author
Roger Ascham
1515–1568
A Tudor humanist, teacher, and writer, he helped shape clear English prose while arguing that learning should be thoughtful rather than harsh. He is especially remembered for Toxophilus and The Scholemaster, books that connect scholarship, language, and everyday life.
1 Audiobook
The Scholemaster
by Roger Ascham
About the author
Born in Yorkshire around 1515, Roger Ascham studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and became known as a gifted scholar of Greek and Latin. He built a reputation not only in the universities but also at court, where he served as a tutor and later worked in royal service under Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
He is closely associated with the young Elizabeth, whom he taught in the late 1540s. Ascham admired learning that was disciplined but humane, and his writing often pushes back against needless severity in education. That outlook gives his work a lively, practical feel even centuries later.
His best-known books are Toxophilus (1545), a dialogue on archery written in English, and The Scholemaster, published after his death in 1570. Together they show what made him distinctive: a humanist love of classical learning, a strong belief in the English vernacular, and a style praised for being plain, direct, and elegant.