XVIII.
Ancient French school-books for English learners—Their historical and philological interest—Succession of writers and teachers—Hollyband, Florio, Delamothe, and others—Sketches of their work—Their imperfect acquaintance with our language—Other publications of an educational cast.
I. Turning to the French language, there is a very singular relic of early times in the shape of an Anglo-Gallic Vocabulary of the end of the fifteenth century, in which the spelling of both languages is strikingly archaic:—
“Here is a good boke to lerne to speke french.
Vecy ung bon lievre a apprendre parler fraunchoys.
In the name of the fader of the sonne.
En nom du pere et du fils.
And of the holy goost I will begynne.
Et du saint esprit ie veuel cōmenchier.
To lerne to speke frenche.
A apprendre a parler franchoys.”
After this exordium follow the numbers, the names of precious stones, articles of merchandise, fruits, wines, &c. Wine of rochell is rendered vin de rosele. What we know as Beaune is called byane in French and beaune in English. On the fourth page, among “Other maner of speche in frenche,” occur:—
“Sir god giue you good day.
Sire dieu vous doint bon iour.
Sir god giue you good euyn.
Sire dieu vous doint bon vespere.
Holde sir here it is.
Tenez sire le veez ey.”
The z in tenez seems to have been specially cut, for it is of a different font or case, and, curiously enough, in the next sentence it is wrongly inserted in ditez (for dites). The question is asked how much one man owes another, and the reply is ten shillings, for which the French equivalent is taken to be dix soulz. But there were no shillings in England at that time; perhaps the writer was thinking of the skilling, with which our coin has no more than a nominal affinity.
The Eclaircissement de la langue Françoise, by John Palsgrave, 1530, and the Introductory to learn, pronounce, and speak the French tongue, by Giles Du Wes or Dewes, written some years later for the use of the Princess Mary in the same way as Linacre’s Latin Grammar had been, are sufficiently familiar from their reproduction in modern times under the auspices of the French Government. Dewes was not improbably related to a person of the same name who acted as preceptor to the son of Cromwell, Earl of Essex. Both he and Palsgrave were professional teachers; but Palsgrave was a Londoner, who had completed his studies in the Parisian Gymnasium; and he at all events was a Latin, no less than a French scholar. In the dedication of his English version of the Comedy of Acolastus to Henry VIII. in 1540, he speaks at some length, and in laudatory terms, of the official Primer issued in that year, and he also conveys to us the notion of being then advanced in life.
Nearly, if not quite, contemporary with him and Dewes was Pierre du Ploiche, who in the time of Henry published a very curious little volume of more general scope, called A Treatise in English and French right necessary and profitable for all young children. Du Ploiche, when this work appeared, was residing in Trinity Lane, at the sign of the Rose. He gives us in parallel columns, the English on the left hand, and the French equivalent on the right, the Catechism, the Litany and Suffrages, and a series of Prayers. These occupy three sections; the fourth, fifth, and sixth sections are devoted to secular and familiar topics: For to speake at the table, for to aske the way, and for to bie and sell; and the concluding portion embraces the A. B. C. and Grammar.
The English is pretty much on a par with that found in educational treatises produced by foreigners, and the French itself is decidedly of an archaic cast, though, doubtless, such as was generally recognised and understood in the sixteenth century. I shall pass over the religious divisions, and transcribe a few specimens from the three groups of dialogue on social or personal subjects.
The third chapter, where the scene at a meal is depicted, affords, of course, some interesting suggestions and illustrations, yet little that is very new, except that we seem to get a glimpse of the practice, borrowed from monastic life, of some one reading aloud while the rest were at their repast. For one says: “Reade Maynerd, Lisez Maynart,” to which the other rejoins: “Where shall I reade?” and the first answers: “There where your fellow lefte yesterday,” so that it was apparently the custom to take turns. We perceive, too, that the dinner was both ushered in and wound up with very elaborate graces. In this dialogue, as well as in the next about asking the way, there is mention of almost every description of utensil, but no reference to the fork, which was not yet in general use.
There is a delicate refinement of phraseology here and there, as where “You ly” is rendered “Vous espargnez la verité;” and Du Ploiche does not fail to advertise himself and his address, for when one of the interlocutors demands: “Where go you to schole?” the other is made to reply: “In trinytie lane at the signe of the Rose.”
The annexed extract from the same chapter may assist in fixing the date of the publication to 1544:—
| “And you sir, from whence com you? | “Et vous seigneur, d’ou venez vous? | |
| I come from Bulloigne. | Ie viens de Boulongne. | |
| From Englande, from Germany. | D’Engleterre, d’Allemaigne. | |
| What newes? | Quelle nouuelles? | |
| I know none but good. | Ie ne sçay rien que bien. | |
| I harde say | i’ay ouy dire | |
| That the Englishe men | que les anglois | |
| haue kylled many frenche men. | ont occis beaucoup de François. | |
| And where? | Et ou? | |
| Before Bulloigne. | Deuant Boulongne. | |
| When came the newes? | Quant vinrent tez nouuelle? | |
| This morninge by a post.” | A ce matin par vng poste.” |
The portion which yields this matter comprises all the incidents of a long journey, the arrival at the inn, the call for refreshment, the baiting and putting up of the horse, the retirement to rest, and the breakfast before departure in the morning.
The sixth section, on buying and selling, exhibits no remarkable examples, or rather nothing that I can, with so large a choice, afford to cite, and the grammatical part follows the usual lines. The present treatise came to a new edition in 1578, but it does not seem to have been very successful.
In point of fact, the taste and demand for such a class of hand-books or primers had not fully set in. With the reign of Elizabeth the habit of foreign travel and the consequent value of a conversance with languages, especially French and Italian, imparted the first marked stimulus and development to this class of literary enterprise.
II. Claude Desainliens, who transformed himself into Claudius Holy-Band or Hollyband, and who seems in his earlier days to have had quarters over or adjoining the sign of the Lucrece in St. Paul’s Churchyard, became a voluminous producer of the dictionaries, grammars, and phrase-books so popular in early times, and included in his range the Italian as well as the French series. Long after his death his works continued to be in demand, and were edited with improvements by others. Desainliens began, so far as I know, with his French Littleton in 1566, and his French Dictionary was not printed till 1593. In 1581 he had moved from the Lucrece to the Golden Ball, just by.
Perhaps of all his multifarious performances his French and Italian Schoolmasters were the two which met with the greatest favour; and the longer career of the former may perhaps be ascribed to the more general cultivation of the French language in England. The Italian Schoolmaster originally appeared in 1575 as an annex to a version of the story of Arnalte and Lucenda; but in the subsequent impressions of 1597 and 1608 the philological portion occupies the place of honour, and the story is made to follow. In the former the rules for pronunciation and such matter as fell within his knowledge as an Italian may be passed as representing what was the correct practice and view at the period; it is with the English illustrations and equivalents that one is apt to be surprised and amused; and one, moreover, figures the occasional bewilderment even of an English pupil at the strange unidiomatic forms which Desainliens has adopted. In other words, instead of translating English into Italian, he has translated Italian into broken English; as, for instance, where in a dialogue a man is inquiring the way to London, we find at the conclusion such pure Italicisms as Have me recommended: I am yours: Remaine with God. Then, again, terms are misapplied, of course, as thus: “Tell me deere fellowe, is it yet farre to the citie?” And when he has entered his inn, he calls to the host: “Bring me for to wash my hands and face.” At the same time the pages of this and similar volumes abound with fruitful illustrations of all kinds, which we should have been very sorry indeed to lose; and it is to be recollected that the English gloss was secondary, and that the bizarre style and texture of this class of book arose from the aim at enabling the learner to be prepared for all sorts of occasions and every variety of conversational topic. The author consequently leads him through the different occupations and incidents of life, and imagines successive interviews and dialogues with such persons as he would be likely to encounter. In the parley with a farrier, it comes out that the charge for shoeing a horse was fivepence a foot; and in the section Per maritarsi = To be married, Hollyband starts by rendering O bella giovane “Ho fair maiden.” He urges her to be prompt in her decision by citing the proverb, “Ladie, whilest the iron is hote, it must be wrought.”
Much of the matter introduced by Desainliens is highly curious and even important. I shall transcribe a section or two, as they are brief, for the sake of the English suggestions:—
“To sing and daunce.
“O fellowes, I wish that wee shoulde sing a song, and I will take the lute.
Let vs sing and daunce, when you will.
Mystres, will it please you to daunce a galliard with me? pray you therefore.
I cannot daunce after the Italian fashion.
We shall daunce after the high Dutch.
Go to, play a galliard vpon the violl.
I would rather vpon the virginals....
Of the Booke binder.
Shew me an Italian, and English bookes and of the best print.
I have none bound at this present.
Bind me this with silke and claspes....
Reach me royall paper to write.
Neede you any ynke and bombash?
No, but wast paper, & of that which wee call drinking paper....
I would you shoulde make mee a paire of bootes, a ierkin, and a paire of shoes, pantofles, mules, and buskins.
We will make thē sir, & of good leather.
See this faire shooing.
Put on those pompes....”
After all, possibly, such publications as that before me are chiefly valuable for a purpose for which they were not designed—for the bounteous light which they shed on our old English customs and notions; and I do not think that they have been hitherto fully brought into employment. It is obviously impossible for me, however, in the present case to remedy this shortcoming, more particularly as the quotations suffer by curtailment or paraphrase.
The Arnalte and Lucenda takes up the major part of the volume, and must be said to be freer from grammatical inaccuracies than that division of the book devoted to grammar. Nor could a man live in London without catching some of the colloquialisms current among its residents. In his Italian Phrases we meet on the English side of the page with: “Hee looketh rather like a cutter or fencer then,” and “He goeth accompanied with Roisters and cutters.”
The French Dictionary of Desainliens was entirely superseded by that of Randle Cotgrave in 1611. The latter spared no pains to make his book a really valuable performance; he invited help from others, and modelled his labours on a fairly intelligible plan, and it remains to this day in the enlarged edition by Howell a standard and indispensable work of reference. It was the only one available for the school-boy and student for a considerable length of time.
III. Delamothe and Erondelle were contemporary with Desainliens, and may have been equally eminent and successful as teachers; but they did not display the same degree of literary activity. The former indeed produced nothing but a French Alphabet (1595). Pierre Erondelle was a native of Normandy; and besides new and improved editions of his predecessor Desainliens, he brought out in 1605 a quaint book of lessons for the acquisition of French, which he called The French Garden for English Ladies and Gentlemen to walk in; Or A Summer day’s Labour. The volume mainly consists of thirteen dialogues in French and English, embracing the various occupations of the day, from the first rising in the morning till bedtime. Some of the conversations are remarkable for their archaic naiveté so far as English ideas of decorum in speech are concerned; but they are nothing more than the plainness of phrase which was once recognised both here and on the Continent, and the banishment of which has, at all events, not of itself added to our morality. Sterne, in his Sentimental Journey, signalises as a French trait the incident of the lady of quality with whom he drove in her carriage; but he must have been aware that the tone in the same circles at home was equally pronounced; and editors of the earlier Georgian literature have to exercise a pruning hand in dealing with MSS. to be presented now-a-days to public view.
Another of these foreign professors was Jacques Bellot, who published several educational works for the instruction of the English in the French grammar and language. Among these Le Jardin de Vertu et Bonnes Moeurs, 1581, where the English and French are given, as usual, in parallel columns, is the most remarkable. There is a Table of Errata for both languages; but that for the English might, from a native point of view, be indefinitely extended, as Bellot proves himself as incapable of comprehending our idiom as the rest of his countrymen. He renders “La memoire du prodigue est nulle” by “Of the prodigall ther is no memory,” and “La seulle vertu est la vraye noblesse” by “The only vertue, is the true nobilitie.”
The writer trips, as may be conjectured, just in those nice points in which even an Englishman is not always at home.
New and improved systems were continually submitted to the public, or rather, in the language of those days, to the Nobility and Gentry. In 1634, the Grammar of Charles Maupas of Blois, an esteemed and experienced teacher, who during a career of thirty years numbered among his pupils many of the young men of family in Holland as well as in England, was adapted by William Aufield for the use of his countrymen. The original is still regarded as a standard work, though discarded by the schools. Both the French and English are of the antique cast, of course, and many of the examples and much of the phraseology are obsolete; but the book was written for Frenchmen and translated for Englishmen, to both of whom the speech of these days would have seemed at least equally strange, and proved not less embarrassing.
The pages of Maupas, as he is presented to us in his English dress, acquire an oddity and an almost humorous side, which are absent from the French text itself; as, for instance:—
“Of making Stop.
“Holà, ho there, prou well, well, so so; assez enough, enough; demeure, arreste, stay, stay, budge not.”
“Of feeling Pain.
“Aou, haou, aouf, ah, of, alas. The same words will serve in English.”
“Of Joy.
“Gay, deliait, alaigrement, heighday, as a man woud wish, merrily then.”
Claudius Mauger and Paul Festeau were two other professors at a somewhat later date, who endeavoured to secure patronage for their methods and books by throwing special temptations in the way of customers. The former, who seems to have been resident in London, introduced into his pages as an attractive novelty a series of Dialogues illustrative of English exploits by land and sea, as well as of contemporary French history, while Festeau baited his hook with the two scarcely reconcilable assurances that his plan was the exactest possible for attaining the purity and eloquence of the French tongue, as it was spoken about 1660 in the Court of France, and that Blois, his native place, was the city “where the true tone of the French tongue was found by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen.”