"Theatrum Mundi. Theatre, or Rule of the World: Wherein may bee seene
the running Race and Course of everie Mannes Lyfe, as touching Miserie
and Felicitie: whereunto is added a learned Worke of the excellencie of
Man. Written in French by Peter Boiastuan. Translated by John Alday.
Printed by Thomas East, for John Wright, 8vo. 1582."
But Burton was more indebted to another work, very similar in title and
matter to his own; I mean Dr. Bright's curious little volume, of which I
transcribe the title-page in full:
"A Treatise of Melancholy: contayning the Causes thereof, and reasons
of the strange Effects it worketh in our Minds and Bodies; with the
Phisicke Cure, and Spirituall Consolation for such as have thereto
adjoyned afflicted Conscience. The difference betwixt it and
Melancholy, with diverse philosophical Discourses touching Actions, and
Affections of Soule, Spirit, and Body: the Particulars whereof are to
be seene before the Booke. By T. Bright, Doctor of Phisicke. Imprinted
at London by John Windet, sm. 8vo. 1586."
It has been remarked that Burton does not acknowledge his obligations to
Bright. This, however, is not strictly true, as the former acknowledges
_several quotations_ in the course of his work. It would certainly be
desirable, in the event of a new edition of the _Anatomy_, that a
comparison of the two books should be made. As a beginning towards this
end, I subjoin a table of the contents of Bright's _Treatise_, with a
notice of some similar passages in Burton's _Anatomy_, arranged in parallel
columns.
I may just add, that Bright's _Treatise_ consists of 276 pages, exclusive
of a dedication "To the Right Worshipful M. Peter Osborne," &c. (dated from
"Little S. Bartlemews by Smithfield, the 13 of May, 1586"); and an address
"To his Melancholick Friend M."
All that is known of his biography has been collected by the Rev. Joseph
Hunter, and communicated to the last edition of Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_,
vol. ii. p. 174. _note_.
BRIGHT'S "TREATISE OF MELANCHOLY," | BURTON'S "ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY,"
1586. | edit. 1651.
|
_The Contentes of the Booke according | _Parallel Sections._
to the Chapters._ |
|
1. How diversely the word Melancholy | Definition of Melancholy: name,
is taken. | difference.
|
2. The causes of natural melancholy, | The causes of melancholy.
and of the excesse thereof. |
|
3. Whether good nourishment | Customs of dyet, delight, appetite,
breede melancholy, by fault of the | accessity: how they cause
body turning it into melancholy: | or hinder.
and whether such humour is found |
in nourishments, or rather is made |
of them. |
|
4. The aunswere to objections | Dyet rectified in substance.
made against the breeding of |
melancholicke humour out of |
nourishment. |
|
5. A more particular and farther |
answere to the former objections. |
|
6. The causes of the increase and | Immediate cause of these precedent
excesse of melancholicke humour. | symptomes.
|
7. Of the melancholicke excrement. | Of the matter of melancholy.
|
8. What burnt choller is, and |
the causes thereof. |
|
9. How melancholie worketh | Symptomes or signes in the
fearful passions in the mind. | mind.
|
10. How the body affecteth the | Of the soul and her faculties.
soule. |
|
11. Objections againste the manner |
how the body affecteth the |
soule, with answere thereunto. |
|
12. A farther answere to the |
former objections, and of the simple |
facultie of the soule, and onely |
organicall of spirit and body. |
|
13. How the soule, by one simple |
facultie, performeth so many and |
diverse actions. |
|
{192}
14. The particular answeres to |
the objections made in the 11th |
chapter. |
|
15. Whether perturbations rise | Division of perturbations.
of humour or not, with a division |
of the perturbations. |
|
16. Whether perturbations which |
are not moved by outward occasions |
rise of humour or not: and |
how? |
|
17. How melancholie procureth | Sorrow, fear, envy, hatred, malice,
feare, sadnes, despaire, and such | anger, &c. causes.
passions. |
|
18. Of the unnaturall melancholie | Symptomes of head-melancholy.
rising by adjustion: how |
it affecteth us with diverse passions.|
|
19. How sickness and yeares | Continent, inward, antecedent,
seeme to alter the mind, and the | next causes, and how the body
cause: and how the soule hath | works on the mind.
practise of senses separated from |
the body. |
|
20. The accidentes which befall | An heap of other accidents causing
melancholie persons. | melancholy.
|
21. How melancholie altereth | Distemperature of particular
the qualities of the body. | parts.
|
22. How melancholie altereth |
those actions which rise out of the |
braine. |
|
23. How affections be altered. |
|
24. The causes of teares, and |
their saltnes. |
|
25. Why teares endure not all |
the time of the cause: and why in |
weeping commonly the finger is |
put in the eie. |
|
26. Of the partes of weeping: |
why the countenance is cast down, |
the forehead lowreth, the nose |
droppeth, the lippe trembleth, &c. |
|
27. The causes of sobbing and |
sighing: and how weeping easeth |
the heart. |
|
28. How melancholie easeth |
both weeping and laughing, with |
the reasons why. |
|
29. The causes of blushing and | Causes of these symptomes [_i.e._
bashfulness, and why melancholie | bashfulness and blushing].
persons are given therunto. |
|
30. Of the naturall actions altered |
by melancholie. |
|
31. How melancholie altereth | Symptomes of melancholy
the naturall workes of the body: | abounding in the whole body.
juice and excrement. |
|
32. Of the affliction of conscience | Guilty conscience for offence
for sinne. | committed.
|
33. Whether the afflicted conscience |
be of melancholie. |
|
34. The particular difference betwixt | How melancholy and despair
melancholie and the afflicted | differ.
conscience in the same |
person. |
|
35. The affliction of mind: to | Passions and perturbations of
what persons it befalleth, and by | the mind; how they cause
what means. | melancholy.
|
36. A consolation to the afflicted |
conscience. |
|
37. The cure of melancholie; | Cure of melancholy over all the
and how melancholicke persons | body.
are to order themselves in actions |
of minde, sense, and motion. |
|
38. How melancholicke persons | Perturbations of the mind
are to order themselves in their | rectified.
affections. |
|
39. How melancholicke persons | Dyet rectified; ayre rectified, &c.
are to order themselves in the rest |
of their diet, and what choice they |
are to make of ayre, meate, and |
drinke, house, and apparell. |
|
40. The cure by medicine meete | Of physick which cureth with
for melancholicke persons. | medicines.
|
41. The manner of strengthening | Correctors of accidents to procure
melancholicke persons after | sleep.
purging: with correction of some |
of their accidents. |