Anatomy of Melancholy, 287-292 — Pt. I, Sec. 2, Mem. III, Subsect. 14 — Philautia, or Self-love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Immoderate Applause, Pride, overmuch Joy, etc., Causes

Whatever you call it, “overmuch Joy” and love of “immoderate applause” being my personal favorites, pride is no good thing: “This acceptable disease, which so sweetly sets upon us, ravisheth our senses, lulls our souls asleep, puffs up our hearts as so many bladders.” I really wanted to draw a puffed up bladder for this […]

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Love of Gaming

Anatomy of Melancholy, 287-291 — Pt. I, Sec. 2, Mem. III, Subsect. 13 — Love of Gaming, etc., and Pleasures Immoderate, Causes

  “Tristes voluptatum exitus, et quisquis voluptatum suarum reminisci volet, intelliget [from Boethius: pleasures bring sadness in their train, as any one will perceive who recalls his own pleasures], as bitter as gall and wormwood is their last; grief of mind, madness itself.” I ate too many Oreos last night, so I guess the wormwood […]

Anatomy of Melancholy, 249-250 – Pt. I, Sec. 2, Mem. II, Subs. 7 – Sleeping and Waking, Causes

    Well, this section is brief and straightforward: “Nothing is better than moderate sleep, nothing worse than it if it be in extremes or unseasonably used.” Be particularly careful not to sleep “overmuch” because too much sleep will induce a “great store of excrements in the brain.” Also, do not sleep after “hard meats” […]

Pictures of Poems: “The Nurse’s Song,” William Blake, 1764. Also, the Kitty Planet.

One day my daughter had some new kitty stickers. She stuck them all over a piece of paper and said: “This is the Kitty Planet. Kitties live here. They all have houses with their bowls of water. The kitty planet has three moons. There is a monster there that doesn’t like kitties. He comes out […]

A of M, 143-146: Melancholy in Disposition, improperly so called. Equivocations

This little section is about sinking into a transient melancholy due to, say, a fleabite versus the “continuate disease” of melancholy. Burton does not have much patience for “errant,” or transient, melancholy, and he would prefer people stop calling “oops I stubbed my toe and it sucks” melancholy at all: Melancholy in this sense is the character […]