[965] This grammar by Camden was probably founded on that of Grant, above-mentioned; cujus rudimenta, says Smith, the author of Camden’s life, cum multa ex parte laborarent deficerentque, non tam reformanda, quam de novo instituenda censens, observationibus quas ex Græcis omne genus scriptoribus acri judicio et longo usu collegerat, sub severum examen revocatis, grammaticam novam non soli scholæ cui præerat, sed universis per Angliam scholis deinceps inservituram, eodem anno edidit.—P. 19, edit. 1691.
The excessive scarcity of early school-books makes it allowable to mention the Progymnasma Scholasticum of John Stockwood, an edition of which, with the date of 1597, is in the Inner Temple Library. It is merely a selection of epigrams from the Anthologia of H. Stephens, and shows but a moderate expectation of proficiency from the studious youth for whom it was designed: the Greek being written in interlinear Latin characters over the original, ad faciliorem eorundem lectionem. A literal translation into Latin follows, and several others in metre. Stockwood had been master of Tunbridge School: Scholæ Tunbridgiensis olim ludimagister; so that there may possibly have been earlier editions of this little book.
[966] The arrangement of editions recorded in Herbert, following the names of the printers, does not afford facilities for any search. I may, therefore, have omitted one or two trifles, and it is likely that I have; but the conclusion will be the same. Angli, says Scaliger, nunquam excuderunt bonos libros veteres, tantum vulgares.
And of Latin classics. 48. It must be expected that the best Latin writers were more honoured than those of Greece. Besides grammars and dictionaries, which are too numerous to mention, we find not a few editions, though principally for the purposes of education:—Cicero de Officiis (in Latin and English), 1553; Virgil, 1570; Sallust, 1570 and 1571; Justin, 1572; Cicero de Oratore, 1573; Horace and Juvenal, 1574. It is needless to proceed lower, when they become more frequent. The most important classical publication was a complete edition of Cicero, which was, of course, more than a schoolbook. This appeared at London in 1585, from the press of Ninian Newton. It is said to be a reprint from the edition of Lambinus.
Learning lower than in Spain. 49. It is obvious that foreign books must have been largely imported, or we should place the learning of the Elizabethan period as much too low as it has ordinarily been exaggerated. But we may feel some surprise that so little was contributed by our native scholars. Certain it is, that in most departments of literature they did not yet occupy a distinguished place. The catalogue by Herbert, of books published down to the end of the century, presents no favourable picture of the queen’s reign. Without instituting a comparison with Germany or France, we may easily make one with the classed catalogue of books printed in Spain, which we find at the close of the Bibliotheca Nova of Nicolas Antonio. Greek appears to have been little studied in Spain, though we have already mentioned a few grammatical works; but the editions of Latin authors, and the commentators upon them, are numerous; and upon the whole it is undeniable that, in most branches of erudition, so far as we can draw a conclusion from publications, Spain, under Philip II., held a higher station than England under Elizabeth. The poverty of the English church, the want of public libraries, and the absorbing influence of polemical theology will account for much of this; and I am not by any means inclined to rate our English gentlemen of Elizabeth’s age for useful and even classical knowledge below the hidalgos of Castile. But this class were not the chief contributors to literature. It is, however, in consequence of the reputation for learning acquired by some men distinguished in civil life, such as Smith, Sadler, Raleigh, and even by ladies, among whom the queen herself, and the accomplished daughters of Sir Antony Cooke, Lady Cecil, and Lady Russell, are particularly to be mentioned, that the general character of her reign has been, in this point of view, considerably overrated. No Englishman ought, I conceive, to suppress this avowal, or to feel any mortification in making it; with the prodigious development of wisdom and genius that illustrated the last years of Elizabeth, we may well spare the philologers and antiquaries of the Continent.
Improvement at the end of the century. 50. There had arisen, however, towards the conclusion of the century, a very few men of such extensive learning as entitled them to an European reputation. Sir Henry Savile stood at the head of these: we may justly deem him the most learned Englishman, in profane literature, of the reign of Elizabeth. He published, in 1581, a translation of part of Tacitus, with annotations not very copious or profound, but pertinent, and deemed worthy to be rendered into Latin in the next century by the younger Gruter, and reprinted on the Continent.[967] Scaliger speaks of him with personal ill-will, but with a respect he seldom showed to those for whom he entertained such sentiments. Next to Savile we may rank Camden, whom all foreigners name with praise for the Britannia. Hooker has already been mentioned; but I am not sure that he could be said to have much reputation beyond our own shores. I will not assert that no other was extensively known even for profane learning: in our own biographical records several may be found, at least esteemed at home. But our most studious countrymen long turned their attention almost exclusively to theological controversy, and toiled over the prolix volumes of the fathers; a labour not to be defrauded of its praise, but to which we are not directing our eyes on this occasion.[968]
[967] They are contained in a small volume, 1649, with Savile’s other treatise on the Roman Militia.
[968] It is remarkable that, in Jewel’s Defence of the Apology, by far the most learned work in theological erudition which the age produced, he quotes the Greek fathers in Latin; and there is a scanty sprinkling of Greek characters throughout this large volume.
Learning in Scotland. 51. Scotland had hardly as yet partaken of the light of letters; the very slight attempts at introducing an enlarged scheme of education, which had been made thirty years before, having wholly failed in consequence of the jealous spirit that actuated the chiefs of the old religion and the devastating rapacity that disgraced the partisans of the new. But in 1575, Andrew Melville was appointed principal of the university of Glasgow, which he found almost broken up and abandoned. He established so solid and extensive a system of instruction, wherein the best Greek authors were included, that Scotland, in some years time, instead of sending her own natives to foreign universities, found students from other parts of Europe repairing to her own.[969] Yet Ames has observed that no Greek characters appear in any book printed in Scotland before 1599. This assertion has been questioned by Herbert. In the treatise of Buchanan, De Jure Regni (Edinburgh, 1580), I have observed that the Greek quotations are inserted with a pen. It is at least certain that no book in that language was printed north of the Tweed within this century, nor any Latin classic, nor dictionary, nor any thing of a philological nature except two or three grammars. A few Latin treatises by modern authors on various subjects appeared.[970] It seems questionable whether any printing-press existed in Ireland: the evidence to be collected from Herbert is precarious; but I know not whether any thing more satisfactory has since been discovered.
[969] M’Crie’s Life of Melville, vol. i. p. 72.