Cæsar and Livy, for the two last, are perfect examples of Imitation. And for the two first, the old patterns be lost and as for some that be present, and of late time, they be fitter to be read once for some pleasure, than oft to be perused for any good Imitation of them. Sermonem: as 'Officia Ciceronis,

Philosophicum, in

et Ethica Aristotelis. Contentionem: as the Dialogues of Plato, Xenophon, and Cicero.

Of which kind of learning and right Imitation thereof, Carolus Sigonius hath written of late both learnedly and eloquently: but best of all, my friend Joan. Sturmius, in his commentaries upon Gorgias Platonis; which book I have in writing, and is not yet set out in print.

Humile,

Oratorium, in Mediocre,
Sublime.

Examples of these three in the Greek tongue be plentiful and perfect, as Lysias, Isocrates, and Demosthenes; and all three in only Demosthenes, in divers orations, as contra Olympiodorum, in Leptinem, and pro Ctesiphonte. And true it is, that Hermogenes writeth of Demosthenes, *"That all forms of eloquence be perfect in him." In Cicero's Orations, Medium et Sublime be most excellently handled: but Humile, in his Orations, is seldom seen: yet, nevertheless, in other books, as in some part of his Offices, and specially in Partitionibus, he is comparable in hoc humili et disciplinabili genere, even with the best that ever

* See Hermogenes's first book de Formis Orationis, cap. 1. I have not the Greek by me, and the Latin is not worth citing.

NB

wrote in Greek. But of Cicero more fully in fitter place. And thus the true difference of styles in every author, and every kind of learning, may easily be known by this division,

Which I thought in this place to touch only, not to prosecute at large; because, God willing, in the Latin tongue, I will fully handle it in my book de Imitatione.

Now to touch more particularly, which of those authors, that be now most commonly in men's hands, will soon afford you some piece of eloquence; and what manner a piece of eloquence; and what is to be liked and followed, and what to be misliked and eschewed in them; and how some again will furnish you fully withal, rightly and wisely considered, somewhat I will write, as I have heard Sir John Cheke many times say.

The Latin tongue, concerning any part of pureness of it, from the spring to the decay of the same, did not endure much longer, than is the life of a well-aged man; scarce one hundred years, from the time of the last Scipio Africanus and Lælius to the empire of Augustus. And it is notable, that Velleius Paterculus* writeth of Tully, "how that the perfection of elo

* Historicos (ut Livium quoque priorum ætati adstruas) præter Catonem et quosdam veteres et obscuros, minus LXXX annis circumdatum ævum tulit: ut nec poetarum in antiquius citeriusve processit ubertas. At oratio, ac vis forensis, perfectumque prosæ eloquentiæ decus, ut idem separetur Cato, (pace P. Crassi, Scipionisque et Lælii et Gracchorum, et Fannii, et Ser. Galbæ dixerim), ita universa sub principe operis sui

quence did so remain only in him, and in his time, as before him were few which might much delight a man, or after him, any worthy admiration, but such as Tully might have seen, and such as might have seen Tully." And good cause why: for no perfection is durable. Increase hath a time, and decay likewise; but all perfect ripeness remaineth but a moment; as is plainly seen in fruits, plums, and cherries; but more sensibly in flowers, as roses and such like; and yet as truly in all greater matters. For what *naturally can go no higher, must naturally yield and stoop again.

Of this short time of any pureness of the Latin tongue, for the first forty years of it, and all the time before, we have no piece of learning left, save Plautus and Terence, with a little rude unperfect pamphlet of the elder Cato. And as for Plautus, except the schoolmaster be able to make wise and wary choice; first, in propriety of words, then in framing of phrases and sentences, and chiefly in choice of honesty of matter; your scholar were better to play, than learn all that is in him. But surely, if judgment for the tongue, and direction for the manners, be wisely joined with the diligent reading of Plautus, then truly Plautus, for

erupit Tullio; ut delectari ante eum paucissimis, mirari vero neminem possis, nisi aut ab illo visum, aut qui illum viderit." PATERCULUS.

* "Alit æmulatio ingenia: et nunc invidia, nunc admiratio incitationem accendit. Mature quoque (so I think it should be read) quod summo studio petitum est, ascendit in summum : difficilisque in perfecto mora est; naturaliterque quod procedere non potest, recedit." IDEM.

One would imagine that Mr. Ascham had never seen Victorius's edition of Cato, de Re Rustica; since he here calls it a little rude imperfect pamphlet. And yet it was printed by Rob. Stephens, anno 1543.

r

that pureness of the Latin tongue in Rome, when Rome did most flourish in well doing, and so thereby in well speaking also, is such a plentiful storehouse for common eloquence in mean matters, and all private men's affairs, as the Latin tongue, for that respect, hath not the like again. When I remember the

worthy time of Rome wherein Plautus did live, I must needs honour the talk of that time, which we see Plautus doth use.

Terence is also a storehouse of the same tongue for another time, following soon after; and although he be not so full and plentiful as Plautus is, for multitude of matters, and diversity of words; yet his words be chosen so purely, placed so orderly, and all his stuff so neatly packed up and wittily compassed in every place, as by all wise men's judgment, "he is counted the cunninger workman, and to have his shop, for the room that is in it, more finely appointed, and trimlier ordered, than Plautus's is."

Three things chiefly, both in Plautus and Terence, are to be specially considered: the matter, the utterance, the words, the metre. The matter in both is altogether within the compass of the meanest men's manners, and doth not stretch to any thing of any great weight at all; but standeth chiefly * in uttering the thoughts and conditions of hard fathers, foolish mothers, unthrifty young men, crafty servants, subtile

* In this is chiefly contained the subject matter of all comedies, which Ovid has ingeniously comprised in two

verses:

"Dum fallax servus, durus pater, improba lena,

Vivent, dum meretrix blanda; Menandros erit." And so has, Terence before him with no less art, in the prologue to his Eunuchus.

bawds, and wily harlots; and so is much spent in finding out fine fetches, and packing up pelting matters, such as in London commonly come to the hearing of the masters of Bridewell. Here is base stuff for that scholar that should become hereafter either a good minister in religion, or a civil gentleman in service of his prince and country (except the preacher do know such matters to confute them), when ignorance surely. in all such things were better for a civil gentleman than knowledge. "And thus for matter, both Plautus and Terence be like mean painters, that work by halves, and be cunning only in making the worst part of the picture; as if one were skilful in painting the body of a naked person from the navel downward, but nothing else."

For word and speech, Plautus is more plentiful, and Terence more pure and proper. And for one respect, Terence is to be embraced above all that ever wrote in this kind of argument; because it is well known by good record of learning, and that* by Cicero's own witness, that some comedies bearing Terence's name, were written by worthy Scipio and wise Lælius; and namely Heautontimorumenos and Adelphi. And therefore, as oft as I read those comedies, so oft doth sound in mine ear the pure fine talk of Rome, which was used by the flower of the worthiest nobility that ever Rome bred. Let the wisest man, and best learned that liveth, read advisedly over the first scene of Heautontimorumenos, and the first

*"Sequutus sum, non dico Cæcilium, Mane ut ex portu in Piraeum (malus enim auctor Latinitatis est), sed Terentium, cujus fabellæ, propter elegantiam sermonis, putabantur a C. Lælio scribi: Heri aliquot adolescentuli coimus in Piraeum Cic. lib. 7. Epist. ad Attic. Ep. 3.