day, to clothe him selfe with nothing els, but a demie, bukram
cassok, plaine without plites, and single with out lyning: which
will neither beare of winde nor wether, nor yet kepe out the
sunne, in any hote day.
Some suppose, and that by good reason, that _Melancthon_
Paraphra- // him selfe came to this low kinde of writing, by
sis in vse of // vsing ouer moch _Paraphrasis_ in reading: For
teaching, // studying therebie to make euerie thing streight
hath hurt // and easie, in smothing and playning all things to
_Melanch-_ // much, neuer leaueth, whiles the sence it selfe be
_tons_ stile in // left, both lowse and lasie. And some of those
writing. // _Paraphrasis of Melancthon_ be set out in Printe, as,
_Pro Archia Poeta, & Marco Marcello:_ But a scholer, by myne
opinion, is better occupied in playing or sleping, than in
spendyng time, not onelie vainlie but also harmefullie, in soch
a kinde of exercise.
If a Master woulde haue a perfite example to folow, how,
in _Genere sublimi_, to auoide _Nimium_, or in _Mediocri_, to atteyne
_Satis_, or in _Humili_, to exchew _Parum_, let him read diligently
_Cicero._ // for the first, _Secundam Philippicam_, for the meane,
_De Natura Deorum_, and for the lowest, _Partitiones_.
Or, if in an other tong, ye looke for like example, in like
_Demost-_ // perfection, for all those three degrees, read _Pro_
_henes._ // _Ctesiphonte, Ad Leptinem, & Contra Olympiodorum_,
and, what witte, Arte, and diligence is hable to
affourde, ye shall plainely see.
For our tyme, the odde man to performe all three perfitlie,
whatsoeuer he doth, and to know the way to do them skilfullie,
_Ioan. Stur._ // what so euer he list, is, in my poore opinion,
_Ioannes Sturmius_.
He also councelleth all scholers to beware of _Paraphrasis_,
except it be, from worse to better, from rude and barbarous, to
proper and pure latin, and yet no man to exercise that neyther,
except soch one, as is alreadie furnished with plentie of learning,
and grounded with stedfast iudgement before.
All theis faultes, that thus manie wise men do finde with
the exercise of _Paraphrasis_, in turning the best latin, into other,
as good as they can, that is, ye may be sure, into a great deale
worse, than it was, both in right choice for proprietie, and trewe
placing, for good order is committed also commonlie in all
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 251
common scholes, by the scholemasters, in tossing and trobling
yong wittes (as I sayd in the beginning) with that boocherlie
feare in making of Latins.
Therefore, in place, of Latines for yong scholers, and of
_Paraphrasis_ for the masters, I wold haue double translation
specially vsed. For, in double translating a perfite peece of
_Tullie_ or _Cæsar_, neyther the scholer in learning, nor y^e
Master
in teaching can erre. A true tochstone, a sure metwand lieth
before both their eyes. For, all right congruitie: proprietie of
wordes: order in sentences: the right imitation, to inuent good
matter, to dispose it in good order, to confirme it with good
reason, to expresse any purpose fitlie and orderlie, is learned
thus, both easelie & perfitlie: Yea, to misse somtyme in this
kinde of translation, bringeth more proffet, than to hit right,
either in _Paraphrasi_ or making of Latins. For though ye say
well, in a latin making, or in a _Paraphrasis_, yet you being but
in doute, and vncertayne whether ye saie well or no, ye gather
and lay vp in memorie, no sure frute of learning thereby: But
if ye fault in translation, ye ar easelie taught, how perfitlie to
amende it, and so well warned, how after to exchew, all soch
faultes againe.
_Paraphrasis_ therefore, by myne opinion, is not meete for
Grammer scholes: nor yet verie fitte for yong men in the
vniuersitie, vntill studie and tyme, haue bred in them, perfite
learning, and stedfast iudgement.
There is a kinde of _Paraphrasis_, which may be vsed, without
all hurt, to moch proffet: but it serueth onely the Greke and
not the latin, nor no other tong, as to alter _linguam Ionicam aut
Doricam_ into _meram Atticam_: A notable example there is left
vnto vs by a notable learned man _Diony_: _Halicarn_: who, in his
booke, peri syntaxeos, doth translate the goodlie storie of
_Candaules_ and _Gyges_ in 1. _Herodoti_, out of _Ionica lingua_,
into
_Atticam_. Read the place, and ye shall take, both pleasure and
proffet, in conference of it. A man, that is exercised in reading,
_Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato_, and _Demosthenes_, in vsing to turne,
like places of _Herodotus_, after like sorte, shold shortlie cum to
soch a knowledge, in vnderstanding, speaking, and writing the
Greeke tong, as fewe or none hath yet atteyned in England.
The like exercise out of _Dorica lingua_ may be also vsed, if a
man take that litle booke of _Plato, Timæus Locrus, de Animo et_