Page 28 [28]
OCR
Introduction xxl in 1517, into Italian in 1539, into English ten years later, and into German, Dutch, and Flemish before the end of the century. It has since appeared in Swedish, Danish, Czech, Russian, Polish, and Modern Greek. That there is no Spanish translation before 1842 is remarkable, for Erasmus’s other works were widely read in Spain. The English translation of 1549 was made by Sir Thomas Chaloner, diplomatist and scholar, knighted for his bravery at Pinkie, and has been more than once reprinted, the last time in 1go1. Another well-known translation, ‘ Witt against Wisdom, or a Panegyrick upon Folly,’ was made in 1683 by White Kennett, then a young B.A. of St. Edmund Hall, later its Principal and afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. The twentieth century can appreciate Chaloner’s work, but to the Stuarts he seemed so oldfashioned as to be almost unintelligible. White Kennett says in his introduction: ‘ Our language hath been so much polish’d, and refin’d, since the first appearance of this Declamation in English, that had it fallen into my hands e’re I entred on this work, the perusal of it would
