HUGUENOT TEACHERS OF FRENCH--OTHER CLASSES OF FRENCH
TEACHERS--RIVALRIES IN THE PROFESSION--THE "DUTCH" AND ENGLISH
TEACHERS
We have seen that some of the refugees who came to England as a result
of the persecutions in France and the Netherlands were professional
schoolmasters; others joined the profession on their arrival, through
force of circumstances, or as a means of repaying hospitality. The lot
of such teachers varied considerably. Some lived and taught in
gentlemen's families; others thrived by waiting on a private
aristocratic clientèle; others gained a more precarious livelihood under
less powerful patronage; and yet others opened private schools, often
with decided success. Many of these teachers[410] were denizens, and had
long teaching careers, chiefly in London; a certain Abraham Bushell, for
instance, a native of "Rotchell," had been a "schoolmaster of the French
tongue" in London for twenty-two years in 1618, during which time he had
attended the French Church. Many other French teachers were members of
the French Church, which naturally, seeing that it fostered a French
school itself, took a particular interest in the French schoolmasters
generally. Thus in 1560 all French schoolmasters having schools in
London were summoned before the consistory, which was seeking to
ascertain how many belonged to the Church, and also what book they used
in teaching the children. Eight were ready to conform to the Church and
its discipline;[411] a ninth, one Gilles Berail, refused to conform, on
the plea that he attended the English parish church and understood
English as well as French.
With the exception of Holyband, the chief Huguenot teachers who gathered
round St. Paul's Churchyard would seem to have been Normans. One of
these was Robert Fontaine, a friend of Holyband. He had a long and
varied career in England as a teacher of French. Arriving in 1550, he
remained in England during the reign of Mary, modifying his religious
convictions to suit the exigencies of the time. He returned to his
former faith early in the reign of Elizabeth, and expressed contrition
for his "falling off to idolatry."[412] He attended the French Church
faithfully in the early time of its revival, but he appears to have gone
more frequently to the Anglican Church in later years, and possibly his
sympathies were more in that direction. The favourite neighbourhood, St.
Paul's Churchyard, was the scene of his activities, and there he lived
for many years with one of his countrymen, Mr. Bowry, a purse-maker. In
1571 he had been living seventeen years in the vicinity of the
Cathedral, and in 1582, the latest mention of him in the returns of
aliens, he was still in the same district, and appears to have been very
prosperous.
Some of this group of Normans added to their activities that of writing
books for teaching French--an occupation for which Fontaine, presumably,
had not time or inclination. One such author was Jacques Bellot, a
"gentleman of the city of Caen in Normandie," who came to England in
1578, or the end of 1577, probably driven from his native land by the
persecutions. He was received into the household of Sir Philip Wharton,
third baron of that name, and in a surprisingly short time produced a
French Grammar, which he dedicated to his patron, with an expression of
his gratitude. Bellot, it appears, had already a considerable connexion.
His work is preceded by numerous commendatory poems, after the fashion
of the time. The poet Thomas Newton of Chester wrote two of these, one
in Latin and the other in English, laying stress on the debt due by his
countrymen to these French grammarians:
[Header: JACQUES BELLOT]
Thankes therefore great and threefold thankes are due
By right to those, whose travaile, toyle and penne
Dothe breake the yce for others to ensue,
By rules and practice for us Englishmen,
An easye way, a methode most in use
Amonge the Learn'de t' enduce to knowledge sure.
Other verses are written in French by John and William Wroth, no doubt
two of the numerous sons of the politician Sir Thomas Wroth.
This new work, entitled _The French Grammar, or An Introduction orderly
and Methodically by ready rules, playne preceptes and evident examples,
teachinge the French Tongue_, differs from the popular books of
Holyband, and also from most other French manuals, in that it deals with
grammar alone. It opens with the usual observations on pronunciation.
Each letter is taken in turn, and the position of the organs necessary
to produce it is given. The author makes no attempt to compare the
French sounds with the English equivalents. He had probably not yet had
time to master the intricacies of English pronunciation, although the
whole book is written in English; and he also, no doubt, made free use
of grammars written in France. He tells us, for instance, that "_c_
ought to be pronounced with the tongue against the roof of the mouth,
and the mouth somewhat open"; that "_f_ is pronounced holding the nether
lip against the upward teeth"; and that "_h_ is but aspiration, which
loseth his sound after _e_ feminine, and also after every consonant."
Then, after a few general observations and lists of numbers, months, and
other familiar words, we reach the second part of the Grammar, which
deals with the eight parts of speech. Each is defined and commented on
in turn. The wording is often quaint; for instance, verbs are defined as
"words which be declined with Modes and tenses, and are betokenynge
doing." This second book treats of the accidence. In the third we pass
to the consideration of syntax with the following warning:
Dire, _sy ay_ (quoy qu'usage on en face)
N'est point parlé en courtois et bien nay:
Bien seant n'est aussy, dire, _non ay_:
_Sauf votre honneur_, ou bien _sauf votre grace_
Seroient trouvéz de trop meilleure grace.
_Je ne l'ay fait_, est trop desordonné:
_Pardonnez moy_, seroit mieux ordonné,
Car grand fureur douce parolle efface.
_Nous estions_, _Nous y pensons_, faut dire,
Non, _J'estions_, on ne s'en fait que rire,
Ne _J'y pensons_, tout cela est repris.
Les bons François ne parlent point ainsy.
Acunement pris ne doit estre aussy
_Petit_, pour _peu_, ny _peu_ pour _petit_ pris.
This part of the work is not extensive, and consists of a miscellaneous
collection of observations; we are, for instance, told that the
antecedent governs its relative, that the adjective agrees with its
noun, and we are supplied also with rules for the gender and number, the
negative, and so on. To this Bellot adds a fourth book, which is perhaps
the most curious part of the work. It deals with French versification.
We are first favoured with a description of the structure of various
forms of poems, such as the "chant royal," the "ballade," the sonnet,
rondeau, "dixain," and so on, each accompanied by an example, by way of
illustration. The various forms of rime are next described and
exemplified; and some of the complicated forms dear to the
"rhétoriqueurs" find a place here. This is followed by a description of
the various kinds of metres, again with examples; and finally rhythm,
colour or "lizière," the caesura, elision, the "coupe féminine," and the
use of the apostrophe are treated. Such is this little treatise on the
"French poeme," which shows incidentally that Bellot had not yet learned
the lesson enforced by the _Pléiade_ more than twenty years before he
wrote.
What strikes one most, perhaps, in Bellot's Grammar is that he makes no
attempt to deal with the difficulties which the French language presents
to the English in particular. No comparison of the two languages is
instituted; no emphasis is laid on points in which they differ. Were it
not written in English, it might be taken for a study of the language on
the model of those produced in France. Considering that the work was
published in the year of his arrival in England, it seems almost certain
that he had begun his study before his arrival, and translated it
himself, or had it translated into English. This would account for its
unusual character.
Bellot opens and closes his Grammar with apologies. He repudiates all
claim to completeness, and writes, he says, merely to provoke the
"learned" to do better. "Yet the worke is not so leane and voide of
fruite, but there is in it some taste. The bee gathereth honey from the
smallest flowers, and so may the wise man from this small work."
Some time after the publication of his Grammar, he joined the group of
French teachers dwelling in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's Churchyard.
He was there in 1582, and made the acquaintance of Holyband, who had
then resumed his French school in that locality. In the following year
he wrote a quatrain and a sonnet in praise of Holyband's latest work,
the _Campo di Fior_ (1583):
Goustez Anglois, Gent bien heureuse,
Les fleurs qu'en vostre Isle argenteuse
Vous donne Holybande pour un gage.
It is not certain how Bellot employed his time there. He may have had a
school, or have taught privately. In any case he was a member of the
French Church, and in the returns of aliens he calls himself a
"schoolmaster" and a "teacher of children."[413] But the title on which
he is most insistent is that of "gentleman." He is a "gentilhomme
cadomois," or a gentleman of Caen, and usually attaches the abbreviation
G.C. to his name. His attitude to the usual type of French teacher is
distinctly supercilious. He prided himself on belonging to the "noblesse
instruite et de Savoir," and had the reputation of teaching elegant
French.
In 1580 he dedicated to no less a person than François de Valois,[414]
brother to Henry III., a work for teaching English to foreigners. Like
Holyband, he gave his book the title of "Schoolmaster": _Maistre
d'Escole Anglois pour les naturelz françois, et autre estrangers qui ont
la langue françoyse, pour parvenir a la vraye prononciation de la langue
Angloise_.[415] The work contains rules of pronunciation and grammar,
given in opposite columns in French and English; it was evidently
written in French in the first place, and then somewhat carelessly
translated into English, for in the English column the illustrative
examples are given in French. This produces a curious effect, and
involves such statements as: "_quand_ should be pronounced as _Houen_"
(when), etc. In the dedication he refers to his "misfortune," by which,
presumably, he means his exile.[416]
Bellot was busily occupied in the production of other text-books also
during his residence in Paul's Churchyard. The _Maistre d'Escole
Anglois_ appeared in January 1580, and in 1581 was followed by a third
work, in the form of a collection of moral dicta, entitled _Le Jardin de
vertu et bonnes moeurs plain de plusieurs belles fleurs et riches
sentences, avec le sens d'icelles, recueillies de plusieurs
autheurs_,[417] and intended to be used as a "reader." It was published
by the French refugee printer Thomas Vautrollier, who, at the same time,
issued a new edition of Holyband's _French Littleton_. The works of the
two friends were of the same size, and are bound together in the copy
preserved in the British Museum.
Holyband, with his long-standing reputation, may have been able to
further Bellot's interests. In 1580 he had dedicated his Latin work on
French pronunciation to the queen, and in the following year Bellot
obtained the same favour for his little work. He accordingly opened his
book with six French sonnets in honour of Her Majesty, celebrating her
generous reception of strangers, not omitting to beg her protection for
the "garden":
Reçoy donc ce jardin: te plaise a l'appuyer
De ta faveur Royalle: et pren le jardinier
En ta protection contre la gent hargneuse:
Alors il tachera (sans appouvrir la France)
L'Angleterre enrichir d'oeuvres d'autre importance,
Pour façonner l'Anglois au Françoys, en son estre,
Alors il chantera tes vertus en tout lieu. . . .
The whole of the _Jardin_ is printed in French and English; each maxim
or saying is accompanied by explanations of the most difficult words, by
means of synonyms, paraphrases, and definitions, as in the following
example:
La memoire du prodigue est nulle. Of the prodigall ther is no memory.
Prodigue est:-- Prodigal is:--
un degasteur, un rioteux et a wastefull, a riotious and
un excessif depenseur, an outrageous spender,
un consomme-tout, qui degaste a spendall that will lavishe
et depense où il n'en est and spende where
nul besoin et a l'endroit de it needeth not and upon whom
qui n'en a besoin. it needeth not.
Memoire est:-- Memory is:--
une souvenance, une resconte pensée, a remembrance, and having in minde,
une chose non mise en oubly. a not forgetting.
Le Moral:-- The meaning:--
La renommée et fame du The prodigall mans fame and renown
prodigue ne dure ny continue long endureth nor continueth
temps: si tost qu'il est mort not long; as sone as he is gone
et passé il est oublié and dead he is forgotten
et hors de toute souvenance. and out of all remembrance.
Cicero en Paradox dit:-- Cicero in Paradox saith:--
Les prodigues employent et Prodigall men employ and
degastent leurs biens en wast their goods upon
choses dont ils ne peuvent thinges whereof they can not
laisser qu'une courte memoire leave but a short memory
de eux, ou point du tout. of them, or none at all.
[Header: NORMANS IN ENGLAND]
It will be noticed that Bellot had not fully mastered the English idiom,
although he had written an English grammar. The rest of the "beautiful
flowers of vertue" which he planted in his "garden" are similar in
character and treatment. He characteristically closes his little book
with a prayer, which he quaintly compares to a fence to keep the "goats"
from harming the "flowers."
In 1583 Bellot was still living near St. Paul's Churchyard. But after
this date we lose all trace of him until 1588, when the printer Robert
Robinson received a licence to print "a booke intytuled a grammar in
Frenche and Englishe, the auttour is James Bellot."[418] This second
French Grammar was known as _The French Methode_.[419]
To the numerous band of Normans in England also belonged, perhaps, G. De
la Mothe, who wrote the letter "N" after his name. De la Mothe was
another refugee for the sake of religion, and he speaks with gratitude
of the generous welcome he received in England.[420] He tells us that
the cruel civil wars in France had "burnt the wings of his studies" and
ruined his fortune.[421] On his arrival in England, he began his career
as a teacher of French in the same way as many others; he became a
tutor in a noble family, and shortly after produced a book for teaching
French. He was first appointed French tutor to the son of Sir Henry
Wallop, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and a prominent patron of the
refugees, on the return of his lordship to England in 1589. De la Mothe
was also received, at some date before 1592, into the midst of another
important English family, the Wenmans, of Thame Park, Oxfordshire. He
taught French to the girls, and early in 1592, if not before, was at
Oxford with the eldest son, Richard Wenman,[422] afterwards Sir Richard,
and his brothers.
De la Mothe had in the meantime written a French text-book which he
called _The French Alphabet, Teaching in a very short time by a most
easie way, to pronounce French naturally, to read it perfectly, to unite
it truly, and to speak it accordingly, Together with a Treasure of the
French Tongue_.[423] He divided it into two parts, which he dedicated to
each of his patrons--the first to Sir Henry Wallop and the second to Sir
Richard Wenman's mother, at whose request he had undertaken the work. De
la Mothe acknowledges his debt of gratitude to both, and also to the
country which had received him so hospitably, in terms which contain
something more than the usual trite expressions.
The _French Alphabet_ was licensed to the printer Richard Field in
1592,[424] but no copy of this earliest edition has been preserved.
Field succeeded to Vautrollier's successful business, and in this same
year showed his friendship for his fellow-townsman[425] Shakespeare, by
printing the first work he published, _Venus and Adonis_. It is of
course pure conjecture to suggest that Shakespeare saw and even read the
little book printed by his friend. Whether this be so or not, it was
perhaps through Field and his Huguenot connexions--he had married
Vautrollier's widow--that Shakespeare became acquainted with the family
of Christopher Montjoy.
[Header: G. DE LA MOTHE, N.]
A new edition of the _Alphabet_ appeared in 1595, from the press of
Edward Alde. At this date De la Mothe had joined the group of teachers
in St. Paul's Churchyard. He taught at the "Signe of the Helmet," and
"there you shall finde him ever willing to show you any favour or
curtesie he may; and most ready to endeavour himselfe to satisfie you in
all that can be possible for hime to doe." The Sign of the Helmet was
the address of the bookseller Thomas Chard.[426] Any one desirous of
becoming acquainted with the author for his better furtherance in the
French tongue could also make enquiries at the Sign of St. John the
Evangelist in Fleet Street, beneath the Conduit, where lived the printer
and bookseller Hugh Jackson, commissioned to sell the book--further
instances of the friendly relations between the French teachers and the
printers and booksellers of the time, through whom these teachers would,
no doubt, get a large proportion of their clientèle. The Huguenot
sympathies of many of the printers, such as Vautrollier and Field,
account in part for this cordial feeling.
After the 1595 edition of his work we hear nothing further of De la
Mothe. Although the name occurs frequently in the returns of aliens,
none can be identified with him. He probably seized an early opportunity
of returning to his native land. His manual, however, did not disappear
with him. Second in popularity only to the works of Holyband in the
sixteenth century, it enjoyed numerous editions in the seventeenth.[427]
Excepting the omission of De la Mothe's advertisement, all the later
editions are identical. They were issued from the press of Field's
successor, George Miller.[428] It is difficult to understand how the
1595 edition came to be printed by Edward Alde, though his work was
evidently countenanced by De la Mothe.
The _French Alphabet_ is a very practical little work. It contains rules
for pronunciation and familiar dialogues in the usual style. The whole
is given in French and English arranged on opposite pages. His treatment
of pronunciation is much the same as Holyband's, and he sometimes
transcribes freely from his active contemporary's work.[429] He
explains the sounds chiefly by comparison with English, giving the
nearest equivalent to each letter. After the letters he deals with the
syllables and then the words. The rules are arranged in the form of
dialogues between master and pupil:
Sir, will it please you do me Monsieur, vous plaist il me faire
so much favour (or would tant de faveur (ou voudriez
you take the pain) to vous prendre la peine) de
teach me to speak French? m'apprendre a parler François?
With all my heart, if Tres volontiers, si vous
you have a desire to it. en avez envie.
I desire nothing more. Je ne desire rien plus.
If you desire it you Si vous le desirez vous
shall learn it quickly, l'apprendez bien,
if you please to take s'il vous plaist de prendre
some pain. un peu de peine.
There is nothing though never so hard Il n'y a rien si difficile
but by labour it may be made easie. qui par labeur ne soit facile.
You say true, Vous dites vray,
I believe you. je vous en croy. . . .
How do you pronounce Comment prononcez vous
the letter a? la lettre a?
A is pronounced plaine and long as A se prononce ouvert et long comme
this English word awe, to be in awe, ce mot Anglois awe, to be in awe,
as ma, ta, sa, la, comme ma, ta, sa, la,
bat, part, blanc, etc. bat, part, blanc, etc.
And the next lesson takes the following form: [Header: HIS FRENCH
ALPHABET]
Sir, can you say your lesson? Monsieur, sçaves vous vostre leçon?
Have you learnt to pronounce your Avés vous apprins a prononcer vos
letters? lettres?
Yea, as well as I can. Ouy, le mieux qu'il m'est possible.
I have done nothing but study it Je n'ay fait autre chose qu'estudier.
since you did heare me yesterday depuis que vous me feistes dire hier.
It is very well done, C'est tresbien fait,
I am glad then. i'en suis bien aise.
Go to, let me heare you how you do Or aus, que je voye comment vous
pronounce. prononcez.
I will, I am content. Je le veux, i'en suis content.
Say then, begin, speak Dites, doncq, commencez, parlez
aloud. haut.
Pronounce distinctly. Softly, Prononcez distinctement. Tout beau,
make no haste, open your ne vous hastez point, ouvrez la
mouth. bouche.
That is very well, that is well Voyla qui est bien, cela est bien
said. dit.
Repeat it once again. Repetez encore une fois derechef.
Do I pronounce it well? Yea, Prononce-je bien? Ouy,
you pronounce well. vous prononcez bien.
Help me, I pray you. Aydez moy, je vous prie.
How do you pronounce that letter? Comment se prononce ceste lettre?
Before we go any further Devant que passer oultre
you must il faut que vous
pronounce perfectly your letters. prononciez vos lettres parfaitement.
Now that you can tell your letters Maintenant que vous sçavez vos
well, lettres,
learne your syllables, apprenez vos syllables,
say after me. dictes après moy.
After dealing with the sounds of the French language, De la Mothe passes
to more general considerations. He touches on the much-discussed
question of the reform of the orthography, and expresses his strong
disapproval of all attempts to make it tally with the pronunciation.
Then he deals with the pronunciation of the Law French of the
English,[430] which he puts down to such fanciful experiments. Lawyers
write their French as they pronounce it, and pronounce it as they write
it, so that it is now quite corrupt. He next proceeds to give his pupils
a short history of the chief Romance tongues, French, Italian, and
Spanish, and finally of the English language.
The remainder of the first part of the _Alphabet_ is occupied by short
familiar dialogues on the usual subjects--greetings, the weather, the
divisions of time, buying and selling, and the occurrences of daily
life--as follows:
_For to aske the way._ _Pour demander le chemin._
How many miles to London? Combien y a il d'icy à Londres?
Ten leagues, twenty miles. Dix lieues, vingt mil.
What way must we keep? Quel chemin faut il tenir?
Which is the shortest Où est le plus court
way to goe to Rye? chemin d'icy à Rye?
Keepe alwayes the great way. Suyvez tousjours le grand chemin.
Do not stray neither to the right Ne vous fourvoyez ny à dextre
nor to the left hand. ny à sinestre.
What doe I owe you now? Combien vous doy-je maintenant?
Two shillings. Here it is. Deux sols. Les voylà.
Bring me my horse. Amenez moy mon cheval.
Will you take horse? Vous plaist il monter à cheval?
Yea, I hope I shall not alight Ouy, j'espere que je ne descendrez
till I be come to London. que je ne soys arrivé à Londres.
God be with you. Farewell. Adieu. Bonne vie et longue.
At the end of these dialogues comes the second part of De la Mothe's
book, entitled the _Treasure of the French Tongue_. It consists of a
collection of French and English proverbs and golden sayings,
"diligently gathered and faithfully set in order after the Alphabeticall
manner, for those that are desirous of the French tongue." These early
teachers of French were fond of such collections. They usually included
proverbs in their grammar books, and Palsgrave, as we have seen, hoped
to publish a separate work on them. His intention seems to have been
first fully realised by De la Mothe, although Holyband had included a
smaller list in both his popular text-books.
From De la Mothe's _French Alphabet_, more than from any other of these
early works, we can form a fairly adequate idea of the method of
teaching French prevalent at the time. Much importance was attached to
pronunciation and to reading, which were made the first subject of
study. Rules were felt to be desirable for learning the sounds, but more
stress was laid on the services of a good teacher; "for do not think,"
says De la Mothe, "that my book is by itself to make thee a good
Frenchman." His own method was to make his pupils repeat the sounds
after him. He believed that the acquirement of a good pronunciation
depended on a mastery of each separate sound in the language. According
to him, any one who can pronounce each letter correctly must, perforce,
enunciate words correctly, and on the same plan, sentences also; a
rather questionable theory this, but we must remember that De la Mothe
took for granted the daily attendance of a French tutor. The
understanding of the language De la Mothe regards as the second stage in
the pupil's progress. This he considers a natural consequence of a
perfect command of the pronunciation and reading of the language. Lastly
comes the speaking of the language, which, according to him, results
from understanding it.
De la Mothe does not only expound his theories; he also gives fairly
detailed information as to how they may be put into practice. After
engaging a good teacher, the student should learn to pronounce his
letters and syllables perfectly. Then he may begin to read, very slowly
at first, at the rate of from three to four lines a day, "or more or
less according as your capacity can reach or your patience permit."
[Header: HIS METHOD FOR LEARNING FRENCH] Each word should be spelt four
or five times, and in the spelling and reading the pupil should "not let
passe any letter or syllable without bringing them to the trial of his
rules." When you can "read truly and pronounce perfectly, then go about
to English it." First translate the French passages into English, with
the help of the word for word translation provided, then copy out the
French into a book provided for the purpose, close the _Alphabet_ and
attempt to translate your copy into English at sight, correcting the
version by referring again to the _Alphabet_. Next proceed to
retranslate the English back into French on a similar method. "Continue
this order for a month, every day repeating three or four times, both
your letters and your syllables, and reading and Englishing as many
times your old from the beginning till your latter lesson." ... "Being
once able to reade and pronounce perfectly with your rules, two or three
leaves of your book, at most, I can assure you that there is not any
French book though never so hard, but you shall be able to reade it and
pronounce it as truly as can be wished. For in less than one leaf of
your book, all your rules are to be observed, three or four times at
least. For there is not a word but in it is one or two rules to be
noted."
When the learner has thus fully mastered the rules of pronunciation, he
may go forward speedily, translating from English into French, and from
French into English, and revising constantly. "This is the only ready
way to learn to read and pronounce, to write and speak French." Not a
single day should be allowed to pass without exercises of this kind, and
"you shall find in less than five or six weeks your labour and dilegence
afford you much profit, and advancement, that you will wonder at it, and
much greater than I dare promise you."
Those who have made some progress in the language, De la Mothe advises
to make the acquaintance of some Frenchman, if possible, "to the end
that you may practice with him by daily conference together, in speech
and talk, what you have learned. And if you be in place where the
Frenchmen have a Church for themselves, as they do in London, get you a
French Bible or a New Testament, and every day go both to their lectures
and Sermons. The one will confirm and strengthen your pronunciation, and
the other cause you to understand when one doth speak." And, finally, if
you wish to understand the hardest and most "eloquent" French, and to
speak it naturally, you must not neglect reading, but provide yourself
with a French Dictionary, and the hardest book you can find, and set
about translating it, on the method already described. If the student
will not take the pains to translate the book, he should at least read
it carefully, and write out a list of the hardest words and of
appropriate phrases "to serve his turn, either to speak or write when he
has need of them."
Although De la Mothe makes no mention of grammar, when he describes his
method of teaching, he did not consider it unnecessary. Indeed he
declares it is not possible to speak French perfectly without such
rules, which he no doubt used for purposes of reference, as he did the
rules of pronunciation. He even promises to produce shortly a _French
Tutor_, "that will teach you in so short and easie a way as may be, both
by the perfect knowledge of the parts of your speeches, and syntaxe, not
only to speak perfectly, but also to know if one doth not speak well, to
reprove him when he doth speak ill, and to teach him to amend his bad
speech: a thing which yet before has never been taught. The promise is
great, but the performance shall not be less if this be acceptable to
you." Unfortunately this promise does not seem to have been kept. That
his _Alphabet_ did not prove "acceptable" cannot be the reason. Most
probably De la Mothe left England before he had time to show his
gratitude to the English nobility by the production of this second book.
We have seen that these teachers of French did not always look upon each
other as rivals. Bellot wrote verses in honour of Holyband, who was a
friend of Fontaine, another of the group of French teachers in St.
Paul's Churchyard. But such friendly relations were not general. The
teachers just mentioned belonged to what formed, no doubt, the highest
rank of the profession. Bellot calls himself a "gentilhomme," and so
does Holyband; and both refer to criticism and attacks upon them by
other French teachers.[431] Holyband calls attention to the
unscrupulousness of many of them, who take money in advance and do
nothing to earn it; and expresses his contempt for his critics--Frenchmen
ignorant of English, Burgundians, or Englishmen who do not know
French thoroughly. [Header: FRIENDSHIPS AND RIVALRIES] The many
French-speaking schoolmasters from the Netherlands--chiefly
Walloons and Burgundians--and the English teachers of French formed
separate groups apart from the Huguenots. Yet another group was
recruited from the ranks of the Roman Catholics.
The Burgundians, who did not come from Burgundy, but from that portion
of the Netherlands which had been under the rule of the House of
Burgundy, formed a very considerable proportion of the foreign
population of London. In 1567 there were only forty-four of them in
London, but by 1571 their number had risen to four hundred and
twenty-four--almost as many as the total number of French in the
city.[432] The Walloons were still more numerous, and no doubt
outnumbered the French. Such instructors were an obstacle in the way of
those desirous of raising the standard of the French taught in England.
Against the peculiarities of the French spoken in the Netherlands,
Holyband is constantly warning his pupils. "You shall know them," he
says, "at the pronunciation of _c_, as the proper mark of their
language," for they sound it as the English _sh_ or the French _ch_,
saying _shela_ for _cela_.[433] Warnings were also given against the
barbarisms of the Picard dialect.
Of the many "Dutch" teachers in London--an epithet which usually
includes the Flemings and Walloons--it is impossible to say which
actually taught French.[434] Apparently those who attended the French
Church taught that language; a certain Gouvert Hawmells, for example, a
native of Antwerp, who came to England in 1568--"for religion"--is
specially mentioned as a teacher of the French language; in 1571 he was
living with his family in the house of one Thomas Grimes in St.
Margaret's parish. He attended the French Church and was not a
denizen.[435] Apparently his case was not an exceptional one. What is
more, there were in London French schoolmistresses from the Low
Countries. Marry Lemaire, "by trade a French schoolmistress," was a
native of Antwerp and came to England in 1578; for over forty years she
kept school in Southwick. Another French schoolmistress, Anness Deger,
born in Tournay, came to England some ten years earlier, and in 1618 was
still practising her "trade" in Tenter Abbey. Her qualifications were
not of the first order; in the Register of Aliens she was unable to sign
her name, for which she substituted a cross. There was also a "goodwife
Frances schoolmistress, in Popinjay Alley," mentioned in 1598 and 1599,
but whether she taught French or not is not specified.
Although the chief French teachers who were responsible for the manuals
of the second half of the sixteenth century were Huguenots, it is
extremely probable that Roman Catholic teachers were in the majority.
When a census of the foreigners dwelling in London was taken in 1563,
only 712 out of a total of 4534 had come to England on religious
grounds.[436] Naturally the proportion of Protestants greatly increased
as the persecutions grew more severe, until the passing of the Edict of
Nantes in their favour in 1598. Then it probably again decreased; in the
time of Charles I. there were at least five French papists to one French
Protestant.[437] These Roman Catholic teachers were as a matter of
course regarded as suspect by those in authority, and Jesuit priests
teaching in noble English families, or those conversant with them, were
carefully watched.[438] The suspicions aroused by the John Love who had
a French school in St. Paul's Churchyard have already been noticed. This
feeling became particularly strong after the Gunpowder Plot (1605). In
the "Constitutions, Laws, Statutes, Decrees and Ordinances" of the Bury
St. Edmunds Town Council of 1607 an article was inserted "to prevent the
infectinge of youth in Poperie by Schoolmasters."[439] [Header: CLASSES
OF FRENCH TEACHERS] The constables of every ward in the borough had to
certify the Aldermen, Recorder, and Justices of the Peace, of the names
of all persons "that do keep any school for the teaching of youth to
write, read, or understand the English, Latin, French, Italian and
Spanish Tongues, upon pain to forfeit for every default 6s. 8d." This
notification had to be made quarterly. Others than the master or usher
of the free grammar school, wishing to teach any of these languages, had
to obtain special licence; and any one sending his children to a school
kept by a teacher who had no licence was liable to forfeit for every
week the sum of 6s. 8d.
Fear of proselytism was not the only incentive which aroused the
animosity of certain sections of the English public. Many young
Englishmen received much of their education from French tutors,
frequently refugees, who taught them the usual subjects as well as
French. One objection raised against them was that they corrupted their
pupils' English if they spoke and wrote English themselves, as they did
almost without exception. Thus they "pul downe with one hand more than
they can build with the other," wrote Th. Morrice in 1619.[440] Such
complaints, however, cannot have been very general or have had much
effect on the lot of French teachers.
A further attack was to come from another quarter. In the early years of
the sixteenth century, as in the Middle Ages, Englishmen had held an
important place in the French teaching profession. They had been called
to important positions as tutors, and had written grammars of the
language. After the appearance of Palsgrave's Grammar, however, we hear
no more of these English teachers of French, driven into the background,
no doubt, by the great invasion of French teachers. Probably Duwes's
earlier attack had helped either to turn public favour from the native
teachers or to discourage them. Holyband, too, had endorsed the opinion
of Duwes somewhat later, and expressed the little importance he attached
to their criticisms. To acquire the true French pronunciation and idiom,
he declares, it is necessary to learn from a Frenchman.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, however, an English teacher of
French came forward, and energetically took up the defence of his
fellow-teachers of English birth. This was John Eliote, a man of
boisterous spirits and a lover of good wine--a taste which he had
acquired in France, where he had lived many years. There, if the
dialogue he wrote for the help of students of French may be taken as
autobiographical, he had spent three years in the College of Montagu at
Paris, taught for a year in the Collège des Africains at Orleans, lived
for ten months at Lyons, and spent a year amongst the Benedictine monks.
On the murder of Henri III. in 1589, Eliote returned to England,
strongly imbued with a love for the country in which he had lived so
long.
"Surely for my part," he writes, "France I love well, Frenchmen I
hate not, and unto you I sweare by S. Scobe cap de Gascongne, that
I love a cup of new Gascon or old Orleans wine, as well as the best
French of you all. Which love, you must know, was engendered in the
sweet soile of Fraunce, where I paissed like a bon companion, with
a steele at my girdle, till the Friars (a canker of the cursed
Convent) fell to drawing of naked knives, and kild indeed the good
King Henrie of France, the more the pitye. Since which time I
retired myself among the merrie muses, and by the worke of my pen
and inke, have dezinkhornifistibulated a fantasticall Rapsody of
dialoguisme, to the end that I would not be found an idle drone
among so many famous teachers and professors of noble languages,
who are very busy daily in devising and setting forth new bookes &
instructing our English gentry in this honourable citie of London."
This "fantasticall rapsody" was published in 1593, and entitled the
_Ortho-Epia Gallica. Eliot's Fruits for the French enriched with a
double new invention, which teacheth to speake truly, speedily, voluably
the French tongue. Pend for the practice, pleasure and profit of all
English gentlemen, who will endevour by their owne paine, study, and
diligence, to attain the naturall accent, the true pronunciation and
swift and glib Grace of this noble, famous and courtly Language._[441]
It was dedicated to the young Sir Robert Dudley,[442] son of the famous
Earl of Leicester, whom Eliote possibly instructed in the French tongue.
Eliote had taken up the teaching of French, "that most ticklish of all
tongues," on his return to England, and in his book he speaks of his
long practice in learning and teaching the language. He proceeds, in the
first place, to make fun of the "learned Professors of the French Tongue
in the city of London." [Header: ENGLISH TEACHERS OF FRENCH] He
burlesques the dedicatory epistles of his predecessors, especially that
of Bellot,[443] and declares he is fully aware that, to be in the
fashion, he ought to "dilate in some good speeches of the dignitie of
the French tongue, and then show what ease this book of mine shall bring
to the learning of the French, more than other bookes have done
heretofore." But he must first ask pardon for his presumption in writing
on this subject.
"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 jours
Que 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 a page 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 the
_Ortho-Epia Gallica_ are reminiscent of famous incidents in _Gargantua_
and _Pantagruel_. 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."
The _Ortho-Epia Gallica_ forms a striking contrast to Palsgrave's rather
austere _Esclarcissement_, the last work on the French language composed
by an Englishman before that of Eliote. [Header: JOHN ELIOTE] 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 calls _Le 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 entitled _The 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 the _Ortho-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's _Exercitatio_. Their subject matter does
not differ much from earlier dialogues, but their treatment is
decidedly original. The following quotation is taken from the first
dialogue:
Hau Garcon Ho Garssoon What boy
dors tu dortu slepeth thou
vilain? debout, veelein? deboo, villain? up,
debout, ie te deboo, ie te up, I shall
reveilleray tantost reue-lheré tant-tot shall wake thee soon
avec un bon baton. tavec-keun boon batoon. 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 Donné moe' mes Give me my
chausses de velours shosséh de veloor my green velvet
verd. vert. breeches.
Lesquelles? Le-keles? Which?
C'est tout un; mes Set-toot-tewn; mes It is all one; my
chausses rondes de shosseh roondeh de round red
satin rouge. . . . sateen roz-eh. . . . 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:
_ai_ sound _e_
_ay_ sound _e_
_am_ sound _ein_
_aine_ sound _eineh_, 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.
[Header: 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 called _The Scholar_, incorporated in the first part of
the _Ortho-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 his _Ortho-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 the _Ortho-Epia Gallica_,[446] Eliote also wrote a
_Survey 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's _Perimedes 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 the _Returns 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 the _Returns 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 the _Neudrucke 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's _Treasurie_, 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. 42 _et 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 Gn se prononce difficilement par
Englishmen. les Anglois.
Notwithstanding if they will take Toutesfois s'ils veulent prendre
heed garde
how they do pronounce _minion_ ... comment ils prononcent minion,
onion, companion,
it will be more easy for them to il leur sera plus aisé de
pronounce it: for though we le prononcer: car encore que nous
do write the selfesame words escrivions ces mesmes mots
with gn, par gn,
neverthelesse there is small neantmoins il y a peu de
difference between difference de
their pronunciation and ours: leur prononciation a la nostre:
let them take heed only seulement qu'ils prennent garde à
to sound g mettre g
in the same syllable that n is, en la mesme syllable que n,
and then they et ils
shall not finde any hardnesse ne trouveront aucune difficulté
in his pronunciation, en sa prononciation,
as mignon ... mi-gnon. 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 the _gent hargneuse_ and the
"aiguillons envenimez des langues qui se plaisent à detracter les
oeuvres 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 en _ent_,
_t_ n'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 leur _t_ si fort que de deux syllabes ilz en
font trois: comme quand nous disons _ils mangent_ . . . le Walon dira;
_ilz mangete_." And yet again: "Sounde _ch_ as _sh_ in English: you
shall not follow in this the Picard or Bourgignions, for they doo
pronounce _ch_ like _k_, say _kien_ for _chien_."
[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 the _Dutch Tutor_ of 1660; cp. F. Watson, _Modern Subjects_,
ch. xv. John Minsheu taught a number of languages in London, and wrote a
_Ductor 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. In _Eliote's first booke_ the pagination begins afresh at p. 17
and continues to p. 175 at the end of the work: it has signatures _c-y_
in fours.
[445] Palsgrave had accompanied his French quotations with similar
indications:
"Au diziesme an de mon doulant exil
Avdiziemavndemoundoulauntezil."
[446] He announces his intention of producing a book called _De 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.