A classic work of unbridled joy
Aug 26, 2021
3 minutes
Matthew Walther
ROBERT BURTON CLAIMED TO KNOW not only the date but the precise hour — 9pm — at which he had been conceived. How he might have arrived at this information is very much an open question. Perhaps English parents in the late sixteenth century were freer about these matters than is now customary.
The most likely explanation, assuming he did not read about his parents’ coupling in a book (he owned an astonishing 1,738 volumes) is that he counted backwards and, resorting to the astrological calculations with which he filled the
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