[31.] (Pace de Fructu, p. 27.) Exigit iam suum musica quoque doctrina locum, a me præsertim, quem puerum inter pueros illustravit. Nam Thomas Langton Vyntoniensis episcopus, decessor huius qui nunc [1517 A.D.] uiuit, cui eram a manu minister, quum notasset me longe supra ætatem (ut ipse nimis fortasse amans mei iudicabat, & dictitabat) in musicis proficere, Huius, inquit, pueri ingenium ad maiora natum est. & paucos post dies in Italiam ad Patauinum gymnasium, quod tunc florentissimum erat, ad bonas literas discendas me misit, annuasque impensas benigne suppeditauit, ut omnibus literatis mirifice fauebat, & ætate sua alterum Mecenatem agebat, probe memor (ut frequenter dictitabat) sese doctrinæ causa ad episcopalem dignitatem prouectum. Adeptus enim fuerat per summam laudem, utriusque iuris (ut nunc loquuntur) insignia. Item humaniores literas tanti æstimabat, ut domestica schola pueros & iuuenes illis erudiendos curarit. Et summopere oblectabatur audire scholasticos dictata interdiu a præceptore, sibi nocta reddere. In quo certamine qui præclare se gesserat, is aliqua re personæ suæ accommodata, donatus abibat, & humanissimis uerbis laudatus. Habebet enim semper in ore ille optimus Præsul, uirtutem laudatam crescere.
[32.] Ascham praises most the practice of double translation, from Latin into English, and then back from English into Latin.—Scholemaster, p. 90, 178, ed. Giles.
[33.] Mr Wm. Chappell gives me the reference, and part of the extract.
[34.] When did breakfast get its name, and its first notice as a regular meal? I do not remember having seen the name in the early part of Household Ordinances, or any other work earlier than the Northumberland Household Book.
[35.] On Musical Education, see the early pages of Mr Chappell’s Popular Music, and the note in Archæol., vol. xx, p. 60-1, with its references. ‘Music constituted a part of the quadrivium, a branch of their system of education.’
[35a.] “The first William de Valence married Joan de Monchensi, sister-in-law to one Dionysia, and aunt to another.” The Chronicle, Sept. 21, 1867. [Corrigenda]
[36.] Le treytyz ke moun sire Gauter de Bibelesworthe fist à ma dame Dyonisie de Mounchensy, pur aprise de langwage.
[37.] Later on, the proportions of poor and rich changed, as may be inferred from the extract from Harrison below. In the ‘exact account of the whole number (2920) of Scholars and Students in the University of Oxford taken anno 1612 in the Long Vacation, the Studentes of Christ Church are 100, the Pauperes Scholares et alii Servientes 41; at Magdalene the latter are 76; at New College 18, to 70 Socii; at Brasenose (Æneasense Coll.) the Communarii are 145, and the Pauperes Scholares 17; at Exeter, the latter are 37, to 134 Communarii; at St John’s, 20 to 43; at Lincoln the Communarii are 60, to 27 Batellatores et Pauperes Scholares.’ Collectanea Curiosa, v. i. p. 196-203.
[38.] Was this in return for the raised rents that Ascham so bitterly complains of the new possessors of the monastic lands screwing out of their tenants, and thereby ruining the yeomen? He says to the Duke of Somerset on Nov. 21, 1547 (ed. Giles, i. p. 140-1),
Qui auctores sunt tantæ miseriæ?... Sunt illi qui hodie passim, in Anglia, prædia monasteriorum gravissimis annuis reditibus auxerunt. Hinc omnium rerum exauctum pretium; hi homines expilant totam rempublicam. Villici et coloni universi laborant, parcunt, corradunt, ut istis satisfaciant.... Hinc tot familiæ dissipatæ, tot domus collapsæ.... Hinc, quod omnium miserrimum est, nobile illud decus et robur Angliæ, nomen, inquam, Yomanorum Anglorum, fractum et collisum est ... Nam vita, quæ nunc vivitur a plurimis, non vita, sed miseria est.