grandfather, and to have settled in Britain. The book is chiefly a translation from a French book, called Brut d'Angleterre, and written by a monk called Richard Wace, or, as he describes himself, Maître Wace, clerc lisant-Master Wace, who can write and read. Wace was born in Jersey, educated at Caen, and made Canon of Bayeux by Henry II. But Master Wace's book is to a large extent itself a translation from the old British History (written in Latin) of Geoffrey of Monmouth; and this again is a translation from an old Welsh chronicle, the MS. of which was brought from Brittany, and which is full of stories about King Arthur, Merlin, Queen Wenhaver (or Guinevere), and other more or less mythical personages. Most of the literature of that time consisted of translations; but then the translator took great liberties with his original, and added, or left out, or altered, as he pleased. Wace's 2 Brut numbers 15,000 lines; but Layamon's contains 32,500. Layamon's Brut is written in irregular verse, mostly of three accents and six or seven syllables, without end-rhyme, but with a good deal of alliteration, or head-rhyme. Here and there, however, it has a few end-rhymes. The language is pure English; and it is remarkable that, though written in the thirteenth century, and though the author was under the constant temptation to make his task easier by using the French words of his original, there are not fifty French words in the whole book. 3. ORM, or ORMIN, was another English writer in the beginning of the thirteenth century. He called his book after himself, the ORMULUM, "because that Orm it wrought." He was a monk of the order of St. Augustine, and settled in a monastery somewhere in the East of England. It consists of a series of homilies. First the Gospel for the day is turned into verse, and then reflections and devotional thoughts are added. It is written in alternate verses of four and three accents (eight and seven syllables), without alliteration and also without rhyme. The chief peculiarity of the book is the spelling. Orm doubles every consonant that is accented, Brittany is a Celtic country still; and the people do not speak French, but Brezonec, a language of the same stock as Welsh, Gaelic, and Erse. 2 Wace also wrote the Roman de Rou, or Romance of Rollo. This Rollo, or Rolf, was the famous Rolf, called the Ganger, or walker, because his legs were so long that, when he rode on the little Norway ponies, they touched the ground. or that is preceded by a short vowel. Thus he writes pann for pan, and menn for men; but he writes pan for pane, and men for mean. He says: Icc hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh Affterr thatt little witt tatt me I have wended (turned) into English After that little wit that me There are very few Latin or French words to be found in the Ormulum. The fragment we possess contains 20,000 lines. The Brut of Layamon is written in the Southern, or West-Saxon," dialect of England; the Ormulum in the East Midland, or "Mercian." One chief distinction between these dialects is to be found in the inflection of the verb. They were as follows 4. Another interesting work of the thirteenth century is the ANCREN RIWLE, or the Rule of Anchorites. It is written in English of the West of England. The author is said to have been Richard Poor, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwards of Salisbury and Durham; and it was written for the guidance of three ladies and their servants in a small religious house in Dorsetshire. It contains such directions as the following: Ye, mine leove sustren ne schulen habben no best bute kat one. Ye ne schulen senden lettres, ne underuon lettres, ne writen, buten leave. Ye schulen beon i dodded four sithen ithe yere, uor to lihten ower heaued. Ye, my dear sisters, shall not have no beast but one cat, ye shall not send letters, nor receive letters, nor write without leave. Ye shall be cropped four times in the year, for to lighten your head. 5. The next writer of note, who appears in the beginning of the fourteenth century, is ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER. He was a monk of Gloucester Abbey, and he wrote a CHRONICLE OF ENGLAND. This chronicle is in verse, and is also rhymed. Each line is seven accents, or fourteen syllables long. It begins with Brutus, and comes down to the death of Henry III. Its value is twofold: as a specimen of the language, and as a contribution to English history. But the early part of this chronicle is little more than a translation from Geoffrey of Monmouth. There is one important passage in this chronicle which goes to show that French was still spoken by all the Norman population, and that the English who wanted to "rise in the world" also tried to learn it. Thus came lo! England into the And the Normans not could speak So that high men of this land that Hold all the same speech that they of them took. For but (unless) a man know French, men tell (reckon) of him well little; But low men hold to English and to their natural speech yet. I ween there be not man in no world-countries That holdeth not to their natural speech but England al-one. But well I wot for to know both well it is, For the more that a man knows, the more worth he is. the ilk the same. ilk, i.e., Macdonald of Macdonald. que. Like the Scotch phrase, Macdonald of that eth was the third person plural of the Southern Dialect; Midland , and 6. Another chronicle of England was written by ROBERT MANNYNG (1260–1340). He is also called Robert de Brunne, from his birthplace Brunne, or Bourn, near Market Deeping, in Lincolnshire. This work is in two parts, and both are translations from the French. The first part is translated from Wace's Brut; the second from the chronicle of Piers, or Peter, de Langtoft, a canon of St. Austin, at Bridlington, in Yorkshire. Both parts are written in the same metre as their originals: the first in the octosyllabic metre of Wace; the second in Alexandrines, or twelve-syllable metres. De Brunne has introduced into his English a large number of French words. He also translated, under the title of Handlyng Synne (1303), the Manuel des Pechiez of William de Waddington. According to some, this is his most interesting work. 7. The constantly increasing prevalence of French, and the introduction into our language of a large number of French words, called forth protests from many sturdy and obstinate patriots. The most remarkable of these was Dan Michel, of Kent, who, in 1340, translated into the English of the South a French work treating of religious doctrines, somewhat after the manner of Waddington's Manual. He called it the Again-biting of Inner Knowledge; or, in his own English, the Ayenbite of Inwyt; or, in our modern and Latinised English, The Remorse of Conscience.2 8. The stirring events of the reign of Edward III. found a spirited poet in LAURENCE MINOT. He wrote ten poems on the victories of that king, the most famous of which are The Battle of Halidon Hill (1333). The Siege of Tournay (1340). The Siege of Calais (1346). The Battle of Neville's Cross (1346). 1 This verse received its name from its being the metre of "Les Gestes d'Alexandre -a popular French poem in the middle ages. 2 Re = again; morse = biting. Conscience = knowing with (one's self). There is a martial ring about some of them. He writes thus of the state of France after the battle of Crecy; and the lines are singularly applicable to the same country after the Franco-German war of 1870. The verse is almost as regular and accurate as modern verse. The following is in the original spelling: With bent bowës thai war ful bolde Ex. 1. Learn the translation of the following passage from LAYAMON'S BRUT: ORIGIN OF BILLINGSGATE. Nou ich behabbe i-sed hou hit is agon, of Kairliun 2 in Glommorgan. Go we get to Belyn, to pan blisfolle kyinge.3 þo he hadde imaked þes borh,4 and hit cleopede Kair-Uske Now I have said to thee how it happened, about Caerleon in Glamorgan. Go we now back to Belyn, to that blissful king. When he had made this burgh, and called it Caer-Usk: |