poeticall clerkes, will speake nothyng but quainte proverbes, and blinde allegories; delightyng muche in their own darknesse, especially when none can tel what thei do saie. The unlearned or folishe phantasticall, that smelles but of learnying (suche fellowes as have seene learned men in their daies) will so Latine their tongues, that the simple cannot but wonder at their talke, and thinke surely thei speake by some revelacion. I know them, that thinke RHETORIKE to stande wholie upon darke wordes; and he that can catche an ynke-horne terme by the taile, hym thei compt to be a fine Englishman and a good rhetorician. And the rather to set out this folie I will adde here suche a letter as William Sommer* himself, could not make a better for that purpose, devised by a Lincolneshire man for a void benefice.

66 TO THE LORDE CHANCELLOR.

"Ponderyng, expendyng, and revolutyng with myself, your ingent affabilitie, and ingenious capacitie, for mundane affairs, I cannot but celebrate and extoll your magnificall dexteritie above all other. For how could you have adapted suche illustrate prerogative, and dominicall superioritie,

* King Henry's Jester.

if the fecunditie of your ingenie had not been so fertile and wonderfull pregnant, &c. &c."

He speaks in the highest terms of those who studied to impart melody and grace to their periods, and gives ample directions for "joyning wordes together in apte order that the eare maie delite in hearyng the harmonie," a proof that Ascham's book had effected a complete revolution in the opinions of the learned as to the value of their vernacular language.

Wilson has contrived to render his Treatise on Rhetoric extremely interesting and curious by various traits of the manners and customs of our ancestors, and by occasionally inserting anecdotes and stories illustrative of the subject before him, and which are usually related with vivacity and humour. As this work, independent of its being the first book on English criticism, possesses great merit in point of style, I shall easily be pardoned inserting a second extract as a specimen of his narrative composition.

"An Italian," says he, "havyng a sute here in Englande to the Archbishoppe of Yorke that then was, and comynge to Yorke when one of the prebendaries there brake his bread, as they terme it, and thereupon made a solemne longe dinner, the whiche perhaps began at eleven and continued well nigh till fowr in the afternoone, at

the whiche diner this bishoppe was: it fortuned that as they were sette, the Italian knockt at the gate, unto whom the porter, perceiving his errand, answered, that my lorde bishoppe was at diner. The Italian departed, and retourned betwixte twelve and one; the porter answered they were yet at diner. He came againe at twoo of the clocke; the porter told hym thei had not half dined. He came at three a clocke, unto whom the porter in a heate answered never a worde, but churlishlie did shutte the gates upon him. Whereupon, others told the Italian, that ther was no speaking with my lord, almoste all that daie, for the solemne diner sake. The gentilman Italian, wonderyng muche at such a long sitting, and greatly greved because he could not then speake with the archbishoppe's grace, departed straight towardes London; and leavyng the dispatche of his matters with a dere frende of his, toke his journey towardes Italie. Three yeres after, it happened that an Englishman came to Rome, with whom this Italian by chaunce fallyng acquainted, asked him if he knewe the Archbishoppe of Yorke? The Englishman said, he knewe hym rightwell. I praie you tell me, quoth the Italian, hath that archbishoppe yet dined?”

The example of Wilson was speedily followed by others of inferior note. An Englishe Rhetoric

was published in 1555, by RICHARD SHERRY, school-master of Magdalen College, Oxford, another soon after by RICHARD RAINOLDE, and a tract appeared in 1571, by WILLIAM FULLWOOD, “teaching the manner and style howe to endyte and write all sorts of epistles and letters." These were, however, sterile and jejune performances, and added nothing to the stock of genuine criticism.

In the year 1573, however, the lovers of literature and criticism were favoured with a work which still holds a distinguished rank in the estimation of sound scholars, the "Schoolemaster" of ROGER ASCHAM, which, like his Toxophilus, exhibits a very improved model of style. Though professedly written with a view towards the attainment of the Latin tongue, it includes numerous very judicious observations on English composition and English writers, and, as Dr. Campbell has very truly observed, "is a book that will be always useful, and everlastingly esteemed, on account of the good sense, judicious observations, excellent characters of ancient authors, and many pleasant and profitable passages of English history, which are plentifully sprinkled therein *."

It was not long after these efforts to improve * Biographia Britannica, vol. 1st.

the style of English prose, that an attempt was made to illustrate poetry and its versification. GEORGE GASCOIGNE, the poet, gave the public, in 1575, "Certain Notes of Instruction concerning the making of Verse or Rime in English." Gascoigne was intimately acquainted with the structure of English verse, and is said by Warton to have exceeded all the poets of his age in smoothness and harmony. It is worthy of remark that his satire, entitled the Steele-Glass, is written in blank verse. This little treatise is therefore valuable as the production of a master in the art.

In 1582, RICHARD MULCASTER, a celebrated philologist, and eminent for his skill in oriental literature, printed, during the time he was head master of Merchant Taylor's School, “The first part of the ELEMENTARIE, which entreateth chefely of the right writing of the English Tung." London, 4to. This is a work of considerable merit and utility, and contains many pertinent observations on the structure of the language. He is peculiar in his mode of orthoepy, which he endeavours to assimilate to the pronunciation of his times. "From analogy," says a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine," he has formed many words which I do not remember to have seen in other writers; and several natives may be found, which our great Lexicographer has either not