In the Preface to his _New English Grammar_, 1810, Hazlitt complains of the want of any undertaking of the kind, and it has not been really supplied till our own day, when the labours of the Philological and English Text Societies and the payment of increased attention to Early English Literature prepared the way to reform in a quarter where reform was so sadly needed.
The same writer, while edition upon edition of the famous Grammar of Lindley Murray was pouring from the press, like Hayley"s _Triumphs of Temper_ and Moore"s _Loves of the Angels_, exposed the fallacies of the system, and lamented the mischief done by such erroneous doctrines.
Murray, of whose lucubrations, now obsolete to petrifaction, sixty issues were exhausted between 1795 and 1859, aimed not only at popular instruction, but at literary dignity and scientific eminence; for during a portion of the time while his star was in the ascendant two parallel texts, a literary and an elementary one, were kept in print. Looking back from the vantage-ground which it is our privilege to occupy upon this phenomenon, we contemplate it not with the awe inspired by a mighty ruin, of which the remaining fragments are a gladdening and proud survival, but with a feeling of amazement that such a heresy in opinion and taste should have lived so long, and have been so lately dissipated.
The hazy ideas of the old-fashioned schoolmaster on this particular part of his business are brought out in tolerably prominent relief in the reply to a gentleman who had expressed to Dr. Duncan of the Ciceronian Academy at Pimlico his wish that his son might learn English in lieu of Latin Grammar. "Sir," said the Doctor, "Grammar is Grammar all the world over."
XV.
Ascham"s _Schoolmaster_--Richard Mulcaster--The earliest Anglo-Latin Dictionary--Ocland"s _Anglorum Praelia_.
I. The _Schoolmaster_, by Roger Ascham, is a work so celebrated and so cla.s.sical, and has been so often reprinted, that it seems almost supererogatory to pa.s.s any remark upon its character and merits. It arose, as we all know, out of a conversation at Windsor in 1563 between Sir Richard Sackville, Treasurer of the Exchequer, and the author, and it is a literary treatise rather than a technical one. Ascham did not live to see it in type, nor was his patron spared to witness its completion in MS.; it was published in 1570 by the author"s widow, and dedicated to Sir William Cecil, who was one of the party at Windsor when the idea was first ventilated. The opening paragraphs of the Preface, where Ascham describes the company at dinner, and Sackvile afterwards drawing him aside, and leading him to turn his thoughts to the production of such a book, are as famous and unforgettable as Latimer"s n.o.ble and touching narrative to us, in one of his sermons before the King, of his boyhood and the obligations under which he lay to his father for sending him to a good school.
Ascham"s _Schoolmaster_, 1570, is a volume, as its t.i.tle perhaps may import, for the teacher indeed rather than for the learner. It is a manual of valuable suggestions and counsels for the guidance and use of those under whose direction the course of school-work was carried out, although immediately it was designed for the benefit of Mr. Robert Sackville, the deceased Treasurer"s grandson. The writer confesses his indebtedness to Sir John Cheke and to Sturmius, among the moderns, and to his old masters, as he calls them, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero.
Sir Richard Sackville, who was happily instrumental in persuading Ascham to undertake the task, told him that he had found the disadvantage in his own case of an imperfect education; "for a fond scholemaster," quoth he, "before I was fullie fourtene yeare olde, draue me so, with feare of beating, from all loue of learninge, as nowe, when I know what difference it is to haue learninge, and to haue little or none at all, I feele it my greatest greife, and finde it my greatest hurte, that euer came to me; that it was my so ill chance to light vpon so lewde a schoolmaster."
Ascham was of his friend"s opinion in regard to greater clemency and patience on the part of teachers, and he also preferred such text-books as _Cicero de Officiis_ to the Manuals compiled by Horman, Whittinton, and the rest of the old school of English grammarians. The pa.s.sage in the _Schoolmaster_ where the author narrates his interview, before he went on his travels into Germany, with Lady Jane Grey at her father"s house in Leicestershire, is familiar enough; it exhibits a converse case, so far as the severities of school-teachers are concerned; for that amiable and unfortunate woman found her only compensation for the harshness and rigour of her parents in a gentle and beloved tutor, "who," she told Ascham, "teacheth me so ientlie, so pleasantlie, with such faire allurements to learning, that I thinke all the tyme nothing whiles I am with him."
One sees that Ascham, while loth to say too much on such a topic, did not cordially relish the old translations into English verse of some of the cla.s.sics, even when the translator was such a man as Surrey or Chaucer; and there I agree with him, and indeed I think that many more are inclined so to do.
Richard Mulcaster, first head-master of Merchant Taylors" School, and for several years after his retirement from that position princ.i.p.al of St.
Paul"s, was the author of two works of comparatively slight interest and importance at the present day, whatever estimate may have been formed of them by some of his learned contemporaries. Of the two "fruits of his writing," as he terms them, he dedicated the earlier, "Positions," 1581, a kind of introduction to the matter, to Queen Elizabeth, and the other, "The First Part of the Elementary," 1582, to Lord Leicester, in two rather turgid and verbose epistles. But it is a question whether either production met with much applause on its appearance, though ushered into notice under such influential auspices; certainly they never grew popular or reached a second impression. They were both calculated for the guidance of teachers, like Ascham"s _Schoolmaster_; but they present a stiff and didactic frigidity, which is absent in the famous and favourite manual of his predecessor, who knew how to make us the partakers of his own learning in a more agreeable manner than the professional pedagogue. I think it very possible that the very few readers which the publications of Mulcaster have found have arrived at the conclusion of their labour without being much wiser than when they embarked in it. But, of the two, I prefer very decidedly the _Positions_, which are written in a more natural style, and contain occasional pa.s.sages of interest. This gentleman lived to see the close of the long reign of which he had witnessed the opening, and to write some dull verses upon the death of the Queen.
II. The early teacher and his pupils enjoyed, when the typographical art had been applied to the production of educational works previously accessible in a limited number of MSS., the considerable advantage of books of reference for Latin, Greek, French, and eventually Italian and other tongues. Within a year of each other (1499-1500), the _Ortus Vocabulorum_ and the _Promptorius Parvulorum_ furnished our schools, so far as Latin was concerned, with two excellent lexicons, both formed out of the best compilations of the kind current abroad. These were the Ainsworth and Riddle of our ancestors, who resorted to them where the required information was not forthcoming in the Primer or the Delectus.
Both these phrase-books pa.s.sed through a series of reprints between the commencement and middle of the sixteenth century. The former purports to have been grounded on the _Catholicon_ of Balbus, 1460, the _Cornucopia_ of Perottus, the _Gemma Vocabulorum_, and the _Medulla Grammatices_, with additions by Ascensius. The _Promptorius_, or, as it is also called in some of the issues, _Promptuarium_, appears to be substantially identical with the _Medulla_.
But the earliest regular Anglo-Latin Dictionary in our literature is that of Sir Thomas Elyot, first published in 1538, and frequently reprinted with additions by others from a variety of English and foreign sources, until it became the bulky folio known as COOPER"S THESAURUS. Elyot, the first compiler, tells us, in the dedication to Henry VIII. prefixed to the _editio princeps_, that he had accomplished about half his labour when it reached the royal ear through Master (subsequently Sir) Anthony Denny that he had such a project in hand; whereupon the King caused all possible facilities to be afforded him, and the books in the royal library to be open to his inspection. It is hard to say how far Elyot flatters his sovereign when he a.s.sures him that, after it was all done, he was so afraid of his Lexicon being faulty and imperfect, that he felt as if he could have torn the MS. to pieces, "had not the beames of your royal maiestie entred into my harte, by remembraunce of the comforte whiche I of your grace had lately receyued."
In the epistle to Henry just referred to, the author pays a tribute to the encouragement which he had experienced from Lord Cromwell; and in the British Museum is the copy presented to the Lord Privy Seal, with a holograph Latin letter prefixed, in which hardly any form of adulation is spared, so far as Cromwell"s virtues, magnanimity, culture, and other cognate qualities are concerned, and nothing is said about him being secondary to royalty in these matters, as in the printed inscription is expressed. But much, after all, is to be forgiven to a man of rank who in those days chose to consume his time, as Elyot did, in the pursuit of letters.
The plan of the work is familiar enough, first, through the later impressions, which are among the commonest volumes in Early English literature; and, secondly, from the fact that the principle on which it is constructed is similar to that of Ainsworth and others. The main difference seems to be where certain Latin words, by an intelligible survival, continued in Elyot"s day to bear a meaning which subsequently grew obsolete; as, for instance, in the case of _Aviarium_, "a thycke wodde without waye," although he at the same time adds the ordinary acceptation.
Still the credit remains with Elyot, of course, of having supplied a model for many succeeding lexicographers and phraseologists; and if we turn, for example, to the _Dictionary for Children_, by John Withals, 1553, or the _Manipulus Vocabulorum_ of Levins, 1571, we see that the general plan is similar. Elyot, in fact, got rid of the tiresome and perplexing arrangement which renders the books of reference and instruction prior to his day, like the _Promptorius_ and the _Eclairciss.e.m.e.nt de la langue Francoise_, so uninviting to consult.
Save in respect to development and extension, there is no substantial difference, in fact, between the dictionaries of Elyot and Littleton or of Littleton and Ainsworth. The general plan is the same, whereas in some of the early lexicons the arrangement is so obscure and defective as to render them comparatively useless for practical purposes. The old _Ortus Vocabulorum_, one of these archaic works of reference, had been largely formed out of the _Cornucopia_ of Perottus, and Cooper owed very considerable obligations to the Lexicon of Stepha.n.u.s, which he was censured by a critic of his day for not properly acknowledging.
The _Short Dictionary for Children_ by Withals, already specified, supplied the obvious need for a more portable work than either Elyot or Cooper. It met with a cordial response from the const.i.tuency to which it appealed, and was reprinted, with large additions and improvements, by successive editors down to the time of Charles I.
Littleton, who brought out his Dictionary in 1678, was Rector of Chelsea.
He includes the barbarous Latin for the first time.
Robert Ainsworth, whose famous Latin Dictionary belongs to the reign of George II., having been first printed in 1736, planned his enterprise on a sensible and enduring basis, and earned for himself the reputation of a cla.s.sic and a type. He had of course the advantage of all the improvements of Elyot, Cooper, and Littleton, besides the numerous other minor lexicographers, of whom he supplies an interesting chronological account in his preface; but his substantial quarto volume, "designed for the use of the British _Nations_," was a clear advance on its precursors. He gives not only the Latin-English and English-Latin appellatives, the Christian names of men and women, the proper names of places, the ancient Latin names of places, and the more modern names, but the Roman calendar, the Roman coins, weights and measures, and ancient law-terms. Of the preceding workers in the same field, whom he commemorates, he may very well have known some personally. The catalogue, enriched with biographical particulars, begins with the _Promptuarium Parvulorum_, and closes with Elisha Coles, embracing a period of nearly two centuries.
III. The Latin Lexicon was an indispensable _vade-mec.u.m_ where boys had to translate the cla.s.sics of that language into English; and the taste for some of the Roman writers, including Ovid, so far from declining, appears in the time of Elizabeth to have spread in schools. The authors at whom the criticism is more particularly aimed may be guessed in the absence of the names; but the clerical party about 1580, being of opinion that these ancient productions were injurious to morality, availed themselves of a most singularly fortunate opportunity for subst.i.tuting a work which should be to Latin versification what Lily"s Grammar was to English accidence--a standard and a model.
A year or two prior to the discovery of this pernicious influence, Christopher Ocland had printed a metrical narrative in doggerel metre of the martial achievements of the English people from the time of the Plantagenets down to that of Elizabeth, whom he places before Zen.o.bia; and this gentleman or his friends had sufficient influence to procure, through the Lords Commissioners in Causes Ecclesiastical, letters-patent prescribing the use of his _Anglorum Praelia_ in all grammar-schools in England and Wales in lieu of the books of less moral authors. The privilege, dated May 7, 1582, was accorded in consideration not only of the freedom of Ocland"s volume from profligacy, but of "the quality of the verse,"--an encomium quite seriously intended, in whatever degree it may strike us as ironical.
This literary gem, which was to supersede Virgil, Ovid, Homer, and the rest of the heathens, was dedicated to Zen.o.bia by the worthy writer in some lines which are a fair sample of the "quality of the verse." They begin:--
"Regia Nympha, soli [_sic_] moderatrix alma Britanni, Quae pace et vera religione nites, Quae vitae meritis, morum & candore coruscans, Zen.o.biam vincis, siqua vel ante fuit."
Such was the Oclandian Muse which the Lords Commissioners in Causes Ecclesiastical accounted preferable to the compositions which were the glory of their own and the delight of every succeeding age!
Despite the lofty patronage and auspicious circ.u.mstances under which the _Anglorum Praelia_ was launched on its proud career, the imbecility of the whole idea appears to have been promptly appreciated; and the "lascivious poets," whom it was to have effaced, continued, and to this day continue, "to corrupt the youth."
XVI.
Ben Jonson and Shirley writers of Grammars--Some account of the former--Thomas Hayne"s Latin Grammar--A curious anecdote about it.
I. The _English Grammar_ inserted among Ben Jonson"s works in 1640, and also to be found in the modern editions, is not the production originally compiled by that eminent writer, but a series of notes and rough material collected perhaps for a new undertaking after the destruction of Jonson"s books and MSS. by an accidental fire. It appears that the author had taken considerable trouble to collect together the literature of this cla.s.s already existing in our own and other languages, with a view to comparison and improvement, and he was probably a.s.sisted by friends, as Howell speaks so early as 1620 of having borrowed for him Davis"s Welsh Grammar, "to add to those many which he already had." Sir Francis Kinaston cites "his most learned and celebrated friend, Master Ben Jonson," as the possessor of a very ancient grammar written in the Saxon tongue and character, by way of ill.u.s.trating what it could scarcely ill.u.s.trate--the state of our language in the time of Chaucer. This book doubtless perished with the rest.
The work in its present state is divided into chapters: _Of Grammar and the Parts_; _Of Letters and their Powers_; _Of the Vowels_; _Of the Consonants_, and so forth. In the third chapter, under Y, the writer remarks:--"Y is mere vowelish in our tongue, and hath only the power of an _i_, even where it obtains the seat of a consonant, as in _young_, _younker_, which the Dutch, whose primitive it is, write _junk_, _junker_.
And so might we write _iouth_, _ies_, _ioke_...."
"C is a letter," he says, "which our forefathers might very well have spared in our tongue; but since it hath obtained place both in our writing and language, we are not now to quarrel with _orthography_ or _custom_."
Nor is _c_ the only member of the alphabet with which Jonson considers that we might have advantageously dispensed; for in a subsequent page he declares that "_q_ is a letter we might very well have spared in our _alphabet_, if we would but use the serviceable _k_ as he should be, and restore him to the right of reputation he had with our forefathers. For the English Saxon knew not this halting _q_, with her waiting woman _u_ after her, but exprest
_quail_,} {_kuail_, _quest_,} by {_kuest_, _quick_,} {_kuick_, _quill_,} {_kuill_."
In other words, Jonson, discarding _c_ and _q_, was with those who nowadays ask us to say _Kikero_, _Kelt_, _Kaesar_; and he seems also to be an advocate for such terminations as _st_ or _pt_ for _ed_ in _exprest_, _confest_, _profest_, _stopt_, _dropt_, _cropt_, wherein he has a follower in Mr. Furnivall.
His demonstration of the manner in which the several letters ought to be sounded as p.r.o.nounced is occasionally very amusing. "T," he informs the reader, "is sounded with the tongue striking the upper teeth." "P breaketh softly through the lips." "N ringeth somewhat more in the lips and nose."
But of H he remarks: "Whether it be a letter or no, hath been much examined by the ancients, and by some of the Greek party too much condemned, and thrown out of the alphabet."
This last piece of criticism should have its consoling effect on those among the moderns who also repudiate it, and may not be aware that they have the Greek party in Jonson"s day on their side, only that the Greek party did not offer the deposed letter any subst.i.tuted position.
Jonson"s _Grammar_, as we have it, is a book for scholars and philologists, however, rather than for the elementary stage of education.
The method is discursive and the style obscure; and it is chiefly prizable as an evidence of the versatility, the extensive reading, and the perseverance of the author. He quotes among his examples Sir Thomas More, Gower, Lidgate, Fox"s _Martyrs_, Harding"s _Chronicle_, Chaucer, and Sir John Cheke.
It is curious enough that Jonson"s notion as to the superfluities of our alphabet is supported to some extent by the orthography sanctioned by M.
Vimont in his _Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1641, where he puts _Kebeck_ for _Quebec_; but the change must necessarily influence the p.r.o.nunciation.
Neither of these writers was avowedly an advocate of Phonography; but the adoption of that principle of spelling would necessarily involve the dispensation with certain letters which at present form part of the English A. B. C.
In the dedication to Lord Herbert of his little book, JAMES SHIRLEY refers to the abundance of such treatises at that time before the public, "by which some," he says, "would prophetically imply the decay of learning, as if the root and foundation of art stood in need of warmth and reparation."
But he furnishes no information respecting himself or the motives which led him to write the volume, although it is readily inferable that he did so to augment the slender income which he derived, after the closing of the theatres, from school-work in Whitefriars. Some of the ill.u.s.trations are in such couplets as the subjoined:--
"In _di_, _do_, _dum_, the Gerunds chime and close, _Um_, the first Supine, _u_ the latter shews."