THE Saxon language spoken in England, is distinguished by three several epochs, and may therefore be divided into three dialects. The first of these is that which the Saxons used, from their entrance into this island, till the irruption of the Danes, for the space of 330 years1. This has been called the British Saxon: and no monument of it remains, except a small metrical fragment of the genuine Cadmon, inserted in Alfred's version of the Venerable Bede's ecclesiastical history2. The second is the danish Saxon, which prevailed from the Danish to the Norman invasion, A.D. 1066; and of which many considerable specimens, both in verse 2 and prose, are still preserved: particularly, two literal versions of the four gospels3, and the spurious Cadmon's beautiful poetical paraphrase of the Book of Genesis1, and the prophet Daniel. The third may be properly styled the Norman Saxon ; which began about the time of the Norman accession, and continued beyond the reign of Henry the second. He died 1189.

The last of these three dialects, with which these annals of English Poetry commence, formed a language extremely barbarous, irregular, and intractable; and consequently promises no very striking speci1 The Saxons came into England A.D. 450.

Lib iv. cap. 24. Some have improperly referred to this dialect the HARMONY OF THE FOR GOSPELS, in the Cotton library: the style of which approaches in purity and antiquity to it of the CCDEX ARGENTEUS. It is Frankish. See Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. CALIG. membran. octavo. This book is supposed to have belonged to king Canute. Eight ly illuminated historical pictures are bound up with it, evidently taken from another manript, but probably of the age of king Stephen.

See Hickes. Thes. Ling. Vett. Sept. P. i. cap. xxi. pag. 177. And Præfat. fol. xiv. The curious reader is also referred to a Danish Saxon poem, celebrating the wars which Beowif, a noble Dane, descended from the royal stem of Scyldinge, waged against the kings of Swedeland. MSS. Cotton. ut supr. VITELL, A. 15. Cod. membran. ix. fol. 130. Compare. written in the style of Cedmon, a fragment of an ode in praise of the exploits of Brithnoth, Otta's ealdorman, or general, in a battle fought against the Danes. Ibid. ОTH. A. 12. Cod. memrin 4to. iii. Brithnoth, the hero of this piece, a Northumbrian, died in the year 991. 4 MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Oxon. Cod. membran. in Pyxid. 4to grand. quadrat. And MSS. Cotton. ut pr OTHо. Nor. D. 4. Both these MSS. were written and ornamented in the Saxon times, and are of the highest curiosity and antiquity.

Printed by Junius, Amst. 1655. The greatest part of the Bodleian manuscript of this book, is believed to have been written about A.D. 1000,-Cod. Jun. xi. membran, fol.

10

NORMAN-FRENCH MADE THE LANGUAGE OF THE NATION.

mens in any species of composition. Its substance was the Danish Saxon, adulterated with French. The Saxon indeed, a language subsisting on uniform principles, and polished by poets and theologists, however corrupted by the Danes, had much perspicuity, strength, and harmony but the French imported by the Conqueror and his people, was a confused jargon of Teutonic, Gaulish, and vitiated Latin. In this fluctuating state of our national speech, the French predominated. Even before the conquest the Saxon language began to fall into contempt, and the French, or Frankish, to be substituted in its stead: a circumstance, which at once facilitated and foretold the Norman accession. In the year 652, it was the common practice of the AngloSaxons, to send their youth to the monasteries of France for education, (Dug. Mon. 1. 89,) and not only the language, but the manners of the French, were esteemed the most polite accomplishments1. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the resort of Normans to the English court was so frequent, that the affectation of imitating the Frankish customs became almost universal: and the nobility were ambitious of catching the Frankish idiom. It was no difficult task for the Norman lords to banish that language, of which the natives began to be absurdly ashamed. The new invaders commanded the laws to be administered in French2. Many charters of monasteries were forged in Latin by the Saxon monks, for the present security of their possessions, in consequence of that aversion which the Normans professed to the Saxon tongue3. Even children at school were forbidden to read in their native language, and instructed in a knowledge of the Norman only. (Ingulph. p. 71. sub. ann. 1066.) In the mean time we should have some regard to the general and political state of the nation. The natives were so universally reduced to the lowest condition of neglect and indigence, that the English name became a term of reproach and several generations elapsed, before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any distinguished honours, or could so much as attain the rank of baronage1. Among other instances of that absolute and voluntary submission, with which our Saxon ancestors received a foreign yoke, it appears that they suffered their handwriting to fall into discredit and disuse (Ingulph, p. 85); which by degrees became so difficult and obsolete, that few besides the oldest men 1 Ingulph. Hist. p. 62. sub. ann. 1043.

2 But there is a precept in Saxon from William the first, to the sheriff of Somersetshire Hickes. Thes. i. par. i. pag. 106. See also Præfat. ibid. p. xv.

3 The Normans, who practiced every specious expedient to plunder the monks, demanded a sight of the written evidences of the lands. The monks well knew, that it would have been useless or impolitic to have produced these evidences or charters, in the original Saxon; as the Normans not only did not understand, but would have received with comtempt, instruments written in that language. Therefore the monks were compelled to the pious fraud of forging them in Latin, and great numbers of these forged Latin charters, till lately supposed original, are still extant. See Spelman, in Not, ad Concil. Anglic. p. 125. Stillingfl. Orig. Eccles. Britann. p. 14. Marsham Præfat,ad Dugd. Monast. And Wharton, Angl. Sacr. vol. ii. Præfat. p. ii. iii. iv. See also Ingulph.p. 512. Launoy and Mabillon have treated this subject with great learning and penetration. 4 See Brompt. Chron. p. 1026. Abb. Rieval. p. 339.

could understand the characters. (Ingulph, p. 98. ann. 1091.) In the year 1995, Wolstan, bishop of Worcester, was deposed by the arbitrary Normans: it was objected against him, that he was 'a superannuated English idiot, who could not speak French.' (Matt. Paris. sub. ann.) It is true, that in some of the monasteries, particularly at Croyland and Tavistock, founded by Saxon princes, there were regular preceptors in the Saxon language; but this institution was suffered to remain after the conquest, as a matter only of interest and necessity. The religious could not otherwise have understood their original charters. William's successor, Henry the first, gave an instrument of confirmation to William archbishop of Canterbury, which was written in the Saxon language and letter.1 Yet this is almost a single example. That monarch's motive was perhaps political: and he seems to have practised this expedient with a view of obliging his queen, who was of Saxon lineage; or with a design of flattering his English subjects, and of securing his title already strengthened by a Saxon match, in consequence of so specious and popular an artifice. It was a common and indeed a very natural practice, for the transcribers of Saxon books, to change the Saxon orthography for the Norman, and to substitute in the place of the original Saxon, Norman words and phrases. A remarkable instance of this liberty, which sometimes perplexes and misleads the critics in Anglo-Saxon literature, appears in a voluminous collection of Saxon homilies, preserved in the Bodleian library, and written about the time of Henry II. It was with the Saxon characters, as with the signature of the cross in public deeds; which were changed into the Norman mode of seals and subscriptions.3 The Saxon was probably spoken in the country, yet not without various adulterations from the French: the courtly language was French, yet perhaps with some vestiges of the vernacular Saxon. But the nobles, in the reign of Henry II, constantly sent their children into France, lest they should contract habits of barbarism in their speech, which could not have been avoided in an English education. Robert Holcot, a learned Dominican friar, confesses, that in the beginning of the reign of Edward III, there was no institution of children in the old English: he complains, that they first learned the French, and from the French the Latin language. This he observes to have been a practice introduced by the Conqueror, and to have remained ever since". There is a curious passage relating to this subject in Trevisa's translation of

H. Warton, Auctar. Histor. Dogmat. p. 388. Mabillon is mistaken in asserting, that the Saron way of writing was entirely abolished in England at the time of the Norman conquest. De Re Diplomat. p. 52. The French antiquaries are fond of this notion. There are Saxon characters in Herbert Losinga's charter for founding the church of Norwich. Temp. Will. Ruf. A.D. 111O. Lambarde's Diction. V. NORWICH. Hickes. Thesaur. i. Par. i. p. 149. Præfat. An intermixture of the Saxon character is common in English and Latin manuscripts, before the reign of Edward III: but of a few types only.

rvi.

#MSS. Bodl. NE. F. 4. 12. Cod. membran. fol.

Yet some Normans charters have the cross,

Gervas. Tibur, de Otis Imperial. MSS. Bibl. Bodl. lib. iii. See du Chesne, iii. p. 363. • Lect. in Libr. Sapient. Lect. ii. Paris. 1518. 4:0.

12

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE BECOMES RECOGNIZED.

Hygden's Polychronicon1. 'Children in scole, agenst the usage and 'manir of all other nations, beeth compelled for to leve hire owne langage, and for to construe hir lessons and hire thynges in Frenche; ' and so they haveth sethe Normans came first into Engelond. Also ( gentilmen children beeth taught to spcke Frensche, from the tyme that they bith rokked in here cradell, and kunneth speke and play ' with a childes broche: and uplondissche [country]men will likne him'self to gentylmen, and fondeth [delights, tries] with greet besynesse, 'for to speke Frensche to be told of. This manner was moche used to ' for first deth [time] and is sith some dele changed. For John Cornewaile a maister of grammer, changed the lore in grammer scole, and 'construction of Frensche into Englische: and Richard Pencriche lernede the manere techynge of him as other men of Pencriche. So 'that now, the yere of oure Lorde 1385, and of the seconde Kyng Richard after the conquest nyne, and [in] alle the grammere scoles of Engelond children lereth Frensche and construeth, and lerneth an ' Englische, &c.' About the same time, or rather before, the students of our universities, were ordered to converse in French or Latin“. The latter was much affected by the Normans. All the Norman accompts were in Latin. The plan of the royal revenue-rolls, now called the pipe-rolls, were of their construction, and in that language.

This most

'Among the Records of the Tower, a great revenue-roll, on many sheets of vellum, or MAGNUS ROTULUS, of the Duchy of Normandy, for the year 1083, is still preserved; indorsed, in a cœvel hand, Anno AB INCARNATIONE DNI M° LXXX° 11° APUD CADOMUM [Caen] WILLIELMO FILIO RADULFI SENESCALLO NORMANNIE. exactly and minutely resembles the pipe-rolls of our exchequer belonging to the same age, in form, method, and character. Ayloffe's CALENDAR of ANT. CHART. Pref. p. xxiv. edit. Lond. 1774. 4to. But from the declension of the barons, and prevalence of the commons, most of whom were of English ancestry, the native language of England gradually gained ground: till at length the Interest of the commons so far succeeded with Edward III. that an act of parliament was passed, appointing all pleas and proceedings of law to be carried on in English3: although the same statute de

1 Lib. i. cap. 59. MSS. Coll. S. Johan. Cantabr. But I think it is printed by Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde. Robert of Gloucester, who wrote about 1280, says much the same, edition Hearne, p. 364.

2 In the statutes of Oriel College in Oxford, it is ordered, that the scholars, or fellows, 'siqua inter se proferant, colloquio Latino, vel saltem Gallico, perfruantur.' Hearne's Trokelowe, pag. 298. These statutes were given 23 Maii, A.D. 1328. I find much the same injunction in the statutes of Exeter College, Oxford, given about 1330. Where they are ordered to use, Romano aut Gallico saltem sermone.' Hearne's MSS. Collect, num. 132. pag. 73. Bibl. Bodl. But in Merton College statutes, mention is made of the Latin only. In cap. x. They were given 1271. This was also common in the greater monasteries. In the register of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, the domicellus of the Prior of Saint Swythin's at Winchester, is ordered to address the bishop, on a certain occasion, in French, A.D. 1398. Registr. Par. iii. fol 177.

3 But the French formularies and terms of law, and particularly the French feudal phraseology, had taken too deep root to be thus hastily abolished. Hence, long after the reign of

crees, in the true Norman spirit, that all such pleas and proceedings should be enrolled in Latin1. Yet this change did not restore either the Saxon alphabet or language. It abolished a token of subjection and disgrace; and in some degree, contributed to prevent further French innovations in the language then used, which yet remained in a compound state, and retained a considerable mixture of foreign phraseology. In the mean time, it must be remembered, that this corruption of the Saxon was not only owing to the admission of new words, occasioned by the new alliance, but to changes of its own forms and terminations, arising from reasons we cannot explain2.

Among the manuscripts of Digby in the Bodleian library at Oxford, we find a religious or moral ode, consisting of 191 stanzas, which the learned Hickes places just after the conquest3: but as it contains few Norman terms, I am inclined to think it of rather higher antiquity. In deference however to so great an authority, I am obliged to mention it here; and especially as it exhibits a regular lyric strophe of four lines, the second and fourth of which rhyme together. Although these four lines may be perhaps resolved into two Alexandrines; a measure concerning which more will be said hereafter, and of which it will be sufficient to remark at present, that it appears to have been used very early. For I cannot recollect any strophes of this sort in the elder Runic or Saxon poetry; nor in any of the old Frankish poems, particularly of Otfrid a monk of Weissenburgh, who turned the evangelical history into Frankish verse about the ninth century, and has left several hymns in that language, of Stricker who celebrated the atchievements of Charlemagne, and of the anonymous author of the metrical life of Anno, archbishop of Cologne. The following stanza is a specimen: [St. xiv.]

Sende God biforen him man

For betere is on elmesse biforen

The while he may to hevene,
Thanne ben after sevene.

Edward III, many of our lawyers composed their tracts in French, and reports and some statutes were made in that language. Fortescut. de Laud. Leg. Angl. cap. xlviii.

1 Pulton's Statut. 36 Edw. iii. This was A.D. 1363. The first English instrument in Rymer is dated 1368. Ford. vii. p. 526.

This subject will be farther illustrated in the next section.

3 Ling. Vett. Thes. Part i. p. 222. There is another copy not mentioned by Hickes, in Jesus College library at Oxford, MSS. 85. infr. citat. This is entitled, Tractatus quidam in Anglico. The Digby manuscript has no title.

Petr. Lambec. Comment. de Bibl. Cæsar Vindebon. pag. 418. 457.

Petr. Lambec. ubi supr. lib. ii. cap. 5. There is a circumstance belonging to the ancient Frankish versification, which, as it greatly illustrates the subject of alliteration, deserves notice here. Otfrid's dedication of his Evangelical history to Lewis the first, king of the oriental France, consists of four lined stanzas in rhyming couplets: but the first and last line of every stanza begin and end with the same letter: and the letters of the title of the dedication respectively, and the word of the last line of every tetrastic. Flaccus Illyricus published this work of Offrid at Basle, 1571. But I think it has been since more correctly printed by Johannes Schilterus. It was written about the year 880. Otfrid was the disciple of Rhabanus Maurus.

pe hpile he mai 20 heuene

Dede god bifonen him man, For betere is on elmerre bifoɲen Danne ben after reuene. This is perhaps the true reading, from the Trinity manuscript at Cambridge, written about the reign of Henry II. or Richard I. Cod. membran. 8vo. Tractat. I. See Abr. Wheloc. Eccles. Hist. Bed. p. 25. 114. MSS. Digb. A. 4. membran.