Fustian and bombast

Use in the book

Bumbast titles can be expensive. Rival country households compete over wealth, ancestry and precedence until lawsuits, feasts and fine clothes consume their resources. The frog trying to become as large as an ox gives swelling its destructive conclusion: bodies tire, souls suffer and households become poor. Burton does not reject every effort to excel. The passage continues by praising honourable emulation in study and occupations, and restrained ambition that produces worthwhile deeds.

Padding becomes an action in the attack on corrupt church patrons. They bumbast themselves and swell their greatness with Church spoils, combining outward religious zeal with allegedly corrupt motives. The verb makes wealth function as stuffing for social magnitude. Burton’s own qualification is unusually pointed: he admits that his charity towards these people is cold and defective. The neighbouring predictions of punishment belong to this fierce religious argument, not to a neutral report that all wealth or patronage is illicit.

Fustian speech performs the same work as ostentatious clothes. In the portrait of the supposedly accomplished gentleman, talking big fustian joins fashionable dress, swaggering, gaming and ceremonial courtesy. The praise is sarcastic: such display does not establish the ability to govern. A few paragraphs later, the attack on huffing bumbast titles makes an express exception for honour first earned and then sustained by exceptional merit. Burton’s comparisons with Turkish and other political practices are his reported historical contrasts, not precise descriptions of every constitution.

The book also turns the vocabulary on writers, including its own speaker. Burton disclaims fustian phrases while defending his improvised composition; the disclaimer itself piles up figures and quotations. Later, a fustian and a bumbast run through scholars’ works like raised threads. This is a metaphor for a recurring affected style, not a separate textile inventory. The sequel says that teachers of wisdom and satirists are themselves open to mockery, and includes Democritus among those who may be censured. The language of inflation does not place the satirist safely outside his criticism.

Praise can puff someone up from outside. Democritus Junior imagines good and learned men adorning an undeserving rich man with bumbast epithets merely because he has money. In the account of pride, the flatterers’ praise becomes a siege engine acting upon its recipient; applause alternately fattens and reduces him. The love symptoms give exaggerated naming a different setting: the lover bestows inflated epithets and affectionate diminutives on his mistress. These are descriptions of different speakers and motives, not a claim that every term of affection is deliberate fraud. In the religious-political polemic, rulers instead assume inflated titles for themselves, and their followers turn obedience into a matter of salvation; that accusation remains Burton’s.

The adjective can characterize practitioners rather than their words. Bumbast physicians are puffed-up seekers of costly, distant drugs. The comparison with countrywomen concerns often greater benefit in Burton’s English, while the Latin margin says often safer treatment. His ensuing preference for domestic medicines includes conditions of suitable quantities and preparation; its further sweeping claims remain historical medicine. At the book’s close, fustian is condemned among elaborate exorcists’ trappings. Here big and sesquipedal words are mocked as extravagantly long. Burton endorses the contrast with plain invocation of Christ, continuing through faith, prayer and reliance on God. He rejects elaborate ritual in this argument, not religious language as such.

Related entries

Cento: Compilation and the assembled literary work.

Antick: The relation of display, imitation and grotesque performance.

Complement: Ceremonious courtesy beside pretentious talk.

Honour and nobility: Rank, outward signs and acquired merit.

Emulation: Destructive rivalry and the explicit allowance for honourable competition.

Church patronage: The institutional setting of the padding accusation.

Kissing and embracing: The lover’s diminutive little kiss among affectionate names.

Physician: Pretension and the evaluation of medical practitioners.

Exorcism: Ritual language and the proposed religious alternatives.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 24–27lack of assistance, the ornate disclaimer of fustian phrases, and the profession of plain speaking.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 12–15unequal honour, inflated praise for wealth and the contrast between outward splendour and inward worth.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 41–45fustian and bombast in learned works, the woven-cloth comparison and the satirist’s own exposure to criticism.
4. Subsection 8. Rivalry, Hatred, Faction and the Desire for Revenge as Causes · paragraphs 14–20ruinous competition for inflated titles, followed by honourable rivalry and restrained ambition.
5. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 47–50conspicuous humility, external flattery and the bodily image of becoming fat or lean through praise.
6. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 21–26padding out greatness with church property, Burton’s admission of deficient charity and the polemical continuation.
7. Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 31–38grandiose speech as a showy accomplishment, inflated titles and the exception for merit that sustains honour.
8. Subsection 2 Simple Remedies Suited to Melancholy Against Imported Simples · paragraphs 36–41puffed-up physicians, the English benefit versus marginal safety distinction, and historical claims for domestic medicines.
9. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraphs 75–79the lover’s inflated epithets and diminutives, with the literary examples’ source and narrative qualifications.
10. 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 44–46self-assumed grand titles and followers’ obedience; the preceding imperial example conflates ruler and deity, as the note explains.
11. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 18–25fustian and oversized words in the attack on elaborate exorcism, followed by the preferred invocation and prayer.

In this edition

“bumbast titles” → “inflated titles”; “bumbast themselves” → “pad themselves out”; and “talk big fustian” → “spout grandiose nonsense.” Inflated and pad themselves out preserve the material image behind bombast. Grandiose nonsense conveys the contempt directed at pretentious speech: talk becomes spout, while big intensifies the already inflated fustian.

Elsewhere the same spelling changes grammatical work. Bumbast is an adjective in “bumbast Physitians” → “puffed-up physicians,” a noun beside fustian in the woven-cloth comparison, and a reflexive verb in the church-patron passage. In the exorcism list, “fustian, big, sesquipedal words” becomes “bombast, grand words a foot and a half long.” Fustian contributes bombast, big contributes grand, and sesquipedal supplies the mock measurement. The surrounding theological or medical claims remain attributed rather than becoming definitions of the words themselves.

Bombast; exaggerated praise

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Inflated or exaggerated.

Here: Wealth receives extravagant praise despite the recipient’s alleged lack of worth.

Context: Democritus Junior’s imagined satirical reaction; the body and margins adapt More’s account of misplaced honours.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bumbast Epithets

Modern rendering: inflated epithets

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

Word and construction: Bumbast contributes inflated; Epithets names the descriptive titles bestowed.

Further local use

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Citation key: Bombast; exaggerated praise.

Inflated or exaggerated.

Here: Flatterers’ excessive praise is represented as an external force that raises and casts down its recipients.

Context: Burton shifts from pride arising within the self to applause acting upon it; the subsequent lean/fat verse is from Horace although the margin prints Persius.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bumbast Epithetes

Modern rendering: inflated epithets

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

Word and construction: The adjective and noun retain separate contributions: inflated and epithets.

Sense relation: The same inflation image applied in a separately explained rhetorical setting.

Further local use

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Citation key: Bombast; exaggerated praise.

Inflated or extravagant.

Here: The lover applies extravagant descriptions and affectionate diminutives to his beloved.

Context: Burton’s symptom portrait, illustrated through poetry; the ensuing Rodomont example’s tender words do not erase its coercive narrative.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: All the bumbast Epithetes

Modern rendering: every inflated epithet

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

Word and construction: Bumbast means inflated; all the with a plural noun is recast as every with a singular noun.

Sense relation: The same inflation image applied in a separately explained rhetorical setting.

Bombast; inflated titles

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Inflated or padded out, here qualifying titles.

Here: Competitive households exhaust their resources to acquire impressive designations of rank.

Context: Burton’s account of destructive rivalry, expressly qualified by the ensuing approval of honourable emulation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bumbast titles

Modern rendering: inflated titles

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

Word and construction: Bumbast contributes inflated; titles names the designations sought.

Further local use

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Citation key: Bombast; inflated titles.

Inflated or pompous.

Here: Inflated titles swell their holders’ heads, in Burton’s reported contrast with Turkish attitudes towards hereditary honour.

Context: Burton says belike, presumably; he expressly allows honour acquired and sustained by exceptional worth. The historical comparison remains attributed to Belon.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: huffing bumbast titles

Modern rendering: blustering, inflated titles

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

Word and construction: Huffing contributes blustering; bumbast inflated; titles is retained.

Sense relation: The same inflation image applied in a separately explained rhetorical setting.

Further local use

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Citation key: Bombast; inflated titles.

Pompous or inflated.

Here: Rulers allegedly assume divine and pompous titles while followers treat their commands as matters of salvation.

Context: Burton’s polemical comparison with imperial deification; these claims about named populations and rulers are not adopted as established descriptions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: divine and bumbast titles

Modern rendering: divine and bombastic titles

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

Word and construction: Bumbast becomes bombastic; divine and titles remain separate components.

Sense relation: The same inflation image applied in a separately explained rhetorical setting.

Bombast; pad out

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Stuff or pad out, used figuratively of magnifying oneself.

Here: Corrupt patrons build up outward greatness with property taken from the Church.

Context: Burton’s fierce accusation, coupled with his explicit admission that his own charity is deficient in this matter.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bumbast themselves

Modern rendering: pad themselves out

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

Word and construction: The transitive verb becomes pad out; themselves retains the reflexive object. The following stuffe out repeats and extends the stuffing image.

Bombast; pretentious practitioners

Printed “bumbast” (English; family).

Puffed-up or pretentious, describing people.

Here: Physicians’ pursuit of costly exotic remedies is contrasted with familiar local remedies used by countrywomen.

Context: Burton’s argument under a Fuchs attribution, followed by his qualified claim that domestic medicines can be equivalent when properly prepared and adjusted.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bumbast Physitians

Modern rendering: puffed-up physicians

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

Word and construction: Bumbast contributes puffed-up; Physitians identifies the criticized practitioners.

Qualification: The English says countrywomen often do more good; the original Latin margin says often treat more safely. Claims about local drugs and national differences in toxicity remain historical, not medical advice.

Fustian and bombast; inflated writing

Printed “a fustian, a bumbast” (English; family).

Inflated rhetoric and verbal padding: fustian recalls fabric, bombast stuffing.

Here: A conspicuous strain of pretension runs through learned works like a raised thread in unevenly woven cloth.

Context: Burton’s attack on scholarly self-importance; the continuation makes satirists and Democritus himself vulnerable to criticism too.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a fustian, a bumbast

Modern rendering: inflated rhetoric, bombast

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

Word and construction: Fustian contributes inflated rhetoric; bumbast becomes bombast. The modern mass nouns omit the original indefinite articles.

Further local use

Printed “fustian” (English; family).

Citation key: Fustian; inflated phrases.

Inflated or pretentious, qualifying phrases.

Here: Burton disclaims deliberate verbal ornament in presenting his own hastily assembled book.

Context: Burton’s self-description; the disclaimer is itself an elaborate, allusive catalogue, followed by his profession of plain speaking.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: fustian phrases

Modern rendering: inflated phrases

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

Word and construction: Fustian contributes inflated; phrases is retained.

Sense relation: The same inflation image applied in a separately explained rhetorical setting.

Fustian; pretentious speech

Printed “fustian” (English; family).

Grandiose, inflated and empty language.

Here: Pretentious talk joins fashionable accomplishments that fail to prove capacity for public government.

Context: Burton’s sarcastic portrait of the supposedly qualified gentleman; the praise is ironic, and the subsequent comparison admits honour supported by merit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: talk big fustian

Modern rendering: spout grandiose nonsense

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

Word and construction: Talk becomes spout; big intensifies the grandiosity; fustian supplies inflated, pretentious language, rendered nonsense in this contemptuous setting.

Fustian; ritual language

Printed “fustian” (English; family).

Pompous language; the following big and sesquipedal describe grand, extravagantly long words.

Here: Inflated verbal forms are among the ritual trappings rejected in favour of a simple appeal to Christ.

Context: Lemnius’s advice as reported and endorsed by Burton within anti-Catholic polemic; the alternative remains explicitly Christian invocation and prayer.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: fustian, big, sesquipedal words

Modern rendering: bombast, grand words a foot and a half long

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

Word and construction: Fustian becomes bombast; big contributes grand; sesquipedal literally means a foot and a half long, here mocking oversized words. Words is the shared noun in the latter description.