[After Ep. 33 because Batt is mentioned, and before Ep. 35 which refers to Batt's appreciation of the poems sent with this.]
William Herman responds to Erasmus' letter about a potential migration, expressing concerns about the character of someone involved and seeking Erasmus' advice on a matter mentioned in a previous letter. He discusses his reading of Laurentius Valla's translation of Thucydides and requests Erasmus to send his writings. Herman also mentions sending poems to Erasmus and asks for future correspondence to include dates.
William of Gouda to Erasmus, Poet and Theologian, Most Learned in All Respects, Greetings. I have received your letter, through which I have learned what I already knew, but could not learn what I desired. I had asked and was anxiously wondering whether that migration would be beneficial for both of us. That man deserves hatred, if indeed he is as you describe; I am glad that I did not give full agreement, but referred the matter back to your judgment, although even when that Proteus was with us, his deceptions were beginning to smell suspicious to me: I know the monster, but what can you do? It is a clever saying: "He who sails with an evil demon must cross over with him." Concerning the matter I wrote about in my previous letter, I shall await your advice, whether you recommend it or advise against it. And so I am somewhat hastily seeking to be more certain, because I fear that something may be decided there which would not be to the advantage of either of us, and so that you may be certain of my willingness to carry out whatever seems advantageous. I am reading through the Laurentian Thucydides, who is rather obscure, partly because Greece is little known to us, and partly because he runs along in a concise and hurried manner like Sallust. There is no fault with Laurentius; he is polished, labored-over, refined, most observant of his own elegances—there is no ornament anywhere that he has not studiously inserted. Moreover, he undertook this task by order of the Supreme Pontiff Nicholas V, a man especially well-deserving of the Latin language. But what about you there—what are you doing, what are you reading, what are you writing? Send your writings here, that I may have something of my Erasmus. I sent you what poems of yours I could gather together, and also some of my own that seemed appropriate. When I have leisure, I will reply again, and indeed more fully, to these same matters which I have now hastily scribbled in this letter. I would like you henceforth to add the date on whatever you send out. Farewell. I hope your Battus—who is also mine—is very well.