Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/258

Rh Franciscan movement had been known in our island for six hundred years. The Old was being replaced by the New; a preacher would suit his tales to his listeners: they cared not to hear about hinds or hus&shy;bandmen, but about their betters. He would therefore talk about ladies, knights, or statesmen; and when dis&shy;coursing about these, he must have been almost driven to interlard his English with a few French words, such as were constantly employed by his friends of the higher class. As a man of learning, he would begin to look down upon the phrases of his childhood as somewhat coarse, and his lowly hearers rather liked a term now and then that was a little above their understanding: what is called ‘fine language’ has unhappily always had charms for most Englishmen. It would be relished by burghers even more than by peasants. The preacher may sometimes have translated for his flock's behoof, talking of ‘grith or pais, rood or croiz, steven or voiz, lof or praise, swinkeldom or tricherie, stead or place.’ As