DiotimosReading Desk

Bodily signs and expressive acts

Sighs and sighing

Sighs and sighing

Sighing releases a long or deep audible breath, often expressing distress or desire, often grouped with groaning, sobbing and tears.

From the book

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordSighing releases a long or deep audible breath, often expressing distress or desire, often grouped with groaning, sobbing and tears.
  • In the Anatomy of MelancholyBurton's reported wine example pairs two men said to have become melancholy within a month: one sings, the other sighs.
  • In this editionThe modern “burning sighs” preserves the heat metaphor in original “fiery sighs.”
  • A place to readSinging and sighing as contrasted manifestations in Guaineri’s anecdote.

Meaning

Sighing releases a long or deep audible breath, often expressing distress or desire, often grouped with groaning, sobbing and tears. It can be spontaneous, a sign read by someone else, or an action deliberately performed in courtship. The family therefore does not by itself certify either an illness or sincere affection.

Use in the book

Burton's reported wine example pairs two men said to have become melancholy within a month: one sings, the other sighs. The difference matters more than a simple equation of melancholy with sadness. Opposed outward behaviours can fall under the same historical diagnosis. The following paragraph qualifies the discussion of wine itself by temperament and moderation, so the anecdote cannot establish an indiscriminate rule about drink.

In the loss-of-friends discussion, absence is already capable of causing sighs; permanent separation through death intensifies the claim into “deep sighs and groans, tears, exclamations.” The body becomes expressive when ordinary pleasure and appetite fail. The symptom explanation calls sighing a bodily motion depending upon preceding motions of the mind. Sighing is thus an effect or manifestation in that account, not simply another name for the passion that produces it.

The courtship discussion reverses the direction of interpretation. In advice attributed to Achilles Tatius, a suitor is to squeeze the woman's fingers and sigh while doing so, then watch how she receives the action. The sigh is one of the means used to test and influence affection. Later, “fiery sighs” accompany crocodile tears in a warning against staged suffering. These are represented techniques and suspicions in Burton's literary materials, not reliable rules for interpreting a person's sincerity or advice to adopt the techniques.

Yet Burton also retains sighing as an involuntary sign and possible relief. The medical list of love symptoms includes frequent sighs when the mistress is spoken of. The fire-of-love sequence allows that tears and sighs “may chance” bring “a little ease.” The double limitation matters: possible slight relief is not a promise of cure. Across these passages, the sigh may disclose, persuade, exaggerate or ease suffering, and its function must be settled by the surrounding scene.

Related entries

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

  1. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraph 30Singing and sighing as contrasted manifestations in Guaineri’s anecdote.
  2. Subsection 1 Bad Diet as a Cause. Substance. The Quality of Foods · paragraph 31The neighbouring qualification about wine, temperament and moderation.
  3. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraph 6Sighing at anxious absence.
  4. Subsection 7. A Collection of Other Events That Cause Melancholy: The Death of Friends, Losses, and So On · paragraph 7Bereavement intensifies absence into deep sighs and groans.
  5. Member 3 Immediate Cause of the Preceding Symptoms · paragraph 9Sighing as a bodily motion dependent on mental motions.
  6. 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 · paragraph 17A sigh intentionally coordinated with a courtship gesture.
  7. 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 · paragraph 35Tears and sighs in a cited love letter.
  8. 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 · paragraph 36Sobs and fiery sighs in the warning about counterfeit suffering.
  9. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 51Frequent sighs when the beloved is mentioned.
  10. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 51The unquenchable fire which frames the possible exception.
  11. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 52Possible slight relief, not a cure, through tears and sighs.

In this edition

The modern “burning sighs” preserves the heat metaphor in original “fiery sighs.” “Sigh withall” means sigh while performing the preceding gesture, not sigh at everything. The Latin suspiriis is rendered sighs in the love-letter quotation, alongside Burton's own “’twixt tears and sighs.” Sobs remain a separate term in the staged sequence rather than being silently absorbed into the sigh family.

sigh

Release a long or deep audible breath, here as an expression of distress. Guaineri’s reported pair makes different outward actions compatible with the same named condition.

Original wording: one did naught but sing, the other sigh

Modern wording: one did nothing but sing, the other sigh

Lookup: sigh; sighs; sighing; sighes; sighed.

deep sighs and groans

Intense audible expressions of bereavement. The list marks a severe response to separation through death. The distinct actions should not all be translated as crying.

Original wording: deep sighs and groans, tears, exclamations

Modern wording: deep sighs and groans, tears and cries

Lookup: deep sighs; groans.

sigh withall

Sigh while making the accompanying gesture. Withall coordinates the sigh with the action. This is attributed courtship technique rather than a symptom observed without prompting.

Original wording: wring her fingers hard, and sigh withall

Modern wording: squeeze her fingers firmly, and sigh as you do so

Lookup: withall: accompanying action; sigh withall.

lachrymis & suspiriis

With tears and sighs. The paired Latin nouns occur in Chelidonia’s reported writing to Philonius; the next clause supplies Burton’s own version.

Original wording: mixta lachrymis & suspiriis

Modern wording: mingled with tears and sighs

Lookup: suspiriis; sighs: love letter.

sobs, fiery sighs

Sobs and intensely expressive, metaphorically burning sighs. The context alleges performance and deception. It does not establish that every sob or sigh is counterfeit.

Original wording: sobs, fiery sighs, and sorrowfull countenance

Modern wording: sobs, burning sighs, a sorrowful expression

Lookup: sobs; sobbing; fiery sighs; burning sighs.

a little ease

A small possible alleviation of distress. May chance and little jointly limit the claim about what sighing and weeping can do.

Original wording: Except it be tears and sighs, for so they may chance find a little ease

Modern wording: Unless it is tears and sighs: through these they may perhaps find a little relief

Lookup: sighs: relief; ease through sighs.