Nor can this progress in the learned languages be considered as surprising, when we recollect the vast encouragement given to these
studies, not only by the nobility but by the Queen herself; who was, in fact, a most laborious and erudite author, who wrote a Commentary on Plato, translated from the Greek two of the Orations of Isocrates, a play of Euripides, the Hiero of Xenophon, and Plutarch de Curiositate; from the Latin, Sallust de Bello Jugurthino, Horace de Arte Poetica, Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ, a long chorus from the Hercules Œtæus of Seneca, one of Cicero's epistles, and another of Seneca's; who wrote many Latin letters, many English original works, both in prose and poetry, and who spoke five languages with facility.[451:A] The British Solomon, it is well known, was equally zealous and industrious in the cause of learning, and both not only patronized individuals, but founded and endowed public seminaries; Elizabeth was the founder of Westminster-School, and of Jesus-College, Oxford, and to James the University of Edinburgh owes its existence. This laudable spirit was not confined to regal munificence; in 1584, Emanuel-College, Cambridge, rose on the site of the Dominican convent of Black Friars, through the exertions of Sir Walter Mildmay; and in 1594, Sidney-Sussex College, in the same University, sprung from the patronage of the Dowager of Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex.
Of the modern languages cultivated at this period, the Italian took the lead, and became so fashionable at the court of Elizabeth, and among all who had pretensions to refinement, that it almost rivalled the classical mania of the day. The Queen spoke it with great purity, and among those who professed to teach it, Florio, whom we have formerly mentioned as the object of Shakspeare's satire, was the most eminent. He was pensioned by Lord Southampton, and on the accession of James, was appointed reader of the Italian language to Queen Anne, with a stipend of 100l. a-year.[451:B] So popular were the writers of this fascinating country, that the English language was absolutely inundated with versions of the Italian poets and
novellists, a consequence of which Roger Ascham bitterly complains; for, lamenting the diffusion of Italian licentiousness, he exclaims,—"These be the inchantmentes of Circe, brought out of Italie, to marre men's maners in Englande; much by example of ill life, but more by precepts of fond books, of late translated out of Italian into Englishe sold in every shop in London:—there be moe of these ungratious bookes set out in printe within these few monethes, than have been sene in Englande many score yeares before.—Then they have in more reverence the triumphes of Petrarche, than the Genesis of Moses; they make more account of a tale in Boccace, than a storie of the Bible."[452:A]
It must be allowed, we think, that the censure of Ascham partakes too much of puritanic sourness; for these "ungratious bookes" we find to have been the great classics of Italy, Petrarca, Boccacio, &c. writers who, though occasionally romantic in their incidents, and gross in their imagery, yet presented many just views of life and manners, and many rich examples of harmonious style and fervid imagination. They contributed also very powerfully by the variety and fertility of their fictions, to stimulate the poets of our country, and especially the dramatic, who have been indebted to this source more than to any other for the ground-work of their plots. It is, indeed, sufficiently honourable to Italian literature, that we shall find our unrivalled Shakspeare occasionally indebted to it for the hints which awakened his muse.
We are not to conclude, however, that the labours of our translators were confined to the poetry and romance of Italy, and that its moral, historical, and didactic compositions were utterly neglected. This was so far from being the case, that most of the esteemed productions in these departments were as speedily naturalized as those of the lighter class; and among them we may mention two works which must have had no inconsiderable influence in polishing and refining the manners of our countrymen. In 1576, Robert Peterson,
of Lincolne's-Inn, translated the Galateo of John de la Casa, a system of politeness to which Chesterfield has been much indebted[453:A]; and in 1588, Thomas Hobby published a version of the Cortigiano of Baldassar Castiglione, a work in equal estimation as a manuel of elegance, and termed by the Italians "the Golden Book."[453:B]
The philological attainments of this age, with respect to Greek, Latin, and English, will be placed in a still more compendiously clear light, by a mere enumeration of those who greatly excelled in rendering their acquisition more systematic and correct. Both Greek and English literature were early indebted to the labours of Sir Thomas Smith, who was appointed public lecturer at Cambridge on the first of these languages, the study of which he much facilitated by a new method of accentuation and pronunciation; publishing at the same time an improved system of orthography for his native tongue. These useful works were printed together in 4to. in 1568, under the titles of De recta et emendata linguæ Græcæ pronunciatione, and De recta et emendata linguæ Anglicæ scriptione.
Another equally eminent Grecian philologer appeared at the same time, in the person of Sir Henry Savile, who was Greek preceptor to Elizabeth, warden of Merton-College, and provost of Eton. He was editor of the works of Chrysostom, with notes, in 8 vols. folio, 1613, the most elaborate Greek production which had hitherto issued from an English press: of Xenophon's Cyropædia, and of the Steliteutici of Nazianzen. He translated also into English, as early as 1581, the first four books of the History of Tacitus, and his Life of
Agricola, accompanied by very valuable annotations, which were afterwards published in a Latin version, by Gruter, at Amsterdam.