French essayist and philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) may have been one of the last children in Europe to speak Latin as a first language. At his family’s castle in southwestern France, even the servants were fluent: Montaigne’s wealthy father had hired them so that his son would be surrounded by the sound of Latin until he left for school at age six.
Perhaps not surprisingly for a child who read Virgil in the original, Montaigne would become known as one of the most erudite thinkers in Renaissance Europe. His essays—he was the first essayist, having invented the term—were known for their originality, skepticism about religious and political traditions, and trenchant insights into human nature, as well as the vast range of classical allusions sprinkled amidst his own arguments.
After graduating from school, Montaigne worked briefly as a lawyer for the Bordeaux government, and he married in 1565. However, he retired from his job at age thirty-seven and returned to the family castle, determined to lead a life of scholarly reflection.
The first two volumes of Essays appeared in 1580, and a third appeared in 1588. In the essays, Montaigne picked broad topics—marriage, religion, dishonesty, fear, etc.—and expounded on them, invariably introducing fresh and provocative ways to think about the topic. In an essay about cannibalism, for instance, he meanders through several thousand words—citing Aristotle, the legend of Atlantis, and Stoic philosophy—before making the surprising argument that Europeans have little standing to criticize cannibals, since the torture of a live body is more objectionable than eating a dead one.
Montaigne’s willingness to question the assumed superiority of Western civilization made him an unusual, even radical voice in Renaissance Europe. He also opposed the European colonization of the Americas, reasoning that it would lead to misery for Native Americans.
Montaigne died in 1592 at his castle, but his essays continued to provoke thought and debate for centuries. “That such a man has written,” wrote philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), “joy on earth has truly increased.”
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Montaigne was appointed mayor of Bordeaux for four years beginning in 1581. He attempted to turn down the job, but received a letter directly from King Henry III (1551–1589) commanding him to take it.
- The word essay comes from the French word essai, meaning “an attempt.” Each essay, in Montaigne’s view, was an attempt to understand the topic at hand. Essay is also a little-used verb in English, meaning “to attempt” or “to endeavor.”
- Montaigne’s writing first appeared in English translations in 1603. Some literary scholars have speculated that William Shakespeare (1564–1616) may have read and been inspired by Montaigne, in particular in writing The Tempest, which seems to have been directly influenced by Montaigne’s essay on cannibalism.
