each other from their lay domestics. I have more than once been astonished to observe, in the Flemish and French abbeys, before the French Revolution, the ease and fluency with which the Monks, who were in general the most ignorant and illiterate of men, expressed themselves in a sort of barbarous Latin, on many petty details of ordinary life, that would have imposed silence on Parr or Porson. This sort of dialect was proverbially known among the Scotch and English Ecclesiastics, established in Catholic countries, by the significant name of Kitch en-Latin, a phrase which they probably borrowed from the Germans. They who have read the Polemo Middinia of Drummond, a medley of Latin and Scotch, where it is pushed to the length of ludicrous extragance, may form a general idea of the species of Latinity to which I allude. "Coal-heughes nigri girnantes more Divelli." * The following paragraph is extracted from Dr. Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, Art. Dog-Latin. "Lord Hailes speaking of Kennedy's Testament, says, The alternate lines "are composed of shreds of the breviary, mixed with what we call Dog-Latin, " and the French Latin de Cuisine.' This in German is denominated Kuchen "Latein, which Wachter renders Kitchen-Latin; qu. that used by cooks." I should rather be inclined to conjecture, the Latin used in the Refectory. In that social scene of monastic indulgence it may not unreasonably be supposed that the table-talk of the monks turned frequently on the specimens before them of their cook's skill in the culinary art; on which occasions they would find it absolutely necessary to supply the poverty of classical Latinity by Latinized terms borrowed from their vernacular tongues. Hence, I think a satisfactory account of the origin of the phrase Kitchen-Latin, which, by an easy and natural transition, would gradually be extended to all the other colloquial barbarisms which took their rise from the peculiarities of modern manners. To the barbarous, or slip-slop Latin used by the Monks, there is a pointed allusion in Buchanan's Satire, entitled Franciscanus. Addressing himself to a young novice, whom he supposes recently admitted into the order, he gives him some counsels with respect to the conduct of his studies. * Mysteria Sacra "Turpe est grammaticis submittere colla capistris." Buchanani Opera, Tomus II. p. 273. Lugduni Batavorum, 1725. †The Latin style of the monkish historians in the fifteenth century was somewhat of the same description. "Thus William of Worcester tells us, that the "Duke of York returned from Ireland, et arrivavit apud Redbanke, prope Ces"triam," (and arrived at Redbank, near Chester ;) and John Rous, the antiqua. rian of Warwick, says, "That Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, son of Queen "Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV., and Sir Thomas Grey, her brother, were obliged to fly, quod ipsi contravissent mortem Ducis Protectaris Anglia," (be But although a very moderate degree of industry might have been sufficient to bring this 'new language to such a degree of perfection as would fit it for the essential purposes which its framers had in view, it was probably the work of successive ages to bestow on it all the improvements of which it was susceptible. It is difficult to conceive how far these improvements might be carried in the unexampled case of a language which was never contaminated by the lips of the vulgar, and which was spoken only by men of contemplative and refined habits, peculiarly addicted to those abstract speculations which are so nearly allied to the study of grammar and philology. It must be recollected, too, how much their labours would be facilitated by the systematical regularity of the mo del after which the original artists had wrought in its first composition. The accounts which are given by the most competent judges of the progressive improvement of Sanscrit, seem to be highly favourable to the foregoing hypothesis, more particularly in the date which is fixed for the era of its greatest perfection. "Sanserit," (says Mr. Colebrooke) "is a "most polished tongue, which was gradually refined, until it "became fixed in the classic writings of many elegant poets, cause they had contrived the death of the Duke Protector of England.)-Henry's History, Vol. X. p. 118. Dr. Henry mentions these barbarisms as a proof of the decline of learning at this period; but they were probably owing, at least in part, to the habitual use among the ecclesiastics of their Kitchen-Latin as a medium of conversation. Ludicrous as they are, they may have escaped the pen of writers perfectly able to read and to interpret all the Roman Classics known in their times. The use of Kitchen-Latin in the monasteries naturally gave birth, among the idle inmates, to Macaronic poetry. Its native country, as may be inferred from the name, was Italy, where Folengo, a Mantuan monk of the Benedictine order, (born in 1491) distinguished himself by some publications in this style; in which, amidst much licentiousness, there are said to be many passages, which discover a genius fitted for nobler undertakings.-See Ginguené Histoire Litteraire d'Italie, Vol. V. p. 533, et seq. The example was soon followed, I believe, in all Catholic countries, particularly in France, (which, among other things of the same kind, produced a Macaronic poem, De Arte Dansandi,) in Germany, and the Nether lands. The author of the Polemo Middinia, who had resided long abroad, and whose English imitations of the Italian sonnets, when compared with those of his contemporaries, are, in elegance and tenderness, inferior only to those of Milton, was so much struck with the peculiar humour displayed in these Macaronic compositions, as to make a trial, after his return home, of the effects resulting from such a medley of Latin with broad Scotch, as Folengo and others had exemplified in combining Latin with other modern tongues. The copy of this performance, which is now before me, is appended to the folio edition of his works, printed at Edinburgh in 1711. I understand there is an earlier edition, with Latin notes, by Bishop Gibson, published at Oxford in 1691. In what year the first edition appeared I cannot at present say, but it must have been in the earlier part of the 17th century, as the author died in 1649. Since Drummond's time, I have not heard of any similar attempt in Great Britain, excepting those by the late Reverend Alexander Geddes, a learned, though not very orthodox, clergyman of the Roman Catholic church. "most of whom are supposed to have flourished in the "century preceding the Christian æra."* During the interval between the invasion of Alexander and the period here mentioned, there was ample time for polishing and refining to the utmost this artificial dialect. Nor is it easy to explain why so many classic poets should have appeared so soon after Alexander's invasion, but by the impetus which the minds of the Hindoos had received, and the new lights which they had acquired by their recent intercourse with the Greeks and Persians.† According to the idea which has now been suggested, we may expect to find Sanscrit as widely diffused as the order of Bramins ; indeed, if there be any foundation for the foregoing conjectures, it was probably in the possession of every Bramin in the course of one or two generations after Alexander's inva sion. From the natural curiosity of this order of men, joined to the esprit de corps, Greek may be presumed to have formed a part of their professional education; more especially, as, with a slight knowledge of its syntax, nothing more was necessary for their instruction in Sanscrit, but a few examples of the mode of combining Greek with their vernacular tongues. We have reason to believe that a knowledge of Greek was spread over India not long after the period in question. Of * On the Sanscrit and Pracrit Languages, by H. J. Colebrooke, Esq.-Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII. p. 200. +" "The word Sanskrita,” we are informed by Mr. Wilkins, in the first page of his Grammar, "is a compound participle, literally signifying altogether, or "completely made, done, or formed, (Latin, confectus,) from the inseparable "preposition sam, altogether, or together, (Latin, col, com, con, cor,) and krita, "done, with the interposition of a silent s, which letter being a dental, requires "that the labial nasal which precedes it should be pronounced as a dental also, "namely as n. The word, in its common acceptation, denotes a thing to have "been composed or formed by art, adorned, embellished, purified, highly culti"vated or polished, and regularly inflected as a language." I do not lay much stress on this etymology, which may perhaps be accounted for in some other way, of which I am not aware; but I may be permitted to remark, that, so far as it is allowed any weight, is is rather favourable than otherwise to the foregoing hypothesis. " "Je crois que la base du Malay est monosyllabique; en effet on y trouve un grand nombre de mots d'origine Chinoise; les mots Sanscrits ont été introdu"its, à mesure que les Malays ont adopté le Brahmanisme "-Langlès, as quoted by Mr. Q. Crawford, in his Researches concerning the Laws, Theology, &c. of Ancient and Modern India, Lond. 1817. Vol. II. p. 206. On the other hand, it is a fact no less remarkable, that a knowledge of the Sanscrit is confined exclusively to those regions where the order of Bramins is to be found. This is admitted in the Edinburg Review by a very learned orientalist. "The Sanscrit, "the literary language of India, the guardian of all its ancient knowledge, has "never left the sacred spot beyond the precincts of which Bramins are forbidden "to travel."-Vol. V. p. 289. How are these two facts to be accounted for, but on the supposition that the Bramins were themselves the authors of their own sacred language? this various proofs might be given ;* but I shall only mention here a single fact recorded by Strabo, that, in the reign of Augustus, ambassadors from an Indian Prince arrived at Rome, charged with various presents to the Emperor, together with a letter in the Greek language, written by the Prince himself.† Strabo mentions this on the authority of Nicolaus Damascenus, who himself conversed with the ambassadors at Antioch on their way to Rome, and saw the presents of which they were the bearers.‡ To these considerations we may add, that, as the learned language in use among the priests must necessarily have mingled itself more or less with their vernacular tongues, we may every-where expect to find, more especially in abstract and scientific words, Sanscrit incorporated with the different dialects spoken in different parts of India. It is not, therefore, wonderful, that Mr. Wilkins should assert, that "he who "knows Sanscrit has already acquired a knowledge of one-half "of almost every vernacular language in India, while he who "remains ignorant of it, can never possess a perfect and criti"cal understanding of any, though he may obtain a certain "proficiency in the practical use of them. The several dia"lects confounded under the common terms Hindi, Hindavi, "Hindostani, and Basha, deprived of Sanscrit, would not only "lose all their beauty and energy, but, with respect to the "power of expressing abstract ideas, or terms of science, "would be absolutely reduced to a state of barbarism."§ See Bayeri, Historia Regni Græcorum Bactriani, XLIV. XLV. (Επιστολην Ελληνικήν εν διφθερα γεγραμμένην, δήλωσαν οτι Πωρος είη γράψας, & ensorcov Caoins wv as xy-Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1048, ed. Almel.) Among these presents Strabo particularly, mentions some large vipers and serpents, and a young man without arms. The same fact is recorded by Dio Cassius, who compares the young man to a Hermes, -OLOUS TOUS Egues ogouv.-Dio Cassius, lib. liv. p. 527, ed. 1607,) and adds, "That by means of his feet he bent a bow, discharged arrows, and sounded a trumpet." The latter historian seems to doubt the possibility of this; but in the present times, when numerous well attested instances have occurred of persons who, in the same mutilated condition, have supplied the want of hands by means of the foot, this very circumstance becomes the strongest of all presumptions in favour of the other less extraordinary details which form part of the same narrative. The embassy of the Indians to Augustus is noticed also by Suetonius and Florus.—Suetonii, Cæsar Octavian. August. xxi. Flori Epitome, lib. iv. cap. xii. ་་ "The language of Greece was early cultivated in the East. Before the æra of Mahommed it was considered as a branch of polite, and even of mercantile education; Greek slaves were common in Arabia. The receipts and disburse"ments of the treasury of the Khalifs were written in that tongue for several "6 generations after the prophet's death."-Richardson's Dissertation on the Languages, &c. of the Eastern Nations. Grammar of the Sanskrita Language, by Charles Wilkins, LL. D. and F. R. 8. Preface, pp. 10, I1. The learned author of Ancient Metaphysics, after acknowledging his great ob Suppose a Roman scholar of the Augustan age (Cicero, for example, or Varro,) to be miraculously recalled to life in modern Scotland, and to retain all the knowledge and all the habits of thinking which he had acquired during his former existence :-Suppose farther, that, after residing some years in the country, he had acquired such a smattering of broad Scotch as is commonly possessed of Eastern languages by European adventurers in that part of the world: Should the Polemo Middinia be put into the hands of the Roman scholar as an ancient composition, by some Scotsman who was disposed to amuse himself with his credulity, (following the example of those Bramins who practised on the easy faith of Major Wilford,*) what a fund of speculation would be suggested to him by this strange medley of two languages so different! Was the Scotch grafted on the Latin, or the Latin on the Scotch? The preponderance of Scotch roots in the staple of the dialect might incline him to the one opinion, while the universal prevalence of the Roman inflections, and of the Roman forms of syntax, would probably decide him in favour of the other; more especially when he was told how very long his countrymen were in actual possession of this island. The harmony of the verse, so superior to that of Ennius, and even to that of a great part of Lucretius, (and, in truth, resembling occasionally the numbers of Virgil,) would, however, add much to the dif ficulty of the problem. Perhaps it might occur to him, as a still more reasonable hypothesis, that this jargon was the relic of some language now extinct, which was formerly spoken both at Rome and at Edinburgh; nor would there be wanting arguments to justify the conjecture, that it was once the universal dialect of Europe, and that it forms the basis of all the different European tongues. The intermixture of Gothic words in the Law Latin of most of the European nations, and, still more, the varieties in the Kitchen-Latin of the monasteries, ever changing with the vernacular speech of different countries, would probably come powerfully in aid of some of these theories. On this singular performance, (the Polemo Middinia,) it may not be altogether useless to remark, that while it is read ligations to Mr. Wilkins for his information concerning the Sanscrit, adds, "I "have collected, from some other travellers in India, Shanscrit words that are "clearly Greek, such as gonia, the Shanscrit word for an angle, kentra for a "centre; and they use the word hora in the same sense that it is used in Latin." Anc. Metaph. Vol. IV. p. 330. The information is curious, and would have been important, if it had rested upon the authority of Mr. Wilkins. *See Appendix I. to this Section. |