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Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Name: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Robert Burton

1651 English with a close modern English rendering

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The Anatomy of MelancholyMember 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities

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Modern English Page · Branch 559 of 1495

Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities

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1651 English

325

Good Sir, I am a servant (to use Seneca’s words) howsoever your poor friend; a servant, and yet your chamberfellow, and if you consider better of it, your fellow servant. I am thy drudge in the worlds eyes, yet in Gods sight peradventure thy better, my soule is more precious, and I dearer unto him.

Etiam servi diis curæ sunt, as Evangelus at large proves in †Macrobius, the meanest servant is most precious in his sight.

Thou art an Epicure, I am a good Christian: Thou art many parasanges before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius his Narcissus, Nero’s Massa, Domitians Parthenius, a favourite, a golden slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy wals with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c. what of all this? calcas opes, &c. whats all this to true happiness?

I live and breath under that glorious heaven, that August Capitol of nature, enjoy the brightness of stars, that cleer light of Sun and Moon, those infinite creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land affords, far surpassing all that art and opulentia can give.

I am free, and which Seneca said of Rome, culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et auro postea servitus habitavit, thou hast Amaltheæ cornu, plenty, pleasure, the world at will, I am despicable and poor; but a word overshot, a blow in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the Princes dislike, a little sickness, &c. may make us equal in an instant;

howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult a while, cinis æquat, as Alphonsus said, death will equalize us all at last. I live sparingly, in the mean time, am clad homely, fare hardly; is this a reproach? am I the worse for it? am I contemptible for it? am I to be reprehended?

A learned man in Nevissanus was taken down for sitting amongst Gentlemen, but he replyed, my nobility is about the head, yours declines to the taile, and they were silent. Let them mock, scoffe and revile, ’tis not thy scorn, but his that made thee so; He that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him that made him, Prov. 11.5. and he that rejoyceth at affliction, shall not be unpunished.

For the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou art, ditior est, at non melior, saith Epictetus, he is richer, not better then thou art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition.

Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Paterna rura bobus exercet suis.

Happy he, in that he is freed from the tumults of the world, he seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not, temporizeth not, but lives privately, and well contented with his estate;

6705.BurtonPrinted page 325, dagger: “Epist. 74. servus sumne homo; servus sum, immo contubernalis; servus sum, at humilis amicus, immo conservus si cogitaveris” Letter 74. The first clause is typographically difficult, provisionally read sumne. The intended series is: I am a slave, but a human being; a slave, indeed a companion under the same roof; a slave, but a humble friend, indeed a fellow slave if you reflect.

6709.BurtonPrinted page 325, dagger at Seneca: “Epist. 66. & 90.” Letters 66 and 90.

6711.BurtonPrinted page 325, asterisk: “Panormitan. rebus gestis Alph.” Panormita, on the deeds of Alfonso.

6713.BurtonPrinted page 325, s: “Lib. 4. num. 218. quidam deprehensus quod sederet loco nobilium, mea nobilitas, ait, est circa caput, vestra declinat ad caudam.” Book 4, number 218: a man rebuked for sitting among the nobility said, My nobility is about my head; yours slopes down towards the tail.

6715.BurtonPrinted page 325, t: “Tanto beatior es, quanto collectior.” You are happier the more inwardly composed you are.

6718.BurtonPrinted page 325, u: “Non amoribus inservit, non appetit honores, & qualitercunque relictus satis habet, hominem se esse meminit, invidet nemini, neminem despicit, neminem miratur; sermonibus malignis non attendit aut alitur. Plinius.” He does not serve his passions or seek honours; however he is left, he has enough; he remembers he is human, envies no one, despises no one, admires no one, and neither attends to nor feeds on malicious talk. Pliny.

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities

p. 559

Good sir, I am a servant—to use Seneca’s words—but still your humble friend; a servant, yet your companion under the same roof, and, if you think more carefully, your fellow servant. In the world’s eyes I am your drudge, but perhaps in God’s sight I am your better: my soul is more precious, and I am dearer to him.

“Even slaves are objects of the gods’ care,” as Evangelus proves at length in Macrobius: the humblest servant is most precious in his sight.

You are an Epicure; I am a good Christian. You are many leagues ahead of me in means, favour, wealth, and honour: a Narcissus to Claudius, a Massa to Nero, a Parthenius to Domitian, a favourite, a golden slave. You cover your floors with marble, your ceilings with gold, your walls with statues, fine pictures, exquisite tapestries, and so on. What of it all? “You tread upon riches,” and so forth: what does any of this have to do with true happiness?

I live and breathe beneath that glorious sky, nature’s majestic Capitol. I enjoy the brightness of the stars, the clear light of sun and moon, the countless creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fish, and herbs: everything sea and land provide, far surpassing all that art and wealth can give.

I am free; and, as Seneca said of Rome, “A roof sheltered free men; afterwards slavery lived beneath marble and gold.” You possess Amalthea’s horn: abundance, pleasure, the world at your command. I am despised and poor. But a rash word, a blow struck in anger, a game of tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the ruler’s displeasure, a brief illness, and so on, may make us equals in an instant.

Meanwhile, enjoy your moment; triumph and lord it over me for a while. “Ashes make us equal,” as Alfonso said: death will make us all equal at last. In the meantime I live frugally, dress plainly, and eat poor food. Is that a disgrace? Am I the worse for it? Does it make me contemptible? Am I to be blamed?

A learned man in Nevizzano was rebuked for sitting among gentlemen, but replied, “My nobility is about my head; yours descends towards the tail.” They fell silent. Let them mock, sneer, and abuse you: their scorn falls on the one who made you as you are. “Whoever mocks the poor reproaches their maker,” Proverbs 11:5, “and whoever rejoices at affliction will not go unpunished.”

For the rest, the poorer you are, the happier you are. “He is richer, but not better,” says Epictetus: richer than you, not better, nor so free from lust, envy, hatred, and ambition.

Happy the man who, far from business, Ploughs his ancestral fields with his own oxen.

Happy because he is free from the world’s turmoil: he seeks no honours, hungers for no advancement, neither flatters nor envies nor trims his conduct to the times, but lives privately, well content with his condition.

6706.The argument adapts Seneca, Letter 47.1, rather than the margin’s 74, changing Seneca’s statements about slaves into the servant’s first-person appeal. The first marginal clause is unclear in the scan and provisionally transcribed sumne; its intended human-equality claim is clear from the cited parallel. “Servant” overlaps with the ancient condition of slavery.

6707.Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.11.1–14: Praetextatus defends slaves’ humanity and divine care against Evangelus’s objection. Burton assigns the defence to Evangelus instead. The dagger before Macrobius has no separately identifiable marginal entry and is retained; the later Letters 66 and 90 entry belongs with Seneca.

6708.“Epicure” here means a pleasure-seeker, not a neutral label for Epicurus’s philosophy. A parasang is an ancient distance measure; “many leagues” preserves the comparison without imposing a precise conversion. The named imperial favourites, especially “Nero’s Massa,” require historical collation. “Curious” means exquisitely wrought.

6710.Compare Seneca, Letter 90.10: culmus, “straw,” sheltered free men, while slavery lives beneath marble and gold. Burton prints culmen, “roof,” adds postea, and changes habitat to habitavit; the modern rendering follows him. Amalthea’s horn is the horn of plenty. “Tables” is a board game of the backgammon family.

6712.“Insult” means triumph or exult over someone, not merely speak abusively. Cinis æquat means ashes make equal. The attribution to Alfonso through Panormita remains to be checked against the cited work.

6714.The head-and-tail reply contrasts intellectual worth with inherited status. The Nevizzano anecdote needs collation. The scriptural quotation is Proverbs 17:5, not the printed 11:5; Burton’s reference is retained in the modern column and corrected here.

6716.Compare Epictetus, Enchiridion 44: greater wealth does not establish that a person is better. Burton extends the point into his claim about poverty and freedom from passions. The marginal collectior means more composed or collected within oneself; it does not literally mean poorer.

6717.Horace, Epodes 2.1 and 3, with the intervening line omitted. In the full poem the praise of rural life is eventually revealed as the speech of a moneylender who returns to lending. Burton extracts it as consolation; the omitted line is not silently supplied.

6719.The Pliny margin adapts Letters 7.26.2, a description of conduct during illness, here transferred to the contented poor man. Burton’s qualitercunque relictus differs from Pliny’s quantulumcumque, ut relicturus. “Temporize” means accommodate oneself opportunistically to prevailing circumstances.

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.