The first section of the dialogues, that accompanied by the guides to pronunciation, deals with familiar subjects, more useful than elegant and more profitable for the middle classes and merchants than for the "loathsome courtier." "Thou hast in this Booke all household stuffe and other pretty necessary words meete for thy dailie use in this tongue. Also an Introduction to frame all common and ordinarie phrases pertaining to a house: as of victuals, dressing, voyaging through the land. Also the partes and cloathing of a Man, his body, all in remarkable phrases; whereof I will shew thee vively, yea every Member, from the crowne of the Head unto the Foot." Though Wodroeph's dialogues are on a much larger scale than usual in French manuals, they treat of much the same topics. He advises the student to read this first set of dialogues several times, as much to get a good foundation of common talk, as to learn the pronunciation by means of the guides provided. They are followed by lists of common phrases to be learnt by heart, "every day one or two, for ordinarie use," and to facilitate an early use of French in conversation, and also by French idioms "very necessary for Translations of this tongue into any other."
After about sixty pages of this introductory matter we pass to what Wodroeph calls "The first booke of familie Dialogues, wherein is treated of all kinds of common necessary phrases as well for the use of the fields, labourage and contries, as for all sortes of home affaires for a house"—all accompanied by a verbatim English translation. These dialogues comprise conversations between members of most ranks of society, from a king and queen, ladies and gentlemen, to family scenes, and discussions between various tradesmen and peasants, not forgetting the schoolmaster and his pupil and the military officer and his subordinates; for, whenever occasion arises, Wodroeph introduces military talk. This section of the work closes with a list of the proper terms in which to address the higher and lower classes.
Next come the dialogues taken from Le verger des Colloques recréatifs, offered by a Walloon to Prince Henry of Nassau, for his furtherance in the same tongue in his younger years. Wodroeph claims to have purified this book, written in "scurvie Wallons language." It had already been adapted to the instruction of the English in the Italian language, by John Florio in his Second Frutes. These dialogues are naturally more of the courtly type, and are concerned with the daily occurrences of the life of a gentleman.
They are followed by The Springwell of Honour and Vertue, a collection of moral sayings and counsels, "composed both by ancient and moderne philosophers not only for the benefit of the corrupted youth, but also for all folkes, of all qualities, and chiefly for the yong gentilitie." END OF WODROEPH'S CAREERWodroeph explains how this collection came to have a place in his book: "being once invited to supper of a worthy and virtuous gentleman (one who had showed me much favour for clearing his eldest sone of some doubts of the French tongue), I saw that hee (his owne selfe) did copie some Theames out of this same Worke ... for to instruct one of his children being (for that present) at the French schoole; I entreated him to lend it me for a Tyme, who did it willingly until I had viewed it, and corrected the French and read it all out." The Springwell is divided into three bookes: the first deals with the "means of acquiring Honour and Vertue"; the second with the old subject of the six or, as Shakespeare has it, seven ages of man; and the third with the worship of God and our duty to our neighbours.
After sundry poems, addressed to English, Scottish, and Flemish gentlemen, and the translation of Sir William Alexander's First Hour, given in both French and English, come directions for writing letters, with thirty-six epistles in French and English, and themes gathered out of French authors for the use of some of his pupils, "before I made them frame any letters: very profitable to begin with and out of the best and purest French." Finally we have the usual proverbs, so much in favour at this period, "picked" from those of the learned Mathurin Cordier, and "sundry other Authours and writers." The work closes with "a Thankesgiving (of the Authour) unto God for his helpe in the finishing of this worke," and the quotation of Wodroeph's device—"Vers Dieu c'est le meilleur."
In 1625 a second edition of this curious volume appeared in London, under the title of The Marrow of the French Tongue. This edition is said to be "revised and purged of much gross English" which had made its way into the former edition, printed abroad. It is considerably abridged, and lacks the living interest of the Dort edition. The actual instructions for the French tongue remain intact, but all the little chatty autobiographical scraps, and observations to the "Loving Reader," as well as the addresses to officers, which gave such a characteristic personal touch to the earlier edition, are here omitted, and the work is about one hundred and seventy pages shorter. The dedication to Charles Stuart, now newly crowned Charles I., still stands. Wodroeph had no doubt returned to England, where he was known to several of the prominent men of the time. In 1623 he had mentioned favours received from James, Lord of Hay, at Hampton Court, sixteen years before. We may presume that he continued to teach French among the higher classes of society after his return, though there does not appear to be any further trace of him.
FOOTNOTES:
[685] Florio, First Frutes, 1578.
[686] J. Aubrey, Brief Lives (ed. A. Clark, Oxford, 1898), ii. p. 140.
[687] A fragment of one leaf, the title page, leaving no date; British Museum, Harl. MSS. 5936.