Gout, his chief affliction, often nailed him to his chair, and prevented him from attending his pupil—a greater sorrow, he says, than to suffer sickness and danger. On one occasion he was so ill that he feared he would not see the princess again, and sent a letter, asking pardon if ever he had rebuked her in his lessons. His whole consolation "lies in the hope that Spring, seeing him in such a piteous state, will take pity on him."
Mary seems to have returned fully the affection of her old master. He was her almoner and treasurer, and she playfully called him her "adopted husband." Duwes spent a great deal of his time with his pupil, and his "adopted wife" appears to have become impatient when his gout or any other reason kept him from her. In one of the dialogues she is shown rebuking him for his absence one evening:
Mary. Comment Giles, vous montrés bien qu'avés grant cure et soing de m'aprendre quand vous vous absentés ainsy de moy.
Gyles. Certes madame, il me semble que suis continuellement ici.
Mary. Voire, et ou estiés vous hier a soupper je vous prie.
Gyles. Veritablement, madame, vous avez raison, car je m'entroubliay ersoir a cause de compagnie et de communication.
Mary. Je vous prie, beau sire, faictes nous parçonniere de vostre communication, car j'estime quelle estoit de quelque bon purpos.
Gyles. Certes, madame, elle estoit de la paix, laquelle (come on disoit) est proclamée par tout ce royaume. . . .
Then master and pupil are pictured discussing at length the subject of peace. Love, the nature of the soul, and the meaning of the celebration of Mass were other topics on which they had long conversations; and they would accompany their supper—for the princess begged her master to dine with her as often as possible, in order to talk French—by discourse on health and diet, in the course of which Duwes gave the princess much friendly advice. His eloquence on the subject QUEEN MARY'S FRENCH STUDIESsuggests that when he calls himself a "doctor" he means a doctor of medicine. Thus Mary's practice in the language was not by any means limited to regular lessons, and these lessons were always kept in close contact with her daily life. She is taught how to receive a messenger from the king, her father, or from any foreign potentate, in French, or how to accept presents from noble friends. Duwes sometimes used his lessons as a means of conveying to Mary messages from different members of her household. Lady Maltravers exhorts her to study French seriously that reports of her ability may not be belied, and that she may be able to speak French with the king her father, and her future husband, "whether king or emperor"; and her carver, John ap Morgan, writes to her when she is ill, to express his hopes for her speedy recovery. When Duwes's gout prevented him from waiting on the princess, he would send her a poem of his own composition, in French with an interlinear English version—Duwes wrote singularly crude and inharmonious verses—which the princess learnt by heart by way of lesson. Or he would excuse his absence in a letter, which, he assures her, "will not be of small profit" to her if she learns it.
Such were the relations of Duwes with his favourite pupil. Little else is known of his life beyond the fact that he taught French for nearly forty years in the highest ranks of English society. He himself tells us that he was a Frenchman, and in all probability he was a native of Picardy, for his name is of Picard origin, and there are a few traces of picardisms in his work. We also know that he was librarian to both Henry VII. and Henry VIII.,[247] and that in 1533 he was appointed a gentleman waiter in the Princess Mary's household, and his wife one of the ladies-in-waiting;[248] that, curiously enough, he was a student of alchemy and wrote a Latin dialogue, Inter Naturam et Filium Philosophiae, dated from the library at Richmond (1521), and dedicated to his friend "N. S. P. D.";[249] that he died in 1535, about two years after the publication of his Introductorie; and that he was buried in the Parish Church of St. Olave in Old Jury, where he was inscribed as "servant to Henry VII. and Henry VIII., clerke to their libraries, and schoolmaster of the French Tongue to Prince Arthur, and to the Ladie Mary"—a by no means complete list of his illustrious pupils.