Page:The Queens of England.djvu/387

 LADY JANE GREY. '34; Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Arabic, French, and Italian. We cannot suppose, however, that at her age she could have mastered half of these languages so far as her eulogists would lead us to infer. There can, nevertheless, be no doubt but that her acquirements were far beyond those of ladies gener- ally, and infinitely beyond the usual attainments of such a tender age. In Latin, Greek, and French, she was assuredly well versed, and had read with a judgment and reflection, worthy of the maturest years, the best authors in those languages. Her taste for these studies was naturally strength- ened by the severity of her treatment in her own family, as we learn from her own confession to Roger Ascham on that visit to Bradgate already alluded to. "How came you, madam, to this deep knowledge of pleas- ure?" asked Ascham; "and what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have attained thereunto?" "I will tell you," she replied, "and tell you a truth which perchance you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me is, that He sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For, when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad — be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it -were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world ; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently sometimes with pinches, nips, bobs, and other ways, which I will not mention for the honor I bear them ; so without measure disordered, that I think myself in hell till the time come that I must go to Mr. Aylmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, and with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whilst I am with him ; and when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatever I do else but learning is full of great trouble, fear, and whole misliking to me. And thus my book hath been so much pleasure, and more, that in respect of it all other pleasures in very deed be but trifles and troubles to me." This harsh and bitter treatment under the domestic roof speaks but little for the sagacity or amiability of her parents, and furnishes us with- a key to the submission of Lady Jane to those parents and those who assumed the authority of rela- tives, even in that last fatal transaction when she assumed