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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

Reading language

Contextual Lexicon

In this edition. “precise” → “a strict Puritan” (DJR-049-33); “Precisians” → “religious rigorists” (DJR-160-14); “preciseness” → “religious scrupulosity” (DJR-161-24). The equivalents specify religious observance rather than accuracy in general. Strict Puritan follows the particular contrast between patronal allegiances; rigorists allows the broader force of the later noun.

See also. Religion and superstition; Curiosity.

Present

Source forms: present possession; present death; present; present ease; present remedy; present diverter

The word. Present often means immediate or immediately effective. It can describe possession, an effect, relief or a remedy, rather than merely something belonging to the current time.

In Burton. Appointment in Burton’s imagined commonwealth brings immediate possession. Unkindness becomes instant death in the exaggerated language of courtly dependence. In the medical passages, present expresses the urgency of recovery, the demand for relief, or the claimed speed of a remedy. Scriptural reading offers an immediate diversion of attention.

The places. The qualified appointee takes possession without delay. (p. 60–61; DJR-015-41.) An angry look is described as instant death. (p. 169; DJR-056-07.) The sufferer desires immediate recovery. (p. 215; DJR-066-01.) Lack of immediate relief prompts repeated changes of physician. (p. 229; DJR-069-35.) Moderate sexual activity is called an immediate remedy for some people. (p. 239; DJR-072-01.) Reading Scripture supplies an immediate diversion. (p. 282; DJR-081-27.)

In this edition. “present possession” → “take possession immediately” (DJR-015-41); “present death” → “instant death” (DJR-056-07); “a present recovery” → “an immediate recovery” (DJR-066-01); “present ease” → “immediate relief” (DJR-069-35); “a present remedy” → “an immediate remedy” (DJR-072-01); “present diverter” → “an immediate diversion” (DJR-081-27). The equivalents make the temporal force explicit. The immediacy of a reported cure remains Burton’s claim, while instant death retains the rhetorical exaggeration.

See also. Still; Prevent; Prognostics.

Prevent

Source forms: prevent; prevented death

The word. Prevent can mean act beforehand, anticipate or intervene before something occurs. Its older force may differ sharply from the modern sense of stopping an event altogether.

In Burton. The heavenly Physician prevents by intervening before a fatal outcome. In the account of old people forestalling their deaths, the word instead describes anticipating the death that would otherwise come. The second use cannot mean preserving their lives.

The places. Divine aid is described as intervening before a fatal outcome. (p. 214; DJR-065-20.) Prevented death means anticipated the death otherwise expected. (p. 217; DJR-066-11.)

In this edition. “do not prevent” → “intervenes” (DJR-065-20); “they prevented death” → “they forestalled death” (DJR-066-11). The surrounding unless clause preserves the condition expressed by if the Physician does not intervene in the source. Forestalled retains the anticipatory sense in the second passage.

See also. Present.

Prime mover

Source forms: primum mobile

The word. Primum mobile is the first moving sphere in the older astronomical model. Prime mover is the explanatory heading for that image here, rather than a substitution of a separate theological argument.

In Burton. Love and hatred are imagined as a sphere carrying all other passions around with them. Burton uses the cosmological image to explain their governing place among the affections before expanding his account of love.

The places. Love and hatred carry the other affections as the first moving sphere carries the heavens. (p. 411; DJR-108-27.)

In this edition. “the primum mobile of all other affections” → “the first moving sphere of all the other affections” (DJR-108-27). First moving sphere preserves the physical image behind the claim about emotional dependence.

See also. Astrology; Essence and quintessence.

Privy

Source forms: jakes; Draughts

The word. Jakes and draughts can mean privies or latrines. Here draughts names a source of foul air, not a current of air or a drink.

In Burton. The humiliating labour assigned to the poor includes emptying privies and clearing drains. The medical account also groups privies with dunghills and carrion as sources of unhealthy air. The same object serves a social argument and a historical account of disease.

The places. Emptying privies appears in the catalogue of degrading labour. (p. 156; DJR-053-03.) Privies and drains are listed among sources of foul air. (p. 83; DJR-037-02.)

In this edition. “empty jakes” → “empty privies” (DJR-053-03); “Draughts, Sinks” → “privies and drains” (DJR-037-02). Privies makes the shared meaning plain without weakening the degrading imagery in the first passage.

See also. Meat; Bewray.

Professor

Source forms: Christian Professors; Professor

The word. A professor can be someone who professes a religion. Christian professors and a true professor name believers, without requiring an academic office.

In Burton. In the attack on diverted church revenues, a decline among Christian professors accompanies increased ignorance. In the consolation for religious distress, the wish to be a true professor becomes evidence that the sufferer has not wholly rejected faith.

The places. Those professing Christianity suffer from the deprivation of church support. (p. 137; DJR-048-17.) The desire to be a professing believer supports hope of reconciliation. (p. 710; DJR-167-11.)

In this edition. “Christian Professors” → “those who profess Christianity” (DJR-048-17); “a true Professor” → “a true professing believer” (DJR-167-11). Professing identifies the religious commitment in both contexts. The later passage retains the distinction between being reconciled now and being reconciled in the future.

See also. Divine.

Prognostics

Source forms: prognosticks; event

The word. Prognostics concern an illness’s expected course and outcome. Event can mean the outcome itself, rather than an occurrence considered without reference to what preceded it.

In Burton. Burton warns melancholy readers that descriptions of symptoms and prognoses may be misapplied to their own cases. His prognosis chapter then presents different consequences of humoral heat and cold. Reading these general descriptions as personal predictions is precisely the danger named in the warning.

The places. Readers are warned against treating general prognoses as personal descriptions. (p. 17; DJR-006-27.) Event names the supposed outcome of increasing humoral heat. (p. 213; DJR-065-12.)

In this edition. “prognosticks” → “prognoses” (DJR-006-27); “the common event” → “the usual outcome” (DJR-065-12). Prognoses and outcome clarify the predictive purpose. The historical categories of frenzy, stupefaction and possession remain distinct reported claims.

See also. Physick; Present; Century.

Proletary

Source forms: proletaries; proletariique

The word. Proletaries are people of low social rank; in the battle example they are common soldiers. The Latin proletarii can also be used disparagingly of low fellows.

13611.Edited source passages: p. 60–61 (DJR-015-41); p. 169 (DJR-056-07); p. 215 (DJR-066-01); p. 229 (DJR-069-35); p. 239 (DJR-072-01); p. 282 (DJR-081-27). Existing edition notes: DJR-015:E24, DJR-066:E01, DJR-069:E24, DJR-072:E01, DJR-081:E27. DJR-015:E24 explains the appointment and advowson context. DJR-066:E01 distinguishes the Juvenal quotation from the erroneous Persius attribution. DJR-069:E24 reads twenty physicians in succession, not twenty-one. DJR-072:E01 uses the margin to clarify the release of reason; DJR-081:E27 leaves the sermon’s Augustinian authorship unverified.

13612.Edited source passages: p. 214 (DJR-065-20); p. 217 (DJR-066-11). Existing edition notes: DJR-065:E18, DJR-066:E11. DJR-065:E18 identifies the claim that only divine aid can help as theological, not a conclusion about available medical care. DJR-066:E11 retains Choa and Barbicians and leaves the exact Aelian and Boemus accounts uncollated.

13613.Edited source passages: p. 411 (DJR-108-27). Existing edition notes: DJR-108:E21. DJR-108:E21 explains the astronomical model and retains Piccolomini and Caussin as Burton’s stated authorities; their exact editions remain uncollated.

13614.Edited source passages: p. 156 (DJR-053-03); p. 83 (DJR-037-02). Existing edition notes: DJR-053:E03. DJR-053:E03 distinguishes jakes from the neighbouring gutter-cleaning expression and preserves the unresolved Plautus/Aristophanes citation mismatch. The disease-producing air is described as the physicians’ historical explanation.

13615.Edited source passages: p. 137 (DJR-048-17); p. 710 (DJR-167-11). Existing edition notes: DJR-048:E13, DJR-167:E11. DJR-048:E13 explains the Julian comparison and leaves the Coke and Nicephorus references open. DJR-167:E11 explicitly distinguishes this professor from an academic teacher.

13616.Edited source passages: p. 17 (DJR-006-27); p. 213 (DJR-065-12). Existing edition notes: DJR-006:E25, DJR-065:E11. DJR-006:E25 preserves both Burton’s prohibition and his subsequent advice about cautious reading. DJR-065:E11 explains the humoral language and records the continuation of marginal n and all six references at the foot of the page.

13617.Edited source passages: p. 32–33 (DJR-010-05); p. 144 [sequence] (DJR-050-09). Existing edition notes: DJR-010:E04, DJR-050:E08. DJR-010:E04 identifies the fifteen-thousand-to-fifteen contrast as rhetorical rather than a verified casualty count. DJR-050:E08 preserves Burton’s explicit distinction between corrupt appointments and the Church or universities generally.