Equivocation

Use in the book

The melancholy discussion makes the distinction consequential. In its broader, “equivocal & improper sense,” melancholy includes temporary distress at sorrow, sickness, want, fear or displeasure. Burton then says that no living person is free from melancholy in this sense. That is not a claim that everyone has the settled disease he intends to examine. The continuation allows passing disturbances to become established, varies their effects with bodily constitution and resistance, and finally distinguishes the persistent condition from fits that come and go. Melancholy and Habit and disposition already explain this shared passage; the present word identifies the change in the term’s scope.

The jealousy heading likewise promises its Æquivocations before the narrower subject. Parents and guardians fear harm or disgrace to those in their care; rulers fear rivals and diminished authority. Biblical jealous concern is described as metaphorical. Burton then excludes these meanings from his chosen classification, selecting the jealousy that will admit no rival in love, and eventually the jealousy of married men concerning their wives. The narrowing happens in stages: animals appear under extended uses in the synopsis but are included in exclusive erotic jealousy in the body. Jealousy already explains the range and this difference between outline and prose.

Despair provides a third comparison. Its opening survey includes lost hopes in worldly affairs and the desperate courage that Burton conditionally praises in war. “But these are equivocal, unproper” does not dismiss those examples as false. It marks a turn to Zanchi’s restricted sense, despair concerning God. Later qualifications distinguish temporary despair, which may afflict even the best believers, from final despair, and allow relinquishing trust in one’s own resources while relying on God. Despair, especially equivocal and unproper, already explains the exact classificatory phrase. These remain historical theological distinctions, not modern diagnostic categories.

Not every member of the family is neutral. “Lyars, and Æquivocators” labels a rank of evil spirits in the taxonomy Burton reports from scholastics and other theologians. Apollo Pythius is its example. The association with liars gives the agent noun a deceptive force, whereas the headings classify the writer’s own terms without accusing him of deception. The modern edition treats Apollo and Pythius as the name and epithet of one god, not two examples.

The book’s finding aids make lexical scope a reading route. The First Partition synopsis promises melancholy’s Æquivocations; the unnumbered Table explicitly groups melancholy at 11 and jealousy at 591. Other Table entries give despair’s equivocations at 693 and repeat “mel. equivocations” at 11. These numbers point into the source book. They are not numbered pages assigned to the Table itself.

Related entries

Schoolmen, including quiddity and quodlibet: distinctions and scholastic inquiry.

Genus and species: classification and the limits of a chosen subject.

Accident: a technical distinction that likewise requires its local sense.

Digression and impertinent: relevance to a subject, rather than deception.

Melancholy, Habit and disposition, especially disposition · Disposition: the shared distinction between passing and established conditions.

Jealousy, and Proper, proper · Proper: the wider meanings, narrower subject and strict sense in the synopsis.

Despair, equivocal and unproper: the exact phrase “equivocal, unproper” and its theological restriction.

Places to read

1. Melancholy: Consider Its Different Meanings: As a Disposition, in a Figurative Sense, Etc. Subsection 5 · paragraph 15the First Partition synopsis promises a distinction of meanings.
2. Subsection 5. Melancholy as a Passing State, Loosely So Called; the Different Meanings of the Word · paragraphs 1–3; Subsection 5. Melancholy as a Passing State, Loosely So Called; the Different Meanings of the Word · paragraphs 14–19the broad use of melancholy and its contrast with an established condition.
3. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 26–30Æquivocators in the reported hierarchy of evil spirits.
4. ♉ Jealousy. Section 3 · paragraph 17; Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds; Among Rulers, Parents and Friends; in Animals and Human Beings; Before Marriage, as Rivals, or Afterwards, as Discussed Here · paragraphs 4–19; Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds; Among Rulers, Parents and Friends; in Animals and Human Beings; Before Marriage, as Rivals, or Afterwards, as Discussed Here · paragraphs 38–39; Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds; Among Rulers, Parents and Friends; in Animals and Human Beings; Before Marriage, as Rivals, or Afterwards, as Discussed Here · paragraph 47; Jealousy: Its Different Meanings, Name, Definition, Extent and Various Kinds; Among Rulers, Parents and Friends; in Animals and Human Beings; Before Marriage, as Rivals, or Afterwards, as Discussed Here · paragraph 56the jealousy outline, heading and successive restrictions.
5. The Different Meanings and Definitions of Despair and the People and Parts Affected · paragraphs 27–41despair’s wider uses, theological restriction and qualifications.
6. A Page · paragraph 8; D · paragraph 150; M · paragraph 13the original index routes for melancholy, jealousy and despair.

In this edition

“Æquivocations” becomes “different meanings” in the jealousy heading; “Æquivocations of melancholy” becomes “Different meanings of melancholy” in the Table. In the synopsis, the noun becomes “different senses of the word”. Melancholy and jealousy supply the subjects of those meanings; they are not part of the meaning of equivocations itself. The modern expansions make the heading and index function explicit.

“Equivocal & improper sense” becomes “loose and imprecise sense”, preserving the criticism of broad usage and the distinction between a passing state and an established condition. “Equivocal, unproper” becomes “broader, less precise uses of the word”; uses of the word supplies what the preceding examples make understood. The paired adjectives are interpreted together, not treated as two independent technical diagnoses. By contrast, Æquivocators becomes equivocators in the oracle passage, with liars remaining a separate accusation.

equivocation

A different or extended sense of a word, considered when distinguishing the subject to be discussed. These classificatory uses do not themselves imply dishonest speech.

Grammar: Plural noun: Æquivocations, æquivocations and equivocations; the singular equivocation is the normalized lemma.

Original text: “Its Æquivocations”. In the modern column: “Its different meanings”. The First Partition synopsis distinguishes uses of melancholy before the medical discussion. Structural synopsis, not a charge that someone is deceiving. Æquivocations supplies different meanings; its refers to melancholy.

Original text: “Melancholy in disposition, improperly so called, Æquivocations.” In the modern column: “Melancholy as a passing state, loosely so called; the different meanings of the word.” A subsection heading announces the lexical distinction developed immediately below. The following universal claim is about passing melancholy, not a diagnosis shared by all people. Æquivocations supplies different meanings; of the word makes its metalinguistic reference explicit.

Original synopsis: “Division, Æquivocations, kinds.” In the modern column: “Divisions, different senses of the word, kinds.” The jealousy synopsis distinguishes extended and strict uses. The outline puts animals under extended uses; the body later includes them in sexually exclusive jealousy. Æquivocations gives different senses of the word, separate from Division and kinds.

Original text: “Jealousie, its Æquivocations”. In the modern column: “Jealousy: its different meanings”. The heading surveys senses of jealousy before narrowing to marital jealousy. Rulers, parents, friends, animals, premarital rivals and married people are enumerated, not asserted to behave identically. The plural noun supplies different meanings; Jealousie supplies the subject.

Original text: “These æquivocations, Jealousies, and many such”. In the modern column: “These different meanings of jealousy, and many similar things”. The writer turns away from political and protective examples towards exclusive erotic jealousy. Not here properly meant restricts the discussion, while that alone narrows the chosen sense. Animals are explicitly included in the following clause. The modern combines æquivocations and Jealousies into different meanings of jealousy; the noun alone does not mean jealousy.

Original text: “Despaires, Æquivocations, Definitions, parties and parts affected.” In the modern column: “The different meanings and definitions of despair and the people and parts affected”. A heading introduces a survey before the theological restriction. The ensuing secular examples are not thereby condemned as deceptive speech. Æquivocations supplies different meanings; the modern makes despair the shared complement of meanings and definitions.

Original Table: “Æquivocations of melancholy 11. of jealousie 591”. In the modern column: “Different meanings of melancholy, 11; of jealousy, 591.” The unnumbered Table links the two lexical discussions. Historical index destinations, not page numbers in this lexicon; the source unit is an unnumbered Table entry. Æquivocations gives Different meanings; the following disease names and printed page numbers remain separate.

Original Table: “Despair, equivocations 693.” In the modern column: “Despair: its different meanings, 693;” The Table also points to the survey of despair. The printed 693 is an index destination, not the physical page of this Table unit. equivocations supplies different meanings; its is supplied from Despair.

Original Table: “mel. equivocations, 11.” In the modern column: “the different meanings of melancholy, 11;” A second Table route abbreviates melancholy in its lexical heading. Unnumbered Table and closing notice is the supplied source label. mel. expands to melancholy; equivocations gives different meanings, not the whole translated phrase by itself.

equivocal

Used in an extended, broader or less precise sense rather than the strict sense selected for the present discussion.

Grammar: Adjective modifying sense; predicative adjective with unproper, referring to the preceding uses of despair.

Original text: “equivocal & improper sense”. In the modern column: “loose and imprecise sense”. The phrase describes the broader application of melancholy to temporary disturbance. Burton contrasts disposition with habit; no man living is free in the next unit applies only to the preceding passing states. The paired adjectives equivocal and improper are rendered jointly by loose and imprecise; sense stays sense. Neither adjective denotes deception here.

Original text: “But these are equivocal, unproper.” In the modern column: “But these are broader, less precise uses of the word.” The secular examples lie outside the restricted theological definition now selected. Zanchi’s I speaks not of every kind but only the kind concerning God; 163-41 separately allows despair of one’s own resources with reliance on God. The modern supplies uses of the word as the understood referent of these; the two adjectives together are broader, less precise, not false.

equivocator

One who speaks ambiguously or equivocates; here a disparaging name for supposedly deceptive oracle-givers, unlike the neutral classification of word-senses.

Grammar: Plural personal or agent noun, printed Æquivocators.

Original text: “Lyars, and Æquivocators, as Apollo, Pythius, and the like.” In the modern column: “liars and equivocators, such as Pythian Apollo and the like.” The agent noun names a class in a reported demonological taxonomy. Burton reports what scholastics and theologians distinguish, placing pagan oracles within a Christian polemical scheme; this is not an authenticated classification of beings. Æquivocators is retained as equivocators; Lyars separately supplies liars. The modern corrects the misleading comma by taking Apollo Pythius as one god.