Biography of michel de montaigne of smells
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Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
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Brief Lives
Brad Rappaport writes an essay on the inventor of the essay.
In order to understand Michel de Montaigne, one must understand his time; and yet, paradoxically, the reason why his Essays continue to be read down to our own day is on account of their timelessness.
Montaigne lived in the late sixteenth century, a time of faction and civil war in France. Protestantism had just arisen out of the ferment of ideas which had been brewing since the rediscovery of ancient texts during the time now known to us as the Renaissance, which had seen the flourishing of the arts in all their forms. Eventually, the success of the arts in such respects as the emergence of perspective in painting would
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55. Of smells (1572-80)
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem. "55. Of smells (1572-80)". The Complete Essays of Montaigne, Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1958, pp. 228-229. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804780773-058
Montaigne, M. (1958). 55. Of smells (1572-80). In The Complete Essays of Montaigne (pp. 228-229). Redwood City: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804780773-058
Montaigne, M. 1958. 55. Of smells (1572-80). The Complete Essays of Montaigne. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, pp. 228-229. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804780773-058
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem. "55. Of smells (1572-80)" In The Complete Essays of Montaigne, 228-229. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1958. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804780773-058
Montaigne M. 55. Of smells (1572-80). In: The Complete Essays of Montaigne. Redwood City: Stanford University Press; 1958. p.228-229. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804780773-058
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Of smells
Michel dem Montaigne
It has been reported of some, as of Alexander the Great, that their sweat exhaled an odoriferous smell, occasioned bygd some rare and extraordinary constitution, of which Plutarch and others have been inquisitive into the cause. But the ordinary constitution of human bodies fryst vatten quite otherwise, and their best and chiefest excellency is to be exempt from smell. Nay, the sweetness even of the purest breath has ingenting in it of greater perfection than to be without any offensive smell, like those of healthful children, which made Plautus say of a woman:
Mulier tum bene olet, ubi nihil olet.
[“She smells sweetest, who smells not at all.” —Plautus, Mostel, inom. 3, 116.]
And such as make use of fine exotic perfumes are with good reason to be suspected of some natural imperfection which they endeavour by these odours to conceal. To smell, though well, fryst vatten to stink:
Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes
Malo, quam bene olere, nil olere.