Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/291

262 about the same time. Layamon's no (nec) becomes nor, in the Salopian poem quoted at page 205; this is shortened from nother. Reule, having long been a sub&shy;stantive, now becomes a verb, and we see ine mêne time. The form graciouser, in the Ayenbite, is one of the last attempts to force the English sign of comparison on a French adjective ending in ous. The old dysig (stultus) gets our modern sense of dizzy; and Langland's kill (occidere) replaces the old cwell, which now has only the meaning of opprimere.

A curious poem, the Debate of the Carpenter's Tools (Hazlitt's Collection, I. 88), is the compilation that best represents Manning's style; it seems to have been written about 1340, and must belong to the Rutland neighbour&shy;hood: it certainly has a dash of the Northern speech. I give a few lines as alink between Manning and Mandeville.