The Eclaircissement de la langue Françoise, by John Palsgrave, 1530, and the Introductory to learn, pronounce, and speak the French tongue, by Giles Du Wes or Dewes, written some years later for the use of the Princess Mary in the same way as Linacre’s Latin Grammar had been, are sufficiently familiar from their reproduction in modern times under the auspices of the French Government. Dewes was not improbably related to a person of the same name who acted as preceptor to the son of Cromwell, Earl of Essex. Both he and Palsgrave were professional teachers; but Palsgrave was a Londoner, who had completed his studies in the Parisian Gymnasium; and he at all events was a Latin, no less than a French scholar. In the dedication of his English version of the Comedy of Acolastus to Henry VIII. in 1540, he speaks at some length, and in laudatory terms, of the official Primer issued in that year, and he also conveys to us the notion of being then advanced in life.
Nearly, if not quite, contemporary with him and Dewes was Pierre du Ploiche, who in the time of Henry published a very curious little volume of more general scope, called A Treatise in English and French right necessary and profitable for all young children. Du Ploiche, when this work appeared, was residing in Trinity Lane, at the sign of the Rose. He gives us in parallel columns, the English on the left hand, and the French equivalent on the right, the Catechism, the Litany and Suffrages, and a series of Prayers. These occupy three sections; the fourth, fifth, and sixth sections are devoted to secular and familiar topics: For to speake at the table, for to aske the way, and for to bie and sell; and the concluding portion embraces the A. B. C. and Grammar.
The English is pretty much on a par with that found in educational treatises produced by foreigners, and the French itself is decidedly of an archaic cast, though, doubtless, such as was generally recognised and understood in the sixteenth century. I shall pass over the religious divisions, and transcribe a few specimens from the three groups of dialogue on social or personal subjects.
The third chapter, where the scene at a meal is depicted, affords, of course, some interesting suggestions and illustrations, yet little that is very new, except that we seem to get a glimpse of the practice, borrowed from monastic life, of some one reading aloud while the rest were at their repast. For one says: “Reade Maynerd, Lisez Maynart,” to which the other rejoins: “Where shall I reade?” and the first answers: “There where your fellow lefte yesterday,” so that it was apparently the custom to take turns. We perceive, too, that the dinner was both ushered in and wound up with very elaborate graces. In this dialogue, as well as in the next about asking the way, there is mention of almost every description of utensil, but no reference to the fork, which was not yet in general use.
There is a delicate refinement of phraseology here and there, as where “You ly” is rendered “Vous espargnez la verité;” and Du Ploiche does not fail to advertise himself and his address, for when one of the interlocutors demands: “Where go you to schole?” the other is made to reply: “In trinytie lane at the signe of the Rose.”
The annexed extract from the same chapter may assist in fixing the date of the publication to 1544:—
| “And you sir, from whence com you? | “Et vous seigneur, d’ou venez vous? | |
| I come from Bulloigne. | Ie viens de Boulongne. | |
| From Englande, from Germany. | D’Engleterre, d’Allemaigne. | |
| What newes? | Quelle nouuelles? | |
| I know none but good. | Ie ne sçay rien que bien. | |
| I harde say | i’ay ouy dire | |
| That the Englishe men | que les anglois | |
| haue kylled many frenche men. | ont occis beaucoup de François. | |
| And where? | Et ou? | |
| Before Bulloigne. | Deuant Boulongne. | |
| When came the newes? | Quant vinrent tez nouuelle? | |
| This morninge by a post.” | A ce matin par vng poste.” |
The portion which yields this matter comprises all the incidents of a long journey, the arrival at the inn, the call for refreshment, the baiting and putting up of the horse, the retirement to rest, and the breakfast before departure in the morning.
The sixth section, on buying and selling, exhibits no remarkable examples, or rather nothing that I can, with so large a choice, afford to cite, and the grammatical part follows the usual lines. The present treatise came to a new edition in 1578, but it does not seem to have been very successful.
In point of fact, the taste and demand for such a class of hand-books or primers had not fully set in. With the reign of Elizabeth the habit of foreign travel and the consequent value of a conversance with languages, especially French and Italian, imparted the first marked stimulus and development to this class of literary enterprise.