Indifferent

Use in the book

The inherited example is a satire of self-awarded superiority. Burton juxtaposes the saying that the Chinese have two eyes, Europeans one and everyone else none with Scaliger’s contrary contempt. He then turns to the reader and the reader’s followers: they claim wisdom, concede a middling place to some outsiders and dismiss the rest as fools. The next passage turns the accusation upon the laugher. Indifferent marks the middle rank in the pretended hierarchy, not emotional apathy.

Intermediate evaluation also limits an attack on gentlemen: between the few learned men and the unlearned majority, Burton excepts some of middling attainment. In defending his own writing he admits material that is neither good nor bad, after a Latin verse which claims more good than bad; his separate English summary omits that numerical advantage. A reported hierarchy of spirits likewise includes beings neither wholly good nor evil, before Burton rejects the ensuing celestial speculation. The good, bad, indifferent sequence recurs in a later religious catalogue whose neutralists and lukewarm believers are separately named.

Neutrality can concern allegiance or judgment instead of quality. Jupiter is indifferent between the gods hostile and friendly to Troy, illustrating a reported account of conflicting supernatural patrons. Indifferent arbitrators are impartial people who hear marital grievances, with disputes commonly settled. Burton moves from gentle treatment and sensible friends to the Roman reconciliation example, then argues that churches and good people in his own time could serve the same purpose if used. The reported practice and its source qualifications do not make settlement certain.

Things indifferent form a religious category: practices neither commanded nor prohibited in themselves. Burton criticizes refusal of ceremonies merely because Catholics used them, later applying the category to clothing and distinctions of office. In his criticism of pastors, turning every small fault and morally neutral matter into an unforgivable offence wounds consciences. These are Burton’s positions in disputed religious arguments. His following body claim that all hearers are driven to despair is stronger than the original margin’s many.

The social and erotic uses require further distinctions. In the anti-dancing maxim, most women return indifferent, meaning no better or worse; the original margin instead calls more of them doubtful in virtue. Ambiguæ means doubtful, feminine plural for the women, while plures means more. The mismatch must remain visible. The later objection and reply also matter: Burton denies condemning all dancing and allows it when suitable in time, moderate and sober.

A woman indifferent between two suitors stands equally between their claims in the river-and-shared-land analogy. Both men have a prospect of possessing her in Burton’s formulation; the word does not say she feels nothing or establish her consent. Women indifferent in the Nicolaitan account means women allegedly shared without distinction. Burton condemns that proposed practice and attributes its origin to Augustine’s account of Nicholas’s jealousy; the supplied note identifies a contrary early tradition which defends Nicholas’s continence. These uses describe relations of claim or access in Burton’s arguments, not a neutral endorsement of treating women as common property.

One occurrence does approach unconcern: people bear grief indifferently yet are devastated by public disgrace. Burton’s original English and the marginal Latin disagree, since the latter says they are softer in bearing pain. The contrast with susceptibility to shame belongs to both accounts, but their treatment of ordinary grief or pain should not be flattened into an identical proposition.

Related entries

Judgment: Judgment and the exposure of self-flattering evaluations

Mediocrity: The wider vocabulary of middle measure

Honest: Honourable and innocent conduct in the recreation argument

Curiosity: Over-scrupulous exactness and the limits of curiosity

Shame: Susceptibility to disgrace despite bearing other grief

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 14–16things indifferent within the attack on religious extremes
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 23–25the middling rank, competing claims to superiority and the accusation turned upon the laugher
3. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 38–40neither-good-nor-evil beings in a reported hierarchy, followed by rejection of further speculation
4. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 4–6Jupiter’s neutrality in the divided-allegiance illustration
5. Subsection 6. Shame and Disgrace as Causes · paragraphs 29–31grief borne indifferently, public shame and the discrepant Latin margin
6. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 16–18the expressly excepted gentlemen of middling attainment
7. Section 1. Member 1. Subsection 1 The Preface · paragraphs 20–22intermediate quality in the book, with Latin and English summaries kept separate
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 30–33dancers unchanged in the body, but more of doubtful virtue in the original margin
9. 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 45–47the objection and reply allowing suitably timed, moderate and sober dancing
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 46–48equal standing between suitors in the shared-stream analogy
11. Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 37–42alleged common access in the contested Nicolaitan tradition; indifferens in the original margin
12. Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying a Courtesan; Love Potions; Brothels; Marrying Someone Equal in Age and Fortune, From a Good Family, Well Educated and of Good Standing; Treating Wives Well; and So On · paragraphs 5–7impartial arbitration, gentle mediation and qualified reconciliation
13. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 15–17practices indifferent in themselves, disputed ceremonies and dress
14. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 33–35good, bad and indifferent separately listed from neutralists and lukewarm believers
15. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 38–40morally indifferent acts misrepresented as unforgivable, with wounded conscience as the result

In this edition

“Others indifferent” becomes “others are middling.” The supplied verb makes the hierarchy legible while the surrounding insults and the turn against the laugher remain. “Some is indifferent” becomes “some neither” when Burton judges his own book, while “Jupiter indifferent” becomes “Jupiter neutral.” “Indifferent arbitrators” becomes “impartial arbitrators,” identifying fairness between parties rather than disinterest in their dispute.

“Things indifferent” becomes “matters neither required nor forbidden by religion” in the preliminary polemic; the later renderings use morally indifferent for the same category. “Bear grief indifferently” becomes “bear grief with indifference,” preserving the body’s wording beside the divergent original Latin note. Its page remains 99 [supplied].

“Most indifferent, none better” becomes “most no better or worse, and none improved,” while the marginal “plures ambiguæ” becomes “more of doubtful virtue.” These are distinct claims, not two interchangeable translations. In the suitor passage, “indifferent betwixt two suiters” is rendered “stands impartially between two suitors”; in the Nicolaitan account, “women indifferent” becomes “women shared without distinction.” The original margin’s “usus indifferens fœminarum” becomes “the indiscriminate use of women”: usus means use, indifferens indiscriminate, and fœminarum of women.

ambiguus

Printed “ambiguæ” (Latin; lemma).

Doubtful or uncertain in moral character; feminine plural describing the women.

Here: The marginal version calls more women of doubtful virtue, rather than simply unchanged.

Context: The original Latin margin and Burton’s body differ: plures means more, while the body says most; the judgment is a reported moral maxim, not a verified finding about dancers.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: plures ambiguæ

Modern rendering: more of doubtful virtue

Word and construction: Plures supplies more; ambiguæ supplies of doubtful virtue in this context. This is not an exact equivalent of the body’s most indifferent.

Modern container: note

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent · local use 1

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Middling; occupying a middle rank.

Here: The speaker’s party awards itself wisdom, puts some outsiders in a middle class and dismisses the rest as fools.

Context: Burton satirizes competing claims to superiority and turns the judgment back on the person who laughs at others.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: others indifferent

Modern rendering: others are middling

Word and construction: Indifferent becomes middling; are supplies the elliptical verb. The classification concerns rank, not lack of interest.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Citation key: indifferent.

Here: Some gentlemen of middling attainment are excepted from the attack on the unlearned majority.

Context: Burton distinguishes the few learned gentlemen, the middle group and the hunting-and-gaming majority; he does not condemn every gentleman without exception.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some again excepted, that are indifferent

Modern rendering: again excepting some of middling attainment

Word and construction: Indifferent is middling in attainment, specified from the learning context; the parenthetical exception is preserved.

Sense relation: The same intermediate evaluation applies to gentlemen’s learning.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Citation key: indifferent.

Here: Burton allows an intermediate quality among the materials of his book.

Context: His separate English summary follows a deliberately altered Martial line in which more material is good; the English does not repeat that numerical claim.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Some is good, some bad, some is indifferent.

Modern rendering: Some is good, some bad, some neither.

Word and construction: Neither makes the intermediate position explicit between good and bad, preserving the three-way evaluation.

Sense relation: The intermediate quality applies to writing rather than groups of people.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Citation key: indifferent.

Here: A reported hierarchy distinguishes intermediate beings from good and evil ones.

Context: Burton recounts a supposed ancient classification, then approves Zanchi’s rejection of the further celestial speculation; it is not his unqualified cosmology.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some bad, some indifferent

Modern rendering: some evil; some neither

Word and construction: Indifferent becomes neither, with good supplied by the earlier absolutely good class; the following between gods and humans is a separate description.

Sense relation: An intermediate moral valuation appears within an attributed classification of spirits.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Citation key: indifferent.

Here: The term falls between good and bad in a catalogue of varied religious and moral positions.

Context: Burton rejects the preceding objections as cavils; the list separately names neutralists and lukewarm believers, so indifferent need not absorb every later label.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: good, bad, indifferent

Word and construction: The word remains unchanged; its position in the first three-member sequence supplies the intermediate evaluation.

Sense relation: The good/bad/intermediate sequence recurs in a religiously polemical catalogue.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent · local use 2

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Neutral; taking neither opposing side.

Here: Jupiter is placed between the gods who favour Troy and those hostile to it.

Context: Burton uses mythic divided allegiances to illustrate a reported account of supernatural patrons; the preceding passage expressly questions Trithemius’s authority.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Jupiter indifferent

Modern rendering: Jupiter neutral

Word and construction: Indifferent becomes neutral, with Jupiter as the unchanged subject.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent · local use 3

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Neither better nor worse; unchanged in moral standing.

Here: Most of the dancers are said to return without improvement or deterioration, between those called unchaste and the denial that any are better.

Context: The attributed anti-dancing maxim is milder in Burton’s English than the original Latin margin; later Burton explicitly permits moderate, sober dancing at a suitable time.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: most indifferent, none better

Modern rendering: most no better or worse, and none improved

Word and construction: Indifferent becomes no better or worse; none better separately becomes none improved. The modern and is connective, not an extra category.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent · local use 4

Printed “indifferent” (English; lemma).

Shared without distinction or exclusive possession.

Here: The Nicolaitans are alleged to permit the sharing of wives.

Context: Burton attributes the account to Augustine and condemns it as heresy; the supplied note identifies an alternative early account defending Nicholas’s continence. This is a contested polemical tradition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: would have women indifferent

Modern rendering: would have women shared without distinction

Word and construction: Would have preserves the reported proposal; indifferent becomes shared without distinction, not emotionally unconcerned.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “indifferens” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: indifferens.

Here: Indiscriminate use of women is the practice attributed to the sect.

Context: The original margin says Nicholas is said to have permitted access; its reported status is not changed into authenticated biography.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: usus indifferens fœminarum

Modern rendering: the indiscriminate use of women

Word and construction: Indifferens supplies indiscriminate, usus use and fœminarum of women.

Modern container: note

Sense relation: The Latin adjective specifies the same lack of exclusive distinction in the attributed practice.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent arbitrators

Printed “indifferent arbitrators” (English; phrase).

Impartial arbitrators: arbitrators hear and settle a dispute, and indifferent means not favouring either party.

Here: Neutral friends and arbitrators hear a marital dispute, which is commonly settled.

Context: Burton’s Roman-temple example follows gentle treatment and mediation; the next passage says such help is available in his own time if used. The supplied note supports reconciliation at Viriplaca’s temple but not the white-stag detail.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: before some indifferent arbitrators and friends, the matter was heard betwixt man and wife, and commonly composed

Modern rendering: The dispute between husband and wife was heard before impartial arbitrators and friends, and usually settled

Word and construction: Indifferent becomes impartial; commonly is usually, not invariably; the hearing and settlement are both retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferent between

Printed “indifferent betwixt two suiters” (English; phrase).

Standing equally between two competing claimants.

Here: Both suitors are described as having a prospect of winning the woman.

Context: Burton’s river-and-shared-land analogy uses possessive language about the woman; the word does not establish her emotional indifference or consent.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so is a woman indifferent betwixt two suiters, both likely to enjoy her

Modern rendering: so a woman stands impartially between two suitors, each with a prospect of possessing her

Word and construction: Indifferent betwixt becomes stands impartially between; the two prospects remain, without converting likely into certainty.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

indifferently

Printed “indifferently” (English; lemma).

With comparative unconcern or equanimity.

Here: People can bear ordinary grief yet be broken by public reproach.

Context: Burton’s English differs from the original Latin margin, which says that they are softer in bearing pain; neither version is silently harmonized.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: bear grief indifferently

Modern rendering: bear grief with indifference

Word and construction: The adverb is expanded to with indifference, preserving the contrast with their vulnerability to disgrace.

Source discrepancy: the accompanying note has in dolore sunt molliores, translated are softer in bearing pain, rather than the body’s claim to bear grief indifferently.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

things indifferent

Printed “things indifferent” (English; phrase).

Things means practices or matters; indifferent means neither required nor forbidden in themselves on religious grounds.

Here: Burton faults refusal of ceremonies even when no inherent religious prohibition applies.

Context: The passage attacks both hostile religious extremes and conformists motivated by advancement; the judgment belongs to Burton’s polemic.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: though in things indifferent

Modern rendering: even in matters neither required nor forbidden by religion

Word and construction: The modern phrase expands the technical sense and retains the concessive even.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “things indifferent” (English; phrase).

Citation key: things indifferent.

Here: Clothing and ceremonial distinctions are treated as morally neutral in themselves.

Context: Burton attacks opponents who make their use a matter of conscience; his account groups distinct religious opponents and is not their own shared confession.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: things indifferent in themselves

Modern rendering: things morally indifferent in themselves

Word and construction: Morally makes the intended field explicit; in themselves restricts the claim to inherent status.

Sense relation: The same technical neutrality is applied to dress and ceremonial distinction.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “thing indifferent” (English; phrase).

Citation key: thing indifferent.

Here: A morally neutral matter is wrongly magnified into an unforgivable offence in the criticism of pastors.

Context: Burton says such indiscriminate condemnation wounds consciences; his following English all hearers is stronger than the original margin’s many.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: making every smal fault and thing indifferent an irremissible offence

Modern rendering: Making every small fault, and every morally indifferent matter, an unforgivable offence

Word and construction: Thing indifferent becomes morally indifferent matter; the falsely intensified offence remains the result attributed to the preachers.

Sense relation: The same category protects innocent recreation from indiscriminate condemnation.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.