Carriage

Use in the book

“Endeavors, cariages” belongs to Burton’s catalogue of supposedly mad human activity: labours, books and undertakings lead into conduct, ignorance, actions and gestures. Behaviour supplies the local sense. Elsewhere the literal “carriage by waters” concerns transport costs, produce and market outlets. This economic passage is a genuine different use, not an exception to be forced into a moral definition.

Conduct can be regulated or merely displayed. A person’s “well composed carriage”, with moderation, helps explain why one bears a provocation that overwhelms another in Burton’s historical account. The surrounding passage makes bodily constitution and the strength of the disturbance relevant too; it does not turn composure into a universal cure. “Outward carriage”, however, may only seem humble while concealing pride. Burton’s attack on conspicuous austerity thus distinguishes bearing from inward motive. The attached Seneca note preserves Burton’s Letter 13 locator, while the editor identifies the adapted passage as Letter 5.1–2.

Two accounts warn against treating behaviour as a transparent diagnostic sign. Democritus’s laughter in solemn company leads the Abderites to suppose him mad and seek Hippocrates. The sentence reports their inference from his carriage. Later Burton says melancholy can scarcely be perceived in a person’s carriage while remaining an intolerable burden to that person. The continuation allows wisdom in other matters alongside a particular disordered belief. Observable manner, hidden suffering and the observer’s interpretation are kept distinct.

Social bearing can genuinely recommend someone: Atticus’s “sweet” carriage is his gracious manner, associated with affection across political divisions. In erotic exchange, however, courteous conduct may be mistaken for a stronger commitment. The suitor’s “ordinary carriage” toward everyone does not establish that he intends to marry the woman who reads it as devotion. Burton immediately broadens his accusation to deception by both sexes. Similarly, the “carriage” of an eye is its expressive use, which he distinguishes from the eye itself. The theological counterexample concerning the chaste beauty of Christ and Mary is reported with an express “if we may believe” qualification, rather than simply warranted by the lexical distinction.

The body’s carriage can be graceful movement. The dancers’ “comely carriage” appears in the positive account of a pleasing performance after Burton has answered objections and approved dancing when appropriate, moderate and sober. His Apuleius margin calls the dance Pyrrhic, while the English body calls it a Greek galliard. The bearing remains graceful in both. At the opposite pole, a sweet face with “bad carriage” is an example in his hostile disenchantment of lovers: the following lack of upbringing makes the intended contrast one between looks and manners. The catalogue’s accusations are Burton’s rhetorical possibilities, not established facts about women.

Related entries

Conversation: Social intercourse and behaviour.

Complement: Courteous performance can be part of someone’s ordinary carriage.

Self love: The division between outward humility and inward pride.

Commonwealth: Transport by water belongs to the public economic argument.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 21–23neglected navigation, transport by water and lost economic outlets.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 32–34the satirical catalogue of activities and behaviour, continuing into ostentatious building.
3. Subsection 5. Melancholy as a Passing State, Loosely So Called; the Different Meanings of the Word · paragraphs 15–17unequal resistance to provocation and well-composed conduct within historical melancholy causation.
4. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 46–48inward pride, outward humility and Seneca’s warning; then a change to praise supplied by others.
5. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 38–40absorbed scholars and the observers’ inference from Democritus’s behaviour.
6. Subsection 4 Symptoms Arising From Education, Custom, Duration, Our Circumstances, Mingled With Other Diseases, Occurring in Fits, From Inclination, and So On · paragraphs 7–9varying symptoms, scarcely visible suffering and the coexistence of particular error with other wisdom.
7. Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraphs 32–34virtue and gracious manner valued independently of wealth, with Atticus as the central example.
8. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 28–30studied bearing, the use of the eyes and the qualified theological contrast.
9. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 48–50pleasing manner and mistaken marriage expectations; the continuation accuses both sexes of deceptive display.
10. 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 46–52the objection to blanket condemnation of dance, Burton’s reply and the dancers’ graceful bearing.
11. By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraphs 51–53the disenchanting contrast between a sweet face and bad manners, followed by an analogy applying unequal qualities to men and women.

In this edition

The predecessor’s pair “endeavors, cariages” → “undertakings and conduct” preserves two nouns: endeavors supplies undertakings and cariages conduct. In the economic passage, “carriage by waters” is instead “transport by water”. “Outward carriage” becomes “outward bearing”, while “well composed carriage” contributes the single noun “composure” within the fuller comparison with moderation.

The translation varies with the construction: Democritus’s carriage is “behaviour”; Atticus’s sweet carriage is a “gracious manner”, with the degree expressed across the surrounding coordinated phrase; “carriage of” the eye becomes “how it is used”. “Of comely carriage” is “graceful in bearing” and “bad carriage” is “bad manners”. These shifts distinguish social conduct, physical bearing and expressive movement without pretending that each English phrase translates the isolated noun alone.

carriage · local use 1

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

The carrying or transport of goods.

Here: The concrete transport sense concerns the cost of moving produce and lack of markets, not a person’s conduct.

Context: Burton criticizes neglected navigation and attributes economic isolation to expensive portage.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: carriage by waters

Modern rendering: transport by water

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.

carriage · cariages

Printed “cariages” (English; lemma).

Conduct or ways of behaving.

Here: Cariages supplies conduct; endeavors supplies undertakings. It belongs to the satirical series of human activities, books, actions and gestures.

Context: Burton expands the catalogue of supposedly mad human pursuits.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: endeavors, cariages

Modern rendering: undertakings and conduct

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.

carriage · local use 2

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Conduct or manner of behaving.

Here: Well composed carriage names ordered self-management. The translation compresses the adjective and noun into composure; moderation remains separately represented.

Context: Burton contrasts unequal responses to provocations within his historical account of melancholy.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: singular moderation, and well composed carriage

Modern rendering: exceptional moderation and composure

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.

carriage · outward carriage

Printed “outward carriage” (English; lemma).

Outward bearing or visible demeanour.

Here: The apparently humble bearing is contrasted with inward pride; the outward sign is not guaranteed to reveal its motive.

Context: Burton’s criticism of conspicuous austerity, followed by Seneca’s advice against attracting notice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: outward carriage

Modern rendering: outward bearing

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.

carriage · local use 3

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Behaviour as observed by other people.

Here: Unusual laughter leads the Abderites to suppose madness; the phrase identifies the basis of their inference, not a confirmed diagnosis.

Context: A reported anecdote about observers’ judgment in the discussion of scholars’ unusual outward behaviour.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Democritus carriage alone

Modern rendering: Democritus’s behaviour alone

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.

carriage · local use 4

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Observable behaviour or manner of conducting oneself.

Here: The following contrast says an externally slight or scarcely discernible condition can be intolerable to the sufferer. All is not separately repeated by the modern wording.

Context: Burton explicitly limits the inference from outward appearance to inward suffering.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: in all their carriage

Modern rendering: in their behaviour

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.

carriage · local use 5

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Social manner or bearing.

Here: Sweet means pleasing or gracious; Atticus’s manner helps account for being loved across political parties. The surrounding such a good character and carries the original degree construction.

Context: Burton’s positive historical example, with Nepos cited for inheritances obtained through goodness.

Source: original body

Source wording: of so sweet a carriage

Original wording: so fair conditioned, of so sweet a carriage

Modern rendering: such a good character and gracious manner

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

Word and construction: Fair conditioned supplies good character; sweet carriage supplies gracious manner; the shared such construction renders the degree expressed by so.

carriage · local use 6

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

The manner of directing or using something, here the eye.

Here: Carriage of the eye is its expressive use or movement. Burton’s contrast shifts the alleged provocation from the organ itself to its use.

Context: Burton’s erotic rhetoric follows studied bearing and qualifies the theological example with if we may believe.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ’Tis not the eye, but carriage of it, as they use it, that causeth such effects

Modern rendering: It is not the eye, but how it is used, that causes such effects

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 “affected carriage” (English; lemma).

Citation key: carriage.

Here: Affected means studied or consciously fashioned; carriage means bearing. Burton adds performed expression and gesture to natural beauty as purported intensifiers of attraction.

Context: A general claim within the account of art and ornament as causes of love.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an affected carriage

Modern rendering: a studied bearing

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.

carriage · local use 7

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Social behaviour.

Here: Routine polite attentions are mistaken for a definite intention to marry, which Burton expressly denies of this suitor.

Context: A gendered generalization, followed by the claim that both sexes deceive through outward displays.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: ’tis his ordinary carriage in all such companies

Modern rendering: this is his usual behaviour in all such company

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.

carriage · local use 8

Printed “carriage” (English; lemma).

Bodily bearing or movement.

Here: The phrase describes dancers in a positively valued spectacle, with proper timing and suitable participants required by the preceding defence.

Context: Burton adapts Apuleius’s dance description after explicitly allowing moderate, sober dancing.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: of comely carriage

Modern rendering: graceful in bearing

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.

carriage · bad carriage

Printed “bad carriage” (English; lemma).

Bad manners or conduct.

Here: The phrase is opposed to a sweet face and is explained by no upbringing. It does not refer to bodily shape or a vehicle.

Context: Burton’s hypothetical, hostile catalogue of defects used to counter idealized erotic admiration.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bad carriage

Modern rendering: bad manners

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.