The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 10

Further uses of the vowel _a_ are thus set forth: it may be placed before all verbs, in the infinitive mood, and before all manner of nouns and p.r.o.nouns, as "to Robert," "to May," and so on. Again, "it betokeneth 'have' when it cometh of the Latin verb _habeo_." The consonants are next dealt with and disposed of in much the same way. Some attention is also given to the question, then much discussed, whether the etymological consonants in the words where they are not p.r.o.nounced should be retained or not. The author's opinion was that every letter in a word ought to be sounded, yet he feels himself utterly unable to struggle against custom, and falls back on the rule "go as you please": [Header: TWO FRENCH POETS TEACH FRENCH] "p.r.o.nounce ech one as he shal please, for to difficyl it is to correct olde errours."

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

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

Bourbon left England in 1535, on hearing of the death of his father. He had probably been in the country at least two years, and, perhaps happily for himself, left it a year before the fall of his patroness Anne Boleyn.

At a somewhat later date, 1547, the elegant poet and artist Nicolas Denisot arrived in England, driven from Paris by an unfortunate love affair.[216] His nephew, Jacques Denisot, declares he was "fort bien accueilliz dans la cour d'Angleterre ou son estime et sa reputation estoit deja cogneue." He mixed with the writers and politicians[217] of the day, and attracted the notice of the Court by writing verses in honour of the young king, Edward VI.[218] He soon found himself in the distinguished position of French and Latin tutor to the three daughters of the Protector Somerset,--Anne, Margaret, and Jane,--who were destined shortly to become famous in Paris as his pupils, and to form an important link in the literary relations of the two countries. Calvin corresponded with one of Denisot's pupils, the Lady Anne; and in 1549 he wrote requesting her to use her knowledge of French in transmitting to her mother an expression of his grat.i.tude for a ring he had received from that lady, he being unable to do so, on account of his ignorance of English.[219] In this same year, 1549, Denisot's engagement in the house of Somerset came to an end rather abruptly, probably on account of some misunderstanding with the duke. He returned to France after spending three years in England, and thence kept up a friendly correspondence with his former pupils. On the death of Queen Margaret of Navarre, whom, no doubt, Denisot had taught them to admire, the sisters composed four hundred Latin distichs in her honour, and sent them to their former master, who welcomed them with enthusiasm, and published them in 1550.

In the following year the verses appeared again, accompanied by French, Italian, and Greek translations, and verses from the pen of Ronsard, Du Bellay, and other literary friends of Denisot.[220] It is a striking fact that before the Pleiade was fully known in France, the fame of some of its members had reached England, where a particular interest would be taken in this development of the work of the three princesses. Ronsard, Denisot's intimate friend, wrote one of his earliest odes in honour of Denisot's pupils, in which he celebrates the intellectual union of France and England: [Header: THE PLeIADE IN ENGLAND]

Denisot se vante heure D'avoir oublie sa terre Et pa.s.sager demeure Trois ans en Angleterre.

... . les espritz D'Angleterre et de la France Bandez d'une ligue ont pris Le fer contre l'ignorance, Et (que) nos Roys se sont faitz D'ennemys amys parfaitz Tuans la guerre cruelle Par une paix mutuelle.

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

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

[134] W. B. Rye, _England as seen by Foreigners_, London, 1865, _pa.s.sim_.

[135] Translation of Sall.u.s.t's _Bellum Jugurthinum_: Dedication to the Duke of Norfolk.

[136] _Remains_, Parker Society, p. 470. Quoted by J. J. Jusserand, _Histoire litteraire du peuple anglais_, Paris, 1904, p. 86, n. 3.

[137] _The Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet_, ed.

W. A. Bradly, Boston, 1912, pp. 41 and 112.

[138] _Sidney Papers_, ed. A. Collins, in _Letters and Memorials of State_, 2 vols., London, 1746, vol. i. pp. 283-5.

[139] _Letters of Descartes_, quoted by E. J. B. Rathery, _Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre ..._ Paris, 1856.

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

[141] Rye, _op. cit._ pp. x.x.xv-x.x.xvii.

[142] L. Einstein, _The Italian Renaissance in England_, New York, 1907.

[143] The Tudor group of distinguished linguists includes the names of many women. The chronicler Harrison remarks that it is a rare thing to hear of a courtier that has but his own language, and to tell how many ladies are skilled in French, Spanish, and Italian is beyond his power (_Holinshed's Chronicle_, 1586, i. p. 196). Nicholas Udal writes in the same strain in his dedication to Queen Katherine Parr of his translation of Erasmus's _Paraphrase of the Gospels_; we are told that a great number of n.o.ble women at that time in England were given to the study of human sciences and of strange tongues; and that it was a common thing to see "young virgins so nouzled and trained in the study of letters that thei willingly set all other vain pastymes at nought for learnynge's sake." Amongst the most accomplished of such "Queens and Ladies of high estate and progeny" were Queen Katherine Parr and Lady Jane Grey.

Mulcaster in his _Positions_ (1581) praises English ladies for their fondness of serious study, and so does the Italian teacher Torriano in his _Italian reviv'd_ (1673), p. 99. Many examples of fluent linguists are found in Ballard's _Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain_, 2nd ed., 1775.

[144] Elizabeth's command of foreign languages was constantly a subject of remark. Dr. William Turner in the dedication of his _Herbal_ (1568) to the queen, addresses her thus: "As to your knowledge of Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and others also, not only your own faythful subiectes, beynge far from all suspicion of flattery, bear witness, but also strangers, men of great learninge, in their books set out in Latin tonge, give honourable testimonye." Best known of these learned observers was Scaliger (_Scaligeriana_, Cologne, 1695, p. 134). Similar eulogies in verse were left by French poets: Ronsard, _Elegies, Mascarades et Bergeries_ (1561), reproduced in _Le Bocage royal_ (1567); Jacques Grevin, _Chant du cygne_; Du Bartas, _Second Week_; and Agrippa d'Aubigne; also by John Florio, _First Frutes_, 1578, ch. xiii.

[145] _First Frutes_, 1578, ch. i.

[146] John Eliote, _Ortho-Epia Gallica_, 1596.

[147] _Merchant of Venice_, Act I. Scene 2.

[148] Cp. Brunot, _Histoire de la langue francaise_, ii. pp. 2 _sqq._ Dallington in his _View of France_ remarks on the same neglect. In _The Abbot and the Learned Woman_, Erasmus praises the latter for studying the cla.s.sics and not, as was usual, confining herself to French (_Colloquia_, Leiden, 1519).

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

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

[151] _Dialogue de l'ortografe et p.r.o.nunciacion francoese departi en deus livres_, Lyon, 1558.

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

[153] _Lettres missives de Henri IV_, 9 tom., Paris, 1843. For an example of Elizabeth's French in her intercourse with her neighbours, see Rathery, _Les Relations sociales et intellectuelles entre la France et l'Angleterre_, Paris, 1856, p. 31 n.; _Unton Correspondence_, Roxburghe Club, 1847, _pa.s.sim_.

[154] See the _Calendars of State Papers_ for the period.

[155] _Calendar of State Papers_, Domestic, 1595-97, p. 328.

[156] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, vol xiii. pt. i.

No. 977.

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

[158] J. P. Collier, _Annals of the English Stage_, 1831, vol. i. pp.

48, 51, 53.

[159] Cp. Rye, _op. cit._ pp. 76, 79.

[160] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, ed. Brewer, vol.

ii. No. 411; Rawdon Brown, _Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._, 1854, vol. i. pp. 76-79 and 86.

[161] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, vol. i. p.

xxiii.

[162] _Songs, Ballads, and Instrumental Pieces composed by King Henry VIII._, Oxford, 1912. Barclay says in his _Eclogues_ that French minstrels and singers were highly favoured at Court. Jamieson, _Life and Writings of Barclay_, 1874, p. 44.

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

[164] _Henry VIII._, Act I. Scene 4.

[165] Wolsey spoke Latin well. Like Charles II. he considered it diplomatic to affect ignorance of French at times. Such is his advice to those who accompanied him on his emba.s.sy to France: "The nature of the Frenchmen is such that at their first meeting they will be as familiar with you as if they had knowne you by long acquaintance, and will commune with you in their French Tongue as if you knew every word.

Therefore use them in a kind manner, and bee as familiar with them as they are with you: if they speake to you in their natural tongue, speake to them in English, for if you understand not them, no more shall they you." Puttenham, in his _Arte of English Poesie_, advises amba.s.sadors and messengers not to use foreign languages of which they have not perfect command, lest they commit blunders similar to that of the courtier who said of a French lady, "Elle chevauche bien,"--blunders which might have serious results in diplomatic transactions.

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

[167] _Negociations of Th. Wolsey_, _ut supra_.

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

[169] Green's _Letters of Royal and Ill.u.s.trious Ladies_, 1846. See also Ellis, _Original Letters_, 1st series, vol. i. p. 115.