The Educational Writings of Richard Mulcaster

By Richard Mulcaster

"The Educational Writings of Richard Mulcaster" by Richard Mulcaster. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Nov 5, 2021
• ISBN: 4066338076083

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Richard Mulcaster

The Educational Writings of Richard Mulcaster

Published by Good Press, 2022

[e-mail]

EAN 4066338076083

Table of Contents

PREFACE.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

The Method of Treatment.

The Purpose of Writing.

Reasons for Writing in English.

First Principles.

The Use of Authority.

The Ideal and the Possible.

When School Education should begin.

Risk of Overpressure.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano.

Physical Exercise needs Regulation.

Physical and Mental Training should go together.

Exercise Specially Necessary for Students.

The Best Kinds of Exercise.

Football as a Form of Exercise.

Is Education to be offered to both Sexes?

All cannot receive a Learned Education.

Choice of Scholars both from Rich and Poor.

The Number of Scholars limited by Circumstances.

The Number of Scholars kept down by Law.

Talent not peculiar either to Rich or Poor.

Choice of those fit for Learning.

How the Choice of Scholars should be Determined.

Grounds for Promotion.

Co-operation of Parents.

Admission into Colleges.

Preferment to Degrees.

Natural Capacity in Children.

Encouragement better than Severity.

Moral Training falls chiefly on Parents.

Elementary Instruction—Reading.

The Vernacular First.

Material of Reading.

Writing.

Elementary Period a Time of Probation.

Drawing.

Music.

Four Elementary Subjects.

Study of Languages.

Follow Nature.

Education of Girls.

Aim of Education for Girls.

When their Education should begin.

All should have Elementary Education.

Higher Studies for Some.

What Higher Studies are Suitable.

Who should be their Teachers.

The Education of Young Gentlemen.

Private and Public Education.

What should a Gentleman learn?

What makes a Gentleman.

Learning useful to Noblemen.

Course of Study for a Gentleman.

Foreign Travel.

Gentlemen should take up the Professions.

The Training of a Prince.

Boarding Schools.

School Buildings.

Best Hours for Study.

Elementary Teacher most Important.

The Grammar School Teacher.

The Training of Teachers.

University Reform.

A College for Languages.

A College for Mathematics.

A College for Philosophy.

Professional Colleges.

General Study for Professional Men.

A Training College for Teachers.

Use of the Seven Colleges.

Uniting of Colleges.

University Readers.

Evils of Overpressure.

Limit of Elementary Course.

Difficulties in Teaching.

Uniformity of Method.

Choice of School Books.

School Regulations.

Punishments.

Condition of Teachers.

Consultation about Children.

Systematic Direction.

The Standard of English Spelling.

THE PERORATION.

CRITICAL ESTIMATE.

PREFACE.

Table of Contents

Some apology is needed for the presentation of an Elizabethan writer to English readers in any form but that of the original text. The justification of the present volume must lie in the fact that in the three centuries and more that have elapsed since the educational writings of Richard Mulcaster were given to the world, they have entirely failed to gain acceptance as literature. This neglect of one of our most interesting and important educationists is no doubt chiefly to be regarded as part of the general indifference which until recently the British public has consistently shown to all discussion of educational problems, but when we consider the reputation of Mulcaster’s contemporary, Roger Ascham, who had far less to say, but knew how to say it with lucidity and grace, we are constrained to admit that Mulcaster has lost his opportunity of catching the world’s ear, and that if his writings are to be known and appreciated as they deserve by this generation, it must be rather for their substance than for their literary style. It is true that the serious student may now be trusted to investigate for himself the thoughts of earlier authors in spite of difficulties of form and expression, but the general reader will expect more help than, in the case of Mulcaster at least, is at present available. The earlier of his two chief works, the Positions, published in 1581, was out of print for 300 years, until the issue in 1888 of an almost facsimile edition by the late Mr. Quick, to whom the credit of discovering this author is mainly due, while the second work, the Elementarie, has never been reprinted at all. It is safe to assume that not many readers will care to possess themselves of the somewhat expensive reprint of the former work, or to institute a search for one of the rare copies of the original and only edition of the latter. And if these books were to be made more accessible, it seemed worth while at the same time to present them in such a form that they should be readily intelligible to the ordinary reader. In the case of an acknowledged literary classic it may be inadmissible to tamper even with the type and spelling, far more with the phraseology and arrangement of sentences, but such scruples would be out of place with the author now in question. An attempt has been made to remove all gratuitous hindrances to a full understanding of the author’s meaning, while omitting nothing that is at once characteristic and significant. It is hoped that in the process of adaptation as little as possible has been lost of the quaint flavour of the original, and of the gifts of expression that Mulcaster undoubtedly possessed, however much these were obscured by the euphuistic tendency and the somewhat laboured construction that marked the prose of his time.

J. O.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

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Richard Mulcaster came of a border family that could trace its descent back to the eleventh century. On his wife’s tomb he describes himself as by ancient parentage and lineal descent, an esquire born, and there is evidence that some of his ancestors held positions of importance, both administrative and academic. In the fourteenth century we hear of a Richard de Molcastre, who, as the second son, inherited from his father, Sir William, the estates of Brakenhill and Solport, and the family retained its consideration up to our own time. But in the reign of Elizabeth the ancestral lands were no longer in the possession of the branch to which our author belonged. He was probably born in the border district, and the date of his birth must have been about 1532. He was sent to Eton, then under Nicholas Udall, who as a headmaster was known alike for his learning and his severity, and who as the writer of the first regular English comedy, may have given Mulcaster his taste for the drama. In 1548 he went to Cambridge as a King’s Scholar, but in 1555 we hear of his election as a Student of Christchurch, Oxford. In the following year he was licensed to proceed in Arts. He had a reputation for a knowledge of Hebrew as well as of Latin and Greek, and seems shortly afterwards to have chosen the profession of a schoolmaster, making his way to London about 1558 or 1559.

In 1560 the Guild of Merchant Taylors decided to establish the well-known day Grammar School for boys which still bears their name, and in the following year Mulcaster was appointed the first headmaster, having charge of two hundred and fifty scholars, with the assistance of three undermasters. The school hours were from 7 to 11 a.m. and from 1 to 5 p.m., with one half holiday in the week, besides the ordinary church festival days, and for this the headmaster received the salary of £10 (equivalent to £80 or £100 now), besides a dwelling in the school and a small sum from entrance fees. He was granted twenty days’ leave of absence in the year, but was not allowed to hold any other office, though his appointment was only held from year to year.

The reputation Mulcaster had already gained as a teacher before his appointment is shown in the fact that the post was offered to him without his application, and that he accepted it only after some hesitation, when he was promised an additional £10 of salary, on the private and personal guarantee of one of the Governors. He held the position for twenty-five years, and his successful conduct of the school is fully attested by the verdict of eminent scholars who acted as examiners, by the expressions of satisfaction in the minutes of the Council, and by the testimony of the pupils themselves, many of whom attained distinction in after-life.

Of Mulcaster’s scholars at Merchant Taylors’ School the most famous was Edmund Spenser, but in the absence of any reference to his teacher by the poet, we have to be content with the direct evidence of Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, and Sir James Whitelock, Justice of the King’s Bench. Of the former it is recorded that he ever loved and honoured his former headmaster, befriending him and his son after him, and keeping his portrait over the door of his study. The latter tells us that Mulcaster besides instructing him well in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was careful to increase his skill in music, and chose him to act with other scholars in the plays he presented at Court, by which means the boys were taught good manners and self-confidence. The account of him in Fuller’s Worthies may perhaps represent the impressions of less gifted scholars—Atropos might be persuaded to pity, as soon as he to pardon, where he found just fault. The prayers of cockering mothers prevailed with him as much as the requests of indulgent fathers, rather increasing than mitigating his severity on their offending child.... Others have taught as much learning with fewer lashes, yet his sharpness was the better endured, because impartial, and many excellent scholars were bred under him.

But while Mulcaster was building up securely the reputation of the school, his own position was not always comfortable, and in the end the friction between himself and the governing body became so great that he felt constrained to resign the headmastership. This was no doubt partly due to his own somewhat hasty and masterful temper, for on one occasion at least it is recorded in the minutes of the Council that he had made open apology for things said and done in anger, but there were more lasting causes of dispute. After the first eight years the promised supplement to his official income was no longer forthcoming, apparently owing to the declining circumstances of the member of the Council who had contributed it, and Mulcaster having on the strength of this extra sum increased the salary of his first assistant, conceived that he was entitled to its continuance from the Company. There were besides disputes between the Council and the authorities of St. John’s College, Oxford, where its founder, a member of the Guild, had reserved certain free places for orphans coming from the school, and in these Mulcaster was involved. While the Council seems to have acted throughout within its rights, and in the end showed a desire to deal even generously with its headmaster, it is easy to understand the difficulties of the situation, especially to a man like Mulcaster, whose natural impatience of control would not be diminished by his evident sense that in birth as well as in learning he was above his official superiors. So necessary did he feel it to regain his freedom that in 1586 he tendered his resignation, without apparently having any definite prospect of other work.

During the next ten years scarcely anything is known of Mulcaster’s life, except that he was in straitened circumstances. By 1588 his claim on the Merchant Taylors’ Guild had been adjusted by a compromise, and friendly relations must have been restored, for we find him acting as examiner to the School in that year. For part of this time at least he was out of London, for he seems to have been for a year vicar of Cranbrook in Kent, and he was afterwards granted by the Queen the prebend of Yatesbury, in the diocese of Salisbury.

In 1596 came a return of prosperity in a settled position. The headmaster of St. Paul’s School, which had been founded at the beginning of the century by John Colet, and bequeathed by him to the management of the Silk Mercers’ Guild, had resigned his post, as a result of similar differences with the governing body to those which occurred in the Merchant Taylors’ School, and Mulcaster, whatever misgivings he may have had, had learned enough from his recent experience not to decline the vacant office when it was offered to him. He was already in his sixty-fourth year when he received the appointment, and he continued to hold it till he was seventy-six. The conditions were much the same as those under which he had formerly worked, the statutes of St. Paul’s School having indeed served as a model to the later foundation, but the number of scholars was limited to 153, and the salary of the headmaster was £36 (equal to about £300 now), in addition to a residence in the school. In 1602 the salaries of all the teachers were doubled, in recompense for certain restrictions imposed by a new set of regulations, and when Mulcaster resigned his position in 1608, presumably on account of failing strength, he received a yearly pension of £66 3s. 4d. until his death three years later. There is little to record of his labours during his twelve years’ service at St. Paul’s School, the only outstanding event being in connection with the accession of James I. in 1603. It was the privilege of his scholars to welcome the Sovereign to the capital, and we read that on this occasion a Latin speech, prepared by the headmaster, was delivered by one of the scholars at the door of the School.

It is painful to learn that the closing years of Mulcaster’s life were clouded by distressing poverty. Nor is this easy to understand, for besides his pension, he was not without resources. He had some time before been granted by Queen Elizabeth the living of Stanford Rivers in Essex, but had been precluded from entering on it while he remained at St. Paul’s School. On his retirement from the headmastership he took up the duties of his country charge, notwithstanding his advanced age, though without striking success, according to Fuller’s account: I have heard from those who have heard him preach that his sermons were not excellent, which to me seems no wonder, partly because there is a different discipline in teaching children and men, partly because such who make divinity not the choice of their youth but the refuge of their age seldom attain to eminency therein. In spite of these two sources of income we find Mulcaster in 1609 making a pitiful but unsuccessful appeal to his old patrons, the Merchant Taylors, and when he died two years later he left his son burdened with debts, from which he was only relieved by the aid of some of his father’s former scholars, and of the two Guilds under which he had served. His wife had died two years before him, after fifty years of wedded life, and her virtues are recorded in a commemorative tablet.

Mulcaster’s educational writings were produced towards the close of the period spent at Merchant Taylors’ School, the Positions appearing in 1581, and the First Part of the Elementarie in 1582. The completion of the latter, and the further works promised on higher education, were never accomplished. He also wrote numerous Latin verses, including an address to Queen Elizabeth at the Kenilworth pageant of 1575, and a catechism, also in Latin, for the use of his pupils at St. Paul’s School, while he is mentioned as the author of a work entitled Cato Christianus, which has not come down to us.

All the sources of information regarding Mulcaster’s life and writings have been collected and compared with exhaustive industry by Dr. Theodor Klähr in a pamphlet entitled Leben und Werke Richard Mulcaster’s (Dresden, 1893).

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THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF

RICHARD MULCASTER

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The Method of Treatment.

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Whosoever shall consider carefully the manner of bringing up children which is in general favour within this realm, cannot but agree with me in wishing that it were improved. I do not think it well, however, in this place to lay bare its special defects, because I am in hope of seeing them healed without so strong a measure. If I should seek to expose all the inconveniences which are experienced between parents and schoolmasters, and between teachers and learners; if I should refer to all the difficulties through which the education and upbringing of children is seriously impaired, I might revive causes of annoyance, and thereby make the evils worse. And even though I were to remedy them, the patient might bear in mind how churlishly he was cured, and though he should pay well for the healing, he might be ill-satisfied with the treatment. Wherefore in mending things that are amiss, I take that to be the most advisable way which saveth the man without making the means unpleasant. If without entering into controversies I set down what seems to me on reasonable grounds to be the right course as being not only the best, but most within compass, the wrong course will forthwith show itself by comparison, and will thus receive a check without any need for fault-finding.

The Purpose of Writing.

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I have taught in public now without interruption for two-and-twenty years, and have always had a very great charge committed to my hands, my fulfilment of which I leave to an impartial judgment. During this time, both through what I have seen in teaching so long, and what I have tried in training up so many, I well perceive that, with the disadvantages which myself and other teachers have been subject to, none of us have been able to do as much as we might. I believe I have not only learned what these disadvantages are, but have discerned how they may be removed, so that I and all others may be able to do much more good than heretofore. And as I write for the common good I appeal to the reader’s courtesy to give me credit for good intentions, though my hopes should not be realised. For I am only doing what is open to all, namely, to give public utterance to my personal convictions, and to claim indulgence for what is intended for the general good. As I am myself ready to give favourable consideration to others who do the same, I expect any who make use of my work to their own profit to give me credit for it, and those who get no benefit from it at least to sympathise with me in meeting so little success for my good intentions. I may be told—You are alone in raising this matter; you do but trouble yourself; you cannot turn aside the course, which is old and well-established, and therefore very strong for you to strive against. This thing which you recommend is not every man’s wares; it will not be compassed. Do you let it alone; if you must needs write, turn your pen to other matters which the State will like better, which this age will readily approve of, which you may urge with credit if they be new and suitable, or confirm with praise if they be old and need repeating.

If such objections were not invariably raised to all attempts to turn either from bad to good, or from good to better, I would answer them carefully, but now I need not, for in order to gain any advantage he who wishes to have it must be prepared to wrestle for it, both in speech and in writing, against the corruption of his age, against the loneliness of attempt, against party prejudice, against the difficulties of performance. Nor must he be discouraged by any ordinary thwarting, which is a thing well known to experienced students, and of least account where it is best known, however fearful a thing it may seem to timid fancies to stem corruption and strive against the stream. For the stream will turn when a stronger tide returns, and even if there be no tide, yet an untiring effort will make way against it till it prevails. And surely it were more honourable for some one, or some few, to hazard their own credit and estimation for the time in favour of a thing which they know to be deserving of support, though it may not be held of much account, than through too timorous a concession to public opinion, which, in spite of its influence, is not always the soundest, to leave excellent causes without defence if they be opposed. For may it not fall out that such a thing as this will be called for hereafter, though at present it may be out of favour, because something else is in fashion? I had rather, therefore, that it were ready then to be of use when it is wished, than that posterity should be defrauded of a thing so passing good, for fear of its being disliked at the first setting forth.

Reasons for Writing in English.

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I write in my natural English tongue, because though I appeal to the learned, who understand Latin, I wish to reach also the unlearned, who understand only English, and whose interests are to be the more considered that they have fewer chances of information. The parents and friends with whom I have to deal are for the most part no Latinists, and even if they were, yet we understand that tongue best to which we are first born, and our first impression is always in English before we render it into Latin. And in recommending a new method of attaining an admitted benefit, should we not make use of all the helps we can to make ourselves understood? He that understands no Latin can understand English, and he that understands Latin very well can understand English far better, if he will confess the truth, however proud he may be of his Latinity. When my subject requires Latin I will not then spare it, as far as my knowledge allows, but till it do, I will serve my country in the way that I think will be most intelligible to her.

First Principles.

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My purpose is to help the whole business of teaching, even from the very first foundation, that is to say, not only what is given in the Grammar School, and what follows afterwards, but also the elementary training which is given to infants from their first entrance, until they are thought fit to pass on to the Grammar School. In my manner of proceeding I propose to follow the precedent of those learned authors who have treated with most credit of this and similar subjects, in first laying down certain principles to which all readers will agree. By this means it is possible to pass on to the end without challenge, or if any difficulty should arise, it can always be resolved by a reference to these principles. In mathematics, which offers the best model of method to all the other sciences, before any problem or theorem is presented, there are set down certain definitions, postulates, axioms, to which