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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

Reading language

To the Reader Who Misuses His Leisure.

Lectori male feriato.

Tu vero cavesis edico quisquis es, ne temere sugilles Authorem hujusce operis, aut cavillator irrideas. Imo ne vel ex aliorum censura tacite obloquaris (vis dicam verbo) nequid nasutulus inepte improbes, aut falso fingas.

Nam si talis revera sit, qualem præ se fert Junior Democritus, seniori Democrito saltem affinis, aut ejus Genium vel tantillum sapiat; actum de te, censorem æque ac delatorem aget econtra (petulanti splene cum sit) sufflabit te in jocos, comminuet in sales, addo etiam, & deo risui te sacrificabit.

Iterum moneo, ne quid cavillere, ne dum Democritum Juniorem conviciis infames, aut ignominiose vituperes, de te non male sentientem, tu idem audias ab amico cordato, quod olim vulgus Abderitanum ab Hyppocrate, concivem bene meritum & popularem suum Democritum, pro insano habens. Ne tu Democrite sapis, stulti autem & insani Abderitæ.

Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes. Hæc te paucis admonitum volo (male feriate Lector) abi.

Heraclite fleas, misero sic convenit ævo, Nil nisi turpe vides, nil nisi triste vides. Ride etiam, quantumque lubet, Democrite ride Non nisi vana vides, non nisi stulta vides.

Is fletu, hic risu modo gaudeat, unus utrique Sit licet usque labor, sit licet usque dolor.

Nunc opus est (nam totus eheu jam desipit orbis) Mille Heraclitis, milleque Democritis. Nunc opus est (tanta est insania) transeat omnis Mundus in Anticyras, gramen in Helleborum.

1316.BurtonUnnumbered postscript, PDF 95, a: “Si me commôrit, melius non tangere clamo. Hor.” Editor: “If someone provokes me, I cry, better not touch!” Adapted from Horace, Satires 2.1.45; Horace’s text has “qui me conmorit” (“whoever provokes me”).

1318.BurtonUnnumbered postscript, PDF 95, b: “Hippoc. epist. Damageto, accersitus sum ut Democritum tanquam insanum curarem, sed postquam conveni, non per Jovem desipientiæ negotium, sed rerum omnium receptaculum deprehendi, ejusque ingenium admiratus sum. Abderitanos vero tanquam non sanos accusavi, veratri potione ipsos potius eguisse dicens.” Editor: “Hippocrates, letter to Damagetus. I was summoned to treat Democritus as a madman; but when I met him, I found, by Jupiter, not a case of folly but a storehouse of all knowledge, and I admired his intellect. I accused the Abderites themselves of being unsound, saying that they were the ones who needed a draught of hellebore.” Burton’s Latin wording is transcribed here; its precise relation to a particular edition of the letter remains uncollated.

1320.BurtonUnnumbered postscript, PDF 95, c: “Mart.” Editor: Martial, Epigrams 10.25.4. The line is translated in the modern column. Abdera supplies the proverbial example of stupidity.