In the Petit livre, however, the teaching is of the simplest kind, and specially suited to children. The dialogue lacks the interest of the earlier 'manière,' and inclines, in places, to become a list of phrases pure and simple. The work opens abruptly with the words: "Pour ce sachez premierement que le an est divisé en deux, c'est asscavoir le yver et la esté. Le yver a six mois et la esté atant, que vallent douse," and so on to the other divisions of the year and time. The children are then taught the numbers in French, the names of the coins, and those of the persons and things with which they come into daily contact. Then follow appropriate terms for addressing and greeting different persons, and the author even goes so far as to provide the child with a stock of insulting terms for use in quarrels. The rest of the treatise does not appear to be intended for children. There are conversations in a tavern, lists of salutations, familiar talk for the wayside and for buying and selling, all of which has little special interest, and is designed apparently to meet the needs of merchants more than any other class. In the chatter on the events of the day there occurs a passage which enables us to date the work. The traveller tells the hostess of the captivity of Richard II. as a recent event:
"Dieu, dame, j'ay ouy dire que le roy d'Angleterre est osté."—"Quoy desioie!"—"Par ma alme voir."—"Et les Anglois n'ont ils point de roy donques?"—"Marie, ouy, et que celuy que fust duc de Lancastre, que est nepveu a celluy que est osté."—"Voire?"—"Voire vraiement."—"Et le roygne que fera elle?"—"Par dieu dame, je ne sçay, je n'ay pas esté en conceille."—"Et le roy d'Angleterre ou fust il coronné?"—"A Westmynstre."—"Fustez vous la donques?"—"Marie, oy, il y avoit tant de presse que par un pou que ne mouru quar a paine je eschapey a vie."—"Et ou serra il a nouvel?"—"Par ma foy je ne sçay, mais l'en dit qu'il serra en Escoce."
The authorship is not so easy to ascertain. The manual may be due to Canon T. Coyfurelly, probable author of the earlier and better-known work also.[107] The many mistakes and anglicisms, such as quoy for quelle ('what') and the exclamatory 'Marie' in the quotation just given, show it to be the work of an Englishman.
Another book of conversation appeared in 1415,[108] as may be gathered from its first two chapters, in which a person fresh from the wars in France tells of the siege of Harfleur and the battle of Agincourt, and announces the return of the victorious English army. The rest of the dialogues are represented as taking place in and about Oxford. There is the usual tavern scene. Travellers from Tetsworth arrive at an Oxford inn, and are present at the evening meal and diversions. The hostess describes the fair at Woodstock and the articles bought and sold there; her son, a boy of twelve years, wants to be apprenticed in London; he goes to the school of Will Kyngesmylle, where writing, counting, and French are taught. One of the merchants calls the lad and questions him as to his knowledge of French: "Et que savez vous en fraunceys dire?—Sir je say moun noun et moun corps bien descrire.—Ditez moy qu'avez a noun.—J'ay a noun Johan, bon enfant, beal et sage et bien parlant engleys, fraunceys et bon normand, beneyt soit la verge que chastie l'enfant et le bon maistre qui me prist taunt! Je pri a Dieu tout puissant nous graunte le joye tous diz durant!" The lad then proceeds to give proof of his knowledge by naming the parts of his body and his clothing, always, it appears, the first things learnt.
This reference to the teaching of French in the school of an Oxford pedagogue shows that, though French had at this time lost all standing in the Grammar Schools, it was still taught in private establishments.[109] It seems highly probable that Will Kyngesmylle was the author of this work, and that he used his text-book as a means of self-advertisement, a method very common among later teachers of French. At the close comes a chapter belonging to another work of the same type, which is only preserved in this fragment; no doubt other such works existed and have been entirely lost.
It is likely that in the fifteenth century these conversational manuals supplanted, to a considerable extent, the earlier type of practical manual for teaching French—the metrical vocabulary—with which they had something in common. At any rate, there is no copy of such nomenclatures extant after Femina (1415). The 'manières' provided in their dialogues much of the material found in the vocabularies, giving, wherever possible, groups of words on the same topics—the body, its clothing, houses, and men's occupations. Further, the vocabularies, which had never departed from the type instituted by Bibbesworth in the thirteenth century, dealt more with the feudal and agricultural life of the Middle Ages, and so had fallen behind the times. The 'Manières de Langage' were more in keeping with the new conditions. Towards the end of the century (and perhaps at the beginning of the sixteenth century) we come to a manual,[110] which, while resembling the 'manières' in most points, reproduces some of the distinctive external marks of the vocabularies. For instance, the French is arranged in short lines, which, however, do not rime, and vary considerably in the number of syllables they contain; and these are followed by a full interlinear English gloss, as in the later vocabularies. The subject matter, however, is similar to that of the early conversation books. First comes gossip at taverns and by the wayside:
Ditez puisse ie savement aler?
Saie may I saufly goo?
Ye sir le chemyn est sure assez.
Yes sir the wey is sure inough.
Mes il convent que vous hastez.
But it behoveth to spede you.
Sir dieu vous donne bon aventure.
Sir god geve you good happe.
Sir a dieu vous commaunde.
Sir to god I you betake.
Sir dieu vous esploide.
Sir god spede you.
Sir bon aventure avez vous.
Sir good chaunce have ye.
Sir par saint Marie cy est bon servise.
Sir by saint Marie her is good ale.
Sir pernes le hanappe, vous comenceres.
Sir take the coppe, ye shal beginne.
Dame ie ne feray point devaunt vous.
Dame I wil not doo bifor you.
Sir vous ferrez verrement.
Sir ye shal sothely.
After some disconnected discourse on inquiring the time, asking the way, etc., we again return to the tavern:
Dame dieu vous donne bon jour.
Dame god geve you good daie.
Dame avez hostel pour nous trois compaignons?
Dame have ye hostel for us iij felowes?
Sir quant longement voudrez demourer?
Sir how long wol ye abide?
Dame nous ne savons point.
Dame we wote not.
Et que vouldrez donner le iour pour vostre table?
And what wil ye geve a daie for your table?
Dame que vouldrez prendr pour le iour?
Dame what wol ye take for the daie?
Sir non meynns que vj deniers le iour.
Sir noo lesse thenne vj d. the day ... etc.