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
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    ^ Lucian de da Sy¬ ria, Si panel a Jury to examine us, to cry guilty, a per- iccutour with hue and cry to follow, an appa¬ ritor to fummon us, a baylifF to carry us, a Serjeant to arreft, an Attourney to plead againft us, a Goaler to torment, a Judge to condemn, ftill accufing, denouncing, torturing and mo- lefting. And as the ftatue of Ju»o in that ho¬ ly City near in * Ajfyria will look ftill towards you, fit where you will in her Idiunris^ temple, file ftgres full upon you, if you go by, te ajpicit': {he follows with her eye, in all fites, places, p tranje.rs, conventicles, adions, our confcience will be vifutefi- ftiiiieady toaccufc US* After many plcafant quctur, (jayes, and fortunate adventures, merry tides, this confcience at laft doth arreft us. Well n Trima. he may efcape temporal puniftiment, « bribe a h<ec e]i ul- corrupt judge, and avoid the ccnfure of law, ^ and flourifti for a time • for o vfiho ever faw mnocm\ ( Cbryfofiome ) a covetous mm troubled abfohitur, in mind when he is telling of his mm^ey^ an tmi/roba adulterer mourn with hismiflrefsinhis'arms? quamyis then drunk^with pleafure^ andperceive Taelsprxto- toothing: yet as the prodigal Son had dainty ris z'icei'it fare, fweet mnfick at firft, merry company, urnatn.Ju- jovial entertainment, but a cruel reckoning in the end, as bitter as wormwood • a fearful vifi- tation commonly follows. And the devil that then told thee thkt it was a light fiii, or no fin at all, now aggravates on the other fide, and telleth thee, that it is a moft irremiffible of- TlUlmm he did by Cain and Judas to bring dumpoti- them to defpair • every fmall circumftance bc- tkrvots, fore negleded and contemned, will now am- him in piifjg jjfe judgement and accufe ptipitranao j..n. - u ___ — 4^* rend. c Qua un- q'um vi- dii ava- 'rurn fingii dmlii- f e!m ? xoluptatt fumas tbril-, pro- ind-e non fentimnsy &c. * Busha- the duft of their ftiooes, dumb creatures, as to Lucians tyrant, letlus & candela the bed and candle did bear witnefs, to torment their fouls for their fins paft. Tragical examples in this kind are too familiar and common : Adriafiy Calbuy NerOy Othoj Vitellius^ Caracalla^ were in fuch horrour of confcience for their offences committed, murders, rapes, extortions, inju¬ ries, that they were weary of their lives, and could get no body to kill them. * Kennetus nan.hb.6. K.iug Scotlandy when he had murdered his Hip.Scot. j^^iggij^gYlmgLuffes fon, Prince of (Jumherland^ and with counterfeit tears and proteftations diffcmbled the matter a long time, f Animus confcience accufed himy his un- pe erilln could not ref day or night, he was quistusy terrified with fearful dreamsy viJtonSy and fo ■ nullm ad- wiferably tormented all his life. It is ftrange mfit gau- fo read what P Cominaus hath written of Lewes the ii. that French King, of Charles the eighth, of Alphonfus King of Naples in the fury of his paffion how he came into Si¬ cily ^ and what pranks he plaid. Gukeiar- dine a man moft unapt to believe lyes, re¬ lates how that Ferdinand his fathers ghoft who before had died for grief, came and told jaihsy &c. that he could not refill the French King, ^lalol ° thought every man cried Franccy France • the reafon of it ( faith Cominaus ) was be- caufe he was a vile tyrant, a murderer, an oppreffour of his fubjeds, he bought up all commodities, and fold them at .his own price, fold Abbies to Jews and Falkoners j both Ferdinand his father, and he himfelf, never made confcience of any committed fin; and to conclude, faith he, it was impoflible to do worfe than they did. Why was Paufanias the SpaYtan Tyrant, Nero^ Otho^ Galba, fo perfecuted with fpirits in every houfe they came, but for their murders which they had committed? q Why doth the devil h&um mz- qThmus ny mens houfes after their deaths, appear to in- them living, and take pofleftion of their ha- bitations, as it were, of their pallaces, but ^^,^^111*0- becaufe of their feveral villahies ? why had ther was Richard the third fuch fearful dreams, faith ffd in his Polydory but for his frequent murders ? Why was Herod fo tortured in his mind ? becaufe he had made away eJMariamne his wife. Why was Theodoricus the King of ihQ Got hex fo fufpicious, and fo affrighted with a filh head alone, but that he had murdered Syma machuSy and Boethius his fon in law, thofe worthy Romans f C&lius lib, 27. cap, 22* See more in Plutarchy in his traft De his ^ui fero d Numine puniuntUTy and in his book De tranquillitate animiy ^c. Yea, and fometimes GOD himfelf hath a hand in it, to Ihew his ' power, humiliate, exercife, and to try their faith, (divine temptation Perkins calls it, Caf confi lib, I. cap, 8. feU, I. J to punifli them for their fins. God the avenger, as ^ David rPp.44.t terras him, ultor a tergo Deusy his wrath is ap¬ prehended ot a guilty foul, as by Saul and Ju*^ das, which the Poets expreffed by Adrafiia^ or Nemefis: AJfequitur Nemefifque virum vefligia fervaty Ne male quidfacias. diwiifed femper . rixatus nntdii &• in ter din per lomnnm rips hor- rnn plenis pmreme- And Ihe is, as ^ Ammianus lib, 14. deferibes iRtgimt her, the Quteen of caufes, and moderatour of things, now fhe pulls down the proud, now Tm Tti fhe rears and cncourageth thofe that are good; eretlas cer* he give inftance in his Sufebius ; Nicephorus rises oppri- lib. 10. cap, p,’y,ecclef, hifi. in ^JMaximinus and Fearful examples of Gods juft judge¬ ment, wrath and vengeance, arc to be found in. all hiftories, of fomc that have been eaten to death with Rats and Mice, as ^ Popelius the fe- ^ Ajtx.Ga* cond, King of Poland, an. 830. his wife and children; the like ftory is of Hatto Arch-bi-^ pfi, ^ Ihop of MenttL, Ann, 969, fo devoured by ihefe vermine, which howfoever Serrarius the Jefuite Mogunt. rerum lib. 4. cap, 5. impugne by 22 -xr^rsstnVifiFritemius,'^ Munfiery Mag- at'ofmog, deburgenfis, and many others relate for a truth. iAhnper.& Such another example I find in Geraldus Cam- brenfis Itin, Cam, lib, 2. cap, 2. and where not ? And yet for all thefe terrours of confcience, affrighting punifhments which arc fo frequent, or whatfoever elfe may caufe or aggravate this fearful malady in other religions, 1 fee no rea¬ fon at all why a Papift at any time fhould de¬ fpair, or be troubled for his fins ^ for let him be never fo diffolute a caitiff, fo notorious a villain, fo monftrous a (inner, out of that * Treafure of Indulgences and merits of which the Pope is difpenfator, he may have free par^^ don and plenary remifiion of all his fins. There be fo many general pardons for ages to come, ' Pp p forty