Brinsley follows Mulcaster in exhorting to the study of English:
“there seemes vnto mee, to bee a verie maine want in all our Grammar schooles generally, or in the most of them; whereof I haue heard som great learned men to complain; That there is no care had in respect, to traine vp schollars so as they may be able to expresse their minds purely and readily in our owne tongue, and to increase in the practice of it, as well as in the Latine or Greeke; whereas our chiefe indeuour should bee for it, and that for these reasons. 1. Because that language which all sorts and conditions of men amongst vs are to haue most vse of, both in speech & writing, is our owne natiue tongue. 2. The purity and elegancie of our owne language is to be esteemed a chiefe part of the honour of our nation: which we all ought to aduance as much as in vs lieth. As when Greece and Rome and other nations haue most florished, their languages also haue beene most pure: and from those times of Greece & Rome, wee fetch our chiefest patterns, for the learning of their tongues. 3. Because of those which are for a time trained vp in schooles, there are very fewe which proceede in learning, in comparison of them that follow other callings.
John Brinsley, The Grammar Schoole, p. 21, 22.
His “Meanes to obtaine this benefit of increasing in our English tong, as in the Latin,” are
1. Daily vse of Lillies rules construed.
2. Continuall practice of English Grammaticall translations.
3. Translating and writing English, with some other Schoole exercises.
Ibid., side-notes, p. 22, 23.
On this question of English boys studying English, let it be remembered that in this year of grace 1867, in all England there is
just one public school at which English is studied historically—the City of London School—and that in this school it was begun only last year by the new Head-Master, the Rev. Edwin A. Abbot, all honour to him. In every class an English textbook is read, Piers Plowman being that for the highest class. This neglect of English as a subject of study is due no doubt to tutors’ and parents’ ignorance. None of them know the language historically; the former can’t teach it, the latter don’t care about it; why should their boys learn it? Oh tutors and parents, there are such things as asses in the world.