Like the language, English literature was generally ignored in France. Those men of letters who wrote Latin—More, Camden, Selden, etc.—were known under their Latin names. In the early years of the seventeenth century, however,[766] the French began to take an interest in English literature, and a few translations of prose works appeared, though English poetry and drama remained unnoticed. The first French version of an English work was that of Bishop Hall's Characters of Vertues and Vices which appeared in 1610, and again in 1612 and 1619, and may have had some influence on NEGLECT OF ENGLISHLa Bruyère's Caractères. It is also interesting to note that this enterprising translator was no other than J. L'Oiseau de Tourval, Parisien, who wrote so enthusiastically of Cotgrave's dictionary, which appeared in the following year (1611).[767] In the course of the next twenty years about a score of other translations saw the light, including versions of Greene's Pandosta (1615), of Sidney's Arcadia, and of Bacon's Essays. The translation of the Arcadia was the subject of a violent literary quarrel. Two versions came out at the same time, and both claimed priority. One was due to J. Baudouin, who had lived two years in England learning the language. He was also responsible for the translation of Bacon.[768] His rival was one Mlle. Chappelain.
"English is a language that will do you good in England, but past Dover it is worth nothing," wrote John Florio the language teacher, in his First Frutes (1578). And more than half a century later English was still despised in foreign countries. While French was of use "in all furthest parts of Europe," English still served "but in the Brittaine lland,"[769] and even there did not receive due homage. English, we are told by an indignant upholder of the claims of our language,[770] was left for him who drives the plough; all the scholars, all the courtiers you passed in the street, were good scholars in foreign tongues; many of them chatted French as glibly as parrots, but could not write a single English line without a solecism. But in the meantime the study of English had had its advocates.[771] Richard Mulcaster has already been mentioned as the first Englishman who emphatically urged that English should be studied as thoroughly as foreign languages. "What reason is it," he asked, "to be acquainted abrode and a stranger at home? to know foreign things by rule, and our own but by rote? If all other men had been so affected, to make much of the foren and set light by their own, we should never by comparing have discerned the better. They proined their own speche, both to please themselves and to set us on edge." This was in 1582. Scholars took up the defence of the claims of English against French, just as they did the claims of Latin. Camden seeks to prove that English contains as many Greek words as French,[772] and so is as worthy of respect. And Osborne, in his Advice to a Son, tells the young diplomat to employ an interpreter in his dealings with these foreigners who refused to recognize the value of English, "it being too much an honouring of their Tongue, and undervaluing of your owne, to propose yourself a master therein, especially since they scorn to learn yours." There were, however, a few facilities for learning English at the disposal of foreigners, in addition to residence in England. The marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria had been hailed both in France and England by books which taught the languages of the two countries conjointly, and so strengthened the new bond between them. In England appeared a new edition of Du Bartas, in French and English, for teaching "an Englishman French, or a Frenchman English." Wodroeph's Marrow of the French Tongue (1625), which saw the light at the same time, was said to be "aussi utile pour le François d'apprendre l'Anglois que pour l'Anglois d'apprendre le François," though only the dialogues in French and English could serve this purpose, as, indeed, they might in any other French text-book.[773] This notice is evidently added merely as a concession to topical events; it had not figured in the earlier edition (1623).
In France, on the other hand, was published a work in which English was treated more seriously. This was a Grammaire Angloise pour facilement et promptement apprendre la langue angloise. Qui peut aussi aider aux Anglois pour apprendre la langue Françoise: Alphabet Anglois contenant la pronunciation des lettres avec les declinaisons et conjugaisons, dedicated to Henrietta Maria, and probably arranged by one of the professors of the Collège de Navarre, from which it is dated. We are informed that the princess, and those intending to accompany her to her new home, studied English daily. These lessons, if they were really given, were no doubt a matter of form, and we may judge from the results that they were not taken seriously.
ENGLISH GRAMMARS This grammar issued in 1625 was not original; it had appeared at Rouen in 1595,[774] and before that date there had been several other editions. The 1595 edition was enlarged and corrected by a certain E. A., who, for about ten years previously, had spent much of his time translating French pamphlets on topical events and similar works from French into English.[775] E. A., who was probably the original compiler of the work, dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth. He says he had collected the material from different authors in the leisure time allowed him by his studies. In its contents the work resembles the usual French manuals produced in England. It opens with rules for the pronunciation of English, followed by grammar rules for the same language, all given in French and English. Then come the dialogues, taken textually and without acknowledgement from Holyband's French Littleton, and one dialogue specially for courtiers, which may have been original.[776] The book closes with the vocabulary of Holyband's French Schoolemaister. The grammatical part of the work is also taken from one of the productions of the French teachers in England—the Maistre d'escole anglais (1580), written by Jacques Bellot for teaching English to foreigners in England and dedicated to a member of the royal family of France.
Bellot protests against the general neglect of the English language, rich enough in his opinion to rank with the most famous living tongues. He claims to be the first to draw up precepts for teaching it. There is little exaggeration in Bellot's claim, for hardly any works on English had as yet been written, and these were chiefly treatises on the orthography, more scholastic than pedagogic in intention.[777] At the close of the year in which Bellot's work was published, however, appeared the first work on English by an Englishman, designed to give instruction to foreigners as well as his own countrymen. This was William Bullocker's Booke at large for the Amendment of Orthographie for English Speech, to which was added "a ruled grammar ... for the same speech to no small commoditie of the English Nation, not only to come to easie, speedie and perfect use of our owne language, but also to their easie and speedie and readie entrance into the secrets of other Languages, and easie and speedie pathway to all strangers, to use our language, heretofore very hard unto them."
Two years later came Mulcaster's Elementarie, urging the claims of the vernacular, and expounding his method for teaching it. Other grammars followed, some in Latin, some in English,[778] but in hardly any of them is any attention paid to foreigners—a striking contrast with those published in France, in which foreigners were always an important consideration. In 1632, however, appeared Sherwood's English-French Dictionary, of which, it is said, the French were "great buyers." Towards the middle of the seventeenth century foreigners received more and more attention in such books, as English became better known. Simon Daines's Orthoepia anglicana,[779] for instance, intended for the use of both natives and foreigners, was published in 1640, as was also The English grammar made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of all strangers out of his observation of the English language now spoken and in use.[780] Ben Jonson had made a collection of grammars, and he speaks of a most ancient work written in the Saxon tongue and character. "The profit of grammar is great to strangers, who have to live in communication and commerce with us," he wrote, "and it is honourable to ourselves." In 1644 another work of like aim was issued under one of the usual florid titles affected at that time: The English Primrose far surpassing others of this kind that ever grew in any English garden. It professed to teach "the true spelling, reading and writing of English," and was "planted" by Richard Hodges, schoolmaster in Southwark, "for the exceeding great benefit both of his own countrymen and strangers." Similarly J. Wharton's grammar of 1655 claimed to be "the most certain guide that ever yet was extant" for strangers that desire to learn our language.
ENGLISH GRAMMARS FOR FOREIGNERS Thus travellers to England would find some provision for learning English. In the early seventeenth century several French teachers in London undertook to teach English to foreigners, and these were the earliest professional teachers of the language. They had all learnt English after their arrival in the country on very practical methods, an experience which must have reacted on their methods of teaching French. Most of them wrote English with ease, if not always idiomatically. As time advanced, especially in the latter part of the seventeenth century, they composed several English grammars for teaching the language to their pupils. Merchants as well as French teachers were pioneers in advancing the study of English by foreigners. In 1622 George Mason, one of the merchants in London skilled in the French tongue, wrote a Grammaire Angloise, contenant reigles bien exactes et certaines de la Prononciation, Orthographie et construction de nostre langue, en faveur des estrangers qui en sont desireux, but especially, he tells us, for the use of "noz françois tant a leur arrivée en ce pais, que en leur demeure en iceluy." This English grammar[781] is written in French, and gives rules for pronunciation and the parts of speech. It is followed by dialogues[782] in French and English, in the usual style, bearing much resemblance to the Latin colloquies and the dialogues of De la Mothe's French Alphabet. A new edition was issued at London in 1633. The earliest conversation books in French and English printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Pynson are called books for teaching English as well as French. They were indeed equally adapted for either language, but it is very improbable that at this early date even the most enterprising merchants learnt English.
Yet the first foreigners to recognize the importance of English were merchants. English was given a place by the side of Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German in the edition of the polyglot dictionary for the use of merchants and travellers, printed at Venice in 1540,[783] and at a later date in the polyglot collection of dialogues which developed from the French and Flemish dialogues of Noel de Barlement; not, however, till 1576, when the book had been in vogue for about three-quarters of a century. Gabriel Meurier, schoolmaster of Antwerp, who taught French to many of the numerous English merchants always in the town, was acquainted with our language, but does not appear to have had any opening for teaching it, as he did French, Flemish, Italian, and Spanish. At a later date, however, we find an Englishman gaining his livelihood by teaching his own language in the Netherlands. In 1646 he published at Amsterdam The English schole-master; or certaine rules and helpes, whereby the natives of the Netherlands may be in a short time, taught to read, understand and speake the English tongue, by the helpe whereof the English may be better instructed in the knowledge of the Dutch tongue, than by any vocabulars, or other Dutch and English Books, which hitherto they may have had for that purpose. This work contains an English grammar, followed by selections from the Scriptures, moral and familiar sayings, proverbs, dialogues, letters in English and Dutch. The "Vocabulars" to which he refers furnished him with most of his dialogues. A new edition appeared in 1658.
Rouen, ever a busy centre for merchants, was the place where provision for teaching English was first made in France. Editions of the polyglot dictionary, which included English in the edition of Venice in 1540, were printed at Rouen in 1611 and 1625, and again at Paris in 1631. The 1595 edition of E. A.'s English grammar appeared at Rouen, as had probably the earlier editions. This compilation of the English grammar of Bellot and the dialogues of Holyband was in vogue for a very long time. In addition to the Paris issue on the occasion of the marriage of Henrietta Maria with Charles I. (1625), editions appeared at Rouen in 1639, 1668, 1670, 1679, and most probably at other dates also; another was issued at London, 1677. Perhaps the first book for teaching English printed in France was a Traicté pour apprendre a parler Françoys et Anglois, published at Rouen in 1553, apparently an early edition of Meurier's work, printed at Rouen in 1563 as a Traité pour apprendre a parler françois et anglois, ensemble faire missives, obligations, etc., and again at Rouen in 1641.
It was long before English won recognition from foreigners other than merchants. Not until the eighteenth century was it learnt for the sake of its literature, and as a means of intercourse with the people who spoke it. This state of things made it incumbent on Englishmen to equip themselves with some foreign tongue, and they naturally chose French, the most universal language at that time.