The numerous French-speaking inhabitants of London, occupied in various trades and crafts in the city, were, so to speak, his unconscious collaborators, for the proportion of such foreigners in London was large enough to have some influence on the spread of the knowledge of French. SHAKESPEARE'S KNOWLEDGE OF FRENCHWe have an instance of this indirect influence in the case of Shakespeare. From 1598 he lodged for about six years, and possibly longer, in the house of a Huguenot, one Christopher Montjoy, who lived in Silver Street, Cripplegate[327]—a well-to-do neighbourhood, and the resort of many foreigners. Montjoy was one of the French head-dressers who were in such demand at that time. His wife, daughter, and also his apprentice, Stephen Bellot, formed the rest of the household, with whom Shakespeare seems to have lived on fairly intimate terms; he acted as a mediator in arranging a marriage between Montjoy's daughter and Bellot, and, some years later, was drawn into a family quarrel concerning a dowry which Bellot claimed and Montjoy refused to pay; in 1612 Bellot took the matter into the Court of Requests, and Shakespeare was one of the witnesses summoned. Finally the matter was referred to the consistory of the French Church, which decided in Bellot's favour.[328] It was no doubt during his sojourn in the house of this Huguenot family that he improved his knowledge of French, of which he gives evidence in his works.[329] The two plays in which he uses the language most freely—Henry V. and The Merry Wives of Windsor—were produced during the early time of his residence with Montjoy, whose name is given to a French Herald in Henry V. In The Merry Wives the French physician, Doctor Caius, speaks a mixture of broken English and French,[330] and in Henry V. French is introduced freely into a number of the scenes,[331] while one, in which Katharine of France receives a lesson in English from her French maid, is entirely in French, and is here quoted for convenience' sake:[332]
(Enter Katharine and Alice.)
Kath. Alice, tu as esté en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.
Alice. Un peu, madame.
Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il fault que j'apprenne à parler. Comment appellez-vous la main en Anglois?
Alice. La main? elle est appellée de hand.
Kath. De hand. Et les doigts?
Alice. Les doigts? ma foy, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me soubviendra. Les doigts? je pense y qu'ils sont appellez de fingres; ouy, de fingres.
Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que je suis le bon escholier. J'ay gagné deux mots d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez-vous les ongles?
Alice. Les ongles? nous les appellons, de nails.