Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

chambers of greater kings than the King of England'; because he had learnt from understanding the scriptures the manner of life of David, Solomon, & other Kings 2."

Reyner, in his Apostol. Bened. from Saunders acquaints us, that the Sons of the Nobility were placed with Whiting Abbot of Glastenbury for their Education, who was contemporary with the Cardinal, and which Method of Education was continued for some Time afterward.

There is in the Custody of the present Earl of Stafford, a Nobleman of the greatest Humanity and Goodness, an Original of Instructions, by the Earl of Arundell, written in the Year 1620, for the Benefit of his younger Son, the Earl of Stafford's Grandfather, under this Title;

Instructions for you my Son William, how to behave

your self at Norwich.

In these Instructions is the following paragraph, "You shall in all Things reverence honour and obey my Lord Bishop of Norwich, as you would do any of your Parents, esteeminge whatsoever He shall tell or Command you, as if your Grandmother of Arundell, your · Mother, or my self, should say it; and in all things esteem your self as my Lord's Page; a breeding which youths of my house far superior to you were accustomed unto, as my Grandfather of Norfolk, and his Brother my good Uncle of Northampton were both bred as Pages with Bishopps, &c."

Sir Thomas More, who was born in 1480, was brought up in the house of Cardinal Morton. Roper says that he was

"received into the house of the right reverend, wise, and learned prelate Cardinal Morton, where, though he was young of years, yet would he at Christmas-tide suddenly sometimes step in among the players, and never studying for the matter make a part of his own there presently among them, which made the lookers on more sport than all the players beside. In whose wit and towardness the Cardinal much delighting would say of him unto the nobles that divers times dined with him, This child here waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it, will prove a marvellous man. Whereupon for his better furtherance in learning he placed him at Oxford, &c." (Roper's Life of More, ed. Singer, 1822, p. 3.)

Cresacre More in his Life of More (ed. 1828, p. 17) states the same thing more fully, and gives the remark of the Cardinal more accurately, thus:-" that that boy there waiting on him, whoever should live to see it, would prove a marvellous rare man."

Through Wolsey's household, says Professor Brewer, almost all the

1 Mr Bruce sends me the More extracts.

Officials of Henry the Eighth's time passed. Cavendish, in his Life. of Wolsey (vol. i. p. 38, ed. Singer, 1825) says of the Cardinal, "And at meals, there was continually in his chamber a board kept for his Chamberlains, and Gentlemen Ushers, having with them a mess of the young Lords, and another for gentlemen." Among these young Lords, we learn at p. 57, was

66

'my Lord Percy, the son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland, [who] then attended upon the Lord Cardinal, and was also his servitor; and when it chanced the Lord Cardinal at any time to repair to the court, the Lord Percy would then resort for his pastime unto the queen's chamber, and there would fall in dalliance among the queen's maidens, being at the last more conversant with Mistress Anne Boleyn than with any other; so that there grew such a secret love between them that, at length they were insured together, intending to marry 1."

Among the persons daily attendant upon Wolsey in his house, down-lying and up-rising, Cavendish enumerates "of Lords nine or ten, who had each of them allowed two servants; and the Earl of Derby had allowed five men" (p. 36-7). On this Singer prints a note, which looks like a guess, signed Growe, "Those Lords that were placed in the great and privy chambers were Wards, and as such paid for their board and education." It will be seen below that he had a particular officer called "Instructor of his Wards" (Cavendish, p. 38, 1. 2). Why I suppose the note to be a guess is, because at p. 33 Cavendish has stated that Wolsey "had also a great number daily attending upon him, both of noblemen and worthy gentlemen, of great estimation and possessions,-with no small number of the tallest yeomen that he could get in all his realm; in so much that well was that nobleman and gentleman that might prefer any tall and comely yeoman unto his service."

In the household of the Earl of Northumberland in 1511 were ".. yong gentlemen at their fryndes fynding,2 in my lords house for

1 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).

2 Under the heading "Gentylmen of Houshold, viz. Kervers, Sewars, Cupberers, and Gentillmen Waiters" in the North. Household Books, p. 40, we find

the hoole yere" and "Haunsmen ande Yong Gentlemen at thir Fryndes fynding v[j] (As to say, Hanshmen iij. And Yong Gentlemen iij" p. 254,) no doubt for the purpose of learning manners, &c. And that such youths would be found in the house of every noble of importance I believe, for as Walter Mapes (? ab. 1160-90 A.D.) says of the great nobles, in his poem De diversis ordinibus hominum, the example of manners goes out from their houses, Exemplar morum domibus procedit eorum. That these houses were in some instances only the finishing schools for our well-born young men after previous teaching at home and at College is possible (though the cases of Sir Thomas More and Ascham are exactly the other way), but the Lord Percy last named had a schoolmaster in his house, "The Maister of Graimer j", p. 254; "Lyverays for the Maister of Gramer in Housholde: Item Half a Loof of Houshold Breide, a Pottell of Beere, and two White Lyghts," p. 97. "Every Scolemaister techyng Grammer in the Hous C s." (p. 47, 51). Edward IV.'s henxmen were taught grammar; and if the Pastons are to be taken as a type of their class, our nobles and gentry at the end of the 15th century must have been able to read and write freely. Chaucer's Squire could write, and though the custom of sealing deeds and not signing them prevailed, more or less, till Henry VIII.'s time, it is doubtful whether this implied inability of the sealers to write. Mr Chappell says that in Henry VIII.'s time half our nobility were then writing ballads. Still, the bad spelling and grammar of most of the letters up to that period, and the general ignorance of our upper classes were, says Professor Brewer, the reason why the whole government of the country was in the hands of ecclesiastics. Even in Henry the Eighth's

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 Friendis 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.

1 Grammar usually means Latin. T. Wright.

time, Sir Thomas Boleyn is said to have been the only noble at Court who could speak French with any degree of fluency, and so was learned enough to be sent on an embassy abroad. But this may be questioned. Yet Wolsey, speaking to his Lord Chamberlain and Comptroller when they

"showed him that it seemed to them there should be some noblemen and strangers [Henry VIII. and his courtiers masked] arrived at his bridge, as ambassadors from some foreign prince. With that, quoth the Cardinal, 'I shall desire you, because ye can speak French, to take the pains to go down into the hall to encounter and to receive them, according to their estates, and to conduct them into this chamber' (Cavendish, p. 51). Then spake my Lord Chamberlain unto them in French, declaring my Lord Cardinal's mind (p. 53)." The general' opinion of our gentry as to the study of Letters, before and about 1500 A.D., is probably well represented by the opinion of one of them stated by Pace, in his Prefatory Letter to Colet, prefixed to the former's De Fructu".

1 The exceptions must have been many and marked.

2 Richardi Pacei, invictissimi Regis Angliæ primarii Secretarii, eiusque apud Elvetios Oratoris, De Fructu qui ex Doctrinæ 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 conscribendum et publicandum. Quum duobus annis plus minus iam præteritis, ex Romana urbe in patriam redijssem, inter-fui cuidam conuiuio multis incognitus. Vbi quum satis fuisset potatum, unus, nescio quis, ex conuiuis, non imprudens, ut ex uerbis uultuque conijcere licuit, cœpit mentionem facere de liberis suis bene instituendis. Et primum omnium, bonum præceptorem illis sibi quærendum, & scholam omnino frequentandam censuit. Aderat forte unus ex his, quos nos generosos uocamus, & qui semper cornu aliquod a tergo pendens gestant, acsi etiam inter prandendum uenarentur. Is audita literarum laude, percitus repentina ira, furibundus prorupit in hæc uerba. Quid nugaris, inquit, amice? abeant in malam rem istæ stultæ literæ, omnes docti sunt mendici, etiam Erasmus ille doctissimus (ut audio) pauper est, & in quadam sua epistola vocat rŋy kaтápatov πενιαν uxorem suam, id est, execrandam paupertatem, & uehementer conqueritur se son posse illam humeris suis usque in Baðvkýtea ñóvrov, id est, profundum mare excutere. (Corpus dei iuro) uolo filius meus pendeat potius, quam literis studeat. Decet enim generosorum filios, apte inflare cornu, perite uenari, accipitrem pulchre gestare & educare. Studia uero literarum, rusticorum filiis sunt relinquenda. Hic ego cohibere me non potui, quin aliquid homini loquacissimo, in defensionem bonarum literarum, responderem. Non uideris, inquam, mihi bone uir recte sentire, nam si ueniret ad regem aliquis uir exterus, quales sunt principum oratores, & ei dandum esset responsum, filius tuus sic ut tu uis, institutus, inflaret duntaxat cornu, & rusticorum filij docti, ad respondendum uocarentur, ac filio tuo uenatori uel aucupi longe anteponerentur, & sua erudita

It remains that I now explain to you what moves me to compile and publish a treatise with this title. When, two years ago, more or less, I had returned to my native land from the city of Rome, I was present at a certain feast, a stranger to many; where, when enough had been drunk, one or other of the guests-no fool, as one might infer from his words and countenance-began to talk of educating his children well. And, first of all, he thought that he must search out a good teacher for them, and that they should at any rate attend school. There happened to be present one of those whom we call gentle-men (generosos), and who always carry some horn hanging at their backs, as though they would hunt during dinner. He, hearing letters praised, roused with sudden anger, burst out furiously with these words. "Why do you talk nonsense, friend?" he said; “A curse on those stupid letters! all learned men are beggars: even Erasmus, the most learned of all, is a beggar (as I hear), and in a certain letter of his calls τήν κατάρατον πενίαν (that is, execrable poverty) his wife, and vehemently complains that he cannot shake her off his shoulders right into Balukýтeα Tóνтov, that is, into the deep sea. I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. For it becomes the sons of gentlemen to blow the horn nicely (apte), to hunt skilfully, and elegantly carry and train a hawk. But the study of letters should be left to the sons of rustics." At this point I could not restrain myself from answering something to this most talkative man, in defence of good letters. "You do not seem to me, good man," I said, "to think rightly. For if any foreigner were to come to the king, such as the ambassadors (oratores) of princes are, and an answer had to be given to him, your son, if he were educated as you wish, could only blow his horn, and the learned sons of rustics would be called to answer, and would be far preferred to your hunter or fowler son; and they, enjoying their learned liberty, would say to your face, 'We prefer to be learned, and, thanks to our learning, no fools, than boast of our fool-like nobility."" Then he upon this, looking round, said, "Who is this person that is talking like this? I don't know the fellow." And when some one whispered in his ear who I was, he muttered something or other in a low voice to himself; and finding a fool to listen to him, he then caught hold of a cup of wine. And when he

usi libertate, tibi in faciem dicerent, Nos malumus docti esse, & per doctrinam non imprudentes, quam stulta gloriari nobilitate. Tum ille hincinde circumspiciens, Quis est iste, inquit, qui hæc loquitur ? hominem non cognosco. Et quum diceretur in aurem ei quisnam essem, nescio quid submissa uoce sibimet susurrans, & stulto usus auditore, illico arripuit uini poculum. Et quum nihil haberet respondendum, cœpit bibere, & in alia sermonem transferre. Et sic me liberauit, non Apollo, ut Horatium a garrulo, sed Bacchus a uesani hominis disputatione, quam diutius longe duraturam uehementer timebam.

Professor Brewer gives me the reference.

« PoprzedniaDalej »