Mirth

Use in the book

Burton gives mirth a prominent place beside music and merry company as means to divert fixed, distressing cares. He develops inward gladness into shared activity. A pleasant companion becomes a carriage for the weary traveller; agreeable stories and timely wit become a figurative nepenthe, relieving sorrow. The marginal restriction on honest mirth matters: jokes should avoid insult and sting gently, and the stated troubles are moderate.

This differs from making oneself merry at another’s expense. Burton condemns scoffers who exploit a vulnerable person’s weakness and urges removal from such company. Nor does a merry appearance prove that melancholy has disappeared: the symptom account describes people who laugh in spells and yet return instantly to heaviness, or remain merry and sad together.

The remedy’s measure is equally important. Serious study may be interrupted by jokes and recreation, but the next paragraph attacks people who use praise of merry company to justify neglecting business and spending every day drinking. The love-remedy discussion is even more explicitly patient-dependent: music and merriment worsen some lovers’ passion and relieve others, so their symptoms and dispositions govern their use.

The final counsel on despair develops the related restorative purpose through wholesome recreation, skilled effort, the direction of thought and friends’ assistance. That paragraph does not itself repeat mirth; it explains why pleasant activity can belong to the same account of restoration.

Related entries

Music and harmony: Music’s powers and exceptions.

Recreate: The restorative verb and activity.

Remedy by diversion: Redirecting fixed thoughts.

Nepenthe: The figurative grief-banishing drug.

Leisure: Free time and its employment.

Places to read

1. Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraph 1The underlying sorrow in the symptom account.
2. Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraph 2Merry intervals coexist with enduring sorrow in the symptom description.
3. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh… · paragraph 14Harmful courtly company.
4. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh… · paragraph 15The pleasure of scoffers harms the person who supplies their amusement.
5. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh… · paragraph 16Removing the sufferer from mockery.
6. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraph 1Music remedy heading.
7. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraph 2Mirth joins music and lively company among Burton’s preferred means of diverting fixed cares.
8. Subsection 3 Music as a Remedy · paragraph 3Medical praise and musical metaphor.
9. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 28Inward cheerfulness and company connected.
10. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 29The three personified doctors of regimen.
11. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 30The merry companion is compared to a carriage for a weary traveller.
12. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 31Timely talk as figurative nepenthe.
13. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 24Tiresias’s advice in Lucian’s satirical descent.
14. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 25Love and laughter in a quoted maxim.
15. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 26Pleasant interruptions of serious studies and business are opposed to sorrow.
16. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 27The immediate warning against habitual tavern life.
17. Subsection 4 Cheerfulness, Merry Company, and Pleasing Sights as Remedies · paragraph 28The criticism of excessive revelry continues.
18. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 36A companion’s stories redirect thought.
19. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraph 37The same entertainments intensify some lovers’ passions and relieve others.
20. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 27The removal of distressing occasions.
21. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 28The later counsel develops the restorative purpose without repeating mirth.
22. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 29Disclosure to capable advisers.

In this edition

“mirth” → “cheerfulness” gives the immediate sense, while “honest mirth” → “wholesome merriment” makes its social and moral qualification explicit. “refresh and recreate his distressed soul” → “refresh and restore his distressed soul” preserves the earlier related comparison without pretending that mirth occurs there. The edition retains both the coexistence of merriment and sorrow and the later abuse of the remedy.

merriment

Printed “merriment” (English; lemma).

Pleasant social enjoyment.

Here: The same entertainments intensify some lovers’ passions and relieve others.

Context: Burton invokes Avicenna and explicitly makes application depend on symptoms and disposition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: merriment, singing, dancing

Modern rendering: merriment, singing and dancing

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

merry · local use 1

Printed “merry” (English; lemma).

Cheerful.

Here: Merry intervals coexist with enduring sorrow in the symptom description.

Context: Burton describes fluctuation and appearance; laughter is not proof that distress has ended.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: merry and sad, but most part sad

Modern rendering: merry and sad, but mostly sad

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

merry · local use 2

Printed “merry” (English; lemma).

Amused or entertained.

Here: The pleasure of scoffers harms the person who supplies their amusement.

Context: Burton condemns such company and recommends escape in the continuation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: make themselves merry by abusing some silly fellow

Modern rendering: entertain themselves by tormenting some simple fellow

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

mirth · local use 1

Printed “mirth” (English; lemma).

Cheerfulness or enjoyable merriment.

Here: Mirth joins music and lively company among Burton’s preferred means of diverting fixed cares.

Context: Burton expressly says “in my judgment”; the therapeutic and strong-drink claims are historical.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: mirth

Modern rendering: cheerfulness

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

mirth · local use 2

Printed “mirth” (English; lemma).

Cheerfulness or social enjoyment.

Here: The merry companion is compared to a carriage for a weary traveller.

Context: The praise is attributed to Gomesius and others; the margin limits joking by gentleness and absence of insult.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: honest mirth

Modern rendering: wholesome merriment

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

mirth · local use 3

Printed “mirth” (English; lemma).

Cheerfulness or social enjoyment.

Here: Pleasant interruptions of serious studies and business are opposed to sorrow.

Context: Burton gathers medical counsels, then immediately warns against turning this into habitual drinking.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: mirth and merry company

Modern rendering: cheerfulness and cheerful company

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

recreate

Printed “recreate” (English; lemma).

Restore or refresh.

Here: The later counsel develops the restorative purpose without repeating mirth.

Context: Burton joins recreation to guided thought and friends’ help; this is a related use, not another attestation of mirth.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: refresh and recreate his distressed soul

Modern rendering: refresh and restore his distressed soul

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.