1 Jones, P. Mansell, French Introspectives from Montaigne to Andre Gide (Cambridge, 1937). pp.17–18 Google Scholar, has noted that the apology or justification for introspection is one of the commonest modes of intensifying preoccupation with the inner life amongst introspective writers.

2 La Charité, Raymond C., ‘Montaigne's Early Personal Essays,’ Romanic Review, 62 (1971), 12 Google Scholar, affirms this early proclivity in Montaigne to be ‘a self-conscious author and an auto-critic'

3 Montaigne, , Essais, ed. Villey, Pierre réimprimée sous la direction de V.-L. Saulnier (Paris, 1965), I Google Scholar, xiii, 48, i.e., Book I, Essay XIII, p. 48. All references are to this edition, and the letters A, B, C, allude to the different strata of Montaigne's text (see Préface LXXV).

4 In the (B) addition he expresses his impatience with all ceremony, never tolerating it in his own house. The (C) addition modifies this by attributing a certain usefulness to social formalities, but Montaigne still refuses to submit timidly to them or to allow them to cramp his life style.

5 Friedrich, Hugo, Montaigne, tr. Rovini, Robert (Paris, 1968), p. 349 Google Scholar, gives an excellent analysis of this passage. But, at this early stage, is Montaigne using irony as strongly as Friedrich suggests? Does not ‘crotesques’ apply fairly accurately to Montaigne's efforts up to that point? See also Friedrich's illuminating etymology of this word, ibid., p. 416, n. 281.

6 Baraz, Michaël, L'Etre et la connaissance selon Montaigne (Paris, 1968), p. 55 Google Scholar, illustrates that at this point of increased introspection, there is a corresponding change in Montaigne's style: ‘C'est dans cette periode que son style devient proprement métaphorique.'

7 Frame, Donald M., Montaigne: A Biography (New York, 1965), p. 187 Google Scholar, states that in the late 1570's Montaigne continually disparaged his book, and that he exhibited the literary equivalent of stage fright concerning the reception of his plan to portray the Moi.

8 Friedrich, p. 348, sees Montaigne's open style as a deliberate assault on traditional rhetorical form: ‘II se sait à l'opposé de la prose artistement travaillée des humanistes.’ Baraz, p. 157, expands this concept to show how Montaigne's position of ignorance, or ‘inscicnce,’ stresses ‘being’ rather than systematic learning.

9 Tilley, , Studies in the French Renaissance (New York, 1968), p. 262 Google Scholar, refers to the pivotal importance of this statement: from here on Montaigne tends to stress the resemblances rather than the differences between himself and others.

10 Baraz, p. 184, states that Montaigne established his tentative and fluctuating style in the course of composing the third book, and that this is closely linked to a growing awareness of his own originality.

11 Jeanson, F., Montaigne par lui-même (Paris, 1951), p. 33 Google Scholar, describes well this reciprocal action between author and work: ‘La fidélité du portraitiste à son modéle renvoie ici à une fidélité de sens inverse, du modèle au portrait.’ Henceforth, comments Jeanson, Montaigne is obliged to take cognizance of'cette objectivation de soi qui devient ainsi comme un niveau de référence.’ This by no means involves exactness of detail in any quantitative or scientific sense. As Baraz points out, p. 60, Montaigne does not hesitate to modify or even to deform the self-portrait, in order to augment literary suggestivity.

12 Baraz, p. 89, assimilates Montaigne's sense of vanity to Erasmian folly and Rabelaisian inebriety. These notions are ‘plurivalentes,’ i.e., scorning purely logical procedures, they possess sufficient flexibility to embrace and unify concepts that are diametrical opposites.

13 The theme offuror poeticus in ‘De la vanité’ is alluded to by Friedrich, p. 353, who defines the essay generically as ‘un poème de circonstance méditatif… beau dans le libre jeu de sa force avec le multiple.'

14 Frame, p. 254, alludes to Montaigne's ambivalence, in the Essays of 1588, concerning discussion of his own book, but considers that the essayist continues to do this now ‘with less self-depreciation than candor.'

15 Increase also in metaphorical allusions, as is noted with relevant statistics by Baraz, p. 56.

16 Friedrich, p. 342, in an illuminating explanation of this passage, shows the book to be richer because it contains the totality of his being, and the Moi to be wiser because it is aware of its own mutability and of the incompleteness of its present state.

17 Baraz, p. 56, relates the development of Montaigne's special characteristics of style to an inner intuitive evolution culminating in the plenitude of his last writings: ‘Chez Montaigne, tant le métaphorisme que la composition irrégulière traduisent une intuition du monde qui mûrit très lentement; elle arrive à la parfaite plénitude dans les derniers essais du troisième livre et dans les additions de l'exemplaire de Bordeaux.'

18 An exception must be made for La Boétie. Baraz, pp. 165-166, considers that the Essais are a humble homage to that unique friendship, and that for Montaigne such a relationship was the one truly absolute human value: ‘Le livre existe pour aboutir à l'amitié.'