were scribbling Latin verse and
propounding philosophical theses, or pronouncing upon new theological
views, serves to impress one with the superficiality of the learning
of the day, so far as is concerned the great body of its professed
disciples, while in contrast to these we are led to respect more
profoundly the genuine attainments of the brilliant group of men and
women who made the reign of Elizabeth illustrious for its varied and
almost matchless learning. In spite of all the pretence to learning on
the part of the great mass of women who had neither the taste nor the
capacity to drink deep at the Pyrenean spring, it must be said that
in no other period of English history has there been shown such marked
and general eagerness for knowledge as in the sixteenth century, nor
has any other period exhibited such a galaxy of great women. The
wide diffusion of a love of literature is in striking contrast to the
literary dearth of the preceding centuries.

It was not, however, a period of brilliant authorship among women.
The new learning had first to be imbibed and become a part of the
national thought before it could express itself in literary products.
Translations of the classics and the works of the Church Fathers, with
literary correspondence and discussions in choice Latin prose, as well
as the composition of distiches in the same tongue, with occasional
instances of adventure into Greek and Hebrew composition, summed up
the literary labors of the women of the times. As such matters possess
little interest to posterity, not many of these literary essays and
letters have been preserved; but such as have come down to us mirror
the intellect of the women of the age so creditably as to invite
comparison with the results of modern education for the sex.

Lady Jane Grey may be cited as one of the women of the day who became
notable for learning and scholarship. Of her, Fox writes: "If her
fortune had been as good as her bringing up, joined with fineness
of wit, undoubtedly she might have seemed comparable not only to the
house of the Vespasians, Sempronians, and the mother of the Gracchi,
yea, to any other women besides that deserve of high praise for their
singular learning, but also to the University men, who have taken
many degrees of the Schools." The facility of this noble lady in Greek
composition was strongly commended by Roger Ascham. Her remarkable
knowledge of the cognate tongues of the East and of modern lan