Shakespeare's Montaigne Read online

  I talked a good while with one of them, but I had so bad an interpreter, who did so ill apprehend my meaning and who through his foolishness was so troubled to conceive my imaginations, that I could draw no great matter from him. Touching that point, wherein I demanded of him what good he received by the superiority he had amongst his countrymen (for he was a captain, and our mariners called him king), he told me, it was to march foremost in any charge of war. Further, I asked him how many men did follow him. He showed me a distance of place to signify they were as many as might be contained in so much ground, which I guessed to be about 4 or 5 thousand men. Moreover, I demanded, if when wars were ended, all his authority expired? He answered that he had only this left him, which was that when he went on progress and visited the villages depending on him, the inhabitants prepared paths and highways athwart the hedges of their woods for him to pass through at ease.

  All that is not very ill; but what of that? They wear no kind of breeches or hose.

  Of the Inequality That Is Between Us

  1.42

  PLUTARCH sayeth in some place, That he finds no such great difference between beast and beast, as he findeth diversity between man and man. He speaketh of the sufficiency of the mind and of internal qualities. [1] Verily, I find Epaminondas so far (taking him as I suppose him) from some that I know (I mean capable of common sense) as I could find in my heart to endear upon Plutarch and say there is more difference between such and such a man than there is diversity between such a man and such a beast.

  Hem vir viro quid præstat!

  O Sir, how much hath one,

  Another man out-gone? [2]

  And that there be so many degrees of spirits as there are steps between heaven and earth, and as innumerable.

  But concerning the estimation of men, it is marvel that, except ourselves, no one thing is esteemed but for its proper qualities. We commend a horse because he is strong and nimble,

  ——volucrem

  Sic laudamus equum, facili cui plurima palma

  Fervet, et exultat rauco victoria circo.

  We praise the horse, that bears most bells with flying,

  And triumphs most in races, hoarse with crying, [3]

  and not for his furniture; [4] a greyhound for his swiftness, not for his collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her cranes [5] or bells. Why do we not likewise esteem a man for that which is his own? He hath a goodly train of men following him, a stately palace to dwell in, so great credit amongst men, and so much rent coming in. Alas, all that is about him and not in him. No man will buy a pig in a poke. If you cheapen a horse, [6] you will take his saddle and clothes from him, you will see him bare and abroad. [7] Or if he be covered, as in old times they wont to present them unto princes to be sold, it is only his least necessary parts, lest you should amuse yourself to consider his colour or breadth of his crupper. [8] But chiefly to view his legs, his head, his eyes, and his foot, which are the most remarkable parts, and above all to be considered and required in him:

  Regibus hic mos est, ubi equos mercantur, opertos

  Inspiciunt, ne si facies, ut sæpe, decora

  Molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat hiantem,

  Quod pulchra clunes, breve quod caput, ardua cervix.

  This is King’s manner, when they horses buy,

  They see them bare, lest if, as oft we try,

  Fair face have soft hoofs, gull’d the buyer be,

  They buttocks round, short head, high crest may see. [9]

  When you will esteem a man, why should you survey him all wrapped and enveloped? He then but showeth us those parts that are no whit his own and hideth those from us, by which alone his worth is to be judged. It is the goodness of the sword you seek after and not the worth of the scabbard; for which peradventure you would not give a farthing, if it want his lining. A man should be judged by himself, and not by his complements. And as an ancient sayeth very pleasantly: Do you know wherefore you esteem him tall? You account the height of his pattins. [10] The base is no part of his stature [11]: measure him without his stilts. Let him lay aside his riches and external honors and show himself in his shirt. [12] Hath he a body proper to his functions, sound and cheerful? What mind hath he? Is it fair, capable, and unpolluted, and happily provided with all her necessary parts? Is she rich of her own, or of others’ goods? Hath fortune nothing of hers to survey therein? If broad-waking, she will look upon a naked sword. If she care not which way her life goeth from her, whether by the mouth or by the throat; whether it be settled, equable, and contented? It is that a man must see and consider and thereby judge the extreme differences that are between us. Is he

  ——sapiens, sibique imperiosus,

  Quem neque pauperies, neque mors neque vincula terrent,

  Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores

  Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus,

  Externi ne quid valeat per læve morari,

  In quem manca ruit semper fortuna?

  A wise man, of himself commander high,

  Whom want, nor death, nor bands can terrify,

  Resolv’d t’affront desires, honors to scorn,

  All in himself, close, round, and neatly-borne,

  As nothing outward on his smooth can stay,

  Gainst whom still fortune makes a lame assay? [13]

  Such a man is five hundred degrees beyond kingdoms and principalities; himself is a kingdom unto himself.

  Sapiens pol ipse fingit fortunam sibi.

  Trust me, who bears a wiseman’s name,

  His fortune to himself may frame. [14]

  What is there else for him to wish for?

  ——nonne videmus

  Nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut quoi

  Corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur,

  Incundo sensu, cura semiotus metuque?

  See we not nature nothing else doth bark

  Unto herself, but he, whose body’s bark [15]

  Is free from pain’s touch, should his mind enjoy,

  Remov’d from care and fear, with sense of joy? [16]

  Compare the vulgar troupes of our men unto him—stupid, base, servile, wavering, and continually floating on the tempestuous ocean of diverse passions which toss and retoss the same, wholly depending on others. There is more difference than is between heaven and earth, and yet such is the blindness of our custom that we make little or no account of it. Whereas if we consider a cottager and a king, a noble and a handy-craftsman, a magistrate and a private man, a rich man and a poor, an extreme disparity doth immediately present it self unto our eyes which, as a man may say, differ in nothing but in their clothes.

  In Thrace the king was after a pleasant manner distinguished from his people, and which was much endeared. He had a religion apart: a god several [17] unto himself whom his subjects might no ways adore. It was Mercury. And he disdained their gods, which were Mars, Bacchus, and Diana.

  Yet are they but pictures which make no essential dissemblance. [18] For, as interlude-players, [19] you shall now see them on the stage play a King, an Emperor, or a Duke, but they are no sooner off the stage, but they are base rascals, vagabond abjects, and porterly-hirelings, [20] which is their natural and original condition. Even so the emperor, whose glorious pomp doth so dazzle you in public—

  Scilicet et grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi

  Auro includuntur, teriturque Thalassina vestis

  Assidué, et Veneris sudorem exercita potat.

  Great emeralds with their grass-green light in gold

  Are clos’d, nor long can marriage-linen hold,

  But worn with use and heat

  Of venery drink’s the sweat. [21]

  —view him behind the curtain, and you see but an ordinary man, and peradventure more vile and more seely [22] than the least of his subjects. Ille beatus introrsum est; istius bracteata felicitas est. One is inwardly happy: another’s felicity is plated and guilt-over. [23] Cowardice, irresolution, ambition, spite, anger, and envy move an
d work in him as in another:

  Non enim gazæ, neque consularis

  Summovet lictor miseres tumultus

  Mentis et curas, laqueata circum

  ——Tecta volantes:

  Nor treasures, nor Maires officers [24] remove

  The miserable tumults of the mind,

  Or cares that lie about, or fly above

  Their high-roof’t houses with huge beams combined. [25]

  And fear, and care, and suspect haunt and follow him, even in the midst of his armed troupes.

  Reveraque metus hominum, curæque sequaces,

  Nec metuunt sonitus armorum, nec fera tela,

  Audacterque inter reges, rerumque potentes

  Versantur, neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro.

  Indeed men’s still-attending cares and fear,

  Nor armors clashing, nor fierce weapons fear,

  With kings converse they boldly, and kings’ peers,

  Fearing no lightning that from gold appears. [26]

  Doth the ague, the megrim, or the gout spare him more than us? [27] When age shall once seize on his shoulders, can then the tall yeomen of his guard discharge him of it? When the terror of ruthless baleful death shall assail him, can he be comforted by the assistance of the gentlemen of his chamber? If he chance to be jealous or capricious, will our lowting-curtzies or putting-off of hats [28] bring him in tune again? His bedstead enchased [29] all with gold and pearls hath no virtue to allay the pinching pangs of the colic.[30]

  Nec calidæ citius decedent corpore febres,

  Textilibus si in picturis ostroque rubenti

  Iacteris, quam si plebeia in veste cubandum est.

  Fevers no sooner from thy body fly

  If thou on arras or red scarlet lie

  Tossing, then if thou rest

  On coverlets home-dressed. [31]

  The flatterers of Alexander [32] the great made him believe that he was the son of Jupiter. But being one day sore-hurt and seeing the blood gush out of his wounds: “And what think you of this?” (said he unto them) “Is not this blood of a lively-red hue and merely human? Methinks it is not of that temper which Homer faineth to trill from the gods’ wounds.” Hermodorus the poet made certain verses in honour of Antigonus, in which he called him the son of Phoebus. To whom he replied, My friend, He that emptieth my close-stool [33] knoweth well there is no such matter.

  He is but a man, at all assays. [34] And if of himself he be a man ill born, the empire of the whole world cannot restore him.

  ——puellæ

  Hunc rapiant, quidquid calcaverit, hic rosa fiat.

  Wenches must ravish him, what ever he

  Shall tread upon, eftsoones [35] a rose must be. [36]

  What of that, if he be of a gross, stupid, and senseless mind? Voluptuousness and good fortune itself are not perceived without vigor, wit, and liveliness.

  Hæc perinde sunt, ut illius animus qui ea possidet,

  Qui uti scit, ei bona, illi qui non utitur recte, mala.

  These things are such, as the possessor’s mind,

  Good, if well us’d; if ill, them ill we find. [37]

  Whatsoever the goods of fortune are, a man must have a proper sense to savour them. It is the enjoying, and not the possessing of them, that makes us happy.

  Non domus et fundus, non æris aceruus et auri,

  Ægroto domini deduxit corpore febres,

  Non animo curas, valeat possessor oportet,

  Qui comportatis rebus bene cogitat uti.

  Qui cupit, aut metuit, iuvat illum sic domus aut res,

  Ut lippum pictæ tabulæ, fomenta podagram.

  Not house and land, and heaps of coin and gold

  Rid agues, which their sick lord’s body hold,

  Or cares from mind: th’owner must be in health,

  That well doth think to use his hoarded wealth.

  Him that desires or fears, house, goods, delight,

  As foments do the gout, pictures sore-sight. [38]

  Be not cask clean, all that you power

  Into the cask, will straight be sour. [39]

  He is a fool, his taste is wallowish and distracted. He enjoyeth it no more than one that hath a great cold doth the sweetness of Greek wine, or a horse the riches of a costly-fair furniture wherewith he is trapped. Even as Plato sayeth, That health, beauty, strength, riches, and all things else he calleth good, are equally as ill to the unjust, as good to the just; and the evil contrariwise. [40]

  And then, where the body and the soul are in ill plight, what need these external commodities, seeing the least prick of a needle and passion of the mind is able to deprive us of the pleasure of the world’s monarchy? The first fit of an ague or the first guird [41] that the gout gives him, what avail his goodly titles of majesty? [42]

  Totus et argento conflatus, totus et auro.

  All made of silver fine,

  All gold pure from the mine. [43]

  Doth he not forthwith lose the remembrance of his palaces and states? If he be angry or vexed, can his principality keep him from blushing, from growing pale, from fretting, or from gnashing his teeth? Now if he be a man of worth and well-born, his royalty and his glorious titles will add but little unto his good fortune.

  Si ventri bene, si lateri est, pedibusque tuis, nil

  Divitiæ poterunt regales addere maius.

  If it be well with belly, feet, and sides,

  A king’s estate, no greater good provides. [44]

  He seeth they are but illusions and vain deceits. He may happily be of King Seleucus his advice: That he who fore-knew the weight of a scepter, should he find it lying on the ground, he would not deign to take it up. This he said, by reason of the weighty, irksome, and painful charges that are incident unto a good king.

  Truly, it is no small in matter to govern others, since so many crosses and difficulties offer themselves, if we will govern ourselves well. Touching commanding of others, which in show seemeth to be so sweet: considering the imbecility of man’s judgment and the difficulty of choice in new and doubtful things, I am confidently of this opinion, that it is much more easy and plausible to follow than to guide, and that it is a great settling of the mind to be tied but to one beaten-path and to answer but for himself.

  Ut satius multo iam sit, parere quietum,

  Quam regere imperio res velle.

  Much better t’is, in quiet to obey,

  Then to desire with king’s-power all to sway. [45]

  Seeing Cyrus said, That it belongs not to a man to command that is not of more worth than those whom he commandeth. But King Hieron [46] in Xenophon addeth, moreover, That in truly enjoying of carnal sensualities, they [47] are of much worse condition than private men. Forasmuch as ease and facility depriveth them of that sour-sweet tickling which we find in them.

  Pinguis amor nimiumque potens, in tædia nobis,

  Vertitur, et stomacho dulcis ut esca nocet.

  Fat over powerful love doth loathsome grow,

  As fulsome sweet-meats stomachs overthrow. [48]

  Think we that high-minded men [49] take great pleasure in music? The satiety thereof makes it rather tedious unto them. Feasts, banquets, revels, dancings, masques, and tourneys rejoice them that but seldom see them and that have much desired to see them; the taste of which becometh cloysome and unpleasing to those that daily see and ordinarily have them. Nor do ladies tickle those that at pleasure and without suspect may be glutted with them. He that cannot stay till he be thirsty can take no pleasure in drinking. Interludes and comedies rejoice and make us merry, but to players they are tedious and tasteless. [50] Which to prove, we see, it is a delight for princes, and a recreation for them, sometimes to disguise themselves and to take upon them a base and popular kind of life. [51]

  Plerumque gratæ principibus vices,

  Mundæque parvo sub lare pauperum

  Cænæ sine aulæis et ostro,

  Sollicitam explicuere frontem.

  Princes do commonly like interchange,

&n
bsp; And cleanly meals where poor-men poorly house,

  Without all tapestry or carpets strange,

  Unwrinkled have their care-knit, thought-bent brows. [52]

  Nothing doth sooner breed a distaste or satiety than plenty. What longing-lust would not be allayed to see three hundred women at his dispose and pleasure, as hath the Grand Turk in his seraille? [53] And what a desire and show of hawking had he reserved to himself from his ancestors that never went abroad without seven thousand falkners [54] at least? Besides which, I think, the luster of greatness brings no small incommodities to the enjoying of sweeter pleasures: They lie too open, and are too much in sight.

  And I wot not why a man should longer desire them to conceal or hide their fault. For what in us is indiscretion, the people judgeth to be tyranny, contempt, and disdain of the laws in them. And besides the ready inclination unto vice, it seemeth they also add unto it the pleasure of gourmandizing and to prostrate public observances under their feet. Verily, Plato in his Gorgias defineth him to be a tyrant that in a city hath leave and power to do whatever he list. [55] And therefore often the show and publication of their vice hurteth more than the sin itself. Every man feareth to be spied and controlled, which they are even in their countenances and thoughts, all the people esteeming to have right and interest to judge of them. And we see that blemishes grow either lesser or bigger, according to the eminence and light of the place where they are set, and that a mole or a wart in one’s forehead is more apparently perceived than a scar in another place.

  And that is the reason why poets feign Jupiter’s loves to have been affected under other countenances than his own. And of so many amorous-shifts and love-practices they impute to him, there is but one (as far as I remember) where he is to be seen in his greatness and majesty.