Wikipedia

The Anatomy of Melancholy

This article is about the book by Robert Burton. For the album by Paradise Lost, seeThe Anatomy of Melancholy (album).

The Anatomy of Melancholy(full title:The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up) is a book byRobert Burton,first published in 1621,[1]but republished five more times over the next seventeen years with massive alterations and expansions.

The Anatomy of Melancholy
Allegoricalfrontispieceto the 1628 third edition, engraved by Christian Le Blon
AuthorRobert Burton
LanguageEarly Modern English
GenreMedicine,philosophy
Publication date
1621
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint
616.89
LC ClassPR2223.A1

Overview

edit

On its surface, the book is presented as amedicaltextbook in which Burton applies his vast and varied learning, in thescholasticmanner, to the subject ofmelancholia(orclinical depression). Although presented as a medical text,The Anatomy of Melancholyis as much asui generis(unique) work of literature as it is a scientific or philosophical text, as Burton covers far more than the titular subject.Anatomyuses melancholy as a lens through which all human emotion and thought may be scrutinized, and virtually the entire contents of a 17th-century library are marshalled into service of this goal.[2]It is encyclopedic in its range and reference.

In his satirical preface to the reader, Burton's persona and pseudonym "Democritus Junior" explains, "I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy." This is characteristic of the author's style, which often supersedes the book's strengths as a medical text or historical document as its main source of appeal to admirers. Both satirical and serious in tone, theAnatomyis "vitalized by [Burton's] pervading humour",[3]and Burton's digressive and inclusive style, often verging on astream of consciousness,consistently informs and animates the text.[citation needed]In addition to the author's techniques, theAnatomy's vast breadth – addressing topics such as digestion, goblins, the geography of America, and others[2]– make it a valuable contribution to multiple disciplines.

Publication

edit

Burton was an obsessive editor of his own work, publishing five revised and expanded editions ofThe Anatomy of Melancholyduring his lifetime. It has often been out of print, particularly between 1676 and 1800.[4]Because no original manuscript of theAnatomyhas survived, later reprints have drawn more or less faithfully from the editions published during Burton's life.[5]Early editions have entered thepublic domain,with several available from online sources such asProject Gutenberg.In recent decades, increased interest in the book, combined with its public domain status, has resulted in new print editions, most recently a 2001 reprinting of the 1932 edition byThe New York Review of Booksunder itsNYRB Classicsimprint(ISBN0-940322-66-8),[2]and a new edition in 2023 under thePenguin Classicsimprint, edited by Angus Gowland (ISBN978-0-141192-28-4).

Synopsis

edit

Burton defined his subject as:

Melancholy,the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or inhabit.In disposition, is that transitoryMelancholywhich goes and comes upon every small occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear, grief, passion, or perturbation of the mind, any manner of care, discontent, or thought, which causes anguish, dulness, heaviness and vexation of spirit, any ways opposite to pleasure, mirth, joy, delight, causing forwardness in us, or a dislike. In which equivocal and improper sense, we call him melancholy, that is dull, sad, sour, lumpish, ill-disposed, solitary, any way moved, or displeased. And from these melancholy dispositions no man living is free, no Stoic, none so wise, none so happy, none so patient, so generous, so godly, so divine, that can vindicate himself; so well-composed, but more or less, some time or other, he feels the smart of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of Mortality... ThisMelancholyof which we are to treat, is a habit, a serious ailment, a settledhumour,asAurelianusand others call it, not errant, but fixed: and as it was long increasing, so, now being (pleasant or painful) grown to a habit, it will hardly be removed.

In expounding on his subject, Burton drew from nearly every science of his day, includingpsychologyandphysiology,but alsoastronomy,meteorology,theology,and evenastrologyanddemonology.

Much of the book quotes[6]ancient and medieval medical authorities, beginning withHippocrates,Aristotle,andGalen.Hence theAnatomyis filled with more or less pertinent references to the works of others. A competent Latinist, Burton included a great deal ofLatinpoetryin theAnatomy,much of it from ancient sources left untranslated. Although his "citations" sound convincing, many are incorrect, taken out of context, or simply fabricated.[7][8]

The Anatomy of Melancholyis especially lengthy, the first edition being a singlequartovolume nearly 900 pages long; subsequent editions were even longer.[9]The text has three major sections plus an introduction, written in Burton's sprawling style. Characteristically, the introduction includes not only an author's note (titled "Democritus Junior to the Reader" ), but also a Latin poem ( "Democritus Junior to His Book" ), a warning to "The Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill", an abstract of the following text, and another poem explaining thefrontispiece.The following three sections proceed in a similarly exhaustive fashion: the first section focuses on the causes and symptoms of "common" melancholies, the second section deals with cures for melancholy, and the third section explores more complex and esoteric melancholies, including the melancholy of lovers and all manner of religious melancholies. TheAnatomyconcludes with an extensive index (whichThe New York Times Book Reviewcalled "a readerly pleasure in itself"[10]). Most modern editions add explanatory notes and translate most of the Latin.[2]

Critical reception

edit

Admirers ofThe Anatomy of Melancholyrange fromSamuel Johnson,[11]Holbrook Jackson(whoseAnatomy of Bibliomania[1930] was based on the style and presentation),George Armstrong Custer,Charles LambandJohn Keats(who said it was his favourite book) toNorthrop Frye,Stanley Fish,Anthony Powell,Philip Pullman,[12]Cy Twombly,Jorge Luis Borges(who used a quote as an epigraph to his story "The Library of Babel"),O. Henry(William Sidney Porter),William Gass(who wrote the Introduction to the NYRB Classics 2001 reprint),Nick Cave,Samuel Beckett[13]andJacques Barzun(who sees it anticipating 20th-centurypsychiatry).[14]According toThe Guardianliterary criticNick Lezard,theAnatomy"survives among the cognoscenti".[15]Washington Irvingquotes from it on the title page ofThe Sketch Book.

Burton's solemn tone and his endeavour to prove indisputable facts by weighty quotations were ridiculed byLaurence SterneinTristram Shandy.[16][17]Sterne also mocked Burton's divisions in the titles of his chapters, and parodied his grave and sober account of Cicero's grief for the death of his daughterTullia.[16]

Notes

edit
  1. ^Edwards, M. (2010)."Mad world: Robert Burton's the Anatomy of Melancholy".Brain.133(11):3480–3482.doi:10.1093/brain/awq282.
  2. ^abcdNicholas Lezard (17 August 2001)."The Book to End All Books".The Guardian.Retrieved20 June2016.
  3. ^Émile Legouis, A History of English Literature (1926)
  4. ^The Complete ReviewdiscussionofThe Anatomy of Melancholy
  5. ^William H. Gass, Introduction toThe Anatomy of Melancholy,New York Review of Books 2001ISBN0-940322-66-8
  6. ^"Introduction · the Anatomy of Melancholy · USU Digital Exhibits".
  7. ^Obladen, Michael (14 September 2021). "Ignored Papers, Invented Quotations: A History of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome".Neonatology.118(6):647–653.doi:10.1159/000518534.PMID34535605.
  8. ^Bamborough, John Bernard; Dodsworth, Martin (2006).Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Vol. 4: Commentary: up to part. 1, sect. 2, memb. 3, subs. 15, 'Misery of Schollers'.Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. xi.ISBN978-0198123323.Burton sometimes quotes with great accuracy, but this is not usual
  9. ^Nuttall, A. D. (1989-11-23)."Joke Book?".London Review of Books.pp.18–19.
  10. ^Thomas Mallon,The New York Times Book Review,October 3, 1991
  11. ^Dunea, G. (2007)."The Anatomy of Melancholy".BMJ: British Medical Journal.335(7615): 351.2–351.doi:10.1136/bmj.39301.684363.59.PMC1949452.
  12. ^Pullman, Philip (2005-04-09)."Reasons to be cheerful".
  13. ^McCrum, Robert (2017-12-18)."The 100 best nonfiction books: No 98 – the Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton (1621)".The Guardian.
  14. ^Jacques Barzun,From Dawn to Decadence,221–224.
  15. ^Nick Lezard, "Classics of the Future",The Guardian,September 16, 2000.
  16. ^abFerriar (1798), chapter 3, pp. 55–59, 64.
  17. ^Petrie (1970) pp. 261–262.

References

edit

Further reading

edit
edit

Online editions

edit

Discussions of the book

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Anatomy_of_Melancholy&oldid=1275050392"