The Complete Essays (201 page)

30
. ’80: happiness in the soul
and to have too much commerce with the body
. Just as…
(Cf. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXVIII. In. [C], cf. Plato,
Phaedo
, 66B ff.

31
. St Augustine,
City of God
, I, x (adapted).

32
.
Esdras
13:8; John 16:21.

33
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
De l’amour
, XXXIV, p. 613C.

34
. ’80: fox
(for theft was a virtuous deed for them, but with the proviso that it was more disgraceful to be caught than it is with us):
he stuffed…

35
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Life of Lycurgus
, xiv; Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, V, xxvii, 77. (Theme taken up again in the
Essays
, I, 23.)

36
. Cf. Seneca,
Ep. moral.
, XXIV, 5.

37
. Seneca,
Ep. moral.
, LXXVIII, 18–19.

38
. Aulus Gellius, XII, xvii, 41.

39
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xvii, 41.

40
. Tibullus, I, viii, 45–6 (adapted).

41
. Written before the death of Henry II of France in 1589; he was King of Poland in 1573 and 1574.

42
. Guillaume Postel,
Des Histoires Orientales
, Paris, 1575, p. 228. The girl mentioned above is further situated in [’95] and could well be Mlle de Gournay.
   [’95]: apart from which,
when I came to those famous Estates meeting at Blois, I had seen
a girl
beforehand in Picardy
who, to prove…

43
. This is confirmed by Joinville,
Histoire et cronique du Roy S. Loys
, XCIV.

44
. Jean Bouchet,
Annales d’Acquitaine
, Poitiers, 1557, p. 75r°

45
. Foulke III, who died in 1040.

46
. Montaigne’s diary suggests this was his friend the Comte de Foix, whose three sons were killed near Agen, 29 July 1587.
   [’95]: as a
special
blessing
from heaven. I do not follow such monstrous humours but
I myself…

47
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, III, xxviii, 71.

48
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Dicts notables des anciens Roys, princes et capitaines
, p. 189D.

49
. Livy, XXXIV, xvii.

50
. Montaigne is alluding to ascetic anchorites.

51
. Among those who had gelded themselves was Origen. Montaigne believed that Democritus had blinded himself (cf. I, 29; II, 12). Textor cites this after Lucretius in his
Officina
(s.v.
Caeci et Excaecati
).

52
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Thales
, I, xxvi, 28.

53
. Aristippus. Cf. Horace,
Satires
, II, iii, 99–110.

54
. Seneca,
Ep. moral.
, XVII, 11.

55
. Plutarch,
Life of Julius Caesar
.

56
. Catullus, IV, 18.

57
. ’88: right beside me.
Fortune
can make… (
Sors
replacing
Fortune
)

58
. Publius Syrus, cited by Justus Lipsius,
Politici
, V, xviii.

59
. Sallust,
De republica
, I, 1; cited there as from Appuleius.

60
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXIV, 4 (adapted).

61
. ’88: stage,
I did have goods
. Becoming so
hotly
attached to
them
, I…

62
. Seneca,
De Tranquillitate animi
, VIII.

63
. Plato,
Laws
, I, 1, 631B–D.

64
. Or rather, the Elder Dionysius: Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Les dictz notables des anciens Roys, Princes, et grands capitaines
, p. 190E–F.

65
. ’80: for
four or five
years: some good
Fortune
or other cast me out…

66
. Cicero,
Paradoxa
, VI, iii, 49.

67
. Until [C]: a vice,
which I have always held to be the least excusable and
the most ridiculous…

68
. Cf. Xenophon,
Cyropaedia
, VIII, iii, 40.

69
. Perhaps Prevost de Sansac, Archbishop of Bordeaux, a contemporary of Montaigne’s.

70
. Cf. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Du vice et de la vertu
, I, 38B.

71
. Themes developed in ‘An apology for Raymond Sebond’ (II, 12): cf. the bent oar. Here Montaigne is translating from Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXI, 23–6.

72
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, xxii, 52.

73
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XII, 10: the great Stoic commonplace making suicide the ultimate recourse of the wise man.
Until [C]: constrained to
pay us with the following:
‘Living…

1
. Several borrowings from the Du Bellay
Mémoires
, (II, 61 and VIII, 267).

2
. Until [C]: Eastern potentates,
the Tamberlanes, Mahomets
and their…

3
. Simon Goulart,
Histoire du Portugal
, XIV, xv.

1
. Until [C] the misprint
peu de gens
(for
prou
de gens) made this read:
few
people (which inverts the sense).

2
. Diodorus Siculus,
Histoires
(tr. Amyot), XII, ix.

3
. Tertullian, cited by Justus Lipsius,
Adversus dialogistam
, III.

4
. Ammianus Marcellinus,
Res gestae
, XXIV, iv, and XXV, i.

5
. The Du Bellay
Mémoires
, II, 52; VII, 217.

1
. Verses derived from Propertius and translated in a recent Italian book of etiquette, Stefano Guazzo’s
La civil conversatione
, which had at least five editions between 1574 and 1600. Cf. note 6, below.

2
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Les Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, p. 215G.

3
. Diodorus Siculus, XV, ii, p. 179r°; Horace,
Epistles
, I, xiv, 43.

4
. Until [C]: always
strive to
lead…

5
. Guillaume Du Bellay was the Seigneur de Langey. The
Mémoires
(often attributed to Martin Du Bellay) were the work of Guillaume, Jean, René and Martin Du Bellay. (Cf. here,
Mémoires
, pp. 152–6.)

6
. Aulus Gellius, I, xiii, 24. These facts, and a similar discussion based on Aulus Gellius, occur in another famous book of court etiquette, Castiglione’s
Book of the Courtier
, which was written for King Francis I of France.

1
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, II, 774.

2
. ’80: even among
warriors
where… (Many melancholics were prone to visions of chimeras and bugaboos).

3
. ’80: was
held
by such terror… (Du Bellay,
Mémoires
, III, 75.)

4
. Du Bellay,
Mémoires
, VIII, 255.

5
. ’88: Such
madness
can sometimes take hold of
entire armies;
– [B] (until [C]): Allemani,
fear being spread among their army
, two… (Tacitus,
Hist.
, I, lxiii.)

6
. Quintus Curtius, III, ii. The general account is from Joannes Zonaras,
Historia
, III.

7
. Livy,
Annal.
, XXI, lvi.

8
. Cicero:
Tusc. disput.
, III, xxvii, 66. (The event figures in Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra
.) Then ibid., IV, viii, 19, citing Ennius.

9
. Diodorus Siculus, XV, vii.

10
. Cf. Erasmus,
Adages
, III, VIII, III,
Panicus casus;
also
Apophthegmata
, V;
Epaminondas
, I.

1
. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
, III, 135.

2
. Cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII;
Solon Salaminius
, III (citing Herodotus).
([A] until [C]): smile on them,
how much treasure, how many Kingdoms and Empires might be seen in their hands
, can never…

3
. Plutarch, tr. Amyot,
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, p. 211C.

4
. Dionysius the Tyrant became a pedagogue.

5
. Cf. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxxv, 86.

6
. Ludovico Sforza, ousted in 1500, spent
eight
years in the dungeon at Loches; Mary Stuart (widow of Francis II of France) was beheaded in 1587.

7
. Lucretius, V, 1233. (The
fasces
and
axes
were Roman symbols of State.)

8
. Macrobius,
Saturnalia
, II, vii.

9
. [A] until [C]: honours,
riches
and powers…

10
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V;
Epaminondas
, XXIII.

11
. Lucretius, III, 57.

12
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXIV and XXVI, parts of which are translated and paraphrased at length in this chapter.

13
. The reference to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio (not Scipio Africanus) is from Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XXIV, 9. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V;
Epaminondas
, XXIII. For Montaigne, Epaminondas was the greatest of virtuous soldiers and a model to be followed.

14
. Etienne de La Boëtie.

15
. ’88: in a quiet and
assured
manner… (i.e.,
seurement
corrected to
sourdement)

1
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxx, 74–xxxi, 75. In Plato (
Phaedo
67D) for Socrates, whom Cicero is following,
to philosophize
is
to practise dying
. However, Cicero translates ‘practice’ not by
meditatio
, which means that, but by
commentatio
, which means a careful preparation. Montaigne is here echoing Cicero, not Socrates directly, and so lessens the element of ecstasy implied by Socrates.

2
. ’80: as the Holy
Word
says…
   Montaigne is at best paraphrasing not citing Scripture: cf. Ecclesiastes 3:12; 5:17; 9:7; also Ecclesiasticus 14:14 (no New Testament text is relevant). Several inscriptions in Montaigne’s library prove that he was citing either or both of Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus from some untraced intermediary source.

3
. ’80: for us
our torment. Now there are no means of reaching this point, of fashioning a solid contentment, unless it frees us from the fear of death
. [A] That is why…

4
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, CXVII, 30.

5
. On Cicero’s authority (
Tusc. disput.
, II, xviii, 43),
virtus
, the Latin word for virtue, was normally derived from
vir
(man) not from
vis
(strength). True virtue, in this sense, was ‘manliness’. (Same etymology:
Essays
, II, 7.)

6
. Philosophical pleasure (quite ascetic in Epicurus) is contrasted here with sexual pleasure.