Abstract
“Friendship without the Friend: The Many Meanings of La Boétie for Montaigne.” Over a decade after Étienne de La Boétie’s sudden death in 1563, Montaigne still writes about La Boétie as his best friend in the Essays . This article draws on the textual and biographic evidence to examine the ways in which Montaigne continues to derive meaning from his deceased companion—the ways in which Montaigne internalizes their friendship and incorporates it into his selfconsciousness. For Montaigne, friendship yields to Friendship following La Boétie’s death, taking on a highly-developed independent life in order to serve many of his psychological needs. Montaigne thus inaugurates a new relationship with La Boétie in the Essays , a relationship forged from the memory of La Boétie but wholly his own. By using a little imagination, Montaigne is not only able to overcome his grief and compensate for the loss of La Boétie, but he also manages to deepen and intensify his connection to the absent friend.
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