ASCHAM, ROGER

Roger Ascham played his role in English thought and politics during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs and is best remembered as the author ofThe Scholemaster, one of the first educational treatises written in the vernacular in Europe. Born at Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire, Ascham, virtually adopted by Sir Humphrey Wingfield, who had him tutored, was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1530, where he studied under Sir John Cheke. Here he mastered classical literature and developed an eloquent Latin style that, combined with his penmanship, led to important opportunities, including appointment as uni­versity orator and tutor for Henry VIII's* daughters Mary* and Elizabeth.*

When Ascham earned his bachelor of arts in 1534, he was elected a fellow of St.John's. When he was awarded the master's degree in 1537, he began to lecture at the university. In 1545 he published Toxophilus, a dialogue on exercise and recreation, placing special emphasis on the English longbow. Written in English and dedicated to Henry VIII, the book pleased the king, an avid archer, who granted Ascham an annual pension. From 1550 to 1553, as secretary to Sir Richard Morison, ambassador to Charles V,* Ascham visited continental courts, schools, and scholars. When this diplomatic group was recalled to England after Edward VI died in 1553, Ascham returned to Cambridge and wroteReport and Discourse of the Affaires and State of Germany. In spite of his Protestantism, the Catholic queen Mary made him her Latin secretary. After Mary died in 1558, he continued as secretary and tutor to Queen Elizabeth until he died.

In 1563 he began The Scholemaster and completed it just before he died in December 1568. Mainly concerned with the education of proper Christian gen­tlemen, the study of classical literature as the foundation of liberal learning, and the "double-translation" method for teaching Latin, the work also attacks me­dieval romances, Italian books, and travel and discusses wit and literary imita­tion. Its purity of diction and its sentence structure define its place in the development of English prose, and its content, drawn from classical and con­temporary sources, ensures Ascham's stature as a Renaissance humanist edu­cator worthy of note.

L. V. Ryan, Roger Ascham, 1963.