Parasite

Use in the book

The danger of praise is clearest when Burton asks what mortal can withstand excessive applause. Those Parasites will overturn him: a king becomes one of the Nine Worthies, then more than human, then a god to whom sacrifices are offered. The movement is from exemplary heroism to supposed divinity, not a report that the ruler has really become divine. Burton has just distinguished pride arising within ourselves from the external assault of flatterers. Their inflated praise can make a scholar exhaust himself, a soldier attempt an unequal combat, a householder ruin himself through hospitality or a temperate man starve himself. Earlier Burton allows recipients to know that the praise is false: ironic smiles, apparent anger and blushing may coexist with inward pleasure, so recognition need not protect them from inflation. The historical rulers who claim divine identities exemplify the argument, but the continuation makes self-admiration a temptation of successful tradesmen as well. Elsewhere Alexander’s bleeding wound reverses the parasites’ work: he remembers that he is only human and abates his pride.

Flattery need not take the form of an explicit speech. Alfonso’s parasites turn their heads because he does; courtly imitation becomes compliance. A favourite’s favourite and a parasite’s parasite form chains of dependence, through which the would-be independent man hopes to gain enough status to despise everyone else’s servility. In the beauty discussion, a fly lands on sleeping Malthus’s cheek. The attendant explains that it came to kiss his divine looks, not sting him. This is the hanger-on’s flattering interpretation within the joke, not evidence about an insect’s desire. The precise Malthus and Athenaeus identification remains unresolved.

Dependence also has a material cause. Writers may flatter powerful men to obtain money or support, and hungry scholars turn from grasshoppers into parasites to secure a meal. Burton insists that their learning gives patrons lasting fame: the scholar’s need does not prove his work worthless. His comparison with mice eating another’s bread instead exposes the subjection of valuable abilities to an unlearned ruler. The poverty discussion broadens the pressure: the dependent must accept jokes, blows and humiliation, adapt himself to others’ moods and perform the jester or fool for food. Burton’s ensuing claims about poverty and wrongdoing are sweeping moral judgments, not descriptions that can safely be applied to every poor person. In consolation he reverses the pressure of want: mostly bashful, suspicious and solitary melancholics are said not to become parasites and other intrusive dependants. Necessity or lack of means restrains their conduct; he explicitly says that the will, unlike the means, was not lacking. This historical comparison therefore does not establish either a medical rule or superior moral character.

The ecclesiastical examples make the patron’s power explicit. In the Chrysostom-attributed Latin, wealthy men force teachers into the ranks of parasites and feed them like dogs. Burton’s English then names lecturers and adds that patrons make them say what they prescribe. The chaplain must follow the patron’s religious position or be expelled. An Erasmus-attributed description calls accommodating preachers obliging parasites who teach and write against conscience for their own fortune. This criticism is preceded by an express acknowledgment of many excellent clergy and scholars. Dependence can distort instruction, but Burton does not condemn the entire Church or university as corrupt.

The feeding association can also stress appetite rather than the patron’s coercion. Agrippa’s parasites have their brains in their bellies, and the drinking example of Ofellius Bibulus reduces a life to consumption and excretion; its identification remains unverified. In the moral catalogue, the parasite prefers his gut to life or well-being. Yet the marginal extract from More’s Utopia directs blame toward distribution: an unjust commonwealth rewards parasites and other idle consumers while leaving indispensable workers neglected in old age. Burton’s surrounding proposal provides support for those unable to work and recreation without overwork for those who can. The social type belongs to an argument about resources and power, not merely an insult at a dinner table.

Other passages specify the hoped-for return. The rich man’s parasite can act as a spokesman or business intermediary in the contrast between wealth and poor self-sufficiency. The lover must court the woman’s hangers-on as well as her other attendants with gifts. The legacy hunters flatter a person who is both wealthy and childless, aiming to become his heir or executor. These are the particular parasites praised ironically among bachelor privileges: the supposed affection is conditional on the estate. In the retinue of the prodigal, flattering followers vanish when his money does. Burton’s religious polemic extends the label to Stapleton as the pope’s flatterer; that hostile designation does not establish either his private motives or a literal place at the papal table.

The Gnathos of the love classification counterfeit learning, virtue and affection, generally attach themselves to great men, and work their way into honours and offices. Burton says that they can ruin both themselves and others. Their appearance is nevertheless opposed to genuine honourable love grounded in real virtue, which cannot be forced. His short caution against trusting parasites similarly becomes a warning against flatterers in the modern text. Its Latin margin mentions riches and flatterers; the English body adds beauty. The distinction matters because Burton’s own expanded warning is broader than the marginal words.

Related entries

Collogue: The action of ingratiating speech distinguished from the dependent person.

Ambodexter: Self-serving accommodation and divided allegiance.

Proletary: Disparaging social categories in the criticism of corrupt appointments.

Clown: Rank, manners and hostile social labels.

Fustian and bombast: Inflated epithets and praise.

Living and preferment: Material support, advancement and dependence on patrons.

Church patronage: Control of appointments and of dependent clergy.

Counterfeit: False gestures of love, learning and virtue.

Friendship: Genuine affection distinguished from interested attendance.

War and peace: The public consequences attributed to self-interested counsel.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 7–10parasitic writing, different motives for publication and the qualification allowing genuine invention.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 17–20parasitical fawners in the denunciation of privately motivated war; the numerical exempla remain attributed.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 3–8imitation of Alfonso, unstable favour and the chain of parasitic dependence.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 40–43; Note 1076; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 42marginal parasitis, unequal reward, provision for those unable to work and limits on labour.
5. Human Excellence, the Fall, Miseries and Infirmities; Their Causes · paragraphs 20–22Alexander’s wound counters flattering deification within the providential account of affliction.
6. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 4–9undeserving Gnathos in a reported supernatural explanation of promotion, whose authority Burton questions.
7. Subsection 2 The Quantity of Food as a Cause · paragraphs 12–16appetite, Agrippa’s parasites, Ofellius Bibulus and ironic social admiration of drunkenness.
8. Subsection 13. Love of Gambling and the Like, and Excessive Pleasures, as Causes · paragraphs 25–28the prodigal’s vanished attendants, Lucian and the altered scriptural sequence, followed by the qualification concerning excess.
9. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 15–20; Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 17recipients recognize false encomiums yet inwardly enjoy them; apparent anger and blushing do not exclude pleasure.
10. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 47–50; Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraphs 1–12internal pride, external praise, the ruler’s imagined divinity at Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 1, harmful imitation and self-admiration beyond courts.
11. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 18–25starving scholars, their contribution to patrons’ fame and the mouse-like dependence for bread.
12. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 29–34compulsory conformity, original Latin parasitorum and Burton’s expanded English restatement; Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 29–33 bear the misprinted 128.
13. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 9–13the good-clergy exception, accommodating Parasiti and the original 050-13 negation that the modern interprets contextually.
14. Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 26–31the poor man made to please and endure abuse for a meal, with the widening account of want’s pressure on conscience.
15. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 20–22the parasite as employed intermediary, the Latin parasitum and the separate English explanation.
16. Member 5 Against Sorrow Over the Death of Friends or Other Causes, Groundless Fear, and So On · paragraphs 20–22the parasite’s gut in a catalogue of destructive desires; note 7017 gives the related Cardan-attributed Latin.
17. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 11–13; Note 7352; Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 12the warning against flatterers and the English addition of beauty to the Latin objects.
18. Member 8 Against Melancholy Itself · paragraphs 25–32; Member 8 Against Melancholy Itself · paragraphs 27–30the consolatory negative list includes parasites; most part, necessity and the will-versus-means distinction qualify the apparent moral advantage.
19. Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraphs 21–26Gnathos, false virtue, advancement and public harm, contrasted with sincere honourable love.
20. Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraphs 49–51; Member 2. Subsection 2. Other Causes of Love Melancholy: Sight; Beauty of the Face, Eyes and Other Parts; and How It Pierces Us · paragraphs 1–2the fly’s supposed kiss, its flattering interpreter and the playful surrounding examples.
21. 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 26–28gifts to the beloved’s hangers-on and other attendants, followed by Lucretia’s literary boast.
22. By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraphs 33–40wealthy childlessness, Hæredipetæ, heir-seeking parasites and the separate Plautine and English verses.
23. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 38–40Stapleton labelled a parasite in Burton’s hostile account of papal authority.

In this edition

“those Parasites” → “those parasites” retains the noun, explained through dependence and interested flattery rather than biology. Elsewhere parasites becomes flatterers, as in the imitation of Alfonso and the warning against trusting them; a parasite of his standing by becomes a hanger-on standing beside him in the fly anecdote. The role can thus remain the same while the modern wording brings a different aspect forward.

The original a parasites, parasites, parasite becomes a flatterer’s flatterer’s flatterer: the modern possessive marks make the chain of dependence explicit. Parasiticall fawners becomes parasitic flatterers, with fawners supplying the people’s flattering action. Gnathoes and Gnathoe’s become plural Gnathos, preserving the dramatic name as a type rather than treating the apostrophe as a singular possessive.

In ordinem parasitorum becomes into the ranks of parasites; parasitorum is a genitive plural. In obsecundantes Parasiti → Obliging parasites, Parasiti is nominative plural and obsecundantes means accommodating or compliant. The flattering conduct is hardly morally obliging. Marginal parasitis is dative plural, marking recipients in the irregular Latin sentence about gifts; the dative depends on the verb trust. That second margin has no Latin word for the beauty which Burton adds in English. Locuples mittit parasitum → The rich man sends a parasite has parasitum as its accusative object; the following employment and civic analogy belong to Burton’s separate English. Hæredipetæ becomes legacy hunters, specifying the inheritance sought rather than making it a definition of every parasite.

Gnatho

Printed “Gnathoes” (English; lemma).

Gnathos: flatterers named after the parasite Gnatho in Terence’s Eunuch.

Here: People display counterfeit virtue and affection to steal favour.

Context: Burton contrasts false appearances with genuine honourable love; the continuation says such dependants generally attach to great men and may gain offices, ruining themselves and others.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: their flattering Gnathoes

Modern rendering: their flattering Gnathos

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

Word and construction: The pluralized character name is retained and regularized. Flattering states the conduct; the proper-name allusion supplies the social type.

Further local use

Printed “Gnathoe’s” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Gnatho.

Gnathos, meaning flattering dependants; plural despite the printed apostrophe.

Here: Undeserving dependants are promoted while worthy people are neglected.

Context: Burton reports writers who explain this through attending spirits; he previously questions authority for angelic jurisdictions. It is a historical theory, not an established cause of patronage.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: undeserving Gnathoe’s, and vicious parasites

Modern rendering: undeserving Gnathos and vicious parasites

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

Word and construction: Gnathoe’s becomes Gnathos, with the original plural sense; parasites remains a separate coordinated noun.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Hæredipeta

Printed “Hæredipetæ” (Latin; lemma).

Hunters of inheritances or legacies; nominative plural of the Latin noun used in the English sentence.

Here: People flatter a wealthy childless person to become his heir or executor.

Context: Burton uses the ancient social label in the satirical bachelor argument, whose wealth and childlessness conditions are explicit.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those Hæredipetæ

Modern rendering: those legacy hunters

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

Word and construction: Those is retained; Hæredipetæ supplies legacy hunters, a compound referring to people seeking an inheritance.

Parasite · Parasites · local use 1

Printed “Parasites” (English; lemma).

Flattering dependants or hangers-on, associated with dining at a patron’s expense.

Here: Excessive praise supposedly overthrows a ruler’s judgment and raises him from hero to god.

Context: Burton’s rhetorical question extends susceptibility to every mortal; the surrounding argument moves from pride originating within to praise supplied by others, then extends its danger to scholars, soldiers and householders.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those Parasites

Modern rendering: those parasites

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

Word and construction: The retained plural noun denotes dependent flatterers, not biological organisms. Those points back to the agents of immoderate applause.

Further local use

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Flatterers who depend upon or attend a powerful person.

Here: Alexander is said to recover awareness of mortality when a wound bleeds.

Context: Burton’s moral exemplum of affliction checking pride; the later call to use adversity for good does not independently verify the story or provide modern medical advice.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: by a company of parasites deified

Modern rendering: had been deified by a band of flatterers

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

Word and construction: Parasites becomes flatterers, company band; had been makes the original participial construction finite.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Dependent flatterers.

Here: Commodus is said to demand the name Hercules after their praise.

Context: One of Burton’s historical exempla of false divinity; the surrounding source annotations do not independently establish every anecdote.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: his flattering parasites

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

Word and construction: The phrase is retained, with flattering stating the conduct explicitly.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Dependent flatterers surrounding a wealthy person.

Here: The prodigal’s retinue disappears with his means.

Context: Burton adapts Lucian’s allegory and rearranges the prodigal-son parable. The next paragraphs distinguish ruinous excess from pleasures or buildings appropriate to some people’s means.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: attendants, parasites, and followers

Modern rendering: attendants, parasites and followers

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

Word and construction: Parasites is retained among two other kinds of attendant.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “Parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Dependent flatterers, here the agents of exaggerated praise.

Here: The recipients can recognize false praise and nevertheless enjoy its flattering effect.

Context: Burton says ironic smiles, apparent anger and blushing can coexist with inward pleasure and inflation; conscious recognition need not protect the recipient. This is his moral-psychological argument, not a claim that all recipients respond alike.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Parasites bedawb us with false Encomions

Modern rendering: parasites smear us with false encomiums

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

Word and construction: Parasites is the retained agent noun; bedawb supplies figurative smear, us the recipients, and false Encomions false encomiums.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · parasite · local use 1

Printed “parasite” (English; lemma).

A dependent flatterer or hanger-on.

Here: The attendant claims that the fly on Malthus’s cheek means to kiss his divine beauty.

Context: The compliment is the parasite’s interpretation within a satirical anecdote, not evidence that the insect desires the man. The name and Athenaeus reference remain unresolved.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a parasite of his standing by

Modern rendering: a hanger-on standing beside him

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

Word and construction: Parasite becomes hanger-on. Of his establishes the relationship and standing by the physical attendance; the modern beside him expresses the local relation compactly.

Further local use

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Dependent flatterers or hangers-on.

Here: The lover’s gifts extend to people surrounding the desired woman.

Context: Burton’s description of costly courtship and Haedus-attributed counsel; the ensuing Lucretia speech is a literary example, not an instruction that gifts entitle anyone to affection.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: panders, parasites, and houshold servants

Modern rendering: panders, hangers-on and household servants

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

Word and construction: Parasites supplies hangers-on, distinct from the neighbouring panders and household servants.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · parasites · local use 1

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Flattering attendants who adapt themselves to a patron.

Here: Alfonso’s dependants imitate his head movement.

Context: Burton’s courtly imitation anecdote, attributed to Bodin; neither the exact passage nor which Alfonso is intended has been established. The next paragraph describes applause changing into hatred with fortune.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so did his parasites

Modern rendering: so did his flatterers

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

Word and construction: Parasites is rendered flatterers; so did preserves the elliptical repetition of turned his head.

Further local use

Printed “parasites, parasites, parasite” (English; phrase).

Citation key: Parasite.

A dependent flatterer of another dependent flatterer, through a chain of patronage.

Here: The repeated possessives dramatize successive dependence rather than a list of three unrelated flatterers.

Context: Burton condemns misguided imitation and the hope of gaining enough status to despise the servile world.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a parasites, parasites, parasite

Modern rendering: a flatterer’s flatterer’s flatterer

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

Word and construction: The modern adds possessive apostrophes to the original repeated parasites and makes the three-stage relation explicit.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · Parasites · local use 2

Printed “Parasites” (English; lemma).

People living by pleasing and flattering patrons.

Here: Some writers produce work to flatter powerful men for their advantage.

Context: Burton’s attack on scribblers distinguishes vanity, need and money from the particular parasitic motive. The ensuing Cardan quotation does not forbid all publishing but allows genuine invention.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: as Parasites to flatter and collogue with some great men

Modern rendering: as parasites to flatter and ingratiate themselves with some powerful man

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

Word and construction: Parasites is retained; collogue becomes ingratiate themselves. Some great men is recast generically as some powerful man.

Further local use

Printed “Parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Flattering dependants seeking maintenance.

Here: Hungry scholars turn their learning into a means of obtaining food.

Context: Burton locates the pressure in lack of means, while the following paragraphs insist that patrons owe scholars for preserving their fame.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: plain Parasites

Modern rendering: outright parasites

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

Word and construction: Plain supplies outright; Parasites remains parasites.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · Parasites · local use 3

Printed “Parasites” (English; lemma).

Dependants who subsist at someone else’s expense by pleasing him.

Here: Scholars are compared with mice eating another’s bread under an unlearned patron’s power.

Context: Burton’s account of scholarly dependence attributes a related complaint to Budé and insists that scholars undervalue their genuine worth; the comparison is not a declaration that all supported scholarship is worthless.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: like Parasites

Modern rendering: like parasites

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

Word and construction: The simile is retained, with the following separate Latin comparison making the feeding relation explicit.

Further local use

Printed “Parasite” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

A dependent flatterer who seeks food and support by pleasing others.

Here: The poor man is said to endure ridicule and blows for a meal.

Context: Burton’s sweeping social-pressure argument, continued through the claim that want can corrupt otherwise upright people. It is not a factual classification of all poor people.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: He must turn Parasite, jester, fool

Modern rendering: He must become a parasite, a jester, a fool

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

Word and construction: Turn means become; Parasite, jester and fool remain distinct roles in the list.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

Dependent flatterers; here a role denied to the described sufferers.

Here: In consolation, mostly bashful, suspicious and solitary melancholics are said not to become intrusive dependants.

Context: The preceding no governs the list containing parasites; it lies outside this noun-only alignment. Burton says necessity or lack of means restrains conduct; the conditional English and the passage explicitly distinguish lack of means from lack of will. This is a sweeping historical consolatory comparison, not a medical rule or proof of superior moral character.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: parasites

Modern rendering: flatterers

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

Word and construction: Parasites supplies flatterers within the negatively governed list; the modern no/not is outside this exact noun unit and must not be lost in interpreting it.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · parasites · local use 2

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Self-serving diners or dependent flatterers seeking meals.

Here: The term is applied to excessive eaters said to ignore danger and a physician’s warning.

Context: Burton cites Agrippa’s reproach and broadens it into a moral and historical-medical indictment of eating and drinking; no modern diagnosis or treatment follows from it.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: as Agrippa taxed some parasites of his time

Modern rendering: as Agrippa said in reproaching certain parasites of his day

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

Word and construction: Parasites is retained; some becomes certain, keeping the limited claim. Taxed means reproached, not charged a fiscal tax.

Further local use

Printed “parasite” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

A self-serving diner or table dependant.

Here: Ofellius Bibulus supplies an extravagant example of a life spent eating, drinking and urinating.

Context: Burton’s coarse exemplum; the identification and epitaph-like Latin remain uncollated, and the subsequent social praise of drunkenness is ironic.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: that famous Roman parasite

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

Word and construction: The phrase is retained, without converting the reported label into verified biography.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasite” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Parasite.

A dependent hanger-on whose appetite supplies the motive.

Here: The parasite values his belly above life or well-being in a catalogue of destructive desires.

Context: Burton’s moral comparison, with a Cardan-attributed Latin margin. The ellipsis carries the preceding verb prefers and its comparison; the selected fragment is not a complete independent sentence.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a parasite his gut

Modern rendering: the parasite, his belly

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

Word and construction: Parasite is retained and gut becomes belly; the modern punctuation clarifies the shared predicate.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · parasite · local use 2

Printed “parasite” (English; lemma).

A dependent hanger-on employed to act or speak for a wealthy person.

Here: The rich man sends someone to conduct business instead of speaking for himself.

Context: A Philostratus-attributed contrast in the consolation of poverty; the letter is unidentified. The analogy with civic officers does not itself label every town clerk or Recorder a parasite.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a rich man imployes a parasite

Modern rendering: he employs a hanger-on

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

Word and construction: Parasite supplies hanger-on; he in the modern resumes the rich man named in the immediately preceding translated Latin. The whole original English restatement has a pronoun-based modern counterpart.

Further local use

Printed “parasitum” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Parasitus.

A parasite or dependent hanger-on; accusative singular object of mittit.

Here: The rich man delegates through an attendant.

Context: Philostratus is cited without a numbered letter. Burton’s ensuing English adds employs and the civic analogy; those are separate expansions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: locuples mittit parasitum

Modern rendering: The rich man sends a parasite

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

Word and construction: Locuples supplies The rich man, mittit sends, parasitum a parasite. Articles and man express the substantive adjective and English noun construction.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Parasite · parasites · local use 3

Printed “parasites” (English; lemma).

Self-interested flatterers seeking an advantage from another person.

Here: The intended advantage is appointment as heir or executor.

Context: Burton’s praise of bachelor privileges is satirical; the preceding passage requires both childlessness and wealth. Aruntius and Aterius and their exact Tacitus/Seneca references remain unverified.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those famous parasites in this kinde

Modern rendering: those famous parasites of this kind

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

Word and construction: The phrase is retained; this kind points to legacy hunting, not merely free dining.

Parasite · parasite · local use 3

Printed “parasite” (English; lemma).

A self-interested flatterer or partisan dependent.

Here: Burton labels Stapleton a flatterer of the pope while quoting his praise of papal power.

Context: The label belongs to Burton’s hostile anti-Catholic framing; it does not independently establish Stapleton’s motives or a literal dining relationship.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a parasite of his

Modern rendering: his flatterer

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

Word and construction: Parasite becomes flatterer; of his becomes possessive his, referring to the bishop of Rome.

Parasitical

Printed “parasiticall” (English; lemma).

Behaving as a self-interested dependent flatterer.

Here: The adjective marks fawners accused of urging destructive war for private advantage.

Context: Burton’s denunciation contrasts the comfort of rulers and self-enrichment of instigators with soldiers’ suffering; the subsequent casualty totals are transmitted claims, not verified data.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: parasiticall fawners

Modern rendering: parasitic flatterers

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

Word and construction: Parasiticall supplies parasitic, while fawners supplies flatterers. The adjective does not denote a biological relation.

Parasitus

Printed “parasitorum” (Latin; lemma).

Of parasites or dependent flatterers; genitive plural of parasitus.

Here: Wealthy patrons allegedly force religious teachers into the ranks of table dependants and use them at will.

Context: A Chrysostom-attributed Latin quotation whose exact intermediary remains unresolved. Burton’s following English expands it by naming lecturers and saying patrons make them speak as prescribed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: in ordinem parasitorum

Modern rendering: into the ranks of parasites

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

Word and construction: In ordinem is into the ranks; parasitorum is of parasites. The genitive defines the rank into which the preceding cogunt says patrons force them.

Further local use

Printed “Parasiti” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Parasitus.

Parasites or dependent flatterers; nominative plural, subject of the ensuing verbs.

Here: The preachers teach, speak and write against conscience for personal fortune.

Context: Erasmus-attributed criticism, preceded by Burton’s explicit exception for many excellent clergy and scholars. Obsecundantes means complying or accommodating, not ethically admirable.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: obsecundantes Parasiti

Modern rendering: Obliging parasites

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

Word and construction: Parasiti supplies parasites; obsecundantes supplies Obliging. The following verbs are outside this exact noun phrase.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasitis” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Parasitus.

To parasites or dependent flatterers; dative plural marking recipients.

Here: The marginal complaint contrasts rewards to dependants and pleasure providers with neglect of indispensable workers.

Context: Burton condenses More’s Utopia; the original quæ dat … prodigit construction is irregular and is not silently corrected. The body argues for support of worn-out workers and the next paragraph for recreation without overwork.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Iniqua resp. quæ dat parasitis, adulatoribus, inanium voluptatum artificibus, generosis & otiosis tanta munera prodigit

Modern rendering: An unjust commonwealth lavishes such gifts on parasites, flatterers, providers of empty pleasures, gentlemen, and the idle

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

Word and construction: Parasitis supplies on parasites in the modern construction; the full irregular Latin unit is aligned with the supplied sense rendering. Adulatoribus separately supplies flatterers; the groups are coordinated, not identical definitions.

Modern container: note

Qualification: This is original marginal Latin within a note container that also includes its English translation and editorial explanation.

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.

Further local use

Printed “parasitis” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: Parasitus.

To or in flatterers; dative plural governed by fidas, trust.

Here: The maxim warns against confidence in wealth and flattering dependants.

Context: Burton’s marginal maxim differs from his English body, which adds beauty. The note does not contain a Latin equivalent of that added object.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Ne fidas opibus, neq; parasitis, trahunt in præcipitium

Modern rendering: Do not trust riches or flatterers: they drag you over a precipice

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

Word and construction: Parasitis supplies flatterers under the English verb trust; opibus riches and the precipice clause retain their separate meanings. Beauty is absent from this Latin unit.

Modern container: note

Sense relation: A related local form or application, with its own social role, speaker, grammatical construction and qualification.