Robert Burton 1577-1640 John Bartlett


1
Naught so sweet as melancholy. 1
Anatomy of Melancholy. The Author’s Abstract. 2
2
I would help others, out of a fellow-feeling. 3
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
3
They lard their lean books with the fat of others’ works. 4
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
4
We can say nothing but what hath been said. 5 Our poets steal from Homer…. Our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
5
I say with Didacus Stella, a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself. 6
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
6
It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us. 7
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
7
I had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her young ones. 8
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
8
As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
9
Like the watermen that row one way and look another. 9
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
10
Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes. 10
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.



11
Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself. 11
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
12
Rob Peter, and pay Paul. 12
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
13
Penny wise, pound foolish.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
14
Women wear the breeches.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
15
Like Æsop’s fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. 13
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
16
Our wrangling lawyers… are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients’ causes hereafter,—some of them in hell.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
17
Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him. 14
Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
18
Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 1, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
19
Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long. 15
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
20
[Witches] steal young children out of their cradles, ministerio dæmonum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
21
Can build castles in the air. 16
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
22
Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his “History of Scotland,” contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread; it was objected to him, then living at Paris, that his countrymen fed on oats and base grain…. And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horse-meat, and fitter juments than men to feed on. 17
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
23
Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 2.
24
As much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it. 18
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 2.
25
No rule is so general, which admits not some exception. 19
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
26
Idleness is an appendix to nobility.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 6.
27
Why doth one man’s yawning make another yawn?
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 2.
28
A nightingale dies for shame if another bird sings better.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 6.
29
They do not live but linger.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 10.
30
[Diseases] crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, shrivel them up like old apples, make them so many anatomies. 20
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 10.
31
[Desire] is a perpetual rack, or horsemill, according to Austin, still going round as in a ring.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 11.
32
[The rich] are indeed rather possessed by their money than possessors.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
33
Like a hog, or dog in the manger, he doth only keep it because it shall do nobody else good, hurting himself and others.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
34
Were it not that they are loath to lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
35
A mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 12.
36
I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together. 21
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 13.
37
All our geese are swans.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
38
Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriæ, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
39
They are proud in humility; proud in that they are not proud. 22
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 14.
40
We can make majors and officers every year, but not scholars; kings can invest knights and barons, as Sigismund the emperor confessed. 23
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 15.
41
Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet. The pen worse than the sword. 24
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.
42
Homer himself must beg if he want means, and as by report sometimes he did “go from door to door and sing ballads, with a company of boys about him.” 25
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 6.
43
See one promontory (said Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all. 26
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 7.
44
Felix Plater notes of some young physicians, that study to cure diseases, catch them themselves, will be sick, and appropriate all symptoms they find related of others to their own persons.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
45
Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
46
Like him in Æsop, he whipped his horses withal, and put his shoulder to the wheel.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 1, Memb. 2.
47
Fabricius finds certain spots and clouds in the sun.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
48
Seneca thinks the gods are well pleased when they see great men contending with adversity.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
49
Machiavel says virtue and riches seldom settle on one man.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
50
Almost in every kingdom the most ancient families have been at first princes’ bastards; their worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, bravest spirits in all our annals, have been base [born].
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
51
As he said in Machiavel, omnes eodem patre nati, Adam’s sons, conceived all and born in sin, etc. “We are by nature all as one, all alike, if you see us naked; let us wear theirs and they our clothes, and what is the difference?”
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
52
Set a beggar on horseback and he will ride a gallop. 27
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2.
53
Christ himself was poor…. And as he was himself, so he informed his apostles and disciples, they were all poor, prophets poor, apostles poor. 28
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
54
Who cannot give good counsel? ’T is cheap, it costs them nothing.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
55
Many things happen between the cup and the lip. 29
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
56
What can’t be cured must be endured.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
57
Everything, saith Epictetus, hath two handles,—the one to be held by, the other not.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
58
All places are distant from heaven alike.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 4.
59
The commonwealth of Venice in their armoury have this inscription: “Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war.”
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part ii. Sect. 2, Memb. 6.
60
“Let me not live,” saith Aretine’s Antonia, “if I had not rather hear thy discourse than see a play.”
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
61
Every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers’ end.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
62
Birds of a feather will gather together.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
63
And this is that Homer’s golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
64
And hold one another’s noses to the grindstone hard. 30
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 3.
65
Every man for himself, his own ends, the Devil for all. 31
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 1, Memb. 3.
66
No cord nor cable can so forcibly draw, or hold so fast, as love can do with a twined thread. 32
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
67
To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
68
He is only fantastical that is not in fashion.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
69
[Quoting Seneca] Cornelia kept her in talk till her children came from school, “and these,” said she, “are my jewels.”
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.
70
To these crocodile tears they will add sobs, fiery sighs, and sorrowful countenance.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 4.
71
Marriage and hanging go by destiny; matches are made in heaven. 33
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
72
Diogenes struck the father when the son swore.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 5.
73
Though it rain daggers with their points downward.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
74
Going as if he trod upon eggs.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 3.
75
I light my candle from their torches.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 2, Memb. 5, Subsect. 1.
76
England is a paradise for women and hell for horses; Italy a paradise for horses, hell for women, as the diverb goes.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
77
The miller sees not all the water that goes by his mill. 34
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
78
As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man’s face. 35
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
79
Make a virtue of necessity. 36
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 3, Memb. 4, Subsect. 1.
80
Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel. 37
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
81
If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
82
For “ignorance is the mother of devotion,” as all the world knows. 38
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
83
The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience. 39
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
84
Out of too much learning become mad.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 2.
85
The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.
86
Isocrates adviseth Demonicus, when he came to a strange city, to worship by all means the gods of the place.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 5.
87
When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done. 40
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
88
One religion is as true as another.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 1.
89
They have cheveril consciences that will stretch.
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 2, Subsect. 3.

Note 1.
See Fletcher, page 184.
There ’s not a string attuned to mirth
But has its chord in melancholy.
Thomas Hood: Ode to Melancholy. [back]

Note 2.
Dr. Johnson said Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy” was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. And Byron said, “If the reader has patience to go through his volumes, he will be more improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty other works with which I am acquainted.”—Works, vol i. p. 144. [back]

Note 3.
A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.—David Garrick: Prologue on quitting the stage.

Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco (Being not unacquainted with woe, I learn to help the unfortunate).—Virgil: Æneid, lib. i. 630. [back]

Note 4.
See Shakespeare, King Henry IV. Part I, Quotation 21. [back]

Note 5.
Nihil dictum quod non dictum prius (There is nothing said which has not been said before).—Terence: Eunuchus, Prol. 10. [back]

Note 6.
A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees farther of the two.—George Herbert: Jacula Prudentum.

A dwarf sees farther than the giant when he has the giant’s shoulders to mount on.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Friend, sect. i. essay viii.

Pigmæi gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident (Pigmies placed on the shoulders of giants see more than the giants themselves).—Didacus Stella in Lucan, 10, tom. ii. [back]

Note 7.
Le style est l’homme même (The style is the man himself).—Buffon: Discours de Réception (Recueil de l’Académie, 1750). [back]

Note 8.
Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.—Montaigne: Apology for Raimond Sebond, book ii. chap. xii. [back]

Note 9.
Like watermen who look astern while they row the boat ahead.—Plutarch: Whether ’t was rightfully said, Live concealed.

Like rowers, who advance backward.—Montaigne: Of Profit and Honour, book iii. chap. i. [back]

Note 10.
See Shakespeare, Hamlet, Quotation 68. [back]

Note 11.
See Heywood, Quotation 77. [back]

Note 12.
See Heywood, Quotation 62. Francis Rabelais: book i. chap. xi. [back]

Note 13.
Æsop: Fables, book v. fable v. [back]

Note 14.
He left a corsair’s name to other times,
Link’d with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
Lord Byron: The Corsair, canto iii. stanza 24. [back]

Note 15.
See Fletcher, Quotation 1. [back]

Note 16.
”Castles in the air,”—Montaigne, Sir Philip Sidney, Massinger, Sir Thomas Browne, Giles Fletcher, George Herbert, Dean Swift, Broome, Fielding, Cibber, Churchill, Shenstone, and Lloyd. [back]

Note 17.
Oats,—a grain which is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.—Samuel Johnson: Dictionary of the English Language. [back]

Note 18.
Carpet knights are men who are by the prince’s grace and favour made knights at home…. They are called carpet knights because they receive their honours in the court and upon carpets.—Markham: Booke of Honour (1625).

”Carpet knights,”—Du Bartas (ed. 1621), p. 311. [back]

Note 19.
The exception proves the rule. [back]

Note 20.
See Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Quotation 5. [back]

Note 21.
Qui vino indulget, quemque alea decoquit, ille
In venerem putret
(He who is given to drink, and whom the dice are despoiling, is the one who rots away in sexual vice).—Persius: Satires, satire v. [back]

Note 22.
His favourite sin
Is pride that apes humility.
Robert Southey: The Devil’s Walk. [back]

Note 23.
When Abraham Lincoln heard of the death of a private, he said he was sorry it was not a general: “I could make more of them.” [back]

Note 24.
Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d’avantage sur l’épée (So far had the pen under the king the superiority over the sword).—Saint Simon: Mémoires, vol. iii. p. 517 (1702), ed. 1856.

The pen is mightier than the sword.—Edward Bulwer Lytton: Richelieu, act ii. sc. 2. [back]

Note 25.
Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread.
Anonymous.

Great Homer’s birthplace seven rival cities claim,
Too mighty such monopoly of Fame.
Thomas Seward: On Shakespeare’s Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Seven cities warred for Homer being dead;
Who living had no roofe to shrowd his head.
Thomas Heywood: Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells. [back]

Note 26.
A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.—Samuel Johnson: Piazzi, 52. [back]

Note 27.
Set a beggar on horseback, and he ’ll outride the Devil.—Bohn: Foreign Proverbs (German). [back]

Note 28.
See Wotton, Quotation 3. [back]

Note 29.
There is many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip.—Hazlitt: English Proverbs.

Though men determine, the gods doo dispose; and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.—Greene: Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588). [back]

Note 30.
See Heywood, Quotation 30. [back]

Note 31.
See Heywood, Quotation 130. [back]

Note 32.
Those curious locks so aptly twin’d,
Whose every hair a soul doth bind.
Thomas Carew: Think not ’cause men flattering say.

One hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen.—Howell: Letters, book ii. iv. (1621).

She knows her man, and when you rant and swear,
Can draw you to her with a single hair.
John Dryden: Persius, satire v. line 246.

Beauty draws us with a single hair.—Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock, canto ii. line 27.

And from that luckless hour my tyrant fair
Has led and turned me by a single hair.
Bland: Anthology, p. 20 (edition 1813). [back]

Note 33.
See Heywood, Quotation 18. [back]

Note 34.
See Heywood, Quotation 113. [back]

Note 35.
See Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Quotation 5. [back]

Note 36.
See Chaucer, Quotation 22. [back]

Note 37.
For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.—Martin Luther: Table Talk, lxvii.

God never had a church but there, men say,
The Devil a chapel hath raised by some wyles.
William Drummond: Posthumous Poems.

No sooner is a temple built to God but the Devil builds a chapel hard by.—George Herbert: Jacula Prudentum.

Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there.
Daniel Defoe: The True-born Englishman, part i. line 1. [back]

Note 38.
Ignorance is the mother of devotion.—Jeremy Taylor: To a Person newly Converted (1657).

Your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.—John Dryden: The Maiden Queen, act i. sc. 2. [back]

Note 39.
The fear o’ hell ’s a hangman’s whip
To haud the wretch in order.
Robert Burns: Epistle to a Young Friend. [back]

Note 40.
Saint Augustine was in the habit of dining upon Saturday as upon Sunday; but being puzzled with the different practices then prevailing (for they had begun to fast at Rome on Saturday), consulted Saint Ambrose on the subject. Now at Milan they did not fast on Saturday, and the answer of the Milan saint was this: “Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato” (When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday).—Epistle xxxvi. to Casulanus. [back]

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