su'me, wherein I trust to find further favour; for I have both good cause to aske itt, and better hope to obtayne itt, partly in considerac❜on of my unrewarded paines and undischardged costes, in teaching king Edward's person, partly for my three yeares service in the Emperor's cort, but cheifely of all when king Henry first gave itt me at Greenwiche; your lo'pp in the gallorye there asking me what the king had given me, and knoweing the truth, your lo'pp said it was too litle and gently offred to speake to the kinge for more. And I beseech your

lo'pp see what good is offred me in writeing the patent, the space w'ch is left by chance doth seem to crave by good lucke some wordes of lengthe, as viginti or triginta, yea with the help of a litle dashe quadraginta wold serve best of all. But sure as for decem it is somewhat with the shortest; neverthelesse I for my parte shalbe noe less contented with the one then glad for the other, and for either of both more then bound to your lo'pp."

His plan was so far successful that the word 'viginti' was written for decem.' In a letter to Queen Elizabeth, dated at Windsor, October 10, 1567, after relating with some glee the success of this trick, he prays the Queen's goodness to ask of the Queen's highness that as her three predecessors had each bettered the other, so she would make these benefactions, which were not so large as that he could out of them make any provision for his children, to be continued to his sons, by granting to one the farm of Salisbury Hall, near Walthamstow, of which he had a lease from Queen Mary, and to the other the living of Wicklyfourd (poss. Wichford, in the Isle of Ely) which had been left him by his mother-in-law.

But to return to the regular course of our history. On the removal of Cheke from Cambridge, in July, 1546, by his appointment as tutor to Prince Edward, Ascham was elected to succeed him as Public Orator. He had previously been employed to write letters for the University, for which he possessed an eminent qualification in his penmanship. Mention has been already made of his teaching Edward VI. to write he also instructed Elizabeth and the two Brandons in the same accomplishment. On the fly-leaves of a copy of Osorius de Nobilitate Civili in the College Library is an

Ascham to Gardiner. Whitaker's History of Richmondshire, Vol. I., p. 274.

autograph letter from him to Cardinal Pole, which is certainly a beautiful specimen of caligraphy.

In November or December, 1548, a disputation was held in the Chapel of St. John's on the question of the identity of the Mass with the Lord's Supper, which was "handled with great learning by two learned fellows of the House, Thomas Lever and Roger Hutchinson." The sensation caused thereby was not confined to the College, and many took offence at the discussion, whereupon Ascham was prevailed upon by the rest of the Society to "bring this question out of the private walls of the College into the public Schools:" but Dr. Madew, the Vice-Chancellor, stopped the disputation.

Ascham's residence in Cambridge appears not to have agreed with his health. To sustain it he was obliged to give much time to archery. But even with this healthy exercise, his constitution, which was naturally weak, and had never recovered the effects of the quartan fever, found the damp of the fens very trying. We have a letter addressed by him to Archbishop Cranmer, asking for a dispensation to enable him to eat no fish, stating his inability to change his place of abode, and arguing the point both on its own merits and as a relic of Popery. A second letter informs us that Cranmer acceded to his request, and sent him the dispensation, free of all charge, through Dr. Taylor, then Master of the College.t

Of his means of support during his residence here we have but little account. Dr. Lee, the Archbishop of York, gave him a pension of 40s. per annum. One of the works on which Ascham was engaged while in Cambridge was a translation of Ecumenius' Comment on the Epistle to Titus, a copy of which he presented to Lee, through his brother, not being admitted himself to see him owing to his illness. The book was sent back "non sine munere," but the Archbishop took serious offence at a comment on the words, "the husband of one wife," which characterized as heretics those who condemned marriage. This was too much for Lee, who was a bigoted Romanist, but it is doubtful whether it seriously affected Ascham's interests, as the illness in

Epist. III. 35, dated January 5, 1548. "Dr. Madew being mentioned as Vice-Chancellor in this letter, there must be a mistake in the date. He was Vice-Chancellor in 1546 and part of 1547, but in no part of 1548." Note in Mr. Baker's hand.

† Aschami Epist., II., 51, 53.

question proved fatal, and Ascham, in a letter to Cheke, laments that by the death of His Grace of York he suffered a serious diminution of income.*

Early in his career he had to part with his old friend and patron, Dr. Medcalfe, who was compelled by a conspiracy amongst the junior fellows to resign his Mastership, and retire to his benefice of Woodham Ferrers, where he survived only a few months. The cause of dissatisfaction is not known, "only," says Fuller,† "let not his enemies boast, it being observed that none thrived ever after who had a hand in Medcalfe's ejection, but lived meanly and died miserably. This makes me more confident, that neither master Cheke, nor master Ascham, then Fellows of the College, had any hand against him; both of them being well known afterwards to have come to good grace in the commonwealth."

From Ascham's words quoted above, I think we may infer that while he acted as joint tutor to Edward, he still was in residence at Cambridge. But in the year 1548, upon the death of his former pupil, William Grindal, he was chosen by the Princess Elizabeth to be her tutor. Writing to Cheke on the 12th of February, he states that the Princess was minded to bestow upon him all the heritage of her affection for Grindall, and in his perplexity, loth to leave his quiet life in St. John's, and loth to refuse so complimentary an offer, asks Cheke's counsel, as to what he shall do. We may assume that it was favourable to the proposal, for he accepted the post, and removed to Sir Anthony Denys' house at Cheshunt, where the Princess then lived. She was but sixteen, and yet in the couple of years that Ascham was with her, they read through nearly the whole of Cicero, a good part of Livy, some select Orations of Isocrates, the Tragedies of Sophocles, and, for divinity, the Greek Testament, Cyprian, and Melancthon's Common Places.§ The Princess every morning did a double translation from Demosthenes or Isocrates, and the afternoon from Tully. I should infer from the tone of a letter addressed to W. Ireland, a Fellow of St. John's, and dated

*Aschami Epist., II., 1, 5, 6, 15.

+ History of Cambridge, VII., 1–3, (p. 168, ed. Tegg, 1840). Aschami Epist., I., 40.

Ibid, 1., 2.

Schoolmaster, p. 35.

July 8, 1549, that the change was not congenial to him. He appears, whether from any fault of his own we do not know, to have made enemies in the Princess' household, who not only made him uncomfortable themselves, but poisoned Elizabeth's ears against him. About the beginning of 1550 he suddenly left his post, and returned to Cambridge. His own account is that he was driven to resign through no fault of his own, but by the ill-treatment he received not from the Lady Elizabeth herself, but from her Steward. That there is some secret involved appears from the fact that he will not entrust the matter to writing, but in two letters, one to Sir John Cheke, the other to Lady Jane Grey, says, "that if he should meet the former or Mr. Aylmer, the tutor of the latter, he would pour out his grief." On this point however he is clear, that no blame could be attributed to the Princess herself. Elizabeth, ever prompt to take offence, was piqued at this apparent slight. Ascham applied to Martin Bucer, who had lately come to England, and was then at Lambeth, to use his influence to reinstate him in the Princess' favour; but owing to the illness of Bucer, these good offices were delayed, and it was not till Ascham left England some nine months later that a reconciliation was effected. He then called on Elizabeth to bid her farewell, and she at once shewed her forgiveness by asking him why he had left her and made no effort to be restored to her favour.*

In April of the same year (1550) we find him again at St. John's, where he resumed his Greek Lecture and his work as Public Orator, which latter office must have been supplied meanwhile by a deputy. He was also at this time keeper of the king's library, but the date of his appointment does not appear. In the summer he visited his friends in Yorkshire, whence he was summoned, at the instance of Sir John Cheke, to take the office of Secretary to Sir Richard Morysine, who was proceeding on an embassy to the Emperor Charles V. It was on this journey to London that he called at Broadgate in Leicestershire, and found Lady Jane Grey reading Plato's Phado, while the rest of the party were out hunting. He has told the story

account.

* Aschami Epist., п., 43, ш., 5, 7. This I think the fairest Some persons believe that Ascham simply got tired of Court life. Miss Strickland states erroneously that his sudden removal was owing to some disturbances in his own family.

in The Schoolmaster (p. 12, verso). The number of learned ladies in that age is quite wonderful. Lady Jane is to my mind a standing protest against the notion, that a girl cannot be "blue" without losing her true womanliness.

Of the first part of Ascham's sojourn abroad we have a connected account in a series of letters addressed to his friends Edward Raven and William Ireland, fellows of St. John's. They are interesting as showing his powers of observation as well as for the facts which they relate, but were I to pretend to give their substance, I should trespass far beyond the necessary limits of this paper; I must therefore content myself with referring the more curious of my readers to the letters themselves. They will be found in Aschami Epist. III. 1-4. Bennet's Ascham, 369, sqq. Tytler's History of England under Edward VI. and Mary, Vol. II. pp. 124, sqq. Ascham also embodied the result of his observation of continental politics, &c. in a Report and Discourse of the Affaires of Germany, published in 1552.

He seems meanwhile to have been in great uncertainty as to his future plans in England. In a letter to Cecil (Spires, September 22, 1552) he makes a strong appeal for provision in one of three ways; either to be allowed to continue his Greek Lecture at St. John's without being bound by any statutes, (which would appear to be one of the shadows which coming events cast before them, for he was married within two years) or to undertake some post at court, or to remain abroad and serve his country at some foreign court. From a subsequent letter we gather that some court appointment was being found for him, (possibly the Latin Secretaryship, which he afterwards had) but impediments had been put in the way; so he presses still his first application, which does not seem to have succeeded.*

On his return to England in September, 1553, he found the state of affairs changed. Edward VI. was dead, Lady Jane Grey beheaded, protestantism already practically under ban. But he had a friend at court, who now stood him in good stead. On the death of Lee, he had attached himself to Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who in the latter part of Henry's reign, and during that of Queen Mary, was Chancellor of this University. The Bishop was true to

European Magazine, Vol. XXXII. 89, 157. In one of these letters, he asks permission to converse with the Pope's nuncio's men, which he had hitherto refrained from doing.