In the preface to his textbook The English Rudiments of the Latine Tongue (1656) William Dugard admonishes readers, "Do not thou, by thy negligence, lose the fruit of so great a benefit, which thou maist now enjoy, to thy great advantage, if it bee not thine own fault." The evidence of his life suggests that he took his own advice. An astoundingly energetic figure, Dugard served as headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School and official printer to the Commonwealth and Lord Protector; he was also an editor and author of books on rhetoric and language, as well as a publisher of textbooks, other educational, theological, scientific, and political works, and a newspaper. A friend to the poet John Milton and the philosopher James Harrington, Dugard was associated with some of the major thinkers of the day, including the educational reformer Jan Amos Komensky (known in Latin as Comenius) and members...