ABSTRACT
Badger was given an epigram from the Greek Anthology, then versions of it by Martial, Alciati, Sleidan, by the master himself, and then asked to provide his own version: Vas experiment a date (Now you have a go). 8
John Stockwood, Headmaster of Tonbridge, published his Progumnasma Scholasticum in 1597, based on the indexed and annotated edition of the Greek Anthology by Henri Estienne. 9 Each epigram is provided with a page reference to Estienne's edition; the parts of speech are explained, and then follow translations. A good example is an epigram that seems to have left its mark on Dr Johnson (an admirer of the Epigrammata of both More and Erasmus), In nuptias (on marriage), followed by the Latin translations of Erasmus, More and Alciati:
AMaro Qui capit uxorem defuncta uxore secundam Naufragus in tumido bis natat ille freta. [The man who takes a second wife after the death of his first is like a shipwrecked man who takes to the rough sea for a second time.]
I wish to argue that these Latin translators of the Greek Anthology, Alciati, Thomas More and Erasmus, who formed an integral part of the school curriculum, were Harington' s most important influences, but it is also true that Martial was, as much as Cicero, part of the literary air in early modem England. So what influence did Martial exercise, and what did Harington take from him?
