The Anatomy of Melancholy

The contextual lexicon gathers recurring terms whose historical senses can be hard to hold in mind. Burton's own index supplies a different kind of access: its subjects and page references reveal how the earlier book offered itself for consultation. Those printed locators belong to the source edition. Where a destination has been established, a link assists the reader; an unresolved reference remains visible without pretending to lead somewhere secure. The modern-English-only ebook offers another choice, preserving the continuous rendering and navigation while leaving out the parallel original and editorial apparatus.

There is no single entrance that every reader must use. “Democritus Junior to the Reader” introduces the voice at its most expansive; the opening of the First Partition establishes the historical framework; the sections on study, music or consolation can make an inviting shorter encounter. Returning later to the surrounding argument often changes what a favourite passage seems to say. The frontispiece and its explanatory verses also repay attention: the illustrated figures make the subject bodily and particular, while Burton's portrait places the author among the things to be examined.

The last practical counsel returns to the purpose announced near the beginning. Burton urges the distressed person to disclose troubles, accept help from friends and suitable advisers, and seek a change in the thoughts and circumstances that sustain the distress. His final precept is brief: “Be not solitary, be not idle.” It follows a book that has made solitude immensely populous and occupation almost inexhaustible. The contradiction does not need to be tidied away. It leaves us with a writer whose chosen labour is implicated in the trouble he hopes to relieve, and whose learning becomes most generous when it makes room for another person's pain.