ASCHAM, ROGER (c. 1515-1568), English scholar and writer, was born at Kirby Wiske, a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near Northallerton, and was educated in the house of Sir Humphry Wingfield, who became speaker of the House of Commons in 1533. Sir Humphry "ever loved and used to have many children brought up in his house," where they were under a tutor named R. Bond. Their sport was archery, and Sir Humphry "himself would at term times bring down from London both bows and shafts and go with them himself to the field and see them shoot." Hence Ascham's earliest English work, the Toxophilus, the importance which he attributed to archery in educational es tablishments, and probably the provision for archery in the stat utes of St. Albans, Harrow and other Elizabethan schools.
From this private tuition Ascham was sent "about 1530," at the age, it is said, of 15, to St. John's College, Cambridge, then the largest and most learned college in either university. He re mained there for some time after taking his degree, and became the first regius professor of Greek in 154o. He was also letter writer to the university, and became public orator in 1546. In he wrote Toxophilus, which he presented to Henry VIII. at Greenwich soon after his triumphant return from the capture of Boulogne. He was rewarded by the grant of a pension of L 1 o a year, equal to some L200 of our money. A novelty of the book was that the author had "written this Englishe matter in the Englishe tongue for Englishe men," though he thought it neces sary to defend himself by the argument that what "the best of the realm think it honest to use" he "ought not to suppose it vile for him to write." It is a Platonic dialogue between Toxophilus and Philologus, and its chief interest for us lies in its incidental remarks. It may probably claim to have been the model for Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler.
.Shortly after the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., Ascham made public profession of Protestant opinions in a disputation on the doctrine of the Mass, begun in his own college and then re moved for greater publicity to the public schools of the university, where it was stopped by the vice-chancellor. Thereon Ascham wrote a letter of complaint to Sir William Cecil. This stood him in good stead. In Jan. 1548, Grindal, the Princess Elizabeth's tutor, died. Through Cecil and at the princess's own wish, Ascham was selected as her tutor against another candidate pressed by Admiral Seymour and Queen Katherine. He taught Elizabeth— then 16 years old—for two years, chiefly at Cheshunt. In 155o Ascham quarreled with Elizabeth's steward and returned to Cam bridge, when Sir John Cheke procured him the secretaryship to Sir Richard Morrison (Moryson), appointed ambassador to Charles V. It was on his way to join Morrison that he paid his celebrated morning call on Lady Jane Grey at Bradgate, where he found her reading Plato's Phaedo, while every one else was out hunting.
The embassy went to Louvain and then to Innsbruck and Venice. Ascham read Greek with the ambassador four or five days a week. His letters during the embassy, which was recalled on Mary's accession, were published in English in 1553, as a "Report" on Germany. Through Bishop Gardiner he was appointed Latin sec retary to Queen Mary with a pension of £20 a year. His Protes tantism he must have quietly sunk, though he told Sturm that "some endeavoured to hinder the flow of Gardiner's benevolence on account of his religion." In 1555 he resumed his studies with Princess Elizabeth, and soon after Elizabeth's accession, on Oct. 5, 1559, he was given, though a layman, the canonry and prebend of Wetwang in York minster.
In 1563 he began the work which has made him famous, The Scholemaster. The occasion of it was, he tells us (though he is perhaps merely imitating Boccaccio), that during the "great plague" at London in 1563 the court was at Windsor, and there on Dec. 10 he was dining with Sir William Cecil, secretary of state, and other ministers. Cecil said he had "strange news ; that divers scholars of Eaton be run away from the schole for fear of beating"; and expressed his wish that "more discretion was used by school-masters in correction than commonly is." A debate took place, the party being pretty evenly divided between floggers and anti-floggers, with Ascham as the champion of the latter. Afterwards Sir Richard Sackville, the treasurer, came up to Ascham and told him that "a fond schoolmaster" had, by his brutality, made him hate learning, much to his loss, and as he had now a young son, whom he wished to be learned, he offered, if Ascham would name a tutor, to pay for the education of their respective sons under Ascham's orders, and invited Ascham to write a treatise on "the right order of teaching." The Schole master was the result. It is not a general treatise on educational method, but "a' plaine and perfite way of teachyng children to understand, write and speake in Latin tong"; and it was not in tended for schools, but "specially prepared for the private bryng ing up of youth in gentlemen and noblemens houses." The perfect way simply consisted in "the double translation of a model book"; the book recommended by this professional letter-writer being "Sturmius' Select Letters of Cicero." As a method of learning a language by a single pupil, this system (which seems to have been taken from Cicero himself) might be useful; as a method of education in school nothing more deadening could be conceived. Nor was the famous plea for the substitution of gentleness and persuasion for coercion and flogging in schools, which has been one of the main attractions of the book, novel. But Ascham's was the first definite demonstration in favour of humanity written in the vulgar tongue and in an easy style by a weli-known "educationist." What largely con tributed to its fame was its picture of Lady Jane Grey, whose love of learning was due to her finding her tutor a refuge from pinching, ear-boxing and bullying parents ; some exceedingly good criticisms of various authors, and a spirited defence of English as a vehicle of thought and literature, of which it was itself an excellent ex ample. The book was not published till after Ascham's death, which took place Dec. 23, 1568, owing to a chill caught by sitting up all night to finish a New Year's poem to the queen.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Ascham's letters were collected and published in Bibliography.-Ascham's letters were collected and published in 1576, and went through several editions ; they were re-edited by William Elstob in 1703. His English works were edited by James Bennett with a life by Dr. Johnson in 1771, reprinted in 1815. Dr. Giles in 1864-65 published select letters with the Toxophilus and Scholemaster and the life by Edward Grant. Prof. Edward Arber edited The Scholemaster in 187o, and republished the Toxophilus in 1902.