Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/630

 536 Outlines of European History An example of English in the thirteenth century (from A Metrical Version of Genesis) togeanes him & hine ofslogen, & ix hund manna mid him."^ In modern English this reads : " In this year King William gave the Earl Robert the earldom of Northumberland. Then came the men of the country against him and slew him, and nine hundred men with him." By the middle of the thirteenth century, two hundred years after the Norman Conquest, English begins to look somewhat familiar : And Aaron held up his bond To the water and the more lond ; Tho cam thor up schwilc froschkes here The dede al folc Egipte dere ; Summe woren wilde, and summe tame. And tho hem deden the moste schame ; In huse, in drinc, in metes, in bed, It cropen and maden hem for-dred. ., c Modernized version And Aaron held up his hand To the water and the greater land ; Then came there up such host of frogs That did all Egypt's folk harm ; Some were wild, and some were tame. And those caused them the most shame ; In house, in drink, in meats, in bed. They crept and made them in great dread. . . . Chaucer (about 1340-1400) was the first great English writer whose works are now read with pleasure, although one is some- times puzzled by his spelling and certain words which are no longer used. This is the way one of his tales opens : A poure wydow somdel stope in age. Was whilom dwellyng in a narwe cotage, 1 In writing Anglo-Saxon two old letters are used for ih, one (b) for the sound in " thin " and the other ('S) for that in " father." The use of these old letters serves to make the language look more different from that of to-day than it is.