ABSTRACT

This chapter shows how Robert Burton subtly elides pathological explanations of melancholia while at the same time revising the grounds on which the physiological relation between melancholy and genius had historically been drawn. It considers the therapeutic value that Burton accords to studies weighed not in terms of depth or gravity but rather for their capacity to elevate and recreate the spirits. The chapter argues that Burton's ecstatic study aims to induce wonder as a salubrious alternative to spiritual rumination and that it does so by appealing directly to the transformative powers of the imagination as accessed primarily through rhetorical evocation. It situates Burton's understanding of imaginative instrumentality in the contexts of Renaissance faculty psychology, rhetorical theories of affect, and the pneumatic account of the spirit advanced, in particular, by the Renaissance Neoplatonists. The chapter illustrates how Burton's catalogues of curiosities and recommended studies sonically induce wonder as sympathetic medicine for scholarly withdrawal and a powerful antidote against religious despair.