Le cynisme à la Renaissance d'Erasme à Montaigne: Suivi de Les Espitres de Diogènes (1546) (review)

The coincidence of the publication of the Tiers Livre of Rabelais with the French translation of Les Epistres de Diogènes, philosophe cynique (the so-called pseudo-Diogenes Letters) by Loys Du Puys in 1546 illustrates the interest in Diogenes and the Cynics in the mid-sixteenth century, when Cynic ideals of simplified living and social reform matched the goals of humanistic reform. In this well-documented study of Diogenic strains in sixteenth-century France, Michèle Clément sets out to ask why Cynicism remained relatively invisible as compared to Stoicism and skepticism.

At the heart of her inquiry is why specific authors — such as Rabelais (Le Tiers Livre), Erasmus (Les Apophthegmes), Bonaventure Des Périers (Le Cymbalum Mundi), and Pierre Viret (Les Dialogues du désordre) — writing in the first half of the century were drawn to Diogenes and the Cynics at the very time the Cynics were misunderstood. Negative interpretations of the Cynic way of life grew out of the association of the sect with the image of the dog as well as the emphasis on bodily functions, sexual arousal, and uncleanliness. The evangelical reform seized on the Cynic concept of freedom of the individual, the emphasis on free will as distinct from submission to authority, and the notion of the social impact of individual behavior that focuses on social cohesion. Diogenes emerged as a figure to embody the struggle to reform the abuses of the clergy and of the Church.

A major source for humanistic knowledge of the Cynics for such writers as Erasmus and Montaigne was Diogenes Laërtius in the Latin translation by Ambrogio Traversari (1433). Lucian is a second important source, notably his Dialogue of the Dead. Erasmus, Rabelais, and Des Périers were strongly influenced by Plutarch's treatment of the Cynics, available in Italian editions in Greek of the Moralia and the Lives. Three other important sources of knowledge about the Cynic way of life came from Seneca, Epictetus, and finally Stobaeus, whose anthology would go through seven editions in the years between 1543 and 1609.

Clément is at her best in outlining the principles which guided the Cynics. Between reason and natural law, nature prevails, but it is by controlling our passions through reason that we find freedom. The Cynics were bound to a fraternal social order, one not based on hierarchy or subjugation but on action inspired by virtuous living — and here is the link with the humanist principle of caritas.

Clément proceeds to examine aspects of Cynical practice and perspective in the works of Erasmus, Des Périers, Rabelais, La Boétie, and Montaigne. Cynics and humanists encourage the observation of nature, the practice of physical exercise, and the exercise of caritas over the acquisition of knowledge. Both groups recognize and scorn the ambiguity of language and the rupture between signs and their referent.

Clément shows her mastery of Cynic thought in rereading humanist texts. Erasmian anticlericalism is conveyed through the image of the false sileni, priests who hide their vices under fancy purple robes. Against these imposters, Erasmus evokes the true Silenus: Socrates, whose truth shines through the incongruous exterior. While others attribute the title of Des Périers work, Le Cymbalum Mundi, to Saint Paul (I Corinthians 13), a passage that compares those without charity to clanging cymbals, Clément evokes the similarity to a saying from Diogenes Laërtius, where preaching morals without practicing them echoes the empty sound of the cithara. As for Rabelais's nod to the Cynics, Clément believes that his use of the image of Silenus as a method of interpretation comes from Lucian's "Dionysos," in which inspiration is transmitted and received from Silenus only when the recipient has...