Venery

Use in the book

Sexual activity belongs to the historical regimen of retention and evacuation, with both excess and absence blamed for illness. Mattioli and Oribasius report harm in some who abstain or interrupt accustomed activity; retained seed and its supposed vapours provide a humoral explanation. The examples include unmarried people, widows and priests, alongside the claim that women need husbands. Their physiology and social assumptions remain attributed. Burton then reverses direction: excessive activity is just as harmful, and cold, dry patients are warned especially against further drying and consumption of spirits. Jacchinus’s chamber-work case illustrates that account. In Trincavelius’s separate patient, frequent venery is one proposed cause among excessive sunshine and exercise, not the sole cause.

The remedial section deliberately restricts its opening praise. Moderate sexual activity is called the only help for some people, not for every melancholic patient; Rhazes’s parallel benefit concerns many of the windy group. The ensuing stories and authorities include supposed cures of madness, epilepsy and reproductive retention, but the brothel anecdote does not establish consent or an authenticated cure. Arnoldus’s question, “Quid coitus ad melancholicum succum?”, asks what intercourse has to do with melancholic humour. Burton admits it only under specified conditions: excess seed or blood as a demonstrated cause, preceding love or exceptional desire, or Mercado’s combination of wind and accustomed use. Montalto requires robust, blood-filled patients; other authorities warn workers and students, and the conclusion emphasizes restraint. A later exception proposes frequent intercourse with another woman for a profoundly dejected, physically weakened lover; respectable in the body differs from pleasing in the margin. These are historical arguments, not current medical prescriptions.

The marital debt also carries a claim about generation. Lemnius, agreeing with Cardan, blames learned husbands’ listless performance for supposedly inferior offspring. Paul supplies the allusion to a reciprocal obligation between spouses, not the medical claim about children. Plater’s story of the infirm older husband repeats the debt metaphor while alleging illness in the deprived wife; the narrative and its fuller Latin version remain reports.

The sexual vocabulary extends to animals without becoming hunting terminology: the frontispiece’s competing bulls fight over mating, and birds supposedly sing in anticipation of sexual pleasure. Other uses must be separated from activity. The planet Venus governs amorous fantasies in an astrological account, but is also an astronomical body in the disputed report of planetary companions. The two philosophical Venuses name heavenly and common love; Ficino’s explanation nevertheless says both are good by nature and condemns the lower through misuse, rather than treating procreation itself as evil.

Charms and attractions form a further sense: the rich man’s Veneres, the beloved’s veneries, and Athenais’s Latin venere concern grace or allure. They are not additional sexual acts. Venerous, by contrast, keeps its sexual force in Montaigne’s supposed remedy for passions and the elderly man’s former activities.

Related entries

Appetite

Concupiscence

Non naturals

Continence

Dowry and jointure: Related vocabulary beyond this volume.

Satyriasis and priapism: Related vocabulary beyond this volume.

Seed: Related vocabulary beyond this volume.

Wittal and cuckold: Related vocabulary beyond this volume.

Places to read

1. An Explanation of the Frontispiece · paragraphs 4–6The frontispiece’s bulls symbolize sexual rivalry.
2. Subsection 6. Parents as a Cause Through Inheritance · paragraphs 13–15The Latin clause precedes Burton’s English debt metaphor and alleged hereditary consequence.
3. Subsection 4 Retention and Evacuation as Causes, and How They Act · paragraphs 8–18Both excessive activity and complete absence enter the account of retention and evacuation. Mattioli reports illness after abstinence, while Oribasius describes harm in some who interrupt intercourse. The obligation metaphor recurs in Plater’s story of an infirm husband and young wife. Sexual activity also appears as an aggravating factor, with excess condemned and cold/dry patients especially warned. The phrase describes alleged sexual excess in a newly married patient.
4. Subsection 6 Poverty and Want as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 24–26The rich man seems attended by every pleasure and elegance in the contrast with poverty.
5. Subsection 3. Causes of Head Melancholy · paragraphs 26–28Frequent intercourse is one of three causes assigned to Trincavelius’s patient, alongside excessive sun exposure and exercise.
6. Subsection 3 Particular Symptoms From the Influence of Stars, Parts of The… · paragraphs 6–8Venus’s supposed rule is associated with amorous and pleasurable fantasies.
7. Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraphs 20–22The windy form of melancholy is associated with sexual inclination; Rhazes says intercourse helps many of these patients.
8. Member 2. Retention and Evacuation Corrected · paragraphs 1–9Moderate activity may be the only effective help for some, despite harm from either extreme. Arnoldus’s question challenges its connection with melancholic humour unless specified causal conditions are established. Montalto disallows even moderate activity in listed illnesses unless the patient is robust and full of blood. Study provides a further context for the supposed consumption of spirits. Sexual restraint closes the regimen argument, among three supposed safeguards of health.
9. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 17–19Venus is an astronomical object in a report of supposed companions observed around planets.
10. Subsection 2 Love’s Origin, Object, Definition and Divisions · paragraph 41 through Subsection 2 Love’s Origin, Object, Definition and Divisions · paragraph 1The plural names the two philosophical goddess figures, unlike Veneres meaning charms. Two Venuses and two loves explain different objects and manners of love. Origen’s twofold account, qualified by misuse and excess or defect.
11. Section 2 Member 1, Subsection 1 Love Melancholy: Its Ancestry, Power and Reach · paragraphs 40–42Birdsong is interpreted as anticipation of mating.
12. Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind… · paragraphs 70–72The English plural names the charms the lover attributes to his beloved.
13. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraphs 31–33Frequent intercourse with another woman is proposed as an exception for a profoundly distressed, physically depleted lover.
14. By Counsel and Persuasion, the Foulness of the Deed, the Faults of Men And… · paragraphs 5–7The adjective qualifies passions that supposed masters of amorous play would counter by viewing the body.
15. Subsection 5 the Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have… · paragraphs 34–36Venere names Athenais’s charm, offered with education as a sufficient portion.
16. Prevention Before or After Marriage: Plato’s Community of Wives; Marrying A… · paragraphs 11–13The adjective describes sexual activities beyond the older man’s present ability.

In this edition

“immoderate, or no use at all of Venus” is rendered excessive sexual activity or none at all; “frequent use of Venery” becomes “frequent sexual intercourse”. “They pay their debt” retains the metaphor, with the reciprocal marital background explained. The original lower-case they in that sentence becomes capitalized after modern repunctuation. The claims about offspring remain attributed to Lemnius.

The modern version makes Venus’s implied rule explicit. The body says that the younger goddess is commonly called Venus, whereas the Latin margin calls her Common Venus; these are not identical formulations. “Veneres” can therefore become either Venuses in the philosophical division or charms of Venus in the wealth passage. Latin venere contributes charm, while corporis lepore supplies physical grace.

chamber-work

Printed “chamber-work” (English; lemma).

Sexual intercourse, euphemistically called bedroom work.

Here: The phrase describes alleged sexual excess in a newly married patient.

Context: Burton reports Jacchinus’s case and humoral explanation of drying, with a second parallel from Laelius; the reported cure is not a modern recommendation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: so dryed himself with chamber-work

Modern rendering: dried himself out so much with bedroom work

Word and construction: Chamber-work supplies bedroom work, a sexual euphemism; the rest expresses the alleged bodily drying.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

coitus

Printed “coitus” (Latin; lemma).

Sexual intercourse.

Here: Arnoldus’s question challenges its connection with melancholic humour unless specified causal conditions are established.

Context: Burton expressly says the preceding praise must be understood cautiously; excess seed or blood, preceding love or desire, and Mercado’s wind-plus-habit exception condition the argument.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Quid coitus ad melancholicum succum?

Modern rendering: What has intercourse to do with the melancholic humour?

Word and construction: Coitus supplies intercourse; melancholicum succum supplies melancholic humour, while Quid... ad asks their connection.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

debitum

Printed “debitum” (Latin; lemma).

A debt or obligation; here, the conjugal obligation.

Here: The Latin clause precedes Burton’s English debt metaphor and alleged hereditary consequence.

Context: Burton attributes the causal explanation to Lemnius, agreeing with Cardan; no modern hereditary inference follows.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Quod persolvant debitum languide & obscitanter

Modern rendering: Because they discharge the debt listlessly and inattentively

Word and construction: Debitum supplies debt; persolvant discharge, and languide and obscitanter the manner listlessly and inattentively.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

marital debt

Printed “debt” (English; phrase).

Marital sexual obligation, figured as a debt owed between spouses.

Here: The phrase is used of learned husbands whom Lemnius accuses of discharging the obligation without vigour.

Context: Burton alludes to Paul; the scriptural obligation is reciprocal, but the alleged effect on offspring is Lemnius’s medical addition, not the scriptural statement.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: they pay their debt

Modern rendering: They pay their debt

Word and construction: Debt is retained as debt; pay names performance of the conjugal obligation.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “debts” (English; phrase).

Citation key: marital debt.

Here: The obligation metaphor recurs in Plater’s story of an infirm husband and young wife.

Context: The alleged sexual-deprivation illness is an attributed case; its fuller margin and abbreviated body differ, and neither establishes a verified history.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: pay his debts in that kinde

Modern rendering: pay his conjugal debts

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

venerous

Printed “venerous” (English; lemma).

Sexual or pertaining to Venus.

Here: The adjective qualifies passions that supposed masters of amorous play would counter by viewing the body.

Context: Burton attributes the counsel to Montaigne and introduces it as some people’s opinion, not a guaranteed result.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a remedy of venerous passions

Modern rendering: a remedy for sexual passions

Word and construction: Venerous contributes sexual; passions supplies the object and remedy the proposed response.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “venerous” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venerous.

Here: The adjective describes sexual activities beyond the older man’s present ability.

Context: Burton combines a scriptural comparison and Petronius in his argument about unequal marriage; the language remains historical and disparaging.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: past those venerous exercises

Modern rendering: past those sexual activities

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

venery

Printed “Venery” (English; lemma).

Sexual intercourse.

Here: Frequent intercourse is one of three causes assigned to Trincavelius’s patient, alongside excessive sun exposure and exercise.

Context: Burton reports consultation 13, book 1; frequent venery is not asserted as the sole cause, nor is the case independently verified.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: frequent use of Venery

Modern rendering: frequent sexual intercourse

Word and construction: Venery contributes sexual intercourse; frequent use contributes the frequency of the activity.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venery” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: The frontispiece’s bulls symbolize sexual rivalry.

Context: The verse explicitly calls the animals symbols of jealousy; venery here means mating, not hunting.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: To assault concerning Venery

Modern rendering: To fight over mating

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venery” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: Mattioli reports illness after abstinence, while Oribasius describes harm in some who interrupt intercourse.

Context: The selected modern phrase redistributes the source’s abstinence and bashfulness; sex is made explicit in the modern opening sentence. Some is not all.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some through bashfulness abstained from Venery

Modern rendering: some people abstained through bashfulness

Alignment scope: Matched abstention clause, with its sexual object explicit in the preceding modern sentence

Word and construction: Venery names the sexual activity left implicit in this modern clause after the opening Abstaining from sex; through bashfulness is retained as the reason.

Alignment qualification: The English rendering redistributes sex to the paragraph’s first sentence; the aligned clause is not claimed to contain a separate modern noun for Venery.

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Further local use

Printed “Venery” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: Sexual activity also appears as an aggravating factor, with excess condemned and cold/dry patients especially warned.

Context: Burton cites Galen and other physicians; Magninus supplies cooling, drying and spirit-consumption as the historical explanation.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: those diseases which are exasperated by Venery

Modern rendering: the diseases aggravated by sexual intercourse

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venerie” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: The windy form of melancholy is associated with sexual inclination; Rhazes says intercourse helps many of these patients.

Context: The claimed benefit is attributed, restricted to many in the group, and explained through historical wind theory.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: prone to Venerie, by reason of wind

Modern rendering: inclined to intercourse because of wind

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “venery” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: Sexual restraint closes the regimen argument, among three supposed safeguards of health.

Context: Burton invokes Plutarch; his surrounding term temperance and the earlier exceptions prevent a universal claim that all sexual activity is forbidden.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: abstain from venery

Modern rendering: abstain from sex

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “venery” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: Birdsong is interpreted as anticipation of mating.

Context: Burton attributes this explanation to Aristotle without a precise passage; the following Lucretius verse personifies the goddess’s power.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: in hope of their venery which is to come

Modern rendering: hope of the sexual pleasure to come

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Venus · local use 1

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

Sexual activity, named through the goddess of love.

Here: Both excessive activity and complete absence enter the account of retention and evacuation.

Context: Burton follows Fernel’s classification of processes necessary at certain times, not invariably; later benefits and harms are patient-dependent.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: immoderate, or no use at all of Venus

Modern rendering: excessive sexual activity or none at all

Word and construction: Venus supplies sexual activity; immoderate and no use at all specify the opposed extremes.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Venus.

Here: Moderate activity may be the only effective help for some, despite harm from either extreme.

Context: Burton’s some parties limits only help; the following attributed claims are sharply restricted.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Immoderate Venus in excess, as it is a cause, or in defect; so moderately used to some parties an only help, a present remedy

Modern rendering: Just as sexual activity in excess, or its absence, can be a cause, so, when practised moderately, it can be the one thing that helps some people, an immediate remedy

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Venus.

Here: Montalto disallows even moderate activity in listed illnesses unless the patient is robust and full of blood.

Context: Burton attributes the restriction and then reports Lodovicus Antonius’s further prohibition for manual workers and wrestlers.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: will not allow of moderate Venus

Modern rendering: will not allow even moderate sexual activity

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Venus.

Here: Study provides a further context for the supposed consumption of spirits.

Context: Ficino and Marsilius Cognatus are separately named; Burton concludes a melancholy person should engage only in certain cases.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: put Venus one of the five mortall enemies of a student

Modern rendering: count sexual activity among the five deadly enemies of a student

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Venus · local use 2

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

The goddess of love, here distinguished into heavenly and common forms in a philosophical account.

Here: Two Venuses and two loves explain different objects and manners of love.

Context: Burton invokes Pausanias and Ficino; the continuation says both loves are good in their own natures and the lower is called bad through misuse.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: One Venus is ancient without a mother, and descended from heaven

Modern rendering: One Venus is ancient, without a mother, and descended from heaven

Word and construction: Venus names the goddess; the rest distinguishes the elder motherless, heavenly form.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Veneres” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Venus.

Here: The plural names the two philosophical goddess figures, unlike Veneres meaning charms.

Context: Burton tentatively connects the division to Pausanias’s speech; the subsequent Ficino account qualifies its moral opposition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: two Veneres and two loves

Modern rendering: two Venuses and two loves

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Venus · local use 3

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

The planet Venus, here treated as an astrological ruler.

Here: Its supposed rule is associated with amorous and pleasurable fantasies.

Context: Burton reports the planetary classification; the modern rendering supplies rules to complete the elliptical conditional.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: If Venus

Modern rendering: If Venus rules

Word and construction: Venus names the planet; rules is supplied to express the governing relationship implicit in If Venus.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Venus” (English; lemma).

Citation key: Venus.

Here: Venus is an astronomical object in a report of supposed companions observed around planets.

Context: Burton’s claim about Kepler is not corroborated by the cited comparison, which instead speculates about companions; it is not an astrological or sexual use.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: more about Mars, Venus

Modern rendering: more around Mars and Venus

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

venus · Veneres

Printed “Veneres” (Latin; lemma).

Charm, attractiveness or grace; in the plural, charms or graces.

Here: The rich man seems attended by every pleasure and elegance in the contrast with poverty.

Context: Burton’s description enlarges the privileges accorded to wealth; the plural is not a claim about multiple acts of intercourse.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: All the graces, Veneres, pleasures, elegances attend him

Modern rendering: All the Graces, the charms of Venus, pleasures and refinements attend him

Word and construction: Veneres contributes the charms of Venus; graces, pleasures and elegances are separately coordinated terms.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “veneries” (English; lemma).

Citation key: venery.

Here: The English plural names the charms the lover attributes to his beloved.

Context: This is extravagant loverly valuation in the symptoms account, not a literal catalogue of sexual acts.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: All the graces, veneries, elegances, pleasures, attend her

Modern rendering: All graces, charms of love, refinements and pleasures attend her

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention, Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “venere” (Latin; lemma).

Citation key: venus.

Here: Venere names Athenais’s charm, offered with education as a sufficient portion.

Context: Burton cites sources for the narrative; the inherited parallel differs over the amount of her dowry, so no uniform historical account is claimed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: multo corporis lepore ac venere

Modern rendering: with great physical grace and charm

Word and construction: Venere contributes charm, while corporis lepore contributes physical grace and multo its degree.

Sense relation: The same sense or explicitly distinguished application, with its local conditions and voice retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

venus · venerem

Printed “venerem” (Latin; lemma).

Sexual intercourse.

Here: Frequent intercourse with another woman is proposed as an exception for a profoundly distressed, physically depleted lover.

Context: Burton cites Valescus and supporting physicians; honestâ means respectable or decent, whereas the margin says gratiosa, pleasing. These are historical claims, not current treatment or an assumption of consent.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: cum aliâ honestâ venerem sæpè exercendo

Modern rendering: frequently having intercourse with another respectable woman

Word and construction: Venerem contributes intercourse; sæpè supplies frequently, exercendo the practice, and cum aliâ honestâ another respectable woman.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.