''Toxophilus'' is a book about

longbow A longbow (known as warbow in its time, in contrast to a hunting bow) is a type of tall Bow and arrow, bow that makes a fairly long Bow draw, draw possible. A longbow is not significantly Recurve bow, recurved. Its limbs are relatively narrow an ...

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In ...

by Roger Ascham, first published in London in 1545. Dedicated to

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

, it is the first book on archery written in English. Ascham was a keen archer and a lecturer at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, and wrote ''Toxophilus or the Schole or Partitions of Shooting'' to defend archery against claims that it was a sport unbefitting a scholar. ''Toxophilus'' is written in the form of a dialogue between two characters, Philologus ("a lover of study") and Toxophilus ("a lover of the bow"), who is also a scholar and defends archery as a noble pastime. Ascham prefixed his work with an elaborate dedication to Henry VIII, who approved of the book and granted Ascham a pension of £10 a year, which was confirmed and augmented by Edward VI.

Influence on English

As well as being the earliest printed book in English about archery, ''Toxophilus'' is also important as a model for how books of instruction could be written in English (rather than Latin) and how English could be written in a clear style, for as he remarks in his preface "To All Gentle Men and Yeomen of England": "Many English writers have not done so, but using strange words, as Latin, French, and Italian, do make all things dark and hard." So, unlike other scholars writing in English at the time, such as Thomas Elyot and

John Cheke Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great ...

, he avoided neologisms and flowery classical terms, and "succeeded in making his English work as a vehicle of wide communication ... Some of the passages describing the environment (for example, the way in which the wind could interfere with the aim of an expert archer) were vivid and at the time unparalleled in English writing." The word "Toxophilus" was invented by Ascham. The noun "toxophilite", meaning "a lover or devotee of archery, an archer", is derived from it.

History of archery

The next major work on archery in English was ''The Art of Archerie'' by

Gervase Markham Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first publishe ...

, published in London in 1634. ''Toxophilus'' has served as a source book for many subsequent works on the history of archery, for example ''

The Archer's Craft ''The Archer's Craft'' (, first published in 1951) by A. E. Hodgkin is a book on the making and use of traditional English and Welsh bows. The book describes how to make both longbows and short hunting bows and arrows. It also describes hunting ...

'' by A. E. Hodgkin.Hodgkin, Adrian Eliot (1951). ''The Archer's Craft''. London: Faber & Faber. .

Editions

* Ascham, Roger; ed. Arber, Edward (1868). ''English Reprints: Toxophilus, 1545''. London: Murray. * Ascham, Roger; ed. Wright, William Aldis (1904). ''English Works: Toxophilus, Report of the Affaires and State of Germany, The Scholemaster''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

External links

''Toxophilus'' - online text at the Archery Library

Society of Archer-Antiquaries
1545 books Books about sports English-language books History of archery

Influence on English

History of archery

Editions

See also

References

Further reading

External links