The Complete Essays (203 page)
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Authors: Michel de Montaigne
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22
. Apparently the doctor cited by Pedro Mexia in his
Silva de varia lecion
, II, vii.
23
. This theme is taken up again in ‘An apology for Raymond Sebond’.
24
. Ovid,
De remedio amoris
, 615–16.
25
. Pliny, VII, ii, and IX, x.
26
. Virgil,
Eclogue
, III, 103.
27
. Standard
exempla
given by Coelius Richerius Rhodiginus,
Antiquae lectiones
(XX, xv) explaining the power over the body of the rational soul and of the faculty of imagination. For Jacob’s ewes which produced variegated lambs, cf. Genesis, 30:36–9 and St Augustine,
City of God
, XII, xxv.
28
. Until [C]:
human
occurrences…
1
. Seneca,
De bene ficiis
, VI, xxxviii.
2
. Philemon the Younger, cited in John Stobaeus,
Apophthegmata
(with Latin version by Varinus Favorinus). He wrote many comedies, all of which are lost.
3
. Lucretius, II, 753; III, 519.
1
. Erasmus,
Adages
, I, II, LI,
Taurum tollet, qui vitulum sustulerit
(stressing importance of childhood habits). Cf. also IV, IX, XXV,
Usus est altera natura
.
2
. Pliny, XXVI, ii.
3
. For Plato (
Republic
, VII) all mankind are like men born and bred in a cave, who are convinced that shadows on the wall projected by spiritual realities outside theircave are those realities themselves. Only the inspired philosopher can hope to enlighten them.
4
. Mithridates. This, and the reference to Albertus Magnus, from Pedro Mexia,
Varia lecion
, I, xxvi.
5
. From Francisco Lopez de Gomara (tr. Fumée),
Hist, générale des Indes
(Paris, 1578).
6
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xvii, 40.
7
. Those dwelling near the cataracts grow used to the noise and therefore cannot hear it: so too mankind cannot hear the music of the spheres. (Cicero,
Dream of Scipio
, XI, xix.)
8
. Recorded by Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Plato
, III, xxxviii.
9
. ’80:
so fantastical
– and…
10
. Standard Christian doctrine: true belief requires prevenient grace, which cannot be merited.
11
. Cicero,
De natura deorum
, I, xxx, 83.
12
. All from Francisco Lopez de Gomara (tr. Fumée),
Hist, générale des Indes
, as is all of [B] after the following [C]
13
. The borrowings from Gomara end here: there follows a borrowing from Herodotus and a series of borrowings from Simon Goulart’s
Histoire du Portugal
.
14
. ’88: that opinion,
so unnatural
, that souls…
(Belief in the immortality of the soul was thought to be virtually universal.)
15
. Details follow, from Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch, etc.
16
. The Amazons, described, for example, by the historian Justinus, II, iv.
17
. ’80: Where
not only the horror of
death is despised but
the hour of its coming even to the dearest persons one has is
rejoiced in
with great merriment; and as for pain, we know others
where seven-year-old boys…
18
. In Sparta. A much cited and admired example of self-sacrifice.
19
. In Persia (Xenophon,
Cyropaedia
, I, ii, 11).
20
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Des Vertueux faits des femmes
, and Herodotus, II, xii.
21
. Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, VII, vi, 1149 b; then follows a direct allusion to VII, v, 1148 b, on morbid desires arising from
ethos
.
22
. [’95] over-mastery as such.
It is by means of custom that each is pleased with the place in which Nature has planted him: the savages of Scotland have no time for Touraine, nor the Scythians for Thessalia
. Darius…
23
. After Herodotus, III, xii.
24
. Lucretius, II, 1023–5 (Lambin).
25
. [A], until [C]: so
wretched and
weak…
26
. Plato,
Laws
, VIII, vi.
27
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Chrysippus
.
28
. [A] until [C]: wished
similarly to assay himself and
to loose…
29
. The French, many of whose laws were in Latin or medieval French.
30
. Isocrates,
Ad Nicoclem
, VI, xviii (a treatise on government).
31
. According to Paulus Aemilius this Gascony gentleman’s name was, simply, ‘Gascon’.
32
. France. (Such criticisms were long current. In Molière’s
Le Misanthrope
Alceste will appear laughable for objecting to such practices.)
33
. The Stoic attitude: cf. Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, TLF, VII and, in the following century, Molière in
Le Misanthrope
.
34
. This was the golden political rule of Etienne de la Boëtie (cf. the end of I, 28, ‘On affectionate relationships’). The following verse is from a fragment of Greek tragedy.
35
. Zaleucus; known from Diodorus Siculus, XII, iv.
36
. Lycurgus the lawgiver of Sparta. Cf. Plutarch’s
Life of Lycurgus
.
37
. [A] until [C]: that
old
rusty sword…
Cf.
Valerius Maximus
, II, vi-7. Massilia (now Marseilles) was a Greek colony.
38
. ’88: which has beset us,
for the last twenty-five or thirty
years is not solely responsible…
(The ‘novelty’ was the Reformation and the Wars of Religion.)
39
. Ovid,
Heroïdes
(Epistle of Phyllis to Demophon, 48).
40
. ’88:
The first
who shake…
41
. Source not identified.
42
. In Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment on peut discerner le flatteur d’avec l’amy
, 44 E.
43
. Terence,
Andria
, I, i, 114.
44
. Livy, XXXIV, Iiv.
’88: the best of
alleged reasons
for novelty… (
titre
replaced by
praetexte
)
45
. Livy, X, vi.
46
. Herodotus, VIII, xxxvi.
47
. Cf. Titus 3:1; Romans 13:1–7.
48
. Christ in his apparent ‘foolishness’ is the ‘Wisdom of the Father’ (I Corinthians 1:30); his trial and crucifixion took place according to State law. Christians are the ‘elect’ (those
chosen
by God for salvation) and often find salvation through martyrdom. Christianity is spread by accepting injustice not by rebellion against the State. These are standard Catholic arguments, accepted by many from their reading of Erasmus.
49
. Cicero,
De divinatione
, I, xl, 87; Isocrates,
Ad Nicoclem
, IX, xxxiii.
50
. ’88: position:
one cannot change anything without judging whatever one abandons to be bad, and whatever one adopts to be good
. God does know…
51
. Theology.
52
. Miracles are exceptions and make bad law. (For the consequence of such a conviction, cf. Montaigne on witchcraft, I, 21, ‘On the power of the imagination’.)
53
. Cicero,
De natura deorum
, III, ii, 5.
54
. Seneca (the tragedian),
Oedipus
, III, 686.
55
. An echo of Terence applied politically. Cf. II, 19, ‘On freedom of conscience’, end.
56
. Agesilaus: the first of a series of borrowings from the relevant
Lives
of Plutarch.
57
. Alexander the Great, in Plutarch’s
Life
. When he was told that Macedonian custom forbade their armies to take to the field during June, he commanded June to be renamed The Second May.
4
. The Reformed Church. Guise was. Roman Catholic.
5
. Seneca,
De clementia
, I, ix. Montaigne doubtless savoured the fact that John Calvin had edited this text (Paris, 1532). It later provides the subject of Corneille’s tragedy,
Cinna, ou la clémence d’Auguste
.
6
. François de Guise was assassinated in 1563.
7
. The Platonic concept of poetic rapture widely accepted in Montaigne’s time, especially by the
Pléiade
. The main source is Plato’s dialogue,
Io
.
8
. In Plutarch’s
Life of Sylla
.
9
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V;
Dion
, I.
10
. Plutarch,
Life of Alexander
.
11
. Perhaps Henry III of France, but it could be Henry IV.
12
. Perhaps Henry IV, but it could be Duc Henri de Guise.
13
. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Livy, XXVIII, 17). Syphax was a King of Numidia during the Second Punic War.
14
. Livy, XXII, 22.
15
. Louis XI, who, according to Commines, entrusted his life to Charles the Bold at Conflans.
16
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, V, 316–18.
17
. Probably during the riots against the salt-tax in Bordeaux (1548), when the King’s representative was murdered.
18
. The mob.
19
. At Bordeaux, in 1585, when Montaigne was mayor. Some of the soldiers were thought to be disloyal.
20
. After Suetonius’
Life of Twelve Caesars
.
21
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot:
Dicts des anciens Roys
, XXII.
22
. Related by Giovanni Villani in his
Historia di suoi tempi
.
23
. Appianus of Alexandria,
De civilibus Romanorum bellis
, widely read during the Civil Wars in the French translation of Claude de Seyssel.
1
. A Sorbonne professor was addressed as
Magister Noster
(‘Our Master’), a title already mocked by Erasmus and in the
Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum
. Schoolmasters were often addressed as
Magister
by their pupils.
2
. Joachim Du Bellay,
Regrets
– the ‘punchline’ of Sonnet LXVIII.
3
. The Roman mob applied those terms to Cicero, according to Plutarch in his
Life of Cicero
. The words used were
Graikos
and
scholastikos
(which Xylander (863B) rendered as
Graecus
and
otiosus
, since in Latin
otium
means both leisure and learned study).
4
. Dreadful Latin: cited by the jolly, ignorant Benedictine monk, Frère Jean, in Rabelais
(Gargantua
, TLF, XXXVII, 95).
5
. Perhaps Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry of Navarre.
6
. A great many changes in [C]. [A] reads: I would like to suggest that our minds are swamped by too much study, just as plants are swamped by too much water: that our minds, seized and encumbered by so many diverse preoccupations…; also:
the best
scholars…
7
. Socrates, for example, was mocked by Aristophanes. The rest of the paragraph paraphrases Plato’s
Theaetetus
, XXIV, 173–5 in which the speaker is Socrates.