The Complete Essays (229 page)
Read The Complete Essays Online
Authors: Michel de Montaigne
Tags: #Essays, #Philosophy, #Literary Collections, #History & Surveys, #General
31
. I, 31, ‘On the Cannibals’, above, pp. 79–92.
32
. ’88: to beg
leave to tell what he knew to redeem himself from the unbearable pain
. That King…
33
. Montaigne’s main source throughout is Francisco Lopez de Gomara (tr. Fumée),
L’Histoire générale des Indes
(1578 and 1587). It is not known whether he had also read the blistering attacks on the Conquistadores or on Spanish policy by Bishop Bartolome de las Casas, e.g. his
Brevissima relación de la destruyción de Las Indias
(Seville, 1552) or the account of his dispute entitled
Aqui se contiene una disputa entre B. de las Casas y G. de Sepulveda
(Seville, 1552), with which he would have been in agreement.
34
. ’88: they
preach and proclaim them
. Could it be…
35
. These included Pizarro, condemned to death in 1548.
36
. Montaigne’s term
plus civilisez
probably means not ‘more civilized’, but ‘more urban and hence more given to civic virtues’ than the pastoral Indians; similarly his term
plus artistes
probably means ‘more cultured’ rather than ‘more artistic’: they had more developed arts and sciences.
37
. Francisco Lopez de Gomara,
Histoire générale des Indes
, II, lxxv and (for the Royal road described later) V, lxxxvii.
38
. According to the teaching of Alkindi, Albumasar and other Islamic astrologers widely accepted in medieval and Renaissance Europe, when a ‘great conjunction’ (that of the planets Saturn and Jupiter) occurs in the first degree of the zodiacal sign of the Ram, it produces one single outstanding prophet, teacher or lawgiver. Such a great conjunction was calculated to occur every 960 years. Both Islamic and Christian astrologers often held that a great conjunction heralded the birth of Moses, Jesus and Mahomet. Cf., for example, Petrus de Abano,
Conciliator (Diff
. XVIII). The great conjunction mentioned by Montaigne was the one preceding the birth of the Prophet of Islam. The theory of the influence of conjunctions was, of course, challenged by many.
39
. Attabalipa.
1
. Montaigne’s term
j’esguise mon courage
echoes Cicero’s
acuant mentem (Tusc. disput.
, I, xxxiii, 80), where Cicero stresses the influence of body on mind and congratulates himself (as Montaigne often does) on being slow-witted rather than a volatile, melancholy genius.
2
. Julius Caesar; cf. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, IV
C. Julius Caesar
, V. (Caesar would rather be the first man in an alpine hamlet than second in Rome.)
3
. ’88: by
fortune
and also by taste…
4
. Cicero (
De finibus
, II, XX, 63–4) compares, as does Montaigne, Balbus (who despite a certain greatness, ‘knew no limit but satiety’) with Regulus and judged him a less happy example. Cicero also prefers Lucretia, who took her own life, and Lucius Verginius, a poor man who killed his virgin daughter rather than have her defiled by Appius Claudius.
5
. Herodotus, III, lxxxiii.
6
. George Buchanan (‘the people’s man’) the future Scottish reformer, had taught Montaigne at the Collège de Guienne in Bordeaux. His
De jure regni apud Scotos
appeared in 1579. This was answered by Adam Blackwood’s
Apologia
for Mary Stuart against Buchanan. Both works were translated into French. Jean Dorat wrote a prefatory poem for Blackwood’s book.
7
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la tranquillité de l’ame
, 72 G.
8
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Carneades
, XXXII; Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment on peult disarner le flatteur de l’amy
, 46 A–B).
9
. Venus (or rather Aphrodite) in the
Iliad
(V).
10
. Renaissance science believed that we see objects by means of rays leaving our eyes, not by rays striking the retina.
11
. Perhaps a confused memory of an event related in Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VI,
Varie mixta
, XXVIII, when Tiberius rebuked a flattering senator.
12
. Above
exempla
from Plutarch,
Comment on pourra discerner le flatteur d’avec l’amy
, 42 G, 43 A, 43 B, 45 E.
13
. Both
exempla
from Pietro Crinito,
De honesta disciplina
, XII.
14
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la tranquillité de l’ame
, 72 E; cf.
De la fortune d’Alexandre
, 312 E.
4
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, V,
Cato Senior
, XXXIX.
5
. Anecdote not traced. Perhaps a confusion with the practice of the ancient musician Timotheus of Miletus. Cf. Quintilian, II, iii, 3.
6
. ’88: routine:
the routine sight of thieving and perfidiousness has guided and restrained my morals
. To my taste…
7
. Cicero,
De finibus
, I, viii, 28 (Torquatus defending Epicurus’ style of conversation).
8
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De la mauvaise honte
, 81 B.
9
. Renaissance rhetoric and dialectic in school and university did indeed often encourage
pro et contra
debates rather than a search for truth.
10
. Plato,
Republic
, 539 A–C.
11
. ’88: of
the truth:
why…
12
. ’88: muddles
and ruffles the debate
. Yet another…
13
. Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LIX, 15; then, Cicero,
De finibus
, I, xix, 63, criticizing Epicurean logic.
16
. The theme of III, 13, ‘On experience’.
17
. For Democritus, cf. Cicero,
Academica
, I, xii, 44: a celebrated saying of Democritus, cited similarly to Montaigne by the Christian theologian Lactantius,
Institutiones divinarum
III, 28, a reference given in the adage
Veritas in profundo (Appendix Erasmi
, in
Adagia id est Proverbiorum collectio absolutissima
, Frankfurt, 1656, p. 453).
18
. Perhaps an echo of the similar remark attributed to him in Henry Estienne’s
Apophthegmata
, 1588, pp. 110–11.
19
. Heraclitus, the Sage who wept at the folly of the world; normally coupled with Democritus, who laughed at it. Followed by the most famous saying of Myson (Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Myson
, I).
20
. Literally silly
‘selon moy’
(that is, by my own terms of reference), even sillier ‘according to others’ (by their terms of reference).
21
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment on pourra recevoir utilité de ses ennemis
, 110 E–F (and for Plato’s saying about to be quoted).
22
. Erasmus,
Adages
, III, IV, II. Erasmus links the saying to Aristotle’s
Nicomachaean Ethics
, and to the complementary adage,
Suum cuique pulchrum
(one’s own is beautiful to oneself) (I, II, XV), further linked with Plato, Aristotle and Horace as a condemnation of
philautia
(self-love).
23
. Another authoritative condemnation of self-love, in Aesop’s
Beggar’s Wallet:
we put our neighbours’ faults in the front pocket where we can see them, our own in the back one where we cannot. (Cf. Rabelais, TLF,
Tiers Livre
, TLF, XV, note 108, citing Erasmus’
Adages
and Raymond Sebond.)
’88: olet.
To sum up, we must live among the living and let each man follow his fashion without our worrying or without making ourselves ill about it
. (In [C] changed and placed earlier.)
24
. Terence,
Andria
, IV, ii, 9.
25
. Plato,
Gorgias
, 480 B–C.
26
. Perhaps a reference to the members of the Reformed Church; it is often taken to be so. But is it not rather an allusion to ascetic movements within the Roman Catholic Church tending to devalue the body and elevate asceticism?
27
. Aristotle’s contention in
Metaphysics
, I, 1, 980b–981a. Experience and experiments as such do not constitute the
art
of medicine: the
art
consists in a general inference drawn from it by a man’s judgement.
28
. Juvenal,
Satires
, VIII, 73–4.
29
. Perhaps a reference to Plato,
Republic
, VI, 495 C–D.
30
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VI,
Diversorum Graecorum
, XXXII.
31
. Martial,
Epigrams
, VIII, 15.
32
. Cited by Amyot in his Prologue to
Les Vies de Plutarque
.
33
. Virgil,
Aeneid
, III, 395; then, Horace,
Odes
, I, ix, 9.
34
. ’88: never were there
such
military circumspection and prudence,
especially in our nation as
I see practised: perhaps…
35
. Virgil,
Georgia
, I, 420–2.
36
. Thucydides, cited (with others of the above) from Justus Lipsius’
Politici
, as is the following, from Plautus’
Pseudolus
.
37
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Comment il faut ouïr
, 64 H.
38
. Erasmus,
Apophthegmata
, VII,
Antisthenes
, XXX.
39
. Lopez de Gomara (tr. Fumée),
Histoire générale des Indes
, II, lxxvii.
40
. Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
De l’esprit familier de Socrates
, 636 BC.
41
. Cicero,
De officiis
, I, xli, 147.
44
. Perhaps a vague recollection of Plutarch (tr. Amyot),
Du trop parler
, 95
BC
, or of Lycurgus’ forbidding of hand-to-hand sports among citizens (Henry Estienne,
Apophthegmata
, 1568, pp. 416–17).
45
. Henry II was killed while jousting; Henry, Marquess of Beaupréau died of wounds received in a tournament. There were other cases as well.
46
. Ovid,
Tristia
, I, vii, 9.
47
. Montaigne is contrasting
inventio
(the discovery of arguments or topics) with original powers of judgement. Philippe de Commines, III, xii; Tacitus,
Annals
, IV, xviii; Seneca,
Epist. moral.
, LXXXVI, 32; Cicero,
De petitione consultatus
, ix.
48
. ’88: biases.
In that he is no less careful and diligent than Plutarch, who made an express claim to do so
. This manner….
