SOURCE: Lewis, C. S. “Drab and Transitional Prose.” In English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama, pp. 272-316. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954.

In the following lecture on early Renaissance prose style, originally given in 1944, Lewis characterizes Ascham's work as full of life and practical information, distinguished by a clear style that is straightforward and free from excessive ornament.

On the whole it is difficult (though not impossible) to understand why Hall receives from most critics so much less attention than either Elyot or Ascham.

As regards Elyot and Ascham in common, the explanation presumably lies in that exaggerated reverence for humanism which has long infected our critical tradition. But as regards Roger Ascham (1515-68),¹ considered by himself, there is another and better reason. There is nothing about Hall that excites love: we praise the writer, but feel that the man may have been little better than a government...