Favour and feature

Use in the book

The frontispiece poem’s “features” are the bodies of cats and dogs dissected by Democritus, not individual facial traits. When Burton reports Giraldi’s nine beautiful, sweet-voiced attendants, “feature” expresses excellence of form. Their proposed connection with the nine Muses belongs to an antiquarian story, within a defence of decent music and entertainment. The same physical breadth remains when Burton praises a horse’s form before arriving at human “comeliness of person”. Ephemerus’s challenge to admirers of other women and the Petronian lover’s claim that no words suffice extend this sense into the hyperbole of courtship.

Appearance and rank are coordinated, not collapsed, in Charlemagne’s attachment to a woman of “mean favour and condition”. Her looks are ordinary and her standing humble. In the ensuing legend the attachment passes from corpse to bishop and then to a lake with an enchanted ring. The story’s supernatural explanation matters: the passage does not establish a historical psychological finding about attraction. The contrary image of lost appearance occurs when Burton argues against beauty’s permanence. Even a composite ideal woman cannot withstand sickness, injury, childbearing, care and time; to “wax out of favour” is to lose beauty. Its severity belongs to that dissuasive rhetoric.

The Bacon quotation in the margin separates features from colour and then ranks graceful motion above features. It helps explain why appearance is more than a static complexion. Elsewhere, however, favour concerns a person’s reception: the crowd applauds whoever a great person commends and reverses its verdict in disgrace. In courtship, gaining favour can mean gaining affectionate attention, illustrated by a look, smile or kiss in Burton’s hostile account of alternately forthcoming and reserved women. The ensuing Lucretia and Philinna stories concern manipulated access and jealousy; the edition notes that Burton reshapes Philinna’s retaliation as calculation. Such reception, like possession of a token, does not in itself establish consent to further intimacy. Favour can also be an object. The catalogue’s “Favours” are signs of affection; a lover may wear one on his arm, hat, finger or breast, while treating the beloved’s portrait and belongings like relics.

Related entries

Beauty: The wider argument about bodily beauty and attraction.

Honest: Different values of outward appearance, dignity and moral worth.

Pleasure: Pleasure in forms, voices and other perceived qualities.

Gifts and liberality: Material signs and gifts in courtship.

Places to read

1. An Explanation of the Frontispiece · paragraph 4The introductory image uses features for animal bodies; unnumbered preliminary scan pagination.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 5Social favour and disgrace organize the satirical crowd’s changing verdict.
3. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 13Context: music, feasting and courtship in the account of English entertainment.
4. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 14Excellent feature in Giraldi’s reported story of nine attendants; note distinguishes the antiquarian explanation from established mythic history.
5. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 15Continuation: princely entertainments broaden the comparative setting.
6. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraph 14Feature is a horse’s fine bodily form in the catalogue of natural beauty.
7. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraph 15Comeliness of person is the human object of attraction.
8. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraph 16Continuation: the beautiful are contrasted with objects of social resentment, in a claim attributed to Calcagnini.
9. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraph 21Original Burton margin quotes Bacon’s ranking of favour, colour and movement.
10. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 1Favours as objects or signs among courtship enticements.
11. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 8Marlovian warfare imagery introduces the hostile account of courtship.
12. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 9Favour as affectionate reception, illustrated by a look, smile or kiss.
13. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 10Lucretia’s report of calculated difficulty and heightened attraction.
14. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 11The suitor is denied access and kisses despite his gifts.
15. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 12A fictitious rival’s present is staged through a servant.
16. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 13The speaker describes the deception’s effect.
17. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 14Philinna’s favour as access; the note distinguishes Lucian’s retaliation from Burton’s recasting.
18. Persistence and Opportunity of Time and Place; Meetings, Conversation, Singing, Dancing, Music, Amorous Tales and Sights, Kissing, Familiarity, Tokens, Gifts, Bribes, Promises, Declarations, Tears, and So On · paragraph 15Continuation generalizes quarrels and reconciliation.
19. Subsection 5 Procurers and Love Potions as Causes · paragraph 8Favour and condition distinguish looks from rank in the Charlemagne legend.
20. Subsection 5 Procurers and Love Potions as Causes · paragraph 9Continuation: the ring transfers the legendary attachment to the bishop and lake.
21. Subsection 5 Procurers and Love Potions as Causes · paragraph 10Continuation: the Aachen residence completes the legend’s explanation.
22. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 43Two literary examples of feature as beauty or overall appearance.
23. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 55Context: the Horatian token taken from arm or finger.
24. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 56A favour worn as a love-token; portrait and belongings treated as relics.
25. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 1Continuation: the absent beloved’s familiar places receive the same attachment.
26. 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 · paragraph 41Context: the hypothetical composite of ideal beauties.
27. 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 · paragraph 42Out of favour means loss of beauty in the dissuasive catalogue.
28. 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 · paragraph 43Continuation: loss of grace and fashion extends the hostile rhetoric.

In this edition

The supplied rendering gives “most excellent feature” as “exceptional beauty”, “comeliness of person” as “good looks”, and the horse’s “excellent feature” as “fine form”. The opening plural “features” becomes “bodies”. Together these renderings keep the breadth of physical form visible. The two literary applications become “beauty” and “lovely appearance”.

“Mean favour and condition” becomes “ordinary looks and humble standing”: ordinary looks belong to favour, humble standing to condition. “Wax out of favour” becomes “lose so much of her beauty”: out of favour names the state of diminished pleasing appearance, while wax supplies growing or becoming. The rendering expresses their combined change without endorsing Burton’s judgement. The marginal Bacon wording remains an original English quotation with explanatory apparatus, rather than a separately translated body sentence. “In favor” retains the social “in favour”, while a worn “favour” becomes a “love-token”.

comeliness of person

Printed “comeliness of person” (English; phrase).

Attractiveness of bodily appearance.

Here: The phrase supplies the human culmination of the preceding catalogue of beauties in nature and art.

Context: Burton says people are loved chiefly for their looks; this describes the argument’s emphasis rather than reducing every love to appearance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: comeliness of person

Modern rendering: good looks

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes attractiveness of bodily appearance.

favour · local use 1

Printed “favour” (English; lemma).

Appearance or looks.

Here: In the Charlemagne legend, ordinary appearance is distinguished from humble social standing.

Context: Burton recounts a legendary attachment attributed to Petrarch; the subsequent ring episode supplies the narrative explanation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: mean favour and condition

Modern rendering: ordinary looks and humble standing

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Mean favour contributes ordinary looks; condition contributes social standing. The two coordinated nouns are not synonymous.

favour · favor · local use 1

Printed “favor” (English; lemma).

Features or appearance, considered apart from complexion.

Here: The Bacon quotation ranks the beauty of features above colour and becoming movement above features.

Context: Burton’s English marginal quotation attributed to Bacon; the editorial explanation identifies the comparative structure.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: that of favor is preferred before that of Colours

Alignment scope: Original marginal wording without a separately corresponding modern-body phrase.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes features or appearance, considered apart from complexion.

Alignment qualification: The supplied note preserves and explains this wording; the paired modern body has no separate rendering of this marginal expression.

favour · favor · local use 2

Printed “favor” (English; lemma).

Approval, support or advantageous standing with others.

Here: A powerful person’s commendation leads an unjudging crowd to applaud; disgrace reverses its response.

Context: Burton satirizes unstable public opinion, contrasting favour with disgrace.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: if a man be in favor

Modern rendering: if a man is in favour

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes approval, support or advantageous standing with others.

favour · Favours

Printed “Favours” (English; lemma).

A material token of affection.

Here: Favours belong to the catalogue of courtship enticements alongside letters and valentines.

Context: Burton lists customary signs; the accompanying claim about women’s education remains attributed to Godfridus.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Tokens, Favours, Symbols

Modern rendering: tokens, favours, signs

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Favours names love-tokens; tokens and symbols give the adjacent categories.

Further local use

Printed “favour” (English; lemma).

Here: A lover wears a token and venerates a portrait, garter or bracelet as if it were a relic.

Context: Burton’s satirical account of the lover’s attachment to objects associated with the beloved.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: he wears it for a favour

Modern rendering: He wears it as a love-token

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes a material token of affection.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

favour · local use 2

Printed “favour” (English; lemma).

Favourable or affectionate reception in courtship.

Here: The desired favour is illustrated through a look, smile or kiss withheld in Burton’s account of changing receptiveness.

Context: Burton’s hostile generalization about courtship, followed by literary stories of calculated access; a look, token or friendly reception does not by itself establish consent to further intimacy.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: get her favour, or win her love

Modern rendering: gaining her favour or winning her love

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Get her favour concerns gaining a favourable reception; win her love is a coordinated expression, not the definition of favour alone.

feature · features

Printed “features” (English; lemma).

Bodily forms or bodies.

Here: The plural names the animal bodies hanging around Democritus in the frontispiece explanation.

Context: The introductory poem describes the engraved scene and its traditional anatomical story.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: many features, Of Cats, Dogs and such like creatures

Modern rendering: the bodies Of cats, dogs and similar creatures

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Features supplies bodies; the animal names delimit whose bodies these are.

feature

Printed “feature” (English; lemma).

Bodily form, particularly beauty of form.

Here: Giraldi’s nine attendants combine exceptional beauty with sweet voices in a proposed human origin of the nine Muses.

Context: Burton reports Giraldi’s antiquarian explanation, not an established origin of the myth.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: most excellent feature

Modern rendering: exceptional beauty

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes bodily form, particularly beauty of form.

Further local use

Printed “feature” (English; lemma).

Here: The horse’s shape belongs to an extended comparison of attractive forms in nature.

Context: Burton supplies examples before moving to human beauty.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the excellent feature of the Horse

Modern rendering: the horse’s fine form

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes bodily form.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “feature” (English; lemma).

Here: Ephemerus challenges all observers to match his beloved’s beauty.

Context: Reported lover’s extravagant praise in Aristaenetus, followed by a separate Petronian example.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: such an excellent feature as this is

Modern rendering: beauty as excellent as this

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes beauty of bodily form.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “feature” (English; lemma).

Here: The Petronian lover claims language cannot encompass his lady’s looks.

Context: Burton’s second literary example; the supplied note leaves the exact Petronian wording uncollated.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: his Ladies fine feature

Modern rendering: his lady’s lovely appearance

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes bodily appearance.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

out of favour

Printed “out of favour” (English; phrase).

No longer pleasing or beautiful in appearance.

Here: The change belongs to Burton’s attempt to discredit enduring attachment to bodily beauty.

Context: Burton’s harsh hypothetical rhetoric of illness, childbearing and ageing, not a neutral assessment of women.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: wax out of favour

Modern rendering: lose so much of her beauty

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Out of favour names the resulting state of diminished beauty; wax supplies growing or becoming. The modern clause renders the whole change as losing beauty.