Montaigne, Sir Ralph Bankes and other English readers of the Essais

O'Brien, John

doi:10.1111/rest.12026

Montaigne, Sir Ralph Bankes and other English readers of the Essais

O'Brien, John

Authors

Professor John O'Brien john.o'brien@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

Abstract

This article deals with a hitherto unknown and unpublished early modern English manuscript account of Montaigne's Essais by Sir Ralph Bankes (1631?–77) of Kingston Lacy in Dorset. Bankes's account covers a range of features in Montaigne's work: crucial elements of self-portraiture such as judgement, but also his attitude to women and doctors. These characteristics are analysed and compared first with Montaigne's own pronouncements about the aspects Bankes selects and secondly with two other short accounts from the seventeenth century: by Sir William Cornwallis and John Locke. The similarities and differences between the accounts provide evidence of the intellectual networks to which they belonged, only parts of which have so far received investigation. It is argued that the interest of Bankes's account lies in its independence from the tradition of Florio's Montaigne. This article thus contributes to our understanding of the early modern English reception of the French text of the Essais.

Citation

O'Brien, J. (2013). Montaigne, Sir Ralph Bankes and other English readers of the Essais. Renaissance Studies, 28(3), 377-391. https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12026

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 20, 2013
Online Publication Date	Nov 3, 2013
Publication Date	Nov 3, 2013
Deposit Date	Dec 9, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Apr 4, 2018
Journal	Renaissance Studies
Print ISSN	0269-1213
Electronic ISSN	1477-4658
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	28
Issue	3
Pages	377-391
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12026

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: O'Brien, John (2014). Montaigne, Sir Ralph Bankes and other English readers of the Essais. Journal of the Society for Renaissance Studies 28(3): 377-391, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/rest.12026. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.