Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/381

 A S C H A M. 345 tary for the Latin tongue, and her tutor in the learned lan- guages, wherein he alhik-d her majeft) fonu- houis every day. His intereft at court was now very confiderable ; but Inch was his modefty, that he hardly ever folicited any favours, v ' t though he recuv<d Kwral without afking, particularly the col. 65. prebend of Weltwang in the church of York, in 1559. Mr. Afcham being one day in company with perfons or the firft diftin&ion, there happened to be high difputcs about the dif- ferent methods o( education : this gave rife to his treatife on that fubjeft, which he undertook at the particular reqtieit of fir Richard Sackville [H] ; a work in high eiicem amongft the befi judges. He was alfo very famous for the elegance of his Latin in his epiftolary writing [ij. He died at Lon- don on the 4th of Jan. 1568, and was interred in St. Sepul- chre's church, in a private manner, according to his own di- rections. He was univerfaJly lamented, and particularly by the queen herlclf. His character is very well drawn by Buchanan, in the following epigram, which he confecrated to the memory oi his friend ; [H] This work, whereby he is crmfly known to pofterity, bears in its original edition the following title : " The School-matter j or, a plain arid perfite Way of teaching Children to understand, write, and fpeak the Lntin Tongue; but efpec'ully purpofed for the private bringing up of Youth in Jentlemen and Noblemen's Houfes ; and commodious alfo for all fuch as have forgot the Latin Tongue, and would by tnemfelve?, without a Scholc-mafier, in fliort Time, and with fmall P.iine?, recover a fufrkient Habilitie to under- llsnd, write, and fpeake Latin, "by Ro- ger Afcham, ann. 1571. At London, printed by John D..NC, dwelling over Aliietfeate. Cum gratia et privilegio rfgiaj raaieftatis per decenn.ium." [i] The Epiftles of Mr. Afcham were publifhed foon after his death by Mr. Grant, mafler of Wcftminfter School. " Thefe letters, fays biihop Nicolfon, have, chitfly en account of their elegance, h"d fcverjl editions. They have all the fine variety of lan- guage that is proper, either for render- ing a petition or complaint the moft agreeable; and withal a very great choice of hiftoricil matter, that it fcardiy prelcrved any where elfe. To- gether with the author's own letters, we have a good many that are directed to him, both from the moft eminent writers of his time, fuch as Sturmius, Sleidan, &c. nnd the beft fcholars, as well as the wileft ftatefmen of his own country. And the publiflier of thefe affures us, that he had the perufal of a vaft number of others in the Englilh tongue, which v/ere highly valuable. His attendance on fir Richard Morry- fun,in his German embafly, gave him an intimate acquaintance with the af- fairs of that country ; and the extraor- dinary freedom and familiarity, with which the two fitter queen^ treated him here at home, afforded him a perfeft knowledge of the moft fecrct myfteries of ftate in this kingdom : fo that, were the reft of his papers retrieved, we could not perhaps have a more plea- fing view of the arcana of thofe reigns, than his writings would give u5."-~ Engliih Hiftorical Library, p. 147. Mr. Grant's firft edition came out in ji;76; theie was another in 1577,3 third in 1578, a fourth in 1590, all a, London, in oclavo : the laft and beft edition is that of Oxford, in 1703, pub- liftied by Mr. Elftob, who has added many letters, not in the former editions,. Afchamum