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236
ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE

Buchanan, Guerente, and Muret, which were performed with dignity at our college of Guienne. In this Andreas Goveanus, our principal, as in all other branches of his office, was beyond comparison the greatest principal in France, and I was considered a master-workman. It is an amusement which I do not think ill of for children of good families; and I have since seen our princes addict themselves to it in person, after the example of some of the ancients, creditably and commendably. (c) It was permissible, jn fact, for men of honour to make it their trade in Greece: Aristoni tragico actori rem aperit: huic et genus et fortuna honesta erant; nec ars, quia nihil tale apud Græcos pudori est, ea deformabat.[1] (b) For I have always accused of unreasonableness those who condemn such recreation, and of injustice those who deny admission to our big cities to actors who are worthy of it, and who grudge the common people these public pleasures. Wise administrations are careful to assemble the citizens and bring them together for exercises and sports no less than for the serious duties of religion; good-fellowship and friendship are enhanced thereby. Moreover, there could not be found for them pastimes more orderly than those which are carried on in every one’s presence and before the very eyes of the magistrate. And it would seem to me reasonable that the magistrate, and that the prince at his own expense, should sometimes gratify the common people in this way from a quasi-paternal affection and kindness; (c) and that in the populous cities there should be places set apart and arranged for such spectacles: some diversion from worse and hidden doings.

(a) To return to my subject, there is nothing like tempting the appetite and the interest; otherwise, we make only asses laden with books; with strokes of the birch we give into their keeping their pocketfuls of learning, which, if it is to serve any purpose, we must not merely give lodging to — we must espouse it.

  1. ↑ He disclosed the matter to Ariston, the tragic actor, whose family and whose fortune were distinguished, and whose profession did not injure his position; for among the Greeks it is not to be ashamed of. — Livy, XXIV, 24.
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