From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The word“Daemon” and “genius” overlap in Burton’s accounts of spirits, but they do not carry one meaning everywhere.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyIn the address to the reader, the word helps Burton describe his relation to melancholy and to writing.
- In this editionThe supplied modern rendering gives “dæmones” as “daimones,” “boni and mali Genii” as “good and evil guardian spirits,” and “familiarem dæmonem” as “a familiar spirit.”
- A place to readthe prompting to write and melancholy as evil genius
Meaning
“Daemon” and “genius” overlap in Burton’s accounts of spirits, but they do not carry one meaning everywhere. His printed “dæmones” is the plural name which, he says, Platonists give to spirits whether good or bad. “Genii,” plural of genius, can mean attendant or guardian spirits. In “boni and mali Genii,” the Latin adjectives mean good and evil: the moral difference comes from those adjectives, not from the noun alone. “Substantiæ separatæ” means separate substances, beings conceived apart from matter; “intelligences” names intellectual beings. Burton brings these descriptions into comparison with angels and devils without producing a single agreed ancient and Christian classification.
“Genius” can also mean a person’s character, prompting or appetite. Burton’s “a mans genius” is the disposition revealed by his writing; “starve his Genius” means deny his own ordinary enjoyment. The corresponding positive idiom “indulgere genio” means indulge one’s inclination. These idioms draw on personal nature or an attendant spirit. Elsewhere “Genius” can name a characteristic talent: the scoffers excel only in coarse joking. The marginal “dæmonium hominis,” a prodigy of a man, belongs instead to extravagant learned praise that Burton then deflates. A Latin singular “dæmonium” in the Socrates discussion designates his reported divine spirit or sign. Its precise local account must be distinguished from the wider genus of spirits.
Use in the book
In the address to the reader, the word helps Burton describe his relation to melancholy and to writing. He undertakes the book at his genius’s prompting, then tries out melancholy as mistress, counsellor and “malus genius,” an evil spirit. This is a sequence of personifications and self-descriptions. Later his works disclose his genius as tracks disclose an animal, while his claim to have poured out whatever his genius dictated describes the spontaneity of composition. The supernatural vocabulary becomes an account of inner disposition and literary production.
The vocabulary also supports moral personification. “Immortall Genius” attends the fame of warriors in a bitter contrast between heroic monuments and slaughter; national idleness becomes a “malus Genius.” Anger is called “dæmonem pessimum,” a most evil demon, in Burton’s tentative attribution to Basil, though his following English says only a bad angel. “Homo homini dæmon” makes people demons to one another through their deliberate cruelty. The “blandus dæmon,” coaxing demon, describes flattering praise and, elsewhere, wine when moderation is absent. These figures locate the harmful agency in human conduct, passions or enticements.
The spirit survey begins by admitting obscurity and disagreement. Burton distinguishes people who deny spirits from philosophers who affirm them; the “same minde” of Epicureans and atheists resumes the denial, rather than the immediately preceding vocabulary of separate substances. He reports the claim that spirits are departed human souls, but calls it foolish. The account of guardians appointed from birth is introduced with “as others suppose.” Their powers include punishment as well as protection; a guardian is not defined simply as a benevolent helper. His list of good and bad classes belongs to a compilation of authorities whose classifications need not agree.
This distinction between reporting and accepting is decisive. After rehearsing accounts of spirits’ bodies, mortality, transformation and superiority to humans, Burton rejects many of them, allows deception of perception and considerable powers exercised by God’s permission, and denies that spirits can know the secrets of a person’s heart. He then expressly rejects the pagan orders of good and evil genii and the accounts of Socrates’ and Plotinus’s spirits. An article explaining the broad ancient meaning of daemon must retain this later Christian judgement; lexical breadth does not establish Burton’s doctrinal neutrality. The marginal quotation about Socrates also contains the problematic “instar ovis,” literally like a sheep, which the supplied translation interprets as like a voice. That editorial interpretation is not a silently corrected original. The same marginal quotation says the sign sometimes urges action; the supplied note contrasts Plato’s Apology 31d, where it restrains and never urges. This comparison is the edition’s documented finding, not a fresh collation of Plato.
The same pattern returns when spirits are made governors of political and private life. Reported writers explain preferment, defeat and disappointment through favour or conflict between personal genii. “Genius Genio cedit & obtemperat” makes one guardian spirit yield and submit to another; it does not make the human subject directly perform both actions. A familiar spirit allegedly instructs every extraordinarily famous person. Burton immediately calls these sweeping claims erroneous, while affirming a more limited power to harm body and mind by divine permission. The assertion “Never was any man” therefore belongs inside the reported scheme and must be read with its explicit rejection.
Guardianship reaches beyond an individual person. Scaliger’s “locorum Genios” suggests the spirits or distinctive characters of places in an explanation of regional difference that Burton expressly rejects; Bodin’s governing genii then supply a different supernatural explanation. The lover may swear by the “Genius of Cæsar,” but Burton warns against trusting such an oath. Later a verse attributed to Prudentius assigns “genios” even to houses, roofs, baths and shod horses. An argument for religious plurality supposes infinitely many worlds, their ruling spirits and corresponding religions; its cosmological premise remains conditional.
The appetite idiom has different moral and practical settings. A miser needlessly denies himself enjoyment while withholding resources from his family. Poor people, even those slightly above the lowest ranks, deny themselves under extortion and hardship yet still cannot make a living in some countries. In the imagined commonwealth, even the humblest workers receive recreation and permission to indulge their inclinations. Later parents “starve their childrens Genius” by requiring the young to give up youthful pleasures and marriage. The self-denial is voluntary and condemned in the miser, coerced in the labourers, and imposed by parents in the marriage discussion. The verb’s object and the circumstances prevent a uniform moral gloss.
“Indulgere genio” also appears in Burton’s attack on popes and cardinals, whose alleged private pleasures he contrasts with their followers’ suffering. Here the idiom is censured, whereas the commonwealth permits recreation. The family supplies a further domestic metaphor in Guevara’s marriage warning: “non generum sed malum Genium,” not a son-in-law but an evil spirit. The Latin wordplay distinguishes the troublesome son-in-law from the daughter-in-law and life companion named next; Burton’s own English summary rearranges those relationships.
In the theory of love, “Divell” can again carry the ancient daemon sense. Burton’s Plotinus asks whether love is a god, a spirit or a passion, or participates in all three; the following Plato passage calls love a great spirit. These are philosophical definitions reported within a debate in which Scaliger subsequently challenges definitions through desire or appetite. Much later Burton reports Maximus of Tyre’s good dead person becoming a guardian spirit, retaining “so they will have it” and intervening with his own explanation of demonic impersonation. In the consolation of despair, “my bonus Genius” belongs to the sufferer’s objection that his protecting angel has gone. Burton replies by urging repeated repentance and confidence in forgiveness; he does not ratify the imagined abandonment.
The local theological setting also matters. “Casti genii,” pure spirits, occurs in Burton’s Christian account of angels and living souls caring for the faithful. Near the work’s conclusion, the cited “dæmones sunt morbi,” demons are diseases, appears within Richard Argentine’s medical prescription. It is a reported assertion in that remedy discussion, not a universal definition that dissolves every earlier distinction among spirits, personifications and illness.
Related entries
Demonic apparitions; Familiar; Obsession and possession; Incubus; Bugbear; Ecstasy; Imagination; Love; Avarice; Poverty; Divine
Places to read
- · paragraph 7–9the prompting to write and melancholy as evil genius
- · paragraph 8–10, 24–26genius as disclosed character and the voice of improvised composition
- · paragraph 17–19the marginal prodigy-of-a-man encomium and its ensuing deflation
- · paragraph 21–24immortal genius as the fame of destructive warriors
- · paragraph 11–13idleness as the nation’s evil genius
- · paragraph 42–43recreation and indulgence extended to workers
- · paragraph 22–48obscurity, competing names, guardian spirits and attributed powers
- · paragraph 1–25spirit hierarchies, doctrinal rejection and limits on their knowledge; marginal note 2007 preserves the problematic Socratic wording
- · paragraph 3–12governing genii, familiar instructors and Burton’s immediate rejection of the expansive scheme
- · paragraph 28–30anger as a most evil demon; Latin and English degrees differ
- · paragraph 36–38one human being as another’s demon
- · paragraph 5–7the miser starving his own enjoyment and withholding from others
- · paragraph 16–18praise as a coaxing demon
- · paragraph 34–36genius as the scoffers’ limited talent
- · paragraph 12–14self-denial forced by poverty and exaction
- · paragraph 10–15spirits or characters of places in competing accounts of regional difference
- · paragraph 41–43wine’s legitimate uses and its conditional description as a coaxing demon
- · paragraph 27–31daemon in the philosophical definitions of love; Latin marginal note 8217 supplies the corresponding phrase
- · paragraph 22–24pure genii in an account of Christian love
- · paragraph 24–26the lover’s oath by Caesar’s guardian
- Unnumbered verso afterparents suppressing their children’s youthful nature
- · paragraph 28–30son-in-law and evil genius in Guevara’s marriage warning
- · paragraph 40–42Maximus of Tyre’s guardian souls and Burton’s theological intervention
- · paragraph 43–45genii assigned to structures and animals
- · paragraph 1–2indulgence in Burton’s anti-papal polemic
- · paragraph 15–19conditional many-worlds reasoning and religious plurality
- · paragraph 34–36the distressed speaker’s lost guardian and the answering consolation
- the reported identification of demons with diseases
In this edition
The supplied modern rendering gives “dæmones” as “daimones,” “boni and mali Genii” as “good and evil guardian spirits,” and “familiarem dæmonem” as “a familiar spirit.” These preserve the broad or attendant senses within the attributed accounts. “A God or a Divell” becomes “a god, a spirit,” and “the great Divell” becomes “the great spirit” in the love discussion. The marginal Latin “Deus, an Dæmon” supports the ancient philosophical distinction. The whole question or phrase is the alignment unit; the good/evil contrast and the familiarity belong to their modifiers as well as to the nouns.
The idiomatic translations vary usefully: “a mans genius” becomes “a man’s character”; “starve his Genius” becomes “starving his own appetite for enjoyment”; “starve their Genius” becomes “deny themselves”; and the parents starve their children’s “natural spirit.” In “my bonus Genius,” “good” translates bonus, while guardian makes the attendant relation explicit before Burton’s own “good protecting Angel.” These comparisons concern the supplied rendering. Editorial explanations and translated material inside Burton-labelled notes remain distinct from quoted original wording; the ancient and early modern works named there have not been freshly collated for this article.
blandus dæmon · local use 1
Printed “blandus dæmon” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: A coaxing or enticing demon.
Here: An enticing, flattering demon: praise imagined as a seductive and harmful power.
Context: Burton includes himself and his readers in the susceptibility to praise; the contrast is between apparent modesty and inward pleasure.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: fallax suavitas, blandus dæmon
Modern rendering: “a deceptive sweetness,” “a coaxing demon,”
blandus dæmon · local use 2
Printed “blandus dæmon” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: A coaxing or enticing demon.
Here: Wine figured as an enticing demon when exceptional moderation is absent.
Context: The warning is conditional on immoderate use and follows an allowance for legitimate medicinal or consolatory use; the demon phrase belongs to Burton’s surrounding prose.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: If singular moderation be not had, nothing so pernicious, ’tis meer vinegar, blandus dæmon, poyson it self
Modern rendering: without exceptional moderation nothing is so harmful: it is mere vinegar, “a coaxing demon,” poison itself
casti genii
Printed “Casti genii” (Latin; phrase).
Pure spirits, here angels and living souls described as caring for the faithful.
Context: Burton uses genii within a Christian account of mutual love; casti supplies the adjective pure.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: they pray for us, are solicitous for our good, Casti genii
Modern rendering: They pray for us and care for our welfare, “pure spirits”
Word and construction: Casti supplies pure and genii supplies spirits. The preceding English clauses describe their actions; those actions are not part of genii’s lexical definition.
daemon · dæmones
Printed “dæmones” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Spirits in the broad ancient category, whether good or bad.
Context: Burton attributes this naming practice to Platonists and invokes Pollux; all is limited to that reported usage.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: they name all the Spirits, dæmones, be they good or bad Angels
Modern rendering: they give all spirits the name daimones, whether good or evil angels
daemon · a God or a Divell
Printed “a God or a Divell” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
God or daemon as alternatives in the reported inquiry about love.
Context: Plotinus’s alternatives as transmitted by Burton; spirit has the ancient daemon sense.
Source: original body
Source wording: whether it be a God or a Divell, or passion of the minde
daemon · Dæmon
Printed “Dæmon” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Spirit in the Latin philosophical alternatives concerning love.
Context: The quoted marginal Latin accompanies Burton’s Plotinus account; the English inside the note is editorial translation.
Source: original marginal quotation
Source wording, Original wording: utrum Deus, an Dæmon, an passio quædam animæ
Modern rendering: whether it is a god, a spirit, a certain passion of the soul
Word and construction: The Latin interrogative alternatives omit the subject and copula that the modern supplies as it is. Deus, Dæmon and passio name the alternatives; quædam supplies certain and animæ supplies of the soul.
Edition note: checked against editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note; translation is not original evidence
daemon · the great Divell
Printed “the great Divell” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Printed form, Source wording: the great Divell
The great spirit, love, in Burton’s report of Plato.
Context: Burton connects the title to love’s force over passions; it is not an assertion that love is a Christian evil devil.
Source: original body
daemonium
Printed “Dæmonium” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.
The divine spirit or sign attributed to Socrates.
Context: Burton condemns the account attributed to Apuleius, Xenophon and Plato.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Socrates Dæmonium
Modern rendering: Socrates’ divine spirit
Word and construction: Divine spirit renders Dæmonium as a whole; divine is not a separately printed adjective in this body phrase. Socrates supplies the possessor.
dæmones sunt morbi
Printed “dæmones sunt morbi” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: Demons are diseases.
Here: Demons identified with diseases in a cited medical prescription.
Context: Richard Argentine’s abrupt statement is reported; it is not Burton’s universal resolution of the different accounts of spirits.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: nam dæmones sunt morbi
Modern rendering: for demons are diseases
Word and construction: Nam supplies for, dæmones supplies demons, sunt explicitly supplies are, and morbi supplies diseases; the copula here is printed, unlike the nominal construction in V026.
dæmonium hominis
Printed “dæmonium hominis” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: dæmonium hominis
A marvellous or prodigious man, in extravagant praise of learning.
Context: A marginal catalogue of learned encomia; the next passage deflates the supposedly superhuman scholars. Exact allocation of the marginal epithets remains unresolved.
Source: original marginal quotation
Modern rendering: a prodigy of a man
Edition note: checked against editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note; translation is not original evidence
evil daemon
Printed “dæmonem pessimum” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: A most evil demon; accusative singular, with the superlative adjective pessimum.
Here: Anger figured as a most evil demon; pessimum supplies the superlative.
Context: Burton tentatively connects the description to Basil, retaining belike; his own following English reduces the Latin superlative to a bad Angel.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: tenebras rationis, morbum animæ, & dæmonem pessimum
Modern rendering: the darkness of reason, a disease of the soul, and a most evil demon
evil genius · malus Genius
Printed “malus Genius” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: Evil spirit or evil guardian spirit.
Here: The malign guiding force of national idleness, personified.
Context: Burton himself applies the spirit metaphor to a political and economic failing.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Idleness is the malus Genius of our nation
Modern rendering: Idleness is our nation’s “evil spirit.”
Alignment language note: The indexed form malus Genius is Latin; the wider aligned sentence mixes English and Latin.
evil genius · malum Genium
Printed “malum Genium” (Latin; phrase).
Meaning: Evil spirit, in the accusative singular.
Here: A troublesome son-in-law figured as an evil spirit.
Context: Guevara’s reported warning about unequal marriages; the Latin contrasts generum and Genium, and Burton’s own English restatement calls the unsuitable son-in-law a fiend.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: non generum sed malum Genium
Modern rendering: not a son-in-law but an evil spirit
Word and construction: Non... sed supplies not... but; generum is son-in-law, while malum Genium is evil spirit. The following daughter-in-law and life-companion clauses are outside this alignment.
familiar daemon
Printed “familiarem dæmonem” (Latin; phrase).
An attending or familiar spirit said to instruct a person.
Context: Universal claim within the reported scheme, immediately rejected.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: that had not familiarem dæmonem, to inform him
Modern rendering: without a familiar spirit to instruct him
genius · impellente genio
Printed “impellente genio” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
At the prompting of a guiding spirit or inner inclination.
Context: Burton applies a cited phrase to his own undertaking; genius supplies the prompting.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: impellente genio negotium suscepi
Modern rendering: undertook the work at the prompting of my genius
Word and construction: Impellente genio is an ablative absolute, at a genius’s prompting. The modern possessive my is supplied from Burton’s first-person context; no possessive is printed within the Latin phrase. Negotium suscepi supplies the undertaking of the work.
genius · malus genius
Printed “malus genius” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Evil spirit, here a proposed personification of melancholy.
Context: Burton asks what relationship-name to give his own melancholy; malus contributes evil.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: my malus genius
Modern rendering: my “evil spirit”
genius · a mans genius
Printed “a mans genius” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
A person’s character or disposition, revealed in writing.
Context: Burton explains how works disclose their author; the genius is what is discerned.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: so is a mans genius descried by his works
Modern rendering: so a man’s character can be discerned in his works
Word and construction: Genius is rendered character. The modern can be discerned introduces a modal phrasing for original is descried; can is not a separate original component.
genius · genius meus
Printed “genius meus” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
My genius: the inner prompting represented as dictating the composition.
Context: Burton’s self-description; the genius dictates, the writer pours out.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus
Modern rendering: I poured out whatever my genius dictated
genius · boni and mali Genii · local use 1
Printed “boni and mali Genii” (Latin/English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: boni and mali Genii
Good and evil attendant or guardian spirits.
Context: Others suppose appointment from birth to protect or punish; boni and mali supply the opposed moral adjectives.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: good and evil guardian spirits
Word and construction: Boni and mali supply good and evil; guardian spirits is the explanatory rendering of Genii, not an additional printed Latin adjective.
genius · boni and mali Genii · local use 2
Printed “boni and mali Genii” (Latin/English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
The pagan good and evil guardian classes which Burton rejects.
Context: Burton’s explicit rejection qualifies the preceding reports; exploded means rejected.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: those Ethnicks boni and mali Genii, are to be exploded
Modern rendering: the pagans’ good and evil genii must be rejected
genius · Genius Genio cedit & obtemperat
Printed “Genius Genio cedit & obtemperat” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: Genius Genio cedit & obtemperat
One guardian spirit yields and submits to another.
Context: Burton reports the supposition of Libanius, identified by the edition as Libavius; the spirits, not the human clients, are grammatical agents.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: one guardian spirit yields and submits to another
Word and construction: Genius is nominative and Genio dative: the first yields and submits to the second. One and another express that relational contrast; neither is a separately printed Latin numeral or pronoun. Guardian makes the attendant sense explicit.
genius · a good Genius
Printed “a good Genius” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
A guardian spirit assigned to protect and govern people.
Context: Reported Maximus of Tyre doctrine, explicitly qualified by so they will have it.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: a good Genius to protect and govern mortal men appointed by the gods
Modern rendering: a good guardian spirit appointed by the gods to protect and govern mortal people
Word and construction: The widened original span includes appointed by the gods, whose position moves in the modern. Guardian explicates the attendant sense of Genius; good translates the original good.
genius · my bonus Genius
Printed “my bonus Genius” (Latin/English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
My good guardian spirit in an imagined complaint of abandonment.
Context: The distressed interlocutor voices the fear; Burton answers with repentance and reassurance.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: my bonus Genius, my good protecting Angel is gone
Modern rendering: My good guardian spirit, my good protecting angel, is gone
Word and construction: Bonus supplies good. Guardian explicates Genius before Burton’s separate English restatement good protecting Angel; these are not collapsed into one source expression.
genius · Genius
Printed “Genius” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
A characteristic talent or bent, here confined to coarse joking.
Context: The scoffers excel only in this limited activity; Burton judges their other conversation barren.
Source: original body
Source wording: here lies their Genius, in this they alone excel
genius · genios
Printed “genios” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Guardian spirits assigned to places, structures and animals as well as people.
Context: A verse attributed to Prudentius within Burton’s polemic against multiplying gods; the supplied note identifies it as adapted.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Et domibus, tectis, thermis, & equis soleatis Assignare solent genios
Modern rendering: To houses, roofs, baths and shod horses They are accustomed to assign guardian spirits
Word and construction: Genios is the accusative object of assignare; the dative list names what receives the assigned guardians. English they is contained grammatically in solent rather than in a separate pronoun; guardian explicates genios.
genius · Genii
Printed “Genii” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.
Ruling spirits attached to worlds in a conditional argument for many religions.
Context: The infinite worlds are supposed, not established; the conclusion continues a reported argument for religious plurality.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: if there be infinite planetary and firmamentals worlds, as some will, there be infinite Genii or commanding Spirits belonging to each of them
Modern rendering: if there are infinitely many planetary and stellar worlds, as some maintain, there are infinitely many guardian or ruling spirits belonging to each of them
Word and construction: Guardian explicates Genii, while ruling spirits corresponds to the English alternative commanding Spirits. The condition if and the repeated infinite belong to the full construction and remain explicitly represented.
genius of a place
Printed “locorum Genios” (Latin; phrase).
The distinctive spirits or characters of different places.
Context: Scaliger’s proposed explanation of regional differences; Burton immediately judges the explanation inadequate.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Diversos (he concludes) efficere locorum Genios
Modern rendering: “To produce different spirits of places,” he concludes
Word and construction: Locorum is genitive plural, of places, and Genios accusative plural, spirits. Diversos, outside the indexed form but included in the aligned clause, supplies different; efficere supplies to produce. The English he concludes translates Burton’s parenthetical English.
genius of Caesar
Printed “Genius of Cæsar” (English; phrase).
Caesar’s guardian spirit invoked as the authority of an oath.
Context: Burton warns that the lover’s solemn invocation is no assurance of truth.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: though he solemnly swear by the Genius of Cæsar
Modern rendering: Though he solemnly swears by Caesar’s guardian spirit
Word and construction: Guardian spirit explicates Genius as the oath’s object of invocation; guardian is not separately printed. Of Cæsar supplies Caesar’s.
homo homini dæmon
Printed “homo homini dæmon” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: homo homini dæmon
Meaning: One person is another’s demon.
Here: Human beings become tormenting demons to one another through deliberate cruelty.
Context: Burton’s moral accusation concerns human agents and their mutual injuries, not literal possession.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: one person is another’s demon
Word and construction: Homo is the subject, homini a dative denoting the person to whom the demon-like human stands in that relation; dæmon is the predicate. English is supplies the unexpressed copula. One and another unpack the repeated noun’s relational construction.
immortal genius
Printed “immortall Genius” (English; phrase).
Personified immortal fame attending celebrated warriors.
Context: Burton ironically contrasts monuments to conquerors with the slaughter they cause.
Source: original body
Source wording: that immortall Genius attends on them
indulgere genio · local use 1
Printed “indulgere genio” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: indulgere genio
Indulge one’s inclination or appetite for recreation.
Context: Burton’s proposed commonwealth permits recreation to every rank.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: to indulge their inclinations
Word and construction: Indulgere governs the dative genio. Their is supplied from the workers and other ranks in the surrounding sentence; the Latin phrase contains no explicit possessive.
indulgere genio · local use 2
Printed “indulgere genio” (Latin; phrase).
Indulge one’s appetites, here alleged privileged self-pampering.
Context: Burton’s anti-papal accusation contrasts leaders’ pleasures with the sufferings of their followers; its moral evaluation differs from the permitted recreation.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: they do indulgere genio, and make much of themselves
Modern rendering: They indulge their appetites and pamper themselves
Word and construction: Their in their appetites is supplied from the polemical sentence’s human subjects; genio itself contains no possessive. The following make much of themselves is separately rendered pamper themselves.
Alignment language note: The indexed form indulgere genio is Latin; the wider aligned clause mixes English and Latin.
instar ovis
Printed “instar ovis” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Original wording: instar ovis
Meaning: Like a sheep.
Here: The printed comparison literally means like a sheep; the supplied note interprets it as like a voice, as if instar vocis were intended.
Context: This unresolved printed wording belongs to the quoted account of Socrates’s sign. The supplied reading is an editorial interpretation, not a newly verified correction or the literal meaning of ovis.
Source: original marginal quotation
Source wording: impellit nonnunquam instar ovis
Modern rendering: like a voice
Alignment scope: Editorial interpretation of a suspected misprint; not an exact lexical translation of the printed Latin.
Edition note: checked against the supplied source; editorial interpretation explicitly qualified where applicable
intelligence
Printed “intelligences” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Intellectual beings in the comparison of spiritual categories.
Context: The phrase coordinates two descriptions; it does not establish agreement among authorities.
Source: original body
Source wording: substantiæ separatæ and intelligences
starve one’s genius · starve his Genius
Printed “starve his Genius” (English; phrase).
Deny himself ordinary enjoyment despite having wealth.
Context: The miser voluntarily harms himself and withholds from others.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: to starve his Genius
Modern rendering: starving his own appetite for enjoyment
Word and construction: The whole starve his Genius idiom becomes starving his own appetite for enjoyment. Appetite for enjoyment is an explanatory rendering of Genius in this construction, not a series of separately printed original words.
starve one’s genius · starve their Genius
Printed “starve their Genius” (English; phrase).
Deny their own appetites and comforts under hardship.
Context: Poor people labour and deny themselves under economic coercion; even those slightly above the lowest ranks still cannot make a living in some countries.
Source: original body
Source wording: and starve their Genius
Original wording: that though they do drudge, fare hard, and starve their Genius, they cannot live in some countries
Modern rendering: that in some countries they cannot make a living, however hard they toil, however poorly they eat and however much they deny themselves
Word and construction: Compare the complete concessive clause supplied in the main repair. However hard, however poorly and however much unfold original though; no quantifier should be assigned to starve their Genius alone.
starve one’s genius · starve their childrens Genius
Printed “starve their childrens Genius” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: starve their childrens Genius
Suppress their children’s youthful disposition and pleasures.
Context: Parents act on their children, measuring youthful desire by their own age.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: starve their children’s natural spirit
Word and construction: Natural spirit interprets Genius in the youthful-disposition idiom; natural is not separately present in the original phrase. Their childrens supplies the children as possessors of that disposition.
substantia separata
Printed “substantiæ separatæ” (Latin; phrase).
Separate substances, conceived as existing apart from matter.
Context: Burton compares philosophical and religious nomenclatures amid disputed beliefs.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: substantiæ separatæ and intelligences
Modern rendering: Separate substances and intelligences