Rectification

Use in the book

Burton’s choice of object supplies the local meaning. “rectifie the Gregorian Kalender” appears among difficult intellectual tasks used to measure the difficulty of the Anatomy itself. Land is to be improved under the supervisors of his proposed commonwealth; weights are to be standardized after common measures have been established. These practical and administrative uses precede the therapeutic scheme.

Moral rectification begins with the hope that readers will put their own faults right. Burton contrasts learned amendment of old texts with failure to “rectifie our manners”. Later he reports the Gospel rule as a guide for setting a life right, attributing the counsel to Jerome’s letter to Celantia; the supplied edition records disputed authorship. Public correction has its own objects: good laws are meant to remedy abuses but do not always succeed, and the Rosicrucians promise universal amendment only as they say. Burton’s alternative to destroying religious houses is the unrealized possibility of correcting abuses and preserving some houses for education, study and devotion. The Table similarly labels injuries and abuses as matters for redress. In scientific inquiry he would correct longitudes if possible, explicitly rejecting the compass as the means.

Rectification also names the work of the whole regimen. The Second Partition applies it to diet, retention and evacuation, air, exercise, waking and dreams, and the passions; their several rectifications are later gathered under diet before Burton turns to medicines. His criticism of unnecessary prescribing allows counsel or regulation of the six factors to settle an illness without drugs. Claims of sufficiency vary: the body calls correction a sole or chief part of cure, and reports Arculanus calling it sufficient, while the Latin margin says generally sufficient. The Aretaean claim is restricted to illness not too far advanced; further claims remain their named physicians’ reports.

Within that scheme, “the rectification of Aire” includes both choosing a suitable place and improving conditions where a change of location is unavailable. Natural and artificial identify different opportunities for intervention. In the treatment of passions, the stronger claim that correction alone suffices in most patients belongs to Montalto; Galen is then credited with several cures by setting minds right. The immediately following objection asks how anyone can achieve this against such powerful and embodied afflictions. Rectification names the required work without making it effortless. Burton himself opens the passions section by calling their correction the principal cure. After the sufferer objects, he replies that earnest effort and ordinary help can moderate them, and promises relief at least if not cure to the cooperative patient. A renewed objection stresses bodily constitution and habit; his answer permits self-correction only to some degree before further exhortation. Confident counsel and resistant experience remain parts of the same argument.

The patient reported by Platerus offers a resistant case: for years he could not be “rectified in his conceipt” that frogs lived in his belly. The continuation distinguishes a proposed deception from an eventual cure whose mechanism is not given. Burton’s own book makes a related but literary promise: like gilded pills, its pleasurable surface should make corrective benefit acceptable, and its lines should set the mind right as well as refresh it.

Jealousy receives rectification because Burton treats it as a branch of love melancholy that torments in a comparable manner. The comparison justifies equal care in explaining its causes, prognosis and cures, while preserving commonly and usually in the contrasting positions before and after marriage. The Table’s “Venus rectified” compresses another regimen subject into an index heading: Venus means sexual activity here, and rectification its regulation.

Related entries

Non naturals

Jealousy

Diet and regimen

Air

Venery

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 24–26Calendar correction serves as one comparison for the difficulty of anatomizing melancholy. Burton hopes the book’s examples and precepts will improve its future readers.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 25–27Existing laws are intended to correct abuses, though they do not always achieve it.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 16–18Land is to be cultivated under supervisory direction in Burton’s imagined commonwealth.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 11–13The regulation of weights follows the proposed establishment of common measures.
5. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 12–14Scholarly textual correction is contrasted with failure to amend conduct.
6. Subsection 6 Excessive Exercise as a Cause, and How It Acts. Solitude And… · paragraphs 13–15Burton proposes selective reform of religious houses instead of wholesale destruction.
7. Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraphs 18–20Platerus’s reported patient remains convinced that frogs live in his belly.
8. Synopsis of the Second Partition · paragraphs 5–10The synopsis distributes regulation across the six non-natural factors.
9. Member 4. Subsection 1. Physician, Patient, Medicine · paragraphs 11–12Counsel and regimen contrasted with unnecessary medication.
10. Section 2. Member 1. Subsection 1. Diet Corrected in the Choice of Food · paragraphs 11–16The body reports Arculanus’s claim of sufficiency; the Latin margin explicitly qualifies this as generally sufficient.
11. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 7–9Burton wishes to correct longitudes while seeking a better means than the compass.
12. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 19–21The treatment account includes choosing the air of a place and altering conditions by human arrangements.
13. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 8–10A suitable site and artificial improvement when relocation is unavailable.
14. Member 6 Subsection 1 Disturbances of the Mind Corrected Through The… · paragraphs 1–3Burton himself calls this the principal cure before quoting authorities and staging the objections.
15. Member 6 Subsection 1 Disturbances of the Mind Corrected Through The… · paragraphs 6–11Montalto’s sufficiency claim concerns the passions, while Galen is credited with cures by settling minds.
16. Member 6 Subsection 1 Disturbances of the Mind Corrected Through The… · paragraphs 22–25The sufferer’s renewed objection and Burton’s qualified reply.
17. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults… · paragraphs 10–12The Gospel rule is presented as a guide amid worldly provocations.
18. Member 1 Subsection 1 Medical Treatment by Medicines · paragraphs 39–41Burton gathers the adjustments of all six non-natural factors under comprehensive diet before turning to medicines.
19. Section 1. Member 1. Subsection 1 the Preface · paragraphs 4–6Burton presents pleasurable writing as a vehicle for mental benefit, comparable to gilding a pill.
20. Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds… · paragraphs 6–8Jealousy warrants a treatment organized like that of love melancholy, including causes, prognosis and cures.
21. I · paragraphs 279–281The authorial Table names the discussion of injuries and abuses.
22. V · paragraphs 235–237The Table compresses a therapeutic topic into a short heading.

In this edition

The original comparisons remain distinct in the modern renderings: “to be rectified alike” → “similar treatment”, “Venus rectified” → “Sexual activity properly regulated”, and “the rectification of Aire” → “improving the air”. The equivalents follow the object being corrected. The Venus heading need not imply moral amendment, and it has no editorial-emendation sense in this location.

Other checked constructions make the range visible: “rectifie weights” → “standardise weights”, and the full negative construction about the patient’s conceit becomes a belief that could not be corrected. The Table’s printed 239 is its own historical locator, not this lexicon’s pagination; the lexical evidence is the unnumbered Table passage itself.

rectification · local use 1

Printed “rectification” (English; lemma).

Correction or improvement of conditions.

Here: The treatment account includes choosing the air of a place and altering conditions by human arrangements.

Context: Burton infers its necessity among other measures from Galen as transmitted by Jason Pratensis; he does not claim it is the sole cure.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the rectification of Aire

Modern rendering: improving the air

Word and construction: The noun denotes the correction or regulation described locally.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectification · local use 2

Printed “rectification” (English; lemma).

Regulation or correction of emotional disturbances.

Here: Montalto’s sufficiency claim concerns the passions, while Galen is credited with cures by settling minds.

Context: Burton attributes correction alone to Montalto for most patients; the following objection asks how such difficult change can actually be achieved, and Burton’s reply promises qualified relief or moderation rather than effortless complete cure.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of Melancholy in most patients

Modern rendering: their correction alone enough to cure melancholy in most patients

Word and construction: The noun denotes the correction or regulation described locally.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

Citation key: rectify.

Here: Burton himself calls this the principal cure before quoting authorities and staging the objections.

Context: This initial assertion is Burton’s own; the later exchange grants resistance and distinguishes relief from complete cure.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie these passions and perturbations of the minde

Modern rendering: correct these passions and disturbances of the mind

Sense relation: The same correction-of-passions sense, now in Burton’s direct introductory assertion.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

rectification · rectifications

Printed “rectifications” (English; lemma).

Regulations or corrective adjustments of daily living.

Here: Burton gathers the adjustments of all six non-natural factors under comprehensive diet before turning to medicines.

Context: Burton marks an organizational transition from regimen to pharmaceutics; the two are not synonyms.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: their severall rectifications, all which are comprehended in Diet

Modern rendering: their several adjustments, all of which come under regimen

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectifying” (English; lemma).

Citation key: rectify.

Here: The body reports Arculanus’s claim of sufficiency; the Latin margin explicitly qualifies this as generally sufficient.

Context: The report is attributed to Arculanus, with its body and marginal qualifications retained; the ensuing Aretaean claim applies when illness has not advanced too far.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the rectifying of these six, a sufficient cure

Modern rendering: the regulation of these six things a sufficient cure

Sense relation: The same regimen-wide operation in a verbal noun construction.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

rectify · rectifie · local use 1

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

To correct or put right an inaccurate arrangement.

Here: Calendar correction serves as one comparison for the difficulty of anatomizing melancholy.

Context: Burton lists daunting intellectual undertakings; he is not claiming here to have corrected the calendar.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie the Gregorian Kalender

Modern rendering: correcting the Gregorian calendar

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

Here: Burton wishes to correct longitudes while seeking a better means than the compass.

Context: The speculative first-person intention is limited by if it were possible; the compass method is explicitly rejected.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie longitudes, if it were possible

Modern rendering: correct longitudes, if possible

Sense relation: The same correction-of-scientific-error sense as calendar rectification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

rectify · rectified · local use 1

Printed “rectified” (English; lemma).

Improved or brought into proper condition.

Here: Land is to be cultivated under supervisory direction in Burton’s imagined commonwealth.

Context: The supervisors are to determine how the land should be managed; this is a proposal, not a report of an accomplished reform.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: manured, tilled, rectified

Modern rendering: cultivated, tilled, and improved

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectify · rectifie · local use 2

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

To standardize against an established measure.

Here: The regulation of weights follows the proposed establishment of common measures.

Context: Burton’s first-person commonwealth proposal makes known measures the basis for the further operation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie weights

Modern rendering: standardise weights

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectify · rectified · local use 2

Printed “rectified” (English; lemma).

Corrected or freed from an erroneous belief.

Here: Platerus’s reported patient remains convinced that frogs live in his belly.

Context: The negative construction states that the belief could not be corrected for years; the continuation reports eventual cure without establishing its mechanism.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: he could not be rectified in his conceipt

Modern rendering: his belief could not be corrected

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectify · rectifie · local use 3

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

To set right through corrective instruction.

Here: Burton presents pleasurable writing as a vehicle for mental benefit, comparable to gilding a pill.

Context: Burton states his earnest intention and hope for his writings; the future claim is a program, not a demonstrated cure.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: not only recreate, but rectifie the minde

Modern rendering: not only refresh the mind but set it right

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectify · rectified · local use 3

Printed “rectified” (English; lemma).

Treated or corrected in respect of an affliction.

Here: Jealousy warrants a treatment organized like that of love melancholy, including causes, prognosis and cures.

Context: Burton argues for a separate extended treatment because jealousy torments in a similar way; commonly before and usually after marriage remain qualified temporal claims.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: to be rectified alike

Modern rendering: similar treatment

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

rectify · rectifying

Printed “rectifying” (English; lemma).

Putting personal faults or conduct right.

Here: Burton hopes the book’s examples and precepts will improve its future readers.

Context: The stated hope is attached to the proem transmitted with Theophrastus, whose authorship the supplied note qualifies.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: correcting and rectifying what is amiss in themselves

Modern rendering: correct and put right their faults

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

Here: Scholarly textual correction is contrasted with failure to amend conduct.

Context: Burton’s satire invokes Seneca; amendment of manners is what the scholars fail to teach.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie our manners

Modern rendering: correct our conduct

Sense relation: The same moral-correction sense with conduct as explicit object.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

Here: The Gospel rule is presented as a guide amid worldly provocations.

Context: Burton attributes the counsel to Jerome addressing Celantia; the supplied edition identifies disputed authorship and an unreconciled locator.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie her life

Modern rendering: setting her life right

Sense relation: The same moral-correction sense in reported pastoral advice.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

rectify · rectifie · local use 4

Printed “rectifie” (English; lemma).

To correct or put right; here, to remedy abuses.

Here: Existing laws are intended to correct abuses, though they do not always achieve it.

Context: Burton concedes good laws but doubts their effect; the following Rosicrucian promise remains qualified by they say.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectifie such enormities

Modern rendering: correct such abuses

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectified” (English; lemma).

Here: Burton proposes selective reform of religious houses instead of wholesale destruction.

Context: The modal might have governs the unrealized alternative, continued by retaining some houses for study and devotion.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: rectified such inconveniencies

Modern rendering: corrected those evils

Sense relation: The same public-remedy sense in a counterfactual institutional proposal.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “rectified” (English; lemma).

Here: The authorial Table names the discussion of injuries and abuses.

Context: The index heading supplies a topic and historical locator, not an assertion that every injury has been remedied.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Injuries and abuses rectified

Modern rendering: Injuries and abuses redressed

Sense relation: The same remedy/redress sense compressed into an index heading.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Venus rectified

Printed “Venus rectified” (English; phrase).

Sexual activity regulated within a regimen.

Here: The Table compresses a therapeutic topic into a short heading.

Context: The authorial index uses Venus metonymically; rectified specifies regulation, not a textual emendation or necessarily a moral correction.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Venus rectified

Modern rendering: Sexual activity properly regulated

Word and construction: The verb denotes setting right; its object and local construction determine what is corrected.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.