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for searching only. CHAPTER XX
WILLIAM KEMPE UPON THE ELIZABETHAN
GRAMMAR SCHOOL
IT MUST NOW be evident that the people who shaped these curricula were thoroughly conscious of what objectives they desired to attain and had planned in deadly detail their methods accordingly. Since one of these schoolmasters, William Kempe, has presented the whole scheme in a coordinated and philosophized form, it will be well by way of concluding our study of the general organization of the sixteenth century grammar school curriculum to examine briefly his
work.'
We may pause, however, first to notice a very full list of grammar school texts, published in London in 15B1. G. H. in De Discenda
Graeca Lingua Oratio Secvnda2 says
Legunt pueri Catonis Disticha: legunt Varronis de Etymologia, & Analogia libros: legunt 1Esopi Apologos: legunt Eunuchum, Heautontimorumenon, Adelphos Terentij, id est Latini Menandri: legunt Plauti Amphytrionem; Epidicum: Menaechmos: Pseudolum: Stichum: in quibus, aliisq; prop cunctis comoedijs, nemo fere loquitur, non Graijs prognatus parentibus, maximae4; Atticis: legunt Bucolica, Georgica, & Aeneida Virgin): legunt Mantuani, Sanazarij, aliorum4; Eclogas: legunt Nasonis Heroidum Epistolas, Elegias, pera copOgecs: legunt M. Tullij non solum Epistolas, & Dialogos, sed Paradoxa, atque Topica: legunt Erasmi Apophthegmata, Parabolas, Chiliades, Moriae Encomium: legunt Textoris Epitheta; Tuscanellae Epitheta, & Antitheta: legunt Aphthonij sophistae Progymnasmata: legunt Horatij Odas, Epistolas, Satyras: legunt Epigrammata Martialis: Zodiacum Palyngenij: Alciati Emblemata: legunt Titi Liuij Decades: leguntChristiEuangelium: Praxes Apostolorum: Apocalypsin Ioannis: Parabolas, & Ecclesiasten Solomonis: Genesin, Exodum, Deuteronomium, Mosis: Paralipomena: Prophetas: Psalmos: habent istorum omnium Scholia: habent Glossas: habent Epitomas, Paraphrases, Analyses, Exegeses, Schematismos: habent verborum, atque rerum Elenchos: habent Lexica: sed quos libros quotidie legunt, eorum ne appellationes quidem ipsas, & Epigraphas intelligunt,
all because they do not know Greek.
The orations by "G. H.," from which this quotation comes, have Gabriel Harvey written all over them, though apparently they have hitherto been overlooked. A reference shows that the author is of
1 I have not included the system preached in Gascoigne's Glass of Government, because it does not represent English practice, being an evident translation from the Dutch. S Crispinus, Joannes, Lexicon Graetolatinvm (Londini, p. lNnnns)v.