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boys," as the theorists demanded. In this way, the boys were learning to vary verse into other verse.
In a series of distichs, Johnson fixes the characters of seven prominent Romans in the minds of the boys to help them with their history (9r). The dictates frequently convey such items of information. John-son orders that when he is out, those who can will occupy themselves in writing poetry, those who cannot write poetry will write prose (1ov). He advises that verse is the best exercise, especially epigram, of which Martial is master (12v). These various hints indicate that the boys were learning to write verse, as was usual, pretty clearly on the model of Martial. Johnson models upon the opening of the first oration against Catiline a short oration exhorting to the ancient school discipline (13r). He describes two kinds of evil-mannered men, using a couplet from Juvenal (III, 1o7-1o8) in illustration (13v), follows in his next dictate with an adapted quotation from Persius (V, 52-68) on the thousandfold differing tastes of men (14r), and in his next with advice as to the opinion of others, using a couplet from Martial as his objective (14v). Next comes a lecture on meteorology (15r), occasioned by the heavy rains of the winter months. The approaching holidays occasion a couplet from Homer to be moralized against those scholars who were bored with school and always longed to go home (Igv), but seems also to be moralized in favor of those studying Greek. Then follows a poem aimed at lazy boys who preferred lying late in bed to getting busy with school work (16r). In verse form, Johnson tells the boys that the law was to keep their tongues from blasphemy, their hands from strife, and not to use the mother tongue. Whoever observes these three things will be free, not indeed to play all he wants to, etc., without stint, for he would destroy all law, but free to study whatever he wishes, writing prose, rejoicing in the forensic arts, perusing orations, writing verse, studying Greek (17r). Here are the types of work the boys are supposed to be doing. And so the dictates run on.
The first day after Christmas of 1563 brings an especially significant dictate. Johnson tells the boys that when he had been offended with those who had brought together a multitude to the spectacles, he had vanquished them with angry words, and then the thought had come to him that plays are like life. To illustrate, he uses the characters of Acolastus (2ov). The illustration implies that the boys had Acolastus fresh in mind, else they could not have been expected to understand. I believe it is clear that the Winchester boys had put on Acolastus in 1563 as their Christmas play. Since the boys were still in
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