attempting to solve the problem, the constant aim has been to assist the reader.
In making additions to his text from one edition to another, Montaigne very often failed to fit them into place by the use of apt transitional words, so that the reader is often confused by the introduction of an apparently irrelevant passage, followed without warning by an abrupt recurrence to the line of thought interrupted by the interpolation. To avoid this disadvantage, the system has been adopted of indicating the different texts by the use of the letters (a), (b), and (c): (a) means that what follows is found in the edition of 1580; (b), an addition of 1588 in the first two books, or, in the case of the third book, the original text; and (c), an addition of 1595, that is to say, of the Édition Municipale. There are so few of the Essays (only five or six) which begin with an addition, that it may be assumed that the opening sentences are as they appeared in the first edition unless there is a note to the contrary.
The foot-notes are of four classes. (1) Translations of the passages quoted by Montaigne, chiefly from the Latin. These are entirely new and have been made specially for this edition. The attempt has been made to fit them into the context, in accordance with Montaigne’s manifest purpose. “It is worth while,” says Miss Norton, “to give this hint to the reader with regard to Montaigne’s quotations from the ancient poets. They are always as accurate as is needful, but not infrequently the essayist makes such use of them as disguises or even alters their original significance. He expresses by the words of another his own different thought. Those who trace these quotations to their source find an unlooked-for pleasure in discovering the skill with which Montaigne adorned his pages with them, in accordance with the fashion of the time. He repeatedly takes notice himself of the multitude of his quotations, sometimes with open satisfaction in their noble birth and in their interpretive nature, sometimes with amused recognition of their easy multiplication.”
