thought good, but as the judgment of the common wealth always thought best. This fault of fathers bringeth many a blot with it, to the great deformity of the common wealth and here surely I can praise gentlewomen which have always at hand their glasses, to see if anything be amiss, and so will amend it, yet the common wealth, having the glass of knowledge in every man's hand, doth see such uncomeliness in it, and yet winketh at it. This fault, and many such like, might be soon wiped away, if fathers would bestow their children on that thing always whereunto nature hath ordained them most apt and fit. For if youth be grafted straight and not a wry, the whole common wealth will flourish thereafter. When this is done, then must every man begin to be more ready to amend him self, than to check another, measuring their matters with that wise proverb of Apollo, Know thy self: that is to say, learn to know what thou art able, fit, and apt unto, and follow that. Man which. NOTES. 'Which' is used for persons as well as for things; compare both earlier and later extracts. 'Who' is also used for persons: as (below), 'causeth some for whom it were better,' &c. Such things which. 'Which' after 'such' is common for two centuries yet. As' was used side by side with it, and then supplanted it. An effort is now making to restore 'which' ('who,' 'where,' &c.) to fashion. Some... for whom, &c. Here, and in all the similar clauses following, the relative is awkwardly separated from the antecedent. Causeth some wish. We should now say 'to wish.' Cf. below: 'causeth the common wealth ( ) have,' &c. Other to be meddling. 'Other' is for 'othere,' the final e (plur. inflection) having dropped away, and s not Court... cart. A stroke of antithesis 'a' is a degenerate 'on.' Cf. (below) Whole. Orig. has the uncorrupted form 'hole,' without w. Cf. 'hale' (in reference to physical state). Those which be unfittest, &c. The same complaint reappears in The Schoolmaster: 'Commonly the fairest purposes. bodies are bestowed on the foulest I would it were not so. I will not let (refrain) openly to lament the unfortunate case of learning herein. For if a father have four sons, three fair and well formed both mind and body, the fourth wretched, lame, and deformed, his choice shall be to put the worst to learning, as one good enough to become a scholar. I have spent the most part of my life in the University, and therefore I can bear good witness that many fathers commonly do thus; whereof I have heard many wise, learned, and as good men as ever I knew, make great and oft complaint.' Now a days, for 'now on dayes.' 'Dayes' is genitive; and this form is retained notwithstanding the insertion of the prep. ' on.' As who would say. Some scholars explain who as indef. = some one,' 'any one;' 'as a man would say' (next paragraph), or perhaps 'as if one would say.' Others would treat the case as an ordinary ellipsis. Wit, understanding. From old witan (to know). Minister, serve, dispense. From Fr. ministrer, Lat. ministrare (wait, attend upon, serve), from minister (inferior, servant), from minus (less). Sacrament, solemn religious rite, as the Lord's Supper, baptism, &c. Lat. sacramentum (solemn engagement, oath-especially the military oath of allegiance), from sacer (sacred, holy). Oft times. Oft,' now adv., is used as adj. Cf. (in opposite column) 'oft complaint;' 1 Tim. v. 23, 'thine often (=frequent) infirmities;' Shak., Sonnet lii., seldom (= rare) pleasure.' So, 'the then king,' &c.: a common Greek construction. We also write as one word 'ofttimes,' ' oftentimes.' Withal is superfluous. Riffraff, refuse, dregs, scum, worthless Gross, thick, coarse, unrefined. The extract may be re-written in simpler sentences. SCHOOLMASTERS AND HORSE-TRAINERS. (From The Schoolmaster.) And speaking thus much of the wits of children for learning, the opportunity of the place and goodness of the matter might require to have here declared the most special notes of a good wit for learning in a child, after the manner and custom of a good horseman, who is skilful to know, and able to tell others, how by certain sure signs a man may choose a colt that is like to prove another day excellent for the saddle. And it is pity that commonly more care is had, yea and that among very men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse than a cunning man for their children. wise They say nay in word, but they do so in deed. For, to the one they will gladly give a stipend of 200 crowns by the year, and loth to offer to the other 200 shillings. God, that sitteth in heaven, laugheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should; for he suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horse, but wild and unfortunate children; and therefore in the end they find more pleasure in their horse than comfort in their children. NOTES. Speaking. The subject is implied. This loose employment of the participle is by no means uncommon. Cf. note on 'doing, page 68; cf. also 'regarding,' 'concerning,' 'respecting,' 'touching,' &c., which are now taken as practically prepositions of refer ence. Able to tell others, &c. The original text spells 'hable'-from Lat. habilis (easy to handle, fit, apt), from habeo (have, hold). To the one they will gladly give &c. Compare Lyly, Euphues: And sooner will they bestow an hundred crowns to have a horse well broken, than a child well taught; wherein I cannot but marvel to see them so careful to increase their possessions when they be so careless to have them wise that should inherit them.' Horse, plural, without inflection; as in the earliest times. Cf. deer, sheep, swine, &c. There is a noticeable amount of balance, or similar structure of compared or contrasted expressions. JOHN LYLY.-ABOUT 1553-1606. JOHN LYLY, or LILLY, was born in Kent, and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1575. He was patronised to some extent by Lord Burleigh; but notwithstanding the popularity of his writings and his outrageous flattery of Elizabeth, he met with little substantial encouragement at Court. He was only fifty-two when he died. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, was published in 1579, and Euphues and his England in 1580. From the title of this famous work, Lyly has been named 'The Euphuist,' and his peculiar style 'Euphuism.' Besides Euphues (two parts), he wrote nine Court comedies, mostly in prose, which gained him great reputation. The finest things in Lyly's plays are the occasional songs' (Minto). A COOLING CARD FOR PHILAUTUS AND ALL FOND LOVERS. (From Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit.) Musing with my self, being idle, how I might be well employed (friend Philautus), I could find nothing either more fit to continue our friendship, or of greater force to dissolve our folly, than to write a remedy for that which many judge past cure, for love (Philautus) with the which I have been so tormented, that I have lost my time, thou so troubled, that thou hast forgot reason, both so mangled with repulse, inveigled by deceit, and almost murthered by disdain, that I can neither remember our miseries without grief, nor redress our mishaps without groans. How wantonly, yea, and how willingly, have we abused our golden time, and misspent our gotten treasure! How curious were we to please our Lady, how careless to displease our Lord! How devout in serving our goddess, how desperate in forgetting our God! Ah my Philautus, if the wasting of our money might not dehort us, yet the wounding of our minds should deter us, if reason might nothing persuade us to wisdom, yet shame should provoke us to wit. If there be any man in despair to obtain his purpose, or so obstinate in his opinion that, having lost his freedom by folly, would also lose his life for love, let him repair hither, and he shall reap such profit as will either quench his flames or assuage his fury, either cause him to renounce his lady as most pernicious or redeem his liberty as most precious. Come therefore to me, all ye lovers that have been deceived by fancy, the glass of pestilence, or deluded by women, the gate to perdition, be as earnest to seek a medicine as you were eager to run into a mischief; the earth bringeth forth as well endive to delight the people as hemlock to endanger the patient, as well the rose to distil as the nettle to sting, as well the bee to give honey as the spider to yield poison.... This is therefore to admonish all young imps and novices in love, not to blow the coals of fancy with desire, but to quench them with disdain. When love tickleth thee, decline it, lest it stifle thee; rather fast than surfeit, rather starve than strive to exceed. Though the beginning of love bring delight, the end bringeth destruction. For as the first draught of wine doth comfort the stomach, the second inflame the liver, the third fume into the head, so the first sip of love is pleasant, the second perilous, the third pestilent. NOTES. The which. The' preceding 'which' is a very old form. It is quite common all through the age of Elizabeth. Cf. Fr. lequel. Curious, careful, painstaking, solicitous. From Lat. curiosus, from cura (care). 'Curious' is contrasted with 'careless.' Dehort, dissuade, warn or advise not to (do something). From Lat. dehortari, from de (down, away from, in general negative sense) and hor tari (to advise). 'Dehort' balances 'deter.' Imps. 'Imp' is orig. a 'graft, shoot, slip; hence offspring, child. Spenser (Faery Queene, Book i., Introd. 3) quite seriously addresses Cupid: 'And thou most dreaded imp of highest Jove, Fair Venus' son,' &c. But a disparaging sense presently began to attach to ‘imp.' This is one of Lyly's most elaborate passages, shewing balance with antithesis, both being fantastically overdone. THE COMMONWEALTH OF BEES. (From Euphues and his England.) 6 [The speaker is one whom we will name Fidus,' a comely old man,' and a kind host, whom Euphues and his friend Philautus lighted upon at Canterbury, 'busy as a bee among his bees.'] I have for the space of this twenty years dwelt in this place, taking no delight in any thing but only in keeping my bees, and marking them; and this I find, which had I not seen, I should hardly have believed. That they |