Sarah Bakewell - How to Live - A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

25 Michelet: Michelet, Histoire de France (1861) VIII: 429 (“Feeble and negative” idea) and X: 397–8 (“watch himself dream”). Both as cited in Frame, Montaigne in France 42–3.

26 Church, R. W., “The Essays of Montaigne,” in Oxford Essays Contributed by Members of the University. 1857 (London: John Parker, 1857), 239–82. “The nothingness of man … the idea of duty”: ibid. 265. “Indolence and want of moral tone”: ibid. 280. On Church, see Dédéyan I: 295–308.

27 Halifax’s remarks are reproduced in Hazlitt’s 1842 edition of Montaigne, The Complete Works xxxv.

28 Honoria’s edition: Montaigne, Essays , ed. Honoria (1800) (see “Sources”). It was a project along the lines of Henrietta Maria Bowdler’s The Family Shakespeare (1807), which gave the word “bowdlerize” to the English language. “If, by separating the pure ore” and “He is also so often unconnected”: Honoria’s introduction, xix. Montaigne rebuked for not mentioning the St. Bartholomew’s massacre: Honoria’s edition, 104n. Do not try waking children with music: ibid. 157n. Montaigne’s regulation of his life, his conformism, and his “many excellent religious sentiments”: Honoria’s introduction, xviii.

29 “I doubt if I can decently admit”: III:12 975.

30 The succession question, and the preference of the politiques: Nakam, Montaigne et son temps 329–32.

31 Visit of Navarre, including the stag hunt: Montaigne, Le Livre de raison , entry for Dec. 19, as translated in Frame, Montaigne 235.

32 Still working on task: Montaigne to Matignon, Jan. 18, 1585, in The Complete Works , tr. D. Frame, 1314–15.

33 “Guelph to the Ghibellines”: III:12 972. “There were no formal accusations”: III:12 972. Siege of Castillon: Frame, Montaigne 256.

34 “A mighty load of our disturbances”: III:12 969. Plague: III:12 976.

35 Watching people dig their own graves: III:12 979.

36 “I, who am so hospitable”: III:12 976. On Montaigne’s political work during and after his refugee wanderings: Frame, Montaigne 247.

37 The invitation to Montaigne and his wife, and the allowance, are alluded to in a letter from Catherine de’ Medici to a treasurer on Dec. 31, 1586: see Frame, Montaigne 267.

38 Montaigne working with Corisande: Frame, Montaigne 269–70.

39 Montaigne’s mission, and letters mentioning it: Frame, Montaigne 270–3. English anxieties: ibid. 276.

40 Attack in the forest: Montaigne to Matignon, Feb. 16 [1588?], in The Complete Works , tr. D. Frame, 1330–1.

41 Henri III and Guise in Paris, and the Day of the Barricades: see Knecht, Rise and Fall 523–4. The Pope’s comment: cited Neale, J. E., The Age of Catherine de Medici , new edn (London: Jonathan bCape, 1957), 96.

42 “I have never seen”: Pasquier to Sainte-Marthe, May 1588, in Pasquier, Lettres historiques 286–97.

43 Montaigne’s arrest and release: Montaigne, Le Livre de raison , entries for July 10 and 20; latter as translated in Frame, Montaigne 281. As usual Montaigne mixed up his dates: he wrote the entry first on the page for July 20, then realized his mistake and rewrote it on the page for July 10. The second version is briefer; either he found it tedious to write it out twice, or revision made him more concise. “No prison has received me”: III:13 999–1000.

44 Brach: Pierre de Brach to Justus Lipsius, Feb. 4, 1593, translated in Frame, Montaigne 282. On Brach, see Magnien, M., “Brache, Pierre de,” in Desan, Dictionnaire 126–8.

45 On Marie de Gournay, see Chapter 18 above.

46 Pasquier’s advice on style, and Montaigne’s ignoring of it: Pasquier to A. M. de Pelgé, 1619, in Pasquier, Choix de lettres 45–6, as translated in Frame, Montaigne 283. “Oh, miserable spectacle!”: Pasquier, Lettres historiques 286–97. On Étienne Pasquier, see Magnien, C., “Estienne Pasquier ‘familiar’ de Montaigne?” Montaigne Studies 13 (2001), 277–313.

47 Preachers urging killing of king: e.g. Boucher, J., De justa Henrici tertii abdicatione (Aug. 1589). See Holt 132.

48 A city gone mad: L’Estoile and Thou, both cited in Nakam, Montaigne et son temps 341–2.

49 “This proposition, so solemn”: II:12 392.

50 “The most express ways that we have”: III:12 971.

51 Montaigne’s letters to Henri IV: Montaigne to Henri IV, Jan. 18 [1590?] and Sept. 2 [1590?], in The Complete Works , tr. D. Frame, 1332–6.

52 “I look upon our kings”: III:1 728.

53 On Henri IV’s manly habits: Knecht, Rise and Fall 559–61.

54 Henri IV’s speech of 1599: cited Knecht, Rise and Fall 545–7.

16. Q. How to live? A. Philosophize only by accident

1 “Free and unruly”: II:17 587. Halifax: letter included in original edition of Cotton’s translation (1685–86), and reproduced in Hazlitt’s 1842 edition, unnumbered prelim. leaf. Hazlitt: Hazlitt, W., “On old English writers and speakers,” Essay X in The Plain Speaker (London: H. Colburn, 1826), II: 277–307, this 305.

2 “The English mind”: Woolf, V., “Reading,” in Essays , ed. A. McNeillie (London: Hogarth, 1986–), III:141–61, this 154. “In taking up his pen”: Hazlitt 180.

3 “Unpremeditated and accidental philosopher,” and explanation of what he means by this: II:12 496–7.

4 On Florio: Yates, John Florio; Pfister, M., “Inglese italianato — Italiano anglizzato: John Florio,” in Höfele, A. and Koppenfels, W. von (eds), Renaissance Go-Betweens: Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 31–54. His conversational primers and dictionary: Florio, J., Firste Fruites (London: T. Woodcock, [1578]), Second Frutes (London: T. Woodcock, 1591), and A Worlde of Wordes (London: E. Blount, 1598). His translation of the Essays: Montaigne, Essayes (1603): see “Sources” for full details.

5 “So do hir attributes”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I: 2.

6 “Our Germans, drowned in wine”: II:2 298. “Our carowsing tospot German souldiers”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), II:2 17. “Werewolves, goblins, and chimeras”: I:18 62. “Larves, Hobgoblins, Robbin-good-fellowes”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I:17 67. The chapter number differs in Florio because it is based on a different text, that of Marie de Gournay’s 1595 edition. On this issue, see Chapter 18 above.

7 Gonzalo’s speech: The Tempest II. i.145–52. The similarity is to a passage from Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals”: Montaigne, Essayes (1915–21), I:30 220. Again, chapter numbering differs because the editions are based on different texts. “Traffic” means commerce; “letters,” literature; “use of service,” keeping servants; “succession,” inheritance; “bourn,” land boundaries; and “tilth,” tilling land, i.e. agriculture. The similarity was first noticed by Edward Capell, in his Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare (London: H. Hughs, [1775]), II:63.

8 Comparison with Hamlet: “We are, I know not how, double within ourselves”: II:16 570. “Bashful, insolent; chaste”: II:1 294. Too much thinking makes action impossible: II:20 622. On this question, see Boutcher, W., “Marginal commentaries: the cultural transmission of Montaigne’s Essais in Shakespeare’s England,” in Kapitaniak and Maguin (eds), Shakespeare et Montaigne , 13–27, and his “ ‘Learning mingled with Nobilitie’: directions for reading Montaigne’s Essais in their institutional context,” in Cameron and Willett (eds), Le Visage changeant de Montaigne , 337–62, esp. 337–9; and Peter Mack’s forthcoming Shakespeare, Montaigne, and Renaissance Ethical Reading . Much work has been done recently on the dating of Hamlet; it is now thought to date from late 1599 or early 1600, which creates a problem if Shakespeare is thought to have read Florio’s translation. But we know that manuscript copies of the latter were in circulation well before the publication date: Shakespeare’s contemporary William Cornwallis mentioned their “going from hand to hand” in 1599.