Editing Robert Burton (section)

==Death==
[[File:Robert Burton, Christ Church Cathedral, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford.jpg|left|150px|thumb|Burton's monument in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.]]
Burton drew up his will on 15 August 1639. Five months later, aged 62 and on 25 January 1640, he was dead. The will divided his inherited estates up amongst his elder brother, William, and William's heirs. Outside of his family, his largest bequests went, unsurprisingly, to the Bodleian and Christ Church libraries, with gifts of £100 each, and Burton's large library split between the institutions. He also laid out several smaller monetary donations: those to his servants; the servants at Christ Church; the poor in Seagrave, Nuneaton, and [[Higham on the Hill|Higham]]; the library at Brasenose; and various friends and colleagues, including John Bancroft.{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|pp=30–31}} Burton was buried in the north aisle of [[Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford|Christ Church Cathedral]], Oxford, on 27 January.{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|p=31}} William erected a monument to Robert Burton in the cathedral: a coloured effigy of Robert, flanked by an astrological representation of his nativity and geometric instruments, with a short Latin epitaph below, said to have been composed by Burton.{{sfn|Nochimson|1974|p=109}}{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|p=33}}

Writing near the close of the 17th century, [[John Aubrey]] records a rumour circulated among Oxford students, asserting that Burton took his own life. The students, according to the testimony of Wood, embellished the story to the point that Burton was supposed to have "sent up his soul to heaven thro' a slip about his neck" in order that the date of his death would fit his exact astrological calculations.{{sfn|Wood|1815}}{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|pp=31–32}}{{sfn|Nochimson|1974|p=107–108}} This rumour is dubious, and has been largely rejected by biographers as far back as Wood.{{efn|Though he ultimately rejects it, Simon entertains the possibility of Burton's suicide, as Burton described himself as "at this present [...] in perfect health of Bodie and Mind" in his will, five months before his supposedly natural death. Nochimson reconciles this by pointing out that this was a generic formulation in English wills, rather than any specific reference to Burton's health, and it was more common for wills be composed when the author felt themselves close to death.{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|p=30}}{{sfn|Nochimson|1974|p=108}}}} Angus Gowland, in his 2006 study of Burton, is among the few who take the allegation seriously, though he admits it is "no more than a melancholy rumour".{{sfn|Gowland|2006|p=300–301}} The story about the astrological calculation was told of astrologers before Burton,{{sfn|Bamborough|2009}} Burton rejected the endorsements of suicide by classical authors in the ''Anatomy'', and if the rumours were taken to have had any substance at the time of his death, Burton would not have been buried in the cathedral.{{sfn|O'Connell|1986|pp=31–32}}{{sfn|Nochimson|1974|p=108}} Gowland counters this evidence, citing the charity shown by Burton in the ''Anatomy'' for those tempted by suicide, and conjecturing a conspiracy of the "notoriously close-knit College" to keep Burton's suicide secret.{{sfn|Gowland|2006|p=301}}