Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident Due to planned maintenance there will be periods of time where the website may be unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The problem we are proposing to discuss is the result of a peculiar carelessness of Montaigne in his chapter on Friendship in his Essais, Book I, 28. He begins by noting that a painter,1 commissioned by him to decorate some of the large panels of his study with pictures, daubs fanciful designs, “crotesques”, around the central pieces. So, remarks Montaigne, his thoughts here are mere figures without any other purpose than to enshrine a great piece composed by his friend, Etienne de la Boétie. This gem is a little essay called by its author Discours de la servitude volontaire, but soon renamed Le contr'un by those who read it. Montaigne then relates that it was written by La Boétie in his early youth (later specified as eighteen) and circulated among appreciative readers who relished its spirited defence of liberty against tyrants. Hence the name of Contr'un. Montaigne insists that it is beautifully composed and if its author had lived and undertaken a long work of reflection, he would have created something memorable that would have made him comparable to authors of antiquity. But this Discours and a Commentary on the Edict of January2 are all he has available now, since he has already published all the other MSS left him by his friend's bequest.3 Montaigne admits that he has a special fondness for the Contr'un because it furnished the means of their first awareness of each other even before they met, thus opening the door to the perfect friendship between them. This relationship was so extraordinary that its like will not be seen more than once in three centuries.
1 We can date the composition of i, 28, because of this allusion to a painter who is working in his study decorating its walls with frescoes and inscriptions. One of the latter is dated March 1571.
2 The Edict of January 1562, issued by Michel de l'Hospital at the behest of Catherine de Medici, marked the high point of royal tolerance toward Protestants, before the fateful massacre ten years later.
3 These included La mesnagerie de Xenophon, Les règles de mariage de Plutarque, Lettre de consolation de Plutarque à sa femme, and a number of poems in French and Latin, all published chez Frédéric Morel (Paris, 1571).
4 Catullus, LXV, 9.
5 “C'est plutôt le souci du sentiment de la postérité pour la Boétie qui a inspiré Montaigne rajeunissant ainsi l'auteur du Contr'un. Pour atténuer l'impression, sans doute défavorable, que la vigueur du langage de La Boétie pouvait faire sur les esprits réfléchis, Montaigne a mis sur le compte de la fougue et de l'âge les écarts de parole de son ami… Les faits le contredisent, et nous savons que le Contr'un, s'il fut composé dans l'extrême jeunesse de La Boétie, fut revu plus tard par un esprit moins adolescent.” Paul Bonnefon, Montaigne et ses amis (Paris: Colin, 1898), i, 144-145.
6 This uncertainty is further attested by Montaigne's first reference to the Contr'un in the Essais, I, 26. In discussing Plutarch he quotes the phrase: “que les habitants d'Asie servoient à un seul, pour ne sçavoir prononcer une seule syllabe, qui est, Non”, and adds that this statement “donna peult estre la matière et l'occasion à La Boétie de la SERVITUDE VOLONTAIRE.” Note the “perhaps” which reveals his ignorance. This phrase was added in the 1588 ed., is not present in the first two eds. of 1580 and 1582.
7 “Ce sont vingt et neuf sonnets que le sieur de Poiferré, homme d'affaires et d'entendement, qui le connoissoit longtemps avant moy, a retrouvé par fortune chez luy, parmy quelques autres papiers, et me les vient d'envoier, de quoy je luy suis tres obligé, et souhaiterais que d'autres qui détiennent plusieurs lopins de ses escris, par cy, par là, en fissent autant” (Essais, I, 28).
8 The editor Pierre Coste finally carried out what had been Montaigne's intention and included the Contr'un as an appendix to the Essais in his edition of these in Geneva (1727, 1729), an edition which became the model of many reprintings (The Hague, 1727; London, 1739, 1745; Paris, 1754). There is evidence that Coste was beaten to the draw by a suppressed edition of the Essais in Paris, 1724 and 1725, to which censors objected because the Contr'un had been included.
9 The Literature of the French Renaissance (Cambridge, 1904), ii, 139.
10 Montaigne et son temps (Paris: Boivin, 1933), p. 64.
11 The first reference to him is as a connoisseur of poetry. Apparently La Boétie arrives in Bordeaux to take his post, finds his predecessor still there, and revises his MS to include Longa's name as a lover of poetry, so to honor him. Longa left shortly after to assume his new post as “conseiller au Parlement de Paris”, in which city he died in 1557. It is likely that Longa had a copy of the Contr'un in his possession since its author would be impelled to present him with one. There seems no reason to doubt that La Boétie meant to have it printed, perhaps with other writings, but his public functions left him slight leisure.
12 “Quel est l'auteur du Discours sur la servitude volontaire?” Revue historique de Bordeaux, xxxii (Oct. 1939), 155.
13 Montaigne et ses amis, I, 156.
14 Aymonier (op. cit. n. 12) adds: “Ces poètes, il les a connus plus tard et autrement que par leurs vers … Antoine de Baïf l'initia aux ambitions de la Pléiade: il fut toute sa vie intimement lié avec Dorat … son beaufrère Lancelot de Carie était l'ami des premières années de Ronsard; et Belleau, cher à Ronsard … était également affectionné à ses collègues La Boétie et Montaigne.”
15 “L'inspiration antique dans le Discours de la servitude volontaire”, Revue d'histoire littéraire, LXXII (Jan. 1910), 34. Also Pierre Mesnard decides on the date of definitive composition as 1552 or 1553; L'essor de la philosophie politique au XVIème siècle (Paris: Boivin, 1936), p. 391.
16 H. Barkhausen calls it a “niaiserie” to say that Montaigne slipped in the reference to Ronsard's Franciade, he would know he could never get by with that; “A propos du Contr'un”, Revue historique de Bordeaux, II (1909), 77. Armaingaud maintains that all this is part of Montaigne's system “de dire confusément, dire discordamment” (iii, 9). Besides this anachronism of the Franciade was a way of putting readers on their guard to look out for other interpolations. Armaingaud, Montaigne pamphlétaire: l'énigme du Contr'un (Paris: Hachette, 1910), p. 223.
17 Montaigne et ses amis, p. 158.
18 Anne du Bourg began his teaching career at Orléans in 1549 even before he received his doctorate. He was named regent in May 1550 and rector June 23,1553, and reappointed successively till Oct. 1557, when he left Orléans for the Parlement de Paris. His function as “conseiller” ended abruptly two years later when he was strangled and his body burned in the Place de Grève as a heretic. His crime consisted of his counsel of moderation and clemency toward the Protestants.
19 “Etienne de la Boétie”, in the Causeries du lundi, 3rd ed., ix, 140-161.
20 Etienne de la Boétie contre Nicolas Machiavel (Bordeaux: Mollat, 1908).
21 “La Boétie et Machiavel d'après une publication récente”, Revue philomatigue de Bordeaux, xi (Nov. 1908), 296.
22 La Boétie was 24 when he translated the 32nd canto of Orlando Furioso into French verse. In the Contr'un he renders in accurate prose three lines from Petrarch's Sonnet 17 concerning the butterfly and the flame (Armaingaud ed., p. 155). While the first Petrarchan translation into French was published in 1555, it is easy to accept Armaingaud's contention that translations of these sonnets had long circulated in MS before the actual printing. Besides the Italian lines are simple and would present no difficult problem for the young La Boétie.
23 Tocsain contre les massacreurs. Cited by Armaingaud in op. cit., n. 21, and mentioned by Daniel, Histoire de France (1756), xi, 53. The works of Gentillet, Languet, and Bodin are also listed by Armaingaud. Bodin ridicules Machiavelli in his preface to the De la république (1576), and Hotman shows Protestant horror of The Prince in his letter to Gualter, Dec. 1580: Epislolae (Zurich: J. C. Fuessli, 1742), p. 139.
24 In the preface to his edition of La Boétie's works, under date of Paris, Aug. 10, 1570, Montaigne writes: “Mais quant à ces deux dernières pieces. Discours de la servitude volontaire et quelques Mémoires de noz troubles sur l'Edict de Janvier, 1562), je leur trouve la façon trop delicate et mignarde pour les abandonner au grossier et pesant air d'une si mal plaisante saison.”
25 His statement from Essais, I, 28, has already been quoted above. The Discours of La Boétie appeared anonymously three times under Protestant auspices, as follows: 1. A fragment in Latin, Dialogi ab Eusebio Philadelpha (Edimburgi [Bâle?], 1574), at the end of the second dialogue. 2. In French without two opening paragraphs, Le Réveille-Matin des François (Edimbourg [Lausanne], 1574). 3. Complete, Mémoires de l'Estât de France sous Charles neufiesme (Genève: S. Goulart, 1576); reprinted (Meidlebourg, 1577 and 1588).
26 J. C. Lyons, “Conceptions of the Republic in French Literature of the 16th Century: Etienne de la Boétie and François Hotman”, Romanic Review, xxi (Oct. 1930), 296.
27 “L'inspiration antique dans le Discours de la Servitude Volontaire”, Revue d'histoire littéraire, LXXII (Jan. 1910), 67
28 J. Bodin et son temps (Paris: Guillaumin, 1853), p. 70.
29 Histoire de la littérature française (Paris: Hachette, 1908), p. 266. 80 Montaigne (Paris: Rieder, 1933), p. 22.
31 J. Barrère, L'humanisme et la politique dans le Discours de la Servitude Volontaire (Paris: Champion, 1923), p. 120.
32 Op. cit., p. 241. Pierre Mesnard seems to agree: “Pour La Boétie comme pour Machiavel, l'autorité n'est faite que de l'acceptation des sujets; seulement l'un apprend au prince à forcer leur acquiescement, tandis que l'autre révèle au peuple la puissance de son refus” (op. cit.,n. 14, p. 400).
33 Armaingaud éd., p. 139.
34 “Le véritable auteur du Discours de la Servitude Volontaire, Montaigne ou La Boétie?”, Revue d'histoire littéraire, xiii (Oct. 1906), 734.
35 Montaigne et ses amis, i, 145.
36 A full account of La Boétie's activities as Conseiller at Bordeaux is given by Bonnefon in bis edition of the Oeuvres Complètes (Paris: Rouam, 1892), pp. xx ff.
37 Bonnefon, ed. Oeuvres, p. 317.
38 La famille et les amis de Montaigne (Paris: Hachette, 1896), p. 148.
39 Bonnefon, ed. Oeuvres, p. 61.
40 Essais, ii, 9.
41 Montaigne pamphlétaire, pp. 55-60.
42 See n. 25.
43 See n. 8.
44 Bonnefon, ed. Oeuvres, pp. 61-62, “Avertissement au lecteur.” 45 Armaingaud, Montaigne pamphlétaire, p. 46.
46 J. Barrère, L'humanisme et la politique dans le Discours delà Servitude Volontaire,p. 171.
47 Jean Plattard, Montaigne et son temps (Paris: Boivin, 1933), p. 65. Bonnefon in his ed. of Oeuvres, p. xxxvii. R. Dezeimeris in “Sur l'objectif réel du Discours d'Etienne de la Boétie”, Actes de l'Académie de Bordeaux, 3me série, lxix (1907), 27. J. Barrère, Etienne de la Boétie contre Nicolas Machiavel (Bordeaux: Mollat, 1908), p. 7. The original reference is to Jac. Augusti Thuani historiarum sui temporis, libri cxxxviii (Londini, 1733), i, 186.
48 In “Note”, Revue d'histore littéraire (Jan. 1917), p. 2.
49 His articles and his answers to his attackers he gathered in a book, Montaigne pamphlétaire: l'énigme du Contr'un (Paris: Hachette, 1910), 341 pp. In this he reprints the Contr'un with the presumably interpolated passages in italics that he attributes to Montaigne. He maintained his point of view against all and in Vol. xi of his monumental ed. of Montaigne (Paris: Conard, 1939), he wrote a preface in which he attempts to refute all comers. He began this ed. in 1923. At his death in 1935 he gave his famous collection on Montaigne to the Bibliothèque Nationale. He was 93 when he died, with a distinguished career in medecine and scholarship behind him. His favorite phrase: “C'est Montaigne qui me conserve.”
50 In “Réponse à Barckhausen”, Montaigne pamphlétaire, pp. 90 ff. Sorbin's exact reference is on p. 6 of his pamphlet: “C'est certes le chemin qu'avez tenu jusqu'êtes à présent parvenu à dire tout haut dans vos libelles de la Servitude Volontaire et du Réveille-Matin des François que ceux qui s'asservissent au Roy se font grant tort de ne se retirer de son obéissance et de l'affection qu'ils lui portent.” Another well-known contemporary reference to the Contr'un is to be found in the Histoire universelle du sieur d'Aubigné (Maille, 1616), ii, 107: “Vous aviez le livre de la Servitude Volontaire de la Boétie, conseiller au Parlement de Bordeaux, irrité de ce que, voulant voir la salle du bal, un archer de la garde (qui le sentit à l'escholier) lui laissa tomber sa hallebarde sur le pied, de quoi cestui-ci criant justice par le Louvre n'eut que des risées des grands qui l'entendirent.” This spiteful mention needs no comment. D'Aubigné gives this fanciful version of the occasion that inspired the outburst in the Contr'un in speaking of those “esprits irritez qui avec merveilleuse hardiesse faisoient imprimer livres portans ce qu'en autre saison on n'eust pas voulu dire à l'oreille.”
51 P. Bonnefon, “La Boétie, Montaigne et le Contr'un”, Revue politique et parlementaire, Li (Jan. 1907), 108.
52 These quotations from the Rêveille-Matin are more fully presented by Bonnefon in the article cited n. 51, pp. 107-126. For a fuller analysis of the political implications of this publication, see L'essor de la philosophie politique au XVIème siècle, Pierre Mesnard (Paris Boivin, 1936), pp. 348-355. The same work has an excellent chapter on political ideals in the Contr'un, pp. 389-406.
53 Studies in the French Renaissance (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 298-302.
54 J. Barrère, L'humanisme et In politique dans le Discours de la Servitude Volontaire, last chapter.
55 Mentioned in the volume by J.-H. Mariéjol, Vol. vi of the Histoire de France of the Lavisse series (Paris: Hachette, 1911), for the year 1574.
56 Op. cit., n. 51, p. 111.
57 Imbart de la Tour, Les origines de la Réforme (Paris: Hachette, 1905), p. 203.
58 H. Lemonnier in the Lavisse Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu'à la Révolution (Paris: Hachette, 1904), ii, 371.
59 Georges Weill, Les théories sur le pouvoir royal en France pendant les guerres de religion (Paris: Hachette, 1891), p. 78.
60 Quoted from Armaingaud's Montaigne pamphlétaire, p. 46.
61 Op. cit., n. 55, p. 12.
62 Paul Bonnefon (ed. Oeuvres of La Boétie) gives a full account of his activities in the religious struggles, pp. xx-xxv. Beatrice Reynolds reports two million Protestants and two thousand reformed churches by 1560—Proponents of Limited Monarchy in 16th Century France (Columbia Univ. Press, 1931), p. 29.
63 J.-H. Mariéjol, op. cit., p. 140.
64 J.-H. Mariéjol, op. cit., p. 194.
65 J. Bodin et son temps (Paris: Guillaumin, 1853), p. 59.
66 Mentioned by J. Barrère, L'humanisme et la politique, op. cit., p. 135.
67 Both Barrère and Baudrillart agree that Bodin's effort is toward conciliation of opposing viewpoints; Barrère in op. cit., n. 66, p. 140, and Baudrillart in his preface, op. cit.,n. 65. Hotman's view of the Salic Law and Bodin's notion of the social contract between a king and his people are well analyzed in the Reynolds' work cited in n. 62. See also Pierre Mesnard, op. cit., pp. 327-336.
68 Politices Christianae, libri vii. Only three copies are extant according to M. de Felice, author of Lambert Daneau, sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses lettres inédites (Paris: Fishbacher, 1882), p. 249. One of these is at Bâle, another at Leyden, the third at the British Museum. The book was written at Orthez in 1584 and published after the author's death at Castres in 1595.
69 A good listing of these various scholarly positions is given by E. Lablénie, “L'énigme de la Servitude Volontaire”, Revue du seizième siècle, xvii (1930), 203-227. The surprising reference to Charles VI is justified by Dezeimeris in his “Sur l'objectif réel du Discours d'Etienne de la Boétie”, Actes de l'Académie de Bordeaux, 3me série, LXIX (1907), 9.
70 In my translation of the Contr'un (Columbia Univ. Press, 1942), it was simple to place in indentations at the beginning of most paragraphs contemporary references such as “Il Duce of 1941”, “Fifth Columns”, “Concentrations Camps”, “Swastikas, Rising Suns, and Fasces”, “From Führership to Godship”, etc.
71 Essai sur l'histoire de la formation et des progrès du Tiers Etat (Paris: Furnes, 1853), i, 145.
72 How far this hatred of Charles IX went is suggested in this epitaph:
Quoted by L. Delaruelle in Annales du midi, xx (1908), 402, attributed to the Mémoires-Journaux of Pierre de l'Estoile by Paul F.-M. Méaly, Les publicistes de la Réforme sous Francois II et Charles IX (1903), p. 153.
78 Armaingaud ed. of the Contr'un in Vol. ii of Oeuvres Complètes de Montaigne, p. 92. In this description some readers prefer “virilement” to “vilement.” Villey in his study, “Le véritable auteur du Discours de la Servitude Volontaire, Montaigne ou La Boétie”, Revue d'histoire littéraire, xiii (Oct. 1906), 727, adds that in the 16th century the phrase “tout empesché de” meant also “tout occupé à”, which interpretation could be applied with ease to any tyrant who is incapable of commanding men in the field while he is himself the willing slave of some woman. The Latin rendering in the Réveille-Matin confirms this understanding: “non qui vi et annis homines ad imperium cogère possit, sed qui impudicae mulierculae servitio addictus sit.”
74 In his ed. of the Contr'un, p. 92.
76 Printed in a tiny format by Hauman (Brussels), the Lamennais preface has 42 pages. The quotation is from p. 8.
76 Quoted from Bonnefon's introduction to his ed. of the Mémoire (Paris: Bossard, 1922), p. 40.
77 Jean Plattard, in his Montaigne et son temps, pp. 72-73, makes this pertinent comment : “Il y a tout lieu de croire qu'il n'eût pas désapprouvé les mesures de rigueur destinées à montrer aux mutins qui bravaient la volonté royale la ‘terrible face de la justice courroucée.’ Quant aux observations et cérémonies de l'Eglise, il avoue lui-méme (en 1580) qu'en son adolescence, il inclinait à en négliger quelques unes et à faire peu de cas de celles ‘qui semblent avoir un visage ou plus vain ou plus estrange’ (Essais, i, 27). Peut-être rangeait-il dans cette catégorie l'usage du latin aux offices ou la vénération des reliques et des images. Plus tard ayant communiqué ses opinions â des ‘hommes sçavants,’ il constata que ces choses là ‘ont un fondement massif et très solide, et que ce n'est que bestise et ignorance qui nous fait les recevoir avec moindre révérence que le reste'; il devint, sur cette question, beaucoup plus traditionnaliste que La Boétie ne l'était en 1562.”
78 Réformateurs et publicistes de l'Europe, Moyen Age et Renaissance (Paris : Michel Lévy, 1864), p. 454.
79 J. Barrère gives this succint analysis in L'humanisme et la politique, pp. 140 ff.
80 This and the following phrases are taken from the Bonnefon ed., pp. 114-115.
81 The quotations are taken from the Bonnefon ed., as follows: (a) 104, (b) 113, (c) 120, (d) 122, (e) 126-131, (f) 135, (g) 138, (h) 140. There is a curious echo of this horror of religious strife in La Boétie's Latin epistle to Montaigne where he even mentions America as a refuge. There he wants to sail so that he might not be forced to behold the ruin of his beloved France though he will never be able to forget the image of her ravaged soil.
82 Page 142.
83 Page 152.
84 Page 160.
85 Bonnefon, ed. Oeuvres, p. 210.
86 Bonnefon, ed. Oeuvres, pp. 159-160.
87 Ibid., p. 205.
88 Journal de voyage (Lautrey ed.), p. 326.
89 Strowski agrees with this analysis of Montaigne's devious conduct, Revue philoma-tiaue de Bordeaux, x (Feb. 1907). Both scholars date i, 28, at 1571. The essayist has just returned from Paris with a sense of disappointment at the omission of the Contr'un and sets about the work of rectifying his decision.
90 In the “Post-scriptum” added to the Villey article, Revue d'histoire littéraire, XIII (Oct. 1906), 737. Pierre Mesnard in his Essor de la philosophie politique au XVIème siècle makes the pertinent remark (p. 390) : “mais l'on peut justement se demander si cette amitié n'a pas été sans nuire à l'œuvre.”
91 Montaigne seems to be contradictory in his corrections. In iii, 9, he says: “J'ajoute mais je ne corrige pas.” Armaingaud maintains that this did not apply to the 1580 edition but rather to the later ones. He comments in Montaigne pamphlétaire, p. 122: “Il modifie et retouche avec le plus grand soin … il rature … il couvre de suppressions comme de surcharges le texte des anciens chapitres de 1580 pour en faire ceux de 1588, puis ceux de 1588 pour en faire ceux de 1595.” In ii, 12, Montaigne indicates that he tries often to change his “première imagination” in order “à y mettre un nouveau sens.” Yet the fact remains he did not take the trouble to correct the glaring contradiction in I, 28.
92 In Revue politique et parlementaire, XLvii (March 1906), 499.
93 Montaigne pamphlétaire, p. 81.
94 “Montaigne et les Huguenots”, Revue bleue, March 23, 1907. Reprinted in Montaigne pamphlétaire, pp. 323-333.
95 “En vérité, le mentir est un mauldict vice … Si nous en cognoissions l'horreur et le poids, nous le poursuivrions à feu, plus justement que d'aultres crimes” (i, 9). “Je suis ennemi des actions subtiles et feinctes et hay la finesse en mes mains, non seulement récréative mais aussi proufitable; si l'action n'est vicieuse, la route l'est” (i, 20).
96 “Des vivans mesme, je sens qu'on parle tousjours autrement qu'ils ne sont. Et si, à toute force, je n'eusse maintenu un amy que j'ay perdu on me l'eust déchiré en mille contraires visages. Je sçay bien que je ne lairray après moy aucun correspondant si affectionné de bien loing et entendu en mon faict comme j'ai esté au sien, ny personne à qui je voulsisse compromettre ma peinture” (iii, 9).
97 L'humanisme et la politique, op. cit., p. 2.
98 Historiettes, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1862), i, 433.
99 Armaingaud ed. of the Contr'un, p. 120. Pierre Mesnard's comment: “Le régicide … est non seulement vertueux mais assuré du succès; on ne saurait y encourager mieux les vrais champions de la liberté” (op. cit. n. 14, p. 402).
100 C. Aymonier, “Quel est l'auteur du Discours sur la servitude volontaire?” Revue historique de Bordeaux, xxxii (Oct. 1939), 153.
101 Abbé de la V. Monbrun, “Autour de Montaigne et de la Boétie”, Bulletin historique et archéologique du Périgord, xxxiv (1907), 437.
102 Fernand Demeure, “Montaigne et La Boétie”, Mercure de Prance, CCXLV (July, 1933), 206. Pierre Mesnard has an enlightening comment on the “gêne de Montaigne entre l'oeuvre et la conduite de son ami…” (op. cit., p. 405).
103 Essais, i, 42.
104 Montaigne et son temps, pp. 72-73.
105 La Renaissance des lettres en France de Louis XII à Henri IV (Paris: Colin, 1925), p. 194.
106 Op. cit., p. 194.
107 The apocryphal story of his death is à propos. Monbrun (op. cit., n. 101, p. 439) relates: “Montaigne sentant venir sa dernière heure, voulut qu'on célébrât la messe dans sa chambre, et c'est dans l'effort qu'il fit pour s'agenouiller au moment de l'élévation qu'il expira.” Armaingaud has denied this tale (Montaigne pamphlétaire, p. 135), reporting that Etienne Pasquier and Pierre Brach are the only contemporaries who have alluded to Montaigne's death in their letters and that neither of them reports this episode.
