Annotations kindly provided by Dr James Wood.
Note: I have drawn on the Essays of Michel
Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton and edited by William Carew Hazlitt
in 1877 with occasional modifications or substitutions of my own. This
text is in the public domain and is available online here:
* indicates that I have used a translation in the Trask
translation of Mimesis.
288 Les autres forment l'homme, moy… : 'Others
form men, I…' *
288 je n'enseigne pas, je raconte : 'I do not
teach, I recount'
288 forment-recite, l'homme-un particulier :
'form-describe, man-a particular'*
288 bien mal formé; si j'avoy…, je ferois…; meshuy
c'est fait : 'Very ill-made, if I had…,I would…; But now it is done' *
289 (Tandis que) les autres forment l'homme, je le
recite; (encore faut-il ajouter que) je represente un particular (; ce
particulier, c'est moi-meme qui suis, je le sais,) bien mal forme; (soyes surs
que) si j'avais àle façonner de nouveau, je le ferais vrayment bien autre qu'il
n'est. (Mais, malheureusement) meshuy c'est fait : '(While) others form
man; I describe him (again it is necessary that) I represent a particular (this
particular, is the same self that I am, I know it) very ill-made; (you can be
sure that) if I had to fashion him anew, he should indeed be very different
from what he is. (Yet, unfortunately) now it is done.' [The words in
parentheses are Auerbach's interpolations—J.W.]
289 Or, les traits de ma peinture ne fourvoyent
pas, quoy qu'ils se changent et diversient : 'Now the features of my
painting do not err, although they change and vary'*
289 quoique : although
290 decies repetita placebit [Latin] : 'even if
it is repeated ten times it will please'
290 s'essayer : 'speak tentatively' * [this is
the infinitive form, the original is the first person subjunctive verb
"essaierois"—J.W.]
290 s'résoudre : 'decide' * [this is the
infinitive form, the original is the first person subjunctive verb
"resoudrois"—J.W.]
290 si mon âme pouvait prendre pied : 'if my
mind could find a firm footing' *
290 les autres : 'the others'
290 particulier : 'particular'
290 la constance mesme n'est autre chose :
'even constancy is nothing but'
290 je ne puis asseurer mon object : 'I cannot
fix my object'
291 un subject merveilleusement vain, divers et
ondoyant : 'a marvellously vain, fickle, and unstable subject'
291 autant ridicule que risible : 'as
ridiculous as laughable'
291 le badin de la farce : 'the fool of the
farce' [Note: A Badin was a fool-figure on the French stage. The Badin was
naïve and awkward figure—J.W.]
291 Si j'étais faiseur de livres : 'If I were a
writer of books'
291 Ce fagotage de tant de diverses pieces :
'This bundle of so many diverse pieces'
291 cette fricassée que je barbouille icy :
'this hodge-podge which I scribble here'
291 ce sont icy…des excremens d'un viel esprit, dur
tantost, tantost lasche, et toujours indigeste. : 'Here are…the excrements
of an old mind, sometimes thick, sometimes thin, and always indigested.'
292 Je veux representer le progrez de mes humeurs,
et qu'on voye chaque piece en sa naissance. Je prendrois plasir d'auoir
commence plus tost, et à recognoistre le train de mes mutations…Je me suis
envieilly de sept ou huict ans depuis que je commençay. Ce n'a pas esté sans
quelque nouvel acquest. J'y ay pratiqué la colique, par la liberaliteé des ans:
leur commerce et longue conversation ne se passe aysément sans quell-que tel
fruit… : I have a mind to represent the progress of my humours, and that
every one may see each piece as it came from the forge. I could wish I had
begun sooner, and had taken more notice of the course of my mutations...I am
grown older by seven or eight years since I began; nor has it been without same
new acquisition: I have, in that time, by the liberality of years, been
acquainted with the stone: their commerce and long converse do not well pass away
without some such inconvenience...'
293 C'est une espineuse entreprinse, et plus qu'il
ne semble, de suyvre une allure si vagabonde que celle de nostre esprit; de
penetrer dans les profondeurs opaques de ses replies internes; de choisir et
arrester tant de menus airs de ses agitations; et est un amusement nouveau et
extradorinaire qui nous retire des occupations communes du monde, ouy, et des
plus recommandées. Il y a plusieurs années que je n'ay que moy pour visée à mes
pensées, que je ne contrerolle et estudie que moy; et si j'estudie autre chose,
c'est pour soudain le coucher sur moy, ou en moy… : ' 'tis a rugged road,
more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, as that of
the soul; to penetrate the dark depths of its intricate internal windings; to
choose and lay hold of so many little nimble motions; 'tis a new and
extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us from the common and most
recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now many years since that my
thoughts have had no other aim and level than myself, and that I have only
pried into and studied myself: or, if I study any other thing, 'tis to apply it
to or rather in myself...'
293 les choses: A peine respondroys-je àutruy de
mes discours qui ne m'en responds pas à moy…ce sont icy mes tranfasies, par
lesquelles je ne tasche point à donner à connoistre les choses, mais moy :
' responsible to another for my writings, who am not so to myself…these are
fancies of my own, by which I do not pretend to discover things, but me myself…
293 à essayer ses facultés naturelles : 'to
essay his natural faculties'
293 De cente membres et visages qu'a chaque chose,
j'en prens un…J'y donne une poincte, non pas le plus largement, mais le plus
profondément que je sçay…sans dessein, sans promesse, je ne suis pas tenu d'en
faire bon, ny de m'y tenir moy mesme, sans varier quand il me plaist, et me
render au doubte et à l'incertitude, et à ma maistrese forme qui est
l'ignorance… : 'Of a hundred members and faces that everything has, I take
one…I give a stab, not so wide but as deep as I can… without design and
without engaging myself too far, I am not responsible for them, or obliged to
keep close to my subject, without varying at my own liberty and pleasure, and
giving up myself to doubt and uncertainty, and to my own governing method,
ignorance.'
293 Maistresse forme : 'governing method'
293 ignorance forte et generous : 'strong and
generous ignorance'
293-4 le grand et glorieux chef d'oeuvre de
l'homme, c'est vivre à propos : 'The glorious masterpiece of man is to live
to purpose'
294 Le plus simplement se commettre à nature, c'est
s'y commettre le plus sagement. Oh! que c'est un doux et mol chevet, et sain,
que l'ignorance et l'incuriosité, a repose rune teste bien faicte! : 'The
most simply to commit one's self to nature is to do it most wisely. Oh, what a
soft, easy, and wholesome pillow is ignorance and incuriosity, whereon to
repose a well-ordered head!'
294 Je me laisse ignoramment et negligement aller à
la loy generale du monde; je la sçauray assez quand je la sentiray… : 'I
suffer myself to be ignorantly and negligently led by the general law of the
world: I shall know it well enough when I feel it…'
295 une alleure poetique, à sauts et à gambades
: 'a poetic progress, by leaps and skips'
297 La vie de Cesar n'a point plus d'exemple que la
nostre : 'The life of Caesar has no greater example for us than our own'
298 Il n'y a que vous qui sçache si vous estes
lasche et cruel ou loyal et devotieux; les autres ne vous voyent point, ils
vous devinent par conjectures incertaines... : 'You yourself only know if
you are cowardly and cruel, loyal and devout: others see you not, and only
guess at you by uncertain conjectures...'
298 par quelque marque particuliere et estrangiere
: 'by some particular and unusual mark'
298 de les prendre en main, non pas au poulmon et
au foye : ' to take them in hand, but not into my lungs and liver'
298 humaine condition : human condition
299 Ils laissent là les choses et s'amusent à
traicter les causes: plaisans causeurs! La cognoissance des causes appartient
seulement à celuy qui a la conduite des choses, non à nous qui n'en avons que
la souffrance, et qui en avons l'usage parfaictement plein selon notre nature,
sans en penetrer l'origne et l'essence...Ils commencent ordinairement ainsi:
Comment est ce que cela se faict? Mais se faict il? foudroit il dire... :
'..they leave the things, and fly to the causes. Pleasant talkers! The
knowledge of causes only concerns him who has the conduct of things; not us,
who are merely to undergo them, and who have perfectly full and accomplished
use of them, according to our need, without penetrating into the original and
essence....They commonly begin thus: "How is such a thing done?"
Whereas they should say, "Is such a thing done?"...'
299 humaine condition : humane condition
299 moy le premier : 'me the first'
300 amusement nouveau et extraordinaire...de
penetrer dans les profondeurs et ses replis internes : 'a new and
extraordinary undertaking...to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate
internal windings'
300 Nous n'avons nouvelles que de deux ou trois
anciens qui ayent battu ce chemin; et si ne pouvons dire si cest du tout en
pareille maniere à cette-ci, n'en connoissant que leurs noms. Nul depuis ne
s'est jeté sur leur trace... : 'We hear but of two or three of the
ancients, who have beaten this path, and yet I cannot say if it was after this
manner, knowing no more of them but their names. No one since has followed
their tracks...'
300 Ils vont, ils viennent, ils trottent, ils
dansent; de mort, nulles nouvelles : 'They go, they come, they gallop and
dance, and not a word of death.'
301 particulier en usage : 'particular in
usage'
301 public en cognoissance : 'public in
knowledge'
301 par art : for art
301 par sort : for fate
301 jamais homme : never man
301 jamais aucun : never any
31 en celuy-là je suis le plus sçavant homme qui
vivie : 'in this I am the most understanding man alive'
301 moy le premier : 'me the first'
301 Puisque ce gens là n'ont pas peu se resoudre de
la cognoissance d'eux mesmes et de leur propre condition, qui est
continuellement presente à leurs yeux, qui est dans eux..., comment les
croirois je de la cause du flux et du reflux de la riviere du Nil? : 'since
these people could not resolve upon the knowledge of themselves and their own
condition, which is continually before their eyes, and within them... how can I
believe them about the ebbing and flowing of the Nile?'
301 humaine condition : human condition
302 les bons, autheurs mesmes ont tort de
s'opiniastrer à former de nous une constante et solide contexture : 'even
the best authors [are] a little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of
us any constant and solid contexture'
302 pour juger d'un homme, il faut suivvre
longuement et curieusement sa trace : 'to make a right judgment of a man,
we are long and very observingly to follow his trace'
302 moy...qui estime ce siècle comme un autre
passé, j'allegue aussi volontiers un mien amy que Aulu Glle et que Macrobe...
: 'I...who look upon this age as one that is past, would as soon quote a friend
as Aulus Gelliusor as I would Macrobius...'
302 en l'estude que je traitte de noz moeurs et
mouvemens, les temoignages fabuleux, pourvu qu'ils soient possibles, y servent
comme les vrais: advenu ou non advenu, à Paris ou à Rome, à Jean ou à Pierre,
c'est toujours un tour de l'humaine capacité : ' in the subject of which I
treat, our manners and motions, testimonies and instances; how fabulous soever,
provided they are possible, serve as well as the true; whether they have really
happened or no, at Rome or Paris, to John or Peter, 'tis still within the verge
of human capacity'
302 Cette longue attention que j'employe à me
considérer me dresse à juger aussi passablement des autres...Pour m'estre, dès
mon enfance, dressé à mirer ma vie dans celle d'autruy, jay acquis une
conmplexion studieuse en cela : 'That long attention that I employ in
considering myself, also fits rile to judge tolerably enough of others...By
having from my infancy been accustomed to contemplate my own life in those of
others, I have acquired a complexion studious in that particular'
302 Mirer sa vie dans celle d'autrui :
'contemplate his life in those of others'
303 forme toute sienne : 'form all his'
304 Ces exquises subtilitez ne sont propres qu'au
presche; ce sont discours qui nous veulent envoyer touts bastez en l'autre
monde. La vie est un movement materiel et corporel, action imparfaicte de sa
proper essence, et desreglée; je m'emploie à la server selon elle… :
'These exquisite subtleties are good for nothing but speeches, these are
discourses which would drive us into the other world like donkeys. Life is a
material and bodily movement, it is imperfect and disorderly by its very
essence, and I strive to serve her accordingly…'
304 moy, d'une condition mixte, grossier…, si imple
que je me laisse tout lourdement aller aux plaisirs presents de la loy humaine
et generale, intellectuellement sensibles, sensiblement intellectuels
: 'I, who am of a mixed and heavy condition, cannot snap so soon at this
one simple object, but that I negligently suffer myself to be carried away with
the present pleasures of the, general human law, intellectually sensible, and
sensibly intellectual'
304 Platon craint nostre engagement aspre à la
douleur et à la volupté, d'autant que (because) il oblige et attache par
trop l'âme au corps; moy plutost au rebours, d'autant qu'il l'en desprend et
descloue : 'Plato fears our too vehemently engaging ourselves with
pain and pleasure, forasmuch as these too much knit and ally the soul to the
body; whereas I rather, quite contrary, by reason it too much separates and
disunites them'
304 Un juste et modéré temperament envers la
volupté et envers la douleur: 'a just and moderate temper both to pleasure
and pain'
304 Ce qui aiguise en nous la douleur et la volupté,
c'est la poincte de nostre esprit: 'that which sharpens pain and pleasure
in us is the point of our spirit'
304-5 Le corps a une grand' part a nostre ester, il
y tient un grand rang; ainsi sa structure et composition sont de bien juste
consideration. Ceux qui veulent desprendre nos deux pieces principals, et les
sequestrer l'un de l'autre, ils ont tort; au rebours, il les faut r'accupler et
rejoinder; il faut ordonner a l'ame non de se tirer a quartier, de s'entretenir
a part, de mespriser et abandoner le corps (aussi ne le scauroit elle faire que
par quelque singerie contrefaicte) mais de se r'allier a luy, de l'embrasser…,
le'espouser en somme, et luy server de mary, a ce que leurs effects ne
paraissent pas divers et contraires, ains accordans et uniformes. Les
Chrestiens on tune particuliere instruction de cette liaison; ils scavent que
la justice divine embrasse cette societe et joincture du corps et de l'ame,
jusquese a render le corps capable des recompenses eternelles; et que Dieu
regarde agir tout l'homme, et veut qu'entier il receive le chastiment, ou le
loyer, selon ses merites. : 'The body has a great share in our being, has
an eminent place there, and therefore its structure and composition are of very
just consideration. They who go about to disunite and separate our two
principal parts from one another are to blame; we must, on the contrary,
reunite and rejoin them. We must command the soul not to withdraw and entertain
itself apart, not to despise and abandon the body (neither can she do it but by
some apish counterfeit), but to unite herself close to it, to embrace, cherish,
assist, govern, and advise it, and to bring it back and set it into the true
way when it wanders; in sum, to espouse and be a husband to it, so that their
effects may not appear to be diverse and contrary, but uniform and concurring.
Christians have a particular instruction concerning this connection, for they
know that the Divine justice embraces this society and juncture of body and
soul, even to the making the body capable of eternal rewards; and that God has
an eye to the whole man's ways, and wills that he receive entire chastisement
or reward according to his demerits or merits.'
305 La secte Peripatetique, de toutes sects la plus
sociable, atribue a la sagesse ce seul soing, de pourvoir et procurer en commun
le bien de ces deux parties associees; et montre les autres sects, pour ne
s'estre assez attachez a la consideration de ce meslange, s'estre partialisees,
cette-cy pour le corps, cette autre pour l'ame, d'une pareille erreur; et avoir
escarte leur subject, qui est l'homme; et leur guide, qu'ils advouent en
general ester Nature. : 'The sect of the Peripatetics, of all sects the
most sociable, attribute to wisdom this sole care equally to provide for the
good of these two associate parts: and the other sects, in not sufficiently
applying themselves to the consideration of this mixture, show themselves to be
divided, one for the body and the other for the soul, with equal error, and to
have lost sight of their subject, which is Man, and their guide, which they
generally confess to be Nature.'
305 A quoy faire demembrons nous en divorce un
bastiment tissue d'une si joincte et fraternelle correspondence? Au rebours,
renouons le par muteuels offices; que l'esprit esveille et vivifie la pesanteur
du corps, le crops arreste la legeretéde l'esprit et la fixe. Qui velut summum
bonum Laudat animae naturam, et tamquam malum naturam carnis accusat, profecto
et animam carnaliter appetite, et carnem carnaliter fugit, quaniam it vanitate
sentit humana, non veritate divina [from Augustine, De civitate Dei,
14,5]. Il n'y a piece indigne de notre soin, en ce present que Dieu nous a
faict; nous a faict; nous en devons conte jusques à un poil; et n'est pas une
comission par acquit (roughly: offhand) à l'homme de conduire l'homme selon sa
condition; elle est expresse, naifve et tres-principale, et nous l'a le
Createur donnee serieusement et severement... [Those who would renounce
their bodies] veulent se mettre hors d'eux, et eschapper à l'homme; c'est
folie, au lieu de se transformer en anges, ils se transforment en bestes; au
lieu de se hausser, ils s'abattent. Ces humeurs transcendentes m'effrayent...
: 'Is it not an error to esteem any actions less worthy, because they are
necessary? And yet they will not take it out of my head, that it is not a very
convenient marriage of pleasure with necessity, with which, says an ancient,
the gods always conspire. To what end do we dismember by divorce a building
united by so close and brotherly a correspondence? Let us, on the contrary,
confirm it by mutual offices; let the mind rouse and quicken the heaviness of
the body, and the body stay and fix the levity of the soul: "He who
commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and condemns the nature of
the flesh as evil, at once both carnally desires the soul, and carnally flies
the flesh, because he feels thus from human vanity, not from divine
truth." from Augustine, De civitate Dei, 14,5]. In this present
that God has made us, there is nothing unworthy our care; we stand accountable
for it even to a hair; and is it not a commission to man, to conduct man
according to his condition; 'tis express, plain, and the very principal one,
and the Creator has seriously and strictly prescribed it to us....[Those who
would renounce their bodies] would put themselves out of themselves, and escape
from being men. It is folly; instead of transforming themselves into angels,
they transform themselves into beasts; instead of elevating, they lay themselves
lower. These transcendental humours affright me'
306 Je ne recognois, chez Aristote, la plus part de
mes mouvements ordinaires. : 'I do not find in Aristotle most of my
ordinary motions.'
306. Je n'ay pas plus faict mon livre que mon livre
m'a faict: livre consubstantial à son autheur, d'une occupation proper, member
de ma vie, non d'une occupation et fin tierce et estrangiere, comme tous autres
livres. : 'I have no more made my book than my book has made me: 'tis a
book consubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a parcel of my life,
and whose business is not designed for others, as that of all other books is.'
307 otium [Latin] : 'leisure'
308 homme suffisant : 'accomplished man' *
308 a ignorer meme : 'even in ignorance' *
308 même à ignorer : 'even in ignorance' *
308 honnête homme : 'honest man'
309 profondeurs opaques : 'dark depths'
309 stile comique et prive : 'humorous and
familiar style'
309 ouy : 'yes'
309 sermo pedester or humilis [Latin] :
'prosaic or low speech'
309 humaine condition : human condition'
310 car enfin c'est nostre ester, c'est nostre tout
: 'for it is our being, it is all we have'
310 c'est chose tender que la vie, et aysee a
troubler. 'life is a tender thing, and easily troubled'
310 la plus grande chose du monde c'est de scavoir
ester a soy : 'The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to
oneself'
310 sermo humilis [Latin] : 'low speech '
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