A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    63/700 (page 33)
    between the years 1500 and 1600. A contemporary poem, written by a man, gives the prize for learning to women: You men yt read the memoryes Of wonders done and paste, Remember will the historys Of women first and laste: And tell me if I saye not true, That women can do more than you. And more than any man can do So quicklie and so trym What counterpointes of polycie, Of arte and of artyfyce, But women with facylictie Can compass and forecaste. Princess Mary (later Queen), the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was tutored by the famous Ludovicus Vives. Erasmus spoke with especial warmth in praise of her Latin. She wrote excellent Latin letters. Elizabeth, her step-sister, understood Latin, French and Italian, Greek too; studied theology, read with zest Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, and translated a dialogue of Plato and two speeches of Socrates from Greek into Latin. Lady Jane Grey was also very learned, and was well grounded in Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, French and Italian. And not only princely ladies carried on these studies, but also noble women and burgesses like the daughters of Sir Anthony Coke, Henry VIII's tutor, one of whom became the mother of Francis Bacon; and the daughter of Thomas More and Mary Sidney, sister of the Sir Philip Sidney, the famous author of the Arcadia. In a word, the sixteenth century was very favour- able to learning among women, perhaps because at that time so many women were in a position of authority. About 1561 the thrones of many kingdoms in Europe (including the English [33]