FOOTNOTES:

"Do no blame me," he says, addressing the "gentle doctors of Gaule," as he called them, "if because I would not be found a loyterer in mine own countrie, amongst so many virtuously occupied, I have put my pen to paper: if I have bene busie, labourd, sweat, dropt, studied, devised, fought, bought, borrowed, turned, translated, mined, fined, refined, interlined, glossed, composed, and taken intollerable toil to shew an easie entrance and introduction to my deare countrimen, in your curious and courtesan French tongue, to the end to advance them as much as may bee, in the knowledge of all virtuous and noble qualities, to the which they are all naturally adicted."

He is quite ready to have his book criticised as the work of an Englishman, and challenges these "gentle doctors" "to be ready quickly to cavill at his booke."

"I beseech you," he continues, "heartily calumniate my doings with speede, I request you humbly controll my method as soone as you may, I earnestly entreat you hisse at my inventions, I desire you to peruse my periodicall punctuations, find fault with my pricks, nicks, and tricks, prove them not worth a pin, not a point, not a pish: argue me a fond, foolish, frivolous, and phantasicall author, and persuade every one that you meet, that my booke is a false, fained, slight, confused, absurd, barbarous, lame, imperfect, single, uncertaine, childish, piece of work, and not able to teach and why so? Forsooth because it is not your owne but an Englishman's doing. Faile you not to do so, if you love me, and would have me do the like for you another time."

While admitting that there may be a few good French teachers amongst the refugees, he outlines a picture of the ordinary type which is far from flattering; and we gather that he had himself studied French with several refugees. He implies that the French teachers receive money in advance, and then do nothing else but "take their eases and, as the renowned poet saith,

Saulter, dancer, faire les tours,Boire vin blanc et vermeil,Et ne rien faire tous les joursQue conter escuz au soleil.

Mercurie the god of Cunning, and Dis the Father of French crowns are their deities." They care nothing for the progress of their scholars; all they do is to give them a short lesson of half an hour, in which they read and construe about half apage of French. They are equally indifferent to the troubled state of their country, provided they themselves are comfortable and well provided with French wines.

"Messires, what newes from France, can you tell?" he asks them, "still warres, warres. A heavy hearing truly, yet if you be in good health, have many scholars, get good store of crowns, and drink good wine, I doubt not but you shall do well, and I desire the good God of Heaven to continue it so still. Have they had a fruitful vintage in France this year, or no? me thinks our Bordeaux wines are very deare, and in good faith I am very sorry for it. But they will be at a more reasonable reckoning, if these same loftie Leaguers would once crouch and come to some good composition ... that we may safely fetch their deifying liquer, which dieth quickly our flegmaticke faces into a pure sanguine complexion."

The style of the introduction is maintained throughout the rest of the book. Eliote says he wrote the whole "in a merrie phantasicall vaine to confirme and stir up the wit and memorie of the learner," and "diversified it with a varietie of stories no lesse authenticall than the devices of Lucian's dialogues." He admits that he had turned over some French authors, and where he "espied any pretie example that might quicken the capacitie of the learner," he "presumed to make a peece of it flie this way, to set together the frame of (his) fantasticall comedie ... and out of every one (he) had some share for the better ornament of (his) worke." Eliote was well acquainted with French literature. He considered Marot the best poet, and gave Ronsard the second place only. He also read Du Bartas, Belleau, Desportes, and other sixteenth-century writers. But most of his admiration was reserved for Rabelais, "that merrie grig," and it is clear that he modelled his style on that of the great French humorist. Like Rabelais, he occasionally affects a sort of gibberish, coins words, and, like him also, he strings words together and is fond of exaggeration. Numerous passages in theOrtho-Epia Gallicaare reminiscent of famous incidents inGargantuaandPantagruel. Like Panurge, he defends debts and debtors:

"Quoy! Debtes! O chose rare et antiquaire. Il n'est bon chrestien qui ne doibt rien," and, in the style of Rabelais, he assures us that his book contains "profound and deep mysteries, ... and very worthie the reading, and such as I thinke you have not had performed in any other book that is yet extant.... Doest thou see what a sea, what a gulfe there is? Thou hadst need of Theseus' thread to guide thee out of that Labyrinth."

TheOrtho-Epia Gallicaforms a striking contrast to Palsgrave's rather austereEsclarcissement, the last work on theJOHN ELIOTEFrench language composed by an Englishman before that ofEliote. The dialogues occupy nearly the whole volume. The first few pages, however, contain a table of French sounds with their pseudo-English equivalents. The pronunciation was, in Eliote's opinion, one of the chief difficulties of this difficult language, "deemed a jewel, so dearly bought, and so much desired by all"; and he considered that, with the help of Ramus and Peletier for the pronunciation, he had succeeded in reducing "the gulf of difficulties into a small stream" by "sounding the French by our English alphabet."

He arranges his dialogues, which he callsLe parlement de Babillards, id est, The Parlaiment of Prattlers, into three groups. The first of these consists of three long dialogues on the method of learning foreign languages, on the excellence of writers in both ancient and modern tongues, and on travel through the chief towns of Europe. The first dialogue ends with the quotation from Du Bartas in praise of Queen Elizabeth and her accomplishments, accompanied by a translation in English verse by Eliote himself.

The second part, styled "M. Eliote's first booke," is of a much more elementary character than the one just described. Eliote had referred elsewhere to a work entitledThe Scholler, in which he propounded a "general method of learning and teaching all languages contrived by nature and art, conformable to the precepts of Aristotle." This, or part of it, evidently formed the first part of theOrtho-Epia Gallica, where it is separately paged.[444]

In his first and second books, which thus form the second and third parts of the work, he expounds "his double new invention, which teacheth Englishmen to speake truly, speedily and volubly the French tong." The first part of this "invention" consists in placing by the side of the French and English a third column, giving the French in pseudo-English equivalents—"the true pronunciation of each word wholly and certain little stripes (called approches) between the sillables that are to be spoken roundly and glib in one breath." The twelve dialogues of Eliote's first book are fairly simple in character, and some of them were probably suggested by Vives'sExercitatio. Their subject matter doesnot differ much from earlier dialogues, but their treatment is decidedly original. The following quotation is taken from the first dialogue:

Hau Garcon dors tu vilain? debout, debout, ie te reveilleray tantost avec un bon baton.Ho Garssoon dortu veelein? deboo, deboo, ie te reue-lheré tant-tot tavec-keun boon batoon.What boy slepeth thou villain? up, up, I shall shall wake thee soon with a good cudgell.Je me leve, monsieur.Ie me léveh moonseewr.I rise sir.Quelle heure est-il?Qel-heur et-til?What o'clock is it?Il est six heures.Il-é see-zewres.It is six o'clock.Donnez moy mes chausses de velours verd.Donné moe' mes shosséh de veloor vert.Give me my my green velvet breeches.Lesquelles?Le-keles?Which?C'est tout un; mes chausses rondes de satin rouge. . . .Set-toot-tewn; mes shosseh roondeh de satin rouge. . . .It is all one; my round red satin ones, etc.

There are twelve dialogues in all, but only each alternate one is accompanied by this curious guide to pronunciation.[445]

In the second book and third part the dialogues are longer and more numerous, dealing with the different trades and occupations—"les devis familiers des mesters fort delectables a lyre." They do not, however, confine themselves to the characters usually introduced into similar dialogues; besides the mercer, the draper, the shoemaker, the innkeeper, and so on, we have the armourer, the robber, the debtor, the apothecary, and other characters which offer ample scope for treatment in the Rabelaisian vein, of which Eliote was so fond. Some suggest that Eliote was acquainted with Holyband's works. This book contains the second part of his "double new invention." The French and English are printed on opposite pages, and in the margin the sounds of the most difficult French letters are indicated, thus:

aisoundeaysoundeamsoundeinainesoundeineh, and so on.

aisoundeaysounde

aisounde

aysounde

amsoundeinainesoundeineh, and so on.

amsoundein

ainesoundeineh, and so on.

This table he describes "as Mercurie's finger to direct thee in thy progress of learning," and he repeats it on the margin of every pair of opposite pages.

THE "ORTHO-EPIA GALLICA"After these twenty dialogues comes the "Conclusion of the parlaiment of prattlers," which depicts a group of friends walking by the Thames and St. Paul's, "prattling, chatting, and babbling." The arrangement is the same as in the previous dialogues, and the work closes with a quotation from Du Bartas's praise of France:

O mille et mille fois terre heureuse et féconde,O perle de l'Europe! O Paradis du monde!France je te salue, O mère des guerriers.

In his dialogue calledThe Scholar, incorporated in the first part of theOrtho-Epia, Eliote explains his 'new' method of learning languages, by nature and art. By "nature" he means the acquirement of a vocabulary of all created things, by use and common practice; and by "art" the rules and precepts for combining these into sentences, and also the authority of learned men. Such rules chiefly concern nouns, verbs, and pronunciation, "in which the greatest mystery of all languages consists." Thus, although he gives no grammatical information in hisOrtho-Epia Gallica, he recognized its importance.

Before introducing his pupils to the method of "Nature and Art," Eliote would have them well grounded in nouns and verbs, and able to translate dialogues, comedies in verse, and prose writings. He attached much importance to translation from English into French, just as Palsgrave did. He directs the student to make out the meaning of the French first by comparing it with the English column, and then to cover over the French version, and attempt to translate the English into French. "This I have learned by long experience to be the readiest way to attaine the knowledge of any language, that we of Englishmen make French, and not of French learn English." As to the theory of "Nature and Art," it seems to have been little more than the method, common at the time, of making practice the basis of the study of French, and confirming this by rules as need for them arose.

In addition to theOrtho-Epia Gallica,[446]Eliote also wrote aSurvey or topographical description of France, collected from sundry approved authors. This was published in 1592, and dedicated to Sir John Pickering, Keeper of the Privy Seal.He also translated from French into English[447]a number of unimportant works, mostly of topical interest, one of them being dedicated to Robert, Earl of Essex. Little else is known of him, except that he was born in Warwickshire in 1562, and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, on the 12th of December 1580, at the age of eighteen years.[448]He tells us that he held the degree of Doctor of Divinity, but there is no record of his having taken any such degree there. Robert Greene was among his friends, and he wrote a sonnet in questionable French on Greene'sPerimedes or the Black Smith, with which it was published in 1588. These are all the details we possess concerning this amusing and striking figure among the French teachers of the sixteenth century.

FOOTNOTES:[410]The names of many have been lost, owing to the incompleteness of the records, or to the fact that no profession is indicated. A few are known from other sources to have been schoolmasters or private tutors; cp. Huguenot Society Publications, vol. x.,Returns of Aliens dwelling in London; vols. viii., xviii.,Letters of Denization.[411]Evrard Erail, Onias Ganeur, Charles Bod, Robert Fontaine, Charles Darvil d'Arras, Jean Vaquerie, Baudouin Mason, and Adrian Tresol (Schickler,Églises du Refuge, i. p. 124). Of these names only that of Robert Fontaine is found in theReturns of Aliens. Charles Darvil and Adrian Tresol are again mentioned in connexion with the Church in 1564. Baudouin Mason received letters of denization in 1565, and Adrian Tresol, a Netherlander, in 1562. In 1571 there were three other schoolmasters connected with the Church: Adrian Tressel, John Preste of Rouen, and Nicolas Langlois or Inglish. All these, however, are mentioned in theReturns of Aliens.[412]Schickler,op. cit.i. p. 182.[413]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. ii. pp. 228, 335.[414]Duc d'Alençon, who died in 1584.[415]Printed by Henry Dizlie for Thomas Purfoote. Reprinted by T. Spiro in theNeudrucke frühneuenglischer Grammatiken, herausgegeben von R. Brotanek, Bd. 7, Halle, 1912. It contains 75 pages, 8vo.[416]Bellot's name does not occur in the Registers (vol. i., Lymington, 1908).[417]16º, pp. 80.[418]Stationers' Register, 19th February 1588.[419]Hazlitt,Handbook, 1867, p. 36.[420]Perhaps he was a member of the La Motte Fouqué family whose name became so closely connected with the Protestant cause in France. In 1551 René La Motte left Saintonge and went to Normandy, where he died, leaving two sons and three daughters. Cp. Crottet,History of the Reformed Church in Saintonge, quoted by T. F. Sanxay,The Sanxay Family, 1907.[421]"Estant donc refugié a l'ombre favorable du Sceptre de sa serenissime majesté, qui est le vray port de retraicte et asyle asseuré de ceux qui faisans profession de l'Evangile souffrent ores persecution soubs la Tyrannie de l'Antichrist, j'ay tasché de tout mon pouvoir de faire en sorte par mes labeurs que ceste noble Nation qui maintenant nous sert de mere et de nourrice peust tirer quelque proffit d'iceux, afin que par ce moyen je peusse eviter le vice enorme de l'ingratitude. . . . Or entre toutes les belles et rares vertus dont la Noblesse angloise se rend tant renommée par tout le monde, admirée des estrangiers, et honorée en son pays, est l'Estude des bonnes lettres, et cognoissance des langues, qui leur sont si familieres et communes qu'il s'en trouve peu parmi eux, non seulement entre les Seigneurs et Gentilhommes, qui n'en parlent trois ou quatre pour le moins, mais aussi entre les Dames et Damoiselles, exercise veritablement louable, par lequel toute vertu s'honore et se rend immortelle et sans lequel nulle autre n'est parfait ni digne d'estre aucunement estimé. Or c'est ce qui, outre la singuliere affection que naturellement ils portent aux estrangers et la grande courtoisie dont ils ont a coustume de les traicter, leur faict faire tant d'estat des François, si bien qu'il y en a fort peu qui n'en ait un avec soy."[422]Who first went to Oxford in 1587. Foster,Alumni Oxonienses, ad nom.[423]Containing the rarest Sentences, Proverbs, Parables, Similies, Apothegmes and Golden sayings of the most excellent French Authors as well Poets as Orators.[424]Arber,Register of the Company of Stationers, ii. 614. Miss Farrer in her book on Holyband takes this entry,l'Alphabet François avec le Tresor de la langue françoise, to refer to another edition of Holyband'sTreasurie, which, she assumes, was prevented and superseded by the publication of his dictionary in 1592.[425]Field was born at Stratford in the same year as Shakespeare; cp. S. Lee,Life of Shakespeare, pp. 42et seq.[426]A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, 1557-1640, Bibliog. Soc., 1910: Index of London Addresses.[427]1625, 1631, 1633, 1639, 1647.[428]In 1626 the work was made over to Miller by Field's widow. Arber,Transcript, iv. 157.[429]How closely, may be judged by comparing the following selection with the description of Holyband's rules on p. 142,supra.How do you pronounce g before n?Comment prononcez vous g devant n?Gn is hardly pronounced by Englishmen.Gn se prononce difficilement par les Anglois.Notwithstanding if they will take heed how they do pronounceminion... it will be more easy for them to pronounce it: for though we do write the selfesame words with gn, neverthelesse there is small difference between their pronunciation and ours: let them take heed only to sound g in the same syllable that n is, and then they shall not finde any hardnesse in his pronunciation, as mignon ... mi-gnon.Toutesfois s'ils veulent prendre garde comment ils prononcent minion, onion, companion, il leur sera plus aisé de le prononcer: car encore que nous escrivions ces mesmes mots par gn, neantmoins il y a peu de difference de leur prononciation a la nostre: seulement qu'ils prennent garde à mettre g en la mesme syllable que n, et ils ne trouveront aucune difficulté en sa prononciation, comme mi-gnon. . . .[430]"Et pourroit a bon droict estre comparé a quelques vieilles masures d'un bastiment où il a tant creu de ronces et espines, qu'à grand peine il apert que jamais il y ait eu de maisons. Car devant qu'on eust trouvé l'imprimerie, on l'a tant de fois coppié, et chaque écrivain l'escrivant à la fantaisie et ne retenant l'orthographe françoise, que maintenant il semble qu'il n'y ait presque langage plus esloigné du vray François que ce François de vos loix."[431]Bellot frequently refers to thegent hargneuseand the "aiguillons envenimez des langues qui se plaisent à detracter les œuvres d'autruy et qui deprisent tout ce qui n'est tiré de leurs boutiques, iaçoit que souvente fois leur estofe ne soit que biffes et hapelourdes."[432]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. i. pp. xii, xiv.[433]And again: "Or vous noterés qu'en tous les noms terminés enent,tn'est pas exprimé en la fin: quant aux verbes, il est prononcé, mais bien doucement: donnés vous donc garde d'ensuivre en ceci les Bourgignons qui expriment leurtsi fort que de deux syllabes ilz en font trois: comme quand nous disonsils mangent. . . le Walon dira;ilz mangete." And yet again: "Soundechasshin English: you shall not follow in this the Picard orBourgignions, for they doo pronouncechlikek, saykienforchien."[434]French was widely used in the Spanish Netherlands, and there was hardly any opening for the teaching of any of the Germanic languages in England at this early time, when they were only learnt in exceptional cases. There were no doubt a few such teachers, here and there. We are told that in London "there be also teachers and professors of the Holy or Hebrew language, of the Caldean, Syriack or Arabicke or Tartary Languages, of the Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and Polish Tongues. And here be they which can speake the Persian and the Morisco, and the Turkish and the Muscovian Language, and also the Sclavonian tongue, which passeth through seventeen nations. And in divers other languages fit for Ambassadors and Orators, and Agents for Merchants, and for Travaylors and necessarie for all commerce or Negociation whatsoever." Buck,The Third Universitie of England, 1619, ch. xxxvii. "Of Languages." The earliest work for teaching Dutch to Englishmen was probably theDutch Tutorof 1660; cp. F. Watson,Modern Subjects, ch. xv. John Minsheu taught a number of languages in London, and wrote aDuctor in Linguas(1617), in eleven languages.[435]Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. ii. p. 81.[436]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. i. p. xi.[437]Moens,The Walloons and their Church at Norwich, Hug. Soc. Pub. i. p. 90.[438]Cal. State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1580-1625, p. 294.[439]Victoria County Histories: Suffolk, ii. p. 317.[440]Apologie for Schoolmasters.[441]Sm. 4to, pp. 1-60, and 17-173. Printed by J. Wolfe. Licence dated 18 Dec. 1592. Preface dated 18 April 1593.[442]Born 1574; at Oxford in 1588.[443]Bellot, in his quality of "gentleman," compares his labours to those of Diogenes rolling his tub up and down a hill, in order not to be idle while the Corinthians were busy preparing to defend their city against Philip of Macedon. Eliote takes up the theme and turns it to ridicule.[444]The first part is paged from 1 to 60, and has signatures A-L in fours. InEliote's first bookethe pagination begins afresh at p. 17 and continues to p. 175 at the end of the work: it has signaturesc-yin fours.[445]Palsgrave had accompanied his French quotations with similar indications:"Au diziesme an de mon doulant exilAvdiziemavndemoundoulauntezil."[446]He announces his intention of producing a book calledDe Natura et Arte Linguae Gallicae.[447]Advice given by a Catholike gentleman to the Nobilitie & Commons of France, Lond., 1589;Newes sent unto the Lady Princesse of Orange, 1589;Discourses of Warre and single combat ...from the French of B. de Loque, 1591.[448]Foster,Alumni Oxon., ad nom.

[410]The names of many have been lost, owing to the incompleteness of the records, or to the fact that no profession is indicated. A few are known from other sources to have been schoolmasters or private tutors; cp. Huguenot Society Publications, vol. x.,Returns of Aliens dwelling in London; vols. viii., xviii.,Letters of Denization.

[411]Evrard Erail, Onias Ganeur, Charles Bod, Robert Fontaine, Charles Darvil d'Arras, Jean Vaquerie, Baudouin Mason, and Adrian Tresol (Schickler,Églises du Refuge, i. p. 124). Of these names only that of Robert Fontaine is found in theReturns of Aliens. Charles Darvil and Adrian Tresol are again mentioned in connexion with the Church in 1564. Baudouin Mason received letters of denization in 1565, and Adrian Tresol, a Netherlander, in 1562. In 1571 there were three other schoolmasters connected with the Church: Adrian Tressel, John Preste of Rouen, and Nicolas Langlois or Inglish. All these, however, are mentioned in theReturns of Aliens.

[412]Schickler,op. cit.i. p. 182.

[413]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. ii. pp. 228, 335.

[414]Duc d'Alençon, who died in 1584.

[415]Printed by Henry Dizlie for Thomas Purfoote. Reprinted by T. Spiro in theNeudrucke frühneuenglischer Grammatiken, herausgegeben von R. Brotanek, Bd. 7, Halle, 1912. It contains 75 pages, 8vo.

[416]Bellot's name does not occur in the Registers (vol. i., Lymington, 1908).

[417]16º, pp. 80.

[418]Stationers' Register, 19th February 1588.

[419]Hazlitt,Handbook, 1867, p. 36.

[420]Perhaps he was a member of the La Motte Fouqué family whose name became so closely connected with the Protestant cause in France. In 1551 René La Motte left Saintonge and went to Normandy, where he died, leaving two sons and three daughters. Cp. Crottet,History of the Reformed Church in Saintonge, quoted by T. F. Sanxay,The Sanxay Family, 1907.

[421]"Estant donc refugié a l'ombre favorable du Sceptre de sa serenissime majesté, qui est le vray port de retraicte et asyle asseuré de ceux qui faisans profession de l'Evangile souffrent ores persecution soubs la Tyrannie de l'Antichrist, j'ay tasché de tout mon pouvoir de faire en sorte par mes labeurs que ceste noble Nation qui maintenant nous sert de mere et de nourrice peust tirer quelque proffit d'iceux, afin que par ce moyen je peusse eviter le vice enorme de l'ingratitude. . . . Or entre toutes les belles et rares vertus dont la Noblesse angloise se rend tant renommée par tout le monde, admirée des estrangiers, et honorée en son pays, est l'Estude des bonnes lettres, et cognoissance des langues, qui leur sont si familieres et communes qu'il s'en trouve peu parmi eux, non seulement entre les Seigneurs et Gentilhommes, qui n'en parlent trois ou quatre pour le moins, mais aussi entre les Dames et Damoiselles, exercise veritablement louable, par lequel toute vertu s'honore et se rend immortelle et sans lequel nulle autre n'est parfait ni digne d'estre aucunement estimé. Or c'est ce qui, outre la singuliere affection que naturellement ils portent aux estrangers et la grande courtoisie dont ils ont a coustume de les traicter, leur faict faire tant d'estat des François, si bien qu'il y en a fort peu qui n'en ait un avec soy."

[422]Who first went to Oxford in 1587. Foster,Alumni Oxonienses, ad nom.

[423]Containing the rarest Sentences, Proverbs, Parables, Similies, Apothegmes and Golden sayings of the most excellent French Authors as well Poets as Orators.

[424]Arber,Register of the Company of Stationers, ii. 614. Miss Farrer in her book on Holyband takes this entry,l'Alphabet François avec le Tresor de la langue françoise, to refer to another edition of Holyband'sTreasurie, which, she assumes, was prevented and superseded by the publication of his dictionary in 1592.

[425]Field was born at Stratford in the same year as Shakespeare; cp. S. Lee,Life of Shakespeare, pp. 42et seq.

[426]A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, 1557-1640, Bibliog. Soc., 1910: Index of London Addresses.

[427]1625, 1631, 1633, 1639, 1647.

[428]In 1626 the work was made over to Miller by Field's widow. Arber,Transcript, iv. 157.

[429]How closely, may be judged by comparing the following selection with the description of Holyband's rules on p. 142,supra.How do you pronounce g before n?Comment prononcez vous g devant n?Gn is hardly pronounced by Englishmen.Gn se prononce difficilement par les Anglois.Notwithstanding if they will take heed how they do pronounceminion... it will be more easy for them to pronounce it: for though we do write the selfesame words with gn, neverthelesse there is small difference between their pronunciation and ours: let them take heed only to sound g in the same syllable that n is, and then they shall not finde any hardnesse in his pronunciation, as mignon ... mi-gnon.Toutesfois s'ils veulent prendre garde comment ils prononcent minion, onion, companion, il leur sera plus aisé de le prononcer: car encore que nous escrivions ces mesmes mots par gn, neantmoins il y a peu de difference de leur prononciation a la nostre: seulement qu'ils prennent garde à mettre g en la mesme syllable que n, et ils ne trouveront aucune difficulté en sa prononciation, comme mi-gnon. . . .

[429]How closely, may be judged by comparing the following selection with the description of Holyband's rules on p. 142,supra.

[430]"Et pourroit a bon droict estre comparé a quelques vieilles masures d'un bastiment où il a tant creu de ronces et espines, qu'à grand peine il apert que jamais il y ait eu de maisons. Car devant qu'on eust trouvé l'imprimerie, on l'a tant de fois coppié, et chaque écrivain l'escrivant à la fantaisie et ne retenant l'orthographe françoise, que maintenant il semble qu'il n'y ait presque langage plus esloigné du vray François que ce François de vos loix."

[431]Bellot frequently refers to thegent hargneuseand the "aiguillons envenimez des langues qui se plaisent à detracter les œuvres d'autruy et qui deprisent tout ce qui n'est tiré de leurs boutiques, iaçoit que souvente fois leur estofe ne soit que biffes et hapelourdes."

[432]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. i. pp. xii, xiv.

[433]And again: "Or vous noterés qu'en tous les noms terminés enent,tn'est pas exprimé en la fin: quant aux verbes, il est prononcé, mais bien doucement: donnés vous donc garde d'ensuivre en ceci les Bourgignons qui expriment leurtsi fort que de deux syllabes ilz en font trois: comme quand nous disonsils mangent. . . le Walon dira;ilz mangete." And yet again: "Soundechasshin English: you shall not follow in this the Picard orBourgignions, for they doo pronouncechlikek, saykienforchien."

[434]French was widely used in the Spanish Netherlands, and there was hardly any opening for the teaching of any of the Germanic languages in England at this early time, when they were only learnt in exceptional cases. There were no doubt a few such teachers, here and there. We are told that in London "there be also teachers and professors of the Holy or Hebrew language, of the Caldean, Syriack or Arabicke or Tartary Languages, of the Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch and Polish Tongues. And here be they which can speake the Persian and the Morisco, and the Turkish and the Muscovian Language, and also the Sclavonian tongue, which passeth through seventeen nations. And in divers other languages fit for Ambassadors and Orators, and Agents for Merchants, and for Travaylors and necessarie for all commerce or Negociation whatsoever." Buck,The Third Universitie of England, 1619, ch. xxxvii. "Of Languages." The earliest work for teaching Dutch to Englishmen was probably theDutch Tutorof 1660; cp. F. Watson,Modern Subjects, ch. xv. John Minsheu taught a number of languages in London, and wrote aDuctor in Linguas(1617), in eleven languages.

[435]Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. ii. p. 81.

[436]Returns of Aliens, Hug. Soc. Pub. x. pt. i. p. xi.

[437]Moens,The Walloons and their Church at Norwich, Hug. Soc. Pub. i. p. 90.

[438]Cal. State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1580-1625, p. 294.

[439]Victoria County Histories: Suffolk, ii. p. 317.

[440]Apologie for Schoolmasters.

[441]Sm. 4to, pp. 1-60, and 17-173. Printed by J. Wolfe. Licence dated 18 Dec. 1592. Preface dated 18 April 1593.

[442]Born 1574; at Oxford in 1588.

[443]Bellot, in his quality of "gentleman," compares his labours to those of Diogenes rolling his tub up and down a hill, in order not to be idle while the Corinthians were busy preparing to defend their city against Philip of Macedon. Eliote takes up the theme and turns it to ridicule.

[444]The first part is paged from 1 to 60, and has signatures A-L in fours. InEliote's first bookethe pagination begins afresh at p. 17 and continues to p. 175 at the end of the work: it has signaturesc-yin fours.

[445]Palsgrave had accompanied his French quotations with similar indications:"Au diziesme an de mon doulant exilAvdiziemavndemoundoulauntezil."

[445]Palsgrave had accompanied his French quotations with similar indications:

"Au diziesme an de mon doulant exilAvdiziemavndemoundoulauntezil."

[446]He announces his intention of producing a book calledDe Natura et Arte Linguae Gallicae.

[447]Advice given by a Catholike gentleman to the Nobilitie & Commons of France, Lond., 1589;Newes sent unto the Lady Princesse of Orange, 1589;Discourses of Warre and single combat ...from the French of B. de Loque, 1591.

[448]Foster,Alumni Oxon., ad nom.

Eliotegives some information concerning the fees charged by French teachers in the later part of the sixteenth century. He asserts that the usual charge was a shilling a week,[449]but we are left in doubt as to how many lessons this entitled the student to. He affirms, probably not seriously, that he would charge a gentleman £10 a year, and a lord from £20 to £30.

We are indebted to him also for an account, very prejudiced, no doubt, of the usual method employed by French teachers generally. This consisted, according to him, in reading a page of French and then translating it. Fortunately we are enabled, by means of the French text-books that have come down to us, to draw a fuller picture of the French lessons of the time. It has been seen that as a rule these books contained four parts—rules of pronunciation, rules of grammar, reading exercises, and a vocabulary. They are generally written throughout in French and English (in parallel columns[450]), the reason of this being the importance attached to reading and to double translation, from French into English and English into French. In the English version the idiomatic phrase is sacrificed in order to give a more literal rendering of the French, and also, possibly, because these Frenchmen were incapable of writing any other. As is to be expected, translation from French into English was the more usual exercise. Translation from English into French, however, was by no means neglected, and appears to have been recommended principallyby English teachers of French, and more especially by Palsgrave and Eliote. Edward VI.'s French exercises, it will be remembered, are translations from English into French, or free composition in French.

In addition to reading and translating, much importance was attached to pronunciation. It was generally considered best to learn the sounds of the language by repetition after a teacher with a good accent; but rules were thought necessary to confirm the knowledge thus acquired. As to rules of grammar, there was no question of learning the language by means of them. A grammar was treated as a book of reference, just as a dictionary. Thus the student usually learnt the pronunciation by reading the French aloud with his tutor, referring to the rules of pronunciation whenever necessary, and then translating and retranslating the dialogues, grammar being supplied as the need for it was felt. Although these early teachers strictly limited the place of grammar, they almost all agree in emphasizing its importance within the limits indicated. Grammar rules were reduced to a minimum. Attention was called to what were considered important general rules, but those with numerous exceptions, it is argued, were better learnt by "use" and persistent reading, "so as not to weary with long discourses which would be necessary to explain things learnt better by practice than by rule."

The dialogue form in which almost all the reading material is given, and the proverbs and familiar phrases, show the importance attached to a practical and colloquial knowledge of the language. The teaching of French was of a decidedly business-like nature, and closely in touch with the concerns of life. One of the chief reasons for this, no doubt, was that it was learnt for social or other immediate requirements. The fact that French was not taught in the grammar schools undoubtedly assisted it to maintain its close connexion with practical life. It is only about a century and a half later, when French began to gain a foothold in these schools, that it was taught more and more on grammatical lines, and less and less as a living language.

Latin, although most of the school statutes of the time encourage the scholars to speak it, was taught chiefly on grammatical lines.[451]The memorizing of Latin grammar wasa foremost subject even in the Middle Ages.[452]LATIN AND FRENCHIn the sixteenth century the Latin grammar usually known as Lily's was the prescribed national grammar, with rules of accidence in English and of syntax in Latin.[453]Familiar dialogues in the style of those for French were also used, the chief difference between the Latin and French dialogues being that the Latin are separate and complete works in themselves, and are not, as a rule, provided with an English translation. They were memorized as the grammar was. From the dialogues, or colloquies as they were called, dealing with typical occurrences of life, the Latin scholar passed on to the reading of school authors—Cato, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, Terence, etc.[454]Nor was vocabulary neglected, for in the schools of the Renaissance the practice of learning so many words a day, prevalent in the Middle Ages, was still in vogue.

It thus appears that the books generally used in teaching Latin were not without some influence in determining the types of manuals employed for teaching French. The practice of including religious formulae, which we find in some books, was sanctioned by their place in the national Latin grammar, while it is clear that the Latin colloquia of the time had considerable influence on the French dialogues. In the early sixteenth century the dialogues of the scholar Vives,[455]who received honours at both Oxford and Cambridge during his short stay in England, were much in vogue. Like the French dialogues of the time, they kept closely in touch with the interests of the pupils and dealt with such topics as rising in the morning, going to school, returning home, and children's play and meals, and students' chatter. Similar works were theSententiae pueriles,[456]a book for beginners, first published at Leipzig in 1544, and containing a collection of familiar phrases rather than dialogues, and thePueriles Confabulatiunculaeby Evaldus Gallus. In the second half of the sixteenth century two other manuals of conversation were added to those already in use in England: theColloquiaof Mathurin Cordier, first published in Latin in 1564, andCastellion'sSacred Dialoguesbased on the Scriptures, printed in Latin at Basle, in 1555.[457]

With the text-books, however, all close resemblance between the teaching of Latin in grammar schools and the teaching of French ends. As we have seen, reading, pronunciation, and conversation were the main concerns of the French student; translation held a large place and grammar rules a subsidiary one. The grammar-school boy, on the contrary, would first gain an elementary knowledge from rules written in English, and memorize the vocabulary and phrases; learn his Latin grammar, and then parse and construe[458]the usual school authors.[459]The sons of the aristocracy and well-to-do classes probably learnt by a more practical method, as they were able to have private tutors, who devoted all their time to providing the necessary atmosphere. As late as 1607, when Latin was less used colloquially, the writer Cleland, a great advocate of the teaching of French, condemns the practice of those parents who have their children brought up to speak Latin only; they neglect their mother tongue and the language of elegance, French, and soon forget their Latin when once removed from their tutor's care.[460]That such cases were the exception rather than the rule, even in the early sixteenth century, may be gathered from the two great educational writers of the time, Sir Thomas Elyot and Roger Ascham. Both theGovernour(1531) and theScholemasterare protests against the common school usage of placing grammar in the first place, and a summons to base the study of the language on the reading of authors. They believed with Quintilian that "Longum et difficile iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla." Colet in hisAeditiohad laid down the same principle, to the effect that the "reading of good books, dyligent information of taught masters, studious advertence and taking heed of learners, hearing eloquent men speak, and finally busy imitation with the tongue and pen, more availeth shortlyGRAMMAR AND TRANSLATIONto get the true eloquent speech than all the tradition of rule and precepts of masters"; and he adds, "men spoke not Latin because such rules were made, but contrariwise because men spoke such Latin, upon that followed the rules and so were made."[461]Yet it seems that the force of tradition prevailed, and that these precepts were only put into practice in exceptional cases.

It is striking to notice how close was the resemblance between the actual methods used by French teachers and those advocated by would-be reformers of the teaching of Latin. Colet's words express almost exactly the sentiments and practice of Holyband, De la Mothe, and other French teachers; and the same is true of Elyot and Ascham. "Nothing can be more convenient," writes Elyot in referring to students of Latin, "than by little and little to train and exercise them in the speaking of Latin, informing them to know first the names in Latin of all the things that come in sight, and to name all the parts of their bodies, and giving them somewhat that they covert or desire in most gentle manner to teach them to ask it again in Latin." He even goes so far as to say that the pupil may "as sone speake good latin" on this method "as he may do pure frenche,"[462]thereby showing that he probably derived suggestions from the prevalent methods of teaching French. Elyot, however, realized that the use of Latin as a familiar tongue was not as practicable in schools as in many noble families, where it might well happen that the pupil would have "none other persons to serve him or keep hym company but suche as can speake Latine elegantly." How successful the sole use of Latin could be in such circumstances is exemplified in the well-known case of Montaigne. Ascham, like Elyot, recognized the exceptional conditions required for such a method. He believed the "dailie use of speaking" would be the best way of learning the language if the child could only hear it spoken perfectly, but failing this he considered the practice dangerous.[463]It is probable, however, that in the best French schools, and certainly in that of Holyband, this ideal was realized in the case of French.

As regards the respective importance of reading andgrammar, the French teachers of the time appear to have put into practice the ideas of the reformers. All agree that grammar rules should be as few as possible, and be taught in connexion with reading. The general method of French teachers was to refer to the rule as the need for it arose in reading. Ascham also pleads for the study of grammar, "so hardlie learned by the scholar in all common scholes," along with authors; and the educational reformer Mulcaster, in hisElementarieof 1582, writes that grammar is best learnt by being applied to the matter, and that the child's mind should not be clogged with rules. Elyot differs slightly from them in detail but not in principle. He allows grammar to precede the study of authors, provided it is reduced to the smallest possible amount. "Grammar," he says, "being but an introduction to the study of authors," care should be taken "not to detain the child too longe in that tedious labour, for a gentyll wytte is there with some fatigate," and "hit in a maner mortifieth his corage" before he "cometh to the most swete and pleasant readinge of olde authors."[464]Both these views as regards grammar—that of Ascham and Mulcaster, and that of Elyot—were prevalent among French teachers of the time. There are only small differences in detail; the general principles are identical.

In the matter of translation, "most common and most commendable of all other exercises of youth,"[465]there is a striking resemblance between the method of double translation common among French teachers, and the same method set out by Ascham, who marks the transition from oral to written methods of teaching Latin.[466]In the case of De la Mothe, the resemblance is so clear and close that we are led to believe he was acquainted with the work of Elizabeth's tutor,[467]published in 1570, over twenty years before theFrench Alphabet. Ascham's system consisted of the double translation of a model book, and it is interesting to compare it with the method of De la Mothe. The pupil has first to parse and translate the Latin into English; "after this the child must take a paper booke, and sitting in some place where no man shall prompe him, by him self, let him translate into Englisshe his former lesson. Then showing it to his master, let theBOOKS IN FRENCH AND ENGLISHmaster take from him his Latin booke, and pausing an houre, at the least, than let the childe translate his owne Englishe into latin againe, in an other paper booke." And when this is done, the master should compare it with the original Latin, "and laie them both togither."[468]

There was thus much in common between the teaching of Latin and the teaching of French. The dialogues, which form so important a feature in the French text-books of the time, were certainly indebted to the Latin Colloquia, although they also continue the tradition of the mediaeval French conversation-books. The Latin Dialogues of Vives had much influence on the French, and Holyband based one of his books, theCampo di Fior, on theExercitatiotranslated in French, Italian, and English. Eliote also acknowledged his debt to the Spanish scholar. In other cases the debt was almost inevitable and probably unconscious; for the French teachers, who often taught Latin as well, would use such books daily, and had moreover probably acquired their own knowledge of Latin from them. Holyband, we have seen, read theSententiae puerileswith his pupils.

The importance attached to reading and double translation by teachers of French led to the appearance of a great number of books in French and English, on the lines of Bellot'sJardin de Vertu. For instance, part of theSemainesof Du Bartas, the most popular French poet in England in the sixteenth century, was published in this form in 1596, and again in 1625, on the occasion of the marriage of Charles I. This translation is due to William L'Isle of Wilbraham,[469]the pioneer in the study of Anglo-Saxon, who dedicated it in the first place to Lord Howard of Effingham, Earl of Nottingham, Lord Admiral, and subsequently to Charles I. It is entitledPart of Du Bartas, English and French, and in his own kinde of verse, so near the French Englished, as may teach Englishmen French, or a Frenchman English. Sequitur Victoria Junctos,[470]and consists of thefirst two days of theSecond Week, with the French and English arranged on opposite pages, followed by an English translation of the commentary of Simon Goulart de Senlis.

Guy du Faur, Sieur de Pibrac, was another French writer widely read in England, and hisQuatrainswere frequently commended by French teachers to their scholars. They were translated into English verse by Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, and published with the French original in 1605. Sylvester dedicated the quatrains to Prince Henry, and the copy in the British Museum contains an epigram in English in the handwriting of his brother, afterwards Charles I., and a manuscript dedication to the younger prince in that of the translator.[471]The quatrains appeared again with the subsequent editions of Sylvester's works. About this time Prince Henry made Sylvester a Groom of his Chamber, and gave him a small pension of £20 a year.[472]The story goes that the prince valued him so highly that he made him his first "poet pensioner," and it seems that Sylvester took advantage of his position to encourage his royal patron's French studies. Many other works of the kind appeared in French and in English.[473]The educational writer Charles Hoole tells us that masters frequently taught languages by using interlinearies, "not to speak of their construing the French and Spanish Bible by the help of an English one."[474]Lord Herbert of Cherbury, philosopher and gallant, ambassador in France in the time of James I., learnt French, Italian, and Spanish, on this translation method, whilst living in the University or at home. He mastered them, he assures us, without the help of a tutor, solely by means of Latin or English books translated into those languages, and of dictionaries.[475]

De la Mothe advised his advanced pupils to read difficultFRENCH AND ENGLISH DICTIONARIESFrench books with the help of a dictionary, and there was some supply of works of this kind at the disposal of Lord Herbert and other students of the language. It is true that the widespread use of books in both languages diminished the demand for such manuals, which may not have been easy to acquire. Yet there was a considerable choice of such works. Holyband had produced two French-English dictionaries, in 1580 and 1593 respectively, in which he referred to "those which broke the ice before him." There had appeared in 1571 an anonymousDictionarie Frenche and English,[476]printed by Henry Bynneman for Lucas Harrison. This work, which does not confine itself to words only, but includes phrases as well, was no doubt known to Holyband. Its author had probably drawn largely on an earlier dictionary, already mentioned, in which a place was given to French—the Latin, English, and French Dictionary of John Veron (1552). The inclusion of French in such a work is a striking testimony to the importance of French at that time. But when a second edition of Veron's dictionary was prepared by Ralph Waddington, in 1575, he "of purpose thought good to leave out the French, both because (he) saw it was not necessary for English students of Latin, as for that Maister Barret hath five years since set forth an alvearie sufficient to instruct those which are desirous to travel in th'understanding of the French Tongue."

This "alvearie" appeared in 1573, two years after the French-English dictionary printed for Harrison. It was entitled "An alvearie or Triple Dictionarie in English, Latin and French, very profitable for all such as be desirous of any of those three languages ..." and was dedicated to Wm. Cecil, Lord Burghley, then Chancellor of Cambridge University. Baret had been teaching at Cambridge for eighteen years "pupils studious of the Latin tongue," and part of their daily task was to translate some piece of English into Latin "for the more speed and easie attayning of the same." At last, "perceiving what great trouble it was to come runnying to (him) for every word they missed,"[477]he made them collect each day a number of Latin words and phrases, togetherwith their English equivalents. Within a year or two they had gathered together a great volume of work, to which, "for the apt similitude between the good scholers and diligent bees in gathering them wax and honey into their hive," Baret gave the title ofAlvearie. At first he had no intention of publishing the work, but when he went to London he was finally persuaded to do so, and received help from many of his old pupils who were then at the Inns of Court, and from several of the best scholars in various English schools. How Baret first thought of adding French to his dictionary is not known. He owns that he did not trust his own skill in this matter, although he had formerly "travelled in divers countries beyond the seas both for languages and for learning"; but that he "used the help of M. Chaloner and M. Claudius." By 'M. Claudius,' Baret possibly meant Holyband, who was often called "Maistre Claude." M. Chaloner may have been the author of the French-English dictionary published by Harrison in 1571.

According to the custom of the time, Baret's dictionary was preceded by a number of commendatory addresses, one of which was by the head-master of Merchant Taylors' School, Richard Mulcaster. In the dictionary itself, every English word is first explained, and then its equivalent in Latin and French given. At the end are tables of the Latin and French words "placed after the order of the alphabet, whatsoever are to be found in any other dictionarie. And so as to turn them backwards againe into Englishe when they reade any Latin or French authors and doubt of any harde worde therein."

Baret had "gone to God in Heavenlie seates" before the close of 1580, when there appeared a posthumous second edition of theAlvearie. In this final form Greek has a place by the side of the other languages, and the title runs,An Alvearie or quadruple Dictionarie containing four sundrie tongues, namely, English, Latine, Greeke, and Frenche, newlie enriched with varietie of wordes, phrases, proverbs, and divers lightsome observations of grammar. But there is no table of the Greek words, as for the Latin and French. Such was the third dictionary of French words which appeared before Holyband's.[478]

FRENCH IN LATIN DICTIONARIESThe place given to French in these early Latin dictionaries is worthy of notice. No doubt French first entered the schools in this indirect way. Both Veron's and Baret's works were used in schools; and Baret's dictionary is included in the list of books mentioned by Charles Hoole as being specially useful to schoolboys.[479]There are at least two other school vocabularies in which French was introduced, both due to the poet and compiler John Higgins, who is said to have been "well read in classick authors, and withall very well skilled in French."[480]The first of his lexicographical works was a new and revised edition ofHuloet's Dictionarie,[481]which occupied him two years. It appeared in 1572,[482]a year before Baret's work. Higgins calls himself "late student in Oxforde," and dedicates the volume to Sir John Peckham. This edition by Higgins is so much altered that it is almost a new work. One of the chief changes was the addition of a French version to the Latin and English, "by whiche you may finde the Latin or French of anye Englishe woorde you will." For the French, Higgins seems to have drawn chiefly on the Latin-French dictionary of Robert Estienne, which had already been published in French, English, and Latin by Jean Veron, in 1552. Higgins also acknowledges his debt to Thierry, whose French-Latin dictionary appeared twelve years later in 1564. There was a close relationship between French-Latin and French-English dictionaries. French is first found side by side with English, in one of these French-Latin dictionaries—that of Veron; and in subsequent years the French-English dictionaries are mostly based on one or other of the French-Latin lexicons. Those due to Robert Éstienne and to Thierry were probably the sources from which the author of the French-English dictionary of 1571 drew his material; while Holyband based hisTreasurie(1580), and his Dictionary (1593), respectively, on the augmented editions of Thierry's work due to Nicot, which appeared in 1573 and 1584.[483]

The second lexicographical work of Higgins, published in 1585, was a translation, entitledNomenclator or Remembrancer of Adrianus Junius, Physician, divided into twotomes. It professed to supply the appropriate names and apt terms for all things under their convenient titles, in Latin, Greek, French, and English.[484]The English column was added by Higgins.

Thus by the end of the sixteenth century there had appeared in England three French-English dictionaries, and several others in which French found a place by the side of the classical languages. And we may add to these the French-Latin dictionaries on which they were usually based, for it seems extremely likely that those students of French who knew Latin—and practically all of them would know this chief and first of school subjects—used the French-Latin lexicons as well, in their study of French, when other means were not available.

Early in the seventeenth century, in 1611, Holyband's French dictionary of 1593 was succeeded by the celebrated French-English dictionary of Randle Cotgrave,[485]which occupies in the seventeenth century the place that Palsgrave'sEsclarcissementdoes in the sixteenth among the works on the French language produced in England. Although Cotgrave's work is on a much larger scale than Holyband's, and much superior to it,[486]there is a close connexion between the two. In theStationers' RegisterCotgrave's is entered as a dictionary in French and English first collected by Holyband, and since augmented and altered by Cotgrave.[487]But the work which no doubt was of most help to Cotgrave was another French-Latin dictionary, Aimar de Ranconnet'sTresor de la Langue Françoise, revised by Nicot (1606).[488]He had, moreover, read all sorts of books, old and new, in all dialects, where he found words not heard of for hundreds of years, which he included in his book, to be used or left as the reader thought fit. J. L'Oiseau de Tourval,[489]a Parisian, and friend of Cotgrave, who wrote in French an epistle prefixed to the dictionary, thought it advisable to assure the reader that none of these words were of Cotgrave's invention,COTGRAVE'S DICTIONARYobserving at the same time that it would be well to revive some of these obsolete and provincial terms. He also adds that Cotgrave had sent to France in his eager search for words. M. Beaulieu, secretary to the British ambassador at Paris, was no doubt Cotgrave's collaborator in this quest, as Cotgrave tells us elsewhere[490]that he had received valuable help from M. Beaulieu, as well as from a certain Mr. Limery.

Cotgrave dedicated his dictionary to Wm. Cecil, Lord Burghley, "his very good Lord and Maister," whose secretary he was. He declares that he would have produced a more substantial work to offer to his patron had not his eyes failed him and forced him "to spend much of their vigour on this bundle of words." He also offered a copy to the eldest son of James I., Prince Henry, and received from him a gift of £10.[491]The price of the dictionary seems to have been 11s. Cotgrave sent two copies to M. Beaulieu at Paris, and wrote requesting payment of 22s., which they cost him; for, he says, "I have not been provident enough to reserve any of them and therefore am forced to be beholden for them to a base and mechanicall generation, that suffers no respect to weigh down a private gain."[492]

Cotgrave's dictionary was much superior to anything of the sort which had yet appeared. In addition to giving the meaning of each French word in English, with an indication of its gender in the case of nouns, and, in the case of adjectives, of the formation of the feminine form, Cotgrave supplied a collection of illustrative phrases, idioms, and proverbs. At the end are found "briefe directions for such as desire to learne the French tongue," giving a succinct treatment of the pronunciation of the letters, followed by a description of the various parts of speech.

This really remarkable work, which is still of considerable utility to the modern student, reigned supreme throughout the greater part of the seventeenth century. A second edition was issued in 1632, when Cotgrave was still alive. The onlychange in this issue is the addition of a "most copious Dictionarie of the English set before the French by R. S. L." This R. S. L. was Robert Sherwood, Londoner, who taught French and English in London, and also had a French school for a time. He gave his dictionary the title ofDictionarie Anglois et François pour l'utilité de tous ceux qui sont desireux de deux langues,[493]and addressed it to the "favorables lecteurs françois, alemans et autres." The English reader he advises to look for fuller information as to "the gender of all French nouns, and the conjugation of all French verbs" in Cotgrave's dictionary; the small space to which he was limited did not allow him to provide such information. Like Cotgrave, Sherwood closes with rules of grammar, in the form of observations on English pronunciation and on the English verbs. Sherwood's work is the earliest of the English-French dictionaries. Both Baret and Higgins had placed English before French, and no doubt Sherwood made use of their works, as well as of English-Latin dictionaries. Baret, however, gives an indication of the greater demand there was for French-English vocabularies, by supplying a table of French words at the end of his work. Moreover, the object of Sherwood's lexicon was less to facilitate translation from English to French than to teach English to foreigners.

In 1650 Cotgrave's dictionary was issued in a revised and augmented edition by James Howell, the famous letter-writer.[494]This edition is preceded by a lengthy essay on the French language, tracing its growth from the earliest times, and taken, without acknowledgement, from Pasquier'sRecherches. Howell had already put much of the same matter in a series of letters addressed to the Earl of Clare in hisEpistolae Ho-Elianae,[495]and repeated it in his glossary of English, French, Italian, and Spanish, theLexicon Tetraglotten(1660). He quotes several examples of old French in both prose and verse, and adds on his own account a praise of Richelieu and the Academy recently founded by the cardinal. He also discusses the question as to where the best French was spoken—at the Court, among scholars at the University, or lawyersJAMES HOWELLat the Courts of Parliament—and is inclined to share the general opinion of the day, which made the Court the supreme arbiter in matters of language.

Cotgrave, it has been seen, included all sorts of words in his dictionary. Howell thought it necessary to distinguish obsolete and provincial words, and, accordingly, with the help of "a noble and knowing French gentleman," he marked such terms with a small cross. He also initiated another change by placing the grammar before the dictionary instead of after it, as Cotgrave did: "for a dictionary which contains the whole bulk of a language to go before the grammar is to make the building precede the basis. Therefore it was held more consentaneous to reason, and congruous to order that the grammar should be put here in the first place, for Art observes the method of Nature to make us creep before we go." He likewise made a few additions to Cotgrave's rules, and appended a dialogue in French and English, "consisting of some of the extraordinary and difficult criticall phrases which are meer Gallicismes, and pure idiomes of the French tongue"; and also a passage of French prose, in the old spelling and also according to the reformed orthography introduced by the Academy.

In 1660 appeared another edition of Cotgrave, still further enlarged by Howell.[496]Some years previously copies of the edition of 1650, "with blank pages sown between the leaves," had been sent by the printer "to knowing persons, true lovers of the French," who were invited to enter on the blank pages any word they came across in their reading which was not in the dictionary; by means of this plan several hundred additional words were gathered together, many being "new invented terms, which the admired Mons. Scudéry, and other late Romancers have so happily publisht in their printed volumes." After Howell's death there appeared yet another issue of his edition of Cotgrave, in 1673.[497]The printeremployed the same means to increase the number of words as had been so successfully adopted in 1660.

The appearance of French dictionaries naturally facilitated the reading of French literature, which in its turn had much influence on the spread of the knowledge of the language. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, it has been seen, gained his first knowledge of French by reading it with the help of a dictionary. And, in spite of the fact that French literature was widely read in translations,[498]there were many who preferred to read it in the original. The number of French books in private libraries is enough to show this. One translator of the time felt it necessary to apologize for offering an English version (1627) "of the French Knight Lisander and his lady Calista," contrary to the fashion of the time, "which is all French."[499]Further testimony is found in the many French books which were printed in England,[500]in addition to the books in both French and English. And many English writers of the time introduced French freely into their own English compositions.[501]

Almost all Englishmen of education could read French, and many, no doubt, learnt it as Herbert did. Milton, who differed from most of his countrymen in his decidedSTUDY OF FRENCH LITERATUREpreference for Italian, taught both languages to his two pupils and nephews, Edward and John Philips, on this method of reading. For Italian they read Giovanni Villani'sHistory, and for French "a great part of Pierre Davity, the famous geographer of France in his time."[502]In fashionable circles the case was the same, and French romances and collections ofnouvelleswere much in vogue. Lady Brilliana Harley, for instance, who later distinguished herself by defending her castle in Herefordshire against the Royalists, spent much of her time reading French literature. She wrote asking her son, then at Magdalen College, Oxford (1638-9), to send her books in French, as she "had rather reade any thinge in that tounge than in Inglisch."[503]She would even while away days of sickness by translating passages of Calvin, whom the English Protestants, yielding to the general prejudice in favour of all things French, followed in preference to Luther. Not infrequently, moreover, works in other languages were read in French versions, just as such versions were frequently the medium of translation; Drummond of Hawthornden readOrlando Furiosoand theAzolaniof Bembo in French, as well as the works of the Swiss theologian and follower of Zwingli, Thomas Erastus.[504]

Among the most eager advocates of the reading of French literature were naturally the French teachers of the time. One of the chief objections raised against Holyband's system of distinguishing the unpronounced letters was that the student would be at a loss when he came to read French books. Holyband, however, protested that such was not the case, and that "the cavillation of these ignorantes who measure other men's wit according to their owne" was in contradiction to his experience, which daily showed him the contrary. As to his reading, Holyband would first have the learner "reade halfe a score chapters of the New Testament, because it was both easie and profitable:[505]then let him take in hand any of the works of Monsieur de Launay, otherwise called Pierre Boaystuau, as the best and the most elegant writer of our tongue. His workes bele Theatre du monde, the tragicall histories, the prodigious histories.Sleidan's commentaries in frenche be excellently translated. Philippe de Commins, when he is corrected is very profitable and wise." TheNouveau Testamentof de Bèze, Boiasteau'sThéâtre du monde, and Sleidan'sCommentaries[506]were all books well known in England, and Holyband himself prepared an edition of Boiasteau.[507]An additional reason, according to him, for retaining the unsounded consonants was to facilitate the reading of the older monuments of the French language. He also advised the perusal of Marot's works, of theAmadisof Herberay des Essarts, of François de Belleforest'sHistoire Universelle du monde, of theVies et Morales de Plutarque, in Amyot's version, and of the collection of stories, on the plan of theDecameron, which its author, Jacques Yver, had entitledLe Printemps(1572),[508]by way of contrast with his own name.

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