The Complete Essays (207 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
1
. [A] until [C]: that,
among the instructions which fell into his hands
, he had wished…
2
. Giraldi, famous for his erudite works on the gods of Antiquity and on their burial customs, died in poverty (Ferrara, 1552); Châteillon (Castalio) died in Basle, 1563.
1
. The phrase ‘under the sun’ occurs as a refrain in Ecclesiastes (and nowhere else in the Bible). On the beams of his library Montaigne inscribed,
‘Omnium quae sub sole sunt fortuna et lex par est, Eccl.ix.’
[Of everything which is under the sun the fortune and law are equal, Ecclesiastes 9.] The word
fortuna
occurs but once in the Latin Bible (Isaiah 65). Montaigne’s ‘quotation’ is apparently a loose paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 9:2 (Vulgate), 9:3 (AV),
‘Hoc est pessimum inter omnia quae sub sole fiunt, quia eadem cunctis eveniunt.’
[‘Among all things done under the sun, this is the worst: that the same outcome awaits all men.’] Ecclesiastes stresses that you cannot tell from their earthly fate the good from the bad.
2
. Lucretius, IV, 936–7. (The theme of the weakness of man was commonplace. Cf. for a comic use of it, Rabelais,
Tiers Livre
, VIII.)
3
. After Guillaume Postel, the Renaissance authority on the Turks.
4
. Cicero,
De Senectute
, X, 34.
5
. Herodotus, III, xii.
6
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 21OF; Pedro Mexia (tr. Gruget), I, xvi; Silius Italicus,
De bello punico
, I, 250–1.
7
. Plato,
Laws
, XII, 942D.
8
. Stephen Bathory.
9
. Pliny,
Hist, nat.
, XXVII, 6.
10
. Du Bellay,
Mémoires
, X.
11
. Ovid,
Tristia
, III, X, 23–4. There follow anecdotes from Livy, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus and Lopez de Gomara.
12
. Xenophon,
Anabasis
, IV.
13
. Diodorus Siculus,
Alexander
, XVII, xviii.
14
. Lopez de Gomara (tr. Fumée).
Histoire générale des Indes
, II, xxxiii.
1
. ’80: another man by me
and of reducing characteristics of others to my own. I easily believe of others many things which my own powers cannot attain
. My own weakness…
2
. Montaigne was buried with the religious order of the Feuillants of Bordeaux, to whom his widow entrusted his working copy of the
Essays
with its [C] additions and changes and which is the basis of the Edition municipale.
3
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, i, 3 (adapted).
4
. ’80: corruption
and licentiousness
. Even…
5
. ’80: so leaden that it lacks
the very taste of virtue:
virtue…
6
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, vi, 31–2.
7
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, ii, 6 (adapted).
8
. Not Potidaea but Plataeae, a city of Boeotia, famous for the Greek victory over the Persians (Herodotus, IX, lxx).
9
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la malignité d’Herodote
, 649H–650A.
10
. The famous image of poetry’s magnetic power in Plato’s
Io
, widely known from Ronsard’s ode,
A Michel de L’Hospital
.
11
. This order is not kept. The first poet is Martial, VI, xxxii.
12
. Manilius, IV, 87.
13
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, I, 128.
14
. Horace,
Odes
, II, i, 23.
15
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VIII, 670.
1
. Plutarch,
Life of Pyrrhus
; then an allusion to the defeat of Charles the Bold by René II, 1477. The battle of Auroy is narrated by Froissart.
2
. Petrarch, Sonnet 81.
3
. Plutarch,
Life of Caesar
.
4
. Lucan,
Pharsalia
, 1037–9.
5
. Publius Syrus
apud
Aulus Gellius, XVII, 14.
6
. Catullus,
De coma Berenices
, LXVI, 15.
7
. Agrippina, Nero’s mother, shouted as she was killed: ‘Stab the belly which brought forth such a monster.’ Boethius (
De consolatione philosophiae
, II, vi, metre), says that ‘Nero shed no tears.’ Tacitus’ account in the
Annals
, xiv, 9, states that ‘some say, but others deny’ that he looked at her dead body and praised its beauty.
8
. Lucretius, V, 282–4.
9
. After Herodotus, VII, xlv, and Valerius Maximus, IX, xiii.
1
. From early Christian times such comparisons were legion.
2
. The great Platonic adage spread by Cicero in its Latin form and stating that ‘No man is born for himself alone, but partly for his country and partly for those whom he loves.’ (Erasmus,
Adages
, IV, VI, VIII,
Nemo sibi nascitur
.)
3
. Ecclesiasticus 7:28; then, Juvenal,
Satires
, XIII, 26–7.
4
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Bias
. (The subsequent references to Bias are also from this work.) His remark became proverbial; cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Bias Prienaeus
, II. Then, Simon Goulart,
Histoire du Portugal
, VIII, ix.
5
. Charondas the lawgiver of Sicily and follower of Pythagoras (Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XC, 6).
’80: chastised
with great punishments
by…
6
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Antisthenes Atheniensis
, XXII.
7
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xi, 25–6.
8
.
Odes
, III, i, 40.
9
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, IV, 73.
10
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CIV, 7, Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socrates
, XLIV.
11
. Horace,
Odes
, II, xvi, 18–20. (The ideas in general are indebted here to Seneca.)
15
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, IX, 18.
16
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Antisthenes
(with later references also to this work).
17
. St Augustine,
City of God
, I, x.
18
. Tibullus, IV, xiii, 12 (adapted).
19
. Terence,
Adelphi
, I, i, 13–14.
22
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xv, 42–6.
23
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, i, 19.
24
. Sallust,
Catilenae conjuratio
, IV.
25
. Cicero,
De Senectute
, XVI, 59.
[A]: more
noble
and acceptable…
26
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xii, 12–13.
27
. Pliny the Younger,
Epistles
, I, i. no. 3.
28
. Persius,
Satires
, I, xxiii.
29
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LI, 13; the
Philistae
(or
Philetai
) were assassins.
30
. Propertius, II, xxv, 38.
31
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, iv, 4–5.
32
. Persius,
Satires
, V, 151–2.
’80 (instead of this quotation): grasp,
and prolong them with all our power: Quamcunque Deus tibi fortunaverit horam, Grata sume manu, nec dulcia differ in annum
[Whatever happy hour God has allotted you, accept with a grateful hand and do not put off delights for a year]… (Did Montaigne strike out this because he had confused, in his quotation from Horace,
Epistles
I, xi, 22,
God
with
Fortuna
? All editions of Horace read
Fortuna
not
Deus.
)
33
. Persius,
Satires
, I, 19–20.
34
. The first is Epicurus. The second is Seneca. The following epistle is largely composed of borrowings from various epistles of Seneca.
35
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xxii, 52.
36
. Modelled on Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXV, 6. The ‘companions’ proposed there are Cato, Scipio and Laelius. Montaigne prefers Phocion, the great Athenian general, and Aristides, a statesman renowned for his integrity.
37
. Pliny the Younger and Cicero, condemned above for seeking glory from their withdrawal from the world.
1
. ’80: is
in no ways
like his uncle…
2
. Cicero wrote to Luxeius, and Pliny the Younger to Tacitus, asking for a place in their histories.
3
. Not really. Terence
may
have been a Carthaginian slave freed by Terentius Lucanus. In the
Prologue
to the
Adelphi
(15–21) he says he is flattered by the imputation that great men helped him write his comedies, which may or may not mean what Montaigne thinks it does.
4
. Plutarch,
Life of Demosthenes
.
5
. Horace,
Carmen Saeculare
, 51–2.
6
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, VI, 849–51.
7
. Plutarch:
Life of Pericles
(twice) and (tr. Amyot)
Dicts notables des anciens Roys, Princes et grands Capitaines
, 192C.
8
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XCV, 2–3.
9
. Ibid., XXI, 4–5.
10
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des anciens Roys, Princes et grands Capitaines
, 208A.
11
. Etienne de La Boëtie.
12
. ’80: disjointed and
difficult
; and I know… (Montaigne sees his style as marked by the dry, everyday language of Latin comedy. Cf. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, C, 10.)
13
. ’80: haughty.
Those whom I love cause me pain if I have to tell them I do so
. I present myself…
1
. Torquato Tasso,
Gierusalemme liberata
, XIV, 63; St Augustine,
City of God
, V, xiv.
2
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xv, 34–5.
3
. The Du Bellay
Mémoires
, VI; Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 216B; Froissart,
Chroniques;
Livy, XXVII, xlv.