"He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him"
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Ascham’s prescription is a neat piece of Renaissance pragmatism: style as social engineering. “Speak as the common people do” isn’t a folksy concession; it’s a theory of power. If you want your language to travel, it has to sound like it belongs to ordinary mouths. The ear is the first gatekeeper. Diction that feels native, unshowy, breathable, lets ideas move without setting off alarms that say scholar, courtier, outsider.
Then comes the second half, the real ambition: “to think as wise men do.” Ascham is arguing for a split-level writing that flatters two audiences at once. The masses get clarity; the learned get substance. It’s an early statement of what we now call accessibility without dilution, except he frames it as a moral and civic duty: “so should every man understand him.” Writing well becomes public service, not private performance.
The subtext is anxiety about elitism at the moment English is trying to prove it can carry serious thought. In the 1500s, Latin still held the prestige of scholarship; English was often treated as the language of the street and the sermon. Ascham’s move is to fuse those worlds: keep the vernacular’s immediacy, import the “wise men” as intellectual scaffolding, and you get prose that can circulate beyond the university.
There’s also a quiet warning here to stylists and show-offs. If the “judgment of wise men” must “allow” you, pure popularity won’t do. If “every man” can’t understand you, pure cleverness won’t either. Ascham’s ideal writer is bilingual in class: plainspoken on the surface, disciplined underneath.
Then comes the second half, the real ambition: “to think as wise men do.” Ascham is arguing for a split-level writing that flatters two audiences at once. The masses get clarity; the learned get substance. It’s an early statement of what we now call accessibility without dilution, except he frames it as a moral and civic duty: “so should every man understand him.” Writing well becomes public service, not private performance.
The subtext is anxiety about elitism at the moment English is trying to prove it can carry serious thought. In the 1500s, Latin still held the prestige of scholarship; English was often treated as the language of the street and the sermon. Ascham’s move is to fuse those worlds: keep the vernacular’s immediacy, import the “wise men” as intellectual scaffolding, and you get prose that can circulate beyond the university.
There’s also a quiet warning here to stylists and show-offs. If the “judgment of wise men” must “allow” you, pure popularity won’t do. If “every man” can’t understand you, pure cleverness won’t either. Ascham’s ideal writer is bilingual in class: plainspoken on the surface, disciplined underneath.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | The Scholemaster (The Schoolmaster), Roger Ascham, published posthumously 1570 — passage advising writers to "speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do" commonly cited from The Scholemaster. |
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