Cacoëthes and scribbling

Use in the book

The writing-itch appears after Burton has admitted useful and mixed reasons for writing. He may exercise himself, turn leisure into useful work, or ease the burden of his mind; ‘or peradventure’ he may also seek fame. The bodily images of a burdened heart, pregnant head and discharge make writing a relief as well as a pressure. The ensuing Juvenal quotation cannot therefore turn every act of writing in the book into the same fault.

The satire multiplies books and motives. Presses are oppressed; readers face more books than they can read; writers scrape together material to display themselves. But the list distinguishes vanity, need, money and flattering a powerful patron. A poor writer seeking maintenance is not lexically identical with someone seeking fame without profit. Humour already explains ‘itching humor’ as inclination rather than bodily fluid, and Fame and reputation examines the incentive of public recognition. Here the Latin itch-construction and the disparaging writing words make a different contribution to their shared passage.

The reported criticism is not an undifferentiated prohibition. Cardano faults pointless scribbling but explicitly does not discourage publication if the writers discover something new. Burton then complains that apparent novelty may still be a trifle. The following margin’s itch of would-be writers presents invention as almost unavoidable amid this pressure; its sentence stops at ‘&c.’ The later Gesner-attributed margin proposes restraint of stolen and endlessly repeated matter and of rash writing. Liberty and servitude retains the distinction between permission and ability and the proposal to regulate publication.

Burton does not remain outside the crowd: ‘I am one of the number,’ he says. His defence then turns toward acknowledged borrowing and the arrangement of what he collects. The scribblers who dismiss citation as pedantry become his opponents precisely because he insists on naming his sources. Thus the same author can condemn literary excess, acknowledge participation in it and defend his way of composing. Cento gives the fuller account of transformed and attributed borrowing.

Further uses extend the judgement without establishing a new disease. In the hypothetical account of someone who knows his folly yet persists, scribling is one item beside building, gambling, courting and prating; the continuation stresses the pleasure of the attachment. In the imagined commonwealth, an ‘insufficient scribler’ contrasts with the informed public historian. The later ‘scribling Parasites’ belongs to anti-Catholic invective, not to a neutral classification of religious writers. These are different settings for a disparaging activity or agent, rather than separate clinical kinds.

Related entries

Humour: itching humor as inclination, itching humor.

Matter: no matter what, no matter what · local use 1.

Fame and reputation: literary recognition and injury to others’ reputation, fame · local use 1–V002.

Parasite: patron-flattery as one motive, Parasite · Parasites · local use 2.

Liberty and servitude: permission, ability and proposed restraint, liberty · local use 3.

Cento: compilation and acknowledged borrowing.

Satire and satirical writing: the mode and its self-implicating voice.

Stationers and printing: the material production and trade in books.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 5–7exercise, possible fame and relief through writing.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–4the Juvenal construction, literary excess and different incentives.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 7–15scribblers, Cardano’s qualification, the pruritu and libido margins, regulation and self-inclusion.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–4acknowledged borrowing and the scribblers who object to citation.
5. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 27–31scribling among persistent pleasurable follies.
6. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 8–10the insufficient scribbler versus public historiographers.
7. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 20–24scribling Parasites in an explicitly hostile religious attack.

In this edition

‘Scribling to no purpose’ becomes ‘pointless scribbling’: pointless translates the purpose phrase, not the writing verb alone. ‘Insufficient scribler’ becomes ‘incompetent scribbler,’ while ‘illiterate scriblers’ becomes ‘unlearned scribblers.’ The qualifiers explain why each writer is being dismissed; scribbler itself remains a disparaging name. The original body’s ‘itching humor’ and ‘no matter what’ retain their existing routes in Humour, itching humor, and Matter, no matter what · local use 1, rather than acquiring duplicate records here.

The phrase translations in the accompanying note and the accompanying note are supplied editorial English, not original English by Burton. ‘amid this itch of people longing to write’ renders in hoc scripturientum pruritu: scripturientum names the people and pruritu the itch. Libido supplies appetite and temere scribendi supplies for rash writing. The original quotations, their translations and the notes’ qualifications remain separate. Incurable is an access word for insanabile within the Juvenal construction, not a new medical entry.

cacoëthes / insanabile scribendi cacoëthes

Cacoëthes is a troublesome or compulsive urge, here the itch to write; insanabile calls it incurable, and scribendi specifies writing. The phrase satirizes literary compulsion rather than diagnosing a modern disease.

Grammar: Latin construction: cacoëthes is the singular subject of tenet; insanabile qualifies it; scribendi is the genitive gerund of scribo; multos is the plural object, many people.

Original text: “tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoëthes”. In the modern column: “many are gripped by an incurable itch to write”. Juvenal’s phrase introduces the overflowing production of books and the urge for display. Burton quotes and applies Juvenal, identified by editorial the accompanying note. Many belongs to this Latin clause; the following every man is a further rhetorical generalization. Neither is a clinical prognosis. Whole-clause active-to-passive recasting: tenet = holds/grips; multos = many; insanabile = incurable; cacoëthes = itch/compulsive urge; scribendi = of writing, rendered to write. No single component receives the whole clause.

scribbling

Writing disparaged as trivial, unskilled, excessive or unprofitable; the word can name the activity or characterize those who perform it.

Grammar: Printed scribling: verbal noun after for/in an activity list; attributive participial form before age or Parasites.

Original text: “in this scribling age”. In the modern column: “In this scribbling age”. The period is characterized as overproductive in books. Burton’s satire of literary excess, followed by explicit self-inclusion. Scribling is retained as scribbling; age is the period, not a patient.

Original text: “for their scribling to no purpose”. In the modern column: “for their pointless scribbling”. The activity is criticized for lacking worthwhile novelty or purpose. Cardano is reported as criticizing French and German writers but expressly not discouraging publication if they discover something new. Burton continues with his own criticism of repetition and trivial invention. To no purpose becomes the adjective pointless; scribling supplies scribbling.

Original text: “building, bragging, jangling, spending, gaming, courting, scribling, prating”. In the modern column: “building, boasting, quarrelling, spending, gambling, courting, scribbling, or babbling”. Scribbling appears among habitual activities to which a person may remain attached despite recognizing their folly. Hypothetical put case passage in a satire of shared folly; the following account stresses pleasing attachment and resistance to persuasion. List-to-list alignment; scribling corresponds only to scribbling, not to the whole list or the surrounding madness vocabulary.

Original text: “scribling Parasites”. In the modern column: “scribbling parasites”. The participle disparages the literary activity of polemically characterized religious dependants. Sustained anti-Catholic invective beginning, attributed there to Sandys; the language is Burton’s hostile presentation, not a neutral description. Scribling gives scribbling and Parasites gives parasites; neither word defines all members of a religious community.

scribbler

A writer dismissed as unskilled, ill-informed or otherwise unworthy; a disparaging agent name, not a neutral term for every author.

Grammar: Count noun: plural scriblers and singular scribler.

Original text: “base and illiterate scriblers”. In the modern column: “low, unlearned scribblers”. The writers are blamed for degrading fields of learning, with vanity, need, money and patron-flattery listed as different motives. Scaliger’s saying about permission versus ability introduces Burton’s criticism; the next Cardano passage permits genuine new work. Scriblers gives scribblers; base and illiterate supply low and unlearned.

Original text: “some illiterate scriblers account pedantical”. In the modern column: “some unlearned scribblers call it pedantic”. The disparaged writers regard acknowledgment and citation of sources as pedantry; Burton insists on citing them. Burton defends acknowledged borrowing against concealed theft, not all compilation against all criticism. Some and illiterate remain restrictive qualifiers; scriblers itself is the agent noun. The modern it points back to naming and quoting authors.

Original text: “each insufficient scribler”. In the modern column: “every incompetent scribbler”. The imagined commonwealth contrasts state-appointed public historians with writers dismissed as inadequate or biased. A proposal in Burton’s imaginary polity, not a description of an established public institution or a modern verdict on individual historians. Insufficient gives incompetent; scribler gives scribbler; the universal each is within Burton’s hostile comparison.

scripturientum pruritus

The itch of people longing to write: a bodily-itch metaphor for eager literary production.

Grammar: Printed in hoc scripturientum pruritu: pruritu is ablative singular after in; scripturientum is the genitive plural naming people eager to write.

Original margin: “in hoc scripturientum pruritu”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “amid this itch of people longing to write”. The margin reinforces the body’s claim that a mind must be barren if it produces nothing in the scribbling age. Original quoted margin in the accompanying note, distinct from its supplied editorial translation and explanation. It is not a complete independent proposition or a literal medical case. In hoc contributes amid this; pruritu contributes itch; scripturientum contributes of people longing to write. The phrase is incomplete in the longer original sentence ending &c.

temere scribendi libido

An appetite for writing rashly: desire made subject to proposed restraint in the quoted publishing criticism.

Grammar: Latin noun libido with the genitive gerund scribendi, modified by adverb temere; libido is the subject of passive subjunctive coërceatur.

Component access (temere): Adverb meaning rashly, modifying scribendi. The full construction is rendered for rash writing, where English rash modifies writing; temere does not mean appetite.

Original margin: “temere scribendi libido coërceatur”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “the appetite for rash writing restrained”. The margin asks that stolen/repeated material be removed and the appetite for rash writing restrained; it underlies the body’s appeal for publishing regulation. Original margin attributed by Burton to Gesner; supplied translation and editorial statement that exact collation remains open are not Burton-authored words. The appeal is a proposed regulation, not proof it was enacted. Libido supplies appetite, scribendi for writing, temere rashly (recast as rash), and coërceatur restrained. The infinitude clause belongs to the appetite’s unchecked continuation.