32 Still working on task: Montaigne to Matignon, Jan. 18, 1585, in The Complete Works, tr. D. Frame, 1314–15.
33 “Guelph to the Ghibellines”: III:12 972. “There were no formal accusations”: III:12 972. Siege of Castillon: Frame, Montaigne 256.
34 “A mighty load of our disturbances”: III:12 969. Plague: III:12 976.
35 Watching people dig their own graves: III:12 979.
36 “I, who am so hospitable”: III:12 976. On Montaigne’s political work during and after his refugee wanderings: Frame, Montaigne 247.
37 The invitation to Montaigne and his wife, and the allowance, are alluded to in a letter from Catherine de’ Medici to a treasurer on Dec. 31, 1586: see Frame, Montaigne 267.
38 Montaigne working with Corisande: Frame, Montaigne 269–70.
39 Montaigne’s mission, and letters mentioning it: Frame, Montaigne 270–3. English anxieties: ibid. 276.
40 Attack in the forest: Montaigne to Matignon, Feb. 16 [1588?], in The Complete Works, tr. D. Frame, 1330–1.
41 Henri III and Guise in Paris, and the Day of the Barricades: see Knecht, Rise and Fall 523–4. The Pope’s comment: cited Neale, J. E., The Age of Catherine de Medici, new edn (London: Jonathan bCape, 1957), 96.
42 “I have never seen”: Pasquier to Sainte-Marthe, May 1588, in Pasquier, Lettres historiques 286–97.
43 Montaigne’s arrest and release: Montaigne, Le Livre de raison, entries for July 10 and 20; latter as translated in Frame, Montaigne 281. As usual Montaigne mixed up his dates: he wrote the entry first on the page for July 20, then realized his mistake and rewrote it on the page for July 10. The second version is briefer; either he found it tedious to write it out twice, or revision made him more concise. “No prison has received me”: III:13 999–1000.
44 Brach: Pierre de Brach to Justus Lipsius, Feb. 4, 1593, translated in Frame, Montaigne 282. On Brach, see Magnien, M., “Brache, Pierre de,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 126–8.
45 On Marie de Gournay, see Chapter 18 above.
46 Pasquier’s advice on style, and Montaigne’s ignoring of it: Pasquier to A. M. de Pelgé, 1619, in Pasquier, Choix de lettres 45–6, as translated in Frame, Montaigne 283. “Oh, miserable spectacle!”: Pasquier, Lettres historiques 286–97. On Étienne Pasquier, see Magnien, C., “Estienne Pasquier ‘familiar’ de Montaigne?” Montaigne Studies 13 (2001), 277–313.
47 Preachers urging killing of king: e.g. Boucher, J., De justa Henrici tertii abdicatione (Aug. 1589). See Holt 132.
48 A city gone mad: L’Estoile and Thou, both cited in Nakam, Montaigne et son temps 341–2.
49 “This proposition, so solemn”: II:12 392.
50 “The most express ways that we have”: III:12 971.
51 Montaigne’s letters to Henri IV: Montaigne to Henri IV, Jan. 18 [1590?] and Sept. 2 [1590?], in The Complete Works, tr. D. Frame, 1332–6.
52 “I look upon our kings”: III:1 728.
53 On Henri IV’s manly habits: Knecht, Rise and Fall 559–61.
54 Henri IV’s speech of 1599: cited Knecht, Rise and Fall 545–7.
16. Q. How to live? A. Philosophize only by accident
1 “Free and unruly”: II:17 587. Halifax: letter included in original edition of Cotton’s translation (1685–86), and reproduced in Hazlitt’s 1842 edition, unnumbered prelim. leaf. Hazlitt: Hazlitt, W., “On old English writers and speakers,” Essay X in The Plain Speaker (London: H. Colburn, 1826), II: 277–307, this 305.
2 “The English mind”: Woolf, V., “Reading,” in Essays, ed. A. McNeillie (London: Hogarth, 1986–), III:141–61, this 154. “In taking up his pen”: Hazlitt 180.
3 “Unpremeditated and accidental philosopher,” and explanation of what he means by this: II:12 496–7.
4 On Florio: Yates, John Florio; Pfister, M., “Inglese italianato—Italiano anglizzato: John Florio,” in Höfele, A. and Koppenfels, W. von (eds), Renaissance Go-Betweens: Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 31–54. His conversational primers and dictionary: Florio, J., Firste Fruites (London: T. Woodcock, [1578]), Second Frutes (London: T. Woodcock, 1591), and A Worlde of Wordes (London: E. Blount, 1598). His translation of the Essays: Montaigne, Essayes (1603): see “Sources” for full details.
5 “So do hir attributes”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I: 2.
6 “Our Germans, drowned in wine”: II:2 298. “Our carowsing tospot German souldiers”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), II:2 17. “Werewolves, goblins, and chimeras”: I:18 62. “Larves, Hobgoblins, Robbin-good-fellowes”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I:17 67. The chapter number differs in Florio because it is based on a different text, that of Marie de Gournay’s 1595 edition. On this issue, see Chapter 18 above.
7 Gonzalo’s speech: The Tempest II. i.145–52. The similarity is to a passage from Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I:30 220. Again, chapter numbering differs because the editions are based on different texts. “Traffic” means commerce; “letters,” literature; “use of service,” keeping servants; “succession,” inheritance; “bourn,” land boundaries; and “tilth,” tilling land, i.e. agriculture. The similarity was first noticed by Edward Capell, in his Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare (London: H. Hughs, [1775]), II:63.
8 Comparison with Hamlet: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves”: II:16 570. “Bashful, insolent; chaste”: II:1 294. Too much thinking makes action impossible: II:20 622. On this question, see Boutcher, W., “Marginal commentaries: the cultural transmission of Montaigne’s Essais in Shakespeare’s England,” in Kapitaniak and Maguin (eds), Shakespeare et Montaigne, 13–27, and his “ ‘Learning mingled with Nobilitie’: directions for reading Montaigne’s Essais in their institutional context,” in Cameron and Willett (eds), Le Visage changeant de Montaigne, 337–62, esp. 337–9; and Peter Mack’s forthcoming Shakespeare, Montaigne, and Renaissance Ethical Reading. Much work has been done recently on the dating of Hamlet; it is now thought to date from late 1599 or early 1600, which creates a problem if Shakespeare is thought to have read Florio’s translation. But we know that manuscript copies of the latter were in circulation well before the publication date: Shakespeare’s contemporary William Cornwallis mentioned their “going from hand to hand” in 1599.
9 Shared theme: Robertson, J. M., Montaigne and Shakespeare (London: The University Press, 1891), cited in Marchi 193. Shared atmosphere also discussed in Sterling 321–2.
10 Bacon wrote Montaigne: Donnelly, I., The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon’s Cipher in the So-called Shakespeare Plays (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1888), II: 955–65, 971–4. “Bacon” and “white breasts”: Donnelly II: 971. “Mountaines”: II: 972–3. “Can anyone believe that all this is the result of accident?” II: 974. Role of Anthony Bacon: II:955.
11 On the Bacon brothers: See Banderier, G., “Bacon, Anthony,” and Gontier, T., “Bacon, Francis,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 89–90. Francis Bacon does mention Montaigne in his Essays, but not in its first edition.
12 Cornwallis: Cornwallis, W., Essayes, ed. D. C. Allen (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1946).
13 Burton: Burton, R., The Anatomy of Melancholy (New York: NYRB Classics, 2001), I: 17.
14 Browne: Browne, Thomas, The Major Works (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977). See Texte, J., “La Descendance de Montaigne: Sir Thomas Browne,” in his Etudes de littérature européenne (Paris: A. Colin, 1898), 51–93.
15 Cotton: Montaigne, Essays, tr. Cotton (1685–86): see “Sources” for full details. On Cotton, see Nelson, N., “Montaigne with a Restoration voice: Charles Cotton’s translation of the Essais,” Language and Style 24, no. 2 (1991), 131–44; and Hartle, P., “Cotton, Charles,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6410), from which the poem is also taken.
16 Pope: cited Coleman 167.
17 Spectator: Spectator no. 562 (July 2, 1714), cited Dédéyan I: 28. Doing it agreeably: Dédéyan I: 29.
18 The Montaignesque element: Pater, W., “Charles Lamb,” in Appreciations (London: Macmillan, 1890), 105–23, this 116–17.
19 Leigh Hunt’s comment: Montaigne, Complete Works (1842), 41, British Library’s copy (C.61.h.5). This passage is I:22 95 in Frame’s edition
20 Hazlitt on essay-writing: Hazlitt 178–80.
21 Hazlitt’s Cotton’s Montaigne: Montaigne, Complete Works (1842). Hazlitt’s Hazlitt’s Cotton’s Montaigne: Montaigne, Essays, tr. C. Cotton, ed. W. Hazlitt and W. C. Hazlitt (London: Reeves & Turner, 1877). On the Hazlitt family business, see Dédéyan I: 257–8.
22 Sterne: Sterne, L., Tristram Shandy, ed. I. Campbell Ross (Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 1998). References to Montaigne: 38, 174, 289–90 (Vol. 1 chap. 4, Vol. 2 chap. 4, Vol. 4 chap. 15). The line diagrams: 453–4 (Vol. 6, chap. 40). Promised chapters: 281 (Vol. 4, chap. 9). “Could a historiographer”: 64–5 (Vol. 1, chap. 14).
17. Q. How to live? A. Reflect on everything; regret nothing
1 Joyce, J. Finnegans Wake: these examples given in Burgess, A., Here Comes Everybody, rev. edn (London: Arena, 1987), 189–90.
2 Montaigne was a different person in the past: III:2 748–9. “We are all patchwork”: II:1 296.
3 “Who does not see …?” III:9 876.
4 “Not their end”: Woolf, V., “Montaigne,” 77.
5 1588 edition: Montaigne, Essais, “5th edn” (1588): see “Sources.”
6 “It is the inattentive reader”: III:9 925. 288 “For my part”: III:8 872.
7 “In order to get more in”: I:40 224. Plutarch’s pointing finger: I:26 140.
8 “It gathers force”: this is written on the title page of the “Bordeaux Copy”: Montaigne: Essais. Reproduction en fac-similé. Source is Virgil, Aeneid, 4: 169–77.
9 “I fear I am getting worse”: Montaigne to A. Loisel, inscription on a copy of the 1588 Essais, in The Complete Works, tr. D. Frame, 1332.
18. Q. How to live? A. Give up control
1 On Marie de Gournay: Fogel; Ilsley; Tetel (ed.), Montaigne et Marie de Gournay; Nakam, G., “Marie le Jars de Gournay, ‘fille d’alliance’ de Montaigne (1565–1645),” in Arnould (ed.), Marie de Gournay et l’édition de 1595 des Essais de Montaigne, 11–21. Her collected works are available as Gournay, Oeuvres complètes (2002).
2 “A woman pretending to learning”: Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing (1641 version), as translated by Hillman and Quesnel in their edition of Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works, 107–54, this 126.
3 Tangle of intellect and emotion: Gournay, Peincture des moeurs, in L’Ombre de la demoiselle de Gournay (1626), as cited in Ilsley 129.
4 Hellebore: Gournay, Preface (1998) 27.
5 “How did he know all that about me?” Levin: The Times (Dec. 2, 1991), p. 14. “It seems he is my very self”: Gide, A., Montaigne (London & New York: Blackamore Press, 1929), 77–8. “Here is a ‘you’ ”: Zweig, “Montaigne” 17.
6 Meeting: Gournay, Preface (1998) 27.
7 Bodkin: I:14 49. In the Bordeaux Copy, he only says “a girl,” but Gournay’s own edition specifies “a girl in Picardy” whom he saw just before his trip to Blois.
8 Working together in Picardy: in fact, only three of the new additions are in her handwriting. Montaigne: Essais. Reproduction en fac-similé, ff. 42v., 47r. and 290v. See Hoffmann, G. and Legros, A., “Sécretaires,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 901–4, this 901.
9 “The man whom I am so honored in calling father” and “I cannot, Reader”: Gournay, Preface (1998) 27, 29. “In truth, if someone is surprised”: Gournay, The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne, in Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing [etc.], 21–67, this 29.
10 Léonor as Gournay’s sister: Ilsley 34.
11 “Nor is there any fear”: Gournay, The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne, in Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing[etc.] 21–67, this 32. “He was mine for only four years” and “When he praised me”: Gournay, Preface to the Essays 99.
12 “She is the only person I still think about.” II:17 610. Suspicions about this passage date back to Arthur-Antoine Armaingaud, who queried it in a speech published in the first Bulletin of the Société des Amis de Montaigne in 1913. See Keffer 129. She deleted it from her 1635 edition of the Essais. On slips falling out: see e.g. I:18 63n. and I:21 624n. in D. Frame’s edition of the Complete Works. On the rebinding of the Bordeaux Copy, see Desan, P., “Exemplaire de Bordeaux,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 363–8, this 366.
13 Letters to Lipsius: Gournay to Lipsius April 25, 1593 and May 2, 1596, as translated in Ilsley 40–1 and 79–80; Lipsius to Gournay, May 24, 1593, published in Lipsius, J., Epistolarum selectarum centuria prima ad Belgas (Antwerp: Moret, 1602), I:15, and here as translated in Ilsley 42.
14 The Proumenoir: Gournay, M. de, Le Proumenoir de Monsieur de Montaigne (Paris: A. l’Angelier, 1594), translated in Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing [etc.] 21–67. Its origins explained in the epistle: 25.
15 Gournay’s edition: Montaigne, Essais (1595): see “Sources.”
16 On her last-minute corrections: Sayce and Maskell 28 (entry 7A); and Céard, J., “Montaigne et ses lecteurs: l’édition de 1595,” a paper given in a debate about the 1595 edition at the Bibliothèque nationale in 2002, 1–2, http://www.amisdemontaigne.net/cearded1595.pdf.
17 Gournay as protector: Gournay, Preface to the Essays: “Having lost their father”: 101. “When I defend him”: 43. “One cannot deal with great affairs”: 53. “Whoever says of Scipio”: 79. “Excellence exceeds all limits”: and “ravished”: 81. Judging people by what they think of the Essays: 31. Diderot: article “Pyrrhonienne,” in the Encyclopédie, cited in Tilley 269.
18 “I cannot take a step”: Gournay, Preface to the Essays 85. On the contradictions between her personality and Montaigne’s: Bauschatz, C. M., “Imitation, writing, and self-study in Marie de Gournay’s 1595 ‘Préface’ to Montaigne’s Essais,” in Logan, M. R. and Rudnytsky, P. L. (eds), Contending Kingdoms (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991), 346–64, this 346.
19 “Blessed indeed”: Gournay, Preface to the Essays 35.
20 Change of mind about the Preface: Gournay to Lipsius, May 2, 1596, cited McKinley, M., “An editorial revival: Gournay’s 1617 Preface to the Essais,” Montaigne Studies 7 (1996), 193. The ten-line preface was used in all seventeenth-century editions up to 1617, when the longer one returned in a revised form: Montaigne: Essais, ed. Gournay (Paris: J. Petit-pas, 1617). A different version had meanwhile appeared in Gournay, Le Proumenoir (1599).
21 Lacking piety: Gournay, Peincture des moeurs, in L’Ombre (1626). See Ilsley 129. On Gournay as a secret libertine: Dotoli, G., “Montaigne et les libertins via Mlle de Gournay,” in Tetel (ed.), Montaigne et Marie de Gournay 105–41.
22 On the Académie: Ilsley 217–42. Gournay’s views on style: Ilsley 200–16, and Holmes, P. P., “Mlle de Gournay’s defense of Baroque imagery,” French Studies 8 (1954), 122–31, this 122–9.
23 Gournay’s epitaph: cited Ilsley 262. On her changing reputation after death: Ilsley 266–77. “Nothing can equal”: Niceron, J.-P., Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des hommes illustres dans la République des lettres (Paris, 1727–45), XVI:231 (1733), cited Ilsley 270.
24 Gournay as leech: this accusation was most notably made by Chapelain, who was connected with a planned rival Elzevir edition: see Boase, Fortunes 54, and Ilsley 255.
25 “White-haired old maid”: Rat, M., introduction to Montaigne, Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Gallimard, 1962), as translated by R. Hillman in Gournay, Apology for the Woman Writing 18. Villey: Villey, Montaigne devant la postérité 44.
26 Reviving reputation: Schiff, M., La Fille d’alliance de Montaigne, Marie de Gournay (Paris: H. Champion, 1910). Novels based on her life: Mairal, M., L’Obèle (Paris: Flammarion, 2003), and Diski, J., Apology for the Woman Writing (London: Virago, 2008). New scholarly editions include that of her complete works: Gournay, Oeuvres complètes (2002).
27 The editing wars: see Keffer
, including his translation of the letters of Cagnieul: 62–3; and Desan, P., “Cinq siècles de politiques éditoriales des Essais,” in Desan, Montaigne dans tous ses états (121–91).
28 On Strowski’s boasting: Compagnon, A., “Les Repentirs de Fortunat Strowski,” in Tetel (ed.), Montaigne et Marie de Gournay 53–77, this 69. On Armaingaud’s dating: Keffer 18–19. His attribution of the Servitude volontaire: Armaingaud, A., Montaigne pamphlétaire (Paris: Hachette, 1910). “He alone knows him”: Perceval, E. de, article in the Bulletin de la Société des Bibliophiles de Guyenne (1936), translated in Keffer 163. On Villey: Defaux, G., “Villey, Pierre,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 1023–4. On his blindness: Villey, P., “Le Travail intellectuel des aveugles,” Revue des deux mondes (1 mars 1909), 420–43. On not being invited in 1933: Keffer 21.
29 Among later twentieth-century editions to prioritize the Bordeaux Copy were the Pléaide edition by A. Thibaudet and M. Rat: Montaigne, Oeuvres complètes (Paris: Gallimard, 1962), used by D. Frame for his translation, and the revised version of Villey’s edition: Montaigne, Les Essais, ed. P. Villey and V.-L. Saulnier (Paris: PUF, 1965).
30 Dezeimeris hypothesis: Dezeimeris, R., Recherche sur la recension du texte posthume des Essais de Montaigne (Bordeaux: Gounouihou, 1866). Working out the logistics, and on this theory in general: Maskell, D., “Quel est le dernier état authentique des Essais de Montaigne?” Bibliothèque d’humanisme et Renaissance 40 (1978), 85–103, and his “The evolution of the Essais,” in McFarlane and Maclean (eds), Montaigne: Essays in Memory of Richard Sayce 13–34; Desan, P., “L‘Exemplar et L’Exemplaire de Bordeaux,” in Desan, Montaigne dans tous ses états 69–120; Balsamo, J. and Blum, C., “Édition de 1595,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 306–12; Arnould, J-C. (ed.), Marie de Gournay et l’édition de 1595 des Essais de Montaigne; O’Brien.
31 The new Pléiade edition and the Tournon edition: see “Sources” for full details. A. Tournon and J. Céard, representing the two positions, took part in a debate at the Bibliothèque nationale on Feb. 9, 2002, “Les deux visages des Essais” (The Two Faces of the Essays): see their two papers at http://www.amisdemontaigne.net/visagesessais.htm.
How to Live Page 41