Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/623

 APPENDIX C 603 Sir John Hawkwood, whose surname the Italians could not pronounce, so called him A cut us. As bearing on the question of what language was spoken in mediasval Evidence as to times the following extracts are worthy of note, showing in the first two Medixval cases that it was thought remarkable for an ecclesiastic to speak English at language. all in the thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth for an English gentle- man to speak nothing but French, while in the third, familiar English is used in the fourteenth century by two men of knightly rank to illustrate that in warfare what matters is the men behind the guns. In the English Legend of St. Edmund the Archbishop (who d. 1240) we find it stated that he spoke English on his deathbed, " Surrexit et confessus est Anglice."(') (Thomas Eccleston, Monumenta Franciscana). " Dominus Matheus de Myl- borne, miles probus et prudens, nacione Anglicus, sed usu loquendi Gallicus, Gallicum tantum loquens." (^Jnnales Htbemi,£ fratrisjohannis Clyn, a contemporary (who died 1349), writing of 1326). In Annates Hibemia:, vol. ii, p. 391, which Annals stop at 1370, and are written in Latin by a contemporary annalist, under date 1352, it appears that Henry, son of Sir Robert Savage, in conversation with his father, " Dixit in vulgari ' melius est castrum de bones quam de stones' " Owing to the fact that "u" and "n" are usually quite indistinguishable Confusion of in early manuscript,('') divers forms of the same name have grown up, and "n" and "u." the wife of Hugh [Lord] Despenser is variously described in Peerages as Alina and Oliva, these being probably not the same name, though con- fused by the scribe. Also in the Lords' Report on the dignity of a Peer, two summonses received by a Judge named Hervey de Stanton are printed as directed respectively Her^'ico de Stauntone and Herwico de Stantone ; Mauger le Vavasour is there stated to have been summoned 29 Edw. I by writs direct- ed Ma«go Vavassur, and John de Haudlo and xA.ucher fitz Henry have writs Johi de A«dlo and A«chero fil' Henrici; Sir Walter de Mauny, the founder of the Charterhouse, who came from Mauny in France, is more commonly known as de Ma;my, and Chief Justice Parvyng appears in books as Par«yng. There is a woman's name occurring occasionally in old docu- ments as to which it is impossible to say whether it should be read " Ivette " or "Juette"; a ship's name also occurs, "la Jouette," which appears to be a variant of the latter, and to point to that being the correct reading; but who can say that "la JoKette " should not rightly be "la Jo»ette," and therefore merely the equivalent of little Joan or Janet. Again there is a surname usually written Inge, which rnay equally well be Juge. The letters nn are often practically indistinguishable from mi, e.g. Anna, Amia. {=■) J. H. Round informs the Editor that the Archbishop, who was the son of an Abingdon tradesman, is stated to have said, when dying, " Men seth gamen gooth on wombe, ac ich se^ge gamen gooth on herte" (Men say that pleasure is of the stomach and I say that it is of the heart). Several variants of this speech are given. C) The Deputy Keeper states that in some of the Clost Rolh temp. Henry HI the two letters are perfectly distinguished, as they arc in most of the early Feet of Ernes.