Page:Evolution of English Lexicography.djvu/27

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24
The Romanes Lecture 1900

and to pronounce Frenche,' by Alexander Barclay, author of the 'Ship of Fooles,' was issued from the press of Robert Coplande; and about 1527 Giles du Guez or du Wes (anglicized Dewes), French teacher to the Lady Mary, afterwards Queen Mary, published his 'Introductorie for to lerne to rede, to pronounce and to speke French trewly.' In addition to grammatical rules and dialogues, it contains a select vocabulary English and French. In 1514, Mary Tudor, younger sister of Henry VIII, became the unwilling bride of Louis XII of France. To initiate the princess in her husband's tongue, John Palsgrave, a native of London and graduate of Cambridge, who had subsequently studied in Paris, was chosen as her tutor, and accompanied her to France. For her use Palsgrave prepared his celebrated Esclarcissement de la Langue Françoyse, which he subsequently revised and published in 1530, after his return to England, where he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. The Esclarcissement is a famous book, at once grammar and vocabulary, and may be considered as the earliest dictionary of a modern language, in French as well as in English. It was reprinted in 1852 at the expense of the French Government in the series of publications entitled 'Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France, publiés par les soins du Ministre de l'Instruction Publique, Deuxième Série—Histoire des Lettres et des Sciences.' It is a trite saying that 'they do these things better in France'; but it is, nevertheless, sometimes true. Amid all the changes of government which France has seen in modern