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The copy from which the present is reprinted, is that of 1651-2; at the
conclusion of which is the following address:
"TO THE READER.
"Be pleased to know (Courteous Reader) that since the last Impression
of this Book, the ingenuous Author of it is deceased, leaving a Copy
of it exactly corrected, with several 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 Publicke Good, is faithfully
performed in this last Impression."
H. C. (_i.e. HEN. CRIPPS._)
The following testimonies of various authors will serve to show the
estimation in which this work has been held:--
"The ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, wherein the author hath piled up variety of
much excellent learning. Scarce any book of philology in our land hath, in
so short a time, passed so many editions."--_Fuller's Worthies_, fol. 16.
"'Tis a book so full of variety of reading, that gentlemen who have lost
their time, and are put to a push for invention, may furnish themselves
with matter for common or scholastical discourse and writing."--_Wood's
Athenae Oxoniensis_, vol. i. p. 628. 2d edit.
"If you never saw BURTON UPON MELANCHOLY, printed 1676, I pray look into
it, and read the ninth page of his Preface, 'Democritus to the Reader.'
There is something there which touches the point we are upon; but I mention
the author to you, as the pleasantest, the most learned, and the most full
of sterling sense. The wits of Queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of
George the First, were not a little beholden to him."--_Archbishop
Herring's Letters_, 12mo. 1777. p. 149.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, he (Dr. Johnson) said, was the only book
that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to
rise."--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, vol. i. p. 580. 8vo. edit.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a valuable book," said Dr. Johnson. "It
is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is great spirit and great
power in what Burton says when he writes from his own mind."--_Ibid_, vol.
ii. p. 325.
"It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and
invention, to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the subject of _L'
Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, together with some particular thoughts,
expressions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contrast between
these two dispositions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition
of BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, entitled, 'The Author's Abstract of
Melancholy; or, A Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain.' Here pain is
melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will
make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem as will be
sufficient to prove, to a discerning reader, how far it had taken
possession of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the same; and
that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be
already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally
noticed in passing through the _L' Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_."--After
extracting the lines, Mr. Warton adds, "as to the very elaborate work to
which these visionary verses are no unsuitable introduction, the writer's
variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his
pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance, miscellaneous
matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illustrations, and, perhaps,
above all, the singularities of his feelings, clothed in an uncommon
quaintness of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers,
a valuable repository of amusement and information."--_Warton's Milton_, 2d
edit. p. 94.
"THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a book which has been universally read and
admired. This work is, for the most part, what the author himself styles
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