Limited acquaintance with the Greek language in England--Erasmus first
learns, and then teaches, Greek at Cambridge--Notices of a few
Philhellenists--Study of the language at Rhodes by Lily--Languid
interest in it among us--Disputes at Cambridge as to the
pronunciation--Remarks on this subject--The tract by John Kay--Few
books in the Greek character printed in England.
I. The few scattered notices, which offer themselves in Warton and other
authorities, of Englishmen of very remote days who entered on the study of
the Greek tongue, tend mainly to illustrate the fact, how sparingly and
imperfectly that noble and precious language was cultivated down to the
age of Elizabeth; and of course this circumstance involves the almost
complete neglect of it in our universities and academies. Warton himself
cites a case in which a scholar travelled from Malmesbury to Canterbury in
order to improve a rudimentary acquaintance with Greek which he had
gained through a local monastic seminary.
The first man who helped at all largely and sensibly to render Greek a
part of the educational system was Lily the grammarian, who spent some
years of his life at Rhodes, and introduced a study of the language into
the routine of St. Paul's, whence it found its way by degrees to the other
great foundations in London and in the provinces.