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ice University
Robert Burton's Geography of MelancholyAuthor(s): Anne S. ChappleSource: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 33, No. 1, The English Renaissance(Winter, 1993), pp. 99-130Published by: Rice UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/450847 .
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SEL
33
(1993)
ISSN 0039-3657
Robert Burton's
Geography
of
Melancholy
ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
Observing map
collectors in
1570,
Dr.
John
Dee
wrote, "Some,
to
beautify
their
Halls,
Parlors, Chambers,
Galeries, Studies,
or
Libraries...
liketh,
loveth,
getteth,
and
useth,
Maps,
Charts,
and
Geographicall
Globes."' Dee was
writing
at a time
when
only
the
wealthy
could afford to
own
maps,
curious artifacts that resemble
works of art
more than
they
do the
mathematically precise
productions
of our own time. But
despite
their
relative
scarcity
and
prohibitive
cost,
maps
became
increasingly
accessible in
university settings;
to some
extent,
maps
were even accessible to
the
general public.
Thomas Blundeville's
1589
treatise,
A
Briefe
Description of
Universal
Mappes
and
Cardes
and
of
Their
Use,
dedicated
to
Francis
Windam,
a
judge
in the Court of Common
Pleas,
gives
clear
evidence that the
public
had been
exposed
to
maps
and
showed an eager interest in them. In an address "To the Reader"
that
begins
his
treatise,
Blundeville documents
the
rising popularity
of
the
beautifully
crafted
maps
and charts that
were
appearing
with
increasing frequency
toward the end of the
century:
"I
daylie
see
many
that
delight
to looke on
Mappes,
and
can
point
to
England,
France,
Germanie,
and
to
the East
and
West
Indies,
and
to divers
other
places
therein
described."
He
argues
a
need to
"instruct" those
who "looke on
Mappes.
. .
but
yet
for want of
skill
in
Geography, they
knowe
not
with
what maner
of
lines
they
are traced, nor what those lines do signifie, nor yet the true use of
Mappes
in deed."2
The
proliferation
of
maps
and charts
during
the late
1500s
and
early
1600s
affected
many
Renaissance writers of note. This
was
Anne
S.
Chapple
is
completing
a doctoral
degree
at
the
University
of
Chicago.
She teaches at
the
University
of
Michigan
in Ann
Arbor.
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BURTON' S G EOGRAPHY
the
period
in
history
when Robert
Burton,
renowned author of
The
Anatomy of Melancholy
(1621),
began
to anatomize the
melancholic
"diseases" that
plagued
the men
of his
day.
Burton
was
embarking
on his
exploration
of melancholia
at a time when
the
image
of
the
world on
maps
was
changing
with
unprecedented
rapidity
under the
pressure
of new
geographical
discoveries;
the
surprising
connections
between these two
pursuits
for Burton
is
fruitful
ground
for
exploration.3
That Robert Burton made a
pioneering
attempt
to anatomize the causes
and
effects of
melancholy
is well
known,
but that he was well
acquainted
with
contemporary literature on cartography and geography has only
recently
been documented.4 Burton's
familiarity
with the
exquisite
new
maps
of the world
that were
printed
in such
unprecedented
numbers
during
his lifetime is
conspicuously
evident in his
Anatomy
of Melancholy,
but the
impact
of
the one on the other has
gone
virtually unrecognized.
I will
argue
that
mapping
and
charting
enterprises
had a
profound
influence on
both the
shape
and
content of The
Anatomy of Melancholy.
Like
Georg
Braun,
Burton
was
"drawne
by
a naturall love of Pictures
and
Mappes, Prospective
and Chorographical delights"; we can imagine that, "when at
Oxford,"
he "used
to love to visit the bookseller's
shops,
there
to
lye gaping
on
maps."5
In
fact,
he was one
of the serious collectors
of his
day.
When
we
ask ourselves how
the world
might
have looked
to
Burton
and
his
contemporaries, living
in an era of
such
astronomical
growth,
we
arrive
at
some
surprising
answers. Because
the
exciting
new
geographic
discoveries
were assimilated
into the
culture
through
a
filter of
traditional
beliefs in the
vanity
of human
existence, the brave New World that was being mapped out in
ever
sharper
outlines
simply
did not
appear
to Renaissance
observers
the
way
it
might
to
us
today.
It would
be inaccurate
to
claim
that
the world
presented
itself
to Burton
and his
peers
as
a
panorama
of
unalloyed hope
and
possibility.
In Burton's
writing
we feel
the
spirit
of
adventure
that
characterized
the
age,
a
delight
in the
growth
and
change
around
him;
but
mapped images
of the
world
might just
as
often
represent
a
geography
of
melancholy.
In
spite
of the
exciting
new
images
of
the world
that
were
increasingly
available,
Burton's
taste
ran
to
conservative
cartographical
literature.
The
maps
that
caught
and held
his interest tended
to
represent
the
world
in
terms
of
traditional
values
and beliefs.
One
such
map
in
particular played
a
large part
in
shaping
the
prefatory
chapter
to
The
Anatomy
of
Melancholy,
entitled
"Democritus
Jr.
to
the
Reader";
this
was the
anonymous foolscap
world
map
commonly
attributed
to
Epichthonius Cosmopolites.
Other
100
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ANNE S. CHAPPLE
examples
include the
anthropomorphic geographical
literature of
the
Greeks.
Burton's
treatment of these
maps gives
us new
insights
into
the
Preface,
in
which Burton
develops
the
persona
that he
will
maintain
throughout
his vast work. I will
argue
that Burton's
use of
cartographical
literature
helps
us to understand his own
world view and to
grasp
the broader
meaning
and
significance-
quite
different from our
own-that
specific maps
could have
both
for
him and
for his
contemporaries.
To Burton's
way
of
thinking,
his
exploration
of the
"melancholy
humour" in all its various and
sundry
forms in The
Anatomy of
Melancholy was an undertaking that paralleled the efforts made by
some of the
greatest explorers
and adventurers of his time. In the
Preface,
Burton states that he
"doubt[s]
not but that in the end
[the
reader]
wil
say
with
[him],
that to anatomize this humour
aright,
through
all the Members of this our
Microcosmos,
is as
great
a
taske,
as to
...
finde out
the
Quadrature
of a
Circle,
the Creekes
and Sounds of the
North-East,
or North-West
passages,
&
all out
as
good
a
discoverie,
as that
hungry Spaniards
[Ferdinando
de
Quir,
Anno
1612]
of Terra Australis
Incognita."6
He
justifies
his
undertaking with yet another cartographical analogy: "in
undertaking
this
taske,
I
hope
I shall commit no
great
errour or
indecorum, if
all be considered
aright,
I can vindicate
my
selfe with
Georgius Braunus,
and
Hieronymus Hemingius,
those two
learned
Divines;
who
(to
borrow
a
line or
two
of
mine elder
Brother)
drawne
by
a
naturall
love,
the one
of
Pictures and
Mappes, Prospectives
and
Corographicall delights,
writ that
ample
Theater
of Citties;
the other
to the
study of Genealogies, penned
Theatrum
Genealogicum" (1:22).7
The fact
that he
compares
his
monumental
task to the intricacies
of mapping, and justifies it in those terms, is significant. The
parallel
he is
drawing
between
the two endeavors is
essentially
metaphorical-both
are acts of
discovery
and
courage-but
it is
also
more
than that. The two activities are
analogous
in
the
sense
that,
for
Burton, mapping
and
anatomizing
both are carried out
from a
superior vantage point
and both
imply
a similar
global
perspective
on
the world.
In
keeping
with the
cartographical
theme that runs
through
the
Preface, the metaphors
Burton uses to describe
the
reader's
perusal
of
his "treatise"
are also
drawn from travel and
exploration.
To
read his
work,
he
promises
the
reader,
will be like
taking
a
journey
through
a
varied
landscape:
"And
if thou vouchsafe to
read this
Treatise,
it shall seeme
no otherwise
to
thee,
then the
way
to an
ordinary Traveller,
sometimes
faire,
sometimes
foule;
here
champion,
there
inclosed;
barren
in one
place,
better
soyle
in
another:
by Woods, Groves, Hills, Dales, Plaines,
&c.
I shall lead
101
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BURTON'
S GEOGRAPHY
thee
per
ardua
montium,
&
lubrica
vallium,
& roscida
cespitum,
&
glebosa camporum, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt
like and
surely
dislike"
(1:18).
He invites his reader to
adopt
a
global
perspective
like his own
on the
journey through
the
bewildering
landscape
he has laid out.
Burton
employs
an almost
identical
perspective
as a
unifying
device later in his
work,
in a Member of the Second Partition
of
The
Anatomy
entitled
"Ayre
Rectified.
With a
Digression of
the
Ayre"
(2:33-67).
In this
Member,
he uses the aerial
vantage point
of
"a
long-winged
Hawke"
(2:33)
in
flight
to
explore
the
wonders
of
the
world: "As a long-winged Hawke when hee is first whistled off the
fist,
mounts
aloft,
and
for his
pleasure
fetcheth
many
a
circuit
in
the
Ayre,
still
soaring higher
and
higher,
till hee bee come
to his
full
pitch;
and in the end.
. . comes downe amaine
..
so will
I,
having
now come at
last into these
ample
fields of
Ayre,
wherein
I
may freely expatiate
and
exercise
my
selfe,
for
my
recreation
a
while
rove,
wander
round about
the
world,
mount aloft to
those
aethereall
orbes and celestiall
spheres,
and so descend
to
my
former elements
againe"
(2:33).
Many
of these marvels
are
geographical; Burton amasses data on lunar geography, astronomy,
the natural wonders
of the world, curiosities
reported in
travel
accounts,
etc. He states that he wishes to confirm
the reports
he
has heard: "I will first see whether
that relation
of the Frier
of
Oxford be true, concerning
those Northerne parts
under
the
Pole . . . whether there
be such 4. Euripes,
and a great rocke
of
Loadstones, which
may cause
the needle in the compasse still
to
bend that way"
(2:33).
Burton's aerial adventures
are located in the Second
Partition
of the book which is devoted to the cure of melancholy. As that is
true,
Burton seems to be implying that
a
change
of perspective
is
good for the soul. This part of The Anatomy
would seem
to
support
E. Patricia Vicari's
thesis: "geographical learning-indeed,
any
knowledge of the natural
world-is
not
pursued
for its own
sake
but for
its
usefulness
in curing melancholy."8
would add,
however,
that geography also had
a
great
symbolic weight
and
significance
for Burton.
The global perspective that Burton had to offer the reader was
an
exceptionally
well-informed
one. We are fortunate to
know
exactly what cartographical literature
Burton
read, because
he
documented
his browsing through the work
of many
of the more
important mapmakers
of his
day in the passage
entitled
"Exercise
Rectified of Body and Minde" in The Anatomy
of Melancholy.9
The
following
quotation from
that chapter details
the extent of
his
familiarity
with both foreign and domestic
maps:
102
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ANNE
S. CHAPPLE
Me thinkes
it
would
well
please
any
man to look
upon
a
Geographicall Map, suavi animum delectatione allicere, ob
incredibilemrerum
varietatem
&
jucunditatem,
&
ad
pleniorem
sui
cognitionem
excitare,
Chorographicall, Topographicall
delineations,
to
behold,
as it
were,
all the remote
Provinces,
Townes,
Citties of the
World,
and
never
to
goe
forth of the
limits
of his
study,
to
measure
by
the
Scale
and
Compasse,
their
extent, distance,
examine their site. Charlesthe
great
as
Platina
writes,
had
three
faire silver
tables,
in one of
which
superficies
was a
large map
of Constantinople,in the second
Romeneatly engraved, in the third an exquisite description of
the whole
world,
and much
delight
he tooke
in them. What
greater
pleasure
can there now
bee,
then to view
those
elaborate
Maps,
of
Ortelius, Mercator,
Hondius,
8cc.
To
peruse
those bookes of
Citties,
put
out
by
Braunus,
and
Hogenbergius?
To read
those
exquisite descriptions
of
Maginus,
Munster,
Herrera, Laet, Merula, Boterus,
Leander
Albertus,Camden,
Leo
Afer,
Adricomius,
Nic.
Gerbelius,
&c.
?
Those famous
expeditions
of
Christoph.
Columbus,
Americus
Vesputius,
Marcus Polus the
Venetian, Lod. Vertomannus,
Aloysius
Cadamustus,&c.? Those
acurate diaries of
Portugals, Hollanders, of Bartison,
Oliver
a
Nort
&c. Hacluits
voyages,
Pet.
Martyresdecades, Benzo, Lerius,
Linschotens
relations,
those
Hodaeporicons
of
Jod.
a
Meggen,
Brocard
the
Monke, Bredenbachius, o. Dublinius, Sands, &c.,
to
Jerusalem,AEgypt,
and other remote
places
of the world: those
pleasant
Itineraries
of
Paulus
Hentznerus, odocus Sincerus,
Dux
Polonus,
&c. to
read
Bellonius
observations,
P.
Gillius his
survaies;
Those
parts
of
America,
set
out,
and
curiously
cut in
Pictures
by
Fratres
a
Bry.
(2:86-87)
These are
interesting observations, coming
from
a
man who
himself
was "never
to
go
forth of the limits of his
study," who,
from
1599 until his death
forty years
later
in
1640,
lived
a
lonely
life
in his bachelor
quarters
at Christ
Church,
Oxford.10
By
his
own
admission,
he
"liv'd
a
silent, sedentary, solitary, private life,
mihi & musis, in the University as long almost as Xenocrates in
Athens,
ad senectam
fere,
to learne
wisdome
as
he
did"
(1:3).
"I
never
travelled,"
Burton
admits,
"but in
Mappe
or
Card,
in
which
my
unconfined
thoughts
have
freely expatiated,
as
having
ever
beene
especially delighted
with
the
study
of
Cosmography" (1:4).
We
discover somewhat
surprisingly, then,
that
Burton's interest in
maps
was
not a
consequence
of first-hand
experience
of
the
world,
nor
did it
imply
a love
of
the world. E. Patricia
Vicari
has
argued
103
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BURTON' S GEOGRAPHY
that Burton
actually
denounced "the
study
of
geography
and even
travel as vain curiosity and weariness of the flesh."1' She cites
Burton's
opinion
in this context: a
person
"travels into
Europe,
Africke,
Asia,
searcheth
every
Creeke, Sea,
Citty,
Mountaine, Gulfe,
to what end? See one
Promontory
(said
Socrates of
old),
one
Mountaine,
one
Sea,
one
River,
and see all"
(1:364).
Elsewhere
in
The
Anatomy
Burton indicates his belief that
only
an
irrational
restlessness makes men want to travel: "The world it
selfe
to some
men is
a
prison,
our
narrow seas as
so
many
ditches,
and when
they
have
compassed
the Globe of the
earth,
they
would faine
goe
see what's done in the Moone" (2:173-74).
We will have to
look elsewhere
to understand the
appeal
that
maps
had
for
Burton,
then. I think
we
come
closer
to
the truth
when
we
observe that
maps
provided
Burton
with a convenient
overview of the
world,
a
vantage
point
from which to view the
world at a comfortable
remove,
from a
height,
as it
were,
as an
aloof and
superior
observer. Another
way
to
interpret
his interest
is to observe that
maps provided
Burton with a vicarious
way
of
traveling.
More
precisly,
Burton's love of
maps
demonstrates his
preference
for the
perspective
that
maps
offered him. In
essence,
maps
facilitated
Burton's renunciation
of the actual world
in favor
of
a
less immediate
engagement
with
it.
In his
pose
as Democritus
Jr.,
he
says
as much:
"I
live
still
a
Collegiat Student,
as Democritus
in his
Garden,
and
lead
a
Monastique life, ipse
mihi
Theatrum,
sequestered
from those
tumults
and trobles of the
world,
Et
tanquam
in
specula positus (as
he
[Hensius] said),
and in some
high
place
above
you all,
like Stoicus
Sapiens,
omnia
saecula, praeterita
presentiaque videns, uno velut intuitu, I heare and see what is done
abroad,
how others
run, ride, turmoile,
& macerate themselves in
Court and
Countrey,
far from those
wrangling
Law
suits,
aulae
vanitatem,
fort
ambitionem,
ridere mecum soleo: I
laugh
at all"
(1:4).
12
Like
laughing Democritus,
the
melancholy philosopher
of Abdera
with
whom Burton
identified,
he seems convinced of
the
incurable
folly
of mankind. His desire to observe from "some
high place,"
I
think,
was related to the
darkness
of his vision of
the human
condition and to
the
unparalleled pessimism
of
his world
view.
But his preference for detached observation did not imply a
personal passivity
toward
the
world.
Apparently
it was not
enough
to live
quietly
with his beliefs in relative
obscurity.
He had a
pressing
need
to
persuade
his readers to
adopt
his
viewpoint; his
efforts to
"prove"
to
the reader the
implacable folly
of all
men in
all
times and
places,
as well
as
to
"prove"
the
urgent
need for a
"cure,"
is
the burden of "Democritus
Jr.
to the
Reader."
104
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ANNE S.
CHAPPLE
Let
us take some time
to
examine his
efforts
along
these
lines.
One of his "chiefe motives" in the Preface is to establish, beyond
the shadow
of
a
doubt,
the
"generalitie
of
the
Disease,"
and
this
he
proceeds
to do with
great energy
(1:23).
He
makes
his
case
as
would a
lawyer assembling
evidence
to
establish
guilt;
he
uses
the
amassed
evidence to
"proove
my
former
speeches"
(1:36).
Burton
builds
a
convincing
case,
for he
proceeds
to
"anatomize
this
humour
aright, through
all the Members
of
this
our Microcosmos,"
and
not
only
in
his
own
society,
but
in
ancient
societies
as
well
(1:23).
So far as I can
tell,
no one-ancient
or
modern,
living
or
dead-escapes Burton's censure, not even himself. To prove "That
men are
so
mis-affected,
melancholy,
mad,
giddy-headed,"
he
presents
the
reader
with "the
testimony
of
Solomon,
Eccl.2.
12.
And
I turned
to behold
wisdome,
madnesse
andfolly,
&c.,"
but
then
subjects
him to
the same
censure,
since Solomon himself
admits
that
he
is
"more
oolish
then
any
man,
&
[has]
not the
understanding
of
a man
in
me,
Prov.
30.2."
(1:25-26).
Another
witness called to
testify
in
support
of
Burton's
viewpoint
is
Socrates, who,
after
taking "great
paines
to
finde
out
a
wise
man," finally concluded that "all men were fools" (1:31). But then
"Socrates,
whom
though
that
Oracle of
Apollo
confirmed
to
be
the
wisest man then
living.
. whom
2,000
yeeres
have
admired,
of
whom
some
will
as
soone
speake
evill
as of
Christ,"
was in reality,
by differing
accounts,
"an illiterate
Idiot,"
"a
pot
companion,"
"an
opinative
Asse,
a
Caviller,
a kind
of
Pedant,"
etc.
(1:29).
In
fact,
according
to
Burton,
all of the
great
thinkers of
ancient times,
"even
all those
great
Philosophers,
the world hath
ever had
in
admiration,
whose
Workes
we doe so much
esteeme,
that gave
Precepts
of wisdome to others"
(1:27),
including
Socrates, Aristotle,
Longinus,
are,
as "Lactantius
in his
booke of
Wisdome,
proves
them
to
be
...
Dizards, Fooles,
Asses,
mad-men,
so
full of absurd
and ridiculous
tenents and
braine-sicke
positions,
that to
his
thinking
never
any
old woman
or
sicke
person
doted worse" (1:28-
29).
St. Paul
corroborates
Burton's
view
that "The
hearts
of
the sons
of
men are
evill,
&
madnes
is
in their
hearts
while
they
live,
Eccl.9.3"
(1:25-26).
But then
St. Paul
himself
is no more
exempt
from
Burton's
proposition
than Solomon
was,
since
Paul "accuseth
himselfe
in like
sort,"
saying
"I
speake
oolishly"
(1:26).
"Our Artists
and
Philosophers
. .
.
are a
kind
of
mad men"
and of course
"Lovers
are mad"
(1:103).
"Most
women are
fooles,
consilium
faeminis
invalidum"
(1:103).
"Covetous
men
amongst
others,
are
most
madde"
(1:105).
In
short,
Burton
asks
the
reader,
"who is not
a
Foole,
Melancholy,
Mad?
-Qui
nil molitur
inepte,
who is
not
brain-sick?
105
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B U R T O N S GEO GRAPHY
Folly,
Melancholy,
Madnesse,
are but one
disease,
Delirium is a
common name to all" (1:25). Folly characterizes all human action:
"All
our
actions,
as
Pliny
told
Trajan,
up-braid
us
offolly,
our whole
course
of life is but
matter of
laughter:
wee are not
soberly
wise,
and the world
it
selfe,
which
ought
at least
to be
wise
by
reason
of
its
antiquity,
as
Hugo
de Prato
Florido will
have
it,
semper
stultizat,
is
every
day
more
oolish
then
other,
the more it
is
whipped
the worse it
is,
and as
a
child will
still be crowned with
roses andflowres. We are
apish
in
it,
asini
bipedes,
and
every
place
is full
inversorum
Apuleiorum,
of
metamorphised
and
two-legged
Asses,
inversorum
Silenorum,
childish, pueri instar bimuli, tremulapatris dormientis in ulna" (1:30).
It is his considered
opinion
that
"we
are
ad unum omnes all
mad,
semel
insanivimus
omnes,
not
once,
but
alway
so ...
young
and
old,
all dote
.
.
. no difference
betwixt us and
children,
saving
that. .
they play
with babies of
clouts and
such
toyes,
we
sport
with
greater
babies"
(1:31).
Given
such
sweeping
claims,
it
is
perhaps
not
surprising
that Burton's
work has earned him
a
prominent
place
in the
history
of
"malcontent"
literature.'s
I can
think
of no better illustration of
Samuel
Johnson's
observation
that
the
melancholy
man hears the sad
song
of
the
nightingale
than Burton's extraordinary
receptivity
to messages
about
the folly
and madness of all
human beings.
But
it
would be a mistake
to assume
that Burton
is assembling
his vast catalogue of fools
and mad-men
out of
some perverse
desire
to overwhelm the reader
with despair. He
is establishing
the scope of the problem
that he has chosen
to treat,
setting the
stage
for his "anatomy" of
the disease, and
for the
"cures" he has
to offer to the reader. As I mentioned earlier, Vicari has argued
that
Burton
pursues
geographical
learning not for
its own
sake
but
precisely
for its usefulness
in
curing melancholy.'4
But
I think
it
is more accurate to claim, especially as
regards
the Preface to
The Anatomy, that Burton
employs
geography and
cartography
as
"proof' of
his assertion
that men
are incurably foolish.
The
maps
which had special
appeal
for him served
as emblems
of man's
folly,
writ large. In themselves,
they
have no curative
function;
rather
they
serve to underscore
Burton's
own pessimistic
world
view.
The
Anatomy of
Melancholy, we
might
observe, was at
least as
much an
attempt
to cure
Burton himself
as it was an attempt
to
cure
the ills
of
the
world
around
him. As he admits
early
in the
Preface:
When I first tooke
this taske
in hand . .
.
this
I aymed
at, ... to
ease
my minde by
writing, for
I had ... a kind
of Imposthume
106
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ANNE S.
CHAPPLE
in
my
head,
which I
was
very
desirous to
be unladen
of,
and
could imagine no fitter evacuation then this. Besides I might
not well
refraine,
for ubi
dolor,
ibi
digitus,
one must
needs
scratch where it itcheth. I was not
a
little offended with this
maladie,
shall I
say my
Mistris
Melancholy,
my AEgeria,
or
my
malus
Genius,
& for that
cause as he that is
stung
with
a
Scorpion,
I would
expell
clavum
clavo,
comfort one sorrow
with
another,
idlenes with
idlenes,
.
. .
make an Antidote out
of that which was the
prime
cause of
my
disease.
(1:7)
Burton's attention turns to cure
on
many
occasions in the
Preface,
though
he often seems
to
despair
of
finding any.
"From the
highest
to the
lowest,
have
need of
Physicke,"
Burton
writes in his address
to the reader
(1:25).
The
ancient Greek
remedy
for
insanity,
a
plant
known as
"hellebore,"
is the cure
he mentions most
often;
he
uses it
ironically
as a
metaphor
for
cure in
general.
A
subsequent
footnote
in Burton's
Anatomy enlightens
us further about
hellebore:
"Several towns in Greece were
named
Anticyra,
and all
were famed for their black hellebore, a
plant
which was used
by
physicians
to
'purge
the head.' To
say
'Go
to
Anticyra'
was a
way
of
saying
'You
are mad.'"'5
The
ancient
Greek
geographer
Strabo
gave
his
own
exposition
on
Anticyra
and
the several kinds of
hellebore that
were said
to
grow there;
Strabo's
Geography
was
probably
the locus classicus
from
which
Burton
got
his
information.
16
Burton's
many
references
to hellebore
in
the
Preface
are ironic
comments
on the
pressing
need for
a cure
for the
pervasive
madness
and
melancholy
of
his
age.
For
instance,
hellebore
appears
in
the context
of
contemporary pilgrimages
where it is
given pride
of
place.
Given
that "most
men are
mad,"
Burton
writes, "they
had
as
much
need to
goe
a
pilgrimage
to the
Anticyrae (as
in Strabo's
time
they did)
as in our
daies
they
run
to
Compostella,
our
Lady
of
Sichem,
or
Lauretta,
to
seeke
for
helpe;
that
it is like
to be as
prosperous
a
voyage
as that
of
Guiana,
and
that there is
much
more
need of Hellebor
then
of Tobacco"
1:25).
Burton's subtle and
ironic treatment of overseas travel here adds support to my
assertion
that
Burton
was a
rather conservative
thinker. He seems
convinced
of the
folly
of such
ventures.'7
His
ironic reference
to
"Anticyrae"
is
interesting, too,
because
it links hellebore
to the
time
of the
Greek
geographer
Strabo
(about
63
B.C.-20
A.D.).
Hellebore
was
clearly
not a common
remedy
for
madness
when
Burton
was
writing;
it
was used
primarily
in
ancient Greece.
Again,
Burton
was
drawing
on Greek
sources
for his
central
metaphors.
107
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BURTON'S
GEOGRAPHY
The link between Strabo and hellebore will be
important
for
deciphering the maps that Burton examined, especially the
foolscap
map.
Time
and
again
Burton reveals his
preference
for
dismissive
judgments
on human
life,
pronounced
from a removed
and
superior vantage
point,
as in the
following
anecdote
from Lucian:
Charon in
Lucian,
as he
wittily faignes,
was conducted
by
Mercury
to such a
place,
where he
might
see all the World at
once,
after hee had
sufficiently
viewed and looked
about,
Mercurywould needs knowe of him what he had observed: He
told
him,
that hee saw a vast multitude and a
promiscuous,
their habitations like
Mole-hills,
the men as
Emmets,
hee could
discerneCitties like so
many
Hives
of
Bees,
wherein
every
Bee had a
sting,
and
they
did
nought
else but
sting
one another,
some
domineering
like
Hornets,
bigger
then the
rest,
some like
filching
Wasps,
others as Drones. Over their heads were
hovering
a
confused
company
of
perturbations, Hope,
Feare,
Anger,
Avarice,
Ignorance,
&c. and a multitude of diseases
hanging,
which
they
still
pulled
on their
pates.
Some were
brawling,
some
fighting, riding, running,
sollicite
ambientes,
callide
litigantes,
for
toyes,
&
trifles,
and such momentanie
things.
Their Townes and Provinces meere
factions,
rich
against
poore, poore against rich,
Nobles
against Artificers, they
against Nobles,
and so the rest. In conclusion hee condemned
them
all,
for
Mad-men, Fooles, Idiots,
Asses.
0
stulti, quaenam
haec
est
amentia?
0
Fooles,
0
Mad-Men he
exclaimes,
insana
studia, insani labores,&c. Mad endeavours, mad actions, mad,
mad,
mad.
0
seclum
insipiens
&
infacetum
a
giddy-headed age.
Heraclitus the
Philosopher,
out of a serious meditation of
mens
lives,
fell a
weeping,
and with continuall
teares
bewailed
their
miserie, madnesse,
and
folly.
(1:32)
The
"place,
where he
might
see all the
World at once" offered
Charon a
vantage point
much
like that
which
maps
made available
to Burton. And, once again, the distanced perspective is employed
to confirm
Burton's thesis:
all the world
is full
of
fools and mad-
men. Heraclitus
appears
in his
prose
here
to
voice Burton's own
sentiment.
To
summarize, then,
the world of the Preface
is a world full of
fools and madmen with
a
pressing
need
for a cure. This idea finds
visual
representation
in several
places
in the
Preface-specifically
in the
form of
maps.
Burton's
geography replicates
his
melancholy
108
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ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
beliefs
about
mankind,
perhaps
inevitably, given
the
depth
of his
pessimism. The privileged vantage point that maps offered to
Burton,
and even the
maps themselves,
served to confirm
Burton's
convictions about the
folly
of men and the
vanity
of human wishes.
Far
from
opening
the world to him in new
ways,
the
maps
that
caught
Burton's attention served to
reinvigorate
an
existing
world
view
and
to reinforce
traditional
values and beliefs.
In a short
passage
that
precedes
his reference to the
foolscap
map
and
to the
anthropomorphic
geography
of the
Greeks,
Burton
establishes
the distanced
perspective
from
which he
will
"prove"
the melancholy nature of human affairs. This passage repays our
careful
scrutiny
with its richness of allusion and
implication,
and
the
insight
it
gives
us into the
prefatory chapter,
"Democritus
Jr.
to the
Reader":
Of the necessitie and
generalitie
of this
[that
the world
is
full
of
melancholy,
madness,
disease,
corruption,
etc.]
which
I
have
said,
if
any
man
doubt,
I shall desire
him to make a
briefe
survey
of the
world,
as
Cyprian
advised
Donat,
supposing
himselfe
to be
transported
o the
top of
somehigh Mountaine, and
thence
to
beholdthe tumults
&
chances
of
this
wavering
world,
he
cannot chuse but either
laugh at,
or
pitty
it.
S.
Hierome out of
a
strong
imagination,
being
in the
Wildernesse,
conceived with
himselfe,
that he then
saw them
dauncing
in
Rome,
and
if
thou shalt either
conceive,
or
climbe
to
see,
thou shalt soone
perceive
that all
the world is mad.
(1:24)
The choice
that
Cyprian
offers
to
Donatus-having
climbed
to
some
superior vantage point
from
which to
view the world-is
either
to
laugh
at
or to
pity
the
world. This
scene
is
strongly
reminiscent
of the
pose
that Burton
adopts early
in the
Preface,
where from
"some
high place"
above the rest
of the world he
"laughs
at
all" the tumult
of the world.
But the
above lines
require
further
explication
for
clarity.
The choice
of
laughter
or
pity
that
Cyprian
offers
to Donatus is
the
key
to the
process
of associative
thinking that leads Burton into his treatment of the foolscap map.
For,
the
spokesmen
for the
foolscap map-Democritus
of Abdera
and Heraclitus-offer
the
reader
the same
choice
of attitudes
toward the
world: Democritus
laughs
at
it,
and Heraclitus
pities
it.
These
are,
of
course,
Burton's
attitudes
as well.
I
have
said
that,
far from
opening
the world
to Burton in
new
ways,
the
maps
that seem
to have
captured
his attention
were
those that reinforced
his withdrawal
from
the
world at the
same
109
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BURTON'
S
GEOGRAPHY
time that
they reinvigorated
an
existing
world view. One
map
in
particular, among the many maps that caught Burton's eye, serves
to
bring
this fact into
high
relief,
and it is this
map
that we
will
focus
our attention on here.
Perhaps
the most
peculiar
of
all
of
the
maps
that
Burton examined-one
that seems to have
appealed
strongly
to his
melancholy
imagination-is
the
"foolscap map"
of
the
world that Burton attributes to
"Epichthonius Cosmopolites."
The
map
underscores,
in
a
particularly
vivid and memorable
fashion,
Burton's
own
judgment
on
the
vanity
of
human effort.
It
was
this
map
that
helped
him to
integrate
all of the elements of
his
own world view. Further, it helped him by providing a vivid image
of
the
persona
he
had
adopted
from
Democritus.
The
reference
to this
map
comes
early
in the
prefatory
chapter
to
The
Anatomy.
The relevant
passage begins:
"thou shalt
soone
perceive
that all the world
is
mad,
that
it is
melancholy,
dotes:
that
it is
(which
Epichthonius
Cosmopolites expressed
not
many
yeeres
since
in a
Map)
made like
a
Fooles
head
(with
that
Motto,
Caput
Helleboro
dignum)
a
erased
head,
cavea
stultorum,
a Fooles
paradise,
or
as
Apollonius,
a common
prison
of
Guiles,
Cheaters, Flatterers,
&c.
&
needs
to be reformed"
(1:24;
see
Appendix).
These lines are
embedded
in
a
much
longer passage to be
examined.18
Burton
is referring here to a curious
map of the world
framed
by
a
jester's
cap (see Figure
I).19
The "foolscap map," as it
is
known
among
cartographers,
measures 360 mm x 480 mm and
is
printed
from
a finely executed copper-plate engraving.
The
map
was
published
separately and anonymously, with
no
information
as
to
the
date
or
place of publication
on it. It is believed to
have
been published
in Antwerp,
ca. 1590. The geographical
details
on
the
small,
oval
map that takes the place of the fool's face
identify
it
as
a
copy
of
one of Ortelius's
latest plates; we can date the
map
with
some
certainty
as being post-1587,
since "the prominent
south-
[west]
bulge
to
the
coastline of South America appearing on
nearly
all
maps
before
this date has been corrected."20
While much
of
our
information
remains
sketchy, we do possess some hard
facts
about
the
map.
It was based
on an earlier foolscap world
map
by
the
French
mapmakerJean
de Gourmont, which was published
in
Paris ca. 1575 (please see Figure 2). The earlier foolscap map was
made
from
a
woodcut
and is somewhat smaller than the
later
copper
engraving;
the actual
map of the world on the woodcut
is
a
small
oval
similarly
framed within the hood of
a
jester's
cap,
where
the
face
would
ordinarily
be. As
on the anonymous
copper
engraving,
the
map
on de Gourmont's
woodcut
is derived from
a
world
map
by
Ortelius-but
in this case it is Ortelius's
earlier
world
map
of
1570.21
110
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A N N
E S. CH A P
P
L
E
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0
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:? :2?
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:::::
t
: O
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S
C:
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Figure
1: Later
copper-plate
foolscap
world
map, printed
anonymously,
ca.
1590,
in
Antwerp?
Ill
:>
;
^
tb
,
E: sie
/
<..*-'
"
a
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B U R T
O
N S GEOGRAPHY
The
mapmaker's
idea of
representing
the human
face
as
the
earth was probably inspired by Ptolemy's Geographia. Ptolemy's
unusual
analogy
found its
way
into numerous Renaissance tracts
on
the
"correspondences"
between macrocosm and
microcosm.
For
instance,
quoting Ptolemy's
seminal
work
on
maps,
William
Cunningham
wrote
in
1559,
"'Geographie
... is
the
imitation,
and
description
of the
face,
and
picture
of th'earth.'"22 This same
conception
of the face also found its
way
into the
"high"
literature
of the Renaissance. For
example,
in
Coriolanus,
Twelfth Night,
2
Henry
VI,
"Sonnet
68,"
and
The
Rape ofLucrece,
Shakespeare
likens
the face to a map which tells something about a person.23 For
instance,
in
2
Henry
VI,
the
King
tells his
uncle,
the Duke
of
Gloucester,
"Ah,
uncle
Humphrey,
in
thy
face
I
see
/
The
map
of
honour,
truth,
and
loyalty"
(III.i.202-203).
John
Donne
makes
repeated
references
to the
globe
in
the
context of
microcosms,
"images,"
and
"pictures."
He uses the word
"picture"
to
mean "a
likeness,"
often
applied
to
the
face,
as
in the
poem
entitled
"Here
take
my picture."24
Victor
Morgan
clarifies the
meaning
that
the
analogy
had for
Renaissance
readers:
as
it
was
developed
in
the
context of "the literary theory of the theophrastian character which
was enjoying a revival in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth
centuries. .
the face was the microcosm of the
person, and
showed
forth the dominant traits of personality, just as the map
is
the microcosm of a place, and conveys
by signs the
characteristics
of the real place it epitomises."25 For Burton,
too, the face could
be a map of the microcosm; in any case,
it was a
melancholy
one,
as his choice of the foolscap map
to exemplify his world
view
would imply.
But what of the mapmaker and
his own world view? Burton had
apparently studied the map carefully and picked up what he
must
have believed was the name
of the engraver from the
cartouche
on the left-hand side of the map: "Epichthonius
Cosmopolites."
This attribution was erroneous; in all probability
the name refers
to a mythic figure, and
not to a real person. As to just who
this
Epichthonius Cosmopolites
was, scholars can not seem to
agree.
His identity-if in fact he ever existed-remains a mystery,
despite
the efforts of several scholars to identify him. The name itself
means
"a citizen of the world," according to J.B.
Bamborough.26
We may also translate it as "citizen of the cosmos."
Alternatively,
as Rodney W. Shirley suggests, "the
Greek wording may be liberally
translated aseveryman indigenous in this world of ours.'"27
Given
the map's global perspective
on the vanity and folly of
mankind,
according to Shirley, "probably no more is meant
within the
ambit
of Burton's fanciful inferences than
we all perceive the world as
112
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ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
ma
CONON
)ISTO\
TOY4Y-VESMEL
I
/o re
Pev
iCa X
IrarUernir
fyea gnacogilane
a~qcrir.
1
-
I~~~~~~-
1</
s(
-
ii
--^
\
I
"-
f
Uo'>'',se1i..:$,sgEt
i', :
>j .?
b AP
KIS
Sjarkndc'EG (rt;nt
Figure
2:
Earlier
woodcut
foolscap
world
map,
byJean
de
Gourmont,
ca.
1575,
in
Paris
113
:
::
';?, ?
'::
I
:::-:- :
, N,
- d 'L>'t-''C a- ^-X>9Kt>.t8;S) ;
t } i
,^s^
/^^^' ^SQ.̂
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B U R T O N' S GEOGRAPHY
mad,
we are the
begetters
of
its
inanities,
and
we
are made
mad
by
its follies.
Epichthonius Cosmopolites
is each one
of
us."28
A much
stronger
possibility
which scholars seem not
to
have
considered,
is
that
EEichthonius
Cosmopolites
is a
misspelled
version of Erichthonius
Cosmopolites.29
If the
mapmaker copied
the name from a Greek
text,
he
might
have confused the
Greek
letter "rho" with the
English
letter
"p,"
which it resembles. The
mysterious
name would then refer
to
Erichthonius
of Greek
mythology,
who was
an "Attic hero and
mythical
king
of
Athens,"
according
to The
Oxford Companion
to
English
Literature. ? An
entry
in The New Century Classical Handbook helps us to understand the
relevance of this
mythical
character
in the overall context of the
map,
and the
meaning
he
might
have had
for Renaissance readers.
Significantly,
he was associated in the
popular
imagination
with
both wisdom and
madness,
or
folly.
Erichthonius was the
offspring
of
Hephaestus
and Gaia
(the
Earth).
Struggling
to ravish
Athena,
Hephaestus accidentally
inseminated Gaia when his semen fell
upon
the
ground.
Gaia abandoned Erichthonius
after
giving
birth
to
him,
and Athena took the
infant,
who was half human and half
serpent. She put the baby in a chest and asked the daughters of
Cecrops, king
of
Athens,
to
guard it, giving
them strict instructions
not
to
open
the chest. When the
daughters' curiosity got
the
best
of
them, they opened the chest and found
a child with
a
serpent's
tail for
legs; then, according
to
most
versions of
the
myth, they
were "maddened
with fear and leaped
to their deaths
from the
Acropolis."31 The association with foolishness
and madness
springs
from their misfortune. After the deaths of Cecrops's daughters,
Athena
"put Erichthonius in her aegis
and reared
him herself."32
Later, when he became king of Athens, Erichthonius established
the
worship
of
Athena
(wisdom)
there.
He himself
was later
worshipped
at Athens in the
form
of a
serpent.33
Most
versions of the
myth relate
that Athena
presented
Erichthonius with two
drops
of
the
blood of the
Gorgon Medusa,
"one
of
which
poisoned and the other healed."34
Some
say
that she
gave
him the
power to restore the
dead to life with those
drops
of
blood.35 The name
Erichthonius, then,
was
for Renaissance
readers
closely associated with wisdom and with the power to heal. If we
are
correct in
assuming that
Egichthonius
was
never
anything
more than a
misreading
of
Erichthonius,
it seems
likely
that his
wisdom and
his healing powers were intended
to contrast
strikingly
with the
foolishness and madness decried
in
virtually
all
of the
inscriptions
on
the map.36 Whether
the
"Epichthonius"
of the
foolscap map was simply a name given to "Everyman"
who suffers
from
the
madness and melancholy of
the human
condition,
or
a
114
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ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
misspelled
version of Erichthonius the
mythical
Attic
hero,
which
seems much more
likely,
we know that he was not the actual
engraver
of the later
foolscap map.
The
identity
of
the true
engraver
will
probably
never be known.
Of
particular
interest to us here are the various
epigrammatic
phrases
on the head-and-shoulders
figure
of
the
jester,
which
lament the
vanity
of the
world
and the foolishness of those
who
love it. Across
the
top
of the
foolscap,
on either side of the
seam,
run
the
words,
"0
Caput
elle boro
dignum," meaning
"0
head
requiring
hellebore,"
the "Motto" to which Burton
alludes in the
passage from the Preface. As "hellebore" [spelled "elle boro" on
the
foolscap
map]
was a natural
remedy
for
insanity
used
in ancient
Greece,
but not
in the
Renaissance when the
mapmaker
was
engraving
the
map,
we
may
surmise that
he
took his
inspiration
from Greek
texts. I think
it
is a
fair
guess
that the
mapmaker got
the idea for his motto
from
Strabo,
who wrote
an
exposition
on
the
Anticyrae
and
the kinds of hellebore said to
grow
there in
his
Geography;
Strabo makes reference to hellebore as
a cure for
madness. The
inscription
on
the fool's chin reads
"Stultorum
infinitus est numerus" and is attributed to "Salomon." The Latin
translates
as
"The
number
of
fools
is infinite."
"Salomon,"
of
course,
refers
to Solomon of the
Old
Testament,
whose
beliefs
about
fools are
voiced
in
a number
of the Proverbs. On
the ears of
the
cap, continuing
from
the first
ear to the
second,
are inscribed
the
following
words: "Auriculas
asini.
. .
quis
non habet."
The
reference
here
is
to Persius's First
Satire,
in which
a
character,
also
named
Persius, comments,
"There's
not one of them
who doesn't
/
Have
ass's
ears "
(line 121).s7
The
import
of his observation
seems to be
something
like
"every
man is a fool."
Printed
across the
brow-line of the
fool's
cap
are
the words:
"Hic
est mundi
punctus
et materia
gloriae
nostrae
hec
sedes
hic
honores
gerimus
hic
excercemus
imperia,
hic
opes cupimus
hic
tumultuatur
humanum
genus,
hic
instauramus
bella
etiam
civilia,
Piun."
"Plin."
here
refers
to
Pliny, specifically Pliny
the
Elder,
who
is the
author of
the
quoted passage, though
it is
roughly
translated.
The
words take
their
inspiration
from Book
2, Chapter
174 of
Pliny's Natural History:"detrahantur hae
tot
portiones terrae,
immo
vero,
ut
plures tradidere,
mundi
puncto (neque
enim aliud
est
terra
in
universo):
haec
est materia
gloriae nostrae,
haec
sedes,
hic
honores
gerimus,
hic
exercemus
imperia,
his
opes cupimus,
hic
tumultuamur
humanum
genus,
hic
instauramus
bella etiam
civilia
mutuisque
caedibus
laxiorem
facimus
terram "38
Horace Rackham
translates
this
passage
as follows: "subtract
all these
portions
from
the
earth
or
rather
from
this
pin-prick,
as the
majority
of
thinkers
115
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BURTON'
S
GEOGRAPHY
have
taught,
in the
world-for in the
whole
universe
the
earth
is
nothing else: and this is the substance of our glory, this is its
habitation,
here it is that we
fill
positions
of
power
and covet
wealth,
and throw mankind into an
uproar,
and launch even civil
wars and
slaughter
one
another
to make the land more
spaciousl"39
The medallions
on the fool's
necklace
are
also
inscribed
with
quotations.
One of them reads "0 curas
Hominum,"
which
translates
as "0
the
vanity
of human
cares "
and
takes
its
inspiration,
once
again,
from the first line of Persius's First
Satire,
which
begins
"0
the
vanity
of human
caresl
O
what a
huge
vacuum
man's nature admits "40A second medallion reads "0, Quantum
Est
in
Rebus
Inane." This
phrase
may
be translated
roughly
as
"O,
how
much
emptiness
there is in the affairs
of
men,"
and
it, too,
comes
from
the
first
line
of Persius's
Satire. A third reads
"Stultus
factus
est omnis
homo,"
or
"Every
man was made
a
fool."
A fourth
reads
"Universa
Vanitas
Onis
[read
"omnis"]
Homo,"
which
may
be
translated
as "universal
vanity
is
every
man."
These
last
two
inscriptions
are based on sentiments
that are voiced in
many
places
in
the
Bible,
especially
in
Ecclesiastes, Isaiah,
and the
Psalms.
Other inscriptions surround the head-and-shoulders figure. The
inscription
on the fool's
bauble, for example, reads:
"Vanitas,
vanitatum
et
omnia vanitas." This quotation, which means
"Vanity
of
vanities,
all is vanity," comes from Ecclesiastes 1:2 and
12:8.
Across
the
top of the map runs
the
inscription
"Nosce te
ipsum,"
which
makes
reference
to
the
famous
Greek adage, "Know
thyself."
Finally,
we must
turn our attention to the allusive
references
in
the
cartouche
on the left-hand side of the map.
The
Latin
inscription
in
the cartouche
reads "Democritus
Abderites
deridebat,
Heraclitus Ephesius
deflebat,
Epichthonius
Cosmopolites
deformabat."J.B.
Bamborough translates
these
lines
as
follows:
"Democritus of Abdera mocked it, Heraclitus
of
Ephesus
wept
for
it,
Epichthonius
Cosmopolites disfigured
it"
[private
communication].
All three were voicing
their attitudes toward
the
world
figured
in the fool's cap.
The
world
view conveyed by the inscriptions
on the
foolscap
map,
then,
is
a
melancholy one: men are consumed
with
vanity
and foolishness. It is a conservative vision in essence: the world
may
change
its
face,
but the foolhardiness
of the human
condition
abides.
This
is
certainly not a new perspective
on the
world,
especially
not
for Burton's
contemporaries, who were
familiar
with
Biblical
admonitions
about the vanity of human life. What
is
different
about
the foolscap map is that it presents those
old
adages
in
a
striking new way
with reference
to the changing
character
of
the
world.
Burton voices many of the same
sentiments
116
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ANNE S. CHAPPLE
in "DemocritusJr. to the Reader" and even uses
many
of the
same
quotations from the same classical sources. Remarking that an
attempt
to
catalogue
all of the "ridiculous instances" of foolishness
in
the world
around him would be like "one of Hercules
labours,"
he
exclaims,
"Quantum
est in rebus
inaneT
(1:55).
This
is
the
same
line from Persius's First Satire that we saw
imprinted
in one of the
medallions of the fool's necklace on the
map.
In another
context,
Burton comments on
the
absurdity
of "our
Actions,
Carriages,
Dyet, Apparell,
Customes,
and Consultations"
by
concluding
that
"all are fooles"
(1:57);
he
ends his observation with a
quotation:
"and they the veriest asses that hide their ears most" (1:57). The
reference
is
either to
Horace,
or to Persius who
quotes
Horace in
his First Satire.
Again
there is
common
ground
between the
classical
allusions on
the
foolscap map
and those in Burton's own work.
Then,
too,
we
find anti-war sentiment
expressed
in both
places.
On the
map
it finds
expression
in
Pliny's
ironic
comment on civil
war and
slaughter
as the "substance" of man's dubious
"glory."
In
The
Anatomy
the
horror and senselessness of
war
are treated at
length
in a series of detailed
examples
to which Burton
devotes
several pages of the Preface. I cannot claim that Burton took his
own thematic
inspirations
from the
foolscap
map directly,
although
that remains a
possibility,
but it is clear that the
map
had a
great
appeal for him and that it spoke to a number
of
his own
preoccupations.
Burton's own
propensity
for
dwelling
with
melancholic
intensity
on the foolishness and
vanity
of
men
makes
it
apparent why
this
map
made such an
impression
on
him.
Given what
we
know about the classical
inspiration
for
the
inscriptions
on the
foolscap maps,
we can
make a case for
the
influence
of ancient
Greek
geographical writings
on the
figure
of
the
map
itself. It
is
possible
that the
original conception
of
representing
the world as a human head came from the
works
of
Strabo, Pliny,
or
Hippocrates,
all of whom
habitually
described a
given
land formation
by comparing
it
to a
familiar
object,
often
the
human
body
or a
part
of it. It seems
likely
that the
anonymous
engraver
of the
map got
access to Greek
geography through
the
many
"rediscovered"
Greek and
Latin
texts that
began
to
circulate
in England in the Renaissance.41
Alternatively,
we can
speculate
that de Gourmont's
original
foolscap map may
have been influenced
by
the
very popular
The
Ship of
Fools
by
Sebastian
Brant.
By 1575, whenJean
de Gourmont
is
presumed
to have executed
his
woodcut,
Brant's
Narrenschiff,
as
it was
originally known,
had been translated
into a
number of
different
languages
and had been
widely
disseminated across
Europe. By
1499
three
separate
French
translations,
or
117
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BURTO N S GEOGRAPHY
paraphrases,
had
appeared.
A French
abridgement
(1535)
and
later French editions
(Paris 1529; Lyons 1530)
and
reprints (1499;
1579)
are
known to
have
been
published.42
The circulation of all
of these French versions (and others in other
languages)
makes it
likely
that Brant's
work
was
accessible
to de
Gourmont,
working
in
Paris
around 1575. Section
24
of The
Ship of
Fools,
entitled "Of
Too Much
Care,"
is
prefaced
with a woodcut
depicting
a fool
carrying
the world on his back.43 The
juxtaposition
of the fool's
head
and
the
world,
as
well as the sentiments
expressed
in the
accompanying
verse,
make this a
likely
source of
inspiration
for de
Gourmont's foolscap map. Edwin Zeydel has located references to
the
Narrenschiff
in
Burton's The
Anatomy
of
Melancholy.
Burton
makes a reference to "a
company
of brainsicke dizards" who
"may
goe
ride the
asse,
and all saile
along
to the
Anticyrae,
in the
ship of
fooles
for
company together"
(1:59).
Burton's treatment of the
foolscap map
leads him
by
a
process
of
associative
thinking
to consider other
(Greek)
anthropomorphic
maps.
One
good
reason for his mental association of
the
foolscap
map
with the
Greek
maps
is that
they
are all
head-and-shoulders
representations of men as maps. He approaches his subject by
gathering insights
from the work of Nicholas
Gerbelius,
the
Renaissance commentator. Gerbelius
as well as Greek
geographers
Strabo, Pliny,
and
Hippocrates
contributed
significantly
to Burton's
geography
of
melancholy.44
Gerbelius's
work,
which
provided
him
with an abbreviated
summary
assessment
of the
geography
of
Strabo and
Pliny,
was the
source on which
Burton relied most
heavily (see
notes
42, 45,
and
47).
In
the
following passage
Burton
continues
his treatment
of
anthropomorphic maps
with an
acknowledgement of his debt to Gerbelius:
Strabo,
n the
9th Booke
of his
geography, compares
Greece o
the
picture
of a
man,
which
comparison
of
his,
Nic. Gerbelius
in his
exposition
of
Sophianus Map, approves;
The
brest
lyes
open
from
those Acroceraunian
Hilles
in
Epirus
to the Sunian
Promontorie
in
Attica, Pagae
and
Magaera
are the
two
Shoulders,
that Istmos
of Corinth
the
neck,
&
Peloponnesus
the
head. If this
allusion
hold,
'tis sure
a mad
head;
Morea
may
be
Moria
[Folly];
& to
speake
what I
thinke,
the
Inhabitants
of
moderne
Greece,
warve
as much
from
reason,
& true
religion
at this
day,
as
that Morea
doth from
the
picture
of a man.
(1:24)
An
obvious
thing
to note
about
this
description
is the
degree
to
which the
microcosm
(the
individual
inhabitants
of
Greece)
and
118
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ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
the
macrocosm
(the
world,
here
depicted
in the
shape
of a
man)
are fused in Burton's imagination; the "picture of a man" with its
"mad
head,
Morea"
is an
image,
writ
large,
of the
folly
of the
actual inhabitants of Greece. For
Burton,
man is a
map
of the
world,
as much as the world is a
map
of man. He
is
embroidering
here on traditional
commonplaces
in
Greek
geographical
literature.
One of the
governing concepts
in the
geographic
work
of
Hippocrates,
for
instance,
was that the inhabitants of a
particular
geographic
region
took their character from the climatic
conditions
and
geographical
features
of
that
region.
(For
example,
the
vaguely
effeminate Scythians who live on plains chilled by ice and snow,
heavy
rains,
and thick
fog
are
"moist and
flabby"
men,
who "have
not the
strength
either to draw a bow or to throw
ajaveline
from
the shoulder" and who
"have no
great
desire for
intercourse
because of the moistness of their constitution and the softness
and
chill of
their
abdomen."45)
In
like
manner,
Burton
implies,
the
wayward
character of his Greek
contemporaries
finds a
sympathetic
representation
in the distorted
shape
of their homeland.
That
is,
the
"picture
of a man" is as much a
distortion of the true
image
of
man as the inhabitants of Greece distort reason and true religion.
There still lingers in Burton's description of "the inhabitants of
modern Greece" something of the ancient Greek belief in
the
concrete resemblance of man to the natural landscape, something
of the sympathy between man and his environment. As on
the
foolscap
map, the world is figured in terms of the character of
its
inhabitants.
I think it is important that we try to understand Burton's maps
not only in their Renaissance context, but in terms of
their
historical lineage; only by tracing them back to their original
historical context can we gain a full appreciation of their
meaning.
However, it is a little tricky to trace the lineage of the
geographical
description that Burton is presenting in
the above passage,
which
calls for closer scrutiny, because it is apt to be confusing
to
anyone
not familiar with the works of the three geographers
mentioned.
Burton is under the impression that it is Strabo who
originally
compares Greece to the picture of a man, and that this
comparison
is located in Book 9 of his Geography.According to Burton,
Strabo's
comparison is "approved" by Nicholas Gerbelius in
Gerbelius's
exposition on Sophianus's map. Burton is most likely
referring
here to Gerbelius's 1545 expository tract on geography,
In
descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani, praefatio.46 The actual
comparison
of Greece to the "picture" of the man, which Burton reprints
in
The Anatomy and credits to Strabo, reads as follows: "the brest
lyes
open from those Acroceraunian Hilles in Epirus, to the
Sunian
119
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BURTON' S GEOGRAPHY
Promontorie
in
Attica,
Pagae
&R
Magaera
are
the
two
Shoulders,
that Istmos of Corinth the neck, & Peloponnesus the head" (1:24).
But
Burton
has made an error in
his attribution of
authorship
here.
The
comparison
of Greece
"to
the
picture
of
a
man"
may
indeed
be
found in
Nicholas
Gerbelius's
In
descriptionem,
but the
origin
of the
comparison
is not Strabo's
Geography.47
The
likeness to which Burton refers
may
be traced to several
references
that
Gerbelius
makes in his
In
descriptionem
Graeciae
Sophiani,
praefatio
to Greece
being shaped
like a man. The first
reference,
which occurs in a subsection entitled
"Attica,"
reads
as
follows: "Locos omnes indicat pictura, praesertim Megara & Pagas:
quae
duae urbes in Attica
sinibus,
tanquam scapulae positae
sunt.
Isthmus
collum,
Peloponnesus caput
&
arx totius Graeciae"
(p.
17).
This
may
be translated
as:
"All
this
indicates with
a
picture,
that
Megara
and
Pagas especially,
which are
two
cities within
the
borders
of
Attica,
are
positioned
as
if
they
were the shoulders.
The
Isthmus
is the
neck,
the
Peloponnesus
the head
and
capitol
of
all
Greece."
But it is not clear that Gerbelius is in fact
attributing
the
authorship
to Strabo here. Gerbelius has
just
concluded a
passage
on
Pliny
the Elder and is on the
verge
of
beginning
a new
section
on Book 9 of Strabo's Geography. He appears to be
giving
credit
either
to Pliny or to Strabo, but the
anthropomorphic
comparison
in question is sandwiched between his treatment of
the
two
authors,
and no specific attribution
of authorship is made.
Gerbelius's
vagueness
here is almost surely the source of Burton's
error:
Gerbelius's citation is ambiguous, but Burton
understood
him
to
be
crediting
the comparison to Strabo.
When I checked
the
Ninth Book
of Strabo's Geography to find
the original quotation, I
could
find
no reference to Greece being shaped like a man. To
my
mind,
Pliny
is the more likely source. In Book 4, Chapter 4
of
Pliny's
Natural
History, which covers the Isthmus of Corinth, there
is
a
reference
to a "narrow neck of land" from which the
Peloponnesus
"projects," and another reference to "Morea,"
which
"is
only
attached
to Greece by a narrow neck of land."48
Rackham
points
out
that the noun "isthmus," meaning a neck of land,
"came
to
be
attached as a proper name to the neck joining
the
Morea to Central Greece."49 The definition of an isthmus as a
"neck"
of
land
helps
to explain why Morea resembled a
human
head
for
Pliny
and the other geographers. In the section
entitled
"Attica"
in
Book
4, Chapter 7 of Pliny's
work, we find a reference
to
the
two
towns
Megara and Pagae, which are "situated where
the
Peloponnese
projects,
and stand
on either side of the Isthmus,
as
it
were
on
the
shoulders
of Hellas."50 Thus, it seems likely that
Gerbelius
was
elaborating on Pliny's suggestions when
he
120
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ANNE
S.
CHAPPLE
compared
Greece "to
the
picture
of a man."
We
might
reasonably
speculate
that
the
irregularly shaped Peloponnesus
that
is
positioned
as the "head"
in
Pliny's
scheme was the
basis
for
Burton's
skeptical
comment about
the
supposed
likeness
between
Morea and "the
picture
of a
man":
"'tis
sure a mad
head;
Morea
may
be
Moria
[Folly];
&
to
speake
what I
thinke,
the
Inhabitants
of
moderne
Greece swarve as much from
reason,
&
true
religion
at
this
day,
as
that Morea doth from the
picture
of a man"
(1:24).
The idea that the
anthropomorphic comparison
derives at
least
in
part
from Gerbelius's own
extrapolation
finds
more
support
in
a later subsection of the In descriptionemGraeciaeSophiani, praefatio,
entitled
"Hellas,"
in which Gerbelius writes: "veram
Greciam
esse,
quam
in
superioribus descripsimus,
&
veluti totius
gentis
corpus.
Quod
si cui libet in re tam amoena
tamque
iucunda
ludere,
is
picturam
nostram invertat: tum videbit
hoc
corpus,
una
cum
Peloponneso,
hominis
imaginem
ad
pectus usque
representare.
Pectus
referet,
quicquid
a Cerauniis montibus ad
Sunium
promontorium
deducitur.
Humeri,
seu
scapulae,
sunt
Pagae
et
Megara,
collum totus
Isthmus,
caput Peloponnesus, quam
Graeciae
nonnulli appellaverunt arcem" (p. 48). His words may be translated
as follows: "true Greece is ...
like the body of the
whole
people.
Because if it pleases anyone to joke
in a pleasant
matter,
he
may
invert our picture. Then he will see that this body
together
with
the Peloponnesus represents the image of a
man
up
to
the
chest.
He would call the chest what stretches from the
Ceraunian
hills
to
the Suniam promontory.
The arm bones or
shoulder
blades
are
Pagae & Megara, the neck is the whole
Isthmus,
the
head
the
Peloponnesus, which some Greeks call the citadel."
This
passage,
too, may have been the inspiration for Burton's disbelieving
comment
on Sophianus's "picture of a man."
Whether
it was
Gerbelius or Pliny who was really responsible for this
"picture of a
man," Burton's point is that "Morea" on the map in
question
does
not very much resemble a picture of
a
man.
The
practice of
comparing land masses to familiar
everyday figures,
often human
ones, is common in Strabo's and Pliny's work, as well
as
in that of
other classical geographers, but the supposed
"pictures"
often
require the reader
to stretch his imagination
more
than a
little.51
It seems possible that
a work entitled the
Hippocratic
Anthology
may also have had an influence
on
Burton's
geographic
vision,
though it is not specifically mentioned in the passage
we've been
examining. Hippocrates' thought
contains
images
that
are
germane
for
our
purposes
here. In an essay entitled
"The
Number
Seven,"
that is included in the Hippocratic Anthology,
we
find
a
striking
image that
is
reminiscent
of-and clearly a
variant
of-those we
121
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B U R T
O
N S GEOGRAPHY
have
just
examined.
In this
essay
the earth
is
represented
as a
huge
human body; the head is formed by the Peloponnesus, the spine
by
the
Isthmus,
and so
on.
"Each
geographical part
of
the earth
and each land
corresponds
to a definite
part
of
the
body;
all
the
physical
and
spiritual
features and
way
of life of the
inhabitants
depend
on their anatomical localization."52
The
correspondence
between
body
and world is
stressed,
and once
again
the
relationship
is
"the concrete resemblance of man to the natural
landscape."53
The
essay
presents
a
"grotesque" image
of the
body
so that
"the
confines
dividing
it from
the world are
obscured" and
"the exchange between the body and the world is constantly
emphasized."54
Given
Burton's
frequent
references to
Hippocrates
in
The
Anatomy,
it
seems
well
within
the realm of
possibility
that
he read
Hippocrates'
"The Number Seven"
essay
and that the
images
in it influenced his own
writing
on
geography.
Having
said all
that,
I
think
we are in a
good position
to
understand the
appeal
that the
foolscap
map
had for Burton.
Burton was fascinated with the
map
because it
presented
a
melancholy landscape,
because it
juxtaposed
an
image
of
folly
with the pressing need for a cure ["0 Caput elle = boro dignum,"
or, "A head requiring hellebore"], and because the spokesmen in
the cartouche inscription voiced Burton's own attitudes
toward
the world: "Democritus Abderites deridebat,
Heraclitus Ephesius
deflebat, Epichthonius Cosmopolites deformabat." The
foolscap
map of Epichthonius Cosmopolites draws together many of
the
thematic threads that run through Burton's The Anatomy
of
Melancholy, that vast catalogue of fools and madmen. On it
are
learned classical references regarding the pervasive folly of
men,
an allusion to hellebore as a cure for "mad" heads, and a
confirmation writ large in the shape of a fool's head that all the
world is mad. The inscription
on the fool's bauble, so like
a
"child's toy," voices Burton's own motto: "Vanitas, vanitatum
et
omnia vanitas." Burton returns so often to these themes that one
wonders whether the map might not have been the inspiration
for
the whole Preface. Certainly, it helped Burton to integrate all
of
the elements
of the persona he adopted from Democritus, and
it
underscores, in a particularly vivid and memorable
fashion,
Burton's own judgment on the vanity of human effort. In my view
the foolscap map can stand as a compelling and highly
appropriate
symbol for the whole of the Preface. This short poem, included
in
a missive addressed to "To the Mischievously Idle
Reader,"
concludes Burton's Preface:
Weep, Heraclitus, for this wretched age,
Nought dost thou see that is not base and sad:
122
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ANNE S. CHAPPLE
Laugh
on, Democritus,
thou
laughing sage,
Nought
dost thou see that is not vain and
bad.
Let one
delight
in
tears and
one
in
laughter,
Each
shall
find his
occasion ever
after.
There
needs,
since mankind's now in madness
hurled,
A thousand
weeping, laughing
sages
more:
And best
(such
madness doth
prevail)
the
world
Should
go
to
Anticyra,
feed on hellebore.
(Dell
edn.
p.
105)
As many of the central players on this closing stage also figure
importantly
on the
foolscap map,
Burton's lines
might
well serve
as
a
perfect explanatory accompaniment
to it.55
ADDENDUM
For convenience
I have
reprinted
here,
in its
entirety,
the
passage about the foolscap map in Robert Burton's Preface,
"Democritus
Junior
to the
Reader":
Of the necessitie
and
generalitie
of this
[that
the world is
full
of
melancholy,
madness, disease,
corruption,
etc.]
which I
have
said,
if
any
man
doubt,
I shall desire him to make a
briefe
survey
of
the
world,
as
Cyprian
advised
Donat,
supposing
himselfe to be transported o the top of some
high Mountaine,
and
thence to behold the tumults & chancesof this wavering world,
he
cannot chuse but either laugh at, or pitty it. S. Hieromeout of a
strong imagination,
being in the Wildernesse, conceived with
himselfe, that he then saw them
dauncing in Rome, and
if
thou shalt either conceive, or climbe to see, thou shalt
soone
perceive that all the world is mad, that it is melancholy,
dotes:
that it is (which Epichthonius Cosmopolites xpressed
not
many
yeeres since in a Map) made like a Fooles head (with that
Motto, Caput Helleborodignum), arased head, cavea
stultorum,
a Fooles paradise, or as Apollonius, a common prison
of
Gulles, Cheaters, Flatterers,
c. needs to be
reformed.
Strabo, n the 9th Booke of his geography, compares Greece
o
the picture of a man, which comparison
of his, Nic. Gerbelius
in his exposition
of Sophianus Map, approves; The brest
lyes
open from those AcroceraunianHilles in Epirus to the
Sunian
Promontorie in Attica, Pagae and Magaera are the
two
Shoulders, that Istmosof Corinth the neck, & Peloponnesus
the
123
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BURTO N' S GEOGRAPHY
head. If this allusion
hold,
'tis sure
a
mad
head;
Morea
may
be
Moria
[Folly];
&
to
speake
what
I
thinke,
the Inhabitants
of
moderne
Greece,
warve as much from
reason,
& true
religion
at this
day,
as that Morea doth from the
picture
of
a
man.
Examine the rest in like
sort,
and
you
shall find that
Kingdomes
and
Provinces are
Melancholy,
Cities and
Families,
all
Creatures,
Vegetall,
Sensible,
and
Rationall,
that all
sorts,
sects,
ages,
conditions,
are
out of
tune,
as in Cebes
Table,
omnes errorembibunt,before they come into the World, they
are intoxicated
by
Errors
cup,
from the
highest
to the
lowest,
have need of
Physicke,
and those
particular
Actions in
Seneca,
where father
&
son
prove
one
another
mad,
may
be
generall;
Porcius Latro
shall plead
against
us all. For indeed who
is
not
a
Foole,
Melancholy,
Mad?
-Qui
nil molitur
inepte,
who is not
brain-sick?
Folly, Melancholy,
Madnesse,
are but one
disease,
Delirium is a common name to
all.
Alexander,
Gordonius,
ason
Pratensis,
Savanarola, Guianerius, Montaltus,
confound
them
as differing secundium magis & minus, so doth David, Psal.
75.4.
I
said unto the
Fooles,
deale not so
madly,
8c
'twas
an old
Stoicall
paradox,
omnes stultos
insanire,
all fooles are mad
though
some madder than others. And who is not a
Foole,
who is
free
from
Melancholy?
Who is not touched more or
lesse in habit or
disposition?
If
in
disposition,
ill
dispositions
begethabits, if theypersevere,
aith
Plutarch,
habits either
are,
or
turne to diseases. 'Tis the same
which
Tully
maintains in the
Second of
his
Tusculans,
omnium
insipientum
animi in
morbo
sunt,
&eperturbatorum,
Fooles are sick, and all that are troubled
in
mind,
for what is
sicknesse,
but
as
Gregory
Tholosanus
defines
it,
A dissolution
or
perturbationof
the
bodily eague,
which
health combines:And who
is not
sick,
or ill
disposed,
in
whom
doth
not
passion, anger, envie, discontent,
feare
&
sorrow
raigne?
Who
labours
not of this
disease? Give
me but a little
leave,
and
you
shall see
by
what
testimonies, confessions,
arguments
I will evince
it,
that
most men
are
mad,
that
they
had as much need
to
goe
a
pilgrimage
to the
Anticyrae (as
in
Strabo's ime
they did)
as
in
our
daies
they
run
to
Compostella,
our
Lady
of
Sichem,
or
Lauretta,
to seeke for
helpe;
that
it
is
like to be as
prosperous
a
voyage
as that of
Guiana,
and that
there is much more
need
of Hellebor then of Tobacco.
(1:24-25)
124
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ANNE S.
CHAPPLE
NOTES
'Cited in Raleigh A. Skelton, Decorative Printed Maps of the 15th to 18th
Centuries
(London
and New York:
Staples
Press,
1952),
p.
1.
For
further
information on Dr. Dee's social
observations,
seeJohn
Dee,
The Private
Diary
of
Dr.
John
Dee,
ed.
James
O.
Halliwell
(London:
printed by John Bowyer
Nichols and Son for
the Camden
Society,
1842).
Please note that I
have
duplicated
the
spelling
as I found it
in
all texts cited in this article.
2See
the
prefatory page,
entitled
"To
the
Reader,"
in Thomas
Blundeville,
A
Briefe Description of
Universal
Mappes
and Cardes
and
of
Their
Use
(London:
printed by Roger
Ward for Thomas
Cadman,
1589).
3A
parallel urge
to
map
and
chart the
human
body
exists in
the mid-to-
late Renaissance; unprecedented numbers of "body maps" appeared in the
medical literature as well as in the
popular
literature of the time.
Maps
of the
body
charting everything
from the venous
system
to the
cosmographical
correspondences
for the
major organs
were constructed
with
the same careful
attention to detail and
accuracy
that
foreign
coastlines were.
(See
Michael
Feher, ed.,
Fragmentsfor
a
History of
theHuman
Body,
3 vols.
(Cambridge,
MA:
MIT
Zone
Press,
1991).
While
actual
maps
and charts of the
body
are not the
subject
of this
essay, they might fruitfully
be
explored
in the context
of
geographical exploration
and colonial
enterprise.
4For
a
thorough account
of Burton's
interest
in
geography, please
see
E.
Patricia
Vicari,
The View From Minerva's Tower:
Learning
and
Imagination
in
"TheAnatomyof Melancholy (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: Univ. of Toronto
Press, 1989).
Professor Vicari has
thoroughly catalogued
Burton's
geographical
authorities. The
book
includes
a useful
appendix listing
Burton's
sources on geography.
Her list is
organized by period (Ancient, Medieval,
Modern), type (Physical
and General
Geography
and
Cartography,
Historical
and
Political, Urban
and
Political, etc.),
and
region (America, Europe, etc.).
5Skelton, p.
1.
6Robert
Burton,
The
Anatomy of Melancholy,
eds. Thomas C.
Faulkner,
Nicolas K.
Kiessling,
and Rhonda
L.
Blair
(Oxford:
Clarendon
Press, 1989-),
1:23 (based
on the
1632 edition).
All
subsequent quotations
from
Burton's
TheAnatomyof Melancholyhave been taken from this edition, unless otherwise
specified.
7Burton's
brother,
William
Burton,
was
also interested
in
maps.
The
line
Robert Burton
borrows
from him here is taken from
the Preface
to
William
Burton,
Descriptionof
Leistershire
London: printed by W.Jaggard
forJ.
White,
1622).
This
information
comes
from
an
explanatory
note Burton himself
added to his
Anatomy.
8Vicari, p.
31.
9A
very helpful
tool for
Burton scholars
wishing
to learn more about
Burton's
grasp
of
geography
and
cartography
is Nicolas K.
Kiessling,
The
Library of
Robert
Burton
(Oxford:
Oxford
Bibliographical Society, 1988).
"'Albert Baugh et al., eds., A Literary History of England (New York and
London:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948), pp.
597-98.
"Vicari, p.
41.
'2Democritus,
the
philosopher
of
Abdera
(ca.
460
B.C.),
was a
writer on
geography himself,
and Strabo mentions
him as an
influence on
his
own work.
See
Rev.
H.F.
Tozer,
Selections
rom
Strabo
(Oxford:
Clarendon
Press, 1893),
p.
47.
'3Baugh, pp.
597-98.
125
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BURTON'S GEOGRAPHY
'4Vicari,
p.
31.
'5Robert
Burton,
The
AnatomyofMelancholy,
ed.
Floyd
Dell and
PaulJordan-
Smith (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1955), p. 32n. Subsequent references
to
pages
in
the Dell edition will be noted in
parenthetical
references after
the
quoted
text.
'6W.
Falconer and
H.C.
Hamilton, trans.,
The
Geography
of
Strabo,
2
vols.
(London
and
New
York:
George
Bell
and
Sons,
1892),
2:116.
'7In
Marvelous Possessions
Stephen
Greenblatt makes the
claim that
the
foolscap map
is a
representation
of "travelas
folly" (Chicago:
Univ. of
Chicago
Press,
1991),
plate
10.
While
folly
and the world are
closely
associated on
the
map,
there
is
nothing
on
it
to
imply
travel.
The Latin
inscriptions
on the head-
and-shoulders
figure
tell
us that it is
misleading
to
explain
the
map
as an
image
of "travel"at all. It is a decorative map, not a functional one, and its vision of
the
world is
relatively
archaic
compared
to that of other
maps being produced
in
the same
period.
Its
spokesmen
are ancient ones
who
stubbornly bespeak
traditional
attitudes toward the
world;
it served to
reinvigorate
an
existing
world
view and
to
reinforce
traditional values
and
beliefs. The
foolscap map
expresses
little or
nothing
of
the
spirit
of
the
age
of
exploration, despite
the
use
of Ortelius's latest
plate
to
represent
the
globe.
'8Burton
was not alone in his
melancholy
world
view,
of
course,
nor was
he
alone
in making use of the "world in a foolscap" metaphor. E. Patricia
Vicari
has
discovered a very similar perspective on the world in a sermon by
Thomas
Adams, an Anglican, City preacher.
"Stultorum
plena sunt omnia, -it
were no hard matter to bring all the world into the compass of a fool's cap,"
wrote
Adams
(The Worksof Thomas Adams, ed. Thomas Smith [Edinburgh and
London:
1861]; quoted in Vicari, p. 33). It is unclear whether Adams was
referring
to
a commonplace of the day or whether he had in fact seen the
same
map Burton had.
'9The
map
to which Burton refers, and its French precursor, have an
unusually
interesting history. For full details, see Rodney W. Shirley, The
Mapping
of the World:Early
Printed
World Maps, 1472-1700 (London: Holland
Press,
1983),
pp. 157-58, 189-90. Only seven or eight copies of the copper-
plate
foolscap
world map are now extant. The copy reproduced in Figure 1
is the only extant copy of the copper engraving in the United States.
(Reference
information:
Foolscap map of the world [copper-plate].
Individual
map,
printed
separately. Antwerp?: ca. 1590. This map is available at
the
Newberry
Library
in Chicago. The reference number is Navacco 2F6.) Ronald
V.
Tooley
has suggested
that the engraver of the map might have been Franz
Hogenberg,
since
it is in the style of Hogenberg's engravings. See Ronald V.
Tooley,
description,
"Geographical Oddities," no. 1 of The Map Collectors'
Series
(London:
The Map Collectors' Circle, 1964), p. 3. Hogenberg was
renowned
as
a
maker
of maps of towns and cities, most notably as a
co-author
of
Braun
and
Hogenberg's Civitates
Orbis
Terrarum. Shirley speculates
that
"some
further
link might be postulated through the recent discovery of
Ortelius's fanciful map of Utopia" (Rodney W. Shirley, "Epichthonius
Cosmopolites:
Who Was He?" The Map Collector18 [March 1982]: 3940). The
Utopian
map
is
clearly related to Sir Thomas More's Utopia published in 1516,
and
the
ancestry
of the foolscap map, with its epigrams and references to the
foolishness
and
vanities
of this world, may well derive from Erasmus's parallel
work
In
Praise
of
Folly published
five
years earlier, in 1511
(Shirley,
"Epichthonius
Cosmopolites: Who Was He?," pp. 39-40). Some evidence
supports
this
idea,
since Burton mentions Erasmus at a later point in
The
Anatomy
with
the observation "Erasmus urgeth in his Moria [Folly], fools beget
126
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128 BURTON'S
G
E
O
G
R A P H Y
Sixteenthand Seventeenth
Centuries,
2
vols.
[Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ.
Press,
1952], 1:178-81.)
Elsewhere in
Shakespeare,
the head is likened
to a
planet;
in 2
Henry
VI,
the
queen
who makes her entrance in Act
IV,
scene iv with
Suffolk's head exclaims:
"Ah,
barbarous villains hath this
lovely
face
/
Rul'd
like
a
wandering planet
over
me,
/
And could it not enforce them to
relent,
/
That were
unworthy
to
behold
the same?"
(IV.iv.15-18).
In "Sonnet
68"
the
face becomes a
map
of
age:
"Thus is his
cheek
the
map
of
days
outworn,
/
When
beauty
liv'd and died
as flowers
do
now,
/
Before these bastard
signs
of fair were
born,
/
Or durst inhabit on a
living
brow." Victor
Morgan
has
noted that
"Shakespeare
also
exploited
the notion of the
map
as a microcosm
that
signified
a
larger
matter,
or
fundamentals of character"
(Victor
Morgan,
"The
Literary
Image
of Globes
and
Maps
in
Early
Modern
England,"
English
Map-Making1550-1650, ed. SarahTyacke [London: The British Library, 1983],
p.
53).
For
example,
in The
Rape
ofLucreceShakespeare
describes the
sleeping
Lucrece
as
"Showing
life's
triumph
in
a
map
of
death,
/
And death's dim look
in life's
mortality"
(lines 402-403).
In this
instance,
"sleep
is a
sign,
a
microcosm,
which is a
map,
of the
larger
matter,
death"
(Morgan, p.
53).
Elsewhere the face of the ravished Lucrece is also described as
being
like a
map:
"While with a
joyless
smile she turns
away
/
The
face,
that
map
which
deep impression
bears
/
Of
hard
misfortune,
carv'd
[in it]
with
tears"
(lines
1711-13). (For
details on additional
map imagery
in
Shakespeare,
which I do
not have
space
to mention
here,
see
Morgan, pp. 46-56.)
All
Shakespeare
quotations
have
been taken from
The
Riverside
Shakespeare,
d.
G. Blakemore
Evans et al.
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974).
24Morgan, pp. 52-55.
25Morgan,p. 53.
26Shirley, "Epichthonius Cosmopolites," pp.
3940.
27Shirley, "Epichthonius Cosmopolites," p.
40.
28Shirley, "Epichthonius Cosmopolites," p.
40.
291
owe
this
theory
to
Professor David
Bevington
of the
University
of
Chicago [in conversation].
30M.C.
Howatson, ed.,
The
OxfordCompanion
to
English Literature,2nd
edn.
(Oxford:
Oxford Univ.
Press, 1989), p. 222.
3'Catherine B. Avery, ed., TheNew CenturyClassical Handbook(New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962), p.
449.
32Ibid.
"Ibid.
3Howatson, p. 222.
"Avery, p.
449.
"There is another
Erichthonius known to
us
from Homeric
legend (The
Iliad)
"who
was a
son of Dardanus" who "succeeded to his father's
kingdom."
Somewhat
later,
the
kingdom
came
to
be known as the
Troad,
named after
Erichthonius's own
son Tros
(Avery, p. 449).
37Persius,
The Satires
of Persius,
trans. W.S. Merwin
(Bloomington:
Indiana
Univ.
Press, 1961), p.
61.
"Pliny
the
Elder,
Natural
History,
vol.
1,
trans. Horace
Rackham,
Loeb
Classical
Library (Cambridge:
Harvard
Univ. Press, 1940), p.
309.
"Pliny,
1:310.
40Persius,
Satires
of
A. Persius
Flaccus, trans. John Conington (Oxford:
Clarendon
Press, 1874), pp. 8-9.
41The
inspiration
for the
foolscap maps
as well as for other
maps
in the
shape
of
human figures, like Putsch's Virgin Europe map or Munster's Europa
(in post-1580 editions of the Cosmography), came from ancient Greek
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ANNE S. CHAPPLE
precedents.
After the
"rediscovery"
of classical
texts
during
the
Renaissance,
a
number of Greek and
Latin
texts on
geography
circulated in
England,
including works by Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Hippocrates. In addition,
works
by
various Renaissance commentators on
geography,
such
as
Gerbel,
were available.
According
to Professor
Bunbury,
"The
geography
of Strabo
is not
only
the most
important
geographical
work that has come down to us
from
antiquity,
but it is
unquestionably
one of the most
important
ever
produced by
any
Greek or
Roman
writer"
(Tozer,
p.
55).
Strabo,
this most
important
Greek
geographer,
was well known to Renaissance intellectuals.
In the Middle
Ages, according
to Rev.
Tozer,
Strabo
was known as "the
geographer par
excellence,"
and he continued to
enjoy popularity
in
the
Renaissance
(p.
43).
4Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools, trans., introd., and comm. Edwin
Zeydel
(New
York:
Columbia
Univ.
Press,
1944),
pp.
24-31.
4Brant,
pp.
116-17.
"Nicholas Gerbelius
(also
known
as
Nicolai
Gerbe,
Nicholas
Gerbel,
and
Nicolai
Gerbelij)
was a
sixteenth-century
commentator and
geographer
in his
own
right
who
wrote,
among
other
things,
In
descriptionem
Graeciae
Sophiani,
praefatio,
the treatment
of
Sophianus's map
to
which Burton is
probably
referring
(Nicolai
Gerbelij,
In
descriptionem
Graeciae
Sophiani,praefatio
[Basel:
1545]). Subsequent
references
appear
in
the text. I believe
that
Burton
used
this
document as the
primary
source for
his
information
about
Strabo,
as well
as for
the
comparison
of Greece
to
"the
picture
of a man."
Hippocrates
wrote
at least one geographical essay, the lengthy "Airs, Waters, Places." See
Hippocrates,
rans.
W.H.S.Jones,
4
vols.
(Cambridge,
MA:
Harvard Univ.
Press,
1962).
4Hippocrates, 1:121, 123-125.
"Burton could also
be
referring
to
Nicolaus
Gerbelius's
much
longer
work
Pro declaratione
picturae
siue
descriptionis
Graeciae
Sophiani,
libri
septemprinted
in Basel in
1550,
which
he
numbered
among
the volumes in his
personal
collection
(Kiessling, p. 126).
To
date,
I
have been unable
to obtain
a
copy
of
the
longer
Pro
declaratione
and
therefore cannot
determine
which source he
consulted.
According
to
the
National Union
Catalog,
it is available
at
the
University
of
Pennsylvania
in
Philadelphia.
47Strabocould have been credited with making such a comparison in some
other
corrupt source, given
the nature
of
many
other
comparisons
in
the
Geography.
The
erroneous attribution
may
indicate
good guesswork
on
Burton's
part. Alternatively,
Burton
could have
been
working
from a
corrupt
text.
To describe the
shape
of
particular
land
formations
in his
Geography,
Strabo
often
compares
them to familiar
objects,
both animate
and
inanimate;
some
examples
include
a
leaf
of a
plane tree,
a
stag's
head and
horns,
a
millipede,
etc. One
obvious
example
from Strabo's
work
reads
"The
Peloponnesus
resembles
in
figure
the leaf
of a
plane
tree"
(Falconer, 2:5).
Pliny
uses the
same
comparison
in
Book
4, Chapter
4
of
his Natural
History.
We know that Burton
owned a
copy
of
Pliny
the
Elder's Natural
History,
in
Latin
(Kiessling, p. 238). By comparing
these
geographical
features
to
familiar
objects,
both Strabo and
Pliny
enabled
their readers
to
visualize
them.
Hippocrates, too,
made
anthropomorphic comparisons
in
at least
two of
the
essays
in the
Hippocratic Anthology.
"Pliny,
2:125.
4Pliny, 2:124.
50Pliny,
1:135.
5'For
more information about the
imaging
of
geography,
see
Karl
W.
Butzer's "Ueber
Strabo's
Geography" (cited
in
Tozer, p. 35;
no other
129
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130
BURTO
N' S
GEOGRAPHY
bibliographic
information
available).
If
one stretches
one's
imagination
a
bit,
it is
possible
to see the
supposed
head-and-shoulders
"picture
of a man" in
the lower
left-hand corner
of the
Europa map,
included in
post-1580
editions
of
Sebastian
Munster's
Cosmography. Presumably,
the maker
of the
map
included in
Munster's
book either read
Pliny
or
the
Gerbelius
summary
account of it.
52Mikhail
Bakhtin,
Rabelais and His
World,
trans.
Helene
Iswolsky
(Bloomington:
Indiana Univ.
Press,
1984),
p.
357.
53Bakhtin,
pp.
355-57.
54Bakhtin,
p.
355.
55Many
hanks to Dr.
James
Akerman,
Dr. David
Buisseret,
and Dr. Robert
Karrow of the
Newberry
Library
for their
advice and
assistance,
and to
the
Herman Dunlap Smith Center at the Newberry for a generous fellowship
which
helped
to
make this work
possible.
More thanks to Karl
Longstreth
and Professor
Walter
Mignolo
of the
University
of
Michigan
for
helping
to
make the
fellowship possible. Special
thanks to Professor David
Bevington
and Professor
Richard Strier of
the
University
of
Chicago
for moral
support
and
encouragement.
More
thanks to
ProfessorJanis
Holm of
Ohio
University
for the
editorial
expertise
she
generously
contributed to
this
project.