The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus

First published:Moriæ Encomiumfirst printed, 1511 (English translation, 1549)

Type of work: Criticism and satire

The Work

Considered by many to be the founder of modern letters, Desiderius Erasmus spent a lifetime producing some of the most important scholarly works of the early Renaissance. Ironically, The Praise of Folly, written as an amusement, became the most enduring of his contributions to Western literature. Erasmus himself never thought highly of this work, yet it is the one for which he is best remembered. He wrote it in approximately seven days in 1509, while he was recovering from an illness at the home of his English friend Thomas More. It was not until two years after its writing that he had the book secretly printed in France. More than forty editions of The Praise of Folly appeared in the author’s lifetime. The work caused Erasmus considerable trouble; his portraits of the clergy did little to endear him to the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, and for years the volume was banned as anti-Catholic. Nevertheless, the treatise has passed into the canon of Western literature, ranking as one of the premier examples of satiric writing in European letters.

The Praise of Folly makes use of one of the oldest forms of rhetorical discourse: the encomium. In a mock encomium, Erasmus makes use of the satirical devices of one of the world’s most influential satirists, Lucian, to poke gentle fun at the tradition of praising great people and great ideas. Putting words of wisdom in the mouth of Folly, Erasmus highlights the paradoxical relationship between conventional wisdom and the religious dimensions of human life. Like all great satirists, Erasmus focuses on specific targets (especially the clergy of his own day), but his general aim is to tell his readers something about universal human nature. Beneath his carefully constructed argument, Erasmus echoes the biblical lesson that, in the eyes of the world, it is truly folly to adopt the Christian lifestyle; in that folly, however, lies real wisdom.

Although written centuries ago, The Praise of Folly is still an effective analytic examination of humankind’s abilities and vanities. It not only gives the modern reader an idea of the struggle of the humanists in their effort to rid the world of the conventions and forms of the Middle Ages but also provides insight into continuing problems of life. As the result of this work and several others, Erasmus became one of the most popular men of letters of his time and, consequently, one of the most influential. He was of prime importance in the spread of humanism through the northern part of Europe and was instrumental in many aspects of both the Reformation and the later phase of the Renaissance. Everything he did was to aid humankind in tearing away the veils of foolish traditions and customs, so that people could find the road back to the true God and their true selves.

The form itself is an immediate indication of the type of work that the book is to be. Written as a parody of a classical oration, the essay sets Folly as the orator. Her subject is society, and she quickly becomes a many-sided symbol that stands for all that is natural in people, all of their misdirected efforts, and all of their attempts to get the wrong things out of life. She discusses the problem of wisdom and tells how it can be united with action to gain success in a world of folly; she is concerned with the way in which reason and simple Christian advice can be presented to humankind; and she wonders what Christian humanists can do for themselves and for the world. Parody, irony, and satire are used throughout the essay to show people what they do and what they should do. No one is spared. Neither king nor prince, pope nor priest, aristocrat nor worker escapes the indignation that Erasmus feels toward society.

At the beginning of her oration, Folly declares that she is giving a eulogy for herself, and she justifies the impertinence by saying that she knows herself better than anyone else and that no one else will do it for her. Her father, she says, is Plutus, the real father of all people and gods, and she was born out of his passion for Youth. Significantly, her birth took place in the Fortunate Isles, and she lists among her followers Drunkenness, Ignorance, Self-Love, Flattery, Forgetfulness, Laziness, Pleasure, Madness, Sensuality, Intemperance, and Sound Sleep—all of whom help her gain control of all things.

It is Folly, for instance, who leads people to marriage and the conception of life, thus prolonging this life that is so foolish. It is Pleasure, one of her followers, who makes life bearable at all. It is Forgetfulness who makes youth such a carefree time, and who restores this same characteristic to old age, thereby bringing about a second childhood. By throwing off care and avoiding wisdom, one can achieve perpetual youth.

Folly goes on to say that she is the source of all that is pleasurable in life. People will never be completely divorced from Folly, because they are ruled more by passion than by reason, and the two most ruling passions are anger and lust. One of the chief sources of men’s pleasure, of course, is women, who are even more subject to Folly than are men. Men’s coarser looks are a result of the infection of wisdom.

Friendship also derives from Folly because it makes people ignore the faults and defects of others. Marriage itself is held together with compromise, infatuation, and duplicity. Without Folly, people could not get along with each other; they would soon begin to hate themselves and everything would seem sordid and loathsome.

Folly praises herself under the guise of Prudence, because she allows humans to have firsthand experience with the world. She frees people from the shame and fear that cloud their minds and inhibit their actions, thus preventing real experience. Thanks to Prudence, people go along with the crowd, which is Folly. It is Folly who has caused all the great achievements of humanity; wisdom and learning are no great help. Everything that a person does is motivated by self-love, vainglory, flattery, or other followers of Folly.

To lead such a life of folly, error, and ignorance is to be human; it is to express one’s true nature. All other forms of life are content with limitations, but humans are vainly ambitious. Those who are most ignorant are the happiest; those who are most deluded are those who delight in telling lies. For an example, one might consider the priests—those who propose to gain happiness by relying on magic charms and prayers, saints, and particular rites. There is no happiness without Folly, because all emotions belong to Folly, and happiness depends on expressing one’s human nature, which is full of folly.

Among the most foolish people, therefore, are those who try to deny their true nature and find happiness through the Christian religion. Folly proves that this religion has more to do with her nature than with wisdom by showing that children, women, old people, and fools take more delight in it than do others. It is they who are always nearest the altars. In the way that Christianity is most often taught and practiced, humans must deny their true nature by disdaining life and preferring death. One must overlook injuries, avoid pleasure, and feast on hunger, vigils, tears, and labors. One must give up and scorn all physical pleasures, or at least take them more lightly than spiritual pleasures.

Folly is at her most serious when she says that this is the most foolish way, and the only sure way, to true happiness. Only by forgetting the body and everything physical can a person approach this goal. People must give themselves up completely to the spiritual aspects of life to achieve it. Few are able to accomplish this task completely enough while in this world to approach an experience that, she says, is close to madness. This madness, in turn, is similar to the heavenly joys that one will experience after death when the spirit has completely left the body.

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