Interlude for Anatomy of Melancholy

 

...thou shalt soon perceive that all the world is mad, that it is melancholy...

I offer this appreciation interlude for the labyrinthine masterpiece that is The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. There may be more interludes to come, for this tome is a rather hefty one at 1,100 pages, so I imagine I will be dipping into this one for quite some time, and can see that this is the kind of book I will revisit again and again. Robert Burton lived in Oxford and wrote this for himself (as the subject), he writes, to aid himself in his own melancholy, showing us that his own interests and talents were essentially a cure to his own melancholy. To keep busy doing what he loved to do, fulfilling his purpose. He does write as a summation after 1,100 pages of diversions - "Be not solitary, be not idle" and we can all take that into our own souls to ponder the truth in that when feeling melancholy.

Examine the rest in like sort, and you shall find that Kingdoms and Provinces are melancholy, cities and families, all creatures, vegetal, sensible, and rational, that all sorts, sects, ages, conditions, are out of tune...In whom doth not passion, anger, envy, discontent, fear and sorrow reign? Who labours not of this disease?

I love this idea of being out of tune. We can all relate to that as a human condition. Burton shows that all of us are affected by melancholy at some points in our lives. It used to be known as a disease, and I suppose today it would be more so categorized as depression. However, the term melancholy seems more approachable to me, for we can all think about times where we are caught in a mindset of melancholy, no matter how short-lived. This is an everyman's book. Full of humour and anecdotes - surely Burton would be a hoot to hang out with. Records and letters show that he was.

It's difficult to describe what this book is exactly - published in 1621, it is a collection of writings, musings, history, diversions, and poetry exploring various aspects of the human condition (cutting up each of the aspects, or anatomizing them), subdivided into sections of causes of melancholy and then cures for melancholy. It is full of diversions and side notes, stories, quotes, many lists, and tales from Roman and Greek philosophers. He often throws out quotes in Latin in the middle of a sentence (which are translated, thankfully). He was a Christian, and he pulls quotations from Scripture. It has medical aspects that would impact one's melancholic state, as well as looking into one's mental awareness. I think our modern world of mental health and medicine should pay attention to this book. There is a lot here that is not considered today.

How many strange humours are in men? When they are poor and needy, they seek riches, and when they have them, they do not enjoy them, but hide them underground, or else wastefully spend them. O wise Hippocrates, I laugh at such things being done, but much more when no good comes of them, and when they are done to so ill purpose.

I have reached my favourite subsect thus far, titled - 

Love of learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy.

I can very much relate to the "overmuch study" (and will use that phrasing from here on as it makes me chuckle), even though I am not a technical student at the moment, I consider myself a life-long student, poring myself into study of books and writing my own books at my own peril, so indeed, these words ring very true to me when he gives - 

...many reasons, why students dote more often than others; first is their negligence...only Scholars neglect that Instrument, their brains and spirit (I mean) which they daily use, and by which they range over all the world, which by much study is consumed.

Now, I shall go back to my writing, but hopefully not to neglecting my brains and spirit.