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for searching only. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;ERASMUS, COPIA 179
The fourteenth, similitude. The fifteenth, judicial examination. The sixteenth, embellishment. The seventeenth, embellishment or narration. The eighteenth, common place. The nineteenth, the parts of rhetorical speech. The twentieth, scheme of things of the third order, if any remain besides those enumerated.'
Thus Erasmus has built Copia upon the principles of the trivium. Some parts of the trivium necessarily precede. For instance, the student would certainly need to know elocutio or rhetoric proper as he mastered the first book, since Erasmus does not define his tropes and schemes, but shows instead how to use them. Perhaps a knowledge of the topics is not also assumed, but the pupil would certainly have understood the second book of Copia better if he had previously mastered the topics. It follows that Copia can be used only late in the school curriculum after these precedent matters of elocutio and inventio have been attended to. Erasmus uses and refers to the dd Herennium besides, as if he expects i t to be at hand.Î
It should be noticed that Veltkirchius thinks systematic drill on the first book of Copia should cease with Chapter XXXIII, since the theory of applied elocutio ends there. The remainder of the first book consists of various phrases and sententiae varied by these pre-ceding theoretical principles. These Veltkirchius thought the boy should merely read to become familiar with them against the hour of need. The boy ought also to add to these collections as he read Cicero, Terence, Plautus, Caesar, Livy, Virgil, Ovid, etc. Much the same procedure would be called for in Book II. Such English-printed copies of Copia as I have seen show accordingly heavy signs of usage upon the first book, not upon the second.Î
The Copia was the standard general text on varying up to Shakspere's day. It was to be studied at Eton in 1528 in the sixth, in 1530 in the sixth and seventh forms. Similarly at Canterbury in 1541, the sixth and highest form
shall be instructed in the formulas of `Copiousness of Words and Things' written by Erasmus; and learn to make varyings of speech in every mood, so that they may acquire the faculty of speaking Latin, as far as is possible for boys.
Worcester took over the same requirement in 1544.. At Bury St. Edmund's Copia is prescribed for the fourth out of five forms. Con-
' Copia (London, 1573), pp. IIIV-112r; (1566), p. 266. So the second book of Copia is based upon the topics or inventio.
s Capia (London, 1573), pp. I24r, 166r, etc.; (1566), pp. 289, 371, etc.
9 See above, p. ss n 66.
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