As Lydgate (born at Lydgate in Suffolk, six or seven miles from Newmarket) was ordained subdeacon in the Benedictine monastery of Bury St Edmunds in 13891, he was probably sent as a boy to a monastic school. At any rate, as he sketches his early escapadesapple-stealing, playing truant, &c.,-for us in his Testament2, I shall quote the youth's bit of the poem here :— Harleian MS. 2255, fol. 60. Duryng the tyme / of this sesoun ver I meene the sesoun / of my yeerys greene The gerisshe sesoun / straunge of condiciouns [fol. 60 b.]¶ Voyd of resoun/yove to wilfulnesse In my boyhood, up to 15, I loved no work Sauf pley or merthe /straunge to spelle or reede but play, lihtly tournyng wylde / and seelde sad For litil wroth / to stryve with my felawe ¶ I hadde in custom / to come to scole late [fol. 61.] To my bettre / did no reverence 1 Morley's English Writers, vol. ii. Pt. I. p. 421. yet I was afraid I came to school late, talked, lied to get off blame, and mocked my masters. 2 Edited by Mr Halliwell in his 'Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate.' Percy Society, 1840, quoted by Prof. Morley. 3 strecched. (These collations are from Harl. 218, fol. 65, back.) 4 toke. 5 skoured. xliv I stole apples and grapes, played tricks and mocked people, liked counting cherry-stones better than church. Late to rise, I was; dirty at dinner, deaf to the snubbings of my friends, [fol. 61 b.] reckless in God's service, chief shammer of illness when I was well, always unsteady, ill-conducted, sparing none for my pleasure. LYDGATE'S TRICKS AT SCHOOL. wex obstynat/ by inobedience ¶ My lust was al / to scorne folk and iape Than gon to chirche / or heere the sacry7 belle 9 8 Loth to ryse/lother to bedde at eve Made deff ere / lyst nat / to them attende A child resemblyng / which was nat lyk to thryve Cheef bellewedir / of feyned 13 trwaundise At these monastic schools, I suppose, were educated mainly the boys whom the monks hoped would become monks, cleric or secular; mostly the poor, the Plowman's brother who was to be the Parson, not often the ploughman himself. Once, though, made a scholar and monk there, and sent by the Monastery to the University, the workman's, if not the ploughman's, son, might rule nobles and sit by kings, nay, beard them to their face. Thomas a Becket, himself the son of poor parents, was sent to be brought up in the "religious house of the Canons of Merton." In 1392 the writer of Piers Plowman's Crede sketches the then state of things thus: 2 seten to schole, on the book lerne, tatered as a sawe. Now every cobbler's son and beggar's brat turns writer, then Bishop, and lords' sons crouch to him, a cobbler's son ! Now mot ich soutere hys sone They shulden maken [bichopes'] her owen bretheren should make Other of som gentil blod. And so yt best semed, or pecockes y-rosted, God wold her wonyynge were in wildernesse, And fals freres forboden the fayre ladis chaumbres; For knewe lordes her craft treuly I trowe 1 gentlemen and set these to clean ditches, and eat beans and and having women. If Lords but knew They shulden nought haunten her house so ho[m]ly their tricks, on nyghtes, 1 Mr Skeat's readings. The abbot and abbots of Mr Wright's text spoil the alliteration. 2 Compare the previous passages under heading 1, p. vi. 3 May Mr Skeat bring the day when it will be! 4?randes. Sk. xlvi EDUCATION OF FIELD LABOURERS. they'd turn these Ne bedden swich brothels in so brode shetes, beggars into the But sheten her heved in the stre⚫ to sharpen her wittes. straw. There is one side of the picture, the workman's son turned monk, and clerk to a lord. Let us turn to the other side, the ploughman's son who didn't turn monk, whose head was 'shet' in the straw, who delved and ditched, and dunged the earth, eat bread of corn and bran, worts fleshless (vegetables, but no meat), drank water, and went miserably (Crede, 1. 1565-71). What education did he get? To whom could he be apprenticed? What was his chance in life? Let the Statute-Book answer : A.D. 1388. 12° Rich. II., Cap. v. Item. It is ordained & assented, That he or she which used to labour at the Plough and Cart, or other Labour or Service of Husbandry till they be of the Age of Twelve Years, that from thenceforth they shall abide at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond of Apprentie (so) be from henceforth made to the Contrary, the same shall be holden for none. A.D. 1405-6. 7° Henri IV., Cap. xvii. And Whereas in the Statutes made at Canterbury among other Articles it is contained That he or she that useth to labour at the Plough or Cart, or other Labour or Service of Husbandry, till he be of the age of Twelve Years, that from the same time forth he shall abide at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond be made from that time forth to the contrary, it shall be holden for none: Notwithstanding which Article, and the good Statutes afore made through all parts of the Realm, the Infants born within the Towns and Seignories of Upland, whose Fathers & Mothers have no Land nor Rent nor other Living, but only their Service or Mystery, be put by their said Fathers and Mothers and other their Friends to serve, and bound Apprentices, to divers Crafts within the Cities and Boroughs of the said Realm sometime at the Age of Twelve Years, sometime within the said Age, and that for the Pride of Clothing and other evil Customs that Servants do use in the same; so that there is so great Scarcity of Labourers and other Servants of Husbandry that the Gentlemen and other People of the Realm be greatly impoverished for the Cause aforesaid: Our Sovereign Lord the King considering the said Mischief, and willing thereupon to provide Remedy, by the advice & assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and at the request of the said Commons, hath ordained and stablished, That no Man nor Woman, of what Estate or Condition they be, shall put their Son or Daughter, of whatsoever Age he or she be, to Serve as Apprentice to no Craft nor other Labour within any City or Borough in the Realm, except he have Land or Rent to the Value of Twenty Shillings by the Year at the least, but they shall be put to other labours as their Estates doth require, upon Pain of one Year's Imprisonment, and to make Fine and Ransom at the King's Will. And if any Covenant be made of any such Infant, of what Estate that he be, to the contrary, it shall be holden for none. Provided Always, that every Man and Woman, of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall be free to set their Son or Daughter to take Learning at any manner School that pleaseth them within the Realm. A most gracious saving clause truly, for those children who were used to labour at the plough and cart till they were twelve years old.' Let us hope that some got the benefit of it! These Acts I came across when hunting for the Statutes referred to by the Boke of Curtasye as fixing the hire of horses for carriage at fourpence a piece, and they caused me some surprise. They made me wonder less at the energy with which some people now are striving to erect "barriers against democracy" to prevent the return match for the old game coming off.-However improving, and however justly retributive, future legislation for the rich by the poor in the spirit of past legislation for the poor by the rich might be, it could hardly be considered pleasant, and is surely worth putting up the true barrier against, one of education in each poor man's mind. (He who americanizes us thus far will be the greatest benefactor England has had for some ages.)-These Statutes also made me think how the old spirit still lingers in England, how a friend of my own was curate in a Surrey village where the kindhearted squire would allow none of the R's but Reading to be taught in his school; how another clergyman lately reported his Farmers' meeting on the school question: Reading and Writing might be taught, but Arithmetic not; the boys would be getting to know too 1 Later on, men's games were settled for them as well as their trades. In A.D. 1541, the 33 Hen. VIII., cap. 9, § xvi., says, "Be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no manner of Artificer or Craftsman of any Handicraft or Occupation, Husbandman, Apprentice, Labourer, Servant at Husbandry, Journeyman or Servant of Artificer, Mariners, Fishermen, Watermen or any Serving man, shall from the said feast of the Nativity of St John Baptist play at the Tables, Tennis, Dice, Cards, Bowls, Clash, Coyting, Logating, or any other unlawful Game out of Christmas, under the Pain of xx s. to be forfeit for every Time; (2) and in Christmas to play at any of the said Games in their Master's Houses, or in their Master's Presence; (3) and also that no manner of persons shall at any time play at any Bowl or Bowls in open places out of his Garden or Orchard, upon the Pain for every Time so offending to forfeit vi s. viiii d." (For Logating, &c., see Strutt.) |