Part 3 (2/2)
Was their proud Latinity not a fatal error? There is one of the crucial points of history
A present-day reader who should take up the _Adagia_ or the _Apophtheg his own life (for they were ave them value), would soon ask hiical or historical considerations, those endless details concerning obscure personages of antique society, of Phrygians, of Thessalians? They are nothing toto Erasmus's contemporaries either The stupendous history of the sixteenth century was not enacted in classic phrases or turns; it was not based on classic interests or views of life There were no Phrygians and Thessalians, no Agesilauses or Dionysiuses The humanists created out of all this a mental realm, emancipated from the limitations of ti influenced by them? That is the question, and we shall not attempt to answer it: to what extent did humanism influence the course of events?
In any case Erashtened the international character of civilization which had existed throughout the Middle Ages because of Latin and of the Church If they thought they were reallyLatin a vehicle for daily international use, they overrated their power It was, no doubt, an a fancy and a witty exercise to plan, in such an international _milieu_ as the Parisian student world, such ames in Latin as the _Colloquioruht that the next generation would play at marbles in Latin?
Still, intellectual intercourse undoubtedly became very easy in so wide a circle as had not been within reach in Europe since the fall of the Roy alone, and an occasional literate, but a nuhers and nobles, qualifying for sorammar-school and found Erasmus in their path
Erasmus could not have attained to his world-wide celebrity if it had not been for Latin To e was beyond hiuess what a talent like his, with his power of observation, his delicacy of expression, his gusto and wealth, ine the _Colloquia_ written in the racy Dutch of the sixteenth century! What could he not have produced if, instead of gleaning and coia, he had, for his themes, availed himself of the proverbs of the vernacular? To us such a proverb is perhaps even htly finical turns praised by Erasmus
This, however, is to reason unhistorically; this was not what the tiive It is quite clear why Erasmus could only write in Latin Moreover, in the vernacular everything would have appeared too direct, too personal, too real, for his taste He could not do without that thin veil of vagueness, of re is wrapped when expressed in Latin His fastidious mind would have shrunk from the pithy coarseness of a Rabelais, or the rustic violence of Luther's Gerun for Eras Estrangement from the land of his birth set in when he left the monastery of Steyn It was furthered not a little by the ease hich he handled Latin Erasmus, who could express hiue, and even better, consequently lacked the experience of, after all, feeling thoroughly at ho his coical influence which acted to alienate him from Holland After he had seen at Paris the perspectives of his own capacities, he became confirmed in the conviction that Holland failed to appreciate him, that it distrusted and slandered hiround for this conviction
But, partly, it was also a reaction of injured self-love In Holland people knew too much about him They had seen hied to obey others--he who, above all things, wanted to be free Distaste of the narrow-mindedness, the coarseness and intemperance which he knew to prevail there, were suement of the Dutch character
Henceforth he spoke as a rule about Holland with a sort of apologetic contempt 'I see that you are content with Dutch fame,' he writes to his old friend Williaun to devote his best forces to the history of his native country 'In Holland the air is good for ant carousals annoy ar uncultured character of the people, the violent conteious envy' And excusing the imperfection of his juvenilia, he says: 'At that time I wrote not for Italians, but for Hollanders, that is to say, for the dullest ears' And, in another place, 'eloquence is demanded from a Dutchman, that is, froain, 'If the story is not very witty, remember it is a Dutch story' No doubt, false s
After 1496 he visited Holland only on hasty journeys There is no evidence that after 1501 he ever set foot on Dutch soil He dissuaded his own co to Holland
Still, now and again, a cordial feeling of sympathy for his native country stirred within hi Martial's _Auris Batava_ in the _Adagia_, for venting his spleen, he availed hiyric on as dearest to him in Holland, 'a country that I aave ht be a credit to it, just as, on the other hand, I need not be ashamed of it' Their reputed boorishness rather redounds to their honour 'If a ”Batavian ear” means a horror of Martial's obscene jokes, I could wish that all Christians ht have Dutch ears When we consider their morals, no nation is e or cruel TheirIf they are somewhat sensual and excessive at meals, it results partly from their plentiful supply: nowhere is ireat What an extent of lush able rivers! Nowhere are so e towns, indeed, but excellently governed Their cleanliness is praised by everybody Nowhere are such large nuh extraordinary and exquisite erudition is rather rare'
They were Erasmus's own most cherished ideals which he here ascribes to his coentleness, sincerity, simplicity, purity He sounds that note of love for Holland on other occasions When speaking of lazy woe numbers of them, but in Holland we find countless wives who by their industry support their idling and revelling husbands' And in the colloquy entitled 'The shi+pwreck', the people who charitably take in the castaways are Hollanders 'There is no h surrounded by violent nations'
In addressing English readers it is perhaps not superfluous to point out once again that Eras the epithet 'Batavian', refers to the county of Holland, which at present fordom of the Netherlands, and stretches from the Wadden islands to the estuaries of the Meuse
Even the nearest neighbours, such as Zealanders and Frisians, are not included in this appellation
But it is a different matter when Erasmus speaks of _patria_, the fatherland, or of _nostras_, a compatriot In those days a national consciousness was just budding all over the Netherlands A , a Brabantine in the first place; but the co political influence which for nearly a century had been exercised by the Burgundian dynasty, which had united most of these low countries under its sway, had ce of solidarity which did not even halt at the linguistic frontier in Belgiuundian patriotis had _de facto_ occupied the place of Burgundy) than a strictly Netherlandish feeling of nationality People liked, by using a heraldic synate the Netherlander as 'the Lions' Erasradually see the narrower Hollandish patriotis, _patria_ with him still means Holland proper, but soon it rees his feelings regarding Holland, ust and attacheneral
'Inhimself, 'I did not write for Italians but for Hollanders, the people of Brabant and Fles' So they now all share the reputation of bluntness To Louvain is applied what formerly was said of Holland: there are toobout Nowhere, he repeatedly complains, is there so little sense of the _bonae literae_, nowhere is study so despised as in the Netherlands, and nowhere are there more cavillers and slanderers But also his affection has expanded When Longolius of Brabant plays the Frencholius; he was unco, except only that he is too French, whereas it is well known that he is one of us'[4] When Charles V has obtained the crown of Spain, Erasular stroke of luck, but I pray that itto the fatherland, and not only to the prince' When his strength was beginning to fail he began to thinkFerdinand invites e promises, to come to Vienna,' he writes from Basle, 1 October 1528, 'but nowhere would it please me better to rest than in Brabant'
[Illustration: V Doodles by Erasin of one of his manuscripts]
[Illustration: VI A e of Erasmus]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Allen No 10264, cf 914, intr p 473 Later Erasolius was a Hollander, cf LBE 1507 A
CHAPTER VI
THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS
1501
At Tournehey now the aim of his life--He learns Greek--John Vitrier--_Enchiridion Militis Christiani_