How to Live (52 page)

1
The Oxford Muse:
http://www.oxfordmuse.com
.

2
Melon: III:13 1031. Sex: III:13 1012. Singing: II:17 591. Repartee: II:17 587; III:8 871. Being alive: III:13 1036.

3
Levin:
The Times
(Dec. 2, 1991), p. 14. Pascal: Pascal,
Pensées
no. 568, p. 131.

4
“There is always a crowd”: Woolf, V., “Montaigne,” 71. “As we face each other”: “The Mark on the Wall,” in Woolf, V.,
A Haunted House: The Complete Shorter Fiction
(London: Vintage, 2003), 79–80.

5
Tabourot et al.: Étienne Tabourot, sieur des Accords,
Quatrième et cinquième livre des touches
(Paris: J. Richer, 1588), V: f. 65v. Cited Boase,
Fortunes
7–8 and Millet 62–3. Emerson 92. Gide, A.,
Montaigne
(London & New York: Blackamore Press, 1929), 77–8. Zweig, “Montaigne” 17.

6
Amazon readers:
http://www.amazon.com/Michel-Montaigne-Complete-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140446044
. Comments from tepi, Grant, Klumz, diastole1 and lexo-2x.

7
“Do I contradict myself?”: Whitman, W., “Song of Myself,” in
Leaves of Grass
(Brooklyn, 1855), 55.

8
“I cannot keep my subject still”: III:2 740.

9
Firing a pistol: Saint-Sernin, J. de,
Essais et observations sur les
Essais
du seigneur de Montaigne
(London: E. Allde, 1626), f. A6r.

10
“It is the only book in the world”: II:8 338.

11
Our own bum: III:13 1044.

12
Flaubert: Gustave Flaubert to Mlle Leroyer de Chantepie, June 16, 1857, cited Frame,
Montaigne in France
61.

1
Young man who died of fever: I:20 73.

2
“To philosophize is to learn how to die”: Cicero,
Tusculan Disputations
I: XXX, 74. Cicero took the idea from Plato’s
Phaedo
(67 e). Montaigne used it for the title of his essay: I:20.

3
Death of Arnaud, and “With such frequent and ordinary examples”: I:20 71.

4
“At every moment”: I:20 72.

5
Montaigne imagining his deathbed scene: III:4 771.

6
Death a few bad moments: III:12 980.

7
Riding: we do not know exactly when this incident occurred, but Montaigne says it was during the second or third civil wars, which puts it between autumn 1568 and early 1570: II:6 326.
Montaigne’s feeling of escape: III:5 811. On Montaigne and riding, see Balsamo, J., “Cheval,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
162–4.

8
Far-flung vineyards: Marcetteau-Paul 137–41.

9
Montaigne’s speculations: Marrow: II:12 507. Remora: II:12 417. Cat: I:21 90–1.

10
Montaigne’s description of the accident and its after-effects: II:6 326–30. All quotations in the next few pages are from this description, unless otherwise specified.

11
“Enfeeblement and stupor”: III:9 914. Petronius and Tigillinus: III:9 915. Both from Tacitus: Petronius from
Annals
XIV:19; Tigillinus from
Histories
I:72. Marcellinus: II:13 561–2. Source is Seneca,
Letters to Lucilius
, Letter 77. Loeb edn II:171–3.

12
“I never saw one of my peasant neighbors”: III:12 980.

13
“If you don’t know how to die”: III:12 979.

14
“Battered and bruised,” “I still feel the effect,” and return of his memory: II:6 330.

15
“Bad spots”: III:10 934.

16
Montaigne’s retirement: it was made official on July 23, 1570, but the transfer to his successor was signed in April 1570, so he must have made the decision earlier. See Frame,
Montaigne
114–15. On his rejected application: ibid., 57–8.

17
Retirement inscription: as translated in Frame,
Montaigne
115.

18
Montaigne’s mid-life crisis compared to Don Quixote and Dante: Auerbach, E.,
Mimesis
, tr. W. A. Trask (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 348–9.

19
On the Montaigne château and tower, see Gardeau and Feytaud; Willett; Hoffmann 8–38; Legros 103–26; and Legros, A., “Tour de Montaigne,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
984–7. “Very big bell”: I:23 94.

20
Shelves: III:3 763. Inheritance from La Boétie: III:12 984.

21
“I keep their handwriting”: II:18 612. South American collection: I:31 187.

22
Private library trend: Hale 397. “Room behind the shop” and “Sorry the man”: III:3 763.

23
Murals in side-chamber: Willett 219; Gardeau and Feytaud 47–8. Roof-beam quotations: Legros. On other similar inscriptions: Frame,
Montaigne
9.

24
On the fashion for retirement: Burke 5. “Let us cut loose”: I:39 214.

25
Seneca’s warnings: Seneca, “On Tranquillity of Mind,” in
Dialogues and Letters
34, 45.

26
A “melancholy humor”: II:8 337–8. Runaway horse, water reflections and other images: I:8 24–5.

27
On reverie: Morrissey, R. J.,
La Rêverie jusqu’à Rousseau: recherches sur un topos littéraire
(Lexington, KY: French Forum, 1984), esp. 37–43.

28
The reverie of writing: II:8 337–8. “Chimeras and fantastic monsters”: I:8 25.

29
Salvation lies in paying full attention: Seneca,
Letters to Lucilius
, Letter 78, Loeb edn II:199.

30
Writing for family and friends: “To the reader,”
Essays
I p. 2. On commonplace books, see Moss, A.,
Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). I am indebted to Peter Mack for the suggestion that Montaigne was partly inspired to write the
Essays
by reading Amyot’s translation of Plutarch.

31
The dates of his writing are derived from Villey’s study in
Les Sources:
see Frame,
Montaigne
156. There has since been some disagreement about the dating.

32
“Each man is a good education to himself”: II:6 331. Source is Pliny,
Natural History
XXII: 24.

33
“It is a thorny undertaking”: II:6 331.

34
“I meditate on any satisfaction,” and having himself woken from sleep: III:13 1040.

35
Heraclitus, Fragment 50. Heraclitus,
The Art and Thought of Heraclitus
, tr. and ed. C. H. Kahn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 53. Stream of consciousness: James, W.,
The
Principles of Psychology
(New York: Henry Holt, 1890), I:239.

36
Montaigne quotes Heraclitus: II:12 554. “Now gently, now violently”: II:1 291. Sand dunes: I:31 183. “A perpetual multiplication and vicissitude of forms”: III:6 841.
Branloire:
III:2 740. See Rigolot 203. On general sixteenth-century fascination with flux and metamorphosis: Jeanneret,
Perpetuum mobile
.

37
Theories of sex with lame women: III:11 963. Source for Aristotle is
Problemata
X: 24, 893b. See Screech 156–7.

38
“That our happiness must not be judged until after our death”: I:19 64–6. Sources for Solon are Herodotus,
Histories
I: 86, and Plutarch’s “Life of Solon,” in
Lives
, LVIII.

39
“If my mind could gain a firm footing”: III:2 740.

40
“I do not portray being”: III:2 740.

41
“Observe, observe perpetually”: Woolf, V., “Montaigne,” 78.

42
Mynah birds: Huxley, A.,
Island
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1962), 15.

43
“It will cause no commotion” and “You must drink quickly”: Seneca, “On the Shortness of Life,” in
Dialogues and Letters
68–9.

44
“A consciousness astonished at itself”: Merleau-Ponty 322. Astonishment and fluidity: Burrow, C., “Frisks, skips and jumps” (a review of Ann Hartle’s
Michel de Montaigne), London Review of Books
Nov. 6, 2003.

45
“I try to increase it in weight”: III:13 1040.

46
“When I walk alone” and “When I dance, I dance”: III:13 1036.

1
His birth: I:20 69, and Montaigne,
Le Livre de raison
, entry for Feb. 28. On his nickname of Micheau: Frame,
Montaigne
38. Eleven months: II:12 507–8. “Does this sound strange?”:
Gargantua
, I:3, in Rabelais,
The Complete Works
12–14.

2
Honesty: II:11 377. Kidney stones: II:37 701.

3
“Most” of his ancestors: III:9 901.

4
Family and nobility: Frame,
Montaigne
7–8, Lazard 26–9; Supple 28–9. On Eyquem family: Cocula, A.-M., “Eyquem de Montaigne (famille),” and Balsamo, J., “Eyquem de Montaigne (généalogie ascendante),” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
381–3. On the wine-growing business: Marcetteau-Paul.

5
Nobility of the sword: Supple 27–8.

6
Born “in confiniis Burdigalensium et Petragorensium”: Montaigne,
Le Livre de raison
, entry for Feb. 28.

7
Bordeaux background: Lazard 12; Frame,
Montaigne
5–6. The English wine fleet: Knecht,
Rise and
Fall
8.

8
Pierre’s way of signing documents: see e.g. the entry on Montaigne’s birth in the family record book: Montaigne,
Le Livre de raison
, entry for Feb. 28. See Lacouture 32.

9
“If others examined themselves attentively”: III:9 931.

10
Jewish ancestry: most biographers have surmised that his mother’s family was Jewish, with the main exception of Roger Trinquet (Trinquet,
La Jeunesse de Montaigne)
. See Lazard 41 and Frame,
Montaigne
17–20. Montaigne on Jews: I:14 42–3, I:56 282, II:3 311.

11
Montaigne’s parents’ marriage, and his mother’s age: Frame,
Montaigne
29.

12
Antoinette’s legal documents, and Pierre’s wills: Lazard 45, and Frame,
Montaigne
24–5.

13
She stayed until about 1587: this is based on the fact that, when she wrote her own will on April 19, 1597, she had apparently lived away from the castle for about ten years. Document of Aug. 31, 1568, and Antoinette’s will: both translated in Frame,
Montaigne
24–7.

14
Montaigne’s indolence, and his father’s home improvements: III:9 882–4. Also see II:17 601–2.

15
Montaigne’s father: Balsamo, J., “Eyquem de Montaigne, Pierre,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
383–6.

16
Brantôme: P. de Bourdeilles, seigneur de Brantôme,
Oeuvres completes
, ed. L. Lalanne (Paris, 1864–82), V: 92–3. Cited in Desan, P., “Ordre de Saint-Michel,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
734, and Supple 39.

17
Pierre’s stories: I:14 14.

18
The effect of Italy on French soldiers: Lazard 32, 14; Frame,
Montaigne
10.

19
Montaigne’s description of his father: II:12 300–1.

20
Stress of Pierre’s mayoralty: III:10 935. 48 “I want to sell some pearls”: I:35 200.

21
The neglected notebook and the Beuther
Ephemeris
are both in the Bibliothèque municipale de Bordeaux. “I think I am a fool to have neglected it”: I:35 201. A facsimile edition of the Beuther, with transcriptions, was published as Montaigne,
Le Livre de raison
. See Desan, P., “Beuther,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
100–5, which also discusses the neglected notebook. Montaigne’s dating and numbering errors include the age of his brother Arnaud when he died from the tennis accident (I:20 71; Frame,
Montaigne
33), his own age when he married, (II:8 342), the date of his arrest in Paris in 1588, which he later corrected (Montaigne,
Le Livre de raison
, entries for July 10 and July 20), and the age of his first daughter when she died (Montaigne’s dedication to La Boétie’s translation of Plutarch’s
Lettre de consolation
, 1570).

22
Half-finished jobs: III:9 882. Montaigne’s affectation of indifference: III:10 935.

23
Pierre’s kidney-stone attacks: II:37 701; III:2 746.

24
Pierre’s wills: Frame,
Montaigne
14.

25
“Completing some old bit of wall”: III:9 882. “One should not try to surpass one’s father”: Nietzsche,
The Gay Science
142 (s. 210).

26
Holy persons and oracles: II:12 387.

27
Eyquems famous for their harmony: I:28 166. “Out of respect for the good reputation”: this is quoted by Montaigne in his letter to his father, published in his edition of La Boétie,
La Mesnagerie
[etc.], and in Montaigne,
The Complete Works
, tr. D. Frame, 1285.

28
Montaigne’s siblings: Balsamo, J., ‘Frères et soeurs de Montaigne’, in Desan,
Dictionnaire
419–21.

29
Montaigne sent out to peasant family: III:13 1028; Montaigne’s ordinariness made him extraordinary: II:17 584.

30
Let your children “be formed by fortune”: III:13 1028.

31
Horst: Banderier, G., “Précepteur de Montaigne,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
813.

32
“My father and mother,” “without artificial means,” and compliments from teachers: I:26 156–7.

33
Moderns inferior because they learned Latin artificially: I:26 156.

34
“We volleyed our conjugations,” but little later knowledge of Greek: I:26 157. See also II:4 318.

35
Woken by musical instrument: I:26 157. Only twice struck with rod, and “wisdom and tact”: II:8 341.

36
Erasmus: Erasmus, D.,
De pueris statim ac liberaliter instituendis declamatio
(Basel: H. Froben, 1529). “All the inquiries a man can make”: I:26 156–7.

37
Decline through lack of practice: II:17 588; Latin exclamation: III:2 746.

38
Ephemeral quality of French gave him freedom: III:9 913.

39
Latin commune: Étienne Tabourot, sieur des Accords,
Les Bigarrures
(Rouen: J. Bauchu, 1591), Book IV, ff. 14r–v. Experiments were also tried by Robert Estienne and François de La Trémouïlle. See Lazard 57–8.

40
Montaigne’s advice on education: I:26 135–50.

41
“There is no one who”: III:2 746.

42
Montaigne blames his father for changing his mind: I:26 157. On other possibilities: Lacouture 19–21.

43
Bordeaux in Montaigne’s time: Cocula, A.-M., “Bordeaux,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
123–5.

44
Collège de Guyenne: Hoffmann, G., “Étude & éducation de Montaigne,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
357–9. Curriculum from Elie Vinet,
Schola aquitanica
(1583). On the school regime: Lazard 62–3; Trinquet; Porteau, P.,
Montaigne et la vie pédagogique de son temps
(Paris: Droz, 1935). Montaigne says he lost his Latin at school: I:26 158.

45
Montaigne’s acting: I:26 159.

46
Gouvéa: Gorris Camos, R., “Gouvéa, André,” in Desan,
Dictionnaire
438–40. 61 The salt-tax uprising: Knecht,
Rise and Fall
210–11, 246. Closing of the Collège: Nakam,
Montaigne et son temps
85.

47
Killing of Moneins: I:24 115–16.

48
On Montmorency, the “pacification,” and Bordeaux’s loss of privileges: Knecht,
Rise and Fall
246–7, Nakam,
Montaigne et son temps
81–2.