The Scholemaster

by Roger Ascham

the ready way to the Latin tong. 289

This matter maketh me gladly remember, my sweete tyme
spent at Cambrige, and the pleasant talke which I had oft with
M. Cheke, and M. Watson, of this fault, not onely in the olde
Latin Poets, but also in our new English Rymers at this day.
They wished as Virgil and Horace were not wedded to follow
the faultes of former fathers (a shrewd mariage in greater
matters) but by right Imitation of the perfit Grecians, had
brought Poetrie to perfitnesse also in the Latin tong, that we
Englishmen likewise would acknowledge and vnderstand right-
fully our rude beggerly ryming, brought first into Italie by
Gothes and Hunnes, whan all good verses and all good learning
to, were destroyd by them: and after caryed into France and
Germanie: and at last, receyued into England by men of
excellent wit in deede, but of small learning, and lesse iudge-
ment in that behalfe.
But now, when men know the difference, and haue the
examples, both of the best, and of the worst, surelie, to follow
rather the Gothes in Ryming, than the Greekes in trew versifiyng,
were euen to eate ackornes with swyne, when we may freely
eate wheate bread emonges men. In deede, Chauser, Th.
Norton, of Bristow, my L. of Surrey, M. Wiat, Th. Phaer,
and other Ientlemen, in translating Ouide, Palingenius, and
Seneca, haue gonne as farre to their great praise, as the copie
they followed could cary them, but, if soch good wittes, and
forward diligence, had bene directed to follow the best examples,
and not haue bene caryed by tyme and custome, to content
themselues with that barbarous and rude Ryming, emonges
their other worthy praises, which they haue iustly deserued,
this had not bene the least, to be counted emonges men of
learning and skill, more like vnto the Grecians, than vnto the
Gothians, in handling of their verse.
In deed, our English tong, hauing in vse chiefly, wordes of
one syllable which commonly be long, doth not well receiue the
nature of Carmen Heroicum, bicause dactylus, the aptest foote
for that verse, conteining one long & two short, is seldom there-
fore found in English: and doth also rather stumble than stand
vpon Monosyllabis. Quintilian in hys learned Chapiter // hand.gif
de Compositione, geueth this lesson de Monosyllabis,
before me: and in the same place doth iustlie inuey against all
Ryming, that if there be any, who be angrie with me, for

290 The second booke teachyng

misliking of Ryming, may be angry for company to, with Quintilian also, for the same thing: And yet Quintilian had not so iust cause to mislike of it than, as men haue at this day. And although Carmen Exametrum doth rather trotte and hoble, than runne smothly in our English tong, yet I am sure, our English tong will receiue carmen Iambicum as naturallie, as either Greke or Latin. But for ignorance, men can not like, & for idlenes, men will not labor, to cum to any perfitenes at all. For, as the worthie Poetes in Athens and Rome, were more carefull to satisfie the iudgement of one learned, than rashe in pleasing the humor of a rude multitude, euen so if men in England now, had the like reuerend regard to learning skill and iudgement, and durst not presume to write, except they came with the like learnyng, and also did vse like diligence, in searchyng out, not onelie iust measure in euerie meter, as euerie ignorant person may easely do, but also trew quantitie in euery foote and sillable, as onelie the learned shalbe able to do, and as the Grekes and Romanes were wont to do, surelie than rash ignorant heads, which now can easely recken vp fourten sillables, and easelie stumble on euery Ryme, either durst not, for lacke of such learnyng: or els would not, in auoyding such labor, be hand.gif // so busie, as euerie where they be: and shoppes in London should not be so full of lewd and rude rymes, as commonlie they are. But now, the ripest of tong, be readiest to write: And many dayly in setting out bookes and balettes make great shew of blossomes and buddes, in whom is neither, roote of learning, nor frute of wisedome at all. Some that make Chaucer in English and Petrarch in Italian, their Gods in verses, and yet be not able to make trew difference, what is a fault, and what is a iust prayse, in those two worthie wittes, will moch mislike this my writyng. But such men be euen like followers of Chaucer and Petrarke, as one here in England did folow Syr Tho. More: who, being most vnlike vnto him, in wit and learnyng, neuertheles in wearing his gowne awrye vpon the one shoulder, as Syr Tho. More was wont to do, would nedes be counted lyke vnto him. This mislikyng of Ryming, beginneth not now of any newfangle singularitie, but hath bene long misliked of many, and that of men, of greatest learnyng, and deepest iudgement. And soch, that defend it, do so, either for lacke of knowledge

the ready way to the Latin tong. 291

what is best, or els of verie enuie, that any should performe that in learnyng, whereunto they, as I sayd before, either for ignorance, can not, or for idlenes will not, labor to attaine vnto. And you that prayse this Ryming, bicause ye neither haue reason, why to like it, nor can shew learning to defend it, yet I will helpe you, with the authoritie of the oldest and learnedst tyme. In Grece, whan Poetrie was euen at the hiest pitch of per- fitnes, one Simmias Rhodius of a certaine singularitie wrote a booke in ryming Greke verses, naming it oon, conteyning the fable, how Iupiter in likenes of a swan, gat that egge vpon Leda, whereof came Castor, Pollux and faire Elena. This booke was so liked, that it had few to read it, but none to folow it: But was presentlie contemned: and sone after, both Author and booke, so forgotten by men, and consumed by tyme, as scarse the name of either is kept in memorie of learnyng: And the like folie was neuer folowed of any, many hondred yeares after vntill y^e Hunnes and Gothians, and other barbarous nations, of ignorance and rude singularitie, did reuiue the same folie agayne. The noble Lord Th. Earle of Surrey, first of all English men, in translating the fourth booke of Virgill: // The Earle of and Gonsaluo Periz that excellent learned man, // Surrey. and Secretarie to kyng Philip of Spaine, in // Gonsaluo translating the Vlisses of Homer out of Greke into // Periz. Spanish, haue both, by good iudgement, auoyded the fault of Ryming, yet neither of them hath fullie hite perfite and trew versifiyng. In deede, they obserue iust number, and euen feete: but here is the fault, that their feete: be feete without ioyntes, that is to say, not distinct by trew quantitie of sillables: And so, soch feete, be but numme feete: and be, euen as vnfitte for a verse to turne and runne roundly withall, as feete of brasse or wood be vnweeldie to go well withall. And as a foote of wood, is a plaine shew of a manifest maime, euen so feete, in our English versifiing, without quantitie and ioyntes, be sure signes, that the verse is either, borne deformed, vnnaturall and lame, and so verie vnseemlie to looke vpon, except to men that be gogle eyed them selues. The spying of this fault now is not the curiositie of English eyes, but euen the good iudgement also of the best // Senese that write in these dayes in Italie: and namelie of // Felice that worthie Senese Felice Figliucci, who, writyng // Figliucci.

292 The second booke teachyng

vpon Aristotles Ethickes so excellentlie in Italian, as neuer did yet any one in myne opinion either in Greke or Latin, amongest other thynges doth most earnestlie inuey agaynst the rude ryming of verses in that tong: And whan soeuer he expresseth Aristotles preceptes, with any example, out of Homer or Euripides, he translateth them, not after the Rymes of Petrarke, but into soch kinde of perfite verse, with like feete and quantitie of sillables, as he found them before in the Greke tonge: ex- hortyng earnestlie all the Italian nation, to leaue of their rude barbariousnesse in ryming, and folow diligently the excellent Greke and Latin examples, in trew versifiyng. And you, that be able to vnderstand no more, then ye finde in the Italian tong: and neuer went farder than the schole of Petrarke and Ariostus abroad, or els of Chaucer at home though you haue pleasure to wander blindlie still in your foule wrong way, enuie not others, that seeke, as wise men haue done before them, the fairest and rightest way: or els, beside the iust reproch of malice, wisemen shall trewlie iudge, that you do so, as I haue sayd and say yet agayne vnto you, bicause, either, for idlenes ye will not, or for ignorance ye can not, cum by no better your selfe. And therfore euen as Virgill and Horace deserue most worthie prayse, that they spying the vnperfitnes in Ennius and Plautus, by trew Imitation of Homer and Euripides, brought Poetrie to the same perfitnes in Latin, as it was in Greke, euen so those, that by the same way would benefite their tong and contrey, deserue rather thankes than disprayse in that behalfe. And I rejoyce, that euen poore England preuented Italie, first in spying out, than in seekyng to amend this fault in learnyng. And here, for my pleasure I purpose a litle, by the way, to play and sporte with my Master Tully: from whom commonlie I am neuer wont to dissent. He him selfe, for this point of learnyng, in his verses doth halt a litle by his leaue. He could not denie it, if he were aliue, nor those defend hym now that Tullies // loue him best. This fault I lay to his charge: saying a- // bicause once it pleased him, though somwhat gainst Eng- // merelie, yet oueruncurteslie, to rayle vpon poore land. // England, obiecting both, extreme beggerie, and

the ready way to the Latin tong. 293

mere barbariousnes vnto it, writyng thus vnto his frend Atticus:
There is not one scruple of siluer in that whole // Ad Att.
Isle, or any one that knoweth either learnyng or // Lib. iv. Ep.
letter. // 16.
But now master Cicero, blessed be God, and his sonne Iesu
Christ, whom you neuer knew, except it were as it pleased him
to lighten you by some shadow, as couertlie in one place ye
confesse saying: Veritatis tantum vmbram consectamur, // Offic.
as your Master Plato did before you: blessed be
God, I say, that sixten hundred yeare after you were dead and
gone, it may trewly be sayd, that for siluer, there is more
cumlie plate, in one Citie of England, than is in foure of the
proudest Cities in all Italie, and take Rome for one of them.
And for learnyng, beside the knowledge of all learned tongs and
liberall sciences, euen your owne bookes Cicero, be as well read,
and your excellent eloquence is as well liked and loued, and as
trewlie folowed in England at this day, as it is now, or euer
was, sence your owne tyme, in any place of Italie, either at
Arpinum, where ye were borne, or els at Rome where ye were
brought vp. And a litle to brag with you Cicero, where you
your selfe, by your leaue, halted in some point of learnyng in
your owne tong, many in England at this day go streight vp,
both in trewe skill, and right doing therein.
This I write, not to reprehend Tullie, whom, aboue all
other, I like and loue best, but to excuse Terence, because in his
tyme, and a good while after, Poetrie was neuer perfited in
Latin vntill by trew Imitation of the Grecians, it was at length
brought to perfection: And also thereby to exhorte the goodlie
wittes of England, which apte by nature, & willing by desire,
geue them selues to Poetrie, that they, rightly vnderstanding the
barbarous bringing in of Rymes, would labor, as Virgil and
Horace did in Latin, to make perfit also this point of learning,
in our English tong.
And thus much for Plautus and Terence, for matter, tong, and
meter, what is to be followed, and what to be exchewed in them.
After Plautus and Terence, no writing remayneth vntill
Tullies tyme, except a fewe short fragmentes of L. Crassus
excellent wit, here and there recited of Cicero for example sake,
whereby the louers of learnyng may the more lament the losse
of soch a worthie witte.