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Robert Burton's "Rhapsody of Rags"
On this day in 1577 Robert Burton was born. Burton described his 1621 masterwork, The Anatomy of Melancholy, as "a rhapsody of rags gathered from several dunghills, excrements of authors, toys and fopperies confusedly tumbled out." It was immediately popular and has since become not only a classic of its genre but pretty much the only book in it. |
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