Martin Dodsworth – författare

This is the fourth volume of the Clarendon edition of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy and the first of three volumes of Commentary. It contains commentary on the text up to p. 327 of volume one - i.e. The Argument of the Frontispeice, Democritus to the Reader, and Partition 1 as far as the end of Section 2, Member 3, Subsection 15: 'Misery of Schollers'. In his study of morbid psychology as it was understood in his day, Burton cites many other writers. No previous edition of the Anatomy has identified all of these or verified all his quotations. In addition to explanatory notes and translations of all the passages in Latin, this edition attempts to locate all Burton's sources in the actual books he himself owned or to which he probably had access. The last of the three volumes of commentary will contain a Biobibliography listing over 1,500 authorities referred to by Burton, many very obscure, and will give not only bibliographical details but information about the writers.

This, the fifth volume of the Clarendon Press edition of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, contains commentary on the text from Partition 1, Section 2, Member 4, Subsection 1 until the end of Part. 1, and on the whole of the second Partition. It thus concludes Burton's account of the causes, the symptoms, and the prognosis of melancholy, and his examination of the remedies for the disease both spiritual and medical. As before, the aim of the commentary is to aid the reader to understand Burton's meaning (to which end all the passages in Latin are translated) and to identify the sources of his many quotations from and references to other authors. The third and last volume of the commentary, and of the edition, will contains a full Bibliography of these authors and brief biographical notes on them.

This, the final volume of the Clarendon Press edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, contains commentary on the Third Partition, in which Burton considers two especial forms of the disease, Love and Religious Melancholy. In treating of these Burton had fewer precedents to follow than in previous sections, but he was able to draw largely on his extensive knowledge of classical literature and also on his acquaintance with English drama and poetry (including popular verse). As ever his range of reference to other authors is wide, and the volume includes an index which gives biographical and bibliographical information concerning the more than 1550 authorities cited in the Anatomy, most of whom are little known today. Also included are an index of the major topics discussed in the Anatomy, and a complete bibliography of all the works mentioned in the commentary.