From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA “character” can be an inscribed sign, a distinguishing mark, or a description of someone's characteristic conduct.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe preface promises a “brief character” of Democritus: a sketch of what sort of man he was, accompanied by an epitome of his life.
- In this edition“Characters” becomes “written symbols” in the imagination discussion and “inscribed signs” in the question about lawful cures.
- A place to readthe promised portrait of Democritus
Meaning
A “character” can be an inscribed sign, a distinguishing mark, or a description of someone's characteristic conduct. Burton's “characters” accordingly include magical symbols, recognizable symptoms, moral traits and literary portraits. The adjective “Characteristical” means bearing such signs when applied to talismanic images or seals. Its local force comes from what is marked or represented, not from a single magical sense governing every occurrence.
Use in the book
The preface promises a “brief character” of Democritus: a sketch of what sort of man he was, accompanied by an epitome of his life. Later Burton invokes Theophrastus's Characters as a model for writing that might help descendants correct their faults. The literary description becomes a moral instrument, although the next warning says a reader already suffering from melancholy can harm himself by applying general symptoms to his own case; Burton moves from advising avoidance to cautious reading, while recommending the rest for benefit. In the account of avarice, a “Character of a covetous man” supplies a concrete example: a man repeatedly checks his locked possessions despite his wife's assurances. The supplied note identifies the underlying Theophrastean sketch as Distrustfulness. Burton's heading and appropriation remain visible; the edition does not quietly rename his example.
The family includes the act of portrayal: Pliny “characterizeth” a discontented person who cannot accept anyone above him, before Seneca’s advancing offices illustrate the same insatiability. Burton also cites Hall “in Charact.” for envy’s living skeleton. A separate marginal reference names Pignorius’s “Ægypt characters” in a discussion of sacrifices; that short title supplies a reading reference, without establishing here the work’s full title or a detailed account of its signs.
Character can also concern the manner a person displays. The opportunist has a different “face, garb, & character” for everyone he meets, changing himself for advantage. This is an assumed presentation among the many roles Burton describes. The “characters of true Gentry” are, by contrast, marks of conduct such as courtesy and generosity, set against fine appearances in a coinage metaphor. The preceding argument allows good qualities to outweigh ancestry and status, then returns to the claim that good birth shows in conduct. The coinage comparison and conditional praise sit within that tension. His accompanying condemnation of peasants is Burton’s social prejudice, not an established account of a class’s character. The air digression similarly asks what produces a nation's distinctive character, canvasses environmental and celestial explanations, and explicitly calls the cited stellar explanation inadequate.
In the definition of melancholy, the “character of Mortality” is the mark of being mortal: nobody escapes the passing sorrow under discussion. This general claim must retain “in this sense,” which points to temporary melancholy rather than asserting that every person has the established disease. Medical “Characters” then mark particular conditions. Fear and sorrow are called the characters of most melancholy, “not all.” The later symptoms section first reports a universalizing medical maxim, then challenges it through exceptions: some sufferers are sad without fear, some fearful without sadness, some neither. Burton explicitly concludes that sufferers are usually, not always, sad and fearful. Sorrow’s subsequent designation as “the other Character” nevertheless resumes sweeping claims about all writers and all sufferers. Both the qualification and the renewed generalization belong to the account; the noun alone does not establish an exceptionless diagnostic test.
The material signs occur in another explanatory register. Witchcraft's alleged instruments include “characters stamped of sundry metals,” made under selected celestial configurations. They are signs made at those times, not pictures of constellations. The next paragraph denies that the spells, characters and unintelligible words possess power in themselves: the Devil supposedly employs them to deceive the practitioners. That agency claim is essential to the passage. Burton's assertion about demonic deception must be distinguished both from the preceding reports of afflicted patients and from a general definition of character.
The imagination discussion begins affirmatively: “We see commonly” such cures, including cures through characters. The weapon-salve claim is then disputed, while Burton’s following explanation denies intrinsic power to charms and assigns the effect to strong imagination and belief. The later treatment section separately asks whether the means work and whether they are lawful. It moves through rival opinions to assertions that famous cures occur daily and that such cures can be done, before rejecting the inference from efficacy to moral permission. Later still, Burton allows a change of mind about a natural amulet but immediately excludes medicines consisting of words, characters, spells and charms: any supposed good is assigned to powerful conviction or the Devil's contrivance. His distinction concerns the proposed agency and moral status of the remedy; it does not classify every object worn or tied on the body alike.
In love and jealousy, characters are alleged instruments for compelling affection, relieving enchantment or securing marital harmony. Erastus reports witches’ claims; Paracelsus supplies a conditional cause-and-cure requirement; astrologers propose sign-bearing images. The philter debate proceeds through contrary alleged cases, then distinguishes direct demonic action from the power of charms and from asserted natural causes, ending with a qualified comparison to legendary charms. Burton calls the love remedies unlawful, and the seal of Venus belongs to practices magicians “put upon us.” The technical adjectives describe the symbols carried by images or seals, while the surrounding verbs and judgements establish how far the claims are credited. In the religious-melancholy discussion, characters recur in a polemical catalogue of ceremonies and exorcisms that Burton rejects in favour of a simpler invocation.
Related entries
Fascination; Ligation and ligature; Amulet; Philter; Imagination; Fear; Sorrow; Astrology; Sympathy and antipathy
Places to read
- · paragraph 5–7the promised portrait of Democritus
- · paragraph 25–28Theophrastus's Characters and the intended benefits and risks of reading
- · paragraph 28–29an opportunist's changing character
- · paragraph 2–4passing melancholy as the mark of mortality
- · paragraph 11–13fear and sorrow characterize most, not all, melancholy
- · paragraph 53–55stamped signs and the subsequent denial of their intrinsic power
- · paragraph 26–34affirmed cure effects, disputed weapon salve and imagination as the explanation
- · paragraph 3–6Hall’s abbreviated Characters title and the portrait of envy
- · paragraph 16–18Burton's covetous man and the literary example's attribution
- · paragraph 22–29the qualified symptom account and sorrow's distinguishing mark
- · paragraph 34–DJR-68-5efficacy, lawfulness and the return to accepted medicine
- · paragraph 31–33national character and an inadequate stellar explanation
- · paragraph 8–16marks of gentility amid the coinage comparison and class polemic
- · paragraph 52–DJR-91-1characterizeth as portraying an insatiable complainer
- · paragraph 30–33natural amulet contrasted with verbal and inscribed charms
- · paragraph 23–28disputed compulsion of affection, followed by honourable love and its unforced graces
- · paragraph 1–19witches’ claims, contrary cases, competing agencies and the qualified comparison
- · paragraph 47–54prohibited love remedies and sign-bearing images
- · paragraph 9–11astrologically timed characteristical seal
- · paragraph 15–18the cited Ægypt characters in the sacrificial catalogue
- signs in Burton's criticism of elaborate exorcisms
In this edition
“Characters” becomes “written symbols” in the imagination discussion and “inscribed signs” in the question about lawful cures. “Characters stamped” appears as “signs stamped” in a longer construction specifying metal and timing. The words magical or inscribed clarify the context; they should not migrate into the diagnostic or literary senses. “Sorrow is the other Character” becomes “Sorrow is the other distinguishing mark,” while “character of Mortality” becomes “mark of mortality.”
The “brief character” is rendered through the verb “sketched” in a recast clause, not by a single interchangeable noun. Theophrastus's “characters” remains Characters as a title, and the opportunist's “character” remains character. “Characteristicall Images” becomes “images bearing magical signs”; “a Characteristical Seal” becomes “a seal bearing magical characters.” The expanded English makes the relationship explicit: image or seal is the object, and the characters are its signs. These are checked supplied-rendering choices, not an independent collation of Theophrastus or the cited magical authorities.
character · brief character
Printed “brief character” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Short descriptive portrait of a person.
Context: Burton announces the literary portrait that follows; modern recasts the noun as a verb.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: untill I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus
Modern rendering: until I have sketched this Democritus of ours
Word and construction: Set down a brief character is recast as have sketched; this is a whole verbal construction, not a noun-to-noun equivalence. Brief is not separately rendered as an adjective in this selected modern clause.
character · characters · local use 1
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
The literary sketches invoked as an example of morally useful writing.
Context: Burton invokes the transmitted proem; the attached note qualifies its attribution.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: as Theophrastus did by his characters
Modern rendering: Like Theophrastus with his Characters
Word and construction: Characters is a literary title. As...did by becomes Like...with in the recast English; this title use must not be confused with printed marginal Characteres or its editorial discussion.
character
Printed “character” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Assumed manner or persona adapted to an audience.
Context: The opportunist changes for advantage; several means different here.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: having a several face, garb, & character for every one he meets
Modern rendering: with a different face, manner, and character for everyone he meets
Word and construction: Several means different, having becomes with, and garb is rendered manner; character remains character as the adopted presentation. Every one preserves the original universal scope.
character · character of Mortality
Printed “character of Mortality” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Distinguishing mark of mortal life, referring specifically to passing melancholy.
Context: In this sense restricts the universal claim to the foregoing melancholy dispositions.
Source: original body
Source wording: Melancholy in this sense is the character of Mortality
character · Characters · local use 1
Printed “Characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Defining signs with an explicit exception to universality.
Context: Burton endorses Hercules de Saxonia’s exception: most, not all.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Fear and Sorrow are the true Characters, and inseparable companions of most Melancholy, not all
Modern rendering: Fear and sorrow are the defining marks and inseparable companions of most melancholy, though not all
Word and construction: True Characters is rendered defining marks. The qualifier most...not all is retained, with though supplied to make the contrast explicit; it governs the medical generalization rather than altering the noun’s dictionary meaning.
character · characters stamped
Printed “characters stamped” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: Signs or symbols that have been stamped.
Here: Symbols impressed on metals under selected constellations.
Context: Alleged magical instruments; the following unit denies power intrinsic to the signs.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: characters stamped of sundry metals, and at such and such constellations
Modern rendering: signs stamped on various metals under particular constellations
Word and construction: Characters stamped corresponds to signs stamped. Sundry metals supplies various metals; and at such and such constellations is rendered under particular constellations, specifying the chosen time/configuration rather than the pictured content of the signs.
character · characters · local use 2
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Magical signs denied inherent efficacy.
Context: Burton assigns the deceptive use to the Devil, rather than the signs themselves.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Not that there is any power at all in those spels, charmes, characters, and barbarous words
Modern rendering: It is not that these spells, charms, signs and barbarous words have any power in themselves
Word and construction: The governing Not that denies intrinsic power. The modern It is and in themselves complete or explicate that compressed construction; the later Devil’s agency is a distinct explanation, not a denial that anything occurs.
character · Characters · local use 2
Printed “Characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Written signs in Burton’s assertion of observed cures and the following dispute over mechanism.
Context: We see commonly affirms the reported effects in Burton’s expository voice. The explicitly opposed writers concern the weapon-salve claim; the next paragraph denies intrinsic power to charms and asserts imagination and belief as their explanation.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Spels, Words, Characters, and Charms
Modern rendering: spells, words, written symbols and charms
Word and construction: Characters becomes written symbols, with written an explicit contextual explanation. The other three items remain separate. The wider sentence’s We see commonly is not an interrogative or a neutral catalogue of others’ claims.
character · Character of a covetous man
Printed “Character of a covetous man” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Literary sketch used as an example of anxious avarice.
Context: Burton’s description of Theophrastus’s sketch; supplied note identifies its title as Distrustfulness.
Source: original body
Source wording: his Character of a covetous man
character · characters of melancholy
Printed “characters of melancholy” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Printed form, Source wording: characters of melancholy
Distinguishing signs in a reported medical maxim whose universality is challenged next.
Context: The initial maxim requires prolonged fear and sorrow; Burton endorses objections at058-24 and explicitly concludes usually, not always, at058-27, before continuing with further sweeping cited formulations.
Source: original body
character · Character
Printed “Character” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Distinguishing symptom in the qualified discussion of sorrow.
Context: Burton resumes sweeping language, including all writers witness and they all grieve, after the explicit usually-not-always conclusion at058-27. Both rhetorical levels remain visible; the noun is not an exceptionless diagnostic definition.
Source: original body
Source wording: Sorrow is the other Character
character · Characters · local use 3
Printed “Characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Inscribed magical signs in a question about efficacy and lawfulness.
Context: Interrogative catalogue, followed by a separate lawfulness question.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Charmes, Characters, Images
Modern rendering: charms, inscribed signs, images
Word and construction: Characters is rendered inscribed signs, with inscribed explaining the contextual kind of sign. The flanking charms and images remain separate means; their efficacy and lawfulness are separately questioned in the sentence.
character · distinct character
Printed “distinct character” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Supposed distinctive collective disposition.
Context: Question canvassing historical environmental and celestial explanations, not a verified population claim.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Whence proceed that variety of manners, and a distinct character (as it were) to severall nations?
Modern rendering: What produces that variety of customs and gives different nations a distinct character, so to speak?
Word and construction: The full question includes the original Whence proceed, expanded into What produces...and gives. As it were becomes so to speak. Gives is not a word contained in the indexed noun phrase distinct character.
character · characters of true Gentry
Printed “characters of true Gentry” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Recognizable moral qualities of gentility within a conditional contrast.
Context: If he retains these qualities; Burton’s ensuing class generalizations remain attributed prejudice.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: those ancient characters of true Gentry
Modern rendering: those ancient marks of true gentility
Word and construction: Characters becomes marks and Gentry gentility. Those ancient remains explicit; the if condition belongs to the surrounding sentence and limits the resulting praise.
character · characters · local use 3
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Magical inscriptions whose supposed effect is assigned to conviction or demonic contrivance.
Context: Burton rejects these remedies after distinguishing the claimed hidden natural powers of amulets.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: words, characters, spels, and charms
Modern rendering: words, signs, spells and charms
Word and construction: Characters becomes signs between separately rendered words, spells and charms. Strong conviction and the Devil’s contrivance are the stated possible sources of good in the surrounding exception, not independent powers of the signs.
character · characters · local use 4
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Magical symbols proposed as means of compelling love or hatred.
Context: A debate attributed to Tandler and others; next unit says honourable love cannot be forced.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: whether Love and Hatred may be compelled by philters or characters
Modern rendering: whether love and hatred can be compelled by love potions or magical symbols
Word and construction: Characters becomes magical symbols, with magical contextual. Whether and may/can preserve a debated capacity; love and hatred are the proposed objects, not merely love.
character · Charact.
Printed “Charact.” (English; lemma). Attestation: abbreviated title.
Meaning: Characters: an abbreviated title of literary portraits.
Here: Hall’s portrayal of envy as a living skeleton is another literary character used to explain a passion.
Context: Burton cites Hall after the lean carcass image. The exact Hall locator is not supplied, and the independent work has not been collated.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Hall in Charact.
Modern rendering: Hall, Characters
Word and construction: The supplied rendering expands the printed title abbreviation Charact. to Characters and omits the citation preposition in; it is a book title, not an additional magical sign.
character · characters · local use 5
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Distinctive dispositions or traits; plural.
Here: Collective differences allegedly produced by stellar arrangement, in the explanation Burton rejects.
Context: Scaliger is named at 074-10; Burton calls this explanation weak and insufficient, then argues from the failure of countries to change with the stars. Bodin’s different angelic explanation follows.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: to make diversity of countries, soils, maners, customs, characters and constitutions among us
Modern rendering: to create among us differences of countries, soils, manners, customs, characters, and constitutions
Word and construction: The full list keeps among us, moved earlier in the supplied rendering; characters is one item among countries, soils, manners, customs and constitutions. The rejected causal explanation is not the definition of the noun.
character · Characters · local use 4
Printed “Characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Inscribed signs or symbols; plural.
Here: Signs are alleged instruments of compelling affection or hatred and causing storms and diseases.
Context: Erastus reports what witches claim; the subsequent dispute distinguishes charms’ agency from the Devil’s direct action and from natural explanations. Neither the claim nor the magical signs’ efficacy is established merely by listing them.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: by Charms, Spels, Characters, Knots
Modern rendering: by charms, spells, magical signs and knots
Word and construction: Characters gives magical signs, with magical supplied from the context. Charms, Spels and Knots are distinct items; the preceding attributed take upon them governs the catalogue.
character · Characters · local use 5
Printed “Characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Inscribed signs or symbols; plural.
Here: Signs are prescribed as the required remedy under the premise of magical causation.
Context: The conditional and necessity belong to Paracelsus’s stated cause-and-cure argument. Burton has called the means unlawful at 139-48 and immediately repeats the prohibition at 139-50.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: If forced by Spels and Philters, saith Paracelsus, it must be eased by Characters
Modern rendering: If imposed by spells and love potions, says Paracelsus, it must be relieved by magical signs
Word and construction: Characters corresponds only to magical signs; if, forced, and must be eased separately supply the premise and required remedy. The thing imposed and relieved is understood from the love-cure discussion.
character · Ægypt characters
Printed “Ægypt characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: title phrase.
Meaning: Egyptian Characters: the cited short title as printed.
Here: A bibliographic use in a marginal reference for Egyptian sacrificial customs.
Context: Burton directs readers to chapter 1. The supplied passage does not establish the full original title or a detailed definition of the signs; no independent Pignoria collation or asserted magical effect is implied.
Source: original marginal quotation
Source wording, Original wording: Laurentius Pignorius his Ægypt characters
Modern rendering: Lorenzo Pignoria’s Egyptian Characters
Word and construction: The supplied wording modernizes the author’s name and renders Ægypt adjectivally as Egyptian. The phrase is a title in this citation, not a description of contemporary Egyptian people.
Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note
character · characters · local use 6
Printed “characters” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Inscribed signs or symbols; plural.
Here: Ritual signs are among the trappings Lemnius advises omitting in favour of simple invocation.
Context: The imperative advice is conditional on anyone attempting such a cure; Burton endorses Lemnius’s rejection of elaborate exorcisms and then calls Christ’s name alone the only charm.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: without all those jugling circumstances, Astrological elections of time, place, prodigious habits, fustian, big, sesquipedal words, spels, crosses, characters, which exorcists ordinarily use
Modern rendering: let him dispense with all those fraudulent trappings ordinarily used by exorcists: astrologically chosen times and places, outlandish costumes, bombast, grand words a foot and a half long, spells, crosses and magical signs
Word and construction: The whole negative instruction pairs without with let him dispense with, and keeps the reordered relative clause. Characters alone gives magical signs; the omission and the other trappings are supplied by separate words in the construction.
characteristical · Characteristicall Images
Printed “Characteristicall Images” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: Images bearing signs or characters.
Here: Images bearing magical signs.
Context: Astrologers’ proposed effect in a catalogue already labelled unlawful.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: by Characteristicall Images
Modern rendering: through images bearing magical signs
Word and construction: Characteristicall is expanded into bearing magical signs, with magical contextual; Images is separately images, and by becomes through. The image or figure bears the signs.
characteristical · Characteristical Seal
Printed “Characteristical Seal” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: A seal bearing signs or characters.
Here: Seal bearing magical symbols, made at an elected astrological time.
Context: Burton reports the proposal while calling such devices practices foisted upon us.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: a Characteristical Seal
Modern rendering: a seal bearing magical characters
Word and construction: Characteristical is expanded into bearing magical characters; Seal supplies seal and the indefinite article is already printed. The favourable Venus timing belongs to the following clause, not to the adjective’s definition.
characterize
Printed “characterizeth” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Describes or portrays; third-person singular present.
Here: The verb introduces a portrait of a discontented person whose desire for advancement never ends.
Context: The attribution is Pliny, followed by Seneca’s ladder of offices; the exact Pliny formulation remains unlocated. Burton uses the portrait within a consolatory response to envy of wealth.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: as Pliny characterizeth him
Modern rendering: as Pliny describes him
Word and construction: Pliny is the describing subject and him the person described. The verb describes a literary portrayal; it does not mean casting a charm or marking a patient.