Part 17 (1/2)

V TO ANTONY OF BERGEN[31]

[Paris?] [16 March? 1501]

To the reetings:

I have accidentally happened upon so thehted with Cato the Censor's exae Indeed, most excellent Father, if in my boyhood I had been of this , I should be the happiest of s are, I think it better to learn, even if a little late, than not to know things which it is of the first importance to have at one's command I have already tasted of Greek literature in the past, butlately gone a little deeper into it, I perceive--as one has often read in the best authorities--that Latin learning, rich as it is, is defective and incomplete without Greek; for we have but a few ss and rivers rolling gold I see that it is utter y which deals chiefly with the mysteries unless one is also provided with the equip to their conscientious scruples, render Greek forms in such a fashi+on that not even the priians call the _literal_ sense) can be understood by persons ignorant of Greek Who could understand the sentence in the Psalm [Ps 504 (513)]

_Et peccatum meum contra me est semper_,[32] unless he has read the Greek? This runs as follows: [Greek: kai he hamartia ian will spin a long story of how the flesh is perpetually in conflict with the spirit, having beenof the preposition, that is, _contra_, when the word [Greek: enopion] refers not to _conflict_ but to _position_, as if you were to say _opposite_, ie, _in sight_: so that the Prophet'swas that his fault was so hateful to him that the memory of it never left him, but floated always before his e elsewhere [Ps 91 (92 14)], _Bene patientes erunt ut annuncient_, everyone will be misled by the deceptive form, unless he has learned froe we say _bene facere_ of those who _do good to_ someone, so the Greeks call [Greek: eupathountas] (_bene patientes_) those who _suffer good to be done them_ So that the sense is, 'They will be well treated and will be helped by my benefactions, so that they will make mention of my beneficence towards the examples from so many important ones, when I have on my side the venerable authority of the papal Curia? There is a Curial Decree[33]

still extant in the Decretals, ordaining that persons should be appointed in the chief acade accurate instruction in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin literature, since, as they believed, the Scriptures could not be understood, far less discussed, without this knowledge This lect that we are perfectly satisfied with theapparently convinced that everything can be extracted from Duns Scotus, as it were froht with men of this sort; each man to his taste, as far as I am concerned; let the old ht to set foot on the path into which Jerome and the splendid host of so many ancients summon me; so help me God, I would sooner be mad with theians

Besides I a an arduous and, so to say, Phaethontean task--to do my best to restore the works of Jerome, which have been partly corrupted by those half-learned persons, and are partly--owing to the lack of knowledge of antiquities and of Greek literature--forgotten or led or mutilated or at least full of mistakes and monstrosities; not merely to restore them but to elucidate thee to hireat Jerome, considered by the ecclesiastical world as the , the sacred and the profane, can indeed be read by all, but can only be understood by the n and see that I must in the first place acquire Greek, I have decided to study for some months under a Greek teacher,[34] a real Greek, no, twice a Greek, always hungry,[35] who charges an immoderate fee for his lessons Farewell

VI TO WILLIAM WARHAM[36]

London, 24 January [1506]

To the Reverend Father in Christ, Willias froustine:

Having made up my mind, most illustrious prelate, to translate the Greek authors and by so doing to revive or, if you will, proical studies--and God immortal, how miserably they have been corrupted by sophistical nonsensicalities!--I did not wish to give the i forthwith to learn the potter's art on a winejar[37] (as the Greek adage goes) and rushi+ng in with unwashen feet, as they say, on so vast an undertaking; so I decided to begin by testing how far I had profited by es, and that in a material difficult indeed, but not sacred; so that the difficulty of the undertaking ht be useful for practice and at the same time if I made any mistakes these mistakes should involve only the risk of ed And so I endeavoured to render in Latin two tragedies of Euripides, the _Hecuba_ and the _Iphigeneia in Aulis_, in the hope that perchance soht favour so bold a venture with fair breezes Then, seeing that a speciun found favour with persons excellently well versed in both tongues (assuredly England by now possesses several of these, if Iof the adht the work to a finish, with the good help of the Muses, within a few short months At what a cost in exertion, those will best feel who enter the sa real Greek into real Latin is such that it requires an extraordinary artist, and not only a es at his fingertips, but one exceedingly alert and observant; so that for several centuries now none has appeared whose efforts in this field were unanimously approved by scholars It is surely easy then to conjecture what a heavy task it has proved to render verse in verse, particularly verse so varied and unfamiliar, and to do this froedian, but also marvellously concise, taut and unadorned, in who which it would not be a crime to alter or remove; and besides, one who treats rhetorical topics so frequently and so acutely that he appears to be everywhere declaih I know not what striving after effect are so obscure that they need not so much a translator as an Oedipus or priest of Apollo to interpret them In addition there is the corrupt state of the manuscripts, the dearth of copies, the absence of any translators to whom one can have recourse So I ae none of the Italians has ventured to atteedy or co these even Politian[38] failed to satisfy himself); one man[39] has essayed Hesiod, and that without much success; another[40] has attempted Theocritus, but with even far more unfortunate results: and finally Francesco Filelfo has translated the first scene of the Hecuba in one of his funeral orations[41] (I first learned this after I had begun reat as he is, his work gave h to proceed, overprecise as I am in other respects

Then for me the lure of this poet's more than honeyed eloquence, which even his enereat examples and the many difficulties of the work, so that I have been bold to attack a task never before attempted, in the hope that, even if I failed, my honest readers would consider even this poor effort ofwould at least be lenient to an inexperienced translator of a work so difficult: in particular because I have deliberately added no light burden to hso far as possible to reproduce the shape and as it were contours of the Greek verse, by striving to render line for line and al with the utmost fidelity to convey to Latin ears the force and value of the sentence: whether it be that I do not altogether approve of the freedom in translation which Cicero allows others and practised hiree), or that as an inexperienced translator I preferred to err on the side of see on the sandy shore instead of wreckingin the midst of the billows; and I preferred to run the risk of letting scholars complain of lack of brilliance and poetic beauty in inal Finally I did not want to setnorance, wrapping the to avoid detection

Now, if readers do not find here the grandiloquence of Latin tragedy, 'the bo,' as Horace calls it, theymy function of translator I have preferred to reproduce the concise siinal, and not the boreatly aded to hope with all certainty that these labours of ainst the calumnies of the unjust, as their publication will be most welcome to the honest and just, if you, most excellent Father, have voted them your approval

For reat host of illustrious and distinguished ils, as the one man I have observed to be--aside from the brilliance of your fortune--so endowed, adorned and showered with learning, eloquence, good sense, piety, rity, and lastly with an extraordinary liberality towards those who cultivate good letters, that the word Primate suits none better than yourself, who hold the first place not solely by reason of your official dignity, but far more because of all your virtues, while at the same time you are the principal ornament of the Court and the sole head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy If I have the fortune to win for this hly commended I shall assuredly not repent of the exertions I have so far expended, and will be forward to proical studies with even more zeal for the future

Farewell, and enrol Erasmus in the number of those who are wholeheartedly devoted to Your Fathershi+p

[Illustration: XXVII PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 53

On the reverse his device and motto]

[Illustration: XXVIII ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF ABOUT 57]

VII TO ALDUS MANUTIUS[42]

Bologna, 28 October [1507]

To Aldus Manutius of Ros: