The Anatomy of Melancholy

In this edition. “Æquivocations” → “different meanings” (DJR-144-04); “Æquivocations of melancholy” → “Different meanings of melancholy” (DJR-171-008); “equivocal & improper sense” → “loose and imprecise sense” (DJR-023-02). Different meanings conveys the heading and index function. Loose and imprecise gives the local criticism of usage while retaining the contrast between passing state and established condition.

See also. Quiddity and quodlibet; Genus and species; Accident; Impertinent.

Essence and quintessence

Source forms: quinta essentia; quintessence; Essence

The word. Essence can mean the substance or nature of something. Quinta essentia is the fifth substance, or aether, distinguished in the Aristotelian account from the four elements. Quintessence also has a figurative sense: the concentrated essence or animating principle of something.

In Burton. The astronomical discussion asks what the heavens are made of and contrasts the fifth essence with a penetrable medium. The praise of cheerfulness uses quintessence figuratively, making mirth the life of medicine. The shared vocabulary should not obscure the difference between a cosmological substance and a claim about what makes treatment effective.

The places. The matter of the heavens is disputed. (p. 251; DJR-074-29.) Cheerfulness is called the quintessence of medicine. (p. 305; DJR-086-22.)

In this edition. “Essence and matter” → “substance and matter” (DJR-074-29); “quinta essentia” → “fifth essence” (DJR-074-29); “life and quintessence of Physick” → “life and very essence of medicine” (DJR-086-22). Substance clarifies the astronomical question. Very essence gives the figurative intensity of the medical praise.

See also. Matter; Prime mover; Air; Paracelsian; Intelligence.

Estate

Source forms: stock; estates; substance

The word. Estate can mean a person’s condition or circumstances, not only landed property. The related financial vocabulary in these examples includes stock, meaning capital, and substance, meaning wealth.

In Burton. One reported patient has spent his stock on unnecessary building. In another passage, Burton warns that even apparently healthy readers share an unstable estate, meaning their vulnerable condition. The discussion of illness describes people surrendering their substance in pursuit of health. The movement between money and human circumstances requires separate renderings.

The places. Stock is exhausted by unnecessary building. (p. 164; DJR-054-40.) Fickle estates describes shared human vulnerability. (p. 197–198; DJR-061-30.) Substance is wealth people would exchange for health. (p. 215; DJR-066-01.)

In this edition. “spent his stock” → “spent his capital” (DJR-054-40); “our own fickle estates” → “our own unstable condition” (DJR-061-30); “fortunes, substance” → “possessions and wealth” (DJR-066-01). Capital and wealth specify the financial senses. Condition preserves the wider application to the reader’s bodily and spiritual vulnerability.

See also. Commonwealth; Manure; Abdicate; Commodity.

Ex traduce

Source forms: ex traduce

The word. Ex traduce means by propagation or transmission from the parent. The theory that the soul is transmitted in this way is called traducianism.

In Burton. Burton introduces the position as something some authorities hold: one person begets another in body and soul. The image of one candle lighting another illustrates the proposed transmission. The formulation belongs to a disputed account of the soul’s origin, rather than to an uncontested description of generation.

The places. The soul is said by some authorities to be propagated from the parent. (p. 26; DJR-026-03.)