QUEEN ELIZABETH'S TUTOR with the Preface by a Woman

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S TUTOR with the Preface by Margaret Ascham

THE SCHOLEMASTER Or plain and perfite way of teaching children, to understand, write, & speak, the Latin tong,. . . London, John Daye, 1579. 4to., title within typographical border, [6], 67, (lacking final leaf with the large woodcut printer's device) . Signatures: [pointing hand]2 B-T(3 of 4) . The editor's dedicatory epistle signed: Margaret Ascham. 19th century calf and marbled boards, front board detached, some loss to spine; internally, t.p, with old barely noticeable re-backing but slightly shorter on right margin, some toning, bii-biv closely cropped just intruding on upper title

Roger Ascham has been styled the "Father of English Prose"; he was tutor to Queen Elizabeth. Dibdin lavished praise "His School Master is a work which can only perish with our language" and hints of more modern progressive education can be seen in his text. He was not one for the rod and descried "beating in common scholes of England" Instead, insisted that teaching must be rooted in an gentleness of instruction and instill a joy or learning: "If your scholar do miss sometimes, in marking rightly these forayed things, chide not hastely, for that shall both dull his wit, and discourage his diligence: but monish him gently: which shall make him, both willing too amend and glad to goe forward in love and hope of learning" The work was published posthumously. Roger was considerably older than his wife Margaret, and after his death in 1568, she completed his unfinished manuscript, raised sufficient funds, and successfully published the work in 1570. Unusually for the period, Margaret signed her own name in the book's preface, possibly to ensure that her own work in the manuscript would be known. ESTC S100265