He arranges his dialogues, which he calls Le parlement de Babillards, id est, The Parlaiment of Prattlers, into three groups. The first of these consists of three long dialogues on the method of learning foreign languages, on the excellence of writers in both ancient and modern tongues, and on travel through the chief towns of Europe. The first dialogue ends with the quotation from Du Bartas in praise of Queen Elizabeth and her accomplishments, accompanied by a translation in English verse by Eliote himself.
The second part, styled "M. Eliote's first booke," is of a much more elementary character than the one just described. Eliote had referred elsewhere to a work entitled The Scholler, in which he propounded a "general method of learning and teaching all languages contrived by nature and art, conformable to the precepts of Aristotle." This, or part of it, evidently formed the first part of the Ortho-Epia Gallica, where it is separately paged.[444]
In his first and second books, which thus form the second and third parts of the work, he expounds "his double new invention, which teacheth Englishmen to speake truly, speedily and volubly the French tong." The first part of this "invention" consists in placing by the side of the French and English a third column, giving the French in pseudo-English equivalents—"the true pronunciation of each word wholly and certain little stripes (called approches) between the sillables that are to be spoken roundly and glib in one breath." The twelve dialogues of Eliote's first book are fairly simple in character, and some of them were probably suggested by Vives's Exercitatio. Their subject matter does not differ much from earlier dialogues, but their treatment is decidedly original. The following quotation is taken from the first dialogue:
| Hau Garcon dors tu vilain? debout, debout, ie te reveilleray tantost avec un bon baton. | Ho Garssoon dortu veelein? deboo, deboo, ie te reue-lheré tant-tot tavec-keun boon batoon. | What boy slepeth thou villain? up, up, I shall shall wake thee soon with a good cudgell. |
| Je me leve, monsieur. | Ie me léveh moonseewr. | I rise sir. |
| Quelle heure est-il? | Qel-heur et-til? | What o'clock is it? |
| Il est six heures. | Il-é see-zewres. | It is six o'clock. |
| Donnez moy mes chausses de velours verd. | Donné moe' mes shosséh de veloor vert. | Give me my my green velvet breeches. |
| Lesquelles? | Le-keles? | Which? |
| C'est tout un; mes chausses rondes de satin rouge. . . . | Set-toot-tewn; mes shosseh roondeh de satin rouge. . . . | It is all one; my round red satin ones, etc. |
There are twelve dialogues in all, but only each alternate one is accompanied by this curious guide to pronunciation.[445]
In the second book and third part the dialogues are longer and more numerous, dealing with the different trades and occupations—"les devis familiers des mesters fort delectables a lyre." They do not, however, confine themselves to the characters usually introduced into similar dialogues; besides the mercer, the draper, the shoemaker, the innkeeper, and so on, we have the armourer, the robber, the debtor, the apothecary, and other characters which offer ample scope for treatment in the Rabelaisian vein, of which Eliote was so fond. Some suggest that Eliote was acquainted with Holyband's works. This book contains the second part of his "double new invention." The French and English are printed on opposite pages, and in the margin the sounds of the most difficult French letters are indicated, thus:
ai sound e
ay sound e
am sound ein
aine sound eineh, and so on.
This table he describes "as Mercurie's finger to direct thee in thy progress of learning," and he repeats it on the margin of every pair of opposite pages.
THE "ORTHO-EPIA GALLICA" After these twenty dialogues comes the "Conclusion of the parlaiment of prattlers," which depicts a group of friends walking by the Thames and St. Paul's, "prattling, chatting, and babbling." The arrangement is the same as in the previous dialogues, and the work closes with a quotation from Du Bartas's praise of France:
O mille et mille fois terre heureuse et féconde,
O perle de l'Europe! O Paradis du monde!
France je te salue, O mère des guerriers.