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 4 Subsection 1 Non-Necessary, Remote, External, Adventitious Or…

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1651 English Page · Branch 314 of 1495

Member 4 Subsection 1 Non-Necessary, Remote, External, Adventitious Or…

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1651 English

146 [sequence; printed 142]

MEMB. 4. SUBSECT. 1. Non-necessary, remote, outward, adventitious, or accidental causes: as first from the Nurse.

Of those remote, outward, ambient, Necessary causes, I have sufficiently discoursed in the precedent member, the Non-necessary follow: of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude; so called not necessary because according to Fernelius they may be avoided, and used without necessitie. Many of these accidental causes, which I shall entreat of here, might have well been reduced to the former, because they cannot be avoided, but casually happen to us, though accidentally, and unawares, at some time or other: the rest are contingent and inevitable, and more properly inserted in this rank of causes. To reckon up all is a thing unpossible; of some therefore more remarkable of these contingent causes which produce Melancholy, I will briefly speak and in their order.

From a childs Nativity, the first ill accident that can likely befall him, in this kinde is a bad Nurse, by whose means alone he may be tainted with this malady from his cradle. Aulus Gellius l. 12. c. 1. brings in Phavorinus that eloquent Philosopher, proving this at large, that there is the same vertue and property in the milk as in the seed, and not in men alone, but in all other creatures:

he gives instance in a Kid and Lamb, if either of them suck of the others milk; the Lamb of the Goats, or the Kid of the Ewes, the wool of the one will be hard, and the hair of the other soft. Giraldus Cambrensis Itinerar. Cambriæ l. 1. c. 2. confirmes this by a notable example which happened in his time. A sow-pig by chance sucked a Brach, and when he was grown, would miraculously hunt all manner of Dear, and that as well, or rather better than any ordinary hound. His conclusion is, that men and beasts participate of her nature and conditions, by whose milk they are fed.

Phavorinus urgeth it farther, and demonstrates it more evidently, that if a Nurse be mis-shapen, unchast, unhonest, impudent, drunk, cruel, or the like, the child that sucks upon her brest will be so too; all other affections of the minde and diseases, are almost ingrafed, as it were, and imprinted into the temperature of the Infant by the Nurses milk; as Pox, Leprosie, Melancholy, &c.

Cato for some such reason would make his servants children suck upon his wives brest, because by that means they would love him and his the better, and in all likelihood agree with them. A more evident example that the minds are altered by milk, cannot be given, than that of Dion, which he relates of Caligula’s cruelty; it could neither be imputed to father nor mother, but to his cruel nurse alone, that anointed her paps with bloud stil when he sucked which made him such a murderer, and express for cruelty to an hair:

3647.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, l: “Proem lib. 2. Nulla ars constitui potest.” Preface to book 2: no systematic art can be established.

3648.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, m: “Lib. 1. c. 19. de morborum causis. Quas declinare licet aut nulla necessitate utimur.” Book 1, chapter 19, on the causes of diseases: things we may avoid or use without necessity.

3650.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, n: “Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu. Hor.” A jar will long retain the scent with which it was first imbued when new. Horace, Epistles 1.2.69–70. The unanchored marginal verse is placed here beside the account of infancy.

3651.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, o: “Sicut valet ad fingendas corporis atque animi similitudines vis & natura seminis, sic quoque, lactis proprietas. Neque id in hominibus solum, sed in pecudibus animadversum. Nam si ovium lacte hædi, aut caprarum agni alerentur, constat fieri in his lanam duriorem, in illis capillum gigni teneriorem.” As the power and nature of seed shape the likenesses of body and mind, so too does the property of milk. This has been observed not only in human beings but in cattle: if kids are fed on sheep’s milk, or lambs on goats’ milk, the lambs’ wool becomes harder and the kids’ hair softer.

3653.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, p: “Adulta in ferarum persecutione ad miraculum usque sagax.” When grown, extraordinarily keen in the pursuit of wild animals.

3654.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, b: “Tam animal quodlibet quam homo, ab illâ cujus lacte nutritur, naturam contrahit.” Every animal, as well as a human being, acquires its nature from the female whose milk nourishes it. The marginal marker is printed b in the place where q would be expected.

3656.BurtonSequence page 146, printed 142, r: “Improba, informis, impudica, temulenta nutrix &c. quoniam in moribus efformandis magnam sæpe partem ingenii altricis & natura lactis tenet.” A wicked, misshapen, unchaste, drunken nurse, and so on: because in forming character the nurse’s disposition and the nature of her milk often play a large part. Printed ingenii is retained; the intended sense is the disposition of the nurse.

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Member 4 Subsection 1 Non-Necessary, Remote, External, Adventitious Or…

p. 314

Member 4 Subsection 1 Non-necessary, remote, external, adventitious or accidental causes: first, the nurse.

I have discussed those remote, external, surrounding, necessary causes sufficiently in the preceding member. The non-necessary causes follow. Of these, Fuchs says, no systematic art can be formed because they are uncertain, accidental and so numerous. They are called non-necessary because, according to Fernel, they may be avoided or made use of without necessity. Many of the accidental causes I shall discuss here might well have been placed in the former class, because they cannot be avoided but happen to us by chance, accidentally and unexpectedly, at one time or another. The rest are contingent and unavoidable, and more properly placed in this class of causes. It is impossible to list them all; I shall therefore speak briefly, in order, of some of the more remarkable contingent causes that produce melancholy.

From a child’s birth, the first misfortune of this kind likely to befall him is a bad nurse, through whom alone he may be infected with this malady from his cradle. Aulus Gellius, book 12, chapter 1, introduces that eloquent philosopher Favorinus, proving at length that milk has the same power and properties as seed, not only in human beings but in all other creatures.

He gives the example of a kid and a lamb: if either drinks the other’s milk, the lamb drinking the goat’s, or the kid the ewe’s, the wool of the one will be hard and the hair of the other soft. Gerald of Wales confirms this in his Journey through Wales, book 1, chapter 2, with a remarkable example from his own time. A female piglet happened to suckle a female hound, and when it grew up it would hunt every kind of deer wonderfully well—as well as, or rather better than, any ordinary hound. His conclusion is that human beings and animals share the nature and disposition of the female whose milk feeds them.

Favorinus presses the point further and demonstrates it more clearly: if a nurse is misshapen, unchaste, dishonest, shameless, drunken, cruel or the like, the child who sucks at her breast will be so too. All other affections of the mind and diseases—pox, leprosy, melancholy and so on—are almost grafted, as it were, and imprinted into the infant’s constitution by the nurse’s milk.

For some such reason Cato used to have his servants’ children suck at his wife’s breast, because this would make them love him and his family better and, in all likelihood, get along with them. No clearer example that minds are altered by milk could be given than Dion’s account of Caligula’s cruelty. It could be blamed on neither father nor mother, but solely on his cruel nurse, who always smeared her nipples with blood when he suckled. This made him such a murderer, reproducing her cruelty to a hair.

3649.Non-necessary is a category in Burton’s account of causes, not a claim that these causes are unreal. “Contingent and inevitable” is the source’s wording, despite the preceding distinction between avoidable and unavoidable causes; the translation retains its inconsistency. An intended evitable, “avoidable”, is possible but is not silently substituted.

3652.Nurse here means wet nurse. Seed means reproductive seed, and temperature elsewhere in the passage means humoral constitution. Gellius, Attic Nights 12.1.14–20, reports Favorinus’s argument that milk shapes body and character. This is historical physiology and moral speculation, not established evidence that a nurse’s character passes through her milk.

3655.Brach means a female hound; Dear means deer. The sow story is present in Gerald of Wales, Journey through Wales 1.2. Its presence in that source confirms Burton’s literary example, not its biological claim. Burton calls the pig he after identifying it as a sow; the translation uses it.

3657.Compare Plutarch, Cato the Elder 20.3: Cato’s wife nurses enslaved children to encourage affection for her son. “Servants” in Burton’s Roman example means enslaved members of the household. The Caligula anecdote is left as Burton’s attributed report, not an independently established account; express means an exact likeness.

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.

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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.

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