Brave

Use in the book

The appearance examples bring social judgment into focus. A writer who is not rich, highly placed, “polite and brave” is dismissed as a dunce however qualified he may be. Burton protests against that judgment; he does not recommend fine clothes as evidence of learning. The preceding comparisons oppose content to its wrapping: the metal to its stamp and the contents to their cup. In the envy discussion, another person’s “bravery” is resented or mocked alongside good fortune. Burton’s hostile generalization about women belongs to his polemic. His example of Salonina’s conspicuous journey adapts Tacitus, whose resentment belongs to towns and colonies rather than specifically to Roman ladies. The finery is the object of envy, not proof that its wearer has injured the spectators.

The verse contrast between the drunken flatterer in “brave array” and the ragged scholar makes the same outward splendour an emblem of unjust rewards. The English stanza is Burton’s adaptation after a Latin poem, not a word-for-word restatement of every Latin detail. Its continuation explains why students are drawn to more profitable professions. A different kind of splendour appears in “brave heats”, the brilliant inspirations Burton includes among the literary ornaments he says he avoids. His ornate denial makes the claim of unstudied plainness itself a performance.

Military contexts require particular care. “Brave men at arms” names courage within a reported vocabulary of praise that Burton says is wrongly bestowed on violent men. Immediately before, he has expressly commended courage in a wise man; the attack is on false honour, not a denial that courage exists. In the next paragraph, soldiers “marching bravely on” advance splendidly, with banners, glittering armour, plumes and music. This parade is compared to Darius’s army approaching defeat. Splendid display and valour are therefore distinguishable even within the same passage.

The apparent commendation of heavy drinkers as “brave men” is openly ironical. The comparison makes them worse than wine casks; drunken Silenus was “no braver”. The ensuing “brave examples” are fine precedents only in the corrupted judgment that makes drunkenness honourable. Burton borrows a Plautine exchange about a soldier losing his weapons and applies its excuse by precedent to drinking. By contrast, “brave exploits” in the discussion of emulation are genuinely heroic deeds: honourable rivalry and restrained ambition are explicitly allowed. “Brave Souldiers, Senators, Scholars” likewise extends fine or distinguished quality beyond martial courage, while the Brasidas example denies that famous people monopolize it.

Conduct can receive its own qualified praise. Alexander “carryed himself bravely” in avoiding the sight of Darius’s wife. Here the point is admirable restraint, although Burton admits intemperance in other matters and conjectures his motive with “belike”. Neither splendid clothing nor battlefield courage supplies the immediate meaning.

Related entries

Honest: Honourable and outwardly respectable qualities also need local distinction.

Tires and weeds: Clothing and ornamental dress.

Envy, malice and hatred: Resentment directed at another person’s finery.

Fame and reputation: Acclaim, forgotten merit and false honour.

War and peace: The military setting of courage and splendid display.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 13–15readers judge the writer’s status and appearance; Burton’s protest and reply frame “polite and brave”.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 24–26the unassisted writer’s professed plainness and the ornate catalogue containing “brave heats”.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 2–5real courage allowed, false military honour criticized, and the splendid march followed into danger and forgotten fame.
4. Subsection 2 The Quantity of Food as a Cause · paragraphs 14–18ironic fine fellows, Silenus, and fine precedents within the attack on gluttony and drinking honours.
5. Subsection 7. Envy, Malice and Hatred as Causes · paragraphs 9–11finery as an object of envy, with the adapted Salonina example and the distinction between injury and resentment.
6. Subsection 8. Rivalry, Hatred, Faction and the Desire for Revenge as Causes · paragraphs 18–20professional antagonism qualified by honourable emulation, heroic deeds and restrained ambition.
7. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 42–45the limited reach of fame, fine soldiers and scholars, and Brasidas’s mother’s reply; contempt for fame is then also qualified.
8. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 31–33Latin poem, Burton’s English stanza with the flatterer’s splendid clothes, and the material incentives governing study.
9. Resist the Beginnings, Avoid Occasions, Change One’s Location; Fair and Foul Means, Contrary Passions and Ingenious Devices; Introduce Another Love and Disparage the Former · paragraphs 14–16relapse through sight contrasts with Alexander’s qualified restraint and Cyrus’s refusal to look.

In this edition

The inherited pairs preserve the appearance senses precisely: “polite and brave” → “polished and splendid”, “bravery” → “finery”, and “brave array” → “splendid clothes”. The first pair is a two-adjective construction; brave supplies “splendid”, not “polished”. The complete phrases “brave heats” and “brave exploits” become “splendid bursts of inspiration” and “heroic deeds”.

Context prevents a single substitution from working everywhere. “Brave men at arms” remains “brave men-at-arms”, but “marching bravely on” is rendered as the clause “They march splendidly onward”, with the subject supplied from the ongoing description. “Yet these are brave men” becomes “Yet these are fine fellows!”, preserving irony; the comparative “braver” becomes “finer”. “He carryed himself bravely” is “he behaved admirably”, preserving the limited praise of conduct. These are selected local values, not a rule that the historical word never means courageous.

brave / bravery · brave · local use 1

Printed “brave” (English; family).

Splendid in outward appearance.

Here: Brave contributes splendour; polite contributes polish or cultivated presentation. The writer lacking such advantages is unfairly dismissed.

Context: Burton exposes the evaluators’ rule rather than endorsing their equation of status and ability.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: polite and brave

Modern rendering: polished and splendid

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · brave heats

Printed “brave heats” (English; family).

Brilliant or splendid bursts of poetic inspiration.

Here: Heats are energetic inspirations, with brave commending their brilliance; Burton lists them among ornaments he professes to avoid.

Context: A self-deprecating denial of literary affectation which is itself elaborately ornamented.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: brave heats

Modern rendering: splendid bursts of inspiration

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · brave · local use 2

Printed “brave” (English; family).

Courageous or valiant.

Here: Here brave belongs to military praise, but the praise is reported as a false honour applied to cruel men.

Context: Burton, citing Heuterus’s complaint, reports what they commonly call such men; he has just allowed genuine courage in a wise man.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: brave men at arms

Modern rendering: brave men-at-arms

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · bravely · local use 1

Printed “bravely” (English; family).

Splendidly, with impressive outward display.

Here: The march’s banners, armour, plumes and colour explain the adverb. Martial setting alone does not make it simply courageous.

Context: Satirical description of volunteers approaching danger with triumphal pomp; Darius’s defeated army furnishes the comparison.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: marching bravely on

Modern rendering: They march splendidly onward

Alignment scope: Participial phrase recast as a finite clause in the paired modern body

Word and construction: Bravely supplies splendidly; marching... on supplies march... onward. They is supplied from the volunteers described in the surrounding sentence.

brave / bravery · brave · local use 3

Printed “brave” (English; family).

Fine or admirable, here ironical.

Here: The apparent praise mocks drinkers just compared unfavourably to wine casks.

Context: Burton rejects the social honour attached to drunkenness.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: yet these are brave men

Modern rendering: Yet these are fine fellows!

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “braver” (English; family).

Citation key: brave / bravery.

Here: The comparative braver means finer or more admirable; Silenus supplies a mocking standard for the drinkers, not a comparison of courage.

Context: Burton continues the irony and then reports the shame attached by drinking society to refusal.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Silenus Ebrius was no braver

Modern rendering: Drunken Silenus was no finer

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “brave examples” (English; family).

Citation key: brave / bravery.

Here: Brave means fine or admirable, ironically; examples are precedents invoked to excuse wrongdoing. The Plautus dialogue originally concerns a soldier’s lost arms.

Context: Burton reuses a comic exchange to expose supposed honour, not to approve drunken precedent.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so many brave examples

Modern rendering: so many fine examples

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · bravery

Printed “bravery” (English; family).

Finery: splendid dress or outward display.

Here: The noun makes another person’s clothes and display an object of resentment, beside happiness or good fortune.

Context: Burton’s sweeping, gendered account of envy; his Tacitus example is adapted beyond its original townspeople.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bravery

Modern rendering: finery

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · brave exploits

Printed “brave exploits” (English; family).

Heroic or distinguished deeds.

Here: Brave praises the deeds inspired by honourable rivalry, which Burton explicitly permits.

Context: A corrective qualification: not all ambition or emulation is condemned.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: brave exploits

Modern rendering: heroic deeds

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · brave · local use 4

Printed “brave” (English; family).

Fine, able or distinguished.

Here: The adjective applies to civil and learned accomplishment as well as soldiership; the point is the abundance of uncelebrated merit.

Context: Burton relativizes fame and repeats Brasidas’s mother’s acknowledgement of better men.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: brave Souldiers, Senators, Scholars

Modern rendering: fine soldiers, senators and scholars

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · brave array

Printed “brave array” (English; family).

Splendid clothing.

Here: Array is apparel; brave qualifies its magnificence. The drunken flatterer’s clothes contrast with the scholar’s rags.

Context: Burton’s English verse adaptation in a complaint about the rewards of scholarship.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: brave array

Modern rendering: splendid clothes

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

brave / bravery · bravely · local use 2

Printed “bravely” (English; family).

Admirably or nobly in conduct.

Here: The adverb praises Alexander’s restraint in refusing to look at Darius’s wife, expressly despite intemperance in other matters.

Context: Burton’s favourable example is limited to this conduct; belike makes the explanation of motive conjectural.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: he carryed himself bravely

Modern rendering: he behaved admirably

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.