Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/121

92 a saucy fellow, that ‘he wole grennen, cocken, and chiden;’ here we have the first hint as to our adjective cocky. The whole poem is most Teutonic; but at the end of the two last stanzas, the bard, perhaps wishing to show off, brings in a few French words most need&shy;lessly: —

Ac nim þe to þe a stable mon þat word and dede bisette con, and multeplien heure god, a sug fere þe his help in mod. . . . . . Hie ne sige nout bi þan, þat moni ne ben gentile man; þuru þis lore and genteleri he amendit huge companie.

This is the first instance of our word gentleman. We find for the first time the Frisian haste, and also dote (dolt), akin to a Dutch term; besides a few Scandinavian words. Huge, from the Norse ugga, to frighten. Scold, from the Swedish skalla. We have also added to our well-known word ban the Norse sense maledicere, as seen in this poem. About the year 1200, the Old English Charters of Bury St. Edmunds were turned into the current speech of the shire, and these fill many pages of Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus.

THE EAST MIDLAND DIALECT.

(About 1200.)

I now come to that writer who, more clearly than any other, sets before us the growth of the New English, the great work of the Twelfth Century. The monk