Monday, May 05, 2008

Question from Tabitha - Follow-up and Erasmus on children's proper behavior

Thank you all for your help. About my question...Wherever I read about Anne Boleyn having a stomach problem, It didn't say anything else. Just thought it was interesting.

Does anyone know about Erasmus writings about "children's proper behavior"?

In the book "Behind the Mask" by "Jane Resh Thomas", it stated that Erasmus wrote that children must walk with serious destination, neither rushing nor stolling without a purpose. They must never lean against walls, jitter or fidget fingers and toes. Children must avoid frowning, wrinking their noses, yawning,and sniffling. And baby talk was not permitted.

Also Elizabeth's tutor Roger Ascham had much different ideas. I would like to find any information on Erasmus and Roger Ascham on these subjects.

Tabitha

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do you have access to either a large public library or a university library? I'm not sure how much you can find online, since I do not use online primary source research materials. But in terms of "old-fashioned" printed books, you can go directly to Erasmus' and Ascham's own words rather than reading what someone else says about them.

Roger Ascham, "The Whole Works of Roger Ascham," edited by J.A. Giles, New York: AMS Press, 1965.

Desiderius Erasmus : The University of Toronto Press has published a multi-volume series of his complete works ... over 80 volumes published so far. The University of Chicago Press has focused on smaller portions of his works. The parts you will be most interested in, however, are "The Literary and Educational Writings," though I'm afraid they run to 7 volumes. If you do not want to scan quickly through those looking for his essays on educating young men, you might try locating one of the many short compilations of selected essays. Many have been published over the years, under different titles. Just do a catalog search under "Desiderius Erasmus" as Author. You can probably also use the same search term on Google Books, though that may bring up a lot of non-translated versions. In any event, Erasmus was very prolific, so you are going to have to put a little energy into your search. There is no one-book, one-place way to get at his work effectively, really.