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INTRODUCTION-- PAGE

J. L. Vives: A Scholar of the Renascence vii

Home and School Life xxiii

Subject-matter and Style xxxii

Popularity xxxiv

Euphrosynus Lapinus xxxvi

Style xxxvi

Vives as a Precursor of the Drama xxxvii

Vives' Idea of the School xxxix

Games xli

Nature Study xliv

Wine-drinking and Water-drinking xlv

The Vernacular xlvi

The Educational Ideal of Vives xlviii

DIALOGUES

INDEX 243

INTRODUCTION

J. L. VIVES: A SCHOLAR OF THE RENASCENCE

Vives states that he had the intention of writing a "book of her acts and her life," and no one who reads the foregoing passage will be otherwise than regretful that he failed to carry out this purpose. As it is, we must content ourselves with another passage.

The spirit of scholasticism reigned supreme in the Valencian Academy when Vives was a pupil. The dominant subject of study was dialectic, and the all-controlling method of education was the disputation. Vives thus received a thorough drilling in dialectic and disputation. When Vives became a convert to the Renascence interest of literature and grammar, he was thus well prepared by his experience in the Valencian Academy for an effective onslaught on the old disputational methods. How deeply interwoven these methods were in the school instruction may be seen in Vives' own words:--

"Even the youngest scholars are accustomed never to keep silence; they are always asserting vigorously whatever comes uppermost in their minds, lest they should seem to be giving up the dispute. Nor does one disputation or even two each day prove sufficient, as for instance at dinner. They wrangle at breakfast; they wrangle after breakfast; before supper they wrangle, and they wrangle after supper.... At home they dispute, out of doors they dispute. They wrangle over their food, in the bath, in the sweating-room, in the church, in the town, in the country, in public, in private; at all times they are wrangling."

In 1509 Vives went to Paris to continue his studies. Amongst the teachers under whom he studied here was the Spanish John Dullard. Vives tells us that Dullard used to say: Quanto eris melior grammaticus, tanto pejus dialecticus et theologus! Nevertheless, Paris had awakened Vives to the unsatisfactory nature of a one-sided training in dialectic. In 1512 he proceeded to Bruges. He became tutor in a Spanish family, by name Valdaura. One of the daughters, Margaret, whom he taught, he afterwards married. He speaks of the mother of the family, Clara Cervant, in the highest terms, and regarded her--next to his own mother--as the highest example of womanly devotion to duty he had ever known, for she had nursed her husband, it is said, from their marriage day for many years through a severe and obstinate illness. Whilst at Bruges his thoughts gathered strength in the direction of the Renascence. In 1514 he suggests that Ferdinand of Spain would do well to get Erasmus as tutor in his family, for he says Erasmus is known to him personally, and is all that is dear and worthy. It is thus certain that Vives was confirmed by Erasmus in the study of classical literature as transcending all the old mediaeval educational disciplines.

From 1512 onwards, with breaks, Vives' main quarters were in Flanders, at Bruges or Louvain, at the former of which was the residence of many of his Spanish compatriots. One of these breaks of residence was in 1514 at Paris, another at Lyons in 1516. In 1518 Vives was at Lyons, where he was entrusted with the education of William de Croy, Cardinal designate and Archbishop of Toledo. The course of instruction which he gave was founded on a thorough reading of the ancient authors and instruction in rhetoric and philosophy. At Lyons, too, Vives met Erasmus. "Here we have with us," writes Erasmus in one of his letters, "Luis Vives, who has not passed his twenty-sixth year of age. Young as he is, there is no part of philosophy in which he does not possess a knowledge which far outstrips the mass of students. His power of expression in speech and writing is such as I do not know any one who can be declared his equal at the present time." In 1519 Vives was at Paris, where he became personally acquainted with the great William Bud?. Of him Vives, in one of his letters to Erasmus, writes, "What a man! One is astounded at him whether we consider his knowledge, his character, or his good fortune." But more interesting to English readers, is a letter about this time of Sir Thomas More on seeing some of the published work of Vives himself. He says: "Certainly, my dear Erasmus, I am ashamed of myself and my friends, who take credit to ourselves for a few brochures of a quite insignificant kind, when I see a young man like Vives producing so many well-digested works, in a good style, giving proof of an exquisite erudition. How great is his knowledge of Greek and Latin; greater still is the way in which he is versed in branches of knowledge of the first rank. Who in this respect is there who surpasses Vives in the quantity and depth of his knowledge? But what is most admirable of all is that he should have acquired all this knowledge so as to be able to communicate it to others by instruction. For who instructs more clearly, more agreeably, or more successfully than Vives?"

At this point may be stated the chief works which Vives so far had written:--

THE POVERTY OF THE VERNACULAR LITERATURE BEFORE THE TUDOR PERIOD

It is difficult to realise the position of the student of literature in England in the first half of the sixteenth century. The whole wealth of the Elizabethan writers, and all their successors in the Ages of Milton, of Dryden and Pope, of Samuel Johnson, of Charles Lamb, of Shelley, Byron, and Wordsworth, and the large range of Victorian literature, all this had to come. The modern man, therefore, must confess that it was not to English literature that the Tudor student could look for the material of education. Even if it be justifiable to claim that modern literature is a more fruitful study than ancient literature, for the ordinary man, the question remains: How was the ordinary educated man to be trained in the earlier Tudor Age, when the time of great modern literature was "not yet"?

Before we can understand the function served by a Latin text-book of boys' dialogues like the work of Vives translated in this volume, we must, therefore, first realise the poverty of the vernacular literature of periods anterior to the sixteenth century, and the consequent delight of scholars in finding Latin and Greek literature ready to hand.

The Renascence influence, then, attempted on the educational side to bring the pupils of the schools away from the jargon and barbarism of current Latin to the classical Latin of Terence and Cicero. The Renascence leaders had the courage to hope to bring this reform even into the ordinary conversation of educated men and women in their speaking of Latin.

THE DEDICATION OF THE SCHOOL-DIALOGUES OF VIVES:

"Vives to Philip, son and heir to the august Emperor Charles, with all good will.

"Very great are the uses of the Latin language both for speaking and thinking rightly. For that language is as it were the treasure-house of all erudition, since men of great and outstanding minds have written on every branch of knowledge in the Latin speech. Nor can any one attain to the knowledge of these subjects except by first learning Latin. For which reason I shall not grudge, though engaged in the pursuit of higher researches, to set myself to help forward to some degree the elementary studies of youth. I have, in these Dialogues, written a first book of practice in speaking the Latin language as suitable as possible, I trust, to boys. It has seemed well to dedicate it to thee, Boy-Prince, both because of thy father's goodwill to me, in the highest degree, and also because I shall deserve well of my country, that is, Spain, if I should help in the forming of sound morals in thy mind. For our country's health is centred in thy soundness and wisdom. But thou wilt hear more fully and often enough on these matters from John Martinius Siliceus, thy teacher."

OF THE DIALOGUES

The German historian of Latin School-Dialogues, Dr. B?mer, speaks of the characteristic power of Vives in introducing, in relatively short space, the ordinary daily life of boys, and tracking it into the smallest corners. "If a boy is putting on his clothes, we learn every single article of clothing, and all the topics of toilettes and the names of each object . When two school-boys pay a visit to a stranger's house, we have shown to us its whole inner arrangement by an expert guide . Interesting observations are made on the different parts of the human body by a painter, Albert D?rer . With a banquet as the occasion, we are introduced to the equipment of a dining-room , with ordinary kinds of foods and drinks , and if we like we can betake ourselves to the cook in the kitchen and watch the direction of operations . We are told in another Dialogue of a man's fear to go home to his wife after too liberal a banquet, and how she would entertain him with longer homilies than those of St. Chrysostom. When a company of scholars wish to make a distant excursion, all kinds of horses and carriages, with their trappings, are presented to the notice of the reader ." Then, to show us life under the most favourable of circumstances, Vives gives a dialogue on the King's Palace .

Whilst the general environments of boys' lives are thus pourtrayed in considerable detail, Vives is particularly careful to show boys the general features and significance of home and school life, and regards it as part of his duty to expound, in the last two dialogues, some general guiding principles of education for the boys, their teachers, and readers of the book to ponder over.

HOME AND SCHOOL LIFE

It will thus be seen that the idea of co-operation and consultation of parents and teachers is no new one. But the enthusiasm of the parent, depicted by Vives, to recompense the teacher "richly" can hardly be said to have continued, if it existed in the Tudor age, outside of Vives' generous heart.

The next dialogue shows how boys loitered on the way to school, their difference in powers, and in the practice of observations and the self-training of the senses and wits in the streets, such as made R. L. Stevenson wonder if the truant from school did not gain more by his self-chosen though casual wanderings than if he had gone orderly to school.

The Brugensian boy has been under John Theodore Nervius, and this becomes the occasion for a compliment to that schoolmaster. Bruges, too, we have seen, was the town in which Vives himself spent a considerable portion of his adult life. He does not hesitate to introduce himself, humorously, into this dialogue on school-boys' meals.

In this dialogue of school-boy meals, Vives has given samples of conversational topics, and their due treatment, in the presence of masters and in regular daily routine. In the next dialogue , called "Pupils' Chatter," boys are out of doors, and a series of nineteen "stories" or topics of conversation get started. The subjects are of interest in showing the type of incidents which boys were supposed to introduce into conversation, and though didactic in tendency, certainly do not favour the supposition that school-boys were supposed to be absorbed in the study of recondite classical subtleties, or even in purely Ciceronian subjects.

In this dialogue, "The Boy Prince," are the interlocutors, Prince Philip and the two counsellor-teachers, Morobulus and Sophobulus. Morobulus is a fawning sycophant, who advises Philip to "ride about, chat with the daughters of your august mother, dance, learn the art of bearing arms, play cards or ball, leap and run." But as for the study of literature, why, that is for men of "holy" affairs, priests or artisans, who want technical knowledge. Get plenty of fresh air. Philip replies that he cannot follow all this advice without opposing his tutors, Stunica and Siliceus. Morobulus points out that these tutors are subjects of Philip, or at any rate of Philip's father. Philip observes that his father has placed them over him. Morobulus advises resistance to them. Sophobulus urges, on the contrary, that if Philip does not obey them, he will become a "slave of the worst order, worse than those who are bought and sold from Ethiopia or Africa and employed by us here."

Sophobulus then shows, by three similitudes, that safety in actions and in the events of life depends upon knowledge and study. First, he proposes a game in which one is elected king. "The rest are to obey according to the rules of the game." Let Philip be king. But Philip inquires as to the nature of the game. If he does not know the game, he inquires, how can he take the part of king in it?

Secondly, Philip is invited to ride the ferocious Neapolitan steed, well known for its kicking proclivities. Eleven-year-old Philip declines, because he has not as yet learned the art of managing a refractory horse, and has not got the strength to master such a horse.

Thirdly, Philip is offered, and declines, the r?le of pilot of a boat, which has lately been overturned by an unskilled helmsman.

The young prince is thus led to recognise that for playing games rightly, for riding properly, for directing a boat safely, in all these cases adequate knowledge and skill is necessary. He himself is led to suggest that for governing his kingdom it will be necessary for him to acquire the knowledge of the art and skill of sound government, and that this knowledge can only be gained by assiduous study and learning. Sophobulus leads the young prince, further, to the recognition that helpful wisdom can be learned from "monitors" like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Plutarch. Philip asks: "How can we learn from the dead? Can the dead speak?" "Yes," is the reply. "These very men and others like them, departed from this earth, will talk to you as often and as much as you like."

Surely Vives has chosen an attractive and reasonable way of presenting the significance of literature to the child. He uses a further illustration in urging the study of the words and writings of wise men. "Imagine that over the river yonder there was a narrow plank as bridge, and that every one told you that as many as rode on horseback and attempted thus to cross it had fallen into the water, and were in danger of their lives, and, moreover, with difficulty they had been dragged out half dead.... Would not, in such a case, a man seem to you to be demented, who, taking that journey, did not get off from his horse and escape from the danger in which the others had fallen?"

SUBJECT-MATTER AND STYLE

POPULARITY

J. T. Freigius, in the preface to his edition of 1582, tells us that the dialogues of Vives were read in his time "in well-nigh every school." B?mer quotes orders for the government of ten grammar schools in Germany, between 1564 and 1661, in which the dialogues of Vives were prescribed. In England they were required to be read at Eton College in 1561, at Westminster School about 1621, at Shrewsbury School 1562-1562, at Rivington Grammar School 1564, and Hertford Grammar School 1614. These ascertained and official instances are probably typical of very many others, both in England and abroad, of which the traces are lost.

THE GREEK WORDS IN VIVES' DIALOGUES

EUPHROSYNUS LAPINIUS

STYLE

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