Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Robert Burton

1577–1640

Introduction

Autograph Manuscripts and Corrections

Examples of Robert Burton's handwriting are relatively rare and (unlike the papers of his brother, William) very few manuscripts associated with him are known to have survived. The most notable extant autograph manuscript is that of his Latin play Philosophaster (*BuR 2), another copy of which, in the hand of an amanuensis, may possibly bear Burton's minor corrections (BuR 3). Of the original papers for Burton's major work, The Anatomy of Melancholy — which became a popular quarry for extracts in commonplace books and miscellanies (see BuR 1-1.95) — the only relics are fragments of galley proofs of the second edition (1624), at least some of the jottings on which are in his hand (*BuR 1), and a few draft verses subsequently incorporated in the work. The printed exemplum of the first edition of The Anatomy (1621) which Burton presented to Christ Church was later owned by William Pickering (1796-1854), publisher, who on 15 August 1837 sold it to the British Library, which returned it in 1951 to Christ Church, where it is now Ch. Ch. Librarian's cabinet. STC 4159.

Burton's autograph will, made 15 August 1639, is preserved (*BuR 11) as are only two original letters by him, now in fragments (*BuR 7-9), and, at present, only one other known document bearing his signature (*BuR 10).

Burton's Library

The only other recorded examples of Burton's hand are occasional inscriptions and annotations in printed books from his library. Burton bequeathed his extensive library of approximately 1800 volumes to the Bodleian (which later sold some 210 of them as duplicate exempla) and to Christ Church, Oxford. Lists of Burton's Library are printed by S. Gibson and F.R.D. Needham in Proceedings & Papers of the Oxford Bibliographical Society, I (1922-6), 222-6. The library is also discussed in the same publication (pp. 182-90) by Sir William Osler. A more extensive bibliography of the library, with a number of facsimile examples of Burton's inscriptions (including his horoscope), is presented in Nicolas K. Kiessling, The Library of Robert Burton (Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1988), which is supplemented by his articles The Library of Robert Burton: Addenda and Corrigenda, The Book Collector, 40/1 (Spring 1991), 104-7, and The Library of Robert Burton: New Discoveries, The Book Collector, 45/2 (Summer 1996), 171-9.

Facsimile examples of pages bearing inscriptions or annotations by Burton also appear in Gibson and Needham, loc. cit., after p. 246; in Philosophaster, ed. Paul Jordan-Smith (Stanford, 1931), facing p. 237; in Ben Jonson, ed. C.H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson, VII (Oxford, 1941), 207; and in Nicolas K. Kiessling's exhibition catalogue The Legacy of Democritus Junior (Bodleian Library, 1990), passim.

No doubt other books from Burton's library will come to light in due course. Except for the extensive and particularly interesting annotations in his exemplum of Ptolemy's Quadripartitum (*BuR 5) and his notes in one other volume which throw light on Burton's birth date (*BuR 6), Burton's annotated books are not given entries below.

Miscellaneous

Some relevant biographical materials are discussed in Karl Josef Hölltgen, Robert Burton and the Rectory of Seagrave, Review of English Studies, NS 27 (1976), 129-36, and some horoscopes of Burton among the papers of Simon Forman (Bodleian, MS Ashmole 226) are discussed in Barbara H. Traister, New Evidence about Burton's Melancholy, Renaissance Quarterly, 29 (1976), 66-70. Burton's cipher (three r's in an inverted pyramid, representing the three dogs-heads in his family coat of arms) is explained by P. Henderson Aitken, The Cipher of Burton's Signature Solved, The Athenaeum (24 August 1912), 193-4.

Prose

The Anatomy of Melancholy

First published in Oxford, 1621. Edited by A.R. Shilleto (introduced by A.H. Bullen), 3 vols (London, 1893). Edited variously by Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicolas K. Kiessling, Rhonda L. Blair, J.B. Bamborough, and Martin Dodsworth, 6 vols (Oxford, 1989-2000).

*BuR 1
Autograph
Two fragments of pages from what was probably a galley proof of the second printed edition (Oxford, 1624); one fragment containing some rough jottings (names of places &c) in Burton's hand; the other (p. 80) containing two proof corrections in an unidentified hand.

Used as binder's waste in a printed exemplum of Josua Stegmann, Photinianismus (Rinteln, 1623) bound at Oxford.

1624

Recorded in W.G. Hiscock, Burton's Anatomy, TLS (18 May 1933), p. 348, and on Jan Moore, p. 76.

BuR 1.1
A corrected proof-sheet, for sigs 3O2r-v (pp. 481, 484) and 3O2v-3r (pp. 482-3), for the fourth printed edition (Oxford, 1632).

Removed from the binding of an exemplum of Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, 4th edition (London, 1631).

c.1631/2

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 73.

All Souls College, Oxford (SR 101.b.28a)
BuR 1.2
Part of a corrected proof-sheet (sigs 3Q1r-4v: pp. 495, 502) for the fourth printed edition of the Anatomy (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the binder's front endpaper in an exemplum of Benedictus Pererius, Opera theologica quotquot extant omnia (Cologne, 1620).

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 73.

BuR 1.215

Extracts.

In: A duodecimo commonplace book of extracts from philosophical works, under headings, in a single minute hand, xx + 327 pages (including a number of blanks), with an index, in modern calf gilt.
1687-8

Formerly owned by Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Bibliotheca Bibliographici (London, 1964), No. 19.

*BuR 1.22
Autograph
Autograph draft of four lines of verse, beginning deathes teror doth affright, a translation of lines by Lucretius later incorporated in the Anatomy (1621), inscribed on a flyleaf following a printed exemplum of John Bainbridge, An astronomicall description of the late comet from the 18. of Novem. 1618. to the 16. of December following (London, 1619).
c.1620

Discussed, with a facsimile, in Nicolas Kiessling, Two Notes on Robert Burton's Annotations: His Date of Conception, and a Fragment of Copy for The Anatomy of Melancholy, RES, NS 36 (1985), 375-9.

BuR 1.23

Extracts.

In: A large untitled folio anthology of quotations chiefly from Elizabethan and Stuart plays, alphabetically arranged under subject headings, in a single mixed hand, in double columns, 900 pages (lacking pp. 1-4, 379-80, 667-8, 715-20 and 785-8), including (pp. 893-7) an alphabetical index of some 351 titles of plays, in modern boards.

This is the longest known extant version of the unpublished anthology Hesperides or The Muses Garden, by John Evans, entered in the Stationers' Register on 16 August 1655 and subsequently advertised c.1660, among works he purposed to print, by Humphrey Moseley. Another version of this work, in the same hand, dissected by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), is now distributed between Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Halliwell-Phillipps, Notes upon the Works of Shakespeare, Folger, MS V.a.75, Folger, MS V.a.79, and Folger, MS V.a.80.

c.1656-66

Formerly MS 469.2.

This MS identified in IELM, II.i (1980), p. 450. Discussed, as the master draft, with a facsimile of p. 7 on p. 381, in Hao Tianhu, Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden and its Manuscript History, The Library, 7th Ser. 10/4 (December 2009), 372-404 (the full index printed as Catalogue A on pp. 385-94).

BuR 1.24

Extracts, headed Burtons melancho:.

In: An octavo commonplace book of extracts, in Latin and English, in a single mixed hand, 73 unfoliated leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf.
Mid-17th century
Hertfordshire Record Office (DE/P F11 ff. [24r, 29r-30r]) | Catalogue
BuR 1.25

Extracts.

In: A quarto commonplace book, in a single mixed hand, 319 pages (including blanks, plus a few more), in brown calf.
c.1620s-40s
Inner Temple Library (Miscellaneous MS No. 17 passim)
BuR 1.255
Manuscript notes, partly derived from notes made by George Steevens (1736-1800). literary editor and scholar, on 32 pages tipped-into an exemplum of the 1652 printed edition of The Anatomy, in dark brown calf.
c.1800
Inner Temple Library (Miscellaneous No. 81)
BuR 1.265

Extracts, headed Democritus Junior pag 277.

In: An octavo pocket notebook, largely in Latin, in a formal cursive hand, written from both ends, unfoliated, in a contemporary vellum wallet binding.
Mid-17th century
BuR 1.268

Extracts.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, including ten poems by Carew and one of doubtful authorship, in a single neat non-professional hand, 72 leaves (plus a later index).
c.1643-50s

Later owned by the Newcastle antiquarian collectors John Bell (1783-1864) and Robert White (1802-74).

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Bell-White MS, CwT Δ 30. Described, with facsimiles of ff. 30r and 56v, in T.G.S. Cain, The Bell/White MS: Some Unpublished Poems, ELR, 2 (1972), 260-70.

University of Newcastle upon Tyne (MS Bell/White 25 f. a4)
BuR 1.3
A corrected proof-sheet (sigs 2X1v-4r: pp. 352, 357, and 3F2v-3r: pp. 418-19) for the fourth printed edition of the Anatomy (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the binder's front and rear endpapers in an exemplum of Johannis-Henricus Alstedius, Encyclopædia (Herborn, 1630).

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 77.

New College, Oxford (Wyatt Library, T.T.24.5)
BuR 1.4
A corrected proof-sheet (sigs 3R1r-4v: pp. 503, 510, and 3R1v-4r: pp. 504, 509, perfected by 3S2v-3r: pp. 514-15) for the fourth printed edition of the Anatomy (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the binder's front and rear endpapers in an exemplum of Gregorius Thaumaturgus, Opera omnia (Paris, 1622).

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 77.

BuR 1.5
A corrected proof-sheet for sigs 3Q1v (p. 496) and 3Q4r (p. 501) for the fourth printed edition of the Anatomy (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the front and rear endpapers in a printed exemplum of Joannes Philoponus, In cap. i Geneseos, de mundi creatione, libri septem. Intreprete B. Corderio (Vienna, 1630).

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 79.

BuR 1.6
A perfected proof-sheet, for sig 4K1r-v (pp. 629-30), for the fourth printed edition (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the rear endpaper in a printed exemplum of Meric Casaubon, De quatuor linguis (London, 1650).

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 79.

BuR 1.7
A corrected proof-sheet, for sigs 3Y2v-3r (pp. 546, 547 misprinted as 548), for the fourth printed edition (Oxford, 1632).

Used as the front endpaper in a printed exemplum of Xanthopulus Nicephorus Callistus, Ecclesiasticæ historiæ libri duodeviginti (Paris, 1630), vol. I.

c.1632

Recorded in Jan Moore, p. 80.

BuR 1.8

Extracts.

In: A duodecimo notebook of verse and prose, comprising 131 interleaves in a printed exemplum of John Sansbury's Ilium in Italiam (Oxford, 1608), in contemporary calf (rebacked), blind-stamped S. S. on the upper cover.

Owned in 1619, and probably compiled, by Simon Sloper (b.1596/7), of Magdalen Hall, Oxford.

c.1620s-30s

Bought from Parker, of Oxford, 2 April 1889, by Percy Manning and bequeathed by him in 1917.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, f through end (MS Eng. poet. f. 10 ff. 74, 95v-6) | Catalogue
BuR 1.81

Extracts, in a neat mixed hand, headed Noates gathered out of the Anatomy of Melancholy written by Democritus Iunior.

In: A folio miscellany, in several hands, 181 leaves, in 19th-century half-morocco.
Early-mid-17th century
The British Library: Sloane Collection (Sloane MS 1965 ff. 122r-36r)
BuR 1.95

Extracts.

In: A folio verse miscellany, predominantly in one hand, chiefly in double columns, 92 pages, lacking covers.
Early 18th century

Formerly Osborn MS. Chest II, Number 4.

Dramatic works

Philosophaster

Probably written 1606; revised 1615; performed 16 February 1617/18 at Christ Church, Oxford. First published, edited by W.E. Buckley, Roxburghe Club (Hertford, 1862). Edited by Paul Jordan-Smith (Stanford, 1931). Edited and translated by Connie McQuillen (Binghamton, New York, 1993).

*BuR 2
Autograph
Autograph MS, 90 quarto pages (plus blanks and later notes), in contemporary blind-stamped calf.

With a title-page, inscribed Scripta Ao domin 1606; Argumentum; Dramatis Personae; Prologus and Epilogus; and cast list for the performance in 1617 at Christ Church, Oxford (including polypragmaticus Mr Goffe mr of Artes, student); the text subscribed Feb: 16to: 1617.

[1617-1618]

Bookplate of Jeremiah Milles, D.D., FSA (1714-84), Dean of Exeter, antiquary. His sale 10 April 1843, to W. Pickering, bookseller. Sold to the Rev. William Edward Buckley, of Middleton Cheney, 8 April 1846. Later in the library of William Augustus White (1843-1927), banker and book collector, of Brooklyn, New York.

Edited from this MS by editors. Discussed, with a facsimile example of f. 27r, in Connie McQuillen's edition of the play, p. 224, and in her Robert Burton's Philosophaster. Holograph Status of the Manuscripts, Manuscripta, 29 (1985), 148-53. Facsimile of f. 14r in IELM, I.i, Facsimile VI (p. 141). A facsimile of the complete MS is in the edition of the play by Marvin Spevack (Hildesheim, 1984).

Facsimiles of pp. 10-11 in The Houghton Library 1942-1967: A Selection of Books and Manuscripts in Harvard Collections (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), p. 167, and of f. 14r in IELM, I, i, Facsimile VI, p. 141.

BuR 3
Copy, in the italic hand of an amanuensis, with deletions and corrections, with a title-page Philosophsister [sic] Comædia noua scripta Ao domini 1606...Auctore Roberto Burton...Ædis Christi Oxon alumno 1617..., 85 quarto pages, subscribed on f. 83r (before the Epilogus) Finis...Feb: 16to. 16i7, in contemporary calf (rebacked).

Presented by Burton to his brother, William, in 1618.

1617

Inscribed (p. 1) Liber Wmi: Burton Lindliaci Leicestresis de Falde com: Staff: 1618: ex dono fratris mei Robte Burton Authoris. Inscribed (f. [ir]) fishers Alley New Street, 2 house in the Al: Mr Burrage. Afterwards Mostyn MS 197, from the Gloddaeth Library originally founded by Sir Thomas Mostyn (1535-1617) at Mostyn Hall, near Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, and maintained by Sir Roger Mostyn (1567-1642) and his son Sir Roger Mostyn, first Baronet (1625?-90).

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, p. 356. Discussed, with a facsimile example of f. 9r, in McQuillen's edition, p. 223, and in her Robert Burton's Philosophaster. Holograph Status of the Manuscripts, Manuscripta, 29 (1985), 148-53, where it is suggested that the corrections and additions are probably in Burton's own hand. A microfilm of the MS is at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-on-Avon (Mic S6).

BuR 4 c.1617-18

Copy of the actor's part for the role of Polypragmaticus, in the hand of Thomas Goffe (c.1591-1629) who played this role in the Christ Church production.

This MS discussed, with a facsimile of f. 48r, in David Carnegie, The Identification of the Hand of Thomas Goffe, Academic Dramatist and Actor, The Library, 5th Ser. 26 (1971), 161-5.

Facsimile of two pages in The Houghton Library 1942-1967: A Selection of Books and Manuscripts in Harvard Collections (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), p. 167. Facsimiles of the first page in Thomas Goffe, The Couragious Turke, ed. David Carnegie, Malone Society (Oxford, 1974), Plate III, and in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 121. Facsimile of f. 51 in McQuillen's edition of the play, p. 224.

In: An octavo volume of actors' parts for four Latin and English academic plays, in different hands, ii + 68 leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Given to the library by Mr and Mrs John Fleming.

Harvard Theatre Collection (MS Thr 10.1 ff. [46r-54r]) | Catalogue

Marginalia in Printed Books and Manuscripts

Ptolemaeus, Claudius. Quadripartitum (Paris, 1519)
*BuR 5
Autograph
Extensive autograph astronomical and astrological notes, including Burton's horoscope.
1603

Facsimiles of Burton's horoscope in Proceedings & Papers of the Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1 (1922-6), after p. 246, and in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate LXXXIII. The volume discussed in J.B. Bamborough (with appendix by C.J. Eade), Robert Burton's Astrological Notebook, RES, NS. 32 (1981), 267-85.

Stadius. Ephemerides (Cologne, 1581)
*BuR 6
Autograph
Autograph annotations, including notes giving birth dates of members of Burton's family and his own birthdate, 8 February 1576/7.
Early 17th century

Discussed in Nicolas Kiessling, Two Notes on Robert Burton's Annotations: His Date of Conception, and a Fragment of Copy for The Anatomy of Melancholy, RES, NS 36 (1985), 375-9.

Letters

Letter(s)
*BuR 7
Autograph
Portion of an autograph letter signed by Burton, to John Smyth of Nibley, Gloucestershire, 7 August 1635.
1635

Formerly in the library at Crewe Hall. Sotheby's, 22 October 1956, lot 43, with a facsimile in the sale catalogue.

For another portion of the letter, see BuR 8.

*BuR 8
Autograph
Portion of an autograph letter signed by Burton, to John Smyth of Nibley, Gloucestershire, 7 August 1635.

For another portion of the letter, see British Library, Add. MS 49381, f. 2r.

1635

Among papers of the Smyth family of North Nibley, Gloucestershire, and the Cowper family of Lancashire.

Facsimile in Nicolas K. Kiessling's exhibition catalogue The Legacy of Democritus Junior (Bodleian Library, 1990), Plate VI, p. 20.

Gloucestershire Archives (Smyth of Nibley papers D8887/vol. 10 item 54) | Catalogue
*BuR 9
Autograph
A fragment (last part only) of an autograph letter by Burton to his brother William, 11 August 1605.

Offering evidence of Burton's part-authorship of a lost play (probably in Latin), Alba, acted before James I in 1605.

1605

Among the papers of William Burton (1575-1645), Leicestershire antiquary.

Edited and discussed in Richard L. Nochimson, Robert Burton's Authorship of Alba: A Lost Letter Recovered, RES, NS 21 (1970), 325-31, where it is observed that one of three sheets at Stafford containing the outside addresses from letters to William Burton appears to be inscribed by Robert To my very loving brother, but that it is not clear whether it belongs to the letter of 11 August 1605 or to some other, lost letter. Facsimile in Nicolas K. Kiessling's exhibition catalogue The Legacy of Democritus Junior (Bodleian Library, 1990), Plate V, p. 15.

Documents

Document(s)
*BuR 10
Autograph
A document signed by Burton (Robt: Burton) as witness on a deed poll from Bevil Wymberley and his wife Elizabeth, of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, to Richard Broome, of Spalding, for lands in Spalding, ovellum, 15 August 1621.
1621

Later owned by Roger Barrett, Chicago lawyer. Simon Finch, sale catalogue No. 35 (1998), item 20, with a facsimile example.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Burton MS])
Will
*BuR 11
Autograph
Burton's autograph last will and testament, with his revisions, dated 15 August 1639, proved 11 May 1640.

Edited and discussed in Nicolas K. Kiessling, Robert Burton's Will Holograph Copy, RES, NS 41 (February 1990), 94-101. Complete facsimile in Nicolas K. Kiessling's exhibition catalogue The Legacy of Democritus Junior (Bodleian Library, 1990), Plates VII-IX, pp. 22-4.

BuR 12
Probate copy of Burton's last will and testament.
1640

Edited from this MS in Publications of the Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1 (1926), 218-20, and in Paul Jordan-Smith's edition of Philosophaster (Stanford, 1931), pp. 275-7.

National Archives, Kew (PROB 11/183 (f. 56)) | Catalogue

Contents