The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 19

Yet in spite of the fact that French received greater recognition in the schools of Scotland than it did in those of England, there is nothing to show that the same general interest was taken in the study of the language. While in England large numbers of grammars and other text-books were published, there is only one notice of the production of a similar work in Scotland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This solitary work, which a certain William Nudrye received a licence to print in 1559,[408] was ent.i.tled _Ane A B C for Scottes men to read the frenche toung, with an exhortation to the n.o.bles of Scotland to favour their old friends_. The plea that French was learnt by the help of French grammars imported from France, or on conversational methods, or yet again in France by direct intercourse with Frenchmen, may be applied with as much force to England as to Scotland, though it is not improbable that in Scotland such methods were relied on to a greater extent; the friendly relations which existed between Scotland and France from the thirteenth century onwards encouraged large numbers of Scots to seek instruction in France, just as it led some Frenchmen to the Scottish centres of learning.[409] French tutors were said to be as common in Scotland as in England; a Spanish amba.s.sador reported to Ferdinand and Isabella as early as 1498 that "there is a good deal of French education in Scotland, and many speak the French language." Yet the fact remains that while one small French A B C appears to have been the only work on the language issued in Scotland, there was a whole series of such works published in England.

FOOTNOTES:

[289] Sources for the History of the Persecutions: L. Batiffol, _The Century of the Renaissance_, London, 1916; D. C. A. Agnew, _Protestant Exiles from France_, 3rd ed., 1886, vol. i.; J. S. Burn, _The History of the French, Walloon, Dutch, and other Foreign Protestant Refugees settled in England_, London, 1846; S. Smiles, _The Huguenots, their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland_, London, 1867.

[290] Early refugees also came in small numbers from Italy where the Inquisition was established in 1542; and a few others from Spain, where it was set up in 1588. Their arrival in England imparted some slight impetus to the study of their respective languages; cp. F. Watson, _The Beginnings of the Teaching of Modern Subjects in England_, London, 1909, chapters xii. and xiii.

[291] _Huguenot Society Publications_, xv., 1898; F. W. Cross, _History of the Walloon and Huguenot Church at Canterbury_ (Introduction).

[292] L. Humphrey, _The n.o.bles or of n.o.bilitye_, London, 1563, 2nd book.

[293] See A. Rahlenbeck, "Les Refugies belges au 16me siecle en Angleterre," in the _Revue Trimestrielle_, Oct. 1865.

[294] The following numbers show the proportion of the Netherlanders to the French: in 1567, 3838 Flemish to 512 French; in 1586, 5225 to 1119.

[295] _Huguenot Soc. Pub._ i., 1887-88; O. J. W. Moens, _The Walloons and their Church at Norwich_, ch. ix.

[296] W. Besant, _London in the Time of the Tudors_, London, 1904, pp.

80, 200, 203. The population of London is taken as about 120,000.

[297] _Hug. Soc. Pub._ x., 1900-1908, 4 parts.

[298] _Hug. Soc. Pub._ viii., 1893: _Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalisation for Aliens in England_, 1509-1603, ed. W. Page.

[299] Naturalization by Act of Parliament, which gave additional rights, such as that of succession to and bequeathment of real property, was in general of more advantage to Englishmen born abroad than to foreigners.

[300] On the French churches in England, see F. de Schickler, _Les eglises du refuge en Angleterre_, 3 tom., Paris, 1892.

[301] The first ministers appointed to the French church were Francois Perussel, dit la Riviere, and Richard Vauville. Perlin visited the French church: "La prechoit un nomme maistre Francoys homme blond, et un autre nomme maistre Richard, homme ayant barbe noire" (_Description des royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escosse_, Paris, 1558, p. 11). Perlin was one of the few Frenchmen who came to England at this time.

[302] _Op. cit._ p. 11. Perlin also says that the English tried several times to set fire to the French church.

[303] See accounts in Rye, _England as seen by Foreigners_.

[304] This was naturally not without exceptions. For instance, Sir Nicholas Bacon, father of Francis, was noted for his support of the attempt to drive all the French from the country after the St.

Bartholomew ma.s.sacre (_Archaeologia_, x.x.xvi. p. 339).

[305] F. Foster Watson, "Religious Refugees and English Education,"

_Proceedings of the Huguenot Society_, London, 1911.

[306] _The n.o.bles or of n.o.bilitye_, _ut supra_.

[307] _Athenae Cantab._ ii. 274. A certain L. T. attacked Baro about a sermon of his on the text in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, twenty-eighth verse (Brit. Mus. Catalogue).

[308] _Hug. Soc. Pub._ x. pt. iii. p. 360.

[309] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 1st series, i. pp. 341-3.

[310] _Arte of Rhetorique_ (1553), ed. G. H. Mair, 1909, p. 13.

[311] _Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Autobiography_, ed. Sir S. Lee (2nd ed. 1906), p. 37, n.

[312] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, xiv. pt. ii. No.

601; and _Works_, Parker Society, i. p. 396.

[313] E. J. Furnivall, _Manners and Meals in Olden Time_, pp. ix et seq.

[314] Ascham, _Toxophilus_, quoted by Nichols: _Literary Remains ..._, p. xl.

[315] _Reliquiae Wottoniae_, London, 1657 ("Life of Sir Henry Wotton"), n.p.

[316] J. Payne Collier, in _Archaeologia_, vol. x.x.xvi. pp. 339 _et seq._

[317] _Queene Elizabeth's Academy_, ed. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1869.

[318] This purpose is expressly stated in the earliest grammar for teaching Italian to the English, dated 1550: _The Princ.i.p.al Rules of Italian Grammar, with a Dictionary for the better Understandynge of Boccace, Petrarcha, and Dante_ (also in 1562 and 1567). Cp. F. Watson, _Modern Subjects_, chapter xii.

[319] Cp. F. Watson, _Modern Subjects_, chapter xiii.; and J. G.

Underhill, _Spanish Literature in England of the Tudors_, New York, 1899.

[320] _Hug. Soc. Pub._ viii.: List of Denizations.

[321] _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.

[322] _Thesaurus Linguae Latinae_, 1532, the first of Latin-French dictionaries.

[323] Printed by T. Wolfe.

[324] The first French grammar for teaching French to the Germans, mentioned in Stengel's _Chronologisches Verzeichniss franzosischer Grammatiken_ (Oppeln, 1890), was the work of a Frenchman Du Vivier, schoolmaster at Cologne, and was published in 1566.

[325] Cp. Ph. Sheavyn, _The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan Age_, Manchester, 1909, chap. i.

[326] _De Republica Anglorum_, ed. L. Alston, Camb., 1906, p. 139.

[327] C. W. Wallace, "New Shakespeare Discoveries," _Harper's Magazine_, 1910, and _University Studies_, Nebraska, U.S.A.; Sir S. Lee, _Life of Shakespeare ..._, new ed., London, 1915, pp. 17, 276.

[328] Unfortunately the registers of the Threadneedle Street Church, previous to 1600, have been lost. It would have been interesting to have found Shakespeare brought into contact with this church by his Huguenot friends.

[329] A list of French words and phrases used by Shakespeare is given in A. Schmidt's _Shakespeare Lexicon_, 2 vols., Berlin, 1902, p. 1429.

[330] Act I. Sc. 4; Act II. Sc. 3; and other Scenes in which the Doctor appears.

[331] Act III. Sc. 6; Act IV. Sc. 2, Sc. 4, Sc. 5; Act V. Sc. 2.

[332] Act III. Sc. 4.

[333] Act III. Sc. 6. The quotation from 2 Peter ii. 22 bears closest resemblance to the edition of the Bible issued at Geneva, 1550; H. R. D.

Anders, _Shakespeare's Books_, Berlin, 1904, p. 203.