Nobodies

“But in the meantime, how doth this concern me, or upon what reference do I usurp his habit? … I do not presume to make any parallel, antistat mihi millibus trecentis [he is immeasurably ahead of me], parvus sum, nullus sum, altum nec spiro, nec spero[I am insignificant, a nobody, with little ambition and small prospects]” (17)

Rhetorical nobodies (117) and this:

“It was written by an idle fellow, at idle times, about our Saturnalian or Dionysian feasts, when, as he said, nullum libertati periculum est [there is no danger to liberty] … I writ this, and published this. … [no one has said it], it is neminis nihil [nothing by nobody]. The time, place, persons, and all circumstances apologize for me, and why may I not then be idle with others, speak my mind freely?” (122)

It’s interesting that Burton calls himself a nobody only through citation – and then uses that double negation to perform his indifference to any debt the reader might levy against him (cf. Daniel on this as a kind of “intellectual suspense” w/o propositional climax) then to oscillate wildly to a regretful / shame-dripping recantation:

“I owe thee nothing (reader), look for no favour at thy hands, I am independent, I fear not.… No, I recant, I will not, I care, I fear, I confess my fault, acknowledge a great offence, … I have overshot myself, I have spoken foolishly, rashly, unadvisedly, absurdly, I have anatomized mine own folly” (122)

(overshooting yourself = a theory of shame – “Solitariness, avoiding of light, that they are weary of their lives, hate the world, arise from the same causes, for their spirits and humours are opposite to light, fear makes them avoid company, and absent themselves, lest they should be misused, hissed at, or overshoot themselves, which still they suspect” (421) – see also Memb. III, SUBSECT. VI.—Shame and Disgrace, Causes.)