The Anatomy of Melancholy

The Anatomy of Melancholy (Full title The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Historically, Opened and Cut up.) by Robert Burton appeared in 1621. This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Melancholia (Greek μελαγχολια) was described as a distinct disease as early as the fifth and fourth centuries BC in the Hippocratic writings. ... Robert Burton Robert Burton (February 8, 1577 – January 25, 1640) was an English scholar and vicar at Oxford University, best known for writing The Anatomy of Melancholy. ... Events February 9 - Gregory XV is elected pope. ...

At the outset, then, Burton proposes to give us a medical textbook. And in large measure, that is what it is: Burton applies his large and varied learning in the Scholastic manner to the subject of melancholia. Each section piles on ancient and mediæval medical authorities, from Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen forward, and adds to these ancient examples a great deal of Latin poetry. Burton defines his subject this way: Medicine is the branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining human health or restoring it through the treatment of disease and injury. ... Scholasticism comes from the Latin word scholasticus, which means that [which] belongs to the school, and is the school of philosophy taught by the academics (or schoolmen) of medieval universities circa 1100–1500. ... Melancholia (Greek μελανχολια) is a mood of non-specific depression. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Aristotle (Ancient Greek: AristotelÄ“s 384–March 7 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, who studied with Plato and taught Alexander the Great. ... Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (129-200 AD), better known in English as Galen, was an ancient Greek physician. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Poetry (from Ancient Greek: (poiéo/poió) = I create) is traditionally a written art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or in 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 frowardness 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 Stoick, 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 humour, as 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.

However Burton is unable to prevent his attention from wandering: He opens with a long address titled Democritus Junior to the Reader, in which he confesses his personal predisposition to melancholia. Psychology, physiology, astronomy, astrology, demonology, meteorology, and theology are all pressed into service to elucidate his topic, which is no less than a catalogue of the various sorrows and frustrations that human beings are heir to. The four humours were four fluids that were thought to permeate the body and influence its health. ... Democritus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher (born at Abdera in Thrace around 450 BCE; died in 370 BC). ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the mind, brain, and behavior, both human and nonhuman. ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ... Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... Astrology refers to any of several systems, traditions or beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about human affairs and events on Earth. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Satellite image of Hurricane Hugo with a polar low visible at the top of the image. ... Theology is reasoned discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, word or reason). It can also refer to the study of other religious topics. ...

Noteworthy sections besides Democritus Junior to the Reader are his discourses on the melancholy of scholars, the melancholy of lovers, and his counsels as to how one can fall out of love. And in the midst of all of this, he also finds the place to propose his own Utopia. The Anatomy of Melancholy has been admired by many subsequent writers, from Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb and John Keats (who professed it to be his favourite book) to Stanley Fish and Philip Pullman. Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 –- 27 July 1834) was an English essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the childrens book Tales from Shakespeare, which he produced along with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847). ... John Keats John Keats (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. ... Stanley Fish (born 1938) is a prominent literary theorist. ... Philip Pullman Philip Pullman CBE (born October 19, 1946), is a British writer, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, who is the best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy of fantasy novels and a number of other books, purportedly for children, but attracting increasing attention by adult readers. ...

External links:

• The Anatomy of Melancholy at Making of America Books
• The Complete Review discussion of The Anatomy of Melancholy
• The Anatomy of Melancholy, available for free via Project Gutenberg
• The Anatomy of Melancholy - online copy at PsyPlexus