Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/448

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NOTES AND QUERIES. pi s. ni. JUNE 10, 1011.

peritissimi,' and is followed by a somewliat dry list of names from Latin poets and writers. It must be admitted that Ascham works up the history of famous bowmen \\ith great skill and literary power, and justly prides himself on " all the examples whiche I now by chaunce haue rehersed out of the best Authors in greke and latin " (p. 83). He severely reproves the compiler of the ' Officina ' for mentioning " Domitian and Commodus the emperours " in his list of bowmen " bycause they were noughtie persons " ! It is manifest that he had ft:]died this particular part of the work with the utmost care. It is near the end of this chapter that Textor quotes the words which so roused Ascham's ire. They are as follows : " Crinitus ait Scotos (qui uicini sunt Britannis) in dirigendis sagittis acres esse et egregios " (Pars Prima, p. 188). No reference is given, but the author of ' Toxophilus ' must have been well acquainted with the writer mentioned, for he not only tells us his Christian name " Petrus " in dis text, but refers to him in the margin thus : " P. Grin. 3. 10."

Why Ascham should have directed all his " Artillarie " (p. 86) against the Frenchman Tixier or Textor, because he happened to cite a few words, from the Italian Riccio or Crinitus, as his name was latinized, is a matter that admits of no explanation. Both of them were dead when the " great Cock Master " (Strype's ' Life of Sir Thomas Smith,' p. 221) presented a copy of his ' Toxophilus ' to Henry VIII. Had Textor been alive when he was thus so unreasonably assailed he would have returned his aggres- sor's abuse with interest, if we may judge from what he says in his * Prsefatio in suam Officinam,' where he first blames " some unknown half -taught Englishman" ("nescio quis semidoctus Anglus ") for daring to contradict Erasmus, and then thunders against another critic who had spoken with contempt of his fellow-countryman, Gugliel- mus Budseus (Guillaume Bude), called by Erasmus " the wonder of France " on account of his learning :

" Audio et f uisse quemdam nebulonem, qui opus doctissimi et eruditissimi Budaei de Asse dixerit esse velut otiosum, infrugiferum, ac nemini utile, et non magni referre cognoscere, quae sint partes assis, quam varies ponderum et nummorum species, cuius nomen si compertum haberem, peius cruce et furca lueret, nee ad commiserationem me flecteret, etiam si fleret sanguine. Te ne oportuit, nebulo, perperam de tanto Galliae monstro [Erasmus's expression] iudicare, tantumque virum putida tua censura proscindere ? . . . .et te non pudet immundum ex ore tuo sterquilinium in hunc vomere ? "

There is more of it, but this will serve as a specimen of hew learned men abused each other in the then " universal language." In his dedication to Henry VIII., Ascham

says :

" And althoughe to haue written this boke either in Latin or Greke (which thing I wold be- verie glad yet to do, if I might surelie know your Graces Pleasure there in) had been more easier and fit for my trade in study, yet neuerthelesse, I, supposinge it no point of honestie, that mi com- modite should stop and hinder ani parte either of the pleasure or profite of manie, haue written this Englishe matter in the Englishe tongue for Englishe men." P. 14.

It is well he did so, for he thereby became* one of the best of our eaily prose w liters in point of style, and as regards matter, one of the most interesting. His acquaintance with Greek was superior to that of Textor,. who does not show any knowledge of it in his ' Officina,' but has a command of Latin which, from the specimens I have seen, Ascham never reached. In a golden sentence- our countryman says :

" He that wyll wryte well in any tongue muste folowe thys councel of Aristotle to speake as the- common people do, to thinke as wise men do ; and so shoulde euery man vnderstande hym, and the iudgement of wyse men alowe hym." P. 18.

Ascham seems to be right when he- contends that the Scots never were dis- tinguished for their skill in the use of tho bow. On p. 88 he tells us that it was " ye- stoute archers of Cheshire and Lanchasshire" who slew King James with many a noble Scot at Flodden Hill in 1513, and as her was born two years later he may have heard the history of the battle from some one who fought in it on that September day so calamitous to Scotland. In the words of Sir Walter Scott :

Tradition, legend, tune, and song Shall many an age that wail prolong : Still from the sire the son shall hear Of the stern strife, and carnage drear,

Of Flodden's fatal field, Where shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear,

And broken was her shield !

Again, Ascham says on the same page :

" The feare onely of Englysh Archers hathe done more wonderfull thinges than euer I redde in anye historye greke or latin, and moost wonder- full of all now of late beside Carlile betwixt Eske- and Leuen at Sandy sikes, where the hcole nobilite of Scotlande for fere of the Archers of Englonde (next the stroke of God) as both Englysh men and Scotyshe men that were present hath toulde me were drowened and taken prisoners."

So convinced were the Scots of their inferiority in archery to the English that at the battle of Pinkiecleugh or Musselburgh,