Quiz guide: The essay

• What was unusual about Montaigne's parentage and upbringing?
• The introduction calls the essay "highly personal and outward looking." Explain.
• How does Montaigne's desire to "emphasize the strangeness and instability of the self" work, and how does it influence others?
• What place was called "Antarctic France"?
• Does Montaigne believe "that island" (Atlantis) is the same region as Antarctic France? Why or why not?
• Why was Montaigne's "man" a good person to explain the wonders of Antarctic France?
• "From this vice spring many great abuses," says Montaigne. What vice?
• How do most people define barbarism, according to Montaigne?
• What aspects of Antarctic France seem to "surpass all the pictures in which poets have idealized the golden age"?
• What became of Antarctic France's first horseman?
• What does Montaigne say about cannibalism?
• Westerners, says Montaigne, surpass the residents of Antarctic France "in every kind of barbarity." Explain
• Discuss some differences between the wives of the west and those of Antarctic France.
• What does Montaigne suppose will happen to the three men who left Antarctic France for Rouen?
• What might have hindered Montaigne from learning more about the residents of Antarctic France? explain.

Dekker: Wonderful Year

• How does Dekker personify the forces that killed the Queen (Elizabeth I)?
• What kinds of things does Dekker find remarkable about the queen's funeral procession and arrangements?
• What were some of the "joys" that followed the proclamation that James I would succeed Elizabeth?
• What does Dekker wish Time and Oblivion to have done?
• Describe one extremely vivid detail of the plague Dekker writes on page 10 or 11.
• How does Dekker personify either Death or Plague on page 13?
• What does Dekker say about the church (14)?
• On page 15 Dekker uses the example of a pair of lovers. Explain.
• Summarize the tale of the cobbler.
• How does Dekker personify Sin (page 18)?

You can stop at the end of the Plague episode.