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by John Butler
1. Life and Letters
Thomas
Browne was born in London on
19 October, 1605. After graduating M.A.
from Broadgates Hall, Oxford (1629), he studied medicine privately and
worked as an assistant to an Oxford doctor. He then attended the
Universities of Montpellier and Padua, and in 1633 he was graduated
M.D. at
Leiden. Browne's medical education in Europe also earned him
incorporation
as M.D. from Oxford, and in 1637 he moved to Norwich, where he lived
and
practiced medicine until his death in 1682. While Browne seems to have
had a
keen intellect and was interested in many subjects, his life was
outwardly
uneventful, although during the Civil War he declared his support for King Charles I and received a knighthood from King Charles II in 1671.
Browne first came to the attention
of readers with his best known
work, Religio medici, which he wrote around 1635. It was
printed in 1642
without his consent, but the next year he approved a new printing, and
the
book became a best-seller, later being translated into several European
languages. Religio medici is about Browne's personal Christian
faith, and is
distinguished by its elegant prose, its tolerant and widely-based
version of
Christianity, and its occasionally sceptical outlook. It is really an
intellectual autobiography in which Browne writes about his personal
views
not just on religion but on a great variety of other subjects, too,
although
most of them may be related in some way to religion. For example, he
believes in predestination, but likes some of the rituals of the
Catholic
Church; he fulminates against religious bigotry and persecution but is
not a
great admirer of martyrs. Browne has a mind that loves going a little
beyond
common sense and reason, venturing often into the realms of the
fantastic,
the mysterious and the unexplainable. He is one of those people who can
find
something of interest in just about anything, and the whole work
breathes
geniality, toleration, and an intelligent scepticism about the world he
lives in. Religio medici is one of the great prose-works of the Early
Modern
period of English literature.
Browne's innate curiosity never
failed him, and his other works reflect his
multi-faceted personality, too. In 1646, he wrote Pseudodoxia
Epidemica, or
Vulgar Errors, which tackled the subject of superstition and
popular
misconceptions about various subjects, and also showed Browne fighting
his
intellectual battles against the authors whose works perpetuated these
errors. This work is more analytical than Religio medici, and
perhaps comes
closer to the style of Bacon than to the
earlier book. Browne was also a
keen antiquarian (as were so many others of his class and education),
and
his next book, Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial (1658) was the
result. Working
from some recent archaeological discoveries near Norwich of what were
thought at the time to be Roman funeral urns, Browne produced a study
of
funeral customs, which expanded into his thoughts on death and the
uselessness of such rituals and commemorations against death's
inevitable power.
It is this work where we find Browne's most elaborate rhetoric, prose
which
is lush and metaphorical, almost poetical in nature. Together with this
book
went a work entitled The Garden of Cyrus, in which Browne wrote
about the
history of horticulture. This book is also the source of his famous
idea of
the quincunx, a shape with five parts, one at each corner
(rectangle), and
one in the middle, which he thought was present everywhere in nature;
the
number five, of course, had mystical and Neoplatonic meanings which
fascinated Browne's mind. It also figured in the design of Cyrus's
garden as
described by the Greek writer Xenophon.
The overall impression one gets
from reading Browne is of an urbane,
sophisticated and witty writer, who delights in collecting trivia and
arcane information. His style is elegant and, for modern tastes,
probably
rather too learned, but his love of what he does is obvious, and he is
a
good example of the gentleman-antiquary, a man who revels in obscure
knowledge of ancient rites and customs and wants readers to share his
enthusiasm for these things. He also displays tolerance and good
humour,
something rare in a century of conflict and changing values.
2. Editions of Browne's Works
The
Letters of Sir Thomas Browne. Sir Geoffrey
Keynes, Ed.
London: Faber & Faber, 1946.
[First printed in 1931 as Book VI of the Works].
Religio medici. James Winny, Ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
Religio Medici, And Other Works. L. C.
Martin, Ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
Religio
Medici, Hydriotaphia, and The Garden of Cyrus.
R. H. Robbins, Ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Sir
Thomas Browne: The Major Works. C.A. Patrides, Ed.
London ; New York, 1977. (repr. 1984, 1995).
Sir
Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica. R. H. Robbins, Ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Urne Buriall, and The Garden of Cyrus. John
Carter, Ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958.
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne. 6 volumes. Sir
Geoffrey Keynes, Ed.
London: Faber & Gwyer, Ltd ; New York, W. E. Rudge, 1928-31.
(Repr. London: Faber & Faber ; Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1964).
This is still the standard edition of all Browne's works.
3. Books about Browne and his Works
Digby,
Sir Kenelm. Observations upon Religio medici. London,
1643.
Hall, Anne. Ceremony
and Civility in English Renaissance Prose.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
Huntley, F.L. Sir Thomas Browne: A Biographical and Critical Study.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962.
Nathanson, Leonard. The Strategy of Truth: A Study of Sir Thomas
Browne.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.
Patrides, C.A., ed. Approaches
to Sir Thomas Browne.
Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1982.
Post, Jonathan. Sir
Thomas Browne.
Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987.
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To cite this article:
Butler, John. "Life of Sir Thomas Browne". Luminarium.
30 Jan. 2003. [Date you accessed this page].
<http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/browne/brownebio.htm>.
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