 |
| Illustration by Floc'H / The New Yorker |
"Montaigne’s pursuit of the character he called Myself—“bashful, insolent; chaste, lustful; prating, silent; laborious, delicate; ingenious, heavy; melancholic, pleasant; lying, true; knowing, ignorant; liberal, covetous, and prodigal”—lasted for twenty years and produced more than a thousand pages of observation and revision that he called “essais,” taking that ordinary word and turning it into a literary occupation." (Article: Me, Myself, and I - What made Michel de Montaigne the first modern man? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/me-myself-and-i)
It was very intriguing reading about Michel de Montaigne. He had a very unique upbringing; I find it fascinating that he was only spoken to in Latin for the first 5 years of his life, and that he was awakened by a musician every morning (his family was very wealthy). I had read the essay Of Cannibals in my French class last year, and it was that memory that spurred me to research more about him. I was not disappointed. He had this inscribed on the bookshelves in the tower in which he did his writing:
"In the year of Christ 1571, at the age of thirty-eight, on the last day of February, his birthday, Michel de Montaigne, long weary of the servitude of the court and of public employments, while still entire, retired to the bosom of the learned virgins, where in calm and freedom from all cares he will spend what little remains of his life, now more than half run out. If the fates permit, he will complete this abode, this sweet ancestral retreat; and he has consecrated it to his freedom, tranquility, and leisure."
I know people of his time thought he was self-indulgent, but I think that inscription is really funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment