From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordSwelling and tumour name bodily enlargement, but swelling also images inflated self-importance, rank or language.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe discussion of abdominal causes attributes tumorem lienis to Cnemiandrus within an explanation of the spleen drawing blood and failing to expel it.
- In this editionThe modern column turns tumorem lienis into “a swelling of the spleen” and varicous tumour into “varicose swelling.”
- A place to readDemocritus’s rebuke of self-enlargement amid worldly change.
Meaning
Swelling and tumour name bodily enlargement, but swelling also images inflated self-importance, rank or language. Latin tumorem in the spleen passage means a swelling; varicous tumour is an enlarged-vein swelling. Neither expression, by itself, identifies the modern narrower sense of a neoplastic mass. The related swoln and swoln full of can be bodily or figurative according to their subjects.
Use in the book
The discussion of abdominal causes attributes tumorem lienis to Cnemiandrus within an explanation of the spleen drawing blood and failing to expel it. The larger debate has several proposed organs and causes; the next paragraph turns to the pylorus and others. Swelling is one named bodily condition, not an agreed single origin of all melancholy. In the symptom catalogue, veins about the eyes swell from vapours and wind, while swelling in the hypochondria is associated with a different proposed origin. These local sites should not be fused into one lesion.
A later prescription invokes a varicous tumour or haemorrhoids as a favourable occurrence and uses it to justify opening a discharge. The editorial comparison distinguishes the appearance described by the cited aphorisms from the additional intervention Burton infers. Another narrative claims relief of a very large spleen swelling through capers and forge water. Although both body and margin say capers alone, both go on to name the water; the compressed assertion cannot fairly be reported as an unequivocal single-remedy experiment. These are historical claims about bodily enlargement and evacuation, not current clinical advice.
Moral swelling makes increase visible while questioning its worth. In the Democritus narrative, people swell as though immortal demigods because they fail to reckon with worldly change. The fable of the frog enlarging itself to equal an ox then gives rival gentlemen a physical image of living beyond their means until their resources collapse. Burton applies the same frog to the pursuit of ever-higher offices. Ambition retains the larger account of advancement; swelling captures its dangerous measure and self-enlargement.
Flattery introduces an external agent. Praise may be recognized as false and outwardly resisted, yet inwardly enjoyed: it makes people swell beyond their bounds. The austere person presents the inverse outward sign, appearing humble while inwardly swollen with pride. Plain dress and a blush therefore do not guarantee an uninflated self-conception. The difference is between outward appearance and inward reception, not a rule that every modest gesture is hypocrisy.
The religious polemic assigns the devil the inflation of learned people through excessive regard for their knowledge. The resulting scorn and doctrinal innovation are Burton's hostile account, not the lexicon's judgement on religious disagreement. The final treatment also contrasts elaborate exorcistic speech with Peter and John's healing without ambitious swelling terms. Here swelling is verbal inflation; the negation is indispensable. The apostles are not the speakers of pompous words. Fustian and bombast and Ambition retain the accompanying vocabulary's earlier ownership.
Related entries
- Ambition: desire for advancement and ostentation.
- Fustian and bombast: padded titles and pompous speech.
- Plethora and repletion: bodily fullness distinguished from a localized swelling.
Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.
Places to read
- Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 17Democritus’s rebuke of self-enlargement amid worldly change.
- Subsection 8. Rivalry, Hatred, Faction and the Desire for Revenge as Causes · paragraph 17The frog and ox as an image of ruinous rivalry.
- Subsection 11. The Concupiscible Appetite: Desires and Ambition as Causes · paragraph 26The fable repeated for ambition’s succession of offices.
- Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 17Flattery makes its recipients swell beyond their limits.
- Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 46Pride in apparently rejecting pride.
- Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 47Inner swelling despite outward austerity.
- Subsection 4. Causes of Hypochondriacal, or Windy, Melancholy · paragraph 37Tumorem lienis in an attributed account of abdominal causation.
- Subsection 4. Causes of Hypochondriacal, or Windy, Melancholy · paragraph 38Alternative proposed sites and causes prevent a single-cause inference.
- Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 14Veins around the eyes swollen by vapours and wind.
- Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 16Another local swelling in the hypochondria.
- Subsection 2 Bloodletting · paragraph 25; note 7772Varicose swelling and an inferred intervention; note distinguishes the claims.
- Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 34; note 8068The two-part remedy account despite the phrase capers alone; note.
- 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 · paragraph 39The devil as agent of the following stratagems.
- 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 · paragraph 40Knowledge turned into inflated self-esteem within religious polemic.
- Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraph 21Peter and John explicitly act without swelling language.
In this edition
The modern column turns tumorem lienis into “a swelling of the spleen” and varicous tumour into “varicose swelling.” It renders inwardly swoln as swollen, but swelling terms as inflated language. In that last phrase ambitious contributes ostentatious, swelling contributes inflated, and terms becomes language collectively. The translation of the whole phrase must not be assigned to swelling alone.
they swell in this life
They inflate their own importance. Democritus is speaking in the narrated exchange; the target is failure to recognize mutability.
Original wording: “they swell in this life, as if they were immortal, and demi-gods”
Modern wording: “they puff themselves up in this life as though they were immortal demigods”
Lookup: swell: self-importance.
swell till she was as big as an Oxe
Enlarge herself to rival the ox, in the frog fable. The literal fabled swelling figures gentlemen exceeding their resources in competitive display, ending in ruin.
Original wording: “swell till she was as big as an Oxe”
Modern wording: “swell to the size of an ox”
Lookup: swelling: frog and ox.
swell beyond our bounds
Become inflated with praise beyond due limits. False praise can gratify inwardly despite outward embarrassment; the flattery is the stated cause.
Original wording: “makes us swell beyond our bounds”
Modern wording: “making us swell beyond our proper limits”
Lookup: swell: flattery.
swoln full of pride
Inwardly inflated with arrogance and self-regard. The people described appear lowly in dress and behaviour. The contrast makes outward austerity an unreliable sign in these cases.
Original wording: “swoln full of pride, arrogancy, and self-conceit”
Modern wording: “swollen with pride, arrogance and self-conceit”
Lookup: swoln; swollen: pride.
tumorem lienis
A swelling of the spleen. Tumorem is the swelling; lienis specifies of the spleen. Cnemiandrus is credited with the account, within a field of competing explanations.
Original wording: “tumorem lienis”
Modern wording: “a swelling of the spleen”
Lookup: tumor; tumorem; lienis; tumour: swelling.
swell from vapours and winde
Become enlarged through the vapours and wind posited by the historical account. The subject is veins around the eyes, not the eyes themselves or every part of the body.
Original wording: “the veins about their eyes look red, and swell from vapours and winde”
Modern wording: “the veins around the eyes look red and swell from vapours and wind”
Lookup: swell: veins.
varicous tumour
Varicose swelling of veins. The favourable appearance in the authority cited must be distinguished from Burton’s inference supporting an induced discharge.
Original wording: “the varicous tumour or hemorrhoides appearing”
Modern wording: “the appearance of varicose swelling or haemorrhoids”
Lookup: varicous; varicose swelling; tumour.
swelling of the spleen
Enlargement of the spleen in an attributed treatment narrative. The report names capers alone but then forge water as well. Neither the lexical meaning nor the recorded sequence establishes a single-remedy trial.
Original wording: “an exceeding great swelling of the spleen”
Modern wording: “an exceedingly large swelling of the spleen”
Lookup: splenic swelling.
scientia inflati
Puffed up with knowledge. Knowledge is represented as the occasion of inflated self-esteem in Burton’s polemic; the devil is the preceding he who exploits it.
Original wording: “scientia inflati”
Modern wording: “Puffed up with knowledge”
Lookup: inflati; inflation: knowledge.
swelling terms
Inflated or pompous language. Swelling corresponds to inflated, ambitious to ostentatious. The apostles are explicitly without such language in the example attributed to Lemnius.
Original wording: “without any ambitious swelling terms”
Modern wording: “without any ostentatious, inflated language”
Lookup: swelling: language; swelling words.