Montaigne and Bacon Montaigne’s essays are characterized by an insistent first person voice. Whether he discusses his reading, his thoughts, or his experiences, the consciousness that shapes his writing is transparently his own. His essays meander and digress, though always more purposefully than might first appear, and their effect is of a man exploring his world and regularly being surprised at what he discovers in the process. In contrast, Bacon‘s essays almost entirely lack personal references. Propositional rather than experiential, they strike modern readers as having a sermonic, rhetorical quality that contrasts sharply with Montaigne’s more casual works. JB Priestly says that Bacon’s works are not essays in the core sense of theMichel de Montaigne /mi when, in 1580, he gave the title Essa Montaigne’s essays were disci and often run to many thousands An essay is not devoted to narrative It may use anecdotes —the chief interest isno The essayist dons the role of social philosophe Theodor Adorno “Essay as Form” -essay Fr freedom’- Plutarch St Augustine Thomas a KempisFrancis Bacon says “the word is la _ Seneca’s epistles as essays “disp Bacon described his Essays (1597) as give an appetite than offend with satis Dr Johnson “a loose sally of mind: an. a regular and orderly composition” (Dictiona t whi The genealogy Characters of Theophrastus (3rd c. BC), the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (2nd c. AD) anc to Lucilius (1st c. AD) all qualify for inclusion in thisEssay (F essai, ‘attempt’) A composition, usually in prose (Pope's Moral Essays in verse are an exception), which may be of only a few hundred words (like Bacon’s Essays) or of book length (like Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding) and which discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a,variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms,Montaigne and Bacon Montaigne’s essays are characterized by an insistent first person voice. Whether he discusses his reading, his thoughts, or his experiences, the consciousness that shapes his writing is transparently his own His essays meander and digress their effect is of a man exploring his world and regularly being surprised at what he discovers in the process. In contrast, Bacon‘s essays almost entirely lack personal references. Propositional rather than experiential, they strike modern readers as having a sermonic, rhetorical quality that contrasts sharply with Montaigne‘s more casual works. JB Priestly says that Bacon’s works are not essays in the core sense of the genreThey present multiple perspectives on a viven topic. The successions of aphorisms that constitute the essays generally take one position, then its almost opposite, before eventually landing somewhere in the middle. The effect is to represent thought as it occurs rather than to report its resultsTwo factors promoted the rise of the essay during the early 17th century. Firstly the bases of knowledge were shifting at this time. reviously, knowledge was still founded on the authority of lier writers and on principles of deduction. round 16" and 17*" c observation and experiment began to erge as plausible and desirable (Inductive) Since the focus was on observation (empiricism) the nature, circumstances, and experiences of the writer became important1e 17th century several new prose forms proliferated. writings approached the essayistic:ssay in England began as imitation-mimicry of classical texts Tudor text books uctive philosophy (observation rather than authority) oristic writings , meditative prose, character sketchesumentative Philosophical treatises of writers like Thomas Hobbes 1679) influenced the genre. shn Locke‘s (1632-1704) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 689) he called it an essay because of its conditional/adhoc/quasi ire-probative as opposed to magistral form of knowledgenons and meditations John Donne Meditation XVII Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions lento sonitu dicunt, morieris. this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou die. continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if }e own were. Any man's death diminishes me, ause | am involved in mankind; and therefore never to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for theeth century also witnessed an «xpansion of other types of what might be d —utilitarian prose writing: travels, biographies, and journals, pamphlets, journalism, and— Oo 17° c Sermons Treatise Epistles-Tracts Defoe’s Journalistic writings too contributed to the periodical The Periodical Essay (see Pat Rogers) The Enlightenment-Rise of the public sphere(Jiirgen Habermas) in the 18" century the proliferation of pamphlets and periodicals, the essay was becoming an increasingly popular form -dedicated readership-subscribers Weekly papers, current events, topics-coffee houses( began in 17**c but proliferated in the 18thc —-known as “Penny Universities”) Earliest coffee houses in Damascus qahveh khaneyportant consequences for essays and essayists. st - the regular access to a consistent readership invited ists to adopt a more familiar, as opposed to formal, style, if they were corresponding with known readers. ind - the periodical format enhanced the sional and topical nature of the essay. ly could writers use current events as of departure, but the range of appropriate occasions ded to include personal experiences in the lives of the (as in Addison’s — “A Visit to Westminster Abbey”)Richard Steele joined by Joseph Addison a week Sir Isaac Bickerstaff (Swift s creation) 711-12)chiefly Addison’s efforts fictional characters such as Sir Roger de Coverley(country) b(town)-the focus on the relationship between d society,and criticism ler a nd The Idler, Guardian, The Examiner, The Bee