Part 25

Whatever may be proved of foundations, I have always been convinced of the existence of voluntary secondary schools (_see_ “L.L.L.,” iv, 2), and here again Richard Mulcaster supports my opinion. As master of a boys’ school, and professing only to write for them, he might well have passed over girls, but he did not. He devotes a whole chapter to the subject of their education. Seeing that some still doubted the wisdom of teaching them _further than the elementary_, he gives, as four good reasons for doing so:

First. Because it is the _custom of my country_.

Second. Because it is a duty which we owe to them, wherein we are charged in conscience not to leave them lame in that which is for them.

Third. Because of their own towardness, which God would never have given them had He meant them to remain idle.

Fourth. Because of the excellent effects in that sex when they have had the help of good bringing up.

Their natural towardness ought to be cultivated because we have it by commandment of the Lord, to train up, not only our own sex, but our females, and He makes an account of natural talents.

In expanding these heads, he adds suggestions that in modern terminology at least would imply that there were special opportunities for girls; for he says: “The custom of my countrie hath made the maiden’s training her approved travail,” though elsewhere he states that “there is no _public_ provision, but such as the professors of their training do make of themselves.” He would not have them go to the public grammar schools or the universities, but advises all parents to educate them according to their powers. He regrets that girls _in general_ only study until about the age of thirteen or fourteen, “wherein the matter which they must deal withal, cannot be very much in so little time, for the perfitting thereof requireth much travail!” “Some _Timon_ will say, What should women do with learning? Such a churlish carper will never pick out the best!” “Is it nothing to us to have our children’s mothers well furnished in mind, and well strengthened in body?” Mulcaster would give them the pencil to draw, the pen to write; teach them some logic, rhetoric, philosophy to furnish their general discourses, and the knowledge of some tongues, as well as housewifery. He says that the selection of studies depended upon whether a girl was intended to marry or to earn her bread. As the trades-guilds were then open to them, education would be of value to those prepared to enter any of these, or to become teachers, or practitioners in some branches of medicine, such as barber-surgeons, midwives, etc. Mulcaster, besides giving theories, states facts:

We see young maidens taught to read and write, and can do both with praise. We heare them sing and playe, and both passing well; we knowe that they learne the best and finest of our learned languages to the admiration of all men.... Whoso shall denie that they may not compare even with our kind in the best degree.... Do we not see some of that sex in our countrie so excellently well trained as to be compared to the best Romaines or Greekish paragonnes--

to the German, the French, or the Italians?

If no storie did tell it, if no state did allow it, if no example did confirme it, that young maidens deserve trayning, this our own myrrour, the majestie of her sex, doth prove it in her own person, and commendes it to our reason. We have besides her Highness as undershining starres, many singuler ladies and gentlewymen so skilful in all cunning of the most laudable and loveworthy qualities of learning, as they may well be alledged as presidents to prayse.

As they are “educated according to the wealth of their parents, the greater born have better means of prosecuting it best.”

I quote so much, as this is the sole special authority I have for their _secondary education_. We know of their higher culture from Spenser, Harrison, and others. It is evident that private tutors were the teachers of at least the higher education to women, and after the suppression of the monasteries the number of these “poor scholars” would be greatly increased for a time. But the profession of governess had already been established.

In Dr. Dee’s Diary he notes, 1st September 1587:

I covenanted with John Basset to teach the children the Latin tongue, and I to give him seven duckats by the quarter.

September 1st, 1596, Mary Goodwyn cam to my service to governe and teach Madinia and Margaret my young daughters.

I have not been able to learn anything of voluntary schools in general, but there is reference to one in the description of the education of one girl of the wealthy upper middle classes of London, daughter of one great merchant, and wife of another. Though her fame shows that her successes were not quite commonplace, it also suggests that she had numerous competitors and rivals. Elizabeth Withypoll[107] is included by Ballard among his “learned ladies”; and Stow notes her distinction, as may be seen on her tombstone in the south aisle of the parish church of St. Michael in Crooked Lane. Many such may have passed into oblivion; this has been handed on to us.

Every Christian heart seeketh to extoll The glory of the Lord, our only Redeemer; Wherefore Dame Fame must needs inroll Paul Withypoll his childe, by Love and nature Elizabeth, the wife of Emanuel Lucar In whom was declared the goodness of the Lord, With many high vertues which truely I will record.

She wrought all needleworks that women exercise, With Pen, Frame, or Stoole, all pictures artificial, Curious Knots, or Trailes which Fancy could devise, Beasts, birds or Flowers, even as things natural. Three maner handes could she write them faire all. To speake of Algorism, or accounts in every fashion, Of women, few like (I think) in all this nation.

Dame Cunning her gave a gift right excellent, In goodly practice of her science musical, In divers tongues to sing and play with Instrument Both Vial and Lute and also Virginall; Not only upon one, but excellent in all. For all other vertues belonging to Nature God her appointed a very perfect creature.

Latine and Spanish, and also Italian She spake, writ and read, with perfect utterance And for the English, she the _garland_ won In Dame Prudence Schoole, by graces purveyance Which cloathed her with vertues, from naked Ignorance Reading the Scriptures, to judge light from darke Directing her faith to Christ, the only marke.

The said Elizabeth deceased the 29th day of October, An. Dom. 1537, of yeeres not fully 27. This stone and all hereon contained made at the cost of the said Emanuel, Merchant Taylor.

It is interesting to know that there _was_ at least _one_ school for upper class girls in England, where English was taught, and where Elizabeth won the prize, interesting also that she used her English to read the Scriptures at that date. There is almost a hint that her husband taught her accounts, and it is possible she helped him with his business affairs. Doubtless Elizabeth, however, learned her accomplishments from tutors and masters, and there she becomes a link with the upper ten thousand, educated in the same way to a high standard in learning and accomplishments, such as we see suggested in “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Petrucio Ubaldini, a Florentine who came to England in 1551, says:

The rich cause their sons and daughters to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, for since this storm of heresy has invaded the land they hold it useful to read the Scriptures in the original tongue.

Erasmus, in his Epistles, says:

31. The scene of human things is changed: the monks, famed in past times for learning, are become ignorant, and women love books. It is beautiful that this sex should now betake itself to ancient examples.

Udall, the Master of Eton, speaks with admiration of their advance in learning:

The great number of noble women not only given to the study of human sciences and strange tongues, but also so thoroughly expert in Holy Scriptures that they were able to compare with the best writers, as well in enditing and penning of godly and fruitful treatises to the instruction and edifying of readers in the knowledge of God, as also in translating good books out of Latin or Greek into English, for the use and commodity of such as are rude and ignorant of the said tongues. It is now no news in England to see young damsels in noble houses, and in the Courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies, or other devout meditations, or else Paul’s Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italian, as in English.

Dr. Wotton, in his “Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning,” says that “learning was so very modish then, that the fair sex seemed to believe that Greek and Latin added to their charms. Plato and Aristotle untranslated were the frequent ornaments of their closets. One would think by its effects that it was a proper way of educating them, since there are no accounts in history of so many great women in any one age as are to be found between the years fifteen and sixteen hundred.”

Amid all the discussions over the causes of the great outburst of literature in the sixteenth century I have never noted any one allude to the fact that the cultivation of the _mothers_ paved the way for the higher development of the sons. Sir Thomas Elyot, who wrote “The Defence of Good Women” (1545), also advised his sister, Margery Puttenham, on the bringing up of her children, Margery, Richard, and George who wrote “The Art of English Poesie.”

Lyly dedicated his “Euphues” to the ladies and gentlewomen of England, a work which more than any other one volume refined the old and moulded the later English speech; Shakespeare wrote of, and to, cultivated women; numerous ladies were patronesses of struggling authors, and nearly every poet of the time has his dedication to, if not his adoration of, some peerless woman. The very delicacy and power of the poems on the passion of love bear witness to the culture of the women as well as that of the men: for example, the “Amoretti” of Spenser.

Two causes, besides the inspiration of the reforming spirit of the age, may be considered in regard to the advance of Englishwomen. The first was the association of the sexes in so many spheres. Foreign ambassadors note of the women that they go everywhere with their husbands, even to outdoor sports, such as hunting and hawking. In the semi-religious guilds established for good fellowship and a community of good works through life, and common prayers for each other at death, the initial and nobler forerunner of the modern _Club_, women joined freely in equal numbers and with privileges equal to men, the same standard of morality being demanded from each.

Most of the trade guilds were open to women by inheritance or by apprenticeship, and all were open to the widows of freemen. Women went to all the guild dinners with their male relatives; they went to the secret Bible readings, to the public sermons, and when the time came, to the theatres.

The other cause lay in the fact that the higher education of women was distinctly _fashionable_. I do not think that the reason it became so has ever been sufficiently realized.

Our natural detestation of Spanish religious intolerance and our political rivalry with Spain have blinded our eyes to much that we owed to that country. The widening of our geographical horizon seemed to stimulate and suggest new poetic ideas. There is no doubt that the English Sebastian Cabot did much for his country, but a greater halo of romance and wonder floated over the sails of Columbus that bore him to the golden islands of the Spanish Main. But women, as a sex, owed something more to Spain than the dreams of El Dorado, for thence came, early in the century, the noble but unfortunate Queen Katharine of Aragon. It was her intelligent culture that first made the higher education of women _fashionable_ in the best sense of the word. She was the youngest of the four distinguished daughters of the “Ferdinand and Isabella to whom Columbus gave a new world.” Isabella was the most learned woman of her time, and she had taken special care of the education of her daughters.

When Katharine came to England as the affianced bride of Prince Arthur, the greatest lady in the land was the King’s mother, Margaret, the Countess of Richmond and Derby. She was a woman of wonderful abilities, with a tenacious memory and a piercing wit. She spoke French fluently, and had some acquaintance with Latin, but she always regretted that in her youth she had not made herself mistress of that language. She was very pious. About the beginning of the sixteenth century she translated out of French a Latin book called “The Mirroure of Gold for the Sinful Soul,” and “The Fourth Book of Dr. John Gerson’s Treatise of the Imitation and Following the Life of Christ.” She also commanded other translations, was a patroness of learned men, founded lectureships, schools, colleges, almshouses, and decided and wrote down the orders for state etiquette and the management of the Royal household.

But the culture of Katharine was more varied and liberal, and during the period of her supremacy she did much to mould the tastes of the Court. Everything that was best in Henry responded to her influence; it was only when he turned from her that his character began to change for the worse. Learned men sought her Court and her favour. Erasmus dedicated to her his book on “Christian Matrimony,” Ludovico Vives his work on “Education.”

The first sixteenth-century woman student of whose training we have any clear information was her sole surviving daughter, Mary Tudor, born 18 February 1515-16. The third day after, she was christened, confirmed, and proclaimed Princess. Not only had she a nurse selected in Catharine, wife of Leonard Pole, Esq., but a “Lady Maistress,” or governess, in Lady Margaret Bryan, a lady of great good sense and ability. The Countess of Salisbury was made State governess and head of her household.

Dr. Linacre, the learned physician, who had formerly been one of Prince Arthur’s tutors, was appointed her physician and her instructor in Latin. He wrote a Latin grammar for the child’s use, which seems crabbed enough to modern minds of riper years, and dedicated it to her with a complimentary preface, in which he speaks with praise of her docility and love of learning. This is all the more remarkable when we remember that Linacre died when she was eight years old. Lilly, who brought out later editions of this grammar, added his praises to those of Linacre. To Queen Katharine we may be said to owe the first treatise on the “Theory of Education for Women.”

Ludovico Vives, born 1492 in Valentia, who was accounted one of the three most learned men in Europe, was one of her correspondents. Knowing her desire to educate her daughter wisely, he published a treatise on the “Education of a Christian Woman” (1523), and dedicated it to her as the most learned woman of her age. (This was translated into English, and published in 1541, thus becoming the guide to many sixteenth-century mothers.) Queen Katharine asked him to draw up a special further course of study for her daughter, which he did. His works are even yet well worthy of study.

He considers the intellects of women inferior to those of men, but he would not on that account refuse them instruction, which they needed the more to develop their character. He said that a learned woman rarely or never failed in virtue. He did not fix the age at which they should commence to learn, but remarked that they should learn sewing and knitting at the same time as reading. He is not particular whether they begin their serious study in their sixth or seventh year, but of the seriousness of the study there is no doubt--in science, philosophy, and languages. He knows hard work is not agreeable to all women, any more than it is to all men. He does not speak of Art: there was no Art-culture in his day beyond illuminations and embroidery; but, strange to say, he does consider _hygiene_, air, exercise, the amount of sleep necessary, the due _hardness_ of the bed. He has a chapter on decoration, and says hard things of the face-painting of the period. “How can a woman weep for her sins, when her tears would stain her face?” She should not over-dress. (He blamed the painters who represented the Virgin Mary with robes of silk and ornaments.) She should have no affectation, she should be modest in society, but when she does talk she should be able to talk well. Her parents should choose her husband; affection will come after marriage. But he disapproved of precocious marriages, and thought seventeen or eighteen years the lowest age possible. There ought to be no rejoicings at a marriage, because the results are very uncertain. He gives advice regarding servants, showing that the domestic troubles of to-day existed even then. A woman should know a little medicine, so as not to call in the doctor and apothecary continually. Even a girl should set aside an hour daily for meditation and prayer. She should read the Gospels and the Fathers; for recreation, moral stories, such as stories from the Bible, from Papyrius in Aulus Gellius, of Lucretia in Livy, and of the patient Griselda, but _no romances_.

The “Index Expurgatorius” that he gives is interesting to the bibliographer:

The laws ought to take heed of such ungratious books, such as be in my countrey of Spain, “Amadis,” “Florisande,” “Tirante,” “Tristram and Celestina,” “Le Prison d’Amour.” In France “Lancelot du Lac,” “Paris and Vienna,” “Pontus and Sidonia,” “Pierre de Provence,” and “Melusyne.” In Flanders “Flory and White Flower,” “Leonella and Canamour,” “Curias and Floreta,” “Pyramus and Thisbe.” In England “Parthenope,” “Genarides,” “Hippomadon,” Wylliam and Meliour, Livius, Arthur, Guye, Bevis and many other, and many translated out of Latin; the “Facetiæ Poggii,” “Euryalus and Lucretia,” and the “Hundred Tales of Boccaccio,” in Italy:

Of maids some be but little mete for lernyng lykewise as some men be unapte, agayne, some be even borne unto it, or at least not unfit for it. Therefore they that be dulle are not to be discouraged, and those that be apt should be harted and encouraged. She that hath learned in books hath furnished and fenced her mind with holy counsels.

He gives among examples of women good and learned: Portia, the wife of Brutus; Cleobula, daughter of Cleobulas; and the daughter of Pythagoras, who, after his death, became the ruler of his school.

Ludovico Vives was invited in 1523 to come to lecture at Oxford and to superintend the education of Princess Mary. This he did.

She went to live at Oxford to be near him, and therefore was the first woman student in that university town. His lessons to the Princess were so interesting that the King and Queen often came to Oxford to listen.

He says a girl ought to be taught to pronounce clearly, and every day commit something to memory and read over before retiring to rest. He allows the use of a Latin dictionary, recommends translation from English into Latin, and conversations in Latin with her preceptor. He advises the learning by heart of the “Distiches” of Cato, the “Sentences” of Publius Syrus, and the “Seven Sages of Greece,” lately collected and published by Erasmus. The course of reading drawn up included Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch; some dialogues of Plato, particularly those of a political turn; Jerome’s “Epistle”; part of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine; the “Enchiridion,” “Institutio Principis”; the “Paraphrases” of Erasmus; and the “Utopia” of Sir Thomas More; a portion of the New Testament to be read morning and evening, and of the Christian poets, Prudentius Sydonius, Paulinus, Arator, Prosper, and Juvencus, as well as Lucan, Seneca, and a part of Horace. Before selections such as these even a modern candidate for classical honours might feel nervous.

Poor little Princess! With these grave studies and serious maxims were her natural high spirits toned down to meet her melancholy fate. She proved an “apt” student and prospered in her work, being encouraged and guided by her loving mother, who delighted in revising her Latin exercises and criticizing her style. Many learned men watched her progress with interest. Lord Morley, one of the literary nobles of the day, dedicated a book to her at the time of her fallen fortunes, when men were little likely to overestimate her powers, in which he says:

I do well remember that skant ye were come to twelve yeres of age, but that ye were so rype in the Latin tonge, that rathe dothe happen to the women-sex, that your grace not only coulde perfectly rede, wright, and constrewe Laten, but farthermore translate eny harde thinge of the Latin into ower Englyshe tonge.

And he refers with praise to one of her works she had given him.

The translation itself, preserved in a missal, is entitled, “The prayer of Saynt Thomas of Aquine, translatyd oute of Latin ynto Englyshe by ye moste exselent Prynses Mary daughter to the most hygh and myghtie Prynce and Prynces Kyng Henry the VIII _and Quene Kateryn his wyfe_. In the yere of oure Lorde God 1527, and the xi yere of her age.” (See Cott. MS., Vesp. E, xiii, f. 72.)

That her studies were not limited to Latin we see in the quaint verses of William Forrest, priest:

Shee had to her sorted men well expert, In Latyne, Frenche, and Spaynische also Of whome, before they from her did revert, Shee gathered knowledge, with graces other mo, The thing atchieved, departed her not fro, For as shee had promptness the thynge to contryue So had shee memory passing ententyue.

Anthonie Crispin, Lord of Milherbe, a French gentleman resident in London, wrote in 1536 some verses also about her:

Souvent vaguant aux divines leçons Souvent cherchoit des instruments des sons Ou s’occupoit à faire quelque ouvrage Ou apprenait quelqu’ estrange langage....

Puis à savoir raison des mouvements Et le secret de tout le fermament Du monde aussi la situation; Des élémens l’association.

Puis sagement avec Mathématique Mêloit raison, morale, politique.... Puis apprenoit Latine et Grecque lettre Par oraison, par histoire, et par mêtre.