Robert Burton

Biography

Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English writer, clergyman, and Oxford University fellow, best remembered for his major work The Anatomy of Melancholy. Born in Leicestershire to a well-off family, Burton spent nearly all his adult life at Oxford, where he became one of the most knowledgeable and widely read people of his time. He sometimes used the pen name Democritus Junior, after the ancient Greek philosopher known for laughter and human folly.

Burton went to Bishop Vesey's Grammar School and then to Brasenose College, Oxford, starting in 1593 when he was fifteen. His time at Oxford was quite long, partly because he struggled with melancholy. He later moved to Christ Church, where he stayed for life, eventually earning an MA and a BD and becoming a tutor by 1607. He held several administrative roles at the college and was the librarian at Christ Church Library from 1624 until he died. Outside the university, he served at St Thomas the Martyr's Church in Oxford and held positions at Walesby and Seagrave, though he stayed mostly involved in academic life.

Burton started his literary work early. As far back as 1603, he was writing Latin poems and plays at Oxford. One of these, performed for King James I, reportedly didn't go over well with the king. His only surviving play, Philosophaster, is a Latin academic satire that has gained more attention than similar university dramas of the time, although it's still less famous than his later work.

The Anatomy of Melancholy, first published in 1621, is Burton's most notable work. It covers melancholy in all its supposed causes, symptoms, and remedies, using a vast range of classic, medieval, and contemporary sources. Burton revised and expanded it through five editions, and the final version was over half a million words long. He wrote it partly to deal with his own melancholy and also to inform or entertain readers. The book mixes elements of medical treatise, literary essay, moral philosophy, and autobiography. Samuel Johnson is said to have found it the only book that could get him out of bed earlier than he wished.

Burton died in Oxford on 25 January 1640, having spent almost his whole career at the university. He is buried in Christ Church Cathedral, where a memorial bust was put up. He left his library to the Bodleian Library and Christ Church, showcasing the great range of reading that fills his famous work.