| ||
TO HIS FRIEND
Captaine Smith,
on his Grammar.
MUch traveld Captaine, I have heard thy worth
By Indians, in America set forth:
Mee silence best seemes to keepe, and then
Thy better praise be sung by better men,
Who feele thy vertues worthinesse: Who can
Derive thy words, is more Grammarian,
Than Camden, Clenard, Ramus, Lilly were;
Here's language would have non-plust Scaliger.
These and thy travels may in time be seene
By those which stand at Helme, and prime ones beene.
By Indians, in America set forth:
Mee silence best seemes to keepe, and then
Thy better praise be sung by better men,
Who feele thy vertues worthinesse: Who can
Derive thy words, is more Grammarian,
Than Camden, Clenard, Ramus, Lilly were;
Here's language would have non-plust Scaliger.
52
By those which stand at Helme, and prime ones beene.
[_]
2. Edw[ard?] Jorden was possibly the famous physician of that name (see the Biographical
Directory). The scholars mentioned in the verses undoubtedly were: William
Camden (1551–1623), English antiquarian and historian; Nicola Clenart (1495–1542),
Flemish linguist; Pierre de la Ramée (1515–1572), French humanist; William Lily
(1468?–1522), English grammarian; and Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), Italian-French
scholar, considered the greatest of modern times.
| ||