The Scholemaster

by Roger Ascham

curious, in marking and piteling thus about the imitation of
others: and that the olde worthie Authors did neuer busie their
heades and wittes, in folowyng so preciselie, either the matter
what other men wrote, or els the maner how other men wrote.
They will say, it were a plaine slauerie, & inurie to, to shakkle
and tye a good witte, and hinder the course of a mans good
nature with such bondes of seruitude, in folowyng other.
Except soch men thinke them selues wiser then Cicero for
teaching of eloquence, they must be content to turne a new
leafe.
The best booke that euer Tullie wrote, by all mens iudge-
ment, and by his owne testimonie to, in writyng wherof, he
employed most care, studie, learnyng and iudgement, is his
book de Orat. ad Q. F. Now let vs see, what he did for the
matter, and also for the maner of writing therof. For the
whole booke consisteth in these two pointes onelie: In good
matter, and good handling of the matter. And first, for the
matter, it is whole Aristotles, what so euer Antonie in the
second, and Crassus in the third doth teach. Trust not me,
but beleue Tullie him selfe, who writeth so, first, in that goodlie
long Epistle ad P. Lentulum, and after in diuerse places ad
Atticum. And in the verie booke it selfe, Tullie will not haue
it hidden, but both Catulus and Crassus do oft and pleasantly lay
that stelth to Antonius charge. Now, for the handling of the
matter, was Tullie so precise and curious rather to follow an
other mans Paterne, than to inuent some newe shape him selfe,
namelie in that booke, wherin he purposed, to leaue to
posteritie, the glorie of his witte? yea forsoth, that he did.
And this is not my gessing and gathering, nor onelie performed
by Tullie in verie deed, but vttered also by Tullie in plaine
wordes: to teach other men thereby, what they should do, in
taking like matter in hand.
And that which is specially to be marked, Tullie doth vtter
plainlie his conceit and purpose therein, by the mouth of
the wisest man in all that companie: for sayth Scæuola him
selfe, Cur non imitamur, Crasse, Socratem illum, qui est in Phædro
Platonis &c.
And furder to vnderstand, that Tullie did not obiter and
bichance, but purposelie and mindfullie bend him selfe to
a precise and curious Imitation of Plato, concernyng the shape

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and forme of those bookes, marke I pray you, how curious
Tullie is to vtter his purpose and doyng therein, writing thus to
Atticus.
Quod in his Oratorijs libris, quos tantopere laudas, personam
desideras Scæuolæ, non eam temerè dimoui: Sed feci idem, quod in
politeia Deus ille noster Plato, cum in Piræeum Socrates venisset ad
Cephalum locupletem & festiuum Senem, quoad primus ille sermo
haberetur, adest in disputando senex: Deinde, cum ipse quoque
commodissimè locutus esset, ad rem diuinam dicit se velle discedere,
neque postea reuertitur. Credo Platonem vix putasse satis consonum
fore, si hominem id ætatis in tam longo sermone diutius retinuisset:
Multo ego satius hoc mihi cauendum putaui in Scæuola, qui & ætate
et valetudine erat ea qua meministi, & his honoribus, vt vix satis
decorum videretur eum plures dies esse in Crassi Tusculano. Et erat
primi libri sermo non alienus à Scæuolæ studijs: reliqui libri
technologian habent, vt scis. Huic ioculatoriæ disputationi senem
illum vt noras, interesse sanè nolui.
If Cicero had not opened him selfe, and declared hys owne
thought and doynges herein, men that be idle, and ignorant, and
enuious of other mens diligence and well doinges, would haue
sworne that Tullie had neuer mynded any soch thing, but that
of a precise curiositie, we fayne and forge and father soch
thinges of Tullie, as he neuer ment in deed. I write this, not
for nought: for I haue heard some both well learned, and
otherwayes verie wise, that by their lustie misliking of soch
diligence, haue drawen back the forwardnes of verie good wittes.
But euen as such men them selues, do sometymes stumble vpon
doyng well by chance and benefite of good witte, so would
I haue our scholer alwayes able to do well by order of learnyng
and right skill of iudgement.
Concernyng Imitation, many learned men haue written,
with moch diuersitie for the matter, and therfore with great
contrarietie and some stomacke amongest them selues. I
haue read as many as I could get diligentlie, and what I
thinke of euerie one of them, I will freelie say my mynde.
With which freedome I trust good men will beare, bicause
it shall tend to neither spitefull nor harmefull controuersie.
In Tullie, it is well touched, shortlie taught, not fullie
Cicero. // declared by Ant. in 2. de Orat: and afterward
in Orat. ad Brutum, for the liking and misliking

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of Isocrates: and the contrarie iudgement of Tullie against Caluus, Brutus, and Calidius, de genere dicendi Attico & Asiatico. Dionis. Halic. peri mimeseos. I feare is lost: which Author, next Aristotle, Plato, and Tullie, of all // Dio. Hali- other, that write of eloquence, by the iudgement // car. of them that be best learned, deserueth the next prayse and place. Quintilian writeth of it, shortly and coldlie for the matter, yet hotelie and spitefullie enough, agaynst the // Quintil. Imitation of Tullie. Erasmus, beyng more occupied in spying other mens faultes, than declaryng his own aduise, is mistaken of // Erasmus. many, to the great hurt of studie, for his authoritie sake. For he writeth rightlie, rightlie vnderstanded: he and Longolius onelie differing in this, that the one seemeth to giue ouermoch, the other ouer litle, to him, whom they both, best loued, and chiefly allowed of all other. Budæus in his Commentaries roughlie and obscurelie, after his kinde of writyng: and for the matter, // Budæus. caryed somwhat out of the way in ouermuch misliking the Imitation of Tullie. // Ph. Me- Phil. Melancthon, learnedlie and trewlie. // lanch. Camerarius largely with a learned iudgement, // Ioa. Cam- but somewhat confusedly, and with ouer rough // mer. a stile. Sambucus, largely, with a right iudgement but somewhat a crooked stile. // Sambucus. Other haue written also, as Cortesius to // Cortesius. Politian, and that verie well: Bembus ad Picum // P. Bembus. a great deale better, but Ioan. Sturmius de // Ioan. Stur- Nobilitate literata, & de Amissa dicendi ratione, // mius. farre best of all, in myne opinion, that euer tooke this matter in hand. For all the rest, declare chiefly this point, whether one, or many, or all, are to be followed: but Sturmius onelie hath most learnedlie declared, who is to be followed, what is to be followed, and the best point of all, by what way & order, trew Imitation is rightlie to be exercised. And although Sturmius herein doth farre passe all other, yet hath he not so fullie and perfitelie done it, as I do wishe he had, and as I know he could. For though he hath done it perfitelie for precept, yet hath he

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not done it perfitelie enough for example: which he did, neither
for lacke of skill, nor by negligence, but of purpose, contented
with one or two examples bicause he was mynded in those two
bookes, to write of it both shortlie, and also had to touch other
matters.
Barthol. Riccius Ferrariensis also hath written learnedlie,
diligentlie and verie largelie of this matter euen as hee did before
verie well de Apparatu linguæ Lat. He writeth the better in
myne opinion, bicause his whole doctrine, iudgement, and
order, semeth to be borowed out of Io. Stur. bookes. He
addeth also examples, the best kinde of teaching: wherein he
doth well, but not well enough: in deede, he committeth no
faulte, but yet, deserueth small praise. He is content with the
meane, and followeth not the best: as a man, that would feede
vpon Acornes, whan he may eate, as good cheape, the finest
wheat bread. He teacheth for example, where and how, two
or three late Italian Poetes do follow Virgil: and how Virgil
him selfe in the storie of Dido, doth wholie Imitate Catullus in
the like matter of Ariadna: Wherein I like better his diligence
and order of teaching, than his iudgement in choice of examples
for Imitation. But, if he had done thus: if he had declared
where and how, how oft and how many wayes Virgil doth folow
Homer, as for example the comming of Vlysses to Alcynous and
Calypso, with the comming of æneas to Cartage and
Dido: Like-
wise the games running, wrestling, and shoting, that Achilles
maketh in Homer, with the selfe same games, that æneas
maketh in Virgil: The harnesse of Achilles, with the harnesse
of æneas, and the maner of making of them both by Vulcane:
The notable combate betwixt Achilles and Hector, with as
notable a combate betwixt æneas and Turnus. The going
downe to hell of Vlysses in Homer, with the going downe to hell
of Æneas in Virgil: and other places infinite mo, as similitudes,
narrations, messages, discriptions of persones, places, battels,
tempestes, shipwrackes, and common places for diuerse purposes,
which be as precisely taken out of Homer, as euer did Painter in
London follow the picture of any faire personage. And when
thies places had bene gathered together by this way of diligence
than to haue conferred them together by this order of teaching
as, diligently to marke what is kept and vsed in either author,
in wordes, in sentences, in matter: what is added: what is left

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out: what ordered otherwise, either præponendo, interponendo, or
postponendo: And what is altered for any respect, in word,
phrase, sentence, figure, reason, argument, or by any way of
circumstance: If Riccius had done this, he had not onely bene
well liked, for his diligence in teaching, but also iustlie com-
mended for his right iudgement in right choice of examples for
the best Imitation.
Riccius also for Imitation of prose declareth where and how
Longolius doth folow Tullie, but as for Longolius, I would not
haue him the patern of our Imitation. In deede: in Longolius
shoppe, be proper and faire shewing colers, but as for shape,
figure, and naturall cumlines, by the iudgement of best iudging
artificers, he is rather allowed as one to be borne withall, than
especially commended, as one chieflie to be folowed.
If Riccius had taken for his examples, where Tullie him selfe
foloweth either Plato or Demosthenes, he had shot than at the
right marke. But to excuse Riccius, somwhat, though I can
not fullie defend him, it may be sayd, his purpose was, to teach
onelie the Latin tong, when thys way that I do wish, to ioyne
Virgil with Homer, to read Tullie with Demosthenes and
Plato,
requireth a cunning and perfite Master in both the tonges. It
is my wish in deede, and that by good reason: For who so euer
will write well of any matter, must labor to expresse that, that
is perfite, and not to stay and content himselfe with the meane:
yea, I say farder, though it be not vnposible, yet it is verie rare,
and meruelous hard, to proue excellent in the Latin tong, for
him that is not also well seene in the Greeke tong. Tullie him
selfe, most excellent of nature, most diligent in labor, brought
vp from his cradle, in that place, and in that tyme, where and
whan the Latin tong most florished naturallie in euery mans
mouth, yet was not his owne tong able it selfe to make him so
cunning in his owne tong, as he was in deede: but the
knowledge and Imitation of the Greeke tong withall.
This he confesseth himselfe: this he vttereth in many places,
as those can tell best, that vse to read him most.
Therefore thou, that shotest at perfection in the Latin tong,
thinke not thy selfe wiser than Tullie was, in choice of the way,
that leadeth rightlie to the same: thinke not thy witte better
than Tullies was, as though that may serue thee that was not
sufficient for him. For euen as a hauke flieth not hie with one

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