The Complete Essays (198 page)

Urgulania (grandmother of Plantius Sylvanus),
688

Valdes, Ferdinando de,
xxii

Valence, Germain,
xxxv

Valens, Vexius (Roman physician),
872

Valentian (Roman emperor),
554
,
756

Valentinois, Duke of,
see
Borgia, Cesare

Valerius Maximus (Roman historian),
558

Valla, Lorenzo,
xxxiii

Varro, Marcus (Roman writer),
255
,
542
,
577
,
596
,
600
,
609
,
624
,
651
,
1084
,
1256

Varus, Quintilius (Roman general),
21
,
891

Vascosan, Michel (printer),
1227

Vatienus, Gaius,
785

Vaux, Henry de,
24

Vegetius, Flavius Renatus (Roman writer),
648

Velleius Paterculus (Roman historian),
558

Vendôme, Monseigneur de,
247

Ventidus (Roman general),
823

Venus,
114
,
181
,
322
,
349
,
373
,
380
,
486
,
631
,
659
,
828
,
930
,
1000
,
1041
,
1257
,
1259

Vercingetorix (Gaulish chieftain),
839

Vervins, Seigneur de,
75

Vespasian (Roman emperor),
768
,
518
,
1068

Vesta,
575

Vibius Virius (senator of Capua),
403

Villegaignon, Durand de (French explorer),
228

Villey, Pierre,
xvi
,
xlix
,
li–lii

Villier, Seigneur de,
48

Vincent of Lerins, St,
xxxvii

Virgil,
196
,
460–61
,
530
,
850
,
943
,
958
,
962
,
986
,
1061

Vischa, John (Bohemian insurrectionist),
14

Vitellius (Roman emperor),
317

Vitold (Prince of Lithuania),
901–2

Vives, Juan L. (Spanish scholar),
114

Vulcan,
582

Westcott, Brooke Foss, Bishop of Durham,
xli

Wyclif, John,
14

Xanthippe,
473

Xantippus (commander of Athenian fleet),
488

Xantippus (father of Pericles),
488

Xenocrates (Greek philosopher),
575
,
609
,
750
,
797
,
826

Xenophanes of Colophon (Greek philosopher),
45
,
560
,
568
,
575
,
597
,
852

Xenophilus (Greek musician),
91

Xenophon,
26
,
160
,
161
,
170
,
274
,
279
,
306
,
323
,
362
,
575
,
725
,
823
,
833
,
940
,
1013
,
1050
,
1072
,
1102
,
1119
,
1219
,
1220
,
1247
,
1261

Xerxes (King of Persia),
20
,
263
,
583

Zaleucus (Locrian lawgiver),
134

Zamolxis (Getaean god),
582
,
716

Zeno of Cittium (Stoic philosopher),
137
,
194
,
236
,
345
,
567
,
575
,
600
,
609
,
612
,
621
,
670
,
743
,
940
,
968
,
991
,
933
,
1106
,
1148–9
,
1259

Zeno (Epicurean philosopher),
560
,
589

Zeno, citizen of Messana,
5

Zenobia (Queen of Palmyra),
224

Zeuxidamus (King of Sparta),
188

Zoroaster,
645
,
716

[A] and ’80: the text of 1580

[Al]: the text of 1582 (plus)

[B] and ’88: the text of 1588

[C]: the text of the edition being prepared by Montaigne when he died, 1592
’95: text of the 1595 posthumous printed edition

In the notes there is given. selection of variant readings, including most abandoned in 1588 and many from the printed posthumous edition of 1595.

By far the most scholarly account of the text is that given in R. A. Sayce,
The Essays of Montaigne: A Critical Exploration
, 1972, Chapter 2, ‘The Text of the
Essays’
.

1
. Blaise Pascal,
Pensées et Opuscules
, ed. L. Brunschvicg, 1909, p. 120 – an old study, but still useful.

2
. Cf. my study,
Montaigne and Melancholy
, Duckworth 1983; Penguin 1991.

3
. The standard text of St Paul (I Corinthians 2:9) cited by theologians over the centuries. Montaigne quotes it to good effect when condemning the teachings about the afterlife found in Plato – teachings which he provocatively judged too corporeal. See ‘An apology for Raymond Sebond’, II, 12, note 212.

4
. Cf. ‘An apology for Raymond Sebond’, p.628.

5
. A translation of Montaigne’s version of the
Prologus
is given after this Introduction in an Appendix (p. lviii).

6
. This is the conviction of Pascal,
Pensées
, Brunschvicg no. 244.

7
. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica
, II
^a
, II
^ac
, Q.I ad 5. Later this theme is briefly treated in ways relevant to an understanding of Montaigne in Daniel Huët, Bishop of Avranches,
De imbecillitate mentis humanae
, 1738, Bk. 2, chapter 1, or in the same chapter of the French original,
Traité philosophique de la faiblesse de l’esprit humain
, 1723. (It was already a standard doctrine long before Montaigne’s time.)

8
. Edward Chaloner,
The Gentile’s Creede, or The Naturall Knowledge of God, in sixe sermons
, 1623, p. 223: ‘The doctrine therefore which our
Apostles
in my Text doe insinuate unto us, when they say, that God left not himselfe to the Gentiles without witnesse, must needs be this.
That so much may be knowne of God by the Witness of Nature, as is sufficient to confirme unto us, though not his Persons, or workes of Redemption, yet his Godhead
, and also his
handie-worke in creating and governing the World
. God is himself invisible, and yet
The invisible things of him
(sayth the Apostle, Rom. 1:20)
that is, his Etemall Power and Godhead, are scene by the creation of the World, being considered in their workes
. To resolve the members of which Verse, were to propose unto you a whole systeme of naturall Divinitie…’ Cf. also Sir Walter Raleigh,
Historie of the World
, I, i, cited by E. M. W. Tillyard,
The Elizabethan World Picture
, London, 1963, p. 36; Tillyard gives a résumé of Raymond Sebond’s
Viola animae
.

9
. ‘Apology’, p. 500; cf.
Montaigne and Melancholy
, p. 49.

10
.
Pensées
, Brunschvicg no. 578.

11
. ‘Apology’, p. 573; this can be conveniently seen from the gloss of a later scholar, Estius: in one sense even good pagans were ‘not excusable’ because of their ignorance; yet ‘they can in some way be said to be excusable’ by comparison with others who did less well. A hyper-orthodox preacher, Father Boucher, was to condemn Montaigne over this, but could only do so by distorting his thought. Cf. his
Triomphes de la Religion Chrestienne
, 1638, pp. 128–9; Boucher believed that Montaigne was advocating the pagan religion he was seeking to ‘excuse’. That was because he was distressed to see Montaigne so influential over ‘the
beaux esprits
of these times’ that he attributed to him ideas he believed to be held by free-thinkers in his own day.

12
. The expression
Hidden God
derives from Isaiah 45:15. Christians of many persuasions used the term to emphasize the need of grace and for revelation from God, who is his own interpreter. It was associated by Nicolas of Lyra with Romans 1:20 in his gloss.

13
. In this he remains orthodox. The notion of. Book of Nature (or of Creatures) in Sebond’s and Montaigne’s sense became quite common among theologians: cf. those mentioned in Reginald Pole’s
Synopsis criticorum
, 1686, vol. 5, col. 21, line 45 f.; it was also pleasing to Francis Bacon,
Advancement of Learning
I, vi, 16.

14
. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.,
De Controversiis Christianae Fidei, adversus hujus temporis haereticos
(
Opera
, 1593, III; ‘On the Loss of Grace and the State of Sin’, col. 487 B; cf. p. 107).

15
. Cf. Melanchthon,
De Anima
: ‘Hence arises other plagues (
pestes
): the soul loves itself and admires its own wisdom, fashions opinions about God and delights in this game and, in its distress, rails against God.’ A century later Father Boucher is still using the same phrases: ‘Presumptuousness of mind is the mother of error, the nurse of false opinions, the scourge of the soul, the plague (
peste
) of Man.’

16
. Erasmus played a major role in spreading the doctrine of Christian Folly in the Renaissance. It was widely accepted by Christians of many persuasions.

17
. Fundamental scepticism, typified by the work of François Sanchez, a doctor in Toulouse,
Quod nihil scitur
(‘That Nothing is Known’, 1581), was also accessible to Montaigne. He may even have read this particular book in manuscript. (See
Francois Sanchez
[
Franciscus Sanchez
]:
That nothing is known
(
Quod nihil scitur
): Introduction, notes and bibliography by Elaine Limbrick; Latin text established, annotated and translated by D. F. S. Thomson; Cambridge University Press, 1988.)

18
. The
Dialogues
of Guy de Brués were aimed against ‘the new Academics’ and sought to show ‘that all does not consist in opinion’. The sceptics are allowed to state their case fairly.

19
. Montaigne was irritably aware that Cicero was not an original thinker. More provocative for him were, say, Plato’s hostility towards relativism, in the
Theaetetus
and similar passages in Aristotle, as well as his brief indirect account of scepticism and its arguments (
Metaphysics
, 1010 b), which resulted in scepticism being placed within the major philosophical contexts of the Renaissance, which was anchored in Aristotle.

20
. Cf. ‘Apology’, p. 634 ff., 664 ff.

21
. This section begins with line 469 of Book IV of Lucretius: ‘Moreover if anyone thinks nothing is to be known, he does not even know whether that can be known, as he says he knows nothing.’ (Cf. ed. Lambin, 1563, p. 308 ff.)

22
. Lucretius, p. 190.

23
. Sextus,
Hypotyposes
, I, 217–19 (criticizing Protagoras for dogmatism and relativism). Some excellent reflections on this topic in Jean-Paul Dumont,
Le scepticisme et le phénomène
(especially Chapter 3); see also M. Burnyeat,
The Skeptical Tradition
.

24
. Plato,
Theaetetus
, 152B; again, 152 CD. (Was this saying of Protagoras’ only meant for the mob?) Arguments drawn from 153–4 are used by Montaigne.

25
. Aristotle,
Metaphysics
, 1053b (misunderstanding Protagoras): ‘Thus, seeming to say something unusual, he is really saying nothing.’ More relevant to Montaigne (who uses some of the arguments) are
Metaphysics
, 1062b – 1063a.