The Complete Essays (205 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
59
. Plato’s
Symposium
in French, and sometimes in English, is known as the
Banquet
: its theme is the nature of love. Then Plutarch, ibid., 360E.
60
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, i, 25–6.
61
. [A] until [C]: usually is
in colleges, where
instead… (Cf. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Regles et Preceptes de Santé
, 302B.)
62
. Quintilian,
Institutio
, I, iii, 13–16. Dismissing Chrysippus’ belief in the value of flogging, Quintilian held that it can produce mental depression.
63
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Speucippus
.
64
. Plato,
Laws
, VII; then, for Demophon, Sextus Empiricus,
Hypotyposes
, I, xiv, and for Germanicus, Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De l’envie et la haine
, 108A.
67
. Horace,
Epistles
, I, xvii, 23, 25, 26, 29.
68
. ’80: lessons,
in which doing goes with saying. For what is the use of preaching at his mind if deeds do not go along with it? You will see from what he undertakes whether there is any wisdom there: if there is any goodness in his actions, if he is
indifferent…
69
. Plato,
The Lovers
(
Erastai
) 137AB (which shows Socrates discussing the nature of philosophy with schoolboys).
70
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, iii, 5.
71
. Cicero, ibid., IV, iii, 8; then, Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Diogenes
.
72
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, II, iv, 11.
73
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 217A.
’80: deeds not
writings
. After…
74
. Like bears, the offspring of which were thought to be born without form but ‘licked into shape’ by their parents.
75
. Bergamask – the dialect of Bergamo (in Venice). The inhabitants and their language were considered rustic and uncouth. (In the context of imagery drawn from childbirth there is possibly also a play on
boucler à la bergamasque
, to shut up one’s wife in a chastity-belt.)
76
. Horace,
Ars poetica
, 311.
77
. Marcus Annaeus Seneca,
Controversiae
, III.
78
. Cicero,
De finibus
, III, v. 19.
79
.
Petit-Pont
– the ‘Billingsgate’ of Paris.
80
. A
captatio benevolentiae
is a literary device designed to catch the reader’s sympathetic attention. It was taught as part of rhetoric and dialectic.
81
. [A]: unable to
appreciate
heavier…
Tacitus,
Dialogus an sui saeculi oratores antiquioribus concedant
, XIX.
82
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Dicts notables des Lacedaemoniens
, 218B.
83
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Instructions pour ceux qui manient les affaires d’Estat
, 163F.
84
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Cato Uticensis
, III.
85
. Horace,
Satires
, I, iv, 8; 58–60.
86
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Si les Atheniens ont esté plus excellents en armes qu’en lettres
, 525DE.
87
. Seneca,
Epistles
, XL, 5.
88
. Both from Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Aristippus
. (Cf. also Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Aristippus
, XIII.)
89
. Cicero,
Academica
, II (
Lucullus
), xxiv, 75.
90
. Quintilian,
Institutiones oratoriae
, VIII, iii, 30 (adapted); then, Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LIX, 5.
91
. From the Epitaph of Lucan (the poet of the
Pharsalia
).
92
. A very perspicacious judgement. Suetonius’ alleged remark arises from a poor manuscript reading of a passage in his
Life of Caesar
which is corrected in modern editions but was accepted during the Renaissance.
[B] until [C]: Julius Caesar’s.
Let us boldly hold against him what was held against Seneca: his style was quick-lime, but without the sand
. I like to…
93
. ’88: clothes,
letting themselves be taken for German mercenaries, wearing a cape and
with a stocking…
94
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, XL, 4 (on the style fit for a philosopher).
95
. Ibid.,LXXV, 1.
96
. Diogenes Laertius,
Life of Epicurus
.
97
. That is, they talk in French (not Gascon).
98
. Plato,
Laws
, I, 641E.
99
. A pun known only from John Stobaeus’ compendium of Greek sayings (xxxvi). There is a play on the two senses of
logos
in Greek:
reason
and
word
.
100
. ’80: without
constraint
, I had learned…
101
. All these great Latinists were masters at the Collège de Guyenne in Bordeaux, to which Montaigne was sent after studying at home.
102
. [A]: for me:
and there was always at hand someone who played the spinet for this purpose
. This example…
103
. ’80: was
dull
. To top…
104
. Virgil,
Eclogue
, VIII, 39 (adapted).
105
. These plays were all in Latin; they included no doubt Muret’s
Julius Caesar
and Buchanan’s
Jephthes
. Guerante’s plays are not known.
106
. Livy, XXIV, xxiv.
1
. Cicero,
Academica
, II, ii, 127.
4
. Lucretius, VI, 674–7; Cicero,
De natura deorum
, II, XXXVIII, 96.
5
. ’80: power of
God
with more reverence…
6
. In Christian theology it is only an event which occurs against the
whole order
of Nature which constitutes a miracle.
7
. In 1385 the Comte de Foix took to his rooms and then was able to announce that there had just occurred in Portugal a huge slaughter of soldiers from Béarn. It was believed that he had a familiar spirit, either one called Orthon or another like him, who, in an earlier period, had deserted the local
curé
to serve the Seigneur de Corasse (Froissart, III, 17).
8
. Nicole Gilles,
Annales des moderateurs des belliqueuses Gaulles;
the event ‘happened’ in 1233.
9
. Plutarch,
Life of Paulus Aemilius
. The reference to Caesar is puzzling.
10
. Such works as the
De Plini erroribus
of Nicolaus Leonicenus had helped spread criticisms of Pliny.
11
. Jean Bouchet,
Annales d’ Acquitaine
, Poitiers, 1567 etc., pp. 21–30.
12
. St Augustine,
City of God
, XII, viii.
13
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xxi, 49, adapted: Cicero wrote, ‘For even though Plato gave no reasons – note what tribute I pay to him – he would convince me by his very authority.’
1
. Horace,
Ars poetica
, 4. (Poets can create monsters at will; say a fair maid with the tail of a fish, that is, a mermaid.)
2
. Edited and translated by Malcolm Smith as
Slaves by Choice
, Runnymede Books, RHBNC, Egham, 1988.
3
. ’80: young,
not having reached the age of eighteen years
, as…
4
. Cf. E. de La Boëtie:
Mémoire sur la pacification des troubles
, ed. Malcolm Smith, TLF, Droz, Geneva, 1983. This work antedates the Royal Edict of 17 January 1562 (which afforded limited toleration to Protestants and recognized the ‘Allegedly Reformed Church’. Montaigne published neither of these in his collection of the works of La Boëtie, F. Morel, Paris, 1571, since (as the Preface says) the time was ‘too unpleasant’. This chapter is an apology for La Boëtie, a defence of his ideas and a rejection of the smear that such loyal friendships can entail disloyalty to the State (a question already raised in antiquity).
5
. For Aristotle,
Nicomachaean Ethics
, VIII, 1, a good fellowship (or society) is one which fosters ‘friendship’ in all of its senses.
6
. Cf. C. S. Lewis,
The Four Loves
, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, 1960.
7
. Montaigne mentions this in I, 23: ‘On habit: and on never easily changing a traditional law’.
[A]: the other.
Friendship never gets to such a point
. There…
8
. [A]: much the same as [C], but Aristippus not named. (Cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, III,
Aristippus
, LV, the probable source of [C]).
9
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De l’amitié fraternelle
, 82E. Montaigne coarsens the terms of the bad brother (a philosopher) who in Plutarch simply refers to ‘the same natural organ’.
10
. The antithesis of ‘willing slavery’, the subject of La Boëtie’s book.
11
. Horace,
Odes
, II, ii, 6–7 (adapted to apply to Montaigne).
14
. ’80: union,
it is likely
that…
15
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, xxxiii, 70. (In Greek philosophical homosexuality the older man was the Lover; the younger, the Beloved, showed admiration, or gratitude for instruction.)
16
. Cupid. (The ‘Academy’ was the School of Plato.)
17
. In Plato’s
Symposium
(or
Banquet)
, the main general source of all of [C] here.
18
. Ibid.: tyrannies do not favour (homosexual) friendship-love; Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens, was therefore assassinated by the friends Harmodius and Aristogiton. (Cf. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, XVII, 21: 7; Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, I, xlix, 116.)
19
. Cicero,
Tusc. disput.
, IV, xxiv, 71.
20
. Cicero,
De amicitia
, XX, 74.
21
. ’80: some
divine
force of destiny…
22
. Published in the 1571 edition of La Boëtie’s works by Montaigne.
23
. Cicero,
De amicitia
, XI, 33–9.
24
. ’80: the wishes of Gracchus,
for which he could answer as for his own
. But…
25
. Chilo’s chilling judgement was well known (cf. Du Bellay,
Regrets
, 140). It was normally attributed to Bias, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Cf. Aulus Gellius,
Attic Nights
, 1.3.30; Cicero,
De amicitia
, XVI, 49; Aristotle,
Rhetoric
, II, 14.
