Impotent

Use in the book

In the preliminary catalogue love is madness, hell and an incurable force. The formulation attributed to Seneca, “impotentem & insanam libidinem”, is followed by Burton’s English “an impotent and raging lust”. Both characterize desire that escapes control, after the preceding claim that love and wisdom do not coexist. The problem here is not insufficient desire or sexual incapacity. The same lack of self-command appears in the lover whom Vives would recall home through diversions. Burton has just questioned an extreme remedy, and subsequently warns that music and pleasure can aggravate some people while relieving others. His unreciprocated lover likewise loves “most impotently”, uncontrollably.

The commonwealth scheme uses “impotent” for people unable to support themselves by work. The continuation separates unmarried institutional recipients from married infirm or impoverished people helped through grain, rent, pensions or money, and then distinguishes those able to work. Later the destitute themselves protest that powerless people without resources cannot apply advice designed for those who possess them. This is a sustained objection, not an assertion that poverty merely results from bad self-government.

Sexual capacity is relevant in two distinct ways. The regimen describes cold, dry bodies unable to endure exertion without harm, even though strongly inclined to it. In the jealousy discussion the meaning is narrower: inability to perform the duties owed to a wife becomes a proposed occasion of the husband’s suspicion. A legal maxim is turned into a joke about giving each person their due. The old-man and young-wife examples then intensify the gendered rhetoric. His fear of replacement is not evidence of actual infidelity.

Other constructions specify other powers. Fracastorius’s “confirmed Impotency” concerns established inability to exercise understanding, distinguished from temporary effects of wine or drugs. “Impotentia gubernandi” names inability to govern within the political-body diagnosis. A powerless military company can be transformed by desperate courage, a limited concession within the later approach to religious despair.

Related entries

Concupiscence: Desire that exceeds self-command.

Will and nill: Willing, resisting and control of action.

Madness: The definition of madness and established intellectual incapacity.

Venery: Sexual exertion and bodily capacity in historical regimen.

Jealousy: Suspicion arising from perceived sexual inadequacy.

Hospital: Institutional provision in the commonwealth scheme.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 10Latin inability to govern, within a catalogue of political grievances.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 39Context: charity that leaves recurrent poverty’s causes unchanged.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 40Impotent means unable to work in the proposed maintenance scheme.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 41Continuation distinguishes provision for married infirm people and work for the able.
5. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 42Social-justice argument for supporting worn-out labourers.
6. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 15Context: love opposed to wisdom in the preliminary satire.
7. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 16Latin and English formulations of ungovernable desire; Seneca attribution remains textually uncollated.
8. Subsection 4. Mental Impairment, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropy, St Vitus’s Dance and Ecstasy · paragraph 21Definition of madness supplies the immediate subject.
9. Subsection 4. Mental Impairment, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropy, St Vitus’s Dance and Ecstasy · paragraph 22Confirmed Impotency: lasting intellectual incapacity, qualified by age and duration.
10. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 10Context: stronger constitutions and the difficult middle course.
11. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraph 11Inability to sustain sexual exertion, despite possible strong inclination.
12. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraph 1The destitute speaker’s objection: powerless and without resources.
13. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraph 2Continuation: appeals to the rich are rebuffed.
14. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 34Burton questions extreme proposed remedies as mad medicine.
15. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 35Vives’s lover loses self-command and is to be recalled through diversions.
16. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 36Continuation: change of emotional course and pleasant companionship.
17. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 37Essential qualification: entertainment helps some but worsens others.
18. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 24Impotently means uncontrollably in unreciprocated love.
19. 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 · paragraph 22Explicit sexual incapacity and the husband’s suspicion.
20. 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 · paragraph 23The following poetic example is attributed to Gallus; the supplied note identifies Maximianus.
21. 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 · paragraph 24The rejected old lover’s complaint.
22. 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 · paragraph 25Humoral age difference and Chaucer’s January.
23. 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 · paragraph 26Fear of cuckoldry, not proof of it.
24. 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 · paragraph 27Rhetorical generalizations about age and marriage intensify the suspicion.
25. 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 · paragraph 28The hostile universal claim is attributed and remains a stereotype.
26. The Different Meanings and Definitions of Despair and the People and Parts Affected · paragraph 29Definition of despair introduces the limited military exception.
27. The Different Meanings and Definitions of Despair and the People and Parts Affected · paragraph 30Impotent company means powerless military group.
28. The Different Meanings and Definitions of Despair and the People and Parts Affected · paragraph 31Virgil’s paradox of hopeless courage follows.
29. The Different Meanings and Definitions of Despair and the People and Parts Affected · paragraph 37The later restriction to despair concerning God, attributed to Zanchi.

In this edition

“Impotentem & insanam libidinem” is rendered “ungovernable and insane desire”, while Burton’s separate “an impotent and raging lust” becomes “an uncontrolled and raging lust”. Ungovernable belongs to impotentem, insane to insanam and desire to libidinem. The supplied note preserves Burton’s Seneca attribution while leaving its precise wording uncollated.

Elsewhere the equivalents follow the specified incapacity: “unable to work”, “an established incapacity”, “lacking the strength”, “powerless”, and “lack of self-control”. “impotence” is appropriate because Burton explicitly introduces the sexual marital obligation. These are explanations of a historical text and its medical and social assumptions, not present-day clinical or legal guidance. In “a confirmed Impotency”, Impotency contributes incapacity and confirmed contributes established; the Latin margin specifies inability to exercise understanding properly.

impotency · Impotency · local use 1

Printed “Impotency” (English; lemma).

Inability to fulfil sexual duties within marriage.

Here: A husband’s awareness of incapacity becomes a proposed cause of jealous suspicion.

Context: Burton develops a historical and gendered account of suspicion; it does not establish that the wife is unfaithful.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Impotency first, when a man is not able of himself to perform those dues which he ought unto his wife

Modern rendering: First, impotence: when a man cannot perform the duties he owes his wife

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

Word and construction: Impotency names sexual incapacity; the following when-clause supplies Burton’s marital explanation.

impotency · Impotency · local use 2

Printed “Impotency” (English; lemma).

Inability or incapacity, here to exercise understanding properly.

Here: Fracastorius’s definition distinguishes enduring incapacity at an appropriate age from passing intoxication or drug effects.

Context: Burton reports a definition of madness; the Latin margin specifies intellectual operation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a confirmed Impotency

Modern rendering: an established incapacity

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

Word and construction: Impotency contributes incapacity; confirmed contributes established. The Latin margin specifies inability to exercise the understanding properly.

impotens

Printed “impotentem” (Latin; lemma).

Unable to govern or restrain itself.

Here: The adjective characterizes desire as uncontrolled, paired with insane.

Context: Burton attributes the Latin formulation to Seneca; the precise underlying wording remains uncollated.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: impotentem & insanam libidinem

Modern rendering: ungovernable and insane desire

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

Word and construction: Impotentem contributes ungovernable, insanam insane, and libidinem desire; the full phrase is not the definition of the adjective.

impotent · local use 1

Printed “impotent” (English; lemma).

Uncontrolled or lacking self-command.

Here: Burton restates the Latin in English while announcing the later treatment of love melancholy.

Context: The author’s English restatement follows his reported Senecan Latin; the two remain separate.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: an impotent and raging lust

Modern rendering: an uncontrolled and raging lust

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

Word and construction: Impotent contributes uncontrolled; raging and lust retain their own contributions.

Further local use

Printed “impotency” (English; lemma).

Here: Vives’s lover is to be recalled home, as from travel, by diversions.

Context: Burton reports Vives after questioning a more extreme remedy; his sequel warns that the same entertainment may help or worsen different lovers.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: through impotency, impatience

Modern rendering: through lack of self-control and impatience

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

Word and construction: Impotency is lack of self-control; impatience remains a separate term.

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

Further local use

Printed “impotently” (English; lemma).

Here: The man’s intense attachment is unreciprocated in the linked-loves example.

Context: Burton illustrates discordant affections, not inability to love or sexual incapacity.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: he loves her most impotently

Modern rendering: he loves her uncontrollably

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

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes without self-control.

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

impotent · local use 2

Printed “impotent” (English; lemma).

Unable or incapable, here of supporting oneself by work.

Here: The proposed commonwealth provides institutional maintenance for those described as unable to work and unmarried.

Context: Burton proposes a social scheme; the next paragraph separately provides for married infirm people and compels work from the able.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: If they be impotent

Modern rendering: If they are unable to work

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

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes physically unable or incapable, here of supporting oneself by work.

Further local use

Printed “impotent” (English; lemma).

Here: The destitute object that advice to use resources does not help those who have none.

Context: Burton voices an objection from people in real deprivation; this is not his dismissal of them.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: impotent, and unable to help our selves

Modern rendering: powerless and unable to help ourselves

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

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes powerless or incapable of helping oneself.

Sense relation: A related application of inability to help oneself: the destitute speaker’s powerlessness includes lack of resources and is not restricted to bodily disability.

impotent · local use 3

Printed “impotent” (English; lemma).

Lacking physical strength or capacity.

Here: The subjects cannot sustain sexual exertion without harm even though they may desire it intensely.

Context: Burton’s historical humoral qualification of the preceding account of stronger bodies.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: others impotent, of a cold and dry constitution

Modern rendering: Others, lacking the strength and having a cold and dry constitution

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

Word and construction: Impotent contributes lacking the strength; the following phrase specifies constitution.

impotent · local use 4

Printed “impotent” (English; lemma).

Powerless or ineffective.

Here: Desperation can turn a powerless military group into conquerors.

Context: Burton grants a limited favourable case for desperate courage before restricting his subject to religious despair.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a forlorn impotent Company

Modern rendering: an abandoned, powerless company

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

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes powerless or ineffective.

impotentia gubernandi

Printed “Impotentia gubernandi” (Latin; phrase).

Inability to govern.

Here: The political-body catalogue connects incapacity to unfit or unskilled magistrates.

Context: Burton lists public grievances and their administrative causes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Impotentia gubernandi

Modern rendering: Inability to govern

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

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes inability to govern.