Page images
PDF
EPUB

6

yet been settled how we were to translate the Latin Neuter Relative quod. We saw 'zetes bi wam' in the Homilies; in the Ancren Riwle, page 382, we see sum þing mid hwat he muhte derven.' This last is the English form of quod: but we were not to use it. We were to follow the form employed in page 354: 'peawes, bi hwuche me climbed to pe blisse.' Yet this hwuche is almost always in the present work used in its true old sense (now unhappily lost) of qualis, its kindred word. The new translation of quod was to take root in Yorkshire, as well as in Dorset, thirty years later. The old that was, of course, in full employment as a Relative.

In page 110, we see how the old onefne came to be changed; in the Salopian copy it is found as onevent, in the Dorset copy as onont, not far from our anent. In the same page, we see how the old Preposition geond (per) was dropping out of use; it was still employed in Dorset, but was replaced in one shire by over, in another by in. When we find onlich, it does not convey our sense of the word; it as yet means nothing but solitary. What was called leste (solutus) in Dorset, was lowse and lousse in other shires, not far from our loose: this may be seen at page 228. The Southern influence, which changes f into v and g into w, may be seen in page 290, where we hear that the Devil 'fikeð mid dogge vawenunge (flatters with doglike fawning): this last word was of old fœgnung. The comparative of late had hitherto only conveyed the sense of serior; but we now find it mean posterior; in page 158, there is mention of the 'vorme half and pe latere.' We have since 1220 distinguished the two meanings of the word by doubling the t in later, when it

is to mean posterior. In page 176, we find a wholly new idiom, which must have come from France, standing for the old Superlative; 'pe meste dredful secnesse of alle.' This new form for the Superlative was hardly ever used in the Thirteenth Century, but became very common in the Fourteenth. The word sona (mox) has new offspring, sonre and sonest. Orrmin's la has become lo. In page 288, we see a mistake repeated long afterwards by Lord Macaulay in his Lays; what should be written iwis (certè) is written as if it were a verb, I wis.

We find mongleð, empti, volewen, lauhweð (ridet), lone (commodatum), owust (debes), sawe (dictum), instead of the old mengeð, æmtig, folgian, hlaheð, læn, âhst, sagu. The untowen, found here for untrained, was afterwards to become wanton, the un and the wan meaning the same. There are words altogether new such as backbiter, chaffer, overtake, overturn, withdraw, withhold. We now see the last of the old Wodnes dei; in the Legend of St. Katherine, of the same date, this becomes Wednesdai. Our Ember days appear for the first time in the guise of umbridei; this and umquhile are the sole survivors in English of the many words formed from our lost preposition umbe, the Greek amphi. The word halpenes (page 96) shows a step in the formation of our halfpence. At page 344 drive gets an intransitive sense ; I go dri vinde upe fole pouhtes.' At page 426, we see our common expression, 'pet fur (ignis) go ut.' At page 46 comes gluffen (to blunder), from the Icelandic glop (incuria); hence perhaps to club a regiment.' Sorh (dolor) had taken the shape of seoruwe in Dorset, but it remained sorhe in Salop (see page 64). The old ræcende becomes

[ocr errors]

1

ringinde (page 140), whence our ranging. In page 128, we are told that a false nun 'chefled of idel;' hence have arisen to chatter and to chaff. Torple (cadere) seems to be formed from top (caput). The ending ful is freely used for adjectives, as dredful and pinful; other endings are driven out by it. The old eallunga is now replaced by utterly; and bælg is turned into bag; beggar is now first found.

In page 398, we see an instance of the revived use of the entreating do, before an Imperative; the writer asks for a reason, adding, 'do seie hwui.' In page 54 may be found the first use of our indefinite it, prefixed to was; 6 a meiden hit was... eode ut vor to biholden.' A pithy phrase was once applied to our two last Stuart Kings: it was said of Charles that he could if he would;' of James, that he would if he could.' 6 On looking to the Ancren

[ocr errors]

Riwle, p. 338, we read,' he ne mei hwon he wule, pe nolde hwule pet he muhte.' This seems to have been a byword

well known in 1220.

The East Midland dialect was pushing its conquests into the South, for many Norse words are found for the first time in this work; as,

[blocks in formation]

So in the Latin, jungo is formed from jugo, and lingo from lico.

Shy

Scowl

Skull

Scraggy

Skulk

Sluggish

Smoulder

Windohe, window

Skygg, Swedish
Skule, Danish
Skal, Danish
Skrekka, Norse
Skjol, Norse
Sloki, Norse

Smul, Danish, dust
Vindauga, Icelandic

has been driven out by
Moreover, I add a list of

Many an Old English word these Scandinavian strangers. many words, which Southern England had in common with our Dutch and Low German kinsmen. England seems now to have rid herself of her old prejudice against beginning words with the letter p.

[blocks in formation]

We find also in this work harlot, a vagabond, from the Welsh herlawd, a youth; the word is used by Chaucer without any bad sense. From the same Celtic source come cudgel and griddle, now first seen in English. Peoddare, a pedlar, is also found for the first time;

This, as now, might express a poltroon.

2 In Salop, the old Scandinavian gris (the Sanscrit ghrishti) is used instead of pig; hence our griskin: some curious English rimes in the Lanercost Chronicle turn on the former word.

Forby derives it from ped, which in Norfolk is a covered pannier.' There are many words in the Ancren Riwle, which, as Wedgwood thinks, are formed from the sound; such as gewgaw, chatter, flash; scratch arose in Salop; the window of that shire was called purl in the South. The adjective in Shakespere's 'little cwifer fellow' is found in the Ancren Riwle; it seems to come from the old cóf, impiger.

Dr. Morris has added to his Twelfth Century Homilies (First Series) some other works, which seem to date from about 1220. The word carp (loqui) is seen for the first time. Another new word is dingle, applied to a recess of the sea; it is akin to a German word, as also is schimmed or schimered (fulget), at page 257.

This proves that we ought not to write pedler, but pedlar; the word is sometimes given as a puzzle in spelling.

2 In Salop, forms which were used in Lothian and Yorkshire seem to have clashed with forms employed in Gloucestershire and Dorset; something resembling the Ormulum was the upshot. In each succeeding century Salop comes to the front. 'The Wohunge of ure Lauerd' seems to have been written here about 1210 (Morris' Old English Homilies, First Series, p. 269). In 1340, or so, the Romance of William of Palerne was compiled here. In 1420, John Audlay wrote his poems in the same dialect (Percy Society, No. 47). In 1580, Churchyard had not dropped all his old Salopian forms. Baxter, who came from Salop, appeared about 1650 as one of the first heralds of the change that was then passing over Standard English prose, and that was substituting Dryden's style for that of Milton. Soon after 1700, Farquhar, in his Recruiting Officer, gives us much of the Salopian brogue. This intermingling of Northern and Southern forms in Salop produced something not unlike Standard English.

« PreviousContinue »