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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![if you like not my writing, go read something else. I do not much esteem thy censure, take thy course, 'tis not as thou wilt, nor as I will, but when we have both done, that of1 Plinius Secun- dus to Trajan will prove true, Every mans witty labour takes not, except the matter, subject, occasion, &> some commending favourite happen to it. If I be taxed, exploded, by thee and some such, I shall haply be approved and commended by others, & so have been (Expertus loqttor)2 & may truly say with3 Jovius in like case4 (absit verbo jactantia) heroum quorundam, pontificum, 6r° virorum nobilium fa?niliaritatem 6° amicitiam, gratasque gratias, 6° multo- rum 5 bene laudatorum laudes sum inde promeritus, as I have been honoured by some worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first publishing of this book ; (which6 Pro- bus of Persius' Satires) editum librum continub mirari homines, atque avide deripere cceperunt? I may in some sort apply to this my work. The first, second, and third editions were suddenly gone, eagerly read, & as I have said, not so much approved by some, as scornfully rejected by others. But it was De7nocritus his fortune, Idem ad?nirationi 6°8 trrisioni habitus? 'Twas Seneca's fate, that superintendent of wit, learning, judgement,10 ad stuporem doctus,11 the best of Greek and Latin writers in Plutarch's opinion : that renowned corrector of vice, as 12 Fabius terms him, and painful om- niscious philosopher, that writ so excellently and admirably well, could not please all parties, or escape censure. How is he vilified by 13 Caligula, A, Gellius, Fabius, and Lipsius himself, his chief propugner !14 In eo pleraque perniciosa, saith the same Fabius, inany childish tracts and sentences he hath, sermo illaboratus, too Negligent often and remiss, as A. Gellius observes, oratio vulgaris 6° protrita, dicaces 6° ineptcz sententice, eruditio plebeia, an homely shallow writer as he is. In partibus spinas &fastidia habet,15 saith 1 Epist. lib. 6. [23. § 4.] Cujusque ingenium non statim emergit, nisi materiae Fautor, occasio, commendatorque contingat. [2 I speak from experience.] 3 Praef. Hist. [4 (Let me not speak boastfully) I have had the intimacy and friendship of some eminent men, pontiffs, and noblemen, and had pleasant favours from them, ind been praised by many who themselves were highly esteemed.] 5 Laudari a audato laus est. [Cf. Cic. ad Fam. 5. 12. 7.] 6 Vit. Persii. [Jahn's Persius, p. 240,} 7 Men began both to admire and eagerly carp at it.] 8 Minuit preesentia famam. Claudian, De bello Gildonico, 385.] [9 He was both admired and jeered at.] 0 Lipsius Judic. de Seneca. [n Learned to a marvel.] 12 Lib. 10. Plurimum itudii, multam rerum cognitionem, omnem studiorum materiam, &c., multa in eo >robanda, multa admiranda. 13 Suet. [C. Calig. 53.] Arena sine calce. [14 De- ender.] [15 In some of his works he has difficulties and inspires disgust.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21270818_001_0071.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
