Temporize

Use in the book

Conscientious people are despised because they cannot or will not practise what society rewards as worldly wisdom. They refuse to temporize as other men do, give and take bribes, flatter or serve the machinery of advancement. The inability and the refusal are both present. The long Latin catalogue includes accommodating oneself to the place of one’s birth and learning the customary ways of rising. Its praise is ironic: the next paragraph reverses the worldly verdict and calls the apparently wise opportunists fools in the judgment of the Holy Spirit.

The social catalogue gives adjustment a theatrical form. Temporizing joins fraud and pretence; the chameleon-like person changes face, manner and character for every audience, good among the good and bad among the bad. For his advantages states the purpose. The continuation contrasts fine precepts with contradictory deeds. In religious controversy, temporisers become weathercocks, ready to accept whatever is proposed in hope of preferment. Burton also attributes fear and servile flattery to them, while criticizing excessive scrupulosity on the other side. These allegations describe his polemical view of conformity, not established knowledge of every believer’s motives.

Patronage makes the personal cost explicit. In an original marginal confession, Burton says that he could not scamble, temporize, dissemble. Lack of money and shamelessness joins an inability to recast himself in old age and an unwillingness to be moulded, even if obscurity follows. The body moves between blaming patrons and acknowledging his own misfortune and negligence; the preceding paragraph blames both sides. Later he complains that impressive appearance, accommodation, flattery, friends or money can raise an unworthy person above a deserving one. Yet he concedes that merit sometimes succeeds, before imagining and then withdrawing the generous prebend appointment as fiction.

Withdrawal supplies an alternative ideal. The contented man temporizeth not: he seeks no honours, envies no one and lives privately. This is a consolatory portrait, not a finding that poverty always produces independence. Burton’s own declaration lets others temporize and fleire in their pursuit of wealth and honour while he remains content. Its permissive wording is a refusal to compete, not a recommendation of their methods. He then admits that he once exhausted himself and his friends seeking advancement, and acknowledges the kindness of generous patrons. The stance of independence includes that history of dependence and gratitude.

In the classification of love, this temporising age makes false friends difficult to recognize. Flatterers counterfeit learning, virtue and affection, generally attach themselves to powerful patrons and work their way into offices. Their success can cause public confusion and ruin both themselves and others. Genuine honourable love, grounded in real worth, supplies the contrast and cannot be compelled. The later temporizing Foxes may flourish for a time, but Burton predicts exposure and downfall; if they escape through life, his argument shifts to a disgraced memory after death. The alternative must remain alongside the initial assurance of swift punishment.

The attack on temporizing Statesmen makes religious pretence serve political advantage. Its Herodian and Machiavellian labels are hostile constructions. The sequel compares such people with Mercury, adopting the colour of their company, but also allows outwardly sober, honest and charitable conduct that leaves observers little ground for criticism. Judgment of the hidden heart belongs in this argument to God. The lexicon therefore reports Burton’s accusation without treating an outward change of conduct as proof of anyone’s unbelief.

Prudential accommodation receives a different treatment. In a collection of maxims, yield to the time, follow the stream stands beside commands not to sell one’s soul for profit and to live innocently and uprightly. The margin gives Temporibus servi and repeats the Cretan proverb, now as an injunction, although the same proverbial accommodation had illustrated the cost of worldly conformity earlier. Burton leaves a tension between practical yielding and compromised principle; the nearby moral limits should not be removed to make a simple rule of expediency. A separate maxim praises accommodating oneself to necessity only when the matter cannot be helped or amended, like playing an unchosen throw skilfully.

The related accommodate himself appears in a survey of religious conformity: the argument says that a prudent conformist should adapt to the ceremonies and customs of new rulers. This is one position in a series of conflicting arguments for toleration and coercion. Burton’s eventual middle way begins with gentle restoration, but permits excommunication and other public restrictions when warnings fail; he also allows medical management for some sufferers. The passage therefore cannot make outward accommodation an unrestricted authorial ideal.

Related entries

Policy: Political calculation and public government distinguished.

Ambodexter: Serving both sides for advantage.

Collogue: Ingratiating conversation accompanying opportunism.

Parasite: Dependent flatterers and apparently affectionate companions.

Living and preferment: Material advancement, refusal and the fictional appointment.

Church patronage: Reciprocity, dependence and the allocation of blame.

Suit: Applications for office and the separate adapting verb.

Love: Genuine honourable love contrasted with feigned affection.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 12–16; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 14temporize and accommodare, worldly praise of advancement and its explicit moral reversal.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 18–20; Note 466; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 19the Cretan proverb amid the retold Democritus’s condemnation of concealed hatred, hypocrisy and inconstancy.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 14–17; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 15temporisers as weathercock conformists; the contrasting extremes and the attributed motives of fear, flattery and advancement.
4. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 26–29; Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–2money’s command, temporizing, the Cretan proverb, changeable roles and the difference between words and deeds.
5. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 9–11; Note 3500; Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraph 10Burton’s inability and unwillingness to temporize; shared fault, self-attribution and the poor tutor’s example.
6. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 45–49; Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraph 47temporizeth not in the ideal of private contentment; the Horace excerpt and repurposed Pliny margin remain qualified.
7. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 1–5; Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraph 3accommodating oneself to necessity, the condition of unchangeable circumstances and the dice-game continuation.
8. Member 6 Against Envy, Spite, Rivalry, Hatred, Ambition, Self-Love and All Other Passions · paragraphs 47–57; Member 6 Against Envy, Spite, Rivalry, Hatred, Ambition, Self-Love and All Other Passions · paragraph 48withdrawal from others’ temporizing, former pursuit of preferment, gratitude to patrons and separate Latin and English harbour verses.
9. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 10–24; Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 11accommodation as one alleged route to promotion, the concession that merit sometimes prospers, and the fictional prebend story expressly withdrawn.
10. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraphs 20–22; Member 8 Against Melancholy Itself · paragraphs 23–24; Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 22; note 7390yielding to the times, Temporibus servi and Cretizandum, beside prohibitions on mercenary conduct and an injunction to innocence.
11. Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraphs 21–26; Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraph 23this temporising age, false friends, promotion, public damage and the contrast with genuine honourable love.
12. Subsection 3 Honourable Objects of Love · paragraphs 13–15temporizing Foxes, predicted exposure and the alternative of posthumous disgrace. The awkward printed unmasked is retained in the source rather than silently repaired.
13. Subsection 5 The Cure of Religious Melancholy · paragraphs 1–27; Subsection 5 The Cure of Religious Melancholy · paragraph 11accommodate himself in the surveyed case for outward conformity; conflicting toleration arguments and Burton’s qualified middle way, including coercive and medical responses.
14. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 1–12; Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 4–10temporizing Statesmen, outward religious conformity, apparently upright conduct and divine judgment of the heart.

In this edition

“temporize as other men do” → “trim their conduct to circumstances as others do”; “this temporising age” → “this opportunistic age”. These make adjustment of conduct explicit and retain its critical force. Promotion, patronage, flattery and bribery explain what it is intended to secure. Temporizing can become trimming; temporisers become opportunists; temporize and fleire becomes bend with the times and smirk, keeping the two actions separate. In temporizeth not → nor trims his conduct to the times, the negative remains essential.

The marginal I could not scamble, temporize, dissemble becomes I could not scramble for advantage, suit myself to the times or dissemble. Temporize supplies the middle action, and could not governs all three. The Latin continuation adds that Burton does not wish to be moulded. Temporizing Statesmen becomes statesmen who accommodate themselves to the times, expanding the adjective into a clause rather than a new claim about their policy.

Accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt means adapt themselves to the place where they were born: accommodare is an infinitive and se reflexive. Temporibus servi means accommodate yourself to the times; temporibus is dative plural with the singular imperative servi, literally serve. The following prohibition says not to blow against the winds. In the necessity maxim, se accommodat means accommodates himself, with necessitati as the dative object and sapit meaning is wise. Burton’s English suits himself to the time is a separate restatement. The later English should accommodate himself becomes should adapt himself, retaining the reported modal recommendation.

Cretizare cum Crete is rendered playing the Cretan with a Cretan in the earlier indictment. The marginal Cretizandum cum Crete becomes With a Cretan one must play the Cretan: the gerundive construction supplies impersonal obligation, with an understood is, and one is the English impersonal subject. The printed Crete and the proverb’s unresolved source remain visible. Its ethnic stereotype is historical wording, not a description adopted by the edition.

Accommodare se

Printed “accommodare” (Latin; phrase).

Adapt or accommodate; present active infinitive, with reflexive se, themselves.

Here: The Latin catalogue describes adapting to the place of one’s birth among worldly ways of rising.

Context: Burton’s irony makes the practice part of a society that confuses material success with wisdom; the English temporize comes later as a related restatement, not as this Latin infinitive’s only lexical translation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt

Modern rendering: adapt themselves to the place where they were born

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

Word and construction: Accommodare supplies adapt, se themselves, ad eum locum to the place, and ubi nati sunt where they were born. This is accommodation to a place; circumstance is broader in the later English.

Accommodate oneself

Printed “accommodate himself” (English; phrase).

Adapt one’s conduct to prevailing conditions, here outward religious ceremonies and customs.

Here: The surveyed argument recommends conforming to the ceremonies of new religious rulers.

Context: Should is the reported normative claim, not an unqualified conclusion by Burton. The ensuing survey contrasts toleration and coercion; his preferred middle way begins with gentleness but proceeds to excommunication and other public restrictions, while allowing medical management for some sufferers.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: should accommodate himself

Modern rendering: should adapt himself

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

Word and construction: Should retains the modal force; accommodate supplies adapt and himself remains the reflexive object.

Cretizare cum Crete

Printed “Cretizare cum Crete” (Latin; phrase).

To play the Cretan with a Cretan, proverbially to meet trickery with trickery.

Here: The phrase describes the compromise allegedly required for worldly conformity.

Context: Burton uses a hostile ethnic proverb as a figure for deception; it is not a factual characterization of Cretans. The exact proverbial source and printed Crete form remain unestablished.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Cretizare cum Crete

Modern rendering: playing the Cretan with a Cretan

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

Word and construction: Cretizare is an infinitive, to act the Cretan, rendered playing the Cretan in the English construction; cum is with, and Crete is retained in the proverb’s printed form rather than silently normalized.

Further local use

Printed “Cretizandum cum Crete” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key: Cretizandum cum Crete.

One must play the Cretan with a Cretan; an impersonal gerundive construction with an understood is.

Here: The marginal maxim recommends meeting like with like in a sequence of adaptive counsels.

Context: The ethical tension remains visible beside the body’s requirement of upright conduct. The ethnic proverb is attributed usage, not an adopted stereotype; Crete is printed and not emended.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Cretizandum cum Crete

Modern rendering: With a Cretan one must play the Cretan

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

Word and construction: Cretizandum supplies one must play the Cretan, with impersonal obligation; cum Crete is with a Cretan. One is the English impersonal subject, and must expresses gerundival necessity.

Modern container: note

Further local use

Printed “Cretizandum cum Crete” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key: Cretizandum cum Crete.

One must play the Cretan with a Cretan; an impersonal gerundive construction with an understood is.

Here: The original margin joins fox imagery to the body’s attack on hypocrisy and inconstancy.

Context: This belongs to the retold Democritus’s denunciation of people who conceal hatred behind friendly appearances. The ethnic stereotype is proverbial historical language, not an adopted description.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Cretizandum cum Crete

Modern rendering: One must play the Cretan with a Cretan

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

Word and construction: Cretizandum supplies one must play the Cretan, with one the supplied impersonal subject and must expressing necessity; cum Crete supplies with a Cretan.

Modern container: note

Se accommodare necessitati

Printed “se accommodat” (Latin; phrase).

Accommodates himself; reflexive third-person present.

Here: The maxim praises responding wisely to necessity.

Context: Burton limits it to what cannot be helped or amended, then urges playing an unchosen throw skilfully. This qualified positive use is not proof that all opportunism is virtuous. The exact Latin version and Epictetus locator remain unreconciled.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: necessitati qui se accommodat, sapit

Modern rendering: Whoever accommodates himself to necessity is wise

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

Word and construction: Necessitati is dative, to necessity, with accommodat; qui is whoever, se himself, and sapit is wise. The following English suits himself to the time is Burton’s separate restatement. In that separate English restatement, suits himself to the time means adapts himself to the times, rather than translating Latin necessitati word for word.

Temporibus servire

Printed “Temporibus servi” (Latin; phrase).

Serve or accommodate yourself to the times: temporibus is dative plural, governed by servi, a singular imperative of servire.

Here: The margin advises adjustment to circumstances and not opposing the winds.

Context: The imperative sits among pragmatic maxims, including the Cretan proverb, beside the body’s injunction to keep upright. Its source is not precisely identified; it is not an unqualified endorsement of the politically expedient hypocrisy condemned elsewhere.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: Temporibus servi, nec contra flamina flato

Modern rendering: Accommodate yourself to the times, and do not blow against the winds

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

Word and construction: Servi supplies accommodate yourself, an idiomatic rendering of serve, with temporibus to the times. Nec gives and do not; contra flamina is against the winds and flato the second imperative blow.

Modern container: note

Temporiser

Printed “temporisers” (English; lemma).

People who change their outward allegiance or conduct opportunistically.

Here: Conformists are accused of accepting whatever is proposed in hope of advancement.

Context: Burton’s religious polemic contrasts these people with another extreme of scrupulous refusal and with seekers of Church property. Fear and flattery as well as promotion are attributed motives; the passage does not prove all conformists’ private beliefs.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a rout of temporisers

Modern rendering: a gang of opportunists

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

Word and construction: Rout supplies gang; temporisers supplies opportunists. The noun names people, not merely delay in making a decision.

Temporising

Printed “temporising” (English; lemma).

Opportunistically accommodating; an adjective describing the age.

Here: The age’s conduct makes flattering companions hard to expose.

Context: The Gnathos generally attach themselves to great men, gain honours and offices, and often ruin themselves and others. Burton contrasts their false appearances with genuine honourable love, which cannot deceive or be compelled. The Caelius Secundus anecdote remains unidentified.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: this temporising age

Modern rendering: this opportunistic age

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

Word and construction: Temporising supplies opportunistic, retaining its negative evaluation; this and age remain unchanged.

Further local use

Printed “temporizing” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Temporizing.

Opportunistically adjusting conduct for advantage.

Here: Hypocrites are figured as foxes whose apparent prosperity will end in disgrace.

Context: Burton first predicts exposure and sudden downfall, then admits they may escape through life and shifts the claimed punishment to posthumous reputation. Printed unmasked is awkward and retained, not silently repaired.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: such temporizing Foxes

Modern rendering: such opportunistic foxes

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

Word and construction: Temporizing supplies opportunistic; Foxes remains the figurative agent label, rather than a zoological statement.

Temporize · temporize · local use 1

Printed “temporize” (English; lemma).

Adjust one’s conduct to prevailing circumstances, especially for advantage.

Here: Conscientious people refuse the opportunistic behaviour that society rewards as wisdom.

Context: The cannot or will not of the surrounding sentence includes inability and refusal. Burton’s catalogue is ironic; the following paragraph reverses worldly judgment and calls the successful worldly people foolish.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: temporize as other men do

Modern rendering: trim their conduct to circumstances as others do

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

Word and construction: Temporize is expanded as trim their conduct to circumstances; as other men do becomes as others do. Their conduct makes the implied subject matter of adjustment explicit.

Further local use

Printed “temporizing” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Temporize.

Opportunistic adjustment of conduct.

Here: Trimming joins fraud and pretence in a catalogue of means to worldly success.

Context: Burton presents conformity as a morally destructive alternative to contempt and misery; it is his satirical indictment, not a verified description of every social transaction.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: temporizing

Modern rendering: trimming

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

Word and construction: The action noun is rendered trimming in its opportunistic sense.

Further local use

Printed “temporize” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Temporize.

Shift conduct with circumstances for personal advantage.

Here: The chameleon-like actor changes face and behaviour for each audience.

Context: The explicit for his advantages makes the motive local, while the continuation contrasts good precepts with contradictory deeds. Mercury is an astrological comparison for changeability.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: for his advantages temporize & vary like Mercurie the Planet

Modern rendering: shifting with circumstances for his own advantage and changing like the planet Mercury

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

Word and construction: Temporize supplies shifting with circumstances; for his advantages becomes for his own advantage, with own emphasizing the self-interest. Vary separately supplies changing.

Further local use

Printed “temporize” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Temporize.

Adapt opportunistically to the times.

Here: Self-presentation, accommodation, flattery, friends or money allegedly procure promotion before merit.

Context: Burton’s invective gives alternatives, not a requirement that every favoured person uses all of them. He later concedes that merit sometimes succeeds, then presents and withdraws the ideal prebend outcome as fiction.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: can temporize, collogue, insinuate

Modern rendering: adapt to the times, flatter and ingratiate himself

Alignment scope: Construction alignment within a longer coordinated clause: original can is represented by an earlier shared can outside the displayed modern fragment.

Word and construction: Temporize supplies adapt to the times; collogue supplies flatter and insinuate ingratiate himself. The modern coordination follows the earlier can in its full sentence.

Temporize · temporize · local use 2

Printed “temporize” (English; lemma).

Accommodate oneself to the times for advantage.

Here: Burton’s original margin confesses inability and unwillingness to adopt the methods of patron-seeking.

Context: The body shifts blame from patrons to his own misfortune and negligence; the margin says he lacks money and impudence, cannot be recast in old age and does not wish to be moulded, despite harm to his interests. Both parties remain blamed in the preceding paragraph.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording and original alignment: I could not scamble, temporize, dissemble

Modern rendering: I could not scramble for advantage, suit myself to the times or dissemble

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

Word and construction: Temporize supplies suit myself to the times; scamble separately supplies scramble for advantage. Could not governs the three actions. The Latin continuation expressly adds unwillingness as well as inability.

Modern container: note

Temporize · temporizeth

Printed “temporizeth” (English; lemma).

Adapts conduct opportunistically to prevailing circumstances; third-person singular.

Here: The ideal contented man does not flatter, envy or seek advancement.

Context: The negative is essential. Burton’s consolatory portrait is an ideal, not a claim that all poor people are independent. The preceding Horatian rural lines are excerpted from a poem whose moneylender returns to lending; the margin adapts a Pliny description of illness to this contentment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: temporizeth not

Modern rendering: nor trims his conduct to the times

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

Word and construction: Temporizeth supplies trims his conduct to the times; not becomes nor within the coordinated negative list. His conduct is made explicit by the modern.

Temporize · temporize · local use 3

Printed “temporize” (English; lemma).

Bend or adjust one’s behaviour to circumstances for gain.

Here: Burton declares indifference to others’ pursuit of wealth and honour.

Context: Let them is a declaration of withdrawal, not advice endorsing the practices. The continuation admits his own former pursuit and acknowledges generous patrons, distinguishing desire, expectation and desert.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: temporize and fleire

Modern rendering: bend with the times and smirk

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

Word and construction: Temporize supplies bend with the times; fleire supplies smirk. The actions remain distinct.

Temporizing; political conformity

Printed “temporizing” (English; family).

Accommodating conduct and professions to prevailing political circumstances.

Here: Statesmen are accused of displaying religion while privately despising it.

Context: Herodian and Machiavellian are Burton’s hostile labels, not proof of historical persons’ beliefs. The sequel allows outward sobriety, honesty and charity, assigning the judgment of hidden hearts to God; it does not establish those motives by observation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Herodian temporizing Statesmen

Modern rendering: Herodian statesmen who accommodate themselves to the times

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

Word and construction: The adjective temporizing is expanded as the relative clause who accommodate themselves to the times; Statesmen remains statesmen and Herodian retains the polemical label.

Yield to the time

Printed “yield to the time” (English; phrase).

Accommodate oneself to prevailing circumstances.

Here: A practical maxim recommends yielding and following the stream.

Context: The surrounding collection forbids selling the soul for gain and immediately directs innocent, upright living. The juxtaposition permits prudence without resolving all tension with the harsher satirical condemnations.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: yield to the time, follow the stream

Modern rendering: Yield to the times; follow the current

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

Word and construction: Yield is retained, time becomes times, and stream becomes current; the paired imperatives express adaptive conduct rather than postponement.