Virtue, Vice, and Compassion in Montaigne and The Tempest | Virtue, Vice, and Compassion in Montaigne and The Tempest
Virtue, Vice, and Compassion in Montaigne and The Tempest
Arthur Kirsch, University of Virginia
It has long been recognized that Shakespeare borrowed from Montaigne. Gonzalo's Utopian vision in The Ternpest (II.i.142-76)1 is indebted to a passage in Florio's translation of Montaigne's essay, "Of the Cannibals,"2 and Prospero's speech affirming that "The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance" (V.i.20-32) is derived from the opening of Florio's translation of the essay, "Of Cruelty" (2:108). The king's speech in All's Well That Ends Well on the distinction between virtue and nobility (II.iii.117-44) appears to be a similarly direct, if less well-known, borrowing from "Upon Some Verses of Virgil" (3:72-3), an essay whose treatment of the polarization of sensuality and affection also has bearing upon Othello.3 Leo Salingar has perspicuously shown that a number of the major themes...
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