Part 8 (1/2)

II Allowing for the possibility of editions of which we have no present knowledge having formerly existed, if they do not yet do so, it may be that Dean Colet caused some text-book to be prepared for the use of the scholars at St Paul's; and I shall by and by adduce some evidence in favour of such an hypothesis But, at any rate, in 1529 Cardinal Wolsey gave his sanction, and wrote a preface, to an impression of Lily's _Rudiments_ with certain alterations, more especially for the use of his school at Ipswich, but also, as the terms of the title state, for the benefit of all other similar institutions in the country

The Cardinal's preface is dated August 1, 1528 It is followed by the _Docendi Methodus_, the _Rules_, the _Articles of Faith_, _Precepts of Living_, _Apostles' Creed_, _Decalogue_, &c; and the rest of the book is occupied by the _Introduction of the Eight Parts of Speech_ and the _Rudiments of Grammar_

Of this collection there was no exact reprint, but portions of the contents appear in the Antwerp ilish learners in Flanders; and Lily's _Rudiments_, with and without the other accessories, were periodically republished even later than the so-called Oxford Grammar of 1709

Now, as St Paul's was the more ancient foundation, it is allowable, at all events, to suspect that the book issued nominally for the Ipswich school was borrowed by the Cardinal or the person employed by him from one drawn up by Lily in his lifetime for Colet St Paul's had been established in 1510; the Dean survived till 1519; and surely sothe preparation of some Pauline text-book on lines parallel to those of the Ipswich one of 1529, more particularly e see that in the Preface to his 1534 _Rudiments_ he speaks of the ”new school of Paul's,” and that in 1518 Erasmus had executed a Latin metrical version of the _Lord's Prayer_ and _Precepts of Good Living_ for the school under the title of _Christiani hominis Institutulish by Colet, which I have found at present only in an edition of the Salisbury Primer, 1532, was made for his own scholars, and had, of course, been in existence prior to 1519; so that we find ourselves groping in the dark a little in the inquiry which deals with such a fugitive and perishable description of literature, and have to do the best that we can with the fragmentary relics which survive or have been so far recovered

The _Coleti aeditio_, &c, of 1534 had much in common with Wolsey's book; but the Dean of St Paul's clai adapted some portions of the Delectus to what he considered to be the special requirements of his own institution For he says in the Proem:--

”Al be it many have wryten, and have made certayne introducyons into Latyn speche, called _Donates_ and _Accidens_, in Latyn tongue and in Englysshe, in suche plenty that it shoulde seme to suffyse; yet never the lesse, for the love and zele that I have to the newe schole of Powles, and to the children of the same, somwhat have I also corammer have made this lytell boke;in whiche lytell warke if any new thynges be of me, it is alonely that I have put these partes in a more clere ordre, and have e wyttes, than (e here quoted inal publication of the Dean's alleged recension of the accepted text of Lily's _Introduction_ (including the _Rudi, if at all, posterior to 1510, as in 1534 St Paul's had been founded a quarter of a century The modification of the Grammar for Pauline use was almost unquestionably due to Lily, and merely the Proem the Dean's own

III The St Paul's book has, on the whole, a strong claim to precedence over that of 1529 But under any circumstances, in or before the last-named date, we possessed an unifore and Whittinton

But even that of Wolsey went no farther than to recoeneral acceptance It had no official character Nor was it till late in the protracted reign of Henry VIII that a general Primer for the whole country was prepared and published In 1540 a volume in two parts appeared under the royal authority, without any clue to the editor, reducing the text to a more convenient method and compass This book is anonymous; but Thomas Hayne says in 1640 that it was done by sundry learnedwhom he had heard that one was Dr Leonard cox, tutor to Prince Edward

Another probable coadjutor was John Palsgrave, author of the _Eclaircissement_

The Address to the Reader before the first part proceeded, no doubt, froy of Prince Edward, to wholand” are exhorted to look up as a model and example This portion includes the _Parts of Speech_ and other rudiested recension of the Latin series under the title of _A Compendious Institution of the whole Grammar_

This bipartite manual forue, whichto boys But it seems very doubtful indeed if this Prinised, or whether the Government took any measures to enforce what purported to have been done under its ied for publication the Prilicum_ of 1543, which is here incidentally noticed, and which is more than it professes to be For it comprises, in addition to a series of alphabets, the Lord's Prayer, the Salutation of the Virgin, the Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and a few prayers, in Latin and English It was, in fact, a supplement to the Primer itself

IV In January 1547, Henry was succeeded by his son, and the change is marked by the substitution of _A Short Introduction of Gralish followed by the Latin, for the original Primer of 1540 A coe book was inconvenient for beginners; and we are told that Fox the ist was commissioned to prepare _Tables of Grammar_ for the use, probably, of the lower for farther of thened as a companion, was not reprinted e of it till we arrive quite at the close of the rule of Mary, when the Paris press produced an edition under some circumstances not at present explainable, yet, of course, with the peculiarity of being entirely unofficial So that e sum up, it amounts to this, that the first and second types of the so-named universal Grammar, as settled in 1540 and 1548 respectively, reached four i that of 1557, which lies outside the series

Making due allowance for the far scantier population and the moe phenomenon, if we reflect that, in addition to the public and private schools previously in existence, the Governhout the country the endowments of which Christ's Hospital is the e in the Administration in 1558, and the authority of Elizabeth was established in Church and State, the interest in educational development led to no revival of the _Introduction_, and, unless all intervening copies have perished, there was a clear lapse of ten years before the new Protestant _regime_ took steps to re-issue the book

This was in 1567 In the Preface very just stress is laid on thefrom what is termed ”a diversity of Gra different e the objects and advantages of the publication, while it certainly see at the circumstances, he deserved For the Primer of 1540 had been preceded by those of Linacre and Wolsey, just as the _Short Introduction_ of 1548 and 1567 was, in the main, a reproduction of Henry's book But the same unqualified encorave, the celebrated lexicographer and teacher of languages, in the prolix and fulsolish _Acolastus_, 1540, which must have been written and in type when the copies of the Prirave does not inti

The Preface of 1567 is followed by the Latin letters, the vowels and consonants, and the Greek letters; after which cohty God and merciful Father,” which is still retained at soht Parts of Speech_ constitutes the body and rerace before race after meat

The Latin section opens with the Greek alphabet, and proceeds to the parts of gra with Erasmus's _De Ratione_ But, as I have stated more than once, this later text-book does not substantially vary froranted the inald Wolfe, and forbad the ehness's dominions The docuhty affairs belonging to his office, had not forgotten nor neglected the tender youth of his real up of the said youth, and a special desire that they ue more easily, instituted a new uniform Grammar; which was so far really the case, inasmuch as the 1540 volume was the first official one, and also at the date of its proation thethis general Graland and the do illustrations which present themselves inThe exa drawn from the occupations and various phases of everyday life, are almost without exception purely technical and commonplace There is no allusion which one would welcoht on contemporary history or manners It is mostly a dead level The learned men have done this! Itto leaven the text, to stumble upon a few of the little touches in the older books retained as an exception, such as: ”Vivo in Anglia Veni per Galliam in Italiam,” or ”Vixit Londini: Studuit Oxoniae”

How differently Hores were intended for schoolboys and students too!

The frequency hich the Primer was henceforth reprinted, contrasted with the very limited call for copies from 1540 to 1566, seems to furnish an indication that the book and the syste to eneral acceptance

But the irreconcilable diversity of opinions, which has always prevailed, respecting etyy, syntax, pronunciation, and other cardinal points, rand scale of an official Primer; and the Tudors, arbitrary and absolute as they were in all questions of political significance, were not pro of the time to resort in such a case as this to penal and perehteenth century saw Lily's Grainal author, not to speak of the obligations of its successors to it; but the Tudor book, constructed in some measure out of it, and ushered into existence under the e, sank after a not very robust or influential life of six decades (1540-1600) into coreat Elizabeth has been dead near three hundred years, and no genuine popular demand for mental improvement has yet come from the people In the sixteenth century--in the Queen's time and in her father's--the spirit which promoted education was based either on political or commercial motives