The Anatomy of Melancholy

Name: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Robert Burton

1651 English with a close modern English rendering

Explore the Lexicon

The Anatomy of MelancholyDemocritus Junior to the Reader

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Modern English Page · Branch 61 of 1495

Democritus Junior to the Reader

Book Mode

1651 English

34–35

To see so many lawyers, advocates, so many tribunals, so little Justice; so many Magistrates, so little care of common good; so many Laws, yet never more disorders; Tribunal litium segetem, the Tribunal a Labyrinth, so many thousand suits in one court sometimes, so violently followed? To see injustissimum sæpè juri præsidentem, impium religioni, imperitissimum eruditioni, otiosissimum labori, monstrosum humanitati? To see a lamb executed, a woolf pronounce sentence, latro arraigned, and fur sit on the bench, the Judge severely punish others, and do worse himself, eundem furtum facere & punire, rapinam plectere, quum sit ipse raptor?

Laws altered, misconstrued, interpreted pro and con, as the Judge is made by friends, bribed, or otherwise affected as a nose of wax, good to day, none to morrow; or firm in his opinion, cast in his? Sentence prolonged, changed, ad arbitrium judicis, still the same case, one thrust out of his inheritance, another falsly put in by favor, false forged deeds or wils. Incisæ leges negliguntur, laws are made and not kept; or if put in execution, they be some silly ones that are punished.

As put case it be fornication, the father will dis-inherit or abdicate his child, quite casheer him, (out villain be gone, come no more in my sight) a poor man is miserably tormented with losse of his estate perhaps, goods, fortunes, good name, for ever disgraced, forsaken, and must do penance to the utmost; a mortal sin, and yet make the worst of it, nunquid aliud fecit, saith Tranio in the poet, nisi quod faciunt summis nati generibus? he hath done no more then what Gentlemen usually do. Neque novum, neque mirum, neque secus quam alii solent.

For in a great person, right worshipfull Sir, a right honorable Grandy, tis not a venial sin, no not a peccadillo, tis no offence at all, a common and ordinary thing, no man takes notice of it; he justifies it in publike, and peradventure brags of it, Nam quod turpe bonis, Titio, Seioque, decebat Crispinum ———

609.BurtonP. 34, l: “Cyp. 2. ad Donat. ep. Ut reus innocens pereat, fit nocens. Judex damnat foras, quod intus operatur.” Translation: “So that an innocent defendant may perish, the judge becomes guilty. The judge condemns publicly what he practises privately.” Compare Cyprian, To Donatus 10, on the guilty judge, and 9, on condemning publicly what one practises privately. The printed epistle numbering is preserved.

610.BurtonP. 34, m: “Sidonius Apo.” Sidonius Apollinaris; Burton gives no work or passage. The precise attribution of “committing and punishing the same theft” remains unlocated.

611.BurtonP. 34, n: “Salvianus l. 3 de providen.” Salvian, book 3 of the work cited as On Providence, generally known as On the Government of God. The exact passage and form of the quotation remain uncollated.

612.BurtonP. 34, o: “Ergo judicium nihil est nisi publica merces. Petronius. Quid faciant leges ubi sola pecunia regnat? Idem.” Translation: “Judgement, then, is nothing but merchandise sold in public. What can laws do where money alone rules?” Both are located in Petronius, Satyrica 14; Burton reverses their order.

613.BurtonP. 35, p: “Hic arcentur hæreditatibus liberi; hic donatur bonis alienis, falsum consulit, alter testamentum corrumpit, &c. Idem.” Translation: “Here children are excluded from their inheritances; here a man is presented with another’s goods; one contrives a fraud, another corrupts a will,” and so on. Although Idem follows a Petronius note, this catalogue corresponds to Cyprian, To Donatus 10. The compressed and irregular printed wording is retained.

614.BurtonP. 35, q: “Vexat censura columbas.” Translation: “Censure harasses the doves.” Juvenal, Satire 2.63; the preceding words in Juvenal say that it pardons the ravens. The contrast is between persecuted harmless people and favoured predators.

616.BurtonP. 35, r: “Plaut. mostel.” Plautus, Mostellaria 1141. Tranio defends the son’s drinking, purchase of his mistress’s freedom, and borrowing; Burton applies the excuse to sexual misconduct.

617.BurtonP. 35, s: “Idem.” The line is adapted from the epilogue of Plautus’s Asinaria, rather than from the Mostellaria just cited. The epilogue excuses an old man’s indulgence behind his wife’s back.

619.BurtonP. 35, t: “Juven. Sat. 4.” Juvenal, Satire 4.13–14. Titius and Seius are conventional names for ordinary people; Crispinus is the object of Juvenal’s satire.

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Democritus Junior to the Reader

p. 61

To see so many lawyers and advocates, so many courts, so little justice; so many magistrates, so little care for the common good; so many laws, yet more disorder than ever? “The court a crop of lawsuits”—the court a labyrinth, sometimes with many thousands of cases in a single court, pursued with such fury? To see “the most unjust man often presiding over justice, the impious over religion, the most ignorant over learning, the idlest over labour, the monstrous over humanity”? To see a lamb executed and a wolf passing sentence, a “robber” arraigned and a “thief” sitting on the bench; the judge punishing others severely while doing worse himself, “committing and punishing the same theft,” “punishing robbery while being a robber himself”?

Laws altered, misconstrued, interpreted for or against, according to the way the judge is swayed by friends, bribed, or otherwise influenced—moulded like a nose of wax, valid today, worthless tomorrow. Or he holds firmly to his opinion, while the litigant loses on his. Judgement delayed or changed “at the judge’s discretion,” though the case remains the same; one person dispossessed of his inheritance, another wrongfully installed through favour, forged deeds, or wills. “Engraved laws are disregarded”: laws are made and not observed. And if they are enforced, it is some powerless wretches who are punished.

Suppose the offence is fornication. A father will disinherit or disown his child and dismiss him outright: “Out, villain! Be gone! Never let me see you again!” A poor man is miserably punished, perhaps losing his estate, possessions, prospects, and good name, disgraced for ever, abandoned, and required to undergo penance to the full. A mortal sin! Yet even at its worst, “Has he done anything,” as Tranio says in the play, “except what men of the highest birth do?” He has done no more than gentlemen commonly do. Nothing new, nothing surprising, nothing different from other people’s usual practice.

For a great person, a right worshipful sir, a right honourable grandee, it is not even a venial sin, not so much as a peccadillo; it is no offence at all, just an everyday occurrence that no one notices. He defends it publicly and perhaps even boasts of it: For what disgraced good men, Titius and Seius, became Crispinus well.

615.“A nose of wax” is something moulded at will. The printed phrase “or firm in his opinion, cast in his?” is compressed and uncertain. The modern version provisionally takes the first possessive as the judge’s and the second as the litigant’s, with “cast” meaning defeated in court; it is an interpretation, not an emendation of the left column. “Incisæ leges” evokes laws publicly engraved, as in Cyprian’s description of the courts.

618.Fornication means sexual intercourse outside marriage. “Abdicate” here is disown, and “casheer” is dismiss. Burton’s examples join family sanctions, material loss, shame, and religious penance; the note does not imply that every listed consequence followed automatically from one uniform legal procedure. Tranio is the clever slave in Plautus’s Mostellaria.

620.A mortal sin is contrasted with a venial, or lesser, sin; “peccadillo” is a small fault. Burton intensifies the irony: the socially powerful person’s act is treated as no fault at all. The two lines come immediately after the earlier Juvenal quotation about the judge of morals, though Burton separates them in his own argument.

About This Reading Edition

Robert Burton’s Anatomy ranges across medicine, philosophy, poetry, religion, and everyday life in its inquiry into melancholy. This complete parallel edition pairs the 1651 English text with a close modern English rendering, preserving the three Partitions, Democritus Junior’s address to the reader, verse, and the historical index.

Historical Text and Translation

The historical text follows the sixth edition, printed at Oxford for Henry Cripps in 1651, using the McGill University Library copy. The supplied edition documents missing printed pages 98–99 supplied from another 1651 copy at the Bavarian State Library. Historical folio labels and their irregularities remain visible; web reader numbers identify reflowed passages and do not claim to reproduce PDF pagination.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared the close modern English rendering and editorial matter. All 8,755 original and modern passage pairs remain aligned, with verse breaks, italics, continuations, and linked annotations preserved. Burton’s 6,781 historical notes retain their attribution; 6,895 editorial notes remain distinct. The introduction, Note on the Text, contextual lexicon, indexes, source documentation, and bibliography are included. The engraved frontispiece remains available in the original downloads.

Rights

Burton’s historical text is in the public domain. The modern English rendering, introduction, notes, and editorial matter are © 2026 Diotimos Editions and appear with the site owner’s permission. The complete supplied PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown files remain available unchanged. The PDF and Word edition preserve the original parallel page layout.