Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy:

“Poverty is the muses’ patrimony, and as that poetical divinity teacheth us, when Jupiter’s daughters were each of them married to the gods, the muses alone were left solitary, Helicon forsaken of all suitors, and I believe it was, because they had no portion.

Calliope longum caelebs cur vixit in aevum?
Nempe nihil dotis, quod numeraret, erat.
Why did Calliope live so long a maid?
Because she had no dowry to be paid.

Ever since all their followers are poor, forsaken and left unto themselves. Insomuch, that as Petronius argues, you shall likely know them by their clothes. There came, saith he, by chance into my company, a fellow not very spruce to look on, that I could perceive by that note alone he was a scholar, whom commonly rich men hate: I asked him what he was, he answered, a poet: I demanded again why he was so ragged, he told me this kind of learning never made any man rich.

Qui Pelago credit, magno se faenore tollit,
Qui pugnas et rostra petit, praecingitur auro:
Vilis adulator picto jacet ebrius ostro,
Sola pruinosis horret facundia pannis.
A merchant’s gain is great, that goes to sea;
A soldier embossed all in gold;
A flatterer lies fox’d in brave array;
A scholar only ragged to behold.

All which our ordinary students, right well perceiving in the universities, how unprofitable these poetical, mathematical, and philosophical studies are, how little respected, how few patrons; apply themselves in all haste to those three commodious professions of law, physic, and divinity, sharing themselves between them, rejecting these arts in the mean time, history, philosophy, philology, or lightly passing them over, as pleasant toys fitting only table-talk, and to furnish them with discourse. They are not so behoveful: he that can tell his money hath arithmetic enough: he is a true geometrician, can measure out a good fortune to himself; a perfect astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others, and mark their errant motions to his own use. The best optics are, to reflect the beams of some great man’s favour and grace to shine upon him. He is a good engineer that alone can make an instrument to get preferment. This was the common tenet and practice of Poland, as Cromerus observed not long since, in the first book of his history; their universities were generally base, not a philosopher, a mathematician, an antiquary, &c., to be found of any note amongst them, because they had no set reward or stipend, but every man betook himself to divinity, hoc solum in votis habens, opimum sacerdotium, a good parsonage was their aim. This was the practice of some of our near neighbours, as Lipsius inveighs, they thrust their children to the study of law and divinity, before they be informed aright, or capable of such studies. Scilicet omnibus artibus antistat spes lucri, et formosior est cumulus auri, quam quicquid Graeci Latinique delirantes scripserunt. Ex hoc numero deinde veniunt ad gubernacula reipub. intersunt et praesunt consiliis regum, o pater, o patria? [Obviously the hope of profit stands before all arts, and the heap of gold is prettier than anything the Greeks and Latins wrote in their madness. From this number then they come to the government of the republic and find themselves amidst and even at the head of the councils of kings, o my father, o my fatherland?] so he complained, and so may others. For even so we find, to serve a great man, to get an office in some bishop’s court (to practise in some good town) or compass a benefice, is the mark we shoot at, as being so advantageous, the highway to preferment.”

Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages I.4.6:

“It was the ordinary practice in the Italian Universities for a Medical Doctor to read the relative parts of this treatise while the Professor of Surgery performed the dissection and another Doctor pointed out to the students the various bones or muscles as they were named by the reader. By the Statutes of Florence food and wine and spices were to be provided to keep up the spirits of Professors and Students during this unwonted ordeal. The importance of Surgery in Italy as compared with its neglect in the Northern Universities is indicated by the different position occupied by its teachers. Not only was Surgery taught by Doctors of Medicine, but the latter were allowed to engage in surgical practice, an employment which was looked upon by the Doctors of Paris as a degrading manual craft, entirely beneath the dignity of a sage learned in all the wisdom of Aristotle and Galen.”

Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy:

“To say truth, ’tis the common fortune of most scholars, to be servile and poor, to complain pitifully, and lay open their wants to their respectless patrons, as Cardan doth, as Xilander and many others: and which is too common in those dedicatory epistles, for hope of gain, to lie, flatter, and with hyperbolical eulogiums and commendations, to magnify and extol an illiterate unworthy idiot, for his excellent virtues, whom they should rather, as Machiavel observes, vilify, and rail at downright for his most notorious villainies and vices. So they prostitute themselves as fiddlers, or mercenary tradesmen, to serve great men’s turns for a small reward. They are like Indians, they have store of gold, but know not the worth of it: for I am of Synesius’s opinion, King Hieron got more by Simonides’ acquaintance, than Simonides did by his; they have their best education, good institution, sole qualification from us, and when they have done well, their honour and immortality from us: we are the living tombs, registers, and as so many trumpeters of their fames: what was Achilles without Homer? Alexander without Arian and Curtius? who had known the Caesars, but for Suetonius and Dion?”

Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster:

“This diligence to gather examples, to giue light and vnderstandyng to good preceptes, is no new inuention, but speciallie vsed of the best Authors and oldest writers. For Aristotle him selfe, (as Diog. Laertius declareth) when he had written that goodlie booke of the Topickes, did gather out of stories and Orators, so many examples as filled xv. bookes, onelie to expresse the rules of his Topickes. These were the Commentaries, that Aristotle thought fit for hys Topickes: And therfore to speake as I thinke, I neuer saw yet any Commentarie vpon Aristotles Logicke, either in Greke or Latin, that euer I lyked, bicause they be rather spent in declaryng scholepoynt rules, than in gathering fit examples for vse and vtterance, either by pen or talke. For preceptes in all Authors, and namelie in Aristotle, without applying vnto them, the Imitation of examples, be hard, drie, and cold, and therfore barrayn, vnfruitfull and vnpleasant. But Aristotle, namelie in his Topicks and Elenches, should be, not onelie fruitfull, but also pleasant to, if examples out of Plato, and other good Authors, were diligentlie gathered, and aptlie applied vnto his most perfit preceptes there. And it is notable, that my frende Sturmius writeth herein, that there is no precept in Aristotles Topickes wherof plentie of examples be not manifest in Platos workes. And I heare say, that an excellent learned man, Tomitanus in Italie, hath expressed euerie fallacion in Aristotle, with diuerse examples out of Plato. Would to God, I might once see, some worthie student of Aristotle and Plato in Cambrige, that would ioyne in one booke the preceptes of the one, with the examples of the other. For such a labor, were one speciall peece of that worke of Imitation, which I do wishe were gathered together in one Volume.”

Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster

“And for spedy atteyning, I durst venture a good wager, if a scholer, in whom is aptnes, loue, diligence, & constancie, would but translate, after this sorte, one litle booke in Tullie, as de senectute, with two Epistles, the first ad Q. fra: the other ad lentulum, the last saue one, in the first booke, that scholer, I say, should cum to a better knowledge in the Latin tong, than the most part do, that spend foure or fiue yeares, in tossing all the rules of Grammer in common scholes. In deede this one booke with these two Epistles, is not sufficient to affourde all Latin wordes (which is not necessarie for a yong scholer to know) but it is able to furnishe him fully, for all pointes of Grammer, with the right placing ordering, & vse of wordes in all kinde of matter. And why not? for it is read, that Dion. Prussæus, that wise Philosopher, & excellent orator of all his tyme, did cum to the great learning & vtterance that was in him, by reading and folowing onelie two bookes, Phædon Platonis, and Demosthenes most notable oration peri parapresbeias. And a better, and nerer example herein, may be, our most noble Queene Elizabeth, who neuer toke yet, Greeke nor Latin Grammer in her hand, after the first declining of a nowne and a verbe, but onely by this double translating of Demosthenes and Isocrates dailie without missing euerie forenone, and likewise som part of Tullie euery afternone, for the space of a yeare or two, hath atteyned to soch a perfite vnderstanding in both the tonges, and to soch a readie vtterance of the latin, and that wyth soch a iudgement, as they be fewe in nomber in both the vniuersities, or els where in England, that be, in both tonges, comparable with her Maiestie. And to conclude in a short rowme, the commodities of double translation, surelie the mynde by dailie marking, first, the cause and matter: than, the wordes and phrases: next, the order and composition: after the reason and argumentes: than the formes and figures of both the tonges: lastelie, the measure and compas of euerie sentence, must nedes, by litle and litle drawe vnto it the like shape of eloquence, as the author doth vse, which is red.”

Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster:

“It is your shame, (I speake to you all, you yong Ientlemen of England) that one mayd should go beyond you all, in excellencie of learnyng, and knowledge of diuers tonges. Pointe forth six of the best giuen Ientlemen of this Court, and all they together, shew not so much good will, spend not so much tyme, bestow not so many houres, dayly orderly, & constantly, for the increase of learning & knowledge, as doth the Queenes Maiestie her selfe. Yea I beleue, that beside her perfit readines, in Latin, Italian, French, & Spanish, she readeth here now at Windsore more Greeke euery day, than some Prebendarie of this Chirch doth read Latin in a whole weeke. And that which is most praise worthie of all, within the walles of her priuie chamber, she hath obteyned that excellencie of learnyng, to vnderstand, speake, & write, both wittely with head, and faire with hand, as scarse one or two rare wittes in both the Vniuersities haue in many yeares reached vnto. Amongest all the benefites yt God hath blessed me with all, next the knowledge of Christes true Religion, I counte this the greatest, that it pleased God to call me, to be one poore minister in settyng forward these excellent giftes of learnyng in this most excellent Prince. Whose onely example, if the rest of our nobilitie would folow, than might England be, for learnyng and wisedome in nobilitie, a spectacle to all the world beside. But see the mishap of men: The best examples haue neuer such forse to moue to any goodnes, as the bad, vaine, light and fond, haue to all ilnes.”

Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster:

“Learning teacheth more in one yeare than experience in twentie: And learning teacheth safelie. when experience maketh mo miserable then wise. He hasardeth sore, that waxeth wise by experience. An vnhappie Master he is, that is made cunning by manie shippewrakes: A miserable merchant, that is neither riche or wise, but after som bankroutes. It is costlie wisdom, that is bought by experience. We know by experience it selfe, that it is a meruelous paine, to finde oute but a short waie, by long wandering. And surelie, he that wold proue wise by experience, he maie be wittie in deede, but euen like a swift runner, that runneth fast out of his waie, and vpon the night, he knoweth not whither. And verilie they be fewest of number, that be happie or wise by vnlearned experience. And looke well vpon the former life of those fewe, whether your example be old or yonge, who without learning haue gathered, by long experience, a litle wisdom, and som happines: and whan you do consider, what mischiefe they haue committed, what dangers they haue escaped (and yet xx. for one, do perishe in the aduenture) than thinke well with your selfe, whether ye wold, that your owne son, should cum to wisdom and happines, by the waie of soch experience or no.”