A Brief History of the English Language and Literature Part 2

24. +Latin of the Third Period+ (iii). +Norman Words+ (_a_). --The Norman-French words were of several different kinds. There were words connected with war, with feudalism, and with the chase. There were new law terms, and words connected with the State, and the new inst.i.tutions introduced by the Normans. There were new words brought in by the Norman churchmen. New t.i.tles unknown to the English were also introduced.

A better kind of cooking, a higher and less homely style of living, was brought into this country by the Normans; and, along with these, new and unheard-of words.

25. +Norman Words+ (_b_).-- The following are some of the Norman-French terms connected with war: +Arms+, +armour+; +a.s.sault+, +battle+; +captain+, +chivalry+; +joust+, +lance+; +standard+, +trumpet+; +mail+,+ vizor+. The English word for +armour+ was +harness+; but the Normans degraded that word into the armour of a horse. +Battle+ comes from the Fr. _battre_, to beat: the corresponding English word is +fight+.

+Captain+ comes from the Latin _caput_, a head. +Mail+ comes from the Latin _macula_, the mesh of a net; and the first coats of mail were made of rings or a kind of metal network. +Vizor+ comes from the Fr. _viser_, to look. It was the barred part of the helmet which a man could see through.

26. +Norman Words+ (_c_).-- Feudalism may be described as the holding of land on condition of giving or providing service in war. Thus a knight held land of his baron, under promise to serve him so many days; a baron of his king, on condition that he brought so many men into the field for such and such a time at the call of his Overlord. William the Conqueror made the feudal system universal in every part of England, and compelled every English baron to swear homage to himself personally. Words relating to feudalism are, among others: +Homage+, +fealty+; +esquire+, +va.s.sal+; +herald+, +scutcheon+, and others. +Homage+ is the declaration of obedience for life of one man to another-- that the inferior is the _man_ (Fr. _homme_; L. _h.o.m.o_) of the superior. +Fealty+ is the Norman-French form of the word _fidelity_. An +esquire+ is a +scutiger+ (L.), or _s.h.i.+eld-bearer_; for he carried the s.h.i.+eld of the knight, when they were travelling and no fighting was going on. A +va.s.sal+ was a "little young man,"-- in Low-Latin +va.s.sallus+, a diminutive of _va.s.sus_, from the Keltic word _gwas_, a man. (The form _va.s.saletus_ is also found, which gives us our _varlet_ and _valet_.) +Scutcheon+ comes from the Lat. _scutum_, a s.h.i.+eld. Then scutcheon or escutcheon came to mean _coat-of-arms_-- or the marks and signs on his s.h.i.+eld by which the name and family of a man were known, when he himself was covered from head to foot in iron mail.

27. +Norman Words+ (_d_).-- The terms connected with the chase are: +Brace+, +couple+; +chase+, +course+; +covert+, +copse+, +forest+; +leveret+, +mews+; +quarry+, +venison+. A few remarks about some of these may be interesting. +Brace+ comes from the Old French _brace_, an arm (Mod. French _bras_); from the Latin _brachium_. The root-idea seems to be that which encloses or holds up. Thus _bracing_ air is that which _strings_ up the nerves and muscles; and a _brace_ of birds was two birds tied together with a string. --The word +forest+ contains in itself a good deal of unwritten Norman history. It comes from the Latin adverb _foras_, out of doors. Hence, in Italy, a stranger or foreigner is still called a _forestiere_. A forest in Norman-French was not necessarily a breadth of land covered with trees; it was simply land _out of_ the jurisdiction of the common law. Hence, when William the Conqueror created the New Forest, he merely took the land _out of_ the rule and charge of the common law, and put it under his own regal power and personal care. In land of this kind-- much of which was kept for hunting in-- trees were afterwards planted, partly to shelter large game, and partly to employ ground otherwise useless in growing timber.

--+Mews+ is a very odd word. It comes from the Latin verb _mutare_, to change. When the falcons employed in hunting were changing their feathers, or _moulting_ (the word _moult_ is the same as _mews_ in a different dress), the French shut them in a cage, which they called +mue+-- from _mutare_. Then the stables for horses were put in the same place; and hence a row of stables has come to be called a +mews+.

--+Quarry+ is quite as strange. The word _quarry_, which means a mine of stones, comes from the Latin _quadrare_, to make square. But the hunting term _quarry_ is of a quite different origin. That comes from the Latin _cor_ (the heart), which the Old French altered into +quer+. When a wild beast was run down and killed, the heart and entrails were thrown to the dogs as their share of the hunt. Hence Milton says of the eagle, "He scents his quarry from afar." --The word +venison+ comes to us, through French, from the Lat. _venari_, to hunt; and hence it means _hunted flesh_. The same word gives us _venery_-- the term that was used in the fourteenth century, by Chaucer among others, for hunting.

28. +Norman Words+ (_e_).-- The Normans introduced into England their own system of law, their own law officers; and hence, into the English language, came Norman-French law terms. The following are a few: +a.s.size+, +attorney+; +chancellor+, +court+; +judge+, +justice+; +plaintiff+,+ sue+; +summons+, +trespa.s.s+. A few remarks about some of these may be useful. The +chancellor+ (_cancellarius_) was the legal authority who sat behind lattice-work, which was called in Latin _cancelli_. This word means, primarily, _little crabs_; and it is a diminutive from _cancer_, a crab. It was so called because the lattice-work looked like crabs' claws crossed. Our word _cancel_ comes from the same root: it means to make cross lines through anything we wish deleted. --+Court+ comes from the Latin _cors_ or _cohors_, a sheep-pen. It afterwards came to mean an enclosure, and also a body of Roman soldiers. --The proper English word for a _judge_ is +deemster+ or +demster+ (which appears as the proper name _Dempster_); and this is still the name for a judge in the Isle of Man. The French word comes from two Latin words, _dico_, I utter, and _jus_, right. The word jus is seen in the other French term which we have received from the Normans-- +justice+. --+Sue+ comes from the Old Fr. _suir_, which appears in Modern Fr. as _suivre_. It is derived from the Lat. word _sequor_, I follow (which gives our _sequel_); and we have compounds of it in _ensue_, _issue_, and _pursue_. --The +tres+ in +trespa.s.s+ is a French form of the Latin trans, beyond or across. _Trespa.s.s_, therefore, means to cross the bounds of right.

29. +Norman Words+ (_f_).-- Some of the church terms introduced by the Norman-French are: +Altar+, +Bible+; +baptism+, +ceremony+; +friar+; +tonsure+; +penance+, +relic+. --The Normans gave us the words +t.i.tle+ and +dignity+ themselves, and also the following t.i.tles: +Duke+, +marquis+; +count+, +viscount+; +peer+; +mayor+, and others. A duke is a _leader_; from the Latin _dux_ (= _duc-s_). A +marquis+ is a lord who has to ride the _marches_ or borders between one county, or between one country, and another. A marquis was also called a +Lord-Marcher+. The word +count+ never took root in this island, because its place was already occupied by the Danish name _earl_; but we preserve it in the names +countess+ and +viscount+-- the latter of which means a person _in the place of_ (L. _vice_) a count. +Peer+ comes from the Latin _par_, an equal. The House of Peers is the House of Lords-- that is, of those who are, at least when in the House, _equal_ in rank and _equal_ in power of voting. It is a fundamental doctrine in English law that every man "is to be tried by his _peers_." --It is worthy of note that, in general, the +French+ names for different kinds of food designated the +cooked+ meats; while the names for the +living+ animals that furnish them are +English+. Thus we have _beef_ and _ox_; _mutton_ and _sheep_; _veal_ and _calf_; _pork_ and _pig_. There is a remarkable pa.s.sage in Sir Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe,' which ill.u.s.trates this fact with great force and picturesqueness:--

"'Gurth, I advise thee to call off Fangs, and leave the herd to their destiny, which, whether they meet with bands of travelling soldiers, or of outlaws, or of wandering pilgrims, can be little else than to be converted into Normans before morning, to thy no small ease and comfort.'

"'The swine turned Normans to my comfort!' quoth Gurth; 'expound that to me, Wamba, for my brain is too dull, and my mind too vexed, to read riddles.'

"'Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their four legs?' demanded Wamba.

"'Swine, fool, swine,' said the herd; 'every fool knows that.'

"'And swine is good Saxon,' said the jester; 'but how call you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels, like a traitor?'

"'Pork,' answered the swine-herd.

"'I am very glad every fool knows that too,' said Wamba; 'and pork, I think, is good Norman-French: and so when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the castle-hall to feast among the n.o.bles; what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?'

"'It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool's pate.'

"'Nay, I can tell you more,' said Wamba, in the same tone; 'there is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before the wors.h.i.+pful jaws that are destined to consume him. Myhneer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment.'"

30. +General Character of the Norman-French Contributions.+-- The Norman-French contributions to our language gave us a number of +general names+ or +cla.s.s-names+; while the names for +individual+ things are, in general, of purely English origin. The words +animal+ and +beast+, for example, are French (or Latin); but the words +fox+, +hound+, +whale+, +snake+, +wasp+, and +fly+ are purely English. --The words +family+, +relation+, +parent+, +ancestor+, are French; but the names +father+, +mother+, +son+, +daughter+, +gossip+, are English. --The words +t.i.tle+ and +dignity+ are French; but the words +king+ and +queen+, +lord+ and +lady+, +knight+ and +sheriff+, are English. --Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this is to be found in the abstract terms employed for the offices and functions of State. Of these, the English language possesses only one-- the word +kingdom+. Norman-French, on the other hand, has given us the words +realm+, +court+, +state+, +const.i.tution+, +people+, +treaty+, +audience+, +navy+, +army+, and others-- amounting in all to nearly forty. When, however, we come to terms denoting labour and work-- such as agriculture and seafaring, we find the proportions entirely reversed. The English language, in such cases, contributes almost everything; the French nearly nothing. In agriculture, while +plough+, +rake+, +harrow+, +flail+, and many others are English words, not a single term for an agricultural process or implement has been given us by the warlike Norman-French. --While the words +s.h.i.+p+ and +boat+; +hull+ and +fleet+; +oar+ and +sail+, are all English, the Normans have presented us with only the single word +prow+.

It is as if all the Norman conqueror had to do was to take his stand at the prow, gazing upon the land he was going to seize, while the Low-German sailors worked for him at oar and sail. --Again, while the names of the various parts of the body-- +eye+, +nose+, +cheek+, +tongue+, +hand+, +foot+, and more than eighty others-- are all English, we have received only about ten similar words from the French-- such as +spirit+ and +corpse+; +perspiration+; +face+ and +stature+. Speaking broadly, we may say that all words that express +general notions+, or generalisations, are French or Latin; while words that express +specific+ actions or concrete existences are pure English. Mr Spalding observes-- "We use a foreign term naturalised when we speak of 'colour'

universally; but we fall back on our home stores if we have to tell what the colour is, calling it 'red' or 'yellow,' 'white' or 'black,' 'green'

or 'brown.' We are Romans when we speak in a _general_ way of 'moving'; but we are Teutons if we 'leap' or 'spring,' if we 'slip,' 'slide,' or 'fall,' if we 'walk,' 'run,' 'swim,' or 'ride,' if we 'creep' or 'crawl'

or 'fly.'"

31. +Gains to English from Norman-French.+-- The gains from the Norman-French contribution are large, and are also of very great importance. Mr Lowell says, that the Norman element came in as quickening leaven to the rather heavy and lumpy Saxon dough. It stirred the whole ma.s.s, gave new life to the language, a much higher and wider scope to the thoughts, much greater power and copiousness to the expression of our thoughts, and a finer and brighter rhythm to our English sentences. "To Chaucer," he says, in 'My Study Windows,' "French must have been almost as truly a mother tongue as English. In him we see the first result of the Norman yeast upon the home-baked Saxon loaf. The flour had been honest, the paste well kneaded, but the inspiring leaven was wanting till the Norman brought it over. Chaucer works still in the solid material of his race, but with what airy lightness has he not infused it? Without ceasing to be English, he has escaped from being insular." Let us look at some of these gains a little more in detail.

32. +Norman-French Synonyms.+-- We must not consider a +synonym+ as a word that means exactly _the same thing_ as the word of which it is a synonym; because then there would be neither room nor use for such a word in the language. A synonym is a word of the same meaning as another, but with a slightly different shade of meaning,-- or it is used under different circ.u.mstances and in a different connection, or it puts the same idea under a new angle. +Begin+ and +commence+, +will+ and +testament+, are exact equivalents-- are complete synonyms; but there are very few more of this kind in our language. The moment the genius of a language gets hold of two words of the same meaning, it sets them to do different kinds of work,-- to express different parts or shades of that meaning. Thus +limb+ and +member+, +luck+ and +fortune+, have the same meaning; but we cannot speak of a _limb_ of the Royal Society, or of the _luck_ of the Rothschilds, who made their _fortune_ by hard work and steady attention to business. We have, by the aid of the Norman-French contributions, +flower+ as well as +bloom+; +branch+ and +bough+; +purchase+ and +buy+; +amiable+ and +friendly+; +cordial+ and +hearty+; +country+ and +land+; +gentle+ and +mild+; +desire+ and +wish+; +labour+ and +work+; +miserable+ and +wretched+. These pairs of words enable poets and other writers to use the right word in the right place. And we, preferring our Saxon or good old English words to any French or Latin importations, prefer to speak of +a hearty welcome+ instead of +a cordial reception+; of +a loving wife+ instead of an +amiable consort+; of +a wretched man+ instead of +a miserable individual+.

33. +Bilingualism.+-- How did these Norman-French words find their way into the language? What was the road by which they came? What was the process that enabled them to find a place in and to strike deep root into our English soil? Did the learned men-- the monks and the clergy-- make a selection of words, write them in their books, and teach them to the English people? Nothing of the sort. The process was a much ruder one-- but at the same time one much more practical, more effectual, and more lasting in its results. The two peoples-- the Normans and the English-- found that they had to live together. They met at church, in the market-place, in the drilling field, at the archery b.u.t.ts, in the courtyards of castles; and, on the battle-fields of France, the Saxon bowman showed that he could fight as well, as bravely, and even to better purpose than his lord-- the Norman baron. At all these places, under all these circ.u.mstances, the Norman and the Englishman were obliged to speak with each other. Now arose a striking phenomenon. Every man, as Professor Earle puts it, turned himself as it were into a walking phrase-book or dictionary. When a Norman had to use a French word, he tried to put the English word for it alongside of the French word; when an Englishman used an English word, he joined with it the French equivalent. Then the language soon began to swarm with "yokes of words"; our words went in couples; and the habit then begun has continued down even to the present day. And thus it is that we possess such couples as +will and testament+; +act and deed+; +use and wont+; +aid and abet+. Chaucer's poems are full of these pairs. He joins together +hunting and venery+ (though both words mean exactly the same thing); +nature and kind+; +cheere and face+; +pray and beseech+; +mirth and jollity+. Later on, the Prayer-Book, which was written in the years 1540 to 1559, keeps up the habit: and we find the pairs +acknowledge and confess+; +a.s.semble and meet together+; +dissemble and cloak+; +humble and lowly+. To the more English part of the congregation the simple Saxon words would come home with kindly a.s.sociation; to others, the words _confess_, _a.s.semble_, _dissemble_, and _humble_ would speak with greater force and clearness. --Such is the phenomenon called by Professor Earle +bilingualism+. "It is, in fact," he says, "a putting of colloquial formulae to do the duty of a French-English and English-French vocabulary." Even Hooker, who wrote at the end of the sixteenth century, seems to have been obliged to use these pairs; and we find in his writings the couples "cecity and blindness," "nocive and hurtful,"

"sense and meaning."

34. +Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman-French.+-- (i) Before the coming of the Normans, the English language was in the habit of forming compounds with ease and effect. But, after the introduction of the Norman-French language, that power seems gradually to have disappeared; and ready-made French or Latin words usurped the place of the home-grown English compound. Thus +despair+ pushed out +wanhope+; +suspicion+ dethroned +wantrust+; +bidding-sale+ was expelled by +auction+; +learning-knight+ by +disciple+; +rime-craft+ by the Greek word +arithmetic+; +gold-h.o.a.rd+ by +treasure+; +book-h.o.a.rd+ by +library+; +earth-tilth+ by +agriculture+; +wonstead+ by +residence+; and so with a large number of others. --Many English words, moreover, had their meanings depreciated and almost degraded; and the words themselves lost their ancient rank and dignity. Thus the Norman conquerors put their foot-- literally and metaphorically-- on the Saxon +chair+,[5] which thus became a +stool+, or a +footstool+. +Thatch+, which is a doublet of the word +deck+, was the name for any kind of roof; but the coming of the Norman-French lowered it to indicate a _roof of straw_. +Whine+ was used for the weeping or crying of human beings; but it is now restricted to the cry of a dog. +Hide+ was the generic term for the skin of any animal; it is now limited in modern English to the skin of a beast. --The most damaging result upon our language was that it entirely +stopped the growth of English words+. We could, for example, make out of the word +burn+-- the derivatives +brunt+, +brand+, +brandy+, +brown+, +brimstone+, and others; but this power died out with the coming in of the Norman-French language. After that, instead of growing our own words, we adopted them ready-made. --Professor Craik compares the English and Latin languages to two banks; and says that, when the Normans came over, the account at the English bank was closed, and we drew only upon the Latin bank. But the case is worse than this.

English lost its power of growth and expansion from the centre; from this time, it could only add to its bulk by borrowing and conveying from without-- by the external accretion of foreign words.

[Footnote 5: _Chair_ is the Norman-French form of the French _chaise_. The Germans still call a chair a _stuhl_; and among the English, _stool_ was the universal name till the twelfth century.]

35. +Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman-French.+-- (ii) The arrestment of growth in the purely English part of our language, owing to the irruption of Norman-French, and also to the ease with which we could take a ready-made word from Latin or from Greek, killed off an old power which we once possessed, and which was not without its own use and expressiveness. This was the power of making compound words. The Greeks in ancient times had, and the Germans in modern times have, this power in a high degree. Thus a Greek comic poet has a word of fourteen syllables, which may be thus translated--

"Meanly-rising-early-and-hurrying-to-the-tribunal- to-denounce-another-for-an-infraction-of-the-law- concerning-the-exportation-of-figs."[6]

And the Germans have a compound like "the-all-to-nothing-crus.h.i.+ng philosopher." The Germans also say _iron-path_ for _railway_, _handshoe_ for _glove_, and _finger-hat_ for _thimble_. We also possessed this power at one time, and employed it both in proper and in common names.

Thus we had and have the names _Brakespear_, _Shakestaff_, _Shakespear_, _Golightly_, _Dolittle_, _Standfast_; and the common nouns _want-wit_, _find-fault_, _mumble-news_ (for _tale-bearer_), _pinch-penny_ (for _miser_), _slugabed_. In older times we had _three-foot-stool_, _three-man-beetle_[7]; _stone-cold_, _heaven-bright_, _honey-sweet_, _snail-slow_, _nut-brown_, _lily-livered_ (for _cowardly_); _brand-fire-new_; _earth-wandering_, _wind-dried_, _thunder-blasted_, _death-doomed_, and many others. But such words as _forbears_ or _fore-elders_ have been pushed out by _ancestors_; _forewit_ by _caution_ or _prudence_; and _inwit_ by _conscience_. Mr Barnes, the Dorsets.h.i.+re poet, would like to see these and similar compounds restored, and thinks that we might well return to the old clear well-springs of "English undefiled," and make our own compounds out of our own words. He even carries his desires into the region of English grammar, and, for _degrees of comparison_, proposes the phrase _pitches of suchness_. Thus, instead of the Latin word _omnibus_, he would have _folk-wain_; for the Greek _botany_, he would subst.i.tute _wort-lore_; for _auction_, he would give us _bode-sale_; _globule_ he would replace with _ballkin_; the Greek word _horizon_ must give way to the pure English _sky-edge_; and, instead of _quadrangle_, he would have us all write and say _four-winkle_.

[Footnote 6: In two words, a _fig-shower_ or _sycophant_.]

[Footnote 7: A club for beating clothes, that could be handled only by three men.]

36. +Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman-French.+-- (iii) When once a way was made for the entrance of French words into our English language, the immigrations were rapid and numerous. Hence there were many changes both in the grammar and in the vocabulary of English from the year 1100, the year in which we may suppose those Englishmen who were living at the date of the battle of Hastings had died out. These changes were more or less rapid, according to circ.u.mstances. But perhaps the most rapid and remarkable change took place in the lifetime of William Caxton, the great printer, who was born in 1410. In his preface to his translation of the 'aeneid' of Virgil, which he published in 1490, when he was eighty years of age, he says that he cannot understand old books that were written when he was a boy-- that "the olde Englysshe is more lyke to dutche than englysshe," and that "our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and spoken when I was borne. For we Englysshemen ben borne ynder the domynacyon of the mone [moon], which is neuer stedfaste, but euer wauerynge, wexynge one season, and waneth and dycreaseth another season." This as regards time. --But he has the same complaint to make as regards place. "Comyn englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from another." And he tells an odd story in ill.u.s.tration of this fact. He tells about certain merchants who were in a s.h.i.+p "in Tamyse" (on the Thames), who were bound for Zealand, but were wind-stayed at the Foreland, and took it into their heads to go on sh.o.r.e there. One of the merchants, whose name was Sheffelde, a mercer, entered a house, "and axed for mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys." But the "goode-wyf" replied that she "coude speke no frenshe." The merchant, who was a steady Englishman, lost his temper, "for he also coude speke no frenshe, but wolde have hadde eggys; and she understode hym not."

Fortunately, a friend happened to join him in the house, and he acted as interpreter. The friend said that "he wolde have eyren; then the goode wyf sayde that she understod hym wel." And then the simple-minded but much-perplexed Caxton goes on to say: "Loo! what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren?" Such were the difficulties that beset printers and writers in the close of the fifteenth century.

37. +Latin of the Fourth Period.+-- (i) This contribution differs very essentially in character from the last. The Norman-French contribution was a gift from a people to a people-- from living beings to living beings; this new contribution was rather a conveyance of words from books to books, and it never influenced-- in any great degree-- the +spoken language+ of the English people. The ear and the mouth carried the Norman-French words into our language; the eye, the pen, and the printing-press were the instruments that brought in the Latin words of the Fourth Period. The Norman-French words that came in took and kept their place in the spoken language of the ma.s.ses of the people; the Latin words that we received in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries kept their place in the written or printed language of books, of scholars, and of literary men. These new Latin words came in with the +Revival of Learning+, which is also called the +Renascence+.

The Turks attacked and took Constantinople in the year +1453+; and the great Greek and Latin scholars who lived in that city hurriedly packed up their priceless ma.n.u.scripts and books, and fled to all parts of Italy, Germany, France, and even into England. The loss of the East became the gain of the West. These scholars became teachers; they taught the Greek and Roman cla.s.sics to eager and earnest learners; and thus a new impulse was given to the study of the great masterpieces of human thought and literary style. And so it came to pa.s.s in course of time that every one who wished to become an educated man studied the literature of Greece and Rome. Even women took to the study. Lady Jane Grey was a good Greek and Latin scholar; and so was Queen Elizabeth.

From this time began an enormous importation of Latin words into our language. Being imported by the eye and the pen, they suffered little or no change; the spirit of the people did not influence them in the least-- neither the organs of speech nor the ear affected either the p.r.o.nunciation or the spelling of them. If we look down the columns of any English dictionary, we shall find these later Latin words in hundreds. _Opinionem_ became +opinion+; _factionem_, +faction+; _orationem_, +oration+; _pungentem_ pa.s.sed over in the form of +pungent+ (though we had _poignant_ already from the French); _pauperem_ came in as +pauper+; and _separatum_ became +separate+.

38. +Latin of the Fourth Period.+-- (ii) This went on to such an extent in the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, that one writer says of those who spoke and wrote this Latinised English, "If some of their mothers were alive, they were not able to tell what they say." And Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) remarks: "If elegancy (= the use of Latin words) still proceedeth, and English pens maintain that stream we have of late observed to flow from many, we shall, within a few years, be fain to learn Latin to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility in either." Mr Alexander Gill, an eminent schoolmaster, and the then head-master of St Paul's School, where, among his other pupils, he taught John Milton, wrote a book in 1619 on the English language; and, among other remarks, he says: "O harsh lips!

I now hear all around me such words as _common_, _vices_, _envy_, _malice_; even _virtue_, _study_, _justice_, _pity_, _mercy_, _compa.s.sion_, _profit_, _commodity_, _colour_, _grace_, _favour_, _acceptance_. But whither, I pray, in all the world, have you banished those words which our forefathers used for these new-fangled ones? Are our words to be executed like our citizens?" And he calls this fas.h.i.+on of using Latin words "the new mange in our speaking and writing." But the fas.h.i.+on went on growing; and even uneducated people thought it a clever thing to use a Latin instead of a good English word. Samuel Rowlands, a writer in the seventeenth century, ridicules this affectation in a few lines of verse. He pretends that he was out walking on the highroad, and met a countryman who wanted to know what o'clock it was, and whether he was on the right way to the town or village he was making for. The writer saw at once that he was a simple b.u.mpkin; and, when he heard that he had lost his way, he turned up his nose at the poor fellow, and ordered him to be off at once. Here are the lines:--

"As on the way I itinerated, A rural person I obviated, Interrogating time's transitation, And of the pa.s.sage demonstration.

My apprehension did ingenious scan That he was merely a simplician; So, when I saw he was extravagant, Unto the obscure vulgar consonant, I bade him vanish most promiscuously, And not contaminate my company."

39. +Latin of the Fourth Period.+-- (iii) What happened in the case of the Norman-French contribution, happened also in this. The language became saturated with these new Latin words, until it became satiated, then, as it were, disgusted, and would take no more. Hundreds of

"Long-tailed words in _osity_ and _ation_"

crowded into the English language; but many of them were doomed to speedy expulsion. Thus words like _discerptibility_, _supervacaneousness_, _septentrionality_, _ludibundness_ (love of sport), came in in crowds. The verb _intenerate_ tried to turn out _soften_; and _deturpate_ to take the place of _defile_. But good writers, like Bacon and Raleigh, took care to avoid the use of such terms, and to employ only those Latin words which gave them the power to indicate a new idea-- a new meaning or a new shade of meaning. And when we come to the eighteenth century, we find that a writer like Addison would have shuddered at the very mention of such "inkhorn terms."

40. +Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin.+-- (i) One slight influence produced by this spread of devotion to cla.s.sical Latin-- to the Latin of Cicero and Livy, of Horace and Virgil-- was to alter the spelling of French words.

We had already received-- through the ear-- the French words _a.s.saute_, _aventure_, _defaut_, _dette_, _vitaille_, and others. But when our scholars became accustomed to the book-form of these words in Latin books, they gradually altered them-- for the eye and ear-- into _a.s.sault_, _adventure_, _default_, _debt_, and _victuals_. They went further. A large number of Latin words that already existed in the language in their Norman-French form (for we must not forget that French is Latin "with the ends bitten off"-- changed by being spoken peculiarly and heard imperfectly) were reintroduced in their original Latin form.

Thus we had +caitiff+ from the Normans; but we reintroduced it in the shape of +captive+, which comes almost unaltered from the Latin _captivum_. +Feat+ we had from the Normans; but the Latin _factum_, which provided the word, presented us with a second form of it in the word +fact+. Such words might be called +Ear-Latin+ and +Eye-Latin+; +Mouth-Latin+ and +Book-Latin+; +Spoken Latin+ and +Written Latin+; or Latin at second-hand and Latin at first-hand.

41. +Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin.+-- (ii) This coming in of the same word by two different doors-- by the Eye and by the Ear-- has given rise to the phenomenon of +Doublets+. The following is a list of +Latin Doublets+; and it will be noticed that Latin1 stands for Latin at first-hand-- from books; and Latin2 for Latin at second-hand-- through the Norman-French.

LATIN DOUBLETS OR DUPLICATES.

LATIN. LATIN1. LATIN2.

Antecessorem Antecessor Ancestor.

Benedictionem Benediction Benison.

Cadentia (Low Lat. noun) Cadence Chance.

Captivum Captive Caitiff.

Conceptionem Conception Conceit.

Consuetudinem Consuetude {Custom.