Obs. Viror_. operae pretium est videre quantopere
placeant omnibus, et doctis joco, et indoctis serio, qui dum
ridemus, putant rideri stylum tantum, quem illi non defendunt,
sed gravitate sententiarum dicunt compensatum, et latere sub
rudi vagina pulcherrimum gladium. Utinam fuisset inditus libello
alius titulus! Profecto intra centum annos homines studio
stupidi non sensissent nasum, quamquam rhinocerotico
longiorem."[8]
Erasmus evidently enjoyed the witty contrivance, though he affects to
disapprove it as an anonymous libel. Simler, in his life of Bullinger,
relates that on the first reading Erasmus fell into such a fit of
laughter as to burst an abscess in his face with which he was at that
time troubled, and which prevented the necessity of a surgical
operation.
The literary history of the _Epistolae_ and the _Dialogue_ is involved in
obscurity. That Ulrich von Hutten had a large share in their concoction
there can be no doubt; and that he was assisted by Crotus Rubianus and
Hermann von Busch, if not by others, seems highly probable. The
authorship of _Lamentationes Obscurorum Virorum_ is a paradox which has
not yet been solved. They are a parody, but a poor one, of the
_Epistolae_, and in the second edition are attributed to Ortuinus
Gratius. If they are by him, he must have been a dull dog indeed; but by
some it has been thought that they are the work of a Reuchlinist, to
mystify the monks of Cologne, and render them still more ridiculous;
yet, as the Pope's bull against the _Epistolae_, and Erasmus's
disapproving letter, find a prominent place, and some other
well-grounded inculpations occur, it appears to me that some
slender-witted advocate of the enemies of learning has here shown his
want of skill in handling the weapons of the adversary.
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