Bewray

Use in the book

Burton’s writer exposes himself to judgment. Style gives him away as tracks disclose a hunter’s quarry; the original Lipsius margin repeats the comparison through a footprint and a small piece of writing. Burton turns the maxim upon his own book, then finds some comfort in the variety of readers’ tastes. Disclosure of character does not make every reader’s verdict uniform or infallible.

The annotator satire requires the other meaning. After ridiculing antiquarian trivia, Burton describes absurd commentary as excrement spread over books and good authors. The first Latin clause is a coarse saying attributed only to “one”; the following dungheap phrase is assigned to Scaliger, whose Ausonius commentary is cited in the original margin. The English bewray and dawb repeats the fouling image. Beetles dwelling among dung and critics raking through dungheaps extend it into the following passage. Burton then pictures their angry defences, admits that he too is exposed to their lash, and contrasts correcting old authors with correcting one’s life. Reveal or betray would miss the action of the paired verbs here.

The related smearing verb also describes flattering praise. Recipients may know that the compliments exceed their merits and outwardly blush or protest, yet enjoy them inwardly. Burton later distinguishes pride arising within oneself from the external action of flatterers, who coat and gild the undeserving with applause. These uses preserve the coating image without requiring the commentator passage’s literal excremental content.

In the medical dispute, bewray again means disclose: Fuchs’s compounding physicians intend to display learning but expose ignorance. The original Latin margin makes the same reversal through prodant. This is an objection within an argument that changes direction. Burton subsequently defends compound medicines when necessary, gives reasons for combining substances, and rejects the general charge of novelty and ostentation. The historical dispute does not establish that medical compounding is inherently foolish.

Love supplies further disclosure examples. Burton’s English couplet makes blushes tell what each lover feels, following a separate Latin couplet in which tender modesty reveals affection. Speech, gestures and the gaze can similarly disclose it. These are inferences from signs within Burton’s literary and medical account; the eye example expressly supposes that the lovers are together even when they lack opportunity or familiarity to converse or caress.

The later bewrayed instead returns to bodily fouling. A reported male patient’s condition after a historical purge supplies a deliberately repellent comparison: Burton asks a lover to imagine the beloved in such a condition and reconsider his attraction. The woman is hypothetical; the patient is a different person in an uncollated medical report. The passage belongs to the work’s rhetoric of aversion, not present treatment advice or proof about women’s bodies. Later Burton says that, though women are named more frequently, the criticisms may for the most part be applied to men with the names changed.

Related entries

Fact: Action or deed and its context-dependent moral force

Privy: Private and bodily senses requiring local context

Study and reading: Reading, annotation and the criticism of learned labour

Censure: Judgment and the exposure of writers to criticism

Apologize: The critics’ written defences

Parasite: Flattering dependants

Shame: Blushing, modesty and disclosure

Heroical love: The literary and medical account of lovers’ signs

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 7–12; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 9style reveals its writer, the original footprint margin, and the qualification through varying readers’ tastes
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 8–13; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 10bewray and dawb, the Latin excremental verbs, Scaliger’s dungheaps and the critics’ replies
3. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 15–19; Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 17bedawb as coating with false praise, despite the recipient’s knowledge and outward reaction
4. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 46–50; Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 48bedawbe among the external flatterers’ actions, distinguished from self-generated pride
5. Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraphs 1–17; Subsection 5 Compound Alteratives Criticism of Compounds and Mixed Medicines · paragraph 4English bewray and marginal prodant in Fuchs’s criticism, followed by Burton’s defence of necessary compounds
6. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 55–58, 1–3; Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 57–58; Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 1the distinct Latin and English blush couplets, and inferences from lovers’ conduct
7. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 14–18; Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 16the conditional disclosure of affection by the eyes when closer familiarity is unavailable
8. By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraphs 43–51, 1–2; By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraph 49all to bewrayed in the imagined degrading comparison with a reported medical patient
9. By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraphs 10–15Burton’s later extension of the criticisms, for the most part, to men as well as women

In this edition

“Bewray and dawb” becomes “soil and smear,” retaining both verbs and their common objects. The preceding Latin is translated separately as “They shit on and befoul every author with their absurd commentaries”: percacant contributes the first coarse action, stercorant the second. “Correctorum sterquilinia” becomes “the dungheaps of textual correctors,” with textual specifying the kind of correction. The later “all to bewrayed” becomes “Utterly fouled,” so that the intensifying words are not mistaken for part of the verb’s basic meaning.

For disclosure, “our stile bewrayes us” becomes “our style gives us away.” “Stylus virum arguit” is separately rendered “style reveals the man.” “Bewray their ignorance and error” becomes “reveal their ignorance and error,” while the original marginal prodant also contributes reveal. The blush couplet is recast as a whole: its say and bewray jointly contribute tell, and “How both affected are” becomes “What each feels for the other.” In the other lovers’ passages bewray becomes reveal, with still in the eye passage carrying the wider clause’s concession. Bedawb becomes smear; the later bedawbe becomes “smear with praise,” supplying with praise from the preceding description of excessive compliments.

bewray · bewrayes

Printed “bewrayes” (English; lemma).

To reveal, disclose or give away.

Here: Writing reveals its writer’s character.

Context: Burton applies the observation to his own exposure to criticism, then qualifies readers’ judgments by their varying tastes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: our stile bewrayes us

Modern rendering: our style gives us away

Word and construction: Bewrayes becomes gives away; us remains the writers disclosed by their style.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bewray” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bewray.

Here: Reveal ignorance while intending to display expertise.

Context: Burton reports Fuchs’s criticism of excessive compounding; the later reversal defends compounds when necessary and rejects the blanket allegation of ostentation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bewray their ignorance and error

Modern rendering: reveal their ignorance and error

Word and construction: The verb contributes reveal; ignorance and error are its objects, not part of its definition.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bewray” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bewray.

Here: Disclose how the lovers feel through blushing.

Context: Burton’s English couplet follows a separate Latin couplet attributed to Arnulf; the account takes visible signs as evidence of affection.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Their faces answer, and by blushing say, How both affected are, they do bewray.

Modern rendering: Their faces answer, and their blushes tell What each feels for the other.

Word and construction: The whole couplet is aligned: say and bewray jointly become tell; the modern relative clause unfolds how both affected are. No one-word equation accounts for the recasting.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bewray” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bewray.

Here: Reveal the lovers’ feelings through speech and gestures.

Context: Burton calls these conjectures or inferences from signs when both are present; they belong to his literary and medical account, not certain contemporary detection of desire.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: will bewray them

Modern rendering: reveal them

Word and construction: Reveal supplies the verb; them remains the people whose affection is disclosed. The future will is absorbed into the modern general statement.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bewray” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bewray.

Here: Disclose the lovers’ feelings through their gaze.

Context: Conditional on their being together, even without opportunity or familiarity to converse or caress.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: their eye will bewray them

Modern rendering: their eyes will still reveal them

Word and construction: The collective singular eye becomes eyes; still carries the concession introduced by yet in the wider original clause.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

bewray

Printed “bewray” (English; lemma).

To soil or befoul, here through an explicitly excremental metaphor.

Here: Annotators are accused of fouling good authors with absurd commentary.

Context: Burton’s coarse literary satire; the neighboring Latin and dung imagery fix this local sense, and he soon acknowledges his own exposure to critics.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: they bewray and dawb a company of books and good Authors, with their absurd Comments

Modern rendering: they soil and smear a whole company of books and good authors with their ridiculous comments

Word and construction: Bewray contributes soil and dawb smear; the books and authors are the objects, and the comments the means. Whole makes the collective company emphatic.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bewrayed” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bewray.

Here: Thoroughly befouled in the imagined degrading comparison.

Context: A reported male patient’s purging supplies the comparison, then Burton asks the lover to imagine the beloved in that condition; the allegation is not a witnessed fact about her or present medical guidance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all to bewrayed

Modern rendering: Utterly fouled

Word and construction: Bewrayed supplies fouled; all to intensifies it as utterly. The passage’s imagined woman is compared with the reported patient, not identified as that patient.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

correctorum sterquilinia

Printed “correctorum sterquilinia” (Latin; phrase).

Sterquilinia means dungheaps; correctorum, of correctors: dungheaps of textual correctors.

Here: Scaliger’s reported name for the critics’ productions.

Context: Burton attributes this phrase to Scaliger; the original margin cites his Ausonius commentary, but the exact passages remain uncollated. The surrounding beetles and dungheaps prolong the coarse comparison.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: correctorum sterquilinia

Modern rendering: the dungheaps of textual correctors

Word and construction: Textual is supplied to specify what these correctors work on; the and of make the Latin noun construction explicit.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

daub

Printed “dawb” (English; lemma).

To smear or coat a surface; here, to foul it metaphorically.

Here: The second verb in the charge that commentary soils books and authors.

Context: Burton’s accusation of textual interference shares the excremental image with bewray, while each verb retains its own contribution.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bewray and dawb

Modern rendering: soil and smear

Word and construction: Bewray contributes soil; dawb contributes smear. The objects and instrument occur in the wider sentence.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bedawb” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bedaub.

Here: Smear or coat with false praise, which pleases even a recipient who knows it is undeserved.

Context: Burton’s account of flattering dependants as external agents of pride; inward self-flattery is separately acknowledged.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bedawb us with false Encomions

Modern rendering: smear us with false encomiums

Word and construction: Bedaub contributes smear; us remains the recipient, and false encomiums the flattering coating.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “bedawbe” (English; lemma).

Citation key: bedaub.

Here: Smear or coat with praise, alongside applauding and gilding undeserving people.

Context: Burton’s account of flattering dependants as external agents of pride; inward self-flattery is separately acknowledged.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bedawbe & applaud, guild over

Modern rendering: smear with praise, applaud and gild

Word and construction: Bedaub contributes smear; in the later passage with praise is supplied from the preceding excessive-praise context, while applaud and gild retain their separate contributions.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

percaco

Printed “percacant” (Latin; lemma).

To defecate on, expressed coarsely as shit on.

Here: The first of two Latin verbs accusing annotators of defiling authors.

Context: Burton introduces the Latin as something someone says; the unnamed saying is not independently attributed by the nearby Scaliger citation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Quosvis authores absurdis commentis suis percacant & stercorant

Modern rendering: They shit on and befoul every author with their absurd commentaries

Word and construction: Percacant contributes shit on; stercorant contributes befoul. They is supplied by the plural verb endings.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

prodo

Printed “prodant” (Latin; lemma).

To reveal, disclose or give away.

Here: The physicians expose their ignorance while displaying expertise.

Context: Fuchs’s attributed criticism in Burton’s original margin; the later defence of necessary compounds qualifies the surrounding argument.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: suam prodant inscitiam

Modern rendering: they reveal their ignorance

Word and construction: Prodant supplies they reveal; suam inscitiam is their own ignorance, rendered their ignorance without a separate own.

Modern container: note

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “prodit” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: prodo.

Here: Tender modesty reveals both lovers’ feeling.

Context: The Latin couplet is attributed through the preceding passage to Arnulf; its modern translation stays separate from Burton’s following English couplet.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Et tener affectum prodit utrique pudor

Modern rendering: And tender modesty reveals the feeling in them both

Word and construction: Prodit contributes reveals; pudor is the subject, rendered modesty; affectum the feeling, and utrique in them both.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

stercoro

Printed “stercorant” (Latin; lemma).

To dung, manure or befoul with excrement; here to befoul an author metaphorically.

Here: The second Latin verb reinforces the excremental attack on commentary.

Context: Burton introduces the Latin as something someone says; the unnamed saying is not independently attributed by the nearby Scaliger citation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Quosvis authores absurdis commentis suis percacant & stercorant

Modern rendering: They shit on and befoul every author with their absurd commentaries

Word and construction: Stercorant contributes befoul; percacant supplies the preceding shit on. The commentators are the implied plural subject, authors the object, and their comments the means.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

stylus virum arguit

Printed “stylus virum arguit” (Latin; phrase).

Stylus means style or manner of writing; virum, the man; arguit, reveals or makes evident: style reveals the man.

Here: Writing makes the author’s character discernible.

Context: Burton applies the maxim to himself and follows it with the separate English claim that style gives writers away; the surrounding observations acknowledge variable judgments.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: stylus virum arguit

Modern rendering: style reveals the man

Word and construction: The three components align as style, the man and reveals; this Latin maxim and Burton’s following English are separate statements in the paired text.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.