ENGLISH TRAVELLERS
OF THE RENAISSANCE
BY
CLARE HOWARD
BURT FRANKLIN: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCE SERIES #179
1914
PREFACE
This essay was written in 1908-1910 while I was studying at Oxford as
Fellow of the Society of American Women in London. Material on the
subject of travel in any century is apparently inexhaustible, and one
could write many books on the subject without duplicating sources. The
following aims no further than to describe one phase of Renaissance
travel in clear and sharp outline, with sufficient illustration to
embellish but not to clog the main ideas.
In the preparation of this book I incurred many debts of gratitude. I
would thank the staff of the Bodleian, especially Mr W.H.B. Somerset,
for their kindness during the two years I was working in the library of
Oxford University; and Dr Perlbach, Abteilungsdirektor of the Königliche
Bibliothek at Berlin, who forwarded to me some helpful information
concerning the early German books of instructions for travellers; and
Professor Clark S. Northup, of Cornell University, for similar aid. To
Mr George Whale I am indebted for the use of his transcript of Sloane
MS. 1813, and to my friend Miss M.E. Marshall, of the Board of Trade,
for the generous gift of her leisure hours in reading for me in the
British Museum after the sea had divided me from that treasure-house of
information.
I would like to acknowledge with thanks the kind advice of Sir Walter
Raleigh and Sir Sidney Lee, whose generosity in giving time and
scholarship many students besides myself are in a position to
appreciate. Mr L. Pearsall Smith, from whose work on the _Life and
Letters of Sir Henry Wotton_ I have drawn copiously, gave me also
courteous personal assistance.
To the Faculty of the English Department at Columbia University I owe
the gratitude of one who has received her earliest inclination to
scholarship from their teachings. I am under heavy obligations to
Professor A.H. Thorndike and Professor G.P. Krapp for their corrections
and suggestions in the proof-sheets of this book, and to Professor W.P.
Trent for continued help and encouragement throughout my studies at
Columbia and elsewhere.
Above all, I wish to emphasize the aid of Professor C.H. Firth, of
Oxford University, whose sympathy and comprehension of the difficulties
of a beginner in the field he so nobly commands can be understood only
by those, like myself, who come to Oxford aspiring and alone. I wish
this essay were a more worthy result of his influence.
CLARE HOWARD
BARNARD COLLEGE, NEW YORK
_October_ 1913
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION
Among the many didactic books which flooded England in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries were certain essays on travel. Some of these have
never been brought to light since their publication more than three
hundred years ago, or been mentioned by the few writers who have
interested themselves in the literature of this subject. In the
collections of voyages and explorations, so often garnered, these have
found no place. Most of them are very rare, and have never been
reprinted. Yet they do not deserve to be thus overlooked, and in several
ways this survey of them will, I think, be useful for students of
literature.
They reveal a widespread custom among Elizabethan and Jacobean
gentlemen, of completing their education by travel. There are scattered
allusions to this practice, in contemporary social documents: Anthony à
Wood frequently explains how such an Oxonian "travelled beyond seas and
returned a compleat Person,"--but nowhere is this ideal of a
cosmopolitan education so explicitly set forth as it is in these essays.
Addressed to the intending tourist, they are in no sense to be confused
with guide-books or itineraries. They are discussions of the benefits of
travel, admonitions and warnings, arranged to put the traveller in the
proper attitude of mind towards his great task of self-development.
Taken in chronological order they outline for us the life of the
travelling student.
Beginning with the end of the sixteenth century when travel became the
fashion, as the only means of acquiring modern languages and modern
history, as well as those physical accomplishments and social graces by
which a young man won his way at Court, they trace his evolution up to
the time when it had no longer any serious motive; that is, when the
chairs of modern history and modern languages were founded at the
English universities, and when, with the fall of the Stuarts, the Court
ceased to be the arbiter of men's fortunes. In the course of this
evolution they show us many phases of continental influence in England;
how Italian immorality infected young imaginations, how the Jesuits won
travellers to their religion, how France became the model of deportment,
what were the origins of the Grand Tour, and so forth.
That these directions for travel were not isolated oddities of
literature, but were the expression of a widespread ideal of the English
gentry, I have tried to show in the following study. The essays can
hardly be appreciated without support from biography and history, and
for that reason I have introduced some concrete illustrations of the
sort of traveller to whom the books were addressed. If I have not always
quoted the "Instructions" fully, it is because they repeat one another
on some points. My plan has been to comment on whatever in each book was
new, or showed the evolution of travel for study's sake.
The result, I hope, will serve to show something of the cosmopolitanism
of English society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; of the
closer contact which held between England and the Continent, while
England was not yet great and self-sufficient; of times when her
soldiers of low and high degree went to seek their fortunes in the Low
Countries, and her merchants journeyed in person to conduct business
with Italy; when a steady stream of Roman Catholics and exiles for
political reasons trooped to France or Flanders for years together.
These discussions of the art of travel are relics of an age when
Englishmen, next to the Germans, were known for the greatest travellers
among all nations. In the same boat-load with merchants, spies, exiles,
and diplomats from England sailed the young gentleman fresh from his
university, to complete his education by a look at the most civilized
countries of the world. He approached the Continent with an inquiring,
open mind, eager to learn, quick to imitate the refinements and ideas of
countries older than his own. For the same purpose that now takes
American students to England, or Japanese students to America, the
English striplings once journeyed to France, comparing governments and
manners, watching everything, noting everything, and coming home to
benefit their country by new ideas.
I hope, also, that a review of these forgotten volumes may lend an added
pleasure to the reading of books greater than themselves in Elizabethan
literature. One cannot fully appreciate the satire of Amorphus's claim
to be "so sublimated and refined by travel," and to have "drunk in the
spirit of beauty in some eight score and eighteen princes' courts where
I have resided,"[1] unless one has read of the benefits of travel as
expounded by the current Instructions for Travellers; nor the dialogues
between Sir Politick-Would-be and Peregrine in _Volpone, or the Fox_.
Shakespeare, too, in _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, has taken bodily the
arguments of the Elizabethan orations in praise of travel:
"Some to the warres, to try their fortune there;
Some, to discover Islands farre away;
Some, to the studious Universities;
For any, or for all these exercises,
He said, thou Proteus, your sonne was meet;
And did request me, to importune you
To let him spend his time no more at home;
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having knowne no travaile in his youth.
(Antonio) Nor need'st thou much importune me to that
Whereon, this month I have been hamering,
I have considered well, his losse of time,
And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tryed, and tutored in the world;
Experience is by industry atchiev'd,
And perfected by the swift course of time."
(Act I. Sc. iii.)
* * * * *
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF TRAVEL FOR CULTURE
Pilgrimages at the close of the Middle Ages--New objects for travel in
the fifteenth century--Humanism--Diplomatic ambition--Linguistic
acquirement.
CHAPTER II
THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THE ELIZABETHAN TRAVELLER
Development of the individual--Benefit to the Commonwealth--First books
addressed to travellers.
CHAPTER III
SOME CYNICAL ASPERSIONS UPON THE BENEFITS OF TRAVEL
The Italianate Englishman.
CHAPTER IV
PERILS FOR PROTESTANT TRAVELLERS
The Inquisition--The Jesuits--Penalties of recusancy.
CHAPTER V
THE INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH ACADEMIES
France the arbiter of manners in the seventeenth century--Riding the
great horse--Attempts to establish academies in England--Why travellers
neglected Spain.
CHAPTER VI
THE GRAND TOUR
Origin of the term--Governors for young travellers--Expenses of travel.
CHAPTER VII
THE DECADENCE OF THE GRAND TOUR
The decline of the courtier--Foundation of chairs of Modern History and
Modern Languages at Oxford and Cambridge--Englishmen become
self-sufficient--Books of travel become common--Advent of the Romantic
traveller who travels for scenery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
FOOTNOTES
* * * * *
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF TRAVEL FOR CULTURE
Of the many social impulses that were influenced by the Renaissance, by
that "new lernynge which runnythe all the world over now-a-days," the
love of travel received a notable modification. This very old instinct
to go far, far away had in the Middle Ages found sanction, dignity and
justification in the performance of pilgrimages. It is open to doubt
whether the number of the truly pious would ever have filled so many
ships to Port Jaffa had not their ranks been swelled by the restless,
the adventurous, the wanderers of all classes.
Towards the sixteenth century, when curiosity about things human was an
ever stronger undercurrent in England, pilgrimages were particularly
popular. In 1434, Henry VI. granted licences to 2433 pilgrims to the
shrine of St James of Compostella alone.[2] The numbers were so large
that the control of their transportation became a coveted business
enterprise. "Pilgrims at this time were really an article of
exportation," says Sir Henry Ellis, in commenting on a letter of the
Earl of Oxford to Henry VI., asking for a licence for a ship of which he
was owner, to carry pilgrims. "Ships were every year loaded from
different ports with cargoes of these deluded wanderers, who carried
with them large sums of money to defray the expenses of their
journey."[3]
Among the earliest books printed in England was _Informacon for
Pylgrymes unto the Holy Londe,_ by Wynkin de Worde, one which ran to
three editions,[4] an almost exact copy of William Wey's "prevysyoun"
(provision) for a journey eastwards.[5] The tone and content of this
_Informacon_ differ very little from the later Directions for Travellers
which are the subject of our study. The advice given shows that the
ordinary pilgrim thought, not of the ascetic advantages of the voyage,
or of simply arriving in safety at his holy destination, but of making
the trip in the highest possible degree of personal comfort and
pleasure. He is advised to take with him two barrels of wine ("For yf ye
wolde geve xx dukates for a barrel ye shall none have after that ye
passe moche Venyse"); to buy orange-ginger, almonds, rice, figs, cloves,
maces and loaf sugar also, to eke out the fare the ship will provide.
And this although he is to make the patron swear, before the pilgrim
sets foot in the galley, that he will serve "hote meete twice at two
meals a day." He whom we are wont to think of as a poor wanderer, with
no possessions but his grey cloak and his staff, is warned not to embark
for the Holy Land without carrying with him "a lytell cawdron, a fryenge
panne, dysshes, platers, cuppes of glasse ... a fether bed, a matrasse,
a pylawe, two payre sheets and a quylte" ... a cage for half a dozen of
hens or chickens to have with you in the ship, and finally, half a
bushel of "myle sede" to feed the chickens. Far from being encouraged to
exercise a humble and abnegatory spirit on the voyage, he is to be at
pains to secure a berth in the middle of the ship, and not to mind
paying fifty ducats for to be in a good honest place, "to have your ease
in the galey and also to be cherysshed." Still more unchristian are the
injunctions to run ahead of one's fellows, on landing, in order to get
the best quarters at the inn, and first turn at the dinner provided; and
above all, at Port Jaffa, to secure the best ass, "for ye shall paye no
more for the best than for the worste."
But while this book was being published, new forces were at hand which
were to strip the thin disguise of piety from pilgrims of this sort. The
Colloquies of Erasmus appeared before the third edition of _Informacon
for Pylgrymes_, and exploded the idea that it was the height of piety to
have seen Jerusalem. It was nothing but the love of change, Erasmus
declared, that made old bishops run over huge spaces of sea and land to
reach Jerusalem. The noblemen who flocked thither had better be looking
after their estates, and married men after their wives. Young men and
women travelled "non sine gravi discrimine morum et integritatis."
Pilgrimages were a dissipation. Some people went again and again and did
nothing else all their lives long.[6] The only satisfaction they looked
for or received was entertainment to themselves and their friends by
their remarkable adventures, and ability to shine at dinner-tables by
recounting their travels.[7] There was no harm in going sometimes, but
it was not pious. And people could spend their time, money and pains on
something which was truly pious.[8]
It was only a few years after this that that pupil of Erasmus and his
friends, King Henry the Eighth, who startled Europe by the way he not
only received new ideas but acted upon them, swept away the shrines,
burned our Lady of Walsingham and prosecuted "the holy blisful martyr"
Thomas à Becket for fraudulent pretensions.[9]
But a new object for travel was springing up and filling the leading
minds of the sixteenth century--the desire of learning, at first hand,
the best that was being thought and said in the world. Humanism was the
new power, the new channel into which men were turning in the days when
"our naturell, yong, lusty and coragious prynce and sovrayne lord King
Herre the Eighth entered into the flower of pleasaunt youthe."[10] And
as the scientific spirit or the socialistic spirit can give to the
permanent instincts of the world a new zest, so the Renaissance passion
for self-expansion and for education gave to the old road a new mirage.
All through the fifteenth century the universities of Italy, pre-eminent
since their foundation for secular studies, had been gaining reputation
by their offer of a wider education than the threadbare discussions of
the schoolmen. The discovery and revival in the fifteenth century of
Greek literature, which had stirred Italian society so profoundly, gave
to the universities a northward-spreading fame. Northern scholars, like
Rudolf Agricola, hurried south to find congenial air at the centre of
intellectual life. That professional humanists could not do without the
stamp of true culture which an Italian degree gave to them, Erasmus,
observer of all things, notes in the year 1500 to the Lady of Veer:
"Two things, I feel, are very necessary: one that I go to Italy, to gain
for my poor learning some authority from the celebrity of the place; the
other, that I take the degree of Doctor; both senseless, to be sure. For
people do not straightway change their minds because they cross the sea,
as Horace says, nor will the shadow of an impressive name make me a whit
more learned ... but we must put on the lion's skin to prove our ability
to those who judge a man by his title and not by his books, which in
truth they do not understand."[11]
Although Erasmus despised degree-hunting, it is well known that he felt
the power of Italy. He was tempted to remain in Rome for ever, by reason
of the company he found there. "What a sky and fields, what libraries
and pleasant walks and sweet confabulation with the learned ..."[12] he
exclaims, in afterwards recalling that paradise of scholars. There was,
for instance, the Cardinal Grimani, who begged Erasmus to share his life
... and books.[13] And there was Aldus Manutius. We get a glimpse of the
Venetian printing-house when Aldus and Erasmus worked together: Erasmus
sitting writing regardless of the noise of printers, while Aldus
breathlessly reads proof, admiring every word. "We were so busy," says
Erasmus, "we scarce had time to scratch our ears."[14]
It was this charm of intellectual companionship which started the whole
stream of travel _animi causa_. Whoever had keen wits, an agile mind,
imagination, yearned for Italy. There enlightened spirits struck sparks
from one another. Young and ardent minds in England and in Germany found
an escape from the dull and melancholy grimness of their uneducated
elders--purely practical fighting-men, whose ideals were fixed on a
petrified code of life.
I need not explain how Englishmen first felt this charm of urbane
civilization. The travels of Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, of Gunthorpe,
Flemming, Grey and Free, have been recently described by Mr Einstein in
_The Italian Renaissance in England_. As for Italian journeys of
Selling, Grocyn, Latimer, Tunstall, Colet and Lily, of that
extraordinary group of scholars who transformed Oxford by the
introduction of Greek ideals and gave to it the peculiar distinction
which is still shining, I mention them only to suggest that they are the
source of the Renaissance respect for a foreign education, and the
founders of the fashion which, in its popular spreadings, we will
attempt to trace. They all studied in Italy, and brought home nothing
but good. For to scholarship they joined a native force of character
which gave a most felicitous introduction to England of the fine things
of the mind which they brought home with them. By their example they
gave an impetus to travel for education's sake which lesser men could
never have done.
Though through Grocyn, Linacre and Tunstall, Greek was better taught in
England than in Italy, according to Erasmus,[15] at the time Henry VIII.
came to the throne, the idea of Italy as the goal of scholars persisted.
Rich churchmen, patrons of letters, launched promising students on to
the Continent to give them a complete education; as Richard Fox, Founder
of Corpus Christi, sent Edward Wotton to Padua, "to improve his learning
and chiefly to learn Greek,"[16] or Thomas Langton, Bishop of
Winchester, supported Richard Pace at the same university.[17] To
Reginald Pole, the scholar's life in Italy made so strong an appeal that
he could never be reclaimed by Henry VIII. Shunning all implication in
the tumult of the political world, he slipped back to Padua, and there
surrounded himself with friends,--"singular fellows, such as ever
absented themselves from the court, desiring to live holily."[18] To his
household at Padua gravitated other English students fond of "good
company and the love of learned men"; Thomas Lupset,[19] the confidant
of Erasmus and Richard Pace; Thomas Winter,[20] Wolsey's reputed natural
son; Thomas Starkey,[21] the historian; George Lily,[22] son of the
grammarian; Michael Throgmorton, and Richard Morison,[23]
ambassador-to-be.
There were other elements that contributed to the growth of travel
besides the desire to become exquisitely learned. The ambition of Henry
VIII. to be a power in European politics opened the liveliest
intercourse with the Continent. It was soon found that a special
combination of qualities was needed in the ambassadors to carry out his
aspirations. Churchmen, like the ungrateful Pole, for whose education he
had generously subscribed, were often unpliable to his views of the
Pope; a good old English gentleman, though devoted, might be like Sir
Robert Wingfield, simple, unsophisticated, and the laughingstock of
foreigners.[24] A courtier, such as Lord Rochford, who could play
tennis, make verses, and become "intime" at the court of Francis I.,
could not hold his own in disputes of papal authority with highly
educated ecclesiastics.[25] Hence it came about that the choice of an
ambassador fell more and more upon men of sound education who also knew
something of foreign countries: such as Sir Thomas Wyatt, or Sir Richard
Wingfield, of Cambridge and Gray's Inn, who had studied at Ferrara[26];
Sir Nicholas Wotton, who had lived in Perugia, and graduated doctor of
civil and canon law[27]; or Anthony St Lieger, who, according to Lloyd,
"when twelve years of age was sent for his grammar learning with his
tutor into France, for his carriage into Italy, for his philosophy to
Cambridge, for his law to Gray's Inn: and for that which completed all,
the government of himself, to court; where his debonairness and freedom
took with the king, as his solidity and wisdom with the Cardinal."[28]
Sometimes Henry was even at pains to pick out and send abroad promising
university students with a view to training them especially for
diplomacy. On one of his visits to Oxford he was impressed with the
comely presence and flowing expression of John Mason, who, though the
son of a cowherd, was notable at the university for his "polite and
majestick speaking."
King Henry disposed of him in foreign parts, to add practical experience
to his speculative studies, and paid for his education out of the king's
Privy Purse, as we see by the royal expenses for September 1530. Among
such items as "£8, 18s. to Hanybell Zinzano, for drinks and other
medicines for the King's Horses"; and, "20s. to the fellow with the
dancing dog," is the entry of "a year's exhibition to Mason, the King's
scholar at Paris, £3, 6s. 8d."[29]
Another educational investment of the King's was Thomas Smith,
afterwards as excellent an ambassador as Mason, whom he supported at
Cambridge, and according to Camden, at riper years made choice of to be
sent into Italy. "For even till our days," says Camden under the year
1577, "certain young men of promising hopes, out of both Universities,
have been maintained in foreign countries, at the King's charge, for the
more complete polishing of their Parts and Studies."[30] The diplomatic
career thus opened to young courtiers, if they proved themselves fit for
service by experience in foreign countries, was therefore as strong a
motive for travel as the desire to reach the source of humanism.
This again merged into the pursuit of a still more informal
education--the sort which comes from "seeing the world." The marriage of
Mary Tudor to Louis XII., and later the subtle bond of humanism and high
spirits which existed between Francis I. and his "very dear and
well-beloved good brother, cousin and gossip, perpetual ally and perfect
friend," Henry the Eighth, led a good many of Henry's courtiers to
attend the French court at one time or another--particularly the most
dashing favourites, and leaders of fashion, the "friskers," as Andrew
Boorde calls them,[31] such as Charles Brandon, George Boleyn, Francis
Bryan, Nicholas Carew, or Henry Fitzroy. With any ambassador went a bevy
of young gentlemen, who on their return diffused a certain mysterious
sophistication which was the envy of home-keeping youth. According to
Hall, when they came back to England they were "all French in eating and
drinking and apparel, yea, and in the French vices and brags: so that
all the estates of England were by them laughed at, the ladies and
gentlewomen were dispraised, and nothing by them was praised, but if it
were after the French turn."[32] From this time on young courtiers
pressed into the train of an ambassador in order to see the world and
become like Ann Boleyn's captivating brother, or Elizabeth's favourite,
the Earl of Oxford, or whatever gallant was conspicuous at court for
foreign graces.
There was still another contributory element to the growth of travel,
one which touched diplomats, scholars, and courtiers--the necessity of
learning modern languages. By the middle of the sixteenth century Latin
was no longer sufficient for intercourse between educated people. In the
most civilized countries the vernacular had been elevated to the dignity
of the classical tongues by being made the literary vehicle of such
poets as Politian and Bembo, Ronsard and Du Bellay. A vernacular
literature of great beauty, too important to be overlooked, began to
spring up on all sides. One could no longer keep abreast of the best
thought without a knowledge of modern languages. More powerful than any
academic leanings was the Renaissance curiosity about man, which could
not be satisfied through the knowledge of Latin only. Hardly anyone but
churchmen talked Latin in familiar conversation with one. When a man
visited foreign courts and wished to enter into social intercourse with
ladies and fashionables, or move freely among soldiers, or settle a bill
with an innkeeper, he found that he sorely needed the language of the
country. So by the time we reach the reign of Edward VI., we find Thomas
Hoby, a typical young gentleman of the period, making in his diary
entries such as these: "Removed to the middes of Italy, to have a better
knowledge of ye tongue and to see Tuscany." "Went to Sicily both to have
a sight of the country and also to absent myself for a while out of
Englishmenne's companie for the tung's sake."[33] Roger Ascham a year or
two later writes from Germany that one of the chief advantages of being
at a foreign court was the ease with which one learned German, French,
and Italian, whether he would or not. "I am almost an Italian myself and
never looks on it." He went so far as to say that such advantages were
worth ten fellowships at St John's.[34]
We have noted how Italy came to be the lode-stone of scholars, and how
courtiers sought the grace which France bestowed, but we have not yet
accounted for the attraction of Germany. Germany, as a centre of travel,
was especially popular in the reign of Edward the Sixth. France went
temporarily out of fashion with those men of whom we have most record.
For in Edward's reign the temper of the leading spirits in England was
notably at variance with the court of France. It was to Germany that
Edward's circle of Protestant politicians, schoolmasters, and chaplains
felt most drawn--to the country where the tides of the Reformation were
running high, and men were in a ferment over things of the spirit; to
the country of Sturm and Bucer, and Fagius and Ursinus--the
doctrinalists and educators so revered by Cambridge. Cranmer, who
gathered under his roof as many German savants as could survive in the
climate of England,[35] kept the current of understanding and sympathy
flowing between Cambridge and Germany, and since Cambridge, not Oxford,
dominated the scholarly and political world of Edward the Sixth, from
that time on Germany, in the minds of the St John's men, such as
Burleigh, Ascham and Hoby, was the place where one might meet the best
learned of the day.
We have perhaps said enough to indicate roughly the sources of the
Renaissance fashion for travel which gave rise to the essays we are
about to discuss. The scholar's desire to specialize at a foreign
university, in Greek, in medicine, or in law; the courtier's ambition to
acquire modern languages, study foreign governments, and generally fit
himself for the service of the State, were dignified aims which in men
of character produced very happy results. It was natural that others
should follow their example. In Elizabethan times the vogue of
travelling to become a "compleat person" was fully established. And
though in mean and trivial men the ideal took on such odd shapes and
produced such dubious results that in every generation there were
critics who questioned the benefits of travel, the ideal persisted.
There was always something, certainly, to be learned abroad, for men of
every calibre. Those who did not profit by the study of international
law learned new tricks of the rapier. And because experience of foreign
countries was expensive and hard to come at, the acquirement of it gave
prestige to a young man.
Besides, underneath worldly ambition was the old curiosity to see the
world and know all sorts of men--to be tried and tested. More powerful
than any theory of education was the yearning for far-off, foreign
things, and the magic of the sea.
* * * * *