Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/166

---

on the system afterwards recommended in the 'Scholemaster.' The death of this 'worthie young gentleman' within a few months of Ascham's settlement at Cheshunt gave him a new grief, for which he sought expression in some poor English verses 'of misorderlie meter,' printed in the 'Scholemaster' (p. 91). Ascham found his royal pupil as apt as he had anticipated. According to his account she talked French and Italian as well as English; she could hold her own in Latin conversation, and fairly well in Greek; she was a shrewd critic of style in Latin, Greek, and English. Her handwriting was admirable, and, like Ascham himself, she delighted in music. During the two years he taught her at this time, he read all Cicero with her, and the greater part of Livy; every morning she devoted some hours to the Greek Testament, and some to Isocrates and Sophocles. To Cyprian and Melanchthon Ascham also introduced her, to confirm her in good doctrine (Epist. xcix.). But none the less he found the life he led in the princess's service an irksome one. He could rarely visit Cambridge; he had to go to court, and mixed with men whose frivolity or dishonesty disgusted him. Finally, he quarrelled over a trifle with Elizabeth's steward; a coolness sprang up between himself and his mistress (Epist. cxi.), and he hastily resigned his post in 1549-50, to resume his own studies and his official duties as public orator at Cambridge. Among his pupils on his return were Lords Henry and Charles Brandon, to both of whom he taught penmanship, and to the latter Greek (Epist. cviii.). To the sad deaths of these youths on 10 July 1551 Ascham frequently makes mournful reference in his later letters. But Ascham was still restless. He paid a visit to his friends in Yorkshire in 1550; and hinted to Cheke, whose influence he freely claimed for his own advancement, that he should be glad to spend two years in foreign travel (Epist. cv.). While still in Yorkshire, he heard from Cheke that he had been appointed secretary to Sir Richard Morysin, recently nominated English ambassador to the emperor Charles V. On his journey south to Billingsgate to embark, Ascham visited Lady Jane Grey at her father's house at Bradgate, Leicestershire, and in a memorable passage in the 'Scholemaster' (p. 46) he has described how he found her reading Plato's 'Phaedo' in her chamber while all the household was out hunting. Before leaving her, he obtained a promise from her of a Greek letter (Epist. xcix.). Ascham also visited the Princess Elizabeth, and effected a reconciliation (Epist. cxi.). While in London he met Cheke, and spent nine hours on the day before his departure talking with him of old days at Cambridge (Epist. civ.). On 21 Sept. 1550 he set out from Billingsgate. He landed at Gravesend to visit Archbishop Cranmer at Canterbury, who escorted the party to Dover. In the passage to Calais Ascham and a young man alone escaped sea-sickness. On 30 Sept. Antwerp was reached; on 6 Oct. the embassy arrived at Louvain, whose university teaching he thought far inferior to that given at St. John's; afterwards he visited Cologne, where he heard a lecture on Aristotle's 'Ethics' in Greek which he says he could not admire, and travelled on to Mainz, Worms, Spires, and Ulm. On 28 Oct. Sir Richard Morysin fixed his headquarters at Augsburg. There Ascham stayed with a few intervals till the end of 1552, It was probably at the close of 1551 that he spent nine days in Italy and visited Venice, where he bitterly lamented the absence of 'all service of God in spirit and truth' (Scholemaster, p. 84). He paid occasional visits to Halle in the Tyrol (17 Nov. 1551, and 29 Jan. 1551-2), to Innspruck (18 Nov. 1551), and to Villach in Carinthia (12 July 1552). Early in 1553 he was staying at Brussels, and in July of that year he returned to England, when the embassy was recalled on the death of Edward VI. Ascham throughout these years regularly corresponded with his friends in England, and especially with his old pupils, Raven and Ireland, besides writing all Sir Richard Morysin's official despatches. In one very long English letter to Raven (20 Jan. 1550; Epist. cxvi.) he gives an entertaining account of his interviews with Charles V. To Sir William Cecil and to Cheke he sent, shortly before his return, some Roman coins; he mentioned to the latter that he had accustomed himself to write all his letters in English instead of Latin (Epist. cl.), a statement that his collected correspondence fully supports, and he informed Cecil (Epist. cxlix.) that he had ceased to feel interest in strange countries or courts, and longed for peace at Cambridge to keep company with the Bible, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Tully. The most interesting portion of his correspondence in Germany is that with the learned John Sturm, rector of the gymnasium at Strasburg and editor of Cicero. For his classical attainments Ascham had had from an early date the most sincere respect. He had apparently heard much of him from Martin Bucer, whose acquaintance Ascham had made as soon as Bucer had arrived in England, and had written a long letter from Cambridge introducing himself to the scholar on that ground early in 1550 (Epist. xcix.). He went to Strasburg