Fionnuala’s Reviews > Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection > Status Update

Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 46 of 481
On Friendship:Those (others)we call friends are but acquaintancestiedtogether by someoccasion. In the amity I speak of, (M's friendship with Etienne La Boétie) they intermix themselves one in the other with so universal a commixture that they can no more find the seam that conjoined themtogether. If (asked)wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself.
Jul 30, 2023 05:11AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)

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Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 192 of 481
John Florio has a neat way of translating the Latin phrases with which Michel de Montaigne sprinkles his essays:
...Ipsa felicitas, se nisi temperat, premit.
Felicity itself, unless it tempers itself, distempers us.

That's from an essay caller 'We Taste Nothing Purely' and this line, Excessive joy hath more severity than jollity reminded me of William Blake's 'Proverbs of Hell: Excessive joy weeps
Mar 09, 2024 02:47AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)


Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 167 of 481
The senses are the beginning and end of human knowledge.
Invenies primis ab sensibus esse creatam
Notitiam veri, neque sensus posse refelli,
Quid maiore fide porro, quad sensus haberi
Debet? (Lucretius)
You shall find knowledge of the truth at first was bred
From our first senses, nor can senses be misled.
What, then our senses should
With us more credit hold?
(I'm enjoying John Florio's Latin translations a lot)
Jan 14, 2024 02:37AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)


Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 144 of 481
E'l silentio an or suole
Haver prieghi e parole (Tacitus)

Silence also hath a way,
Words and prayers to convey (Florio)

His quidam signis atque haec exempla sequuti,
Esse apibus partem divinae mentis et haustus
Aethereas dixere (Virgil)

Some by these signs, by these examples moved,
Said that in bees there is and may be proved
Some taste of heav'nly kind,
Part of celestial mind. (Florio)
Jan 13, 2024 07:12AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)


Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 89 of 481
Si l’espine nou pique quand nai
A peine que pique jamai
A thorn, unless at first it prick
Will hardly ever pierce to the'quick
Ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus ævi
Corpus, et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus,
Claudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque mensque
When once the body by shrewd strength of years
Is shak't, and limbs drawn-down from strength that wears
Wit halts, both tongue and mind
Do daily dote, we find
Nov 09, 2023 06:07AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)


Fionnuala
Fionnuala is on page 59 of 481
Of the Cannibals: I find (as far as I have been informed) there is nothing in that nation that is either barbarous or savage, unless men call that barbarism which is not common to them. As, indeed, we have no other aim of truth and reason than the example and 'idea' of the opinions and customs of the country we live in. Where is ever perfect religion, perfect policy, perfect and complete use of all things..
Aug 13, 2023 08:58AM
Shakespeare's Montaigne: The Florio Translation of the Essays, A Selection (New York Review Books Classics)


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message 1: by Fionnuala (last edited Jul 30, 2023 05:36AM) (new) - added it

Fionnuala P 53: I was so accustomed to be ever two, and so inured to be never single, that me thinks I am but half myself.


message 2: by carol. (new)

carol. Ah, the origin of that "because it was him, because it was me" quote!? Lovely.


message 3: by Fionnuala (new) - added it

Fionnuala carol. wrote: "Ah, the origin of that "because it was him, because it was me" quote!? Lovely."

I didn't know that quote, Carol, but I was very moved when I read it.


message 4: by carol. (last edited Aug 26, 2023 02:48PM) (new)

carol. I think I heard it originally in French, which was even more poetic 😊


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