OCRed data provided
for searching only. ERASMUS LAID THE EGG; HIS TEXTBOOKS 97 both parts, Erasmus laid the egg and Colet and Lily hatched it-
for the second part Erasmus even helped with the hatching, if not indeed with that of the first also.
It will be seen that Lily contributed the syntax of the first part in English and the nuclear syntax of the second part in Latin. Thus the resultant work deservedly came popularly to bear his name. But he made still other known contributions to the second part as finally authorized. As Knight phrases it, Lily also contributed,
short Rules for distinguishing the Genders of Nouns, called from the first Words Propria quae maribus; and likewise for the Inflexion of Verbs, and Indication of their praeterperJect Tense and Supines, called els in praesenti; making the Rules more compendious, and the Lines smoother, than had been in any of the former Grammatical Systems with which the Schools abounded."
These had been published in a volume together at least as late as
1539 under the title G. Li/ii de generibus nominum, ac aerhorum praeteritis.
The further history of the grammar may be briefly summed up here, the details being relegated to an appendix.¬ Wolsey in 1529 says upon the title page that the Colet-Lily first part was already prescribed for all schools in England, "otbus aliis totius Anglig scholis prgscripta," and in the same year there was certainly a movement to prescribe a uniform grammar before the end of 1530. The chief rival of Lily, the 1ccidentia of Stanbridge, seems to have held on till about 1534. In or about that year all rivals of this first part and of the materials which were to form the second part apparently cease publication. The Colet-Lily-Erasmus materials had by 1534 won the victory. Apparently, the official decision had been made in or about 1529 and was by 1534 completely in effect. In 1540, the second part of the authorized grammar under the title of Institutio Compendiaria
Totius Grammaticae was formed by a commission. In effect, it combined two collections which had grown up in the 'thirties, the one
around the Lily-Erasmus Libellus, and the other around the two other treatises of Lily. These two collections were combined, revised, and supplemented to form the second part of the only authorized grammar. Then by 1542 the Colet-Lily first part was further revised, seemingly by David Talley alone, though approved by the commission. Apparently in 1545, both parts received still further revision and were thereafter always published with a prefatory letter on the
a Knight, Colet, p.133. It Cf. Appendix IL
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