The Anatomy of Melancholy: Volume II

This is the second volume of the Clarendon edition of Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, containing the text and textual apparatus for `The Second Partition'. A third volume of text and two volumes of commentary will follow.

In `The Second Partition', Burton treats the spectrum of cures for melancholy, generally following the organization and analysis of symptoms and causes of the disorder as presented in `The First Partition'. Here is found Burton's remarkable synthesis of cultural geography and climatic influences on temperament in the `Digression of the Ayre' and his long excursion in the consolatio tradition. The final two sections of the partition present remedies from physics and surgery.