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xiv Introduction
could carry on his own practice as a lawyer
without fear of molestation. ‘The home-life
there was at its happiest, since the son gentle
Mistress More had longed for, had been added
to the nursery of three little girls. In these
bright surroundings chequered only by his ill
health Erasmus wrote the ‘ Moriae Encomium’,
in praise of Folly. In a letter from Antwerp,
May 1515, he says: ‘I was staying with More
after my return from Italy, when I was kept
several days in the house by lumbago. My
library had not yet arrived; and if it had, my
illness forbade exertion in more serious studies.
So, for want of employment, I began to amuse
myself with the Praise of Folly, not with the
intention of publishing the result, but to relieve
the discomfort of sickness by this sort of distrac¬
tion. I showed a specimen of the unfinished
work to some friends, in order to heighten the
enjoyment of the ridiculous by sharing it. They
were mightily pleased, and insisted on my going
on. I complied, and spent some seven days
upon the work; an expenditure of time which
I thought out of proportion to the importance
of the subject. Afterwards the same persons