The value of the French Littleton is more educational; it expounds all the favourite theories of its author. The name is taken from the popular work on English law, the text-book for all law-students, Littleton's Tenures. While the French Schoolemaister was a small octavo, the Littleton was printed to the size of a tiny pocket-book, in 16mo. First come practical HOLYBAND'S FRENCH GRAMMARSexercises in the form of dialogues in French and English,[358] but of less lively interest than those of the Schoolemaister. They deal, however, with the same subjects,[359] only, as we read them we do not forget, as we were inclined to do in the earlier book, that we are reading exercises intended for school use. Then follow proverbs, golden sayings, prayers, the creed, the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, a treatise on the iniquity of dancing (Traité des Danses), and finally a vocabulary less comprehensive and of less value than that of the French Schoolemaister.
The French Littleton derives additional interest from the fact that in it Holyband sets forth a new system for rendering the pronunciation of French easier to the English. He realized the difficulties placed in their way by the many unsounded letters present in certain French words. He had no desire, however, to join the extremists, who advocated the omission of all such consonants in orthography as well as in pronunciation. Holyband considered such letters an essential part of the word, and often a useful indication of the pronunciation of vowels and of the derivation. He therefore proposed a compromise which he thought would please both parties: he retains the unsounded letters, but distinguishes them from those which were pronounced by placing a small cross below them,[360] a device adopted in later editions of the French Schoolemaister also. A short quotation from the conversation for travellers and merchants will show how Holyband applied his method:
The most interesting of the dialogues in the French Littleton, however, is that in which we have a picture of Holyband's school, which was first opened in St. Paul's Churchyard at the sign of Lucrece—the shop of the printer Thomas Purfoote. Here we see children arriving for their lessons early in the morning, each with his own books and other materials. The schoolroom seems to have been a lively place; the scholars are represented as fighting, pulling each other's hair, tearing their books, and indulging in other pranks of the kind. Holyband sought to keep order by means of a birch, and one of the many offences which called it into action was the speaking of English. HOLYBAND'S FRENCH SCHOOLIn this little school of his, Holyband appears to have laboured at the task he set himself of leading the English nation "comme par la main au cabinet de (nostre) langue françoyse," under excellent conditions. The whole atmosphere seems to have been French. The curriculum, however, was not confined to this one language. Holyband had to safeguard his interests by instructing his pupils in the subjects taught in the ordinary English schools, and so we find him teaching Latin, writing, and counting, as well as French, and probably by means of French. With some of his pupils Holyband studied Terence, Vergil, Horace, the Offices of Cicero, and with others, Cato, the Pueriles Confabulatiunculae, and Latin grammar, according to their capacity. Yet others learnt reading, writing, and French only. Morning school, which closed with prayer at eleven, was devoted chiefly to the study of Latin. The afternoon was given over entirely to French; and it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that other scholars came then specially for instruction in French. The pupils returned for afternoon work at mid-day, and began by translating French into English and then retranslated the English back into French, using, we may be sure, Holyband's French Littleton. Next came a little practice in vocabulary, in which "maister Claude" asked them the French for various English words. Grammar was not neglected, but questions concerning it do not appear to have been invited until some difficulty in the text rendered it necessary. The pupils were also required to decline various nouns and verbs which occurred in the text. The auxiliaries they were expected to learn by heart. Not until five o'clock did the long French lesson draw to a close, and then the scholars lit their torches or lanterns and set off home after being dismissed with evening prayers. Before their departure, they received instructions to read the lesson for the following day six or seven times after supper. By doing this, their master assured them, it would appear easy on the morrow, and be learnt without effort.
Holyband informs us that his charges were one shilling a week or fifty shillings a year. He allows that this was more than the fees asked for in most schools, but justifies the higher charge by the superior instruction imparted. At any rate his school was very prosperous. In 1568, when it had been in existence for at least two, and perhaps three years, we find him assisted by an usher, one John Henrycke, said to be a Frenchman.[361] He was, no doubt, the Jehan Henry "Maistre d'Eschole," who wrote a dizain in praise of Holyband's French Schoolemaister (1573), where, in rather questionable French, he summoned the students of France to devote all their attention to "ce poli et belle œuvre," and not to read
Des ravaudeurs le reste,
Qui souloyent quelques regles escrire,
Mais, au vray indignes de les lire.
Holyband, as we have noticed, was a very active and somewhat restless person, never staying long in one place, and it is difficult to follow him in his frequent changes of residence. For a time he removed his school to Lewisham, then outside London. Here, sometime before 1573, he had an interview with Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps visited his school as she passed through the village, for the head boy, Harry Edmondes, pronounced a discourse before Her Majesty.
In 1576 Holyband had given up his French school, and entered the ranks of French private tutors, living in the house of a patron. He was one of the aliens dwelling in Salisbury Court, the residence of Lord Buckhurst, and, no doubt, was engaged in teaching French to the younger children of his protector. He had previously come into contact with this noble family, and had probably received some assistance from this quarter on his arrival in England, and may have taught French to the eldest son, Robert Sackville, now at Oxford,[362] to whom he dedicated both his early works.
When we first hear of Holyband he was already married and had children. His wife died probably before he went to Salisbury Court. Two years later he married an Englishwoman, Anne Smith,[363] and had resumed his French school in St. Paul's Churchyard, but his address was now at the sign of the Golden Bell, HOLYBAND'S TEACHING CAREER for the printer Thomas Purfoote had moved his sign to Newgate Market. Here he remained for some time, until 1581 at the earliest, and probably somewhat later. He also attended the French Church. At this period of his life he again turned his attention to writing on the French language, and collecting together notes which he had no doubt compiled in past years. In 1580 three new works on French appeared from his pen. One was a Treatise for Declining Verbs—a subject which he calls "the second chiefest worke of the Frenche tongue"—written at the request of several gentlemen and merchants. The book itself is of little value, and did not by any means share the popularity of his earliest books. Still, two other editions appeared, one in 1599 and the other much later, in 1641. The second of these works, dealing with French pronunciation on much the same lines as the French Littleton, was even less popular. It was intended for the "learned," and consequently written in Latin—De Pronuntiatione linguae gallicae.[364] Holyband was also becoming more ambitious in his dedications; probably through Lord Buckhurst, the queen's cousin on his mother's side, he was able to dedicate his treatise "ad illustrissimam simulque doctissimam Elizabetham Anglorum Reginam." At the end Holyband added a dialogue in three different kinds of spelling—the new, the old, and his own—as well as a Latin sermon on the Resurrection. A French-English Dictionary was the third of these works, published in 1580, with the title: The Treasurie of the French Tong, Teaching the way to varie all sorts of Verbs, Enriched so plentifully with Wordes and Phrases (for the benefit of the studious in that language), as the like hath not before bin published. Many years later, in 1593, Holyband again gave proof of his deep interest in French lexicography by the publication of his Dictionarie French and English, published for the benefit of the studious in that language, based on his earlier work, but on a much larger scale.[365]
Meanwhile he had had an opportunity to extend his knowledge and to refresh his mind by a long journey on the Continent. Once more he had yielded to his love of change and movement, and entered the service of another powerful patron, Lord Zouche, to whom he dedicated his dictionary of 1593. In the dedication we are told how he had undertaken a "long, lointain, penible et dangereux voyage" with his noble protector, who was to him "plutot pere ou baston de vieillesse que non pas maistre, Seigneur ou commandeur." Thus we may conclude that, when Lord Zouche crossed to Hamburg by sea in March 1587, intending to qualify himself for public service on the Continent, as well as to "live cheaply," Holyband accompanied him, and, no doubt, found many opportunities for serious study. They proceeded to Heidelberg, where their names were inscribed on the matriculation register of the university in May.[366] Zouche then travelled to Frankfort, Basle (1588), Altdorf (1590), and thence to Vienna (1591), and on to Verona, returning to England in 1593.[367]