Volume 1
The anatomy of melancholy / edited by Rev. A.R. Shilleto.
- Burton, Robert
- Date:
- Reprint 1896 (3 vol set)
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The anatomy of melancholy / edited by Rev. A.R. Shilleto. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)
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![monastick life, ipse viihi theatrum,1 sequestered from those tumults & troubles of the world, et tanqnam in specula positus, (2as he said) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus Sapiens, omnia sczcula, prceterita pi-esentiaque videns, uno velut intuitu? I hear & see what is done abroad, how others,4 run, ride, turmoil, & mace- rate themselves in court and country, far from those wrangling lawsuits, aulce vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo: I laugh at all,5 only secure lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish, corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay. / have no wife nor children good or bad to provide for, A mere spectator of other mens' fortunes and adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversely presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &>c. daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies, and sea-fights, peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, com- plaints, grievances, are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, em- bassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, 3lays: then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating ;ricks, robberies, enormous villanies in all kinds, funerals, burials, leaths of Princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical ;hen tragical matters. To-day we hear of new Lords and officers :reated, to-morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of resh honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned ; me purchaseth, another breaketh; he thrives, his neighbour urns bankrupt; now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one [l A theatre to myself. 1 2 Heinsius [Primerio.] [3 Seeing all ages, past and pre- ent, as at one glance.] 4 Calide ambientes, solicite litigantes, aut misere exci- entes, voces, strepitum, contentiones, &c, [Heinsius Primerio]. 5 Cyp. ad DonaU Jnice securus, ne excidam in foro, aut in mari Indico bonis eluam, de dote filiae atrimonio filii, non sum solicitus. [Heinsius Primerio.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21270818_001_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
