II. Claude Desainliens, who transformed himself into Claudius Holy-Band or Hollyband, and who seems in his earlier days to have had quarters over or adjoining the sign of the Lucrece in St. Paul’s Churchyard, became a voluminous producer of the dictionaries, grammars, and phrase-books so popular in early times, and included in his range the Italian as well as the French series. Long after his death his works continued to be in demand, and were edited with improvements by others. Desainliens began, so far as I know, with his French Littleton in 1566, and his French Dictionary was not printed till 1593. In 1581 he had moved from the Lucrece to the Golden Ball, just by.
Perhaps of all his multifarious performances his French and Italian Schoolmasters were the two which met with the greatest favour; and the longer career of the former may perhaps be ascribed to the more general cultivation of the French language in England. The Italian Schoolmaster originally appeared in 1575 as an annex to a version of the story of Arnalte and Lucenda; but in the subsequent impressions of 1597 and 1608 the philological portion occupies the place of honour, and the story is made to follow. In the former the rules for pronunciation and such matter as fell within his knowledge as an Italian may be passed as representing what was the correct practice and view at the period; it is with the English illustrations and equivalents that one is apt to be surprised and amused; and one, moreover, figures the occasional bewilderment even of an English pupil at the strange unidiomatic forms which Desainliens has adopted. In other words, instead of translating English into Italian, he has translated Italian into broken English; as, for instance, where in a dialogue a man is inquiring the way to London, we find at the conclusion such pure Italicisms as Have me recommended: I am yours: Remaine with God. Then, again, terms are misapplied, of course, as thus: “Tell me deere fellowe, is it yet farre to the citie?” And when he has entered his inn, he calls to the host: “Bring me for to wash my hands and face.” At the same time the pages of this and similar volumes abound with fruitful illustrations of all kinds, which we should have been very sorry indeed to lose; and it is to be recollected that the English gloss was secondary, and that the bizarre style and texture of this class of book arose from the aim at enabling the learner to be prepared for all sorts of occasions and every variety of conversational topic. The author consequently leads him through the different occupations and incidents of life, and imagines successive interviews and dialogues with such persons as he would be likely to encounter. In the parley with a farrier, it comes out that the charge for shoeing a horse was fivepence a foot; and in the section Per maritarsi = To be married, Hollyband starts by rendering O bella giovane “Ho fair maiden.” He urges her to be prompt in her decision by citing the proverb, “Ladie, whilest the iron is hote, it must be wrought.”
Much of the matter introduced by Desainliens is highly curious and even important. I shall transcribe a section or two, as they are brief, for the sake of the English suggestions:—
“To sing and daunce.
“O fellowes, I wish that wee shoulde sing a song, and I will take the lute.
Let vs sing and daunce, when you will.
Mystres, will it please you to daunce a galliard with me? pray you therefore.
I cannot daunce after the Italian fashion.
We shall daunce after the high Dutch.
Go to, play a galliard vpon the violl.
I would rather vpon the virginals....
Of the Booke binder.
Shew me an Italian, and English bookes and of the best print.
I have none bound at this present.
Bind me this with silke and claspes....
Reach me royall paper to write.
Neede you any ynke and bombash?
No, but wast paper, & of that which wee call drinking paper....
I would you shoulde make mee a paire of bootes, a ierkin, and a paire of shoes, pantofles, mules, and buskins.
We will make thē sir, & of good leather.
See this faire shooing.
Put on those pompes....”
After all, possibly, such publications as that before me are chiefly valuable for a purpose for which they were not designed—for the bounteous light which they shed on our old English customs and notions; and I do not think that they have been hitherto fully brought into employment. It is obviously impossible for me, however, in the present case to remedy this shortcoming, more particularly as the quotations suffer by curtailment or paraphrase.