Queer Energy and the Indeterminate Object of Desire in Montaigne’s “On Some Verses of Virgil”

Michel de Montaigne’s essay “On Some Verses of Virgil” is known for its discussion of Renaissance marriage, masculinity, male and female sexuality, and the nature and status of women. With this focus on what we might today call heterosexuality, this article treats the question of what the recurring references to ancient male-male eros are doing in the essay. It is not the case, however, that same-sex sexuality is simply discussed openly in this text treating the topic of candid descriptions of sex and sexuality more broadly: rather, it is half-hidden and half-visible, neither fully absent nor fully present. same-sex male sexuality functions as a queer purveyor of energetic masculinity that can help solve the problem of the essayist’s aging and limp masculinity. The use of erotic object choice in Montaigne’s essay pertains not so much to suppression or repression, then, but to the transmission of affect between same-sex eros and masculinity. This textual energy is created by virtue of an erotic game of absence-presence that mirrors a central idea of the essay, that ancient Latin poets’ descriptions of male-female sexuality have more erotic force when they do not represent sex too openly.