'I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and so vain'In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and thinking. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'assays' inspired by ideas he found in the books of his library and his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. But, above all, Montaigne studied himself as a way of drawing out his own inner nature and that of men and women generally. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature, and an engaging insight into a wise Renaissance mind, which continue to give pleasure and enlightenment to modern readers.With its extensive introduction and notes, M. A. Screech's edition of Montaigne is widely regarded as the most distinguished of recent times.

The Complete Essays

1. ’80: dignity, being coin which buys any sort of traded goods; they are…

2. ’80: treachery and such-like which we exploit for our own ends by the intermediary of others. No marvel…

3. Martial, Epigrams, XII, lxxxii.

4. ’80: famous and noble leader…

6. ’80: theme, and since it is so familiar to us from the French appearance which has been given to it, so accomplished and so pleasing, I would…

7. Plutarch (tr. Amyot), Les dicts notables des Anciens Roys, 199 C; valiance is the proper virtue of beasts not men (Que bestes brutes usent de Raison, 271 A–H).

8. In fact Cicero derives virtus (virtue) from vir (man), not from vis (strength) (Tusc. disput., II, XVIII, 43), adding that ‘Man’s proper virtue is fortitude.’

The Complete Essays

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