Legal evidence

Use in the book

The scrivener’s obligation belongs to the complaint about the rewards of scholarship. Drawing up a bond pays better than prolonged study; the surrounding list compares scholars with lawyers, falconers and fashionable service providers. The point is the relative value society assigns to work, rather than the details of a particular debt. Later, barely being able to read a piece of Evidence becomes an inadequate substitute for learning. Burton mocks the patrons who consider that narrow competence sufficient for public service, after arguing that generous support would produce hardworking scholars.

Property documents become a test of institutional trust. Burton cites Camden for the brevity of older conveyances and assurances, then says he has himself seen deeds transferring entire manors in about twenty lines. His scede, a written slip, leads into the comparison with Spartan brevity. The accompanying scytale is a message associated with matching rods; Burton draws it into his argument about concise agreements. His account does not establish that every such message was a short property deed. The precise meaning of the golden crosses in the earlier example remains unresolved.

The next paragraph supplies the dispute behind the nostalgia. Modern purchasers allegedly need a houseful of writings. Drafters say their repeated qualifications prevent quibbling; Burton answers that ingenious opponents find more opportunities for quarrel, with a misplaced word threatening annulment. His ensuing complaint says that what one person thinks sound another considers faulty. These are historical criticisms of drafting and litigation, not instructions about the validity of present documents.

Documents can be corrupted as well as overgrown. In the Democritus narrative, notaries allegedly alter judgments and accept money to make deeds disappear; the continuation adds purchased false testimony and fraudulent contracts prevailing against justice. The episode belongs to the literary Hippocratic-letter tradition. The later court satire likewise describes forged deeds or wills displacing an heir, while the weak suffer punishment. Such examples explain the importance of records without treating the mere possession of one as proof of justice.

A literal contracting action appears in the discussion of trade: the Poles indented with Henry of Anjou, their newly elected king, requiring him to bring a hundred families of craftspeople into Poland. Burton reports the agreement as an example of encouraging skilled industry, without producing its instrument. The security of a written agreement also lends itself to a positive metaphor. Friendship is the surest Indenture, binding people more firmly than other ties. Spenser’s following stanzas give virtuous friendship precedence over kinship and erotic affection. Burton immediately qualifies this praise: such loves are worth little unless they proceed from a true Christian illuminated soul and are practised for God’s sake. No actual legal contract is being executed. In the religious discussion the metaphor changes direction: conscience becomes a witness giving evidence, then jury, pursuer, court officers, advocate, jailer and judge. The subsequent warning says that apparent impunity can end in accusation, while the devil allegedly magnifies the offence as unforgivable to bring about despair. The whole legal image describes inward prosecution.

Binding language does not close off the possibility of recovery. Burton claims that many people find comfort even after giving themselves to the devil by obligation. His original margin illustrates this with an attributed story of someone who denied Christ through a written bond and was afterwards restored. The next paragraph generally requires medicine and counsel to work together. Later, compact, band and obligation appear in the sufferer’s fearful catalogue of self-accusations. The ensuing answer distinguishes involuntary thoughts and partial assent subsequently rejected from a settled will. These historical religious and medical arguments should neither confirm the power of a pact nor turn the imagined charge into proof against an individual.

Related entries

Church patronage: Appointment rights, defective titles and institutional revenues.

Usury: Debt and the moral regulation of lending.

Dowry and jointure: Property secured through marriage arrangements.

Law and justice: Legal ordering, courts and the limits of procedure.

Clerk: The paid scrivener and other learned or administrative roles.

Conscience: The inward witness and tribunal.

Despair: The fearful accusations and consolatory answers.

Cure: The historical cooperation of medicine and counsel.

Bawd: Secret communication and the non-property use of conveyances.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 21–24notaries, disappearing deeds, bought testimony and fraudulent contracts within the Democritus narrative and its concluding reversal.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 16–18forged documents, displaced inheritance and unequal punishment in the satire of courts.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 8–10; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 9the scrivener’s obligation and the poor reward of scholarship.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 34–39; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 36swift settlements, concise conveyances and assurances, the written-slip comparison, the defence of verbose drafting and Burton’s reply.
5. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 28–32indented as the literal act of contracting, with the Poles’ reported agreement requiring Henry of Anjou to bring craftspeople; the setting is industry and trade policy.
6. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 26–31; Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraph 31secret arrangements do not secure ill-gotten gains; the later Evidence is a legal document awkwardly read by a critic of learning.
7. Member 3 Charity Combining All Three Kinds of Love Pleasant Profitable and Honourable · paragraphs 29–33friendship as the surest Indenture, Spenser’s preference for virtuous attachment, and Burton’s immediately following Christian-purpose qualification.
8. Subsection 5 Procurers and Love Potions as Causes · paragraphs 58–60conveyances as devices for passing messages; the supposed magnetic method is expressly disputed.
9. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 49–56conscience as witness and prosecuting machinery, pleasure’s temporary respite and the alleged exaggeration that induces despair.
10. Subsection 6 · paragraph 8; Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 9–12; Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 10; note 13060recovery despite a binding pledge, the written-bond restoration story and the cooperation of counsel with medicine.
11. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 17–34the alleged compact, bond and obligation in the self-accusations, followed by distinctions between unwanted thoughts, partial assent and a settled will.

In this edition

“for an obligation” → “for drawing up a bond”; “conveyances, assurances” → “transfers of property and guarantees”; “scamble at a piece of Evidence” → “stumble through a legal document”; “by obligation given themselves to him” → “bound themselves over to him”. These renderings identify the instrument or binding act. Drawing up makes the scrivener’s implied activity explicit. In the property pair, conveyances supplies transfers of property and assurances guarantees. Scamble supplies the difficulty of reading, while Evidence supplies the document. The last pair remains part of a reported supernatural claim, not confirmation of a pact’s power.

The marginal per chirographum, “by a written bond,” is Latin with an accusative after per. It is translated within the note, not the modern body. Its restoration clause must remain beside the alleged renunciation. The later band becomes bond, whereas compact becomes pact. In the conscience metaphor, testor means witness; the modern It is explicitly connects the sentence to conscience, and giving evidence denotes testimony rather than a title deed. Conveyances is instead rendered arrangements, while the passage uses it for cunning means of passing messages. Neither context should silently be converted into a property transaction. Indented with Henry Duke of Anjou becomes made a contract with Henry, duke of Anjou: the verb supplies the contracting action, distinct from the noun Indenture used figuratively of friendship. The following requirement identifies the hundred families as those Henry must bring, not as parties making the contract.

Assurance; property security

Printed “assurances” (English; family).

Instruments securing property or title.

Here: These guarantees stand beside conveyances in the account of older, shorter legal records.

Context: Burton’s retrospective praise of honesty and concise documentation, followed by the objection and counterargument about preventing disputes.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: conveyances, assurances

Modern rendering: transfers of property and guarantees

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

Word and construction: Assurances contributes guarantees; conveyances supplies transfers of property. This sense names legal security rather than personal confidence.

Chirographum

Printed “chirographum” (Latin; lemma).

A written bond or undertaking.

Here: The original margin gives a written renunciation of Christ as a case followed by restoration.

Context: The story is attributed to John Major’s Lives of the Fathers; its precise source remains uncollated. It supports the possibility of recovery in Burton’s argument, not the independent power of a supernatural pact.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: per chirographum

Modern rendering: by a written bond

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

Word and construction: Per with the accusative chirographum expresses the means, by a written bond. The note’s afterwards restored is essential context but outside this selected phrase.

Modern container: note

Grammar: Chirographum is accusative singular after per; the construction identifies the written instrument.

Conveyance; property instrument

Printed “conveyances” (English; family).

Transfers of property, or the instruments effecting them.

Here: Older property transactions are represented as briefly recorded, in contrast to lengthy modern drafting.

Context: Burton cites Camden, then adds his own claimed observation of short deeds; the exact Camden passage and golden-cross image remain unresolved.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: conveyances, assurances

Modern rendering: transfers of property and guarantees

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

Word and construction: Conveyances contributes transfers of property; assurances contributes guarantees. The two legal categories are separately explained rather than both meaning confidence.

Uncertainty: Golden crosses may be marks, objects or payments; the supplied evidence does not settle which.

Further local use

Printed “conveyance” (English; family).

Citation key: Conveyance; property deed.

A deed effecting a transfer of property.

Here: Elaborate wording allegedly gives ingenious opponents more opportunities to challenge the transaction.

Context: Burton reports the drafters’ defence that repetition avoids quibbling, then argues that it instead increases disputes. His claim about annulment is historical polemic, not current legal guidance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: scarce any conveyance so accurately penned by one

Modern rendering: Hardly any deed is drafted so precisely by one person

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

Word and construction: Conveyance contributes deed; accurately penned becomes drafted so precisely; scarce any becomes hardly any.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Further local use

Printed “conveyances” (English; family).

Citation key: Conveyance; secret arrangement.

Arrangements or contrivances for keeping property secure.

Here: Secret arrangements and locked doors cannot, in the attributed warning, prevent dishonestly acquired wealth from destroying the rest.

Context: Burton invokes Chrysostom during the attack on corrupt patrons; this is a theological warning, not a verified rule about inheritance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: make their conveyances never so close

Modern rendering: make their arrangements as secret as they please

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

Word and construction: Conveyances contributes arrangements; never so close becomes as secret as they please. The immediate context does not identify a specific legal instrument.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Further local use

Printed “conveyances” (English; family).

Citation key: Conveyance; passing messages.

Means or devices for transmitting messages.

Here: The word concerns secret amorous communication rather than property transfer.

Context: Burton’s catalogue includes alleged magnetic communication, which he expressly says Cabeo rejects as fabulous and false; it leads into the procurer’s assistance.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: cunning conveyances in this kind

Modern rendering: such cunning means of passing messages

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

Word and construction: Cunning contributes cunning; conveyances in this kind is expanded as means of passing messages from the communication context. Such connects the list.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Deed; legal instrument

Printed “Deed” (English; family).

A legal document recording or effecting a transaction.

Here: A deed conveying a whole manor is said to occupy only about twenty lines.

Context: Burton says he has often seen such short deeds, using them to support his praise of earlier integrity; the figure is his approximate report.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a Deed

Modern rendering: a deed

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

Word and construction: The legal noun is retained with modern capitalization; the surrounding clause specifies conveyance of a manor.

Further local use

Printed “Deeds” (English; family).

Citation key: Deed; legal record.

Legal documents.

Here: Corrupt notaries allegedly make documents disappear for payment.

Context: Democritus speaks within Burton’s retelling of the pseudonymous Hippocratic correspondence; this is a literary indictment of institutional corruption. The scene ends with Hippocrates rejecting the townspeople’s diagnosis of madness.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: for money lose their Deeds

Modern rendering: for money, make their documents disappear

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

Word and construction: Deeds contributes documents; lose is interpreted as deliberate disappearance in the corrupt-payment context, not an accidental misplacement.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Further local use

Printed “deeds” (English; family).

Citation key: Deed; forged instrument.

Legal documents.

Here: Forged instruments or wills are among the means of displacing a rightful heir.

Context: Burton’s satire of corrupted courts contrasts the powerful with the powerless people actually punished; it does not establish a particular proven forgery.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: false forged deeds or wils

Modern rendering: forged deeds, or wills

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

Word and construction: The paired false forged is condensed into forged; deeds remains deeds and wils becomes wills.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Evidence; legal document

Printed “Evidence” (English; family).

A legal document or title deed.

Here: The critics of scholarship can barely read a document yet consider themselves adequately educated for public service.

Context: Burton follows the claim that ignorance breeds contempt with an appeal for patrons and a complaint about narrow qualifications.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: scamble at a piece of Evidence

Modern rendering: stumble through a legal document

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

Word and construction: Scamble at contributes stumble through, the awkward reading; a piece of Evidence supplies a legal document, not a fragment of evidentiary proof.

Give in evidence

Printed “give in evidence” (English; phrase).

Present testimony or evidence in a judicial proceeding.

Here: Personified conscience supplies the witness and the entire prosecuting apparatus against the sinner.

Context: Burton’s description of distress uses legal roles metaphorically. The continuation distinguishes temporary pleasure from later accusation and says the devil magnifies sin as unforgivable to induce despair.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: A continual testor to give in evidence

Modern rendering: It is an unceasing witness giving evidence

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

Word and construction: Testor supplies witness, continual unceasing and give in evidence giving evidence. It is supplies the explicit subject and verb linking this continuation to conscience.

Translator-supplied words: It is, making the continuation’s reference to conscience explicit

Indenture

Printed “Indenture” (English; lemma).

A binding written agreement, used here as a metaphor for friendship’s strength.

Here: Friendship is called the surest contract among ties that bind people.

Context: Burton praises friendship and invokes Spenser’s preference for virtuous minds over family and erotic ties, then immediately qualifies all these loves: they are worth little unless proceeding from a true Christian illuminated soul and practised for God’s sake. No actual executed agreement is described.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: the surest Indenture

Modern rendering: the surest contract

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

Word and construction: Indenture contributes contract and surest its superlative security; the document’s binding force supplies the metaphor.

Further local use

Printed “indented” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Indent; contract by indenture.

Contracted by indenture or entered a binding agreement; past-tense verb.

Here: The Poles make an agreement with Henry of Anjou requiring him to bring one hundred families of craftspeople into Poland.

Context: Burton’s historical report in an argument for industry and trade. The Poles and Henry are the contracting parties; the craftspeople are the people to be brought under the agreement, not its stated parties. No original legal instrument is produced or independently verified.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: indented with Henry Duke of Anjou

Modern rendering: made a contract with Henry, duke of Anjou

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

Word and construction: Indented supplies made a contract; with Henry identifies the other party and Duke of Anjou his title. The required hundred families occur in the following clause, outside this exact phrase.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Obligation; binding pledge

Printed “obligation” (English; family).

A binding pledge or bond.

Here: The alleged surrender to the devil does not prevent the recovery asserted in Burton’s consolation.

Context: Burton claims that multitudes find help despite such pledges, supported by a marginal restoration story. The supernatural claim is reported, not independently confirmed; the next paragraph generally joins medicine and counsel.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by obligation given themselves to him

Modern rendering: bound themselves over to him

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

Word and construction: By obligation identifies the binding act and is recast through bound over; given themselves to him supplies the persons and recipient of the pledge.

Further local use

Printed “obligation” (English; family).

Citation key: Compact; band; obligation.

A binding undertaking or pledge.

Here: The supposed devil-pact is one item in the sufferer’s accumulating self-accusations.

Context: Burton stages a fearful case rather than proving a particular person’s pact. The ensuing consolation distinguishes unwanted thoughts and temporary assent later rejected from a settled will.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by compact, band, and obligation

Modern rendering: by pact, bond and obligation

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

Word and construction: Compact contributes pact, band bond, and obligation retains the binding-undertaking noun. The explicit/implicit alternatives stand outside this selected phrase.

Sense relation: A further local use with its own exact construction and argumentative setting.

Obligation; written bond

Printed “obligation” (English; family).

A written bond or formal acknowledgement of debt.

Here: The scrivener is better rewarded for producing a bond than the scholar for prolonged study.

Context: Burton’s complaint about the comparative rewards of paid services and scholarship; it does not provide an amount or a complete legal transaction.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: for an obligation

Modern rendering: for drawing up a bond

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

Word and construction: Obligation contributes bond. Drawing up supplies the professional activity implicit in payment to a scrivener.

Translator-supplied words: drawing up, explaining the scrivener’s implied work

Scede

Printed “scede” (English; lemma).

A written slip or short written document.

Here: The slip introduces the comparison with a Spartan message used to commend brevity in agreements.

Context: Burton applies ancient authorities to concise legal drafting. The scytale comparison concerns a message associated with matching rods, not simply a short property deed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: that scede

Modern rendering: that written slip

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

Word and construction: Scede contributes written slip; that remains the demonstrative.

Qualification: The printed Sytala Laconica is rendered Laconian scytale in the supplied text. Cicero’s cited letter number and Burton’s interpretation as praise of brevity remain distinct from the located parallel.