FOOTNOTES:

Adieu madam et ma mastres,Adieu mon solas et mon joy,Adieu jusque vous revoy,Adieu vous diz par graunt tristesse.

or:

Helas madam cel qe je metant [j'eme tant],soffre qe soie voutre humble svant [servant];ie seray [vous] a tousiours e tant que ievivray alt n'airay qe vous.[163]

We gather from Henry's spelling of French that he had learnt the language chiefly by ear.

There is a curious example of the fluency with which the king and his courtiers spoke French, in a scene described by Wolsey's gentleman usher and afterwards dramatized by Shakespeare.[164]The cardinal was among the few at the Court of Henry VIII. who did not speak French with ease.During a banquet he was giving at the palace of Whitehall, Henry and a band of courtiers landed unexpectedly at the Whitehall Stairs, disguised as foreign noblemen. Wolsey sent the Lord Chancellor to bid them welcome, because he could not speak French himself.[165]The visitors were introduced, and passed for a time as foreigners, the Lord Chancellor acting as their interpreter to Wolsey. At last the royal joker and his companions disclosed their identity amidst a tumult of exclamations, and then joined in the festivities.[166]

The ladies of the Court rivalled the noblemen in their knowledge of French. When the French ambassadors with their brilliant suite, who had come to England for the ratification of peace in 1514, were entertained in great state at Greenwich, all the ladies and gentlewomen were able to converse in good French with their French partners, "which delighted them much to heare the Ladies speake to them in their owne language."[167]It is not surprising, therefore, to find French holding an important place in the education of women of high birth. The princess Mary Tudor, one of the most attractive figures at the English Court, had, like the king her brother, been early initiated in the difficulties of the French language.[168]At the age of twelve she pronounced in French her betrothal vows to the Prince of Castile (1513); and when it fell to her lot to marry Louis XII. of France, she continued still more to apply herself to the study of the language. She was able to write to her future husband in his own tongue,[169]and even occasionally made use of it in her correspondence with her brother, the English king.

FRENCH AMONG THE LADIESHenry's first queen did little to forward French tastes andnever modified her natural preference for all things Spanish, but with the advent of Queen Anne Boleyn French acquired a powerful and enthusiastic patroness. Anne was entirely French by education and tastes. She had been brought up by a French governess,[170]and had from an early age used the French language in her correspondence with her father during his absences at the Court and elsewhere. It was her fluency in this language which led to her rapid advancement on her arrival at Court. She was soon chosen to accompany the king's sister Mary to France, and just before her appointment wrote to her father in French, telling him that the presence of the Queen of France would inspire her with a still greater desire to speak French well.[171]Anne stayed in France several years, first in the service of Mary during the few months she was Queen of France, then in that of her successor, Queen Claude, consort of Francis I., and finally in the more lively household of Margaret of Alençon, afterwards Queen of Navarre. On her return to the English Court she became maid of honour to Queen Katherine, and her skill in dress and her French manners[172]did much to promote the taste for French fashions. The famous Elizabethan antiquary Camden asserts that Anne's French jollity first attracted to her the notice of Henry. At any rate the courtship was largely carried on in French. Out of the seventeen love letters of Henry to Anne Boleyn, which are preserved in the Vatican Library, more than half are in French.[173]One of these may be quoted as an example of theEnglish king's powers in French prose. It was written to Anne during one of the absences she deemed expedient to make from the Court:

Ma Maitresse et amie, moy et mon cœur s'en remettent en vos mains, vous suppliant les avoir pour recommander a votre bonne grace, et que par absence votre affection ne leur soit diminué. Car pur augmenter leur peine ce seroit grande pitié, car l'absence leur fait assez, et plus que jamais je n'eusse pensé . . . vous asseurant que de ma part l'ennuye de l'absence deja m'est trop grande. Et quand je pense a l'augmentation d'iceluy que par force faut que je soufre il m'est presque intollerable, s'il n'estoit le ferme espoir que j'aye de votre indissoluble affection vers moi, et pour le vous rementevoir alcune fois cela, et voyant que personellement je ne puis estre en votre presence, chose la plus approchante a cela qui m'est possible au present, je vous envoye, c'est-a-dire ma picture mise en braisselettes a toute la devise que deja sçavez, me souhaitant en leur place quant il vous plairoit. C'est de la main de—Votre serviteur et amy,H. R.

H. R.

Of Henry's other queens, Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard were both ardent admirers of the French language. The former had, like Anne Boleyn, completed her education at the French Court. Henry's chief objection to Anne of Cleves was her lack of French refinements. We know from the French ambassador Marillac that Henry was ill pleased at Anne's German costume and made her dress in the French style,[174]which, according to the same authority, had been favoured by Queen Katherine Howard and all her ladies. Moreover, the new queen could speak neither French[175]nor English, and her own language was displeasing to the king's ears; consequently he refused to converse much with her by means of an interpreter.[176]As for Katharine Parr, she was one of the most distinguished linguists of her time, and did much to encourage the studies of the royal family.

French was one of the principal studies of Henry VIII.'s children. It appears to have been the only modern foreign language with which Edward VI. was acquainted; he is said to have been "in the French and Latin Tongues singularly perfect."[177]Mary, on the other hand, knew Spanish as well as she did French. This is, however, accounted for by the fact that she was early destined to become the wife of theEmperor Charles V.FRENCH STUDIED IN THE ROYAL FAMILYThe emperor had even tried to persuade Henry to allow his daughter to be brought up in Spain. His request was refused, but a promise was given that the princess should be educated in all points as a Spanish lady.[178]In addition to this, her mother, Katherine of Aragon, superintended her early education, and her attendants were all Spanish. Thus Spanish was for a time almost her native tongue. Yet French was by no means neglected, especially after the Spanish marriage was broken off. Fresh impetus was given to this study by the possibility of a French match, when in 1518 negotiations for a union with the Dauphin, son of Francis I., were set on foot. On the testimony of Marillac, Mary spoke and wrote French well; the ambassador had seen letters of hers written in French at the time of her mother's divorce.[179]The princess was also well acquainted with Latin, and understood Italian, though, like many others, she did not attempt to speak it.[180]

Elizabeth alone of the royal family spoke Italian with almost as much ease as she did French.[181]"French and Italian she speaks like English," wrote her tutor, Roger Ascham, "Latin with fluency, propriety, and judgment"; and in addition she had some knowledge of Greek. When queen, she retained her early fancy for Italian, and prided herself on using no other language in the presence of Italians.[182]The Scotch ambassador, Sir James Melville, a very competent judge, remarks that she spoke it "raisonable weill."[183]French, however, was her usual means of intercourse with other foreigners, even when, like Melville, they spoke English. The queen commended Melville's French. "She said my French was gud," he writes in his memoirs, where he likewise gives his own opinion of the queen's attainments in the language: "hir Maiestie culd speak as gud Frenche as any that hadnever bene out of the contrie, but yet she laiketh the use of the Frenche court language, quhilk was frank and schort and had oft tymes twa significations, quhilk discreit and famylier frendes tok always in the best part."[184]If not idiomatic, the queen's French is generally allowed to have been fluent. Her accent is reported to have been harsh and unpleasing; she spoke with a drawl, and, according to M. Drizanval, resident in London for the French king,[185]she constantly repeated the phrase "paar Dieu, paar maa foi" in a ridiculous tone. Another visitor, the Duke of Württemberg, records that he once heard her deliver an appropriate speech in French,[186]which, as usual, was the language in which he addressed her. Towards the end of her reign the queen still practised the use of French and Italian. In 1598 the German Hentzner, travelling in England, describes how he saw Elizabeth "as she went along in all her State and magnificence," and how "she spoke very graciously first to one then to another (whether foreign ministers or those who attend for different reasons) in English, French, and Italian."[187]She also wrote French with some ease. One of her earliest literary efforts was a translation from the French of Margaret of Navarre'sMiroir de l'Ame pécheresse. She likewise composed devotions and prayers in French—a habit which she retained after she had been queen for many years. At the time when her marriage with the Duke of Alençon, her "little frog," as she calls him, was under discussion, the queen compiled a curious little volume, containing six prayers, written on vellum in a very neat hand; in addition to devotions in French and English there are others in Italian, Latin, and Greek. In the front of this work there is a miniature of the Duke, and at the end, one of Elizabeth.[188]Other examples of her compositions in French are found in her correspondence, where this language holds a considerable place.

It thus appears that the majority of the English nobility and gentry spoke and understood French at least tolerably well.FRENCH TUTORS AND FRENCH GRAMMARSWe are led to ask how they came by their knowledge, and what facilities there were in England for learning French, seeing that many of them never visited France. In the sixteenth century private tuition played a large part in the education of the gentry; and the professional tutor was, in many cases, a Frenchman, who would naturally further the study of his native tongue. The Court itself encouraged the custom of employing French tutors by engaging several in its midst; and as, at this time, the Court became a powerful factor in English social life, and the chief means of entering the service of the State, noblemen and gentlemen wishing to figure on the social stage endeavoured to adapt themselves to Court requirements. French tutors were to be found in all the chief families of the time. Étienne Pasquier remarks that there was no noble family in England without its French tutor to instruct the children in the French language.[189]This condition of things was still further developed a few years later when religious persecution in France and the Netherlands drove increasingly large numbers of Protestant refugees to take asylum in England. All traces of the majority of these tutors have been lost; those of whom anything is known were, for the most part, either the authors of manuals for teaching French, or had won repute as writers or Humanists before leaving their native land.

One of these Humanists was Bernard André, familiarly called "Master Barnard," the blind poet—an infirmity to which he frequently refers. He was a native of Toulouse, and probably came to England with Henry VII., his patron.[190]It is a curious fact that soon after his accession Henry appointed this Frenchman, author of verses in French and Latin but never a line in English, Poet Laureate of England. In addition to this he bestowed on him repeated marks of favour. For a time André was engaged as a tutor at Oxford, and in 1496 was chosen as governor to Prince Arthur, and probably had much to do with the education of his brother, afterwards Henry VIII. Appointed Historiographer Royal, he began in this capacity to write his patron's life. Like so many other men of education, André was in Holy Orders; he received preferment from time to time, andwas finally presented to the living of Guisnes near Calais, which he resigned in 1521, having attained an "extreme old age."

In the early sixteenth century, as in the Middle Ages, England took the initiative in the production of French grammars.[191]The numbers which appeared are so many testimonies to Englishmen's interest in the French language. The chief and best known of these grammars is the great work of John Palsgrave (1530), already mentioned, which stands out in contrast with the slight treatises which had previously appeared on the subject in England. Considering the time when it was written and the irregular and unsettled condition of the language with which it deals, it is truly remarkable for its fulness and comprehensiveness. Almost alone of its predecessors and its immediate successors, it answered more than a merely temporary and professional purpose, and is still of very great value to the student of the English and French languages at that time, and a great storehouse of obsolete words in both languages. Perhaps the very reason which makes it so valuable to the student of to-day hindered its success in the sixteenth century; most students of French then preferred the shorter and more practical manuals. Palsgrave had a very exalted idea of the French tongue; he desired to place it on a level with the "three perfect tonges"—Latin, Greek, and Hebrew—and to make it a fourth and classical tongue, by drawing up "absolute" rules for its use.

Palsgrave's grammar acquires additional importance from the fact that no similar work had been produced in France. It is the first systematized attempt to formulate rules for the French language, or indeed for any modern tongue. Only one year later, however, Sylvius or Dubois published hisIn Linguam Gallicam Eisagoge(1531). In the address to Henry VIII., which precedes his work, Palsgrave speaks of the "great nombre of clerkes, whiche before season of this mater have written nowe sithe the beginnyng of your most fortunate and most prosperous raigne." All these "clerkes," he says, have treated chiefly of two things, which they judged specially useful to the English—the pronunciation of French, and"wherein the true analogie of the two tongues did rest."BARCLAY'S "INTRODUCTORY"No doubt many of these treatises were in manuscript and are among the lost treasures of the sixteenth century. Yet some have come down to us. Palsgrave mentions three writers by name, Alexander Barclay, Petrus Vallensys, and Giles Duwes, copies of whose works are still in existence.

The earliest of these grammars—so far as is known the first French grammar ever printed—was the work of Alexander Barclay, well known as a prolific writer and poet, who devoted much of his time to translation and did much to make contemporary French literature known in England. Barclay had spent a time "full of foly and unprofytable stody" at some university, possibly Paris; he had travelled, and was well acquainted with French; from his youth upwards, he says, he had been exercised in the two languages of French and English. It was late in his literary career, when he had "withdrawen" his pen from its "olde dylygence," that he undertook to compose a grammar of the French language, at the request of the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Treasurer of England, and of "certain other gentlemen." The work appeared in 1521[192]under the title ofHere begynneth the introductory to wryte and to pronounce frenche compyled by Alexander Barclay, compendiously at the commandement of the right hye excellent and myghty prynce, Th. duke of Northfolke. The printer, Robert Coplande, himself a good French scholar, composed some lines on the coat of arms of the Duke in French, and printed them at the beginning of the book; at the end he placed a translation of Lambert Danneau'sTraité des Danses, also from his own pen.[193]

Barclay's endeavour is to make his grammar as short and concise as possible; his rules, so far as they go, are stated very clearly; he plunges straight away into his subject without any preliminary observations: "jein frenche," he begins, "is as moche to say in english as I,tu, thou,il, he,nous,vous,ilzorels: we may use sometymeceuxfor this wordeilz. If we answere to a question by this worde 'I'usynynge no verbe withall then shall not 'ie' be set for 'I' but 'moy,' as in this example, 'qui fist ce livre' ... If I sholde answere saynge I, addynge no verbe withall, I must say 'moy,' and not 'ie.'" After giving similar rules for the second person singular, he proceeds to explain how, when the wordsnous,vous,ilzare placed before a verb beginning with a consonant, their last consonant is not pronounced, although it remains in the spelling; but if they come before a verb beginning with a vowel, the consonants are pronounced. He then turns to the conjugation of the two auxiliaries and some of the most common irregular verbs, to show "how these pronouns are ioyned with verbes." On the back of folio 4 he begins his "introductory of orthography or true wrytynge wherby the diligent reder may be infourmed truly and perfytely to wryte and pronounce the Frenche tunge after the dyvers customes of many contress of France." Barclay, then, does not adopt an exclusive attitude towards provincial accents; he rather calls attention to them,[194]though probably merely stating facts and drawing distinctions with no intention of teaching provincial forms. Palsgrave, on the other hand, deals only with the French spoken between the Seine and the Loire, which he regarded as the only pure French. Barclay's attitude to dialectal forms may possibly be explained by the fact that he transcribed freely from the mediaeval treatises, especially theDonait françoisof John Barton. His debt was early noted by Palsgrave, who wrote: "I have sene an olde boke written in parchment, in all thynges lyke to his saydIntroductory, whiche, by conjecture, was not unwritten this hundred yeares."[195]So freely, indeed, and so carelessly did Barclay use his sources, that he did not even trouble to modernize the spelling, which contains many obsolete forms; in this connexion Palsgrave, who criticizes Barclay very severely when occasion arises,[196]remarks on his use ofkforc.

Having exemplified the pronunciation of some of the Frenchletters by comparison with English sounds,[197]Barclay suddenly[198]passes to the consideration of the number and gender of nouns,[199]besides supplying a short list of nouns beginning with the first two letters of the alphabet. After this digression he concludes his observations on the pronunciation,[200]and proceeds to give an alphabetical vocabulary of nouns,[201]adjectives and verbs, apparently the earliest known attempt at an alphabetical French-English vocabulary; the earlier method of arranging words under headings is discarded, though it continued to be the usual form adopted in most French grammars until the end of the eighteenth century. Barclay's vocabulary consists of a list of words pure and simple, with no indication of gender or flexions. TheIntroductoryends with lists of ordinal numerals, days, seasons, and so on, together with words of learned origin common to both languages "amonge eloquent men," and, last of all, pieces of prose composition in both French and English, arranged in alternate lines.[202]

As is usual in these early grammars, there is an obvious lack of orderly arrangement, and the work, as a whole,gives the impression of being a collection of rough notes rather than a carefully planned treatise. Barclay does not, however, make any claim to completeness, nor pretend to lay down "absolute" rules as Palsgrave claimed to do. He shared the opinion, common at that time among Frenchmen, that it was impossible to formulate anything like adequate rules for the French language. The sketchy nature of his rules may be judged by that given for the position of the objective pronoun: "oft times that thynge whiche cometh before the verbe in Englyshe commyth after it in frenche as il m'a fait tort . . . je ne me puis lever." He was of opinion that rules were not of much use in learning French: that language is best learnt by "custome and use of redynge and spekynge, by often enquirynge and frequentynge of company of frenchmen and of suche as have perfytnes in spekynge the sayd language." This opinion prevailed throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in England, and, as a result, rules are reduced to a minimum in manuals for teaching French.

"Who so desyreth to knowe more of the sayd language, must provyde for mo bokes made for the same intent," Barclay notes at the end of his short and interesting treatise. Charles, Duke of Suffolk, the husband of Mary, sister to Henry VIII. and Dowager Queen of France, was soon to make the necessary provision. This "syngular good lorde," says Palsgrave, "by cause that my poore labours required a longe tracte of tyme, hath also in the meane season encouraged maister Petrus Vallensys, scole maister to his excellent yong sonne the Erle of Lyncolne to shewe his lernynge and opinion on this behalfe." Such was the origin of theIntroductions in Frensche for Henry the Yonge Erle of Lyncoln (childe of greate esperaunce) sonne of the most noble and excellent princesse Mary (by the grace of God, queen of France etc.),[203]which is undated and anonymous, but clearly the work of Petrus Vallensys or Pierre Valence, French tutor to the Earl of Lincoln, and must have been written sometime in the third decade of the century.[204]Valence is said to have taught French after a "wonderesly compendious facile prompte and ready waye,"[205]and Gregory Cromwell, whom he also counted among his pupils, is reported to have made good progress under his direction. PierrePIERRE VALENCE, TEACHER OF FRENCHValence was one of the natives of Normandy, so numerous in England at this time that the fact was commented on by Étienne Perlin, a French priest who visited England at the end of the reign of Edward VI. He describes them as being "du tout tres mechans et mauditz François," worse than all the English, which, according to him, is a very grave charge.[206]The date at which Valence came to England is unknown, but he is said to have studied at Cambridge in or about 1515.[207]He was in all probability a refugee for religious reasons. He is known to have held Lutheran opinions, and, whilst at Cambridge, caused a disturbance by defacing a copy of the Pope's general indulgence, which had been set up over the gates of the schools. Vigorous but ineffectual attempts were made to discover the writer, against whom the Chancellor pronounced sentence of excommunication. Valence is alleged finally to have acknowledged the act as his, to have expressed contrition, and to have been absolved. There are several points of contact between this man and his greater contemporary, John Palsgrave: both were students at Cambridge, possibly at the same time, though Palsgrave was the senior; both had as their pupil the son of Mr. Secretary Cromwell—the one for French and the other for Latin; both were protégés of the Dowager Queen of France (sister of Henry VIII. and Palsgrave's pupil for French) and of her husband the Duke of Suffolk. In 1535 Valence received a grant of letters of denization,[208]and ultimately became domestic chaplain and almoner to Dr. Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, and appears to have maintained this position under the bishop's successor. He was still living in 1555, since, in that year, he visited some heretics in Ely jail, and conjured them to stand loyally by the truth of the Gospel.[209]

Among the works of "dyvers clerkes" on the French language, to which Palsgrave refers, is probably to be reckoned a short treatise bearing the date 1528. This work is only known by a fragment consisting of two leaves now preserved in the library at Lambeth.[210]These pages are of quarto size and bear the signature "B. B." The right-hand page is in French,the left in English; the former is in Roman characters, the latter in black letter. Although these two pages contain the date, and the last is not full, they do not appear to be the end of the work, as the writer refers to what is to come hereafter.[211]One gathers from internal evidence that the author was a foreigner—no doubt a Frenchman. He speaks, for instance, of the "gentz Englois" as though he was not one of them; and it appears to be quite certain that the work was originally composed in French, and translated into English rather carelessly, and probably by another hand, for in the version it is rendered almost unintelligible by the translation of the French illustrative examples as well as the text itself.

The contents are of a light and entertaining character. The author holds that many rules do but "trouble and marre" the understanding. He counsels students rather to follow the example of good writers as likely to be more helpful.

He treats entirely of the pronunciation, and devotes special attention to the difficulties of the English,[212]laying emphasis on the importance of placing the accent on the right syllable. The rules are put in an amusing way, thus: "ashould be pronounced fro the botom of the stomake and all openly,ea lytell higher in the throte there properly where the Englishman soundeth hise;i, in the roundnesse of the lippes;u, in puttynge a lytell of wynde out of the mouthe." Further uses of the vowelaare thus set forth: it may be placed before all verbs, in the infinitive mood, and before all manner of nouns and pronouns, as "to Robert," "to May," and so on. Again, "it betokeneth 'have' when it cometh of the Latin verbhabeo." The consonants are next dealt with and disposed of in much the same way. Some attention is also given to the question, then much discussed, whether the etymological consonants in the words where they are not pronounced should be retained or not. The author's opinion was that every letter in a word ought to be sounded, yet he feels himself utterly unable to struggle against custom, and falls back on the rule "go as you please":TWO FRENCH POETS TEACH FRENCH"Pronounce ech one as he shal please, for to difficyl it is to correct olde errours."

Among the French teachers in England at this time were also two Frenchmen of considerable literary distinction—Nicolas Bourbon, the Latin poet and well-known scholar, friend of Rabelais and Marot; and Nicolas Denisot, who likewise held an important place among French humanists, and finished his literary education under Daurat, the famous Hellenist.

Bourbon came to England under the protection of Anne Boleyn, who appears to have taken a special interest in him;[213]she had, he tells us, procured his liberation from imprisonment. Bourbon was for some time a private tutor in Paris, and soon after he regained his freedom he crossed to England, intending to continue his work there. He had a cordial welcome, and invariably speaks of his stay and treatment in London with gratitude. His Latin verses[214]show him to be acquainted with the chief Englishmen who gathered round the Court, where he occupied his leisure by writing satirical verses against the queen's enemies, especially Sir Thomas More,[215]and in eulogizing Cromwell, Cranmer, and the Reform Party then in power. It was on the recommendation of the king and queen, he informs us, that he was engaged as French tutor in several families of distinction, including the Carews, Norrisses, and Harveys. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was one of his patrons, and from him Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, together with his brothers, learnt French as children. Bourbon left England in 1535, on hearing of the death of his father. He had probably been in the country at least two years, and, perhaps happily for himself, left it a year before the fall of his patroness Anne Boleyn.

At a somewhat later date, 1547, the elegant poet and artist Nicolas Denisot arrived in England, driven from Paris by an unfortunate love affair.[216]His nephew, Jacques Denisot, declares he was "fort bien accueilliz dans la cour d'Angleterreoù son estime et sa reputation estoit deja cogneue." He mixed with the writers and politicians[217]of the day, and attracted the notice of the Court by writing verses in honour of the young king, Edward VI.[218]He soon found himself in the distinguished position of French and Latin tutor to the three daughters of the Protector Somerset,—Anne, Margaret, and Jane,—who were destined shortly to become famous in Paris as his pupils, and to form an important link in the literary relations of the two countries. Calvin corresponded with one of Denisot's pupils, the Lady Anne; and in 1549 he wrote requesting her to use her knowledge of French in transmitting to her mother an expression of his gratitude for a ring he had received from that lady, he being unable to do so, on account of his ignorance of English.[219]In this same year, 1549, Denisot's engagement in the house of Somerset came to an end rather abruptly, probably on account of some misunderstanding with the duke. He returned to France after spending three years in England, and thence kept up a friendly correspondence with his former pupils. On the death of Queen Margaret of Navarre, whom, no doubt, Denisot had taught them to admire, the sisters composed four hundred Latin distichs in her honour, and sent them to their former master, who welcomed them with enthusiasm, and published them in 1550. In the following year the verses appeared again, accompanied by French, Italian, and Greek translations, and verses from the pen of Ronsard, Du Bellay, and other literary friends of Denisot.[220]It is a striking fact that before the Pléiade was fully known in France, the fame of some of its members had reached England, where a particular interest would be taken in this development of the work of the three princesses. Ronsard, Denisot's intimate friend, wrote one of his earliest odes in honour of Denisot's pupils, in which he celebrates the intellectual union of France and England:

Denisot se vante heuréD'avoir oublié sa terreTHE PLÉIADE IN ENGLANDEt passager demeuréTrois ans en Angleterre.. . . . les espritzD'Angleterre et de la FranceBandez d'une ligue ont prisLe fer contre l'ignorance,Et (que) nos Roys se sont faitzD'ennemys amys parfaitzTuans la guerre cruellePar une paix mutuelle.

Herberay des Essarts, the translator of the famousAmadis, wrote a letter in praise of the princesses, which was printed at the beginning of Margaret's "tombeau." With full justice has Denisot been called the "ambassador" of the French Renaissance in England.

FOOTNOTES:[132]It was, however, an English scholar, Richard Mulcaster, Headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School (1561) and of St. Paul's School (1596), who boldly urged that the English language was a subject worthy of study by Englishmen, though this was not till 1582, when hisElementariewas published.[133]The Second Book of the Travels of Nicander Nucius, 1545, Camden Society, London, 1841, p. 13.[134]W. B. Rye,England as seen by Foreigners, London, 1865,passim.[135]Translation of Sallust'sBellum Jugurthinum: Dedication to the Duke of Norfolk.[136]Remains, Parker Society, p. 470. Quoted by J. J. Jusserand,Histoire littéraire du peuple anglais, Paris, 1904, p. 86, n. 3.[137]The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet, ed. W. A. Bradly, Boston, 1912, pp. 41 and 112.[138]Sidney Papers, ed. A. Collins, inLetters and Memorials of State, 2 vols., London, 1746, vol. i. pp. 283-5.[139]Letters of Descartes, quoted by E. J. B. Rathery,Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre . . .Paris, 1856.[140]Which provided the material for that "bonnie bouncing book," as Ben Jonson called it—Coryat'sCrudities: Hastily gobled up in Five Months' Travells in France, etc. 1611.[141]Rye,op. cit.pp. xxxv-xxxvii.[142]L. Einstein,The Italian Renaissance in England, New York, 1907.[143]The Tudor group of distinguished linguists includes the names of many women. The chronicler Harrison remarks that it is a rare thing to hear of a courtier that has but his own language, and to tell how many ladies are skilled in French, Spanish, and Italian is beyond his power (Holinshed's Chronicle, 1586, i. p. 196). Nicholas Udal writes in the same strain in his dedication to Queen Katherine Parr of his translation of Erasmus'sParaphrase of the Gospels; we are told that a great number of noble women at that time in England were given to the study of human sciences and of strange tongues; and that it was a common thing to see "young virgins so nouzled and trained in the study of letters that thei willingly set all other vain pastymes at nought for learnynge's sake." Amongst the most accomplished of such "Queens and Ladies of high estate and progeny" were Queen Katherine Parr and Lady Jane Grey. Mulcaster in hisPositions(1581) praises English ladies for their fondness of serious study, and so does the Italian teacher Torriano in hisItalian reviv'd(1673), p. 99. Many examples of fluent linguists are found in Ballard'sMemoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, 2nd ed., 1775.[144]Elizabeth's command of foreign languages was constantly a subject of remark. Dr. William Turner in the dedication of hisHerbal(1568) to the queen, addresses her thus: "As to your knowledge of Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and others also, not only your own faythful subiectes, beynge far from all suspicion of flattery, bear witness, but also strangers, men of great learninge, in their books set out in Latin tonge, give honourable testimonye." Best known of these learned observers was Scaliger (Scaligeriana, Cologne, 1695, p. 134). Similar eulogies in verse were left by French poets: Ronsard,Elegies, Mascarades et Bergeries(1561), reproduced inLe Bocage royal(1567); Jacques Grévin,Chant du cygne; Du Bartas,Second Week; and Agrippa d'Aubigné; also by John Florio,First Frutes, 1578, ch. xiii.[145]First Frutes, 1578, ch. i.[146]John Eliote,Ortho-Epia Gallica, 1596.[147]Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 2.[148]Cp. Brunot,Histoire de la langue française, ii. pp. 2sqq.Dallington in hisView of Franceremarks on the same neglect. InThe Abbot and the Learned Woman, Erasmus praises the latter for studying the classics and not, as was usual, confining herself to French (Colloquia, Leiden, 1519).[149]Copy Book of Sir Amias Poulet's Letters, Roxburghe Club, 1866, p. 129.[150]The Second Book of the Travels of Nicander Nucius, Camden Soc., 1841, p. 14.[151]Dialogue de l'ortografe et pronunciacion françoese departi en deus livres, Lyon, 1558.[152]Peiresc wrote in French to the scholars Selden and Camden, who answered in Latin. Other French scholars who maintained a correspondence with Englishmen are de Thou, Jérôme Bignon, Duchesne, du Plessis Mornay, H. Estienne, Hubert Languet, Pibrac, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers.[153]Lettres missives de Henri IV, 9 tom., Paris, 1843. For an example of Elizabeth's French in her intercourse with her neighbours, see Rathery,Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre, Paris, 1856, p. 31 n.;Unton Correspondence, Roxburghe Club, 1847,passim.[154]See theCalendars of State Papersfor the period.[155]Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1595-97, p. 328.[156]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., vol xiii. pt. i. No. 977.[157]Henry VII.'s mother, the Countess of Richmond, was also an accomplished French scholar; she translated several works from the French, and encouraged others to follow her example.[158]J. P. Collier,Annals of the English Stage, 1831, vol. i. pp. 48, 51, 53.[159]Cp. Rye,op. cit.pp. 76, 79.[160]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., ed. Brewer, vol. ii. No. 411; Rawdon Brown,Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII., 1854, vol. i. pp. 76-79 and 86.[161]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., vol. i. p. xxiii.[162]Songs, Ballads, and Instrumental Pieces composed by King Henry VIII., Oxford, 1912. Barclay says in hisEcloguesthat French minstrels and singers were highly favoured at Court. Jamieson,Life and Writings of Barclay, 1874, p. 44.[163]"Je serai à [vous] toujours et tant que je vivrai autre n'aimerai que vous."[164]Henry VIII., Act I. Scene 4.[165]Wolsey spoke Latin well. Like Charles II. he considered it diplomatic to affect ignorance of French at times. Such is his advice to those who accompanied him on his embassy to France: "The nature of the Frenchmen is such that at their first meeting they will be as familiar with you as if they had knowne you by long acquaintance, and will commune with you in their French Tongue as if you knew every word. Therefore use them in a kind manner, and bee as familiar with them as they are with you: if they speake to you in their natural tongue, speake to them in English, for if you understand not them, no more shall they you." Puttenham, in hisArte of English Poesie, advises ambassadors and messengers not to use foreign languages of which they have not perfect command, lest they commit blunders similar to that of the courtier who said of a French lady, "Elle chevauche bien,"—blunders which might have serious results in diplomatic transactions.[166]The Negociations of Th. Wolsey, The Great Cardinal of England, containing his Life and Death. Composed by one of his own servants, being his gentleman usher(G. Cavendish?), London, 1641.[167]Negociations of Th. Wolsey,ut supra.[168]M. E. A. Green,Lives of the Princesses of England, 1849-1855, v. p. 20.[169]Green'sLetters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, 1846. See also Ellis,Original Letters, 1st series, vol. i. p. 115.[170]Life of Anne Boleyn, in Strickland'sLives of the Queens of England, London, 1884, ii. pp. 179, 181.[171]Ellis,Orig. Letters, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 11. Anne's French spelling is curious and suggests that, like Henry VIII., she learnt French mainly by ear: "Mons. Je antandue par vrelettre que aves envy que tout onnete feme quan je vindre à la courte et ma vertisses que Rene prendra la pein de devisser a vecc moy, de quoy me regoy bien fort de pensser parler a vecc ung personne tante sage et onnete, cela me ferra a voyr plus grante anvy de continuer a parler bene franssais."[172]A French poem of the time, preserved in MS. and quoted by Rathery,op. cit.p. 21, celebrates Anne's French accomplishments—Traité pour feue dame Anne de Boulant, jadis royne d'Angleterre, l'an 1533:"La tellement ses graces amendaQue ne l'eussiez oncques jugée AngloiseEn ses fachons, ains naïve Françhoise.Elle sçavoit bien danser et chanter,Et ses propos sagement agencer,Sonner du luth et d'autres instrumensPour divertir les tristes pensemens."[173]Pub., with English translation, in theHarleian Miscellany, vol. iii., 1745, pp. 52-62.[174]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., xv. 179, and xvi. 12.[175]Ellis,Orig. letters, series 1, vol. ii. p. 122.[176]Strickland,Lives of the Queens, 1884, ii. p. 299.[177]This is the testimony of Girolamo Cordano, a physician and astrologer of Milan who was called upon to exercise his art on the young king of England in 1552. Rye,England as seen by Foreigners, pp. lxviiisqq.[178]Strickland,op. cit.ii. pp. 477-8.[179]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., xvi. No. 1253.[180]Ellis,Original Letters, 3rd series, ii. p. 236.[181]One of Elizabeth's Italian masters was Baptista Castiglione, a religious refugee in 1557. Elizabeth, however, had acquired some knowledge of Italian before 1544; in that year she addressed a letter in Italian to Queen Katharine Parr (printed in G. Howard'sLady Jane Grey and her Times, 1822). Other Italian letters of the queen are published in Green'sLetters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, 1846.[182]Account of the Venetian ambassador at the Court of Mary—Michel Giovanni. Rye,op. cit.p. 266.[183]Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 125. Elizabeth's Dutch he pronounces "not gud," and later says that neither the King of France nor the Queen of England could speak Dutch (p. 341).[184]Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 117.[185]J. Nichols,Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, 1788-1821, i. p. x.[186]Rye,op. cit.p. 12.[187]Rye,op. cit.p. 104.[188]The MS. was reproduced in facsimile in 1893. The prayers in French begin thus: "Mon Dieu et mon pere puis qu'il t'a pleu desployer les tresors de ta grande misericorde envers moy ta tres humble servante, m'ayant de bon matin retirée des profonds abismes de l'ignorance naturelle et des superstitions damnables pour me faire iouir de ce grand soleil de justice . . . etc."[189]Lettres, Amsterdam, 1723, liv. i. p. 5.[190]An account of the little that is known of André's life is given in Gairdner'sMemorials of Henry VII., pp. viiiet seq.[191]Of foreign countries, the Netherlands seem to have come next to England in zeal for the study of French, and Germany takes the next place. Countries in which sister Romance tongues were spoken, Italy and Spain, were apparently entirely dependent on practice for learning French.[192]The printing was completed by Robert Coplande on the 22nd March 1521. The book consists of sixteen leaves of the folio size of the time, in black letter, with signatures A-B in sixes and C in fours. There is a unique copy in the Bodleian.[193]Bale,Scriptorum Britanniae Summarium, 1548, p. 723, and Pits,Relationes Historicae de rebus Anglicis, 1619, p. 745, attribute to Barclay a work calledDe pronuntiatione linguae gallicae. This suggests that possibly theIntroductorywas first written in Latin.[194]Time after time he mentions the usages of different parts of the country, aspiechaforpieçain certain districts;jeoandceoforjeandcein Picard and Gascon; the writing of the names of dignitaries and officers in the plural instead of the singular, asluy papes de Rome.[195]L'Esclarcissement de la langue françoyse, bk. i. ch. xxxv.[196]"There is a boke which goeth about in this realme, intitledThe Introductory to write and pronounce French, compyled by Alexander Barclay. I suppose it is sufficient to warne the lerner that I have red over that boke at length, and what my opinion is therein it shall well apeare in my boke's self, though I make thereof no further expresse mencion."[197]Thus the vowelais sometimes a letter, sometimes a word. In the former case it is often sounded like Englisha; when it is a worddshould not be added. This section of the work is reprinted in A. J. Ellis'sEarly English Pronunciation, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1869, etc., pt. iii. pp. 804sqq.[198]On the back of folio 5.[199]"Howsoever the singular number end, the plural number must end insorz." Such is the rule for the formation of the plural. As for the genders, he gives a few isolated examples and converts them into rules.[200]On folio 8vº.[201]Folios 9-14. The vocabulary begins with the letter M, and after proceeding to the end of the alphabet, resumes at the beginning—an arrangement probably due to some blunder on the part of the printer.[202]Both deal with agricultural subjects; the first gives the life of a grain of wheat, and the second may explain itself:"Dieu sauve la charue,God save the ploughe,Et celui qui la mane.And he the whiche it ledeth.Primierement hairois la terre,Firste ere the grounde,Apres semer le blé ou l'orge.After sow the whete or barley.Les herces doivent venir apres,The harrowes must come after,Le chaclir oster l'ordure.The hoke to take away wedes,En Aoust le foyer ou faucher,In August reap it or mowe it,D'une faucille ou d'une faux."There is no English rendering of the last line.[203]In the Library of the Marquis of Bath.[204]The Earl was born in 1516.[205]Ellis,Orig. Letters, 1st series, i. pp. 341-43.[206]Description des royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escosse, Paris, 1558.[207]C. H. and T. Cooper,Athenae Cantabrigienses, vol. i., 1858, p. 155.[208]List of Denizations, 1509-1603, Huguenot Society Publications VIII.[209]Athenae Cantab.ut supra.[210]S. R. Maitland,List of some of the early printed books in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1843, pp. 290et seq.[211]"'a' also betokeneth 'have' or 'has,' when it cometh of this verbe in Latin,habeo, as hereafter ye may see."[212]"Sur toultes choses doibuit noter gentz Englois que leur fault accustomer de pronuncer la derniere lettre du mot françois quelque mot que ce soit (rime exceptée) ce que la langue engleshe ne permet, car la ou l'anglois dit 'goode breade,' le françois diroit 'goode' iii sillebes et 'breade' iii sillebes."[213]J. A. Jacquot,Notice sur Nicolas Bourbon de Vandœuvre, Troyes et Paris, 1857. Bourbon was born in 1503, and died in 1550. He went to Paris in 1531, leaving behind him in his native town a reputation won by his Latin verses. On his return from England, Queen Margaret of Navarre entrusted to him the education of her daughter, Jeanne, who was the mother of Henry IV.[214]Nicolai Borbonii vandoperani LingonenisΠαιδαγωγειον, Lugduni, 1536.[215]J. H. Marsden,Philomorus, 2nd ed., 1878, p. 261.[216]Clement Jugé,Nicolas Denisot du Mans, 1515-1559, Paris and Le Mans, 1907.[217]He also began his work as a secret agent in the service of France, and it is said that Calais was recovered by the French in 1558, from a plan which Denisot submitted to the Duc de Guise.[218]There was a MS. copy of Latin poems by Denisot in the Library of Edward VI. (Nichols,Literary Remains, 1857.)[219]J. Bonnet,Récits du seizième siècle, 1864, p. 348.[220]Le Tombeau de Marguerite de Navarre faict premierement en Distiques latins par les trois sœurs, Princesses en Angleterre: Depuis Traduits, en Grec, Italien et François par plusieurs des excellentz Poetes de la France. Avecques plusieurs Odes, Hymnes, Cantiques, Epitaphes sur le mesme subiect.Paris, 1551.

[132]It was, however, an English scholar, Richard Mulcaster, Headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School (1561) and of St. Paul's School (1596), who boldly urged that the English language was a subject worthy of study by Englishmen, though this was not till 1582, when hisElementariewas published.

[133]The Second Book of the Travels of Nicander Nucius, 1545, Camden Society, London, 1841, p. 13.

[134]W. B. Rye,England as seen by Foreigners, London, 1865,passim.

[135]Translation of Sallust'sBellum Jugurthinum: Dedication to the Duke of Norfolk.

[136]Remains, Parker Society, p. 470. Quoted by J. J. Jusserand,Histoire littéraire du peuple anglais, Paris, 1904, p. 86, n. 3.

[137]The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet, ed. W. A. Bradly, Boston, 1912, pp. 41 and 112.

[138]Sidney Papers, ed. A. Collins, inLetters and Memorials of State, 2 vols., London, 1746, vol. i. pp. 283-5.

[139]Letters of Descartes, quoted by E. J. B. Rathery,Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre . . .Paris, 1856.

[140]Which provided the material for that "bonnie bouncing book," as Ben Jonson called it—Coryat'sCrudities: Hastily gobled up in Five Months' Travells in France, etc. 1611.

[141]Rye,op. cit.pp. xxxv-xxxvii.

[142]L. Einstein,The Italian Renaissance in England, New York, 1907.

[143]The Tudor group of distinguished linguists includes the names of many women. The chronicler Harrison remarks that it is a rare thing to hear of a courtier that has but his own language, and to tell how many ladies are skilled in French, Spanish, and Italian is beyond his power (Holinshed's Chronicle, 1586, i. p. 196). Nicholas Udal writes in the same strain in his dedication to Queen Katherine Parr of his translation of Erasmus'sParaphrase of the Gospels; we are told that a great number of noble women at that time in England were given to the study of human sciences and of strange tongues; and that it was a common thing to see "young virgins so nouzled and trained in the study of letters that thei willingly set all other vain pastymes at nought for learnynge's sake." Amongst the most accomplished of such "Queens and Ladies of high estate and progeny" were Queen Katherine Parr and Lady Jane Grey. Mulcaster in hisPositions(1581) praises English ladies for their fondness of serious study, and so does the Italian teacher Torriano in hisItalian reviv'd(1673), p. 99. Many examples of fluent linguists are found in Ballard'sMemoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, 2nd ed., 1775.

[144]Elizabeth's command of foreign languages was constantly a subject of remark. Dr. William Turner in the dedication of hisHerbal(1568) to the queen, addresses her thus: "As to your knowledge of Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and others also, not only your own faythful subiectes, beynge far from all suspicion of flattery, bear witness, but also strangers, men of great learninge, in their books set out in Latin tonge, give honourable testimonye." Best known of these learned observers was Scaliger (Scaligeriana, Cologne, 1695, p. 134). Similar eulogies in verse were left by French poets: Ronsard,Elegies, Mascarades et Bergeries(1561), reproduced inLe Bocage royal(1567); Jacques Grévin,Chant du cygne; Du Bartas,Second Week; and Agrippa d'Aubigné; also by John Florio,First Frutes, 1578, ch. xiii.

[145]First Frutes, 1578, ch. i.

[146]John Eliote,Ortho-Epia Gallica, 1596.

[147]Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 2.

[148]Cp. Brunot,Histoire de la langue française, ii. pp. 2sqq.Dallington in hisView of Franceremarks on the same neglect. InThe Abbot and the Learned Woman, Erasmus praises the latter for studying the classics and not, as was usual, confining herself to French (Colloquia, Leiden, 1519).

[149]Copy Book of Sir Amias Poulet's Letters, Roxburghe Club, 1866, p. 129.

[150]The Second Book of the Travels of Nicander Nucius, Camden Soc., 1841, p. 14.

[151]Dialogue de l'ortografe et pronunciacion françoese departi en deus livres, Lyon, 1558.

[152]Peiresc wrote in French to the scholars Selden and Camden, who answered in Latin. Other French scholars who maintained a correspondence with Englishmen are de Thou, Jérôme Bignon, Duchesne, du Plessis Mornay, H. Estienne, Hubert Languet, Pibrac, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers.

[153]Lettres missives de Henri IV, 9 tom., Paris, 1843. For an example of Elizabeth's French in her intercourse with her neighbours, see Rathery,Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre, Paris, 1856, p. 31 n.;Unton Correspondence, Roxburghe Club, 1847,passim.

[154]See theCalendars of State Papersfor the period.

[155]Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1595-97, p. 328.

[156]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., vol xiii. pt. i. No. 977.

[157]Henry VII.'s mother, the Countess of Richmond, was also an accomplished French scholar; she translated several works from the French, and encouraged others to follow her example.

[158]J. P. Collier,Annals of the English Stage, 1831, vol. i. pp. 48, 51, 53.

[159]Cp. Rye,op. cit.pp. 76, 79.

[160]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., ed. Brewer, vol. ii. No. 411; Rawdon Brown,Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII., 1854, vol. i. pp. 76-79 and 86.

[161]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., vol. i. p. xxiii.

[162]Songs, Ballads, and Instrumental Pieces composed by King Henry VIII., Oxford, 1912. Barclay says in hisEcloguesthat French minstrels and singers were highly favoured at Court. Jamieson,Life and Writings of Barclay, 1874, p. 44.

[163]"Je serai à [vous] toujours et tant que je vivrai autre n'aimerai que vous."

[164]Henry VIII., Act I. Scene 4.

[165]Wolsey spoke Latin well. Like Charles II. he considered it diplomatic to affect ignorance of French at times. Such is his advice to those who accompanied him on his embassy to France: "The nature of the Frenchmen is such that at their first meeting they will be as familiar with you as if they had knowne you by long acquaintance, and will commune with you in their French Tongue as if you knew every word. Therefore use them in a kind manner, and bee as familiar with them as they are with you: if they speake to you in their natural tongue, speake to them in English, for if you understand not them, no more shall they you." Puttenham, in hisArte of English Poesie, advises ambassadors and messengers not to use foreign languages of which they have not perfect command, lest they commit blunders similar to that of the courtier who said of a French lady, "Elle chevauche bien,"—blunders which might have serious results in diplomatic transactions.

[166]The Negociations of Th. Wolsey, The Great Cardinal of England, containing his Life and Death. Composed by one of his own servants, being his gentleman usher(G. Cavendish?), London, 1641.

[167]Negociations of Th. Wolsey,ut supra.

[168]M. E. A. Green,Lives of the Princesses of England, 1849-1855, v. p. 20.

[169]Green'sLetters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, 1846. See also Ellis,Original Letters, 1st series, vol. i. p. 115.

[170]Life of Anne Boleyn, in Strickland'sLives of the Queens of England, London, 1884, ii. pp. 179, 181.

[171]Ellis,Orig. Letters, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 11. Anne's French spelling is curious and suggests that, like Henry VIII., she learnt French mainly by ear: "Mons. Je antandue par vrelettre que aves envy que tout onnete feme quan je vindre à la courte et ma vertisses que Rene prendra la pein de devisser a vecc moy, de quoy me regoy bien fort de pensser parler a vecc ung personne tante sage et onnete, cela me ferra a voyr plus grante anvy de continuer a parler bene franssais."

[172]A French poem of the time, preserved in MS. and quoted by Rathery,op. cit.p. 21, celebrates Anne's French accomplishments—Traité pour feue dame Anne de Boulant, jadis royne d'Angleterre, l'an 1533:"La tellement ses graces amendaQue ne l'eussiez oncques jugée AngloiseEn ses fachons, ains naïve Françhoise.Elle sçavoit bien danser et chanter,Et ses propos sagement agencer,Sonner du luth et d'autres instrumensPour divertir les tristes pensemens."

"La tellement ses graces amendaQue ne l'eussiez oncques jugée AngloiseEn ses fachons, ains naïve Françhoise.Elle sçavoit bien danser et chanter,Et ses propos sagement agencer,Sonner du luth et d'autres instrumensPour divertir les tristes pensemens."

[173]Pub., with English translation, in theHarleian Miscellany, vol. iii., 1745, pp. 52-62.

[174]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., xv. 179, and xvi. 12.

[175]Ellis,Orig. letters, series 1, vol. ii. p. 122.

[176]Strickland,Lives of the Queens, 1884, ii. p. 299.

[177]This is the testimony of Girolamo Cordano, a physician and astrologer of Milan who was called upon to exercise his art on the young king of England in 1552. Rye,England as seen by Foreigners, pp. lxviiisqq.

[178]Strickland,op. cit.ii. pp. 477-8.

[179]Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., xvi. No. 1253.

[180]Ellis,Original Letters, 3rd series, ii. p. 236.

[181]One of Elizabeth's Italian masters was Baptista Castiglione, a religious refugee in 1557. Elizabeth, however, had acquired some knowledge of Italian before 1544; in that year she addressed a letter in Italian to Queen Katharine Parr (printed in G. Howard'sLady Jane Grey and her Times, 1822). Other Italian letters of the queen are published in Green'sLetters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, 1846.

[182]Account of the Venetian ambassador at the Court of Mary—Michel Giovanni. Rye,op. cit.p. 266.

[183]Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 125. Elizabeth's Dutch he pronounces "not gud," and later says that neither the King of France nor the Queen of England could speak Dutch (p. 341).

[184]Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 117.

[185]J. Nichols,Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, 1788-1821, i. p. x.

[186]Rye,op. cit.p. 12.

[187]Rye,op. cit.p. 104.

[188]The MS. was reproduced in facsimile in 1893. The prayers in French begin thus: "Mon Dieu et mon pere puis qu'il t'a pleu desployer les tresors de ta grande misericorde envers moy ta tres humble servante, m'ayant de bon matin retirée des profonds abismes de l'ignorance naturelle et des superstitions damnables pour me faire iouir de ce grand soleil de justice . . . etc."

[189]Lettres, Amsterdam, 1723, liv. i. p. 5.

[190]An account of the little that is known of André's life is given in Gairdner'sMemorials of Henry VII., pp. viiiet seq.

[191]Of foreign countries, the Netherlands seem to have come next to England in zeal for the study of French, and Germany takes the next place. Countries in which sister Romance tongues were spoken, Italy and Spain, were apparently entirely dependent on practice for learning French.

[192]The printing was completed by Robert Coplande on the 22nd March 1521. The book consists of sixteen leaves of the folio size of the time, in black letter, with signatures A-B in sixes and C in fours. There is a unique copy in the Bodleian.

[193]Bale,Scriptorum Britanniae Summarium, 1548, p. 723, and Pits,Relationes Historicae de rebus Anglicis, 1619, p. 745, attribute to Barclay a work calledDe pronuntiatione linguae gallicae. This suggests that possibly theIntroductorywas first written in Latin.

[194]Time after time he mentions the usages of different parts of the country, aspiechaforpieçain certain districts;jeoandceoforjeandcein Picard and Gascon; the writing of the names of dignitaries and officers in the plural instead of the singular, asluy papes de Rome.

[195]L'Esclarcissement de la langue françoyse, bk. i. ch. xxxv.

[196]"There is a boke which goeth about in this realme, intitledThe Introductory to write and pronounce French, compyled by Alexander Barclay. I suppose it is sufficient to warne the lerner that I have red over that boke at length, and what my opinion is therein it shall well apeare in my boke's self, though I make thereof no further expresse mencion."

[197]Thus the vowelais sometimes a letter, sometimes a word. In the former case it is often sounded like Englisha; when it is a worddshould not be added. This section of the work is reprinted in A. J. Ellis'sEarly English Pronunciation, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1869, etc., pt. iii. pp. 804sqq.

[198]On the back of folio 5.

[199]"Howsoever the singular number end, the plural number must end insorz." Such is the rule for the formation of the plural. As for the genders, he gives a few isolated examples and converts them into rules.

[200]On folio 8vº.

[201]Folios 9-14. The vocabulary begins with the letter M, and after proceeding to the end of the alphabet, resumes at the beginning—an arrangement probably due to some blunder on the part of the printer.

[202]Both deal with agricultural subjects; the first gives the life of a grain of wheat, and the second may explain itself:"Dieu sauve la charue,God save the ploughe,Et celui qui la mane.And he the whiche it ledeth.Primierement hairois la terre,Firste ere the grounde,Apres semer le blé ou l'orge.After sow the whete or barley.Les herces doivent venir apres,The harrowes must come after,Le chaclir oster l'ordure.The hoke to take away wedes,En Aoust le foyer ou faucher,In August reap it or mowe it,D'une faucille ou d'une faux."There is no English rendering of the last line.

[202]Both deal with agricultural subjects; the first gives the life of a grain of wheat, and the second may explain itself:

"Dieu sauve la charue,God save the ploughe,Et celui qui la mane.And he the whiche it ledeth.Primierement hairois la terre,Firste ere the grounde,Apres semer le blé ou l'orge.After sow the whete or barley.Les herces doivent venir apres,The harrowes must come after,Le chaclir oster l'ordure.The hoke to take away wedes,En Aoust le foyer ou faucher,In August reap it or mowe it,D'une faucille ou d'une faux."

"Dieu sauve la charue,God save the ploughe,

"Dieu sauve la charue,

God save the ploughe,

Et celui qui la mane.And he the whiche it ledeth.

Et celui qui la mane.

And he the whiche it ledeth.

Primierement hairois la terre,Firste ere the grounde,

Primierement hairois la terre,

Firste ere the grounde,

Apres semer le blé ou l'orge.After sow the whete or barley.

Apres semer le blé ou l'orge.

After sow the whete or barley.

Les herces doivent venir apres,The harrowes must come after,

Les herces doivent venir apres,

The harrowes must come after,

Le chaclir oster l'ordure.The hoke to take away wedes,

Le chaclir oster l'ordure.

The hoke to take away wedes,

En Aoust le foyer ou faucher,In August reap it or mowe it,

En Aoust le foyer ou faucher,

In August reap it or mowe it,

D'une faucille ou d'une faux."

There is no English rendering of the last line.

[203]In the Library of the Marquis of Bath.

[204]The Earl was born in 1516.

[205]Ellis,Orig. Letters, 1st series, i. pp. 341-43.

[206]Description des royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escosse, Paris, 1558.

[207]C. H. and T. Cooper,Athenae Cantabrigienses, vol. i., 1858, p. 155.

[208]List of Denizations, 1509-1603, Huguenot Society Publications VIII.

[209]Athenae Cantab.ut supra.

[210]S. R. Maitland,List of some of the early printed books in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, 1843, pp. 290et seq.

[211]"'a' also betokeneth 'have' or 'has,' when it cometh of this verbe in Latin,habeo, as hereafter ye may see."

[212]"Sur toultes choses doibuit noter gentz Englois que leur fault accustomer de pronuncer la derniere lettre du mot françois quelque mot que ce soit (rime exceptée) ce que la langue engleshe ne permet, car la ou l'anglois dit 'goode breade,' le françois diroit 'goode' iii sillebes et 'breade' iii sillebes."

[213]J. A. Jacquot,Notice sur Nicolas Bourbon de Vandœuvre, Troyes et Paris, 1857. Bourbon was born in 1503, and died in 1550. He went to Paris in 1531, leaving behind him in his native town a reputation won by his Latin verses. On his return from England, Queen Margaret of Navarre entrusted to him the education of her daughter, Jeanne, who was the mother of Henry IV.

[214]Nicolai Borbonii vandoperani LingonenisΠαιδαγωγειον, Lugduni, 1536.

[215]J. H. Marsden,Philomorus, 2nd ed., 1878, p. 261.

[216]Clement Jugé,Nicolas Denisot du Mans, 1515-1559, Paris and Le Mans, 1907.

[217]He also began his work as a secret agent in the service of France, and it is said that Calais was recovered by the French in 1558, from a plan which Denisot submitted to the Duc de Guise.

[218]There was a MS. copy of Latin poems by Denisot in the Library of Edward VI. (Nichols,Literary Remains, 1857.)

[219]J. Bonnet,Récits du seizième siècle, 1864, p. 348.

[220]Le Tombeau de Marguerite de Navarre faict premierement en Distiques latins par les trois sœurs, Princesses en Angleterre: Depuis Traduits, en Grec, Italien et François par plusieurs des excellentz Poetes de la France. Avecques plusieurs Odes, Hymnes, Cantiques, Epitaphes sur le mesme subiect.Paris, 1551.

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