Dowry and jointure

Use in the book

The inherited financial examples concern both public regulation and household pressure. Burton’s imagined commonwealth would abolish or limit large dowries, with supervisors assigning different amounts according to perceived attractiveness. His reported Spartan and Venetian precedents remain uncollated. This is part of a coercive scheme that regulates ages, compels marriage and excludes people on grounds of disability or alleged hereditary disease, rather than a freestanding recommendation adopted here. The later household catalogue instead lists dowries, jointures, legacies and annuities as obligations that reduce available income, aggravated by families’ refusal to lower their style of life to their present means.

The poverty of learning receives two linked marriage metaphors. The Muses remain unmarried because, Burton says he believes, they lack portions. Buchanan’s Latin Calliope couplet and Burton’s separate English version develop that explanation. The penniless scholar is then called indotatus, without a dowry, while his patron offers praise instead of advancement. Burton’s preceding Psyche story makes the same connection, but the explanation that she lacked suitors because she lacked money is his addition to Apuleius. A marginal counter-image makes learning itself a dowry and its own largesse; the full Dousa source remains uncollated. Elsewhere portion is simply inherited property: the lady in Camden’s hospital-foundation story devotes her inheritance to care for others. That use must not be forced into the marriage sense. Nor must Latin gifts always be turned into dowries: the margin on Metellus names exceptional gifts of mind, although Burton adds sorrow to a source celebrating his happiness. A second marginal verse praises a maiden’s many gifts as material for word-rearrangement exercises; it does not promise several marriage payments. Gifts and liberality treats this wider vocabulary of endowments.

Dowry is explicitly classified among artificial attractions. Money produces love’s arrows in the Latin tag, and a large portion can outweigh qualities of character, upbringing or appearance in the money-seeker’s judgment. Burton marks this attraction as operating in the world’s eyes, at least. Territorial wealth can enter the same language: his Rowena example gives Kent as her dowry, but the compared legendary account reverses the transfer, making Vortigern grant Kent for the marriage. The narrative cannot therefore establish the actual direction of a historical marriage payment. The subsequent warning against matches founded on wealth or appetite is a moral argument, not proof that every such union has the same outcome.

In the anti-marriage case, a wealthy wife’s dowry is made to purchase the husband’s subjection. The Latin contrasts accepting a dowry with losing authority, then pictures the dowry entering while freedom leaves. Plautus supplies another complaint about expenses accompanying large dowries. The alternative wife “in her smock” brings nothing beyond her clothing, with household skill presented as preferable to wealth. These hostile generalizations are part of the arguments used to deter the lovesick. Burton later insists that all wives must not be condemned for a few, and calls a good wife a good portion: the person herself is the valued provision, not a cash payment.

The parental discussion changes the pressure again. A father may prevent marriage to avoid paying a dowry or losing his daughter’s service; the next paragraph also recognizes actual lack of means. Burton reports a legal argument that a daughter over twenty-five may marry against parental wishes and compel a suitable dowry, but begins with “If Nevizanus the Lawyer do not impose”. He immediately adds a restrictive endorsement of parental choice and female reserve. Neither the conditional report nor its marginal formulation should become an unqualified account of present law. Conversely, social ambition can use a daughter’s portion to buy a higher-ranked match; the claim that a maiden must buy her husband belongs to Burton’s iron-age satire.

His positive alternative repeatedly treats beauty and good upbringing as sufficient marriage property. The attractive poor maiden is figuratively endowed in abundance; the appeal against parental severity allows exceptions for serious impediments. A comic recommendation that rich men marry poor daughters without dowries is given first in adapted Latin, then in Burton’s English, which adds piety. His favorable Aristaenetus example extracts a compassionate marriage from a letter whose husband goes on to complain about the wife. Athenais supposedly receives upbringing instead of a portion, although the inheritance details vary in the compared tradition. These are rhetorical examples with limits, not interchangeable historical proofs. Finally, Horace’s moral dowry of parental virtue and chastity accompanies Burton’s warning not to prefer wealth, birth or beauty to character.

Related entries

Affinity and consanguinity: Marriage kinship and the family connections claimed in patronage.

Venery: The inherited reference to sexual life and marriage.

Suit: Courtship and applications for advancement.

Mistress: Beloved, wife and household authority.

Legal evidence: The need to preserve the limits of reported historical legal claims.

Marriage: Marriage arguments and their later counterarguments.

Liberty and servitude: The loss-of-liberty rhetoric attached to wealthy marriages.

Church patronage: The penniless scholar’s search for preferment.

Gifts and liberality: Latin gifts and endowments beyond the marriage-payment sense.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 11–13inheritance devoted to a hospital, Camden’s attributed foundation story and Burton’s analogy with his own service to readers.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 4–6proposed dowry controls, reported precedents in notes 1092–93, marriage ages and the wider coercive and exclusionary scheme.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 31–33household troubles and financial charges, with jointures separately named and explained.
4. Subsection 5. Melancholy as a Passing State, Loosely So Called; the Different Meanings of the Word · paragraphs 4–6exceptional mental gifts in note 1544 and Burton’s added insistence on sorrow despite the cited exemplar’s happiness.
5. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 26–30the Muses without portions, Buchanan’s printed dotis, Burton’s separate English and the poverty-of-learning argument.
6. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 24–29Psyche’s added lack of dowry, the unappointed scholar, and learning as a figurative dowry in note 3596.
7. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 12–14; note 6036the maiden’s gifts in a sample rearrangeable verse, with the exercise counts and sources left unverified.
8. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraphs 27–29beauty as a material substitute amid attributed praises and recommendations.
9. Member 3 Subsection 3 · paragraph 19; Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 20–21dowry among artificial attractions; the heading’s numbering discrepancy is preserved rather than silently repaired.
10. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 1–3money’s arrows, a large marriage portion, the adapted Theognis comparison and Burton’s separate English version.
11. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 11–13political and territorial advantages in marriage, the reversed legendary Kent transaction and the ensuing moral warning.
12. 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 14–21the anti-marriage attack on rich wives, Latin loss-of-authority and freedom claims, Plautus’s dowry expenses and marriage in a smock.
13. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 76–78mutual affection obstructed by parents, reluctance to pay a dowry, and the separate case of actual poverty.
14. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 84–87beauty as dowry, qualified resistance to parental severity and reasons other than wealth for accepting a match.
15. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 7–9the conditional Nevizanus legal report, dotandum in note 11096, and Burton’s immediate limitation in favor of parental choice.
16. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 22–27dowryless marriages in adapted Plautus, beauty and upbringing as provision, and the incomplete favorable extraction from Aristaenetus.
17. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 33–36education and beauty as adequate dowry, qualified golden-age claims and the Athenais inheritance story.
18. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 39–45the accusation of buying husbands, political pressure, and social ambition financed by large marriage portions.
19. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraphs 53–57the rejection of blanket condemnation and the good wife as a good portion or provision.
20. Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 30–32Horace’s moral dowry, character and upbringing as essential qualifications beyond wealth and rank.

In this edition

The inherited pairs remain “great dowers” → “large dowries”, “joynters” → “jointures”, “no portion” → “no dowries”, and “indotatus” → “without a dowry”. Great supplies large; the Muses’ collective singular portion becomes plural dowries. Jointure is retained and explained locally as the more specific settlement. The financial and satirical uses of dowry remain distinguishable.

Latin case-forms do not each carry the whole surrounding construction. In “nihil dotis” → “no dowry”, nihil supplies the absence; in “veniunt à dote sagittæ” → “The arrows come from the dowry”, à supplies from and the English articles are supplied. “Quod indotata” → “because she had no dowry” completes an elliptical causal clause with the subject and finite verb understood from Psyche. The positive “abunde dotata est” → “has a dowry in abundance” attributes abundance to abunde, not to the adjective alone. The marginal “ad congrue dotandum” → “to provide a suitable dowry” turns suitably into suitable within an expanded object phrase.

“Portion” is not assigned one equivalent everywhere. “All her portion” becomes “her whole inheritance”; “no portion but her bringing up” becomes “no dowry except her upbringing”; the good wife remains “a good portion”. The literal, substitute-asset and figurative-provision senses are explained in their own contexts. Burton’s English verse versions remain separate from the fresh renderings of his Latin quotations, and marginal translations are identified as note-level alignments.

dos · dotis

Printed “dotis” (Latin; lemma).

Of dowry: genitive singular of Latin dos.

Here: Nihil dotis is literally nothing of dowry, hence no dowry. The partitive construction depends on nihil; the printed dotis is retained despite a compared Buchanan witness reading a different case.

Context: Buchanan’s Calliope couplet supplies a literary explanation for scholarly poverty; Burton’s own English follows separately and is not substituted for the modern Latin rendering.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: nihil dotis

Modern rendering: no dowry

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

Word and construction: The complete partitive phrase nihil dotis becomes no dowry, not dotis alone becoming no dowry.

dos · local use 1

Printed “dos” (Latin; lemma).

A dowry: Latin dos, nominative singular.

Here: Dos is the dowry, intrat comes in, libertas freedom, exit goes out. The English definite article is supplied. The antithesis pictures financial gain as loss of the husband’s independence.

Context: The sentence belongs to the accumulated anti-marriage case, not an unqualified description of wives; Burton later rejects condemnation of all for a few and praises good wives.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: dos intrat, libertas exit

Modern rendering: The dowry comes in, freedom goes out

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

Word and construction: The two complete Latin clauses become English clauses, with The supplied before dowry. Each noun and verb keeps its own contribution.

Further local use

Printed “dote” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dote is ablative singular of dos; à supplies from, sagittæ arrows, veniunt come. Both English definite articles are supplied. Marriage wealth takes the place of an erotic projectile.

Context: Burton qualifies money’s attraction as in the world’s eyes at least. The opening Latin tag’s source remains unresolved.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: veniunt à dote sagittæ

Modern rendering: The arrows come from the dowry

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

Word and construction: The complete clause is aligned; dote contributes dowry, not from, which belongs to à. English articles are supplied.

Further local use

Printed “dotem” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dotem is accusative singular of dos, object of afferat, brings; magnam supplies large and English supplies a.

Context: The Latin adapts Theognis’s aristocratic breeding-and-marriage comparison; good and bad carry social-rank as well as moral implications. Its intermediary is unidentified.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: magnam dotem

Modern rendering: a large dowry

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

Word and construction: Magnam dotem becomes a large dowry with a supplied article; the governing verb lies outside this phrase.

Further local use

Printed “Dotem” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dotem is accusative singular, the object of accepi, I accepted; imperium authority or command, perdidi I lost. The modern supplies a, and and the possessive my.

Context: Burton attributes the complaint to Seneca’s declamations, associated with Seneca the Elder; the precise book/declamation reference remains uncollated.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Dotem accepi, imperium perdidi

Modern rendering: I accepted a dowry and lost my authority

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

Word and construction: Two first-person Latin clauses are joined in English with and; subject I is encoded in the verbs, while a and my are supplied.

Further local use

Printed “dotibus” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dotibus is ablative plural of dos, governed by the preceding in; magnis supplies great.

Context: The complaint is quoted from Plautus’s Aulularia within the anti-marriage case and remains subject to Burton’s later counterargument.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: magnis dotibus

Modern rendering: great dowries

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

Word and construction: Magnis contributes great and dotibus dowries; the preceding in is outside the indexed alignment and participates in the larger modern recasting as accompany.

dos · local use 2

Printed “dos” (Latin; lemma).

A dowry or endowment, figuratively predicated of learning: Latin dos.

Here: Scientia is learning, ipsa itself, dos a dowry, congiarium a largesse or distribution, sibique and for itself. English supplies the articles and uses its own to express the reflexive relation.

Context: The marginal Dousa citation accompanies the poor scholar’s exclusion; the complete source and the anomalous neighboring English no need remain uncollated.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: dos ipsa scientia sibique congiarium est

Modern rendering: Learning itself is a dowry and its own largesse

Alignment scope: Original marginal wording aligned with the supplied editorial translation in the same note

Word and construction: The whole Latin predicate is aligned with its note translation; dos contributes a dowry, not the separate largesse image.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “Dos” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dos means dowry; forma beauty, est is, sua her own, puellis for maidens. The modern turns the Latin plural generalization into a singular possessive construction and supplies A.

Context: Burton attributes the maxim to Ovid, but neither an Ovidian location nor direct dependence on the located Garzoni parallel is established.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Dos est sua forma puellis

Modern rendering: A maiden’s beauty is her dowry

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

Word and construction: A singular English generalization recasts Latin plural puellis; the full sentence, not Dos alone, supplies the maiden/beauty relationship.

Further local use

Printed “Dos” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dos is dowry; magna great, est is, parentum of parents, Virtus virtue. The English article A is supplied; the continuation adds chastity as another part of the moral endowment.

Context: Burton quotes Horace after warning that equality in rank and wealth must not displace virtue and upbringing; parentum is retained against a compared spelling parentium.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Dos est magna parentum Virtus

Modern rendering: A great dowry is the parents’ Virtue

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

Word and construction: The quoted first predicate is aligned, with supplied A; the following chastity clause is context, not silently included within this indexed phrase.

dos · dotes

Printed “dotes” (Latin; lemma).

Gifts, qualities or endowments: plural Latin dos in a non-financial sense.

Here: Dotes is accusative plural, object of habuit, possessed; animi means of mind, rarissimas exceptional or very rare. These are mental gifts, not marriage payments.

Context: The marginal Valerius Maximus account celebrates Metellus’s exceptional good fortune; Burton adds the insistence that he nevertheless suffered sorrow, contrary to the compared source’s conclusion.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: rarissimas animi dotes

Modern rendering: exceptional gifts of mind

Alignment scope: Original marginal Latin phrase aligned with its editorial translation in the same note

Word and construction: Rarissimas supplies exceptional, animi of mind, and dotes gifts in the note-level phrase translation.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “dotes” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: dos.

Here: Dotes is nominative plural, subject of sunt in a line praising a maiden’s many gifts or qualities. The construction does not assert multiple marriage payments.

Context: The verse is a sample for word-rearrangement exercises in Burton’s catalogue of occupations; the number of rearrangements and bibliographic identities are not independently guaranteed.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: dotes

Modern rendering: gifts

Alignment scope: Original marginal Latin word aligned with the supplied editorial note translation

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Modern container: note

dotatus

Printed “dotata” (Latin; lemma).

Provided or endowed with a dowry: feminine singular Latin dotata.

Here: Dotata est is an endowed-with-dowry predicate, recast as has a dowry; abunde supplies in abundance. Here beauty is treated figuratively as that endowment even though the maiden is poor.

Context: Burton’s attractive-but-poor marriage argument is attributed and later qualified; the exact Apuleius source remains uncollated.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: abunde dotata est

Modern rendering: has a dowry in abundance

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

Word and construction: Adjective/participle plus est becomes the finite has a dowry; abundance belongs to abunde.

doto

Printed “dotandum” (Latin; lemma).

Providing a dowry: Latin gerund of dotare in the ad construction.

Here: Ad introduces the required act; dotandum is endowing with a dowry, congrue suitably. The modern uses the noun phrase a suitable dowry, supplying a.

Context: Burton’s marginal legal proposition is read with his body’s if Nevizanus is not misleading us and the immediate limitation endorsing parental choice. It is historical reported law, not present-day guidance.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: ad congrue dotandum

Modern rendering: to provide a suitable dowry

Alignment scope: Original marginal wording aligned with the supplied editorial translation in the same note

Word and construction: The ad-plus-gerund construction becomes to provide; the adverb congrue becomes adjective suitable within the supplied object phrase.

Modern container: note

dowry / dower · dowers

Printed “dowers” (English; family).

Property or money brought into a marriage: plural dowry or marriage portion.

Here: Dowers means dowries here, not specifically a widow’s dower. Great contributes large.

Context: Burton’s imagined polity would regulate or suppress dowries, varying permitted portions by perceived attractiveness. Its neighboring compulsory-marriage rules and exclusions are proposals, not current law.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: great dowers

Modern rendering: large dowries

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

Word and construction: Dowers supplies dowries; great supplies large.

Further local use

Printed “dowries” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: Marriage payments among several financial obligations; separate from the following jointures.

Context: Burton describes households unable to sustain inherited rank yet unwilling to reduce expenditure.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: dowries

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 “Dowre” (English; family).

Citation key: dowry / dower.

Here: A dowry listed among artificial attractions in the heading.

Context: The heading classifies material advantages alongside gestures and clothing; the preceding editorial note preserves the unusual member/subsection numbering.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Dowre

Modern rendering: Dowry

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 “dowry” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: The supposed marriage property is Kent, illustrating territorial rather than merely cash wealth.

Context: Burton’s Rowena example is legendary history and reverses the compared Geoffrey of Monmouth transaction: there Vortigern grants Kent to Hengist for the marriage, rather than receiving it with the bride.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: her dowry

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 “dowry” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: To save here means keep the marriage property unspent by preventing the daughter’s marriage.

Context: Burton criticizes a father’s refusal to part with wealth or his daughter’s services, then distinguishes actual lack of means in the next paragraph.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: to save her dowry

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 “dowry” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: Dowry is the marriage provision; competent supplies suitable or adequate, not a statement of professional ability.

Context: The reported legal right of a daughter over twenty-five is introduced if Nevizanus is not misleading us. Burton immediately limits his defense by endorsing parental choice and female reserve.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a competent dowry

Modern rendering: a suitable dowry

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 “dowrie” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: Dowrie is a spelling of dowry; great supplies large. The buying of a husband is Burton’s accusatory image for wealth-driven matching.

Context: Burton contrasts the greedy iron age with earlier favorable marriage examples; the following dynastic and social-rank cases criticize money and ambition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a great dowrie

Modern rendering: a large dowry

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.

dowry / dower · dowre

Printed “dowre” (English; family).

A marriage endowment, figuratively supplied by an attractive or valued quality.

Here: Dowre names the material asset for which beauty is treated as a substitute. The phrase does not claim an actual cash transfer.

Context: Burton collects attributed praises of beauty and material metaphors among the natural attractions of love.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Beauty is a dowre of it self

Modern rendering: Beauty is a dowry in itself

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 “dowry” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: The financial metaphor supports accepting beauty instead of money. All-sufficient supplies entirely sufficient; dowry itself does not mean sufficiency.

Context: Burton argues against excessive parental strictness, then qualifies the appeal by allowing urgent reasons or serious impediments. His captivity example minimizes prescribed conditions; the Genesis citation is misnumbered.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Beauty is a dowry of it self all-sufficient

Modern rendering: Beauty is in itself an entirely sufficient dowry

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 “portion” (English; lemma).

Citation key: portion.

Here: Portion is the figurative marriage endowment supplied jointly by beauty and upbringing. The original singular expression becomes plural themselves to agree with those paired qualities.

Context: Burton says me thinks and makes the preceding civic benefit conditional on caring less for wealth; the attributed Ovid maxim remains unlocated.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a sufficient portion of it self

Modern rendering: a sufficient dowry in themselves

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

Word and construction: Portion becomes dowry, sufficient is retained, and of it self becomes in themselves in the restructured plural-subject clause.

Further local use

Printed “dowry” (English; lemma).

Citation key: dowry.

Here: The adequate marriage endowment is education and beauty rather than money. Competent supplies adequate.

Context: The recommendation is conditional on loving the person; Burton’s golden-age comparison includes belike and if all reported is true.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a competent dowry

Modern rendering: an adequate dowry

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.

in her smock

Printed “in her smock” (English; phrase).

With no dowry or possessions beyond her shift or basic clothing.

Here: Smock means shift; the phrase imagines marrying a woman without property beyond her clothing. Good huswife describes skill in household management, not marriage status before the match.

Context: The hypothetical preference occurs in an anti-marriage argument about the burdens of wealthy wives, later countered by praise of good wives.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: thou hadst better have taken a good huswife maid in her smock

Modern rendering: you would have done better to take a maiden who was a good housekeeper, with nothing but her shift

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

Word and construction: The complete comparative recommendation is aligned; in her smock becomes the explanatory with nothing but her shift, and good huswife maid is expanded into a maiden who was a good housekeeper.

indotatus

Printed “indotatus” (Latin; lemma).

Without a dowry or marriage endowment: Latin indotatus, masculine singular.

Here: Applied to the scholar, the adjective transfers a marriage disadvantage to lack of money for advancement. Burton immediately explains that he has no money.

Context: The patron praises but refuses to prefer him; even conditional reception into service entails the Jacob-like waiting period.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: indotatus

Modern rendering: without a dowry

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 “indotata” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: indotatus.

Here: Indotata is feminine singular, without a dowry; quod supplies because. The modern supplies she had to complete the elliptical Latin clause.

Context: Burton adds lack of money to the Psyche story; Apuleius does not give this as the cause of her lack of suitors. Burton uses the altered story for the treatment of learning.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: quod indotata

Modern rendering: because she had no dowry

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

Word and construction: Elliptical quod indotata becomes because she had no dowry; subject and finite verb are supplied from Psyche’s context.

Alignment qualification: Clause-level completion, not a direct word-level equation of indotata with the entire causal clause.

Further local use

Printed “Indotatas” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: indotatus.

Here: Accusative feminine plural of indotatus, agreeing with the poorer men’s daughters: without marriage portions.

Context: Burton endorses an adapted recommendation spoken by Megadorus in Plautus; his separate English adds piety, which is absent from the Latin lines.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Indotatas

Modern rendering: without dowries

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 “indotatam” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: indotatus.

Here: Accusative feminine singular of indotatus, describing the poor wife in the marginal quotation.

Context: Burton extracts the initial compassionate marriage from Aristaenetus as a favorable example; that letter continues with the husband’s complaints of domination and extravagance.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: indotatam

Modern rendering: without a dowry

Alignment scope: Original marginal wording aligned with the supplied editorial translation in the same note

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes the defined sense to this complete aligned unit.

Modern container: note

jointure

Printed “joynters” (English; lemma).

Property or income settled for a wife, especially for her widowhood.

Here: The spelling joynters denotes jointures. They are listed separately from dowries and alongside debts, legacies and annuities, as charges on household resources.

Context: Burton describes financial pressure aggravated by reluctance to live according to diminished means; the term is explained historically rather than as legal advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: joynters

Modern rendering: jointures

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.

portion · local use 1

Printed “portion” (English; lemma).

A marriage portion: property or money provided at marriage.

Here: Portion supplies dowry, no the absence of it. The original singular collective expression becomes a plural referring to the several Muses.

Context: Burton says I believe when offering the lack of portions as a mythic explanation for the Muses’ unmarried state and scholars’ poverty.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: no portion

Modern rendering: no dowries

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

Word and construction: No portion becomes no dowries; the modern plural accommodates the several Muses rather than reproducing the original noun number.

Further local use

Printed “portion” (English; lemma).

Citation key: portion.

Here: Portion means property brought to marriage; great means large, and marriage is made explicit in the modern.

Context: Money is an attraction in the world’s eyes at least; Burton condemns those who value it above conduct and other qualities. The following Latin and English social-breeding comparisons remain distinct adaptations.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a great portion

Modern rendering: a large marriage portion

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

Word and construction: Great supplies large; portion becomes marriage portion with the contextual marriage qualifier explicit.

Further local use

Printed “portion” (English; lemma).

Citation key: portion.

Here: Portion is the expected marriage provision, here figuratively replaced by upbringing. No... but means none except, not absolute absence of every advantage.

Context: Burton’s Athenais inheritance story differs from a later parallel allowing a small cash inheritance; neither that parallel nor the source names establish his immediate source.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: no portion but her bringing up

Modern rendering: no dowry except her upbringing

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.

portion · local use 2

Printed “portion” (English; lemma).

An allotted share of property or an inheritance.

Here: Portion here means the woman’s inheritance, not specifically property brought to marriage. All supplies whole.

Context: Burton compares his own charitable use of knowledge to Camden’s hospital-foundation story; identifying the literary source does not independently verify the event.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all her portion

Modern rendering: her whole inheritance

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.

portion · local use 3

Printed “portion” (English; lemma).

An allotted share or provision.

Here: Portion becomes a figurative provision or gift in the wife herself. Good supplies the favorable valuation; the sentence does not assign her a sum of marriage money.

Context: Burton’s scriptural praise follows the express refusal to condemn all wives for some. His printed chapter references and pronoun differ in places from the biblical parallels.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: A good wife is a good portion

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.