The article is based on the following texts: “A Vindication of Montaigne's Essays”, Cotton's Preface to his translation of Montaigne's “Essays”, “A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque” by C. Cotton, M. Prior's poems and his “Dialogue between Mr. John Lock and Seigneur de Montaigne”. The reception of Montaigne's “Essays” in the epoch of Neo-Classicism is discussed and Cotton's adaptation of his translation to the aesthetic demands of his contemporaries is emphasized; Cotton's and Prior's use of Montaigne's artistic discoveries in their poetry is analyzed, the paraphrases from Montaigne's essays in Prior's philosophical poems are studied. In the article it is stressed that in his “Dialogue” Prior develops some ideas from the “Vindication” and draws the connection between the polemics around Montaigne and the two cultural outlooks coexisting in contemporary England. In conclusion, it is said that Cotton's and Prior's artistic originality is based on the fact that following Montaigne, they went far beyond the boundaries of the domineering Neo-Classical aesthetics.