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(a bout at wrestling), which Mr. Wedgwood derives from bugan (flectere), and bought, a word applied to the coils of a rope, and so to the turns of things that succeed each other. File, akin to the Dutch vuil, means a worthless person; we may still often hear a man called 'a cunning old file.' In 2499 of the Havelok, we read,

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We see the origin of the word deuce in the line

'Deus! lemman, hwat may pis be?'

Storie appears clipped of the vowel that once began it; and Justice is used for a man in office, as well as for a virtue.

It is curious to see in this Lay two forms of the same word that has come to England by different channels ; we have gete (custodire) from the Icelandic gæta; and also wayte, which means the same, coming from the French guaiter, a corruption of the wahten brought into Gaul by her German conquerors. Sad havock must have been wrought with English prepositional compounds in the eighty years that separated the Havelok from the Ormulum. In compound words, umbe, the Greek amphi, comes only three times throughout the long poem before us; for only five times; with only once; of not at all. The English tongue had been losing some of its best appliances. The preposition to, answering to the German zer and the Latin dis, is still often found in composition, and did not altogether drop until the days of James I.

THE EAST MIDLAND DIALECT.

(About A.D. 1280).1

THE HAVELOK.-Page 38.

On pe nith, als Goldeborw lay,
Sory and sorwful was she ay,
For she wende she were biswike,"
Pat she w]ere yeven unkyndelike.
O nith saw she per-inne a lith,
A swipe fayr, a swipe bryth,
Al so brith, al so shir,d

So it were a blase of fir.

She lokede no(r)þ, and ek south,

And saw it comen ut of his mouth,
Pat lay bi hire in pe bed:

e

No ferlike pou she were adred.
Pouthe she, 'wat may this bimene?
He beth heyman yet, als y wene,
He beth heyman er he be ded.'
On hise shuldre, of gold red
She saw a swipe noble croiz,
Of an angel she herde a voyz,
"Goldeborw, lat pi sorwe be,
For Havelok, þat haveþ spuset þe,
He [is] kinges sone, and kinges eyr,
Pat bikenneth pat croiz so fayr.
It bikenneth more, pat he shal
Denemark haven, and Englond al.
He shal ben king strong and stark
Of Engelond and Denemark.2
Pat shal pu wit pin eyne sen,
And po shalt quen and levedi ben.'

h

i

a tricked
b unnatu-
rally

e very

d clear

e wonder

f will be

g nobleman

h betokens

i see

1 In this poem nith stands for night, and other words in the same way.

2 This way of pronouncing all the three vowels alike of the word Engelond had not died out in Shakespere's time.

Panne she havede herd the stevene
Of pe angel uth of hevene,
She was so fele sipes1 blithe,
Pat she ne mithe hire joie mythe.m
But Havelok sone anon she kiste,
And he slep and nouth ne wiste.
Hwan pat aungel havede seyd,
Of his slep anon he brayd,"
And seide, 'lemman, slepes pou?
A selkuth drem dremede me nou.
Herkne nou hwat me haveth met,p
Me pouthe y was in Denemark set,
But on on pe moste hil
Pat evere yete kam i til.

It was so hey, þat y wel mouthe
Al þe werd' se, als me pouthe.
Als i sat upon pat lowe,s
I bigan Denemark for to awe,
Pe borwest and pe castles stronge;
And mine armes weren so longe,
That i fadmede, al at ones,

Denemark, with mine longe bones.

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Sho answerede and seyde sone:
'Jhesu Crist, pat made mone,
Pine dremes turne to joye;
Pat witeb pw that sittes in trone.
Ne non strong king, ne caysere,
So pou shalt be, fo[r] pou shalt bere
In Engelond corune yet;
Denemark shal knele to pi fet.
Alle pe castles pat aren per-inne,
Shal-tow, lemman, ful wel winne.'

b decree

THE CONTRAST TO THE EAST MIDLAND.

(About A.D. 1280.)

Whan Jhesu Crist was don on rode

And polede dep for ure gode,
He clepede to hym seint Johan,
Pat was his oze qenes man,
And his ozene moder also,
Ne clepede he hym feren no mo.
And sede, 'wif, lo her pi child
Pat on pe rode is ispild :
Nu ihc am honged on pis tre
Wel sore ihc wot hit rewep pe.
Mine fet and honden of blod.
Bipute gult ihc polie pis ded.
Mine men pat agte me to love,
For whan ihc com from hevene abuve,
Me havep idon pis ilke schame.
Ihc nave no gult, hi bup to blame.
To mi fader ihc bidde mi bone,
Pat he forgive hit hem wel sone.'
Marie stod and sore weop,

Pe teres feolle to hire fet.

No wunder nas pez heo wepe sore,
Of soreze ne migte heo wite no more,

Whenne he pat of hire nam blod and fless,
Also his suete wille was,

Heng inayled on pe treo.

" Alas, my sone,' seide heo,

'Hu may ihc live, hu may pis beo?'

The above is taken from the Assumption of the Virgin, printed by the Early English Text Society, along with the King Horn and another poem, all written about 1280 or rather later. In them we find that the Active Participle in inge, first used by Layamon, has almost driven out the older inde. The King Horn was written in some part of England (Oxfordshire ?), upon which the East Midland dialect had begun to act, grafting its Plural form of the Present tense upon the older form in eth. Here hwanon (unde) is replaced by whannes, our whence. In page 8 there is a curious instance of the Old English idiom, which piles up negatives upon each other: this survives in the mouths of the common folk.

'Heo ne mizte. . . speke . . . nogt in pe halle,
ne nowhar in non opere stede.

We now light on scrip (pera), which comes from the Norse skreppa, and pore (spectare), akin to the Swedish pala.1 There are also three words akin to the Dutch or German, clink, flutter, and guess. Chivalrous ideas were now being widely spread under the sway of the great Edward, and we find that a verb has been formed from the substantive knight.

'For to knigti child horn.'-Line 480.

1 Pala i en bok is to pore on a book.—Wedgwood.

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