THE STUDY OF FRENCH BY ENGLISH TRAVELLERS ABROAD
One of the favourite methods of learning French was a sojourn in France.
To speak the language well a visit there was considered imperative, and
to speak it "as one who had never been out of England"[564] was
synonymous with speaking it badly. Consequently a journey to France was
common among the young gentry and nobility of the time. Moreover, those
who pursued their travels further, and undertook the Grand Tour as many
gentlemen did on leaving the university, invariably visited France
first, and spent the greater part of their time there. Eighteen months
in France, nine or ten in Italy, five in Germany and the Low Countries,
was considered a suitable division of a three years' tour. Most young
Englishmen of family and fortune spent some time on the Continent. Sir
Francis Walsingham, said by one of his contemporaries to have been the
most accomplished linguist of his day,[565] had acquired his proficiency
abroad, as had also Lord Burghley, who wrote to Walsingham from France
in 1583 to report on his progress in the language.[566] Both ministers
in their turn were patrons to numerous young travellers in France. A
certain Charles Danvers wrote to Walsingham from Paris, in French, to
show his progress and thank him for his favours.[567] And Burghley gave
one Andrew Bussy a monthly allowance of £5 to enable him to study French
at Orleans, where, according to his own account, he took great pains to
make good progress so as to serve his patron the better on his
return.[568] It was generally held that travel was "useful to useful
men,"[569] and that "peregrination" well used was "a very profitable
school, a running Academy."[570]
Many young English gentlemen went to the French Court in the train of an
ambassador,[571] or with a private tutor;[572] Henry VIII. sent his
natural son, the Duke of Richmond, Palsgrave's pupil, to the French
Court, in the care of Lord Surrey the poet. Richard Carew, the friend of
Camden, was sent to France with Sir Henry Nevill, ambassador to Henri
IV., and Bacon visited Paris in his early youth in the suite of the
diplomat Lord Poulet. The last-mentioned ambassador had several young
Englishmen in his charge. Of few, however, could he make so favourable a
report as he did of the son of Sir George Speake: "I am not unacquainted
with your son's doings in Parris," he wrote to Sir George, "and cannot
comend him inoughe unto you aswell for his dilligence in study as for
his honest and quiett behaviour." One of these young travellers, a Mr.
Throckmorton, he was particularly glad to be rid of; the young man "got
the French tongue in good perfection," we are informed, but he was of
flippant humour, and before he left for England, Poulet told him his
mind freely, and forbade him to travel to Italy, as he intended to do
later, without the company of "an honest and wyse man." The ambassador
had kept him and his man in food during the whole of his stay in Paris,
and, besides, provided him with a horse, which he had also "kept att his
chardges."[573]
Children too were often sent abroad for education. Thomas Morrice, in
his _Apology for Schoolmasters_ (1619), commends "the ancient and
laudable custom of sending children abroad when they can understand
Latin perfectly"; for then they learn the romance languages all the more
easily, "because the Italian, French and Spanish borrow very many words
of the said Latin, albeit they do chip, chop and change divers letters
and syllables therein." [Header: ENGLISH GENTRY AT THE FRENCH COURT] And
Thomas Peacham[574] tells us in the early seventeenth century that as
soon as a child shows any wildness or unruliness, he is sent either to
the Court to act as a page or to France, and sometimes to Italy. The
number of English children in France was, we may assume, considerable;
and when the news of the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew reached
England, one of its most noticeable effects was to fill with concern and
apprehension all parents who had children in France. "How fearfull and
carefull the mothers and parents that be here be of such yong gentlemen
as be there, you may easely ges," wrote Elizabeth's secretary of state
to Sir Francis Walsingham, the English ambassador at Paris.[575] Among
these "yong gentlemen" was Sir Philip Sidney, then newly arrived at the
French Court, whom Walsingham himself sheltered in the ambassador's
quarters during that awful night.
James Basset, the son of Lord Lisle, deputy at Calais for Henry VIII.,
was sent to Paris in the autumn of 1536 to complete his education, after
having been for some time in the charge of a tutor in England. There he
went to school with a French priest, whom he soon left for the College
of Navarre. He appears to have attended the college daily, and boarded
with one Guillaume le Gras, who, in June 1537, wrote to Lady Lisle that
her son would soon be able to speak French better than English. "I think
when he goes to see you," writes the Frenchman to her ladyship who did
not understand French, "he will need an interpreter to speak to you."
James himself wrote to tell his mother how he was progressing "at the
large and beautiful college of Navarre, with Pierre du Val his Master
and Preceptor."[576] The following letter[577] giving details on the
course pursued by a young English gentleman studying French in Paris may
no doubt be taken as fairly typical. "In the forenoone ... two hours he
spends in French, one in reading, the other in rendryng to his teacher
some part of a Latin author by word of mouth.... In the afternoon ... he
retires himself into his chamber, and there employs two other hours in
reading over some Latin author; which done, he translates some little
part of it into French, leaving his faults to be corrected the morrow
following by his teacher. After supper we take a brief survey of all....
M. Ballendine [apparently the teacher] hath commended unto us Paulus
Aemilius in French, who writeth the history of the country. His counsell
we mean to follow."
Girls also were occasionally sent to France for purposes of education.
Two of James Basset's young sisters, Anne and Mary, spent some time in
that country. To prevent their hindering each other's progress, Anne was
committed to the care of a M. and Mme. de Ryon, at Pont de Remy, while
Mary was sent to Abbeville to a M. and Mme. de Bours. Both girls wrote
letters in French to their mother, Lady Lisle, and it appears that they
had almost forgotten their mother tongue. When Anne returned to England,
where she became maid of honour to Jane Seymour, she had to apologize to
her mother for not being able to write in English, "for surely where
your Ladyship doth think that I can write English, in very deed I
cannot, but that little that I can write is French,"[578] and Mary wrote
to her sister Philippa in French expressing her wish to spend an hour
with her every day in order to teach her to speak French. In France the
two sisters acquired, besides French, the usual accomplishments
befitting their sex--needlework, and playing on the lute and
virginals.[579]
The traveller Fynes Moryson did not unreservedly approve of the custom
of sending children "of unripe yeeres" to France; "howsoever they are
more to be excused who send them with discreet Tutors to guide them with
whose eyes and judgments they may see and observe.... Children like
Parrots soone learne forraigne languages and sooner forget the same,
yea, and their mother tongue also." He relates how a familiar friend of
his "lately sent his sonne to Paris, who, after two yeeres returning
home, refused to aske his father's blessing after the manner of England,
saying _ce n'est pas la mode de France_."[580] Milton in the same vein
deplores the fact that his compatriots have "need of the monsieurs of
Paris to take their hopeful youth into their slight and prodigal
custodies and send them over back again transformed into mimics, apes
and kickshows."[581] [Header: ENGLISH CHILDREN IN FRANCE] "My
countrymen in England," wrote Sir Amias Poulet from Paris in 1577,
"would doe God and theire countreye good service if either they woulde
provide scolemasters for theire children at home, or else they woulde
take better order of their educacion here, where they are infected with
all sortes [of] pollucions bothe ghostly and bodylie and find manie
willinge scolemasters to teache theme to be badd subiects."[582]
Nor were such sentiments confined to individual cases. Queen Elizabeth
was constantly making inquiries concerning her subjects beyond the seas
generally, often for political reasons or on account of her Protestant
fears of popery. She found "noe small inconvenience to growe into the
realm" by the number of children living abroad "under colour of learning
the languages." In 1595 she ordered a list of such "children" to be sent
to her with the names of their parents or guardians and tutors,[583] and
there were frequent examinations of subjects suspected of desiring to go
abroad; in 1595 the Mayor of Chester writes to Burghley to know what he
is to do with two boys, aged fifteen and seventeen, who have been
brought before him on suspicion of intending to travel into France to
learn the language, and thence into Spain.
The objections raised against the journey to France were few, however,
in comparison with those alleged as regards Italy. Italy held a place
second only to France in the Grand Tour on the Continent, and in the
early sixteenth century the first enthusiasm awakened by the Renaissance
attracted many Englishmen there. Scholars, such as Linacre and Colet,
set the example. Then others, including most literary men of the time,
made their way as pilgrims to the centre of the revived learning,
passing through France on their way.[584] Soon the journey became
largely a matter of fashion. This rapid development of the custom of
continental travel was looked upon as a danger in matters political and
religious; popish plots were suspected and foreign intrigues of all
kinds feared. In Elizabeth's time leave "to resort beyond seas for his
better increase in learning, and his knowledge of foreign languages"[585]
was not freely granted to any who might apply. Lord Burghley would
often summon before him applicants for licences to travel, and look
carefully into their knowledge of their own country,[586] and if this
proved insufficient, would advise them to improve it before attempting
to study other countries.[587]
Voluble were the protests against foreign travel which were made in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. France and above all Italy were
made responsible for all the vices of the English. It was urged that
trade and state negotiations were the only adequate reasons for travel
abroad. "We are moted in an Island, because Providence intended us to be
shut off from other regions," Bishop Joseph Hall affirms, in his _Quo
Vadis: a juste censure of travel as it is commonly undertaken by
gentlemen of our own nation_ (1617). So strong were the prejudices of
some of these critics that the grandfather of the royalist Sir Arthur
Capell wrote--in 1622--a pamphlet containing _Reasons against the
travellinge of my grandchylde Arthur Capell into the parts beyond the
sea_, in which he draws an alarming picture of the dangers of infection
from popery, and seeks to prove that the time could be much better spent
at home.[588] The chronicler Harrison went so far as to assert that the
custom would prove the ruin of England.[589] And even the courtly Lyly
could write: "Let not your mindes be carried away with vaine delights,
as travailing into farre and straunge countries, wher you shall see more
wickednesse then learn virtue and wit."[590]
But it was Italy much more than France that excited the fears of these
alarmists. There was a common saying at the time that an Englishman
Italianate was a devil incarnate. "I was once in Italy myself," wrote
Roger Ascham,[591] "but I thank God my abode there was but nine
dayes"--in which he saw more wickedness than he had beheld during nine
years in London. "Suffer not thy sons to pass the Alpes, for they shall
learn nothing there but Pride, Blasphemy and Atheism; [Header: PROTESTS
AGAINST FOREIGN TRAVEL] and if by travelling they get a few broken
Languages, that will profit them no more than to have the same meat
served in divers dishes," was the advice of Lord Burghley.[592] Many
were the precautions taken to prevent English subjects from travelling
to Rome of all places. Travellers who were suspected of such intentions
or who had travelled abroad without permission were rigorously examined.
One such traveller confessed that he went to Brittany and France to see
the countries and learn the language, but swore he had never been to
Rome or spoken to the papist Cardinal Allen.[593] Many passports issued
for the Grand Tour stipulated specifically that the traveller should not
repair to Rome.[594]
George Carleton gave expression to the general feeling when he wrote to
his brother Dudley, afterwards Lord Dorchester: "I like your going to
France much better than if you had gone to Italy."[595] "France is above
all most needful for us to mark," was the advice Sir Philip Sidney sent
to his brother Robert on his travels.[596] Sir John Eliot gave similar
injunctions to his sons.[597] France was, he said, a country full of
noble instincts and versatile energy; and what his own experience had
been, he recommended his sons to profit by. Some friend had warned them
of possible dangers in France. Heed them not, says Eliot; any hazard or
adventure in France they will find repaid by such advantages of
knowledge and experience as observation of the existing troubles there
is sure to convey. But he will not allow them even to enter Spain; and
the Italian territories of the Church they must avoid as dangerous:
"stagnant and deadly are the waters in the region of Rome, not clear and
flowing for the health-seeking energies of man." He thought, however,
that some parts of Italy might be visited with profit. To attempt to
learn the Italian language before some knowledge of French had been
acquired, was not discreet. "Besides it being less pleasant and more
difficult to talk Italian first," he writes, "it was leaving the more
necessary acquirement to be gained when there was, perchance, less
leisure for it. Whereas by attaining some perfection in French, and then
moving onward, what might be lost in Italy of the first acquirement,
would be regained in France as their steps turned homeward."
Not only were fears of Roman Catholicism and corrupt manners directed
more specifically toward Italy than France, but the French language was
considered a much more necessary acquirement than Italian. It was
generally agreed that the country most requisite for the English to know
was France, "in regard of neighbourhood, of conformity in Government in
divers things and necessary intelligence of State."[598]. "French is the
most useful of languages--the richest lading of the traveller next to
experience--Italian and Spanish not being so fruitful in learning,"
remarks Francis Osborne in his _Advice to a Son_.[599]
Thus the main object of study of the traveller in France was usually the
language itself, and next to that the polite accomplishments. Those who
continued their travels into Italy were attracted chiefly by the country
and its antiquities. When Addison was in France, after a short stay in
Paris in 1699[600] he settled for nearly a year at Blois to learn the
language, living in great seclusion, studying, and seeing no one but his
teachers, who would sup with him regularly. In 1700 he returned to
Paris, qualified to converse with Boileau and Malebranche. But he spent
his time in Italy very differently, living in fancy with the old Latin
poets, taking Horace as his guide from Naples to Rome, and Virgil on the
return journey: there was no question of settling down in a quiet town
to study Italian. The experience of Lord Herbert of Cherbury at the end
of the sixteenth century and of Evelyn in the middle of the seventeenth
was of a similar nature. Though travellers continued to include Italy in
their tour, the feeling in favour of France became stronger and
stronger. It reached its climax in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, when Clarendon wrote: "What parts soever we propose to visit,
to which our curiosity usually invites us, we can hardly avoid the
setting our feet first in France." And he invites travellers, on
returning there after visiting Italy, to stay in Paris a year to
"unlearn the dark and affected reservation of Italy." [Header: THE
TRAVELLING TUTOR] As for Germany, he thinks they have need to remain two
years in France that they may entirely forget that they were ever in
Germany![601]
The sons of gentlemen setting out on the Grand Tour were usually
accompanied by a governor or tutor,[602] and the need for such a guide
was generally recognized by writers on travel; all urge the necessity of
his being acquainted with the languages and customs of the countries to
be visited. "That young men should Travaile under some Tutor or grave
Servant, I allow well: so that he be such a one that hath the language
and hath been in the Countrey before," wrote Bacon. And if any one was
not able or did not wish to "be at the charges of keeping a Governor
abroad" with his son, he was advised[603] to "join with one or two more
to help to bear the charges: or else to send with him one well qualified
to carry him over and settle him in one place or other of France, or of
other Countries, to be there with him 2 or 3 months, leave him there
after he hath set him in a good way, and then come home." We also gather
from Gailhard's _The Compleat Gentleman_ that it was "a custom with many
in England to order Travelling to their sons, as Emetick Wine is by the
Physician prescribed to the Patient, that is when they know not what
else to do, and when schools, Universities, Inns of Court, and every
other way hath been tried to no purpose: then that nature which could
not be tamed in none of these places, is given to be minded by a
Gouvernor, with many a woe to him."[604]
The suitable age for the Grand Tour, as distinct from the shorter
journey in France, was the subject of much discussion. It was usually
undertaken between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and occupied from
three to five years. Some, and among them Locke,[605] agreed with
Gailhard in thinking that travel should not come at the end. They
argued that languages were more easily learnt at an earlier age, and
that children were then less difficult to manage. Others, regarding
travel as a necessary evil,[606] held that, at a later age, travellers
are less receptive of evil influences and the snares of popery. This was
the current opinion.
In many cases, especially in later times, the travelling tutor was a
Frenchman. Many Englishmen, however, found in this capacity an
opportunity for travel which they might not otherwise have had. For
example, Ben Jonson visited Paris in 1613 as tutor to the son of Sir
Walter Raleigh, and became better known there as a reveller than as a
poet.[607] In the same way Ben Jonson's friend, the poet Aurilian
Townsend, accompanied Lord Herbert of Cherbury on his foreign tour in
1608, and was of much help to him on account of his fluent knowledge of
French, Italian, and Spanish.[608] The time-serving politician Sir John
Reresby travelled with a Mr. Leech, a divine and Fellow of
Cambridge.[609] And the philosopher Thomas Hobbes spent as travelling
tutor in the Cavendish family many years which he calls the happiest
time of his life. He visited France, Germany, and Italy. For a time he
left the Cavendishes to act as tutor to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton,
with whom he remained eighteen months in Paris. It was while travelling
with his pupils that Hobbes became known in the philosophic circles of
Paris.[610] Addison was offered a salary of £100 to be tutor to the Duke
of Somerset, who desired him "to be more of a companion than a
Governor," but did not accept the offer.[611] In some cases the
travelling tutor had several pupils. Thus Mr. Cordell, the friend of Sir
Ralph Verney, was tutor to a party of Englishmen.[612]
On the other hand, Sir Philip Sidney travelled without a governor.
[Header: BOOKS ON TRAVEL] At Frankfort, in the house of the Protestant
printer Andreas Wechel, he began his life-long friendship with the
Huguenot scholar Hubert Languet, who, to some degree, supplied his
needs. Languet, however, expresses his regret that Sidney had no
governor, and when the young Englishman continued his journey into Italy
they kept up a correspondence, in the course of which Languet sent
Sidney much good advice. At his instigation Sidney practised his French
and Latin by translating some of Cicero's letters into French, then from
French into English, and finally back into Latin again, "by a sort of
perpetual motion."[613] John Evelyn the diarist also travelled without a
governor, while the eldest son of Lord Halifax first made the Grand Tour
in the usual fashion, and afterwards returned to his uncle, Henry
Savile, English ambassador at Paris, without the "encumbrance" of a
governor. Savile superintended his nephew's reading, providing him with
books on such subjects as political treaties and negotiations, and
warning him against "nouvelles" and other "vain _entretiens_."[614]
The practice of travelling abroad called forth many books on the
subject, often written by travellers desiring to place their experience
at the service of others. Such books usually include indications of the
routes to be followed and the places to be visited, and sometimes advice
as to the best way of studying abroad. Some, such as those of Coryat,
Fynes Moryson, and Purchas,[615] are descriptions of long journeys.
Others deal more especially with the method of travel.[616] A few were
written for the particular use of some traveller of high rank; for
instance, when the Earl of Rutland set out on his travels in 1596, his
cousin Essex sent him letters of advice, which circulated at Court, and
were published as _Profitable Instructions for Travellers_ in
1633.[617] Further information was supplied in the treatises on polite
education.[618]
The subject of travel was thus continually under consideration, and the
different books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which deal
with this topic are of great interest. Robert Dallington, the author of
an early guide to France,[619] thought it necessary, seeing the few
teachers there were in France, to "set downe a course of learninge." "I
will presume to advise him," he says of the traveller to France, "that
the most compendious way of attaining the tongue is by booke. I mean for
the knowledge, for as for the speaking he shall never attaine it but by
continuall practize and conversation: he shall therefore first learne
his nownes and verbs by heart, and specially the articles, and their
uses, with the two words _sum_ and _habeo_: for in these consist the
greatest observation of that part of speech." He also urges the future
traveller to engage a Frenchman to assist him, chiefly, no doubt, with
reading and pronunciation. This "reader," as Dallington calls him,
"shall not reade any booke of Poetrie at first, but some other kinde of
stile, and I thinke meetest some moderne comedie. Let his lecture
consist more in questions and answers, either of the one or the other,
then in the reader's continued speech, for this is for the most part
idle and fruitlesse: by the other many errors and mistakings either in
pronunciation or sense are reformed. After three months he shall quit
his lectures, and use his Maister only to walk with and discourse, first
the one and then the other: for thus shal he observe the right use of
the phrase in his Reader, heare his owne faults reproved and grow readie
and prompt in his owne deliverie, which, with the right straine of the
accent, are the two hardest things in language." He should also read
much in private, and "to this reading he must adde a continuall talking
and exercising of his speech with all sorts of people, with boldnesse
and much assurance in himselfe, for I have often observed in others
that nothing hath more prejudiced their profiting then their owne
diffidence and distrust. [Header: A "METHOD OF TRAVEL"] To this I would
have him adde an often writing, either of matter of translation or of
his owne invention, where againe is requisite the Reader's eye, to
censure and correct: for who so cannot write the language he speaks, I
count he hath but halfe the language. There, then, are the two onely
meanes of obtaining a language, speaking and writing, but the first is
the chiefest, and therefore I must advertise the traveller of one thing
which in other countries is a great hinderer thereof, namely, the often
haunting and frequenting of our own Countrimen, whereof he must have a
speciall care,[620] neither to distaste them by a too much
retirednesse[621] nor to hinder himselfe by too much familiaritie."
A few years later Fynes Moryson[622] offered equally sound advice to the
traveller "for language." "Goe directly to the best citie for the
puritie of language," he tells him, and first "labour to know the
grammar rules, that thy selfe mayst know whether thou speaketh right or
no. I meane not the curious search of those rules, but at least so much
as may make thee able to distinguish Numbers, Cases, and Moodes."
Moryson thought that by learning by ear alone students probably
pronounced better, but, on the other hand, with the help of rules, "they
both speake and write pure language, and never so forget it, as they may
not with small labour and practice recover it again." The student, he
adds, should make a collection of choice phrases, that "hee may speake
and write more eloquently, and let him use himselfe not to the
translated formes of speech, but to the proper phrases of the tongue."
For this purpose he should read many good books, "in which kind, as also
for the Instruction of his soule, I would commend unto him the Holy
Scriptures, but that among the Papists they are not to be had in the
vulgar tongue, neither is the reading of them permitted to laymen.
Therefore to this purpose he shall seeke out the best familiar epistles
for his writing, and I thinke no booke better for his Discourse then
Amadis of Gaule.... In the third place I advise him to professe
Pythagoricall silence, and to the end he may learne true pronunciation,
not to be attained but by long observation and practice, that he for a
time listen to others, before he adventure to speake." He should also
avoid his fellow-countrymen, and, having observed these rules, "then let
him hier some skilfull man to teach him and to reprove his errors, not
passing by any his least omission. And let him not take it ill that any
man should laugh at him, for that will more stirre him up to endevour to
learne the tongue more perfectly, to which end he must converse with
Weomen, children and the most talkative people; and he must cast off all
clownish bashfulnesse, for no man is borne a Master in any art. I say
not that he himselfe should rashly speake, for in the beginning he shall
easily take ill formes of speaking, and hardly forget them once taken."
The learning of French in England before going abroad did not, as a
rule, enter into the plan of writers on the subject of travelling.
Moryson, however, realized that "at the first step the ignorance of
language doth much oppresse (the traveller) and hinder the fruite he
should reape by his iourney." And Bacon went a step further when he
wrote that "he that travaileth into a Country, before he hath some
entrance into the language, goeth to schoole, and not to travaile.... If
you will have a Young Man to put his Travaile into a little Roome, and
in a short time to gather much, this you must doe. First, as was said,
he must have some Entrance into the Language before he goeth. Then he
must have such a Servant, or Tutor, as knoweth the country."[623] Later
writers usually agree that it would be of benefit to have "something of
the French"[624] before leaving England, "though it were only to
understand something of it and be able to ask for necessary things," or
to have "some grammatical instruction in the language, as a preparation
to speaking it."[625] And indeed many travellers had some previous
knowledge of French. Sir Philip Sidney, for instance, could manage a
letter in French when he was at school at Shrewsbury; Lord Herbert of
Cherbury had studied the language with the help of a dictionary; Sir
John Reresby, at a later date, had learnt French at a private school,
though, like many students nowadays, he could not speak the language on
his arrival in France. [Header: STUDIES PREVIOUS TO TRAVEL] Several
went abroad to "improve" themselves in French, and no doubt the phrase
"to learn the French tongue"[626] often meant to learn to speak it.
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, however, many of those
who studied French seriously in England did not go to France. Among
these were the ladies, to whose skill Mulcaster[627] draws the attention
of travellers, as a proof that languages can be learnt as well at home
as abroad; and not a few of the younger sons of noblemen,[628] as well
as the prosperous middle class--the frequenters of the French schools in
St. Paul's Churchyard, and the pupils of Du Ploich and Holyband, neither
of whom makes any reference to the tour in France.
The "common practice" in the sixteenth century among young travellers
was to proceed to France knowing no French. They fully expected to learn
the language there, with no further exertion than living in the country.
They are constantly warned of the futility of such expectations.
Dallington, Fynes Moryson, and others lay much emphasis on the necessity
of some serious preliminary study of grammar and reading of good
literature. French teachers in England compared the poor results
obtained in France by these leisurely methods with those achieved by
their own efforts in England. No doubt they found the practice of
learning French by residence in France a serious rival to their own
methods. De la Mothe,[629] for instance, declares he knows English
ladies and gentlemen who have never left England and yet speak French
incomparably better than others who have been in France three or four
years trying to pick up the language by ear, as most travellers do.
Another French teacher[630] writes: "I have knowne three Gentlemen's
sonnes, although I say it that should not say it, who can testify yet,
that in their return from France (after they had remained foure yeares
at Paris, spending a great deal of money) perused my rules but six
moneths and did confesse they reaped more good language in that short
space I taught them then in all the time they spent in France. And
sundry others I have helped who never saw France, and yet could talke,
read and write better language in one yeare than those who have bene at
Paris two yeares, learning but the common phrase of the countrie,
shacking off a litle paines to learne the rules."
While holding that French could be better learnt in England with rules
than in France without any such assistance, the French teachers of
London admitted that the language could perhaps be best learnt in
France, but only with the help of a good teacher and serious study, as
in England. However, there were hardly any language teachers in France,
according to them, while in England it was easy to find many good ones.
Dallington more specifically bewails the fact that the traveller finds a
"great scarcitie" of such tutors, and directs him to a certain M.
Denison, a Canon of St. Croix in Orleans, after whom he may inquire,
"except his good acquaintance or good fortune bring him to better."
There was indeed little provision for the serious study of French in
France before the end of the sixteenth century. Most travellers, we are
told, "observed only for their owne use." Few Frenchmen took up the
teaching of their own language to foreigners as a profession, and those
who taught from time to time or merely upon occasion rarely proved
successful. Yet the earliest grammars produced in France were intended
largely for the use of foreigners. Special attention is paid to points
which usually offered difficulty to foreigners, such as the
pronunciation and its divergencies from the orthography.[631] Sylvius or
Du Bois, writing in Latin,[632] remarks that his principles may serve
the English, the Italians and Spaniards, in short, all foreigners; no
doubt those he had chiefly in mind were the numbers of English and other
foreign students at the University of Paris. [Header: LANGUAGE TEACHERS
IN FRANCE] When the earliest grammar written in French appeared, its
author, Louis Meigret,[633] sought to justify his use of the vernacular
by suggesting that foreign students should first learn to understand
French by speaking and reading good French literature, instead of
depending on Latin for the first stages. He had noticed the
peculiarities of the English pronunciation of French, especially the
habit of misplacing the accent; "they raise the voice on the syllable
_an_ in _Angleterre_, while we raise it on the syllable _ter_: so that
French as spoken by the English is not easily understood in France."
From other grammarians foreigners always received some attention.
Pillot[634] and Garnier[635] both wrote in Latin with a special view to
foreigners; and Peletier,[636] who used French, retains all the
etymological consonants, that strangers may find Latin helpful in
understanding French.
Not before the end of the sixteenth century, however, do we hear of the
first important language teacher in France--Charles Maupas of Blois, a
surgeon by profession, who spent most of his life, more than thirty
years, teaching French to "many lords and gentlemen of divers nations"
who visited his native town. He was "well known to be a famous teacher
of the French tongue to many of the English and Dutch nobility and
gentry." For his English pupils Maupas showed particular affection.[637]
And from them he received in turn numerous proofs of friendship. Among
the Englishmen who learnt French under his care was George Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, who, at about the age of eighteen, travelled into
France, where "he improved himself[638] well in the language for one
that had so little grammatical foundation, but more in the exercises of
that Nobility for the space of three years and yet came home in his
naturall plight, without affected formes (the ordinary disease of
Travellers)."[639] Maupas bears stronger testimony to his pupil's
attainments in the French language, and some years later he gratefully
dedicated to the Duke his French grammar, first issued publicly in 1618.
Maupas's _Grammaire françoise contenant reigles tres certaines et
adresse tres asseurée a la naïve connoissance et pur usage de nostre
langue. En faveur des estrangers qui en seront desireux_, was first
privately printed in 1607.[640] He had not originally intended it for
publication. The work grew out of the notes and observations he compiled
in order to overcome his pupils' difficulties. As these rules increased
in number and importance, many students began to make extracts from
them; others made copies of the whole, a "great and wearisome labour."
Finally, Maupas, touched by this keenness, resolved to have a large
number of copies printed. He distributed these among his pupils and
their friends, till, contrary to his expectation, he found he had none
left. It was then that the first public edition was issued at Lyons in
1618, and was followed by six others, which were not always authorized.
A Latin edition also appeared in 1623.
Maupas insists on the necessity of employing a tutor. "Let them come to
me," he says, addressing foreigners desirous of learning French, "if it
is convenient."[641] To learn the language by ear and use alone is
impossible. The small outlay required to engage a teacher saves much
time and labour. As to the grammar, it should be read again and again,
and in time all difficulties will disappear; it will be of great use
even to those already advanced in French. He undertook to teach and
interpret the grammar in French itself, without having recourse to the
international language Latin, the usual medium of teaching French to
travellers; he tells us that many of his pupils were ignorant of Latin,
and that the practice of interpreting the grammar in French had been
adopted by many of his fellow-teachers in other towns. The great
advantage of this method was, he thought, that reading and pronunciation
are learnt conjointly with grammar, the phrases and style of the
language together with its rules and precepts. Besides, the student must
read some book; and a grammar was, in his opinion, preferable to the
little comedies and dialogues usually resorted to for this purpose. He
did not, however, forget that some light reading was a greater incentive
to the learner, and in practice used both.
Maupas died in 1625, when a new edition of his grammar was in
preparation. His son, who assisted him in teaching, saw the work through
the press, and invited students to transfer to him the favours they had
bestowed on his father. Apparently the younger Charles Maupas continued
to teach his father's clientèle for some time. [Header: CHARLES MAUPAS
OF BLOIS] In 1626 he gave further proof of his zeal for the cause in
editing and publishing a comedy which both he and his father had
frequently read with pupils not advanced enough for more serious matter.
We are told vaguely that this comedy, entitled _Les Desguisez: Comedie
Françoise avec l'explication des proverbes et mots difficiles par
Charles Maupas a Bloys_, was the work of one of the _beaux esprits_ of
the period.[642] Maupas, however, only had one copy, and knew not where
to procure more. He was induced to have it printed on seeing the great
labour and time expended by many of his pupils in making copies of it
for their own use. For the benefit of students who had no tutor, he
added an explanatory vocabulary of proverbs and difficult words.
Maupas's _Grammaire et syntaxe françoise_ is still looked on with
respect.[643] The reputation it enjoyed in the seventeenth century is
the more remarkable in that it was the work of a provincial who had no
relations with the Court, then the supreme arbiter in matters of
language. But the grammar passed into oblivion in the course of time, as
more modern manuals took its place. Maupas's hope that it would be used
by foreign students of French as long as the language was held in esteem
was not to be fulfilled.
His Grammar was superseded by that of Antoine Oudin--_Grammaire
Françoise rapportée au langage du temps_, Paris, 1632. Oudin's original
intention had been merely to enlarge the grammar of his predecessor. But
as his work advanced he found "force antiquailles" and many mistakes,
besides much confusion, repetition, and pedantry. He felt no compunction
in telling the reader that he had enormously improved all he had
borrowed from Maupas--although he is careful to note that he has no
intention of damaging his rival's reputation, and is proud to share his
opinion on several points. He had a great advantage over Maupas in
having spent all his life in close connexion with the Court; his father,
César, had been interpreter to the French king, and Antoine succeeded
him in that office. He also appears to have had continual relations with
foreigners, and he tells us on one occasion that he received from them
"very considerable benefits." His grammar was certainly much used by
foreign students, although it does not seem to have enjoyed as great a
popularity in England as that of Maupas. Oudin's _Curiositez Françoises_
(1640) was also addressed "aux estrangers," and his aim was to show his
gratitude by attempting to call attention to the mistakes which had made
their way into grammars drawn up for their instruction.[644]
_L'Eschole Françoise pour apprendre a bien parler et escrire selon
l'usage de ce temps et pratique des bons autheurs, divisée en deux
livres dont l'un contient les premiers elements, l'autre les parties de
l'oraison_ (Paris, 1604), by Jean Baptiste du Val, avocat en Parlement
at Paris and French tutor to Marie de Medicis, was also intended partly
for the use of foreigners. He seeks to console foreign students coping
with the difficulties of French pronunciation and orthography, by
assuring them that though the French themselves may be able to speak
correctly, they cannot prescribe rules on this score. As for his
grammar, the student will learn more from it in two hours than from any
other in two weeks. He also takes up a supercilious attitude, natural in
one who exercised his profession in the precincts of the Court, towards
anything that resembled a provincial accent; better no teacher at all
than one with a provincial accent.
Among other grammars of similar purport is that of Masset in French and
Latin, _Exact et tres facile acheminement a la langue Françoyse, mis en
Latin par le meme autheur pour le soulagement des estrangers_
(1606);[645] and to the same category belongs also the _Praecepta
gallici sermonis ad pleniorem perfectioremque eius linguae cognitionem
necessaria tum suevissima tum facillima_ (1607), by Philippe Garnier,
who, after teaching French for many years in Germany, settled down at
Orleans, his native town, as a language tutor.[646]
Another work widely used by travellers, and well known in England, was
the _Nouvelle et Parfaite Grammaire Françoise_ (1659) of Laurent
Chiflet, the zealous Jesuit and missionary, which continued to be
reprinted until the eighteenth century, and enjoyed for many years the
highest reputation among foreign students of French. [Header: FRENCH
GRAMMARS FOR TRAVELLERS] The Swiss Muralt relates how he and a friend
were inquiring for some books at one of the booksellers of the Palais,
the centre of the trade; and how the bookseller answered them civilly
and tried to find what they desired, until his wife interfered, crying,
"Ne voiez vous pas que ce sont des etrangers qui ne savent ce qu'ils
demandent? Donnez leur la grammaire de Chiflet, c'est là ce qu'il leur
faut."[647]
Chiflet is very explicit in his advice to foreign students. In the first
place the pronunciation should be learnt by reading a short passage
every day with a French master, and the verbs most commonly in use
committed to memory. Then the other parts of speech and the rules of
syntax should be studied briefly; but care should be taken not to
neglect reading, and to practise writing French, in order to become
familiar with the orthography. One of his chief recommendations is to
avoid learning isolated words; words should always be presented in
sentence form, which is a means of learning their construction and of
acquiring a good vocabulary at the same time. The rest of the method
consists in translating from Latin or some other language into French,
and in conversing with a tutor who should correct bad grammar or
pronunciation. When once a fair knowledge of French is acquired, it
should be strengthened by reading and reflecting upon some good book
every day. Such reading is the shortest way of learning the language
perfectly. Excellence and fluency in speaking may be attained by
repeating or reciting aloud the substance of what has been read.[648]
The acquisition of the French language was not the only ambition of the
English gentleman abroad. His aim was also to acquire those polite
accomplishments in which the French excelled--dancing, fencing, riding,
and so on. For this purpose he either frequented one of the "courtly"
academies or engaged private tutors; and "every master of exercise," it
was felt, served as a kind of language master.[649] We are indebted to
Dallington[650] for an account of the cost of such a course abroad.
"Money," he says, "is the soule of travell. If he travel without a
servant £80 sterling is a competent proportion, except he learn to ride:
if he maintain both these charges, he can be allowed no less than £150:
and to allow above £200 were superfluous and to his hurt. The ordinary
rate of his expense is 10 gold crowns a month his fencing, as much his
dancing, no less his reading, and 10 crowns monthly his riding except in
the heat of the year. The remainder of his £150, I allow him for
apparell, books, travelling charges, tennis play, and other
extraordinary expenses."
Some of the more studious travellers resorted to one or other of the
French universities. John Palsgrave and John Eliote, the two best known
English teachers of French in the sixteenth century, had both followed
this course. Palsgrave was a graduate of Paris, and John Eliote, after
spending three years at the College of Montague in Paris, taught for a
year in the Collège des Africains at Orleans. The religious question had
much influence in determining the plan of study in France. The
university towns of Rheims and Douay were the special resorts of English
Catholics.[651] On the suppression of the religious houses in England
and the persecution of the English Roman Catholics, English seminaries
arose at Paris, Louvain, Cambrai, St. Omer, Arras, and other centres in
France. English Roman Catholics flocked to the French universities and
colleges, and there is in existence a long list of English students who
matriculated at the University of Douay.
On the other hand, the schools,[652] colleges,[653] and academies[654]
founded by the Huguenots offered many attractions to Protestant England.
The colleges had much in common with the modern French lycée, and the
chief subjects taught were the classical languages. They did not take
boarders, with the exception of that at Metz, and the students lived _en
pension_ with families in the town. The same is true of the academies,
institutions of university standing. They were eight in number, and
situated at Nîmes, Montpellier, Saumur, Montauban, Die, Sedan, Orthez
(in the principality of Béarn[655]), and Geneva. Some Englishmen and
many Scotchmen[656] held positions in the Protestant colleges and
academies. [Header: BRITISH STUDENTS AT FRENCH UNIVERSITIES] Many
English Protestants, during their enforced sojourn on the Continent
during the reign of Mary, took advantage of their exile to study at one
or other of the Protestant academies, as well as to perfect their
knowledge of French. A great number flocked to Geneva, including the
Protestant author Michael Cope, who frequently preached in French.[657]
Of the colleges, that of Nîmes attracted a large number of foreigners.
Montpellier likewise was very popular during the short period at the
beginning of the seventeenth century when the town was Protestant. Among
the academies in France, Saumur, Montauban,[658] and Sedan were much
frequented by English travellers. Saumur in particular quickly attained
to celebrity; its rapid growth may be partly accounted for by the fact
that Duplessis Mornay, Governor of the town in 1588, naturally became a
zealous patron of the Academy. Three years after its foundation the
number of foreign students was considerable, and throughout the
seventeenth century students from England, Scotland, Holland, and
Switzerland thronged to the town.
The Academy at Geneva likewise was very popular.[659] Though not French,
it was largely attended by French students, who had some influence in
raising the standard of the French spoken in the town, which was rather
unsatisfactory in the sixteenth century. It greatly improved in the
following century, and when the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
(1685), which dealt the death-blow to the French Protestant foundations,
drove many students to Geneva, their influence in all directions was
still more strongly felt. Some years before, in 1654, the regents were
enjoined to see to it that their pupils "ne parlent savoyard et ne
jurent ou diabloyent," but in 1691 Poulain de la Barre, a doctor of the
Sorbonne, could say that "à Geneve on prononce incomparablement mieux
que l'on ne fait en plusieurs provinces de France."[660]
The Protestant academies usually consisted of faculties of Arts and
Theology. At Geneva[661] there were lectures in Law, Theology,
Philosophy, Philology, and Literature; the teaching was chiefly in
Latin, but sometimes in French. At the end of the sixteenth century a
riding school, known as the _Manège de la Courature_, on the same lines
as the polite academies of France, was started. The instruction given at
Geneva was on broader lines than that of the less popular academies.
Nîmes and Montpellier, for instance, were mainly theological.[662]
Of the many Englishmen who went to Geneva, as to other Protestant
centres, not all attended lectures at the Academies. Some went merely to
learn French, "the exercises and assurance of behaviour," as the general
belief in England was that they did so with less danger in the towns
tempered by a Calvinistic atmosphere. Among the Englishmen who visited
Geneva in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century we find the names
of Henry Withers, Roger Manners, fifth Earl of Rutland, Robert Devereux,
third Earl of Essex, the son of Elizabeth's unfortunate favourite, and
others. Thomas Bodley, the celebrated founder of the Oxford Library,
followed all the courses at the University in 1559. It was considered a
great honour to lodge in the house of one or other of the professors;
Anthony Bacon, the elder brother of the great Bacon, had the good
fortune to be received into the house of de Bèze. Casaubon likewise
received into his house certain young gentlemen who came to the town
with a special recommendation to him. These included the young Henry
Wotton, then on the long tour on the Continent, during which he acquired
the remarkable knowledge of languages which qualified him for the
position of ambassador which he subsequently occupied. In 1593 Wotton
wrote to Lord Zouch: "Here I am placed to my great contentment in the
house of Mr. Isaac Casaubon, a person of sober condition among the
French." The learned professor soon became very fond of Wotton, so far
as to allow him to get into debt for his board and lodging, and the
young man left Geneva without paying his debts, leaving Casaubon to face
his numerous creditors in the town. Casaubon was in despair; but
fortunately the episode ended satisfactorily, for Wotton lived up to his
character, and paid his debts in full as soon as he was able.[663]
[Header: THE AFFECTED TRAVELLER]
When later Casaubon was at Paris (1600-1610) and his fame was
widespread, most travellers and scholars passing through the city seized
any opportunity of visiting him. Coryat relates his visit to the great
humanist as the experience he enjoyed above all others. Lord Herbert of
Cherbury was also among the English travellers received by Casaubon into
his house at this period. "And now coming to court," writes Lord
Herbert, "I obtained licence to go beyond sea, taking with me for my
companion Mr. Aurilian Townsend ... and a man to wait in my chamber, who
spoke French, two lacqueys and three horses.... Coming now to Paris
through the recommendation of the Lord Ambassador I was received to the
house of that incomparable scholar Isaac Casaubon, by whose learned
conversation I much benefited myself. Sometimes also I went to the Court
of the French King Henry IV., who, upon information of me in the Garden
of the Tuileries, received me with much courtesy, embracing me in his
arms, and holding me some while there."[664]
By the side of the serious traveller we are introduced to the frivolous
type, travelling merely as a matter of fashion. These "idle travellers,"
as they were called, were the cause of most of the objections raised
against the journey to France and the longer tour on the
Continent--apart from questions of religion and politics. Few such
travellers "scaped bewitching passing over seas."[665] When Lord Herbert
of Cherbury arrived in Paris he remarked on the great number of
Englishmen thronging about the ambassador's mansion. They had, most of
them, studied the language and fashions in some quiet provincial town,
such as Orleans or Blois, and returned to Paris full of affectations.
Herbert draws a picture[666] of one such "true accomplish'd cavalere":
Now what he speaks are complimental speeches
That never go off, but below the breeches
Of him he doth salute, while he doth wring
And with some strange French words which he doth string,
Windeth about the arms, the legs and sides,
Most serpent like, of any man that bides
His indirect approach.
Many travellers did not follow Moryson's advice "to lay aside the
spoone and forke of Italy, the affected gestures of France, and all
strange apparrell" on their return to England. Their affectation of
foreign languages and customs proved disagreeable to many of their
countrymen. The Frenchified traveller and his untravelled imitators were
known as _beaux_ or _mounsiers_. Nash speaks of the "dapper mounsieur
pages of the Court," and Shakespeare of the young gallants who charm the
ladies with a French song and a fiddle, and fill the Court with
quarrels, talks, and tailors.[667] When the English nobles and gentlemen
who had held official appointments at Tournai returned to England, after
lingering some time at the French Court, the chronicler Hall[668]
declares they were "all French in eating, drinking, yea in French vices
and brages, so that all estates of England were by them laughed at."
The English _beau_ thought it his duty to despise English ways,
fashions, and speech, and to ape and dote upon all things French:[669]
He struts about
In cloak of fashion French. His girdle, purse,
And sword are French; his hat is French;
His nether limbs are cased in French costume.
His shoes are French. In short from top to toe
He stands the Frenchman.
Above all, he loves to display his "sorry French" and chide his French
valet in public, and
if he speak
Though but three little words in French, he swells
And plumes himself on his proficiency.
And when his French fails him, as it soon does, he coins words for
himself which he utters with "widely gaping mouth, and sound acute,
thinking to make the accent French":
With accent French he speaks the Latin Tongue,
With accent French the tongue of Lombardy,
To Spanish words he gives an accent French,
German he speaks with the same accent French,
All but the French itself. The French he speaks
With accent British.
Thus the _beau_ cannot be ranked among the genuine students of French.
Would you believe when you this monsieur see
That his whole body should speak French, not he?
asks Ben Jonson.[670] [Header: "FRENCH-ITALIANATE" GENTLEMEN] We have a
picture, in Glapthorne's _The Ladies' Privilege_, of a travelled gallant
who undertakes to teach French to a young gentleman desiring thereby to
be "for ever engallanted." They confer on rudiments; "your French," says
the gallant, "is a thing easily gotten, and when you have it, as hard to
shake off, runnes in your blood, as 'twere your mother language." Until
you have enough of the language to sprinkle your English with it, answer
with a shrug, or a nod, or any foreign grimace.[671] The author of the
_Treatyse of a galaunt_ bemoans the fact that "Englysshe men sholde be
so blynde" as to adopt the "marde gere" of the French.[672] Many were
the outbursts of patriotic indignation roused by the affectation of the
newly returned travellers, who "brought home a few smattering terms,
flattering garbes, apish cringes, foppish fancies, foolish guises and
disguises and vanities of neighbour nations."[673] In the sixteenth
century France was not exclusively responsible for the fopperies of the
English _beau_, who might often be described as "French Italianate."[674]
He spoke his own language with shame and lisping.[675] Nothing "will
down but French, Italian and Spanish."[676] "Farewell, Monsieur
Traveller," says Rosalind to Jacques, "look you lisp, and wear strange
suits; disable all the benefits of your own country; be out of love with
your nativity, and almost chide God for making you that countenance you
are."[677] The affected _beau_ will "wring his face round about as a man
would stirre up a mustard pot and talke English through the teeth."[678]
He sprinkles his talk with overseas scraps. "He that cometh lately out
of France will talke French-English, and never blush at the matter, and
another chops in with English Italianated."[679] And what profit has he
from the journey on which he has gathered such evil fruit? Nothing but
words, and in this he exceeds his mother's parrot at home, in that he
can speak more and understands what he says.[680] And this is often no
more than to be able to call the king his lord "with two or three
French, Italian, Spanish or such like terms."[681] His attire, like his
tongue, speaks French and Italian.[682] He censures England's language
and fashions "by countenances and shrugs," and will choke rather than
confess beer a good drink. In time the _beau_ forgot what little he had
learnt of Italian, and in the seventeenth century was generally known as
the _English monsieur_, or the _gentleman à la mode_.
There were two very different attitudes towards the journey to France,
as there were two types of traveller, the serious and the flippant. The
prejudiced and insular-minded asked with Nash:[683] "What is there in
France to be learned more than in England, but falsehood in fellowship,
perfect slovenry, to love no man but for my pleasure, to swear _Ah par
la mort Dieu_ when a man's hands are scabbed. But for the idle traveller
(I mean not for the soldier), I have known some that have continued
there by the space of half a dozen years, and when they come home, they
have hid a little weerish lean face under a broad hat, kept a terrible
coil in the dust in the street in their long cloaks of gray paper, and
spoke English strangely. Nought else have they profited by their travel,
save learned to distinguish the true Bordeaux grape and know a cup of
neat Gascoigne wine from wine of Orleans." The opposite view is
expressed in the message George Herbert sent to his brother at
Paris:[684] "You live in a brave nation, where except you wink, you
cannot but see many brave examples. Bee covetous then of all good which
you see in Frenchmen whether it be in knowledge or in fashion, or in
words; play the good marchant in transporting French commodities to your
own country."
FOOTNOTES:
[564] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._ vol. xvi. No.
238.
[565] Sir Rt. Naunton, _Fragmenta Regalia_, 1824, p. 69.
[566] _Cal. State Papers, Dom.: Add., 1580-1625_, p. 99.
[567] _Ibid._ p. 119. A certain Charles Doyley wrote in similar terms
from Rouen.
[568] _Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1595-97_, p. 293.
[569] _Purchas Pilgrimes_, 1625.
[570] Howell, _Epistolae Ho-Elianae_.
[571] As did Sir James Melville (_Memoirs_, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p.
12), "to learn to play upon the lut, and to writ Frenche," at the age of
fourteen. Similarly, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, Edward VI.'s youthful
favourite and proxy for correction, was sent to Paris to study fashions
and manners (Nichols, _Literary Remains_, p. lxx).
[572] The practice was also very common in Scotland, especially when the
reformers assumed the power of approving private tutors as well as
schoolmasters. Gentlemen were driven to evade this restriction by
sending their sons to France in the care of what they considered
suitable tutors. The Assembly then tried to assert its power by granting
passports only to those whose tutors they approved. See Young, _Histoire
de l'Enseignement en Écosse_, p. 52.
[573] _Copy Book of Sir Amias Poulet's Letters_, Roxburghe Club, 1866,
pp. 16, 231.
[574] _The Compleat Gentleman_ (1622), 1906, p. 33.
[575] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, iii. 377.
[576] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._ vol. viii. 517;
vol. ix. 1086; vol. xii. pt. i. 972, etc.
[577] Dated 1610. Ellis, _Original Letters_, 2nd series, iii. 230.
[578] Green, _Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain_,
London, 1846, ii. pp. 294 _et seq._
[579] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._ vol. xiii. pt. i.
512.
[580] _Itinerary_, 1617, pt. iii. bk. i. p. 5.
[581] _Of Education._ To Master Samuel Hartlib.
[582] _Copy Book_, p. 90.
[583] _State Papers, Dom., 1598-1601_, p. 162; and _1601-1603_, p. 29.
In 1580 a list of some English subjects residing abroad was sent to the
queen (_ibid., Addenda, 1580-1625_, p. 4.)
[584] Greene left an account of his impressions of France and Italy in
his _Never too Late_ (Works, ed. Grosart, viii. pp. 20 _sqq._).
[585] Frequently the wording in passports (_Cal. State Papers_).
[586] There were many complaints throughout the two centuries of the
travellers' neglect of everything concerning their own country. "What is
it to be conversant abroad and a stranger at home?" asks Higford. See
also Penton, _New Instructions to the Guardian_, 1694; and F. B. B. D.,
_Education with Respect to Grammar Schools and Universities_, 1701.
[587] Ellis, _Original Letters_ (3rd series, iv. p. 46), publishes one
of the licences which had to be obtained.
[588] Reprinted by Lady T. Lewis, _Lives from the Pictures in the
Clarendon Galleries_, 1852, i. p. 250.
[589] _Description of Britaine_, 1577, Lib. 3. ch. iv.
[590] _Euphues_, ed. Arber, 1868, p. 152.
[591] _Scholemaster_, ed. Arber, 1870, p. 82. Mulcaster was also
eloquent on the evil result of travel (_Positions_, 1581).
[592] _Instructions for Youth ..._, by Sir W. Raleigh, etc., London,
1722, p. 50.
[593] Who founded the English seminary at Douay.
[594] See entries in _Cal. of State Papers_.
[595] March 25, 1601 (_Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1601-1603_, p. 18).
[596] _Correspondence with Hubert Languet_, 1912, p. 216.
[597] Letter dated September 1, 1631 (J. Forster, _Sir John Eliot, a
Biography_, London, 1864, i. pp. 16, 17).
[598] J. Howell, _Instructions for Forreine Travel_, 1642 (ed. Arber,
1869), p. 19.
[599] 1656, p. 102.
[600] Spence's _Anecdotes_, 1820, p. 184; _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.
[601] _A Dialogue concerning Education_, in _Miscellaneous Works_,
London, 1751, pp. 313 _et seq._
[602] Cp. Entries of Passports, in the _Cal. State Papers_. The
necessity of such a course was considered specially urgent if the
traveller was himself ignorant of languages (_The Gentleman's Companion,
by a Person of Quality_, 1672, p. 55).
[603] Gailhard, _The Compleat Gentleman_, 1678, p. 16.
[604] Gailhard, _op. cit._ pp. 19, 20. A gentleman, he thinks, should be
sent abroad betimes to prevent his being hardened in any evil course.
[605] _Some Thoughts on Education_, 1693.
[606] Walker, _Of Education, especially of Young Gentlemen_, 1699, 6th
ed.
[607] _Notes on Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond of
Hawthornden_ (1619), Shakespeare Soc., 1842, pp. 21, 47.
[608] _Autobiography_, ed. Sir Sidney Lee (2nd ed., 1906), p. 56.
[609] _Memoirs of Sir John Reresby_, ed. J. J. Cartwright, 1875, p. 26.
[610] _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.
[611] Addison was well acquainted with French literature and criticism.
He frequently quotes Boileau, Racine, Corneille, and also Bouhours and
Lebossu. His _Tragedy of Cato_ is closely modelled on the French
pattern. See A. Beljame, _Le Public et les hommes de lettres en
Angleterre au 18e siècle_, 1897, p. 316.
[612] _Memoirs of the Verney Family_, 1892, iii. p. 36.
[613] _The Correspondence of Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet_, ed. W.
A. Bradly (Boston, 1912), p. 26.
[614] _Savile Correspondence_, Camden Soc., 1858, pp. 133, 138. O.
Walker, in his _Of Education_, differs from other writers in proposing
that young gentlemen should travel without a governor.
[615] In the same category may be placed the _Traveiles of Jerome
Turler_, a native of Saxony, whose work was translated into English in
the year of its appearance (1575). It was specially intended for the use
of students.
[616] T. Palmer, _Essay on the Means of making our Travels into Forran
Countries more Profitable and Honourable_, 1606; T. Overbury,
_Observations in his Travels_, 1609 (France and the Low Countries).
William Bourne's _Treasure for Travellers_ (London, 1578) has no bearing
on travel from the language point of view. Of special interest are
Dallington's _Method for Travell, shewed by taking the View of France as
it stoode in the Yeare of our Lorde 1598_, London (1606?), and his _View
of France_, London, 1604. Other works are _A Direction for English
Travellers_, licensed for printing in 1635 (Arber, _Stationers'
Register_, iv. 343); Neal's _Direction to Travel_, 1643; Bacon's _Essay
on Travel_, 1625; Howell's _Instructions for Forreine Travel_, 1624.
[617] The versatile master of the ceremonies to Charles I., Sir
Balthazar Gerbier, wrote his _Subsidium Peregrinantibus or an Assistance
to a Traveller in his convers with--1. Hollanders. 2. Germans. 3.
Venetians. 4. Italians. 5. Spaniards. 6. French_ (1665), in the first
place as a _vade mecum_ for a princely traveller, the unfortunate Duke
of Monmouth. It claimed to give directions for travel, "after the latest
mode." Cp. also _A direction for travailers taken by Sir J. S._ (Sir
John Stradling) _out of_ (the _Epistola de Peregrinatione Italica of_)
_J. Lipsius, etc._, London. 1592.
[618] List in Watt's _Bibliographia Britannia_, 1824 (heading
_Education_); and in _Cambridge History of English Literature_, ix. ch.
xv. (Bibliography).
[619] _Method for Travell_, 1598, and _View of France_, 1604.
[620] The constant warnings against mixing with Englishmen abroad show
how numerous the latter must have been. "He that beyond seas frequents
his own countrymen forgets the principal part of his errand--language,"
wrote Francis Osborne in his _Advice to a Son_ (1656).
[621] As did Lord Lincoln, who "sees no English, rails at England, and
admires France."
[622] _Itinerary_, 1617.
[623] Bacon, _Essay on Travel_, 1625.
[624] Gailhard, _op. cit._ p. 48.
[625] S. Penton. _New Instructions to the Guardian_, 1694, p. 104.
[626] Cp. Entries of passports to France in the _Calendar of State
Papers_.
[627] _Positions_, 1581.
[628] It appears from a deleted note in the MS. of Defoe's _Compleat
English Gentleman_ that travel was not always considered necessary for
younger sons (ed. K. Bülbring, London, 1890).
[629] _French Alphabet_, 1592: "Car la plus part de ceux qui vont en
France apprennent par routine, sans reigles, et sans art, de sorte qu'il
leur est impossible d'apprendre, sinon avec une grande longueur de
temps. Au contraire ceux qui apprennent en Angleterre, s'ils apprennent
d'un qui ait bonne methode, il ne se peut faire qu'ils n'apprennent en
bref. D'avantage ce qu'ils apprennent est beaucoup meilleur que le
françois qu'on apprend en France par routine. Car nous ne pouvons parler
ce que nous n'avons apris et que nous ignorons. Ceux qui apprennent du
vulgaire ne peuvent parler que vulgairement . . . d'un françois
corrompu. Au contraire ceux qui apprennent par livres, parlent selon ce
qu'ils apprennent: or est il que les termes et phrases des livres sont
le plus pur et naif françois (bien qu'il y ayt distinction de livres);
il ne se peut donc qu'ils ne parlent plus purement et naivement (comme
j'ay dict) que les autres."
[630] Wodroeph, _Spared houres of a souldier_, 1623.
[631] Livet, _La Grammaire française et les grammairiens au 16e siècle_,
1859, p. 2.
[632] _In linguam gallicam Isagoge_, 1531.
[633] _Le Traité touchant le commun usage de l'escriture françoise_,
1542, 1545; cp. Livet, _op. cit._ pp. 49 _sqq._
[634] _Gallicae linguae institutio Latino sermone conscripta_ (1550,
1551, 1555, 1558, etc.).
[635] _Institutio gallicae linguae in usum iuventutis germanicae_ (1558,
1580, 1591, 1593).
[636] _Dialogue de l'ortografe et prononciacion françoese, departi en
deus livres_, 1555.
[637] "J'ay tousiours eu plus ordinaire hantise, plus de biens et
d'honneur et de civile conversation de la nation Angloise que de nul
aultre."
[638] Villiers had no doubt some previous knowledge of French. From the
age of thirteen he had been taught at home by private tutors.
[639] _Reliquiae Wottonianae_, London, 1657, p. 76.
[640] 12º, pp. 386.
[641]
"Etranger desireux de nostre langue apprendre,
Employe en ce livret et ton temps et ton soin,
Que si d'enseignement plus ample il t'est besoin,
Viens t'en la vive voix de l'autheur mesme entendre."
[642] It differs from _Les Desguisez_, a comedy written by Godard in
1594.
[643] E. Winkler, "La Doctrine grammaticale d'après Maupas et Oudin," in
_Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie_, Heft 38, 1912.
[644] Towards the end of his career, Oudin was appointed to teach Louis
XIV. Spanish and Italian; he was the author of several manuals for
teaching these languages, and it is worthy of note that sometimes the
German language is included.
[645] Printed with Nicot's edition of Aimar de Ranconnet's _Thresor de
la langue françoyse_, Paris, 1606.
[646] Garnier was also the author of familiar dialogues, published in
French, Spanish, Italian, and German in 1656.
[647] _Lettres sur les Anglais et sur les Français_ (end of seventeenth
century), 1725, p. 305.
[648] Another grammar specially intended for the use of strangers was
_Le vray orthographe françois contenant les reigles et preceptes
infallibles pour se rendre certain, correct et parfait a bien parler
françois, tres utile et necessaire tant aux françois qu'estrangers. Par
le sieur de Palliot secretaire ordinaire de la chambre du roy._ 1608.
[649] Gailhard, _op. cit._ p. 33.
[650] _Method for Travell_, 1598.
[651] _Records of the English Catholics_, i. pp. 275 _et sqq._; F. C.
Petre, _English Colleges and Convents established on the Continent ..._,
Norwich, 1849; G. Cardon, _La Fondation de l'Université de Douai_,
Paris, 1802.
[652] Cp. p. 343 _infra_.
[653] Cp. account by M. Nicolas, in _Bulletin de la société de
l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français_, iv. pp. 503 _sqq._ and pp. 582
_sqq._ Twenty-five such colleges are named.
[654] _Bulletin_, i. p. 301; ii. pp. 43, 303, 354 _sqq._; also articles
in vols. iii., iv., v., vi., ix., and Bourchenin's _Études sur les
Académies Protestantes_.
[655] Suppressed as early as 1620.
[656] Driven from Scotland, in many cases, by James I.'s attempt to
introduce the English Liturgy into the Scottish churches. Robert
Monteith, author of the _Histoire des Troubles de la Grande Bretagne_,
was professor of philosophy at Saumur for four years (_Dict. Nat.
Biog._).
[657] He composed in French _A faithful and familiar exposition of
Ecclesiastes_, Geneva, 1557; cp. _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.
[658] Cp. Nicolas, _Histoire de l'ancienne Académie de Montauban_,
Montauban, 1885.
[659] There was an early Academy at Lausanne which emigrated to Geneva
and assured the latter's success (1559); cp. H. Vuilleumier, _L'Académie
de Lausanne_, Lausanne, 1891.
[660] _Essai de remarques particulières sur la langue françoise pour la
ville de Genève_, 1691. Quoted by Borgeaud, _Histoire de l'Université de
Genève_, 1900, p. 445.
[661] C. Borgeaud, _op. cit._
[662] They were united at Nîmes in 1617, and finally suppressed in 1644.
[663] Pattison, _Isaac Casaubon_, Oxford, 1892, pp. 40-42, 155. On the
English at Geneva, cp. _ibid._ p. 20.
[664] _Autobiography_, ed. Sir S. Lee (2nd ed., 1906), p. 56.
[665] T. Scot, _Philomythie_, London, 1622.
[666] _Satyra_ (addressed to Ben Jonson), 1608. _Poems of Lord Herbert
of Cherbury_, ed. J. Churton Collins, London, 1881.
[667] _Henry VIII._, Act I. Sc. 3.
[668] A. T. Thomson, _Memoirs of the Court of Henry VIII._, London,
1826, i. p. 259.
[669] Epigram by Sir Th. More: translated from Latin by J. H. Marsden,
_Philomorus_, 2nd ed., 1878, p. 222.
[670] _English Monsieur: Works_, London, 1875, viii. p. 190. Cp. other
satires and epigrams of the time: Hall, _Satires_, lib. iii. satire 7;
_Skialetheia_, 1598, No. 27; H. Parrot, _Laquei_, 1613, No. 207;
_Scourge of Villanie_, ed. Grosart, 1879, p. 158.
[671] H. Glapthorne, "The Ladies' Privilege," _Plays and Poems_, 1874,
ii. pp. 81 _sqq._ It was sometimes the good fortune of the gallant to
"live like a king," "teaching tongues" (T. Scot, _Philomythie_, 1622).
[672] 1510? Colophon: "Here endeth this treatise made of a galaunt.
Emprinted at London in the Flete St. at the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn
de Worde." Alex. Barclay, Andrew Borde, Skelton and others, all satirize
the mania for French fashions. Every opportunity of getting the latest
French fashion was eagerly seized. Thus Lady Lisle, wife of Henry
VIII.'s deputy at Calais, constantly sent her friends in England
articles of dress "such as the French ladies wear" (_Letters and Papers
of the Reign of Henry VIII._, i. 3892). Moryson says the English are
"more light than the lightest French."
[673] Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, 1625.
[674] Sylvester, _Lacrymae Lacrymarum: Works_ (ed. Grosart), ii. p. 278.
[675] Sir T. Overbury, _Characters_, 1614: "The Affected Traveller."
[676] George Pettie, _Civile Conversation_, 1586 (preface to translation
of Guazzo's work).
[677] _As You Like It_, Act IV. Sc. 1.
[678] Nash, _Pierce Pennilesse_, quoted by J. J. Jusserand, _The English
Novel in the Time of Shakespeare_, 1899, p. 322.
[679] Wilson, _Arte of Rhetorique_ (1553), ed. G. H. Mair, 1909, p. 162.
[680] Hall, _Quo Vadis_, 1617.
[681] Humphrey, _The Nobles or of Nobilitye_, London, 1563.
[682] Overbury, _Characters_, 1614.
[683] _The Unfortunate Traveller_ (1587), Works, ed. McKerrow, ii. p.
300.
[684] _Letters_ (1618), ed. Warner, _Epistolary Curiosities_, 1818, p.
3.