EXCHANGE 
 OCT 2 1913 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B M 0M3 3fll 
 
 THE 
 
 .ATIONS OF LATIN AND ENGLISH 
 DURING THE AGE OF MILTON. 
 
 WELDON T. MYERS. 
 
 RUEBUSH-ELK.1NS CO. 
 
 PRINTERS 
 
 DAYTON. VIRGINIA 
 
 Si; M 
 
THE RELATIONS 
 
 OF LATIN AND ENGLISH AS LIVING 
 
 LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND DURING 
 
 THE AGE OF MILTON 
 
 A Dissertation 
 
 accepted by the Faculty of the University of 
 Virginia as fulfilling the requirements in orig- 
 inal research for the degree of Doctor of 
 Philosophy. 
 
 By WELDON T. MYERS. M. A., Ph. D.. 
 
 Adjunct Professor of English Literature in the University of Virginia. 
 
 Omnes trahimur et ducimur ad cognitionis 
 et scientiae cupiditatem, in qua excellere 
 pulchmm putamus; labi autem, errare, 
 nescire, decipi, et malum et turpe ducimus. 
 
 CICERO, De Officiis, 1, 6. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The research for this dissertation was begun and carried 
 »n under the direction of Dr. Charles W. Kent, of the Linden 
 Kent Memorial School of English Literature in the University 
 •f Virginia. A graduate course in Seventeenth Century 
 English Prose brought up the question of classical influences. 
 Frequent general reference, in literature and criticism, to 
 the action of Latin on English prose style, led to the inquiry 
 for a detailed and specific treatise on the subject. No such 
 treatise was found; in fact, the entire subject of the direct 
 and powerful activity of Latin in England appeared to have 
 been treated only in general terms. The present work is an 
 effort to discuss in detail one aspect of that subject. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Section I: 
 
 Chapter I: 
 Chapter II 
 
 Page 
 
 7 
 
 Latin in the Schools and Universities. 13 
 
 Latin in the Schools ... 13 
 
 Latin in the University Curricula 
 
 and University Administration 25 
 
 Extra-curriculum Uses of Latin . 40 
 
 Latin as an International Language. 53 
 
 Latin in Official Correspondence . 53 
 
 Latin in Private Correspondence . 65 
 
 Publications in Latin ... 71 
 
 Latin as a Substitute for English. 105 
 
 Epistolary Latin . . . 105 
 Chapter VIII: Latin Prose . . . .117 
 
 Chapter IX: Latin Poetry ... 123 
 
 Chapter X: Diffusion of Latin . . . 140 
 
 Conclusion: Summary 162 
 
 Bibliography 165 
 
 Chapter III: 
 
 Section II: 
 
 Chapter IV: 
 Chapter V: 
 Chapter VI: 
 
 Section III: 
 
 Chapter VII: 
 
THE RELATIONS OF LATIN AND ENGLISH AS 
 LIVING LANGUAGES IN ENGLAND DUR- 
 ING THE AGE OF MILTON. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The more one inquires into the literature and life of Eng- 
 land from 1600 to 1660, the more he grows to recognize two 
 paramount subjects exercising the thought of EngHshmen of 
 that day. The first had to do with religious and ecclesiastical 
 concerns, the second with classical learning. These two 
 supreme considerations are encountered in the education, in 
 the literature, and in the politics of the times. Their prom- 
 inence is exemplified in the life and career of many men; of 
 John Milton, for instance, who spent thirty years becoming a 
 scholar, and then turning to politics and controversy lent his 
 great scholarship toward the reform of ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment. Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher, pursued somewhat 
 the same course, first devoting himself to a long series of 
 reading in the classics and to the mastery of a Latin style, 
 and then turning to political philosophy and laying down the 
 principles of a Christian commonwealth. King James I 
 exhibited the twofold interest of the times at every juncture; 
 his speeches and writings, if they contained nothing else, had 
 at least the ornament of classical and scriptural quotation. 
 Latin and the Bible, school and church, learning and contro- 
 versy — these twin ideas move conspicuously in every scene 
 which occupied the attention of Englishmen during the age 
 of Milton. 
 The interest of our present study is with only one of these 
 
 —7— 
 
ideas, that is, classical learning, which in its full scope may be 
 considered under three aspects. 
 
 First, the production of great humanistic scholars. The 
 study of books was pursued to an extent almost incredible at 
 the present day. There raged a national epidemic of scholar- 
 ship under the influence of the narrow humanism which set 
 up classical learning as an end worthy and glorious in itsfelf. 
 Boys at six or seven began the study of Latin and continued 
 until Latin epitaphs were engraved on their tombs. 
 
 In any contemporary biographical account, however brief, 
 at least one statement, for praise or blame, had reference to 
 the plenitude or deficiency of a man's proper learning. In 
 Wood's Annals of Oxford, in which he wrote sketches of hun- 
 dreds of University scholars, the one almost universal matter 
 of comment had to do with classical attainments. It is not 
 the question to what use the attainments were put, or 
 what s'ervice they performed: their mere possession is adver- 
 tised as a high accomplishment and the crown of a successful 
 life. 
 
 Second, the employment of Latin in practical living inter- 
 course. It was not at that time altogether a dead language, 
 whose last word had been uttered and stereotyped in old 
 Roman books; but it retained a vital power for daily work, 
 and along with the humble and unlearned vernacular was still 
 an instrument of civilization. 
 
 Third, the influence of classical scholarship and Latin 
 prose style on the syntax and style of English prose. The 
 contact of the two languages in the schools, in the study and 
 the writings of literary men, and to some extent in the prac- 
 tical affairs of church and state, produced on the side of the 
 English certain reactions traceable in the poetry but more 
 manifest in the prose. These marks were fortunately not 
 inherited in the prose of succeeding generations, since our 
 language later asserted its own native genius and outgrew 
 the severe impositions of a powerful foreign tongue. But in 
 the middle of the seventeenth century it was by no means 
 certain, nor unanimously desirable, that those unnatural 
 influences should pass away. Some of the most important 
 
 -8— 
 
prose writers strove deliberately to improve and upbuild the 
 inferior English by introducing from the admired and mas- 
 terly Latin the long, eloquent, comprehensive sentence, the 
 involved subordination of clauses, the inverted and emphatic 
 word-order, the introductory and demonstrative use of the 
 relative pronoun, and, finally, an excessive elaboration of dic- 
 tion, a quaintness, "that curiosa felicitas which we admire in 
 certain Latin writers both of prose and verse, such as Sallust 
 Virgil, Tacitus, but which our barbarian speech never took 
 kindly to.'" 
 
 These three aspects of high classical scholarship, — vast 
 learning, the practical use of Latin, and English prose re- 
 action, — though closely interrelated, may easily be separated 
 and detached for particular investigation. But with respect 
 to the last, that is, the reactions of English prose style in 
 contact with the Latin language and literature, the investiga- 
 tion of the other two features naturally precedes and pre- 
 pares the way.- In other words, to appreciate the formal ef- 
 fects wrought on English it is necessary first to comprehend 
 the nature and extent of the causes on the side of an intensive 
 Latin scholarship and a wide-spread employment of Latin as 
 a Hving tongue. 
 
 The original intention of this treatise was to make the 
 approach from the English side and to examine the stylistic 
 effects of the one language upon the other as recorded in the 
 English prose literature of the seventeenth century. As in- 
 vestigation proceeded, questions constantly arose with refer- 
 ence to the actual status of the foreign tongue in England: 
 Inf what esteem was Latin held in comparison with English? 
 To what extent did the composition of prose and poetry con- 
 tinue in a scholar's habits after withdrawal from the Uni- 
 versity? When the two languages came together in living 
 rivalry, bidding for choice in a piece of writing, what consid- 
 erations favored the selection of the one or the other by the 
 writer? Was the tongue of Cicero regarded as inherently a 
 finer and more powerful instrument of expression than the 
 language of Shakespeare? 
 
 1 Earle, English Prose, pp. 451-2. 
 
 -9— 
 
To give satisfactory answer to these and similar ques- 
 tions, it seemed first necessary to understand, in as thorough 
 and far-reaching a manner as possible, the relations existing 
 between Latin and English as languages living and working 
 side by side during that age of profound classical scholarship 
 and relentless classical fashion. The investigation turned, 
 therefore, from the standpoint of English, from the question 
 of eif ects, to the side of Latin, the question of influences, and 
 to the examination, in all directions, of the uses of the ancient 
 tongue in England during this period, and of its relations to 
 contemporaneous English. 
 
 Latin, then, as a living and literary tongue alongside of 
 English during the supreme classical age of Milton is the sub- 
 ject of this treatise. An effort has been made to comprehend 
 all the active uses of the older language in written and spoken 
 discourse, in prose and verse, in England, and by Englishmen; 
 to present all the activities wherein Latin stood aloof from 
 and independent of English, and all wherein the two tongues 
 came into mutual contact as rivals, as co-workers, or as sub- 
 ordinate the one to the other. 
 
 In presenting the Latinity of the whole period, the ex- 
 ample of Milton as a user of Latin has been called to witness 
 wherever a record or evidence of such use appears. A thor- 
 ough investigation of his life and literary work has been made 
 for this purpose, and his name finds a place in nearly all the 
 divisions of Latin writing in his time. He has helped to 
 illuminate the whole work, and his classical character has 
 been itself illustrated in the light of that humanistic age. 
 
 The age of Milton was selected because it marked the 
 culmination of classical scholarship and produced a prose lit- 
 erature most profoundly affected by Latin models. It is 
 moreover a period of definite limits, which promise some de- 
 gree of unity to historic inquiries. In a strict sense the liter- 
 ary age of Milton is usually understood as extending from 
 1625, about the close of the Elizabethan age, to 1660, the year 
 of the restoration, the beginning of French influence, and the 
 decisive change not only in things political and literary, but 
 
 —10- 
 
in nearly all the forces that affected the life of the English 
 people. In a broader sense the age of Milton may be taken 
 as coinciding with the years of the poet's life, from 1608 to 
 1674. In this work no rigid line has been drawn for the be- 
 ginning of the period, but the year 1615, about the time when 
 Milton's classical education began, has been generally ob- 
 served as the first limit of investigation. The year 1660, 
 marking so positive a national epoch, has been pretty faith- 
 fully respected as the other limit of inquiry. 
 
 The treatment has fallen into three main divisions as 
 follows: 
 
 Section I. Latin in the Schools and Universities. This 
 division presents the classical curricula and the vari- 
 ous extra-curriculum activities which Latin performed 
 in academic life. The schools cherished an intense 
 and narrow humanism; for long years they brought 
 classical language and ideas to bear on the mind of a 
 youth, and finally sent him forth into the world with 
 an equipment consisting largely of an ability to read, 
 think, and v^^ite in the language of Cicero, and to 
 quote from the ancient authors passages to suit every 
 possible occasion. The employment of Latin in the 
 fashion and business of the world rose out of a thor- 
 ough-going and long-continued academic training. 
 
 Section 1 1. Latin as an International Language. It was 
 the medium of intercourse between England and the 
 continental courts, and also between individual Eng- 
 lishmen and foreigners, Latin being in many cases 
 the only common speech. Moreover, literary pro- 
 ductions by EngHshmen who sought a foreign audi- 
 ence, to instruct them or to be honored by them, 
 were put in the learned tongue. In this use Latin 
 stood aloof from English, independent and alone, oc- 
 cupying a field to which the vernacular never made 
 any claim or pretense. 
 
 Section III. Latin as a Substitute for English. Consid. 
 erations of dignity, learning, decorum, and compli- 
 
 —11- 
 
ment determined the choice of the ancient and foreign 
 tongue in cases where the native speech should have 
 been more natural and effective. The classical 
 fashion of the age imposed certain burdens which 
 the boldest and most independent never thought of 
 shifting. In this division the classical atmosphere 
 and the various pervasive influences are taken into 
 consideration. 
 
SECTION I. 
 
 LATIN IN THE SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Latin in the Schools. 
 
 The early age at which the severe and thorough study of 
 Latin began for the seventeenth century EngHsh boy serves 
 to suggest what estimate the time put on its value for the 
 mature man. The grammar schools, which were so named 
 because Latin was taught therein,' admitted pupils from eight 
 to twelve years of age, and it was the custom to require some 
 knowledge of Latin grammar from all pupils who were ad- 
 mitted.- This requirement threw the study of the ancient 
 language back upon the years of very early childhood; and 
 since the hope for a boy's intellectual career looked forward 
 chiefly to the one great, all-important subject of the classics, 
 the earlier a child began his rudiments and the more 
 diligently he pursued them, the surer were his chances to attain 
 distinction in the schools and eminence in later life. It is not 
 uncommon in biographical accounts of seventeenth century 
 Englishmen, who became great or were so esteemed in schol- 
 arship or literature, to find record of very early interest in 
 classical studies. For instance, it is an item in the biography 
 of Thomas Hobbes (born 1588), that he was learning Latin 
 and Greek at the age of six, and made such rapid advance- 
 ment that before fourteen he was able to translate the Medea 
 of Euripides into Latin iambics. ^ The future philosopher, 
 while in his youth a tutor to the Earl of Devonshire, approved 
 his own intellectual training by urging his young pupil into 
 
 1 Mark's Educational Theories, p. 95. 
 
 2 Do., 77. 
 
 3 Robertson's Hobbes, p. 4. 
 
 —13- 
 
strenuous classical ways, and dictating to him a Latin ab- 
 stract of Aristotle's Rhetoric. John Evelyn, the diarist, in 
 speaking of his earliest education, notices a sort of belated- 
 ness in the start he made. Under the year 1624 he writes: 
 "I was not initiated into my rudiments till I was four years 
 of age;" and later he observes: "It was not till the year 
 1628" [i. e. till his eighth year] "that I was put to learn my 
 Latin rudiments, and to write of one Citolin, a Frenchman, 
 in Lewes."' The boy of whom any special expectation was 
 entertained in the way of learning had to start his Latin al- 
 most in infancy, — to lisp in Latin, like a young Roman of the 
 ancient republic. 
 
 With this early progress in classical paths, and with a 
 vast background of classical tradition for centuries in English 
 history, religion and literature, giving tone and character to 
 the individual mind from the first steps in education, it was 
 to be expected that marvels of linguistic precocity would 
 arise. Latin had been petted and coddled in the schools, in 
 the law courts, in the church, and in the very conversation of 
 men, for so long that its presence and possession was every- 
 where, and the child of any hope was born to that language 
 as surely as to his own. An instance of juvenile achievement 
 in school is related with admiration by Thomas Fuller. "I 
 know a school-boy," he says, "not above twelve years old, and 
 utterly ignorant of all logical terms, who was commanded to 
 English the following distich: 
 
 Dat Galenus opes et Justinianics honores. 
 
 Cum genus, et species, cogitur ire pedes. 
 Only they favored the boy so far, that Galenus did signify 
 the profession of physic, Justinianusof law; on which ground 
 he thus proceeded: 
 
 'Galenus, the study of physic, dat giveth, opes wealth; 
 Justinianus, the study of law, dat giveth, honores honours; 
 cum when, genv^ high birth, et species and beauty [having n* 
 other calling (saith the boy) to maintain them], co(7i7wr is 
 compelled, ire pedes to go on foot.' "- 
 
 1 Evelyn's Diary, under the years indicated. 
 « Fuller's Worthies, I, p. 98. 
 
 —14- 
 
It was of course a matter of exultation to parents and 
 master to hear such smooth and perfect scholarship from the 
 lips of one so young. They must have showered commenda- 
 tions upon him and prophecied his fair distinction in the 
 world. We cannot ignore the value also of the moral senti- 
 ment in the verses: many a time, on apt occasion thereafter, 
 the boy, grown to manhood and position, may have bestowed 
 a warning precept on youth or adorned an argument in poli- 
 tics or religion, with quotation of the long-known elegiacs. 
 
 When among any people a certain fashion of thought and 
 education is persisted in for generations, there will arise not 
 only precocity in youth but also prodigies in later life. The 
 age of Milton in England emphasized religion and learning, 
 and it was an era of preachers and scholars, sects and con- 
 troversies, fanatics and bookworms. But it produced, as its 
 best fruit .on the one hand, George Fox, the first of the 
 Quakers^ Roger Williams, the advocate of religious liberty,' 
 Cromwell, the Puritan warrior and statesman, and John Bun- 
 yan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress; on the other hand, 
 Archbishop Usher, author of the long-accepted Biblical 
 chronology, John Selden, the rival and antagonist of Hugo 
 Grotius in learning and controversy, and John Milton, the 
 vanquisher of Claudius Salmasius and author of Paradise Lost. 
 It was the education of the boy that made the man, and Latin 
 was the subject that made the schools. 
 
 Let us look now at the curriculum of the school which the 
 child entered between eight and twelve years of age, after 
 his elementary instruction in the rudiments of Latin. Eton 
 College may be taken as an example. There is a detailed ac- 
 count given of the studies pursued at Eton in 1560, and the 
 only slight change during the succeeding generations was 
 some additional attention paid to Greek. ' There were seven 
 forms in the school and the books studied were as follows:' 
 
 "In the first form, Cato and Vives. 
 
 1 Lyte's Eton, p. 209. 
 
 2 Do., 146, ff. 
 
 —15- 
 
"In the second, Terence, Lucian's Dialogues (in Latin) 
 and Aesop's Fables (in Latin). 
 
 "In the third, Terence, Aesop's Fables (in Latin), and Se- 
 lections by Sturmius from Cicero's Epistles. 
 
 "In the fourth, Terence, Ovid's Tristia, and the Epi- 
 grams of Martial, Catullus, and Sir Thomas More. 
 
 "In the fifth, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Horace, Cicero's 
 Epistles, Valerius Maximus, Lucius Florus, Justin, and 
 'Sysembrotus'. 
 
 * 'In the sixth and seventh, Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero 
 de Officiis and de Amicitia, Virgil, Lucan, and the Greek 
 Grammar." 
 
 "It is clear," says Lyte, "that Latin viras almost the only 
 subject of study [at Eton], and that no means of inculcating 
 a sound knowledge of it was neglected. The lower boys had 
 to decline and conjugate words, and their seniors had to re- 
 peat rules of grammar, for the illustration of which short 
 phrases called 'Vulgaria' were composed and committed to 
 memory. Some sort of Latin composition, however brief, 
 was a necessary portion of the daily work of every Eton 
 scholar. In the lower form it was confined to the literal 
 translation of an English sentence or passage, while in the 
 fifth form it consisted of a theme on a subject set by the 
 Master. The boys in the sixth and seventh forms used 
 
 to write verses The Master and Usher used to read 
 
 aloud and explain to the boys the passages which were to be 
 learnt by heart."* 
 
 Such was the curriculum at Eton in 1560, and, with slight 
 change, for the two centuries following. To show further 
 how the young mind was brought up in<en intellectual world 
 whose meat and drink were Latin and Greek, the following 
 extended description is given of the seventeenth century 
 work of another of the great English public schools. It is an 
 account of studies at Westminster. 
 
 "About a quarter of an hour after 5 in the morning we 
 were called up by one of the Monitors of the chamber; and 
 
 I Lyte's Eton, p. 146. 
 
 -16- 
 
»fter Latin prayers we went to the cloysters to wash, and 
 thence in order, two by two, to the schools, where we were to 
 be by 6 of the clock at furthest. Between 6 and 8 we re- 
 peated our grammar parts (out of Lilie for Latin, out of 
 Cambden for Greek); 14 or 15 being selected and called out 
 to stand in a semicircle before the Mr. and the scholars, and 
 there repeat 4 or 5 leaves in either, the Mr. appointing who 
 
 , should begin and who should go on with such and such rules. 
 After this we had two exercises that varied every other 
 morning. The first morning we made verses extempore Latin 
 and Greek, upon two or three themes; and they that made 
 the best (two or three of them) had some money given them 
 by the school-Mr., for the most part. The second morning, 
 one of the form was called out to expound some part of a 
 Latin or Greek author (Cicero, Livie, Isocrates, Homer, Apol- 
 linarius, Xenophon, &c. ), and they of the two next forms 
 were called to give an account of it some other part of the 
 day; or else they were all of them (or such as were picked 
 out, of whom the Mr. made choice by the fear or confidence 
 discovered in their looks) to repeate and pronounce distinctly 
 without book some piece of an author that had been learned 
 the day before. From 8 to 9 we had time for Beaver, and re- 
 collection of ourselves, and preparation for future exercises. 
 Between 9 and 11, those exercises were read which had been 
 enjoined us over night (one day in prose, the next day in 
 verse), which were selected by the Mr. ; some to be examined 
 -and punished, others to be commended and proposed for imi- 
 tation. Which being done, we had the practice of the Dicta- 
 mina; one of the 5th form being called out to translate some 
 sentences out of an unexpected author {extempore) into good 
 Latin; and then one of the 6th or 7th form to translate the 
 
 ^same [extempore also) into good Greek. Then the Mr. 
 expounded some part of a Latin or Greek author (one day in 
 prose, another in verse) wherein we were to be practised in 
 the afternoon. At dinner and supper times we read some 
 portion of the Latin Bible in a manuscript (to facilitate the 
 reading of such hands) : and, the Prebendaries then having 
 their table commonly in the Hall, some of them had often- 
 
 -17- 
 
times good remembrances sent unto them from thence, and 
 withal a theme to make or speak some extempore verses upon 
 them. Betwixt 1 and 3, that lesson which out of some author 
 appointed for that day had been by the Mr. expounded unto 
 them (out of Cicero, Virgil, Homer, Euripides, Isocrates, 
 Livie, Sallust, &c. ) was to be exactly gone through by con- 
 struing and other grammatical ways, examining all the 
 Rhetorical figures, and translating it out of verse into prose, 
 or out of prose into verse, out of Greek into Latin, or out of 
 Latin into Greek. Then they were enjoined to commit that 
 to memory against the next morning. Betwixt 3 and 4 we 
 had a little respite; the Mr. walking out and they (in beaver- 
 times) going in order to the Hall, and then fitting themselves 
 for the next task. Between 4 and 5 they repeated a leaf or 
 two of some book of Rhetorical figures, or some choice Prov- 
 erbs and Sentences, collected by the Mr. for that use. After, 
 they were practised in translating some Dictamina out of 
 Latin or Greek, or sometimes turning Latin or Greek verses 
 into English verse. Then a theme was given them, where- 
 upon to make prose of verses, Latin or Greek, against the 
 next morning. After supper (in summer-time) they were 
 three or four times in a week called to the Mr.'s chamber 
 (especially they of the seventh form), and there instructed 
 out of Hunter's Cosmographie, and practised to describe and 
 find out cities and countries in the maps. Upon Sundays be- 
 fore morning prayers in summer they came commonly into 
 the school (such as were King's scholars), and there construed 
 some part of the gospel in Greek, or repeated some part of 
 the Greek catechism. In the afternoon they made verses upon 
 the preacher's sermon, or epistle and gospel. The best 
 scholars in the 7th form were appointed as Tutors to read 
 and expound places of Homer, Virgil, Horace, Euripides, or 
 other Greek and Latin authors, at those times (in the fore- 
 noon, or afternoon, or after beaver-times) wherein the schol- 
 ars were in the school in expectation of the Mr. The scholars 
 were governed by several Monitores (two for the Hall, as 
 many for the Church, the School, the Field, the cloyster— 
 
 -18- 
 
which last attended them to washing, and were called Moni- 
 tores immundorum) J The Captain of the School was over all 
 these, and therefore caWed Monitor Monitorum.^ These Mon- 
 itors kept them strictly to speaking of Latin, in their several 
 commands; and withal they presented their complaints or 
 Accusations (as we called them) every Friday morning, when 
 the punishments were often redeemed by exercises, or favours 
 shown to the boys of extraordinary merit, who had the honour 
 (by the Monitor Monitorum) many times to beg and prevail 
 for such remissions. And so. at other times, other faults 
 were often punished by scholastic tasks, as repeating whole 
 orations out of Tullie, Isocrates, Demosthenes, or speeches 
 out of Virgil, Thucydides, Xenophon, Euripides, &c. "^ 
 
 This quotation has been extended to great length because 
 of its frank and full testimony to the Latin drill and routine 
 of the seventeenth century English school. It will be no 
 wonder to anyone, after seeing the relentless pressure of 
 classical training on the school-boy, to find in later life 
 and business the two languages, Latin and English, alive and 
 working side by side, sometimes in rivalry, sometimes in 
 cooperation, and again apart and independently. On looking 
 into the day's program at Eton or Westminster, and observ- 
 ing the mother tongue disgraced and banished, and Latin 
 holding imperial sway, one might expect that Rome was des- 
 tined to conquer Britain once more, not with her legions but 
 her language, literature and ideas. Fortunately the large 
 body of English children were saved from advancing far in 
 their academic education, and so the great vernacular, 
 though invaded and injured, remained invincible. 
 
 As at Eton and Westminster, so at St. Paul's, Milton's 
 old school, classical studies formed almost the entire curri- 
 culum. Hebrew and the Oriental tongues had gained some 
 Blight recognition, out of respect to the sources of the Bible. 
 
 1 Monitors of the unbathed. 
 
 2 Monitor of the Monitors. 
 
 3 A passage quoted by Monroe, History Education, pp. 625-7. 
 
 —19- 
 
There were eight forms at St. Paul's. The curriculum ex- 
 tended over from four to six years, the age of entrance being 
 from eight to twelve, that of departure from fourteen to 
 eighteen. After the eighth grade, "being commonly by this 
 time made perfect grammarians, good orators and poets, and 
 well instructed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and sometimes 
 in other Oriental tongues," the students passed on to the 
 Universities.^ So passed Milton to Cambridge in 1624, at the 
 age of sixteen. 
 
 It will be proper at this time to glance at a reform scheme 
 for education proposed by a thinker no less original and pro- 
 gressive than Milton himself. Having considered what the 
 young pupil was actually subjected to, we may now notice 
 what relief, if any, was projected for him by a liberal and 
 independent mind. In 1644, twelve years after Milton had 
 emerged from Cambridge and after a long period spent in 
 studious leisure, after a journey to Italy, and later a close 
 acquaintance with Comenius's ideas of educational reform, 
 together with experience of his own in teaching private 
 pupils, the young poet and scholar had formed some clear 
 notions of an ideal education for the ambitious and capable 
 youth of his day, for the young gentlemen whose future 
 would find them legislators and commanders in their coun- 
 try's service. He wrote out his new scheme, with com- 
 mentaries upon it, and with an introduction setting forth 
 purposes and principles. It is chiefly the aim of Milton's 
 plan that saves it from being the same educational program 
 of Eton or of Cambridge. In form and external aspect it 
 would not threaten to revolutionize education of that day, 
 and in the hands of a shallow master it would easily revert to 
 the narrow humanism of the schools. 
 
 Milton would put a complete library of Greek and Latin 
 authors in the hands of boys, but would encourage them to 
 study the subject, not the language; to study, e. g., agricul- 
 ture through Cato and Virgil, not Cato and Virgil on agricul- 
 ture. And so on— arithmetic, geometry, geography, natural 
 
 I Masson 1, p. 51. 
 
 —20- 
 
philosophy, astronomy, physic, ethics, economics, politics, the 
 grounds of law, theology, church history, logic, rhetoric, 
 poetics, —all are to be learned through Latin and Greek, with 
 slight reading in Hebrew, Syrian, Chaldee, and Italian. The 
 subject-matter, not the form and grammar, of the books is to 
 kept in mind; and the practical nature of each course is to be 
 emphasized by concrete application. For example, the study 
 of agriculture is for improving the tillage of English land, re- 
 covering bad soil, and remedying "the waste that is made of 
 good." Physic is for knowing the "tempers, the humours, 
 the seasons, and how to manage a crudity, " which knowledge 
 "may, at some time or other, save an army." Exercises in 
 composition are not to be bothered with during the course of 
 acquiring knowledge, but postponed till the mind is stored 
 with truth gathered abundantly from every field: language 
 drill and rhetorical exercises find no place in the new plan. 
 Along with studies, attention is systematically given to gym- 
 nastics, military drills, and excursions to points of public in- 
 terest. 
 
 All this is very good, and Milton may scorn language for 
 its own sake as "so much miserable Latin and Greek", but 
 as long as he holds those languages as the necessary medium 
 for reaching all knowledge — for gaining "universal insight 
 into all things" — many a poor eye would fail to struggle 
 through the difficult medium to the precious thing beyond. 
 Milton did not and in his century could not understand that 
 the language-medium should for economy's sake be as clear 
 as possible. If, in the study of Cato, Varro, and Columella, 
 the pupils find the language difficult, "so much the better, " 
 he wrote, "it is not a difficuly beyond their years." 
 
 This is the doctrine of reform in education for the seven- 
 teenth centifi-y, and the reform of perhaps the most liberal 
 and progressive thinker of the day. Language is not any 
 longer to be studied for its own sake, and yet many difficult 
 tongues are to be mastered in order to acquire through them 
 the substance of knowledge. For a mind like Milton's, all- 
 
 —21- 
 
comprehensive and indefatigable, the system might have been 
 tolerable, but for inferior faculties it would have remained, 
 like the the courses at Eton, Westminster, and St. Paul's, a 
 long, painful exercise in language. The reformer himself 
 confessed that he had made a bow not "for every man to 
 shoot in, that counts himself a teacher: but [it] will require 
 sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses." 
 For our purpose Milton's Tract on Education shows the inevi- 
 table grip the classical languages held on men's minds in the 
 seventeenth century educational systems, and sets in clearer 
 light the activities and impulses in connection with Latin in 
 that industrious and learned age. 
 
 In the public schools, it was not only the curriculum and 
 the set tasks and routine that gave the languages their over- 
 whelming advantage over every other object of thought. To 
 point out the right direction of learning, and to give a fore- 
 taste of its sweetness, choice Latin inscriptions and mottoes 
 were set up in the schools before the eyes of the young pupils, 
 as finger-boards along the way. Old St. Paul's, which the 
 future reformer attended, and which went down in the fire 
 of 1666, was a model for those guiding mottoes, which he 
 who ran cou d read. Over the windows, across the face of 
 the building toward the street, were inscribed in large capitals 
 the words: SCHOLA CATECHIZATIONIS PUERORUM IN 
 CHRIST! OPT. MAX. FIDE ET BONIS LITERIS;^ and im- 
 immediately below the door the short invitation: "Tngredere 
 ut proficias.'"'^ On the windows inside the rooms for the last 
 four forms were painted the less conciliatory words: Aut doce 
 aut disce aut discede/'^ This threefold classification of duties 
 was sometimes reduced to two by severe masters, in putting 
 the warning to pupils: aut disce aut discede ;^ learn or get out. 
 
 1 School of Catechism for boys in the faith of Christ supremely good 
 and great, and in good literature. 
 
 2 Enter and achieve. 
 
 3 Either teach or learn or leave the place. 
 
 * Masson, I, p. 50, describes St. Paul's in Milton's school-days. 
 
 —22— 
 
Latin was thus in the very air breathed. Imagine the young 
 lad of eight or ten arriving for admission at St. Paul's, and on 
 approach finding with his curious and wondering eyes the in- 
 scriptions over windows and door, and summoning his little 
 stock of preparatory Latin for a brave scholarly effort to 
 construe their meaning. When once he crossed the threshold, 
 it was to find other inscriptions in the same precious tongue 
 which he was entering to learn. 
 
 In classical Eton this teaching on the walls was by no 
 means neglected. Isaac Walton records' that when Sir Henry 
 Wotton came as Provost to Eton, "he was a constant cherisher 
 of all those youths in that school, in whom he found either a 
 constant diligence or a genius that prompted them to learn- 
 ing. For whose encouragement he was (besides many other 
 things of necessity and beauty) at the charge of setting up in 
 it two rows of pillars, on which he caused to be choicely 
 drawn the pictures of divers of the most famous Greek and 
 Latin historians, poets and orators: persuading them not to 
 neglect rhetoric, because 'Almighty God has left mankind 
 affections to be wrought upon.' And he would often say 
 'That none despised eloquence but such dull souls as were not 
 capable of it.' " 
 
 Under such pressure the boy grew up, with Latin in the 
 books he opened for his eyes to pore upon, and Latin on the 
 walls to catch the random glance and fill up, without loss to 
 learning, the would-be idle moment. Latin was in his ears, 
 not only in the regular class drill, but in the incidental talk 
 of his fellow-pupils, or in the short warning of master or 
 usher: aut disce aut discede. Certainly by suggestion and 
 environment Latin was in fair way to become the all-import- 
 ant, all-absorbing object of sense and contemplation. It was 
 both the goal of all endeavor and at the same time the very 
 means toward its own attainment. It followed upon itselfp 
 turning the learner's mind round and round in smooth and 
 never-ending circle. 
 
 Consideration has been taken of the courses of study in 
 
 I Walton, Lives, pp. 158-9 (Ed. 1852.) 
 
 -23— 
 
the public schools, of the Latin authors that were read in the 
 original, and of the influences stimulating toward a narrow 
 and intense humanism. For Latin composition we may take 
 a glance at the sort of book esteemed of value for the seven- 
 teenth century student. The one before us is entitled "Cal- 
 liopeia, or A rich Store-house of proper, choice, and elegant 
 Latin words, and phrases, collected (for the most part) out 
 of all Tullies workes: and for the use and benefit of Scholars, 
 digested into alphabetical order. By Thomas Draxe. Dublin, 
 1612." Like the door of St. Paul's, this old book could not 
 admit the learner to its inner treasures without giving him a 
 taste of learning on the threshold. The title-page held three 
 quotations from Cicero Ad Brutum, one being a particular 
 rhetorical jewel: Verborum delectus origo eloquentiae.^ The 
 title-page is followed by a four-page Latin dedication, en- 
 thusiastic and eloquent, addressed to Thomas Leigh, Claris- 
 simo, Generosissimo et Magnae Expectationis Adolescentulo,'^ " 
 &c. From the dedication one advances to a Carmeii Pa- 
 raeneticum, ad Studiosam Juventutem,'-^ in eighteen elegiac 
 verses, — a typical seventeenth century encouragement to 
 aspiring youth. A passage from the Carmen explains the plan 
 of the Calliopeia: 
 
 Verborum et Phrasium grande volumen habes. 
 Non hie barbaries, nee verba incondita sedem, 
 
 Sed tam,tum inveniunt verba venusta locum, 
 Hinc literal laute scribes, discesque minuto 
 
 Tempore, praeclare, Rhetoriceque loqui.'^ 
 
 The method thus eulogized follows next, and the body of 
 the book — the grande volumen— is presented. From a speci- 
 
 1 The choice of words is the beginning of eloquence. 
 
 2 A most distinguished and noble youth, of great expectation. 
 
 3 Verses for the encouragement of studious youth. 
 
 4 You have here a full volume of words and phrases. No barbarous 
 or uncouth words, but only words of approved elegance, have found a place 
 herein. From this book you will learn in a little while how to write with 
 finish and to speak in a fine rhetorical style. 
 
 —24— 
 
men of the two-columned pages, the method and order of 
 word-study are self-explaining. The alphabetical arrange- 
 ment is on the English side. 
 
 To abandon, renounce, dis- 
 claim 
 
 Abjicere 
 
 Rejicere 
 
 Adversari 
 
 Abnegare 
 
 Abremmtiare 
 
 quid 
 
 To abate, to lessen, or to 
 diminish 
 
 Imminuere 
 
 Attenuare 
 
 Rem minor em facer e 
 
 De quantitate detrahere 
 
 De numero demere. 
 
 The following specimen, so useful for seventeenth century 
 religious controversy, was hardly derived from "Tullies 
 workes. " 
 
 The Word of God. 
 
 Verbum Dei, Sacra Scriptura, 
 Oraculum Jehovae, Sacra Biblia, 
 Vox Dei, Divinus Sermo, Sacra 
 Dogmata Dei, Lex Dei. 
 
 Thomas Draxe, the author, "a pious and excellent 
 preacher," contributed a number of other works to learning 
 and religion, some of them in the language which his Calli- 
 opeia so earnestly encouraged. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Latin in the Universities. 
 
 If after graduating from the public schools the young 
 man proceeded to the University, jie simply kept on in the 
 same direction in which the earlier studies had started him. 
 The system of education at Cambridge in vogue in Milton's 
 day "had been founded very much on the mediaeval notion 
 of what constituted the totum scibile. According to this 
 notion there were 'Seven Liberal Arts', apart from and sub- 
 ordinate to Philosophy proper and Theology— to wit. Gram- 
 mar, Logic, and Rhetoric, forming together what was called 
 the Trivium; and Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and 
 Music, forming together what was called the Quadrivium. 
 Assuming some rudiments of these arts as having been ac- 
 quired in school, the Universities undertook the rest; paying 
 most attention however to the Trivium, and to Philosophy as 
 their sequel."* 
 
 The regular routine of work at Cambridge consisted of two 
 parts: "the College-studies, or the attendance of the students 
 on the lectures and examinations of the College-tutors or lectu- 
 rers in Latin, Greek, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, etc. ; and 
 the University-exercises, or the attendance of the students, 
 together with the students of other Colleges, in the 'public 
 schools' of the University, either to hear the lectures of the 
 University-professors of Greek, Logic, etc. (which, however, 
 was not incumbent on all students), or to hear, and to take 
 part in the public disputations of those students of all the 
 Colleges who were preparing for their degrees. "- 
 
 The regular language used in all the courses of lectures, 
 by lecturers or professors, in the individual college and 
 
 1 Maason I, 193. 
 ■i Masson I, 96. 
 
 —26— 
 
in the "public schools" of the University, was Latin.' 
 The same lanpruage, for the most part, as in Milton's educa- 
 tional scheme, made up the books for the student's private 
 reading. Thus the four years of undergraduate study, and 
 if one continued on for his M. A. degree, three years more of 
 graduate courses, kept the young man's mind occupied with 
 lectures, readings, and various exercises, chiefly in the an- 
 cient tongue. No application of the word thorough could be 
 made to anything more appropriately than to the perpetual 
 round of Latin activities carried on throughout an academic 
 career. 
 
 The ability to write and speak the language was one of 
 the foremost aims of University training, and it was pro- 
 vided in the statutes that candidates for the bachelor's or 
 master's degree should be particularly examined as to their 
 ready skill in treating every-day affairs in Latin.- Training 
 in composition and oral discourses was given in the different 
 Colleges, and in the disputations of the "public schools", in 
 which one was required to participate before graduation. 
 During the last year of his undergraduateship the student 
 rose to rank as Sophlster, and was entitled to enter the 
 exercises of the public schools and to participate in disputa- 
 tion with other students from the various Colleges 
 
 During this last year and generally in the closing term 
 of the year, the University statutes required each candidate 
 for graduation to keep two "Acts" or "Responsions" in the 
 public schools; preparation for which had been received by 
 similar exercises in the several Colleges. An Act or Respon- 
 sion was the maintaining, before an audience of Sophisters 
 and graduates from the various Colleges, some proposition ap- 
 proved by the proctor. It was usually a moral or metaphys- 
 ical thesis, and was presented in Latin carefully prepared. 
 After the delivery of this Responsion, by a Sophister, three 
 other Sophisters of different Colleges, who were previously 
 appointed for the task, spoke one after the other, in off-hand 
 
 1 Laudian Code of Statutes, Titulus IV, §2. 
 
 a Laudian Code of Statutes, Titulus IX, Sec. II, § 1. 
 
 -27— 
 
Latin, attempting by logic and rhetoric to refute the thesis 
 of the Respondent. These attempts at refutation were called 
 Opponencies, and the speakers Opponents. If an Opponent, 
 with the double burden of Latin and logic upon him, stuck in 
 the midst of a syllogism, or of a rhetorical period, the moder- 
 ator, some Master of Arts, was there to help him out. When 
 all the Opponencies were spoken, the moderator commented 
 on the discussion with appropriate criticism of the disputants, 
 and the Act was over. Two Responsions and two Opponen- 
 cies were required of every Sophister.' 
 
 These disputations in Latin not only formed a necessary 
 part of every student's University career but also furnished 
 public entertainment on great occasions. The gala-days of the 
 University of Cambridge were Vesperiae Comitiorum and Dies 
 Comitiorum, the eve of Commencement and Commencement 
 Day itself. The essential business of these days was the con- 
 ferring of the higher degrees on successful candidates— M A., 
 D. D., M. D., LL. D., and Mus. D. The chief entertainment, 
 however, consisted in public disputations, and in the displays 
 of Latin oratory wherein the graduates had for long years 
 been laboriously trained. The choice of disputants was care- 
 fully made to secure the very best, and thereby render the 
 occasion as lively and brilliant as possible. From morning 
 till late in the afternoon of both the Vesperiae Comitiorum 
 and the Dies Comitiorum, crowded audiences were delighted 
 to listen to the learned scholastic debates representing the 
 various faculties of Theology, Philosophy, Civil Law, Medi- 
 cine and Music. 
 
 In the theological and philosophical faculties, where the 
 candidates were most numerous, the greatest public interest 
 centered, on Commencement Day. There were usually two 
 theological disputations, one for the senior divines, with a 
 Respondent selected from the commencing Doctors, and one 
 for the juniors, with the Respondent from those last admit- 
 ted to the B. D. degree. Opponents were supplied from the 
 same groups. For the philosophical disputation, the dis- 
 
 I Masson I, 100; Laudian Code, Tit. VI. 
 
 -28- 
 
putants were usually selected from the new Bachelors of 
 Arts; but since these Commencement exercises served only 
 as brilliant entertainments, and not as conditions of gradua- 
 tion, it happened that if the Bachelors could not furnish the 
 fit men, both the Respondents and the Opponents might be 
 secured from the Masters of "not more than four years' 
 standing." There was also at these exercises the prevari- 
 cator or Varier, an important figure, the licensed jester for 
 the hour, who accompanied the disputations with Latin witti- 
 cisms and hits at the dons J 
 
 Milton's formal exercises in Latin during his college 
 career were seven in number, and remain in their original 
 form, having been published in 1674 in a volume with his 
 Familiar Epistles - The titles are as follows: (1) Uti-um 
 Dies an Nox praestantior sitl^ (2) De Sphaerarum Concentw* 
 (3) Contra Philosophiam Scholasticam;'' (4) In rei cuiicslihet 
 interitii non datiir resoliitio ad materiaiyi primamf (4) Non 
 dantur formae partiales in animali praeter totalemf (6) Ex- 
 ercitationes nonnumquam ludicras Philosophiae studiis nan 
 ohessef' {7)Beatiores reddit homhies Ars quant Ignorantia.^ 
 
 Exercise marked (6), presenting an argument in favor 
 of occasional jolly relaxation, was followed by a discourse 
 apparently to illustrate the sort of fun just recommended. 
 It was a strained and unnatural effort at vulgar jokes which 
 suited the character of Milton far less than did the loftier 
 strains. The peroration is in English verse, and Milton says 
 
 1 Masson I, 140-4; Cf. Laudian Code, Tit VII. 
 
 3 Masson I, 205 ff. 
 
 3 Is day or night more excellent? 
 
 * The music of the spheres. 
 
 5 Against the scholastic philosophy. 
 
 6 The perishing of anything does not imply a resolution to original 
 matter. 
 
 7 There are partial forms in an animal, in addition to the whole. 
 
 s Occasional indulgence in sportive exercises does not interfere with 
 the studies of philosophy. 
 
 9 Men are made more happy by knowledge than by ignorance. 
 
 —29— 
 
as he begins it: "Leaping over the University statutes, as 
 if they were the walls of Romulus, I run from Latin to Eng- 
 lish." This peroration was first published in 1673 in a new 
 edition of Milton's miscellaneous poems, and headed: "Anno 
 aetatis 19: at a vacation exercise in the College, part Latin, 
 part English." The beginning is an address to his native 
 tongue, rather complimentary for that time and place. The 
 whole exercise typifies the struggle which took place in Mil- 
 ton's mind on many occasions in later life when he had to 
 decide between the two languages. The exercise marked (7) 
 above was a long oration, occupying about an hour in speak- 
 ing. Masson calls it "one of the noblest pieces of Latin 
 prose ever penned by an Englishman."' 
 
 Other examples of Latin theses defended and opposed in 
 Cambridge disputations may be given. In 1628 the theses of 
 the Divinity Respondents were: (1) Auctoritas Sacrae 
 Scri'pturae non pendet ah ecclesiaf (2) Defectus gratiae non 
 tollit dominium tempor ale ;^ (3) Secessio Ecclesiae Anglicanae 
 a Romana non est Schismatica;'^ (4) Fides justif leans prae- 
 supponit veri nominis poenitantiamJ The philosophical Re- 
 spondent maintained the theses Naturam non pati senium,^ 
 and was favored by Milton who wrote for him some Latin 
 hexameters on the chosen subject." In the year of Milton's 
 graduation, 1632, there were only two divinity graduates, and 
 there were two divinity acts on Commencement Day, July 3. 
 In the first act, one Dr. Gilbert maintained the theses: (1) 
 Sola Scripturaregula Fidei,^ and (2) Reliquiae peccati manent 
 
 1 These exercises are reviewed by Masson, I, 205-230. 
 3 The authority of the Sacred Scriptures does not depend on the 
 church. 
 
 3 Want of grace does not forfeit temporal power. 
 
 * The separation of the Church of England from Rome is not a schism. 
 
 5 A justifying faith presupposes a genuine repentance. 
 
 9 Nature never grows old. 
 
 7 These theses are mentioned in Masson I, 145-146. 
 
 ^ Scripture alone is the rule of faith. 
 
 —30- 
 
in renatis etiam post haptismum.^ In the second act, the 
 Respondent was one Mr. Breton, who maintained: (1) In 
 optimis renator^im operihus datur culpabilisdefectics,'^ and (2) 
 N2id2is assens7is divinitus revelatis non est fides justificans.^ 
 
 These examples of academic exercises are sufficient to 
 show the nature of the propositions contended for, the topics 
 for which the schools and the times had a preference. Not 
 only was Latin the language used in the disputations, but the 
 ideas themselves were as remote from "men's business and 
 bosoms" as the language was from the homely every-day 
 speech of the people. The only value these exercises pos- 
 sessed was the power of discipline for the perfecting of the 
 Latin tongue. But, in the estimation of most men, that value 
 was sufficient and fulfilled the aim of education. A few, 
 like Bacon, Milton, and Hobbes, ridiculed the schoolmen for 
 their miserable Latin and Greek, and their learned bewilder- 
 ment in matters incomprehensible and in questions of ab- 
 struse philosophy.'* 
 
 Responsions and Opponencies, besides furnishing logical 
 and rhetorical training in College and University and forming 
 learned entertainment on Commencement days, served also 
 as a part of programs for amusing distinguished visitors at 
 any time during the year. For instance, in September, 1629, 
 when Lord Holland, recently elected Chancellor, visited 
 Cambridge, he listened to an Act in which the theses were: 
 (1) Productio animae rationalis est nova creatio^ ; (2) Origo 
 fontium est amari; (3) Regimen monxtrchicum haereditarium 
 praestat electivo.^ In 1615, on the occasion of James I's sec- 
 
 1 Relics of sin remain in the regenerate even after baptism. 
 
 3 In the best acts of the regenerate there is found some culpable 
 shortcoming. 
 
 3 Bare assent to revelation is not a justifying faith. Masson I, 191- 
 192. 
 
 * For example, Milton's Education, 5th paragraph; Hobbes's Levia- 
 than, chapter VIII, last paragraph. 
 
 5 The production of a rational life is a new creation. 
 
 6 Streams have their origin in the sea. An hereditary monarchy is 
 superior to an elective as a form of government. Masson I, 158. 
 
 -31— 
 
ond visit to Cambridge, Chappel, Milton's future tutor, was 
 one of the disputants in a public act before the king, treat- 
 ing some point of difference between Protestantism and 
 Papacy, Chappel was famous for his verbal skill, and 
 pushed his opponent so that he is said to have "fainted." 
 James himself boldly took up the controversy and was like- 
 wise vanquished. 1 
 
 The Latin lectures (Praelectiones) in the Colleges and 
 University, delivered by Readers (Lectores) and Professors, 
 formed a regular and necessary part of the academic routine, 
 and gave the faculty opportunity to put to practical use the 
 language learned while they were Respondents and Opponents 
 in earlier years. These praelections after delivery were 
 often turned over to the University printer for publication, 
 A few examples may be mentioned. In 1618 Sebastian Ben- 
 field, Margaret Professor in Oxford, published Praelectiones 
 de Perserverantia Smictorum.- In 1621 and again in 1628 
 Thomas Vicars, who Latinized his name into Vicarsus and de 
 Vicariis, published in London Manuductio ad Artem Rhetori- 
 cam, ante paucos in privatum quorundam Scholarium Usum 
 conx^innata."^ "This book is the effect of certain lectures in 
 Queen's college public refectory, when he bore the office of 
 rhetoric reader." John Cleveland, the cavalier poet, fellow 
 in St. John's, Cambridge, while rhetoric reader was so dis- 
 tinguished for the purity and terseness of his Latin style that 
 he was usually employed by the society in composing their 
 speeches and epistles,^ 
 
 Dr, Robert Sanderson, whose biography forms one of 
 Walton's "Lives", was made fellow in Lincoln College, 
 Oxford, in 1606, and reader in logic in 1608; and in 1611 was 
 ordained deacon and priest. His writings and lectures were 
 
 1 Masson I, 90. 
 
 2 Lectures on the perseverance of the saints. Wood, Fasti, Part II, 
 488-9. 
 
 3 Guide to the art of rhetoric, arranged some years since for the 
 private use of certain scholars. Wood, Fasti, Part I, 443. 
 
 4 Masson I, 398-9. 
 
 -32- 
 
many and famous: his Logicae Artis Compendium^ passed 
 through a number of editions, and his De Juramenti Promis- 
 sorii Obligatione Praelectiones Septem— seven lectures on the 
 obligation of the promissory oath, delivered in the theological 
 school at Oxford in 1646— were translated into the English 
 language by Charles I during his confinement in the Isle of 
 Wight, and printed at London, in 1655.- In 1647 he delivered 
 ten lectures in the theological school in Oxford on the Obliga- 
 tion of Conscience— i)e Obligatione Conscientiae. Sanderson 
 was appointed regius professor of divinity in Oxford in 1642, 
 and these learned works were the fruit of that office.^ In 
 1653 was published at Oxford De Cometis Praelectio Oxonii 
 habita,^ by Seth Ward, "a most noted mathematician and 
 astronomer of his time," whom we shall meet again as the 
 chastiser of the philosopher Hobbes in a mathematical con- 
 troversy. 
 
 Text-books being chiefly in Latin, the Masters and Fel- 
 lows kept on the alert for writing, compiling and publishing 
 suitable and timely treatises on the various subjects of study. 
 The above-mentioned Manuductio concinnata of Vicars and 
 the Logicae Artis Compendium of Sanderson were works of 
 this nature. An interesting account is given by W^ood^ of a 
 busy life devoted to the advancement of learning in the Uni- 
 versities. Christopher Angelus, born in Greece and banished 
 for his religion by the Turks, came to England and resided 
 first at Cambridge, and later at Oxford till his death in 1639. 
 He "did very good services among the young scholars in the 
 University that were raw in the Greek tongue," having pub- 
 lished in both Greek and Latin a hand-book of Greek institu- 
 tions. Enchiridion de Institutis Graecorum, at Cambridge in 
 1619. He was the author of various other serviceable pro- 
 
 1 Compendium of logic. 
 
 2 Walton's Lives, 339 (Ed. 1852). 
 
 3 Diet. Nat. Biog. sub Sanderson. 
 
 4 Wood's Athenae IV, 249— Comets: a lecture delivered at Oxford. 
 
 5 Wood, Fasti, Part II, 633. 
 
 ' —33— 
 
ductions in both the learned languages, and at his death left 
 "behind him the character of a pure Grecian and an honest 
 and harmless man." 
 
 Besides the Praelectiones, forming in the University sys- 
 tem a large and essential part, other important discourses 
 were delivered in Latin before the academic public. These 
 were sermons — ConcioTies— and orations— Orationes. Atten- 
 tion will be given first to the sermons. "In the middle of the 
 seventeenth century the sermon became one of the most 
 highly-cultivated forms of intellectual entertainment in Great 
 Britain, and when the theatres were closed at the Common- 
 wealth it grew to be the only public form of eloquence. "' In 
 the Universities sermons had long held a place of special dig- 
 nity and honor, and from these institutions went forth the 
 great preachers and divines of the Church of England. A 
 part of the sermons delivered in the University were regu- 
 larly in Latin, being a fixed form required by statute for cer- 
 tain occasions. The Laudian code of Statutes given to Oxford 
 in 1636 ordered that a Latin sermon delivered ad Clerum (to 
 the clergy) in the Church of St. Mary {Beatae Mariae 
 Virginis) should introduce each of the four terms of the 
 academic year. This sermon should be preached in turn by 
 the Professors of Theology, and the Graduates in Theology 
 who had taken holy orders; or by substitutes approved by the 
 Vice-chancellor. These substitutes were required in all cases 
 to have assumed holy orders and to be Graduates in Theology, 
 or at least to be Masters of Arts of four years' standing and 
 to have enrolled in the Faculty of Theology.- 
 
 Only an extraordinary situation could dispense with these 
 statutory exercises. The records of the University of Cam- 
 bridge for 1643 bear testimony to a situation of this kind. 
 On September 19, the following Grace passed the Senate of 
 the University: 
 
 "Whereas ye term approacheth, &ye statutes require there 
 should be a latin sermon to incroduce ye same, MAY IT 
 
 1 Encyp. Brit. 11th ed., sub sermon. 
 
 2 Laudian Code, Titulus I, § 2. 
 
 —34— 
 
PLEASE you that for ye avoiding of ye like tumult which 
 threatened some danger to ye Preacher in ye beginning of ye 
 last Term, the said latin sermon be for this term ommitted."^ 
 
 Another fixed occasion for a Latin sermon, according to 
 the statutes of Laud for Oxford, was in die Cinerum sive 
 Carnis-privii.'- It was also specially ordained that every can- 
 didate for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, before his grad- 
 uation, should preach a Latin sermon in the church of St. 
 Mary's in his own proper person, and not by a substitute— 
 per se et non per alium.-^ The special prohibition, moreover, 
 was ordered against anyone's delivering the sermon before 
 the fifth year of his Master's degree, and without having 
 taken holy orders.^ 
 
 Many of the sermons delivered at the Universities were 
 afterwards published, for the honor of the preacher and the 
 institution. Sometimes a collection of sermons was made 
 and published by the author, and frequently an individual 
 sermon of supposed importance was issued separately.'^ 
 
 Orations in Latin also formed a distinguished part of the 
 University public events. These resemble in rhetorical arti- 
 ficiality the Responsions and Opponencies, but their purpose 
 was not training in literary style and ogical art: it was an 
 exhibition of finished skill and approved excellence. The 
 position of Public Orator was one of high honor, to be filled 
 only by a brilliant scholar and accomplished Latinist. The 
 Orator was required to reside continually in the University, 
 except in case of illness or urgent business, and at the dis- 
 pensation of the Vice chancellor. During his illness or 
 absence another Orator was appointed in his place; and if his 
 disability amounted to more than a fourth part of the year 
 
 1 Cooper's Cambridge, III, 349. 
 
 2 Ash Wednesday. Laudian Code, Tit. VI, Sec. II, §6; Tit. XVI. §4 
 
 3 Laudian Code, Tit. VI, Sec. VI, §2. 
 
 •1 Ne quis ante quinquennium completum a suscepto Magistrali Gradu, 
 idem quoque sacris Ordinibus initiatu?, Concionem huiusmodi habere per 
 mittatur. Laudian Code, Tit. VI, Sec. VI, § 2. 
 
 5 For examples, see Wood, III, 345 and 735, under Parr and Wall. 
 
 -35- 
 
either by continuous or intermittent absence, a new Orator 
 was elected in his place.' 
 
 The newly elected Orator was installed into office by tak- 
 ing the oath to observe all the statutes, customs, liberties, 
 and privileges of the University, and to perform faithfully 
 the duties, one and all, that pertained to his office. These 
 duties were the composition of letters and epistles at the 
 order of the Convocation or Congregation, and to read them 
 pubHcly; and to deliver suitable speeches at the reception and 
 entertainment of distinguished personages visiting the Uni- 
 versity, or on any other solemn occasion - 
 
 These orations may have been congratulatory, panegyri- 
 cal, or funeral, but in any event aimed to be rhetorically en- 
 tertaining. When any noble or royal visitor arrived, the Orator 
 attempted the utmost of his wit and eloquence. At Christ's 
 College, Cambridge, where Lord Holland visited as Chancel- 
 lor in 1629, he was entertained with speeches and banquets, 
 and according to the customary arrangements "a set oration 
 in Latin" uas made by one of the students. The brilliant 
 Jack Cleveland was Orator on this occasion.^ Once 
 Prince Charles visited Cambridge and was greeted by a 
 speech from the Vice chancellor and one also from the Public 
 Orator, besides various other learned and honorable atten- 
 tions The reception given the young Prince so pleased King 
 James that on passing through Cambridge a few days later 
 he stopped and was himself received with flattering enter- 
 tainment. He listened to no less than four speeches, one 
 being by Jack Cleveland in about three hundred and seventy- 
 five of the longest and most sounding words the Latin language 
 could afford.^ 
 
 The attempt of James in 1623 to secure an alliance with 
 Spain through the marriage of Prince Charles with the Spanish 
 
 1 Laudi:in Code. Tit. XVII, Sec. VII. 
 ■■I Laudian Code, Tit. XVII, Sec VII. 
 :> Masson I, 163. 
 » Cooper's Cambridge, III, 322. 
 
 -36- 
 
Infanta, and the trip of the Prince and the Duke of Buckinj^- 
 ham to the continent for that purpose, furnished a striking 
 theme for discussion by patriotic and loyal scholars in the 
 Universities. It made no difference that the enterprise 
 turned out to the repulse of the royal suitor and to the shame 
 of England: his going and coming both furnished rare oppor- 
 tunity for rhetorical exhibition. John King, Public Orator 
 at Oxford, gave forth first his Ch-atio panegyrica de aiispi- 
 cato Caroli Principis in Regnum Hi^^panicum Adventu,^ and 
 followed it with a Gratnlatio Oxoniensium pro Carolo reduce.' 
 At Cambridge the Public Orator George Herbert, future 
 author of "The Temple", w-as the one to celebrate the safe 
 retreat of the Prince from the presence of the unwilling 
 Infanta and the Spanish people. Herbert's oration, full of 
 fine phrases and safe academic generalities, touches very 
 vaguely on the delicate matter in hand. Its title as published 
 by Herbert suggests the sonorous oratorical style: Oratio 
 qua auspicatissimum serenissimi Principis Caroli reditum ex 
 Hispaniis celebravit Georgiiis Herbert, Academiae Cantahrig- 
 iensis Orator.'-^ 
 
 A reading of the speech betrays how words were the end 
 and glory of scholastic discourse; how^ rhetoric was the dili- 
 gent search for fine verbal combinations, and the neglect of 
 sense and reason for the sake of a classical allusion and 
 quotation. Any subject whatsoever might do for such exer- 
 cise in the hands of a trained speaker, whether "The most 
 happy return of Prince Charles from Spain", or the theme 
 of Milton's academic argument. "Is day or night more excel- 
 lent?' 
 
 The statutes governing the Universities were in Latin. 
 
 1 Panegyrican oration on the auspicious arrival of Prince Charles in 
 Spain. 
 
 - Gratulation of Oxonians on the return of Charles. Wood. Fasti, 
 Part II, 632. 
 
 •T Dictionary of Nat. Biog., sub Herbert. Oration with which George 
 Herbert, Orator of the University of Cambridge, celebrated the most 
 happy return from Spain of the most serene Prince Charles. 
 
 -37- 
 
Cambridge continued under the code of the Reverend Dr. 
 Whitgift, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and others, 
 ^iven to the Urlivetsity in 1570 by the authority of Queeii 
 Elizabeth. The statiites coveir Idrty^five images; and coifiF»ris^ 
 fifty Articles outlining \fi detail the aditiiriisti-atiofl of the 
 iristitutiofl.i l^he statutes goVeriling Oxford, Codified in 1636> 
 uiider AreiibishoiD Laud^s charicellofship arid called the Laud; 
 iSn Code, are in twenty-o'nei Articles domprisirig one hundred 
 and ninety pages.- 
 
 As the University ^tatute^s wet'e in LsLtin, so also the' 
 decrees of the legislative councils were made and recorded in 
 the honored language of law and tradition. The Laudiari 
 Code required that even the summoning of the Convocation of 
 Masters and Doctors, the highest council of the University,- 
 should be done by the bedels according to a regular formula,- 
 in a loud voice and in the Latin tongue (clara voce, Latino' 
 eloqtiio).^ It was further ordered that in the hall of Congre- 
 gation and Convocation anyone who proposed to speak should 
 use the Latin tongue unless the Vice-chancellor permitted 
 the vernacular. * The dignity and solemnity of the deliberative 
 body were provided for by forbidding the members to make" 
 any commotion in the hall, to use vain repetitions, of to indulge' 
 in abusive or indecent languftg'e.^ 
 
 Registers, licenses, oaths, dispensations, prayers, and 
 fesfgnatioris, in connection with the University administra- 
 tion, were regularly in Latin, as the language of dignity, 
 tradition, and authority. These forms, together with the' 
 lectures, responsions, sermons, orations, and decrees made up 
 the regular educational and administrative business of the 
 institutions. The Latin language constituted the web and 
 woof of serious academic discourse. Even the riiinor and 
 incidental affairs, in which full liberty was granted for the 
 
 1 Heywood's Cambridge^ I, 1-45. 
 
 3 Laudian Code of Statutes, ed. by Johrt (Jriffiths. Oxford, Clarendori 
 Press. 1888. 
 
 3 Laudian Code, Tit. X, Sec. I. 
 
 4 Laudian Code, Tit. XI, §3. 
 
 -38— 
 
vernacular, were inclined to seek expression in the favored 
 language of learning. Dramatic representations, occasional 
 poetry, and various oral utterance are the matters referred 
 to, and these will be taken up in order. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Extra-Curriculum Uses of Latin. 
 
 Latin shared with English the responsibility and honors 
 of the stage in University performances. In the sixteenth 
 century the older language had most of the burden. In 1592, 
 on December 4, the University of Cambridge addressed an 
 English letter to Lord Burleigh in ansv^er to a request sent 
 them to play a comedy in English before the Queen at Christ- 
 mas. They declared their willingness to please her Majesty, 
 but having no "English comedies, for that we never used 
 any", they begged "further limitacion of time for due 
 preparacion, and liberty to play in Latyn."' The influence of 
 Seneca was yet unbroken in academic drama. 
 
 The custom of performing at public schools and Universi- 
 ties was at its height in the great dramatic age of James I 
 and Charles I. In the Universities this custom was observed 
 on notable occasions, especially on a visit from royalty, the 
 plays being sometimes in English, more frequently in Latin, 
 and taken from a small stock in hand or prepared for the 
 occasion.- King James on his first visit to Cambridge, in 
 1615, listened to the Latin comedy /g'7ioram2^s, which occupied 
 six hours in the acting, and was so delighted with it that he 
 made a second visit to the University just to see a second 
 performance.'' The play was written by George Ruggle, M. A., 
 fellow of Clare Hall, and was published in 1630. ' 
 
 The following account of this interesting comedy is taken 
 from Ward's History of the English Drama:'' 
 
 1 Heywood's Cambridge, II, 40. 
 
 2 Masson I, 159. Shakespeare Jahrbuch, XXXIV. p. 221. The Ency- 
 clopedia Britannica (11th ed., sub Drama) gives Knglish plays decided pre- 
 dominance at Oxford at this time. 
 
 3 Masson I, 158-9. 
 
 ^ Diet. Nat. Biog., .sm/; Ruggle. 
 
 & New and revised ed., vol. Ill, 186-7. 
 
 -40- 
 
"Ignoramus is intended as a satire on the barbarous 
 ignorance and the equally barbarous phraseology of a petti- 
 fogger who can neither talk Latin, nor French, nor good 
 King's English, but only a vile professional jargon of his 
 own, which goes far to justify an attempt in the course of 
 the play to exorcise him as possessed by evil spirits. He 
 hates the University and all its ways, and is intended as a 
 living example of barbarous Philistinism. His speech is 
 accordingly made up of the terms of his profession, which is 
 introduced with extraordinary prompitude to garnish his 
 horrible Latin; 'lingua mea', he says, 'vadit ad verba accus- 
 tomata: Puto me placitare jam.'' The characteristics satir- 
 ized in Ignoramus are not, however, confined to such com- 
 paratively harmless peculiarities of his profession as a bar- 
 barous phraseology; for his principles are on a level with his 
 style of speech, and his desire is 'capere in manum'' whomso- 
 ever he can, so that a poetic justice is exercised upon him by 
 his finding himself all but 'murderatus'. before in the epilogue 
 he finally takes his departure 'bootatus et spuratus' for Lon- 
 don." The ridicule on the lawyers aroused their wrath, but 
 all attempts to discredit and suppress the play were in vain. 
 
 Another comedy popular in Cambridge was Fraiis Hon- 
 esta,-^ by Phillip Stubbe, fellow of Trinity, and was acted in 
 that College first in 1616. In September. 1629, this comedy 
 was presented as a special feature in the elaborate entertain- 
 ment of the new Chancellor, Lord Holland, who visited the 
 University in company with the French Ambassador. Fraics 
 Honesta, after an honorable career on the stage, was pub- 
 lished in small duodecimo in 1632. Cooper mentions the act- 
 ing and publishing of the comedy, and adds: "It is a play of 
 very little merit, and several parts are not very decent."^ 
 About February, 1631, a Latin comedy entitled Senile Odium,^ 
 
 1 My tongue goes after custom-made words; I think I'm making ele- 
 gant hits. 
 
 2 To "take in." 
 
 3 Fair Fraud. Masson I, 159. 
 
 4 Cooper's Cambridge, III, 105. 
 
 5 Odious Old Age. Masson I, 179. 
 
 —41- 
 
written by Peter Hausted, M. A., was performed in Queen's 
 College, Cambridge. It was printed in 1633, and among the 
 commendatory Latin verses prefixed to it were some iambics 
 by Edward King, Milton's acquaintance of Christ's. 
 
 Roxana, a Latin tragedy written about 1592 by the poet 
 William Alabaster, fellow in Trinity College, Cambridge, was 
 based on Seneca as a model, and was much admired during 
 the following century. In 1632 a surreptitious edition of the 
 play was published and in the same year the author issued a 
 correct edition, "a plagiarii unguibus vindicata, aucta et 
 agnita ah author e."^ Fuller called Alabaster '*a most rare 
 poet as any our age and nation hath produced; witness his 
 tragedy of 'Roxana', admirably acted [in Trinity College] and 
 so pathetically, that a gentlewoman present thereat (Reader, 
 I had it from an author whose credit it is sin with me to sus- 
 pect) , at the hearing of the last words thereof, sequar, sequar, 
 so hideously pronounced, fell distracted, and never after 
 fully recovered her senses. "^ The fact that the tragedy is a 
 stiff and lifeless work^ increases the humor of Fuller's descrip- 
 tion, but shows at the same time what power the fashion of 
 Latin had on the minds of the age. 
 
 Abraham Cowley, who was the author of numerous Latin 
 poems, contributed one notable play to the academic Latin 
 drama. This was the famous Naufragium Jocidare,* acted 
 February 2, 1638, by the members of his college, Trinity, 
 Cambridge, and published soon after. 'It obtained its celeb- 
 rity through the boisterous fun of a scene in the first part of 
 the play, in which a drunken company is deluded into the 
 belief that they are suffering shipwreck The Latinity of 
 this amusing comedy is not always strictly classical; but it 
 abounds in quotations bespeaking the learning as well as the 
 
 • Rescued from the clutches of the plagiarist, enlarged and acknow- 
 ledged by the author. Diet. Nat. Biog. , sub Stubbe. 
 ■i Fuller's Worthies, III, x85, Nuttall's ed. 
 ;i Diet. Nat. Biog., .sii/> Alabaster. 
 ' A joke of H shipwreck. Diet. Nat. Biog., xub Cowley. 
 
 —42— 
 
ready wit of its youthful author; and shows that he and his 
 contemporaries at Cambridge well understood the ars 
 jocci ndi. ' ' 
 
 Perhaps no literary production shows more strikingly the 
 linguistic and classical fashion of the times than the Latin 
 comedy entitled Bellmn Grammaticale sive Nominum Verbo- 
 rumque Discordia Civilis,' which was written by one Spense 
 and acted before Queen Elizabeth in Christ Church, Oxford, 
 in 1592, It was printed and perhaps revived at the Univer- 
 sity in 1635. "The plot turns on a conflict between the King 
 of Nouns iPoeta) and the King of Verbs (Amo), which sets 
 the entire province of Grammar at odds, lets loose the Gram- 
 maticae Pestes, Solecismus, Barbarismus, Traulismus and 
 Cacatonus to range at their own sweet will, and is finally 
 settled by the intervention of Grammar, Priscianus, Linacrus, 
 Despanterius, and Lillius. The application of grammatical 
 definitions, rules and maxims to the supposed action is very 
 clever, though parallels might be easily adduced from con- 
 temporary dramatic, and probably other, literature. The 
 doubtful position of the Duke Participiitm, who owes a kind of 
 double allegiance, is specially happy. The sentences ulti- 
 mately pronounced by the judges quibble after the same 
 delectable fashion."'' 
 
 With the outbreak of the Civil War and the rise of the 
 Puritan power the drama in the Universities suffered the 
 same fate as in England at large; but with the Restoration 
 both English and Latin plays returned in full force to the 
 academic stage. ^ 
 
 The literary use of Latin in the seventeenth century 
 brought forth its most abundant fruit in academic poetry. The 
 fashion of celebrating notable public events in verse kept the 
 students busy, for the marriages, births, deaths, arrivals, 
 departures, recoveries from illness among royalty and nobility, 
 which were the proper occasions for verse-making, followed 
 
 1 Ward's English Drama, III, 187. 
 
 2 The grammatical war, or civil strife between nouns and verbs 
 
 3 Ward's English Drama, III, 187, and footnote. 
 
 4 Encyc. Brit. 11th ed., sub Drama. 
 
 —43- 
 
one another at close intervals from season to season. When 
 events to be sung happened at about the same time, as, for 
 example, the death of one king and the accession of another, 
 a volume of poetry may have celebrated both events, and so 
 at times the muses wore the mingled garb of mourning and 
 festivity. The volumes lamenting the deaths of James I, in 
 1625, and Oliver Cromwell in 1658. contained felicitations for 
 their respective successors: a Ltictiis followed by a Gratulatio, 
 a Dolor in company with a Solamen. 
 
 To such collections of commemorative verse contributions 
 were made not only by students but even by provosts and 
 heads of Colleges, the whole trained capacity of academic 
 scholarship exercising itself in Latin poesy. The number of 
 contributors from the various Colleges to the making of a 
 volume sometimes ran up to many scores For instance, the 
 Cambridge collection on the birth of Princess Anne in 1637 
 counted 140 separate names of authors, among them Abra- 
 ham Cowley and Andrew Marvell. ^ One can imagine the pass- 
 ing of the word from man to man, and from group to group, 
 in hall and court of the great schools, concerning a new poetic 
 event; and student rivalling student for the invention of fine 
 classic phrases, and University challenging University in the 
 expression of a nation's joy or grief. It was a duty that 
 learning owed to its great patrons, to make on every possible 
 occasion an offering of its finest product to their honor and 
 pleasure. 
 
 It w^ill suffice to bring into view a representative number 
 of the most interesting collections of academic Latin poetry, 
 and in doing this w^e shall follow, for the most part in chrono- 
 logical order, the achievements of the University of Cam- 
 bridge, understanding at the same time that Oxford was no 
 less zealous in such compositions and publications. 
 
 During his life and reign James I had the lion's share of 
 eulogy and flattery from the poets and orators of Cambridge, 
 and in his death he was not neglected. The collection of 
 Greek and Latin verses in praise of the departed sovereign 
 
 1 Masson I, 512. 
 
 -44— 
 
and in congratulation of his successor was entitled: Can- 
 tabrigiensium Dolor et Solamen, seu Decessio Beati^simi Regis 
 Jacobi Pacijici et Successio Augustissimi Regis Caroli Magnae 
 Britamiiae, Galliae & Hibemiae Monarchae.^ In this same 
 year the new king was married, and the second volume of 
 congratulatory verse came forth to meet him. It was entitled : 
 ''Epithalamiiim Rlicstris. & Feliciss. Principum Caroli Regis 
 et H. Mariae Reginae Magnae Britanniae &c., a Miisis Can- 
 tabrigiensibtis decantatum.^ 
 
 The suspense concerning Charles's marriage was thus at 
 last settled. The muses had been disappointed in 1623, when 
 Charles the Prince made his romantic journey with the Duke 
 of Buckingham to woo the Spanish Infanta: he came back 
 without a bride, and all the University poets could do was to 
 publish a collection of thanksgiving verses on his safe return, 
 the grand title being : "Gratidatio academiae Cantabrigien- 
 sis de Serenissimi Principis reditu ex Hispaniis exoptatissimo; 
 quam Augustissimo Regi Jacobo Celsissimoq. Principi Carolo 
 ardentissimi sui voti testimonium esse voluit."^ 
 
 The birth of Prince Charles (the second) on May 29, 1630, 
 would have occasioned joy among the poets had not the plague 
 at that time already enforced vacation at the University. 
 Before the end of April the students broke and fled, and the 
 only record left for the future historian was, Grassante peste, 
 
 1 The grief and consolation of the Cantabrigians, or, The departure of 
 the most blessed King James the Pacific and the succession of the most 
 august King Charles, monarch of Great Britain, France and Ireland. — 
 Cooper's Cambridge, III, 176. 
 
 2 Hymn on the marriage of the most illustrious and happy sovereigns 
 Charles King and Henrietta Maria Queen of Great Britain, &c. , sung by 
 the muses of Cambridge. Cooper's Cambridge, III, 178. 
 
 •^ Gratulations of the University of Cambridge on the dearly longed- 
 for return of the most serene Prince Charles from Spain; as an evidence 
 to the most august King James and the most high Prince Charles of the 
 University's most ardent devotion. Cooper's Cambridge, III, 161. 
 
 —45- 
 
nulla piihlica comitia.^ It was not till November, 1631, when 
 a new child was born in the royal family, that the muses 
 appropriately remembered the young prince of the preceding 
 year, by celebrating in a single volume the births of both the 
 children. The collection was entitled: Genethliacum Rlus- 
 trissimorum Principum Caroli et Mariae a Miisis Canta- 
 brigiensibus celebratum.' Among the contributors were 
 Edward King, and the future wit and historian, Thomas 
 Fuller. 
 
 The other children of Charles I and Henrietta Maria were 
 welcomed in order by the faithful bards. The title to the 
 volume commemorating the birth of the Duke of York, after- 
 wards James I, on October 14, 1633, was: Ducis Eboracen- 
 sis Fasciae a Musis Cantabrigiensibus raptim contextae.^ Ed- 
 ward King was again contributor, and the name of Richard 
 Crashaw, of Pembroke Hall, appeared among the busy muses. 
 These two, and Henry More of Christ's College, assisted in 
 bringing out a volume on the birth of Princess Elizabeth, 
 December, 1635; and again on the birth of Princess Anne, 
 March 17, 1637. These collections celebrating the young 
 princesses were more elaborately entitled than that on the 
 Duke of York, and instead of an apology for hurry there is 
 an expression of the most complete and gallant devotion. The 
 first volume was called: Carmen Natalium ad CuTias illus- 
 trissimae Principis Elisabethae decantatum intra Nativitatis 
 Dom. sollemnia per humillimas Cantabrigiae Musas/ The 
 
 1 The violence of the plague prevents all public exercises. Masson 
 I, 170. 
 
 ■2 Birth-day celebration for the most illustrious Prince and Princess 
 Charles and Mary, by the muses of Cambridge. Cooper's Cambridge, 
 III, 244; Masson I, 511. 
 
 3 Wreaths hastily woven by the muses of Cambridge, for the Duke 
 of York. Cooper's Cambridge, 1 1 1, 263. 
 
 4 Natal song at the cradle of the most illustrious Princess Elizabeth, 
 sung during the birth-day festivities, by the most humble muses of Cam- 
 bridge. Cooper's Cambridge, III, 263. 
 
 -46- 
 
effusion on the birth of Princess Anne carried the classical 
 enthusiasm to a grand climax; -'r/ojoj^ sive Musarum 
 Co ntabrigiensium concentus et Congratulatio ad serenissimum 
 Brifanniaru7n Recjem Carolum de quintasua snibole darissima 
 Principe sibi nuper felicissime nata ' Nothing could attest 
 more strikingly the University attachments to royalty than 
 these learned exultations, one after the other, on the birth 
 of the King's children. One marks the absence of Milton's 
 name from the collections which applauded anything con- 
 nected with Charles I, and it is a wonder that he later so 
 greatly honored Edward King, whose regular contributions 
 to these outbursts of loyalty were always extravagant and 
 never very poetic. 
 
 In 1640 the last son was born to King Charles and Queen 
 Henrietta Maria, that is Prince Henry, afterwards Duke of 
 Gloucester and Earl of Cambridge. The University responded 
 with her usual congratulations; Richard Crashaw and Henry 
 More again contributing, but the ill-fated Edward King's 
 name no longer appearing. In June, 1644, Henrietta, the 
 last child of the King and Queen, was born at Exeter in the 
 midst of war. There was no celebration to be expected any 
 more from Cambridge: early in the year the stern Puritan 
 parliament had sent up a committee to visit and purge the 
 malignant University. The result was the ejection of about 
 half the Fellows, and of eleven out of sixteen Heads of 
 Houses.- All the Latin poetical talent that remained in Cam- 
 bridge by June, 1644, when the Queen's daughter was born, 
 had other fields for its exercise than Royalist birth-days. 
 
 When Cromwell assumed the sovereignty of England, he 
 and his concerns became the objects of celebration at the 
 hands of the poets. His death at last and the succession of 
 his son Richard in 1658 called forth from Cambridge a volume 
 
 1 Unison, or Concordant Congratulation of the Muses of Cambridge 
 to the most serene Charles, King of Britain, on the recent most happy 
 birth of his fifth most illustrious child. Cooper's Cambridge III, 286. 
 
 2 Masson III, 92. 
 
 —47— 
 
entitled: Musarum Cantabrigiensium Luctus & Gratulatio: 
 Ille infunere Oliverii Angliae Scotiae & Hiberniae Protectoris 
 Haec de Ricardi Successione felicissiina ad eundem.^ There 
 was no doubt some degree of sincerity in those dirges and 
 greetings, for at that time not even the bards could predict 
 what the next two years had in store for the country. But 
 when the Restoration came, the muses of the University 
 rejoiced, and proclaimed that the coming back of Charles 
 restored them also to their former happy fortunes. Their 
 celebration bore the title: Academiae Cantabrigiensis 
 IdxTTfia sive ad Carolum II reducem, deregnis ipsi, Musis per 
 
 ipsum feliciter restitutis Gratulatio."^ From that time forth 
 loyalty in University verses flourished again as in the palmy 
 days of James I and Charles I. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting volume of academic poetry 
 issued during the century was that on the death of Edward 
 King in 1637. The chief interest rises from the fact that 
 Milton's Lycidas was one of the contributions, though the 
 poet himself had been out of the University for five years. 
 King, who, according to Milton, "knew himself to sing and 
 build the lofty rhyme," had between 1631 and 1637 written 
 Latin iambics, elegiacs, or Horatian stanzas for no less than 
 six volumes of college poetry. When the young scholar and 
 poet was lost at sea in 1637, his alma mater published in his 
 memory a little collection of sixty pages. The first thirty- 
 five pages were occupied by three Greek and twenty Latin 
 
 pieces p.re.fixed with the title: Ju^ta Evardo King Naufrago 
 ah arrncis ynoerentibus, amorts et iivsia-^ ydfv.,)^-i 'The 
 
 1 Lamentation and rejoicing of the Cambridge Muses: the former on 
 the funeral of Oliver Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland; the 
 latter on the most happy succession of Richard to the same power. Coop- 
 er's Cambridge III, 469. 
 
 2 Thankott'ering of the University of Cambridge, or greeting of joy 
 to Charles 1 1 on his safe return to his kingdom and on his restoring the 
 muses to their former happy state. Cooper's Cambridge, III, 480-1. 
 
 '■'• Obsequies to Edward King, lost at sea: a memorial of affection 
 from his sorrowing friends. Masson I, 513, ff. 
 
 -48— 
 
remainder of the volume, separately paged, bore the title: 
 Obsequies to the Memorie of Edward King, anno Dom. 1638. 
 Milton's poem was the last piece in the volume. Why, one 
 might here inquire, did Milton write Lycidas in English, in 
 honor of Edward King, no very intimate friend; and later 
 choose Latin for EpitapJuum Damonis, to celebrate the dearest 
 friendship he ever enjoyed? The probable reason was that 
 in Lycidas he had a present message for the people of Eng- 
 land, too urgent and vital to be clothed in academic formality 
 and narrowed to scholarly seclusion; while in Epitaphium 
 Damonis his private sorrow inevitably mingled with all those 
 happy classical associations that had bound the student-life 
 of Milton and Diodati together. 
 
 Not all the Latin poetry composed at the Universities 
 appeared in collections. Volumes by single authors were 
 sometimes brought forth like the Epigrammatuw. Sacrorum 
 Liber'^ of Richard Crashaw, of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 
 in 1634. Much of the academic production never appeared in 
 print at all, and it is impossible to measure the amount of Latin 
 versifying actually achieved by thousands of students whose 
 chief concern was with words and rhetoric. So truly had the 
 ancient language become alive and modern in the Universities 
 that it wound itself in and around all the concerns of life 
 there, and was as much a part of the mental habit as the 
 academic dress was of rites and ceremonies. 
 
 Though Milton's name does not appear in the Cambridge 
 collections of verses, his Latin pen was not idle during his 
 University career. There remains of what he produced in 
 those years seven pieces composing the Book of Elegies 
 {Elegiarum Liber), published in 1645 by Humphrey Mosely in 
 London Since their publication was neither in the University 
 nor during the author's residence there, they may be treated 
 as extra-academic poetry and will receive detailed attention 
 under a subsequent section. 
 
 Besides the reading of Latin books in the regular cur- 
 
 1 Die, Nat. Biop:. , sub Crashaw. 
 
 —49— 
 
ricula, besides the Latin responsions, opponencies, orations, 
 the graces, the dramas, and poems, there were in the Uni- 
 versity hfe various nooks which the language filled, sug- 
 gestively indicating how the fashion of the time went. It 
 was an early statute of Cambridge that required the students 
 to converse in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, except during hours 
 of relaxation in their rooms.' This severe regulation had nat- 
 urally, without vigilant enforcement, broken with its own 
 strain; but in July, 1649, when the parliamentary committee 
 for regulating the University of Cambridge issued their 
 decrees, they ordered that Latin or Greek should be con- 
 stantly used in familiar intercourse in the several col- 
 leges - This new command probably received fair obedience 
 during the next eleven years of complete Puritan sway. 
 
 Public prayers were in Latin as the traditional language 
 of the Christian church. In 1625 when King James died the 
 prayers had to be changed to specify yegem Carolum instead 
 of regeyn Jacobum. There is a story of a bachelor of Christ's, 
 Cambridge, who in public prayer was so attentive to the 
 proper words that when he came to the psalm phrase ' 'God 
 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob", he turned Dens Jacobi to 
 Deus Caroli, and paused horror-struck at his impious blunder. 
 
 Conferences of students with tutors were carried on in 
 the learned tongue. It was not necessary in every case that 
 this severe formality prevented hearty and genial intercourse. 
 Joseph Meade, fellow in Christ's during Milton's residence, 
 met his students on equal basis and in friendly communion. 
 His habit when they came to his room, of an evening, was to 
 ask them first the question. Quid dubitas?'-^ He would then 
 resolve their doubts [quaeres), and at the dose of the confer- 
 ence "by prayer commended them and their studies to God's 
 protection and blessing, and dismissed them to their lodging. " 
 
 Conferences of any formal nature between students and 
 Heads of Colleges observed the language of dignity and 
 
 1 Masson I, 96-7. 
 
 a Cooper's Cambridj^e III, 429; cf Laudian Code, Appendix, Statuta 
 Aularia, Sec. IV, §4. 
 
 :t Whal dou!)ts have you mot with? Masson I, 88. 
 
 -50- 
 
authority. The sanctity of an oath or pledge was more solemn 
 when clothed in Latin. It was told of one Mr. Fawcett, who 
 was charged with having uttered in some public act an opinion 
 contrary to accepted doctrines, that when he went to commence 
 bachelor in Divinity, in June, 1626, the Vice-chancellor, Dr. 
 Gostlin, and his assistants required satisfaction for the 
 church by securing Mr. Fawcett's hand to the following 
 declaration: Sola scripturarum lectio secundum ritum Angli- 
 ca)'um est medium ordiiiarie sufficiens adfidem generandam. 
 Huic propositioni luhens et ex animo subscripsi, et revera num- 
 quam o.liter tenuis The offensive utterances had been made 
 in Latin, and it was fitting to disavow their ill meaning in the 
 
 same language. 
 
 When Anthony Wood, the future historian of his alma 
 mater, entered Oxford in 1647, he found the initiation of 
 Freshmen at Christmas was by setting them down "on a 
 form in the middle of the hall, joining to the declaiming 
 desk," and requiring each in turn to speak some jest or elo- 
 quent nonsense. They were then admitted into the fra- 
 ternity by the senior cook's administering the oath in Latin 
 over an old shoe.- 
 
 The language had to be used on occasion even by men 
 who were embarrassed and fearful of showing weakness in 
 scholarship, in range of vocabulary, or in manner of pro- 
 nunciation. The refuge was in the fewest and safest w^ords: 
 it was better to bear the reproach of little Latin, as Shaks- 
 peare did, than of no Latin at all. Meade, in a letter to a 
 friend describing the Duke of Buckingham's first visit as 
 Chancellor to Cambridge, mentioned lightly the contrast 
 between the Duke's gorgeous apparel and scanty speech: 
 "Our Chancellor", he wrote, "sat on Sunday in the Regent 
 House in a Master of Art's gown, habit, cap and hood; spoke 
 two words of Latin— 'Placet' and 'Admittatur'."=' 
 
 1 The simple reading of the Scriptures according to the Anglican rit- 
 ual is ordinarily a sufficient means for the begetting of faith. To this 
 proposition I freely and heartily subscribe, and in very truth I never did 
 believe differently. Heywood's Cambridge 1 1, 348. 
 
 2 Wood's Athenae I, p. XIV. 
 
 3 Masson I, 129. 
 
 —51— 
 
If any one, student, fellow, or master, happened to be 
 inspired with any new conceit or combination of Latin words, 
 it was his glory to make his invention known to the admiring 
 academic world. For example, in March, 1623, while King 
 James was at Cambridge hearing speeches and a comedy, an 
 orator made an epigram which Dr. Richardson brought to be 
 read before the King at dinner. Meade tells the story with 
 delight in a letter, and mentions that he had difficulty in get- 
 ting the last two lines. The epigram is as follows: 
 
 Dum petit infantem princeps, Grantamque Jacobus, 
 
 Cujusnam major sit duhitatur amor. 
 Vicit more suo noster, nam millihus infaiis 
 
 Non tot abest quot nos regis ab ingenio.^ 
 
 What could be more suggestive of the classical fashion 
 of the schools than the following account of the reception of 
 King Charles and Queen Henrietta Maria at Cambridge 
 March 22, 1631. "The Schollers Bachellors Fellow Common- 
 ers Regents & Non Regents were placed in the Streets in 
 like manner as they were when K. James came hither in 
 March 1622. They made a great Acclamation as the K. & Q. 
 passed by them, saying, "Vivat Rex, Vivat Regina, &c." 
 Whatever Charles I thought of it, to old King James the 
 cries of jubilee in Latin must have been the dearest evidences 
 of loyalty and learning. - 
 
 1 Heywood's Cambridge II, 315. Also Harleian Miscll. X. 163-4, 
 where the epigram is included in a Latin oration and translation given: 
 
 "While prince to Spain, and king to Cambridge goes. 
 The question is, whose love the greater shows: 
 Ours (like himself) o'ercomes; for his wit's more 
 Remote from ours, than Spain from Britain's shore." 
 The reference is to Charles's wooing the Spanish Infanta. 
 
 2 A contemporary account quoted in Cooper's Cambridge, III, 249-59. 
 Mentioned also in Masson, I, 186. 
 
 -52- 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 LATIN AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Latin in Official Correspondence. 
 
 The one high service which Latin alone was able to per- 
 form was correspondence between the English and the 
 foreign courts. The vulgar tongues were not recognized as 
 equal to this great task, being intrinsically inadequate and 
 not sufficiently well-known and honored outside of their 
 respective countries. With one consent the language of 
 learning, which was thoroughly understood in all the cultured 
 nations and supremely respected for its long career of service 
 in the world, maintained its hold upon communication 
 between England and her continental neighbors. The letters 
 passing from James I, Charles I, and the Commonwealth and 
 Protectorate to foreign courts appear generally in Latin. 
 
 The office of translating outgoing papers into Latin and 
 incoming papers into English was assigned to a clerk or 
 undersecretary, some capable and diligent scholar who was 
 willing to give his learning to his country for a small recom- 
 pense and for the chance of preferment to a more honorable 
 and remunerative position. From 1G24 to 1641 the under- 
 secretary of state in this capacity was Georg Rudolph Wech- 
 erlin, born in 1584 in Germany and educated at the University 
 of Tubingen, and introduced into England probably in con- 
 nection with a German ambassador. His skill in various 
 languages, ancient and modern, and his service as private 
 secretary to the Duke of Wurtemberg recommended him for 
 a position in the English state department, and he was 
 accordingly employed in drafting, deciphering, and translating 
 official correspondence. On the breaking out of the Civil 
 
 —53— 
 
War, Wecherlin took sides with Parliament, and in February, 
 1644, he was made "secretary for foreign tongues" to the 
 joint committee of the two kingdoms, at the annual salary of 
 2881. 13s. 6hd. Under Charles I he had complained of his 
 poor pay, but his income under Parliament probably satisfied 
 him. He held the post until he was superseded by Milton in 
 1649, upon the establishment of the republic and the consti- 
 tution of a council of state. The reason for replacing him 
 was probably due to his advanced age, and the importance 
 which his office was about to assume under the Common- 
 wealth. ' 
 
 Before entering upon a description of Milton's duties and 
 performances as Foreign Secretary we shall take a glance at 
 several foreign transactions of James I and Charles I. In 
 March, 1621, the famous Spanish Match had its beginning in a 
 Latin letter from James of England to the new King Philip 
 IV of Spain. The message contained a proposal for a mar- 
 riage between Prince Charles, James's son and heir, and 
 Philip's youngest sister, the most illustrious Infanta, the Lady 
 Maria (Illustrissimam Infantem Dominam Mariam) ;- and 
 was carried abroad by Lord Digby, extraordinary ambas- 
 sador. Later Prince Charles, in company with the Duke of 
 Buckingham, followed with proposals in person, but after 
 much excitement and expectation on the part of the English 
 people he came back without the "most illustrious lady." 
 
 The correspondence on this affair was carried on in Latin 
 not only by James and Philip, but also between the English 
 King and Prince and the Roman See. Both Gregory XV and 
 Urban VIII, his successor in 1623, hoped that England might 
 yet be induced to forget the past and return to the Catholic 
 fold, and the possible marriage between the English Prince 
 and a Spanish Princess encouraged that expectation. This 
 effort to conciliate the English was the last work of Gregory, 
 who died in July of that year; and his correspondence on the 
 subject was promptly taken up by Urban VIII. These let- 
 ters between England and Rome were in Latin. '^ Well might 
 
 1 Diet. Nat. Bio}2f. sab Wecherlin, and Masson, passim. 
 ,3 Rushworth I, 67-8. :' Rushworth I, SO ff. 
 
 —54- 
 
the Popes have had reason to think that all mankind's religion 
 should center at their palace, situated as it was in the eternal 
 city whose language still had power to bind the whole civilized 
 world into one brotherhood. 
 
 James I was not a king of power, who made the name of 
 England dreadful among the nations of the world, but he 
 recognized no superior in any form of ceremony wherein 
 learning or language could play a role. His addresses to 
 foreign kings may have been insignificant in the messages 
 conveyed, but the style lacked nothing of imposing loftiness. 
 For example, in 1623, when Francis Klein, a German, who 
 had come to England from Denmark as a designer of tapestry, 
 was returning, James gave him a letter to the king of Den- 
 mark requesting permission for Klein's early return to Eng- 
 land. It was a simple request, but nevertheless a splendid 
 opportunity for a Latin exercise, which began as follows: 
 
 Jacobus, Dei gratia Magnae Br'itanniae, Franciae, et 
 Hiberniae Rex, Fidei Defensor, Serenissimo Principi ac 
 Domino Christiano Quarto, eadem gratia Daniae, Norvegiae, 
 Vandalorum, et Gothorum regi, duel Slesrici, Holsatiae, 
 Stormariae, et Ditmarsiae, comiti in Oldenburg et Delmen- 
 horsh, fratri, compatri, consanguineo. et affini nostro charis- 
 simo, salutem, et felicitatem, serenissimus princeps, compa- 
 ter, consanguineus, et affinis charissimus. 
 
 Cum Franciscus Klein, &c.^ 
 
 Then follows the body of the letter occupying a some- 
 what larger space than the greeting itself. 
 
 A few years earlier, when the States of the United Prov- 
 inces called a national synod at Dort for the consideration of 
 religious doctrines, and desired certain foreign princes to 
 send the assistance of their respective divines. King James, 
 being thus solicited, heartily complied; and he fully under- 
 
 1 To the most serene prince and ruler Christian IV, King of Denmark, 
 Norway, of the v^andals and Goths, Duke of Sleswick, Holsatia, Storma- 
 tia, and Ditmarsh, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorsh, brother, fellow- 
 descendant, dearest relative by blood and marriage, greeting and felici- 
 tation from James, by the grace of God King of Great Britain. France, 
 and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, most serene prince, brother, and 
 dearest relative. Since Francis Klein, &c. Fuller's Worthies, III, 201-2. 
 
 —55— 
 
stood the responsibility resting upon his representatives to 
 the learned assembly. He summoned from the English clergy 
 four scholars, who came to his presence for appointment and 
 instructions, and received at New Market, among other 
 advice and directions, the following in particular: 
 
 "Our will and pleasure is, that from this time forward, 
 upon all occasions, you inure yourself to the practice of the 
 Latin tongue, that when there is cause you may deliver your 
 minds with more readiness and felicity." 
 
 The divines had leisure for this prescribed practice before 
 the opening of the synod, November 3, 1618. They then 
 went to Dort and participated in the celebrated discussions. 
 Before the synod closed, Bishop John Hall, one of the English 
 representatives, was compelled to return home by reason of 
 ill-health, and publicly took his farewell in a Latin speech 
 which showed that he had obeyed the command of his king. 
 When the proceedings terminated in April, 1619, the States- 
 General, in a long Latin letter to "serenissimus Rex", com- 
 mented on the recent transactions, and commended King 
 James's learned and pious representatives.^ 
 
 Latin was also employed not only in letters to particular 
 princes and courts, but also in declarations and manifestoes 
 for the world at large. For instance, in 1644, when Charles 
 I was embarrassed by the imputation of favoring and cher- 
 ishing Catholics and the Catholic religion, and wished to set 
 himself clear before the whole world, he issued a Latin letter 
 declaring against the false rumor that he had any intention 
 to recede from the orthodox religion and introduce popery 
 into England. The declaration was properly in Latin, to reach 
 all nations equally and to command respect wherever it went. 
 It opened as follows: Caroliis slug alar i Omni pot f nils Dei 
 Providentia Angliae, Scotiae Franciae & Hiberniae Rex, Fidei 
 Dejensor, &c., Universis & Singidis qui praescns hoc Scrip- 
 turn seu Protestationem inspexerint, potissimum Rcformatae 
 Religionis Cultoribv^ cujuscunque sint gentis, gradus, autcon- 
 
 1 Fuller, Church History, III. 308 ff. Nichols' Edition. 
 
 -56- 
 
ditionis', Sjlntcm.^ The letter was sent forth from Oxford, 
 where the court sat, and was dated May 14, 1G44 ipridie Idas 
 Mali). Charles I never showed any fondness for Latin or dis- 
 play of learning-, as did his royal father, and it was only when 
 custom and utility demanded it that he preferred the ancient 
 language to the vernacular. This proclamation of 1644 cer- 
 tainly seemed to him and his court to require the most accept- 
 able and far-reaching medium possible. 
 
 Foreign relations came into greater prominence in Eng- 
 land during the Commonwealth period, especially under the 
 Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, and it was then that Latin 
 in official correspondence assumed special dignity and power. 
 In 1649, soon after the execution of Charles I, the Council of 
 State for the new government appointed a committee "to con- 
 sider what alliances this crown hath formerly had with For- 
 eign States and what those States are, and whether it will be fit 
 to continue those alliances, and with how many of the said 
 States, and how far they should be continued, and upon what 
 grounds, and in what manner applications and addresses 
 should be made for the said continuance." The same com- 
 mittee was further instructed "to speak with Mr. Milton, to 
 know whether he will be employed as Secretary for the 
 Foreign Tongues, and to report to the Council."- 
 
 Milton's name was not unknown among the Parliament- 
 arians. P'rom 1641 he had been busy with his pen in urging 
 reforms in church and government, and his Tenure of Kings 
 and Magistrates had boldly defended the justice and legality 
 of Charles I's trial and execution. His learning, his political 
 views, and active sympathy, conspired to recommend his 
 services as Foreign Secretary, and when he was approached 
 by the proper committee, he assented to the proposal they 
 were instructed to make. On March 15, 1649, the Council of 
 
 1 Charles by the singular providence of God King of England, Scot 
 land. France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. , to one and all who 
 shall read this writing or protestation, and especially to the followers of 
 the reformed religion, of whatsoever nation, rank, or condition they are, 
 Greeting. Rushworth, V, 752-4. 
 
 - Masson IV, 79. 
 
 —57— 
 
State ordered "That Mr. John Milton be employed as Secre- 
 tary for Foreign Tongues to this Council, and that he have 
 the same salary which Mr. Wecherlyn formerly had for the 
 same service." Five days later the new secretary was 
 inducted into the office which he was to fill and adorn for the 
 next eleven years. ' 
 
 Milton's duties in his new capacity were implied in his 
 statute title : ' 'Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Council. ' ' 
 (1) He was to translate into Latin, the letters, dispatches, 
 and any other papers addressed by the English Council of 
 State to any foreign prince, minister, or council; and the 
 declarations and manifestoes issued by Parliament and Coun- 
 cil for notice to the world at large. (2) He was to put into 
 Latin articles of prospective treaties under discussion in Eng- 
 land between English and foreign representatives, or com- 
 missioners. (3) He was to translate into English the dis- 
 patches in Latin or other languages sent to the Council by 
 foreign sovereigns or ministers. (4) Occasionally he was 
 ordered to be present at conferences with foreign representa- 
 tives or was himself to confer with them orally; and occa- 
 sionally to prepare arguments in Latin in defense of the Com- 
 monwealth, for circulation among foreign countries. 
 
 Milton's services, it thus appears, were at the direct 
 command of the Council of State, and had to do with any 
 business requiring translation to or from any foreign language, 
 or composition in any foreign language. As a matter of fact 
 the tasks which the council usually assigned him had to do in 
 some connection or other with Latin. It was, for the most 
 part, his orders to translate an English dispatch into Latin, a 
 Latin dispatch into English, or to compose an original Latin 
 discourse on a given subject or occasion. So largely did his 
 occupation with the one language outweigh that with any 
 other, that he was frequently called simply the Lathi Secre- 
 tary, and this name is regularly used in his biographies. 
 
 The employment of a man of independent mind, digni- 
 fied character, and profound learning to transact the duties 
 
 1 Masson IV, 82-83. 
 
 -58- 
 
of Latin Secretary shows what importance the Council of 
 State attached to their foreign correspondence, and what 
 esteem they felt for Latin as the proper medium. "They 
 stuck," says Phillips, the nephew of Milton, "to the noble 
 and generous resolution not to write to any, or receive answers 
 from them, but in a language the most proper to maintain a 
 correspondence among the learned of all nations in this part 
 of the world, scorning to carry on their affairs in the wheed- 
 ling, lisping jargon of the cringing French, especially having 
 a Minister of Stateable to cope with the ablest any Prince or 
 State could employ for the Latin tongue."' 
 
 Neither Parliament nor the Council of State nor Crom- 
 well ever had reason to question the industry or ability 
 of the chosen secretary. He appreciated to the uttermost 
 the dignity and importance of his office, and consecrated his 
 great moral and intellectual energy to his appointed tasks. 
 For two years he seems to have been able alone to perform 
 all the translations; but in March, 1652, when his eyes were 
 giving out, Council gave him the assistance of old Mr. Wecher- 
 lin, the former Latin Secretary.- During the next year, 1653, 
 Wecherlin was succeeded by a younger man, Mr. Philip 
 Meadows, 'employed by the Council in Latin translations, 
 and to assist in the despatch of foreign affairs. '-^ Meadows 
 continued in this office till 1656, when he was sent to repre- 
 resent Cromwell at Lisbon. In the following year, 1657, 
 Andrew Marvell was appointed Secretary in Foreign Affairs, 
 apparently as colleague to Milton.^ From that time on till the 
 eve of the Restoration, the duties of Latin Secretary were 
 shared by the two poet friends, Milton and Marvell. 
 
 For an outgoing letter, addressed by the Council to a 
 foreign state, tlie order of preparation was as follows. The 
 Council in session, having any foreign communication to 
 make, would put the substance of the matter in the hands of 
 
 1 Quoted by Masson IV, 86. 
 
 2 Masson IV, 425, 451. 
 
 3 Masson IV, 524, 526. 
 
 4 Masson V, 374-5, 402. 
 
 -59- 
 
the Foreign Committee. This Committee, at a later meeting 
 of its own, would prepare in English the required letter, and 
 report to Council. If the letter was then approved it would 
 be turned over to Milton or one of his assistants, the usual 
 form of resolution being, "that the paper now read be 
 approved of and sent to Mr. Milton, to be translated into 
 Latin." In some cases the details of the resolution were 
 fuller and more explicit. For example, on March 31, 1652, 
 it was ordered in Council "that the paper now prepared, to 
 be given in answer to the Spanish Ambassador, be approved, 
 translated, signed, and sent unto him; that Mr Milton do 
 translate the said Paper out of English into Latin, to be sent 
 along as a copy."^ Sometimes the translator was not speci- 
 fied by name, but then the regular Secretary was probably 
 understood. On August 10, 1653, for example, it was ordered 
 in the Council of the Barebones Parliament "that the answer 
 to the Paper of the Lord Lagerfeldt, Public Minister of the 
 Queen of Sweden, of the 3rd of August, now read in the 
 Council, be translated into Latin, and be delivered unto the 
 said Lord Lagerfeldt by the committee of the Council tomor- 
 row in the afternoon.""^ 
 
 If the exact words of a foreign dispatch were not 
 approved or determined by Council, before putting it into the 
 hands of the translator, then after translation the message 
 would be returned for the reconsideration of that body. The 
 form of resolution for such proceeding is found in the order 
 of January 2, 1652, "that Mr. Milton do prepare a letter in 
 Latin, of the Substance of what was now here read in English, 
 to be sent to the Duke of Tuscany: to be brought to the 
 Council to be there read for the approbation of the Council.'' " 
 The letter was prepared accordingly, and approved on Jan- 
 uary 20. Milton was sometimes' asked to be present at a 
 conference of the Foreign Committee with a foreign ambas- 
 sador, either to act as interpreter, or perhaps sometimes to 
 
 1 Masson IV, 426. 
 •J Masson IV, 524. 
 ■i Masson IV, 422. 
 4 Masson IV, 236. 
 
 -60- 
 
gather the substance of a paper which he was to write out in 
 Latin, 
 
 When a letter was at last ready for delivery to a foreign 
 ambassador present in England, or for despatch to a foreign 
 court, it was signed either by the President of the Council' 
 or by the speaker in the name of Parliament, or, after the 
 Protectorate was established, by Cromwell himself. When 
 a paper was to be ratified by Parliament, it passed with its 
 translation first through the hands of the Foreign Committee, 
 the Latin Secretary, and the Council, in regular order. An 
 example of this procedure is indicated in the resolution ly 
 Council. February 11, 1652, "That the copy of the Safeguard 
 this day read, to be granted to the Court of Oldenburg, be 
 approved of: That the copy of the said Safeguard be trans- 
 lated into Latin by Mr, Milton;" and then that it "be humbly 
 reported to the Parliament for their approbation if they shall 
 think fit,"' 
 
 An incoming communication from a foreign court cr 
 ambassador was delivered tD the Council directly or to them 
 through Parliament, or under the Protectorate to Cromwell. 
 In any case it was ordered to be translated, regularly by the 
 Latin Secretary, and if special consideration was required or 
 answer returned, the matter was turned over to the Com.- 
 mittee on Foreign Affairs, An example of an order directing 
 such procedure is found in the Council resolution of January 
 23, 1652, "That Mr, Milton do make a translation of the 
 Paper this day sent into the Council from the Lords Ambas- 
 sadors of the High and Mighty Lords the States General of 
 the United Provinces; which the Committee for Foreign 
 Affairs are to take into consideration, and prepare an answer 
 thereto, to be reported to the Council."-^ The Secretary for 
 Foreign Tongues, with England and English on the one hand 
 and Europe and Latin on the other, stood an honorable -And 
 
 1 Masson IV, 232; V, 184. 
 
 2 Masson IV, 423. 
 
 3 Masson IV, 422, 
 
 —61- 
 
important figure in the Commonwealth. To Milton the task 
 of translating into English must have been like drudgery, 
 and the dignity of his office must have appeared chiefly when 
 he had to voice in classical Latin a message of his country to 
 the foreign world. 
 
 Declarations and manifestoes, addressed not to any partic- 
 ular nation, but to the outside world in general, came to the 
 Latin Secretary for translation. It was sometimes considered 
 necessary to put the declaration into certain of the subordinate 
 and vulgar tongues to reach particular nations more intimately, 
 but the supreme and universal Latin could never be omitted. 
 In June, 1651, for instance, when Parliament voted a declara- 
 tion of reasons for the proposed expedition into Scotland, 
 Council ordered the declaration to "be translated into Latin 
 by Mr. Milton, into Dutch by Mr. Haak, and into French by 
 Monsieur Augier."^ Again, on July 7, 1652, when Parlia- 
 ment adopted a declaration of the causes of the war against 
 the Dutch, which declaration had been prepared by the Coun- 
 cil of State, Council ordered a translation to be made into 
 Latin, French, and Dutch.- In 1655, when Cromwell had 
 determined on a war with Spain, he issued an elaborate 
 manifesto in Latin, demonstrating to the world at large the 
 just cause of the English Commonwealth against the Spanish 
 people: "Scrvptum Domini Protectoris, ex consensu atque 
 sententia concilii sui editum, in quo hujus Reipublicae causa 
 contra Hispanos justa esse demonstratur."^ 
 
 The language served not only to embody the final draught 
 of a state letter or a declaration for foreign intelligence, but 
 was employed in the articles of a treaty and on occasion as 
 the medium of oral discussion. In May, 1652, after the battle 
 between the Dutch and English fleets olf Dover, negotiations 
 were open for a treaty of peace between the contending 
 countries. The Dutch Ambassadors, coming to London, were 
 
 1 Masson IV, 228. 
 
 2 Masson IV, 447. 
 
 3 Declaration of the Lord Protector, issued by the consent and advice 
 of his Council, in which the cause of this republic against the Spanish 
 people is demonstrated to be just. Masson V, 4G. 
 
 —62- 
 
received in high state by Parliament, and for many weeks 
 there were interviews and pai)ers between them and the 
 Council of State, Latin being the language employed. The 
 Dutch were at a disadvantage to the English in naval war- 
 fare, but not in Latin speech to any people. The negotiations 
 coming to nought at last, Cromv»'ell issued the declaration of 
 war mentioned above. 
 
 Another instance of the employment of Latin in treaty 
 conferences was when the Swedish Ambassador Count Bundt 
 ^ame to London in 1655. At a public reception given by 
 Cromwell, the Ambassador made a speech in Swedish, which 
 was imm.ediately translated by his secretary into Latin. 
 Cromwell replied in English, which the Ambassador sufficiently 
 understood. This situation, with three languages used in 
 courtesies between two men, is a curious one. Later when 
 the treaty was under discussion between representatives of 
 the two countries, the Swede begged "to be excused if he 
 should mistake anything of the sense of them [the articles], 
 they being in English which he could not so well understand 
 as if they had been in Latin, which they must be put into in 
 conclusion." He was advised that, while the articles were 
 brought in in English to save time, they should be put in 
 Latin "when his Excellency should desire." Such desire 
 being indicated, the Ambassador a few days later had to com- 
 plain that the translation was delayed because it had been 
 intrusted to a blind man. The discussion of the proposed 
 treaty was conducted partly in Latin, certain of the conferees 
 probably choosing to use English or Swedish just as it was 
 done in the reception of the visitors of Cromwell. But Latin, 
 embodying the articles themselves, seems to have played the 
 most important and distinguished part ^ 
 
 Milton's long and busy career as Secretary for Foreign 
 Tongues, from 1649 to 1660, resulted in the composition of 
 one hundred and forty-nine Latin letters which are included 
 in his prose works. He addressed during this time a score or 
 more of the different powers and principalities of Europe. 
 
 1 Masson V, 252-3. 
 
 —63— 
 
The substance of the letters belonged to the Council of State, 
 the Committee for Foreign Affairs, or to Cromwell; the 
 language was Milton's, — diffuse, involved, sonorous, withal 
 dignified and commanding, and worthy of the high spirit and 
 proud scholarship of its industrious author.' 
 
 The most notable business that ever fell to Milton's hand 
 for communication was Cromwell's prompt and vigorous 
 action, in 1653, concerning the Vaudois massacre. The slaugh- 
 ter occurred April 17. On May 17, and for many days there- 
 after, the Council of Cromwell was absorbed in consideration 
 of the appalling event. Letters were dispatched to the Duke 
 of Savoy, to France, Sweden, to the States General of the 
 United Provinces, to the Swiss Cantons, to Denmark, and to 
 Ragotski, Prince of Transylvania, all in Milton's Latin. A 
 special ambassador to Savoy, Mr. Samuel Moreland, delivered 
 Cromwell's letter of remonstrance, and addressed to the Duke 
 a speech, also in Latin, whose meaning and warning were 
 understood and heeded. When one thinks of this great triumph 
 of England's international influence, one should remember 
 that it was in Latin that the mighty will of Cromwell was 
 heralded abroad,— in that very language which had once car- 
 ried the decrees of Imperial Rome far and wide to the obedi- 
 ent nations. 2 
 
 1 These letters are all reviewed by Masson in his Life of Milton, in 
 connection with the public circumstances under which they were writterT 
 Volumes IV and V cover the period of Milton's secretaryship. 
 
 2 An account of the massacre and Cromwell's action is given in Mas- 
 son V, 38 ff. 
 
 —64— 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Latin in Private Correspondence. 
 
 The employment of Latin by an English sovereign or 
 council of state in communicating with a continental power 
 was not an artificial scheme built up without a broad founda- 
 tion in the conditions of the age. Men in private capacity, 
 without regard to anything except the present need, used 
 Latin in corresponding with foreigners, there being oftentimes 
 no other language sufficiently familiar and therefore no alter- 
 native even were one desired. The knowledge of modern 
 languages, save one's own native speech, was not esteemed a 
 very valuable acquisition, nor an essential mark of learning 
 and culture. Milton in a letter to Bradshaw, former presi- 
 dent of the regicide court, introduced Andrew Marvell, Febru- 
 uary 21, 1653, and indicated the notion of the day that schol- 
 arship depended not on the modern but solely on the ancient 
 languages. "He hath spent," said the letter, "four years 
 abroad in Holland, France, Italy, and Spain, to very good 
 purpose, as I believe, and the gaining of these four languages: 
 besides, he is a scholar, and well read in the Latin and Greek 
 authors."' 
 
 To know Dutch, French, Italian, and Spanish was no 
 doubt an unusual accomplishment, and in some cases greatly 
 worth while, but to be 'a scholar, well read in the Latin and 
 Greek authors, ' was an indispensable one for any man of 
 ambition and self-esteem. "The wheedling jargon of the 
 French," as Phillips called it, and the other vulgar tongues 
 could be neglected without disgrace. Hobbes, who thought 
 through many of the shams of his time, protested in vain 
 against the monopoly of the ancient languages in the educa- 
 
 i Masson IV, 478-9. 
 
 —65- 
 
tion of Englishmen. Latin and Greek, he wrote in his 
 Behemoth, were once profitable and necessary for detecting 
 Roman fraud and ejecting Romish power; now, when the 
 Scriptures were translated into English, he saw no great need 
 for the classical languages, but held far more desirable a 
 knowledge of modern neighboring tongues — French, Dutch, 
 and Italian.' 
 
 This notion of Hobbes's was centuries ahead of his time. 
 He himself paid the highest honors to Latin by writing in 
 that language his philosophical works, some of his contro- 
 versial papers, and last of all his versified autobiography. 
 The power of Latin was too great in that century for any one 
 man, however logical and influential, to disdain and escape it. 
 When it came to corresponding v/ith a foreigner, an English- 
 man could be sure of one thing, and that was the propriety of 
 using Latin. Only a perfect mastery of the foreigner's tongue 
 would permit its use; respect and courtesy for one's corre- 
 spondent would rule out English. Utility, pride, custom, dig- 
 nity, and honor all dictated the one universal language. 
 Accordingly the private citizen, like the ofiicial Secretary for 
 Foreign Tongues, adorned his correspondence with the sonor- 
 ous vowels and balanced sentences of Cicero, as nearly as he 
 could attain to that great model. 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton, a man of typical culture for English- 
 men of his time, who served his state in numerous foreign 
 embassies and closed his days as Provost of Eton College, 
 left behind a lot of letters addressed to his fellow-country- 
 men, and in small part to friends abroad. An examination 
 of his correspondence from the year 1615 on shows that all 
 his English letters were addressed to natives of England, the 
 three to the Queen of Bohemia being no exception since she 
 was the daughter of King James L All of Sir Henry's Latin 
 letters after the same date, six in number, were written to 
 foreigners, save one sent from Vienna home to King James. 
 That royal devotee of learning would no doubt have preferred 
 it in Latin under any circumstances, and especially since the 
 
 1 Behemoth, Molesworth's ed. of Works, VI, 276. 
 
 -66— 
 
writer was then abroad and ambassador at the same time. 
 As Ambassador to Venice, Sir Henry wrote four Italian let- 
 ters to Doge Pruili. On the whole, Wotton may be taken as 
 typical in his use of languages in correspondence: choosing 
 English for Englishmen and Latin for aliens, with exceptions 
 only in view of special circumstances.^ 
 
 Since only the learned could meet the linguistic require- 
 ments of international correspondence, the topics treated 
 were accordingly of a dignity worthy for the most part of 
 the language employed. Science and philosophy had their 
 share of attention in that philosophic if not scientific age. 
 The letters, for instance, of Dr. William Harvey were mostly 
 in Latin, and many of them (though the whole number was 
 not large ) discussed with his brother physicians in Germany 
 and other parts of Europe the physiological questions which 
 he had done so much toward answering. His startling theory 
 of the circulation of the blood was, like many another mo- 
 mentous scientific discovery, not immediately accepted by all 
 men, not even by all the learned: and Harvey's correspond- 
 ence labored to remove prejudice among his foreign friends, 
 and to make acceptable what he knew to be the truth. - 
 
 Another favorite theme for private correspondence, as 
 for every other literary essay in seventeenth century Eng- 
 land, was religion and the church. When men of different 
 nationalities wrote letters to each other on this subject, there 
 was double reason for seeking the dignity and form of no 
 vulgar tongue. In 1640, when Bishop Joseph Hall corres- 
 ponded'' with John Durie on the proposed problem of a uni- 
 versal Protestant union, which Samuel Hartlib, Milton's 
 friend, was endeavoring to introduce to the minds of Eng- 
 lishmen, the language of the two great scholars and divines 
 could have been none other than Latin. The same is true of 
 Robert Baillie, Principal of the University of Glasgow, who 
 about 1640 and onwards wrote occasionally from Glasgow to 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, by L. P. Smith. Appen- 
 dix I, D. 
 
 2 Willis's Harvey: Chapter H. Section XIV. 
 - Masson IH, 217. 
 
 —67— 
 
Clarissimo et Doctissimo Viro D. Gisberto Vostio, Sacrae 
 Theologiae in Academiae Ultrajectina Professori,^ concerning 
 current religious disputes, seeking the scholar's opinion and 
 begging his prayers for the troubled church of England. 
 
 Milton's private letters, which were mostly in Latin, 
 seem to have been devoted chiefly to complimentary passages 
 and to general literary observations. In this epistolary Latin 
 of his, as in fact in so much of the Latin of the times whether 
 prose or poetry, the reader feels that a rhetorical exercise is 
 in progress, and that here, as in the schools and universities, 
 words rather than ideas are the object of search and refine- 
 ment. These letters of Milton's which are still preserved, 
 thirty-one in number, are scattered from the seventeenth to the 
 sixty-sixth or last year of his Hfe. Nineteen were written to 
 men whose native language was not English: two to Italians, 
 ten to Germans, two to a Greek, two to Frenchmen, one to a 
 native of Friesland, and two to "the illustrious Lord Henry 
 de Bras", otherwise unknown. The fact that each of his 
 correspondents was a man of learning and ability determined 
 Milton's choice of Latin, even though English was in some 
 cases familiar to both. A number of his letters were written 
 during his University days, when the ancient language yet 
 claimed his enthusiasm and energy. 
 
 Latin was so confessedly the appropriate language of 
 correspondence between foreigners, that only a special rea- 
 son would suggest the using of any other. In one of his let- 
 ters to Henry Oldenburg, Aulic Counsellor to the Senate of 
 Bremen, Milton offered a thoughtful courtesy to his German 
 friend: "I had more than once", he wrote, "an intention of 
 substituting our English for your Latin, that you, who have 
 studied our language with more accuracy and success than 
 any foreigner with whom I am acquainted, might lose no 
 opportunity of writing it, which I think you would do with 
 equal elegance and correctness. But in this respect you 
 shall act as you feel incli-ned."- It does not appear that Old- 
 
 1 Baillie's Letters, Vol. Ill, 103-4. 
 •J Familiar Letter XIV. 
 
 -68- 
 
enburff ever took advantage of Milton's j^enerous proposal. 
 
 Many points of bioe:raphical value lie imbedded in Mil- 
 ton's correspondence with his foreign friends. Perhaps the 
 most interesting are the references to his blindness. Letter 
 numbered XV, to Leonard Philaras the Athenian who had 
 visited him in London, was taken up entirely with a descrip- 
 tion of the gradual coming on of darkness till both the poet's 
 eyes were obscured. Again, in the last of the Familiar Let- 
 ters, writing to Peter Heimbach he closed with an apology 
 for any errors in diction or pronunciation. Such errors were 
 to be imputed, he said, to ' 'the boy who wrote this, who is 
 quite ignorant of Latin, and to whom I was, with no little 
 vexation, obliged to dictate not the words, but, one by one, 
 the letters of which they were composed." 
 
 Not only in familiar correspondence but in conversation 
 and in poetic compliments, Latin was the medium between 
 different nationalities. To the famous singer, Leonora Bar- 
 oni, whom Milton heard at Rome, he made three Latin epi- 
 grams,' probably not being sure of the Italian idiom for such 
 a delicate business. At Naples, in 1639, Milton sent the poet 
 Manso, who had entertained him, a Latin tribute in hexam- 
 eters, which were published in 1645 in England; an eloquent, 
 impassioned poem, in which he referred to his high epic plan 
 to call back into verse the native English kings, "Arthur and 
 the knights of the unconquered table. '"^ Manso returned the 
 compliment with gift of two richly wrought cups, and a 
 Latin elegiac couplet, calling Milton Anglic and almost 
 angelic, saving his creed. ^ 
 
 It has been previously shown that in diplomatic discus- 
 sions between English and foreign embassies, Latin was 
 sometimes used; and it has been pointed out how in the Uni- 
 versities Latin was the language for every kind of communi- 
 cation, oral and v^itten. In private conversation it was 
 common for Latin to be used by learned foreigners of differ- 
 ent nationalities. Evelyn tells in his diary. May 6, 1656, of 
 
 1 Masson I, 635-6. 
 
 2 Masson I, 646-7. 
 
 3 Masson I, 646-8. 
 
 —69- 
 
a young Frenchman whom he persuaded to accept the doc- 
 trine and discipline of the Church of England, and who was 
 seeking sacred orders. "I brought Monsieur le Franc," says 
 Evelyn, "a young French Sorbonnist, a proselyte, to converse 
 with Dr. Taylor;' they fell to a dispute on original sinn, in 
 Latine, upon a booke newly published by the Doctor, who 
 was much satisfied with the young man." The satisfaction 
 probably had as much to do with scholarly abilities as a 
 proper acceptance of the necessary doctrines. 
 
 t Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 -70- 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Latin Publications. 
 
 We have shown that the voice of the English state, ad- 
 dressing- any particular foreign state, or the world in general 
 by universal proclamation, used the Latin language and 
 thereby insured intelligibility, dignity, and honor. Private 
 correspondence was guided by the same conditions and pur- 
 poses. We come now to another international use of Latin: 
 the use by individual Englishmen speaking or writing in 
 their capacity as defenders of their country or as scientists 
 and teachers with a message of concern to all thinking and 
 learned men among all nations. 
 
 In the writing of books it was very clear to Englishmen 
 what the advantages would be in using Latin and what sort 
 of audience the learned language would appeal to The first 
 question, and one that largely determined in an author's 
 mind whether he should compose his work in English or 
 Latin, was the range of his appeal; would he address a more 
 crowded audience of only Englishmen, or the learned heads 
 loosely but widely scattered throughout the European world. 
 A strictly domestic concern, an English family affair so to 
 speak, would naturally be discussed in the vernacular. Such 
 a question, for example, would be Church Reformation or 
 the Liberty of the Press in England, in the treatment of 
 which Milton deliberately chose the language of the country 
 addressed and primarily concerned. But when he was to 
 defend the English people not against any part of themselves 
 but against a hostile foreign world, he wrote in Latin his 
 Defeiisio Pro Populo Anglicano.^ teaching a continental audi- 
 ence concerning a matter in which they particularly needed 
 
 1 Defense of the People of England, 1650. 
 
 —71- 
 
instruction. Milton's choice of English or Latin for his prose 
 pamphlets struck with fine wisdom the reasonable distinc- 
 tion between the uses of the two languages for Englishmen 
 of that day. 
 
 The policy he seems to have adopted was to employ Eng- 
 lish whenever the English people were chiefly concerned in 
 the perusal of his discourse, and not to be tempted by the 
 applause which eloquence in the honored Latin might win 
 for him abroad. In "The Reason of Church Government", 
 published in 1641, he declared that "if I were certain to 
 write as men buy leases, for three lives and downward, there 
 ought no regard be sooner had than to God's glory, by the 
 honour and instruction of my country. For which cause, 
 and not only for that I knew it would be hard to arrive at 
 the second rank among the Latins, I applied myself to that 
 resolution, which Ariosto followed against the persuasions of 
 Bembo, to fix all industry and art I could unite to the adorn- 
 ing of my native tongue; not to make verbal curiosities the 
 end, (that were a toilsome vanity, ) but to be an interpreter 
 and a relater of the best and sagest things among mine own 
 citizens throughout the island in the mother dialect. That 
 what the greatest and choicest wits of Athens, Rome, or 
 modern Italy, and those Hebrews of old did for their coun- 
 try, I, in my proportion, with this over and above, of being 
 a Christian, might do for mine; not caring to be once named 
 abroad, though perhaps I could attain to that, but content 
 with these British islands as my world; whose fortune has 
 hitherto been, that if the Athenians, as some say, made their 
 small deeds great and renowned by their eloquent writers, 
 England hath had her noble achievements made small by the 
 unskilful handling of monks and mechanics."' In this char- 
 acteristic passage Milton's reference was no doubt to his 
 plans for poetry rather than prose, in the honoring and 
 teaching of his country; but the same determination guided 
 him in all his writings, to use the mother tongue if his message 
 was not exclusively or pre-eminently for foreign readers. 
 
 1 Milton's Prose Works IT, 478. 
 
 —72- 
 
In the "Doctrine of Discipline and Divorce", written in 
 1643, addressing Parliament and the Ecclesiastical Assembly, 
 he drew again the distinction which guided him in the choice 
 of language. "I seek not," he said, "to seduce the simple 
 and illiterate; my errand is to find out the choicest and the 
 learnedest, who have this high gift of wisdom to answer 
 solidly, or to be convinced. I crave it from the piety, the 
 learning, and the prudence which is housed in this place. It 
 might perhaps have been more fitly written in another 
 tongue: and I had done so, but that the esteem I have of my 
 country's judgment, and the love I bear to my native lan- 
 guage to serve it first with what I endeavor, make me speak 
 it thus, ere I assay the verdict of outlandish readers."' 
 
 As late as 1659, when he addressed Parliament with "A 
 Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes," Milton 
 still held firmly to the early reasons for choosing English 
 when Latin was not a necessity. "I have prepared, supreme 
 council," he began, "against the much-expected time of your 
 sitting, this treatise; which, though to to all Christian magis- 
 trates equally belonging, and therefore to have been written 
 in the common language of Christendom, natural duty and 
 afi^ection hath confined, and dedicated first to my own nation; 
 and in a season wherein the timely reading thereof, to the 
 easier accomplishment of your great work, may save you 
 much labor and interruption."- We may feel sure, from 
 these statements, that if Milton was consistent, he used 
 Latin only when he had no other choice, only when the 
 supreme purpose of his writing was an errand not to English- 
 men but to the people of Europe at large. And so his treat- 
 ises on Church Reformation, on Divorce, on the Tenure of 
 Kings and Magistrates, on Education; his Eikonoklastes, his 
 Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, 
 and his histories of Britain and Muscovia, were addressed to 
 his countrymen in their native speech. On the other hand 
 all his defenses of the People of England and of himself, 
 
 1 Milton's Prose Works, III, 179. 
 
 2 Milton's Prose Works, II, 520-1. 
 
 —73— 
 
being answers against foreigners who attacked him or his 
 country in Latin, were themselves written in that tongue. 
 The De Doctrina Christiana, his longest work, was likewise 
 in Latin, being, according to the Dedication, "the address of 
 John Milton to all the Churches of Christ, and to all who pro- 
 fess the Christian faith throughout the world." 
 
 The vast audience which one, writing from England in 
 the universal language, might have pictured for himself, is 
 splendidly described by Milton in the first pages of his Sec- 
 ond Defense of the People of England, published in 1654. 
 Flushed with the triumph of his first defense against the 
 great Salmasius, he was borne up on the wings of his mag- 
 nificent theme before the upturned faces of the whole civil- 
 ized world. "I am far from wishing," he exclaimed, "to 
 make any vain or arrogant comparisons, or to speak ostenta- 
 tiously of myself; but, in a cause so great and glorious, and 
 particularly on an occasion when I am called by the general 
 suffrage to defend the very defenders of that cause, I can 
 hardly refrain from assuming a more lofty and swelling tone 
 than the simplicity of an exordium may seem to justify: and 
 much as I may be surpassed in the powers of eloquence and 
 copiousness of diction, by the illustrious orators of antiquity, 
 yet the subject of which I treat was never surpassed in any 
 age, in dignity, or in interest. It has excited such general 
 and such ardent expectation, that I imagine myself not in 
 the forum or on the rostra, surrounded only by the people of 
 Athens or of Rome, but about to address in this, as I did in 
 my former Defense, the whole collective body of people, 
 cities, states, and councils of the wise and eminent, through 
 the wide expanse of anxious and listening Europe. I seem 
 to survey, as from a towering height, the far extended tracts 
 of sea and land, and innumerable crowds of spectators, be- 
 traying in their looks the liveliest interest, and sensations 
 the most congenial with my own. Here I behold the stout 
 and manly prowess of the Germans disdaining servitude; 
 there the generous and lively impetuosity of the French; on 
 this side, the calm and stately valour of the Spaniard; on 
 that, the composed and wary magnanimity of the Italian. . . 
 
 —74- 
 
. . . .Surrounded by congrej^ated multitudes, I now imagine 
 that, from the columns of Hercules to the Indian Ocean, I 
 behold the nations of the earth recovering that liberty which 
 they so long had lost; and that the people of this island are 
 transporting to other countries a plant of more beneficial 
 qualities, and more noble growth, than that which Tripto- 
 lemus is reported to have carried from region to region; that 
 they are disseminating the blessings of civilization and free- 
 dom among cities, kingdoms, and nations."' 
 
 To sum up Milton's conception of the proper use of Latin 
 by individual Englishmen, it was, in his own phrases, to 
 "essay the verdict of outlandish readers," to write treatises 
 "to all the Christian magistrates equally belonging," to 
 address "all the Churches of Christ, and all who profess the 
 Christian faith throughout the world,", and "the whole col- 
 lective body of people, cities, states, and councils of the wise 
 and eminent, through the wide expanse of anxious and listen- 
 ing Europe." For anyone of these things to be done, Latin 
 had to be employed. The same clear recognition of the 
 range of language appears in the act of Sir Francis Bacon in 
 putting into Latin such works of his as he meant should live;- 
 and in that of Thomas Hobbes, in translating, in 1668, his origi- 
 nal English Leviathan v^^hich his own scrupulous countrymen 
 were threatening to suppress.^ "My fame," said the philoso- 
 pher, after the translation, in reply to criticism and abuse, 
 "has long ago flown abroad, not to be recalled." Comenius, 
 in his educational reform, insisted on the thorough mastering 
 of Latin, not as a part of learning or wisdom, but as a means 
 of communicating and receiving knowledge, as an introduc- 
 tion to the wise use of books. These four great contempora- 
 ries, three Englishmen and one a citizen of the world, not 
 only agreed in their opinion of the right province of Latin, 
 but showed in practice their faith in the language. 
 
 Milton, in comparing the famous success of his Latin 
 
 1 Milton's Prose Works, I, 219, 220. 
 
 2 Spedding, Preface, XI. 
 
 :i Robertson's Hobbes, 200-1. 
 
 -75- 
 
Defenses with the poor reception of his English Reform 
 pamphlets, was naturally inclined to be proud of the former 
 and to put more trust accordingly in learning and the 
 learned. In his Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free 
 Commonwealth, written in 1660, he referred to his having 
 defended the heroic cause of the English people "to all 
 Christendom against the tongue of a famous and thought- 
 invincible adversary;" and having left "a written monument 
 likely to outlive detraction."^ Though in all his addresses to 
 his people he had sincerely hoped to improve and honor his 
 native language, yet his messages at home had rewarded him 
 only with disappointment. His feehng of the contrast 
 between his English and his Latin successes is indicated in a 
 reply in 1655, to Leo de Aitzema, agent at the Hague and 
 the Hanse Towns, who wrote to Milton about having his 
 Divorce book translated into Dutch. Both the inquiry and 
 the answer were in Latin. Milton said, among other things: 
 "As regards the Book on Divorce which you tell me you have 
 given to some one to be turned into Dutch, I had rather you 
 had given it to be turned into Latin. For my experience in 
 these books has now been that the vulgar still receive accord- 
 ing to their wont opinions not already common. " No use, in 
 other words, to put reform treatises in the vulgar tongues 
 for common people to read; any effect to be produced with 
 new ideas must be among the learned reading Latin. 
 
 Milton was not the only Englishman who took note of 
 the fame his Latin arguments had found abroad, but not 
 every one regarded that fame with pride and congratulation. 
 In 1660, while the Restoration was close upon England, there 
 appeared in London a pamphlet, though anonymous, known 
 to have been by Roger L' Estange, entitled, "No Blind 
 Guides: in answer to a seditious pamphlet of J. Milton's 
 entitled 'Brief Notes on a late Sermon, &c. ' Addressed to 
 the Author. 'If the Blind lead the Blinde, both shall fall 
 into the ditch'." One passage, referring to Milton's Defense 
 of the People of England, exclaimed: "Tis there (as I remem- 
 
 I Lockwood, 153. 
 
 -76— 
 
ber) that you commonplace yourself into set forms of railing, 
 two pages thick; and lest your infamy should not extend 
 itself enough within the course and usage of your mother 
 tongue, the thing is dressed up in a travelling garb and lan- 
 guage, to blast the English nation to the Universe, and give 
 every man a horror of mankind when he considers you are 
 of the race."' 
 
 One other contemporary opinion of the European appeal 
 of the language may yet be quoted, Peter Du Moulin was 
 an ardent Episcopalian and follower of Charles I, and lent 
 his learning, which was of some pretense, to the royalists. 
 He made a solemn vow% in answer to the King's invitation to 
 represent his cause abroad, ' 'that, as far Latin and French 
 could go in the world, I would make the justice of the king's 
 and church's cause to be known, especially to the Protestants 
 of France and the Low Countries." He made good his vow, 
 and sent forth in Latin the scurrilous pamphlet entitled 
 "Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum.'"- By this work he 
 extolled the martyred king, and defamed Milton as far as 
 Latin "could go in the world." 
 
 This extensive foreign audience it was that first encour- 
 aged an English scholar to employ the universally intelligible 
 language when his message was to all mankind. As a fur- 
 ther advantage in its favor, Latin seemed the most perma- 
 nent of languages, having survived by a thousand years the 
 downfall of its native city; and the most honorable, having a 
 long and noble record of service to human civilization. Wide 
 range of appeal, first, then permanence and honor, recom- 
 mended the ancient above any modern tongue. In a later 
 section further notice will be taken of the superior dignity 
 and power of Latin. 
 
 The English state viewed with anxiety the birth of Latin 
 books hostile to its acts and policies. To protect against for- 
 
 1 Masson V, 689-690. 
 
 2 Cry of the King's Blood to Heaven. Masson V, 217-218. Also 
 Diet. Nat. Biog. sub Moulin. 
 
 —77— 
 
eign literary invasion and to meet attack with similar force 
 became a part of the duties of the Council of State and the 
 Foreign Committee. This was especially true during the 
 precarious years following the execution of Charles, when 
 the whole world seemed to surround the Puritan island and 
 rage against the doings of the bold republicans. When it 
 became known among the victorious revolutionists in Eng- 
 land that the royalists had hired the eloquent French Latin- 
 ist Salmasius to proclaim the defense of the Stuarts over 
 Europe, it was ordered in Council November 19, 1649, to take 
 measures for intercepting the book expected from Holland. 
 Without power to reach beyond the channel and annihilate 
 the enemy there. Council had means at least of preventing 
 an invasion of the English land. The hostile and dangerous 
 book was Defensio Regia pro Carolo I. Ad Serenissiinum 
 Magnae Britanniae Regem Carolo II; filium natu majorem, 
 heredem et successorem legitimum.^ It was a duodecimo of 
 444 pages, truly formidable in size. The measures of pro- 
 tection proposed by Council were to intercept the book at the 
 custom-house. But this mere keeping it out of England was 
 not sufficient. An antidote had to be sent abroad to counter- 
 act the effects there. Accordingly on January 8, 1650, it 
 was ordered that "Mr. Milton do prepare something in 
 answer to the Book of Salmasius, and when he hath done it 
 to bring it to the Council. " "Do prepare," though the nor- 
 mal style of such resolutions, may be read to suggest the 
 anxious appeal of the councillors in this dread emergency. 
 "Prepare something" — the vagueness suggests helplessness, 
 and trust in the resources of the eloquent Secretary. In 
 February, that is, the very next month, Council employed 
 Milton for another year, at his former salary, and on the 
 same day "a letter was despatched by the Council of State 
 to the Commissioners of Customs, informing them that copies 
 of Salmasius 's Defensio Regia were on their way from Hol- 
 land to several booksellers in England, and instructing them 
 
 1 Masson IV, 150. Defense of Charles I. To Charles II, most serene 
 King of Great Britain, his elder son, and legitimate heir and successor. 
 
 —78- 
 
to order the subordinate officers of Customs to see to the dis- 
 covery and seizure of all such copies, that the importers 
 might be proceeded against".' At last, after anxious waiting 
 and watching the Council were informed that the undoing of 
 Salmasius was at hand, and they ordered, December 23, 
 1650, "that Mr. Milton do print the treatise he hath written 
 in answer to a late Book written by Salmasius against the 
 Proceedings of the Commonwealth."- This was the first 
 Defense of the People of England, which vanquished Salma- 
 sius, which made Milton's name a wonder throughout Eu- 
 rope, and which he later proudly declared would "outlive 
 detraction." 
 
 Just ten years later, at the Restoration which meant 
 also destruction, Commons ordered this famous Defense 
 together with its fellow-offender, the Eikonoklastes, to be 
 collected and burned; and proceedings to be started against 
 the wicked author. "This week, according to a former pro- 
 clamation," say the newspapers of September 3-10, 1660, 
 "several copies of those infamous books made by John Good- 
 will and John Milton in justification of the horrid murder of 
 our late glorious sovereign King Charles the First were sol- 
 emnly burned at the session house in the Old Bailey by the 
 hand of the common hangman."^ The serious attention paid 
 by the State for the composition, printing, and publication of 
 these treatises and later, by an adverse sovereign,for the col- 
 lection and destruction of them, shows the vigorous practi- 
 cal life Latin enjoyed as a national and international force. 
 
 Milton's were not the only books in Latin authorized by 
 a vigilant Council in those anxious days after January, 1649. 
 On October 17 of that year, it was ordered that 500 copies of 
 Mr. Hall his answer to Mr. Prynne be printed in Latin, and 
 the charge of it be defrayed by the Council."^ Again, Octo- 
 ber 15, 1650, it was ordered "that Mr. Needham do put into 
 
 1 Masson IV, 224. 
 
 2 Do. , 230. 
 
 3 Masson VI, 193. 
 
 ■t Bishop John Hall. Masson IV, 147. 
 
 —79— 
 
Latin the Treatise which he hath written in answer to a 
 Spanish piece written in defense of the murder of Mr. As- 
 cham,"' the ambassador of the commonwealth to Spain, 
 assassinated there by royahsts while engaged in the perform- 
 ance of his mission. In no direction did the Commonwealth 
 keep stricter watch than toward the continent, to help their 
 own cause and hinder their enemies' in the Latin contro- 
 versy that was waging around the name of Charles L 
 
 The use of Latin as a modern living language had not 
 been perfected nor extended in England as on the continent. 
 Scholarship had attained its height in Holland and France in 
 such world-celebrities as Salmasius, Grotius, Vossius, etc., 
 with whom no name in England could compare until the 
 Latin prose of Milton made its way in triumph over the con- 
 tinent. Then the learned Englishman became an object of 
 admiration abroad, where learning was more appreciated 
 than in the narrow island, and he was importuned to go into 
 France and Italy, and was sought after by foreign visitors 
 to the day of his death, not because of his fame as poet but 
 as Latin antagonist of Salmasius.- Englishmen themselves 
 conceded their inferiority in scholarship, that is, for the 
 most part, in knowledge and fluency in Latin. 
 
 Of Robert Fludd, who made his name de Fliictibus, a 
 physician practicing in London and fellow of the College of 
 physicians. Wood wrote: "He was esteemed by many schol- 
 ars a most noted philosopher, an eminent physician, and one 
 strangely profound in obscure matters. . . . His books which 
 are mostly in Latin are many and mystical: and as he wrote 
 by clouding his high matter with dark language, which is 
 accounted by some'* no better than canting, or the phrase of 
 a mountebank; so he spoke to his patients, amusing them 
 with I know not what, till by his elevated expressions he 
 operated into them a faith-natural, which consequently 
 contributed to the well working of physic. They are 
 looked upon as slight things among the English notwith- 
 
 1 Masson IV, 229. 
 
 2 Masson V, 404. 
 
 3 E. g., the philosopher Hobbes. 
 
 -80- 
 
standing by some valued, particularly by Mr. Selden, who 
 had the author of them in high esteem. The foreigners prize 
 and behold them as rarities, not that they are more judicious 
 than the English, but more inquisitive in such difficulties, 
 which has been the reason why some of them have been 
 printed more than once."' 
 
 Of Joseph Allein's Theologiae Philosophicae, sive Philos- 
 ophiae Theologicae Specimen,- written in 1661, Wood said 
 that it had been "licensed for the press, but being Latin and 
 Greek, and such books having too few buyers in England, 
 none are yet found that will be at the charge of printing the 
 said book." In 1676, when David Skinner drafted a Latin 
 prospectus of his forthcoming edition of Milton's Latin State 
 Letters, he began: "Be it known to all the world, whether 
 in the Universities or in London, as well as to booksellers, if 
 there are any with more than usual knowledge of Latin, and 
 also to all foreigners whatsoever," — seeming unconsciously 
 to have divided the world w-ho cared for his Latin book into 
 two classes, the "learned of England" and "all foreigners 
 whatsoever."-' The parliamentary party in England was in 
 particular charged with \vant of learning, and it was a sur- 
 prise that such a Latinist as Milton should have risen from 
 that number. The following compliment w^as paid to the 
 associates of Cromwell by the author of the Regit Sanguinis 
 Clamor, published in 1652: "The Parricides were alarmed 
 at the fame of the great work of Salmasius— not at the read- 
 ing of it; for what one here or there among these scoundrels 
 understands Latin?"' 
 
 A curious comment on the scholarship of the day, show- 
 ing that eloquence was in words rather than ideas, and that 
 a greater virtue lay in Latin itself than in the arguments it 
 conveyed, is found in the controversies between Milton and 
 
 1 Wood, II, Part II, 618-622. A list of Fludd's works is given by Wood. 
 - Specimens of Philosophical Theology, or Theological Philosophy. 
 
 Wood, Athenae, III, 822. 
 ■^ Masson VI, 796. 
 ^ Masson IV, 455. 
 
 —81— 
 
his opponents when they turn aside from facts and proofs 
 and persuasion, to attack each other's vocabulary and syn- 
 tax. In the preface to the first Defense, in 1650, Milton 
 rejoiced to find flaws in the grammarian's grammar. "I 
 have a horrible message to bring of you," he cried, address-^ 
 ing Salmasius, "which I am mistaken if it strike not a more 
 heinous wound into the ears of all grammarians and critics, 
 provided they have any learning and delicacy in them, to 
 wit, your crowding so many barbarous expressions together 
 in one period in the person of ( Aristarchus ) a grammarian; 
 and that so great a critic as you, hired at the king's charge 
 to write a defence of the king his father, should not only set 
 so fulsome a preface before it, much like those lamentable 
 ditties that used to be sung at funerals, and which can move 
 compassion in none but a coxcomb; but in the very first sen- 
 tence should provoke your readers to laughter with so many 
 barbarisms all at once. 'Persona regis', you cry. Where do 
 you find any such Latin? or are you telling us some tale or 
 other of a Perkin Warbec, who, taking upon him the person 
 of a king, has, forsooth, committed some horrible parricide 
 in England? which expression, though dropping carelessly 
 from your pen, has more truth in it than you are aware of. 
 For a tyrant is but like a king upon a stage, a man in a 
 vizor, and acting the part of a king in a play: he is not really 
 a king. But as for these gallicisms, that are so frequent in 
 your book, I won't lash you for them myself, for I am not at 
 leisure; but shall deliver you over to your fellow- grammar- 
 ians, to be laughed to scorn and whipped by them."' 
 
 But Milton could not yield his high advantage, and anon 
 spoke again of Salmasius's "parricidal barbarisms" and 
 "miserable bald Latin," with other insinuations against the 
 style and learning of the protagonist for royalty; whom he 
 abused as a grammarian, the shame of grammarians, the 
 perpetrator of solecisms, as "altogether ignorant both of 
 Latin and common sense." At one place Milton shouted an 
 apostrophe to the English fugitives: "So many bishops, 
 
 1 Milton's Prose Works, I, 8-10. 
 
 —82— 
 
doctors, lawyers, who pretend that all learning and ingen- 
 uous literature is fled out of England with yourselves, was 
 there not one of you that could defend the king's cause and 
 your own, and that in good Latin also, to be submitted to 
 the judgment of other nations, but that this brainsick, beg- 
 garly Frenchman must be hired to undertake the defence of 
 a poor indigent king, surrounded with so many infant priests 
 and doctors?"' 
 
 In the second Defense a similar attack was made upon 
 the language of the Regit Sanguinis Clamor. "You would 
 suppose," wrote Milton, referring to the author of the 
 Clamor, supposed to be Alexander Morus, "that his language 
 was rather Oscan than Latin; or that he was croaking like 
 the frog of a slimy pool. Then to show you how much he is 
 a master of iambics, he makes two false quantities in a single 
 word, making one syllable long where it ought to be short, 
 and another short where it ought to be long: — 
 
 'Hi trucidato rege per horrendum nefas.' "- 
 
 John Phillips, Milton's nephew and pupil, followed his 
 uncle and master in style of controversy. In 1652 he pub- 
 lished in London Responsio ad Apologiam Anonymi cujusdam 
 Tenebrionis pro Rege et Populo Anglican/) Infantissimam.^ 
 He called his antagonist "unlearned, insipid, a plunderer in 
 Latin, arrogant and languid; yet the further we proceed the 
 more inane and lean you always turn out, and, with the 
 exception of some commonplace adages and distichs, which 
 you had learnt by heart, I believe, when a school-boy, and 
 which, to prevent your readers from denying you some little 
 sort of half-scholarship, you labor to insert by hook or crook, 
 you seem to have exhausted all the rest of your very small 
 
 1 Milton's Prose Works, I, 204. 
 
 2 These having committed the horrible crime of slaying a king. This 
 fragment is from certain Latin verses in Regii Sanguinis Clamor. The 
 mistaken vowels are the u and i in trucidato. Milton's Prose Works, 
 I, 242. 
 
 3 Reply to the most silly apology of some anonymous rascal for the 
 king and people of England. Masson, IV, 470. 
 
 -83- 
 
provision of arguments, sense and Latin. '^ — "^Tn the last 
 chapter," says Masson, commenting on Phillips's piece,, 
 "there is a biting return to the subject of the horribly bad 
 Latin of the Apologist, with a collection of some of his more 
 glaring solecisms by way of specimen. "Tarn castus ut exem- 
 plum praebuit. ' 'Totiens purgatum ut nil praeter nomen. 
 manere potuit. ' 'Tanto acumine ut maxima pars mundl 
 mirantur et silent.^ ' " Milton providently assisted Phillips- 
 in revising the language of the pamphlet, since his own 
 name was defended in it, and his reputation abroad was at 
 stake. . . 
 
 We have passed in review the contemporary estimates 
 put on Latin for international communication, and the advan- 
 tages involved for Englishmen in its use in books intended 
 for foreign readers. If we look into the nature of these lit- 
 erary productions, we find them divided into the broad classes 
 of political and legal, scientific, biographical and historical, 
 and religious writings. On such subjects Englishmen often 
 had a message for all mankind and therefore wrote it in the 
 language which the world could read. 
 
 Political writings were for the most part controversial, 
 and it was during the political disturbances of 164G and 1660 
 that the chief argumentative contests were waged between 
 the English at home and English or foreigners on the conti- 
 nent. The literature on the execution of Charles I was 
 abundant in both languages, and translations frequently 
 passed from the one to the other. The first notable work to 
 appear on this tremendous question was the /-':^w> h'anu.'.xr^ in 
 English in 164.9; a work regarded as being so powerful and 
 affecting that in the same year it was translated into Latin 
 by Dr. John Earle at the command of Charles H. Its full 
 title in translation was J-'-'o'"'-' l^'i^ri/.t/.r;^ ijel Imago Regis Caroli 
 in illis suis Aerumnis et Solitudine,- and publication took 
 place at The Hague. The book was thus busy at its task in 
 
 1 Masson IV, 473. The fault with all these examples is the use of 
 the indicative instead of subjunctive after ut. 
 
 2 Masson IV, 131: Eikon Basilike, or Image of King Charles in those 
 lonely miseries of his, 
 
 -84— 
 
two lanffuaijes, reacliinp: all the learned abroad, all the people 
 <of En^-land high and low. In refutation of the l'-'-'''''^ Milton 
 brought forth in English F.ixovoxXdffTris\ or Image- Breaker, 
 which was likewise put into Latin to carry the war into Eu- 
 rope against the translated form of the enemy's book. The 
 translation was the work of Lewis Du Moulin, brother of the 
 royalist Peter Du Moulin, and History Professor at Oxford. 
 A French translation of the same book was made by Mr. 
 Durie, at the order of the Council of State, to counteract a 
 French version of the l--'~'-(»-' ii'j^'^o.iy.r; prepared by the order of 
 Charles II. ^ 
 
 By November 1, 1649, the distinguished jfrenc'h scholar, 
 Claudius Salmasius, had brought out on the. , continent for 
 Charles II a Defensio Regia,' a ponderous work assailing in 
 vehement Latin the English regicides and glorifying the 
 martyred king. The English government, being anxiously on 
 the alert for such manoeuvres, directed the Secretary for 
 Foreign Tongues to bring up the opposite side, ai?d, acccord- 
 ingly about March 1651 there appeared in London Johannis 
 Miltoni Angli pro Popido Anglicano Defensio, contra Claudii 
 Anonymi, alias Salmasii, Defensiorpem i^egrmm.^ The Council 
 was pleased by the Defense and voted copious thanks to the 
 defender on June 18, 1651. This same year thf re wa^s issued 
 at Antwerp by a refugee English clergynaan ^.r duodecimo 
 volume of' 195 pages, with the title: Pro Rege, et Popido 
 Anglicano Apologia, cmitra Johannis Polypragmatfci (alias 
 Miltonii Angli) Defensionem Destruciivam I^egis et Populi 
 AnglicaniJ Here is the remarkable spectacle of an English- 
 man in exile in Holland publishing to Europeans a Latin 
 
 1 These facts are gathered from Masson IV, 131, 315, 448, and V, 216. 
 
 2 Masson IV, 166. Defense of the King. 
 
 •^ Defense of the people of England, by John Milton, Englishman, 
 •against the Defense of the King of Claude the Anonymous, alias Sal- 
 masius. Masson IV, 312. 
 
 4 Apology for the King and People of England, in answer to John the 
 Busybody's (alias John Milton the Englishman's) Defense of the Kin^r 
 and English People to their ruin. Masson IV, 347, 
 
 -85- 
 
argument against another Latin pamphlet by an Englishman 
 safe at home, on a subject of English concern. The author 
 of the Apologia was later found to be John Rowland, an 
 English pastor. His work was an important one, though in 
 very bad Latin, An answer to it was prepared, on the per- 
 mission of Milton, by his nephew John Phillips with a book 
 of 258 pages, published in 1652 and entitled: Johannis Phil- 
 ippi Angli Responsio adApologiam anonymi Cujusdam Tene- 
 brionis. Mention of this work was made above (page 83) 
 where attention was called to Phillips's attack on his oppo- 
 nent's Latin, 
 
 In this same year, 1652, there sounded from the other 
 side of England, that is to say, from Ireland, a shot in the 
 battle of words around the name of Charles, It was a pamphlet 
 let entitled: Charles I, Britanniarum Rex a securi et calamo 
 Miltonii vindicattisJ The unknown author brought what 
 learning he could muster to the side of his king, "Salmasius, " 
 he said in his Dedication to Charles II, "seems to me to have 
 kept silence too much under his attacks from Milton, though 
 he is generally sharp and sedulous in avenging calumnies. 
 Unequal to the task though I am, I have taken his side, and 
 instituted as it were a preliminary skirmish, till he shall col- 
 lect his forces away from the field, and bring on the real 
 battle". But Salmasius was past fighting and was no more 
 heard from during his life. 
 
 Another pamphlet for the year 1652 was issued at The 
 Hague anonymously and entitled: Regit Sanguinis Clamor 
 ad Coelum adversiis Parricidas Anglicanos.'- The book eulo- 
 gized Salmasius and "other well-affectioned and learned 
 men", Milton not being of the number. Against this new 
 attack, as earlier against the Defensio Regis of Salmasius 
 himself, the Council of State had recourse to the approved 
 polemic strength of their Latin Secretary, and ordered him to 
 prepare a reply. For six months the great protagonist of 
 
 1 Charles I, King of the British Isles, vindicated from the axe and 
 pen of Milton. Masson IV, 436 and footnote. 
 
 2 Cry of the King's blood to heaven against the English Parricides, 
 Masson IV, 453. 
 
 —86- 
 
liberty was off duty as translating secretary, evidently 
 employed on the answer to Regit Sanguinis Clamor; which 
 answer appeared in London, May 30, 1654, as Joannis Miltoni 
 Angli pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda: contra hifamem 
 Libelliim Anonymum cui titulus 'Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad 
 Caelum adversus Parr icidas Anglicanos'."^ This, like others 
 of these pieces of political controversy, was a sort of state 
 paper, ordered by the government and written by a paid 
 author. Milton, in his second Defense, assumed Alexander 
 Morus to be the author of the anonymous pamphlet, while 
 Peter Du Moulin, the real author, was pleased for the present 
 to keep his name concealed. Morus was indeed partly in 
 guilt, being responsible for the dedicatory epistle to Charles 
 II and for editing the entire publication, but he was not 
 willing to bear the whole brunt of Milton's irresistible wrath. 
 He first bought up all the copies of the Defensio Secunda that 
 he could, and at last published a vindication of himself, 
 entitled: Alexandy'i Mori, Ecclesiastae, Sacrarumque Litter- 
 arum Professoris, Fides Publico, contra Calumnias Joannis 
 Miltoni, Scurrae.' This apology of Morus was brought out at 
 the Hague, in 1654, and curiously enough, by the perversity 
 of the printer, was bound up in the same volume with Mil- 
 ton's Defensio Secunda which Morus had done his best to 
 remove from the sight of men. The first issue of the Fides 
 Publica being incomplete, the finished edition was brought 
 out the following year, 1655, unembarrassed by the associa- 
 tion of Milton's offensive work. ^ On August 8 of this year 
 Milton published a rejoinder to the original Fides Publica, 
 with an appended notice of the supplement and with the 
 title: Joannis Miltoni^ Angli, Pro Se Defensio contra Alex- 
 
 1 Second defense of the People of England, by John Milton, English- 
 man: in reply to an anonymous and infamous pamphlet entitled, "Cry of 
 the King's Blood to Heaven against the English Parricides." Masson 
 I V, 580-1. 
 
 2 A public testimony of Alexander Morus, churchman and Professor 
 of Sacred Literature, in reply to the calumnies of John Milton, buffoon. 
 Masson V, 150-1. 
 
 3 Masson V, 192. 
 
 —87- 
 
andrum Morum, Ecclesiasten, Libelli Famosi, cut titulus 'Re- 
 gii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum adversiLS Parricidas Angli- 
 canos,' authorem recte dictum."^ This was Milton's farewell 
 to Morus, and concludes his efforts to destroy the "Cry of 
 the King's Blood," of 1652, and all connected with it. We 
 may now go back to the year 1653, and consider other par- 
 ticipants in the international war of words and learning. 
 
 This year witnessed the arrival of three more allies for 
 Salmasius, in the form of Latin pamphlets. Two of these 
 were published together under the title: Caspari Zeigleri 
 Lipsiensis circa Regicidiim Anglorum Exercitationes. Accidit 
 Jacobi Schalleri Dissertatio ad loca quaedam Miltoni.- The 
 authors were men of unwarlike occupation, Zeigler being a 
 German jurist, Schaller a Doctor of Theology and Professor 
 of Practical Philosophy; but they were excited by the stir 
 which Milton's anti-Salmasian pamphlets had produced among 
 the learned of Europe. The third publication of the year 
 was entitled: Polemica, sive Supplementum ad Apologiam 
 Anonymam pro Rege et Populo Anglicano adversus Jo. Miltoni 
 Defensionem Populi Anglicani, &c. Per Jo. Roivlandnm, 
 Pastorem Anglicum, 1653."^ This John Rowland had written 
 the anonymous pamphlet against Milton, to which John Phil- 
 lips had replied;^ and in this later publication he ■t)oth con- 
 fessed his name and acknowledged with some emphasis. -the 
 former work, bad Latin and all. 
 
 It was as late as September 1660, after the Restoration 
 and after all need for argument had ended, that the rebuttal 
 
 1 The English John Milton's Defense for Himself, in reply to Alex- 
 ander Morus, Churchman, rightly called the author of the notorious book 
 entitled 'Cry of the King's Blood to Heaven against the English Parri- 
 cides." Milton V, 198. 
 
 2 Exercitations of Casper Ziegler of Leipsic concerning the Regicide 
 of the English: To which is added Jacobus Schaller's Dissertation on 
 some passages of Milton. Leyden, 1653. Masson IV, 534-5. 
 
 3 Polemica, or Supplement to the Anonymous Apology for the King 
 and People of England against John Milton's Defense of the English 
 People, &c. By John Rowland, English Pastor, 1653. Masson IV, 536. 
 
 4 See above, page 86. 
 
of Salmasius aj^fainst Milton's first Defense of 1051 was heard 
 — a feeble and broken voice from the grave. The title of the 
 publication was Claudii Salmasi ad Johannem Miltonum Re- 
 sponsio, opus poi^tinmim.^ It consisted of a dedication to 
 Charles 1 1 by Claudius Salmasius, soii of the deceased author; 
 a preface of 50 pages; two completed chapters, and part of a 
 third ending abruptly. The chief point of interest in the 
 work is the evidence that Milton's picking at Salmasius's 
 Latin grammar had vexed the old scholar sorely: he retaliated 
 by ridiculing Milton's Latin poetry for its bad quantities 
 and misused words. 
 
 So ends the famous political controversy, waged with all 
 the learning the age could afford. The return of Charles 1 1 
 effectively gave the palm to his defenders, and delivered 
 Milton's publications to the bonfire. 
 
 The controversy about the overthrow of the English mon- 
 archy may suffice to illustrate the Latin political literature of 
 the time. Legal treatises will find their best exemplification 
 in the works of the great lawyer and scholar, John Selden 
 (1584-1654). His History of England from the earliest times 
 down to the Norman Invasion, written in 1607, with the title 
 Analectou Anglo-Britannicon, was followed in 1610 by a dis- 
 cussion of the laws and. customs of the Britons, Saxons, and 
 Normans, the title of the work being: Jani Anglorum Fades 
 altera.- His Mare Clausum (The Closed Sea), published in 
 1636, was a defense of the English claim of maritime prop- 
 erty against the Mare Ldberum (the Free Sea) of Hugo Gro- 
 tius, which contended on behalf of the Dutch, that the high 
 seas were open to all. "Charles I was so pleased by Selden's 
 performance that, by an order of the privy council, it was 
 directed that one copy should be kept in the archives of the 
 council, another in the court of exchequer."-^ The work con- 
 tinued to be regarded as the most telling argument for Eng- 
 
 1 Reply of Claudius Salmasius to John Milton: a posthumous work. 
 Masson VI, 203-210. 
 
 2 The other face of the Janus of the English. 
 
 3 Diet. Nat. Biog. sub Selden. 
 
 -89- 
 
lish maritime dominion and in 1653 the Council of the Com- 
 monwealth ordered "that the sum of £200 be paid out of the 
 exigent moneys of the Council to Mr. Marchamont Needham, 
 in consideration of his great labour and pains in the trans- 
 lating of Mr, Selden'sbook entitled Mare Clausum."^ This 
 case well illustrates the linguistic 3omplexities of the time: 
 an English council of State pays a year's wages to an Eng- 
 lishman for translating into the vernacular another English- 
 man's Latin book written in defense of national claims in 
 reply to a foreigner's argument in Latin: a long way around 
 the circle before the mind of Selden came to be delivered to 
 his countrymen at large. 
 
 In 1647 Selden edited the early English law treatise Fleta, 
 with a prefixed dissertation of great learning.- In 1653 he 
 assisted Sir Roger Twysden in editing ten hitherto unpub- 
 lished works on English History, which they published under 
 the title: Decern Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores.'''^ To this 
 Selden prefixed a criticism on the ten Historians, calling it 
 Judicium de Decern HistoHae Anglicanae ScriptorihusJ His 
 last work, Vindiciae (Vindications), was published in 1653 as a 
 personal defense against an attack upon his Mare Clausum 
 by a Dutch jurist Graswinckel. These last two works, though 
 not in themselves legal treatises, grew out of his legal inquiries 
 and writings. 
 
 Selden directed his attention not only to English Law 
 and History, but also to Oriental investigations which resulted 
 in the publication of numerous Latin works. His De Diis 
 Syriis,^ 1617, "established his fame as an oriental scholar 
 among the learned in all parts of Europe. " His exposition of 
 Jewish laws were contained in a series of works which 
 enjoyed great celebrity abroad: De Su^cessionibus in bona 
 
 1 Masson IV, 450. 
 
 3 Diet. Nat. Biog. sub Selden. 
 
 3 Ten Writers of English History. 
 
 ^ Critique on the Ten Writers of English History. 
 
 5 The Syrian Gods. Encyc. Britan. 11th ed. sub Selden. 
 
 -90- 
 
defunctorum ad leges Ebraeoriun,^ 1631; De Siiccessione in 
 Pontificatum Ebraeorum,'- 1636; DeJure Naturali et Gentium 
 juxta Disciplinani Ebraeorum,'^ 1640; De Anyio Civiliet Calen- 
 dar io Veteris Ecclesiae sen Reipublicae Judaicae,^ 1644; Uxor 
 Ebraica sen de Niiptiis et Divortiis Veterum Ebraeorum libri 
 tres,^ 1646; De Synedriis Veterum Ebraeorum,'' 1650. These 
 learned treatises, bringing to Europeans in many cases their 
 first detailed acquaintance with oriental civilization and an- 
 tiquities, exemplify the important part which Latin played 
 in seventeenth century scholarship. 
 
 The scientific literature of that day may be understood 
 to comprehend natural philosophy, medicine, mathematics, 
 logic and philosophy proper, and philology. Didactic treatises 
 on these subjects, coming chiefly from the Universities, and 
 addressed to scholarship wherever it could be found at home 
 or abroad, naturally sought expression in the honored and 
 far reaching Latin. English philosophers and investigators 
 met with less patronage for their books among their country- 
 men than among the advanced thinkers and savants of the 
 continent, and therefore looked for fame and encourage- 
 ment where it was more certainly to be found. Thomas Hob- 
 bes, for example, received his first instigation toward phil- 
 osophy while traveling abroad, and his first important phil- 
 osophical work, de Cive (The Citizen), was published abroad 
 in Latin. 
 
 The number of writers producing what we have called 
 
 1 On the Succession to the property of deceased persons according to 
 the laws of the Hebrews. 
 
 2 On the Succession to the High Priesthood among the Hebrews. 
 
 3 On the Law of Nature and of Nations according to the Discipline of 
 the Hebrews. 
 
 i On the civil year and calendar of the ancient church, or Jewish 
 commonwealth. 
 
 ■T The Hebrew Wife, or marriage and divorce among the ancient 
 Hebrews; in HI books. 
 
 6 On the Councils of the Ancient Hebrews. —Diet. Nat. Biog. sub 
 Selden. 
 
 —91— 
 
scientific works and using Latin as the medium of their 
 teaching were legion, and it is impossible to present any 
 survey of the field. To do so would be to review the literary 
 history of the scientific thought of the century. It will 
 suffice to consider representative scientific writers, as we 
 have in the case of a legal writer, and to see to what extent 
 they used Latin in preference to or along with English in 
 treating scientific questions. For this purpose we shall first 
 review the works of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588- 
 1679). 
 
 The standard edition of his works is that of Sir W. Moles- 
 worth, in sixteen volumes, including everything he wrote: 
 poetry, history, philosophy, controversy, and translation. Of 
 these sixteen volumes, five, or nearly one third, are in Latin. 
 Those in this language, which are of scientific nature, are as 
 follows: (1) Objectiones ad Cartesii MeditcUiones,^ 1641; (2) 
 De Cive, or Elementa Philosopkiae de Cive,'^ 1642; (3) part of 
 a preface to Mersenne's Ballistica,'^ 1644; (4) Tractatus 
 Opticus,^ 1644; (5) Elementorum Philosopkiae sectio prima. 
 DsCorpore/' 1655; (Q) Elementorum Philosopkiae, sectio secun- 
 da. De Homine,^ 1650; (7) Examinatio et emendatio Matke- 
 maticae Hodiernae, qualis explicatiir in libris Johannis Wal- 
 lisii . . distributa in sex dialogos,"' 1660; {8)Dialogos Physicus 
 deNatura Aeris, ^ IQQl; (9) Problemata Pkysica,^ 1662; (10) 
 De Princvpiis et Ratiocinatione Geometrarum,^'^ 1666; (11) 
 Quadrutara Circuli; Cubatio Spkaerae; Dwplicatio Cubi, 
 
 1 Objections to the Meditations of Decartes. 
 
 2 The Citizen, or, Elements of Philosophy concerning the Citizen. 
 
 3 Mersenne, a French philosopher, and correspondent of Hobbes's. 
 -1 A treatise on optics. 
 
 n Elements of Philosophy, section I, on Body. 
 G Elements of Philosophy, section 1 1, on Man. 
 
 7 Examination and correction of the present-day mathematics, such 
 as is set forth in the books of John Wallis; divided into six dialogues. 
 
 8 Dialogue in Physics, on the nature of Air. 
 Problems in Physios. 
 
 10 The principles and reasoning of Geometry. 
 
 —92— 
 
1669;! (12) Rosetum Geometncumr 1671; (13) Lux Mathe- 
 matica: exciissa CoUisionibiis Johannis Wallisii et Thomae 
 Hobbesii,^ 1672; (14) Principia et Problemata aliquot Geo- 
 metrica, ante desperatanunc breinter expUcata,^ 1674. 
 
 These are the philosophical works written originally in 
 Latin. Those in English will be presented for comparison in 
 a corresponding list, also in order of publication. (1) Hu- 
 man Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy, 1650; 
 (2) De Corpore Politico,''' 1650; (3) Leviathan; or the Mat- 
 ter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and 
 Civil, 1651; (4) Of Liberty and Necessity, 1654; (5) Ques- 
 tions concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance, in reply to 
 Bramhall's "Defense of the true Liberty of Human Action", 
 
 1656; (6) ^riyu'V. WyzMiizriiia^ Wyp'O.y.la^ ',4vr.'ro/;r£;'ai' AfiafUia^. or 
 
 Marks of the Absurd Geometry, Rural Language, Scottish 
 Church Politics, and Barbarisms of John Wallis, 1657; (7) 
 Considerations upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners, and 
 Religion of Thomas Hobbes, 1662, in answer to Wallis's 
 "Holbbius Heauton-timoroumenos"; (8) Three papers pre- 
 sented to the Royal Society against Dr. Wallis, w^ith consid- 
 erations on Dr. Wallis's Answer to them, 1671; (9) Decam- 
 eron Physiologicum, or Ten Dialogues of Natural Philosophy, 
 1678; (10) Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of 
 the Common Law of England, 1681. 
 
 It will be seen from these two lists that a larger number 
 of the philosophical works of Hobbes were originally wTitten 
 in Latin, and the difference becomes more apparent when it 
 is considered that most of the English papers w^ere contro- 
 versial, only the first three mentioned being complete and 
 substantial productions. The great scheme to which the 
 philosopher devoted his best thought and which was to com- 
 
 1 Squaring of the circle; Cubing of the sphere; Doubling of the Cube. 
 
 2 Geometric rosary. 
 
 3 The light of Mathematics: struck forth by the collisions of John 
 Wallis and Thomas Hobbes. 
 
 4 Several principles and problems of Geometry, hitherto despaired 
 of, but now briefly explained. 
 
 On the Body Politic. 
 
 —93— 
 
prehend the entire range and order of his philosophy, was 
 consigned to the language of learning, and all the rest of his 
 writings may be said to have been side-issues with him. 
 The great scheme comprehended three subjects: (1) Body, 
 (2) Man, (3) Citizen, or Commonwealth, and the three 
 works treating them were De Corpore, De Homine, De Give, 
 all in Latin. These were not published in the order named 
 and as originally designed, because the political disturbances 
 in England and the violence of Long Parliament required 
 immediate discussion and correction, and called forth first in 
 1642, De Give, which logically should have been last in the 
 large philosophic plan. The fact that Hobbes chose Latin 
 for these works, as the language of philosophical expression, 
 is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that no one of 
 his day saw more clearly the perverse teaching of the schools, 
 and the nonsense and absurdities of mere words; no one 
 more relentlessly exposed the false tyranny of Latin and 
 Greek in the modern world. He perceived and satirized the 
 vanity of language for its own sake; and by writing his main 
 philosophical works in Latin, he thereby declared the fitness 
 of that tongue as an instrument of philosophic expression 
 and as a vehicle of philosophic doctrine. 
 
 His great work. Leviathan, comprehending his three- 
 fold plan of philosophy, was indeed in English, but it was an 
 adaptation of previous Latin writings to the immediate needs 
 of Englishmen, who when it was published in 1651 agreed on 
 anything but a clear, systematic conception of government. 
 The publication of the other English treatises. Human Na- 
 ture and De Coryore Politico, was likewise called forth by 
 the immediate political situation of unhappy England. 
 
 It is to be noted from the above Latin list, that Hobbes 
 preferred the learned tongue not only for his philosophy, 
 but also for the more strictly scientific works: Tractntus 
 Opticus, De Natura Aeris, Problemata Physica; and for his 
 mathematical studies: De Pri)icipiis et Ratiocinationc Gco- 
 metrarum, Quadratura Circuli, Rosetum Geometricum, Prin- 
 cipia et Problemata Gcometrica. For controversy with his 
 fellow Englishman, Professor Wallis, on mathematical ques- 
 
 -94— 
 
tions, he employed sometimes the one language, sometimes 
 the other. For religious discussion and controversy, and for 
 historical discourse, which in his treatment were directed 
 chiefly to his countrymen, he held to his native speech. His 
 own logical view of the proper choice and use of language 
 was expressed in his treatise on Human Nature, Chapter 
 Xni, §10:— 
 
 "Forasmuch as whosoever speaketh to another intendeth 
 thereby to make him understand what he saith, if he speak 
 to him in a language which he that heareth understandeth 
 not, or use any word in other sense than he believeth is the 
 sense of him that heareth, he intendeth also not to make 
 him understand what he saith, which is a contradiction of 
 himself. It is therefore always to be supposed, that he 
 which intendeth not to deceive, alloweth the private inter- 
 pretation of his speech to him to whom it is addressed." 
 
 To pass now to medical treatises, we find they were reg- 
 ularly published in Latin. It was "an age when every phy- 
 sician wrote and conversed in Latin with ease at least, if not 
 with elegance."^ The medical wTitings of Dr. William 
 Harvey (1578-1658), the discoverer of the circulation of the 
 blood, may be taken as typical of the period in point of lin- 
 guistic custom. His w^orks, published during his life, were 
 all in Latin, as follows: Exercitatio Anatoviica de motii cor- 
 dis et sanguinis,' 1628; Exercitationes duae anatomicae de 
 circidatione sanguiyiis, ad Johannem Riolanum, filium, Pa- 
 risiensem,^ 1649; Exercitationes de generatione animalium, 
 quibus accedunt quaedam de partu, de membranis ac humori- 
 bus uteri, et de conceptione,* 1651; and Anatomia Thomae 
 
 1 Willis's Harvey, 314. 
 
 2 Anatomical exercise on the motion of the heart and blood. 
 
 3 Two anatomical exercises on the circulation of the blood, to Jean 
 Riolan, the younger, of Paris. These exercises were letters replying to 
 Riolan's attack on Harvey's theory. 
 
 4 Exercises on the generation of animals, to which are added several 
 on child-birth, on the membranes and humors of the uterus, and on con- 
 ception. 
 
 —95— 
 
Parr,^ 1669, postumous. 
 
 In addition to these published treatises there remain the 
 manuscript notes from which Harvey dehvered his lectures 
 at the College of Physicians. In those lectures he first made 
 public mention of his ideas of the circulation of the blood, 
 covering ninety-six pages, with many intercalated English 
 sentences.- 
 
 Harvey's "lectures show their author to have been 
 widely read. He had studied Aristotle and Galen evidently 
 in Latin editions, and had a profound respect for Aristotle 
 and a professional respect without much personal admiration 
 for Galen. He quotes Aristotle oftener than any other au- 
 thor, and after Aristotle Galen. ... Of the Latin poets he 
 cared most for Virgil, and knew Plautus and Horace, and of 
 the prose writers Caesar, Cicero, and Vitruvius. He had 
 read St. Augustine, and was well versed in the Bible."- Of 
 Harvey Aubrey wrote that "he understood Greek and Latin 
 pretty well, but was no critique, and wrote very bad Latin." 
 But Willis contends that Aubrey mistook Harvey's bad hand- 
 writing for indifferent style, and concludes that his "Latin 
 is generally easy, never inelegant, and not infrequently 
 copious and imaginative; he never seems to be fettered by 
 the language he is using. "^ 
 
 Philology and criticism, issuing chiefly from the Univer- 
 sities, and intended only for scholarly reading, would have 
 been in Latin even if no expectation of foreign notice had 
 been cherished. As representative of this field of knowledge 
 and writing, Thomas Farnaby (1575-1647) may be consid- 
 ered, being the chief classical scholar and the chief school- 
 master of his time. He opened a school in London, and his 
 pupils, for the most part sons of noblemen, and "other gen- 
 erous youths" soon numbered three hundred. Himself with 
 three ushers conducted the school. "Before 1629 Farnaby 's 
 fame as a schoolmaster and classical scholar was known to 
 
 1 The anatomy of Thomas Parr. 
 
 2 Diet. Nat. Biog., sub Harvey. 
 
 3 Willis's Harvey, 312-314. 
 
 -96— 
 
all the scholars of Europe, and from 1630 to 1(542 he was in 
 repeated correspondence with G. J. Vossius. . . . His repu- 
 tation as a classical scholar led to a commission from the 
 king to prepare a new Latin grammar to replace the one 
 already in use in the public schools." He completed the 
 work in 1641, and petitioned the House of Lords to grant 
 him the monopoly promised it by Charles I. In spite of his 
 reputation for scholarship and his peaceful vocation, Far- 
 naby was ruined by the Civil War, and died before it was 
 brought to an end. 
 
 Farnaby's scholarly labors fall into two classes: first, 
 his editions and annotations of the classics; second, his rhet- 
 orical and grammatical works. The former, which attained 
 extraordinary popularity throughout the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, supplied to the students of Roman literature elaborate 
 notes and such philological information and criticism as the 
 age delighted in. Following is a list of the classics he edited 
 and annotated; though many editions of each were issued, 
 only the date of the first is given. (1) Juvenal's and Per- 
 sius's Satires, 1512; (2) Seneca's Tragedies, 1613; (3) Mar- 
 tial's Epigrams, 1615; Lucan's Pharsalia, 1618; (5) Virgil's 
 Works, 1684; (6) Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1637; (7) Terence's 
 Comedies, 1651. Those eight Roman authors, necessary in 
 themselves for the culture of the seventeenth century Eng- 
 lishman, became all the more excellent and popular when 
 adorned with the profuse and learned Latin notes of Thomas 
 Farnaby. 
 
 The rhetorical and grammatical works of this great 
 scholar were as follows: (1) Index Rhetoriciis Scliolis et In- 
 stitutioni tenerioris aetatis accommodatus,^ 1625; (2) Phrases 
 Oratoriae elegentiores et Poeticae,- 1628; (3) '// "^z? 'A>Oo).<,yia.^ 
 \l.Oo/.oy{a, Florilegium Epigrammatiim Graecorum eorumque 
 Latino versu a variis redditorum,^ 1629: (4) Systema Gram- 
 
 1 Rhetorical Catalogue prepared for schools and for pupils of ten- 
 derer age. 
 
 2 Choice phrases of oratory and poetry. 
 
 3 The Anthology of the Anthology, a Choice collection of Greek epi- 
 grams, with their rendering into Latin verse by various hands. 
 
 —97- 
 
maticum,^ 1629; (5) Phrasiologia Anglo-Lafina- (not dated) ; 
 (6) Tabulae Graecae Linguae^ (not dated); {7)Sijntaxis* (not 
 dated). These seven works by the industrious scholar, 
 together with the eight annotated classics mentioned before, 
 constituted the product of his genius— the contribution he 
 made to his age for the better understanding and more skilful 
 employment of the Latin tongue. These fourteen publica- 
 tions, by one celebrated scholar, show how philosophy and 
 criticism were themselves written in the language which it 
 was their business to elucidate and teach. ^"^ 
 
 In religious affairs England was an object of particular 
 interest to foreign nations, being only by a century separated 
 from Papal Rome and not as yet regarded by all as irrecon- 
 cilably separated. In disputes between English and foreign 
 divines, as between English and foreign politicians, Latin 
 had no rival. And it was with peculiar traditional fitness 
 that religious expositions wore the Latin dress, the sacred 
 decoration of the church for more than a thousand years and 
 the glory of the great schools which were the nurseries of 
 religion. An interesting international politico-religious con- 
 troversy was carried on concerning the oath of allegiance 
 demanded by James I of his Catholic subjects. The king 
 himself had written in English the Apology for the Oath of 
 Allegiance. This was translated into elegant Latin by Henry 
 Savile, and, according to Wood, ''flying in that dress as far 
 as Rome, was by the Pope and the conclave sent to Francis 
 Suarez at Salamanca, with a command to answer it. When 
 he had perfected the work, which he called Defensio Fidei 
 Catholicae &c. cum Responsione ad Apologiam pro Juramento 
 
 1 Systematic Grammar. This was the work prepared on the order of 
 Charles I. 
 
 2 Anglo-Latin phraseology. 
 
 3 Tables of the Greek Language. 
 
 •1 Syntax. 
 
 •■' The career of Farnaby is gathered from Diet. Nat Biog., sub Far- 
 naby. 
 
 —98— 
 
FidelitatU &c.,' it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the 
 inquisitors, who blotted out what they pleased, and added 
 whatsoever might advance the Pope's power." For this and 
 many other loyal achievements, Savile was not to be without 
 his reward, rendered in the lanj^uage which was the voice of 
 honor as well as of power. When the news of his death 
 reached Oxford, "the vice-chancellor and doctors ordered a 
 speech to be publicly spoken by the Academians in memory 
 of so worthy a benefactor and scholar as Sir Henry was. 
 Which being accordingly done by Tho. Goffe of Ch. Ch. the 
 speech was shortly afterward made public, with many copies 
 of verses by the poets of the universities added to it, with 
 this title, Ultima Linea Savilii!"^ 
 
 Another example of ecclesiastical zeal was Richard 
 Mocket, Warden of All Souls in Oxford, and domestic chap- 
 lain to George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury. To him 
 has been ascribed the tract upholding the obligation of the 
 oath of allegiance, and entitled *God and the King'. . . . The 
 work was 'Imprinted by his Majesties special privilege and 
 command,' in London in 1615, in both Latin and English; 
 London, 1616, in Latin only; Edindurgh, 1617, in one or both 
 languages. The book was commanded to be taught in all 
 schools and Universities, and by all ministers of the Church, 
 and to be purchased by all householders in England and 
 Scotland." The success of this work was not duplicated by 
 another book of Mocket's, 1616, when he published in London 
 a volume containing in Latin, Bishop Sewel's Apology, the 
 Church Catechism, the Thirty-nine Articles, the Liturgy of 
 the Church of England, and the Book of Ordination of Bish- 
 ops, Priests, and Deacons. To these he joined an original 
 treatise entitled Doctrina et Politia Ecclesiae Anglicanae,^ 
 
 1 Defense of the Catholic Faith, etc., together with a reply to The 
 Apology for the Oath of Allegiance, etc. 
 
 2 The Last Line of Savile. Wood, II, Part 1 1, 314-15. Also Diet. 
 Nat. Biog., sub Goffe. 
 
 3 Doctrine and Polity of the Church of England. Diet. Nat. Biog., 
 srib Mocket. • Also Wood. Fasti, Part II, 232, and Fuller, Church Hist 
 III, 298-9. -Nichols' Edition. 
 
 —99— 
 
"which was a general view of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in 
 the English church, mainly prepared for the information of 
 foreigners. The book offended the king, and by public edict 
 "as condemned and burnt in 1617." These two Latin works 
 of Mocket, the one by its popular reception, the other by 
 its offi3ial condemnation and suppression, typify the imme- 
 diate power that Latin w^as understood to wield in current 
 ecclesiastical and religious discussions. 
 
 Just as it was the custom among the schools to edit the 
 classics with Latin notes, so the learned divines prepared 
 Latin commentaries on the books of Scripture, paying partic- 
 ular attention to all passages on which different churches 
 placed contradictory interpretations. It was the opportunity 
 for the scholar not only to unfold the dark meaning of Bible 
 verses, but especially to exercise himself in the Latin and 
 logic which he had industriously learned in the University. 
 For example, Robert Abbot, Bishop of Salisbury, wrote a 
 Latin commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, "with large 
 sermons upon every verse, in which he handled, as his text 
 gave him occasion, all the controverted points of religion at 
 this day.'' Such long-drawn-out interpretations and minute 
 distinctions made by scholars on the pretense of their Univer- 
 sity training in the languages met the bitterest rebuke of the 
 philosopher Thomas Hobbes. He said that the faithful read- 
 ing of the Scriptures was least of all to be trusted to those 
 who, because they knew Greek or Latin, or both languages, 
 and loved knowledge, "consequently take delight in finding 
 out the meaning the most hard texts, or in thinking they 
 have found it, in case it be new and not found out by others. 
 These are therefore," he continues, "they, that pretermitting 
 the easy places which teach them their duty, fall to scanning 
 only the mysteries of religion. . . . These and the like points 
 are the study of the curious, and the cause of all our late 
 mischief [the Civil War], and the cause that makes the 
 plainer sort of men, whom the Scripture had taught belief in 
 Christ, love towards God, obedience to the King, and sobriety 
 
 1 Wood. Fasti, Part 1 1, 226. 
 
 —100— 
 
of behavior, forget it 11, and place their reliance in the dis- 
 putable doctrines of these your wise men,"' 
 
 The Sabbath question was one of those endlessly disputed 
 matters for the learned, and the cause of perpetual di^^sen- 
 sion in the church. The literature of the Sabbath Question 
 is the subject of a work in two volumes published in Edin- 
 burgh in 1865, by Robert Cox. A glance into these volumes 
 shows what prominent part Latin plaved in the seventeenth 
 century on the celebrated question. The number of works 
 published between 1615 and 1660 on the question were, 
 according to Cox, seventy-two. Of these six were published 
 in England in Latin, ten abroad in Latin; the remainder, 
 fifty-six, being in English, were published in England. The 
 proportion of Latin books to the total output was slightly 
 over 22^^^: the Latin proportion of total publications in Eng- 
 land was nearly lO'^. The question was not only one for the 
 exercise of learning, but in good measure for that ambitious 
 learning which found satisfactory expression only in dignified 
 and far-reaching Latin. 
 
 Nothing could illustrate the combined religious and lingu- 
 istic enthusiasm of the times better than the publication, in 
 1657, of the famous Polyglott Bible under, under the editorial 
 direction of Dr. Brian Walton, with the assistance of many 
 eminent scholars from both Universities "This most worthy 
 person, Dr. B. Walton, " says Wood,- "believing most eminent 
 for his learning especially in the Holy Scriptures and Eastern 
 languages, did undertake and happily perform the pub- 
 ishing of the Biblia Pobjglotta printed in Lond. in six 
 volumes in folio, an. 1657, wherein the sacred text was, by 
 his singular care and foresight, printed, not only in the vul- 
 gar Latin, but also in the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Samari- 
 tan, Arabic, Aethiopic, Persic, and Greek Languages, each 
 having its peculiar Latin translation joined therewith; and 
 an Apparatus fitted for each, for the better understanding of 
 those tongues. ' ' This whole work represents the intense inter- 
 
 1 Behemoth, 231-2, Molesworth, VI. 
 
 2 Fasti, Part 1 1, 82. 
 
 —101— 
 
est of the times in language, and especially the predomi- 
 nance of Latin wherever learning, religion, and authority 
 were concerned. 
 
 Biography and history, if widely ambitious or proud of 
 their academic authorship, spoke Latin. For example, "The 
 History of the Reign of Henry VI I", the first work done by 
 Sir Francis Bacon after his retirement into private life, though 
 originally, in 1622, in English, was later turned into Latin 
 under the author's supervision.^ Henry Savile, already men- 
 tioned as translator of James Fs Apology for the Oath of 
 Allegiance, wrote Vita Thomae Bradivardini Aixhiep. olim 
 Cantuariensis.^ About 1647, there was published at Paris in 
 Latin the famous history of Montrose's exploits in Scotland, 
 v/ith the title: De Rebus sub imperio illustrissimi Jacobi 
 Montisorarum Marchionis Praeclare gestis Commentarii,^ the 
 author being George Wishart. chaplain to Montrose. In 1657 
 Dr. William Rawley, friend and secretary of Sir Francis 
 Bacon during the last year of his life, brought out a memoir, 
 in English, of the philosopher and published a Latin transla- 
 tion of it in the- next year. It remains the most important 
 and authentic witness we possess of Bacon.^ At Paris in 1649 
 George Bate, a most noted physician of the time, "chief 
 physician," says Wood,^ "to Oliver while he was general, and 
 afterwards when protector, and [who] did not stick (tho' he 
 pretended to be a concealed royalist) to flatter him in a high 
 degree", published Elenchus Motiium nuperottim in Anglia, 
 simul ac Juris regii ac Parliamentarii bi'cvis NarratioS' The 
 first part of the Elenchus was translated into English by an 
 
 1 Spedding, VI, 7. 
 
 2 Wood, Fasti, Part II, 314. Life of Thomas Bradwardine, formerly 
 Archb. of Canterbury. 
 
 3 Commentaries on the glorious deeds of the Marquis of Montrose 
 during the reign of the most illustrious James. 
 
 4 Spedding, Preface IX. 
 
 5 Wood, Athenae III, 828. 
 
 Review of the recent commotions in England, together with an ac- 
 count of the royal and parliamentary rights. 
 
 —102— 
 
unknown hand and printed in 1052 in London. The second 
 part was printed in Latin in 1G61 in London, in 1662 in Am- 
 sterdam, and in the following year in London again together 
 with the first part. A slight third part was composed later. 
 It was a book much praised, on a subject which England 
 would never lose interest in, whether the story were told in 
 her own or another language. 
 
 The voluminous writings of the learned Archbishop of 
 Armagh, James Usher (1581-1656), contained important his- 
 torical works in Latin, which language he employed for no 
 display' or reputation but for the practical instruction of 
 mankind. "His learning was for use; and his topics were 
 suggested by the controversies of his age, which he resolved 
 to probe to their roots in the ground of history." His first 
 printed work, in 1613, was Gravissimae Questionis de Chris- 
 tianaruni Ecclesiarum, in Occidentis praesertim partibus, ah 
 Apostolicis temporibus ad nostram usque aetatem, continua 
 successione et stahi, Historica Explicatio.^ This work was 
 designed to carry out the unfinished argument of John Jewel, 
 who in 1562 published his Apologia pro Ecclesia Anglicana^ 
 to prove to continental scholars and churchmen that the 
 Anglican doctrines and practice were in conformity with 
 those of the primitive church. Another learned treatise in 
 ecclesiastical history by Usher was the Britannicarum Eccle- 
 siarum Historia^ of 1639; and the most important of all his 
 productions was issued within the years of 1650-4: Annales 
 Veteris et Novi Testameyiti^ This work set forth the scheme 
 of Biblical chronology since known as Usher's, which was 
 introduced by some unknown authority into the margin of 
 
 1 Historical Treatment of the important question of the continuous 
 succession and the state of the Christian churches, especially in the West, 
 from apostolic times down to the present. 
 
 3 Apology for the church of England. 
 
 3 History of the Churches of Britain. 
 
 4 Annals of the Old and the New Testament. 
 
 —103- 
 
reference editions of the Authorized Version.' Usher pub- 
 lished many other works of religion and controversy, in both 
 Latin and English, but his most learned and influential pro- 
 ductions went abroad to teach in the universal tongue. It 
 was fitting that a Latin sentence should have been his first 
 inspiration toward historical research,— one of Cicero's stim- 
 ulating utterances : ' 'Nescire quid antea quam natus sis acci- 
 derit, id est semper esse puerum."^ 
 
 1 Usher's writings are mentioned in full and partly discussed in Diet. 
 Nat. Biog. and Encyc. Brit. 11th ed. sub Usher. 
 
 2 Not to know what happened before you were born is to be always 
 a child. Masson I, 408. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 LATIN AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR ENGLISH. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Epistolary Latin. 
 
 The use of Latin in the Universities was for exercise and 
 preparation; in the court, for international correspondence 
 and state-papers, it was a necessity. Between these two 
 limits — academic preparation on the one hand and interna- 
 tional communication on the other— lies the great field of 
 practical and literary intercourse among Englishmen them- 
 selves, and the language for this purpose, one would say, was 
 naturally and appropriately the language of the people. But 
 the truth is that even in strictly domestic or internal affairs 
 Latin had a share in the speech of Englishmen. There were 
 two strong reasons why the ancient language thus infringed 
 on the native modern. First, the educated Englishman had 
 behind him a school-career of long years which had drilled 
 into his system the vocabulary, syntax, and ideas of the old 
 language; and the pride and pleasure growing out of the habit 
 of Latin academic exercises encouraged the continuance of 
 the habit into later life. Along with this habit and training 
 there was developed an esteem for Latin as possessing in 
 itself a superior power and virtue for expression and a supe- 
 rior dignity which every self-respectin;.^- scholar would do 
 well on occasion to appropriate. In the second place, the 
 long history of the language, with its inestimable service 
 to literature, to the state, and especially to the church, 
 rendered it an object of veneration; and contemporary 
 civilization, at home and abroad, was all intertwined and 
 overgrown with the language, laws, and ideals of the ancient 
 Romans. Scholarship, which was a precious word to seven- 
 
 —105— 
 
teenth century Englishmen, meant excellence in the classic 
 tongues, and recognized Cicero as the great model for liter- 
 ary style. 
 
 It was therefore natural that for the purposes of dignity, 
 formal respectability, external propriety, Latin was employed 
 in some cases where English would otherwise seem the nor- 
 mal and most convenient means of communication. The 
 influence of the Latin fashion extended beyond the necessi- 
 ties of international communication, and included occasions 
 when English, but for that fashion, would inevitably have 
 been used. Such occasions were the writing of letters, the 
 publication of books, especially books of poetry, and speech- 
 making. In these fields, both languages held claims to 
 the same territory. Though English generally prevailed, 
 yet custom, dignity, scholarly propriety, and individual taste 
 often led to the employment of Latin. 
 
 In the matter of private correspondence between English- 
 men, even learned Englishmen, the vernacular was regularly 
 employed. The older language was sometimes chosen by 
 students, who were under the unbroken spell of the classics 
 and were drawn to Latin in letter-writing for the sake of 
 exercise in composition or for display of newly acquired 
 scholarship. Sometimes maturer scholars used Latin in let- 
 ters of extreme formality, or on themes closely associated 
 with learning and dignified, academic traditions, or wherever 
 the writer supposed that Latin would flatter and conciliate 
 his worthy correspondent. 
 
 For example, in 1634 one Dr. Barron of Aberdeen ven- 
 tured to address Archbishop Laud, then at the height of his 
 power, in regard to "ye pacifying of ye five articles." The 
 tone is one of extreme humility; the letter opening with an 
 abject apology for intrusion on the time and attention of his 
 most reverend excellency — amplissime et reverendUsime 
 Praesul. The serious occasion of the letter, its exceeding 
 formality, and its origin in classic Aberdeen, all conspired to 
 put it in the most ceremonious and fashionable dress.' 
 
 1 Masson I, 568, ft. note. 
 
 -106- 
 
Attention has previously been called to the letters of S'r 
 Henry Wotton and to the fact that he used Latin to address 
 Englishmen only in exceptional cases. One of these excep- 
 tions occurred when he was abroad as ambassador and wrote 
 home to his chief and king. James I piqued himself on his 
 polite learning, and Sir Henry, like all other Englishmen of 
 the day, knew well enough what kind of flattery pleased the 
 pedantic old monarch. 
 
 Dr. William Harvey, who employed Latin regularly in 
 his lectures and scientific writings, and in his correspondence 
 with foreigners, did not turn to English even when address- 
 ing his own countrymen. To Dr. Baldwin Hamey, an able 
 English physician and an intimate friend, Harvey wrote a 
 letter of professional character, using Latin out of respect, 
 to the learning and science which both were able to boast. 
 The letter is brief, but the salutation lacks nothing of super- 
 lative dignity, being as follows: Vir doctissime, huma- 
 nissime, mihi carissime! ^ 
 
 Open letters between Englishmen, especially in learned 
 controversy, were more likely to be in Latin, since the dis- 
 play of eloquence and learning counted as much as sense and 
 argument. For instance, when John Camden published his 
 famous Britannia, Brooke published a review of it with the 
 title, "A Discovery of Certain Errors in the Much-com- 
 mended Britannia." To this Camden replied in an angTy 
 Latin letter, addressed not to the offender but Ad Lectorem 
 (To the Reader), referring to Brooke only as Quida^n (A 
 certain fellow), or hte (He). Brooke, feeling keenly both 
 the contempt and the Latin superiority of his great oppo- 
 nent, cried out in reply: "He considers me as an Indivi- 
 duum vagiim (a mere generality) , and makes me but a Quidam 
 in his pamphlet, standing before him as a school-boy, while 
 he whips me. Why does he reply in Latin to an English 
 accusation? He would disguise himself in his school-rhetoric; 
 
 1 Most learned, humane, and dear Sir! The English sounds thin and 
 almost ridiculous in comparison with the rhythmical amplitude of the 
 original. For the entire letter, see Willisls Harvey, 296-7. 
 
 -107- 
 
wherein, like the cuttle-fish, being stricken, he thinks to 
 hide and shift himself away in the ink of his rhetoric."^ 
 
 When in 1655 the philosopher Hobbes turned to mathe- 
 matical inquiries, he was met and confuted by Dr. Wallis, 
 the Savilian Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, with a 
 Latin review of Hobbes's Geometry: Elenchus Geometriae 
 Hobbianae.' Hbbbes, thinking his scientific reputation at 
 stake, turned his work into English, with the sarcastic addi- 
 tion of "Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics in 
 Oxford " Wallis replied also in English with a piece entitled, 
 "Dae Correction of Mr. Hobbes, or School discipline for not 
 saying his Lessons Right," and twitted him with having 
 fallen back on the vulgar English. "What moved you," 
 questioned Wallis, "to say your lessons in English, when the 
 books against which you do chiefly intend them were written 
 in Latin? Was it chiefly for the perfecting your natural 
 rhetoric whenever you thought it convenient to repair to Bil- 
 lingsgate? You found that the oyster- women could not teach 
 you to rail in Latin. Now you can, upon all occasion, or 
 without occasion, give the titles of fool, beast, ass, dog, &c., 
 which I take to be but barking; and they are no better than 
 a man might have at Billingsgate for a box o' the ear."-' 
 
 Milton's private correspondents were few, and his letters 
 short and nearly always in Latin. In a foregoing chapter 
 account has been taken of his Latin letters to foreigners: we 
 here consider those addressed to Englishmen Of the thirty- 
 one Familiar Letters, twelve were written to his countrymen: 
 two to his former tutor, Thomas Young; three to Alexander 
 Gill, former usher at St. Paul's; two to Charles Diodati, old 
 school-mate of St. Paul's; one to Richard Heath, his former 
 pupil; four to Richard Jones, also a former pupil. These let- 
 ters, hke the rest of Milton's, were fluent, rhetorical exer- 
 cises. The poet seems to have regarded epistolary com- 
 munications as opportunity for literary display, for Latin elo- 
 quence: and his biographer only now and then finds in them 
 
 1 Disraeli's Calamities and Quarrels of Authors, 495. 
 
 2 Review of the Geometry of Hobbes. 
 
 3 Disraeli's Calamities and Quarrels of Authors, 464-6, and footnote. 
 
 -108— 
 
any notable matter of fact. Those to young Gill turn chieflv 
 on the Latin poetry which the ambitious scholar had been 
 sending, or on the Latin and Greek verses Milton sent him in 
 return. To Young nothing is said except words of praise for 
 his old teacher, or of thanks for a recent letter. To Diodati 
 there are some eloquent and highly rhetorical declarations of 
 friendship, and accounts of ambitious literary plans. These 
 letters to Young, Gill, and Diodati are all dated before 1637; 
 those to Heath and Jones belong to the busy and serious 
 period of the Latin Secretaryship, and are briefer, plainer, 
 and more matter of fact. In a letter to Heath dated Decem- 
 ber 13, 1652, Milton observed the unfitness of Latin for any- 
 thing like regular and sincere correspondence. "Your future 
 communications," he said, "may, if you please, be in your 
 own language, lest (though you are no mean proficient in 
 Latin composition) the labor of writing should make each of 
 us more averse to write; and that we may freely disclose 
 every sensation of our hearts without being impeded by 
 the shackles of a foreign language."' Correspondence in 
 Latin between Englishmen could not help but thrust forward 
 the language-consciousness, p^nd impede spontaneity and 
 naturalness. Letter writing in the foreign tongue had no 
 place except in strict formality or fashionable dignity. From 
 his various correspondents Milton received letters in the same 
 language he employe 1, and from Diodati even Greek letters, 
 two of which are extant. - 
 
 In the matter of institutional correspondence, it seems to 
 have been the custom for official letters issued from the Uni- 
 versities by the Vice-chancellor or the Heads of Colleges to 
 be in Latin. Communications addressed to Parliament, or the 
 Chancellor, or to the Archbishop, presenting petitions, 
 answering inquiries or maintaining points in controversy, 
 knew no language but the learned one. The voice of the 
 Universities was not voice of the people, and to have used 
 English in formal utterance would have been to confess ignor- 
 
 1 Familiar Letter XIII. 
 
 2 Masson I, 117. 
 
 -109— 
 
ance, indolence, or unacademic ideals. The force of a letter 
 or an argument lay not so much in the propriety of thought 
 and justice of a claim as in the complimentary form and elo- 
 quent periods in which it was couched. 
 
 In making answers to addresses from the Universities, 
 the King, or Parliament, or Chancellor, or Archbishop, chose 
 sometimes the one language, sometimes the other, not always 
 regarding it necessary to maintain the standard set by the 
 schools. Charles I was always indifferent to Latin forms 
 when his own personal use of them was concerned. James I, 
 on the contrary, never lost an occasion to show his zeal for 
 learning and academic standards. Sir Francis Bacon, as 
 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, when he put his 
 communications in Latin, used a salutation somewhat as fol- 
 lows: "Almae Matri et inclytae academiae Cantabi'igiensi" ,^ 
 his subscription being: "AmiciLS vester maxime Jidelis et 
 benovohis."^ His letters when in English were brief, as if the 
 press of business prevented close personal attention to his 
 writing 
 
 Official letter-writing for the Universities was included 
 in the functions of the Public Orator. In 1619 George Herbert 
 was chosen Orator for the University of Oxford. "The first 
 notable occasion," says Walton, ^ "of shewing fitness for this 
 employment . . was manifested in a letter to King James, 
 upon the occasion of his sending that University his book 
 called 'BasilikonDoron';^ and their orator was to acknowledge 
 this great honor, and return their gratitude to his Majesty 
 for such condescension; at the close of which letter he writ, 
 
 Quid Vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes! 
 Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca liber. ^ 
 
 This letter was writ in such excellent Latin, and was so 
 
 1 To my Alma Mater, the renowned University of Cambridge. 
 
 2 Your friend in all loyalty and goodwill. Heywood's Cambridge, II, 
 265; 279; 291. 
 
 ■i Walton's Lives, 266-7 (Ed. 1852). 
 
 4 The King's Gift. 
 
 •■> Stranger, why do you mention the Vatican or Bodleian? We have a 
 ibjrary in one single book. 
 
 —110— 
 
full of conceits, and all the expressions so suited to the g'enius 
 of the King, that he inquired the Orator's name, and then 
 asked William Earl of Pembroke, if he knew him? whose 
 answer was 'That he knew him very well, and that he was 
 his kinsman; but he loved him more for his learning and 
 virtue, than for that he was of his name and family.' At 
 which answer the King smiled, and asked the Earl leave 
 that he might love him too, for he took him to be the jewel 
 of that University." No wonder if Latin was held in high 
 esteem and ambitiously studied by young men, when a King's 
 acquaintance was the reward. 
 
 In view of his success in donating the Basilicon Doron to 
 Oxford, James decided to present the collected edition of his 
 works to the University of Cambridge. The thanks he 
 received were contained in a long and highly complimentary 
 Latin letter, beginning: 
 
 Ser'enissime Domine Noster, 
 Jacobe Invictissime, ' 
 and ending: 
 
 Humillimi Servi subditique vester 
 Procancellarius Reliqiiusque Senatus Cantabrigiensis.^ 
 
 Such terms were the highest tribute to the King's power and 
 greatness, and he relished them exceedingly. 
 
 Petitions for particular favors, even in lengthy and labo- 
 rious forms, did not always prove successful with the easily 
 flattered monarch. A long Latin petition from Cambridge 
 to James in 1617, praying for a new charter, received answer 
 with due respect in the same language, but the request was 
 not granted. Petitions to Parliament, though in English, 
 sought favor by the attendance of a Latin letter. In 1642, 
 for example, Cambridge sent to Parliament an English peti- 
 tion, imploring the protection of cathedral churches and 
 lands. The petition was accompanied and recommended by 
 
 1 Our most serene master, invincible James. 
 
 2 Your most humble servants and subjects, Vice-Chancellor and Senate 
 of Cambridge. Cooper's Cambridge, II I, 135. 
 
 —Ill— 
 
a letter in Latin, apologizing for the use of a different lan- 
 guage in the petition, Sed quia, the letter explained, Lingua 
 nativa dolores et desideria sua foeliciiis exprimit, annexam Lit- 
 eris Petitionem benevolis Auribus excipietis.'^ The iconoclastic 
 Puritan Parliament, which seemed to be unfavorable to 
 learning in their attack on the Church, would probably 
 understand a petition better in English than in Latin. 
 
 Sometimes the formality of the learned style was dropped 
 in serious and urgent correspondence. A notable instance is 
 in the controversy, in 1635, about the claim of Archbishop 
 Laud to the right of visitation to the University of Cam- 
 bridge The Archbishop addressed the Vice-chancellor, 
 using English; the Vice-chancellor answered in the same 
 language, sending a collection of reasons, also in English, 
 why the University should be regarded outside the Metropol- 
 itan Jurisdiction. When no agreement could be reached 
 between them. Laud sent to King Charles a petition in Eng- 
 lish concerning his claim; and the king at last put an end to 
 the controversy by issuing a decree in formal Latin, deciding 
 in favor of the Archbishop. ^ 
 
 This is one of the few instances of Charles's use of Latin 
 outside of legal forms, and even this may be placed in that 
 class. Like him, the Duke of Buckingham, as Chancellor of 
 Cambridge, felt more easy in using the vernacular. Even on 
 the solemn occasion in 1626 when Charles acknowledged and 
 approved the choice of Buckingham as Chancellor, and when 
 the Duke himself acknowledged the election, both wrote 
 plain English. The Duke's salutation sounds even to our 
 ears, accustomed to the grand sonorous form of that day, 
 exceedingly democratic and unceremonious: "Mr. Vice- 
 Chancellor & Gentlemen the Senate of the University of 
 Cambridge."-^ There is some suspicion that the Duke was 
 
 1 But because the vernacular expresses more fitly our sorrows and 
 desires, you will receive with generous attention the accompanying peti- 
 tion. Hey wood's Cambridge, II, 439 40. Rushworth IV, 272. 
 
 2 Heywood's Cambridge, II, 424-7. 
 8 Cooper's Cambridge, III, 192. 
 
 -112- 
 
deficient in learning:, for Joseph Meade, fellow in the Uni- 
 versity, in one of his letters cast reflection on him for sit- 
 ting in the Chancellor's seat on his first visit and venturing 
 only the two words, placet and admittatur^ 
 
 But the University was not to be shaken from her an- 
 cient dignity and self-possession by the carelessness of King 
 and Duke. She replied to their English with J^atin letters of 
 considerable length and abundant superlatives. On July 7, 
 1628, when Buckingham was about to lead the unpopular 
 expedition for the relief of Rochelle, and just before his assas- 
 sination, his University saluted him with a letter, long drawn 
 out in Latin, praising his past benevolences, grieving for his 
 absence, and beseeching a continuance of his favors.' After 
 the Duke's death, the Earl of Holland succeeded to the 
 Chancellorship, and the superlatives of salutation and com- 
 pliment were directed against him: Honoratissime domine, 
 dignissime cancellarie.^ 
 
 Royal writs, commissions, and proclamations, though 
 directed to Englishmen, carried the traditional stamp of 
 authority by being in Latin. The majesty of the law pre- 
 ferred a conservative dress. There is no absolute rule for 
 the use of language in these forms, but custom favored Latin. 
 During the conflict between Charles I and Parliament, the 
 party which clung to the past and stood on the law employed 
 the old language more regularly in legal documents than did 
 the new and progressive party which little reverenced tradi- 
 tion and appealed directly to the people. In 1642, just before 
 the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles issued commissions 
 for the levying of soldiers in the various shires, and the Par- 
 liament in opposition passed its ordinance of the militia and 
 sent out officers with authority to raise troops. The King's 
 commissions followed the legal custom of being in Latin; 
 Parliament, having no such precedent, gave its order and 
 
 1 Masson I, 129. 
 
 2 Cooper's Cambridge, 1 1 1, 202-4. 
 
 3 Haywood's Cambridge, 1 1, 479-80. Most honored Lord, most 
 worthy Chancellor. 
 
 —113- 
 
authority in its own language. Clarendon, in the sixth book 
 of his History, tells how the parliamentary officers in the 
 southwest took advantage of the royal commission's being in 
 Latin, and "translated into English what they pleased; per- 
 suading the substantial yoemen and freeholders that at least 
 two parts of their estates would, by that commission, be 
 be taken from them; and the meaner and poorer sort of people, 
 that they were to pay a tax for one day's labor in the week 
 to the king; and that all should be, upon the matter, no better 
 than slaves to the lords, and that there was no way to free 
 and preserve themselves from this unsupportable tyranny, 
 than by adhering to the parliament, and submitting to the 
 ordinance for the militia; which was purposely prepared to 
 enable them to resist these horrid invasions of their liberties." 
 The commission itself was in Latin, but the letter to the com- 
 missioners in English. 1 
 
 In 1626, when Charles dissolved parliament, he caused a 
 commission in Latin to pass under the great seal for that 
 purpose.- On March 10, 1629, when he proposed to do away 
 with parliaments indefinitely, he issued a proclamation of dis- 
 solution, and then ordered the Lord Keeper to utter the com- 
 mand for dissolution, which was in the same plain language.^ 
 
 In 1636 the King issued a proclamation to the Mayor and 
 Aldermen of (Cambridge, and on that occasion deemed it 
 appropriate to use Latin. Other notable occasions when the 
 language was employed in forms addressed to Englishmen 
 were the presenting of letters patent to the Lord Constable 
 of England for the trial of David Ramsey on the plea of Don- 
 ald, Lord Rea;* and the issuing of a Commission, by Charles in 
 1638, under the great seal of the Kingdom of Scotland, for an 
 assembly to consider ecclesiastical matters,^ and the granting 
 a commission in 1638 to the Marquis of Hamilton, who was 
 
 1 Rush worth IV, 655 58. 
 
 2 Rushworth I, 399, and 660-1. 
 
 3 Fuller's Ephemeris Parliamentaria. 
 
 4 Rushworth 1 1, 112. 
 
 5 Baillie's Letters and Journals, I, 424, note. 
 
 -114- 
 
sent as High Commissioner to Scotland to meet the general 
 Assembly at Glasgow. ^ 
 
 In February, 1637, Charles I sent a letter to the Chief 
 Justices of the Bench enclosing an inquiry as to whether the 
 king had the right to levy ship-money when in his judgment 
 the danger of the Kingdom demanded immediate action. 
 Both the letter and the inquiry were in English. The judges 
 replied in the affirmative. Then the king resorted to legal 
 writs for the levying of the money, and sent them to the 
 various towns and counties of England. On the fourth of 
 August, 1637, the writ was directed to the sheriff of the 
 county of Bucks, containing an order for the raising of ship- 
 money together with an explanation of the reasons for such 
 an order. By virtue of this writ it was that John Hampden 
 was assessed twenty shillings. Latin imparted to the action 
 an air of ancient authority and legal justification.' This legal 
 formality pursued Hampden through the celebrated trial 
 which followed, and ended with a Latin sentence against 
 him.^ 
 
 Though Charles I never made any personal display of 
 learning, yet his relying on "the known laws of the land" 
 marks his reign with a sprinkling of Latin letters and docu- 
 ments. Further examples are found in 1640 and 1643, both 
 in connection with important battles. In September, 1640, 
 after his defeat at Newburn on the Tyne by the Scots, he 
 issued writs to require the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to 
 meet him in a great council at York. The writs were in 
 formal and sonorous Latin. The Salutation, for example, in 
 that addressed to the great champion of form and ceremony, 
 Archbishop Laud of Canterbury, were as follows : Rex Rev- 
 erendissimo in Christo Pari ac fideli conciliario nostro Wil- 
 
 1 Rushworth II, 747-8. The commission was in Latin, the letter to 
 the Assembly in English. The legral form sought the ancient tongue. 
 Compare the Latin letter and English petition sent to parliament by the 
 Universities, p. 111-2. 
 
 2 Rushworth 1 1 1, Appendix, 177-8. 
 
 3 Do. 253. 
 
 —115— 
 
helmo Cantuar. Archiepiscopo, totius Angliae primati et 
 Metropolitano Salutem.'^ In the year 1643 the valiant cava- 
 lier Sir Ralph Horton rendered signal service at the battle 
 of Stratton, and later at Oxford was created Baron of Strat- 
 ton by his king. This form of creation, like a diploma, was 
 in Latin, recounting at great length the special service for 
 which the honor was con f erred. ^ 
 
 1 Greetings from the king to the most reverend father in Christ and 
 faithful councillor William, Archbishop of Canterbury, primate and 
 metropolitan of all England. 
 
 2 Fuller's Worthies, I, 332-4. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Latin Prose. 
 
 We have seen in Chapter VI how Latin was used in books 
 appealing to the learned of the world, and not intended pri- 
 marily for Englishmen. A typical example of this sort of 
 work was Dr. Harvey's De Circulatione Sanguinis or 
 Hobbes's De Give. But it is not always to be taken for 
 granted that because a book or treatise was in Latin it 
 therefore looked abroad for its readers. Sometimes a writer 
 had before him only or at least chiefly English patronage, yet 
 for reasons of dignity, or prestige, or even vanity, chose 
 Latin. It is not always possible to draw the line between an 
 author's world-wide outlook and a merely national one: a 
 piece of literature in speaking to the world thereby included 
 England in the audience; but one cannot positively infer that 
 a Latin production always faced toward the continent. 
 
 Here arises the interesting question whether an English- 
 man, writing in Latin for an English audience, chose the 
 older language because of its intrinsic superiority in the 
 matter of clearness, discrimination, and force, or because of 
 the external advantages of fashion, antiquity, and authority. 
 Was English regarded as a merely vulgar tongue, not yet 
 risen, if it ever would rise, to a capacity for philosophical con- 
 notation and exactitude? Prof essor John Earle contends' that 
 Shakspeare had proved to all Englishmen that everything 
 they might have to say could be amply and precisely uttered 
 in the native tongue; that all publications in Latin sought to 
 command the wider European attention; and that the motive 
 of English writers of Latin in the seventeenth and in the 
 nineteenth century was the same, — that Bacon and Keble had 
 
 1 Earle's English Prose, 435-6. 
 
 -117— 
 
equal regard for the adequacy of their native language but 
 chose Latin for its more universal appeal to scholarship. 
 
 While generally speaking this contention holds good, yet 
 in some cases it seems certain that the English user of Latin 
 believed he was wielding a tool of finer edge, and that his 
 precious thought attained perfect expression only in the 
 incomparable language of the ancients. Hobbes confessed 
 the comparative weakness of the English vocabulary by resort- 
 ing not infrequently to Latin for the only word which could 
 express his meaning. For example, in Human Nature, VII, 
 3, he says: "As we call good and evil the things that please 
 and displease; so call we goodness and badness, the qualities 
 whereby they do it: and the signs of that goodness are called 
 by the Latins in one word jpulchritiido, and the signs of evil 
 turpitudo; to which we find no words precisely answerable." 
 English had too little training in scientific discourse to furnish 
 complete diction to the careful nominalist. And not only in 
 point of vocabulary, but also of grammatical structure, 
 English was wanting. Bacon in De Augmentis, Book VI, 
 reasons on this difference. "Is not it a fact," he says, 
 "worthy of observation (though it may be a little shock to 
 the spirit of us moderns) that the ancient languages were full 
 of declensions, cases, conjugations, tenses, and the like, 
 while the modern are nearly stripped of them, and perform 
 most of their work lazily by prepositions and verbs auxiliary? 
 Surely a man may easily conjecture (how well so ever we 
 may think of ourselves) that the wits of the early ages were 
 much subtler and acuter than our own. There are number- 
 less observations of this kind, enough to fill a volume. And 
 therefore it is not amiss to distinguish Philosophical Gram- 
 mar from Grammar Simple and Literary, and to set it down 
 as wanting."' Bacon here regards Latin excellence as 
 intrinsic, due to its innermost and vital syntactic structure, 
 and not to any extraneous considerations like antiquity or 
 fashion or academic prestige. It is not with us a question of 
 whether he and his contemporaries erred in this regard: the 
 
 1 Spedding IV, 442. 
 
 —118— 
 
point of interest is that they really believed Latin a superior 
 instrument of expression. 
 
 Speddin^, the editor of Bacon's complete works, recog- 
 nized and asserted the excellence of Bacon's Latin over any 
 possible translation, however liberal. This may be the same 
 as saying that translation is always inferior, and that a Latin 
 translation, by Spedding or other scholar, of Bacon's English 
 works would betray the same inadequacy. But a quotation 
 from Spedding, who writes after long experience in trans- 
 lating, and in comparing the two languages, will indicate a 
 belief on his part that there is something essentially fine in 
 the Latin which Bacon himself could not have transferred to 
 his mother tongue. "The translations," says Spedding, "are 
 intended especially for the benefit of those who cannot read 
 Latin. Those who can, will find the original not only richer, 
 stronger, and more impressive, but also (at least after a 
 little practice) easier to follow and pleasanter to read. In 
 Bacon's time Latin was still a living language among schol- 
 ars. They used it not only to show how well they could 
 imitate the mariner in which Cicero or Tacitus expressed his 
 thoughts, but to express their own; and in Bacon's hands it 
 became an organ of expression extremely powerful and sensi- 
 tive, full of felicities and delicate effects, dependent upon its 
 own peculiar resources, and not transferable in the same 
 form into a language of different structure. A literal trans- 
 lation in English might indeed explain them, and so help an 
 imperfect scholar to understand the original if read along 
 with it, but would not at all convey to an Englishman the 
 effect of the original if read by itself."' 
 
 Considering Bacon's praise of Philosophical Grammar 
 over Simple Grammar in the light of this testimony from a 
 diligent translator of his works, one will discern another 
 motive on the part of English users of Latin besides the 
 obvious one of reaching a larger audience of scholars. 
 
 Even the most zealous defenders of English did not go 
 so far as to contend for its equality with Latin or the other 
 
 1 Spedding, preface to Vol. IV. 
 
 —119- 
 
languages which had been tested by the ages. In 1644 was 
 pubHshed a short pamphlet entitled "Vindex Anglicus: or, 
 The Perfections of the English Language defended and 
 asserted." The author compares his native tongue with 
 others ancient and modern, and though he finds it equal 
 or superior to Spanish, French, and Italian, he humbly con- 
 cedes its inferiority to the ancient languages. ''Let no one 
 think," he says, "that I stand in any competition to the 
 sacred Hebrew, learned Greeks, or fluent Latins, or claim a 
 superiority over the rest; my ambition extends not so high, 
 though you see I want not pretence for it. Let us look upon 
 ours as a language, equal to the best of the vulgar; and, for 
 my part, 
 
 'Let others retain their ancient dignity and esteem.' '' 
 
 Again he says: "Though in this conclusion I here strike sail, 
 and vail to the learned languages; let that not detract from 
 the worth of ours, which is parallel, if not superior to the 
 best remaining. "1 
 
 There is an additional argument against Earle's position 
 that Latin was chosen for the same jreasons by seventeenth 
 and nineteenth century EngHshmen. In Milton's time there 
 was no acknowledged standard of English prose. This came 
 later, after the Restoration and during the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, when the genius of the language was allowed to assert 
 and develop itself. But before the Restoration its syntax 
 was not fixed, its sentence structure lacked power and effect- 
 iveness, its vocabulary lacked wealth and refinement. How- 
 ever much the great prose writers contemporary with Milton 
 were misguided in the worship of the classics, they certainly 
 believed and felt their native prose to be still an inadequate 
 and imperfect instrument, not yet far removed from vul- 
 garity and barbarism. How were these writers and scholars 
 to give full and satisfactory expression to their thoughts? 
 Was there no means at hand for worthy literary utterance? 
 They answered the question by their actions. They could 
 either use Latin, the language whose capacity and power no 
 
 1 Harleian Miscellany, 1 1, 37-42. 
 
 -120- 
 
man ever questioned, or they could take up the ill-formed 
 English, and mould it into Latinized forms: make its syntax, 
 sentence-structure, its roll and volume, and in some measure 
 its vocabulary like the long approved and honored Latin. 
 Hence we have the prose of Milton, often impossible to parse, 
 often scarcely intelligible; likewise the prose of Thomas 
 Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Thomas Browne, and Lord Claren- 
 don. If these men believed English the equal of Latin in 
 controversy, philosophy, history, and all other serious utter- 
 ance, why did they commit the absurdity of straining after 
 the style of Cicero, and distorting their native tongue out of 
 its approved adequacy and perfection into the monstrosities 
 of an alien idiom? It was a sincere effort, no doubt, "to adorn 
 the native tongue," as Milton confessed; to make English 
 what Latin had been of old, by adopting the supreme merits 
 of the ancient tongue. The mistake was in not recognizing 
 the different genius and character of the tw^o languages, and 
 in not fostering, surely and steadily, the native, inherent 
 qualities of homely English. This mistake was committed by 
 scholars not only in prose but also in attempting to stretch 
 English verse to the measure of the classical forms. 
 
 Mention will be made of a few works which appear to 
 have been addressed chiefly or only to Englishmen. In 1616^ 
 Francis Godwin, later Bishop of Hereford, published in 
 London: Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII Edwardo & 
 Maria regnantihus, AnnalesY In the same year he pub- 
 lished De Praesulibus Angliae Cominentarii,^ which had 
 been previously written and issued in English under the 
 following title: "A Catalogue of the Bishops of England, 
 since the first Planting of the Christian Religion in this 
 Island, together with a brief History of their Lives and mem- 
 orable Actions, so near as they can be gathered out of 
 Antiquity. ' * One might suppose that the usual motives urged 
 
 1 History of England during the reign of Henry VIII, Edward V I, 
 and Mary. 
 
 3 Commentaries on the Bishops of England. Wood, Fasti, Part 1 1, 
 555, ff. 
 
 —121— 
 
the a'lthor to turn his pretentious work into Latin, but Wood 
 recordo a pecuHar reason, if we are to take it seriously. The 
 history "being very full of faults, and not to be endured by 
 any ordinary reader, he hath put forthwith into Latin." If 
 the book could boast of no other merit, it should at least be 
 "learned." 
 
 In 1633 Sir Henry Wotton published in London Plaiisiis 
 & Vota ad Regent e Scotia Reducem,^ a greeting to 
 King Charles on his return for his coronation in Holyrood 
 Abbey. Wotton was author also of Henrici VUi Angliae et 
 Galliarum Regis, Hiberniae Domini, Etonensis ad Tamesin 
 Collegii Conditoris, Vita et Excessus. Scriptore Henrico 
 Anglo-Cantiano Ejusdem Collegii Praefecto.'- In these 
 two pieces of Latin prose Sir Henry could expect only or 
 chiefly English readers. His themes had to do with royalty: 
 in addressing a king, or in writing the life of a king who was 
 at the same time the founder of a college, no language could 
 be too learned and dignified. 
 
 On occasions of great formality Latin was sometimes 
 chosen for public address even outside the Universities. Such 
 an occasion of learning and dignity was the Convocation of 
 Divines, which met at the same time with Parliament in 1640. 
 "On the first day thereof", says Thomas Fuller, "Dr. Turner, 
 chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, made a Latin ser- 
 mon in the quire of St. Paul's. His text, Matth. X, 16, 
 Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. . . . 
 Next day of sitting we met at Westminster, in the chapel of 
 King Henry the Seventh, both the houses of convocation 
 being joined together, when the archbishop of Canterbury 
 entertained them with a Latin speech, well nigh three-quarters 
 of an hour gravely uttered, his eyes ofttimes being but one 
 remove from weeping." 
 
 1 A Panegyric to the King on his return from Scotland. Smith's Life 
 of Wotton, II, Append. I., B. 
 
 - Life and death of Henry V I, K'\n^ of En{?land and France, Lord of 
 Ireland, Founder of Eton College on the Thames. By Henry, an English- 
 man of Kent, Provost of the same College. Smith's Life of Wotton, 1 1, 
 Appendix I, B. 
 
 —122- 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Latin Poetry. 
 
 In discussing the several international uses of Latin, we 
 did not find a place for poetry, because there seemed to be no 
 poetry in England whose primary purpose was to address 
 foreign readers. It is hard to think of a poet's making 
 verses for outlandish admirers only; his first readers must 
 always be among his countrymen, even though his name may 
 in course of time outrun the boundaries of a single nation. 
 Yet one grows to feel, the more he looks into the Latin liter- 
 ature of this time, that the English writers of Latin prose or 
 verse, even when their themes were insular, had the habit of 
 eying the continent and secretly hoping that their names, 
 like Horace's, would be syllabled far from Rome: 
 
 qua violens obstrepit Aufidus 
 
 et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium 
 
 regnavit populorum ex humili potens. ' 
 
 We shall assume that all Latin poetry written by English- 
 men at home was intended first for readers among their 
 scholarly countrymen, however much an ambition may have 
 been cherished toward the larger circle of the whole learned 
 world. We have accordingly placed all Latin poetry in two 
 classes: first, academic poetry, treated above in Chapter III; 
 second, non-academic poetry, produced in England and for 
 English readers. These two classes cannot always be kept 
 accurately apart. Our general guide is the question whether 
 
 1 Where brawls loud Aufidus, and came 
 Parched Daunus erst a horde 
 Of rustic boors to sway, my name 
 Shall be a household word. 
 Hor. Ill, 30- Martin's Trans. 
 
 —123— 
 
the purpose and occasion, the author and the place of com- 
 position, were intimately connected with the Universities or 
 not. If the poem was written and published on the grounds 
 by a University man, on an academic theme, it has been 
 called academic Latin; if it was published outside, or by its 
 subject-matter made an appeal to outside readers, or was 
 addressed to an outsider, even though by a University man, 
 it has been reserved for consideration in this chapter. 
 
 Latin versifying, begun early in academic innocence, and 
 continued by habit into maturer years and often into old age, 
 was all but universal among men who boasted scholarship, 
 or coveted a reputation for wit and literary talent. It was a 
 poor scholar who had put forth into the world no Latin hex- 
 ameters or elegiacs, who could not turn an epigram, or pass 
 a compliment in Latin verse. Wood's remark about Robert 
 Burhill, who died in 1641, that he was "in his younger days 
 a noted Latin poet", illustrates the fashion of the time in 
 building transient fame out of hard-wrought Latin verse. 
 Such expressions in biographical notices as "an admirable 
 linguist", "an excellent master of the Latin and Greek 
 tongues," etc., are commonly followed by reference to epi- 
 grams and poems in Latin or Greek. The reward for all such 
 achievement was, according to the biographer, to lie at last 
 beneath an unabridged Latin epitaph. 
 
 The aspiring youth, whose aim was preferment in church 
 or state, knew no better way to advertise his merit than to 
 hail the archbishop or king in a Latin poem, or better still, in 
 a whole volume of poems In 1628 Alexander Gill, Milton's 
 old tutor at St. Paul's, fell under the merciless censure of the 
 Star Chamber for having entertained and uttered' doubts as 
 to the absolute wisdom of the king. He had declared among 
 a group of boon companions in Trinity College, Oxford, that 
 "our king was fitter to stand in a Cheapside shop with an 
 apron before him and say. 'what lack ye?', than to rule a 
 kingdom." He had further assured his fellows that the 
 Duke of Buckingham, recently assassinated by Felton, "had 
 gone down to hell to meet James there." and that he was 
 sorry "Felton had deprived him of the honor of doing that 
 
 —124- 
 
brave deed." Gill's heroic spirit was soon put to exercise by 
 the censure of the Star Chamber, degrading? him from his min- 
 istry, removing his University degrees, fining him 20001., 
 and condemning him to lose one ear at London and the other 
 at Oxford. Later, on the petition of his honored old father, 
 the corporal punishment was remitted and the fine mitigated. 
 Young Gill was properly grateful and changed his mind about 
 * 'our king. ' ' In 1632 he published Poetici Conatus, ' with a ded- 
 ication Serenissimo Domino nostro Carolo, Regi optimo, 
 Principum exemplo, maxima liter arum ac artium fautori.'^ 
 Nor did the volume neglect the archbishop: it contained a 
 Latin poem addressed most submissively to the great Laud of 
 Canterbury. Gill was doing his best to recover his lost ground, 
 and he knew the fashionable and effective way of flattery. 
 
 Andrew Marvell, ambitious to rise in the world, after 
 traveling abroad and tutoring in Lord Fairfax's house, 
 came to London in 1652. About this time Milton, as 
 Foreign Secretary, wrote a letter to Bradshaw in recom- 
 mendation of the young man, calling him "a scholar, 
 and well read in the Latin and Greek authors." Mar- 
 vell had proved his scholarship and his worthiness to 
 be recommended to the great, by his aspiring Latin 
 poems.^ Another was a rather long string of elegiacs entitled: 
 Doctori IngelOy cum Domino Whitlocke, ad Reginarn Sueciae 
 Delegato a Protectore, Residenti, Epistola^ He wrote also 
 In Effigiem Oliveri CromivelW and In Eandem,^ Reginae 
 Sueciae Transmissam. It is noticeable that Marvell ventured 
 no direct address to Cromwell but to men very near him, 
 
 1 Poetical Essays. 
 
 2 To our most serene Lord. Charles, best of Kings, paragon of 
 princes, greatest patron of arts and letters. Masson I, 153. 
 
 3 Masson IV. 478-9. 
 
 4 To Dr. Ingelus, resident with Lord Whitlocke Envoy from the Pro- 
 tector to the Queen of Sweden. Masson IV, 623-4. 
 
 5 On the Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. Do. 624. 
 
 6 On the same, sent to the Queen of Sweden. Do. 
 
 —125— 
 
and care was taken to mention the protector's name. The 
 persistent young poet was finally rewarded for all his pains 
 and learning by being appointed assistant to the Latin Sec- 
 retary John Milton. 
 
 Latin poetry was written not only to gain recommenda- 
 tion for preferment, but to indulge in the pleasure of com- 
 posing, or to join the association of wits and scholars, or to 
 win the reputation of having done a clever piece of work. 
 In 1637, when the brilliant Bishop Williams was fined 20,0001. 
 and committed to the Tower during the King's pleasure, one 
 of his amusements which prison walls could not bar out was 
 the writing of Latin verses. ' In 1638, when the memory of 
 Ben Jonson was to "be revived by the friends of the muses," 
 the wits joined together in publishing Jonsoims Virbius, 
 and filled the evergreen volume with poems, English, Latin, 
 and Greek.- An example of clever work, of exhibiting a sort 
 of linguistic legerdemain, is a book by Henry Stubbe called 
 Horae Subsecivae, "consisting of translations of Jonah and 
 other parts of the old Testament, and of Latin Epigrams by 
 Randolph and others, into Greek. "^ Stubbe was guilty of 
 more than one volume of Latin and Greek verse, not knowing 
 at the time but that immortal fame grew on such soil. 
 
 Examples in chronological order of noteworthy Latin 
 poems may now be considered. In 1619 the epigrams of John 
 Owen, who had produced them almost beyond number, were 
 sifted, and a choice selection was translated into English by 
 John Vicars, usher of Christ Hospital, in London; and again 
 in 1659 six hundred of them were translated by Thomas 
 Pecke.* It would seem that Latin poetry written by an 
 Englishman was not felt to have been intended for English 
 readers, if later a translation into English was considered 
 worth while in order apparently to bring the pieces back 
 home to the author's countrymen. But it was not to be sup- 
 posed that such translations were made because the message 
 
 1 Masson I, 540. 
 3 Masson I, 510. 
 
 3 Masson VI, 317-18. 
 
 4 Wood, Fasti, Parti I, 322. 
 
 —126- 
 
of the poems had any great value, or could not otherwise 
 than by translation j?et to its destined readers. The linguistic 
 and literary gymnastics which the exercise afforded was all 
 the translators cared for: the display of their skill in piecing 
 together syllables into a certain order honorably known as 
 rhythm or metre, and words into certain interesting combin- 
 tions called syntax. The usher of Christ Hospital would 
 probably have been happier if John Owen's epigrams had 
 originally been in English, in order that his translation of 
 them might bring him out on the more glorious side of Latin; 
 and he probably had no more faith in conveying a messege to 
 Englishmen then Henry Stubbe had when he translated 
 Jonah into Greek. Both must have worked to the same end: 
 to exhibit their skill in verbal manipulation, their close famil- 
 iarity with languages. 
 
 This heavy literary fashion was the child of scholasticism 
 and the narrow humanism of the schools. William Slatyer 
 was a notable victim of the same tyranny. In 1621 he pub- 
 lished in London "Palae- Albion: or the History of Great 
 Britain from the first peopling of the Island to the Reign of 
 King James," a folio in Latin and English verse, the Latin 
 on one side, the English on the other. In 1630 he published 
 "Genethliacum sive Stemma Regis Jacobi,''''- a folio in Latin 
 and English, with the genealogy derived all the way from 
 Adam. 
 
 There was more excuse for the production of certain 
 poems by Alexander Gill, who has been mentioned above 
 in connection with the Star Chamber. In 1623, at the 
 fatal vespers in Blackfriars, over one hundred Catholics 
 were killed in the fall of the house; whereupon young 
 Gill wrote a Latin ode In ruinam Camerae Papisticae 
 Londini.' In 1625 he put forth two poems of fellow- 
 ship and piety: one w^as addressed to Thomas Farnaby, 
 the great schoolmaster, and was sent along with a skin of 
 canary in a true Horatian spirit; the other was a greeting to 
 
 1 Wood's Athenae, III, 227. "Birthday poem, or Pedigree of King 
 James." 
 
 2 On the fall of the Papal House in London. Masson I, 72-3. 
 
 —127— 
 
his father on his sixtieth birthday. Gill was also author of 
 'Er.vAv.uiv de Gestis, Successibus, et Victoriis Regis Sueciae in 
 Germania,^ in 1631, which was later "Englished and explained 
 in marginal notes by W. H. under the title of 'A Song of Vic- 
 tory'. " Gill must have felt himself all the more a seven- 
 teenth century Horace, to have his Latin poems translated 
 and elucidated with scholarly annotation. 
 
 William Vaughn, the son of Walt. Vaughn of the Golden 
 Grove in Caermarthenshire, "though indifferently learned, 
 yet went beyond most men of his time for Latin, especially, 
 and English poetry." Among his poems was one published 
 in London in 1625 and dedicated to Charles I, the author 
 modestly assuming the name of Orpheus Junior. The com- 
 plete title was: Cambrensium Caroleia. Quihus Nuptiae 
 regales celebrantur, Memoria Regis Pacifici renovatur & 
 Praecepta necessaria ad Rempub. nostram foeliciter admini- 
 strandam intexunhir: reportata e Colchide Cambriola ex A21- 
 stralissima novae terrae Plaga.^ Charles's family events, it 
 seems, were not to be the exclusive property of the Cam- 
 bridge and Oxford muses. 
 
 Raphael Thorius was a Frenchman by birth, but sojourned 
 among the Oxonians, practiced medicine in London, and 
 wrote Latin poetry. His Hymnus Tabaci, sive de Paeto Libri 
 diio^ wsis "an elegant Latin poem translated into English 
 by Peter Hausted, M. A. of Cambridge," in 1631. His 
 Chrimonopegnion, A Winter Song, was also translated into 
 English by the faithful Hausted. Thorius died in 1625 of 
 the plague and was commemorated by a friend in the poem: 
 Lessus in Funere Raphaelis Thori Medici et Poetae Prae- 
 stantissimi, Qui Londini Peste extincttis bonis et doctis omni- 
 
 1 Ode on the Deeds and Victories of the King of Sweden in Germany. 
 Wood's Athenae 1 1 1, 43. 
 
 2 Welsh Tributes to Charles. Whereby the royal nuptials are cele- 
 brated, the memory of the Pacific King is revived, and needful counsel 
 intertwined for happily conducting the affairs of state: brought from 
 Cambriol Colchis, out of the southermost part of the island called New- 
 foundland. Wood, Fasti, Part 1 1, 445. 
 
 3 Hymn to Tobacco. Wood, Fasti, Part II, 379-80. 
 
 —128- 
 
bus triste s^ti Desiderium reliquit. Anno 1625^ When one 
 reads such superlatives as Praestantissimi bestowed upon a 
 now unknown writer, one hardly knows whether to account 
 it a mere sonorous convention, or to imagine another and upper 
 world in which Latin was the language and in which a poet 
 might have actually become very famous without ever being 
 heard of among the vulgar-tongued multitude below. 
 
 Chief among the scholars who about 1632 were exercising 
 their ingenuity in Latin epigrams, elegies and the like, were 
 James Duport and Thomas May. Duport, of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, had his eye on subjects outside of College, and 
 wrote an ode in Benjaminium Jonsonum, Poetam Laurea- 
 tum, et dramaticoriim sui secidi facile principem.'^ Years 
 later he addressed two Latin poems to his master Isaac Wal- 
 ton, which were published in the second edition of the Com- 
 plete Angler, in 1655. '^ May, according to Masson a Latinist 
 of far higher power than Duport, * published in 1640 his Sup- 
 plementum Lucani Lib. V I,^ which brought the narrative of 
 the Roman poet down to the death of Caesar. It was writ- 
 ten, says Wood, "in so lofty and happy Latin hexameter, 
 that he hath attained to much more reputation abroad, than 
 he hath lost at home." May not only enlarged Latin litera- 
 ture by supplementing Lucan, but paid equal tribute to his 
 mother tongue by rendering into English Lucan 's Pharsalia 
 and Virgil's Georgics. He stood with the one language on 
 one hand, and the other on the other, and it could not be said 
 of him that he let not his right hand know what his left hand 
 did. For his much pains he was rewarded at last with a 
 plentiful epitaph by Marchamont Needham. 
 
 1 Lamentation on the death of Ralph Thorius. physician and most 
 excellent poet, who died in London of the plague and left sorrowful 
 regret among all good and learned men, in the year 1625. Wood, Fasti, 
 Part n, 379-80. and footnote. 
 
 2 On Ben Johnson, poet laureate and easily the first dramatic writer 
 of his age. Masson I, 400. 
 
 3 Marston's Walton, 240-L 
 * Masson I, 400. 
 
 5 Supplement to Lucan, Six Books. Wood, Athenae III, 810. 
 
 -129— 
 
Francis Kinaston, "first regent of the college or academy 
 called Musaeum Minervae", and author of "The Constitu- 
 tions of Musaeum Minervae", laid hands on old Chaucer with 
 more piety than Dryden did later, and translated his Troilus 
 and Cresseid into the venerable Latin, entitling the work 
 Amorum Troili & Creseidae Lihri Duo Priores Anglico-La- 
 tini,^ published at Oxford in 1635; "which", says Wood, 
 "being beheld as an excellent translation, was ushered into 
 the world by 15 copies of verses made by Oxford men." 
 About the same time Richard James published at Oxford 
 Poemata quaedam in Mort. Clariss. Viri Roberti Cottoni & 
 Thomas Alleni."' He was author also of sermons in Latin 
 and in English, and at his death in 1638 left behind a num- 
 ber of Latin manuscripts. Nothing was wanting to him and 
 his studies, says Wood, "but a sinecure or a prebendship; 
 either of which, if conferred upon him, Hercules his labours 
 would have seemed a trifle." 
 
 In 1637 there was published in Amsterdam, at the expense 
 of a patriotic Scot, Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum,'^ a work which 
 challenged the criticism of the world at that time, and excites 
 our wonder to-day. It was a collection, in two small but 
 densely packed volumes, of choice Latin poems, by thirty- 
 seven Scottish authors who were styled the "glory of this 
 age." These thirty-seven were only a handful to the infinite 
 host that had remained athome— the innumerabiles poetarum 
 veluti exercitits* representing extremum hunc angidum pa£ne 
 sub ipso mundi cardine jacentem.^ Among the best were 
 John Scot, at whose expense the volume was published, and 
 Arthur Johnston, the editor. Besides being a Latin poet, 
 Johnston had a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine 
 of the University of Padua, Professor in the Universities of 
 
 1 The Loves of Troilus and Cressida: first two books, English and 
 Latin. Wood's Athenae III, 38-9. 
 
 2 Poems on the death of those very famous men, Robert Cotton and 
 Thomas Allen. Wood's Athenae, 1 1 1, 38. 
 
 3 Delights of the Scottish Poets. 
 * Countless armies of poets. 
 
 5 This uttermost point of land lying almost under the pole. 
 
 -130- 
 
Heidelberg: andSedon, Rector of the University and of Kin^^'s 
 College, Aberdeen, and physician to James I and Charles I. 
 He had his residence in London, as Medicus Rexjhis^ His first 
 publication with his name was on the death of James: 
 Elegia in obitiim Jacobi I, London, 1625. There fol- 
 lowed in great profusion elegies, epigrams, paraphrases, 
 parerga. He wrote, strangely enough, being a Scot, 
 Musae Querulae, de Regis in Scotiam Profectone,'^ irt 
 1633, which was published in ten pages with Latin oh 
 the left hand pages and English on the right. His most cel- 
 ebrated work was a Latin version of the Psalms: Artiwi Jon- 
 stoni Psalmi Davidici inter pretatione, argumentis, notisque 
 illitstrati: in iisum Serenissimi Principis^ The bibliography 
 of Arthur Johnston, as collected and published by William 
 Johnston in 1896,^ show as many as thirty- four extant editions 
 of his works, all but one being in Latin. And Johnston was 
 only one among the innumerabiles poetariim exercitus. 
 
 Thomas Hobbes, though in all his philosophical works he 
 wrote with bitter sarcasm against the teachings of the Univer- 
 sities, and in his Leviathan declared his belief "that there 
 was never anything so dearly bought as these Western parts 
 have bought the learning of the Greek and Latin tongues,"-^ 
 yet himself was a Latin author of prose and verse, from 
 youth down to the last years of a remarkably long life. He 
 composed prior to 1628 but published in 1636 De Mirabilibus 
 Pecci, containing over 500 Latin hexameters which "give a 
 lively account of an excursion from Chatsworth round the 
 Seven Wonders of the Derbyshire Peak." At the age of 
 sixty-four he wrote his own life in Latin elegiacs, which 
 were not published till 1679, a year after his death. 
 
 1 Physician to the King. 
 
 2 Complaints of the muse on the departure of the King for Scotland; 
 
 3 Arthur Johnston's Psalms of David, illustrated with translation, 
 arguments, and notes: for the use of the most serene Prince. 
 
 4 Bibliography and Portraits of Arthur Johnston, by William John- 
 ston, Aberdeen University Press, 1896. 
 
 5 Leviathan, Ch. XX I, p. 144. 
 
 -131— 
 
John Dryden was not the only poet in England who 
 resetted the death of Cromwell the Protector and later 
 rejoiced at the restoration of Charles the King. In 1653 
 Robert Whitehall wrote Carmen gratulatorium Olivero Crom- 
 well in Protectorem Angliae inaiigu7'ato;^ and in 1657, Carmen 
 Onomasticon Gratulatorium Ricardo Cromwell in Cancellarii 
 Officium & Dignitatem foeliciter Elector These friendly verses 
 to Oliver and Richard Cromwell served as exercises to train 
 .Whitehall for congratulating Oxford on the return of Charles 
 1 1, and for saluting Edward Hyde as High Chancellor of 
 England and as much-desired Chancellor of Oxford. The 
 poem containing this change of sentiment, addressed Edvardo 
 Hyde, summo Angliae & optato Oxoniae Cancellario,^ was 
 printed on one side of a sheet in both Latin and English, and 
 given to the world promptly in the year 1660. 
 
 Payne Fisher, who translated his name into Paganus Pis- 
 cator, celebrated the great deeds in war and at last the death 
 of Cromwell; publishing in 1659 Marston Moore: sen de Obsi- 
 dione Proelioque Eboracensi Carmen, Lib. 6;^ and in 1658 a 
 dirge entitled: Threnodia Triumphalis, in Obitiim seretisis)^. 
 nostri Prinx^ipis Olivari Angliae, Scotiae, &c. , nuper Pro- 
 tectorisJ' 
 
 Milton, like the Robert Burhill mentioned above, was "in 
 his younger days a noted Latin poet.'' In 1645, Humphrey 
 Moses, who did all he could to promote fine literature by its 
 publication and sale at his shop in St. Paul's church-yard, 
 published Milton's poems, both Latin and English. These 
 poems were all minor at that time, in the sense we now use 
 
 1 Gratulatory poem to Oliver Cromwell on his inauguration as Pro- 
 tector of England. 
 
 2 Gratulatory poem to Richard Cromwell happily elected to the office 
 and dignity of Chancellor. 
 
 3 To Edward Hyde, High Chancellor of England and desired Chancel- 
 lor of Oxford. Wood IV, 177. 
 
 4 Marston Moor: or Song on the Seigeand Battle of York; si.x books. 
 
 •■> Triumphal Dirge on the death of our most serene Prince Oliver, 
 late Protector of England, Scotland, &c. Wood IV, 378-9. 
 
 -132— 
 
the word. The volume was divided into two parts, each 
 part separately titled and pap:ed. The first contained the 
 English poems which filled 120 pages. The second part, 
 of 88 pages, contained the Latin pieces, with the following 
 on the title page: Joannis Miltoni Londiniensis Poemata: 
 quorum pier ague intra annum aetatis vigesimum conscripsit: 
 nunc primum edifa^ A preface to this second part was writ- 
 ten by the poet himself. In 1G73, a new edition of Milton's 
 minor poems was issued, being however merely a reprint of 
 the 1645 edition, with the addition of two Latin poems: 
 Apologus de Rustico et Hero- and Ad Joannem Rousium.-^ 
 Both the 1645 and the 1673 editions had prefixed to the Latin 
 part five pieces, three in Latin elegiacs, one in Italian verse, 
 one in Latin prose, addressed to Milton by the Italian wits he 
 had met during his residence in Italy in 1638 and 1639. 
 
 The volume published in 1645 contained in the Latin 
 division: (1) the book of elegies— Elegiarum Liber — consist- 
 ing of seven elegies averaging about one hundred lines each, 
 and of eight short pieces in elegiac meter; (2) the Silvae, 
 consisting of six Latin poems written during Milton's Cam- 
 bridge days, two short pieces in Greek verse, two Latin poems 
 addressed to Italian acquaintances Salsillus and Mansus. and 
 finally Epitaphimn Damonis. The whole volume contained 
 about eighteen hundred lines of Latin and twenty-seven lines 
 of Greek, not counting four Greek lines printed under the 
 poet's portrait in the book and addressed by him to the 
 wretched engraver. 
 
 The seven elegies were written during Milton's Univer- 
 sity career, between the years seventeen and twenty. Three 
 — the first, fourth, and sixth— were sent as letters or in let- 
 ters to friends at a distance. The Elegi a Prima, written in 
 the spring of 1626, while the poet was at home in exile from 
 college, was addressed to his best friend, Charles Diodati : it 
 
 1 Poems of John Milton of London: most of which were written 
 before the completion of his twentieth year; now first edited. 
 
 2 Apologue of the countryman and his master. 
 
 3 To John Rous. 
 
 -133- 
 
is an eloquent rhetorical exercise, full of ancient mythology, 
 and various fanciful and learned allusions. It declared, 
 among other things, that gloria virginibus dehetur prima 
 Britannis:^ the world has nothing to show as fair as the girls 
 of England; one of whom, a few years later, he was so 
 pleasantly to encounter. 
 
 The second elegy, on the death of the University Herald, 
 and the third, on the death of the Bishop of Winchester, — In 
 obitum Praeconis Academici Cantabrigiensis and In obitiim 
 Praesulis Wiyitoniensis, — were written at the age of seven- 
 teen. Elegy Four, composed during the long vacation of 
 1627, was addressed "to Thomas Young, his praeceptor, dis- 
 charging the office of pastor among the English merchants at 
 Hamburg" — Ad Tliomam Junium, Praeceptorem suum apud 
 Mercatores Anglicos Hamburgae Agentes Pastoris Munere 
 Fungentem. It was a fluent exercise in elegiac verse, bidding 
 the exiled Puritan be of good cheer and cling to hope, the 
 last resort for the wretched, and above all demonstrating 
 that his old pupil had not neglected his Latin or his classical 
 mythology.' 
 
 The fifth elegy, on the Return of Spring, —/ii Adventum 
 Veris, — written in April, 1629, contains one hundred and 
 forty verses heavy with mythological allusions. •'^ The sixth 
 was written after Christmas, 1629, in reply to verses sent by 
 Diodati. In this epistle the poet mentions his occupation 
 with the ode on the Nativity; and gives to Diodati a signifi- 
 cant picture of one destined to become an epic bard — a writer 
 of Heaven and Hell: he must live plain, follow a vegetable 
 diet, drink water, keep clean hands and a pure heart.' The 
 seventeenth elegy,'' written at nineteen, celebrates the first 
 love pangs of the poet, who on the first of May had looked 
 too closely in the streets of London atone of the fair maidens 
 whom he called in his first elegy the glory of Britain. 
 
 1 Masson I, 119-120. 
 
 2 Masson I, 132. 
 
 3 Do., 15G 7. 
 
 4 Do. 163-4. 
 
 5 Do. 135-C>. 
 
 -134— 
 
The eigfht short pieces followinpr the elegries are all in 
 elegiac meter, and the first five celebrate Guy Faux and the 
 Gunpowder Plot, and the invention of punpov^der: the titles 
 being: In Prodithvcm Bombardicam, InEandem, In Eandern, 
 In Eandern, In Inventorem Bombardae.'^ Milton's repeated 
 celebration of that dreadful event illustrates the force of the 
 well-known lines: 
 
 I see no reason why gunpower treason 
 Should ever be forgot. 
 
 The last three pieces in the book of elegies belong to 
 Milton's Italian journey, and are addressed to the famous 
 singer Leonora Baroni, whom he heard sing at Rome. They 
 are entitled; Ad Leonoram Romae Canentem, Ad Eandern, 
 Ad Eandern :- 
 
 Of the Silvarum Ldber the first on the death of the Vice- 
 chancellor's physician, — In Obitum Procancellarii Medici, — 
 written at seventeen, is the only extant example of Milton's 
 original Horatian stanzas. The second of the Silvae, on the 
 Gunpowder Plot, or On the Fifth of November, — In Quintum 
 Novembris, — is in Virgilian Hexameters, and tells the story 
 of the event in grand epic style decorated with the diction of 
 classical mythology. After two hundred and twenty-six 
 majestic verses, the story ends with the well-believed opinion 
 that no other day in all the three hundred and sixty-five is 
 so notable as the Fifth of November: 
 
 Quintoqice Novembris 
 Nvlla dies toto occurrit celebratior anno. 
 
 The third of the Silvae, in the only extant example of 
 Milton's use of the Iambic Strophe, commemorates the death 
 of the Bishop of Ely. The fourth is in hexameters, wTitten 
 in 1628 for a fellow-student of Christ's, to use in a public Act, 
 and sent by Milton to Alexander Gill along with a Latin letter 
 on July 2, 1628.'' It is a scholastic exercise to prove by fluent 
 
 1 On the Gunpowder Treason: On the Same; On the Same; On the 
 Same; On the Inventor of Gunpowder. 
 
 2 To Leonora, singing at Rome; To the Same; To the Same. Masson 
 I, 635 6. 
 
 3 Masson I, 139-40. 
 
 —135- 
 
rhetoric that Nature never suffers old age: Naturam 
 non pati Senium. The fifth of the Silvae, in the Iambic Tri- 
 meter, treats the Platonic Idea, — De Idea Platonica, — being 
 an academic exercise, and "is interesting," says Masson, "as 
 showing Milton's affection for Plato and his philosophy." 
 The sixth poem in the Silvae, addressed to the poet's father. 
 Ad patrem, is in hexameters, but in a simpler and less rhetor- 
 ical strain than the academic pieces. It is an interesting bit 
 of autobiography, showing the elder Milton's early encour- 
 agement of his son's poetic tastes, and the young man's grat- 
 itude for that friendship and sympathy. 
 
 Of the Greek pieces, the first is a translation in hexa- 
 meters of the ll4th Psalm; the second contains five hexa- 
 meters, being the answer of a philosopher to the king who 
 had by accident placed him among the criminals. The Latin 
 poems following the Greek were addressed to Italian 
 friends of Milton's— the first, in scazons, to Salsillus, the 
 Roman poet who was sick. Ad Salsillum, Poetam Romanum, 
 Aegrotantem; the second in hexameters, to Mansus. After 
 these was placed Epitaphiiim Damonis. The 1673 edition of 
 the minor poems added, after Epitaphiiim Damonis, the 
 poem in strophes and antistrophes, addressed in 1647 to John 
 Rous— A(i Joannem Rousium. Rous was librarian in the 
 Bodleian of Oxford, and Milton had sent him a volume of his 
 prose and one of his poetry to be placed in the library. The 
 poetry was lost in transmission, and at Rous's request the 
 poet forwarded a second volume, with this ode written on a 
 sheet of paper and inserted by a binder between the English 
 and Latin parts of the volume. In elaborate form, with 
 three strophes each followed by an antistrophe and the whole 
 concluded by an epode, the poet speaks affectionately to his 
 little book which he is sending on its way to a secure and 
 happy seat in the home of the muses. ^ 
 
 Epitaphium Damonis was written after Milton's return 
 to England in 1639, in memory of his dearest friend, his old 
 
 1 Masson III, 646 ff. 
 
 —136— 
 
schoolmate and correspondent, Charles Diodati, who had died 
 while the poet was absent on his Italian journey. Its two 
 hundred and nineteen hexameters follow the eclogues of 
 Vir<?il in the pastoral machinery, and in the repetition of one 
 melancholy line addressed by the shepherd to his flock. And 
 as in Eclogue V Mopsus and Menalcas lament the death of 
 their fellow-shepherd Daphnis, Mopsus beginning with a 
 strain of grief and Menaicas ending with a triumphant 
 apotheosis of their departed friend; so in Milton's poem, 
 Thyrsis at first can only bewail the loss of Damon, but comes 
 at last to behold him risen high above earth and seated among 
 the eternal gods. In this same exultant vision Milton ended 
 his other great elegy, Lycidas; and like Lycidas and other 
 poems by the same author, Epitaphium Damonis mingles 
 freely together elements of the pagan and Christian religions. 
 Another point of interest in the Epitaphium Damonis is 
 the poet's reference to an epic theme under contemplation: 
 he would choose a subject from the ancient Britons and cele- 
 brate it in his native speech. 
 
 0, mihi turn si vita siipersit. 
 Til procul annosa pendebis, fistula, pinu 
 Midtum oblita mihi, aut patriis mutata Camoenis 
 Brittonicum strides! Quid enim? Omnia non licet uni, 
 Non sperasse uni licet omnia; mi satis ampla 
 Merces, et mihi grande decus (sim ignotus in aevum 
 Turn licet, extern/) penitusque inglorius orhi) , 
 Si mihi Uava. comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni, 
 Vorticihusque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantae, 
 Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, etfusca metallis 
 Tamara, et extremis me discant Or cades undis.^ 
 
 The ambitious young poet would be content to remain 
 unknown in the learned world beyond his native island, if 
 
 1 O then, if life shall be spared me, 
 
 Thou shalt be hung, my pipe, far off on some brown dying pine-tree. 
 Much forgotten of me; or else your Latian music 
 
 —137— 
 
by celebrating a patriotic theme in his mother tongue he 
 could attain high honor among his countrymen. This elegy 
 was to be his last effort in the composition of Latin verse: 
 but he little knew at the time what Latin prose he had to 
 write in defending an English cause before an astonished 
 world. 
 
 In passing from the consideration of Milton's own poems, 
 we may take a glance at the Latin poems written to him or 
 in connection with his own works of fame. In 1652 appeared 
 at the Hague the Regii Sanguinis Clamor, already discussed 
 in Chapter VI. It was a cry raised in the same cause in 
 which the mighty Salmasius perished at the hands of Milton, 
 and it paid respects to both the Frenchman and the English- 
 man. "At the end of the book are appended two sets of 
 Latin verses One is a 'Eucharistic Ode', in eighteen Hora- 
 tian stanzas of sustained eulogy, 'To the Great Salmasius for 
 his Royal Defence,' The other consists of no fewer than 245 
 lines of scurrilous Iambics addressed 'To the Bestial Black- 
 guard John Milton, the Advocate of Parricides and Parricide* 
 ('In Impurissimum Nebulonem, Johannem Miltonum, Parri- 
 cidarum et Parricidi Advocatum', )"' This followed the style 
 in which Milton himself was an accomplished master. 
 
 Fortunately the poet had some friends among the muses. 
 In 1674 the Second edition of Paradise Lost contained two sets 
 of commendatory Latin verses prefixed. The one was in 
 elegiacs on The Paradise Lost of John Milton Chief of Poets 
 {hi Paradisum Amissam 'Summi Poetae Johannis Miltoni) , 
 
 Changed for the British war-screech! What then? For one to do all things. 
 One to hope all things, fits not! Prize sufficiently ample 
 Mine, and distraction great (unheard of ever thereafter 
 Though I should be, and inglorious, all through the world of the stranger', 
 If but the yellow- haired Ouse shall read me, the drinker of Alan, 
 Humber, which whirls as it flows, and Trent's whole valleys of orchards, 
 Thames, my own Thames, above all, and Tamar's western waters, 
 Tawny with ores, and where the white waves swinge the far Orkneys. 
 
 -Masson II, 91-92. 
 
 1 Masson IV, 457. 
 
 -138- 
 
signed S. B. M. D.: the other was in English Heroics, signed 
 A. M. S. B. was Dr. Samuel Barrow, A. M. was Andrew 
 Marvell, who if it had pleased him might also have put his 
 lines in Latin.' 
 
 In 1686 the first Book of Paradisfe Lost, translated into 
 Latin by several hands,- was published in London by Thomas 
 Bring, proprietor of the currrnt edition of Milton's minor 
 poems. Though the poet in Epitaphium Damonis declared 
 he would rest content without poetic fame abroad, if he 
 could achieve glory by an English epic, yet other men, for 
 his fame or their own, were not satisfied to leave any great 
 thing unconquered by the language of imperial Rome. 
 
 In 1683 Oxford University remembered her devotion to 
 Charles I and her hatred of his old enemies, by passing a 
 decree to burn the books of the author of Eicorwclastes and 
 Defensio pro Popiilo. The following lines are from an 
 academic poem which took note of the event: 
 
 In media videos flamma crepitante cremari 
 Miltonum caelo terrisque inamabUe nomen.^ 
 It was a grievous epitaph over the ashes of great Latin 
 arguments. 
 
 1 Masson, VI, 714. 
 
 2 Do. 784. 
 
 3 Do. 814. The lines may be freely rendered: 
 
 You see that eager flame? you smell that paper smoke ? 
 
 It's Milton burning, now a name to heaven and earth — a joke. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Diffusion of Latin. 
 
 Out of the intimate knowledge of Latin and out of the 
 many services it performed in high places, there grew a 
 feeling and sentiment among men in favor of the noble and 
 venerable language, — a sentiment strong in the individual 
 mind and a hundredfold intensified by academic national 
 tradition. It was a feeling as persistent and as universal as 
 patriotism itself, and oftentimes very closely allied with it. 
 To improve scholarship, that is, classical learning, among the 
 people was to strengthen and glorify the nation. There was 
 a certain active faith, deep-rooted in the centuries and over- 
 shadowing the present, that throughout the history and 
 development of England, her institutions, society, and laws 
 had drawn vital nourishment from the ever-living Latin and 
 that they would continue to cling to that language as a gracious 
 and blessed foster-mother. 
 
 This atmosphere and sentiment for Latin learning per- 
 vades the literature and history of the times persistently and 
 unfailingly. Even when one cannot lay hands on the Latin 
 product as a whole, he can nevertheless detect a flavor ex- 
 tracted from the old language and literature. The taste of 
 men for ages had been cultivated to relish this classical 
 learning as the most delicious and satisfying of all food for 
 the mind; and only pity or contempt was felt for him who 
 could not or did not appreciate these good things The sev- 
 enteenth century scholar loved learning not otherwise than 
 the old Romans loved liberty, as a thing sweet in itself. 
 
 Men turned to Latin reading or composition for pleasure, 
 recreation, and comfort. The Earl of Montrose, defeated of 
 his political ambition in 1641, retired to his estates, went 
 hunting now and then, but found "his chief delights in bits of 
 
 —140— 
 
Latin reading, dreams of PlutarcVi's lieroes, and the writing 
 of scraps of verse."' William Seymour, eleventh Earl of 
 Hertford, lived habitually in the country, "a nobleman of 
 great fortune, honor and interest, of very good parts and con- 
 versant with books, both of Latin and Greek tongues," 
 
 The famous Lord Falkland, whom Clarendon exhausted 
 his eloquence and generosity in praising, married against his 
 father's pleasure, and retired to his estate to give himself up 
 to the study of Greek and other kindred subjects. At Tew, 
 twelve miles from Oxford, his home became a resort and club 
 house for scholars.- Classical atmosphere mingled with social 
 sentiments and became a part of high friendly fellowship. 
 
 Honor became more honorable when recorded in appro- 
 priate language; and the pride of birth or achievement had 
 an instinctive feeling of kinship with the grand superlative 
 and majestic period. No man ever revealed in its finest 
 essence the aristocratic Latin spirit better than did Sir 
 , Henry Wotton, the accomplished ambassador, the gentleman 
 and scholar and friend of scholars, the faithful devotee of 
 poetry and religion. As Provost of Eton in his last years, 
 **he was," says his friend and biographer, Isaac Walton, "a 
 constant cherisher of all those youths in that School, in 
 whom he found either a constant diligence, or a genius that 
 prompted them to learning. ... He would also often make 
 choice of some observations out of these Historians and 
 Poets [i. e., those of Greece and Rome]; and would never 
 leave the School, without dropping some choice Greek or 
 Latin apophthegm or sentence, that might be worthy of a 
 room in the memory of a growing scholar."^ 
 
 With the same faith in the power of eloquence and the 
 same fatherly wish to impart a useful lesson. Sir Henry, after 
 his return from his last embassy, full of wisdom and honors, 
 used to leave behind, at houses where he lodged, copies of 
 the inscription under his coat of arms. It was the custom to 
 
 1 Masson III, 341. 
 
 2 Masson I, 420-421. 
 
 3 Walton's Lives, 158-9 (Ed. 1852.). 
 
 —141— 
 
hang over the door of an Envoy's residence a painted shield 
 with the ambassadorial titles inscribed, and a copy of these 
 titles it was that Sir Henry Wotton left as foot-prints over 
 England to guide and cheer the way-faring reader: — 
 
 Henricus Wottonius Anglo- Cantiajiiis, Thomae optimi 
 viri filius natu minimiis, a Serenissimo Jacobo I. Mag. Brit. 
 Rege, in equestrem titulum adscitus, ejusdemque ter ad Rem- 
 publicam Venetam Legatus Ordinarius, semel ad Confoede- 
 ratarum Provinciarum Ordines in Jidiacensi negotio. Bis ad 
 Carolum Emanuel, Sabaudiae Ducem; semel ad Unitos Su- 
 perioris Germaniae Principes in Conventu Heilbrunensi, pos- 
 tremo ad Archiducem Leopoldum, Ducem Wittembergensem, 
 Civitates Imperiales, Argentinam, Ulmamque, et ipsum Ro- 
 manorum Imperatorem Ferdinandum Secundum, Legatus 
 Extraordinarius, tandem hoc didicit, 
 
 Animas fieri sapientiores quiescendo. ' 
 
 It was characteristic of Wotton to attach the choice 
 proverb at the end of his array of titles. Great was his 
 faith in the moral effect of wisdom uttered in the language 
 of learning. Everything he did or said radiated a moral and 
 classical glow, which was typical of the religion and learning 
 of his day. 
 
 The wide-spread, pervasive influence of Latin culture 
 appeared in scores of ways in the literature and life of the 
 time. A few of the most important manifestations will be 
 considered. 
 
 I. Literary Titles. 
 
 An interesting expression of classical culture is found in 
 
 1 Henry Wotton, an Englishman of Kent, youngest son of Thomas, 
 an excellent man; raised to the equestrian rank by the most serene 
 James I, King of Great Britain, and three times his ambassador in ordi- 
 nary to the Republic of Venice, once to the States of the United Prov- 
 inces in the affair of Juliers; twice ambassador extraordinary to Charles 
 Emanuel, Duke of Swabia; once to the united Princes of Upper Ger- 
 many in the Heilbronn convention; finally to Archduke Leopold, Duke of 
 Wiirtumberg, to the Imperial States Argentina and Ulm. and to Ferdi- 
 nand II, Roman Emperor. After all, this is the chief thing he learned: 
 
 It is QUIET that makes the heart wise. —Walton's Lives, 155. 
 (Ed. 1862). 
 
 —142— 
 
the 'titles to Enc^lisli literary worlds In prose and verse. Eveti 
 "if a book for good reason was not composed in the learned 
 tongue, it could at least show some relationship with learning 
 by exhibiting a Greek or Latin name, and could present a 
 more confident face to the reading world by having a grand 
 and imposing title-page. The real name for such a book was 
 put in a Greek or Latin word or phrase, which was followed 
 by a translation, or a diffuse paraphrase explaining the secret 
 wrapped up in the oftentimes allegorical or conceited main 
 title. This explanation was very necessary: the classic word 
 or phrase, whose business was to herald the author as a 
 ^scholar, aimed at impressive sound, showy appearance— any- 
 thing but simplicity or intelligibility. 
 
 Examples will illustrate the characteristic features of 
 the fashionable title. In 1631, William Porster, M. A., 
 parson at Hedgeley in Bucks, published *'Hoplocrisma Spon^ 
 ^iis: Or a Sponge to wipe away the Weapon Salve. Wherein 
 is proved that the cure taken up amongst us, by applying the 
 Salve to the Weapon, is magical and unlawful."' This is ^ 
 good example of the conceited title, much sought after in 
 that age of conceits. John Donne, head of the Metaphysical 
 Poets, published '^B'.a:fld^a?.o^-- A Declaration of that Paradox 
 or Thesis, that Self-Homicide is not so naturally a sin, that it 
 may not be otherwise."' A timely pamphlet, published in 
 1645 by Thomas Edwards, had an apt title, revealing both 
 the spirit of the treatise and the sectarian bitterness of the 
 times. The work was: "Gangraena: or, a Catalogue and 
 Discovery of many of the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and 
 Pernicious Practices of the Sectaries of this time."'' The 
 most famous pamphlet of the age, published with great 
 secrecy and in very mysterious circumstances, on February 
 9, 1649, was: "Eixt^. lian'My.r;: The True Portraiture of His 
 Sacred Majestic in his Solitude and Sufferings." Following 
 the title were the mottoes: "More than conqueror, &c. 
 
 1 Wood, Fasti. Part 1 1, 573. 
 
 2 Wood, Fasti, Part 1 1, 503. 
 
 3 Masson 1 1 1, 141. 
 
 —143- 
 
Bona agere etmala pati Regium est/'^ In a prefixed alle- 
 gorical design various other mottoes were placed, purporting 
 to illustrate the character of the fallen king; e.g. : Clarior e 
 tenebris, Crescit siib ponder e virtus. In verbo tuo spes mea.^ 
 Published as the written meditations of King Charles I 
 during the last year of his life, the book became immediately 
 popular in England. At the suggestion of the alarmed Coun- 
 cil of State, Milton wrote an attack upon the royalist pamph- 
 let, and named his own work Er/.ir^ir/.?.d(7rrj<; [Image-breaker] — 
 a brilliant title in idea and magnificent in sound, typical of 
 the smashing effect it was expected to have and in some 
 measure did have upon its enemy. ^ 
 
 The first Er/.u)-^ founded a numerous family. Besides the 
 Ehiwr/MifTzfj-i of Milton, there appeared in August, 1649, an 
 anonymous pamphlet entitled: ''Ehw-^ 'A^Of.r;: The Portraiture 
 of Truth's Most Sacred Majesty," denying the royal author- 
 ship of the original Eixai^^ and giving the theory that it was 
 written by some English Prelate or Doctor."* On September 
 11, of the same year, was published another pamphlet in the 
 same quarrel: "Er/.wy ^ Tttffzyj^ or the Faithful Portraiture of a 
 Loyal Subject, in Vindication of Et/.w.' Batniurj,^''^ In 1651 was 
 issued: Ei/.uy^ '' Ay.).a<Tzo^\ The Image Unbroken: A Perspective 
 of the Impudence, Falsehood, Vanitie, and Prophannes, pub- 
 lished in a Libell entitled Ei/MMr/Minzr^^ against EIaIo.> Ba<T'.).iy.r] or 
 the portraiture of his Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and 
 Sufferings." These defenders of Charles thought it safest 
 to publish anonymously for the present. 
 
 Other semi-classical titles given by Milton to English 
 works are as follows, ''Areopagitica: a Speech for the Lib- 
 erty of Unlicensed Printing." "Tetrachordon: Exposition of 
 the Four chief Places in Scripture which treat of marriage, 
 
 1 To do good and Suffer evil is the fate of kings. 
 
 2 Brighter after darkness; Virtue grows under oppression; In thy 
 word is my hope. 
 
 3 For accounts of both pamphlets, se« Masson IV, 33, 132. 
 
 4 Maseon IV, 130. 
 
 5 Do. 131. 
 
 —144— 
 
or Nullities in Marriage." "Colasterion: a Reply tx) a 
 Nameless Answer against the Doctrine and Discipline of 
 Divorce. ' ' ' 'Samson Agonistes : A Dramatic Poem. ' ' Though 
 the title of this last work was simple enough, the rest of the 
 title page contained perplexities to warn the unlearned: 
 
 "Aristot,. Poet. Cap. 6. Tftayujl^ia /lifirjtrt^^ Trpd^eax: (tTzoofiaiaf^ 
 
 &c. Tragaedia est imitatio actionis seriae, &c. Per miseri- 
 cordiam et metiim perfidens talium affectionum lustra- 
 tionem."^ It is fortunate that the English mood of Milton 
 predominated when he finally determined the title of Para- 
 dise Lost. It would have been no small impediment to the 
 fame of the great English epic to be called by such a phrase, 
 for example, as Paradisus Amissus.^ 
 
 1 1. Phrases and Forms. 
 
 In registers and minute-books Latin was customarily 
 used for recording date and place. The Journals of Parlia- 
 ment were kept in English, but various set phrases were put 
 in Latin. For example: Die Veneris, W Augusti, 1642: Die 
 Martis, 6^ die Fehruarii; Hodie 3^ vice lecta est Billa,^ an act, 
 etc.; Domini presentes fuerunt: Comes Denbigh, Speaker, 
 Comes Northumberland; House adjourned till 10 eras.'* 
 
 A petition sent by the Universities to Parliament, though 
 in English, preferred to have date and place subscribed in 
 Latin. For instance, the petition of the University of Oxford 
 to Long Parliament for the continuance of religious houses 
 and revenues bore the following subscription: Dat. Anno 
 Dom. Millesimo Sexcent. Quad' primo e domo Convocationis, 
 in celebri Conventu Doctorum ac Magistrorum, omnibus et 
 singulis Assentientibus.^ Orders made in Star Chamber, 
 
 1 Tragedy is the imitation of serious action, through pity and fear 
 purifying such affections. Masson VI, 661. 
 
 2 The Latin for Paradise Lost. 
 
 3 Today the bill was read the third time. The following Lords were 
 present. Die Veneris— Friday, Die A/arfts— Tuesday. 
 
 •I Till tomorrow. For these items and others of like nature, see Mas- 
 son II, 349; IV, 4; Rushworth V, 564. 
 
 s Done in the year of our Lord 1641 in the House of Convocation, in 
 full session of Doctors and Masters, one and all agreeing. Rushworth, 
 IV, 270-1. 
 
 —145— 
 
though in E"nglfsh^ were headed fn Latfn phrases^, e. g'. r Fm. 
 Camera Stellata coram concUio ibidem vicesimo tertio Aiigusti 
 Anno Nono Car' Reg.^ 
 
 Entries in the parish registers of baptisms and deaths- 
 were sometimes in Latin, sometimes in the vernacular^ 
 according, it may be,, to the tastes or learning of the family 
 or the recorder. Of the eleven baptismal entries' of the 
 children of Richard Powell, Milton's father-in-law, only the 
 first two were in Latin. Of the thirty-one obituary entries 
 in the Horton parish register for 1636, three were entirely in 
 Latin, one partially, the rest in English. This year Milton's 
 mother was buried in the Horton church, and the record 
 
 was: Sara, texor Johni& Milton^ generrm, Aprilis 0^^^: obiit 
 3102 
 
 Latin was used for recording proceedings in courts of 
 law and for writing charters and bondsr^ by bishops for 
 granting letters of orders to approved candidates for the 
 ministry ;'^ for keeping the archiepisopal records at Canter- 
 bury f in granting a license for the publication of a book.*^ 
 The language had a traditional claim on the routine business 
 of church and state; the majesty of the law was very fittingly 
 represented by what Milton called "the venerable Latian 
 mother, hoary with years, and crowned with the respect of 
 ages."^ 
 
 Statues and portraits commonly bore the name of subject 
 and artist in Latin, often with the addition of a motto in the 
 same language. Greek was less frequently used for the 
 same purpose. The presentation of a book by one scholar to 
 
 1 In the Star Chamber, in the presence of the Council in the same 
 place, on the 23rd day of August in the 9th year of the reign of Charles- 
 Rushworth 1 1, 189. 
 
 2 Sara, wife of John Milton, gentleman; buried April 6th; died April 
 3rd. Masaon I, 603-4, 
 
 :< Emerson's English Language,? 83. 
 
 ■» Wood's Fasti, Part I, 380, foot-note. 
 
 » Fuller's Church History, VI, 57. Brewer's Rhtion. 
 
 6 iMasson I, 431-2. 
 
 5 Familiar Letter, VIIL 
 
 —146— 
 
another, or by an author to a library, properly recorded the 
 fact in a Latin phrase or sentence. In the Library of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, a small quarto volume of Milton's 
 pamphlets exhibits this inscription in his autograph: Ad doc- 
 tissimum virum, Patricium Junium, Joannes Miltonius haec 
 sua, unum in fasciculum conjecta, mittit, paucis hujusmodi 
 lecforibus coyitentus.^ Young, one of the most celebrated 
 scholars of his time, especially in Greek, was from 1605 to 
 1649 Keeper of the King's Library in St. James, London. 
 In presenting a volume of works, or any other gift, to such 
 a man, a man like Milton could not lightly have ignored the 
 ceremony of a Latin greeting. 
 
 III. Dedications. 
 
 Books written in Latin, if dedicated at all, naturally 
 employed the same language for that purpose. English 
 works, intended for scholarly readers, preferred to use the 
 learned tongue in dedication, since it was usually a learned 
 gentleman to whom the address was made. The custom of 
 inscribing books to King, Archbishop, nobleman, or other 
 high patron of literature, required that the address be made 
 as complimentary and dignified as possible. Readers of the 
 book, for their part, though they might find it more 
 convenient to go through the main body in English, would 
 nevertheless be pleased to try their Latin in a page or two 
 of dedication. 
 
 The dedication of the sixth edition of Robert Burton's 
 Anatomy of Melancholy was in the conventional style, with 
 a record of virtues and worldly honors set down in order, 
 and abundant decoration of superlatives. It is as follows: 
 Honoratissimo Domino, non mimes Virtute Sua, quam Ge- 
 neris Splendore, Illustrissimo, GEORGIO BERKLEIO, Milite 
 de Balneo, Baroni de Berkley, Moubrey, Segrave, D. dc Bruse, 
 Domino suo midtis nominihus Observando, Hanc Suam 
 MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN, Jam Sexto Revisam, D. 
 
 1 To the most learned man, Patrick Young, John Milton sends these 
 his works bound in a single volume, content with a few readers like him. 
 Masson III, 645-6. 
 
 -147- 
 
D. DemocrittLs Junior. ^ Kurton was not content with so brief 
 an offering to the learned. He put in his preface a Latin poem 
 of ninety elegiac lines, entitled Democritus Junior ad Librum 
 Sicum,and after one hundred and forty pages of English intro- 
 duction to the Reader, he added a half-page of special address; 
 to the Busy Reader— Lectort male Feriato. There next appear 
 ten Latin elegiacs to Heraclitus; after all which humorous- 
 ceremony the business of the book begins. 
 
 Fuller, like Burton, was full of conceits and humors, 
 which often found exercise in display of curious learning. 
 His History of Cambridge has nine Sections, and each Sec- 
 tion,, except the first, is prefaced by an address to some hon- 
 orable friend. All these addresses except the ninth are in 
 Latin. The first of these sectional dedications, occupying 
 nearly two pages, is directed to the "Most reverend prelate,, 
 James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, his most worshipfu! 
 Lord,'' — Reverendissimo Anstiti, Jacobo Usserio, Archiepi- 
 scopo Armachano, Domino suo Colendissimo.'^ The average 
 length of these dedications is about half a page. The last, 
 addressed to Thomas Player, exemplifies the genial humor of 
 Fuller. Tandem aliquando, he begins, Deo duce, post varios 
 a.nfructus, et vias invias, ad Historiae finem peruenticm est 
 , . . . . Opus mihi igitur jam concludenti, patrano, non 
 FORTI minus qui possit, quam miti qui velit, me nutantem 
 sustentare, vel forte labascentem erigere.^ It is curious 
 that a book so adorned throughout with Latin should 
 
 1 To the most honored Lord, most illustrious by reason of his own 
 merit no less than by the splendor of his birth, George Berkley, Knight of 
 the Bath, Baron Berkeley, Mowbray, Segrave, and Bruce, his Lord to 
 be greeted by nnany names, the Anatomy of Melancholy, in the sixth 
 revision, is dedicated by Democritus Junior. — Middleton's ed. Anatomy 
 of Melancholy. 
 
 2 For mention of Archbishop Usher's contributions to our Latin liter- 
 ature, see above. Chapter VI. 
 
 3 Now at last, by the guidance of God, after various windings and 
 pathless ways, I have come to the end of my History. On the point of 
 concluding my work, I have need of a patron, not only one who has the 
 courage and power, but also one who has the kindness, to uphold me 
 when 1 stagger or uplift me when I faint. 
 
 —148- 
 
liave had its Initial dedication, *'To t"he Honoura>)1e 
 Banister Maynard, Esquire," and its general preface, both in 
 English. The Church History, by the same author, has only 
 •one of its sections prefaced with a Latin address after the 
 manner of the History of Cambridge, that is. Section IX of 
 Volume VI. 
 
 IV. Epitaphs. 
 
 The esteem of Latin above English on occasions of dig- 
 nity and formality was nowhere more strikingly exhibited 
 than in epitaphs. The appropriateness of the older language 
 for this purpose was conservatively maintained for genera- 
 tions and has not yet altogether yielded to the language of 
 the people. If Dr. Johnson in 1776 wrote Goldsmith's epi- 
 taph in Latin, refusing, as he said, to disgrace the walls of 
 Westminster Abbey with an English epitaph, in Milton's day 
 there was less argument in favor of English for such obituary 
 dignity. The vernacular had indeed come into prominent 
 use in epitaph-writing, but the pomp anrd impressiveness of 
 the venerable ancient tongue were still commonly sought by 
 the conservative and the learned.^ 
 
 It was not uncommon for a scholar to bequeath his own 
 epitaph to his memory, and thus, if possible, insure himself 
 against a nameless tomb or a mere English inscription. Such 
 a careful testator was Sir Henry Wotton, who illustrated 
 nearly all the correct Latin tendencies of the time. After 
 giving directions in his will as to the disposal of his body, he 
 proceeded to command his executors to erect over his grave a 
 a marble stone, plain and not costly. "And considering," 
 says Walton, his biographer, "that time moulders even 
 marble to dust; for 
 
 Monuments themselves must die, 
 
 therefore did he (waving the common way) think fit rather 
 to preserve his name (to which the son of Sirach adviseth all 
 men) by a useful apophthegm than by a large enumeration 
 of his descent or merits, of both which he might justly have 
 boasted ; but he was content to forget them, and did choose 
 
 1 Chronicles of the Tombs. Pettigrew, pfx 37, 52~55. 
 
 —149— 
 
only this prudent, pious sentence, to discover his disposition 
 and preserve his memory. It was directed by him to be thus 
 inscribed: 
 
 Hie jacet hujus sententiae primus author, 
 
 Disputandi Pruritus Ecclesiarum Scabies. 
 
 Nomen alias quaere. 
 
 Which may be Englished thus: Here lies the first author of 
 this sentence: The itch of disputation will prove the scab of 
 the church. Inquire his name elsewhere."' 
 
 An epitaph prepared by the subject of it or by others 
 was not always piously inscribed. It may have been neg- 
 lected by friends, or omitted for lack of friends, or apparently 
 in some cases by reason of its very length. An instance is 
 recorded by Wood of Thomas Roe, scholar, gentleman, 
 courtier, who died in 1644 and was buried in the church of 
 Woodford near to Nausted in Essex. "I shall gratify the 
 reader," says Wood, ^ "with a most noble epitaph made for 
 him by Langbaine, but for what reason it was not put over 
 his grave I know not." The epitaph is given, — an elaborate 
 affair of over three hundred words in Latin prose and about 
 sixty in English. To look at it is to wonder how Wood could 
 have been in doubt as to why it was never inscribed. 
 
 The purpose of an epitaph to honor the dead is often 
 unfulfilled in the case of the long Latin ones, which turn 
 the mind of the reader from thought of the person praised to 
 admiration of the eloquent composer. Oftentimes the most 
 lavish and elaborate inscription is bestowed on a name other- 
 wise unremembered, while a distinguished scholar may 
 receive only the meager record of birth and death. This was 
 true of John Selden, one of the most learned men of his age. 
 Dying in 1654, he was buried in the Temple Church, and his 
 epitaph,^ though properly in Latin, had not a word concern- 
 ing his character and attainments. But in 1659 when his 
 library was acquired by the University of Oxford, a tablet 
 
 1 Walton's Lives, 168-9 ( Ed. 1852) ; Lyte's Eton, 236-6. 
 3 Wood's Athenae, 1 1 1, 114. 
 
 3 Fuller's Worthies, 1 1 1, 259; Wood's Athenae, I. XXXVII-VIII, 
 foot note. 
 
 -150- 
 
^appropriately inscribed was erected in a window of the rooTn 
 where the books were placed. In this tablet Selden was said 
 to be without a peer in the luster of genius, purity of charac- 
 ter, and excellence of teaching {nitore ingemi, caTidore 
 morum, praecellentia doctrinae imparilis viri), and his books 
 were dedicated to the great University for the enduring 
 memory of so great a man and for the encouragement of lit- 
 •erature {in duraturam tanti viri memoriam et rei literariae 
 bonitm). 
 
 The epitaph of Sir Francis Bacon was brief but of genu- 
 ine significance, composed as it was by "that accomplished 
 gentleman and rare wit, Sir Henry Wotten," The monu- 
 ment, erected in St. Michael's Church at St Alban's, was 
 of white marble and represented the full figure of the philos- 
 'opher in the posture of study. The inscription was as 
 follows:^ 
 
 Franciscus Bacon, Baro de Verulam, St Albani Yicmes, 
 
 Seu notioribus titulis 
 
 Scientiarum Lumen Facundiae Lex 
 
 Sic Sedebat 
 
 Qui postquam Omnia Naturalis Sapientiae 
 
 Et Civilis Arcana Evolvisset 
 
 Naturae Decretum Explevit 
 
 An. D«^" M. DC. XXVI 
 
 Aetat^s LXVL 
 
 Tanti Viri 
 
 mem. 
 
 Thomas Meantus * 
 
 Superstitis Cultor 
 
 Defuncti Admirator 
 
 H. P. 
 
 1 Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans, or of more 
 distinguished titles, — the Ligh%of Science and the Law of Eloquence, — 
 used to sit thus. Who after unfolding all the secrets of natural and civil 
 wisdom fulfilled the decree of nature that the organized should be dis- 
 solved, A. D. 1626, aet. 66. In memory of so great a man Thomas 
 Meantus, follower while he lived, admirer since he is dead, places this 
 monument — Spedding, I, 18. 
 
 —151— 
 
When the subject of an inscription is otherwise unknown, 
 the interest of the epitaph lies either in its curious sentiment 
 or peculiar style. For Dr. William Butler, M. A , the most 
 celebrated physician of his age, everything was done that 
 inscriptions could do, but the interest now is in the eloquent 
 effort rather than in the man honored thereby. He died at 
 Cambridge in 1618, eighty-three years old, and "was buried 
 in Great St. Mary's. On the South side of the chancel is a 
 mural monument, with his bust, in the costume of the period. 
 Around the bust is inscribed, 'Nunc PositisNovus Exuviis.' ' 
 On each side of the bust is a statue, one of labor, the other 
 of rest. There are also his arms (sable, a fess lozengy, 
 between three covered cups, or.) and these inscriptions:" 
 A piece of Latin prose, six Latin elegiacs, and three Latin 
 hexameters. They all praise his gifts and warn other men, 
 if he died, so they. For example, Abi viator, et ad tuos re- 
 versus narra, te vidisse locum in quo Salu^ jacet.^ Fuller so 
 admired the prose part of the inscription that he said it 
 "might have served for Joseph of Arimitheato have inscribed 
 on the tomb of our Saviour. ' '^ 
 
 Robert Burton, author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, 
 died January 1640, and was buried in the Cathedral of Christ 
 Church, Oxford. Over his grave was erected a comely mon- 
 ument, with his bust painted in life. On the right hand was 
 given the calculation of his nativity; under the bust this 
 inscription of his own composition: 
 
 Faucis notus, paucioribus ignotus, 
 Hie jacet Democritis Junior 
 Cui vitam dedit et mortem 
 Melancholia.^ 
 Thomas Fuller had a special relish for interesting epi- 
 taphs, and reproduced many a one in his book of English 
 
 1 He lives a new life, the old cast off. Cooper's Cambridge, III, 124. 
 
 2 Go, traveller, return to your people aiyi tell them, that you have 
 seen the spot v/here Health lies buried. 
 
 3 Fuller's Hist. Cambridge, quoted by Cooper, III, 124, foot-note. 
 
 4 Known to few, unknown to fewer, here lies Democritis junior, to 
 whom Melancholy gave both life and death. —Middleton's ed. Anatomy of 
 Melancholy, I, 10. 
 
 —152— 
 
Worthies. He told of John Gregory, born in 1607 and bred 
 at Oxford, that "he so appHed his book, that he studied six- 
 teen hours of the four and twenty for many years together. 
 He attained to be an exquisite linguist and general 
 
 scholar I find a smart epitaph, made by a friend, on 
 
 his memory; and it was, in my mind, as well valiantly (con- 
 sider the times) as truly indited: 
 
 Ne premas cineres hosce, viator, 
 Nescis quot sub hoc jacet lapillo; 
 Graeculus, Hebraeus, Syrus, 
 Et qui te quovis vincet idiomate. 
 
 At ne molestus sis 
 Ausculta, et causam auribus tuis imbibe: 
 Templo exclusus 
 Et avita Religione 
 Jam senescente (ne dicam sublata) 
 
 Mutavit Chorum, altiorem ut capesceret. 
 Vade nunc, si libet, et imitare."^ 
 Fuller, like his contemporaries generally, admired a fine 
 Latin phrase, or new conceit, cleverly turned. But he never 
 seemed happier than when he lighted on a 'smart epitaph, 
 valiantly and truly indited.' 
 V. Mottoes. 
 
 Mottoes were, like epitaphs and dedications, chips from 
 the Latin workshop. It was the custom to adorn the title- 
 page of a book or pamphlet with an appropriate text from a 
 classic author, which struck the key-note of the treatise. 
 Milton was devoted to this custom. His Comus when first 
 published bore between the title and the publisher's name a 
 line from Virgil's second Eclogue: Eheu! quid volui misero 
 mihi? Floribiis austrum perditus.' He chose a motto from 
 the Hicetides of Euripides for Areopagitica, in 1644; and one 
 
 1 Stranger, refrain from pressing these ashes; you know not how 
 many he is that lies under this stone: Greek, Hebrew, Syrian, and one 
 who will surpass you in any tongue you please. But lest you be offended, 
 listen, and drink in with your ears the reason: Shut out from the temple 
 and his ancestral religion, which was yielding to age (not to mention 
 attack), he gave up one chorus to enter a higher. Go now, if you like, 
 and imitate him. — Fuller's Worthies, I, p. 208. 
 
 2 Alas, what have I done? Ruined my flowers with the south wind. 
 
 -153— 
 
from the Medea for His Tetrachordon, in 1645^. For his Fast 
 political pamphlet, the Ready and Easy Way to Establish a 
 Free Commonwealth, 1660, he took a passage from the bit- 
 terest of Roman satirists, Juvenal, I, 15, 16:. 
 
 Et nos 
 CoTisilvwm dedimius Sullae; demits Pbpnlomtnc.^ 
 The reference was probably Milton's recent letter of advice- 
 to General Monk, who had a way af following- his own coun- 
 sel. The quotation suggests the ironical and satirical mood, 
 of the old pamphleteer, who felt the foundations of liberty as 
 sand under his feet. 
 
 Personal mottoes, used over and over again in speech, or 
 writing, or ftxed in badges, were most frequently in the 
 serious moral language of the Romans. Wentworth-'s cele- 
 brated motto of Proemium and Poenar furnished the key for 
 his policy of Thorough. George Wither, the darling poet of 
 the people, enjoyed independence in the mood of Nee habeo, 
 nee careo, nee curo.'^ The gallant and romantic Marquis of 
 Montrose had a, standard of white damask, blazoned with. 
 his famous device of the lion rampant to spring the chasm 
 between the rocks, and motto Nil Medium, Charles I cheered 
 his desperate furtunes with Dum spiro^ spero, which was his 
 favorite sentence, and which he wrote in the Second Folio 
 edition of Shakspeare^ and many other of his books. ^ 
 
 VI. Quotations. 
 
 Not all men wrote books or made s{>eeches in Latin, but 
 few who wrote at all neglected to flavor their discourse with 
 classical quotations. The sentences of the Roman moral phil- 
 osophers and poets, learned in school and impressed on the 
 young mind by exacting tutors, became a substantial part of 
 a man's mental equipment, a concrete, measurable fund of 
 knowledge and culture, always ready for use. Men have at 
 all times treasured proverbs and words fitly spoken. But 
 
 1 We have given advice to Sulla, now let ua try the people. Masson 
 
 V, 678. 
 
 3 Punishment and Reward. Masson I, 548. 
 
 •T Do., .364. I have nothing, want nothing, and I don't care. 
 
 « While I have breath I have hope. Masson 1 I I, 515, foot note. 
 
 -154— 
 
during this age of intense study in the classics, the whole 
 nation seems to have gone hunting for the aptest sentences 
 in Latin books and to have esteemed discourse according to 
 its wealth of jewels gathered out of classics minds. 
 
 This age produced the Anatomy of Melancholy, the ne 
 plus ultra of quotation gathering. The author, Robert Bur- 
 ton, early manifested his genius, or mania, for remembering 
 and applying sentences out of books, and became famous at 
 the University of Oxford for excelling in the art that every- 
 body ambitiously cultivated. He was, according to Wood, a 
 general reader, a thorough-paced philologist, a devourer of 
 authors. "I have heard," he writes, "some of the ancients 
 of Christ Church often say, that his company was very 
 merry, facete and juvenile; and no man in his time did sur- 
 pass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding his common 
 discourses among them with verses from the poets, or sen- 
 tences from the classical authors; which being then all the 
 fashion in the University, made his company the more 
 acceptable.'"' 
 
 Burton gave his genius free rein in making up his 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, which was first published in 1621 
 and attained its seventh edition in 1660. For this book the 
 author sifted the literatures of Greece, Rome, the Bible, and 
 the Mediaeval Latinists; he "ransacked the ages, spoiled the 
 climes." The Latin classics delivered him the richest 
 tribute. Every page displays quotations, long or short, 
 from the single word or phrase to half a page in length. 
 These quotations are either separate sentences, or integral 
 parts of English sentences; and they serve as texts for 
 further comment, or act themselves as comments on pre- 
 ceding texts. 
 
 This remarkable book became an inexhaustible storehouse 
 of supply for all who sought to live up to the fashion of the 
 age without themselves being able to display first-hand 
 learning. Men of scanty education found in Burton's 
 Anatomy "Latin quotations to last them all their lives. "'^ 
 
 1 Quoted by Middleton, ed. Anatomy of Melancholy, I, 8. 
 
 2 Wood, paraphrased by Masson, I, 414. 
 
 —155- 
 
''During- a pedantic age, like that in which Burton's pro 
 duction appeared, it must have been eminently serviceable to 
 writers of many descriptions. Hence the unlearned might 
 furnish themselves with appropriate scraps of Greek and 
 Latin, while men of learning would find their inquiries short- 
 ened, by knowing where they might look for what both 
 ancients and moderns have advanced on the subject of human 
 passions. I confess my inability to point out any other Eng- 
 lish author who has so largely dealt in apt an original quota- 
 tion.'" 
 
 King James I was not one of those who had to depend on 
 the Anatomy of Melancholy to retail him Latin sentences for 
 all occasions. From his own royal cultivation of the classics 
 he gathered golden fruit at will. His speech before Parlia- 
 ment in January, 1621, epitomized in the first two sentences 
 the two prevaihng fashions of the age: learning and religion, 
 or rather, devotion to the letter of the Classics and devotion 
 to the letter of the Bible. The first sentence is nothing but 
 a Latin proverb; the second concludes with a verse from 
 Scripture: "My Lords Spiritual and Temporal," spoke his 
 Majesty, "and you the Commons: — Cut Multiloquio non deest 
 peccatum.- In the last Parliament I made a long discourse, 
 especially to them of the lower house: I did open the true 
 thoughts of my heart; but I may say with my Saviour, / have 
 piped to you and you have not danced; I have mourned and 
 ye have not lamented.'' Without reading further it is not 
 hard to see that the question of supplies is the message about 
 to be tactfully delivered. Pretty soon the speaker comes 
 squarely upon his desire with the words of his beloved lan- 
 guage: Bis dat, qui cito dat.^ 
 
 The King regarded Latin-quoting so essential a part of 
 royal statecraft, that he sometimes went manifestly out of 
 his way to get the needful sentiment. In December, 1621, 
 in answer to a second petition sent him by parliament, he 
 
 1 Quoted by Middleton, ed. Anatomy of Melancholy, I, 14-15. 
 
 - A man of many words is not without sin. 
 
 3 He gives twice who gives quickly. Rushworth I, 21 ff. 
 
 —156— 
 
replied: "We must begin here in the same fashion that we 
 would have done, if the first petition had come to our hands 
 before we made a stay thereof, which is to repeat the first 
 words of the late Queen of famous memory, used by her, in an 
 Answer to an insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Ambas- 
 sador unto her; that is, Legatum expectabamus, Heraldum 
 accipitniis.'^^ If we cannot honor the king for political wis- 
 dom, we must admire the ingenuity with which he sought and 
 found a solid Latin basis for his sentence period. 
 
 The son and heir of James I inherited none of his pride 
 of learning if one may judge from the use of Latin in the dis- 
 courses of Charles L "When blessed King James," it was 
 said in 1644, "was taken from us to Heaven, Sol occiibuit et 
 nox nulla secutaestr Latin-quoting may have been the light 
 referred to. Even the English letters, speeches, and procla- 
 mations of Charles I were short, and the use of classical sen- 
 tences and phrases is very scanty. But he would have been 
 a strange Englishman of that day had he been absolutely 
 innocent of classical quotation. In 1616, as Prince of Wales, 
 he went honorably attended to Oxford, and while there "was 
 pleased with his own handwriting, to matriculate himself of 
 that University, Aug. 28, with this symbol or sentence: Si 
 vis omnia siibjicere, siihjice te ratione".^ In addressing Par- 
 liament in 1628, he used one Latin phrase and the following 
 sentence to emphasize his demand for supplies: Verbum 
 sapienti satis esU During his captivity in the hands of the 
 Parliamentary army he used to copy consolatory sentences in 
 his book, his favorite motto being, as was mentioned above, 
 Dum spiro, spero. His record, however, for Latin quotation 
 and learned habits in general is not worthy of comparison 
 with that of most of his great contemporaries. 
 
 1 We were expecting a messenger, here is a herald. Rushworth, 
 r, 46-7. 
 
 2 The sun sank and night came on. Rushworth, VI 1 1, 129. 
 
 * If you wish to subdue all things, subdue yourself with reason. Wal- 
 ton's Lives, 1 1, 172-3, and footnote. (Ed. 1817). 
 
 4 A word to the wise is sufficient 
 
 —157— 
 
Archbishop Laud was much addicted to the habit of 
 Latin quoting, and was fond of supplying his own immediate 
 translation. In a speech in Star Chamber. June 16, 1637, at 
 censure of the stubborn Puritans, John Bastwick, Henry Bur- 
 ton, and William Prinn, he began by speaking of alleged inno- 
 vations in the Church, and said: "I shall not need to speak 
 of the infamous course of libelling in any kind, . . . nor 
 how patiently some great men, very great men indeed, have 
 borne animo civili (that's Suetonius's word) laceratam 
 existimationem, the tearing and rending of their Credit and 
 Reputation, with a gentle, nay, a generous mind." Seven 
 years later he began, at his own trial, a speech of defence 
 with a sentence from Seneca, and a copious translation 
 attached: "My Lords, my being in this place in this condi- 
 tion, recalls to my memory that which I have long since 
 read in Seneca: Tormentum est etiamsi absolutiis quis fuerit, 
 causam dixisse. 'Tis not a grief only, no; 'Tis no less 
 than a torment for an ingenuous man to plead capitally, 
 or criminally, though it should so fall out that he be 
 absolved."^ Livy had been the Roman author to supply a 
 passage for another noble Englishman on trial for malfeas- 
 ance in high office. Lord Bacon in his confession before the 
 House of Lords, implored their leniency, and gave as an 
 appeal the following sentiment: Neque minus firmata est 
 Disciplina militaris periculo Quinti Maximi, quam miserahili 
 supplicio Titi Manlii.^ 
 
 Quotations sometimes fell so thick that the speaker had 
 difficulty in making his way along, but the very sound of 
 Latin carried a certain argumentative force which seemed to 
 outweigh the confusion and discontinuity of reasoning. Sir 
 Thomas Sackville, speaking in Commons in 1623 on the ques- 
 tion of supplies, said: "Sure such a dullness must needs 
 accuse us of much weakness, if it admit of no worse con- 
 struction {bis dat, qui cito dat) freeness in giving graceth the 
 
 1 Rushworth V, 776. 
 
 2 Military discipline was as much established by the trial of Quintus 
 Maximus, as by the severe punishment of Titus Manlius. — Rushworth, 1,30. 
 
 —158- 
 
gift: Dimidiiim facli qui bene coepit hahet.^ We have along 
 journey to go, and to set forward is half the way. How press- 
 ing the occasion is, my tongue faints to tell (vox faucibus 
 haeret):- The Foxes have holes, the Birds of the air have 
 nests, but the daughter of our king and kingdom scarce 
 Icnows where to lay her head, or if she do, not where in 
 safety." Sackville was arguing immediate supplies for the 
 proposed war with Spain, but, if his speech is correctly 
 reported, he was using the best possible means to retard 
 legislation. 
 
 The trained talent for happy rendering of Latin into 
 English could easily be employed for witty mistranslation, as 
 the following story will show. "On the 9th of December 
 [1651] the Parliament ordered a bill to be brought in for the 
 settling 20001. on the wife^ and children of Ireton, out of the 
 lands belonging to George duke of Bucks, and on the 17th of 
 the said month, his carcass being landed at Bristol, was pom- 
 pously conveyed toward London, and lying in state for a time 
 in Somerset-house, all hung with black, there was hung over 
 the common gate an atchievement commonly called a hatch- 
 ment, with this motto under his arms depicted thereon Dulce et 
 decorum pro patria mori,^ which was Englished by an honest 
 cavalier thus, It is good for his country that he is dead."^ 
 
 Latin was quoted most copiously in legal and political 
 writings and speeches. The old laws of England being in 
 Latin, and the works of Cicero and his countrymen containing 
 the highest known political wisdom, the lawyer and states- 
 man had to have their quivers full of sharp arrows of quota- 
 tion. Interesting examples of legal Latin are found in the 
 great trials held during the reign of Charles I: the trials of 
 Hampden, Strafford, Laud, and Charles himself. For 
 instance, in January, 1649, when the King's trial was nearly 
 over, he desired of the court that before sentence be pro- 
 
 1 He has half done who has made a good beginning. 
 
 2 My voice sticks in my throat. 
 
 3 The daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Ireton died in Ireland. 
 
 4 It is sweet and comely to die for one's fatherland. 
 
 5 Wood, 1 1 1, 300. 
 
 —159— 
 
nounced he might be heard in the Painted Chamber, before 
 the Lords and Commons. His motion was considered and an 
 answer made that the present court acted by the highest 
 authority of the land, and that they are good words in the 
 Great Old Charter of England: Nulli negabimus, nulli ven- 
 demus, nulli defer emus, Justitiam vel Rectum.' ^^ 
 
 The English love of law was manifested by ability not 
 only to quote it, but also to find quotations in its praise. Sir 
 Dudley Diggs in a speech at a conference of Commons and 
 Lords, in 1628, made a eulogy on England's ancient laws, 
 and exclaimed: "My good Lords, as the Poet said of Fame, 
 I may say of our Common Law, 
 
 Ingrediturque solo, caput inter nubila condit. "2 
 
 The commissioners sent from the Scotch Parliament to 
 Charles I at Whitehall, March, 1640, had as spokesman Lord 
 Loudon, who, in his defense and petition for Scotland, gave 
 the king a number of sharp legal reminders, e. g: De min- 
 imis non curat Lex, Salus populi est suprema lex, Unusquis- 
 que est optimum interpres sui, Sublata causa tollitur effectus, 
 Accessorium sequitur suum principale.^ Charles's declara- 
 tion in reply contained no Latin; if the king's will was law, 
 what need had he to rest on any other foundation? 
 
 That Latin-quoting was sometimes more than mere show, 
 and had vital meaning for speaker and hearer, appears from 
 the case of Sir John EUiot. In his speech in the impeach- 
 ment of the Duke of Buckingham, he handled Latin freely, 
 and in one place said: "I end this passage,^ as Cicero did in 
 like case, Ne gravioribus utar verbis quam, rei natura fert, 
 aut levioribus quam causae necessitas postulabat.**^ Further 
 
 1 We will deny to no man, we will sell to no man, we will surrender 
 to no man, Justice, or Right. Rushworth VII, 1423. 
 
 2 It walks on earth but hides its head in the clouds. Rushworth I, 528- 
 
 3 Law takes no note of particulars. The safety of the people is the 
 supreme law. Everyone is the best interpreter of his own words. 
 Removal of the cause removes the effect An accessory follows its princi- 
 pal. 
 
 4 A severe one. 
 
 5 I may not use harsher words than the nature of the case permits, 
 nor milder words than the necessity of the case requires. 
 
 -160— 
 
on he declared of the Duke: "I can hardly find him a match in 
 all Presidents; none so like him as Sejanus, who is thus 
 described by Tacitus, Audax, mii obtegens, in alios crimi- 
 nator, juxta adulator et .'iuperbu.'i/'^ Elliot's speech was the 
 epilogue in the impeachment, and both he and Sir Dudley 
 Diggs, who uttered the prologue, were committed to the 
 Tower. Their Latin had had effect. For, not long after, 
 Sir John was taken from the Tower, and summoned to the 
 House, "where the Vice-Chamberlain, Sir Dudley Charlton, 
 charged him for saying in his speech that man, in speaking 
 of the Duke; which phrase in all languages is accounted a 
 great indignity to persons of honour; that he made scandalous 
 comparisons between the Duke and Sejanus; .... that he 
 brake off ambiguously and abruptly with a sentence of Cicero, 
 as if something else might be which was not discovered." 
 Latin was not always mere cant and display, but might, as 
 in this case, be the most telling and dangerous part of an 
 argument or invective. - 
 
 1 Daring, exonerating himself, assailing another, equally flattering 
 and haughty. 
 
 2 Rushworth I. 355-62. 
 
coNCLusro^r, 
 
 The main conclusions to which the preceding chapters 
 point may well be summed up and emphasized in this final 
 chapter. 
 
 England of the seventeenth century was overgrown and 
 overshadowed with the language and ideas of ancient Rome, 
 The ambitious young Englishmen who every year entered 
 the universities- to rival one another in intellectual exercises 
 and honorable pursuits found classical learning the one field 
 for their eager encounter. The high places in church and. 
 state, the positions at the right hand of the king,, were to be 
 won by learning^ the learning which had a more specific 
 meaning than it has now. To read and quote Latin aptly 
 and copiously, as did the facetious Robert Burton and the 
 sober Archbishop Laud, was a necessary and splendid accom- 
 plishment, but the greatest thing of all was to have original, 
 first-hand power over the imperial language of Cicero. Out 
 of the honor and dignity which attached to it, the ancient 
 tongue gave rise to a vast production of Latin literature in 
 the land of Englishmen. 
 
 Latin, in a literal sense, was a living and potent lan- 
 guage. In the amount of attention and training directly 
 received, it enjoyed advantages infinitely superior to those 
 of the humble vernacular. In almost every department of 
 human activity, it shared with English the burden of com- 
 munication, and in a few special services it alone was 
 acknowledged to be worthy of employment. Its superior 
 virtue as an instrument of expression attracted the genius 
 of the greatest thinkers and philosophers: and even those 
 who stuck to their native English adopted portions of the 
 Latin idiom and vocabulary to reinforce and dignify a weak, 
 unhonored tongue. Apart from inherent worth, the ancient 
 
 -162- 
 
language held the exceeding great advantage of a wider, 
 more intellectual, and more honorable audience. Its eternal 
 vitality was supposed to impart life and power to every 
 thing it touched. 
 
 English prose suffered in its development, both from 
 close rivalry with Latin and from the false belief that its 
 constitution and character, naturally defective, needed sup- 
 port from the great and time-honored foreign idiom. Instead 
 of cultivating the native genius of English prose as English 
 poetry had been cultivated, the best writers of the time, 
 under the influence of the schools, under the pressure of 
 national custom and tradition, wrote strange and monstrous 
 English sentences, being as proud to transplant the Latin 
 period in England as Horace was to bring the Greek metres 
 into Rome. All the efforts of Milton's admirers have failed 
 and will forever fail to make his prose permanently attractive 
 to readers who love the simplicity and straightforwardness 
 of genuine, idiomatic English, If he had fostered the native 
 qualities of prose as he did of poetry, his controversial 
 tracts, with all their high-minded wisdom and passionate 
 logic, would excel Paradise Lost in appeal to modern readers. 
 
 Latin, by its engrossing claims, must bear also the accu- 
 sation of having debarred the minds of Englishmen from 
 many other worthy pursuits. Investigation in scientific 
 fields was shorn of its best energy by the exactions of a 
 language which boasted to be itself the most deserving 
 object of attention, and which at the very least demanded to 
 be the voice of all science and philosophy. Inquiry into mat- 
 ters of religion, or politics, or mathematics, or natural phil- 
 osophy always ran the risk of being checked or utterly defeated 
 by the interposition of linguistic controversy. Two notable 
 instances of this circumstance we found in the disputes 
 between Milton and Salmasius on questions of state, between 
 Hobbes and Wallis on questions of mathematics. Even quiet, 
 philosophical minds like these, subject as they were to formal 
 customs and traditions, sometimes turned from the pursuit 
 of truth, which makes free, to quarrels about the letter, 
 which kills. 
 
 —163— 
 
Intercourse of man with man, which should on familiar 
 occasions be easy and cordial, was often clothed in the unnat- 
 ural dignity of a stately foreign language. The oppressive 
 reign of Latin over the minds of young men in the univer- 
 sities, together with the prevailing severity of religious doc- 
 trine, imparted a manner of thought and expression the very 
 opposite of simple and charming. The correspondence of 
 the period furnishes a marked example of such monotonous 
 formality. The Familiar Letters of Milton, like assigned 
 exercises in the schools, unfold little or nothing of his pri- 
 vate and domestic views; with all their rhetorical eloquence 
 they are, as private letters of a great man whose life we 
 would know, more barren than his public tracts and contro- 
 versies, more disappointing than any other collection of let- 
 ters called familiar. Among seventeenth century English- 
 men, of Milton's day, even when Latin was not the language 
 of correspondence it was required to furnish quotations and 
 allusions, and to lend idiom and style to grammar and sen- 
 tence. Almost the only notable productions of the period 
 possessing literary ease and simplicity were the songs of the 
 cavalier poets and parts of Walton's Complete Angler. 
 
 The door to English literature and history of the seven- 
 teenth century is open wide only to those who are at ease in 
 the presence of Latin. Many writings and events of the 
 time may doubtless be understood and enjoyed by readers 
 ignorant of the classics, but to them the heart and spirit of 
 the period as a whole will hardly be revealed. Poetry, phil- 
 osophy, history, biography, controversy, sermons, corre- 
 spondence, even conversation, — all have come down to us 
 from the age of Milton either written in or so touched with 
 Latin that one is compelled to enter seventeenth century 
 England by way of Rome as Rome must be entered by way 
 of Athens. 
 
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