is translated into the French "De Rome," and "Nos amavimus" into "Nous avons aimé." The first step of it has been exemplified, again and again, in the Semi-Saxon passages which we have analyzed. If we were to try the experiment of blotting out, in our extracts, every word that has not had its inflection corrupted, we should find that very few words indeed were left. Sometimes a word has lost its inflected part, and, along with it, the idea expressed by the inflection. Many words which originally had diverse inflected terminations have all been made to end alike, the inflection thus coming to signify nothing. Perhaps, also, it may have occurred to some readers, that the verbs had suffered less alteration than the substantives and adjectives. If we have made this remark on the few words contained in our specimens, we had better not lose sight of it. It will immediately appear to be true universally. 2. We now enter on the period of Re-construction, which may be described as extending from the middle of the thirteenth century through the fourteenth and fifteenth. The language of those two hundred and fifty years may be called Old English. It first appears in a state so equivocal, that we may be inclined to doubt whether it deserves to be called English at all. But when we leave it, at the close of this period, it has assumed a shape really different in no essential feature from the English of modern times. The critic to whom we owe our dissection of Layamon's Semi-Saxon has proposed, for the sake of convenience, to arrange this new development of the tongue in two successive stages. The first of these, reaching for a century from his approximate date of 1230, he calls Early English. He gives the name of Middle English to the speech of the period between 1330 and 1500. It is not possible to fix on any point of time, at which the distinction between the two stages is clear on both sides. Nor, though we disregard dates, is the line between the two marked very deeply, at all its points, by internal characteristics. Yet there are evident steps of progress, which may aptly be denoted by the use of the two descriptive terms. EARLY ENGLISH. 3. As our usher into the region of the Early English, we may accept the fine poem of "The Owl and the Nightingale," already described when we were introduced to the poetry of the Norman period. It occupies a doubtful position, both in the character of its language and in respect of its date, which perhaps should not be carried forward so far as even the beginning of the fourteenth century. Still it shows so near an approach to intelligible English, that our specimen may be risked without a full translation. 4. It will, perhaps be obvious, when the extract has been read, that there is now a distinct change in order as well as in structure. There are not a few remnants of inflection, with many symptoms of its retirement, and of the accompanying abbreviations. The passage shows clearly one of the features usually insisted on as characteristic of the earliest stage of the new tongue; namely, that the Anglo-Saxon vowels -a, -e, -u, in final syllables, are all of them represented by -e. The final -n of the infinitive verb is beginning to disappear; and the infinitive and the noun, thus ceasing to be distinguishable by form, alike dropped also, in no long time, the final vowel. It should be observed, however, that here, when the final -e represents any vowel of the older language, it ought to make a syllable, and be reckoned in the accentual scanning of the line.* Hule,' thu axest me, (ho3 seide), 1 Owl; Anglo-Saxon, úle. 2 Vulgar English. 3 She. The word is almost pure Anglo-Saxon. 5 Know, from Anglo-Saxon; English con. 7 Anglo-Saxon dative; the final -e used as a distinct syllable. Why; ; Anglo-Saxon, hwi. 10 Askest thou; an unessential contraction. "Crafts, arts; Anglo-Saxon, craft; plur. cræftas. 18 Wherefore. 14 Wottest thou? knowest thou? 12 One. 15 To-what; than, a form of the dative of the article; used also in Anglo-Saxon as relative and demonstrative. 16 Born; Anglo-Saxon, geboren, from beran. *Here, and in subsequent extracts, the vowel, both final and in the middle of words, is marked ("), when the syllable in which it occurs should be taken account of in the prosody, and is likely to be overlooked. The text of the extract is chiefly from Wright's edition, (Percy Society,) 5. The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, which in our literary review was referred to the close of the thirteenth century, has commonly been received, and very frequently quoted, as an indisputable specimen of Early English, and perhaps the oldest that can be assigned to a fixed date. Instead of quoting from it, we will take our specimen from one of the pieces contained in a collection of Monkish Legends, which have plausibly been attributed to the same author, and are at all events very like his Chronicle in style. The story mixes up devotion, history, and romance, in a manner which seems to us very odd, but is quite common in our old literature. A young London citizen, going on pilgrimage to the Holy "The Anglo-Saxon, there. See Alfred, Note 15. 18 The dative termination here written, but not sounded; compare Note 7. lar. 19 Heaven-kingdom. 20 Where; Anglo-Saxon, thær, demonstrative and relative. 21 Mirth. 22 Like (obscure). 23 Therefore. 24 The termination -th in the plurals of pres. indic. is Anglo-Saxon. 25 Begin. 26 To work. 28 Think; subjunctive. 27 Anglo-Saxon for one; French, on. 29 Whither; Anglo-Saxon, hwider. 30 There may-be; béon, Anglo-Saxon; plural of subjunctive for singu 32 Seek: Anglo-Saxon, begitan. 24 At. 35 Priests; Anglo-Saxon, preost. 99 When; Anglo-Saxon, hwanne. 36 Upon. 39 Anglo-Saxon, heom; see Alfred, Note 11. 40 What; Anglo-Saxon hwat. 37 Land. 41 See Alfred, Note 43. Land, was taken prisoner by the Saracens. The daughter of his master fell in love with him; and when he had made his escape, eloped to follow him. With no syllable of European speech but the one word "London," she found her way from Jerusalem into England, and was found by her lover, searching for him through the street in which he lived. She was, of course, christened and married to him; and their son was the celebrated Thomas à Becket. The following are a few of the opening lines in the Legend which celebrates the ambitious saint and martyr. The measure is the common metre of the psalms, the four lines being here written in two, and the break indicated, as before, by a colon. It will not escape notice that we now begin to encounter French words, almost always expressing ideas which had become familiar to the people through their Norman masters.* Gilbert was Thomas fader name: that true was and god, Of the Prince and allë his: among alle that ther were, The Prince he servedë atte mete: for him thochtë19 hende.20 French, instead of the Anglo-Saxon, ród, rood. * Youth. The Anglo-Saxon termination -hed gives our -hood. Took; see Saxon Chronicle, Note 11. They; see Alfred, Note 11. One. See Alfred, Note 94; the u for y occurs in Layamon, and is said to belong to a western dialect. Their; see Alfred, Note 11. 10 Places. 9 Pilgrimage; French, 11 Taken; see Note 4. 12 French; found in Layamon, second text. 14 Misease; perhaps French. 15 13 Done, put. Other-half-year; i. e. a year and a half; good modern German. A parallel Teutonism is the Scottish half-nine o'clock, for half-past eight. 16 French; in Layamon, second text. 18 Bands. 19 See Alfred, Note 55. 17 French. 20 Dexterous, handy. * Black's "Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Beket;" (Percy Society ;) 1845. And nameliche21 thurf22 a maid: that this Gilbert lovede faste, The Prince's douchter Admiraud: that hire hurte23 al upe2 him caste. And eschte 25 him of Engëlonde: and of the manere there, "Ich wole," heo seidë, “al mi lond: leve for love of the, And Cristene womman become: if thu wolt spousi31 me." MIDDLE ENGLISH. 6. That new stage of the language, which has been called Middle English, presents itself quite unequivocally in the latter half of the fourteenth century. It was used by Chaucer and Wycliffe: we read it at this day in passages of our noblest poetry, and in our first complete translation of the Holy Scriptures. Thus interesting as the organ both of inventive genius and of divine truth, it is, in all essentials, so like to our own every-day speech, that there is hardly any thing except the antique spelling, (capricious and incorrect in all our old books, besides being unusual,) to prevent any tolerable English scholar from understanding readily almost every word of it. Further, it has peculiarities so well marked as to make it easily distinguishable in every particular instance, both from the forms of the tongue that are much older, and from those that are perfectly modernized. Yet our philologers are not quite agreed in their way of describing it. Ou The truth is this. On the one hand, this form of our language is easily understood; because the foundations of the grammatical system which rules in Modern English had been immovably laid, and were by all good writers regularly built on. the other hand, its exact character is not easily analyzed; because now, more perhaps than in any preceding period, the modes of speech were rapidly undergoing transformation in minor points. 38 Will. Anglo-Saxon, heona, heonon, hence. 92 Wend, to go; still in use. 34 Infinitive in -i, -ie, or -y; found in Layamon, and held to be a token of western dialect. |