LA familiarité que i’ay auec ces personnages icy, et l’assistance qu’ils font à ma vieillesse, et à mon liure massonné purement de leurs despouïlles, m’oblige à espouser leur honneur.
The familiarity I have with these two figures, and the help they give to my old age and to my book, built purely out of their spoils, oblige me to take up the defense of their honor.
Quant à Seneque, parmy vne miliasse de petits liurets, que ceux de la Religion pretendue reformée font courir pour la deffence de leur cause, qui partent par fois de bonne main, et qu’il est grand dommage n’estre embesoignée à meilleur subiect, i’en ay veu autres-fois vn, qui pour alonger et remplir la similitude qu’il veut trouuer, du gouuernement de nostre pauure feu Roy Charles neufiesme, auec celuy de Neron, apparie feu Monsieur le Cardinal de Lorraine auec Seneque, leurs fortunes, d’auoir esté tous deux les premiers au gouuernement de leurs Princes, et quant et quant leurs mœurs, leurs conditions, et leurs deportemens.
As for Seneca: among the myriad little pamphlets that those of the so-called Reformed Religion circulate in defense of their cause—some of which come from a good hand, and it is a great pity that it is not employed on a better subject—I once saw one which, to stretch out and fill in the likeness it seeks to find between the government of our poor late King Charles IX and that of Nero, pairs the late Cardinal of Lorraine with Seneca: their fortunes, in that both were first in the government of their princes, and along with that their characters, their conditions and their conduct.
Enquoy à mon opinion il fait bien de l’honneur audict Seigneur Cardinal: car encore que ie soys de ceux qui estiment autant son esprit, son eloquence, son zele enuers sa religion et seruice de son Roy, et sa bonne fortune, d’estre nay en vn siecle, où il fust si nouueau, et si rare, et quant et quant si necessaire pour le bien public, d’auoir vn personnage ecclesiastique de telle noblesse et dignité, suffisant et capable de sa charge: si est-ce qu’à confesser la verité, ie n’estime sa capacité de beaucoup pres telle, ny sa vertu si nette et entiere, ny si ferme, que celle de Seneque.
In which, in my opinion, he does the said Lord Cardinal great honor. For although I am one of those who greatly esteem his mind, his eloquence, his zeal for his religion and for the service of his King, and his good fortune in being born in an age when it was so novel and so rare, and at the same time so necessary for the public good, to have a churchman of such nobility and rank who was competent and equal to his office—still, to confess the truth, I do not consider his ability anywhere near Seneca’s, nor his virtue so clean, so whole or so firm.
Or, ce liure dequoy ie parle, pour venir à son but, fait vne description de Seneque tres-iniurieuse, ayant emprunté ces reproches de Dion l’historien, duquel ie ne crois aucunement le tesmoignage. Car outre qu’il est inconstant, qui apres auoir appellé Seneque tres-sage tantost, et tantost ennemy mortel des vices de Neron, le fait ailleurs, auaritieux, vsurier, ambitieux, lasche, voluptueux, et contrefaisant le philosophe à fauces enseignes: sa vertu paroist si viue et vigoureuse en ses escrits, et la defence y est si claire à aucunes de ces imputations, comme de sa richesse et despence excessiue, que ie n’en croiroy aucun tesmoignage au contraire. Et d’auantage, il est bien plus raisonnable, de croire en telles choses les historiens Romains, que les Grecs et estrangers.
Now this book I am speaking of, to reach its goal, gives a very insulting description of Seneca, having borrowed these reproaches from Dio the historian, whose testimony I do not believe at all. For besides being inconsistent—after calling Seneca at one moment most wise and at another a mortal enemy of Nero’s vices, he elsewhere makes him avaricious, a usurer, ambitious, cowardly, given to pleasure, and a philosopher under false colors—Seneca’s virtue appears so lively and vigorous in his writings, and his defense against some of these charges, such as his wealth and excessive spending, is so clear there, that I would believe no testimony to the contrary. Moreover, it is much more reasonable in such matters to believe the Roman historians than the Greeks and foreigners.
Or Tacitus et les autres, parlent tres-honorablement, et de sa vie et de sa mort: et nous le peignent en toutes choses personnage tres-excellent et tres-vertueux. Et ie ne veux alleguer autre reproche contre le iugement de Dion, que cestuy-cy, qui est ineuitable: c’est qu’il a le sentiment si malade aux affaires Romaines, qu’il ose soustenir la cause de Iulius Cæsar contre Pompeius, et d’Antonius contre Cicero.
Now Tacitus and the others speak very honorably both of his life and of his death, and portray him to us as in all things a most excellent and virtuous man. And I will allege no other reproach against Dio’s judgment than this one, which is unanswerable: his feeling for Roman affairs is so unsound that he dares to uphold the cause of Julius Caesar against Pompey, and of Antony against Cicero.
Bodin against Plutarch
Montaigne answers Jean Bodin’s charges that Plutarch told incredible tales and favored the Greeks.
Venons à Plutarque. Iean Bodin est vn bon autheur de nostre temps, et accompagné de beaucoup plus de iugement que la tourbe des escriuailleurs de son siecle, et merite qu’on le iuge et considere. Ie le trouue vn peu hardy en ce passage de sa Methode de l’histoire, où il accuse Plutarque non seulement d’ignorance (surquoy ie l’eusse laissé dire: car cela n’est pas de mon gibier), mais aussi en ce que cet autheur escrit souuent des choses incroyables et entierement fabuleuses (ce sont ses mots).
Let us come to Plutarch. Jean Bodin is a good author of our time, endowed with far more judgment than the mob of scribblers of his age, and he deserves to be judged and considered. I find him a little bold in the passage of his Method of History where he accuses Plutarch not only of ignorance (on which I would have let him have his say, for that is not my game), but also of often writing “things incredible and entirely fabulous” (those are his words).
S’il eust dit simplement, les choses autrement qu’elles ne sont, ce n’estoit pas grande reprehension: car ce que nous n’auons pas veu, nous le prenons des mains d’autruy et à credit: et ie voy qu’à escient il recite par fois diuersement mesme histoire: comme le iugement des trois meilleurs capitaines qui eussent onques esté, faict par Hannibal, il est autrement en la vie de Flaminius, autrement en celle de Pyrrhus. Mais de le charger d’auoir pris pour argent content, des choses incroyables et impossibles, c’est accuser de faute de iugement, le plus iudicieux autheur du monde.
If he had simply said “things otherwise than they are,” it would not have been a great reproach; for what we have not seen we take from the hands of others and on credit. And I see that he sometimes knowingly tells the same story in different ways: for instance, Hannibal’s judgment of the three best captains who ever lived is given one way in the Life of Flamininus and another in that of Pyrrhus. But to charge him with having taken incredible and impossible things for ready cash is to accuse the most judicious author in the world of a lack of judgment.
Et voicy son exemple: Comme, ce dit-il, quand il recite qu’vn enfant de Lacedemone se laissa deschirer tout le ventre à vn renardeau, qu’il auoit desrobé, et le tenoit caché soubs sa robe, iusques à mourir plustost que de descouurir son larecin. Ie trouue en premier lieu cet exemple mal choisi: d’autant qu’il est bien malaisé de borner les efforts des facultez de l’ame, là où des forces corporelles, nous auons plus de loy de les limiter et cognoistre. Et à cette cause, si c’eust esté à moy à faire, i’eusse plustost choisi vn exemple de cette seconde sorte: et il y en a de moins croyables.
And here is his example: “As,” he says, “when he relates that a Spartan boy let his whole belly be torn open by a fox cub he had stolen and was keeping hidden under his robe, going so far as to die rather than reveal his theft.” I find this example badly chosen in the first place, because it is very hard to set bounds to the efforts of the faculties of the soul, whereas with bodily strength we have more right to limit and know it. For that reason, if it had been up to me, I would rather have chosen an example of this second kind; and there are some less believable ones.
Comme entre autres, ce qu’il recite de Pyrrhus, que tout blessé qu’il estoit, il donna si grand coup d’espée à vn sien ennemy armé de toutes pieces, qu’il le fendit du haut de la teste iusques au bas, si que le corps se partit en deux parts. En son exemple, ie n’y trouue pas grand miracle, ny ne reçois l’excuse de quoy il couure Plutarque, d’auoir adiousté ce mot, comme on dit, pour nous aduertir, et tenir en bride nostre creance. Car si ce n’est aux choses receuës par authorité et reuerence d’ancienneté ou de religion, il n’eust voulu ny recevoir luy mesme, ny nous proposer à croire, choses de foy incroyables.
For instance, among others, what he relates of Pyrrhus: that, wounded as he was, he dealt an enemy armed from head to foot such a blow with his sword that he split him from the top of his head to the bottom, so that the body fell apart in two pieces. In Bodin’s example I find no great miracle; nor do I accept the excuse with which he covers Plutarch, that he added the words “as they say” to warn us and keep a rein on our belief. For except in matters received on authority and out of reverence for antiquity or religion, Plutarch would not have wanted either to accept himself, or to offer us for belief, things incredible in themselves.
Et que ce mot, comme on dit, il ne l’employe pas en ce lieu pour cet effect, il est aysé à voir par ce que luy mesme nous raconte ailleurs sur ce subiect de la patience des enfans Lacedemoniens, des exemples aduenuz de son temps plus malaisez à persuader. Comme celuy que Cicero a tesmoigné aussi autant luy, pour auoir, à ce qu’il dit, esté sur les lieux: Que iusques à leur temps, il se trouuoit des enfans en cette preuue de patience, à quoy on les essayoit deuant l’autel de Diane, qui souffroyent d’y estre fouëtez iusques à ce que le sang leur couloit par tout non seulement sans s’escrier, mais encores sans gemir, et aucuns iusques à y laisser volontairement la vie.
And that he does not use these words “as they say” here for that purpose is easy to see from what he himself tells us elsewhere on this subject of the endurance of Spartan children—examples that occurred in his own time and are harder to credit. Such is the one that Cicero also attested before him, having, as he says, been on the spot: that even in their time there were children to be found, in that test of endurance to which they were put before the altar of Diana, who let themselves be whipped there until the blood ran all over them, not only without crying out but even without groaning, and some to the point of willingly giving up their lives there.
Et ce que Plutarque aussi recite, auec cent autres tesmoins, qu’au sacrifice, vn charbon ardent s’estant coulé dans la manche d’vn enfant Lacedemonien, ainsi qu’il encensoit, il se laissa brusler tout le bras, iusques à ce que la senteur de la chair cuyte en vint aux assistans. Il n’estoit rien selon leur coustume, où il leur allast plus de la reputation, ny dequoy ils eussent à souffrir plus de blasme et de honte, que d’estre surpris en larecin. Ie suis si imbu de la grandeur de ces hommes là, que non seulement il ne me semble, comme à Bodin, que son conte soit incroyable, que ie ne le trouue pas seulement rare et estrange.
And there is what Plutarch also relates, along with a hundred other witnesses: that at a sacrifice, a burning coal slipped into the sleeve of a Spartan boy while he was burning incense, and he let his whole arm burn until the smell of cooked flesh reached the bystanders. By their custom there was nothing in which their reputation was more at stake, nor for which they had to suffer more blame and shame, than being caught stealing. I am so steeped in the greatness of those men that not only does Plutarch’s story not seem incredible to me, as it does to Bodin, but I do not even find it rare or strange.
L’histoire Spartaine est pleine de mille plus aspres exemples et plus rares: elle est à ce prix toute miracle.
Spartan history is full of a thousand harsher and rarer examples; by that standard it is all miracle.
Marcellinus recite sur ce propos du larecin, que de son temps il ne s’estoit encores peu trouuer aucune sorte de tourment, qui peust forcer les Egyptiens surpris en ce mesfaict: qui estoit fort en vsage entre eux, à dire seulement leur nom.
Marcellinus relates, on this subject of theft, that in his time no kind of torture had yet been found that could force Egyptians caught in this crime, which was very common among them, even to tell their name.
Vn paisan Espagnol estant mis à la gehenne sur les complices de l’homicide du præteur Lucius Piso, crioit au milieu des tourmens, que ses amis ne bougeassent, et l’assistassent en toute seureté, et qu’il n’estoit pas en la douleur, de luy arracher vn mot de confession, et n’en eut on autre chose, pour le premier iour. Le lendemain, ainsi qu’on le ramenoit pour recommencer son tourment, s’esbranlant vigoureusement entre les mains de ses gardes, il alla froisser sa teste contre vne paroy, et s’y tua.
A Spanish peasant, put to torture to name the accomplices in the murder of the praetor Lucius Piso, cried out in the midst of his torments that his friends should not budge but should stand by and watch in complete safety, and that it was not in the power of pain to wring from him one word of confession; and nothing else was got from him the first day. The next day, as they were bringing him back to begin his torture again, he wrenched himself vigorously out of his guards’ hands, dashed his head against a wall and killed himself.
Epicharis ayant saoulé et lassé la cruauté des satellites de Neron, et soustenu leur feu, leurs batures, leurs engins, sans aucune voix de reuelation de sa coniuration, tout vn iour: rapportée à la gehenne l’endemain, les membres touts brisez, passa vn lasset de sa robbe dans l’vn bras de sa chaize, à tout vn nœud coulant, et y fourrant sa teste, s’estrangla du pois de son corps. Ayant le courage d’ainsi mourir, et se desrober aux premiers tourments, semble elle pas à escient auoir presté sa vie à cette espreuue de sa patience du iour precedent, pour se moquer de ce tyran, et encourager d’autres à semblable entreprinse contre luy?
Epicharis glutted and wearied the cruelty of Nero’s henchmen, withstanding their fire, their beatings and their instruments for a whole day without a word revealing her conspiracy. Carried back to the torture the next day, her limbs all broken, she passed a cord from her dress through one arm of her chair, with a running knot, put her head into it, and strangled herself with the weight of her body. Having the courage to die thus and escape the earlier torments, does she not seem to have deliberately lent her life to that trial of her endurance the day before, in order to mock the tyrant and encourage others to a similar enterprise against him?
Et qui s’enquerra à nos argoulets, des experiences qu’ils ont euës en ces guerres ciuiles, il se trouuera des effets de patience, d’obstination et d’opiniastreté, parmy nos miserables siecles, et en cette tourbe molle et effeminée, encore plus que l’Egyptienne, dignes d’estre comparez à ceux que nous venons de reciter de la vertu Spartaine. Ie sçay qu’il s’est trouué des simples paysans, s’estre laissez griller la plante des pieds, ecrazer le bout des doigts à tout le chien d’vne pistole, pousser les yeux sanglants hors de la teste, à force d’auoir le front serré d’vne corde, auant que de s’estre seulement voulu mettre à rançon.
And if you ask our light horsemen about what they have seen in these civil wars, you will find instances of endurance, obstinacy and stubbornness, in our wretched age and among this soft and spineless rabble, softer even than the Egyptian one, worthy of comparison with the examples of Spartan virtue we have just related. I know that there have been simple peasants who let the soles of their feet be roasted, the ends of their fingers crushed with the hammer of a pistol, and their bloody eyes forced out of their heads by a cord drawn tight around their foreheads, before they would so much as agree to pay a ransom.
I’en ay veu vn, laissé pour mort tout nud dans vn fossé, ayant le col tout meurtry et enflé, d’vn licol qui y pendoit encore, auec lequel on l’auoit tirassé toute la nuict, à la queuë d’vn cheual, le corps percé en cent lieux, à coups de dague, qu’on luy auoit donné, non pas pour le tuer, mais pour luy faire de la douleur et de la crainte: qui auoit souffert tout cela, et iusques à y auoir perdu parolle et sentiment, resolu, à ce qu’il me dit, de mourir plustost de mille morts (comme de vray, quant à sa souffrance, il en auoit passé vne toute entiere) auant que rien promettre: et si estoit vn des plus riches laboureurs de toute la contrée.
I have seen one left for dead, stark naked in a ditch. His neck was all bruised and swollen from a halter still hanging from it, by which he had been dragged all night at a horse’s tail. His body had been pierced in a hundred places with dagger thrusts, given him not to kill him but to cause him pain and fear. He had endured all this, to the point of losing speech and feeling, resolved, as he told me, to die a thousand deaths (and indeed, so far as suffering goes, he had gone through one entire death) rather than promise anything. And yet he was one of the richest farmers in the whole region.
Combien en a lon veu se laisser patiemment brusler et rotir, pour des opinions empruntées d’autruy, ignorées et incognues? I’ay cogneu cent et cent femmes (car ils disent que les testes de Gascongne ont quelque prerogatiue en cela) que vous eussiez plustost faict mordre dans le fer chaut, que de leur faire desmordre vne opinion qu’elles eussent conçeuë en cholere. Elles s’exasperent à l’encontre des coups et de la contrainte.
How many have we seen let themselves be patiently burned and roasted for opinions borrowed from others, which they did not understand and did not know? I have known hundreds upon hundreds of women (for they say that Gascon heads have some special privilege in this) whom you could sooner have made sink their teeth into red-hot iron than make them let go of an opinion they had formed in anger. Blows and constraint only make them more furious.
Et celuy qui forgea le conte de la femme, qui pour aucune correction de menaces, et bastonnades, ne cessoit d’appeller son mary pouïlleux, et qui precipitée dans l’eau haussoit encores en s’estouffant, les mains, et faisoit au dessus de sa teste, signe de tuer des poux: forgea vn conte, duquel en verité tous les iours, on voit l’image expresse en l’opiniastreté des femmes. Et est l’opiniastreté sœur de la constance, au moins en vigueur et fermeté.
The man who made up the tale of the woman who, for all the correction of threats and beatings, would not stop calling her husband lousy, and who, thrown into the water and choking, still raised her hands and made above her head the sign of cracking lice, made up a tale of which, in truth, we see the exact image every day in the stubbornness of women. And stubbornness is the sister of constancy, at least in vigor and firmness.
Il ne faut pas iuger ce qui est possible, et ce qui ne l’est pas, selon ce qui est croyable et incroyable à nostre sens, comme i’ay dit ailleurs. Et est vne grande faute, et en laquelle toutesfois la plus part des hommes tombent: ce que ie ne dis pas pour Bodin: de faire difficulté de croire d’autruy, ce qu’eux ne sçauroient faire, ou ne voudroient. Il semble à chacun que la maistresse forme de l’humaine nature est en luy: selon elle, il faut regler tous les autres. Les allures qui ne se rapportent aux siennes, sont faintes et fauces. Luy propose lon quelque chose des actions ou facultez d’vn autre?
We must not judge what is possible and what is not by what is credible or incredible to our own mind, as I have said elsewhere. It is a great fault, and yet one into which most men fall (I do not say this about Bodin), to balk at believing of others what they themselves could not do, or would not. Each man thinks that the master pattern of human nature is in himself, and that all others must be measured by it. Ways of going that do not match his own are feigned and false. Is he told something about another man’s actions or faculties?
la premiere chose qu’il appelle à la consultation de son iugement, c’est son exemple: selon qu’il en va chez luy, selon cela va l’ordre du monde. O l’asnerie dangereuse et insupportable! Moy ie considere aucuns hommes fort loing au dessus de moy, notamment entre les anciens: et encores que ie recognoisse clairement mon impuissance à les suyure de mille pas, ie ne laisse pas de les suyure à veuë, et iuger les ressorts qui les haussent ainsi, desquels i’apperçoy aucunement en moy les semences: comme ie fay aussi de l’extreme bassesse des esprits, qui ne m’estonne, et que ie ne mescroy non plus.
The first thing he calls in to consult his judgment is his own example: as things go with him, so goes the order of the world. Oh, what dangerous and intolerable asininity! As for me, I regard some men as far above me, notably among the ancients. And though I clearly recognize that I am powerless to follow them within a thousand paces, I still follow them with my eyes and judge the springs that raise them so high, the seeds of which I perceive in myself to some degree. I do the same with the extreme baseness of some minds, which does not stun me, and which I do not disbelieve either.
Ie voy bien le tour que celles là se donnent pour se monter, et i’admire leur grandeur: et ces eslancemens que ie trouue tres-beaux, ie les embrasse: et si mes forces n’y vont, au moins mon iugement s’y applique tres-volontiers.
I can see the swing those lofty souls give themselves to rise, and I admire their greatness; and those leaps, which I find very beautiful, I embrace. If my strength does not reach that far, at least my judgment applies itself to them most willingly.
L’autre exemple qu’il allegue des choses incroyables, et entierement fabuleuses, dictes par Plutarque: c’est qu’Agesilaus fut mulcté par les Ephores pour auoir attiré à soy seul, le cœur et la volonté de ses citoyens. Ie ne sçay quelle marque de fauceté il y treuue: mais tant y a, que Plutarque parle là des choses qui luy deuoyent estre beaucoup mieux cognuës qu’à nous: et n’estoit pas nouueau en Grece, de voir les hommes punis et exilez, pour cela seul, d’agreer trop à leurs citoyens: tesmoin l’Ostracisme et le Petalisme.
The other example he cites of incredible and wholly fabulous things told by Plutarch is that Agesilaus was fined by the ephors for having drawn to himself alone the hearts and goodwill of his fellow citizens. I do not know what mark of falsehood he finds in that. But at all events Plutarch is speaking there of things that must have been far better known to him than to us. And it was nothing new in Greece to see men punished and exiled for this alone, for being too pleasing to their fellow citizens: witness ostracism and petalism.
Il y a encore en ce mesme lieu, vn’ autre accusation qui me pique pour Plutarque, où il dit qu’il a bien assorty de bonne foy, les Romains aux Romains, et les Grecs entre eux, mais non les Romains aux Grecz, tesmoin, dit-il, Demosthenes et Cicero, Caton et Aristides, Sylla et Lisander, Marcellus et Pelopidas, Pompeius et Agesilaus, estimant qu’il a fauorisé les Grecz, de leur auoir donné des compagnons si dispareils. C’est iustement attaquer ce que Plutarque a de plus excellent et loüable. Car en ses comparaisons (qui est la piece plus admirable de ses œuvres, et en laquelle à mon aduis il s’est autant pleu) la fidelité et syncerité de ses iugemens, esgale leur profondeur et leur poix.
In this same passage there is another accusation that stings me on Plutarch’s behalf. Bodin says that Plutarch matched Romans with Romans and Greeks with Greeks in good faith, but not Romans with Greeks: witness, he says, Demosthenes and Cicero, Cato and Aristides, Sulla and Lysander, Marcellus and Pelopidas, Pompey and Agesilaus. He holds that Plutarch favored the Greeks by giving them such ill-matched companions. That is to attack precisely what is most excellent and praiseworthy in Plutarch. For in his comparisons (which are the most admirable part of his works, and the part in which, in my opinion, he took most pleasure) the fidelity and sincerity of his judgments equal their depth and their weight.
C’est vn philosophe, qui nous apprend la vertu. Voyons si nous le pourrons garentir de ce reproche de preuarication et fauceté. Ce que ie puis penser auoir donné occasion à ce iugement, c’est ce grand et esclatant lustre des noms Romains, que nous auons en la teste: il ne nous semble point, que Demosthenes puisse esgaler la gloire d’vn consul, proconsul, et questeur de cette grande republique. Mais qui considerera la verité de la chose, et les hommes en eux mesmes, à quoy Plutarque a plus visé, et à balancer leurs mœurs, leurs naturels, leur suffisance, que leur fortune: ie pense au rebours de Bodin, que Ciceron et le vieux Caton, en doiuent de reste à leurs compaignons.
He is a philosopher who teaches us virtue. Let us see whether we can defend him against this charge of bad faith and falsehood. What I imagine gave rise to this judgment is the great and dazzling luster of Roman names that we carry in our heads: it does not seem to us that Demosthenes can equal the glory of a consul, proconsul and quaestor of that great republic. But if one considers the truth of the matter, and the men in themselves (which is what Plutarch chiefly aimed at, weighing their characters, their natures and their abilities rather than their fortune), I think, contrary to Bodin, that Cicero and the elder Cato fall short of their companions.
Pour son dessein, i’eusse plustost choisi l’exemple du ieune Caton comparé à Phocion: car en ce pair, il se trouueroit vne plus vray-semblable disparité à l’aduantage du Romain. Quant à Marcellus, Sylla, et Pompeius, ie voy bien que leurs exploits de guerre sont plus enflez, glorieux, et pompeux, que ceux des Grecs, que Plutarque leur apparie: mais les actions les plus belles et vertueuses, non plus en la guerre qu’ailleurs, ne sont pas tousiours les plus fameuses. Ie voy souuent des noms de capitaines, estouffez soubs la splendeur d’autres noms, de moins de merite: tesmoin Labienus, Ventidius, Telesinus et plusieurs autres.
For his purpose I would rather have chosen the example of the younger Cato compared with Phocion: in that pair there would be a more plausible disparity to the Roman’s advantage. As for Marcellus, Sulla and Pompey, I can see that their feats of war are grander, more glorious and more showy than those of the Greeks whom Plutarch pairs with them. But the finest and most virtuous actions, in war no more than elsewhere, are not always the most famous. I often see the names of commanders smothered beneath the splendor of other names of less merit: witness Labienus, Ventidius, Telesinus and many others.
Et à le prendre par là, si i’auois à me plaindre pour les Grecs, pourrois-ie pas dire, que beaucoup moins est Camillus comparable à Themistocles, les Gracches à Agis et Cleomenes, Numa à Lycurgus? Mais c’est folie de vouloir iuger d’vn traict, les choses à tant de visages.
And taking it from that angle, if I had to complain on behalf of the Greeks, could I not say that Camillus is much less comparable to Themistocles, the Gracchi to Agis and Cleomenes, Numa to Lycurgus? But it is folly to try to judge with a single stroke things that have so many faces.
Quand Plutarque les compare, il ne les esgale pas pourtant. Qui plus disertement et conscientieusement, pourroit remarquer leurs differences? Vient-il à parangonner les victoires, les exploits d’armes, la puissance des armées conduites par Pompeius, et ses triumphes, auec ceux d’Agesilaus? Ie ne croy pas, dit-il, que Xenophon mesme, s’il estoit viuant, encore qu’on luy ait concedé d’escrire tout ce qu’il a voulu à l’aduantage d’Agesilaus, osast le mettre en comparaison. Parle-il de conferer Lysander à Sylla: Il n’y a, dit-il, point de comparaison, ny en nombre de victoires, ny en hazard de batailles: car Lysander ne gaigna seulement que deux batailles nauales, etc. Cela, ce n’est rien desrober aux Romains.
When Plutarch compares them, he does not for all that make them equal. Who could point out their differences more clearly and conscientiously? Does he come to compare the victories, the feats of arms, the strength of the armies led by Pompey, and his triumphs, with those of Agesilaus? I do not believe, he says, that Xenophon himself, if he were alive, even though he was allowed to write whatever he liked to the advantage of Agesilaus, would dare to set them side by side. Does he speak of comparing Lysander with Sulla? There is no comparison, he says, either in the number of victories or in the hazard of battles: for Lysander won only two naval battles, etc. That is not robbing the Romans of anything.
Pour les auoir simplement presentez aux Grecz, il ne leur peut auoir fait iniure, quelque disparité qui y puisse estre. Et Plutarque ne les contrepoise pas entiers: il n’y a en gros aucune preference: il apparie les pieces et les circonstances, l’vne apres l’autre, et les iuge separément. Parquoy, si on le vouloit conuaincre de faueur, il falloit en esplucher quelque iugement particulier: ou dire en general, qu’il auroit failly d’assortir tel Grec à tel Romain: d’autant qu’il y en auroit d’autres plus correspondans pour les apparier, et se rapportans mieux.
By merely setting them beside the Greeks he cannot have wronged them, whatever disparity there may be. And Plutarch does not weigh them against each other as wholes; there is no overall preference. He matches the parts and the circumstances one after another and judges them separately. So if anyone wanted to convict him of partiality, he should have picked apart some particular judgment, or said in general that Plutarch was wrong to match such a Greek with such a Roman, since there were others better suited to the pairing and more alike.