Venus and Adonis (ca. 1682), said to be the first complete English opera, includes an episode likely to be of more than aesthetic interest to historians of education. For, in addition to the musical and poetic charm of the opera as a whole, a scene in it called the “Cupids' Lesson” reflects some significant features of seventeenth century educational theory and practice. These are clothed in mythical guise, but the opera's first audience would have had no difficulty in recognizing correspondences between the fanciful Cupids' Lesson and what were common teaching-learning patterns. To identify and interpret these correspondences is the purpose of this essay.