1049 



BURTON, ROBERT. 



BUSBEQUIUS, A. G. 



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cate in 1831. He was a contributor to the later volumes and to the 

 Supplement of the ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' chie6y on subjects connected 

 with Scottish law. In 1842 Mr. Burton assisted Sir John Bowring 

 in preparing for the press the edition of the collected works of 

 Jeremy Bentham, which was published at Edinburgh in parts. After 

 the completion of that publication, Mr. Burton in 1843 wrote an 

 ' Introduction to the Study of the Works of Jeremy Bentham,' and 

 also ' Benthamiana, or Select Extracts from the Works of Jeremy 

 Bentham.' In the 'Introduction' Mr. Burton enters into an explana- 

 tion of the views of Bentham, and classifies his works according to 

 their nature, extent, and success, and also defends him for certain 

 peculiarities of nomenclature, and against those who have charged 

 him with obscurity of style. The ' Benthamiana ' is subsidiary to the 

 ' Introduction,' exhibiting Bentham's principles and opinions in his 

 own words. In 1846 he published ' The Life and Correspondence of 

 David Hume,' 2 vols. 8vo, Edinburgh ; in 1847 ' Lives of Lord Lovat 

 and Duncan Forbes of Cullodeu,' 8vo, London ; in 1849 he edited 

 ' Letters of Eminent Persons addressed to David Hume : from the 

 Papers bequeathed by his Nephew to the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' 

 8vo, Edinburgh, 1849, and wrote 'Political and Social Economy,' 

 ICmo, Edinburgh, one of a series of ' books for the people" issued by 

 the Messrs. Chambers. In 1851 he published ' Emigration in its 

 Practical Application to Individuals and Communities,' 12mo, Edin- 

 burgh, 1851 ; and in 1852, 'Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scot- 

 land,' 2 vols. 8vo, London. The most important narrative of this 

 series is that of the trial of Captain Green for piracy. Green was 

 captain of an English merchant vessel, and the piracy was committed 

 on the crew and cargo of a vessel fitted out by the Scotch Darien 

 Company. Captain Green was found guilty, and was executed 

 April 9, 1705. Mr. Burton's account is mainly drawn from materials 

 which be found in an old chest in a cellar belonging to the Advocates' 

 Library. The chest contained a mass of papers connected with the 

 concemi of the Darien Company, which was established in 1695. In 

 1853 Mr. Burton published ' The History of Scotland, from the Revolu- 

 tion to the Extinction of the Jacobite Insurrection,' 2 vols. 8vo, London. 

 This work embraces a period of about sixty years, from 1689 to 1748, 

 and includes an account of the re-establishment of Presbyterianism in 

 Scotland after the Revolution, the Union with England, the insurrec- 

 tion of 1715, and the insurrection of 1745. Mr. Burton has also pub- 

 lished a ' Manual of the Law of Scotland,' and a ' Treatise on the Law 

 of Bankruptcy,' in that country. In 1854 he was appointed Secretary 

 to the Prison, Board of Scotland. 



BURTON, ROBERT, author of the ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' was 

 born at Lindley, in the county of Leicester, on the 8th of February, 

 1576, and was descended of a reputable and ancient family. He 

 received part of his education at the grammar-school of Sutton Cold- 

 field, in the county of Warwick ; and was admitted a commoner of 

 Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1593, where he made considerable pro- 

 gress in logic and philosophy. In 1599 he was elected student of 

 Christchurch. In 1616 he was presented to the vicarage of St. Thomas, 

 in the gift of that college ; and at a later period, after the year 1628, 

 he was presented by Lord Berkeley to the rectory of Segrave in 

 Leicestershire. It is said that he composed the ' Anatomy of Melan- 

 choly,' published in 1621, with the intent of diverting his own 

 thoughts from that feeling. These are all the facts and dates recorded 

 by Anthony Wood concerning Burton's life. He died at Christchurch 

 on the 25th of January, 1639-40, at or very near the time which ho had 

 before foretold, from the calculation of his own nativity. This coin- 

 cidence gave rise to a rumour which probably was jocose rather than 

 serious, at least there is not a particle of evidence to support it, that 

 he hastened his own death that his astrological skill might not be put 

 to nhame. He bequeathed two sums of 1001. each to the Bodleian 

 and the Christchurch library, the annual proceeds to be employed in 

 purchasing books ; and he also ordered that those two establishments 

 should select from his own collection any books which they did not 

 possess. Those acquired by the Bodleian are said by Bliss, in his 

 edition of Wood's ' Athena; Oxon.,' to form one of the most curious 

 additions ever made to that collection. " They consist of all the 

 historical, political, and poetical tracts of his own time ; with a large 

 collection of miscellaneous accounts of murders, monsters, and acci- 

 dents. In short, he seems to have purchased indiscriminately every- 

 thing that was published." 



Wood gives the following character of Burton : " He was an exact 

 mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general-read 

 scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and one that understood the 

 surveying of lands well. As he was by many accounted a severe 

 student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humourous person, 

 so by others who knew him well, a person of great honesty, plain 

 dealing, and charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ- 

 church often say that his company was very merry, facete, and 

 juvenile ; and no man in his time did surpass him for his ready and 

 dexterous interlarding his common discourses among them with verses 

 from the poets, or sentences from classical authors ; which, being then 

 all the fashion in the university, made his company more acceptable." 



We give the title at length, as it contains also an analysis, of his 

 famous work: 'The Anatomy of Melancholy: what it is, with all 

 the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognosticks, and severall cures of it. 

 In three mainc partitions, with their severall sections, members, aud 



subsections. Philosophically, medicinally, historically opened and cut 

 up. By Democritus Junior. With a satyricall Preface, conducing to 

 the following Discourse. Macrob. Ornne meum j iiihil meum.' In 

 defence of this title, he says : " It is a kind of policy in these days 

 to prefix a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold ; for as larks 

 come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and stand 

 gazing." The name of Democritus Junior is introduced in the inscrip- 

 tion on his monument in Christchurch cathedral ; on which the calcu- 

 lation of his nativity was also engraved. A plate of it is given in 

 Nichols's ' History of Leicester,' vol. iii. p. 418, from which, together 

 with the 'Atlienie Oxoniensis,' this article is compiled. Tho 

 ' Anatomy," &c., at first was very popular, and went through five 

 editions before the author's death. Towards the close of the 17th 

 century it fell into oblivion, and was seldom seen except on book- 

 stalls, until brought into notice by Johnson (who said that it was the 

 only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than ho 

 wished to rise), Warton, and others. Mr. Steevens in his own copy 

 noted a rise in price, within a few years, from eighteen pence to a 

 guinea and a half. Since that time one edition at least has been pub- 

 lished. Sterne was largely indebted to Burton's peculiar humour, 

 though he never acknowledged it : many even of his stories are copied 

 word for word from the ' Anatomy of Melancholy : ' this Dr. Ferriar 

 has fully shown in his ' Illustrations of Sterne,' 1798. The ' Anatomy 

 of Melancholy' displays that extent and variety of out-of-the-way 

 reading to which Sterne was a pretender ; it is termed a ' cento ' by 

 its author, and consists chiefly of an immense mass of quotations, 

 bearing on a great variety of subjects, some very little connected 

 with the main topic of the Work. It is a book which will always be 

 relished by men of scholarly habits, for its abundant learning and dry, 

 quaint, and often splenetic humour. And we may add that Sterne is 

 not the only writer who has resorted to the 'Anatomy of Melancholy ' 

 as to a common place-book, for learned garnishings of his literary 

 wares. 



Not to be confounded with the above is the author of a number of 

 cheap books published about the beginning of the ISth century, with 

 the name of Robert Burton in the title-page. 



BUSBE'QUIUS, A. G., a celebrated traveller and ambassador of the 

 16th century. His real name was Auger Gislen de Busbec, which, 

 according to the practice of his age and country, was Latinised into 

 Augerius Gislenius Busbequius. He was bom at Commines, a town 

 in Flanders, on the river Lys, and was the illegitimate son of the lord 

 of Busbec, a nobleman of ancient family, who brought him up in his 

 own house, and spared no care or expense in his education. The boy 

 made such rapid progress in his studies, and his disposition, person, 

 and abilities, were so promising, that his father became very fond of 

 him, and was induced to obtain from his sovereign, the emperor 

 Charles V., a rescript of legitimacy in his favour. When he grew up, 

 Busbequius was sent to study in the best schools and universities on 

 the continent to Louvain, Paris, Venice, Bologna, aud Padua ; at 

 which several places he associated with the most learned professors 

 and distinguished men of his times. Having finished his academical 

 studies and returned from Italy, ho visited London, where he passed 

 some time with Don Pedro Lasso, ambassador at the English court 

 from Ferdinand, then titular king of the Romans, but shortly after- 

 wards Ferdinand I., emperor of Germany. During his stay in England 

 he was present as one of the ambassador's suite at the solemnisation 

 of the marriage between Philip II. of Spain and Queen Mary of 

 England, in 1554. Shortly after this he returned to Flanders. His 

 reputation for ability, knowledge, and experience in public affairs stood 

 so high, and his friends at the court of Vienna were so influential, that 

 on the 3rd of November of the same year he received a letter from 

 Ferdinand, advising him that ho was destined for the important post 

 of ambassador to Constantinople, and that he must begin his journey 

 immediately. Busbequius accordingly mounted on horseback (for 

 there was then no other mode of making the journey), and rode from 

 Brussels to Vienna through very bad weather and detestable roads. 

 Having received his despatches and instructions from King Ferdinand, 

 he set out with boldness and alacrity for Constantinople, although the 

 circumstances of the case would have been sufficient to deter most 

 persons. The Turks were then at the height of their power, intole- 

 rance, and insolence ; they had conquered Transylvania, and nearly all 

 Hungary ; they were within a few days' march of Vienna, where their 

 mere name spread terror ; and the reiguing Sultan, Solyman the Great, 

 or Magnificent, was fierce and unrelenting, and accustomed to treat 

 the envoys of Christian powers who did not please him in a very sum- 

 mary manner. On arriving at Constantinople, Busbequius found that 

 the sultan was with his army at Amasia, in the interior of Asia Minor. 

 As his commissions did not permit delay, he crossed over into Asia, 

 and rode on to Amasia, where he staid a considerable time, and had 

 several audiences of Solyman, with whom he succeeded in concluding 

 a further truce of six mouths. He rode back to Vienna, where he 

 arrived in August, 1555. 



In November of the same year he was again sent as ambassador to 

 Constantinople. This time Solymau was at his capita), where Busbe- 

 quius took up his residence for nearly seven years. At first ho had 

 many difficulties to encounter from the pride and obstinacy of the 

 Turks : " For you must know," he says in one of his epistles, " that a 

 long series of happy success hath so elevated the minds of this people 



