How The Complete Essays drew on The Aeneid
A documented line of influence: Michel de Montaigne demonstrably engaged Virgil’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Aeneid
Virgil · 19 BCE
Ancient RomeThe influenced
The Complete Essays
Michel de Montaigne · 1580
RenaissanceRelevance
7/10
On The Complete Essays’s page
- The Essays are studded with the Aeneid — Montaigne quotes Virgil more than almost any other author and devotes a whole essay to weighing his verses
- In 'On Books' he places Virgil among the four poets who 'by many degrees excel the rest' and judges Aeneid Book 5 'the most perfect' poetry
- Reading the epic first lets you catch the lines Montaigne is reaching for — and see a great prose mind treating Virgil as both ornament and argument
On The Aeneid’s page
- Montaigne's favorite poet — in 'On Books' he ranks Virgil among the four who 'by many degrees excel the rest'
- He calls Book 5 of the Aeneid 'the most perfect' and quotes the poem more than almost any other text in the Essays, mining it for both verse and philosophy
- Read the Aeneid and you carry the lines Montaigne kept returning to