Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/98

 AUCER.

47. Reign of Edward III, 1377 to 1327.--Example written about 1360.

"And eke full ofte a littell skare   Vpon a banke, er men be ware,    Let in the streme, whiche with gret peine,    If any man it shall restreine.    Where lawe failleth, errour groweth;    He is not wise, who that ne troweth."--SIR JOHN GOWER.

48. Example from Mandeville, the English traveller--written in 1356.

"And this sterre that is toward the Northe, that wee clepen the lode sterre, ne apperethe not to hem. For whiche cause, men may wel perceyve, that the lond and the see ben of rownde schapp and forme. For the partie of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not in another contree. And men may well preven be experience and sotyle compassement of wytt, that zif a man fond passages be schippes, that wolde go to serchen the world, men mighte go be schippe all aboute the world, and aboven and benethen. The whiche thing I prove thus, aftre that I have seyn. * * * Be the whiche I seye zou certeynly, that men may envirowne alle the erthe of alle the world, as wel undre as aboven, and turnen azen to his contree, that hadde companye and schippynge and conduyt: and alle weyes he scholde fynde men, londes, and yles, als wel as in this contree."--SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE; ''Johnson's Hist. of E. L.'', p. 26.

49. ''Example from Rob. Langland's "Vision of Pierce Ploughman," 1350''.

"In the somer season,   When hot was the Sun,    I shope me into shroubs,    As I a shepe were;    In habit as an harmet,    Vnholy of werkes,    Went wyde in this world    Wonders to heare."

50. Description of a Ship--referred to the reign of Edward II: 1327-1307.

"Such ne saw they never none,   For it was so gay begone,    Every nayle with gold ygrave,    Of pure gold was his sklave,    Her mast was of ivory,    Of samyte her sayle wytly,    Her robes all of whyte sylk,    As whyte as ever was ony mylke.    The noble ship was without    With clothes of gold spread about    And her loft and her wyndlace    All of gold depaynted was." ANONYMOUS: Bucke's Gram., p. 143.

51. From an Elegy on Edward I, who reigned till 1307 from 1272.

"Thah mi tonge were made of stel,     Ant min herte yzote of bras,    The goodness myht y never telle,      That with kyng Edward was:    Kyng, as thou art cleped conquerour,      In uch battaille thou hadest prys;    God bringe thi soule to the honour,      That ever wes ant ever ys.    Now is Edward of Carnavan      Kyng of Engelond al aplyght;    God lete him never be worse man      Then his fader, ne lasse myht,    To holden his pore men to ryht,      Ant understonde good counsail,    Al Engelond for to wysse and dyht;      Of gode knyhtes darh him nout fail." ANON.: Percy's Reliques, Vol. ii, p. 10.

VII. ENGLISH OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

52. ''Reign of Henry III, 1272 to 1216.--Example from an old ballad entitled Richard of Almaigne; which Percy says was "made by one of the adherents of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, soon after the battle of Lewes, which was fought, May 14, 1264."--Percy's Reliques'', Vol. ii.

"Sitteth alle stille, and herkneth to me;   The kyng of Almaigne, bi mi leaute,    Thritti thousent pound askede he    For te make the pees in the countre,          Ant so he dude more.      Richard, thah thou be ever trichard,          Trichten shalt thou never more."

53. In the following examples, I substitute Roman letters for the Saxon. At this period, we find the characters mixed. The style here is that which Johnson calls "a kind of intermediate diction, neither Saxon nor English." Of these historical rhymes, by Robert of Gloucester, the Doctor gives us more than two hundred lines;