Produced by Ted Garvin, Virginia Paque and the PG Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
The Colloquies of Erasmus.
Edited, with Notes, by the Rev. E. Johnson, M.A.
Prefatory NoteDedicationAdmonitory NoteTo the Divines of LouvainCopy of Bailey's TitleBailey's PrefaceLife of ErasmusCourtesy in SalutingFamily DiscourseOf Rash VowsOf Benefice-HuntersOf a Soldier's LifeThe Commands of a MasterThe School-master's AdmonitionsOf Various PlaysThe Child's PietyThe Art of HuntingScholastic StudiesThe Profane FeastThe Religious TreatThe Apotheosis of CapnioA Lover and MaidenThe Virgin Averse to MatrimonyThe Penitent VirginThe Uneasy WifeThe Soldier and CarthusianPhiletymus and PseudocheusThe ShipwreckDiversoriaYoung Man and HarlotThe Poetical FeastAn Enquiry concerning FaithThe Old Mens DialogueThe Franciscans, [Greek: Ptôchoplousioi], or Rich BeggarsThe Abbot and Learned WomanThe Epithalamium of Petrus ÆgidiusThe Exorcism or ApparitionThe AlchymistThe Horse-CheatThe Beggars' DialogueThe Fabulous FeastThe Lying-in Woman
Prefatory Note.
The present English version of Erasmus' Colloquies is a reprint of thetranslation of N. Bailey, the compiler of a well-known Dictionary. Inhis Preface Bailey says, "I have labour'd to give such a Translation asmight in the general, be capable of being compar'd with the Original,endeavouring to avoid running into a paraphrase: but keeping as close tothe original as I could, without Latinizing and deviating from theEnglish Idiom, and so depriving the English reader of that pleasure thatErasmus so plentifully entertains his reader with in Latin."
This is a modest and fair account of Bailey's work. The chiefpeculiarity of his version is its reproduction of the idiomatic andproverbial Latinisms, and generally of the classical phrases andallusions in which Erasmus abounds, in corresponding or analogousEnglish forms. Bailey had acquired, perhaps from his lexicographicalstudies, a great command of homely and colloquial English; the words andphrases by which he frequently represents rather than construesErasmus' text have perhaps in many instances not less piquancy than theoriginal. Thus his translation, as a piece of racy English, has acertain independent value of its own, and may be read with interest evenby those who are familiar with the original.
In preparing this volume for the press, Bailey's text has been carefullyrevised, and clerical errors have been corrected, but the liberty hasnot been taken of altering his language, even to the extent of removingthe coarsenesses of expression which disfigure the book and in which heexaggerates the plain speaking of the original. Literary feeling isjealous, no doubt justly, on general grounds, of expurgations.
Further, throughout the greater part of the work, the translation hasbeen closely compared with the Latin original. Occasional inaccuracieson Bailey's part have been pointed out in the Appendix of Notes at theend of the volume. The literal sense of the original, sometimes itslanguage, has in many of these notes