The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds auses, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it, in three partitions, with their severall sections, members, & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [i.e. Robert Burton]. With a satyricall preface conducing to the following discourse.

Robert Burton

Date:: 1676

Credit: The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds auses, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it, in three partitions, with their severall sections, members, & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [i.e. Robert Burton]. With a satyricall preface conducing to the following discourse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$5 own •, but we weave the fame web ftill/twift the fame robe again and again, or if it be a new in\tention, 'tis but fome bauble or toy which idle fellows write, for as idle fellows to iStmh cannot invent? ^Hemufl oportet ejfe ^ barrest wit^ that in this fcribling age irigenium can forge nothing. ^ Princes fiew their ar- quoi in hoc ff^cs^ rich men 'vaunt their buildingsj fouldiers ^umprurt ^ hieir man-hood^ and [cholars vent their toyes^ tuf&c. I’^ad, they muft hear whether they b carian. will or no. prxj. ad c quodcunque femel chartis illeverit^ omnes cHorferi ^ lacuque^ Sat. 4. pueros c-r anm —^- dEpijt.L.!. What once is faid and writ, all men muft know, Magnum Old Wives and Children as they come and go. ^ company of Poets hath this year brought annus hie Pliny complains to Sojfius Sinefim • attulit, ^ This April every day fome or other have re^ menfe Apri- cited. What a catalogue of new books all this %-Tfies ( I our Frank: firt quo non ^ Marts , our domeftick Marts brought out ? aliquis rc- Twice a year, ® Proferunt fe nova ingenia ^ citavit. ofientant, we ftrctch our wits out, and fet them fprh'-ipl- magno conatu nihil agimus. So that bus & do- which ^Ge/ner much defires, if a fpeedy refor- ^oyibtis mation be not had, by fome Princes Edids and deliberan- grave Supervifors, to reftrain this liberty, it will run.on Q^uis tam avidus li- guantu)' brorumhelluoy Who can read them ? As alrea- authortim dy, we lhall have a vaft and confufion of furta & Bocks, we are s opprefied with them, ^ our f t w r* ^y^^ reading, our fingers with turn- lantur^ & ^or my part I am one of the number, temere feri- nos numeriis fumuSy I do not deny it, I have bmdi libi- only this of njfdacrobius to fay for my felf, tu/Tlinr' nihil meum, tis all mine, and in infini- *^*'‘^^* As a good Houfe-wife out of di- tumjro- vers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a Bee grejfura. gathers wax and honey out of many flowers, fmtm-% makes a new bundle of all, genia,nmo Floriferis ut apes in faltibus omnia libanty legendls I have laborioufly ' colleded this out of fuffleit.^ divers Writers, and that fine injuridy 1 have ^bru^ur Authors, but given every man his cculilegk- own which k Hierom fo much commends in doy manus Nepotian, he ftole not whole verfes, pages, •volitando trads, as fome do now a dayes, concealing their Tm'stra A^^thors names, but ftill faid this was Cyprians, da mrnon. Ta^antiuSy that HUlariuSy fo faid Mmu- iMcntius. tins Felixy fo V'lbhorinpiSy thus far jirnobius: I i cite and quote mine Authors ( which howfoever Tent’di^^ fome illiterate fcriblers account pedantical, as a dtmfacio ^^oke of ignorance, and 'oppofite to their af- mtimy& feded fineftyle, 1 muft and will ufe ) fumpfj illudnimc 'non furripui ; and vihllfCarro Lib. 6, de re Mis ad fpeaks of Bees, minime malefca nuUius urn nunc faciunt dctcrius y I can fay of ad’fdem my felf, whom have I injured ? The matter is fl/z.'-W/-theirs moft part, and yet mine, apparet unde tatm ali- Jlfniptum fit ( which Seneca approves ) afud m.i verbis cjuam unde Jumptum jit apparet, which omnes au-' nature doth with the aliment of our bodies in- quod haufiy difpofe of what I rak-. I make them pay tribute, to fet our this my Macero- ntcony the method only is mine own, i muft uftirp that of' {Veck^r e Ter. nihil dictum quod 1 7rxf. ad non diStum priuSy methodus Jola artificem ojten- ^yitax. dity we can fay nothing but what hath been faid, the compolition and mttliod is ours only, and (l ews a Scholar. Onbafusy <t/F.fius^ jlvi- cennUy have all out ot Galeny but to their own method, diver fo jiib , non diver sd fde., Our Poets fteal from HomerfpcwSjfajth vyFUany they lick it up. Divines ufe zHujiins words verbatim ftill, and our Srory-drefiers do as much, he that comes I aft is commonly beftj -'donee quidgrandius atas Pojlera for/q-^ ferat mclior- thores mens corporate, digeft, aftimilate, I do concoquere clientessjje ■' arbitror, &c. Sarisburienfis ad Volycrat. prol. k In Epitaph. Nep. illud cyp.hoc laft. illud Hilar, ejly ita FictorinhSy in huiic modum loquutus efi ArnobiuSy &c. ■ Though there were many Giants of old in PhyJ fick and Philofophy, yet I fay with^ Didacus turn tile. StellUy <iyP Dwarf jlanding on the fioaiders of aGianty may fee farther than a Giant himfelfafgalrtum I trfty likely add, alter, and fee farther than my hunuris predeceflbrs And it is no greater prejudice for hupofiti me to indite after others, than for c/Elianus Montaltus that famous Phyfitian, to de tsvidZ] morbis capitis after Jafon Tratenfs , Heurni- HSy Hildejheimy eye. Many horfes to run in a race, one Logician, one Rhetorician,after ano- • ther. Oppofe then what thou wilt, <tAllatres licet ufque nos (^r ufque , £t gannitibus improbis lacejfas. I folveitthus. And for thofe other faults of barbarifm, dialed, extemporancan” Ityle,tautologies, apilh imitation, a ihapfody of textusideo rags gathered together from feveral dung-hi Is, mdior quia excrements of Authors , toyes and fopperies confufedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harfh, raw, rude, rjiu- phantaftical, abfurd, infolent, indifcrect, ill- or, quia ex compofed, indigefted, vain, feurrile, idle, dull and dry - I confefs all ftis partly affeded ) thou canft not think worfe of me than Ido o^usadver- my felf. Tis not worth the reading, \q\t\A fus dialo- it, I defire thee not to lofe time in perufing fo vain a fubjed, I fliould be peradventure loth ray felf to read him or thee fo writing, ’tis not opera pretium. All I fay, is this, that I have ° precedents for it, which Ifocrates calls perfu- o uno ab- gium iis qui peccanty others as abfurd , vain, furdo dato idle, illiterate, y-c, Nonnulli alii idem fece- runt y others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps thou thy felf, Novimus qui tCy C^c. we have all our faults feimuSy y- hanc veniamyeyc. P thou cenfureft me, foliavCp Tyion du 1 done others, and may do thee, Cedimus inque bito multo. vicemy Cxc. ’tis lex talioniSy quid pro quo. Go now cenfure, criticife, feoff and rail. fore ftultos q Nafutus fs ufque licety fis denique nafus : Martial. Non potes in nugas die ere plura medSy 15. 2. Ipfe ego quam dixi^ y-c. VVer’ft: thou all feoffs and flouts, a veryMomuSy Than we our fclves, thou canft not fay worfe of us. Thus, as when women fcold, have I cryed whore firft, and in fome mens cenfures, I am afraid I have overfhot my felf, Laudare fe va- ' niyvituperare jiultiy as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. Primus vejiriim non fumy nee$

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