Ambodexter

Use in the book

The preliminary satire makes money, reputation and appearances displace genuine worth. One person assumes temperance and holiness, another austerity, another studied simplicity, while Burton calls them hypocrites and ambodexters. A lion viewed from one side and a lamb from another makes the opposed faces visible. The original margins reinforce the image: Juvenal’s pretended Roman austerity contrasts with Bacchic revelry, while hybrid creatures combine incompatible forms. The next passage develops the opportunist’s changing roles through Proteus, a chameleon and astrological Mercury, followed by the gap between words and deeds. The precise construction of the turning picture is left unspecified. Elsewhere the same changing picture represents virtues and faults mixed in one person, without necessarily implying deliberate deceit; out-sides also names the admirers of gentle birth who prize outward show.

In the account of worldly discontents, double-dealing belongs to harms people inflict on one another in addition to external misfortune. The catalogue accuses them of lacking hospitality, charity and sociability while pursuing their own ends. The following examples contrast the satisfied person with those excluded from pleasure, and the comfortable diner with an exhausted, hungry servant. This is Burton’s sweeping moral indictment, not evidence that every sociable appearance conceals deceit. The preceding phrase about loving one another or themselves is awkward; the supplied modern reading makes selfish love the contrast, supported by the explicit pursuit of personal benefit.

The religious discussion repeats the label. Ambodexters appear beside neutrals and other categories after arguments that Burton calls cavils; he later describes people who adjust their public religion to their company, like Mercury taking the character of neighboring planets. His Puritan and Papist labels and the assertion of inward unbelief are polemical, not independently established accounts of whole communities. The continuation acknowledges how difficult such concealment can be to discern: the final judge who examines the heart is God. That qualification prevents the portrait from granting the reader certain knowledge of someone else’s concealed beliefs.

Related entries

Parasite: Self-interested service and flattering dependence

Temporize: Changing conduct to suit the times or company

Dissimulation: Concealment and outward profession

Counterfeit: Simulation and counterfeit appearance

Charity: The violated ideal of help and charity

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 27–29, 1–2; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 28double-dealers, out sides and turning pictures, with original marginal contrasts and the continuation into changeable roles
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 24–26; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 25changing pictures of mixed character, with the front and side views
3. Subsection 10. Discontents, Cares, Miseries and the Like as Causes · paragraphs 36–40; Subsection 10. Discontents, Cares, Miseries and the Like as Causes · paragraph 38double-dealing in the catalogue of self-interest and harm, with the qualified self-love interpretation
4. Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 19–21; Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraph 20out-sides as admirers of outward status, between fabricated ancestry and the criticism of inherited superiority
5. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 28–44; Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraph 34ambodexters within Burton’s polemical religious catalogue and surrounding objections
6. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 1–14; Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraph 5religious accommodation, Mercury, omnium horarum homines, and God as examiner of the concealed heart

In this edition

“Ambodexters” becomes “double-dealers” in the turning-picture passage. In “counterfeit, dissemblers, ambodexters,” the modern “false, deceitful and double-dealing” recasts the list adjectivally; the same people remain its subject. The later religious lists use “double-dealers” again. None of these renderings suggests manual dexterity.

“Out sides” becomes “mere exteriors,” with mere making the contemptuous restriction explicit. “Turning pictures” becomes “pictures that change as you turn them,” retaining the lion-and-lamb opposition. The later “double or turning pictures” becomes “changing pictures”; “a company of out-sides” becomes “a company of people who are all outward show,” unfolding the human metaphor. “Omnium horarum homines” becomes “people for every occasion,” an idiomatic expansion of hours whose opportunistic force comes from the surrounding religious argument.

ambodexter

Printed “ambodexters” (English; lemma).

A double-dealer who serves opposed sides or assumes opposed faces for personal advantage.

Here: Plural ambodexters names people whose apparent holiness or simplicity masks opportunism.

Context: Burton’s satirical accusation; turning pictures and hybrid creatures illustrate contradictory appearances, not physical manual skill.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: hypocrites, ambodexters, out sides

Modern rendering: hypocrites, double-dealers, mere exteriors

Word and construction: Ambodexters contributes double-dealers; the three neighboring labels remain distinct.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “ambodexters” (English; lemma).

Citation key: ambodexter.

Here: Double-dealers, rendered adjectivally in a catalogue of selfish conduct.

Context: Burton attacks people who disregard harm to others for their own benefit; the awkward preceding mutual-love/self-love clause remains a qualified interpretation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: counterfeit, dissemblers, ambodexters

Modern rendering: false, deceitful and double-dealing

Word and construction: Matched list: ambodexters contributes double-dealing or double-dealers; its neighbors retain their own meanings.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “ambodexters” (English; lemma).

Citation key: ambodexter.

Here: Double-dealers listed alongside, rather than defined as, neutrals in religious controversy.

Context: Burton’s polemical catalogue follows objections he calls cavils; it is not a neutral classification or proof of hidden beliefs.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ambodexters, neutralists

Modern rendering: double-dealers, neutrals

Word and construction: Matched list: ambodexters contributes double-dealing or double-dealers; its neighbors retain their own meanings.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Ambodexters” (English; lemma).

Citation key: ambodexter.

Here: Opportunistic double-dealers adapting religious appearances to their company.

Context: Burton attacks worldly conformity through astrological Mercury and sectarian labels; the later examiner of hearts is God, not a human observer claiming certain access to motives.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Formalists, Ambodexters, luke-warm Laodiceans

Modern rendering: formalists, double-dealers, lukewarm Laodiceans

Word and construction: Matched list: ambodexters contributes double-dealing or double-dealers; its neighbors retain their own meanings.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

omnium horarum homines

Printed “omnium horarum homines” (Latin; phrase).

Latin homines means people, horarum of hours, and omnium all: people for all hours, idiomatically every occasion.

Here: Adaptability becomes opportunistic religious conformity in this setting.

Context: Burton’s polemic, following the Mercury comparison and adaptation to different religious companies; the phrase does not itself demonstrate anyone’s inward belief.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: omnium horarum homines

Modern rendering: people for every occasion

Word and construction: The supplied rendering takes hours idiomatically as occasions; all becomes every.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

outside

Printed “out sides” (English; lemma).

Outward surfaces or appearances; applied to people, mere exteriors without the inward character they display.

Here: A neighboring label for those who put on temperance, holiness or simplicity.

Context: Burton’s satire uses the image to deny the claimed inward virtues; this is not a literal claim that people lack an interior.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: out sides

Modern rendering: mere exteriors

Word and construction: Exteriors gives the outward surfaces; mere supplies the contemptuous restrictive force of applying the term to whole people.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “out-sides” (English; lemma).

Citation key: outside.

Here: People who are all outward show; locally, they admire the visible prestige of gentle birth.

Context: Burton blames their admiration of gentility while criticizing fabricated ancestry and inherited superiority; his national examples are attributed social criticism.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a company of out-sides

Modern rendering: a company of people who are all outward show

Word and construction: The metaphor is unfolded by supplying people and the relative clause; the company remains the group that admires status.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

turning pictures

Printed “turning pictures” (English; phrase).

Pictures whose appearance changes with the angle of view; turning marks the change of viewpoint, pictures the visible images.

Here: One person displays a lion from one side and a lamb from the other.

Context: Burton’s comparison of opposed outward faces; the exact optical device, if any, is unspecified. The original margins extend the analogy through Curius/Bacchic revelry and hybrid creatures.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so many turning pictures, a lyon on the one side, a lamb on the other

Modern rendering: so many pictures that change as you turn them: a lion on one side, a lamb on the other

Word and construction: The full comparison preserves both contrasted animals and their sides; the adjective is unfolded as a relative clause.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “double or turning pictures” (English; phrase).

Citation key: turning pictures.

Here: Changing pictures illustrate mixed virtue and fault, without necessarily implying deliberate deception.

Context: Burton judges historical figures whose merits and vices coexist; the girl, ape and owl are alternative views of the same image.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: these double or turning pictures

Modern rendering: those changing pictures

Word and construction: Double or turning jointly becomes changing; the following front and side views explain the change. The demonstrative shifts idiomatically from these to those.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.