The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 3

_The pounde._ Le livere aprent nous enfauntz.

_The boke._

[47] The earliest of these MSS. dates from the second decade of the fourteenth century. These epistolaries are found in the following MSS.: Harleian 4971 and 3988, Addit. 17716, in the Brit. Mus.; Ee 4, 20 in Cantab. Univ. Library; B 14. 39, 40 in Trinity Col. Camb.; 182 at All Souls, Oxford, and 188 Magdalen Col. Oxford (cp. Sturzinger, _Altfranzosiche Bibliothek_), viii. pp. xvii-xix. The Introductions to these letters were edited in a Griefswald Dissertation (1898), by W.

Uerkvitz.

[48] Stengel, _op. cit._ pp. 8-10.

[49] _Romania_, iv. p. 381, x.x.xii. p, 22.

[50] W. Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, Cambridge, 1896, pp. 635 _sqq._

[51] L. Menger, _Anglo-Norman Dialect_; Behrens, _art. cit._ pp. 960 _sqq._; Brunot, _Histoire de la langue francaise_, i. pp. 319 _sqq._, 369.

[52] Brunot, _op. cit._ i. p. 331.

[53] Jusserand, _Histoire litteraire du peuple anglais_, 1896. p. 240 n.

[54] Brunot, _op. cit._ i. p. 369.

[55] P. Meyer commends Gower's French (_Romania_, x.x.xii. p. 43).

[56] T. R. Lounsbury, _Studies in Chaucer_, London, 1892, p. 458.

[57] Livre ii. ch. xii.

[58] As in those of Olivier Ba.s.selin.

[59] Eustache Deschamps, _Oeuvres_, ed. c.r.a.pelet, p. 91, quoted by Rathery, _op. cit._ p. 181 (cp. also _English Political Songs_, ed. T.

Wright. Camden Soc., 1839).

[60] Jusserand, _op. cit._ p. 153 n. The fourteenth branch of the _Roman_ is specially mentioned: cp. Brunot, _op. cit._ i. p. 369, n. 4.

[61] Brunot, _op. cit._ i. 330. It is not rare to find English p.r.o.nunciation of French ridiculed in France, and Englishmen represented as talking a sort of gibberish; cp. _Romania_, xiv. pp. 99, 279, and Brunot, _op. cit._ p. 369 n.

[62] Behrens, _op. cit._ p. 957.

[63] Ed. E. Martin, 1882, l. 2351 _sqq._

[64] _Recueil general et complet des fabliaux_, ed. Montaiglon et Raynaud, ii. p. 178.

[65] Maitland, _Collected Papers_, 1911, ii. p. 436; Freeman, _op. cit._ p. 536; Brunot, _op. cit._ i. p. 373.

[66] F. Watson, _Religious Refugees and English Education_, London, 1911, p. 6. There are numerous entries of such works in the _Stationers'

Register_.

[67] Answer to Dr. Lindsey's epigram, _Works_, ed. 1841, i. p. 634.

[68] [H. Dell], _The Frenchified Lady never in Paris_, London, 1757.

[69] Pepys in his Diary notes the use of French in such phrases, and the Abbe Le Blanc (_Lettres d'un Francais sur les Anglais_, a la Haye, 1745) was also struck by the custom.

[70] Bateson, _Mediaeval England_, p. 342; Warton, _History of English Poetry_, p. 10 n.

[71] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, 1846, i. p. xi.

[72] M. A. E. Green (_nee_ Wood), _Letters of Royal and Ill.u.s.trious Ladies_, London, 1846; _The Paston Letters_, new edition by J. Gairdner, 3 vols., London, 1872-75; H. Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, London, 1846; J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, _Letters of the Kings of England_, London, 1846; C. L. Kingsford, _English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century_, Oxford, 1893, pp. 193 _et seq._; Hallam, _Literature of Europe_, 6th ed., London, 1860, i. p. 54.

[73] "Que tout seigneur, baron, chevalier et honestes hommes de bonnes villes mesissent cure et dilligence de estruire et apprendre leurs enfans le langhe francoise, par quoy il en fuissent plus avec et plus costumier ens leurs gherres" (Froissart, quoted by Behrens, _op. cit._ p. 957 n.).

[74] Higden, _ut supra_.

CHAPTER II

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

These great changes which took place in the status of French in England did not, however, affect fundamentally the popularity of the language: they had to do with Anglo-French alone. French, as distinct from this and as a foreign language, received more attention than ever before, especially from the higher cla.s.ses, and from travellers and merchants.

It was the language of politeness and refinement in the eyes of Englishmen, not only as a result of the Conquest, but for its inherent qualities; and so it retained this position when it gave way to English or Latin in other spheres where its predominance had been due, either directly or indirectly, to the Conquest. French had enjoyed a social reputation in England before the arrival of the invaders,[75] and had already made some progress towards becoming the language which the English loved and cultivated above all modern foreign tongues, and to which they devoted for a great many years more care than they did to their own. "Doulz francois," writes an Englishman at the end of the fourteenth century in a treatise for teaching the language,[76] is the most beautiful and gracious language in the world, after the Latin of the schools,[77] "et de tous gens mieulx prisee et amee que nul autre; quar Dieu le fist se doulce et amiable princ.i.p.alement a l'oneur et loenge de luy mesmes. Et pour ce il peut bien comparer au parler des angels du ciel, pour la grant doulceur et biaultee d'icel"--a more eloquent tribute even than the more famous lines of Brunetto Latini.

Another writer of the same period informs us that "les bones gens du Roiaume d'Engleterre sont embrasez a scavoir lire et escrire, entendre et parler droit Francois," and that he himself thinks it is very necessary for the English to know the "droict nature de Francois," for many reasons.[78] For instance, that they may enjoy intercourse with their neighbours, the good folk of the kingdom of France; that they may better understand the laws of England, of which a great many are still written in French; and also because "beaucoup de bones choses sont misez en Francois," and the lords and ladies of England are very fond of writing to each other in the same tongue.[79]

As a result of the altered circ.u.mstances which were modifying the att.i.tude of the English, there is a corresponding change in the standard of the French which the manuals for teaching that language sought to attain. All the best text-books of the end of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries endeavour with few exceptions to impart a knowledge of the French of Paris, "doux francois de Paris" or "la droite language de Paris," as it was called, in contrast with the French of Stratford-atte-Bowe and other parts of England. Those authors of treatises for teaching French of whose lives we have any details, had studied French in France, at Paris, Orleans, or some other University town. The fact that many of their productions still contain numbers of words belonging to the Norman and other dialects does not diminish the importance and significance of their more ambitious aims. These pioneer works on the French language, written in England by Englishmen without the guidance of any similar work produced in France, were bound to contain archaisms as well as anglicisms.[80]

Fluency in speaking French was the chief need of the cla.s.ses of society in which the demand for instruction was greatest. Correctness in detail was only of secondary importance, and grammar, though desirable, was not considered indispensable. The importance of speaking French naturally brought the subject of p.r.o.nunciation to the fore. No doubt most of the early teachers shared the opinions of their successors, that rules and theoretical information were of little avail in teaching the sounds of the language, compared with the practice of imitation and repet.i.tion; nevertheless, many of them attempted to supply some information on the subject. When, in the second decade of the fifteenth century, another writer based a new treatise for teaching French on the vocabulary of Bibbesworth, which had then been current for well over a century, the chief point in which it differed from its original was precisely in the provision of guidance to facilitate p.r.o.nunciation.

This new treatise was styled _Femina_,[81] because just as the mother teaches her young child to speak his native tongue, so does this work teach children to speak French naturally.[82] It covers almost exactly the same ground as the vocabulary of Bibbesworth, but, as in the case of the earlier imitation of the same work, the _Nominale_, the order of arrangement varies, and the whole is permeated with a lively humour which makes it at least equal in interest to the work on which it is based. The French lines are octosyllabic and arranged in distichs, each pair being followed by an English translation, which is given in full, contrary to the practice in the earlier works of the same kind. The author endeavours to teach the French of France[83] as distinguished from that of England, and, although he lavishes provincialisms from the local dialects of France--Norman, Picard, Walloon--in the main they are French provincialisms, and many of them may be due to errors on the part of the scribe. To a.s.sist p.r.o.nunciation notes are provided at the bottom of the page, giving pseudo-English equivalents of the sounds of words written otherwise in the text.

The treatise opens with an exhortation to the child to learn French that he may speak fairly before wise men, for "heavy is he that is not taught":

Cap: primum docet rethorice loqui de a.s.similitudine bestiarum.

a b Beau enfaunt pur apprendre c d En franceis devez bien entendre Ffayre chyld for to lerne In french ye schal wel understande

e Coment vous parlerez bealment, Et devaunt les sagez naturalment.

How ye schal speke fayre, And afore ye wys.e.m.e.n kyndly.

f g Ceo est veir que vous dy, h i Hony est il qui n'est norry.

That ys soth that y yow say Hevy ys he that ys not taugth

k l Parlez tout ditz com affaites m Et nenny come dissafaites Spekep alway as man ys tauth And not as man untauth.

Parlez imprimer de tout a.s.semble n o Dez bestez que Dieu ad forme.

Spekep fyrst of manere a.s.semble alle Of bestes that G.o.d hath y maked.

(_a_) beau debet legi bev, (_b_) enfaunt, (_c_) fraunceys, (_d_) bein, (_e_) belement, (_f_) ce, (_g_) cet vel eyztt, (_h_) Iil, (_i_) neot, (_k_) toutdiz, (_l_) afetes, (_m_) dissafetes, (_n_) beetez, (_o_) dv et non Dieu.

The subsequent chapters deal with the same subjects as in Bibbesworth, and sometimes the wording is almost identical. The concluding chapter, "De moribus infantis," is taken from another source, and gives admonitions for discreet behaviour, quoting the moral treatise of the pseudo-Cato, the Proverbs of Solomon, and the like. The pa.s.sage in which _Femina_ deals with the upbringing of the child may be of interest, as showing how the later author repeats the earlier, while altering the wording; and as throwing some light on the way French was then learnt: