Erondell's grammar rules occupy but ten pages. They contain a few observations on the gender and number of nouns, on verbs, notes on du, au, de la, a la, en, y, and on the negative and degrees of comparison. He considers that the rules usually contained in French text-books are too many. Except for a few indispensable rules, "without the which our language can never be intelligiblie spoken," the rest are "rather a trouble and discouragement to the student then any furtherance." He compiled his book "for them of judgement and capacity only, which may far sooner attaine to the perfect knowledge of our tongue, by reason of cutting off those over-many rules, wherein the student was overmuch entangled." His first idea, indeed, had been to make a set of dialogues for women without any rules, but he realised that to do this would have been like building a "house without a doore"; "and so, the gate being wider open, they may walke in who will." Gentlemen also may find some "flowers" to please them, and the garden is an "arbour for the child":
Who with the busie mother now and then
May prattle of each point, in phrases milde
The witty Boies, of bookes of sport and play,
The pretty lasses of their worke all day.
The dialogues, thirteen in number, and all of considerable length, form the main part of the work. As usual they are in French and English, and, in addition, the pronunciation of the more PETER ERONDELLdifficult French words is given in English spelling in the margin. They deal with the events in the daily life of a lady, from her rising in the morning till bed-time. The first portrays the lady, who is of a rather pedantic turn of mind, rising and dressing. The second introduces her two daughters and their French governess. There is much talk on the education of children, and we are spectators of the French tutor's (Erondell) arrival and of the French lesson, which forms the fourth dialogue. Each of the two girls in turn reads in French and then translates. The more advanced is given some English to translate into French, and the beginner is asked to conjugate certain French verbs. This is how the lesson opens:
| Sister Charlotte I pray you goe fetch our bookes, bring our French Garden, and all our other bookes: now in the name of God let us begin. | Ma sœur Charlotte, Je vous prie allez querir nos livres, apportez nostre jardin Francois, et tous nos aultres livres: or ça commençons au nom de Dieu. |
| Mistres Fleurimond read first: speake somewhat louder to th' end I may heare if you pronounce well: say that worde againe. Wherefore do you sounde that s? | Mlle. F. lisez premierement: parlez un peu plus haut afin que j'oye si vous prononcez bien: dites ce mot la derechef. Pourquoy prononcez vous cette s la? |
| Doe you not knowe that it must be left? Well, it is well said, read with more facilitie, without taking such paines. | ne savez vous pas qu'il la faut laisser? Et bien, c'est bien dit, lisez avec plus de facilité, sans tant vous peiner. |
| Construe me that, what is that? | Traduisez moy cela, qu'est cela? |
| Do you understand that? tell me the signification in English—Truly Sir I cannot tell it, I understand it not, I beseech you tell it me, and I will remember it against another time—Give me your paper and I will write it, to th' end you forget it not ... etc. | Entendez vous cela? dites m'en la signification en Anglois—Certes Mons. je ne le scauroye dire, je ne l'entend point, je vous supplie de me le dire, et je le retiendray pour une autre fois—Baillez moy vostre papier et ie l'escripray, afin que vous ne l'oubliez. . . . |
At the end of her lesson, Florimond has to point out her younger sister's mistakes; for, says Erondell, "in teaching others, one learns oneself." His rule for learning to read was, "observe your rules and read as you do in English"—a method which explains his system of guides to pronunciation. From the dialogues the student passes to the reading of French literature. The girls' French tutor came between seven and eight in the morning, the dancing-master at nine, the singing-master at ten, and another music-master at four in the afternoon.
In the following dialogues the lady visits first the nursery, and next her sons and their tutors. She is then pictured receiving guests, going out shopping, presiding at the dinner-table,[744] and taking part in the conversation. Finally, in the evening, the company take a walk by the Thames, and the thirteenth and last dialogue "treateth of going to bed, prayers (including the Creed), and night-clothes."
In order to give students an introduction to French verse as well as prose, Erondell adds to his book the story of the Centurion in the New Testament put into French verse by himself. He does not provide any English translation, and considers that the pupil who has progressed so far in the study of the language can very well do without it. For the same reason he here omits, as he does in the last dialogue also, the guides to pronunciation.
For a time Erondell had been tutor in the Barkley family, and dedicated the Garden to the Lady Elizabeth Barkley, with an expression of his gratitude for the many favours he had received from her. The verses on the Centurion are dedicated to Thomas Norton, of Norwood, whom he calls his "très intime et très honoré amy." As was usual at this time, Erondell's book is preceded by commendatory poems, including lines by William Herbert, author of Cadwallader, and by Nicholas Breton. There is also a sonnet by the "Sieur de Mont Chrestien, Gentilhomme françois," possibly the famous Antoine de Montchrétien, who in about 1605 was forced to leave France on account of a duel, and visited both England and Holland. Erondell appears to have been many years in England before he produced his Garden. At this date he had a large clientèle, including "many honourable ladies and gentlemen of great worth and worship." In about 1613 he engaged an assistant to help him, one John Fabre, a Frenchman, "born in the precinct of Guyand, a town of Turnon"; in 1618 Fabre was still "professeing the teaching of the French tongue with Mr. Peter Arundell."[745]
In addition to compiling the French Garden, Erondelle prepared four new editions of Holyband's French Schoolemaister. Although they are said to be "newly corrected and emended by P. Erondell," he made no noticeable changes. The first of these editions appeared in 1606, and the others in 1612, 1615, and 1619. This last date is the latest at which we hear of him.
ERONDELL'S WORKS The earliest notice we have of Erondell is found in 1586, when he published a Declaration and Catholic Exhortation to all Christian Princes to succour the Church of God and Realme of France,[746] faithfully translated out of French, and printed side by side with the original—another of the many similar pamphlets in French and English. He had thus been in England at least twenty years when his book for teaching French was published, and its tardy appearance led one of his admirers to ask: