The Scholemaster Part 13

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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 quant.i.tie 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, wis.e.m.e.n 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, c.u.m 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

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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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, I say, that sixten hundred yeare after you were dead and gone, it may trewly be sayd, that for siluer, there is more c.u.mlie 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. Cra.s.sus_ 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.

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And although the Latin tong did faire blome and blossome in _L. Cra.s.sus_, and _M. Antonius_, yet in _Tullies_ tyme onely, and in Tullie himselfe chieflie, was the Latin tong fullie ripe, and growne to the hiest pitch of all perfection.

And yet in the same tyme, it began to fade and stoupe, as _Tullie_ him selfe, in _Brutus de Claris Oratoribus_, with weeping wordes doth witnesse.

And bicause, emongs them of that tyme, there was some difference, good reason is, that of them of that tyme, should be made right choice also. And yet let the best _Ciceronian_ in Italie read _Tullies_ familiar epistles aduisedly ouer, and I beleue he shall finde small difference, for the Latin tong, either in propriety of wordes or framing of the stile, betwixt _Tullie_, and those that write vnto him. As _ser. Sulpitius, A. Cecinna, M. Caelius, M. et D. Bruti, A. Pollio, L. Plancus_, and diuerse Epi. Planci // other: read the epistles of _L. Plancus_ in _x. Lib._ x. lib. Epist. // and for an a.s.say, that Epistle namely to the _Coss._ 8. // and whole _Senate_, the eight Epistle in number, and what could be, eyther more eloquentlie, or more wiselie written, yea by _Tullie_ himselfe, a man may iustly doubt. Thies men and _Tullie_, liued all in one tyme, were like in authoritie, not vnlike in learning and studie, which might be iust causes of this their equalitie in writing: And yet surely, they neyther were in deed, nor yet were counted in mens opinions, equall with _Tullie_ in that facultie. And how is the difference hid in his Epistles? verelie, as the cunning of an expert Sea man, in a faire calme fresh Ryuer, doth litle differ from the doing of a meaner workman therein, euen so, in the short cut of a priuate letter, where, matter is common, wordes easie, and order not moch diuerse, small shew of difference can appeare.

But where _Tullie_ doth set vp his saile of eloquence, in some broad deep Argument, caried with full tyde and winde, of his witte and learnyng, all other may rather stand and looke after him, than hope to ouertake him, what course so euer he hold, either in faire or foule. Foure men onely whan the Latin tong was full ripe, be left vnto vs, who in that tyme did florish, and did leaue to posteritie, the fruite of their witte and learning: _Varro, Sal.u.s.t, Caesar_, and _Cicero_. Whan I say, these foure onely, I am not ignorant, that euen in the same tyme, most excellent Poetes, deseruing well of the Latin tong, as _Lucretius_,

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_Cattullus, Virgill_ and _Horace_, did write: But, bicause, in this litle booke, I purpose to teach a yong scholer, to go, not to daunce: to speake, not to sing, whan Poetes in deed, namelie _Epici_ and _Lyrici_, as these be, are fine dauncers, and trime singers, but _Oratores_ and _Historici_ be those c.u.mlie goers, and faire and wise speakers, of whom I wishe my scholer to wayte vpon first, and after in good order, & dew tyme, to be brought forth, to the singing and dauncing schole: And for this consi- deration, do I name these foure, to be the onelie writers of that tyme.

-- _Varro._

_Varro_, in his bookes _de lingua Latina, et a.n.a.logia_ as these be left mangled and patched vnto vs, doth not enter // _Varro._ there in to any great depth of eloquence, but as one caried in a small low vessell him selfe verie nie the common sh.o.r.e, not much vnlike the fisher men of Rye, and Hering men of Yarmouth. Who deserue by common mens opinion, small commendacion, for any cunning saling at all, yet neuertheles in those bookes of _Varro_ good and necessarie stuffe, for that meane kinde of Argument, be verie well and learnedlie gathered togither.

His bookes of Husbandrie, are moch to be regarded, and diligentlie to be read, not onelie for the proprietie, // De Rep.

but also for the plentie of good wordes, in all // Rustica.

contrey and husbandmens affaires: which can not be had, by so good authoritie, out of any other Author, either of so good a tyme, or of so great learnyng, as out of _Varro_.

And yet bicause, he was fourescore yeare old, whan he wrote those bookes, the forme of his style there compared with _Tullies_ writyng, is but euen the talke of a spent old man: whose wordes commonlie fall out of his mouth, though verie wiselie, yet hardly and coldie, and more heauelie also, than some eares can well beare, except onelie for age, and authorities sake. And perchance, in a rude contrey argument, of purpose and iudge- ment, he rather vsed, the speach of the contrey, than talke of the Citie.

And so, for matter sake, his wordes sometyme, be somewhat rude: and by the imitation of the elder _Cato_, old and out of vse:

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And beyng depe stept in age, by negligence some wordes do so scape & fall from him in those bookes, as be not worth the Lib. 3. // taking vp, by him, that is carefull to speake or Cap. 1. // write trew Latin, as that sentence in him, _Romani, in pace a rusticis alebantur, et in bello ab his tuebantur_.

A good student must be therfore carefull and diligent, to read with iudgement ouer euen those Authors, which did write in the most perfite tyme: and let him not be affrayd to trie them, both in proprietie of wordes, and forme of style, by the touch stone of _Caesar_ and _Cicero_, whose puritie was neuer soiled, no not by the sentence of those, that loued them worst.

All louers of learnyng may sore lament the losse of those The loue // bookes of _Varro_, which he wrote in his yong and of Var- // l.u.s.tie yeares, with good leysure, and great learnyng roes // of all partes of Philosophie: of the goodliest argu- bookes. // mentes, perteyning both to the common wealth, and priuate life of man, as, _de Ratione studij, et educandis liberis_, which booke, is oft recited, and moch praysed, in the fragmentes of _Nonius_, euen for authoritie sake. He wrote most diligentlie and largelie, also the whole historie of the state of _Rome_: the mysteries of their whole Religion: their lawes, customes, and gouernement in peace: their maners, and whole discipline in warre: And this is not my gessing, as one in deed that neuer saw those bookes, but euen, the verie iudgement, & playne testimonie of _Tullie_ him selfe, who knew & read those bookes, in these wordes: _Tu aetatem Patriae: Tu descriptiones temporum:_ In Acad. // _Tu sacrorum, tu sacerdotum Iura: Tu domesticam, Quest. // _tu bellicam disciplinam: Tu sedem Regionum, locorum,_ _tu omnium diuinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti. &c._ But this great losse of _Varro_, is a litle recompensed by the happy comming of _Dionysius Halicarna.s.saeus_ to _Rome_ in _Augustus_ dayes: who getting the possession of _Varros_ librarie, out of that treasure house of learning, did leaue vnto vs some frute of _Varros_ witte and diligence, I meane, his goodlie bookes _de Antiquitatibus Romanorum. Varro_ was so estemed for his excellent learnyng, as _Tullie_ him selfe had a reuerence to his Cic. ad // iudgement in all doutes of learnyng. And Att. // _Antonius Triumuir_, his enemie, and of a contrarie faction, who had power to kill and bannish whom

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he listed, whan _Varros_ name amongest others was brought in a schedule vnto him, to be noted to death, he tooke his penne and wrote his warrant of sauegard with these most goodlie wordes, _Viuat Varro vir doctissimus_. In later tyme, no man knew better, nor liked and loued more _Varros_ learnyng, than did _S. Augustine_, as they do well vnderstand, that haue diligentlie read ouer his learned bookes _de Ciuitate Dei_: Where he hath this most notable sentence: Whan I see, how much _Varro_ wrote, I meruell much, that euer he had any leasure to read: and whan I perceiue how many thinges he read, I meruell more, that euer he had any leasure to write. &c.

And surelie, if _Varros_ bookes had remained to posteritie, as by G.o.ds prouidence, the most part of _Tullies_ did, than trewlie the _Latin_ tong might haue made good comparison with the _Greke_.

_Sal.u.s.te._

_Sal.u.s.t_, is a wise and worthy writer: but he requireth a learned Reader, and a right considerer of him. // _Sal.u.s.t._ My dearest frend, and best master that euer I had // Syr Iohn or heard in learning, Syr _I. Cheke_, soch a man, as // Chekes if I should liue to see England breed the like // iudgement againe, I feare, I should liue ouer long, did once // and coun- giue me a lesson for _Sal.u.s.t_, which, as I shall neuer // sell for rea- forget my selfe, so is it worthy to be remembred // dyng of of all those, that would c.u.m to perfite iudgement // _Sal.u.s.te._ of the Latin tong. He said, that _Sal.u.s.t_ was not verie fitte for yong men, to learne out of him, the puritie of the Latin tong: because, he was not the purest in proprietie of wordes, nor choisest in aptnes of phrases, nor the best in framing of sentences: and therefore is his writing, sayd he neyther plaine for the matter, nor sensible for mens vnderstanding. And what is the cause thereof, Syr, quoth I. Verilie said he, bicause in _Sal.u.s.t_ writing, is more Arte than nature, and more labor than Arte: and in his labor also, to moch toyle, as it were, with an vncontented care to write better than he could, a fault common to very many men. And therefore he doth not expresse the matter liuely and naturally with common speach as ye see _Xenophon_ doth in Greeke, but it is caried and driuen forth

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artificiallie, after to learned a sorte, as _Thucydides_ doth in his orations. And how c.u.mmeth it to pa.s.se, sayd I, that _Caesar_ and _Ciceroes_ talke, is so naturall & plaine, and _Sal.u.s.t_ writing so artificiall and darke, whan all they three liued in one tyme?

I will freelie tell you my fansie herein, said he: surely, _Caesar_ and _Cicero_, beside a singular prerogatiue of naturall eloquence geuen vnto them by G.o.d, both two, by vse of life, were daylie orators emonges the common people, and greatest councellers in the Senate house: and therefore gaue themselues to vse soch speach as the meanest should well vnderstand, and the wisest best allow: folowing carefullie that good councell of _Aristotle_, _loquendum vt multi, sapiendum vt pauci_. _Sal.u.s.t_ was no soch man, neyther for will to goodnes, nor skill by learning: but ill geuen by nature, and made worse by bringing vp, spent the most part of his yougth very misorderly in ryot and lechery. In the company of soch, who, neuer geuing theyr mynde to honest doyng, could neuer inure their tong to wise speaking. But at last c.u.mmyng to better yeares, and bying witte at the dearest hand, that is, by long experience of the hurt and shame that commeth of mischeif, moued, by the councell of them that were wise, and caried by the example of soch as were good, first fell to honestie of life, and after to the loue of studie and learning: and so became so new a man, that _Caesar_ being dictator, made him Pretor in _Numidia_ where he absent from his contrie, and not inured with the common talke of Rome, but shut vp in his studie, and bent wholy to reading, did write the storie of the Romanes. And for the better accomplis.h.i.+ng of the same, he red _Cato_ and _Piso_ in Latin for gathering of matter and troth: and _Thucydides_ in Greeke for the order of his storie, and furnis.h.i.+ng of his style. _Cato_ (as his tyme required) had more troth for the matter, than eloquence for the style. And so _Sal.u.s.t_, by gathering troth out of _Cato_, smelleth moch of the roughnes of his style: euen as a man that eateth garlike for helth, shall cary away with him the sauor of it also, whether he will or not. And yet the vse of old wordes is not the greatest cause of _Sal.u.s.tes_ roughnes and darknesse: There be in _Sal.u.s.t_ Lib. 8. // some old wordes in deed as _patrare bellum, ductare_ Cap. 3. // _exercitum_, well noted by _Quintilian_, and verie De Orna- // much misliked of him: and _supplicium_ for _suppli-_ tu. // _catio_, a word smellyng of an older store than the

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other two so misliked by _Quint_: And yet is that word also in _Varro_, speaking of Oxen thus, _boues ad victimas faciunt, atque ad Deorum supplicia_: and a few old wordes mo. Read _Sal.u.s.te_ and _Tullie_ aduisedly together: and in wordes ye shall finde small difference: yea _Sal.u.s.t_ is more geuen to new wordes, than to olde, though som olde writers say the contrarie: as _Claritudo_ for _Gloria_: _exacte_ for _perfecte_: _Facundia_ for _eloquentia_. Thies two last wordes _exacte_ and _facundia_ now in euery mans mouth, be neuer (as I do remember) vsed of _Tullie_, and therefore I thinke they be not good: For surely _Tullie_ speaking euery where so moch of the matter of eloquence, would not so precisely haue absteyned from the word _Facundia_, if it had bene good: that is proper for the tong, & common for mens vse. I could be long, in reciting many soch like, both olde & new wordes in _Sal.u.s.t_: but in very dede neyther oldnes nor newnesse of wordes maketh the greatest difference // The cause why betwixt _Sal.u.s.t_ and _Tullie_, but first strange phrases // Sal.u.s.t is not made of good Latin wordes, but framed after the // like Tully.

Greeke tonge, which be neyther choisly borowed of them, nor properly vsed by him: than, a hard composition and crooked framing of his wordes and sentences, as a man would say, English talke placed and framed outlandish like. As for example first in phrases, _nimius et animus_ be two vsed wordes, yet _h.o.m.o nimius animi_, is an vnused phrase. _Vulgus, et amat, et fieri_, be as common and well known wordes, as may be in the Latin tong, yet _id quod vulg amat fieri_, for _solet fieri_, is but a strange and grekish kind of writing. _Ingens et vires_ be proper wordes, yet _vir ingens virium_ is an vnproper kinde of speaking and so be likewise,

{_aeger consilij._ {_promptissimus belli._ {_territus animi._

and many soch like phrases in _Sal.u.s.t_, borowed as I sayd not choisly out of Greeke, and vsed therefore vnproperlie in Latin.

Againe, in whole sentences, where the matter is good, the wordes proper and plaine, yet the sense is hard and darke, and namely in his prefaces and orations, wherein he vsed most labor, which fault is likewise in _Thucydides_ in Greeke, of whom _Sal.u.s.t_ hath taken the greatest part of his darkenesse. For

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_Thucydides_ likewise wrote his storie, not at home in Grece, but abrode in Italie, and therefore smelleth of a certaine outlandish kinde of talke, strange to them of _Athens_, and diuerse from their writing, that liued in Athens and Grece, and wrote the same tyme that _Thucydides_ did, as _Lysias, Xenophon, Plato_, and _Isocrates_, the purest and playnest writers, that euer wrote in any tong, and best examples for any man to follow whether he write, Latin, Italian, French, or English. _Thucydides_ also semeth in his writing, not so much benefited by nature, as holpen by Arte, and caried forth by desire, studie, labor, toyle, and ouer great curiositie: who spent xxvii. yeares in writing his eight bookes of his history. _Sal.u.s.t_ likewise wrote out of his Dionys. // contrie, and followed the faultes of _Thuc._ to Halycar. // moch: and boroweth of him som kinde of writing, ad Q. / which the Latin tong can not well beare, as _Casus_ Tub. de // _nominatiuus_ in diuerse places _absolute positus_, as in Hist. Thuc. // that place of _Iugurth_, speaking _de lept.i.tanis, itaque ab imperatore facile quae petebant adepti, missae sunt e cohortes ligurum quatuor_. This thing in participles, vsed so oft in _Thucyd._ and other Greeke authors to, may better be borne with all, but _Sal.u.s.t_ vseth the same more strangelie and boldlie, as in thies wordes, _Multis sibi quisque imperium petentibus_. I beleue, the best Grammarien in England can sca.r.s.e giue a good reule, why _quisque_ the nominatiue case, without any verbe, is so thrust vp amongest so many oblique cases. Some man perchance will smile, and laugh to scorne this my writyng, and call it idle curiositie, thus to busie my selfe in pickling about these small pointes of Grammer, not fitte for my age, place and calling, to trifle in: I trust that man, be he neuer so great in authoritie, neuer so wise and learned, either, by other mens iudgement, or his owne opinion, will yet thinke, that he is not greater in England, than _Tullie_ was at _Rome_, not yet wiser, nor better learned than _Tullie_ was him selfe, who, at the pitch of three score yeares, in the middes of the broyle betwixt _Caesar_ and _Pompeie_, whan he knew not, whether to send wife & children, which way to go, where to hide him selfe, yet, in an earnest letter, amongest his earnest Ad Att. // councelles for those heuie tymes concerning both Lib. 7. Epi- // the common state of his contrey, and his owne stola. 3. // priuate great affaires he was neither vnmyndfull nor ashamed to reason at large, and learne gladlie of _Atticus_,

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a lesse point of Grammer than these be, noted of me in _Sal.u.s.t_, as, whether he should write, _ad Piraeea, in Piraeea_, or _in Piraeeum_, or _Piraeeum sine praepositione:_ And in those heuie tymes, he was so carefull to know this small point of Grammer, that he addeth these wordes _Si hoc mihi zetema persolueris, magna me molestia liberaris_. If _Tullie_, at that age, in that authoritie, in that care for his contrey, in that ieoperdie for him selfe, and extreme necessitie of hys dearest frendes, beyng also the Prince of Eloquence hym selfe, was not ashamed to descend to these low pointes of Grammer, in his owne naturall tong, what should scholers do, yea what should any man do, if he do thinke well doyng, better than ill doyng: And had rather be, perfite than meane, sure than doutefull, to be what he should be, in deed, not seeme what he is not, in opinion. He that maketh perfitnes in the _Latin_ tong his marke, must c.u.me to it by choice & certaine knowledge, not stumble vpon it by chance and doubtfull ignorance: And the right steppes to reach vnto it, be these, linked thus orderlie together, aptnes of nature, loue of learnyng, diligence in right order, constancie with pleasant moderation, and alwayes to learne of them that be best, and so shall you iudge as they that be wisest. And these be those reules, which worthie Master _Cheke_ dyd impart vnto me con- cernyng _Sal.u.s.t_, and the right iudgement of the _Latin_ tong.

-- _Caesar._

_Caesar_ for that litle of him, that is left vnto vs, is like the halfe face of a _Venus_, the other part of the head beyng hidden, the bodie and the rest of the members vnbegon, yet so excellentlie done by _Apelles_, as all men may stand still to mase and muse vpon it, and no man step forth with any hope to performe the like.

His seuen bookes _de bello Gallico_, and three _de bello Ciuili_, be written, so wiselie for the matter, so eloquentlie for the tong, that neither his greatest enemies could euer finde the least note of parcialitie in him (a meruelous wisdome of a man, namely writyng of his owne doynges) nor yet the best iudegers of the _Latin_ tong, nor the most enuious lookers vpon other mens writynges, can say any other, but all things be most perfitelie done by him.

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