And now methinks I see a youth advanceReady prepared to make the tour of France.
And now methinks I see a youth advanceReady prepared to make the tour of France.
Satire against the French, 1691.
When, in the middle of the seventeenth century, England was torn in twain by civil war and party quarrels, even the Puritans willingly sent their children to be brought up in France. It was at this period that Thomas Grantham, a severe critic of the usual method of teaching Latin in Grammar Schools,[882]wrote this significant passage: "Let a boy of seven or eight years of age be sent out of England into France: he shall learn in a twelvemonth or less to write and speak the French tongue readily, although he keep much company with English, read many English books, and write many English letters home, and all this with pleasure and delight." The number of English children in France at this period was considerable.[883]At St. Malo, for instance, when proceedings were taken against the English in the town, the chief victims were the "English boys sent to learn French."[884]
The memoirs of the Verney family afford a detailed picture of one of the numerous families of royalist sympathies, cut off from English public school and university life, and brought up in France. Sir Ralph Verney had taken the side of Parliament in the long struggle, but in 1643 went into voluntaryexile in France rather than sign the Covenant. He settled at Blois with his family, and procured French tutors for his boys. Apparently he had some trouble at first, one of the tutors being dismissed "for drinking, lying and seeking to proselytise." Finally the education of the boys was entrusted to the Protestant pastor, M. Testard, who received foreign pupils. The young students worked hard at Latin and French under the minister's supervision. Testard reported of Edmund, the elder, "Il fait merveille. . . . Je luy raconte une histoire en français, il me la rend extempore en Latin."[885]And one day Mme. Testard found the young John hard at work in bed in the early morning with two books in French and Latin. The children wrote in French to their mother when she was absent in England making valiant and finally successful attempts to get the sequestration taken off Sir Ralph's estate. And when, after her death, Sir Ralph sought to divert his mind by travelling in Italy, Edmund,[886]then aged thirteen, wrote this letter—which shows clearly the dangers of a purely oral method:
Plust à Dieu qu'il vous donnast la pensée de retourner à Blois. Les jours me semblent des années tant il m'ennuye d'ettre icy comme dans un desert de solitude; car quoy est cequi me peut desormais plaire dans cette ville, comment est ceque cette lumiere de la vie, et cette respiration de l'air me peuvent-elle estre agreeables, puisqu'y ayant perdu cequi m'estoit le plus au Monde et qu'il m'interesse plus q'une seule personne dont je suis privé de l'honneur de sa presence, au reste, graces a Dieu, nous nous porte fort bien et pourcequi et de moy je vous asseure que je ne manqueray jamais à mon devoir, c'espourquoy finissant je demeure et demeureray aternellement,Votre tres humble et fidel fils,Edmond Verney.
Plust à Dieu qu'il vous donnast la pensée de retourner à Blois. Les jours me semblent des années tant il m'ennuye d'ettre icy comme dans un desert de solitude; car quoy est cequi me peut desormais plaire dans cette ville, comment est ceque cette lumiere de la vie, et cette respiration de l'air me peuvent-elle estre agreeables, puisqu'y ayant perdu cequi m'estoit le plus au Monde et qu'il m'interesse plus q'une seule personne dont je suis privé de l'honneur de sa presence, au reste, graces a Dieu, nous nous porte fort bien et pourcequi et de moy je vous asseure que je ne manqueray jamais à mon devoir, c'espourquoy finissant je demeure et demeureray aternellement,Votre tres humble et fidel fils,Edmond Verney.
Plust à Dieu qu'il vous donnast la pensée de retourner à Blois. Les jours me semblent des années tant il m'ennuye d'ettre icy comme dans un desert de solitude; car quoy est cequi me peut desormais plaire dans cette ville, comment est ceque cette lumiere de la vie, et cette respiration de l'air me peuvent-elle estre agreeables, puisqu'y ayant perdu cequi m'estoit le plus au Monde et qu'il m'interesse plus q'une seule personne dont je suis privé de l'honneur de sa presence, au reste, graces a Dieu, nous nous porte fort bien et pourcequi et de moy je vous asseure que je ne manqueray jamais à mon devoir, c'espourquoy finissant je demeure et demeureray aternellement,
Votre tres humble et fidel fils,Edmond Verney.
Sir Ralph had also in his charge two girls, his young cousins, whom their mother had entrusted to him: "Sweet nephew, I have after A long debate with my selfe sent my tow gurles where I shall desier youre care of them, that they may be tought what is fite for them as the reding of the french tong, and to singe, and to dance and to right and to playe of the gittar."[887]
Sir Ralph regarded France as "the fittest place to breedup youth."SIR RALPH VERNEY'S VIEWS"I wish peace in France for my children's sake," he wrote to M. Du Val, a French tutor. After bringing up his own family there, he would have liked to send his grandchildren to France with a sober and discreet governor, rather than to any school in England; but his son Edmund thought the advantage of learning to speak French fluently did not compensate for the loss of English public school life, which he himself had never enjoyed. Sir Ralph soon became a versatile source of information to parents desiring details of the cost of living and education in France. He considered £200 a year a proper allowance for an English youth to be boarded in a good French family, and that homes in which there were children were best, on account of the continual prattle of the young inmates. The families of French pastors were naturally preferred; and as the pastors were in the habit of taking French pupils also,[888]no doubt the young English boys found suitable companions.
The Protestant schools,[889]established wherever possible by the French reformers in the vicinity of their churches, were also in favour with English parents. These schools, in which the subjects usually taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, and the catechism, were for obvious reasons looked on with suspicion by the Government; one by one they were dispersed, especially when the feeling against the Protestants became more acute towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Thus the schools of Rouen were closed in 1640; and shortly afterwards Sir Ralph Verney wrote, in reply to an inquiry about a school, that Rouen is a very unfit place, as no Protestant masters are allowed to keep school there; moreover, living is dear in the town, and the accent of the inhabitants bad. In some cases, when the schools had been closed or converted into Jesuit establishments, the ejected schoolmasters gave private lessons, or received a fewpensionnairesin their homes. Even this was forbidden in 1683. And two years later the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes dealt the severest blow of all.
Regarding the Protestant Academies,[890]Sir Ralph sent thefollowing report to his friends in England: "There are divers Universities at Sedan, Saumur, Geneva and other fine places, as I am told at noe unreasonable rate, and not only Protestant schoolmasters, but whole colleges of Protestants."[891]Many young Englishmen were sent to one or other of these towns, either to attend lectures at the Academies, or, more often, to study French and the "exercises" privately, in a Protestant atmosphere. Sir Orlando Bridgman, a friend of Sir Ralph Verney, after letting his son study with two other English boys under a M. Cordell at Blois, intended to send him either to Saumur or Poitiers, then to Paris, and so to the Inns of Court,[892]and Sir Thomas Cotton sent his sons to Saumur to perfect themselves in French.[893]In the middle of the seventeenth century, Sir Joseph Williamson, the future statesman and diplomat of the reign of Charles II., was living at Saumur with several young Englishmen in his care.[894]After graduating at Oxford, he had left England in the capacity of tutor to a young man of quality, possibly one of the sons of the Marquis of Ormonde. At Saumur, Williamson kept a book of notes relating to the studies of his pupils and containing the letters which he wrote to their parents in answer to inquiries concerning their progress. He and his pupils liveden pensionin a private house in the town, "with very civil company,"—"the best way to get the language which is much desired." On the whole Williamson's pupils do not seem to have made as rapid progress as either he himself or their parents desired. One anxious father writes to ask Williamson to let his son practise writing French daily; another exhorts his son to devote himself seriously to learning French by reading good authors and conversing. The Academies of Montauban and Sedan, though they never attained a popularity equal to that of Saumur, were not neglected, and attracted many foreign students. The Academy at Montauban was moved to Puy Laurens in 1659, where it remained until its suppression at the time of the Revocation. In 1678 Henry Savile, English ambassador at Paris, informed his brother, Lord Halifax, that there are only two Protestant Universities in France,TRAVELLERS AT FRENCH UNIVERSITIESat Saumur and Puy Laurens, and that of these Saumur is beyond dispute the better.[895]From this we see that these two Academies were then the best known;[896]no doubt the rest, which had never been quite so popular, were much enfeebled by the hostile edicts which preceded the Revocation. Lord Halifax at first intended to send his sons to the College at Chastillon. Savile, however, stopped them when they arrived at Paris, as he had heard that the only teaching given at the College was reading, writing, and the catechism—the curriculum of the Protestant schools. In the end the boys were sent with their governor to the Academy at Geneva. On their return to England in 1681, one of them went to complete his education at the University and the other to the academy which was opened that year by the Frenchman M. Foubert, who had set up as a teacher of the "exercises" in London.
Other travellers spent some time at one of the French Universities. The University of Paris usually counted a considerable number of English among its students, and Clarendon tells us that those who have been there "mingle gracefully in all companies." The Universities of Bordeaux, Poitiers, and Montpellier were also favourite resorts. Montpellier particularly, with its "gentle salutiferous air," attracted those suffering from the "national complaint."[897]When Will Allestry was there in 1668, he spent the greater part of his time learning French, and what leisure he had he employed in studying the Institutions.[898]Orleans, famous for the study of law, was also much patronised. The custom of studying in French Universities, however, did not meet with general approval in England. Sir Balthazar Gerbier pronounced it "no less than abusing the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the famous free schools of this realme to withdraw from them the sons of Noble families and those that are lovers of vertue." The same opinion is voiced by Samuel Penton, Master of Exeter Hall, Oxford, who did not omit even the Protestant Academies from his condemnation. "The strangeness of New Faces, Language, Manners and Studies may prove perhaps uneasie, and then their great wantof discipline to confine him to Prayers, Exercises and Meals is dangerous: all he will have to do is to keep in touch with a Lecturer, and what is learned from him, most young Gentlemen are so civil as to leave behind them when they return."[899]
The governors who usually accompanied young travellers, especially those of high birth, were not infrequently Frenchmen. We are told that it was a rare sight to see a young English nobleman at a foreign court with a governor of his own nation,[900]though some preferred an English governor, and cautioned travellers against foreign tutors. Samuel Penton warns us that if the young traveller is committed, for cheapness or curiosity, to a foreigner instead of an English governor, "there are some in the world who without a fee will tell you what that is like to come to."[901]One of the English governors, J. Gailhard, who was tutor abroad to several of the nobility and gentry, including the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Hastings, and Sir Thomas Grosvenor, lays down "a method of travel" which is of special interest, as it is the one which he followed with his own pupils.[902]His view was that, if possible, the traveller should have some knowledge of French before setting out on his travels. The first thing he should do on arriving at Paris is to go to the famous Protestant temple at Charenton, and there give thanks for his safe journey so far—whether he understand French or not. He will do well to make but a short stay at Paris, where his progress will be hindered by the great number of his countrymen there. The best places to reside in are the towns along the valley of the Loire, where there are plenty of good masters to be had. Perhaps Angers is the best. The student is further urged to keep a diary, and talk as much as possible—"with speaking we learn to speak." The masters for the riding and fencing exercises, dancing and music, are to be looked upon as so many additional language teachers. Although "of ten words he could not speak two right, yet let him not be ashamed and discouraged at it: for it is not to be expected he should be a Master before he hath been a scholar." The language master should teach his pupil to read, write and spell correctly, and to speakproperly.GUIDE-BOOKS FOR TRAVELLERSThe material for reading must be carefully chosen; romances, such as those of Scudéry, are often dangerous; it is better to use books which give instruction in such subjects as history, morality, and politics. Every evening there should be a repetition of what has been learnt during the day. Gailhard also draws attention to the necessity of respecting and observing the customs of the places visited: "Here in England, the manner is for the master of the House to go in before a stranger, this would pass for a great incivility in France; so here the Lady or Mistress of the House uses to sit at the upper end of the Table, which in France is given to Strangers. So if we be many in a company we make no scruple to drink all out of a glass, or a Tankard, which they are not used to do, and if a servant would offer to give them a glass before it was washed every time they drink, they would be angry at it. Here when a man is sneezing we say nothing to him, but there they would look upon't as a want of civility. Again, we in England upon a journey, use to ask one another how we do, but in France they do no such thing—amongst them that question would answer to this, 'what aileth you that you look so ill?'"
The attitude of the French teachers in England towards the foreign tour gradually changed. They no longer saw in it a rival institution, depriving them of many of their pupils, but, on the contrary, a means of giving the finishing touch to the results of their own efforts in England. All strongly advise their pupils to go to France, and most of them add directions for travel in their text-books.[903]Mauger's dialogues include "most exact instructions for travel, very useful and necessary for all gentlemen that intend to travel into France," and Lainé's grammar is "enriched with choice dialogues useful for persons of quality that intend to travel into France, leading them as by the hand to the most noted and principal places of the kingdom."
As the tour in France increased in popularity, the directions furnished by French teachers were supplemented by guide-books properly so called; towards the end of the seventeenth century books such asThe Present State of FranceandThe Description of Pariswere to be had at everybookseller's in London.[904]As early as 1604 Sir Robert Dallington had written hisView of France, in which he refers to a book called theFrench Guide, which "undertaketh to resemble eche countrie to some other thing, as Bretaigne to a horse-shoe, Picardy to a Neat's toung etc., which are but idle and disproportioned comparisons." Peter Heylyn, chaplain at the Courts of Charles I. and Charles II., was the author of two popular books of this type:France painted to the Life by a learned and impartial Hand,[905]andA Full relation of two Journeys, the one in the mainland of France, the other in some of the adjacent Islands.[906]Some of these guides are descriptions of the country, others are relations of journeys made there; to the first category belongsA Description of France in its several governments by J. S. Gent(1692), and to the second,A Journey to Paris in the year 1698 by Dr. Martin Lister. Some include advice as to the course of study to be followed. And as Italy was still frequently included in the tour, travellers were sometimes supplied with information regarding that country.[907]
So popular did the tour in France become in the seventeenth century that guide-books for travellers were produced on the spot. The earliest French books of this kind had not been specially designed for the use of foreign visitors; they were as a rule descriptions of the towns and their geographical positions, or notices on their history and antiquities.[908]In time, however, they assumed a character more particularly adapted to strangers.[909]One of the best known and mostROUTES USUALLY FOLLOWEDpopular wasLe Voyage de France, dressé pour l'instruction et commodité tant des Français que des étrangers, first published in 1639. The author, C. de Varennes, gives directions for the study of French. He thinks Oudin's Grammar the most profitable, on account of the manner in which it deals with the chief difficulties of foreigners, and Paris and Orleans the best towns for study. For the rest, the help of a tutor should be enlisted, and the student should converse as much as possible with children, and with persons of learning and ability; he should also read widely, preferably dialogues in familiar style and the latest novels; and write French, for which exercise he will find much help in theSecrétaire de la Courand theSecrétaire à la mode,[910]collections of letters and "compliments," which, we may say incidentally, enjoyed a popularity greatly exceeding their merit.
The short tour in France grew in popularity as the seventeenth century advanced, and many were content to spend the whole of their sojourn abroad there, without undertaking the longer continental tour. Others went to France to prepare themselves for the longer tour. Naturally the tour in France alone engaged the attention of French teachers. We are told that the cost of a tour of three months need not be more than £50. "If you take a friend with you 'twill make you miss a thousand opportunities of following your end: you go to get French, and it would be best if you could avoid making an acquaintance with any Englishman there. To converse with their learned men will be beside your purpose too, if you go for so short a time: they talk the worst for conversation and you had rather be with the ladies."[911]
The chief routes which French masters in England advised their pupils to take were those from Dover to Boulogne and from Rye to Dieppe, whence it was usual to proceed through Rouen to Paris.[912]Locke, for instance, landed at Boulogne when on his way to the South of France; thence he made his way to Paris, chiefly on foot.[913]"If Paris be heaven (for the French with their usual justice, extol it above all things on earth)," he writes after a night spent at Poy, "Poy certainlyis purgatory on the way to it." His impressions of Tilliard were more favourable: "Good mutton, and a good supper, clean linen of the country, and a pretty girl to lay it (who was an angel compared with the fiends of Poy) made us some amends for the past night's suffering." It was on the same route to Paris that the Norman Claude du Val, afterwards notorious on the English highways, first came into contact with the English as he was journeying to Paris to try his fortune there. At Rouen he met a band of young Englishmen on their way to Paris with their governors, to learn the exercises and to "fit themselves to go a-wooing at their return home; who were infinitely ambitious of his company, not doubting but in those two days' travel (from Rouen to Paris) they should pump many considerable things out of him, both as to the language and customs of France: and upon that account they did willingly defray his charges." When the young Englishmen arrived at Paris and settled in the usual quarter, the Faubourg St. Germain, Du Val attached himself to their service, and betook himself to England on the Restoration, which drained Paris of many of its English inhabitants.[914]
Many travellers, however, agreed with the French teachers that Paris was not a suitable place for serious study of French, both on account of the many distractions it offered and of the great number of English people resident there. It therefore became customary with the more serious-minded to retire for a time to some quiet provincial town where the accent was good. The French teacher Wodroeph tells us as much: "Mais, Monsieur, je vois bien que vous estes estranger et vous allez à la cour à Paris pour y apprendre nostre langue françoise. Mais mieux il vous vaut d'aller à Orleans plustost que d'y aller pour hanter la cour et baiser les Dames et Damoiselles. . . . Parquoy je vous conseille mieux vous en esloigner et d'aller à Orleans là où vous apprendrez la vraye methode de la langue vulgaire."[915]The towns in the valley of the Loire were favourite resorts for purposes of study.[916]Orleans, Blois, and Saumur seem tohave been the most popular.LOIRE TOWNS FAVOUREDFor instance, James Howell, after spending some time in Paris, where he lodged near the Bastille—"the part furthest off from the quarters where the English resort," for he wished "to go on to get a little language"[917]as soon as he could—went to Orleans to study French; he describes it as "the most charming town on the Loire, and the best to learn the language in the purity." The town was never without a great abundance of strangers.[918]The fame of Blois and its teachers was widespread; and Bourges, Tours, Angers, and Caen were noted for the purity of their French. Saumur and other towns in which the Protestants were powerful were also much frequented. John Malpet, afterwards Principal of Gloucester Hall, Oxford, spent two years in France with his pupil, Lord Falkland, visiting Orleans, Blois, and Saumur.[919]John Evelyn visited Paris, Blois, Orleans, and Lyons, and finally settled at Tours, where he engaged a French master and studied the language diligently for nineteen weeks.
While studying in one or other of these towns, English travellers usually lodged in hotels,auberges, orpensions,[920]and sometimes with French families. One of their chief difficulties appears to have been to avoid their fellow-countrymen in such places. Gabriel Du Grès suggests that when English students are thus thrown together they should come to an agreement that any one who spoke his native tongue should pay a fine. A further though less serious impediment was the speaking of Latin, still considered necessary to the traveller by scholars such as John Brinsley.[921]For this reason travellers "for language" are advised to frequent the company of women and children, and "polite" society, rather than that of scholars. It is a great inconvenience, observes Du Grès, if your landlord can speak Latin. The majority of travellers, however, do not appear to have experienced any embarrassment in this respect; on the contrary, those with little previous knowledge of French found their Latin of use in their first French lessons if they studied the language "grammatically" with a master.French teachers in England usually recommended suitablepensionsto their students. Gabriel Du Grès, for instance, gives a list of such lodgings at Saumur, his native town; Mauger, of those of Blois, Orleans, and other towns in the Loire valley.[922]In like manner they addressed their pupils to recommendable academies for instruction in the polite accomplishments and military exercises. However, for the most part they advised their pupils to go to private masters, who would attend to their French as well as the "exercises." The house of M. Doux, who had a riding school at Blois, was considered a particularly appropriate residence for those desiring to learn French, on account of his daughters, who spoke "wondrously well," as was also that of a certain M. Dechaussé, who kept an academy for teaching young gentlemen to ride.
What is more, French teachers in England, no longer regarding their fellow-workers in France as rivals but rather as collaborators, as we have seen, not infrequently entertained friendly relations with them, and even went so far as to direct pupils to them. Claude Mauger, for instance, sent as many of his pupils as possible to M. Gaudrey at Paris, the author of verses in praise of Mauger'sTableau du Jugement Universel. This change of attitude is probably explained by the fact that in the seventeenth century French was studied more seriously in England than in the sixteenth century; and students on their arrival in France had often had preliminary instruction under the care of a French tutor in England; Clarendon significantly states that in France "we quicklyrenewthe acquaintance we have had with the language by the practice and custom of speaking it." Students going abroad for purposes of study are therefore addressed to M. Nicolas, an excellent master at Paris, M. le Fèvre, anavocat en parlementat Orleans, and others. We are also informed thatabbéswere fond of teaching their language to strangers, especially the English.[923]Moreover, several French teachers in England had previously exercised their profession in France. The most popular of all, Claude Mauger, had spent seven years teaching French at Blois. Many years later, when he hadFRENCH GRAMMARS FOR TRAVELLERSmade his reputation as a successful teacher of French in London, he went for a time to Paris, where he settled in the Faubourg St. Germain, and was busily occupied in teaching French to travellers, among others to the Earl of Salisbury. He also tells us that his books were very popular in France, and used by the great majority of English students there.
Several of the French teachers in France wrote books for the use of their pupils. Mauger himself quotes the authority of "all French Grammarians that are Professors in France for the teaching of travellers the language." Yet in the seventeenth century, when the French language became one of the chief preoccupations of polite society as well as of scholars, many grammars paid no attention to teaching the language to foreigners. There were, however, several well-known teachers of languages at Paris who wrote grammars specially for their use. Alcide de St. Maurice, the author of theGuide fidelle des estrangers dans le voyage de France(1672), composed a grammar calledRemarques sur les principales difficultez de la langue françoise(1674), which has little value, and is compiled chiefly from Vaugelas and Ménage. His chief aim was to overcome the usual difficulties—pronunciation and orthography. Several years previously he had written a collection of short stories inspired by theDecameron. TheFleurs, Fleurettes et passetemps ou les divers caractères de l'amour honneste, as he called them, were published at Paris in 1666, and were no doubt intended as reading matter for his pupils.
A work called theNova Grammatica Gallica, written in Latin and French for the use of foreigners, appeared at Paris in 1678. It is mainly compiled from Chiflet and other French grammarians. A certain M. Mauconduy was responsible for the grammar, which was on much the same lines as that of Maupas. The French theologian M. de Saint-Amour, of the Sorbonne, addressed several foreigners to Mauconduy, who issued for their use dailyfeuillets volants, containing remarks on the language. His pupils made rapid progress, and usually knew French fairly well in three months, we are told.
Another of these teachers, Denys Vairasse d'Allais,[924]lived, like Mauger, in the Faubourg St. Germain, and like him taught English as well as French. He had spent some time in England in his youth, and perhaps taught French there. He also corresponded with Pepys, the famous diarist.Vairasse had a particular affection for his English pupils, and they appear to have been in the majority. He was a strong advocate of the study of grammar, and condemned attempts to learn French "by imitation" alone. HisGrammaire Méthodique contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les regles les plus necessaires de la langue françoise dans un ordre claire et naturelleappeared at Paris in 1682.[925]In it he criticizes severely all the French grammars for the use of strangers produced either in France or in foreign countries. Shortly afterwards the grammar was abridged and translated into English asA Short and Methodical Introduction to the French Tongue composed for the particular benefit of the English, printed at Paris in 1683. This French grammar published in English at Paris is a striking testimony to the importance of the English as students of French.
René Milleran, like Vairasse d'Allais, taught English as well as French. He was a native of Saumur, but spent most of his life at Paris teaching languages, and for a time acted as interpreter to the king. He composed for the use of his pupils a French grammar entitledLa Nouvelle Grammaire Françoise, avec le Latin à coté des exemples devisée en deux parties(Marseilles, 1692), which is no doubt a first edition of hisLes deux Gramaires Fransaizes(Marseilles, 1694), in which he expounds his new system of orthography. His collection of letters,Lettres Familieres Galantes et autres sur toutes sortes de sujets, avec leurs responses, of which the third edition appeared in 1700, enjoyed a great popularity, like most similar collections at this time: successive editions appeared right into the eighteenth century. This, he says, was the first work which won for him the favour of so many foreign noblemen. His method was to give the students copies of the letters in either Latin or their own language, and to let them translate them into French. He announced an edition of the letters with English, German, and Latin translations for the use of his pupils, but it does not appear to have been published. Like most writers connected with the Court, Milleran calls attention to the purity of his style, and announces that no other books give such exact rules for the language of the Court. A special feature of his work was the selection of letters by members of the French Academy.HOWELL'S ADVICE TO TRAVELLERSNor was the more familiar side neglected: there are numerous letters to and from students of French, reporting on their progress in the language, with mutual congratulations on improvement in style, etc. It is said of Milleran's compositions that their chief merit is their scarcity, and few will agree with De Linière, the satirist and enemy of Boileau, who wrote in praise of Milleran:
Cet homme en sa Grammaire étaleAutant de sçavoir que Varron,Et dans ses Lettres il égaleBalzac, Voiture et Cicéron.
Cet homme en sa Grammaire étaleAutant de sçavoir que Varron,Et dans ses Lettres il égaleBalzac, Voiture et Cicéron.
Not a few English travellers dispensed with the services of a tutor in France. Among these was James Howell, who studied French at Paris, Orleans, and Poissy, where he endangered his health by too close application; he acted for a time as travelling tutor to the son of Baron Altham. He put his knowledge of French to the test by translating his own first literary production,Dodona's Grove. This, he says, he submitted to the newAcadémie des beaux esprits, founded by Richelieu, which gave it a public expression of approbation.[926]The translation was printed at Paris in 1641 under the title ofDendrologie ou la Forêt de Dodone. Howell left instructions for travellers, based on his own experience of study abroad, and typical of the theories current at the time. He advises[927]the student who has settled in some quiet town to choose a room looking on to the street, "to take in the common cry and language"; to keep a diary during the day, and in the evening to write an essay from this material, "for the penne maketh the deepest furrowes, and doth fertilize and enrich the memory more than anything else." He should avoid the company of his countrymen, "the greatest bane of English Gentlemen abroad," and frequent cafés and ordinaries,[928]and engage a French page-boy "to parley and chide withal, whereof he shall have occasion enough."[929]Howell strongly felt the necessity of travelling in France at an early age in order to gain a good pronunciation, "hardly overcome by onewho has past the minority ... the French tongue by reason of the huge difference betwixt their writing and speaking will put one often into fits of despair and passion." He draws a grotesque picture of "some of the riper plants" who "overact themselves, for while they labour totrencher le mot, to cut the word as they say, and speake like naturall Frenchmen, and to get the true genuine tone ... they fall a lisping and mincing, and so distort and strain their mouths and voyce so that they render themselves fantastique and ridiculous: let it be sufficient for one of riper years to speak French intelligibly, roundly, and congruously, without such forced affectation." It is equally important to avoid bashfulness in speaking: "whatsoever it is, let it come forth confidently whether true or false sintaxis; for a bold vivacious spirit hath a very great advantage in attaining the French, or indeed any other language."
The student will also do well to repair sometimes "to the Courts of pleading and to the Publique Schools. For in France they presently fall from the Latine to dispute in the vulgar tongue." He should also combine the study of grammar—that of Maupas is the best—with his practical exercises, and begin a course of reading, making notes as he goes on. The most suitable books are those dealing with the history of France, such as Serres and D'Aubigné. Much judgment is needed in the choice of books on other subjects, "especially when there is such a confusion of them as in France, which, as Africk, produceth always something new, for I never knew week pass in Paris, but it brought forth some new kinds of authors: but let him take heed of tumultuary and disjointed Authors, as well as of the frivolous and pedantique." However, "there be some French poets will affoord excellent entertainment specially Du Bartas, and 'twere not amisse to give a slight salute to Ronsard and Desportes, and the late Théophile.[930]And touching poets, they must be used like flowers, some must only be smelt into, but some are good to be thrown into a limbique to be Distilled."
The student is likewise admonished to make a collection of French proverbs, and translate from English into French—the most difficult task in learning the language, "for to translate another tongue into English is not hard or profitable." Finally, "for Sundayes and Holydayes, there bee manyUSUAL COURSETreasuries of Devotion in the French Tongue, full of patheticall ejaculations, and Heavenly raptures, and his closet must not be without some of these.... Peter du Moulin hath many fine pieces to this purpose, du Plessis, Allencour and others. And let him be conversant with such bookes only on Sundayes and not mingle humane studies with them. His closet must be his Rendez-vous whensoever hee is surprized with any fit of perverseness, as thoughts of Country or Kindred will often affect one."
Having acquired some knowledge of French in this retirement, "hee may then adventure upon Paris, and the Court, and visit Ambassadours," and go in the train of some young nobleman. In addition he should enter into the life of the town, read the weekly gazettes and newspapers, "and it were not amisse for him to spend some time in the New Academy, erected lately by the French Cardinall Richelieu, where all the sciences are read in the French tongue which is done of purpose to refine and enrich the Language." He may also frequent one of the divers Academies in Paris, for private gentlemen and cadets.
It was also customary to make either theGrandor thePetit Tourof France, after the period of studious retirement. TheGrand Tourincluded Lyons, Marseilles, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Paris; thePetit Tour, Paris, Tours, and Poitiers.[931]Paris, we can guess, was the chief attraction to most young Englishmen of family and fortune. Dryden thus describes the education of a young gentleman of fashion:[932]"Your father sent you into France at twelve years old, bred you up at Paris, first at a college and then at an Academy." Much importance was attached to a course of study at the University there, and many recognized the advantages gained therefrom. But on the other hand there were not a few complaints of the dangers of lack of discipline and the company of dissolute scholars, and still more, of the neglect of all serious study. Clarendon[933]assures us that many English travellers never saw the University nor knew in what part of Paris it stood; but "dedicate all that precious season only to Dancing and other exercises, which is horribly to misspend it"; with the result that when such a traveller returns to England, all his learning consists in wearing his clothes well, and he has atleast one French fellow to wait upon him and comb his periwig. He is a "most accomplish'd Harlequin:"[934]
Drest in a tawdrey suit, at Paris made,For which he more than twice the value paid.French his attendants, French alone his mouthCan speak, his native language is uncouth.If to the ladies he doth make advance,His very looks must have the air of France.
Drest in a tawdrey suit, at Paris made,For which he more than twice the value paid.French his attendants, French alone his mouthCan speak, his native language is uncouth.If to the ladies he doth make advance,His very looks must have the air of France.
Such being the case, Admiral Penn thought well to send his son William to France[935]in the hope that the brilliant life there would make him forget the Quaker sympathies formed at Oxford.[936]The plan succeeded for the time being; Penn returned "a most modish person, a fine Gentleman, with all the latest French fashions," and Pepys[937]reports that he perceived "something of learning he hath got, but a great deale, if not too much of the vanity of the French garbe and affected manner of speech and gait. I fear all real profit he hath made of his travel will signify little."
No doubt many "raw young travellers" did "waste their time abroad in gallantry, ignorant for the most part of foreign languages, and no recommendation to their own country."[938]Costeker inThe Compleat Education of a Young Noblemanpictures what the young traveller abroad often is, and what he might be. To begin with, "the utmost of his thoughts and ideas are confined to the more fashionable part of dress." Then, "according to custom, our Beau is designed to Travel; the Tour proposed is to France, Italy and Spain. Were I to act the part of an impartial Inquisitor I would ask for what? Why, most undoubtedly, I might expect to be answered, to see the World again and perfect his Studies, and by that means compleat the fine Gentleman. Thus equiped with a fine Estate, little Learning, and less Sense, and intirely ignorant of all Languages but his own, he launches into a foreign Nation, without the least knowledge of his own, where the sharpers will find him out, discover his Intellects, and make the most of him; they besiege him with fulsome Adulation, against which his feminine refined Understandingis too weak to resist.SIR JOHN RERESBY IN FRANCEI will not dwell long upon the subject of his stay there, supposing he has made his Tour, and seen all the most remarkable and wondrous curiosities of those Nations, he returns a little better than he went, except for smattering a little of the tongues, and can give us but as bad and imperfect an Account of their nation as he was capable of giving them of ours; all the Advantage he brings from thence is their Modes and Vices ... the incommoding a French Peruke unmans the Bow at once."[939]And next to himself he "loves best anyone who will call him aBel Esprit." How different a picture from that of the traveller which is painted as a model to young Englishmen: at the age of twenty he goes abroad for two years, after having acquired a true knowledge of his own nation and made himself master of French and Latin. He is capable of learning more in a month than another ignorant of languages can in twelve. "I am confident were all our young Noblemen educated in this manner the French Court would no longer bee esteem'd the Residence of Politeness and Belles Lettres but must then yield to the British one in many degrees, by reason our young Gentlemen would not only be perfect Masters in their exterior but intellectual Perfections, and England will then be fam'd for the Excellency of Manners and Politeness as it is now for the incomparable Beauty of the Ladies."[940]
Sir John Reresby's account of how he spent his time abroad may be given as a fairly typical example.[941]He went to France, in company with Mr. Leech, his governor, in 1654. They travelled from Rye to Dieppe, and thence to Paris, passing through Rouen. Their stay at Paris was very short, as Reresby found the great resort of his countrymen there a great "prevention" to learning the language. "I stayed no longer in Paris," he tells us, "than to get my clothes, and to receive my bills of exchange, and so went to live in a pension or boarding house at Blois.... I employed my time here in learning the language, the guitar and dancing, till July, and then, there having been some likelihood of a quarrel between me and a Dutch gentleman in the same house, my governour prevailed with me to go and live at Saumur[942]....At Saumur in addition to the exercises I learnt at Blois, I learned to fence, and to play of the lute. Besides that I studied philosophy and the mathematicks, with my governor, who read lectures of each to me every other day. After eight months' stay I had got so much of the language to be able to converse with some ladies of the town, especially the daughters of one M. du Plessis.... In the month of April I began to make the little tour or circuit of France, and returned to Saumur after some six weeks' absence. In July, I went (desirous to avoid much English company resident at Saumur) to Le Mans, the capital town of Mayence, with the two Mr. Leeches and one Mr. Butler. We lodged, and were in pension at the parson's or minister's house; there were there no strangers. There were several French persons of quality that lived there at that time, as the Marquis de Cogne's widow, the Marquis de Verdun, and several others, who made us partakers of the pastimes and diversions of the place. All that winter few weeks did pass, that there were not balls three times at the least, and we had the freer access by reason that the women were more numerous than the men. I stayed there till April 1656, and then returned to Saumur with my Governor alone." After staying there for some time, Reresby dismissed his governor and made a tour in Italy.