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Remembering Lucretius: Memory and Identity in Montaigne’S Essais

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Remembering Lucretius: Memory and Identity in Montaigne’S Essais Remembering Lucretius: Memory and Identity in Montaigne’s Essais Alex Gray School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Royal Holloway, University of London 2017 Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Alex Gray, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signed __________________________________________________ Date ____________________________________________________ 2 Abstract The handwritten comments on Montaigne’s copy of Lucretius’s De rerum natura provide a unique insight into Montaigne’s own thinking on memory, identity and the self. Montaigne finds in Lucretius’s discussion of memory a stability that resists the perpetual flux that typifies Lucretius’s atomist conception of the world. Through a close analysis of Montaigne’s interaction with Lucretius, I examine how Montaigne engages with Lucretius’s discussion of memory and develops his own understanding of memory as the foundation for identity in the Essais. The first chapter analyses Renaissance editions of De rerum natura and how the Lambin commentary edition provides Montaigne with a foundation on which to build his interaction with Lucretius’s theories of memory and the self. The second chapter explores how Montaigne’s reading notes on De rerum natura engage with the possibility of memory securing the thread of identity. The third chapter identifies how Montaigne’s understanding of memory in the Essais is influenced by Lucretius’s own metaphors of memory – particularly those of the storehouse and the tool, which ensure the preservation and the processing of experiences to establish a stable identity. Whilst Montaigne generally considers memory to provide a foundation for identity, his amnesia after his riding accident challenges Montaigne’s position and forces him to question the threats to memory and how to protect against them. The fourth chapter of this study analyses Montaigne’s response to his accident and explores how writing allows him to process the trauma of his experience and to preserve his memories in an external form. These reflections on individual memory and forgetting provide the backdrop for my final chapter, which explores the importance of the recording and preservation of history in order to maintain and project a sense of enduring collective memory and national identity – ideas that underlie the memorial project of the Essais as a whole. 3 Acknowledgements My doctoral research and the writing of this thesis have been both incredibly challenging and rewarding, and I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped and supported me during this time. First, I would like to thank my supervisors, Joe Harris and Emily Butterworth for their incredible knowledge and encouragement. Their advice, support and guidance was invaluable every chapter of the way. I would also like to thank Eric Robertson for his kindness and support. To my examiners, Richard Scholar and Isabelle Moreau, thank you for your guidance and advice. I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my family and friends. I would like to thank my mother and father who have constantly encouraged me and have supported me tirelessly every step of the way. I cannot possibly thank them enough for everything that they have done. I would also like to thank Caroline, Nate, Benjamin and Ethan for their constant support, encouragement and laughter; your family has been a light throughout this process. To Sophie, thank you for being there for me through all the highs and lows of researching, writing, editing and re-editing; you have been my rock over these years. I would also like to thank Alfie for being there for every step of this difficult journey. Finally, I would like to thank my nan, Pamela Beasley, who supported me in so many ways and always put me first. This thesis is dedicated to you and I could never thank you enough for everything. 4 Table of Contents Remembering Lucretius: Memory and Identity in Montaigne’s Essais .................................. 1 Declaration of Authorship ....................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter One ............................................................................................................................ 20 Lucretius’s De rerum natura in the sixteenth century: A prism of reading ........................... 20 Reception of Lucretius and De rerum natura in the first half of the sixteenth century ...... 21 Lambin’s commentary: a turning point? ............................................................................. 42 Conclusion ....................................................... ................................................................... 60 Chapter Two ......................................................... ................................................................ 64 Montaigne’s notes on memory and identity in his copy of De rerum natura ......................... 64 Introduction..................................................................... .................................................... 64 Montaigne’s annotations on De rerum natura .................................................................... 65 Reading ‘Repetentia’, ‘retinentia’ and memory in De rerum natura .................................. 68 Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 94 Chapter Three.......................................................................................................................... 96 5 Models and metaphors of memory in Montaigne’s Essais .................................................... 96 Interpretations of memory.................................................................................................... 96 Memory as a container, memory as tool............................................................................ 103 Memory and education....................................................................................................... 117 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................... 134 Chapter Four.......................................................................................................................... 135 Montaigne’s Accident: The importance of a lost memory.................................................... 135 Learning from a unique experience.................................................................................... 135 Montaigne’s accident: a site of trauma............................................................................... 141 An evolving response to the accident................................................................................. 178 Fig. 1.a The sculpture of René d’Orange by Ligier Richier .............................................. 188 Conclusion...................................................... ................................................................... 189 Chapter 5............................................................................................................................... 191 The Preservation, Protection and Projection of Collective Memory ................................... 191 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 191 Thinking collective memory through a Lucretian lens .................................................... 194 Montaigne and memory writing ....................................................................................... 210 The ‘Memory Clauses’: ‘Bracketing off’ the past ............................................................. 230 Remembering the Wars of Religion in the Essais ............................................................. 240 6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 256 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 259 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 266 Primary Sources ................................................................................................................ 266 General Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 266 7 Introduction ‘Perlege totum librum, nil est elegantius | de uitæ contemptu’ (Read the entire book through. Nothing is more exquisite | on contempt for life) reads a handwritten note on after flyleaf ‘n’ of Montaigne’s own copy of Lucretius’s poem De rerum natura.1 Montaigne wrote this note to remind himself to re-read Book III of Lucretius’s work, in which the Latin author discusses discusses the mortality of the soul, the fear
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