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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities

The Israelites drank water in the wilderness; so did Samson, David, Saul, Abraham’s servant when he went to find Isaac a wife, and the Samaritan woman. How many others I could list! Egypt, Palestine, whole countries in the Indies, where people drink plain water all their lives. The Persian kings themselves drank nothing but water from the Choaspes, which flows past Susa; it was carried after them in bottles wherever they went.

Jacob asked God for nothing more than bread to eat and clothes to wear on his journey, Genesis 28:20. “Well is it with the man to whom God has offered enough with a sparing hand.” Bread is enough “to strengthen the heart.” And if you study philosophy rightly, says Maudarensis, whatever exceeds this measure is a burden rather than a benefit.

Gellius, quoting Euripides, reckons bread and water enough to satisfy nature: there is no surfeit of these; everything else is extravagance, not a feast. Saint Jerome considers a man rich if he has bread to eat, and powerful if he is not forced to be a slave. Hunger has no ambition, provided it has food, and thirst does not prefer a golden cup.

It was no indulgent saying for an Epicurean: “He who is not satisfied with a little will never have enough.” And the speaker in the poet gives excellent advice: “My son, moderate means suit men best; too much is ruinous.”

Great riches for a man consist in living frugally, With an untroubled mind.

If you can be content, you have abundance: “There is nothing; nothing is lacking.” You have little and lack nothing. It is all the same whether you are hanged with a golden chain or a rope, whether you fill yourself with delicacies or coarse food.

If your belly, your side, and your feet are well, A king’s riches can add nothing greater.

If belly, sides, and feet are comfortable, A prince’s treasure can give you no greater pleasure.

Socrates, seeing so many things bought and sold at a fair, and such a multitude gathered for that purpose, immediately exclaimed, “O gods, what a host of things I do not need!” Your lack of possessions alone keeps you healthy in body and mind. What you persecute and abhor as a deadly plague is your physician and dearest friend, making you a good man—healthy, sound, virtuous, upright, and happy.

For when Virtue came down from heaven, as the poet imagines, rich men kicked her about, wicked men abhorred her, courtiers mocked her, and city men hated her. Driven out of doors everywhere, she came at last to her sister Poverty, where she found a kindly welcome. Poverty and Virtue dwell together.

O safe resources of a poor man’s life, And narrow home! O gifts of the gods Not yet understood!

How happy you are, if only you could be content! “Godliness is great gain, if a man can be content with what he has,” 1 Timothy 6:6. All true happiness lies in a moderate condition. I have a little wealth, as he said, “but the mind makes it great”: a kingdom in my estimation.

I wish for nothing more, Son of Maia, except that you make these gifts securely mine.

I have enough and want no more.

The gods did well in making me Of a poor and humble spirit.

It is very well, and I am content. “I approve of clothes and fortune that fit, rather than hang loose.” Let my fortune and my clothes alike fit me. Sebastian Foscarinus, formerly Duke of Venice, had this engraved on his tomb in Saint Mark’s Church: “Listen, Venetians, and I will tell you the best thing in the world: to despise it.” I will engrave that in my heart; despising the world will be my whole concern.

Let them take wealth—“let dung love dung”—provided I may have peace of mind. “He who has lived in obscurity has lived well.” Though I live unknown, I live cleanly and honestly; when the lofty oak is blown down, the frail reed may stand. Let them take glory, for that is their misery; let them take honour, provided I may have peace at heart.

“Lead me, O Jupiter, and you, Fate,” and so on. Lead me, O God, wherever you will; I am ready to follow. Command, and I will obey. I do not envy their wealth, titles, or offices.

Let whoever wishes stand powerful On the slippery summit of the court; Let sweet repose satisfy me.

Let me live quietly and at ease. “Perhaps we shall still be when they are no more,” as he comforted himself: when they are dead and gone and all their splendour has vanished, our memory may flourish.

The everlasting Muses bestow Pedigrees that will not perish.

Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess all those splendid castles. It is enough for me to have a humble house, a little wood, and a well beside it, and so on.

I comfort myself that I shall live more pleasantly this way Than if my grandfather, father, and uncle had been quaestors.

I live as merrily as he does, thank God, and rejoice in my humble condition as much as if my father and uncle had been Lord Treasurer or Lord Mayor. He eats many dishes; I eat one. “He who cares for Christ cares little how costly the food is from which he makes his excrement.” What do I care what my excrement is made from?

6759.The list alludes to biblical water-drinking episodes, including Genesis 24, Exodus 17, Judges 15, 2 Samuel 23 and John 4; the precise Saul reference is not established here. Chaospis is Burton’s spelling of Choaspes. The regional generalization about exclusive water drinking is retained as his claim; neither it nor Brisson’s precise wording has been independently verified.

6762.The verse is Horace, Odes 3.16.43–44. The bread phrase is Psalm 104:15, although the margin says 84. Maudarensis designates Apuleius of Madauros; compare Apology 19.4, where an excess above a fitting measure becomes a burden rather than a use.

6765.Agellius is Aulus Gellius. Attic Nights 6.16.7 quotes Euripides in Greek on the sufficiency of grain and water; Burton’s margin gives a Latin rendering, not Gellius’s Latin prose. His 7.16 remains as printed. The immediate Latin version and the reason for the different book number remain unidentified. Jerome’s exact passage is also unlocated.

6767.Burton plays on Epicure: it can mean a follower of Epicurus or a person devoted to sensual indulgence. The maxim commends sufficiency rather than indulgence. The second saying is attributed in the margin to Euripides’ Melanippe; its exact fragment is not yet established.

6768.Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book 5: the phrase commends frugal living with an even mind. The closing continuation of the Latin sentence is not quoted by Burton. The following nihil est, nihil deest is literally there is nothing, nothing is lacking; Burton’s own gloss softens nothing to little.

6770.Horace, Epistles 1.12.5–6. Burton omits est after lateri but leaves the sense clear. His following English couplet substitutes a prince’s treasure and the language of pleasure for the Latin’s royal riches and greater addition; both versions are preserved.

6772.Convented means assembled; want means lack or need, while ferall means deadly. The saying reverses the usual assumption that desirable goods must be needed. The Socratic anecdote and Burton’s immediate intermediary remain to be collated.

6774.Virtue and Poverty are personified as sisters. Kicked her up is retained in the original and rendered kicked her about; Burton pictures violent rejection, not elevation. The unnamed poet and the source of the Latin marginal account remain unidentified.

6776.Lucan, Civil War 5.527–529, describing the poor boatman Amyclas, whose hut offers no spoils to civil war. Lares means household gods and, by extension, home. The contrast between a narrow dwelling and security is central to Burton’s argument.

6778.Burton paraphrases 1 Timothy 6:6. Mean estate means a moderate or humble condition, not a morally mean one. Conceit here means estimation or imagination. The Lipsius quotation is not yet collated against a specified edition.

6780.Horace, Satires 2.6.4–5. Son of Maia is Mercury. The consulted Latin reads oro (pray) where Burton has opto (wish); the translation follows Burton. Propria asks that the gifts remain securely the speaker’s.

6782.Horace, Satires 1.4.17–18. Burton’s second Fecerunt differs from the consulted finxerunt (formed). In context Horace speaks of modest poetic capacity, contrasting his small spirit with another poet’s copious production; Burton reuses the words as an expression of contentment.

6785.The clothing comparison adapts Apuleius, Apology 19.2–3: fortune should fit like a tunic, rather than trail so far as to trip its wearer. Burton changes the wording. The purported Foscarinus tomb inscription is mediated through Chytraeus; the person’s identification, ducal title, location and exact text remain unverified.

6787.The dung image is deliberately coarse. Bene qui latuit, bene vixit is Ovid, Tristia 3.4.25. The margin’s Demea saying comes from Terence, Adelphoe 445, in act 3 scene 3: seeing the honourable Hegio makes Demea glad to be alive. Burton prints act 4 and applies the words to contentment. “Silly” means frail; the oak and reed recall the fable of yielding to a storm. The adjacent Socrates saying remains uncollated.

6789.The appeal to Jupiter and Fate is the Stoic prayer attributed to Cleanthes and preserved by Epictetus (Handbook 53 in common modern numbering, 52 in the consulted Carter version). Burton’s marginal 77 requires collation with his edition. His English gloss substitutes the single Christian God for Jupiter and Fate; both layers are kept.

6790.Seneca, Thyestes 391–393, from a choral meditation on kingship and freedom from desire. Aulæ is the royal court; its summit is slippery because power is precarious.

6792.Erimus fortasse quando illi non erunt is literally perhaps we shall be when they will not be. Burton explains this as survival in memory. The translation preserves the Latin’s tentative phrasing; Puteanus’s exact source remains uncollated.

6794.The Muses confer enduring distinction through poetry. Stemmata literally means pedigrees or genealogical honours; its figurative force contrasts literary remembrance with inherited rank. The attribution to Marullus has not yet been traced to a specific poem.

6796.Horace, Satires 2.6.1–3, begins Hoc erat in votis, modus agri non ita magnus: this was my wish, a piece of land not so large. Burton’s marginal erit (will be) and non ita parvus (not so small) change tense and reverse the size adjective. Both readings are preserved in his note and its translation; the main paragraph itself still praises modest possessions.

6797.Horace, Satires 1.6.130–131. A quaestor was a Roman magistrate with financial responsibilities. Burton prints plural fuissent where the consulted text has fuisset. His English gloss omits the grandfather and domesticates the office as Lord Treasurer or Lord Mayor; it remains alongside the fresh Latin translation.

6799.The Latin and Burton’s English gloss deliberately reduce luxurious dining to its bodily end. Jerome is named without a work; the attribution remains uncollated. Feeds of means eats from or eats.