The Scholemaster

by Roger Ascham

louse to disobedience, surelie it is hard with ientlenesse, but
vnpossible with seuere crueltie, to call them backe to good
frame againe. For, where the one, perchance maie bend it,
the other shall surelie breake it: and so in stead of some hope,
leaue an assured desperation, and shamelesse con- // Xen. 1. Cy-
tempt of all goodnesse, the fardest pointe in all // ri Pæd.
mischief, as Xenophon doth most trewlie and most
wittelie marke.
Therfore, to loue or to hate, to like or contemne, to plie
this waie or that waie to good or to bad, ye shall haue as ye vse
a child in his youth.
And one example, whether loue or feare doth worke more
in a child, for vertue and learning, I will gladlie report: which
maie be hard with some pleasure, and folowed with more profit.
Before I went into Germanie, I came to Brodegate in Leceter-
shire, to take my leaue of that noble Ladie Iane
Grey, to whom I was exceding moch beholdinge. // Lady Iane
Hir parentes, the Duke and Duches, with all the // Grey.
houshould, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, were huntinge in the
Parke: I founde her, in her Chamber, readinge Phædon Platonis
in Greeke, and that with as moch delite, as som ientleman wold
read a merie tale in Bocase. After salutation, and dewtie done,
with som other taulke, I asked hir, whie she wold leese soch
pastime in the Parke? smiling she answered me: I wisse, all
their sporte in the Parke is but a shadoe to that pleasure, that I
find in Plato: Alas good folke, they neuer felt, what trewe
pleasure ment. And howe came you Madame, quoth I, to this
deepe knowledge of pleasure, and what did chieflie allure you
vnto it: seinge, not many women, but verie fewe men haue
atteined thereunto. I will tell you, quoth she, and tell you
a troth, which perchance ye will meruell at. One of the
greatest benefites, that euer God gaue me, is, that he sent me
so sharpe and seuere Parentes, and so ientle a scholemaster.
For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether
I speake, kepe silence, sit, stand, or go, eate, drinke, be merie,
or sad, be sowyng, plaiyng, dauncing, or doing anie thing els,
I must do it, as it were, in soch weight, mesure, and number,
euen so perfitelie, as God made the world, or else I am so
sharplie taunted, so cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some
tymes, with pinches, nippes, and bobbes, and other waies, which

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I will not name, for the honor I beare them, so without measure misordered, that I thinke my selfe in hell, till tyme cum, that I must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so ientlie, so pleasantlie, with soch faire allurementes to learning, that I thinke all the tyme nothing, whiles I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, what soeuer I do els, but learning, is ful of grief, trouble, feare, and whole misliking vnto me: And thus my booke, hath bene so moch my pleasure, & bringeth dayly to me more pleasure & more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deede, be but trifles and troubles vnto me. I remember this talke gladly, both bicause it is so worthy of memorie, & bicause also, it was the last talke that euer I had, and the last tyme, that euer I saw that noble and worthie Ladie. I could be ouer long, both in shewinge iust causes, and in recitinge trewe examples, why learning shold be taught, rather by loue than feare. He that wold see a perfite discourse of it, Sturmius // let him read that learned treatese, which my frende de Inst. // Ioan. Sturmius wrote de institutione Principis, to Princ. // the Duke of Cleues. The godlie counsels of Salomon and Iesus the sonne of Qui par- // Sirach, for sharpe kepinge in, and bridleinge of cit virgæ, // youth, are ment rather, for fatherlie correction, odit filium. // then masterlie beating, rather for maners, than for learninge: for other places, than for scholes. For God forbid, but all euill touches, wantonnes, lyinge, pickinge, slouthe, will, stubburnnesse, and disobedience, shold be with sharpe chastise- ment, daily cut away. This discipline was well knowen, and diligentlie vsed, among the Græcians, and old Romanes, as doth appeare in Aristophanes, Isocrates, and Plato, and also in the Comedies of Plautus: where we see that children were vnder the rule of three persones: Præceptore, Pædagogo, Parente: the scholemaster 1. Schole- // taught him learnyng with all ientlenes: the master. // Gouernour corrected his maners, with moch 2. Gouer- // sharpenesse: The father, held the sterne of his nour. // whole obedience: And so, he that vsed to teache, 3. Father. // did not commonlie vse to beate, but remitted that ouer to an other mans charge. But what shall we saie, whan now in our dayes, the scholemaster is vsed, both for Præceptor

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in learnyng, and Pædagogus in maners. Surelie, I wold he shold not confound their offices, but discretelie vse the dewtie of both so, that neither ill touches shold be left vnpunished, nor ientlesse in teaching anie wise omitted. And he shall well do both, if wiselie he do appointe diuersitie of tyme, & separate place, for either purpose: vsing alwaise soch discrete modera- tion as the scholehouse should be counted a sanctuarie against feare: and verie well learning, a // The schole common perdon for ill doing, if the fault, of it // house. selfe be not ouer heinous. And thus the children, kept vp in Gods feare, and preserued by his grace, finding paine in ill doing, and pleasure in well studiyng, shold easelie be brought to honestie of life, and perfitenes of learning, the onelie marke, that good and wise fathers do wishe and labour, that their children, shold most buselie, and carefullie shot at. There is an other discommoditie, besides crueltie in schole- masters in beating away the loue of learning from // Youth of children, which hindreth learning and vertue, and // England good bringing vp of youth, and namelie yong // brought vp ientlemen, verie moch in England. This fault // with to is cleane contrary to the first. I wished before, // much li- to haue loue of learning bred vp in children: // bertie. I wishe as moch now, to haue yong men brought vp in good order of liuing, and in some more seuere discipline, then commonlie they be. We haue lacke in England of soch good order, as the old noble Persians so carefullie vsed: // Xen. 7. whose children, to the age of xxi. yeare, were // Cyri Ped. brought vp in learnyng, and exercises of labor, and that in soch place, where they should, neither see that was vncumlie, nor heare that was vnhonest. Yea, a yong ientleman was neuer free, to go where he would, and do what he liste him self, but vnder the kepe, and by the counsell, of some graue gouernour, vntill he was, either maryed, or cald to beare some office in the common wealth. And see the great obedience, that was vsed in old tyme to fathers and gouernours. No sonne, were he neuer so old of yeares, neuer so great of birth, though he were a kynges sonne, might not mary, but by his father and mothers also consent. Cyrus the great, after he had conquered Babylon, and subdewed

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Riche king Crœsus with whole Asia minor, cummyng tryumph- antlie home, his vncle Cyaxeris offered him his daughter to wife. Cyrus thanked his vncle, and praised the maide, but for mariage he answered him with thies wise and sweete wordes, as Xen. 8. Cy- // they be vttered by Xenophon, o kuazare, to ri. Pæd. // te genos epaino, kai ten paida, kai dora boulomai de, ephe, syn te tou patros gnome kai [te] tes metros tauta soi synainesai, &c., that is to say: Vncle Cyaxeris, I commend the stocke, I like the maide, and I allow well the dowrie, but (sayth he) by the counsell and consent of my father and mother, I will determine farther of thies matters. Strong Samson also in Scripture saw a maide that liked him, but he spake not to hir, but went home to his father, and his mother, and desired both father and mother to make the mariage for him. Doth this modestie, doth this obedience, that was in great kyng Cyrus, and stoute Samson, remaine in our yongmen at this daie? no surelie: For we liue not longer after them by tyme, than we liue farre different from them by good order. Our tyme is so farre from that old discipline and obedience, as now, not onelie yong ientlemen, but euen verie girles dare without all feare, though not without open shame, where they list, and how they list, marie them selues in spite of father, mother, God, good order, and all. The cause of this euill is, that youth is least looked vnto, when they stand [in] most neede of good kepe and regard. It auail- eth not, to see them well taught in yong yeares, and after whan they cum to lust and youthfull dayes, to giue them licence to liue as they lust them selues. For, if ye suffer the eye of a yong Ientleman, once to be entangled with vaine sightes, and the eare to be corrupted with fond or filthie taulke, the mynde shall quicklie fall seick, and sone vomet and cast vp, all the holesome doctrine, that he receiued in childhoode, though he were neuer so well brought vp before. And being ons inglutted with vanitie, he will streight way loth all learning, and all good counsell to the same. And the parents for all their great cost Great mens // and charge, reape onelie in the end, the frute sonnes // of grief and care. worst // This euill, is not common to poore men, as God brought // will haue it, but proper to riche and great mens vp. //

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children, as they deserue it. In deede from seuen, to seuentene, yong ientlemen commonlie be carefullie enough brought vp: But from seuentene to seuen and twentie (the most dangerous tyme of all a mans life, and most slipperie to stay well in) they haue commonlie the reigne of all licens in their owne // Wise men hand, and speciallie soch as do liue in the Court. // fond fa- And that which is most to be merueled at, // thers. commonlie, the wisest and also best men, be found the fondest fathers in this behalfe. And if som good father would seick some remedie herein, yet the mother (if the house hold of our Lady) had rather, yea, & will to, haue her sonne cunnyng & bold, in making him to lyue trimlie when he is yong, than by learning and trauell, to be able to serue his Prince and his contrie, both wiselie in peace, and stoutelie in warre, whan he is old. The fault is in your selues, ye noble mens sonnes, and therefore ye deserue the greater blame, that // Meane commonlie, the meaner mens children, cum to // mens sonnes be, the wisest councellours, and greatest doers, // come to in the weightie affaires of this Realme. And // great au- why? for God will haue it so, of his prouidence: // thoritie. bicause ye will haue it no otherwise, by your negligence. And God is a good God, & wisest in all his doinges, that will place vertue, & displace vice, in those // Nobilitie kingdomes, where he doth gouerne. For he // without knoweth, that Nobilitie, without vertue and // wisedome. wisedome, is bloud in deede, but bloud trewelie, without bones & sinewes: & so of it selfe, without the other, verie weeke to beare the burden of weightie affaires. The greatest shippe in deede commonlie carieth the greatest burden, but yet alwayes with the greatest ieoperdie, not onelie for the persons and goodes committed vnto it, // Nobilitie but euen for the shyppe it selfe, except it be // with wise- gouerned, with the greater wisdome. // dome. But Nobilitie, gouerned by learning and wisedome, is in deede, most like a faire shippe, // | { Wisedom. hauyng tide and winde at will, vnder // | { the reule of a skilfull master: whan // | Nobilite with-{ contrarie wise, a shippe, caried, yea // | { Out wise- with the hiest tide & greatest winde, // | { dome.

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