Schools, School-Books and Schoolmasters Part 3

Knight explains these references in his Life of Dean Colet: "It may not be amiss to remark that many of the examples in the Latin Grammar pointed to the then juncture of public affairs; viz., the prosecution of Empson and Dudley in the beginning of Henry VIII.'s reign: as _Regum est tueri leges: Refert omnium animadverti in malos_. And this humour was the reason why, in the following editions of the Syntax, there were examples accommodated to the respective years of the impressions; as, _Audito regem Doroberniam proficisci_; _Imperator_ [Maximilian] _meruit sub rege_, &c. There were likewise in that edition of Erasmus several examples referring to Dean Colet, as _Vixit Romae_, _studuit Oxonii_, _natus est Londini_, _discessit Londini_, &c."

Annaquil is supposed to have died about 1488, and was succeeded in his work by John Stanbridge, who is much better known as a grammarian than his predecessor. Stanbridge was a native of Northamptonshire, according to Wood, and received his education at Winchester. In 1481 he was admitted to New College, Oxford, after two years' probation, and remained there five years, at the end of which he was appointed first usher under Annaquil of the Free School aforesaid, and after his princ.i.p.al's death took his place.

The exact period of his death is not determined; but he probably lived into the reign of Henry the Eighth.

II. The writings of Stanbridge are divisible into two sections--those which he published in his own lifetime, and those which appeared after his death in the form either of reimpressions or selections by his pupil Whittinton and others. The former category embraces: 1. ACCIDENCE; 2.

VOCABULA; 3. VULGARIA. In the latter I include: 1. ACCIDENTIA EX STANBRIGIANA EDITIONE RECOGNITA lima Roberti Whittintoni; 2. PARVULORUM INSt.i.tUTIO EX STANBRIGIANA COLLECTIONE. The first of these productions, not strictly to be regarded as proceeding from the pen of Stanbridge, bears the name of Whittinton; the second I merely apprehend to have been his. But the line of distinction between the publications of Stanbridge himself and posthumous, or at any rate not personally superintended reprints, is one which ought to be drawn.

There is an edition of Stanbridge's _Accidence_, printed at the end of the sixteenth century by Caxton's successor at Westminster. The variations between it and the collections which were modelled upon it, probably by John Holt, whom I shall again mention, are thus explained and stated by the author of the _Typographical Antiquities_:--

"This treats of the eight parts of reason; but they differ in several respects as to the manner of treating of them; this treating largely of the degrees of comparison, which the other (_Accidentia ex Stanbrigiana Collectione_) does not so much as mention. That gives the moods and tenses of the 4. conjugations at large, both active and pa.s.sive, whereas this gives only a few short rules to know them by. Again, this shews the concords of grammar, which the other has not."

There are at least three issues of the _Accidence_ from London presses, and a fourth in an abridged shape from an Antwerp one, presumably for the convenience of English residents in the Low Countries. The tide had by this time begun to a certain extent to flow in an opposite direction, as it were, and not only introductions to our own language were executed here and reproduced abroad, but Latin authors were beginning to find competent native interpreters, among whom John Annaquil was perhaps the foremost.

Next to the _Accidence_ of Stanbridge I shall consider briefly his _Vocabula_, which was, on the whole, the most popular of his works, and continued for the greatest length of time in vogue, as I record editions of it as late as the period of the Civil War (1647). I have not, on the other hand, met with any anterior to 1510. Annexed is a specimen:--

_De naui et eius pertinentibus._

The formost parte The hynder parte The saylewarde the bottom of the of the shyppe of the shyppe =antenna= shyppe =Prora nauis= =Puppis rostrum= =carina=

The takelynge the mast The cable an anker the stern =Armamenta= =malus= =rudens simul= =anchora= =clauus=

The hatches the pompe the water pompe the hatches =foci= =sentina c.u.m= =nautea nausea= =transtra=

The sayle cloth idem the maste of the shyppe to sayle a shypman =carbalus= =et belum= =nauergus= =et nauigo= =nauta=

Qui nauem regit idem i. nauis =nauicularius= =et nauclerus= =nauigiumq=;

Ptines ad naue to rowe qui remigat the dockes an ore =naualis= =remigio= =remus= =naualia= =remex=

Ptinens ad naue qui fregit nauem the see a wawe =nauticus et= =naufragus naufragium= =ac mare= =fretu=

To carry ouer to dryue to carry ouer the toll, or the custome =Trajitio= =appello= =transporto= =portarjumq=;

A fery man a fery barge idem a c.o.kbote a bottom =Port.i.tor= =hyppago= =ponto= =Iynter quoq=; =cymba=

This extract is highly edifying. In the concluding line _ponto_, a ferry-barge, is the modern _punt_, and _lynter_, a c.o.c.k-boat, is the early Venetian _lintra_, to which I refer in _Venice before the Stones_ as antecedent to the gondola.

III. The remaining contribution of Stanbridge to this cla.s.s of literature is his _Vulgaria_, which I take to be the least known. Dibdin describes it somewhat at large, and it may be worth while to transfer a specimen hither:--

"_Sinciput, et vertex, caput, occiput, et coma, crinis._

=hoc sinciput, is=, the fore parte of the heed =hic vertex, cis=, for the crowne of the heed =hoc caput, is=, for a heed =hoc occiput, is=, the hynder parte of the heed =hec coma, e=, for a brisshe =hic crinis, nis=, for a heer

A garment a clothe idem apparayle =Hic indumentum= =vestis= =vest.i.tus= =amictus= idem idem idem =Ornatus= =simul apparatus= =amiculus idem= a cappe agat: e idem =Ista caput gestat apex= =caliptra= =galerus= a cappe idem an hood idem =Biretum= =pilius= =cuculus= =capitiumq=;

_Vulgaria queda cu suis vernaculis compilata iuxta consuetudinem ludi litterarij diui Pauli._

Good morowe. =Bonu tibi huius diei sit primordiu.= Good nyght. =Bona nox, tranquilla nox, optata requies, &c.=

Scolers must lyue hardly at Oxford, =Scolasticos Oxonii parce viuere oportet.=

My fader hath had a greate losse on the see.

=Pater meus magna p naufragiu iactura habuit.=

Wysshers and wolders be small housholders.

=Affectatibus diuitias modica hospitalitate obseruant.="

The abridgments of Stanbridge's _Accidence_ led, I presume, to the distinction of the original text as the _Long Accidence_, although I have not personally met with more than a single edition of the work under such a t.i.tle. Dibdin, however, has a story that John Bagford had heard of one printed at Tavistock, for which the said John "would have stuck at no price."

The chief of these adaptations of the _Accidence_ is the _Parvulorum Inst.i.tutio_, which I have described as probably emanating, in the first place, from the earliest press for the use of the earliest known school at Oxford. But it was reprinted with alterations by Stanbridge, and perhaps by John Holt. In Dibdin's account of one of these recensions he observes:--

"The work begins immediately on sign. A ij:-'What is to be done whan an englysshe is gyuen to be made in latyn? Fyrst the verbe must be loked out, and yf there be moo verbes than one in a reason, I must loke out the pryncypall verbe and aske this questyon who or what, and that word that answereth to the questyon shall be the nomynatyve case to the verbe.

Except it be a verbe Impersonell the whiche wyll haue no nomynative case.'

"On the last leaf but one we have as follows:--

=Indignus dignus obscenus fedus Cice. qq hecauditu acerbus.= acerba sunt.

=Rarus iucundus absurdus turpe Tere. turpe saluber.= dictu.

=Mirandus mirus pulchrum sit Qui. multa periculosus.= dictu visuq; miranda.

=Whan there cometh a verbe after Teretius. quidna sum es fui without a relatyve incepturus es.

or a coniunccyon yf it be of the actyue sygnyfycacyon it shall be Tere. uxor tibi put in a partycyple of the fyrst ducenda est paphyle sutertens yf he be of the pa.s.syue Te oro vt synyfac.o.o.n he shall be put in the nuptie que fuerant partycyple of the latter sutertens, future fiant.

except exulo, vapulo, veneo, fio.=

IV. Robert Whittinton, whose name is probably more familiar to the ordinary student than that of the man from whom he derived his knowledge and tastes, was a native of Warwickshire, and was born at Lichfield about 1480--perhaps a little before. He received his education, as I have stated, at the Free School at Oxford, and is supposed to have gained admission to one of the colleges; but of this there is no certainty. He subsequently acquired, however, the distinction of being decorated with the laurel wreath by the University of Oxford for his proficiency in grammar and rhetoric, with leave to read publicly any of the logical writings of Aristotle; and he a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Protovates Angliae, and the credit of having been the first Englishman who was laureated.

It is certain that Whittinton became a teacher like his master Stanbridge, and among his scholars he counted William Lily, the eminent grammarian; but where he so established himself is not so clear, nor do we know the circ.u.mstances or date of his decease.

I am going to do my best to lay before the reader of these pages a clear bibliographical outline of Whittinton's literary performances; and it seems to amount to this, that he has left to us, apart from a few miscellaneous effusions, eleven distinct treatises on the parts of grammar, all doubtless more or less based on the researches and consonant with the doctrines of his immediate master Anniquil and the foreign professors of the same art, whose works had found their way into England, and had even, as in the case of Sulpicius and Perottus, been adopted by the English press.

I will first give the t.i.tles of the several pieces succinctly, and then proceed to furnish a slight description of each:--

1. De Nominum Generibis.

2. Declinationes Nominum.

3. De Syllabarum Quant.i.tate, &c.

4. Verborum Praeterita et Supina.

6. De Octo Partibus Orationis.

7. De Heteroc.l.i.tis Nominibus.

8. De Concinnitate Grammatices et Constructione.