From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordObnubilate means to cloud, darken or obscure.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyIn the account of hypochondriacal symptoms, undigested matter is said to generate windy vapours that rise to the brain.
- In this edition“obnubilate the minde” becomes “clouds the mind,” retaining the governing comparison.
- A place to readAugustine’s warning, Burton’s English restatement and the choice of medical subject
Meaning
Obnubilate means to cloud, darken or obscure. Its force is visible in Burton’s comparison between a vapour troubling the mind and a cloud intercepting sunlight. Obnubilates extends the same English verb to a soul overshadowed by sin. The Latin verbal forms obnubilatur, “is clouded over,” and obnubilant, “cloud,” supply related uses: contentious argument obscures charity, and corrupt humours are said to obscure the mind. The related Latin adjective obnubila, “clouded” or “darkened,” describes the regions of death. These uses share an image without assigning the same cause or object to every occurrence.
Use in the book
The sun, the chimney and the mind
In the account of hypochondriacal symptoms, undigested matter is said to generate windy vapours that rise to the brain. The preceding passage locates different pains and digestive symptoms in different organs; the cloud comparison then explains their supposed mental effects. As a black, thick cloud blocks the Sun’s light, melancholy vapour obscures thought. As smoke rises from a chimney, the vapour rises from the lower body. These are two comparisons within one historical physiological account, not interchangeable literal descriptions of the brain.
The consequence is striking because the people affected may otherwise be good, wise, honest and discreet. Burton says they are compelled to imagine, speak and act in ways unworthy of their usual character and calling. The verb describes an obstruction of their ordinary powers, rather than proving they never possessed wisdom. The continuation supplies reported beliefs about swallowed serpents and frogs. Their bodily sensations and fixed beliefs illustrate the explanation; they are transmitted medical anecdotes, not diagnoses independently established here. An earlier marginal sentence, “Humores pravi mentem obnubilant,” likewise assigns the clouding of the mind to corrupt humours.
Charity and conscience under clouds
In the preface, the object clouded is charity. Burton invokes Augustine while attacking the bitterness and endless multiplication of religious controversy. A tempest of contention overcasts charity’s serenity. Here the image concerns how disputation damages Christian love, and Burton’s preceding and following paragraphs explain why he has chosen a medical rather than controversial subject. It is not an account of abdominal vapour.
Near the book’s end, the black cloud is sin, the obscured object the soul, and the accompanying effect a terrified conscience. Yet the phrase “as yet” and the possible rainbow make the image part of consolation. Burton urges the reader to distinguish a present inability to act from the desire to believe or repent. The next paragraph says that desire is accepted as repentance by God while retaining a distinction between that acceptance and repentance’s nature. The cloud can disperse; the passage does not turn present darkness into an irreversible verdict.
A dark place rather than a darkened faculty
The Latin adjective in the account of Catiline’s alleged killing of his son describes Orcus’s regions as clouded by death and covered with darkness. Its object is a place in the underworld. This literary extension belongs to Burton’s catalogue of destructive acts attributed to love. The supplied editor notes that Burton states the killing directly although Sallust reports it as a belief, and that the intervening Latin phrase’s source remains unresolved. The entry preserves that evidential limit.
Related entries
Imagination; Vapours; Dotage; Conscience; Despair
Places to read
- Controversy obscures charityAugustine’s warning, Burton’s English restatement and the choice of medical subject
- Corrupt humours obscure the mindThe Latin marginal verb within a historical account of bodily influence
- Vapour, cloud and smokeThe exact English verb, its paired images and the reported beliefs that follow
- Death-clouded regionsA related Latin adjective in the Catiline anecdote, with the supplied source qualification
- The soul’s cloud may clearConscience, delayed repentance and the rainbow of possible relief
In this edition
“obnubilate the minde” becomes “clouds the mind,” retaining the governing comparison. “a black cloud of sin as yet obnubilates thy soul” becomes “A black cloud of sin still darkens your soul”; “still” preserves the temporal qualification. Neither wording turns the historical physiological or theological explanation into a modern diagnosis.
The Latin construction about contention becomes “the storm of contention clouds the clear sky of charity.” “Clear sky” brings out the weather image in the Latin word for serenity; Burton’s following English restatement is separately modernized. The marginal “Humores pravi mentem obnubilant” has the supplied editorial translation “Corrupt humours cloud the mind.” That English belongs to the edition’s explanatory apparatus, not to the original Latin margin. In the underworld description, “clouded by death” belongs to “lethi obnubila” within the larger quoted clause.
obnubilate
Printed “obnubilate” (English; lemma).
To cloud or darken the mind; vapour is represented as obscuring thought like a cloud obscuring sunlight.
Context: Burton develops Lemnius’s historical physiological explanation; this is not a modern causal claim.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: so doth this melancholy vapour obnubilate the minde
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: so this melancholic vapour clouds the mind
Qualification: The original finite construction is doth... obnubilate: doth carries the singular finite verb and obnubilate is the plain form. The modern replaces that construction with clouds. The vapour is subject, mind object, and so marks the comparison with a cloud covering the sun.
Notes: Authorities and anecdotes are reported as Burton presents them; no fresh historical-witness collation is claimed.
obnubilate · obnubilates
Printed “obnubilates” (English; lemma).
Darkens or obscures; the black cloud of sin troubles the soul and conscience in a consolatory religious address.
Context: Burton addresses the distressed reader; “as yet” and the possible rainbow keep this darkness from being final.
Source: original body
Source wording: a black cloud of sin as yet obnubilates thy soul
Notes: Authorities and anecdotes are reported as Burton presents them; no fresh historical-witness collation is claimed.
obnubilo · obnubilatur
Printed “obnubilatur” (Latin; lemma).
Is clouded over: the serenity of Christian love is obscured by bitter dispute. Latin passive verb; contention is the figurative storm.
Context: Burton attributes the warning to Augustine within his polemic against religious disputation.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: tempestate contentionis, serenitas charitatis obnubilatur
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: the storm of contention clouds the clear sky of charity
Qualification: The quoted constructions are aligned at phrase level; individual component meanings are not equated with the entire phrase.
Supplied words: clear sky renders the meteorological force of serenitas; it is not a separate printed noun
Notes: Authorities and anecdotes are reported as Burton presents them; no fresh historical-witness collation is claimed.
obnubilo · obnubilant
Printed “obnubilant” (Latin; lemma).
Cloud or obscure: corrupt bodily humours are said to impair mental functioning. Latin plural active verb, with humours as subject and mind as object.
Context: An original marginal assertion supports Burton’s historical humoral explanation.
Source: original marginal wording in Burton-labelled note
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: Humores pravi mentem obnubilant.
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: Corrupt humours cloud the mind.
Qualification: Original marginal wording aligned with supplied editorial translation in the same note container; the translation is not original marginal text.
Notes: Authorities and anecdotes are reported as Burton presents them; no fresh historical-witness collation is claimed.
obnubilus
Printed “obnubila” (Latin; lemma).
Clouded or darkened; the Latin adjective describes the places of the underworld, not impaired reasoning.
Context: Burton inserts this Latin description into the story that Catiline killed his son. The supplied editor distinguishes Burton’s assertion from the report in Sallust.
Grammar: Obnubila is neuter plural accusative, agreeing with loca, regions/places, the object of ad; it is an adjective, not the predicate verb.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording, Original construction: misitque ad orci pallida, lethi obnubila, obsita tenebris loca
Modern rendering, Modern wording, Modern construction: and sent him to Orcus’s pale regions, clouded by death and overgrown with darkness
Qualification: The entire Latin clause is aligned: misitque supplies and sent, with him supplied from the son in the preceding English; loca supplies regions, pallida pale, lethi obnubila clouded by death, and obsita tenebris overgrown with darkness. The indexed adjective alone means clouded/darkened.
Supplied words: him (the son named in the preceding English, supplied as the object of sent)
Notes: Authorities and anecdotes are reported as Burton presents them; no fresh historical-witness collation is claimed.
Lexical reference: title: Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary, ob-nūbĭlus; url: https://atlas.perseus.tufts.edu/dictionaries/entry/urn%3Acite2%3Ascaife-viewer%3Adictionary-entries.atlas_v1%3Alat.ls.perseus-eng2-n31754/; scope: Complete short dictionary entry retrieved in web search; direct page open failed. Supports adjective headword and cloudy/dark sense; not independent collation of Ennius or Cicero.