the ready way to the Latin tong. 243

Translatio Linguarum.

Translation, is easie in the beginning for the scholer, and bringeth also moch learning and great iudgement to the Master. It is most common, and most commendable of all other exercises for youth: most common, for all your con- structions in Grammer scholes, be nothing els but translations: but because they be not double translations, as I do require, they bring forth but simple and single commoditie, and bicause also they lacke the daily vse of writing, which is the onely thing that breedeth deepe roote, buth in y^e witte, for good vnderstanding, and in y^e memorie, for sure keeping of all that is learned. Most commendable also, & that by y^e iudgement of all authors, which intreate of theis exercises. Tullie in the person of L. Crassus, whom he // 1. de Or. maketh his example of eloquence and trewe iudgement in learning, doth, not onely praise specially, and chose this way of translation for a yong man, but doth also discommend and refuse his owne former wont, in exercising Paraphrasin & Metaphrasin. Paraphrasis is, to take some eloquent Oration, or some notable common place in Latin, and expresse it with other wordes: Metaphrasis is, to take some notable place out of a good Poete, and turn the same sens into meter, or into other wordes in Prose. Crassus, or rather Tullie, doth mislike both these wayes, bicause the Author, either Orator or Poete, had chosen out before, the fittest wordes and aptest composition for that matter, and so he, in seeking other, was driuen to vse the worse. Quintilian also preferreth translation before all other exercises: yet hauing a lust, to dissent, from // Quint. x. Tullie (as he doth in very many places, if a man read his Rhetoricke ouer aduisedlie, and that rather of an enuious minde, than of any iust cause) doth greatlie commend Paraphrasis, crossing spitefullie Tullies iudgement in refusing the same: and so do Ramus and Talæus euen at this day in France to. But such singularitie, in dissenting from the best mens iudgementes, in liking onelie their owne opinions, is moch misliked of all them, that ioyne with learning, discretion, and wisedome. For he, that can neither like Aristotle in Logicke and Philosophie, nor Tullie in Rhetoricke and

244 The second booke teachyng

Eloquence, will, from these steppes, likelie enough presume, by
like pride, to mount hier, to the misliking of greater matters:
that is either in Religion, to haue a dissentious head, or in the
common wealth, to haue a factious hart: as I knew one
a student in Cambrige, who, for a singularitie, began first to
dissent, in the scholes, from Aristotle, and sone after became
a peruerse Arrian, against Christ and all true Religion: and
studied diligentlie Origene, Basileus, and S. Hierome, onelie to
gleane out of their workes, the pernicious heresies of Celsus,
Eunomius, and Heluidius, whereby the Church of Christ, was so
poysoned withall.
But to leaue these hye pointes of diuinitie, surelie, in this
quiet and harmeles controuersie, for the liking, or misliking of
Paraphrasis for a yong scholer, euen as far, as Tullie goeth
beyond Quintilian, Ramus, and Talæus, in perfite Eloquence,
* Plinius // euen so moch, by myne opinion, cum they
Secundus. // behinde Tullie, for trew iudgement in teaching
Plinius de- // the same.
dit Quin- // * Plinius Secundus, a wise Senator, of great
tiliano // experience, excellentlie learned him selfe, a liberall
præceptori // Patrone of learned men, and the purest writer, in
suo, in ma- // myne opinion, of all his age, I except not
trimonium // Suetonius, his two scholemasters Quintilian and
filiæ, 50000 // Tacitus, nor yet his most excellent learned Vncle, the Elder
numum. // Plinius, doth expresse in an Epistle to his frende
Epist. lib. 7, // Fuscus, many good wayes for order in studie:
Epist. 9. // but he beginneth with translation, and preferreth
it to all the rest: and bicause his wordes be notable, I will
recite them.

Vtile in primis, vt multi præcipiunt, ex Græco in Latinum, & ex Latino vertere in Græcum: Quo genere exercitationis, proprietas splendorque verborum, apta structura sententiarum, figurarum copia & explicandi vis colligitur. Præterea, imitatione optimorum, facultas similia inueniendi paratur: & quæ legentem, fefellissent, transferentem fugere non possunt. Intelligentia ex hoc, & iudicium acquiritur._

Ye perceiue, how Plinie teacheth, that by this exercise of double translating, is learned, easely, sensiblie, by litle and litle, not onelie all the hard congruities of Grammer, the choice of

the ready way to the Latin tong. 245

aptest wordes, the right framing of wordes and sentences, cumlines of figures and formes, fitte for euerie matter, and proper for euerie tong, but that which is greater also, in marking dayly, and folowing diligentlie thus, the steppes of the best Autors, like inuention of Argumentes, like order in disposition, like vtterance in Elocution, is easelie gathered vp: whereby your scholer shall be brought not onelie to like eloquence, but also, to all trewe vnderstanding and right iudgement, both for writing and speaking. And where Dionys. Halicarnassæus hath written two excellent bookes, the one, de delectu optimorum verborum, the which, I feare, is lost, the other, of the right framing of wordes and sentences, which doth remaine yet in Greeke, to the great proffet of all them, that trewlie studie for eloquence, yet this waie of double translating, shall bring the whole proffet of both these bookes to a diligent scholer, and that easelie and pleasantlie, both for fitte choice of wordes, and apt composition of sentences. And by theis authorities and reasons am I moued to thinke, this waie of double translating, either onelie or chieflie, to be fittest, for the spedy and perfit atteyning of any tong. And for spedy atteyning, I durst venture a good wager, if a scholer, in whom is aptnes, loue, diligence, & constancie, would but translate, after this sorte, one litle booke in Tullie, as de senectute, with two Epistles, the first ad Q. fra: the other ad lentulum, the last saue one, in the first booke, that scholer, I say, should cum to a better knowledge in the Latin tong, than the most part do, that spend foure or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes. In deede this one booke with these two Epistles, is not sufficient to affourde all Latin wordes (which is not necessarie for a yong scholer to know) but it is able to furnishe him fully, for all pointes of Grammer, with the right placing ordering, & vse of wordes in all kinde of matter. And why not? for it is read, that Dion. Prussæus, that wise Philosopher, & excellent orator of all his tyme, did cum to the great learning & vtterance that was in him, by reading and folowing onelie two bookes, Phædon Platonis, and Demosthenes most notable oration peri parapres- beias. And a better, and nerer example herein, may be, our most noble Queene Elizabeth, who neuer toke yet, Greeke nor Latin Grammer in her hand, after the first declining of a nowne and a verbe, but onely by this double translating of

246 The second booke teachyng