The Complete Essays (232 page)

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 descendere
(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.

2
. Ovid,
Tristia
, III, ii, 9.

3
. The Socratic injunction,
Aedibus in nostris:
cf. III, 9, note 160.

4
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXII, 8 (adapted).

5
. Horace,
Odes
, II, i, 7–8.

6
. Henry III enjoined him to return to France (from Delia Villa Spa) and to take up the office of Mayor (or Governor) of Bordeaux.

7
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, XI, 658.

8
. ’88: Alexander
wrinkled his nose at
the ambassadors…

9
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV,
Alexander Magnus
, LXV, mentioning Hercules but not Bacchus.

10
. Quintilian, II, xvii, 28.

11
. ’88: hidden,
more noble
ones…

12
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, VI, 7 (adapted).
Then, ’88: The chief
and most legitimate
charge…

13
. Horace,
Odes
, IV, ix, 51–2.

14
. Statius,
Thebaid
, X, 704 (read in Justus Lipsius).

15
. The standard
exemplum
is that of Plato, who said to Xenophon, ‘Beat this boy, for I myself am angry.’ (Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Plato Atheniensis
, VII.) It was also. Stoic commonplace that the Sage avoids anger.

16
. Quintus Curtius, IX, ix, 12; then, Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XLIV, 7.

17
. Doubtless Henry of Navarre (Henry IV).

18
. Borrowings from Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XVI; then, Lucilius as cited by Nonius Marcellus,
De proprietate sermonis
, V. (This work was published in Paris in 1583.)

19
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Socratica
, XXVIII and VII;
Cleanthes Assius
, II. For Epicurus and his follower Metrodorus cf. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XVIII, 9. The quotation is from Seneca, XC, 19 (praising the simple life before the advent of luxury and civilization, the general theme of these pages).

20
. Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, VII, LXXXVIII,
Tuo te pede mettre
(Measure yourself by your own yardstick), associated by Erasmus with
Nosce teipsum
, etc., as the conduct of the wise man.

21
. Erasmus,
Adages
, IV, IX, XXV,
Usus est altera natura
.
’88: less powerful:
and to my humour
I would just as soon…

22
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, v, 12.
’88: uti.
Similarly I do not reform myself in wisdom by frequenting and dealing with the world without regretting that the amendment came to me so late that I no longer have time to enjoy it: from henceforth I need no other talent than that of endurance before death and old age. What is the use of a new art of living in such a decline and of a new assiduity to guide me along that road along which I have only a few steps to take? Go and teach
eloquence to a
man
banished to the deserts of Arabia. No art is required to decline. Here I am in short…

23
. The reformed Gregorian calendar (jumping in fact eleven days) introduced in France in 1582.

24
. ’88: is
vain
and…

25
. Petronius (fragment) cited after Justus Lipsius’
De Constantia
.

26
. The mule was the animal usually ridden on formal occasions by the higher clergy.

27
. Quintus Curtius, IV, xxv.

28
. Pliny, XXVII, 22 (adapted). Then, Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, xxv, 55, speaking of the irrational man.

29
. Livy, XXXIV, xxxvi.

30
. Montaigne was criticized by Sisto Fabri in the Vatican for placing Theodore Beza, the successor to Calvin, among the best contemporary Latin poets. He stood by his opinion (cf. II, 17, ‘On presumption’).

31
. In the Gallic War he saved the Capitol but, suspected of monarchical ambitions, was thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. Livy, V, xlvii; VI, xi and Cicero,
De Republica
, II, xxvii, 49.

32
. Apollonius of Tyana claimed to have risen from the dead and to have performed miracles. He, and Mahomet, were by many thought of as would-be rivals and imitators of Christ. Montaigne’s term
singeries
(monkey-tricks) implies miracles worked by the Devil, the Ape of God.

33
. First, the war-party of the Reformed Church; then their confederate Roman Catholic opponents in
La Ligue
.

34
. The murderous and atrocious civil wars between Marius and Sylla are recapitulated with horror and burning indignation by Lucan in the
Pharsalia
, II, 42–233. Montaigne saw close parallels with the French Civil Wars of Religion.

35
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaetnoniens
, 223 F (but Plutarch says it was a bronze statue).

36
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des anciens Roys
, 189 D – E. (Cotys realized he was prone to fits of anger.)

37
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXII, 11.

38
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, X, 693–6.

39
. For example, when Rome fell St Augustine remarked that all is transitory and vanity succeeds to vanity.

40
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Zeno
, with a priapic Latin pun on
tumor
(swelling, erection); then, Socrates in Xenophon,
Memorabilia
, I, iii, 13. The ‘poison’ of beauty is that of a scorpion; but it can reach one not only through I kiss but when beauty is seen from afar.

41
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Cyrus Major
, III, citing Socrates’ disciple Xenophon (
Cyropaedia
, V, i, 17; VI, i, 31. Panthea, the wife of Abradatas, was the most beautiful woman of Asia, IV, vi, 11).

42
. Once again Montaigne cites the Bible as verbally inspired by the Holy Ghost (here, particularly, in the Lord’s Prayer given in Matthew 6:13).

43
. Echoing the final clause of the Lord’s Prayer,
Libera nos a malo
(Deliver us from evil).

44
. Translated in the text by Montaigne. Apparently, verses from Buchanan’s
Franciscanus
, incorrectly cited from memory.

45
. ’88: a
tyrannical
propensity…

46
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, xviii, 42. (Montaigne’s general context owes much here to Seneca.) The next quotation is attributed to Seneca by Marie de Gournay and is indeed from
Epist. moral.
, LXXIV, 33.

47
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, X, 97–9.

48
. Cicero,
De officiis
, II, xviii, 64.

49
. Cf. the cause of the Picrocholine War in the
Gargantua
of Rabelais: a brawl over buns. Commines gives the cause of the Duke’s war; in his
Life of Marius
Plutarch gives as the first and enduring cause of the great Roman civil strife Marius’ resentment over the triumphant engraving on the ring which Sylla had made to celebrate the capture of Jugurtha.

50
. Allusion to the judgement of Paris, who awarded the golden apple for her beauty to Venus (who promised him Helen), thus arousing the wrath of Juno and Minerva. By carrying off Helen to Troy he brought about the Trojan War.

51
. Comparison inspired by Plutarch, (tr. Amyot),
Comment on peult appercevoir si l’on profite en l’exercise de la vertu
, 114 B.

52
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la mauvaise honte
, 79 A–C (after warning that a passion for honour frequently leads to deeds of dishonour).

53
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Bias
, I, lxxxvii (not listed by Erasmus (
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Bias Prienaeus
). Erasmus asserts there that most of the sayings of the seven sages are fabulous and that many are too trite to be attributed to sages.

54
. Attributed by Marie de Gournay to Seneca, but not traced.

55
. Virgil,
Georgics
, II, 490–4.

56
. Horace,
Odes
, III, xvi, 80–1.

57
. Cicero,
De petitione consolatus
, II.

58
. ’88: I
have an excitable way of reacting towards that to which my will is drawing me
, but that trait…

59
. Cicero,
De officiis
, I, xxxiv, 124 – on the right conduct for the good private citizen.

60
. ’88: other such
lack-lustre
and unpretentious…

61
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment on pourra discerner le flatteur d’avec l’ami
, 53 D.

62
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV,
Alexander Magnus
, I.

63
. Actually, it is Socrates who says this of Alcibiades (Plato,
Alcibiades
I, 105 A), where Alexander is mentioned also in this context.

64
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment on pourra apparcevoir, si l’on profite en l’exercice de la vertu
, 116 D: ‘See how unboastful and unarrogant I am, Dionysia!’ By changing the servant-girl’s name to Perrette Montaigne gives his allusion the tone of a French farce.

65
. Psalm 115 (113)1.

66
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De communes conceptions, contre les Stoïques
, 575 D, citing a book about Zeus (now lost) by Chysippus.

67
. Cicero,
De officiis
, II, xxii, 76, repeating Cicero’s own judgement. (Panaetius of Rhodes was a Stoic philosopher).

68
. Cicero,
De finibus
, II, xv, 50.