rent sense-voice, people, conjugal, philosophy, alchemist, very, survey, shawl, and other words, to the amount of some hundreds. These have been introduced since the time of the Anglo-Saxons, from the Latin, Greek, French, Arabic, and other languages.

c. Words found in both Anglo-Saxon and English appear in different forms in the different languages.

d. The Anglo-Saxon contained Grammatical forms that are wanting in the present English.

e. The present English contains grammatical forms that were wanting in Anglo-Saxon. The words ours, yours,

theirs, hers, were unknown in Anglo-Saxon.

f. Grammatical forms found both in the Anglo-Saxon and the English appear with different forms of the different languages.

g. Phrases and sentences were used in Anglo-Saxon which are inadmissible in the present English.

h. Phrases and sentences are used in the modern English which were inadmissible in Anglo-Saxon.

§ 18. A great change was effected in the year 1066 a.d.; the year in which the Norman Conquest took place.

The language of William the Conqueror was as different from the Anglo-Saxon as the Anglo-Saxon was from the original British. And the language of his followers was the same. It was wholly foreign to England. It was a language of France, just as the Anglo-Saxon was a language of Germany; and it encroached upon the Anglo-Saxon of England just as that language, some centuries before, had encroached upon the original British.

And just as the languages or dialects akin to the AngloSaxon are to be sought for in Germany, so are the languages, or dialects, akin to the Norman to be sought for in France. The Anglo-Saxon of Alfred and Athelstan resembled the modern German and Dutch. The Norman of William the Conqueror resembled the modern French.

Specimen.

FROM THE ANGLO-NORMAN POEM OF CHARLEMAGNE.

Un jur fu Karléun al Seint-Denis muster,

Reout prise sa corune, en croiz seignat sun chef,

E ad ceinte sa espée : li pons fud d'or mer.
Dux i out e demeines e baruns e chevalers.
Li emperères reguardet la reine sa muillers.
Ele fut ben corunée al plus bel e as meuz.

Translation (Literal).

One day was Charlemagne at St. Denis' minster,

Had taken his crown, in-cross marked (signed) his head

And had girt his sword; the hilt was of gold pure (mere),

Dukes there he had, and lords (dominies or dons) and barons, and cavaliers.

The Emperor looked-at (regarded) the Queen his wife ;

She was well crowned, at the most beautiful and at the best.

Latin (Literal).

Unum diurnum fuit Carolus, ad illud Sancti Dionysii monasterium,
Re-habebat prehensam suam coronam, in cruce signatum suum caput,
Et habebat cinctam suam spadam; ille pugnus fuit de auro mero,

Duces ibi habebat, et dominos, et barones, et caballarios.

Ille imperator contemplatus est illam reginam suam mulierem
Illa fuit bene coronata ad plus bellum et ad melius.

§ 19. Without knowing the exact extent to which the Anglo-Norman displaced the Anglo-Saxon, we may believe in the following particulars:

a. Letters even of a private nature were written in Latin till the beginning of the reign of Edward I., when a sudden change brought in the use of French.

b. Conversation between the Members of the Universities was ordered to be carried on in either Latin or French.

c. The Minutes of the Corporation of London were in French, as well as the proceedings in Parliament and the Courts of Justice.

A tract, however, of the beginning of the fourteenth century gives reasonable grounds for believing, that before the accession of Edward II., the Norman-French had ceased to be the exclusive language of even the aristocracy. At the request of the noble Lady Dionysia de Mounchensy, Walter de Biblesworth composed a poem in French verse, with interlineations in English, in order to teach the rising generation French-ke les enfauns pussunt saver les propretez des choses ke veyunt, et kaunt dewunt dire moun et ma, soun et sa, le et la, moy et ji.

§ 20. Semi-Saxon Stage.-From about 1150 A.D. to 1250, the language is called Semi-Saxon, or half-Saxon, being intermediate to the early English and the Anglo-Saxon anterior to the Conquest.

Old English Stage. The language from the time of Henry III. to Richard II. is called Old English. It agrees with the Anglo-Saxon more than with the present English.

Middle English.-From the reign of Richard II. to that of Queen Elizabeth the language is called Middle English.

Modern English.-To an Englishman of the present day the language under James I., and of the writers of the later part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, although presenting several peculiarities, is sufficiently like the English of the present day to be easily understood. This we may prove

STAGES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 19

by referring to the works of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, or any of the writers of the time in point. This is the period of the Modern (or New) English.

Such is the exhibition of the stages of the English language; through which it has passed between the period of the Anglo-Saxons and the present day. The divisions thus established are of practical convenience in the consideration of the history of our language. Nevertheless, it must not be supposed that the transition from one stage to another is by any means so sudden and definite as it shows itself in the preceding dates. It cannot be believed that, exactly at the death of King John, the language changed from Semi-Saxon to Old English, or exactly at the accession of Edward the Third, from Old English to Middle. The change was gradual. The reigns, however, of the kings are taken for the sake of putting the epochs in question in the form best fitted for being remembered. For the sake, too, of explaining the real nature of the changes of the English Language, the following sketch of its history is annexed:

The first four reigns after the Conquest were unfavourable to the cultivation of literature at all: since the NormanFrench, although sufficient to depress the Anglo-Saxon, was not sufficient to establish a flourishing literature of its own. Some works were composed in both languages. They were, however, in each case both few and unimportant.

The reign of Henry the Second was a favourable period for one of the languages of England, viz. for the NormanFrench.

A proclamation of Henry the Third's to the people of Huntingdonshire is generally considered to be one of the first specimens of English, properly so called, i. e. of English, as opposed to Semi-Saxon. The date is A.D. 1258. Still the preponderating language for written compositions is the Anglo-Norman.

A reaction, however, begins. The father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, wrote under Edward III.; so did his cotemporary Wycliffe, and others of almost equal importance; their predecessors, who had written in English at all, having written either in the Old English, or the Semi-Saxon.

In the reign of Edward IV., printing was introduced into England by William Caxton. By this time, the Anglo-Norman language had become almost wholly superseded by the English, remaining only as the language of a few of the Courts of Law. The English, however, as may be expected, has changed from the English of Chaucer, and is approaching the character of the English of the writers under Henry VIII. In south Britain no poetical successor worthy of comparison with Chaucer has appeared. In Scotland, however, there is the dawning of a bright period.

The establishment of the Protestant religion, and the revival of Classical Learning, are the two great influences in the reign of Henry VIII.; the effects of both upon the style of our writers and the language itself being beneficial. The works of Sir Thomas More, and the earliest translations of the Bible, are the chief instances of the now rapidly increasing English literature.

During the long reign of Queen Elizabeth the language underwent considerable change, and the early Elizabethan writers are much less like the writers of the present century than the later ones. Indeed, what is called the age of Queen Elizabeth comprises the reign of James the First, and part of that of Charles. This is the age of Shakspeare and his cotemporary dramatists. It is also the time when the present translation of the Bible was made. The extent to which the English of the time in question is marked by peculiar indications of antiquity is generally known; so that the present general sketch of the history of the English language ends with the death of James the First.