In the Homilies of 1160 we trace a new change. Foreign proper names had hitherto unbendingly maintained their Latin form in England. They were now being corrupted, owing to French influence; at pages 47 and 49 we find mention of Jeremie and Seint Gregori. At page 9 we see both the old form folc of Iudeus and the new form pe Giwis (Jews). Maria and Jacobus now become Marie and Jame. French words were being brought in most needlessly; thus we read at page 51, 'crabbe is an manere (kind) of fissce.'

In the Essex Homilies, the French is seen elbowing out the Latin from proper names. Andreas and Mattheus become Andreu and Matheu: this eu we English could never frame our mouths to pronounce aright. What was of old written leo is turned into leun (lion); ælmesse into almes; marma into marbelstone (page 145). We find pay, mend, blame, and wait: these four are perhaps the French verbs that now come oftenest into our common use. Deciple replaces the old learning knight. An intruding letter is seen in z, (mazere is found at page 163). This z did not become common in England for nearly three hundred years. Layamon wrote his long poem the Brut about 1205; but, though this was mainly a translation from the French, he seldom employs a French word, and hardly ever without good reason. Orrmin is still more of an Englishman in his scorn for outlandish words. About this time, the days of King John, one-fifth of the weighty words in a passage are such as have become obsolete in our day. Under John's grandson, this pro

1 See the Paston Letters (Gairdner), I. 510.

portion was to be woefully altered. The only thing that could have kept up a purely Teutonic speech in England would have been some version of the Bible, a standard of the best English of the year 1200. But this was not to be; Pope Innocent III. and his Prelates had no mind to furnish laymen with weapons that might be so easily turned against the Church. We have missed much; had Orrmin given us a good version of the Scriptures, our tongue would have had all the flexibility of the New English, and would have kept the power of compounding words out of its own stores, the power that belonged to the Old English.

The Ancren Riwle, written about 1220, is the forerunner of a wondrous change in our speech. The proportion of Old English words, now obsolete, is therein much the same as it is in the writings of Orrmin and Layamon. But the new work swarms with French words, brought in most needlessly. What could we want with such terms as cuntinuelement, Deuleset (God knows), belami, misericorde, and cogitaciun? The author is even barbarous enough to give us the French sulement, where we should now write only. I set down a short sample, underlining the foreign words. 'Heo weren itented, and puruh pe tentaciuns ipreoved to treowe champiuns, and so mid rihte ofserveden kempene crune.' Many a word, embodied in the English Bible and Prayer Book three hundred years later, is now found for the first time in our tongue. These words were accented in the

1

1 Page 236 of the Camden Society's edition. I have not underlined proved, as that foreign word was in use before the Norman Conquest.

French way, on the last French syllable; the usage held its ground for four hundred years. Indeed, it still rules us when we pronounce urbane and divine. A new vowel sound now first made itself heard in England; we find in the Ancren Riwle words like joie, noise, and despoil. This French invader was in process of time to drive the old English pronunciation of home-born words out of polite society; our lower classes indeed may sound býle (pustula) as our forefathers did, but our upper classes must call it boil. A well-known French name is seen as 'Willam' (p. 340), and it is still often pronounced 'Willum.' We find alas for the first time: this is said to be a compound of the English eala and the French hélas; alack was to come later. The author of the Ancren Riwle foreshadows the inroad that French was to make even into the English Paternoster; in page 26 he translates, 'dimitte nobis debita nostra,' by 'forgif us ure dettes, al so ase we vorzived to ure detturs.' He uses the word mesire, where we should say Sir; Salimbene, who was born in Italy about the time that the Ancren Riwle was compiled, tells us that the Pope was always addressed by the Romans as, Tu, Messer;' and that the Emperor Frederick II. received the same title from his Southern Italians. When we find the word cruelte, we see at once that England has often preserved French words in a more uncorrupt shape than France herself has done.3

One of these words, accented in the French way, is preserved in the old rimes, Mistress Mary, quite contrary.'

2 Schoolboys may call irritare 'to ryle;' the grave Lord Keeper Guildford and his brother Roger North pronounced it roil.

3 We have kept the good old French empress; the French lost the word and had to go straight to the Latin for imperatrice.

We must turn to page 316, if we would know the source of 'to make a fool of myself;' we there find, ‘ich habbe ibeon fol of me sulven' (concerning myself). In page 46 we find mention of ' a large creoiz;' this shows that the adjective was getting the meaning of magnus as well as of prodigus. The French creoiz was not to drive out the Danish kross; though the English rood was unhappily to vanish almost entirely. Many technical words of religion come in, such as silence and wardein; at page 42 we see the stages in the derivation of a wellknown word, antiphona, antempne, antefne; anthem was to come later. At page 192 may be found the phrase gentile wummen. We light upon spitel (hospital) and mester, afterwards corrupted into mystery, a confusion with the Greek word. At page 202 we see the source of he is but a poor creature;' for the term cowardice is there said to embrace the poure iheorted. The old French garser (page 258) supplied us with the word garses, that is, gashes. The old English caser (Cæsar) was altered into kaiser, a word lately brought to life again in our land by Mr. Carlyle. The letters ea had taken such fast root in the West, that even French words had to suit themselves to this peculiarly English combination; in page 58 we find our well-known beast. We light upon the source of our Jewry, as Judæa is sometimes translated in our Bible, when we read at page 394 that God leide himsulf vor us ine Giwerie.' The first letter, a sound borrowed from France, shows us how we came to soften the old brig into bridge. At page 44 we

1 This phrase, Thackeray tells us, was admired by Miss Honeyman more than any word in the English vocabulary.

see the French crier beginning to drive out the old English gridan. These kindred words are often found alongside each other in this Century; and unhappily it is usually the French one that has held its ground. It is now and then hard to tell whether some of our commonest words are home-born or of French growth, so great is the confusion between the Teutonic words brought to the Thames by Hengist, and the kindred words brought to the Seine by Clovis and afterwards borne across the channel by William the Conqueror. The kinsmanship in meaning and sound must have bespoken a welcome in England for these French strangers that follow.