Proletary

Use in the book

The common soldiers die in pursuit of an honour that scarcely reaches them. Burton imagines fifteen thousand proletaries killed in battle, with scarcely fifteen names recorded, perhaps only the general’s. The numerical contrast is a rhetorical measure of anonymity, not a casualty calculation for an identified engagement. Even the commander’s advantage is temporary: his name, the soldiers’ names and eventually the battle itself disappear. The continuation therefore attacks the promise of immortality that encourages men to destroy themselves and others.

This passage does not simply condemn the soldier’s profession. Just before it, Burton limits his denunciation to civil and unjust wars, calls soldiering honourable and necessary given the world’s condition, and acknowledges its protection of civil life and learning. His target is the false naming of cruelty as courage and the glory that recruits volunteers to risk their lives for scant, uncertain pay. The descriptive common soldiers keeps their military position distinct from the captains whose fame absorbs theirs.

The Latin institutional passage is more openly contemptuous. Proletariique joins trafficking Harpies in the accusation that corrupt people deprive Church and universities of their proper good. The surrounding list of hungry, ignorant intruders into theology uses class contempt to strengthen an attack on purchased qualification and self-serving appointments. Burton nevertheless expressly denies any wish to detract from the many excellent clergy and learned scholars. Both institutions, he says, would shine more brightly if corruption did not obstruct them. The insult concerns those he accuses of obstruction, not every member of either institution.

The sequel explains how dependence sustains the abuse. Seekers of office adapt themselves to patrons, move like puppets and speak against conscience for a fortune. Their pursuit of favour and applause connects the institutional label with the dependent flatterer, but it does not make proletary a synonym for parasite in every setting. Nor does the military use carry the full moral condemnation of the Latin invective.

Related entries

Parasite: Dependent flatterers in the continuation of the institutional attack.

Church patronage: Corrupt appointments and the explicit exceptions for worthy clergy and scholars.

Living and preferment: The support and advancement sought through patronage.

Clown: Social rank distinguished from an abusive moral judgment.

War and peace: The distinction between necessary soldiering and unjust war.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–8; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 5the necessary-soldiering qualification, false honour, poorly paid volunteers, anonymous common soldiers, forgotten fame and the polemical account of promises made to combatants.
2. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 6–13; Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraph 9corrupt qualification, proletariique beside Harpies, the explicit good-clergy and good-scholar exception, and the continuation through patronal dependence. Page 144 is unnumbered in the witness, as note 3631 confirms; that note also explains the contextual interpretation of the contradictory ne non offendant at Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraph 13.

In this edition

“proletaries” → “common soldiers” gives the social noun its local military application. “proletariique” → “and low fellows” preserves the harsher polemical force. Proletarii supplies the people labelled low; the attached -que supplies and, joining them to the preceding Harpies. Its nominative plural belongs to the subjects of the conditional clause: if these people did not begrudge us this good. The renderings distinguish anonymous combatants from a derogatory accusation, without importing the later political meaning of proletariat.

Proletarius

Printed “proletariique” (Latin; lemma).

And low fellows: nominative plural proletarii, people disparaged as being of the lowest rank, with the attached conjunction -que, and.

Here: A socially contemptuous label joins Harpies as an accusation against those obstructing the good of Church and universities.

Context: Burton’s Latin institutional polemic expressly excepts the many learned and reputable clergy and scholars. The conditional claim is that both institutions would flourish still more without corrupt obstruction. Social contempt belongs to the polemic, not to the edition’s classification of people by birth or wealth.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: proletariique

Modern rendering: and low fellows

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

Word and construction: Proletarii supplies low fellows and the enclitic -que supplies and, coordinating them with Harpyæ. The nominative plural participates in the subject of inviderent, would begrudge, within the conditional sentence.

Qualification: The canonical locator is 144 [sequence]; the accompanying note explicitly confirms that sequence page 144 has no printed number. The later ne non offendant is interpreted contextually by the modern and is not a corrected witness.

Proletary

Printed “proletaries” (English; lemma).

People drawn from the common or lower ranks; here, common soldiers.

Here: The many dead soldiers receive little or no historical recognition, while a general may briefly retain a name.

Context: Burton’s rhetorical example says fifteen thousand are killed but scarcely fifteen remembered, perhaps only the general. It is not a documented casualty count. His surrounding criticism of false honour explicitly preserves the necessity and honour of soldiering as the world is, while condemning unjust war and destructive vainglory.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: proletaries

Modern rendering: common soldiers

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

Word and construction: The plural noun is rendered by the local military role: common marks rank and soldiers specifies the combatants. It is not the later political category proletariat.