Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
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The Complete Essays
THE COMPLETE ESSAYS
‘Dr Screech’s principal achievement has been to render Montaigne into contemporary English without quaintness, but also without sacrifice of that flavour of the sixteenth century which is implicit in Montaigne’s thinking… We want the essence of the man in a form accessible to modern readers, and that is what the translator has so gracefully given us’ – Robertson Davies
‘An absolute treat… [Screech] is the master of Montaigne. He’s already written extremely eloquently about Michel Montaigne as a melancholy man. There’s a kind of liveliness, a vernacular about the translation here that works very well’ – Roy Porter on
Kaleidoscope
, BBC Radio Four
‘Of its [the translation’s] limpidity and charm there can be no question’ – Simon Raven in the
Guardian
‘This thinking tome, edited by a fine scholar, is utterly readable as fine scholars should be. It is more easily picked up than put down, and should be on the bedside table of every
homme moyen sensuel
, or lady for that matter’ – Anthony Blond in the
Evening Standard
‘Most of all, mention should be made of the other greatly original feature of this translation, the commentary… [which] constitutes a fascinating sixteenth-century
honnête homme
’s library. For this reason the French reader will turn to the translation of M. A. Screech, who takes his place among those who, crossing cultural boundaries, enable each country to rediscover its writers in a new light’ – Jean-Robert Armogathe in
Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance
‘Anglophones of the next century will be deeply in [Dr Screech’s] debt’ – Gore Vidal in
The Times Literary Supplement
MICHEL EYQUEM
, Seigneur de Montaigne, was born in 1533, the son and heir of Pierre, Seigneur de Montaigne (two previous children dying soon after birth). He was brought up to speak Latin as his mother tongue and always retained a Latin turn of mind; though he knew Greek, he preferred to use translations. After studying law he eventually became counsellor to the
Parlement
of Bordeaux. He married in 1565. In 1569 he published his French version of the
Natural Theology
of Raymond Sebond; his
Apology
is only partly a defence of Sebond and sets sceptical limits to human reasoning about God, man and nature. He retired in 1571 to his lands at Montaigne, devoting himself to reading and reflection and composing his
Essays
(first version, 1580). He loathed the fanaticism and cruelties of the religious wars of the period, but sided with Catholic orthodoxy and legitimate monarchy. He was twice elected Mayor of Bordeaux (1581 and 1583), a post held for four years. He died at Montaigne in 1592 while preparing the final, and richest, edition of his
Essays
.
M. A. SCREECH
is an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Fellow and Chaplain, 2001–3), a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of University College London, and a corresponding member of the Institut de France. He long served on the committee of the Warburg Institute as the Fielden Professor of French Language and Literature in London, until his election to All Souls. He is a Renaissance scholar of international renown. He has edited and translated both the complete edition and a selection of the
Essays
for Penguin Classics and, in a separate volume, Montaigne’s
Apology for Raymond Sebond
. His other books include
Erasmus: Ecstacy and the Praise of Folly
(Penguin, 1988),
Rabelais, Montaigne and Melancholy
(Penguin, 1991) and, most recently,
Laughter at the Foot of the Cross
(Allen Lane, 1998). All are acknowledged to be classics studies in their fields. He worked with Anne Screech on Erasmus’
Annotations on the New Testament
. Michael Screech was promoted Chevalier dans l’Ordre du Mérite in 1982 and Chevalier dans la Légion d’Honneur in 1992. He was ordained, in Oxford, a deacon in 1994 and a priest in 1995.
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Translated and edited with an
Introduction and Notes by
M. A. SCREECH
PENGUIN BOOKS
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Book II, Chapter 12 previously appeared as
An Apology for Raymond Sebond
,
published in Penguin Books 1987
The Complete Essays
first published by Allen Lane The Penguin Press 1991
Reprinted with corrections and a new Chronology 2003
20
This translation and editorial material copyright © M. A. Screech 1987, 1991, 2003
All rights reserved
The moral right of the translator has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
9780141915937
In Memory of
PHILIP EVELEIGH
Wit, poet, scholar
killed during the Allied
landings in Italy
Explanation of the Symbols
[
Summary of the Symbols repeated on p. 1284
]
1. We reach the same end by discrepant means
3. Our emotions get carried away beyond us
4. How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones
5. Whether the governor of a besieged fortress should go out and parley
6. The hour of parleying is dangerous
7. That our deeds are judged by the intention
10. On a ready or hesitant delivery
13. Ceremonial at the meeting of kings
14. That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them
15. One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without a good reason
17. The doings of certain ambassadors
19. That we should not be deemed happy till after our death
20. To philosophize is to learn how to die
21. On the power of the imagination
22. One man’s profit is another man’s loss
23. On habit: and on never easily changing a traditional law
24. Same design: differing outcomes
25. On schoolmasters’ learning
27. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities
28. On affectionate relationships
29. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boëtie
32. Judgements on God’s ordinances must be embarked upon with prudence
33. On fleeing from pleasures at the cost of one’s life
34. Fortune is often found in Reason’s train
35. Something lacking in our civil administrations
36. On the custom of wearing clothing
38. How we weep and laugh at the same thing
42. On the inequality there is between us
47. On the uncertainty of our judgement
50. On Democritus and Heraclitus
52. On the frugality of the Ancients
53. On one of Caesar’s sayings
1. On the inconstancy of our actions
3. A custom of the Isle of Cea
4. ‘Work can wait till tomorrow’
8. On the affection of fathers for their children
9. On the armour of the Parthians
12. An apology for Raymond Sebond
13. On judging someone else’s death
14. How our mind tangles itself up
15. That difficulty increases desire
20. We can savour nothing pure
23. On bad means to a good end
25. On not pretending to be ill
27. On cowardice, the mother of cruelty
28. There is a season for everything
32. In defence of Seneca and Plutarch
34. Observations on Julius Caesar’s methods of waging war
36. On the most excellent of men
37. On the resemblance of children to their fathers
1. On the useful and the honourable
3. On three kinds of social intercourse
