Read The Major Works (English Library) Online
Authors: Sir Thomas Browne
The Major Works (English Library) (2 page)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My foremost obligations are to the Trustees of the British Library for their permission to reprint Browne’s prose from the original editions; to Faber and Faber Ltd for their permission to reprint the short essay ‘On Dreams’ from
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne
, edited by Sir Geoffrey Keynes (1964); and to Duke University Press for their permission to reprint extracts from
Colsridge on the Seventeenth Century
, edited by Roberta F. Brinkley (1955).
The preparation of this edition was substantially affected by several sustained studies of Browne (notably those by E. S. Merton in 1949, Joan Bennett in 1962, and Frank L. Huntley also in 1962) and the labours of the editors who preceded me in annotating one or more of his works (Dr Samuel Johnson in 1756,
3
Sir Sydney Roberts in 1927, and Frank L. Huntley in 1966, but especially W. A. Greenhill in 1881 and 1896, Norman J. Endicott in 1967, R. H. A. Robbins in 1972, and the utterly indispensable L. C. Martin in 1964). One of my greatest pleasures was to revisit the studies by Gordon Keith Chalmers, for they reminded me of his boundless generosity during my
undergraduate years at Kenyon College when he was its President.
In annotating Browne’s prose I have often used extant translations. Even if I was sometimes impelled to make adjustments – especially in the translations of the Loeb Classical Library – I must acknowledge my obligation to the versions of: Aristotle, in W. D. Ross’s edition (1910–1952); Cicero, by Walter Miller (1913), H. Rackam (1914), H. J. Edwards (1917),
et al
.; Hesiod, by Richard Lattimore (1959); Hippocrates, by W. H. S. Jones (1923–1931); Homer, by Richmond Lattimore (1951 and 1965); Horace, by B. J. Hayes and F. G. Plaistowe (1900), C. E. Bennett (1914), and H. Rushton Fairclough (1914); Josephus, by Ralph Marcus (1937); Justin Martyr, by Marcus Dods (1867); Juvenal, by Lewis Evans (1901) and/or G. G. Ramsay (1918); Lactantius, by William Fletcher (1871); Lucan, by J. D. Duff (1928); Lucretius, by W. H. D. Rouse (1937); Martial, by Anon. (in Bohn’s Library, 1871); Minucius Felix, by Rudolph Arbesmann (1950); Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
, by F. J. Miller (1916); Persius, by G. G. Ramsay (1918); Plato, by B. Jowett (4th ed., 1953); Plautus, by Paul Nixon (1916); Pliny, by John Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855); Propertius, by Walter K. Kelly (1854); Quintilian, by John S. Watson (1871); Seneca’s tragedies, by Frank J. Miller (1917), and his
Moral Letters
, by E. Phillips Barker (1932); Suetonius, by Robert Graves (1957); Tertullian’s
Resurrection of the Flesh
, by A. Souter (1922); Theocritus, by A.S.F Gow (1953); Tibullus, by J. P. Postgate (1912); Virgil’s
Georgics
and
Aeneid
, by C. Day Lewis (1940 and 1952), and his
Eclogues
, by T. F. Royds (1922); Xenophon, by E. C. Marchant (1923); and others.
I should finally like to record my gratitude to the staffs of the British Library, the New York Public Library, and the libraries at the University of York and New York University, for their manifold courtesies and unfailing assistance; to the authorities of New York University who in appointing me Berg Professor of English Literature for the autumn of 1974 enabled me to gain access to their city’s vast resources; to Mr R. H. A. Robbins of the University of Sheffield who generously allowed me access to several notes from his forthcoming
edition of
Pseudodoxia Epidemica
for the Clarendon Press; to Professors Dorothy Metlitzki of Yale University and Jason Rosenblatt of Georgetown University who lent me their knowledge of Hebrew on two occasions; to Miss Ruth Ellison of the University of York who clarified for me a number of details involving Scandinavian lore; and to Mr William Sulkin who welcomed this volume of behalf of Penguin Books and warmly supported its publication.
Yet I must end where I should have begun, with an acknowledgement of the indispensable advice of three friends in particular: Professors Frank L. Huntley of the University of Michigan and Joan Webber of the University of Washington, who suggested any number of changes which I promptly accepted, and Mr C. B. L. Barr of the York Minster Library, who by readily placing at my disposal his impressive knowledge shed abundant light on numerous passages in Latin.
C
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A
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P
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University of York,
1 January 1976
AN OUTLINE OF BROWNE’S LIFE
WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS
[Browne thus summarized his life in a letter to John Aubrey on 14 March 1672/3:
I was borne in St Michaels Cheap in London, went to schoole at Winchester Colledge, then went to Oxford, spent some yeares in forreign parts, was admitted to bee a
Socius Honorarius
[Honorary Fellow] of the Colledge of Physitians in London. Knighted September, 1671, when the King, Queen and Court came to Norwich. Writt
Religio Medici
in English, wch was since translated into Latin [1644], French [1668], Italian [?], High and low Duch [1665].
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into common and vulgar Errors
, translated into Duch 4 or 5 yeares ago [i.e. 1668].
Hydriotapbia, or Urne buriall. Hortus Cyri, or deQuincunce
. Have some miscellaneous tracts which may bee published. (
K
,
IV
, 376)
See also Dr Johnson’s
Life
, below, pp. 481ff.]
THE REIGN OF JAMES I
(1603–1625)
1605 | 19 October: Browne born, the third child and first son of Thomas Browne, mercer. The Gunpowder Plot. |
1606 | Macbeth |
1608 | Milton born. Robert Cecil created Earl of Salisbury, appointed Lord Treasurer. Sylvester’s translation of Du Bartas: 1st complete edition. |
1609 | Spenser’s |
1610 | Jonson’s |
1611 | George Abbot appointed Archbishop. The King James (‘Authorised’) Version of the Bible published. |
1612 | Death of the heir apparent Prince Henry; also of Salisbury. Robert Carr, later Earl of Somerset, in favour. |
1613 | Browne’s father dies; his mother marries Sir Thomas Dutton |
1614 | Ralegh’s |
1615 | George Villiers, later Duke of Buckingham, in favour. |
1616 | Browne admitted to Winchester College. Death of Shakespeare. Jonson’s |
1618 | Ralegh executed. Bacon appointed Lord Chancellor. The Thirty Years War (to 1648). |
1619 | Kepler’s |
1620 | Settlement of first New England colony by the Pilgrim Fathers. Bacon’s |
1621 | Bacon impeached. Donne appointed Dean of St Paul’s. Burton’s |
1622 | Henry Vaughan and Molière born. |
1623 | Browne matriculated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford (i.e. Pembroke College from 1624). The 1st Shakespeare Folio published. Pascal born. |
1624 | Cardinal Richelieu chief minister in France. |
THE REIGN OF CHARLES I
(1625–1649)
1625 | Death of James I; accession of Charles I who marries Henrietta Maria of France. Outbreak of the plague. Death of Webster. |
1626 | Browne admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts at Oxford. Death of Bacon and Lancelot Andrewes. John Aubrey born. |
1628 | The Petition of Right. Buckingham assassinated. William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood published. Bunyan born. Death of Malherbe. |
1629 | Browne admitted to the Degree of Master of Arts at Oxford; visits Ireland. Lancelot Andrewes’s |
1630 | Browne departs for studies at Montpellier, Padua and Leyden (1629? 1631?). Prince Charles (later Charles II) born. |
1631 | Death of Donne. Dryden born. |
1632 | Galileo’s |
1633 | Browne admitted to the M.D. at Leyden; medical apprenticeship in Oxfordshire (to 1637). William Laud appointed Archbishop. Donne’s |
1636 | Advent of Cambridge Platonism (1636 ff.). |
1637 | Browne incorporated M.D. at Oxford, settles at Norwich. Milton’s |
1638 | Milton’s |
1639 | First Bishops’ War. Racine born. |
1640 | Donne’s |
1641 | Browne marries Dorothy Mileham. Second Bishops’ War. The Long Parliament (to 1660). Laud and Strafford impeached. Irish Rebellion. The ‘Grand Remonstrance’ issued. Joseph Hall appointed Bishop of Norwich; defends episcopacy against Milton. |
1642 | Religio Medici |
1643 | Religio Medici |
1644 | Milton’s |
1645 | Alexander Ross attacks |
1646 | Pseudodoxia Epidemica |
1647 | Parliamentary army occupies London. |
1648 | Peace of Westphalia; end of the Thirty Years War. |
1649 | Execution of Charles I; abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords. Charles II, proclaimed in Scotland, escapes to France in 1651. Death of Crashaw. |
THE INTERREGNUM
(1649–1660)
1649 | The Irish Rebellion crushed by Cromwell. |
1650 | Pseudodoxia Epidemica |
1651 | Hobbes’s |
1653 | The Protectorate established under Cromwell. Isaac Walton’s |
1656 | Death of Joseph Hall. |
1657 | Death of William Harvey. |
1658 | Hydriotaphia |
1659 | Richard Cromwell obliged to abdicate; the Protectorate ends. Purcell born. |
THE REIGN OF CHARLES II
(1660–1685)
1660 | Charles II is recalled by Parliament. The House of Lords restored. The theatres reopened. The Royal Society founded. Defoe born. |
1661 | The Cavalier Parliament (to 1679). Louis XIV assumes full powers in France. Death of Saint-Amant. |
1662 | ‘Act of Uniformity’. Death of Pascal. |
1664 | Browne elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; testifies at the witch trial at Bury St Edmunds. Vanbrugh born. |
1665 | Outbreak of the Great Plague (to early 1666). Death of Sir Kenelm Digby. |
1666 | The Great Fire of London. |
1667 | Browne’s son Edward admitted to the M.D. at Oxford, elected to the Royal Society. |
1670 | Congreve born. |
1671 | Browne knighted by Charles II at Norwich. Milton’s |
1672 | Addison, Steele born. |
1673 | Death of Molière. |
1674 | Death of Milton, Herrick, Traherne. |
1677 | Dryden’s |
1678 | The fictitious ‘Popish Plot’. Bunyan’s |
1679 | Death of Hobbes. |
1681 | Marvell’s |
1682 | 19 October: death of Sir Thomas Browne on his 77th birthday. |