[99] "Cy endroit il fault prendre garde qu'en parlant François on ne mette pas une personne pour une aultre si come font les sottez gens, disantz ainsi je ferra pour je ferray. . . ."
[100] We pass from the numbers of nouns to the person of verbs, then to the genders and kinds (proper, appellative) of nouns and their cases, six in number on the analogy of Latin, which is naturally the basis of the terminology of this work and all others for many years after; then come observations on the degrees of comparison, after which we return to the verbs, and their moods and tenses. The following sections deal with the parts of speech; the four indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections) are merely mentioned. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns receive some attention, but the chief subject is the verb: "Cy maintenant nous vous baillerons un exemple coment vous fourmeres touz les verbs françois du monde, soient-ils actifez, soient-ils passivez, en quelque meuf ou temps qu'ils soient. Et ceste exemple serra pour cest verbe jeo aime. . . ." But the verbs are not classified, and only a few of the best known are conjugated as examples. In the list of impersonal verbs which closes the treatise, English is sometimes used to explain their meaning: "Me est avis, Me seemth."
[101] J. Bale, Illustrium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum summarium. Ipswich, 1548, p. 203.
[102] Dict. Nat. Biog., ad nom.
[103] Preserved in a considerable number of MSS.: Brit. Mus. (Harl. 3988, Addit. 17716), Oxford (All Souls, 182), Camb. Univ. Libr. (Bd 12, 23), and in Sir Thomas Philipps's Library at Cheltenham (MS. No. 8188). The earliest (Harl. 3988) was published by P. Meyer in the Revue Critique, 1873, pp. 373-408.
[104] The name of Kirmington, which occurs at the end, is no doubt that of the copyist.
[105] Athenaeum, Oct. 5, 1878: article by Stengel.
[106] Published by Stengel, op. cit. pp. 12-15.
[107] Stengel, Athenaeum, Oct. 5, 1878. Coyfurelly also rehandled the Tractatus Orthographiae of 'T. H., Student of Paris.'
[108] Ed. Paul Meyer, Romania, xxxii. pp. 49-58. It exists in three MSS.; at the end of Femina in Camb. Univ. Libr. (Dd 12, 23), at Trinity Col. Camb. (B 14. 39, 40), and in the Brit. Mus. (Addit. 17716).