posal for a reform in English spelling. Sir John Cheke
is popu- larly known chiefly by the well-known lines in Milton's sonnet:— " Thy age, like ours, 0 soul of Sir John Choke, Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taught'at Cambridge and King Edward Greek."
His life, however, as related by Strype, has many features of interest, from the point of view of politics, history, and theology, and he is a good example of the way in which the Reformation movement stimulated men's intellect on many aides. His career- would doubtless have been more generally familiar, had it not been for the lamentable apostasy with which it closed, though int consideration of the undoubted services which he has rendered to posterity, we ought not to be too severe on his memory because, a born scholar and recluse, he was not of the stuff of which martyrs are made. He devoted special thought and at- tention to the pronunciation of Greek and Latin, which had fallen (so far as the former was pronounced at all) into an indis- tinguishable chaos, wholly arbitrary and illogical, and which he- contributed towards placing on a sounder and more reasonable- basis. With regard to the reform of English spelling, he was. less successful, but readers who have not met with the record of his life may perhaps be interested to have, in Strype's words, a. statement of the proposals which he brought forward, and com- pare them with those of the spelling-reformers of more than 300, years later :— "And whereas the writing and spelling of our English tongue was- in those times very bad, even scholars themselves taking little heed how they spelt (as appears both by the MSS. and books then printed),. he endeavoured the correcting and regulating thereof in these respects- following :—l. He would have none of the letter a put to the end of words, as needless and unexpressive of any sounds, as in these words, excus, giv, deceiv, prais, commun, unless where it is sounded, and them to be writ with a double e, as in necessitee. 2. Where the letter a was- sounded long, he would have it writ with a doable a, in distinction from a short, as in maad,straat, daar. 3. When the letter i was sounded long, to be writ with a double' as in desijr, W.! 4. He wholly threw the letter y out of the alphabet, as useless, and supplied it ever with i, as mi, sal, awai. U long he wrote with a long stroke over it, as in, prearun. 6. The rest of the long vowels he would have to be written with double letters, as weer, theer (and sometimes thear), noo, noon adoo, hoof, boy, to avoid an a at the end. 7. Letters without sound he threw out, as in these words, frufes, toold, faut, deaf, again for against,. hole, meen for mean. 8. Changed the spelling in some words, to. make them the better expressive of the sounds, as in gud, britier praisabil, sufferabil."
The question of spelling reform has not progressed much since- Cheke's time, and modern reformers can scarcely hope to have. an advocate of their views so favourably placed for their enforce- ment as was Edward VI.'s Secretary of State. And the vast body of literature which we of the nineteenth century have- behind us is surely a weighty argument on the conservative side-
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