The Anatomy of Melancholy

The word. Salvation means deliverance in the religious sense. Safety can carry that meaning too, particularly when the context concerns sinners, divine mercy and the hope of being saved.

In Burton. The first passage makes hope of safety part of a spiritual appeal to mercy. The later question about assurance confronts a sufferer’s certainty of being rejected: Burton turns the demand for proof back upon that self-condemnation.

The places. Safety names the hope of salvation. (p. 708; DJR-166-45.) Assurance of salvation is opposed to unproved certainty of rejection. (p. 713; DJR-167-42.)

In this edition. “hope of safety” → “hope of salvation” (DJR-166-45); “assured of their salvation” → “assured of their salvation” (DJR-167-42). Salvation makes the first passage’s religious sense explicit and remains unchanged in the second. The argument’s consolatory reversal is preserved.

See also. Despair.

Satisfaction

Source forms: satisfactory; satisfaction

The word. Satisfaction can mean making amends, especially for sin, or answering a doubt so as to provide reassurance. Satisfactory in the charitable example concerns atonement, not merely acceptable quality.

In Burton. Burton mocks a wealthy wrongdoer’s last-minute charitable building as an attempt to make amends. His medical explanation instead gives satisfaction by replacing fears of demonic agency with natural causes. Penitential satisfaction then appears in both an anti-papal catalogue and a prayer that contrasts inadequate repentance with divine mercy.

The places. A satisfactory almshouse is built to make amends. (p. 61; DJR-016-06.) An explanation of natural causes gives reassurance. (p. 205; DJR-063-18.) Acts of satisfaction appear among the attacked religious practices. (p. 673; DJR-159-36.) The attributed prayer says repentance is insufficient to make amends. (p. 708; DJR-166-37.)

In this edition. “build a satisfactory alms-house” → “building an almshouse, school, or bridge to make amends” (DJR-016-06); “give some satisfaction” → “give some reassurance” (DJR-063-18); “satisfactions” → “acts of satisfaction” (DJR-159-36); “suffice for satisfaction” → “suffice to make satisfaction” (DJR-166-37). Make amends and reassurance distinguish the two main senses. Where satisfaction remains, its penitential meaning is explained locally.

See also. Conscience.

Satyriasis and priapism

Source forms: Satyriasis; Priapismus

The word. Satyriasis is a historical term for excessive male sexual desire; priapism names a persistent erection. Burton’s pairing does not make the two conditions equivalent.

In Burton. The proposed ways of calming sexual passion lead Burton to chapters bearing these medical names. In his attack on compulsory celibacy, he includes them in a much broader catalogue of illness, vice and crime. Their medical specificity should remain visible even within that polemical accumulation.

The places. The two names identify medical chapters cited in the discussion of sexual passion. (p. 547; DJR-134-31.) Both conditions enter the catalogue attributed to rash vows and celibate life. (p. 581; DJR-142-11.)

In this edition. “de Satyriasi & Priapismo” → “On Satyriasis and Priapism” (DJR-134-31); “satyriasis, priapismus” → “satyriasis, priapism” (DJR-142-11). The edition retains the medical names and explains them in notes. It preserves Burton’s causal assertion as part of his historical argument.

See also. Venery.

Schoolmen

Source forms: Schoolmen; Peripateticks; school divinity

The word. Schoolmen are scholastic theologians and philosophers; school divinity is scholastic theology. Peripatetics are followers of Aristotle, a related intellectual designation rather than an exact synonym for all schoolmen.