en him the year following. His fortune was,
therefore, not proportionate to the rank which his offices and
reputation gave him, or to the favour in which he seemed to stand with
his mistress. Of this parsimonious allotment it is again a hopeless
search to inquire the reason. The queen was not naturally bountiful,
and, perhaps, did not think it necessary to distinguish, by any
prodigality of kindness, a man who had formerly deserted her, and whom
she might still suspect of serving rather for interest than affection.
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.
Camden, however, imputes the narrowness of his condition to his love
of dice and cockfights: and Graunt, forgetting himself, allows that
Ascham was sometimes thrown into agonies by disappointed expectations.
It may be easily discovered, from his Schoolmaster, that he felt his
wants, though he might neglect to supply them; and we are left to
suspect, that he showed his contempt of money only by losing at play.
If this was his practice, we may excuse Elizabeth, who knew the
domestick character of her servants, if she did not give much to him
who was lavish of a little.

However he might fail in his economy, it were indecent to treat with
wanton levity the memory of a man who shared his frailties with all,
but whose learning or virtues few can attain, and by whose
excellencies many may be improved, while himself only suffered by his
faults.

In the reign of Elizabeth, nothing remarkable is known to have
befallen him, except that, in 1563, he was invited, by sir Edward
Sackville, to write the Schoolmaster, a treatise on education, upon an
occasion which he relates in the beginning of the book.

This work, though begun with alacrity, in hopes of a considerable
reward, was interrupted by the death of the patron, and afterwards
sorrowfully and slowly finished, in the gloom of disappointment, under
the pressure of distress. But of the author's disinclination or
dejection there can be found no tokens in the work, which is conceived
with great vigour, and finished with great accuracy; and, perhaps,
contains the best advice that was ever given for the study of
languages.

This treatise he co