with poverty. He was in 1573 admitted to Westminster School, of which Grant, his father's friend and biographer, had just become head master. In 1578 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, proceeded B.A. 1582-3, and was admitted a fellow under royal mandate 2 Oct. 1583. He proceeded M.A. 1586 and B.D. 1593, and was presented by his college to the vicarage of Trumpington 1590-1, which he resigned the same year. About 1595 he obtained the rectory of Duxford St. Peter, Cambridgeshire, and died shortly afterwards, his will being dated 15 June 1596 (Cooper, Athen. Cantab, ii. 207).
No contemporary portrait of Ascham is known; but an engraved portrait of him reading a letter to Queen Elizabeth, by Michael Burghers, was prefixed to Elstob's edition of his letters, published in 1703.
The separate editions of Ascham's English works are as follows: 1. 'Toxophilus,' with engraved title-page, was first published in quarto in 1545 (London, Edw. Whytchurch); second and third editions appeared in 1571 and 1589. In 1788 and again in 1821 the Rev. John Walters reprinted, with a preface, the edition of 1571, and the original edition has since been reprinted by Dr. Giles in 1865, and by Professor Arber in 1868. The copy of the first edition, presented by Ascham to Edward VI, is in the library of the Rev. Sir William Cope, at Bramshill House, Hampshire (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iii. 244). 2. 'A Report and Discourse written by Roger Ascham of the Affaires and State of Germany and the Emperour Charles his Court, duryng certain years while the sayd Roger was there,' was first printed about 1553 (the volume is undated). It was republished in 1572. 3. 'The Scholemaster, a plaine and perfite way of teachyng children to vnderstand, write, and speake in Latin tong,' was first published in 1570, republished in 1571, and again, according to the bibliographers, in 1572, 1573, 1579, and 1583. An edition of 1589 is well known. A carefully edited reprint was issued, with introduction and notes, by the Rev. James Upton in 1711, and again in 1743. Professor J. E. B. Mayor published the best extant edition, with elaborate notes, in 1863, and Professor Arber reprinted the first edition in 1870. Extracts from the 'Scholemaster,' with critical remarks, appear in Sabourn's 'Epitome of Grammar' (1733) and in Lefevre's 'Compendious Way of teaching ancient and modern Languages' (1750). The best analysis of Ascham's educational system is that by Mr. R. H. Quick, in his 'Essays on Educational Reformers' (1868).
Of Ascham's Latin Works, (1) the 'Expositiones antiquæ in Epistolam Divi Pauli ad Titum et Philemonem ex diversis sanctorum Patrum Græce scriptis Commentariis ab Œcuenico collectæ et Cantabrigiæ Latine versæ' (1542) was published in his lifetime. In 1577 it was reprinted by Edward Grant, with Ascham's (2) 'Apologia pro Cœna Dominica contra Missam et ejus præstigias,' which was then published for the first time. (3) A little volume, printed at Strasburg in 1551, contained Ascham's 'Epistola J. Sturmio de Nobilitate Anglicana, 4 Apr. 1550,' with 'Conradi Herksbachii de laudibus literarum Græcarum Oratio.'
Of his letters, Edward Grant, his biographer, who was a sizar of St. John's College in 1563, and afterwards head-master of Westminster School, published a selection, with a very full life in Latin, and several of his Latin poems, under the title of 'Familiarium Epistolarum libri tres magna orationis elegantia conscripti, nunc denuo emendati et aucti,' in 1576. The book was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, and was republished in London in 1578 and 1590, at Hanover in 1602 and 1610, and at Nuremberg in 1611. In 1703 William Elstob published a new and much enlarged edition at Oxford under the title 'Rogeri Aschami Epistolarum libri quatuor: accessit Joannis Sturmii aliorumque ad Aschamum Anglosque alios eruditos Epistolarum liber unus.' A number of Ascham's English letters were printed for the first time in Whittaker's 'Richmondshire' in 1823 (i. 265-90).
Of collected editions of Ascham's English works, James Bennet issued the first in a single volume in 1771. Besides the three English books, many letters are added, and a life by Dr. Johnson is prefixed, in which he states (p. xxi) that Ascham 'was scarcely known as an author in his own language till Mr. Upton published his "Scholemaster"' in 1711. A second collected edition, limited to 250 copies, appeared in 1815, edited by J. E. Cochrane. In 1864-5 Dr. Giles published, in three volumes, the completest edition of the kind. It included 295 Latin and English letters, many of which were printed for the first time from British Museum and Cambridge manuscripts, besides six letters of Giles Ascham from the Lansdowne MSS. and Grant's Latin life. The references to Ascham's letters in this article are to the numbers given them in Dr. Giles's collection.
