FOOTNOTES:

Le Langage françois est si plein de merveillesQue ses charmans appas, ravissans nos oreilles,Nous jettent sur vos bords pour gouster ses douceurs,Et pour en admirer les beautéz et les fleurs.Mais, pour nous l'acquérir il faut tant d'artifice,Qu'en ses difficultés il estreint nos delices,Estouffe nos desseins, traverse le plaisirQui flatoit nostre espoir d'y pouvoir réussir.Les articlesde la,de,du, sont difficiles.Si vous ne les monstrez par vos reigles utiles,Ils nous font bégayer presques à tous momens,Et ternissent l'éclat de nos raisonnemens.

And Mauger answers him with an invitation to take what he will from the "parterre."

Additional matter was introduced in 1673 in the shape of short rules for the pronunciation of English, which in the following editions were developed into a short English grammar, written in French dialogues. Later Mauger modified the arrangement of his French grammar rules, giving them in parallel columns of French and English, in the form of question and answer. The section dealing with the parts of speech is recast in the form of a conversation between a French master and his lady pupil. As to the dialogues, which are all "modish"—there is not a word in them but is "elegant"—they were divided into two categories, one elementary and the other advanced. In the twelfth edition, for instance, we have forty-six dialogues, in the style of those of the earlier editions, and then ten longer and more difficult ones. Mauger made hardly any changes in the issues that followed the twelfth, and in this shape it passed down to the eighteenth century. In the course of its development it had grown to nearly twice its original size.

Mauger's popularity as a teacher of French grew apace with his grammar. The commendatory poems, one by John Busby, which are prefixed to the first two editions, show that even at that early date he was held in high esteem by many influential Englishmen; and each new edition was offered to some new patron.

Mauger also published a collection of letters in French and English, which he considered "a great help to the learner of the French tongue," for "those who understand it with the help of the English, are capable of explaining afterwards any French author, being written on several subjects." TheLettres Françoises et Angloises de Claude Mauger sur Toutes sortes de sujets grands et mediocreswere dedicated to Sir William Pulteney. They were first issued in 1671, and again in 1676, with the addition of fifty letters. Many are addressed to gentlemen of note who had been his students at Blois, and continued to correspond with him for the purpose of practice in French. "Puisque vous désirez que je continue à vous écrire des Lettres Françoises," he wrote to the Count of Praghen in 1668, "pour vous exercer en cette langue qui est tant usitée dans toutes les cours de l'Europe, je reçois vos ordres avec joye." Others are addressed to pupils in London, includingsome of his large clientèle of ladies.MAUGER'S FRENCH AND ENGLISH LETTERSFor instance, he writes to a certain Mrs. Gregorie:

Ayant ouï dire que vous estes allée a la campagne pour quinze jours, durant cette belle saison en laquele la nature déploye ce qu'elle a de plus beau, j'ay pris la hardiesse de vous écrire cette lettre en François pour vous exercer en cette langue que vous apprenez avec tant de diligence. Je suis bien aise que vous vous y adonniez si bien, car, comme vous avez la mémoire admirable, vous en viendriez bien tost à bout.

He seems to have made a regular practice of exercising his pupils' French by writing to them in the language.[815]Among his young English pupils was William Penn, the Quaker, to whom he wrote a letter dated 1670:

Je n'entendrois pas bien mes interests si Dieu m'ayant fait si heureux de vous monstrer le François que vous apprenez si bien, je n'en témoignois de la joye, en faisant voir à tout le Monde, que l'honneur que vous me faites de vous servir de moy, pour vous l'acquérir est tres grand. En effet monsieur, n'est-ce pas un bon-heur? Car je perdrois mon credit si Dieu ne me suscitoit de tems en tems des personnes comme vous, qui par leur diligence et capacité avec l'aide de ma méthode le soutiennent. . . . J'ay bien de la satisfaction qu'elle [i.e.l'Angleterre] sçache que vous m'avez choisy pour vous donner la connaissance d'une langue qui vous manquoit, qui est si estimée, et si usitée par toute la Terre. . . .

Whether these letters were ever actually sent to his pupils is a question of some uncertainty, which we are inclined to answer in the affirmative. In any case, they provided him with an excellent opportunity of advertising himself by calling attention to some of his well-known pupils. Many were addressed to friends in France, where he seems to have had a very good connexion. He closes his collection with a short selection of commercial letters.

Mauger was the author of several other short works—aLivre d'Histoires curieuses du Temps, destined for his pupils' reading; aTableau du jugement universal(1675), which sold so well that there were very few copies left at the end of the year; and a Latin poem of one hundred and four lines, entitledOliva Pacis, celebrating the declaration of peace between Louis X. of France and Philip II.

Besides many influential friends, he seems to have had several relatives in London.[816]One of these was a MasterKeyser, his brother-in-law, a Dutch gentleman and painter, who lived in "Long Aker between the Maidenhead and the Three Tuns Tavern," and acted as a sort of agent for Claude. Mauger himself lived "in Great Queen Street, over against Well's Street, next door to the strong water shop," in 1670. Before 1673 he had moved to "within two doors of Master Longland, a Farrier in Little Queen St., over against the Guy of Warwick near the King's Gate in Holborn"; and in 1676 to "Shandois Street, over against the Three Elmes, at Master Saint André's." It was probably about the year 1670 that he began to teach English to foreigners visiting England. He had the honour "of helping a little to the English tongue both the French ambassadors, Ladyes, ambassadresses and several great Lords, who come daily from the court of France to the court of England." With many of these he had much familiar intercourse, and it was at their request that he wrote his rules for the English language. One of his letters is addressed to the sharp-witted Courtin, and others to the Marquis de Sande and Monseigneur Colbert's surgeon. Some of the numerous French nobility, "who come daily from the court of France to the court of England," attracted by the gay and Frenchified court of Charles II., also studied English under Mauger.

He describes his method of teaching as discursive, "avec raisonnement." Practice and reading are the chief exercises. In one of his dialogues a lady pupil describes her French lesson;[817]it consisted in reading, with special attention to the pronunciation, and telling a story in French, no doubt a repetition of the matter read. For the pronunciation, Mauger considered "the living voice of a master better than all that can be set down in writing"; but none the less he provided rules for acquiring the true accent of Blois. He took little interest in grammar, but fully realized the necessity of guiding rules; "some man perhaps," he writes, "will answer me that he speaketh his naturall tongue well enough, without all these rules. I confesse he may speak reasonably well, because it is a natural thing for him to do. But you needs must confesse that a Latine schollar, who hath been acquainted with all such rules of grammar, speaketh better than such a one." Mauger would have the student first master his rules, and then begin "by all means" to read, "pour joindre lapratique à la speculation des règles."MAUGER'S METHOD OF TEACHINGHe no doubt intended the student to attempt to speak at the outset with the guidance of a French master, whom he held absolutely indispensable. The following talk between two students throws light on the practical methods advocated:

Apprenez-vous encore le françois?Do you learn French still?Ouy, je n'y suis pas encore parfait.Yes, I am not yet perfect in it.Et moi je continue aussi.And I continue also.Je commence à l'entendre.I begin to understand it.J'entens tout ce que je lis.I understand all I read.Avez vous un valet de pié françois?Have you a French foot boy?Ouy, monsieur.Yes, Sir.L'entendez-vous bien?Do you understand him well?Fort bien.Very well.Quel Autheur lisez vous?What author do you read?Je lis l'Histoire de France.I read theFrench History.L'avez-vous leüe?Have you read it?Je l'ay leüe en Anglois.I have read it in English.Je l'acheteray.I will buy it.Ou la pourray-je trouver?Where shall I find it?Partout.Everywhere.Avez-vous leüe l'Illustre Parisienne?Have you read theIllustrious Parisien?Allez-vous au sermon?Do you go to sermon?Ouy, Monsieur.Yes, Sir.Qui est-ce qui prêche?Who preaches?C'est un habile homme.'Tis an able man.Avez-vous le Dictionnaire de Miège?[818]Have you Miège's Dictionary?Ouy, je l'ay.Yes, I have it.Voulez-vous me le prêter?Will you lend it me?Il est à votre service.It is at your service.Je vous remercie.I thank you.La langue françoise n'est-elle pas belle?Is not the French tongue fine?Je l'aime fort.I love it extreamly.Elle est fort à la mode.'Tis very modish.

"My dialogues," writes Mauger, "are so useful and so fit to learn to speak, that one may easily attain the French tongue by the assistance of a Master, if he will take a little pains on his side." He also advises his pupils to read the lengthy heroical romances so popular at the time—L'Astrée, and the enormous folios of De Gomberville, La Calprenède, Mlle. de Scudéry, and other romances of the same type—as well as the works of Corneille, Balzac, and Le Grand. With Antoine le Grand, Mauger claims personal acquaintance, and recommends his works with special emphasis, giving his pupils notice of a book newly published by him: "There is a French book newly printed at Paris calledL'Epicure spirituel, written in good French by M. Antony le Grand, Author ofL'Homme sans passions. You may have it at Mr. Martyn's shop [Mauger's publisher] at the sign of the Bell in St. Paul'sChurchyard." He also advocates, for purposes of translation, the reading of the Bible and Common Prayers in French, books specially suitable owing to the ease with which English renderings could be found; and adds further that "at Mr. Bentley's shop, in Russel St. in Covent Garden, you may be furnished with French Bibles, French Common Prayers, French Testaments, and French Psalms." These would be of special use to his own students, as he encouraged them to frequent the French Church for the benefit of hearing the language. As for Mauger himself, although he appears to have professed the Protestant religion and to have come first to England as a refugee for the sake of his principles, he does not seem to have given much attention to religious matters. Neither does he manifest any particular interest in the French Church,[819]other than as an excellent place for his pupils to accustom themselves to the sounds of the French language.

After he had spent some thirty years in England we find him moving to Paris, where he was constantly with "some of the ablest gentlemen of Port Royal," who assured him that his French Grammar and his Letters in French and English were in their library. This break in Mauger's long teaching career in England occurred some time about 1680, after the appearance of the eighth edition of his grammar in 1679. He now took up his residence in the fashionable quarter of Paris, usually frequented by foreigners, the Faubourg St. Germain, where he taught French to English travellers, and English to any one wishing to learn it. This change of abode modified his exclusive attitude towards the Blois accent. At an earlier date he had acknowledged that "after Blois the best pronunciation is got at Orleans, Saumur, Tours, and the Court," and in 1676 he writes, "Je suys exactement le plus beau stile de la Cour," and tells us that he had daily intercourse with French courtiers "tant ambassadeurs qu'autres grands seigneurs, à qui j'ay aussi l'honneur de monstrer la langue angloise." He also read all the latest books, and carried on a correspondence with learned men in Paris, among others Antoine le Grand. But in the same year that he was praising the French of Paris, he wrote, encouraging a noble Englishman to take up the study of French inEngland:MAUGER IN PARIS"Si vos affaires ne vous permettent pas d'aller à Paris, pour vous y adonner, de quoy vous souciez-vous si vous avez Blois dans Londres qui est la source? En effet sa prononciation ne change jamais: de plus à cause du commerce qu'il y a entre les deux cours, l'une communique à l'autre sa pureté. Et je dy assurément qu'il y a icy quantité de personnes qui parlent aussi bien à la mode qu'au Faubourg Saint Germain. Et comme les fonteines font couler leurs eaux bien loin par de bons canaux sans se corrompre, vous trouverez des Maîtres en cette ville qui vous enseigneront aussi purement que sur les lieux." However, when he had himself spent two years in Paris, he gave up praising the merits of Blois, and always describes himself as "late professor of languages at Paris," which he now called "the centre of the purity of the French Tongue, where the true French phrase is to be found." From this time on his grammar claims to contain everything that can be desired in order to learn French as spoken at the Court of France, and "all the improvements of that Famous Language as it is now flourishing at the Court of France."

During his stay at Paris, which extended from about 1680 to 1688, the popularity of his grammar in England did not diminish. Four editions were printed in London after having been corrected by himself at Paris—the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. The last was dedicated to the young Earl of Salisbury, who had studied French with Mauger when on the usual continental tour.

Three motives, he states, induced him to return to England, "after having gathered the finest flowers of the French tongue at Paris to enrich my workes withall for the better satisfaction of those that learn it: The first the extream love which I bear to this generous country,[820]that has obliged me so much as to approve so generally of my books, that for her sake they are received very well beyond Sea, and especially in France. The second, to correct the thirteenth edition my self exactly, many faults of printing having crept into the four last editions which were Printed here in my absence though I corrected them at Paris. The third to see my relations and friends."

After his return to England, he composed hisBook of Curious stories of the Timesin French and English for theuse of his pupils. The new editions of his grammar, however, are identical with the thirteenth, which itself bears very great resemblance to the twelfth issued while Mauger was still at Paris. How many years he continued to superintend the new issues of his grammar is not certain; the nineteenth edition of 1702 is the last described as "corrected and enlarged by the Author."

Again and again he refers to the popularity of his book in England, and the "unexpressible courtesies" he received at the hands of his English patrons. "This grammar sells so well," he wrote in the sixth edition (1670), "as you may see, being printed so often, and many thousands every time, that I cannot but acknowledge the kindness of this generous nation towards me in raising its credit both at home and abroad, in so much that other Nations, following the general approbation concerning it of so wise a people, use it as commonly everywhere beyond the Sea, as they do here in London, and in all the dominions of his majesty of Great Britain." It was also looked on with much favour in France. In 1689 a French edition, called the thirteenth, was printed at Bordeaux. But it was in the Netherlands that the grammar received almost as warm a welcome as in England. The book thus forms another link between the study of French in England and the Low Countries. In 1693 this Dutch edition of the grammar was issued for the thirteenth time, and in 1707 for the fifteenth, both at the Hague. It was usually published with an English grammar of more importance than the short one added by Mauger to the English editions—that of Festeau, Mauger's friend and fellow-townsman. Their combined work was known as theNouvelle double grammaire Françoise-Angloise et Angloise-Françoise par messieurs Claude Mauger et Paul Festeau, Professeurs de Langues à Paris et à Londres. The two grammars are followed by Mauger's dialogues and a collection of twenty-one "plaisantes et facetieuses Histoires pour rire," in French and English, entitledl'Ecole pour rire. The growing popularity of English from the beginning of the reign of William of Orange, the editor tells us in 1693, induced him to add the English grammar to the French grammar of Mauger, and he chose Festeau's because it was in as high favour for learning English as Mauger's was for learning French.

Paul Festeau was the author of a French as well as anEnglish grammar,[821]PAUL FESTEAUand, like Mauger, he taught English to foreign visitors in London, as well as French to English people. Indeed his career bears a close resemblance to that of Mauger, of whom he seems to have been a sort of protégé. Like Mauger he had taught at Blois, and the two teachers probably came to England together; at any rate they arrived at much the same time. He enjoyed a greater popularity than Mauger as a teacher of English, and was also looked upon with respect as a teacher of French.[822]

Festeau's French Grammar, first published in 1667, occupies an important second place among the French text-books produced in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. It was dedicated to Colonel Russel, of the King's Guard, who had learnt French under Festeau's guidance. As a grammar it is fuller and more clearly arranged than Mauger's, and, in main outline, there is much similarity between the two. The rules, which occupy the first two hundred pages, are written in English and provide information on pronunciation and on each part of speech in turn. Each is accompanied by a considerable number of illustrative examples, which, Festeau thought, were of great help in impressing the rule on the memory, and of more use than dialogues. He also included dialogues in his work, and was attacked on account of their prolixity. He argued, in reply, that "if the reader pleases to consider the store of phrases in the body of the Work amongst the Rules which do contain near two hundred pages, he will very well apprehend that, when a scholar hath learnt all these Phrases without book in learning the rules, he needs not at all burden his memory with many dialogues: for ... I have found by experience that those who have learned them were able afterwards to translate French into English, with the aid of a dictionary and I do maintain that it is not necessary to learn such abondance of Dialogue by heart, it is enough to read and English them, and next tothat to explain them from English into French, and so doing the words and phrases do insensibly make an impression in the memory and the discreet scholar goeth forward with a great deal of ease. As for young children I yield that it is good they should continue the Dialogues: but after they have learned short phrases, they must of necessity learn long ones, otherwise they could never attain to the capacity of joyning words together. Beside when a master doth teach his scholar, he must not ask him a whole long phrase at once, he must divide it in parts according to the distinction of points. As for instance, if I will ask this long phrase of a child | Quand on a gaigné une fois | le jeu attire insensiblement | en esperance de gaigner davantage |. I will ask it him at three several times." Festeau gives the pupil the English in three separate phrases, and requires him to give the French rendering. "Them that will take the pains to peruse it," to use Festeau's own words in describing his grammar, "will observe a very new method, clear and intelligible Rules to the least capacities, fine remarks upon all the parts of speech and particularly upon the gender of nouns, and the use of moods and tenses. They will find the difficulties of the particles,en,on, andqueexplained, which give commonly so much trouble to the learner, they will see the use and good order of impersonal verbs, as well active as passive, likewise also of the reciprocal and reflected verbs. Finally they will see familiar dialogues on divers sorts of subjects, very useful and profitable for them that desire to speak properly: no barbarous kind of words and phrases as are found in some other grammars, by reason that the Author professes to speak and to write his own language well." A vocabulary of thirty pages, in the style of Mauger's, and rules for the accents and the length of the vowels fill the rest of the volume. This was how the work stood in the third edition, which, Festeau explains, "might rightly be said the fourth, seeing that there was fifteen hundred copies drawn off the second edition, and two thousand of this, whereas they use to draw but a thousand at most: and considering the time it first came out, it seems that it sells pretty well. If some other former grammars have had more editions, it cannot be inferred thence that this comes short of them: we can buy nothing at market but what is to be sold, and when this hath been in the light as long, no doubt but (especially being better known) it may have as many editions."PIERRE LAINÉPossibly he was referring toMauger's popularity, and the two friends may have become rivals during the latter part of their stay in England. On similar grounds he claimed that the sixth edition might be called the tenth, as two thousand copies were drawn of the four last editions. Mauger, however, states that "many thousand" copies of his grammar were drawn at every edition.

By this time Festeau's grammar had acquired a considerable reputation. "The approbation that it hath received," he writes, "of the most learned of the nation, who have esteemed it the neatest, the easiest and most correct, is not a small advantage to it: It is that which hath encouraged me to bring it to a better perfection." There is, however, very little difference between the half score or so editions which were issued.

Like Mauger, Festeau soon began to modify his attitude towards the Blois accent. In 1679, while still advertising himself proudly as a "native of Blois, where the true tone of the French Tongue is found by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen," he claims to teach the "Elegancy and Purity of the French Tongue as it is now spoken at the Court of France." However, it is uncertain whether Festeau went to Paris or not. At the time when he first wrote of Court French he was teaching in London, and we are informed that "if any gentleman have occasion for the author of this grammar, his Lodging is in the Strand near St. Clement's, at Mr. John King's house, at the sign of the wounded heart." He was still there in 1693. In 1675 we see him requesting any "gentleman or others desiring to speak with him to inquire for him in Haughton Street, next door to the Joyner's Arms, near Claire Market," or at Mr. Loundes, his bookseller and publisher. At about this time he began to teach mathematics as well as, and by means of French; he was prepared to instruct gentlemen in all its branches. It was at the request of several gentlemen, with whom he "did often discourse of the same in French," that he added to the fourth edition of his grammar a long dialogue covering the whole field of mathematics, and giving "a clear and fair idea thereof."

Another French tutor who flourished at the same time as Mauger, and who wrote a French grammar which, like his, appeared during the Commonwealth, was Peter Lainé. Lainé is not very communicative as regards himself; he does not even tell us from what part of France he came. All we know of him is that he was a protégé of Robert Paston, to whom hededicated his book, and who, no doubt, had been his pupil for French. Of his grammar he writes, "I here expose to thy view a work which might rather be counted an Errata than a book"—a state of things for which both himself and the printer were to blame. For his part, he says, he does not write for the sake of seeing his name in print, or because he fancies he excels others. "I rather count myself inferior to the least of them. But the urgent importunities of some persons whom I have had, and still have the honour to inform in French, have made me undertake it to satisfie their desires, and my gratitude."

His sympathy with the Protestants emerges clearly from the contents of his grammar. Apparently he did not belong to the Blois group. He differs from them in adopting the new orthography in which many of the unsounded letters were omitted. It was a pity to spoil the purity and elegance of the pronunciation by the old orthography, he thought; moreover the clear resemblance between the orthography and the pronunciation renders the language easier to foreigners; "seeing that we both write and speak any vulgar Tongue to be understood and to entertain Society, it is in my judgement, not only convenient but even necessary to bring as near a conformity betwixt the Tongue and the Pen, as may without prejudice to the material grounds of our language, afford all the facility that is possible to those that are strangers to it." It is curious to recall that Peletier, and other earlier writers, had, on the contrary, retained the etymological consonants of the old orthography, with the idea that the foreigner's Latin would thereby be of greater service to him.

Lainé'sCompendious Introduction to the French Tongue, teaching with much ease, facility and delight, how to attain briefly and most exactly to the true and modern pronunciation thereof, is very similar to Mauger's grammar in the distribution of the matter. Rules for the pronunciation, which as usual are briefly explained by means of comparison with English sounds, are followed by observations on each part of speech in turn;[823]finally come familiar phrases "to be used at the first learning of French," ten long dialogues, and a vocabulary, all in Frenchand English.LAINÉ'S DIALOGUESThe book closes with what Lainé calls "an alphabetical rule for the true and modern orthography of that French now spoken, being a catalogue of very necessary words never before printed"—an alphabetical list of words. The grammatical section of the work is written in English. In the dialogues he purposely adapts the English to the French phrase. "I have been more careful," he explains, "in the whole course of the treatise, to observe the French, then the English phrase: to the end I might make its signification more intelligible, to vary less from the sense, and to afford most delight and more facility to the learner."

According to him, the first thing to be learned by the student of French are the sounds of the language. He should commit to memory as many of the familiar phrases as he can easily retain, and from them pass to the "dialogical discourses." Their substance is much the same as in Mauger—polite and gallant conversations mainly between students of French, talk and guidance for travellers in France, etc. The following specimen is from a dialogue between an English gentleman and his language master:

Quel beau livre est-ce là?What fine book is that?Mons., c'est le romant comique.Sir, it is the comic romance.Qui en est l'autheur?Who is the author of it?Mons. C'est Mons. Scarron.Sir, it is Mr. Scarron.Est-il fort célèbre? Est il fort estimé?Is he very famed? Is he much esteemed?Mons., c'est un esprit sublime et transcendant.Sir, it is a sublime and transcendant wit.De quoi traite cet ouvrage?What doth this work deal on?Mons., il n'est plein que de drolleries facesieuses. . . .Sir, it is full but of pleasant drolleries....Lisons un peu: faites moi la faveur de m'antandre lire.Let us read a little: do me the favour to understand me read.Prononcez hardiment;Pronounce boldly;Observez vos accents.Observe your accents.Ne prenez point de mauvaise habitude.Take no ill habit.Lisés distinctement.Read distinctly.Vou lisez trop vîte.You read too fast.Notre langue est ennemi de la précipitation.Our tongue is enemy to precipitation.

Lainé evidently intended that the dialogues, at least some of them, should be committed to memory, as well as read and translated; "after that," he continues, "as his sufficiency shall permit, he may proceed to Reading any Histories, among which the Holy Writ ought to have the pre-eminence, had not divine Providence, and the Eternal Spirit that dictated it, purposely rejected the affected smoothness and polishedness of the style." We recall, as we reflect on this strange reason for rejecting the Holy Scriptures as reading material, theunenviable reputation the refugees themselves had as regards literary style. As the Bible is left us "for divine study only," Lainé advises his pupils to make use of moral histories for purposes of reading. Many, he says, have been produced of late years. Nor did he limit his pupils' choice to these; he encouraged them to read the heroic romances so popular at the time—Artamène ou le grand CyrusandClélieby Mlle. de Scudéry,CassandreandCléopâtreby La Calprenède; also thePoésies spirituellesof Corneille, the commentaries of Caesar in French, and Scarron'sRoman comique. Lighter fare could be found in theGazette françoise.

FOOTNOTES:[813]"Which city, lying in the very middle of France, is the most famous for the true pronunciation of the language."[814]"What are you doing? You must not render this in French,qu'estes vous en faisant?but thus,Que faites-vous?" ... and so on.[815]The practice was a common one at the time. Thus Sir Charles Cotterel wrote in Italian to Mrs. Katherine Philipps, who thanks him for the care he takes to improve her in Italian by writing to her in that language. Letter of April 12, 1662, inLetters of Orinda to Poliarchus, 1705.[816]One of his letters (No. 18) is addressed to Adrien Mauger (1675), Bachelor of Divinity, Claude's nephew, whom he calls the head of the family, and who apparently lived at Blois.[817]His fee was 40s. a month, for three lessons a week.[818]Cp. p. 383,infra.[819]The names Mauger and Maugier occur frequently in the Registers of the Threadneedle Street Church, but none can be connected with Claude.[820]"L'Angleterre que j'aime infiniment," he writes in his twelfth edition.[821]The first edition appeared in 1672. The second edition was advertised in 1678 (Arber,Term Catalogues, i. 323).[822]"De tous les professeurs de la langue françoyse,Festeau c'est de toi seul dont je fais plus de cas.Si tu es éloquent dans nostre langue angloise,Dans la tienne, pourquoy ne le serois-tu pas?"Thus wrote one of his pupils, Mr. P. Hume, probably the famous statesman and Covenanter.[823]Pp. 48-130. Lainé retains the usual six Latin cases; the verbs are divided into four conjugations; the indeclinables are given in lists. A vocabulary of nouns which have two meanings according as they are masculine or feminine is included.

[813]"Which city, lying in the very middle of France, is the most famous for the true pronunciation of the language."

[814]"What are you doing? You must not render this in French,qu'estes vous en faisant?but thus,Que faites-vous?" ... and so on.

[815]The practice was a common one at the time. Thus Sir Charles Cotterel wrote in Italian to Mrs. Katherine Philipps, who thanks him for the care he takes to improve her in Italian by writing to her in that language. Letter of April 12, 1662, inLetters of Orinda to Poliarchus, 1705.

[816]One of his letters (No. 18) is addressed to Adrien Mauger (1675), Bachelor of Divinity, Claude's nephew, whom he calls the head of the family, and who apparently lived at Blois.

[817]His fee was 40s. a month, for three lessons a week.

[818]Cp. p. 383,infra.

[819]The names Mauger and Maugier occur frequently in the Registers of the Threadneedle Street Church, but none can be connected with Claude.

[820]"L'Angleterre que j'aime infiniment," he writes in his twelfth edition.

[821]The first edition appeared in 1672. The second edition was advertised in 1678 (Arber,Term Catalogues, i. 323).

[822]"De tous les professeurs de la langue françoyse,Festeau c'est de toi seul dont je fais plus de cas.Si tu es éloquent dans nostre langue angloise,Dans la tienne, pourquoy ne le serois-tu pas?"Thus wrote one of his pupils, Mr. P. Hume, probably the famous statesman and Covenanter.

[822]

"De tous les professeurs de la langue françoyse,Festeau c'est de toi seul dont je fais plus de cas.Si tu es éloquent dans nostre langue angloise,Dans la tienne, pourquoy ne le serois-tu pas?"

Thus wrote one of his pupils, Mr. P. Hume, probably the famous statesman and Covenanter.

[823]Pp. 48-130. Lainé retains the usual six Latin cases; the verbs are divided into four conjugations; the indeclinables are given in lists. A vocabulary of nouns which have two meanings according as they are masculine or feminine is included.

Fromtheir very first appearance the voluminous French romances of the time enjoyed great popularity in England,[824]partly, perhaps, on account of the lack of a supply of similar works in the vernacular. Several English translations appeared, but many preferred to read them in the original. Their importance in the eyes of the French teachers may also have increased their vogue. They were especially affected by Charles I.; and when on the eve of his death, he was distributing a few of his favourite possessions among his friends, he left the volumes of La Calprenède'sCassandreto the Earl of Lindsey.[825]Later on, Pope describing, in hisRape of the Lock, the adventurous baron in quest of the much-coveted lock, pictures him imploring Love for help, and declares he

to Love an altar builtOf twelve vast French Romances neatly gilt.

Among the most eager readers of French romances was Dorothy Osborne. We are enabled to trace part of her course in reading from the charming letters she wrote to Sir William Temple, her future husband. They are full of references to things French, and replete with French words; she uses English words in a French sense:injurywith her meansinsult; and she writes to explain that when she saidmaliciouslyshe really meant "a Frenchmalice, which youknow does not signify the same thing as an English one." A little note sent to Temple when she was in London, shortly before their marriage, evidently in answer to one from him, may be quoted as a specimen of her French, and her total disregard of spelling and grammar:

Je n'ay guere plus dormie que vous et mes songes n'ont pas estres moins confuse, au rest une bande de violons que sont venue jouer sous ma fennestre m'ont tourmentés de tel façon que je doubt fort si je pourrois jamais les souffrire encore; je ne suis pourtant pas en fort mauvaise humeur et je m'en voy ausi tost que je serai habillée voire ce qu'il est posible de faire pour vostre satisfaction; apres je viendré vous rendre conte de nos affairs et quoy qu'il en sera vous ne sçaurois jamais doubté que je ne vous ayme plus que toutes les choses du monde.[826]

The French romances were Dorothy's constant companions, and her letters are full of criticisms of and references to her favourite passages. She sent the volumes to Temple by instalments,[827]as she finished them, pressing him for his opinion.Le Grand Cyrusseems to have been her favourite. She had also a great admiration forIbraham ou l'Illustre Bassa, which, likePolexandre et Cléopâtreand the four volumes ofPrazimène, was her "old acquaintance."Parthenissa, the English romance in the French style by Lord Broghill, did not meet with her approval. "But," she confides to Temple, "perhaps I like it worse for having a piece ofCyrusby me that I am highly pleased with, and that I would fain have you read. I'll send it you." As for the English translations of her favourites, she had no patience with them. They are written in a language half French and half English, and so changed that Dorothy, their old friend, hardly recognizes them in this strange garb.

French romances were not the only French interest Dorothy Osborne and Temple had in common. They had first become acquainted while travelling to France, the Osbornes on their way to join their father at St. Malo, and Temple setting out on the usual "tour." Temple, apparently, lingered with his new friends in France, until his father, hearing of this, ordered him to Paris.[828]There he evidently acquired the knowledge of French which Dorothy playfully declares a necessary qualification forherhusband: for shecould notPEPYS'S FRENCH BOOKSmarry one who "speaks the French he has picked up out of the old Laws"; or, the other extreme, the "travelled monsieur whose head is all feather inside and out, that can talk of nothing but dances and duels, and has courage enough to wear slashes when every one else dies with cold to see him."[829]

Another instance of the popularity of these romances and other French writings is found in Pepys'sDiary.[830]Both Pepys and more particularly his wife, who was the daughter of a French refugee, were great readers of the romances. Pepys himself seems to have found them a little tiresome, and relates how on a certain occasion Mrs. Pepys wearied him by telling him long stories out of theGrand Cyrus, and how he hurt her feelings by checking her outpourings. She would sit up till past midnight readingCyrusorPolexandre. He would often stop at his bookseller's to buy French books for his wife, includingL'Illustre Bassain four volumes, andCassandre. One evening she read to him the epistle ofCassandre, which he pronounced "very good indeed." When they went to see Dryden'sEvening Love, or the Mock Astrologer, Mrs. Pepys recognized at once its debt toL'Illustre Bassa, and on the following afternoon "she read in theL'Illustre Bassathe plot of yesterday's play, which is exactly the same."

His French books seem to have been a great source of interest to Pepys, and to have served him on many occasions. Being ill, "taking physique all day," he beguiled the time by reading "little French romances." He appears to have been particularly attracted by Sorbière'sVoyage en Angleterre, which on its appearance caused some indignation at the English Court. Pepys read the book in the year of its publication (1664).[831]Unfortunately he has not left us a very full account of the other French books he knew. However, on the 1st May 1666, he writes that he went "by water to Redriffe, reading a new French book my Lord Bruncker did give me to-day,L'Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules" [by the Comte de Bussy], "being a pretty libel against the amours of the Court of France." Another volume which pleased Pepys was a "pretty" work,La Nouvelle allégorique, "upon the strifebetween rhetorique and its enemies, very pleasant." His choice of French literature was wide, ranging from Du Bartas, which he judged "very fine as anything he had seen," to Helot's "idle roguish book,"L'Eschole des Filles, which he burnt, "that it might not stand in the list of books, nor among them to disgrace them if it be found."[832]

At both Allestry's and Martin's, Pepys's booksellers, there was a great variety of French and foreign books, which often tempted him. "To my new bookseller's, Martin's," he writes on the 10th January 1667-8, "and there did meet with Fournier the Frenchman, that hath wrote of the sea and navigation,[833]and I could not but buy him." He was much interested in French treatises on music,[834]and sent to France for Mersenne'sL'Harmonie Universelle, which he could not get at his bookseller's. Pepys's friend, William Batelier, brought him "one or two printed musick books of songs"[835]from France, among other French books. "Home," he again notes, on the 26th January 1668, "and there I find Will Batelier hath also sent the books which I made him bring me out of France, among othersL'Estat de France,Marnix,etc.,[836]to my great content, and so I was well pleased with them and shall take a time to look them over ... but my eyes are now too much out of tune to look upon them with any pleasure." And when his failing eyesight prevented him from reading with ease, his wife, Batelier, and his brother-in-law, Balty St. Michel, would read to him in French as well as in English. He got Balty to read to him out of Sorbière'sVoyage en Angleterre, and under the date the 30th of January 1668-9 we find this entry: "I spent all the afternoon with my wife and Will Batelier talking, and then making them read, and particularly made an end of Mr. Boyle'sBook of Formes, which I am glad to have over, and then fell to read a French discourse which he hath brought over with him for me."

POLITE CONVERSATION FASHIONABLENo doubt the polite French literature which the French teachers recommended so strongly to their pupils had some influence on the character of the dialogues which form part of their manuals. Mauger, Festeau, and Lainé all include polite conversations in their dialogues, and leave the old familiar subjects of buying and selling, wayside and tavern talk. Polite conversation was the fashion, and coteries for fostering it grew up in England on the model of those in France. Mrs. Katherine Philipps, generally known as "the matchless Orinda," is perhaps the most prominent of the ladies who tried, without any permanent success it is true, to introduce the refinements of the Frenchsalonsinto England.[837]Each member of the "Society of Friendship" she gathered round her assumed fanciful names in the style of those affected by the adherents of the Parisian salons. "Orinda" was of course a great reader of French literature, and knew French perfectly. She is chiefly remembered for her translations of some of Corneille's plays into English.[838]French books of conversation, such as Mlle. de Scudéry'sConversations sur divers sujets[839]or the similar volume by Clerombault, which was rendered into English by a "person of honour" [1672], also give some clue to the tastes and tendencies of the time, though they had no direct influence on the dialogues specially written for students of French. But, like them, they turn on such subjects as the pleasures, the passions, the soul, love, beauty, merit, and so forth. Thus the French teachers of the time, in introducing a new style into their dialogues, undoubtedly yielded, to some extent at all events, to the tastes of their numerous lady pupils. A large proportion of Mauger's pupils were ladies. He praised their accent, and considered it clearer and more correct than that of their brothers. And in the later editions of his treatise the grammar rules are given in the form of a conversation between a lady and herFrench master. Another French teacher of the time, the author of a collection of dialogues in which the new style is the dominating feature, also shows a decided preference for his lady pupils. This writer was William or Guillaume Herbert, the author of theFrench and English dialogues in a more exact and delightful method then any yet extant.

The thirty-four dialogues contained in this collection are all, with the exception of the first which is autobiographical, written in theprécieuxstyle, full of points and conceits,[840]and all, with the same exception, are very alike and a little wearisome. Herbert says he does not write for every one, but for "les plus subtils." And in his first dialogue, which gives a free account of his condition and opinions, he proceeds to ridicule the traditional style of the French and English dialogues. A stranger addresses a friend of the author:

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