Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/79

Rh 1. The silence of historians, and especially the historians of Alfred. 2. The works falsely attributed to that prince, of which Spelman has given some account. 3. The great number of expressions, and many of the morals to the fables, which imply a feudal government in its greatest vigour, and which, therefore, demonstrate that this English translation could not have been of the time of Alfred. 4. This prince began his reign in 871, and died in 901; now is it credible that an Anglo-Saxon version of the 9th century could have been intelligible to Mary, who had only learned the English of the 13th? Had not the lapse of time, and the descents of the Danes and Normans in the 11th century, contributed, in the first place, to alter the Anglo-Saxon; and afterwards, during the 12th, the rest of the people from the northern and western provinces of France, having become dependant upon England, did not they, likewise, by their commerce, and residence in that country, introduce a considerable change into its language? I know not if I mistake, but I can never believe that Mary could have understood the language of the time of Alfred. This difficulty may, perhaps, be removed by a comparison of works. The poems of Robert of Gloucester, who wrote in English at the time Mary lived, are still remaining, and if examined with the Anglo-Saxon pieces of king Alfred, will at once point out the changes in the English language between the 9th and 13th centuries. To accomplish this, it is necessary to possess an intimate acquaintance with the language of both periods, and consequently my powers are inadequate to the task. Yet, if it were undertaken by some competent judge, I believe all would concur in the opinion of the learned Dr. Johnson, who agrees that before the middle of the 12th century the Anglo-Saxon language was already much changed, and that in the 13th Rh