Fond

Use in the book

The old man supplies the inherited example’s decisive movement. Pontano’s dialogue presents people laughing at someone made a little foolish by age; the warning then extends to the town, and Burton extends it to everyone. The question changes from what madness haunts this old man to what haunts us all. The successive quoted phrases and Burton’s English restatements turn second childhood into lifelong folly: young and old alike are children. The next paragraph denies the observers a safe position from which to condemn others, and the following search for a wise man generalizes the accusation again. Burton’s account of Socrates is broader than the supplied comparison with Plato, which allows craftsmen real expertise.

The mother and ape bring affection into the foolish sense. The satire’s mother embraces her child destructively; the later upbringing discussion elaborates the image into excessive indulgence that harms its intended beneficiary. Its setting criticizes laxity as an opposite extreme, rather than proving that cruelty is desirable. In the wider account of jealousy, doting mothers fear for absent children: here the emotion is anxious attachment, illustrated beside Aegeus’s concern for Theseus and Paul’s religious solicitude.

Fond imaginings are described as initially pleasing and finally bitter in the historical remedy discussion. Fondness for fine words similarly exposes judgment to deception. The courtship example gives the literary speaker Lucretia a boast about a suitor so infatuated that she believes she could obtain almost anything from him. Her hypothetical extravagance belongs to her speech, not to an observed injury.

The marital examples retain Burton’s judgment of excessive attachment and his stronger condemnation of harsh treatment. Fondlings names the doting husbands he caricatures as servants. His household hierarchy and his separate claim that women are fonder and weaker belong to historical gender polemic. The adverb need not concern love at all: people fondly overvalue themselves, or fondly infer paternity from resemblance. In the latter passage Burton challenges suspicion and calls for a charitable interpretation, rather than establishing infidelity.

Two applications sharpen the difference between mistaken belief and another person’s design. Philodotus’s king has a fond imagination that his head is off; Burton reports that feeling a cap’s weight frees him from the belief. The story remains an unverified historical treatment anecdote. Fond lovers can instead misread ordinary smiles, pleasant looks and gracious words as personal signs of love and willingness. That inference does not establish consent and differs from Lucretia’s calculated exploitation. Burton’s ensuing Latin couplet describes the fool’s mistake; his separate English couplet adds that the smile means to deceive. The two verse claims should remain distinct.

Related entries

Conceit

Jealousy

Reason

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–4the old man, the town and universal folly; quotations and English restatements preserve the widening argument.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 9–11the foolishly doting mother among satirical reversals.
3. Subsection 2 Education as a Cause of Melancholy · paragraphs 47–54laxity, indulgence and the destructive-affection fable.
4. Member 6 Subsection 1 Disturbances of the Mind Corrected Through the Sufferer’s Own Efforts in Resisting as Strongly as Possible and Confiding His Grief to a Friend and So Forth · paragraphs 13–15fond imaginings in a historical account of resistance and habit.
5. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh Methods Ingenious Devices Reassurance Changes in the Way of Life and Removal of Troubling Objects and So Forth · paragraphs 33–35the king’s false belief and the reported cap cure, within historical therapeutic contrivance.
6. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 18–20the prohibition on being taken in by fine words.
7. Artificial Attractions of Love and Incitements to Lust Gestures Clothes Dowry and So On · paragraphs 34–38foolish inference from ordinary friendliness, with distinct Latin and English verse claims.
8. 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 · paragraphs 27–29the infatuated suitor in Lucretia’s reported speech.
9. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 88–90fonder in Burton’s gendered account of lovers’ admiration.
10. 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 14–16doting mothers’ fear for absent children within the wider meanings of jealousy.
11. Causes of Jealousy. Who Are Most Susceptible. Idleness, Melancholy, Impotence, Prolonged Absence, Beauty, Sexual Licence, Being Unfaithful Themselves. Temptations Arising From Time, Place and People; Mistreatment as a Cause · paragraphs 33–40excessive marital attachment, fondlings and the repeated qualification against harshness.
12. The Cure of Jealousy: Avoiding Occasions for It, Keeping Occupied; Good Counsel; Disregarding It, Not Watching Women or Locking Them Up; Concealing It, and So On · paragraphs 46–48foolish suspicion explicitly questioned.
13. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 41–43foolish self-valuation in Burton’s partisan account of disappointed advancement.

In this edition

“by reason of his age was a little fond” → “whose age had made him a little foolish”. Foolish gives the immediate sense, while the successive quotations and English restatements preserve the enlargement from one old man to town and world. “fond imaginations” → “foolish imaginings”; “far fonder, weaker” → “much more foolish and weak”; and fondly becomes foolishly in both suspicious inference and self-valuation.

“fond mother” → “foolishly doting mother,” while the later plural becomes “foolishly fond mothers” and the anxious mothers become “doting mothers”. These renderings make the mixture of affection and impaired judgment legible without importing affection into the old-man example. “Be not fond of fair words” → “Do not be taken in by fine words” translates the complete warning.

The suitor “so fond at last” becomes “so infatuated” within the sentence beginning “In the end.” “too fond of their wives” → “excessively fond of them” retains the attachment sense and its limiting degree. “fondlings” → “doting fools” makes the noun’s disparagement explicit.

“Fond imagination” becomes “foolish imagining” in the king’s reported cap story. “Many fond lovers again are so frequently mistaken” becomes “many foolish lovers are repeatedly mistaken,” preserving both the number’s limitation and the repeated error. The surrounding account distinguishes what the lovers infer from the ordinary smiles and gestures they observe.

fond

Printed “fond” (English; lemma).

Foolish or deluded.

Here: An old man’s alleged foolishness becomes the starting point for a charge against the town and then everybody.

Context: Burton reports Pontano’s dialogue and then widens the accusation, including himself and the reader; age is the reported explanation of the first case, not the limit of the satire.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by reason of his age was a little fond

Modern rendering: whose age had made him a little foolish

Word and construction: Fond is foolish, with a little retained; the relative construction modernizes the original description.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fond” (English; lemma).

Citation key: fond.

Here: Fond qualifies imaginings which appear attractive before becoming distressing.

Context: Burton reports Lemnius’s historical counsel to resist such thoughts; the following paragraph retains the possibility of resistance despite established habit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those fond imaginations

Modern rendering: those foolish imaginings

Word and construction: Fond becomes foolish; imaginations names mental contents, not affectionate feelings.

Sense relation: The same judgment of foolishness applies to imagined objects rather than an old man.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fonder” (English; lemma).

Citation key: fond.

Here: The comparative participates in Burton’s disparaging generalization about women’s love.

Context: This gendered assertion is Burton’s polemic, not an endorsed claim about women.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: far fonder, weaker

Modern rendering: much more foolish and weak

Word and construction: Fonder is the comparative foolish; far supplies the degree, while weaker is the separate coordinated adjective.

Sense relation: A comparative form preserves the foolish sense within a historically prejudiced assertion.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fondly” (English; lemma).

Citation key: fondly.

Here: Suspicion of paternity is based on birth timing or resemblance.

Context: Burton questions the premise that infidelity occurred and criticizes the suspicious inference; resemblance is not presented as proof.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: they fondly suspect he got it

Modern rendering: they foolishly suspect that he fathered it

Word and construction: Fondly is foolishly; got it means fathered the child, which remains their suspicion.

Sense relation: The adverb marks an inference as foolish, not affectionately held.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fondly” (English; lemma).

Citation key: fondly.

Here: People overvalue themselves and react to disappointment in advancement.

Context: As they suppose and their self-valuation limit the claim; the following religious examples are partisan and qualified in the supplied notes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: as they fondly value themselves

Modern rendering: as highly as they foolishly value themselves

Word and construction: Fondly becomes foolishly; highly makes the scale of esteem explicit in the comparison.

Sense relation: Another adverbial judgment of mistaken self-estimation.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fond imagination” (English; phrase).

Citation key: fond imagination.

Here: The king believes his head has been cut off, and a cap’s weight is said to restore his awareness of it.

Context: Burton reports Philodotus’s cap story in a discussion of therapeutic contrivance; the supplied edition does not establish it as a clinical fact or present-day treatment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: freed him of his fond imagination

Modern rendering: freed him from his foolish imagining

Word and construction: Fond becomes foolish; imagination names the mistaken belief, and freed retains the reported outcome.

Sense relation: The foolish-imagination sense applies to an explicitly false belief within a reported cure.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

fond lover

Printed “fond” (English; phrase).

Foolishly infatuated or besotted.

Here: The suitor’s infatuation makes him vulnerable to manipulation and costly demands.

Context: Aretino’s Lucretia speaks in the reported literary example; her extravagant claim about an eye remains hypothetical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the poor fellow was so fond at last

Modern rendering: In the end the poor fellow was so infatuated

Word and construction: Fond is infatuated, so retains the degree and prepares the following hypothetical boast.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fond lovers” (English; phrase).

Citation key: fond lovers.

Here: Ordinary pleasant looks and gracious words are read as evidence of love and willingness.

Context: Burton first distinguishes ordinary smiling from affected enticement, then describes the lovers’ mistaken inference. A following English couplet adds an intention to deceive which the preceding Latin couplet does not state.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: many fond lovers again are so frequently mistaken

Modern rendering: many foolish lovers are repeatedly mistaken

Word and construction: Fond becomes foolish; many and frequently preserve the qualified number and repeated error, rather than establishing the woman’s consent.

Sense relation: The infatuated judgment misreads friendliness, unlike Lucretia’s deliberate manipulation of a suitor.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

fond mother

Printed “fond mother” (English; phrase).

A foolishly doting or overindulgent mother.

Here: Aesop’s ape illustrates affection that defeats its own purpose.

Context: Burton’s satirical list uses the mother to exemplify defective judgment, not to say all parental affection is foolish.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a fond mother like Æsops ape, hug her child to death

Modern rendering: a foolishly doting mother, like Aesop’s ape, hug her child to death

Word and construction: Foolishly doting makes both excessive attachment and deficient judgment explicit.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fond mothers” (English; phrase).

Citation key: fond mother.

Here: The same ape figure becomes a criticism of indulgence in upbringing.

Context: Burton places excessive laxity opposite harshness; the paragraph criticizes conduct and is not present parenting advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: many fond mothers especially

Modern rendering: especially many foolishly fond mothers

Word and construction: The quantifier many and the emphasis especially remain; foolishly qualifies the affection.

Sense relation: The repeated fable elaborates the same destructive-indulgence sense.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “fond mothers” (English; phrase).

Citation key: fond mother.

Here: Affection for absent children leads to anxious expectation of bad news.

Context: Burton extends jealousy to anxious concern, with Aegeus’s worry before and Paul’s godly jealousy after; it is not confined to adultery.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: fond mothers in their childrens

Modern rendering: doting mothers in their children’s

Word and construction: The construction inherits absence from the preceding wives in their husbands absence; the modern also retains that shared ellipsis.

Sense relation: Doting attachment appears as anxious solicitude rather than the child-crushing fable.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

fond of a wife

Printed “too fond of their wives” (English; phrase).

Excessively attached or doting.

Here: Burton criticizes what he portrays as submissive marital attachment.

Context: He explicitly calls harsh treatment the worse extreme both before and after this criticism; his patriarchal judgment is historical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: to be too fond of their wives

Modern rendering: to be excessively fond of them

Word and construction: Too becomes excessively; them refers to their wives. Fond retains an attachment sense whose excess is the complaint.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

fond of fair words

Printed “fond of fair words” (English; phrase).

Credulously attracted to flattering or pleasing speech.

Here: The maxim warns against being deceived by fine words.

Context: Burton gives an explicit prohibition among collected moral maxims.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Be not fond of fair words.

Modern rendering: Do not be taken in by fine words.

Word and construction: The whole construction supplies taken in, expressing credulous attraction; the prohibition remains.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

fondling

Printed “fondlings” (English; lemma).

Doting fools or foolishly infatuated people.

Here: The noun labels husbands whom Burton portrays as their wives’ servants.

Context: Burton’s hostile household hierarchy is not an editorial endorsement; the nearby text condemns harshness even more strongly.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: many such fondlings

Modern rendering: many such doting fools

Word and construction: The modern phrase makes the disparaging force explicit; this is not a diminutive term for beloved children.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.