Present

Use in the book

The imagined commonwealth combines formal notice with prompt appointment. “By these presents” parodies the language of a written declaration; “present possession” promises that a successful appointee will not wait to enter office. The promise remains conditional: he must be sufficiently qualified and as able as he is willing to perform the duties himself. Burton excludes deputies and patronage rights. This is different from the verb present meaning nominate to a church living, already explained in Church patronage, Present; nomination.

Immediacy can be threatening rather than helpful. An angry look or harsh word is “present death” to the dependent courtier: the hyperbole measures the force of unkindness and social dependence, not a literal death caused by every frown. The following Ovidian line concerns talent rising or falling with a patron’s expression; the supplied note preserves Burton’s altered pronoun rather than silently restoring Ovid’s wording.

“A present recovery” is what the sufferer desires, expressly if it can be obtained. Burton’s contrast between the ordinary desire for life and extreme melancholic suffering is rhetorical; the following absolute claim of incurability is not a clinical prognosis. Nor does wanting immediate help establish that it is available. Crato’s complaint about changing physicians turns on “not present ease”: failure to get relief at once supposedly leads to twenty physicians in succession. The universal accusation belongs to Crato. The continuation demands perseverance and warns against assuming that a remedy helpful to one person will help another.

The sexual-activity example carefully limits its beneficiaries. Moderate use is called an only help and a present remedy for some people, not everyone. The original margin clarifies the awkward English: anger is relieved, whereas reason is freed. Later objections admit the practice only under specified supposed causal conditions; other authorities restrict even moderate use, and Burton’s conclusion permits it only in some cases. Venery explains that historical debate. The lexical meaning immediate does not turn its efficacy claims into advice.

Scriptural reading supplies a present diverter, an immediate diversion of thought from worldly cares. The surrounding praise treats reading as restorative, but the preceding warning excludes excessive study and distinguishes kinds of readers. The sermon cited under Augustine’s name remains unauthenticated in the supplied apparatus. The independent word diverter is explained by Remedy by diversion, diverter; here present contributes the speed, not the means, of redirection.

Burton’s musical praise brings the effective sense into especially clear view: “none so present” becomes “none works so promptly,” and “a most present remedy” is followed by relief “in an instant.” Yet music may feed the fixation it is supposed to relieve, and the next paragraph says its effects differ. The assertion that Plato forbids music to all young men is qualified by the editorial comparison, not authenticated by repeating it. Consoling speech is similarly said to bring prompt relief and many times to suffice by itself, not always. Wine’s “more present remedy” likewise retains sober, moderate and timely use, followed by exclusions and a qualified may in the historical conclusion. The Table’s music label even points to music as cause and symptom as well as remedy.

Other constructions require no inference of rapid action. The current reader is opposed to the future reader; the classification of passions opposes present evil, which occasions sorrow, to future evil, which occasions fear. Outward senses, by contrast, take present objects, things at hand; imagination and memory can concern absent things. In the pastoral conclusion, “present affliction” means current suffering, but “He is present with his servants” means God’s accompanying presence. A temporary lack of felt grace is not made a reliable judgment of the sufferer’s lasting condition.

The temporal phrases also organize revision and consolation. Burton disapproves “at this present” of things written earlier; someone hated “in present” may later recover favour. Neither many disallowed things nor possible restoration becomes a claim about every work or every exile. Finally, “presented presently” separates delivery from timing: Lucretia says a suitor brought desired delicacies to her at once. The adverb does not mean merely at the current time, while the delivery verb is different from ecclesiastical nomination.

Related entries

Still: other temporal and continuing senses.

Prevent: acting beforehand and forestalling.

Prognostics: expected course and outcome.

Remedy by diversion, diverter: diverter.

Church patronage, Present; nomination: present as nominate.

Gifts and liberality: material gifts and strategic giving.

Music and harmony; Wine; Venery: qualified historical remedy claims.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 22–24the author’s now changed judgment.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 27–28present and future readers.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 39–41formal declaration and conditional immediate possession.
4. Subsection 6. The Sensitive Soul · paragraphs 3–5objects at hand for outward sensation.
5. Subsection 7. The Internal Senses · paragraphs 17–19absent objects of imagination and memory.
6. Subsection 3. Classification of the Passions · paragraphs 2–4present and future objects of passion.
7. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraphs 6–8courtly present death as hyperbole.
8. Section 4 Member 1 Prognosis of Melancholy · paragraphs 1–2desired immediate recovery, not a promised outcome.
9. Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraphs 34–38no immediate relief and the continuation on perseverance.
10. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraphs 1–7present remedy and restricted historical sexual regimen.
11. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 25–28scriptural reading as immediate diversion.
12. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraphs 1–3promptly effective remedies.
13. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraphs 24–26music’s explicitly differing effects.
14. Section 3 Member 1. Subsection 1 A Digression on Consolation, Containing Remedies for Every Kind of Discontent · paragraph 38consoling speech as prompt relief.
15. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 39–41in present and possible restoration.
16. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse the Remaining Matter and Improve the Temperament · paragraphs 19–20wine as more present remedy.
17. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse the Remaining Matter and Improve the Temperament · paragraph 40moderation, timing and Burton’s own abstinence.
18. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse the Remaining Matter and Improve the Temperament · paragraph 46the qualified constitutional conclusion.
19. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraphs 25–28presented presently in Lucretia’s story.
20. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 45–47for the present and lack of felt grace.
21. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 50–51current affliction and divine presence.
22. M · paragraph 34Table label for music’s several roles.

In this edition

The six central renderings distinguish syntax as well as sense: “present possession” becomes “take possession immediately”; “present death,” “instant death”; “a present recovery,” “an immediate recovery”; “present ease,” “immediate relief”; “a present remedy,” “an immediate remedy”; and “present diverter,” “an immediate diversion.” Present supplies the immediacy in each. Ease supplies relief; diverter supplies diversion, recast from a means noun. The promise, wish, negation, limited beneficiaries and rhetorical exaggeration remain in their surrounding sentences.

“None so present” becomes “none works so promptly”; “how present a remedy they yield” becomes “how promptly they bring relief.” “A most present remedy” becomes “a remedy of immediate effect,” without a separate English word for most. The following relief at once preserves the force of the praise. The current-time and presence senses are often retained as present; at this present and in present become now. “No feeling of grace for the present” becomes “a present absence of any feeling of grace,” changing an adverbial phrase into an adjective without making the absence permanent.

“By these presents” becomes “by this declaration,” not by these gifts. “It was presented presently to me” becomes “it was brought to me at once”: presented and presently have separate functions. The nomination sense at Church patronage, Present; nomination, is likewise distinct. The corpus also uses present for a material gift; Gifts and liberality supplies the wider giving context, rather than the immediate-effect sense of this article.

The supplied editor identifies the Jupiter quotation as Juvenal, Satire 10.188, not Persius as the original margin states; the printed attribution and the editorial correction remain distinct.

present: immediate or promptly effective

Occurring without delay, imminent in an urgent context, or acting at once; of a remedy, rapidly producing the claimed effect rather than simply existing now.

Grammar: English adjective, attributive in present possession, death, recovery, ease, remedy and diverter; predicative after so; modified by more or most.

Original text: “present possession”. In the modern column: “take possession immediately”. Appointment in the imagined commonwealth is to confer possession without delay. If the candidate is sufficiently qualified and able as well as willing to perform the duties governs the promise. Burton admits no deputies or patronage rights in this imagined polity. The noun phrase is recast into a verb phrase: possession gives take possession, present becomes immediately. Complementary earlier route: Church patronage. Church patronage already explains advousons in this same unit; the immediate-possession adjective is separate.

Original text: “present death”. In the modern column: “instant death”. An angry look from the powerful is represented as immediately devastating to a dependant. Especially limits the pointed application to courtiers and servants of great people. This is rhetorical exaggeration, not a literal case report. Present gives instant; death remains the hyperbolic result.

Original text: “a present recovery”. In the modern column: “an immediate recovery”. Ordinary sufferers are said to desire recovery without delay. The phrase is what people desire, if it can possibly be obtained, not a promise of cure. Burton’s ensuing contrast with melancholy is rhetorical; the accompanying note expressly rejects treating the following incurability claim as a clinical prognosis. The complete noun phrases align; present gives immediate. Complementary earlier route: Estate. Substance already records the wealth people would surrender in this same sentence; the desired speed is separate.

Original text: “they have not present ease”. In the modern column: “they get no immediate relief”. Failure to obtain prompt relief triggers repeated changes of physician in Crato’s accusation. All melancholy persons is Crato’s reported generalization. Twenty one after another means twenty physicians in succession, not twenty-one. The continuation requires patience and warns that one person’s remedy can harm another. Present gives immediate; ease gives relief; have not is preserved by get no. Complementary earlier route: Tax. Prior Tax record treats Crato’s accusation in this same unit, including the continuation.

Original text: “a present remedy”. In the modern column: “an immediate remedy”. Moderate sexual activity is called prompt help for some people. Some parties and moderately used restrict the opening; the later except/unless clauses restrict it further. An accompanying note uses the original margin to distinguish freeing reason from relieving anger. These are historical claims, not advice. Present gives immediate, not universally curative; the article and remedy are retained. Complementary earlier route: Venery. Exact earlier full Venus construction includes present remedy; this article makes the adjective’s force separately accessible without claiming a new occurrence.

Original text: “present diverter”. In the modern column: “an immediate diversion”. Scriptural reading is praised as a means of promptly turning thought from worldly cares. The preceding warning excludes illness from over-study and restricts the recommendation. An accompanying note does not authenticate the sermon attributed to Augustine. Present gives immediate; diverter names the means and becomes the abstract diversion; an is supplied.

Original text: “none so present”. In the modern column: “none works so promptly”. Burton ranks proposed ways of cheering the distressed by the speed of their effect. In my judgment marks Burton’s assertion. Music’s subsequent harmful exceptions prevent universalizing the opening praise. The predicative adjective is expanded into works so promptly; none and the degree comparison remain.

Original text: “a most present remedy”. In the modern column: “a remedy of immediate effect”. Music is represented as rapidly relieving specified states of distress. The preceding proviso excludes cases in which music causes or feeds the illness; the following paragraph says its effects differ. An accompanying note corrects the asserted blanket Platonic prohibition of music. Present becomes of immediate effect; the supplied rendering does not separately reproduce most, whose emphasis is reinforced by the following relief at once. Complementary earlier route: Music and harmony. Music and harmony already treats the exception and this surrounding praise.

Original text: “how present a remedy they yield”. In the modern column: “how promptly they bring relief”. Consoling words and good counsel are said to give prompt relief. Many times, rather than invariably, qualifies the additional claim that counsel alone is sufficient; the phrase introduces Burton’s collection of consolatory speeches. The adjective becomes promptly and remedy becomes relief in a verbal construction.

Original text: “a more present remedy”. In the modern column: “more immediate remedy”. Wine is ranked as a promptly acting cordial and alterative. If used soberly and at the right time and if moderately taken are essential. The later conclusion excludes hot conditions and allows only that sober use may help cold melancholy; these historical categories are not modern treatment directions. The comparative more remains; present gives immediate. Complementary earlier route: Wine. Wine already records this claim and its later restrictions; the adjective’s lexical force is the additional focus.

Original Table: “Musick a present remedy for mel.” In the modern column: “Music as an immediate remedy for melancholy”. The Table labels the music discussion by its claimed speed of relief. This unnumbered Table label points to pages elsewhere; its multiple references also include music as symptom and cause, not only as cure. Present gives immediate; mel. expands to melancholy; as an completes the compressed heading.

present: current

Existing or belonging to the time under discussion, as distinct from the future; not necessarily instantaneous.

Grammar: English adjective, attributive in present Reader and present affliction, predicative in if present.

Original text: “my present, or future Reader”. In the modern column: “my present or future reader”. Burton addresses readers now and later in a warning about applying general symptoms to oneself. The warning applies to the reader who is actually melancholy; it must not become a claim that reading is harmful to every reader. The adjective remains present and contrasts with future; or retains the alternatives.

Original text: “if present, it is Sorrow; if to come Fear”. In the modern column: “if present, it brings sorrow; if still to come, fear”. In the classification of passions, existing evil occasions sorrow and future evil fear. If evil in the preceding clause supplies the object’s valuation. The unit allows competing four- and six-passion schemes and attributes melancholy to excess rather than all passion. Present remains present; still to come explains to come. It brings makes the relation explicit.

Original text: “your present affliction”. In the modern column: “your present affliction”. The current affliction is contrasted with the comfort and glory to come. This is pastoral reassurance, not an independently guaranteed medical timeline; the later present with in the same unit has the presence sense. Present is retained as a current-time adjective.

present: at hand or with someone

At hand, accessible to perception, or accompanying someone rather than absent.

Grammar: English predicative adjective; present of objects, and present with followed by the persons accompanied.

Original text: “outward things only, & such as are present”. In the modern column: “only external things that are present”. The historical account limits outward sensation to external objects at hand. Only restricts the claimed sensory field; this is an account of external senses, not a statement about imagination and memory, whose objects can be absent. The adjective stays present; the next comparison explains availability by the eye’s object being within reach.

Original text: “He is present with his servants in their affliction”. In the modern column: “He is present with his servants in their affliction”. God’s presence accompanies servants in suffering in the Psalm-based consolation. A theological assurance distinct from the current affliction earlier in the paragraph; the source cites Psalm 91:15. Present with retains accompaniment; He refers to God, not the physician or reader.

at this present; in present; for the present

At the current time or for the time being, in adverbial temporal phrases.

Grammar: Prepositional phrases using substantival present; at this present and in present mean now, while for the present marks a current, potentially temporary state.

Original text: “many things I disallow at this present”. In the modern column: “many things in the substance itself that I now disapprove of”. The author’s present judgment differs from his judgment when writing. Many is not all; willing retraction is reported but not performed in this sentence. At this present becomes now; the selected modern span also includes in the substance itself from the earlier original clause, so it is contextual rather than word-for-word equal scope.

Original text: “he that is odious in present”. In the modern column: “Someone who is now hated”. Current unpopularity can give way to welcome. May, not will, governs the possible restoration; Cicero and Alcibiades are examples, not a guarantee of lasting prosperity. In present gives now; odious gives hated and he that becomes someone who.

Original text: “no feeling of grace for the present”. In the modern column: “a present absence of any feeling of grace”. Current lack of felt assurance is rejected as a reliable guide. Burton distinguishes feeling from faith, urges waiting, and does not equate an unfelt grace with grace permanently absent. The adverbial phrase is recast as adjective present modifying absence; no feeling becomes absence of any feeling.

these presents

The present written declaration or instrument, in a formal announcement formula.

Grammar: Plural substantival noun presents after demonstrative these, object of by; not the noun meaning gifts.

Original text: “be it known to all men by these presents”. In the modern column: “let all men know by this declaration”. Burton playfully issues a formal notice for his imaginary venture and office appointments. This is a parody of subscription or venture language, not an actual legal instrument establishing the commonwealth. The offered share and office are conditional. The passive formal announcement becomes an active injunction; plural presents is rendered singular declaration.

presently

At once, immediately or without delay in the selected construction.

Grammar: English adverb presently modifying the passive verb was presented.

Original text: “it was presented presently to me”. In the modern column: “it was brought to me at once”. Lucretia claims her suitor brought any desired delicacy without delay. This is a literary speaker’s boast attributed to Aretino, including conditional and exaggerated claims, not Burton’s own shopping or a verified history. Presently gives at once; presented separately supplies brought, with to me retaining the recipient.

Earlier explanation: present · context 1

Earlier explanation: Present; nomination

For present, the passage, see Church patronage.

Reference scope: Exact prior nomination verb, with patrons as agents and candidates as objects.

Earlier explanation: diverter

Earlier explanation: diverter

For diverter, see Remedy by diversion.

Reference scope: Exact prior means-of-redirection noun; present alone contributes immediate.

Earlier explanation: present · context 2

Earlier explanation: gift · gifts · local use 3

For present, see Gifts and liberality.

Reference scope: Semantic access route to the existing material-gift record and its adjacent context, not an assertion that its printed headword gifts is another present attestation.