The literary thought and bias of the age were naturally affected by these shallow and meagre repertories of information, which were as far removed in scholarship from the Roman Antiquities of Adams and the Dictionary of Lemprière as Adams and Lemprière are removed from Dr. Smith’s series.
XVII.
Limited acquaintance with the Greek language in England—Erasmus first learns, and then teaches, Greek at Cambridge—Notices of a few Philhellenists—Study of the language at Rhodes by Lily—Languid interest in it among us—Disputes at Cambridge as to the pronunciation—Remarks on this subject—The tract by John Kay—Few books in the Greek character printed in England.
I. The few scattered notices, which offer themselves in Warton and other authorities, of Englishmen of very remote days who entered on the study of the Greek tongue, tend mainly to illustrate the fact, how sparingly and imperfectly that noble and precious language was cultivated down to the age of Elizabeth; and of course this circumstance involves the almost complete neglect of it in our universities and academies. Warton himself cites a case in which a scholar travelled from Malmesbury to Canterbury in order to improve a rudimentary acquaintance with Greek which he had gained through a local monastic seminary.
The first man who helped at all largely and sensibly to render Greek a part of the educational system was Lily the grammarian, who spent some years of his life at Rhodes, and introduced a study of the language into the routine of St. Paul’s, whence it found its way by degrees to the other great foundations in London and in the provinces.
The biographer of Colet has something to say on this subject:—
“Such was the infelicity of those times, that the Greek tongue was not taught in any of our grammar-schools; nor was there thought to be any great need of it in the two Universities by the generality of scholars. It is worth notice that [John] Standish, who was a bitter enemy to Erasmus, in his declamation against him styles him Græculus iste; which was a long time after the phrase for an heretic.”
“But,” he adds, “Dr. John Fisher ... was of another mind, and very sensible of this imperfection, which made him desirous to learn Greek in his declining years.”