How Praise of Folly drew on Letters from a Stoic
A documented line of influence: Erasmus demonstrably engaged Seneca’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca · c. 64
Ancient RomeThe influenced
Praise of Folly
Erasmus · 1511
RenaissanceRelevance
6/10
On Praise of Folly’s page
- Erasmus names "the great Stoic Seneca" by name — Praise of Folly is, in part, a comic quarrel with the Letters
- Seneca's program of disciplining the passions is exactly what Folly ridicules: a sage so emotionless he ceases to be human
- Read the Letters first and you'll hear precisely which Stoic ideal Erasmus is laughing at
On Letters from a Stoic’s page
- Erasmus was editing printed editions of Seneca even as he wrote Praise of Folly — and he repaid the debt with mockery
- Folly skewers "the great Stoic Seneca" for an ideal so purged of passion that the sage stops being human at all
- The Letters' calm mastery of the emotions becomes Erasmus's prime target when he argues that a little folly is what makes us alive