The Anatomy of Melancholy

In this edition. “bugbears” → “bogeymen” (DJR-050-41); “bugbears” → “terrifying apparitions” (DJR-058-38). The two renderings distinguish the frightening figure invoked by another person from the apparition apparently seen by a sufferer.

See also. Daemon and genius.

Calenture and ague

Source forms: quartan ague; calentures; quartane

The word. Ague names a fever, often a recurrent one. Quartan marks recurrence on the fourth day by inclusive counting; calenture denotes a burning fever in the selected travel account.

In Burton. A dietary warning associates pork with quartan ague. Travellers’ calentures are reported alongside fluxes after unfamiliar food. Later, Burton records a dispute about quartan fever: although improvement after it is claimed, prolonged agues are also numbered among causes of melancholy. The vocabulary identifies the historical fever patterns without resolving these competing causal assertions.

The places. Quartan ague appears in a warning about pork. (p. 66; DJR-033-38.) Travellers are said to suffer burning fevers and diarrhoea. (p. 77; DJR-035-52.) Quartan fever is discussed both as a possible precursor to relief and as a cause. (p. 212; DJR-065-08.)

In this edition. “quartan ague” → “quartan ague” (DJR-033-38); “Calentures” → “burning fevers” (DJR-035-52); “quartane” → “quartan fever” (DJR-065-08). The periodic designation remains without assigning a modern disease identity to every historical example.

See also. Phrenitis; Madness; Helleborism; Feral.

Calling

Source forms: calling; callings

The word. Calling means an occupation or vocation: the work for which a person is trained or which ordinarily occupies them.

In Burton. In the criticism of government, people raised without a calling are driven into begging or theft and then punished. Later, studies and callings help explain the particular objects that occupy a melancholy person’s thoughts. Occupation thus matters both as a social provision and as a source of the mind’s habitual material.

The places. Failure to train people for occupations contributes to poverty and punishment. (p. 35; DJR-010-20.) Studies and occupations shape the content of symptoms. (p. 194; DJR-061-02.)

In this edition. “no calling” → “no occupation” (DJR-010-20); “studies and callings” → “studies and occupations” (DJR-061-02). “Occupation” fits both examples. Neither requires a special inward summons or an exclusively religious office.

See also. Commonwealth.

Careful

Source forms: carefull

The word. Careful can mean filled with cares or burdened by worry. Carefull thoughts are thoughts that trouble someone.

In Burton. In the account of balm, Burton lists among its attributed virtues the expulsion of carefull thoughts and anxious imaginations. The parallel with anxious makes the sense clear: the claimed benefit concerns relief from worry, not the removal of attentive or conscientious thinking.

The places. Worried thoughts figure among the troubles a herb is claimed to relieve. (p. 368–369; DJR-100-12.)

In this edition. “carefull thoughts” → “worried thoughts” (DJR-100-12). “Worried” preserves the emotional burden expressed by the older adjective.

See also. Painful.

Carnal presumption

Source forms: carnall presumption

The word. Carnal presumption is unfounded confidence rooted in the unrenewed self, as distinguished here from warranted religious assurance. Carnal is not confined to sexual desire.

In Burton. The troubled speaker asks how assurance can be distinguished from carnal presumption, then lists signs of sanctification that seem to be missing. This is an objection voiced within the consolatory exchange. Treating it as a settled diagnosis by the narrator would erase the dialogue between distress and reassurance.

The places. The sufferer fears that apparent assurance may instead be unfounded confidence. (p. 714; DJR-167-54.)