Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles Part 18

145. MORIAS ENCOMIUM] The Praise of Folly; see p. 11. [in the middle of LIFE OF ERASMUS, paragraph starting with 'As he rode hastily'.

Transcriptor.]

146. CAMELUS SALTAREM] 'Ubi quis indecore quippiam facere conatur, camelum saltare dicebant: veluti si quis natura severus ac tetricus affectet elegans ac festivus videri, naturae genioque suo vim faciens.'

Erasmus, _Adagia_.

154. Democritus of Abdera (c. 460-361), 'the laughing philosopher,' who is famed for having maintained his cheerfulness in spite of being blind.

182. ABSOLVI] to be finished, fully trained.

191. Augustine (died 430), Bishop of Hippo, was one of the Latin Fathers of the Church.

192. PROFESSUS EST] 'lectured on.'

209. PUELLAE TRES] _tres_ is a correction, made in 1521, when this letter was printed a second time, for _quatuor_, which was doubtless a mistake.

The names of the children are not added till 1529, in a third edition.

Margaret (1505-1544) married about 1520 William Roper, who wrote a Life of More. She was her father's favourite and friend, the ties between them being very close. She corresponded in Latin with Erasmus; and one of her letters to him is extant.

The other children, born in 1506, 1507, and 1509, were less distinguished. The name of Aloysia is usually given as Elizabeth. Erasmus perhaps made a confusion with the name of More's second wife.

218. SEVERITUDINE] ante- and post-cla.s.sical for _severitate_.

222. REM] 'household business.'

233. PATER IAM ALTERAM] This pa.s.sage implies that Sir John More was already married to his third wife; and in the edition of 1521 Erasmus speaks of a 'tertia noverca'. Only three wives are mentioned in the _Dict. of National Biography_. Erasmus is perhaps in error.

240. ADVOCATIONIBUS] 'his practice as a barrister.'

250. DIE IOVIS] Thursday; Fr. Jeudi.

255. DRACHMAS] s.h.i.+llings.

261. LEGATIONEM] On one of these, in 1515, he wrote the _Utopia_ (l.

312).

276, 7. FELICES RES PUBLICAS] An exclamatory accusative.

294. EXPROBRAT] _sc_. beneficium; i.e. casts up against a man a benefit conferred.

308. COMMUNITATEM] 'communism.'

310. ANTAGONISTAM] Erasmus accepted this challenge; and both wrote declamations in reply to Lucian.

312. The _Utopia_ (i.e. Nowhere, Gk. [Greek: ou topos], sometimes called _Nusquama_) is a description, written in Latin, of an ideal commonwealth; in which More develops a number of very novel political ideas. The first book, which was written last, deals with the condition of England in his day; the description of Utopia occupying the second.

322. IN NUMERATO] 'in readiness.'

344. TORQUATIS] an epithet regularly used by Erasmus for the inhabitants of courts with their chains of office (torques) round their necks; cf.

XVII. 61-2.

Midas was a king of Phrygia renowned for his riches.

345. OFFICIIS] officials. This concrete use is late Latin.

348, 9. ALIAM AULAM] Hutten had written a satire ent.i.tled _Aula_. He was now living in the household of Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz.

353. STOCSCHLEII] John Stokesley (c. 1475-1539), ecclesiastic and diplomatist. He was now chaplain to the king, and in 1530 was made Bishop of London in succession to Tunstall.

354. CLERICI] John Clerk (died 1541), ecclesiastic and diplomatist. He was now chaplain to Wolsey; and subsequently became Dean of Windsor and in 1523 Bp. of Bath and Wells.

XXVII

[An extract from the _Adagia_, no. 796. The Dutch physician referred to is perhaps a Dr. Bont whom Erasmus knew at Cambridge in 1511 and who died there of the plague in 1513.]

9, 10. QUID MULTIS] Cf. IX. 219 n.

10. GERMANO] Their standards of honesty were then high, and they were in consequence apt to be imposed upon. England on the contrary was already 'perfide Albion'; as Erasmus writes in a letter of 1521, 'Britannia vulgo male audit, quoties de fide agitur'.

24. _tuissare_: to address as 'thou'. Cf. Fr. tutoyer, Germ. dutzen.

33. QUAE NULLA] a condensed expression equivalent to _quae, quamvis maxima, non tamen_.

XXVIII

[A letter written to John Francis, physician to Wolsey, and one of the promoters of the College of Physicians in 1518. The date of the letter is uncertain.]

3. SUDORE LETALI] The sweating-sickness. Ammonius (see XV introd.) fell a victim to it in 1517.

8. HABENT] _sc_. Angli.

10. Claudius Galenus (130-200) was a Greek physician, who practised at Rome in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

13. COLATAM] a medical technical term (cf. XXIX. 10); lit. 'filtered'. So here 'fine draughts' of air coming in round the small window panes.

Erasmus' idea seems to have been that when the winds were blowing, the air would be fresh and the windows should be opened; but that when the air was still, it was likely to be unwholesome and should be kept out.

24. SALSAMENTIS] Much of the leprosy which was prevalent at the time has been ascribed to the consumption of salt fish.

35. CONFERRET] 'It would be useful'; cf. _conducere_.

40. OTIUM MEUM] 'at my spending my time in this way.'