A PETITION TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT In the behalfe of auncient and authentique Authors For the vniversall and perpetuall good of euery man and his posteritie Presented by IOSEPH WEBBE Dr. in Ph. Printed 1623. A PETITION TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT In the behalfe of auncient and authentique Authors For the universall and perpetuall good of euery man and his posteritie ALiud est Grammaticè aliud Latine loqui is a distinction of a thousand fiue hundred and fortie yeares standing the Author is Quintilian and his sense is thus There are two sorts of Latine whereof one is Grammar-Latine and the other Latine-Latine By Latine-Latine I meane such as the best approued Authors wrote and left vs in their bookes and monuments of vse and custome By Grammar-Latine I vnderstand that Latine that we now make by Grammar rules the first intention of which rules and their collection out of that custome and those Authors was to make vs write and speake such Latine as that Custome and those Authors did which was Latine-Latine but it succeeded not Wherefore my Petition is to this high Court of Parliament not that Grammar should be questioned in that it is our old acquaintance and hath a long time been a ledger here amongst vs on the behalfe of these Authors but considering it is not able to giue vs Authors Latine that these Authors whom we seeme to haue so much respected in our Schooles and Vniversities coming themselues as it were in person and offering to dwell amongst vs may to their deserued honour and our desired benefit be now receiued priuiledged and admitted to tell their owne tales and teach vs their owne Latine This admittance of theirs haue I these eighteen yeares contriued and these fiue last yeares seriously solicited and cannot as yet find any way to compasse it without manifest danger of ruining my self and mine assistants vnlesse by fauour of this high and honorable Court I may be allowed father of mine owne children and Author of mine owne works and inuentions that is that no man else may print them or import them nor any man teach Languages by that method that I propose but such as I thinke fitting and that these priuiledges may continue for the space of 21 yeares after the publication of euery booke of this nature that shall be published within the terme of yeares before specified with prohibition that no man shall hereafter during that time attempt the same way in any other Author or Language without my speciall allowance Herein I haue not onely had the gracious eare of his Maiestie but Prince like encouragement of his Highnesse the assent of many of the Nobility and the fauourable desires and wishes of some of the greatest Scholars of this kingdome but especially of such whose ends and priuate respects led them not to a preiudicate opinion concerning it But whilst this hopefull beginning engaged me with full sayle to prosecute my first intention I found in the very maine of my businesse some secret Remora suddenly to stop my helplesse ship although the winds of my deuotion thereunto blew very strongly Whereupon not knowing who did hurt me or what might helpe mee I began to listen partly to mine owne surmises partly to what my friends suspected and partly to the mutterings of such as were incredulous for all these brought sundry obiections and demands to which I made these following answers most humbly submitting both my selfe and them vnto the censure and definitiue sentence of your Honorable Wisedomes whether I shall stop here and sinke for attempting to bring a benefit to your posteritie or set forward to effect what I pretended The first obiection was that it might be thought a great presumption and arrogancie in me to attribute so much vnto my selfe as to set vpon a new-found thing that for so many ages and amongst so infinite a number of learned men was never hitherto reflected on and therefore much to be suspected and demurr'd vpon This obiection I answered in mine Appeale to Truth in the Controuersie betweene Art and Vse published Anno 1622. and extant at the brazen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard to shew the opinions of the grauest Authors to this purpose and first what Grammarians thought one of another then what others thought of Grammarians and their Art and lastly what way they approued of to come to puritie of language This approued way go I which in the generalitie is theirs and none of mine nor is it new in that it hath beene euer since speaking was which was long before Grammar and is where no Grammar euer came and therefore may and will subsist subsist without her From whence it may be gathered that I am so far from being presumptuous or arrogant in putting on so publick and so great a benefit that I might rather haue been held negligent or envious in concealing it especially being a professor of letters and as it were one of the Parliament in the Common wealth of learning The second obiection was that though the generall way by custome and authoritie might be intimated by these Authors yet I could not excuse my selfe of presumption in the course I tooke vnto it in particular Whereunto I answered the any man might take the ground-work of this particular way frō Cicero who was the first that taught mee to divide the man or body of speech into the parts thereof knittings I meane not those eight sorts of parts whereof 4 are declined 4 vndeclined after the vulgar Grammar but after Cicero's Grammar into one sort of parts that is into clauses which are vndeclined Now if Cicero's Grammar that consists of one part of speech and that vndeclined were not much easier than that of eight parts and 4 declined and should not thereby rid vs of much labour and to better purpose I should not be so ready to embrace it But as for that which is built vpon this ground worke for the peculiar vse of euery man and the bringing of that into act which these graue men haue giuen vs hitherto but to contemplate that without presumption I call mine as the pipe of lead calls the water which it conveyes to many cisternes alwayes acknowledging the waters of all true vnderstanding to proceed onely from the eternall fountaine of all wisedome my Creator But seeming still to doubt of the possibilitie thereof they would often aske me Are you sure you know what you promise Is it possible to learne Latine without a Grammar Hereupon I shewed them Quintilians fore-alleaged distinction and then I replied thus It is not possible to learne Grammar-Latin without Grammar but it is possible to learne Latin-Latin that is the Latine that was in vse amongst the ancient Latines without Grammar And moreouer I told them that I thought the way to write and speake this last Latine was the true way rectè scribendi atque loquendi else Cicero and his equals wrote not rightly And I inferred that if this be true we must
by dayly practise haue reduced this power of my books to an habit in himselfe And no doubt but an habit may this way in halfe the time be gotten that is spent in Grammar And then our habit is made in Latine-Latine the other in Grammar-Latine the differences whereof haue formerly been debated Neither shall wee in this Latine-Latine stand in need of rules of constructiō which Grammars for the most part giue or position and proprietie which they giue not for these fall all in sense and meaning wherein all the members and clauses of all Languages haue their meetings But they continue to obiect that Authoritie cannot affoord members for all senses To this I answer that senses clauses or members consist as well in forme as in matter In forme they are all in Authoritie otherwise Art had not found them being onely produced from Authoritie and therefore they occurre in my method out of Authors In matter they are also the most part there excepting some few names of things that fell not within the discourses of mine Authors or haue since their times been invented and these shall be affoorded by supplement which is also drawne out of authoritie And therefore I craue leaue to print these Authors with this supplement which some haue thought that I had neuer dreamed of but vpon their obiections made within these twelue months whereas I haue good testimonie of the thing begun and almost halfe done aboue these six yeares Moreouer euery sense may in one and the same tongue be many wayes altered in the words or clauses and yet produce alwayes the selfe same meaning Now as euery tongue hath this varietie so any or euery one of these varieties is not onely a due expression of that sense in one and the same tongue but also of all and euery particular variation of that sense in euery other language Otherwise the Poet should not be able to expresse himselfe Poetically both in other numbers and other frames formes of speech than are vsuall amongst Orators nor could Orators giue vs their meanings now in an humble now in a loftie now in a middle or other kindes or styles of writing And yet euery one of these can produce after his owne maner euery thing that may be spoken witnesse the Poets Quicquid conabor dicere versus erit And considering that all these wayes of expression fall within the limits of mine instrument either by authoritie or supplement I cannot so much as dreame of an impossibilitie of producing any thing that may be spoken Hereupon they further demaund Where are these Authors reduced to your method and where that supplement vnlesse you produce them say they you will neither be beleeued nor get your licence This were but hard measure said I considering so many presidents to the contrary There was a Patent and an Act of Parliament passed before the bringing of the New-riuer water from Ware to London and the like for cutting the passage of a riuer from Tame to Oxford Now if men that pretended good but to some parts of priuate Cities be thus fauoured it is not likely that I that pleade for euery mans posteritie yea his what ere he be that 's most against me as also in the behalfe of many nations and whole kingdomes and for those Authors that they so much desire and reuerence should be driuen to hazard both time labour and expences without some kind of assurance as well from his Maiestie as the Parliament that I shall not ruine both my selfe and others which haue herein ayded me Epecially considering how apt men are now adayes to snatch the bread out of other mens mouthes and to sell their labours to their owne profits and grow fat vpon them while those that sweat and groned to produce them perish with famine Which oftenest happens to poore students who are contented to be giuen to vnderstand that it is enough for them to haue the honour of their books in lieu of their labour time and charges and in the meane season are laught at as foolish Logitians that will lose the substance for so poore an accident But admit yet farther that after priuiledge granted I should not be able to performe what I intended there 's no mans reputation no mans time labour and expences lies at stake but mine So that if I performe it was well granted in that euery man shall reape the benefit if I perform not yet was it well granted in that it turnes to my iust punishment and therefore in my opinion I should not be vrged to a greater inconvenience as to bestow yet other foure or fiue hundred pounds to produce that which when it is produced giues me no more assurance of a priuiledge then at this present Then was it obiected that his Maiestie had alreadie confirmed a Patent granted for the Grammar and would admit of no other course of teaching Whereupon I demanded what hinderance the Goldsmiths priuiledge was to the Brasiers I desire not the suppression or hinderance of Grammar but the puritie of Latine Againe this Grammar was priuiledged to forbid all other Grammars but I seeke not to introduce another Grammar except we shall very improperly call it Cicero's Grammar My desire is only that such as are weary and would not or can no longer go by Grammar or are not desirous of Grammar-Latine might be admitted to an easie and profitable vse of Authors and to these Authors own way of teaching their own language without Grammar as being two sundry courses to two diuers ends For Authors cannot bring a man to Grammar-Latine nor Grammars vnto Authors Latine as is proued Nay further I find the Preface it selfe to this priuiledged Grammar to be more fauourable on my behalfe then this opinion for it sayes plainly that it is not amisse if one seeing by triall an easier and readier way than the common sort of teachers do would say what he hath proued and for the commodity allowed that other not knowing the same might by experience proue the like and then by proofe reasonably iudge the like not excluding by this priuiledged Grammar the better way when it is found out but in the meane season forbidding the worse Now I hauing by triall proued this way by Authors to be another and an easier and readier way than that of Grammar and allowing thereof for the infinite commoditie that I finde therein humbly intreate that I may be priuiledged to produce my bookes that may make others proue and iudge as I doe according to the intent of the fore-alledged Preface What proofe say they or demonstration can you bring vs of this way of yours I answered a two-fold proofe one of a power that these bookes bring to any man the first day to write rightly by them And another of this power reduced by an exercise to an habit of writing rightly without them Of the first kind in that this method holdeth in all Languages as well as in Latine take this Italian Letter translated
by a Gentlewoman that knowes not two words of that language and that the first day that she applied her selfe vnto it Fratello mio carissimo Quantūque mi paia di poter esser piu che certo che tutti gli uffici li quali ho fatto per te ti sono stati gratissimi che questa fu la cagione che tu mi hai renduto piu che non havevi riceuuto nondimeno perche veggo nelle tue lettere che tu hai qualch'ambra di me son constretto a giustificarmi con teco Perioche il primo di Gennaio ho voluto intier amente farti palese l'animo mio diogni cosa ti darei conto particolare ma che il consiglio non mi pareva punto nocessario potendosi torcere quello che con sincera mente è stato scritto a sentimento contrario Laonde se tu mi ami all'usato basta quello ch'io scrissi Io non posso esser piu vostro che mi sia Ec mi vi raccomando Di Londra a li 10. de Decembre 1620. Di V. S. Fratello affmo N. Of the same kinde is this other in Latine translated out of English through power giuen in my bookes to a capable yong man that had been six yeares at a Grammar Schoole and had discontinued eighteen moneths Non qui parum habet sed qui plus cupit pauper est Ad hoc enim multis illi rebus opus est ad illud tantum animo sano erecto despiciente fortunam Sed quem mihi dabis cui quantulumcunque superest sat est Si volueris attendere ad manum est quod sat est sed nisi sapienti sua non placent Adhuc concipere animo non potes quam sic se contentus qui fictilibus sic vtitur quemaamodum argento sed oum puerilem animum deposueris te in viros Philosophia transcripserit Intelligas sapientem se ipso esse contentum hominem tam bene culmo quam auro tegi Sed vt epistolae finem imponam mihi crede Non est beatus esse se qui non putat Haec huiusmodi versanda in animo sunt vt tibi conting at vera libertas vt possis aequo animo vitam relinquere Vale. But because I was desirous to see how well hee could translate it of himselfe without the power giuen him by these books I made him first make it in his owne Latine which with some help of such as had done it before him was as followeth Iste non est pauper qui parum habet sed qui plus appetit Nam huic multa desunt illi animo solum integro erecto fortunâ dispicientiâ Sed quisnam qui contentus est rebus suis Si enim in mentem tuam benè introspicias satis adest sed nulli preter sapientes placati aut contenti sunt eo quod habent Adhuc enim in animo non sorbeas quà m contentus est semitipso qui vasibus fictilibus vtitur vice toreumatis Sed cum animum puerilem deponas Philosophia in numeros hominum te referat inuenies quod hominem est aeque culmene tectum quam aurum Sed vt literam concludam crede mihi hominem istum non esse beatum quem seipsum it a esse non cogitat Hec similia sepe sunt ad cogitanda vt veram libertatem paras vitam tuam libenter linqueres In verse also these are of that first kind made by men of great iudgement who were desirous to make some proofe thereof Ignarus facti cecini sine lumine carmen And this Distichon made vpon this following English Without sense or reason a thing promised cannot be beleeued Promissis adhibere fidem sine lumine sensus Aut mentis levit as creditur ingenij By the second way that is by the power of those bookes reduced by a moneths practise to the beginning of an habit these exercises were made without those bookes In the Latin of Seneca Si aliquem amicum existimas mi Philippe qui nusquam est quia vbique est vehementer erras Nam aegri animi ista iactatio est Nihil aequè sanitatem impedit quam remedior um crebra mutatio Nec coalescit veraeamicitiae planta quae saepè transfertur Itaque diu cogita an tibi in amicitiam aliquis recipiendus sit Ante amicitiam iudicandum Sed cum placuerit fieri cum amico omnes curas omnes cogitationes tuas misce Nam multi fallere docueruat dum timent falli Vale. In Caesars Latin Vbi per exploratores Henricus certior factus est Gallis esse in animo eum rapinis populationibusque prohibere non expectandum sibi statuit Qua de causa maturat ab agro Bononiensium proficisci Et quam maximis itineribus potest in Normandiam vlteriorem contendit ad Rothomagum per venit Pontem iubet rescindi A Sequana ad montem Sanctae Katharinae millia passuum novem murum in altitudinem pedum sexdecim fossamque perduit Galli iam per fines Picardorum suas copias traduxerant in Normannorum fines pervenerant Henricus negat se posse iter ulli per Normandiam dare Et si vim facere conentur prohibiturum ostendit Postero die castra ex eo loco movent c. In Cicero's Epistolatorie Latin Amantissime amice Nostris rationibus maximé conducere videtur plurimos nostros amicos inveniri quoniam videtur in suffragijs multum posse aduersarius noster A vunculus tuus observat Cancellarium maximè sed fuit mihi Edvardo fratri magno vsui Cum à Iudicijs forum refrixerit scribam ad te vides enim quod adhuc coniectura prouideri possit in quo cursu sumus Multum te amamus Sed abs te peto vt mihi hoc ignoscas Vale. The like may be done in the Latine of other ancient or moderne Authors as of Livie Plinie Tacitus or of Lipsius or any other whatsoeuer and that not onely as is said in Latine but in euery other language also But we vnderstand say they that in this way of yours by Authors you would haue these clauses which you speake of to be rendred whole which cannot sinke into our heads to be good by reason that you know not by this means what the words do signifie and therefore it were much better that euery clause should be construed word for word And besides to take whole clauses out of Authors were to steale Whereunto I answered First you may by triall find that this construing word for word is altogether impossible in any language Next you may see the inconvenience thereof by the French-mans English for while he followes the correspondence of words he forgets their placing and therefore saith I you pray Sir placing our English as his Ie vous prie Monsieur is placed which is absurd and barbarous and proceedeth onely from his construing word for word euery man applying the words of a forreine language according as they are ranged in his owne Wherfore I had rather a scholar should remember the naturall and receiued position of a clause by keeping the words alwayes all together than vnderstand the particular correspondence of the words and thereby lose their proper places For discretion and comparison of clause with clause will at length bring the vnderstanding of the words whether we will or no but nothing will bring the true position of these words againe by reason that our owne tongue doth therein still misguide vs and makes vs alwayes to be distinguished for strangers euen in our very writing And the mainest reason thereof is this that clauses are almost of the same condition that words are For as out of words of 2.3.4 or 5. letters there may be 2.6.24 or 120. various reuolutions and yet but one of those variations shall be allotted to signifie this or that one thing in particular So is it in clauses of 2.3.4 or 5. words whose variations may be as many as was before said of the letters yet vse hath commonly made choice but of one of those reuolutions of words to stand for this or that sense which if you precisely take not without adding diminishing or transposing you either alter the sense maner of style or dialect or else you speake a kind of non sense And that clause or sense that vse hath taken hold of in one language shall not many times haue the selfe same number of words in another and therefore you must faile of your verball translation and in those that haue the selfe same number you seldome finde the words that signifie and expresse each other to haue in both tongues the same position Wherfore if you take not the whole clause together in the one and the other tongue you must at some time speake barbarously of necessitie Now if this be that which you call theft or stealing there are none of vs that fall not hourely within the compasse of this kind of theevery For if you marke it wel all speech runnes in this maner and euery man speakes each others clauses True it is that one and the same clause or sense may as I haue said be diuers wayes deliuered but then you keep not the same words or number of them but vary per Synonomiam Enallagen Antonomasiam Periphrasin Metaphoram and other such like variations which all must also keepe their receiued clauses or else we shall do wrong to languages Other demaunds and obiections lesse materiall as not touching the thing it selfe but some particular and by-respects would cloy your eares with more then becomes a modest brevitie wherefore leauing them till some farther occasion offered and most humbly intreating you to cast a fauourable eye on this Petition I in all obedience dedicate my selfe my labour and the rest of my life in the full extent of my whole talent to the eternall glorie of my God to the loyall service I owe vnto my Soueraigne and his Succession and to the future good of you and your posteritie FINIS