Ce toutal Oeuure est diuise en Trois Liures.
Au Premier Liure est contenue Lexhortation a mettre & ordonner la Lāgue Françoise par certaine Reigle de parler elagāment en bon & plussain Langage François.
Au Segond est traicte de Linuention des Lettres Attiques, & de la conference proportionnalle dicelles au Corps & Visage naturel de Lhomme parfaict. Auec plusieurs belles inuentions & moralitez sus lesdittes Lettres Attiques.
Au Tiers & dernier Liure sont deseignees & proportionnees toutes lesdittes Lettres Attiques selon leur Ordre Abecedaire en leur haulteur & largeur chascune a part soy, en y enseignant leur deue facon & requise pronunciation Latine et Françoise, tant a Lantique maniere que a la Moderne.
En deux Caietz a la fin sont adiouxtees Treze diuerses facōs de Lettres. Cest a scauoir. Lettres Hebraiques. Greques. Latines. Lettres Françoises. & icelles en Quatre facons, qui sont. Cadeaulx. Forme. Bastarde, & Torneure. Puis ensuyuant sont les Lettres Persiennes. Arabiques. Africaines. Turques. & Tartariennes. qui sont toutes cinq en vne mesme Figure Dalphabet. En apres sont les Caldaiques. Les Goffes, quō dit autrement Imperiales & Bullatiques. Les Lettres Phantastiques. Les Vtopiques, quon peut dire Voluntaires. Et finablement Les Lettres Floryes. Auec Linstruction & Maniere de faire Chifres de Lettres pour Bagues dor, pour Tapisseries, Vistres, Paintures & autres chouses que bel & bon semblera.
On the following leaf is the license, an extract from which will be found on a subsequent page (Part 2, § II, no. [2]); then a letter from Tory 'à tous vrayz et deuotz Amateurs de bonnes lettres,' beginning thus:—
'Poets, orators, and others learned in letters and sciences, when they have made and composed some work of their studious diligence and their hand, are wont to make gift thereof to some great lord of court or church, commending him by letters and by words of praise to the knowledge of other men; and this in order to please him and to the end that they may be able always to be so welcome in his sight that he shall seem to be obliged and bound to give to them some great gift, some cure or some office, in recompense of the toil and night-watches they have employed in the making and composing of their said works and gifts. I could readily do the same with this little book; but, considering that, if I should give it to one rather than to another, there might arise envy and detraction, I have thought that it would be well and wisely done of me to make of it a gift to ye all, O ye devout lovers of goodly letters! nor to prefer the great to the humble, save in so far as he loves letters the more and is the more at home in virtue.'
Then comes a table, filling eight pages, and another letter of Tory, from which we make a few extracts.
To the readers of this book, humble greeting.
It is commonly said, and truly said, that there is great natural virtue in plants, in stones, and in words. To offer examples would be superfluous, so certainly is it true. But I would that God might be pleased to give me grace so to prevail by my words and entreaties that I may persuade some persons that, if they will not do homage to our French tongue, they will at the least cease to corrupt it. I find that there be three sorts of men who strive and exert themselves to corrupt and debase it: they are the 'skimmers of Latin,' the 'jesters,' and the 'jargoners.' When the skimmers of Latin say: 'Despumon la verbocination latiale, & transfreton la Sequane au dilucule & crepuscule, puis deãbulon par les Quadrivies & Platees de Lutece, & comme verisimiles amorabundes captiuon la beniuolence de lomnigene & omniforme sexe feminin,'[226] it seems to me that they make sport not of their fellows alone, but of themselves. When the jesters, whom I may fairly call 'slashers [dechiqueteurs] of language,' say: 'Monsieur du Page, si vous ne me baillez vne lesche du iour, ie me rue a Dieu, & vous dis du cas, vo⁹ aures nasarde sanguine,' they seem to me to do as great harm to our language as they do to their coats, by slashing and destroying with contumely that which is of more worth whole than when maliciously torn and defaced. And in like manner when jargoners[227] make their remarks in their malicious and wicked jargon, it seems to me not only that they prove themselves dedicate to the gibbet, but that it would be well if they had never been born. Although Master François Villon was in his day mightily ingenious therein, yet would he have done better to have essayed to do some other more goodly thing.... I consider moreover that there is another sort of men who corrupt our language even more: they are the innovators and forgers of new words. If such forgers are not villains, I deem them little better. Think you that they show great refinement when they say after drinking that they have 'le Cerueau tout encornimatibule & emburelicoque dũg tas de mirilifiques & triquedondaines, dung tas de gringuenauldes & guylleroches qui les fatrouillēt incessammēt?' I would not quote such foolish words, were it not that my scorn in thinking of them forces me to do it. 'Si natura negat, facit indignatio versum....'
Yours in everything,
Geofroy Tory de Bourges.
After this letter comes the text of the book, which occupies, as I have said, eighty numbered leaves.[228]