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Erasmus' Praise of Folly and the Spirit of Carnival*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Donald Gwynn Watson
Donald Gwynn Watson*
Affiliation:
Florida International University
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Extract

In his far-ranging study, Rabelais and His World, Mikhail Bakhtin describes Erasmus’ Praise of Folly as the most complete expression in the Renaissance of Medieval Latin humour and as ‘one of the greatest creations of carnival laughter in world literature.’ For all Erasmus's wit and comic irony, the Praise of Folly might seem an unlikely embodiment of the comic spirit central to Carnival and other popular festivals such as New Year's, May Day, Midsummer, and the Twelve Days of Christmas. In the light of Bakhtin's remarks, however, I will here explore the importance of popular traditions of Carnival and other holiday celebrations for understanding the spirit and structure of Erasmus’ work.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1979 , pp. 333 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1979

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Footnotes

*

I want to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant which allowed me to attend a seminar on comic literature directed by Edith Kern during the 1977-1978 academic year. I am grateful for its support and indebted to Professor Kern for her encouragement, guidance, and valuable suggestions.

References

1 Trans. Helene Iswolský (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 14.

2 La forme et l'intelligible (Bibliothèque des Sciences Humaines [Paris, 1970]), pp. 445-446. My translation.

3 ‘Charivari et mariage ridicule au temps de la Renaissance,’ in Les Fêtes de la Renaissance III, ed. Jean Jacquot and Elie Konigson (Paris, 1975), p. 597, n. 58, my translation. For an analysis of some of Erasmus’ uses of folklore materials, see Bataillon, Marcel, ‘Érasme Conteur: Folklore et Invention Narrative,’ in Mélanges de Ungues et de littérature médiévales offerts à Pierre le Gentil (Paris, 1973), pp. 85–104 Google Scholar.

4 ‘Molière and the Tradition of the Grotesque,’ in Molière and the Commonwealth of Letters ed. Roger Johnson, Jr., Edith S. Neumann, and Guy T. Trail (Jackson, Miss., 1975), pp. 507-520.

5 Phillips, Margaret Mann, Erasmus on His Times (Cambridge, 1967), p. 77 Google Scholar. The Latin is ‘Festivitas sempiterna est.’ Adagia, II.iv.xii, Erasmus, Opera Omnia, ed. Jean Le Clerc, 10 vols. (Leiden, 1703-1706), II, 586. Except for the correspondence, all passages from Erasmus’ Latin are from this edition.

6 Holbein's illustrations and Listrius’ commentary first appeared in John Froben's 1515 Basel edition. There is a facsimile of this edition: Erasmi Roterodami Encomium Moriae, ed. H. A. Schmid (Basel, 1931). See also Saxl, Fritz, ‘Holbein's Illustrations to The Praise of Folly ,’ Burlington Magazine, 83 (1943), 274–279 Google Scholar.

7 ‘By pointing to her [Folly's] rhetorical gestures … the commentary functions, finally, as a kind of dramatic play book,’ conclude J. Austin Gavin and Thomas M. Walsh in ’The Praise of Folly in Context: The Commentary of Gerardus Listrius,’ RQ, 24 (1971), 193-209, esp. pp. 208-209.

8 The Fool: His Social and Literary History (London, 1935), 238.

9 Klein, pp. 433—450. See also Mesnard, Pierre, Érasme ou le christianisme critique (Paris, 1969). pp. 59–61.Google Scholar

10 This account of the société joyeuses relies on a variety of sources: Welsford, The Fool; Mantzius, Karl, A History of Theatrical Art, trans. Louise von Cossel (London, 1903), Vol. 2 Google Scholar; Julleville, Louis Petit de, Répertoire du Théâtre Comique en France au Moyen-Âge (Geneva, 1967 [Paris, 1886])Google Scholar; Chambers, E. K., The Medieval Stage (Oxford, 1903), Vol. 1 Google Scholar; Kindermann, Heinz, Theatergeschichte Europas (Salzburg, 1957), Vol. 1 Google Scholar; and Davis, Natalie Zemon, Society and Culture in Early Modem France (Stanford, 1975)Google Scholar, Ch. 4: ‘The Reasons of Misrule.'

11 The engraving is reproduced in M. Seidel and R. H. Marijnissen, Bruegel (New York, 1971), p. 67. Many of Bruegel's works, especially the peasant paintings, are relevant to this discussion. See also Alpers, Svetlana, ‘Bruegel's Festive Peasants,’ Simiolus, 6 (1972-73), 163–176 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Davis, pp. 102 ff. In ‘Charivari et mariage ridicule’ (see note 3), Margolin endorses most of Davis’ conclusions.

13 Lewis A. M. Sumberg argues this point in ‘From Farce in the Age Bourgeois (1440-1500) to Farce Molièresque: The Structure of Generic Change,’ in Molière and the Commonwealth of Letters, pp. 430—432.

14 The Medieval French Drama (Oxford, 1954), pp. 244, 246-247.

15 Kindermann, Theatergeschichte Europas, I, 396.

16 A History of Theatrical Art, II, 182.

17 The Fool, p. 205.

18 Erasmus of Rotterdam, Praise of Folly and Letter to Martin Dorp, 1515, trans. Betty Radice (Harmondsworth, 1971), pp. 218-219. (All translations of these two works are from this text, abbreviated ‘Radice’ in subsequent footnotes.) ‘Atque isti tarn ridiculas fabulas et vel ipsis Atellanis ineptiores citra personam agunt. Ego certe verecundius qui, cum ineptior esse vellem, Stulticiae personam obtexui; et quemadmodum apud Platonem Socrates obtecta facie laudes amoris recitat, ita ipse fabulam hanc personatus egi.’ Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterdami, ed. P. S. Allen, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-58), No. 337 (May 1515), II, 95.

19 Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (Princeton, 1959), pp. 67-73. For further discussion of the sermons joyeux and the confrérie des sots, see Petit de Julleville, Répertoire du Théâtre Comique, and Garapon, Robert, La fantaisie verbale et la comique dans le théâtre française, de Moyen Âge à la fin du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1957)Google Scholar.

20 Radice, p. 222. ‘Cur non saltern hoc donamus huic libello quod vulgaribus istis comoediis tribuunt et idiotae?’ Opus Epistolarum, II, 97.

21 Opus Epistolarum, II, 95.

22 On this point, see Welsford, The Fool, p. 206, and Martine Grinberg, ‘Carnaval et société à la fin du XVIe siècle,’ in Les Fêtes de la Renaissance III, p. 550.

23 Bakhtin, p. 11. On the meanings of Carnival, see also Apollonio, Mario, ‘Camevale: origini e senso del carnevale,’ in Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo (Rome, 1956), III, 66–71 Google Scholar; Rademacher, C., ‘Carnival,’ in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings (New York, 1911), III, 225–229 Google Scholar; Caillois, Roger, ‘Théorie de la fête,’ in his L'hommeet le sacré, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1950)Google Scholar; Burke, Peter, Popular Culture in Early Modem Europe (New York, 1978)Google Scholar, Ch. 7; and Toschi, Paolo, Le Origini del Teatro Italiano (Turin, 1976 [1955])Google Scholar.

24 See Grabes, Herbert, Speculum, Mirror und Looking-Glass (Tubingen, 1973), plate 4, facing p. 56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Radice, p. 222. ‘… et sum ipse mihi ostensus in speculo.’ Opus Epistolarum, II, 97. See also Erasmus's defense of the Praise in the adage ‘Ollas ostentare’ (To make a show of kitchen pots); in Margaret Mann Phillips, Erasmus on His Times, pp. 142-143. Adagia, II.ii.xl, Opera Omnia, II, 460 ff.

26 St. More, Thomas, Selected Letters, ed. Elizabeth Frances Rogers (New Haven, 1961), p. 62 Google Scholar. ‘Preterea, non video quo pacto veris Sapientiae laudibus istorum in se invidiam Erasmus lenire possit, quin potius velit nolit multo acerbiorem redderet, quippe quum eos tarn ex Sapientiae contubernio cogeretur eiicere, quam nunc coactus est inter peritissimos Moriae mystas asciscere.’ The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. Elizabeth Frances Rogers (Princeton, 1947), To Martin Dorp (21 October 1515), p. 73.

27 Some recent examples are Miller, Clarence H., ‘Some Medieval Elements and Structural Unity in Erasmus’ Praise of Folly,’ RQ, 27 (1974), 499–511 Google Scholar; Rebhorn, Wayne A., ‘The Metamorphosis of Moria: Structure and Meaning in The Praise of Folly ,’ PMLA, 89 (1974), 463—476 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sylvester, Richard, ‘The Problem of Unity in The Praise of Folly ,’ English Literary Renaissance, 6 (1976), 125–139 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 See Miller, Clarence H., ‘The Logic and Rhetoric of Proverbs in Erasmus's Praise of Folly,’ in Essays on the Works of Erasmus, ed. Richard L. DeMolen (New Haven, 1978), pp. 83–98 Google Scholar. W. David Kay discusses Folly's ‘ironic oration on the indignity of man'; part of Erasmus's ‘jest’ lies in Folly's proving ‘herself a comically backward humanist who reads all the right classical texts, but draws the wrong conclusions, and so undercuts her own conclusions.’ ‘Erasmus's Learned Joking: The Ironic Use of Classical Wisdom in The Praise of Folly,’ Texas Studies in Language and Literature, 19 (1977), 248-249.

29 Bakhtin, p. 11.

30 Ibid, p. 25.

31 La forme et l'intelligible, p. 433. Dolan, John P. also has suggestive comments about Erasmus’ ‘critique of humanity itself in The Essential Erasmus, ed. and trans. Dolan (New York, 1964), pp. 96–98 Google Scholar.

32 Radice, p. 63. ‘Caeterum quemadmodum fieri consuevit, ut cum primum sol formosum illud & aureum os terris, aut ubi post asperam hiemem, novum ver blandis adspirarit Favoniis, protinus nova rebus omnibus fades, novus color ac planejuventa quaedam redeat, ita vobis me conspecta, mox alius accessit vultus.’ Opera Omnia, IV, 405 D-406 A.

33 Sir Frazer, James, The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. (New York, 1935), IV, 235 Google Scholar ff.

34 Sumberg, Samuel, The Nuremberg Schembart Carnival (New York, 1941)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially Ch. 7, and Lefebvre, Joël, ‘Le jeu du Camaval de Nuremberg au XVe siecle et au XVIe siècle,’ in Le Lieu Théâtral à la Renaissance, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1964), pp. 187 Google Scholar ff.

35 The Fool, p. 206. Cf. Chambers, Medieval Stage, I, 379.

36 ‘Carnaval et société urbaine’ (see note 22), p. 550. My translation.

37 The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, pp. 67-68.

38 Opus Epistolarum, II, 96: ‘Si putas nullo pacto libere loquendum esse, nee unquam promendam esse veritatem nisi cum non offendit, cur medici pharmacis medentur amaris, et inter laudatissima ponunt remedia? Quod si illi faciunt, corporum medentes vitiis, quanto magis par est nos idem facere in sanandis animorum morbis?’ See also Margolin, Jean-Claude, Érasmepar lui-même (Paris, 1965), pp. 50–51 Google Scholar.

39 Radice, p. 99. ‘Quid enim omnino geritur inter mortales non stultitiae plenum, idque a stultis, & apud stultos?’ Opera Omnia, IV, 424 D.

40 Radice, p. 111. ‘Sed mihi videor audire reclamantes Philosophos. Atqui hoc ipsum est, inquiunt, miserum, Stultitia teneri, errare, falli, ignorare, Imo hoc est hominem esse.’ Opere Omnia, IV, 433 B.

41 Radice, p. 114. ‘Ut igitur feliciores sunt artes, quae majorem habent cum Stultitia affinitatem, ita longe felicissimi sunt hi, quibus prorsus licuit ab omnium disciplinarum commercio abstinere, solamque naturam ducem sequi, quae nulla sui parte manca est, nisi forte mortalis sortis pomeria transilire velimus. Odit natura fucos, multoque felicius provenit, quod nulla sit arte violatum.’ Opera Omnia, IV, 435 A-C.

42 Radice, p. 122. ‘Sed vicissim insanus insanum ridet, ac mutuam sibi voluptatem invicem ministrant. Neque raro fieri videbitis, ut major insanus, vehementius rideat minorem. Verum hoc quisque felicior, quo pluribus desipit modis, Stultitia judice, modo in eo genere insaniae maneat, quod quidem usque adeo late patet, ut haud sciam, an ex universa mortalium summa quempiam liceat reperire, qui omnibus horis sapiat, quique non aliquo insaniae genere teneatur.’ Opera Omnia, IV, 440 D.

43 Radice, p. 76. ‘Quaeso num caput, num facies, num pectus, num manus, num arius, quae partes honestae putantur, progenerant Deos aut homines? Non, opinor, imo ea pars adeo stulta, adeoque ridicula, ut nee nominari citra risum possit, humani generis est propagatrix. Is est sacer ille fons, unde vitam hauriunt omnia verius quam ille Pythagoricus quaternio.’ Opera Omnia, IV, 412 A.

44 The Praise of Folie, trans. Sir Thomas Chaloner (1549), ed. Clarence H. Miller, Early English Text Society (London, 1965), p. 37.

45 Cited and translated by Genevieve Stenger, ‘The Praise of Folly and Its Parerga,’ Medievalia et Humanistica, N. S., 2 (1971), 102:

‘Vulgares nostra stultos vexisse carina

Contenta, intactam liquimus ire togam

Moria nunc prodit, que byrrhum, syrmata, fasces

Taxans, philosophos convehit & druidas

Heu mihi, quas turbas, quas sanguinis ilia lituras

Eliciet, biles, cum stomachisque ciens’ (Ibid, p. 114, n. 19).

46 Radice, p. 141. ‘Nee est aliud spectaculum illis suavius. Deum immortalem! quod theatrum est illud, quam stultorum tumultus?’ Opera Omnia, IV, 455 A.

47 Radice, p. 143. ‘In summa, si mortalium innumerabiles tumultus, e Luna, quemadmodum Menippus olim, putes te muscarum, aut culicum videre turbam inter se rixantium, bellantium, insidiantium, rapientium, ludentium, lascivientium, nascentium, cadentium, morientium… .’ Opera Omnia, IV, 456 B.

48 Radice, p. 187; Opera Omnia, IV, 490 A. Ecclesiastes, I: 15.

49 Welsford, The Fool, p. 209.

50 The Medieval Stage, I, 87.

51 Radice, p. 208. ‘Quare valete, plaudite, vivite, bibite, Moriae celeberrimi Mystae.’ Opera Omnia, IV, 504 C.

52 Pieper, , In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (Chicago, 1973)Google Scholar; Cox, , The Feast of Fools (Cambridge, Mass., 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens Boston, 1955) and Hugo Rahner, Man at Play (New York, 1967).

53 For Dorp, see the More and Erasmus letters quoted above in the essay and also Mesnard, Pierre, ‘Humanismeet théologie dansle controverse entre Érasme et Dorpius,’ Filosophia, 19 (1963), 885–900 Google Scholar. For Alberto Pio, see Myron P. Gilmore, ‘Italian Reactions to Erasmian Humanism,’ in Itinerarium Itahcum, ed. Heiko Oberman and Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, XIV (Leiden, 1975), pp. 74-76. Gilmore has recently discussed Erasmus and Pio at greater length in ‘Apologiae: Erasmus's Defenses of Folly,’ in Essays on the Works of Erasmus, pp. 111-123. For the French translator, see John G. Rechtien, ‘A 1520 Translation of the Moriae Encomium,’ RQ, 27 (1974), 23-35.

54 Geertz, , The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973), pp. 448 Google Scholar ff; Goffman, , Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (Indianapolis, 1961), pp. 9 Google Scholar ff.

55 Bakhtin, p. 34. On the spirit of Carnival as a source of the unity of the culture, see also Pola Falletti-Villafalletto, G. C., La ‘Juventus'attraverso i secoli, Biblioteca di scienze moderne, 143 (Milan, 1953). pp. 396 Google Scholar ff, esp. p. 398.

56 ‘Érasme, Rabelais et la “festivitas” humaniste,’ in Colloquia Erasmiana Turonensia, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1972), I, 473.

57 Bakhtin, p. 14.