Essay
The Praise of Folly
Moriae Encomium
Erasmus · 1511
Synopsis
Before a listening crowd, Folly takes the floor and delivers her own praise. Daughter of Plutus and Youth, born on the Fortunate Isles, nursed by Drunkenness and Ignorance, escorted by Self-love, Flattery, Oblivion and Pleasure, she maintains that without her no one would marry, have a child or a friend, and that war and the government of nations are her work. Then she reviews her followers: grammarians, poets, philosophers, theologians, monks, princes and popes.
Context
The book was conceived on horseback, on the road bringing its author back from Italy to England, then written in a few days at the house of Thomas More, to whom it is dedicated: the Greek title plays on the name of this host. Gilles de Gourmont printed it in Paris in 1511, Matthias Schürer reprinted it in Strasbourg the same year, and the text was revised several times, notably in 1514. The first English translation appeared in 1549. The Roman Index of 1559 forbade the whole of its author's work, and this book with it.
Who it is for
A Latin declamation of about a hundred pages, readable in French in several translations. Ancient allusions are constant, and an annotated edition helps in following them.
Prizes and reception
A European success from its publication and its author's most widely read book, it figures among the classics of the Dutch canon survey of 2002.