Note 671 — Chapter V

Of the king he says: Dialecticam didicit, et nunc Græcè discit Aristotelis Ethica. Eo progressus est in Græca lingua, ut in philosophia Ciceronis ex Latinis Græca facillime faciat, Dec. 1550. Ascham, Epist. iv. Elizabeth spoke French and Italian as well as English; Latin fluently and correctly; Greek tolerably. She began every day by reading the Greek Testament, and afterwards the orations of Isocrates, and tragedies of Sophocles. Some years afterwards, in 1555, he writes of her to Sturm: Domina Elizabeth et ego una legimus Græcè orationes Æschinis et Demosthenis περι στεφανου Illa prælegit mihi et primo aspectu tam scienter intelligit non solum proprietatem linguæ et oratoris sensum, sed totam causæ contentionem, populi scita, consuetudinem et mores illius urbis, ut summopere admireris, p. 53. In 1560 he asserts that there are not four persons, in court or college (in aula, in academia), who know Greek better than the queen.