Note on the Text

The source edition

This is a parallel reading edition of Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, based on the sixth edition, printed for Henry Cripps in 1651. Its principal witness is the copy digitized by McGill University Library. The source column gives a reset transcription of that printed text; the accompanying column offers a close modern-English rendering. The purpose of the pairing is to make the work readable while allowing the reader to examine how the rendering relates to its source.

The choice of 1651 establishes a definite text to follow. It does not identify that printing with an original manuscript, nor does it claim that every reading represents Burton's final intention. The closing notice signed H. C. states that Burton left a carefully corrected copy with additions in his own hand, entrusted to the writer of the notice for incorporation into the next edition. This is testimony about the preparation of the printing. It does not establish the present survival of that corrected copy or of a complete autograph manuscript. The notice is retained with the book's closing material so that its claim can be read directly.

Burton's preliminary matter, explanatory verses, address to the reader, synopses, three partitions and alphabetical Table belong to the source work. The engraved frontispiece accompanies its explanatory text in the annotated edition. The Table, the H. C. notice and the imprint follow the main work. The new Introduction, this Note on the Text and the contextual lexicon are editorial additions. They should not be mistaken for Burton's own preliminaries or conclusions.

The supplied pages and printed pagination

The McGill scan repeats printed pages 96–97 and lacks the opening numbered 98–99 between PDF pages 199 and 200. The missing body text and marginalia have been supplied from another copy of the 1651 edition, held by the Bavarian State Library, shelfmark 2 Path. 17 k, digitization bsb10330491. In the Internet Archive presentation, the supplied leaves are n191–192, corresponding to image numbers 192–193. These were compared with an independent 1651 microfilm at Archive leaves n197–198.

The supplied text begins “anguish, and vexation” and ends with “sur-”; the McGill copy resumes with “prized at unawares” on printed page 100. The divided word is surprized. Recording these verbal boundaries identifies the join more securely than a page number alone. The marginal material from the supplied opening is included, and the repeated page labels in the principal scan have not been silently converted into the missing numbers. The source record preserves the identities of the images used for the recovery.

Throughout the edition, a printed page label, a leaf's place in sequence and a PDF page number are separate kinds of reference. The source has repeated, missing and mistaken numerals, so there is no single arithmetic conversion from printed page to scan page. For example, a late page is printed 651 in the position corresponding to 659, and the next leaf is printed 660. A jump in numbering does not by itself prove the loss of text. Locations are established from the local sequence and the words on the page; the annotations explain discrepancies where they matter to the passage or a cross-reference.

Transcribing the older English

The source column preserves historical wording and spelling while resetting the typography for reading. The long s is represented by ordinary s, spacing is regularized and words divided merely by a line ending are rejoined. The original page layout is not reproduced line for line. Short corresponding passages provide the units of alignment, and a long printed paragraph may occupy more than one pair of passages. Such divisions help comparison; they do not signal a new paragraph or a break in Burton's argument.

Source page locations remain associated with the passages. The divisions of the book, quotations and verse are retained, but the new typesetting does not reproduce every feature of a seventeenth-century page. It should therefore be read as a transcription alongside a rendering, not as a facsimile. The scan remains the evidence for the appearance of the printed witness. Square brackets can occur in Burton's own text, as in his discussion of the definition of melancholy; their presence in the source column does not automatically indicate an editorial insertion.

A doubtful letterform, an apparent misprint and a conjectured correction are different matters. Where the evidence does not settle a reading, the local note states the difficulty or the basis of the adopted interpretation. The source has not been silently rewritten throughout to match a cited author, a later edition or an expected Latin form. Where a correction or supplied sense is needed for the modern rendering, the explanation identifies it. This preserves a distinction between what the witness prints and what an editor judges it may mean.

The modern rendering

The modern English aims to retain the sequence and substance of Burton's presentation. Long sentences may be divided and their syntax clarified; obsolete words receive a current equivalent where one can carry the relevant sense. Lists, qualifications, repetitions, direct address, jokes and changes of speaker are retained. A transition from an objecting sufferer to the voice of counsel is part of the argument and must remain perceptible. A claim reported from another writer is not silently promoted into an assertion made without qualification by Burton.

The same word does not always require the same modern equivalent. Complexion may describe bodily constitution; affection may mean a condition; habit may denote an established state, but elsewhere a costume. Melancholy, spirit and the names of the faculties carry historical meanings that cannot be replaced throughout with present-day psychological or medical terms. Context governs the choice. Notes and the lexicon explain recurring senses while allowing for differences between passages. Historical explanations and judgements remain attributed to the speaker or source that advances them.

Latin and Greek passages are translated in the modern text. When Burton follows a foreign-language quotation with his own English version, both stages are preserved: a fresh rendering of the quoted words and a modernization of his English. They may overlap, but they may also diverge in emphasis or meaning. Combining them would conceal part of his method. Verse remains lineated, without imposing a new rhyme scheme at the expense of sense. Names and titles use identifiable conventional forms where possible; unusual forms or uncertain identifications are explained when necessary.

Historical medical quantities and recipe terms are treated within the text's own system, with local explanations of difficult notation. An unclear sign is not made certain by converting it into a modern unit. For example, the note on the recipe at printed page 397 records conflicting indications and retains a tentative reading while stating that the intended quantity cannot be established securely from the scan. That distinction is part of the textual evidence, rather than a defect to hide through a smooth sentence.

Marginal material and editorial notes

Notes labelled Burton preserve the marginal references and quoted marginal text. Their printed location and reference letter are recorded where available. Translation or editorial explanation within such a note is distinguished from the quoted material. Notes labelled Editor address vocabulary, historical concepts, allusions, changes of voice, uncertain readings and decisions made in the modern rendering. Numbering belongs to the present edition; the labels identify the different kinds of material it brings together.