MONTAIGNE REINVENTS PLATO'S 'LAWS': DIALECTICAL IMITATION IN THE 'ESSAIS'

As a humanist writer of the Renaissance, Michel de Montaigne sought to incorporate the writings of his Ancient predecessors in his own writing. While the influence of the Platonic Dialogues upon the French writers of the Renaissance is considered a commonplace in 16th-century scholarship, no one had studied closely the way in which the Platonic dialogues, and specifically the Laws, function in the Essais of Montaigne.;Borrowing a term from Thomas Greene's work, The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry, I attempt to define Montaigne's particular brand of dialectical imitation in the Essais and the degree to which he reinvents the Platonic texts in an effort to enrich and embolden his own writings. I have applied the term "reinvention" to Montaigne's process of literary imitation in the Essais because to circumscribe the creative act within the bounds of merely "recovering" an ancient text or "inventing" a new one does not fully describe what occurs when Montaigne incorporates a passage from the Platonic dialogues in his own text. What actually occurs, at least in the case of Plato's Laws, is a reinvention or refashioning of the Platonic text in such a way that we can discover in Montaigne's text not only what he thinks about a particular subject, but what his predecessor thought as well. Even more arresting is Montaigne's craft as a writer, which slowly but surely reveals itself as we examine a passage from the Essais in the light of a relevant passage from the Laws.;This dissertation, "Montaigne Reinvents Plato's Laws: Dialectical Imitation in the Essais," explores the extent to which Montaigne relied upon Plato's Laws when composing the Essais, concentrating on five essays where the Platonic text functions as a subtext: "Que le goust des biens et des maux depend en bonne partie de l'opinion que nous en avons" (I: 14), "De la coustume et de ne changer aisement une loy receue" (I: 23), "De l'institution des enfants" (I: 26), "Apologie de Raimond Sebond" (II: 12), and "De l'experience" (III: 13).