With the exception of Holyband, the chief Huguenot teachers who gathered round St. Paul's Churchyard would seem to have been Normans. One of these was Robert Fontaine, a friend of Holyband. He had a long and varied career in England as a teacher of French. Arriving in 1550, he remained in England during the reign of Mary, modifying his religious convictions to suit the exigencies of the time. He returned to his former faith early in the reign of Elizabeth, and expressed contrition for his "falling off to idolatry."[412] He attended the French Church faithfully in the early time of its revival, but he appears to have gone more frequently to the Anglican Church in later years, and possibly his sympathies were more in that direction. The favourite neighbourhood, St. Paul's Churchyard, was the scene of his activities, and there he lived for many years with one of his countrymen, Mr. Bowry, a purse-maker. In 1571 he had been living seventeen years in the vicinity of the Cathedral, and in 1582, the latest mention of him in the returns of aliens, he was still in the same district, and appears to have been very prosperous.
Some of this group of Normans added to their activities that of writing books for teaching French—an occupation for which Fontaine, presumably, had not time or inclination. One such author was Jacques Bellot, a "gentleman of the city of Caen in Normandie," who came to England in 1578, or the end of 1577, probably driven from his native land by the persecutions. He was received into the household of Sir Philip Wharton, third baron of that name, and in a surprisingly short time produced a French Grammar, which he dedicated to his patron, with an expression of his gratitude. Bellot, it appears, had already a considerable connexion. His work is preceded by numerous commendatory poems, after the fashion of the time. The poet Thomas Newton of Chester wrote two of these, one in Latin and the other in English, laying stress on the debt due by his countrymen to these French grammarians:
JACQUES BELLOT Thankes therefore great and threefold thankes are due
By right to those, whose travaile, toyle and penne
Dothe breake the yce for others to ensue,
By rules and practice for us Englishmen,
An easye way, a methode most in use
Amonge the Learn'de t' enduce to knowledge sure.
Other verses are written in French by John and William Wroth, no doubt two of the numerous sons of the politician Sir Thomas Wroth.
This new work, entitled The French Grammar, or An Introduction orderly and Methodically by ready rules, playne preceptes and evident examples, teachinge the French Tongue, differs from the popular books of Holyband, and also from most other French manuals, in that it deals with grammar alone. It opens with the usual observations on pronunciation. Each letter is taken in turn, and the position of the organs necessary to produce it is given. The author makes no attempt to compare the French sounds with the English equivalents. He had probably not yet had time to master the intricacies of English pronunciation, although the whole book is written in English; and he also, no doubt, made free use of grammars written in France. He tells us, for instance, that "c ought to be pronounced with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and the mouth somewhat open"; that "f is pronounced holding the nether lip against the upward teeth"; and that "h is but aspiration, which loseth his sound after e feminine, and also after every consonant." Then, after a few general observations and lists of numbers, months, and other familiar words, we reach the second part of the Grammar, which deals with the eight parts of speech. Each is defined and commented on in turn. The wording is often quaint; for instance, verbs are defined as "words which be declined with Modes and tenses, and are betokenynge doing." This second book treats of the accidence. In the third we pass to the consideration of syntax with the following warning:
Dire, sy ay (quoy qu'usage on en face)
N'est point parlé en courtois et bien nay:
Bien seant n'est aussy, dire, non ay:
Sauf votre honneur, ou bien sauf votre grace
Seroient trouvéz de trop meilleure grace.
Je ne l'ay fait, est trop desordonné:
Pardonnez moy, seroit mieux ordonné,
Car grand fureur douce parolle efface.
Nous estions, Nous y pensons, faut dire,
Non, J'estions, on ne s'en fait que rire,
Ne J'y pensons, tout cela est repris.
Les bons François ne parlent point ainsy.
Acunement pris ne doit estre aussy
Petit, pour peu, ny peu pour petit pris.
This part of the work is not extensive, and consists of a miscellaneous collection of observations; we are, for instance, told that the antecedent governs its relative, that the adjective agrees with its noun, and we are supplied also with rules for the gender and number, the negative, and so on. To this Bellot adds a fourth book, which is perhaps the most curious part of the work. It deals with French versification. We are first favoured with a description of the structure of various forms of poems, such as the "chant royal," the "ballade," the sonnet, rondeau, "dixain," and so on, each accompanied by an example, by way of illustration. The various forms of rime are next described and exemplified; and some of the complicated forms dear to the "rhétoriqueurs" find a place here. This is followed by a description of the various kinds of metres, again with examples; and finally rhythm, colour or "lizière," the caesura, elision, the "coupe féminine," and the use of the apostrophe are treated. Such is this little treatise on the "French poeme," which shows incidentally that Bellot had not yet learned the lesson enforced by the Pléiade more than twenty years before he wrote.
What strikes one most, perhaps, in Bellot's Grammar is that he makes no attempt to deal with the difficulties which the French language presents to the English in particular. No comparison of the two languages is instituted; no emphasis is laid on points in which they differ. Were it not written in English, it might be taken for a study of the language on the model of those produced in France. Considering that the work was published in the year of his arrival in England, it seems almost certain that he had begun his study before his arrival, and translated it himself, or had it translated into English. This would account for its unusual character.
Bellot opens and closes his Grammar with apologies. He repudiates all claim to completeness, and writes, he says, merely to provoke the "learned" to do better. "Yet the worke is not so leane and voide of fruite, but there is in it some taste. The bee gathereth honey from the smallest flowers, and so may the wise man from this small work."
Some time after the publication of his Grammar, he joined the group of French teachers dwelling in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's Churchyard. He was there in 1582, and made the acquaintance of Holyband, who had then resumed his French school in that locality. In the following year he wrote a quatrain and a sonnet in praise of Holyband's latest work, the Campo di Fior (1583):