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ENGLISH OF WYCLIFFE

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monosyllables, as well as in words denoting objects of sense and relations of domestic and common life, general or abstract terms came from the Latin, and evidently through the Norman when the original spelling is changed. The English kept the predominance, and the Norman fell into a subordinate place. In the conferences that followed the battle of Agincourt, it was ordered by the conqueror that documents should be written in Latin, as his ambassadors did not know French; and writing to the Company of Brewers in London, he assures them that "the English tongue hath in modern days begun to be honorably enlarged and adorned for the better understanding of the people, and that the common idiom is to be exercised in writing." Chaucer, Gower, Mandeville, Trevisa, and Langland were virtually contemporaries. It is very wonderful, and it shows Chaucer's acuteness of philological instinct, that not more than a hundred of his Romance terms have fallen into disuse, though a great many more of his Anglo-Saxon words have perished. He introduced such words as advantage, person, glory, divine, disciples, confound, return, reasonable, renown, vain, victory, &c., and through him and Wycliffe the Midland dialect became standard English. This national language was in Wycliffe's time greatly advanced in growth, having “the blade, the ear, and the corn in the ear," though not in maturity. His English is racy, homely, familiar, and picturesque, the language of his own age, but far simpler and more intelligible than that of Chaucer. Wycliffe translated for the people, not for the aristocracy; for the nation, and not for its more educated nobility. The tongue in currency around him was therefore the fitting vehicle, every-day language for every-day use. His translation is really better in style, more lucid and idiomatic, less tortuous and laboured, than his own original writings, in which he expresses freely, frankly, and vehemently his readiest thoughts when he was writing in his own name in defence of truth, or was inveighing against error, venerable through age or fortified by authority. The quotations in his homilies and tracts agree neither with the first nor the second version. But as a translator he was on his guard in rendering the divine volume into the people's speech, for he was virtually

speaking to the people in the name of the Blessed. One.1 His version has a grandeur unaffected by its quaintness, its familiarity of tone does not in any way derogate from its dignity. Though the stiffness of the Latin text often shines through, the Bible is remarkably free from many of the affectations which abound in contemporary writers. It keeps the old spelling of him and her for the more modern them and their, and restricts th to the third person singular of verbs, and does not employ it in the plural or in the imperative. The participle that had ended in -ende is formed by -ing, the prefix y- is used in connection with the past participle, the plural of verbs terminates in -en, ye and you are not used as singulars, and the possessive your has an objective sense, as in the phrase "your fear and your dread," for the fear of you and the dread of you. Either" is often a disjunctive, "that ben in erthis, either that ben in heauenis." "Will not" is expressed often, as in Chaucer, by nyl, nold, nolden. The verb is is used for yes, as if" is" affirmed the fact, as in James v, 12, "forsothe be your is, is, nay, nay." The marks of punctuation make up for the loss of the earlier inflexions, for they are necessary when the cases have only one form; and some of the persons of the verb are undistinguished by terminations. A synthetic sentence is independent; for principal and secondary clauses, wrought out into a long and complicated paragraph, have their meaning and connection. determined by the syntax. But the sense, by means of the points or stops, becomes at once apparent to the eye, without minute analysis, and is not suspended till you come to the last word governing many terms before it. In an uninflected sentence, the meaning depends on the order of the words; and that order, as the grammatical terminations fell into disuse, required nice arrangement.

One is surprised to see how, when Wycliffe's work is modernized in spelling, it so closely resembles subsequent translations in the general aspect of the version, in the flow and

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PECULIAR RENDERINGS.

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position of the words, in the distinctive terms and connecting particles, in the rhythm of its clauses and the mould of its sentences. Several of its phrases must have passed early into the language, especially those which from their currency had acquired a kind of proverbial power, such as "strait gate," and "narrow way" (Matt. vii, 14), "beam and mote" (v, 3), and being adopted by Tyndale, they have kept their place “unto this present." Through these translations the rich and beautiful old English was sanctified for all time, and with many minor variations, not a few of them traceable to the Greek original, it reappears in its essential and characteristic features in the independent translation of Tyndale, which again is so largely retained and embedded in the Authorized Version.

Wycliffe is easily read, though not a few of his words. are obsolete. His theological nomenclature, part of which he had learned from Bradwardine, has not been changed to any great extent, and many of the terms, explained in the margin of the MSS. as if needing explanation, are now part of the language, while the explanatory terms have themselves disappeared. Such are yvil-fame explained by schenship, libel by litel-boke, unquieted by diseased. In other cases both the original text and the explanation are still in use, as affection, explained by love, benignity by goodwill, detractors by open bakbyters, alive by quick. Some renderings are prompted or moulded by the current phrases or customs of his century. The clause 2 Tim. ii, 4,"no man that wareth entangleth himself," he gives as "no man that holdeth knighthood to God inwlappith him silfe," the feudal form of the idea; 2 Kings xv, 20, "and Menahem exacted the money of Israel," he renders, "and Menahem settled the tallage of silver on Israel," tallage being a common term in those days; 1 Peter ii, 13, "be ye suget. other to the king, other to dukis; Matt. xxvii, 27, "token Jhesu in the moot hall," a word that came down from remote times. In the same verse the second version has "knights of the justice," and similarly in Luke ii, 2, " Cyrys justice of Syrie," the official title being familiar in England; Judges xx, 28, "provost of the house stood before it (the ark) in those days."

Presbyter he renders by "priest," its contracted form, seniors by " eldre men," and Levite by "deken" (deacon) in Luke x, 32. Pontius Pilate is Pilate of Pounce, then a common form of surname; and he is called meire (mayor) in the first version and "justice" in the second, Matt. xxvii, 2.

It is really amazing that so little of Wycliffe's language has passed away, though many foreign terms torn from his Latin text and thrust into his version never took root. Some of these are apert; balistis, balistæ; calue, bald; cardue, thistle; castel, town; capret, a wild goat; cenefectorie, tent-making; cocco, coccus, scarlet; cirogrille, choirogrillus, hedgehog; colirie, eyesalve; cofin, cophinus, a basket; cultre, knife; cubicularies, chamberlains; diversory, an inn; exces, in the sense of ecstacy; faculty, in the sense of goods, or means and substance; figarde, pygargus, a roebuck; gemmarye, a jeweller ; galban, gum; gemels, twins; jument, jumentum, beast of burden; lacert, a lizard; lare, larus, a sea-gull; maal, a fir; margarite, a pearl; nablis, nablum, musical instruments; plaag, plaga, side; proterve, froward; platan, a plane tree; pursirioun, porphyrio, a cormorant; sambuke, sambuka, a musical instrument; sellis, sella, chairs; symulacre, idol; spelonk or spelunk, a cave; stater, a piece of money; symfonie, a musical instrument; sanguyns, blood-coloured; scrabroun, hornet; stable, inn (Luke x, 34); strucioun, an ostrich ; sendel, sindon, a linen cloth; sudarie, napkin; universite, world (James iii, 6); veer, spring; volatil, a bird. Comfort is used by him in its literal Latin sense, "And he comforted him (the idol) with nailes "-" fastenede him" in the second version (Isai. xli, 7); and in both versions, Philip. iv, 13, "I may alle thingis in him that comforteth," that is strengtheneth me. Not a few of his other Latin terms have perished in the struggle for existence as jecturing, compunct, corumpe, collation (conference), offencioun, defencioun, conspiracioun, coniectynge, repugne, recompensacioun, dignacioun, federed (bound by covenant.) Many of his native or Saxon words have also died out. The following verbs have an active sense which has long since passed away from us :- Afear, agast, alarge,

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OBSOLETE TERMS.

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bitake (to deliver up), childen, crooken, drunkne, feren, gilten (to sin), honesten, leechen (to heal), lette, longen, meeken, nakenen, nakyn, nighen, noyen, pungeden, richeth, sacren, softeth, sorowen, stithie (to forge), trumpe. Many other like vocables have not come down to us, as-abie, to endure; agregge, to make heavy; biclippe, to embrace; bihete, to promise; buffere, one that stutters; clepe, to call; culver, a dove, found in Spencer; dome, doom, to judge; echen, to add; eren, to plough (earing in the Authorized Version); rich, to enrich; frote, to rub; gab, to lie; gnaste, to creak; grucchen, to murmur; heelden, to pour; herie, to praise; such a phrase as "Takest thou no kepe?" (Luke x, 40). These words have also long ceased to be used:-Knowleche, to confess; lesid, gleaned; oker, to lend on interest; gnappe, to struggle; schende, to confound; stie, to go up; unknowe; alblasters, crossbowmen ; buxum1, obedient; bruk, a locust; comelying, a stranger; customableness, custom; crasyng, a cleft; ferr-floun, a fugitive; feerly, suddenly; fardel, burden, which occurs in Shakespeare; dwelstere, a female dweller; fraiel, a basket of figs; gelding, a eunuch; 2 gilteris, sinners; galoun of water, pitcher of water; grisful, grisly; genderers, parents; hatesum, hateful; cheer, countenance ("the cheer of the Lord is upon them," Pet. iii, 12); layner, a garter; leche, a physician (Luke viii, 43, “which hadde spendid all her catel in to lechis "); lovesum; leep, a basket; leasing, lying (occurs in the Authorized Version); lewd, unlearned (the old contrast being lerid and lewid, learned and unlearned); manquellere, a murderer; manassis, threatenings; mesel, a leper; menie, household; mynde, a memorial; more, for elder; nappen, to slumber-Ps. cxx, 4,

In a form of abjuration, 1395, the promise is, I will be buxum to "the law of Holy Church."

2 Evelyn notes in his Diary, 11th July, 1654, that, when at Oxford, Barlow, "the bibliothecarius of the Bodleian Library," showed him among the MSS. an old English Bible, wherein the eunuch mentioned to be baptised by Philip is

called the gelding-" and Philip and the gelding went down into the water." The literary curiosity was one or other of the Wycliffite versions, for both have that rendering Tyndale in his first edition had "gelded man," but preferred chamberlain in his second edition. Eunuch came in with the Genevan version.