“Little vigour and no art” The (non-) virtuous lives of II, 11, “De la cruauté”

This article considers Montaigne’s treatment of life in the Essais, particularly in II, 11. It emphasises Montaigne’s broad conceptualisation of life, and his consideration of the bodily (literally and figuratively presented as “animal” life) in his reception of the Life genre. The ethical life in question is a matter of gender as well as genre: virtue and virility are linked by more than etymology in this chapter of the Essais.