Anatomy of Melancholy

Anatomy of Melancholy

Still Image

The anatomy of melancholy explores the causation of melancholy and attempts to explain how to cure such “affectations.” However, the cover page of this folio provides an entirely different perspective on how this text interacts with that of Othello. Each quadrant depicts a diverse interpretation of the causation of melancholy. For example, in the top right corner, animals in a dense forest clock their heads in suspense towards the sky. The scene leaves the viewer on edge, and the choice to leave most of the area white is used to convey the intended age of the piece. Since darker shading and more contrast is utilized in the bottom of the page, the top, by comparison, conveys a time before civilization. In the key (above left), the author. However, the lettering below him says “Hypocondriacus” which is derivative of an ancient Greek word for the soft part of the stomach around the ribs. The Greeks believed this area was the source of melancholy in a person, a place where negative spirits gathered. Burton explores melancholia, which would later be called clinical depression. In this, Burton utilizes melancholy as a lens through which to view all human life. Exemplified in the cover page shown above, Burton thought all humans existed in some form of depression (or melancholy) at all times. Burton was known to be an obsessive rewriter of his own work, pulling The Anatomy of Melancholy out of print for many years at a time. The first edition was published in 1621, so the edition shown above was probably significantly changed from the first edition. The exploration of melancholy in Othello is a key facet of the work.

Robert Burton

[no text]

New York

(1577-1640)

[no text]

Used in permission from the Rose Library, Emory University.

[no text]

Folio

English

History

[no text]

[no text]

[no text]

[no text]