The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 48

Among the many children sent to France for education during the Civil War and Commonwealth were several future literary men. Both Vanbrugh and Wycherley were brought up in this way. At the age of fifteen Wycherley was "sent for education to the Western parts of France, either to Saintonges or the Angoumois. His abode there was either upon the Banks of the Charente, or very little remov'd from it. And he had there the Happiness to be in the neighbourhood of one of the most accomplish'd Ladies of the Court of France, Mme. de Montausier, whom Voiture has made famous by several very ingenious letters, the most of which were writ to her when she was a Maid, and call'd Mlle. de Rambouillet. I have heard Mr. Wycherley say he was often admitted to the Conversation of that lady, who us'd to call him the Little Hugenot: and that young as he was, he was equally pleased with the Beauty of her Mind, and with the Graces of her person."[959]

One of the young royalists who received his education in France during the Commonwealth so completely mastered the French language that he gained an important place among French men of letters: the famous Anthony Hamilton, the author of short stories in French[960]--masterpieces in the light vein[961]--and of the well-known life of his gallant brother-in-law, the Comte de Grammont, which gives a vivid picture of the life at the Court of Charles II. Hamilton has been placed second only to Voltaire as a representative of the _esprit francais_.[962]

At the Restoration, Hamilton returned to England with the rest of the English emigrants, together with a considerable number of Frenchmen who had attached themselves to the English Court. He was followed two years later by the hero of his _Memoires_,[963] the Comte de Grammont, who p.r.o.nounced the English Court so like that of France in manners and conversation that he could hardly realize he was in another country.[964] French was the language freely used by the English emigrants on their return to London, and by others in imitation of them.

"French is the most in use," wrote William Higford in the year of the Restoration, "a most sweet tongue called the Woman's tongue, and as I think for the address from the servant to the mistress, and from the servant to the soveraigne, there is no sweeter nor more civil."[965] The use of the French language was spreading all over Europe, but nowhere was it so popular as in England: "indeed it is most alamode and best pleases the ladies and we cannot deny but Messieurs of France are excellent wits."[966]

The presence of so many of these _messieurs_ in London intensified the already strong French atmosphere. Several famous names occur in the list of French ladies and gentlemen who took up their abode in England at this time. Shortly before De Grammont, St. Evremond had arrived in England, where he spent over thirty years, and died in 1703. Both played important parts in the social life of the time. De Grammont especially was very popular. [Header: FRENCH COURTIERS IN LONDON] He received a warm welcome at Court, where he met many old friends and was overwhelmed with hospitality; to make an engagement with him it was necessary to see him a fortnight beforehand. He himself added to the Court festivities by giving French entertainments in the Parisian style.

At the numerous festivities held in honour of De Grammont, St.

Evremond[967] was almost invariably one of the guests. He soon became the centre of a _coterie_, half English and half French, including his literary companion the Dutchman Vossius, Canon of Windsor, the French doctor Le Fevre, professor of chemistry to Charles II.,[968] and the learned Huguenot Henri Justel, who had charge of the royal library at St. James's. What contributed most to reconcile St. Evremond to his life in England, however, was the arrival of Hortense Mancini, d.u.c.h.esse de Mazarin, niece of the cardinal. The French amba.s.sador Courtin said England was the refuge of French wives who had quarrelled with their husbands, and the d.u.c.h.esse was one of these.[969] In her _salon_ St.

Evremond met the most distinguished Englishmen and foreign ministers of the day. He saw her daily, and she inspired much of his best work.

There, too, met French Catholics, Huguenots, and Englishmen, free from all religious prejudice, and talked of the subjects which interested them most. Another of Mazarin's nieces, the d.u.c.h.esse de Bouillon,[970]

was also in London for a time, and received in her _salon_ Waller, St.

Evremond, and others; at one time there was a possibility of La Fontaine joining her circle. La Fontaine seems to have felt some interest in England and the English, who, he says,

pensent profondement; Leur esprit, en cela, suit leur temperament, Creusant dans les sujets, et forts d'experiences, Ils etendent partout l'empire des sciences.

To Mrs. Harvey, sister of Lord Montagu and friend of the d.u.c.h.ess of Mazarin, he dedicated his fable _Le Renard Anglais_.

Both St. Evremond and the d.u.c.h.ess of Mazarin ended their days in England.[971] St. Evremond enjoyed the favour of three English kings.

Charles II. gave him a pension, and when William III. dined with one of his courtiers, he is said to have always stipulated that the French writer should be of the party, as he took great delight in his conversation. Though St. Evremond received permission in 1689 to return to his native land, he did not avail himself of the offer, preferring to remain in the midst of his English friends, who were accustomed to his ways and manners and his peculiarities.[972] But during the whole of his thirty years' stay in England he made no attempt to speak English.

French was the language in which he and the rest of his countrymen carried on their daily intercourse with their hosts.

Pepys also refers frequently to the Frenchmen he met in London.[973] On one occasion at the c.o.c.kpit his attention was diverted from the stage by a group of loquacious Frenchmen in a box, who, not understanding English, were amusing themselves by asking a pretty lady, who knew both languages, what the actors said. "Lord! what sport they made!" says Pepys. On another occasion at Whitehall he met a very communicative Frenchman with one eye, who shared a coach with him, and told him the history of his own life "without asking."

Covent Garden, we are told, was the favourite resort of the French residents, "nearer the Court, than the Exchange."[974] Their presence, however, was not confined to Court circles; for the French were beginning to take an interest in England and to visit the country,[975]

although, as yet, their curiosity had not extended to the language. In a few cases English was studied. Mauger even tells us that several of his contemporaries learnt it in France. It is certain that some employed the services of the French teachers of London, who were willing to teach their newly acquired language to their countrymen; for this purpose the practice of attaching English grammars to French ones--a combination first inst.i.tuted by Mauger, who urged the French and English to avail themselves of this opportunity of exchanging lessons--became more and more common as the seventeenth century drew to its close. [Header: FRENCH VALETS AND "FEMMES DE CHAMBRE"] In the meanwhile guide-books[976]

and relations of travel in England appeared. The writer of one of these, M. Payen,[977] remarks on the great number of strangers, especially Frenchmen, in London.[978] At the time of the Restoration, however, the chief significance of their presence lies in the need they created for the English to speak French.

The great demand for everything French, including the language, offered an opening for many Frenchmen in London; for all the men and women of fashion were not in the position of De Grammont, who sent his valet, Thermes, to France every week to bring back the latest fashions from Paris. "Nothing will go down with the town now," writes a contemporary author, "but French fashions, French dancing, French songs, French servants, French wines, French kickshaws, and now and then French sawce come in among them, and so no doubt but French doctors may be in esteem too."[979] In almost every book written at the time there is some reference to the mania for French fashions. And some time later the Abbe Le Blanc relates how, on one occasion in England, a self-satisfied Englishman taunted him thus: "Il faut que votre pays soit bien pauvre, puisque tant de gens sont obliges de le quitter pour chercher a vivre en celui-ci. C'est vous qui nous fournissez de Maitres a danser, de Perruquiers, de Tailleurs, et de Valets de chambre: et nous vous devons cette justice, pour la Frisure ou pour le Menuet, les Francois l'emportent sur toutes les autres Nations. Je ne comprens pas comment on aime si fort la Danse dans un Pays ou l'on a si peu sujet de rire.

N'est-il pas triste, par exemple, de ne cultiver vos Vignes que pour nous?"[980]

Regarding the French _valets_ and _femmes de chambre_ in London, the Abbe writes: "Il n'est pas etonnant que l'on trouve en Angleterre tant de Domestiques Francois. A Londres on se plait a parler notre Langue, on copie nos usages, on imite nos moeurs: ils entretiennent du moins dans nos manieres ceux qui les aiment: et les Anglois les payent a proportion de l'utilite qu'ils en retirent."[981] We are told that the French lackey was "as mischievous all the year as a London apprentice on Shrove Tuesday";[982] yet he was indispensable:

His Lordship's Valet must be bred in France, Or else he is a clown without Pretence: The English Blockheads are in dress so coa.r.s.e, They're fit for nothing but to rub a horse.

Her Ladyship's ill manner'd or ill bred, Whose Woman Confident or Chamber Maid, Did not in France suck in her first breath'd Air, Or did not gain her education there.[983]

French cooks were also in great demand, and it was a point of gentility to dine at one of the French ordinaries. Thus Briske, in Shadwell's _Humourists_, is condemned as "a fellow that never wore a n.o.ble or polite garniture, or a white periwig, one that has not a bit of interest at Chatelin's, or ever ate a good fricacy, sup, or ragoust in his life"; for now, "like the French we dress, like Frenchmen eat." "Substantial beef" is "boil'd in vain," and "our boards are profaned with frica.s.see":[984]

Our cooks in dressing have no skill at all, French cooks are only of the modish stamp.

Pepys did not care for the new French restaurants. At the most popular, Chatelin's,[985] he says, they serve a "d.a.m.ned base dinner at the charge of 8s. 6d." He preferred the old English ordinaries where English food was given a French name. Yet he admits that at the French houses the table is covered and the gla.s.ses clean, all in the French manner; and when he dined with his patrons of the Admiralty, he usually was given a "fine French dinner."[986]

[Header: THE FRENCH TAILOR]

As to the French dancing-master, he is a "very Paladin of France when he comes into England once, where he has the Regimen of the Ladies leges and is the sole Pedagoge of their feet, teaching them the French Language, as well as the French Pace."[987] French music was also the vogue. We are told that during the reign of Charles II. "all musick affected by the beau mond ran in the ffrench way."[988] John Bannester, the first violin to the king, is said to have lost his post[989] for having upheld, within the hearing of His Majesty, that the English musicians were superior to the French. Soon after the Restoration, Charles on one occasion gave great umbrage to the English musicians by making them stop their performance and bidding the French music play instead.

In the same way the French tailor is "the King of Fashions and Emperor of the Mode, not onely in France, but most of its Neighboring Nations, and his Laws are received where the King of France's will not pa.s.s";[990] and thus the French

Now give us laws for pantalons, The length of breeches and the gathers, Port-cannons, periwigs and feathers.[991]

There was a French peddling woman at Court, Mlle. Le Boord, who "us'd to bring peticoates, and fanns and baubles out of France to the Ladys,"[992] and whose opinion had great weight. De Grammont won the favour of the English ladies by having French trinkets sent them from France. "Let the fashion be French, 'tis no matter what the cloth be."[993] Travellers from France were beset with questions as to the latest mode. Some devotees were said to receive weekly letters from France providing information on this subject.[994] At one moment Charles protested against the rage for French fashions by adopting a simple garment after the Persian style, which was first worn at Court on the 18th October 1666. Divers gentlemen went so far as to wager that His Majesty would not persist in this change; and when Louis XIV. retorted by ordering his pages to be attired in the same Persian garb, Charles withdrew. "It was a comely and manly attire," writes Evelyn, "too good to hold, it being impossible for us in good earnest to leave the Monsieurs' vanities long."[995]

Francomania indeed was carried to extremes:

And as some pupils have been known In time to put their tutors down, So ours are often found t'ave got More tricks than ever they were taught.[996]

We are told of an "English captain that threw up his commission because his company would not exercise after the French Discipline."[997] Dryden even accuses the French of influencing the course of English politics:[998]

The Holy League Begot our Cov'nant; Guisards got Whig, Whate'er our hot-brain'd sheriffs did advance, Was like our fashions, first produced in France, And when worn out, well scourg'd and bannish'd there.

Sent over, like their G.o.dly Beggars, here.

A French patent was said to authorize any crime.[999] "Now what a Devil 'tis should make us so dote on these French," says Flecknoe,[1000] and another writer adds:[1001]

Our native speech we must forget e'er long To learn the French that much more modish Tongue.

Their language smoother is, hath pretty Aires, But ours is Gothick if compar'd with theirs.

The French by arts of smooth insinuation Are now become the Darlings of the Nation.

[Header: FRENCH SPOKEN AT COURT]

The example was set at Court, where French was commonly in use, and where to be able to speak it well was a necessity and proof of good breeding. "Mark then, I makes 'em both speak French to show their breeding," says the author Boyes of his two kings in Buckingham's _Rehearsal_.[1002] Sir John Reresby first attracted notice at Court by his fluent French. "It was this summer," he writes in 1661, "that the Duke of York first took any particular notice of me. I happened to be in discourse with the French Amba.s.sador and some other gentlemen of his nation, in the presence at Whitehall, and the Duke joined us, he being a great lover of the French tongue and kind to those who spoke it. The next night he talked with me a long while as he was at supper with the king."[1003] And Reresby, with a keen eye for his own advancement, took advantage of this to secure the patronage of the Duke. He also tells us that the King, Duke, and French amba.s.sador were very often merry and intimate together at Louise de Kerouaille's (now d.u.c.h.ess of Portsmouth) lodgings,[1004] where French alone would be used, for it was an unknown thing for a French amba.s.sador to speak English. There was not a courtier[1005] who did not speak French with ease, Clarendon alone excepted.

The ladies of the Court were equally well versed in the language. When De Grammont, who had made the acquaintance of most of the courtiers in France, came to make that of the ladies, he needed no interpreter, for all knew French--"a.s.sez pour s'expliquer et toutes entendaient le francois a.s.sez bien pour ce qu'on avait a leur dire."[1006] Amongst them was Miss Hamilton, Anthony's sister, who became De Grammont's wife,[1007] and was much admired at the Court of Louis XIV. The accomplishments of Miss Stuart may be quoted as typical of the rest: "elle avoit de la grace, dansoit bien, parloit francois mieux que sa langue naturelle: elle etoit polie, possedoit cet air de parure apres lequel on court et qu'on n'attrappe gueres a moins de l'avoir pris en France des sa jeunesse."[1008] The least gifted lady of the Court was Miss Blake, who "n'entendoit presque point le francois." When the Countess of Berkshire recommended one of her near relatives as one of the queen's dressers, the fact that she had been twelve years in France, and could speak French exceedingly well, was mentioned as her chief qualification.[1009] The Portuguese queen[1010] was indeed out of place in her Frenchified Court. She could not speak French, and Spanish was her means of intercourse with Charles II. and the Duke of York, who both spoke this language fairly well, and were able to act as interpreters between their French mother and the young queen. Catherine's Portuguese attire was the subject of much amus.e.m.e.nt, and her efforts to induce the ladies of the Court to adopt it were of no avail. James II., when he was an exile in France for the second time, told the nuns of Chaillot that she had endeavoured to prevail on King Charles to use his influence with them: "but the ladies dressed in the French fashions and would not hear of any other, constantly sending artificers and dressmakers to Paris to import the newest modes, as they do to this very day."[1011] The country ladies caught the fashion as it was going out in London.[1012]

In many cases the pa.s.sion for all things French became a mania with the ladies, as is frequently pictured in the drama of the time.[1013] A Frenchified lady would have a French maid, "born and bred in France, who could speak English but brokenly," with whom she would talk a mixture of broken French and English; while many a one like Melantha of Dryden's _Marriage a-la-mode_,[1014] doted on any new French word: "as fast as any bullion comes out of France, she coins it into English, and runs mad in new French words."[1015] [Header: THE FRENCHIFIED LADY] She importunes those returned from the tour in France, or who have correspondence with Parisians, to know the latest words used in Paris.

Her maid supplies her daily with a store of French words:

_Melantha._ ... You _sot_ you, come produce your Morning's work....

O, my Venus! 14 or 15 words to serve me a whole day! Let me die, at this rate I cannot last till night! Come read your words....

_Philotis._ _Sottises._

_Melantha._ _Sottises, bon._ That's an excellent word to begin withal: as for example, he or she said a thousand _sottises_ to me. Proceed.

_Philotis._ _Figure_: as what a _Figure_ of a man is there! _Nave_ and _Navete_.

_Melantha._ _Nave!_ as how?

_Philotis._ Speaking of a thing that was naturally said: it was so _nave_. Or such an innocent piece of simplicity: 'twas such a _Navete_.

And as Melantha becomes excited with her new acquisitions, she bestows gifts on her maid at each new word.

A new catechism[1016] for the ladies was invented on these lines:

--Of what Nation are you?

--English by birth: my education _a la mode de France_.

--Who confirms you?

--Mademoiselle the French Mantua maker.