SOURCE: Rendall, Steven. “On Reading the Essais Differently.” MLN 100, no. 5 (December 1985): 1080-1085.

In the following essay, Rendall traces the development of various interpretations of Montaigne's Essays.

What is the value of differing readings of a text? The question seems to presuppose that the existence of more than one reading of a text is a fact that can be regarded positively. To do so runs counter to a traditional view, particularly common but by no means universal in Renaissance writing, which insists that to find oneself confronted by different readings is to be in a deplorable state, especially if no ready means is at hand for deciding among them. Today, for this question to have any point, the difference in question must be understood in the strongest sense, as difference irreducible to an ambiguity or plurisignification ultimately more reassuring than disturbing because it can so easily be subsumed under...