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In Burton. Burton attacks nice and curious schismatics as over-scrupulous, but curious crosses and curious works concern elaborate or fine making. Curiously describes a mother’s scrupulous observance, while curiosity is expressly defined as tyrannical preoccupation with useless or forbidden things. His refusal to torture a patient for observation uses curious for excessively painstaking investigation. These judgments depend on the activity and its purpose.
The places. Religious scrupulosity is criticized. (p. 29; DJR-009-15.) Crosses are described as elaborate. (p. 29; DJR-009-12.) Craftsmanship sustains a trading city. (p. 55; DJR-014-31.) An observance is carried out scrupulously. (p. 147 [sequence; printed 143]; DJR-050-33.) Curiosity is defined as excessive or forbidden inquiry. (p. 166; DJR-055-16.) Painstaking observation is associated with cruelty. (p. 178; DJR-058-03.)
In this edition. “nice & curious” → “over-scrupulous” (DJR-009-15); “curious crosses” → “elaborate crosses” (DJR-009-12); “curious Wroks” → “fine craftsmanship” (DJR-014-31); “curiously” → “scrupulously” (DJR-050-33); “Curiosity” → “curiosity” (DJR-055-16); “curious” → “painstaking” (DJR-058-03). The modern column separates workmanship, exactness and misplaced inquiry. Where curiosity remains, Burton’s explicit definition supplies its critical sense.
See also. Nice; Precise; Scruple; Art.
Custom and education
Source forms: tuition; informed; discipline; inform; informs
The word. The vocabulary of education includes tuition as care or guardianship, discipline as training, and inform as teaching or giving form. Custom names the habitual practice through which dispositions develop.
In Burton. Burton warns guardians against excessive severity and criticizes schooling that produces a learned fool or sickly scholar. Later custom, discipline and education help explain differences among symptoms, while acquired habits can worsen the will’s condition. Inform extends from teaching a person to giving life its proper form in the contrast between kinds of love. These terms concern the shaping of a person, not merely the transmission of information.
The places. Tuition is the care and supervision of children. (p. 148 [sequence; printed 144]; DJR-050-40.) A child is entrusted to a schoolmaster to be informed. (p. 149 [sequence; printed 145]; DJR-050-55.) Training and custom shape individual dispositions. (p. 194; DJR-061-02.) Training and custom can form bad habits. (p. 29–30; DJR-026-40.) Inform means teach in the discussion of remarriage. (p. 345; DJR-095-07.) Divine love is said to give life its proper form. (p. 428; DJR-111-39.)
In this edition. “tuition and oversight” → “care and supervision” (DJR-050-40); “informed” → “educated” (DJR-050-55); “discipline” → “training” (DJR-061-02); “Custom” → “custom” (DJR-026-40); “inform another” → “teach another” (DJR-095-07); “informs” → “gives our life its proper form” (DJR-111-39). Care, training, educated and teach specify the personal actions; proper form retains the explicit opposition between informs and deforms.
See also. Commonwealth; Conversation.
Daemon and genius
Source forms: genius; substantiæ separatæ; dæmones; Genii; starve his Genius; starve their Genius; familiarem dæmonem
The word. Daemon can name a spirit without necessarily implying an evil Christian devil. Genius can be an attendant or guardian spirit, but in the idiom starve one’s genius it refers to denying one’s own enjoyment or comforts.
In Burton. Burton explicitly distinguishes the broad classical name for spirits from their goodness or evil, and gathers traditions of tutelary and familiar spirits. His self-description makes melancholy an evil genius, while the criticism of avarice and account of poverty use starving one’s genius for self-denial. In the discussion of Plotinus, Divell represents the ancient philosophical daemon. These contexts require different English renderings.
The places. Melancholy is personified as an evil genius. (p. 5; DJR-003-08.) Classical spirit names are distinguished from moral character. (p. 39; DJR-028-25.) Genii are described as guardians. (p. 40; DJR-028-31.) Familiar spirits are said to instruct notable people. (p. 52; DJR-031-09.) A miser denies himself enjoyment. (p. 115; DJR-044-06.) Hardship forces people to deny themselves comforts. (p. 157–158; DJR-053-13.) Spirit appears among the philosophical accounts of love. (p. 412; DJR-108-29.)
In this edition. “malus genius” → “evil spirit” (DJR-003-08); “substantiæ separatæ” → “Separate substances” (DJR-028-25); “dæmones” → “daimones” (DJR-028-25); “boni and mali Genii” → “good and evil guardian spirits” (DJR-028-31); “familiarem dæmonem” → “familiar spirit” (DJR-031-09); “starve his Genius” → “starving his own appetite for enjoyment” (DJR-044-06); “starve their Genius” → “deny themselves” (DJR-053-13); “a God or a Divell” → “a god, a spirit” (DJR-108-29). Spirit and guardian spirit preserve distinctions obscured by a uniform devil. The idiomatic renderings of starve one’s genius retain their concern with ordinary enjoyment.
See also. Demonic apparitions; Obsession and possession; Incubus; Bugbear; Ecstasy.
Decoction
The word. A decoction is a preparation made by boiling material in liquid. The name identifies a method of preparation rather than a particular ingredient.
In Burton. Randolotius is said to have drunk a decoction of wormwood after an upsetting incident brought on a hypochondriacal attack while he was copying medical notes. Wormwood names the ingredient; decoction specifies the form in which it was taken.
The places. A decoction of wormwood appears in a reported personal case. (p. 177; DJR-057-43.)
In this edition. “decoction of wormwood” → “decoction of wormwood” (DJR-057-43). The precise preparation term remains, with its meaning supplied here.
See also. Receipt.
Defecate
The word. Defecate can mean to clarify a liquid or remove its dregs. This older sense differs from the usual modern reference to bowel evacuation.
In Burton. In discussing stagnant water and brewing, Burton reports an opinion that boiling defecates it and improves its substance and flavour. His final qualification calls the claim a paradox. The verb concerns clarification in a disputed account of water or beer, not a bodily action.
The places. Boiling is said to clarify water used in brewing. (p. 71; DJR-034-39.)
In this edition. “seething doth defecate it” → “boiling clarifies it” (DJR-034-39). Clarifies supplies the appropriate process; boiling also modernizes seething. The surrounding qualification remains.
See also. Concoction; Excrements.
Demonic apparitions
Source forms: spectrums; Ambulones; puck; spectrum; lay
The word. Spectrum and spectrums name an apparition or apparitions. Ambulones are wanderers; pucks are spirits said to mislead travellers. To lay spirits means to quiet or dismiss them, paired here with raising or summoning them.
In Burton. Burton’s spirit survey lists deceptive sights and describes midnight wanderers on heaths. The solitude passage turns the puck’s circular leading into a simile for enthralling thoughts. Later a spectrum can frighten someone, alongside imitation devils used in jokes. The vocabulary crosses reported supernatural events, figurative description and staged appearances; the entry heading does not settle their reality.
The places. Apparitions occur among sights allegedly produced by spirits. (p. 41; DJR-028-40.) Wandering spirits are called Pucks. (p. 49; DJR-030-34.) A puck’s leading becomes a simile for absorbing thoughts. (p. 88; DJR-038-09.) A sudden apparition is described as a source of terror. (p. 146; DJR-051-08.) Necromancers claim to raise and lay spirits. (p. 49; DJR-030-33.)