hours, as Mormann does; and whether any one may go to them on
payment of a fee, whether candidates for orders[5] or not. I
should like him to get over the elements as quickly as
possible; for if boys are kept at them too long, they take a
dislike to the whole thing. The Pliny that you ask for shall
come to you soon. I use it a great deal; but nevertheless you
shall have it.'

[3] victui necessaria, vt solent nostrates. Victus is commonly
used in the technical sense of 'board'; but here the meaning
probably is 'the usual outfit for a schoolboy'. Gebwiler, in
1530, required a boy coming to his school at Hagenau to be
provided with 'a bed, sheets, pillow, and other necessaries'.
[4] diuersorium.
[5] capitiati.

In answer to a question from Hegius, Agricola goes on to distinguish
the words mimus, histrio, persona, scurra, nebulo; with quotations
from Juvenal and Gellius. 'Leccator', he says, 'is a German word; like
several others that we have turned into bad Latin, reisa,
burgimagister, scultetus, or like the French passagium for a military
expedition, guerra for war, treuga for truce.'

He then proceeds to more derivations in answer to Hegius. [Greek:
Anthrôpos] he considers a fundamental word, which, like homo, defies
analysis: but nevertheless he suggests [Greek: ana] and [Greek:
trepô], or [Greek: terpô], or [Greek: trephô]. To explain vesper he
cites Sallust, Catullus, Ovid, Pliny's Letters, Caesar's Civil War,
Persius and Suetonius. (We must remember that in those days a man's
quotations were culled from his memory, not from a dictionary or