The master may here onelie stumble, and perchance faull in teaching, to the marring and mayning of the Scholer in learning, whan it is a matter, of moch readyng, of great learning, and tried iudgement, to make trewe difference betwixt
the ready way to the Latin tong. 249
{Sublime, et Tumidum: {Grande, et immodicum: {Decorum, et ineptum: {Perfectum, et nimium.
Some men of our time, counted perfite Maisters of eloquence, in their owne opinion the best, in other mens iudgements very good, as Omphalius euerie where, Sadoletus in many places, yea also my frende Osorius, namelie in his Epistle to the Queene & in his whole booke de Iusticia, haue so ouer reached them selues, in making trew difference in the poyntes afore rehearsed, as though they had bene brought vp in some schole in Asia, to learne to decline rather then in Athens with Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes, (from whence Tullie fetched his eloquence) to vnderstand, what in euerie matter, to be spoken or written on, is, in verie deede, Nimium, Satis, Parum, that is for to say, to all considerations, Decorum, which, as it is the hardest point, in all learning, so is it the fairest and onelie marke, that scholers, in all their studie, must alwayes shote at, if they purpose an other day to be, either sounde in Religion, or wise and discrete in any vocation of the common wealth. Agayne, in the lowest degree, it is no low point of learnyng and iudgement for a Scholemaster, to make trewe difference betwixt
{Humile & depressum: {Lene & remissum: {Siccum & aridum: {Exile & macrum: {Inaffectatum & neglectum.
In these poyntes, some, louing Melancthon well, as he was well worthie, but yet not considering well nor wiselie, how he of nature, and all his life and studie by iudgement was wholly spent in genere Disciplinabili, that is, in teaching, reading, and expounding plainlie and aptlie schole matters, and therfore imployed thereunto a fitte, sensible, and caulme kinde of speaking and writing, some I say, with very well louyng, but not with verie well weying Melancthones doinges, do frame them selues a style, cold, leane, and weake, though the matter be neuer so warme & earnest, not moch vnlike vnto one, that had a pleasure, in a roughe, raynie, winter
250 The second booke teachyng
day, to clothe him selfe with nothing els, but a demie, bukram cassok, plaine without plites, and single with out lyning: which will neither beare of winde nor wether, nor yet kepe out the sunne, in any hote day. Some suppose, and that by good reason, that Melancthon Paraphra- // him selfe came to this low kinde of writing, by sis in vse of // vsing ouer moch Paraphrasis in reading: For teaching, // studying therebie to make euerie thing streight hath hurt // and easie, in smothing and playning all things to Melanch- // much, neuer leaueth, whiles the sence it selfe be tons stile in // left, both lowse and lasie. And some of those writing. // Paraphrasis of Melancthon be set out in Printe, as, Pro Archia Poeta, & Marco Marcello: But a scholer, by myne opinion, is better occupied in playing or sleping, than in spendyng time, not onelie vainlie but also harmefullie, in soch a kinde of exercise. If a Master woulde haue a perfite example to folow, how, in Genere sublimi, to auoide Nimium, or in Mediocri, to atteyne Satis, or in Humili, to exchew Parum, let him read diligently Cicero. // for the first, Secundam Philippicam, for the meane, De Natura Deorum, and for the lowest, Partitiones. Or, if in an other tong, ye looke for like example, in like Demost- // perfection, for all those three degrees, read Pro henes. // Ctesiphonte, Ad Leptinem, & Contra Olympiodorum, and, what witte, Arte, and diligence is hable to affourde, ye shall plainely see. For our tyme, the odde man to performe all three perfitlie, whatsoeuer he doth, and to know the way to do them skilfullie, Ioan. Stur. // what so euer he list, is, in my poore opinion, Ioannes Sturmius. He also councelleth all scholers to beware of Paraphrasis, except it be, from worse to better, from rude and barbarous, to proper and pure latin, and yet no man to exercise that neyther, except soch one, as is alreadie furnished with plentie of learning, and grounded with stedfast iudgement before. All theis faultes, that thus manie wise men do finde with the exercise of Paraphrasis, in turning the best latin, into other, as good as they can, that is, ye may be sure, into a great deale worse, than it was, both in right choice for proprietie, and trewe placing, for good order is committed also commonlie in all
the ready way to the Latin tong. 251
common scholes, by the scholemasters, in tossing and trobling
yong wittes (as I sayd in the beginning) with that boocherlie
feare in making of Latins.
Therefore, in place, of Latines for yong scholers, and of
Paraphrasis for the masters, I wold haue double translation
specially vsed. For, in double translating a perfite peece of
Tullie or Cæsar, neyther the scholer in learning, nor y^e
Master
in teaching can erre. A true tochstone, a sure metwand lieth
before both their eyes. For, all right congruitie: proprietie of
wordes: order in sentences: the right imitation, to inuent good
matter, to dispose it in good order, to confirme it with good
reason, to expresse any purpose fitlie and orderlie, is learned
thus, both easelie & perfitlie: Yea, to misse somtyme in this
kinde of translation, bringeth more proffet, than to hit right,
either in Paraphrasi or making of Latins. For though ye say
well, in a latin making, or in a Paraphrasis, yet you being but
in doute, and vncertayne whether ye saie well or no, ye gather
and lay vp in memorie, no sure frute of learning thereby: But
if ye fault in translation, ye ar easelie taught, how perfitlie to
amende it, and so well warned, how after to exchew, all soch
faultes againe.
Paraphrasis therefore, by myne opinion, is not meete for
Grammer scholes: nor yet verie fitte for yong men in the
vniuersitie, vntill studie and tyme, haue bred in them, perfite
learning, and stedfast iudgement.
There is a kinde of Paraphrasis, which may be vsed, without
all hurt, to moch proffet: but it serueth onely the Greke and
not the latin, nor no other tong, as to alter linguam Ionicam aut
Doricam into meram Atticam: A notable example there is left
vnto vs by a notable learned man Diony: Halicarn: who, in his
booke, peri syntaxeos, doth translate the goodlie storie of
Candaules and Gyges in 1. Herodoti, out of Ionica lingua,
into
Atticam. Read the place, and ye shall take, both pleasure and
proffet, in conference of it. A man, that is exercised in reading,
Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, and Demosthenes, in vsing to turne,
like places of Herodotus, after like sorte, shold shortlie cum to
soch a knowledge, in vnderstanding, speaking, and writing the
Greeke tong, as fewe or none hath yet atteyned in England.
The like exercise out of Dorica lingua may be also vsed, if a
man take that litle booke of Plato, Timæus Locrus, de Animo et