Absolute

Use in the book

The writer’s defence begins from the impossibility of universal approval. Seneca himself has critics; Burton, scarcely his shadow, cannot expect exemption. “No man so absolute” means that no writer is perfect enough to satisfy all readers, unless long authority restrains criticism, and even that protection can fail. The Erasmus-associated margin is not verbally identical: Vix aliquis says scarcely anyone; alteri is another person; per omnia means in every respect. The body strengthens and redistributes those qualifications into no man and all.

A complete cure gives a positive use of the same idea of wholeness. Burton defends his undertaking as belonging to two professions: the clergyman’s object is the soul and the physician’s the body. Melancholy, as he describes it, is shared by both: a clergyman without medicine is insufficient, and the physician alone is insufficient “in some kinds of melancholy.” “Both make an absolute cure” completes the preceding “whole physician,” and the Latin line insists on mutual help. This is Burton’s historical medical-theological rationale, not a guarantee that combined treatment always succeeds; his ensuing self-description expressly says he studied medicine without intending to practise.

Human completeness is denied in the catalogue of impossible advantages. Samson’s hair, Milo’s strength, Solomon’s wisdom, Absalom’s beauty, Croesus’s wealth, eloquence, magical attributes and Nestor’s years would still not “make thee absolute.” The point is not that the list lacks one final possession: worldly contentment itself fails or cannot last. The ensuing fish-tailed woman and change from fair morning to gloomy afternoon enact that instability. Later consolation repeats it in the verse “There’s no perfection is so absolute,” followed by the claim that everything beneath the moon changes. The strength, wealth and fabulous powers are literary and inherited examples, not authenticated possessions.

The cure vocabulary also appears in claims made for particular remedies. Voschius promises a full and absolute cure of all diseases through European medicines; Burton supports the preference for local herbs but subsequently allows that imported plants might be stronger or more suitable and grown locally. Rulandus’s “absolute medicine” is a supposedly perfect remedy in a catalogue of celebrated preparations, beside the pointed “what not” about its extravagant names. The adjective describes claimed completeness or excellence; it does not certify safety or efficacy.

Love gives perfection several different owners. The charitable love of God and neighbour produces “true and absolute vertues,” accompanied by faith and hope; its margin has absolutas, perfect. In courtship satire, wealth makes the prospective wife “absolute and perfect” to mercenary suitors. In the account of biased attraction, borrowed eyes transform imperfections into perfection. The jealousy argument is explicit that even a woman not judged beautiful becomes absolute “in his conceit”: the husband projects his own admiration onto every other man. These are different appraisals, not a single authorial verdict about the women described.

The beauty discussion moves from complete form to its testing. Literary descriptions promise an “absolute feature,” perfect proportion through every member. The attempted cure then asks whether the beloved is an absolute form only in the lover’s eye. When an imagined objector insists that everyone agrees, Burton provisionally grants the perfection and asks how long it will last. Finally, facies absoluta and “an absolute face without fault” are said to be rare, not impossible. The accompanying disparagement of bodies and character is a rhetorical strategy of the historical love-cure argument. Divine “absolute beauty,” by contrast, belongs to an inexhaustible vision, of which present life offers only a glimpse.

The political distinction is clearest when Burton praises freedom from political worries. His contented private man does not trouble himself over whether monarchies should be mixed, temperate or absolute. The adjective opposes limited rule; the passage does not choose absolute government as the best constitution. More’s “absolute Utopian Common-wealth,” elsewhere invoked for music at everyone’s meals, instead means ideal or perfected. Superstition’s “absolute tyranny” transfers total domination into a polemical contrast with true religion’s easy yoke. Political power, ideal completeness and oppressive totality are related applications, but the context prevents their being treated as synonyms.

The adverb can mark the scope of an assertion rather than its emotional intensity. The Stoics “absolutely deny” free acts: their categorical denial is answered with Burton’s distinction between freedom relative to ourselves and necessity relative to God’s counsel. In the classification of passions, “absolutely joy and love” and “absolutely hate” identify the direct movements towards good or away from evil; the modern gives simply. In diet, “may not absolutely fast” forbids complete abstention alongside overeating. In theology, believers “absolutely believe” on grounds that do not amount to demonstration, while other writers refuse to “absolutely decree” the salvation of virtuous Gentiles. The presence of not and the identity of the speaker change the force.

Absolute reprobation first appears among terrifying conclusions that distressed readers construct from misunderstood Scripture. Burton challenges their certainty of rejection. The subsequent “Gods absolute decree” belongs to a doctrinal comparison excluding foreseen faith and works as grounds, with differences among churchmen still recorded. The next unit forbids deciding who is finally rejected or condemning oneself or others. Explaining unconditional determination must therefore not turn a sufferer’s fear into an established verdict. The nearby claim that divine goodness would not be absolute and perfect if unable to overcome all wickedness, serves consolation and is followed by patience with God’s timing.

Related entries

Just; Simple; Generous; Confession and absolution, including Absolve. Cure, especially Cure · cure · local use 3; Utopia, whose absolute already explains the absolute Utopian phrase; Form, especially form · local use 11 on the constructed fatal conclusions; Fasting, especially fast · local use 1; Complexion and temperament, whose temperate · local use 9 explains politically temperate; Envy, malice and hatred, whose hate covers the simply-hating clause. These are shared source contexts, not new unique occurrences. Beauty; Will and nill; Election and reprobation.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 18–21writerly perfection and the differently qualified Erasmus margin.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 19–24spiritual and bodily care in the complete cure.
3. Subsection 11. The Will · paragraphs 40–43categorical denial and Burton’s relational account of freedom.
4. Subsection 3. Classification of the Passions · paragraphs 1–5simply in the classification of passions.
5. Subsection 10. Discontents, Cares, Miseries and the Like as Causes · paragraphs 26–31exceptional advantages unable to secure completeness or lasting happiness.
6. Subsection 2. Diet Corrected in Quantity · paragraphs 2–6the prohibition on fasting altogether.
7. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraphs 18–22More’s perfected commonwealth and music.
8. Section 3 Member 1. Subsection 1 A Digression on Consolation, Containing Remedies for Every Kind of Discontent · paragraphs 10–14no perfection wholly free of impurity.
9. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 46–52mixed, limited and absolute government as worries escaped.
10. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraphs 38–42the claim for European remedies and its local qualifications.
11. Subsection 3 Preparatives and Purgatives · paragraphs 46–50Rulandus’s perfect remedy among celebrated preparations.
12. Member 3 Charity Combining All Three Kinds of Love Pleasant Profitable and Honourable · paragraphs 36–40; note 8476true and perfected virtues; Latin absolutas in the accompanying note.
13. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraphs 9–12complete form in bodily beauty.
14. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 2–5wealth-induced perfection in satire.
15. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 64–67the admirer’s transformed judgement.
16. 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 44–47perfection in the lover’s eye.
17. 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 20–30the imagined objection and the reply about impermanence.
18. 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 49–54rare faultless faces and the dissuasive catalogue.
19. Causes of Jealousy. Who Are Most Susceptible. Idleness, Melancholy, Impotence, Prolonged Absence, Beauty, Sexual Licence, Being Unfaithful Themselves. Temptations Arising From Time, Place and People; Mistreatment as a Cause · paragraphs 61–64perfection in the jealous husband’s imagination.
20. Its Object, God; What His Beauty Is; How It Attracts. The Parts and People Affected · paragraphs 41–45divine perfect beauty and present versus future vision.
21. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 33–37absolute tyranny in the attack on superstition.
22. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 24–27unqualified belief without demanding demonstration.
23. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 38–42complete goodness and patient consolation.
24. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 40–43self-condemning construction and its challenge.
25. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 12–20refusal to pronounce absolutely, doctrinal decree and restraint on judging persons.

In this edition

“Absolute cure” becomes “complete cure,” and “make thee absolute” becomes “make you complete”. These preserve the relation to wholeness and do not, in those passages, name unrestricted government or unconditional certainty. The wider family does include those other applications: monarchy remains absolute, while the Utopian adjective becomes ideal. The modern alternates complete, perfect and faultless in evaluative contexts, retaining the imagined observer’s qualifications rather than certifying perfection.

Phrase scope matters. “A most absolute form” becomes “a perfect beauty” or “a faultless figure”: absolute contributes perfect or faultless, not the whole noun phrase. “May not absolutely fast” becomes “must not fast altogether”: the modal construction states the prohibition and absolutely supplies altogether. In the passion classification absolutely becomes simply, not intensely. “will not absolutely decree it” becomes “will not pronounce on it absolutely,” preserving the refusal rather than supplying an absolute decision.

The Latin forms require their own grammar. Absolutus agrees with the indefinite person in the Erasmus margin; absolutas agrees with plural virtutes; absoluta agrees with singular facies. The marginal English translations are supplied editorial material, distinct from the quoted Latin, even where a note carries a Burton label. An accompanying note retains the printed longæ and explicitly leaves the exact external wording unchecked. The legendary catalogue’s the accompanying note likewise leaves Pases’s coin unverified and identifies “Perseus Pegasus” as Burton’s conjunction rather than silently repairing it.

absolute (complete or perfect)

Complete or perfected in its kind; lacking a relevant deficiency, as claimed, denied or attributed in the local context.

Grammar: English adjective, attributive or predicative; most absolute and so absolute are degree constructions.

Original text: “No man so absolute”. In the modern column: “No one is so perfect”. A writer perfect enough to escape every reader’s dissatisfaction. The assertion is attributed to Erasmus and qualified by the unstable protection of long authority. Absolute corresponds to perfect; the body’s no man differs from the margin’s scarcely anyone.

Original text: “both make an absolute cure”. In the modern column: “Together they make a complete cure”. Completeness requires the bodily and spiritual care assigned to the two professions. Burton’s historical defence of his subject, not a universal guarantee of recovery. Absolute contributes complete; both/Together identifies their cooperation.

Original text: “all this would not make thee absolute”. In the modern column: “none of this would make you complete”. A person still lacks secure and lasting contentment despite every imagined advantage. The catalogue is a rhetorical supposition, not a verified list of possessions. Make thee absolute becomes make you complete; the conditional and negation remain.

Original text: “his absolute Utopian Common-wealth”. In the modern column: “his ideal commonwealth of Utopia”. The imagined commonwealth is praised as ideal or perfected. The local practice is music at meals for all ranks, not unlimited political authority. Absolute supplies ideal; Utopian is recast as of Utopia.

Original text: “There’s no perfection is so absolute,”. In the modern column: “No perfection is so complete”. No earthly perfection is wholly without impurity. The following argument concerns change beneath the moon. Absolute becomes complete in a negative degree construction.

Original text: “a full cure, and absolute of all diseases”. In the modern column: “a complete and absolute cure of all diseases”. Completeness claimed for cures through European remedies. Voschius promises; Burton’s continuation admits possible superiority and local cultivation of imported plants. Absolute is retained; full becomes complete.

Original text: “his absolute medicine of 50 Egges”. In the modern column: “his perfect remedy of fifty eggs”. A preparation claimed to be an excellent or perfect remedy. Reported medicinal reputation, not established efficacy or advice. Absolute contributes perfect and medicine remedy.

Original text: “true and absolute vertues”. In the modern column: “true and perfect virtues”. Virtues brought to perfection by the true love described in the preceding units. Charitable love of God and neighbour is the subject, not erotic obsession. Absolute supplies perfect; virtues is the separate noun.

Original text: “fair, fine, absolute and perfect”. In the modern column: “beautiful, fine, complete and perfect”. Wealth makes the woman seem complete to mercenary suitors. Satirical valuation under if she be rich, not the narrator’s neutral description. Absolute corresponds to complete, preserving the separate perfect.

Original text: “she is a most absolute form in his eye at least”. In the modern column: “She is a perfect beauty, in his eyes at least”. Faultless appearance claimed from the lover’s viewpoint. A supposition immediately tested by asking whether others agree. The phrase form becomes beauty; absolute contributes perfect; in his eyes qualifies it.

Original text: “of a most absolute form in all mens opinions”. In the modern column: “with a faultless figure in everyone’s opinion”. Perfection alleged by the imagined objector on behalf of universal agreement. Burton provisionally grants the premise before asking how long beauty lasts. Absolute contributes faultless, form figure; the whole phrase is not a single-component gloss.

Original text: “seldom shall you finde an absolute face without fault”. In the modern column: “Seldom will you find a faultless face”. A face wholly without defect, said to be rare. The assertion serves an aggressively dissuasive catalogue, not a neutral standard of bodies. Absolute and without fault jointly become faultless; seldom is retained.

Original text: “in his conceit she is absolute”. In the modern column: “she is perfect in his imagination”. The jealous husband’s imagined perfection of his wife. Even if she is not beautiful governs this conditional account; it does not certify others’ desire. Absolute becomes perfect; the locating phrase preserves subjectivity.

Original text: “there is absolute beauty”. In the modern column: “there is perfect beauty”. Perfection of the divine vision rather than changeable earthly appearance. The next paragraph distinguishes a present glimpse from future full enjoyment. Absolute contributes perfect; beauty remains the noun.

Original text: “his goodness is not absolute and perfect”. In the modern column: “his goodness is not complete and perfect”. Complete goodness tested by ability to overcome wickedness. A conditional argument for divine mercy, followed by patience with God’s timing. Absolute becomes complete, distinct from the retained perfect.

absolute (government)

Unrestricted in governing power, opposed to a mixed or limited monarchy.

Grammar: English predicative adjective in a question about forms of monarchy.

Original text: “whether Monarchies should be mixt, temperate, or absolute”. In the modern column: “whether monarchies should be mixed, limited, or absolute”. A constitutional contrast, not a ruler’s bodily temperament. The contented man is said not to be troubled by the question; no preferred constitution is decided. Absolute remains absolute; temperate separately becomes limited.

absolute (decree and reprobation)

Unconditional or not dependent on the foreseen faith or works named in the doctrinal contrast; applied to a decree or rejection.

Grammar: English attributive adjective modifying decree or reprobation.

Original text: “absolute reprobation”. In the modern column: “absolute reprobation”. Unconditional rejection as conceived by the distressed interpreters. They construct terrifying conclusions from misread Scripture; Burton challenges their certainty. The phrase is retained unchanged; absolute qualifies reprobation, not the sufferers’ actual status.

Original text: “Gods absolute decree”. In the modern column: “God’s absolute decree”. The decree contrasted with foreseen faith, works and being passed over. Differences among theological positions are reported; the next unit forbids judging who is finally rejected. Absolute is retained, with its doctrinal contrast supplied by the complete sentence.

absolute tyranny

Thorough or total oppressive domination, here a metaphor for superstition’s burden.

Grammar: English adjective plus singular abstract noun phrase.

Original text: “an intolerable burden, an absolute tyranny”. In the modern column: “an intolerable burden, an absolute tyranny”. The condition called superstition is presented as an oppressive master. A polemical antithesis to true religion, not a neutral diagnosis of all religion. The phrase remains unchanged; tyranny, rather than absolute alone, supplies oppressive rule.

absolutely (categorically)

Without reservation or qualification in asserting, believing, denying or pronouncing.

Grammar: English adverb modifying deny, believe or decree; negation attaches to decree in the final attestation.

Original text: “the Stoicks absolutely deny it”. In the modern column: “The Stoics deny this absolutely”. Categorical denial of free acts in the reported Stoic position. Burton answers with relative freedom and divine necessity, not unqualified human independence. Absolutely retains categorical force, not a claim of perfect workmanship.

Original text: “we do absolutely believe it, and upon good reasons”. In the modern column: “We believe it absolutely, and on good grounds”. Unreserved assent in a defence of faith. Burton’s confessional we speaks here; the passage answers Julian’s charge of slavish belief. The adverb remains, while grounds are distinguished from certain demonstration.

Original text: “they will not absolutely decree it”. In the modern column: “they will not pronounce on it absolutely”. Refusal to decide the Gentiles’ salvation without qualification. The named intermediate writers allow may be not unworthy but do not declare salvation certain. Decree becomes pronounce; not remains attached to the decision.

absolutely (simply)

Simply or without adding a further qualification, in the classification of a basic response to a good or evil object.

Grammar: English adverb modifying the coordinated verbs joy and love, and separately hate.

Original text: “If evil, we absolutely hate it”. In the modern column: “If it is evil, we simply hate it”. The basic aversion to an evil object before the further present/future distinction. The later claim of harmful passion is conditional on excess, not every ordinary aversion. Absolutely aligns with simply; if it is supplies the original elliptical condition.

absolutely (altogether)

Wholly or completely, here describing total abstention from food.

Grammar: English adverb modifying fast inside the prohibition may not.

Original text: “so he may not absolutely fast”. In the modern column: “so he must not fast altogether”. Complete fasting is forbidden alongside overeating in this patient’s regimen. This is the local historical diet counsel; it does not govern every other purpose of fasting. Absolutely supplies altogether; may not becomes must not and fast remains separate.

absolutus

Perfect or complete; the Latin adjective in personal, moral and bodily appraisals.

Grammar: Latin adjective: absolutus masculine nominative singular; absolutas feminine accusative plural agreeing with virtutes; absoluta feminine nominative singular agreeing with facies.

Original margin: “Vix aliquis tam absolutus, ut alteri per omnia satisfaciat”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “Scarcely anyone is so perfect as to satisfy another in every respect”. A person’s perfection is qualified by scarcely anyone, another and every respect. Original marginal Latin attributed in the body to Erasmus; English translation and bibliographical caveat are editorial. Absolutus supplies perfect; the quoted sentence is a broader construction, not its one-word meaning.

Original margin: “Veras absolutas hæc parit virtutes”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “This produces true and perfect virtues”. The perfect virtues generated by charitable love. The original Latin quotation and supplied note translation are separate layers. Absolutas corresponds to perfect, veras to true, virtutes to virtues.

Original text: “Diligenter consideranti raro facies absoluta, & quæ vitio caret”. In the modern column: “To the careful observer, a perfect face, free from fault, is rare”. The perfect face is rare to a careful observer. Burton endorses the saying in a dissuasive account; the quantifier is rare, not never. Absoluta supplies perfect; facies face and raro rare.