Chapter 16, Cures of Love - Melancholy Summary and Analysis

In the case of altering humors for the cure, then there will be physic for the prescribed treatment. There are some herbal remedies described in Latin and associated with the physician Alexander Benedictus. Confessing feelings to a friend is one recommendation given. He strongly suggests that a man who has feelings for a woman which he does not wish to fall before should avoid her company as much as possible. Of course this means to also refrain from all romantic behaviors. Readers today will find similar advice: stay away or behave professionally or in a restrained, inhibited manner towards such people to prevent accidental love affairs.

Burton also cites Montaigne, who wrote in the preceding century. Burton's life lasted from the 16th into the 17th centuries. Montaigne suggested that for some...