The Essays of Montaigne/Book I/Chapter XXVIII

by Michel de Montaigne

Chapter XXVIII. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie.

TO MADAME DE GRAMMONT, COMTESSE DE GUISSEN.

     [They scarce contain anything but amorous complaints, expressed in a
     very rough style, discovering the follies and outrages of a restless
     passion, overgorged, as it were, with jealousies, fears and
     suspicions.--Coste.]

     [These....contained in the edition of 1588 nine-and-twenty sonnets
     of La Boetie, accompanied by a dedicatory epistle to Madame de
     Grammont. The former, which are referred to at the end of Chap.
     XXVIL, do not really belong to the book, and are of very slight
     interest at this time; the epistle is transferred to the
     Correspondence. The sonnets, with the letter, were presumably sent
     some time after Letters V. et seq. Montaigne seems to have had
     several copies written out to forward to friends or acquaintances.]