Montaigne, MICHEL EYQUEM DE, was the third son of Pierre Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne. He was born in 1533 on the family estate in Perigord. His father had ideas of his own on the subject of education, and his third son was to have the full benefit of them. The first novel step was the putting of Michel out to nurse in a village on the estate, that he might be early inured to simple habits of living, and learn to sympathise with the lot of the poor. Whether or not the result of this early association, it is the fact that in his after life Montaigne always spoke of his poorer neighbours with a respect and kindness of tone remarkable in the age and class to which he belonged. It was the received opinion at the period of Montaigne's childhood that no boy could grow into a creditable citizen without a severity of discipline which would now be called brutal terrorism. It was the distinctive feature of Pierre de Montaigne's system, however, that boyhood should be made as happy as parents and teachers could make it, and in the upbringing of his famous son he was even whimsically humane. Every morning he had the boy awakened by the sound of some musical instrument, because he had heard 'that it disturbs the tender brain of children to awake them suddenly.' As he wished to make his son a scholar, and Latin was, therefore, an indispensable acquisition, he had the idea of converting a task into a natural pleasure. Till the age of six the boy was taught to speak no language but Latin, his tutor (a German), his parents, and even the domestics addressing him in that language. The result was that in the conversational command of Latin Montaigne had from boyhood the advantage of the best scholars of the day. His father was less successful in a novel method he also adopted in having him taught Greek.
When Montaigne reached the age of six his father 'allowed himself to be won over to common opinion,' and sent him to a school in the neighbouring city of Bordeaux—the Collège de Guienne, then, he himself tells us, the best in all France. His father, who as a former mayor had considerable influence in the city, 'made several stipulations against the rules of colleges, though, all the same, it still remained a college.' At this school Montaigne remained for seven years, boarding in the rooms of his successive teachers, among whom were two scholars of European celebrity, George Buchanan and Marc-Antoine Muret. The course of study in the college was almost exclusively the reading of Latin authors, and in after life Montaigne affirmed that, so far as he could judge, all these years were lost.
As a third son he had to choose between law and the church—only the eldest having the privilege of wearing the sword. All his life Montaigne had an insuperable difficulty in making up his mind, and on this occasion his father saved him the trouble by setting him to the study of law. In what school he pursued his legal studies has not been discovered, all that we know of them being summed up in his own sentence—'While a child I was plunged up to the ears in law, and it succeeded.' From the age of thirteen to twenty-four Montaigne is almost lost sight of. Casual references in his Essais prove that during this period he was frequently in Paris, that he knew something of court life, and that he took his full share of its pleasures. His legal studies received their reward in his appointment as member of the Court of Aids in the district of Perigord; and in 1557, by the consolidation of this court with the Parlement of Bordeaux, Montaigne became a city counsellor. The office was an honourable one; but it was little to Montaigne's taste, who, in truth, is never weary of telling us that every form of restraint was against all his natural inclinations. It was during his tenure of this office, however, that he formed his famous friendship with Etienne de la Boëtie, a relation which he always regarded as the happiest and most memorable of his life. To Montaigne La Boëtie seemed in gifts of soul and intellect the equal of the greatest characters of antiquity. From the writings La Boëtie left behind him (a series of sonnets, and a political pamphlet advocating extreme republicanism), it seems probable that
Montaigne exaggerated his friend's powers. However this may be, the memory of La Boétie, who died at the age of thirty-two, was the one thought that never failed to raise Montaigne above himself, and that adds the one romantic touch to his epicurean temper.
Montaigne held the office of counsellor for about thirteen years; but of this period of his life, also, no definite history has been recovered. From incidental remarks of his own we gather that he was familiar with the court of Francis II., that he saw and greatly admired Mary Queen of Scots, and that at some time or other he was 'gentleman of the bedchamber in ordinary,' an office that did not necessitate residence at court. From Charles IX. he received the order of St Michel, instituted by Louis XI., and once a coveted honour, but in Montaigne's day somewhat faded in its lustre. At the age of thirty-four he married Françoise de la Chassaine, the daughter of one of his fellow-counsellors in Bordeaux, though in taking the step he assures us that he merely yielded to convention, as of his own inclination 'he would not have married Wisdom herself.' As the times went, Montaigne was a faithful and considerate husband; but he makes no secret that his wife held but a subordinate place in his thoughts. He lost 'two or three' children (the expression is his own) in their infancy, and was survived by one daughter, of whom, as he speaks little in his writings, it may be concluded that she was bound to him by no peculiar tie of affection. A year after his marriage, at the request of his father, he translated the Natural History of Raymond de Sebond, a Spaniard, who in the preceding century had professed theology, philosophy, and medicine at Toulouse. This translation is noteworthy as being Montaigne's first effort in literature, and as having afterwards supplied the text for one of his most famous essays, the Apologie de Raymond Sebond, in which he exhibits in all its bearings the full scope of his sceptical philosophy. Two years later he published certain literary remains of his friend La Boétie.
In 1571, his two elder brothers being dead, Montaigne succeeded his father in the family estate, and here till his death in 1592 he lived the life of a country gentleman, varied only by a few visits to Paris, and by eighteen months' travel in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. It was during this period that he achieved his immortality. Finding on his retirement to his château that some mental occupation was imperatively necessary to save him from morbid fancies, he began those Essays which were to give him a place among the first names in literary history. If we know few incidents regarding this period of his life, we have at least the minutest record of his entire surroundings, of his daily manner of life, of his tastes, his habits, his speculations and imaginings. In June 1580, partly on account of his health, and partly from his strong natural curiosity to know strange countries, he set out on the prolonged course of travel above mentioned. His record of this journey, dictated to his secretary, and partly written in his own hand in French and Italian, was discovered in his château, and first published in 1774. While at the baths of Lucca, the announcement came to him that he had been unanimously elected mayor of Bordeaux. In accordance with his distaste for practical life, he at first refused the appointment, but at the instance of his friends and on the command of Henry III. he withdrew his declination. The office, which had been held by his father before him, was of high military as well as civil rank, his immediate predecessor having been the Duc de Biron, one of the marshals of France. In spite of his natural indolence and indecision, he must have performed his duties to the satisfaction of the citizens, as they did him the unusual honour of re-election. Of his last years the only circumstance deserving special record is his relation with Mademoiselle de Gournay, who won his heart by her enthusiastic admiration of his essays when she was only nineteen. After a meeting in Paris a romantic friendship sprang up between them, which lasted till Montaigne's death; and it is to Mademoiselle de Gournay, his fille d'alliance, as he called her, that we owe a valuable edition of his Essays, inscribed by her to Cardinal Richelieu in 1635. Montaigne in his later years suffered much from stone and gravel, but at the last he died of quinsy after a few days' illness in his sixtieth year, 13th September 1592. Notwithstanding the free expression of scepticism in his writings, he devoutly received the last offices of the church.
The conclusive attestation to Montaigne's varied power is the fact that three centuries after his death the circle of his readers widens every year, and that he has now almost as large a following of antiquaries as Shakespeare himself. Of his admirers in every generation it has also to be remarked that they are of all types of mind and creed, and that among them are found men like Pascal, who, while separated from him as by an abyss on all the fundamental problems of life, have acknowledged their debt to his fearless and all-questioning criticism. To have thus commanded the attention of the acutest intellects of every age since his own by haphazard remarks, devoid of all method, and seemingly inspired by the mere caprice of the moment, could be the privilege only of a mind of the highest originality, of the very broadest sympathies, and of a nature capable of embracing and realising the largest experience of life. In achieving this distinction, what are reckoned among his chief defects have doubtless stood him in as good stead as his merits. His inconclusive philosophy, his easy opinions on many points of morals, his imperfectly developed sense of duty, the total absence of any heroic strain in his nature, were but the necessary conditions of that general attitude towards men and things which make him the unique figure he is in the history of European literature.
There are English translations of Montaigne by Florio (q.v.; new ed. by Saintsbury, 1893), and another by C. Cotton (q.v.), revised by Hazlitt (1865; new ed. 1893). See Lives by St John and Lucas Collins; Emerson, Representative Men; Mark Pattison, Essays (1889); Dean Church, Miscellaneous Essays (1888); Alphonse Grün, Vie Publique de Michel Montaigne (1855); Payen, Documents Inédits (1847-56); and monographs by Bonnefon (1893) and Paul Stapfer (Grands Ecrivains, 1895). There are admirable editions of the Essays by Courbet and Royer (5 vols. 1873-91), and by Moutheau and Jouaust (7 vols. 1886-88).