http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y30m
The Anatomy of Melancholy
- Duration:
- 45 minutes
- First broadcast:
- Thursday 12 May 2011
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy.
In
1621 the priest and scholar Robert Burton published a book quite unlike
any other. The Anatomy of Melancholy brings together almost two
thousand years of scholarship, from Ancient Greek philosophy to
seventeenth-century medicine. Melancholy, a condition believed to be
caused by an imbalance of the body's four humours, was characterised by
despondency, depression and inactivity. Burton himself suffered from it,
and resolved to compile an authoritative work of scholarship on the
malady, drawing on all relevant sources.
Despite its subject
matter the Anatomy is an entertaining work, described by Samuel Johnson
as the only book 'that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he
wished to rise.' It also offers a fascinating insight into
seventeenth-century medical theory, and influenced many generations of
playwrights and poets.
-
FURTHER READING
Robert Burton, 'Some Anatomies of Melancholy' (Penguin Great Ideas, 2008)
Robert Burton, 'The Anatomy of Melancholy', ed. by Holbrook Jackson (New York Review Books, 2001)
Angus Gowland, 'The Worlds of Renaissance Melancholy: Robert Burton in Context' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Roy Porter, 'Madness: A Brief History' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Mary Ann Lund, 'Melancholy, Medicine and Religion in Early Modern
England: Reading The Anatomy of Melancholy' (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
Douglas Trevor, 'The Poetics of Melancholy in Early Modern England' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
John Ford, 'The Lover’s Melancholy', ed. R. F. Hill (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985)
John Milton, ‘L’Allegro’ and ‘Il Penseroso’, in 'The Complete Poems' (Penguin Classics, 2004)
Jennifer Radden, ed., 'The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva' (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Erin Sullivan, ‘Melancholy, medicine and the arts’, The Lancet, vol. 372, Sept. 13, 2008, pp. 884-5
Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, 'Saturn and
Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and
Art' (Nelson, 1964)
Jeremy Schmidt, 'Melancholy and the Care of the Soul: Religion,
Moral Philosophy and Madness in Early Modern England' (Ashgate, 2007)
The Anatomy of Melancholy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the book by Robert Burton. For the album by Paradise Lost, see
The
| The Anatomy of Melancholy |
|
| Author |
Robert Burton |
| Illustrator |
Christian Le Blon |
| Country |
Britain |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
1621 |
| Media type |
Print |
| ISBN |
N/A |
The Anatomy of Melancholy (Full title:
The Anatomy
of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes,
Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with
their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically,
Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up) is a book by
Robert Burton, first published in 1621.
Overview
Burton's book consists mostly of a collection of opinions of a
multitude of writers, grouped under quaint and old-fashioned divisions;
in a solemn tone Burton endeavoured to prove indisputable facts by
weighty quotations.
[1]
The subjects discussed and determined by Burton ranged from the
doctrines of religion to military discipline, from inland navigation to
the morality of dancing-schools.
[1]
On its surface, the book is presented as a
medical textbook in which Burton applies his vast and varied learning, in the
scholastic manner, to the subject of
melancholia (which includes what is now termed
clinical depression). Though presented as a medical text,
The Anatomy of Melancholy is as much a
sui generis
work of literature as it is a scientific or philosophical text, and
Burton addresses far more than his stated subject. In fact, the
Anatomy
uses melancholy as the lens through which all human emotion and thought
may be scrutinized, and virtually the entire contents of a 17th-century
library are marshalled into service of this goal.
[2] It is encyclopedic in its range and reference.
In his satirical preface to the reader, Burton's
persona
Democritus Junior explains, "I write of melancholy by being busy to
avoid melancholy." This is characteristic of the author's style, which
often supersedes the book's strengths as a medical text or historical
document as its main source of appeal to admirers. Both satirical and
serious in tone, the
Anatomy is "vitalized by (Burton's) pervading humour",
[3] and Burton's digressive and inclusive style, often verging on a
stream of consciousness, consistently informs and animates the text.
[citation needed] In addition to the author's techniques, the
Anatomy's vast breadth – addressing topics such as digestion, goblins, the geography of America, and others
[2] – make it a valuable contribution to multiple research disciplines.
Publication
An obsessive rewriter of his work, Burton published five revised and expanded editions of
The Anatomy of Melancholy during his lifetime. It has often been out of print, most notably between 1676 and 1800.
[4] Because no original manuscript of the
Anatomy has survived, later reprints have drawn more or less faithfully from the editions published during Burton's life.
[5] Early editions are now in the
public domain, with several available in their entirety from a number of online sources such as
Project Gutenberg.
In recent years, increased interest in the book, combined with its
status as a public domain work, has resulted in a number of new print
editions, most recently a 2001 reprinting of the 1932 edition by
The New York Review of Books under its
NYRB Classics imprint (
ISBN 0-940322-66-8).
[2]
Synopsis
Burton defined his subject as follows:
Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition or in habit. In disposition, is that transitory Melancholy
which goes and comes upon every small occasion of sorrow, need,
sickness, trouble, fear, grief, passion, or perturbation of the mind,
any manner of care, discontent, or thought, which causes anguish,
dulness, heaviness and vexation of spirit, any ways opposite to
pleasure, mirth, joy, delight, causing forwardness in us, or a dislike.
In which equivocal and improper sense, we call him melancholy, that is
dull, sad, sour, lumpish, ill-disposed, solitary, any way moved, or
displeased. And from these melancholy dispositions no man living is
free, no Stoick, none so wise, none so happy, none so patient, so
generous, so godly, so divine, that can vindicate himself; so
well-composed, but more or less, some time or other, he feels the smart
of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of Mortality... This Melancholy of which we are to treat, is a habit, a serious ailment, a settled humour,
as Aurelianus and others call it, not errant, but fixed: and as it was
long increasing, so, now being (pleasant or painful) grown to a habit,
it will hardly be removed.
In attacking his stated subject, Burton drew from nearly every science of his day, including
psychology and
physiology, but also
astronomy,
meteorology, and
theology, and even
astrology and
demonology.
Much of the book consists of quotations from various ancient and medieval medical authorities, beginning with
Hippocrates,
Aristotle, and
Galen. Hence the
Anatomy
is filled with more or less pertinent references to the works of
others. A competent Latinist, Burton also included a great deal of
Latin poetry in the
Anatomy, and many of his inclusions from ancient sources are left untranslated in the text.
The Anatomy of Melancholy is an especially lengthy book, the first edition being a single
quarto
volume nearly 900 pages long; subsequent editions were even longer. The
text is divided into three major sections plus an introduction, the
whole written in Burton's sprawling style. Characteristically, the
introduction includes not only an author's note (titled "Democritus
Junior to the Reader"), but also a Latin poem ("Democritus Junior to His
Book"), a warning to "The Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill", an
abstract of the following text, and another poem explaining the
frontispiece.
The following three sections proceed in a similarly exhaustive fashion:
the first section focuses on the causes and symptoms of "common"
melancholies, while the second section deals with cures for melancholy,
and the third section explores more complex and esoteric melancholies,
including the melancholy of lovers and all varieties of religious
melancholies. The
Anatomy concludes with an extensive index (which, many years later,
The New York Times Book Review called "a readerly pleasure in itself"
[6]). Most modern editions include many explanatory notes, and translate most of the Latin.
[2]
Critical reception
Admirers of
The Anatomy of Melancholy range from
Samuel Johnson,
Holbrook Jackson (whose
Anatomy of Bibliomania (1931) was based on the style and presentation),
George Armstrong Custer,
Charles Lamb, and
John Keats (who said it was his favourite book), to
Stanley Fish,
Philip Pullman,
Cy Twombly,
Jorge Luis Borges (who used a quote as an epigraph to his story "
The Library of Babel"),
Nick Cave,
Samuel Beckett, and
Jacques Barzun (who sees in it many anticipations of 20th century
psychiatry).
[citation needed] According to
The Guardian literary critic
Nick Lezard, the
Anatomy "survives among the cognoscenti".
[7] Washington Irving uses a quote from the book on the title page of
The Sketch Book.
Burton's solemn tone and his endeavour to prove indisputable facts by weighty quotations were ridiculed by
Laurence Sterne in
Tristram Shandy.
[1][8]
Sterne also mocked Burton's quaint and old-fashioned divisions in the
ludicrous titles of his chapters, and parodied his grave and sober
account of Cicero's grief for the death of his daughter
Tullia.
[1]
Notes
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Ferriar (1798), chapter 3, pp. 55–9, 64.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Nicholas Lezard (1 August 2001). "The Book to End All Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 April 2007.
- Jump up ^ Émile Legouis, A History of English Literature (1926)
- Jump up ^ The Complete Review discussion of The Anatomy of Melancholy
- Jump up ^ William H. Gass, Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books 2001 ISBN 0-940322-66-8
- Jump up ^ Thomas Mallon, The New York Times Book Review, October 3, 1991
- Jump up ^ Nick Lezard, "Classics of the Future," The Guardian, September 16, 2000.
- Jump up ^ Petrie (1970) pp. 261–2.
References
Further reading
External links
Online editions
Discussions of the book
中文已有楊周翰
十七世紀英國文學史的一章和梁實秋等的介紹
憂鬱的解析 金城 刪減本
忧郁的解剖
作者:
罗伯特·伯顿
出版社: 金城出版社
原作名: The Anatomy of Melancholy
译者:
冯环
出版年: 2012-11
页数: 219
定价: 32.00元
装帧: 平装
内容简介
· · · · · ·
伯顿坦言他写《忧郁的解剖》是为了排遣自身的忧郁。我们虽无法确知这法子是否灵验，但可以肯定的是，300
多年来他的作品已然成了忧郁的“预防剂”。一位忧郁症患者，写了本厚厚的书来寻找人类内心忧郁之缘由，传递的却是满满的正能量，告诉每个人快乐豁达的方
法；还一不小心成为了经典之作，被其后各位名家引用推崇，成为一部内涵丰富的人类情感百科全书。
从写法上看，他这书虽说是世上引语
用得最多的，读来却又如小说一般轻快。他往书里面塞的文字，也是至理名言与胡言乱语相杂糅。他生怕会把爱之忧郁讲过头，但之后他还真讲过头了。别看他没结
婚，婚姻之于他也不是什么秘密。他嘲笑世人，同时也悲叹世人的不幸和愚蠢。他既信科学，也从迷信。他有时粗言糙语像个写黄书的，有时又扭扭捏捏像个假正
经。他把插科打诨与神学宗教相提并论。他不故作幽默，但远比专业的小丑要好笑。他最郑重的时候却显得最轻浮，而他随口说说的时候又最是意味深长。与惠特曼
一样，他是浩瀚无垠、包罗万象的。他把自己连同整个古代的学问都倾注进了他的书里，然后又巧妙地将这团大杂烩变成了一部条理分明的专著。
伯
顿那博杂的学问、从稀世奇书中搜罗来的妙语、不失真才又朴拙的炫学、五花八门的素材、趣味故事与说理相杂糅的写法，以及至关重要的一点——裹在古怪文风中
的奇特感情，使得该书即便对当代读者来说都是趣味与知识的无价宝库。《忧郁的解剖》好比一只百宝袋，从中取宝的人既可以是抄袭者、正当的掠取者，也可以是
约翰逊博士这样的猎奇的读者——这书“能令他早起两个小时”。许多才子作家都靠劫掠伯顿为我们的文学宝库添了彩。
这本书从古到今的
崇拜者包括：塞缪尔•约翰逊、劳伦斯•斯特恩、查尔斯•兰姆、约翰•济慈、菲利浦•普尔曼、豪尔赫•路易斯•博尔赫斯、塞缪尔•贝克特、钱钟书、梁实秋、
杨周翰等。据研究者统计，钱钟书《谈艺录》《管锥编》引用《忧郁的解剖》（钱译蒲顿《解愁论》）多达数十次，仅次于对莎士比亚、黑格尔和《圣经》的征引。
本书1621年出版后，累计修定、扩充了五次，多次重版。400年后中文精选本内地首发，书中包括了原版书最精华的部分。
作者简介
· · · · · ·
有关伯顿生平的细节很少，不过，过多的细节也无甚必要。不是有“书如其人，人如其书”的说法吗？罗伯特• 伯顿就是这样的作者，而《忧郁的解剖》也正是这样的书。
伯顿仅有的生平资料如下：
1577
年2 月8 日，生于莱斯特郡林德利府，全家九个孩子中排第四；先是就读于萨顿克德菲尔德的私立学校，而后转入纳尼顿文法学校；1593
年进铜鼻学院，1599 年选入基督堂学院，1614年获神学士，两年后任牛津圣托玛斯教堂牧师；1630
年受恩主伯克利爵士乔治之助，得享莱斯特郡西格雷夫教区圣职。他擅作拉丁文和英文诗，参写了数部学术选集，在31
岁那年，还创作了名为《冒牌哲学家》的拉丁韵文讽刺喜剧。这是他生平第一部流传下来的作品，于1615 年被改写，并于1617
年在基督堂被学生搬上舞台。《忧郁的解剖》出版于1621 年，在作者生前共刊行五版。伯顿亲见印行的最后一版是1638
年那版，也就在这之后的一年他去世了，享年63
岁，葬在大学的主教堂里。其兄威廉，即《莱斯特郡纪》（1622年）的作者，在此为他立了座半身纪念像，染了颜色，栩栩如生，这遵循的是当时的旧俗。
——霍尔布鲁克• 杰克逊
目录
· · · · · ·
1932 年版导言/ 霍尔布鲁克• 杰克逊 001
第一部分 德谟克利特二世致读者 001
第二部分 忧郁之成因与症状
一、何谓忧郁 042
二、忧郁的内因 046
1. 过度锻炼、孤独、懒散 046
2. 谈幻想的效力 057
3. 羞愧、耻辱 065
4. 争胜、仇恨、怨怼和报复欲 067
5. 愤怒 069
6. 不满、忧虑和痛苦 075
7. 痴迷狩猎、爱好财博 084
8. 自恋、虚荣、爱虚名、好吹棒 087
三、沉迷书本，兼谈学者之苦 093
四、忧郁的外因 108
1. 教育 108
2. 恐惧与惊吓 111
3. 讥讽、诽谤、挖苦 115
4. 失去自由、奴役、监禁 120
5. 贫穷与匮乏 123
6. 其他导致忧郁的意外因素，
如友人之死、财物损失等等 129
五、忧郁之症状 140
第三部分 忧郁之疗法
一、闲话空气 150
二、锻炼 157
三、救治不满与不幸之良方 171
1. 身体缺陷、疾病、出身低微等特殊不幸 175
2. 贫穷与匮乏 183
3. 奴役、失去自由、监禁、放逐 186
4. 嫌弃、辱骂、侮辱、蔑视、羞辱、谩骂、
诽谤、嘲笑等等 188
四、对治疗忧郁本身 202
《忧郁的解剖》原书目录 207
译名对照表 211
译后记 215
