Certainly England can show a roll during that period which is in striking contrast to the records of the preceding and succeeding centuries. For sound scholarship and solid acquirements, the women of the sixteenth century may challenge comparison with those of any subsequent period. It was not a time for brilliant authorship among women. The productions of the most renowned are not such as would be read in the present day. Latin distichs, translations of the classics and of theological works, orations in Greek and Latin, are not the writings which commend themselves to posterity, but they display a degree of erudition which was not only remarkable for that period, but would be highly commended in this age of university teaching and the advancement of women along the paths of the higher education.
The following verses by a sixteenth-century writer well express the feeling of the times:—
“You men yt read the memoryes
Of wonders done and paste,
Remember well the historys
Of women first and laste;
And tell me if I saye not true,
That women can do more than you,
“And more than any man can doo
So quicklie and so trym (fast?).
What counterpointes of pollycie,
Of arte and of artyfyce,
But women wth facylitie
Can compas and forecaste.”
Perhaps queens should not be taken as examples, inasmuch as they possess advantages peculiar to their position, and their acquirements are apt to be overstated. Henry VIII., the Sovereign Bluebeard, showed himself admirable as a father in at least one respect, and the care with which his daughters were educated goes some way towards palliating his crimes towards their mothers. If he had not obscured his own talent by his passions and vices, we should be better able to appreciate the encouragement he gave to literature and art, and his accomplishments as one of the best-educated gentlemen of the day. The tastes of the sovereign and the personnel of the court had a more direct influence on society than at the present time. Individual members of the nobility who cultivated learning, did a good deal in raising the tone of their immediate circle.
It may be that the excellence of the tuition given to the Princess Mary was rather due to Queen Catherine of Aragon, who procured, among other tutors for her daughter, a learned countryman of her own, Ludovicus Vives of Valencia. This preceptor succeeded to the post held by the first tutor of the princess, Dr. Lynacre, who died in 1524, when his pupil was six years old. During the short time she was under his care, he drew up a work for her on “The Rudiments of Grammar.” There are probably few princesses now who are handed over to men of scholarship and learning out of their nurses’ arms, as was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII. After the learned Spaniard had instructed the princess a short time, he returned to his own country, and the king then selected Dr. John Harman.
The Princess Mary was specially proficient in Latin, for which she is commended by Erasmus, who, always ready to fall a victim to female charms, regarded learning as an extra embellishment. Speaking of this period, he says, “It is pretty enough that this sex should now at last betake itself to the ancient languages.” Mary wrote excellent Latin epistles, and in later years translated Erasmus’ Paraphrase on the Gospel of St. John. The preface to this work was written by the Master of Eton, Udall, who, after a courtly eulogy of the royal translator, speaks of her “over-painful study and labour of writing,” whereby she had “cast her weak body in a grievous and long sickness.” The work had apparently to be completed by other hands, as Queen Mary’s health was in so declining a condition. She also wrote prayers and meditations.
Elizabeth shone more as a linguist. She is said to have been very conversant with Latin, French, and Italian; to have had some knowledge of Greek when quite a young girl; and at twelve years of age, to have translated a series of Prayers and Meditations from English into Latin, French, and Italian. Her first instructor was Lady Champernon, a lady noted for her accomplishments. With Roger Ascham, she read the classics; with Dr. Grindal, Professor of Divinity, she studied theology; and, after she came to the throne, pursued her studies with great diligence. Latin she both spoke and wrote with ease and grace. In Italian she was instructed by Signore Castiglioni. Greek and Latin she was accustomed to have read to her by Sir Henry Savil and Sir John Fortescue. She was a great student of Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon; one of Xenophon’s Dialogues she translated and published, and translated two Orations of Isocrates from Greek into Latin.
Lady Jane Grey is another notable example of learning and scholarship. Fox writes of her—
“If her fortune had been as good as her bringing up, joyned with fineness of wit, undoubtedly she might have seemed comparable, not only to the house of the Vespasians, Sempronians, and mother of the Grachies; yea, to any other women besides that deserveth high praise for their singular learning; but also to the University men, who have taken many degrees of the Schools.”