GIRLHOOD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 165 beautiful nand. Readers who have seen the writing of Queen Elizabeth must have noticed how elegantly and clearly she wrote ; and it was from Roger Ascham that she learned how to use the pen so well. The princess, when she was a young lady, remembered with pleasure her old writing master, and William Grin- dall frequently wrote to his tutor at the University, ask- ing his advice how to proceed with his distinguished pupil. The consequence was that when Grindall suddenly died of the plague, the princess asked that Roger Ascham might be appointed his successor. Her request was granted; Ascham resigned a Cambridge professorship, and went to live at the court of the princess. He was one of the most learned and accomplished men then living ; an excellent mathematician, well versed in the Greek language, an enthusiast for Greek art and learning, a musician, a man of wit, taste, and agreeable conversation. The princess became warmly attached to him, and, with some intervals, he remained in her service all the rest of his life. There was a great revival of learning in England then, and many a promising child fell a victim to the excessive zeal of teachers. Elizabeth's own brother, the young King Edward, probably owed his premature death to this cause. He was early put to studying the works of Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, Plato, Cicero, Seneca, and a long list of other authors, Greek and Latin, pagan and Christian. The poor, sickly little king was crammed to death. Five times a week, we are told, his tutor and himself studied together in the morn- ing, Herodotus, Isocrates, and Demosthenes, and in the afternoon, by way of recreation, they translated one of the Greek tragedies. Roger Ascham, alive to the danger of dealing thus with the tender mind of youth, pursued an opposite course, and with such success that his royal pupil became one of
