PREFACE. THE first English translation of the Essays of Montaigne was executed by John Florio, Italian and French tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I., and is entitled: "The Essaies, or Morall, Politike, and Militarie Discourses of Lord Michael de Montaigne, Knight of the Noble Order of St. Michael, &c." It was first published in 1603, and was reprinted in 1613, and again in 1632. The form is a single volume folio, and it is dedicated—" To the most Royal and Renowned Majestie of the High-borne Princess Anna of Denmark, by the grace of God, Queene of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, &c." The Essays are prefaced by a copy of verses, in Italian, addressed to the same princess; a preface to the reader, and some complimentary verses to "his deare brother and friende, Mr. John Florio," from "Samuel Daniel, one of the Gentlemen Extraordinary of her Majestie's most Royal Privie Chamber." There is also an engraved title-page, of the most ornate description. The translation by Charles Cotton appeared somewhere about the year 1680, but I have not been able to ascertain the exact date. It is dedicated in the following terms: To the Right Honourable GEORGE, Marquiss, Earl, and Viscount Halifax, Baron of Eland, Lord Privy Seal, and one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council. 66 My Lord,-If I have set down the only opportunity I ever had of kissing your lordship's hands amongst the happy encounters of my life, and take this occasion, so many years after, to tell you so, your lordship will not, I hope, think yourself injured by such a declaration from a man that honours you; nor condemn my ambition, when I publish to the world that I am not altogether unknown to you. Your lordship, peradventure, may have forgot a conversation so little worthy your remembrance: but the memory of your lordship's obliging fashion to me all that time, can never die with me; and though my acknowledgment arrives thus late at you, I have never left it at home when I went abroad into the best company. My lord, I cannot, I would not flatter you, I do not think your lordship capable of being flattered, neither am I inclined to do it to those that are; but I cannot forbear to say that I then received such an impression of your virtue and noble nature, as will stay with me for ever. This will either excuse the liberty I presume to take in this dedication, or, at least, make it no wonder; and I am so confident in your lordship's generosity that I assure myself you will not deny your protection to a man whose greatest public crime is that of an ill writer. A better book (if there be a better of the kind—in the original I mean) had been a present more fitly suited to your lordship's quality and merit, and to my devotion. I could hardly wish it such: but as it is, I lay it at your lordship's feet, together with, my lord, your lordship's most humble and most obedient servant, "CHARLES COTTON." Ο PREFACE. The dedication is followed by this letter from Lord Halifax :— "This for CHARLES COTTON, Esq., at his House at Berisford.-To be left at Ashburne in Derbyshire. "Sir, I have too long delayed my thanks to you for giving me such an obliging evidence of your remembrance: that alone would have been a welcome present, but when joined with the book in the world I am the best entertained with, it raiseth a strong desire in me to be better known, where I am sure to be so much pleased. I have till now thought wit could not be translated, and do still retain so much of that opinion, that I believe it impossible, except by one whose genius cometh up to that of the author. You have the original strength of his thought, that it almost tempts a man to believe the transmigration of souls, and that his, being used to hills, is come into the moor-lands, to reward us here in England, for doing him more right than his country will afford him. He hath, by your means, mended his first edition. To transplant and make him ours is not only a valuable acquisition to us, but a just censure of the critical impertinence of those French scribblers who have taken pains to make little cavils and exceptions to lessen the reputation of this great man, whom nature hath made too big to confine him to the exactness of a studied style. He let his mind have its full flight, and sheweth, by a generous kind of negligence, that he did not write for praise, but to give the world a true picture of himself and of mankind. He scorned affected periods, or to please the mistaken reader with an empty chime of words. He hath no affection to set himself out, and dependeth wholly upon the natural force of what is his own, and the excellent application of what he borroweth. "You see, sir, I have kindness enough for Monsieur de Montaigne to be your rival; but nobody can now pretend to be in equal competition with you: I do willingly yield it is no small matter for a man to do to a more prosperous lover; and if you will repay this piece of justice with another, pray believe that he who can translate such an author without doing him wrong, must not only make me glad but proud of being his very humble servant, Mr. Cotton prefaces his translation in the following terms: "HALIFAX." "My design in attempting this translation was to present my country with a true copy of a very brave original. How far I have succeeded in that design, is left to every one to judge; and I expect to be the more gently censured, for having myself so modest an opinion of my own performance, as to confess that the author has suffered by me as well as the former translator; though I hope, and dare affirm, the misinterpretations I shall be found guilty of are neither so numerous nor so gross. I cannot discern my own errors; it were unpardonable in me if I could, and did not mend them; but I can see his (except when we are both mistaken), and those I have corrected; but I am not so ill-natured as to shew where. In truth, both Mr. Florio and I are to be excused, where we miss the sense of the author, whose language is such, in many places, as grammar cannot reconcile, which renders it the hardest book to make a justifiable version of that I ever yet saw in that or any other language I understand; insomuch that, though I do think, and am pretty confident, I understand French as well as any man, I have yet sometimes been forced to grope at his meaning. Peradventure, the greatest critic would, in some place, have found my author abstruse enough. Yet are not these mistakes I speak of either so many, or of so great importance, as to cast any scandalous blemish upon the book, but such as few readers can discover, and they that do will, I hope, easily excuse. "The errors of the press I must in part take upon myself, living at so remote a distance from it, and supplying it with a slubbered copy from an illiterate amanuensis, the last of which is provided against in the quires that must succeed." With reference to this translation, the editor of a later edition remarks :— "Mr. Cotton has, indeed, succeeded to a miracle in his translation of so celebrated a piece, and we are thoroughly persuaded that very few Frenchmen now living, were they to undertake the |