The Anatomy of Melancholy

See also. Luxurious and riot.

Luxurious and riot

Source forms: riot; Sybaritical; luxurious

The word. Riot can mean extravagant or dissolute living. Luxurious can mean lustful; Sybaritical evokes proverbial extravagance and luxury. These words overlap in criticism of excess without naming precisely the same conduct.

In Burton. Burton includes riot among the causes of urban poverty, alongside declining trade and bad government. His spendthrifts consume inherited wealth in spectacular pleasures. In the symptom account, luxurious has a specifically sexual force, placed with incontinence and inclination to intercourse.

The places. Riot appears among explanations of towns’ decline. (p. 56; DJR-015-02.) Sybaritic spendthrifts squander their estates. (p. 119; DJR-044-38.) Luxurious describes sexual appetite in the symptom account. (p. 201; DJR-062-21.)

In this edition. “idlenesse of their Inhabitants, riot” → “their inhabitants are idle and dissolute” (DJR-015-02); “mad Sybaritical spendthrifts” → “mad, Sybaritic squanderers” (DJR-044-38); “luxurious, incontinent” → “lustful, sexually unrestrained” (DJR-062-21). Dissolute avoids the modern sense of a public disturbance. Lustful makes the sexual sense of luxurious explicit, while Sybaritic retains the allusion explained locally.

See also. Lust and lusty; Epicure; Pleasure; Diet and regimen.

Lycanthropy

Source forms: lycanthropia

The word. Lycanthropy names the condition Burton describes as wolf-madness: a belief that one is a wolf or a similar beast, accompanied in his account by nocturnal howling and wandering. He does not assert a bodily transformation.

In Burton. The preliminary classification names lycanthropy among disorders of imagination or reason. The subsequent definition makes the disputed classification explicit: Aetius and Paulus call it a kind of melancholy, while Burton prefers to place it under madness. That disagreement is part of the term’s use in the book.

The places. Lycanthropy appears in the preliminary disease classification. (p. 8; DJR-022-15.) The following definition describes wolf-madness and disputes its classification. (p. 9; DJR-022-25.)

In this edition. “Lycanthropia” → “lycanthropy” (DJR-022-15); “Wolf-madness” → “wolf-madness” (DJR-022-25). The technical name remains, supported by Burton’s own explanatory term and description. The distinction between a belief and a physical transformation is preserved.

See also. Madness.

Macerate

Source forms: macerate; macerating; macerated

The word. Macerate means wear down, waste or exhaust. Burton applies it to people, minds and souls; in these passages it describes the consuming force of effort, care or persistent thought.

In Burton. The prefatory observer watches others wear themselves out in public life. The symptom account depicts people consumed by repeated thoughts, and the later account of solitude describes a soul wasted by cares. In the moral explanation, passions that people encourage turn against them like Actaeon’s dogs.

The places. Worldly activity wears people out. (p. 3; DJR-002-05.) Persistent thought wears sufferers away. (p. 187; DJR-059-33.) Care and discontent waste the soul. (p. 196; DJR-061-19.) Disturbances wear away the mind in the moral account. (p. 97 [scan p. 197]; DJR-040-05.)

In this edition. “macerate themselves” → “wear themselves out” (DJR-002-05); “macerating themselves” → “wearing themselves away” (DJR-059-33); “macerated with cares and discontents” → “wasted by cares and discontents” (DJR-061-19); “macerate their mindes” → “wear away their minds” (DJR-040-05). The related equivalents preserve the image of attrition. They do not introduce the modern material-processing sense of soaking or softening.

See also. Sorrow; Painful.

Madness

Source forms: Madness