Montaigne did not very long survive the completion of his book. On his way to Paris for the purpose of getting it printed he stayed for some time at Blois, where he met De Thou. In Paris itself he was for a short time committed to the Bastille by the Leaguers, as a kind of hostage, it is said, for a member of their party who had been arrested at Rouen by Henry of Navarre. But he was well known to and favoured by both Catherine de' Medici and the Guises, and was very soon released. In Paris, too, at this time he made a whimsical but pleasant friendship with Marie de Jars de Gournay (1565-1645), one of the most learned ladies of the i6th and 17th centuries, who became his "fille d'alliance" (adopted daughter), a title which she bore for the rest of her long life. When Henry of Navarre came to the throne of France, he wished Montaigne, whom he had visited in 1584 and 1587, to come to court, but this was refused. It would seem that he returned from Paris to his old life of study and medita tion and working up his Essays. No new ones were found after his death, but many alterations and insertions. He was attacked with quinsy, which brought about paralysis of the tongue, and he died on Sept. 13, 1592. He was buried, though not till some months after his death, in a church in Bordeaux, which after some vicissitudes became the chapel of the college.
When Mlle. de Gournay heard of the death of Montaigne she undertook with her mother a visit of ceremony and condolence to the widow, which had important results for literature. Mme. de Montaigne gave her a copy of the edition of 1588 annotated copiously ; at the same time, apparently, she bestowed another copy, also annotated by the author, on the convent of the Feuillants in Bordeaux, to which the church in which his remains lay was attached. Mlle. de Gournay thereupon set to work to produce a new and final edition with a zeal and energy which would have done credit to any editor of any date. She herself worked with her own copy, inserting the additions, marking the alterations and translating all the quota tions. But when she had got this to press she sent the proofs to Bordeaux, where a poet of some note, Pierre de Brach, revised them with the other annotated copy. The edition thus produced in 1595 has with justice passed as the standard, even in preference to those which appeared in the author's lifetime.
Unluckily, Mlle. de Gournay's original does not appear to exist and her text was said, until the appearance of MM. Courbet and Royer's edition, to have been somewhat wantonly corrupted, especially in the important point of spelling. The Feuillants copy is in exist ence, being the only manuscript, or partly manuscript, authority for the text. This manuscript was edited in 1803 by Naigeon, the disciple of Diderot ; but, according to later inquiries, considerable liberties were taken with it. The first edition of 1580, with the various readings of two others which appeared during the author's of infinitely greater importance. Garrulous after a fashion as Montaigne is, he gives us no clear idea of any original or definite impulse leading him to write the famous Essays. It is very
probable that if they were at first intended to have any special form at all it was that of a table-book or journal. The earlier essays, those of the first two books, differ from the later in one most striking point, in that of length. Speaking generally, the essays of the third book average fully four times the length of those of the other two. This of itself would suggest a difference in the system of composition. These first two books appeared in 158o, when their author was 47 years old.
They contain, as at present published, no fewer than ninety three essays, besides an exceedingly long apology for the already mentioned Raymund Sabunde, in which some have seen the kernel of Montaigne's philosophy. The book begins with a short avis (address to the reader), opening with the well-known words, "C'est icy un livre de bon foy, lecteur," and sketching in a few lively sentences the character of meditative egotism which is kept up throughout. His sole object, he says, is to leave for his friends and relations a mental portrait of himself, defects and all; he cares neither for utility nor for fame. The essays then begin, without any attempt to explain or classify their subjects. Their titles are of the most diverse character. Sometimes they are pro verbial sayings or moral adages, such as "Par divers moyens on arrive a pareille fin," "Qu'il ne faut juger de notre heur qu'apres la mort," "Le profit de l'on est le dommage de l'aultre." Some times they are headed like the chapters of a treatise on ethics: "De la tristesse," "De Foisivete," "De la peur," "De l'amitie." Sometimes a fact of some sort which has awaked a train of asso ciations in the mind of the writer serves as a title, such as "On est puni de s'opiniastrer a une place sans raison," "De la bataille de Dreux," etc. Occasionally the titles seem to be deliberately fantastic, as "Des puces," "De l'usage de se vestir." Sometimes, though not very often, the sections are in no proper sense essays, but merely commonplace book entries of singular facts or quota tions, with hardly any comment.
In 1571 he had received the order of Saint-Michel; in 1574 was with the army of the duke de Montpensier ; two years later was made gentleman-in-ordinary to Henry III., and next year again to Henry of Navarre. He visited Paris occasionally, and travelled for health or pleasure to Cauterets, Eaux Chaudes and elsewhere. But his health grew worse and worse, and he was tormented by stone and gravel. He accordingly resolved to journey to the baths of Lucca. Late in the 18th century a journal found in the château of Montaigne, giving an account of this journey, was published in ; part of it is written in Italian and part dic tated in French, the latter being for the most part the work of a secretary or servant. The ms. disappeared early, and the work is almost destitute of literary interest. At Rome he received news of his election as mayor of Bordeaux with a peremptory royal en dorsement enjoining residence, and after some time journeyed homewards.