancholy?
Burton identifies fear and sorrow as the principal mental symptoms, calling them frequent causes and, if long persisting, most assured signs and inseparable companions of melancholy. He cites Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and the Neoterics as holding this view, though he notes some writers dispute whether fear and sorrow are truly universal to all melancholics.
Chapter 34
Which four kinds of people does Hercules de Saxonia except from the fear-and-sorrow rule?
Hercules de Saxonia, with Lodovicus Mercatus, objects to Hippocrates' aphorism, arguing fear and sorrow are not common to all melancholics. He excepts four kinds: fanatical persons such as the sibyls and Cassandra, demoniacal persons who speak strange languages, certain poets who laugh always and think themselves kings or cardinals, and others who are neither fearful nor sad.
Chapter 34
What does Burton advise an actually melancholy reader concerning this tract on symptoms?
Burton advises that a person actually suffering from melancholy should not read this tract of symptoms, lest he disquiet himself or make himself temporarily worse and more melancholy than before. He explains that melancholics apply everything they hear, see, or read to themselves, so reading of symptoms may aggravate their condition by violent imagination.
Chapter 34
How does Burton describe the fear experienced by melancholics?
Burton says melancholics fear without a cause, dreading things of no moment, though not all alike. Some fear death yet make away with themselves; some fear heaven will fall, damnation, devils, or disease; some think they are made of glass, cork, or lead. Such fear tortures them continually, yet in all other matters they remain wise and discreet.
Chapter 34

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According to the chapter, why do melancholy people avoid company and shut themselves in?
The author says they have a conceit that every man observes, derides, scorns, or misuses them, so they confine themselves to private houses or chambers. Rhasis is cited: they flee men without cause and hold them in hatred. Diogenes in his tub and Timon Misanthropus are given as examples of such aversion from company.
Chapter 35
How did the Egyptians depict a melancholy man in their hieroglyphics, and why?
The chapter states the Egyptians expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, because the hare is a most timorous and solitary creature. The reference is to Pierius, Hieroglyphics, book 12. This image follows the discussion of melancholy people frequenting desert places and avoiding human congress.
Chapter 35
What symptoms does the chapter attribute to melancholy arising from phlegm?
It stirs dull symptoms and a kind of stupidity: they are sleepy, dull, slow, cold, blockish, and ass-like, which Melancthon calls asinine melancholy. They weep much, delight in waters, ponds, rivers, fishing and fowling, are pale, slothful, heavy, troubled with headache, and dream of drowning. They are fatter than other melancholy people and keep their eyes fixed on the ground.
Chapter 35
What does the chapter say about melancholy from adust blood, including its link to wit?
Such people are ruddy and high-coloured, with red veins in their eyes, inclined to laughter, witty, merry, and given to music, dancing, and women's company. Laurentius thinks this slightly adust, blood-mixed kind is what Aristotle meant by melancholy men being most witty, causing a divine ravishment or enthusiasmus that stirs them to excel as philosophers, poets, and prophets.
Chapter 35

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According to the chapter, what is the chief symptom distinguishing head-melancholy?
The chiefest symptom is that there be no notable signs in the stomach, hypochondries, or elsewhere—what Montaltus calls signs 'digna' or of greater note. If fear and sorrow continue without stomach symptoms or misaffected blood, the brain itself is thought troubled by a melancholy juice bred in it. The chapter notes this is not always true, since blood and hypochondries are often affected even in head-melancholy.
Chapter 36
What symptoms does the chapter assign to dryness versus moisture of the brain?
If melancholy proceeds from dryness of the brain, heads are light, vertiginous, and patients are most apt to wake, continuing whole months without sleep, with few excrements in eyes and nostrils, and often bald from excess dryness. If from moisture, dullness, drowsiness, and headache follow; Salvianus found epileptical symptoms with a multitude of humours in the head.
Chapter 36
What does the chapter say about fear and sorrow as general symptoms of hypochondriacal melancholy?
Hercules de Saxonia, whom Burton says he subscribes to, holds fear and sorrow are not general symptoms: some fear and are not sad, some are sad and fear not, some neither fear nor grieve. Trincavelius excuses Diocles because in a strong, generous, valiant constitution these symptoms may not appear. Other signs include sharp belchings, wind, gripings, cold sweats, and palpitations.
Chapter 36
What memorable example does Felix Platerus record of a man convinced he had swallowed frogs?
A countryman fell into a pit of frogs and spawn and swallowed some water, then believed he had swallowed spawn. His fantasy convinced him live frogs lived in his belly by his nourishment. He studied physic seven years, traveled to Italy, France, and Germany consulting physicians, and in 1609 asked Platerus's counsel. He rejected wind as the cause, insisting on real frogs, until finally cured of the phantasia.
Chapter 36

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According to Burton, what causes the fear and sorrow of melancholy men?
Burton argues these symptoms come from natural and inward causes, not from devils, witchcraft, or being forsaken by God. Following Galen, he says black humours send dark, gross fumes to the brain, clouding the spirits so the mind sits in continual darkness, fear, and sorrow. Knowing the causes, he says, helps patients avoid the effects or endure them with more patience.
Chapter 37
How does Burton answer those who mock melancholy patients' fears as trifles?
He asks the mocker to imagine being told suddenly that a close friend has died, or being set on a steep rock in danger of falling: grief and trembling would follow unavoidably. Using Byaras's plank example, he notes a plank on the ground is safe to walk, but over deep water the same plank causes violent fear through imagination alone. Melancholy men carry an inward cause that cannot be removed.
Chapter 37
Why does the philosopher of Conimbra say students and lovers often become melancholy or mad?
He attributes it to vehement and continual meditation on whatever affects them. This draws the spirits up into the brain, and the heat brought with them overheats it beyond measure. The cells of the inner senses then lose their temperature, and once dissolved they cannot perform their offices as they ought.
Chapter 37
What does Fracastorius conclude about which temperament has the best wits?
Fracastorius decides the controversy: phlegmatic men are dull; sanguine are lively and merry but not witty; choleric are too swift and furious for contemplation; melancholy men have the most excellent wits, but not all. If the humour is too hot they are furious and mad, if too cold dull and timorous; if temperate, excellent, inclining to heat. This agrees with Heraclitus that a dry light makes a wise mind.
Chapter 37

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According to Burton, what finally drives some melancholics to take their own lives?
The author argues that the torture and extremity of their misery leaves them unable to take pleasure in life, so they are in a manner forced to offer violence to themselves to escape insufferable pain. He cites Fracastorius that some do it in fury, but most out of despair, sorrow, fear, and anguish of soul, seeking ease by death.
Chapter 38
How does Burton compare diseases of the mind with diseases of the body?
The author argues there is no comparison: the diseases of the mind are far more grievous, quoting Lem. l. 1. c. 12 that the soul's torment is much fiercer and crueler than the body's. He adds that in other diseases people seek help and will endure bitter potions or surgery for health, but the melancholy man abhors the life others strive to preserve.
Chapter 38
Which philosophers and schools does Burton say approve of suicide in extreme pain?
The Platonists approve it as lawful in such cases and upon necessity; Plotinus and Socrates in Plato's Phaedon defend it for incurable disease if it be to one's good. Epicurus and his followers, the cynics, and stoics generally affirm it, including Epictetus and Seneca, who hold any way allowable that leads to liberty.
Chapter 38
What examples does Burton give of people who killed themselves to escape capture or dishonor?
He lists Themistocles, who drank bull's blood rather than fight his country, Demosthenes, who chose poison, and Romans like Publius Crassi filius, Censorius, and Plancus, who made away with themselves rather than fall into enemies' hands. He also cites Seneca commending Cato, Dido, and Lucretia, and women who killed themselves to save chastity when Rome was taken.
Chapter 38

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Which simple does Burton claim alone has cured many cases?
Burton says the use of pennyroyal, wormwood, and centaury sod is advised, noting that centaury sod "alone hath cured many." These are listed among the remedies for expelling wind in windy melancholy, alongside provoking urine with aniseed, daucus, and asarum.
Chapter 39
What is the main question Burton raises about magical or diabolical cures?
Burton asks whether diseases like melancholy can be cured by diabolical means—spells, charms, characters, amulets, ligatures, incantations—and if so, whether it is lawful to use them. He notes writers disagree on whether such cures can occur, but concludes Scripture absolutely forbids seeking them as a mortal sin.
Chapter 39
What does Burton say about the relationship between prayer and physic?
Burton argues one must begin with prayer and then use physic, "not one without the other, but both together." Praying alone while rejecting ordinary means is like Aesop's carter who cried to Hercules instead of putting his shoulder to the wheel. He cites Hippocrates and Galen as requiring the physician to call on God.
Chapter 39

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What threefold ordinary cure for melancholy does Burton say he will follow?
Burton states the ordinary cure is threefold: diet or living (Diaitetike), pharmaceutica (apothecary), and chirurgica (chirurgery). He notes Wecker, Crato, Guianerius and most physicians prescribe these, and he will insist on them in their order.
Chapter 40
What patient qualities does Burton require for a physician's efforts to succeed?
The patient must not be miserly about expense, must freely disclose his grief rather than hide it out of bashfulness, must wish to be cured and not delay, and must have confidence, hope, perseverance, obedience and constancy—not changing physicians on every trifle. Burton cites Seneca and Damascen on confidence aiding cure.
Chapter 40
Why does Burton warn against patients treating themselves from books?
He says patients must not practice on themselves without an approved physician's consent. He cites Valleriola's story of John Baptist, who took hellebore from an Italian pamphlet and nearly poisoned himself, and a friend of his own who tried hellebore from Brassivola. What suits one man may harm another.
Chapter 40
What six non-natural things does diet comprehend, and how important is rectifying them?
Diet comprehends the six non-natural things Burton previously specified, which are especial causes of melancholy and, once rectified, a sole or chief part of the cure. Arculanus counts rectifying them a sufficient cure; Guianerius calls them the principal cure; Lemnius names them the hinges of health.
Chapter 40

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According to Burton, what is the best rule for diet, despite debate over dinner and supper?
The author argues Cardan's rule is best: keep to what one is accustomed to, even if it is bad, and follow one's own disposition and appetite in some things. He concludes that experience is the best physician, since the diet that suits one person may harm another, and each man should observe and be a law unto himself.
Chapter 41
What does Burton say about the value of moderate sexual intercourse in melancholy?
The author reports that moderate Venus is called by Peter Forestus a most apt remedy, and Avicenna and Oribasius contend many madmen and melancholics were cured by it alone. But he insists it must be warily understood: only where seed or blood superabundance is a cause, or love or extraordinary desire preceded it, or the patient is very lusty and full of blood.
Chapter 41
What does Burton recommend for retention and evacuation in curing melancholy?
He says costiveness causes the disease, so its opposite is required: Montaltus says evacuation 'very much avails.' Altomarus commends morning walks in pleasant fields but insists the excrements be evacuated first. Crato prescribes it at least once a day; where nature is defective, art supplies lenitive electuaries, suppositories, condite prunes, turpentine, and clysters.
Chapter 41

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What competing explanations for compass variation does Burton list?
Burton asks whether compass variation comes from a magnetical rock, the pole-star (as Cardan holds), another star in the bear (Marsilius Ficinus), a magnetical meridian (Maurolieus), the site of a vein in the earth (Agricola), or nearness of the next continent (Cabeus). He notes the needle points directly north at the Azores but not elsewhere, and varies in the Mediterranean and Baltic, and refers readers to Gilbert and Cabeus.
Chapter 42
What explanations does Burton consider for the annual flooding of the Nile?
Burton asks whether the Nile's annual overflow comes from the Etesian winds, melting snow in equatorial mountains (noting Jordan floods when snow melts on Libanus), or perpetual tropical rains when the sun is vertical, which also swell the Senegal, Maragnan and Oronoco. He cites Herodotus, Seneca, Pliny, Strabo and Pagaphetta, and compares Egypt's fertility to what such regions might become.
Chapter 42
How does Burton explain the seasonal disappearance of birds like swallows and storks?
Burton surveys explanations: that birds sleep through winter like Gesner's Alpine mice, lie hidden in lakes and rivers (as Olaus claims, found mouth to mouth by fishermen), hide in caves and hollow trees, or follow the sun—Peter Martyr reportedly saw European swallows near Alexandria in December. Burton concludes with Munster that whence cranes and storks come and whither they go is as yet unknown.
Chapter 42
What does Burton say about the height of mountains and the depth of the sea?
Burton asks whether Athos, Pelion, Olympus, Ossa, Caucasus and Atlas reach the heights Pliny, Solinus and Mela claim—above the clouds, where ascending men often die from the thin air. He cites estimates of 1250 paces, 78 miles (Mazonius), or 32 stadia as the received view, and notes the common opinion that no mountain exceeds four miles, equal to the sea's greatest depth, which Scaliger puts at 1580 paces.
Chapter 42

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According to Burton, what does Austin advise about disputed questions like the location of hell fire?
Burton ends the controversy with Austin's words: it is better to doubt of things concealed than to contend about uncertainties, such as where Abraham's bosom is and where hell fire is. Austin adds that the meek scarce find these things, while the contentious never shall. The author thus favors humble doubt over quarreling over what cannot be settled.
Chapter 43
What explanations does Burton list for the origin of fountains and springs?
Burton lists several: that solid earth is the fountain of metals and waters, whose innate temper turns air into water, springing up through chinks in tenfold proportion as Aristotle holds; or that fountains come directly from the sea through secret passages, made fresh by running through the earth's bowels; or, per Peter Martyr and others, from abundance of rain. Waters are thick, thin, hot, or cold according to the minerals they pass through.
Chapter 43
What examples of regional differences in nature does Burton cite as puzzling?
Burton asks why Africa breeds so many venomous beasts and Ireland none, why Athens has owls and Crete none, why Daulis and Thebes have no swallows, Ithaca no hares, Pontus no asses, and Scythia no swine. He also cites Acosta asking why so many strange birds and beasts are proper to America alone, unknown to Greeks, Latins, and Hebrews, and why kine, horses, and sheep were never heard of there before the Spaniards brought them.
Chapter 43
How does Burton use latitude to show that climate does not simply follow distance from the equator?
Burton notes that Spaniards and Italians are white while inhabitants about the Cape of Good Hope are black, though alike distant from the equator; those near the Straits of Magellan are white, some in Prester John's Ethiopia dun, and Zeilan and Malabar black. England and Ireland near the same latitude are more temperate in winter than Spain, Italy, or France, and Ispahan at latitude 31 felt colder to a Spanish legate than Spain.
Chapter 43

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What did Copernicus himself claim about the earth's motion in his preface?
The chapter states Copernicus revived the earth's motion "not as a truth, but a supposition," as he confesses in the preface to Pope Nicholas. Later figures such as Calcagninus, Telesius, Kepler, Gilbert, Digges, Galileo, and especially Lansbergius are said to maintain it "in good earnest."
Chapter 44
What objection does Gilbert raise against the heavens moving and earth standing still?
Gilbert asks what fury would drive the heavens with such incomprehensible speed in twenty-four hours. Clavius calculates a point in the equator must move 176,660 (units) in a 246th of an hour, and an arrow would circle the earth seven times while a man says an Ave Maria — beyond human conceit.
Chapter 44
What follows, according to the chapter, if the earth moves and is a planet?
If the earth moves it is a planet and shines to lunar and other planetary inhabitants as the moon shines to us. Galileo and Kepler prove it shines; consequently the rest of the planets are inhabited, with their own moons — four about Jupiter, two about Saturn — and perhaps infinite worlds and suns.
Chapter 44
How does Kepler differ from Bruno on infinite worlds and the fixed stars?
Kepler will by no means admit Bruno's infinite worlds or that fixed stars are suns with orbiting planets, yet between jest and earnest he seems partly to agree, yielding that planets are inhabited while doubting the stars. Tycho likewise doubts, refusing to believe huge bodies serve only to light the earth.
Chapter 44

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According to Burton, what effect does air have on the inhabitants of a region?
The author argues that as the air is, so are the inhabitants: dull, heavy, witty, subtle, neat, cleanly, clownish, sick, or sound. He cites the merry Egyptians, the healthy Orcadians, the dull Boeotians, and the acute Athenians, and notes that clime affects constitutions of bodies more than customs and manners.
Chapter 45
What does Burton recommend for the cure of melancholy regarding air and place?
He says rectification of air is necessarily required, achieved by reforming natural or artificial air. Those who can afford it should often shift places and choose wholesome, pleasant, convenient ones, since nothing is better than change of air in this malady. He cites princes and Romans with multiple houses as examples.
Chapter 45
What does Varro advise about marshy and manured grounds, and what does Burton say about moated houses?
Varro forbids lakes, rivers, marshy and manured grounds because they cause bad air and gross diseases hard to cure; if unavoidable, he advises selling house and land rather than losing health. Burton thinks such inconveniences can be mitigated by good fires, and notes Venice's longevity despite its fogs.
Chapter 45

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What does Burton say is the sum of his argument about variety of actions, objects, air, and places?
Burton concludes that variety of actions, objects, air, and places are excellent good in melancholy and all other infirmities, good for man and good for beast. He cites Constantine the emperor, from Leontius, as holding it an only cure for rotten sheep and sick cattle, and Laelius a Fonte Aegubinus as approving it above all other remedies in melancholy.
Chapter 46
Which physicians does Burton cite as recommending travel and variety for melancholy?
Burton says Rhasis does not only commend but enjoins travel and variety of objects to a melancholy man, and to lie in diverse inns and be drawn into several companies. Montaltus and many neoterics agree. Celsus advises a varium vitae genus, diversity of callings and occupations, sometimes city, sometimes country, now study, then hawk, hunt, swim, run, or ride.
Chapter 46
What does Burton say about the purpose and value of peregrination?
Burton notes travel may be ad jactationem magis quam ad usum reipublicae, to crack and see sights rather than for private or public good, as with gallants who travel out their best days, means, manners, honesty, and religion. Yet he argues it availeth howsoever, since peregrination charms the senses with such sweet variety that some count him unhappy who never travelled.
Chapter 46
Which prospects does Burton list as notable, and what does he say about distant ones?
Burton names Glastonbury tower, Box Hill in Surrey, Bever castle, Rodway Grange, Walsby in Lincolnshire, Oldbury in Warwickshire where he was born, and Hanbury in Staffordshire near his family's Falde. He also cites Greenwich tower, praised by Barclay, and St. Mark's steeple in Venice. Yet he says these are at too great a distance, and some prefer near objects like a roadway, market, or theatre crowd.
Chapter 46

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What does Burton say is the best cure for melancholy in particular?
Burton states there can be no better cure for this disease than continual business, as Rhasis holds: to have some employment that sets the mind awork and distracts its cogitations. He notes divines, physicians, and politicians seriously exhort this, and that health cannot be preserved without bodily exercise, nor riches had without labour, nor learning without study.
Chapter 47
How does Burton describe the benefits and proper measure of bodily exercise?
Citing Crato, Burton says moderate exercise adds strength to the whole body, increases natural heat, helps concoct nutriment in stomach, liver, and veins, and expels excrements by sweat. Galen prefers exercise before all physic. The fittest time is a little before dinner or supper when the body is empty. Most forbid going beyond a beginning sweat, as perilous if it exceed.
Chapter 47
Why does Burton prefer angling to hawking and hunting?
Burton says hawking and hunting are very laborious, involving much riding and many dangers, while fishing is still and quiet. Even if the angler catches no fish, he has a wholesome walk to the brookside, pleasant shade, good air, sweet meadow smells, birdsong, and waterfowl. Burton answers Plutarch's charge that fishing is base by praising anglers' varied baits and devices.
Chapter 47

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What does Burton say about chess as a remedy for melancholy?
Rhasis holds chess good for idle men with extravagant thoughts or cares, distracting the mind. But Burton warns that if the trouble comes from overmuch study, chess may do more harm than good: it is too troublesome for some brains, full of anxiety, nearly as bad as study, and a testy choleric game offensive to the loser.
Chapter 48
How does Burton judge dancing, singing, masks, and stage plays?
Though some severe critics censure them, the author argues that if opportunely and soberly used they may justly be approved. He cites Ecclesiastes that there is a time to dance, and says those who would remove the good use because of some abuse are too stern, like forbidding wine because it makes men drunk.
Chapter 48
What limits does Burton place on the honest recreations he approves?
Burton aims his advice at those troubled in mind, to ease them, and the over-idle, to keep them busy. Any honest recreation will serve, so long as it is moderate and sparing, like the use of meat and drink, not spending all life in gaming and pastimes as too many gentlemen do, but reviving body and soul with honest sports.
Chapter 48

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What metaphor does Burton use for Scripture as a remedy for mental infirmity?
Burton compares Scripture to an apothecary's shop, containing all remedies for all infirmities of mind—purgatives, cordials, alteratives, corroboratives, and lenitives. He cites Austin that every disease of the soul has a peculiar medicine in Scripture, and Gregory calls it a glass wherein we may see all our infirmities. The only requirement is that the sick man take the potion God has already tempered.
Chapter 49
What occupations does Burton recommend to divert melancholy thoughts?
Burton advises the melancholy to use both human and divine authors and voluntarily impose tasks on themselves. He suggests studying the art of memory, brachygraphy, demonstrating a proposition in Euclid's last five books, extracting a square root, or studying algebra, which Clavius praises as excellent, pleasant, abstruse, and full of delight. He also recommends calculating planetary motion, geometry, optics, and mechanical inventions.
Chapter 49
What does Burton say about balancing exercise of body and mind?
Burton argues both body and mind must be exercised, not one but both, and in moderation, otherwise great inconvenience results. If the body is overtired it tires the mind, and the mind oppresses the body, as often happens with students who neglect the body. He compares the body and soul to an ox and camel sharing a burden, warning that illness will seize both if one is overworked.
Chapter 49
What sleep advice does Burton give for the melancholy?
Burton says sleep must be procured by nature or art and prolonged longer than ordinary, as it moistens and fattens the body, aids digestion, and expels cares. The fittest time is two or three hours after supper; lie first on the right side, then the left, sometimes on the belly, but never on the back. Seven or eight hours is competent for a melancholy man, per Crato.
Chapter 49

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What does Burton advise a melancholy man to do first, following Seneca and Comineus?
Burton advises the sufferer to get a trusty friend, like Pylades to Orestes, to whom he may freely and securely open himself. Following Seneca, he says nothing so eases the mind as a prepared bosom for secrets; Comineus counseled princes first to pray to God and then to tell all grievances to a special friend.
Chapter 50
Why must a melancholy person never be left alone or idle?
Burton warns that a melancholy person must never be left alone or idle, but kept with company, since solitude lets him abuse his solitariness. The fantasy is so restless and quick that without perpetual action it works upon itself and is carried away by fear, jealousy, suspicion, or vain conceit. Friends should set him about business, exercise, or recreation.
Chapter 50
What remedies does Burton recommend when counsel and comfort fail?
Burton says if mild courses, promises, and good counsel fail, handle the patient more roughly: threaten, chide, terrify, or even whip him, as one affrights a starting horse. He also endorses driving out one passion with another, clavum clavo pellere, expelling one fear or grief by a contrary one, which Vega calls rational physic.
Chapter 50
How does Burton illustrate that satisfying the mind can cure melancholy?
Burton cites Alexander's account of a woman made peevish by her husband's long absence, instantly freed of all fear at his unexpected return without other physic. Trincavellius tells of a Venetian near death from grief who recovered on hearing his wife bore a son. Burton concludes that if imaginations are not inveterate, such art may cure them.
Chapter 50

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What does Burton prescribe as the chief remedy for melancholy?
Burton argues that mirth, pleasure, and merry company are the principal cure, calling them the true Nepenthes. He cites physicians like Mesue and Rhasis who prescribe hunting, plays, jests, music, dancing, and good drink to distract the mind from fear and sorrow, and warns that melancholy people should never be left alone.
Chapter 51
How did Epicurus reportedly treat a sad, sick patient?
According to Athenaeus, Epicurus laid the patient on a down bed, crowned him with a garland of sweet-smelling flowers, placed him in a perfumed closet, gave him good drink, and brought in a beautiful young woman who could play the lute, sing, and dance. Cicero mocked this as 'profane physic,' though others approved.
Chapter 51
What extreme misuse of merry company does Burton warn against?
Burton warns that some men, knowing merry company cures melancholy, neglect their business and spend all their days in taverns drinking, calling them malt-worms and men-fishes. He says they drown their wits, consume their fortunes, weaken their bodies, and contract diseases—using the very help as their undoing.
Chapter 51
What does Burton conclude about grave men and light sports?
Burton argues that even grave and wise men may enjoy sports and jesting if decorum of time and place is observed. He praises Cosmo de Medici and Castruccio for playing the fool occasionally, and cites Socrates dancing and riding a cockhorse, concluding there is a time for all things.
Chapter 51

Section 484 cards

According to the chapter, what does tribulation accomplish for people, as the Fathers teach?
The chapter compares tribulation to threshing: as threshing separates corn from straw, so crosses separate men from the world's chaff. It cites Chrysostom (hom. 2 in 3 Mat.) saying men are not separated from worldly impediments but by tribulation, and adds that Cyprian, Jerome, and all the fathers inculcate the same, with the proverb Nocumentum documentum.
Chapter 52
What does the chapter say about bodily deformity and the soul's operations?
The author argues that bodily imperfections such as lameness, crookedness, deafness, or blindness, whether innate or accidental, do not blemish the soul or hinder its operations but rather help and increase it. He cites Plutarch that honesty and beauty seldom dwell together, and notes blind men like Homer and Democritus who saw more than those with sight.
Chapter 52
How does the chapter describe sickness as beneficial to the soul?
The author argues sickness is the mother of modesty, reminding us of mortality and pulling us by the ear when we are in worldly pomp. He cites Pliny calling it the sum of philosophy, and Secundus asking what sick man was ever lascivious, covetous, or ambitious. Sickness corrects and amends us when princes, parents, and friends cannot.
Chapter 52
What is the author's judgment on baseness of birth and bragging of gentility?
The author argues that baseness of birth should trouble men least, calling bragging of gentility the greatest of vanities. He says birth is a mere flash, a ceremony, a thing of nought, and claims many ancient families began through oppression, fraud, usury, or flattery, citing Aeneas Sylvius that few old families lack a wicked beginning.
Chapter 52

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What fable does Burton use to show a peasant's nature cannot be changed?
Burton uses the fable of the cat turned into a fair maid who still played with mice, concluding 'a cur will be a cur, a clown will be a clown.' He argues that a peasant preferred by wealth or chance will savour of the stock whence he came, and that innate rusticity can hardly be shaken off, even with better education and refinement.
Chapter 53
What does Burton say about whether poverty is a misery?
Burton says poverty is one of the greatest miseries in the world's esteem, yet if considered aright it is a great blessing and happy estate. He notes Christ himself was poor, born in a manger, and had no house, lest anyone make poverty a judgment of God. He adds that Prophets and Apostles were poor, and many philosophers were voluntarily poor.
Chapter 53
What does Burton say about the miseries that accompany riches?
Burton argues the rich gain pride, insolency, lust, ambition, cares, fears, suspicion, trouble, anger, emulation, and many diseases of body and mind, plus gout, dropsies, apoplexies, palsies, stone, pox, and melancholy. He compares them to painted walls, fair without, rotten within, and says the higher they climb, the greater their fall.
Chapter 53

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According to Machiavelli's cycle as cited, what follows virtue and prosperity?
The author cites Machiavelli's observation that virtue and prosperity beget rest; rest begets idleness; idleness begets riot; riot begets destruction, from which good laws return, and good laws engender virtuous actions, virtue, glory, and prosperity again. Guicciardini adds that ruin for a flourishing man, city, or state is no dishonour, nor is subjection to nature's law an infelicity.
Chapter 54
What does the author say about poverty and contentment, citing Nature's sufficiency?
The author argues that he is not poor to whom fortune grants what nature requires with a frugal hand; nature is content with bread and water, and whoever is satisfied with that may contend with Jupiter for happiness. He cites Jacob asking only bread and clothing, and Jerome's view that the man with bread to eat is rich.
Chapter 54
How does the author use Christ's example to urge contempt of worldly wealth?
The author urges readers to imitate Christ, who lived amid many great Caesars, monarchs, and princes with treasure and palaces, yet had none of it, voluntarily rejected it, and chose a mean estate, even poverty, as safer, better, more certain, and less to be repented. He concludes that whoever follows Christ's steps shall not err eternally.
Chapter 54
What advice does the author give, citing Epicurus, about wealth and desire?
The author advises: add no more wealth, but diminish thy desires. He cites Censorinus writing that one is richer the fewer things one wishes for, not the more one possesses, and Epicurus' counsel to limit desire. He adds that he who lives according to nature cannot be poor, while he who exceeds can never have enough, since the whole world cannot content him.
Chapter 54

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According to Burton, what is the difference between the effects of adversity and prosperity?
The author argues adversity is preferable: if adversity has killed a thousand, prosperity has killed ten thousand. He says the one deceives while the other instructs, calling prosperity "miserably happy" and adversity "happily miserable." He notes many philosophers voluntarily sought adversity, and cites Demetrius in Seneca, who counted it a great misfortune to have had no misfortune in his lifetime.
Chapter 55
What remedy does Burton prescribe for unavoidable misfortune?
Burton says hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all and the softest cushions to lean on in adversity. What cannot be cured must be endured; he who suits himself to necessity is wise. He compares life to dice: if you cannot throw what you want, play the cast you get as well as you can, and cut your coat according to your cloth.
Chapter 55
How does Burton explain why God allows inequality of wealth and station?
Drawing on Theodoret, Burton says God distributed gifts diversely—wealth to one, skill to another—so rich men might set poor men to work and poor men learn trades for the common good. He compares society to arras woven of silk, gold, and crewel, and to music made of discords. If all were rich and idle, he asks, who would till the land or build houses?
Chapter 55
What does Burton say actually causes misery, regardless of fortune?
Burton argues it is not the matter itself but our mind, as we moderate our passions and esteem of things. Citing Cardan, nothing is necessary to be miserable except to believe yourself miserable; citing Seneca, it is the mind, not the place, that causes tranquillity. He adds that some rich men on down beds live with less ease than prisoners or galley slaves.
Chapter 55

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According to Burton, what did Socrates tell Crito about what happens to his body after death?
Burton reports that Socrates told Crito he did not care what was done with his body after death, since he would not feel it. Socrates said his head could be placed on the pike of Tenerife and his quarters scattered to the four parts of the world, or wolves and bears could devour him. Burton adds the line that heaven covers him who has no tomb.
Chapter 56
What limits does Burton place on grief for the dead, and what authorities does he cite?
Burton argues grief should be moderated, not forbidden. He cites Augustine, who forbids grieving overmuch rather than grieving at all, and notes Romans and other commonwealths set a time limit on mourning. He cites Ecclesiasticus that one should comfort oneself after a day or two of mourning, and Germanicus' advice not to dwell too long on passions.
Chapter 56
How does Burton answer the complaint that a dead child might have grown up wicked?
Burton argues one cannot know whether the child would have been honest. He might have become a thief, spendthrift, or disobedient son who vexed his father more than anyone. Burton cites Plutarch's image of rising from a feast before getting drunk, and Ambrose's view that the longer life lasts, the more sins one accumulates. If the child was bad, be glad he is gone; if good, be glad you had him.
Chapter 56
What examples does Burton give of cities and great men destroyed by time?
Burton lists Mycenae, once fairest in Greece, Assyrian Nineveh, Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes, Delos, and Babylon, now only walls and rubbish. He asks where Troy, Persepolis, Carthage, Sparta, and Argos are now, and notes Syracuse and Agrigentum once had 700,000 inhabitants. He concludes the world itself must end, and cities, men, and monuments decay until only names remain, then those are forgotten.
Chapter 56

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What impress and motto did the Colonni family adopt after being expelled from Rome?
The noble Colonni family of Rome, expelled by Alexander the Sixth, took the bending branch as their impress with the motto "Flecti potest, frangi non potest"—it can be bent, not broken. It signified that the pope might break them by force but never make them stoop; they fled to the kingdom of Naples and were honourably entertained by King Frederick.
Chapter 57
How did Llewellyn, prince of Wales, reconcile with King Edward according to Gualter Mapes?
At an interview near Aust upon Severn in Gloucestershire, Llewellyn refused the king's summons, so Edward went to him. Llewellyn waded up to his arms in water, embraced the boat, and offered to carry the king on his shoulders, saying Edward's humility and wisdom had triumphed over his pride and folly. Thereupon he was reconciled and did homage.
Chapter 57
What does Burton say about enduring injuries from superiors, and how does he support it?
Burton argues one should bear injuries from superiors, citing Socrates' answer that Anitus and Melitus may kill him but cannot hurt him, since the soul stays undistracted though the body be torn. He calls it a miserable thing to be injured by one from whom there is no appeal, and urges patience, leaving revenge to the Lord, who will repay.
Chapter 57
How does Burton describe the fate of tyrants and the nature of contention?
Burton says few tyrants die in their beds but are stabbed or maimed, and that God often uses a base fellow as the instrument of justice, as an ichneumon does a crocodile. Contention he calls a hydra's head: the more men strive, the more they may, and one injury provokes another with interest, so the safest course is patience and quiet.
Chapter 57

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What comforts does Burton say are annexed to melancholy?
Burton argues melancholy brings compensations: it is not contagious, unlike plagues or leprosy; sufferers keep their symptoms to themselves; and their bashfulness and suspicion make them honest rather than impudent intruders. Fear and sorrow keep them temperate and sober, and weariness of life frees them from being besotted with worldly pleasures.
Chapter 58
How does Burton describe the condition of inveterate melancholy?
Burton says if the disease is inveterate or habitual, sufferers still have lucida intervalla, sometimes well and sometimes ill. If more continuous, it is a more durable enemy than a dangerous one. Such people are often insensati, doting or mad, insensible to wrongs, ridiculous to others but happy and secure to themselves.
Chapter 58
What arguments does Burton report against the use of physic?
Burton reports critics claiming countries using physic least live longest and healthiest, citing Orcades, Iceland, and the Indians. Some hold physicians kill as many as they save, and Pliny's dilemma says every disease is curable or incurable, so physic is rejected either way. Plato called abundant lawyers and physicians a sign of a corrupt commonwealth.
Chapter 58
What is Burton's final position on physic?
Despite rehearsing the cavilling arguments, Burton says he will urge them no further lest a physician mistake him and deny him physic when sick. He states he is well persuaded of physic and can distinguish the abuse from the use, in this and many other arts and sciences.
Chapter 58

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What did Erastus claim about the medicinal power of stones?
Erastus, in his tract against Paracelsus and an epistle to Peter Monavius, rejected the use of stones and minerals in physic, saying that anyone who believes stones work wonders may do so, but no one will persuade him; he found by experience that there is no virtue in them. Matthiolus and others took the opposite view, praising stones profusely.
Chapter 59
What virtues did Cardan attribute to the hyacinth and topaz?
Cardan and others ascribed to the hyacinth and topaz the power to allay anger, diminish madness, and delight and exhilarate the mind. Cardan claimed the stone increases wisdom and expels fear, and bragged that he had cured many madmen with it, who became as mad again as ever once they laid the stone aside.
Chapter 59
What did Pliny and Fuchsius criticize about compound medicines?
Pliny bitterly taxed compound medicines, saying men's knavery and captious wits invented those shops where every man's life is set to sale, with inexplicable mixtures fetched from India and Arabia. Fuchsius noted that makers of infinite mixtures think they gain credit and seem more learned, but are accounted fools who betray their ignorance and error.
Chapter 59
How does the chapter defend compound medicines against their critics?
The chapter answers that compound medicines are a noble and profitable invention brought in with judgment and discretion, since mixed diseases require mixed remedies. Cardan and Brassavola held that no simple medicine is without hurt, and Aetius says necessity compels new remedies and compounds, to correct simples' harms, make them palatable, and preserve them with sugar or honey.
Chapter 59

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Which two simples does Burton call gentle purgers of melancholy 'without all exceptions'?
Polypody and epithyme. Burton says they are gentle purgers of melancholy without exception. Dioscorides claims they void phlegm, but Brassivola, from his own experience, asserts they purge the melancholic humour. They are used in decoction, infusion, simple or mixed.
Chapter 60
How does Burton describe senna's strength and its origin?
Senna sits in the middle between violent and gentle downward purgers, hot in the second degree and dry in the first. Brassivola calls it a wonderful herb against melancholy that scours the blood and lightens the spirits. Dodonaeus says it was invented by the Arabians and not heard of before. It is taken in powder or, most commonly, infusion with ginger or cordial flowers to correct it.
Chapter 60
What is the story of how black hellebore was discovered and used in antiquity?
Pliny records that the shepherd Melanpodius first found it, seeing it purge his raving goats, and practised it on King Praetus' daughters, restoring them. In Hippocrates' time it was in such request that he wrote a book on it. The ancients sent the demented to Anticyrae or Phocis to be purged, giving rise to the proverb 'Naviget Anticyras.'
Chapter 60
Why did Mesue and later physicians reject hellebore, and who defended it?
Mesue and some Arabians began to reject and reprehend hellebore, and it was long held to be poison rather than medicine. Crato and some junior physicians still oppose it, citing Aristotle and Alexander Aphrodiseus on its toxicity. Yet most later writers approve it, including Fallopius, Montanus, and Fernelius, who calls it a terrible purge but good for strong bodies.
Chapter 60

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What does Burton call the single most present remedy among cordials and alteratives?
Burton says he finds no more present remedy than a cup of wine or strong drink, provided it is taken soberly and opportunely. He credits it with relieving fear and sorrow, gladdening the heart, and aiding digestion, sleep, and the blood, and cites Plutarch, Matthiolus, and Scripture in its praise.
Chapter 61
What does Burton report about cauteries and boring the skull for melancholy?
Burton says cauteries and hot irons are used at the suture of the crown, and some would bore the skull to release fuliginous vapours. He reports Sallust Salvianus saw a Roman cured when his skull was broken, and Guianerius cured a nobleman by boring alone, leaving the hole open a month. Alexander Messaria allowed no cauteries at all.
Chapter 61
How does Burton describe the dispute between the Galenists and the chemical or Paracelsian physicians?
Burton says the Galenists detest chemical remedies with scorn, yet turn to minerals in grave diseases when vegetals fail. Paracelsus boasts of more famous cures than all the Galenists in Europe and calls Galen and Hippocrates illiterate; Erastus and others call him a drunken rogue and magician. Burton declines to judge, saying the case is still under dispute.
Chapter 61

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What does Burton say is the value of sleep for melancholy men?
Burton says waking, caused by continual cares, fears, sorrows, and dry brains, is a symptom that much crucifies melancholy men and must be speedily helped. Sleep should be procured by all means, since it is sometimes a sufficient remedy of itself without any other physic. He cites Sckenkius's observation of a woman who was cured this way.
Chapter 62
What inward simples does Burton list to procure sleep?
Burton lists poppy, nymphea, violets, roses, lettuce, mandrake, henbane, nightshade or solanum, saffron, hemp-seed, nutmegs, and willows, with their seeds, juice, decoctions, and distilled waters. Compounds include syrups and opiates such as syrup of poppy, violets, and verbasco, commonly taken with distilled waters. He also notes country folk make a hemp-seed posset, which Fuchsius discommends though Burton saw good effect.
Chapter 62
What does Burton advise against eating or doing at supper to avoid fearful dreams?
Burton says such men must not eat beans, peas, garlic, onions, cabbage, venison, or hare, must not use black wines or any meat hard of digestion at supper, and must not lie on their backs. He cites Baptista Porta, who would have them take horsetongue or balm, or their distilled waters, after supper to procure pleasant dreams and quiet rest.
Chapter 62
How does Burton say bashfulness and flushing in the face should be treated?
If the flushing proceeds from suspicion or fear, Burton cites Felix Plater, who prescribes no other remedy but to reject and contemn it, making light of it since others scarcely observe it. For flushing at or after meals, Jobertus advises exercise, bleeding in both arms if blood abounds, frictions and washing of the feet, and cooling the face with rose, violet, nenuphar, or lettuce waters.
Chapter 62

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What symptoms and prognostics does Burton assign to jealousy?
Symptoms include fear, sorrow, suspicion, anguish of mind, strange actions, gestures, looks, speeches, locking up, outrages, severe laws, and prodigious trials. Its prognostics are despair and madness, leading sufferers to make away with themselves and others.
Chapter 63
How does Burton say jealousy should be cured?
Cures include avoiding occasions, always being busy and never idle, and good counsel or advice of friends to contemn or dissemble it. Burton also recommends prevention before marriage: marrying someone equal in years, birth, fortunes, beauty, and conditions, of good family and education, and using them well.
Chapter 63
Why does Burton defend writing about love-melancholy despite critics?
Burton answers critics who call love too light a subject for a divine. He argues love is a species of melancholy and a necessary part of his treatise, that grave men are fittest to discourse of it, and that many worthy authors, including Plato and Plutarch, wrote whole volumes on it. He also claims pleasant discourse rightly seasons serious works.
Chapter 63

Section 604 cards

According to the Platonist verses Burton quotes, what are the two Venuses and loves?
The verses describe two Venuses and two loves: one heavenly Venus, unbegotten, who joins holy men in chaste love; the other Venus, famous throughout the world, who binds the minds of gods and men and is called dishonest, wanton, and seducing. Burton also notes Origen's similar twofold division of love, one from God and one from the devil.
Chapter 64
How does Augustine's threefold division of love describe God, neighbor, and world?
Austin divides love threefold: God above us, our neighbor next us, the world beneath us. Desire toward God is from God, with God, or to God. Love of neighbor may proceed from God and run with him but not to him, since there is no aid or hope in man. Love of the world arises when we admire the Creator in his works.
Chapter 64
What three kinds of love does Leon Hebreus distinguish, and which does Burton choose to follow?
Leon Hebreus distinguishes natural, sensible, and rational love. Natural love is the sympathy or antipathy seen in elements, stones, and plants, as a stone tends downward. Sensible love belongs to brute beasts, caused by pleasure, preservation of species, kinship, custom, and rearing young. Rational love, proper to men, is the subject Burton says he must insist on.
Chapter 64
Why does Burton say profit is the most forcible object that procures love?
Burton argues no object is so moving as profit: give a man wealth or honor and you command his affections, while health only earns thanks. Gold is a delicious object, sweet in getting and keeping, and men endure labor and base employments for hope of gain. He adds that friends follow wealth like crows a carcass and vanish when it is spent.
Chapter 64

Section 614 cards

According to Burton, what happens to virtue's lustre compared with physical beauty?
The author argues that no painter, carver, or graver can express virtue's lustre, and that while admirers of Alcibiades's youthful beauty lost interest once he became a man, the beauty of Socrates and virtue's lustre never fades. It stays ever fresh and green, semper viva, to all succeeding ages, and acts as an attractive loadstone drawing present people together.
Chapter 65
What does Burton say distinguishes true friendship from counterfeit friendship?
The author argues true friendship combines people of one mind who will the same things, live and die together, and continue good turns even after a friend's death through monuments, epitaphs, and poems. Where true love is wanting, friendship is only 'from teeth outward,' dissembled for by-respects, and breaks into enmity, whispering, calumnies, and bitter melancholy on small occasions.
Chapter 65
How does Burton describe the fate of those whose love is only for greatness, wealth, or authority?
The author argues such men are feared rather than beloved, love no one and are loved by none, and though tolerated a time for their tyranny, covetousness, and folly, they are generally odious to God and men. Wife, children, and neighbours forsake them; they may be cast down suddenly like Sejani, and after death their memory stinks like a snuffed candle.
Chapter 65
What does Burton say charity adds to natural, profitable, and honest love?
The author argues charity is love compounded of pleasant, profitable, and honest love, including piety, benevolence, and friendship, and is commanded by God. It must proceed from a true Christian illuminated soul and be done in ordine ad Deum; without it, even prophecy, tongues, or giving one's body to be burned profits nothing, being splendidum peccatum.
Chapter 65

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According to Burton, which organ is affected in men by heroical love?
Burton states that the part affected in men by heroical, or love-melancholy, is the liver. He calls it heroical because it commonly possesses gallants, noblemen, and the most generous spirits. He also notes its power and extent are very large, and that it is called Venus by way of eminence, or love itself.
Chapter 66
How does Socrates' tale in Plato explain Love's parentage and birth?
Burton recounts Socrates' tale: at Venus's birth the gods were banqueted, and Porus, god of bounty and wealth, drunk on nectar in Jupiter's garden, met Penia or Poverty begging at the door and got her with child. Love was born of them, and because he was begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon him.
Chapter 66
What examples does Burton give of love's power among plants and animals?
Burton cites palm-trees, male and female, that show love-passion: they bend and stretch boughs to embrace, pine and die for love, and husbandmen carry kisses between them. He adds that brute beasts are violently carried away, horses especially, and that bulls, bears, boars, cocks, lions, and harts fight and kill rivals. Birds sing for coming venery, and fishes pine away.
Chapter 66
What does Burton report about a lynx and a crane loving humans?
Burton cites Busbequius, the emperor's orator to the Grand Signior, who was always afraid to credit such tales until he saw a lynx from Assyria so affected toward one of his men that it showed notable enticements when present, held him back and looked sadly after him when leaving, and pined away and died after the man departed. Busbequius also tells of a Majorcan crane that loved a Spaniard and famished herself at his farewell.
Chapter 66

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According to Burton, what is the greatest happiness between husband and wife?
The author argues that no worldly pleasure compares to conjugal love, calling it summum mortalitatis bonum. He praises couples like Seneca and Paulina, Abraham and Sarah, and Rubenius Celer, who lived with his wife Ennea forty-three years eight months without falling out. Such love should remain fresh into old age, with spouses of one mind, one heart in two bodies.
Chapter 67
How does Burton say inordinate love differs from proper married love?
The author argues that proper love stays within marriage and one object, but inordinate love is wandering, boundless, and destructive. It rages after marriage as jealousy, before marriage as heroical melancholy, and extends to co-rivals, begetting rapes, incests, and murders. He cites Nero, Caligula, and Caracalla as examples, noting it is confined by no terms of blood, years, or sex.
Chapter 67
What definitions do Avicenna and Arnoldus give of heroical love?
Avicenna calls the passion Ilishi, defining it as a disease or melancholy vexation of mind in which a man continually meditates on his mistress's beauty, gesture, and manners, troubling himself about it. Arnoldus Villanovanus defines it as continual cogitation of what one desires, with confidence or hope of compassing it. Burton notes his commentator objects that continual cogitation is a symptom, not the genus.
Chapter 67
Where do various authorities place the seat of heroical love?
Arnoldus supposes the former part of the head, which his commentator rejects. Langius places it in the liver and heart, proceeding from the eyes. Gordonius and Fracastorius make the testicles the immediate subject, the liver antecedent. Burton concludes it is properly a passion of the brain, like all melancholy, from corrupt imagination, citing Jason Pratensis and Melancthon against the liver.
Chapter 67

Section 642 cards

According to Kornmannus, what are the five degrees of lust?
Kornmannus, in his book de linea amoris, sets out five degrees of lust, which he handles in five chapters: Visus (sight), Colloquium (conversation), Convictus (companionship), Oscula (kisses), and Tactus (touch). Burton says he likely took this scheme from Lucian. The list orders the stages by which lascivious provocation progresses.
Chapter 68
How does the chapter describe beauty's effect on how we judge people?
Burton argues that fair persons are loved at first sight and adored as gods, while we envy the rich, wise, and renowned. Faults in beautiful people are no faults: all imperfections are hidden, and we are slow to suspect turpitude in those we love most. He cites Alcibiades, whose theft of Anytus's plate was forgiven because Anytus loved him for his sweet sake.
Chapter 68

Section 654 cards

According to Burton, which sense is the most forceful in arousing love?
Burton argues that sight is the most penetrating and forcible of the senses. Hearing and touch may affect a person, but none so much or so forcibly as sight. He illustrates this with figures like Achilles moved by Briseis and Holofernes captivated by Judith, concluding that a fair woman overcomes fire and sword.
Chapter 69
What does Burton say makes a face beautiful, citing Seneca?
Burton argues beauty arises from due proportion of the whole and each part. Citing Seneca, he says a woman is not fair merely because her arm or leg is praised, but when the whole face and all parts are correspondent. The face especially gives lustre to the rest and commonly determines whether someone is called fair or foul.
Chapter 69
Which part of the body does Burton call the chief seat of love?
Burton grants that all parts are attractive, but says especially the eyes, which he calls love's fowlers, hooks, guides, touchstone and judges. Citing Athenaeus and Tatius, he holds the eyes are the chief seats of love, able in a moment to cure mad men and make sound men mad.
Chapter 69
How does Burton describe the old woman-hater Stratocles being overcome?
Burton tells of Stratocles, a blear-eyed old physician who spent his life slandering women in vile terms, calling them vipers. Yet he was finally taken by Myrilla, the gardener's daughter: he shaved his beard, painted his face, curled his hair, wore a laurel crown to hide his baldness, and on his wedding day could not wait for sunset.
Chapter 69

Section 664 cards

According to Burton, what role does the eye play in stirring desire?
Burton calls the eye a secret orator and the first bawd, and cites Salvianus's view that the eyes are the windows of the soul through which dishonest concupiscence enters the heart. He says private looks, winks, glances, and smiles let lovers understand each other before speaking; Euryalus and Lucretia fell in love by the eye before they ever conversed.
Chapter 70
How does Burton distinguish ordinary smiling from the smiles he condemns?
Burton says laughing is the proper passion of man and smiling is ordinary, but he condemns counterfeit, composed, affected, artificial, and reciprocal counter-smiles, calling them dumb shows and prognostics of greater matters used to inveigle and deceive. He also notes that foolish lovers are often mistaken, applying any pleasant look or gracious word to themselves as a sign of love.
Chapter 70
What is Burton's view of elaborate apparel and adornment?
Burton argues that comeliness of clothes is not to be condemned, since decorum befits persons and their estates, and only the fantastical is out of fashion. But he condemns new-fangled, unstaid, prodigious attire beyond one's means, age, place, and quality, calling apparel the first snare of lust and a trap meant to intoxicate and deceive admirers.
Chapter 70
How does Burton use the Caracalla story to illustrate temptation?
Burton recounts that Antoninus Caracalla saw his mother-in-law with her breasts amorously laid open and was so moved he said, 'Ah si liceret' (O that I might). She overheard and replied, 'Quicquid libet licet' (thou mayst do what thou wilt), and he married her. Burton stresses the provocation lay not in the object itself but in the unseemly, indecent carriage of it.
Chapter 70

Section 674 cards

According to Burton, what makes living near someone so dangerous for love?
The author argues that opportunity and importunity—living in the same street, village, or house—suddenly kindles love. Servants inveigle masters' daughters and ladies dote on their men because proximity and familiarity offer constant conference, kissing, and dalliance. Without such opportunity, people might have loathed those they now dote upon for want of better choice.
Chapter 71
What does Burton say about night, wine, and youth together?
Burton says when night, wine, and youth concur, it is a wonder people are not plunged over head and ears in love. Youth is a combustible matter, naphtha itself, most apt to kindle love's fire. Night alone, he claims, is enough to set all on fire, and in great houses people cunningly make their best advantage of it.
Chapter 71
How does Burton describe the deception of candlelight in courtship?
Burton cites Gomesius's story of a Florentine gentleman who saw his bride only by torchlight, adorned with jewels and finery, and thought her a goddess. By clear daylight after the wedding, without her ornaments, she appeared lean, yellow, and shriveled, so beastly he could not bear to look at her. Burton notes such matches are frequent in Italy.
Chapter 71
What does Burton say about the power of a sweet voice and music?
Burton holds that a pleasing voice, eloquence, and music are powerful enticers. He cites Lucian saying that hearing a woman sing would make a man forget father and mother and forsake friends. He notes the Samian singing wenches Aristonica, Onanthe, and Agathocleia insulted over kings, and that Argus with a hundred eyes was charmed by a pipe.
Chapter 71

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What two examples does Burton give of enticements overcoming even the most continent souls?
Burton cites the young Christian whom persecutors placed in a garden with a courtesan after torments failed, and the hermit in John Major's life of John the monk, whom the devil visited in the habit of a young market wench who had lost her way. The hermit succumbed, and the devils laughed him to scorn. Burton says he will not contend whether the story is true, but it serves to illustrate his point.
Chapter 72
How does Burton finally judge dancing, and what conditions does he attach?
Burton concludes dancing is a pleasant recreation of body and mind if sober and modest, such as Christian dances, and if used at due times by fit persons. He condemns only the abuse: unchaste Pagan dancing, or excess, which he calls a furious motive to burning lust. He compares it to fire, good or bad, and cites Ecclesiastes that there is a time to dance.
Chapter 72
Why does Burton reject Gregory Nazianzen's refusal to attend Olympia's wedding?
Burton notes Gregory declined a bishop's invitation to his daughter Olympia's wedding, saying it is absurd to see an old gouty bishop sit among dancers, and held it unfit to be a spectator, much less an actor. Burton argues Gregory's refusal does not simply condemn dancing but only in some folks, and that the abuse, not the practice, causes inconvenience.
Chapter 72
What does Burton say about Plato's dancing schools and their critics?
Burton reports that Plato, in his Commonwealth, would have dancing-schools maintained so young folk might meet, see and be seen, and would even have them dance naked, scoffing at those who laugh. Burton notes Eusebius and Theodoret worthily lash him for it, since the sight of naked parts stirs enormous concupiscence. Burton's own censure is that there is a mean in all things.
Chapter 72

Section 693 cards

What does Burton claim about monks, friars, and confessors as go-betweens?
The author argues that the most sly and dangerous bawds are knavish physicians, empirics, mass-priests, monks, Jesuits, and friars. Under colour of visitation, auricular confession, comfort, and penance, they have free egress and regress, and he says they corrupt many. He cites the verse that a monk dares what Stygian Pluto dares not.
Chapter 73
How does Burton explain the story of Charlemagne's obsessive love?
Burton relates from Petrarch that Charlemagne doted on a woman of mean favour and condition, and after her death embraced her corpse and carried the embalmed coffin with him. A bishop, through prayer, learned the cause lay under the dead woman's tongue; he removed a small ring, and the emperor then transferred his furious love to the bishop, until the ring was thrown into a lake.
Chapter 73
What does Burton say about the efficacy of philters, charms, and images?
Burton calls philters, amulets, spells, charms, and images the last battering engines, used when bawds fail. He notes some deny the devil can do such things and many divines hold there is no fascination but by the eyes. Erastus, Wierus, and others grant such effects occur but attribute them to the devil, not to charms or philters themselves.
Chapter 73

Section 704 cards

According to Burton, what is the chief place among love symptoms?
Burton states that although poets give many catalogues of love symptoms, fear and sorrow may justly claim the chief place. He notes Hercules de Saxonia excludes fear from love melancholy, but Burton says he is otherwise persuaded, citing that love is full of fear, anxiety, doubt, care, peevishness, and suspicion.
Chapter 74
How does Burton describe love's overall nature despite lovers' joys?
Burton argues that while lovers are sometimes merry and rapt with joy, for the most part love is a plague, a torture, a hell, and a bitter-sweet passion. He calls it a sweet bitterness and a delightful grief, comparing it to the Spanish Inquisition as a torment, and cites Augustine on the cares and discords it produces.
Chapter 74
What physical hardships does a lover endure gladly for his mistress's sake?
Burton says the time spent in her company passes quickly, the miles seem short, and the way pleasant. All weather is good on the way to her house; though his teeth chatter from cold he does not move, and wet or dry is all one to him. He endures being wet to the skin because it is done with alacrity for her sake.
Chapter 74
How does Burton illustrate lovers' extreme mood swings?
Burton says lovers are apt to mistake, amplify, be too credulous, hopeful, and then jealous. He cites Terence's dialogue where Aeschines doubts his father's promise of marriage, fearing mockery. When favored, a lover feels no happiness comparable; when crossed, he cries he is undone, as Chaerea does when Pamphila is lost.
Chapter 74

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According to Burton, what happens to lovers who yield to lust?
The author argues that most lovers are carried headlong like brute beasts: reason and friends counsel one way, but furious lust outweighs them, even to their utter undoing and perpetual infamy. Such people become "insensati," void of sense, and degenerate into dogs, hogs, asses, and brutes—as the poets shadowed in fictions like Jupiter's bull and Apuleius' ass.
Chapter 75
What does Burton mean by saying love is blind?
He calls lovers' blindness as great and manifest as their weakness and dotage, an ordinary sign of it: "love is blind, Cupid's blind, and so are all his followers." Every lover admires his mistress despite deformities—wrinkles, bad teeth, foul breath, lameness—taking no notice of any imperfections of body or mind, preferring her to all other women.
Chapter 75
How does the lover's estimation of his mistress compare with others' views?
The author argues the lover counts all her vices as virtues and her defects as no defects: flat-nosed is lovely, hook-nosed kingly, dwarfish pretty, crooked wise. Where another man sees a loathsome creature and would call her witch or hag, the lover calls her idol, goddess, angel, and star—illustrated by Nichomachus telling the critic to take his eyes and think her a goddess.
Chapter 75
What classical and literary examples does Burton cite of lovers' indiscretion?
He names Samson, David, Solomon, Hercules, and Socrates as justly taxed of indiscretion in this point. He also cites Dido's confessions in Virgil, Phaedra and Medea in Seneca and Ovid, and Myrrha, who sees and knows her fault yet cannot withstand it—reason pulling one way, burning lust another.
Chapter 75

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According to Burton, what good qualities can love produce in a person?
The author argues love can make fools wise, cowards courageous, the covetous liberal, clowns civil, the cruel gentle, the wicked religious, and the dumb eloquent. He cites Cardan noting this from Plutarch, and says love adds spirits and courage, as Ariadne's love made Theseus adventurous and Medea's beauty made Jason victorious.
Chapter 76
What does Burton say about lovers' willingness to endure hardship for their mistress?
Burton describes lovers undertaking any pain, labor, or toil for their mistress's sake. They will drink healths on bare knees, go barefoot to Jerusalem or the East Indies to fetch her a bird, sail around the world, or serve seven years as Jacob did for Rachel. They also adore her dog, picture, and belongings as relics.
Chapter 76
How does Burton describe lovers' devotion to objects and places associated with the beloved?
Lovers treasure any remnant of hers—a busk-point, feather, shoe-tie, lace, ring, or bracelet of hair—wearing it as a favor. Her picture they adore twice daily for hours. They kiss her letters repeatedly, keep relics in a casket, walk where she walked, sit where she sat, and love the wind that blows toward her dwelling.
Chapter 76
What does Burton say about the risks lovers will take, including for their souls?
Burton says lovers will hazard their very souls for their mistress's sake, and will die twice or twenty times for her. He cites lovers who wished to be a flea, a gnat, a ring, a glass, a gown, or a shoe to be near the beloved, and notes kings will leave their crowns, as King John did for Matilda.
Chapter 76

Section 734 cards

According to Burton, what exchange between Cupid and Death explains young men dying and old men doting?
Burton recounts that Cupid and Death met at an inn and, in jest, exchanged arrows from each other's quivers. Ever since, the saying goes, young men die and old men dote—"Sic moritur Juvenis, sic moribundus amat." The author uses this myth to argue that love strikes regardless of age, so no one, young or old, can withstand it once smitten.
Chapter 77
What does Plutarch, cited by Burton, say love can do to a person's character?
Burton cites Plutarch's Symposium to argue love has power and prerogative over people: it makes a silent man speak, a modest man officious, the dull quick and the slow nimble. Most remarkably, it can soften a hard, base, untractable churl—as fire softens iron in a forge—making him free, gentle, and easy to be entreated, though it may also make him prodigal.
Chapter 77
Why does Burton claim lovers inevitably become poets and rhymers?
Burton argues that once in love, people of any condition turn to rhyming, ballad-making, and poetry to their ability. Following Plutarch, they become witnesses and trumpeters of their beloved's good parts, bedecking them with verses and commendatory songs as statues are adorned with gold, so the beloved may be remembered and admired by all. Even old men dote this way.
Chapter 77
How does Burton explain the origin of painting and the arts through love?
Burton credits painting's invention to love: the daughter of Deburiades the Sycionian, parting from her sweetheart going to war, traced his shadow on a wall with coal to comfort herself; her admiring father perfected it, reportedly the first picture. Burton adds that Apollo, Minerva, Vulcan, and Mercury invented their arts because they loved such things, and that most arts and sciences owe their beginnings to love.
Chapter 77

Section 744 cards

What meats does Burton say must be forsaken, and which opposite meats should be used?
Burton says eringos and all lascivious meats must be forsaken. The opposite meats to be used include cucumbers, melons, purslane, water-lilies, rue, woodbine, ammi, and lettuce, which Lemnius commends; he singles out vitex or agnus castus above the rest, citing Magninus on its wonderful virtue.
Chapter 78
What does Burton say about wine and full diet for the dejected lover?
In some cases, when lovers are much dejected, brought low in body, and near despair through anguish and grief, Burton says a cup of wine and full diet is not amiss. Valescus advises this, Langius approves it out of Rhasis, and Guianerius seconds it as a very profitable remedy.
Chapter 78
According to Burton, what is the first rule for resisting love, and why avoid sight of the beloved?
The first rule is obstare principiis, to withstand love at its beginning, which Castilio urges above all. Burton says to avoid all occasions and remove the object, since no one can stand by a fire and not burn. Sight especially revives love, as a snowball enlarges itself, so one should not gaze on a beautiful woman.
Chapter 78
What remedies does Burton describe for extinguishing lust, and what does he say about bloodletting?
Burton lists medicines that dull lust: camphor tied to the genitals, willow leaves, verbena, dried frog powder, coriander, and lettuce seed. He says bloodletting above all makes lovers come to their senses, and notes the old Scythians bled themselves under the ears to cure burning lust and make men and women barren.
Chapter 78

Section 754 cards

According to Burton, when should good counsel be given to a lovesick person?
Burton says counsel is of great moment but is intempestive at first, like comforting parents the instant a child dies. Gordonius would have discreet men dissuade the lover only after the fury of passion is a little spent or allayed by absence; the counselor should then foreshow the miserable events and dangers that will follow.
Chapter 79
What does Burton advise a man to do before marrying a woman he desires?
He should look before he leaps: seriously consider what he takes in hand, examine the party and the condition of both estates, and judge whether it is a fit match for fortunes, years, and parentage. If it is not likely to proceed, he should curb his inordinate passion at the first and divert his thoughts elsewhere.
Chapter 79
How does Burton suggest a lover test whether his mistress's beauty is real?
He urges comparing her to another standing by, examining each part, and imagining her separated from her clothes — in beggar's weed, foul linen, or in some indecent or sickly state. He cites Montaigne that a full survey of the body is appointed as a remedy for venerous passions, and instances Seleucus and others whose affection died on such a sight.
Chapter 79
What examples does Burton give of marriages ending in dislike after the honeymoon?
He reports that Seleucus of Syria, seeing his wife Stratonice's bald pate, could never affect her after; Remundus Lullius abhorred his mistress after spying an ulcer in her breast; and Philip the French king sent the Danish king's daughter back after one night, reportedly for her stinking breath. Burton concludes burning lust is but a flash, and hatred often follows.
Chapter 79

Section 764 cards

What does Burton say about marriage's effect on good enterprises?
The author argues that marriage is a bondage, a thraldom, a yoke, and a hindrance to all good enterprises — "he hath married a wife and cannot come" — and a stop to all preferments. Yet he immediately qualifies this, insisting the thing is not evil in itself but full of contentment when a man and wife agree together.
Chapter 80
According to Burton, what makes marriage a hell for some men?
The author argues that to undiscreet sensual persons wholly led by sense, marriage is a feral plague and often a hell itself, giving little content because such people are irregular and prodigious in their lusts and diverse in their affections. He contrasts this with the honourable estate of a sober, wise, honest couple who agree together.
Chapter 80
What does Burton say about good and bad spouses being mismatched?
The author observes that good men often have ill wives — Xanthippe to Socrates, Eleanor to St. Lewis, Isabella to Edward the Second — and good wives are as often matched to ill husbands, as Mariamne to Herod and Serena to Diocletian. He adds that many men are as constant in choice and as good husbands as Nero himself.
Chapter 80
What odds does Burton give against marrying to one's contentment?
The author argues it is twenty to one a person will not marry to contentment, comparing it to a lottery where forty blanks are drawn for one prize: out of a multitude you shall hardly choose a good one. He concludes there is small ease and little comfort, and one had much better be alone.
Chapter 80

Section 774 cards

According to Burton, what is the last and surest remedy for love-melancholy?
Burton argues the last refuge and surest remedy, to be used when no other means take effect, is to let the lovers go together and enjoy one another. He cites Guianerius, Aesculapius, Arculanus, Savanarola, and Avicenna as agreeing that joining the parties according to their desires is the speediest and safest cure, and that nature is to be obeyed in such cases.
Chapter 81
What impediments does Burton list that prevent lovers from marrying?
Burton lists many: the parties themselves may disagree; parents, tutors, masters, and guardians withhold consent; laws, customs, and statutes hinder; poverty, superstition, fear, and suspicion intervene. Modest women cannot woo or reveal affection, and rivals may dote on the same person. He also notes strict class laws among Romans, Venetians, Dutch, French, Germans, and Spaniards that forbid unequal matches.
Chapter 81
How does Burton describe the mutual mismatch of lovers' affections?
Burton says one loves most impotently while the other loves not, and vice versa: Pan loved Echo, Echo Satyrus, Satyrus Lyda. He invokes Cupid's two darts — a sharp golden one that creates love and a blunt lead one that dispels it. He gives Choresus and Callyrrhoe, and Oenone and Paris, as examples where the more one loved, the more the other hated.
Chapter 81
What happens to proud lovers who scorn suitors, according to Burton?
Burton argues that many young men and women are too coy, proud, and choosy, holding out until they are themselves scorned and rejected, like Narcissus. He says they end up settling for a poor curate or old serving-man, comparing them to Plutarch's mare who refused all but great horses until, shorn and deformed, she accepted an ass. Yet he calls this a common humour that cannot be helped.
Chapter 81

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According to Burton, what should a man do about astrological predictions concerning marriage?
Burton urges men not to be terrified or moved to vain hope or fear by astrological aphorisms and predictions. He argues that wisdom, diligence, and discretion can mitigate if not alter such decrees, and that each man should follow his own free will and act as he sees cause.
Chapter 82
What does Burton conclude about vows of celibacy in religious orders?
Burton argues such rash monastic vows are far more tyrannical and worse than superstition, since nature and passion rage on one side while order and vow check them on the other. He claims many diseases, vices, and mischiefs proceed from them, and concludes it is unnatural and impious to bar men of this Christian liberty.
Chapter 82
What does Burton say about those who would restrict marriage to the rich?
Burton calls those who would allow only the rich to marry hard-hearted, unnatural monsters of men and shallow politicians. He notes much of the world remains uninhabited and cites colonization schemes, arguing the Romans thought their city could never be too populous, and that Adrian preferred men to money.
Chapter 82
How does Beroaldus's story illustrate a change of mind about scholars marrying?
Beroaldus recounts that he long lived single, abhorred marriage, and publicly railed against women while interpreting Juvenal's sixth Satire. He then recants, saying he approves of marriage, is glad to be married to so sweet, noble, chaste, and loving a wife, and wishes all men, especially scholars, to marry.
Chapter 82

Section 794 cards

How does Burton define jealousy in this section?
Burton defines jealousy as a certain suspicion the lover has of the party he chiefly loves, lest he or she be enamoured of another; or an eager desire to enjoy some beauty alone, to have it proper to himself only; or a fear of losing her favour whom he earnestly affects. He notes Cardan calls it a zeal for love, and Ludovicus Vives defines it in nearly the same words.
Chapter 83
Why does Burton treat jealousy as a separate species rather than a symptom?
Burton notes some physicians (Valescus, Montaltus, Platerus, Guianerius) call jealousy a cause of melancholy, others a symptom. He argues it deserves separate treatment because of its latitude and eminence, being a furious passion almost as extensive as love itself; Benedetto Varchi held there is no love without a mixture of jealousy, qui non zelat, non amat.
Chapter 83
What kinds of jealousy does Burton call improper or metaphorical?
Burton says many jealousies are improperly so called: parents', tutors', and guardians' care over children, and friends' solicitude, which concern not beauty but fear lest they miscarry or be disgraced. He cites Aegeus for Theseus, Paul's godly jealousy over the Corinthians, and God being called jealous, all metaphors showing care and solicitude, though they may express the same symptoms with only the object varied.
Chapter 83
What examples of princely jealousy does Burton give?
Burton calls princely jealousy most notorious, since rulers fear rivals, successors, and subjects. Examples include Selimus killing his brother and nephews, Bajazet II slaying Achmet Bassa, Suleiman murdering his son Mustapha, Herod massacring infants, Valens killing men named Theo, and Henry III of France murdering the Duke of Guise in 1588. He says three things cause jealousy: a mighty state, a rich treasure, a fair wife.
Chapter 83

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According to Burton, which extreme in marriage is worse: too fond or too harsh?
The author argues that of two extremes, hard and severe usage is the worst, though he also condemns excessive fondness. He notes some men are uxorii, doting on their wives like Senior Deliro on Fallace, carrying their muffs and fans and letting them rule. Yet he concludes that too hard and too severe treatment is far more offensive than this over-indulgence.
Chapter 84
What does Burton say about long absence of husbands as a cause of jealousy?
Burton says long absence may be a just cause of suspicion, whether necessary for professions like lawyers, physicians, and mariners, or from frivolous journeys and staying out. He quotes the idea that if a husband is long absent, the wife thinks he is drunk, at ease, or with another woman, while she fares ill at home. He cites Hippocrates arranging for Dionysius to oversee his wife.
Chapter 84

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According to Burton, what places may give just cause for jealousy?
Burton says dwelling in suspected places—an infamous inn, near stews, or near monks and friars—may give just cause of suspicion, since such places contain many tempters, solicitors, and idle persons who frequent one's company. He cites Nevisanus for the addition about monks and friars, and Aeneas Sylvius warns against princes' courts for the same reason.
Chapter 85
How does Burton rank jealousy among the passions of love-melancholy?
Burton argues that of all passions love is most violent, and of the bitter potions love-melancholy affords, this bastard jealousy is the greatest. Besides fear and sorrow common to all melancholy, jealous men suffer anxiety, suspicion, restless thoughts, paleness, and neglect of business. He calls jealousy a fire, a pernicious curiosity, madness, vertigo, plague, and hell.
Chapter 85
What contradictory behaviors does Burton describe in jealous men?
Burton describes jealous men swearing, slandering, cursing, threatening, brawling, and fighting, then flattering, asking forgiveness, kissing, and vowing never to repeat it—then raving again like madmen, threatening divorce, calling her a whore, and soon after complimenting and bringing her back in. He says they continue off and on as the object moves them, mostly brawling and fretting.
Chapter 85
How does Burton describe the confinement of wives in hot countries?
Burton says jealous husbands in Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Africa, and Asia lock wives in houses that are prisons, letting nobody visit and forbidding them to look out. He cites Mahomet's Alcoran giving men power over wives as land, and notes eunuchs guarding wives of the Grand Signior, Sophies of Persia, Tartarian Mogors, and Kings of China.
Chapter 85

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According to Burton, what is the best remedy for a husband whose wife is unfaithful?
The author argues the best course is to conceal it and use fair means rather than rage or legal action. He says a man should "make a virtue of necessity," dissemble the matter, or turn it off with a jest, since watching and locking up a wife only aggravates the mischief. He cites Nevisanus that dissembling is the lesser evil compared to being too solicitous.
Chapter 86
Why does Burton say locking up or closely watching a wife is counterproductive?
He argues an honest woman ought not to be kept and a dishonest one cannot be kept, citing Jerome that "necessity is a keeper not to be trusted." Watching makes a suspicious wife offend more freely, since she is exasperated by unjust suspicion. He quotes Aeneas Sylvius that jealous Italians do ill to lock up their wives, because women most covet what is denied them.
Chapter 86
What does Burton say about a husband's own fault when he complains of his wife's infidelity?
The author argues the husband may be to blame himself, asking why he requires of his wife what he will not perform, since he may "range like a town bull." He cites the saying that a good husband makes a good wife, and advises the man to mend himself first if both are bad, rather than excusing only himself.
Chapter 86
How does Burton distinguish wise men from fools regarding a wife's dishonesty?
He cites Nevisanus that wise men bear their horns in their hearts, fools on their foreheads. The author argues it is better to dissemble or jest than to macerate oneself, rave, or enter a public action that divulges one's own shame and leaves one a cuckold on record. He praises those who conceal it over those who condemn it publicly.
Chapter 86

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What does Burton say about the acceptability of an old man marrying a young woman versus the reverse?
Burton says it is more tolerable for an old man to marry a young woman, citing Cato, Critobulus in Xenophon, Tiraquellus, Julius Scaliger, and many precedents. But he states it is not held fit for an ancient woman to match with a young man, quoting Varro that such a match is Charon's match and pleases the devil.
Chapter 87
What qualities does Burton advise a man to prioritize when choosing a wife?
Burton advises choosing a wife from good kindred and parentage, well brought up in an honest place, and not to prefer birth, fortune, or beauty before good upbringing and good conditions. He cites Plutarch on eating a bushel of salt with a friend, and warns that beauty and honesty seldom agree.
Chapter 87
What does Burton say about the two extremes of a wife's beauty?
Burton says both extremes are bad: a fair wife is soon beloved and hard to keep, while a foul one is not worth keeping. He cites Ennius advising a middle form for safe chastity, and concludes that, other things equal, he would rather marry a fair one and take the hazard than be troubled with a blowze.
Chapter 87
What remedy does Burton recount for a wife whose husband is impatient and scolds?
Burton tells of an honest woman whose gossip complained of her husband's impatience. She gave her a glass of water to hold in her mouth whenever he scolded. After several successes the neighbor asked for the ingredients; it was plain water, and Burton explains it was not the water but her silence that performed the cure.
Chapter 87

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How do most medical writers classify religious melancholy, according to Burton?
Most writers—Areteus, Alexander, Rhasis, Avicenna, Gordonius, Fuchsius, Plater, Bruel, and Montaltus—treat it as a symptom of melancholy rather than a distinct kind. Some, however, make it a separate species, dividing love melancholy into one whose object is women and one whose object is God, following Areteus and Plato.
Chapter 88
Why does Burton say humans fail to love God as their chief good?
The author argues that human nature's order is disturbed and love corrupted, so the world's many pleasing objects allure us and we cannot look toward God. He cites Gualter that marriage detains many, and notes meat, drink, merchandise, honor, and friendships distract people, quoting 1 John that love of the world excludes love of the Father.
Chapter 88
How does Burton describe God's beauty relative to created things?
The author argues God's beauty is the fountain and quintessence of all beauty, and that all other beauties—of humans, angels, and things—are night and darkness compared to it. He cites Wisdom xiii that the maker is seen through creatures' beauty, and says Scripture and Solomon's song use figures to convey some resemblance of it.
Chapter 88

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According to Burton, who or what is the primary mover of all superstition?
The author argues the devil is the primum mobile and first mover of all superstition, the principal agent who deceives the world in many shapes and by many engines. Before Christ's time he domineered freely over men's souls through diverse forms, ceremonies, and sacrifices, and his whole study is to divert people from true religion to superstition.
Chapter 89
What instruments or factors does Burton say the devil uses to propagate superstition?
Burton lists politicians, statesmen, priests, heretics, blind guides, impostors, and pseudoprophets as the devil's ordinary instruments or factors, just as God used good kings, magistrates, patriarchs, and prophets to establish his church. Within people, the devil's engines include simplicity, fear, blind zeal, ignorance, solitariness, curiosity, pride, vainglory, and presumption.
Chapter 89
How does Burton describe politicians' use of religion as policy?
Burton says many politicians make religion mere policy, a cloak, and a human invention, holding that nothing governs the common people's minds like superstition. He cites Machiavelli's advice that a prince should counterfeit religion and seem devout to keep subjects obedient, and notes Lycurgus, Numa, and Sertorius derived their decrees from the gods for credit.
Chapter 89
What examples does Burton give of the devil imitating Christian rites in the New World?
Burton asks readers to consult Acosta the Jesuit on the strange sacraments like baptism and the Lord's Supper, goodly temples, priests, and sacrifices found in America when the Spaniards landed. He says the devil imitated the Ark and the children of Israel's coming out of Egypt, and cites reports from the East and West Indies, Tartary, China, and Japan.
Chapter 89

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According to Burton, what universal belief does conscience and nature instill in all nations?
Burton argues that conscience and nature persuade every nation that there is a God. Citing Tully and Maximus Tyrius, he claims no Scythian, Greek, Persian, or Hyperborean, nor any islander, is so barbarous as to lack this persuasion. He notes a few places Tyrius grants had no God at all, and cites Psalm xix that the heavens declare God's glory.
Chapter 90
What does Burton say about the knowledge of God attained by philosophers through the light of nature?
Burton says Socrates, Plato, Plotinus, Pythagoras, Trismegistus, Seneca, and Epictetus went as far as they could by the light of nature and wrote many excellent things about God's nature. But they had only a confused light, a glimpse, like one walking by moonshine in a wood; they groped in the dark with a gross knowledge.
Chapter 90
Whom does Burton identify as the first people targeted by superstition and false religion?
Burton argues the first affected are silly, rude, ignorant people, old folks naturally prone to superstition, weak women, and poor illiterate persons who believe anything without examination. He says leaders keep them in ignorance, since ignorance is the mother of devotion, and cites Mahomet's Alcoran, papists concealing scripture, and heretics like Marcus and Valentinian seducing women.
Chapter 90
What does Burton say about fear as a means of keeping people obedient?
Burton argues fear alone is the sole means to keep men in obedience, citing Petronius that fear first made gods in the world. He says priests play on consciences with threats, purgatory tales, feigned apparitions, and false miracles, and that Egyptian priests exploited eclipses to make people believe God was angry. He adds hope and promises are also used, but mostly fear.
Chapter 90

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What does Burton claim is common to all superstition regarding belief and practice?
The author argues that nothing is so mad, absurd, ridiculous, impossible, or incredible that superstitious people will not believe, observe, and diligently perform it. Likewise, nothing is so monstrous to conceive or intolerable to practice, so cruel to suffer, that they will not willingly undertake. He concludes: "So powerful a thing is superstition."
Chapter 91
According to Burton, what did the Egyptians worship in their idolatry?
Burton says the Egyptians, despite claiming 300 kings before Amasis and 13,000 years of chronicles, had the grossest idolatry. They worshipped sun and moon as Isis and Osiris, then men who benefited them or any helpful creature. In Bubasti they adored a cat (Herodotus), ibis and storks, an ox (Pliny), and leeks and onions (Macrobius).
Chapter 91
How does Burton describe the Romans' approach to adopting gods?
Burton says the Romans borrowed gods from all peoples besides their own, which Varro divides into majorum and minorum gentium—certain and uncertain. They had gods for every function: land, sea, heaven, hell, passions, diseases, birth, weddings, husbandry, woods, waters, gardens. They also canonized and adored kings, emperors, and valiant benefactors as gods.
Chapter 91
What does Burton say about the zeal of heretics and schismatics?
The author argues none are so passionate, violent, obstinate, wilful, refractory, peevish, factious, singular, and stiff in defending their tenets. They not only persecute and hate but pity all other religions, accounting them damned and blind, as if they alone were the true church and true heirs with heaven entailed on them and their posterity.
Chapter 91

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According to Burton, what distinguishes religion from superstition, citing Possevinus?
Burton quotes Possevinus: religion makes wild beasts civil, while superstition makes wise men beasts and fools. He adds that even the discreetest, if they give way to superstition, are no better than dizzards. He further cites Plotinus that religion's aim is to make us like what we worship, so idolaters degenerate into stocks and stones.
Chapter 92
What does Burton say about the Mahometans' Alcoran and their religious practices?
Burton calls the Mahometans a compound of Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, and describes the Alcoran as a gallimaufry of lies, tales, ceremonies, and traditions stolen from other sects. He notes their law forbids wine and swine's flesh, requires prayer five times a day toward the south with washing, and a month-long fast until sunset. He also mentions their pilgrimages to Mecca and the Ganges.
Chapter 92
What does Burton report about the Jewish expectation of the Messiah and their Rabbins' comments?
Burton says no nation could be more sottish or superstitious, citing the Rabbins' ridiculous comments and absurd ceremonies. He describes the expected Messianic banquet featuring every bird, beast, and fish God made, a cup of wine kept in Adam's cellar, the great ox of Job, and Leviathan. He also recounts the fable of Rabbi Jehosua's lion whose roar killed the emperor.
Chapter 92
What common symptoms does Burton attribute to heretics and schismatics who lead others?
Burton lists madness, folly, pride, insolency, arrogancy, singularity, peevishness, obstinacy, impudence, and scorn of all other sects. He says they approve only what they invent themselves, make Scripture a nose of wax to their own ends, and will maintain their positions to the death. He cites Magallianus and Alphonsus de Castro on their love of novelties and contumacy.
Chapter 92

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According to Burton, what does religious melancholy ultimately produce?
Burton lists folly, dotage, madness, gross ignorance, despair, obstinacy, a reprobate sense, and a bad end. He says superstition and heresy produce wars, tumults, uproars, torture of souls, despair, and a desolate land, citing Jeremiah on idolatry. He asks what else such people can expect but blasting, famine, dearth, and the plagues of Egypt, citing Amos.
Chapter 93
How does Cyprian answer Demetrius's charge that Christians cause calamities?
Demetrius blamed Christians for poor weather, scarce metals, and decayed skills, saying the gods went unhonored. Cyprian retorts that calamities come not because the pagan gods are unhonored but because the true God is not served, sought, or feared by the idolaters. Burton notes papists and Turks trade the same mutual accusations, though he says a general fault lies in all.
Chapter 93
What does Burton argue about fasting and superstitious edicts?
The author argues fasting began as a good general proposal, then became fixed meats at set times, then was bound on consciences under pain of damnation. Citing Erasmus, he notes Friday, then Saturday, then Wednesday in danger of a fast. He says such edicts make people afflict themselves to despair and death, thinking themselves good Christians when they are superstitious.
Chapter 93
What example shows rigid Sabbath observance causing death?
In 1270 at Magdeburg, a Jew fell into a privy on Saturday and his fellows refused help because it was their Sabbath. The bishop then forbade pulling him out the next day because it was Sunday. The wretch died before Monday. Burton cites this among rigid Sabbatarians as evidence of superstition causing dire events.
Chapter 93

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According to Sallust, why did the old Romans originally believe fortune alone gave kingdoms and honours?
The chapter says the old Romans received this view from Sallust for two causes: first, because every wicked, base, unworthy wretch was preferred, rich and potent; second, because of the uncertainty of such goods, since scarcely anyone enjoyed them long. Later, Burton says, they began upon better advice to think otherwise, that every man made his own fortune.
Chapter 94
What did Seneca's tenet of Necessity hold about God and second causes?
Burton reports Seneca's tenet that God was alligatus causis secundis, tied to second causes and to an inexorable Necessity, so that he could alter nothing once decreed. No prayers, threats, power, nor thunder itself can change it. Zeno, Chrysippus, and other Stoics maintained as much, as Burton notes from Cicero and Gellius.
Chapter 94
What charge did Celsus make against Christians, and how does Burton frame the scoffers' broader claim?
Burton says Celsus objected, and Origen confutes, that Christians adore a person put to death with no more reason than barbarous peoples worshipped Zamolxis, Mopsus, Amphiaraus, and Trophonius. The scoffers hold one religion as true as another, new-fangled devices made for human respects, ranking Aristotle's works with Scripture and Seneca's Epistles with St. Paul's.
Chapter 94
How does Burton characterize the hypocritical temporizing statesmen, and what does he say awaits them?
Burton describes them as political Machiavellians who make a show of religion but laugh at it in their hearts, conforming to whatever company they keep, their god being their commodity. Outwardly sober, upright, and devout, they are inwardly hypocrites. Burton says a time will come when they are called to account, and hell is ready to receive them.
Chapter 94

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What does Burton identify as the last and greatest cause of religious melancholy?
Burton says the last and greatest cause of this malady is one's own conscience: the sense of sins committed and of God's anger justly deserved. A guilty conscience for a former foul offence torments the soul, and he calls a galled conscience another hell, a still baking oven, a ledger book recording all offences.
Chapter 95
How does Burton describe the harm done by thundering ministers?
The author argues that thundering ministers are a most frequent cause of this malady and do more harm in the church than flatterers. Preaching only judgment, reprobation, and damnation without mercy, they wound tender consciences and drive hearers to despair. Burton cites St. Bernard's advice to speak of judgment with mercy, since judgment alone brings desperation and mercy alone security.
Chapter 95
Which biblical passages does Burton say are misread and terrify distressed souls?
Burton lists passages such as "Many are called, few are chosen," "Not every one that saith Lord," "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," the narrow way with few entering, and the parable of the sower. Read inconsiderately and misapplied to themselves, these and similar places, along with election and predestination, terrify many souls and lead them into this gulf.
Chapter 95
What examples of conscience-stricken rulers does Burton give?
Burton cites Adrian, Galba, Nero, Otho, Vitellius, and Caracalla, so horrified by conscience for murders, rapes, and extortions that they wearied of life and could find no one to kill them. He also names Kennetus, King of Scotland, tormented by dreams after murdering his nephew, and Richard the Third's fearful dreams attributed to his murders.
Chapter 95

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According to Burton, what two remedies must work together to cure this feral passion?
Burton argues that physic and good counsel/service must go hand in hand, since each alone is insufficient. He cites Bellovacus curing a monk by altering his habit and course of life, and Plater curing many by physic alone, but concludes that for the most part they must concur, quoting vis unita fortior.
Chapter 96
What two opposite antidotes to despair does Hemmingius observe?
Hemmingius observes two main antidotes opposite to despair: good hope out of God's word, which is to be embraced, and perverse security and presumption from the devil's treachery, which is to be rejected. Burton adds that one saves and the other kills, citing Austin that presumption does as much harm as despair itself.
Chapter 96
What does Burton say about the pardonability of even heinous sins?
Burton insists no sin is so heinous that it is not pardonable in itself, and no crime so great that God's mercy cannot forgive it. He cites Romans v. 20 that where sin abounds grace abounds more, and Austin's rebuke of Cain: God's mercy is greater than thy sins.
Chapter 96
What does Chrysostom advise to one who sins daily and doubts repentance?
Chrysostom advises that if thou daily offend, daily repent; if twice, thrice, a hundred, a hundred thousand times, repent as many times. Burton compares it to mending an old house out of repair, reforming some vice by repentance, and adds that Chrysostom speaks this not to make one secure but to cheer one up.
Chapter 96

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According to Burton, what makes blasphemous thoughts not the person's own sin?
Burton argues such thoughts often come from Satan or from a crazed phantasy and distempered humours, not from a confirmed will. If the person abhors them and would think otherwise, they are the devil's sins, not the person's, and are pardonable through God's mercy if the person is penitent and sorry for them.
Chapter 97
How does Burton distinguish thoughts from Satan versus thoughts from oneself?
Burton says Satan's suggestions are more speedy, fearful, violent, frequent and monstrous, and strike terror and horror into the person's heart. Thoughts proceeding from oneself are remiss and moderate, not so violent or frequent. Satan especially domineers in melancholy distempered persons, which Burton, citing Serapio, calls the devil's bath.
Chapter 97
What comfort does Burton offer those tormented by doubts about election?
Burton urges them to reject the devil as a liar and not dispute with him, citing the collier who answered every question with 'I believe as the church does.' He stresses God wills all men saved, citing 1 Tim. ii. 4 and John iii. 17, and says no sin but impenitency testifies to final reprobation. Weak signs of faith should not cause despair.
Chapter 97
What does Burton say about the doctrine of universal grace held by Arminians?
Burton notes the Arminians revived the doctrine of universal grace, that free will exists and grace is common to all who will believe, which many fathers, Lutherans and modern papists still maintain. He also cites Caelius Secundus, who argued more are saved than damned and called special election a malicious opinion drawing men to desperation.
Chapter 97

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According to the index, what is the best cure for love-melancholy?
The index lists business and labour as the best cure of love-melancholy, and also names marriage as the best cure of love-melancholy. It further notes that absence is a cure of love-melancholy, while absence over long is a cause of jealousy. Fasting is also listed as a cure of love-melancholy.
Chapter 98
What does the index say about the effects of fasting?
The index lists fasting as a cause of melancholy and as a cure of love-melancholy. It also says fasting is abused and is the devil's instrument, and notes its effects. So fasting appears both as a remedy and as a harmful practice when misused.
Chapter 98
What does the index say about the eyes in relation to love?
The index calls the eyes the main instruments of love, describing them as love's darts, seats, orators, arrows, and torches, and noting how they pierce. It also lists change of countenance as a sign of love-melancholy and black eyes as best.
Chapter 98
What does the index say about jealousy in relation to animals?
The index states that brute beasts are jealous, and separately lists crocodiles as jealous. It also covers jealousy of princes, causes of jealousy, symptoms, prognostics, and its cure, plus cautions against jealousy. Hot countries are described as apt and prone to jealousy.
Chapter 98

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What does Burton propose should be done about authors' theft and repeated writing?
Burton leaves the matter to princes and learned men, urging that the thefts of authors be exposed, that endlessly repeated material be removed, and that the reckless urge to write be restrained—otherwise, he warns, it will progress without limit.
Chapter 99
How does the author of the Polycraticon describe his use of other writers?
Quoted by Burton, the author of the Polycraticon says whatever is well said anywhere he makes his own, expressing it sometimes in his own words for brevity and sometimes in others' for credibility and authority, and he considers all authors his clients.
Chapter 99
What image from Lipsius defends writers who draw on others' work?
Lipsius argues that a spider's web is not better because the spider spins the threads from itself, nor is our work worse because we sip from others' books like bees. Burton uses this to defend borrowing from other authors.
Chapter 99
What does the saying 'Uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur' mean in this chapter?
The Latin maxim means that once one absurdity is granted, a thousand follow. Burton includes it among his collected quotations on folly and error, illustrating how a single false premise multiplies into endless further mistakes.
Chapter 99

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According to the chapter, what do most people mistake for great statesmanship?
The author argues that most people mistake the name of politicians, counting those who read Machiavelli and Tacitus as great statesmen—men who can dispute political precepts, supplant adversaries, enrich themselves, and dissemble. But he asks what this has to do with the bene esse, or preservation, of a commonwealth.
Chapter 100
What does Cicero say about the vices of princes in the chapter?
Cicero, in his book on laws, is quoted: princes not only conceive vices themselves but also pour them into the city, and they do harm more by example than by their own sin. The chapter adds that vicious domestic examples operate more quickly upon us when suggested by high authorities.
Chapter 100
What does Aristotle say poverty produces, and where?
The chapter cites Aristotle's Politics (book 2, chapter 7): poverty breeds sedition and wrongdoing. It also quotes Sallust that in a state, those with no wealth envy the good, hate old things, long for new ones, and seek to change everything out of hatred of their own condition.
Chapter 100
What remedy does More's Utopia propose for idle multitudes, per the chapter?
The chapter quotes More's Utopia: restrain the license of monopolies, let fewer be fed in idleness, restore agriculture, and reinstate wool-working, so that the idle crowd has honest work to occupy it. It adds that unless these evils are cured, justice is exercised in vain.
Chapter 100

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According to the chapter, what does the mind do in sickness?
The chapter states that in sickness the mind recollects itself, and quotes a passage saying that while enduring illness one endures love of religion, and that one who has not experienced illness does not remember this love. It also cites the idea that the highest philosophy is to persevere as the kind of people we profess we will be when weak.
Chapter 101
How does the chapter describe the relationship between body and soul in humans?
The chapter calls man a 'great miracle' and an 'epitome of the world, the delight of nature,' the end of all things to which sublunary things serve. It says the image of the world is in the body and of God in the soul, and that each person is an example of God in a small image, citing Genesis and Ephesians.
Chapter 101
What does the chapter say about the causes of war, famine, and disease?
Cyprian is quoted saying that wars shake the world more frequently, sterility and famine pile up anxiety, disease breaks health, and the human race is laid waste by plague—all because of sin. Another passage says that if rain rarely falls, the earth is squalid with dust, and the barren soil barely produces pale grass, and so on.
Chapter 101
How does the chapter distinguish melancholy from mania and fatuity?
A quoted definition says the functions of the soul are diminished in fatuity, removed in mania, and only depraved in melancholy. Melancholy is defined as a condition where an excess or depravity of melancholy humor so afflicts people that they go mad either in all things or in most manifest things pertaining to right reason, will, or intellect.
Chapter 101

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According to the chapter, how can demons affect human bodies if God permits?
The chapter cites Zanchi and Piccolomini that, if God permits, demons can move our bodies, alter them, and afflict them with any kind of disease or evil; they can even penetrate inside and rage there. It also states demons can induce both diseases and health, and secretly inhibit the actions of the viscera.
Chapter 102
How does the chapter describe demons' relation to melancholics' bodies and minds?
Citing Caepinus on mania, the chapter says demons, being subtle and incomprehensible spirits, can insinuate themselves into human bodies, hide in the viscera, corrupt health, terrify souls with dreams, and shake minds with frenzy. They enter melancholics' inner recesses, settle inside, and delight there as in a region of brightest stars, forcing the mind to rage.
Chapter 102
What astrological configurations does the chapter say produce melancholics or lunatics?
The chapter reports that if Mercury is placed in Scorpio or Pisces opposite the horoscope and struck by a square ray from Mars or Saturn, the native will be vexed by insanity. Whoever has Saturn and Mars, one at the top and one at the bottom of heaven, will be melancholic when born, and cured if Mercury irradiates them. Such a configuration yields a lunatic or mentally captive person.
Chapter 102
What does the chapter say about parents transmitting melancholy or traits to children?
The chapter cites Paracelsus that corrupt parents generate children of corrupt complexion, who in turn corrupt themselves, so corruption is derived from fathers to children. It also reports that phlegmatic parents produce phlegmatic children, bilious produce bilious, and melancholic produce melancholic, and that parental affects pass into the fetus, with children's malice imputed to parents.
Chapter 102

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How does Burton describe the relationship between fear and imagination in producing effects?
The author argues that fear above all the affects generates strong imaginations, followed by love. He reports that imagination can produce sudden movement of humours and spirits, so that fear may bring on trembling, dimness, illness, fevers, or falling sickness, and sometimes remove them. He also notes that strong apprehension can change the body into various diseases.
Chapter 103
What does Burton say about the effects of envy on the envious person?
The author argues envy consumes the envious like a moth eats cloth, and that many fall into melancholy through envy and hatred, especially those whose bodies are disposed to it. He cites Cyprian that envy is a moth of the mind, a tormentor within, and that unlike other vices it has neither excuse nor pleasure and never rests.
Chapter 103
What role does the imagination of a pregnant woman play according to the chapter?
The author reports that a pregnant woman's strong imagination, transmitted through the nerves connecting womb and brain, can imprint marks on the fetus — such as pomegranate markings, or a harelip if she imagines a hare. He therefore advises that pregnant women avoid absurd thoughts and shun foul and horrid sights and sounds.
Chapter 103

Section 1003 cards

According to Burton, what physical effects does excessive study have on the body?
The author cites sources claiming contemplation dries out the brain and extinguishes natural heat, leaving it cold and dry, which is melancholic. Nature, intent on the brain and heart during study, neglects the stomach and liver, so poorly digested food produces thick, black blood, while excessive sitting prevents superfluous vapors from being exhaled.
Chapter 104
What examples does Burton give of scholars driven mad by excessive study?
The author reports that Johannes Hanuschias, a learned Bohemian born in 1516, fell into frenzy from excessive study, and Montanus cites a similar case of a Frenchman from Toulouse. Cardinal Caecius became melancholic through labor, wakefulness, and long study. Another scholar said he had a 'Biblia' in his head.
Chapter 104
What does Burton say about the scholar's poverty and lack of reward?
The author argues that poverty oppresses the mind so it can think nothing lofty or sublime; seeing no profit in letters for life's comfort, the scholar first neglects and then hates them. He quotes that love of genius never made anyone rich, and that a scholar without money is sent away like Homer.
Chapter 104

Section 1014 cards

What does Burton say about reproaching someone already condemned?
Burton states that every reproach uttered against one already condemned is mean-spirited. The point appears among his collected citations on speech and jesting, where he warns that certain jokes cannot be distinguished from injuries, citing Galateus. The principle is that mockery aimed at those already brought low adds cruelty rather than wit.
Chapter 105
According to the chapter, what does money grant a person?
The chapter collects sayings that money brings courage, spirits, honor, friends, health, and even a diadem; silver opens the way to heaven and money controls justice. Burton notes that all rich men are reputed generous and courageous, and that a wealthy man may have Danae to wife. The author argues wealth, not merit, commands respect.
Chapter 105
How does Burton describe the condition of the very poor?
Burton describes the poor as faint beneath burdens they must carry from place to place, doing the work oxen and asses once did. He cites accounts of laborers so wretched that one would think all the gods opposed them, living no better than beasts. He insists he writes not to upbraid or scoff at poor men but to pity them.
Chapter 105
What does the chapter say about grief over lost children or wealth?
The chapter notes that many who lose beloved things — children, wealth — and do not hope to recover them become melancholic through constant brooding on the loss, as the author himself has seen. It adds that melancholy often comes from loss of money, defeat, rejection, or death of children, with the mind tormented long after.
Chapter 105

Section 1024 cards

According to the chapter, why can even the most expert physicians fail to locate the affected part in hypochondriac melancholy?
The chapter cites Hildesheim (Spicel. 1, de mel.) stating that in hypochondriac melancholy the symptoms are so ambiguous that even the most highly trained physicians cannot determine the affected location. It also notes that physicians cannot settle the seat of the disease, and that the brain is rarely affected without the stomach, since these two members transmit their affliction to each other.
Chapter 106
What does the chapter say about the connection between the stomach and the brain in this melancholy?
The chapter states that when there is no significant lesion in the stomach, small gastric disturbances sometimes accompany this melancholy of the head, because these two members transmit their affection to each other. It adds that the brain is rarely affected without the stomach, and that treatment should use foods free from wind and of good concoction.
Chapter 106
What does the chapter report about the sexual behavior of hypochondriac patients?
The chapter states that hypochondriacs especially desire intercourse, and that intercourse is multiplied in them because windiness increases in the hypochondria, and intercourse often relieves these windinesses. This is presented as an observation about the condition, not as a general recommendation, and it is tied specifically to the hypochondriac form of melancholy.
Chapter 106
How does the chapter describe the mental state and behavior of melancholic women?
The chapter lists dejection of mind, perverse estimation of things, and preposterous judgment. Such women are fastidious, languishing, weary, devoid of counsel, tearful, fearful, and sad, with the utmost despair of better things; nothing delights them and they love solitude. They refuse to open the trouble they suffer, yet complain of head, heart, or breasts, and do not care for, speak to, or answer their families.
Chapter 106

Section 1033 cards

According to the chapter, what effect do sweet baths have and how should one use them?
The chapter states that the use of sweet baths helps patients, though Montanus is quoted saying this may be said with some boasting. One should sit long in them while fasting, at a time when they do not provoke sweat or obvious warmth, but rather moisten by a kind of cooling. The water should not be hot but tepid, lest sweating follow.
Chapter 107
What does the chapter say about sexual intercourse and melancholy?
The chapter states that if intercourse is omitted it causes sadness and greatly burdens both body and mind. It adds that intercourse should not be used unless it is certain that excess seed or blood is the cause, or that love has preceded. It also notes that intercourse harms athletes, arthritics, and gout sufferers, and is not suitable unless for the strong who abound in much blood.
Chapter 107
What does the chapter report about the waters of Bollenses and other specific baths?
The chapter cites Johann Baubinus praising the Bollenses waters, in the duchy of Wittenberg, for melancholic diseases, sorrow, fascination, and other affections of the mind. It also mentions sending patients to the baths of Lucca to drink the waters for fifteen days and submit head and stomach to the dripping of warm waters, and fleeing to the Aponensian waters as to a sacred anchor.
Chapter 107

Section 1044 cards

What does Burton claim about the value of reading scripture for the afflicted soul?
The author argues that scripture reading offers medicine for every disease of the mind, citing that every illness of the soul has a remedy in scripture. He compares it to a tree's shade refreshing sheep at midday, and to an incantation driving out evil, urging readers to occupy the soul with sacred reading and to chew divine food by meditation.
Chapter 108
According to the chapter, how should a melancholic person's imagination and fears be treated?
The author argues that perturbations of the mind must be avoided, especially fear and sadness, and replaced with cheerfulness, constancy, and good hope. Terrified imaginings should be gently subverted and removed, and the patient should be diverted from fixed thoughts by other activity or by persuasion, since all bodily ills proceed from the mind and cannot be cured unless the mind is first cured.
Chapter 108
What role does Burton assign to friends in relieving melancholy?
The author argues that a faithful friend is the best remedy: one to whom secrets may be poured out, whose conversation lightens solitude, whose counsel resolves doubt, and whose cheerfulness scatters sadness. He cites Seneca's complaint of finding no one in a great city with whom to sigh familiarly, and notes that sharing calamity lightens the burden.
Chapter 108
What does the chapter say about music as a remedy for melancholy?
The author argues music has great power: its sweetness softens even severe minds, suddenly cheers sad spirits, and calms the stormy affections of the mind. He explains that it does not merely affect the ears but, diffused through the arteries, stirs both vital and animal spirits, making the mind lively and reviving the languishing soul.
Chapter 108

Section 1054 cards

What does Burton claim about the origins of most great men?
The author argues that most great men were born in obscurity and of unchaste mothers, citing an earlier source for the observation. He adds that he could recite an endless catalogue of such men who, though born in low or obscure stations, undertook the most distinguished enterprises and excelled as heroes of their age.
Chapter 109
How does Burton contrast the burdens of rich and poor?
Burton presents poverty as a heavy burden, quoting that no burden is graver than poverty, yet he also cites Bernard that the poor man sweats abroad in work while the rich man sweats in thought, the one tortured by disgust, the other by hunger. He argues wealth brings luxury, intemperance, arrogance, pride, and irrational passion as its followers.
Chapter 109
What does Seneca say about natural desires and simple fare?
Seneca holds that nature desires only bread and water, and whoever has these may contend with Jupiter himself for happiness. Simple food satisfies hunger and thin clothing keeps off cold. Burton adds that whatever exceeds proper moderation is a burden rather than a use, and that true wealth is needing little.
Chapter 109
How does Burton describe the misery of the wealthy?
Burton argues the rich are exposed to everyone's eyes, hatred, and plots, always anxious and a plaything of fortune. He quotes that if people knew the fears and cares to which the rich are subject, they would plainly think riches worth fleeing. He also notes that a fall from high place is the more dangerous.
Chapter 109

Section 1064 cards

What does Burton claim about the medicinal power of gems and precious stones?
The author reports that pearls and coral are especially effective against melancholy, that gems strengthen the spirits and heart and drive away melancholy, and that some stones worn or drunk increase wisdom, cure the insane, and banish fear. He cites authorities such as Cardanus and Encelius, noting one stone worn on the right arm heals lunatics and makes wearers amiable and cheerful.
Chapter 110
What does Burton say about the relative merits of simple versus compound medicines?
The author argues that a prudent physician should first try to expel disease through medicinal foods before resorting to pure drugs, and that anyone curable by diet should avoid medicines entirely. He warns that compound mixtures are often made to win praise, and that more danger comes from the medicine than from the disease itself.
Chapter 110
What does Burton report about the Chinese practice of medicine?
Citing the Expedition into China, the author reports that Chinese physicians use simple remedies — herbs and roots — and that their whole medicine is contained in the precepts of herbal practice. He notes there is no elaborate art among them, and each person is taught privately by any master, in contrast to the complex compound medicines favored elsewhere.
Chapter 110
What does Burton say about exotic versus domestic remedies?
The author criticizes those who think nothing is accomplished unless they gather remedies from India, Ethiopia, Arabia, and beyond, noting that a rustic old woman often cures more safely. He cites the complaint that people neglect what lies before their eyes while seeking distant things, and mentions one physician who rejected exotic remedies and used only domestic ones.
Chapter 110

Section 1084 cards

How does Burton define the corruption of the imaginative and estimative faculties in love?
Burton cites the definition that it is a corruption of the imaginative and estimative faculties, caused by a strongly fixed form and corrupted judgment, so that one always thinks of the object; hence it is rightly called melancholy. Vehement concupiscence arises from the corrupted judgment of the estimative virtue.
Chapter 112
What physical and astrological causes does Burton list for passionate love?
Burton notes a hot testicular crisis (calidum testiculorum crisin) as a physiological cause. Astrologically, he reports that those are quickly ensnared in whom Venus was in Leo at birth, or on whom the Moon strongly looked at Venus, and those endowed with the same complexion.
Chapter 112
According to Burton, how do sight, hearing, and association transmit love?
Burton holds that sight, conversation, association, kisses, and touch are the means by which love enters. Beauty strikes through the eyes like a weapon, penetrating the mind. He adds that even hearing or reading of beauty can kindle love, as with Sostratus desiring a woman from report alone.
Chapter 112
What role does leisure play in Burton's account of love, and who is most prone?
Burton argues that love is the care of an idle mind, and that those living an idle, luxurious life commonly fall into this passion. He notes princes often incur it through license and abundance of riches, and that it commonly strikes solitary people living in pleasure, the incontinent, and religious persons.
Chapter 112

Section 1094 cards

What physical signs does Burton list as symptoms of lovesickness?
The author lists signs including deep-set eyes, absence of tears, sighing, and frequent laughing to oneself as if something delightful were seen or heard. He also cites a rapid, disordered pulse that changes at the sight or name of the beloved, blushing when the beloved is mentioned, loss of sleep, and loss of appetite leading to bodily wasting.
Chapter 113
How does Burton describe the effects of love on the body and mind?
The author argues love distracts the spirits, so the liver fails to turn food into blood, leaving the limbs weak and wasting like plants in a dry garden. He also describes the lover as wandering in mind, speaking of whatever comes to hand, keeping vigils without cause, and suddenly losing bodily fluids and strength.
Chapter 113
What does Burton say about the deceptions and tricks of lovers?
The author argues that men and women devise countless schemes to deceive each other, and that a thousand years would hardly suffice to recount them. He cites lovers' false oaths, noting that Jupiter laughs at the perjuries of lovers and sends them to the winds, and quotes that they make the same promises to a thousand girls.
Chapter 113
What role does Burton assign to sight and gazing in love?
The author treats sight as a primary cause, describing lovers who sit all day opposite the beloved directing their gaze at her, or who walk the same street six or seven times a day just to catch a glimpse. He cites Leucothoe's story and notes that gazing fixes the eyes on one girl though they owe regard to the whole world.
Chapter 113

Section 1104 cards

According to the chapter, what physical effects does the passion of love produce?
The chapter states that this passion, when lasting, makes the blood torrid and atrabilious; when it reaches the brain it prepares insanity, drying the body out through wakefulness and frequent desire. It also notes that the lovesick quickly suffer death or mania.
Chapter 114
What remedies does the chapter recommend for lovesickness involving occupation and study?
The chapter cites the view that love yields to business and that being employed keeps one safe, and that idle leisure is the shipwreck of chastity. It advises that no time pass in idleness except the hour of sleep, and that hard or arduous tasks be undertaken.
Chapter 114
What does the chapter say about curing love by changing location?
It advises withdrawing from familiar places near the beloved, taking a long journey, since safety lies in flight alone. It notes that familiarity harms lovers, that time removes the sickness, and that absence erases it, so one may leave far from home and abandon the country's borders.
Chapter 114
How does the chapter describe the use of another love or distraction to cure love?
It cites the comparison of driving out an old love with a new one, like a nail with a nail, and the advice to distribute love among many or have two mistresses. It also mentions music, feasting, hunting, stories, and labor to the point of sweat as ways to recall the mind home.
Chapter 114

Section 1114 cards

According to the chapter, what does jealousy (zelus) consist of regarding a loved one's possession?
The chapter defines jealousy as the fear of losing possession of a loved one, drawing on the definition that we feel jealousy when we fear being disturbed in our possession of the beloved object. It further distinguishes zelus de forma as a species of envy, fearing that someone else may enjoy the beauty we love.
Chapter 115
How does the chapter characterize the effects of fear on tyrants?
The chapter quotes that fear of death and infamy are the avenging furies that drive tyrants, wounding them more sharply than cruel masters can torment bound slaves with clubs and tortures. It adds that such rulers, feeling hated, suspect everyone of plotting against them and live in solitude, terrifying others while themselves afraid.
Chapter 115
What does the chapter say about women's jealousy and its causes?
The chapter states that jealousy grows and decreases according to persons, places, times, and circumstances. It notes some women are jealous beyond measure, and that an idle woman is easily presumed lustful and often jealous. It also observes that women are unfaithful to all men but most unfaithful to old men.
Chapter 115
What practices does the chapter describe for guarding women and testing chastity?
The chapter describes jealous husbands keeping wives shut indoors, eunuchs guarding royal wives in seclusion, and various tests of virginity, including physical examinations and ordeal by water. It mentions devices and drugs used to keep women closed, and notes that some women feign virginity before marriage through deceptive contrivances.
Chapter 115

Section 1124 cards

What does Burton claim about the devil's power relative to Jupiter?
Burton opens with the terse assertion that "the devil divides the empire with Jupiter," presenting the pagan gods and evil spirits as sharing dominion over the world. The surrounding notes cite authorities such as Alexander ab Alexandro and Plato's account of daemones as guardians and rulers of men and regions, reinforcing the author's argument that heathen religion was entangled with demonic influence.
Chapter 116
According to note 6370, what do evil spirits do to people and why?
The note says they disturb life, trouble sleep, creep into bodies, terrify, break health, and provoke diseases so as to force people to worship them. Their sole aim is to turn people from true religion to superstition; being themselves punished, they seek companions in punishment so they may have partners in error.
Chapter 116
What does the cited Bacon line say about wise men and superstition?
The chapter quotes Bacon's Essays: "In all superstition wise men follow fools." This supports Burton's broader argument that superstition arises from ignorance of the divine, from corrupt emulation, and from the snares of demons, leaving the superstitious person inconstant, fearful, and wavering, unsure whom to invoke or trust.
Chapter 116
What does note 6462 give as causes of hermits' illusions?
It lists solitude itself, a mind worn by anxious labors and fastings, a temperament altered by coarse food, and the melancholic humor as the causes of hermits' illusions. Related notes add that solitude is a cause of apparitions, and that monks living in cells and the desert are most prone to visions and melancholy because of diet and isolation.
Chapter 116

Section 1134 cards

According to Burton, what does religious melancholy often lead to, and why?
The author argues that religious melancholy frequently leads to despair, driven by fear of eternal punishment and the Last Judgment. Sorrow and fear commonly end in desperation. He notes some believe God cares little for them or that they are not predestined to salvation, and this anxiety can drive them toward self-destruction.
Chapter 117
How does Burton describe the effect of conscience on solitary and superstitious people?
The author argues conscience chiefly troubles solitary and superstitious persons, not merchants, pimps, innkeepers, or usurers, who he says have a broader conscience. Young people generally neglect conscience, while the old are more afflicted. A scrupulous conscience punishes some miserably, making them seek knots in rushes and despair of divine mercy without cause.
Chapter 117
What remedy does Burton cite for scrupulous consciences, and what caution accompanies it?
He cites the counsel to avert one's thoughts from the painful object and to counteract scruples. Yet he warns that consoling words are vain and ineffective for the afflicted unless the word of God is heard, the source of life, refreshment, comfort, and repentance. He also warns against excessive self-torment, which he says only gives the devil power.
Chapter 117
How does Burton characterize divine mercy in relation to human sin?
The author argues that despairing of God's mercy wrongs God greatly. He cites that God's goodness is unconquered and His mercy infinite, while human malice is bounded and limited. Christ's death is more powerful for good than our sins are for evil, and Christ is mightier to save than the demon is to destroy.
Chapter 117

Source and licence

Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #10800 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.

Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-25. Cards reviewed 2026-10-25.

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All questions and answers

What editorial problems did the Gutenberg editor find in the nineteenth-century base text?

How does the Advertisement describe the book's reception and later revival?

According to Wood's character, what kind of person was Burton?

What does the Account say about Burton's death and the suspicion surrounding it?

Why does Democritus Junior say he adopted the name Democritus?

How does the author respond to critics who call his language too free or smutty?

What does the frontispiece's tenth square show, and why?

What two plants fill squares eight and nine of the frontispiece, and what are they for?

What does Burton say about the proliferation of books in his age?

How does Burton defend his practice of borrowing from other writers?

What does Burton say about why readers judge books so differently?

How does Burton respond to critics who call his work a mere collection without invention?

Why does Burton say he studied physic (medicine)?

What warning does Burton give to readers who are actually melancholy?

How does Burton argue that melancholy and madness are universal?

What does Burton say about how the world judges wise men versus fools?

In the opening, why does Burton say one Democritus is no longer enough?

What does Burton say changes over time and what stays the same?

What does Burton claim about the causes and conduct of wars?

What religious abuses does Burton imagine Democritus would laugh at?

According to Burton, what causes many poor men and younger brothers to beg or steal?

What does Burton say about the world and the market, quoting Anacharsis?

What is Burton's summum bonum, and what does he say is truly respected among men?

How does Burton describe hypocrites and men who act many parts for advantage?

According to Burton, what kind of followers do profane or ambitious leaders attract?

What does Burton say many lawyers, lawsuits, and physicians signify about a state?

How did earlier ages handle legal conveyances and disputes, according to Burton?

What remedy does Burton cite from Christ and Paul concerning lawsuits?

According to Burton, what is the state of English towns other than London?

What remedies does Burton mention for countries overstocked with people?

What does Burton say about England's navigable rivers and havens?

What does Burton conclude about reforming the world's disorders?

According to Burton, how should the able-bodied poor and idle persons be treated?

What marriage rules does Burton propose regarding age, dowries, and who may not marry?

What is Burton's position on usury, and under what conditions does he allow it?

According to Burton, what causes noble families to be ruined, and what does he say about hospitality?

What does the author say about Stoics and the Stoic sage?

Whom does the author except from his universal catalogue of fools, and why?

Why does the author undertake to anatomize melancholy, and how does he defend his satirical style?

According to Burton, what three degrees mark the progression of melancholy?

What bodily and mental symptoms does Burton attribute to head melancholy?

Which signs does Burton say suggest melancholy will tend toward good?

What does Burton identify as the impulsive cause of man's miseries and infirmities?

How does Burton distinguish frenzy (phrenitis) from melancholy and madness?

What is lycanthropia, and which writers does Burton cite as witnesses?

What signs and timeline does Burton give for hydrophobia after a mad dog bite?

According to Laurentius, what are the three noble principal parts of the body?

What role does Burton assign to the heart in the middle region?

How does Burton describe the brain and its ventricles?

What is the common division of the soul into faculties, and how do they relate?

How does Burton divide the moving faculty of the sensitive soul?

What are the concupiscible and irascible powers, and what affections arise from them?

What three things are required for local motion, and what moves man versus brutes?

What differing opinions does Burton report on the soul's origin and immortality?

According to the chapter, what two main divisions of melancholy does Montanus hold?

Which humours do Galen and his followers say can engender melancholy, and who disagrees?

What threefold division of melancholy does the chapter call most received?

Why does the author say distinguishing the three species of melancholy is so hard?

What did Psellus and other ancient authorities believe about the bodies and mortality of spirits?

What does the chapter say about spirits foretelling secrets of men's hearts?

According to Psellus, how many kinds of sublunary devils are there and what are they?

What does Burton say about the number of ethereal spirits compared to devils?

What are aerial devils said to cause, and what does Burton think about storms?

What are terrestrial devils, and what examples of household spirits does Burton give?

According to Erastus, when would the devil refrain from harming men and cattle?

Which professions and authorities does Burton list as believing in witches, versus those who deny them?

What limits does Burton place on the power of magicians and devils?

What is Burton's stated view on whether the stars compel melancholy?

According to Burton, what are the six non-natural things that cause melancholy?

Why does Burton rank diet as the most material of the six causes?

Which meats does Burton say breed gross melancholy blood?

What did Forestus observe about Carthusian friars and fish?

What does Burton say about the opposite extreme of overly strict diet?

What remedies does Burton cite for melancholy people regarding air?

Why does Burton consider immoderate exercise a cause of melancholy?

Why does Burton call idleness a chief cause of melancholy?

What does Burton claim imagination can produce in melancholy persons?

How does Burton explain the nightmare of the incubus?

What examples does Burton give of imagination affecting pregnancy?