Proposals for an English Academy
Encyclopedia
During the early part of the 17th century, and persisting in some form into the early 18th century, there were a number of proposals for an English Academy: some form of learned institution, conceived as having royal backing and a leading role in the intellectual life of the nation. Definite calls for an English Academy came in 1617, based on the Italian model dating back to the 16th century; they were followed up later, after the 1635 founding of the French Académie, by John Dryden
(1664), John Evelyn
(1665), and Daniel Defoe
(1697).
and medieval history. They represented a conservative wing in the larger discussion, and in different ways they informed approaches to the idea of a learned society
as an active educational and regulatory body. In fact no such Academy would be set up, though discussion of the perceived need for one continued into the eighteenth century. The development of ideas on the language-regulation function of a putative English Academy was studied initially by Hermann Martin Flasdieck. Flasdieck distinguished three phases: first private initiatives up to the middle of the 17th century; then the Restoration period in which the Royal Society and its membership took an interest; and a later period in which proposals to mirror the French Académie met with serious opposition.
Nothing much came directly of such proposals, typically for an “academy royal” or court academy; but they formed part of a wider debate including the role of the universities, and the foundation of new institutions such as the successive Gresham College
, Chelsea College
, Durham College
, and the Royal Society
, which had very different fates, as well as the pansophic
projects that failed to get off the drawing board.
published The erection of an achademy in London, concerned with the education of wards
and the younger sons of gentlemen. The proposed course included subjects seen as practical, as well as classical studies. This conception already had a generation of history behind it: in the reign of Henry VIII Nicholas Bacon (with Robert Carey and Thomas Denton
) had reported on a project to create a new inn of court, conceived along the lines of a humanist
academy. Bacon had then taken the idea further and combined it with legal experience of wardship, and in a paper of 1561 made a recommendation to the queen.
The home and library of John Dee
at Mortlake
from 1570 to the early 1580s has been identified as a prototype 'academy'. His circle included Thomas Hariot and Walter Raleigh
, and was closely linked to that around Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
. These groups with Gresham College comprised the centre of English scientific life at the period.
met from around 1586 to around 1607; it was closed down by the disapproval of James I, and has a tenuous historical record, but with some surviving documentation. Those involved included:
Robert Bruce Cotton
and others petitioned Elizabeth I to establish a national library and academy, having in mind an institution for antiquarian study.
revived by his patronage Humphrey Gilbert's proposal. He combined that concept with the French model of Antoine de Pluvinel
's riding academy, which included varied studies. The project was intended to cover mathematics and languages as well as equestrian skills, but was cut short by the Prince's death.
The suppression of the Society of Antiquaries having left a hiatus in intellectual life, at least as far as antiquarian interests were concerned, Edmund Bolton
brought forward a plan for a royal academy (his "academ roial”). In 1617 a list of 27 names was put forward: it included Sir John Hayward, and Henry Ferrers. A similar list in 1624 included Sir William Segar. Bolton proposed a complex structure, an outer ring of membership (listing 84), and a role in censorship of publications outside theology, all supported by a subsidy. He gained some support from George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
, who put forward a plan (attributed to Prince Henry) in the 1621 Parliament; but nothing came of it. The end of the reign put an end to the plan.
Salomon's House
, the proposal or model from Francis Bacon
's New Atlantis
for an institution of natural philosophy
, dates also from this period at the end of the reign of James I. It is an orderly and royally authorised institute for research.
coincided closely with Francis Kynaston
's setting up of an actual educational institution, his Musaeum Minervae, in his own home in Covent Garden. The king gave money, and the academy admitted young gentlemen only, on exclusive grounds. The tutors were hand-picked by Kynaston.
Kynaston gave his own house in Bedford Street, Covent Garden
, for the college, with ambitions to move into Chelsea College
. He furnished it with books, manuscripts, musical and mathematical instruments, paintings, and statues, at his own expense. He was himself the regent, and his friends Edward May, Michael Mason, Thomas Hunt, Nicholas Fiske, John Spiedal (Spidall), and Walter Salter were professors in various areas. According to the Constitutions published by Kinaston in 1636, only the nobility and gentry were to be admitted to the college, the object of which was to prepare candidates for a Grand Tour
. The full course was to occupy seven years; no gentleman was ‘to exercise himself at once about more than two particular sciences, arts, or qualities, whereof one shall be intellectual, the other corporall.’ The regent taught the following subjects: heraldry
, a practical knowledge of deed
s and the principles and processes of common law
, antiquities, coins, husbandry. Music, dancing and behaviour, riding, sculpture, and writing also formed important parts of the curriculum.
It was satirised, mildly, by Richard Brome
's play The New Academy
(dated to 1636).
The academy idea was still in the air in the years before the First English Civil War
, and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
brought forward a proposal during the Short Parliament
. Samuel Hartlib
spoke of a pilot scheme he had run. In the years 1648–1650 Balthazar Gerbier
revived the idea of an academy on Kynaston's lines in a series of pamphlets.
and Robert Boyle
were interested once more in the idea of an academy. Evelyn's experience abroad included a meeting of the Umoristi, an academy in Rome devoted to verse and linguistic matters. Language now became aspect of the "English Academy" issue that continued to resonate with English literati, and was floated by small groups from time to time; and Evelyn himself was a constant advocate of attention to it. Abraham Cowley
in 1661 conspicuously and in detail advocated a "philosophical college" near central London, that would function as an innovating educational institution, in his Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy. One supporter of an English Academy to regulate the language was Thomas Sprat
of the Royal Society
, founded in 1662. A group actually met in Gray's Inn
in 1665 to plan an academy, as was recalled later by Evelyn: Cowley and Sprat were involved, with George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
, Matthew Clifford
, Cyril Wyche
, John Dryden
, and others. After only a little progress, London was subject to the Great Plague,
Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon
set up, around 1682, a literary society that attracted the name 'academy'. It involved Dryden, other participants being George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, Richard Maitland
, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
, Lord Cavendish
, Sir Charles Scarborough, and Heneage Finch
. Their linguistic interests extended to issues of translation.
Giovanni Torriano, in his The Italian Reviv'd, equated some English clubs of the Restoration period with groups who in France or Italy would be called "academies".
, with a modernised curriculum. He proposed a tax on publications to support it, but was opposed in Parliament and met with serious resistance from the universities. At the same period Daniel Defoe in his Essay upon Projects had a section on academies.
Jonathan Swift
in his Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue, advocated an academy for regulating the English language. In the form of a call for a "national dictionary" to regulate the English language, on the French model, this conception had much support from Augustan men of letters: Defoe, Joseph Addison
(The Spectator 135 in 1711) and Alexander Pope
. At the end of Queen Anne's reign some royal backing was again possible, but that ended with the change of monarch in 1714.
The whole idea later met stern opposition, however, from the lexicographer Samuel Johnson
, invoking "English liberty" against the prescription involved: he predicted disobedience of an academy supposed to set usage. Matthew Arnold
, in an 1862 essay The Literary Influence of Academies, was positive in assessing the French and Italian cultural academies; but marks an endpoint in the tradition. In Culture and Anarchy
Arnold denied that he supported setting up an English Academy, guying the likely membership as establishment figures.
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
(1664), John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
(1665), and Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
(1697).
Historical overview
The proposals for an English Academy were initially and typically characterized by an antiquarian interest, for example in heraldryHeraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
and medieval history. They represented a conservative wing in the larger discussion, and in different ways they informed approaches to the idea of a learned society
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
as an active educational and regulatory body. In fact no such Academy would be set up, though discussion of the perceived need for one continued into the eighteenth century. The development of ideas on the language-regulation function of a putative English Academy was studied initially by Hermann Martin Flasdieck. Flasdieck distinguished three phases: first private initiatives up to the middle of the 17th century; then the Restoration period in which the Royal Society and its membership took an interest; and a later period in which proposals to mirror the French Académie met with serious opposition.
Nothing much came directly of such proposals, typically for an “academy royal” or court academy; but they formed part of a wider debate including the role of the universities, and the foundation of new institutions such as the successive Gresham College
Gresham College
Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in central London, England. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham and today it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year within the City of London.-History:Sir Thomas Gresham,...
, Chelsea College
Chelsea College (17th century)
Chelsea College was a polemical college founded in London in 1609. This establishment was intended to centralize controversial writing against Catholicism, and was the idea of Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who was the first Provost...
, Durham College
Durham College (17th-century)
New College, Durham was a university institution set up by Oliver Cromwell, to provide an alternative to the older University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. It also had the aim of bringing university education to Northern England. The idea met with opponents, including John Conant.Such a...
, and the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, which had very different fates, as well as the pansophic
Pansophic
Pansophism, in older usage often pansophy, is a concept of omniscience, meaning "all-knowing". In some monotheistic belief systems, a god is referred as the ultimate knowing spirit...
projects that failed to get off the drawing board.
Elizabethan proposals
In the early 1570s Humphrey GilbertHumphrey Gilbert
Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Devon in England was a half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. Adventurer, explorer, member of parliament, and soldier, he served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was a pioneer of English colonization in North America and the Plantations of Ireland.-Early life:Gilbert...
published The erection of an achademy in London, concerned with the education of wards
Ward (law)
In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. A court may take responsibility for the legal protection of an individual, usually either a child or incapacitated person, in which case the ward is known as a ward of the court, or a ward of the state, in the United States,...
and the younger sons of gentlemen. The proposed course included subjects seen as practical, as well as classical studies. This conception already had a generation of history behind it: in the reign of Henry VIII Nicholas Bacon (with Robert Carey and Thomas Denton
Thomas Denton
Thomas Denton was an English lawyer and politician, a Member of Parliament from 1536 until his death in 1558. He was elected, consecutively, by six parliamentary consituencies: Wallingford , Oxford , Berkshire , Banbury , Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire...
) had reported on a project to create a new inn of court, conceived along the lines of a humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
academy. Bacon had then taken the idea further and combined it with legal experience of wardship, and in a paper of 1561 made a recommendation to the queen.
The home and library of John Dee
John Dee
John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...
at Mortlake
Mortlake
Mortlake is a district of London, England and part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes with East Sheen inland to the south. Mortlake was part of Surrey until 1965.-History:...
from 1570 to the early 1580s has been identified as a prototype 'academy'. His circle included Thomas Hariot and Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
, and was closely linked to that around Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland KG was an English aristocrat. He was a grandee and one of the wealthiest peers of the court of Elizabeth I. Under James I, Henry was a long-term prisoner in the Tower of London. He is known for the circles he moved in as well as for his own achievements...
. These groups with Gresham College comprised the centre of English scientific life at the period.
The Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries
A College (or Society) of AntiquariesAntiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
met from around 1586 to around 1607; it was closed down by the disapproval of James I, and has a tenuous historical record, but with some surviving documentation. Those involved included:
- Arthur Agard
- Benedict BarnhamBenedict BarnhamBenedict Barnham was a London merchant, the fourth son of the merchant Francis Barnham.-Life:Barnham was alderman of the City of London, and served as Sheriff of the City of London from 1591 to 1592. He was married to Dorothy Smith...
- Robert BealeRobert Beale (diplomat)Robert Beale was an English diplomat, administrator, and antiquary in the reign of Elizabeth I. As Clerk of the Privy Council, Beale wrote the official record of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, to which he was an eyewitness.-Early life:...
- Edward BrerewoodEdward BrerewoodEdward Brerewood was an English scholar and antiquary. He was a mathematician and logician, and wrote an influential book on the origin of languages.-Life:...
- William CamdenWilliam CamdenWilliam Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
- Richard Carew
- Michael HeneageMichael HeneageMichael Heneage was an English politician and antiquary. He was the Member of Parliament for Arundel, East Grinstead, Tavistock and Wigan.-Life:...
- William LambardeWilliam LambardeWilliam Lambarde was an antiquarian and writer on legal subjects.-Life:Lambarde was born in London. His father was a draper , an alderman and a sheriff of London. In 1556, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn...
- William PattenWilliam Patten (historian)William Patten was an author, scholar and government official during the reigns of King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I.-Early career:...
- John StowJohn StowJohn Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...
- James Strangman
- Thomas TalbotThomas Talbot (antiquary)-Life:He was the second son of John Talbot of Salesbury, Lancashire, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Banaster of Altham. Before 1580 he had become clerk of the records in the Tower of London, and may be the ‘learned’ Mr. Talbot referred to by Dr. John Dee. He was an original member...
- Francis ThynneFrancis ThynneFrancis Thynne was an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. Thynne was born in Kent, the son of William Thynne, who was Master of the Household of King Henry VIII. He attended Tonbridge School. Francis Thynne was an antiquary before being admitted to the College of Arms after several...
Robert Bruce Cotton
Robert Bruce Cotton
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet was an English antiquarian and Member of Parliament, founder of the important Cotton library....
and others petitioned Elizabeth I to establish a national library and academy, having in mind an institution for antiquarian study.
Jacobean proposals
Henry Frederick, Prince of WalesHenry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...
revived by his patronage Humphrey Gilbert's proposal. He combined that concept with the French model of Antoine de Pluvinel
Antoine de Pluvinel
Antoine de Pluvinel was the first of the French riding masters, and has had great influence on modern dressage. He wrote L’Instruction du Roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval , was tutor to King Louis XIII, and is credited with the invention of using two pillars, as well as using shoulder-in to...
's riding academy, which included varied studies. The project was intended to cover mathematics and languages as well as equestrian skills, but was cut short by the Prince's death.
The suppression of the Society of Antiquaries having left a hiatus in intellectual life, at least as far as antiquarian interests were concerned, Edmund Bolton
Edmund Bolton
Edmund Mary Bolton , English historian and poet, was born in 1575.-Life:Nothing is known of his family or origins, although he referred to himself as a distant relative of George Villiers. Brought up a Roman Catholic, he was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Bolton then lived in London at the...
brought forward a plan for a royal academy (his "academ roial”). In 1617 a list of 27 names was put forward: it included Sir John Hayward, and Henry Ferrers. A similar list in 1624 included Sir William Segar. Bolton proposed a complex structure, an outer ring of membership (listing 84), and a role in censorship of publications outside theology, all supported by a subsidy. He gained some support from George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
, who put forward a plan (attributed to Prince Henry) in the 1621 Parliament; but nothing came of it. The end of the reign put an end to the plan.
Salomon's House
Salomon's House
Salomon's House is a fictional institution in Sir Francis Bacon's utopian work New Atlantis, published in 1627, the year after Bacon's death. In this work, he portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge...
, the proposal or model from Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
's New Atlantis
New Atlantis
New Atlantis and similar can mean:*New Atlantis, a novel by Sir Francis Bacon*The New Atlantis, founded in 2003, a journal about the social and political dimensions of science and technology...
for an institution of natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
, dates also from this period at the end of the reign of James I. It is an orderly and royally authorised institute for research.
Kynaston’s academy
The foundation in 1635 of the Académie françaiseAcadémie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
coincided closely with Francis Kynaston
Francis Kynaston
Sir Francis Kynaston or Kinaston was an English courtier and poet, noted for his translation of Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde into Latin verse ; he also made a Latin translation of Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid.-Life:He was born at Oteley, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, eldest son...
's setting up of an actual educational institution, his Musaeum Minervae, in his own home in Covent Garden. The king gave money, and the academy admitted young gentlemen only, on exclusive grounds. The tutors were hand-picked by Kynaston.
Kynaston gave his own house in Bedford Street, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, for the college, with ambitions to move into Chelsea College
Chelsea College (17th century)
Chelsea College was a polemical college founded in London in 1609. This establishment was intended to centralize controversial writing against Catholicism, and was the idea of Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who was the first Provost...
. He furnished it with books, manuscripts, musical and mathematical instruments, paintings, and statues, at his own expense. He was himself the regent, and his friends Edward May, Michael Mason, Thomas Hunt, Nicholas Fiske, John Spiedal (Spidall), and Walter Salter were professors in various areas. According to the Constitutions published by Kinaston in 1636, only the nobility and gentry were to be admitted to the college, the object of which was to prepare candidates for a Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
. The full course was to occupy seven years; no gentleman was ‘to exercise himself at once about more than two particular sciences, arts, or qualities, whereof one shall be intellectual, the other corporall.’ The regent taught the following subjects: heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, a practical knowledge of deed
Deed
A deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
s and the principles and processes of common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, antiquities, coins, husbandry. Music, dancing and behaviour, riding, sculpture, and writing also formed important parts of the curriculum.
It was satirised, mildly, by Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
's play The New Academy
The New Academy
The New Academy, or the New Exchange is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first printed in 1659.-Performance and publication:...
(dated to 1636).
The academy idea was still in the air in the years before the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
, and Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel KG, was a prominent English courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture,...
brought forward a proposal during the Short Parliament
Short Parliament
The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....
. Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib was a German-British polymath. An active promoter and expert writer in many fields, he was interested in science, medicine, agriculture, politics, and education. He settled in England, where he married and died...
spoke of a pilot scheme he had run. In the years 1648–1650 Balthazar Gerbier
Balthazar Gerbier
Sir Balthazar Gerbier , was an Anglo-Dutch courtier, diplomat, art advisor, miniaturist and architectural designer, in his own words fluent in "several languages" with "a good hand in writing, skill in sciences as mathematics, architecture, drawing, painting, contriving of scenes, masques, shows...
revived the idea of an academy on Kynaston's lines in a series of pamphlets.
After the Restoration of 1660
Around 1660 John EvelynJohn Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
and Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...
were interested once more in the idea of an academy. Evelyn's experience abroad included a meeting of the Umoristi, an academy in Rome devoted to verse and linguistic matters. Language now became aspect of the "English Academy" issue that continued to resonate with English literati, and was floated by small groups from time to time; and Evelyn himself was a constant advocate of attention to it. Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...
in 1661 conspicuously and in detail advocated a "philosophical college" near central London, that would function as an innovating educational institution, in his Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy. One supporter of an English Academy to regulate the language was Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat , English divine, was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670.Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, founded in 1662. A group actually met in Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
in 1665 to plan an academy, as was recalled later by Evelyn: Cowley and Sprat were involved, with George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
, Matthew Clifford
Martin Clifford (writer)
Martin Clifford was an English writer and wit, who became headmaster of Charterhouse School.-Life:He was educated at Westminster School, and in 1640 went to Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his bachelor's degree three years later . After the Restoration of 1660 he was a man about town, with...
, Cyril Wyche
Cyril Wyche
Sir Cyril Wyche FRS was an English lawyer and politician.He was born in Constantinople, Turkey, where his father, Sir Peter Wyche, was the English Ambassador. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford with Bachelor of Arts in 1653. He received his Master of Arts in 1655 and his Doctor of Civil...
, John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
, and others. After only a little progress, London was subject to the Great Plague,
Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon
Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon
Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon , was an English poet.-Background and education:Dillon was born in Ireland about 1630...
set up, around 1682, a literary society that attracted the name 'academy'. It involved Dryden, other participants being George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, Richard Maitland
Richard Maitland, 4th Earl of Lauderdale
Richard Maitland, 4th Earl of Lauderdale was a Scottish politician.-Life:He was the eldest son of Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale and his spouse Elizabeth Lauder. Before succeeding to the Lauderdale title, Richard Maitland was styled "of Over-Gogar", one of the Haltoun properties...
, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex was an English poet and courtier.-Early Life:He was son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset...
, Lord Cavendish
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire KG PC was a soldier and Whig statesman, the son of William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth Cecil.-Life:...
, Sir Charles Scarborough, and Heneage Finch
Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford
Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, PC, KC was an English lawyer and statesman.-Early life:Second son of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, he was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on November 18, 1664...
. Their linguistic interests extended to issues of translation.
Giovanni Torriano, in his The Italian Reviv'd, equated some English clubs of the Restoration period with groups who in France or Italy would be called "academies".
Later proposals
Lewis Maidwell (1650–1716) had some initial success in promoting his school in King Street, London as chartered by William IIIWilliam III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, with a modernised curriculum. He proposed a tax on publications to support it, but was opposed in Parliament and met with serious resistance from the universities. At the same period Daniel Defoe in his Essay upon Projects had a section on academies.
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
in his Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue, advocated an academy for regulating the English language. In the form of a call for a "national dictionary" to regulate the English language, on the French model, this conception had much support from Augustan men of letters: Defoe, Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
(The Spectator 135 in 1711) and Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
. At the end of Queen Anne's reign some royal backing was again possible, but that ended with the change of monarch in 1714.
The whole idea later met stern opposition, however, from the lexicographer Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, invoking "English liberty" against the prescription involved: he predicted disobedience of an academy supposed to set usage. Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, in an 1862 essay The Literary Influence of Academies, was positive in assessing the French and Italian cultural academies; but marks an endpoint in the tradition. In Culture and Anarchy
Culture and Anarchy
Culture and Anarchy is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867-68 and collected as a book in 1869...
Arnold denied that he supported setting up an English Academy, guying the likely membership as establishment figures.
Further reading
- Isaac D'IsraeliIsaac D'IsraeliIsaac D'Israeli was a British writer, scholar and man of letters. He is best known for his essays, his associations with other men of letters, and for being the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli....
, An English Academy of Literature - Edmund Freeman, A Proposal for an English Academy in 1660, The Modern Language Review Vol. 19, No. 3 (Jul., 1924), pp. 291-300
- Patricia-Ann Lee, Some English Academies: An Experiment in the Education of Renaissance Gentlemen, History of Education Quarterly Vol. 10, No. 3 (Autumn, 1970), pp. 273–286