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See also. Luxurious and riot.
Luxurious and riot
Source forms: riot; Sybaritical; luxurious
The word. Riot can mean extravagant or dissolute living. Luxurious can mean lustful; Sybaritical evokes proverbial extravagance and luxury. These words overlap in criticism of excess without naming precisely the same conduct.
In Burton. Burton includes riot among the causes of urban poverty, alongside declining trade and bad government. His spendthrifts consume inherited wealth in spectacular pleasures. In the symptom account, luxurious has a specifically sexual force, placed with incontinence and inclination to intercourse.
The places. Riot appears among explanations of towns’ decline. (p. 56; DJR-015-02.) Sybaritic spendthrifts squander their estates. (p. 119; DJR-044-38.) Luxurious describes sexual appetite in the symptom account. (p. 201; DJR-062-21.)
In this edition. “idlenesse of their Inhabitants, riot” → “their inhabitants are idle and dissolute” (DJR-015-02); “mad Sybaritical spendthrifts” → “mad, Sybaritic squanderers” (DJR-044-38); “luxurious, incontinent” → “lustful, sexually unrestrained” (DJR-062-21). Dissolute avoids the modern sense of a public disturbance. Lustful makes the sexual sense of luxurious explicit, while Sybaritic retains the allusion explained locally.
See also. Lust and lusty; Epicure; Pleasure; Diet and regimen.
Lycanthropy
The word. Lycanthropy names the condition Burton describes as wolf-madness: a belief that one is a wolf or a similar beast, accompanied in his account by nocturnal howling and wandering. He does not assert a bodily transformation.
In Burton. The preliminary classification names lycanthropy among disorders of imagination or reason. The subsequent definition makes the disputed classification explicit: Aetius and Paulus call it a kind of melancholy, while Burton prefers to place it under madness. That disagreement is part of the term’s use in the book.
The places. Lycanthropy appears in the preliminary disease classification. (p. 8; DJR-022-15.) The following definition describes wolf-madness and disputes its classification. (p. 9; DJR-022-25.)
In this edition. “Lycanthropia” → “lycanthropy” (DJR-022-15); “Wolf-madness” → “wolf-madness” (DJR-022-25). The technical name remains, supported by Burton’s own explanatory term and description. The distinction between a belief and a physical transformation is preserved.
See also. Madness.
Macerate
Source forms: macerate; macerating; macerated
The word. Macerate means wear down, waste or exhaust. Burton applies it to people, minds and souls; in these passages it describes the consuming force of effort, care or persistent thought.
In Burton. The prefatory observer watches others wear themselves out in public life. The symptom account depicts people consumed by repeated thoughts, and the later account of solitude describes a soul wasted by cares. In the moral explanation, passions that people encourage turn against them like Actaeon’s dogs.
The places. Worldly activity wears people out. (p. 3; DJR-002-05.) Persistent thought wears sufferers away. (p. 187; DJR-059-33.) Care and discontent waste the soul. (p. 196; DJR-061-19.) Disturbances wear away the mind in the moral account. (p. 97 [scan p. 197]; DJR-040-05.)
In this edition. “macerate themselves” → “wear themselves out” (DJR-002-05); “macerating themselves” → “wearing themselves away” (DJR-059-33); “macerated with cares and discontents” → “wasted by cares and discontents” (DJR-061-19); “macerate their mindes” → “wear away their minds” (DJR-040-05). The related equivalents preserve the image of attrition. They do not introduce the modern material-processing sense of soaking or softening.
Madness
The word. Madness is defined in this classification as vehement mental derangement or raving without fever. Burton distinguishes it from melancholy by greater violence and from frenzy by the absence of fever and generally better memory.
In Burton. The definition gathers anger, clamour, alarming gestures and force, while excluding fear and sorrow from the type being described. These are the terms of Burton’s local taxonomy. They should not be generalized into a claim that all experiences called madness throughout the book share this exact pattern.
The places. The formal definition distinguishes madness from melancholy and frenzy. (p. 9; DJR-022-21.)
In this edition. “a vehement Dotage” → “severe mental derangement” (DJR-022-21); “raving without a Fever” → “raving without fever” (DJR-022-21). Madness remains the historical category; severe mental derangement explains vehement dotage. The distinction involving fever is preserved explicitly.
See also. Melancholy; Calenture and ague; Dotage; Distraction; Lycanthropy; Ecstasy.
Magnanimity and pusillanimity
Source forms: magnanimity; pusillanimity
The word. Magnanimity means courage or greatness of spirit in the exhortation to endurance. Pusillanimity means faint-heartedness. The opposed terms do not make Burton’s treatment of suffering a simple division between strong and weak people.
In Burton. One passage urges readers to bear affliction steadfastly as soldiers of Christ. Another rebukes healthy people who laugh at sufferers’ faint-heartedness and suppose it can be dismissed at will. Sudden bereavement and fear on a precipice ask those readers to imagine emotions they could not simply choose away.
The places. Magnanimity is called for in enduring affliction. (p. 12; DJR-023-13.) Ridicule of sufferers’ pusillanimity is challenged. (p. 206; DJR-063-24.)
In this edition. “patience, with magnanimity” → “patience and courage” (DJR-023-13); “dejected pusillanimity” → “dejected faint-heartedness” (DJR-063-24). Courage and faint-heartedness give the local senses. Preserving the second passage’s challenge prevents the first exhortation from becoming the book’s only position on emotional control.
See also. Shame.
Make away
Source forms: make away themselves; dispatch himself
The word. To make away oneself or dispatch oneself means to kill oneself. These expressions concern self-inflicted death in the cited passages, not departure or the completion of a task.
In Burton. Burton first describes the despair associated with extreme poverty. The later philosophical discussion asks whether self-killing under severe suffering can be lawful and how those who do it should be judged. The attributed arguments remain distinct from an instruction or endorsement by the edition.
The places. The expression occurs at the extreme of distress associated with poverty. (p. 159; DJR-053-33.) The philosophical discussion asks about self-killing and judgment. (p. 216; DJR-066-03.)
In this edition. “to make away themselves” → “to kill themselves” (DJR-053-33); “to make away himself” → “to kill himself” (DJR-066-03); “he may dispatch himself” → “he may kill himself” (DJR-066-03). The direct equivalents remove an obsolete euphemism while preserving the different narrative and argumentative settings.
Manure
Source forms: well manured; manured
The word. To manure land is to cultivate or improve it. The verb has a wider scope here than adding fertilizer.
In Burton. Burton praises a well-cultivated country among England’s blessings, alongside peace and defences. In the geographical digression, he contrasts watered Damascus with a wilderness supposedly beyond cultivation. Both uses concern the condition and management of land.