Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/189

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We now find for the first time ye (vos) used instead of thou. French, influence must have been at work here.

‘Fader, no wretthe the nought, Ful welcome er ye.’ — Page 41.

Some new substantives are found. In page 25 a castle is called a hold. In page 32 the old bonda (co&shy;lonus) is turned into husbondman. The poet elsewhere has a new sense for bond, which of old meant nothing more than a tiller of the ground: it now gets the sense of servus, as at page 184:

‘Tho folwed bond and fre.’ ―――――――――― Tristrem faught as a knight, And Urgan al in tene Yaf him a strok unlight; His scheld he clef bituene Atuo. Tristrem, withouten wene, Nas never are so wo. Eft Urgan smot with main, And of that strok he miste; Tristrem smot ogayn, And thurch his body he threste; Urgan lepe unfain, Over the bregge he deste: Tristrem hath Urgan slain, That al the cuntre wist With wille. The king tho Tristrem kist, And Wales tho yeld him tille.