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Montaigne's literary invention opened 

 the way for the modern prose-essayists. 

 We need not deny Sainte-Beuve's origi- 

 nality when we point out his indebted- 

 ness to the ** Essais " ; indeed, it would be 

 hard to find a great writer since the be- 

 ginning of the seventeenth century who 

 has not been under literary obligations 

 dating back to Montaigne and sealed with 

 his delightful mastery of diction. Florio's 

 translation of the ** Essais " appeared in Eng- 

 land in 1603, and if the autographs in the 

 British Museum are genuine, we know that 

 Shakspere and Ben Jonson each possessed 

 a copy. It is the best English translation, 

 albeit by no means satisfactory. Florio 

 was an Italian, born in London, who be- 

 came a teacher of French and Italian at 

 Oxford, and most of the faults in his Mon- 

 taigne are clearly due to haste; some of 

 them seem not so easily accounted for; 

 but upon the whole it is a most dehghtful 

 rendering. We need a thoroughly good 

 modern translation, however, to bring the 

 "Essais" within the understanding of our 

 times, when books are read at a run. 

 254 



