31 pages • 1 hour read
Desiderius ErasmusPraise Of Folly
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1511A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaPages 3-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 3-8 Summary: “Prefatory Letter”
As an introduction, Erasmus presents a letter to his friend Thomas More in which he explains the circumstances of his writing of Praise of Folly and the intention behind the work. Citing numerous precedents in classical literature, Erasmus defends his application of humor and frivolity to serious topics and insists that his intention is “to give pleasure, not pain” (7).
Pages 9-14 Summary: “Folly Introduces Herself”
Standing in front of an assembly, Folly declares that, although little appreciated by humankind, she is the “bestower of good things” (12) and “the only one whose divine powers can gladden the hearts of gods and men” (9). The audience she addresses immediately smiles, laughs and applauds when she appears. Folly states her intention to deliver a “eulogy” in praise of herself—something which, she laments, an ungrateful humanity has never done before. This eulogy will be in keeping with the spirit of humor: direct and clear, not dry and analytical like scholastic philosophy.
Pages 14-19 Summary: “Folly’s Lineage, Education and Companions”
Folly explains her ancestry. She is the daughter of Plutus, the god of riches and “father of gods and men” (15), and of the goddess Freshness, the “loveliest of all the nymphs” (16). She was born on the Islands of the Blest, a paradise in which “toil, old age, and sickness are unknown” (16) and beautiful and sweet-smelling herbs and flowers grow. Her nursemaids were Drunkenness and Ignorance, and her companions are Self-love, Flattery, Forgetfulness, Idleness, Pleasure, Madness, Sensuality, Revelry, and Sound Sleep (each of these characters is given a Greek name in the text).
Pages 3-19 Analysis
Erasmus dedicates his book to Sir Thomas More, a fellow Christian humanist with whom he was staying while he wrote the text. The Prefatory Letter, written in Erasmus’s own voice, contains the reasons why Erasmus wrote the work and helps to orient the reader to his purpose. In particular, Erasmus defends his practice of mixing serious themes with humor and frivolity, a practice which is highly visible throughout the work.
As the book begins, the reader meets Folly as she stands before an assembly to give a speech. Erasmus subverts the serious, classical idea of an oratorical speech with parody and humor. Instead of a learned teacher or philosopher, the speechmaker in front of the assembly is something akin to a clown; the artist Hans Holbein’s original drawings for the book depicted Folly wearing a fool’s cap and bells and addressing her audience from a pulpit. While a eulogy is usually a grave speech delivered at a funeral, at this assembly, the eulogy is given in praise of humor and laughter. Another quality that makes Folly different from orators of the past is her lack of pretense; she has “no use for cosmetics” (13), her face shows her innermost feelings, and she does not apologize for her self-admiration. Folly herself displays the characteristics appropriate to her and which she will later name as typical of human beings. In preaching folly, Erasmus will lead the reader to wonder whether the doctrines of Folly are really akin to a higher sort of wisdom. One of the central questions of the book is: What is folly, and what is wisdom?
