On Friendship and XXIX Sonnets/Montaigne's Address to Madame de Grammont, Countess of Guissen, dedicating La Boetie's Sonnets
XXIX SONNETS
By Estienne de La Boetie
To
Madame De Grammont
Countess of Guissen
ADAME, I HERE OFFER you nothing of my own, either because it is already yours, or because I find nothing there worthy of you; but I could wish that these verses, wheresoever they might be seen, should bear your name in front, for the honour it will be to them to have as a guide the great Corisande d'Andoins. This gift seems to me fitting for you, because there are few ladies in France who have better judgement, and who make a more apt use of poetry; and besides, because there are none who can render it alive and lively as you do by those beautiful, rich harmonies, wherewith, in addition to a million beauties, nature has endowed you Madame,
these verses merit your cherishing; for
you will be of my opinion that there have come
none out of Gascony having more ingenuity
and charm, or testifying to have issued from a
fuller hand. And do not grow jealous because
you have but those remaining after what I erstwhile
printed under the name of Monsieur de
Foix, your good kinsman: for really these exhibit
a something, I know not what, more lively
and sparkling; for he made them in his
youth and warmed by a fair and noble ardour,
which I will tell you about, madame, one of
these days, in your ear. The others were made
later, when he was in pursuit of his marriage, in
honour of his wife, and when he already felt I
know not what marital coolness. And I am one
of those who hold that poetry is never elsewhere
so smiling as it is on a wanton and irregular
theme.