Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-11-24
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S LEARNING.

A moderate sized volume might be
written IN the learning and accomplish
ments Of Queen Elizabeth, Her pro-
gress under her first instructors was
marvellous. At eleven years of age
she translated out of French verse into
English prose "The Mirror or Glass
of the Sinful Soul" This she dedicated
to QaCgn Catherine Parr, in an epistle
dated from Ashbridge, December 81,
1874. This dedication and epistle have
been printed by Thomas Hearne. When
she was but twelve years old she trans
lated from the English into Latin,
French, and Italian, Prayers and
Meditations collected OutOf certain pious
writers by the most noble and religious
Catherine, Queen of England" This
she dedicated to her father, Henry
VIII, in a Latin epistle dated from
Hatfield, December 80, 1915. The Ms.
is nOwin the British Museum. About
the same time she translated from the
French "The MeditatiOns Of Margaret,
Queen of Navarro, concerning the Love
Of the Soul of Christ" This was pub
lished by Bale in 1913, and has been re-
printed. Camden says: Before she
was seventeen years Of age she very
well understood the Latin, French, and
Italian tongues, and the Greek in
differently"
Upon the death of her father and her
tutor about the same time, she was
much encouraged by her brother Ed
ward, who was exceedingly attached 20
her, and called her his Lady Temper.
She now sent for Roger Aseham to sup
ply the place of her tutor, and he left
Cambridge for that purpose, and came
to her at Chestnut. Her diligence in
the studyof the Greek and Latin classics
was great, and Aseham writes from
Greenwich TO his friend Sturmius "that
he enjoyed at court as agreeable a free
dom and retirement for his studies as
he had ever done in the university; and
that he was then reading Ove with the
Princess Elizabeth the orations OF
Eschines and DemOsthenes, de COrOdd,
in Greek, and that she understood at
first sight not only the force and pro-
priety of the language, and the meaning
of the orator, but the whole scheme Of
fhe cause, and the laws, customs, and
manners of the A~thenians."
Her studies were interrupted by the
accession Of Mary, but upon succeeding
TO the wn herself, after the settlement
of the ~perplexed affairs of the kingdom,
she renewed them with great ardor.
Ascham, 1852, tells the young men of
England that it was their shame that
one maid should 90 beyond them all in
excellency of learning and knowledge
of divers tongues. Yea, he believed
that besides her perfect readiness in
Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish,
she read there at Windsor more Greek
every day than some p~rebendaFies of
that church did read Latin in a whole
week" She employed also Sir Henry
Saville and Sir John Fortescue to read
to her. The latter who was finest ac-
eomplished scholar) read Thucydides,
Xenophon, Polybius, aud the Greek
t~ragedians to her, Ballard gives a
wonderful account of her own personal
studies. 1t would be tedious to recount
her ~translatiOns and other works. On
August 5, 1861, her Majesty went to
Cambridge, and staid five days in Kings
College. She was entertained with
tragedies, comedies, orations, and other
academical exercises, and visited every
college. Upon her departure she took
leave of the university in a Latin ora
ton, which has been preserved by
Hollinshed and Fuller.