280 



MONTAGU 



MONTAIGNE 



nn enthusiastic follower of William III., fighting 

 with him at the battle of the lioyne, and taking 

 pan in the siege of Limerick ; he" was eventually 

 created Duke of Manchester in 1719 by George I. 

 His descendant, the eighth duke, succeeded in 

 1VIO. The sixth son of Edward of ISonghton was 

 Sir Sydney Montagu, whose son, Edward, was a 

 MMMMfMH niiitlieinatician, and serving tii>t in 

 the army, then in the navy, liecnine the first sole 

 commander of the English navy, and was created 

 hy Charles II. Lord Montagu of St Neoi-, Viscount 

 Hiiicliinhruke, and Earl of Sandwich. His descend- 

 ant, the eighth earl, succeeded in 1884. 



II out ami. LADY MARY WORTLEY, born about 

 1(190 at Thoreshy, Nottinghamshire, was the eldest 

 daughter of Evelyn Pierre]>ont, Earl (afterwards 

 Duke) of Kingston. She was a clever, attractive 

 child, the pride and delight of her father, who, hav- 

 ing lost his wife in lii'.U. and continuing a widower, 

 introduced Ids daughter to society, and made her 

 preside at his table at a very early age. When she 

 was only eight years old he introduced her to 

 the famous Kit-Cut Club, and she was formally ad- 

 mitted a member. In 1712 she married, without 

 the consent of her father, Edward \Vortley Mon- 

 'agu, eldest son of the Hon. Sydney Montagu, and 

 grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich. For more 

 than three years after her marriage she lived at 

 Wharncliffe Lodge, near Sheffield, where her son 

 was Iwrn, her hiisluind during this time Ix-ing kept 

 principally in London by his parliamentary duties. 

 ( In the accession of George I. Mi Montagu obtained 

 a seat at the Treasury Hoard, and from this time 

 Lady Mary lived in London, where she gained a 

 brilliant reputation hy her wit and beauty, and was 

 on terms of intimate friendship with Addison and 

 Pope, and other literary men of the day. In 1716 

 Mr Montagu was appointed ambassador to the 

 Porto, and in August of that year he set out for 

 Constantinople, accompanied by his wife. They 

 remained abroad till 1718, and during this time 

 Lady Mary wrote the well-known Letters to her 

 sister, the Countess of Mar, Pope, and other friends. 

 The Letters give a true description of Eastern 

 life and manners, and are written in a clear, lively 

 style, sparkling with wit and humour. While 

 in Turkey she witnessed Inoculation (q.v.), and 

 introduced it into England on her return, having so 

 much faith in its safety that she tried it first on 

 her own son. The next twenty years of her life she 

 passed in England, and fixed hei -abode at Twicken- 

 ham, where she renewed her intimacy with Pope, 

 and then quarrelled with him, the immediate 

 cause of the quarrel leing the publication by 

 Lady Mary of six satirical sketches entitled Town 

 Ki-lotjues. In I7't!l, for reasons which are not well 

 known, she left England and her husband, from 

 whom, however, she parted on very good terms, 

 though they never met again. She lived in Italy, 

 first nn the shores of the Lake of Iseo, and after 

 wards at Venice till 1761, when, at the request of 

 her daughter, the Countess of Itnte, she returned 

 to England. She died August 21, 1762. A col- 

 lected edition of her works, with Life, was pub- 

 lished by her great-grandson, Lord Wharnclifle (3 

 vnls. 1837; 3d ed. 1887). 



Montague, CIIAKI.K-*. See HALIFAX ( LORD). 



Montaigne. MICIIKI. EV^CKM \>K, was the 

 third son of I'iene Eyi|Uem. Sciyneur de Mon- 

 taigne. Hew-as iMirn in 1.133 on the family estate 

 in Perigord. His father had ideas of his own on 

 the subject of education, and his third son was to 

 have the full Ix-nelit of them. The first novel step 

 was the putting of Michel out to nurse in a 

 village on the estate, that he might lie early 

 inured to simple habits of living, ami learn to 

 sympathise with the lot of the poor. Whether or 



not the result of this early association, it is the 

 fact that in his after life Montaigne always spoke 

 of his poorer neighhonrs with a respect and kindli- 

 ness ot tone remarkable in the age and class to 

 which he lielonged. It was the received opinion at 

 the period of Montaigne's childhood that no boy 

 could grow into a creditable citi/.en wit limit a 

 severity of discipline which would now Ix; called 

 brutal terrorism. It was the distinctive feature 

 of Pierre de Montaigne's s\stem. however, that 

 lioyhood should In- made as happy as parents and 

 teachers could make it, and in the upbringing of 

 his famous son he was even whimsically humane. 

 Every morning he had the lx>y awaked by the 

 sound of some musical instrument, WHUSC he hail 

 heard ' that it distnrlis the tender brain of children 

 to awake them suddenly.' As he wished to make 

 his son a scholar, ami Latin was, therefore, an 

 indisjiensable aci|iiisition, he had the idea of con- 

 verting a task into a natural pleasure. Till the 

 age of six the lioy was taught to speak no language 

 hut Latin, his tutor (a German), his parents, and 

 even the domestics addressing him in that language. 

 The result was that in the <-<>n\ crsational command 

 of Latin Montaigne had from ho\ hood the advan- 

 tage of the best schol.us of the day. His father 

 was less successful in a novel method he also 

 adopted in having him taught Creek. 



When Montaigne reached the age of six his 

 father 'allowed himself to Ixj won over to common 

 opinion,' and sent him to a school in the neigh 

 homing city of Bordeaux the College de (iiiienne, 

 then, lie himself tells us, the liest in all France. 

 His father, who as a former mayor had considerable 

 influence in the city, 'made several stipulations 

 against the rules of colleges, though, all the same, it 

 still remained a college.' At this school Montaigne 

 remained for seven years, lx>arding in the rooms 

 of his successive teachers, among whom were two 

 scholars of Euro|x-nn celebrity, George lliichanan 

 and Marc-Antoine Muret. The course of study in 

 tin' college was almost exclusively the reading of 

 Latin authors, and in after life Montaigne allirmed 

 that, so far as he could judge, all these years were 

 lost. 



As a third son he had to choose between law and 

 the church only the eldest having the privilege of 

 wearing the sword. All his life Montaigne had an 

 insuperable difficulty in making 1111 his mind, and 

 on this occasion his father saved him the trouble 

 by setting him to the study of law. In what sch<x>l 

 he pursued his legal studies has not lieen discovered, 

 all that we know of them lieing summed up in his 

 own sentence' While a child I was plunged up 

 to the ears in law, and it succeeded.' From the 

 age of thirteen to twenty-four Montaigne is almost 

 lost sight of. Casual references in his Kstiitis prove 

 that during this |H*riod he was frequently in Palis, 

 that he knew something of court life, and that he 

 took his full share of its pleasures. His legal 

 studies received their reward in 'his appointment 

 as meiiilxT of the Court of Aids in the district 

 of Perigord; nml in l. r >. r >7, by the consolidation of 

 this court with the Parlement of Itnrdcaux, Mon- 

 taigne Ix-came a city counsellor. The olllce \\,i- an 

 honourable one; but it was little to Montaigne's 

 taste, who, in truth, is never weary of telling us 

 that every form of restraint was against all his 

 natural inclinations. It was during his tenure of 

 this office, however, that he formed his famous 

 friendship with Ktieune de la lioclie, a relation 

 which he always regarded as the happiest and 

 most memorable of his life. To Montaigne La 

 ('octie seemed in gifts of soul and intellect the 

 eipinl of t lie greatest characters of antiquity. 

 From the writings La Hoetie left Itehiml him (a 

 series of sonnets, and a political pamphlet advocat- 

 ing extreme republicanism), it seems probable that 



