Trembling and shaking

Use in the book

The comparison with someone who sits shaking from cold occurs in an argument against inactivity. The person could, Burton says, gain relief through movement; the analogy then reproaches those who complain but do not use available means. It must not be detached into a claim that all trembling, or all melancholy, is voluntary. The later defence of sufferers expressly challenges that sort of easy judgement.

Fear supplies several different timescales. Cicero is reported to tremble at the beginning of a speech, while the earthquake narratives describe hearts quaking at the immediate shock. Burton then says remembered terror may provoke fresh trembling years afterwards. Blasius's failure to regain composure after two months is the particular report; the extension to years and a lifetime is Burton's subsequent generalization. These are claims about recurrence through memory, not evidence that the earthquake itself continues.

A separate example begins with another person's shaking: the observer sees a man with palsy, keeps thinking of the sight for days and fears suffering the same condition. Burton then claims that forceful imagination can produce what is feared. The passage moves from a witnessed bodily movement to the observer's anxiety and possible imitation; it does not identify every fearful tremble as palsy or make the observer the original shaking man. The claim about imagination belongs to Burton's historical explanation.

In the challenge to healthy mockers, Burton asks the reader to imagine standing on a steep rock. The reader's own heart would tremble and head grow giddy. This transfers an intelligible fear-response to the task of understanding a sufferer, rather than proving that no physical danger exists. The explanatory chapter then links the trembling voice to a shaken heart. It names a bodily sequence while preserving the initiating apprehension.

The love passages complicate recognition again. Phaedria trembles on seeing Thais; the adjacent Latin verse addresses Parmeno but does not make Parmeno the lover. Legs and knees tremble in the following catalogue, alongside gasping and palpitation. In the religious partition, “fear and trembling” appears among scriptural passages that distressed readers may interpret without judgement. Its presence there cannot be made either a universal symptom or an unqualified command from Burton to intensify dread: the preceding sentence identifies misinterpretation as a source of distress.

Related entries

• Fear: objects, anticipation and memory.
• Animal faculties: movement and its powers.
• Heart and cordolium: the heart’s movements and distress.
• Speech and voice (Speech and voice): trembling as audible disturbance.

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

1. Subsection 3. Classification of Diseases of the Head · paragraph 14Tremor in a historical classification of nervous disorders.
2. Subsection 6 Excessive Exercise as a Cause, and How It Acts. Solitude and Idleness · paragraph 22The reproach of inactivity that frames the cold-person comparison.
3. Subsection 6 Excessive Exercise as a Cause, and How It Acts. Solitude and Idleness · paragraph 23Shaking as shivering within an analogy.
4. Subsection 5. Fear as a Cause · paragraph 23Trembling before public speech.
5. Subsection 3 Terrors and Frights as Causes of Melancholy · paragraph 21Hearts quaking during reported earthquakes in Japan.
6. Subsection 3 Terrors and Frights as Causes of Melancholy · paragraph 22Fresh trembling at remembered terror and the scope of the generalization.
7. Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraph 42Fear of acquiring diseases that sufferers see or read about frames the next example.
8. Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraph 43Observed palsy, the observer’s persistent fear and the attributed power of imagination are distinct stages.
9. Member 3 Immediate Cause of the Preceding Symptoms · paragraph 24The imagined cliff answers those who ridicule sufferers.
10. Member 3 Immediate Cause of the Preceding Symptoms · paragraph 9Trembling voice explained through the shaken heart.
11. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 54; note 9804Phaedria’s speech to Parmeno; see editorial correction the accompanying note.
12. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 55Trembling limbs among the signs of love.
13. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraph 28Unreflective reading and misinterpretation as the frame.
14. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraph 29Fear and trembling in the collected scriptural phrases.

In this edition

“Sits still shaking” becomes “sits shivering,” fixing the cold occasion without making shivering the meaning of every shaking. “Their hearts quaked” becomes “their hearts shook.” The voice “trembles” because the heart “is shaken”; the two parts of the claim must not be collapsed into a report that the voice shakes the heart. The editor also corrects the dramatic reference surrounding Phaedria, identifying who speaks to whom.

Tremor

A named trembling disorder in the classification of diseases of the nerves. The separate listing prevents a reader from treating cramp, convulsion, tremor and palsy as interchangeable names.

Original wording: Crampes, Stupor, Convulsion, Tremor, Palsie

Modern wording: cramps, numbness, convulsions, tremor and paralysis

Lookup: tremor.

sits still shaking

Remains seated, shivering with cold. Still concerns remaining inactive here; the context supplies cold as the cause of the shaking.

Original wording: he that is benummed with cold, sits still shaking

Modern wording: someone numb with cold who sits shivering

Lookup: shaking; shiver; shivering.

hearts quaked

Hearts shook with fear. The bodily description belongs to a reported earthquake, not to a metaphor for the ground’s movement alone.

Original wording: their hair stared for fear, and their hearts quaked

Modern wording: their hair stood on end with fear and their hearts shook

Lookup: quake; quaked; quaking.

tremble afresh

Begin trembling again in response to remembered terror. Afresh marks recurrence: the subsequent mental representation can renew a bodily response.

Original wording: tremble afresh at the remembrance

Modern wording: tremble afresh at the memory

Lookup: tremble; trembling; trembled.

the voice ... trembles

Audible trembling attributed to the heart’s disturbance. The causal order is explicit: the shaken heart explains the trembling voice, not vice versa.

Original wording: the voice of such as are afraid, trembles, because the heart is shaken

Modern wording: The voice of those who are afraid trembles because the heart is shaken

Lookup: trembling voice; shaken heart.

fear and trembling

A scriptural pairing quoted within the discussion of distressed interpretation. The preceding unit warns that unreflective reading and misinterpretation can frighten susceptible readers. This framing is part of the use.

Original wording: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling

Modern wording: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling

Lookup: fear and trembling.

shaking with the palsie

Shaking attributed to palsy in the person being observed. The subject first seen shaking is someone else. The susceptible observer fears the same condition, and Burton subsequently attributes its possible production to force of imagination; that causal claim must not be mistaken for a modern diagnosis.

Original wording: a man shaking with the palsie

Modern wording: a man shaking with palsy

Lookup: shaking with palsy; palsie: shaking; shaking: feared imitation.

The same attestation is also explained at shaking with the palsie; the two contextual records distinguish palsy as the observed condition and trembling as its visible sign, rather than claiming two distinct lemmas.