ABSTRACT
Richard Mulcaster. Elementary, 1582 ; page 260 in Campagnec's edition. At this date (1582), the learned were still prone to regard the English tongue, compared with the Latin, as little better than a convenient local dialect, incapable of producing a serious literature. Lyly's Euphues (1579), Sidney's Arcadia (c. 1580) in prose, Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar (1579) in verse, were deliberate attempts to show that English could be written in a high style.
