f I I n^ The History English Language FROM THB TEUTONIC INVASION OF BRITAIN CLOSE OF THE GEOEGIAH" EEA. / . BY HENRY E. SHEPHERD, Professor of the English Language and English Literatvre, NEW YORK: E. J. HALE & SON, PUBLISHERS, Murray Street. 1874 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874. by E. .1. HALE & SON, In the OflBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washinj:ton. Lange, Little 4 Co., PKINTERS, ELECTROTYPHR3 AND STERKOTYPEIl*. 108 TO 114 WoosTER Strrkt, N. Y. PREFACE, This work is a History of the English Language, not a history of English Literature. Its design is to trace the growth and formation of our tongue, the influences that have affected its development, or have impressed upon it certain characteristics. All purely literary criticism is therefore irrelevant, except so far as it may tend to illus- trate the peculiarities of the language, or to explain its apparent anomalies and its complexities. The book con- tains the substance of tlie Lectures delivered to the ad- ' vanced classes in English in the Baltimore City College during the past three years, and is intended for the purposes of instruction in Colleges, High Schools, and Academies, as well as to meet the wants of general read- ers. The necessity for some work similar in design to the present must be obvious to all teachers of the English ,^ language in the United States. The want of suitable text-books constitutes one of the most serious obstacles with which the magnificent and rapidly expanding science of English Philology has to contend upon this side of the Atlantic. 4 PREFACE. It is but just to acknowledge in grateful terms the as- sistance derived from many excellent treatises, English, German, French, and American. Especial acknowledg- ment is due to the admirable publications of the Early- English Text Society, and the Clarendon Press Series. With thiese remarks, the work is submitted to the con- sideration of teachers and of all persons desirous of promoting the scientific study of the English Language in the United States. OONTEJSTTS. INTRODUCTION. ^ PAGB ^ THE ARYAN OR INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES 9 CHAPTER I. /ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. A. D. 449-A. D. 106 J 19 ^ CHAPTER II. •^ THE NORMAN CONQUEST 32 CHAPTER III. V THE INFLUENCE OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST UPON THE ANGLO-SAXON TONGUE 40 CHAPTER IV. i/TRANSITION OP SAXON INTO ENGLISH 49 CHAPTER V. THE WORKS OP THE TRANSITION PERIOD 55 CHAPTER VI. THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 63 CHAPTER VII. THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE — {continued) 72 CHAPTER VIII. PIERS, THE PLOWMAN 78 CHAPTER IX. THE WYCLIFFITE VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES 84 6 COJ^TENTS. PAGE CHAPTER X. ^ THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OP CHAUCER 89 CHAPTER XI. THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND GOWER 94 CHAPTER XII. THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND QOWEU— {continued) 98 CHAPTER XIII. THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER. 106 CHAPTER XIV. ^ THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 112 CHAPTER XV. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE— (C(?7l^mwe^) . . 138 CHAPTER XVI. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM CHAUCER TO CAXTON. A. D. 1400-1474 140 CHAPTER XVII. THE INFLUENCE OP PRINTING UPON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 143 CHAPTER XVIII. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OP THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH, 1500-1558. 148 CHAPTER XIX. THE FORMATION OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH 155 CHAPTER XX. ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH 165 CHAPTER XXI. THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. 1580-1625 173 CONTENTS. 7 PAGE CHAPTER XXII. THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES 181 CHAPTER XXIII. THE CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SINCE THE ELIZA- BETHAN ERA 185 CHAPTER XXIV. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE CLOSE OF THfi ELIZA- BETHAN ERA TO THE RESTORATION, 1625-1660 190 CHAPTER XXV. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE DURING THE RESTORATION. 1660- 1685 195 CHAPTER XXVI. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE ERA OP THE RESTORATION TO THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE, 1685-1702 203 CHAPTER XXVII. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE TO THE DEATH OF DR JOHNSON. 1702-1784 213 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE DEATH OF DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON (1784) TO THE CLOSE OF THE GEORGIAN ERA (1830) 223 INTRODUCTION. THE ARYAN OR INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. The languages of the Aryan* or Indo-European family may be divided into the following classes : The Sanskrit and its dialects, the Persian or Tranic, the Greek, the Latin, the Gothic or Teutonic, the Sclavonic, the Lithu- anian, and the Celtic. The former of these designations is a term of comparatively recent introduction into the science of language, and is probably derived from the primitive home of the race, Arya, the central highlands of Asia. The word, according to some etymologists, is related to the Latin root ar^ to plough {arare)^ old Eng- lish ear: Piers Ploughman's Vision ; Genesis, 45th chap. ; Shakspere, Richard 11. ; and is indicative of the agricul- * Judging from the evidence of language, ttie Aryan tribes seem to have made considerable progress in civilization before their migra- tion from their original home. The words pertaining to peaceful occupations are the same in most of the dialects of this family, while those relating to the chase and to warlike employments are different. Terms in familiar use, sorne of which indicate a condi- tion of society decidedly advanced beyond mere barbarism, are the same in most languages of this class. Such, for example, are the words for king, door, plough, daughter, mother, father, son, sister, father-in-law, son-in-law, mother-in-laio, daughter-in-law, brother-in- law, the words for clothing, weaving, sewing, and the numeral sys- tems from ten to a hundred. 1* 10 INTRODUCTIOIT. tural habits of those to whom it was applied. The term Aryan does not appear to have met with general accept- ance, and it is perhaps liable to objection, as its applica- tion is restricted almost entirely to one branch of the linguistic family, the Persian, and does not assign to the otliers their proper degree of importance. The latter designation (Indo-European) is intended to point out the territorial position and the geographical connection of the races which speak the languages it represents. There have been various attempts made to assign some definite locality as the original home of the Indo-European or Aryan family. Such efforts, however, have resulted in ingenious speculations, and we have not even a plausible tradition w^hich will assist us in forming a determinate and satisfactory conclusion. There can exist no reason- able doubt, however, that, at a period antecedent to authentic history, the Indo-European race constituted one community or society; associated by the natural and easy ties of a common language and a common faith. We are not in this regard so destitute of evi- dence, for the absence of historic testimony is to a considerable degree compensated by the proofs of linguis- tic relationship, w^hich all the dialects of this widely extended family present. In some instances the resem- blance is clear ami well defined ; in others the lineaments are marred, and almost effaced ; but whenever subjected to the rigid test of scientific comparison, the blurred out- lines reveal their primitive identity and ancient kinship. Let us now examine in detail the dialectic divisions of the Indo-European languages. At a period an- terior to the rise of history, the different tribes began their migrations towards the West. It is commonly as- sumed that the Celtic migrations preceded the others, INTRODUCTIOii". 11 but this hypothesis rests upon no more substantial basis than the confused and inconsistent legends transmitted to us by these tribes. From the earliest times, Germany is inhabited by tlie Germans. This much at least seems probable, that the Sclavonic was the last branch that wandered far to the West. The Sclavonians retain nearly the same area which they at first occupied, and it is within a comparatively recent period that they have begun to acquire the elements of civilization. Of the different classes into which tlie Indo-European or Aryan family is divided, the Gothic or Teutonic class possesses for the student of the English language an immediate value, and demands careful investigation. Its dialectic divisions are: First, The Germanic, which is again di- vided into the Moeso-Gothic, the Old Saxon, the Low German, the Dutch, including the Flemish, the Frisic, and the Hio^h German. Second. The Scandinavian branch, which comprehends the Icelandic, the Swedish, the Danish, and their parent, the old Norse. The Moeso-Gothic (Gothic of Moesia) is the oldest rep- resentative of this branch. Early in the fourth century, one division of the great Gothic family settled in Moesia, became subject to the Roman government, and was con- verted to Christianit}^ Ulfilas, their famous bishop, who was identified with the sect of Arius, translated the Scriptures into Gothic for the benefit of his countrymen, a design displaying remarkable boldriess and power, as the influence of the classic languages was then predomi- nant, and no others were deemed worthy or capable of literary culture. The Low German comprehends many dialects in common use in the low country, or northern parts of Germany. The Frisic occupied nearly the same territorial area with the Old Saxon, the coasts and 12 II^TRODUCTIOIT. islands of tlie !N"ortli Sea. The Frisic exhibits a marked resemblance to the English. The Dutch has been spoken in Holland since the thirteenth century, although its lit- erary pre-eminence dates from the sixteenth. The Flem- ish, in the thirteentb century, was the speech of the court of Flanders, and has its own records ; it is now almost entirely supplanted by the Dutch. The Old Saxon was the principal dialect of Northern Germany, between the Khine and the Elbe. It is preserved to us in the Heli- and, or Saviour, a work which must be referred to the ninth century. The term Old Saxon is used to distin- guish the language of the Continental tribes from that spoken by the Teutonic invaders of Britain, after their conquest of that country. There is no Continental lan- guage to which Anglo-Saxon can be affiliated. It accords most nearly with the Frisic. But it is most probable that it 'was indigenous in England, being formed by the gradual blending of the many Teutonic dialects in- troduced by the various Germanic invaders, the British tribes, and the Romanized inhabitants who spoke the Lingua Rustica Romana, in various corruptions. The High German is tlie language of learning and literature in Germany, and has been so since the reign of Charle- magne. Its complete ascendency, however, dates from the Reformation, and the translation of .the Bible by Luther. At the beginning of the great religious revolution in the sixteenth century, there prevailed in Germany the . same discordance and variety of dialects which existed at the era of the Saxon conquest of England. Since the introduction of Christianity, several of the Germanic idioms had asserted their claims to literary pre-eminence. The Alemannic, Frankish, and Bavarian tongues had each INTEODUCTIOK. 13 become the medium of literary effort ; then the Swabian dialect acquired the superiority, and it still contains some of the most cherished memorials of German hero- ism. The language of Luther, acquiring an intensified force from the invention of printing, and the impulse communicated to theological investigation by the revival of classical literature, permeated every part of the coun- try, and became the general medium of all grades of society. This language was not the idiom of any dis- trict or any class, but one which had already established a just claim to be regarded as a literary speech, since it constituted the ofiicial language of the most impor- tant principalities in Southern and Central Germany. It was universally acknowledged as the language of liter- ature and learning, and since that period its ascendency has been undisputed. Whatever dialectic peculiarities may exist among the uneducated, those who control the intellectual forces of Germany, those who compose the refined and educated classes, speak and write nothing else. The High German may be divided into three epochs ; the present or New High German, which dates from the time of Luther; the Middle High German, extending back from Luther to the twelfth century ; the Old High German, extending back to the ninth century. The earliest literary memorials of the Scandinavian branch come to us from Iceland, where Christianity exer- cised a more conservative influence than in Germany, and did not destroy the ancient historic and religious move- ments. These are the two Eddas, which are both valuable on account of their antiquity, being the oldest productions of l^orse literature, as well as on account of the informa- tion they convey respecting the primitive condition of the Germanic race. The Icelandic preserves most closely 14 INTRODUCTIOI?'. tlie primitive Scandinavian type. The Norwegian, the Danish^ and the Swedish, are cultivated languages, the Norwegian bearing the nearest relationship to the ancient Norse tongue. The others are descended from more an- cient dialectic divisions of Scandinavian speech. The Celtic branch consists of two divisions : First, the Gaelic, comprehending the primitive language of Ireland, the language of the Scottish Highlanders,* and the Manx of the Isle of Man. Second, the Cymric, the speech of * The Scottish dialect (Lowland Scotch) spoken in the southern parts of Scotland, is entitled to a recognition in our classification of languages. This is an Anglo-Danish dialect, formed chiefly by the admixture of Anglian or Germanic elements (the Angles, in their original occupation of Britain, having spread extensively over the Lowlands of Scotland, as the Danes did afterwards), and Danish or Scandinavian forms, and containing very few Celtic words. After the conquest of England by the Normans, many of the expatriated Saxons took refuge in Scotland, and thus considerably increased the Germanic population that had already been established between the Tweed and the Forth. The kings of Scotland received these exiles with especial distinction, and promoted them to positions of dignity and honour. The same generous hospitality was accorded to men of Norman race, who were dissatisfied with their share in the distribu- tion of the spoils, or who had been expelled from England by the decree of the conqueror. These banished or discontented Normans resorted to the court of Scotland, where they were received into ser- vice, and invested with important military commands. The Scottish monarchs, in order to render their court more attractive to their Norman guests, endeavoured to engraft upon the Teutonic dialect already spoken there, many French terms, and French constructions. These foi-eign idioms were gradually naturalized in the region south of the Forth, and the national language of that part of the country soon became an equal admixture of Germanic, Scandinavian, and Norman French. The Scottish dialect is rapidly hastening to decay ; before the end of the present century it will probably be confined to the humble and uneducated classes. A hundred years ago it was cur- rent among the higher ranks of society, and at the beginning of the present century it was intelligible to every one. Its literary ascendency was destroyed at the Eeformation, as no Scottish version of the »\ INTEODUCTIOK. the Welsh, the Cornish, which is no\ Armorican or Breton, spoken in the pro^ the ancient Arraorica. Of the Indian division, the most important is the Sans- krit, a language which flourished several centuries before the age of Solomon, and which exhibits a striking resem- blance to English, some of the most useful vocables being almost identical in each language! For more than two thousand years Sanskrit has ceased to exist as a spoken idiom, and it is now employed as the official language of the priesthood, as the medium of literature, and is taught in the Brahmanic schools. Its most valuable memo- rials are the four Yedas, the Brahmanic Scriptures. Its lineal descendants are the Prakit and Pali dialects, which in their turn were succeeded by the languages now spoken in Hindostan ; theHindostani ; the Bengah' ; and Mara- thi. The varying dialects of the Gypsies are manifestly related to the Indian family. The Persian or Iranian class includes, First, the Zend, preserved in the Avesta, or Zend Avesta, the sacred writings, and its home is supposed to have been the country known as Bactria ; Second, the Scriptures was ever authorized. John Knox and his associates were accused of Anglicizing in their language as well as in their politics, and Ninian Winzet, the Popish antagonist of Knox, was the last who wrote the language in its purity. The union of the crowns, in the succeeding century, reduced Scotland to the condition of a mere province, but left it in possession of a noble literature, the product of two centuries which had intervened from Barbour to James VI., the last of the Scottish kings, and who may be considered the last of the Scottish poets in more senses than one. The Scottish dialect was formed under the same influences as the English ; its character- istics are familiar to the readers of Burns and Sir Walter Scott. Many of the difliculties of Shakspere's English receive their suc- cessful elucidation in this dialect. 16 INTRODUCTION. old Persian, wliicli is found in the cuneiform inscriptions by which the conquerors of the East endeavoured to trans- mit the record of their achievements. Third, the modern Persian, which has been simplified by the loss of its in- flections, and has received large accessions of Arabic words. To this class may also be j-eferred the language of the Kurds, the Afghans, and the ancient and the modern Armenians. The cultivated dialectic varieties of ancient Greek were the JEolic, the Ionic, the Doric, and the Attic. The Attic, by superior culture, attained the pre- eminence, and became the general speech of cultivated society. The Greek was succeeded by the Eomaic or modern Greek, which has experienced a simplification of structure somewhat similar to that of Anglo-Saxon in its transition into English. The Latin, in the classic form in which it has descended to us, exhibits the dialect of books, and of the educated Pomans fronri about a cen- tury before the Christian Era. It was one of a number of Italian dialects, over which it gradually acquired the ascendency. Its modern descendants, the Romance (Ro- man) languages, are the Italian, the Spanish, the Portu- guese, the Proven9al, formerly the language of South France, Langue D'Oc, the French proper, formerly spo- ken in ^N^orthern France, Langue D'Oyl ; the Wallachian, spoken in the Turkish provinces of Wallachia and Mol- davia (northern Turkey), but largely interpenetrated with Sclavonic words ; the Catalan, spoken in Spain, and gen- erally classed as a dialect of the Spanish, though its lin- guistic position is independent ; the Rbseto-Ronianic or Roumansch, spoken in Southern Switzerland and around the head of the Adriatic Sea. The term Romance, as the designation of these languages, may be traced to the INTRODUCTIOlf. 17 Lingua Rnstica Romana or Popular Latin, upon which tliey are principally leased. The oldest member of the Sclavonic family is the ancient Bulgarian, commonly known as the Church Sclavic, or Sclavonic, and still the sacred language of the Greek Church. The most widely diffused branch is the Russian, which has two divisions, the Russian proper and the little Russian, the latter in- cluding the Servian, the Croatian, and Slavonian. The others are the Polish, the Bohemian, the Moravian, the Slovakian, the Sorbian, and the Polatian, spoken on the Elbe. The Polish language began to be cultivated in the fourteenth century, and it was at one time the vehicle of a flourishing literature, which perished with the extinction of Polish nationality. The Lithuanic or Lettic family includes the old Prussian formerly spoken in northeastern Prussia, and now superseded by the 'Low German. The Lithuanian and the Lettish are still in use among the inhabitants of the Russian and Prussian provinces along the Baltic Sea, but are rapidly jdelding to the encroachments of the German and the Russian, and seem destined to speedy extinction. During the year 1871 there was a decree issued by the Russian Government, prohibiting the use of the German, and prescribing the employment of the Russian within the Baltic provinces of Russia. The Indo-European or Aryan family is not restricted to a circumscribed area, but is exposed to the influence of other tongues, to some of which it is geographically related. In the present state of linguistic science the true position and relation of all the languages of Europe is not ascertained. The Etruscan, spoken in ancient Etruria (Tuscany), is still the puzzle of philologists ; the Basque, spoken on each side of the Pyrenees, is of Aquitanian and Iberian 18 INTRODUCTIOIS^. origin. On its northern bomidarj the Aryan family touches the Turanian or Altaic class, comprehending the languages of the Manchoos, the Mongols, the Asiatic and the European Turks, the Magyars in Hungary, the Finns, and the Laplanders. On its southeastern frontier it comes into contact with the Dravidian or Tamulian group, spoken in the Deccan or southern part of the peninsula of India. In southwestern Asia it meets the Semitic class, including the ancient Hebrew, the sacred language of Israel, the Aramaic, spoken in Syria, Meso- potamia, Babylonia, and Assyria, and perpetuated chiefly in its two dialects, the Syriac and the Chaldee. The Aramaic was in common lise among the Jews at the advent of Christianity, having been adopted by them during- the Babylonish captivity for the purposes of lit- erary composition, as well as of conversation. It pos- sesses for us a peculiar interest, being the language w'hieh w^as spoken by our Lord and his disciples.* * For information respecting the other linguistic families of the earth, the student is referred to the excellent works of Prof. Max MUller and Prof. Whitney. HISTOET OF THE English Language, CHAPTEK I. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. A. D. 44-9-A. D. 1066. The Teutonic Invasions of Britain. The History of the English Language commences with the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain, about the middle of the fifth cen- tury of the Christian Era.* By the term Anglo-Saxon, we are not to understand any particular tribe or nation, or any definite number of tribes or clans. The word is * The commencement of the Germanic invasions of Britain was probably long anterior to the middle of the fifth century of the Christian era. It was from this period that these invasions assumed a formidable and organized character, but that the Germanic tribes had found their way into the island before this time is obvious from the following facts : " First. At the conclusion of the Marcomannic war, Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain. Second. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Eoman legions under Valentinian. Third. The Notitia Utriusque Imperii, of which the latest date is half a century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions as an ofiicer of state, the Comes litoris Saxonici, per Briiannias : his government extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash." — Latham. 20 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. employed with the same latitude of meaning that we attach to the word Indians, and is merely a convenient designation of tliose Teutonic hordes which poured into Britain from about the middle of the fifth century to the middle of the sixth. The Celts, the original in- habitants of the island, were subdued but not extir- pated by the invaders, wlio became a powerful nation- ality, and called themselves Aenglisc or English; the country they called Aengla-land, the land of the Angles, or England. " It is difficult to determine the nationality of the various tribes by which Britain was gradually colonized. The Anglo-Saxoii tongue cannot be identified, with any existing Continental speech, nor can the nation be traced to any particular tribes or clans whose names history has recorded. There is abundant linguistic evi- dence of a great blending of dialects and tribes in the body of invaders ; the Anglo-Saxon was not a harmo- nious or symmetrical language, but revealed even in its purest stages the diversity of elements which had entered into its composition. Its etymologies were defective in clearness, its syntax was discordant, its inflections lacked the regularity that characterizes the Latin. Every feature of the language indicated a diversity, not a unity of origin, and we may safely conclude that both language and people were formed by the fusion of many dialects and clans in proportions which cannot be accurately determined, and whose geographical position compre- hended all that part of Germany between the Eliine and the Eider, with the contiguous countries, Holland and Denmark. Tlie Angles were probably of Danish origin, or at least Low German. They were thus related to the Jutes, who settled Kent and the Isle of Wight. The large Scandinavian element among the conquerors of AXGLO-SAXOI^ PERIOD. 21 Britain has not been noted with that degree of attention to which its importance entitles it. The presence of this infusion of Scandinavian blood is attested, First. By the Danish or Scandinavian vocables and constructions which the English language has retained. Second. By the numerous Runic monuments that have been dis- covered in Scandinavia and in England, while none have been brought, to light upon German soil. The Angles spread themselves over the north and east of England, and it is plausibly conjectured that the course of their conquests sustained some relation to their onginal position upon the-Continent. The population of North- umbria, or the kingdoms north of the Humber, of East Anglia, and of Kent, may thus be assigned to the border- lands of Denmai'k and Germany.* This semi-Scandina- vian origin is corroborated by the vigorous and enterpris- ing spirit of the race, who have contributed powerfully to the development of English prosperity and greatness. The origin of the Saxons is not so easily explained. Essex, Sussex, Wessex, East Saxons, South Saxons, "West Sax- ons, testify by their names to Saxon settlements. ."From their strong nationality, which carried them through so many wars, they seem to have been a people, and not a mere federation. From their language, from their sea- faring life, from their great aptitude for dyke-making, and from the distinct evidence of Procopius, who calls them Friesians, it would seem natural to refer them to the districts of Holland and ^orth Germany, between the mouths of the Eider and the Rhine." The rela- tionship subsisting between the Saxons, Hollanders, and Friesians, is perhaps more strikingly illustrated by lin- * Pearson's " England in the Middle Ages." 22 HISTOKY OF THE EI^GLISH LAIs^GUAGE. guistic evidence. Among all the tongues of Europe, none display so marked a resemblance to the English as the Ilollandish or Dutch, the Low German, and tlie Friesian. This is rendered obvious by noticing the many points of resemblance in pronunciation and in vocabulary, which exist between the Friesian and the South-English, of which Anglo-Saxon constitutes the basis. The Saxons extended their dominion over the south and the west of t^ie island, peaceably coalescing with ^the Angles in the east, from whom they were sepa- rated by no differences either in language or in civiliza- tion so marked as to prevent their harmonious blending. Thus all England passed into the possession of a new population, except th^ inaccessible northern and western portions. Mercia, or the March (boundary) country, formed the boundary line of the great nationalities which divided this fair land.* The Anglo-Saxon Language. From what has been said, it is evident that the Anglo- Saxon was a composite tongue, formed by the gradual * The settlements of Britain by tlie Germanic invaders are said to have occurred in the following order : First. Jutes, under Hengist and Horsa, who occupied Kent and the Isle of Wight and a part of Hampshire, in A. D. 449 or 450. Second. The first division of the Saxons, under Ella and Cissa, settled in Sussex in 477. Third. The second body of Saxons, under Cerdic and Cymric, in Wessex in 495. Fourth. The third body of Saxons in Essex in 530. Fifth. First division of the Angles in the Kingdom of East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and parts of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire). Sixth. The second di- vision of the Angles in the kingdom of Beornicia (situated between the Tweed and the Frith of Forth), in 547. — Morris's Outlines of Eng- lish Accidence. AKGLO-SAXOiq- PERIO blending of many kindred dialects, principl into the island between the middle of the lifth an( middle of the sixth century, with a copious infusion of Latin derived from the Romanized Britons. The Anglo- Saxon was an inflected or synthetic language, like the Latin and the Greek. Although at the epoch of its most flourishing literature, its rich inflectional system had been somewhat reduced by the action of sound decay, a result which may be partly attributed to the Danisli invasions, it retained a full set of terminations and great freedom of arrangement. With respect to its grammar, it is suf- ficient to say that it had five cases — that the article, noun, adjective, and pronoun were declinable, having difterent forms for three genders and two numbers : the adjec- tive, as in German, had two inflections, the definite and the indefinite; the verb had four moods, the indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and infinitive, and . but two tenses, the present or indefinite, used also as a future, and the past. There were also compound tenses in the active voice, and a passive voice, formed, as in English, by aux- iliaries. The auxiliaries usually retained their force as independent verbs, and were not employed as mere in- dications of time, as in English. The Anglo-Saxon had ten forms for the article, five for the noun, and ten terminations for the positive degree of adjectives ; the irregular verbs had thirteen endings, without including the inflected cases of the participles. In all the loftier attributes of speech the Anglo-Saxon was the peer of any of the cognate Gothic languages. Though inferior to the Icelandic in the mere devices of rhetoric, in metrical and rhythmical appliances, it was perfectly adequate to the expression of the varied neces- sities of humanity. Its native roots possessed a remark- 24 HISTORY OF THE EITGLISH LAInTGUAGE. able facility of composition and derivation, though the number of its primitive and simple words v/as so great that there was less occasion for composition than in most of the related languages. This characteristic, together with the mode of inflec- tion employed, will explain in a measure the large monosyllabic element existing in Anglo-Saxon, and con- sequently in English ; a peculiarity of our tongue which has been forcibly illustrated by the late Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, of Princeton, in the sonnet here quoted. It will be observed that nearly every word is of Anglo-Saxon derivation, and that those consisting of two syllables are usually enunciated as one. Think not that strength lies in the big, round word. Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak. To whom can this be true who once has heard The cry for help, the tongue that all men speak. When want, or fear, or woe, is in the throat. So that each word gasped out is like a shriek Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange, wild note. Sung by some fay or fiend? There is a strength, Which dies if stretched too far, or spun too fine. Which has more height than breadth, more depth than length; Let but this force of thought and speech be mine, And he that will, may take the sleek, fat phrase, Which glows, but burns not, though it beam and shine. Light, but no heat— a flash, but not a blaze. The. A ug1 o-Saxon language attained its pre-eminence during the reign of King Alfred (870-901). Under the fostering care of this royal scholar, the speech of Wes- sex attained an ascendency among the dialects of Eng- land, similar to that which the Attic acquired among the dialects of Hellas. Wessex became the centre of culture, and its language advanced rapidly to the position AN"GLO-SAXOI^ PERIOD. 25 of a classic and dominant speech. The Anglian or IN'orthumbrian dialect, which at one time contained the germs of a vigorous and hopeful literature, succumbed to the fearful desolations of the Danes, the destruction of the monasteries, and the consequent extinction of learning, and is lost to sight, until it reappears in the fifteenth century as the national speech of Scotland (Lowland Scotch). Under the reign of Alfred, the Danes are expelled, comparative security is restored, and the literary su- premacy passes over to the tongue of the West Saxons. In this language was composed the greatest and the most cultivated portion of Saxon literature. Its grammar is characterized by regularity and uniformity, and its vo- cabulary is not affected by Scandinavian or Danish terms. The development of the JSTorthumbrian dialect was ar- rested by the causes already indicated ; hence its liter- ary memorials are few. It possesses inflections and words which are not contained in the Wessex dialect, and the number of Danish terms is very few. These are the two forms in which the Anglo-Saxon existed be- fore the Korman conquest, 1066. The literature of the Anglo-Saxons has exerted no de- termining inlinence either upon the form or the spirit of English literature. The English Language and English literature were new creations, and the latter has derived none of its distinctive features from Anglp-Saxon proto- types. The influence of Anglo-Saxon upon English is confined to the vocabulary and the grammar, and does not seriously affect the literature. Hence the discussion of its literary memorials is somewhat irrelevant in this work, the intention of which is to trace the growth of the English language, and not the history of English liter- 2 26 HISTORY OF THE EKGLISH LANGUAGE. ature, except so far as it illustrates the mutations and vicissitudes of the tongue. The consideration of this subject properly pertains to professed treatises upon Eng- lish literature. The Anglo-Saxons never attained the loftiest excel- lence either in poetry or prose. The poetical composi- tions are generally of a religious character, and, while destitute of inventive or creative power, are pure and elevated in tone and sentiment, though pervaded by that ' exuberance of metaphor, and gorgeousness of imagery which characterize the early literature of every people. Metre* and rhyme were not essential features of their versification, though both were occasionally employed, and the introduction of rhyme into English poetry dates from Anglo-Saxon times. The distinctive feature of Anglo-Saxon poetry was alliteration, which it possessed in common with the Old JS^orthern or Icelandic. The rule which determined its employment, stated in general terras, is as follows : " In each couplet, three emphatic words (or by poetic license accented syllables), two in the first line, and one in the second, must commence with the same consonant, or with vowels, in which case the initial letters might be, and generally were, differ- ent." The following lines will illustrate the nature of allit- eration, both in vowels and consonants : Pilgrymes and palmeres, Plighten hem togidere, * The metrical system of the Anglo-Saxons was probably affected by the influence of Icelandic models, as it possesses some metrical features in common with the Icelandic. For example, the Icelandic tended to break down the Anglo-Saxon alliteration, and thus to pre- pare the way for the introduction of rhyme. ANGLO-SAXONS" PEKIOD. - 27 For to ^eken ^eint Jame, And seintes at Rome. They ^^enten forth in hire wej^ With many wi^Q tales, And hadden /eve to /yen, Al hire Hi after. These lines are specimens of alliteration upon a vowel : And ^'n obedient to ben i^nderdone Of any lif lyvynge, With inwit and with c»utwit Pmagynen and studie. In historical composition, the Anglo-Saxons appear to have been remarkably deficient, presenting in this regard a strange contrast to their brilliant ]N"orman successors, who treasm*ed up the records of their ancestral greatness with the same zealous guardianship that the Greeks and Latins cherished the legends of heroes and demi-gods. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle, which terminates A. D. 1154, is a monotonous recital of unimportant incidents, devoid of constructive skill, or graphic delineation. The genial climate and generous soil of Angleland enervated the martial spirit of the Teutonic barbarians ; and after they had subdued the Kelts, the primitive inhabitants, they lapsed into inglorious quietude, rarely rousing themselves to vigorous effort, except when called upon to repel the aggressions of Scandinavian hordes. Witli the death of Alfred, the greatness of the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth began to wane, literature declined, social and artistic culture deteriorated, and only the infusion of a vigorous and buoyant civilization could avert the doom that seemed impending over the Saxon 28 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. State. Whence this restoring element was to come we shall learn hereafter. When the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain, the Eo- mans, who had held the island since the reign of Yes- pasian,* had been recently called away from this outpost of the Empire to the defence of their own capital against the formidable encroachments of the northern barbarians. Hence the country reverted to the pos- session of its ancient inhabitants, who enjoyed a brief interval of freedom before they were transferred to the dominion of their new sovereigns. There is no historical foundation for the prevalent opinion that the Kelts were gradually extirpated by their Saxon conquerours. The large number of familiar terms in the vocabulary of the English language, of Keltic origin, the names of rivers, mountains, hills, and towns, which have descend- ed from the same source, ought effectually to dispel the popular impression that the Keltic nation was entirely exterminated by the Teutonic tribes. The Saxon con-t quest was rather conservative than destructive in its tendencies. The maritime life of the Saxons naturally inclined them to the sea, and consequently we discover that the largest Saxon settlements are found in maritime districts. For .a long time the Saxons were averse to city life, and restricted themselves to those regions •which the sea washes. Still a certain degree of contact * Tlie Roman invasions of Britain were commenced by Julius Caesar, B. C. 55. His invasion accomplished no substantial result, and it was not until repeated contests, continued during several reigns, tliat tlie island was rendered subject to Rome. The con- quest was completed under the beneficent administration of Agri- cola, A. D. 78-86. The Roman legions were finally withdrawn in the reign of Valentinian, A. D. 447. AKGLO-SAXOJq- PERIOD. 29 and admixture with the native population was inevitable. " If the Roman towns in some cases fell into decay, the poverty of a war-stricken people, the decline of com- merce and of the arts, will account for it. But the days of the great Roman feasts were still celebrated under Christian titles, the Roman colleges of trade were con- tinued as guilds. Roman local names were preserved by the conqiierours, as they found them. Roman titles, duke and count, were assumed by the Saxon chiefs. Roman law has formed the basis of the Saxon family system, and of the laws of property. The Saxon con- quest was a change of the highest moment, no doubt, but it did not break up society ; it only added a new element to what it found. The Saxon State was built upon the ruins of the past."* A^The Saxons, however, were not permitted to enjoy in tranquil security the possession of their conquered terri- tory. About the beginning of the ninth century, commenced the fearful incursions of the Scandinavian pirates, who were the terror and the scourge of Europe, and from whose depredations immunity was generally secured by exorbitant ransom, or enormous concessions. One branch of the !N"orthmen or N'orsemen desolated the kingdom of Gaul, and obtained from that imbecile monarch, Charles the Simple, the cession of one of his fairest provinces, Keustria, known henceforth in history as I^ormandy, from its new inhabitants. * Of them we shall have more to say directly, as they play a brilliant part in the history of the English language and the Eng- lish race. Another division sailed towards Angleland, and thus laid the foundations for the conquests of their * Pearson's "England in tlie Middle Ages." ^ 30 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAN-QUAGE. kinsmen in the ages to come. This was the first great act of the Scandinavian races, in the drama of European history. The Danish invasions and occupations of England may be stated in the following order : In 787 the ISTorthmen * appeared, and made an attack upon the coast of Dorsetshire. In 832 the Danes ravaged Sheppey in Kent. In 833 thirty-five ships came to Charmouth in Dorsetshire, and Egbert was de- feated by the Danes. In 835 the Welsh and Danes were defeated by Egbert at Hengestesdun. In 855 the Danes wintered in Sheppey. In 866 they wintered in East Anglia. In 868 they got into Mercia as far as Nottingham, and in 870 they invaded East Anglia. In 871 the eastern part of Wessex was invaded by the Danes. In 874 the Danes entered Lincolnshire. In 876 they made settlements in Korthumbria. In 878 Alfred, King of Wessex, concluded a treaty with Gutlirum, the Danish chief, and formally ceded to the invaders all Northumberland and East Anglia, the greater part of Essex, and the northeast of Mercia. In 991 the Nor- wegians invaded the eastern coast of England, and plundered Ipswich ; they were defeated at the battle of Maldon. Before 1000 the Danes had settled in Cumber- land. In 1013 Svein, King of Denmark, conquered England ; and from 1013 to 1042 a Danish dynasty ruled over England. In 1042 the government reverted to the possession of the Anglo-Saxons, who retained it until the Norman Conquest, 1066. The free spirit of the * The terms Northmen, Norsemen, or Scandinavians, are the general designations of the inhabitants of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), who at that time were called Danes, with- out distinction. AN-QLO-SAXON" PERIOD. 31 Danes exercised a salutary influence upon the political and social condition of the Saxon State. Under the paternal government of Canute, the Danish aristocracy coalesced with the Anglo-Saxon ; the differ- en ce in languag^e and race was not so great as to render u nion impo ssible, and when the government was restored to the Anglo-Saxons, upon the overthrow of the Danish power, thoie~Danes who desired it retained undisturbed possession of their homes, and became subjects of the Saxon rulers. CHAPTEE 11. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. The battle of Hastings, fought October 14, 1066, transferred the kingdom of England to the government of William, Duke of Normandy, and his followers. We have already learned that the Kormans were originally a branch of the great Scandinavian farailj^ to which the Danes belonged, and that in the tenth century they had wrested from the King. of Erance one of his loveliest provinces. Henceforth their character undergoes an en- tire transformation. Laying aside their natural rude- ness, and discarding their Scandinavian dialect, they entered boldly upon that wonderful career which was to make them the foremost among the nations of mediosval history. Possessed of a susceptible and versatile genius, tliey rapidly advanced from a condition of barbarism to comparative civilization and enlightenment. They read- ily acquired the speech of the land, a language formed by the decay and corruption of the Lingua ItuUica^ or popularjiatin, the colloquial dialect of the Empire, which had been disseminated throughout the Roman provinces by the legionaries, the tradesmen, and the colonists. In Erance it had assumed two separate forms, distinguished by the word for yes in each tongue, a manner of desig- nating languages by no means uncommon in the Middle THE NORMAiq- CONQUEST. 33 ages. These are known in history and in philology as the Langiie D'Oc, Or Provencal, the tongue of south France, once the favourite medium of .the Troubadours ; the Langue D'Oyl, or northern French, with which the !Norman French is identified. The river Loire may be considered the dividing line between them. The south- ern French, or Langue D'Oc, exhibits a marked resem- blance to the dialects of Spain; the northern French, or Langue D'Oyl, which extends from the Loire to the boundaries of Flanders, differs in certain respects from the Langue D'Oc. First. It was of later origin, south- ern Gaul having been conquered at an earlier period by the Romans. Second. It contains a Germanic element, as by its geographical position it is brought into contact with the Gothic languages of Holland and Germany, and northern France was colonized by Teutonic tribes in the fifth century. This Germanic element is quite important. Third. It contains a Scandinavian element, as the Normans retained some of their original words after they had abandoned their former tongue. Fourth. It has a number of Keltic w^ords, some of which were introduced into England by the Kormans, and are per- petuated in the English language. The northern French assumed several dialectic forms, determined by the phonetic tendencies of the dilierent tribes and nationalities among whom it was spoken.. These were the dialects of Picardy, of N^ormandy, of the Isle of France, and of Burgundy. They were all origi- nally upon a footing of linguistic equality, but during the fourteenth century the speech of the Isle of France at- tained tlie pre-eminence, in consequence of the political ascendency acquired by those who spoke it, and became the standard or literary language. The others descended 2* 34 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. to the level of mere patois, or uncultivated dialects.* It is with the dialect of Normandy that we are directly concerned, as the literary French exercised no specific influence upon English until the reign of Edward III. Tlie Norman French wasj as we have already seen, a Franco-Koman dialect, formed from the rude Latin of Gaul, cohtaihing a strong German admixture, as well as a Scandinavian and a Celtic element. It was character- ized by great simplicity of form and structure, a feature which is conspicuously displayed in its preference for single vowels and single consonants. Its pronimciation is supposed to have borne a strong resemblance to that of Anglo-Saxon, which may perha*ps serve to explain the fusion of two tongues so essentially different, a fact un- paralleled in linguistic history. The Norman tongue was not totally unknown in England before the Conquest. This will appear from the following historical facts. We discover repeated in- * As patois and dialect will occur again in this work, and as they are used frequently as synonymous or convertible terms, it may be. well to explain the difference before proceeding further. A dialect, . properly defined, is one of several independent and equal forms of a v/' language, fn point of literary merit they may be peers. Thus, the speech of Burgundy, Picardy, Normandy, and the Isle of France were cognate and equal dialects of the Langue D'Oyl, until the last secured the ascendency, and the others sunk to mere patois. Dia- lects, accurately understood, exist in the earlier stages of a language, before superior culture or political predominance has elevated one tribe or nationality and its language above tlie others. Patois, then,^ are those unfortunate dialects which, excelled by their competitors in the struggle for literary honours, have become the speech of the \^ peasant and the brogue of the rural districts. For accurate and detailed information upon these points, the stu- dent is referred to Brachet's " Historical Grammar of French ; " Lit- tre's " History of the French Language," in his magnificent dictionary. THE NOKMAN CONQUEST. 35 stances of intercourse between the two countries before tins time : First. The residence in England of Louis Outremer. Second. Ethelred II. married Emma, daughter of Richard, Duke of Normandy, and the two children were sent to ]^ormandy to be educated. Third. Edward the Confessor possessed a peculiar predilection for the Normans ; during his reign the offices of state were filled by Norman favourites ; the Norman tongue was cultivated in England, and French manners and customs became fashionable among the higher circles. He has been appositely called the first of the Norman monarchs of England. Fourth. Ingulphus, of Croydon,- speaks of his knowledge of French. Fifth. Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, spent some time in Normandy with William. Sixth. William of Normandy visited England, ^and was received with all the splendor of a king by Edward. Seventh. The French article la, in the term la Drove, occurs in a deed of A. D. 975. The Norman Conquest removed England from her isolated position, and introduced her into the sphere of Continental relations. It appears to have been the uni- form policy of the Conquerour to leave the existing laws and institutions unaltered, and content himself with their rigourous enforcement. Notwithstanding the pro- scriptive and vindictive spirit by which some of his meas- ures were actuated, his administration was attended with substantial benefits, and succeeded in effecting a political unity hitherto unknown in England. The character and condition of English society experienced a total transformation. ,- The Normans constituted but a small proportion of the population, and they never trans- ferred themselves generally or in a body to England. But their political and social predominance, more than 3G HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. counteracted their limited numbers ; they rapidly ac- quired all positions of honour and emolument, in church and state. Norman prelates supplanted the Saxon bishops, the avenues to honour and distinction were closed against all but the adherents of the Conquerour, and no man could attain to eminence except by becoming, in speech and in manners, a Frenchman. The native language and literature, which had been deteriorating since the age of Alfred, fell into neglect and decay ; excluded from the schools, from the church, from elegant and courtly cir- cles, it rapidly declined, though it never ceased entirely to be cultivated, during the long period of its depression that intervened between the Conquest and the time of Chaucer. It remained the vernacular tongue of the people, who cherished it all the more ardently on account of its misfortunes, and in the cloisters of the Saxon monks it was guarded with assiduous care, and preserved from utter literary extinction. Its productions were naturally imperfect ; nearly all of our Anglo-Saxon literature, from the Conquest to the time that it was kindled into life under the inspiration of Chaucer, consists of translations and paraphrases, a circumstance which forcibly indicates the absence of original genius, and literary patronage. The decline of Saxon letters and learning had commenced before the Conquest. It is true that this event greatly accelerated the process, but it was not the original cause. When the I^ormans invaded England, the Anglo-Saxons were re- duced to the lowest degree of ignorance and illiteracy. Odericus Yitalis, a native of England, and almost contemporary with the events he describes, speaks of his countrymen as having been found by the I^ormans, " a rustic and almost illiterate people," a remark which ap- ((UNIT SE SIT ^ THE NORMAIT CONQUEST. ^^^ ^ Oj&7 plies especially to the clergy, as the great laity were everywhere illiterate. The Conquerour took advantage of this prevailing ignorance of the clergy to deprive many of them of their benefices, and to supply their places with I^orman favourites, many of whom were accomplished scholars. Upon the whole, it cannot be affirmed that the Kor- man Conquest was unfavourable to the interest of learn- ing and of civihzation. " William himself," says War- ton (History of English Poetry), "patronized and loved letters. He filled the bishoprics and abbacies of England with the most learned of his countrymen, who had been educated at the University of Paris, at that time the most flourishing school in Europe. He placed Lanfranc, Abbot of the monastery of St. Stephen, at Caen, in the See of Canterbury — one of the most eminent logicians of that age. Anselm, an acute metaphysician and theo- logian, hisinmiediate successor in the same See, w^as called from the government of the Abbey of Bee in Normandy." The speculations of these eminent dialecticians had " almost reconstructed philosophical opinion in Europe." William and his nobles founded and endowed some of the most magnificent institutions of learning in Eng- land, and he patronized liberally all enterprises designed to promote the interests of culture, or to foster and de- velop a love for letters. He set the example himself, by educating his own son, Henry Beauclerc, with the utmost care, in all the sciences known and studied in this age of comparative ignorance. Many of his successors manifested the same respect for learning ; many of them had received the most thorough education which was then afforded. Still, whatever learning existed, was in a great degree the exclusive possession of the clergy, and 38 IIISTOIIY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. but few even of the nobility seem to have been versed in the scholarship of the age. The Latin tongue, which was then the general medium of all knowledge, was un- known except to the clergy, and to such of the laity as had embraced the profession of teaching. There long existed a prevalent misapprehension that the Norman Conquerour endeavoured to force upon his new subjects the language of Normandy, and thus to effect the total abolition of the Saxon speech. Hume tells us that " the Conquerour entertained the diflficnlt project of abolishing the English language, and for that purpose he ordered that, in all schools throughout the kingdom, the youth should be instructed in the French tongue. The pleadings in the supreme court of judica- ture were in French, the deeds were drawn in the same language, the laws were composed in the same idiom." This statement must be received with decided modifica- tions. It is true that French was the language of the court and of genteel society from infancy ; that boys in the grammar schools were taught to translate and con- strue tlieir Latin into French ; and so fashionable had the use of it become that even rustic and uncouth persons endeavoured to speak French, in order " to be thought something of," into such neglect and contempt had the Saxon speech fallen. The mass of the people, however, adhered pertinaciously to their native speech. With regard to the remainder of this assertion, so general in its character, it may be said that later and more accurate liistorical researches have show^n that there is no one example of any pleadings in the court of judicature in French, of any deeds or charters drawm in the same language, or any laws composed in that idiom, until the reign of Henry III. "What William found he kept; THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 39 like his predecessors^ his charters were written either in English or Latin, though tha latter gradually prevailed. Yet the English continued in constant use, and the larst example of its employment is found also in the reign onienry HI., when we had the first employment of tiie Fi-ench tongue. * * * * ]^o doubt the Ro- mance diaTect prevailed greatly in England in later times, but for this we cannot hold William responsi- ble, and every letter, every writ, every missive which he addressed to his trusty men — his Frenchmen or his Englishmen— was in Latin or in English. It wa s not until the conclusion of Henry III.'s reign that the x^orman-French appears in the monuments of our jurisprudence and diplomacy.""^" He even under- took to learn the language of his Saxon subjects, in order that he might be qualified to decide suits at law, to which they were parties. The difficulty of the undertaking, however, induced him to abandon it ; the Norman lords could not acquire the correct pronuncia- tion of Saxon words, they mutilated its local names,t and their sovereign probably experienced the same difficulty. There is no historical evidence whatever^ for the asser- tion so frequently repeated, that the IN'orman Conquer- our designed~the destruction of the Saxon tongue ; such a result would have been unattainable except by the ex- tirpation of the race who spoke it ; and the decline and neglect of Saxon speech and Saxon letters were rather accelerated than directly produced by the Conquest; they did not proceed from deliberate policy, or royal in- terdiction ; the game result was inevitable in any event, even if the [N^ormans had never set foot^in England. * Palgrave's "England and Normandy." f For example, they pronounced Lincoln, Nicole. CHAPTER III. THE INFLUENCE OF THE NOEMAN CONQUEST UPON THE ANGLO-SAXON TONGUE. The decline of Anglo-Saxon speech and literature had commenced, as we have learned, long before the era of the Conquest. The first perceptible effect of !N^or- man-French npon Anglo-Saxon was to impart a stimulus to that process of decomposition or phonetic decay,* * Phonetic decay is that process of decomposition or disintegration which is ever active in language, but which is more violent in its /operations at some periods than at others. It is produced by vocal relaxation, careless and indistinct pronunciation, such as we habitu- ally listen to, the slurring over or suppressing of syllables, the dropping of consonants between two vowels, the abbreviation and mutilation of long words, in order to avoid the trouble of enunciat- ing them clearly ; in a word, it comprehends all those expedients to which we unconsciously resort, in order to economize the breath ; it is the practical or utilitarian element in speech, and by its agency many of the most important transmutations of language have been effected. Familiar examples of it are, don't for do not, shan't for shall not, can't for cannot, etc. The greater part of the changes that occurred in the transition of Saxon into English, are attributable to its agency. Thus : A. S. liafoc in English became hawk. daeg in sprecan in morgen in cyning in hltiford in saelig in day. speak. morrow. king. lord. silly. INFLUENCE OF THE NOEMAN CONQUEST. 41 which had already begun to assail the integrity of the tongue, and to transmute it from an inflected or synthetic language to an uninflected or analytic speech. Had there been no Norman Conquest, it is probable that Saxon would have experienced a decided simplification of structure, such as nearly all the languages of the Low Gerraan^tock have undergone. This had been already partially accomplished in the north and east of England by the influence of the Danish invasions. The inherent tendency of all languages to simplification of structure,~A would in the course of time have produced this result, ) but without the Conquest, it would have been much / more gradual, and by no means so complete. The first / perceptible change produced by the Conquest eflected \ the orthography ; the vocabulary received no decided modification until a much later period. The Korman- French, for a century after the occupation of England, experienced no important change; its orthography and some of its forms were slightly altered, but it remained essentially unimpaired until a subsequent period. Latin, as was the case everywhere throughout Europe during the dark and middle ages, continued to be the ( dialect of the Church and of learning ; French the speech of the foreignera,;„wJiile the mass of the native popula- tion retained with invincible tenacity their vernacular tongue. The fact that it had ceased to be generally cul- A. S. wif-man in Englisli became woman. Eofor-wick in lilsefdige in bren-ston in nawiht in secgan in angnaegele in York. lady. brimstone-burnstone. nought. say. [the nail. hangnail,— a sore under 42 HISTORY OF THE EITGLISH LANGUAGE. tivated, greatly facilitated the process of phonetic decay, and consequent simplification of structure. The con- servative influence of culture no longer restrained or retarded its action ; the pronunciation became corrupt, terminations disappeared, the constitution of the speech was infected with a malady which nothing could relieve but an entire reconstruction, or a transmutation of its form and character. There being no longer any gener- ally acknowledged standard of literary excellence, the language lost whatever uniformity it had once possessed, and the germs of dialectic divergence began to be de- veloped. The two idioms remained side by side without intermingling;* a natural effect of the animosities and distrust which the Conquest had generated. T Still the necessities of intercourse, however limited, between conquerors and conquered, gradually produced a kind of mixed dialect, composed of a blending of French and Saxon, and popularly known as " Marlborough FrenchJ' resembling the Lingua Franca of the Levant, or the slang of Anglo-Indian society, utterly confounding the two vocabularies, and disregarding grammatical forms.f Important to be noticed among the changes produced by French influence are the following : C before the Conquest was pronounced hard, like K. Its present soft s-sound, also the softened forms ch, sh, are due to the French influence : g is often changed to w and y, which is due to the same cause ; through the agency of the * For a considerable period after the Conquest, the French was probably principally spoken in the large towns and cities, in which the Normans mostly resided. The Anglo-Saxon prevailed generally in the villages, and in the rural districts, where comparatively few Normans congregated. f Pearson's " England in the Middle Ages." IN'FLUENCE OF THE NORMAif CONQUEST. 43 French, tlie th^ 3d person singular Indie. Pres., was gradually softened to s. Under the same influence s, which was a favorite plural termination of French nouns, became the generally received sign of the plural in English. All the phenomena of linguistic history may be clas- sified under two heads : dialectic convergence, and dia- lectic divergence. The evolutions of language are con- fined to these processes of concentration and dispersion * Thus, for example, one nationality or tribe secures a political ascendency, or excels its neighbours in literary culture, acquiring for its dialect a pre-eminence, as the standard of correctness, and the medium of literary com- position. The others, surpassed in the contest for the supremacy, sink down to mere patois. This is a case of dialectic convergence, and the dialects of Wessex and of the Isle of France may be cited as illustrations. If, on the other hand, the dialect which has attained the supe- riority, is by some internal convulsion, foreign conquest, or admixture, corrupted, disintegrated ; and finally, los- ing its stability, and uniformity of structure, resolves itself into several dialectic forms, we have an example of divergence. Such a divergence was effected by the breakino^ up of the ancient Latin into its different Ilo-> mance descendants; and by the gradual disruption of Anglo-Saxon produced by the Conquest, which caused the language in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth cen- turies, to resolve itself into thi'ee distinct varieties ; viz., the ISTorthern, the Middle, and the Southern dialects.f * Whitney's " Language and the Study of Language." f The student will find a lively and graphic description bf these dialects in Trcvisa's translation of Higden's " Polychronicon." Morris's " Specimens of Early English," page 338. The outline of the dialects given in the text, is condensed from Morris. 44 HISTORY OF THE EN'GLISH LANGUAGE. » Their geographical area was as follows : The Northern dialect was spoken throughout the Lowlands of Scotland, Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire: The Mid- land dialect was spoken in all the Midland counties, in the East Anglian counties, and in Cumberland, Westmore- land, Lancashire, and Shropshire. The Southern dialect was spoken in all the counties south of the Thames, in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, and in parts of Hereford- shire, and Worcestershire. These dialects may be distin- guished from one another by the employment of different grammatical forms. A convenient test for the illustration of these differences, is found in the inflection of the verb in the present plural indicative. The Southern dialect employs etli^ the Midland euy as the inflection for all forms of the plural present indica- tive. The Northern dialect uses neither of these forms, but substitutes es for etli or en. The Northern dialect has its imperative plural in es ; the Southern and Midland in eth. The Midland dialect being widely extended, had various local forms. The most marked of these are: the Eastern Midland, spoken in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk ; the West Midland, spoken in Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Shropshire. The East Midland conjugated its verb in tlie present singular indicative, like the Southern dialect. 1st person, hop-^, I hope. 2d " hope-s^, thou hopest. 3d " hop-6?^A, he hopes. The West Midland, like the Northern, conjugated its vei-b as follows : • 1st person, hope. 2d " hop-^5. 3d " hop-^5. INFLUENCE OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 45 There are other points of difference to be noted. The Southern dialect frequently substituted v, where tlie others used/", as m'w^(??'= finger. It preferred the palatal ch to the guttural Jc, in many words; as riche=l^ort\\- ern r^^6== kingdom; crouch — croIce= cross. It often had and u where the Northern dialect had d and i, as Ai^^=Korthern hil, ^w^= Northern pit; 5(?7i=E'orthern ban=bone. In its grammar, the Southern dialect was still more distinctly marked. First. It preserved a large number of nouns with plurals in n, as sterr en = stsivs, eyren — eggs, kun=kme. The ISTorthern dialect had only about four of these plurals, viz. : eghen=eyes, hosen, oxen, and schoon= shoes. Second. It kept up the genitive of feminine nouns in e, while the Northern dialect employed only the masculine suffix s, as in mod- ern English. Third. Grenitive plurals in ene are very common, but do not occur at all in the Northern dialect. Fourth. Adjectives and demonstrative pronouns retained many of the older inflections, and the definite article was inflected. Many pronominal forms were employed in South England, that were never used in the North. Fifth. Where the Anglo-Saxon had infinitives ending in an and ian, the Southern dialect had en or e and ie. This inflection does not occur in the Northern dialect. Sixth. Active participles ended in inde (ynde) ; in the North in ande (and). Seventh. Passive participles re- tained the old prefix ge (which was very common in Anglo-Saxon before the Conquest), softened do-^oi to i or y; in the North it was never used. Eighth. It had many verbal inflections that were unknown to the Northern dialect, as st (present and past tenses), en (plural past indicative) ; e (second person plural past indicative of strong verbs). Ninth. The Northern dia- 46 HISTORY OF THE El^OLISH LANGUAGE. lect had msinj plural forms of nouns that were wholly unknown to the Southern dialect, as ^r^^/ier= brethren, childer = children, hend =ha.nds. Tenth. TA<2^ was used as a demonstrative pronoun, as in English, without refer- ence to gender. In the Southern dialect, that was often tlie neuter of the definite article. Eleventh. /Smne (as, the same, this same), was used instead of the Southern thillce, modern thuck, thick. Thir, ther (the plural of the Scandinavian article, the, these), was often used. Twelfth. The pronominal forms were very diifferent. Thus, instead of the Southern heo {hi^ hii)=she, this dia- lect used SCO, scho, the older form of our she. It rejected the old plural pronouns of the third person, and substi- tuted the plural article, as thai, thair, thaim (tham), instead of hi, {heo, hii), heore {here), heom (hem), yhoures, thairs, as common then as now, were unknown in the South of England. ^^=to, was used as a sign of the infinitive; sal and sud—schal and schuld. The IN^orthern dialect had numerous Scandinavian forms ; as, A^^7i6?i, hence = Southern A^mid/ thethen, thence = South- ern thenne ,' whethen, whence = Southern whennes. The East Midland dialect has one peculiarity that has not been found in the other dialects, viz : the coalescence of pronouns with verbs, and even with pronouns, as caldes — calde + es = called them ; dedes = dede 4- ^5 = put them; hes=he-{-es=]iQ-\-t\\Qm. The West Midland has its peculiarities, as A(? = she, hit=its. For two or three centuries after the Conquest, the confusion and diversity of dialects, pix^duced by the divergence of which we have spoken, was so great that no one could fairly claim to be considered the standard speech. The Midland dialect was the most widely extended, INFLUENCE OF THE NOKMAN CONQUEST. 47 and the one which we might naturally expect would be- come the standard form of the language. Of its niany varieties, the East Midland was by far the most important. As early as the beginning of the thirteenth century it be- gan to receive literary culture, and had lost most of its in- flections, so as to become a simple analytic speech, like modern English. This dialect, Anglo-Danian in origin and character, gradually penetrated further and further southward, and ended by supplanting the Southern dia- lect for the higher purposes of literary composition ; Trevisa (1387) being the last writer of eminence who employed it. The steady advance of this dialect from about A. D. 1180 until, in the hands of Wickliffe, Gower, and Chaucer, it attained the ascendency, is one of the great facts of our linguistic history."^ In this dialect, not * In Puttenham's " Art of Poetry " (1589), Arber's " Reprints of Early English Authors," the student will find some very instructive remarks concerning the English dialects. Puttenham mentions three dialects — the Northern, Western, and Southern. The North- ern was that spoken north of the Trent ; the Southern was that south of the Trent, which was also the language of the court, the capital, and the surrounding counties ; the Western occupied the same limits to which it is now confined, Gloucestershire, Somerset- shire, Wiltshire. " Our maker (poet) therefore at these dayes, shall not follow Piers Plowman, nor Gower, nor Lydgate, nor yet Chaucer, for their language is now out of use with us ; neither shall he take the termes of Northern-men, such as they use in dayly talke, whether they be noblemen or gentlemen, or of their best clarkes, all is a matter ; nor in effect, any speach used in England, beyond the river of Trent, though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English Saxon at this day, yet it is not so courtly nor so current as our Southerne English is, no more is the far Westerne man's speech; ye shall therefore take the usual speech of the Court, and that of London, and the shires lying about London, within sixty miles, and not much above. I say not this, but that in every shire of England, there be gentlemen and others that speake, but 48 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. only tlie works of Chaucer and his illustrious contempo- raries were composed, but also the Ormulum, and the writings of Robert of Brunne (1303), who clearly fore- shadows the future of the English Language, and the triumph of the East Midland speech. In his diction, the Romance and Teutonic elements are skilfully adjusted, and many modern idioms and familiar combinations ap- pear for the first time, so that he is not inaptly named the "Patriarch of the new English." In the age of Chaucer, the East Midland had become the speech of London and Oxford, and had probably penetrated south of the Thames into Kent and Surrey. At a subsequent date, the Southern dialect had so far receded before it, as to become rather Western than Southern, and the latter designation was the one applied to the languages which had been adopted as the standard. specially write, as good Soutlierne as we of Middlesex or Surrey do, but not the common people of every sliire, to wliom the gentlemen, and also their learned clarkes, do for the most part condescend, but herein we are already ruled by th' English dictionaries, and other books written by learned men.' CHAPTEK TV. TRANSITION OF SAXON INTO ENGLISH. I It has been stated in a preceding cliapter, that pho- netic decay had made considerable_progress in disin- tegrating the structure of the^Saxon tongue, and in converting it from an inflected to an analytic language, before the Conquest imparted a new impulse to the pro- cess of decline, and essentially facilitated its completion. We must now consider in detail the progressive series of changes by which Anglo-Saxon lost its synthetic character, and was transmuted into our simple uninflected English. The first change which occurred, affected the orthography.* This may be seen in documents dating from the beginning of the twelfth century, and it con- sisted in a general weakening of the terminations of words. Firs t. The older vowel endings a, o, u, were reduced to e. This modified the oblique cases of nouns and ad- jectives, as well as the nominative, so that the termina- tion an became en. ra^ ru became re. as " es. ena " ene. - ath " eth. on " en. um " en. od, ode *^ ed, ede. * This outline of inflectional changes is condensed from Morris. It may be found in his " Specimens of Early English," or his " Out- lines of English Accidence." 3 50 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAN^GUAGE. O or k h often changed to ch soft, and ^ to w and y. These changes took place between a. d. 1100 and 1250. Between 1150 and 1200, we note the following changes. First. The indefinite article an, a, is formed from the numeral. It is often inflected. Secon d. The definite arti- cle becomes pe, peo, jpe, {jpcit), instead of se, seo, pwt. It often loses the former inflections, especially in the femi- nine. We find pe often used as a plural instead of pa or po. Third. JS'ominative plurals of nouns end in en or e, instead~o? a or u, thus conforming to plurals of the n declension. Fourth. Plurals in es sometimes take the place of those in en (an), the genitive plural ends in ene or e, and sometimes in es. Fifth. The dative plural (originally U7n) becomes e and en. Sjxth. Some uncer- tainty begins to appear in the gender of nouns. S even th. Adjectives manifest a tendency to drop the following case endings : 1st, the genitive singular masculine of the indefinite declension. 2d, the genitive and dative fem- inine of the indefinite declension. 3d, the plural en of the definite declension frequently becomes e. Eighth. The dual forms are still in use, though not so common. The datives him, hem, are used instead of the accusative. Ninth. 'New pronominal forms appear, as ha = he, she, they ; is = her ; is = them ; me = one. Tenth. The n in min, thin, is often dropped before consonants, but re- tained in the plural, and in the oblique cases. JElcvienth. The infinitive frequently drops the final n, as smelle = smellen, to smell. To is sometimes used as the sign of the infinitive. Twelfth. The gerundial or dative of the infinitive ends often in en or e, instead of enne (anne). Thirteenth. The n of the passive participle is, often dropped. Foiirtfifiiith. The present participle ends in m^?^, and is often substituted for the gerundial infinitive, as, to TEANSITIOiq- OF SAXOK INTO ENGLISH. 51 swiminde = to swimene, = to swim. Fifteenth. /Shall and will begin to be employed as auxiliaries of the future tense. The latter half of the twelfth century was a period of great confusion and diversity. The older forms existed side by side with the new ones that were struggling to supplant them, thus proving that the ancient inflections did not yield the supremacy with- out a vigorous contest. In this period, we first find the popular ov provincial elements budding forth, many of which afterwards became recognized forms of speech. These changes occur principally in the Southern dia- lect. In the other dialects of this period (the East and West Midland) phonetic decay had wrought a more thor- ough simplification of grammatical structure. JThus, in the Ormulum, which is written in the East Midland dia- lect, we note these essential changes : Eirst. The definite article is used as in modern English, and that is a demon- strative without regard to gender. Second. The gender of substantives is nearly the same as at present. Third. es is commonly used as the sign of the plural. Fourth. es, singular and plural, has become the ending of the gen- itive or possessive. Fifth. Adjectives, as in the time of Chaucer, have a final e for the older inflections, but e is chiefly used, 1st, as a sign of the plural ; 2d, to distin- guish the definite form of the adjective. Sixth. The forms they, theirs, come into use. Seventh. Passive par- ticiples drop the prefix i {ge), as, cximen for icumen. Eighth. The plural of the present indicative ends in en instead of eth. ISTinth. Arn=are for heoth. In a work written before the middle of the thirteenth century, con- taining many forms belonging to the West Midland dia- lect, we find : First. Articles, nouns, and adjectives, as in the Ormulum. Second. The pronoun ^A^^ instead of hi 53 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. or heo=thej; 7" for /cor Ich. Third. Passive partici- ples frequently omit the prefix i. Fourth. Active par- ticiples end in ande instead of inde. In the conjuga- tion of the verbs we notice important changes : First. The substitution of es for est in the second person of weak or regular verbs. Second. The dropping of 6 in strong or irregular verbs. Between 1150 and 1250 the Norman-French begins to affect slightly the vocabulary of English. ^Changes between 1250-1350. First. The article still retains some of the older inflec- tions: as, the genitive singular feminine; the accusa- tive masculine ; the plural po (the nominative being used with all cases of nouns). Second. The confusion in the gender of nouns increases, words becoming neuter that were once masculine or feminine. In the course of time the language lost its grammatical gender, and neuter became the designation of objects without life. Anglo-Saxon had its arbitrary system of grammatical gender, like the other Aryan tongues, and the effacing of these perplexing and fictitious distinctions is one of the happiest changes eflfected by the I^orman-French influ- ence. The change itself is directly due to the disap- pearance of the inflections, indicating the dififerences of gender and the consequent disappearance of the difier- en ces themselves. Third. Plurals in 672, and €5 are used without distinction. Fourth. The genitive es becomes more general, and begins to supersede the older en and c in old masculine and neuter nouns, and e in feminine nouns. Fifth. The dative singular of pronouns begins to drop off; m^-self and t/d-seli are often substituted for meself and theself. Sixth. Dual forms of the personal TEANSITIOIN' OF SAXOIT IKTO ENGLISH. 53 pronouns disappeared about the close of the thirteenth century. Seventh. A final e is used for the sign of the plural of adjectives, and for distinguishing between the definite and indefinite declensions. Eighth. The gerun- dial infinitive ends in en or e. I^inth. The ordinary infinitive takes the prefix to. Tenth. A few irregular verbs become regular. Present participles in inge ap- pear about the beginning of the fourteenth century. During this period, and especially towards its close, the French element begins to enter largely into the vocabu- lary of English. Changes between 1350-1460. During this period the Midland acquires the ascend- ency, and becomes the standard speech. Words from the Northern and Southern dialects retain their charac- teristic peculiarities. The following points should be noted with care : First. The plural article tho = the ; those, is still of frequent occurrence. Second. The es in plural and genitive case of substantives is mostly a sepa- rate syllable."^ Third. The pronouns are Zfor the older le / sche for the old form heo / him, them, whom, used as datives and accusatives ; oiires, y cures, heres, in com- mon use for oure, youre, here / thei (they) in general use instead of hi (heo) ; here = their, hem — them. Fourth. The plurals of verbs in the present and past * The sign of the English possessive, 's, is commonly referred to the ending of the Anglo-Saxon genitive, es or is. But the latter in- flection disappeared almost entirely during the period that we are now considering, and it is at least probable that our possessive sign, 's, is a new and distinct inflectional development such as languages sometimes put forth, even at times when their generative energy haa apparently disappeared. 54 HISTORY OF THE Eiq-GLISH LANGUAGE. indicative end in en or e. The imperative plural ends in etlh ; est is often used as the inflection of the second person singular preterite of strong and weak verbs. The infinitive ends in en or e^ but this inflection often disappears towards the end of the fourteenth century. The present participle ends usually in ing (inge). The passive participle of strong verbs ends in en or e. The termination e requires particular attention. It repre- sents an older vowel ending: nam-e=.nam-a j or the termination an^ en, as witliute—withutan. It represents different inflections, and is used, 1st, as a mark of the plural or definite adjective ; 2d, as a mark of adverbs ; 3d, as a sign of the infinitive mood, past tense of weak verbs, and imperative mood. About the close of this period, the use of final e becomes irregular and unsettled, and the forms of pronouns prevalent in the northern di- alect, their, tlieirs, thern, are generally used in the others. CHAPTEK Y. THE WORKS OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD. \*5 CiA'-^ *' There are several works that have descended to us from the t hirteenth centur y, which afford, as it were, a pictorial illustration of tEe process by which Anglo- Saxon gradually evolved itself from its rich inflectional dress, and assumed the simple and graceful drapery of our noble English. These works, though devoid of the loftiest excellence, or of mere literary attractions, are val- uable and interesting to the student of the English tongue, as serving to elucidate an important, and per- haps difficult era in its historical development. They therefore merit a somewhat detailed consideration. They are Layamon's " Chronidg^of Brutu ; " the " Ancren Riwle," the " Ormulum," and " Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle." The language of the first three of these may be termed semi-Saxon, or broken Saxon ; that of the last is English, and is the first acknowledged composi- tion in the English tongue. Except tM " Ancren Riwle," they are all in verse, a form ofTahguage in which the early efforts of every literature are embodied. The work of Layamon " is a versified chronicle of the mythi- cal history of Britain and its ancient kings, dating from the destruction of Troy, and the flight of ^neas, from whom descended Brutus, the founder of the British monarchy, and extending to the reign of Athelstan." The " Brat " or " Chronicle of Britain " is principally, 56 HISTORY OF THE EI^-GLISH LANGUAGE. though with many additions, a translation of the French " Brut D' Angleterre " of Wace, a French scholar, which was itself a translation, with considerable additions, of Geoffrey of Monmouth's " Latin History of the Britons," which is also a translation from a French or Welsh original. " So that the genealogy of the four versions is as follows : First, a Celtic original probably, now lost ; Secondly, the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth ; Thirdly, the French of Wace; Fourthly, the English of Laya- mon." The work of Layamon was written during the first half of the thirteenth century. The language is that of the Southern dialect, and it represents the com- mencement of a new period, during which, after a vio- lent struggle, in which the old inflections maintained their place side by side with the new, certain forms ac- quire the ascendency, to the exclusion of the others, and we consequently discover a greater simplicity of struc- ture, and a more uniform employment of inflections than in works of the preceding period. " The_language-of Layamon," says Sir Frederick Madden, " belongs _to_that transition period, in which the groundwork of Anglo- Saxon phraseology still existed, although gradually yield- ifig~To"the influence of the popular forms of sp,eech." We find in it marked indications of a tendency to^adopt those terminations and sounds which characterize a lan- guage in a state of change, and which are apparent in some other branches of the Teutonic tongue. As illus- trating the " progress made in two centuries in depart- ing from the ancient and purer grammatical forms, as found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, he mentions the use of a as an article, the change of the Anglo-Saxon termi- nations a and an^ into e and en^ as well as the disregard of inflections and genders, the masculine forms given to THE WORKS OF THE TRAiTSITIOiq- PERIOD. 57 neuter nouns in the plural, the neglect of the feminine terminations of adjectives and pronouns, and confusion between the definite and indefinite declensions, the intro- duction of the preposition to before infinitives, and occa- sional use of weak preterites of verbs and participles instead of strong, the constant occurrence of en for on in the plural of verbs, and frequent elision of the final ^, together with uncertainty in the rule for the government of pre- positions." In the earlier text one of the most striking peculiarities is what Sir Frederick Madden has termed the " nunnation^'' consisting of the addition of a final n to certain cases of nouns and adjectives, to some tenses of verbs, and to several other parts of speech. One fact deserving particular attention in the English of Layamon, is the very slight infusion of Korman-French or Latin words. In the earlier text* we do not find more than fifty French words (even including some that may have come directly from the Latin), and of these fifty, several were in use in the preceding century. The later text retains about thirty of these, and adds about forty new ones, so that "if we reckon ninety words of French origin in both texts, containing together more than fifty-six thousand eight hundred, we shall be able to form a tolerably correct estimate of how little the English, language was affected by foreign converse, even as late as the middle of the thirteenth century." Layamon's poem contains about thirty-two thousand two hundred and fifty lines, and the additions to the original constitute the finest portions of the work. " The structure of Laya- mon's poem," says Sir Frederick Madden, " consists * There are two texts of Layamon's " Brut " in existence, the first of which was probably written about 1200 ; the second about 1250. 58 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. partly of lines in which the alliterative system of the Anglo-Saxons is preserved, and partly of couplets of unequal length, rhyming together." Many couplets oc- cur in which all these forms are intermingled, while in others they are not found at all, and the two systems are used in so arbitrary a manner, the author passing from rhyme to alliteration, and from alliteration to rhyme, that it is almost impossible to ascertain the relative pro- portions of each. Upon the whole the alliterative por- tion greatly predominates over the rhymes, even includ- ing the assonant rhymes, or those in which the vowels agree while the consonants are different, which is of frequent occurrence, though almost unknown elsewhere in English poetry.* The "Ancren Riwle," or "Anchorites' Rule," possesses little literary interest, though it is of decided philolog- ical or grammatical importance. It is a code of monastic regulations or precepts, written probably by an ecclesi- astic, for the guidance of three ladies to whom it is ad- dressed, and who formed a religious association, at Ta- rente, in Dorsetshire. The work was probably written late in the twelfth century, if not early in the thirteenth, and is therefore almost contemporaneous with the Chronicle of Lay am on, to the earlier text of which it exhibits a striking likeness. The literary merit of the work does not entitle it to * " One of the most remarkable orthographical changes in the work of Layamon, is the change from initial hw to wh; compare hwo, who, hwich, which. This transposition was not regularly employed by any writer before Layamon. Another noteworthy feature is his regular and accurate employment of shall and will as auxiliaries." — Marsh. " Layamon is the last writer who retains an echo of the literary Anglo-Saxon." — Earle. THE WORKS OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 59 especial attention, and it is merely on account of its value as illiistrating ■ the progress of transition from Saxon to English, that we include it in our history of the language. " The spelling," says Mr. Morton, "whetlier from carelessness or want of system, is of an uncommon and imsetlled_-iiharactery~aiid-J2iay be pronounced barba- rous and uncouth. The language is semi-Saxon, or An- glo-Saxon somewhat changed, and in the first of the various stages through which it had to pass, before it arrived at the copiousness and elegance of our modern English. The inflections, whi«li originally marked the oblique cases of substantive nouns, and also the distinc- tions of gender, are for the most part discarded. Yet as these changes are partial and incomplete, enough of the more ancient characteristics of the language is left to justify the inference that the innovations are recent. l^ot only is es of the genitive case retained, but we very often meet with the dative and accusative in e, and the accusative in en, as then, the. We meet also occasionally with the genitive in re from the Saxon ra, and ne and ene from ena. The cases and genders of adjectives are generally disused, but not always. The moods and tenses of the verbs are little altered from the older forms, and in many words they are not changed at all. The infinitive, which in pure Saxon ends invariably in a7i, is changed into en.'^ From the general character of its structure, and from its resemblance to the older text of Layamon, Mr. Morton concludes that in the '^ Ancren Riwle" we have a specimen of the language of the West of England in the thirteenth century. One essential difference between the " Brut'' of Layamon and the " An- cren Riwle," is the much greater proportion of French words contained in the latter work. This, however, 60 HISTORY OF THE EITGLISH LAKGUAGE. may be readily explained, as the topics discussed in the " Ancren Eiwle" are theological and moral, and conse- quently required the employment of a Latin and French vocabulary. The " Ormulum" (1215) is described by its editor. Dr. White, as " a series of homilies in an imperfect state, composed in metre without alliteration, and, except in very few cases, also without rhyme ; the subject of the homilies being supplied by those portions of the l^ew Testament which were read in the daily service of the church, the design of the writer being, first to give a paraphrastic version of the Gospel of the day, adapting the matter to the rules of his verse, with such verbal additions as were • required for that purpose." The " Ormulum" (so called from its author, Orm, a monk of the Augustine Order) has more interest, both in a liter- ary and philological point of view, than any other work of the Transition Period. Orm appears to have been an orthoepist of nature's own making, and in his ingeniously devised system of spelling, we have the first known attempt at orthoepical reform in the history of our tongue. The assiduous and painstaking labors of the author, and his quaint devices for indicating the sounds of words by technical contrivances, imply a con- scious appreciation of the anomalies and diversities of English spelling, and his praiseworthy efforts were pro- bably designed to establish, or at least to preserve, a standard of correct pronunciation in the midst of dia- lectic divergences and confusions. The principal pecu- liarities of Orm's orthography consist " in a doubling of the consonant whenever it follows a vowel having any sound except that which is now indicated by the annex- ation of a final e to the single consonant. Thus, pane THE WORKS OF THE TRAiTSITIOi^ PERIOD. 61 would be written pan by Orm, but pan^pann ; mean^ men, but men, menu ; pine, pin, but pin,pinn ; tune, tun, but tun, tunnP The versification departs from the Anglo-Saxon standard, in wanting alliteration and in possessing a regular metrical flow ; and from the Nor- man-French in wanting rhyme. The vocabulary is slightly affected by Latin elements, and scarcely at all by Norman-French influence. The structure of the " Ormulum " exhibits a more advanced stage of the lan- guage than Layamon ; in fact, so regular is its syntax com- pared with that of contemporaneous compositions, that it might almost be styled English instead of Anglo-Saxon. The " Chronicle of Eobert of Gloucester" is a narrative of British and English history, from the siege of Troy to the death of Henry III., 1272. The earlier part of the work is founded upon Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin History, but it is destitute of skill or imagination. " The author," says Warton, " has clothed the fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth in rhyme, which have often a more poetical air in Geoffrey's prose." The " Chronicle," how- ever, is worthy of notice, not only on account of its con- tributions to our knowledge of the history of ^gland in the thirteenth century, but also because it is ttie old- est professed historical composition in the language. The style is that of the Western English. To the stu- dent of English philology, the work is peculiarly inter- esting, as illustrating the state of the language about the accession of Edward L, and also for the information it conveys respecting the bilingual condition of England produced by the introduction of the Norman tongue, and its prevalence during the author's lifetime, more than two centuries after the Conquest. We transcribe the following lines : 62 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Thus come lo ! Engelonde into Normannes lionde, And tlie Normans ne coutlie speke tlio bote her owe speche. And speke French as dude atom, and here chyldren dude also teche. So that heymen of thys lond, that of her blod come, Holdeth alle thulke speche that hii of hem none Vor bote a man couthe French, me tolth of hym well lute, Ac lowe men holdeth to Englyss, and to her kunde speche yute, Ich wene ther be ne man in world countreyes none. That ne holdeth to her kunde speche, but Engelond one, Ac wel me wot vor to conne bothe wel yt ys, Vor the more that a man con, the more worth he ys. That is : Tims lo ! England came into the hand of the ISTormans, and the Kormans could not speak then but their own speech, and spoke French, as thej did at home, and their children did all so teach ; so that high, men of this land that of their blood come, retain all the same speech that they of them took. For unless a man know French, one talketh of him little. But low men hold to English and to their natural speech yet. I imagine there be no people in any country of the world that do not hold to their natural speech but in England alone. But well I wot it is well for to know both, for the niore that a man knows the more worth he is. CHAPTEE YI. THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The works of the Transition era enable us to trace with tolerable accuracy the series of changes by which Anglo-Saxon passed from its inflected to its uninflected stage. So gradual and difficult of chronological deter- mination are the changes which occur in every tongue, that it is impossible to fix with precision a point at v/hieh a language may be said to pass from one pliase into another, from its radical to its agglutinative stage, or from its agglutinative to its inflected form. All such determinations of the periods of a language are to a cer- tain extent arbitrary, and the most that can be accom- plished is to approximate with some degree of correct- ness to those almost impalpable boundaries at which one speech fades into another, or passes from the exiroerant vigour of youth to the maturity of manhood, or from the maturity of manhood to the infirmity of age. By the middle, or about the middle^ of the thirteenth century, the Anglo-Saxon dialects had undergone so marked a simplification of structure that we are enabled to discover a gradual approximation to their modern representative, the standard English of the present day. The rise of the English tongue, as a new form of speech, may thus be dated from about the middle of the thir- teenth century, a. d. 12a0. But this must be carefully distinguished from the rise of the Queen's English, or 64 HISTORY OF .THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. literary form of the language, wliich did not acquire the ascendency until a later period. There was at this pe- riod no generally received standard of speech. English had commenced its history, but it consisted merely of a congeries of dialects, which had diverged from the Anglo-Saxon stem, each having its grammatical peculi- arities and its literature, however imperfect ; varying in different localities, and agreeing only in one essential particular, the loss of inflections and general simpliflca-. tion of structure. Between the years 1215 and 1350, we trace the vi^our- ous and praiseworthy efforts of the Saxon writers to establish a national literature. The poems of " Genesis and Exodus," " Havelok the Dane," the '' Owl and the Nightingale," the "Romance of King Alexander," the "Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester," may be mentioned as exemplifications of this tendency.* But these pro- ductions, although enduring memorials of the patriotism of their authors, serve to illustrate the divided and dia- lectic condition of the language from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. During this long era of depression, [Rorj^an-Erench retained the ascendency as the dialect of the court and of fashionable circles, from which the verses of the Saxon poets were rigourously excluded. Erom the Conquest to about the middle of the fourteenth century, all the fashionable or popular literature of Eng- * By many philologists and critics, the celebrated " Proclamation of Henry III," (1258) is considered the first specimen of composition in the English tongue. But it bears no resemblance to the literary English, as has been pointed out by Mr. Earle. The proclamation has been printed from the original document, by Mr. Ellis, and it may be found among the publications of the Early English Text Society ; also in Earle's " Philology of the English Tongue," and in Corson's "Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English." THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH LAInTGUAGE. 65 land was written in the Norman tongue. It was the lan- guage of light literature, of the romances, the ballads, and metrical chronicles, designed to entertain the Kor- man nobility and their followers. Their merits must have been of an inferior order, if we may judge from the ridicule with which they were assailed by Chaucer. The great mass of Korman-French literature was pro- duced in England; its cultivation commenced in that land, the Normans having no literature worthy of men- tion at the era of the Conquest. The fact to be particu- larly noted in this connection is, that during this long interval of gloom and oppression, from Aelfric to Chau- cer, the vernacular tongue never ceased to be cultivated. Expelled from elegant and courtly association, dissev- ered into dialects, unable to compete with the dominant idiom, it was cherished with assiduous diligence in the monasteries and abbeys, and many of the literary memo- rials of this age are remarkalile compositions, if we con- sider the circumstances under which they were produced. But this protracted period of national and linguistic depression was to be relieved by the coming of a brighter day. Hitherto we have seen merely a discord- ant English language, without .generally acknowledged standards or canons of literature. There was no national speech and no national unity until the middle of the four- teenth century. The Anglo-Saxon as the language of the people, the Latin as the dialect of learning and the clergy, and the French as the speech of the court and the aristocracy, existed side by side, without seriously affecting, or modifying each other's vocabulary until about the reign of Edward III., 1327-YT. ,„^ The distrust and animosity generated by the Conquest prevented a blending either of nationalities or dialects, 66 HISTORY OF THE El^TGLISH LANGUAGE. and the two languages, like the two races, pursued their courses like parallel streams, without converging or com- mingling. The !Norraan-French dislocated the inflec- tions of English, and disturbed its pronunciation ; while Anglo-Saxon imparted a number of words to the vocabu- lary of French. To all intents, however, the two tongues remained essentially separate, and each imparted as much as it received. But those important political events that clouded the latter years of Edward's brilliant reign, the loss of all the splendid Continental acquisitions of England (which embraced the Atlantic coast of France, and which were further advanced, both in social and intellec- tual culture than the Normans of England), marked the commencement of a new era in the history of the Eng- lish race and the English tongue. The disasters which cast a shadow over the declining years of this glorious reign, led to the renunciation of those cherished dreams of foreign conquest that had captivated the imagination and fired the knightly spirit of Englishmen, and tended powerfully to blend into a homogeneous mass the dis- cordant populations of the island, to make England the centre of their affections and their interests — their com- mon country. " Had the Plantagenets," says Macaulay, " as at one time seemed likely, succeeded in uniting all France under their government, it is probable that Eng- land would never have had an independent existence. The noble language of Milton and Burke would have remained a rustic dialect, without a literature, a fixed grammar, or a fixed orthography, and would have been contemptuously abandoned to the boors. No man of English extraction would have risen to eminence, except by becoming in speech and in habits a Frenchman." Whatever sentimental regrets we may be disposed to THE RISE OP THE EI^GLISH LAN'aUAGE. 67 indulge for the loss of the magnificent c« ward III., and the Black Prince, yet epoch that we must date the commencement greatness. The energies of Tier people, diverted from the thoughts of Continental empire, were now directed to the development of a country which was henceforth to be the seat of their power ; and from this era, the English tongue, partaking of the spirit and the aspira- tions of those who spoke it, woke from its long lethargy, and entered upon its unparalleled career. Under the influence of these important political events, social jealousies and national hostilities began slowly to fade away, as the two languages and the two races began gradually to melt into one.* Unity and harmony of sen- timent, the partial concession of political privileges to the humbler classes, the formation of social alliance among the hitherto isolated nationalities, necessarily led to the partial blending of the two idioms, and to their reciprocal action and influence. For nearly two hundred years after the Conquest, English appears to have been spoken and written without any serious admixture of French. " The entire English vocabulary of the thir- teenth century, so far as it is known to us in its printed literature, consists of about eight thousand words. Of these about one thousand, or between twelve and thir- teen per cent., are of Latin or Komance origin,"f a strik- ing illustration of the slight impression that the long continuance of French domination in England had made upon the vocabulary of the vernacular tongue. It was * The union of the two races had been partially accomplished in the reign of Henry II., and in the reign of John, by the conquest of Normandy (1204), and by the enactment of Magna Charta (1215). f Marsh's ' * Origin and History of the English Language." 68 HISTORY OF THE EN"GLISH LANGUAGE. the structure of the language that principally suffered from foreign contact, during the two centuries following the Conquest. JN^or did the Norman-French escape the pernicious effects of foreign influence. On the contrary, it experienced decided alterations from its contact with the decaying Saxon, and suffered as much mutation as it had produced. Upon the conquest of Normandy from King John in 1204 by Philip Augustus, the kings of England ceased to be dukes of Normandy, and the Nor- man language, separated from the culture of its ancestral home, gradually declined in purity ; it lost its original accentuation, and assumed an insular character. It ac- quired an antiquated and incorrect air ; certain features belonging to the provincial dialect of Normandy had engrafted themselves upon it, and its pronunciation seems to have resembled the accent of Lower Normandy. In addition, this accent, when introduced into England, received a perceptible impress from Saxon articulation. The speech of the Anglo-Norman barons was distin- j guished from that of Normandy by a stronger articula- " tion of particular syllables, and more especially of the final consonants. It was corrupted by Anglicisms, and was sometimes little more than a mutilated English. Even persons of culture, like Chaucer's gentle and decorous Prioress, spoke a French which was utterly opposed " to French of Paris," for although she could speak it " f ul fayre and f etisly," she followed the French of " Stratford atte Bowe, for Frenche of Paris was to hire (her) unknowe." If such M^as the French of the educated, we can readi- ly imagine what it must have been in the mouths of the peasantry who affected to understand it. Trevisa tells us, ^' Jack wold be a gentleman yf he coude speke Frensche." THE lUSE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 69 " In Piers rionghmaia," says Mr. Earle, " we have the dykers and delvers, with their bits of French, doing a very bad day's work, but eminently polite to the ladies of the family : ' Dykers and Delvers that don here werk ille, And drivetli forth the longe day, with Deu, vous saue, dam emme.* " These specimens will illustrate the extended preva- lence of French in England, as well as its deformed and debased condition. The more widely it was diffused, the less firm was its sway, until in the fourteenth century it was a general subject of jest and ridicule. But as the French declined, the native language was growing more and more into repute. The new political and social con- ditions of which we have spoken, were beginning to •accomplish their natural result. The commingling of the two races involved a coalescence of the two tongues. Henceforth the native language began to adopt and naturalize French vocables, appropriating them, not as badges of subjection, but as trophies of a successful contest against a valiant and determined foe. The adop- tion and intermixture of French words commenced when English was received as the speech of that part of the nation which had previously spoken French. So rapidly did the language, now conscious of its powers, and an- ticipating the brilliant triumphs in reserve for it, absorb the foreign material, that between 1300 and 1350, as many Latin and French words were introduced into the vocabulary of the English tongue, as in the whole period of more than two centuries that had intervened between the Conquest and the commencement of the fourteenth century. About the middle of this century, the native speech appears in full vigour and promise; the era of its gloom and depression is passed. Trevisa designates the 70 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. great plague of 1349 as a point after which the popular fancy for speaking French began to abate. He says : *' This was moche used tofore the grete deth, but sith it is somedele chaunged. For John Cornwaile, a maister of gramar, chaungide the lore (learning) in gramar scole and construction of (from) Frensch into Englisch, and Richard Pencriche lerned that manor teching of him, and other men of Pencriche. So that now, the yere of owre Lord, a thousand thre hundred four score and fyve (1349), of the secunde King Bychard after the Conquest nyne, in alle the gramar scoles of England, children levetli Frensch, and construeth and lerneth an (in) Englisch." In 1362 w^as passed the statute enacting that all pleas pleaded in the King's Courts should be pleaded in the English tongue, and enrolled in Latin ; the pleadings previously to this time having been entered in French, and the enrollments of them sometimes in French, and sometimes in Latin. Thus we see the English language restored to its natural rights in the schools of the realm, and in the courts of law. The reason alleged for the last-mentioned change was, that the French language had become so much unknown in the realm, that the people who were parties to suits at law had no know- ledge nor understanding of that which is said for or against them by their sergeants and other pleaders. Yet, strangely enough, this very statute is in French, which, though it had ceased to be the language of the people, continued to a considerably later period to be the mother tongue of the ITorman dynasty, and probably that gener- ally spoken at Court, and in the House of Lords. Edward HI. wrote his letters and despatches in French, and there is but one recorded instance in which this monarch is known to have used the English tongue. THE EISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 7l It was during the first half of the fifteenth century that the English language, growing more and more into repute, ended by totally supplanting the French, except with the great barons, who, before they renounced the dialect of their fatherland, beguiled their weary hours with works in both languages. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the kings of England and their court- iers appear to have spoken the French with fluency and correctness; but this was purely an individual accom- plishment. The IS^orman was no longer the vernacular speech of the great, nor the idiom with which children were acquainted from their cradles ; it was cultivated merely as an intellectual discipline or a polite accom- plishment, as in the present age we study the languages of Greece and Rome. Thus, about four centuries after the battle of Has- tings, disappear the differences of dialect, which, together with the disparity of social conditions, had marked the separation of the two races, the one descended from tlie followers of William, and the other from the followers of Harold. CHAPTER YII. THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE {contluued). In the preceding chapter we endeavoured to indicate the causes, social and political, which blended the oppos- ing Saxons and Kormans, and restored the native lan- guage to its natural and inalienable privileges. By the action of those causes, there were gradually created a national speech and a national sentiment, but the fusion was not complete ; the proportion of Norman and Saxon elements in the newly formed tongue was not definitely ascertained ; it wanted that harmony, symmetry, and precision which are acquired only by judicious culture, and by the establishment of generally acknowledged standards of literary excellence. Hence, what the language needed, for the development of its powers, was the moulding influence of some great word artist, 1 who could assign to the constituents of the vocabulary \ their rank and proportion, regulate its syntactical struc- ture, and render it the fit medium for the loftiest senti- ments, the grandest aspirations, that were to be embodied in it. It was not until the tongue had been transmuted by the plastic touch of Chaucer, had given utterance to the oracles of God, under the guidance of Wycliffe, ■ and been refined by the precise and accurate rhyme of " ancient Gower," that it advanced to that pre-eminence which it has maintained above all the languages of Europe. THE RISE OF THE EIS'GLISH LANGUAGE. 73 Let US first observe the process by whicb the vocabu- lary of tlie fourteenth century was formed, the sources whence its varied wealth was gathered, ere it was sub- jected to the delicate scrutiny of Chaucer, and was regu- lated by the precise and accurate rhyme of Gower. It is a prevalent though a mistaken impression, that the great number of French words which flowed into the English language during the fourteenth century are to be attributed to poetry, and other departments of liter- ature. " The law, which now first became organized into a science, introduced very many terms borrowed from the nomenclature of Latin and French jurispru- dence; the glass-worker, the enameller, the architect, the brass-founder, the Flemish clothier, whom I^orman taste and luxury invited, or domestic oppression expelled, from the Continent, brought with them the vocabularies of their respective arts ; and Mediterranean commerce, which was stimulated by the demand for English wool, then the finest in Europe, imported from the harbours of a sea where French was the predominant language, both new articles of merchandise and the French des- ignations of them. The sciences too, medicine, physics, geography, alchemy, astrology, all of which became known to England chiefly through French channels, added numerous specific terms to the existing vocabu- lary."* The poets, so far from marring the native speech by too copious an infusion of French words, were re- served in their employment of them, and when not compelled by the necessities of versification, selected a vocabulary principally composed of Anglo-Saxon words. The correctness of this assertion may be established by * Marsh's "History of the English Language." 4 74 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. comparing the dialect of the prose writers of this era, with those poetical compositions which are designed for the least refined classes, and which, consequently, em- ploy the simplest and most unpretending diction. This has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Marsh in his " Origin and History of the English Language,'^ 268- 270. Sir John Mandeville is the first regular prose writer who employed the newly formed language. After spending many years in foreign travel, he returned to England, and composed (1356) an account of his travels, written in Latin, translated into French, and then into English, " that every man of his nation might read and understand it." The book appears to have had a very extensive circulation, as there are many copies in exist- ence, and its vocabulary must have been perfectly intel- ligible to the masses of English-speaking people. Though the style and syntactical structure of Mandeville are English, the proportion of Latin and French words em- ployed in his unadorned, unpoetical narrative, is greater than is found in the works of Langlande, Chaucer, Gower, or any other English poet of the fourteenth century. In the prologue, which contains, exclusive of Latin and Greek proper names, less than twelve hun- dred words, more than one hundred and thirty, or eleven per cent., are of Latin or French origin, and of these, the following are new to English, not being found in the printed literature of the preceding century : Assembly, because, comprehend, conquer, certain, en- viron, excellent, former (noun), frailty, glorious, inflame, inumber (inumbrate), moisten, nation, people, philoso- pher, plainly, proclaim, promise, pronounce, province, publish, reconcile, redress, subject, temporal, translate, trespasser, visit. The following words contained in THE RISE OF THE EN-GLISH LANGUAGE. 75 Chapters I., II., III., XXI., XXII., were first pointed out by Mr. Marsh. ' Abstain, abundant, ambassador, anoint, apparel, appear, appraise, array, attendance; benefice, benignly, bestial ; calculation, cause, chaplet, cherish, circumcision, claim, command (verb), compari- son, continually, contrarious, contrary, convenient, con- vert, corner, cover, cruelty, cubit, curiously ; date, defend (forbid), degree, deny, deprive, desert (waste), devoutly, diaper, discordant, discover, disfigured, dispend, dissever, diversity, duchy ; enemy, enforce, engender, estate, esti- mation, examine; faithfully, fiercely, foundation, fornica- tion ; generation, governance, gum ; idol, immortal, imprint, incline, inspiration ; join ; letters (alphabetic characters), lineage ; marquis, menace, minstrelsy, money, monster, mortal, multitude ; necessary ; obedient, obeis- sante, obstacle, ofiicer,^ opinion, ordinance, ordinately, orient, ostrich, outrageously ; paper, pasture, pearls, perch (a pole), perfectly, profitable, promise (noun), proper (own), province, purple ; quantity ; rebellion, receive, re- gion, relation, religious, return, reverend, royalty, royally, rudely; sacrament, science, search, scripture, servitor, signification, simony, soldier, solemn, specialty, spiritual, stranger, subjection, superscription ; table, temporal, testament, throne (verb), tissue, title (inscription) ; unc- tion, usury ; value, vary, vaulted, vessel, vicar, victory, vulture. We find, then, in the prologue, and in the five chap- ters from which these words are taken, comprising about one-eighth of the volume, one hundred and seventy- four words of Latin and Romance origin, not contained in the printed literature of the thirteenth century. It is evident, from the results of this investigation, that the charge so often preferred against the poets of the four- 76 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. teenth century, of having corrupted the purity of their native tongue by foreign admixture, is unsupported and unjust. It was the serious diminution of its resources that the Anglo-Saxon had experienced during the dreary period of its literary subjection, when its powers were enfeebled for lack of assiduous culture, and its intellec- tual and moral vocabulary languished and decayed, which rendered necessary the introduction of Latin and French terms. We have already alluded to the rich- ness of its theological and intellectual vocabulary, and it was in these departments that it had encountered the severest losses. So long as England remained inde- pendent of Continental alliances, the Saxon preserved its copious spiritual nomenclature, unaffected by foreign admixture or interference. The reign of Edward the Confessor introduced England into the sphere of Con- tinental relations, and the Conquest gave the finishing stroke to the employment of Saxon for ecclesiastical and spiritual purposes ; I^orman priests and teachers ad- hered pertinaciously to the consecrated dialect of Kome, and the native spiritual and intellectual vocabulary, fall- ing into disuse, became gradually obsolete. Hence, when the new language began to be employed as a literary speech, its defects in these essential particulars had to be remedied by calling into service the corresponding terms in the Norman tongue. The old and oft repeated complaint, urged against the poets of this century by Gil, Verstegan, and Skimer, is not sustained by the evidence ; it was an erroneous opinion, based upon an imperfect acquaintance with the historical development of our language. The foreign vocables would doubt- less have secured all the privileges of English citizenship, if the fourteenth century did not record the name of a THE KISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 77 single poet. The language was recovering its conscious- ness; a coalescence of the separated nationalities in- volved a blending of their tongues, and the influx of foreign words was a necessity, which, in any event, must have resulted from the altered political and social rela- tions of the kingdom. It was the exalted function of the poets of this age to refine, polish, and skilfully dis- pose of the linguistic materials, that the fusion of races, and the other causes indicated above, had accumulated ; to adjust the imperfectly blended elements, assigning to each its importance; and from their harmonious com- mingling, to evolve a language adequate to all the de- mands of the peerless literature that was to be treasured up in it. The poets, in short, were the arbiters, the umpires, the law-givers of the language. CHAPTER VIII. PIEKS, THE PLOWMAN. The interest and importance of " The Vision of Piers Plowman" arise not so much from its h'terary execution, or its intrinsic excellence, as from the fact that it is the first composition in which the English spirit and genius are distinctly perceptible. The history of English literature dates from the age of Chaucer and Gower, under whose guidance the literary speech assumed a definite form and character. But the "Vision of the Plowman," though written in a dialect, presaged the speedy advent of that glorious morn, when the new language and the new literature were to enter upon that magnificent career which have made them the wonder of our history. Piers Plowman, then, is the first writer, truly English in sentiment, and his " Vision " is an appropriate prelude to those grand bursts of melody that were soon to fill the balmy air with " sounds that echo still." It is difiicult to ascertain with precision the date of the poem known as "The Vision of Piers Plowman," but it was probably composed about 1360.-rj[{L The author- ship of the work is also involved in obscurity, and the tradition which ascribes it to Robert Langlande, an Eng- lish ecclesiastic, is not established by trustworthy evi- dence. But a fictitious Langlande has long had the PIERS, THE PLOWMAif. 79 credit of the poem, and as no conclusive testimony has been adduced to invalidate his claim, there is no danger of doing injustice to the genuine author, by appropriating the name of Langlande as the impersonation of some unknown writer. The acquaintance with ecclesiastical literature which the poem displays, indicates that the author was connected with the clerical profession i He foreshadowed the teachings of WyclifFe, and he perhaps ultimately attained the same conclusions as this illustri- ous champion of the truth. Every writer who secures an abiding-place in the memory of his countrymen must be, in a greater or less degree, an exponent of the age ; he must embody and reflect its intellectual senti- ments and tendencies, its religious and political opinions. In the dawn of every literature this principle forms an essential element of success, and the author of the " Yision " merely invested with poetic garb the sympa- thies and the aspirings in which every English heart participated. The " Vision of Piers Plowman," there- fore, derives its poetic interest, not from its revelation of unknown truths, but from its lucid reflection of the life and character of the age, its exposure of ecclesiastical corruptions, its distinctive dialect and alliterative form, which gave it an extensive circulation among the hum- bler classes. It bodied forth those grand religious dog- mas w^hich were dimly apprehended, and by presenting them forcibly to the consciousness of the English people, it prepared the w^ay for the reception of those tenets which the eftbrts of Wycliffe and his adherents were already disseminating. The numerous manuscripts of the work in existence, show how general its circulation must have been, and the marked variations in different copies prove that it w^as deemed w^orthy of diligent 80 HISTORY OF THE Ei^GLlSH LANGUAGE. recension by the original author, or, at least, that it was essentially modified by the scribes to whose inspec- tion it had been submitted. The " Yision " had become a national possession, a sort of " didactic catechism." The querulous tone which pervades the work would tend to increase its popularity among the middle classes, who, though gradually acquiring a degree of social and political influence, were not yet sufficiently powerful to protect themselves against the encroachments of their civil and ecclesiastical rulers. One circumstance that in- vests the poem with peculiar interest, is its adherence to the ancient alliterative system of versification ; and it was the last work of eminence that conformed to the canons of Anglo-Saxon verse. The " Yision of the Plowman " displays the accurate acquaintance of its author with the Latin Scriptures, the treatises of the Fathers, and the works of Komish expositors, though it contains few indications of a knowledge of Eomance literature. Still, the proportion of Norman-French words, or at least of Norman-French words assimilated to Latin, is equal to that contained in the poetry of Chaucer. While the conception of the poem was doubt- less induced by the moral and political condition of contemporary England, the manner of treatment is purely original ; its whole tenor is an entire departure from the established character of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Though the poem is defective in unity of plan, its in- tent and spirit are one. The scope of the poem is re- stricted, being to a considerable extent in the form of a dialogue. In these portions, the language represents the dialect of common life, though the characters are not delineated with sufficient individuality to invest it with a dramatic colouring. It was, however, well adapted PIERS, THE PLOWMAN. 81 to the intelligence of the class for whom it was designed, as is attested by its extended circulation, notwithstand- ing its occasional introduction of Latin quotations. The diction of the " Vision " is more archaic than that of Chaucer; many of its words have become ob- solete, and some have entirely disappeared. The syn- tax, the structure, and the vocabulary, however, present as marked a resemblance as those of any two modern authors who should discuss topics so unrelated, and ad- dress audiences so diverse, as the cavaliers of Chaucer and the peasants of Langlande.* The following outline will illustrate the grammar of Piers the Plowman. I^ouns. The nominative plural commonly ends in es^ as in shroudes I sometimes in s, as Mdders j or in z, as in diamantz. For es, is is sometimes found, as in wittis, and very rarely us, as folus / some few plurals are in en, as chylderen. A few nouns, such as yolJc, which were originally neuter, have no termination in the plural. Gees, 7nen, are plurals formed by vowel change ; fete and feet are various spellings of the plural of foot. Cases. The genitive singular ends in es, sometimes corrupted into is, as cattes, cattis j other endings are very rare. The genitive plural ends in en or ene, as clerJcen. The dative singular commonly ends in e, as in to ledde. Adjectives. The distinction between definite and indefinite adjectives is difiicult, owing to the irregularity of the alliterative rhythm, and the additions of copyists and scribes. Plural adjectives should end in e, and gen- erally do, as alle. The re-duplication of a consonant when a syllable is added is worth notice ; thus alle is the plural * Langlande wrote in the dialect of tlie Western shires, but his style is marked by Midland peculiarities. 4* 83 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. of al, as shullen is the plural of the auxiliary shal. Yerv rarely plural adjectives of French origin end in es. The comparative of heigh is herre ; superlative, liexte. Adjectives and adverbs ending in ly^ sometimes' form their comparatives and superlatives in loker^ lokest, as light, lightloker, lightlohest. Pronouns are the same as in Chaucer, but besides sehe, the older form heo is used, and besides pei, the older form h (hy). There are also traces of dialectic confu- sion and admixture in the use of the pronouns ; their is denoted by here, her, or hri / them by hem., etc., etc. Yerbs. The indicative plural ends both in en and eth, as geten, conneth. The past tense of weak verbs which should end in ede, ends, commonly, in ed only, both in the singular and plural, as jpley-ed, but sometimes the full plural form, -eden occurs. In weak verbs, which should form their past tenses in de or te, the final e is often dropped. Thus, went for wente. In strong verbs, which should terminate (in the first and third persons singular of the past tense) in a consonant, we often find an e added ; thus : I shoj>e for I shojp. The plural gen- erally has the correct form, en, as chosen. In the infin- itive mood some verbs are found with the ending ie or ye, and final e is sometimes dropped. The present par- ticiple ends in yng, as worchyng ; the prefix y is often found before past participles, sometimes even before past tenses.^ The words are selected with care, and employed w^ith discrimination as well as with reference to their radical significance. Notwithstanding the allegorical drapery of the "Vision,-'' it affords us a graphic portraiture of * Skeat's Introduction to " Piers Plowman." 83 English society in the fourteenth century; it removes the obscuring veil, and allows us a glimpse of the inner life of the nation. We have incidental descriptions of the food, the dress, the domestic status of the humbler classes, the foul dealing of tradesmen and mechanics ; in short, a vivid portraiture of English life in the four- teenth century, drawn by a contemporary, and surpassing in naturalness the intricate details of the historian. Though the poem does not enter into clironological discussion, it is a valuable addition to our knowledge of English character and English society in the age that produced a Chaucer and a Wy cliff e. CHAPTEE IX. THE WYCLIFFITE VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. The Wyclifiite versions of the Scriptures exerted a decided influence in developing that particular dialect of English which became the literary form of the lan- guage. Tliej thus tended to prepare the way for Chaucer and Gower, the former of whom was probably indebted to the Wyclifiite translations for much of the wealth and beauty of his diction and vocabulary. The Wycliffite versions of the Scriptures are therefore enti- tled to special consideration in a history which treats of the origin and formation of the English tongue. Though the Anglo-Saxon possessed a native translation of the Gospels, and of some other portions of the Bible, there is no reason to suppose that any considerable part of the Scriptures, except the Psalter, had been rendered into English until the translation of the entire sacred volume was attempted, by the advice of Wyclifie, and partially executed by him about the last quarter of the fourteenth century. Whatever Biblical knowledge the English had acquired was gathered from their clergy, who introduced into their discourses translations from the Yulgate, or Latin version of St. Jerome. These were not intended for circulation, and consequently no opportunity was afibrded for the study of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue. The translation of WycHfie was made from the Latin Yulgate, the authorized ver-r THE WYCLIFFITE VEKSIOITS OF THE SCRIPTUKES. 85 sion of the Romish Church. There is no direct evidence to prove that any of the translators were sufficiently versed in the Greek and Hebrew to translate directly from either of those tongues, and, in consequence, the structural peculiarities, or the phraseological combina- tions, which they impressed upon their version, are derived from the Yulgate, except so far as the style and diction of the Yulgate itself had been affected by the syntax and vocabulary of the Greek and Hebrew. No detailed examination of these works is contem- plated, nor an endeavour to ascertain the share which Wy cliff e had in the execution of them. It is sufficient for our purpose to say, that in the only trustworthy edi- tion we have of any of them, the older text, from Gene- sis to Barucli, third chapter, twentieth verse, is probably the work of Hereford, an English ecclesiastic, while the remainder of the Old Testament, and the Apocry- pha, are supposed to have been executed by Wycliffe. There exists no reasonable doubt that the whole 'New Testament was rendered into English by him. It is impossible to ascertain precisely the date of the com- mencement and completion of this important work, but there are good reasons for believing that the older text was finished about 1380, the revised edition of Purvey about 1390. ^Notwithstanding the labour and expense of transcribing, the translations appear to have been widely circulated, as many manuscripts are in existence. The fidelity and accuracy that characterize the "Wyc- liffe versions may be ascribed principally to the action of two causes : First, the translators, as well as the peo- ple, were imbued with those intense religious sensibili- ties, and that consciousness of intellectual elevation, which result from spiritual emancipation. Second, the 86 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. structure of the language was then marked by simpli- city and freedom of expression. Its elasticity and plian- cy had not been checked by the imposition of gram- matical canons or by the constraining influence of arbi- trary prescription, and it therefore more closely con- formed to the style of the original Scriptures than the polished and foraial diction of later ages. These ver- sions, consequently, display, in structure and in vocabu- lary, a closer assimilation to the spirit and genius of the ancient text than could have been attained with a fixed syntactical order and a vocabulary, a great proportion of whose words had assumed determinate and invariable shades of meaning. The most important result accom- plished by these versions was the formation of an Eng- lish religious dialect, which, with unessential modifica- tions, has remained the language of devotion and of Scriptural translation to the present day. "While our secular dialect has been fiuctuating, inconsistent, and subject to frequent mutations, we have possessed from the dawn of our literary language a sacred vocabulary, idiomatic, uniform, and_harmonious. It is remarkable that the style of the original works supposed to have been written by Wycliffe, is much less regular than that of the 'New Testament, which, instead of exhibiting that discordance of forms characteristic of the authors of that period, appears to have adopted some model, and to have adhered to it without variation. The consistent and regular structure of Wycliffe's J^ew Testament imparted to the work a pre-eminence as a standard of sacred and devotional phraseology, and many of the archaic constructions of the Authorized Yersion, as well as many of its special forms, were transferred by Purvey and Tyndale from Wycliffe, and THE WYCLIFFITE VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 87 from Tyndale by thq translators of King James's reign, remaining unchanged during a period of five centuries. To so great an extent are the Wycliffite versions the basis of all succeeding translations, that though the reader may occasionally be perplexed by an obsolete word, an archaic idiom, or an antique spelling, it is plausibly conjectured by ^n eminent critic, that if the illustrious Reformer were restored to life he would be able to read and understand our modern edition of the Bible without assistance. The writings of Langlande and of Wycliffe (particularly the latter) introduced into the English language a great number of words derived directly from the Latin, or from the Latin through tlie iJ^Torman-French. They conferred a more important benefit upon the colloquial dialect by giving a general circulation to many Latin and French words which had never acquired popular acceptance, but had been re- stricted to literary use. The dissemination of "Piers the Plowman's Yision" among the higher classes was prevented by its retention of the ancient alliterative versification, and the works of Wycliffe were, in a great measure, banished from the same circles by the conjoint action of the secular and spiritual power, as seditious and heretical. Hence, their circulation w^as confined to that class whose obscurity afforded them immunity from civil and ecclesiastical persecution. I^ot withstanding these unfavourable surroundings, the translators of the four- teenth century and their polemical compositions percep- tibly increased the richness of our moral and theological vocabulary, and much of the excellence of our present version of the Scriptures is due to the valuable acces- sions which our language received from their assiduous labours. While the writings of Wycliffe cannot be re- 88 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. garded as models of the literary language as it existed in his age, they contributed efficaciously by their excel- lence and their extensive circulation to the importance of the East Midland dialect, and thus tended essentially to secure for that speech the pre-eminence as the stand- ard form of the language. It is probable, too, that they contributed to the verbal affluence of Chaucer, and in this manner exerted a specific influence in enriching the vocabulary of the new-born tongue. The political fac- tion with which Chaucer sympathized was disposed to regard the Reformer with favour, and must have cher- ished a kindly sentiment towards the common people, who formed the reading public of Langlande and Wyc- liffe. Hence we may readily imagine that Chaucer had perused the translation of the Scriptures as well as the " Yision of the Plowman ; " nor could a genius of his subtle perception fail to discover that these works treas- ured up verbal gems of purest ray, though in a crude and unpolished condition. These rich jewels, trans- muted by his masterly touch, tended to enrich and gild his diction, and the surpassing excellence of his style is partly to be attributed to his skillful extraction of the pure gold from the writings of his contemporaries, a means of improvement to which the intolerance of infe- rior artists would not permit them to descend. CHAPTEK t. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OF CHATTCER. In the preceding chapters, we endeavoured to indicate that series of processes by which the Anglo-Saxon tongue was divested of its synthetic form, and, deprived of the conservative power of literary nurture, gradually became disintegrated, diverging into several dialects, distinguished by well-defined grammatical and structural peculiarities. The language and the literature that we have hitherto considered are dialectic in character, as there was thus far no generally recognized standard of speech, and consequently no national literature. The commencement of literary English must be dated from the latter half of the fourteenth century, and from the writings of Chaucer and his contemporary, Gower. These are the true founders of the literary form of our tongue. Having arrived at this important point, the rise of the King's English, it may be w^ell, before pro- ceeding further, to notice minutely the precise condition which the language had attained at this period. For the sake of method, it will be convenient to go tlirough the several parts of speech in the order in which they are commonly ranged by grammarians. First. The prepositive article, re, reo, paet (which answered to the o rj ro of the Greeks), in all its varieties of gender, case, and number, had been long laid aside, 90 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. and instead of it an indeclinable the was prefixed to all sorts of nouns, in all cases and in both numbers. Second. The declensions of the nouns substantive were reduced from six to one, and instead of a variety of cases in both numbers, they had only a genitive case singular, which was uniformly deduced from the nomi- native by adding to it ^ ; or only s if it ended in an e feminine ; and that same form was used to express the plural number in all its cases. The nouns adjective had lost all distinction of gender, case, or number. Third. The personal pronouns retained only one oblique case in each number. Their possessive pronouns were in the same condition with the adjectives. The interrogative and relative wJio had now only a genitive wlios, and an accusative whom^ and no variety of number. The demonstrative this and that had only the plurals thise and tho, and no case. Other pronominal words had become undeclined, with very few exceptions. Fourth. The verbs were very nearly reduced to their present simple state, having four moods, the indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and infinitive, and two tenses, the present and the past. All the other varieties of mood and tense were expressed by auxiliary verbs. The future, with shall^ was coming into use. It first occurs in Layamon, but the original meaning was retained by Chaucer: "For by the faithe I schal {owe) to God." The infiection of the verb in the singular number was nearly the same as at present, / love, thou lovest, he lov- eth. In the plural varying forms were used ; sometimes the Saxon form in eth^2i& used — we, ye, they loveth ; sometimes the form in en — we, ye, they loven. Tins latter was the prevailing form in the past tense, plural number, — we loveden. The Saxon termination of the in- THE E]S"GLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE.OT" OHAUCER. 91 finitive an, was changed to en- gradually disappearing, leaving to love. participle generally ended in ing, but the ancient form in ende or a7ide was still in use — lovende, lovande. The progressive changes were end, ind, m, ing. The past participle was formed in ed or contractions of ed, such as e final, as caste, hurte. The past participle was also formed in en, particularly in irregular verbs. Sometimes the n was lost — take for taken. The auxiliaries were still inflected, though not long after Chaucer — we shallen love. To have and to ben were complete verbs, and the latter, wnth the past participle and the other auxiliary verbs, supplied the place of the passive voice. Fifth. With respect to the indeclinable parts of speech, it is sufficient to remark that many of them remained pure Saxon ; the greater number, however, were be- coming abbreviated. Such was the general condition of the Saxon element in the English language at the time that Chaucer com- menced his literary career; let us notice briefly the accessions wdiich it received at different periods from Kormandy. As the language of the Anglo-Saxons was complete in every essential respect, and had sufiiced for the purposes of literary composition of diverse kinds, as well as for all the necessities of society, long before they had sus- tained any intimate relation to their I^Torman neighbours, there existed no inducement to alter its original and radi- cal character, or even to deviate from its established forms. Consequently (as has just been pointed out), in all the essential parts of speech, the distinctive peculiarities of the Saxon idiom were retained without exception, while the numbers of French words that from time to time 92 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. were introduced were assimilated either immediately or gradually to the Saxon idiom. Sixth. The words thus introduced were principally nouns substantive, adjectives, verbs, and participles. The adverbs, which are derived from French adjectives, seem to have been formed from them after they were Angli- cized, as they have all the Saxon termination liche or ly, instead of the French ment. As to the other indeclina- ble parts of speech, our language being sufficiently rich in its own resources, has borrowed nothing from France except an interjection or two. The nouns substantive in the French language (as in all the Romance dialects) had dropped their case endings long before the period of which we are at present speaking, but such of them as were naturalized in England acquired a genitive case, according to the corrupted Saxon form. Th.Q plural number was also new modelled to the same form, if ne- cessary ; for in the nouns ending in e feminine (as the greater part of the French did), the two languages were already agreed. N'ominative flour, genitive flour es, plural fljoures. ]S^ominative dam£, genitiv^e dam,es, plu- ral dames. On the contrary, the adjectives, which in "their native land had a distinction of gender and num- ber, upon their naturalization in England seem generally to have lost both, and to have assumed the simple form of the English adjective, without case, gender, or num- ber. The French verbs laid aside all their differences of conjugation ; accorder, souffrir, recevoir, descendre were regularly changed into accorden, suffren, receiven, de- scenden. They brought with them only two tenses, the present and the past, nor did they retain any peculiarity of inflexion which could distinguish them from verbs of Saxon origin. The participle of the present time, in THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER. 93 some verbs, appears to have preserved its French form, as usant^ suffisant. The participle of the past time adopted almost universally the regular Saxon termina- tion in ed, as accorded^ received, descended. It even fre- quently assumed the prepositive particle ^q (or y, as it was afterwards written), which, among the Saxons, was generally, though not peculiarly, prefixed to that parti- ciple. Upon the whole it may be affirmed that at the time of which we are speaking, although the structure of our language was still Saxon, the vocabulary was to a con- siderable extent French. The Conquest (1066) intro- duced many novelties ; the mechanical arts, the civil law, the sciences, geography, medicine, alchemy, astrol- ogy, all brought with them their respective nomen- clatures derived from the French and Latin tongues. The poets, who generally have the principal share in moulding and refining a language, introduced a great number of words from France. As they were, for a long period, chiefly translators, this expedient saved them the trouble of seeking out the cognate terms in Saxon. The French words were descended from a polished language, and were much better adapted to metrical uses than the Saxon; the final syllables of the French chimed together with more frequent consonances, and its accentual system, which tended to place the stress of the voice upon the final syllable, was better adapted to rhyming verse.* * Tyrwhitt's Introduction to Chaucer. CHAPTEE XI. THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND GOWER. In the preceding chapter we indicated the general condition of the language about the time of Chaucer and Gower. We must now consider that particular form of the language in which their works were com- posed. This, in consequence of their influence and popiilaritj, as well as the excellence and the superiority of their poetry, acquired the preeminence as the standard of literature, and constituted the King's English, or lit- erary form of the tongue. Henceforth the other dialects descend to mere patois, and all other English gradually becomes provincial. The brilliant genius, the lofty social position of Chau- cer, as well ^s his harmonious adjustment of the native and foreign element in the vocabulary, and his fine ver- bal discrimination, were principally instrumental in ele- vating the East Midland dialect to the ascendency. The fame of Gower rests principally upon the accuracy and precision of his rhyme and vocabulary, which contributed efficaciously to determine the form of the language. The greater part of his works was composed in French ; in literary merit he was far inferior to his great contem- porary, nor does he appear to have written in English until encouraged by his example. The language which Chaucer adopted, and which by his influence became the standard form of the speech, was the East Midland dia- THE AGE OF CHAUCER AI^D GOWER. 95 lect, in which Orm and Eobert of Brunne had also writ- ten. This dialect, formed by the blending of Anglian and Danish terms and constructions, had gradually ex- tended further and further southward, until it supplanted the original Southern speech, which had steadily receded before its irresistible advance. Its complete ascendency, however, was not established until long after the time of Chaucer. During the Wars of the Roses, the lan- guage manifested a strong tendency to resolve itself into its dialectic forms. IN^orthern terms and idioms again appeared, and it was reserved for a Kentish man and his printing-press to consummate the task which had been commenced by Robert of Brunne and continued by Wycliffe and Chaucer. The East Midland dialect, as we have pointed out, had assumed a simple analytic form, like our modern English. This was in great measure owing to its attrition with the Danish speech and the consequent falling away of its inflections. It had largely absorbed the French element, had been cul- tivated by Orm, a rare genius and our first orthoepical reformer, and in the hands of Robert of Brunne it assumed a character which differs slightly from our modern idioms. In the time of Chaucer it had become the literary language of London and of Oxford, and was current among persons of courtly rank and in the higher classes of society. It combined all the essential elements of a great language. The vigour of the antique Roman, the heroic enterprise of the Dane, the versatile genius of the iNTorman, were felicitously blended in the compo- sition of the races by whose commingling the speech of Spenser and of Shakspere was gradually formed. The French element had been in great measure introduced before the commencement of Chaucer's literary career, 96 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH. LANGUAGE. and was probably familiar to the greatest number of those for whom he wrote. "We have elsewhere endea- voured to defend him from the old and oft-repeated com- plaint of corrupting the purity of his native tongue by the introduction of French words. The necessities of metre and of rhyme, which had now become an established feature of English verse ; the fearful losses which the poetic, moral, and intellectual vocabulary of Anglo-Saxon had sustained during the long period of its depression ; its scarcity of rhyming words, rendered recourse to the tongue of France indis- pensable to poetic success. A large proportion of the French words employed by Chaucer and Gower are those which have the rhyming syllables at the end of the lines. Chaucer, then, did not introduce into the English tongue French words which it already rejected, but he impressed the greater part of those previously in use with the sanction of his authority, and thus invested them with all the rights of native-born English vocables. He was not the creator of our vocabulary, but rather its umpire or arbiter, and by his happy faculty of selection and his appreciation of the necessities of the speech, he constructed out of existing materials a literary diction which, in all the essentials of poetic art, was, at that era, unsurpassed in any of the cultivated languages of Europe. The excellence of Chaucer's judgment, and his perfect comprehension of the needs of the language, are strikingly illustrated by the fact that, of the French words found in his writings, not much above one hun- dred have become obsolete,* while a much greater num- * Of the Frencli words introduced by Langlande, many took no root, such as brocage, creaunt, fenestres, devoir, losengerie. In senti- ment and poetic spirit there is a much closer connection between THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND GOWER. 97 ber of Anglo-Saxon words contained in his works have fallen completely into disuse. In fact, the number of French words introduced by Chaucer is much fewer than is commonly supposed, and his rare discrimination is manifest in his selection of native as well as of foreign terms. English he employed from preference ; French, from the metrical defects of the Saxon and the conse- quent necessity for recourse to French models of versifi- cation ; and his deviations from the pure English idiom are of rare occurrence. The language of Gower does not differ essentially from that of l^is great contempo- rary. It is not so purely English in style, and it con- tains a larger proportion of French words. His real merit is that of a linguistic refiner, rather than a poet of genuine excellence ; and .his precise and accurate rhyme exercised a marked influence in moulding and determin- ing the literary form of the language. Piers the Plowman and Chaucer than exists between Chaucer and Gower, who have little in common except that they compose in the same language, and in a style different from their contemporaries and predecessors. The true distinction between Langlande and Chaucer is linguistic rather than poetic ; the former seems to have blended imperfectly the conflicting elements in the vocabulary, while his illustrious successor has fused them so skilfully and har- moniously, that the foreign terms appear as native-born words. The one was a genuine poet ; the other was not only a poet, but a word- artist of unsurpassed penetration and perception. 5 CHAPTER XII. THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND GOWER (contluued). Under the guidance of Chaucer, the tongue of Eng- land advanced at once to that preeminence which it maintains among the languages of Europe. Its vocabu- lary, hitherto unregulated and j&uctuating, was now re- duced to order; one form of speech constituted the standard of literary composition; its metrical capabili- ties were tested and expanded ; the age of English litera- ture had fairly commenced. We are now in a position to understand the true rela- tion of English to its various patois or provincial dia- lects. The patois were those dialects of the language which received no perceptible infusion of Frencli, but remained unaifected by foreign admixture. It must not be supposed, however, that they passed into mere pro- vincial forms without leaving any distinct impression upon the standard speech. On the contrary, many of the characteristic peculiarities of the literary idiom are traceable to dialectic influence. Their impress is espe- cially perceptible in our complex and discrepant system of orthography, whose anomalies are clearly due to the fusion of many dialects into one, and the preservation in the standard tongue of their orthographical diversities and discordances. The writings of Chaucer and Gower were the first specimens of truly national as well as truly English THE AGE OF CHAUCER AND GOWEE. 99 literature. An harmonious and generally received lan- guage, a unity of national spirit, writings comprehensive in their scope and character, and discussing topics intel- ligible to the majority of educated persons, are the indispensable conditions of a truly national literature. These conditions were fulfilled during the latter half of the fourteenth century, and in great measure by the influence of Chaucer and Gower. It is from this period that we must date the commencement of that magnifi- cent and incomparable literature which is the richest inheritance of the English-speaking race. The poetic models upon whom Chaucer founded his style were principally those of France. They were everywhere, perhaps, still regarded as the classic poetry of modern times; and the younger poetry of Italy, which was derived from the same common source, had not, with all its excellence, either supplanted the ballads and romances of the trouveres and troubadours, or even attained a corresponding eminence. The earliest English, as well as the earliest Italian, poetry was principally imitated or translated from that of France. The greater part of the poetry written in the French language during the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, was written in England for English readers, and to a considerable extent by native poets. French poetry, during this period, does not appear to have been regarded as a foreign literature, and even at a subsequent era it must have been considered by every cultivated Englishman as prop- erly belonging to his own land. For a hundred years before the time of Chaucer, perhaps even longer, the majority of English versifiers had been occupied in translating the French romances into English, now 100 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. gradually, but steadily, becoming the common speech, of the educated. These translations were executed with little accuracy, and were designed merely to render the meaning of the original intelligible to the English reader. During the latter half of the fourteenth cen- tury, at which time Chaucer began to write, the French had nearly disappeared as a general medium of commu- nication ; the English, on the contrary, had improved ^ decidedly in precision, regularity, and in general adapta- tion to the purposes of literary composition.* Chaucer was probably more indebted to the Troubadour or Pro- vencal poets than to any o^her foreign sources, for pol- ished and appropriate models of poetic style. Under the guidance of this wonderful race of minstrels, poetry had attained an artistic elegance and perfection unsur- passed, if not unapproached, in ancient or modern ages, and from the lovely land of Provence the inspiration of the Muse had extended into many distant climes ; the Troubadour poetry supplied the models upon which that of Germany, Italy, and that of their successors, the Trouveres of Northern France, were constructed. Their influence upon the literature of mediaeval Europe was immense ; they were the acknowledged standards of poetic excellence, and it was among them that the lit- erature of modern times first appeared, radiant with hope and vigour, after the long and dreary period , that had intervened since the fall of the Roman Em- I pire. The two periods in Provencal or Troubadour history extend from the second half of the eighth century to 1080, and from 1080 to 1350. Of these, the second is * Craik's Englisli Literature. THE AGE OF CHAUCER AKD GOWEE. 101 by far the more important, as it was during this era that the Provencal poetry flourished in its greatest excellence and popularity. The Anglo-Korman literature, intro- duced into England by the conquerours, had two points of contact with the Provengals ; one of which was fur- nished by its general and indirect relations to France ; the other, through the Kings of England, who had be- come Dukes of France, and who maintained habitual communication with several of the provinces of the South. . The literature of the Provencals had thus two avenues open by which to penetrate into Great Britain. Henry II. and his sons distinguished themselves by their zeal for the encouragement of the Troubadours. His queen, Eleanor of Gruienne, drew several of them after her, and, among others, one of the most famous, Bernard de Yentadour. ISTotwithstanding these propitious in- fluences, the Provencals exerted but little effect upon the Anglo-Korman literature. The latter can show nothing which can be compared with the lyrical produc- tions of the former. As to poetical romances, the Anglo- l^ormans composed several of them, they translated others, and they were acquainted with several more through the medium of French translations. By the side of this Anglo-Norman literature, which was proper- ly that of the court and the conquerours, there arose another in the language of the country, and this was the literature of the people. The Provencal literature is more apparent in the latter than in the former.* It was upon the models furnished by these brilliant and gifted versiflers that Chaucer refined our native tongue, smoothed down its roughness, expanded its capabilities, * Fauriel's " History of Proven9al Literature." 102 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. developed its metrical powers, and polished its modes and styles of versification. As we have already pointed out, alliteration was the essential characteristic of Anglo-Saxon verse, though rhyme was occasionally employed. Rhyme appears to be the form which poetry spontaneously assumes ; it is, in. fact, coeval with poetry itself. Its existence was as well known to Yirgil and Horace as to Dryden and Pope. It was resorted to in ancient Roman poetry, both in compositions of an elevated and dignified char- acter, and in caricature, satire, and ribaldry. '' It may be discovered in Homer, in JEschylus, in Horace, and Ovid. Its employment is commented upon by Cicero and Quintilian, and the Greek rhetoricians. It is found in Prudentius, in Leo Diaconus, and in nearly all the intervening Latin poets, before it appears in full blos- som in the hymns of the middle ages. With the disre- gard of quantity, the obscuration of inflections, and the increasing instability of accent, among mixed and im- perfectly educated races, rhyme became a customary and almost indispensable ornament of verse in the later Latin and Greek." But in the classic poetry of an- tiquity, the rhythmical principle exerted too great an in- fluence to allow the rhyme, as a rhetorical element, to attain that influence which it gained by a natural pro- cess when verses began to be measured according to the modern principle of rhetorical accent. Rhythm showed its influence in ancient poetry, not only in the single verses, but in the composition of several verses of a dif- ferent size and fall, into an organic whole — the strophe. To the inheritance of the strophe, and its development into the stanza, mediaeval poems, and especially the can- zas of the Troubadours, owe their greatest interest. To THE AGE OF CHAUCEE AKD GOWER. 103 - the relics of ancient literature, already mentioned, was added the rhyme, defined by strict rules and made ob- ligatory, and this new principle contributed not a little to give variety and harmony to the highest development of mediaeval poetry, the stanza.* In Saxon poetry, alliteration constituted the chief metrical characteristic, but even there, rhyme was occa- sionally employed, and it is assuming too much to assert that English poetry is entirely indebted to ITorman- Fronch for its introduction, as it was known and prac- tised to some extent before the Conquest.f Among the earlier examples of its use, may be mentioned the Anglo- Saxon rhymii^ poem, discovered by Conybeare, and written about the close of the tenth century; lines in rhyme in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, upon the death of William the Conquerour ; and a rhyming canticle, com- posed before 1170. In the reign of Henry II., Laya- mon's " Chronicle of Brutus " appeared, which contained occasional specimens of rhyming verse. From the end of Henry III.'s reign if to the middle of the fourteenth century, soon after which time Chaucer began to write, the number of English rhymers had greatly increased. In addition to several with whose names we are acquainted — Robert of Gloucester, Robert of Brunne, Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hamphole, * North British Review, January, 1871. f Otfrid of Weissenberg, who flourished about 870, was the earli- est rhymer in any of the modern languages of Europe. X The decline in English rhyme, from the time of Henry 11. to the end of Henry III.'s reign, is accounted for by the supposition that during this period the poets, who wrote for the fashionable, com- posed in French, scholars in Latin, while the Saxon poetry, being intended for the ignorant classes, was of a very inferior character, and has fallen into oblivion. — Tyrwhitt's Introduction to Chancer. 104 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAN^GUAGE. and Lawrence Minot — it is probable that many of tlie anonymous authors, or rather translators of the popular poems, called Romances, existed during this era. As their poems were intended for recitation, perhaps to be accompanied by music, they probably were more atten- tive to the metre than to the rhyme. Such was the general condition of English poetry about the time that Chaucer entered upon his literary career. Rhyme was gradually becoming a feature of versification, and was perhaps as generally recognized as blank verse was, at the time that Shakspere com- menced the writing of his dramas. Although its intro- duction was not due to Korman-French poetry, its gen- eral acceptance and popularity were greatly accelerated by its superior adaptation to the purposes of metrical composition in a language like the French, in which the stress or emphasis is placed near to the ultimate syllable, or upon it. After a short and ineffectual struggle, as well as an attempt at compromise, between the ancient alliterative system and the new rhyming verse, the latter prevailed, and maintained the ascendency until the latter decades of the sixteenth century. So far as rhyme was concerned, little remained to be done by Chaucer except to lend the sanction of his au- thority to the example of his predecessors, and by his influence rhyming verse was firmly established as an essential element in our poetry. The metrical part of our language was capable of improvement by refining the modes of versification already adopted, as well as by the introduction of new styles. In this regard, Chaucer rendered illustrious service. He was the introducer of the heroic metre, and our metrical forms, inspired with THE AGE OF CHAUCER AN"D GOWER. 105 new life by his talismanic touch, rang out with sweet notes, as clear and unfading, after the flight of five cen- turies, as the images of the Canterbury pilgrims. Having thus traced the rise and formation of the King's English, under the guidance of Chaucer, and, in a less degree, of Gower, let us see if we may not at least catch the echo of those melodious sounds whose dulcet symphonies preluded the future glories of the English tongue. CHAPTEK XIII. THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OF CHAUCEK. "With regard to the pronunciation of Anglo-Saxon, little can be ascertained. It is probable that it resembled that of Latin, and its accentual system, which placed the stress of the voice upon the root, and not upon the in- flected syllables, caused the first syllables to be more forcibly enunciated than the last. In this respect it pre- sented a direct contrast to the French, which tended to place the stress of the voice toward the end of the word. By the influence of the Korman Conquest, a new accent- ual system was introduced, which, towards the close of the twelfth century, began to manifest itself in the written speech. The vocabulary of the French language is, to a great extent, composed of Latin words which have lost their inflectional endings, generally the atonic or unac- cented syllables. For example, the French noun, recep- tion, is derived from the accusative case of the Latin noun, reception-em, by rejecting the inflected or unaccented syllable. The accented syllable of the Latin thus became the flnal syllable of the French word, and also the one upon which the stress of the voice was laid. When such words were transferred from French to- English, they brought with them their native accentuation ; and as accent is much stronger in English than in French, the flnal syllable was doubtless much more distinctly pronounced in the former than in the latter language. PRONUNCIATIO:S" IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER. 107 By the introduction of the accentual system of the French tongue, a disturbing element entered into our orthoepy, and the contest between the Gothic and Ro- mance tendencies in English is not yet harmoniously con- cluded. French accentuation even affected pure Eng- lish words; and we find wisliche iov wis'liche, hegy fi- ning', endyng\ absence!, mercy', grayer' , conquerour', etc. Many French words, when Anglicized, receive a variable accent, as fcrr't/une, fortune', con'tre, contree', statue, and statue! .'^ In the days of Chaucer, the pronunciation of English, so far as it is now possible to reclaim it, seems to have been as follows : A=ah, as in father ; the Latin and Continental sound of a. The present sound of a, as in wait, late, was not established until the beginning of the eighteenth century. A shortfall, the short sound of ah, not now used in received English, but common in the provinces, Continental short a. The present very different pronun- ciation, as a in cat, was not in vogue until the seven- teenth century. Aa, the same as a long. Ai=aA'ee, a diphthong, consisting of ah, pronounced briefly, but with a stress, and gliding on to ee in one syllable ; the Ger- man sound of ai, and the French ai. The modern sound of ai, as in wait, was not in use before the seventeenth century. Au=ah'oo, a diphthong consisting of ah, pro- * This will be apparent to any one who will observe the varying pronunciation of sucli words as contem'plate, con'template, demon'- strate, dem'onstrate, con'versant, convers'ant, etc. It was only in the last generation that Rogers remarked, " Bal/cony (pronounced before balco'ny) is bad enough, but con'template makes me sick." In the United States, this tendency to place the accent as far aa possible from the end of the word is especially marked. 108 HISTORY OF THE EN^GLISH LANGUAGE. nounced briefly, but with a stress, and gliding on to oo in one syllable ; not now in use ; the German au, the French aou. The modern sound of au, as Paul, was not established until the seventeenth century. Aw= Au. Ay=Ai. B was pronounced as at present. C=:k before a, o, u, or any consonant, and equal to s before e, i, y. It was never sounded sh, as in the present sound of vicious, which then formed three dis- tinct syllables, vi-ci-ous. Ch was pronounced as ch, in such, cheese. D was pronounced as at present. E long, as e in there, ai in pair, a in dare ; that is, as ai is now pronounced before r, or rather more broadly than before any other consonant, and without any ten- dency to run into ee, nearly French e. The sound of e in eel was not established until the beginning of the eighteenth century. E short, like e in met, pen, e final, like e, or short e, lightly and obscurely sounded, as the final e in the German eine, " herrliche," " gute," gabe. This sound was always used in prose when final e was the mark of some final vowel in older forms of the lan- guage, when it marked oblique cases, feminine genders, plural inflections of verbs, etc. But in poetry it was regularly elided altogether before a following vowel, and before he^ Ids, A«m, hire^ equal to her, here equal to their, hem equal to them, and sometimes before hath, hadde, have, hem, here, equal to here. It was never sounded in hire equal to her, here equal to their, oure equal to our, youre equal to your, and was often omitted in hadde equal to had, were, time, more. It was seldom omitted when necessary for the rhyme and metre, and for force of expression in other positions, especially when PEONUKCIATIOH m THE AGE OF CHAUCEK. 109 it replaced an older vo>vel, or marked an oblique case, as in German. Its pronunciation fell into disuse during the fifteenth century. Ea had the same sound as long e, like ea in break, great, wear ; it was seldom used except in ease and please. The modern sound of ea, as ee in eel, was not in vogue until the eighteenth century. Ee the same as long e, as e'e in e'er, it frequently occurs. The modern sound of ee was not in general use before the middle of the sixteenth century ; ei equal to ai, with which it is often interchanged by scribes. The modern sound, as ee, dates from the eighteenth century. Eo equal to long e, seldom used but in people, often spelled pepel. The modern sound of eo, as ee, came into use during the sixteenth century. Es final, mark of the plural, was generally sounded as es or is. Eu equal to ui in Scotch puir, the long sound, of French u, German ii in all words of French origin. This assumed the sound of our modern eu in the seventeenth century. In words not derived from French, eu equal to ai'oo, a diphthong consisting of ai, pronounced briefly, but with a stress, and gliding on to oo in one syllable, as in Italian Europa. Ew equal ui in Scotch puir, or else ai'oo precisely as eu. Ey, the same as ay, with which it is constantly inter- changed by scribes. The modern sound, as ee, belongs to the eighteenth century. ' F, as at present. G, equal to g hard in all non-French words ; equal to j before e, i, in words of French origin. Ge final, or before a, o, in French words equal to j ; the e is some- times omitted. Gh equal to kh, the Scotch and German sound of ch. H, initial, as at present, but probably generally omitted in unaccented he, his, him, hire equal to her, 110 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. hem equal to them, and often in hath, hadde, have, just as we still have, I've told 'em, and in some French words, as host, honour, etc., probably omitted as now. H final represents a very faint sound of the guttural kh, into which it dwindled before it became entirely- extinct. I long was not at all the modern sound of i ; it was the lengthened sound of i in still, almost, but not quite, ee ; compare still and steal in saying, Still so gently o'er me stealing ; I short equal to i in pin, pit ; I consonant equal to j. le, the same as long e, with which it is often interchanged. The modern sound of e dates from the seventeenth century. K, as at present. L, as at present. Lh equal to simple 1. , M, as at present. - I N, as at present ; not nasalized in French words as now. Ng had three sounds as at present; as in sing, singer, linger, change. Oa equal to a in boar, o in more, with a broader sound than oa in moan, or o in stone. G short equal to 6a, the Continental short o, but not so broad as modern o in got, which was not established till the seventeenth cen- tury. Oa probably not in Chaucer ; it was introduced for long o in the sixteenth century. Oe occurs very rarely ; same as long e. Oi equal to oo'ee, a diphthong consisting of the sound of oo pronounced briefly, but with a stress, gliding on to ee in one syllable. Oo equal to long o; often interchanged with it. The modern i sound of 00 in pool dates from the middle of the six- \ teenth century. On had three sounds which may be thus distinguished : ou equal to oo, where it is now pro- j nounced as in loud; ou equal to ii, where it is now pro- J PRON'Ul^CIATIOJ^' IN THE AGE nounced as in double j o.u equal to oa'oo, where it is now sometimes pronounced oh'oo, as in soul. Ow equal to ou. Oi equal to oi. P, as at present. Ph equal to f, as now. Qu, as at present. E, as in ring, herring, carry; always trilled; never now as in car, serf , third, cord. Ke final, probably the same as er, except when e was inflectional. Kh equal to r, as at present. S was more frequently a sharp s when final ; then was, is, all had s sharp. But between two vowels, and w^hen the final es had the e omitted after long vowels or voiced consonants, it was probably z, a letter sometimes interchanged with s, but rarely used. S was never sh or zh, as at present ; thus, vision had three syllables, vi-si-on. Sell equal to sh in shall. Sh as now. T, as at present, but final tian, was in two syllables, si-ion. Th had two sounds, as in thine, then , probably sounded as now. IT long occurred only in French words, and had the sound of French u, German ii. The modern sound of i^ in tune was not introduced until the seventeenth cen- tury. y consonant equal to v. Y vowel equal to u. Y con- sonant, as at present. W vowel was used in diphthongs as a substitute for u, and sometimes absolutely for oo, as wde equal to oode ; herberw equal to herberoo. W consonant, as at present. Y vowel, long and short, had just the same sound as I long and short. Y consonant, probably as now. Z equal to z, as now, and never zh.* * Ellis's Early Englisli Pronunciation ; Morris's Chaucer. CHAPTEE XIY. THE YOOABULAEY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Having traced the historical development of the Eng- lish tongue from its crude beginnings among the Ger- manic and Scandinavian colonists of Angle-land to the period of its full fruition under the culture of Chaucer, Gower, and Wycliffe, we must endeavour to ascertain, as accurately as possible, the elements by whose blend- ing the language was gradually formed, the time, the manner, and the conditions of thefr introduction. The vocabulary of the English language, while it has incorporated elements drawn from nearly all the known languages of the world, is principally composed of Teu- tonic or Germanic, Keltic, Latin, and Bomance con- stituents. "We shall consider them principally with reference to the period of their introduction, and in the following order : First, the Keltic ; Second, the Latin, with its Romance descendant, the French ; Third, the Saxon or Germanic; Fourth, the Danish or Scandina- vian ; Fifth, the Greek ; Sixth, the words derived from miscellaneous sources.* * In enumerating tlie elements of the vocabulary, I have thought it best to classify French as part of the indirect Latin element, al- though it necessitates a departure from the chronological order, Saxon, in point of time, coming before French. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 113 The Keltic. It is a prevalent misapprehension that the Kelts, the primitive inhabitants of Britain, were almost extirpated by the Saxon invaders, and that the language and the people faded away without" leaving a perceptible impres- sion upon the tongues and the nationalities by which they were supplanted. But this is at variance with the facts; many local names in England, and some in America, attest the influence of the Keltic races, and remind us forcibly of their long sway in those lands in which English is now the dominant speech, while the number of designations of the most common articles, occurring in every day's ordinary intercourse, strikingly recalls their memory and their presence. Local names derived from Keltic : Avon, Derwent, London, Ouse, Medlock; Aber, prefixed to names of places on or near the water, Aherdeen, Aherconway, Havre / Yar or Gar, in Yarhorough, Yarmouth, Yar~ combe; the same word occurs in Garonne, Garumna river ; Penrose, Pendell, Torhay, Torquay, Arden, Ar- dennes ; Nant, in Nantes, Bangor ; Isle of Wight, Isle of Man. A number of Keltic terms were^ introduced into Anglo- Saxon, and have thus passed over into the English. Such are, brock (badger), breeches, clout, cradle, crock, crook, glen, kiln, mattock. Keltic words still existing in English : ballast, boast, bod-(kin), bog, bother, bribe, cam (crooked, used by Shakspere), crag, dainty, dandriff, darn, daub, dirk, gyve, havoc, kibe, log, loop, maggot, mop, motley, mug, nog- gin, nod, pillow, scrag, spigot, squeal, squall. Keltic words of recent introduction : bannock, bard. 114 HISTOEY OF THE ElfGLISH LAKGtJAGE. brogue, elan, claymore (great sword), clog, log, Druid, gag, pibroch, plaid, pony, shamrock, slab, whisky. A number of Keltic words were brought over to Eng- land in the Norman-French tongue, and consequently pei-petuated in the English. The N'orthern Erench, which was a Neo-Latin dialect, contained several thou- sand Keltic words, many of which are retained in the standard French language. The widely extended pre- dominance of the Keltic, its contact, and to some extent, its commingling with the Latin, produced by war, con- quest, and colonization, caused it to enter into the l^eo- Latin or Romance dialects, as a modifying element ; and it maybe laid down as a general rule, that whatever grammat- ical differences exist between the ancient Latin and the Neo-Latin tongues of Gaul, are traceable to its influence.* Many of the characteristic peculiarities of the French, are clearly of Keltic origin. Again, as nearly all French words, not derived from Latin or Teutonic sources, have their roots in the Keltic, so nearly all English words, not derived from the Teutonic, the French, the classic lan- guages, the Scandinavian tongues, nor from the raiscellane ous sources hereafter to be indicated, are of Keltic origin. Keltic words introduced by I^or man-French : bag, barren, barter, barrator, barrel, basin, basket, bassinet, bonnet, bucket, boots, bran, brisket, button, chemise, clap- per, dagger, gravel, gown, harness, marl, mitten, motley, osier, pot, possnet, rogue, ribbon, skain (skein), tike. Latin of the First Period, b. c. 55-a. d.,44:T. The Latin words in the vocabulary of the English lan- guage were introduced at different epochs, and under * Sclineider, GescMcte der Englisclien Sprache. THE YOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 115 different linguistic, literary, and political conditions. The First Roman Period embraces the interval between the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, b. c. 55, and the final withdrawal of the Roman legions, a. d. 447. "With regard to the Latin words introduced during this period, a diversity of opinion exists. The majority of the historians of the language, and of writers upon the Science of Language, incline to the belief, that, except a few military terms and local names — stratum, street, (Stratford), cester, castrum, Lancaster, Gloucester, coin, colonia, Lincoln, pont, pons, Pont-e-fract, (Pom-fret) — our tongue received no accessions from the Latin during the long period of Roman dominion. But with all pos- sible deference to the judgments of the accomplished scholars who adopt this view, it seems unsupported by trustworthy historical testimony, and directly at variance with the evidence of the language itself. The general diffusion of the Latin language was one of the most potent auxiliaries employed by the Roman power in the extension of its sway, and in assimilat- ing the conquered provinces to the Roman character.* Community of language and of laws constituted a pow- erful instrument in welding together into a coherent and organized mass the various races and nationalities, over * " Rarely, if ever, did the barbarian conqueror dare, when acting as a ruler, to speak his native language ; he endangered his royal caste unless he comported himself like a Roman on the throne ; the very sound of the Latin language implied supremacy and command. The Latin was the only recognized vehicle of official business in the Romano-barbarian states ; the sovereigns of Teutonic blood promul- gated their laws, asserted their prerogatives, bestowed their bounties, or rebuked their people, in the language of the Caesars. Capitulars, statutes, rescripts, charters, all public documents, are written in La- tin." — Palgrave's Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth. 116 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAN^GUAGE. which the symbols of her empire were gradually extend- ing. The Latin by degrees supplanted the native dialects throughout the provinces, and there is no reason that Britain should have formed an exception to the general rule. The historical testimonies are abundant to the effect that Britain was thoroughly Romanized, and received an abiding impress of Roman arts, culture, and language. After the reign of Claudius, the rigour of Roman tyranny seems to have yielded to a milder and more tolerant policy ; and when the privileges of Roman citizenship were conferred upon all the Provincials by Caracallus, the Briton entered upon the possession of his rights without molestation. The long intervals of si- lence respecting the affairs of Britain, attest the tranquil- lity of the island, and the prosperity of its inhabitants, consequent upon the relaxation of Roman rule, and there are many unmistakable indications of friendly intercom- munication between conquerors and conquered. The readiness with which the islanders acquired the language, as well as the arts, the culture, and the elegancies of the capital, is especially commented upon by Tacitus, and seems to have excited his wonder, if not to have aroused his suspicion. The Latin tongue, the great medium of literature, of diplomacy, and of intercourse, was acquired with eagerness, and the youth of Britain became ambitious of excelling in eloquence. In Gaul it had superseded the Keltic, and the forensic skill of the Gauls passed over the Channel into the neighbouring land. It was almost impossible that Britain should not have been imbued with a strong colouring of the Roman tongue ; and we discover that a very considerable num- ber of words, names of trees, flowers, herbs, designations of weights and measures, and of the ordinary appliances THE VOCABULAKY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 117 of daily life, were introduced into the Keltic tongue from Rome, transferred to the Anglo-Saxon invaders by the Romanized Briton, and are thus perpetuated in the vo- cabulary^_^ the English language."^ The following are the Latin terms introduced into the island duriug the First Roman Period. Anglo-Saxon. Latin. English. Ince, Ulna, Ell. Mil, Mille (passuum). Mile. Carta, Charta, Paper. Finn, Penna, Pen. Line, Linea, Line. Circol, Circulus, Circle. Demum, Damnum, Damage. Profian, Probare, Prove. Wed," Vadium, Pledge. Sign, Signum, Sign. Coc, Coquus, Cook. Cycene, Coquina, Kitchen. Disc, Discus, Dish. * As a proof of the extent to which Britain had become Roman- ized, it may be said, that boxes of Roman quack medicines are still disinterred, and spurious coin is found in quantities that induce us to regard it as a device of the imperial treasury.' There was no country which received a deeper impression from Roman civilization and Roman architecture than Britain. The stately towers, the thea- tres, the baths, which remained undestroyed for centuries, exciting the wonder of the chronicler and the traveller ; the edifices which, even in the fourteenth century, were so numerous and so magnifi- cent as almost to surpass any others on this side of the Alps ; the numerous legends respecting the Trojan origin of the Britons, strikingly attest the abiding influence of the Roman occupation, the intercommunication and commingling of Kelt and Roman, and the consequent effect of the speech of the victors upon the speech of the vanquished. Upon these points I would advise the student to consult Pearson's "England in the Middle Ages," and Palgrave's " Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth." 118 HISTOKY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Anglo-Saxon. Latin. English. Taefl, Tabula, Table. Setl, Sedile, Seat. Synder, Cineres, Ashes. Cyse, Caseus, Cheese. Ele, Oleum, Oil. Eced, Acetum, Vinegar. Win, Vinum, V^ine. Ostre, Ostreum, Oyster. Cancer, Cancer, Crab. Candel, Candela, Candle. Cyl, Culeus, Sack. Cyst, Cista, Chest. Socc, Soccus, Sock. Ongul, Angulus, Hook. Balistas, Balista, Balista. Ceaster, Castrum, Camp. Port, Portus, Port. Straet, Strata, Street. Weall, Vallum, Wall. Mur, • Murus, Wall. Tempel, Templum, Temple. Scolu, Scliola, School. Cite, Civitas, City. Municep, Municipium, A borough. Carcern, Career, A prison. , Camp, Campus, A field. Aecer, Ager, A sown field. Munt, Mons, Hill (mount). Funt, Fons, Fountain. Lac, Lacus, Lake. Baron, Vir, varo, A man. Wencle, Ancilla, Maid. Wydewe, Vidua, Widow. Sol, Solea, A sole or sandal. Scol-maegistre, Scholae magister. Schoolmaster. Mynet, Moneta, Mint. Fund, Pondus, Pound. Elu, Ulna, Ell. Ince, Uncia, Ounce. Pil, Pilum, Dart. THE VOCABULAET OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 119 Anglo-Saxon. Latin. English. Craesta, Crista, A erest. Geoc, lugum. Yoke. Calc, Cale, Lime. Tern, Temo, Team. Spad, Spata, Spade. Fann, Vannus, Fan. r Fore, Furea, Fork. Maeth, Messis (meto). A mowing. K Pic, Pix, Pitch. ; Fraene, Freenum, Rein. Aer, ee, ^s, aeris. Brass. Tigol, Tegula, Tile. Ancer, Aneliora, Anehor. Ort-geard, Hortus, Garden, orchard. r Rose, Rosa, Rose. J Lilie, Lilium, Lily. - Peru, Pyrus, Pear. K Fie, Fieus, Fig. Casten-(bean), Castanns, Chestnut. Persoe-{treow), Persiea, Peaeh. '■' Mor-(beain), * Laur-(beam), Morus, Mulberry. Laurus, Laurel. Pine-(treow), Pinus, Pine. k Bux, Buxum, Box-tree. Lin, Linum, Flax. s Pipor, . Piper, Pepper.. Pionie, Paeonia, Pseony. Cueumer, Cueumis, Cucumber. Cawe, Caulis, Cabbage. j Eaedie, Radix, Radish. Sin-fulle, Cinquefolium, Cinquefoil. Mu], Mulus, Mule. Stemn, Stemma, Stem. Crisp, Crispus, Crisp. False, Falsus, False.* * Pearson's " England in the Early and Middle Ages." Appendix to Vol. I. 120 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Latin of the Second Peeiod. The Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity about the close of the sixth century. Between that time and the !N'orman Conquest (1066), many Latin words were introduced, pertaining chiefly to ecclesiasti- cal affairs and the ritual of the church. Mynster^ a minster, monasterium i portic^Si porch, portions j cluster^ a cloister, claustrwin / munuc^ a monk, monaohus / Ms- c^(?^, a bishop, ejpiscopus', arcehisceop^ archbishop, archie- jpiscopus J sanct, a saint, sanctusj jprofost^ a provost, 'pro- positus / jpall, a pall, pallium / calic, a chalice, calix / jpsalter, a psalter, psalterium y maesse, a mass, missa / pistel, an epistle, epistola / praedician^ to preach, prcB- dicare. Also the designation of some foreign plants and animals; camell, a camel, camelus j ' elylp, elephant, ele- phas y "peterselige, parsley, petroseli/num y f^fo'rf'^y^i feverfew, febrifuga, . Third Latin Period. — Medieval Latinity. The influence of the Mediaeval Latinity has profound- ly affected the vocabulary of the English language. Throughout the dark and middle ages Latin constituted the medium of jurisprudence, of theology, of the scho- lastic philosophy, and of science. The boundless variety of new conceptions, evoked by the new condi- tions of society in the process of transition from ancient to modern times, demanded adequate forms of expres- sion. These could only be obtained by the creation of new words out of pre-existing Latin materials, a task which was gradually accomplished by the labours of the schoolmen, the ecclesiastics, the theologians, and the THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 121 civilians. Hence arose that strange product known as Mediaeval Latin, in which are embodied the far-reach- ing wisdom of Roger Bacon, the manly sentiments of Grostete, and which has tended essentially to enrich the vocabulary of the English tongue."^ Our Hedigeval Latin words were principally intro- duced between the Conquest, 1066, and the Revival of Learning. Their number and character have not, thus far, been accurately determined. Many Latin words were introduced by the chroniclers during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A large Latin element was indirectly introduced through the Gorman-French, which was a Neo-Latin or Romance dialect. FouKTH Latin Peeiod. — Fkom the Revival of Litee- ATUKE to THE FrESENT TiME. This includes Jhe Latin words which originated in the writings of scholars, reformers, and of learned men in general. The words introduced during this period may be distinguished from those of the preceding : First. They * The rise of theology, scholastic philosophy, and jurisprudence, demanded an immense number of new words for the adequate ex- pression of the new ideas which they had called into existence. The Latin tongue was remarkably defective in abstract nouns ; these were supplied principally by TertuUian and the Latin fathers ; Jerome contributed powerfully to the formation of ecclesiastical Latin by his translation of the Scriptures into that language (Vul- gate) ; the schoolmen introduced many philosophical terms ; the civilians, many legal words and phrases. Latin was the general mecMum of learning and of science for a long period even after the Revival of Learning. It was within a comparatively recent era that the vernacular tongues of Europe were advanced to that preemi- nence which they occupy at present. 6 122 HISTORY OF THE ElJ^TGLISH LANGUAGE. retain more accurately the form, and, in many cases, the inflections of the original language. Not having passed through the French, they are free from that compres- sion and attenuation of form which is produced by the action of phonetic decay. Second. They relate to^ Objects and ideas for which the increase in the range of science and of learning required expression. The Latin ele- ment introduced through the French, and that which is derived directly from the original, may be illustrated by comparing the following words. Ancestor and antecessor^ sampler and exemplar^ heni- son and henediction^ conceit and conception, constraint and construction, defeat and defect, forge and fabric, integer and entire, invidious and efivious, extra/neous and strange, fact and feat, malison and malediction, Tnayor and major, nourishment and nutriment, poor and pauper, orison and oration, proctor smd procurator, purveyance and providence, ray and radius, respite and . respect, retreat and retract, sir and senior, surface and superficies, sure and secure, treason and tradition. From the Latin we obtain a large proportion of our moral and intellectual vocabulary, our terms for tlie ex- pression of abstract relations and conceptions. The Latin words may generally be distinguished from those of native growth by the class of ideas which they de- note, by their greater length (the Saxon words being on an average less than half as long as the Latin), and by their peculiar prefixes and suffixes, a list of which is in- serted. Latin prefixes: a, ah, dbs, from, as <3^vert, ah- jure ; ad, a, ac, af ag, al, an, ap, ar, as, at, to, as ad- duce, accQdQ, aff^x ', ante, before, as aw^^cedent; circum, about, as circumjacent; con, co, cog, col, com, cor, to- gether, with, as coniorm., coUoqnj, coeval; contra. THE VOCABULAEY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 123 against, as contradict; de, down, from, as descend, de- fame ; dis, asunder, as dissever, disruipt ; e, ex, out of, ^ccpel, e]eci ; extra, be^^ond, as ^a^^r^ordinary ; in, ig, il, im, ir (when prefixed to a verb), in, as mduce ; (when prefixed to an adjective), not, as mvidious; inter, be- tween, as interYene ; intro, within, as introduce ; oh, oc, of, op, for, in the way of,* as (?^pose, ^fend ; per, through, as permesite ; post, after, as ^6>5^script ; pre, before, as ^r^cede ; preter, beyond, as preternsLturdl ; pro, for, forward, project, provide; 're, back, again, reuAt, retwxn ; retro, backwards, as retro^x2,de ; se, aside, as ant, pall, pope, prone, prose, prude, pound, pure, pole, queer, quaint, quart, quest, rage, round, rein, rude, rare, ram, ruin, rose (noun, not the preterite tense of rise), rule, sacJc, seal, sign, sense, seat, siege, site, spend, state, stain, sting, stray, strict, string, sound, scarce, screen, search, sconce, scorch, sire, spy, sir, sure, sock, suave, soil, safe, surge, serve, serf sole, stem, strange, scourge, style, sage, scale, scan, spade, sum, spice, scribe, spoil, square, star, team, tend, tempt, test, tin, thin, tile, toast, tract, trait, tribe, trite, use, urn, vast, vale, vile, vein, vain, vent, verge, verse, vest, vine, vice, wade, waste, wine, yoke. The Fkench Element in English. A great number of French words were introduced by the Conquest. To the Korman-French we are indebted for many of the terms relating to feudalism, to war, the church, the law, and the chase. First. Aid, arms, armour, assault, banner, baron, buckler, captain, chivalry, challenge, fealty, fief, gallant, homage, lance, mail, march, soldier, tallage, truncheon, tournament, vassal. Second. Altar, bible, ceremony, devotion, friar, hom- ily, idolatry, interdict, penance, prayer, relic, religion, sermon, scandal, sacrifice, tonsure. Third. Assize, attorney, case, chancellor, court, dower, damages, estate, fee, felony, fine, judge, jury, mulct, parliament, plaintiff, plea, plead, statute, sue, tax, ward. 126 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Fourth. Bay, brace, chase, couple, copse, course, covert, falcon, forest, leash, leveret, mews, quarry, rey- nard, rabbit, tiercet, venison. From the Gorman-French period descended a great number of terms 'expressive of malignant passion and hatred. The bitterness and virulence aroused by for- eign sway, the reciprocal hatred and distrust gen- erated by the Conquest, are strikingly reflected in the speech of this era. Eascal, villain, ribald, ribaldry, descend to us from those days of mutual animosity and disparagement. "Almost all the sinister and ill-favoured words in the English language at the time of Shakspere owe their origin to this unhappy period." The predominance of the French as the social lan- guage of Europe, as the language of fashion, of diplo- macy, and etiquette, has from time to time caused the adoption of many French words, some of which have been completely naturalized, while others reveal their origin. From the French our tongue has acquired much of its elegance and precision, many of its characteristic graces, and its faculty of indicating things naturally offensive or repugnant, whose direct mention would not comport with perfect delicacy, either of manner or ex- pression. The Anglo-Saxon, notwithstanding its vigour and plasticity, lacked polish and refinement ; its terms were direct, energetic, but often coarse and inelegant. This defect, certainly a serious one, the Latin and its French descendant have to a great degree remedied, and our accessions in this respect are among the most valuable contributions to the wealth of our language. French words : — Aide-de-camp, accoucheur, accouche- ment, attache, au fait, belle, bivouac, belles-lettres, THE VOCABULAKY OF THE EN-QLISH LAN-GUAGE. 127 billet-doux, badinage, blase, bon mot, bouquet, brochure, bonhomie, blonde, brusque, busk, coif, coup, debut, debris, dejeuner, depot, eclat, elite, ensemble, ennui, etiquette, entremets, facade, foible, fricassee, gout, interne, omelet, naive, naivete, penchant, nonchalance, outre, passe, persiflage, personnel, precis, prestige, pro- gramme, protege, rapport, redaction, renaissance, re- cherche, seance, soiree, trousseau.* The _ vocabulary of French contains a number of words, Teutonic in origin, which were introduced by the Franks, a German tribe, and afterwards Romanized more or less to adapt them to the pronunciation of the Roman inhabitants of Gaul. From France they passed over to England, and have thus been perpetuated in the vocabulary of our tongue. Such words are ambassador , attack^ attire^ halcony, belfry, bivouae, cTiamherlwin^ choice, defile, enamel, eschew, guide, guile, guise, haunt^ herald, massacre, jpoclcet, quiver, reward^ ring, rob, seize, slate, towel, wage, ward. * Morris's " English Accidence." CHAPTEK XY. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE {cOTltinUed). The Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic Element in English. The Anglo-Saxon constitutes the groundwork, the material substratum, of the English tongue. Nearly all the distinctive characteristics of English grammar are derived from this source. The following are Saxon : First. The definite article, the, and the indefinite, an, a / all pronouns, personal, relative, demonstrative, etc., and the numerals. Second. All auxiliary and defective verbs. Third. Nearly all the prepositions, and the con- junctions. Fourth. JSTouns forming their plurals by change of vowel, as man, men, etc. Fifth. Yerbs form- ing their past tense by change of vowel (irregular verbs, sing, sang, sung). Sixth. Adjectives forming their de- grees of comparison irregularly, good, had j in short, all those peculiarities of our grammar generally designated irregular, which is merely an arbitrary expression to in- dicate ancient Saxon forms and usages, and to distin- guish them from the later or regular formations. Second. 1. Grammatical inflections ; plural suffixes s and en. 2. Yerbal inflections of past and present tenses of active and passive participles. 3. Suffixes denoting degrees of comparison. Third. I. Numerous suffixes of nouns, as hood, ship, down, th^ ness, ing, ling, hing^ ook. 2. Of adjectives, w THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 129 ft as ful, less, ly, en, ish, some, ward, y. 3. Of verbs, as e7i. 4. Many preiixesj as a,^ al, he, * for, ful, on, over, out, under. 5. The names of the three elements, earth, fire, water (air is Latin aer), and of their changes ; the names of the heavenly bodies, sun, moon^ etc., except star (Latin sterula) ; of many of the divisions of time, as morning, evening, twilight, noon, night, day, sunrise, sunset : some of these are probably of Latin origin, as hour, hora. From the Saxon we have acquired the names of many of the most striking natural phenomena, heat, cold, light, frost, snow, hail, rain j also the names of the most prominent and attractive objects in external nature, ~ as sea, land, hill, dale, wood, stream. The Anglo-Saxon has also furnished us with the designations of most of the seasons, summer, winter, spring, fall, {autumn is from the Latin auctumnus), with the names of the organs of the body, the modes of bodily action and posture, the most familiar animals, many of the words employed in the ordinary intercourse of life, many of the terms pertaining to traffic, commerce, to the market, the work-shop, the farm. Also, the words acquired in infancy, the terms spontaneously evoked by the child in its earliest efforts to give expression to its dawning thoughts, the constituent parts of saws, maxims, and proverbs, are chiefly Anglo-Saxon. The names of the dearest relations, father, mother, \ sister, lyrother, husband, wife y of the objects suggestive of the tenderest memories, the holiest affections, home, hearth, fireside, child, hindred, friends, are inherited from the Saxon. The names of the simpler emotions of the mind, terms * a and he are sometimes Norse. f Grand father, grand mother, are lialf Saxon, lialf Romance ; aunt, imcle, entirely Romance. 6* 130 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. of pleasantry, satire, indignation, invective, and anger, are principally of native growth. The designations of special modes of performing an. action of specific proc- esses, are mainly Saxon, while the generic or abstract terms are to great extent Latin. Thus, move, the general term, is Latin, but the specific and varied methods of performing the action are indicated by words of Saxon origin : run, jurrvp, shi/p, icalh, etc.* The Anglo-Saxon was moulded and prepared for lit- erary application by scholars who wrote and spoke Latin, and who regarded it as the standard of literary excel- lence ; its literature is in great measure translated or imitated from the Latin. It cannot be questioned that Latin exercised a powerful influence in determining the character of Saxon, essentially modifying both its vocab- ulary and syntax, and assimilating it more and more closely, in spirit and in structure, to the imperial tongue. A large proportion of the Anglo-Saxon vocab- ulary finds its cognate words in the Latin dictionary, and there can exist no reasonable doubt that it was decidedly Romanized in character. Again, the Teutonic languages, by whose gradual commingling on the soil of Britain the Anglo-Saxon was formed, were in- debted to the Latin, as were also the Keltic tongues. Roman conquest and colonization had made their im- pression upon the Teutonic dialects long before the Saxon invasions of Britain. In addition to its direct influence, the extent of which is not properly appreci- ated, the Latin has perceptibly affected nearly every language and dialect that has contributed to the forma- tion of our varied and copious speech ; it has imparted * Edinburgh Review, 1839, 1859. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LA^-GUAGE. 131 a tinge of its own colouring to nearly all the manifold tributaries, by whose commingling English has acquired its marvellous affluence, catholicity, and comprehensive- ness. The Roman image is reflected in them all. The Danish Element in the English Language. The Danish invasions and occupations of England extend from a. d. 787 to a. d. 1042, at which time the Saxon government was restored. It was principally the Anglo-Saxon dialects, and not so much the literary speech or language of Wessex, that were affected by Danish influence. It does not appear that the Danes made any eflbrt to extend or to perpetuate their tongue in England. The Saxons and the Scandinavian races were closely related in language as well as by blood ; there was a Scandinavian element among the Saxon colonists of Britain, and it is highly probable that the speech of the two nations was mutually intelligible. The Saxon understood the Dane ; the Dane, the Saxon. This opinion finds some confirmation in the well-known story of King Alfred, who entered the Danish camp in the guise of a minstrel, and sang his songs and recited his poems in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. This at least indicates that the two languages possessed marked re- semblances. It was in the north of England that the Danish tongue made the deepest impression. ]^orth- umbria longest withstood the advance of the victorious Korraans. The northern counties were not included in the great survey made by the Conquerour in 1085, and in these regions the traces of Danisli influence are most strongly marked and enduring. Many Danish words are preserved in the Northumbrian speech, and many of their characteristic peculiarities of grammatical structure 132 HISTORY OF THE EN^GLISH LANGUAGE. (in which they differ essentially from the standard Eng- lish) are derived from the Scandinavian tongues. The toanish conquests and occupations seem to have affected [the structure of the Anglo-Saxon more than the vocabu- lary. In the north and east of England the Saxon in- flections were seriously modified by Danish influence ; their decay was accelerated, so that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries nearly all the older inflections of nouns, verbs, and adjectives had disappeared, while in the south of England the old forms survived until a mucli later period, and many of them are still in exist- ence. There are numerous traces of Scandinavian terms in the local nomenclature of England, in the Old English literature of the north of the island, as well as in the provincial dialects or patois of IS'orthumbria.* * Scandinavian words in the Nortliumbrian dialects : BarMe, to stick to, to adhere, to cover over. Brangle, to quarrel. Bunt, to take home, pack up, make into a bundle. Glatcji, a brood of chickens. Creel, a frame to wind yarn upon, English, reel. Clem, to starve ; "I'm almost clemmed," i. e., starved. Crib, a rack. Faddle, nonsense, trifling. Flit, to move from place to place. Gain, gainer, a cross cut. Gawby, a clownish simpleton. Kick, fashion, mode ; "a new kick," i. e., fashion ; Dan. s-kik. La/ra, to beat soundly, to chastise. Mood, satiated. ^ Bostle, to ripen. Scar, a steep, bare rock (Walter Scott, Lochinvar). Slunt, to be idle. Wha^k, a heavy blow. Whip off, to go oif quickly. York, to strike hard, — Schneider. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 133 Local names derived from Danish: the termination Jyrrtown, Whitby^ Grimsby, liughy j 5y-law, a town law. The ending son^ in names of persons, is also Danish, as Hobson, Johnson, Nelson / the endings gill and hirh, as Ormesgill, Ormeshirh. "Words derived from Danish or Scandinavian:* * Scandinavian peculiarities in the grammar of the Northumbrian dialects. — According to the census of 1861, the population of Eng- land was 18,954,444, of which Northumbria contained 5,580,834. It embraces more than one-fourth of the territory and the population of England, over which the influence of the Scandinavian settlers is still distinctly traceable. The Northumbrian dialects, though differing as to the number of words, have a grammatical system which is common to them all, though it departs in some respects from the grammar of written English. Perhaps their most remark- able characteristic is the definite article, or more properly the de- monstrative pronoun t, which is an abbreviation of the old Norse neuter demonstrative hit. This is not an elision of the he from the article the (which is of old Frisic origin), as may be seen from the fact that all the Bonapartist versions * of Solomon's Song, second chapter, first verse, uniformly agree throughout England, where they abbreviate at all, by making the into th' by eliding the final e. We quote from the Westmoreland version (from the centre of Northumbria), which is well executed and idiomatic. We select as a fair specimen the second chapter, first verse, of Solomon's Song, which in the authorized version reads as follows : " I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." In the Westmoreland ver- sion it reads thus : " I's t' roaz o' Sharon, and t- lilly o' t' valleys.'* The districts in which the abbreviated article prevails are the coun- ties of Central and South Durham, all Yorkshire, and nearly all Lancashire. The next characteristic is not so widely extended, be- ing confined to about one-third of Northumbria. This is the substi- tution of at for the relative that. In the authorized version, Solo- mon's Song, second chapter, fourteenth verse, we read : " That art in the clefts of the rocks ; " in the Westmoreland it is : '* At's i' t * Prince Lucien Bonaparte paid much attention to the study of the Northern English dialects, into which he caused the second chapter of Solomon's Song to be translated. 134 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAIS^GUAGE. Abroad^ aslanty athwart^ tang, lash, bellow, bole (of a plant), blunt, booty, bound (for a journey), brag, hrinh, bull, busk, cake, call, cast, clip, clutnsy, cross, crook, cripple, cuff, curl, cut, dairy, dash, daze, dazzle, die, droop, dub, dull, fellow, fleer (to deceive, Shakspere, Julius Caesar), flit, fond, fool, fro, froth, gable, gait, grovel, glow, hale (to drag. Acts of tlie Apostles, eighth chapter, third verse), hit, hut, hustings, irk, keg, kid, kindle, leap (year), low, loft, lurk, niggard, mump, m^umble, much, odd, puck (goblin), ransack, root, scald (poet), scare, scold, skull, scull, scant, skill, scrub, skulk, sky, sly, screw, sleeve, sledge, sled, sleek, screech, shriek, sleight, sprout, stagger, stag, stack, stifle, tarn (a lake), trust, thrive, thrum, unruly, ugly, uproar, window, windlass."^ grikes o' t' crags." The apliseresis does not properly belong before the at, as it is a pure Scandinavian word. In the use of the verb to be, the Northumbrian follows the Scandinavian. In the third per- son plural, present tense, they use the singular instead of the plural form, e. g., Horses is dearer than cows is. They inflect, I is, thou is, et cet., adhering to the Scandinavian rule. Another peculiarity is the use of * for in ; this is pure Scandinavian, being still used in Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish. From these few citations, we may see the extent to which the Danish has penetrated the speech of North umbria, as illustrated by five of the most common words in English, the representatives of tJie, that, in, art, and am. Their nouns have but one case, having dispensed with the possessive in- flection ; for instance, they say, my brother hat, instead of my brother's hat. Their syntactical structure is characterized by ex- treme brevity and simplicity, sometimes condeniriing into one word an idea which requires for its proper expression in English two or three. Thus, in Solomon's Song, " I am the," is expressed I'st. The adjectives are distinguished by double forms, and by the Scandina- vian superlative form st instead of est. — From " Transactions of the London Philological Society." * JThe third person plural of the verb to be, are, is Danish. THE YOCABULART OF THE Eiq-GLISH LAITGUAGE. 13^1 Tt] T^ the Greek language, the EngliS^s /y?|h^te<454^ most of the nomenclature of the physical sT proportion of the vocabulary of theology, philosophy, and of the terms employed in all arts and scien<;es, as well as a number of familiar terms. The Greek has also indirectly affected the English through the medium of the northern tongiies, whose character it sensibly modi- fied in the earliest ages. By its wonderful plasticity and faculty of combination, the Greek supplies appropriate designations for many of the inventions, discoveries, and improvements in art and science : e. g,, harometer^ ther- mometer, stereoscope, photography telescope, etc. Many terms pertaining to the vocabulary of philoso- phy, science, metaphysics, logic, have lost their purely teclmical import, and have passed into the language of literature and the speech of every-day life: corollary, element, demonstrative, antipodal, atom, genus,inference, tnean hetween extremes, diametrically opposite, positive, negative, inverse ratio, phenomenon, idea, qualitative^ quantitative, species, zenith, and many others which oc- cur in the ordinary conversation of all intelligent persons. WoKDs Derived fkom Miscellaneous Sources. In addition to the constituents of the vocabulary al- ready mentioned, our language has been enriched by the naturalization of numerous words from a variety of sources, many of which owe their introduction to the extension of commerce and the predominance of Eng- land as a commercial nation, as well as to the spirit of maritime "enterprise which pre-eminently characterizes the English race. Hehrew : Abbot, amen, cabal, cherub, jubilee, phari- saical, Sabbath, seraph. Shibboleth. 136 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Arabic: Admiral, alchemy, alkali, alcoliol, alcove, alembic, almanac, amulet, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, atlas, azure, bazaar, caliph, chemistry, cotton, cipher, dragoman, elixir, felucca, gazelle, giraffe, popinjay,- slirub, sofa, syrup, sherbet, talisman, tariif, tamarind, zenith, zero. Arabian culture and science exercised a powerful influence upon the literature of the Middle Ages. Many of the words named in the text have come into English through one of the Komance dialects: admiral, artichoke, assassin, popinjay. Persian: Caravan, chess, dervish, emerald, indigo, lac, lilac, orange, pasha, sash, shawl, turban, tafferty. Hindu : Calico, chintz, dimity, jungle, boot, muslin, nabob, pagoda, palanquin, paunch, pundit, rajah, rice, rupee, rum, sugar, toddy. Malay : Bantam, gamboge, orang outang, rattan, sago, verandah, tatoo and taboo (Polynesian), gingham (Java). Chinese : Caddy, nankeen, satin, tea, mandarin. Turkish: Caftan, chouse, divan, janissary, odalisk, saloop, scimitar. American: Canoe, cocoa, hammock, maize, potato, squaw, tobacco, tomahawk, wigwam, yam. I Italian: Balustrade, bandit, brave, bust, canto, car- | nival, charlatan, domino, ditto, dilettante, folio, gazette, | grotto, harlequin, motto, portico, stanza, stiletto, stucco, | studio, tenor, umbrella, vista, volcano. | Spanish: Alligator, armada, cargo, cigar, desperado, I don. embargo, flotilla, gala, mosquito, punctilio, tor- I nado. I Portuguese: Caste, commodore, fetishism, palaver, ? porcelain. Dutch : Block, boom, cruise, loiter, ogle, ravel, ruffle, scamper, schooner, sloop, stiver, yacht. THE VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LAKGUAGE. 137 German: Landgrav-e, landgravine, loafer, waltz, co- balt, nickel, quartz, feldspar, zinc* The vocabulary of the English language contains about one hundred and four thousand words. This does not include many provincial forms and local usages which are currently employed. The English is formed by the gradual blending of a greater diversity of languages and dialects than has ever entered into the formation of any other speech. Its main constituents are the Ko- mance and the Teutonic, but it has appropriated and assimilated materials from nearly all the languages of the globe. This, while it is the cause of its comprehen- siveness, versatility, and far-reaching adaptation, affords also the satisfactory explication of its complexity, its anomalous orthoepy, its discrepant orthography, its seeming transgressions of grammatical prescription. They constitute part of the exuberant wealth of our tongue ; they have resulted from the peculiar historical conditions under which it was developed and matured. The kindred languages of Europe were founded either upon the Lingua Rustica or popular Latin as their basis, or upon a Teutonic or Scandinavian groundwork. But it is the especial glory of the English tongue to have blended the graces and the energy of the two most pow- erful languages of the Aryan family. It is in English, and in English only, that all the phonetic elements, the diverse and varied forms of the Aryan family have con- verged. After many centuries of separation, many strange wanderings in foreign lands, upon the soil of Angleland the long severed linguistic branches are peacefully reunited, enriched with the wisdom and the * Morris's " Englisli Accidence." 138 HISTOBT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. experience acquired by many painful vicissitudes, many diverse fortunes, since they parted at the base of tlieir mountain homes and started out upon their marvellous career. The greatest number of words in the vocabulary of the English language is derived from Homance and classical sources. This may at first sight appear contra- dictory and inconsistent, as the majority of persons, both in speaking and in writing, employ a greater number of Saxon than of Romance words ; but it is this character of the objects denoted by these words, the necessity for their constant recurrence, and not their actual predom- inance, that give them a numerical superiority. Again: the conjunctions, the indispensable parts of a sentence, " its bolts and pins," are nearly all Saxon, so that it is almost impossible to compose the simplest sentence without employing the .Saxon element. But the greater proportion of the grace and refine- ment of our tongue, and consequently much of its supe- rior adaptation to all the loftier purposes of literature, are attributable to its Latin and Romance constituents. If the Romance element were eliminated from our vocabulary, we should have a speech vigourous and energetic, but devoid of that delicacy of expression and rhythmical charm which so adorn the commonest utter- ances as well as the grandest climaxes of the orator, or the intricate details of the historian. By its blending of two languages, English is enriched with a great variety of synonyms ; we may, in fact, be said to have two languages in one; and this bilingual system has formed a distinctive feature of our tongue in all stages of its history, from the time that it was moulded into harmonious form by the delicate touch of THE VOCABULAEY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 139 Chaucer's master hand. It is turned to good account by the translators of the Holy Scriptures, and much of the melodious rhythm that characterizes the Book of Com- mon Prayer of the Anglican Church must be attributed to the judicious employment of Saxon and Romance synonyms. CHAPTEK XYI. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM CHAUCER TO CAXTON. — 1. D. 1400-1474. In the preceding chapters we indicated the manifold sources from which the constituents of our rich and varied vocabulary are derived. We must now retrace our steps, and resume our history at the period at which we for a time left it, the age of Chaucer, Gower, and WyclifFe. The era which was adorned by the genius of these illustrious names did not realize the bright prom- ises to which it had pointed so auspiciously. When the political and religious distractions of the fourteenth cen- tury had subsided, the intellectual vigour and energy that characterized the age were succeeded by a long period of inactivity and depression. The original and creative power of the English mind seems to have disappeared, and much of the literature of this century consists of mere translations or imitations of older models. The names of seventy poets have descended to us from this dreary period, of whom the most deserving of commemoration are Ocleve, James I. of Scotland, and Lydgate. All of these acknowledge Chaucer as their master and model in the poetic art. The number of prose writers is very limited, and the development of a pure English prose style was reserved until after the introduction of printing should begin to FKOM CHAUCER TO CAXTON. 141 exercise a decided influence upon the language.- The prose writers of this period are principally theological. Bishop Pecoke, whose "Eepressor" appeared in 1450, was the purest of these. His grammar is essentially the same as that of Wycliffe, with some tendency to greater simplification of structure, and a perceptible advance in style and construction. But in the main, the language seems to have retrograded, rather than to have advanced, between the death of Chaucer and the establishment of printing. The tierce and sanguinary Wars of tlie Roses, which extended over more than a quarter of the century — 1455-1486 — the convulsions and dissensions w^hich disorganized the constitution of society, exerted for a time a most baneful influence upon the character of the tongue. Sympathizing with the vicissitudes of those who spoke it, and deprived of the conservative power of literary culture, it began to lose the coherence and the uniformity it had acquired under the skillful guidance of Chaucer, and manifested a marked tendency to disinte- gration, or resolution into its dialectic forms. But, not- withstanding the disastrous results that were temporarily produced by the protracted Wars of the Roses, their ultimate effects upon the fortunes and the constitution of the language were in many regards salutary and beneficial. The marching to and fro, throughout all portions of the kingdom, of vast bodies of men, the commingling of classes and dialects hitherto separate and isolated, the general intercommunication between sections of the island hitherto almost as unknown to their respective inhabitants as foreign lands, all tended in the end to impress upon the language, as well as upon the nation, a uniformity which strikingly contrasted with the diversity and confusion that had previously 142 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. prevailed. In addition to this, tlie partial extirpation of the Norman nobility,* the elevation of the Saxon bur- ghers in their stead, tended powerfully to efface the ancient distinction between the I^orman lord and the Saxon vassal, which had its origin at the Conquest, to obliterate social distinctions, and thus efficaciously to promote uniformity of national character, as well as uni- formity of speech. Hence, we discover that during this era, nearly the last vestiges of our inflexional system dis- appeared ; local peculiarities, sectional diversities, gradu- ally melted away, and a " common dialect " was ac- knowledged by all writers. The French wars, the extension of commerce, the contact between England and foreign climes, the cultivation of the civil law, all augmented the wealth of the vocabulary. Stimulated by these and similar agencies, the vocabulary increased very rapidly, so rapidly, that it is commented upon by the authors of that time. The language had now at- tained a condition which adapted it to the mighty instrument now brought to bear upon it, and destined to wield a determining influence in shaping its fortunes and directing its career.f * During the Wars of the Roses, many of tlie Norman nobility- perished on the scaffold, and many, expatriated, wandered in foreign lands, begging their bread in those very regions from which their ancestors had set out to the field of Hastings. f Changes in English between Chaucer and Caxton. A large class of Anglo Saxon compounds perished, such as, to out-come, to out-go, to in-come, to in-go. Their places have been supplied by Latin terms, as depart, enter ; to hef ore-come, to anticipate. — Wood. CHAPTEK XYII. THE INFLTJENCE OF PRINTING UPON THE ENGLISH LAN- GUAGE. The Wars of the Roses left the English language in a more uniform condition ; thej greatly simplified its structure, and introduced many important changes in pronunciation, some of which are exhibited in a preced- ing chapter (Chapter XIY). But notwithstanding their beneficial results, they were attended by disadvantages also. The language was rendered more generally intel- ligible; local and dialectic peculiarities were in great measure effaced in the blending and interfusion of races, and in the thorough reconstruction of society. But while the language in its transmuted state was more widely intelligible than any previous tongue or dialect, it was thoroughly crude and unregulated. It had attained uniformity and simplicity, but it lacked harmony and proportion. During the progress of the fierce and san- guinary struggle, the art of printing, invented in 1440, was introduced into England (1474) by Caxton, who established his press in the almonry of Westminster Abbey. This at first acted as a disturbing element, and tended to augment the existing disorder, though in the end it essentially promoted orthoepical and orthograph- ical consistency, uniformity of speech, and elegance in literary composition. 144 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Caxton was a man of scholarly attainments, but the workmen whom he brought with him from the Conti- nent were Dutchmen, who, were versed merely in the mechanical part of their art, and not acquainted with the structure or the orthoepy of the English tongue. Hence the immense advantages of printing were for some time imperfectly appreciated in England, and it failed to acquire that artistic excellence which it attained in other lands soon after its introduction.* In the Con- tinental countries the printers were among the most accomplished scholars of the age, a fact which accounts for the perfection that the art there attained. The for- eign handicraftsmen whom Caxton had brought to Eng- land resorted to numerous arbitrary devices, the clipping or contracting of syllables, the extension of words ; in their ignorance of our orthoepical system, they failed to distinguish words resembling each other in sound but differing in meaning, such as eminent and imminent, * "The importance of the invention of printing, startling and mysterious as it seemed, was very imperfectly appreciated by con- temporary Europe. It was at first regarded only as an economical improvement, and in England it was slow in producing effects which were much more speedily realized on the Continent. In Eng- land for a whole generation its influence was scarcely perceptible in the increase of literary activity, and it gave no sudden impulse to the study of the ancient tongues, though the printing-offices of Ger- many and Italy, and less abundantly of France, were teeming with editions of the Greek and Latin classics, as well as of the works of Gothic and Romance writers, both new and old. The press of Cax- ton was in active operation from 1474 tQ 1490. In these sixteen years it gave to the world sixty-three editions, among which there is not the text of a single work of classic antiquity. An edition of Terence, published in 1497, was the first classical work published in England. It does not appear that Caxton's press issued a single original work by a contemporary English author, if we except his own continuations of older works published by him." — Marsh,Wood. THE INFLUE^s^CE OF PKIKTIKG. 145 president and precedent, ingem'oiis and ingenious. Every printer seems to have been guided by his pho- netic appetencies, and the sanction of authority was thns impressed upon numerous anomalies and diver- sities of spelling. In addition, Caxton himself appears to have had no uniform standard, and it seems to have been his general practice to reduce the orthography of the authors that he printed to the usage of his own age, or rather to an arbitrary standard of his own devising. The early productions of the English press were, in great measure, translations from the French.* Caxton had spent many years in France, and his style is per- vaded by Gallicisms both in vocabulary and in structure, and the number of French words and idioms introduced by him was very considerable. This was another cause of confusion and discrepancy. The ultimate effects of printing, however, were bene- ficial in the extreme, and there can be no doubt that it is the most potent mechanical agency which has affected the fortunes of our tongue. Like all inventions, in its earlier stages it was liable to perversion and misapplica- tion, but Avlien its real character and importance were distinctly apprehended, it proved a most influential agent in dispelling the prevailing rudeness, in facilitat- ing elegance and harmony of style, and in promoting uniformity and regularity of speech. The number of books and of readers was multiplied, the various dialects became more and more assimilated to the southern, or the speech of the capital and of the southern counties of the kingdom. Authors were enabled to address a larger * Most worthy of commemoration among the works printed by Caxton, are Malory e's "Morte D' Arthur," printed in 1485, and the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate. 7 146 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. reading public than before; the dialect of books began gradually to extend its sway and to supplant local forms and provincial usages, except among the uneducated classes, to whom books were not accessible. Printing also promoted many changes which it did not directly originate. The decay of inflections, and the consequent adoption of a syntactical structure, logical, not formal, in character, in which the relations of words are indicated, not by their terminations, but by the order of collocation or arrangement, necessitated essential changes in the construction of sentences. " It became necessary to divide into short and separate propositions, sentences which would otherwise have become involved and obscure, when nearly all the cases had but one form, and when the various persons of the verb had become almost entirely undistinguishable from each other." The complicated, periodic style which is intelligible in an in- flected tongue, is impossible in an analytic language like the English, without obscuring the author's meaning, if not rendering it wholly unintelligible. Independent and subordinate sentences in English must necessarily have the same form, and hence the necessity in these and in similar cases for some artiiicial contrivance, some mechanical device, such as pauses, stops, etc., to indicate those changes in meaning, which, in an inflected tongue, are made sufficiently clear by the terminations. The -comparative facility with which printing was read stim- ulated the tendency to supply artificial expedients, and this, in conjunction with the disposition to write as briefly as possible, to make the sentence a whole, to be apprehended by the mind at once, and not an assemblage of various words, to be grasped separately, required an additional use of marks to aid the eye and to separate THE INFLUENCE OF FEINTING. 147 the parts of sentences. • Hence, from the new conditions resulting from the invention of printing, arose, among other beneficial effects, the art of punctuation, which has materially simplified our grammar, as well as affected our modes of thought and our styles of compo- sition. CHAPTEE XYIII. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OP THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE ACCESSION OF ELIZA- BETH. 1500-1558. Between the time of Caxton and the death of Ilenrj YIII., 1547, our language underwent considerable im- provement, in consequence of the introduction of print- ing and the more extended diffusion of knowledge. Many of its superfluous forms were cast off ; many of its useless particles and prolix constructions were aban- doned. The literary productions of that age manifest gradual progress and advancement; display greater brevity of expression, as well as compactness of construc- tion, and even occasional elegance. But this improve- ment, beneficial as its effects were, was only partial, and much remained to be accomplished before the language could be divested of its ancient rudeness, its redundant forms, and its cumbrous idioms. The most important philological and literary monu- ment of the first quarter of the sixteenth century is Lord Berners's translation of the " Chronicles of Frois- sart," the first volume of which appeared in 1523, the second in 1525. The translation is executed with re- markable, accuracy, and conforms so closely to the Eng- lish idiom that it has the air of an original work. The orthography of the translation is irregular and confused, FROM 1500 TO 1558. 149 a defect which may be attributed to the foreign printers, who were ignorant of' the orthoepy and orthography of the English tongue. Another literary production of the first half of this centuiy, w^hich is valuable in a philological as well as in an historical point of view, is the *'Life of Richard III.," by Sir Thomas More, printed in 15431 TEe'style of the work displays a more advanced phase of the language than Lord Berners's translation, or than any other secular prose of this period, and it is probably the first speci- men of good English prose, " pure and conspicuous, well chosen, without vulgarisms or pedantry." The most important production of this period, and the one which exerted a more decided influence upon English philology than any other native work between the ages of Chaucer and of Shakspere, is Tynd ale's trans- lation of the New^ Testament, first published in 1526. The English of Tyndale contrasts strangely w^ith that of his contemporaries. While their style is characterized by awkward periphrases, and is modelled upon the in- volved and complicated periods of the Latin, that of Tyndale is thoroughly English in spirit and in construc- tion, and represents a more advanced stage of the lan- guage than the secular prose of that age. The same purity, or at least the same freedom from awkward and incongruous Latinisms, may be discovered in the writings of Latimer and some of the other reform- ers, though their style is occasionally rude and uncouth in the extreme. It is in the admirable Liturgy of the Church of England that the impress of Cranmer's mind and heart is most perceptible, but the parity of his diction entitles him to exalted position among the writers of the Eeforma- / 150 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. tion, and to honourable commemoration in a liistory of the English tongue. The sermons of Lever are pervaded by the fiery vigour of Luther, and they have been turned to good account by a brilliant historian of our own age. Upon the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, the light of classical learning found its way to Italy, whence it was disseminated throughout the differ- ent countries of Europe. Upon its introduction into England, it was at first cultivated in accordance with correct and rational methods, and was restricted to the legitimate intention of transferring to the English tongue the elegance and the spirit, and not the forms, of the classic writers. Some of the most distinguished scholars were purists in sentiment, and Sir John Cheke, the illustrious Greek professor at Cambridge, formed a plan for the elimination from the vocabulary of all words not of Saxon origin. But these endeavours for the reformation of the language produced no perceptible results, and/the first decided effects of the study of /classical learning in England were similar to those that I immediately followed the introduction of printing — Vadditional confusion, discordance, and diversity. The cultivation of the ancient literature was speedily carried beyond its proper sphere. The votaries of classic learn- ing, not content with transferring the graces of antiquity to the native tongue, aspired also to engraft its forms and idioms upon its structure. The result was awk- wardness and incongruity unsurpassed. The language was oppressed with perverted imitations of classic graces, which sat strangely upon it; the free and natural English construction, simplified by the rejection of nearly all grammatical inflections, was distorted and burdened PEOM 1500 TO 1558. 151 with the complicated syntax of the ancients ; numerous terms, based upon Latin roots, ostentatious and pedantic in form as well as in meaning, w^ere fabricated; the language appeared stiff, ungainly, and ill at ease, in its novel and grotesque habiliments. . These disastrous consequences of the abuses of clas- sical learning were stimulated by the immediate literary effects of the Keformation, which followed in the train of printing, and the revival of ancient literature. It is a prevalent, though a mistaken, impression, that the Reformation was beneficial to literature and sound learn- ing in the periods immediately succeeding."^ On the contrary, it co-operated with the agencies already at work in marring the character and the constitution of the lan- guage. It provoked theological controversy, which was often conducted with acrimonious virulence ; it narrowed the sphere of intellectual pursuits, and intensified the feelings of the combatants ; it concentrated the abilities of scholars upon the all-absorbing themes of polemical and religious discussion. In addition to .these causes, the standard of theological education in England at the outbreak of the Reformation was extremely low, and there were consequently few scholars of sufficient attain- ments to conduct a controversy involving such momen- tous issues. Hence, a recourse to Continental scholars was necessary, and the want of native learning and con- troversial skill were supplied in great measure from for- eign sources. These, writing in Latin, introduced a specially Latinized phraseology, which naturally tended to augment the existing confusion. It was thus unpro- * Southern Review, Oct., 1872. " Craik's Englisli Language and Literature," Vol. I. 152 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAKGUAGE. pitious to elegant literature ; it imported numbers of foreign terms and phrases, ancient and modern, and "rendered zeal and confidence much more effectual aids to authorship than art or the graces of art." * But the causes of confusion and disorganization are not yet fully specified. The Reformation in England induced a partial acquaintance with the treatises and the language of the German reformers ; it led to numerous translations from the French and Italian, as well as from the contemporaneous Latin. The wars between Charles Y. and Francis I., of France, the relations which England sustained to those wars, invited the cultivation of foreign languages and literatures, and especially of the brilliant literature which had been developed under the auspicious skies of Italy.f Then followed the fashiona- ble affectation of Italian idioms and phrases, of Italian manners and graces, which prevailed so extensively during the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign a-nd during the reign of her father. Italian novels and romances were the favourite diversion of the fashionable and re- fined ; to understand Italian was an indispensable accom- plishment among courtiers and nobles. En^and became "Italianated" in speech and in morals. The extent to which these foreign influences were carried in the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign may be inferred from Eoger Ascham's energetic and repeated protests, from many allusions in Lily's " Euj^liues^"^ and from frequent refer- ences in the writings of contemporary or nearly con- temporary authors. The product that was evolved by the combined action of so jnany diverse and powerful * Southern Beview, Oct., 1873. "Craik's English Language and Literature," Vol. I. f Southern Review, Oct., 1873. FROM 1500 TO 1558. 153 agencies upon a language in a state of disintegration must have been a "strange medley" indeed. The " strange medley," too, was enriched by vast accessions of materials, gathered from under the four- corners of the heavens ; the chivalric love of adventure, the development of commercial enterprise, the extension of geographical knowledge, the introduction of names for the articles, products, and commodities imported from many foreign climes, all tended to augment the vocabulary by the infusion of an enormous wealth of words. To cite one example : it is said " that the vocabulary of Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny has never been precisely ascertained." Such was the general condition of the English tongue at the time that Elizabeth ascended the throne. Its vocabulary was rich, copious, and varied, but heterogeneous and unascertained; the grammar was rude and unregulated, the syntactical order awkward, the pronunciation unsettled, its metrical principles and combinations undetermined. The ver- nacular tongue was held in low repute ; its future great- ness was unforeseen, and it was but little resorted to for literary purposes. The language, notwithstanding its amazing verbal wealth, was thoroughly disorganized, and imperatively demanded an entire reformation and reconstruction. It is true that during the latter years o£^.^ Henry YIII., Surrey and Wyatt introduced hlank verse into English poetry, a form of versification derived from Italian models.* This new unrhymed verse ripened * Perhaps from Cardinal Hippolito's translation of Virgil's ^neid, wliicli was probably the earliest specimen of blank verse in the Italian language. It is supposed, however, by Prof. Henry Morley, that the translation was made by the poet Francesco Maria Molza, " who allowed the cardinal to take the credit of it." 154 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. into perfection at a subsequent era, but it exerted at the first little influence upon the tongue ; in fact, the blank verse of Surrey and Wyatt is scarcely more than prose. During this period, also, was introduced by Sir Thom- as Wyatt, the sonnet, invented in Italy by Yinea, in the reign of Henry III. of England, and immortalized by the genius of Petrarch. The English language is pecu- liarly unfavourable to the development of the special beauties of this graceful and difficult form of verse composition, but it has been cultivated with success by some of the greatest masters of English poetry, among whom may be mentioned Shakspere, Milton, and "Wordsworth. The popular element in poetry, repre- sented by the vigourous rhymes of Skelton, and the courtly element, represented by the Italian graces of Surrey and Wyatt, reappear in the luxuriant richness of the Shaksperian drama. Having traced the action of the multiform influences by which English was reduced to its lowly estate at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, we must now con- sider that series of processes by which, in a compara- tively short period, the language underwent a perfect transmutation, and became the appropriate vehicle of Spenser's fairy song and of the marvellous revelations of Shakspere. CHAPTEK XIX. THE FORMATION OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH. Perhaps no language ever experienced more rapid improvement, and underwent a more thorough recon- struction, than English, during the first thirty years of Elizabeth's reign. J^obles, statesmen, knights, scholars, even royalty, engaged assiduously in the labour of re- forming the native tongue. Every phase of literary effort was diligently explored ; the laws of style were carefully defined ; canons of versification were prescribed ; the metrical capacities of the language were expanded ; its rhyming words were collected for the convenience of versifiers, and in every department of intellectual exertion the utmost zeal and energy were displayed for the re-formation of the vernacular tongue. Sir Philip Sidney, Puttenham, Webbe, Meres, Mulcaster, Levin, Sackville, Marlowe, contributed efficaciously to the improvement of the language, and tended essentially to stimulate the genius and the enterprise of native authors. Roger Ascham and Dr. Thomas Wilson are worthy of especial commemoration as the precursors of this school of linguistic reformers, and the former is entitled to a lofty position in the history of our tongue, as one of the founders of a cultivated English prose style. He was among the first to reject the use of foreign words 156 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. and idioms, which had become so prevalent in the reign of "Henry YIII., so tliat the authors of that day, '' using strange words, as Latin, Italian, and French, do make all things dark and hard." He 'laboured with praise- worthy diligence to inculcate the formation of a pure English prose style, and to rescue the language from the neglect and indifference with which it was regarded by his contemporaries. His zealous advocacy of the claims of the native tongue, and especially of its supe- rior adaptation to the purposes of prose composition, produced a marked improvement in the style of the period. So unfashionable had the literary application of English become, that Ascham prefaces his " Toxophilus " (1544:) with an apology for employing it, "doubting not that he should be blamed for it." Dr. Thomas Wilson, one of the oldest English philol- ogists, published, in 1551, " The Kule of Keason, con- taining the Art of Logic, set forth in English," and in 1553, " The Art of Rhetoric, for all- such as are studious of eloquence, set forth in English." The treatise of Wil- son powerfully aided the cause which Ascham had been advocating, the cultivation of English prose by scholars. It evinces excellent discrimination, and it tended to clear the language of foreign plirases and pedantic affectations. In 1565 "Appeared the. first English tragedy (Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex), in which th^ recently introduced blank verse of Surrey and Wyatt was employed. It was composed by Korton and Sackville, the latter of whom, in the Induction to his "Mirror for Magistrates," had proved himself the appropriate herald of Spenser's coming greatness.* * It was first acted in 1561-1562, though not published until 1565. THE FORMATIOJq" OF ELIZABETHAN EJ^GLISH. 157 Christoplier IVTarldwe, our greatest dramatic poet before the time of Shakspere, contributed successfully to the establishing of blank verse as the recognized form of dramatic composition. Its progress, however, was very gradual, as is evident from the mixture in various proportions of rhyme, prose, and blank verse in the plays of Shakspere. In 1570 appeared the "Khyming Dictionary" of Peter Levin, a work designed to facilitate the labours of versi- fiers. The preface contains some valuable observations upon the language of his time. In 1575 Greorge Gascoigne published " Certain 'Notes of Instruction concerning the making of Yerse or Kime in English." " The Steel Glass," published in 1576 by the same author, is the first specimen in our language of an extended poem not dramatic, written in blank verse. In 1582 Richard Mulcaster wrote his "Elementary, which entreateth chiefly of the right writing of the English tongue." It is inferior to the " Schoolmaster" of Ascham, bat it contributed materially to the progress of English philology, as it embodies many acute and discriminating observations upon the language. In 1586 was published a " Discourse of English Poet- ry, together with the author's judgment concerning the Reformation of our English verse," by William Webbe. It is valuable on account of its delineations of English poets from Chaucer to his own day. The discourse was written in advocacy of the new system of hexameter verse, which had been introduced by Harvey in spite of violent opposition. The writings of Sir Philip Sidney w^ere not given to the world until after his death (1586). His "Arcadia" was published in 1590, his "Sonnets" in 1591, and his 158 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LA^N^GUAGE. ''Apologie for Poetrie" and his "Defence of Poesy" in 1595. The "Arcadia" was written in 1580-1581; the "Defence" and the "Apologie" in 1581. Sidney's prose style is the most graceful that the language, up to that time, had produced, though it displays an excess of art rather than an unconstrained freedom, and is more euphuistic than- that of Lyly. " Yet, notwithstanding all the conceits into which it frequently runs, and also some want of animation and variety, Sidney's is a won- derful style, always flexible, harmonious, and luminous, and on fit occasions rising to great stateliness and splen- dour." Sir Philip advocates the capacities of the English language for the highest purposes of literary composi- tion, and it is a remarkable evidence of his linguistic discrimination that he was among the first of modern scholars to perceive the superiority of an uninflected grammatical structure and a logical syntax, over an in- flected structure, and a syntax based upon the formal relations of words. In 1586 appeared the first English Grammar, written by William Bullokar. In 1589 John Rider published the first English Dic- tionary of Latin and English, and English and Latin. By far the most valuable treatise in the province of criticism which appeared during the period of recon- struction was Puttenham's "Art of English Poesy," 1589. It is replete with instructive information respect- ing the language of the time, and lays down elaborate canons for the guidance of poets. In 1598 Meres published his " Comparative Discourse of our English poets, with the Greek, Latin, and Italian poets," entitled " Palladis Tamia, or Wit's Treasury." Under the influence of these critical writers, the ver- THE FOEMATIOi^ OF ELIZABETHAl^' EiiTGLISH. 159 nacular tongue rapidly advanced, approved standards of composition and models of style now existed, the lan- guage cast off much of its former rudeness, while it re- tained much of its former vigour and flexibility. Its roughness was tempered by artistic graces, but its bound- ing spirit w^as not repressed by rigid prescription, nor its rhythmical flow checked by the enervating procedures of a purely artiflcial era. But there were other influences, not yet enumerated, which tended to enrich the marvellous afliuence of Eliz- abethan speech, and to complete the process of redinte- gration in the course of a single generation. We must flrst remember what has often been said of the learning and literary pretensions of the queen, and of the nobles and gentrj' of her court. Elizabeth herself was a scholar of decided merit, and her example was imitated by all who aspired to elegance of manner or admission into the courtly society of the age. The queen was acquainted .with Greek, translated two of the orations of Isocrates, a play of Euripides, the "Hiero" of Zenophon, Sallust's j" JugurthineWar," Horace's "Art of Poetry," Boethius' '" Consolations of Philosophy," a long chorus from Sen- eca, one of Cicero's Epistles, and one of Seneca's. She also wrote many Latin, letters, and original Eng- lish works in prose and poetry, and she spoke with fluency the Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish lan- guages. "An impulse was thus communicated, a fashion was thus set, and dignity was conferred upon literature and scholarly pursuits. Admiration of the Greek and Latin, and the desire to rival or reproduce the triumphs of the French, and especially of the Italian, inspired frequent imitations. These dispositions cherished an eager diligence of translation, not simply or mainly to 160 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. transfer the thought and substance of ancient and mod- ern masterpieces to home use, but for the sake of domes- ticating acknowledged beauties, and of training the luxuriant redundance of the vernacular to the disciplined and decorous shape of artistic composition. Roger Ascham, in his ^ Schoolmaster,' commenced in 1563, and published in 1570, strenuously commends the practice of translation for the acquisition of style, and for the cor- rection of errors in the still unres^ulated tono^ue." Clas- sical learning had become a fashionable mania, Latin- isms were prevalent in the conversational dialect, the fashion of interlarding sentences with Latin phrases came generally into vogue, producing a sort of macaronic speech, which is ridiculed by Sidney with exquisite humour in the character of Rombus, and by Shakspere in the character of Holofernes. By the year 1625, every classic author had been ren- dered intelligible through the medium of translations. The great diversity of translations, the wide range of fopics which they comprehended, called into requisition all the varied powers of the tongue. It was enriched by copious accessions of Latin and Greek words, and by the resuscitation of many native vocables which had be- come obsolete in literary composition, or were restricted to dialectic usage. In fact, the most remarkable feature of these translations is not so much their specially Latin- ized dialect, as the great number of native words that they revived. The translation of Erasmus's "Para- phrase of the 'New Testament," executed by JSTicholas Udall, author of the first English comedy, at the sugges- tion of Queen Catherine Parr, is clear and vigourous in style, abounding in English idioms, expressive colloquial phrases, and terse Saxon terms. Philemon Holland, THE PORMATIO]!^^ OF ELIZABETHAIT ENGLISH. 161 Master of the Coventry Grammar School, was an inde- fatigable translator of classic authors, and his versions, which iill five or six dense folios, contain a rich mine of native linguistic wealth. Not only this new literature, but new inventions and discoveries, new ideas and aspi- rations, all demanded new verbal forms for their ade- quate expression. These requisitions upon the energies of the speech were fully complied with, and in a short time the vocabulary of reflection became as rich as that of imagination. Another way in which the speech was simplified was by the amount of controversy elicited by the Reforma- tion — the extensive literature of attack and reply, of political dissertations and pamphlets. The issues in- volved in these discussions were of a popular character, and contributed to simplify tlie structure of the language, and to assign additional prominence to the Saxon ele- ment in its vocabulary. Thus, every phase of the language was re-fashioned and re-organized in the space of about thirty years. Under the judicious precepts of Ascham and Wilson, prose, a species of literature always subsequent in the order of development to poetry,* gradually assumed a * " There is a general law according to wliicli, in all nations, met- rical literature has preceded prose. Almost from the first hour that Englishmen expressed their feelings in song, or sought play for their imagination in tales, they chose their vernacular for that pur- pose ; whereas, in those departments of literary exercise which the world had long recognized as the proper dominion of prose — the great business of record or of history in all its varieties, the noble work of speculation or philosophical thought on all subjects inter- esting to humanity, and to some extent, also, the work of social con- troversy and moral exhortation — Latin had all along been preferred to Epglish. An English prose was indeed nobly disentangling itself. 162 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. loftier and a purer tone. But much of the prose compo- sition of the Elizabethan age is coloured by a poetic glow, and it was not until a much later period that prose acquired its modern form and character. The canons of poetry had been diligently explored, the metrical capaci- ties of the tongue had been tested, the forms of versifi- cation had been thoroughly discussed, blank verse was slowly winning its way to favour, the necessities of translation had recovered much of the buried wealth of the language, and had tempered its ancient rudeness by naturalizing the decorous graces of Greek and Roman art. The great era of the English tongue was about to dawn. Any account of Elizabethan English would be neces- ^sarily imperfect without an explanation of one of its characteristic features — Euphuism. It is an important phenomenon in the history of the language, though its As was natural, it had disentangled itself in tlie form and for the purposes of pulpit eloquen(?e. Allowing for the precedents of a Wycliffe, a Chaucer, in some of his works, a Sir Thomas More, and the like, the first English prose style was that of the pulpit, after the lie formation. Then, in the Elizabethan age, towering above a host of chroniclers, pamphleteers, and polemical theologians, there had appeared a Sidney, a Hooker, a Raleigh, and a Bacon. After such men had appeared, and there had been exhibited in their writ- ings the union of wealth and depth of matter with beauty and even gorgeousness of form, there could no longer be a definition of litera- ture in which English prose should not be coordinate with English poetry. And yet, so much had still to be done before genius of all kinds could sufficiently master the new element, and make it plastic for all purposes (some of those included which poetry had hitherto believed to be her own), that in the schemes of our ablest literary historians, it is common to count but one period of English prose prior to the age of Dryden and the Restoration." — Masson's Life of Milton, Vol. I. THE FORMATION" OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH. 163 character and influence have been so often misconceived and misrepresented. "Many have derived their impres- sions of euphuism from Sir Walter Scott's delineation of Sir Piercie Shafton in the " Monastery," which is not merely an exaggeration, but a ridiculous and unpardona- ble travesty. Euphuism was introduced into England/" from Italy during the earlier years of Elizabeth's reign,! and brought to perfection in the hands of John Lyly, a I dramatic poet of this era, in his two productions, " Eu- phues, the Anatomic of Wit," and " Euphues and his \ England." Eyly was merely a representative of the prevalent literary fashion, and he imparted to euphuism, when at its climax, a typical and polished form. Some of its distinctive peculiarities, together with its name, are to be traced to the influence of the Platonic philoso- phy in England during the reign of Henry YIIL, an in- fluence which came also from Italy. The skill of Queen Elizabeth in dexterous phrases, and her accomplishments as a linguist, favoured the growth of euphuism at her court. The frivolous character of James I. lowered the dignity, while it extended the sphere of literary affecta- tion. The fervour of political and religious enthusiasm imparted to the conceited and pedantic style a glow of life and passion, in the days of Charles I. and the Com- . monwealth. Its influence upon the language of England/ continued during the rule of Cromwell, and much of the language of the Puritans was euphuism, inflamed with religious zeal, and acquiring a sombre hue from the gloomy fanaticism of the age. The success of Lyly's work was immense ; he introduced a new English, and elegant and courtly dames, nobles, cavaliers, and schol- ars were his followers. The essential characteristics o: euphuism were verbal antithesis, strange contrasts, 164 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. straining after effect, remote allusions, and incongruous combinations. In the ordinary conversation of society, it doubtless became an absurd jargon, but in tlie hands of Lyly, despite its characteristic faults, it attained an elegance and simplicity of form unknown in the prose literature of that era, and which strikingly foreshadow the graceful ease of the Addisonian age. In its purer types, as exhibited by Lyly, it was an essential simplifi- cation both of structure and vocabulary, an endeavour to inculcate the graces of style by practical illustration, a sort of " art teaching by example." Few of the writers of the Elizabethan period escape the fascination of the euphuistic style. Sidney, Spenser, and Shakspere all yield in a measure to its influence, and the style of Sid- ney is more euphuistic than that of Lyly. !N"o sphere of literary effort was able to escape the contagion. It pervaded, in its extravagant forms, the discourses of Andrews, the poetry of Donne, and, at a later day, the style of Fuller. Our dramatic poetry, the most native portion of our literature, was least affected by its influ- ence. Its impress is visible until the era of the Kestora- tion, when it was supplanted by the French models then coming into repute. Euphuism is not, however, a feature peculiar to the Elizabethan age, nor to any particular era of linguistic history; it is constantly reproducing itself in diverse forms and with varying degrees of virulence. The anti- thetical brilliance of Macaulay is merely " the euphuism of the elder day," and in the discourses of the modern -sensational school of divines, we have a strange resusci- tation of the incongruities and fantasies of euphuism, without the redeeming excellencies which it attained under the culture of the graceful Lyly and his associates. CHAPTEK XX. ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH.* Fkom the contents of the preceding chaptei*, the stu- dent is enabled to understand the combination of influ- ences by whose action the English tongue underwent, in a comparatively short period, an entire re-formation, and acquired that richness, flexibility, and vigour which pre- eminently characterize the English of the Elizabethan era. Upon a superficial examination of Elizabethan Eng- lish, it appears to present this striking contrast to the English of modern times — that in the former any irreg- ularities whatever, either in the formation of words or the combination of them into sentences, are allowable. In the first place, almost any part of speech can be sub- stituted for any other part of speech. An adverb can be used as a verb, " They askance their eyes ; " as a noun, "The hachward and abysm of time;" as an ad- jective, " A seldom pleasure." Any noun, adjective, or intransitive verb can be used as a transitive verb. You can "happy your friend," "malice your enemy," or " fall " an axe upon his neck. An adjective can be used as an adverb ; you can speak and act " easy," " free ; " or as a noun, and you can talk of "fair," instead of * This chapter is principally condensed from Abbott's " Grammar of Shakspere." 166 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. " beauty," and a " pale," instead of a " paleness." Even the pronouns are subject to these metamorphoses. A "he" is used for a man, and a lady is described by a gentleman as " the fairest she he has yet beheld." * In the second place, we encounter every variety of apparent grammatical inaccuracy. He for hini^ him for he, spoke and tooh for spoken and taken', plural nominatives with singular verbs, relatives omitted where they are now considered essential, unnecessary antecedents employed : shall for will, should for would, would for wish j to omitted after / ought ; inserted after / durst; double negatives, double comparatives and superlatives ; " more braver," " most unkindest cut ; " such followed by whichy that by as, as used for as if, that for so that ; some verbs used apparently w^ith two nominatives, and some without any nominative at all. In addition, many words, especially prepositions and the infinitives of verbs, are used in a sense different from the modern; thus, "received of the most pious Edward," does not mean 'from Edward," but '^hy Edward," and when Shak- spere says that " the rich will not every hour survey his treasure ybr blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure," he does not mean "for the sake of," but "for fear of" blunting pleasure. Upon a n' >re diligent inspection, these seemingly hopeless discrepancies and anomalies can be reduced to several distinct heads. The Elizabethan was a period of transition in the history of the English tongue. The enormous influx of new discoveries and new idgas, resulting from the condi- * This usage continued until the eighteenth century. I have found an example in Steele (" Spectator," 492), " as agreeably as any she in England." ELIZABETHAiT ENGLISH. 167 tions enumerated in the preceding chapters, demanded for their adequate expression numbers of new words, especially abstract terms. Then the revival of classical literature, the prevalence of translations from the ancient authors, suggested Latin and Greek words (but chiefly Latin) as their proper equivalents. The language thus received copious accessions of Latin and Greek vocables. The involved and complicated periods of the ancients formed the models of Elizabethan authors. In the en- deavour to assimilate English to the Latin syntax, the constructive power of the latter was strained to the full- est tension. But the influence of the classical languages acted principally upon single words and upon the rhythm of the sentence. The syntax was mostly Eng- lish, both in its origin and its development, and several constructions that are considered anomalous (double negative, double comparative) have had from the earli- est period an independent existence in English, and many of the anomalies specified above have their origin in some peculiarities of early English, modified by the transitional Elizabethan period. Above all, it must be borne in mind that early English was far richer in inflections than Elizabethan English. So far as English inflections are concerned, the Elizabethan period tended rather to destroy than to preserve. Naturally, there- fore, while inflections were falling into disuse, various tentative experiments were resorted to ; some inflections were rejected that have since been reinstated, and others were retained that have since been discarded. In other instances in which inflections had been preserved, their original significance had disappeared, and in other cases the memory of inflections that had been lost still affected the manner of expression. 168 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I. Inflections discarded but their power retained. — Hence, ^' spoke" for "spoken," "rid" for "ridden," *'you ought not walk" for "you ought not walk^^" (the old infinitive). The new infinitive " to walk," used in its new meaning, and also sometimes retaining its old gerundive signification. "To glad" (transitive), "to mad" (transitive), for ^' to gladd^/i," " to madden." The adverbial e being discarded, an adjective appears to be used as. an adverb: "He raged more fierce." II. Inflections retained with their old power. — The subjunctive inflection frequently nsed to express a con- dition : " Go not my horse," for " If my horse go not." Hence, as with the subjunctive appears to be used for as if, and for and if, hut (in the sense of except) for ex- cept if. The plural in en very rarely. The plural in es or s far more commonly. Jlis used as the old genitive of he for of him. Me, him, etc., used to represent other cases besides the objective and the modern dative : "I am appointed hirn to murder you." III. Inflections retained, but their power diminished or lost.— Thus "A^" for "A^'m," ''him'' for "A^," "7" for ''me,'' "me" for "I." In the same way the s, which was the sign of the possessive case, though fre- quently retained, had so far lost its meaning that it was sometimes (incorrectly) replaced by his and her. TV. Other anomalies may be explained by reference to the derivations of words and the idioms of early English. Hence can be explained, so followed by as, such followed by which, that followed by as, who fol- lowed by he, the which put for which, shall for will, should for would, and would for wish. These causes, however, do not sufiiciently account for all the anomalies of Elizabethan English. There are ELIZABETHAN" EiTGLISH. 169 several redundancies, and still more ellipses, "which can only be explained as follows : y. Clearness was preferred to granaraatical correctness, \ and brevity both to correctness and clearness. Hence, I it was common to arrange w^ords in the order in which they came into the mind, with but slight attention to syntactical order, and the result was an energetic and perfectly clear sentence, though an ungrammatical one ; as, " The prince that feeds great natures, they will sway him." As an example of brevity, " It costs more to get than to lose in a day." yi. One great cause of the difference between Eliza- bethan and yictorian English is, that the latter has introduced what may be called the division of labour. This may be illustrated by a few examples. The Eliza- bethan subjunctive could be used, optatively; or to express a condition or a consequence of a condition ; or to signify purpose, after " that." Now, all these differ- ent meanings are expressed by different auxiliaries: ^'wotdd that," '''should he come," "he would find," " that he may see,'' and the subjunctive form has become almost obsolete. " To walk" is now either a noun, or it denotes purpose, "in order to walk." In Elizabethan English to walk might also denote " ly walking," " as regards walking," "/br walking." In like manner Shakspere could write " of vantage " for '''from vantage ground," "^ mine honour" for ''orb my honour," "of purpose " for " on purpose," " of the city's cost " for " at the city's cost," "did I never speak ^all that time" for " during all that time." Similarly, "by" has lost many of its varied powers, which have been transferred to "near," "in accordance with," "by reason of," "owing to." " But " has also yielded some of its rights to " un- 170 HISTOKY OF THE E]!^GLISH LANGUAGE. less " and " except." In the last place, " that," in early English the only relative, had been supplanted before the Elizabethan era in many idioms by '^who"- and " which," but it still retained its meanings of " because," " inasmuch as," and " when ; " sometimes under the forms "for that^'' "in that j'^'' sometimes without the prepositions. As a general rule, the tendency of the English language has been to divide the labour of expres- sion as far as possible, by diminishing the task imposed upon overburdened words, and by assigning special shades of meaning to terms which expressed but one general idea. There are exceptions to this rule, as " who " and " which," but such has been the general tendency. \ YII. The character of Elizabethan English is im- 1 pressed upon its pronunciation, as well as upon its idioms and words. As a rule their pronunciation seems to have been more rapid than ours. The vowels were probably pronounced as in Latin, French, and German : The accent was fluctuating, owing to the contest between the native accentual tendencies of the speech, and the in- fluence of the Latin accentual system. This will account for the varying and unsettled pronunciation of many words, which are accented sometimes on the first, some- times on the last syllable. Hence we find ac'cess, and acce'ss, ^re'ce^t and preoe'pt^ in'stinct and insti'nct, re'lapse and rela'jpse, com'merce and comme'rce,. oVdu- rate and obdu'rate, con'trary and contra' ry, sepulchre and sepu'lchre, etc. The conflict was adjusted by a compromise. Some words retained the Latin accent, as respe'ct, rela'pse : others were appropriated by the Eng- lish, as'pect, ac'cess. YIII. Words then used literally, are now used meta- phorically, and vice versa. The effect of this is most per- ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH. 171 ceptible in the altered sense of prepositions. For instance, "by," meaning, originally, '^ near," has supplanted " of" in the metaphorical sense of agency. With regard to Latin and Greek words it will generally be found that the Elizabethan writers use them in their literal or primitive sense : we use them metaphorically. This is evident from noticing the Latin words employed by the Translators of the Scriptures, by Shakspere, Bacon, Put- tenham. Observe the altered sense of the following words of Latin derivation, occurring in the Authorized Yersion of the Scriptures, in Shakspere, and in Putten- ham : Censure^ to judge, simply, without regard to the character of the judgment: convenient^ consistent: con- versation^ acquaintance, association: denounce, to an- nounce: insolent, unusual: offend, to cause to stumble, to entrap : officious, full of Jcindness : palpable, that loliich can he felt materiaily : virtue, maAihood. In the copious influx of Latin and Greek words into the vocabulary during this era, many were introduced to express ideas for which adequate provision had already! been made in the existing vocabulary. These words,/ finding the ground they were designed to occupy al- ready appropriated, were compelled to assume either special shades of meaning, or to adopt metaphorical, in- stead of literal significations. On the other hand, some Latin and Greek words that were used to express tech- nicalities, have acquired a looser and moi-e indefinite sense, as their original import has gradually faded away. Thus " influence " originally signified merely the sup- posed influence of the stars upon the fortunes of men ; its meaning is now essentially altered. A correspond- ing change has taken place also in the meanings of " pomp," " ovation," " decimate." 172 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The enumeration of the points of contrast between Elizabethan and Victorian English may seem to have been a mere list of anomalies and irregularities, and proofs of the inferiority of the former to the latter. But it should be remembered that the. Elizabethan was a period of formation, of transition, and of experiment ; and that its experiments were not always successful. While we have gained much in precision, elegance, and deli- cacy of expression, since the days of Elizabeth, we have sacrificed much of the ancient melody, the bounding rhythm, the nervous energy of our elder writers. It may be safely assumed, however, that the gains have compensated for the losses."^ * One of the most serious losses that our language has sustained, is the gradual decadence of the subjunctive inflection. Its judicious application constitutes one of the distinctive excellencies of our tongue, and it is employed with rare beauty and discrimination by our elder writers. It is one of those delicacies of expression for which the language furnishes no equivalent. CHAPTEK XXI. THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. 1580-1625. The student is now able to understand that combina- tion of influences, by whose agency the tongue of Eng- land was transformed, redintegrated, and advanced to a degree of surpassing excellence in a comparatively brief period, so that to the unregulated, fluctuating speech which marked the early years of the Yirgin Queen's reign, succeeded the fairy strains of Spenser, the verbal affluence of Shakspere, the stately periods of Hooker, the practical philosophy and far-reaching wisdom of Bacon's Essays. Lyly's " Euphues," 1579-1580, and Sidney's " Apology," 1580-1581, may be taken as the commencement of the Elizabethan era. Many of the noblest productions of this era belong, properly, not to the reign of Elizabeth, but to that of her successor, James I., to the seventeenth rather than to the sixteenth century. Still, the designation is a correct one: the excellence of the language was attained during her reign ; its capabilities were developed and matured during this period, and its wonderful improvement was the result of causes which had their origin at that date, although they may not have produced their most brilliant results until the succeeding century The Elizabethan era is not only the greatest in the history of the English language, but the greatest, per- haps, in the history of the world. Every phase of the 174 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. lanti^uage was called into action, all its latent energies were quickened, its manifold powers put forth all their strength. Ko department of literary effort failed to participate in the glorious awakening of the human, mind. The Reformation and the Renaissance broke the thraldom of scholasticism, and led forth the intellect from the house of bondage. It was essentially an age of action, of enterprise, of lofty daring, and splendid achievement. The study of ancient literature, now pur- sued in conformity to rational methods, smoothed the ruggedness of our tongue, and adorned it with the graces of classic art. The process of dialectic regenera- tion contributed to the existing richness of the current speech, by drawing freely upon the ancient fountains of the language, and calling into requisition its varied and exuberant resources. Dialectic forms ajre used without reserve by the dramatists of the Elizabethan era, and it constitutes one of the great periods of dialectic regeneration in the history of the English* tongue. The language and the literature of the Eliza- bethan era are characterized by boldness, originality,^ vigour of expression, and the absence of thosej conventional restraints with which the critical taste of later ages has in great measure restricted the ancient freedom of our tongue. It is the great era of creative power and of original conception, when authors, unen- cumbered with a profusion of learning, and unfettered by the rigid prescriptions of subsequent criticism, sur- rendered themselves to the guidance of their own im- pulses, wrote as they felt, regarding more the substance than the form and texture of their compositions. Art and nature were harmoniously blended, though nature predominated ; and genius,, free from the enervating in- THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. 175 Alienees of an Angnstan age, soared into the very heavens in its unfettered flights. Every department of intellectual effort was strained to the fullest tension ; the drama, which attained its completed form about the middle of the sixteenth century, revealed to the unedu- cated classes the splendid creations of contemporary artists, and afforded ihem occasional glimpses of that incomparable literature, which was otherwise to them a book with seven seals. It thus tended to promote sim-, plification of speech, and served as the connecting link between prose and verse. The process of transition may be traced in the plays of Shakspere, in which rhyme, prose, and blank verse are blended in varying proportions. In the hands of Spenser,* the spirit of Chaucer awoke from its dreary slumber, touched as by an enchanters wand. While Spenser cannot be ranked as the greatest of our poets, his poetry is the most musical in our lan- guage. So delicate and subtle is his perception of the connection between sound and sense, that one of the most accomplished philologists of the .present age has cited his rhymes, in order to illustrate the action of the onamatopoetic or imitative principle in the develop- ment of speech.f His fairy strain rose ^'with no middle * The influence of Chaucer upon the English language and litera- ture of the latter half of the sixteenth century, appears to have been very decided, and is beginning to be investigated with the zeal and attention which its importance demands. Spenser's archaic diction is partly due to the influence of Chaucer ; there are well-defined traces of his influence in the plays of Shakspere, especially in " Troilus and Cressida ; " and there are numerous allusions to the great poet in the literature of that era, in Ben Jonson, Daniel, Dray- ton, etc. f Introduction to Wedgewood's " Etymological Dictionary," 1st edition. 176 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. flight" into the poetic firmament; every word is a lucid crystallization of the thought, every sound a clear, ring- ing echo of the sense. The influence of Spenser's poetry, in reflning and expanding the metrical forms and capabilities of our tongue, as well as his influence upon succeeding generations of poets, cannot be too highly estimated. Under his_guidance, our poetry attained the full consciousness of its powers. England was now a land of song, and the most productive period of our poetical literature had fairly commenced. But the "olde order changeth, yielding place to new;" a greater than Spenser was soon to appear ; his conserva- tive disposition and his retention of archaic forms and dialectic peculiarities excited unfavourable criticism, even during the Elizabethan era. The poet of chivalry, veiled in allegorical drapery, was to be succeeded by the poet of nature ; and in our own time, the popular estimate of Spenser, like the popular estimate of Addi- son, is traditional, rather than critical. " What are commonly called the minor poets of the Elizabethan age may be counted by hundreds, and few of them are altogether without merit. If they have nothing else, the least gifted of them liave at least some- thing of the spirit of that balmy morn, some tones caught from their greater contemporaries, some echoes of the spirit of music that filled the universal air. For ■the most part the minor Elizabethan poetry is remarka- ble for ingenuity and elaboration, often carried to the length of quaintness, both in thought and expression ; but if there be more in it of art than of nature, the art is still that of a high school, and consists in something more than the mere disguising of prose in the dress of poetry. The writers are always in earnest with their THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. 177 nature or their art, and the poorest of them are always distinguished from mere prose by something more than the mere sound." In the dramatic productions of Shakspere, the speech of England reached the full meridian of its splendour. Though not so highly esteemed in his own day as his sen- sational but brilliant contemporaries, Beaumont and Fletcher, his influence upon the language of succeeding generations can scarcely be estimated ; he may be said to have created a new language, or, at least, to have created a language within a language. There is a Shak- sperian dialect almost 'as clearly defined as the sacred dialect, and next to those peculiar forms and consecrated idioms in which the oracles of God have revealed them- selves to the English-speaking world since the days of Wyclifi'e, none are so firmly engrafted upon our tongue, none have so thoroughly permeated its vocabulary and phraseology, as the inimitable combinations of Shak- spere. His verbal affluence surpasses that of every other writer; his vocabulary"^ is as comprehensive and varied as his conceptions of humanity; it calls into requisition all the resources of that marvellous speech whose luxuriant richness had been gathered from the four quarters of the earth, which had been moulded and ascertained by the painstaking labours of a race of wait- ers endowed with rare discrimination, and imbued with ardent zeal for the improvement and advancement of their mother tongue. In the "Ecclesiastical Polity" of Hooker, the language of theology attained its loftiest excellence. His style is * Shakspere employs fifteen thousand words, perhaps one-third of the vocabulary of English in that age. 8* 178 EISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Latinized, complicated, and sometimes obscure, but he is considered tlie first English prose writer, " that ex- hibits philosophical precision and uniformit}^ in the use of words, and this is the peculiarity of his style which gives it its greatest philological value. This nicety of discrimination he extends even to particles." In the style of Bacon's "Essays," we have an example of the speech of the most highly educated persons, in the conversational discussion of practical philosophy, exhibit- ing the excellences of euphuism, without its character- istic weaknesses. The style of the *' Essays" is fascinat- ing, though partaking somewhat' of Elizabethan freedom and disregard of grammatical proprieties. The final settlement of the Reformed religion, in the reign of Elizabeth, led to the establishment of the Lit- urgy of the Anglican Church, which in its various forms was prepared during the reigns of Edward YL and Elizabeth. This unsurpassed manual of devotion, with its melodious rhythm, sonorous periods, and felicitous blending of Saxon and Romance synonyms, has power- fully afii*ected the character of our speech, and enriched it with a variety of beautiful and impressive phraseo- logical combinations. Ben Jonsonj the friend and contemporary of Shaks- pei:^,. endeavoured to graft upon the English drama the forms of classia.-^rt ; Terence and Seneca were the models to which he desired to assimilate the bounding spirit of the English tongue. But it is especially as a linguistic reformer that Jonson is entitled to the respect and gratitude of subsequent generations. His "English Grammar" was the first scientific and systematic treatise of the kind in the language, and its influence in defining and regulating the parts of speech was greater than that THE ELIZABETHAN Ell A. 179 of any preceding or succeeding work. The distinguished consideration in whicli Jonson was held by his contem- poraries, the deference and homage which were accorded to him in cultivated circles, gave him an almost dicta- torial power, as the arbiter of speech. That he left a deep impression upon the English of his time, may be inferred from the eulogies bestowed upon his memory, in which he is represented as bringing the language from a state of confusion to melody and harmony. Some allowance must be made to the spirit of adulation in whicli such productions are generally conceived, but they are at least significant indications of the estimation in which Jonson was held as an expositor and a reformer of the vernacular tongue. The time would fail us to speak of the dramatists, poets, divines, travellers, scholars, philosophers and his- torians, whose varied productions contributed to the glory of this brilliant era. It is the great central point upon which all the diversified powers of the language were conceii.trated ; the perennial fountain from which flow rich streams of intellectual nutriment ; and the pe- riod of our linguistic history which demands the most critical study, and the one that will most amply repay all the generous culture that may be bestowed upon it. The influence of the Elizabethan age is not bounded by the dominion of the English language ; its light is gone, out into all the nations, realizing, with historic verity,] the far-reaching vision of the poet Daniel : " And who, in time, knows whither we may vent The treasure of our tongue ? to what strange shores This gain of our best glory shall be sent, To enrich unknowing nations with our stores ? What worlds in the yet unformed Occident, May come refined with accents that are ours ? 180 HISTORY. OF THE ENGLISH LAl^GUAGE. Or who can tell, for what great work in hand, The greatness of our style is now ordained ? "What powers it shall bring in, what spirits command, What thoughts let out, what humours keep restrained. What mischief it may powerfully withstand. And what fair ends may thereby be attained ? " * Note. — The possessive its. — It is during the Elizabethan era that the possessive form its first occurs in the written English language. It had probably existed long before in the current speech. It did not occur in the Authorized Version of the Scriptures, where Ms, thereof, supply its place, though it was subsequently interpolated (1653) ; Leviticus xxv. 5. It is found nine times in Shakspere, sev- eral times in Milton. The first example of its use is in Florio's " World of Words," 1598. The word passed through a variety of fortunes before its rights were generally conceded. The present use is the last of three distinct phases through which the language passed in regard to the word in about sixty years. First, " we have his serving for both masculine and neuter ; secondly, we have his restricted to the masculine, and the neuter left with scarcely any recognized form at all ; thirdly, we have the defect of the second stage remedied by the frank adoption of the heretofore rejected its." Sometimes the occasion for its employment is avoided altogether ; especially is this the case in Shakspere. The very idea which we convey by the word its rarely occurs in his works, and it has been remarked that its adoption has changed not only our style of expres- sion, but even our manner of thinking. Its appears to have been firjnly established in the written speech by the time of the Restora- tion, 1660. Our awkward participial construction, is being done, etc., has passed through a series of processes somewhat analogous to those of its; sometimes approved, but oftener repudiated; sometimes avoided, as was its, and its place supplied by in process of, it has steadily encroached, and is now, I fear, hopelessly engrafted upon the language. * These lines of Daniel's were written before the English race had acquired an extended foothold in the Western world. We are " the heirs of this augury." CHAPTEK XXII. THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCKIPTUEES. The Aiitliorized Version of the Scriptures now in use ^ among all English-speaking Protestants was executed \ by command of King James I. of England, being com- I menced in 1607 and completed and published in 1611. | Its relations to the English language are more impor- tant than those of any other work, and no other Euro- pean version, except perhaps that of Luther, has exer- cised so great an influence upon the character of the language to which it belongs. In the first place, the English people were more thoroughly imbued with the essential principles of the Peformation than any other European nation, and among them the Bible acquired a more extended circulation than in other lands. Again, the great theological and political issues which grew out of the Reformation, were protracted longer in England than elsewhere. From the year 1611, the present ver- sion of the Scriptures was appealed to as the supreme arbiter in all controverted religious and civil questions. From the accession of Elizabeth, but more especially from the accession of her successor, nntil the arbitrary enactments which characterized the earlier years of Charles II.'s reign suppressed for a time the religious liberties of England, the highest interests which affected man's welfare in this present life, and his happiness in 182 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. that which is to come, were present to the mind of every reflecting Englishman as points to be determined at his own peril and by the light drawn from the inspired volume. Hence, it constituted a part of the intellectual and moral wealth of the English people, and it incorpo- rated itself with their speech to a greater extent than any other book had ever done. ^Notwithstanding the objections urged against particular features of the trans- lation by the advocates of either side in theological con- troversy, its excellence soon secured its general accept- ance, and it has maintained, for two hundred and iifty years, the preeminence as the purest and most luminous exposition of the genius and beauty of our tongue. It is a prevalent misapprehension that the English of the Authorized Yersion represents the actual condition of the speech as it existed in the reign of James I. On the contrary, it does not represent any particular phase of the language, or any definite period of its develop- ment, but it is a judicious and discriminating collection of all those forms of expression that are best adapted to the communication of religious truth which the language then contained, or which it had contained throughout the different stages of its history. ^\^^have learned that, the dialect of Scripture is not subject to those essential changes of form and structure which have affected the secular speech. Its sacred idioms, its hallowed forms, seem to acquire, in a measure, the immutability of the truths which are treasured up in them. Hence, we dis- cover that the dialect of Revelation has remained with- out essential modification, so that Wycliffe and Tyndale would recognize in our version principally an expansion- and a recension of their own labours, and in reading the' inspired volume we are listening almost to the same THE TRAiq^SLATIOif OF THE SCRIPTUKES. 183 accents that were uttered by Tvndale three hundred and fifty 3^ears ago. Wycliffe is to be regarded as the founder of our sacredj dialect, while Tyndale imparted to it that finish and per-| fection which so admirably adapt it to the communica^ tion of spiritual truth. Above all others the genius and spirit of Tyndale are impressed upon our version, and its generic excellence is in large measure attributable to the thorough appreciation of the power and beauty of hia own tongue which distinguished this truly great man, the most illustrious, and perhaps the most gifted, of the English reformers. The translators of 1611 contem- plated merely a revision of the labours of their prede- cessors, and it is to be regretted that their excellent pre- face is so generally omitted. From this may readily be seen the extent of their indebtedness to preceding ver- sions. " We never thought," say they, •" that we should need to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one ; but to make a good one better, or, out of many good ones, one principal good one, not to be excepted against. That hath been our endeavour, that our marke." Their translation embodied all the excellencies of previous versions, from Wycliffe's to the Bishop's Bible7 which was in general use at the time that the translators of the Authorized Y^ersion entered upon their labours. The most important changes which have taken place in the language of the Scriptures since 1611, are the following : many words of Latin derivation were then used in their primitive sense. Since that time they have assumed metaphorical or special significations. Such words are convenient^ conversation^ describe^ de- nounce^ offend^ instant^ ^prevent. Some native words 184 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAiq"GUAGE. and phrases have lost their original import, e. g., " take no thought." Some archaic forms and ancient inflec- tions are retained, " all to brake " (Judges ix. 53), broke entirely, all to pieces, all to is an intensive form. " Fell downe, and all to dasht herself for woe ; " "^ hos^^i, hose (Daniel iii. 21). This inflection in en^ according to Ben Jonson, disappeared in* the time of Henry YIII. The possessive pronominal form, its, did not occur in the Translation of 1611. It was interpolated in 1653, Leviticus xxv. 5. Of it ; thereof, his are substituted. The form " its" is flrst found in the written language in 1598— Florio's '' World of Words." The old infini- tive prefix ybr to, occurs in several places, ''^for to see^'' " for to be done : " also the participial noun with the preposition a (at) ; ^' the ark was a preparing," " the people fell a lusting." The adverb is used for the ad- ■jective : " thine often infirmities," where we would now write frequent or many infirmities. This accords with .Elizabethan usage. Compare Shakspere, " seldom pleasure." The pluperfect indicative is used with the force of the pluperfect potential. " I had fainted (I would have fainted) unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Some words occur which are now obsolete,f '^a^, to plough ; (arare), Genesis xlv. 6, Deuteronomy xxi. 4 ; wist, wot, etc. Dialectic terms are sometimes employed : fat for "oat, Joel iii. 13. * Sackville's Induction. f Tlie number of words in the Bible, whicli are now obsolete, or which are used in the United States with meanings different from those that they formerly had, is estimated by Marsh at two hun- dred and fifty. In the Old Testament, five thousand six hundred and forty two words are employed. CHAPTEE XXIII. THE CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SINCE THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. During tire Elizabethan era, the English language acquired a degree of stability which it had never at- tained in the previous ages of its history. Its latent capabilities were developed, and its varied powers were perfected by the most splendid culture that has ever been bestowed upon any speech. Its mutations in the' succeeding periods have not been so violent nor so es sential as those which preceded the age of Elizabeth, But as language is the most sympathetic of all the pro- ductions of the human mind, reflecting with unerring accuracy the fortunes of those who use it, and receiving a deep impression from the peculiar conditions, and the new relations, introduced by each succeeding era in its history, so every speech is liable to changes, in vocabu- lary, in style, and in pronunciation. It possesses a power of adjustment, a faculty of adaptation to the de- mands which are made upon its resources, by tlie extension of mechanical pursuits, the diffusion of scien- tific knowledge, the rise of artistic tastes, the progress of invention and discovery. Hence every language is sub- ject to perpetual change and fluctuation. The language of Shakspere and Ben Jonson would be inadequate for the purposes of our complex civilization ; the vocabulary \ 186 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. of tlie present day would be in great measure unintelli- gible to Sidney, Spenser, or Bacon. The changes in the English tongue since the days of Elizabeth are such as would naturally be produced by the altered relations and the new conditions of society, during the course of two hundred and fifty years. The most potent agencies of change have been Jthe vast ex- tension of commercial and maritime enterprise, the growth of mechanical pursuits, and the consequent in- crease of mechanical appliances, the rise of the physical sciences, each of which has brought with it its special nomenclature, the development and cultivation of aes- thetic tastes, the wonderful expansion of human inge- nuity in every department of scientific effort, the multi- plication of domestic comforts, the advance of social graces and refinements, contact and association with foreign nations, foreign wars, conquest, and coloniza- tion. From the combined action of so many causes, the vocabulary of the English language has been more than doubled since the Elizabethan era. In the days of Shakspere, the written speech probably did not contain more than forty thousand or forty-five thousand words. Our largest dictionaries, as Webster's and Worcester's, have more than one hundred thousand. ^ In addition to the changes in the vocabulary, there have been important alterations in the styles of compo- sition, in the signification and accentuation of words. In Elizabethan times, the involved and complicated sen- tences of the Romans constituted the favourite model of * This estimate does not include our provincialisms, slang phrases, and local forms, which are part of the language, though excluded from t'le written speech. They may be.estimated at many thousands. \ THE CHANGES SINCE THE ELIZABETHAN EKA. 187 authors. But notwithstanding their long periods, they used as few words as possible ; conciseness and brevity of expression were sometimes carried so far as almost to produce obscurity. In modern times this process is re- versed ; we have shorter and more compact sentences than the Elizabethan writers, but we employ more words than they. Words of Latin and Greek derivation then retained their primitive signification. They have either passed over into metaphorical senses, or have been ap- propriated to the expression of special shades of mean- ing. In the conception of the Elizabethans there exist- ed a closer connection between the word and the thing, than in later ages. The materialistic or realistic element was then much more powerful ; since that time the lan- guage has become more symbolic and spiritual. Many words which were then in perfectly good repute, have become obsolete, or have descended to provincial usage.* This may be illustrated by comparing the provincial- isms of America w^ith the English of the Elizabethan age. Our accentual system has been essentially mpdi- * Notice the following list of words, wliicli were at different periods reputable linguistic citizens. Having failed to keep pace with the general movement of the tongue, they have been passed by, and left to linger in remote localities, and among the humble and uneducated, who most zealously preserve the memories, the usages, and the accents of the past. Most of our provincialisms can be traced to the retention of ancient usage. Argufy, for argue ; allers, for always ; crap, for crop ; belike, per- haps ; blabber, to weep ; Beaumont and Fletcher, and by Spenser ; beant, be not ; afeard, once as common as afraid ; ax, for ask, used by Chaucer, Go wer, Wy cliff e, and Tyndale ; bin, for been ; a few broth ; busted, for burst ; clodhopper ; fout for fought ; hadnt ought; haint ; het, for heat ; mo and infioe, for more, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere ; mought, for might and must; used by Palgrave and Lydgate ; hit, for it, the common neuter of the A. S. personal pro- 188 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAKGUAGE. fied. The Gothic constituents of the language have vigourouslj asserted their rights, and the tendency to throw the accent as far as possible from the end of the word is constantly gaining ground. The insular pecu- liarities of English have displayed themselves very strik ingly in the^ pronunciation, which has lost, since the Elizabethan era, nearly all points of resemblance to the pronunciation of the kindred tongues, French, German * The individuality and self-sustaining energy of the tongue have greatly increased. Many characteristic and ancient forms have disappeared ; the weak or regular verbs have made constant encroachments upon the strong or irregular form, and many of our most useful and ex- pressive Saxon preterites have become obsolete. This will be obvious to every reader of the English Bible, in which the old preterites are of frequent occurrence ; spake^ brake, slang, etc. The process had commenced, however, long before Elizabethan times ; as early as the Anglo-Saxon period, nearly every verb introduced into the language from foreign sources, takes the weak in- flection. This process commenced at a much earlier period. The parts of speech are now thoroughly ascer- tained and regulated ; then they were fluctuating and noun lie ; think, for thing ; jawed, scolded ; cotched, caught; Tiolp, for help ; consarn, concern ; Ms'ti ; Hz, for rose ; knowed as how ; snub ; gull ; dumpish. Many " Americanisms," falsely so called, may be similarly ex- plained. They are merely words and phrases that have been per- petuated by the descendants of. the English colonists in America, and in their day they were as reputable and as serviceable as those which have supplanted them. * In some portions of the United States, the orthoepy of the Eli- zabethan age is partially retained, as in Virginia, for example, where the broad Elizabethan a is often heard. THE CHANGES SINCE THE ELIZABETHAN ERA. 189 interchangeable. Conjunctions were then employed in \ profusion, giving to a sentence-a stilted and constrained appearance. ISTow they are used less frequently, and with more discrimination. The language has been sub- jected to rigid grammatical discipline, and has gained much in the artistic graces of stjde ; it has advanced in precision, refinement, and perspicuity, while it has sacri- ficed much of its ancient pictorial power, its pliancy, and its artless melo'dy. CHAPTEK XXIY. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE ELIZA- BETHAN EKA TO THE RESTORATION, 1625-1660. The Elizabethan era embraces the period extending from about 1580 to the death of James in 1625. No other era in history presents so splendid an array of bril- liant names, illustrious in every department of linguistic effort. The light of this great age did not disappear, even in the comparative distraction and decadence that succeeded. So late as the middle of the Restoration, our higher literature preserved something of the spirit of the great dynasty which had passed away. Sir Thomas Browne, Jeremy Taylor, Cudworth, Cowley, Milton, the greatest masters of our language from the Restoration to the Revolution, were all born before the close of the reign of James I. and Charles I. The chief excellence of Elizabethan English, however, is properly to be referred to the period over which we have already passed. The reign of Charles L, it would seem, might have kept alive the spirit of the age which pre- ceded it, and the achievements of the tongue might have been as illustrious as in the days of Elizabeth or James. Charles was a person of scholarly sympathies and exqui- site tastes. The correctness of his judgment is mani- fested by his relish for the plays of Shakspere. But evil days were at hand. The political and religious dis- FKOM 1625 TO 1660. 191 contents wliicli had been repressed with difficulty in tlie preceding reigns now began to assume a formidable and well-defined character. The virulence of controversy, theological as well as political, began to divert the minds of men from the dignified and ennobling pur- suits of literature. Poetrj, affected by the prevailing tendencies of the time, was gradually divided into schools or sects. In some the spirit of Spenser was perpe- tuated, and with the Spenserians Milton seems to have been identified. Ben Jonson lingered until 1637, the last of the great Elizabethans, and the man who in his day most powerfully influenced the tastes and style of his countrymen. There was no longer an accredited oracle of poesy ; Shakspere had been dead more than twenty years, Milton had not attained his thirtieth year. The polemical works of Milton have survived the test of time, and they are as truly Mil tonic as -his poetry. "As his poetry is unique in one portion of our language, so is his prose in another. It is prose of that old Eng- lish, or as some might say, of that old Gothic kind, which was in use ere men had given their days and nights to the study of Addison, and when it seemed as lawful that prose should come in the form of a brim- ming flood, or even of a broken cataract, as in that of a trim and limpid rivulet." His style and syntax are thoroughly Latinized, and his vocabulary is pervaded by rare words of Latin coinage, used in their original im- port, and familiar only to the diligent student of our early literature. The earlier productions of his muse were perhaps the finest specimens of finished execution, artistic excellence, and exquisite discfrimination in the selection and application of words, that the language had thus far produced. The crowning glory of his 192 HISTOKY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. poetic career was reserved for the succeeding era, but the effusions of liis youthful genius were not unworthy of the author of " Paradise Lost." Poetry assumed a diversity of form and character ; it refTected the sentiments of opposing factions, and the political and religious affinities of the author. "We have a profusion of verse, exhibiting a strange variety of styles, gay, luxuriant, austere, fantastic, classical, and native. In poetry, as in religion, the period under con- sideration appears to have been the golden age of con- trariety and diversity. The unsurpassed ballad of Suck- ling, and the graceful classicism of the English " Anac- reon," are found side by side wnth the devout strains of Herbert, the pure and limpid diction of Wither, and the dreamy allegory of the " Purple Island." The relations of England to France, brought about by the marriage of Charles I. to a French princess, led to the partial imita- tion of French models, and introduced some of that neatness and polished correctness which peculiarly dis- tinguish the productions of French art. This served to abate the extravagance of euphuism, which continued to infect our prose and poetry. The greater part of the prose written during the first half of the seventeenth century was theological or polit- ical. The controversies of Charles I.'s reign, respecting the nature and constitution of the Church, displayed a range and depth of theological and ecclesiastical eru- dition w^hich succeeding ages have never surpassed, per- haps never equalled. The Confession of the West- minster Assembly (1643 to 1648-9) conclusively demon- strates that in all the loftier attributes of theological composition, the language had lost none of that vigour FROM 1625 TO 16 and energy of expression whicli it the culture of Tyndale and Hooker. Much of the literature of this age is in pamphlet form,* and is marred by the resentments and acrimonies which are generated by civil dissensions and partisan strife. Hence, it discouraged the growth of refined composition, and rendered "zeal and confidence much more effectual aids to success than art or the graces of art." The popular element in the speech began to make its way into the written language ; provincialisms more frequently occur, and the distracted condition of the nation is reflected in the deliquescent state of the tongue. The theatres were closed by order of the Long Parlia- ment, and all dramatic amusements were rigourously proscribed by the zealous sectaries of Cromwell. Fanaticism and austerity did not fail to leave their colouring upon the current speech.f It is seen in the adoption of Old Testament phraseology and its common occurrence in daily usage : in the nasal tone, the sancti- monious drawl, which characterized the adherents of Cromwell. The reign of Charles, and the period of the Common- wealth and the Protectorate, notwithstanding their per- nicious tendencies, in some respects, produced beneficial results. The war of "broadsides" and tracts enlisted the interests of the masses ; the topics which they dis- * This was tlie great age of pamphlet literature in England ; nearly thirty thousand were published between the close of the year 1G40 and the Restoration, 1660. f " During the usurpation (of Cromwell), such an infusion of en- thusiastic jargon prevailed in every writing as was not shaken ofE in many years after." — Smft's Works, Vol. IX., p. 349. 9 194 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. cussed had direct reference to their political and social welfare; their style was. .simple, though devoid of ele- gance, and they possessed the elements of popularity without the forms and attractions of art. Their general dissemination must have affected very sensibly the structure of the language, by producing greater sim- plicity of style and departing somewhat from the com- plicated sentences that distinguished the prose composi- tions of that age. The process of simplification was facilitated by the civil wars, the commingling of men of different social grades and various degrees of intelli- gence, representing sections, still comparatively isolated and exhibiting marked differences of speech. The era under consideration thus served to prepare the way for the more modern and concise style of writing that grew up during the Restoration, and which ulti- mately supplanted the sonorous periods of Taylor, Mil- ton, and Clarendon. CHAPTEK XXY. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE DURLNG THE RESTORATION. 1660-1685. The events that were in progress during tlie period whose history we have been considering, facilitated the introduction of greater changes in the language, that occurred during the reign of Charles II. The era of the Restoration was a period of severe trial to the lan- guage of England, as well as a period of important changes in the structure of the speech and in the style and manner of composition. It is during this era that we trace the beginning of the modern and concise style of prose writing which in the end succeeded the Latinized periods that constituted the favourite model of Elizabethan times. This new mode of composition, which was developed during the reign of Charles II., was in the succeeding age remodelled, and invested with a purer character, by the diligent labours of Addison and Steele. Hence the Restoration marks an important epoch in our linguistic history — the commencement of its modern form. But this result was not accomplished without a season of adversity, through which the language was obliged to pass in consequence of the political and social conditions 196 HISTOllY OF THE ENGLISH LAiTGUAGE. of the age. l^otwitL standing the comparatively dis- tracted condition of our prose and poetry during the preceding era, they had, at least in spirit and in style, been native and idiomatic. They were the product of English genius, not repressed, but only modified, by alien influences. But there was a serious change in this respect. Charles II. returned to govern a people with whose tastes he had no sympathy, and of whose literature he had no appreciation. His foreign converse had rendered him in disposition and literary predilection a French- man. His court was tainted with the levity and frivol- ity of French manners, and addicted to the usages and customs acquired by long residence in foreign lands. Ehyme was introduced into plays to gratify the French tastes of Charles, and thus a fatal blow was inflicted upon the English drama, then just beginning to recover from the austere tyranny of Puritanism. Under the influence of Kochester, Otway, Sedley, Lee, Etherege, "Wycherley, dramatic, as well as other poetry, descended to a degree of depravity which has consigned much of it to oblivion, notwithstanding the pathetic power and constructive skill which it occasionally displays. The drama of the Restoration attained its height in Dryden, who sacrificed the nobler powers of his intellect to the prevailing licentiousness that had affected the more fashionable and polished classes of society. The national taste was vicious to the last degree. The master- pieces of Elizabethan eloquence and poetry were con- signed to the tranquil slumbers of the upper shelf. Their style was crude and antique, the vocabulary uncouth Vnd obsolete. The reading public of that age felt them- selves separated from the language of Spenser and DURING THE RESTORATION. 197 Sliakspere, by a wider gulf than that which divides the educated Englishman from Langlande or Chaucer. This may be inferred from the modernizations of Chaucer by Dryden, from various passages in his writings, and from frequent notices of Shakspere's plays in the diary of Pepys. A new condition of society introduced a new manner of thinking and an altered style of writing. The state- liness of ancient ceremonial, and the dignity of ancient manners, faded away amid the laxity and frivolity that were dominant at the court of Charles II. These novel conditions of society could not fail to affect very sen- sibly the character and constitution of the language. The gay cavaliers of the Restoration abjured everything in speech and in demeanour that savoured of Puritanical cant or sanctimonious phraseology. The prevalence of French tastes, and the attempted assimilation of man- ners and language to French models, coincided with the violent reaction against the sombre sway of Puritanism, and essentially facilitated its progress. From the com- bined action of these causes, we discover an altered style of conversation, and a new fashion of writing, which pre- sent a striking contrast to the biblical phraseology and the drawling accent of the Puritan, as well as a marked antithesis to the stately periods of Hooker, of Taylor, and Milton. We begin to trace the commencement of that process of abridgment, and abbreviation of words and syllables, that corruption of form, which distinguish the Restoration as one of the great epochs of phonetic decay in the history of the English tongue. 'Nor did these influences affect the structure of the speech alone. Words originally pure and elevated in their import assumed a noxious significance; the language ac- 198 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LAltGUAGE. quired some of that malignity and virulence which we have already indicated as characteristic of the Norman era. There are several most instructive passages in Swift (a writer who has left us many valuable reflections upon the language of his time) relating to this subject, which we introduce to illustrate the remarks just made in respect to the condition of the language during the Res- toration. After speaking of the " enthusiastic jargon " which prevailed during the Commonwealth and Pro- tectorate, he continues as follows : " To this succeeded the licentiousness which entered with the Restoration, and, from infecting our religion and morals, fell to cor- rupt our language, which last was not likely to be much improved by those who at this time made up the court of King Charles IT., either such who had followed him in his banishment, or who had been altogether con- versant in the dialect of those fanatical times ; or young men who had been educated in the same country ; so that the court, which used to be the standard of pro- priety and correctness of speech, was then, and I think has ever since continued, the worst school in England for that accomplishment. The consequence of this de- fect upon our language may appear from the plays and other compositions written for entertainment within fifty years past; filled with a succession of affected phrases and new, conceited words, either borrowed from the current style of the court, or from those who, under the character of men of wit and fashion, pretended to give the law. There is another set of men who have contributed very much to the spoiling of the English tongue, I mean the poets from the time of the Resto- ration. These gentlemen, although they could not but DUEIKG THE KESTOEATION". 199 be sensible how much our language was already over- stocked with monosyllables, yet to save time and pains introduced that barbarous custom of abbreviating words to fit them to the measure of their verses, and this they have frequently done so very injudiciously, as to form such harsh, unharmonious sounds, that none but a north- ern ear could endure ; they have joined the most obdu- rate consonant with one intervening vowel, only to shorten a syllable ; and their taste in time became so depraved, that what was at first a poetical license, not to be justified, they made their choice, alleging that the words, pronounced at length, sounded faint and languid. This was a pretence to take up the same custom in prose, so that most of the books we see now-a-days, are full of these manglings and abbreviations." These " manglings " and " abbreviations," of whir;h Swift speaks, probably grew up in gay and fashionable circles. Their general circulation in those classes of society which were the patrons of poets and dramatists, affords a sufficient explanation of their introduction into the written speech. In all these movements we may perceive the process of transition, from the complex syn- tactical structure of Elizabethan times, to the concise and rounded periods of Addison, the energetic and per- spicuous diction of Steele. The Eestoration was the era of transmutation from the language of the 16th and 17th centuries, to the distinctively modern form which it acquired during the earlier decades of the 18th. The phonetic corruption and disintegration to which the language was exposed during the reign of Charles II., resulted in the breaking down of the stately proportions of our speech ; it experienced a revolution in form and character somewhat analogous to that which was accom- 200 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. plishing ia the moral and intellectual constitution of the nation that spoke it. But in the midst of prevailing corruption the glorj of the language was displayed in undimmed lustre in John Milton, who " constitutes an era by liimself." It was during this period also, that Barrow produced his admirable sermons; Butler his "Hudibras," which has largely affected the character of current English ; Bunyan his inimitable allegory, in which are exhibited, to the full extent, the resources and the richness of the Saxon element in our speech ; and that "Waller revived the echo of long-gone melodies by his additions to the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. The brilliant triumphs of Congreve's dramatic genius belong to the succeeding era. In his two grand Epics, Milton . enriched our speech with the varied graces of classic art; he reveals the primitive import of many of the vocables derived from the treasuries of antiquity, and adorns our tongue with many felicitous embellishments drawn from the speech of Athens and of Rome. His blank verse rises to a cli- max that no other poet has attained ; his syntactical order exhibits the loftiest excellence that can be reached by skilful collocation; if the order of arrangement is in- fringed, the spell of his poetry is broken, the charm vanishes, and it relapses into languid and monotonous prose. In him the spirit of Chaucer and of Spenser was kept alive ; he was the lineal heir of that great dy- nasty of whom almost every memorial had fallen into oblivion.* In the succeeding chapters we shall trace the process by which the novel and imperfect style that had sprung * Milton employs about 8,000 words. DURING THE RESTORATION. 201 np under the auspices of a corrupt court, and under the influence of French models, was recast and made the basis of our present prose style by the wits and critics of Queen Anne's reign.* * During the Restoration, the English language received many- words from the French, also some from the Spanish, as desperado, reformado, etc. 9* CHAPTER XXYI. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE ERA OF THE RESTORATION TO THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE, 1685-1702. !N'oTHiNG is more difficult than to define by precise chronological arrangement the fluctuations or mutations that characterize the history of every language. All such divisions must be to a certain extent arbitrary, as well as artificial. The most that can be accomplished, is to approximate with tolerable correctness to those al- most impalpable boundaries, at which a language passes from one phase of existence into another, from its creative to its reflective stage, or from its synthetic to its analytic form. The greater part of the period included in the century that extends from the Eevolution of 1688 to the death of Dr. Johnson, is distinguished by the existence of cer- tain predominant characteristics, that began to be devel- oped in the language during the era of the Restoration. These distinctive traits continued until towards the closing decades of the eighteenth century, at times ap- pearing in greater vigour and excellence than at others, and again existing side by side with other influences, but still manifesting their presence and their power during the greater portion of the period embraced within the limits of the present and the succeeding chapter. The comparative uniformity of character that is im- PROM 1685 TO 1702. 203 pressed upon this era of onr linguistic history, has in- duced us to consider it as one period (comprehending, for convenience of treatment, two divisions), exhibiting in the main essentials a general resemblance, and at the same time redeemed from unvarying monotony by cer- tain deviations from the principal channels through which the language and the literature flowed. The period under review is designated by historians of our language and literature, as the critic^il, the arti- ficial, or the reflective era, in order to distinguish it from the Elizabethan, which is the great epoch of creative or imaginative power. Such a transition is in perfect ac cordance with the natural development of all languages. Every literature, in its earliest phases, is distinguished by the absolute dominion of the creative or imaginative element. But as the luxuriant fancy of childhood gradually fades away before the austere realities of ma- turer years', so the sway of imagination yields to those calm and reflective faculties that are called into action when the gravity and earnestness of manhood succeed to the fervid glow of youthful enthusiasm. In the pre- sent instance, it becomes us to trace the special causes by whose action the language acquired the distinctive features that were impressed upon it during the critical or reflective age. The Kevolution of 1688 found the language of England in' essentially the same condition in which the Resto- ration had left it ; nor was it sufficient to extirpate the deep-seated taint that had infected almost every phase of our prose and poetry. But it ushered in the dawn of a salutary change, and it marks the development of that critical and regulative faculty beginning to mani- fest itself in the English mind, which, coinciding in 204 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. spirit with powerful foreign influences, now brought to bear upon it, constituted, for about a century, a deter- mining element in nearly all the linguistic productions of English genius. We have seen that the effects of French influence upon our language during the Restoration tended to stimulate the prevailing corruption, to furnish new models of depravity, and to intensify the sentiment of revolt against everything that recalled the sway of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. But with the advent of the Revolution we trace the beginning of a new era in the history of the English intellect, and a new era in the form and character of French influence. Let us endeavour to discover the mode in which these two tendencies, the one native, and the other foreign, co- operated and combined, so that by the influence of their united action, the critical age was developed and per- fected. In the first place, the Revolution is the period at which criticism first established itself as a modifying element in English politics and in English literature. The Revolu- tion itself was a criticism and a settlement of constitutional issues, a manly and successful attempt to fix in precise terms and definite propositions, and to establish on a legal basis, the rights and liberties of England. In every phase of the nation's life, the action of the same critical principle is clearly discernible.* But in the character of the literature, it is most conspicuously exhibited, as may be illustrated by contrasting the two poets who may be regarded as the highest types of the creative or Eliza- bethan, and the critical or Revolution period , " This kind * North British Review, March, 1869. FKOM 1685 TO 1702. 205 of index," says an admirable writer, '' is peculiarly sig- nificant, because men of genius instinctively reflect, if they do not even anticipate, the foremost intellectual tendencies of tlieir own time. In his early years, we find the fervid imagination of Shakspere, the type of this first period, engaged upon his Yenus and Adonis ; Pope, the type of the second period, in his teens reading Boileau, and enriching his Essay on Criticism with the treasures of literary wisdom, blended with the shrewd observations of his penetrating intellect. The creative age, the age of great and vigourous productions in prose and poetry, had passed away. Instead of these, critical editions of Shakspere and the other English poets were undertaken for the first time, as well as dissertations upon their beauties and defects, and critical theories of poetry and literature in general. It is true that these theories were often one-sided, superficial, and the rules prescribed for estimating the intellectual monarchs of the preceding age, utterly inadequate and even absurd. But it must be remembered, to the credit of the artificial age, that while its criticism is narrow, cold, and hyper- critical, diligent efibrt was made to establish correct principles of judgment in every department of intellect- ual effort, and important results were attained in history, philosophy, and political science." * The impulse communicated to the regulative or critical faculty by the Revolution, reflected itself in the char- acter of the English language for nearly a century, and constitutes its determining and informing element. Thus we find that the critical restriction and refinement *N'orth British Review, March, 1869. — Revolutions in the Queen's English. 206 HISTORY OF THE EN-QLISH LANGUAGE. of the language, its circumscription within some definite limit, was the dominant idea of English writers, from the days of Dryden, who witnessed its beginning, and who was an ardent advocate of the scheme, to the days of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who saw its close, and whose Dictionary, published in 1Y55, may be regarded as a partial realization of the plan.* All homely and simple * One of the distinctive characteristics of the critical age is the utter inability of its authors and critics to appreciate the excellencies and the grandeur of the creative school. There are numerous al- lusions to Shakspere's plays in Pepys' Diary, in nearly all of which he speaks of them not merely with disparagement, but even with contempt. Addison did not include Shakspere in his enumeration of English poets, 1694 ; in 1721, Shakspere's Works were only in their fifth (5th) edition, and the copies of that edition published twelve years before were sufficient for the public taste, " Lucilius," says Gildon, " was the incorrect idol of Roman times ; Shakspere of ours." " There is not one," says another of his critics, " in all his works that can be excused by nature or by reason." " There is a mean- ing," says Rymer, " in the neighing of a horse ; in the growling of a mastiflf there is a lively expression, and may I say, more humanity, than many times in the tragical flights of Shakspere." While Shakspere was at this low ebb, and was regarded by thousands of persons of taste and culture, as little more than an uncouth, unedu- cated genius, no less a person than Alexander Pope became his editor. Whatever may have been his qualifications for the task, no one could do more to secure for the great poet a wide circle of admirers and intelligent readers. But even when supported by the charm of Pope's name, the publication of his works was deemed a doubtful speculation. Only seven hundred and fifty copies were printed, and of these a part could not be sold until after a reduction of the price, from six guineas to sixteen shillings. It is probable that even this could not have been accomplished, had not Pope undertaken to edit them. His comments were confined principally to verbal criticism, characteristic of the spirit of his age. The comparatively low re- pute into which Shakspere had fallen, was owing in great measure to the prevalence of French influence, and the preference for French and classic models. FEOM 1685 TO 1702. 207 phraseology was to be excluded from the vocabulary of poetry. Serious poetry, argued the critics of that age, ought to reject such common and famiUar terms as man, woman, cup, coat, hed, wine, and to substitute such ele- gant and delicately chosen expressions as alcove, fair, goblet, jpurple, swain^ tide, vest. Dryden seems to have contemplated the establishment of a Central Academy, invested with dictatorial power, such as that which had polished the vocabulary and impoverislied the resources of the French tongue, and we find that Swift addressed a letter to the Lord Treasurer, Oxford, suggesting that " as a member of the government he should take some means to ascertain and fix the language for ever, after such alterations are made in it as shall be thought re- quisite." It was not the design of Swift to exclude new words from the language, but to retain and preserve all such terms as should receive the sanction of the proposed Academy. In all these movements we discern the action of the native genius, assuming a critical form, stimulated by French influence and cooperating harmoniously with it. In 1673 Boileau (1636-1711) published his " Art of Poetry," which exerted an immediate influence upon the style of composition in England as well as in France. Boileau, the friend of Moliere, was the first to attack directly that " lei esprit " which Moliere had ridiculed. " He stood up boldly in defence of good sense." " Tout doit tendre au bon sens," he said. His writings mark the decline of Italian influence in France, from which some of her greatest writers had not been entirely ex- empt, while others were completely subjected to its sway. The style which Boileau assailed was that of the Precieuses and the grammarians, which was rapidly 208 HISTOET OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. falling into disrepute, from its innate weakness. The power of his satire soon completed its destruction, and he was immediately acknowledged as the great oracle and expounder of the canons of literary criticism. It was to the classic models of Greek and Roman literature that Boileau and his school looked for exemplars of ele- gance and perfection ; it was by their conformity to the writers of ancient Rome that the writers of France were to be judged. This was the " touchstone" by which all their productions were to be tested. 'Nor was this an ill-founded or arbitrary canon of criticism. It is from the Latin that the French tongue has inherited many of its excellencies, and the rigid adherence to rule, the logical consistency and precision, that distinguished the cultivated speech of Rome, are strikingly perpetuated in its Langue D'Oyl descendant. The example set by Boileau and his followers soon extended itself to Eng- land, where it coincided with those reflective and regu- lative faculties which the Revolution had called into action, and imparted a new stimulus to critical inquiry into literary styles and forms of composition. Rapin, Bossu, Dacier, Fontenelle, who like Boileau, looked to the ancients as the great standard of taste and excellence, had their advocates and representatives in 1 England. Horace's "Art of Poetry" was translated into verse by the Earl of Roscommon ; it was imitated by Oldham ; while Boileau's " Art of Poetry," translated b}'" Sir William Soame, a friend of Dryden's, was not pub- lished until it had received many touches from the hand of Dry den, who, in the preface to his plays, had proved himself the first of English critics, the most thoroughly independent and English in spirit. Yet even he cites in the preface to his conversion of " Paradise Lost " FROM 1685 TO 1702. 209 into an opera, as authorities in literature, " the greatest in his age, Boileau and Rapin, the latter of which alone is sufficient, were all other critics lost, to teach anew the rules of writing." The influence of Boileau and his school thus became as potent in England as in France. The change in the character of literary composition is distinctly perceptible in the altered style of Dryden after his ^^ Annus Mirabilisy ^ (1667.) Before that time he had produced all his rhyming tragedies, in which he deliberately followed the worst French models ; afterwards he produced his best plays, his satires, and his didactic poems. His play of " Tyrannic Love," was the last in which he adhered to the excesses and ex- travagancies of his French prototypes ; the salutary in- fluence of Boileau begins to manifest itself in the more elevated and dignified tone of his works. But if Dryden was subject to the sway of Boileau during the latter part of his career,f his lineal successor, Pope, was under his dominion during the whole of his literary history, and he has been termed, not inaptly, the " viceroy " of Boileau in England. He was thor- oughly imbued with the teachings of French criticism, and it was in great measure due to his influence that these teachings so deeply impressed themselves upon the character of English literature during the eighteenth century. In him are reflected all the excellencies and defects of the critical era ; no man had a greater num- ber of imitators, and his poetry was, by general consent, the highest standard of scrupulous accuracy and finished * Morley's English Writers. f During the earlier part of his literary career, Dryden was under the influence of the metaphysical school of poets, Donne and Cowley. • 210 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. elegance, during the greater part of the eighteenth cen- tury. He was emphatically the representative of the artificial age, thoroughly in sympathy with its spirit, and the fitting exponent of its linguistic and intellectual tendencies. But while the critical age may be dated from the Revolution of 1688, while its essential characteristics are impressed upon the literary productions of the Eng- lish mind, until the later decades of the eighteenth century, it was during the reign of Queen Anne (1702- 1714) that the distinctive features of the era attained their loftiest excellence. It was during this period that our literature acquired that centralized, conventional, and urban tone which characterized the contemporary literature of France ; it was then that eloquence assumed its modern form, that De Foe, the father of our popular literature, and one of the greatest names in the history of our language, established his " Review," * and that Steele, following the 'example of De Foe, founded that immortal series of periodicals which mark so important an epoch in our literary history, and whose infiuence upon our style of prose composition is perceptible in every sentence that we write. The true position and services of the refiners and critics of Anne's time, have often been misconceived and misinterpreted. The con- cise modern fashion of writing which had grown up during tlie Restoration, under the influences indicated in the preceding chapter, was tainted with the linguistic corruption which prevailed during that era. * De Foe's " Review " was established in 1704, five years in ad- vance of the "Tatler." His experiment probably suggested to Steele the plan of the " Tatler." De Foe founded our popular lit- erature ; -Steele and Addison extended and improved it. FEOM 1685 TO 1702. 211 It is true that a pure and noble prose style was slowly disentangling itself. The cumbrous periods of the Elizabethans had given way, between the Restoration and the accession of Queen Anne, to a more concise style of writing, which, beginning with Cowley, the metaphysical poet, was perpetuated and improved by a succession of prose writers in whom we trace a gradual approximation to tlie characteristic excellencies of Ad- disonian times. Cowley, Barrow, Tillotson, Temple, Halifax, Dryden, South, Sprat, Locke, and Shaftesbury, were the worthy precursors of our Augustan age. The last of these was the immediate forerunner of Addison, and laboured zealously for the culture and advancement of the language. Perhaps no one in this era, before the appearance of Addison, exercised a more decided influ- ence upon the fortunes of English letters. Notwith- standing the merits of these writers, the conciseness of Cowley, the elegant simplicity of Temple, the vigourous English of Dryden, and the classical graces of Shaftes- bury, much remained to be accomplished. The language was still seriously defective in harmony and precision : laxity, carelessness, and disregard of idiomatic proprie- ties, marred the compositions of the best authors. The outlines of our present prose style had been sketched, but the process was incomplete, and there was need of much skillful elimination, delicate polishing, and critical expansion. The spoken language retained the grossness of the preceding era. The conversational dialect in vogue in fashionable circles must have been corrupt and licentious to a degree of which we can form no adequate conception. In the "Polite Conversations" of Swift, we have a correct portraiture, drawn by the hand of a master and a contemporary, of the colloquial style that 213 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. dates from the Restoration, and which continued to pre- vail at the time that Addison and Steele commenced their noble labours for refining and improving the mother tongue. A careful reading of these " Conver- sations" will reveal the fact, that many of the delicate repartees and polished jests, current in the better circles of that era, have since not only been excluded from the speech of reputable society, but have descended to the lowest degree of provincial and vulgar usage. Such was the general condition of the language at the commencement of the eighteenth century. Under the influence of Boileau, poetry had assumed a purer tone. This improvement in our poetic dialect was carried out to its perfection by Pope. But the style of prose composition was essentially defective, and needed a thorough reconstruction before prose could attain its exalted position as a determining element in English literature. We shall now see how this reform was effected. CHAPTEE XXYII. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE TO THE DEATH OF DR. JOHNSON. 1702-1784. The age of Queen Anne was preeminently tlie era of the critical expansion and refinement of the English tongue. The critical tendencies which had been de- veloped by the Revolution, and stimulated bj the influ- ence of Boileau, attained their perfection in the graces of Addison, and the fastidious elegance of Pope. Steele ' and Swift were less subject to foreign influence ; they represent the native or popular element in our literature, at a time when the English mind was in a great degree controlled by external forces. They appear to have been thoroughly imbued with the spirit of our tongue, and while they did not ignore the graces of style, and were in some measure guided by the prevailing tendency of their age, they maintained, like their illustrious con- temporary, De Foe, a truly English character, which is rarely exhibited in the pages of Addison. This is evi- dent from Swift's zealous labours for the improvement of the language, from his " Letter to a Young Clergy- man," his characteristic delineation of the linguistic cor- ruptions that were current in his own day, his earnest endeavours to secure for the English language a recog- nized place in the system of education, and his appreci- 214 HISTOI0r OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. ation, of our elder literature,* which had fallen int( disrepute since the Eestoration. The same English" traits are displayed in the nervous and idiomatic style of Steele, in his exposure of verbal corruption and phraseo- logical abuseSjt and his graceful employment of purely Elizabethan constructions.:^ It is in Steele and in Swift that we distinctly trace the movements of our tongue during the critical era, retaining its ancient freedom and pliancy, modified by exotic influences, though never yielding to their sway. It was Addison who was thor- oughly subjected to French influence. In his conti- nental tour he had seen Boileau and conversed with him, and during his entire career, he seems to have looked to the critics of France, and to the fountains of Greek and Roman genius, as the true sources of inspiration and of excellence. Addison occupies the same position in regard to prose style, which has been accorded to Pope as the acknowl- edged model of poetic excellence. His influence over succeeding generations was so great "that any thing w^hich tended to form his style, modified, through him, the writings of almost all his successors throughout the century. - He seems to have possessed the marvelous faculty of taking the good and rejecting the bad from *"Tlie period wherein the English tongue received the greatest improvement, I take to commence with the reign of Queen Eliza- beth, and to conclude with the groat Rebellion in 1642." This was the "barbarous age" that produced " old Spenser," as Addison styles him in his college poem, 1694, t Tatler, No. 13. X Spectator, No. 492. " As agreeably as any sJie in England." This is purely Elizabethan. I do not think it occurs in Addison. It is one of those slight but unmistakable touches which reveal the true spirit of an author. FROM 1702 TO 1784. the works of his predecessors, and in vigour. of the old English writers was softened by icacy and refinement of the modern French school. In his pure and polished style, we see this influence ex- hibited in its best form." * His conformity to French models extended the reputation of his works across the channel, at a time when English literature was almost unknown beyond the limits of the island. Many dis- tinguished foreigners were among the subscribers to his works. In his tragedy of Cato, he observed the unities of time and place which have bound up the French drama within circumscribed and arbitrary limits, thor- oughly opposed to the free and natural spirit of the Elizabethan school. Hence he received from Yoltaire (who denounced Shakspere as a barbarian genius) the glowing tribute, "Monsieur Addison is the first Englishman who has made a reasonable tragedy." This of the nation that had produced Hamlet, Lear, and Macbeth ! The impress of Addison upon the language of his age and of the succeeding age was deeper than that of his greater contemporaries, and for the reason that he was in perfect accord with the dominant spirit of the era. Idiomatic in style, polished and perspicuous in diction, he was assimilated in sentiment and in taste to the masterpieces of antiquity, and to the critical canons of Boileau. The incomparable literature of Elizabethan times failed to excite his sympathy or to arouse his admiration ; he was devoid of appreciation of every- thing that could not be conformed to the standard of * Woods' " Eeciprocal Influence of Englisli and French Literature in the XVIII. Century." 216 HISTOBY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. " good sense," and he undertook to bring Milton to the attention of his countrymen by comparing him to Homer and Yirgil, a mark of deference to the spirit of his age. In 1694, an undergraduate at Oxford, we find Addi- son, in a poem on English poets, written for a college friend, omitting the name of Shakspere, and speaking of Chaucer and Spenser in such terms as these : " Old age has rusted what the poet writ, Worn out his language, and obscured his wit, In vain he jests in his unpolished strain. And tries to make his readers laugh, in vain. Old Spenser next, warm with poetic rage, In ancient tales amused a barbarous age. But now the mystic tale that pleased of yore. Can charm an understanding age no more." ISTor do his attainments in English philology, his ac- quaintance with the historical development and the structural peculiarities of his native tongue, appear to have been of a higher order. Thus, we find him ex- plaining the '5 of the genitive or possessive case, as the " his or her of our ancestors," and writing " Ulysses his bow" for Ulysses's bow. Of the genitive sign '5, Ben Jonson, in the " barbarous age " that produced a Spenser and a Shakspere, had given a much more rational and satisfactory explanation. Among all the men of this time, perhaps no one con- tributed more efficiently to the establishment of a chaste and polished style than Bolingbroke. His exalted posi- tion among scholars and statesmen, the charms of his conversation, and the readiness as well as the finish of his eloquence, must have rendered him a model that all cultured circles strove to imitate. It is said that liis FROM 1702 TO 1784. 217 ordinary utterances and impromptu speeches possessed all the rhythmical harmony and "golden cadence" that belong to painfully wrought periods, and which most men acquire by the assiduous culture of a lifetime. His conversation or his writings were rarely marred, even by trifling blemishes, and in an age during which correct- ness was much sought after and but little understood, he must have wielded a decided influence in forming and regulating the conversational dialect, as well as the style of writing of his cultivated contemporaries.* The 'English genius, modified but not repressed, is represented in Dryden, Steele, and Swift. In Pope, Addison, and Bolingbroke, we witness the action of the native mind subjected to the sway of classic models and foreign canons of criticism, but even in its servitude re- taining something of the spirit of its original freedom. Wherein consists the excellence and the glory of these writers ? 'Not in original or creative power, for of this, except Swift, they possessed but little, and they seem rather to have avoided anything that bordei'ed upon the sublime or lofty. JNTot in the extent or variety of their learning, for their attainments were, with few exceptions, lacking in accuracy and comprehensiveness, and there appear in every issue of the British Reviews articles surpassing in extent and diversity of knowledge any- thing that ever emanated from the pen of Steele or Addison. Their true merit consists in this: not that they invented or constructed a new style, but that they adopted the mode of writing which had come into * Some idea of Bolingbroke's popularity and influence as a writer may be formed from the fact that his contributions to the Crafts- man gave4;hat journal a circulation far exceeding that of the Spec- tator. 218 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. fashion daring the Restoration, eliminated its offensive features, infused into it a purer tone, and impressed upon it the essential characteristics of our present prose com- position. They banished, in great measure, phonetic corruption and obscenity from the colloquial dialect, and gradually dispelled that lingering connection which still subsisted in the public mind between purity and auster- ity, between virtue and fanaticism. Such was the task that they accomplished, and they performed it thoroughly. Their vocabulary was culled with fastidious and painful diligence, homely words and phraseology were rejected, the more concise and polished Latin or Romance terms were preferred to their ener- getic Saxon equivalents, their periods were constructed with supreme regard to symmetry and harmonious ar- rangement; external grace, beauty of form were the highest excellence to which the critical taste aspired. Let us not misconceive the true character of this era, nor be blinded to its imperfections by the traditional lustre which envelops the name of Addison. Let us not indulge the delusion that the critical taste resulted in the perfecting of style, either written or colloquial. The adverse testimonies are too numerous to admit im- peachment.* The conversational dialect of this age was blemished by phonetic corruptions, marred by gross and widely prevailing profanity, and disfigured by affecta- tions as grotesque as those which characterized the worst stages of euphuism. It was against these abuses that the powers of the critical school were, in a great meas- ure, directed, and it is in these respects that their labours were attended with most salutary results. The conver- * Swift, Steele. FBOM 1702 TO 1784 219 sational style even of the educated was pervaded by in- accuracies of expression, and Dr. King (1685-1763), an illustrious scholar of the last century, informs us that in all his associations with the men of his generation, he had met but three who expressed themselves with such purity and elegance that their conversation, if committed to writing, would possess the attractions of a finished and cultivated style. These were Bishop Atterbury, Dr. Gower, Provost of Worcester College, and Dr. Sam. Johnson, l^o regard was paid to the systematic study of English in schools, no attention to the cultivation of pure English style; treatises on English grammar appear to have been almost unknown. Affectation of French phrases, introduced by the Continental wars, seems to have prevailed ; the want of training in pulpit elocution was more common then even than now ; pedantry, and the absence of " the least conception of a style," consti- tuted the bane of the clergy ; the absence .of accuracy and fluency of expression was a distinguishing charac- teristic of the age."^ Much of this internal disorder is veiled from our gaze by^the time-honoured glory that is associated with the names of Addison and Pope, and by the delusive splendour that gilds the Augustan age of Anne. The reputation of this era rests principally upon its praiseworthy efforts to eradicate the linguistic corrup- tions of a preceding period, and in its placing upon a firm and enduring basis our present prose style. In these respects its influence has been productive of most beneficial results. But the entire era is marked by its adherence to conventional usages; its theory of language was conventional, its criticism * Spectator, 353. Tatler, 70, 165, 234. Swift's " Letter to a Young Clergyman." Dr. King's "Anecdotes of his own Time." 220 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. was often superficial and circumscribed by artificial limits. In tlie popular literature founded by De Foe, in the productions of the great English novelists, Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, the bounding spirit of the English tongue and the unchecked vigour of the English mind are kept alive; in the notes of Thomson, the preluding strains of Goldsmith, the pol- ished compositions of Gray, the glowing verses of Col- lins, the graceful periods of Hawkesworth, the revival of our ballad poetry by the publication of "Percy's Reliques," we have occasional intimations of the glory that was to be revealed. But these deviations from the main current of the literature did not at once arrest those peculiar tendencies which had been so deeply im- pressed upon it during the preceding era, and other agencies, more potent in their nature, and more efficient in their action, were to be called into service ere should be broken the magic spell with which Addison and Pope had bound our prose and poetry. 'No one, even of the great historical triumvirate of the eighteenth century, can be regarded as a model of pure English style, simple and unaffected, "elegant, but not ostentatious." The style of Hume is marred by Scotticisms ; that of Rob- ertson and Gibbon by a pompous diction and a Latin- ized phraseology. With the rise of Cowper, we have J the first decided indication that the school of Dryden i and Pope was hastening to its setting, and with the death of Dr. Johnson the dismal uniformity of conven- tionalism begins to be dispelled. In the concluding chapter we shall briefly trace the action of those agencies by whose influence the spirit of Elizabethan times was revived in full vigour, and an epoch in our linguistic history ushered in which blended j FROM 1702 TO 1784 221 the excellencies of the creative school with the softer graces of a reflective age, producing a combination which almost rivalled the splendour of the Yirgin Queen's brilliant reign. CHAPTEE XXYIIT. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FKOM THE DEATH OF DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON (1Y84:) TO THE CLOSE OP THE GEORGIAN ERA (1830). The death of Dr. Johnson marks an event of the greatest importance in our linguistic history. It was the end of dictatorship, and "King Samuel" has had no acknowledged successor upon the throne of English litera- ture. But it foreshadowed an event of infinitely greater importance than the mere downfall of literary autocracy. 'No writer, perhaps, was ever more thoroughly the ex- ponent of his age, the embodiment of its conventional spirit, and its deference to ancient precedent. Ko man ever wielded a more decided influence in moulding the style, and directing the intellectual efforts of his con- temporaries, and his diction, generally pompous, turgid, and thoroughly Latinized,* was the acknowledged stand- ard of excellence among the writers of his era, nor did it fail to affect the style of succeeding generations. The coldly classical tastes of Dr. Johnson, his diffident and cautious estimate of Shakspere, are too well known to require comment. Hence, when he fell, conventional- ism lost its ablest and most influential champion. This event coincided with the development of those mighty * Dr. Jolinson's style was in great measare modelled upon that of Sir Thos. Browne, whose Latinisms are worthy of careful study. FROM 1784 TO 1830. 223 political conflicts which were soon to transform the character of European society, annihilate ancient pre- scription, efface the vestiges of feudalism, create new modes of thought, new systems of philosophy, and dis- pel the dreary formality which had marked the intel- lectual creations of the eighteenth century. Every literature derives its form and colouring from the spirit of the era which evokes it to life ; it is " the artistic expression in words, of what men think and feel." The style of every age has its clearly defined characteristics, impressing upon it a strong individuality, and distinguishing it from the style of succeeding or preceding eras. Each of these peculiar styles is de- veloped by certain political and social conditions, and moulded in accordance with the prevailing tastes of the period. There was a style created by the Reformation in the sixteenth century ; tliere was another formed during the Restoration, and perfected during the age of Anne ; this style was expanded, and invested with a nobler tone and character, by the stimulus which the French Revo- lution imparted to every phase of linguistic and literary effort. Convulsing the depths of European society, it undermined the barriers of venerable tradition, dispel- ling the accumulations of long established prejudices and absurd veneration for antiquity. Isolation and pro- scription began to fade away before the advent of gener- ous tolerance, enlightened sympathy, increasing appreci- ation of the true ideal in art, and genuine appreciation of nature. The true standard of excellence was no longer sought in mere external grace, obsequious defer- ence to ancient prototypes, and foreign models. The spirit and character of the nineteenth century are, in every essential respect, a revolt against the dominant 224 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. principles and established traditions of the eighteenth, a perfect antithesis to its convBntional and superficial ten- dencies, a return from the purely formal to the investi- gation of the inner life; from the form to the spirit, from the outward to the inward. This distinguishing feature of the present century is conspicuously" displayed in every manifestation of its in- tellectual life ; in the marvellous expansion of the phy- sical sciences, in the splendid developments of linguistic science, which is based in great measure upon the inter- nal resemblances of speech, in the brilliant generaliza- tions of Cuvier, and the discovery of Grimm's law, in all of which the application of the same principle is ex- hibited in its grandeur and diversity. Every phase of intellectual efibrt participated in the great reaction that dates from the closing decades of the eighteenth century; poesy was transformed, philosophy was reconstructed, eloquence assumed a nobler tone, the discovery of San- skrit opened up vast fields of linguistic enterprise, and placed upon aai enduring basis the magnificent science of comparative Philology. One day was as a thousand years in the growth of the human mind. These dis- tinguishing characteristics of the century have power- fully impressed themselves upon its literary productions, and have infused into them a depth of conception, a comprehensiveness, and a degree of originality, far sur- passing the most delicately wrought creations of the pre- ceding century. The gorgeous eloquence of Burke, assuming a richer colouring with the flight of declining years, adorned the dialect of oratory with a diversity of phraseological combinations, many of which have passed from the confines of rhetoric, and have enriched the ex- uberant affluence of the current speech. The sweet FROM 1784 TO 1830. 225 strains of Cowper, breathing the spirit of earnest piety, and pervaded by an originality of style and sentiment to which our literature had long been a stranger, clearly announced the dawn of a new era in our own linguistic history. Compared with any of his predecessors, he is what we may call a natural poet. " He broke through conventional forms and usages in a manner more dar- ing than any English poet before him had done, at least since the genius of Pope had bound in its spell the rhythm of English poetry." The three great revivals in our literature were in the main effected by the civil and religious convulsions of England and of Europe at the time, and at each of these grand awakenings the impulse seems to have been com- municated by a foreign literature, which had developed new life and vigour. In the age of Elizabeth, the inspira- tion was caught from the literature of Italy ; during the reign of Queen Anne from that of France ; in the present period, from that of Germany. Our last great period, extending over half a century from the appearance of Cowper and Burns, is without a parallel in our linguistic history, if we except the age of Elizabeth. In comparing the creations of these two periods, we discover, in the poetical productions of the former, greater license, and at the same time greater flexibility, than in those of the latter ; but in some essen- tial respects our more recent poetry is justly entitled to the preference. It is not defaced by the conceits of euphuism, and it is generally more symmetrical and consistent. In form and sentiment, it is often strikingly assimilated to the style of our ancient poesy. It consti- tutes one of the preeminent excellencies of this last great period, that it exhibits the genius and spirit of the 236 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. creative era, tempered by the gentler graces of the criti- cal age. In all that pertains to grace of structure, the poetry of the nineteenth century may fairly claim the preference, notwithstanding the numerous passages of incomparable excellence in the dramas of Shakspere. In elaborate execution, harmonious and elegant versification, some of the poets of the earlier part of the nineteenth century have never been surpassed. Cowper, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Scott, Coleridge, Moore, Campbell, Wordsworth, present an array of poetic genius but little lower than the bright cluster that gilded the "glorious reign of great Elizabeth." The exquisite perception of natu- ral loveliness, the rich vocabulary, that distinguish the poetry of Wordsworth ; the rare verbal discrimina- tion, Spenserian fancy, and Platonic tenderness, that reign throughout the pages of Coleridge ; the dulcet strains of Keats, imbued with the very soul of poesy, established their right of succession, as the lineal heirs of Chaucer, of Shakspere, and Milton. Under the in- fluence of these great masters, the poetic dialect was again enriched by a copious revival of Anglo-Saxon words ; the nervous diction of our elder poets and think- ers was called into requisition ; familiar and homely phrases were freely admitted into the vocabulary of poetry, which now lost its urban and conventional chai- acter ; the ancient fountains of the speech were again ex- plored ; the process of dialectic regeneration was again vigourously at work, and much of the buried and for- gotten wealth of our language was reclaimed ; the Elizabethan masters were studied with interest ; imita- tions of their style were not unfrequent, and the merits of Shakspere were at last recognized and appreciated. FBOM 1784 TO 1830. 237 By the close of the Georgian era (1830), the poetic spirit seemed to have spent its mightiest energies, and by a transition familiar in the history of every language, the supremacy began gradually to revert to prose, which during the Yictorian age has maintained the ascendency. Macaulay and De Quincey attained the same brilliant distinction in prose composition that Shelley, Byron, and Coleridge had won in the domain of poesy, and the present poet laureate is the only worthy repre- sentative of that illustrious throng which cast so bright a glow over the closing years of the eighteenth, and the first decades of the nineteenth century. Since the close of the Georgian era there have doubtless been some essential changes in the language, but they will be more distinctly perceptible to succeeding generations than to our own. They do not therefore fall properly within the scope of this history, and must be reserved for future consideration and discussion. L/»\^ fjff 14 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. UEJ 18 1C 7 8Nov'56CR REC'D LD NOV 5 1356 DEC 9 1969 6 8 MAV 26 t962 DEC 6 '66 LOAN DEfT LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 '69 -9^W m y UNIVERSITY OF CAI.IFORNIA LIBRARY