instruendam curavit, et omni musices genere doctam reddidit."
Here is another insight into the considerations which brought about the
marriage. When he set out in search of a wife, he wished to capture a
simple, unsophisticated, untaught country girl, whose ignorance of the
world should incline her to rely on his superior knowledge, and the
deficiencies of whose intellectual training should leave him an ample
field for educational experiments. Seeking this he naturally turned his
steps toward the eastern countries; and in Essex he found the young
lady, who to the last learnt with intelligence and zeal the lessons
which he set her.

More's second choice of a wife was less fortunate than his first.
Wanting a woman to take care of his children and preside over his rather
numerous establishment, he made an offer to a widow, named Alice
Middleton. Plain and homely in appearance and taste, Mistress Alice
would have been invaluable to Sir Thomas as a superior domestic servant,
but his good judgment and taste deserted him when he decided to make
her a closer companion. Bustling, keen, loquacious, tart, the good dame
scolded servants and petty tradesmen with admirable effect; but even at
this distance of time the sensitive ear is pained by her sharp,
garrulous tongue, when its acerbity and virulence are turned against her
pacific and scholarly husband. A smile follows the recollection that he
endeavored to soften her manners and elevate her nature by a system of
culture similar to that by which Jane Colt, 'admodum puella,' had been
formed and raised into a polished gentlewoman. Past forty years of age,
Mistress Alice was required to educate herself anew. Erasmus assures his
readers that "though verging on old age, and not of a yielding temper,"
she was prevailed upon "to take lessons on the lute, the cithara, the
viol, the monochord, and the flute, which she daily practised to him."

It has been the fashion with biographers to speak bitterly of this poor
woman, and to pity More for his cruel fate in being united to a
termagant. No one has any compassion for her. Sir Thomas is the victim;
Mistress Alice the shrill virago. In those days, when every historic
reprobate finds an apologist, is there no one to say a word in behalf of
the Widow Middleton, whose lot in life and death seems to this writer
very pitiable? She was quick in temper, slow in brain, domineering,
awkward. To rouse sympathy for such a woman is no easy task; but i