The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 40

[798] _Diary_, January 27, 1658.

[799] Cp. pp. 187 _sqq._, supra.

[800] Arber, _Stationers' Register_, ii. 576; iii. 466. An edition in French and Latin was printed in London as late as the eighteenth century.

[801] R. Clavell, _Catalogue of Books printed in London, 1666-1680_.

[802] Schickler, _eglises du Refuge_, i. 409. His name occurs frequently in the _Threadneedle Street Church Registers_, Hug. Soc. Pub. ix. and xiii.

[803] _The Const.i.tution of the Museum Minervae_, 1636. Charles I.

granted 100 from the Treasury, and Kynaston himself provided books and other material.

[804] _The Interpreter of the Academy for forrain languages and all n.o.ble sciences and exercises_, 1648.

[805] Pepys, _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, iv. p. 148 n.

[806] Oxford Historical Soc., 1885, _Collectanea_, series 1, pt. vi. pp.

271 _sqq._ John Dury proposes a special cla.s.s of schools for languages, which should teach the cla.s.sics to those desiring "learning," and modern languages to those intended for commerce (_Reformed School_, 1650, quoted by F. Watson, _Modern Subjects_, p. xxvii).

[807] _Memoirs of Sir John Reresby_, 1875, p. 22; and _Memoirs and Travels_, ed. A. Ivatt, London, 1904, p. xv.

[808] _Ellwood's Autobiography_, London, 1714, p. 4.

[809] _Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-56_, p. 76. On the Restoration, Wolley enjoyed ecclesiastical preferment, and finally became Bishop of Clonfert. He published an English translation from the French of Scudery's _Curia Politiae_, in 1546, and other works in English, of no special interest. See _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.

[810] _Memoirs of the Verney Family_, iii. p. 361.

[811] He usually wrote home in French. In the following extract he asks for a taper, then in fashion among his school-mates: "Je vous prie de m'anvoier de la chandelle de cirre entortillee, car tous les garcons en ont pour brullay (_sic_) et moy ie n'en ay point pour moy."

[812] Two parents discuss the school in a dialogue:

Ou allez vous? Whither are you going?

Je m'en vais voir ma fille. I am going to see my daughter.

En quel lieu? In what place?

A Maribone. At Maribone.

Que fait elle la? What doth she do there?

Comment, ne scavez vous pas What, do you not know that I que je l'ay mise en pension? have put her at a Boording school?

Chez qui? With whom?

Chez un nomme Mons. de la At one Mons. de la Mare that Mare qui tient escole Francoise. keeps a French school.

Vrayement, je n'en scavois rien. Truly, I did not know it.

Qu'apprend elle la? What does she learn there?

Elle apprend a ecrire, a lire, She learns to write, to read, a parler francois, a chanter, to speak French, to sing, a danser, a jouer de la guitare, to dance, to play on the guitar, et de l'epinette. and the spinette.

CHAPTER III

THE "LITTLE BLOIS" IN LONDON

In the second half of the seventeenth century we come across a band of French teachers in London, which corresponds, in importance, to that which grouped itself round Claude Holyband in the vicinity of St. Paul's Churchyard at the same period in the sixteenth century. At its head was Claude Mauger, a native of Blois. Mauger had as long a teaching experience in London as Holyband; he arrived in about 1650, and we do not hear the last of him till the first decade of the next century. He was forced to quit his native town by "intestine distempers," probably an allusion to the persecutions which broke out there in the middle of the century. He appears to have been a Huguenot. Before coming to England he had been a student at Orleans, and for seven years had taught French to travellers, "the flowre of all Europe," at Blois,[813] where some years previously Maupas had laboured at the same task; among his pupils was Gustavus Adolphus, Prince of Mecklenburg. On arriving in England, Mauger exercised the same profession. And several others, driven from Blois like himself, gathered around him as friends, admirers, and fellow-workers. Among these, he tells us, he reckons Master Penson and Master Festeau as specially good masters of language.

Of Penson nothing is known, save that he wrote some lines addressed to Mauger's critics. Festeau, however, is mentioned elsewhere by Mauger with high commendation, and the two seem to have been close friends. He came to England about the same time as Mauger, and may have accompanied him. These members of the "Little Blois" in London prided themselves on teaching the accent of Blois, "where the true tone of the French tongue is found, by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen." The accent of Blois had already been recommended by some of the earlier French teachers. Charles Maupas was its foremost champion.

Fate had been very unkind to him before his arrival in England, Mauger tells us. But he soon forgot his sorrows in his busy and successful life in London. Pupils flocked to him, and, as we saw, he was called upon by Mrs. Margaret Kilvert to teach French in her Academy for young gentlewomen--a place, according to him, "which needs nothing, only a name worthy to expresse its excellency." At the same time he was busy writing a French grammar, which appeared in 1653, and was dedicated to Mrs. Kilvert--_The True Advancement of the French Tongue, or a New Method and more easie directions for the attaining of it than ever yet have been published_, preceded by verses addressed to no less than fifty of his lady pupils. It does not differ materially as regards its contents from previous works of the kind and had apparently been first written in French, for Mauger says his work "hath now put on a language to which it was before a stranger." Rules of grammar and p.r.o.nunciation occupy the first hundred and twenty pages, and the remaining half of the book comprises reading exercises in French and English, and a vocabulary. The sound of each letter is explained, then the declinable parts are treated in turn, and followed by a few scattered rules of syntax. The whole is a little incoherent, and lacks order. Mauger was evidently acquainted with the work of his fellow-townsman Charles Maupas.

The second section of Mauger's grammar begins with lists of anglicisms to be avoided,[814] and then of "certaine francisms," or French idioms, and of familiar French phrases for common use. The dialogues turn chiefly on the study of French, and include discussions between students of French, talk of travel in France, and polite and gallant conversations between French and English ladies and gentlemen.

Considering Mauger's many women pupils, it is not surprising to find a considerable part of his book devoted to them: two ladies discuss French and their French teacher, criticise the French accent of their friends, or receive visits or lessons from their French, music, or dancing masters. [Header: CLAUDE MAUGER] And as the two latter, especially the dancing-master, were usually French, they did much to a.s.sist the language tutor. French maids are also often introduced, and represented as instructing their mistresses in the French language as well as in French fashions. It is no doubt Mrs. Kilvert's Academy that is referred to in the following dialogue:

Mon pere, je vous prie, donnes moy I pray, Father, give me vostre benediction. your blessing.

Ma fille, soyes la bien revenue. Daughter, you are welcome home.

Comment se porte How does Mme. votre Maitresse? your mistress?

Mons. elle se porte bien. She is very well, Sir.

N'aves vous point oublie votre Have you not forgot your Anglois? English quite?

Non, mon pere. No, sir.

Je croy que vous parles extremement I suppose you speak French bien. excellently well by this time?

J'entends beaucoup mieux que I understand it better than je ne parle. I can speak it.

Laquelle est la plus scavante de vous Which of you two is the best deux? proficient?

C'est ma soeur.--Je ne pense pas. My sister, Sir.--I don't believe that.

Expliques moy ce livre la en Render me some of that book back Francois. into French.

Que signifie cela en Francois? What's that in French?

Entendes vous cette sentence la? Do you understand that sentence?

Ouy, Mons. Yes, Sir.

Vous avez bien profite... . You have made good proficiency....

Scavez vous travailler en ouvrages? Have you learnt any needlework there?

Vostre luth n'est pas d'accord... . Your lute is out of tune....

Et vous, ma fille, vous ne dites But you, daughter, have you rien? nothing to say?

J'attendois vos ordres. I expect your commands.

Qu'avez vous appris? What have you learnt?

Approchez vous de moy. Come nearer to me.

Dances une courante. Dance me a Courante.

In another dialogue a French gentleman compliments an English lady on her French:

Ou aves vous appris a parler Francois, Mademoiselle?

Monsieur, je ne parle pas, je ne fais que begayer.

Je vous proteste que d'abord j'ay creu que vous fussies Francoise.

Il est impossible a une Angloise de posseder vostre langue.

Vous m'excuseres, il s'en trouve beaucoup.

J'eus l'honneur il y a quelque temps d'entretenir une Dame qui parle aussi nettement qu'une Francoise.

Je voy que vous avez inclination pour le Francois.