The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 30

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 amba.s.sador at Paris, without the "enc.u.mbrance" 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 Ess.e.x 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 a.s.sist him, chiefly, no doubt, with reading and p.r.o.nunciation. 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 a.s.surance 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 p.r.o.nunciation, 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 pa.s.sing 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 n.o.blemen,[628] as well as the prosperous middle cla.s.s--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 s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sistance, 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 n.o.bility 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 n.o.bility for the s.p.a.ce 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 francoise contenant reigles tres certaines et adresse tres a.s.seuree a la nave 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 p.r.o.nunciation 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 a.s.sisted 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 clientele 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, ent.i.tled _Les Desguisez: Comedie Francoise 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 francoise_ 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 pa.s.sed 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 Francoise rapportee 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, repet.i.tion, 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, Cesar, 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 Francoises_ (1640) was also addressed "aux estrangers," and his aim was to show his grat.i.tude by attempting to call attention to the mistakes which had made their way into grammars drawn up for their instruction.[644]

_L'Eschole Francoise pour apprendre a bien parler et escrire selon l'usage de ce temps et pratique des bons autheurs, divisee 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 p.r.o.nunciation and orthography, by a.s.suring 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 att.i.tude, 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 Ma.s.set in French and Latin, _Exact et tres facile acheminement a la langue Francoyse, 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 Francoise_ (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 la ce qu'il leur faut."[647]

Chiflet is very explicit in his advice to foreign students. In the first place the p.r.o.nunciation should be learnt by reading a short pa.s.sage 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 p.r.o.nunciation. 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 College 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 lycee, and the chief subjects taught were the cla.s.sical 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, inst.i.tutions of university standing. They were eight in number, and situated at Nimes, Montpellier, Saumur, Montauban, Die, Sedan, Orthez (in the princ.i.p.ality of Bearn[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 Nimes 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 "a Geneve on p.r.o.nonce 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 _Manege 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.

Nimes 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 a.s.surance 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 Ess.e.x, 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 Beze. 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 amba.s.sador 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 pa.s.sing 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 Amba.s.sador 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 pa.s.sing over seas."[665] When Lord Herbert of Cherbury arrived in Paris he remarked on the great number of Englishmen thronging about the amba.s.sador'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 n.o.bles 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.