A history of the English Language

108.
French as a Language of Culture and Fashion.
When French went out of use as a spoken language in England not only was its sphere 
more restricted but the reasons for its cultivation changed. In the first decade of the 
fifteenth century, John Barton wrote a 
Donet François,
a treatise intended for adults who 
wished to learn French. It is interesting to note the three reasons he gives for 
Englishmen’s learning the language. He says nothing about their needing it to 
communicate among themselves but says, first, it will enable them to communicate with 
their neighbors of the realm of France. In the second place, the laws are largely in French. 
And finally, he says, gentlemen and women willingly write to each other in French. The 
first of these reasons would be equally
96 
He was the son of Katherine de Swynford and a fairly prominent person. Indeed he was believed 
to have been the murderer of Richard II. At any rate he was a strong supporter of Henry IV and was 
one of Richard’s guardians. 
97 
The letters are printed in 
Royal and Historical Letters during the Reign of Henry IV
. 
98 
On one occasion the English king sends him instructions in French. 
99 
The explanation is probably to be found in a passage in Froissart (ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, XV, 
114–15) from which it appears that ten years before, the English had had to proceed very warily in 
negotiating a treaty of peace; they had had trouble before through the use of French. But there was 
also some feeling against the desire of France to have French recognized as the language of 
diplomacy. A somewhat similar instance of friction occurred in 1413–1414 when a compromise 
was finally reached by drawing up an agreement between the two countries in both Latin and 
French in parallel columns. Cf. J.H.Wylie, 
The Reign of Henry the Fifth,
I, 156. 
100 
Cal Pat. Rolls, 1436–41
, pp. 41, 471, 555, and later entries in the Close and Patent Rolls. 
A history of the english language 140

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valid today. The other two are a heritage of the past, which in time disappeared. Later 
Caxton in his 
Dialogues in French and English
has the merchant chiefly in mind: “Who 
this booke shall wylle [wish to] lerne may well enterprise or take on honde marchandises 
fro one land to anothir.” But French had been for so long the mark of the privileged class 
that such cultivation of it as persisted in this century and in after times was prompted 
largely by the feeling that it was the language of culture and fashion. This feeling was 
strengthened in the eighteenth century and it is present in the minds of many people 
today.