The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 8

[97] "A le honneur de Dieu et de sa tresdoulce miere et toutz les saintez de paradis, je Johan Barton, escolier de Paris, nee et nourie toutes foiez d'Engleterre en la conte de Cestre, j'ey baille aus avantdiz Anglois un Donait francois pur les briefment entroduyr en la droit language du Paris et de pais la d'entour la quelle language en Engleterre on appelle doulce France. Et cest Donat je le fis la fair a mes despenses et tres grande peine par pluseurs bons clercs du language avantdite."

[98] Brunot, _op. cit._ i. p. 376.

[99] "Cy endroit il fault prendre garde qu'en parlant Francois on ne mette pas une personne pour une aultre si come font les sottez gens, disantz ainsi _je ferra_ pour _je ferray_... ."

[100] We pa.s.s from the numbers of nouns to the person of verbs, then to the genders and kinds (proper, appellative) of nouns and their cases, six in number on the a.n.a.logy of Latin, which is naturally the basis of the terminology of this work and all others for many years after; then come observations on the degrees of comparison, after which we return to the verbs, and their moods and tenses. The following sections deal with the parts of speech; the four indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections) are merely mentioned. Nouns, adjectives, and p.r.o.nouns receive some attention, but the chief subject is the verb: "Cy maintenant nous vous baillerons un exemple coment vous fourmeres touz les verbs francois du monde, soient-ils actifez, soient-ils pa.s.sivez, en quelque meuf ou temps qu'ils soient. Et ceste exemple serra pour cest verbe _jeo aime_... ." But the verbs are not cla.s.sified, and only a few of the best known are conjugated as examples.

In the list of impersonal verbs which closes the treatise, English is sometimes used to explain their meaning: "Me est avis, _Me seemth_."

[101] J. Bale, _Ill.u.s.trium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum summarium_.

Ipswich, 1548, p. 203.

[102] _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.

[103] Preserved in a considerable number of MSS.: Brit. Mus. (Harl.

3988, Addit. 17716), Oxford (All Souls, 182), Camb. Univ. Libr. (Bd 12, 23), and in Sir Thomas Philipps's Library at Cheltenham (MS. No. 8188).

The earliest (Harl. 3988) was published by P. Meyer in the _Revue Critique_, 1873, pp. 373-408.

[104] The name of Kirmington, which occurs at the end, is no doubt that of the copyist.

[105] _Athenaeum_, Oct. 5, 1878: article by Stengel.

[106] Published by Stengel, _op. cit._ pp. 12-15.

[107] Stengel, _Athenaeum_, Oct. 5, 1878. Coyfurelly also rehandled the _Tractatus Orthographiae_ of 'T. H., Student of Paris.'

[108] Ed. Paul Meyer, _Romania_, x.x.xii. pp. 49-58. It exists in three MSS.; at the end of _Femina_ in Camb. Univ. Libr. (Dd 12, 23), at Trinity Col. Camb. (B 14. 39, 40), and in the Brit. Mus. (Addit. 17716).

[109] French, however, still had some standing at Oxford at this date.

[110] Preserved in Cambridge University Library.

[111] Containing such anglicisms as the rendering of 'already' by _tout prest_.

[112] Such collections exist in MSS. Harl. 4971 and Addit. 17716, Brit.

Mus.; and in Ee 4, 20, Camb. Univ. Libr.

[113] Harl. 4971; cp. Sturzinger, _op. cit._ p. xvi.

[114] Early bibliographers seem to have been uncertain as to what category it belonged to: for some time it was called a _Book for Travellers_; then a _Vocabulary in French and English_ (Blades, _Life and Typography of Wm. Caxton_, 1861-63), and finally by the more appropriate t.i.tle of _Dialogues in French and English_.

[115] Caxton's edition contains ff. 24, with about 24 lines on a page.

There are three complete texts extant (at Ripon Cathedral, Rylands Library, and Bamborough Castle), and one fragmentary one (in the Duke of Devonshire's Library). The Ripon copy was reprinted for the Early English Text Society in 1900, by H. Bradley (extra series lxxix.). The other edition, of which a fragment exists in the Bodleian, was probably printed by Wynkyn de Worde (W. C. Hazlitt, _Handbook ... to the Literature of Great Britain_, 1867, p. 631).

[116] Published from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale, by M.

Michelant: _Le Livre des Mestiers, dialogues francais-flamands, composes au 14e siecle par un maitre d'ecole de la ville de Bruges_. Paris, 1875.

[117] H. Bradley: Introduction to the edition of Caxton's _Dialogues_.

[118] Caxton's arrangement of the French and English in opposite columns is no doubt accounted for by the fact that he wrote the English version by the side of the French in his copy of the original phrase book.

[119] E. G. Duff, _A Century of the English Book Trade_, Bibliographical Soc., 1905; and _Handlists of Books Printed by London Printers_, Bibliog. Soc., 1913, ad nom. The work is here given the inappropriate t.i.tle of a "Vocabulary in French and English."

[120] It was to have been reprinted by H. B. Wheatley in a collection of early grammars, for the Early English Text Society.

[121] W. C. Hazlitt, _Bibliographical Collections and Notes_, 3rd series, London, 1887, p. 293.

[122] For instance, the _Cato c.u.m commento_ (1514), _Stans puer ad mensam_ (1516), and _Vulgaria Stanbrigi_ (_c._ 1520).

[123] "What shalt thou do when thou haste an englyssh to be made in Latine? I shall reherce myn englyssh fyrst, ones, twyces, and loke out my princypal verbe, and aske hym this questyon _who_ or _what_. And that worde that answeryth to the questyon shall be the nomynatif case to the verbe."

[124] In the British Museum Catalogue Wynkyn's edition is dated 1493?

and Pynson's 1500?; the year 1500? is also put forward as the date for the fragmentary edition. W. C. Hazlitt dates Wynkyn's edition at about the year 1498, and Pynson's at about 1492-3 (_Bibliographical Collections_, _ut supra_, and _Handbook_, London, 1867, p. 210).

[125]

My heres.

Mes cheveulx.

My browes.

Mez sourcieulx.

Myn eres.

Mez oreilles.

Myn teeth.

Mez dens.

My forhede.

Mon front.

Myn eyen.

Mez yeulx.

My nose.

Mon nez.

My tong.

Ma langue ... etc.

[126] Published by E. J. Furnivall, _Manners and Meals in Olden Time_, 1868, pp. 16 _sqq._ The MS. used by the compiler of the French manual was no doubt of a later date than the one here printed.

[127] Pp. 19-20 _in fine_.

[128] It contains 11 quarto leaves, of the size of the time, with usually 29 lines to a page.

[129] Thus in Pynson's edition the order of the personal p.r.o.nouns before the verb is often inverted ("le vous diray," "le vous rende"), while it is correct in Wynkyn's; and some lines of the French version of the courtesy book are almost unintelligible, whereas their meaning is clearly expressed by Wynkyn.

[130] Such phrases as "say me my friend" for _dites-moi mon ami_; "do me have a good chamber" for _faites-moi avoir une bonne chambre_.

[131] In addition to the works already mentioned, some reference to these mediaeval treatises is also found in an article by H. Oelsner, in the _Athenaeum_ (Feb. 11, 1905); in A. Way's edition of the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ (Camden Soc., 1865, No. 89; Appendix, pp. xxvii _sqq._ and pp. lxxi _sqq._); Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, ii. p. 208.

PART II