Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/301

272 sykenes and in helthe : And in all other degrese be unto hym as a wyfe should be to hir husbande, and all other to forsake for hym : and holde thee only to hym to thy lyves end? Respondeat mulier hoc modo : I wyll.

1. . . . ..

‘I N. take the N. to my weddyd husbonde to have and to holde fro thys day for bether, for wurs, for richer, for porer, in sykenesse and in helthe, to be bonour and buxum in bed and at bort : tyll deth us departe yf holy chyrche wol it ordeyne : and ther to I plycht the my trouth.

‘With this rynge I wedde the, and with this gold and silver I honoure the, and with this gyft I honoure the. In nomine Patris : et Filii : et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.’

. . . . ..

The middle of the Fourteenth Century was the time when English, as it were, made a fresh start, and was prized by high and low alike. I take what follows from an old Lollard work, put forth about 1450 and printed eighty years later, when the term Lollard was being swallowed up by the term Lutheran: ‘Sir William Thorisby archebishop of Yorke did do draw a treatyse in englishe by a worshipfull clercke whose name was Gratryke, in the whiche were conteyned the articles of beleve, the seven dedly synnes, the seven workes of mercy, the X commaundmentes. And sent them in small pagines to the commyn people to leame it and to knowe it, of which yet many a copye be in england. . . . Also it is knowen to many men in ye tyme of King Richerd ye II. yat into a parlement was put a bible