Editing Robert Burton (section)

== ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' ==
{{main|The Anatomy of Melancholy}}
[[File:Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1626, 2nd edition.jpg|thumb|right|Frontispiece of the 1628 edition of ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''|alt=17th century print]]
Though Burton wrote elsewhere, Bamborough regards Burton's one truly great work as ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]''.{{sfn|Bamborough|2009}} Ostensibly a three-part treatise on [[Major depressive disorder|depression]] and its treatment, the book consists of quotations from, paraphrases of and commentary on numerous authors, from many fields of learning, and ranging from classical times to his contemporaries,{{sfn|Birch|2009}} in a "tangled web of opinion and authority".{{sfn|Edwards|2010|p=3481}} According to Wood, Burton was apparently famed at Oxford employing this prose style in his speech, effortlessly recalling passages as he spoke.{{sfn|Nochimson|1974|pp=99–100}}{{sfn|Edwards|2010|p=3481}} The ''Anatomy'' is digressive and confusing in its structure; Burton himself apologetically admitted to "bring[ing] forth this confused lump", excusing himself over a shortage of time. Over the five editions, he did little to amend this confusion, preferring to append more to the labyrinthine text.{{sfn|Nardo|1991|p=140}} The book is the fruit of a lifetime's worth of learning, though Burton makes a point throughout the ''Anatomy'' to claim that erudition is ultimately pointless, and that it is perhaps better to remain ignorant.{{sfn|Birch|2009}} Nonetheless, he was of the opinion that if one had knowledge, one better display it. And he was not able to resist his impulse "to have an Oare in every mans Boat", that is, to know something of every topic.{{sfn|Bamborough|2012|p=15}}

Burton wrote ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' largely to write himself out of being a lifelong sufferer from depression. As he described his condition in the preface "Democritus Junior to the Reader", "a kind of imposthume in my head, which I was very desirous to be unladen of and could imagine no fitter evacuation than this ... I write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness, no better cure than business".{{sfn|Burton|1927|p=16}} In his view, melancholy was "a disease so frequent ... in our miserable times, as few there are that feele not the smart of it", and he said he compiled his book "to prescribe means how to prevent and cure so universall a malady, an Epidemicall disease, that so often, so much crucifies the body and mind".{{sfn|Gowland|2006|p=77}}{{sfn|Burton|1927|pp=101–102}} For Burton, "melancholy" describes a range of mental abnormalities, from obsession to delusion to what we would now call [[clinical depression]].{{sfn|Birch|2009}} Burton at once gives a multitude of remedies for melancholy, and warns they are all ultimately useless, in characteristic self-contradiction.{{sfn|Birch|2009}}