Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/154

 122

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. FEB. is, im.

of Good Women,' 1. 503. It is interesting to note that it was probably one of his Ovidian reminiscences ; for the original, or something very like it, is to be found in ' Trist.,' III. 5, 31-2 :

Quo quis enim major, magis est placabilis irse ;

Et faciles motus mens generosa capit. 2. Eek Plato seith, who-so that can him rede,

The wordes mote be cosin to the dede.

'Prol.,' 11. 741-2.

It has been pointed out by Morris that this saying of Plato is taken from Boethius, ' De Consolatione,' lib. iii. pr. 12, where Chaucer translates, " Thou hast lerned by the sentence of Plato, that nedes the wordes moten ben cosynes to tho thinges of which thei speken." I do not know whether the " sentence " has yet been traced back to its original source in Plato. The reference is to ' Cratylus,' 435 c, where Socrates thus concludes a curious and fanciful discussion on the origin of lan- guage f/xoi fj.fv ovv xal avTM apf(TKi JJLCV Kara, TO SWOLTOV o/^oia eiVai TO. ovo/iara TOIS 7rpay/xao-iv but proceeds to add that there are difficulties in the way of a perfect affinity between words and things, and that the " vulgar method of convention " must also be called in. Needless to say that the appli- cation given to this theory by Chaucer, to justify his " calling a spade a spade," is quite foreign to Plato's argument.

3. And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly, After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe.

'Prol., '11. 124-6.

As is well known, Prof. Skeat has contended that this passage implies no unfavourable comparison between the French of Stratford and that of Paris, and that Chaucer "merely states a fact, viz., that the Prioress spoke the usual Anglo-French of the English Court, of the English law courts, and of the English eccle- siastics of the higher rank There is no proof

that he thought more highly of the Parisian than of the Anglo-French," &c. (note in Morris's edition).

The same contention is maintained at greater length and with all Prof. Skeat's learning in his 'Principles of English Etymology.' Is it too late to enter the lists in defence of Chaucer's " jape " against his most accom-

Elished editor, arid to attempt to vindicate >r the poet a bit of sly humour that would be entirely in harmony with the tone of delicate irony running through the whole passage (11. 118-62)?

Prof. Skeat fully establishes the fact that Anglo-French was "important" (to use his own word). But the question is whether it was, from the literary and social point of view, regarded by contemporaries of the better class as on a par with continental French.

Norman-French underwent in England an independent and isolated development, which could hardly fail to be one of steady dete- rioration. It became partially popularized ; as is known from an often-quoted passage from Higd en's 'Polychronicon' as translated by Trevisa, French was used in the schools in Chaucer's youth : Higden complains of the "impairing of the birth-tongue" owing to school children having to "construe their lessons and things in French," and not only " gentlemen's sons be taught to speak French from the time that they be rocked in their cradle," but "uplandish men will liken them- selves to gentlemen for to be spoken of." We are reminded of Langland's " dykers and delvers that do their deeds ill and drive forth the long day with ' Dieu vous save, Dame Emme!'" Trevisa adds that in the year 1385, when he was writing, the change from French to English in the schools, which had begun about the middle of the century, was everywhere completed. As was inevitable in a population thus perforce, but imperfectly, bilingual, hybrid forms found their way into the less familiar dialect. There is also external evidence of the low esteem in which Anglo - French came to be held. Under Henry II. an English knight sent over to Normandy for some one to teach his son French showing that A.-F. had lost its purity. Walter Map, in his 'De Nugis Curialium,' also says that the French in England was regarded as old-fashioned and dialectic. These references, which are taken from Emerson's ' History of the English Language,' might no doubt be added to from the literature and records of the period. It is true that there existed a considerable A.-F. literature, but of a somewhat crude character, as is observable in Chaucer's adaptation of the tale of Constance from Nicolas Trivet, in spite of its quaint mediaeval charm. Meanwhile in France itself, though there were still different dialects, the "French of Paris," or "Central French," as Skeafc terms it, had acquired an overmastering literary predominance. Both with the other dialects, by the acquisition of the Angevin provinces in the twelfth century, and with Central French, by constant intercourse, and owing to the French wars from 1337 onwards, the English Court and many of its subjects had become acquainted. This new French influence culminated at the Court of Edward III., who as the son of Isabella of France may well have spoken Parisian French himself, though his officials would still use the Anglo-French jargon in public documents. His wife, Philippa of