It is said, that he was supported at the University by the celebrated Sir John Fastolf; the same who, in his own day, had great renown for his valour and munificence, and who was afterwards exposed to dishonour by Shakspere, with a trifling variation of his name, and a considerable distortion of his character. But it may be presumed that Worcester was indebted not so much to his bounty as to his protection; for if we may judge of Worcester’s patrimony from the few notices he has given us of his father’s property in Bristol, it is not likely that his own means would have been inadequate to the small expense of a collegiate course in those simple times; and we may therefore believe, that the connection which subsisted between Worcester and Fastolf, was merely a compliance with the general custom of the age, when youths of gentlemanly birth and competent fortune sought the patronage and entered the household of wealthy and powerful men. But, however this might have been, it is certain that he afterwards lived with Sir John at Caister, in Norfolk, where he acted as the knight’s secretary and confidential friend, and subsequently as one of his executors. At Oxford Worcester prosecuted his studies with great diligence and success; and we are informed that he became eminent for his knowledge of history, medicine, and astronomy. On these subjects he is said to have written many books: yet it is likely that they were rather extracts and memorandums, than original and formal compositions. Besides these, he executed some translations from the classics; and we learn from his Itinerary, that on the tenth of August 1473, he presented the Bishop of Winchester with a translation of Cicero on Old Age. He tells us, however, that this gift was not sufficient to conciliate the good prelate’s regard; but he seems to insinuate, that the failure was owing less to the faults of the performance, than to the intervention of an enemy. Yet, whatever he might have suffered from the malice of his neighbours, it is possible, that the offering itself was considered of small value; and it might have been the less esteemed, if it be true, that the same treatise had been already rendered into English by John Tiptoft, the accomplished and unfortunate Earl of Worcester.