THE WHOLE WORKS OF EOGER ASCHAM, NOW FIRST COLLECTED AND REVISED, WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR; BY THE REV. DR. GILES, FORMERLY FELLOW OF C. C. C. , OXFORD. VOL. III. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, SOHO SQUARE. 3864. PRINTED BY BOWDEN AND BRAWN, 13, PRINCES STREET, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, HOLBORN, LONDON. PKEFACE TO VOL. III. OF the first work contained in this volume, "A Report and Discourse of the Affairs and State of Germany, <kc" I have seen but one edition afac-simile separate ; of its title is prefixed to our reprint of the work. It is in small quarto, and has no date; but it is known to have been printed in 1552, and again in 1570. The copy which I have seen, is in the British Museum, and has furnished, besides many smaller cor rections, more than one whole sentence that had been omitted in the last edition of the English Works, 8vo, 1815. 2. The School-master also is here printed from the " English Works of Roger Ascham," collated through out with the earlier editions, which have furnished several important corrections of the text. This work was first published by Mrs Ascham, small 8vo, 1570, after her husband's death : a fac-simile of IV PREFACE. the title to that edition is prefixed to the work in the present reprint. The School-master was again printed in 1571, 1573, 1579, 1583, 1589, these editions vary very little the one from the other. It was again published, with notes by the Rev. James Upton, London, 8vo, 1711, and reprinted 1743. The work is also found in the English Works of Roger Ascham, and has lastly been carefully edited "by John E. B. Mayor, M.A., Fellow of Saint John's College, Cambridge; London, Bell and Daldy, 186 Fleet Street, 1863, fcap 8vo." The notes in this edi tion are most elaborate, and must cause every reader to regret that the able and learned editor did not extend his plan by giving us a complete edition of his favourite Ascham's works. The notes found in the last London edition of the works have been all retained, with some few corrections and additional references. 3. The Poemata, which first appeared in one of the early editions of the Epistolce, edited by Grant, were afterwards omitted by Elstob and others, but are here restored. They add nothing to Ascham's classical reputation nor, on the other hand, do they detract from it; for, notwithstanding the great stir made in those times about classical learning, there had been a PREFACE. V great falling off, owing to the revival of the native English tongue under the Lancastrian and Tudor kings. Those poems might be retained, if only to show that poetical licences, if not false quantities, formed a great part of the stock-in-trade of those who then cultivated the Latin muse. But there may be another reason, still for their whilst the more sad, preservation ; for, names of Ravaillac, Fenton, and other murderers, have been immortalized by the fame, not of themselves but of their victims, it is also clear that the making of these unlucky hexameters caused the untimely death of Roger Ascham. 4. The Oration 011 the life and death of Ascham, is as perfect a specimen of the bombastic style used in such compositions as we can easily meet with. It is, however, a great guide to the facts and dates of Ascham's life, and though lengthy and repulsive in its Latinity, could not with propriety be left out. It was first published by Grant as an introduction to his first edition of the Letters. 5. Seven Letters by Giles Ascham, son of the Royal Tutor, are now first published from the Lans- downe Collection in the British Museum. They are written in the same querulous style which the father always used, when soliciting money from the Queen and others who were his patrons. VI PREFACE. 6. The volume ends with a Glossary of words which either are now out of use, or have been modified in their pronunciation or otherwise. The idea is taken from Mr Mayor, who, in his valuable notes to the Scholemaster, has pointed out the good that might be got if such a plan were generally followed by those who bring out new editions of our old writers. J. A. G. Cranford, Middlesex, 1864. fa fa A REPORT $> fa ^ and Discourfe written by ^ ^ Roger Afcham, of the affaires ^ and ftate of and the Germany* ^ "^9 7^P" ^ Emperour Charles his Court. f^ ^jf) 7^^ ^ certaine duryng yeares, ^ while the fayd Roger ^ ^ was there. ^ <+ fa *$ fa b^ AT LONDON. ^ o$ 1 Printed by John Daye, ^ ^ dwelling ouer A^lderfgate. ^ <+ fa <+ . fa +$ fa ^| IF Cww Gratia 6- Priuilegio Regia ^ ^ Maieftatis, per Decennium. fa <+$ fa + fa REPORT AND DISCOURSE, &c. JOHN ASTLEY TO R. ASCHAM. NOW find true by experience, which I have oft heard of others, and sometimes read myself, that men make no such account of commodities when they have them, as when they want them. I mean this by our friendly fellowship together at Cheston Chelsey, and here at Hatfield, her Grace's house; our pleasant stu dies in reading together Aristotle's Rhetoric, Cicero, and our free with honest Livy; talk, mingled always mirth ; our trim conferences of that present world, and too true judgments of the troublesome time that followed. These I commodities now remember with some grief, which we then used with much pleasure, besides many other fruits of friendship that faithful good-will could afford. And these thinkings cause me oft to wish, either you to be here with us, or me to be there with you : but what wishing is nothing else but a vain wail ing for that which will wanteth, I will cease from and seek the true for this sore wishing, remedy ; and that is, whilst we meet again in deed, in the mean while to ease our desires with oft writing the one to the other. I would, indeed, I had been partaker, in your company, of that absence out of your pleasant your country ; and REPORT OF GERMANY. because I was not, I pray you let me be partaker, by your letters, of some fruit of that your journey. hear of stirs in those and the We great parts ; how emperor, a prince of great wisdom and great power, hath been driven to extreme shifts and that the ; by policy of mean men, who were thought to be his friends, and not by the puissantness of others who were known to be his open enemies. I know you were wont in marking diligently and noting truly all such great affairs : and you know likewise, how desirous I am always to read any thing that you write. Write therefore, I pray you, that we your friends, being at home, may enjoy by your letters a pleasant memory of you in that time whilst you be absent abroad. Fare well in Christ. From Hattield, xix. Octobris, 1552. R ASCHAM TO JOHN ASTLEY. ALUTEM plurimam in Christo Jesu. That part of your letter from Hatneld, decimo nono Octob. renewing a most pleasant memory of our friendly fellowship together, and full of your wonted good-will towards me, I an swered immediately from Spires, by Fraunces the post : which letter, if it be not yet come to your hand, ye might have heard tell of it in Mr. Secretary Cecil's chamber in the court. As concerning the other part of your letter for your wish to have been with me in this mine absence from and for to be made my country ; your request, partaker of stir of these times here in by my letters the Germany ; surely I would you had your wish : for then should not I now need to bungle up yours so great a request, REPORT OF GERMANY. O when presently you should have seen with much plea sure, which now peradventure you shall read with * some doubt, lest things may increase by writing, so in as I am more afraid to which were great doing ; leave behind me much of the matter, than to gather up more than hath sprung of the truth. Your request containeth few words, but compre- hendeth both great and divers matters. As first, the causes of the invasion the Turk of the secret open by ; working for such sudden breaches in Italy and Ger of the fine fetches in the French of many ; practices ; the double-dealing of Rome with all parties : then more particularly, why Duke Octavio, the Prince of Salerne, Marquis Albert, and Duke Maurice, brake so out with the emperor, which were all so fast knit unto him as the bonds of affinity, loyalty, blood, and benefits could assure him of them : Octavio being his son-in-law, the Prince one of his privy chamber, Marquis Albert his kinsman, and Duke Maurice so inhanced with honour and enriched with benefits by him, as the duke could not have wished greater in hope, than the emperor performed in deed. Here is stuff plenty to furnish well up a trim history, if a workman had it in hand ling. When you and I read Livy together, if you do remember, after some reasoning we concluded both what was in our opinion to be looked for at his hand that would well and advisedly write an history : First point was, to write nothing false : next, to be bold to truth is avoided two say any ; whereby great faults, flattery and hatred : for which two points Caesar is read to his great praise, and Jovius the Italian to his * With some doubt, lest, &c.