| Cy fine ceste doctrine, | Here endeth this doctrine, |
| A Westmestre les Loundres | At Westmestre by London |
| En formes impressée, | In fourmes enprinted, |
| En le quelle ung chaucun | In the whiche one everish |
| Pourra briefment aprendre | May shortly lerne |
| François et Engloys. | French and English. |
| La grace de sainct esperit | The grace of the holy ghosst |
| Veul enluminer les cures | Wylle enlyghte the hertes |
| De ceulx qui le aprendront, | Of them that shall lerne it, |
| Et nous doinst perseverance | And us gyve perseverans |
| En bonnes operacions, | In good werkes, |
| Et apres cest vie transitorie | And after lyf transitorie |
| La pardurable ioye et glorie! | The everlasting ioye and glorie! |
The short introduction and epilogue were most probably the composition of Caxton himself. The rest of the book is drawn from a set of dialogues in French and Flemish, first written at the beginning of the fourteenth century, called Le Livre des Mestiers in reference to its main chapter.[116] This would possibly be known to merchants trading with Bruges and other centres of the Low Countries; and when we notice the numerous points of resemblance between it and the English manuals of conversation, the first of which did not appear before the end of the same century, it seems very probable that the Flemish original had some influence on the works produced in England. Caxton was a silk mercer of London, and his business took him to the towns of the Low Countries, especially Bruges, where the English merchants had a large commercial connexion. There, no doubt, he became acquainted with the Livre des Mestiers, and probably improved his knowledge of French by its help, for he studied and read the language a good deal during his long sojourn abroad. There also he probably added an English column to his copy of the French-Flemish phrase-book, as a sort of exercise rather than with any serious intention of publication; and when he had set up his press at Westminster, remembering the need he had felt for French, in his own commercial experience, and the little book which had assisted him, he would decide to print it. Caxton's copy of the Livre des Mestiers belonged, no doubt, to a later date than the one extant to-day,[117] probably to the beginning of the fifteenth century. It must have been fuller, and have had different names attached to the characters, so that, as the names are still arranged in alphabetical order, it is difficult, at a glance, to distinguish the identity of the two texts.
Caxton's rendering of the French is often inaccurate, owing perhaps to the influence of the Flemish version from which he seems to have made his translation.[117] Moreover, at the early date at which Caxton, probably, added the English column to the Livre des Mestiers, his knowledge of French had not yet reached that state of thoroughness which was to enable him to translate such a remarkable number of French works into English. He himself tells us in the prologue to the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy of Raoul le Fèvre (Bruges, 1475)—the first of his translations from the French, and, indeed, the first book to be printed in English—that his knowledge of French was not by any means perfect. With the exception of the introductory and closing sentences, Caxton made few additions to his original. He did indeed supply the names of English towns, coins, bishoprics, and so on; but, on the whole, the setting of the work is foreign; Bruges, not London, is the centre of the action, and no doubt the place where the original was composed.
Not long after the publication of Caxton's doctrine another work of like character and purpose appeared. It claims to be "a good book to learn to speak French for those who wish to do merchandise in France, and elsewhere in other lands where the folk speak French." The atmosphere is entirely English, and consequently its contents bear a closer resemblance to its English predecessors. In the arrangement of the dialogue it is identical with the Cambridge conversation book, except that the English lines come before the French, and not the French before the English.[118] The four subjects round which the dialogue turns, namely, salutations, buying and selling, inquiring the way, and conversation at the inn, were all favourites in the early "Manières de Langage." For the rest it follows in the steps of its English predecessors in confining itself to dialogue pure and simple, while Caxton's 'doctrine' adopted the narrative form. In one point, however, the work differs from the latest development of the old "Manière de Langage," as preserved in the Cambridge Dialogues in French and English; the dialogues are followed by a vocabulary, then a reprint of one of the old books on courtesy and demeanour for children, with a French version added, and finally commercial letters in French and English. The work is thus made much more comprehensive than any of its type which had as yet appeared, and includes samples, so to speak, of all the practical treatises for teaching French which had appeared in the Middle Ages.
It was printed separately by the two chief printers of the time, both foreigners: Richard Pynson, a native of Normandy and student of Paris, who came to England and began printing on his own account about 1590-1591; and Wynkyn de Worde, a native of Alsace, and apprentice to Caxton, with whom he probably came to England from Bruges in 1476, and to whose business he succeeded in 1491.[119] Although neither of the printers dated their work, it seems probable that the earliest edition was issued by Pynson. There is a unique copy of his edition in the British Museum; it is without title-page, pagination, or catch-words, and the colophon reads simply "Per me Ricardum Pynson." The colophon of Wynkyn's work, of which there is a complete copy in the Grenville Library (British Museum),[120] and a fragment of two leaves in the Bodleian, is slightly more instructive and runs as follows: "Here endeth a lytyll treatyse for to lern Englyshe and Frensshe. Emprynted at Westmynster by my Wynken de Worde." Now as Wynkyn moved from Westminster in 1500 to set up his shop in the centre of the trade in Fleet Street, opposite to that of his rival Pynson, his edition of the work must have appeared before that date, because it was issued from what had been Caxton's house in Westminster. On the other hand, the type used by Pynson is archaic,[121] and the work is evidently one of the earliest issued from his press. It is inferior to Wynkyn's edition from the technical point of view. A headline is all there is by way of title; while in Wynkyn's copy we find a separate title-page, containing the words, "Here begynneth a lytell treatyse for to lern Englishe and Frensshe," and a woodcut of a schoolmaster seated in a large chair, with a large birch-rod in his left hand, and, on a stool at his feet, three small boys holding open books. This particular woodcut was a favourite in school-books of the period;[122] it appears, for instance, in a little treatise entitled Pervula, giving instructions for turning English into Latin, which Wynkyn de Worde printed about 1495.[123] Moreover, each page of Wynkyn's edition has a descriptive headline, "Englysshe and Frensshe," which is not found in Pynson's. The text also is in many places more accurate than that of the Norman printer, and gives the impression of having been corrected here and there. It is therefore probable that Pynson first printed the treatise shortly after 1490,[124] and that another edition was issued by Wynkyn de Worde during the period intervening between the date of the issue of Pynson's edition and the end of the century. A remnant, consisting of one page of yet another edition, is preserved in the British Museum, and shows some variations in spelling from the two other texts.
This little book, then, seems to have enjoyed considerable popularity during its short life. On the whole it is more elementary in character than the 'doctrine' of Caxton. The first things taught are the numbers and a list of ordinary mercantile phrases. The opening passage is very much like that written by Caxton for his work:
Here is a good boke to lerne to speke Frenshe.
Vecy ung bon livre apprendre parler françoys.
In the name of the fader and the sone
En nom du pere et du filz
And of the holy goost, I wyll begynne
Et du saint esperit, je vueil commencer
To lerne to speke Frensshe,
A apprendre a parler françoys,
Soo that I maye doo my marchandise
Affin que je puisse faire ma marchandise
In Fraunce & elles where in other londes,
En France et ailieurs en aultre pays,
There as the folk speke Frensshe.
La ou les gens parlent françoys.
And fyrst I wylle lerne to reken by lettre.
Et premierement je veux aprendre a compter par lettre. . . .
Next come the cardinal numbers and a vocabulary of words "goode for suche as use marchaundyse":
Of gold & sylver.
D'or et d'argent.
Of cloth of golde.
De drap d'or.
Of perles & precyous stones.
De perles et Pieres precieuses.
Of velvet & damaskes.
De velours et damas etc. . . .
and so on for nearly a page, in which the names of various cloths, spices, and wines are provided.