There Was Still Another Contributory Element To The Growth Of Travel,
One Which Touched Diplomats, Scholars, And Courtiers - The Necessity Of
Learning Modern Languages.
By the middle of the sixteenth century Latin
was no longer sufficient for intercourse between educated people.
In the
most civilized countries the vernacular had been elevated to the dignity
of the classical tongues by being made the literary vehicle of such
poets as Politian and Bembo, Ronsard and Du Bellay. A vernacular
literature of great beauty, too important to be overlooked, began to
spring up on all sides. One could no longer keep abreast of the best
thought without a knowledge of modern languages. More powerful than any
academic leanings was the Renaissance curiosity about man, which could
not be satisfied through the knowledge of Latin only. Hardly anyone but
churchmen talked Latin in familiar conversation with one. When a man
visited foreign courts and wished to enter into social intercourse with
ladies and fashionables, or move freely among soldiers, or settle a bill
with an innkeeper, he found that he sorely needed the language of the
country. So by the time we reach the reign of Edward VI., we find Thomas
Hoby, a typical young gentleman of the period, making in his diary
entries such as these: "Removed to the middes of Italy, to have a better
knowledge of ye tongue and to see Tuscany." "Went to Sicily both to have
a sight of the country and also to absent myself for a while out of
Englishmenne's companie for the tung's sake."[33] Roger Ascham a year or
two later writes from Germany that one of the chief advantages of being
at a foreign court was the ease with which one learned German, French,
and Italian, whether he would or not. "I am almost an Italian myself and
never looks on it." He went so far as to say that such advantages were
worth ten fellowships at St John's.[34]
We have noted how Italy came to be the lode-stone of scholars, and how
courtiers sought the grace which France bestowed, but we have not yet
accounted for the attraction of Germany. Germany, as a centre of travel,
was especially popular in the reign of Edward the Sixth. France went
temporarily out of fashion with those men of whom we have most record.
For in Edward's reign the temper of the leading spirits in England was
notably at variance with the court of France. It was to Germany that
Edward's circle of Protestant politicians, schoolmasters, and chaplains
felt most drawn - to the country where the tides of the Reformation were
running high, and men were in a ferment over things of the spirit; to
the country of Sturm and Bucer, and Fagius and Ursinus - the
doctrinalists and educators so revered by Cambridge. Cranmer, who
gathered under his roof as many German savants as could survive in the
climate of England,[35] kept the current of understanding and sympathy
flowing between Cambridge and Germany, and since Cambridge, not Oxford,
dominated the scholarly and political world of Edward the Sixth, from
that time on Germany, in the minds of the St John's men, such as
Burleigh, Ascham and Hoby, was the place where one might meet the best
learned of the day.
We have perhaps said enough to indicate roughly the sources of the
Renaissance fashion for travel which gave rise to the essays we are
about to discuss. The scholar's desire to specialize at a foreign
university, in Greek, in medicine, or in law; the courtier's ambition to
acquire modern languages, study foreign governments, and generally fit
himself for the service of the State, were dignified aims which in men
of character produced very happy results. It was natural that others
should follow their example. In Elizabethan times the vogue of
travelling to become a "compleat person" was fully established. And
though in mean and trivial men the ideal took on such odd shapes and
produced such dubious results that in every generation there were
critics who questioned the benefits of travel, the ideal persisted.
There was always something, certainly, to be learned abroad, for men of
every calibre. Those who did not profit by the study of international
law learned new tricks of the rapier. And because experience of foreign
countries was expensive and hard to come at, the acquirement of it gave
prestige to a young man.
Besides, underneath worldly ambition was the old curiosity to see the
world and know all sorts of men - to be tried and tested. More powerful
than any theory of education was the yearning for far-off, foreign
things, and the magic of the sea.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II
THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THE ELIZABETHAN TRAVELLER
The love of travel, we all know, flourished exceedingly in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. All classes felt the desire to go beyond seas upon
"Such wind as scatters young men through the world,
To seeke their fortunes farther than at home,
Where small experience growes."[36]
The explorer and the poet, the adventurer, the prodigal and the earl's
son, longed alike for foreign shores. What Ben Jonson said of Coryat
might be stretched to describe the average Elizabethan: "The mere
superscription of a letter from Zurich sets him up like a top: Basil or
Heidelberg makes him spinne. And at seeing the word Frankford, or
Venice, though but in the title of a Booke, he is readie to breake
doublet, cracke elbowes, and overflowe the roome with his murmure."[37]
Happy was an obscure gentleman like Fynes Moryson, who could roam for
ten years through the "twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland,
Sweitzerand, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turkey, France,
England, Scotland and Ireland" and not be peremptorily called home by
his sovereign. Sad it was to be a court favourite like Fulke Greville,
who four times, thirsting for strange lands, was plucked back to England
by Elizabeth.
At about the time (1575) when some of the most prominent
courtiers - Edward Dyer, Gilbert Talbot, the Earl of Hertford, and more
especially Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir Philip Sidney - had just
returned from abroad, book-publishers thought it worth while to print
books addressed to travellers.
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