From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordConcupiscence is strong desire or longing.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe moving-faculty account first criticizes people who give rein to “their concupiscence and several lusts.”
- In this edition“Concupiscence” becomes “longing” when an absent good is the object, but “natural concupiscence” remains in the theological account.
- A place to readConcupiscence in the causal outline
Meaning
Concupiscence is strong desire or longing. Its moral force depends on its construction: it can name longing for an absent good, excessive desire for pleasure, or the disordered desire of fallen humanity. Sexual lust is an important particular sense, not the whole range. Latin concupiscentia and its inflected forms belong to the same desire-family, as do the related verb forms concupiscit, concupivit, concupierit and concupita; the noun must also be distinguished from the concupiscible faculty that produces desires.
Use in the book
Longing and excess
The moving-faculty account first criticizes people who give rein to “their concupiscence and several lusts.” Yet a few paragraphs later “Concupiscence” appears among hope, love and desire when a good object is absent. In that classification it names longing, and Burton calls the affections natural. The term does not carry the same condemnatory force merely by appearing in both places.
The later account of concupiscible and irascible appetite makes the distinction explicit: both may be good if moderate and harmful if excessive. Desires often present a pleasing object, yet extremes rack and torment the desirer. The scope can be anything excessively sought. In the original Platter margin, “concupiscentia nimia” concerns something honourable or dishonourable; the excess can therefore be damaging even when the desired object has moral worth. Ambition, desire for honour, follows as a selected example.
Burton quotes a purported Augustinian confession of thoughts torn apart by manifold desires. The printed “Multuosis” is retained in the source, while the modernization provisionally follows Burton’s own “manifold.” The supplied editorial note distinguishes Augustine’s wording about tumultuous changes from Burton’s wording about desires. This article explains the desire-word as Burton prints it; it does not certify his sentence as an exact quotation of Augustine.
The synopsis gives concupiscence a causal role before these extended explanations: it belongs with sin among the “Impulsive,” or prompting, causes of disease, distinguished from instrumental causes such as intemperance. The later pleasurable “concupiscences” are likewise not condemned without qualification: they commonly content the desirer, but torment when carried to extremes.
The fallen will and the body’s claim
“Natural concupiscence” has a sharper theological meaning in the account of will. Burton first allows freedom in some ordinary choices, then says that in spiritual matters people will no good unless regenerated and led by the Spirit. They are urged on by natural concupiscence, their powers are confused, and their will is turned away from God and his law. The will’s aversion from God includes natural matters such as eating, drinking and sexual desire, driven by temperament and “inordinate appetite.” The continuation calls concupiscence bad from its origin, adds acquired bad habits and diabolical suggestion, and then introduces the counterweight of divine precepts and good motions of the Spirit. David sparing Saul illustrates restraint. Leaving out either exception would turn a qualified sequence into an unqualified theory of helplessness.
In the later body–soul dispute, concupiscence and original sin are placed alongside inclinations and bad humours as things rooted in everyone. Burton endorses the cited account and says these influences often do violence to the soul. He then judges that the soul seems to have the better plea against the body’s force. This local weighting follows a presentation of arguments on both sides and retains the larger difficulty of deciding which harms the other more. Concupiscence participates in an explanation combining inherited sin, desire and bodily disposition.
Bodily lust, pride and attempts at restraint
The proud person may have withstood “tyrannical concupiscences of the body” and yet succumb to vainglory. “Sustained” here means withstood, not maintained or nourished. Bodily self-denial therefore does not ensure freedom from every disordered desire.
The original marginal “concupiscentias” supports that contrast, but the margin speaks of people who have often lost everything through vainglory. The body changes the plural to a single person and narrows the loss to all his honour. Those changes should not disappear into a supposedly identical quotation.
In the love partition, Burton names immoderate desire for any pleasure concupiscence. The erotic account then gives it particular objects and mechanisms: intense desire can arise from faulty judgment of the estimative faculty; a beautiful woman is likened to a lodestone stirring desire. A later attempted cure turns attraction into disgust by asking the lover to imagine age, sickness and the body beneath the skin. “Concupiscence” in that address is sexual lust. The demeaning portrayal belongs to the historical argument, not an independent account of women’s worth or bodies.
Desire also enters through the eyes imagined as windows and channels. In the saying attributed to Salvian, “dishonest concupiscence” means unchaste desire; its Latin margin uses the different noun “cupiditas.” The preceding discussion expressly distinguishes an eye’s wanton use from the eye itself. Its counterexample is Mary’s chaste beauty: the marginal “à nemine concupita” means desired by no one, and Burton marks the supposed protection from lust with “if we may believe” the cited authorities.
In the dancing discussion, the alleged effect of exposed bodies is “enormous, exceeding concupiscences,” excessive sexual desires. Burton approves the objection, yet his closing judgment permits sober and modest dancing at a proper time. The margin says such sights commonly arouse lust; the English causal formulation omits that frequency qualification. The later Chrysostom margin also has its own wording: “concupiscentiam agentem,” stirring desire, where the body says “increasing thy concupiscence.”
The stream of concupiscence in the jealousy section is also sexual: brothels are represented as drains diverting it. The passage is Burton’s anti-Catholic characterization of civic policy and moral reasoning, not verified Catholic doctrine. Religious fasting supplies a more favorable restraint: it may check desire and prepare devotion. The passage expressly condemns excess and qualifies its praise by moderate and timely use. The same practice can appear in both beneficial and harmful explanations without contradiction at the level of the word.
A marginal “sine concupiscentia,” without lust, occurs inside a negative claim about ability: Democritus supposedly could not look at women without lust. Burton borrows Tertullian’s self-blinding story for his jealous husband, after dubious remedies and proposed divorce, before a final remedy that he refuses to identify. This is a reported literary example, not established biography or treatment advice. The original marginal citation is on page 631, while the body sentence is on 632.
Related verbs: who desires, and what
The related verb extends beyond sexual desire. The marginal “concupivit” describes Cosimo de’ Medici’s reported wish for immortality through literature. Burton places this motive among examples of self-interested benefaction, while expressly conceding that many benefactors act from true charity. A medical margin’s “concupiscit” similarly covers possessing a desired thing: the lover is compared with hunters pursuing sport and misers pursuing wealth. “Nimia aviditate,” rather than the verb alone, supplies excessive eagerness.
Sexual applications require their own grammatical caution. Sander’s allegation about Henry VIII repeats “concupierit,” desired, but Burton says he does not know how truthful the story is. The second Latin clause prints an additional negative that conflicts with Burton’s English; the modern translation follows that English and the editorial note discloses the departure. Another maxim contrasts a beautiful woman who “is loved” with an ugly woman who “desires”: “concupiscit” is active, not another assertion that she is desired by men. Burton recommends a mean, then gives a personal preference conditional on other advantages being equal. His degrading stereotypes remain the objects of explanation, not the article’s judgments.
Related entries
Appetite; Concupiscible and irascible; Will and nill; Venery; Impotent; Passion; Love; Ambition; Estimation; Soul
Places to read
- Prompting rather than instrumental causesConcupiscence in the causal outline
- Desire and absent goodCravings contrasted with longing among natural affections
- Spiritual disorder and its counterweightOrdinary freedom, the regeneration exception and divine restraint
- Moderation and excessVaried objects, ambition, altered Augustinian quotation and Platter’s margin
- Bodily restraint and vaingloryWithstanding bodily desires does not prevent pride
- The soul’s pleaDesire, inherited sin and bodily temperament
- Kinds of desireObjects and immoderate pleasure
- Literary immortality desiredConcupivit, the reported motive and the allowance for sincere charity
- Objects of eager desireConcupiscit, sporting and acquisitive analogies, competing definitions
- Desire from faulty appraisalThe final definition of erotic melancholy and transition to causes
- An allegation and an extra negativeConcupierit, Sander’s uncertain report and disclosed interpretation
- Magnetic attractionAn erotic application
- Eyes as channels and an exceptionUnchaste desire, the use of eyes and the attributed concupita counterexample
- Dancing, exposure and qualificationExcessive desire beside the allowance for modest recreation
- Disgust against lustHistorical counsel attributed to Chrysostom
- A stream divertedPolemical description of brothel policy
- Active desire and passive attractionConcupiscit in hostile marital advice and Burton’s personal qualification
- Looking without lust deniedThe displaced marginal concupiscentia, reported self-blinding and the withheld remedy
- Fasting with limitsRestraint of desire, qualified by moderation and proper use
In this edition
“Concupiscence” becomes “longing” when an absent good is the object, but “natural concupiscence” remains in the theological account. “Inordinate appetite” there becomes “unruly appetite,” helping explain the retained term. In the erotic address it becomes “lust”; in the fasting passage, “desire.” These local choices preserve distinctions that a uniform sexual gloss would erase.
“Concupiscentia vehemens ex corrupto judicio æstimativæ virtutis” becomes “intense desire arising from a faulty judgement of the estimative faculty.” The entire construction carries the causal explanation: faulty judgment is not part of the noun’s definition in every context. The original Platter marginal wording is separated from the editorial English accompanying it.
Other modifiers likewise keep their own work: “nimia,” “tyrannical” and “vehemens” supply excess or force rather than defining the unqualified desire-word. The related verb constructions preserve active and passive agency, the explicit negative in “à nemine concupita,” and the doubly framed “could not... without” in the Democritus story. The Henry VIII sentence is a disclosed interpretive alignment, not a literal rendering of every printed negative.
concupiscence · local use 1
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Strong cravings; lower desires given free rein instead of being governed.
Context: Burton describes the usual failure of intellectual appetite to command.
Source: original body
Source wording: their concupiscence and several lusts
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · Concupiscence
Printed “Concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Longing for an absent good; one of the good affections in the local classification.
Context: The absent good object, not a necessarily sinful object, causes the listed affections.
Source: original body
Source wording: Hope, Love, Desire, and Concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 2
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Disordered desire in fallen humanity, broader than sexuality; natural marks its innate character in this theological account.
Context: The claim about spiritual inability explicitly excepts regeneration and guidance by the Spirit.
Source: original body
Source wording: natural concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · concupiscences · local use 1
Printed “concupiscences” (English; lemma).
Bodily desires; tyrannical marks their domineering force, and sustained means that the person has withstood them.
Context: The subject nevertheless succumbs to vainglory; sustained denotes successful resistance here.
Source: original body
Source wording: sustained all those tyrannical concupiscences of the body
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 3
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
One’s own disordered desire, presented as an agent of temptation.
Context: Scriptural formulation contributes to Burton’s locally stronger plea for the soul against bodily influence.
Source: original body
Source wording: tempted by his own concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 4
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Excessive desire for pleasure of any kind, locally named concupiscence.
Context: Burton’s naming scheme varies love according to object and moral direction.
Source: original body
Source wording: immoderate desire of any pleasure, concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 5
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Erotic attraction stirred by perceived beauty.
Context: Burton asserts a magnetic analogy after a story about inexperienced desire.
Source: original body
Source wording: moves our concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 6
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Sexual desire; increasing describes its heightening by the woman’s perceived beauty in the hypothetical address.
Context: A hypothetical address in counsel attributed to Chrysostom, followed by an attempted cure through disgust.
Source: original body
Source wording: increasing thy concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 7
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Sexual lust, figured as a powerful current to be diverted.
Context: Burton’s polemical account of brothel toleration; not independently verified Catholic teaching.
Source: original body
Source wording: that furious and swift stream of concupiscence
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 8
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Disordered desire; the passive construction says that fasting restrains it in its beneficial use.
Context: Praise is explicitly limited by the ensuing conditions of moderation and proper timing.
Source: original body
Source wording: concupiscence is restrained
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 9
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Disordered desire; it is listed among the prompting causes of disease in the synopsis.
Context: The outline distinguishes these impelling causes from the following instrumental causes, intemperance and secondary causes. Its page 97 is a scan locator for unnumbered preliminary matter, not a printed page of the main text.
Source: original body
Locator qualification: Source record identifies these leaves as unnumbered; plain numerical passage labels are scan numbers.
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Impulsive; sinne, concupiscence, &c.
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: Impelling causes: sin, disordered desire, etc.
Qualification: Equal-scope phrase or construction alignment; the entire unit carries the rendering.
Supplied words: causes (supplied from the heading Their Causes)
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscence · concupiscences · local use 2
Printed “concupiscences” (English; lemma).
Desires or cravings, commonly experienced as pleasing; their tormenting effect is made conditional on extremes.
Context: Burton’s account initially allows both appetites to be good when moderate and harmful when excessive. The modernization recasts most part within a concessive however often construction; the full sentence’s if they be in extreames remains essential.
Source: original body
Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: our concupiscences most part affect us with content and a pleasing object
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: however often our desires please us by presenting an attractive object
Qualification: The source clause and its modern rendering have the same propositional scope, but the modernization redistributes the sentence’s concessive syntax: however often expands the original most part clause within howsoever... yet if. It is not a word-for-word alignment.
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 10
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Disordered or sinful desire, one of the forces described as rooted in everyone.
Context: Burton expressly endorses Gwalther’s account. The full paragraph says that the listed forces often do violence to the soul, rather than asserting an uninterrupted effect; the next paragraph gives the soul the better plea.
Source: original body
Source wording: concupiscence and original sin, inclinations, & bad humors, are radical in every one of us
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscence · local use 11
Printed “concupiscence” (English; lemma).
Desire; dishonest makes it unchaste in the figure of desire entering through the eyes.
Context: The sentence is attributed to Salvian. The earlier qualification says the cause is how the eye is used, not the eye itself. Its original Latin margin uses cupiditas rather than concupiscentia and is not claimed as another attestation of this noun.
Source: original body
Source wording: all dishonest concupiscence gets into our hearts
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscence · concupiscences · local use 3
Printed “concupiscences” (English; lemma).
Sexual desires; enormous and exceeding mark their excessive degree.
Context: Burton endorses the complaint but introduces the saying with as one saith. The next paragraph allows sober, modest, timely dancing and condemns unchaste abuse, rather than condemning every dance. The original Latin margin has appetitus and includes solet, commonly, where the English makes the unqualified causal assertion.
Source: original body
Source wording: The very sight of naked parts, causeth enormous, exceeding concupiscences
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscentia · concupiscentiis
Printed “concupiscentiis” (Latin; lemma).
Desires, in the ablative plural as the forces tearing thoughts apart.
Context: Burton’s quoted Augustinian confession has altered wording; Multuosis is unresolved and rendered provisionally.
Source: original body
Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Multuosis concupiscentiis dilaniantur cogitationes meæ
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: My thoughts are torn apart by my many desires
Qualification: Phrase alignment preserves the supplied edition’s provisional reading of Multuosis through Burton’s own manifold; the modern possessive before desires is supplied. The historical Augustine wording is separately qualified in the article.
Supplied words: my before many desires (the source possessive meæ qualifies cogitationes, thoughts)
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscentia · local use 1
Printed “concupiscentia” (Latin; lemma).
Desire for something; nimia supplies excess, while honestæ vel inhonestæ allows an honourable or dishonourable object.
Context: Platter’s marginal claim concerns damage to imagination; the adjective nimia supplies excess.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: concupiscentia nimia rei alicujus, honestæ vel inhonestæ
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: excessive desire for anything honourable or dishonourable
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its supplied editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscentia · Concupiscentia
Printed “Concupiscentia” (Latin; lemma).
Desire or longing; vehemens supplies intensity, and the following prepositional phrase assigns its origin to faulty appraisal.
Context: Closing formulation of erotic melancholy, after the conditional account of violent or inveterate passion.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Concupiscentia vehemens ex corrupto judicio æstimativæ virtutis
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: intense desire arising from a faulty judgement of the estimative faculty
Qualification: Equal-scope phrase alignment; the entire phrase, not each component separately, carries the stated rendering.
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.
concupiscentia · concupiscentias
Printed “concupiscentias” (Latin; lemma).
Desires, here of the body; tyrannicas supplies their overpowering character, and sustinuerint expresses having withstood them.
Context: The marginal account attributed to Chrysostom concerns plural people who have often lost everything through vainglory despite other resistance. The English body instead gives a singular person who loses all his honour; the two scopes are kept distinct.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: et tyrannicas corporis concupiscentias sustinuerint
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: and have withstood the body’s tyrannical desires
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscentia · concupiscentiam
Printed “concupiscentiam” (Latin; lemma).
Sexual desire, here the object of a woman’s appearance stirring it in the beholder.
Context: The margin belongs to the counsel attributed to Chrysostom, but no precise work is named. Its stirring desire differs from the English body’s increasing thy concupiscence, which adds an explicit possessor and degree-change.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: concupiscentiam agentem
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: stirring desire
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscentia · local use 2
Printed “concupiscentia” (Latin; lemma).
Lust or sexual desire; sine excludes it only inside the negated ability construction, which says that looking without it was not possible.
Context: The marginal clause gives the reason attributed to Democritus in Tertullian’s reported self-blinding story. Burton transfers the story to the jealous husband among increasingly dubious remedies. It is not verified biography or endorsed present-day counsel.
Source: attached body; original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: quod mulieres sine concupiscentia aspicere non posset
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: because he could not look at women without lust
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Supplied words: he (understood subject made explicit in translation)
Notes: The original marginal reference is printed on page 631 while its attached body passage is on 632; this displacement is preserved by the supplied edition.
concupiscere · concupivit
Printed “concupivit” (Latin; related verb form).
Desired or longed for; the object is lasting fame through literature, not sexual possession.
Context: The marginal report concerns Cosimo de’ Medici and is associated with Giovio’s biography. Burton contrasts the motive with superior love of learning, while the preceding concession explicitly allows many sincere charitable benefactors.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Immortalitatem beneficio literarum, immortali gloriosa quadam cupiditate concupivit
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: He desired immortality through literature, with a certain undying and glorious ambition
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Supplied words: He (understood subject made explicit in the editorial translation)
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscere · concupiscit · local use 1
Printed “concupiscit” (Latin; related verb form).
Desires or longs; the construction makes possessing something its object, while nimia aviditate supplies the excessive eagerness.
Context: The margin belongs to the definition expanded with Savonarola. Hunters’ sport and misers’ gold illustrate the same verb beyond the lover’s desire for a mistress. The definition is one in a sequence of disputed medical accounts, not a consensus definition.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: quo quis rem habere nimia aviditate concupiscit
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: in which someone desires to possess a thing with excessive eagerness
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Notes: The marginal container identifies printed page 446, misprinted 246; the body source locator gives sequential 446. No fresh collation is claimed.
concupiscere · concupierit
Printed “concupierit” (Latin; related verb form).
Desired sexually; the inflected verb appears twice in the reported allegation.
Context: Nicholas Sander is the alleged source and Henry VIII the subject. Burton explicitly says he does not know how truthfully it is reported. The original second clause has an extra non; the supplied modernization follows Burton’s following English instead. Neither the allegation nor a corrected Latin reading is authenticated.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, & paucissimas non concupierit quas non violarit
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: that he saw few beautiful women whom he did not desire, and desired very few whom he did not violate
Qualification: Whole reported sentence aligned with the edition’s explicitly interpretive rendering. In its second clause the modern text does not translate the printed non before concupierit; it follows Burton’s English gloss, as the accompanying note explains. The original extra negative is retained in the quoted unit.
Notes: The edition distinguishes Latin violarit, rendered violate, from Burton’s English enjoy, rendered possess. Exact wording and the unverified attribution remain separate.
concupiscere · concupita
Printed “concupita” (Latin; related participle form).
Desired sexually; the passive participle describes the virgin as the potential object, while à nemine denies any desiring agent.
Context: The margin is attached to the account of Mary’s chaste beauty. Burton qualifies the claimed protection from lust with if we may believe Gerson and Bonaventure; the article reports that attribution rather than certifying it.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: virgo formosissima, sed à nemine concupita
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: a most beautiful virgin, yet desired by no one
Qualification: Original marginal quotation aligned with its separately identified editorial translation, not with the modern body.
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
concupiscere · concupiscit · local use 2
Printed “concupiscit” (Latin; related verb form).
Desires or feels sexual longing; this active verb describes the allegedly unattractive woman’s own desire, in contrast to the passive being loved in the first clause.
Context: Burton uses a hostile gendered maxim to recommend a middle degree of beauty. He later states his own conditional preference for beauty when other advantages are equal and expressly leaves the reader free to choose; the maxim is not a factual account of women’s character.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Pulchra citò adamatur, fœda facile concupiscit
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: A beautiful woman is quickly loved; an ugly one readily desires
Qualification: Equal-scope phrase or construction alignment; the entire unit carries the rendering.
Supplied words: woman / one (the female subjects expressed by the Latin adjectives are made explicit in English)
Notes: Historical attributions remain Burton’s; no fresh collation of cited historical works is claimed.
cupiditas
Printed “cupiditas” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Citation key, Printed form, Original wording: cupiditas
Meaning: Desire.
Here: Desire in the marginal account of the eyes as channels into the soul.
Context: The Salvian margin says omnis improba cupiditas: every and wicked belong to omnis and improba. Burton’s English body uses dishonest concupiscence; the Latin noun here is cupiditas, not concupiscentia.
Source: original marginal quotation
Source wording: omnis improba cupiditas
Modern rendering: desire
Alignment scope: Component alignment in the supplied translation of the marginal Latin; wicked is not part of cupiditas alone.
Edition note: checked against the supplied source; editorial interpretation explicitly qualified where applicable
inordinate appetite
Printed “inordinate appetite” (English; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording: inordinate appetite
Disordered or ungoverned desire; explains the impulses towards food, drink and sexual activity.
Context: Temperament and appetite are the stated forces driving people headlong.
Source: original body
Notes: Historical source attributions are Burton’s; no fresh collation of the cited works is claimed.