The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-02-27
4, Our &ops ann Girls.
The Scribe's Report.

list OF answers thus Tar received to the
questions of February 6;
% Cedmon. First noticed at Whitby
in 664. Died in $50. His poems were
pharaphrases of sacred history. He is
said to have known nothing of the art
Of versify ing until middle life, when he
had vision of Christ, who babe him
sing some song to him, and in obedi-
ance to the vision he began his poems.
(2) Chaucer. 132S(O-l4OO He re-
ceived his title from Dryden. His
lesser works were the poems "Ro-
nance of the Rose" "Troilus and
Cresseide," "Queen Annelida and
False Arcite," and the prose works,
Testament of Love-" Treatise on
the Astrolabe" and translation of
Boethius. But the works for which he
is most remembered were the Can
terbury Tales" His style was marked
by yividness and minuteness of de-
scription so great that he brings the
types of that day before us clear as life.
1t is also marked by its wit, high color
ing and gay avoidance of the serious
or moral.
CD In answer to No. 3 the only one
L could find bearing that title was
Roger Ascham, and it seemed almost
impossible to apply it to him, both on
account of the lateness Of his time aud
the small number of his productions.
Nevertheless, will give what l have
found concerning him. He was born
in 1915 and died in 1868. He is es-
pecially noted for being the teacher of
Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, Ed
ward VI. and other noted persons.
Besides holding various offices as a
teacher, he was secretary to Sir Richard
Morysine, the English ambassador to
the Emperor Charles V. and Latin sec
rotary to the Queens M ry and Eliza
beth. He wrote Toxophilus," a
treatise of archery, and the "Schole-
Master" treatise on the study of Ian
guages, a" Report and Discourse on
the Affairs of Germany" and a series
of letters from abroad to Oxford.
(4) Wyclif, died 1884, who first trans.
lated the Bible. CLovERPATCH.
1t is not strange that one should, at
first thought, wonder why the title
Father of English Prose" should be
given to one living so late as Roger
Ascham. But he died at least ten years
before the beginning of the Elizabethan
period of literature, and therefore pre-
coded Sir Philip Sydney, the earliest
prose writer of note in that period
The earliest writers of English prose,
like Sir John Vaudeville and others of
the fourteenth century, can hardly be
read now without vocabulary.
Chaucer, it is true, excelled all others
in his prose as well as in his poetry,
bit he had no successors. Indeed, his
appearance has well been compared tC
ga premature day in an English spring
after which the gloom of winter returns
and the buds and blossoms which have
been called forth by transient sun
shine are nipped by frosts and scattered
by storms" The fifteenth century
produced no English prose writer OF
note. All learned works in those times
were written in Latin, and Aschan
felt called upon to apologize for writ
ing in English, although it is said that
one purpose he had in writing the
Toxophilus was to give the public " a
specimen of a purer and more correct
English style than that to which they
had hitherto been accustomed" He
was among the first to discard the use
of foreign words and phrases, which
had grown very common in the reign
of Henry VIII. A man with sucl
high reputation as a Latin scholar
could well afford to make this innova.
ton, and he deserves our gratitude fol
having done so. What if people haC
kept on until now writing in LatiI
everything that was of any value! Here
is an extract from his "apology," anC
remember that it was written more thar
half a century before the translation o.
our King James Bible. AS for the
Latin or Greek tongue, everything II
so excellently done in them that none
can do better; in the English tongue,
contrary, everything in manner sc
meanly, both for the matter and hand
ling, that no man can do worse. Fo
therein the least learned, for the most
part, have been always most ready tt
write. And they which had least hope
in Latin have been most bold in En-
glish: when surely every man that il
most ready to talk is not most able t.
write. He that will write well in any
tongue, must follow this counsel o
Aristotle, to speak as the common peo
pie do, to think as wise men do"
1t is also true that Ascham wrote bu
little for publication; yetthe bestowine
upon him of the title Father of Englisl
Prose illustrates the truth that it is o
less consequence how much one does
than that he do his work well. Al
though Ascham was usually dignifleC
in his writing, he occasionally has
LITTLE nleasantrV that reminds one O