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The Face in the Text: Montaigne's Emblematic Self-Portrait (Essais 111: 12)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Hope H. Glidden
Hope H. Glidden*
Affiliation:
Tulane University
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Extract

On the Opening Page of his penultimate essay, “Of physiognomy,” Montaigne noted that the human race is, by and large, myopic: “Nous n'apercevons les graces que pointues, bouffies et enflées d'artifice. Celles qui coulent soubs la nayfveté et la simplicité eschappent ayséement à une veue grossiere comme est la nostre: elles ont une beauté delicate et cachée; il faut la veue nette et bien purgée pour descouvrir cette secrette lumiere.“ (“We perceive no charms that are not sharpened, puffed out, and inflated by artifice. Those which glide along naturally and simply easily escape a sight so gross as ours.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , Spring 1993 , pp. 71 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1993

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