Note 143 — Chapter I

The Tudor group of distinguished linguists includes the names of many women. The chronicler Harrison remarks that it is a rare thing to hear of a courtier that has but his own language, and to tell how many ladies are skilled in French, Spanish, and Italian is beyond his power (Holinshed's Chronicle, 1586, i. p. 196). Nicholas Udal writes in the same strain in his dedication to Queen Katherine Parr of his translation of Erasmus's Paraphrase of the Gospels; we are told that a great number of noble women at that time in England were given to the study of human sciences and of strange tongues; and that it was a common thing to see "young virgins so nouzled and trained in the study of letters that thei willingly set all other vain pastymes at nought for learnynge's sake." Amongst the most accomplished of such "Queens and Ladies of high estate and progeny" were Queen Katherine Parr and Lady Jane Grey. Mulcaster in his Positions (1581) praises English ladies for their fondness of serious study, and so does the Italian teacher Torriano in his Italian reviv'd (1673), p. 99. Many examples of fluent linguists are found in Ballard's Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, 2nd ed., 1775.