Plausible

Use in the book

Burton’s counsel to friends begins with compassion. Kind words, encouraging promises and gentle persuasion should replace mockery, contempt, neglect and browbeating. The appeal to Lemnius makes pity central to the attempt to restore the sufferer: plausible means are means that the person can accept. Reduce here means bring back or restore, with health understood from the context. Yet the gentleness is explicitly to be used at first. The next paragraph reports medical authorities recommending threats, frightening, scolding and even whipping if mild approaches fail; a further alternative replaces one passion with another. These harsh historical prescriptions must remain visible beside the humane opening, without becoming advice for present treatment.

The adjective can describe pleasure that moves an audience. The plausible sermon in the discussion of divine beauty is a pleasing sermon: if created beauty and persuasive speech affect us so deeply, Burton asks, how much more powerful must God’s beauty be? The printed syntax around the sermon is unsettled, and the modern interpretation remains qualified. Music and promised entertainment likewise form a most plausible argument in Louis XI’s invitation to Edward IV. Here argument means an attractive inducement, particularly to the sensual man Burton imagines, rather than a proof. The source leaves one promised pleasure blank, and the edition does not fill it in.

Appeal can also produce error. Plausible gestures belong to the discussion of composed smiles and erotic attraction. Burton accuses some displays of deceit, but also says that lovers repeatedly mistake ordinary graciousness for a personal invitation. Their confidence does not establish another person’s desire. In the religious origin stories, declaring Flora goddess of flowers makes a holiday more plausible: the motive is public acceptance. The description of Flora as a rich prostitute and the political explanation of her festival remain Burton’s hostile account, not verified history.

The vocabulary of reasoning brings the modern sense of convincing appearance closer. The claim that relentless money-making proves the pleasure of wealth may seem plausible at first; Burton then demands closer examination and distinguishes wealth from covetousness. The argument’s initial appeal is not his final verdict. A more plausible cause to beg similarly means a more convincing reason for receiving alms in his account of alleged sham invalids. The allegation concerns some people under the pressure of want; his hostile early modern categories do not establish a general suspicion of disability or poverty.

Religious controversy makes the difference between persuasion and truth particularly sharp. Plausible wits are the ingenuity Burton accuses scholastic writers of using to defend errors. Plausible speeches, paired with terrifying threats, are attributed to confessors who allegedly play upon consciences for their own advantage. Both descriptions belong to his confessional polemic; the accompanying inference about the comparative frequency of despair is not demonstrated. In a different argumentative setting, universal grace is a plausible doctrine because it offers relief from torment over election and reprobation. Burton nevertheless warns that some go to the opposite extreme, reports competing positions and rejects a particular inference that would give the devil greater sovereignty. Attractive does not mean finally endorsed.

Related entries

Secure: Security and freedom from anxiety in the language of distress.

Comfort and consolation: The supportive speech surrounding agreeable means of restoration.

Confer and conference: Conversation and counsel.

Beauty: The sermon comparison and divine beauty.

Counterfeit: Feigned appearances and the qualification of allegations.

Courtship and wooing: Appealing gestures and mistaken interpretations.

Despair: The disputed theological explanations and remedies.

Places to read

1. Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraphs 38–40; Subsection 12. Love of Money. Covetousness as a Cause · paragraphs 1–3the apparent defence of acquiring wealth, its initial plausibility, and Burton’s reply distinguishing riches from covetousness.
2. Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 31–33plausible grounds for begging within attributed allegations of deception and the wider account of poverty’s pressures.
3. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh Methods Ingenious Devices Reassurance Changes in the Way of Life and Removal of Troubling Objects and So Forth · paragraphs 25–30; Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh Methods Ingenious Devices Reassurance Changes in the Way of Life and Removal of Troubling Objects and So Forth · paragraph 28; note 6213comfort and gentle means of restoration, followed by conditional harsh treatment and competing passions.
4. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraphs 20–23musical pleasure, Louis XI’s attractive invitation and the unfilled original dash.
5. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 35–41appealing gestures, mistaken lovers and the distinct Latin and English assertions about smiles.
6. Its Object, God; What His Beauty Is; How It Attracts. The Parts and People Affected · paragraphs 32–36; Its Object, God; What His Beauty Is; How It Attracts. The Parts and People Affected · paragraph 34; note 12000the pleasing sermon in the ascent from created to divine beauty, with unresolved surrounding syntax.
7. 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 4–8deification explained through social motives, with Flora’s festival made publicly acceptable at 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 · paragraph 6.
8. 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 5–12plausible ingenuity, controversial distinctions and Burton’s partisan history of religious reform.
9. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 17–19; Subsection 4 · paragraph 20; Symptoms of Despair: Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Anxiety, Horror of Conscience, Terrifying Dreams and Visions · paragraph 21persuasive speeches and threats attributed to confessors, followed by the transition to symptoms of despair.
10. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 1–15the appeal of universal grace, the warning about extremes, reported arguments, explicit objections and a bibliographical exit from the controversy.

In this edition

“all plausible means” → “every agreeable means” preserves the emphasis on how the approach is received. The larger construction by all plausible means to seek to reduce them becomes try by every agreeable means to bring them back to health: reduce supplies bring back, while to health makes the intended restoration explicit. The modern moves the means phrase after try, so the complete construction, not two arbitrarily clipped spans, carries the alignment.

Elsewhere plausible becomes pleasing for the sermon, appealing for gestures and the doctrine of universal grace, acceptable for the holy day, persuasive for speeches, and convincing for the reason to beg. In a most plausible argument it becomes highly attractive, while argument becomes inducement. The wealth argument retains plausible together with may seem and at first; those qualifications are essential. Plausible wits becomes plausible ingenuity, identifying an intellectual faculty rather than humorous sayings. The sermon’s noun phrase can be translated precisely even though the whole printed comparison remains grammatically unresolved.

Plausible · plausible · local use 1

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Pleasing, acceptable or agreeable to the person approached.

Here: The means of attempting to restore a distressed person are to be gentle and compassionate at first.

Context: Burton appeals to Lemnius against insult, mockery, neglect and contempt. The immediate continuation nevertheless reports roughness, threats and even whipping if mild methods fail; these are historical prescriptions, not present-day treatment instructions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all plausible means

Modern rendering: every agreeable means

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: All becomes every; plausible supplies agreeable, modifying means. The phrase concerns acceptable treatment, not the truth or probability of a statement.

Plausible · plausible · local use 2

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Pleasing or worthy of approval.

Here: A sermon’s power to move a hearer joins visible beauty as a comparison for the far greater attraction of divine beauty.

Context: Burton’s theological comparison. The printed clause and as a plausible sermon, he so much affect us is grammatically unsettled; the supplied modern interprets its apparent comparison without conclusively repairing the witness.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a plausible sermon

Modern rendering: a pleasing sermon

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible supplies pleasing and sermon remains sermon. This exact noun phrase is secure even though the surrounding clause requires an explicitly qualified sense rendering.

Qualification: The apparent meaning of the surrounding printed clause is adopted provisionally; its pronoun and syntax are unresolved.

Plausible · plausible · local use 3

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Persuasive or convincing on first appearance.

Here: An apparent defence of acquiring money is granted initial appeal and then rejected.

Context: Burton asks why people endure labour, travel and mining unless money affords pleasure, then answers that the claim seems convincing only until examined; riches and covetousness must be distinguished. His generalizations about melancholy and misers remain historical moral-medical claims.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: This may seem plausible at first shew

Modern rendering: This may seem plausible at first sight

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible is retained, while shew becomes sight. May seem and at first keep the provisional, appearance-based modality; Burton does not endorse the argument as true.

Plausible · plausible · local use 4

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Convincing or acceptable as a ground for a request.

Here: Alleged deceptive beggars seek a more credible reason for receiving alms.

Context: Burton claims poverty compels some people to feign illness or injure themselves. His hostile categories and uncollated Damhouder citation are reported allegations, not evidence that disabled people or beggars generally deceive. The continuation treats extreme want as a source of despair.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a more plausible cause to beg

Modern rendering: a more convincing reason to beg

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible becomes convincing, cause reason; more retains the comparison, and to beg states the application for which the reason is offered.

Plausible · plausible · local use 5

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Attractive or persuasive to the person being invited.

Here: Louis XI’s promised entertainment is presented as an inducement to Edward IV.

Context: Burton cites Commynes without a collated precise passage and adds that such an offer appeals to a sensual man. The original blank after he should have a remains unfilled; this record does not invent the omitted object.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a most plausible argument

Modern rendering: a highly attractive inducement

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Most supplies highly, plausible attractive, and argument here inducement rather than a logical proof.

Plausible · plausible · local use 6

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Appealing or inviting in appearance.

Here: Gestures and smiles can attract a lover, who may wrongly assume they are intended for him.

Context: Burton distinguishes ordinary smiling from composed or reciprocal smiles, alleges deception, and also recognizes the lover’s mistaken inference. The English verse adds deceptive intent beyond its Latin precursor; the passage does not establish consent from a smile.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: plausible gestures

Modern rendering: appealing gestures

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible supplies appealing, modifying gestures; no assertion of factual probability is involved.

Plausible · plausible · local use 7

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Acceptable or likely to gain public approval.

Here: Making Flora goddess of flowers is presented as a way to legitimize the celebration of her birthday.

Context: Burton’s hostile origin story describes Flora as a wealthy prostitute who left money to the commonwealth; it is not adopted as established history of the Floralia. The surrounding anecdotes similarly explain deification through political or personal motives.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a more plausible holiday

Modern rendering: a more acceptable holy day

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: More is retained; plausible becomes acceptable, holiday holy day. Approval concerns the celebration’s public character, not whether a day is likely to occur.

Plausible · plausible · local use 8

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Seemingly persuasive or speciously attractive.

Here: Scholastic ingenuity is accused of making doctrines and evasions appear defensible.

Context: Burton’s Protestant polemic attacks learned distinctions as deceptive and narrates the Reformation as purification. His religious classifications, numerical claims and attribution to Bale are not neutral historical judgments or independently verified motives.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: plausible wits

Modern rendering: plausible ingenuity

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible is retained; plural wits is rendered as the collective faculty ingenuity, not jokes.

Plausible · plausible · local use 9

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Persuasive or ingratiating.

Here: Confessors’ soothing speeches are paired with terrifying threats in an image of manipulating consciences.

Context: Burton polemically attributes these techniques to Catholic spiritual advisers and infers that despair should be less frequent among their followers. This is his unsupported comparative inference about illness, not an established finding.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: plausible speeches

Modern rendering: persuasive speeches

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible becomes persuasive; speeches remains speeches. The immediately coordinated threats supply a contrasting method, not another definition of the adjective.

Plausible · plausible · local use 10

Printed “plausible” (English; lemma).

Appealing or persuasive, without necessarily being judged true.

Here: Universal grace is presented as an attractive response to distress caused by disputes over election and reprobation.

Context: Burton attributes the revival to Arminians, groups other traditions with it, and immediately warns that some go to another extreme. The ensuing opinions are reported and contested: he explicitly rejects one inference about divine power and notes counterarguments, middle positions and opponents.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: that plausible doctrine of universall grace

Modern rendering: the appealing doctrine of universal grace

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Plausible supplies appealing; doctrine and universal grace retain their content. The change from that to the does not remove Burton’s qualification that some advocates go to another extreme.

Reduce

Printed “reduce” (English; lemma).

Bring back or restore.

Here: The people addressed are to be restored to health, as the modern text makes explicit.

Context: Burton’s counsel is to seek restoration, not a guarantee that gentle persuasion cures every sufferer. The conditional harsher sequel remains part of the historical argument.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by all plausible means to seek to reduce them

Modern rendering: try by every agreeable means to bring them back to health

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Seek supplies try, reduce bring back, them them; to health specifies the intended restored state from the medical context. By every agreeable means translates the preceding original by all plausible means, so the modern rearranges that adjunct within this construction.