12 THE ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETHQRYKE
" AD LEONARDUM COXUM.
Inclyta Sarmaticae Cracouia gloria gentis,
Virtutes novit Coxe diserte tuas. Novit et eloquii phoenix utriusque Melanchthon,
Quam te Phoebus arnet, Pieriiis^#<f chorus. Praga tuas cecinit, cecinitque Lutetia laudes,
Urbs erga doctos officiosa viros. Talia cum constent, genetrix tua propria debet
Anglia te simili concelebrare modo. Et faciet, nam me cantantem nuper adorta
Hoc ipsum jussit significare tibi." 1
In or about 1530, then, Cox was appointed master of the gram- mar school of Reading, Berks, under the patronage of the Abbot
Hugh Faringdon, a man of some prominence in the Schoolmaster . . , ,
, . political and religious affairs of the day. And soon
afterwards Cox was incorporated at Oxford, receiving his B.A. degree there Feb. 19, 1530 N. S. Cox appears to have remained at Reading as schoolmaster, with occasional journeys elsewhere connected with other matters, from 1530 to 1541.
In or about 1530 also I date conjecturally the first edition of Cox's Rhetoric, for the reasons given above. The second edition appeared in 1532, with a few slight changes, to be noted further on.
In 1530 appeared John Palsgrave's " L'Esclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse," in which occur two sets of prefatory Latin verses written by Cox, 2 the first being headed " LEONARD: Coxi Readingiensis ludi moderatoris, ad Gallicae linguae studiosos, Car- men," while the second are complimentary verses " Eiusdem Coxi ad eruditum virum GEFRIDUM TROY de Burges Gallum."
In 1532 we hear of Cox again at Reading. About the middle of this year John Frith the martyr, venturing back to England after
his long exile abroad, visited Reading, where on his Cox Aids the arriyal he was set in the stocks Cox sa s Wood, Protestant Frith " wno soon discovered his merit by his conversation,
relieved his wants, and out of regard to his learning
1 " Principum, ac illustrium aliquot, & eruditorum in Anglia virorum Encomia, Trophaea, Genethliaca, et P'pithalamia. A Joanne Lelando Antiquario conscripta, nunc primum in lucem edita." London 1589. Page 50. "Lutetia" of course is Paris.
2 Cited infra, p. 20
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