Wood expresses the difference between this and the previous period in the following manner :"That Chancellor, the Earl of Leicester, found the University pinched by want of learned men, but abounding in worthy and well behaved men he left it dissolved in luxury and wantonness." That he did not mean to imply that there was previously an abundance of learned men, may be inferred from the remarks which preceded.

§ 174. Moral and intellectual influence of the Court on the Universities.

Upon the causes of a phenomenon at first sight so strange, we have now the following remarks to offer. In the first place; to a well-grounded, free, and wholesome intellectual activity, the times were not on the whole so favorable, as might appear from partial and prejudiced representations, or from hasty inductions. The Classics made the greatest claims upon the sympathies of the well educated and apart from all the contemporaneous expressions of flattery,* there is no doubt that in

* Without doubt one of the most honorable and innocent of flatterers is Harrison, in a work in many respects so valuable, his Introduction to Holinshed's Chronicles. His loyalty towards the Queen and her Court, disarms the criticism which might else seem well bestowed, considering his solid good sense and knowledge of the world. truth, until quite a modern era,

In

English loyalty has been quite lackey-like: that is to say, after the model of that of the old servants in an ancient family. It has something honorable and even affecting in it, when simple and sincere; but as historical evidence is of no worth at all.

+ I have no room for separate citations, and I refer my readers more particularly to Holinshed. (Ed. 1807, i. 330.)

the highest circles of society, and especially, in imitation of the Queen, among the female sex, there was an extraordinary familiarity with the ancient authors, even in their original tongues : to say nothing of the numerous translations. There was moreover a general predilection for the Romanic languages and poets. The Queen herself however, in spite of all her learning, was wholly wanting in those nobler sentiments, without which classic literature always remains a closed book. She was naturally pedantic and without taste. Her virgin state, (of which she made a sort of trade,) did not keep her from coarse unmannerliness of every kind: yet it did force her to affect a prudery, which agreed but ill with the frankness of the classic authors. Religious decorum, even in its more Puritanical* demands, worked in the same direction.

* Ocland published in 1582 two long Latin Poems, in which both Latin and Poetry are equally wanting in taste. Their study however was enforced at all schools, by order of the Privy Council, that the said booke de Anglorum prætiis [?] and peaceable government of her Majestie (Elisabetha) may be in place of some heathen poets; from which the youth of the realme doth rather receive infection in manners than advancement in vertue."-(Warton, iv. 140.) In this may be seen the effect of the Puritanical influence, which was very strong in the Council of State. It can scarce

be supposed that Elizabeth did not know of, and did not authorize, this order: and her vanity, which found the strongest food in the "Elisabetha," sufficiently explains the fact. Moreover, she herself possessed a vein, very nearly allied to the worst side of Puritanism; severe as she was against Puritanical freedom in ecclesiastical matters. How far a sincere Puritanical reaction against the frivolities of the time may have been justified or desirable, it is not our task to investigate here. Thus much is clear, that classical studies were not benefited by such interference.

Taking every thing into consideration; in this much be-praised learning of the Queen and of those around her, we can find little more than a pedantic display of mechanical acquaintance with the classic languages. In some certainly the fruits of Court patronage may have ripened for nobler purposes. But these were only exceptions: nor can it be supposed that from this narrow circle much benefit could accrue to University-study. Only the more eminent personages there could seek a path to Court favor: and for this purpose a step backwards had to be made, from sound learning to fashionable affectation. The preponderance of external considerations with the academicians of that day, may be seen in the favor shown to men of rank in taking Degrees: a favor which had long been occasionally bestowed, but was looked on as a great abuse. It was now established by Statute.

175. Influence of the Nation at large, and especially of the Metropolis, on the Universities.

But the atmosphere of the times was still less favorable than that of the Court. It was the reign of all that was national, popular, vulgar; an epoch of vigorous stir in the spirit of the mass: and although it had agreeable characteristics, which it would be foolish to deny, we must neither demand of it, nor ascribe to it, that which

was foreign to its genius, its taste, and its sympathies. The peculiarity of England at that period, was an extraordinary multifariousness in its intellectual efforts. Side by side with the modern Romanic Literature, the memorials of Greek and Roman Antiquity gained no insignificant place. But this remark must be understood almost solely of the better educated circle of the capital: which comprised the higher, and a portion of the middle classes. It was animated by various Poets and Authors, then for the first time appearing as a peculiar body of men,-who possessed collectively an intellectual influence, although individually seldom either respected or respectable. Their power

afterwards vanished, in the religious and political contests of the seventeenth century, and in consequence of the stamp so long left on the national character by the stiffness of Puritanism. Before the chilling breath of the Roundheads, the gay crowd of poets was scattered like chaff; and under Charles II. nothing remained of this cup of genius, but the dirty dregs.* But even under Elizabeth, the influence of contemporaneous men of letters was chiefly confined to the walls of the capital, and could not very essentially pervade the Universities, whose members were gathered from

* We have no description of the state of London society in this respect under Elizabeth and James, in spite of or perhaps on account of the richness of the material. Tiek has given one

side of the picture: for this as for every thing else, the new generation has too little seriousness. Hard study and love of the subject are needed for the production of such a work.

all parts of the country. Yet it did affect them in part; and this forms, in fact, a phenomenon not to be overlooked in the history of the Universities at that time. The more intelligent Gownsmen were in constant intercourse with the literary doings of the Capital, to which they found a link, particularly in the Inns of Court.

176. Reciprocal influence between the Inns of Court and the Universities.

The institutions last named were originally meant to promote the study of Common Law, and to rear Judges and Lawyers; partly by practice in the Courts, partly also by scientific teaching. We must be very careful how we place reliance on the pompous praises lavished on them by such men as Fortescue; which have found their way into all Law Dictionaries and such-like works. Equally groundless is the idea, that these Inns were real Universities; or High Schools of the free Arts and Sciences.* At that time, though they may have been less estranged than afterwards from their true

* Material for a history of these societies may be found more especially in Dugdale's "Origines Juridicales." I am not aware whether further enquiries have been based upon his work: nor whether any one has investigated in detail the analogy between these Law Schools and the embryo of the

old Italian Law Universities, and why it is that the former never rose to the same importance as the latter. The London Templars of Elizabeth's reign, are vividly described in many sketches of the manners of the day, but only so as to touch their moral and social condition.