A noteworthy example of Renaissance self-fashioning, Sir Thomas Chaloner remained prominent in the diplomatic and civil establishments of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I during one of the most troubled and dangerous periods of English history. Though briefly recalled from diplomatic service upon Mary's succession in 1553, he enjoyed the trust and favor of all four monarchs. Today Chaloner is of interest primarily as the first English translator of Desiderius Erasmus's Moriae Encomium (1509) and the author of the tragedy of Richard II in the 1559 edition of A Mirror for Magistrates. Chaloner's The Praise of Folly (1549) made widely available a central humanist text at a crucial phase of the English Renaissance when the success of the Reformation hung in the balance, and the future development of Elizabethan literature was being influenced by such scholars, schoolmasters, and statesmen as Thomas Wilson, Roger Ascham, and Sir John Cheke. His...