Was · Due Desert' Walter
Devereux?
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v03
23 after Buchanan add , as a teacher,
1. 33 for Bourne read Browne
p. 466 under Caius add Works. Ed. Roberts, E. S. Cambridge, 1912.
p. 518, 11. 17–18 omit (Authorship. . . Gascoigne. ]
p. 529, under Hall add See The Lives of the Kings, Henry VIII, ed. Whibley, C. ,
2 vols. 1904.
p. 538, 1. 54 for (By Thomas Nashe ? . ] read [Author unknown. ]
p. 542, 1. 40 for (By Thomas Turswell. ) read [Author unknown. ]
p. 583 delete the entry under Henry Smith and add p. 418 to the Sir Thomas Smith
entry.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression.
p. 174, 11. 15--19 for He knew. . . versification. read He had studied Chaucer, too, but
in Pynson's edition, published in 1526; and it was mainly on French and Italian
models that he founded his versification. A book to which he owed much was Trissino's
Poetica, published in 1529, with a translation into Italian of Dante's De Vulgari
Eloquentia.
p. 375, 11. 10-16 for Star chamber. . . books. read Star chamber which amplified
and reinforced the injunctions and decrees hitherto issued in regard to the press. It
forbade the publication of any book or pamphlet unless previously authorised by him.
self or the bishop of London, gave him full control over the Stationers' company,
empowered him to determine the number of printing presses in use and, finally,
imposed the severest penalties on the printing of seditious or slanderous books? .
See vol. iv, pp. 379—381 of the present work.
p. 378, 11. 32–33 for escape. . . gone, read save a small quantity of the pica type,
and it is possible that some time previous to this he had secretly conveyed a second
press with the necessary type into the country. Certainly he was at liberty and at
work shortly afterwards for we find a book entered against his name in the Stationers'
Register on 13 May. But on the same date the court of Stationers ordered the
destruction of the confiscated press, type and books, while, as we learn from Martin
himself, he was . utterly deprived from ever printing again. ' His career as a recognised
printer was, therefore, at an end,
p. 379, 11. 28–33 for task. . . . priest. read task, though it is difficult to say whether
it was taken in hand in the early or late summer. Two of Penry's tracts also, in all
probability, belong to the same period. These were a second edition of An E. chortation,
and a new tract entitled A Defence of that which hath been written, which was a reply
to Dr Some, who had published an answer to the first edition of An Exhortation.
The second edition of the last-named tract, of which there are two distinct issues
extant? , was almost certainly published late in May or early in June, and a close
examination of its lettering and workmanship, together with hints let fall by those
examined by the authorities in their investigation of the affair support the belief that
it was printed by Waldegrave on a press and secreted at Kingston-on-Thames, in which
town Udall was a resident preacher.
3 See New Tract from the Marprelate press, The Library, July 1909.
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
XV
6
9
p. 387, 1. 26. Since this volume was first published, the writer has come to the
conclusion that the change of method' really implies a change of authorship and
that there is much more behind the business of Martin Senior and Junior than mere
imaginative setting. See Wilson, J. Dover, Martin Marprelate and Shakespeare's
Fluellen, 1912.
p. 466, add to the bibliography of chapter 1:
Allen, P. S. The Age of Erasmus. Oxford, 1914.
Erasmus, Desiderius. Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi denuo recognitum et auctum
per P. S. Allen. 3 vols. Oxford, 1906–13.
The Praise of Folly. 1509. Tr. John Wilson. 1668. Ed. Allen, Mrs P. S.
Oxford, 1913.
Leach, A. F. The Schools of Medieval England, 1915.
p. 471, add to the bibliography of chapter II :
Guide to the Manuscripts and Printed Books exhibited in celebration of the Tercentenary
of the Authorized Version. 1911. [Printed by the Trustees of the British Museum
for the British Museum Exhibition, 1911. )
Brown, J. The History of the English Bible. Cambridge, 1911.
Scrivener, F. H. A. The Authorized edition of the English Bible (1611), its subsequent
reprints and modern representatives. Cambridge, 1884.
Warren, F. E. The Sarum Missal in English. Parts I and II. (Alcuin Club, 1913. )
Wordsworth, Christopher, and Littlehales, Henry. The Old Service Books of the
English Church. 1904.
Wright, W. Aldis (ed. ). The Authorised Version of the English Bible, 1611. 5 vols.
Cambridge, 1909.
The Hexaplar Psalter, being the Book of Psalms in Six English Versions (Cover-
dale, Great Bible, Geneva, Bishops, Authorized and Revised). Cambridge, 1911.
p. 477, add to the bibliography of chapter III :
Index Britanniae Scriptorum quos collegit I. Baleus. Ed. Poole, R. L. and Bateson,
Mary. Oxford, 1902.
p. 478, add to the bibliography of chapter IV:
Dunbabin, R. L. Notes on Skelton. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. XII, 1917.
Williams, W. H. (ed. ). A Selection from the Poetical Works of John Skelton. 1902.
p. 482, add to the bibliography of chapter V:
Coulton, G. G. Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation. Cam.
bridge, 1918.
Crawfurd, R. Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art. Oxford, 1914.
p. 498, add to the bibliography of chapter VI:
Maclean, C. M. Alexander Scott, Montgomerie and Drummond of Hawthornden as
Lyric Poets.
Cambridge, 1915.
p. 511, add to the bibliography of chapter VIII :
Foxwell, A. K. Poems of Wyatt. 2 vols. 1913. 1 vol. 1914.
Koszul, A. Anthologie de la Littérature anglaise des Origines au XVIII° siècle. Paris.
Reed, E. B. English Lyrical Poetry, from its Origins to the Present Time. Yale
University Press.
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's Industry. 1916.
p. 517, add to the bibliography of chapter X:
Canliffe, J. W. Gascoigne and Shakspere. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
Littledale, H.
Was · Due Desert' Walter Devereux? Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
p. 521, add to the bibliography of chapter XI :
Crawford, C. Collectanea. 1st series. Stratford-on-Avon, 1906.
Delattre, F. English Fairy Poetry from the origins to the 17th century. London and
Paris, 1912.
Harman, E. G. Edmund Spenser and the Impersonations of Francis Bacon. 1914.
Higginson, J. J. Spenser's Shepherd's Calender in Relation to Contemporary Affairs.
Columbia University Press.
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
xvi
Kastner, L. E. Spenser's Amoretti and Desportes. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908.
Maynardier, Howard. The Areopagus of Sidney and Spenser. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv,
1908.
Mustard, W. P. (ed. ). The Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus. Baltimore, 1911.
(ed. ). Sannazaro, The Piscatory Eclogues of Jacopo. Baltimore, 1911.
Spenser's Faerie Queene. Ed. J. C. Smith. 2 vols. Oxford, 1909.
Spenser's Faerie Queene. Books I and II. Ed. L. Winstanley. Cambridge, 1915.
and 1914.
Spenser's Minor Poems. Ed. Ernest de Sélincourt. Oxford, 1910.
p. 522, add to the bibliography of chapter XII :
Crawford, c. Collectanea. 1st series. Stratford-on-Avon, 1906.
Lee, Sidney. The French Renaissance in England. Oxford, 1910.
Suddard, M. Essays in English Literature. Cambridge, 1912.
p. 533, add to the bibliography of chapter XVI:
Mann, F. 0. (ed. ). The Works of Thomas Deloney. Oxford, 1912.
Wallace, M. W. The Life of Sir Philip Sidney. Cambridge, 1910.
Wolff, S. L. Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction. Columbia University
Press.
p. 537, add to the bibliography of chapter XVII:
Baite for Momus, A. By Tobie Bland of Bedford. A Baite for Momus, so called upon
occasion of a sermon at Bedford injuriously traduced by the factious. Now not
altered but augmented. With a briefe Patrocinie of the lawful use of Philosophie
in the more serious and sacred studie of divinitie. By Tobie Bland, Chaplaine to
the right Honourable John Lord Saint John, Baron of Bletsoe. . . London, printed
by John Wolfe. 1589. (B. M. 4474. c. 39. )
Bonnard, G. La Controverse de Martin Marprelate, 1588-1590. Geneva, 1916.
Dearmer, Percy. Religious Pamphlets. 1898. Pp. 111-151.
Maitland, S. R. Essays on subjects connected with the Reformation in England. 1849.
Pierce, W. An Historical Introduction to the Marprelate Tracts. 1908.
The Marprelate Tracts. 1911.
Wilson, J. Dover. Anthony Munday. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
Richard Schilders and the English Puritans. Trans. Bibl. Soc. XI.
See, also, The Library, July 1909 and October 1912.
p. 549, add to the bibliography of chapter XIX:
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries. 1907.
p. 555, add to the bibliography of chapter XX:
Einstein, L. The Italian Renaissance in England. 1902.
## p. 1 (#23) ###############################################
CHAPTER I
ENGLISHMEN AND THE CLASSICAL RENASCENCE
The classical renascence implied a knowledge and imitation
of the great literary artists of the golden past of classical antiquity,
and, as a preliminary, a competent acquaintance with, and some
power to use, the Latin and Greek languages. Italy gave it birth
and it gradually spread beyond the Alps into Germany, France and
England. In the end it created, almost imperceptibly, a cosmo-
politan republic of which Guillaume Budé and Erasmus disputed
the sovereignty, and where, latterly, Erasmus, by universal
consent, ruled as chief. This republic established itself in a
Europe almost savage, supremely warlike and comparatively
untaught-in it and yet not of it. Its citizens were a select
people who lived and worked in the midst of the tumult of
arms, the conflict of politics and the war of creeds which
went on around them. It spread widely and silently until it
almost became the mark of a well-educated person to be able
to read, write and converse fluently in Latin, and to know
something of Greek. It refused to admit the limitations of sex.
The learned lady (erudita) of the Colloquia of Erasmus easily
discomfits the pretentious abbot. The prince of humanists
himself, in no spirit of condescension, corresponded with the
sisters of Pirkheimer and the daughters of More. At the
celebrated reunions of Marguerite d’Angoulême, which were
anticipations of the eighteenth century salon, Latin, Greek and
even Hebrew were continually used. Her niece and grand-nieces
were trained in the humanities. Mary of Scotland read Latin
authors with George Buchanan. In England, well-born young
ladies, towards the close of queen Mary's reign, were accomplished
scholars. Elizabeth herself overwhelmed luckless ambassadors
with floods of improvised Latinity. But this queen is extremely
wise and has eyes that can flame,' wrote one who had, with
difficulty, saved himself from the deluge.
1
E. L. III.
CH. I.
!
## p. 2 (#24) ###############################################
2
English men and the Classical Renascence
The enthusiasts of the classical renascence, who had spent time
and pains in mastering the secrets of style of the literary artists
of antiquity, were somewhat disdainful of their mother tongues.
They were inclined to believe that cultured thought could only
find fit expression in the apt words, deft phrases and rhythmical
cadences, of the revived language of ancient Rome. They pre-
ferred to write in Latin, and the use of the common speech of
their cosmopolitan republic gave them an audience in all parts
of educated Europe. Nevertheless, the classical renascence had a
powerful effect in moulding the literary languages of modern
Europe and in enriching them with graces of style and expression.
Its influence was so pervading and impalpable that it worked like
leaven, almost imperceptibly, yet really and potently.
The classical renascence recognised no one land in Europe as
its own; it possessed all and belonged to all. Yet it is possible to
describe its progress in Italy, Germany, France and even Spain,
without introducing alien names. England is an exception.
Erasmus belongs as much to the history of the classical renascence
in our land as does Linacre, Colet, or More. The country
received him when his fortunes were at a low ebb. He was
about 33 years of age. The torments and temptations of
Hertogenbosch, the midnight labours of Stein, the horrors of
the Collège Montaigu and the penury of Paris had left their
marks on his frail body. He had produced little or nothing.
He was almost unknown and he had no sure prospects in life.
In England he found friends, who gladly gave him hospitable
welcome, whose cultured leisure enabled them to appreciate his
learning, his humour, his untiring capacity for work and his
ceaseless activity of mind. No wonder that the fortune-tossed
.
wanderer was glad to fancy himself an Englishman and delighted
in the men and women, the manners, the scholarship, even in the
climate, of his new home-in everything English, in fact, save
the beer and the draughty rooms.
He came, too, at the moment most fitting to make an im-
pression. Scholasticism still reigned; but there were signs that its
authority was waning. The honoured friend of English leading
scholars, sought after by the educational reformer of one of its
great universities, patronised by its archbishop, complimented
by its young and popular king, Erasmus could not fail to make
a deep impression on the country at a peculiarly impressionable
time-an impression all the stronger because he appealed to the
practical side of the English people in a way more directly than
## p. 3 (#25) ###############################################
Erasmus's First Visit to England
3
did any other humanist. They saw in him not a great classical
specialist, but one who gathered the wisdom of the past to enrich
and enlighten the present.
Erasmus visited England for the first time in the summer of
1499. He came in the company of young William Blount, lord
Mountjoy, who had been one of his pupils in Paris. He seems
to have resided, for a while, in London with Sir William Say, his
pupil's father-in-law; then, at a country-house belonging to
lord Mountjoy at Greenwich. He spent about two months at
Oxford in the college of St Mary, an establishment for students
of the Augustinian order presided over by prior Richard Charnock.
He was back in London in the beginning of December; and, after
à round-about journey by Dover, Calais and Tournehem, he
arrived in Paris sometime about the end of January, 1500. His
visit had been short, lasting about six months, just long enough
to make him acquainted with the most prominent scholars in
England; and his correspondence enables us to judge of the
progress which the classical renascence had made there.
In a letter to Robert Fisher, “the kyng's solicitor at Rome,'
he instances four scholars whom he cannot praise too highly-
John Colet, William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre and Thomas More.
These men had learning neither hackneyed nor trivial, but deep,
accurate, ancient Latin and Greek.
1. 33 for Bourne read Browne
p. 466 under Caius add Works. Ed. Roberts, E. S. Cambridge, 1912.
p. 518, 11. 17–18 omit (Authorship. . . Gascoigne. ]
p. 529, under Hall add See The Lives of the Kings, Henry VIII, ed. Whibley, C. ,
2 vols. 1904.
p. 538, 1. 54 for (By Thomas Nashe ? . ] read [Author unknown. ]
p. 542, 1. 40 for (By Thomas Turswell. ) read [Author unknown. ]
p. 583 delete the entry under Henry Smith and add p. 418 to the Sir Thomas Smith
entry.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression.
p. 174, 11. 15--19 for He knew. . . versification. read He had studied Chaucer, too, but
in Pynson's edition, published in 1526; and it was mainly on French and Italian
models that he founded his versification. A book to which he owed much was Trissino's
Poetica, published in 1529, with a translation into Italian of Dante's De Vulgari
Eloquentia.
p. 375, 11. 10-16 for Star chamber. . . books. read Star chamber which amplified
and reinforced the injunctions and decrees hitherto issued in regard to the press. It
forbade the publication of any book or pamphlet unless previously authorised by him.
self or the bishop of London, gave him full control over the Stationers' company,
empowered him to determine the number of printing presses in use and, finally,
imposed the severest penalties on the printing of seditious or slanderous books? .
See vol. iv, pp. 379—381 of the present work.
p. 378, 11. 32–33 for escape. . . gone, read save a small quantity of the pica type,
and it is possible that some time previous to this he had secretly conveyed a second
press with the necessary type into the country. Certainly he was at liberty and at
work shortly afterwards for we find a book entered against his name in the Stationers'
Register on 13 May. But on the same date the court of Stationers ordered the
destruction of the confiscated press, type and books, while, as we learn from Martin
himself, he was . utterly deprived from ever printing again. ' His career as a recognised
printer was, therefore, at an end,
p. 379, 11. 28–33 for task. . . . priest. read task, though it is difficult to say whether
it was taken in hand in the early or late summer. Two of Penry's tracts also, in all
probability, belong to the same period. These were a second edition of An E. chortation,
and a new tract entitled A Defence of that which hath been written, which was a reply
to Dr Some, who had published an answer to the first edition of An Exhortation.
The second edition of the last-named tract, of which there are two distinct issues
extant? , was almost certainly published late in May or early in June, and a close
examination of its lettering and workmanship, together with hints let fall by those
examined by the authorities in their investigation of the affair support the belief that
it was printed by Waldegrave on a press and secreted at Kingston-on-Thames, in which
town Udall was a resident preacher.
3 See New Tract from the Marprelate press, The Library, July 1909.
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
XV
6
9
p. 387, 1. 26. Since this volume was first published, the writer has come to the
conclusion that the change of method' really implies a change of authorship and
that there is much more behind the business of Martin Senior and Junior than mere
imaginative setting. See Wilson, J. Dover, Martin Marprelate and Shakespeare's
Fluellen, 1912.
p. 466, add to the bibliography of chapter 1:
Allen, P. S. The Age of Erasmus. Oxford, 1914.
Erasmus, Desiderius. Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi denuo recognitum et auctum
per P. S. Allen. 3 vols. Oxford, 1906–13.
The Praise of Folly. 1509. Tr. John Wilson. 1668. Ed. Allen, Mrs P. S.
Oxford, 1913.
Leach, A. F. The Schools of Medieval England, 1915.
p. 471, add to the bibliography of chapter II :
Guide to the Manuscripts and Printed Books exhibited in celebration of the Tercentenary
of the Authorized Version. 1911. [Printed by the Trustees of the British Museum
for the British Museum Exhibition, 1911. )
Brown, J. The History of the English Bible. Cambridge, 1911.
Scrivener, F. H. A. The Authorized edition of the English Bible (1611), its subsequent
reprints and modern representatives. Cambridge, 1884.
Warren, F. E. The Sarum Missal in English. Parts I and II. (Alcuin Club, 1913. )
Wordsworth, Christopher, and Littlehales, Henry. The Old Service Books of the
English Church. 1904.
Wright, W. Aldis (ed. ). The Authorised Version of the English Bible, 1611. 5 vols.
Cambridge, 1909.
The Hexaplar Psalter, being the Book of Psalms in Six English Versions (Cover-
dale, Great Bible, Geneva, Bishops, Authorized and Revised). Cambridge, 1911.
p. 477, add to the bibliography of chapter III :
Index Britanniae Scriptorum quos collegit I. Baleus. Ed. Poole, R. L. and Bateson,
Mary. Oxford, 1902.
p. 478, add to the bibliography of chapter IV:
Dunbabin, R. L. Notes on Skelton. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. XII, 1917.
Williams, W. H. (ed. ). A Selection from the Poetical Works of John Skelton. 1902.
p. 482, add to the bibliography of chapter V:
Coulton, G. G. Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation. Cam.
bridge, 1918.
Crawfurd, R. Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art. Oxford, 1914.
p. 498, add to the bibliography of chapter VI:
Maclean, C. M. Alexander Scott, Montgomerie and Drummond of Hawthornden as
Lyric Poets.
Cambridge, 1915.
p. 511, add to the bibliography of chapter VIII :
Foxwell, A. K. Poems of Wyatt. 2 vols. 1913. 1 vol. 1914.
Koszul, A. Anthologie de la Littérature anglaise des Origines au XVIII° siècle. Paris.
Reed, E. B. English Lyrical Poetry, from its Origins to the Present Time. Yale
University Press.
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's Industry. 1916.
p. 517, add to the bibliography of chapter X:
Canliffe, J. W. Gascoigne and Shakspere. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
Littledale, H.
Was · Due Desert' Walter Devereux? Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
p. 521, add to the bibliography of chapter XI :
Crawford, C. Collectanea. 1st series. Stratford-on-Avon, 1906.
Delattre, F. English Fairy Poetry from the origins to the 17th century. London and
Paris, 1912.
Harman, E. G. Edmund Spenser and the Impersonations of Francis Bacon. 1914.
Higginson, J. J. Spenser's Shepherd's Calender in Relation to Contemporary Affairs.
Columbia University Press.
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
xvi
Kastner, L. E. Spenser's Amoretti and Desportes. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908.
Maynardier, Howard. The Areopagus of Sidney and Spenser. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv,
1908.
Mustard, W. P. (ed. ). The Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus. Baltimore, 1911.
(ed. ). Sannazaro, The Piscatory Eclogues of Jacopo. Baltimore, 1911.
Spenser's Faerie Queene. Ed. J. C. Smith. 2 vols. Oxford, 1909.
Spenser's Faerie Queene. Books I and II. Ed. L. Winstanley. Cambridge, 1915.
and 1914.
Spenser's Minor Poems. Ed. Ernest de Sélincourt. Oxford, 1910.
p. 522, add to the bibliography of chapter XII :
Crawford, c. Collectanea. 1st series. Stratford-on-Avon, 1906.
Lee, Sidney. The French Renaissance in England. Oxford, 1910.
Suddard, M. Essays in English Literature. Cambridge, 1912.
p. 533, add to the bibliography of chapter XVI:
Mann, F. 0. (ed. ). The Works of Thomas Deloney. Oxford, 1912.
Wallace, M. W. The Life of Sir Philip Sidney. Cambridge, 1910.
Wolff, S. L. Greek Romances in Elizabethan Prose Fiction. Columbia University
Press.
p. 537, add to the bibliography of chapter XVII:
Baite for Momus, A. By Tobie Bland of Bedford. A Baite for Momus, so called upon
occasion of a sermon at Bedford injuriously traduced by the factious. Now not
altered but augmented. With a briefe Patrocinie of the lawful use of Philosophie
in the more serious and sacred studie of divinitie. By Tobie Bland, Chaplaine to
the right Honourable John Lord Saint John, Baron of Bletsoe. . . London, printed
by John Wolfe. 1589. (B. M. 4474. c. 39. )
Bonnard, G. La Controverse de Martin Marprelate, 1588-1590. Geneva, 1916.
Dearmer, Percy. Religious Pamphlets. 1898. Pp. 111-151.
Maitland, S. R. Essays on subjects connected with the Reformation in England. 1849.
Pierce, W. An Historical Introduction to the Marprelate Tracts. 1908.
The Marprelate Tracts. 1911.
Wilson, J. Dover. Anthony Munday. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. iv, 1908-9.
Richard Schilders and the English Puritans. Trans. Bibl. Soc. XI.
See, also, The Library, July 1909 and October 1912.
p. 549, add to the bibliography of chapter XIX:
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries. 1907.
p. 555, add to the bibliography of chapter XX:
Einstein, L. The Italian Renaissance in England. 1902.
## p. 1 (#23) ###############################################
CHAPTER I
ENGLISHMEN AND THE CLASSICAL RENASCENCE
The classical renascence implied a knowledge and imitation
of the great literary artists of the golden past of classical antiquity,
and, as a preliminary, a competent acquaintance with, and some
power to use, the Latin and Greek languages. Italy gave it birth
and it gradually spread beyond the Alps into Germany, France and
England. In the end it created, almost imperceptibly, a cosmo-
politan republic of which Guillaume Budé and Erasmus disputed
the sovereignty, and where, latterly, Erasmus, by universal
consent, ruled as chief. This republic established itself in a
Europe almost savage, supremely warlike and comparatively
untaught-in it and yet not of it. Its citizens were a select
people who lived and worked in the midst of the tumult of
arms, the conflict of politics and the war of creeds which
went on around them. It spread widely and silently until it
almost became the mark of a well-educated person to be able
to read, write and converse fluently in Latin, and to know
something of Greek. It refused to admit the limitations of sex.
The learned lady (erudita) of the Colloquia of Erasmus easily
discomfits the pretentious abbot. The prince of humanists
himself, in no spirit of condescension, corresponded with the
sisters of Pirkheimer and the daughters of More. At the
celebrated reunions of Marguerite d’Angoulême, which were
anticipations of the eighteenth century salon, Latin, Greek and
even Hebrew were continually used. Her niece and grand-nieces
were trained in the humanities. Mary of Scotland read Latin
authors with George Buchanan. In England, well-born young
ladies, towards the close of queen Mary's reign, were accomplished
scholars. Elizabeth herself overwhelmed luckless ambassadors
with floods of improvised Latinity. But this queen is extremely
wise and has eyes that can flame,' wrote one who had, with
difficulty, saved himself from the deluge.
1
E. L. III.
CH. I.
!
## p. 2 (#24) ###############################################
2
English men and the Classical Renascence
The enthusiasts of the classical renascence, who had spent time
and pains in mastering the secrets of style of the literary artists
of antiquity, were somewhat disdainful of their mother tongues.
They were inclined to believe that cultured thought could only
find fit expression in the apt words, deft phrases and rhythmical
cadences, of the revived language of ancient Rome. They pre-
ferred to write in Latin, and the use of the common speech of
their cosmopolitan republic gave them an audience in all parts
of educated Europe. Nevertheless, the classical renascence had a
powerful effect in moulding the literary languages of modern
Europe and in enriching them with graces of style and expression.
Its influence was so pervading and impalpable that it worked like
leaven, almost imperceptibly, yet really and potently.
The classical renascence recognised no one land in Europe as
its own; it possessed all and belonged to all. Yet it is possible to
describe its progress in Italy, Germany, France and even Spain,
without introducing alien names. England is an exception.
Erasmus belongs as much to the history of the classical renascence
in our land as does Linacre, Colet, or More. The country
received him when his fortunes were at a low ebb. He was
about 33 years of age. The torments and temptations of
Hertogenbosch, the midnight labours of Stein, the horrors of
the Collège Montaigu and the penury of Paris had left their
marks on his frail body. He had produced little or nothing.
He was almost unknown and he had no sure prospects in life.
In England he found friends, who gladly gave him hospitable
welcome, whose cultured leisure enabled them to appreciate his
learning, his humour, his untiring capacity for work and his
ceaseless activity of mind. No wonder that the fortune-tossed
.
wanderer was glad to fancy himself an Englishman and delighted
in the men and women, the manners, the scholarship, even in the
climate, of his new home-in everything English, in fact, save
the beer and the draughty rooms.
He came, too, at the moment most fitting to make an im-
pression. Scholasticism still reigned; but there were signs that its
authority was waning. The honoured friend of English leading
scholars, sought after by the educational reformer of one of its
great universities, patronised by its archbishop, complimented
by its young and popular king, Erasmus could not fail to make
a deep impression on the country at a peculiarly impressionable
time-an impression all the stronger because he appealed to the
practical side of the English people in a way more directly than
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Erasmus's First Visit to England
3
did any other humanist. They saw in him not a great classical
specialist, but one who gathered the wisdom of the past to enrich
and enlighten the present.
Erasmus visited England for the first time in the summer of
1499. He came in the company of young William Blount, lord
Mountjoy, who had been one of his pupils in Paris. He seems
to have resided, for a while, in London with Sir William Say, his
pupil's father-in-law; then, at a country-house belonging to
lord Mountjoy at Greenwich. He spent about two months at
Oxford in the college of St Mary, an establishment for students
of the Augustinian order presided over by prior Richard Charnock.
He was back in London in the beginning of December; and, after
à round-about journey by Dover, Calais and Tournehem, he
arrived in Paris sometime about the end of January, 1500. His
visit had been short, lasting about six months, just long enough
to make him acquainted with the most prominent scholars in
England; and his correspondence enables us to judge of the
progress which the classical renascence had made there.
In a letter to Robert Fisher, “the kyng's solicitor at Rome,'
he instances four scholars whom he cannot praise too highly-
John Colet, William Grocyn, Thomas Linacre and Thomas More.
These men had learning neither hackneyed nor trivial, but deep,
accurate, ancient Latin and Greek.
