- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Brilliance and Melancholy
- 2 Diseases of the Black Bile
- 3 Accidie
- 4 Black Bile and Melancholia
- 5 Melancholia in Men and Women
- 6 Learned People and Melancholy
- 7 Melancholia, Witches, and Deceiving Demons
- 8 Melancholy Nuns
- 9 Melancholy
- 10 Melancholic States
- 11 The Melancholy Character
- 12 How to Help Melancholicks
- 13 The Spleen
- 14 The Chronic Disease of Melancholy
- 15 Werther’s Death
- 16 Illnesses of the Cognitive Faculties
- 17 Melancholia
- 18 Hypochondriasis or Tristimania
- 19 “Ode on Melancholy” and ”What the Thrush Said”
- 20 Hypochondriasis and Melancholia
- 21 “Autumn Song” and “Spleen”
- 22 Green Sickness and Wertherism
- 23 Affectivity in Mental Disorder
- 24 Depressive States
- 25 Loss
- 26 The Depressive Position
- 27 A Learned Helplessness Model of Depression
- 28 A Cognitivist Analysis of Depression
- 29 Affiliation, Cultural Roles, and Women's Depression
- 30 Mourning the Lost Mother and the Lost Self
- 31 Biomedical Analyses of Depression
- Bibliography
- Credits
- Index
Melancholic States
Melancholic States
Burton
- Chapter:
- (p.129) 10 Melancholic States
- Source:
- The Nature of Melancholy
- Author(s):
Jennifer Radden
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter presents Robert Burton's discussion of melancholy. Burton's education at Oxford began when he was only sixteen. He was admitted as a commoner at Brasenose College and then in 1599 was elected a student of Christ Church College. In 1614 he was awarded his bachelor of divinity, after which he was both tutor and librarian at Christ Church College, as well as serving as vicar of Saint Thomas' Church in 1616 and rector of Seagrave in Leicestershire in 1630. Once established at Christ Church, he devoted himself to the research and writing that led in 1621 to the first edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy. The Anatomy is unmatched as a compendium of human failing, folly, anxiety, suffering, and variation, written in a style that is so eccentric yet so acute and vital that it is one of the most beloved of English books.
Keywords: Robert Burton, melancholy, The Anatomy of Melancholy
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Brilliance and Melancholy
- 2 Diseases of the Black Bile
- 3 Accidie
- 4 Black Bile and Melancholia
- 5 Melancholia in Men and Women
- 6 Learned People and Melancholy
- 7 Melancholia, Witches, and Deceiving Demons
- 8 Melancholy Nuns
- 9 Melancholy
- 10 Melancholic States
- 11 The Melancholy Character
- 12 How to Help Melancholicks
- 13 The Spleen
- 14 The Chronic Disease of Melancholy
- 15 Werther’s Death
- 16 Illnesses of the Cognitive Faculties
- 17 Melancholia
- 18 Hypochondriasis or Tristimania
- 19 “Ode on Melancholy” and ”What the Thrush Said”
- 20 Hypochondriasis and Melancholia
- 21 “Autumn Song” and “Spleen”
- 22 Green Sickness and Wertherism
- 23 Affectivity in Mental Disorder
- 24 Depressive States
- 25 Loss
- 26 The Depressive Position
- 27 A Learned Helplessness Model of Depression
- 28 A Cognitivist Analysis of Depression
- 29 Affiliation, Cultural Roles, and Women's Depression
- 30 Mourning the Lost Mother and the Lost Self
- 31 Biomedical Analyses of Depression
- Bibliography
- Credits
- Index