Friendship and Voluntary Servitude: Plato, Ficino, and Montaigne

摘要: It is a well-known fact that in the original conception of his Essais, Montaigne had intended to organize first book around what he considered Etienne de la Boetie's most important work, Discours servitude volontaire, also called Le Contr'un. As early as 1574, while working on chapter "De l'amitie" [Of Friendship], decided honor memory friend by placing La short treatise at "center" "le plus bel endroit" [the best place] volume.2 Around this "riche peinture" [rich picture], declared, own writings would be but graceless, strange grotesques (183a).3 If later not publish friend's collection essays, it was, himself remarked, for political reasons.4 attack tyranny since been used Huguenots their propaganda against royal family. become dangerous writer refer treatise, and even more so give conspicuous place within work:5