Chapter VIII

THE "ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY"
The first edition of this work is dated 1621. It purports to have been printed at Oxford for Henry Cripps by John Lichfield and James Short, as were also the second edition in 1624, the third in 1628, and the fourth in 1632. The fifth, published in 1638 by Henry Cripps, appears to have been printed in Edinburgh, and the sixth in 1652 was printed by E. W. of London for Henry Cripps of Oxford. At the end of the 1632 edition is the following address:
To THE Eeader
Be pleased to know (Courteous Eeader) that since the last Im- pression of this Book the ingenuous Author of it is deceased, leaving a Copy of it, exactly corrected, with severall considerable Additions by his own hand ; This Copy he committed to my care and custody, with directions to have those additions inserted in the next Edition : which in order to his command, and the Pub- licke Good, is faithfully performed in this last Impression.
H. C.
We invite attention to two things in this notice. The first is that there are no " considerable Additions " to the 1638 edition in this of 1652, as the former contains 809 pages and the latter 810, the unpaged synopsis not included. The pages of the latter do not contain more printod matter on them, as many pages are word for word the same, commencing and finishing on the same letter. Even several mispaginations are alike in the two editions.
Then why did Henry Cripps speak of the " ingenuous Author " and not " Eobert Burton," the real author of the book ? For it must not be over- looked that only in the first edition does the name of Eobert Burton appear, and then not on the title-page, but at the end of an Epilogue entitled " The Conclusion to the Eeader. ' ' This Epilogue was omitted from the later edition s, and only the name of Democritus junior appears as the author.
In the 1624 or second edition, as if to compensate for the absence of Eobert
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Burton's name, certain references are made to Ms family, etc., none'of which are in the first edition: " To my brother Ralfe Burton " (p. 445). " To W. Burton, mine elder brother " (p. 12). " To Lindley, where was my father's house, and to my mother " (pp. 220 and 324).
To the third edition of 1628 a new frontispiece was added, composed of ten little engravings, one of which is a portrait with the name under it of " Democritus junior."
In the fourth edition of 1632, each of these little engravings has a number given to it, and verses are put on the opposite page descriptive of the drawings. The verses are called " The Argument of the Frontispeice," and the verse to the Democritus portrait is as follows :
" Now last of all to fill a place Presented is the Author's face, And in that habit which he weares His Image to the world ap'peares. His minde no art can well expresse, That by his writings you may gr.csse It v/as not pride, nor yet vaineglory (Though others doe it commonly)
'' Made him doe this; if you must know. The Printer would needs have it so. Then, doe not frowne or scoffe at it, Deride not, or detract a whit. For surely as thou dost by him He will doe the same againe. Then looTce upon't, behold and see; As thou likest it, so it likes thee."
These lines are similar in idea to those in the First Foho, opposite the portrait of Shakespeare. The Anatomy and the 1623 Shakespeare Folio have another thing in common: both exhibit the 287 seal in a prehminary verse. In the Foho, as has already been shewn, the seal is very simple, the verse consisting of 287 letters. In the Anatomy verse it is more involved, but none the less shewn, for there are 506 italic words, 173 roman letters, and 46 in figures, the two latter added together making 219, and this total being deducted from the total italic words leaves the 287 seal.
There are several references in the various editions of the Anatomy to the Rosy Cross brotherhood — namely:
In the 1621 edition, on p. 68, is the following: " I should here except that
REVELATIONS OF ROSICEUCIAN ARCANA 53
omniscious, only wise fraternitie* of St. Roses Crosse, if at least there be any such: as Hen. Neuhusius makes a doubt of: and Elias artifex their Theo- phrastian master: For they are all betrothed to wisedome, if we may beleeve their disciples and followers."
In the 1624 and later editions is added to the above after " master " as follows: "Whom though Libavius and others deride and carpe at, yet some will have him to be the renuer of all arts and sciences, and now living, for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis that great patron of Paracelsus contends and certainely avertes, a most divine man, and the quintescence of wisdome wheresoever he is, for he, his fraternity, friends, etc., they are all betrothed to wisdome, if we may beleeve their Disciples and followers."
In the 1621 (p. 55) and in the 1624: " Wee had need of some generall visiter in our age, that should reforme what is amisse." To which the 1628 (p. 58) and later editions add : " A just army of Rosie Crosse men, for they will amend all matters (they say) Religion, Policy, maimers, with arts, sciences," etc. The 1621 (p. 467) and later editions have: "Let Paracelsus . . . and the brethren of St. Roses crosse defend themselves as they may."
Lastly, the 1632 (p. 281) and later editions : " But our Alcumists meethinks • and Rosie Crosse men afford most rarieties, and are fuller of experiments," etc.
The Rosicrucian numeral signature 287 is shewn in the first edition of 1621 :
On the first title-page are 164 roman letters of large type, and on the second page 123, making together 287. {Note. — The w's are really two v's, the " s " in philosophically and the " a " in historically are roman and not italic letters.)
Pr.ze 1 of Democritus to the Reader contains 208 roman words,, and there are 79 italic letters on the second title-page, which added, make 287.
If the roman words from the commencement be counted, the 287th word ^ is " bee," which is immediately above the significant words " I have maskedr myself e under this visard."
On page 68, which has the first reference to the fraternitie of St. Roses Crosse, there are 276 roman words, counting Low-countries as two, and four figures, 2, 2, 3, 4 = 11, which add, making 237.
Page 1 of the first partition contains 170 roman and italic words, and in the heading 116 roman and italic letters and 1 italic capital as a turnover word, together making 287.
* Fratres sanctse Roseae crueis.
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The Second Partition commences on page 287, which might be considered sufficient in itself, but counting from the first word " inveterate," this page contains 135 roman words and 84 itahc letters, and there are also 68 italic letters in the marginal notes, together making 287.
On page 495 the Third Partition commences. This page contains 137 roman words and 134 italic letters, and there are 16 roman and italic words in the heading, making 287.
The last two pages of the work are 782 and 783. The first of these is 287 backwards, and the second has a 2 just above.
The last subsection (called 6 in the heading and 5 at the top of the next page) contains exactly 287 roman words.
Page 783, the last one, contains 208 roman words and 79 italic letters; total 287, counting the symbol " &c." in both types as 1.
In the Couclusion to the Reader, on the last 2 pages, counting from the last marginal note at " It now remains," there are 373 roman words and 86 roman words in brackets. These latter being deducted leave 287.
The above facts furnish strong prima facie proof that the author was one of the Rosie Crosse brethren and used the " 287 " sigil.
In the " Bi-literal cipher of Francis Bacon " (by Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup), on page 111, Bacon claims the authorship of the Anatomy of Melancholy in these words: " When you have fully decypher'd this, you will not at once see our next worke. . . . Th' worke beareth the title of th' Anatomy of Melancholy, and mil bee put forth by Burton."
Is there anything in the work itself (apart from the personal cipher signa- tures, which will next be considered) to cause one to doubt whether Burton was the real author ? The following extracts would seem to do so :
Page 1, Democritus to the Reader: "I presume thou wilt be very in V quisitive to knowe what personate Actor this is, that so insolently intrudes • upon this common Theater, to the worlds view, arrogating another mans name," etc.
" Seeke not after that which is hid, if the contents please thee, and bee for thy use, suppose the man in the Moone, or whom thou wilt to bee the Author : I would not willingly be knovv^ne."
Page 2: " Although there bee some other circumstances for which I have masked ray selfe under this visard, and some peculiar respects, which I cannot so well expresse."
After this, at the end of the first edition, but in none of the later ones, appears the following, extracted from the Couclusion of the Author to the
REVELATIONS OF ROSICRUCIAN ARCANA 55
Reader. (A"oi5e.— Whenever a conspicuous word like " conclusion " is spelt wrongly, look out for something hidden.) :
" I intended at first to have concealed my selfe, but secundse cogitationes, etc., for some reasons I have altered mine intent, and am willing to subscribe."
The Epilogue ends with the name " Robert Burton." This explanation may be accepted for the first edition, but Why should not the later ones openly bear Burton's name, as the Epilogue was suppressed in these ? Great care seems to have been taken not to put anything in the work likely to discredit the belief in Robert Bu.rton's authorship, but the two following passages seem to do so. On page 50 of Democritus to the Reader the writer is refer- ring to laws and lawyers, and says :
" A Deede {as I have oft seen), to conveye a whole Manour, was implicite contained in some twenty lines or thereabouts. But now many skinnes of Parchment will scarce serve turne, he that buys and selles a house, must have a house full of writings, there be so many circumstances, so many words, such Tautologicall repetitions of all particulars (to avoid cavillation they say), but we find by our wofull experience, that to subtile wits it is a cause of much more contention and variance, and scarce any Conveiance so accurately penned by one, which another will not find a crack in, or cavell at, if one word be misplaced, any httle error, all is disanuUed." Then later, speaking about lawsuits, he says: " And at this present, as I have heard in some one court I know not how many 1000 causes."
Do not the passages in italics seem rather the words of a lawyer or judge than of this divine who on page 3 reminds us " that I have liv'd a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, mihi and musis, in the University this twentie yeares, and more, penned up most part in my study."?
The other passage to which attention is called is in the Couclusion of the Author to the Reader. The writer says: "It is most true, stylus virum arguit, our style bewrayes us, and as hunters find their game by the trace, I have laid my selfe open (I know it) in this Treatise." How could Burton have been betrayed by his style ? He was a new author if he wrote the book.
There are other oddities in the Anatomy pages. On the first title- page, when considering the 287 signature, attention was drawn to the ^'s, shewn as v's, and to the roraan letters " s " and " a," put wliere italic letters should have been used. These letters were probably selected, not only to make the 287 count correct, but to represent " Viscount St. Alban " (V.S.A.). There are references in the Anatomy to finds at Old Verulam (St. Albans) which Robert Burton could hardly have known of.
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On this same title-page there is a Latin quotation — " Omne meum, NiMJ
meum " (" 'Tis all mine and none mine "), as the author gives the translation
on page 9. The quotation in itself is significant, but why is " Macxobius "
shortened to " Macrob," and the quotation put after the name of its author
instead of before ?. Why was a capital letter put to " Nihil " when, as on
page 9, a small one would be correct ? An anagrammatic signature certainly
resulted :
MACROB = Mr. Bacon.
N
Bacon made no scruple of referring to himself as Mr. Bacon in his Apophthegms, pubhshed in 1625. In the 1624 edition of the Anatomy the anagram is she-iArn even more plainly. We give facsimiles of both title-pages.
It will be observed that the words " by the Author " have been placed over the word " Macrob," and the Capital " N " is in a larger type than the " " to call attention to it, the " " often being used to indicate cipher. It now reads " By the Author Mr. Bacon."
While looking at the 1624 title-page, it will be noticed that the 287 count, though still shewn, is altered. There are now 368 roman letters of large size. Deduct 81 large italics=287. Page 1 contains 314 roman words and there are 27 large type letters in the heading, which deducted leave 287.
In the 1621 edition there is a suspicion of an anagram on the first page of Democxitus to the Reader : " I am free borne and " (I am Fr. B.)
In the 1628 edition tliis has been improved upon, for by the addition of one or two extra words and capital letters, this is shewn as : .
I am a free man fcorne
who can com- " I am Fr. Bacon.
On page 287 of the 1621 edition, there would seem to be several anagrams of the name " Bacon " :
The 2nd line has " bee a con " The 5th line has " b " Con " The 8th line has " *> Con " The 18th line has " bee con "
Let us now consider the numerical personal cipher signatures. In a previous