The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 21

Soc. Pub. i., 1887-8, p. 58) enumerates eighteen sons of strangers at Norwich who went to the Grammar School and thence to Cambridge.

[381] Schickler, _op. cit._ i. p. 106.

[382] _Ibid._ p. 346.

[383] Schickler, _op. cit._ i. p. 281; F. W. Cross, _History of the Walloon and Huguenot Church at Cantuar_, Hug. Soc. Pub. xv., 1898, p.

15.

[384] W. J. Hardy, _Foreign Refugees at Rye_, Proceedings Hug. Soc. ii., 1887-8, p. 574.

[385] Cross, _op. cit._ p. 53.

[386] Hardy, _op. cit._ p. 570 (cp. Durrant Cooper, _Refugees in Suss.e.x_, Suss.e.x Archaeological Collections, xiii., 1861). The name is here written John Robone.

[387] F. W. Cross, _ut supra_.

[388] Cross, _ut supra_; Schickler, _op. cit._ i. p. 283.

[389] Hug. Soc. Pub. x.

[390] Hardy, _op. cit._ p. 572.

[391] Moens, _The Walloons and their Church at Norwich_; W. Durrant Cooper, _Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England, 1618-1688_, Camden Soc., 1862.

[392] G. H. Overend, _Strangers at Dover_, p. 166; and D. Cooper, _Lists of Foreign Protestants_.

[393] _Registre de l'eglise wallonne de Southampton_, Hug. Soc. Pub. iv.

[394] Schickler, _op. cit._ i. 25.

[395] _Ibid._ i. 59.

[396] For example, John Veron, J. R. Chevallier, mentioned above.

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

[398] In 1568 letters of denization were granted him (Hug. Soc. Pub.

viii., ad nom.).

[399] MS. Memoir of Robert Ashley (Sloane, 2105); cp. Sylvester's _Works_, ed. Grosart, 1880, i. p. x.

[400] _Works_, ed. Grosart, i. p. 4. See also i. p. lvii, and ii. pp.

52, 301, 322.

[401] 1567?-1630. _Dict. Nat. Biog._, ad nom.

[402] _Registre de l'eglise wallonne de Southampton_, Hug. Soc. Pub.

iv., 1890.

[403] J. S. Davids, _History of Southampton_, Southampton, 1883, p. 311.

[404] Another Fleming, Thomas Hylocomius, a native of Brabant, was master of St. Alban's Grammar School, 1570-1596 (Watson, _Protestant Refugees_, pp. 137-139). But there is nothing to show that he encouraged the study of French.

[405] Authorities for the use of French in Scotch schools are: J.

Strong, _Secondary Education in Scotland_, Oxford, 1909, pp. 44 _et seq._, 76, 142; T. P. Young, _Histoire de l'enseignement primaire et secondaire en ecosse_, Paris, 1907, pp. 12 _et seq._, pp. 64 _et seq._; J. Grant, _Burgh Schools of Scotland_, London and Glasgow, 1876, pp. 64, 404; F. Michel, _Les ecossais en France et les Francais en ecosse_, 1862, ii. p. 78.

[406] _Autobiography and Diary of Mr. James Melville, minister of Kilrenny and Professor of Theology in the University of St. Andrews_, ed. R. Pitcairn (Wodrow Soc., Edinburgh, 1842), pp. 16 _et seq._

[407] His daughter Esther, who married a Scotch minister Kello, became famous for her calligraphy. Some of her work, preserved in the Bodleian, was admired by Hearne (_Collections and Recollections_, Oxf. Hist. Soc., 1885, i. p. 38).

[408] D. Murray, _Some Early Grammars, etc., in use in Scotland_, in the Proceedings of the Royal Philos. Soc. of Glasgow, x.x.xvii. pp. 267-8. In the _List of Books printed in Scotland before 1700_, by H. G. Aldis (Edinburgh Bibliog. Soc., 1904), there is not one book on the French language amongst the 3919 t.i.tles recorded.

[409] Pasquier, _Letters_, Amsterdam, 1723, lib. i. p. 5.

CHAPTER IV

HUGUENOT TEACHERS OF FRENCH--OTHER CLa.s.sES OF FRENCH TEACHERS--RIVALRIES IN THE PROFESSION--THE "DUTCH" AND ENGLISH TEACHERS

We have seen that some of the refugees who came to England as a result of the persecutions in France and the Netherlands were professional schoolmasters; others joined the profession on their arrival, through force of circ.u.mstances, or as a means of repaying hospitality. The lot of such teachers varied considerably. Some lived and taught in gentlemen's families; others thrived by waiting on a private aristocratic clientele; others gained a more precarious livelihood under less powerful patronage; and yet others opened private schools, often with decided success. Many of these teachers[410] were denizens, and had long teaching careers, chiefly in London; a certain Abraham Bush.e.l.l, for instance, a native of "Rotch.e.l.l," had been a "schoolmaster of the French tongue" in London for twenty-two years in 1618, during which time he had attended the French Church. Many other French teachers were members of the French Church, which naturally, seeing that it fostered a French school itself, took a particular interest in the French schoolmasters generally. Thus in 1560 all French schoolmasters having schools in London were summoned before the consistory, which was seeking to ascertain how many belonged to the Church, and also what book they used in teaching the children. Eight were ready to conform to the Church and its discipline;[411] a ninth, one Gilles Berail, refused to conform, on the plea that he attended the English parish church and understood English as well as French.

With the exception of Holyband, the chief Huguenot teachers who gathered round St. Paul's Churchyard would seem to have been Normans. One of these was Robert Fontaine, a friend of Holyband. He had a long and varied career in England as a teacher of French. Arriving in 1550, he remained in England during the reign of Mary, modifying his religious convictions to suit the exigencies of the time. He returned to his former faith early in the reign of Elizabeth, and expressed contrition for his "falling off to idolatry."[412] He attended the French Church faithfully in the early time of its revival, but he appears to have gone more frequently to the Anglican Church in later years, and possibly his sympathies were more in that direction. The favourite neighbourhood, St.

Paul's Churchyard, was the scene of his activities, and there he lived for many years with one of his countrymen, Mr. Bowry, a purse-maker. In 1571 he had been living seventeen years in the vicinity of the Cathedral, and in 1582, the latest mention of him in the returns of aliens, he was still in the same district, and appears to have been very prosperous.

Some of this group of Normans added to their activities that of writing books for teaching French--an occupation for which Fontaine, presumably, had not time or inclination. One such author was Jacques Bellot, a "gentleman of the city of Caen in Normandie," who came to England in 1578, or the end of 1577, probably driven from his native land by the persecutions. He was received into the household of Sir Philip Wharton, third baron of that name, and in a surprisingly short time produced a French Grammar, which he dedicated to his patron, with an expression of his grat.i.tude. Bellot, it appears, had already a considerable connexion.

His work is preceded by numerous commendatory poems, after the fas.h.i.+on of the time. The poet Thomas Newton of Chester wrote two of these, one in Latin and the other in English, laying stress on the debt due by his countrymen to these French grammarians:

[Header: JACQUES BELLOT]

Thankes therefore great and threefold thankes are due By right to those, whose travaile, toyle and penne Dothe breake the yce for others to ensue, By rules and practice for us Englishmen, An easye way, a methode most in use Amonge the Learn'de t' enduce to knowledge sure.

Other verses are written in French by John and William Wroth, no doubt two of the numerous sons of the politician Sir Thomas Wroth.

This new work, ent.i.tled _The French Grammar, or An Introduction orderly and Methodically by ready rules, playne preceptes and evident examples, teachinge the French Tongue_, differs from the popular books of Holyband, and also from most other French manuals, in that it deals with grammar alone. It opens with the usual observations on p.r.o.nunciation.

Each letter is taken in turn, and the position of the organs necessary to produce it is given. The author makes no attempt to compare the French sounds with the English equivalents. He had probably not yet had time to master the intricacies of English p.r.o.nunciation, although the whole book is written in English; and he also, no doubt, made free use of grammars written in France. He tells us, for instance, that "_c_ ought to be p.r.o.nounced with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and the mouth somewhat open"; that "_f_ is p.r.o.nounced holding the nether lip against the upward teeth"; and that "_h_ is but aspiration, which loseth his sound after _e_ feminine, and also after every consonant."

Then, after a few general observations and lists of numbers, months, and other familiar words, we reach the second part of the Grammar, which deals with the eight parts of speech. Each is defined and commented on in turn. The wording is often quaint; for instance, verbs are defined as "words which be declined with Modes and tenses, and are betokenynge doing." This second book treats of the accidence. In the third we pa.s.s to the consideration of syntax with the following warning:

Dire, _sy ay_ (quoy qu'usage on en face) N'est point parle en courtois et bien nay: Bien seant n'est aussy, dire, _non ay_: _Sauf votre honneur_, ou bien _sauf votre grace_ Seroient trouvez de trop meilleure grace.

_Je ne l'ay fait_, est trop desordonne: _Pardonnez moy_, seroit mieux ordonne, Car grand fureur douce parolle efface.

_Nous estions_, _Nous y pensons_, faut dire, Non, _J'estions_, on ne s'en fait que rire, Ne _J'y pensons_, tout cela est repris.

Les bons Francois ne parlent point ainsy.

Acunement pris ne doit estre aussy _Pet.i.t_, pour _peu_, ny _peu_ pour _pet.i.t_ pris.

This part of the work is not extensive, and consists of a miscellaneous collection of observations; we are, for instance, told that the antecedent governs its relative, that the adjective agrees with its noun, and we are supplied also with rules for the gender and number, the negative, and so on. To this Bellot adds a fourth book, which is perhaps the most curious part of the work. It deals with French versification.

We are first favoured with a description of the structure of various forms of poems, such as the "chant royal," the "ballade," the sonnet, rondeau, "dixain," and so on, each accompanied by an example, by way of ill.u.s.tration. The various forms of rime are next described and exemplified; and some of the complicated forms dear to the "rhetoriqueurs" find a place here. This is followed by a description of the various kinds of metres, again with examples; and finally rhythm, colour or "liziere," the caesura, elision, the "coupe feminine," and the use of the apostrophe are treated. Such is this little treatise on the "French poeme," which shows incidentally that Bellot had not yet learned the lesson enforced by the _Pleiade_ more than twenty years before he wrote.