Painful

Use in the book

The painful omniscious philosopher is Seneca. Burton’s surrounding account combines praise of his learning with severe criticism of his style, making his reception a precedent for Burton’s own inability to please every reader. Painful commends the philosopher’s diligence; omniscious supplies the accompanying claim of universal learning.

Dutch land is painfully preserved after reclamation from the sea. The word describes sustained labour and skill, with English flooded fenland and neglected transport as the following contrast. The later political recommendation asks for painfull inhabitants and skilled artisans. Both passages connect prosperity with active work rather than with the mere possession of territory.

A painfull preacher appears among competing claimants to a church appointment. The parish’s signatures support his testimonial, so hard work is a qualification offered on his behalf; the list does not make it a guarantee of advancement. This preserves the distinction between an applicant’s merit and the patronage process through which he seeks a place.

The suffering sense is equally real. A continuate and painfull disease is both prolonged and distressing; the consolatory appeal offers eventual release through recovery or death, not a medical guarantee that pain cannot persist. Painfull Amyntas is a suffering lover beside mournfull and carefull Amyntas. In the religious discussion, troublesome and painfull duties belong to the imagined sufferer’s accusation that he performed worship unwillingly. The adjective therefore ranges across productive exertion, bodily pain, emotional suffering and burdensome performance.

Related entries

Careful: Attention and anxious suffering in another context-dependent adjective.

Macerate: Exertion or distress that wears people down.

Sorrow: The passion of sorrow.

Exquisite: Precision and intensity in a future lexical treatment.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 17–19Seneca’s diligence amid conflicting judgements of his style.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 3–5Dutch reclamation, continuing maintenance and the English contrast.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 27–29Industrious inhabitants in political counsel.
4. Member 2 Bodily Deformity, Sickness, Low Birth, and Particular Discontents · paragraphs 14–16Painful illness and the limits of the consolatory claim.
5. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults… · paragraphs 18–20The hardworking preacher among rival applicants.
6. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind… · paragraphs 3–5The suffering pastoral lover and exaggerated devotion.
7. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 16–18Burdensome duties in a catalogue of self-accusation.

In this edition

‘painful omniscious philosopher’ becomes ‘painstaking philosopher of universal learning’: the two adjectives contribute separate elements. ‘so painfully preserved’ becomes ‘maintained with such labour’, and ‘a painfull preacher’ becomes ‘a hardworking preacher’. Scholarship, engineering and ministry retain their distinct forms of effort.

The same spelling has other equivalents: painfull is painful of disease, suffering of Amyntas, and painful of reluctantly performed duties. Context, rather than a universal replacement of painful with hardworking, supplies the reading.

Painful · painful

Printed “painful” (English; family).

Painstaking, diligent or industrious.

Here: The adjective praises Seneca’s effort even while Burton recounts criticism of his writing.

Context: Burton assembles praise and blame from named critics and uses Seneca’s reception to contextualize his own.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: painful omniscious philosopher

Modern rendering: painstaking philosopher of universal learning

Word and construction: Painful supplies painstaking; omniscious supplies of universal learning. The full noun phrase, not painful alone, carries both meanings.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Painful · painfully

Printed “painfully” (English; family).

Laboriously, with sustained effort.

Here: The phrase describes the continuing work of preserving reclaimed Dutch land.

Context: Burton praises skilled Dutch reclamation in contrast with neglected English navigation and fenland.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so painfully preserved

Modern rendering: maintained with such labour

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Painful · painfull · local use 1

Printed “painfull” (English; family).

Industrious or hardworking.

Here: Diligent inhabitants and craftspeople contribute to the hoped-for prosperity of a country.

Context: Burton presents the counsel through Botero and remarks that the English attempt was incomplete.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: painfull inhabitants

Modern rendering: hardworking inhabitants

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Painful · painfull · local use 2

Printed “painfull” (English; family).

Causing suffering or pain.

Here: The disease’s pain is distinct from its duration, and becomes the occasion for an exhortation to endurance.

Context: Burton’s consolation treats recovery or death as the eventual ending of illness; it does not promise recovery.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: continuate and painfull to thee

Modern rendering: prolonged and painful

Alignment scope: Corresponding predicates; the original to thee is left implicit in the modern direct address rather than separately repeated in the quoted span.

Word and construction: Continuate supplies prolonged and painfull supplies painful. The English rendering leaves the experienced-by-you relation implicit in its address.

Painful · painfull · local use 3

Printed “painfull” (English; family).

Diligent or hardworking.

Here: The preacher’s labour and parish testimonial are offered as qualifications for an appointment.

Context: Burton lists competing applicants; this sentence does not say the preacher received the post.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a painfull preacher

Modern rendering: a hardworking preacher

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Painful · painfull · local use 4

Printed “painfull” (English; family).

Experiencing distress.

Here: The pastoral lover is characterized by suffering alongside mourning and anxiety.

Context: Burton’s catalogue uses conventional love-poetry language and comic hyperbole.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: painfull Amyntas

Modern rendering: suffering Amyntas

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Painful · painfull · local use 5

Printed “painfull” (English; family).

Burdensome, distressing or difficult to endure.

Here: Religious duties are said to have been performed unwillingly.

Context: This is part of an imagined sufferer’s self-accusation, not a proven catalogue of that person’s conduct.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: troublesome and painfull to thee

Modern rendering: troublesome and painful to you

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.