A.D. was transfusing itself into the veins of Roman B.C.31. literature, the Greeks themselves made no fresh 330. peculiarities of pronunciation that it was taught in the schools and universities of each. In England, down to the close of the fifteenth century, its cultivation had been extremely partial, and almost neglected; so much so, that in 1488, the celebrated William Grocyn, of Bristol, was forced to travel into Italy at the age of forty-six, in order to study Greek under Manuel Chrysoloras.+ Its revival in the reign of Henry VII. was violently resisted by the clergy and others; and at Oxford its partisans and opponents formed themselves into two parties, under the title of Greeks and Trojans, whose contentions continued till the accession of Henry VIII. when his patronage of the new language, aided by that of Cardinal Wolsey, soon brought it into merited and universal repute. rence by Demetrius of Crete, in 1488.-Mill's Theod. Ducas, vol. ii. p. 42, 191, 194, 212. Gibbon, c. lxvi. The earliest specimens of Greek printing in England occur in Linacre's translation of Galen's treatise De Temperamentis, 4to. Cambridge, 1521, where a few words and quotations are introduced.-Horne's Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. i. P. 1, sec. vii. p. 240. * Henry's History of Britain, vol. vi. b. iii. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 92, vol. viii. b. iv. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 174. See a sketch of the introduction and culture of Greek learning in England, Burtonus, Hist. Ling. Græc. p. 31, 50, et seq. and its preservation there, in Schoell, Hist. de la Lit. Gr. v. vii. c. xcix. + Wood's Athen. Oxon. Henry's Britain, vol. x. b. v. c. 4, sec. 1, p. 118. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon.-Hallam, Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. ii. c. ix. P. ii. p. 621. B.C.31. advances towards perfection. Contented to im330. part to others the treasures transmitted to them A.D. The savans of Europe were, however, by no means slow in impugning the errors which they conceived attached to its pronunciation, as transmitted to them by their Constantinopolitan masters, and their doubts were quickly promulgated amongst its cultivators. One of the first assailants of the system was Aldus Manutius, the renowned typographer of Venice; but its most successful antagonist was Gerard, or, as he called himself, in conformity to Hellenic pedantry, Erasmus, whose Dialogus de recta Latini, Græcique sermonis pronunciatione, was followed by a host of literary partisans, Metkerke,† Beza, Ceratinus, and others, who, after a protracted struggle, succeeded in establishing their new mode of reading. In England, the controversy was warmly espoused by Sir John Cheke, a learned professor of Cambridge, in the reign of Henry VIII. In conjunction with Sir Thomas Smith, he resolved on casting out the abomination; and having commenced their reform by the introduction of the purified pronunciation into schools and private seminaries, they at length ventured to broach their new doctrines in the Hall of * Wetstenius du Ling. Græc. pronunc. Oratio, i. p. 7. Αρχαιολογία Ελληνικ. κ. τ. λ. Γρηγ. Ιερομ. Παλιουριτου, tom. ii. κεφ. ΛΖ. p. 313. The essay of Metkerke, or, as he is usually called, Mekerchius, was replied to in an ingenious paper by Gregorius Martinus, entitled, Pro veteri et vera Græcarum Literarum Pronunciatione. 8vo. Oxon. Of the controversies of these philological disputants, a collection has been made in the Sylloge of Sigebert Havercamp. 2 vols. 8vo. Leyden, 1736. by their fathers, they evinced no anxiety to in- B.C.31. crease the learned stores they had inherited; 330. the University. Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who was then Chancellor of Cambridge, set himself with unaccountable virulence against the attempted innovation, and issued an edict against the proceedings of Cheke, which, besides being remarkable for its petulance and bigotry, is curious as an illustration of the mode of pronouncing Greek at that time prevalent in England. "STEPHANUS VINTONIENSIS EPISCOPUS, ACADEMIE CANTABRIGIENSIS CANCELLARIUs; cum mea, tum Senatûs universi auctoritate legitima rogatione ad me delata, quid in literarum sonis ac linguæ tum Græcæ tum Latinæ pronunciatione spectandum, sequendum, tenendum sit, ita edico. Quisquis nostram potestatem agnoscis, sonos literis sive Græcis sive Latinis ab usu publico præsentis seculi alienos, privato judicio affingere ne audeto. "Quod verò ea in re major auctoritas edixerit, jusserit, præceperit, id omnes amplectuntor, et observanto. "Diphthongos Græcas, nedum Latinas, nisi id diæresis exigat, sonis ne deducito, neve divellito, quæsitam usu alteri vocalium prærogativam ne adimito, sed ut marem fœminæ dominari sinito, quæ verò earum in communionem soni usu convenerunt, iis tu negotium ne facessito. “Aι ab ɛ, o et ε ab sono ne distinguito, tantum in orthographia discrimen servato;,, v uno eodemque sono exprimito cujusque tamen propriam in orthographia sedem diligenter notato. "In x et y quoties cum diphthongis aut vocalibus sonos aut referentibus consonantur, quoniam à doctis etiamnum See Strype's Life of Sir Thomas Smith, ch. ii. iii. Ibid. Life of Sir J. Cheke, ch. i. A.D. B.C.31. or if some more ambitious aspirant arose, his 330. efforts bore all the evidence of incipient decay. A.D. in usu variantur, aliis densiorem, aliis tenuiorem sonum affingentibus, utriusque pronuntiationis modum discito, ne aut horum aut illorum aures offendas, neve de sonis litem inutiliter excites: cæterum qui in his sonus à pluribus receptus est, illum frequentato. "B literam ad exemplum nostri b, ne inspissato, sed ad imitationem consonantis mollius proferto. "Literaset, item y et x, pro loco et situ alios atque alios sonos admittere memento: Itaque et tum demum ß quum proxime locantur, hæc post μ, illa post v, his locis videlicet literar referat nostrum d, π verò b nostrum exprimat. "Litera porrò y cum proxima sedem occupet ante x, x, aut aliud γι huic tu non suum, sed sonum literæ accommodato; x autem post y positæ sonum y affingito. บ "Ne multa. In sonis omnino ne philosophator, sed utitor præsentibus. In his si quid emendandum sit, id omne auctoritati permittito. Publicè verò profiteri quod ab auctoritate sancita diversum, et consuetudine loquendi recepta alienum sit, nefas esto. "Quod hic exprimitur, id consuetudini consentaneum ducito, hactenusque pareto. "Si quis autem, quod abominor, secus fecerit, et de sonis (re sanè, si ipsam spectes, levicula; si contentionis inde natæ indignitatem, non ferenda) controversiam publicè moverit, aut obstinato animi proposito receptum à plerisque omnibus sonorum modum abrogare aut improbare perrexerit, quive sciens prudens ad hoc data opera, quod hic sancitum est, verbo factove publicè palàm contempserit, hunc hominem, quisquis is erit, ineptum omnes habento: et à senatu, siquidem ex eo numero jam fuerit, is qui auctoritati præest, nisi A.D. At this period, the taste for Grecian literature B.C.31. at Rome amounted almost to a mania; her 330. resipuerit, expellito. Inter candidatos verò si sit, ab omni gradu honoris arceto. Ex plebe autem scholarium si fuerit, quum ita haberi id ei commodo esse possit, pro scholari ne censeto. Puerilem denique temeritatem, si quid publicè ausa fuerit, domi apud suos castigari curato. Postremò Vicecancellarius et Procuratores quæ hic præscripta sunt ne contemnantur, neve edicto fraus aliqua fiat, pro modo jurisdictionis singuli providento. Ab his si quid adversum hæc admissum sit, aut omissum, mulcta est quam dixerit Cancellarius. In summa, hoc edictum omnes sacrosanctum ita habento, ut nec contumacibus remissum, nec resipiscentibus severum. esse videatur. Datum Londini 18 Calend. Junias, anno Domini 1542." Cheke appealed from the dogmatic Chancellor to the learned men of Europe, and published a series of epistles between the Bishop and himself, in which the gentle spirit of the latter appears to but little advantage. "I have read," commences the Prelate, in an address to the professor, "the treatise which you have transmitted to me, in which I find a copious stream of words, and a redundancy of speech; much reading, too, do I discern, and happiness of memory, besides industry and diligence in the pursuit of common and trivial matters. But know, Sir, that in a professor I look also for judgment and erudition, and condemn that arrogance, presumption, and insolence, which so frequently flow from your pen." In spite, however, of the opposition of the Bishop, the efforts of Cheke and his colleague Smith were successful. The reformation proceeded slowly, but steadily; the pronunciation, as introduced by Chrysoloras and his country • Stephanus Wintonus Episcopus, Acad. Cantab. Cancell. Joh. Cheko, p. 5. |