In praise of folly. IN PRAISE OF FOLLY, by Erasmus 2022-10-23
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In Praise of Folly, also known as Moriae Encomium, is a satirical essay written by the Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1509. The essay is written in the form of a speech given by Folly, personified as a goddess, who praises herself and her own qualities.
At first glance, Folly seems to be a foolish and frivolous character, with little value or significance. However, as the essay progresses, it becomes clear that Erasmus is using Folly as a means of critiquing and satirizing various aspects of society and human nature. Through the character of Folly, Erasmus is able to expose the absurdity and excess of certain societal values and beliefs, and to advocate for a more balanced and rational approach to life.
One of the main themes of In Praise of Folly is the importance of moderation and common sense. Folly points out that many people become so obsessed with certain ideals or pursuits that they lose sight of the bigger picture and become foolish in their own right. For example, she criticizes those who value wealth and status above all else, and those who blindly follow authority or tradition without questioning the reasons behind them.
Another theme of the essay is the idea that wisdom and intelligence are not always the most important virtues. Folly argues that sometimes it is better to be lighthearted and carefree, and to embrace the joy and wonder of life rather than constantly striving for knowledge and understanding. This is not to say that wisdom and intelligence are unimportant, but rather that they should not be the only things that we value.
In conclusion, In Praise of Folly is a thought-provoking and satirical essay that challenges readers to think critically about their own values and beliefs. Through the character of Folly, Erasmus encourages us to seek a balance between wisdom and folly, and to embrace the joy and absurdity of life. Whether we agree with all of the points made in the essay or not, it is certainly worth considering the ideas presented and thinking about how we can apply them to our own lives.
In Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
The Grecians pride themselves in having been the first inventors of most arts, and in their country being famed for the product of so many eminent philosophers. The largesses of Folly here are strown. First, in a kind of mockery they implore the divine assistance, which they borrowed from the solemn custom of the poets: then if their text suppose be of charity, they shall take their exordium as far off as from a description of the river Nile in Egypt; or if they are to discourse of the mystery of the Cross, they shall begin with a story of Bell and the Dragon; or perchance if their subject be of fasting, for an entrance to their sermon they shall pass through the twelve signs of the zodiac; or lastly, if they are to preach of faith, they shall address themselves in a long mathematical account of the quadrature of the circle. But why do I trouble you, Sir, with this needless apology, you that are so peculiar a patron; as, though the cause itself be none of the best, you can at least give it the best protection. He also wrote Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation, but while he was critical of the abuses within the Catholic Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melanchthon and continued to recognise the authority of the pope, emphasizing a middle way with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, rejecting Luther's emphasis on faith alone. But at last he brought it thus far, that he could demonstrate the whole Trinity to be represented by these first rudiments of grammar, as clearly and plainly as it was possible for a mathematician to draw a triangle in the sand: and for the making of this grand discovery, this subtle divine had plodded so hard for eight months together, that he studied himself as blind as a beetle, the intenseness of the eye of his understanding overshadowing and extinguishing that of his body; and yet he did not at all repent him of his blindness, but thinks the loss of his sight an easy purchase for the gain of glory and credit. It is possible that the Russian Federation, seeking to reduce the territory of Ukraine, will shrink significantly in size as a result of the war it has unleashed and become much less dangerous to its own and others' citizens.
"In Praise of Folly" essayist Crossword Clue Answers, Crossword Solver
Subjects move in a darker sphere, and so their wanderings and failings are less discernible; whereas princes, being fixed in a more exalted orb, and encompassed with a brighter dazzling lustre, their spots are more apparently visible, and their eclipses, or other defects, influential on all that is inferior to them. But why would I any farther rip open and expose the weakness of the gods, a weakness so childish and absurd, that no man can at the same time keep his countenance, and make a relation of it? Erasmus's text also exposes the fine line between foolishness and reason, and how easy it is to mistake one for the other. She adds that all men try to imitate her, not only because of her lack of modesty and fear, but also because she has much experience in life. Therefore, if any singly complain they are particularly reflected upon, they do but betray their own guilt, at least their cowardice. Why is Cupid feigned as a boy, but only because he is an under-witted whipster, that neither acts nor thinks any thing with discretion? Peter had celebrated the eucharist at the same time our Saviour was hanging on the cross, the consecrated bread would have been transubstantiated into the same body that remained on the tree? Favorinus extolled Thersites, and wrote in praise of a quartan ague.
Among which undertaking popes, you shall have some so old that they can scarce creep, and yet they will put on a young, brisk resolution, will resolve to stick at no pains, to spare no cost, nor to waive any inconvenience, so they may involve laws, religion, peace, and all other concerns, whether sacred or civil, in unappeasable tumults and distractions. For as to those graver drudgers to the press, that write learnedly, beyond the reach of an ordinary reader, who durst submit their labours to the review of the most severe critic, these are not so liable to be envied for their honour, as to be pitied for their sweat and slavery. I'll therefore draw toward an end, when I have first confirmed what I have said by the authority of several authors. Supposing a grant, the task seems so difficult as to require the invocation of some aid and assistance; yet because it is unreasonable to put the muses to the trouble and expense of so tedious a journey, especially since the business is out of their sphere, I shall choose rather while I am acting the divine, and venturing in their polemic difficulties , to wish myself for such time animated with Scotus, his bristling and prickly soul, which I would not care how afterwards it returned to his body, though for refinement it were stopped at a purgatory by the way. The papal policy would never have suffered Erasmus to have taken so unbridled a range in the reproof and censure of her extravagancies, but under such circumstances, when the public attack of Luther imposed on her a prudential necessity of not disobliging her friends, that she might with more united strength oppose the common enemy; and patiently bore what at any other time she would have resented.
The Stoics indeed contemn, and pretend to banish pleasure; but this is only a dissembling trick, and a putting the vulgar out of conceit with it, that they may more quietly engross it to themselves: but I dare them now to confess what one stage of life is not melancholy, dull, tiresome, tedious, and uneasy, unless we spice it with pleasure, that hautgoust of Folly. He even claims that the greatest fool of all was Jesus, who became sin in order to redeem others for their sins. Nay, so far is he from the affectation of being accounted wise, that he is content, all the rights of devotion which are paid unto him should consist of apishness and drollery. Nature glitters most in her own plain, homely garb, and then gives the greatest lustre when she is unsullied from all artificial garnish. Brutus has a soliloquy that addresses his inner conflict over how to deal with Caesar. Paul and Christ spoke of meekness and humility.
The stupid war in Afghanistan contributed to the collapse of the USSR. Four hundredyears after Erasmus' publication, stupidity triumphed: World War I was a world-wide folly. Hierom, or others of the fathers, they will not stick to appeal from their authority, and very fairly resolve that they lay under a mistake. To imitate them therefore I will produce some reports and authorities, though perhaps like theirs too, they are nothing to the purpose. Here he gained the friendship of all the considerable persons of the city, nor could have failed to have made his fortune, had he not been prevailed upon by the great promises of his friends in England to return thither on Henry VIIIth coming to the crown.
And oh the incomparable contrivance of nature, who has ordered all things in so even a method that wherever she has been less bountiful in her gifts, there she makes it up with a larger dose of self-love, which supplies the former defects, and makes all even. But there is another sort of madness that proceeds from Folly, so far from being any way injurious or distasteful that it is thoroughly good and desirable; and this happens when by a harmless mistake in the judgment of things the mind is freed from those cares which would otherwise gratingly afflict it, and smoothed over with a content and satisfaction it could not under other circumstances so happily enjoy. In the essay, The Praise of Folly, she introduces herself with an impromptu speech, asserting her bold confidence. But because it seemed expedient that man, who was born for the transaction of business, should have so much wisdom as should fit and capacitate him for the discharge of his duty herein, and yet lest such a measure as is requisite for this purpose might prove too dangerous and fatal, I was advised with for an antidote, who prescribed this infallible receipt of taking a wife, a creature so harmless and silly, and yet so useful and convenient, as might mollify and make pliable the stiffness and morose humour of man. Finally, Erasmus uses Folly to tell how Christians are wise, despite their foolish ways.
In praise of folly : Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Now that which made Plato doubt under what genus to rank woman, whether among brutes or rational creatures, was only meant to denote the extreme stupidness and Folly of that sex, a sex so unalterably simple, that for any of them to thrust forward, and reach at the name of wise, is but to make themselves the more remarkable fools, such an endeavour, being but a swimming against the stream, nay, the turning the course of nature, the bare attempting whereof is as extravagant as the effecting of it is impossible: for as it is a trite proverb, That an ape will be an ape, though clad in purple; so a woman will be a woman, a fool, whatever disguise she takes up. It is indeed almost incredible to relate what mirth, what sport, what diversion, the grovelling inhabitants here on earth give to the above-seated gods in heaven: for these exalted deities spend their fasting sober hours in listening to those petitions that are offered up, and in succouring such as they are appealed to by for redress; but when they are a little entered at a glass of nectar, they then throw off all serious concerns, and go and place themselves on the ascent of some promontory in heaven, and from thence survey the little mole-hill of earth. I admire as I have before intimated that the world should be so wretchedly ungrateful. Moreover, she labels Jesus Christ as a divine fool for sacrificing himself for humanity. Wives are viewed as the main culprits in marital folly, including adultery. In his speech he uses Pathos, Logos, Ethos, and Situational Irony to sway his audience.
No, the only use is of blunt sturdy fellows that have little of wit, and so the more of resolution: except you would make a soldier of such another Demosthenes as threw down his arms when he came within sight of the enemy, and lost that credit in the camp which he gained in the pulpit. And these subtleties are alchymized to a more refined sublimate by the abstracting brains of their several schoolmen; the Realists, the Nominalists, the Thomists, the Albertists, the Occamists, the Scotists; these are not all, but the rehearsal of a few only, as a specimen of their divided sects; in each of which there is so much of deep learning, so much of unfathomable difficulty, that I believe the apostles themselves would stand in need of a new illuminating spirit, if they were to engage in any controversy with these new divines. Erasmus is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. What use could there have been of grammar, when all men spoke the same mother-tongue, and aimed at no higher pitch of oratory, than barely to be understood by each other? When they have run down their game, what strange pleasure they take in cutting of it up! And the Germans are noted for their tall, proper stature, and for their skill in magick. At that point,the stupid war will reduce the amount of stupidity on the globe. In short, if we change the tables, all things are found placed in a quite different posture from what just before they appeared to stand in.
In Praise of Folly : Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Erasmus
These in troth are very rude and disingenuous, for while they apparently belong to my party, yet among the vulgar they are so ashamed of my relation, as to cast it in others' dish for a shame and reproach: wherefore since they are so eager to be accounted wise, when in truth they are extremely silly, what, if to give them their due, I dub them with the title of wise fools: and herein they copy after the example of some modern orators, who swell to that proportion of conceitedness, as to vaunt themselves for so many giants of eloquence, if with a double-tongued fluency they can plead indifferently for either side, and deem it a very doughty exploit if they can but interlard a Latin sentence with some Greek word, which for seeming garnish they crowd in at a venture; and rather than be at a stand for some cramp words, they will furnish up a long scroll of old obsolete terms out of some musty author, and foist them in, to amuse the reader with, that those who understand them may be tickled with the happiness of being acquainted with them: and those who understand them not, the less they know the more they may admire; whereas it has been always a custom to those of our side to contemn and undervalue whatever is strange and unusual, while those that are better conceited of themselves will nod and smile, and prick up their ears, that they may be thought easily to apprehend that, of which perhaps they do not understand one word. This poet I say gives this advice in one of his odes:— Short Folly with your counsels mix. It is needless to insist upon the miscarriages of others, when the lecherous intrigues of Jove himself are so notorious, and when the pretendedly chaste Diana so oft uncloaked her modesty to run a hunting after her beloved Endimion. Next to these come the philosophers in their long beards and short cloaks, who esteem themselves the only favourites of wisdom, and look upon the rest of mankind as the dirt and rubbish of the creation: yet these men's happiness is only a frantic craziness of brain; they build castles in the air, and infinite worlds in a vacuum. The Jews to this day expect their Messias as devoudy as they believe in their first prophet Moses. The Rhetoric of Tragedy: form in Stuart drama. Neither did I so far imitate Juvenal, as to rake into the sink of vices to procure a laughter, rather than create a hearty abhorrence.
