Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Parallel Edition

Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Name: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Robert Burton

1651 English with a close modern English rendering

Explore the Lexicon

The Anatomy of MelancholyMember 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of The…

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

1651 English Page · Branch 730 of 1495

Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of The…

Book Mode

1651 English

456–457

She would comb him, dress him, feed him, and trick him every day her self, and he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, &c. And besides she would have a dainty picture drawn, in perpetual remembrance, a virgin riding upon an Asses back with this motto, Asino vectore regia virgo fugiens captivitatem; why said she all this? why did she make such promises to a dumb beast?

But that she perceived the poor Asse to be taken with her beauty; for he did often obliquo collo pedes puellæ decoros basiare, kiss her feet as she rid, & ad delicatulas voculas tentabat adhinnire, offer to give consent as much as in him was to her delicate speeches, and besides he had some feeling as he conceived of her misery.

And why did Theagines horse in Heliodorus curvet, prance, and go so proudly, exultans alacriter & superbiens, &c. but that sure as mine author supposeth, he was in love with his master? dixisses ipsum equum pulchrum intelligere pulchram domini formam?

A fly lighted on Malthus cheek as he lay asleep; but why? Not to hurt him, as a parasite of his standing by well perceived, non ut pungeret sed ut oscularetur, but certainly to kiss him, as ravished with his divine looks.

Inanimate creatures I suppose, have a touch of this, when a drop of Psyches Candle fell on Cupids shoulder, I think sure it was to kiss it. When Venus ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant Poet of ours sets her out,

—— the bushes in the way Some catch her neck, some kiss her face, Some twine about her legs to make her stay, And all did covet her for to embrace.

Aer ipse amore inficitur, as Heliodorus holds, the ayr it self is in love: For when Hero plaid upon her Lute,

The wanton Air in twenty sweet forms danc’t After her fingers ——

and those lascivious winds staid Daphne when she fled from Apollo;

—— nudabant corpora venti, Obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes.

Boreas ventus loved Hyacinthus, and Orithya Ericthons daughter of Athens: vi rapuit, &c. he took her away by force, as she was playing with other wenches at Ilissus, and begat Zetes and Calais his two sons of her. That seas and waters are enamoured with this our beauty, is all out as likely as that of the air and winds; for when Leander swimmed in the Hellespont, Neptune with his Trident did beat down the waves, but

They still mounted up intending to have kiss’d him, And fell in drops like tears because they mist him.

The River Alpheus was in love with Arethusa, as she tells the tale herself,

—— viridesque manu siccata capillos, Fluminis Alphei veteres recitavit amores; Pars ego Nympharum, &c. ——

When our Tame and Isis meet

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of The…

p. 730

She would comb him, groom him, feed him and adorn him herself every day; he should work no more, toil no more, but rest and play, and so forth. Besides, she would have a fine picture painted as a lasting memorial: a maiden riding on an ass’s back, with this inscription, “A royal maiden escaping captivity with an ass as her bearer.” Why did she say all this? Why did she make such promises to a speechless beast?

Because she perceived that the poor ass was captivated by her beauty. For he often “turned his neck to kiss the girl’s lovely feet,” kissing her feet as she rode, “and tried to bray in response to her sweet little words,” attempting, as far as he could, to show his agreement with her tender speech. Besides, he thought he had some fellow feeling for her distress.

And why did Theagenes’ horse in Heliodorus curvet, prance and move so proudly, “leaping eagerly and showing off,” and so forth, unless surely, as my author supposes, it was in love with its master? “Would you not have said that the handsome horse itself understood the beauty of its master’s form?”

A fly landed on Malthus’s cheek as he lay asleep. But why? Not to hurt him, as a hanger-on standing beside him clearly understood: “not to sting him but to kiss him”—certainly to kiss him, enraptured by his divine looks.

Even inanimate things, I suppose, have a touch of this. When a drop from Psyche’s candle fell on Cupid’s shoulder, surely, I think, it was to kiss it. When Venus ran to meet her rosy-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant poet of ours describes her,

——the bushes in her path: Some catch her neck, some kiss her face, Some coil around her legs to make her stay, And all longed to embrace her.

“The very air is infected with love,” as Heliodorus maintains: the air itself is in love. For when Hero played her lute,

The playful air danced in twenty lovely shapes To the movement of her fingers——

and those lustful winds held Daphne back as she fled from Apollo:

——the winds laid bare her body, And the opposing gusts fluttered her clothes against her.

Boreas, the north wind, loved Hyacinthus, and Orithyia, Ericthon’s daughter of Athens: “he carried her off by force,” and so on. He abducted her as she was playing with other girls beside the Ilissus, and fathered his two sons, Zetes and Calais, by her. That seas and waters fall in love with our beauty is every bit as likely as the same claim about the air and winds. For when Leander swam in the Hellespont, Neptune beat down the waves with his trident, but

They kept rising, intending to kiss him, And fell in drops like tears because they missed him.

The river Alpheus was in love with Arethusa, as she tells the story herself:

——and, drying her green hair with her hand, She recounted the river Alpheus’s old love: “I was one of the nymphs,” and so on——

When our Thame and Isis meet,

8987.“Trick” means dress or adorn. Apuleius 6.29 places virgo regia in the opposite order to Burton’s regia virgo; both mean “royal maiden.” The picture and inscription are part of her proposed reward.

8988.Apuleius 6.28 gives both the kisses and the attempted answering bray. Burton repeats and interprets the episode through the ass’s human consciousness; the modern version preserves that narrative complication.

8990.“Curvet” means perform a prancing leap. The horse passage is assigned to book 3 of Heliodorus’s Aethiopica; its exact text remains to be collated.

8992.“Parasite” means a dependent flatterer or hanger-on. The anecdote satirizes flattery as well as celebrating beauty. Burton’s printed Malthus and reference to Athenaeus, book 8, have not yet been securely identified.

8995.Apuleius, Metamorphoses 5.23, imagines that Psyche’s lamp wished to touch and kiss Cupid, so that a drop of hot oil fell on his shoulder. Burton calls the lamp a candle. The modern version retains his object and his playful interpretation.

8996.Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis 871–874. Burton compresses and alters the passage: Shakespeare has thigh where Burton gives legs, and describes Venus breaking away from the embrace. Burton’s changed final line is retained and modernized, rather than replaced with Shakespeare’s wording.

8998.The lines occur in George Chapman’s continuation of Hero and Leander, Fifth Sestiad 43–44. There, “her fingers” refers to personified Music accompanying a wedding procession. Burton changes And to The, cuts the second line short, and applies the image to Hero playing the lute. His Marlow attribution is preserved; the edition he used remains unidentified.

9000.Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.527–528, during Daphne’s flight from Apollo. Burton’s framing gives the winds their own desire; the Latin describes them exposing her body and tossing her clothes.

9001.Boreas is the north wind; the Hellespont is the strait Leander swims to reach Hero. Ericthon is retained from Burton; the parentage and the Hyacinthus association require collation. Burton’s vi rapuit expressly says that Orithyia is abducted by force.

9003.Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.575–577. Burton substitutes Alphei and recitavit for the consulted text’s Elei and narravit. The first two lines introduce Arethusa’s story, while the third begins her own speech. The change from narrator to speaker is retained.

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.

About Diotimos Editions

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.

Rights

Burton’s historical text is in the public domain. The modern English rendering, introduction, notes, and editorial matter are © 2026 Diotimos Editions and appear with the site owner’s permission. The complete supplied PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown files remain available unchanged. The PDF and Word edition preserve the original parallel page layout.