Chapter 10

6. Pandora was the first woman created, according to Greek mythology. She brought down from heaven a box, which she was forbidden to open; but in curiosity she raised the lid, and at once all the evils to which mankind is subject flew out and spread over the earth. Epimetheus was her husband.

13. TOGATA ... PALLIATA] The classical distinction between two kinds of Roman drama, according as the scene was laid in Roman or in Greek surroundings. In the former the _toga_ was worn by the principal characters; in the latter the Greek _pallium_.

14. PLANIPEDIA] Acted by a _planipes_, a kind of pantomime; so-called because he used neither the _soccus_ of comedy nor the _cothurnus_ of tragedy in his performances.

15. EPITASIS] A Greek technical term, for the crisis of a play.

23. CATASTROPHEN] Also a Greek technical term; the point at which a play turns, leading to the conclusion.

26. OPTASSE] Dependent on a verb of statement understood from _laudo_. A common idiom.

41. CAROLI REGIS] Charles VIII, King of France, 1483-98.

42. GENTIL GERSON] Evidently _gentil garçon_, 'fine gentleman.'

47. FLAMMEUM] _sc_. velum. A flame-coloured veil, properly worn by brides.

53. SURDAE CECINISSE] A proverbial phrase of labouring without result; 'to waste one's breath.' 'Ortum videtur a ridiculo casu, quo saepe fit ut hospes incidat in surdum, quem percontetur multa, ridentibus iis qui surdum noverunt.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

66. ALIENIS MANIBUS] by getting a friend to write his Latin letter for him.

67. FRONTIS] 'Frons habita est antiquitus pudori sacra, et facies item. Inde frontem aut faciem proverbio perfricuisse dicuntur, qui pudorem omnem dedidicerunt, velut absterso manu a vultu pudore.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

70. Patroclus was the friend of Achilles. When Achilles refused to fight against Troy, Patroclus borrowed his arms, and was killed in the battle.

71. QUID SIMILE?] _sc_. inter nos.

III

[This letter describes a journey made in the exceptionally cold winter of 1498-9, when Erasmus paid a visit to his friend, James Batt. Batt was then at the castle of Tournehem, near Calais, acting as tutor to a young nobleman, the son of Anne of Borsselen, Lady of Veere, near Middelburg; to whose patronage he was generously trying to introduce Erasmus.]

TIT. GUILHELMO] This form of the name William represents the German Wilhelm; Gulielmus is more akin to the Italian Guglielmo; Guielmus, which also occurs, to the French Guillaume.

5. AEOLUM] The king of the winds, whom Juno had persuaded to oppose the Trojan fleet under Aeneas as it sailed from Troy to Italy. See Verg. _Aen_. 1. 50 seq.

14. VIDISSES] _sc_. si adfuisses.

31. Bellerophon, after having vanquished the Chimaera on Pegasus, wished to fly with his winged steed to heaven. But Pegasus threw him off and ascended alone, to become a constellation in the sky.

35-6. CREDAS ... ACCIDISSET] The slight irregularity of tense is easily intelligible.

35. Lucian, _fl_. 160 A.D., was a Syrian citizen of the Roman Empire. His writings, which are mostly satirical, are in Greek. One of them is entitled _Vera Historia_.

57. ALLEVARE] 'to exaggerate,' opp. to _elevare_,'to disparage.' _Allevare_ can also mean 'to understate', but the sequence of thought is not so natural.

62. SCRIBEBAM] The epistolary imperfect, representing the time of the action when the words would be read by the recipient of the letter.

PATRIAM] Holland.

64. CONVICTU] Evidently it had been proposed that Erasmus should come and live with Lord Mountjoy in Paris as his tutor.

IV

[An extract from a letter to an Italian friend domiciled in France. Erasmus was probably writing from Bedwell in Hertfordshire, where Sir William Say, Lord Mountjoy's father-in-law, had a country-house. For the practice which Erasmus playfully describes in the second paragraph, see an additional note on p. 157.[*]]

[* See ADDITIONAL NOTES, first note, at the end of this text. Transcriptor.]

4. INVITA MINERVA] 'refragante ingenio, repugnante natura, non favente coelo.' Erasmus, _Adagia_. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom.

6. MERDAS] It has been well pointed out that the use of so coarse a word is foreign to Erasmus, whose writings, though often free, are marked by a delicacy unusual in his age; and that he is therefore probably alluding to the compositions of his correspondent, who knew no such restrictions, e.g. in his _Querela Parrhisiensis pavimenti_.

7. UT ... PEREAT] A wish.

9. ALATIS] Like Mercury, the messenger of the gods, who for his journeys attached winged sandals to his feet.

10. Daedalus was a mythical artificer who constructed the labyrinth for Minos, king of Crete; but being detained there against his will, he made wings for himself and his son Icarus and flew away to Sicily.

21. Solon (c. 638-558), the Athenian lawgiver, is said to have bound the people with an oath to observe his laws until he returned; and then to have absented himself from Athens for ten years.

23. PROPEDIEM] Erasmus was expecting to return to Paris in the summer of 1499. His visit to Oxford was only undertaken to fill an interval during which he was detained in England.

V

[This incident occurred in the autumn of 1499. Erasmus was staying on an estate belonging to Lord Mountjoy at Greenwich, and was visited one day by Thomas More with a friend Arnold from London. In the course of a walk they came to Eltham Palace ('a castle situated between two parks,' as it is described by two ambassadors in 1514), the splendid banqueting hall of which is still standing, and there paid their respects to the royal children with their tutor, John Skelton, the poet. Arthur, Prince of Wales, was then absent with his father: but the young Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII, received the friends gracefully. They stayed to dine in the hall, but apparently not at the 'high table'. The narrative is found in a Catalogue of Erasmus' writings composed in 1523.]

7. ANIMI CAUSA] Relaxation to the mind rather than exercise for the body was the object of the walk.

12. NOVEM] Henry was little more than 8, having been born on 2 June 1491; Margaret was born on 29 Nov. 1489 and was therefore not yet 11. The other ages given are correct. Inaccuracy in such trifling matters need not surprise us, seeing that Erasmus was writing more than twenty years after the visit.

16. IACOBO] James IV of Scotland, who was killed at Flodden, 9 Sept. 1513.

17. Mary afterwards became Queen of France by her marriage with Louis XII in 1514.

26. _vel_ here intensifies the word that follows. It is often so used with superlatives.

VI

[A letter written to Lord Mountjoy, who had intended to join Erasmus in Oxford, but had been prevented by a summons to attend in Westminster Hall on 21 Nov. 1499, for the trial of the Earl of Warwick in connexion with the rising of Perkin Warbeck.]

6. John Colet (c. 1466-1519) was now lecturing in Oxford. For his influence on Erasmus see X; and Mr. Seebohm's _Oxford Reformers_.

Richard Charnock was Prior of St. Mary's College in Oxford; the Augustinian house, in which Erasmus was living. It is now practically demolished.

9. HORATIUS] _Ep_. 2. 1. 63:

Interdum vulgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat.

11. CUIUS] _sc_. vulgi.

12, 3. nostro illo ingressu] Erasmus' arrival at Oxford; which for some reason seems to have been discouraging.

35. TUM ... TUM] A post-Augustan construction, for which Cicero uses _cum ... tum_.

VII

[A letter written to describe a dinner-party in a College hall in Oxford; possibly at Magdalen, to which Colet, who was presiding, is thought to have belonged. With the exception of Charnock, the other guests mentioned have not been identified. The letter is to be dated in Nov. 1499; Sixtin, to whom it is addressed, was a Dutchman resident in Oxford. The manuscript in which Erasmus pretended to have found this story of Cain is, of course, fictitious.]

TIT. DOMINO] The title of a Bachelor of Arts.

2. CONVIVIO] 'Bene maiores nostri accubitionem epularem amicorum, quia vitae coniunctionem haberet, convivium nominarunt, melius quam Graeci qui hoc idem compotationem (symposium) vocant.' Cic. _Sen_. 13, 45.

6. Epicurus (342-270) was a Greek philosopher, who is traditionally but wrongly regarded as having taught that pleasure is the end of life.

7. CONDITUM] _condi[*]tum_, not _condi[*]tum_.

[* i.e. long 'i', not short. Transcriptor.]

Pythagoras (sixth cent. B.C.) was one of the greatest Greek philosophers.

20, 1. LAEVUM LATUS CLAUSIMUS] The left side was regarded as more exposed to attack than the right, which had the sword-arm. It was therefore a compliment to place oneself to the left of a friend, as though to protect him in case of need. Here nothing more is meant than that Erasmus sat on the Theologian's left.

25. POCULENTUM] connected with the wine-cups.

36. ALIUD] _sc_. quam solebat.

37. MAIORQUE] cf. Verg. _Aen_. 6. 49-51, of the Sibyl:

maiorque videri, Nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando Iam propiore dei.'

53. LEGERE] When the narrator is an eyewitness, the present infinitive is usual, even of past time.

80. RHOMPHAEA] a sword; the Septuagint word.

97. OMNIIUGA] This word is not classical; but _multiiugus_, 'manifold' (literally, of many yoked together, cf. _biiugus_, _quadriiugus_), is common.

110. QUID] 'for what purpose?'

129. ID GENUS] An adjectival accusative, equivalent to genitive of quality; cf. virile secus.

133. CULMI] The stalks of Cain's fine crops.

VIII

[A letter to an English friend, Robert Fisher, who had been a pupil of Erasmus in Paris in 1497 and had then gone to study law in Italy.]

4. IN EA...REGIONE] Italy was at this time regarded as being, and in fact was, more advanced than the rest of Europe in classical learning and refinement. In consequence to visit Italy was the ambition of every scholar.

SIS] In classical Latin when two reasons are given, of which one is denied and the other affirmed, the verb in the affirmation is usually in the indicative.

26. Wm. Grocin (c. 1416-1519) was one of the first to teach Greek in Oxford. He was now resident in London.

28. Thos. Linacre (c. 1460-1524) was an Oxford scholar who had recently returned from Italy and was now in London. He afterwards became one of the first physicians of his age.

IX

[A letter describing Erasmus' journey to Paris on his return from England in 1500. On 27 Jan. he was at Dover, whence he crossed to Boulogne. He went then to Tournehem Castle and after spending two nights with Batt set out for Paris. He reached Amiens in the afternoon of 31 Jan., started on with horses the same evening and slept at an unnamed village. On 1 Feb. he passed to the west of Clermont and slept at St. Julien (?), reaching St. Denis and Paris on 2 Feb.]

2. VIGILIAS] Writings, composed doubtless by the 'midnight oil'; in which Erasmus rightly considered his wealth to lie.

7. LUSIMUS] 'met.'

8. CRETIZAVIMUS] 'We behaved like a Cretan.' Cf. the English saying 'to give tit for tat'. Erasmus means that he gave the messenger full measure of conversation in return.

9. ANGLICA FATA] when preparing to leave England Erasmus had £20 in his pocket. But a law of Edward III, re-enacted by Henry VII, forbade the exportation of silver and gold; and in consequence all but £2 was taken from him in the Dover custom-house. This very real calamity he had of course related to Batt at Tournehem.

13. AEOLUM] Cf. III. 5 n.

21. Mercury was the god of traders and thieves. Cf. Ovid. _Fasti_ 5. 673 seq.

QUOQUE] _quo[*]que_, not _quo[*]que_.

[* i.e. long 'o', not short. Transcriptor.]

26. DIVO IULIANO] There is no village of St. Julien which satisfies the required conditions. Juilly (Iuliacum) between Dammartin and Meaux is perhaps intended.

44. IUGULOS] _iugulum_, neuter, is the common form.

45. VICTIMAE] Predicative Dative of purpose.

51. _obolere_ is only used intransitively in post-Augustan Latin.

55. MECUM] _sc_. reputo.

CICERONIANUM] _Brut_. 80. 278.

60. QUASNAM] Money of what country or of what coinage. The common difficulty of travellers was then increased by the variety of coinages in circulation within the same country. A further trouble was that through use or 'clipping' one coin might differ from another of the same value; and 'light' coins were always liable to be weighed and refused.

65. POSTULATUM] A particular kind of florin. Mr. Shilleto suggests that the name is connected with _pistolet_ (or _pistole_), a French coin of this period.

67. SCUTATUM] A crown, Fr. écu; in l. 136 one of these is specified.

74. ACCEDEBANT] At this point the narrative reverts to 31 Jan. It is resumed again at l. 128.

88. CORONATI AUREI] gold crowns.

91. VACUAM] A ruse to pretend that the purse was hardly worth keeping.

96. RELIGIONI] 31 Jan. 1500 was a Friday; a day commonly observed by fasting.

100. SIBILIS] 'in whispers.'

107-8. AD LAEVAM] _sc_. manum.

111. SICUT MEUS, &c.] Hor. _Sat_. l. 9. 1, 2.

118. HUC] Apparently not the house mentioned in l. 114.

119, 20. QUOD ... ACCEPTUS FUISSEM] _me acceptum fuisse_ would be more usual.

144. CEDO] _ce[*]do_, not _ce[*]do_.

[* i.e. short 'e', not long. Transcriptor.]

151. VIRGINIA MATRIS PURGATIO] The Feast of the Purification; 2 Feb.

179, 80. QUID MULTA?] _sc_. dicam.

186. GALLICE] _sc_. loqui.

201. DONEC] lit. 'until'; here marks the final action to be taken, when any suspicions on the part of their companions had been allayed.

INDUSIATI] Strictly 'wearing an under-garment' (_indusium_); so here 'partially dressed'.

217. HORA NOCTIS UNDECIMA] About 5 a.m.; according to the Roman reckoning, in which the day began at sunrise.

219. QUID MULTIS?] _sc_. verbis opus est.

228. EXISTIMARET] An example of 'contamination', i.e. the combination, through confusion of thought, of two constructions, either of which would be correct. The idea in the robber's mind here could be expressed equally well by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimi essemus', the subjunctive indicating not a fact but only his opinion; or by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimos esse existimabat', where the opinion is definitely stated. By 'contamination' with _essemus_, _existimabat_ is put into the subjunctive. Cf. Cic. _Off_. l. 13 'Rediit paulo post, quod se oblitum nescio quid diceret'.

230. MINUSCULUM] 'Just too small a sum.'

233. DUODENARIOS] Coins worth 12 pence; douzains.

234. divum Dionysium] St. Denis, 4-1/2 miles from Paris: which seems to have been regarded as practically the end of the journey.

235. LANCES] Cf. l. 60 n.

258. PONDERI] The weight used in the scales; not as in l. 256.

264. IN HIS] 'in these modern coins.'

268. INTELLEGERET] Cf. l. 228 n.

272. NIMIS QUAM] _quam_ strengthens _nimis_, as freq. in Plautus.

291. AD SACRUM] To mass, in the monastery opposite.

X

[A letter written from Paris in the winter of 1504, after Erasmus had returned from two years' sojourn in the Netherlands. The influence exerted upon him by Colet in Oxford five years before is clearly shown.]

14. PERSUASERIM] Cf. I. 1 n.

19. NIHIL DUM] 'nothing as yet.' Cf. _nondum_.

TUARUM COMMENTATIONUM] Colet had been lecturing on the Epistles of St. Paul, at the time of Erasmus' visit to Oxford. Cf. XXIV. 308, 9.

23. The precise date of Colet's D.D. is not known. He was now administering the Deanery of St. Paul's, though he did not actually receive it until May 1505.

31. VELIS EQUISQUE] 'id est summa vi summoque studio.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

41. AD ROMANOS] Cf. XVI. 183, 4. Never completed.

49. Origen (_fl_. 230 A.D.) was one of the Greek Fathers of the Church. Erasmus was engaged on an edition of his works at the time of his death in 1536.

50. _evolvere_, to unroll, is the classical word for opening and reading a book; belonging to the days when books were rolls (_volumina_) of papyrus.

54. LUCUBRATIUNCULAS] Erasmus published a volume with this title in 1503 or 1504. Its contents are sufficiently indicated here. One of them was the _Enchiridion Militis Christiani_, which was a manual of practical Christianity; its title, which may mean either 'dagger' or 'handbook', being perhaps intentionally ambiguous.

68. Erasmus had recently published a Panegyric, which he had delivered at Brussels on 6 Jan. 1504 in the presence of Philip, Archduke of Austria, and son of the Emperor Maximilian, congratulating the Archduke on the success of his recent journey to Spain; to the thrones of which he was, through his wife, the heir apparent.

103. INSCRIPTUM] The _Adagia_ were dedicated to Mountjoy.

106. STUDIO] 'intentionally.'

124. Christopher Fisher was an English lawyer in the service of the Papal Court: who was at this time resident in Paris.

XI

[This incident occurred in January 1506, when Erasmus was paying his second visit to England. It is narrated in 1523, in the catalogue of Erasmus' writings, from which V is taken.]

3. LOVANII] During the years 1502-4.

4. PHILELPHUS] Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) an Italian humanist. Erasmus was incited to attempt the translation by Filelfo's example, not by any direct communication.

6. _tum_ reverts back to the _tum_ in l. 3, after the digression.

7. PALUDANUS] John Desmarais (?), Public Orator of Louvain University.

9, 10. MONTIBUS ... AUREIS] 'Proverbialis hyperbole de iis qui immensa promittunt spesque amplissimas ostentant,' Erasmus. _Adagia_.

17. CANTUARIENSI] Warham. See XXII and XXIII.

25. REDIMUS] From Lambeth to London.

38, 9. NOSTRAE FAIRINAE] 'nostri gregis, nostrae conditionis.' Erasmus, _Adagia_. _Farina_ is lit. 'meal': so 'substance'; so 'quality '.

41. BADIO] Josse Bade, a Paris printer.

42. The Iphigenia in Aulis is another play by Euripides.

44. UNAM] _sc_. fabulam.

XII

[A letter written in 1507 to the famous printer Aldus (1449-1515) proposing a new edition of the translations from Euripides mentioned in XI. Aldus assented and the book appeared in Dec. 1507.]

2. UTRIQUE] Greek and Latin.

7. VOLITATURUS] Cf. Ennius in Cic. _Tusc_. 1. 15. 34:

Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? Volito vivu' per ora virum.

20. Paul of Aegina was a Greek writer on medicine, whose works were much esteemed in the sixteenth century.

27. William Latimer (c. 1460-1545) was an Oxford scholar of great fame in his own day. He had recently been studying in Italy.

28. Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559) was a scholar and lawyer, who after discharging important embassies was made Bishop of London in 1522, and Bishop of Durham in 1530. He also had been studying in Italy shortly before this time.

33. Badius' edition had been published in Sept. 1506.

38, 9. Cf. Soph. _Ajax_ 362, 3:

[Greek: Euphaema phonei mae kakon kako didous Akos, pleon to paema taes ataes tithei.]

41. MINUTIORIBUS ILLIS] The famous 'italic' type, first cast for Aldus, and said to have been modelled on the handwriting of Politian, the Italian humanist.

54. MERCURIUS] Cf. IX. 21 n.

XIII

[An extract from a letter written in 1531 to an inmate of a Venetian monastery, St. Antonio in Castello. It describes an interview which Erasmus had with Cardinal Grimani in 1509, just before leaving Rome to return to England. Grimani, who was one of the most influential cardinals at that time, resided in a palace built by Paul II--now the Palazzo di Venezia--near the Church of St. Mark. On his death in 1523 he left his valuable library to the monastery above-mentioned: whence it has passed into the Library of St. Mark's at Venice.]

12. UT TUM ABHORREBAM] This clause is explanatory of _tandem_.

15. MUSCA] A figurative expression, meaning 'the slightest sign'. Cf. 'as big as a bee's knee', of something small.

55. ERAM RELICTURUS] = _reliquissem_. An idiomatic use with the future participle. Cf. Livy 1. 40 'Gravior ultor caedis, si superesset, rex futurus erat'.

XIV

[An extract from a letter dated 29 Oct. 1511 to Colet, who was then engaged on the foundation of St. Paul's School, and had asked Erasmus to make inquiries at Cambridge for a suitable under-master.]

2. MAGISTROS] _sc_. artium.

19. NOS RELIQUIMUS] Matt. 19. 27.

XV

[An extract from a letter written to a French scholar in 1532 from Freiburg. It describes Erasmus' meeting with Cardinal Canossa, who had been sent to London by the Pope in June 1514 to endeavour for peace between England and France. Andrew Ammonius, who arranged the meeting, was an Italian who held the important post of Latin Secretary to Henry VIII, and was endowed with a Canonry in St. Stephen's Palace at Westminster, on the site of the present Houses of Parliament. He was an intimate friend of Erasmus, and as Canon had an official residence in St. Stephen's, on the banks of the Thames.]

1. IMMORTALITATI] By dedicating a book to him.

5. CULTU PROFANO] In the dress of a layman; instead of in his proper ecclesiastical garb.

14. PERSUASUS] An ante-classical use.

16. _praesedit_] 'took precedence of me in sitting down'.

37. ITALI] There were many Italian merchants and agents resident in London at this time.

58. PERTRAXERAT] Cf. XIII. 55 n.

62. DIRIMIT] Cuts the house off from neighbouring buildings, i.e. surrounds it.

63. OFFICII CAUSA] As a polite attention.

65. REDIRE] to London.

67. APERIT ... FABULAE SCENAM] Draws the curtain, i.e. discloses the facts.

70. SURDO] Cf. II. 53 n.

XVI

[When Erasmus became famous, a friend of his early days at Steyn, Servatius Rogerus, who had now risen to be Prior, wrote to him reproaching him for having abandoned the dress of his order and urging him to return to the monastery. The letter reached Erasmus in July 1514, when he was on his way to Basel and was staying a few days at Hammes Castle, an important military post in the English dominion near Calais, of which his old patron, Lord Mountjoy, was lieutenant. In reply Erasmus wrote an 'apologia pro vita sua', giving an account of himself and stating his reasons for the belief that he could make better use of his talents if he remained free. It is an important and confidential document; and Erasmus therefore never published it. But copies of it were being circulated in manuscript many years before his death.]

17. Cornelius, of Woerden, to the north of Gouda, was a school-friend of Erasmus. He had entered the monastery of Steyn and persuaded Erasmus to follow his example.

24. QUARUM ISTIC NULLUS USUS] This must not be taken to mean that good learning was unknown to the monastery; for Erasmus read a great deal in the classics at Steyn; but that a monastery was not a suitable home for a scholar.

40. ANNUM PROBATIONIS] The constitutions of the Augustinian Order provided that a novice could not make his profession as a Canon until he had completed his sixteenth year and had passed at least a year and a day in probation.

74. CALCULO] Stone in the bladder.

84. CONFRATRES] Brother belonging to the same order.

100. CONCANONICOS] fellow-canons. The word is appropriate here as Steyn was a house of Augustinian canons.

104. SOLONIS] Cf. IV. 21 n.

Pythagoras (cf. VII. 7 n.) travelled in Egypt and the East in search of knowledge, and ultimately settled in Magna Graecia. By birth he was a native of Samos.

Plato (c. 429-347) after the death of Socrates in 399 travelled in Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Graecia.

120. HIC IPSE] Leo X, who was Pope 1513-21.

135. ELEEMOSYNARIO] almoner. Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) now held this post, and was also Bishop of Lincoln.

136. REGINA] Catharine of Aragon.

145. SACERDOTIUM] The living of Aldington in Kent was given to Erasmus by Warham in March 1512. It was worth £33 6_s_. 8_d_. yearly; but after a few months Erasmus was allowed to resign, an annual pension of £20 being charged on the living and paid to him.

175. Erasmus' _De Copia_, first published in July 1512, was a treatise designed to assist the beginner in Latin composition by supplying him with variety of words and abundance of phrases.

178. CASTIGAVI] 'I have produced a critical edition of.'

180. OBELIS] The critical marks [Symbols: obelus, obelus] used to denote suspected passages in texts.