Proper

Use in the book

A handsome man can be readily recognized and pointed out, while learning takes time to obtain and recognize. Burton places “a proper man” among visible or readily named advantages in defending the difficulty of scholarship. The edition identifies his adaptation of Seneca: the located passage contrasts the cost of learned distinction with goodness, while Burton’s added costly clothes, curled hair and scent have a separate unresolved source. The bodily adjective itself certifies neither virtue nor intellectual achievement. Cymon provides a sharp demonstration: he is “a proper man of person” while still called a fool; manners and accomplishments come later in Burton’s compressed tale. The note restores the violent sequel that his “valorous exploits” conceals.

The superlative “properest” reinforces bodily handsomeness in Burton’s claim that ancient peoples elected their best-looking man as king. The attached evidence supports beauty among several Ethiopian qualifications, not his wider assertions about Indians and Persians; the ensuing Spartan anecdote also carries corrections. By contrast, “a proper man” in the praise of eloquence means a fine or accomplished speaker. Burton expressly says speech alone can attract listeners, so this use cannot be reduced to physical looks.

Loyola’s “propernes of person” likewise belongs among worldly bodily advantages. After injury makes him less useful in warfare and court service, Burton says his turn to devotion gains more honour than sound limbs and handsome appearance would have gained. The surrounding consolatory examples oppose unattractive or impaired bodies to distinguished minds. The contrast is Burton’s argument about worth; his abbreviated biographical sources are not all independently identified by the edition.

Suitability and belonging are already distinct in the defence of writing about melancholy. Bodily physicians apply “proper remedies”, appropriate to their diseases, while the mixed subject is “proper to them both”, pertaining to medicine and divinity together. Burton consequently claims an interest as a clergyman with medical inclinations, but expressly says he has studied theory without intending to practise. Belonging to a professional sphere does not itself confer a qualification or imply exclusive jurisdiction.

Medical classification supplies several other constructions. A “proper kinde of melancholy” is a distinct subtype in the historical account of retained discharges, not a good or handsome form of illness. Burton then urges compassion for conditions he presents as harder to avoid. The brain’s “proper affection” is its own disorder, set against disturbance communicated by sympathy from other parts; affection here means disorder. Neighbouring authorities disagree about heat and cold as causes, so the grammatical distinction should not be mistaken for a verified causal theory.

The remedy subsection returns to suitability: simples are “proper to” melancholy, and medicines are “properly applied” when used appropriately. A locality’s “proper remedies”, however, are its own remedies, in the attributed claim that nature supplies treatments fitted to local illnesses. “Our proper and domestick Physick” likewise means our own domestic medicines. Burton’s following conditional matters: if local substances are less powerful or suitable, perhaps imported medicinal plants can be cultivated locally. The vocabulary of local belonging does not establish native remedies’ universal superiority.

The plants’ “proper colours” supply a visual form of belonging: their own or natural colours, reproduced in a carefully engraved herbal. Burton’s praise of lifelike illustration is the immediate context, rather than therapeutic suitability.

In the preface, “properly or improperly” means strictly or loosely: Burton’s sweeping “tis all one” extends his argument across literal illness and figurative folly, rather than offering a clinical classification. Two technical uses concern classification rather than appearances. The jealousy synopsis contrasts “Proper” with “Improper”: strict erotic or marital jealousy is distinguished from extended uses concerning rulers, parents, friends and animals. This is not a contrast between morally good and bad jealousy. “Proper passion” names a characteristic property in the traditional logical example of human laughter; passion here is an attribute, not an emotion. Burton uses that example to separate ordinary smiling from contrived or misread erotic signals. The earlier “proper passion of Nobility”, attributed to Gordon, uses proper for characteristic but passion for the erotic affliction itself. It does not make that disease a logical property of every noble person: Burton’s sequence invokes conditional judgment and imagination, an almost in Savonarola’s accusation against religious orders, and then well-fed idlers of any station. Finally, his jealous lover’s wish to have another person “proper to himself only” makes the possessive sense explicitly exclusive. It describes the outlook being analysed, rather than granting ownership of another person.

Related entries

Honest: Bodily beauty should not be confused with honest or honourable character.

Complement: Cymon’s acquired social polish is distinct from his handsome appearance.

Matrix and mother: The anatomical and reproductive setting of the distinct medical subtype.

Physick: Appropriate remedies and the argument about medical practice.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 19–23appropriate remedies, the subject belonging to both professions, and Burton’s disclaimer of medical practice.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 7–9strict and loose senses in the prefatory assertion that melancholy or folly touches everyone.
3. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 6–10scholarly ability and labour contrasted with readily identified bodily and social advantages; see the qualified Seneca attribution.
4. Member 5 Subsection 1 Immediate, Internal, Antecedent and Proximate Causes, and How the Body Acts Upon the Mind · paragraphs 56–59; Subsection 2. Disorders of Particular Parts as Causes · paragraph 1retained discharges as the historical explanation of a distinct subtype, followed by compassion and the next anatomical heading.
5. Subsection 2. Disorders of Particular Parts as Causes · paragraphs 5–7competing organ explanations and the brain’s own disorder contrasted with physiological sympathy.
6. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 5–7illustrated travels, herbals and animals; plants depicted in their own natural colours.
7. Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 44, 1–2appearance and intellectual worth; Loyola’s handsome appearance within the consolatory argument after injury.
8. Member 1 Subsection 1 Medical Treatment by Medicines · paragraph 28; Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraphs 29–34therapeutic suitability, classification, and the attributed claim that each place has its own remedies.
9. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraphs 40–42preference for domestic medicines qualified by possible cultivation of imported plants.
10. ♉ Jealousy. Section 3 · paragraphs 16–18strict and extended senses of jealousy, not moral approval and disapproval.
11. Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraphs 26–28attracting qualities of body and mind, with the fine or accomplished speaker distinguished from bodily looks.
12. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, and So Forth · paragraphs 41–43the attributed characteristic affliction of nobles, conditional causal claims and the extension to other social stations.
13. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraphs 21–23the handsomest ruler claim and the editorial limits on its historical evidence.
14. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 34–36the logical property of laughter and the risk of reading ordinary smiles as invitation.
15. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 65–67; Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 1Cymon’s looks distinguished from acquired manners; note the compressed violent sequel.
16. Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds; Among Rulers, Parents and Friends; in Animals and Human Beings; Before Marriage, as Rivals, or Afterwards, as Discussed Here · paragraphs 8–10jealousy’s possessive demand for exclusive enjoyment and the related attributed definitions.

In this edition

The inherited pairs remain “a proper man” → “a handsome man” and “propernes of person” → “handsome appearance”. The second translates the noun of comeliness and the bodily qualification together. “A proper man of person” similarly becomes “a handsome man in person” in Cymon’s story.

Other constructions require other equivalents: “proper remedies” → “appropriate remedies”; “a proper kinde” contributes “a distinct kind”; “his proper affection” → “its own particular disorder”. “Proper to this humor” is “suited to this humour”, whereas “his proper remedies” in the geographical argument is “its own remedies”. “Proper” in the synopsis is “in the strict sense”, and “proper passion of a man” contributes “an attribute peculiar to human beings”.

Where the translation makes a pronoun’s antecedent explicit, that supply belongs to the whole construction. “Tis proper to them both” becomes “this subject belongs to both professions”, expanding it and them from the preceding discussion. “To have it proper to himself only” becomes “to have that person exclusively to himself”: proper and only jointly express exclusiveness, while that person supplies the antecedent of it. Neither phrase should be presented as a word-for-word equivalent of proper alone.

proper · local use 1

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Suitable or appropriate to the condition treated.

Here: Proper qualifies the remedies’ fitness for bodily diseases; it does not name the physician’s ownership of them.

Context: Burton’s comparison of medical and spiritual professions in defending his subject.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: proper remedies

Modern rendering: appropriate remedies

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · local use 2

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Belonging or pertaining to a person or field.

Here: Them both means clergy and physicians. Proper here allows shared relevance, not exclusive possession by one profession; this subject is explicit modern supply for the original pronoun.

Context: Burton defends his mixed subject while disclaiming an intention to practise medicine.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: tis proper to them both

Modern rendering: this subject belongs to both professions

Alignment scope: Complete predicative construction with contextual nouns supplied for the original pronouns

Word and construction: Proper to contributes belongs to; them both is expanded to both professions, and it to this subject, from the preceding discussion.

proper · local use 3

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Handsome or well-formed in bodily appearance.

Here: The handsome person can readily be pointed out, unlike the learned person whose distinction requires time and effort.

Context: Burton adapts Seneca to his argument about the rarity and cost of learning; the added dress details are not all in the located Seneca passage.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a proper man

Modern rendering: a handsome man

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Citation key: proper.

Here: Proper means handsome, and of person makes bodily appearance explicit. Cymon’s good looks coexist with the foolishness Burton initially assigns him; social graces are acquired later.

Context: Burton’s summary of Boccaccio, whose violent sequel is compressed into valorous exploits in the continuation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a proper man of person

Modern rendering: a handsome man in person

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “properest” (English; lemma).

Citation key: proper.

Here: Properest is the superlative handsome; man of person expressly concerns bodily appearance. The whole phrase supplies the field of comparison within the country.

Context: Burton claims ancient peoples chose rulers for looks; the editorial Strabo comparison gives beauty among several qualifications and does not substantiate his generalization to Indians and Persians.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the properest man of person the country could afford

Modern rendering: The handsomest man the country could offer

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · local use 4

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Distinct or particular, marking a kind.

Here: Proper distinguishes a subtype in the historical reproductive explanation associated with older unmarried women, nuns and widows. It is not praise of the condition or a reference to beauty.

Context: Burton’s historical account of stopped discharges, attributed to medical writers and followed by an appeal for compassion.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a proper kinde of melancholy

Modern rendering: a distinct kind of melancholy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · proper affection

Printed “proper affection” (English; lemma).

An organ’s own disorder, originating in itself.

Here: His refers to the brain, and affection means disorder. Proper distinguishes direct disturbance from physiological sympathy with another part.

Context: Burton reports competing historical explanations of brain disorder, not a settled present-day mechanism.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: his proper affection

Modern rendering: its own particular disorder

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · local use 5

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Suited or specifically applicable to a humour or disease.

Here: The phrase belongs to the classification of simples and compounds. It states historical therapeutic applicability, not independently verified efficacy.

Context: Burton’s humoral classification of medicines, after qualifying warnings about untimely or excessive purging.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: proper to this humor

Modern rendering: suited to this humour

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “properly” (English; lemma).

Citation key: properly.

Here: Properly means appropriately; applied to means used against in the therapeutic construction. The adverb qualifies use, not ownership or bodily appearance.

Context: Burton introduces his historical categories of remedies.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Medicines properly applied to Melancholy

Modern rendering: Medicines appropriately used against melancholy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Citation key: proper.

Here: Proper to means suited to; simples means single medicinal substances, rendered simple remedies in the heading.

Context: Burton’s subsection heading introduces the classified remedies and opposition to imported substances.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Simples proper to Melancholy

Modern rendering: Simple remedies suited to melancholy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · local use 6

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

One’s own; belonging to the particular person, place or thing.

Here: His refers to each place, and proper supplies own. The surrounding claim says these local remedies almost suit the prevailing local illnesses; it is attributed to some.

Context: Burton reports a providential or natural-provision argument, not an established rule of plant distribution.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: his proper remedies

Modern rendering: its own remedies

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Citation key: proper.

Here: Proper supplies own; domestick marks domestic or native origin; Physick means medicines. The next paragraph allows that imported plants might be grown locally if native remedies prove less suitable.

Context: Burton reports advocates of domestic medicines and then conditionally qualifies their preference.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: our proper and domestick Physick

Modern rendering: our own domestic medicines

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Citation key: proper.

Here: The colours belonging to the plants themselves, reproduced by the herbal’s pictures. Proper supplies natural or the objects’ own, rather than suitable for a medical condition.

Context: Burton praises illustrated herbals and describes Besler’s plant sizes; his general claim of accurate representation is not an independent audit of all works.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: their proper colours

Modern rendering: their natural colours

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · Proper

Printed “Proper” (English; lemma).

Strict or primary in meaning, opposed to extended usage.

Here: Proper classifies the word jealousy’s marital/erotic sense; it does not approve the conduct. Improper in the same outline labels extended cases involving rulers, parents and others.

Context: The Third Partition synopsis distinguishes meanings, before and after marriage.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: or Proper Before marriage

Modern rendering: Or in the strict sense: Before marriage

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Further local use

Printed “properly” (English; lemma).

Citation key: properly.

Here: Properly supplies strictly, improperly loosely, and or keeps the alternatives. This is a question of how broadly melancholy is being used, not whether the term is used appropriately in the therapeutic sense.

Context: Burton’s prefatory claim embraces literal illness and figurative folly; tis all one announces the reach of his satirical argument rather than equating medical classifications.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: properly or improperly

Modern rendering: strictly or loosely

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · proper passion

Printed “proper passion” (English; lemma).

A characteristic property, in a traditional logical expression.

Here: Passion here means attribute, not an emotion; proper marks a property held to be characteristic of human beings. The example is the capacity for laughter.

Context: Burton invokes the traditional logical example while distinguishing ordinary smiling from affected or misinterpreted erotic signals.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the proper passion of a man

Modern rendering: an attribute peculiar to human beings

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

proper · local use 7

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Exclusively one’s own.

Here: Proper and only jointly express exclusiveness; it is expanded to that person from some beauty. The phrase states the jealous desire for sole enjoyment.

Context: Burton’s collected definition of jealousy, attributed to Varchi and followed by related definitions; the possessive outlook is described, not recommended.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: to have it proper to himself only

Modern rendering: to have that person exclusively to himself

Alignment scope: Whole possessive-desire construction with contextual person supplied for the original pronoun

Word and construction: Proper... only jointly supplies exclusively; himself is retained, and it becomes that person from the preceding some beauty.

proper · local use 8

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Fine or accomplished, here through eloquence.

Here: An admired man who expresses himself well. This praise concerns speech and accomplishment rather than bodily handsomeness; the preceding catalogue includes wit and integrity as well as appearance.

Context: Burton reports an ordinary phrase in his argument about qualities that attract affection; the ensuing mythographic explanation is qualified by belike.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a proper man

Modern rendering: a fine man

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: Proper supplies fine; a man remains a man in the whole noun phrase.

proper · local use 9

Printed “proper” (English; lemma).

Characteristic of a group: proper qualifies the erotic affliction called passion, not a logical property.

Here: Proper supplies characteristic; passion here is the erotic affliction or disease, unlike the logical attribute. The same adjective construction therefore does not make the two uses of passion identical.

Context: Burton attributes the phrase to Gordon. The associated attack on religious orders is a historical accusation; almost and if delimit the claims, and the next paragraph extends the proposed causes to any social station.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the proper passion of Nobility

Modern rendering: the characteristic passion of the nobility

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

properness

Printed “propernes of person” (English; lemma).

Handsome bodily appearance.

Here: Propernes is the noun naming physical comeliness; person refers to the body or outward person. Burton contrasts this with honour acquired after Loyola’s injury.

Context: A consolatory biographical example whose cited Ribera and Macrobius references remain unresolved in the supplied notes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: propernes of person

Modern rendering: handsome appearance

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase/construction in the paired body texts

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.