Like Mauger, Festeau soon began to modify his attitude towards the Blois accent. In 1679, while still advertising himself proudly as a "native of Blois, where the true tone of the French Tongue is found by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen," he claims to teach the "Elegancy and Purity of the French Tongue as it is now spoken at the Court of France." However, it is uncertain whether Festeau went to Paris or not. At the time when he first wrote of Court French he was teaching in London, and we are informed that "if any gentleman have occasion for the author of this grammar, his Lodging is in the Strand near St. Clement's, at Mr. John King's house, at the sign of the wounded heart." He was still there in 1693. In 1675 we see him requesting any "gentleman or others desiring to speak with him to inquire for him in Haughton Street, next door to the Joyner's Arms, near Claire Market," or at Mr. Loundes, his bookseller and publisher. At about this time he began to teach mathematics as well as, and by means of French; he was prepared to instruct gentlemen in all its branches. It was at the request of several gentlemen, with whom he "did often discourse of the same in French," that he added to the fourth edition of his grammar a long dialogue covering the whole field of mathematics, and giving "a clear and fair idea thereof."
Another French tutor who flourished at the same time as Mauger, and who wrote a French grammar which, like his, appeared during the Commonwealth, was Peter Lainé. Lainé is not very communicative as regards himself; he does not even tell us from what part of France he came. All we know of him is that he was a protégé of Robert Paston, to whom he dedicated his book, and who, no doubt, had been his pupil for French. Of his grammar he writes, "I here expose to thy view a work which might rather be counted an Errata than a book"—a state of things for which both himself and the printer were to blame. For his part, he says, he does not write for the sake of seeing his name in print, or because he fancies he excels others. "I rather count myself inferior to the least of them. But the urgent importunities of some persons whom I have had, and still have the honour to inform in French, have made me undertake it to satisfie their desires, and my gratitude."
His sympathy with the Protestants emerges clearly from the contents of his grammar. Apparently he did not belong to the Blois group. He differs from them in adopting the new orthography in which many of the unsounded letters were omitted. It was a pity to spoil the purity and elegance of the pronunciation by the old orthography, he thought; moreover the clear resemblance between the orthography and the pronunciation renders the language easier to foreigners; "seeing that we both write and speak any vulgar Tongue to be understood and to entertain Society, it is in my judgement, not only convenient but even necessary to bring as near a conformity betwixt the Tongue and the Pen, as may without prejudice to the material grounds of our language, afford all the facility that is possible to those that are strangers to it." It is curious to recall that Peletier, and other earlier writers, had, on the contrary, retained the etymological consonants of the old orthography, with the idea that the foreigner's Latin would thereby be of greater service to him.
Lainé's Compendious Introduction to the French Tongue, teaching with much ease, facility and delight, how to attain briefly and most exactly to the true and modern pronunciation thereof, is very similar to Mauger's grammar in the distribution of the matter. Rules for the pronunciation, which as usual are briefly explained by means of comparison with English sounds, are followed by observations on each part of speech in turn;[823] finally come familiar phrases "to be used at the first learning of French," ten long dialogues, and a vocabulary, all in French and English. LAINÉ'S DIALOGUESThe book closes with what Lainé calls "an alphabetical rule for the true and modern orthography of that French now spoken, being a catalogue of very necessary words never before printed"—an alphabetical list of words. The grammatical section of the work is written in English. In the dialogues he purposely adapts the English to the French phrase. "I have been more careful," he explains, "in the whole course of the treatise, to observe the French, then the English phrase: to the end I might make its signification more intelligible, to vary less from the sense, and to afford most delight and more facility to the learner."
According to him, the first thing to be learned by the student of French are the sounds of the language. He should commit to memory as many of the familiar phrases as he can easily retain, and from them pass to the "dialogical discourses." Their substance is much the same as in Mauger—polite and gallant conversations mainly between students of French, talk and guidance for travellers in France, etc. The following specimen is from a dialogue between an English gentleman and his language master:
| Quel beau livre est-ce là? | What fine book is that? |
| Mons., c'est le romant comique. | Sir, it is the comic romance. |
| Qui en est l'autheur? | Who is the author of it? |
| Mons. C'est Mons. Scarron. | Sir, it is Mr. Scarron. |
| Est-il fort célèbre? Est il fort estimé? | Is he very famed? Is he much esteemed? |
| Mons., c'est un esprit sublime et transcendant. | Sir, it is a sublime and transcendant wit. |
| De quoi traite cet ouvrage? | What doth this work deal on? |
| Mons., il n'est plein que de drolleries facesieuses. . . . | Sir, it is full but of pleasant drolleries.... |
| Lisons un peu: faites moi la faveur de m'antandre lire. | Let us read a little: do me the favour to understand me read. |
| Prononcez hardiment; | Pronounce boldly; |
| Observez vos accents. | Observe your accents. |
| Ne prenez point de mauvaise habitude. | Take no ill habit. |
| Lisés distinctement. | Read distinctly. |
| Vou lisez trop vîte. | You read too fast. |
| Notre langue est ennemi de la précipitation. | Our tongue is enemy to precipitation. |
Lainé evidently intended that the dialogues, at least some of them, should be committed to memory, as well as read and translated; "after that," he continues, "as his sufficiency shall permit, he may proceed to Reading any Histories, among which the Holy Writ ought to have the pre-eminence, had not divine Providence, and the Eternal Spirit that dictated it, purposely rejected the affected smoothness and polishedness of the style." We recall, as we reflect on this strange reason for rejecting the Holy Scriptures as reading material, the unenviable reputation the refugees themselves had as regards literary style. As the Bible is left us "for divine study only," Lainé advises his pupils to make use of moral histories for purposes of reading. Many, he says, have been produced of late years. Nor did he limit his pupils' choice to these; he encouraged them to read the heroic romances so popular at the time—Artamène ou le grand Cyrus and Clélie by Mlle. de Scudéry, Cassandre and Cléopâtre by La Calprenède; also the Poésies spirituelles of Corneille, the commentaries of Caesar in French, and Scarron's Roman comique. Lighter fare could be found in the Gazette françoise.
FOOTNOTES:
[813] "Which city, lying in the very middle of France, is the most famous for the true pronunciation of the language."
[814] "What are you doing? You must not render this in French, qu'estes vous en faisant? but thus, Que faites-vous?" ... and so on.