tion by the comparatively recent discovery of America, more especially by the really recent interest of the French in South America, which they called "la France antartique." A few dates may be helpful in enabling us to enter into the views held by Montaigne and his contemporaries of "cet aultre monde." It should be remembered that Columbus died (1506) in the firm belief that his discoveries were parts of Asia; and it was not till 1513 that the Pacific Ocean was known by Balboa, a discovery Montaigne seems not to have appreciated. The conquest of Mexico by Cortez was 1519-1521, and that of Peru by Pizarro, 1531-1532. The essay Des Coches shows how much Montaigne had occupied himself with the conditions of the civilizations thus made known, which were called barbarisms. The peoples with whom he chiefly concerns himself in this essay, were those of Brazil. In 1555-1560 the amiral de Coligny made an attempt to found a Protestant settlement in America. The chevalier Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon in 1555 led two ships to Brazil, and founded a colony on an island in the Bay of Rio de Janeiro. Geneva sent fourteen missionaries to the colony. Many of the settlers returned to France in 1557, when Montaigne was thirty-four years old, and probably later came back the particular wanderer from whom Montaigne says he gained much of the information he here dwells on. Probably the remarks Montaigne makes on the value of his testimony and that of the "matelots et marchands" he brought to Montaigne have not the firmest foundation, but the interest of the essay lies, not in the facts Montaigne believed, but in the inferences he draws from them.* Shakespeare read it and with such warmth of interest and appreciation that he quoted it. Nothing could be more delightful to the lover of Montaigne than that in the Tempest is embedded a long quotation from Montaigne. Shakespeare took it quite certainly from the translation by Florio. That was published in 1603, and the Tempest was written in 1610. It may be men *On the whole question of sixteenth-century interest in America, cf. Gilbert Chinard, Exotisme américain dans la littérature française au XVIe siècle, d'après Rabelais, Ronsard, Montaigne, etc., Paris, 1912; Heulhard, Villegagnon, roi du Brésil, Paris, 1897. tioned, by the way, that Florio's volume is the only book which we certainly know to have belonged to Shakespeare. The British Museum has a copy with his autograph on the flyleaf. Page 82. I. païs. From Amyot's Plutarch, Flaminius. They said something like this of Flaminius, not of his army. 2. Galba. Livy, XXXI, 34. 3. France antartique, i. e. Brazil. "In anticipation of future triumphs, the whole continent, by a strange perversion of language, was named by them Antarctic France." – Parkman, France and England in North America. 4. nous embrassons, etc. Drasse mal étreint." Cf. the proverb, "qui trop em 5. Platon. In the Timaeus. Taken from Chauveton's translation of Benzoni. Cf. Chinard, l' Exotisme américain, p. 198. Page 83. 1. mer Maiour, the Black Sea. 2. Una foret. "They say that these places were in former time rent by the violence of a mighty shock and separated, when the two lands had been one." - Virgil, Aeneid, III, 414. 3. sentit aratrum. "A marsh long sterile and adapted to oars, feeds neighboring towns and feels the heavy plough." Horace, Ars poetica, 65. Page 84. 1. ains, but; Low Latin antius, from ante. 2. sieur d'Arsac. He was seigneur de Beauregard, and married Mlle d'Arsac, the step-daughter of La Boétie. I 3. montioies d'arene, heaps of sand. Montjoie, probably etymologically mont de la joie, was used in many senses, such as: 1o, a heap in general; 2°, a pile of stones to indicate a road or path; 3°, as the war cry of the French in the Middle Ages ("Montjoye" or "Montjoye Saint Denis"); 4°, as the title of the king's chief herald. Arene, from Latin arena. Page 85. 1. curieusement, carefully. 2. ils les glosent, they comment upon them. Page 86. 1. sourdent, arise. From sourdre (Latin surgere), archaic and used chiefly of springs of water. 2. cette nation, i. e. America. 3. mire point de mire. = 4. alterez, corrupted, falsified. Page 87. - 1. si est ce que, yet. 2. canunt. "The ivy grows better without inducement; the arbutus springs up more beautifully in lonely caves; and the birds sing more sweetly with no training." 3. dict Platon. Page 88. Tempest: Laws, X. 1. C'est une nation, etc. Propertius, I, 2. Cf. Shakespeare's "I' the commonwealth I would by contraries And women too, but innocent and pure; It is to be observed that the word 'idle' refers to man; in Montaigne "oisives" refers to occupations. Shakespeare used Florio's translation, which is appended as an illustration of its quality: "It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, of riches or of povertie; no contracts, no successions, no partitions, no occupation but idle; no respect of kindred, but common, no apparell but naturall, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corne, or metall. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulations, covetousnes, envie, detraction, and pardon were never heard of amongst them." 2. Viri a diis recentes. "Men just come from the Gods." Seneca, Epistles, 90. 3. primum dedit. "Nature gave first these habits.". - Virgil, Georgics, II, 20. 4. assiette, posture, way of sitting (asseoir) i. e. here, 'on horseback'. Page 89. -1. Suidas, a Byzantine lexicographer who may have lived in the second half of the tenth century. 2. d'autant, 'in proportion', i. e. deeply. "Boire d'autant, boire autant qu'on en peut porter." 3. vins clairets, light thin wines; not to be translated by the English 'claret'. 4. fumeux, heady; the fumes of which rise to the head. 5. duict, accustomed. 6. à tout = avec. Page 90. 1. par tel si, on condition that. In this locution si has practically the value of a substantive. Herodotus IV, 69. Page 91. — 1. Entre les Scythes, etc. The most frequent occasion for this punishment was when the king falling ill sent for the three most famous "devins", to discover by what personage among his subjects his illness was caused. If the accused denied the crime, other diviners were summoned, and if in the judgment of the plurality the accused was innocent, if the first "devins" had "failly de rencontre", they were punished with death in the manner Montaigne describes. Page 92. 1. oui bien = je suis marry. 2. de fresche memoire. This undoubtedly refers to the massacre of the Huguenots at Grenada near Toulouse in 1561. In the report of De Burie, lieutenant-general of Guienne, cited by Monluc in his Commentaries, he says (Nov. 15, 1561) that many of the reformers were killed, others led "à la place publique et illec inhumainement massacrés et faict cruellement devorer aux pourceaux." Eleven days afterward Montaigne, "s'en allant à la cour pour d'autres affaires", was entrusted by the Parlement with the mission of reporting the disorders to the king. See M. E. Lowndes, Montaigne, p. 71. 3. charongne, from popular Latin caronia (from caro), and connected with the English carrion. Usually implies a decaying corpse, but here simply a dead body. Page 93. 1. Alexia, Alésia, in Burgundy, where Vercingetorix held out against Caesar. Remarkable archæological discoveries have recently been made on the site at Alise-SainteReine. 2. Produxere animas. "It is said that the Gascons prolonged their lives by the use of such nutriment." - Juvenal, Satires. XV, 93. 3. uberté, fertility (Latin ubertas). Page 94. I. vertu. Cf. Latin virtus. 2. subiugat hostes. "It is no victory unless the enemy sincerely acknowledges he is conquered.". consulatu Honorii, 1. 248. Page 95. - 1. disposition. Claudianus, De sexto "Qualité d'être dispos." Cf. the essay De la praesumption: "D'adresse et de disposition, je n'en ay point eu; et si suis fils d'un pere le plus dispost qui se vid de son temps." 2. suffisant, skilful. 3. courage, heart. 4. pugnat. providentia, II. "If he falls he fights on his knees." Seneca, De 5. fortune. Seneca, De constantia sapientis, VI. 6. Sicile. Of these victories the three first were won by the Greeks over the Persians, the last over the Carthaginians. Page 96. -1. perte. Diodorus Siculus, XV, 64. This was in 370 B. C. when Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnesus. Ischolas, commanding a Spartan band and knowing that his men could be annihilated by overwhelming numbers, divided them. He sent the youngest home to defend Sparta and remained with the others to fight and perish. 2. l'estour, the fight. "Estour" of Teutonic origin and etymologically related to the English 'stir' and 'storm'. 3. inurient, insult. 4. trestouts, intensive of tous (trans + totus). Page 97.1. forme, manner of life. 2. à son interest, to her own prejudice. Page 98. 1. Stratonique. From Amyot's Plutarch, Les vertueux faits des femmes. 2. feit espaule, helped. |