Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/293

264 relics could be wholly swept away from Standard English. The corruption first seen in 1220, whereby most dreadful replaced the old Superlative, is sown broadcast over Man&shy;deville's works. He has the new form, houshold. The Northern same (idem), so sparingly employed of yore even in the North, is now found instead of ilk; ask instead of axe, ren (currere) instead of urn, chough instead of cho&#x0293;, mordrere instead of murþerere. Ayens now takes a t at the end, in the true English style, and becomes ayenst (contra). The old forms dwerghes, o ferrom, thilke, overthwart, are still kept. There are barely more than fifty obsolete English words in the whole of Man&shy;deville's book, though it extends over 316 printed pages. It was wonderfully popular in England, as is witnessed by the number of copies that remain, tran&shy;scribed within a few years of the worthy knight's death. Few laymen had written in English, so far as can be known, since King Alfred's time.

We now find a University lending its sanction to the speech of the common folk. In 1384, William of Nassington laid a translation into English rimes before the learned men of Cambridge. The Chancellor and the whole of the University spent four days over the work; on the fifth day they pronounced it to be free from heresy and to be grounded on the best authority. Had any errors been found in it, the book would have been burnt at once. For the last thirty years there had been a great stirring up of the English mind;