_Prerogative, etc._ This paragraph is somewhat obscure at first reading; but it appears to mean that _common use_, or established usage, settles certain questions concerning which there might otherwise be some doubt. _Likes the pen._ Suits the pen. Compare _Hamlet_ ii. 2. 80: "it likes us well"; _Henry V._ iii. prol. 32: "The offer likes not," etc. _Particularities._ Peculiarities. _Which either cannot understand, etc._ The relative is equivalent to _who_, and refers to the preceding _many_. This use of _which_ was common in Shakespeare's day. Compare _The Tempest_, iii. 1. 6: "The mistress which I serve," etc. _Or cannot entend to understand, etc._ That is, cannot _intend_ (of which _entend_ is an obsolete form), but the word is here used in a sense which is not recognized in the dictionaries. The meaning seems to be that these "plain people" cannot understand a rule either at sight or after some effort to comprehend it, having neither the _time_ nor the _conceit_ (intellect) to master it. _Conceit_ in this sense is common in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Compare _2 Henry IV._ ii. 4. 263: "He a good wit?... there's no more conceit in him than is in a mallet." =Page 109.=--_John Brinsley_ became master of the grammar school at Ashby-de-la-Zouche in 1601, where he remained for sixteen years. The full title of his book is _Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar Schoole_ (1612). He writes much better English than Mulcaster, and young people will find no difficulty in understanding the passage quoted from him. _Proceed in learning._ That is, pursue their studies after leaving the grammar school. =Page 110.=--_Present correction._ Immediate correction, or punishment. For this old sense of _present_, compare _2 Henry IV._ iv. 3. 80:-- "Send Colevile with his confederates To York, to present execution." _Countervail._ Counterbalance, make up for. =Page 112.=--_Willis._ All that is known of this "R. Willis" is from his autobiography, the title of which is, "Mount Tabor, or Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, published in the yeare of his age 75, anno Dom. 1639." He is the same person who is quoted on page 161 below. =Page 113.=--_His references to schoolboys, etc._ Perhaps we ought not to lay much stress on these. The description of "the whining schoolboy" is from the "Seven Ages" of the cynical Jaques, who describes all these stages of human life in sneering and disparaging terms; and the other passages simply refer to the proverbial dislike of boys to go to school. =Page 114.=--_Thomas Tusser_ (1527?-1580?) was a poet and writer on agriculture. Besides his _One Hundred Points of Good Husbandry_ (1557), he wrote _Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, United to as Many of Good Wiferie_ (1570), etc. He was educated at Oxford, spent ten years at court, and then settled on a farm, where the rest of his life was passed.