From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAn ulcer is a sore or lesion, and ulcerated describes a place made into or affected by such a sore.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe disease classification assigns ulcers to leprosy among the four principal headings attributed to Paracelsus and his followers.
- In this editionThe edition renders Latin ulcera as sores and ulceris as ulcer, while retaining ulcerated for the bodily place intended to discharge.
- A place to readSocial grievances and the people targeted by the following analogy.
Meaning
An ulcer is a sore or lesion, and ulcerated describes a place made into or affected by such a sore. Burton's uses include a disease category, a lesion maintained for discharge, and figures for distress or supposed disorder in the political body. The term does not itself identify one modern pathology, and its appearance beside boil or canker does not make all those names interchangeable.
Use in the book
The disease classification assigns ulcers to leprosy among the four principal headings attributed to Paracelsus and his followers. The following unit immediately objects that the corresponding claim of curing the subordinate diseases together is too general and disputed. Ulcer's place in that scheme is a reported historical classification, not Burton's unqualified equation of every ulcer with leprosy.
A sore can also function as an outlet. Burton discusses a stopped discharge from a boil, ulcer or issue, then cites a wounded person's relapse after the sore closed. The Latin gives lucid intervals while the English says he was well; the narrower and broader expressions must both remain visible. In the later treatment account, the seared or ulcerated place is deliberately allowed to discharge. The lesion's being kept open is part of the historical rationale, not a contemporary recommendation. Cautery owns the procedure, and Bile and boil the potentially misleading spelling bile.
Ulcers enter ethical imagery when harmful shame hides untreated sores. The Horatian line follows advice not to conceal a mental grief; Burton makes disclosure the condition for seeking help. Later a troubled conscience is compared to an ulcer continually afflicting the body. The first image emphasizes concealment and failure to treat, the second persistent torment. Neither supplies evidence of an actual skin lesion in the distressed person.
The political use is harsher. Burton's compressed presentation of Plato likens people who beg to ulcers and boils requiring removal before the melancholy commonwealth can be eased. This is a demeaning social analogy within his historical argument, not an objective description of the people. The editor distinguishes Plato's fuller assumptions about a well-governed state's prevention of destitution from Burton's medicalized compression. Commonwealth retains the political body's larger treatment.
In the anti-love anecdotes, Lull is said to recoil on discovering an ulcer or canker in his beloved's breast. The visible lesion changes the lover's response; the story is not a diagnostic case establishing the lesion's nature. The modern cancer rendering must be read with the note that canker may denote a cancerous sore and that the anecdote's sources and historical identities remain unverified.
Related entries
- Bile and boil: bile as boil in the stopped-discharge passage.
- Impostume: abscess and accumulation, not automatically any ulcer.
- Cautery: cautery and the maintained wound.
- Commonwealth: the body-politic analogy.
Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.
Places to read
- Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 5Social grievances and the people targeted by the following analogy.
- Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 6; note 962People represented as ulcers in the political body; note qualifies the compressed Plato reference.
- Subsection 4 Retention and Evacuation as Causes, and How They Act · paragraph 19Ulcer as a discharging sore; Latin lucid intervals beside English was well.
- Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 21Advice to disclose mental grief.
- Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 22Horace’s untreated sores hidden by false shame.
- Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 23Willingness to seek cure after disclosure.
- Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 6Ulcers under Paracelsus’s leprosy class.
- Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraph 7The classification’s therapeutic generality challenged.
- Subsection 4 Remedies That Divert the Humours · paragraph 10An ulcerated place maintained for discharge in historical treatment.
- By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men and Women, the Miseries of Marriage, the Consequences of Lust, and So Forth · paragraph 9Ulcer or canker in an unverified anti-erotic anecdote.
- Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraph 46Conscience as a register of offences and inward torment.
- Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraph 47The ulcer as a comparison for continual distress.
In this edition
The edition renders Latin ulcera as sores and ulceris as ulcer, while retaining ulcerated for the bodily place intended to discharge. In the open-sore example, “bile” becomes boil, not the digestive fluid bile. The modern breast-anecdote phrase “ulcer or cancer” is more recognizable than the original canker but does not resolve its historical uncertainty. Each route belongs to its local phrase, not to a retrospective diagnosis applied across the book.
Ulcers
Sores or lesions assigned to a historical disease class. Paracelsus and followers supply the classification; the next unit challenges its therapeutic generality.
Original wording: “to Leprosie, Ulcers, Itches, Furfures, Scabs”
Modern wording: “under leprosy, ulcers, itching disorders, scaly eruptions, scabs”
Lookup: ulcer; ulcers: disease class.
ulcer
A sore from which matter is discharged in the historical account. The objects complete the preceding stopped evacuation; this is not simply a list of unrelated swellings. Bile/boil and cautery remain earlier owners.
Original wording: “be it bile, ulcer, issue”
Modern wording: “whether from a boil, ulcer, drainage sore”
Lookup: ulcer: discharge.
the sore was open
The lesion remained unclosed and able to discharge. The cited outcome is lucid intervals in Latin, followed by the broader English was well. The vocabulary record preserves the local bodily condition, not a cure recommendation.
Original wording: “as long as the sore was open”
Modern wording: “while the sore remained open”
Lookup: sore: lesion; open sore.
ulcerated place
The site made into or affected by a discharging sore. Run means discharge; the procedure belongs to the historical treatment account and to Cautery Cautery.
Original wording: “the seared or ulcerated place suffered to run a good while”
Modern wording: “the burned or ulcerated place allowed to discharge for a considerable time”
Lookup: ulcerated; running sore.
incurata ... ulcera
Untreated sores, hidden by harmful shame. Incurata modifies ulcera despite intervening words; pudor malus is the subject that hides them. The surrounding advice applies the line to concealed distress.
Original wording: “Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat.”
Modern wording: “False shame hides the untreated sores of fools.”
Lookup: ulcera; incurata; untreated sores.
like so many Ulcers and Boils
A demeaning comparison of people to lesions in the political body. The referents are people who beg, not literally diseased tissue. Burton’s political medical analogy is not adopted as a judgement by the lexicon.
Original wording: “like so many Ulcers and Boils”
Modern wording: “like so many ulcers and boils”
Lookup: ulcers: commonwealth.
an ulcer or canker
An ulcer or possibly cancerous sore in the reported breast anecdote. The narrative reports a change in desire; note leaves the historical and medical identification unverified.
Original wording: “an ulcer or canker in his mistris breast”
Modern wording: “an ulcer or cancer in the breast of the mistress”
Lookup: canker; ulcer: erotic disillusion.
Instar ulceris corpus jugiter percellens
Like an ulcer continually afflicting the body. The comparison concerns conscience’s persistent distress. Ulceris supplies the sore within the simile, not a literal diagnosis of the person’s body.
Original wording: “Instar ulceris corpus jugiter percellens”
Modern wording: “like an ulcer continually afflicting the body”
Lookup: ulceris; ulcer: conscience.