Editing The Anatomy of Melancholy (section)

== Synopsis ==
Although presented as a medical text, ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' is often seen as much a ''[[sui generis]]'' work of literature as it is a scientific or [[Philosophy|philosophical]] text; when ''Anatomy'' was reprinted in 2001, [[The Guardian|''The Guardian'']] described it in a review as going beyond medicine: ''"''Made out of all the books that existed in a [[17th century|17th-century]] [[library]], it was compiled in order to explain and account for all human [[emotion]] and thought."<ref name="theguardian1">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/aug/18/history.philosophy|title=The Book to End All Books| date=17 August 2001|work=[[The Guardian]]| last=Lezard| first=Nicholas| author-link=Nicholas Lezard|access-date=20 June 2016}}</ref> Both comedic and serious in tone, ''Anatomy'' has frequent "pervading humour"<ref name=":0">Émile Legouis, A History of English Literature (1926)</ref> among its scientific writing and often verges on [[Stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]].

''Anatomy'' starts with a roughly 200-page long [[Satire|satirical]] introduction, "Democritus to the Reader," narrated by Burton's pseudonym Democritus Junior. Here he gives his often-quoted reason for writing the book: "I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofmelanch0001burt/page/16/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The anatomy of melancholy |date=1896 |publisher=London : G. Bell and Sons |others=Internet Archive |pages=17}}</ref> He defines his subject as:

{{blockquote |"''Melancholy'', the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or in [[Habit (psychology)|habit]]. In disposition, is that transitory ''Melancholy'' which 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... This ''Melancholy'' of which we are to treat, is a habit, a serious ailment, a settled [[The four humours|humour]], as [[Caelius Aurelianus|Aurelianus]] and 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."|author=Robert Burton|title=<i>The Anatomy of Melancholy</i>}}

The main body of the book is divided into three partitions. The first partition is "The Causes of Melancholy," the second partition is "The Cure of Melancholy," and the third partition is "Love-Melancholy and Religious Melancholy." Each of these has a large number of sections and subsections.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Anatomy of Melancholy - CONTENTS |url=https://www.exclassics.com/anatomy/anatcont.htm |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=www.exclassics.com}}</ref>

The book regularly quotes ancient and medieval medical authorities, including [[Hippocrates]], [[Aristotle]], and [[Galen]], and Burton included a great deal of [[Latin]] [[poetry]] ''—'' much of it from ancient sources left untranslated.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction · the Anatomy of Melancholy · USU Digital Exhibits |url=http://exhibits.usu.edu/exhibits/show/the-anatomy-of-melancholy/context-and-description}}</ref> A significant number of these citations are incorrect, taken out of context, or simply fabricated.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Obladen |first1=Michael |date=14 September 2021 |title=Ignored Papers, Invented Quotations: A History of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome |journal=Neonatology |volume=118 |issue=6 |pages=647–653 |doi=10.1159/000518534 |pmid=34535605}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bamborough |first1=John Bernard |title=Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Vol. 4: Commentary: up to part. 1, sect. 2, memb. 3, subs. 15, 'Misery of Schollers' |last2=Dodsworth |first2=Martin |date=2006 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0198123323 |location=Oxford |page=xi |quote=Burton sometimes quotes with great accuracy, but this is not usual}}</ref> Karl Hagen speculated in his [[Project Gutenberg]] edition that Burton's misquotations may be the result of quoting from memory.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Burton |first=Robert |title=The Anatomy of Melancholy |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10800/pg10800-images.html |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=Project Gutenberg |language=en}}</ref>

The second edition, published in 1624, contains the first recorded use of the word [[polymath]] in English.<ref>{{Cite web |title=polymath, n. & adj. meanings, etymology and more {{!}} Oxford English Dictionary |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/polymath_n |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230720170901/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/polymath_n |archive-date=2023-07-20 |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=www.oed.com |language=en}}</ref> Burton uses it while describing the lengths scholars go to for [[Celebrity|fame]]:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=H. |url=https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_the-anatomy-of-melanchol_burton-h_1624/page/6/mode/2up?view=theater |title=The anatomy of melancholy:...  1624 |date=1624 |others=Internet Archive}}</ref>

{{Quote|text="To be counted writers, <i>scriptores ut salutentur</i> [to be greeted as authors], to be thought and held <i>polumathes</i> and <i>polihistors</i>, to get a paper kingdome, they will rush into all learning, <i>togatum, armatum</i> [civilian, soldier], divine, humane authors rake over all <i>[[index|Indices]]</i> & pamphlets for notes, as our [[merchants]] doe strange havens for traffique."|author=Robert Burton|title=<i>The Anatomy of Melancholy</i>|source="Democritus to the Reader"}}