The following is an excerpt from Erasmus's dialogue Inns (1523), which was one of a series of dialogues written originally in Latin and published as Colloquia Familiara (Informal Conversations) Though Erasmus was notoriously difficult to please and was given to bouts of melodrama the following dialogue between Bertulf and William reveals the discomfort and lack of privacy most sixteenth-century travelers would have encountered while staying at an inn Erasmus is usually regarded as a true cosmopolitan, as a "citizen of Europe," but this passage reveals his relative dislike for Germans, whom he generally considered rude. Note too the savage wit for which Erasmus is rightly famous.

Bertulf: Whether the method of treatment is the same everywhere, I don't know. I'll tell you what I saw [in Germany].No one greets the arrival lest they seem to -be looking for a guest. For that they consider base...