Editing Roger Ascham (section)

==Tutor to Elizabeth I==
In January 1548, Grindal, the tutor of princess Elizabeth, died.{{sfn|Leach|1911}} Ascham, one of the ablest Greek scholars in England, as well as public orator of the university, had already been in correspondence with the princess. In one of Ascham's letters to [[Kat Ashley|Katherine Ashley]], he enclosed a new pen, as well a pen which he himself mended specifically for princess Elizabeth.<ref>Ryan, Lawrence V. Roger Ascham. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963. 104.</ref> Through Cecil, and at the fourteen-year-old princess's own wish, he was selected as her tutor against another candidate, also named Grindal, who was pressed by [[Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset|Admiral Seymour]] and [[Catherine Parr|Queen Catherine]].<ref>Ryan, Lawrence V. Roger Ascham. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963. 102.</ref> In 1548, Ascham began teaching Elizabeth, future queen of England, in Greek and Latin chiefly at [[Cheshunt]], a job he held until 1550.

On the subject of his experience with Elizabeth's education, Ascham later wrote: "Yea, I beleve, that beside her perfit readines, in Latin, Italian, French, & Spanish, she readeth here now at Windsore more Greeke every day, than some [[prebendary|Prebendarie]] of this Chirch doth read Latin in a whole weeke."<ref>''The Scholemaster'', fol. 21.</ref> Ascham's influence on Elizabeth is suggested by the fact that, for the remainder of her life, she remained an occasional writer of poems, such as "[[On Monsieur's Departure]]".

In a letter to [[Johannes Sturm]], the [[Strassburg]] [[schoolmaster]], Ascham praised Elizabeth's growth as a student: "She talks French and Italian as well as English: she has often talked to me readily and well in Latin and moderately so in Greek. When she writes Greek and Latin nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting . . . she read with me almost all [[Cicero]] and great part of [[Titus Livius]]: for she drew all her knowledge of Latin from those two authors. She used to give the morning to the Greek Testament and afterwards read select orations of [[Isocrates]] and the tragedies of [[Sophocles]]. To these I added St. [[Cyprian]] and [[Melanchthon]]'s Commonplaces."{{sfn|Leach|1911}}