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Graunt exerts his rhetorical powers in praise of Ascham's disinterestedness and contempt of money; and declares, that, though he was often reproached by his friends with neglect of his own interest, he never would ask any thing, and inflexibly refused all presents which his office or imagined interest induced any to offer him.
The next body of letters Ascham's which seems to call for notice here is of the next century. It has not a few points of appeal, more than one of which concern us very nearly.
He cleared his throat slowly; then he turned his head to the lawyer and said: "I could explain the Lenman murder myself." Ascham's eye kindled: he shared Granice's interest in criminal cases. "By Jove! You've had a theory all this time? It's odd you never mentioned it. Go ahead and tell me. There are certain features in the Lenman case not unlike this Ashgrove affair, and your idea may be a help."
What was the effect of his widow's dedication to Cecil, is not known: it may be hoped that Ascham's works obtained for his family, after his decease, that support which he did not, in his life, very plenteously procure them. Whether he was poor by his own fault, or the fault of others, cannot now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less merit.
"This is a republication of a dull, profligate Haywoodian production, in which all the males are rogues, and all the females whores, without a glimpse of plot, fable, or sentiment." In its uncompromising literalness the critic's verdict ranks with the learned Ascham's opinion of the "Morte D'Arthur," except that it has not been superseded.
Ascham's book, therefore, lay unseen in his study, and was, at last, dedicated to lord Cecil by his widow. Ascham never had a robust or vigorous body, and his excuse for so many hours of diversion was his inability to endure a long continuance of sedentary thought.
He wrote several dramas, most of which are on classical and mythological subjects, including Campaspe and Sapho and Phao , Endymion , and Midas . His chief fame, however, rests on his two didactic romances, Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit , and Euphues and his England . These works, which were largely inspired by Ascham's Toxophilus, and had the same objects in view, viz., the reform of education and manners, exercised a powerful, though temporary, influence on the language, both written and spoken, commemorated in our words "euphuism" and "euphuistic."
The Compleat Angler, though not the first piece of sporting literature in English, is unquestionably the most popular, and still remains a favorite with "all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in Providence, and be quiet, and go a-angling." As in Ascham's Toxophilus, the instruction is conveyed in dialogue form, but the technical part of the book is relieved by many delightful digressions.
But of course the humanists pushed the matter too far. Pendulums do not reach the repose of the mean without many tos and fros. Elegance is good, but the art of reasoning is not to be neglected. Of the length to which they went Ascham's method of instruction in the Scholemaster is a good example.
We miss, in eighteenth century accounts, the gaiety of Roger Ascham's Report of Germany and of the fair barge with goodly glass windows in which he went up the Rhine gaiety which does not fail even when he had to spend the night in the barge, with his tired head on his saddle for a bolster.
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