'With curling nose ingeminate the peals.'"

Of the sports of the boys, Fitzstephen gives a long description. On Shrove-Tuesday, each boy brought his fighting cock to his master, and they had a cock-fight all morning in the school-room.[76] After dinner, football in the fields of the suburbs, probably Smithfield. Every Sunday in Lent they had a sham-fight, some on horseback, some on foot, the King and his Court often looking on. At Easter they played at the Water-Quintain, charging a target, which if they missed, souse they went into the water. 'On holidays in summer the pastime of the youths is to exercise themselves in archery, in running, leaping, wrestling, casting of stones, and flinging to certain distances, and lastly with bucklers.' At moonrise the maidens danced. In the winter holidays, the boys saw boar-fights, hog-fights, bull and bear-baiting, and when ice came they slid, and skated on the leg-bones of some animal, punting themselves along with an iron-shod pole, and charging one another. Aset of merry scenes indeed.

"In general, we are assured by the most learned man of the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon, that there never had been so great an appearance of learning, and so general an application to study, in so many different faculties, as in his time, when schools were erected in every city, town, burgh, and castle." (Henry's Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 472-3.)

In the twenty-fifth year of Henry VI., 1447, four Grammar schools were appointed to be opened in London[77] for the education of the City youth (Carlisle). But from the above lists it will be seen that Grammar Schools had not much to do with the education of our nobility and gentry before 1450 A.D.

[Headnote: AN ETON BOY IN A.D. 1478.]

Of Eton studies, the Paston Letters notice only Latin versifying, but they show us a young man supposed to be nineteen, still at school, having a smart pair of breeches for holy days, falling in love, eating figs and raisins, proposing to come up to London for a day or two's holiday or lark to his elder brother's, and having 8d. sent him in a letter to buy a pair of slippers with. William Paston, ayounger brother of John's, when about nineteen years old, and studying at Eton, writes on Nov. 7, 1478, to thank his brother for a noble in gold, and says,

"my creanser (creditor) Master Thomas (Stevenson) heartily recommendeth him to you, and he prayeth you to send him some money for my commons, for he saith ye be twenty shillings in his debt, for a month was to pay for when he had money last; also I beseech you to send me a hose cloth, one for the holy days of some colour, and another for working days (how coarse soever it be, it maketh no matter), and a stomacher and two shirts, and a pair of slippers: and if it like you that I may come with Alweder by water"—would they take a pair-oar and pull down? (the figs and raisins came up by a barge;)—"and sport me with you at London a day or two this term-time, then ye may let all this be till the time that I come, and then I will tell you when I shall be ready to come from Eton by the grace of God, who have you in his keeping." Paston Letters, modernised, vol. 2, p. 129.

This is the first letter; the second one about the figs, raisins, and love-making (dated 23 Feb. 1478-9) is given at vol. ii. p. 122-3.

Tusser, who was seized as a Singing boy for the King's Chapel, lets us know that he got well birched at Eton.

"From Paul's I went to Eton sent To learn straightways the Latin phrase When fifty-three stripes given to me At once I had:

For fault but small or none at all It come to pass thus beat I was. See, Udall,[78] see the mercy of thee To me poor lad!"

I was rather surprised to find no mention of any Eton men in the first vol. of Wood's Athen Oxonienses (ed. Bliss) except two, who had first taken degrees at Cambridge, Robert Aldrich and William Alley, the latter admitted at Cambridge 1528 (Wood, p. 375, col.2). Plenty of London men are named in Wood, vol.1. No doubt in early times the Eton men went to their own foundation, King's (or other Colleges at) Cambridge, while the Winchester men went to their foundation, New College, or elsewhere at Oxford. In the first volume of Bliss's edition of Wood, the following Winchester men are noticed:

p. 30, col. 2, William Grocyn, educated in grammaticals in Wykeham's school near Winchester.

p. 78, col. 2, William Horman, made fellow of New Coll. in 1477. Author of the Vulgaria Puerorum, &c. (See also Andrew Borde, p. xxxiv, above, note.)

p. 379, col. 2, John Boxall, Fellow of New Coll. 1542. 402, col. 2, Thomas Hardyng " " " 1536. 450, col. 2, Henry Cole " " " 1523. 469, col. 1, Nicholas Saunders " " " 1548. 678, col. 2, Richard Haydock " " " 1590.

[Headnote: POST-REFORMATION GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.]

That the post-Reformation Grammar Schools did not at first educate as many boys as the old monastic schools is well known. Strype says,

"On the 15th of January, 1562, Thomas Williams, of the Inner Temple, esq. being chosen speaker to the lower house, was presented to the queen: and in his speech to her ... took notice of the want of schools; that at least an hundred were wanting in England which before this time had been, [being destroyed (Isuppose he meant) by the dissolution of monasteries and religious houses, fraternities and colleges.] He would have had England continually flourishing with ten thousand scholars, which the schools in this nation formerly brought up. That from the want of these good schoolmasters sprang up ignorance: and covetousness got the livings by impropriations; which was a decay, he said, of learning, and by it the tree of knowledge grew downward, not upward; which grew greatly to the dishonour, both of God and the commonwealth. He mentioned likewise the decay of the universities; and how that great market-towns were without schools or preachers: and that the poor vicar had but 20l. [or some such poor allowance,] and the rest, being no small sum, was impropriated. And so thereby, no preacher there; but the people, being trained up and led in blindness for want of instruction, became obstinate: and therefore advised that this should be seen to, and impropriations redressed, notwithstanding the laws already made [which favoured them].—Strype, Annals of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 437.

Of the Grammar Schools in his time (A.D. 1577) Harrison says:

Besides these universities, also there are a great number of Grammer Schooles throughout the realme, and those verie liberallie endued for the better relief of pore scholers, so that there are not manie corporate townes, now under the queene's dominion that have not one Gramer Schole at the least, with a sufficient living for a master and usher appointed to the same.

There are in like manner divers collegiat churches, as Windsor, Wincester, Eaton, Westminster (in which I was sometime an unprofitable Grammarian under the reverend father, master Nowell, now dean of Paules) and in those a great number of pore scholers, dailie maintained by the liberality of the founders, with meat, bookes, and apparell; from whence after they have been well entered in the knowledge of the Latine and Greek tongs, and rules of versifying (the triall whereof is made by certain apposers, yearlie appointed to examine them), they are sent to certain especiall houses in each universitie[79], where they are received & trained up in the points of higher knowledge in their privat halls till they be adjudged meet to show their faces in the schooles, as I have said alreadie.

[Headnote: STUDY OF ENGLISH RECOMMENDED IN 1582-1612.]

Greek was first taught at a public school in England by Lillye soon after the year 1500. This was at St Paul's School in London, then newly established by Dean Colet, and to which Erasmus alluded as the best of its time in 1514, when he said that he had in three years taught a youth more Latin than he could have acquired in any school in England, ne Liliana quidem excepta, not even Lillye's excepted. (Warton, iii.1.) The first schoolmaster who stood up for the study of English was, Ibelieve, Richard Mulcaster, of King's College, Cambridge, and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1561 he was appointed the first head-master of Merchant-Taylors School in London, then just founded as a feeder or pro-seminary for St John's College, Oxford (Warton, iii. 282). In his Elementarie, 1582, he has a long passage on the study of English, the whole of which I print here, at Mr Quick's desire, as it has slipt out of people's minds, and Mulcaster deserves honour forit:—

"But bycause I take vpon me in this Elementarie, besides som frindship to secretaries for the pen, and to correctors for the print, to direct such peple as teach childern to read and write English, and the reading must nedes be such as the writing leads vnto, thererfor, (sic) befor I medle with anie particular precept, to direct the Reader, Iwill thoroughlie rip vp the hole certaintie of our English writing, so far furth and with such assurance, as probabilitie can make me, bycause it is a thing both proper to my argument, and profitable to my cuntrie. For our naturall tung being as beneficiall vnto vs for our nedefull deliuerie, as anie other is to the peple which vse it: & hauing as pretie, and as fair obseruations in it, as anie other hath: and being as readie to yield to anie rule of Art, as anie other is: why should I not take som pains to find out the right writing of ours, as other cuntrimen haue don to find the like in theirs? & so much the rather, bycause it is pretended, that the writing thereof is meruellous vncertain, and scant to be recouered from extreme confusion, without som change of as great extremitie? Imean therefor so to deall in it, as I maie wipe awaie that opinio{n} of either vncertaintie for co{n}fusion, or impossibilitie for directio{n}, that both the naturall English maie haue wherein to rest, & the desirous st[r]anger maie haue whereby to learn. For the performa{n}ce whereof, and mine own better direction, Iwill first examin those means, whereby other tungs of most sacred antiquitie haue bene brought to Art and form of discipline for their right writing, to the end that by following their waie, Imaie hit vpo{n} their right, and at the least by their president deuise the like to theirs, where the vse of our tung, & the propertie of our dialect will not yeild flat to theirs. That don, Iwill set all the varietie of our now writing, & the vncertaine force of all our letters, in as much certaintie, as anie writing ca{n} be, by these sene{n} precepts,— 1.Generall rule, which concerneth the propertie and vse of ech letter: 2.Proportion which reduceth all words of one sou{n}d to the same writing: 3.Composition, which teacheth how to write one word made of mo: 4.Deriuation, which examineth the ofspring of euerie originall: 5.Distinction which bewraieth the difference of sound and force in letters by som writen figure or accent: 6.Enfranchisment, which directeth the right writing of all incorporat foren words: 7.Prerogatiue, which declareth a reseruation, wherein common vse will continew hir precdence in our En[g]lish writing, as she hath don euerie where else, both for the form of the letter, in som places, which likes the pen better: and for the difference in writing, where som particular caueat will chek a common rule. In all these seuen I will so examin the particularities of our tung, as either nothing shall seme strange at all, or if anie thing do seme, yet it shall not seme so strange, but that either the self same, or the verie like vnto it, or the more strange then it is, shal appear to be in, those things, which ar more familiar vnto vs for extraordinarie learning, then required of vs for our ordinarie vse. And forasmuch as the eie will help manie to write right by a sene president, which either cannot vnderstand, or cannot entend to vnderstand the reason of a rule, therefor in the end of this treatis for right writing, Ipurpos to set down a generall table of most English words, by waie of president, to help such plane peple, as cannot entend the vnderstanding of a rule, which requireth both time and conceit in perceiuing, but can easilie run to a generall table, which is readier to their hand. By the which table I shall also confirm the right of my rules, that theie hold thoroughout, & by multitude of exa{m}ples help som maim (so) in precepts. Thus much for the right writing of our English tung, which maie seme (so) for a preface to the principle of Reading, as the matter of the one is the maker of the other.—1582. Rich^d. Mulcaster. The First Part of the Elementarie, pp. 53-4.

Brinsley follows Mulcaster in exhorting to the study of English:

"there seemes vnto mee, to bee a verie maine want in all our Grammar schooles generally, or in the most of them; whereof I haue heard som great learned men to complain; That there is no care had in respect, to traine vp schollars so as they may be able to expresse their minds purely and readily in our owne tongue, and to increase in the practice of it, as well as in the Latine or Greeke; whereas our chiefe indeuour should bee for it, and that for these reasons. 1.Because that language which all sorts and conditions of men amongst vs are to haue most vse of, both in speech & writing, is our owne natiue tongue. 2.The purity and elegancie of our owne language is to be esteemed a chiefe part of the honour of our nation: which we all ought to aduance as much as in vs lieth. As when Greece and Rome and other nations haue most florished, their languages also haue beene most pure: and from those times of Greece & Rome, wee fetch our chiefest patterns, for the learning of their tongues. 3.Because of those which are for a time trained vp in schooles, there are very fewe which proceede in learning, in comparison of them that follow other callings.

John Brinsley, The Grammar Schoole, p. 21,22.

His "Meanes to obtaine this benefit of increasing in our English tong, as in the Latin," are

1. Daily vse of Lillies rules construed. 2. Continuall practice of English Grammaticall translations. 3. Translating and writing English, with some other Schoole exercises.

Ibid., side-notes, p. 22, 23.

On this question of English boys studying English, let it be remembered that in this year of grace 1867, in all England there is just one public school at which English is studied historically—the City of London School—and that in this school it was begun only last year by the new Head-Master, the Rev. EdwinA. Abbot, all honour to him. In every class an English textbook is read, Piers Plowman being that for the highest class. This neglect of English as a subject of study is due no doubt to tutors' and parents' ignorance. None of them know the language historically; the former can't teach it, the latter don't care about it; why should their boys learn it? Oh tutors and parents, there are such things as asses in the world.

[Headnote: AGRAMMAR-SCHOOL BOY'S DAY IN A.D. 1612.]

Of the school-life of a Grammar-school boy in 1612 we may get a notion from Brinsley's p. 296, "chap. xxx. Of Schoole times, intermissions and recreations," which is full of interest. '1. The Schoole-time should beginne at sixe: all who write Latine to make their exercises which were giuen ouernight, in that houre before seuen'.—To make boys punctual, 'so many of them as are there at sixe, to haue their places as they had them by election[80] or the day before: all who come after six, euery one to sit as he commeth, and so to continue that day, and vntill he recouer his place againe by the election of the fourme or otherwise.... If any cannot be brought by this, them to be noted in the blacke Bill by a speciall marke, and feele the punishment thereof: and sometimes present correction to be vsed for terrour.... Thus they are to continue vntill nine [at work in class], signified by Monitours, Subdoctour or otherwise. Then at nine ... to let them to haue a quarter of an houre at least, or more, for intermission, eyther for breakefast ... or else for the necessitie of euery one, or their honest recreation, or to prepare their exercises against the Masters comming in. [2.] After, each of them to be in his place in an instant, vpon the knocking of the dore or some other sign ... so to continue vntill eleuen of the clocke, or somwhat after, to counteruaile the time of the intermission at nine.

(3.) To be againe all ready, and in their places at one, in an instant; to continue vntill three, or halfe an houre after: then to haue another quarter of an houre or more, as at nine for drinking and necessities; so to continue till halfe an houre after fiue: thereby in that halfe houre to counteruaile the time at three; then to end so as was shewed, with reading a peece of a Chapter, and with singing two staues of a Psalme: lastly with prayer to be vsed by the Master.'

To the objectors to these intermissions at nine and three, who may reproach the schoole, thinking that they do nothing but play, Brinsley answers,— '2. By this meanes also the Schollars may bee kept euer in their places, and hard to their labours, without that running out to the Campo (as the[y] tearme it) at school times, and the manifolde disorders thereof; as watching and striuing for the clubbe,[81] and loytering then in the fields; some hindred that they cannot go forth at all. (5.)it is very requisite also, that they should have weekly one part of an afternoone for recreation, as a reward of their diligence, obedience and profiting; and that to be appointed at the Masters discretion, eyther the Thursday, after the vsuall custom; or according to the best opportunity of the place.... All recreations and sports of schollars, would be meet for Gentlemen. Clownish sports, or perilous, or yet playing for money, are no way to be admitted.'

On the age at which boys went to school, Brinsley says, p.9,

"For the time of their entrance with vs, in our countrey schooles, it is commonly about 7. or 8. yeares olde: six is very soone. If any begin so early, they are rather sent to the schoole to keepe them from troubling the house at home, and from danger, and shrewd turnes, then for any great hope and desire their friends haue that they should learne anything in effect."

[Headnote: THE GOOD OLD TIMES OF SMOKE AND FILTH.]

To return from this digression on Education. Enough has been said to show that the progress of Education, in our sense of the word, was rather from below upwards, than from above downwards; and I conclude that the young people to whom the Babees Boke, &c., were addressed, were the children of our nobility, knights, and squires, and that the state of their manners, as left by their home training, was such as to need the inculcation on them of the precepts contained in the Poems. If so, dirty, ill-mannered, awkward young gawks, must most of these hopes-of-England have been, to modern notions. The directions for personal cleanliness must have been much needed when one considers the small stock of linen and clothes that men not rich must have had; and if we may judge from a passage in Edward the Fourth's Liber Niger, even the King himself did not use his footpan every Saturday night, and would not have been the worse for an occasional tubbing:—

"This barbour shall have, every satyrday at nyght, if it please the Kinge to cleanse his head, legges, or feet, and for his shaving, two loves, one picher wyne. And the ussher of chambre ought to testyfye if this is necessaryly dispended or not."

So far as appears from Edward the Fourth's Liber Niger Domus, soap was used only for washing clothes. The yeoman lavender, or washerman, was to take from the Great Spicery 'as muche whyte soape, greye, and blacke, as can be thought resonable by proufe of the Countrollers,' and therewith 'tenderly to waysshe ... the stuffe for the Kinges propyr persone' (H. Ord. p. 85); but whether that cleansing material ever touched His Majesty's sacred person (except doubtless when and if the barber shaved him), does not appear. The Ordinances are considerate as to sex, and provide for "weomen lavendryes" for a Queen, and further that "these officers oughte to bee sworne to keepe the chambre counsaylle." But it is not for one of a nation that has not yet taken generally to tubbing and baths, or left off shaving, to reproach his forefathers with want of cleanliness, or adherence to customs that involve contradiction of the teachings of physiologists, and the evident intent of Nature or the Creator. Moreover, reflections on the good deeds done, and the high thoughts thought, by men of old dirtier than some now, may prevent us concluding that because other people now talk through their noses, and have manners different from our own, they and their institutions must be wholly abominable; that because others smell when heated, they ought to be slaves; or that eating peas with a knife renders men unworthy of the franchise. The temptation to value manners above morals, and pleasantness above honesty, is one that all of us have to guard against. And when we have held to a custom merely because it is old, have refused to consider fairly the reasons for its change, and are inclined to grumble when the change is carried out, we shall be none the worse for thinking of the people, young and old, who, in the time of Harrison and Shakspere, the "Forgotten Worthies"[82] and Raleigh, no doubt 'hated those nasty new oak houses and chimnies,' and sighed for the good old times:

"And yet see the change, for when our houses were builded of willow, then had we oken men; but now that our houses are come to be made of oke, our men are not onlie become willow, but a great manie through Persian delicacie crept in among vs, altogither of straw, which is a sore alteration.... Now haue we manie chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complaine of rheumes, catarhs and poses. Then had we none but reredosses, and our heads did neuer ake.[83] For as the smoke in those daies was supposed to be a sufficient hardning for the timber of the house; so it was reputed a far better medicine to keepe the goodman and his familie from the quack or pose, wherewith as then verie few were oft acquainted." Harrison, i. 212, col. 1, quoted by Ellis.

If rich men and masters were dirty, poor men and servants must have been dirtier still. William Langlande's description of Hawkyn's one metaphorical dress in which he slept o' nightes as well as worked by day, beslobbered (or by-moled, bemauled) by children, was true of the real smock; flesh-moths must have been plentiful, and the sketch of Coveitise, as regards many men, hardly an exaggeration:

... as a bonde-man of his bacon his berd was bi-draveled, With his hood on his heed a lousy hat above, And in a tawny tabard of twelf wynter age Al so torn and baudy and ful of lys crepyng, But if that a lous[84] couthe han lopen the bettre, She sholde noght han walked on that welthe so was it thred-bare. (Vision, Passus V. vol. 1, l. 2859-70, ed. Wright.)

In the Kinge and Miller, Percy Folio MS., p. 236 (in vol. ii. of the print), when the Miller proposes that the stranger should sleep with their son, Richard the son says to the King,

"Nay, first," q{uo}th Richard, "good fellowe, tell me true, hast thou noe creep{er}s in thy gay hose? art thou not troabled w{i}th the Scabbado?"

The colour of washerwomen's legs was due partly to dirt, Isuppose. The princess or queen Clarionas, when escaping with the laundress as her assistant, is obliged to have her white legs reduced to the customary shade of grey:

Right as she should stoupe a-dou, The quene was tukked wel on high; The lauender p{er}ceiued wel therbigh Hir white legges, and seid "ma dame, Youre shin boones might doo vs blame; Abide," she seid, "so mot I thee, More slotered thei most be." Asshes with the water she menged, And her white legges al be-sprenged. ab. 1440 A.D., Syr Generides, p. 218, ll. 7060-8.

[Headnote: NAKED SCULLIONS AND DIRTY STREETS.]

If in Henry the Eighth's kitchen, scullions lay about naked, or tattered and filthy, what would they do elsewhere? Here is the King's Ordinance against them in 1526:

"And for the better avoydyng of corruption and all uncleannesse out of the Kings house, which doth ingender danger of infection, and is very noisome and displeasant unto all the noblemen and others repaireing unto the same; it is ordeyned by the Kings Highnesse, that the three master cookes of the kitchen shall have everie of them by way of reward yearly twenty marks, to the intent they shall prouide and sufficiently furnish the said kitchens of such scolyons as shall not goe naked or in garments of such vilenesse as they now doe, and have been acustomed to doe, nor lie in the nights and dayes in the kitchens or ground by the fireside; but that they of the said money may be found with honest and whole course garments, without such uncleannesse as may be the annoyance of those by whom they shall passe"...

That our commonalty, at least, in Henry VIII.'s time did stink (as is the nature of man to do) may be concluded from Wolsey's custom, when going to Westminster Hall, of

"holding in his hand a very fair orange, whereof the meat or substance within was taken out, and filled up again with the part of a sponge, wherein was vinegar, and other confections against the pestilent airs; the which he most commonly smelt unto, passing among the press, or else when he was pestered with many suitors." (Cavendish, p.43.)

On the dirt in English houses and streets we may take the testimony of a witness who liked England, and lived in it, and who was not likely to misrepresent its condition,—Erasmus. In a letter to Francis, the physician of Cardinal Wolsey, says Jortin,

"Erasmus ascribes the plague (from which England was hardly ever free) and the sweating-sickness, partly to the incommodious form and bad exposition of the houses, to the filthiness of the streets, and to the sluttishness within doors. The floors, says he, are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease (?), fragments, bones, spittle, excrements [t.i. urine] of dogs and cats [t.i. men,] and every thing that is nasty, &c." (Life of Erasmus, i. 69, ed. 1808, referred to in Ellis, i. 328, note.)

The great scholar's own words are,

Tum sola fere sunt argilla, tum scirpis palustribus, qui subinde sic renovantur, ut fundamentum maneat aliquoties annos viginti, sub se fovens sputa, vomitus, mictum canum et hominum, projectam cervisiam, et piscium reliquias, aliasque sordes non nominandas. Hinc mutato coelo vapor quidam exhalatur, mea sententia minime salubris humano corpori.

After speaking also De salsamentis (rendered 'salt meat, beef, pork, &c.,' by Jortin, but which Liber Cure Cocorum authorises us in translating 'Sauces'[85]), quibus vulgus mirum in modum delectatur, he says the English would be more healthy if their windows were made so as to shut out noxious winds, and then continues,

"Conferret huc, si vulgo parcior victus persuaderi posset, ac salsamentorum moderatior usus. Tum si publica cura demandaretur dilibus, ut vi mundiores essent a coeno, mictuque: Curarentur et ea qu civitati vicina sint. Jortin's Life of Erasmus, ed. 1808, iii. 44 (Ep. 432, C. 1815), No. VIII. Erasmus Rot. Francisco. Cardinalis Eboracencis Medico,S.

If it be objected that I have in the foregoing extracts shown the dark side of the picture, and not the bright one, my answer is that the bright one—of the riches and luxury in England—must be familiar to all our members, students (as I assume) of our early books, that the Treatises in this Volume sufficiently show this bright side, and that to me, as foolometer of the Society, this dark side seemed to need showing. But as The Chronicle of May 11, 1867, in its review of Mr Fox Bourne's English Merchants, seems to think otherwise, Iquote its words, p. 155, col.2.

"All the nations of the world, says Matthew of Westminster, were kept warm by the wool of England, made into cloth by the men of Flanders. And while we gave useful clothing to other countries, we received festive garments from them in return. For most of our information on these subjects we are indebted to Matthew Paris, who tells us that when Alexander III. of Scotland was married to Margaret, daughter of Henry III., one thousand English knights appeared at the wedding in cointises of silk, and the next day each knight donned a new robe of another kind. This grand entertainment was fatal to sixty oxen, and cost the then Archbishop of York no less a sum than 4000 marks. Macpherson remarks on this great display of silk as a proof of the wealth of England under the Norman kings, apoint which has not been sufficiently elaborated. In 1242 the streets of London were covered or shaded with silk, for the reception of Richard, the King's brother, on his return from the Holy Land. Few Englishmen are aware of the existence of such magnificence at that early period; while every story-book of history gives us the reverse of the picture, telling us of straw-covered floors, scarcity of body linen, and the like. Long after this, in 1367, it is recorded, as a special instance of splendour of costume, that 1000 citizens of Genoa were clothed in silk; and this tale has been repeated from age to age, while the similar display, at an earlier date, in England, has passed unnoticed."

For a notice of the several pieces in the present volume, Irefer the reader to the Preface to Russell's Boke of Nurture, which follows here.

It only remains for me to say that the freshness of my first interest in the poems which I once hoped to re-produce in these Forewords, has become dulled by circumstances and the length of time that the volume has been in the press—it having been set aside (by my desire) for the Ayenbite, &c.;—and that the intervention of other work has prevented my making the collection as complete as I had desired it to be. It is, however, the fullest verse one that has yet appeared on its subject, and will serve as the beginning of the Society's store of this kind of material.[86] If we can do all the English part of the work, and the Master of the Rolls will commission one of his Editors to do the Latin part, we shall then get a fairly complete picture of that Early English Home which, with all its shortcomings, should be dear to every Englishman now.

3, St George's Square, N.W.,

5th June, 1867.

[Footnote 1: The first sentence of Aristotle's Metaphysics is 'All men by nature are actuated by the desire of knowledge.' Mr Skeat's note on l. 78 of Partenay, p. 228.]

[Footnote 2: Lawrens Andrewe. The noble lyfe & natures of man, of bestes, &c. Johes Desborrowe. Andewarpe.]

[Footnote 3: The woodcuts are Messrs Virtue's, and have been used in Mr Thomas Wright's History of Domestic Manners and Customs, &c.]

[Footnote 4: If any one thinks it a bore to read these Prefaces, Ican assure him it was a much greater bore to have to hunt up the material for them, and set aside other pressing business for it. But the Boke of Curtasye binding on editors does not allow them to present to their readers a text with no coat and trowsers on. If any Members should take offence at any expressions in this or any future Preface of mine, as a few did at some words in the last I wrote, Iask such Members to consider the first maxim in their Boke of Curtasye, Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Prefaces are gift horses; and if mine buck or shy now and then, Iask their riders to sit steady, and take it easy. On the present one at least they'll be carried across some fresh country worth seeing.]

[Footnote 5: scholars?]

[Footnote 6: Sir H. Nicolas, in his Glossary to his Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., p. 327, col. 2, says, "No word has been more commented upon than 'Henchmen' or Henxmen. Without entering into the controversy, it may be sufficient to state, that in the reign of Henry the Eighth it meant the pages of honour. They were the sons of gentlemen, and in public processions always walked near the monarch's horse: acorrect idea may be formed of their appearance from the representation of them in one of the pictures in the meeting room of the Society of Antiquarians. It seems from these entries (p. 79,[*] 125, 182, 209, 230, 265) that they lodged in the house of Johnson, the master of the king's barge, and that the rent of it was 40s. per annum. Observations on the word will be found in Spelman's Etymol., Pegge's Curialia, from the Liber Niger, Edw. IV., Lodge's Illustrations, vol. i. p. 359, the Northumberland Household Book, Blount's Glossary."

The Promptorium has "Heyncemann (henchemanne) Gerolocista, duorum generum, (gerolocista)," and Mr Way in his note says, "The pages of distinguished personages were called henxmen, as Spelman supposes, from Ger. hengst, awar-horse, or according to Bp. Percy, from their place being at the side or haunch of their lord." See the rest of Mr Way's note. He is a most provokingly careful editor. If ever you hit on a plum in your wanderings through other books you are sure to find it afterwards in one of Mr Way's notes when you bethink yourself of turning to the Promptorium.

In Lord Percy's Household (North. H. Book, p. 362) the Henchemen are mentioned next to the Earl's own sons and their tutor (?) in the list of "Persones that shall attende upon my Lorde at his Borde Daily, ande have no more but his Revercion Except Brede and Drynk."

My Lordes Secounde Son to serve as Kerver.

My Lordes Thurde Son as Sewer.

A Gentillman that shall attende upon my Lord's Eldest Son in the rewarde, and appoynted Bicause he shall allwayes be with my Lord's Sonnes for seynge the Orderynge of them.

My Lordes first Hauneshman to serve as Cupberer to my Lorde.

My Lords ij^de Hanshman to serve as Cupberer to my Lady.

See also p. 300, p. 254, The Hansmen to be at the fyndynge of my Lord, p.47]

[Footnote 6*: p. 79, It{e}m the same daye paied to Johnson the mayster of the king{is} barge for the Rent of the house where the henxe men lye xls.]

[[Footnote 6a: 'Your Bele Babees are very like the Meninos of the Court of Spain, & Menins of that of France, young nobles brought up with the young Princes.'H. Reeve.]]

[Footnote 7: When writing this I had forgotten Warton's section on the Revival of Learning in England before and at the Reformation, Hist. English Poetry, v. iii. ed. 1840. It should be read by all who take an interest in the subject. Mr Bruce also refers to Kynaston's Museum Minerv. P.S.—Mr Bullein and Mr Watts have since referred me to Henry, who has in each volume of his History of England a regular account of learning in England, the Colleges and Schools founded, and the learned men who flourished, in the period of which each volume treats. Had I seen these earlier I should not have got the following extracts together; but as they are for the most part not in Henry, they will serve as a supplement to him.]

[Footnote 8: First of these is Mr CharlesH. Pearson, then the Rev. Prof. Brewer, and Mr William Chappell.]

[Footnote 9: Mr Wm. Chappell gave me the reference.]

[Footnote 10: In the Romance of Blonde of Oxford, Jean of Dammartin is taken into the service of the Earl of Oxford as escuier, esquire. He waits at table on knights, squires, valets, boys and messengers. After table, the ladies keep him to talk French with them.]

[[Footnote 10a: This is not intended to confine the definition of Music as taught at Oxford to its one division of Harmonica, to the exclusion of the others, Rythmica, Metrica, &c. The Arithmetic said to have been studied there in the time of Edmund the Confessor is defined in his Life (MS. about 1310 A.D.) in my E.E. Poems & Lives of Saints, 1862, thus,

Arsmetrike is a lore: at of figours al is & of drau[gh]tes as me drawe in poudre: & in numbre iwis.]]

[Footnote 11: It was in part a principle of Anglo-Saxon society at the earliest period, and attaches itself to that other universal principle of fosterage. ATeuton chieftain always gathered round him a troop of young retainers in his hall who were voluntary servants, and they were, in fact, almost the only servants he would allow to touch his person.T.Wright.]

[Footnote 12: Compare Skelton's account of Wolsey's treatment of the Nobles, in Why come ye not to Courte (quoted in Ellis's Letters, v. ii. p.3).

—"Our barons be so bolde, Into a mouse hole they wold Runne away and creep Like a mainy of sheep: Dare not look out a dur For drede of the maystife cur, For drede of the boucher's dog

"For and this curre do gnarl, They must stande all afar To holde up their hand at the bar. For all their noble bloude, He pluckes them by the hood And shakes them by the eare, And bryngs them in such feare; He bayteth them lyke a beare, Like an Ox or a Bul. Their wittes, he sayth, are dul; He sayth they have no brayne Their estate to maintaine: And make to bowe the knee Before his Majestie."]

[Footnote 13: Compare also the quotation from Piers Plowman's Crede, under No. 5, p. xlv, and Palsgrave, 1530 A.D., 'I mase, Istonysshe, Je bestourne. You mased the boye so sore with beatyng that he coulde not speake a worde.' See a gross instanceof cruelty cited from Erasmus's Letters, by Staunton, in his Great Schools of England, p. 179-80.]

[Footnote 14: "And therfore do I the more lament that soch [hard] wittes commonlie be either kepte from learning by fond fathers, or bet from learning by lewde scholemasters," ed. Mayor, p. 19. But Ascham reproves parents for paying their masters so badly: "it is pitie, that commonlie more care is had, yea and that emonges verie wise men, to finde out rather a cunnynge man for their horse than a cunnyng man for their children. They say nay in worde, but they do so in deede. For, to the one they will gladlie give a stipend of 200. Crounes by yeare, and loth to offer to the other, 200. shillinges. God, that sitteth in heauen, laugheth their choice to skorne, and rewardeth their liberalitie as it should: for he suffereth them to have tame and well ordered horse, but wilde and unfortunate Children." Ib. p.20]

[Footnote 15-15: Sanct memori Robertum Cognominatum Grodsted dudum Lincolniendem Episcopum, Regi Henrico quasi admirando, cum interrogavit, ubi Noraturam didicit, qu Filios Nobilium Procerum Regni, quos secum habuit Domisellos, instruxerat, cum non de nobili prosapia, sed de simplicibus traxisset Originem, fertur intrepide respondisse, In Domo seu Hospitio Majorum Regum quam sit Rex Angli; Quia Regum, David, Salomonis, & aliorum, vivendi morem didicerat ex Intelligentia scripturarum.]

[Footnote 16: DOMICELLUS, Domnicellus, diminutivum a Domnus. Gloss. antiqu MSS.: Heriles, Domini minores, quod possumus aliter dicere Domnicelli, Ugutio: Domicelli et Domicellas dicuntur, quando pulchri juvenes magnatum sunt sicut servientes. Sic porro primitus appellabant magnatum, atque adeo Regum filios. Du Cange.]

[Footnote 17: Mr Bruce sends me the More extracts.]

[Footnote 18: How Wolsey broke off the insurance is very well told. Mistress Anne was "sent home again to her father for a season; whereat she smoked"; but she "was revoked unto the Court," and "after she knew the king's pleasure and the great love that he bare her in the bottom of his stomach, then she began to look very hault and stout, having all manner of jewels or rich apparel that might be gotten with money" (p.67).]

[Footnote 19: Under the heading "Gentylmen of Houshold, viz. Kervers, Sewars, Cupberers, and Gentillmen Waiters" in the North. Household Book, p. 40, we find

Item, Gentillmen in Housholde ix, Viz. ij Carvers for my Loords Boorde, and a Servant bitwixt theym both, except thai be at their frendis fyndyng, and than ather of theym to have a Servant. —Two Sewars for my Lordis Boorde, and a Servant bitwixt theym, except they be at their Frendis fyndynge, and than ather of theym to have a Servant.—ij Cupberers for my Lorde and my Lady, and a Servant allowed bitwixt theym, except they be at their Frendis fyndynge, And than ather of theym to have a Servant allowid.

Under the next heading "My Lordis Hansmen at the fyndynge of my Lorde, and Yonge Gentyllmen at there Frendys fyndynge," is

Item, my Lordis Hansmen iij. Yonge Gentyllmen in Houshold at their Frendis fyndynge ij =v.]

[Footnote 20: Grammar usually means Latin.T. Wright.]

[Footnote 21: The exceptions must have been many and marked.]

[Footnote 22: Richardi Pacei, invictissimi Regis Angli primarii Secretarii, eiusque apud Elvetios Oratoris, De Fructu qui ex Doctrin percipitur, Liber.

Colophon. Basileae apud Io. Frobenium, mense VIII. bri. an. M.D.XVII.

Restat ut iam tibi explicem, quid me moueat ad libellum hoc titulo co{n}scribendum et publicandu{m}. Quu{m} duobus annis plus minus iam prteritis, ex Romana urbe in patriam redijssem, inter-fui cuida{m} conuiuio multis incognitus. Vbi quu{m} satis fuisset potatum, unus, nescio quis, ex conuiuis, non imprudens, ut ex uerbis uultuq{ue} conijcere licuit, coepit mentionem facere de liberis suis bene institue{n}dis. Et primu{m} omniu{m}, bonum prceptorem illis sibi qurendu{m}, & scholam omnino frequentanda{m} censuit. Aderat forte unus ex his, quos nos generosos uocamus, & qui semper cornu aliquod a tergo pende{n}s gestant, acsi etiam inter prandendu{m} uenare{n}tur. Is audita literaru{m} laude, percitus repe{n}tina ira, furibundus p{ro}rupit in hc uerba. Quid nugaris, inquit, amice? abeant in mala{m} rem ist stult liter, omnes docti sunt me{n}dici, etia{m} Erasmus ille doctissimus (ut audio) pauper est, & in quadam sua epistola vocat tn kataraton penian uxore{m} suam, id est, execrandam paupertatem, & uehementer conqueritur se son posse illam humeris suis usq{ue} in bathuktea ponton, id est, p{ro}fundum mare excutere. (Corpus dei iuro) uolo filius meus pendeat potius, qua{m} literis studeat. Decet e{n}im generosoru{m} filios, apte inflare cornu, perite uenari, accipitre{m} pulchre gestare & educare. Studia uero literaru{m}, rusticorum filiis sunt relinquenda. Hic ego cohibere me no{n} potui, quin aliq{ui}d homini loquacissimo, in defensione{m} bonaru{m} literaru{m}, respo{n}dere{m}. No{n} uideris, inqua{m}, mihi bone uir recte sentire, na{m} si ueniret ad rege{m} aliq{ui}s uir exterus, quales sunt principu{m} oratores, & ei dandu{m} esset responsum, filius tuus sic ut tu uis, institutus, inflaret du{n}taxat cornu, & rusticoru{m} filij docti, ad respondendu{m} nocarent{ur}, ac filio tuo uenatori uel aucupi longe anteponerent{ur}, & sua erudita (usi libertate, tibi in facie{m} dicere{n}t, Nos malumus docti esse, & p{er} doctrina{m} no{n} imprudentes, q{uam} stulta gloriari nobilitate. Tu{m} ille hincinde circu{m}spiciens, Quis est iste, inquit, q{ui} hc loquit{ur}? homine{m} non cognosco. Et quu{m} diceret{ur} in aure{m} ei quisna{m} essem, nescio q{ui}d submissa uoce sibimet susurra{n}s, & stulto usus auditore, illico arripuit uini poculu{m}. Et quu{m} nihil haberet respo{n}dendu{m}, coepit bibere, & in alia sermone{m} transferre. Et sic me liberauit, non Apollo, ut Horatiu{m} a garrulo, sed Bacchus a uesani hominis disputatione, qua{m} diutius longe duraturam ueheme{n}ter timeba{m}.

Professor Brewer gives me the reference.)]

[Footnote 23: As to agricultural labourers and their children A.D. 1388-1406, see below, p. xlvi.]

[Footnote 24: Readers will find it advisable to verify for themselves some of the statements in this Editor's notes, &c.]

[[Footnote 24a: The regular Cathedral school would have existed at St David's.]]

[Footnote 25: The foregoing three extracts are sent me by a friend.]

[Footnote 26: From a fragment of the Computus Camerarii Abbat. Hidens. in Archiv. Wulves. apud Winton. ut supr. (?Hist. Reg. Angl. edit. Hearne, p.74.)]

[Footnote 27: Hist. and Antiq. of Glastonbury. Oxon. 1722, 8vo, p.98.]

[Footnote 28: Reyner, Apostolat. Benedict. Tract. 1, sect. ii. p. 224. Sanders de Schism. page 176.]

[Footnote 29: utriusque juris, Canon and Civil.]

[Footnote 30: Lit. humaniores. Latin is still called so in Scotch, and French (Ithink), universities. J.W. Hales.]

[[Footnote 30a: "There are no French universities, though we find every now and then some humbug advertising himself in the Times as possessing a degree of the Paris University. The old Universities belong to the time before the Deluge—that means before the Revolution of 1789. The University of France is the organized whole of the higher and middle institutions of learning, in so far as they are directed by the State, not the clergy. It is an institution more governmental, according to the genius of the country, than our London University, to which, however, its organization bears some resemblance. To speak of it in one breath with Oxford or Aberdeen is to commit the ... error of confounding two things, or placing them on the same line, because they have the same name." —E.Oswald, in The English Leader, Aug. 10, 1867.]]

[Footnote 31: (Pace de Fructu, p. 27.) Exigit iam suu{m} musica quoq{ue} doctrina locu{m}, ame prsertim, que{m} puer{um} inter pueros illustravit. Na{m} Thomas Langton Vyntoniensis episcopus, decessor huius qui nunc [1517 A.D.] uiuit, cui eram a manu minister, quum notasset me longex supra tatem (ut ipse nimis fortasse amans mei iudicabat, & dictitabat) in musicis proficere, Huius, inquit, pueri ingeniu{m} ad maiora natum est. & paucos post dies in Italia{m} ad Patauinu{m} gymnasium, quod tu{n}c flore{n}tissimu{m} erat, ad bonas literas discendas me misit, annuasq{ue} impensas benigne suppeditauit, ut omnibus literatis mirifice fauebat, & tate sua alterum Mecenatem agebat, probe memor (ut freque{n}ter dictitabat) sese doctrin causa ad episcopalem dignitate{m} prouectum. Adeptus enim fuerat per summam laudem, utriusq{ue} iuris (ut nu{n}c loquu{n}tur) insignia. Item humaniores literas tanti stimabat, ut domestica schola pueros & iuuenes illis erudiendos curarit. Et summopere oblectabat{ur} audire scholasticos dictata interdiu a prceptore, sibi nocta reddere. In quo certamine qui prclare se gesserat, is aliqua re person su acco{m}modata, donatus abibat, & humanissimis uerbis laudatus. Habebet e{n}im semper in ore ille optimus Prsul, uirtutem laudatam crescere.]

[Footnote 32: Ascham praises most the practice of double translation, from Latin into English, and then back from English into Latin.—Scholemaster, p. 90, 178, ed. Giles.]

[Footnote 33: Mr Wm. Chappell gives me the reference, and part of the extract.]

[Footnote 34: When did breakfast get its name, and its first notice as a regular meal? Ido not remember having seen the name in the early part of Household Ordinances, or any other work earlier than the Northumberland Household Book.]

[Footnote 35: On Musical Education, see the early pages of Mr Chappell's Popular Music, and the note in Archol., vol. xx, p. 60-1, with its references. 'Music constituted a part of the quadrivium, abranch of their system of education.']

[[Footnote 35a: "The first William de Valence married Joan de Monchensi, sister-in-law to one Dionysia, and aunt to another." The Chronicle, Sept. 21, 1867.]]

[Footnote 36: Le treytyz ke moun sire Gauter de Bibelesworthe fist MA DAME DYONISIE DE MOUNCHENSY, pur aprise de langwage.]

[Footnote 37: Later on, the proportions of poor and rich changed, as may be inferred from the extract from Harrison below. In the 'exact account of the whole number (2920) of Scholars and Students in the University of Oxford taken anno 1612 in the Long Vacation, the Studentes of Christ Church are 100, the Pauperes Scholares et alii Servientes 41; at Magdalene the latter are 76; at New College 18, to 70 Socii; at Brasenose (neasense Coll.) the Communarii are 145, and the Pauperes Scholares 17; at Exeter, the latter are 37, to 134 Communarii; at St John's, 20 to 43; at Lincoln the Communarii are 60, to 27 Batellatores et Pauperes Scholares.' Collectanea Curiosa, v. i. p. 196-203.]

[Footnote 38: Was this in return for the raised rents that Ascham so bitterly complains of the new possessors of the monastic lands screwing out of their tenants, and thereby ruining the yeomen? He says to the Duke of Somerset on Nov. 21, 1547 (ed. Giles, i. p. 140-1),

Qui auctores sunt tant miseri?... Sunt illi qui hodie passim, in Anglia, prdia monasteriorum gravissimis annuis reditibus auxerunt. Hinc omnium rerum exauctum pretium; hi homines expilant totam rempublicam. Villici et coloni universi laborant, parcunt, corradunt, ut istis satisfaciant.... Hinc tot famili dissipat, tot domus collaps.... Hinc, quod omnium miserrimum est, nobile illud decus et robur Angli, nomen, inquam, Yomanorum Anglorum, fractum et collisum est ... NAM VITA, QU NUNC VIVITUR A PLURIMIS, NON VITA, SED MISERIA EST.

When will these words cease to be true of our land? They should be burnt into all our hearts.]

[[Footnote 38a: One of the inquiries ordered by the Articles issued by Archbishop Cranmer, in A.D. 1548, is, "Whether Parsons, Vicars, Clerks, and other beneficed men, having yearly to dispend an hundred pound, do not find, competently, one scholar in the University of Cambridge or Oxford, or some grammar school; and for as many hundred pounds as every of them may dispend, so many scholars likewise to be found [supported] by them; and what be their names that they so find." Toulmin Smith, The Parish, p. 95. Compare also in Church-Wardens Accompts of St Margaret's, Westminster (ed. Jn. Nichols, p.41).

1631. Item, to Richard Busby, a king's scholler of Westminster, towards enabling him to proceed master of arts at Oxon, by consent of the vestrie 6. 13.4.

1628. Item, to Richard Busby, by consent of the vestry, towards enabling him to proceed bachelor of arts 5. 0.0.

Nichols, p. 38. See too p. 37.]]

[Footnote 39: "He placed thelweard, his youngest son, who was fond of learning, together with the sons of his nobility, and of many persons of inferior rank, in schools which he had established with great wisdom and foresight, and provided with able masters. In these schools the youth were instructed in reading and writing both the Saxon and Latin languages, and in other liberal arts, before they arrived at sufficient strength of body for hunting, and other manly exercises becoming their rank." Henry, History of England, vol. ii. pp. 354-5 (quoted from Asser).]

[Footnote40: None were so. T. Wright.]

[Footnote 41: Gervaise of Canterbury says, in his account of Theobald in the Acts of the Archbishops, "quorum primus erat magister Vacarius. Hic in Oxonefordi legem docuit."

[['The truth is that, in his account of Oxford and its early days, Mr Hallam quotes John of Salisbury, not as asserting that Vacarius taught there, but as making "no mention of Oxford at all"; while he gives for the statement about the law school no authority whatever beyond his general reference throughout to Anthony Wood. But the fact is as historical as a fact can well be, and the authority for it is a passage in one of the best of the contemporary authors, Gervaise of Canterbury. "Tunc leges et causidici in Angliam primo vocati sunt," he says in his account of Theobald in the Acts of the Archbishops, "quorum primus era{t} magister Vacarius. Hic in Oxonefordi legem docuit."' E.A.F.]] ]

[[Footnote41a: Roger Bacon died, perhaps, 11 June, 1292, or in 1294. Book of Dates.]]

[Footnote 42: This College is said to have been founded in the year 872, by Alfred the Great. It was restored by William of Durham, said to have been Archdeacon of Durham; but respecting whom little authentic information has been preserved, except that he was Rector of Wearmouth in that county, and that he died in 1249, bequeathing a sum of money to provide a permanent endowment for the maintenance of a certain number of "Masters." The first purchase with this bequest was made in 1253, and the first Statutes are dated 1280.— Oxford Univ. Calendar, 1865, p. 167.]

[Footnote43: I refer to the modernized edition published by Charles Knight in two volumes.]

[Footnote 44: Other well-born men, in the Ath. Cant., then connected with the University, or supposed to be, were,

1504 Sir Roger Ormston, knight, died. Had been High Steward of the University. 1504 Sir John Mordaunt, High Steward. 1478 George Fitzhugh, 4th son of Henry lord Fitzhugh, admitted B.A. 1488 Robert Leyburn, born of a knightly family, Fellow of Pembroke-hall, and proctor. 1457 John Argentine, of an ancient and knightly family, was elected from Eton to King's. 1504 Robert Fairfax, of an ancient family in Yorkshire, took the degree of Mus. Doc. 1496 Christopher Baynbrigg, of a good family at Hilton, near Appleby, educated at and Provost of Queen's, Oxford, incorporated of Cambridge. 1517 Sir Wm. Fyndern, knight, died, and was a benefactor to Clare Hall, in which it is supposed he had been educated. 1481 Robert Rede, of an ancient Northumbrian family, was sometime of Buckingham College, and the Fellow of King's-hall (?), and was autumn reader at Lincoln's Inn in 1481. ab. 1460 Marmaduke Constable, son of Sir Robert Constable, knight, believed to have been educated at Cambridge. " So, Edward Stafford, heir of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, is also believed to have been educated at Cambridge, because his father was a munificent patron of the University, constantly maintaining, or assisting to maintain, scholars therein. " So, Thomas Howard, son of Sir John Howard, knight, and afterwards Duke of Norfolk, who defeated the Scots at Flodden, is believed, &c. 1484 John Skelton, the poet, probably of an ancient Cumberland family. 1520? Henry Howard, son of Lord Thomas Howard, ultimately Duke of Norfolk. Nothing is known as to the place of his education. If it were either of the English Universities, the presumption is in favour of Cambridge.

The only tradesman's son mentioned is, 1504 Sir Richard Empson, son of Peter Empson, asieve-maker, High-Steward.]

[Footnote 45: Whitgift himself, born 1530, was educated at St. Anthony's school, then sent back to his father in the country, and sent up to Cambridge in 1548 or 1549.]

[Footnote 46: No proof of this is given.]

[Footnote 47: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, son and heir of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, 'was for a time student in Cardinal Coll. as the constant tradition has been among us.' p. 153, col.1.]

[Footnote 48: Andrew Borde, who writes himself Andreas Perforatus, was born, as it seems, at Pevensey, commonly called Pensey [now Pemsey], in Sussex, and not unlikely educated in Wykeham's school near to Winchester, brought up at Oxford (as he saith in his Introduction to Knowledge, cap. 35), p. 170, col. 2, and note.]

[Footnote 49: See Mat. Paris, p. 665, though he speaks there chiefly of monks[*] beyond sea.]

[Footnote 49*: As appears from Wood's Fasti Oxon.

The following names of Oxford men educated at monkish or friars' schools, or of their bodies, occur in the first volume of Wood's Athen Oxon., ed. Bliss:

p. 6, col. 2. William Beeth, educated among the Dominicans or Black Friers from his youth, and afterwards their provincial master or chief governor. p. 7, col. 2. Richard Bardney, a Benedictine of Lincolnshire. p. 11, col. 2. John Sowle, a Carme of London. p. 14, col. 1. William Galeon, an Austin friar of Lynn Regis. p. 18, col. 2. Henry Bradshaw, one of the Benedictine monks of St Werberg's, Chester. p. 19, col. 1. John Harley, of the order of the Preaching or Dominican, commonly called Black, Friars p. 54, col.2. Thomas Spenser, a Carthusian at Henton in Somersetshire; 'whence for a time he receded to Oxford (as several of his order did) to improve himself, or to pass a course, in theology.' p. 94, col.2. John Kynton, a Minorite or Grey-friar p. 101, col. 1. John Rycks, " " p. 107, col.1. John Forest, a Franciscan of Greenwich. p. 189, col.1. John Griffen, a Cistercian. p. 278, col. 2. Cardinal Pole, educated among the Carthusians, and Carmelites or 'White-fryers.' p. 363, col. 2. William Barlowe, an Austin of St Osith in Essex. p. 630, col. 2. Henry Walpoole and Richard Walpoole, Jesuits.

The 5th Lord Percy, he of the Household Book, in the year 1520 founded an annual stipend of 10 marcs for 3 years, for a Pedagogus sive Magister, docens ac legens Grammaticam et Philosophiam canonicis et fratribus of the monastery of Alnwick (Warton, ii. 492).]

[Footnote 50: It was customary then at Oxford for the Religious to have schools that bore the name of their respective orders; as the Augustine, Benedictine, Carmelite, and Franciscan schools; and there were schools also appropriated to the benefit of particular Religious houses, as the Dorchester and Eynsham schools, &c. The monks of Gloucester had Gloucester convent, and the novices of Pershore an apartment in the same house. So likewise the young monks of Canterbury, Westminster, Durham, St Albans, &c. Kennet's Paroch. Antiq., p. 214. So also Leland saith, Itin. vol. vi. p. 28, that at Stamford the names of Peterborough Hall, Semplingham, and Vauldey yet remain, as places whither the Religious of those houses sent their scholars to study. Tanner, Notitia Monastica, Preface, p. xxvi. note w.]

[Footnote 51: The abuse was of far earlier date than this. Compare Mr Halliwell's quotation in his 'Merton Statutes,' from his edition of 'the Poems of John Awdelay, the blind poet of Haghmon Monastery in the 14th century,'

Now [gh]if a pore mon set hys son to Oxford to scole, Bothe the fader and the moder hyndryd they schalbe; And [gh]if ther falle a benefyse, hit schal be [gh]if a fole, To a clerke of a kechyn, ore into the chauncer . . Clerkys that han cunyng, . . thai mai get no vaunsyng Without symony.]

[Footnote 52: Compare Chaucer: 'wherfore, as seith Senek, ther is nothing more covenable to a man of heigh estate than debonairt and pit; and therfore thise flies than men clepen bees, whan thay make here king, they chesen oon that hath no pricke wherwith he may stynge.'—Persones Tale, Poet. Works, ed. Morris, iii. 301.]

[Footnote 53: Ascham complains of the harm that rich men's sons did in his time at Cambridge. Writing to Archbp. Cranmer in 1545, he complains of two gravissima impedimenta to their course of study: (1.) that so few old men will stop up to encourage study by their example; (2.) "quod illi fere omnes qui hue Cantabrigiam confluunt, pueri sunt, divitumque filii, et hi etiam qui nunquam inducunt animum suum, ut abundanti aliqua perfectaque eruditione perpoliantur, sed ut ad alia reipublic munera obeunda levi aliqua et inchoata cognitione paratiores efficiantur. Et hic singularis qudam injuria bifariam academi intentata est; vel quia hoc modo omnis explet absolutque doctrin spes longe ante messem, in ipsa quasi herbescenti viriditate, prciditur; vel quia omnis pauperum inopumque expectatio, quorum tates omnes in literarum studio conteruntur, ab his fucis eorum sedes occupantibus, exclusa illusaque prripitur. Ingenium, enim, doctrina, inopia judicium, nil quicquam domi valent, ubi gratia, favor, magnatum liter, et ali persimiles extraordinari illegitimque rationes vim foris adferunt. Hinc quoque illud accedit incommodum, quod quidam prudentes viri nimis gre ferunt partem aliquam regi pecuni in collegiorum socios inpartiri; quasi illi non maxime indigeant, aut quasi ulla spes perfect eruditionis in ullis aliis residere potest, quam in his, qui in perpetuo literarum studio perpetuum vit su tabernaculum collocarunt." Ed. Giles, i. p. 69-70. See also p. 121-2.]

[Footnote 54: Antea enim Cornelius Vitellius, homo Italus Corneli, quod est maritimum Hetruri Oppidum, natus nobili Prosapia, vir optimus gratiosusque, omnium primus Oxonii bonas literas docuerat. [Pol. Verg. lib. xxvi.]]

[Footnote 55: Ante annos ferme triginta, nihil tradebatur in schola Cantabrigiensi, prter Alexandri Parva Logicalia, ut vocant, & vetera illa Aristotelis dictata, Scoticasque Qustiones. Progressu temporis accesserunt bon liter; accessit Matheseos Cognitio; accessit novus, aut certe novatus, Aristoteles; accessit Grcarum literarum peritia; accesserunt Autores tam multi, quorum olim ne nomina quidem tenebantur, &c. [Erasmi Epist. Henrico Bovillo, Dat. Roff Cal. Sept. 1516.]]

[Footnote 56: Sir John Fortescue's description of the study of law at Westminster and in the Inns of Chancery is in chapters 48-9 of his De laudibus legum Angli.]

[Footnote 57:

Mores habent barbarus, Latinus et Grcus; Si sacerdos, ut plebs est, ccum ducit ccus: Se mares effeminant, et equa fit equus, Expectes ab homine usque ad pecus.

Et quia non metuunt anim discrimen, Principes in habitum verterunt hoc crimen, Varium viro turpiter jungit novus hymen, Exagitata procul non intrat foemina limen.]

[Footnote 58:

Pixus et ablutus tandem progressus in urbem, Intrat in ecclesiam, vota precesque facit. Inde scholas adiens, secum deliberat, utrum Expediat potius illa vel ista schola. Et quia subtiles sensu considerat Anglos, Pluribus ex causis se sociavit iis. Moribus egregii, verbo vultuque venusti, Ingenio pollent, consilioque vigent. Dona pluunt populis, et detestantur avaros, Fercula multiplicant, et sine lege bibunt.

A. Wood, Antiq. Oxon., p. 55, in Henry's Hist. of Eng., vol. iii. p. 440-1.]

[Footnote 59: That Colet used his travels abroad, A.D. 1493-7, for a different purpose, see his life by Dr Knight, pp. 23-4.]

[Footnote 60: Fuller, book vi. p. 297. Collier, vol. ii. p. 165. Stillingfleet's Orig. Britan. p. 206. Bishop Lloyd of Church Government, p. 160. This was provided for as early as A.D. 747, by the seventh canon of council of Clovesho, as Wilkins's Councils, vol. i. p. 95. See also the notes upon that canon, in Johnson's Collection of canons, &c. In Tavistock abbey there was a Saxon school, as Willis, i. 171. Tanner. (Charlemagne in his Capitularies ordained that each Monastery should maintain a School, where should be taught 'la grammaire, le calcule, et la musique.' See Dmogeot's Histoire de la Littrature Franaise, p. 44, ed. Hachette.R. Whiston.) Henry says "these teachers of the cathedral schools were called The scholastics of the diocess; and all the youth in it who were designed for the church, were intitled to the benefit of their instructions.[*] Thus, for example, William de Monte, who had been a professor at Paris, and taught theology with so much reputation in the reign of Henry II., at Lincoln, was the scholastic of that cathedral. By the eighteenth canon of the third general council of Lateran, A.D. 1179, it was decreed, That such scholastics should be settled in all cathedrals, with sufficient revenues for their support; and that they should have authority to superintend all the schoolmasters of the diocess, and grant them licences, without which none should presume to teach. The laborious authors of the literary history of France have collected a very distinct account of the scholastics who presided in the principal cathedral-schools of that kingdom in the twelfth century, among whom we meet with many of the most illustrious names for learning of that age.... The sciences that were taught in these cathedral schools were such as were most necessary to qualify their pupils for performing the duties of the sacerdotal office, as Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Theology, and Church-Music." —Ibid. p. 442.]

[Footnote 60*: Du Cange, Gloss. voc. Scholasticus.]

[Footnote 61: Fuller and Collier, as before; Bishop Burnet (Reform, vol. i. p... ) saith so of Godstow. Archbishop Greenfield ordered that young gentlewomen who came to the nunneries either for piety or breeding, should wear white veils, to distinguish them from the professed, who wore black ones, 11 Kal. Jul. anno pontif.6. M. Hutton. ex registr. ejus, p. 207. In the accounts of the cellaress of Carhow, near Norwich, there is an account of what was received "pro prehendationibus," or the board of young ladies and their servants for education "rec. de domina Margeria Wederly prehendinat, ibidem xi. septimanas xiii s. iv d. ... pro mensa unius famul dict Margeri per iii. septimanas viii d. per sept." &c. Tanner.]

[Footnote 62: Morley's English Writers, vol. ii. Pt. I. p. 421.]

[Footnote 63: Edited by Mr Halliwell in his 'Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate.' Percy Society, 1840, quoted by Prof. Morley.]

[[Footnote 63a: 'Fitz-Stephen says on the parents of St Thomas, "Neque foenerantibus neque officiose negotiantibus, sed de redditibus suis honorifice viventibus."' E.A.F.]]

[Footnote 64: Mr Skeat's readings. The abbot and abbots of Mr Wright's text spoil the alliteration.]

[Footnote 65: Compare the previous passages under heading 1, p.vi.]

[Footnote 66: May Mr Skeat bring the day when it will be done!]

[Footnote 67: Later on, men's games were settled for them as well as their trades. In A.D. 1541, the 33 Hen. VIII., cap. 9, xvi., says,

"Be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no manner of Artificer or Craftsman of any Handicraft or Occupation, Husbandman, Apprentice, Labourer, Servant at Husbandry, Journeyman or Servant of Artificer, Mariners, Fishermen, Watermen or any Serving man, shall from the said feast of the Nativity of St John Baptist play at the Tables, Tennis, Dice, Cards, Bowls, Clash, Coyting, Logating, or any other unlawful Game out of Christmas, under the Pain of xx s. to be forfeit for every Time; (2) and in Christmas to play at any of the said Games in their Master's Houses, or in their Master's Presence; (3) and also that no manner of persons shall at any time play at any Bowl or Bowls in open places out of his Garden or Orchard, upon the Pain for every Time so offending to forfeit vi s. viiii d." (For Logating, &c., see Strutt.)]

[Footnote 68: Translated from the Latin copy in the British Museum, MS. Harl. 1197, art. 15, folio 319b.]

[Footnote 69: Duodecim pauperes de sumptibus dict Ecclesi alendi.]

[Footnote 70: Duo unus Pincern, et unus subpincerna, duo unus cociquus, et unus subcoquus. Sic inMS]

[Footnote 71: MS. No. 688 in Lambeth Library. MS. Harl. cod. 1594, art. 38, in Brit. Mus.]

[Footnote 72:

Farewell, in Oxford my college cardynall! Farewell, in Ipsewich, my schole gramaticall! Yet oons farewell! Isay, I shall you never see! Your somptious byldyng, what now avaylletheme?

Metrical Visions [Wolsey.] by George Cavendish, in his Life of Wolsey, (ed. Singer, ii. 17). Wolsey's Letter of Directions about his school should be consulted. It is printed.]

[Footnote 73: Colet's Statutes for St Paul's School are given in Howard Staunton's Great Schools of England, p. 179-85.]

[Footnote 74: 'That there was a school at Rochester before Henry VIII.'s time is proved by our Statutes, which speak of the Schola Grammaticalis as being ruinosa & admodum deformis.'R. Whiston.]

[Footnote 75: Pegge concludes these to have been St Paul's, Bow, and Martin's le Grand.]

[Footnote 76: The custom of boys bringing cocks to masters has left a trace at Sedburgh, where the boys pay a sum every year on a particular day (Shrove-Tuesday?) as "cock-penny." Quick.]

[Footnote 77: On the London Schools, see also Sir George Buc's short cap. 36, "Mooreof other Schooles in London," in his Third Vniuersitie of England (t.i. London). He notices the old schools of the monasteries, &c., 'in whose stead there be some few founded lately by good men, as the Merchant Taylors, and Thomas Sutton, founder of the great new Hospitall in the Charter house, [who] hath translated the Tenis court to a Grammar Schoole ... for 30 schollers, poore mens children.... There be also other Triuiall Schooles for the bringing up of youth in good literature, viz., inS. Magnus, inS. Michaels, inS. Thomas, and others.']

[Footnote 78: Udall became Master of Eton about 1534. He was sent to prison for sodomy.]

[Footnote 79: The perversion of these elections by bribery is noticed by Harrison in the former extract from him on the Universities.]

[Footnote 80: See p. 273-4, 'all of a fourme to name who is the best of their fourme, and who is the best next him'.]

[Footnote 81: ? key of the Campo, see pp. 299 and 300, or a club, the holder of which had a right to go out.]

[Footnote 82: See Mr Froude's noble article in The Westminster Review, No.3, July, 1852 (lately republished by him in a collection of Essays, &c.).]

[Footnote 83: Their eyes must have smarted. The natives' houses in India have (generally) no chimneys still, and Mr Moreshwar says the smoke does make your eyes water.]

[Footnote 84: Mouffet is learned on the Louse.

"In the first beginning whilest man was in his innocency, and free from wickednesse, he was subject to no corruption and filth, but when he was seduced by the wickednesse of that great and cunning deceiver, and proudly affected to know as much as God knew, God humbled him with divers diseases, and divers sorts of Worms, with Lice, Hand-worms, Belly-worms, others call Termites, small Nits and Acares ... aLowse ... is a beastly Creature, and known better in Innes and Armies then it is wellcome. The profit it bringeth, Achilles sheweth, Iliad I. in these words: I make no more of him then I doe of a Lowse; as we have an English Proverb of a poor man, He is not worth a Lowse. The Lice that trouble men are either tame or wilde ones, those the English call Lice, and these Crab-lice; the North English call them Pert-lice, that is, apetulant Lowse comprehending both kindes; it is a certain sign of misery, and is sometimes the inevitable scourgeof God." Rowland's Mouffet's Theater of Insects, p. 1090, ed. 1658 (published in Latin, 1634). By this date we had improved. Mouffet says, "These filthy creatures ... are hated more than Dogs or Vipers by our daintiest Dames," ib. p. 1093; and again, p. 1097, "Cardan, that was a fancier of subtilties, writes that the Carthusians are never vexed with Wall-lice, and he gives the cause, because they eat no flesh.... He should rather have alledged their cleanliness, and the frequent washing of their beds and blankets, to be the cause of it, which when the French, the Dutch, and Italians do less regard, they more breed this plague. But the English that take great care to be cleanly and decent, are seldom troubled with them." Also, on p. 1092, he says, 'As for dressing the body: all Ireland is noted for this, that it swarms almost with Lice. But that this proceeds from the beastliness of the people, and want of cleanly women to wash them is manifest, because the English that are more careful to dress themselves, changing and washing their shirts often, having inhabited so long in Ireland, have escaped that plague.... Remedies. The Irish and Iseland people (who are frequently troubled with Lice, and such as will fly, as they say, in Summer) anoint their shirts with Saffron, and to very good purpose, to drive away the Lice, but after six moneths they wash their shirts again, putting fresh Saffron into the Lye.' Rowland's Mouffet (1634), Theater of Insects, p. 1092, ed. 1658.]

[Footnote 85: Prof. Brewer says that Erasmus, rejecting the Medival Latin and adopting the Classical, no doubt used salsamenta in its classical sense of salt-meat, and referred to the great quantity of it used in England during the winter, when no fresh meat was eaten, but only that which had been killed at the annual autumn slaughtering, and then salted down. Stall-fattening not being practised, the autumn was the time for fat cattle. Salsamentum, however, is translated in White and Riddle's Dictionary, "A.Fish-pickle, brine; B.Salted or pickled fish (so usually in plural)."]

[Footnote 86: If any member or reader can refer me to any other verse or prose pieces of like kind, unprinted, or that deserve reprinting, Ishall be much obliged to him, and will try to put them in type.]

Errata (noted by transcriber):

Capiendo pro[26]...'" [missing '] the case is too too evident [duplication in original] sums itup.[59] [footnote marker missing in text] a passage in Edward the Fourth's Liber Niger [passaeg] ab. 1460 ... Marmaduke Constable [460]

In the section "Post-Reformation Cathedral Schools" the attribution of quotes is sometimes obscure. The text layout has been kept as close as possible to the original.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PREFACE TO RUSSELL.

Though this Boke of Nurture by John Russell is the most complete and elaborate of its kind, Ihave never seen it mentioned by name in any of the many books and essays on early manners and customs, food and dress, that have issued from the press. My own introduction to it was due to a chance turning over, for another purpose, of the leaves of the MS. containing it. Mr Wheatley then told me of Ritson's reference to it in his Bibliographica Poetica, p. 96; and when the text was all printed, areference in The Glossary of Domestic Architecture (v. III. Pt. I. p. 76, note, col.2) sent me to MS. Sloane 1315[1]—in the Glossary stated to have been written in 1452—which proved to be a different and unnamed version of Russell. Then the Sloane Catalogue disclosed a third MS., No. 2027[2], and the earliest of the three, differing rather less than No. 1315 from Russell's text, but still anonymous. Ihave therefore to thank for knowledge of the MSS. that special Providence which watches over editors as well as children and drunkards, and have not on this occasion to express gratitude to Ritson and Warton, to whom every lover of Early English Manuscripts is under such deep obligations, and whose guiding hands (however faltering) in Poetry have made us long so often for the like in Prose. Would that one of our many Historians of English Literature had but conceived the idea of cataloguing the materials for his History before sitting down to write it! Would that a wise Government would commission another Hardy to do for English Literature what the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records is now doing for English History— give us a list of the MSS. and early printed books of it! What time and trouble such a Catalogue would save!

But to return to John Russell and his Boke. He describes himself at the beginning and end of his treatise as Usher and Marshal to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, delighting in his work in youth, quitting it only when compelled by crooked age, and then anxious to train up worthy successors in the art and mystery of managing a well-appointed household. Aman evidently who knew his work in every detail, and did it all with pride; not boastful, though upholding his office against rebellious cooks[3], putting them down with imperial dignity, "we may allow and disallow; our office is the chief!" Asimple-minded religious man too,—as the close of his Treatise shows,—and one able to appreciate the master he served, the "prynce fulle royalle," the learned and munificent Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the patron of Lydgate, Occleve, Capgrave, Withamstede, Leonard Aretine, Petrus Candidus, Petrus de Monte, Tito Livio, Antoyne de Beccara, &c. &c., the lover of Manuscripts, the first great donor to the Oxford University Library which Bodley revived[4], "that prince peerless," as Russell calls him, aman who, with all his faults, loved books and authors, and shall be respected by us as he was by Lydgate. But our business is with the Marshal, not the Master, and we will hear what John Russell says of himself in his own verse,

an vssher{e} y Am / ye may behold{e} / to a prynce of high{e} degre, at enioyeth{e} to enforme & teche / all{e} o thatt wille thrive & thee,

Of suche thyng{es} as her{e}-aft{ur} shall{e} be shewed by my diligence To them at nought Can / w{i}t{h}-owt gret exsperience; Therfor{e} yf any ma {a}t y mete with{e}, at for fawt of necligence, y wyll{e} hym enforme & teche, for hurtyng{e} of my Conscience.

To teche vertew and co{n}nyng{e}, me thynketh hit charitable, for moche youth{e} in co{n}nyng{e} / is bare & full{e} vnable.

(l. 3-9.)

At the end of his Boke he gives us a few more details about himself and his work in life:

Now good so, y haue shewed the / & brought e in vre, to know e Curtesie of court / & these ow may take in cur{e}, In pantry / botery / or celler{e} / & in kervyng{e} a-for{e} a sovereyn{e} demewr{e}, A sewer / or a m{er}shall{e}: in es science / ysuppose ye by sewr{e},

Which in my dayes y lernyd with{e} a prynce full{e} royall{e}, with whom vscher{e} in chambur was y, & m{er}shalle also in hall{e}, vnto whom all{e} ese officer{es} for{e}seid / ey eu{er} ente{n}de shall{e}, Evir to fulfill{e} my co{m}maundement whe at y to em call{e}:

For we may allow & dissalow / our{e} office is e cheeff In celler{e} & spicery / & the Cooke, be he looth{e} or leeff.

(l. 1173-82.)

Further on, at line 1211, he says,

"Moor{e} of is co{n}nyng{e} y Cast not me to contreve: my tyme is not to tary, hit drawest fast to eve. is tretyse at y haue entitled, if it ye entende to p{re}ve, y assayed me self in youth{e} w{i}t{h}-oute any greve.

while y was yong{e} y-nough{e} & lusty in dede, y enioyed ese maters foreseid / & to lerne y toke good hede; but croked age hath{e} co{m}pelled me / & leue court y must nede. erfor{e}, son{e}, assay thy self / & god shall{e} be y spede."

And again, at line 1227,

"Now, good so, thy self, w{i}t{h} other {a}t shall{e} e succede, which{e} us boke of nurtur{e} shall{e} note / lerne, & ou{er} rede, pray for the sowle of Ioh Russell{e}, at god do hym mede, Som tyme s{er}uaunde w{i}t{h} duke vmfrey, duc[A] of Glowcet{ur} in dede.

For at prynce pereles prayeth{e} / & for suche othermo, e sowle of my wife / my fadur and modir also, vn-to Mary modyr and mayd / she fende us from owr{e} foe, and bryng{e} vs all{e} to blis whe we shall{e} hens goo. AMEN."

[Text Note: The duc has a red stroke through it, probably to cut it out.]

As to his Boke, besides what is quoted above, John Russell says,

Go forth{e} lytell{e} boke, and lowly ow me co{m}mende vnto all{e} yong{e} gentilme / {a}t lust to lerne or entende, and specially to em at han exsperience, p{ra}yng{e} e[m] to amend{e} and correcte at is amysse, er{e} as y fawte or offende.

And if so at any be founde / as rou[gh] my necligence, Cast e cawse o my copy / rude / & bar{e} of eloquence, which{e} to d{ra}we out [I] haue do my besy diligence, redily to reforme hit / by reso and bettur sentence.

As for ryme or reso, e for{e}wryter was not to blame, For as he founde hit aforne hym, so wrote he e same, and augh{e} he or y in our{e} mater{e} digres or degrade, blame neithur of vs / For we neuyr{e} hit made;

Symple as y had insight / somwhat e ryme y correcte; blame y cowde no ma / y haue no persone suspecte. Now, good god, graunt vs grace / our{e} sowles neu{er} to Infecte! a may we regne in i regiou{n} / et{er}nally w{i}t{h} thyne electe.

(l. 1235-50.)

If John Russell was the writer of the Epilogue quoted above, lines 1235-50, then it would seem that in this Treatise he only corrected and touched up some earlier Book of Norture which he had used in his youth, and which, if Sloane 2027 be not its original, may be still extant in its primal state in Mr Arthur Davenport's MS., "How to serve a Lord," said to be of the fourteenth century[6], and now supposed to be stowed away in a hayloft with the owner's other books, awaiting the rebuilding and fitting of a fired house. Ionly hope this MS. may prove to be Russell's original, as Mr Davenport has most kindly promised to let me copy and print it for the Society. Meantime it is possible to consider John Russell's Book of Norture as his own. For early poets and writers of verse seem to have liked this fiction of attributing their books to other people, and it is seldom that you find them acknowledging that they have imagined their Poems on their own heads, as Hampole has it in his Pricke of Conscience, p. 239, l. 8874 (ed. Morris, Philol. Soc.). Even Mr Tennyson makes believe that Everard Hall wrote his Morted' Arthur, and some Leonard his Golden Year. On the other hand, the existence of the two Sloane MSS. is more consistent with Russell's own statement (if it is his own, and not his adapter's in the Harleian MS.) that he did not write his Boke himself, but only touched up another man's. Desiring to let every reader judge for himself on this point, Ishall try to print in a separate text[7], for convenience of comparison, the Sloane MS. 1315, which differs most from Russell, and which the Keeper of the MSS. at the British Museum considers rather earlier (ab. 1440-50 A.D.) than the MS. of Russell (ab. 1460-70 A.D.), while of the earliest of the three, Sloane MS. 2027 (ab. 1430-40 A.D.), the nearer to Russell in phraseology, Ishall give a collation of all important variations. If any reader of the present text compares the Sloanes with it, he will find the subject matter of all three alike, except in these particulars:

Sloane 1315. —Sloane 2027.

Omits lines 1-4 of Russell. —Contains these lines.

Inserts after l. 48 of R. a passage about behaviour which it nearly repeats, where Russell puts it, at l. 276, Symple Condicions. —Inserts and omits as Sl. 1315 does, but the wording is often different.

Omits Russell's stanza, l. 305-8, about 'these cuttid galauntes with their codware.'

Omits a stanza, l. 319-24, p. 21.2,b.). —Contains this stanza (fol. 42,b.).

Contracts R.'s chapter on Fumositees, p. 23-4. —Contracts the Fumositees too (fol. 45 and back).

Omits R.'s Lenvoy, under Fried Metes, p. 33-4. —Has one verse of Lenvoy altered (fol. 45b.).

Transfers R.'s chapters on Sewes on Fische Dayes and Sawcis for Fishe, l. 819-54, p. 55-9, to the end of his chapter on Kervyng of Fishe, l. 649, p. 45. —Transfers as Sl. 1315 does (see fol. 48).

Gives different Soteltes (or Devices at the end of each course), and omits Russell's description of his four of the Four Seasons, p. 51-4; and does not alter the metre of the lines describing the Dinners as he does, p. 50-5. —Differs from R., nearly as Sl. 1315 does.

Winds up at the end of the Bathe or Stewe, l. 1000, p. 69, R., with two stanzas of peroration. As there is no Explicit, the MS. may be incomplete, but the next page is blank. —Has 3 winding-up stanzas, as if about to end as Sloane 1315 does, but yet goes on (omitting the Bathe Medicinable) with the Vssher and Marshalle, R. p. 69, and ends suddenly, at l. 1062, p. 72, R., in the middle of the chapter.

In occasional length of line, in words and rhymes, Sloane 1315 differs far more from Russell than Sloane 2027, which has Russell's long lines and rhymes throughout, so far as a hurried examination shows.

But the variations of both these Sloane MSS. are to me more like those from an original MS. of which our Harleian Russell is a copy, than of an original which Russell altered. Why should the earliest Sloane 2027 start with

"An vsschere .y. am / as ye may se : to a prynce Of hygh{e} degre"

if in its original the name of the prince was not stated at the end, as Russell states it, to show that he was not gammoning his readers? Why does Sloane 1315 omit lines in some of its stanzas, and words in some of its lines, that the Harleian Russell enables us to fill up? Why does it too make its writer refer to the pupil's lord and sovereign, if in its original the author did not clench his teaching by asserting, as Russell does, that he had served one? This Sloane 1315 may well have been copied by a man like Wynkyn de Worde, who wished not to show the real writer of the treatise. On the whole, Iincline to believe that John Russell's Book of Norture was written by him, and that either the Epilogue to it was a fiction of his, or was written by the superintender of the particular copy in the Harleian MS. 4011, Russell's own work terminating with the Amen! after line 1234.