From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The word“Obsession” here names demonic harassment or assault, especially pressure from outside; “possession” names a spirit’s occupation or control of a person.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe early catalogue includes obsession and possession among kinds of fury alongside visions, prophetic transports, poetic frenzy and conditions attributed to poisons.
- In this edition“Obsession or possession of devils” becomes “demonic harassment or possession” in the first catalogue.
- A place to readthe initial pair among settled conditions
Meaning
“Obsession” here names demonic harassment or assault, especially pressure from outside; “possession” names a spirit’s occupation or control of a person. Burton pairs them when discussing supposed demonic disorders. The first word does not mean a recurrent intrusive thought in the modern psychiatric sense. Yet the pair is not a perfectly enforced technical division throughout all his quotations: the Latin “obsessa” in the lettuce story is rendered “possessed,” corresponding to the English body’s “possessed.” The local construction and attributed account take priority over a universal rule inferred from the headwords.
“Dæmoniacall,” “demoniacal,” and “dæmoniaci” identify people, disorders or dreams regarded as demonic or possessed. They can occur in a reported diagnosis, a classification or a disputed explanation. “Possessed” can also be what a sufferer thinks about himself or what someone pretends: the word’s presence alone does not establish possession in the narrator’s voice.
Use in the book
The early catalogue includes obsession and possession among kinds of fury alongside visions, prophetic transports, poetic frenzy and conditions attributed to poisons. Burton has just described disagreement over the boundaries of madness and melancholy. When he reaches the demoniacal kind, “if I may so call it” qualifies his classification, and Plater and others supply the claim that it is preternatural. Extraordinary gestures, fasting, prophecy and unlearned languages are things said of those affected. Burton explicitly declines to repeat the disputed stories because authors have written on opposing sides. The word therefore enters the treatise through a contested classification, not a settled test for supernatural causation.
Other classifications broaden the adjective’s application. “Dæmoniacall” names one class of dreams, beside natural and divine dreams. In the astrological survey, “Dæmoniacal” appears among outcomes said commonly to attend specified planetary configurations. In the symptom debate, dæmoniacall persons belong among the proposed exceptions to universal fear and sorrow; Burton’s conclusion is that melancholy is usually, not always, fearful and sad. A later prognosis attributes to Montanus a conditional claim that people are often dæmoniacall when natural melancholy is scorched and excessive. These uses retain their differing objects, conditions and authorities.
In the causal survey, Burton does not make demons and humours mutually exclusive. An alleged demonic cause may act through black bile as an immediate bodily cause. A woman called dæmoniacall is reportedly cured by purging black choler; the humour is described as the Devil’s bath, a condition inviting his action. Burton then says he will not determine whether the mechanism is obsession, possession or something else. His uncertainty concerns the manner of the alleged action, not a categorical denial that supernatural agency is possible. The following exorcism stories are presented with polemical distrust, whereas further extraordinary cases are introduced as reports from physicians. Neither group becomes independently verified testimony by being included.
A separate sequence makes the sight of possession an object of fear. Seeing an allegedly possessed person can remain in the observer’s mind for days, alongside fears of illness learned from hearing or reading. Burton says that violent imagination often produces the feared effects. The observer’s fear of becoming similarly afflicted is distinct from the state attributed to the person observed.
The symptom discussion again differentiates voices. Avicenna’s followers attribute unlearned speech and prophecy to demons; Jason Pratensis permits demonic and melancholic conditions together. The continuation says most instead attribute these effects to the humour, and Montaltus is named as a firm defender of that account. Soon afterwards people are described as thinking that they converse with devils or are possessed. A neighbouring Latin attribution can still call such people generally demon-possessed. Those competing formulations must be kept visible rather than rewritten as one agreed medical or theological explanation.
Later Burton takes a more explicit side concerning the reported unlearned languages, prophecy and knowledge of unfamiliar subjects. Some authorities regard these as signs of possession and say only a priest can cure the sufferers. Others explain them wholly through disordered humour, appealing to purgative cures and the violent movement of physiological spirits. Burton then says “in this I should rather hold with Avicenna”: he prefers evil spirits taking advantage of corrupted humours, or other opportunities, to pervert the soul. “Balneum Diaboli,” literally the Devil’s bath, makes the humour an inviting condition for that action. This bounded authorial preference qualifies any impression of permanent neutrality; it neither resolves every manner of possession nor turns the preceding priest-only recommendation into his own universal rule. Physiological spirits in the rival mechanism remain distinct from the evil spirits he prefers here.
The vocabulary also exposes deception and distress. Friars are alleged to persuade women to counterfeit possession so they can gain access to them; the deception is part of Burton’s accusation. In religious polemic, possessions and obsessions appear among frightening stories used to govern consciences. Elsewhere the humour supplies the means by which evil spirits “get in as it were, and take possession of us”; the qualification marks the language of entry without cancelling the demonic account. The symptoms of despair describe sufferers who think themselves possessed, damned and abandoned. Reporting the content of that conviction does not confirm it.
His attack on saintly cures distinguishes another kind of alleged fabrication. He concedes that people described as mad and “dæmonicall” are brought to Padua, but questions whether they are really affected or prepared by priests with ointments and doses. His cited account of “pretended” possession accuses exorcists of seeking credit and money; its passive wording need not mean that every supposed sufferer consciously acts a part. The argument subsequently entertains even the supposition that the saints could help, before preferring appeal to Christ. In the religious survey, possession has a collective extension: some northern peoples are called “the Divels possession,” meaning claimed Satanic dominion rather than individual inward occupation. This is a hostile religious representation, not a verified description of those communities.
The closing counsel first permits natural causes for terrifying sights and then allows inward demonic possession by God’s permission. It immediately limits the Devil’s power and combines divine protection with medicine: mixed diseases require mixed remedies. Burton rejects the elaborate exorcisms prescribed for both haunted houses and possessed people, favouring simple reliance on Christ and prayer. The rejection of those rites is therefore distinct from rejecting every supernatural cause or every form of treatment. These are historical explanatory and devotional claims, not instructions for diagnosing present-day illness.
Related entries
Daemon and genius; Demonic apparitions; Incubus; Imagination; Madness; Ecstasy; Enthusiasm; Despair; Black bile and melancholy humour
Places to read
- Unnumbered First Partition synopsisthe initial pair among settled conditions
- · paragraph 20–24, 37–38rival classifications and Burton’s choice to omit disputed narratives
- · paragraph 20–22demonic dreams beside natural and divine kinds, within the sleep physiology
- · paragraph 15–26mediated bodily causation, uncertainty about mechanism, and contested reports; marginal note 2163 contains “obsessa”
- · paragraph 9–13demoniacal states in reported astrological predictions and the anticipated objection to biased judges
- · paragraph 24–27demoniacal persons among exceptions to universal fear and sorrow
- · paragraph 40–44feared possession, seeing others afflicted and the force of imagination
- · paragraph 23–29demonic, humoral and combined explanations, followed by sufferers’ perceived possession
- · paragraph 1–5rival accounts and Burton’s explicit preference for demonic action taking advantage of corrupted humours
- · paragraph 11–13Montanus’s conditional and qualified demoniacal prognosis
- · paragraph 21–25, 35–43saintly-cure claims, alleged preparation and pretended possession; the closing hypothetical concession
- · paragraph 70–74the allegation of feigned possession for sexual access
- · paragraph 7–10the polemical representation of northern peoples as Satan’s possession
- · paragraph 36–38obsession and possession in the manipulation of fear
- · paragraph 7–9the humour as instrument and the qualification “as it were”
- · paragraph 37–39possession and abandonment within sufferers’ beliefs
- possible causes, bounded power, mixed remedies and rejection of elaborate exorcisms
- Unnumbered Table“Possession of Divels 10”; the retained table number differs from the principal classification’s
In this edition
“Obsession or possession of devils” becomes “demonic harassment or possession” in the first catalogue. At the passage, “whether by obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not determine” becomes “whether this happens through external demonic assault, possession or some other means, I will not decide”: external spells out the distinction intended there, while this happens supplies the antecedent action. Neither phrasing removes the open third alternative.
“Dæmoniacall woman” becomes “possessed woman,” and “dæmoniaci” becomes “demon-possessed” within an attributed competing explanation. In the despair passage the modern column retains the governing “think” and later supplies “they believe” to keep the sufferer’s certainty distinct from narration. “Houses possessed with divels” remains “houses possessed by devils,” showing that the same occupation language extends to places. The supplied modern text and editorial translations inside notes are interpretive aids, not independent primary witnesses; no historical-source collation is claimed.
balneum diaboli
Printed “Balneum Diaboli” (Latin; phrase).
Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: Balneum Diaboli
Meaning: The Devil’s bath.
Here: The Devil’s bath: metaphor for humour that invites demonic seizure.
Context: Burton appends this metaphor to his preference for demonic action; the original immediately gives its own identical English gloss.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: the devil’s bath
Word and construction: Balneum supplies bath and Diaboli the possessive Devil’s; English the is supplied. This alignment refers to the first, quoted modern the devil’s bath, translating the Latin, followed separately by Burton’s identical English gloss.
demoniacal
Printed “demoniacal” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Called demonic or spirit-afflicted with an explicit reservation.
Context: Burton qualifies his classification and attributes preternatural status to Plater and others.
Source: original body
Source wording: demoniacal (if I may so call it) obsession or possession of devils
demoniacal · dæmoniacall woman
Printed “dæmoniacall woman” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
A woman described as possessed in a reported humoral cure.
Context: Galgerandus is said to cure her by purging black choler; the report combines supernatural labeling with bodily treatment.
Source: original body
Source wording: a dæmoniacall woman
demoniacal · Dæmoniacall
Printed “Dæmoniacall” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Demonic or attributed to demons.
Here: A class of dreams, contrasted with natural and divine dreams; the adjective does not itself diagnose a possessed person.
Context: Burton’s dream classification accompanies a physiological account of sleep and differences of humour, diet and circumstance.
Source: original body
Source wording: Natural, Divine, Dæmoniacall
demoniacal · Dæmoniacal
Printed “Dæmoniacal” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Demon-afflicted or possessed.
Here: One outcome assigned to specified astrological configurations in a reported predictive scheme.
Context: Garcæus and Leovitius are the named authorities; commonly restricts the assertion, and the surrounding configurations remain conditions. Burton next anticipates rejection of astrologers as partial judges.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: such persons are commonly Epileptick, dote, Dæmoniacal, Melancholy
Modern rendering: such people are commonly epileptic, deranged, demon-possessed or melancholy
Word and construction: Commonly remains explicit. Modern or joins the original comma-separated list; it is not an additional original word. Dæmoniacal is rendered demon-possessed within the reported scheme.
demoniacal · dæmoniacall persons
Printed “dæmoniacall persons” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: People classed as demonic or possessed.
Here: A group among the proposed exceptions to a universal combination of fear and sorrow in melancholy.
Context: The passage reports Hercules de Saxonia’s and Porta’s qualifications; Burton concludes usually, not always, sad and fearful. It does not assert all possessed people are uniformly cheerful.
Source: original body
Source wording: dæmoniacall persons, & such as speak strange languages, are of this ranke
demoniacal · dæmoniacall
Printed “dæmoniacall” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Demonic or possessed.
Here: A qualified prognostic outcome associated with an excessive scorched form of natural melancholy.
Context: The report is attributed to Montanus; both the specified humoral condition and often limit it.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: If it come from melancholy naturall adust, and in excess, they are often dæmoniacall, Montanus
Modern rendering: If it comes from natural melancholy that has been scorched, and in excess, they are often possessed by demons: Montanus
Word and construction: The original if-condition, excess and often are retained; possessed by demons unpacks dæmoniacall. Montanus remains the attribution, not the subject who becomes possessed.
demoniacal · dæmonicall persons
Printed “dæmonicall persons” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: People described as demonic or possessed; printed variant dæmonicall.
Here: Participants in alleged saintly cures whose actual condition Burton’s polemical account questions.
Context: Burton’s we concedes that such people are brought to Padua but doubts that they are truly affected, alleging priestly preparation with ointments and medicinal doses. The accusation is not an established case history.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: mad men and dæmonicall persons
Modern rendering: mad and demon-possessed people
Word and construction: Dæmonicall is the exact printed form. The two coordinated groups in the original are compressed into coordinated modifiers of people in the modern phrase; the wider question of genuine affliction remains separate.
demoniacus
Printed “dæmoniaci” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Dæmoniaci: demonic or possessed people, masculine plural substantival adjective.
Here: Demon-possessed according to one side of a disputed explanatory account.
Context: Avicenna and followers prefer the demonic attribution; Jason allows combination; the next unit gives the majority humoral alternative.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: rather dæmoniaci, possessed, then mad or melancholie, or both together
Modern rendering: “demon-possessed”—possessed rather than mad or melancholic, or both together
Word and construction: The indexed Latin plural is followed by Burton’s English possessed gloss. The modern preserves both by rendering the Latin as quoted demon-possessed and then repeating possessed. The surrounding comparison, including both together, belongs to the wider mixed-language phrase.
evil spirits
Printed “evil spirits” (English; phrase).
Demonic agents preferred by Burton for this particular group of alleged extraordinary symptoms.
Context: Explicit first-person preference, limited by in this; corrupted humours supply opportunities rather than excluding supernatural agency.
Source: original body
Source wording: in this I should rather hold with Avicenna and his associats, that such symptomes proceed from evil spirits
feigned possession
Printed “counterfeit themselves possessed” (English; phrase).
Pretend to be possessed, in the allegation of friars securing access to women.
Context: Burton’s attributed anticlerical accusation; the women’s alleged pretence and the friars’ persuasion are separate roles.
Source: original body
Source wording: the Friers perswaded the good wives to counterfeit themselves possessed
obsession and possession · Possession or obsession of Devils
Printed “Possession or obsession of Devils” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Source wording: Possession or obsession of Devils
Possession or external demonic harassment in the synopsis.
Context: Catalogue of historical settled conditions; not a contemporary diagnosis.
Source: original body
Locator qualification: Source record identifies these leaves as unnumbered; plain numerical passage labels are scan numbers.
obsession and possession · Obsession or possession of devils
Printed “Obsession or possession of devils” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Source wording: Obsession or possession of devils
Demonic harassment or occupation, listed among kinds of fury.
Context: Burton’s catalogue includes multiple attributed causes and states.
Source: original body
obsession and possession · obsession, or possession
Printed “obsession, or possession” (English; phrase).
Meaning: Obsession: demonic harassment or assault; possession: demonic occupation or control.
Here: Alternative mechanisms of demonic action which Burton declines to settle.
Context: Burton’s first-person refusal leaves the mechanism unresolved, including an explicit third alternative.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: whether by obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not determine
Modern rendering: whether this happens through external demonic assault, possession or some other means, I will not decide
Word and construction: External demonic assault explains obsession in this local contrast. This happens supplies the antecedent action omitted in the original fragment; otherwise remains a distinct open alternative, and I will not determine becomes I will not decide.
obsession and possession · possessions, obsessions
Printed “possessions, obsessions” (English; phrase).
Possession and demonic harassment among frightening stories used to influence consciences.
Context: Burton’s polemical account of religious manipulation, not independent verification of the episodes.
Source: original body
Source wording: possessions, obsessions, false miracles, counterfeit visions
obsideo
Printed “obsessa” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Obsessa: beset or besieged, feminine singular passive participle of obsidere; here demon-afflicted.
Here: Demon-afflicted, rendered possessed in the marginal Latin of the lettuce story.
Context: Quoted wording inside a story Burton distrusts; the English is editorial translation, demonstrating that the lexical division is not mechanically applied to Latin.
Source: original marginal quotation
Source wording, Original wording: sic à dæmone obsessa
Modern rendering: she was thus possessed by a demon
Word and construction: Sic supplies thus, à dæmone by a demon, and obsessa the feminine passive participle. The supplied note translation adds she was to complete the elliptical Latin. Possessed is its contextual interpretation, not a separate printed Latin word.
Alignment scope: Original marginal fragment and supplied editorial translation within the accompanying note
Edition note: checked against editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note; translation is not original evidence
possess · possessed · local use 1
Printed “possessed” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Occupied by spirits in the sufferers’ supposed experience.
Context: The preceding if it be extream restricts the case, and they think governs the reported perceptions. This is distinct from the subsequent Latin generalization attributed to Montaltus citing Avicenna.
Source: original body
Source wording: or that they are possessed by them, that some body talks to them, or within them
possess · take possession of us
Printed “take possession of us” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Occupation or control by evil spirits, coordinated with the qualified language of their getting in.
Context: Burton’s as it were qualifies entry in a humoral explanation of despair.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: those evil spirits get in as it were, and take possession of us
Modern rendering: those evil spirits seem to enter and take possession of us
Word and construction: As it were qualifies the language of spirits getting in; modern seem to enter renders that qualification. Take possession remains the coordinated action. The comparison should not be treated as Burton withdrawing every demonic claim.
possess · possessed · local use 2
Printed “possessed” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Supposedly spirit-occupied, within sufferers’ belief in their own damnation.
Context: The governing they think applies; narration reports the feared experience.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: that they are tormented, possessed, and in Hell Fire, already damned, quite forsaken of God
Modern rendering: and are tormented, possessed and already in hellfire, damned and utterly forsaken by God
Word and construction: The governing think remains in the surrounding sentence. Already immediately precedes damned in the original but is repositioned before in hellfire in the supplied rendering; the widened comparison records both clauses and does not hide that shift.
possess · possess us inwardly
Printed “possess us inwardly” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Inwardly occupy and torment, as a possibility under divine permission.
Context: May and God’s permission govern the possibility; the continuation limits power and allows medicine.
Source: original body
Source wording: he may so possess us inwardly to molest us
possess · possessed with the divel
Printed “possessed with the divel” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Devil-occupied in a diagnosis attributed to authorities citing unlearned abilities.
Context: Arculanus, Bodin and others hold the symptoms a manifest token; their priest-only cure claim remains attributed.
Source: original body
Source wording: such persons are possessed with the divel
possess · possessed · local use 3
Printed “possessed” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Meaning: Occupied or controlled by a spirit, as a condition attributed to someone seen.
Here: An alarming observed case becomes an object of the viewer’s prolonged fear and self-application.
Context: The viewers fear that they too will suffer; Burton says force of imagination often produces the feared effects. This is his historical causal claim, not independent proof of possession or modern clinical guidance.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: If they see one possessed, bewitched
Modern rendering: If they see someone possessed or bewitched
Word and construction: If governs seeing the supposed case. Modern or makes the original comma-separated alternatives explicit; the clause concerns an observed person, not an assertion that the viewer is already possessed.
possess · pretended to be possessed
Printed “pretended to be possessed” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: Presented or alleged to be possessed.
Here: The asserted condition of people in the cited exposé of exorcisms.
Context: Burton invokes Harsnett’s Declaration and calls the practices frauds for credit and money. The passive pretended does not by itself establish each alleged sufferer’s own conscious pretense.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: which were pretended to be possessed
Modern rendering: the people supposedly possessed
Word and construction: The modern people supplies the antecedent parties from the wider original sentence; supposedly renders the passive attribution, not necessarily personal acting by each person.
possession · houses possessed with divels
Printed “houses possessed with divels” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Houses described as occupied by devils, targets of the rites Burton criticizes.
Context: Prescribed exorcisms concern places and persons; Burton expressly rejects the elaborate rites.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: houses possessed with divels, as to dæmoniacal persons
Modern rendering: houses possessed by devils and for possessed people
Word and construction: Houses possessed with divels corresponds to houses possessed by devils; dæmoniacal persons separately becomes possessed people. Modern and for recasts original as to in the larger aswell...as coordination.
possession · the Divels possession
Printed “the Divels possession” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Meaning: Something or a people held under someone’s ownership or dominion.
Here: Collective religious subjection: northern peoples are represented as belonging to Satan in an outsider’s polemical account.
Context: The claim concerns some northern inhabitants, not an individual bodily diagnosis. The adjoining Latin is explicitly attributed to mine Author; the baptism-death allegation is linked to Boissard and remains unverified.
Source: original body
Source wording: the Divels possession to this day