Wit

Use in the book

The brief learned/wit contrast assigns learning to study and being a wit to talent. A later note criticizes the bel esprit who cares only to speak well and is satisfied by the resulting glory. That is a particular narrowing of ambition, not a claim that eloquent language is always empty. The contrast with good sense makes self-directed brilliance the issue: wit occupies us with ourselves, while good sense concerns others. Finally the criticism of the Saint Helena collection denies wit, good sense and genius even while allowing some truths, so a true statement does not automatically possess these literary virtues.

Places to read

1. I, p. 332, entry 2, ¶4Study and talent produce learnedness and wit respectively.
2. II, p. 854, entry 5, ¶1The bel esprit seeks glory for speaking well.
3. I, p. 420, entry 4, ¶1Wit’s self-concern contrasts with good sense.
4. II, p. 900, entry 6, ¶1Some truths can coexist with an absence of wit and genius.

Translation in this edition

The English translation uses wit for these contexts while preserving mind or spirit elsewhere. The supplied [us] in the second formulation on I.420 is an English grammatical supplement. The article does not make every occurrence of esprit an accusation of vanity.

Use in the book

Capacity, discovery and promise

The technical account identifies the active understanding with human wit: acuteness, subtlety and sharpness of discovery, exercised in independent invention or new learning. In the preface Burton’s “running wit” is less orderly. It ranges through many subjects and is coupled with an unsettled mind; his confession combines intellectual appetite with self-deprecation about mastery. Wit is not automatically disciplined knowledge.

The same capacity can fail in different ways. A reported classification distinguishes ignorance, the absence of necessary knowledge, from error, positively judging falsely. An original marginal exclamation, “Wit whither wilt?”, questions the unrestrained wanderings of intelligence beside denunciations of scholastic disputes. Elsewhere, “wit without employment” becomes diseased: Burton compares neglected mental activity to rust and stagnant water, before describing idle thought tormenting itself.

The praise of Epicurus gives the noun a grand comparative sense. Lucretius’s Latin celebrates his intellectual superiority, and Burton’s separate English couplet says his wit excels other people’s wits as the sun outshines stars. The surrounding catalogue calls such praises hyperbolical. Honourable rivalry receives a different approval: as a whetstone and nurse of wit, it sharpens ability and encourages brave acts. Burton expressly distinguishes this useful emulation and modest ambition from the bitter hostility discussed immediately before.

In consolation, a witty child is intelligent and full of promise. Burton’s ensuing argument asks whether that child would necessarily have become morally upright; possible later misconduct is hypothetical. Intelligence and hoped-for character are therefore distinct even within praise. The continuation presses the consolation more categorically, claiming that a longer life would have brought more sin; that is a further step in Burton’s argument, not established knowledge about the child. The named Eteoneus example belongs to Burton’s consolatory account; the supplied note qualifies his claim about Pindar’s participation in the lament.

Melancholy and mental excellence

The bodily symptom catalogue contrasts outward heaviness, distress and difficulty undertaking business with generally good memory, happy wits and excellent apprehensions. The concession preserves a difference between appearance, functioning and intellectual power. Elsewhere, blood-related melancholy is associated with laughter and inventive conversation, with pleasantness qualified by the condition not being far advanced. These are historically reported symptom profiles rather than universal descriptions of people with depression.

The direct question why melancholy people are witty is explicitly disputed. The first reported explanation makes the favourable condition a natural humour mixed with others, excluding phlegm and avoiding extremes of temperature or scorching. Another theory attributes excellence to adust melancholy; Laurentius rejects that formulation, and a revised mixture with some scorching follows. Burton then calls on Fracastorius: melancholic people have the finest minds, “but not all.” Excessive heat or cold produces different impairments; a temperate condition is preferred. The elephant example and dry-light saying extend this bodily explanation. The sequence must not be reduced to the slogan that illness guarantees genius.

Ingenuity, humour and misuse

Ingenious contrivance is clear in witty devices offered for treatment. Burton proposes fabricated stories and staged objects, then reports a weighted cap restoring a king’s belief that he has a head and a secretly introduced serpent seeming to confirm a woman’s cure. Witty means resourcefully devised, not necessarily comic. The deception belongs to Burton’s historical therapeutic argument; these anecdotes do not establish the events as verified cures.

The humorous range is nevertheless genuinely present. Lucian’s talking-cock dialogue is called pleasant and witty, combining invention with amusement. In the chapter on cruel mockery, jesters’ wits serve the sole purpose of coarse jokes: their talent is praised by spectators but condemned by Burton as the froth of wit, while their other conversation is described as barren. The distinction is between what intelligence can do and the narrow or harmful uses to which it is put.

The adverb “wittily” likewise marks ingenious composition when Lucian imagines Mercury leading Charon to a view of the world. A different extension occurs when “best wits” appears alongside commanders and scholars: the phrase names gifted people, not merely a collection of faculties. Burton’s catalogue of their allegedly obscure or illegitimate origins remains a set of reported examples.

Sanity, attention and knowing

To lose one’s wits can mean to lose sound mental government. The universal-madness satire turns this into Ariosto’s image of evaporated wits stored above the moon; love, ambition and other consuming pursuits distribute the losses. At one’s wits’ end is a more situational idiom for being distraught or unable to see a way through possible disgrace. Woolgathering wits describe diverted attention: Aquinas, absorbed in an argument at dinner, forgets the social occasion and is embarrassed when he realizes it. These phrases do not all name the same degree or kind of disorder.

Finally, wit is also a verb. In the couplet about love as the first and last cause of things, “you wit” means you would know. In the Spenser quotation, “to wit” simply introduces the three loves whose competing claims the stanza weighs. A lookup that treated every occurrence as the noun intelligence would miss both constructions.

Related entries

Reason; Intellect; Judgment; Apprehension; Conceit; Imagination; Melancholy; Humour; Adust; Madness

Places to read

1. · paragraph 1–2roaming intelligence and many fields of study, followed by confessed lack of method
2. · paragraph 16–18wit in the praise of Epicurus, following a separately translated Latin couplet, within a catalogue of extravagant praise
3. · paragraph 6–8wit’s defects distinguished as ignorance and error; wittily praises Lucian’s ingenious satire
4. · paragraph 45–47Wit whither wilt? questions unrestrained intellectual wandering
5. · paragraph 10–11lost wits and Ariosto’s lunar jars in universal-madness satire
6. · paragraph 28–29wit as active understanding, independent discovery and judgment
7. · paragraph 26–28unused wit, rust and stagnant water; idle thought turning upon itself
8. · paragraph 18–20honourable rivalry as whetstone and nurse of intelligence, distinguished from bitter antagonism
9. · paragraph 18Lucian’s witty dialogue combines clever invention and amusement
10. · paragraph 37woolgathering wits: scholarly absorption at dinner
11. · paragraph 34–36intelligence narrowly employed in coarse and harmful joking
12. · paragraph 9–10being at one’s wits’ end over possible disgrace, followed by a reported case
13. · paragraph 12–14gifted minds despite outward dullness and incapacity
14. · paragraph 18–20wittie conversational gifts in a qualified humoral profile
15. · paragraph 5–8the disputed relation of melancholy to intellectual gifts, explicit exceptions and temperature distinctions
16. · paragraph 33–34ingenious therapeutic devices and the following staged-cure stories
17. · paragraph 41–43best wits names gifted people in a catalogue of reported origins
18. · paragraph 14–16intelligent child distinguished from certainty about future moral character
19. · paragraph 19–21wit as the verb know in Burton’s separate English couplet
20. to wit introduces the list of loves compared in Spenser’s verse

In this edition

“Whose wit excel’d the wits of men” becomes “Whose wit surpassed the wits of men.” The preceding translation of Lucretius’s Latin uses “intellect”; that separate rendering explains the context without replacing Burton’s English verse. “The nurse of wit and valor” becomes “the nurse of intelligence and courage,” while the whetstone wording retains wit. “Happy wits” becomes “gifted minds”; “melancholy men are witty” becomes “melancholy people are intellectually gifted”; and “a witty child” becomes “intelligent child.”

The more inventive uses remain context-sensitive: “witty device” becomes “an ingenious device,” while Lucian’s witty dialogue remains witty. “His wits were a woolgathering” becomes “His mind was woolgathering.” The verbal construction “you wit” becomes “you would know,” and “to wit” becomes “namely.” These are genuine grammatical and semantic changes, not spelling updates alone.

“Out of a running wit” states a cause; the modern sentence instead makes the “roaming intelligence and inconstant, unsettled mind” its subject and says these “made me eager.” The complete clause preserves the causal relation. “Ingeniorum cos” is translated first as “the whetstone of intelligence,” before Burton’s separate English “whetstone of wit.” The marginal “Wit whither wilt?” has an editorial explanation, not a corresponding phrase in the modern body.

at one’s wits’ end

Printed “at their wits ends” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Distraught or at a loss over possible disgrace or exposure.

Context: The condition follows possible social error or disclosure of a secret; the idiom does not itself establish a diagnosis.

Source: original body

Source wording: Some persons are at their wits ends

best wits

Printed “best wits” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

People of outstanding intellectual ability, named by their mental gifts.

Context: The surrounding list uses wits alongside commanders and scholars; Burton’s examples and parentage claims remain reported, not verified biographical facts.

Source: original body

Source wording: their worthiest captains, best wits, great scholars, bravest spirits

Original wording: their worthiest captains, best wits, great scholars, bravest spirits in all our Annals

Modern rendering, Modern wording: Our annals’ worthiest commanders, finest minds, great scholars, and boldest spirits

Alignment convention

Alignment scope: Whole list and its location are aligned; modern Our annals’ moves the final original phrase to the beginning.

happy wits

Printed “happy wits” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Gifted minds or intellectual capacities.

Context: A concessive contrast preserves intellectual ability despite outward dullness and difficulty acting.

Source: original body

Source wording: they have happy wits, and excellent apprehensions

ingeniorum cos

Printed “ingeniorum cos” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: ingeniorum cos

Citation convention

Whetstone of minds or intellectual powers; an image of sharpening ability.

Context: Honourable emulation is the sharpening agent, explicitly distinguished from bitter professional antagonism. Burton follows the Latin with a separate English gloss.

Source: original body

Modern rendering, Modern wording: the whetstone of intelligence

Alignment convention

Alignment convention

lose one’s wits

Printed “lose their wits” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Lose sound mental government or sanity, here figured as minds lost to absorbing pursuits.

Context: Ariostan fantasy and adapted verse extend the universal-madness satire; the jars above the moon are fiction.

Source: original body

Source wording: Some lose their wits with love, some with ambition

running wit

Printed “running wit” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

A roaming or unsettled intelligence, eager to range across many subjects.

Context: Burton’s self-description balances broad curiosity with inability to master a single field.

Source: original body

Source wording: out of a running wit, an unconstant, unsetled mind

Original wording: out of a running wit, an unconstant, unsetled mind, I had a great desire

Modern rendering, Modern wording: my roaming intelligence and inconstant, unsettled mind made me eager

Alignment convention

Alignment scope: The full causal clause is aligned: original out of introduces the cause, while the modern version makes the mental qualities the subject of made me eager.

Supplied or implicit wording: Modern my makes the first-person possession explicit; the causal relation is recast syntactically, not omitted.

to wit

Printed “to wit” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Namely: a fixed phrase introducing the three kinds of love about to be listed.

Context: Quoted Spenser verse lists family affection, erotic love and friendship; these are not exactly Burton’s preceding three classes.

Source: original body

Source wording: Whether shall weigh the ballance down; to wit

wit · local use 1

Printed “wit” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Intellectual excellence praised in Epicurus.

Context: Burton’s English couplet follows a separate Latin praise voiced by Lucretius; the larger catalogue questions extravagant praise.

Source: original body

Source wording: Whose wit excel’d the wits of men

wit · wits · local use 1

Printed “wits” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

The intellectual powers of other people, the comparison class in the praise of Epicurus.

Context: Plural within Burton’s English rendering; its correspondence with intellect in the separately translated Latin is contextual, not a new Latin translation.

Source: original body

Source wording: the wits of men

wit · Wit

Printed “Wit” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Active understanding: acuity in independent discovery or in learning something new.

Context: Burton’s local faculty definition, followed by abstraction of intelligible forms from imagination.

Source: original body

Source wording: The Agent is that which is called the Wit of man

wit · local use 2

Printed “wit” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Intellectual ability cultivated by honourable rivalry.

Context: Burton explicitly distinguishes honourable emulation from hostile excess.

Source: original body

Source wording: the nurse of wit and valor

wit · wits · local use 2

Printed “wits” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Mental resourcefulness restricted, in this criticism, to coarse joking.

Context: Burton attacks cruel jesters; the humorous use of talent is real here and its value expressly limited.

Source: original body

Source wording: Their wits indeed serve them to that sole purpose, to make sport, to break a scurrile jest

wit · wits · local use 3

Printed “wits” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Minds considered for intellectual excellence, expressly with exceptions.

Context: Fracastorius is offered as arbiter; temperature qualifies excellence rather than all melancholic people receiving it.

Source: original body

Source wording: Melancholy men have the most excellent wits, but not all

wit · local use 3

Printed “wit” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Understanding, considered as a power liable to ignorance or error.

Context: Burton reports a twofold classification: ignorance lacks knowledge, whereas error positively misjudges; some say marks the classification’s attributed status.

Source: original body

Source wording: two main defects of wit, error and ignorance

wit (verb)

Printed “wit” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Know.

Context: Verb in Burton’s conditional English couplet about love as first and final cause. The construction is rendered you would know; the inquiry is contextual force, not a separate lexical sense of wit.

Source: original body

Source wording: If first and last of any thing you wit

wit whither wilt

Printed “Wit whither wilt?” (English; phrase).

Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: Wit whither wilt?

Citation convention

An address to intelligence asking where it will wander; an exclamation at intellectual excess.

Context: The English original margin comments on denunciations of scholastic questions; the explanatory sentence is modern editorial matter, not another original quotation.

Source: original marginal quotation

Modern rendering, Modern wording: An exclamation at intellect wandering without restraint.

Word and construction: The entire original marginal question is explained by the editorial annotation.

Alignment scope: Editorial explanatory gloss of the whole exclamation; not a phrase-for-phrase modernization or modern body counterpart.

Edition note: Original marginal English and supplied editorial explanation separately checked

wit without employment

Printed “wit without employment” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Intellectual capacity left unoccupied.

Context: Burton argues that idle thought turns against itself; rust and stagnant water are explanatory images in his moral-medical account.

Source: original body

Source wording: wit without employment, is a disease

wits a woolgathering

Printed “his wits were a woolgathering” (English; phrase).

Printed form, Source wording: his wits were a woolgathering

Citation convention

His attention wandered from the social occasion into other thoughts.

Context: The Aquinas story concerns absorption in an argument at dinner, not loss of intellectual capacity.

Source: original body

wittily

Printed “wittily” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Ingeniously or inventively, here qualifying the making of a satirical fiction.

Context: Lucian is the subject of faigns; Burton condenses the dialogue’s observations, not a witnessed journey of Mercury and Charon.

Source: original body

Source wording: Charon in Lucian, as he wittily faigns, was conducted by Mercury

witty · local use 1

Printed “witty” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Inventively clever and amusing, describing Lucian’s dialogue and its dramatic device.

Context: Burton calls The Cock witty before recounting its talking bird and exposed wealthy men; the report’s redistribution of Lucian’s scenes remains qualified.

Source: original body

Source wording: pleasant and witty dialogue

witty · wittie

Printed “wittie” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Quick and ingenious in sociable conversation, alongside mirth.

Context: Reported profile of blood-related melancholy; pleasantness is conditional on the disease not being far advanced.

Source: original body

Source wording: wittie and merry, conceited in discourse

witty · local use 2

Printed “witty” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Intellectually gifted, in a disputed explanation of melancholy and outstanding ability.

Context: Burton frames the proposition as much controverted; later accounts distinguish mixtures and explicitly exclude some sufferers.

Source: original body

Source wording: melancholy men are witty

witty child

Printed “witty child” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

An intelligent child of promise.

Context: The consolation praises intellectual promise but then denies certainty about future moral conduct.

Source: original body

Source wording: a witty child, of great hope

witty device

Printed “witty device” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

An ingenious contrivance used to alter a sufferer’s belief.

Context: Burton proposes deliberate deception and follows with staged cures; this is historical therapeutic advice.

Source: original body

Source wording: witty device, artificial invention