The Complete Essays
Page 172
18. Seneca, Epist. moral., XIII, 13; then Lucretius, I, 314, and Virgil, Aeneid, V, 720.
19. Diogenes Laertius, Life of Diogenes, VI, liv. Listed also s.v. Diogenes in Erasmus’ Apophthegmata.
20. ’88: would not be a contempt, it would be silly…
21. Virgil, Eclogues, II, 71–2.
22. That is, for ourselves under our Christian names as individual persons.
23. Horace, Odes, II, vi, 6–8.
24. ’88: most noble and just vocation…
25. Cicero, De amicitia, XIX, 70.
26. Seneca, Epist. moral., III, 3 (adapted).
27. Leviticus 19:10, which commands reapers to leave the gleanings for the poor and the stranger.
28. ’88: of inexcusable and puerile sloth and flabbiness… was made…
29. Cicero, Paradoxa, V, i.
30. Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), De la tranquillité de l’esprit, 69 F.
31. Source unknown. Montaigne is contrasting his courage (his mind, that is, or his thoughts or his faculty of thought) with the power of his feelings (sensus). His meaning is perhaps parallel to Democritus’ assertion ‘that there is more sensation [or, sense] in the brute beasts – and in the wise’.
32. ’88: so inept and cheap as when…
33. Horace, Epistles, I, v, 23–4.
34. Plato, Epistle IX, to Archytas.
35. A classic Stoic contention: adiaphora (things indifferent) become good or bad according to our attitude towards them. (Cf. Rabelais, Tiers Livre, TLF, VIII, 45–53.)
36. Juvenal, Satires, XIII, 28–30. The Age of Iron was the cruellest known to the Ancients, marking the decline from the happy innocence of mankind during the Golden Age, through the Silver and Bronze Ages, to the Age of Iron, when men’s weapons and hearts were hard.
37. Virgil, Georgics, I, 505; then, Aeneid, VII, 748–9.
38. The infamous Poneropolis, the town of the Wicked: Plutarch (tr. Amyot), De la Curiosité, 66 D.
39. The most famous in modern times is More’s Utopia, but there were several others.
40. Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion; after the classical Flood this couple repeopled the world by casting over their shoulders stones which turned into men and women. Cadmus sowed the dragon’s teeth, which produced a crop of soldiers who all slaughtered each other.
41. Plutarch, Life of Solon, IX; then St Augustine, City of God, VI, iii–iv; in vi, Varro is praised as one of the wisest of men.
42. Verses of Guy du Faur de Pibrac (†l584), cited in Louis Le Caron’s De la tranquillité de l’esprit, Paris, 1588, a source of several ideas in this chapter. Paul de Foix (†1584) was the oecumenical Privy Counsellor to whom Montaigne dedicated his edition of Les Vers françois d’Estienne de La Boëtie.
43. ’88: such a huge contrivance and to shift…
44. Cicero, De officiis, II, i, B.
45. Taken from Livy, XXIII, iii.
46. Horace, Odes, I, xxxv, 33–8; then, Terence, Adelphi, IV, vii, 43–4.
47. Plato, Republic, VIII, 545E–546A (but in Plato a less generalized statement than in Montaigne).
48. Anecdote attributed by Erasmus to Socrates (Apophthegmata, III, Socrates, XCI).
49. Plautus, cited by Justus Lipsius, Saturnalia, I, i.
50. Socrates, Ad Nicoclem, IX, xxvi.
51. Lucan, Pharsalia, I, 82–4; then, I, 138–9.
52. Virgil, Aeneid, XI, 422–3 (adapted).
53. Horace, Epodes, XIII, 7–8.
54. Horace, Epodes, XIV, 3–4.
55. Quintus Curtius, VII, i.
56. Cicero, Academica, II (Lucullus), IV, 10 (adapted).
57. Caius Scribonius Curio, a friend and correspondent of Cicero’s (cf. Cicero, Brutus, LX); then, Quintilian, XI, i, 32–3.
58. ’88: ourselves as others. I have aged by eight years since my first publication but I doubt whether I have amended myself by one inch. The approval…
59. That is, in an age worse than the Age of Iron. Cf. note 36.
60. [B] instead of [C]: we allow him his life and his house, since, when the need arises…
61. Montaigne, a Roman Catholic, lived in an area dominated by members of the Reformed Church, to which several members of his family adhered.
62. Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus.
63. Cicero, De officiis, I, ix, 28; then, Terence, Adelphi, III, v, 44, and Valerius Maximus, II, ii, 6.
64. Cicero, De amicitia, XVII, 63.
65. ’88: his son or his cousin less…
66. ’88: more purely unindebted towards obligations and benefits from others: nec…
Then Virgil, Aeneid, XII, 519–10 (adapted).
67. Terence, Pharmio, 139.
68. ’88: husband myself and augment myself with all my care, so as…
69. Cicero (De oratore, III, xxxii, 127), who thinks that Hippias ‘went too far’. Hippias referred not to ‘rings’ but to ‘the ring he was wearing’.
70. Nicolas Chalcocondylas, De la décadence de l’empire grec, II, xii, then, Simon Goulart, Hist. du Portugal, XIX, vi.
71. Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics, IV, iii, 25–6.
72. [B]: instead of [C]: of doing without them. I have most readily sought the opportunity to do good and to bind others to me; and it seems to me that there is no sweeter use of our resources. But even more than…
73. Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics, IX, vii, 6–7.
74. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, VIII, iv, 8; then, Livy, XXXVII, vi (for Scipio).
75. Virgil, Eclogues, I, 71; then Ovid, Tristia, IV, i, 69–70.
76. ’88: your home. This misfortune affects me more than it does anyone else, because of the characteristics of its site. The place…
77. Ovid, Tristia, III, x, 67; then, Lucan, Pharsalia, I, 256–7; 251–2.
78. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Comment on pourra recevoir utilité de ses ennemis, 112 F.
79. [C]: under diverse kinds of fortune are lodged…
Then, Virgil, Georgics, I, 506.
80. ’88: may be similar maladies among foreigners…
81. As distinct from. Gascon.
82. Cicero, Tusc. disput., V, xxxvii, 108.
83. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Du bannissement ou l’exil, 125 G–H: then, also for Socrates; together with echoes of Plato’s Apology for Socrates, etc.
84. Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 114.
85. Cyropaedia, VIII, viii is now considered an addition to the work and not to be by Xenophon. It treats of the birth of luxury and decadence among the subjects of Cyrus’ Persian Empire but does not describe the amenities mentioned by Montaigne.
86. ’88: expeditions more than big ones […] cousin more than for a real journey…
87. A proverb best known from Rabelais’ Good Drinkers, who attribute it in jest to the Bishop of Le Mans (Gargantua, TLF, IV, 85 var.).
88. ’88: married and soon old…
89. ’88: in pomp and idleness…
90. Cf. the maxim ‘woman desires man as matter desires form’; it was taken from Aristotle but traditionally misunderstood. (Cf. Tiraquellus, De legibus connubialibus, IX, 92.)
91. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Des communes conceptions contre les Stoïques, 579 F. (an effect attributed to amitié, ‘loving affection’).
92. Ovid, Tristia, III, iv, 57.
93. Horace, Epistles, II, i, 38; 45–7; then, Cicero, Academica (Lucullus), II, xxix, 92.
94. Perhaps creatures such as the mustellae (a kind of weasel) which Ravisius Textor describes as being bound to the female by their testicles (Officina, Animalia diversa, s.v.).
95. Known from Saxo Grammaticus; when the couples lay together this way they could not be separated and became a laughing-stock.
96. Terence, Adelphi, I. i, 7–9.
97. Montaigne is generalizing from his love for La Boëtie.
98. Plato, Laws, XI, 950 D; 951 D (treating of commissioners sent out officially to report on foreign lands).
99. The Stoics.
’88: so many decent men…
100. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Contredicts des Philosophes Stoïques, 561 D.
101. ’88: disloyal to my portrait. This public…
102. Not Dion but Bion. Cf. Erasmus, Apophthegmata, VII, Bion Borysthenites, I (after Diogenes Laertius, Life of Bion).
103. Persius, Satires, V, 32.
104. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Comment on pourra discerner le flatteur d’avec l’amy, 41.
105. Lucretius, I, 403–4.
106. The lost friend is La Boëtie.
’88 features. I well know that I shall leave behind me no guarantor even approximately as devoted to my case, and as knowledgeable, as I was to his. There is nobody with whom I would exchange vows to portray me: he alone had the privilege of my true portrait, which he took with him. That is why I explain my secrets so punctiliously, to finish…
107. Both are mentioned by Tacitus: Annals, XVI, xix; History, I, lxxii.
’88: required by the Emperors to kill themselves, according to the laws of that time lulling death to sleep…
108. Cicero, Tusc. disput., V, ix, 25; cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), De la Fortune, 106 B.
109. Cited after i) Justus Lipsius, Saturnalia, I, vi; ii) – the second sentence – after Cornelius Nepos, Life of Atticus.
110. That is, he has remained in his ‘parish’ – Western Europe – never having travelled to such exotic places as Greece or Persia, let alone China or the Americas.
111. Seneca, Epist, moral., VI, 4; then, Cicero, De officiis, I, xliii, 153.
112. Cicero, De amicitia, XXIII, 88.
113. Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 340–1; then, Horace, Odes, III, iii, 34–6.
114. Henry of Navarre twice visited and stayed at Montaigne.
115. ’88: so inordinate and so uncutable that…
Then, Cicero, De senectute, I, 1 (the opening verse, from Ennius), and Quintus Curtius, IV, xxiv.
116. Cf. Socrates’ quip to the man who had not been improved by travel: ‘Not surprising. You took yourself with you.’ (Erasmus, Apophthegmata, III, Socrates, XLIV.)
117. The souls (or forms) of beasts are too low in the chain of being, those of divinities too high, to experience discontent. Man is in between.
118. Seneca, Epist. moral., LVI, 6.
119. ’88: man of the common sort. ‘Be content…
120. ’88: qualification and moderation [modification, ‘limitation,’ replacing mesure, ‘moderation]…
121. Propertius, III, iii, 23.
122. I Corinthians 3:20, citing Psalm 94 (93):11.
123. Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 743. (Virgil’s sense is by no means clear: the ancient commentator Servius explained Manes, ‘spirits’ here as ‘punishments’ or ‘torments’, an interpretation I have followed.) Then, Cicero, De officiis, I, xxxi, 110.
124. Probably Theodore Beza, the erotic poet and successor to Calvin.
125. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Comment il fault ouïr, 27 CD.
126. Juvenal, Satires, XIII, 124.
127. Erasmus, Apophthegmata, VII, Antisthenes, XLVIII; then, III, Diogenes Cynicus, XLV.
128. Cf. Brantôme, Dames Galantes, IV (Garnier edition p. 219 and note). The tale is told by Bishop Antonio de Guevara in his work translated as Les Epistres dorées, moralles et familieres.
129. Juvenal, Satires, XIV, 233–4; then, Martial, Epigrams, VII, ix, 1–2.
130. Perhaps Henry II, whose confessor the Cardinal de Lorraine persuaded him to persecute the members of the Reformed Church.
131. Lucan, Pharsalia, VIII, 493–4.
132. Everything in public life is secundum quid dependens, ever (in Montaigne’s repeated word) selon; ‘it all depends’ on something else or on someone else.
133. Plato, Republic, VI, 492 E and 497 A–C.
134. Catullus, VII, 19.
135. Plato, Gorgias, XXIX, 474A (following the sense of Ficino’s Latin rendering).
136. Montaigne parodies the kind of praise heaped on Francis I for allowing Charles V to pass in safety through his domains in 1539–40, despite the French humiliation at Pavia in 1524.
137. That is, secundum nos, selon nous.
138. Juvenal, Satires, XIII, 64–6.
139. Mark Antony, Octavius and Lepidus, the Triumvirate.
140. Virgil, Aeneid, V, 166.
141. The Phaedrus.
142. Two comedies of Plautus, the titles of which merely hint at their subject. Then, in [C], the surnames given to Lucius Cornelius, the dictator: Sylla (‘Freckles’); to Mark Tully: Cicero (‘Chickpea’); and Titus Manlius: Torquatus (a nickname drawn from torque, a Gaulish necklace which he once wore as booty).
143. In Plato’s dialogue Ion – a major source of the French Pléiade’s conception of poetic inspiration, and especially of Ronsard’s (who did not perceive Plato’s irony) in his famous Ode à Michel de l’Hospital.
144. Plato, Laws, IV, 719 CD, contrasting inspired poets, who in their daemon-inspired mimesis (imitation of nature) pour forth verbal inconsistencies, with lawgivers, whose writings must be consistent and coherent. Montaigne is defending the ecstatic, enraptured, enthusiastic element in high poetry I like Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of poesy Montaigne includes both prose and verse in the category of poetry.
145. Homer and Hesiod were treated as both poets and philosophers from the earliest times: Plato’s title ‘Divine’ emphasized the role of poetic inspiration in his philosophy.
146. Seneca, Epist. moral., II, 3.
147. ’88: were a way of counteracting myself…
148. ’88: a depraved conception. It remains to add…
For Aristotle’s wilful opacity, cf. Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, XX, iv.
149. [B] : to vanity itself – to dullness – if it affords me contentment and I allow…
The argument here continues that of the [B]–text, ignoring the interpolated [C]–text. It was a little clearer before Montaigne replaced ‘depraved conception (imagination)’ by ‘depraved affectation’. Montaigne calls Aristotle’s search for obscurity. raison trouble-feste, a ‘trouble-feast’ then meaning an importunate buffoon whose idle chatter spoils a merry feast. It was a word which implied a silly incessant talker, not. ‘wet-blanket’.
150. ’88: visiting the sick Appelles he realized…
Plutarch says it was Appelles: Comment on peult discerner le flatteur d’aveques l’amy 48 GH; Montaigne corrected him after reading Diogenes Laertius.
151. A major debt to Cicero, De finibus, V, i, 2 (translated tacitly by Montaigne in the text and then cited; also V, ii, 5, actually alluding to Athens, not Rome.
152. Seneca, Epist. moral., LXIV, 10.
153. Bishop Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius: Carmina, XXIII, 62; then, Pliny, III, v.
154. ’88: outrage, beyond my strength. (Might it not…
155. Horace, Odes, III, xvi, 21–3; 42–3; then, II, xviii, 11–12; Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 140.
156. In this passage (as often elsewhere) enfants means sons, not infants, children of either sex.
157. Tertullian, De pudicitia.
158. Montaigne’s Journal de Voyage tells that he received it from the Pope by the intercession of Philippo Musotti; he was proud that it was couched in the same terms as that of one of the Pope’s sons.
159. Montaigne gives the text in the original Latin, which is not given here but translated. The style is that of Ancient Rome – SPQR standing for Senatus Populusque Romanus, the formula used by the Roman Republic for a senatusconsultum (decree).
160. Montaigne is drawing upon the heights of Greek philosophical wisdom, evoking the most famous of all precepts inscribed on the portal of the temple of Apollo at Delphi: Gnōthi seauton (Nosce teipsum, Know Thyself). Cf. Plato, Charmides 164. ff.; Alcibiades I, 129. E ff.) It was precisely because Socrates was not yet able to satisfy the Delphic inscription to know himself that he judged it ridiculous to investigate anything irrelevant to self-knowledge (Phaedrus, 229 D – 230 A). Erasmus’ explanation of Know Thyself in his Adages (I, VI, XCV) was standard; he associates it (as does Montaigne) with other precepts: In se descender
e (Go down into your self: ibid., LXXXVI); Tecum habita (Dwell with your self, LXXXVII), Aedibus in nostris quae prava aut recta geruntur (Things are done right or wrong in our own dwellings, LXXXV); In tuum ipsius sinum inspue (It is your own bosom you should spit upon – that is, criticize, XCIV); Quae supra nos, nihil ad nos (What is above us [i.e. astronomy and so on] does not concern us, I, VI, LXIX); and several others. Erasmus’ explanations (like Plato’s) make it plain that we are not being encouraged to cultivate self-love but self-knowledge. Montaigne gives to these precepts his own startlingly original twist.
1. It was axiomatic to Plato that ‘Know Thyself’ was an injunction to be temperate and to follow moderation (Charmides, 146 C ff.). The explicit injunction alluded to here is in Plato, Laws, VII, 792 E – 793 A.