The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 22

What strikes one most, perhaps, in Bellot's Grammar is that he makes no attempt to deal with the difficulties which the French language presents to the English in particular. No comparison of the two languages is inst.i.tuted; no emphasis is laid on points in which they differ. Were it not written in English, it might be taken for a study of the language on the model of those produced in France. Considering that the work was published in the year of his arrival in England, it seems almost certain that he had begun his study before his arrival, and translated it himself, or had it translated into English. This would account for its unusual character.

Bellot opens and closes his Grammar with apologies. He repudiates all claim to completeness, and writes, he says, merely to provoke the "learned" to do better. "Yet the worke is not so leane and voide of fruite, but there is in it some taste. The bee gathereth honey from the smallest flowers, and so may the wise man from this small work."

Some time after the publication of his Grammar, he joined the group of French teachers dwelling in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's Churchyard.

He was there in 1582, and made the acquaintance of Holyband, who had then resumed his French school in that locality. In the following year he wrote a quatrain and a sonnet in praise of Holyband's latest work, the _Campo di Fior_ (1583):

Goustez Anglois, Gent bien heureuse, Les fleurs qu'en vostre Isle argenteuse Vous donne Holybande pour un gage.

It is not certain how Bellot employed his time there. He may have had a school, or have taught privately. In any case he was a member of the French Church, and in the returns of aliens he calls himself a "schoolmaster" and a "teacher of children."[413] But the t.i.tle on which he is most insistent is that of "gentleman." He is a "gentilhomme cadomois," or a gentleman of Caen, and usually attaches the abbreviation G.C. to his name. His att.i.tude to the usual type of French teacher is distinctly supercilious. He prided himself on belonging to the "n.o.blesse instruite et de Savoir," and had the reputation of teaching elegant French.

In 1580 he dedicated to no less a person than Francois de Valois,[414]

brother to Henry III., a work for teaching English to foreigners. Like Holyband, he gave his book the t.i.tle of "Schoolmaster": _Maistre d'Escole Anglois pour les naturelz francois, et autre estrangers qui ont la langue francoyse, pour parvenir a la vraye p.r.o.nonciation de la langue Angloise_.[415] The work contains rules of p.r.o.nunciation and grammar, given in opposite columns in French and English; it was evidently written in French in the first place, and then somewhat carelessly translated into English, for in the English column the ill.u.s.trative examples are given in French. This produces a curious effect, and involves such statements as: "_quand_ should be p.r.o.nounced as _Houen_"

(when), etc. In the dedication he refers to his "misfortune," by which, presumably, he means his exile.[416]

Bellot was busily occupied in the production of other text-books also during his residence in Paul's Churchyard. The _Maistre d'Escole Anglois_ appeared in January 1580, and in 1581 was followed by a third work, in the form of a collection of moral dicta, ent.i.tled _Le Jardin de vertu et bonnes moeurs plain de plusieurs belles fleurs et riches sentences, avec le sens d'icelles, recueillies de plusieurs autheurs_,[417] and intended to be used as a "reader." It was published by the French refugee printer Thomas Vautrollier, who, at the same time, issued a new edition of Holyband's _French Littleton_. The works of the two friends were of the same size, and are bound together in the copy preserved in the British Museum.

Holyband, with his long-standing reputation, may have been able to further Bellot's interests. In 1580 he had dedicated his Latin work on French p.r.o.nunciation to the queen, and in the following year Bellot obtained the same favour for his little work. He accordingly opened his book with six French sonnets in honour of Her Majesty, celebrating her generous reception of strangers, not omitting to beg her protection for the "garden":

Recoy donc ce jardin: te plaise a l'appuyer De ta faveur Royalle: et pren le jardinier En ta protection contre la gent hargneuse: Alors il tachera (sans appouvrir la France) L'Angleterre enrichir d'oeuvres d'autre importance, Pour faconner l'Anglois au Francoys, en son estre, Alors il chantera tes vertus en tout lieu... .

The whole of the _Jardin_ is printed in French and English; each maxim or saying is accompanied by explanations of the most difficult words, by means of synonyms, paraphrases, and definitions, as in the following example:

La memoire du prodigue est nulle. Of the prodigall ther is no memory.

Prodigue est:-- Prodigal is:-- un degasteur, un rioteux et a wastefull, a riotious and un excessif depenseur, an outrageous spender, un consomme-tout, qui degaste a spendall that will lavishe et depense ou il n'en est and spende where nul besoin et a l'endroit de it needeth not and upon whom qui n'en a besoin. it needeth not.

Memoire est:-- Memory is:-- une souvenance, une resconte pensee, a remembrance, and having in minde, une chose non mise en oubly. a not forgetting.

Le Moral:-- The meaning:-- La renommee et fame du The prodigall mans fame and renown prodigue ne dure ny continue long endureth nor continueth temps: si tost qu'il est mort not long; as sone as he is gone et pa.s.se il est oublie and dead he is forgotten et hors de toute souvenance. and out of all remembrance.

Cicero en Paradox dit:-- Cicero in Paradox saith:-- Les prodigues employent et Prodigall men employ and degastent leurs biens en wast their goods upon choses dont ils ne peuvent thinges whereof they can not laisser qu'une courte memoire leave but a short memory de eux, ou point du tout. of them, or none at all.

[Header: NORMANS IN ENGLAND]

It will be noticed that Bellot had not fully mastered the English idiom, although he had written an English grammar. The rest of the "beautiful flowers of vertue" which he planted in his "garden" are similar in character and treatment. He characteristically closes his little book with a prayer, which he quaintly compares to a fence to keep the "goats"

from harming the "flowers."

In 1583 Bellot was still living near St. Paul's Churchyard. But after this date we lose all trace of him until 1588, when the printer Robert Robinson received a licence to print "a booke intytuled a grammar in Frenche and Englishe, the auttour is James Bellot."[418] This second French Grammar was known as _The French Methode_.[419]

To the numerous band of Normans in England also belonged, perhaps, G. De la Mothe, who wrote the letter "N" after his name. De la Mothe was another refugee for the sake of religion, and he speaks with grat.i.tude of the generous welcome he received in England.[420] He tells us that the cruel civil wars in France had "burnt the wings of his studies" and ruined his fortune.[421] On his arrival in England, he began his career as a teacher of French in the same way as many others; he became a tutor in a n.o.ble family, and shortly after produced a book for teaching French. He was first appointed French tutor to the son of Sir Henry Wallop, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and a prominent patron of the refugees, on the return of his lordship to England in 1589. De la Mothe was also received, at some date before 1592, into the midst of another important English family, the Wenmans, of Thame Park, Oxfordshire. He taught French to the girls, and early in 1592, if not before, was at Oxford with the eldest son, Richard Wenman,[422] afterwards Sir Richard, and his brothers.

De la Mothe had in the meantime written a French text-book which he called _The French Alphabet, Teaching in a very short time by a most easie way, to p.r.o.nounce French naturally, to read it perfectly, to unite it truly, and to speak it accordingly, Together with a Treasure of the French Tongue_.[423] He divided it into two parts, which he dedicated to each of his patrons--the first to Sir Henry Wallop and the second to Sir Richard Wenman's mother, at whose request he had undertaken the work. De la Mothe acknowledges his debt of grat.i.tude to both, and also to the country which had received him so hospitably, in terms which contain something more than the usual trite expressions.

The _French Alphabet_ was licensed to the printer Richard Field in 1592,[424] but no copy of this earliest edition has been preserved.

Field succeeded to Vautrollier's successful business, and in this same year showed his friendship for his fellow-townsman[425] Shakespeare, by printing the first work he published, _Venus and Adonis_. It is of course pure conjecture to suggest that Shakespeare saw and even read the little book printed by his friend. Whether this be so or not, it was perhaps through Field and his Huguenot connexions--he had married Vautrollier's widow--that Shakespeare became acquainted with the family of Christopher Montjoy.

[Header: G. DE LA MOTHE, N.]

A new edition of the _Alphabet_ appeared in 1595, from the press of Edward Alde. At this date De la Mothe had joined the group of teachers in St. Paul's Churchyard. He taught at the "Signe of the Helmet," and "there you shall finde him ever willing to show you any favour or curtesie he may; and most ready to endeavour himselfe to satisfie you in all that can be possible for hime to doe." The Sign of the Helmet was the address of the bookseller Thomas Chard.[426] Any one desirous of becoming acquainted with the author for his better furtherance in the French tongue could also make enquiries at the Sign of St. John the Evangelist in Fleet Street, beneath the Conduit, where lived the printer and bookseller Hugh Jackson, commissioned to sell the book--further instances of the friendly relations between the French teachers and the printers and booksellers of the time, through whom these teachers would, no doubt, get a large proportion of their clientele. The Huguenot sympathies of many of the printers, such as Vautrollier and Field, account in part for this cordial feeling.

After the 1595 edition of his work we hear nothing further of De la Mothe. Although the name occurs frequently in the returns of aliens, none can be identified with him. He probably seized an early opportunity of returning to his native land. His manual, however, did not disappear with him. Second in popularity only to the works of Holyband in the sixteenth century, it enjoyed numerous editions in the seventeenth.[427]

Excepting the omission of De la Mothe's advertis.e.m.e.nt, all the later editions are identical. They were issued from the press of Field's successor, George Miller.[428] It is difficult to understand how the 1595 edition came to be printed by Edward Alde, though his work was evidently countenanced by De la Mothe.

The _French Alphabet_ is a very practical little work. It contains rules for p.r.o.nunciation and familiar dialogues in the usual style. The whole is given in French and English arranged on opposite pages. His treatment of p.r.o.nunciation is much the same as Holyband's, and he sometimes transcribes freely from his active contemporary's work.[429] He explains the sounds chiefly by comparison with English, giving the nearest equivalent to each letter. After the letters he deals with the syllables and then the words. The rules are arranged in the form of dialogues between master and pupil:

Sir, will it please you do me Monsieur, vous plaist il me faire so much favour (or would tant de faveur (ou voudriez you take the pain) to vous prendre la peine) de teach me to speak French? m'apprendre a parler Francois?

With all my heart, if Tres volontiers, si vous you have a desire to it. en avez envie.

I desire nothing more. Je ne desire rien plus.

If you desire it you Si vous le desirez vous shall learn it quickly, l'apprendez bien, if you please to take s'il vous plaist de prendre some pain. un peu de peine.

There is nothing though never so hard Il n'y a rien si difficile but by labour it may be made easie. qui par labeur ne soit facile.

You say true, Vous dites vray, I believe you. je vous en croy... .

How do you p.r.o.nounce Comment p.r.o.noncez vous the letter a? la lettre a?

A is p.r.o.nounced plaine and long as A se p.r.o.nonce ouvert et long comme this English word awe, to be in awe, ce mot Anglois awe, to be in awe, as ma, ta, sa, la, comme ma, ta, sa, la, bat, part, blanc, etc. bat, part, blanc, etc.

And the next lesson takes the following form: [Header: HIS FRENCH ALPHABET]

Sir, can you say your lesson? Monsieur, scaves vous vostre lecon?

Have you learnt to p.r.o.nounce your Aves vous apprins a p.r.o.noncer vos letters? lettres?

Yea, as well as I can. Ouy, le mieux qu'il m'est possible.

I have done nothing but study it Je n'ay fait autre chose qu'estudier.

since you did heare me yesterday depuis que vous me feistes dire hier.

It is very well done, C'est tresbien fait, I am glad then. i'en suis bien aise.

Go to, let me heare you how you do Or aus, que je voye comment vous p.r.o.nounce. p.r.o.noncez.

I will, I am content. Je le veux, i'en suis content.

Say then, begin, speak Dites, doncq, commencez, parlez aloud. haut.

p.r.o.nounce distinctly. Softly, p.r.o.noncez distinctement. Tout beau, make no haste, open your ne vous hastez point, ouvrez la mouth. bouche.

That is very well, that is well Voyla qui est bien, cela est bien said. dit.

Repeat it once again. Repetez encore une fois derechef.

Do I p.r.o.nounce it well? Yea, p.r.o.nonce-je bien? Ouy, you p.r.o.nounce well. vous p.r.o.noncez bien.

Help me, I pray you. Aydez moy, je vous prie.

How do you p.r.o.nounce that letter? Comment se p.r.o.nonce ceste lettre?

Before we go any further Devant que pa.s.ser oultre you must il faut que vous p.r.o.nounce perfectly your letters. p.r.o.nonciez vos lettres parfaitement.

Now that you can tell your letters Maintenant que vous scavez vos well, lettres, learne your syllables, apprenez vos syllables, say after me. dictes apres moy.

After dealing with the sounds of the French language, De la Mothe pa.s.ses to more general considerations. He touches on the much-discussed question of the reform of the orthography, and expresses his strong disapproval of all attempts to make it tally with the p.r.o.nunciation.

Then he deals with the p.r.o.nunciation of the Law French of the English,[430] which he puts down to such fanciful experiments. Lawyers write their French as they p.r.o.nounce it, and p.r.o.nounce it as they write it, so that it is now quite corrupt. He next proceeds to give his pupils a short history of the chief Romance tongues, French, Italian, and Spanish, and finally of the English language.

The remainder of the first part of the _Alphabet_ is occupied by short familiar dialogues on the usual subjects--greetings, the weather, the divisions of time, buying and selling, and the occurrences of daily life--as follows:

_For to aske the way._ _Pour demander le chemin._

How many miles to London? Combien y a il d'icy a Londres?

Ten leagues, twenty miles. Dix lieues, vingt mil.

What way must we keep? Quel chemin faut il tenir?

Which is the shortest Ou est le plus court way to goe to Rye? chemin d'icy a Rye?

Keepe alwayes the great way. Suyvez tousjours le grand chemin.

Do not stray neither to the right Ne vous fourvoyez ny a dextre nor to the left hand. ny a sinestre.

What doe I owe you now? Combien vous doy-je maintenant?

Two shillings. Here it is. Deux sols. Les voyla.

Bring me my horse. Amenez moy mon cheval.

Will you take horse? Vous plaist il monter a cheval?

Yea, I hope I shall not alight Ouy, j'espere que je ne descendrez till I be come to London. que je ne soys arrive a Londres.