Anatomy of Melancholy (Everyman's University Library)

Edited by Holbrook Jackson The text follows the sixth edition (1651) collated with the fifth (1638). There are notes to the individual parts, and a glossary and index are provided. The Anatomy of Melancholy has been loved and admired by readers as diverse as Johnson, Sterne, Keats and Lamb, but it takes no more than a glance at its pages to see what it was that held their interest and commanded their respect. 'Melancholy' was a term covering a wide variety of human behaviour in the early seventeenth century--anything from intense schizophrenia to the lover's temporary depression--and Burton provides man hundreds of anecdotes illustrating its sway in the life of man. The Anatomy of Melancholy is at once a contribution to learning and a parody of learning. It gives us a very good idea of the state of medical science in the early seventeenth century.