tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post9094860038972702211..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: Loving MontaigneAnastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-59345550867861199972010-02-02T15:32:09.422-08:002010-02-02T15:32:09.422-08:00He knows the man, the essence of the man. It real...He knows the man, the essence of the man. It really does take a poet to beat to the heart of the matter with a beautiful economy of words. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-42232090230956365922010-02-02T08:32:33.473-08:002010-02-02T08:32:33.473-08:00MONTAIGNE. By W. H. Auden.
Outside his library w...<b>MONTAIGNE. By W. H. Auden.</b><br /><br /><i>Outside his library window he could see<br />A gentle landscape terrified of grammar,<br />Cities where lisping was compulsory,<br />And provinces where it was death to stammer.<br /><br />The hefty sprawled, too tired to care: it took<br />This donnish undersexed conservative<br />To start a revolution and to give<br />The Flesh its weapons to defeat the Book.<br /><br />When devils drive the reasonable wild,<br />They strip their adult century so bare,<br />Love must be re-grown from the sensual child,<br /><br />To doubt becomes a way of definition,<br />Even belles lettres legitimate as prayer,<br />And laziness a movement of contrition.</i>Rehan Qayoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02391797858691917631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-30989165768318578392010-01-26T16:09:52.863-08:002010-01-26T16:09:52.863-08:00It's an old copy of a 1950s translation that I...It's an old copy of a 1950s translation that I have, Allectus, I forget by whom. Mention is made of Florio in the introduction and the imperfections of Florio. I shall look out a copy in the college library notwithstanding.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-56404467904422999412010-01-26T07:00:59.059-08:002010-01-26T07:00:59.059-08:00Montaigne has been a favourite of mine since I cha...Montaigne has been a favourite of mine since I chanced upon an old edition of his 'Essays' some twenty-five years' ago. I had originally intended only to sample one or two, but ended up reading them all. However, I much prefer the ornate and vivid Elizabethan English of John Florio's translation, which would have been available to Shakespeare and Jonson, to blander, if technically more accurate, modern versions. Montaigne's discursive and expansive style contrasts nicely with the terse and concise prose of Francis Bacon, whose own 'Essays' are another great masterpiece of the period.Allectushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02724166678032002731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-44392377055123496102010-01-25T16:43:33.319-08:002010-01-25T16:43:33.319-08:00Yes, thanks, Greg. Sorry, I miised your comment i...Yes, thanks, Greg. Sorry, I miised your comment initially because the email landed in my junk box for some reason.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-80989995570527604142010-01-25T16:16:54.851-08:002010-01-25T16:16:54.851-08:00And all true, Jamie. :-)And all true, Jamie. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-52827914838294348822010-01-25T16:10:21.753-08:002010-01-25T16:10:21.753-08:00A man after my own heart, Ana. I like his refusal...A man after my own heart, Ana. I like his refusal to be a 'student' of what he reads and hears. He keeps his mind subtle by allowing his knowledge to take on its own life in his mind. No dogmatism for him, or at least no air of dogmatic finality in his opinions. The epitome of a good essayist, a good generator of ideas. Well, that's if I have read him right from your summary. :)JMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05770347372942866924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-84580938674228211252010-01-25T16:05:21.332-08:002010-01-25T16:05:21.332-08:00A good recommendation!
He was very influential an...A good recommendation!<br /><br />He was very influential and used, of course, by Shakespeare who plundered anything that was good and made it his own.<br /><br />I think we can all adopt that final sentence you quote and resolve to write as well as we read.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11726139484953008689noreply@blogger.com