Next comes the usual scene between buyers and sellers, followed by another inn scene of greater length. After attending to their horses, the travellers sup and spend the night at the inn, and set out the next morning after reckoning with their hostess. The manuscript ends abruptly in the midst of a list of salutations. The nature of the French[111] betrays the author's nationality; he was evidently an Englishman. As to the English, the quaint turn given to many of the phrases is usually explained by the writer's desire to give a literal translation of the French; many of the inaccuracies in both versions are probably due to careless work on the part of the scribe.
Merchants thus appear to have been one of the chief classes among which there was a demand for instruction in French. In addition to the large part assigned to them in the 'Manières de Langage,' and in the epistolaries, where letters of a commercial nature are a usual feature, there exist collections of model forms for drawing up bills, indentures, receipts and other documents of similar import. They are usually called 'cartularies,' are accompanied by explanations in Latin, and may be looked upon as the first text-books of commercial French.[112] One author explains their origin and aim by this introductory remark:[113] "Pour ceo qe j'estoie requis par ascunz prodeshommez de faire un chartuarie pour lour enfantz enformer de faire chartours, endenturs, obligations, defesance, acquitancez, contuaries, salutaries, en Latin et Franceys ensemblement . . . fesant les chartours, escripts munimentz a de primes en Latyn et puis en Franceys."
More emphasis is laid on the demand for instruction in French among the merchant class by the fact that the earliest printed text-books were designed chiefly for their use. The first of these may be classed with the new development of the 'Manières de Langage,' comprising dialogues in French and English, although it does not exactly answer to this description.[114] It was issued from the press of William Caxton in about 1483, and at least one other edition appeared at a later date.[115] In form it is a sort of narrative in French, with an English translation opposite. The aim of the work is stated clearly in an introductory passage which informs the reader that "who this book shall learn may well enterprise merchandise from one land to another and to know many wares which to him shall be good to be bought, or sold for rich to become." Caxton thus recommends the book to the learner:
| Tres bonne doctrine | Rygt good lernyng |
| Pour aprendre | For to lerne |
| Briefment fransoys et engloys. | Shortly frenssh & englyssh. |
| Au nom du pere | In the name of the fadre |
| Et du filz | And of the soone |
| Et du sainte esperite | And of the holy ghost |
| Veul comnencier | I wyll begynne |
| Et ordonner ung livre, | And ordeyne this book, |
| Par le quel on pourra | By the which men shall mowe |
| Raysonnablement entendre | Resonably understande |
| Françoys et Anglois, | Frenssh and Englissh, |
| Du tant comme cest escript | Of as moche as this writing |
| Pourra contenir et estendre, | Shall conteyne & stratche, |
| Car il ne peut tout comprendre. | For he may not all comprise. |
| Mais ce qu'on n'y trouvera | But that which cannot be founden |
| Declairé en cestui | Declared in this |
| Pourra on trouver ailleurs | Shall be founde somwhere els |
| En aultres livres. | In other bookes. |
| Mais sachies pour voir | But knowe for truthe |
| Que es lignes de cest aucteur | That in the lynes of this auctour |
| Sount plus de parolles et de raysons | Ben moo wordes & reasons |
| Comprinses, et de responses | Comprised, & of answers |
| Que en moult d'aultres livres. | Than in many other bookes. |
| Qui ceste livre vouldra aprendre | Who this booke shall wylle lerne |
| Bien pourra entreprendre | May well enterprise |
| Merchandises d'un pays a l'autre, | Marchandise fro one land to anoothir, |
| Et cognoistre maintes denrées | And to know many wares |
| Que lui seroient bon achetés | Which to him shall be good to be bought |
| Ou vendues pour riche devenir. | Or sold for rich to become. |
| Aprendes ce livre diligement, | Lerne this book diligently, |
| Grande prouffyt y gyst vrayement. | Grete prouffyt lieth therein truly. |
The 'doctrine' itself opens with a list of salutations with the appropriate answers. A house and all its contents come next, then its inhabitants, which introduces the subject of degrees of kinship:
Or entendes petys et grands,
Je vous dirai maintenant
Dune autre matere
La quele ie commence.
Se vous estes mariés
Et vous avez femme
Et vous ayez marye,
Se vous maintiens paisiblement
Que vos voisins ne disent
De vous fors que bien:
Ce seroit vergoigne.
Se vous aves pere et mere,
Si les honnourés tousiours;
Faictes leur honneur;. . .
Si vous aves enfans,
Si les instrues
De bonnes meurs;
Le temps qu'ilz soient josnes
Les envoyes a l'escole
Aprendre lire et escripre. . . .
At the end of the category come the servants and their occupations, which affords an opportunity of bringing in the different shops to which they are sent and of specifying the meat and drink they purchase there. We then pass to buying, selling, and bargaining in general, and to merchandise of all kinds, with a list of coins, popular fairs, and fête-days.
After an enumeration of the great persons of the earth comes the main chapter of the work, giving a fairly complete list of crafts and trades. This takes the form of an alphabetical list of Christian names, each of which is made to represent one of the trades, beginning with Adam the ostler: "For this that many words shall fall or may fall which be not plainly heretofore written, so shall I write you from henceforth divers matters of all things, first of one thing, then of another, in which chapter I will conclude the names of men and women after the order of a, b, c." The baker may be selected as a fair example:
| Ferin le boulengier | Fierin the baker |
| Vend blanc pain et brun. | Selleth whit brede and brown. |
| Il a sour son grenier gisant | He hath upon his garner lieng |
| Cent quartiers de bled. | One hundred quarters of corn. |
| Il achete a temps et a heure, | He byeth in tyme and at hour, |
| Si qu'il n'a point | So that he hath not |
| Du chier marchiet. | Of the dere chepe (high buying prices). |
At last the author, "all weary of so many names to name, of so many crafts, so many offices, so many services," finds relief in certain considerations of a religious order: "God hath made us unto the likeness of himself, he will reward those who do well and punish those who do not repent of their sins, and attend the holy services: If ye owe any pilgrimages, so pay them hastily; when you be moved for to go your journey, and ye know not the waye, so axe it thus." The usual directions for inquiring the way follow with the description of the arrival at an inn, and the customary gossip. The reckoning and departure on the following morning afford an opportunity of including a further list of Flemish and English coins together with the numerals; and Caxton concludes his work by commending it to the reader with a prayer that those who study it may persevere sufficiently to profit by it: