The Scholemaster

by Roger Ascham

witte in a child for learnyng, and of the trewe difference betwixt quicke and hard wittes, of alluring yong children by ientlenes to loue learnyng, and of the speciall care that was to be had, to keepe yong men from licencious liuyng, he was most earnest with me, to haue me say my mynde also, what I thought, concernyng the fansie that many yong Ientlemen of England haue to trauell abroad, and namely to lead a long lyfe in Italie. His request, both for his authoritie, and good will toward me, was a sufficient commaundement vnto me, to satisfie his pleasure, with vtteryng plainlie my opinion in that matter. Syr quoth I, I take goyng thither, and liuing there, for a yonge ientleman, that doth not goe vnder the kepe and garde of such a man, as both, by wisedome can, and authoritie dare rewle him, to be meruelous dangerous. And whie I said so than, I will declare at large now: which I said than priuatelie, and write now openlie, not bicause I do contemne, either the knowledge of strange and diuerse tonges, and namelie the // The Ita- Italian tonge, which next the Greeke and Latin // lian tong. tonge, I like and loue aboue all other: or else bicause I do despise, the learning that is gotten, or the experi- ence that is gathered in strange contries: or for any priuate malice that beare to Italie: which contrie, and // Italia. in it, namelie Rome, I haue alwayes speciallie honored: bicause, tyme was, whan Italie and // Roma. Rome, haue bene, to the greate good of vs that now liue, the best breeders and bringers vp, of the worthiest men, not onelie for wise speakinge, but also for well doing, in all Ciuill affaires, that euer was in the worlde. But now, that tyme is gone, and though the place remayne, yet the olde and present maners, do differ as farre, as blacke and white, as vertue and vice. Vertue once made that contrie Mistres ouer all the worlde. Vice now maketh that contrie slaue to them, that before, were glad to serue it. All men seeth it: They themselues confesse it, namelie soch, as be best and wisest amongest them. For sinne, by lust and vanitie, hath and doth breed vp euery where, common contempt of Gods word, priuate contention in many families, open factions in euery Citie: and so, makyng them selues bonde, to vanitie and vice at home, they are content to beare the yoke of seruyng straungers abroad. Italie now, is not that Italie, that it was wont to be: and therfore now, not so

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fitte a place, as some do counte it, for yong men to fetch either wisedome or honestie from thence. For surelie, they will make other but bad Scholers, that be so ill Masters to them selues. Yet, if a ientleman will nedes trauell into Italie, he shall do well, to looke on the life, of the wisest traueler, that euer traueled thether, set out by the wisest writer, that euer spake with tong, Gods doctrine onelie excepted: and that is Vlysses in Vlysses. // Homere. Vlysses, and his trauell, I wishe our Homere. // trauelers to looke vpon, not so much to feare them, with the great daungers, that he many tymes suffered, as to instruct them, with his excellent wisedome, which he alwayes and euerywhere vsed. Yea euen those, that be learned and wittie trauelers, when they be disposed to prayse traueling, as a great commendacion, and the best Scripture they haue for it, they gladlie recite the third verse of Homere, in his first booke of Odyssea, conteinyng a great prayse of Vlysses, for odys. a. // the witte he gathered, & wisdome he vsed in his traueling. Which verse, bicause, in mine opinion, it was not made at the first, more naturallie in Greke by Homere, nor after turned more aptlie into Latin by Horace, than it was a good while ago, in Cambrige, translated into English, both plainlie for the sense, and roundlie for the verse, by one of the best Scholers, that euer S. Iohns Colledge bred, M. Watson, myne old frend, somtime Bishop of Lincolne, therfore, for their sake, that haue lust to see, how our English tong, in auoidyng barbarous ryming, may as well receiue, right quantitie of sillables, and trewe order of versifiyng (of which matter more at large here- after) as either Greke or Latin, if a cunning man haue it in handling, I will set forth that one verse in all three tonges, for an Example to good wittes, that shall delite in like learned exercise. <b>Homerus.</b> pollon d anthropon iden astea kai noon egno. <b>Horatius.</b> Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & vrbes. <b>M. Watson.</b> All trauellers do gladly report great prayse of Vlysses, For that he knew many mens maners, and saw many Cities.

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And yet is not Vlysses commended, so much, nor so oft, in
Homere, bicause he was polytropos, that is, // | {polytropos.
skilfull in many mens manners and facions, as // | Vlyss. {
bicause he was polymetis, that is, wise in all // | { polymetis.
purposes, & ware in all places: which wisedome and warenes
will not serue neither a traueler, except Pallas be // Pallas from
alwayes at his elbow, that is Gods speciall grace // heauen.
from heauen, to kepe him in Gods feare, in all
his doynges, in all his ieorneye. For, he shall not alwayes
in his absence out of England, light vpon a
ientle Alcynous, and walke in his faire gardens // | Alcynous. od. 2.
full of all harmelesse pleasures: but he shall // |
sometymes, fall, either into the handes of some // |
cruell Cyclops, or into the lappe of some wanton // | Cyclops. od. 1.
and dalying Dame Calypso: and so suffer the // | Calypso. od. e.
danger of many a deadlie Denne, not so full of // |
perils, to distroy the body, as, full of vayne // |
pleasures, to poyson the mynde. Some Siren // | Sirenes. }
shall sing him a song, sweete in tune, but // | }
sownding in the ende, to his vtter destruction. // | Scylla. } od.
m.
If Scylla drowne him not, Carybdis may fortune // | Caribdis. }
swalow hym. Some Circes shall make him, of // | Circes. od. k.
a plaine English man, a right Italian. And at
length to hell, or to some hellish place, is he likelie to go: from
whence is hard returning, although one Vlysses, and that by
Pallas ayde, and good counsell of Tiresias once // od. l.
escaped that horrible Den of deadly darkenes.
Therfore, if wise men will nedes send their sonnes into
Italie, let them do it wiselie, vnder the kepe and garde of him,
who, by his wisedome and honestie, by his example and
authoritie, may be hable to kepe them safe and sound, in the
feare of God, in Christes trewe Religion, in good order and
honestie of liuyng: except they will haue them run headling,
into ouermany ieoperdies, as Vlysses had done many tymes, if
Pallas had not alwayes gouerned him: if he had not vsed, to
stop his eares with waxe: to bind him selfe to // od. m.
the mast of his shyp: to feede dayly, vpon that // od. k.
swete herbe Moly with the blake roote and // Moly Her-
white floore, giuen vnto hym by Mercurie, to // ba.
auoide all the inchantmentes of Circes. Wherby, the Diuine

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Poete Homer ment couertlie (as wise and Godly men do iudge)
Psal. 33. // that loue of honestie, and hatred of ill, which
Dauid more plainly doth call the feare of God:
the onely remedie agaynst all inchantementes of sinne.
I know diuerse noble personages, and many worthie Ientle-
men of England, whom all the Siren songes of Italie, could
neuer vntwyne from the maste of Gods word: nor no inchant-
ment of vanitie, ouerturne them, from the feare of God, and
loue of honestie.
But I know as many, or mo, and some, sometyme my
deare frendes, for whose sake I hate going into that countrey the
more, who, partyng out of England feruent in the loue of
Christes doctrine, and well furnished with the feare of God,
returned out of Italie worse transformed, than euer was any in
Circes Court. I know diuerse, that went out of England, men
of innocent life, men of excellent learnyng, who returned out
of Italie, not onely with worse maners, but also with lesse
learnyng: neither so willing to liue orderly, nor yet so hable to
speake learnedlie, as they were at home, before they went
abroad. And why? Plato y^t wise writer, and worthy
traueler him selfe, telleth the cause why. He went into Sicilia,
a countrey, no nigher Italy by site of place, than Italie that is
now, is like Sicilia that was then, in all corrupt maners and
licenciousnes of life. Plato found in Sicilia, euery Citie full of
vanitie, full of factions, euen as Italie is now. And as Homere,
like a learned Poete, doth feyne, that Circes, by pleasant in-
chantmentes, did turne men into beastes, some into Swine, som
into Asses, some into Foxes, some into Wolues etc. euen so
Plat. ad // Plato, like a wise Philosopher, doth plainelie
Dionys. // declare, that pleasure, by licentious vanitie, that
Epist. 3. // sweete and perilous poyson of all youth, doth
ingender in all those, that yeld vp themselues to her, foure
notorious properties.
{1. lethen
The fruits // {2. dysmathian
of vayne // {3. achrosynen
pleasure. // {4. ybrin.
The first, forgetfulnes of all good thinges learned before:
Causes // the second, dulnes to receyue either learnyng or
why men // honestie euer after: the third, a mynde embracing

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lightlie the worse opinion, and baren of discretion // returne out to make trewe difference betwixt good and ill, // of Italie, betwixt troth, and vanitie, the fourth, a proude // lesse lear- disdainfulnes of other good men, in all honest // ned and matters. Homere and Plato, haue both one // worse ma- meanyng, looke both to one end. For, if a man // nered. inglutte himself with vanitie, or walter in filthi- // Homer and nes like a Swyne, all learnyng, all goodnes, is // Plato ioy- sone forgotten: Than, quicklie shall he becum // ned and ex- a dull Asse, to vnderstand either learnyng or //pounded. honestie: and yet shall he be as sutle as a Foxe, // A Swyne. in breedyng of mischief, in bringyng in misorder, // An Asse. with a busie head, a discoursing tong, and a factious harte, in // A Foxe. euery priuate affaire, in all matters of state, with this pretie propertie, alwayes glad to commend the worse // aphrosyne, partie, and euer ready to defend the falser // Quid, et opinion. And why? For, where will is giuen // vnde. from goodnes to vanitie, the mynde is sone caryed from right iudgement, to any fond opinion, in Religion, in Philosophie, or any other kynde of learning. The fourth fruite of vaine pleasure, by Homer and Platos iudgement, is pride // hybris. in them selues, contempt of others, the very badge of all those that serue in Circes Court. The trewe meenyng of both Homer and Plato, is plainlie declared in one short sentence of the holy Prophet of God // Hieremias Hieremie, crying out of the vaine & vicious life // 4. Cap. of the Israelites. This people (sayth he) be fooles and dulhedes to all goodnes, but sotle, cunning and bolde, in any mischiefe. &c. The true medicine against the inchantmentes of Circes, the vanitie of licencious pleasure, the inticementes of all sinne, is, in Homere, the herbe Moly, with the blacke roote, and white flooer, sower at the first, but sweete in the end: which, Hesiodus termeth the study of vertue, hard and // Hesiodus irksome in the beginnyng, but in the end, easie // de virtute. and pleasant. And that, which is most to be marueled at, the diuine Poete Homere sayth plainlie that this medicine against sinne and vanitie, is not found // Homerus, out by man, but giuen and taught by God. And // diuinus for some one sake, that will haue delite to read // Poeta.

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