Folly, speaking from her light-hearted pulpit, lays into another bunch of self-serious fools, those who write books, or as she puts it, ‘daub pure nonsense’. So let me thank you for reading my screen daubs.

Erasmus, in the guise of Folly, spares none of his class of literati and intellectuals. See also what he has to say about monarchs.

Also note the metaphor, which may be worth using in contemporary language, ‘flour of the same milling’.

‘Flour of the same milling too are people who chase undying fame by producing books. Everyone of course owes me a great deal, but none more than those who daub pure nonsence on sheets of paper.’ 

 

Source: Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536), Praise of Folly, trans. Roger Clarke (Richmond: Oneworld Classics, 2008 (1511)), p. 67

Photo credit: jarmoluk at pixabay

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