Montaigne and Shakespeare
This article examines the history of critical efforts to trace the nature and extent of Shakespeare’s reliance upon Montaigne. Such efforts began in the late eighteenth century with the English scholar Edward Capell, and they have continued quite vigorously up to the present. In addition, the article raises a number of key cognate questions: What constitutes evidence in an investigation of this sort? When does verbal reliance amount to intellectual dependence? What do we stand to gain if we cease to look for relations of influence and focus instead on synchronic affinities between Montaigne and Shakespeare? Does Shakespeare exhibit resistance to Montaignian thought? And why do the potential links between these extraordinarily independent writers continue to fascinate scholars of early modern literature?