SCHOOLS 



were separate works of the most heart-rending detail. Forms II. 

 and I. took their rules from the Paruu/orum and Vocabula (the Babies' 

 Book and Word Book) of Stanbridge. On Friday morning they were 

 examined on these rules, and Friday afternoon 'rendered' them, which 

 appears to mean said them by heart. After rules were given out, For;ns 

 V.-III. were examined on a verb which they had 'set up' over-night, 

 and made 'vulgars' on it, i.e. Latin phrases, as in Herman's Vulgaria. 

 V. and IV. together then 'write down the Latin that one of them shall 

 make by the assignment of the Master,' or as it is phrased for III., 

 ' they have a theme to be made in Laten, the which Latyne one of the 

 said forme at the pleasure of the master makith openlie dyverse ways. 

 And after that they write the master's owne Latyne,' that is, the master 

 dictated his own version of the piece. Form V. also learnt by heart 

 Sallust on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and four verses of Ovid's 

 Metamorphoses on Thursday. For translation, or 'construction' as it is 

 called (which was apparently done not 'up to books,' i.e. in form, but 

 in 'books chambers,' sitting at their separate 'toys' or desks in cham- 

 bers), they did Virgil's Ecloges every day except Friday and Saturday. 

 On Friday they translated Tully's, or as we say, Cicero's Letters. On 

 Wednesday they composed Latin verses, on Thursday Latin epistles. 

 On Saturday, V. and IV. said twelve verses of Ovid 'without book,' and 

 were examined on them and showed up their Latin prose. In the 

 afternoon they construed Cicero and showed up their epistles. The 

 Fourth, instead of doing Virgil, did Terence from Monday to Thursday 

 inclusive, which the master construed to them in the morning and they 

 construed and parsed (farce) to the usher in the afternoon, and were 

 examined in it on Saturday afternoon. Form III. construed Msop's 

 Fables on Monday and Wednesday, and Lucian's Dialogues, presumably 

 in Latin, on Tuesday and Thursday ; while Forms II. (and I. ?) con- 

 strued Msop's Fables every day except Saturday, when they had repetition 

 of four verses of Cato and examination of it. 



On Sunday the Sixth Form did 'lykewise' to the Seventh Form, and 

 the Fifth Form did 'as the other hie formys dothe ' but what they 

 did is denied us through the loss of the first page. It was certainly not 

 a day of rest. For the Fourth Form on ' the Sunday with other low 

 holy dayes ' did ' an English of an epistle to be made in Latyn diverse 

 wayes, and somtyme Tullie's Paradoxes to be construyd,' the Third 

 Form had ' a dialogue of Lucyane or a fable of .flLsop to be said without 

 book and construed,' and the First, and presumably the Second, 'a fabull 

 of ./Esope.' 



The books used in the higher forms can only be inferred from the 

 Eton list. They comprised in the Fifth Form Despauterius, who calls 

 himself Ninivita and was headmaster of Bergis (?Bergen-op-Zoom) School 

 or * versifying rules ' and letter-writing ; and in the Sixth Form the 

 Figurae of Mosellanys, a schoolmaster named Schade of Leipzig, terribly 

 detailed excursuses on the figures of speech, and Erasmus' Copia Verborum. 

 The authors read were : in the Fifth Form Sallust for the three first days 



299 



