Sir Thomas Bodley, the famous founder of the Bodleian Library, entered Magdalen upon the accession of Elizabeth. He received his degree of B. A. in 1563, when he went as a Fellow to Merton, with which College he is now chiefly associated.
William Camden was sent to Magdalen in 1566, but what was his condition or position there it is not easy now to determine. Anthony Wood says that he was simply a chorister, perfecting himself in grammar-learning in the Free School, hard by. He left Magdalen to go to Pembroke, and later to Christ Church.
John Lyly was at Magdalen three years after Camden. Wood says that he (Lyly) was always averse to the crabbed studies of logic and philosophy. "For so it was that his geny being naturally bent to the pleasant paths of poetry (as if Apollo had given him a wreath of his own bays, without snatching or struggling) he did, in a manner, neglect academical studies, yet not so much but that he took the degree in arts. ... At that time he was esteemed at the University as a noted wit, rare poet, comical and facetious."
Samuel Daniel, "the most noted Poet and Historian of his time," says Wood, was a Commoner at Magdalen Hall (not College), where he continued about three years. "His geny being
