mm 5r. # . V*W ''.4 .,.^> *• ^4 Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN m a a a THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES k« THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LONDON ! PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET HANDBOOK of the HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR THE USE OF TEACHER AND STUDENT BY A. H. KEANE, B.A. AUTHOR OF 'FRENCH ACCENT* 'THE TRUE THEORY OF GERMAN DECLENSION AND CONJUGATION* ETC. ' The ground of our own language appertaineth to this old Saxon ' — Camden FOURTH EDITION, ENLARGED AND REVISED LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1878 All rights reserved .M PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. Since the first appearance of this work the field of English philology has been sedulously cultivated by many able writers both at home and abroad. It may be sufficient here to mention Koch's 'Historische Grammatik,' 1869 ; Matzner's 'Englische Grammatik,' 1865 ; Marsh's 'English Language,' 1862 ; Helfenstein's ' Comparative Grammar of the Teutonic Languages,' 1870; Dr. Abbott's ' Shakspearian Grammar/ 1870 ; Dr. Morris's ' Historical Outlines,' 1873 ; A. J. Ellis's great work on ' Early English Pronunciation,' 1868-75; and the important Transactions of the Chaucer and Early English Text Societies. These and several other recent works have been consulted in the preparation of the present edition, which thus embodies much fresh matter in further illustra- tion of the successive steps by which the English tongue has arrived at its present state. Some may possibly affect surprise that no change has been made in the nomenclature, and that the terms Saxon and Anglo-Saxon are still retained. But after mature deli- beration I am more than ever convinced that the outcry vi Preface to the Present Edition. raised by Mr. Freeman, Mr. Sweet, Dr. Morris, and a few others against these names, is unreasonable, and that their contentions cannot be upheld. It might be supposed that if there ever were Teuton tribes calling themselves Saxons, and not merely called so by others, it would be childish to quibble about the term Saxon as applied to the Teuton dialects spoken by them. But Mr. Freeman will hear of nothing but English, on the ground that ' as far as we can go back, that language has always had the same name, and that name has been English.' And in his ' Historical Out- lines,' Dr. Morris"' goes still further. ' These Teutonic invaders,' he says, ' were known to the Romans and Celts by the name of Saxons ; and this term was afterwards ap- plied by them to the Teutonic settlers of the fifth century ; who, however, never appear to have called themselves Saxon?, but always Anglisc or English' (p. 28). Than this it may be doubted whether any more reckless statement ever was made by an otherwise really accomplished scholar. Apart from the broad fact that it was the Saxons themselves, and not the Welsh or other foreigners, that mapped out the parts of the island settled by them into the various kingdoms or political divisions of the East Saxons, the West Saxons, the South Saxons, &c. (names still living in our Sussex. Essex, Middlesex), endless passages might be quoted from the veiy earliest writers, from charters, laws, and authentic documents of all sorts, showing that the word * In later works, however, Dr. Morris gives up the point, and quietly i-eturns to the use of the really indispensable terms Saxon and Anglo-Saxon. Thus, at p. 32 of the Preface to his Chaucer (1874), we have: 'In Anglo-Saxon fader, brother, donghter took no inflexion in the singular.' And again: 'This construction occurs in A.S. writers,' p. 36 ; 'verbs of Saxon origin,' p. 37, and elsewhere passim. Preface to the Present Edition. vii Saxon was freely used in Saxon times and by Saxon writers, as applicable both to the people and to their language. Thus in the ' JVid-siiS,' one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, piece of Saxon poetry extant, the Scop or ' Wide- wanderer ' tells us that amongst the many tribes and peoples visited by him were the Saxons : ' And mid ^Enum and mid Seaxum ic wses:' p. 322 of Thorpe's 'Codex Exoniensis.' In the same poem, and probably for the first time in an English text, Angle occurs under the forms Ongle and Engle four times : Offa weold Ongle ; mid englum ic wses, &c. But as soon as both tribes could be spoken of as one people we find both terms from the very first used indifferently by English writers when speaking comprehensively of all the Teutonic tribes settled in Britain. Thus, our very earliest historian, Bede : ' Gens Anglorum sive Saxonum Britanniam tribus longis navibus advehitur.' Chronicon, A. 449, p. 163, in Stevenson's edition, 1841. And in his ' Hist. Eccl.' I. 22 : ' Genti Saxonum sive Anglorum,'* here placing the Saxons before the Angles, though himself an Anglian. In his Life of Hwsetberht he also preserves a letter addressed by that Abbot to the Pope, in which the whole of England is actually spoken of as Saxony : ' Hwset- berchtus... Abbas Ccenobii beatissimi Apostolorum principis Petri in Saxonia.' Bedse Opera Hist. II., p. 159. So also Gregory I. in a Brief ad An. 596 : ' Saxonia transmarina/f * So also Alfred translates the expression ' historiam gentis Anglorum,' at the opening of Bede's History: 'Angel beode and Seaxum,' supplying the word Saxon, as if he had not yet brought him- self to look upon Angel as alone sufficient to include the whole people. t With these passages compare also : ' Ego Leutherius gr. D. epis- copus pontificatus Saxonl'E gubernacula regens' (A. 675, in Cod. Diplomatics, I. p. 14); Ego Ini monarchus Saxonia, A. 699, ib., viii Preface to the Present Edition. though both he and Bede more generally use the words Anglia and Anghis — the Roman bishop because he seems to have first become acquainted with Anglians, and the histo- rian because he was an Anglian. As, moreover, Anglian letters prevailed in the eighth century, the word became current even amongst Saxon or Southern writers, and is consequently usually employed by x\lfred in speaking of the whole nation. So in a note to the passage ' and we secgaS to soSan J>8et se tima waes gesselig and wynsum on Angel-cynne. |>a ]>a Eadgar cyning ]>one cristen dom gefyrSrode,' occurring in the Gloucester fragment of St. SwiShun, its editor, Mr. J. Earle, justly remarks : ' The Saxons called their nation Angel-cyn, and their speech Englisc. This shows what an influence the Anglian superiority of the seventh and eighth centuries had exercised over the island : ' p. 17. But that Saxony was equally used as applicable to the whole people is sufficiently proved by the above quoted passages. The following will further show that they spoke of their language also as Saxon as well as Angle : ' Etiam similiter et a pastu et refectione illorum hominum quos Saxonice nominamus walhfaered and heora festing and ealra Angelcynnes monna, &c.,' in a deed referred by Kemble to P- 53 5 Ego Ini rex Saxonum, A. 701 ; Saxonice gentis, p. 62 ; Angid-Saxonia (V. p. 169) ; Angul-Seaxna (II. p. 304) ; Ongol- Saxnd-cyning, i.e., ^"Selstan (V. 218). And in a rare old Lambeth MS. of the N. T. given by Maelbride Mac Durnan, bishop of Armagh, 885-927, to this same king ^Ethelstan, and by him to the Church of Canterbury for ever, there occurs the expression ' Athelstanus Anglo- Saexna Rex, 925,' where the Saxon gen. pi. na for the Latin mini (Anglo-Saexna for Anglo-Saxonum) should be noted, as implying a very general use of this compound term at the time. Similar instances may be seen in a paper by Fr. A. March, entitled, ' Is there an Anglo- Saxon Language?' in the Transactions of the American Philological Association for 1S72. Preface to the Present Edition. ix the year 855 (Cod. Dipl. Introd. 42). And in the same place occurs a still more pointed expression from a docu- ment of iEflelberht's bearing date 863 : ' Haec sunt pascua porcorum, que nostra lingua Saxhonica denbera nomina- mus.' Have these passages escaped the industry of Mr. Free- man, or does he suppose that they can be explained away by his usual device of attributing the use of the term Saxon in this sense to the Welsh and other foreigners ? A similar expression occurs in the Chronicler vEthelweard, speaking of the time of the first invaders : ' Porro Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos habens oppidum capitale quod Sermone Saxonico Slesuuic nuncupatur, secundum vero Danos Haithaby.' Here the distinction is very obvious which the writer draws on the one hand between the language of the Angles and the Saxons, which he calls ' the Saxon language,' and that of the Danes on the other. So also our first grammarian ^Elfric : ' Hasresis, Kyre vel gedwelo-sefter- felgund secund. Saxon, hsereticus/ at p. 55 of the Glossary attached to his Gram. Latino-Saxonica, Oxford, 1659. Bede also, and the Saxon Chronicle, which always has been called the Saxon, not the English, Chronicle, distinguish, whenever necessary, between the Saxon and the Anglian dialects, as in Hist. Eccl., II., 5 : ' Caelin rex Occidentalium Saxonum qui lingua eorum Ceawlin vocabatur.' Nor should it be forgotten that this West-Saxon language, here spoken of, took precedence of the Northumbrian, or Anglian proper, in the ninth century, and that in it, rather than in Anglisc, are in fact composed nearly all the extant remains of our earliest literature, though the terms Anglian* and Anglisc, * With regard to these terms themselves— Angle, Anglisc, Englisc, Angel-cyn, &c. — a good deal of misconception seems to exist, which it may be well to clear up. Thus the following passage from the Saxon x Preface to the Present Edition. already consecrated, as it were, by the writings of Bede and of his translator Alfred, continued to prevail. But the Chronicle shows that even the compound Angel-cyn does not always and necessarily embrace all the tribes, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, as is generally assumed : ' Her ongon Ceowulf ricsian on West-Seaxum and symble he feaht and won o'SSe wift Angel-cyn o'S^e wit? Wealas,' A. 597. Others again propose to substitute the form Englisc for the Saxon period of the language, on the supposition that it differs in sound as well as in spelling from the modern English. But here a dis- tinction is necessary. The combination sc was certainly pronounced sk in the North, but very probably sk in the South, so that the term Englisc in Alfred's mouth sounded very much as it does to this day. That this sound sh is recent, I hold to be utterly untenable, notwith- standing the great weight of certain names to the contrary. It may also be noted that the first letter e is simply the Southern anlaut or modification of the Northern a : Englisc for Anglisc, like JElfred, /Elfric, for Alfred, Alf?ic ; whence also England for Angland = Angla- land= the land of the Angles. Most foreign nations have accepted this change at our hands, calling us Englisch (German), Inglese (Ital. ), Ingles (Span.), &c. But our more immediate neighbours, the French, still adhere to the older or Northern forms, Anglais, Angleterre, pro- bably translating directly from the Latin Anglns, Anglia. This form also has found its way into the East, where we are known to the natives of India as t_>. f A = Angrezi for Anglesi, /interchanging with _ j. .j r, as in the French orme, apotre, SpUre, and in this very word Ingrese, which is often heard amongst the lower classes for Inglese in many parts of Italy. English therefore is simply the Southern form of the Northern Anglish or Anglisc, and is the proper name of the Anglian or No7-thern dialect, commonly, though not exclusively, applied also to the West-Saxon and other Southern dialects, finally to any form of Saxon or Early English, mainly through the influence of our first writers, Cadmon, Bede, probably also Cynewulf, who happened to be Angles, and not Saxons. But it must be now evident that it would be more correct, besides being vastly more convenient, to restrict Anglisc to the Northern dialect, and to designate the old Southern language that has come down to us in literature by its proper name of Saxon, as had been the uniform practice of all writers on the subject till Mr. Freeman started his hobby. Preface to the Present Edition. Xl authorities here quoted show that the corresponding term Saxon is fully justified by historic use, and being in all other respects far more convenient and correct, it has been accord- ingly retained in the present edition of this work, herein agreeing with the uniform practice of all writers on the Anglo-Saxon language from Hickes down to the present day, including such names as Wanley, Ingram, Elstob, the Conybeares, Turner, Bosworth, Kemble, Stephens, Thorpe, Earle, and all American and foreign writers without exception. To the present edition have been added two appendices. The first contains twelve versions, synoptically arranged, of the Lord's Prayer, at different periods, from the earliest times till the sixteenth century. It will help to show in a concrete form the various phases through which the language has passed, and thus serve as a general illustration of its history, as briefly set forth in these pages. The second consists of a digest or summary of all existing Saxon and English remains down to the beginning of the fourteenth century It includes an account of the extant MSS., their pro bable date, dialect in which written, when, where, and by whom first published, all arranged as far as possible in chronological order. The teacher may find it useful for purposes of reference, and the student as a lesson in accuracy. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The History of the English Language, as distinct from that of its Literature, constitutes a separate division of the English department at the Civil Service and other Govern- ment examinations. An effort has been made in the following pages to throw into as small a space as possible all such matter as is needed to meet the requirements of that single head. Indeed the present work was actually suggested by, and has been wholly planned on, the very first question on the English language put to the candidates at the July examinations, 1858. However abstruse, however varied, or seemingly superfluous, the matter herein contained, it is but an answer, and that far from complete, to this remarkable question : — ' Give a distinct account of the con- stitution of the English language, in respect both of the vocabulary and of the grammar, at each of the following dates : in the tenth century, when it was still what is usually called Saxon or Anglo-Saxon by modern philologists' (see the whole of Sec. II.) ; 'in the twelfth' (Sec. III.) ; ' in the fourteenth' (Sec. V.) ; 'in the sixteenth and in the eighteenth' xiv Preface to the First Edition. (Sec. VI.) ; noting carefully the difference between each stage of its progress, and the immediate preceding one, and assigning the cause or causes of the change.' But, while the whole book is thus occupied in dealing with this formidable query, it may have incidentally disposed of others less exacting in their nature, ex. gr. second : — ' Describe clearly and exactly the position and connexion of the English language (regarded in its earliest known form, which is still its basis or mould), in what is called the Indo- European family of languages' (Sec. I.) ; the fourth : — ' Com- pare the English language in its present state with any other, ancient or modern, with which you may be familiar, in general serviceableness and power as an instrument of ex- pression' (Sec. VI., §97,98); the fifth: — 'Illustrate by a few decisive examples the manner in which the English lan- guage adopts words from the French (Sec. V., § 72 ; VI., § 95), from the Latin (Sec. VI., § 97), and from the Greek (Sec. VI., § 99) languages respectively ; and the nature of the changes, whether in the spelling, the pronunciation, or both, by which it assimilates them, and makes them its own.' But though the work has been planned and the subject matter selected with a view to meet the requirements of these examinations, its special object may not, perhaps, render it the less generally useful, having been so compiled as to form a practical introduction both to the history of English litera- ture and to an exact knowledge of the science of English grammar. It may thus be found a valuable text-book to the more advanced pupils of our schools and colleges, without being altogether void of interest to the general reader. A knowledge of the steps by which the language has reached its present state seems needed to the right understanding of the true principles of English grammar. Changes like its for Preface to the First Edition. xv his, they for hi, loving for /ovand, are intelligible only in the light of the past; and it may be truly said that if nearly all our grammars are avowedly meaningless, often positively in- jurious, it is because they treat the language either in con- formity with a classic model or with a total disregard of its past history and Saxon origin. CONTENTS. TAGE Preface to Present Edition. Use of the terms Saxon and Anglo- Saxon defended against the objections of Mr. Freeman, Dr. Morris, and others ........ Preface to First Edition. Object and plan of the work . xm SECTION I. Introductory. §§ i-ii. Paragraphs 1-2. Philology — Families of Languages 3. Finno-Tataric Family ..... Indo-European or Aryan Family Keltic Branch .... Teutonic Branch The Low German Tribes — Frisians The Jutes .... The Angles and Saxons 10. The Term Anglo-Saxon . 11. The Angles .... Questions .... 4- 5- 6. 7- 8. 9- §§ 12-31 SECTION II Anglo-Saxon Period, 12. Periods of the English Language 13. Anglo-Saxon Alphabet 14. Its Origin ..... 15. Saxon Orthography and Accent 16. Saxon a Synthetic Language 17. Grammar — Definite Adjective . 18. Gender and Declension 19. Origin of the Modern Possessive and Plural a 3 5 6 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 iS 18 19 20 21 22 XV111 Contents. 20. Indefinite Adjective .... 21. Degrees of Comparison . 22. Pronouns ...... 23. Verb 24. Grammatical Exercise .... 25. Vocabulary — Keltic Element . 26. Latin Element. The word Church 27. Norse Element ..... 28. Traces of Dialects — ' Dano-Saxon' 29. Poetic System — Laws of Alliteration 30. Rhyme — Its probable origin 31. Specimens of Saxon Prose and Verse. Cadmon— Alfred— ^Elfric — Saxon Chronicle — West Saxon and Northumbrian Gospels ......... Questions .......... PAGE 23 24 24 25 27 29 3i 32 34 35 36 37 43 SECTION III. Broken Saxon Period. §§ 32-45 32. Dates 33. Two Languages — the Written and Spoken 34. Various Theories to account for the Corruption of Anglo- Saxon ...... 35. Analysis and Synthesis 36. Downward Tendency of Anglo-Saxon 37. Norman Influence 38. Influence of the Monks . 39. The Grammar of this Period— Verb 40. Noun — Possessive and Plural . 41. Adjective — Gender — Pronoun 42. Vocabulary of this Period 43. Specimens. Saxon Chronicle 44. Layamon ..... 45. A Rhyming Poem— the Moral Ode Questions ..... SECTION IV. Early English Period. §§ 46-59. 46. Nature and Extent of this Period . 47. Fusion of Saxori and Norman Elements . 48. Change of Alphabet— Orthography 45 46 47 49 5i 5i 52 54 55 56 57 58 61 62 65 66 67 68 Contents. xix 49. Various Languages employed in Literature 50. Difference between Broken Saxon and Early English 51. Grammar — Final e Syllabic .... 52. Infinitive — Gerund -Present Participle 53. Comparative Table of Early English Forms 54. Vocabulary — Norman Element 55. Romance and Latin Element .... 56. The Ormulum — its date .... 57. Its Orthography — pronunciation .... 58. Specimens. The Ormulum— Alliterative Ode— Ballad 59. Robert Mannyng— the Proclamation of Henry III. . Supplement to the Grammar of the Transition Period — Changes from 1100 to 1 150— Changes from 1150 to 1250 — Changes from 1250 to 1300 . . . . . . Questions ......... PAGE 69 70 72 73 75 75 73 81 82 84 S7 89 9i SECTION V. Middle English Period. §§ 60-78 60. Extent of this Period 61. Difference between Early and Middle English . 62. Final e— when pronounced .... 63. Final e French — Accent ..... 64. Grammatical and Orthographic value of final e 65. Middle English Noun — Possessive — Plural 66. Pronoun — Infinitive — Past Participle . 67. Present Indicative ...... 68. Past Tense — Imperative .... 69. Help Verbs — to have, to be, shall, will, &c. 70. Gerund and Modern Infinitive 71. Proclamation of Edward III. — Recognition of English as the National Speech ..... 72. Late Introduction of Norman Words . 73. How accounted for ...... 74. Specimens. Two Rival Schools of Literature, the Norman and Saxon ........ 75. Piers Ploughman's Vision and Creed 76. Chaucer — his Poetic System, Grammar, and Vocabulary 77. Specimens of Prose. Mandeville — Trevisa 78. Barbour — Lowland Dialect ...... Questions . 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 106 107 109 no "3 116 118 122 XX Contents. SECTION VI. Modern English. Period. §§ 79-102. PAGE 79. Extent of this Period 124 80. First Modem Writers — Lydgate — James I. — Scotch and Ballad Poetry 125 81. Caxton — Introduction of Printing — Sir Thomas More . . 128 82. Effects of the Art of Printing . . . . . .129 83. Unsettled state of the Orthography . . . . . 131 84. Three causes of irregularity : change of alphabet, change of pronunciation, defective alphabet . . . .132 85. Grammar — number of actual endings in Modern English . 135 86. Historical Table of English Accidence . . . 137 87. Anomalous Forms — plurals in en . . . . . . 142 88. Three dialects : Northern, Midland, Southern . . . 143 89. The Modern Pronouns — it and its . . . . . 144 90. The forms they, their, them, my, thy, Sec. .... 145 91. Verbal forms — Present Indicative — Participles . . . 147 92. Relational Words — their real nature . . . . .149 93. Vocabulary — Saxon and Romance Elements . . . 150 94. Preponderance of the Saxon Element . . . .152 95. The four Periods of the Romance Element . . . . 154 96. Causes of the Composite Character of Modern English . 156 97. Analysis of the Romance Element . . . . . 159 98. Synonyms ......... 161 99. Greek Element . . . . . . . . . 162 100. Miscellaneous Element . . . . . . .163 101. Style — Generic and Specific Terms — Platitudes . . . 165 102. Present Position and Future Prospects of the English Language 168 Questions . . . . . . . . . . 170 APPENDIX I. Twelve Versions o f the Lord's Prayer from the Eighth to the Sixteenth Century, synoptically arranged . . . . 173 APPENDIX II. A Digest of Early English Remains, from Beowulf to Mannyng 178 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. SECTION I. INTRODUCTORY. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES — THEIR IMPORTANCE — CLASSIFICATION OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES — INDO-EUROPEAN OR ARYAN FAMILY — TEUTONIC BRANCH — ANGLO-SAXON. PHILOLOGY— FAMILIES OF LANGUAGES. 1. Although this section is called introductory, the matter it treats of should not, therefore, be underrated or passed over lightly. It is, indeed, only preliminary to the main subject ; yet as necessary to its right understanding as is the doorway to him who would enter a dwelling. We can have no clear notion of the structure of the English language considered in itself, or of its position in relation to others, without some acquaintance with the general principles of philology. This study has somewhere been called speech- knowledge. The term, though it has not been generally received, yet conveys, perhaps, a more accurate notion of the true nature and object of this department of learning in its present improved state, than is expressed by the more classic denomination. For it professes to treat of and expound the principles on which language is formed, and thus to give us a clearer insight into the structure, and a more exact knowledge, of speech in general. Comparative 2 I. — Introductory. philology goes a step further. It applies to language, in the a gg re gate> the laws which regulate it in its absolute con- dition ; and in the hands of the Christian philosopher, can have but one object in view — to demonstrate the ultimate identity of all human speech, even as we believe in the one origin of all mankind. 2. This most interesting of studies is of very recent date, and is still in its infancy. It has only grown into the dignity of a science during the present century, a very long time having been necessarily spent in collecting the materials and facts it required as a groundwork on which to build up and verify its theories. Yet, the triumphs it has achieved within the last few years are truly wonderful. Nearly all the known languages of the world have been already classi- fied, or reduced to a certain number of great stocks, as a first step towards tracing all back to one common source. The European languages are all comprised in two of these, which further include a vast number of Asiatic tongues. In other words, all the languages of Europe, together with more than half of those of Asia, are derived from two sources, originally and radically distinct. Some two languages at some very remote period were spoken, to which all these are directly or indirectly reducible, each aggregate con- stituting what in Philology is called a family of languages. The chief subdivisions of a family are called branches. A family bears the same relation to all its branches that a branch does to all its dialects. Logically a family is a genus t comprising so many branches or species, which again em- brace an indefinite number of individual dialects. Our two families or genera are called : — (a) Finno-Tataric. (b) Indo-European, or Aryan. Any language which is directly traceable to any other in (a) or in (b), is said to be a dialect of that. In this sense French may be said to be a dialect of Latin. Any language The Finno- Tataric Family. 3 which cannot be directly traced to any other in (a) or (b), but which can be shown to belong to (a) or (b), is said to be a branch. Latin is a branch of (b). Were we to lose all knowledge of the fact that ever such a language existed as Latin, the Romance tongues, French, Spanish, Italian, would cease to be dialects — would be grouped together, and would constitute a branch of (b). The great problem in comparative philology is to reduce (a), (b), (c), (d) . . . . to (x) = genus supremum=unity.* THE FINNO-TATARIC FAMILY. 3. (a) The Finno-Tataric family is believed to be the most ancient in Europe, and to have at one time occupied a wider geographical area than any other in the world. In pre-historic times it is supposed to have spread over the greater portion of Europe ; but, as far back as history goes, we find it already driven into the extremities north and south by the Indo-European race. At present, in its widest * The possibility of reducing all forms of speech to one source has, of course, been questioned, nor can anyone pretend to assert positively that the problem ever will be solved. Yet it is well to keep it con- stantly in view, and to note the progress that is being made from time to time towards its solution. A decided step in advance is marked by Raabe's ' Gemeinschaftliche Grammatik der Arischen und der Semi- tischen Sprachen,' Leipzig, 1874. In this work the author feels himself justified in substituting 'gemeinschaftlich' or common for ' ver- gleichend,' or comparative, and boldly asserts that ' although some investigators maintain the impossibility of discovering an organic union between the Indo-Germanic and the Semitic families, yet even apart from my work a connecting link (Zusammenhang) will be found to exist between the two. '-"-Preface. He himself identifies many roots as common to both, whose affinity had not hitherto been recognised, as for instance the Sanscrit aishd = snorting, with the Hebrew q^q sits, a horse. He goes even further, and expresses his belief that the Coptic or Old Egyptian itself is nothing but a disguised Sanscrit, 'em ver- hiilltes Sanskrit.' His promised ' Hebrew- Aryan' Dictionary will be looked forward to. with great interest. B 2 4 I. — Introductory. extent, it consists of five well-defined branches, which give the following scheme : — a = Genus = Stock Language of the Finno-Tataric Family. i i i ~ i i r. Tchudic. 2. Jakuto-Turkish. 3. Samojede. 4. Tataro-Mongolian. 5. Tungus. I. Tchudic branch: (1) Finnic proper, Esthonian, Lapp of Lapland; (2) Permian; (3) Volga Finn; (4) Magyar of Hungary. II. Jakuto-Turkish branch: (1) Old Turkish on the Mon- golian frontier, Osmanli; (2) Turkoman (from Balk to the Caspian) ; (3) Yakutish (in Siberia). III. Samojede branch : Ostjak; Yennissei Samojede (nomad tribes on the shores of the Arctic, stretching from Arch- angel eastwards). IV. Tataro-Mongolian branch: (1) East Mongolian (about the desert of Gobi) ; (2) Kalmuk (in the great steppes of West Asia, and on the Lower Volga). V. Tungus branch: (1) Siberian Tungus; (2) Mandchoo (spoken by the ruling race in China). Isolated languages which cannot be shown to belong to any known family, are called sporadic. There are, or have been until very recently, two such in Europe : the Basque and the Albanian. The Basque or Euscaric, which is sup- posed to represent the old Iberian of Spain, is spoken by the Escaldunacs of the Pyrenees. It is now believed to be connected with the Finno-Tataric family, and is used as an argument to prove that Europe was first peopled by this race. The Albanian is spoken in Turkish Albania by the Arnauts, or, as they call themselves, the Skipetari, or High- landers. They are now generally looked upon as the de- scendants of the ancient Illyrians, who skirted Greece on the north, and reached from the Adriatic into Asia Minor, including the Dacians, Phrygians, Carians, and Hellenized Macedonians and Epirots. The Skipetar was at one time referred to* the Finno-Tataric : it is at present more com- monly comprised in the next or Indo-European family. The Indo-European, or Aryan Family. THE INDO-EUROPEAN, OR ARYAN FAMILY. 4. (b) The Indo-European, or Aryan, Family, is the greatest and the most influential, not only in Europe, but. in the world- It reaches from the furthest limits of Cisgan- getic India, through Persia and Western Asia, to the extreme west of Europe, and has, within a recent date, spread throughout North and South America and Australasia. Its branches are the following six : — 3=Genus = Stock Language of Indo-European Family. [ j j — | j ; _ I. Indian. 2. Medo-Persian. 3. Pelasgic. 4. Sclavonian. 5. Keltic. 6. Teutonic. I. Indian branch: (i) Sanscrit, the religious language ol the Hindoos; (2) Pali, the religious language of the Buddhists; (3) Pracrit, the vulgar or spoken forms of Sanscrit, now extinct. From these are derived the Hindustani, Bengali, etc., in all about fifty Indian dialects, together with the Gipsy of Europe. II. Medo-Persian branch: (1) Old Persian, of the arrow- headed Persepolitan monuments; (2) Zend, of Zoroas- ter's Zend Avesta; (3) Parsi, still spoken by the Parsees of Bombay, Modern Persian, Affghan, perhaps Armenian. III. Pelasgic branch : (1) Greek and Romaic; (2) Latin and Romance (Italian, French, Spanish, Moldavo-Walla- chian). The Daco-Roman inhabitants of the Danubian Principalities are descended from the Roman colony planted in Dacia by Trajan. IV. Sclavonian branch: (1) Lithuanian, the best preserved of all living Indo-European tongues; (2) Russian; (3) Polish; (4) Bohemian; (5) Illyrian ; (6) Bulgarian. V. Keltic branch: (1) Irish; (2) Welsh. VI. Teutonic branch : (1) Afceso- Gothic, which possesses the oldest literary remains (a. 380); (2) Old Frisic; (3) Old High German; (4) Norse. I. — Introductory. THE KELTIC BRANCH. 5. The first four need not detain us further, as they are not immediately connected with the subject. The Keltic, by those who reject the Finnish theory, is generally allowed to have been the primitive language of Western Europe and of the British Isles. It is subdivided into the two following groups : — Gaedhelic. Kymric. Ill II I Irish. Manks. Erse. Welsh. Cornish. Low Breton. Cornish is now extinct, and the Manks, of the Isle of Man, is fast disappearing. Welsh still holds its ground as the representative of the language universally spoken in Southern Britain, down to the middle of the fifth century. The Gaedhelic, however, seems to have preceded it even in Wales, where Dr. Llhuyd, the great Welsh antiquarian, has shown that the names of the mountains, plains, and rivers, are Irish rather than Kymric. But if it be true, as is now suspected, that the Keltic of Gaul and of the British Isles was still one language at the Christian era, Dr. Llhuyd's statement will only prove that the Keltic of Britain has since then considerably fallen off, and that the Keltic of Ireland has preserved itself in comparative purity. THE TEUTONIC BRANCH. 6. But by far the most important branch of the Indo- European family, in connection with the present subject, i the Teutonic. It comprises the three following subdivisions : — (a) High German. (b) Low German. (c) Scandinavian. (a) The High German includes all the dialects that prei vail on the hiily lands of Southern Germany; such are the The Teutonic Branch. 7 Swiss, Suabian, Bavarian, and German Proper. The stages of this latter are : — a. Old High German, spoken in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries in Suabia, Bavaria, and Franconia. /3. Middle High German, from the twelfth to the six- teenth century. y. New High German, the general literary language of Germany at the present day. (b) The Low Gentian embraces all the languages spoken on the plains and coast of Northern Germany, between the Rhine and the Oder. These are principally the Frisian, Old or Continental Saxon, Low Dutch of Holland, Flemish, and the dialects of Hanover, Oldenburgh, Schleswig, and Holstein. (c) To the Scandinavian branch belong the Old Norse, Icelandic, Feroic, Dalekarlian, Swedish, Danish, and Nor- wegian. Of these the Icelandic still closely resembles the Norse, having experienced little change since the twelfth century. It is by far the best preserved of all living Teu- tonic tongues. THE LOW GERMAN TRIBES— THE FRISIANS. 7. Though there is much difference of opinion amongst writers as to the exact locality of the German tribes that invaded Britain in the fifth century, yet all agree in bring- ing them from that part of Northern Germany which lies between Western Flanders and Schleswig. The languages which they spoke and introduced into the country must, therefore, have belonged to the Low German branch ; con- sequently to it must be referred the Anglo-Saxon and Modern English. Of the Low German dialects, that which most resembles the English to this day is the Frisian. This tongue, at one time generally prevailing from Holland to Jutland, is now broken up into the following varieties :— a. Frisian proper, in the province of Frisia; ft. West- phalian or Hanoverian Frisian, spoken only in the fenny 8 I. — Introductory. district of Saterland ; y. Frisian of Heligoland ; 2. North Frisian, current in Schleswig. The only one possessing any remains is the first, whose literature dates from the thirteenth century. These Frisians, whose pronunciation resembles that of the west Somersetmen, still look upon the English as their kinsmen, and the resemblance of the two speeches is certainly very remarkable. As a specimen, Mr. Hal- bertsma gives, in Bosworth's 'Anglo-Saxon Dictionary,' the following Frisian version of one of the Countess of Blessing- ton's songs : — Hhwat bist dou, libben ? What art thou, life ? Jen wirch stribjen A weary strife Fen pine, noed in soarch ; Of pain, care, and sorrow ; Lange oeren fen smerte Long hours of grief In nocten ho koart ! And joys, how brief ! Det fordwine de moarns. That vanish the morrow. Dead, hwat bist dou, Death, what art thou, Ta hwaem alien buwgje, To whom all bow, Fen de scepterde kening ta From sceptered king to, de slawe ? slave ? Nor can there be any doubt that the Frisians were among the first invaders of the country. In the ' Life of St. Swibert,' we read : ' Ecgburtus sitiens salutem Frisonum et Saxonum, eo quod Angli ab iis propagati sunt.' The same inference must be drawn from the prevalence of the topographical ending wick, wich, in every part of the country : Hawick, Harwich, Warwick, Dulwich, Sandwich, Woolwich, &c. ; and which, as Lappenberg remarks, is met with nowhere in Germany except ' in Altsachsen und Fries- land,' where, as in Wycombe, Wichfield, it forms the first part of the compound term. He instances Wykgrafen, Wykvog- ten, Wykscheffeln. Geschichte v. England, I. 85. This term wick, though undoubtedly belonging to the same Aryan root as the Latin vicus, has been too hastily derived from it by writers who overlooked the fact that it is found in parts of the island never occupied by the Romans, as in Lerwick and Wick, in the extreme north of Scotland. The Teutonic Branch. THE JUTES 8. The other invading tribes, we are told, were the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, who, coming over at intervals, ulti- mately succeeded in occupying the whole of what is now called England. These settlements are said to have taken place in the following order : — i. Jutes, under Hengist and Horsa, settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight in 449 or 450. ii. Saxons, under ./Ella, in Suth Seaxna-rice, or Sussex, in 477. iii. Saxons, under Cerdic, in West Seaxna-rice, or Wessex, in 493. iv. Saxons, in East Seaxna-rice, or Essex, in 530. v. Angles, during the reign of Cerdic, in Norfolk and Suffolk, 527. vi. Angles, under Ida, between the Tweed and Forth, in 547- Our principal authority for this statement is the ' Historia Ecclesiastica ' of the Venerable Bede, written at the begin- ning of the eighth century. It thus appears that the Jutes occupied Kent, the Isle of Wight, and a portion of the opposite coast ; the Saxons peopled all the rest of the country south of the Thames and of the Avon, besides Essex, Middlesex, and Hertford ; the Angles took possession of the remainder of the Island, reaching as far north as the Forth and Clyde, and west to Wales. From these latter it received the name of ^Engla-land, or England, although this word would be, according to Thierry, a contraction of the more comprehensive designation Engel-Seaxna-land, just as West Seaxna-rice became Wessex. Until very re- cently, the Jutes were assumed to have come from Jutland in Denmark ; but Dr. Latham has shown that this is a mistake, arising, probably, from a fancied resemblance between the two names. The readings in Bede's MSS. vary IO I. — Introductory, considerably. In one place they are called Juti, in another Vitas, and elsewhere Gutae. That they could not have been Danes seems quite certain ; for not the slightest trace of Danish or Norse is found in the Kentish dialect, of which there are extant remains dating from the fourteenth century. It should, however, be remarked that at the time the Jutes are represented as having come over, and even much later on, the difference between the Low German and Norse tongues was very slight. Alfred, in the ninth century, is said on one occasion to have penetrated into the Danish camp, disguised as a harper, and to have entertained the army with his Saxon songs, because, as the chronicle says, 1 Lingua Danorum Anglicanaa loquelse vicina est.' On the whole it appears highly probable that this Jutarum natio of Bede were in reality a tribe of western Goths, who crossed over from Gaul in the fifth century, to assist the southern Britons against the incessant attacks of their northern enemies, the Picts and Scots. They are expressly called Goths in Asser's ' Life of Alfred,' and Gaet in Alfred's own works. If so, they were nearly related to the other two invading tribes. THE ANGLES AND SAXONS. 9. These, we have seen, were the Saxons and the Angles. Bede tells us that the Saxons came from that dis- trict of Germany which was in his time known by the name of the Country of the Old Saxons, that is, the tract lying between the Elbe and the Eider. Yet this is the very region that the Saxon Chronicle points out as the home of the Angles : ' Eald-Seax, Anglorum antiqua patria.' In reality, at the time of the invasion there was no substantial difference between these two tribes, not more, perhaps, than between a north countryman and a southern, or than afterwards existed between the Saxons of Essex and the Angles of the adjoining county of Suffolk. Bede himself The Angles and Saxons. II *£> speaks of them as of one race : ' Anglorum sive Saxonum gens.' It is, moreover, quite certain that they looked upon themselves all along as brethren of one family. It is re- markable that it was a Saxon, Egbert, king of Wessex, who first gave the name of England to the whole country (830 a.d.). And King Ida's laws recognize only two races, the Welsh and the English. This name seems to have been readily adopted by all the successive invading tribes, and even the so-called Jutes of Kent were termed Engle-kin, that is, of English race. We may conclude, then, with Latham, that the invaders bore two names : Angle, de- signating those tribes that came from the more northern parts of Germany bordering on Denmark, and which they appear as a nation to have preferred ; and Saxon, by which they were best known to the Romans, Franks, and Kelts. To these latter, indeed, whether Welsh, Highlander, or Irish, they were never known by any other than that of Sassanach. To account for this, we should re member that for nearly a century bef ore they effected a permanent settle-^ "fflpnTin thf^rn^ ptry, Sri von tribes infested the whole eastern coa st of England from the Wash to the Isle of Wighj , which 7rom this circumstance was designated as the ' Littus Saxoni- cum' in the 'Notitia utriusque Imperii,' embracing the history of the empire from the year 369 to 408. Conse- quently, long before the appearance of the Angles, the term Saxon had become too familiar to the old Britons or Welsh to be ever afterwards set aside for another, especially as both meant much the same thing. From the Britons it passed to the Picts and Irish Scots, who were at that time in the habit of making constant inroads into the southern parts of the island. THE TERM ANGLO-SAXON. 10. With regard to the term Anglo-Saxon, Mr. Craik re- marks, in his excellent ' Outlines of the English Language,' 12 I . — Introductory. that, ' whether as applied to the language or to the people by whom it was spoken, it must be understood to mean, properly, Saxon of England as distinguished from Saxon of the Continent; just as Anglo-Norman means Norman of England as distinguished from Norman of the Continent. It is a compound formed on the principle of assuming Saxon as the name of the people and of the language, and England as that of the country. The Anglo-Saxon is merely one dialect of Saxon, as the Continental or Old Saxon is another. It cannot mean, as is sometimes supposed, the language of the Angles and Saxons.' And in the advertisement to the third edition of his work he says that he has everywhere discarded the terms Saxon and Anglo-Saxon, ' as not only unauthorised by the facts of the case, but absurd and eminently misleading.' Yet this time- honoured compound does seem to us by no means absurd, and sufficiently intelligible withal. It need not mean the Saxon of England, in the same way that Anglo-Norman denotes the Norman of England, or the Anglicised Norman ; but, when applied to the people, it very fittingly designates a nation that has been formed by the blending of the two distinct tribes of Angles and Saxons ; and when applied to the language, it means not the Saxon of England, as opposed to that of the mainland, but the speech which was common to the two tribes from the beginning, and which was as much Angle as it was Saxon. Anglo-Norman implies a corrupt or English-Norman. Anglo-Saxon does not imply a corrupt or English-Saxon, but Angle + Saxon as a nation, Angle = Saxon as a language. THE ANGLES. 11. The Angles are generally believed to have emigrated from the small territory still known by the name of Anglen, in the duchy of Schleswig. But much importance cannot be attached to this statement. It is not easy to understand The Angles. 13 how such a narrow tract as Anglen could have supplied the numerous bands of invaders who from time to time poured into England, even though we suppose with Bede that it was left unpeopled for several generations afterwards. In reality such terms as Angle, and Saxon, and Frank, and Goth, were not then so much geographical, denoting fixed or even pure populations, as the names of roving tribes, often formed by a mixture of several nations, and ever shifting to and fro. So the Angles, as Alfred tells us in ' Orosius,' were not restricted to any particular spot, but spread over the whole of the modern kingdom of Denmark, Jutland, Zealand, and neighbouring islands : on tham lan- dum eardodon Engle aer hi hider on land comon, i.e., in those lands dwelt the Angles ere they hither-land came. Bede : s assertion may now be explained as meaning that those countries remained unoccupied after the departure of the Angles until they were subsequently repeopled by men of Scandinavian race. QUESTIONS.* [The numbers refer to those of the paragraphs in each Section.] 1. What is the nature and object of Philology in general ? In what does it differ from Comparative Philology ? 2. In Philology, what is a family ? a branch ? a dialect ? How many families in Europe ? 3. What are the branches of the Finno-Tataric ? What is a sporadic language ? How many in Europe ? Who are the Basques ? the Albanians ? the Magyars ? 4. Name the principal regions occupied by the Indo-European family. How is it distributed ? Who are the Wallachians'? 5. State the two subdivisions of the Keltic branch, with their respective dialects. Who are supposed to have been the earliest inha- bitants of Britain ? * These, and following series of questions, are only suggestive, and intended as a guide, especially to teachers. They may occasionally help to draw attention to important matter, which might otherwise pass unnoticed in the perusal of the text. 14 I. — Introductory. 6. Mention the three off-shoots of the Teutonic branch. Which is the purest of all living Teutonic languages ? 7. To which of the Teutonic subdivisions do you refer the Anglo- Saxon ? Why ? What modern German language resembles most the English ? 8. Name the three principal German tribes that invaded Britain in the fifth century. How did they occupy the country ? There are reasons for believing that the Jutes had nothing to do with the modern Jutland : who does Dr. Latham think they were ? 9. Show that there was no real difference between the Saxons and the Angles. The English are still called Sassanach by all the Kelts : account for this. 10. Mr. Craik's objection to the use of the compound term Anglo- Saxon seems to be unfounded : justify its use. 1 1 . What is to be thought of the statement that the Angles came from Anglen in Schleswig ? 15 SECTION II. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD '450-1066). PERIODS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE— ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD — ALPHABET — ORTHOGRAPHY — GRAMMAR — ITS SYNTHETIC CHA- RACTER—VOCABULARY—FOREIGN ELEMENTS— DIALECTS — VERSE — SPECIMENS. PERIODS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 12. The Low German speech, introduced by these dif- ferent tribes in the fifth century, flourished in the country altogether for about six hundred years, or was as nearly as possible coextensive with the sway of those that spoke it (450-1066). A period of decay then set in, the germs of which existed from the beginning, and out of this corrup- tion was gradually developed the language as at present spoken and written. Rightly to understand the connection between the two, between the Anglo-Saxon and its modern English off-shoot, account must be taken of the various steps by which the transition was effected. For the English language, as now spoken, was not the growth of a moment, nor did it suddenly attain to its present high state of per- fection. By a consideration alone of the intermediate stages, which at once separate and connect the two ex- tremes, we shall be able to understand how the result was obtained. These stages, or epochs, or periods of the history of the language, are not very easy to fix, because it is often difficult to show the last link of one, and the first of another chain. Hence they vary considerably in different writers. It is obvious, however, at first sight, that there can be but three really distinct divisions of the subject, the two fixed 1 6 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. extremes — Anglo-Saxon and Modern English — together with the unsettled and ever-changing middle state, the Borderland, between these two. These three different states of the language have been called by various names. The first, that of Pure, or Simple, or Saxon- English; the second, that of Broken, or Ungrammatical, or Semi- English ; the third, that of New, or Modern, or Mixed-English. The second alone can occasion any difficulty. It is usually and conveniently subdivided into three others, which, with the first and third, will give us the following periods to be investigated : — Periods. I. Anglo-Saxon, a.d. 450, lasted 600 years, till II. Broken Saxon, 1066, ,, 150 „ III. Early English, 1200, „ 150 „ IV. Middle English, i35°> „ 100 „ V. Modern English, 1450, „ — „ ANGLO-SAXON ALPHABET. 13. We shall never be able to form any notion of the difference between our language and the Anglo-Saxon, and of how the change was effected, unless we be content to go back and see what the original really was. Indeed, the importance of some acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon can hardly be overrated. It is beyond all doubt the very best means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the structure of our own speech; for it is to us what Latin is to the Italians, French, and Spaniards — what Old Norse is to the Danes and Swedes. One cause, perhaps, of the neglect into which Anglo-Saxon studies have fallen, is the fact of their having employed a form of writing different from the present. It was assumed practically, that when the old character was laid aside for the modern, the language ceased to be Saxon, and should be studied with reference to a classic model. Ln_re^liJy_J±ie^ln^lo-Saxon ialpbabeF~ Anglo-Saxon Alphabet. 17 differed but ver y little from the Latin, of which it j yas-ftdt sojuueh-a corru ption as a mere variety, o r, so tc say, a_ saxl> of hand employ ed by the Saxo ns even in the— svri ting o£- Latujuite€4fe — -Hence, it is now very properly superseded by the modern form, those characters only being retained which were peculiar to it, viz., ]>=//£ hard, as in thin, and $=zd/i=tli soft, as in then. As these two letters express sounds of constant occurrence in English, it is much to be regretted that they were not preserved when the transition was effected from the old to the new system. They were, indeed, generally retained in English and Latin MSS. down to the reign of Edward III. T ji.it the Nnrm a n transcribers ofSaXOn bQDks__a lwayS Substituted t^' r ""'11 nrtjincn-npby forthg_ An glo-S a xon, and that 'ultimately prevaile d in all "c ases. The alphabet consisted alt og ether oftwaityTou r *T^ttei a, as mfat. b. c, always hard = k, cining = king. Wuce = week. * d. e = ea in bear. f = v when between two vowels. Lufe = luve = love. g, always hard. Gifan — give. h. i = ee in sheep, probably also = i in wine, and when short = i in win ; before e or u —y : iugo% = youth. 1-m-n-o-p -r-s-t-u-w-x-ae. y = French u, bryd = bride, or German eu = fyr = fire. \> = 6 = th in thing. <& = dh = th, in this, t * In the Hatton MS. of the four Gospels (about 1050) k is used in- stead of c: kynvS for cym'S = cometh. Mark i. 7. (Skeat's ' Synopsis,' Cambridge, 187 1.) f It should, however, be remarked that b and "S were used very carelessly by Saxon writers. Hickes says that ' hi characteres con- funduntur a scriptoribus,' not being carefully distinguished, as in Ice- landic, but treated rather as different forms of the same letter, some scribes preferring one and some the other. In the Ormulum we have \> C 1 8 II. — Anglo- Saxon Period. &' At the beginning of pronouns and adverbs the modern English substitutes the soft th=§ for the hard=J>, as Jm= thou, as if from Su, ]iaer=there, etc., where the change of pronunciation is not observable, because th represents both \ and ft. ITS ORIGIN. 14. Hyde Clarke, in his ' Grammar of the English Tongue,' says that the Anglo-Saxon alphabet ' is likewise found in some Irish books, the Irish having taken this alphabet from our English forefathers.' The very contrary, we ven- ture to say, was the case. To the Irish ' our English fore- fathexg^j^re^indebted fer-^jiirThe lit^rMure~~"andleafning they_poasesseoVand the Irish, two hundred years ~beTore..the Axi^La^Saxrm^-kne^Jiow^to res&~ur-WnfiF,~ ernployed- this ver y alp habet, not in svme^TmTm alloTThdr^g^kywliether JiaJLa^r&jiLjn the vem acntar: Alban FJutler7 in his Life of St. Austin, observes tHaT^lHe" Saxons were a barbarous race, unacquainted even with the art of writing previous to their arrival in England, where they adopted their alphabet from the Irish.' p, however, is from the Runic. SAXON ORTHOGRAPHY AND ACCENT. 15. Not one of the least difficulties to the Anglo-Saxon student is the very unsettled state of the orthography. This must be peculiarly perplexing in a language in which a single vowel often changes the case or number of a noun. Rask, who has done much to remedy the evil in his ex- cellent Anglo-Saxon Grammar, describes the orthography as extremely confused, observing that Hickes and Lye, the Saxon editors, have caused it to appear much more so than only, and in the Hatton MS. of Gregory's Pastorals '5 only. This confusion and uncertainty in their use necessarily led later writers to discard them both. Saxon Orthography and Accent. 1 9 it is in reality, by ' everywhere presenting us with an over- whelming multitude of ways in which a word is written, and not unfrequently adopting the false instead of the true spelling.' The word self is written seolf, self, and sylf ; we shall, we sceolon and sculon ; long, lang and long ; man, man, mon ; head, heauod, heafod ; they, hig, hie, hi ; dry, dri, drig, dryg ; you, geow, eow. The accent also is con- stantly neglected, although it is often the only clue to the meaning of the word, as ac=but, ac=an oak, is=is, is=ice, etc. The accent generally denotes the long or broad sound of the vowels ; thus for, for, should be pronounced for, fore. God=God ; god=good, like goad. But the real pronun- ciation of Anglo-Saxon, being now a dead language, can often be only guessed at and conjectured, especially by refe- rence to the living cognate tongues, Icelandic, Danish, Ger- man, and others.* SAXON A SYNTHETIC LANGUAGE. 16. The grammar may be generally described as of a synthetic character. This will be perfectly intelligible to any one possessing the slightest knowledge of the classic tongues, but may require explanation for those that are un- acquainted with any but their own. Synthesis (avu with, d)\aic a placing) implies composition, or a putting together. Two things seem to be needed in every language in order to make complete sense : the expression of our notions or ideas, and the expression of the relation these notions bear * Observe also that in some of the very oldest MSS. extant, such as the Cotton MS. used by Mr. Sweet in his new edition of Gregory's Pastorals, there seem to be no accents at all. Hence ah we can say with certainty regarding them is that, though not used constantly, when they do occur they are a safe guide to the pronunciation, or at least the length of the vowel, as they appear to be scarcely ever employed in- correctly. Thus, though dc = oak may be found unaccented, ac-—biU will never be met with an accent. C 2 20 II. -Anglo-Saxon Period. one to another. In this respect words have been divided into two great classes, the notional and the relational. The language which fuses these two into one, and effects the pur- pose by a simple change or modification of the notional words, is said to be a synthetic language, and will be so to a greater or lesser extent in proportion to the use it makes of the relational (see also paragraph 92). The Anglo-Saxon makes a very considerable use of these. It is, therefore, syn- thetic only in a moderate degree. Consequently the changes or inflexions of its words are fewer, and its grammar much simpler, than the Latin or the Greek. As the only real dif- ference between Anglo-Saxon and modern English consists in the almost total absence of these inflexions from the latter, a slight acquaintance with them will be necessary to understand the nature of the change. THE DEFINITE ADJECTIVE. 17. The definite article or adjective was twofold : 1. The indeclinable, answering to our definite the, but used also re- latively, and as a demonstrative pronoun. 2. The declinable, neutral Jiaet ; masculine, se ; feminine, seo, which corresponds also to the demonstrative is, ea, id. It is declined as fol- lows : — Sing. N. A. Ab. D. G. Neut. >ast >set Mas. Fern. se seo >one \>k J>sere Jjsere Plur. N. A. H D. rham \l>3em G. J>ara J for all Genders. J>oere Both of these definite particles are constantly blended together, se-f>e he who, psette (contracted for fset j?e) that which, as : ic wat fsette eall paet ic her sprece is wi Junum willan, I know that all that I here speak is against thy will. Gender and Declension. 21 GENDER AND DECLENSION. 18. There is no fixed rule to determine the genders of the nouns. These were originally regulated, not so much by nature, as in English, as by the terminations, which were already in great part lost or confounded in the most ancient state of the language we are acquainted with. All words in a, however, are masculine, as se mona, the moon. Of de- clensions there are two orders, the simple and the complex. To the first are referred all nouns ending in a radical e for the feminine and neutral, and a for the masculine, which are declined in exactly the same manner, except that, as in Latin, the neuter N. and A. for both numbers is always alike. This order also includes the definite form of all adjectives, i.e. the form of the adjective, which is used when it is preceded by the definite article, any demonstrative or possessive pro- noun, and the possessive case. Simple Order or first De- clension. SINGULAR. Netit. Mas. Fein. N. eare (ear) nama (name) heorte (heart) G. D. earan naman heortan A. eare naman PLURAL. heortan Neul. Mas. Fern. N. A. earan naman heortan D. earum namum heortum G. earena namena heortena So the definite adiective : — • SING. Neut. Mas. Fern. N. pset swifte, se swifta, seo' swifte (the swift), G. D. swiftan, swiftan, swiftan, A. swifte, swiftan, swiftan. 22 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. PLUR. FOR ALL GENDERS. N. A. pa swiftan, D. swiftum, G. swiftena. It thus appears that in this order there are, in reality, not more than three inflexional forms : -an for all the oblique cases in the sing., and the Nom. and Ace. plural ; -um for the Dat. and Abl. ; and -ma for the Gen. plural : nama, naman, namum, namena. ORIGIN OF THE MODERN POSSESSIVE AND PLURAL 19. The next, or complex order, is much more intricate, comprising two distinct declensions, each varying for all the three genders. We can spare room for the masculines only of the first of these, which, of all the A.S. declensions, is the most interesting to us, as that to which all English nouns have been conformed so far as they are inflected. It is as follows : — Sing. N. A. weg, a way, Plur. N. A. wegas, ways, G. weges, way's, G. wega, ways', D. Abl. wege, to and by a way. D. Abl. wegum, to and by ways. Here is the true origin of the only changes to which the English noun is subjected, and about which, simple as the matter is, so many wild theories were started, at a time when the English tongue was believed to be made up of Latin, Greek, French, some Hebrew, and a little Saxon. The plu- ral s was at once referred to the French, because it hap- pened to agree with the usage of that tongue ; and the possessive 's was supposed to be a contraction of his. It was even customary to write the word in full, thus : the king his name, for the king's name, in imitation of an ima- ginary antique state of the language. However, this theory as to the origin of the possessive in modern English is an old delusion, refuted by Alexander Hume in his treatise on English Grammar, dedicated to James L, and edited by Indefinite Adjective. 23 Wheatley in 1865. He gives two good reasons against it : ' First, His is the masculine gender, and this may be femi- nine, as, a mother's love is tender ; Second, because his is onelie singular, and this may be plural, as, al men's vertues are not knawen.' One might almost imagine that a similar notion had at some time prevailed in Germany, where such expressions as der Konig seine Krone, der Vater sein Sohn, are sometimes met with. At all events, the coincidence is curious, but can- not, of course, affect the true explanation, as above given, of the origin of the possessive and the plural in modern Eng- lish. Yet it must be added that even in Layamon (1200) his occurs in this peculiar way : 'John his book.' The ques- tion, therefore, suggests itself whether these may not be inde- pendent collateral forms that sprang up at a very remote ' period during the progress of the various Teutonic languages towards analysis. INDEFINITE ADJECTIVE. 20. Besides the definite form already explained, the ad- jectives have an indefinite corresponding to the complex order of nouns, but of a much simpler nature. The indefi- nite form of swift is as follows : — SING. PLUR. Neut. Masc. Fern. N. swift, swift, swift, N. A. swifte, -| A. swift, swiftne, swifte, D. swiftum, Mor all Genders. G. swiftra. Ab. swifte, ~> D. swiftum, > swiftre. G. swiftes. J Example of the use of the definite and indefinite forms : — a swift horse = an swift hors, the swift horse = se swifta hors, of swift horses = swiftra horsa, of the swift horses = bara swiftena horsa. 24 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. In the same way are declined all past participles in od and ed, and the participles present, both definitively and indefi- nitively, with the single exception of the Gen. Plur., whose definite form is ra instead of ena, as : }>ara rihtwillendra for rihtwillendena, of the upright. DEGREES OF COMPARISON. 21. The degrees of comparison are in -or and -ost, where it should be observed that -or is always adverbial, its definite and indefinite form being -re, -ra, -re. Ost is adverbial and indefinite, making < . . , > in the definite. Example : ° (_ este est a este J Comparative : swiftor, more swiftly, adv. swiftre, swiftra, swiftre, s-wifter and the swifter, adj. def. and indef. Supo'lative : swiftost, most swiftly and swiftest, adv. and adj. indef. swifteste, swiftesta, swifteste, the swiftest, adj. def. Some of the irregulars in mest are still retained in English, as : inn, innor, innemest, in, in?ier, inmost, etc. PRONOUNS. 22. The personal pronouns generally resemble our own, but are remarkable for having preserved in the first and second persons the only remnant of the dual form to be found in the language. 1st Person. 2nd Person. ^rd Person. Sing. N. ic (I.) bu (thou) N. hit (it), he (he), heo (she) A. me be A. hit hine hi G. D. min bin D. him him hire G. his his hire Dual. PI. Dual. PI. N. wit we git ge Plur. N. hi (they) "i A. D. unc us inc eow D. him & heom > J? r ' G. uncer lire incer eower G. hira & heor ( Genders. aJ Verb. 25 Sylf (self) is declined both indefinitely, as : ic swerige ]mrh me sylfne, I swear by myself ; and definitely, as : on M sylfan tid, at the same time. The demonstrative pis pes );eos (hoc, hie, hsec) makes in the plural J>as and pses, whence our two forms, these, those, with a difference of meaning. The remaining pronouns present no sort of difficulty, and are re- cognised at a glance, as : sum, some, a, manig, many, etc. VERB. 23. While the nouns and adjectives are exceedingly rich in grammatical forms, the verb presents in this respect a marked contrast to the classic languages, having at a very remote period lost the great bulk of its inflexions. This must have occurred before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England, as we find it to be the case in the other cognate languages, though not quite to the same extent. The pas- sive voice has completely disappeared, together with all the tenses of the indicative and subjunctive modes active, ex- cept the present and imperfect. There remain but thirteen actual changes to which the verb is subjected, of which five, and in some cases six, are retained in modern English ; con- sequently, were it not for the irregularity of many of these forms, and their ill-defined nature, the whole verbal system could be mastered in half-an-hour's study. There are two orders of verbs, corresponding to the two orders of nouns, the simple and the complex. The first, which has been called the weak conjugation, is pretty much the same as our ordinary method, the past tense ending in de or te, and the past participle in d or t. The complex, or strong conjugation, is the source of all our so-called irregular verbs, in which the past tense is a monosyllable formed by a change of vowel, and the past participle is in -en or -n. In the strong conjugation, the verb develops, within itself, its in- flexional forms, by a change of the radical vowel : drive, drove, driven ; in the weak it requires the aid of an additional 26 II. — Anslo-Saxon Period. y° u > the y love - SUBJUNCTIVE. Pres. Past. Sing. I, 2, 3 lunge. Sing. I, 2, 3 lufode. Plur. 1, 2, 3 lufion. Plur. I, 2, 3 lufodon. IMPERATIVE. Sing. 2 lufa. Plur. 2 lufia'S and lufige. INFINITIVE. Present — lufian = to love. Gerund (to) — lufigenne = to love. Act. part. — lufigende = loving. Pass. part. — (ge)-lufod= loved. Verb. 27 Here the three persons pi. of the pres. ind. are alike, and the same as the pi. imperative. The three pers. pi. imper- fect are also alike, and the same as those of the imperfect subjunctive. The 1st and 3rd sing, imperf. ind., and the sing, of the imperf. subj. correspond in the same way, leav- ing, as above stated, only thirteen actual grammatical in- flexions. The present is used instead of the future, and the other nice distinctions of time were but indifferently ex- pressed, which was one of the chief causes of the obscurity attaching to Saxon writings in general. Another undoubtedly was, not the great number of forms in the noun and adjec- tive, but their want of variety, and their exceedingly vague and unsatisfactory character. Endings like -or urn, -ibus, -abam, -averunt, in Latin, are too striking to be easily for- gotten, or not to be readily recognized again. Whereas the A.S. e and a, es and as, etc., are so alike, and used for so many different cases, that confusion is often difficult to be avoided. On the whole, this language, when it began to be employed for literary purposes, was already considerably weakened, and ready to be broken up altogether on the first occasion. GRAMMATICAL EXERCISE. 24, The following extract from Alfred's free version of Boethius' ' Consolation of Philosophy,' may help to illustrate the foregoing principles of the grammar, and to show how far it differs from modern English : — We sculon 1 get of ealdum 2 leasum 2 spellum 2 he sum We shall (ninst) yet {now) of old lying tales to thee some 1. Scealan, to owe (defective), ic sceal, we sculon ;-subj. imperf. ic sceolde, we sceoldon, implies obligation, hence its subsequent future meaning. 2. From eald (old), leas (false), and spell (a tale), urn, universal, Dat. and Abl., PL for all nouns and adjectives, governed by of, cf, de, ex. 28 II. — Anglo- Saxon Period. o> ' bispell 3 reccan. Hit gelamp 4 gio bsette an hearpere wees 5 by-tale reckon {tell). It happened {long) ago that a harper was on bare 6 beode 6 be 7 >racia hatte. 8 pses 9 nama wses 5 Orfeus. He in the land that Thrace hight. His name was Orfeus. He hsefde 10 an swithe cenlic 11 wif. 11 Seo wass 5 haten 12 had a very one-like {tmique) wife. She was hight Eurydice. pa ongann 13 monn 14 secgan 24 be bam 15 hearpere, 15 Eurydice. Then began man say by {oj) the harper, bast he mihte 16 hearpian bast se vvudu wagode 17 for bam swege, tfiat he might harp so-that the wood waved for the sound, and wilde deor 18 J>jer woldon 19 to-irnan and standan swilce hi and wild beasts thither would to-run and stand as if they 3. By-tale, or example, cf. god-spell, good-tale, or history, hence gospel. 4. Past from gelimpan, to happen. 5. From wesan, to be; past, wass, wsere. wees ; PI. wa^ron — was, were — usually called the imperfect of to be in our grammars ! 6. Dat. sing. fern, from seo theod, the land or people, governed by on. 7. The indefinite article and pronoun, as explained in § 6. 8. Past of hatan, to have a name, be called — retained in old English ' Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight. ' — Lord Surrey. 9. Genitive masc. of definite article of him — see § 6. 10. Past of habban, to have, ic haefde, hardest, ha;fde; PI. hsefdon, had. 11. Ace. sing. neut. Were wif fem. the adj. would be in this case cenlice, indef. form, and the def. cenlican. 12. Past participle of hatan, used also in old English : 'Among the rest a good old woman was hight Mother Hubbard.' — Spenser. l 3- Onginnan, origan, ongunnen. 14. Used indefinitely as in German, cf. the French on (on dit, etc.), contr. from homme. 15. Dat. from se hearpere, governed by be. 16. From magan, pres. msg, magon; imperf. mihte, mihton : may, might, in the sense of being able. 1 7. From wagian, to wag, move ; imperf. ic wagode, wagodest, wagode. 18. It meant first a wild beast (cf. Greek 6i\p), then game, and lastly Vocabulary — Keltic Element. 29 tame wseron, 5 swa stille )>eah hi menn 20 oS8e hundes 21 with 22 tame were, so still though tliem ?nen or hounds against eodon, 23 ba't hi hi na. ne onscunedon. pa saedon 24 hi bast went, that they them not not shunned. Then said they that bees 9 hearperes 15 wif sceolde acwelan, 25 and hire 26 sawle mon 14 the harper's wife should die, and her soul man sceolde 1 lcedan to helle. 27 should lead to hell. VOCABULARY— KELTIC ELEMENT. 25. From their first landing in the island down to the Norman Conquest, that is to say, throughout the whole of the present period, the only nations the Anglo-Saxons came in contact with were the British and Irish Kelts from the beginning, the Romans at the time of their conversion, about 600 a.d., and the Northmen, who first appeared in the year 787. By none of these was the structure of the language affected in the slightest degree. How far they influenced its vocabulary remains to be seen. First Kelts. — The very faint impression made by these on the Anglo-Saxon has always been a matter of astonishment. So imperceptible, a particular species of game. Shakspeare says : ' Rats, and mice, and other small deer.' 19. From willan : pres. ic wille, wilt, wile ; imperf. wolde, woldest, wolde ; plur. woldon ; subj. imperf. wolde, woldon — will, would — im- plying determination, hence future. 20. Mann, gen. mannes ; plur. menn for mannas — man, men. 21. This should be hundas, like wegas in § 8. The confusion of gen. sing, es, and plur. as, is a sure symptom of decay. 22. Cf. withstand, our with — cum is from mid. 23. Irreg. pres. ic. ga and gange ; imperf. ic. eode ; plur. eodon ; part, past gan and gangen (Scotch gang, gee, gaen). 24. Secgan : imperf. ic scegde and scede ; plur. scedon — say, said. 25. Cwellan, to quell or kill. 26. See § 11. 27. Dat. sing., from Hell; gen. helles. 3Q 1 1 . — A j i srlo- Saxon Period. indeed, is it, that it was formerly supposed that the last comers simply rooted the aboriginal inhabitants out of the country. This solution, however, of the difficulty cannot be received without some reserve, though, were the truth known, perhaps it would be found that there was not a very great number left to be exterminated. The wars of the empire, in which the natives of Britain took such a distinguished part, now setting up one usurper and now another, the dreadful famine and pestilence of 412, the constant inroads of the Picts and Scots immediately preceding the invasion, and the horrors that attended it, must have considerably dimi- nished the ' hominum infinita multitudo ' of which Caesar speaks, and well nigh depopulated a land known to Uiodorus Siculus as the 7roXvaydpw7rog vr\trnq. All this considered, the statement of Creasy, in his ' English Constitution,' will not appear overdrawn, ' that the Saxons almost entirely extir- pated or expelled the men of British race, whom they found in the parts of this country which they conquered. ... By reason of the union of the British females with the Saxon war- riors, the British element was largely preserved in our nation.' But it is probable that many of the male captives, and of those who submitted, were enslaved or employed as ser- vants of the conquerors. It is remarkable that the nature of the thirty words, or thereabouts, known to have been retained from these, shows that, whether male or female, they were reduced to a complete state of thraldom. The following list is given by Latham from Garnett with their Welsh or British equivalents : — Welsh. English. Welsh. English. Welsh. English. basgawd, basket. crochan, crockery. mattog, mattock. berfa, barrow. crog, crook. mop, mop. botwm, button. cyln, kiln. rhail, rail. bran, bran. dantaeth, dainty. rhuweh, nig. clwt, clout. darn, darn. sawduriaw , solder. fflaw, flaw. tacl, tackle, &c Latin Element — The Word Church. 31 LATIN ELEMENT— THE WORD CHURCH. 26. Although Britain was for nearly 400 years an integral part of the empire, the traces the Romans left behind them were only a few geographical or military names, such as Colonia in Lincoln (Lindi colonia), and those ending in caster, Chester, cester (castra), together with the single word stvc£t=strcct, which may be questioned, as we find it current in the other kindred tongues: Danish = stroede, Dutch = straat, German=strasse, all referable to the Teutonic root of strew. These remains, such as they are, have been honoured with a distinct classification of their own, that of the Latin ot" the first, or Keltic, or Roman Period (Latham and others). The remains of the Latin of the second or Christian Period are more important, without being very numerous. They are such Church words as were introduced by the Roman missioners, and may be still recognized by the very English air they have now assumed. But see paragraph 97. Saxon. Latin. Saxon. Latin. mynster, monasterium. portic, porticus. profost, propositus. pall, pallium. cluster, claustrum. munuc, monachus. calic, calix. candel, candela. bisceop, episcopus. sanct, sanctus. mcesse, missa. pistel, epistola, etc Cyrice (church), one writer observes, is not Latin, but from the Greek Kvpiov oIkoq, the house of the Lord, ' a cir- cumstance which points out the age of Saxon Christianity as antecedent to the influence of Rome. The Eastern Church assumed this name, but the Western always used the term ecclesia or congregation. Church and Kirk are relics of the ancient British Christianity.' A remarkable instance of the value and power of words, if the same term Church could possibly be made to serve the double purpose of 32 II.— Anglo- S 'axon Period. pointing out the source of the Saxon, and of indicating the previous existence in the island of the British Christianity ! It may be well, moreover, to observe that congregations were quite as common in the East as in the West, and that without them it were hard to understand the object of building these ' houses of the Lord.' Again, tKKKriaia is itself Greek, used in the New Testament and by the Greek Fathers in the double sense usually assigned to all these words, and notoriously to Church. ' The Church is un- doubtedly one,' etc. (Archbishop Whately.) Besides, this Greek derivation of the word is doubtful, resting on the authority of Wal. Strabo (about 850): 'ab ipsis autem Graecis Kyrch a Kyrios,' etc. The theory is that the Mceso- Goths, converted by Ulphilas, about 370, took it from the Greeks, and then handed it over to the other German tribes, including the Saxons, who brought it with them to Britain. But what these pagans wanted with such terms, for cen- turies before their conversion, is not explained. Admitting this view, however, what becomes of ' the relics of the ancient British Christianity?' As the term has been considerably abused, and has occasioned much misconception, it was worth while examining its claims for distinction. NORSE ELEMENT. 27. The country was infested by the Northmen from the year 787, down to the Norman invasion. The whole of East Anglia was yielded by Alfred to Godrum in 878, and a Danish dynasty ruled the land between the years 1013 and 1042. All the Northmen, whether Danes, Norwegians, or Icelanders, were of Scandinavian race, speaking, with little dialectic variety, the common Norse language. How far the Saxon was influenced by this has been matter of dispute, some going so far as to call the language in its latter state Dano-Saxon, others maintaining that ' it has not yet been clearly proved that any considerable part of the standard Norse Element. 33 form of the English language is, in its origin, Scandina- vian, as distinguished from Germanic ' (Craik). This is the view taken by Rask, himself a Dane, who asserts emphati- cally, that the Danes did not corrupt the Saxon, but that 'it was the frequent expeditions of the Scandinavian nations into England, which, next to the introduction of Christia- nity, gave the first blow to the ancient language in the king- doms of the north. The Danes continued their course of wars and victories the longest and most steadfastly ; their language has consequently undergone the greatest changes, and from Canute's conquest of England we may date the decline of the Icelandic (Norse) in Denmark ' (Preface). The reason of this is very obvious. The Saxon was a cul- tivated tongue, reduced to a fixed state, and adapted to literary purposes, while the Norse was yet without grammar or dictionary, and so unfit for composition, that Canute's laws, and all public acts, were issued in Anglo-Saxon. The Danes that settled in the country were rapidly absorbed by the Saxon element, and civilization again got the better of the rude and ignorant barbarian : ' Grsecia capta ferum vic- torem cepit.' Indeed the slight impression left by the Danes is a singular confirmation of the prophetic words of the Venerable Archbishop of Canterbury, Elpheg, martyred in the year 1012: ' If ye (Danes) despise my counsel, know that ye shall perish, as did Sodom, and shall not strike root in this land.' The words actually introduced by them may be described as geographical, proper names and provincial, rather than such as enter into the current speech. Geographical : by substituted for tun (town) in the parts most occupied by them, as Newby for Newton, so Whitby, Grimsby, Derby, etc. A broad pronunciation of eeaster, Chester, as Doncaster, Tadcaster, Lancaster. Kirk for church, in Scotland generally, and in Kjrkby,, Kirkdale, Kirkham, Ormskirk, etc. These peculiari- ties, wherever found, are considered as indicative of a Danish occupation. They occur most frequently in D 34 n. — Anglo-Saxon Period. Yorkshire and Lincoln, thence westward to the Isle of Man, and north to the Lowlands. Proper Names : the patronymic ending son, substituted for the Saxon -ing, Edgarson for Edgaring. ' All the numerous Ander-sons, Thomp-sons, John-sons, Nel- sons, etc., are more or less Danish, as opposed to Angle ' (Latham). Provincialisms : gar = make (gora, Swedish), lile = little (lille, Danish), greet = weep (grata, Icelandic), etc. A few common words, undoubtedly Norse, are : take, till, bask, ill, etc. What other terms may have forced themselves into the general language it is now impossible to point out, as they seem to have at once conformed to the Saxon mode of pronunciation, as opposed to the broader Danish. Thus the northern title iarl becomes eorl (earl), whether used in the original A.S. sense of noble, or in the Danish sense of gover- nor, ruler, and the Danish King Swayn is Swen, or Swein, in A.S. orthography. TRACES OF DIALECT— ■' DANO-SAXON: 28. The language we have been hitherto considering may be looked upon as a rude mingling of the dialects of the Saxons, Angles, Jutes or Goths, and Frisians. These appear to have very soon coalesced into one common speech, just as the tribes themselves united into one nationality. Its state before this union was effected we know nothing of, being acquainted with it only when it began to be used for literary purposes, which was about the year 600. King Ethelbert's laws, issued soon after his conversion to Christi- anity in 596, are, perhaps, the oldest extant specimens of A.S. From this time to the Norman Conquest, we find a fixed and regular tongue, preserving itself almost without change for nearly 500 years ; nor can we discover any clear traces of dialectic variety in the literary remains of the Traces of Dialect — Poetic System. 35 period, except two celebrated interlinear MSS. of the Gospel, the Rushwortkian and the Lindisfame, supposed to be writ- ten i n the Northumbrian dialect during the occupation of the country by the Danes. Hickes calls it the ' Dialectus Dano-Saxonica,' which is sufficiently correct as descriptive of its nature, but erroneous as used by him to imply the general state of the language prevailing at the time. The peculiar features of this Northumbrian dialect show unmis- takable symptoms of approaching decay. The grammatical inflexions are often weakened or neglected, final consonants are dropped, as habba for habban (to have 1 , but a for butan (without), ilea for ilean (the same). The genders are con- fused, and the rules of construction much simplified. Many of these peculiarities may be safely ascribed to the Angles, who seated themselves in Northumberland, and who pro- bably derived them from their Scandinavian neighbours previous to their arrival in England. POETIC SYSTEM— LAWS OF ALLITERATION 1 . 29. It is now certain that Turner was mistaken, when ne asserted that A.S. versification ' had really no other rule than the poet's ear,' and elsewhere says it differed from prose only by a more stately diction and pomp of words ; for Rask has shown that it has, in common with the other kindred tongues, especially Icelandic, a fixed structure, the most striking feature of which is alliteration, or head-rhyme, just as the syllabic quantity may be said to distinguish the classic, and end-rhyme combined with accent, the modern system. Accent, however, is quite as essential to A.S. verse as it is to English, the alliteration itself being, in fact, re- gulated by it. The lines are always arranged in couplets, grouped not according to sense, but to the alliteration, which requires that two accented syllables in the first, and one in the second line, begin with the same letter if a consonant, with a different, if possible, when a vowel. These three initial d 2 36 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. letters are called rhyming letters, the third, standing in the second line, being the chief letter, according to which the two of the previous verse must be regulated. These are, therefore, called sub-letters. In the couplet there should not be more than three accented syllables beginning with this letter, and the chief letter must begin the first accented syl- lable or word of the second line. Finally, in very short verse, and especially when the rhyming letters are double, sc, st, sw, dr, gr, etc., there need be but one sub-letter. This is the doctrine of alliteration, or head-rhyme, invariably observed in A.S. poetry, as laid down by Rask. He gives the follow- ing example from Beowulf, 1108 : — j / In Caines rynne In Cain's kin ' bone rvveal gewroec The murder avenged J Ece drihten, The Eternal Lord, I boes be he ^4bel slog : Because he slew Abel : f Ne ge/eah he bcere_/ceh$e, He got no joy from his hatred, I Ac he hine_/eor forwrcec, But He, the Creator, drove him f i¥etod for by mine For that misdeed, \ Afancynne fram. Far from the human race. In couplet 1 the rhyming letter is c, found twice in the first and once in the second line. It is arranged not according to the sense, but to the laws of alliteration. In 2 there are only two rhyming vowels, which, according to rule, are dif- ferent, e and a. None of the words preceding Abel are accented, as required ; f is the rhyming letter in 3, where the f of ge-feah is the first letter of the accented syllable, ge being an unaccented prefix. The fourth f (in forwrcec) begins an unaccented syllable ; for is, therefore, no violation of the law, which requires that not more than three accented syllables begin with the rhyming letter. In 4 the m is quite regular. RHYME— ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN. 30. Besides this, there are evident traces of end ox final- rhyme, which Rask thinks was employed by the northerns Specimens of Saxon Prose and Verse. 37 from a very remote period, though there is only one A.S. poem extant, known as the ' rhyming poem,' in which it is used throughout. In Latin poetry it is employed very freely, especially by St. Aldhelm, the first Saxon who wrote Latin verse. He was educated at Malmesbury, by Mailduff, an Irishman, under whom 'he became thoroughly versed in Latin and Greek ' (Turner). From this and other circum- stances it is highly probable that the A.S. adopted end- rhyme from the Irish, who are believed to be the first that introduced the practice into Latin poetry. At least, it is certain that the most ancient extant specimens of Latin rhyme are the compositions of Irishmen and their disciples. A proof of this is the very old hymn of St. Fechin, who flourished about 570 : — De hinc fuit monachorum Dux et Pater tercentorum Quos instruxit lege morum Mums contra vitia. — Amen. SPECIMENS OF SAXON PROSE AND VERSE. 31. 'Saxon literature,' Dr. Lingard writes, 'comprised only a few national poems and books of devotion : the treasures of history and science were still locked up in the obscurity of a learned tongue' (I. IV.). The general literary language, such as we are acquainted with, is sup- posed to be southern or Saxon, rather than northern or Angle. The political supremacy of Wessex, and the in- fluence of Alfred, a native of Berkshire, may have caused it to become the ruling speech, and the standard literary model, just as the writings of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch elevated the local Tuscan dialect into the classic Italian. Some have even asserted that all works, in whatever form originally composed, were subsequently conformed to the genius of the speech rendered classic by Alfred. This would certainly account for the few traces of local pecu- 38 II. — Anglo- Saxon Period. liarities deviating from those of Wessex in the literary remains which have reached us. A few specimens selected from writers of various periods will be sufficient to show the great uniformity of the language throughout. CiEDMON, DIED ABOUT 680. The compositions attributed to this first and greatest of A.S. poets, would fill altogether a book about the size of half Faradise Lost. The greater portion of them are, unquestionably, spurious.* Here is a fragment of his referred to by Bede, IV. 24, and preserved in Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Bede's work. It is universally allowed to be genuine : — nu we sceolon herigean now we shall praise heofon-rices weard, heaven-kingdom's guard metodes mihte the Creator's might and his mod-ge-banc and his mind-thought weorc wuldor-fcedor, work's glory-father swa he wundra gehwees how he of wonders ece drihten eternal Lord ord onstealde. the beginning formed. He oerest scop He first shaped eorSan bearnum the earth for the children (of men) heofon to hrofe heaven as a roof halig scippend the holy Creator •5a middangeard then the mid -world modcynnes weard, mankind's guard ece drihten eternal Lord cefter teode, afterwards made firum foldan for men the earth frea selmihtig. Lord Almighty. * ' The poem as it now exists has, probably, been materially altered by the reciters and transcribers of a later period. It has been twice published, first by Francis Junius in 1655, an( l next by Mr. Benj. Thorpe in 1832' [also by C. W. M. Grein in 1857]. Preface to Forshall and Madden's 'Wyclirhte Versions of Holy Writ,' 1S50. Specimens of Saxon Prose and Verse. 39 George Stephens mentions a MS. of this fragment, C.C.C., Oxford, about the tenth century, which, he says, is the oldest of all, and written in the original Northumbrian dialect very soon after Bede's death, ' The Ruthwell Cross, London and Copenhagen, 1866,' p. 32. I have not had an opportunity of seeing this MS., nor am I aware that it has ever been published ; but if it corresponds with this descrip- tion, it certainly deserves to be more generally known. It might help, perhaps, to throw some further light on the Northumbrian dialect, the true nature of which is still but partly understood. Alfred, 850-900 (From the Preface to his version of St. Gregory's Pastoral, explaining the object of such versions generally). Ic wundrode swidhe bsera godera witena be geo wisron / wondered much of the good wise-men that long ago were geond Angelcyn and pa bee befullan ealle geleornod ha?fdon through (in) England and the books fully all learned had poet hira pa nanne dael noldon on hira agen ge beode that of-them no part not-zvould into their own native speech wendan, ac ic ba sona eft me sylfum andwyrde and cwec'5, turn, but I theft soon after to-myself annvered and said, hi ne wendon poet sefre men sceoldon swa recelease vvurSan they (did) not think that ever men should so careless become and seo lar swa "Sofeallan. . . . For pi me pingS betere gif and the lore so fall-off. . . . Wherefore me thinks better if geow swa pincS pret we eac sume bee pa pemed bebyrfysta you . so think that we also some books that seem most-needed syn eallum mannum to witanne past we pa on past le to all men to understand that we them into that ge-beode wendon be we ealle ge-cnawan msegen, and ge-don swa speech turn that we all know may, and cause, as we swi'Se eafte magon mid Godes fultume baet eall seo geoguS we very easily may with* God's help, that all the youth pe nu is on Angel-cynne freora manna bara be ha speda that now is in England of -free men of those that the wealth 40 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. haebben, boet hi Kim befeollan msegen syn to leornunge have that they themselves support, may into learning o'Sfaeste ba hwile be hi nanre o'Sre note ne msegen, o"5 be-put the while that they to no other things not may, till fyrst be hi wel cunnen Englisc geurit arsedan. first that they well can English writing read. ^Elfric. died 1006 (De Veteri Testamento). fta nrefde he nan setl hwa?r he sittan mihte, for'SanSe nan Then not-had he no seat where he sit might, for that no heofon nolde hine aberan, ne nan rice nces be his heavejt not-would him bear, nor no kingdom not-was that his mihte beon ongean Godes willan b>e geworhte ealle "Sine, etc. might be against God's will that wrought all things, etc. Saxon Chronicle for the year 1087 (Death of William the Conqueror). He swealt on Normandige on >one nrextan dasg eefter Nativitas He died in Normandy on the next day after the Nativity See Marie ; and man begyrgede hine on Cathum ret See Stephanes of St. Alary ; and tnan buried him in Caen at St. Stephen's mynstere. . . . Gif hwa gewilniged to gewitane hu gedon man he minster. . . . If who wish to know how to-do man he was, o'S'Se hwilcne wur'Sscipe he haefde, o'SSe hu fela lande was, or what worship he had, or of- how many lands he wsere hlaford, bonne wille we of him awritan swa swa we hine he was lord, then will we of him write so as ?ue him ageaton : we him onlocodan, and cS'Sre hwile on his hirede knew: we him on-looked, and other while in his household wunedon. dwelt. This portion of the Saxon Chronicle (1034-1087) has been attributed to Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, who was Specimens of Saxon Prose and Verse. 41 born in 1007, and died in 1095. If to these few names we add those of another Wulfstan, Archbishop of York (1003-1023), author of some pastorals and sermons ; Cyne- wulf, Bishop of Winchester; the Abbot Alfric, and some national poems and songs, such as the Beowulf, the Judith, the Battle of Finsburgh, &c, by unknown writers, we shall have well-nigh exhausted the list of names that occur in A.S. literature. ^Elfric, the Archbishop, translated the first seven books of the Bible into very simple Saxon, carefully avoiding the use of all obscure words, in order, as he himself tells us, to be understood by the most illiterate, and to render the Scriptures familiar to all classes, anticipating Wickliff by, at least, 470 years. Other portions of it, especially the N.T., had been translated much earlier. The subjoined extracts from the Gospel of St. Mark (I. 1-6), in the West Saxon and Northumbrian versions, will serve to illustrate the difference between the Northern and Southern dialects, and between each of these at various periods. The first is from the Corpus MS., Cambridge, written ' in Monasterio Ba$]>onio,' by a certain ^Elfric, about the year 1000. The second, which seems to be a later copy of the same, say about 1050, is from the Hatton MS., Oxford. Both of these are in the Southern dialect. The third is from the famous Lindisfarne MS., also known as the ' Durham Book ' (Cotton, Nero, D. 4), the Latin text of which was written by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, about the year 700, and the Anglo-Saxon gloss by Aldred, a priest, some 250 years later. The fourth is from the Rush- worth MS., a copy of the foregoing, made about 750, and the gloss about 975. These two are in the Northumbrian, which has been called the ' Dano-Saxon' dialect (see § 28). They are all taken from Skeat's synoptical edition, Cam- bridge and London, 187 1. Nos. III. and IV. are the only extant remains of the Anglian of the North as opposed to the Saxon of the South. The missing words in these two 42 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. glosses I have supplied, between brackets, from No. I., of which also the English is a verbatim, version. I. I. Her is godspellys angyn hjelyndes cristes godes suna. TI. I. Her ys godspelles angin hoelendes cristes godes sune. III. I. Fruma godspelles hselendes crist sunu godes. IV. I. On fruma godspelles haelendes cristes sunu godes. Here is gospel's beginning of the healing Christ God's son. I. 2. Swa awriten is on frxs witegan bee isaiam. nu ic II. 2. Swa awritan ys on bas witegen bsech ysaiam. nu ic III. 2. Suse awritten is in esaia <5one witgo. heonu IV. 2. Swa awriten is in esaia hone witgu. henu 2. As written is in the prophet 's book Isaia. now I I. asende minne engel be-foran binre asyne. Se II. asaende minne sengel beforan binre ansiene. Se II. [ic asende] engel min befora onsione \>m. Se"Se IV. ic sende engel min beforan onseone bine. Se)>e send my angel before thy face, he I. ge-gearwia'S binne weg be-foran 15e. 3. Clypiend II. ge-ga?rewed binne weig be-foren be. 3. Clepiende III. foregearuas wege fSin [be-foran $e]. 3. Stefn IV. foregearwaft weg binre [beforan "Se]. 3. Stemn prepares thy way before thee. 3. A crying I. stefn on |?am westene ge-gearwia"S drihtenes weg II. stefne on J>am westene, ge-gserewied drihtnes weig III. cliopendes in woestern gearuas woeg drihtnes IV. cliopande in westenne gearwigaft weig drihtnes voice in the waste get ready the Lords way I. do"S rihte his si&as. 4. Johannes wass on westene II. do"S rihte his sySas. 4. Johannes wses on wcestene III. rehta doC5 stiga his. 4. waes iohannes in woestern IV. rehte doat? stige his. 4. wses iohannes in westenne do (make) right his steps. 4. fohn was in the waste I. fulligende and bodiende daedbote fulwiht on II. fulgende and bodiende deadbote fulluht on III. gefulwade and bodade fulwiht hreownisses on IV. gefulwade and bodade fullwiht hreownisse in baptizing and preaching of repentance the baptism in Specimens of Saxon Prose and Verse. 43 I. synna forgyfenesse. 5. And to him ferde ealle II. serine forgyfenysse. 5. And to hym ferde ealle III. forgefnisse synna. 5. And foerende woes to him IV. forgefnisse synna. 5. And fcerende wses to him sins' forgiveness. 5. And to him fared all I. hierosolima-ware and waeron fram him gefullode II. ierosolima-ware and wseren fram him gefullode III. fta hierusolomisco waras alle and weoron gefulwad IV. ft hierosolimisc [ware] aalle and [wreron] gefullwade Jerusalem-men and were from him baptized I. on iordanes node hyra synna anddetenne. 6. And II. on iordanes node heore synna andettenne. 6. And III. fram him in iordanes stream ondetende synno hiora. 6. And IV. from him in iordanes streame ondetende synna heora. 6. And in Jordan's flood their sins confessing. 6. And I. iohannes wees gescryd mid oluendes hserum II. iohannes waas ge-scryd mid olfendes hsere III. wses iohannes gegerelad miS herum camelles IV. waes iohannes gegerelad mrS herum cameles John was shrouded with camels' hair I. and fellen gyrdel waes ymbe his lendenu II. and fellen gyrdel wses embe his lendene III. and gyrdils fellera ymb sido his IV. and gyrdels fellenne ymb lendenu his and a skin's girdle was about his loins I. and grerstapan and wudu hunig he set, II. and garstapen and wude hunig he ast, III. and lopestro and wudu hunig . . . wassl-gebrec. IV. and waldstapan and wudu huniges . . . brucende waes. and locusts and wood honey he ate. QUESTIONS. 12. What are the natural stages of the English language ? How may they be designated ? Explain their nature. How is the middle period subdivided ? Give the names and dates of these five periods. 13. What importance do you attach to a slight knowledge of the Lino-uage during the first period ? How far does the alphabet differ 44 II. — Anglo-Saxon Period. from the Latin ? It possessed two peculiar letters not now used. Why is this to be regretted? Account for their disappearance. 14. There is both reason and authority for believing that the A. S. borrowed this alphabet from the Irish, rather than the Irish from them ? 15. What was the state of the orthography? How was the accent employed ? 16. Describe the general nature of the grammar. What are notional and relational words ? 17. How many definite adjectives? These were used in a variety of ways ? Origin of our article the ? 18. How was gender determined ? How many orders of declension? In the first, how many actual inflexions ? 19. In the second, which form is most important to us ? Why ? 20. The adjective had two forms? How used? How was the definite form declined ? The indefinite ? 21. The degrees of comparison were double ? The difference between swiftor and swiftra ? 22. Which of the personal pronouns possessed a dual form ? What case is him? Genitive of hit? Origin of the words these, those? 23. There is a marked difference between the state of the nouns and verbs ? How many possible changes is an A.S. verb liable to ? How many of these are retained in the English verb ? What is meant by a weak and a strong conjugation ? Distinguish an irregular from a strong verb in English. 25. The number and nature of Keltic words introduced at this period ? What is the historical importance of these words ? 26. Two classes of Latin words ? The word church has given occa- sion to a theory which does not seem tenable ? 27. To what race did the Northmen belong? What does Rask say about their influence on the A. S. language ? What sort of words did they introduce ? Why is it difficult to say whether a word is Danish or Saxon in its origin ? 28. There are proofs of the existence of one dialect at this period. What is its nature ? 29. The chief characteristic of A. S versification? What were its laws ? Show that accent was essential ? 30. To what extent was end-rhyme employed ? Its probable origin ? 31. Mention the principal names that occur in A.S. literature. Account for the great uniformity of the written language throughout this period. Broken Saxon Period. 45 SECTION III. BROKEN SAXON PERIOD (1066-1200). BROKEN SAXON PERIOD ONE OF DISSOLUTION — TIME WHEN DECAY FIRST SET IN — ITS CAUSE — MISTAKEN VIEWS ON THIS SUBJECT — GRAMMAR BROKEN, OR UNGRAMMATICAL SAXON — VOCABULARY — SPECIMENS. THE BROKEN SAXON PERIOD— DATES. 32. The middle or transition state of the language may be said ; roughly, to extend from the arrival of the Normans to the reign of Henry VI., or to lie between the years 1066 and 1450. Before this epoch, we have seen that the language was pure Anglo-Saxon ; after it we shall see that it is good modern English. But as, to get from the former to the latter, it was necessary first to break down, and then to build up again, so there are two natural subdivisions of the transition period, one of dissolution, and one of recon- struction. The first of these embraces all the time during which the old language was undergoing a process of ' dis- organization and decay, without exhibiting any symptoms which the most intelligent observer could, at the time, have interpreted as presaging a return to completeness and con- sistency — a period of confusion, alike perplexing to those who then used the tongue, and to those who now endeavour to trace its vicissitudes.' — Spalding. It is usually called the Broken Saxon period, and various dates have been assigned for its actual duration. We have made it extend over a space of 150 years, from 1066 to 1200, which falls short of what is generally allowed to it by about half a century. Sir F. Madden closes it in 1230, Craik protracts it to 1250, 4.6 III. — Broken Saxon Period, and others still further. But as, after Layamon, we have no extant Saxon in any shape, and his writings are universally referred to about 1200, the Broken Saxon state of the language seems, very naturally, to end at this time. TWO LANGUAGES— THE WRITTEN AND SPOKEN. 33. Did it begin in 1066, or, in other words> were the first symptoms of corruption coincident with the arrival of the Normans ? So far as the written language is concerned, the answer must be no. Very good A.S. was written for at least fifty years after that event. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, died in 1095, and his works are grammatically correct. Such are the portions of the ' Saxon Chronicle ' attributed to him, an extract from which, for the year 10S7, may be seen amongst the specimens of the last section. But with the spoken language the case was very different!. Craik has gone far to show that there existed, much earlier than is commonly supposed, a colloquial form of speech, side by side with the written, and resembling the more recent language in its general structure. ' The same thing seems to have taken place as in France, and other conti- nental countries, when the Latin first became corrupted into the Rotnana Rustica ; the former long continued to be the language of writing, and probably even of the educated classes in oral communication, while the latter was the popular speech, from which it gradually rose to be the dialect first of popular, then of all literature. So in this country there was probably in use a sort of English, or Broken Saxon, even in the Saxon times ; and the two forms of the language, the regular and the irregular, the learned and the vulgar^ the old and the new, the mother and the daughter, seem to have maintained a rivalry for, perhaps, a century or two,, till the rude vigour, the rough and ready character of the one prevailed, in a time of much ignorance and The Corruption of AS. 47 general convulsion and change, over the refinement and comparative difficulty of the other' (I. 205). The earliest extant specimen of such a popular form of speech is the ' Song of Canute,' recorded by Thomas, Monk of Ely,* about 1 166, 150 years after it was supposed to have been com- posed : — ' Merie sungen fte muneches ' Merrily sung the monks within binnen Ely, Ely, Tha Cnut Ching rew there When that Cnut King rowed by : thereby : Roweft, cnihtes, noer fte land, Row, knights, near the land, And here we 'Ses muneches And hear we these monks saeng. sing. But these verses have such a very modern air, that although Craik thinks the words cannot be much altered from the time they were sung, it is probable that they were con- siderably modified in more recent MSS. from the time they were reported. V4RIQUS THEORIES TO ACCOUNT FOR THE CORRUPTION OF A.S. 34. However, if such a popular dialect did exist so early as is here implied, it will go far to account for the cause of the general decay of the language, about which so many theories have been started. It will be sufficient to mention three of these. They may be termed, for brevity sake, the * ' Canute, going by boat to keep at Ely the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, looked up at the church that rose from a rock near the Ouse, and ordered the rowers to row slowly towards the land, that he might hear the psalms of the monks. Then calling his companions about him, he bade them sing with him, and expressing with his own mouth the gladness of his heart, composed this little song in English : — "Merie," &c, with other words which follow, still publicly sung and remembered in pre verbs.' ' Historia EcclesiseEliensis,' eh. 15, in vol. iii. of Dean Gale's ' Hist. Brit. Sax. Anglo-Danicse Scriptores XV. ex vetustis MSS. editi.' Thomas tells us that he lived after A. 11 66. 48 III. — Broken Saxon Period. (a) Norman, (b) Anti-Norman, (c) Middle Course. (a) According to the Norman view of the case, the change was due solely to the Conquest. That event introduced the French language, by the direct action of which upon the A.S., the corruption was brought about, which resulted in modern English. This theory may be looked upon as now out of date, and safely set aside. We shall see that the French tongue never at any time affected the structure of the language, and had no perceptible influence of any sort on it during the present period, the very time when the dissolution was accomplished, (b) The Anti-Normans run into the opposite extreme, and assert that the great event just alluded to had nothing to do with the decay. In fact, had the Normans never made their appearance, or had Harold triumphed at Hastings, the language would have lost its grammatical inflexions all the same, and would have become what it now substantially is. The only difference would have been in the vocabulary, which would have pre- sented a more homogeneous character, possessing fewer Latin and French words. Here there is a great deal of truth, perhaps a little exaggeration. It does seem going too far to deny all connection between the dissolution of the language and the Norman Conquest. Surely the one must have hastened the other, and acted indirectly upon the A.S. in a variety of ways. Consequently it will be safer to adopt the middle course (c), which maintains, 1st, that the general corruption of the language took place, independently of the Norman Conquest, in accordance with a tendency inherent in all synthetic tongues, gradually to lose their complex grammatical system, and so become, to a greater or less extent, analytical; 2nd, that so far as the A.S. is concerned, this tendeney was precipitated by the Conquest, and partly directed, or influenced, by contact with the French language. Analysis and Synthesis. 49 ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS. 35. An analytic form of speech is the reverse cf the synthetic. It expresses by separate words, or particles, those relations of ideas to ideas, which we have seen con- veyed by a change or modification of the notional words in the latter. A pure analytic language will possess no gram- matical inflexions; a pure synthetic, no relational words. An example of each system will make this clear. The Chinese is nearly a perfect instance of the one, the American tongues generally of the other. In Chinese the slightest shade of meaning requires at once a separate word. Thus day=je, but a'aily=je yung=da.y use—/, e., what is used or needed every day. In Aztec or Mexican, not only are ideas and their relations, but even whole idioms, thrown into one word by a sort of agglutination, which to us seems quite incomprehensible. The word notlazomahuizteopixca- tatzin is explained to mean my-beloved-honoured-revered- priestly- father. When taken to pieces, we find it made up of the following component parts: no = my + tlazotli=be- loved 4- mahuitztic= honoured + teopixqui (from Teotl=God, and pia=to keep or guard)=priestly + tatli=father + tzin =a reverential termination (Hervas, ' Idea dell' Universo,' XVI 1 1.). The great majority of known languages lies between these two extremes, that is to say, they are only to a certain extent either synthetic or analytic. Much has been written on the rival claims of these systems as to priority in point of time. Was speech originally void of grammar, or gifted from the first with a highly complicated structure ? There does appear to be a universal law per- vading all speech, in virtue of which it ever tends to change from one state to the other with equal readiness, from the simple and unartificial to the compound, and back again, ever putting together and taking asunder. The farther back we go, the more developed and elaborate dp E 5° III. — Broken Saxon Period. we find the inflexion state of most languages. It has thence been perhaps too hastily concluded, that this was their original condition. It may be that we do not go Dack far enough, and that, could we trace them to their first state, we would find that this very inflexional system, however complex it may now appear, developed itself gradually out of a simple beginning, in accordance with certain hidden laws of euphony and harmony. Indeed, the acquisition, or growth of inflexion, so far from being 'probably unknown as an actual phenomenon' (Craik), is demonstrated by the history of most languages, which evidently show a gradual progress from rude beginnings to a more perfect state. Little significative words were at first tacked on loosely to the end of roots, and then blended so with them, as in course of time to lose all independent meaning. The ending ivus, in Latin, is a corruption of vis, cf. dat-ivus=dandi vis. Hence its universal active power. The English language, were it not fixed by writing (an influence not brought to bear on speech in its earlier stages), would very rapidly run into a synthetic state, which, when it came to be reduced to writing, would be found of a most intricate nature. We should have, by analogy from don't, won't, can't, shan't; such forms as ain't=ought not, maiin't= must not, haun't=have not. Here are already the germs of, perhaps, three negative conjugations in 6, a, and au. Then the pronouns would quickly blend with the verb, as. in fact, they now do in speaking, developing regular tense-endings, such as: cham=I am; chav=I have; thart=thou art; thast=thou hast; hes=he is; has=he has, etc., in the Barony of Forth dialect. In this very way we know that the Indo-European verb was formed. In a word, the method pursued in the modern science of philology is based upon the supposition that language was originally analytic, consisting of roots only, chiefly monosyllabic, and gradually developing itself on synthetic principles, with a general tendency to fall back again into its primitive state. Norma} i Influence. 51 DOWNWARD TENDENCY OF A.S. 36. A.S. formed no exception to the universal rule. A glance at the state of its grammar is sufficient to convince us that, at the time it began to be cultivated, it had already lost a great deal of its 'synthetic character. This is con- firmed by reference to the Mceso-Gothic, Norse, and other kindred tongues, where we find a multiplicity of inflexions, especially verbal, which must have existed in the Saxon at some remote period, but which had already disappeared when the language began to be reduced to a written form. Even this written form was not strictly adhered to in the Dano-Saxon, or Northumbrian dialect, explained in the last section. This again was still further disregarded in the current popular speech long before it ceased to be employed in literature. But it has been shown that, on account of some mysterious law of consistency or analogy, all speech tends to work out within itself, and independently of all external influence, any tendency that may have once set in, either towards composition, if simple, or towards disorganization, if complex. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that as the bent of the A.S., long previous to the arrival of the Normans, was downwards towards decomposition, it would have developed this inclination to its legitimate conse- quences, and resulted in a form of speech essentially the same as the present English, independently of the Norman Conquest. NORMA N INFLUENCE. 37. So far, then, theory (b) is right. But it is in vain to deny that the Invasion had anything to do with the rapid breaking up of the Saxon, which was apparent very soon after that event. Writing is, avowedly, that which exercises the most powerful influence on language in a conservative e 2 52 III. — Broken Saxoji Period. sense. It will stay a downward, or arrest an upward tendency. It will preserve the Greek, in a highly inflexional state, throughout ages of social and political convulsion. It will, on the other hand, prevent the Chinese from ever assuming a composite character. We believe that the art of writing was known to the Chinese at a period so very remote, that the language was still in its primitive simple condition, and that it was their literature which retained it from time immemorial in that state, stagnant, so to say, and petrified, like everything else connected with that remarkable people. The Normans virtually put an end to the Saxon literature. The only important native remains we possess, for nearly two hundred years after their arrival, are the latter portions of the ' Saxon Chronicle,' and Layamon's ' Brute.' They persecuted and trampled upon the national speech in every possible way. It was ignored by the aristocracy, excluded from all polite society, shut out even from the High Church. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, was de- posed, because he was 'a superannuated English idiot, who could not speak French.' — Matt. Paris. The laws were administered in French. In the King's court the president and chief assessors were Normans. ' Ipsum etiam idioma tantum abhorrebant, quod leges terrae, statutaque Anglorum regum lingua Gallica tractarentur, et pueris etiam in scholis principia literarum grammatica Gallice et non Anglice tra- derentur.' — Ingulf, 71, 88. The consequent neglect into which A.S. fell was, of itself, sufficient not only to hasten its decay, but even to cause it to disappear altogether in course of time, had that neglect continued. INFLUENCE OF THE MONKS. 38. One would suppose that these potent influences, ex- ternal and internal, were quite sufficient to account for the corruption. And, indeed, such was the common belief, until Mr. Guest, in his English Rhythms, discovered another, Influence of the Monks. 5 3 which is worth considering. He tells us that ' the language of our earlier literature fell at last a victim not to the Nor- man Conquest, for it survived that event at least a century ; not to the foreign jargon, which the weak but well-mean- ing Edward (the Confessor) first brought into the country, for French did not mix with our language till the days of Chaucer ; it fell from the same deep and mighty influences which swept every living language from the literature of Europe. When the South regained its ascendancy, and Rome once more seized the wealth of vassal provinces, its favourite priests had neither the knowledge requisite to understand, nor tastes fitted to enjoy, the literature of the countries into which they were promoted. The road to their favour and their patronage lay elsewhere ; and the monk, giving up his mother tongue as worthless, began to pride himself only upon his Latinity. The legends of his patron saint he Latinized ; the story of his monastery he Latinized ; in Latin he wrote .history ; in Latin he wrote satires and romances. Amid these labours he had little time to study the niceties of A.S. grammar ; and the Homi- lies, the English Scriptures, Csedmon's Paraphrase, the national songs, the magnificent Iudith, and other treasures of native genius, must soon have lain on the shelves of his cloister as little read, or, if read, almost as little understood, as if they had been written in a foreign tongue. When he addressed himself to the unlearned, noble or ignoble, he used the vulgar dialect of his shire, with its idioms, which the written dialect had probably rejected as wanting in pre- cision, and with its corrupt pronunciation, which alone would require new forms of grammar.' These are the returns made to men, without whom no English would be, perhaps, spoken at the present day, men who alone cultivated the language, and endeavoured to keep it together as long as possible, toiling night and day at their dreary and thankless task, who are the only links that connect the present with the past here as in all other things. They first taught the 54 II T. — Broken Saxon Period. Saxons the use of letters, and created their literature, thus preserving the language in a state which enabled it to come out with comparative success from its severe struggle for ascendancy with its Norman rival. Assuredly, had not the A.S. been converted, and acquired sufficient knowledge to reduce their tongue to a written form, it would have arrived at such a stage of decomposition at the time of the invasion as would have caused it to fare no better, in face of a culti- vated language, than did the Dane, the Frankish, and Longo- bard, under similar circumstances (see section IV. § 49). THE GRAMMAR OF THIS PERIOD— VERB. 39. The main difference between the grammar of this period and the previous has already been partly explained. It may be generally described as broken, ungrammatical, or simply bad Saxon, as we now say bad grammar. If that was inflected, this is so to a less degree. The inflexions were then fixed and regulated by certain laws ; they are now vague, undetermined, arbitrary, their greater or less consistency depending upon the amount of knowledge pos- sessed by the individual writer. Hence the structure of one work will vary from that of another, though contemporary, or almost so, agreeing, however, i 1 the chief features. Such is the relation the two most important extant compilations of the time bear to each other. These are, as already stated, the remaining portions of the Saxon Chronicle, 11 00-1154, and Layamon's translation, or rather amplified imitation, of Wace's ' Brute,' 1 200. Without entering into a minute ana- lysis of the special niceties that distinguished the latter from the former, it may be sufficient to state, in a general way, that Layamon's language is considerably more corrupt than that of the ' Chronicle,' but not more so, if so much, than would be warranted by the difference of time. In contrast- ing this broken state of the speech with the preceding, it is obvious that the greatest change will be perceptible in Noun — Possessive and Plural. 5 5 the noun and adjective, the least in the verb. The verb could lose thirteen inflexions only. It actually lost but one of these, the gerund in -nne, or -?ie, or rather confounded it with the present participle -nde=ing ; and with the infi- nitive, to lufigenne becoming to lufian. Some of the other terminations, however, were considerably weakened, by the substitution of e for a, en for on, and by the occasional omis- sion of some final letters. We have ic macod, and ic maked, for ic maeode ;findcn for findan, \enc for \ence, segen for seegan, etc. NOUN— POSSESSIVE AND PLURAL. 40. In the nouns, besides a general disregard for the proper case-endings, there is a decided preference shown for the masculine declension in es, gen. sing., and as, nom. plur., explained in the last section. According to this are declined nouns of both orders and of all genders, and even here the plur. as is softened into es, and the dative plur. in -urn is constantly ignored. So we find endes for both endas and end urn, dceies for dceges, dcegas, dcegum. The adoption of this form seems to have been due to its greater facility, rather than to any indirect action of the French language, requiring the Saxon to accommodate its grammar to the genius of the foreign words that began now to work their way into it. In confirmation of this latter view, Dr. Trench, in his ' English Past and Present,' cites an otherwise instruc- tive passage from J. Grimm : ' When the English language was inundated by a vast influx of French words, few, if any, French forms were received into its grammar ; but the Saxon forms soon dropped away, because they did not suit the new roots ; and the genius of the language, from having to deal with the newly-imported words in a rude state, was induced to neglect the inflexions of the native ones. This, for instance, led to the introduction of the s as the universal ter- mination of all plural nouns, which agreed with the usage of 56 III. — Broken Saxon Period. the French language, and was not alien from that of the Saxon, but was merely an extension of the termination of the ancient masculine to other classes of nouns.' Here it should be observed that this practice was followed long be- fore any such inundation of French words as is here alluded to had yet set in. It was not, therefore, adopted to meet the exigencies of that language, which was probably un- known to, certainly not countenanced by, the few native writers who still adhered to the national idiom. So that the law of all composite languages, laid down by Trench himself, is not violated in this instance. ' However composite they may be, yet they are only so in regard of their words. There may be a medley in respect of these, some coming from one quarter, some from another ; but there is never a mixture of ungrammatical forms and inflexions. One or other language entirely predominates here, and everything has to conform and subordinate itself to the laws of this ruling and ascendant language. The A.S. is the ruling lan- guage in our present English ; while that has thought good to drop its genders, even so the French substantives which came among us must also leave theirs behind them, as in like manner the verbs must renounce their own conjuga- tions, and adapt themselves to ours. ' Coeunt quidem paulla- tim in novum corpus peregrina vocabula, sed grammatica lin- guarum, unde petita sunt, ratio perit.' — W. Schlegel, p. 25-26. ADJECTIVE— GENDER— PRONOUN. 41. With regard to the adjectives, all distinction was at once lost between the definite and the indefi)7ite form. The good man, and a good man, would both be ]>e god man, an •god man, instead of se gbda man, an god man. Their declen- sions were also confounded in much the same way as were those of the nouns, often disappearing altogether. Vocabulary of this Period. 57 Gender, hitherto regulated according to termination, but always difficult and uncertain, could no longer be adhered to when the endings began to get confused. Hence the modern principle of following nature — a very simple and obvious remedy, commended by truth and common sense — began to prevail very generally. The declinable adjective ]>set, se, seo was quite super- fluous by the side of the indeclinable Jie=the, often used in- stead of it, even by the best A.S. writers. The most striking change in the pronouns is the substitu- tion of the dative him for the accusative hine. The modern him is a dative form, with an ace, and occasionally a dat. force : give him, etc. The proper government of prepositions is not attended to : mid edgan for mid edgum, as if a Roman were to write cum oculi, instead of cum ecu/is. These, and whatever further changes occurred, may be rendered more intelligible by the illustrative specimens pre- sently to be given. VOCABULARY OF THIS PERIOD. 42. Throughout this period the vocabulary remained purely Saxon, so far as the written language was concerned. Scarcely any Roman words are to be met with in the Saxon Chronicle. A curious instance, it has been observed, is the word ' peace' instead of the A.S. fri}> from fred=free. The peace that was the result of freodom, and suggestive of it, could, indeed, exist no longer for the disheartened and down-trodden native. The death-like calm that succeeded the ruthless Norman devastations was sufficiently well ex- pressed, thought the simple Saxon chronicler, by one of their own weak, meaningless terms. Layamon's great work consists, according as it is arranged, of either about 14,000 long or 32,000 short verses, yet contains not quite fifty French 58 III. — Broken Saxon Period. words in the older text, as left by him. There is a more re- cent MS. of the poem, referred to the reign of Henry III., perhaps about 1250, in which thirty of these are retained, and upwards of forty others introduced, making altogether about seventy, which, at an average of eight words to each long line, gives a proportion of one to 1,600. SPECIMENS— SAXON CHRONICLE. 43. In order to convey to the eye, and through it to the mind, an idea of. the difference between A. S. and Broken Saxon, the two following illustrative specimens are proposed. In No. I., a piece of the S. Chr., we have endeavoured, with the help of Rask and Spalding's valuable notes, to restore to the pure standard, as it would have been written in the days of Alfred or of ^Elfric. In No. II., by way of further illustration for the classical student, a literal Latin version of the same piece is given, grammatically correct. Then a presumed Broken Latin and Italian version, which will help to show how Latin gradually merged into the modern ver- nacular. Some idea may thus be formed of the manner in which synthetic languages generally tend to lose their gram- matical inflexions, and so become analytic. The wonderful influence that a mere shifting back of the accent has in pro- ducing this result, by necessarily weakening strong case and verbal endings, is here put in a striking manner. Take the word pervenerunt, and transfer the accent one syllable back ; it becomes difficult at once to pronounce the final /, and the word is probably pervenerun at first, and then (the liquid n being dropped, for want of support) pervenero, or, as now written, pervennero. That this tendency to throw back the accent, with similar results, existed even in classic times, has been abundantly shown by Donaldson in Varronianns, om- nibus modis = omnimodis = omnimode, amaverunt = amd- runt, etc. a) weorcum. pa pa castelas wceroi b) weorces. Tha the castles warer c) works. When the castles were a) hi (hi) mid yfelum mannum. b) hi mid yuele men. c) they (them) with evil men. Specimens — Saxon Chronicle. 59 I. — Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 1137. Written some time after Stephen's death, 1154, describing the miseries inflicted by the Norman nobles on the natives during his reign.* [a) Hi swencton ha wreccan menn pees landes mid castel- 6) Hi swencten the wrecce men of-pe-land mid castel- c) They harassed the wretched men of the land with castle- gemacod pa. fyldon maked tha fylden made, then filled pa namon hi pa Tha namen hi pa Then took they the z) menn pa hi wendon paat senig god hoefdon batwa b) men pe hi wenden thaet ani god hefden bathe ) men that they thought that any goods had, both 1) nihtes and dages. Man hengon up by pam fotum, b) be nihtes and be dseies. Me henged up bi the fet, by night and by day. Men (they) hanged up by the feet, a) and smucon heom mid fulum smeoce : man dyde gecnottede '>} and smoked heom mid nil smoke : me dide cnotted c) and smoked them with foul smoke: man did knotted 'a) strengas abutan heora heafod, and wri'Se o'S hit eode to b) strenges abtiton here hasved, and wrythen to-that it gsede to ) strings about their head, and twisted until it went to a) pam brasgenum.— (Bodl. Laud text, Thorpe's ed., p. 382.) b) the haernes. c) the brains. II.— The same in Latin, Broken Latin, and Italian. (a) Ipsi afflixerunt illos miserandos homines illius terraa cum (b) Issi afflixeron illi miserandi homini de ilia terra cum (c) Essi afflissero quelli miserandi uomini della terra con * (a) = Anglo-Saxon and Latin, (b) = Broken Saxon and Broken Latin, (c) ~ Modern English and Italian. Go III. — Broken Saxon Period. (a) castellis munitis. (?) castelli muniti. (c) castelli muniti. Quando ilia castella fuerunt facta, turn Quando illi castelli fueron facti, ad ilia hora Quando quei castelli furono fatti, allora (a) impleverunt ilia ipsi (cum) malis hominibus. Turn (b) impleveron illi issi cum mali homini. Ad-la hora (c) empiron . -li essi con mali uomini. Allora (a) prehenderunt ipsi illos homines quos ipsi existimaverunt qui (b) prehenderon issi illi homini qui issi istimaveron qui (c) presero essi quegli uomini che essi stimarono che (a) aliqua bona (b) aliqui boni (c) alcuni beni haberent haberen avessero et noctu et et de nocte et e di notte e die. de die. didi. Suspenderunt Suspenderon Sospesero (a) pedibus et fumigaverunt illos cum immundo fumo. Alii (b) per pedes et fumigaveron illi cum immundo fumo. Alteri (c) pei piedi ed affumicaron- li con immondo fumo. Altri (a) fecerunt nodatas chordas circa illorum capita, et contorserunt (b) feceron nodate chorde circa illoru capiti, et contorseron (c) fecero nodate corde circa i ioro capi, e contorsero (a) donee illse pervenerunt ad cerebrum. (b) ad-finemquod ille perveneron ad cerebro. (c) finche quelle pervennero al cervello. By way of further illustration, and to show that the Semi- Latin here assumed is not without precedent, a curious scrap is added of what Cantu calls ' i primordii della lingua Italiana.' It contains some directions of a chemist referred to the year 770, when the language was in a state of dis- organization, but not to the same extent as is presumed in our specimen. ' Cuse ipsas pelles ; laxa dissicare, batte lamina, et post ilia battuta, per martellum adequatur, tam de latum quam de longum : scaldato illo in foco, batte et tene illud cum tanalea ferrea ; sed tornatur de intro in foras : dextende eum ; ibi scalda ; pone ad battere ; settecientur ; modicum laxa stare; et lixa illud... imple carbonibus, et decoque... josu ligna, et sus carbones— et si una long merit vel curta, per martellum adequatur.' — ' Schianmenti e noti,' iv. Lay avion. 61 One great advantage of our early English remains is, that they enable us to trace the progress of the language, step by step, from the remotest times, and render such a work as the present possible, which, for want of a similar literature, the Italians and French could scarcely attempt successfully. LA YAMON. 44. An extract from Layamon will help to show how very much the language had fallen off since the last specimen from the Sax. Chr. He tells us, in the beginning of his poem, that he was a priest of Ernley, on the Severn, and as he was a native of Worcestershire, it is supposed that he used the dialect of the West of England. It is, ' at any rate, clearly southern as opposed to northern, and western as opposed to eastern.' — Craik, ' Outlines.' Much has been written upon the nunnation, or redundant use of n, and other peculiarities of this dialect, such as the plural in tk, we lovcth, u for i, as rtWset he smat (to) : hit waes sona forgedon : {b) Al that he smat to : hit wes sone fordon : (c) All that he smote to : it was soon done for : (a) Eall wses se cyning abolgen : swa byS se wilda bar — (b) Al waes the king abolgen : swa bith the wilde bar— (c) All was the king enraged : as is the wild boar. A RHYMING POEM. 45. The following is given as almost the only extant specimen of a Saxon rhyming poem, and as otherwise interesting. It belongs to the Norman period, and occurs showing ' closer uniformity to the present practice than is found in many works of even as late a date as the 14th century.' — Marsh, English Language, 1862. 1 A Rhyming Poem. 63 at p. 222 of vol. I. of Hickes' ' Linguarum Veterum Septen- trionalium Thesaurus.' A translation and notes are added, in further illustration of the state of the language about this time. J le wot hwet SencheS 1 und hwet He wots what think and what do dcS 1 Alle quike wihte. 2 All living beings. Nis 3 no Louerd swicb is Christ, No lord is such as Christ, Ne no King swich is Drihte. 4 Nor King such as is the Lord Hevene and er)>e and all bat is, Heaven and earth and all that is, Biloken 5 is on his honde. Locked up is in his hand* He delS all pset his wille is, He doth all that his will'is, On sea and ec s on londe. On sea and eke on land. He witeS and wealde'5 alle ping, He knows and wield e^h all things, He iscop 7 alle sceafte, He made all creatures, He whrote fis on ber 9 sea He wrought fish in the sea And forgeles 9 on )ar 8 lefte. And fowls in the air. He is ord 10 abuten orde, He is beginning without beginning, And ende abuten ende ; And end without end ; He one is eure on eche 1 stede, 12 He is ever one in every place, Wende 13 wer hu wende. Wend where thou wend. 1. Thinketh and doeth, pi., not singular, $ being the proper ending of the pi. pres. indie, as shown in § 23. Observe the trace of Norman influence on the orthography in the spelling of 'Senche'S, where ch is used for k or c. 2. Alle quike wihte in correct A.S. woidd be : ealle cwice wihta = all quick wights. Quick still survives in the Biblical expression 'the quick and the dead ; ' and Spenser uses wight always in the same sense as here. Thus : — Some blisfull houres at last must needes appeare, Else should afflicted wights oft-times despeire. Faerie Queen, V. iii. 1. 3. Nis = ne is = is not, followed by another negative, two or even more negatives in Saxon and Early English being used to strengthen the negation. Thus Chaucer : — He nevir yit no vilonye ne sayde In al his lyf unto no maner wight. Prologue to Cant. Tales. 4. Drihten, a common word for Lord in A. S. It seems to have un- accountably disappeared from the language towards the close of the present period. 64 HI. — Broken Saxon Period. This is from the Digby MS. of a poem, known as 'The Moral Ode,' of which several versions are extant. An earlier text from the famous Lambeth MS. 487 has been published by Dr. Morris in his ' Old English Homilies,' first series, pp. 158-183, and another from the Trinity Col. MS., in the second series, pp. 220-232. The Lambeth text, which Dr. Morris believes to be the oldest (before 1200), is here added for the purpose of comparison with the foregoing. In the Preface to first series he describes it as 'an excellent sermon in verse,' and it certainly is a very fine poem, which deserves to be more generally known: — ' He vvat wet benke'S and hwet do<5 alle quike \vihte. Nis na lauerd swich se is Crist, ne king swuch ure drihten. Houene and ort5e and al )>et is biloken is in his honde. He deft al )>et his wil is a wettre and alonde. He makede fisses in be se and fuzeles in be lifte. He wit and waldcS alle bing and scop alle scefte. He is hord buten horde and ende buten ende. He ane is eure an ilche stude wende ber bu wende.'— 11. 79-86. 5. Biloken = belocen, past part, of belucan = to lock up. This is an instance of a strong verb having become weak in modern English. 6. ec = eac = eke = the German auch. 7. iscop for gescop, from gesceapan = to shape = to make, to create. This verb has also become weak, besides losing its higher meaning. Compare the German schaffen, schuff, geschaffen, and scop = the shaper = the maker = the poet (iroiiw) in the Beowulf. 8. on ber = in the, ber = dat. fern, of the definite article, as in § 17. Compare the German : in der See. 9. forgeles, evidently for fogeles = fugelas, from fugel = fowl. Note the pi. ending as weakened to es. 10. ord = the German ur, as in Ur-sprung, and the Latin or, as in origo. 11. eche = selc, for ulcere, dat. fern, agreeing with 1 2. Stede = stead = place, as in the expression instead of = the French au lieu de. Compare also the German stadt. 13. Wende is a word of two syllables, final e being always pro- nounced in pure A. S. and mostly in Broken Saxon and Early English. Questions. 65 QUESTIONS. 32. What is the Transition Period ? Its greatest extent ? Subdivi- sions ? Nature of these ? Proper date of the Broken Saxon ? 33. When did good A.S. cease to be written ? Craik thinks it may have ceased to be spoken long beore this. 34. The corruption of the language is differently accounted for. State the three views (a), (I), (c). 35. Explain accurately the nature of a synthetic as opposed to an analytic language. Which seems the most ancient state ? Show that speech runs quite as readily from a simple to a composite state, as the other way. English appears to prove this ? 36. There is intrinsic evidence of decay in A. S., which proves that it must have broken up independently of the Norman Con- quest ? 37- Still this event exercised a negative and indirect action on this tendency, therefore view (a) is erroneous, {b) partly true, (c) correct ? 38. Mr. Guest's theory seems to be the very reverse of truth ? 39. What is the general nature of the grammar during this stage ? What changes occurred in tae verb ? 40. In the noun a preference is shown for one declension ? Jacob Grimm, in attributing this to an indirect action of the French tongue, exhibits a greater knowledge of A.S. and modern English than of the intermediate stages of the language ? 41. Change in the adjective? Gender? Article? Pronoun? Syntax ? 42. What amount of Norman words were adopted into the written language during this period ? One remarkable instance ? 43. Show from the illustrative specimens the powerful influence a mere shifting of the accent seems to exercise generally on all compositt languages. Explain its nature and cause. 44. Who was Layamon ? In what dialect is he supposed to have written ? None of the writings of this period could have had much influence on the subsequent written, much less spoken language ? 66 IV. — Early English Period. SECTION IV. EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD (1200-1350). EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD ONE OF RECONSTRUCTION — GRAMMAR — VOCABULARY — THE ORMULUM — PRONUNCIATION — SPECIMENS. NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD. 46. We are still in the Transition Period of the language, and must continue in it until we arrive at something fixed or settled, so far as any living speech can attain to such a state. But there is a marked difference between the present stage and the last, similar to that which exists between the operation of taking down an old tottering edifice, and that of renewing it. Broken Saxon correspond to the process of breaking up, this period and the next to that of rebuilding. These have, therefore, been called re- spectively periods of dissolution and of reconstruction. Until the\one was effected, the other could not begin. This took place, we have seen, about the year 1200. Here, then, will begin a new era, and here we are to look for the first dawn- ings of a language to which the name of English, in the modern sense, may be applied. The whole of the recon- struction stage has been called Old English, and must evidently last until the language is completely formed. But, for the better understanding of the subject, it has been commonly subdivided into two other periods, the ' Early English ' and ' Middle English.' To the first of these we have assigned the same number of years as to the Broken Fusion of Saxon and Norman. Cj Saxon, 150, from 1200 to 1350. This, we shall see, is not arbitrary, but marks a distinct change, which set in about the latter date. FUSION OF SAXON AND NORMAN ELEMENTS. 47. It is not a little curious that the proper history of the English people, as opposed to that of the country, dates from the same year, 1200, or thereabouts. 'Here com- mences,' says Macaulay, ' the history of the English nation.' For it was now that began to take place the fusion of race, language, and institutions, which resulted in the nationality as it is still constituted. Hitherto there were two distinct and hostile peoples in the land, each speaking its own language. But now the two races, and the two languages, though not to the same extent, were blended together in the proportion that still obtains. The almost total separa- tion of England from the mainland, which took place on the loss of Normandy, about this time, was chiefly instrumental in bringing about and consolidating the union. With re- spect to the language, the change for the present was rather one of extension than of absorption. Its sphere of action was enlarged when it came to be recognised by all parties, Anglo-Norman as well as Anglo-Saxon, as the sole and exclusive national speech. But ' the happy marriage,' as it has been called, ' in our tongue, of the languages of the n~rth and south,' was not accomplished till the next period. It could be brought about only by a sort of compromise, so to say, between the two rivals. Some mutual sacrifice was required at the hands of both parties, for which neither was yet quite prepared. Thus, at length, it happened that the old inhabitants, while retaining the primitive speech, yet admitted into it a considerable foreign element ; and, again, the Anglo-Normans, in laying aside the French language, preserved a great portion of its idioms and words, mixing 68 IV. — Early English Period. them freely with their newly adopted speech. In this way is explained the fact, not to be lost sight of that not until the next period was Saxon to any extent affected by Nor- manisms, and that without such a union of the two races it never would have been so affected. One or other of the two speeches would have gained the upper hand, and remained the undisputed possessor of the country, and the language at the present day would be either pure Norman ox pure Saxon, or very nearly so. CHANGE OF ALPHABET— ORTHOGRAPHY. 48. A change occurred about this time, which seems to point out a decided step towards modern English. As long as the language remained Saxon, whether pure or broken, the old alphabet was generally retained ; but this seems to have been gradually laid aside for the Norman, after the last efforts were made to keep up that system. Warton, in his ' History of English Poetry,' observes that Mabillon ' was mistaken in asserting that the Saxon way of writing was entirely abolished in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. ... An intermixture of the Saxon character is common in English and Latin MSS. before the reign of Edward III., but of a few types only.' This adoption of an alphabet, not perfectly corresponding to the old, helped to increase the state of confusion in which the orthography then was, and remained for centuries after. ' Not only are almost all the words spelled differently by different authors, but even by the same author, in the same book, in the same page, and frequently in the same line.'— ' Diversions of Purley.' At a period of reconstruction, of course, no standard can exist to be followed implicitly by all, and each writer being left to decide for himself, the result must be confusion and utter absence of anything like uniformity. So uncertain is the orthography, that no importance can be attached to the manner of spelling any word during this Various Languages employed in Literature. 69 period, except so far as it may help to indicate the current pronunciation, as we shall see was the case with the Ormulum. VARIOUS LANGUAGES EMPLOYED IN LITERATURE. 49. What is true of the orthography is equally true of the grammar throughout the whole of this stage of the language. It varies considerably with writers supposed to be contem- porary, nor is any author always consistent with himself. Consequently grammar, as the art of teaching the proper use of words, cannot be said to have existed at all. But the efforts that were made at composition had this advantage, that they helped gradually to mould the language into something hxed and satisfactory. Our opportunities of examining its structure at this epoch are not over numerous. The times generally were not favourable to letters, and the few men who did devote themselves to literature were divided between the claims of no less than three rival languages. Saxon was employed in the national ballad poetry, a species of literature which is the earliest in almost every country. It had, probably, existed during the Broken Saxon times, but now rose into importance in proportion as the language became universally spoken by all classes. French continued still to be employed almost exclusively at the court, and in the composition of romances, or what would now be called the fashionable literature of the day. The monks wrote all their learned works in Latin, besides some considerable productions in their native tongue. Indeed the constant employment of Latin all along by this class of writers must be looked upon as a most fortunate circumstance. It, probably, saved the English language, or at least prevented it from sinking into the condition of a mere patois, such as the Flemish has continued to be owing to the general use of French by the Belgians in Literature. In England, the literary world being divided between three rivals, the native speech, having numbers on its side, •jo IV. — Early English Period. ultimately succeeded in gaining the ascendant. The case might have been othenvise, had all parties united their energies in endeavouring to render Norman literature national in the island. The first great genius that arose, say Chaucer, finding the Saxon totally unfit for literary pur- poses, the necessary result of the neglect of 300 years, would have been compelled to use the French tongue, if he hoped to hand down his name to posterity. Without pur- suing the argument further, it must be allowed that, what- ever influence all the literature of the Broken Saxon and Early English Periods (1066-1350) has had, both positively and negatively, in moulding the language into its present shape, is largely due to a body of men whose services are too often apt to be lost sight of. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROKEN SAXON AND EARLY ENGLISH. 50. In general it may be said that the grammar of the popular ballad poetry is more advanced than that of the rhyming chronicles, and of the Ormulum. The latter works seem to have been formed more upon the literary language of the preceding age, whilst the former may have developed itself at once, and independently, out of the spoken tongue, which, it has been shown, was, from the remotest times, always more English in the modern sense than the written. At the same time, it should be observed, that the present copies of most of the old songs are considerably modernised, even as they are printed in Percy's ' Reliques.' The ' Battle of Otterburne ' cannot, in its actual form, be placed further back than the year 1450. though referring to an event which occurred in the year 1388. In general, no sort of reliance can be placed upon the dates to which the greater portion of old English poetry has been assigned, least of all to Warton's chronological arrangement. In his History of English Poetry he alludes to a translation of the O. and Broken Saxon and Early English. 7 1 N. T. in verse, which he believes ' to have been made before the year 1200.' This would make it Broken Saxon, but it will be seen, by comparing the following passage with the specimens in the last section, that it is quite English, and intelligible even in its old orthography : — ' Oure ladi and hire sistur stoden under the Roode, And Seint John and Marie. Magdaleyne with wel sori moode : Ur ladi biheold hire swete son i-brought in gret peyne, Ffor mounes gultes nouthen her and nothing/or myne. Marie weop wel sore and bitter teres leet, The teres fullen uppon the ston doun at hire feet.' The different forms, hire and her, oure and ur, ffor and for, will serve to illustrate what has just been said of the irregular orthography of these times. Weop=wept is an instance of a strong conjugation now obsolete, but retained in Old English. See its gradual changes in the comparative table, Section VI. § 86, and compare it with weoxon in this section, § 53. The main difference of structure, between this period and the Broken Saxon, consists in a further softening and weakening without a total rejection of certain grammatical inflexions, the result of which was to render them less important in construing, and to bring into play an increased number of relational words to perform the func- tions, and often to supply the place, of the enfeebled case and verbal endings. This gives such a new air to the language that, in virtue of it, we are now justified in calling it English. A practical test of the effects of this change may be had by endeavouring to turn a piece of Broken Saxon and of Old into Modern English. It will be found, as a rule, that the latter will be intelligible with the aid of a glossary and occasional notes, whilst the former will require an interlinear translation, with a certain amount of -gram- matical analysis. For instance, the following passage from Layamon is sufficiently intelligible in the appended Old English version, while all the words of the text in Italics still require further explanation: — 72 IV. — Early English Period. 'Wace wres ihoten He wol corrSe writen And he hoe yef thare Adhelen Alienor, The waes Henries quene The heyes Kinges. ' 'Wace was i-het (hight) He wel cude write And he it gav to the Noble Elleanor That was Henres quene The heye (strDng) Kinge.' GRAMMAR— FINAL e SYLLABIC. 51. The inflexional forms were most commonly weakened by substituting in final syllables, -e for the Saxon -a, -e, -u, -o, -na, ra, um, etc., distinguishing the noun and verb endings. ' In the old English, all these were represented by the final -att Orm itt wrohhte. G 82 IV. — Early English Period. ' Brut.' Indeed its style, as compared with this production, exhibits the language in so very advanced a state, that we should be disposed, at first sight, to bring it forward still further, did we not remember that a few years in the infancy or in the old age of a language, produce greater changes than are apparent in many centuries of its maturity. We would almost venture to say, that the difference between the language of our time and that of the Ormulum, after a lapse of over 600 years, is considerably less than what is observ- able between it and that of the preceding age. ITS ORTHOGRAPHY— PRONUNCIATION. 57. The orthography of the Ormulum is remarkable, as affording additional proof of the absence of any fixed stand- ard for spelling at the time of its composition. Its author feeling that the great uncertainty of the orthography ren- dered it quite useless as a guide to the real pronunciation of words, and considering that this should be one of the first objects of a written tongue, proceeds to draw out a plan of his own, by which he hopes to attain to this result, and" to which he accordingly attaches great importance, insisting upon a strict adherence to it on the part of all future copyists of his work.* Its chief characteristic con- sists in always doubling the consonant following short V07vels, so as to make them short by position, just as they would be * 'And whase wilenn shall biss boc efft oberr sibe writenn Hinn bidde ic batt het write rihht swa summ biss boc him tscnebb. All bwerrt ut affter batt itt iss uppo biss firrste bisne, Wibbe all swike rime alls her iss sett wibb all se fele wordess ; And tatt he loke wel batt he an bokstafF write twiyyes, Eggwhasr ba;r itt uppo biss boc iss writen o batt wise. ' That is to say : And whoso shall will to write again another time, I bid him that he write it rightly, so as this book teacheth him entirely as it is upon this first pattern with all such measures as here are set, with just as many words, and that he look well that he write a letter twice where it upon this book is written in that wise. Orthographic Systems. 83 said to be long by position in Latin or Greek prosody: sett= set, thiss=this, thatt=that, bettre=better, Godd=God, but god=goo6. ; where it appears that vowels followed by single consonants are meant by him to be pronounced long. Great light is in this way thrown upon the current pronunciation at the time. ' If it was his rule always to leave the con- sonant single after the long or name sound (as in mate, ??ieet, mite, mote, mute), and to double it after every vowel other- wise sounded, then .... we should learn that while God, thus, till, up, will, his, off, 7vit, for. edge, back, it, with, on. that, were all pronounced in his clay as at present, with the shut sound, thine, sheep, smite, child, took as they now do, the name (long) sound ; that the e in legg (lay) and in the first syllable of seggde (said), was sounded as in our egg . . . that bun was probably pronounced boo?i, don, doon,' etc. (Craik's 'Outlines,' 72.) This method does not appear to have survived its originator, for in the next period we find it superseded, at least by writers of the Anglo-Norman school, who introduced the e mute to lengthen the preced- ing vowel, leaving the consonant single when they wished it to be short : sale, sel ; tale, tel, also tell. The appended com- parative table of orthographic systems at different times employed may serve to throw some light on a matter suf- ficiently obscure, and which has not been hitherto fully ex- plained : — Anglo-Saxon. Early l English. Middle Engl SHORT VOWELS. ish. Mode can, cann, can, can. stif, stiff, stiff, stiff. God, Godd, God, LONG VOWELS. God. god, god, gode, good. cen, on, on, one. aft, ath, othe, oath. bar, bor, bore, boar. ban, bon, bone, bone. stcen, ston, stone, G 2 stone. 84 IV. — Early English Period. Anglo-Saxon. Early Engi 'ish. Middle English. Modei LONG VOWELS — continued. boc, boc, boke, book. mete, met, mete, mete. fet, fet, fete, feet. slsep, slep, slepe, sleep. stem, stem, steme, steam, sprecan, sprekenn, speke, speak. This table shows that the long sound in A.S. was denoted by the accent, its absence indicating the short. In the Early English of the Ormulum the long was denoted by a single consonant, the short by a double ; in Middle English the long by a final e mule, the short by its absence — all these expedients, except the accent, being employed in modern English, besides many others, most capriciously. Thus long e by e mute in mete, ee in feet, ea in steam ; long o by e mute in bone, oa in oath, oo in good, with a change of pronuncia- tion (See Section V. § 63). SPECIMENS— ORMUL UM. 58. The following short extract will serve further to illus- trate the method pursued in the Ormulum, just explained : — Ormulum, 1220—1250. I hafe set here o 1 thiss boc amang Godspelles 2 wordes Alle thruh meselfen manigword the rime swa to fillen ; s Ace 4 thu shal finden 3 that minn word eggwhaer 5 thcer 15 it is ekedd 6 Magg 7 helpen 3 tha 8 thatt reden 3 it to sen 3 and understanden ; 3 All thess 9 to bettre hu thegm 10 buth n the Godspell understanden ; 3 And for 12 the trowwe 13 ice thatt te birrth" wel tholenn 14 mine wordes Eggwhaer 5 timer 15 thu shalt finden 3 him amang Godspelles 2 wordes. i = on = in. 2 = Gospel's, full genitive mcs. 3 = to fill, to complete ; inf. in en pre- vailing throughout this and the next perioa. 4 = but,A.S. 5=everywhere. 6=added, cf., A.S. eac. 7=may, A.S. mceg. 8 = those, A.S. o=all the better how. 10= them; a mixture of A.S. heom and Engl, ttiem. n = it becomes. i2=for that = therefore. 13 = 1 trow. 14 = to hear. I5=where, A.S. The style is so very modern that it is hoped these few notes may be sufficient to render the whole perfectly in- Robert of Gloucester— Specimens. 8 5 telligible. The metre is what has been called long Iambic, consisting of not less than fourteen nor more than fifteen syllables, with a break or caesura at the end of the eighth.* Next to the Ormulum, the most important works of this age are perhaps the Rhyming Chronicles of Robert of Glou- cester, and of Robert Mannyng, of Brunne, to the former of whom is also attributed a voluminous collection of the lives of the principal saints in the calendar. The language is more modern than that of the Ormulum, composed pro- bably about the year 1300 or a little later. Here is an ex- tract from the life of St. Patrick, containing an allusion to a famous national tradition : — Sevn Pateryk com thoru Godes grace to preche in Irelonde, To teche men ther 1 ryt believe Jesu Cryste to understonde : 2 So ful of wormes 3 that londe he founde that no man ni myghte gon, 2 In some stede 4 for worms 3 that he nas wenemyd 6 anon ; Seynt Pateryk bade our Lorde Cryst that the londe delyvered were, Of thilke foule wormis 3 that none ne com there. i=th for h, but not for the first time in the plural of the 3 pers. pronoun : iher and their for hear a, kira, hir ; theom and them for heom, him ; tliey for hi, tho' not fully established in the Southern dialect until modern times (see Sec. VI., § 89). 2 = the final n of inf. has already become a matter of convenience. It is dropped or retained according to the exigencies of the rhyme. 3 = three forms of the pi. strong, weak, and modern : wormis, wormes, worms. 4 = places, cf. stead. 5 = ne was=was not. 6 = wounded. Here are only two new Norman terms, grace and delyvered. The next is from an ode on Heaven, Death, and Judg- ment, which may have been written about the same time as the foregoing, though Warton refers it, with a vast amount of poetry of the same age, 1280-1320, to the twelfth cen- tury (Hist. Engl. Poetry, I. 33). The alliteration is sus- tained throughout very regularly : — * On the versification of the Ormulum, which seems to have been composed in imitation of a Latin rhythm, Marsh remarks that it ' differs from the Anglo-Saxon models in wanting alliteration, and in possessing a regular metrical flow : from the Norman French in wanting rhyme ; and, allowing for the difference between accent and classical quantity, it closely resembles that of some Latin poems of the Middle Ages, from which it was probably imitated.' — English Language, p. 179. 86 IV. — Early English Period. Alliterative Ode— 1300 (?). Middel-erd for mon was mad, Unmighti aren is meste mede, This hedy hath on honde yhad, That hevene hem is haste to hede. Ich erde a blisse budel us bade, That he ben derne done. The dreri domesdai to drede Of sinful sauhting sone be sad, That derne doth this derne dede, This wrakefall werkes under wede, In soule soteleth sone. Rhyme began to be now universally employed, instead of the old measure, especially by the so-called rhyming chro- niclers, who translated from the French. Its introduction must be attributed to Norman influence, though it was known from the remotest times, and used by the Saxons, especially in their Latin compositions. A good specimen is afforded by a ballad written in the year 1301, on the occasion of a defeat sustained by the French under the Count of Artois, at the hands of the revolted Flemings : — Susteneth lordinges, bothe zonge* and olde, Of the Frynsche men that were so proude ante bolde, How the Flemmyshe men bohten hem and solde, Upon a Wednesday. Betere hem were at home in buere londe, Than force seche Flemishe bi the sea stronde, Whare souch moni Frensh wyf wryngeth hire honde, And syngeth welaway. t With regard to this form zonge for young, it should be observed that z is used here as elsewhere, simply to represent a letter similar to it in form, constantly occurring in old MSS., which, however, never was pronounced like z, but always either as g or y, according to the period and dialect in question. By this time, that is towards the close of the thirteenth century, the Saxon g had mostly become y in the Southern dialects ; we should here therefore read young a s in modern English. At an earlier stage of the language it would have been geong, though the tendency to soften this letter had already made its appearance even in Saxon times, as is evident by such forms as mamiu for maenigu = many ; iogo'8 for geogu'8 = youth, occasionally to be met with in old MSS. Robert Mannyng — Specimens 87 The Kynge of Ffrance made statutes newe, In the londe of Flaunders among false and trewe, That the communs of Bruges ful sore can arewe, And seiden among hem, Gedere we us togedere hardilyche at ene, Take we the bailifs by twenty and by tene, Clappe we of the hevedes an oven o the grene And cast we in the fen. ROBERT MANNYNG. 59. The next is a characteristic specimen of the style of Robert Mannyng, a writer whose merits and real position have scarcely yet been sufficiently recognised. His language is greatly in advance not only of his contemporaries, but even of most writers of the next, or Chaucerian period. The reason is that it was his constant endeavour, as he in many places tells us, to write for the people in the plain, simple style of the spoken language, which we have al- ready seen was always in advance of the literary standard. Hence, though he writes at the very beginning of the four- teenth century, he is much easier and more intelligible than perhaps any writer of the following generation. He thus occupies a somewhat exceptional position in the history of the language, and may truly be said to be the first author that wrote readable English. The passage occurs in the prologue to his Chronicle, which he appears to have finished before the year 1338 : — Lordynges, that be now here, If ze will listene and lere All be story of Inglande Als Robert Mannyng writen it fand, And in Inglisch has it shewed, Not for be lerid bot for be leved, (ignorant) For bo J?at in ) is land wonn, pat be Latyn no Frankis conn For to have solace and gamen. In felawschip when bai sitt samen (together) 88 IV.— Early English Period. pai sayd in so quainte Inglis, pat mony one wate not what it is, And forsoth I couth noght So strange Inglis as >ai wroght, And men besoght me many a tyme, To turn it bot in light ryme, And berfore for be comonaltie pat blypely wild listen to me, On light lange I it began For luf of be lewed man . . . Of Brunne I am, if any me blame Robert Mannyng is my name . . . In the brid Edward's tyme was I When I wrote alle bis story. Mannyng is also the author of a curious work, which he calls the ' Handlyng Synne,' partly translated from William of Waddington's ' Manuel des Pechiez,' and the date of which is fixed by himself : — ' Dane Filip was master that time That I began'this English rime, The yere of grace fell then to be A thousand three hundred and three.' It may be observed that his vocabulary is marked by a large accession of Romance terms, and that his grammar is rendered very modern by the substitution of s for th in the 3rd pers. sing., and of scho, thei, ther, for the older forms seo, hi, hcora. We shall close this section with an extract from an elegy on the death of Edward I., 1307, which reads quite English :- 1 The messager to the Pope com, And seyde that our kynge was dede, Ys own honde the lettre he nom (took), Y wis his herte wes ful gret : The Pope himself the lettre redde, And spec a word of gret honour : " Alas !" he said, " is Edward ded ? Of Cristendome he ben the flour !" Grammar of the Transition Period. 89 'The Pope is to chaumbre wende, For dole nemihte he speke na more ; And after cardinales he sende That much conthen of Cristes lore. Both the lasse ant eke the more, Bed hem both red and synge ; Gret deol me myhte se thore (there) Mony mon is honde wrynge.' Our limited space compels the omission of a document exceedingly interesting in the history of the language : the Proclamation of Henry III., in 1258, to the People of Huntingdon, considered one of the earliest extant specimens of what may be called English, as opposed to Semi-Saxon : — ' Henr', thurg Godes fultome (help) king on Engleneloande, Lhoauerd on Yreloand, Duk on Norm' on Aquitain' and Eorl on Aniow, send gretinge to alle hise halde, ilaerde and ilaewed (learned and unlearned, or lay), on Huntendon' schir,' etc. Supplement to the Grammar of the Transition Period. The subjoined summary, embodying the conclusions hitherto arrived at, is condensed from a paper on the sub- ject contributed by Dr. Morris to C. W. Hazlitt's annotated edition of ' Warton's History of English Poetry,' London, 1871, Vol. II. pp. 25-7. Changes from iioo to 1150. Mostly orthographical. I. The endings a, o, u reduced to e, affecting all the cases of noun and adjective, and causing great confusion, the endings an ~s um ena • -en on J as - becoming -* es ath eth ra, ru re od, oc le j ed, ede 90 IV. — Early English Period. 2. C sometimes softened to eh, and g to y or i, but sc remains un- changed. 3. N often added to final e, and « often dropped, especially in the n declension, and the definite declension of adj Changes from 1150 to 1250. Great grammatical changes, and the orthographical ones fully established. 1. The indef. article an (a) grows out of the numeral an [one), retaining most of its older endings. 2. The def. article se, seo, that changed for the, theo, thet (that), with a tendency to use an uninflected the, even in the pi., for thaoxtho. 3. Pi. of nouns in a or u change to en or e. 4. Gen. pi. es occasionally for e or ene ; and the pi. es often for en. 5. Gender of nouns confused. 6. The gen. sing. mas. of the indef. adj. and the gen. and dat. fern, of the def. tend to disappear. 7. Dual forms still occur, but less frequently. 8. New Pronominal forms spring up : ha, a = he, she, they ; is (hise) = hire = her. his, is = hi, heo = them ; me = men = man = Fr. on. That is used as an indeclinable relative both for the indeclinable the and for se, seo. Which, whose, whom, what, come in as relatives. 9. The n of min, thin dropped before consonants, but retained in the oblique case. 10. The gen. cases of the pronouns are becoming mere possessives : ?ni-self, thi-self for me self, the self. XI. Inf. n frequently dropped: smelle = smellen ; and often takes to as in the first text of Layamon. 12. The gerundial or dat. inf. becomes en or e for ene = enne, anne. 13. A' of passive part, often dropped : icume = icumen = come. .14. Pres. part, in inde for ende, and is often used for the dat. inf. : to swimende = to swimeue = to swim. This corruption is found even before 1066. 15. Shall and will are used as future auxiliaries. The above changes refer to the Southern dialect. But the Ormulum [East Mid- land] has a general disregard for nearly all inflexions. Thus, the art. is uninflected in the sing. , and in the pi. the nom. tha only occurs. That is a demonstrative and not the neuter of the art. Gender much as in Grammar of the Transition Period. 91 modern English. Gen. in j used for mas. and fern, nouns. Thezz, thezzre, thezzm for hi, heore, heom, zho — she for heo. Verbal pi. in en for eth, except imperative ; i or ge of passive part, dropped. The 2nd pers. past, of strong verbs often loses its ending. The Ancrcn Riwle, St. Marharete, &c, have sch for sc, a change which seems to have taken place after 1200. In these latter works there is a mixture of dialect, and a simpler grammatical structure than in Layamon, &c. Am occurs, as in the Ormulum, for booth or sind. Changes from 1250 to 1300. 1. Gen. sing, and ace. mas. of def. art. not wholly lost in Southern dialect ; tho is the pi. of all cases. 2. Gender of nouns much simplified, owing to loss of adjectival endings. 3. PI. of nouns in en and es are used indiscriminately. 4. Gen. in es becomes more general, often taking the place of the older en or e (n deck ), of e (fem. nouns) and of the pi. ene or e. 5. Dat. e sing, and pi. often dropped. 6. Dual forms rare, disappearing before 1 300. 7. Adjectival endings reduced to e. But the gen. pi. re retained in few cases, as al-re, as well as the gen. sing, es in a few pronominal forms, as eaches, otheres. 8. The gerundial inf. in e or en more common than in ene. 9. Some strong verbs become weak. 10. Pres. part, in inge appears in second text of Layamon, say 1270. All these points are subject to occasional exceptions caused by dialectical differences. Thus, the Kentish of the thirteenth century, as far as we know it, has older forms than the Western, as seen in Layamon, as se=the, mas. j/ = fem., &c. ; while the Ayenbile of the fourteenth century is more inflexional in many respects than the Ana-en Riwle and Si. Marharete. QUESTIONS. 46. What process distinguishes Old E. from'Semi-Saxon ? How is Old English subdivided ? Extent of Early E. ? 47. How did the union of the two races consequent on the separa- tion of England from the mainland affect the language at first ? 48. What change took place in the alphabet ? How did this affect the orthography 1 92 IV. — Early Englisli Period. 49. What three languages were used at this time in literature ? Why may this be considered a fortunate circumstance ? 50. What species of composition exhibits the language in the most forward state? Why? What is the chief difference between the grammar of Semi-Saxon and Early English ? What great change did this necessitate ? 51. How was the general softening of the A. S. inflexions effected ? This is important in scansion ? He loves, zcje, ye, they love, in Early English ? 52. Mention some other changes. Are these uniform? What is the origin of our infinitive ? How far is it a real mood ? How is the change of A. S. active participle in -ende to -ing explained ? Are all our words in -ing necessarily active participles ? ' He forbiddis al dis- cord in teaching, sayand let na scismes be amang you. ' Parse the two words in Italics. 53. Show from the words heom and \>o:re in the transition table, that the case-endings, even when retained, had already lost their farce and significance. SingafS explains why the termination th or eth in verbs was plural, not only singular, as now ? 54. What is the general state of the vocabulary ? How far is the Ormulum affected by Normanisms ? Mention certain classes of French words introduced into the spoken language by this time, and account for this on historical grounds, and give instances. 55. Is one or six from the Latin unus and sex, or from the A.S. an and six? Eight from A.S. eahta, or French huit? Why is it sometimes difficult to say whether a word is A.S. or Romance in its origin ? What rule is to be observed ? In comparative philology, what principle, if attended to, will prevent false and absurd deriva tions ? 56. Give an account of the Ormulum. Its date, etc. Its language as compared with that of Layamon. 57. In what does the chief peculiarity of its orthography consist ? How is this a clue to the pronunciation of the day ? Did its ortho- graphic system prevail to any extent ? Mention the different expedients employed in Saxon, Early, Middle, and Modern English times, to denote the length of the vowels. 59. What position does Robert Mannyng occupy in the history of the language? Mention his principal works and the chief peculiarities of his grammar and vocabulary. 93 SECTION V. (1350-1450.) MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD — FURTHER DEVELOPMENT — STATE OF THE GRAMMAR— VOCABULARY— NORMAN ELEMENT— CAUSE OF ITS LATE INTRODUCTION — SPECIMENS — BARBOUR — DOUGLAS — ACCOUNT OF THE SCOTCH DIALECT. MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD— ITS EXTENT. 60. So far as the structure of the language is concerned, there is no essential difference between this period and the foregoing. They are both comprised under the one name of Old English, and have been divided into the Early and Middle English Periods, in order to analyze more accu- rately the steps by which the transition was effected from Broken Saxon to Modern English. Though generally de- scribed as a period of reconstruction, it was, in reality, one of further dissolution ; or, in other words, the process by which the language was moulded into its present shape, was what might be called a process of elimination, a continual soften- ing down and eliding of the old grammatical inflexions, which, if allowed to proceed far enough, would have re- sulted in a speech as nearly as possible perfectly analytic. So long as this tendency to simplicity of structure is actively at work, we are in the transition stage ; as soon as it ceases, or is arrested at a certain state, we reach the Modern or Fixed Period of the language. This state was arrived at about the year 1450, after which time the language sustained no further loss of grammatical forms. All, or nearly all, the inflexions that it possessed then, it still retains. That date, therefore, marks the time when 94 V. — Middle English Period. the process of reconstruction was complete, leaving an extent of about one hundred years to the Present or Middle English Period, 1350-1450. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE EARLY AND MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIODS. 61. The difficulty of distinguishing between one stage and another increases in proportion as the real difference diminishes. So long as we have to deal with bold land- marks, standing prominently forward, we are enabled by their presence or absence to trace and point out the changes that the language has undergone from time to time. But when these become weakened or effaced, the minor dif- ferences that still exist, and by which alone we can draw a line between two periods, are very apt to escape our notice and pass without observation. This is the difficulty that immediately arises when we set about comparing the present with the foregoing period, and it is increased by the fact that many grammatical forms which are considered peculiarly characteristic of Early English, are constantly occurring in the Middle English Period.* The last circum- stance, however, gives us the clue to what must be con- sidered the only essential difference between the two, viz., that inflexions still kept up, and which in the former preserved a certain innate force and significance, have in the latter lost their trite meaning and import. Heom or horn may occasion- ally, in Old English, have its full dative force without further aid ; in Middle English hardly ever, if used at all, without the addition of the relational to: to horn. So the final e in alle may convey a plural meaning in the one; in the other it is devoid of such power. Hence the grammatical forms of Middle English are not distinguishing terminations, being useless as guides to the sense of a passage, and requiring the * The writings of Robert Mannyng, noticed in the last section, prove that the converse of this is also true. Final e — when Pronounced. 95 addition of the relational words, just as much as if they were not employed ; they are different ways of writing a word, availed of as a great convenience by the poets of the time, in the same way as Homer turned to account the unsettled state of the Greek language when he wrote. Chaucer uses or drops, as best suits his purpose, the proper infinitive and other terminations that still lingered in the language : 'that it was may me thoughten tho' ' (then) ; and further on : ' me- tk night one night in my sleeping ' ; • women desyren to have soveraynte ' ; and ' he was worthy han his lyfe ' ; to sain and to say, to maken and to make, to seen and to see, younge (plur.) and young, tho thinges and those things, gone and y-gone, he told and he y-told, where the past participle suffix y=ge A.S. has so far lost its true import, that it is actually transferred to the past tense for the sake of the metre. The consequence was that, later on, when it was thought desirable to give the language a certain uniformity, all these double forms were felt to be an incumbrance, and, the tendency being towards simplicity, the older and more com- plicate were doomed, and very soon disappeared altogether. FINAL e—WHEN PRONOUNCED. 62. The final e, which in Early English served for such a variety of purposes, and was, perhaps, never mute before a consonant, having now become quite meaningless, is often not pronounced as a distinct syllable, and only re- tained in writing as it is to this day. In Chaucer some- times it forms a syllable, sometimes it does not; and the difficulty of determining when it should be pronounced, or not, has occasioned much doubt and difference of opinion as to the real nature of his poetic system. Some hold that it is regulated by the accent alone, as is Christabel and some of Walter Scott's poetry \ others that it is strictly syllabic, of the same nature as, and the true origin of, our heroic measure. The latter is now the generally received opinion, g6 V. — Middle English Period. and is adopted by Tyrwhitt, to whom we owe the first fairly correct edition of the 'Canterbury Tales' (1775)- He sup- poses that Chaucer borrowed it from the Italians, and observes that, as with them, it is generally endecasyllabic, occasionally extended to twelve syllables (endecasillabo sdrucciolo), sometimes limited to ten (endecasillabo tronco), as it nearly always is in the modern heroic system. The two, however, are so far identical that the accent in both is the bame, falling regularly on the even syllable, the tenth being the last accented in all cases. The final e in Chaucer is usually said to constitute a distinct syllable, when it stands for any of the old endings, for the French e at that time pro- nounced, or is adverbial, provided always the following word begin with a consonant. It would be, perhaps, better to say, that in these instances, it has or has not syllabic force, according to the requirements of the metre, to which accent, grammar, and pronunciation are generally made subservient by the Middle English poets. FINAL e FRENCH-ACCENT. 63. With regard to the e French (called e feminine), it seems quite certain that the new words retained for some time both their proper accent and pronunciation, only gradually conforming themselves to the genius of the English tongue. In this the tendency, we have seen, was to throw the accent as far back as possible, in French to throw it forward. Hence Chaucer constantly varies the accent of many new terms to suit his purpose, as : language and language, nature and nature, virtue and virtue, commande-ment and commdnde- ment, contraire and contraire, courage, pilgrimage, etc. As soon as the accent was permanently shifted, the final e ceased to be pronounced, and the word became thoroughly Anglicised. Perhaps it was this French practice that occa- sioned a remarkable license, observable especially in ballad poetry down to recent times, of varying the accent even of Saxon words at pleasure : lad), harper, singer, morning, singing. I \ilue of Final e. 97 GRAMMATICAL AND ORTHOGRAPHIC VALUE OF FINAL e. 64. The old endings, now universally represented by the final e syllabic, are principally, in nouns, the dative singular and genitive plural ; in adjectives, the plural ; and in verbs, the 1 st and 3rd person singular of the present and past tenses; besides, a further weakened form of the infinitive, give, love, take, for given, loven, taken. Mr. Guest has even shown that in some instances, though very rarely, final e preserves its full inflexional force, without the aid of separate particles or relational words. Thus 'Hire greatest othe n'as but by Seint Loy' (Chaucer) is equivalent to : her greatest of oat lies, the e of othe being = A.S. gen. plur. a, otha of oathes. In ' The drought of March had perced to the rotP (Chaucer), rote— dat. sing, of rot =root, here, however, with the addition of the dat. particle to. 'Poure menne cotes' (' Piers Ploughman's Vision'), stands for '■poor mens 1 cots, 1 and 'her horse knave' (Gower's ' Confessio Amantis'), for their horse's groom. The adverbial force of the final e seems to occur only in the positive degree, swifte= swiftly, frste= firstly. ' And in a cloth of gold that brighte shone' (Chaucer), where brighter brightly. This adverbial form explains the constant use, in the most classic writers, of what appears to be the adjective instead of the adverb. It is, in reality, the Old English adverb, with the final e first dropped in pro- nunciation, and then in writing. ' Soft went the music the soft air along' (Keats). H 98 V. — Middle English Period. In the superlative the adverb terminated in -est simply, as in AS. swiftost and swiftest— Old English swiftcst=- modern sunftliest. So brightest=brightliest, adv. ; but brighteste= brightest, adj. The final e mute is believed now, for the first time, to have been extensively employed by those of the Norman school of writing as an orthographic expedient to lengthen the preceding vowel. This purpose was effected in A.S. times by the aeeent ; but this having been abolished with the old alphabet, a new method was required : A.S. gbd=-0\(i English gode=good ; fid=fole=foul ' ; ges=gese = gees; blbd—blode=blood ; hiis=hose= house ; fot=/ote==/oot ; lif=life=-life y etc. From these examples it appears that, if we suppose the pronunciation of an A.S. accented vowel to be uniform, as great a change has taken place in the pronunciation of the language as in its orthographic system (see Sec. IV. § 57). MIDDLE ENGLISH NOUN— POSSESSIVE— PLURAL. 65. The total disappearance of the final e syllabic, or rather of its functions (to include both the written and spoken language), constitutes, perhaps, the greatest, though not the most striking, difference between Middle and Modern English. Other grammatical forms, peculiar to this period, were the following : — In the noun the possessive and plural endings were alike, as now, but often made a complete syllable, as thinges— thing's and things, werkes=works, bankes, Goddes sake, wordes, freres. Attention to this is of great assistance in reading Chaucer : — ' But preacheth not as freres don in Lent To make us for our olde sinnes weep,' when read as here accented, are two perfect heroic lines. A fuller plural in -is sometimes occurs : to make bohis, songis, and ditis (Chaucer). Many plurals in en were also Pronoun — Infinitive — Past Participle. 99 retained, some of which have survived to our time : shoon, eyen, bischopen, eldren, arwai, doghtren, sustren, widen, treen, hosen, chicken (?), oxen, toen, tone, and ton. The syllable in A.S. was an, the universal pi. of nouns of the simple order : cagan=eyen=eyes, tan=toen—toes ; but we shall see that the greater number of the Old English plurals in -en are not accounted for by reference to this A.S. declension (Sec. VI., §S 7 ). PRONOUN— INFINITIVE— PAST PAR TICIPLE. 66. In the pronoun, the forms 7, ich, and iche occur. It is not the only instance of a mixture of archaic and modern forms, the middle state naturally participating of, and con- necting the stages immediately preceding and following it. So hi and they, ye and you, the latter nearly always accusa- tive. This distinction may have caused it subsequently to be used singularly in the spoken language : Mr, hire and their, hire and her, hire being invariably a monosyllable ; Item (as modern 'em) and them (see Sec. VI., § 90). In the verb the infinitive was in -en, with a tendency to drop the n, eliding the final e before a vowel. We find to haen = to han — to have=to hav\e), specan=spekcu=speke, maken — make and (in the last line cited) mak\e). What was at first done for euphony sake became later on the universal practice in the spoken language, sometimes without further change, sometimes with a compensative lengthening of the root vowel. We say hdv(e), giv(e), iov{e), but tdk{e), >nak{e), do (for don), be (for ben). The past participle, according to the writer's fancy or convenience, drops the old A.S. suffix ge, now softened into y : y taught, ymaked, y broken, y sought, ysowai, ycleped, but also cleped, maked, etc. It is common enough in Spenser, who was fond of archaic forms : ydrad= dreaded, ypight— fixed, ywrote, ybore, ytold, etc. ; and even in so late a writer as Thomson : — h 2 ioo V. — Middle English Period. ' Yet all these sounds yblent inclined all to sleep ' — ' But these his talents were yburied stark' — "■ ypricked deep ' — 'from Heaven this life yspr ung' — ' ybom to rise,' etc., in the ' Castle of Indolence.' PRESENT INDICATIVE. 67. The present indicative is now generally sing., love, lovest, loveth; plural, we, ye, they loven, instead of loveth, as in Early English (see last sec, § 6). Trevisa, the trans- lator of Higden's ' Polychronicon ' (1385), still retains the old form: 'other naciouns &tf/z'=ben=be=are; 'thei cun- neth'=eonnen=can; thei lerneth, leveth, haveth, etc. This is, of course, the proper pi. ending from A.S. ati=ath=eth, we bringaft=we bringath=-we bringeth. How the infinitive -en, bringen, singen, loven, was now substituted for it has not been explained. The modern Greeks, in much the same way, say elvat for etrri The practice prevailed very gene- rally, Ben Jonson tells us in his English Grammar, 'till about the reign of Henry VIII. . . . thus loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that other so generally pre- vailed, that I dare not presume to set this afoot again, albeit (to tell you my opinion) I am persuaded that the lack thereof, well considered, will be found a great blemish in our tongue. For seeing time and person be, as it were, the right and left hand of a verb, what can the maiming bring else but a lameness to the whole body ? ' He was not aware that this lameness already existed in A.S. times, and may be the reason why our first pers. sing, and the plural are alike. They said ic lufige and lufige we, as well as we lufiaS, I love, we love; ic bcerne, we, ge, hi bcemaft, and bczrne, we, ge, hi, I, we, you, they burn. For a similar reason the third per. sing, and the pi. were identical in Early English : he loveth, we loveth. The A.S. #<5 and 5 of the third pers., and ia<5 and «5 pi., were in both case" Past Tense — Imperative. 101 softened into ath and then eth : he banti, we bozmati ; he lu/aS, we lufia^, becoming he bemath, we bernath, he burnetii, we burnetii; he, we lovath and loveth, etc. Perhaps this may account for the substitution in Middle English of the infinitive en in the plural, to distinguish it from the third sing. : he burnetii, we burnen.* As a synthetic language decays, certain grammatical forms are very liable to get confused, thus occasioning a further change to avoid ambiguity. The Latin imperfect amabam becoming amava and amavo in Italian, the future amabo, when softened also into amavo, was no longer distinguishable from it. This identity necessitated some new form for one or other of these tenses, and actually originated the modern Italian f future system : amare ho=amar-o=amerb, amare hai= amar-ai=amerai, amare ha=aniar-a — amera, etc., as we say sometimes, I have to do so and so, instead of 1 must or shall. PAST TENSE— IMPERATIVE. 68. The past tense makes both ede and ed, edest and edst, ede and ed in the sing., ed and eden in the pi., ed being always a full syllable : I and he lovede and loved, thou lovedest and lovedst ; we, ye, they loved and loveden, and occasionally lovedeth, against all analogy, as the A.S. form is : ic and he lufode, pii lufodest; we, ge, hi lufoden and * The substitution first took place in the Midland dialect, and thence gradually spread South, where it supplanted eth, and North, where it supplanted es. ' A special peculiarity of this [the West-Midland] dia- lect, and which distinguishes it from the Southern and Northumbrian, is that of the inflexions of the plural in the present indicative mood ; in the Southern dialect it is eth, in the Northumbrian es, in the Midland en, and this termination is found to be employed systematically through- out these poems. ' Notice of ' Early English Alliterative Poems, edited by R. Morris, 1864,' in 'Westminster Review' for April, 1865. f This is true also of the French, Spanish, and other Romance tongues, showing that the tendency towards this change must have already existed in classical times. 102 V .—Middle English Poind. lufedon, never lufodcfc. Instances of the double form are : they cried and crieden, were and weren, mote and moten (must), might and mighten : ' his ton toteden out ' (his toes peeped out); 'his hosen overhongen,' etc. ('Piers Plough- man's Creed '). The imperative second pers. sing, and pi. is generally in eth and th, from the Early English : lovath ye=loveth ye, and sometimes love ye. ' Now telleth ye sire monk, if that ye conne' (Chaucer), ' Riseth up, sir preest, and stondeth by me ' (Ditto). Beth still = be still, witteth=kno7v ye, goth—^o ye, taketh= take ye, cometh=come ye, etc. Little trace remains of the subjunctive or gerund. HELP VERBS— TO HAVE, TO BE, SHALL, WLLL, &c. 69. To have was conjugated in accordance with the foregoing forms : indicative pres., I have, thou havest and hast, he haveth and hath; plur. haven, haen and han; past, I and he hadde, thou haddest ; plur. hadden ; in- finitive, to haven, to haen and to han; imperative, haveth, haveth ye. To be made: am, art, is; plur. aren and ben, weren and were; imperative, beth; inf. to ben. The other auxiliaries varied considerably : may, mow, plur. mowen ; past, mighte, might, moughte; plur. mighten, moughten ; can, con; plur. connen, conne; past, coude, couden, couthen. The / was introduced later on into this tense could, by appa- rent analogy with would, should, and disregard of its true origin. Will, wil, wol, willen, wollen ; past, wolde, wolden. Shal, shall, plur. shull; past, shulde, shulden. These two verbs were now universally used as they are at present, with the infinitive to form the future. As shall originally implied obligation, it had a natural reference to future time ; and as the obligation we impose on ourselves is lighter than Gerund and Modern Infinitive. 103 that we impose on others, it must clearly have a stronger meaning in the second and third person than in the .first : / shall \go= I must go (originally), thou shall, not go=thou must not go. Again, as will meant resolution, determination, it also had reference to future time (cf. modern Greek 6e\u> cfyaTrqy=aya7n}fT(i)) ; and as the resolution we form for our- selves must necessarily be stronger than that we announce of others, 7vill, in the first person, must be more emphatic than in the second and third, I will go than thou wilt go, etc. Here is the whole mystery explained by reference to the original meaning of these words : scealan=to owe a thing, willan=to will a thing. GERUND AND MODERN INFINITIVE. 70. All these verbs were used in A.S. as auxiliaries always with the infinitive, never with the gerund, except in a passive sense, as : is ede lb witanne=it is also to be known; ic sceal maeian, not : ic seeal to maeigenne (I shall make) ; we seeolon geclaznsia?i=we must cleanse; bebn wolde— would be; mi mage we secgan-^-now may we say ; heb hit ne mozg his gewittes beredfian=.she cannot bereave it of its wits. The gerund, we have seen, was a sort of dative case of the infinitive, with the particle to always prefixed : to lufigenne, to habbenne, to l&renne (teach); to lybbenne. This particle never was used with the proper infinitive: lufian, not to lufian, habban, Iceran, lybban ; consequently it cannot be employed in Modern English with the auxiliaries : / may teach, not / may to teach, we can say, they should love, etc. Such expressions, therefore, are not different moods of the verb, any more than would be the corresponding A.S. ic mag Iceran, etc. In them alone do we find traces of a real infinitive, simply because the A.S. auxiliaries governed the verb in the infinitive mood ; all others take the particle to, which is not the sign of the infirutive proper, but of its dative 104 V. — Middle English Period. case or gerund. In order to avoid repetition in the next section, the grammar of this period has been treated as well with reference to the modern as to the previous stages of the language. PROCLAMATION OF EDWARD III.— RECOGNITION OF ENGLISH AS THE NATIONAL SPEECH. 71. In the year 1362, 36th of Edward III., it was enacted by statute that the English might be now substituted for the Norman tongue, hitherto employed exclusively in all public acts and judicial proceedings. 'The proceedings were all written, as indeed all public proceedings were, in Norman or Law French, and even the arguments of the counsel and the decisions of the court were in the same barbarous dialect. This continued till the reign of Edward III., who having employed his arms successfully in sub- duing the crown of France, thought it unbecoming the dignity of the victors to use any longer the language of a vanquished country. By a statute, therefore, passed in the 36th year of his reign (1362), it was enacted that for the future all pleas should be pleaded, shown, defended, answered, debated, and judged in the English tongue, but be entered and enrolled in Latin' (Blackstone, iii. 21), where the great lawyer exhibits more zeal and patriotic feeling than historic accuracy. It appears that the decree referred to only so far tolerated the E. language as to allow it to be used in the courts, not by any means to the exclu- sion of the rival tongue. Of course this was a great step, and quite sufficient to secure the ultimate ascendancy of the language of the masses. In fact the statute itself was necessitated by the growing importance of the latter, rather than dictated by jealousy of the former. At the same time it was decreed that no clergyman, ignorant of English, should be promoted to any preferment or benefice, because the great body of the people spoke no other language. This CJiaucer ridicules use of French. 105 is the first legal recognition of English as the language of the country, and is a great landmark in its history. It points out the time when French had ceased to be spoken outside the court and the upper house, and when the native speech had recovered its ascendancy. French had been falling off since the beginning of the century, and when, owing to the separation of England from the main- land, it became a corrupt dialect, very different from that spoken in Paris, it ceased to be any longer used in litera- ture. Chaucer, in several places, sneers at the French current in the country in his time, and ridicules all who still endeavoured to employ it in conversation or writing. The Prioress in the ' Canterbury Tales ' spoke French fluently enough, but ' After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe.' 1 And in the prologue to his 'Testament of Love' he says: ' Certes, there ben some that speke thyr poysy mater in French, of whyche speeche the Frenche men have as good a fantasye as we have in hearing of Frenche mennes Englische.' Further on he recommends the clerks, or clergy, to ' endyten in Latyn, for they have the propertye in science and the knowinge in that facultye, and lette Frenche men in theyr Frenche also endyte theyr queynt termes, for it is kyndly (natural) to theyr mouthes; and lette us shewe our fantasyes in such wordes as we learnedci of our dames tonge.' It is not a little remarkable that his contemporary, Gower (1324 — 1408), composed in all three of these languages. His ' Vox Clamantis,' which has never been printed, is in Latin; his 'Speculum Meditantis,' now lost, together with fifty baladcs, or sonnets, was in French; and his ' Confessio Amantis,' his best known work, is in P'.nglish. He even excuses himself for any mistakes he may have committed in his French compositions, on the plea that he wrote in a foreign idiom : — 106 V. — Middle English Period. ' The first portion of this passage is accented, according to Skeat's reading, for the purpose of showing the allitera- tion and rhythm. The last few lines are left as they stand in the text, and will serve as an exercise for the student. The few obsolete and obscure words requiring explanation are : — (') Shepe = shepherd, which reading occurs in some MSS. ; ( 2 ) ferly = wonder; ( 3 ) wery fonvand)-ed = worn out with wandering ; ( 4 ) merye - pleasantly; ( 5 ) to meltn=to dream; ( s ) sweune=a. dream; ( 7 ) an hiegh = on high ; ( s ) seigh = saw. With regard to the letter ]> occurring in this text, and which still lingers on, occasionally into the next century, Morris remarks that some ' scribes muddle them up in every manner possible, and even turn ]> into y ; hence the well- known " ye," i.e. \e, for the: (Chaucer, xlix.) But as we have seen that this ' muddle ' existed from the beginning, it is to be hoped that uniformity may yet be brought about by the adoption of some such plan as that of Grein, who re- stricts ]> to the beginning and 8 to the middle and end of words : ' indem ich hier consequent ]> fur den Anlaut und S fur den In- und Auslaut durchgefuhrt habe.' (Bibliothek der A.S. Poesie, I. iv.) For further information on this most interesting poem see Skeat's various publications, including an excellent paper on the subject contributed by him to Hazlitt's edition of Warton, II. 244. 'Piers Ploughman's Creed,' which should not be con- founded with the 'Vision,' is a short satirical poem of 1,697 lines, written by an unknown hand, in imitation of the fore- going, and though considerably more recent (about 1400), is quite as antique in style and structure. Its retention of forms, already partly rejected by Chaucer and his school, shows that great efforts were made to preserve all the inflexions of the last period by the opposite party : wicked folk betraieth, and begileth hem of her good ; and gif thti couthen //brother on Christ leveden; but the foles foundeden Specimens — Chaucer. 113 hemself; thei prechcth and prechen, lurketh and lurken\ seyne that her sustren thei ben that sogurneth aboute ; we sheweth and we haven here made ; we buildeth. CHAUCER— HIS POETIC SYSTEM, GRAMMAR, AND VOCABULARY. 76. But all to no purpose. These compositions could not pretend to compete with the masterpieces of the great father of English poetry, which became universally popular with both parties, and caused his school ultimately to pre- vail. Chaucer (d 1400) was a most voluminous writer ; the poetic portion of his great work, the ' Canterbury Tales,' though unfinished, consisting alone of over 17,000 lines; the 'Romaunt of the Rose' (if by him) of nearly 8,000, etc. He is foreign in his poetic system even more than in his vocabulary, having introduced the Italian endecasillabo, which became, reduced by a syllable, the English heroic measure : syllabic and rhyming, as opposed to the old system, alliterative and accentual, accent being, however, equally and alone essential to both. The opening of the ' Canterbury Tales,' as accented by Morris, who chiefly follows the Harl. MSS. 7334, will illustrate his grammar, vocabulary, and metre : — (') Whan that Aprille with his schowres swoote ( 2 ) The drought of Marche hath pirced to the roote, ( 3 ) And bathed every veyne in swich licoiir, ( 4 ) Of which verhie engindred is the floiir ; ( 5 ) Whan Zephiriis eek with his swete breethe ( 6 ) Enspir'ed hath in every holte and heethe ( 7 ) The tendre croppes, and the yonge Sonne ( 8 ) Hath in the Ram his halfe emirs i-ronne, ( 9 ) And smale fowles maken melodt'e, ( 10 ) That slepen a.1 the night with open eye, (") So priketh hem nahire in here corages : — ( 12 ) Thanne longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, ( ,3 ) And pdlmers for to seeken stratlnge strondes ( 14 ) To feme halwes, koiithe in sondry londe's I 1 14 V. — Middle English Period. Here it is scarcely necessary to observe that es plur. en, inf. and plur. pres. ed past, final e generally, except when elided by a following vowel, should be pronounced as distinct syllables, thus : schowr-es (in 1. 1), ptrc-ed (in 2), mak-m (in 9). Read so, all the verses except (3) and (4), are really endecasyllabic, the last syllable being always unaccented : melodi-e (in 9), cordg-es (in 11), pilgrimdg-es (in 12). Verse (4) consisting of ten syllables strictly (ende- casillabo tronco), represents the metre afterwards universally adopted. All the words in Italics in this passage are foreign, and represent not more than the average proportion to be found in the writings of Chaucer. There may be some exaggera- tion in attributing the great influx of Norman words to him, but there can be no doubt that the fact of his having been the greatest genius of the age, gave, perhaps, undue weight to the Norman school, to which he belonged, and that his influence introduced the practice of borrowing words indis- criminately from foreign tongues. He himself has appro- priated a vast number, which have not been retained ; and this is true of all his followers. Thus mel— honey, roy= king, misericorde=mercy, creansur= creditor, &aine=ba.th, esperance— hope, and others pointed out by Trench (' English, Past and Present '). At the same time there is a strange mix- ture of extreme French and Saxon both in him and in his great admirer, Spenser, which shows that it is writers of the first order who principally enrich and expand the language they employ as the means of giving expression to their boundless thought and imagination. They draw largely upon every available source, for they, more than any others, feel how true it is that more ideas pass through the busy brain of man than all language can supply equivalent terms for. As a further exercise in the reading of Chaucer, the con- tinuation of the prologue, as far as line 42, is here subjoined, from the Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27, the gap from line 28 to Specimens — Chancer. 1 1 5 36 being supplied from the Harl. MS. 1758, as in F. J. Furnivall's edition, London, 1868. ( ,s ) And specialy from euerie schires ende Of Englond to Caunterburye thei wende The holy blisfull martyr for to seke That hem hath holpen whan hat ) ei were seke. Byfell that in that sesoun on a daye In Suthwerk at the Thabard as I laye Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage To Caunterbury with full deuoute corage. At night was come in to bat hostelrye Well nyne and twenty in a compamye Of sondry folk by auenture falle In felschip and pilgrymes were bei alle That towarde Cauntirbury wolde ryde. [The chambres and the stables weren wyde [Harl. 1 75^ And well were esid at the beste, And schortly whan the sonne was to reste So had I spoken with hem euerychon That I was of here felaschip anon, And made forward erly for to ryse To take oure way there as I you deuyse ; But natheles while I haue tyme and space Or that I ferber in this tale pace] Me thynketh it a-cordaunt to reson To telle you all the conclusyoun Of eche of hem as it semyth me And whyche bei were and of what degre, And eke in what aray bat they were inne And at a knyght bere banne wele I ferst begynne. This extract should be read over and over again, in the way already explained, until the reader has acquired perfect ease, and begins to feel the truth of Russell Lowell's re- mark : ' When I remember Chaucer's malediction upon his scrivener, and consider that by far the larger proportion of his verses (allowing always for change of pronunciation) are perfectly accordant with our present accentual system, I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT HE EVER WROTE AN IMPERFECT LINE.' I 2 Il6 V. — Middle English Period. SPECIMENS OF PROSE— MANDEWLLE, TREVISA. 77. During the Early English Period not much prose that can be called literature was written. While a language is shifting and in a rapid state of transition, it may be very convenient for the poet, by supplying him with a multiplicity of forms, old and new, to suit the exigencies of the metre ; but its unsettled state must be felt to be an incumbrance and exceedingly perplexing wherever precision is an object. Hence the earliest compositions amongst all nations are poetic, and none other are possible until the language has acquired a certain consistency. English has now reached this state, consequently prose works become frequent enough. Among the most important and earliest in the language are ' Sir John Mandeville's Travels.' His style, though he is some- what anterior to Chaucer (died in Liege, 1371), is exceed- ingly flowing, so much so that it is evident a good deal of prose was written about the same time. In the following passage from the introduction he gives an account of him- self and of his work : — ' And for als moche as it is long tyme passed that ther was no generalle passage ne vyage over the sea, and many men desiren for to heer speke of the Holy Lond, and han therof gret solace and comfort, I, John Maundeville, knight, alle be it I be not worthi, that was born in Englond, in the town of St. Albones, passede the sea in the yeer of our Lord J. C. 1322, in the day of St. Michelle, and hidre to have ben longetyme over the see and have seyn and gon thorghe manye diverse londes, and many provynccs, and kingdomes, and ties, and have/«.rx#/thorghout Turkye, Tartarye, Percie, Ermonie (Armenia). . . . And ye shulle understonde that I have put this boke out of Latyn into Frensch, and trans- lated it agen out o fFrensche into Englyssch, that every man Mandeville— Trevisa. 127 cf my nacioun may undirstonde it.' The fourteen words in Italics are Norman. Other prose writers were Chaucer, Trevisa, and Wicldiff. Trevisa, a canon of Westbury, in Wilts, finished, in the year 1387, a complete version of the Old and New Testa- ment, the subsequent loss or disappearance of which has occasioned the erroneous impression that Wickliff's (1383) was the only complete translation that preceded the Re- formation. Caxton knew of its existence, and mentions it a hundred years after, in the preface to his edition of Trevisa' s ' Polychronicon.' The following extract from the latter work alludes to the great diversity in the spoken language during the fourteenth century : — ' Hit semeth a grete wonder that Englyssmen have so grete dyversytie on their owin langage in sowne (sound) and in spekyn of it, which is all in one ilonde. . . . Some use straunge, wlaffing, chytrying, harring, garryng, and grysbytyng. The language of the Northumbres, and specyally at Yorke, is so sharpe, slytting, frotyng, and unshape, that we sothern men maye unneth * understande that langage.' In the next passage he informs us that English was sub- stituted for French in schools, as a medium of instruction, about the year 1385 : — ' This maner was myche yused to fore the first moreyn (murrain), and is siththe (since) some dele ychaungide ; for John Cornwaile, a mai'stre of grammer, chaungide the lore in grammer scole, and construction of Frensch into Eng- lisch, and Richard Pencriche lerned that maner teching of him, and other men of Pencriche. So that now, the zere of our Lord a thousand, thre hundred, foure score and fyve, of the seconde King Rychard, after the Conquest nyne, in alle the gramer scoles of Englond children leveth Frensch, and construeth and lerneth an Englisch, and haveth thereby avauntage in oon side and desavauntage in another.' * With difficulty. 1 1 8 V. — Middle English Period. BARBOUR— LOWLAND DLALECT. 78. The greatest poet of the age, next to Chaucer, was a Scotchman, his contemporary, John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen (1320 — 1395)- He is the author of the ' Bruce,' a poem of about 12,500 lines, comprising the history of Scotland between the years 1286 and 1330. It is gene- rally assumed that he wrote in the language at the time spoken in the Lowlands ; yet the subjoined passage from the opening of the fifth book will suffice to show that, allow- ing for the northern pronunciation and certain peculiarities of orthography, it is very nearly, if not quite, as intelligible as Chaucer. It begins with a description of Spring, which may be compared with the beginning of the ' Canterbury Tales,' as above quoted : — This wes in were (spring) quhen vynter tyde Vith his blastis, hydwise to byde, Wes ourdriffin : and byrdis smale, As thristill and the nychtingale, Begouth (begin) rycht meraly to syng, And for to mak in thair synging Syndry notis, and soundis sere, And melody plesande to here. And the treis begouth to ma (make) Burgeonys (buds) and brycht blwmys alsua, To vyn the heling of thar he[v]de, That vikkit vyntir had thame revede ; And all grewis begouth to spryng. In-to that tyme the nobill king, Vith his flot and a few menje, Thre hundir I trow thai mycht weill be, [Wes] to the se, furth of Araiie, A litill forrow the evyn gaiie. Thai rowit fast with all thar mycht, Till that apon thame fell the nycht, That It wox myrky on gret maner, Swa that thai wist nocht quhar thai wer. Barbour — L oivland Dialect. 119 For thai na nedill (needle) had na stane, But rowit alwayis in-till afie, Stemmend alwayis apon the fyre, That thai saw byrnand licht and schire ! It wes bot auentur that thame led : And thai in schort tym swa thame sped, That at the fyre arivit thai, And went to land but mair delay. (The Cam. MS.* G. 23, ed. Skeat, 1870, I. p. 105.) Barbour never supposes that he is writing in any other language than English. He and his successors, Dunbar and Sydney, never call it by any other name, Scotch then and later on still implying the Gaelic or Irish Keltic of the Highlands. More than a hundred years after Barbour, Gawin Douglas (1496 — 1550), Bishop of Dunkeld, trans- lated the ' yEneid.' He also used the language current in the Lowlands in his time ; but that it has already diverged considerably from the southern standard will be evident from the following passage (b. vii. 563, etc. — ' Est locus, Italise in medio sub montibus altis,' etc.) : — ' Amyddis Itale, under the hillis law, Thare standis ane famous stede wele beknaw, That for his brute is namyt in mony land, The vale Amsanctus hate, on ather hand Quham the sydis of ane thik wod of tre, Closis all derne with skuggy bewis hie ; Ane routand burn amydwart thereof rynnis, Rumland and soundand on the craggy quhynnis.' This is more decidedly Scotch, in the modern sense of the word, than is the passage just quoted from Barbour. Two questions, therefore, present themselves : first, how comes a language to be spoken in the Lowlands, during the fourteenth century, which may fairly be called English, and, secondly, how does it happen that this language develops, during the next and succeeding centuries, into what is now * The work was written about 1375, but this MS., which is by far the best, dates only from the year 1487. 1 20 V. — Middle English Period. and S. The twenty-four consonantal sounds are : b, ch, d, dh=S=th in then, f, g hard, h, j, k, 1, m, ng, n, p, r, s, sh, t, th = ]>=th in thin, v, w, y, z, zh=j French, as in delusion, intrusion, treasure, measure. GRAMMAR— NUMBER OF ACTUAL ENDINGS IN MODERN ENGLISH. 85. The difference between the grammar of Middle and Modern English consists in the disappearance from the latter of the inflexions explained as peculiar to the former in the last section (§ 61-67), an d should be there studied. Here it has all been pure loss, no gain. The tendency through- out has been to throw off all the existing forms in the lan- guage, not to revive old or invent new ones. Any accession. 136 VI. — Modem English Period. therefore, must have accrued from foreign sources, Norman or Latin. But it cannot be too strongly insisted upon that such a mixture of grammar as this would imply, is a rare phenomenon in any language, and is unknown to the English. The Greeks would not tolerate even a proper name until it put on a Greek appearance, and submitted itself to the laws of their grammar. Hence Jerusalem becomes Hierosolyma ; Astarte, Astroarche (the star-ruler), and the Byzantine writers, at - a time when the language was breaking up, always de- cline and conjugate regularly any terms they appropriate from the Westerns : 01 ra/3a\\ripioi -mv -love, Chevaliers, Tovpviaeiv from rovoveuevrov. Accordingly, there is no single accession to English grammar from any foreign quarter. The few forms that still survive are the wreck of the A.S. system, developed in Section II., and, in the following table, may be traced down from it through the different periods here treated. The whole body of actual and possible inflexions is only twenty-five, of which sixteen are fixed and appropriated by the pronouns : mine, my, me, etc. The nine moveable forms available for general application are : noun 1, s or 's ; adj. 2, er, est ; verb 6, est, eth, s, ed, edst, ing ; three of which, est, eth, edst, as well as three of the pronominal forms, thine, thy, thee, have already disappeared from the spoken language. If we reflect that such forms as the irregular plur. in -en, or by a change of vowel, oxen, teeth, etc. ; the gen. in -r, our, your, their • the dat. or ace. in -m, him, them, whom ; the strong praeterites, broke, gave ; the present of be, am, art, is, are ; the past of wesan, was, were, etc., are stationary and inca- pable of further use, we may conclude that the English lan- guage has reached a perfect state of analysis, short of just six noun and verbal endings : -s or -s* -er, est ; -s, -cd* ing, f The variations -es, -t, churches, boxes, dipt, blest, &c. , are mere matters of euphony, just as s in reality is pronounced z after a fiat : landz, heads, though written lands, heads. Historical Table of English Accidence. 137 the same number that a single tense of any French, Italian, or Latin verb presents : -0, -as, -at, -amus, -atis, -ant. How- ever, in the table account will be taken of the principal existing forms, in order to show that such as they are they must all be referred to the one native source. The plural j might occasion some doubt, being apparently derivable from the Norman as well as the Saxon. But it has been shown, in Section III., that the Norman had not even any indirect influence in causing a preference for one Saxon declension rather than for another. HISTORICAL TABLE OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE. 86. In each stage of the language there always existed, side by side, double forms, a strong and a weak, the former disappearing at the next stage, and the latter then becoming the strong, with a further softening for the weak, and so on. The A.S. plural of the past tense was both iufoden and lufedon; in Broken Saxon lufodon goes out, lufedon becomes the strong, lufeden the weak form ; in Early English, lufeden and loveden; in Middle English, lovedhi and lovede; in Modern English, loved and lov'd. In the table, the strong form of each period has been selected in preference, in order to mark more distinctly the gradations from one to the other. In the modern, however, it was necessary to give the spoken or weak form, the written being deceptive : have—hav{e). 138 VI.- -Modern English Period. e 4) O m W tn (30 in I'rl i~, f^ r~£ r±4 a" a" a" a ** rt o o o ^ o o o bJ0*tJ3 bfl CUD'S a a c c ~* .*.*,*,* c 4) 4> C fl gfl o a u O .CO X. a •3 1) U J » «) a ,„ %> C = UC usfio JJ W bX) >, >-. 4) q jz On A 4) 4) 4) 0)C «, w u w Q u u < i— i o w c w CQ < u o ►— I 3 4 a 3 "§ .a .S3 .3 .5 v*, D O O O r- j- 3 lf) <- C o> g § a i Otitic ~ 3rl 3 3 u _ o o y, J2 ^} TT 13 O rd o to c X >. c c c 4) .„.B.S3.B So'oo £ H£ > a a > 4) a o id o v. a" HI 4> o a ,d o <-> =Q "a t/) «) 1), t^ >, 5^ d -o *i) "O >, o o u o -a X x ^2 u c T3 2 a -a i !-. O ^3 T3 bO 4) 5 E 41 c rt 4> a a q Historical Table of English Accidence. 139 si rr OiiS O OS*i2« ^ O S*, n 43 4^43 4343 43 X 4= > £ £> r! O £ O 4^ .-. 43 — 3 A-3 u> G O ' c~ ,3 c H '/: o 1/3 „ ^IZ :^3 ' ' *"^ iT 43 1 ' 43 §1 £>'"! ° < fa Ph V 4> >- a> <±S ,±3 _n ■"-■ P <*- r- 5 > '*- *~ 43 £rt rf S <" 3 43 43 .t .- .tS . g .H -m ™ ^ § oj S- a; — > r„ ^ 0) It. c; •J -: v % Z P» **3 l-S «(*-«: y: M •*. W-. ^— '*_••-£ o 5 UJ 43 C •U C/2 U C/2 140 VI. — Modern English Period. -^ ■H's -3 & &, C $ ,_. fcfl bJO 1*4 \j__ Cu "H. tO'35 '35 r* > "JTiS adst ad, cS C C G jj -y j-i 4> «3>-r„ a.43 — 4J 43 O rt22 *=. M 43 43 43 H-l 43 43 43 U U s: 43 1j 2 d rt 43 I 3 C > to rt 43 4) fcfi'S 4< 4-J 43 4> 'd rt •5j tfi ts > rt 43 ci u 43 -^43 43 c" nd, h end, ++ ^5 "=3 V. > •5 -c" d 4> 4> > **.-fl.S > y ■£ 2 2 25 3> 03; 13 13 13 d <-* aval lens lens vvepe ihigli clepe wort rt rt rt rt rt rt r! O 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 U o a pi .ft* 3 x ^ *j 43 43 s I i ^WviiP u S O 3 43 » S [j rH « iTl j K^ « K « o g M t) o"CS r- 43 C C - "n434Jfil?i^^ww tD -t- 4) c S 3-3d o 3 o o . 6 "3 X — i) a ■3; 1> >, £ •° 8 0) 1) 13 43 '^ 13 -" S .£ rt 4> tO c 4) S3 ,4-1 CJ O c m ■" 4) bfl 4! c S rt C 43 4-1 rt ui >^ 4) "^ rt 13 « o 33 rt rt 4343434343434343i!43 O U ? MO ? t/1 4> •4-) >^ s >-. « _^J s< rt ^~ l s a 5 2 o S !- K 4) =/) 1! rt "^ s - *.£ 4) o 8 2 «s « rt ^ * 1 4) 43 "3 4) 43 3 o o o 43 6b o 'd . 43 i2 o -T3 « g II rt -3 II 41 rt u rt ^ s- O ,S s 3 13 43 V 13 13 O 3 a ° g ^ v2 II u ^j 4^^ rt 8 1 I rt etr, Cfl. 41 J; 43 rt O - S rt O C \i II sX -3 4> 43 43 « O -g - S 41 jj 4) g t/3 ^3 . So 4) 43 4) S « g 41 43 . - .£ H p, rt hi .- ,_, o 3 U! 4) 2 o 4) > rt Early English Dialects. 141 *& § u X X C 1- .. « c3 .2 >- -° S 5 U o s «J £ .Sx x w <*1 tn X tuo c "S a V t; sf n X *-• ^ n g 0j X J-t ci C Xr^X "^ tfSg £ U 11 O x xx rt XX X §3 ■^ l?.a c u ,«s a a > «^ H 03 4 8 8.s waeron wesan wesende c S" , X *- rt ci t/1 S "^ ^_» ci O » -5 -a s * d, 1/1 J- o> £3 "S 0) 4) . . •a ° s "^ (^ XI < .5* O T3 XI ci X! c 1) xj ■^^ ,2 s 13 O S O X ha X ^x' = en .5 j- p I- ^J " & *-• ? 2 ^ 1/3 u a - pi 1 51 •» •• " 1 ^ 4-> « b 4> -c hH i; M „ * ^ ^ 3 « t^ X S rt * « en X> .3 ■— 142 VI. — Modem English Period. ANOMALOUS FORMS— PLURALS IN EN. 87. Most of these forms actually occur in the writers of the several periods ; such as do not, have been formed by analogy. A few seem to require further explanation. Chick-en is universally believed to be the old pi. of chick, as ox-en is of ox, the modern chick-ens being considered an instance of a double pi., occasioned by ignorance of the original pi. force of -en in a certain class of A.S. words : ' Sunt qui dicunt in singulari " chicken," et in plurali " chickens." ' ( Wallis). Yet here -en is not the A.S. pi. -an of the def. or simple declension (§ 18), but a diminu- tive A.S. ending : cbc=cock, cycen= chicken, with an irre- gular pi. cycenu. If in Sussex ' they would as soon think of saying "oxens" as "chickens"' (Trench), we can only conclude that provincialisms are not always infallible. So also the -in of welkin from woken, pi. wolcenu, is radical, though generally assumed to be originally pi. Childr-en, on the other hand, from cild, pi. cild-ru, is an instance of a double pi. which has not been satisfactorily accounted for. The old form is still retained in the Irishism childer, proving that the additional n was subsequent to the English inva- sion. The r of breth-r-cn is radical, and the -en is pi., not explained by the A.S. broftor, pi. gebrotira, broftra, and brofiru. The further change of the radical vowel o into e would imply a Norse affinity : broder, pi. broder (Swedish). Nor is the n of swine originally pi. : A.S. stain, pi. swinas. It is a distinct word from, not a pi. of, sow=sug and sugu. Shakspeare says properly, ' O monstrous beast ! how like a swine he lies ! ' By comparing cow, kine, with cu, pi. cy, and man, men, with man, pi. menn irreg., it will appear that the only real remnant of the A.S. def. declension is ox, ox-en, from oxa, oxan* Another instance would be een and * Morris arrives at the same conclusion: 'There were a larger number of these words in the oldest English which Termed the plural Three Dialects — Northern, Midland, Southern. 143 eyne for eyes, from edge, pi. edgan : ' our watry eyne ' (Shahs.). But it is now obsolete, though retained in Scotch ee, een, which is said in many respects to be 'Anglica hodierna purior' (Casaubon). The two plurals shoes and shorn, were both found in the irreg. pi. sceos, sebs, gescy, and scon, sceon of seed, sco, scoe=shoe. THREE DIALECTS— NORTHERN, MIDLAND, SOUTHERN. 88. These and other old English forms not existing in the written A.S., such as doghten=sA.S. dbhtra, bishopen — bisceopas, treen-^treowas, sustrcn-=.swcoslra, only prove that the A.S. we are acquainted with represents, after all, but one variety, that of Wessex, whereas in reality the spoken language was at all times split up into a number of dialects, distinguished by certain peculiarities, amongst which may have been a more general pi. in -en than is found in the classic language of Alfred. Higden mentions three distinct dialects prevalent in his time (fourteenth century) — the northern, the southern, and the midland or Mercian. ' In the above three-fold Saxon tongue, which has barely sur- vived among a few country people, the men of the east agree more in speech with those of the west, than the northern men with the southern. Hence the Mercians or Midland English, partaking, as it were, the nature of the extremes, understand the neighbouring dialects, the northern and the southern, better than those last understand each other. The whole speech of the Northumbrians, especially in Yorkshire, is so harsh and rude, that we southern men cannot understand it.' It is generally believed that it was the union of the midland and southern which produced the present literary language, just as the northern siding with the Lowland ultimately resulted in the modern Scotch. in an ; only one is now in common use, oxen = O. E. oxan. * — Outlines, P- 95- 144 VI. — Modern English Period. These inflexions in -en, now obsolete, may therefore be referred to the midland element, and may help to confirm the statement of Sir F. Madden, that ' the dialects of the western, southern, and midland counties contributed toge- ther to form the language of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- turies, and consequently, to lay the foundation of modern English.' But in his ' Standard English,' Oliphant puts in a strong claim for the northern and east midland dialects, and he certainly does show that there is a larger Norse element in English than had been previously suspected. It has been remarked by competent judges that the provincial speech of Berkshire, the native place of Alfred, resembles most the written A.S., while that of Leicester- shire and neighbouring counties, which is 'remarkable for its want of tone, has contributed more than any of our other living dialects to the formation of our present standard English.' — ' Engl. Rhythms, in Craik's Outlines.' THE MODERN PRONGUNS—IT AND ITS. 89. In the comparative table all the modern inflexions are accounted for, except the gen. of it, its for his ; th for h in they, them, their; and the s in the third pers. sing. pres. indicative for eth or th, has for haveth, hath. The substi- tution of its for his is one of the most singular instances in the language of the importance sometimes attaching to little words and grammatical anomalies. The change is not only modern, but even recent, being still almost unknown in the provincialisms of the south of England. It began about the time of Shakspeare, who uses both forms, but more com- monly his : ' Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earthbound root ?' (Macbeth). Bacon writes : ' Opium loses some of his poisonous qualities ' ; Carew : ' This rule admitteth his exceptions ' ; and the Anglican Bible : ' his shaft and his branch, his They, Their, Them, My, Thy, &c. 145 bowls, his knops and his flowers,' speaking of the candle- stick (Exod. xxxvii.). Its, in fact, never once occurs throughout the whole of that version. But it is met with in the poems forged by Chatterton in the last century, as the productions of a Monk Rowlie, living in the fifteenth: — ' Life and all its goods I scorn.' The famous controversy which they occasioned would have been prevented, and the cheat at once detected, had attention been paid to this single point. The substitution is doubtless an advantage, adding much to the clearness of the language, and was probably occasioned by the neces- sity of distinguishing between his masc. arid his neut. His was considered as more properly the gen. of he, and a new gen. was created for it by analogy : it, its, like man, man's (see Sec. V. §67, adfincm). THE FORMS THEY, THEIR, THEM, MY, THY, &c. 90 The change from hi, hire, and hem to they, their, them goes much further back, traces of it occurring early in the thirteenth century in the northern dialects. The oldest forms are thei, tha (usually identified with the plural of the A.S. definite adjective \>a); ]>air, thar, tlwe; \am, \em, &c. In the south the West Saxon forms held their ground much longer, and 'em=hem=ihem is still heard in the spoken language. Chaucer uses both forms, but prefers the old, while his northern contemporary, Barbour, almost invariably adopts the modern thai, thar, thaim : — The King that nycht his wachis set, And gert ordayne that thai mycht et ; And bad THAIM comford to thaim tak, And at THAR mychtis mery mak. The Bruce, III., 187-190. But although the substitution may, to some extent, be due to northern influence, reference to the kindred tongues L T4-6 VI. — Modem English Period. shows that the A.S. hi, heora, heom must themselves be treated as corruptions, perhaps peculiar to the southern or West Saxon dialect. Hence the modem forms may, in this instance, be looked upon as a return to the more primitive ones, which had never died out in the Northumbrian and Scottish dialects : — Gothic thai thaim thize Lithuanian tie tiemus — Slavonian ti tiem — O. H. German die dem de*o Norse their theim theirra Northumbrian thai thaim thar Modern English they them their West Saxon •hi heom heora Without going beyond the Slavonic and Teutonic groups, this table clearly shows that the dental is pre- historic. Our modern forms need not, therefore, be derived, with Morris and other recent philologists, from the ' plural of the definite article, O.E. tha, probably modified by Scan- dinavian influence.' — 'Historical Outlines,' p. 120. The necessity, again, of avoiding confusion seems to have occasioned this revival : heom softened to him was no longer distinguishable from him sing. ; heora to /lira, hire, hir, her from her fern. sing. ; hi from he. Many of these forms, such as my, his, their, etc., are constantly called possessive pronouns instead of possessive cases 01 personal pronouns. If /, he, they, are personal pro- nouns, they must remain such throughout their inflexions, for a word cannot be one thing in one case and another thing in another, a noun in the sing., an adjective in the pi. Real poss. pronouns partake of the nature of adjectives, agreeing with the thing possessai : caput suum. These, on the contrary, stand for, and agree with, the possessor : his, her head. Of the two, the latter seems the more logical expression, and it will be generally found that the structure of the English is more consistent with sound reason than Verbal Forms — Pres. Indie. —Participles. 147 that of most languages, the peculiar forms they assume depending much upon the national genius. The strong practical turn of the English mind is well illustrated by the present state of English Grammar, in which everything has been rejected which appeared superfluous, and such in- flexions' alone retained as were absolutely required for the sense. The noun has preserved a pi. ending, the adjective remaining unchanged. It was thought more rational to make the pronoun in all cases agree with the person it stood for, and common sense evidently suggested the present philosophic arrangement of gender, by which English is distinguished from all other European languages. The tendency to analysis may therefore be said to have been guided and influenced by a sort of national instinct, causing it to result in a system unsurpassed for clearness and sim- plicity. VERBAL FORMS— PRES. INDIC— PARTICIPLES. 91. The existence, side by side, from the earliest times, of the two forms for the third pers. pres. indicative, loveth and loves, is an additional proof that the written language has resulted from the fusion of the different spoken varieties. Th seems to be peculiarly southern, from A.S. S and aS ; and lov't/i, read'th, zee't/i, raiiith, are still heard in Somerset, where the old southern dialect is best preserved- Dolman, in the sixteenth century, writes : — • So mid the vale, the grayhound seeing stert His fearful foe pursu'th, before she fler'th, And where she tum'th he turn'th her there to beare, The one prey prick' th, the other saefties feare.' On the other hand, the Northumbrian shows, as we have seen, a preference for s, even in the plural. Barbour has giffis where Chaucer would say giveth, mayse for maketh, levys for liveth, and the Scottish ballad of the Jew's Daughter begins : — l 2 I4§ VI. — Modern English Period. ' The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune (Milan), Sae dot's it doune the Pa (the Po) : Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune, Quhan they play at the ba'.' James I. terminates all his plurals in s: he loves, we, ye, they loves; just as in Early English they said : he loveth, we, ye, they loveth. The present of give in the different periods and dialects shows that the modern form is northern and Scotch rather than southern : — Middle E. Saxon. gife gifst Early E. gife gifest t South. give' givest North. giffes giffist Modem. giv(e) givest Kent. yef yefst Wexford. gi' gist Scotch gie gie'st gifS gifeth giveth gffis ghie)s yefth gi'th* gie's /gifaS I gife gifeth giveth ) given j gififis giv(e) yef gi'th gie pi. The forms hav-and and ekns-ing, in the fourth column (p. 140), point out the time when the active part, in -ende began to be confounded with the verbal substantive in -ing and -ung, explained in Sec. IV. § 52. Here it may be observed that this participle, in many grammars, is wrongly called present instead of active. It properly implies action as opposed to passion, being quite indifferent as to time: I am, was, and will be loving. So also the participle in -ed is not past rather than present or future : I am, was, will be loved ; but always passive, even in such phrases as, ' \ have written a letter '=' I have a letter written.' It is not creditable to English philology that the handful of inflexions surviving in the language are not even yet always properly understood or correctly set forth. * 'He et nou//; fade t'zey ee'lean vetch eeman' [He that know.? what to say, mischief fetch the man]. See, in the first number of the Atlantis, an interesting paper by Dr. Russell, President of Maynooth, on this curious old Saxon dialect, surviving until recently in the barony of Forth, county Wexford. He observes, that ' it appears to partake of the vocabulary of each of the three great English provincial groups — the Northumbrian, the Mercian, and the Saxon, but especially of the last. Moreover, judging from the inflexions of the verb, and from the participial forms, it seems to me to belong to a period especially requir- ing illustration.' Relational Words — their Real Nature. 149 RELATIONAL WORDS— THEIR REAL NATURE. 92. Hitherto account has been taken only of the notional words, which are alone subject to inflexion. It is obvious that the number of relational words must increase in propor- tion as the inflexions disappear.* Accordingly we find a great variety of them in modern English, employed in a multiplicity of ways not always easy of explanation. Their very right to be considered as words at all has been ques- tioned, on the ground that they do not answer to the strict logical definition of a term : ' vox ideam exprimens.' At, from, by, are indeed voces, or articulate sounds, but seemingly not termini, being meaningless in themselves, and employed only as substitutes for the old case-endings -an, -um, -ena, which nobody ever maintained to be terms.' Here it is necessary to distinguish between relational terms living and dead, between those that still possess an independent exist- ence of their own, and those that are now destitute of any intrin ic value, between, for instance, do, used as an auxiliary, and the conjunction if. The former present no difficulty, being clearly terms in the strict sense ; the latter, whether explicable or not by reference to A.S., all sound linguists now agree in considering as originally true words, like any other, which, by constant use, have come to lose their primi- tive force, and to be employed only as particles.! Such a thing as a deliberate invention of a conjunction or preposi- tion, any more than of a case or verb-ending, otherwise void * 'The use of relational words (Formworter) is increased especially in a language, such as the English, in which the endings become weakened by the mixture of a foreign element. . . . On the other hand the use of relational words itself brings about a weakening of the endings, as, for instance, in the Teutonic tongues the use of prepositions and of the article has weakened the case endings.' {Becker, Ausfiihr- lic he Deutsche Grammatik, I. 48.) + ' The relational words have generally originated from notional terms (aus Begriffswortern), and their derivation from these may still for the most part be shown.' {Becker, I. 52.) ISO VI.— Modern English Period. of meaning, cannot well be conceived to have taken place at any time. Consequently, if we are now unable to trace any of these so-called particles back to their primitive force, we can only conclude that we are not acquainted with a suffi- ciently ancient state of the mother-tongue to do so. This view is strengthened by the fact that a large number of them having been already clearly accounted for, argues a like con- clusion for the rest, just as a few stones falling to the ground satisfy us that all will if tested. Through* appears to have been the same originall) as the noun door in the sense of a passage or medium. Chaucer -writes : ' Idlenesse the yate of all harmes, the thorukke of all wycked thoughtes,' i.e., as we should say, through which they enter. But it cannot be denied that this is very slippery ground, on which more learning and research than sound reasoning have been often expended. The most firmly-established conclusions, such as ?/=,§w=imperative o$give=grant, have been subsequently shaken, and all that is yet really certain is the general prin- ciple here laid down. THE VOCABULARY— SAXON AND ROMANCE ELEMENTS. 93. The statement that the language has remained un- changed since the middle of the fifteenth century, is true only of its internal structure or grammar. In fixing the date of the modem period no account was or could be taken of the vocabulary, which never is at rest in any living tongue, least of all in English. No people ever absorbed words to any thing like the same extent as the English. Insular and ex- * Through is now generally identified with the Aryan root tar, entering into the Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin comparatives, and clearly connected with the Latin trans. As this trans has in its turn become trh in French, it follows that the expressions tris bon and thoroughly good are originally identical, though we must dig very deeply at the roots of the Aryan stem to recognise their affinity. Vocabulary — Saxon and Romance Elements, i 5 1 elusive in other respects, they are certainly the most cosmo- polite of nations in this. All the known languages of the world, living or dead, that they have at any time come in contact with, have contributed to increase their stock of words to such an extent as to render any attempt at com- plete classification all but impossible. Yet in an historical survey of the one hundred and odd thousand terms contained in the latest dictionaries, a very broad distinction at once presents itself, it being evident that after all the great bulk is made up of Saxon and Romance. Accessions from all other quarters are too insignificant to be compared with these, and may be safely grouped for the moment under the one head of miscellaneous. Here the Saxon portion claims our attention first, for it is not, indeed, ' so much one element of the English lan- guage as the foundation of it, the basis. All its joints, its whole articulation, its sinews, and its ligaments, the great body of articles, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, nu- merals, auxiliary verbs, all smaller words which serve to knit together and bind the larger into sentences, these, not to speak of the grammatical structure of the language, are exclusively Saxon ' — English Past and Present. From which it appears, that in contrasting the two elements, the question of number is of secondary importance, compared with that of the natiire of the words. Of the 28,000 words in Bos- worth's A.S. Dictionary, about 6,000 are supposed to be now obsolete, leaving not more than 22,000 — Bosworth says 23,000 — out of 100,000 of Saxon origin — a large balance in favour of the foreign element. Such is, perhaps, the proportion that obtains in dictionaries, where the language is at rest, and where a prodigious number of words are enrolled which never existed outside the pages of those works, and of the writers whence they were extracted. But the comparison should be made by the analysis of sentences, or of the language in motion, in order to form a correct notion of the proportion that obtains practically. 152 VI. — Modern English Period. Here it is that, on account of the character of the words that are Saxon, the calculation of Trench is really verified. ' Let us suppose the English language to be divided into a hundred parts : of these, to make a rough distribution, sixty would be Saxon ; thirty would be Latin (including of course the Latin which has come to us through the French) ; jive would be Greek. We should thus have assigned ninety-five parts, leaving the other five, perhaps too large a residue, to be divided among all the other languages from which we have adopted isolated words.' And in another part of the same admirable lecture upon ' English a Composite Lan- guage,' he suggests a good practical test of the great pre- dominance of the Saxon element in composition. We shall find, by experience, that it is all but impossible to put together a single sentence of ordinary length, employing exclusively Latin terms, whereas we may without much strain write whole pages of pure Saxon, without the aid of any foreign words. In fact a logical proposition cannot be uttered in Latin, because the copula is always Saxon. We thus obtain a twofold proportion of (a) Saxon : foreign :: 23 : 77 in dictionaries. (£) Saxon : foreign ; : 4 : 1 in the ordinary run of sentences, PREPONDERANCE OF THE SAXON ELEMENT. 94. And even the preponderance of the foreign over the native element in (a) will be considerably modified, when we reflect that it includes not only roots, but a large number of derivatives formed on them by means of Saxon aff- and suffixes : mis, tin, ly, ness, /ess, fid, ship, etc. Thus from the Latin use, we get useful, usefully, useless, uselessness ; so un- fortunate, duti-ful, briefless, falsehood, words which might, with equal propriety, be classed with the native element. The converse of this, i.e. the formation of derivatives on Saxon roots by means of Latin adjuncts, a, ab, pro, ex, al, tion, etc., does not hold as a rule, Starv-ation is a curious Preponderance of the Saxon Element '. 153 instance, coined in 1775 by Mr. Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, thence nick-named ' Starvation Dundas.' We say lawful, but leg-rt/, un-law-ful and il-leg-al, law-fulness and leg-al-ity. An exception should, however, be made in favour of the ending -able, used in such a variety of ways and with such an utter disregard of its original active force : eatables, drinkables, for things that may be eaten or drunk ; movable, allowable, sensible, for senseful, sensitive, and sensible in the expression, ' a sensible man ; very sensible of the cold, and of any sensible change in the weather ' — Diversions of Purley* The ratio of 23 : 77 is further diminished by the fact, that many of the Saxon words are susceptible of so many different meanings, and of such a variety of applications, that they are often equivalent to four or five distinct terms ; so that the whole number, 23, will be employed, on a rough cal- culation, at least three times oftener than the 77 representing the foreign element. Dr. Withers has illustrated the capa- bilities of the word get by a short specimen, in which it occurs 29 times, nearly always in a different sense, without exhausting its almost endless significations : 'I got on horse- back after I got your letter. When I got to Canterbury, I got a chaise for town ; but I got wet through . . got such a cold . . to get rid of . . got shaved . . . got into the secret . . . got back ... got to bed . . . got up . . . got down . . . got out . ... got home, etc' * But such formations date properly from the time of Robert Mannyng (about 1 300), who was such a daring innovator in this as in many other respects, and whose writings perhaps mainly on this account assume at times such a surprisingly modern air. Thus he substitutes aystyanyte for cristen-dom, and writes bond-age, which Oliphant instances as ' the first of many words in which a French ending is tacked on to an English root,' p. 246. Later on the practice becomes very frequent, forming a marked feature of the language of Bishop Pecock, who wrote about the middle of the fifteenth century. He is very partial to the ending able, forming compounds with it, such as do-able, se-able, here- able, knowe-able, &c, that have since been rejected. 1 54 VI. — Modern English Period. THE FOUR PERIODS OF THE ROMANCE ELEMENT. 95. Thus, then, the Latin element, though actually out- numbering the native, is, in reality, of far less importance. The accessions from this source have been divided into the four following periods, which are so far convenient that they point out at once both the time and the nature of the words introduced at different epochs : — A.D. (a) Roman Latin (I-400) 1 , . , . n TT _ , n\ ru v, t <-■ / \A t explained in Sec. II. § 26. (0) Church Latin (400-1066) » (r) Norman Latin (1066-1450) ,, in Sec. IV. § 54 and 55. (d) Book Latin (1450-1875) The amount contributed at each of these stages may be represented by the proportions : — a + b : c'.w : 100 a + b + c : d::i : 20 That is to say, 100 words were appropriated during the Nor- man Latin Period, for every one during the two previous taken together ; and 20 during the last, or Book Latin Period, for every one during the three previous taken together. In fact, the actual number borrowed directly and indirectly from the Latin throughout the whole of (d) is altogether incalculable, if we take into account as well those that have been rejected as those that have been retained. A steady stream of Latinisms was poured into the language with little interruption from the age of Chaucer to that of Gib- bon, at some times more copiously than at others, according to the greater or less prevalence of pedantry and learning. It is remarkable that the Scotch carried the practice to the greatest extent, introducing indiscriminately Latin and French words wholesale into their compositions, especially in the fifteenth century, by which they disfigured their own writings without enriching the language. 'The prevailing fault of The Four Periods of the Romance Element. 155 English diction in the fifteenth century, is redundant orna- ment and an affectation of Anglicising Latin words. In this pedantry and use of aureate terms, the Scottish versifiers went even beyond their brethren of the South .... When they meant to be eloquent, they tore up words from the Latin, which never took root in the language, like children making a mock garden with flowers and branches stuck in the ground, which speedily wither' — Campbell in Trench. Some idea of the length to which the Scotch poets went in this respect may be formed by a passage from the ^Eneid of Douglas, in the opening of the twelfth book : — ' The auriate vanes of his throne-soverane With glittering glance o'erspread the oceane ; The large fludis learning all of licht, With but ane blink of his supernal sicht. For to behold it was ane glore to see The stabled windis and the coloured sea, The soft season, the firmament serene, The lowne illuminate air, and firth amene. ' Here there are thirteen Latin words, of which the seven in Italics were probably coined for the occasion by the poet. The Scottish dialect thus came to be distinguished by two seemingly opposite tendencies, towards the classic tongues in its vocabulary, the Saxon in its grammar (see in this sec, § 86 and 87). The rage for appropriation prevailed in England princi- pally in the fifteenth century, throughout the Elizabethan age in its greatest extent, and from the Restoration to the death of Gibbon (1794). The wars of Marlborough caused a second accession of French words, chiefly military, of which Addison says in the ' Spectator' (No. 165) : — 'The present war has so adulterated our tongue with strange words, that it would be impossible for one of our great-grandfathers to know what his posterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern newspaper. Our warriors are very industrious in propagating the French language at the 156 VI. — Modern English Period. same time that they are so gloriously successful in beating down their power.' He instances reconnoitre, marauder, corps, commandant, pontoon, fascine, etc., as recent innovations. CAUSES OF THE COMPOSITE CHARACTER OF MODERN ENGLISH. 96. A variety of causes worked together in rendering the English the most absorbing of all languages. There was first of all the facility and habit acquired by the practice of the Anglo-Norman writers, explained in the last section, § 74 and 75, of which scribblers availed themselves without restraint, introducing an incredible number of foreign words into their writings, through their eagerness to exhibit to the world their ignorance of their own, and their superficial acquaintance with strange tongues. The sort of medley that resulted, and which in times of pedantry passed for fine writing, may be judged of by the style of the following pas- sage in the preface of ' a prose narrative of the adventures of this same Knight of the Swan (C/ievekre de Cigne), newly translated (15 12) out of Frenshe into English e at thinstiga- cion of the puyssaunt and illustryous prynce, lorde Edward, duke of Buckyngham [beheaded 15 21]. . . . This highe dyghe and illustryous prynce . . . desyrynge cotydially to encrease and augment the name and fame of such as were relucent in virtuous feates and triumphant acts of chyvalry, and to encourage and styre every lusty and genteel herte by the exemplyficacyon of the same, havyng a goodly booke of the highe and miraculous histori of a famous and puyssant kynge named Oryant.' Further on occur the words ententifly, mniming, cohorted, entendcment, and many hundreds more not now used, but generally current at the time in the works of a class of writers, who ' do greatly seek to stain the language by fond affectation of foreign and strange words, presuming that to be the best English which is most corrupted with Composite Character of Modern English. 157 external terms of eloquence and sound of many syllables ' — Harrison's Chronicle, Sixteenth Century. Over 3000 such short-lived terms are to be found in the works of Sir H. Browne and Jeremy Taylor. Another inducement to borrow largely was the necessity scientific writers and translators were under of finding equi- valents for such compound and abstract terms as either never existed in the language, or had disappeared during a long period of neglect. In all cases it was much more expe- ditious to take the word supplied by the text, drop its in- flexions, and give it an English air, by slightly modifying the termination. In this way the early translators of Scripture Anglicised words like perdition, consolation, reconciliation, sanctification, immortality, transfigure. A numerous class of theological, philosophical, abstract, and general terms was thus introduced, first into learned works, and then, as these were perused with the spread of general reading, into the current literature, and so familiarised. The number was increased by a natural desire, felt especially by translators, of enriching the language with synonyms and forcible terms, even when corresponding words already existed. In the treatment of elevated subjects, many Normanized Latin words had become too common-place to be any longer available, necessitating a second importation, in a different form, of the same word, or of derivatives direct from the Latin, of previously embodied Norman roots. A curious instance is the Norman almosine, filed down through almosie, almose, almes, to the monosyllable alms, with its seven-sylla- bled adjective of later date, elee?nosynary, from the original. The following table will show how abstract derivatives were taken from the Latin, rather than formed on existing Nor- man and Saxon roots. Some of these thus came to lose the power of further development, as church, side, hinge, whilst the adjectives formed on others seemed to lack dignity, though useful in their proper place, child-like, boyish, etc. : — i 5 8 VI.- -Modcrn English Period. church, ecclesia, ecclesiastical. money, pecunia, child, infans, infantine. sun, sol, boy, puer, puerile. parish, parochia, people, populus, populous. enemy, inimicus, hinge, cardo, cardinal. chapter, capitulum, side, latus, lateral. root, radix, kind, genus, general-ic. number, numerus, isle, insula, insular. mind, mens, dog, canis, canine. knowledge, scientia, reason, ratio, rational. language, lingua, pecuniary. solar. parochial. inimical. capitular. radical. numerous. mental. scientific. linguistics. But, perhaps, the greatest cause of all, as that on which those just mentioned were based, was the extremely simple state the language had been reduced to in its structure at the time when the want of a large supply of new words first began to be felt. It is evident that a synthetic language never could become a borrower to any great extent, its nume- rous inflexions warding off all intruders at whatever point they may wish to force an entrance. Hence the homogeneous character of the classic tongues, and the failure of a large number of Greek terms in attempting to insinuate them- selves into Latin, even when taken up by Plautus, Cicero, and others of the greatest weight in literature. Harpagare (apirafa) might read very well, just in one or two tenses or persons, but in others it would appear ridiculous : harpaga- bamur, harp agar entur, etc. ; so apolactizare, morologus, tec/ma, mastigias, and others, in Plautus and Terence, refusing to conform themselves to Latin grammar, occasionally also because not required, were ultimately discarded. The Romans were thus compelled to fall back on native sources, just as English writers would have been driven to cultivate the Saxon, had the language preserved any considerable portion of its inflexions when its sphere of action began to be enlarged in the fourteenth century. Then, the Saxon element failing, they would have had recourse to idioms and phrases, such as those employed by the early translators of Scripture, to explain newly-adopted words, or to supply the place of others that could not be embodied : ' I do thankingis to God up on the unenarrable, or, that may not be told, gifte of him' (IT. Cor., ix.) ; so 'whatever thingis amy able, or able to be lovid' ; l swadible, i.e., Romance Element in Modern English. \ 59 est for to trete and to be tretid' : ' thou that art to comynge '== qui venturus es ; ' that is to demynge the quyke and deed '= judicatures vivos et mortuos, etc., occurring in a version of the N. T. made about 1350. The oneness, or homogeneous character, of the language would have been thus preserved at the expense of the more valuable qualities of boundless wealth and expressiveness. We may conclude that the English never could have become the most composite of all European tongues in its vocabulary, unless it had first become the most analytic in its grammar. ANALYSIS OF THE ROMANCE ELEMENT IN MODERN ENGLLSH. 97. Considered with regard as well to the manner as to the time of their adoption, the whole body of Latin words may be divided into four classes. Some, principally relating to church matters, were introduced in Saxon times. These were, therefore, first Saxonized: episeopus=bisceop=bishop (a). Some in Norman times, and therefore Normanized : amabilis=aimable = amiable (b). Some during the modem period direct, and simply Anglicized: homicida=homicide (c). Some recently, chiefly technical, without any change : postulata (d). A few have actually undergone all these pro- cesses, as : — (*) J predicare t predician precneur preacher praedicare, predicate, (d) prsedicata. praedicata. J sanctus, 1 sanct, sanctifier sanctify, sanctitas, sanctity, S. sanctorum S. sanctorum J candela, \ candel, chandlier, chandler, candelabrum, candelabrums, candelabra, candelabra. Tt should, however, be observed, with regard to most of these Saxonized words, that the orthography of their present equivalents proves them to be a later importation through the Norman, not a modification of the older forms. Munk maybe from miinnc, priest from preost, but porch is evidently the Norman porche, not the Saxon portic ; parsley from persil i6o VI. — Modem English Period. rather than from peterselige ; so saint, preach, perhaps chalice (see § 26). Several have gone through the first three changes, as : — (") J clauster, 1 cluster, (6) cloitre, cloister, (c) claustrum. claustral. Jpa:l, 1 Pall, palliatif, palliative, pallium, pallium. J munuc, 1 munk, monachisme, monachism, nonachus. monachal. J mynster, 1 minster, monastere, monastery (?) monasticus monastic. J msesse, 1 mass, missive, missive, missalis. missal. Some of these are doubtful, nor is it always possible to say whether a word is from the Norman or Latin, monastery from monastere or monasterium. liberty from liberie or libertas, nation from nation or natio. Of course, if current in Norman and Early English times, the presumption will be in favour of a Norman origin, though many such terms were even then introduced direct from the Latin by translators from Latin works, especially Trevisa and Wicklifif. Others have passed through the three last stages, as : — 16) 00 (<*) . (3) (c) (<*) ray, radious, radii. indicant, indexes, indices. radiant, radiate, radiata. nebule, nebulous, nebula;. radish, radical, radices. genial, geniuses, genii addition, add, addenda. general, generate, genera. errant, error, errata. And a vast number through (b) and (c), always with a difference of meaning, thus contributing with their Saxon equivalents to the unequalled resources of the language in expressing the nicer shades of thought. The following list bears out, on the whole, the rule which has been laid down, that ' if a word be directly from the Latin, it will not have undergone any alteration or modification in its form and shape, save only as respects the termination : " innocentia " will have become " innocency," " natio " will have become " nation," " firmamentum," " firmament," but nothing more. On the other hand, if it comes through the French, it will Synonyms. 161 generally be considerably altered in its passage. It will have undergone a process of lubrication ; its sharply-defined Latin outline will in good part have departed from it; thus "crown" is from " corona," but through " couronne," and itself a dis- syllable, "coroune" in our earlier English; "treasure" is from " thesaurus," but through " tre'sor " ; " emperor " is the Latin " imperator," but it was first " empereur " ' — E. Past and Present, I. It also illustrates what is often found to be the case, that the Saxon element is the more poetic, the Norman the more available for ordinary purposes, and the Latin the more scientific. There is poetry in beam : ' Smiling through pleasure's beam,' or, 'As a beam o'er the face of the waters,' where ray would be intolerable. But we talk in prose of the rays of the sun, and in science of the radii of a circle. Saxon. Norman. lawful, loyal, kingly, royal, deadly, mortal, trust, fealty, tithe, dime, beam, ray, leader, chief, wonder, marvel, ox, beef, strength, force, wise, sage, old, ancient, Latin. Saxon. Norman. Latin. legal. weak, frail, fragile. regal. try, prove, probe. mortiferous. wedlock, marriage, matrimony. fidelity. ghost, sprite, spirit. decimal. fearful, horrible, horrid. radius. clever, adroit, dexterous. captain. bold, valiant, valorous. miracle. atonement, ransom, redemption. bovine. first, prime, primary. fortitude. feeling, sense, sensation. sapient. shorten, abridge, abbreviate antiquated to lower, to humble, to humiliate SYNO. YVMS. 98. Some of the words in this list, which might be ex- tended to any length, approach very nearly to what are called perfect synonyms. The question of the actual exist- ence of such in any language should perhaps be decided, as metaphysicians have decided that of the possible existence of two or more objects perfectly similar without being iden- tical, i.e., solo numero differentia. Intrinsece non repugnant, ergo extrinsece possibilia, sed non dantur. So that, though such terms may be conceived as possible, practically they do not exist. The reason is because ideas being vastly more numerous than words, it would lack common sense to bestow M 1 62 VI. — Modem English Period set Leden ne cunnon,' i.e. Here is the Belief, and Prayer, and Blessing, for lay men, they that can not Latin. II. About 880. From Mareschall and Junius' ' Saxon Gospels.' III. About 975. In the Northumbrian dialect, from the ' Rush worth Gloss.' IV. About 1130. From the celebrated 'Psalter' in Trinity College, Cambridge, re- ferred by Wanley to the reign of Stephen. Note here the -disappear- ance of many strong endings, a more modern arrangement of the words, and the substitution of give for syllan, which originally meant not to sell, but to give. But Normanisms are still absent. 1 74 Appendix I. V. About 1 1 75. A poetic version, from a MS. se .t by Adrian IV. to England during the reign of Henry II. VI. About 1200. From a MS. in Trinity College, Cambridge, ' Wanley,' p. 169. VII. About 1250. Also in rhyme. Here for the first time we find traces of Nor- manisms in the words dettes and detturs. The grammar and order of words are modern. VIII. About 1280. From a MS. of the thirteenth century, printed in the ' Reliquiae Antiquae,' i. 22 — apparently in the East Midland, or perhaps Northum- brian dialect. IX. About 1380. This is from \\ yaift s version, completed in the reign of Richard II. It contains five Romance terms : substaunce, dettis, dettouris, tempta- cioun, and ddyvere. X. About 1430. From a Bodleian MS. said to have been given by Henry VI. to the Carthusians in London. It seems, like all subsequent versions, to be based on that of Wycliff. -XI. About 1500. From the ' Liber Festialis.' X I I. 1526. From Tyndale's Version. Lord's Prayer, 8t/i to 16th Century. 175 Twelve Versions of the Lord's Prayer 1. Du ure Freder, oe eart on heofenum. 2. Fa?der ure J>u, be eart on heofenum. 3. Faeder ure \>u, be in heofonum eariS. 4. Fader ure, he art on heofone. 5. Ure fadyr in heaven rich ; 6. Fader ure, thu ert in hevene. 7. Fadir ur, that es in hevene, 8. Ure fadir, bat hart in hevene, 9. Our Fadir, that art in hevenys ; 10. Oure fadir, that art in hevenes ; 1 1. Fader eure, that arte in hevynes ; 12. Our Father, which art in heaven ; 1 . Sy Sin nama gehalgod. 2. Si bin nama gehalgod. 3. Beo gehalgud bin noma. 4. Sy gebletsod name bin, 5. fty name be hallyed everlich ; 6. Bledsed be thi name. 7. Halud thi nam to nevene ; 8. Halged be H name with giftis sevene : 9. Halewid be thi name ; 10. Halewid be thi name ; 11. Halowed be thy name ; 12. Halowed be thy name ; 1. Gecume bin rice. 2. To becume bin rice. 3. Cume to bine rice. 4. Cume bin rike. 5. ftou bring us thy micheli blisse ; 6. Cume thi rixlenge. 7. Thou do as thi rich rike ; 8. Samin (also) cume bi Kingdom, 9. Thi kingdom come to ; 10. Thi kingdom come to thee ; 11. Thy kingdom come ; 12. Let Thy kingdom come ; 1. Sy 'Sin willa swa swa on heofenum swa eac on eorban. 2. GewurSe bin willa on eorban swa swa on heofenum. 1 76 Appendix I. 3. WeorSe bin willa swa swa on heofune swilc on eortSe. 4. Si bin wil swa swa on heofone and on eorban. 5. Als hit in heaven y-doe, Evar in yearth beene it also. 6. Wurthe thi wil on eorthe swo it is on hevene. 7. Thi will on erd be wrought eek, as it is wrought in heven ay. 8. pi wille in herbe als in hevene be don, 9. Be thi wil done in erthe, as in hevene. 10. Be thi wil don in eerthe, as in hevene. 1 1 . Thy wyl be doon in erth, as it is in hevyn. 12. Thy will be fulfilled as well in earth as it is in heven. 1. Syle us to daeg urne daeghwomlican hlaf. 2. Urne da;ghwamlicam hlaf syle us to dasg. 3. Hlaf userne dreghwamlicu sel us to dseg. 4. Breod ure degwamlich,£w/~us to dasg. 5. 'Sat holy bread that lasteth aye, "Sou send it ous this ilke day. 6. Gif us todai ure daigwamliche bread. 7 Ur ilk day brede give us to day. 8. Ure bred bat lastes ai, give it hus this hilke dai ; 9. Give to us this day oure breed ovir othir subslaitnce, 10. Give to us this day oure breed over othre substance ; 1 1 . Our every daies brede gyve us to daye ; 1 2. Geve us this day ur dayly bred, 1. And forgif us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfab "Sam "Se wib us agyltab. 2. And forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgifaS urum gyltendum. 3. And forlete us ure scylde swa swa we ec forleten bsem be scyl- digat wib us. 4. And forgeof us ageltes ura swa swa we forgeofen agiltendum urum. 5. Forgiue ous all that we have done As we forgiuet uch other mon. 6. And forgiue us ure gultes swo we don hem here the us agult. 7. Forgive thou all us dettes urs, als we forgive till ur detturs. 8. And ure misdedis bu forgyve hus, als we forgyve bam bat misdon hus ; 9. And forgive to us our dettis, as we forgiven to oure dettouris. 10. And forgive us our dettis, as we forgiven oure dettouris ; 11. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgyve theym that trespasse agaynste us : 12. And forgeve us oure dettes as we forgeve ur detters. Lord's Prayer, 8t& to \6th Century. 177 1. And ne laed c!u na us on costnunge. 2. And ne gelcedde Jm us on costnunge. 3. And ne geloet us geleade in costnungse. 4. And ne led us on costunge. 5. Ne let ous fall into no foundung. 6. Habbeth shild us fram elche pine of helle. 7. And ledde us in na fandung. 8. And leod us intol na fandinge ; 9. And lede us not into temptacioun ; 10. And lede us not into temptation, 11. And lede us not in temptacion, 12. And leade us not into temptation, 1. Ac alys us fram yfele. Sy hit swa. 2. Ac alys us of yfele. Soblice. 3. Ah gelese us of yfle. Amen. 4. Ac alys us fram yfele. Swa beo hit. 5. Ac shield ous fro the fowle Hng, Amen. 6. Ac les us of alle iuele. Amen. Swo it wurthe. 7. But sculd us fra ivel thing. Amen. 8. Bot frels us fra alle ivele binge. Amen. 9. But dclyverc us from yvel. Amen. 10. But delivere us from ivel. Amen. 11. But delyver us from all evyll. Amen. 12. But delyver us from evyll. For thyne is the kyngdom, and the power, and the glorye, for ever. Amen. N i/8 APPENDIX II. A DIGEST OF EARLY ENGLISH REMAINS FROM BEOWULF TO MANNING. Anglo-Saxon Period : 450-1066. (Pagan and Continental.) Beowulf : an alliterative epic, 6,350 short lines — pre- historic, but committed to writing in Christian times— one MS. Cott. Vitellius A. 15, fol. 130-198— referred to tenth cen- tury, injured by the fire in Brit. Mus. 1731, probably repre- sents the West Saxon speech of seventh century, first published by G. J. Thorkelin, Copenhagen, 1815. In present form say . 650 (Best ed. Grein's, in his Bibliothek der A.S. Poesie, i. 1857.) FlNNESBURG : a war-song, pre-historic, fragmentary, 48 lines, discovered by Hickes on the cover of a MS. of Homilies in Lambeth Lib. and published in his Thesaurus Ling. Vet. Sept. 1703-5 650 Deor's Complaint : partly epic and partly lyrical, in strophes, probably composed on the Mainland — in the Exeter MS., 42 lines, Grein ed. vol. I. ..... 650 WiDsrS = The Wide Wanderer : a descriptive poem. If the ' Wanderer' be a real character, may be referred to A. 375, d. of Eormenric, King of the Goths, visited by him. Other- wise pre-historic and legendary. In the Exeter MS., ed. Grein, I. 143 lines ......... 650 (Christian.) Cadmon : of him genuine : ' Hymn on the Creation,' a scrap, referred to by Beda, ' Eccl. Hist.' IV. 24, and em- bodied in a West-Saxon form in Alfred's version of that work ; but a Northumbrian MS., Bodl. C. C. C. ? referred to tenth century, possibly preserves the original text, died . . . 6S0 English Remains, from Beowulf to Maiming. 1 79 To him also referred : Poetical Paraphrase of Genesis, 2,935 anes 5 °f Exodus, 5S9 lines ; of Daniel, 765 lines ; and portions of N. T. — all extant in a Southern form, in one MS., Bodl. Jun. XL, referred to tenth century, first published by Junius, Amsterdam, 1655, again by Thorpe, 1832, and Grein, I. 1857. If at all composed by the Northumbrian Cadmon, has been materially altered by Southern transcribers — present text seems to represent the West Saxon speech of eighth century, sa y 750 To him the poem of ' The Holy Rood, a Dream,' 87 lines, in the Vercelli MS. (21 lines of which also in Runes on the Ruth well Cross, first decyphered by Kemble), is wrongly attributed by George Stephens, who reads the head Rune : Cadmon mce fauebo = Cadmon me fawed (made). But this may refer perhaps to the engraver, or designer of the Cross, cer- tainly not to the author of the poem, who seems to have been Cynewulf, here-under mentioned, and who composed it as an introduction to the longer poem of the Elene (undoubtedly by him) which follows it in the Vercelli MS., and in the epilogue expressly alludes to it 800? The Judith : a religious epic, in 12 cantos, of which last three only extant, in same MS. as the Beowulf, fol. 199 — 350 lines, probably the very finest piece of A. S. poetry extant — author unknown — almost certainly not Cadmon, although attri- buted to him by Stephens on what he calls internal evidence, a phrase often meaning nothing more reliable than the critic's inner consciousness. Grein ed., vol. I. Language West Saxon, somewhat more recent than the araphrases, say . 800 Cynewulf : name certain, being worked in acrostic fashion into some of his longer pieces — identity not settled ; neither a bishop of Lindisfarne (d. 78°)) nor an abbot of Peterborough (d. 1014), as has been supposed, but probably a Northumbrian minstrel (and consequently a layman) of eighth or ninth century, though all his works are extant in a Southern form. They are contained partly in the Vercelli, and partly in the Exeter Codex. Thus in the Vercelli : His Elene, or Finding of the True Cross, 1,321 lines in Grein's ed., Vol. II. ; The Adventures OF St. Andrew amongst the cannibal Marmedonians, 1,724 N 2 I So Appendix I L lines (of which conclusion defective, but probably contained his name in Acrostics) ; and The Holy Rood above mentioned under Cadmon. As the short extract from this in Runes on the Ruthvvell Cross is in the Northumbrian speech, we may con- clude that all his writings were originally composed in this dialect, and that, as stated, Cynewulf was a North countryman, the forerunner of the long race of Northern minstrels that have not yet ceased to sing. In the Exeter MS. his Legend of St. Juliana, who suf- fered under Maximinian, 731 lines ; his Christ, a series of hymns on the threefold coming of Christ, 1,694 lines ; and a collection of riddles or charades elegantly turned. There are several other lyrical pieces in the Exeter MS. which from their style seem also to be the work of Cynewulf. Such are : The Life of St. Gu^lac, 1,353 lines ; The Phcenix, 677 lines ; The Wanderer, 115 lines ; The Seafarer, 124 lines ; The Wife's Complaint, 53 lines ; and the striking fragment of The Ruin, 47 lines. These shorter lyrical pieces, if by him, are much superior to his longer works, and entitle him to the highest rank among Anglo-Saxon poets. All are g 00 _ published by Grein, Vols. I. and II., and may be referred to . 850 The Northumbrian Psalter, in the Rushworth Gos- pels, IV. Prolegomena, CIX. (Surtees Society), referred by Garnett to 800 Psalms 51 to 150, metrical, MS. Bibl. Paris, of eleventh century, but Dietrich (apud Grein) says that this version ' Viel- leicht dem Aldhelm zuzuschreiben sei' (II. 412) . . . 800? Psalms i to 50, in prose, same MS. as foregoing, probably composed in eleventh century to complete the Psalter, or to re- place lost metrical originals. All edited by Thorpe, Oxford, 1835, and Grein, Vol. II. PSALM L. Cott. Vesp. D. VI. ed. Grein, Vol. II. Alfred's writings : a free version of Orosius, with im- portant additions. A close translation of Beda's Eccl. Hist. ; an enlarged version of Boethius, ' de Consolatione Philoso- phies^ the poetical portions of which are published separately by Grein, Vol. II., and his translation of Pope Gregory's Regula Pastoralis, extant in three contemporary MSS. : Bodl. Hatt. 20; Cott. Tib. B. XI. (best text) ; and Cott. Otho B. II. The first two (collated with the third) printed by English Remains, from Beowulf to Manning. 1 8 1 Henry Sweet, Oxford, 1871, for the Early English Text ^ Society .......... 900 The Saxon Chronicle : a national record, retrospective from J. Caesar till the reign of Alfred (by whom probably originated), thenceforth till death of Stephen (1 154), contem- porary, or nearly so, with some forgeries, for which see below, ad A. 1 1 20. Extant mainly in six MSS. more or less perfect, and breaking off at various dates : — I. The Plegemund, Corp. Cam. LXXIII. The Saxon por tion ending in 1070. II. Cotton Tib. A. VI., ending 977. III. Cott. Tib. B. I., ending 1066. IV. Cott. Tib. B. IV, ending 1079. V. Cott. Dom. A. VIII., ending 1058, in Saxon and Latin. VI. Bodl. Laud E. 80, ending 11 54. Inserted at various dates are sundry short poems, odes, war- songs, elegies, and the like, as under : Ad an. 937. The Battle of Brunnanburh, celebrating the great victory of ^Ethelstan over the combined Norse and Scottish forces, 144 lines ; A. 941, an ode in honour of King Edmund, 26 lines ; A. 958, on Edgar's Succession, 51 lines ; A. 973, on Edgar's Coronation at Akemanscester, or Bath, 39 lines ; A. 975, on Edgar's Death, 74 lines ; A. 979, on King Edward's Murder, 34 lines; A. 1011, on The Seizure of Archb. Elphege, 11 lines; A. 1036, on Godwin's Misdeeds, and Cnut's Death, 40 lines ; A. 1057, on The Death of Edward the Etheling, 34 lines ; A. 1065, on Edward's Death and Harold's Succession, 68 lines, after which the Saxon muse is silent for ever. The Sax. Chr. was edited first by Abraham Wheloc, Cam- bridge, 1644, and again by Rev. James Ingram, London, 1823, who collated all known MSS. But the best editions are Earle's two parallel text, 1865, and Benjamin Thorpe's, g 7Q _ London, 1861 : language mostly Southern, between . . 1154 The Menologium, a poetical Calendar, Cott. Tib. B. I. ed. Samuel Fox, London, 1830, Ebeling in his Ags. Lesebuch, 1847, and Grein, Vol. II 900? St. Maria ^Egyptiaca : one of the two ' Gloucester fragments,' edited with photozincographic facsimiles by J. Earle, London, 1861 — three leaves defective, West Saxon, referred by editor to about . . . . . . .925 1 82 Appendix II. St. SwfShun : the second 'Gloucester fragment,' three leaves, also West Saxon, referred to early part of yE'Selred's reign, say 985 The Death cf ByrhtncvS, known also as the Battle of Maldon, a spirited historical ode. Cott. Otho A. 12 ; 690 lines, slightly defective at beginning and end ; ed. Grein, Vol. I. in 325 long lines — composed soon after the death of the hero, Byrhtnofi, who fell at the battle of Maldon, Essex, in . . 993 The four Gospels in West Saxon, in two MSS. : I. Corp. Cam. by one ^Elfric in the Monastery of Bath, about the year 1000 ; II. Hatton, Oxford, which seems to be a later copy of IOOO same, about 1050 ......... 1050 The four Gospels in Northumbrian, partly glosses, partly independent translations (not all glosses, as Skeat wrongly supposes in pref. to his ed. of Mark, 1871). Extant in two MSS. : I. The Lindisfarne, or ' Durham Book,' Cott. Nero D. 4, Latin text by Eadfrith, b. of Lindisfarne about 700, Anglian interlinear translation and gloss by Aldred, 250 years later. II. The Rushworth MSS., of which Matthew and one chapter of Mark are an independent continuous ver- sion, not a gloss. The rest is a more recent copy of the Lindis- qc _ fame MS., Latin text 750, translation and gloss about 975 . 975 Note. — Synoptical editions of these four West Saxon and Northumbrian Gospels begun by Kemble (Matthew, Cam- bridge, 1858), and continued by Skeat (Mark, London and Cambridge, 1871 ; Luke, 1874). ^Elfric : either the Archb. of Canterbury (d. 1006) or far more probably the ^Elfric, pupil of Ethelwold, b. of Win- chester, and elected Abbot of Cerne in Dorsetshire, 1005. To him a large number of works are referred, amongst which two series of HOMILIES, 40 in each, ed. by Thorpe, 2 vols., 1843-6 ; a Colloquy, Cott. Tib. A. III., and St. John's, Oxford ; a Latin Grammar in Saxon, with a glossary, ed. by W. Somner, Oxford, 1659 ; all about 1000 The Passion of St. George, in a Cambridge MS. edited with a translation by Rev. C. Hardwick, for the Percy Society, vol. 28, London, 1850 — attributed by editor to yElfric, Arch- bishop of York, between 1023-1051, say .... 1025 The Legend of St. Edmund, in prose, ed. Thorpe in his Analecta Anglo-Saxonica, and regarded by him as East- Anglian, about ......... 1080 English Remains, from Beowulf to Manning. 183 Solomon and Saturn, 506 lines, in two defective MSS., Corp. 422, and Corp. 41, on margin of Alfred's Beda, written about end of eleventh century, ed. Grein, vol. II. . . . 1090? Note on the Vercelli and Exeter Codices. These are the great store-houses of Saxon poetry, contain- ing everything of consequence still extant, except the Beowulf, the Judith, the Metrical Psalter, and the Paraphrases attributed to Cadmon. The Vercelli MS. was first brought to light in a convent of that town by Dr. Frederick Blume in 1823, whose timely discovery of its great value saved it from a slow process of destruction. In his Iter Italicum, I. 99, apud Grein, I. 364, he tells us that the monks, supposing it a work of St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli in the fourth century, were in the habit of tearing out portions of it as relics for distribu- tion amongst his votaries : hence its present mangled state. Besides the poems above mentioned under Cynewulf, it con- tains : The Fate of the Apostles, 95 lines ; Two Ad- dresses of the Soul to the Body, 128 and 168 lines (the first found also in the Exeter MS.), and a fragment on The Falsehood of the World (Bi Manna Lease). The Exeter MS. (so called because placed by Leofric, first bishop of Exeter, in the Cathedral Library in 1 046, when the see was transferred thiiher from Crediton) is also defective, the first seven leaves and the end, besides several pages in the body, being lost or cut out. It has been fully described by Wanley (in Hickes's Thesaurus), and by Conybeare (1826), and edited with a full English translation, as the Codex Exoni- ensis, by B. Thorpe for the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1842 — also mostly by Grein, I. and II. Besides the works above quoted it contains a number of smaller pieces, such as : The Rhyming Poem, 87 lines ; Christ and Satan, 733 lines ; The Wonders of Creation, 102 lines ; The Pan- ther, 74 lines ; The Whale, 89 lines ; The Partridge, 16 lines ; The Husband's Message, 52 lines ; Domes D^eg, 119 lines ; Christ's Descent, 137 lines ; Manna Craeftas, 1 13 lines ; Manna Mod, 84 lines ; Manna Wyrde, 98 lines ; The Azarias, 191 lines; Alms, 8 lines ; Pharaoh, 9 lines ; Gnomic Verses. Grein refers this codex to ' the first half of eleventh century' (I. p. 365). In the list of Leofric's gifts to his Cathedral, several MSS. of which are extant, this Codex 1 84 Appendix II. is described as ' 1. mycel englisc boc be gehwilcum bingum on leoft-wisan geworht,' i.e., one great English book on divers things, wrought in verse. Broken Saxon or Transition Period : 1066- 1200. The Forged Charters in the Bodl. Laud, or Peter- borough MS. of the Sax. Chr. inserted at A. 656 and 675, but really written early in the twelfth century, and representing the East- Anglian dialect of that period, say about . . .1120 The Moral Ode, a rhyming homily of about 400 lines, extant in various MSS., of which the Digby printed by Hickes in his ' Thesaurus,' I. p. 222 ; the Egerton, 613, by Furnivall, in his ' Early E. Poems,' edited for the Philological Society, 1858 ; the Lambeth, 487 (imperfect), by Dr. Morris, at pp. 158- 183 of his Old English Homilies, first series, 1868 ; the Trinity Cam. B. 14-52, by same in second series, 1873, pp. 220-232. In pref. to first series Morris says, T am inclined to think that all existing copies of this ode are taken from an older (Saxon- English) version, which may perhaps turn up hereafter.' The oldest extant may date from . . . . . . .1150 C nut's Song, preserved by Thomas, monk of Ely, in his History of the Church of Ely, written after 1166, say about . 11 70 Early English Homilies, in the first series, from Lam- beth and other MSS., ed. Morris for Early English Text Society, 1867, mostly in Southern dialects of twelfth century, say between ......... 1 130 75 Early English Homilies, second series, from the Trin. MS. B. 14-52, with later hymns (thirteenth century), from Corp. MS. 54 D. 4-14, ed. Morris for E. E. T. S., 1868, mostly Essex dialect, say about . . . . . 11 So The Hatton Gospels, based on the West Saxon ver- sions mentioned above at A. 1000-1050. Matthew published by Hardwick, 1858 1180? Layamon's enlarged version of Wace's Brut, 32,000 short lines, alliterative with occasional rhymes, extant in two MSS. : I. Cott. Caligula A. IX. representing the Worcestershire or West of England dialect, ;about the year .... 1200 II. Cott. Otho, C. XIII. , about fifty years later, say . 1250 Editio Princeps, Sir F. Madden's, 3 vols., London, 1847. Englisli Remains, from Beowulf to Manning. 185 The Ormulum, by Orrmin, a metrical paraphrase of {he Gospels, with comments, 20,000 lines, in one MS. Bodleian, referred to the reign of John — published by Robt. Meadows White, 2 vols., Oxford, 1852, represents the East Anglian speech at beginning of thirteenth century, say . . . 1210 Early English Period : 1200-1300. Seinte Marharete, the Legend of St. Margaret, MS. in Trin. Coll. Cam. , edited for E. E. T. S. by Rev. O. Cock- ayne, 1866. Oxfordshire or South Midland dialect of thirteenth century .......... 1220? Hali Meidenhad, ed. Cockayne for E. E. T. S., 1866. West Midland of same period ...... 1230? On God Oreisun, Cott. Nero, A. XIV. On Lofsong of ure Lefdi, ib. On Lofsong of ure Louerde, ib. Sawles Warde, Bodl. 34, Royal MS. 17, A. 27. pE Wohunge of ure Lauerd, Cott. Tit. D. 1 8, West Midland. All edited by Dr. Morris for E. E. T. S. in Early English Homilies, first series, parts I. and II., 1868, representing gene- rally the language of the thirteenth century, say about . . 1250 Religious Poems, &c, in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, belonging to the Corporation of London, and representing the London speech of thirteenth century : say .... 1250 The Ancren Riwle, a prose treatise on the duties of Convent life in fourMSS. : one in Corp. Cam. and three in Brit. Mus. : Nero A. XIV., Titus D. XVIII., and Cleopatra C. VI. The first of these ed. by Rev. James Morton for the Camden Society, London, 1853. The MSS. differ considerably in spelling and other respects, but represent the Dorset and other I220 - Southern varieties generally of thirteenth century, say . . e The Bestiary, 800 lines, translated by a bishop Theobald from a Latin ' Physiologus,' in an Old English Miscellany, ed. Dr. Morris for E. E. T. S., 1872. East Midland, about . 1250 Note. — This Miscellany contains also a number of Kentish Sermons, Proverbs (popularly attributed to Alfred), and some Religious Poems, from the Jesus MS., mainly representing the language of thirteenth century. 1 86 Appendix II. Genesis and Exodus, a rhyming poem of 4,160 octosyl- labic lines, in a Corpus MS., ed. Morris for E. E. T. S. 1865. Suffolk or East Midland 1250? The Athanasian Creed, in a North Lincolnshire dialect, printed by Hickes, Thesaurus, I. 233, about . . . .1250 The Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Creed, from an East Midland MS., printed in the Rdiquia: Antiqwx, I. 22 . 1250 The Owl and Nightingale, a rhyming poem of 1,700 octosyllabic lines, by Nicholas of Guildford, in two MSS. : first in Jesus, Oxford ; second, Cott. Caligula, A. IX. 5, fol. 230 (same MS. as that containing Layamon's early text), both in a West of England dialect, ed. Stratmann, 1871, Percy Society, No. 39, not later than ........ 1250 The Cuckoo's Song, 12 lines, in Harl. MSS. 978, f. 5— the oldest English song with MS. musical notes, ed. Ellis for Phil. Society, 1868 ..... ... 1250? St. SwiShun (a metrical life of), in the Bodl. Laud MS, 463, fol. 63, and edited with the above-mentioned ' Gloucester Fragments,' by J. Earle, London, 1861 — 138 lines, referred to thirteenth century, say about ...... 1 250 The Huntingdon Proclamation— the first document in English on the Patent Rolls, which date from the third of John, 1202. It is a parliamentary writ issued in forty-second of Hen. III. to every shire in England, that of Huntingdon being still extant. Carefully printed in North Br. Rev. for June, 1868, also by A. J. Ellis, for Philological Society, 1873. Important as the first specimen of Early English bearing a certain date, viz., Oct. 18th 1258 Havelok the Dane, a metrical version of Gaimar's ' Lai de Aveloc,' in a Bodl. MS. first published with the French text and a glossary by SirFr. Madden, London, 1828, and re-edited for E. E. T. S. by Rev. W. W. Skeat, 1868, represents the East Midland dialect of latter portion of thirteenth century, say about .......... 1270 Sir Tristram, a metrical version of a small part of the French Romance, wrongly ascribed by Sir Walter Scott to the Northern poet Thomas of Ercildoun. It is Southern . . 1 280? The Northumbrian Psalter, metrical, published by the Surtees Society. The language is Northern, and referable to this period, though the MS. is fifty or sixty years later . 1280? English Remains, from Beowulf to Manning. 1 87 King Horn, an Early English Romance of 1,600 lines, first published d'apres les MSS. [Harl. 2,253, &c] de Londres, de Cambridge, d'Oxford, et d'Edimbourg, par F. Michel, Paris, 1854 ; also by Rev. J. R. Lumby for E. E. T. S. 1866 — second half of thirteenth century, say 1275 Floris and Blancheflour, and the Assumpcioun, in the King Horn MS. ed. by Lumby for E. E. T. S., 1866 . 1275 Guy of Warwick and Colbrond the Dane, an Anglo- Danish subject, attributed to Walter of Exeter, ed. from the Auchinleck MS. in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by Turnbull, 1840 1280? The Harrowing of Hell, the earliest extant specimen of an English drama (Chester series), edited by Dr. Mall, of Breslau, who collated three MSS. : a Warwickshire, 1290 ; a Herefordshire, 1313 ; and a Northern, 1 330. There is also a Harleian, 2,013. ^ ast Midland ...... 12S0 Kyng Alixaunder— a version of a French poem now lost, in irregular rhymes of six, eight, and even more syllables — ed. Weber, Metrical Romances I. Midland, about . . 1280 Early English Poems, including several Hagiologies, edited by Furnivall for Phil. Soc. Contains St. Dunstan, An Oxford Student, The Jews and the Cross, St. Swithin, St. Kenelm, St. "James, St. Christopher, The 1 1,000 Virgins, St. Edmund the Confessor, St. Edmund the King, St. Katharine, i>t. Jndre?'/, St. Lucie, St. Edward, Judas Iscariot, Pilate . 1290 The Holy Rode, in ' Legends of the Holy Rood, Sym- bols of the Passion and Cross, &c. ,' ed. Morris for E. E. T. S. , 1871 — before 1300, say 1290 Robert of Gloucester 1 s Chronicle, in Alexandrines, from siege of Troy to death of Hen. III., 1272 — the first history of England in English — ed. Thos. Hearne from a Harl. MS., with a continuation from a Cott. MS., in 2 vols., Oxford, 1724, represents the West Midland speech of the end of thirteenth century. Concluded about . . . . . . .12 By him also : ' Lives and Legends of English Saints,' in- cluding the murder of Thomas a Becket and the voyage of St. Brandan, published by the Percy Soc, vols. XIV. and XIX. The Proverbs of Hendyng, a series of moral sayings in six-syllabled rhyming stanzas, each concluding with the refrain * quoth HendyngJ Harl. MS. 2,253, published in Kemble's 1 88 Appendix II. Anglo-Saxon Dialogues (^Elfric Soc, No. 14, p. 270). Southern 1300? The Land of Cockayne, a satirical poem, attacking monkish luxury (whence the title, coguina = a kitchen), Egerton and More MSS., Cambridge, 784, f. I, published in Hickes's Thesaurus, and by Furnivall in E. E. Poems and Lives of the Saints 1300? Robert Mannyng, of Brunne, in Lincolnshire : I. The Handlyng Synne, a free and enlarged version of William of Waddington's ' Manuel des Peches,' is the first readable English, its language being greatly in advance of his contem- poraries and even of his immediate followers, thus forming a great landmark in the history of the English tongue — edited for the Roxburghe Club from the Bodl. and Brit. Mus. MSS. by F. J. Furnivall, London, 1862. East Midland, date fixed by himself at 1303 II. The Chronicle, a metrical version of Peter Langtoft's French rhyming Chronicle, ed. Thos. Hearne, Oxford, 1725. j, 2 » Composed between ........ 1338 III. The Meditaciouns on the Lord's Supper, pro- bably by him, ed. J. M. Cowper for E. E T. S., 1875. Mannyng closes the strictly Early English Period, or rather opens a new era, connecting the foregoing with the Middle English and Chaucerian epoch. With him also closes the further growth of the Teutonic element in English.* But on the other hand with him, and about his time, begins the steady inflow of foreign elements, Norman first, and then Latin, ending mainly with Gibbon. * ' Since, nor, its, unless, belcnv, until, are our main Teutonic changes since Manning's time.' — OliJ>hant, Standard English, p. /86. /P f LONDON! 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