It often happens to writers, that they are known only by their works;
the incidents of a literary life are seldom observed, and, therefore,
seldom recounted: but Ascham has escaped the common fate by the
friendship of Edward Grauut, the learned master of Westminster school,
who devoted an oration to his memory, and has marked the various
vicissitudes of his fortune. Graunt either avoided the labour of
minute inquiry, or thought domestick occurrences unworthy of his
notice; or, preferring the character of an orator to that of an
historian, selected only such particulars as he could best express or
most happily embellish. His narrative is, therefore, scanty, and I
know not by what materials it can now be amplified.
Roger Ascham was born in the year 1515, at Kirby Wiske, (or Kirby
Wicke,) a village near Northallerton, in Yorkshire, of a family above
the vulgar. His father, John Ascham, was house-steward in the family
of Scroop; and, in that age, when the different orders of men were at
a greater distance from each other, and the manners of gentlemen were
regularly formed by menial services in great houses, lived with a very
conspicuous reputation. Margaret Ascham, his wife, is said to have
been allied to many considerable families, but her maiden name is not
recorded. She had three sons, of whom Roger was the youngest, and some
daughters; but who can hope, that of any progeny more than one shall
deserve to be mentioned? They lived married sixty-seven years, and, at
last, died together almost on the same hour of the same day.
Roger, having passed his first years under the care of his parents,
was adopted into the family of Antony Wingfield, who maintained him,
and committed his education, with that of his own sons, to the care of
one Bond, a domestick tutor. He very early discovered an unusual
fondness for literature by an eager perusal of English books; and,
having passed happily through the scholastick rudiments, was put, in
1530, by his patron Wingfield, to St. John's college in Cambridge.
Ascham entered Cambridge at a time when the last great revolution of
the intellectual world was filling every academical mind with ardour
or anxiety. The destruction of the Constantinopolitan empire had
driven the Greeks, with their language, into the interiour parts of
Europe, the art of printing had made the books easily attainable, and
Greek now began to be taught in England. The doctrines of Luther had
already filled all the nations of the Romish communion with
controversy and dissension. New studies of literature, and new tenets
of religion, found employment for all who were desirous of truth, or
ambitious of fame. Learning was, at that time, prosecuted with that
eagerness and perseverance, which, in this age of indifference and
dissipation, it is not easy to conceive. To teach or to learn, was, at
once, the business and the pleasure of the academical life; and an
emulation of study was raised by Cheke and Smith, to which even the
present age, perhaps, owes many advantages, without remembering, or
knowing, its benefactors.
Ascham soon resolved to unite himself to those who were enlarging the
bounds of knowledge, and, immediately upon his admission into the
college, applied himself to the study of Greek. Those who were zealous
for the new learning, were often no great friends to the old religion;
and Ascham, as he became a Grecian, became a protestant. The
reformation was not yet begun; disaffection to popery was considered
as a crime justly punished by exclusion from favour and preferment,
and was not yet openly professed, though superstition was gradually
losing its hold upon the publick. The study of Greek was reputable
enough, and Ascham pursued it with diligence and success, equally
conspicuous. He thought a language might be most easily learned by
teaching it; and, when he had obtained some proficiency in Greek, read
lectures, while he was yet a boy, to other boys, who were desirous of
instruction. His industry was much encouraged by Pember, a man of
great eminence at that time, though I know not that he has left any
monuments behind him, but what the gratitude of his friends and
scholars has bestowed. He was one of the great encouragers of Greek
learning, and particularly applauded Ascham's lectures, assuring him
in a letter, of which Graunt has preserved an extract, that he would
gain more knowledge by explaining one of Æsop's fables to a boy, than
by hearing one of Homer's poems explained by another.
Ascham took his bachelor's degree in 1534, February 18, in the
eighteenth year of his age; a time of life at which it is more common
now to enter the universities, than to take degrees, but which,
according to the modes of education then in use, had nothing of
remarkable prematurity. On the 23rd of March following, he was chosen
fellow of the college, which election he considered as a second birth.
Dr. Metcalf, the master of the college, a man, as Ascham tells us,
"meanly learned himself, but no mean encourager of learning in
others," clandestinely promoted his election, though he openly seemed
first to oppose it, and afterwards to censure it, because Ascham was
known to favour the new opinions; and the master himself was accused
of giving an unjust preference to the northern men, one of the
factions into which this nation was divided, before we could find any
more important reason of dissension, than that some were born on the
northern, and some on the southern side of Trent. Any cause is
sufficient for a quarrel; and the zealots of the north and south lived
long in such animosity, that it was thought necessary at Oxford to
keep them quiet, by choosing one proctor every year from each.
He seems to have been, hitherto, supported by the bounty of Wingfield,
which his attainment of a fellowship now freed him from the necessity
of receiving. Dependance, though in those days it was more common and
less irksome, than in the present state of things, can never have been
free from discontent; and, therefore, he that was released from it
must always have rejoiced. The danger is, lest the joy of escaping
from the patron may not leave sufficient memory of the benefactor. Of
this forgetfulness, Ascham cannot be accused; for he is recorded to
have preserved the most grateful and affectionate reverence for
Wingfield, and to have never grown weary of recounting his benefits.
His reputation still increased, and many resorted to his chamber to
hear the Greek writers explained. He was, likewise, eminent for other
accomplishments. By the advice of Pember, he had learned to play on
musical instruments, and he was one of the few who excelled in the
mechanical art of writing, which then began to be cultivated among us,
and in which we now surpass all other nations. He not only wrote his
pages with neatness, but embellished them with elegant draughts and
illuminations; an art at that time so highly valued, that it
contributed much both to his fame and his fortune.
He became master of arts in March, 1537, in his twenty-first year, and
then, if not before, commenced tutor, and publickly undertook the
education of young men. A tutor of one-and-tweuty, however
accomplished with learning, however exalted by genius, would now gain
little reverence or obedience; but in those days of discipline and
regularity, the authority of the statutes easily supplied that of the
teacher; all power that was lawful was reverenced. Besides, young
tutors had still younger pupils.
Ascham is said to have courted his scholars to study by every
incitement, to have treated them with great kindness, and to have
taken care, at once, to instil learning and piety, to enlighten their
minds, and to form their manners. Many of his scholars rose to great
eminence; and among them William Grindal was so much distinguished,
that, by Cheke's recommendation, he was called to court, as a proper
master of languages for the lady Elizabeth.
There was yet no established lecturer of Greek; the university,
therefore, appointed Ascham to read in the open schools, and paid him
out of the publick purse an honorary stipend, such as was then
reckoned sufficiently liberal. A lecture was afterwards founded by
king Henry, and he then quitted the schools, but continued to explain
Greek authors in his own college.
He was at first an opponent of the new pronunciation introduced, or
rather of the ancient restored, about this time, by Cheke and Smith,
and made some cautious struggles for the common practice, which the
credit and dignity of his antagonists did not permit him to defend
very publickly, or with much vehemence: nor were they long his
antagonists; for either his affection for their merit, or his
conviction of the cogency of their arguments, soon changed his opinion
and his practice, and he adhered ever after to their method of
utterance.
Of this controversy it is not necessary to give a circumstantial
account; something of it may be found in Strype's Life of Smith, and
something in Baker's Reflections upon Learning; it is sufficient to
remark here, that Cheke's pronunciation was that which now prevails in
the schools of England. Disquisitions not only verbal, but merely
literal, are too minute for popular narration.
He was not less eminent, as a writer of Latin, than as a teacher of
Greek. All the publick letters of the university were of his
composition; and, as little qualifications must often bring great
abilities into notice, he was recommended to this honourable
employment, not less by the neatness of his hand, than the elegance of
his style.
However great was his learning, he was not always immured in his
chamber; but, being valetudinary, and weak of body, thought it
necessary to spend many hours in such exercises as might best relieve
him after the fatigue of study. His favourite amusement was archery,
in which he spent, or, in the opinion of others, lost so much time,
that those whom either his faults or virtues made his enemies, and,
perhaps, some whose kindness wished him always worthily employed, did
not scruple to censure his practice, as unsuitable to a man professing
learning, and, perhaps, of bad example in a place of education.
To free himself from this censure was one of the reasons for which he
published, in 1544, his Toxophilus, or the Schole or Partitions of
Shooting, in which he joins the praise with the precepts of archery.
He designed not only to teach the art of shooting, but to give an
example of diction more natural and more truly English than was used
by the common writers of that age, whom he censures for mingling
exotick terms with their native language, and of whom he complains,
that they were made authors, not by skill or education, but by
arrogance and temerity.
He has not failed in either of his purposes. He has sufficiently
vindicated archery as an innocent, salutary, useful, and liberal
diversion; and if his precepts are of no great use, he has only shown,
by one example among many, how little the hand can derive from the
mind, how little intelligence can conduce to dexterity. In every art,
practice is much; in arts manual, practice is almost the whole:
precept can, at most, but warn against errour; it can never bestow
excellence.
The bow has been so long disused, that most English readers have
forgotten its importance, though it was the weapon by which we gained
the battle of Agincourt; a weapon which, when handled by English
yeomen, no foreign troops were able to resist. We were not only abler
of body than the French, and, therefore, superiour in the use of arms,
which are forcible only in proportion to the strength with which they
are handled, but the national practice of shooting for pleasure or for
prizes, by which every man was inured to archery from his infancy,
gave us insuperable advantage, the bow requiring more practice to
skilful use than any other instrument of offence.
Firearms were then in their infancy; and though battering-pieces had
been some time in use, I know not whether any soldiers were armed with
hand-guns when the Toxophilus was first published. They were soon
after used by the Spanish troops, whom other nations made haste to
imitate; but how little they could yet effect, will be understood from
the account given by the ingenious author of the Exercise for the
Norfolk Militia.
"The first muskets were very heavy, and could not be fired without a
rest; they had matchlocks, and barrels of a wide bore, that carried a
large ball and charge of powder, and did execution at a greater
distance.
"The musketeers on a march carried only their rests and ammunition,
and had boys to bear their muskets after them, for which they were
allowed great additional pay.
"They were very slow in loading, not only by reason of the
unwieldiness of the pieces, and because they carried the powder and
balls separate, but from the time it took to prepare and adjust the
match; so that their fire was not near so brisk as ours is now.
Afterwards a lighter kind of matchlock musket came into use, and they
carried their ammunition in bandeliers, which were broad belts that
came over the shoulder, to which were hung several little cases of
wood covered with leather, each containing a charge of powder; the
balls they carried loose in a pouch; and they had also a priming-horn
hanging by their side.
"The old English writers call those large muskets calivers; the
harquebuss was a lighter piece, that could be fired without a rest.
The matchlock was fired by a match fixed by a kind of tongs in the
serpentine or cock, which, by pulling the trigger, was brought down
with great quickness upon the priming in the pan, over which there was
a sliding cover, which was drawn back by the hand just at the time of
firing. There was a great deal of nicety and care required to fit the
match properly to the cock, so as to come down exactly true on the
priming, to blow the ashes from the coal, and to guard the pan from
the sparks that fell from it. A great deal of time was also lost in
taking it out of the cock, and returning it between the fingers of the
left hand every time that the piece was fired; and wet weather often
rendered the matches useless."
While this was the state of firearms, and this state continued among
us to the civil war, with very little improvement, it is no wonder
that the long-bow was preferred by sir Thomas Smith, who wrote of the
choice of weapons in the reign of queen Elizabeth, when the use of the
bow still continued, though the musket was gradually prevailing. Sir
John Haward, a writer yet later, has, in his History of the Norman
Kings, endeavoured to evince the superiority of the archer to the
musketeer: however, in the long peace of king James, the bow was
wholly forgotten. Guns have from that time been the weapons of the
English, as of other nations, and, as they are now improved, are
certainly more efficacious.
Ascham had yet another reason, if not for writing his book, at least
for presenting it to king Henry. England was not then, what it may be
now justly termed, the capital of literature; and, therefore, those
who aspired to superiour degrees of excellence, thought it necessary
to travel into other countries. The purse of Ascham was not equal to
the expense of peregrination; and, therefore, he hoped to have it
augmented by a pension. Nor was he wholly disappointed; for the king
rewarded him with a yearly payment of ten pounds.
A pension of ten pounds granted by a king of England to a man of
letters, appears, to modern readers, so contemptible a benefaction,
that it is not unworthy of inquiry what might be its value at that
time, and how much Ascham might be enriched by it. Nothing is more
uncertain than the estimation of wealth by denominated money; the
precious metals never retain long the same proportion to real
commodities, and the same names in different ages do not imply the
same quantity of metal; so that it is equally difficult to know how
much money was contained in any nominal sum, and to find what any
supposed quantity of gold or silver would purchase; both which are
necessary to the commensuration of money, or the adjustment of
proportion between the same sums at different periods of time.
A numeral pound, in king Henry's time, contained, as now, twenty
shillings; and, therefore, it must be inquired what twenty shillings
could perform. Bread-corn is the most certain standard of the
necessaries of life. Wheat was generally sold, at that time for one
shilling, the bushel; if, therefore, we take five shillings the bushel
for the current price, ten pounds were equivalent to fifty. But here
is danger of a fallacy. It may be doubted whether wheat was the
general bread-corn of that age; and if rye, barley, or oats, were the
common food, and wheat, as I suspect, only a delicacy, the value of
wheat will not regulate the price of other things. This doubt,
however, is in favour of Ascham; for if we raise the worth of wheat,
we raise that of his pension.
But the value of money has another variation, which we are still less
able to ascertain: the rules of custom, or the different needs of
artificial life, make that revenue little at one time which is great
at another. Men are rich and poor, not only in proportion to what they
have, but to what they want. In some ages, not only necessaries are
cheaper, but fewer things are necessary. In the age of Ascham, most of
the elegancies and expenses of our present fashions were unknown:
commerce had not yet distributed superfluity through the lower classes
of the people, and the character of a student implied frugality, and
required no splendour to support it. His pension, therefore, reckoning
together the wants which he could supply, and the wants from which he
was exempt, may be estimated, in my opinion, at more than one hundred
pounds a year; which, added to the income of his fellowship, put him
far enough above distress.
This was a year of good fortune to Ascham. He was chosen orator to the
university on the removal of sir John Cheke to court, where he was
made tutor to prince Edward. A man once distinguished soon gains
admirers. Ascham was now received to notice by many of the nobility,
and by great ladies, among whom it was then the fashion to study the
ancient languages. Lee, archbishop of York, allowed him a yearly
pension; how much we are not told. He was, probably, about this time,
employed in teaching many illustrious persons to write a fine hand;
and, among others, Henry and Charles, dukes of Suffolk, the princess
Elizabeth, and prince Edward.
Henry the eighth died two years after, and a reformation of religion
being now openly prosecuted by king Edward and his council, Ascham,
who was known to favour it, had a new grant of his pension, and
continued at Cambridge, where he lived in great familiarity with
Bucer, who had been called from Germany to the professorship of
divinity. But his retirement was soon at an end; for, in 1548, his
pupil Grindal, the master of the princess Elizabeth, died, and the
princess, who had already some acquaintance with Ascham, called him
from his college to direct her studies.
He obeyed the summons, as we may easily believe, with readiness, and,
for two years, instructed her with great diligence; but then, being
disgusted either at her, or her domesticks, perhaps eager for another
change of life, he left her, without her consent, and returned to the
university. Of this precipitation he long repented; and, as those who
are not accustomed to disrespect cannot easily forgive it, he probably
felt the effects of his imprudence to his death.
After having visited Cambridge, he took a journey into Yorkshire, to
see his native place, and his old acquaintance, and there received a
letter from the court, informing him, that he was appointed secretary
to sir Richard Morisine, who was to be despatched as ambassadour into
Germany. In his return to London he paid that memorable visit to lady
Jane Gray, in which he found her reading the Phasdo in Greek, as he
has related in his Schoolmaster.
In September, 1550, he attended Morisine to Germany, and wandered over
great part of the country, making observations upon all that appeared
worthy of his curiosity, and contracting acquaintance with men of
learning. To his correspondent, Sturmius, he paid a visit, but
Sturmius was not at home, and those two illustrious friends never saw
each other. During the course of this embassy, Ascham undertook to
improve Morisine in Greek, and, for four days in the week, explained
some passages in Herodotus every morning, and more than two hundred
verses of Sophocles, or Euripides, every afternoon. He read with him,
likewise, some of the orations of Demosthenes. On the other days he
compiled the letters of business, and in the night filled up his
diary, digested his remarks, and wrote private letters to his friends
in England, and particularly to those of his college, whom he
continually exhorted to perseverance in study. Amidst all the
pleasures of novelty which his travels supplied, and in the dignity of
his publick station, he preferred the tranquillity of private study,
and the quiet of academical retirement. The reasonableness of this
choice has been always disputed; and in the contrariety of human
interests and dispositions, the controversy will not easily be
decided.
He made a short excursion into Italy, and mentions in his
Schoolmaster, with great severity, the vices of Venice. He was
desirous of visiting Trent, while the council were sitting; but the
scantiness of his purse defeated his curiosity.
In this journey he wrote his Report and Discourse of the Affairs in
Germany, in which he describes the dispositions and interests of the
German princes, like a man inquisitive and judicious, and recounts
many particularities, which are lost in the mass of general history,
in a style, which, to the ears of that age, was undoubtedly
mellifluous, and which is now a very valuable specimen of genuine
English.
By the death of king Edward, in 1553, the reformation was stopped,
Morisine was recalled, and Ascham's pension and hopes were at an end.
He, therefore, retired to his fellowship in a state of disappointment
and despair, which his biographer has endeavoured to express in the
deepest strain of plaintive declamation. "He was deprived of all his
support," says Graunt, "stripped of his pension, and cut off from the
assistance of his friends, who had now lost their influence: so that
he had nec praemia nec praedia, neither pension nor estate to support
him at Cambridge." There is no credit due to a rhetorician's account
either of good or evil. The truth is, that Ascham still had, in his
fellowship, all that in the early part of his life had given him
plenty, and might have lived like the other inhabitants of the
college, with the advantage of more knowledge and higher reputation.
But, notwithstanding his love of academical retirement, he had now too
long enjoyed the pleasures and festivities of publick life, to return
with a good will to academical poverty.
He had, however, better fortune than he expected; and, if he lamented
his condition, like his historian, better than he deserved. He had,
during his absence in Germany, been appointed Latin secretary to king
Edward; and, by the interest of Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, he was
instated in the same office under Philip and Mary, with a salary of
twenty pounds a year.
Soon after his admission to his new employment, he gave an
extraordinary specimen of his abilities and diligence, by composing
and transcribing, with his usual elegance, in three days, forty-seven
letters to princes and personages, of whom cardinals were the lowest.
How Ascham, who was known to be a protestant, could preserve the
favour of Gardiner, and hold a place of honour and profit in queen
Mary's court, it must be very natural to inquire. Cheke, as is well
known, was compelled to a recantation; and why Ascham was spared,
cannot now be discovered. Graunt, at a time when the transactions of
queen Mary's reign must have been well enough remembered, declares,
that Ascham always made open profession of the reformed religion, and
that Englesfield and others often endeavoured to incite Gardiner
against him, but found their accusations rejected with contempt: yet
he allows, that suspicions and charges of temporization and
compliance, had somewhat sullied his reputation. The author of the
Biographia Britannica conjectures, that he owed his safety to his
innocence and usefulness; that it would have been unpopular to attack
a man so little liable to censure, and that the loss of his pen could
not have been easily supplied. But the truth is, that morality was
never suffered, in the days of persecution, to protect heresy: nor are
we sure that Ascham was more clear from common failings than those who
suffered more; and, whatever might be his abilities, they were not so
necessary, but Gardiner could have easily filled his place with
another secretary. Nothing is more vain, than, at a distant time, to
examine the motives of discrimination and partiality; for the
inquirer, having considered interest and policy, is obliged, at last,
to admit more frequent and more active motives of human conduct,
caprice, accident, and private affections.
At that time, if some were punished, many were forborne; and of many
why should not Ascham happen to be one? He seems to have been calm and
prudent, and content with that peace which he was suffered to enjoy: a
mode of behaviour that seldom fails to produce security. He had been
abroad in the last years of king Edward, and had, at least, given no
recent offence. He was certainly, according to his own opinion, not
much in danger; for in the next year he resigned his fellowship,
which, by Gardiner's favour, he had continued to hold, though not
resident; and married Margaret Howe, a young gentle-woman of a good
family.
He was distinguished in this reign by the notice of cardinal Pole, a
man of great candour, learning, and gentleness of manners, and
particularly eminent for his skill in Latin, who thought highly of
Ascham's style; of which it is no inconsiderable proof, that when Pole
was desirous of communicating a speech made by himself as legate, in
parliament, to the pope, he employed Ascham to translate it.
He is said to have been not only protected by the officers of state,
but favoured and countenanced by the queen herself, so that he had no
reason of complaint in that reign of turbulence and persecution: nor
was his fortune much mended, when, in 1558, his pupil, Elizabeth,
mounted the throne. He was continued in his former employment, with
the same stipend; but though he was daily admitted to the presence of
the queen, assisted her private studies, and partook of her
diversions; sometimes read to her in the learned languages, and
sometimes played with her at draughts and chess; he added nothing to
his twenty pounds a year but the prebend of Westwang, in the church of
York, which was given him the year following. His fortune was,
therefore, not proportionate to the rank which his offices and
reputation gave him, or to the favour in which he seemed to stand with
his mistress. Of this parsimonious allotment it is again a hopeless
search to inquire the reason. The queen was not naturally bountiful,
and, perhaps, did not think it necessary to distinguish, by any
prodigality of kindness, a man who had formerly deserted her, and whom
she might still suspect of serving rather for interest than affection.
Graunt exerts his rhetorical powers in praise of Ascham's
disinterestedness and contempt of money; and declares, that, though he
was often reproached by his friends with neglect of his own interest,
he never would ask any thing, and inflexibly refused all presents
which his office or imagined interest induced any to offer him.
Camden, however, imputes the narrowness of his condition to his love
of dice and cockfights: and Graunt, forgetting himself, allows that
Ascham was sometimes thrown into agonies by disappointed expectations.
It may be easily discovered, from his Schoolmaster, that he felt his
wants, though he might neglect to supply them; and we are left to
suspect, that he showed his contempt of money only by losing at play.
If this was his practice, we may excuse Elizabeth, who knew the
domestick character of her servants, if she did not give much to him
who was lavish of a little.
However he might fail in his economy, it were indecent to treat with
wanton levity the memory of a man who shared his frailties with all,
but whose learning or virtues few can attain, and by whose
excellencies many may be improved, while himself only suffered by his
faults.
In the reign of Elizabeth, nothing remarkable is known to have
befallen him, except that, in 1563, he was invited, by sir Edward
Sackville, to write the Schoolmaster, a treatise on education, upon an
occasion which he relates in the beginning of the book.
This work, though begun with alacrity, in hopes of a considerable
reward, was interrupted by the death of the patron, and afterwards
sorrowfully and slowly finished, in the gloom of disappointment, under
the pressure of distress. But of the author's disinclination or
dejection there can be found no tokens in the work, which is conceived
with great vigour, and finished with great accuracy; and, perhaps,
contains the best advice that was ever given for the study of
languages.
This treatise he completed, but did not publish; for that poverty
which, in our days, drives authors so hastily in such numbers to the
press, in the time of Ascham, I believe, debarred them from it. The
printers gave little for a copy, and, if we may believe the tale of
Raleigh's history, were not forward to print what was offered them for
nothing. Ascham's book, therefore, lay unseen in his study, and was,
at last, dedicated to lord Cecil by his widow.
Ascham never had a robust or vigorous body, and his excuse for so many
hours of diversion was his inability to endure a long continuance of
sedentary thought. In the latter part of his life he found it
necessary to forbear any intense application of the mind from dinner
to bedtime, and rose to read and write early in the morning. He was,
for some years, hectically feverish; and, though he found some
alleviation of his distemper, never obtained a perfect recovery of his
health. The immediate cause of his last sickness was too close
application to the composition of a poem, which he purposed to present
to the queen, on the day of her accession. To finish this, he forbore
to sleep at his accustomed hours, till, in December, 1568, he fell
sick of a kind of lingering disease, which Graunt has not named, nor
accurately described. The most afflictive symptom was want of sleep,
which he endeavoured to obtain by the motion of a cradle. Growing
every day weaker, he found it vain to contend with his distemper, and
prepared to die with the resignation and piety of a true Christian.
He was attended on his death-bed by Gravet, vicar of St. Sepulchre,
and Dr. Nowel, the learned dean of St. Paul's, who gave ample
testimony to the decency and devotion of his concluding life. He
frequently testified his desire of that dissolution which he soon
obtained. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Nowel.
Roger Ascham died in the fifty-third year of his age, at a time when,
according to the general course of life, much might yet have been
expected from him, and when he might have hoped for much from others:
but his abilities and his wants were at an end together; and who can
determine, whether he was cut off from advantages, or rescued from
calamities? He appears to have been not much qualified for the
improvement of his fortune. His disposition was kind and social; he
delighted in the pleasures of conversation, and was probably not much
inclined to business. This may be suspected from the paucity of his
writings. He has left little behind him; and of that little, nothing
was published by himself but the Toxophilus, and the account of
Germany. The Schoolmaster was printed by his widow; and the epistles
were collected by Graunt, who dedicated them to queen Elizabeth, that
he might have an opportunity of recommending his son, Giles Ascham, to
her patronage. The dedication was not lost: the young man was made, by
the queen's mandate, fellow of a college in Cambridge, where he
obtained considerable reputation. What was the effect of his widow's
dedication to Cecil, is not known: it may be hoped that Ascham's works
obtained for his family, after his decease, that support which he did
not, in his life, very plenteously procure them.
Whether he was poor by his own fault, or the fault of others, cannot
now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less
merit. His philological learning would have gained him honour in any
country; and, among us, it may justly call for that reverence which
all nations owe to those who first rouse them from ignorance, and
kindle among them the light of literature. Of his manners, nothing can
be said but from his own testimony, and that of his contemporaries.
Those who mention him allow him many virtues. His courtesy,
benevolence, and liberality, are celebrated; and of his piety, we have
not only the testimony of his friends, but the evidence of his
writings.
That his English works have been so long neglected, is a proof of the
uncertainty of literary fame. He was scarcely known, as an author, in
his own language, till Mr. Upton published his Schoolmaster, with
learned notes. His other pieces were read only by those few who
delight in obsolete books; but as they are now collected into one
volume, with the addition of some letters never printed before, the
publick has an opportunity of recompensing the injury, and allotting
Ascham the reputation due to his knowledge and his eloquence.
[1] From the Gentleman's Magazine, 1742.
[2] Literary Magazine, vol. i. p. 41. 1756.
[3] The first part of this review closed here. What follows did not
appear until seven months after. To which delay the writer alludes
with provoking severity.
[4] Literary Magazine, vol. i. p, 89. 1756.
[5] From the Literary Magazine, vol. ii. p. 253.
[6] And of such a man, it is to be regretted, that Dr. Johnson was, by
whatever motive, induced to speak with acrimony; but, it is probable,
that he took up the subject, at first, merely to give play to his
fancy. This answer, however, to Mr. Hanway's letter, is, as Mr. Boswell
has remarked, the only instance, in the whole course of his life, when
he condescended to oppose any thing that was written against him. C.
[7] From the Literary Magazine, 1756.
[8] In all the papers and criticisms Dr. Johnson wrote for the
Literary Magazine, he frequently departs from the customary we of
anonymous writers. This, with his inimitable style, soon pointed him
out, as the principal person concerned in that publication.
[9] The second volume of Dr. Warton's Essay was not published until
the year 1782.
[10] This Enquiry, published in 1757, was the production of Soame
Jenyns, esq. who never forgave the author of the review. It is painful
to relate, that, after he had suppressed his resentment during Dr.
Johnson's life, he gave it vent, in a petulant and illiberal
mock-epitaph, which would not have deserved notice, had it not been
admitted into the edition of his works, published by Mr. Cole. When
this epitaph first appeared in the newspapers, Mr. Boswell answered it
by another upon Mr. Jenyns, equal, at least, in illiberality.
This review is justly reckoned one of the finest specimens of
criticism in our language, and was read with such eagerness, when
published in the Literary Magazine, that the author was induced to
reprint it in a small volume by itself; a circumstance which appears
to have escaped Mr. Boswell's research.
[11] New Practice of Physick.
[12] From the Literary Magazine, 1756.
[13] From the Literary Magazine, 1756.
[14] From the Literary Magazine, 1756.--There are other reviews of
books by Dr. Johnson, in this magazine, but, in general, very short,
and consisting chiefly of a few introductory remarks, and an extract.
That on Mrs. Harrison's Miscellanies maybe accounted somewhat
interesting, from the notice of Dr. Watts.
[15] Written by Mr. Tytler, of Edinburgh.
[16] Printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1760.
[17] First printed in the year 1739.
[18] See his Remains, 1614, p. 337, "Riming verses, which are called
_versus leonini_, I know not wherefore, (for a lyon's taile doth
not answer to the middle parts as these verses doe,) began in the time
of Carolus Magnus, and were only in request then, and in many ages
following, which delighted in nothing more than in this minstrelsie of
meeters."
[19] Dr. Edward Young.
[20] Ambrose Philips, author of the Distrest Mother, &c.
[21] Edward Ward. See Dunciad, and Biographia Dramatica.
[22] Joseph Mitchell. See Biographia Dramatica.
[23] Published first in the Literary Magazine, No. iv. from July 15,
to Aug. 15, 1756. This periodical work was published by Richardson, in
Paternoster row, but was discontinued about two years after. Dr. Johnson
wrote many articles, which have been enumerated by Mr. Boswell, and
there are others which I should be inclined to attribute to him, from
internal evidence.
[24] In the magazine, this article is promised "to be continued;" but
the author was, by whatever means, diverted from it, and no
continuation appears.
[25] This was the introductory article to the Literary Magazine, No. i.
[26] From the Literary Magazine, for July, 1756.
[27] See Literary Magazine, No. ii. p. 63.
[28] This short paper was added to some editions of the Idler, when
collected into volumes, but not by Dr. Johnson, as Mr. Boswell
asserts, nor to the early editions of that work.
[29] In the first edition, this passage stood thus: "Let him not,
however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally
possessed; could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransome,
_he could have counted it_." There were some other alterations
suggested, it would appear, by lord North.
[30] The Patriot is of the same cast with Johnson's other political
writings. It endeavours to justify the outrages of the house of
commons, in the case of the Middlesex election, and to vindicate the
harsh measures then in agitation against America: it can only,
therefore, be admired as a clever, sophistical composition.--Eb.
[31] For arguments on the opposite side of this question, see the Abbé
Raynal's Revolution of America, and Edin. Rev. xl. p. 451.--Ed.
[32] Of this reasoning I owe part to a conversation with sir John
Hawkins.
[33] Written for the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1738.
[34] "Erat Hermanni genitor Latine, Græce, Hebraice sciens: peritus
valde historiarum et gentium. Vir apertus, candidus, simplex;
paterfamilias optimus amore, cura, diligentia, frugalitate, prudentia.
Qui non magna in re, sed plenus virtutis, novem liberis educandis
exemplum praebuit singulare, quid exacta parsimonia polleat, et
frugalitas." _Orig. Edit._
[35] "Jungebat his exercitiis quotidianam patrum lectionem, secundum
chronologiam, a Clemente Romano exorsus, et juxta seriem seculorum
descendens: ut Jesu Christi doctrinam in N. T. traditam, primis
patribus interpretantibus, addisceret.
"Horum simplicitatem sincerae doctrinae, disciplinae sanctitatem,
vitae Deo Jicatae integritatem adorabat. Subtilitatem scholarum divina
postmodum inquinasse dolebat. Aegerrime tulit sacrorum interpretationem
ex sectis sophistarum peti; et Platonis, Aristotelis, Thomas
Aquinatis, Scoti; suoque tempore Cartesii, cogitata metaphysica
adhiberi pro legibus, ad quas eastigarentur sacrorum scriptorum de Deo
sentential. Experiebatur acerba dissidia, ingeniorumque subtilissimorum
acerrima certamina, odia, ambitiones, inde cieri, foveri; adeo
contraria paci cum Deo et homine. Nihil hic magis illi obstabat; quam
quod omnes asserant sacram scripturam [Greek: anthropopathos]
loquentem, [Greek: theoprepos] explicandam; et [Greek: theoprepouan]
singuli definiant ex placitis suae metaphysices. Horrebat inde
dominantis sectae praevalentem opinionem, orthodoxiae modum, et
regulas, unice dare juxta dictata metaphysicorum, non sacrarum
literarum; unde tam variae; sententiae de doctrina simplicissima."
--_Orig. Edit._
[36] "Circa hoc tempus, lautis conditionibus, lautioribus promissis,
invitatus, plus vice simplici, a viro primariae dignationis, qui
gratia flagrantissima florebat regis Gulielmi III. ut Hagamcomitum
sedem caperet fortunarum, declinavit constans. Contentus videlicet
vita libera, remota a turbis, studiisque porro percolendis unice
impensa, ubi non cogeretur alia dicere et simulare, alia sentire et
dissimulare: affectuum studiis rapi, regi. Sic turn vita erat, aegros
visere, mox domi in musaeo se condere, officinam Vulcaniam exercere;
omnes medicinae partes acerrime persequi; mathematica etiam aliis
tradere; sacra legere, et auctores qui profitentur docere rationem
certam amandi Deum."--_Orig. Edit._
[37] "Succos pressos bibit noster herbarum cichoreæ, endiviæ;
fumariæ; nasturtii aquatici, veronicæ aquatics latifoliæ; copia
ingenti; simul deglutiens abundantissime gummi ferulacea
Asiatica."--_Orig. Edit._
[38] "Aetas, labor, corporisque opima pinguetudo, effecerant, ante
annum, ut inertibus refertum, grave, hebes, plenitudine turgens
corpus, anhelum ad motus minimos, cum sensu suffocationis, pulsu
mirifice anomalo, ineptum evaderet ad ullum motum. Urgebat praecipue
subsistens prorsus et intercepta respiratio ad prima somni initia;
unde somnus prorsus prohibebatur, cum formidabili strangulationis
molestia. Hinc hydrops pedum, crurum, femorum, scroti, praeputii, et
abdominis. Quae tamen omnia sublata. Sed dolor manet in abdomine, cum
anxietate summa, anhelitu suffocante, et debilitate incredibili; somno
pauco, eoque vago, per somnia turbatissimo; animus vero rebus agendis
impar. Cum his luctor fessus nec emergo; patienter expectans Dei
jussa, quibus resigno data, quae sola amo, et honoro unice."--_Orig.
Edit._
[39] Doctrinam sacris literis Hebraice et Graece traditarn, solam
animae salutarem et agnovit et sensit. Omni opportunitate profitebatur
disciplinam, quam Jesus Christus ore et vita expressit, unice
tranquillitatem dare menti. Semperque dixit amicis, pacem animi baud
reperiundam, nisi in magno Mosis praecepto de sincere amore Dei et
hominis bene observato. Neque extra sacra monumenta uspiam inveniri,
quod mentem serenet. Deum pius adoravit, qui est. Intelligere de Deo,
unice, volebat id, quod Deus de se intelligit. Eo contentus ultra
nihil requisivit, ne idolatria erraret. In voluntate Dei sic
requiescebat, ut illius nullam omnino rationem indagandam putaret.
Hanc unice supremam omnium legem esse contendebat; deliberata
constautia perfectissime colendam. De aliis et seipso sentiebat: ut
quoties criminis reos ad poenas letales damnatos audiret, semper
cogitaret, saspe diceret: "Quis dixerat annon me sint melioresi
Utique, si ipse melior, id non mihi auctori tribuendum esse, palam
aio, confiteor; sed ita largienti Deo."--_Orig. Edit._
[40] This life first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1739, vol.
ix. p. 176. It, throughout, exhibits that ardent fondness for
chemistry, which Johnson cherished, and that respect for physicians,
which his numerous memoirs of members of that profession, and his
attachment to Dr. Bathurst and the amiable and single-hearted Level,
evinced.--ED.
[41] This life was first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for the
year 1740.
[42] The name of sir Henry Savil does not occur in the list of the
wardens of Wadham college.
[43] From H. Norhone, B.D. his contemporary there.
[44] This life was first printed in the Gent. Mag. for 1740, and
Johnson's unceasing abhorrence of Spanish encroachment and oppression
is remarkable throughout. See his London, and Idler, 81.--Ed.
[45] This article was first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for
1740. The proper spelling is Baratier.
[46] The passages referred to in the preceding pages we have printed
in italics, for the more easy reference.
[47] Translated from an éloge by Fontenelle, and first printed in the
Gentleman's Magazine for 1741.
[48] The practice of Dr. Morin is forbidden, I believe, by every
writer that has left rules for the preservation of health, and is
directly opposite to that of Cornaro, who, by his regimen, repaired a
broken constitution, and protracted his life, without any painful
infirmities, or any decay of his intellectual abilities, to more than
a hundred years; it is generally agreed that, as men advance in years,
they ought to take lighter sustenance, and in less quantities; and
reason seems easily to discover, that as the concoctive powers grow
weaker, they ought to labour less.--_Orig. Edit._
[49] This is an instance of the disposition generally found in writers
of lives, to exalt every common occurrence and action into wonder. Are
not indexes daily written by men, who neither receive nor expect any
loud applauses for their labours?--_Orig. Edit._
[50] First printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1742.
[51] A more full list is given in the last edition of the Biographical
Dictionary, vol. vii.
[52] Originally prefixed to the new translation of Dr. Sydenham's
works, by John Swan, M.D. of Newcastle, in Staffordshire, 1742.
[53] Since the foregoing was written, we have seen Mr. Ward's Lives of
the Professors of Gresham college; who, in the life of Dr. Mapletoft,
says, that, in 1676, Dr. Sydenham published his Observationes medicæ
circa morborum acutorum historiam et curationem, which he dedicated to
Dr. Mapletoft, who, at the desire of the author, had translated them
into Latin; and that the other pieces of that excellent physician were
translated into that language by Mr. Gilbert Havers, of Trinity
college, Cambridge, a student in physick, and friend of Dr. Mapletolt.
But, as Mr. Ward, like others, neglects to bring any proof of his
assertion, the question cannot fairly be decided by his authority.--
_Orig. Edit_.
[54] First printed in The Student, 1751.
[55] Vide Wood's Ath. Ox.--_Orig. Edit._
[56] Vide Wood's Ath. Ox.--_Orig. Edit._
[57] Vide Wood's Hist. Univ. Ox.--_Orig. Edit._
[58] Vide Wood's Hist. Antiq. Oxon.--_Orig. Edit._
[59] This life first appeared in the Gentleman's magazine for 1754,
and is now printed from a copy revised by the author, at my request,
in 1781. N.--It was, in the magazine, introduced by a general remark,
which we have again prefixed.
[60] This was said in the beginning of the year 1781; and may with
truth be now repeated. N.
[61] The London Magazine ceased to exist in 1785. N.
[62] Mr. Cave was buried in the church of St. James, Clerkenwell,
without an epitaph; but the following inscription at Rugby, from the
pen of Dr. Hawkesworth, is here transcribed from the Anecdotes of Mr.
Bowyer, p. 88.
Near this place lies
The body of
JOSEPH CAVE,
Late of this parish:
Who departed this Life, Nov. 18, 1747,
Aged 79 years.
Me was placed by Providence in a humble station;
But
Industry abundantly supplied the wants of Nature,
And
Temperance blest him with
Content and Wealth.
As he was an affectionate Father,
He was made happy in the decline of life
By the deserved eminence of his eldest Son,
EDWARD CAVE,
Who, without interest, fortune, or connexion,
By the native force of his own genius,
[63] First printed in the Literary Magazine for 1756.
[64] Christian Morals, first printed in 1756.
[65] Life of sir Thomas Browne, prefixed to the Antiquities of
Norwich.
[66] Whitefoot's character of sir Thomas Browne, in a marginal note.
[67] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[68] Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.
[69] Wood.
[70] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[71] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[72] Biographia Britannica.
[73] Letter to sir Kenelm Digby, prefixed to the Religio Medici, fol.
edit.
[74] Digby's Letter to Browne, prefixed to the Religio Medici, fol.
edit.
[75] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[76] Merryweather's letter, inserted in the Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[77] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[78] Wood's Athenae Oxonienses.
[79] Wood.
[80] Whitefoot.
[81] Howell's Letters.
[82] Religio Medici.
[83] Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[84] Wood, and Life of sir Thomas Browne.
[85] the end of Hydriotaphia.
[86] Johnson, by trusting; to his memory, has here fallen into an
error. Howell, in his instructions for Foreign Travell, has said
directly the reverse of what is ascribed to him: "I have beaten my
brains," he tells us, "to make one sentence good Italian and congruous
Latin, but could never do it; but in Spanish it is very feasible, as,
for example, in this stanza:
Infausta Graecia, tu paris gentes
Lubricas, sed amicitias dolosas,
Machinando fraudes cautilosas,
Ruinando animas innocentes:
which is good Latin enough; and yet is vulgar Spanish, intelligible to
every plebeian."--J. B.
[87] Browne's Remains.--Whitefoot.
[88] Therefore no hereticks desire to spread Their wild opinions like
these epicures. For so their staggering thoughts are computed,
And other men's assent their doubt assures.