w&mh iitf* m STOv S ^H ^H >r .*?al- *-<*V;5dP •^ <}< ■ M m BHBHH ■ HBSBSSsS 88 Hfl ScR BcSffi SraSSH MMmMH dHmn9 ■ Li& B82BS &m SSn 5538 H« gtfC^ P Pffl W fl TCT MOB B Bg ^HEnfiKal rasH B 1! BB rag BmKI ■ HHIII Glass. i Book ENGLISH RETKACED, OR ghnnrls, OfriW m& $Motyiwl, FOUNDED ON A COMPARISON OF THE BREECHES BIBLE WITH THE ENGLISH OF THE PRESENT DAY. n es„, 3t jus et norma loquendi." De Arte Poetica. CAMBRIDGE : H. WALLIS, 24, SIDNEY STREET- LONDON: BELL & DALDY, 186, FLEET STEEET. 18G2. .." Page 17, line 3, for " superintendance" read "superintendence" Page 34, lines 9 and 25, for "subaudition" read "subaudition." Page 44, line 5, for "met alio," read "metallic." Page 89, lines 5 and 9, for "radicle" read "radical," Page 94, line 4, for "jacto" read "jacio" Page 106, line 17, for "Aire," read "Aire." Page 108, line 9, for "Zays," read "lies." Page 141, line 23, omit "of" before "than," and line 17, for "sore;-," read "soever." CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. I know, and can deeply appreciate the antipathy which every Englishman feels to reading a book he cannot fairly be expected to understand. In order thoroughly to investigate many of the examples of the following chapters, I have been driven to that mother of our language, the Anglo Saxon, where, alone, a rational explanation was to be found. My reader is probably aware that the Anglo Saxon characters differ very considerably from our own, and that some little patience and perseverance would be necessary to render them intelligible to his eye. In order to avoid this necessity, however, for, saving two exceptions, there is really no reason why they should be retained, I have taken the liberty of dispensing with them, and in their place substituting the letters of our own alphabet. Had I not adopted this course, one, be it known, sanctioned by the highest authority, I should have had but little hope of finding any but Anglo Saxon scholars among my readers. The two exceptions are the two Anglo Saxon characters which are used to denote the hard and soft sounds of th. p, p, denote the hard or rough pronunciation which th has in thin, and D, ^, the soft pronunciation as in thine. These, then, are the only two characters, besides those of our own alphabet, which will be met with in the following pages. And even the obligation for retaining these is apparent rather than real, since both sounds are expressed in English by the same symbol. But, as modern Anglo B 2 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Saxon scholars have thought it advisable to retain them, and the eye rapidly becomes accustomed to them, I have not thought it worth while to depart from the plan usually adopted in this case. With regard to the rejection of the Anglo Saxon characters, Dr. Bosworth says, that, after mature con- sideration, and careful weighing of the respective advantages on each side, he is convinced that the balance is in favour of using our own characters. And indeed, it would be otherwise if the Anglo Saxon characters could not be fully represented by our own, that is, by the Roman characters. But with the single exception of th they can. And if in reality the Anglo Saxon is the base of the English language it would be absurd to suppose the contrary. The question seems not unnaturally to arise; why, since the structure of English, so far, that is, as it has survived the violent shocks it has had to sustain, is still Anglo Saxon, and since, no less than, out of the thirty-eight thousand words which our language is said to contain, twenty- three thousand — nearly five-eighths — are still Saxon; why, in the face of all this, the Anglo Saxon characters were ever relinquished. The following facts may tend to explain this apparent anomaly. About the year a.d. 1100 is generally supposed to represent the period when the change from Anglo Saxon to Anglo Norman 1 took place. 1 I use both these expressions, Anglo Saxon and Anglo Norman, under protest, and for the following reasons:— Of the eight colonies, if so they may be called, which constituted the Saxon Octarchy, one is Jute, three are Saxon, and four only out of the eight are Anglian (from Anglen in Sleswick). The Anglians occupied the ]\*orth and East of England. The Saxons proper, but called by way of distinction the West Saxons, occupied the South and West parts. In a.d. 827 Egbert king of the West Saxons defeated or made tributary all the other Saxon kingdoms, and united them all in his own person. Egbert was eventually succeeded by Alfred the Great, who expelled the Danes and INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 6 This at least is the opinion maintained by Professor Rask in his Anglo Saxon Grammar. The change of course cannot be said to have taken place at any precise date, since it would necessarily be very gradual and extended over many years : but this is the nearest approximation that can be made. The language spoken at the court of William the Conqueror and his successors was Norman. Each Baron introduced Norman at his castle, and, refusing to learn, what he considered, the barbarous Saxon dialect, com- pelled those Saxons who lived under him as vassels to learn it also. All property being now in the hands of the Normans, the laws regulating its transfer and tenure were made in the Norman language. Thus the Norman took possession of the Court, the Hall, and the Forum, while the Saxon had to put up with such an asylum as the humble cot of the serf could afford. There is an anecdote told that when Henry the Second, about the middle of the twelftli century was passing through Pembrokeshire he was addressed by the English title of " Good olde Kynge," so ignorant, however, was that monarch of the Saxon tongue that he had to ask of one of his courtiers what was the meaning of " Kynge." A knowledge of the Norman tongue was at this time an indispensable acquirement for every one who aspired to the rank of a gentleman. Little wonder, then, that, under these circumstances, the Saxon characters encouraged literature. He translated into his own language the works of Boethius, Orosius, and Bede, thus giving a great stimulus to the West Saxon over the other Saxon dialects, which caused it eventually to be spoken over the whole of England. And if Anglo cannot with justice be applied to Saxon to designate the language ultimately spoken by our fore-fathers, with how much less propriety can it be applied to Norman, to designate that compound which was formed by the mixture of Saxon and Norman French, and which is now the fabric of the English Language. 4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. should have fallen into disuse. There was in fact no use for them. This being the case, the Saxon letters disappeared rapidly and gave place to the Roman or Italic letters used by the Normans. Power was wrested from the hands of the conquered Saxons, who, henceforth, seem to have lost all control over their literature. Yet, when at last the two classes — the conquerors and the conquered found themselves com- pelled to amalgamate 1 the concessions were not all on one side. On the one hand the Normans were com- pelled to acknowledge the abortiveness of their attempts to foist their language on the people they had subdued ; while, on the other hand, the people had lost irre- trievably the art of writing, in their own characters, that language, which their conquerors had failed to deprive them of. Is not this a triumph of nature over art. Time and adverse circumstances had, indeed, snatched away the artificial forms of the written lan- guage ; but the language itself, as it lived on the tongue, animated the mind, and sanctified many a time honoured association, required a stronger will than that of man to displace it. Many of us have read with a strange curiosity, of the discoveries which have been made during the last few years by Layard and other travellers in the East. We have read of cities, whose very sites had almost been forgotton; of the palaces and sepulchres of kings, sepulchres on whose marble walls were delineated the memorable acts of those whose ashes they contain. We are told that so far as these drawings or hieroglyphics have been interpreted and compared with other — prin- cipally sacred — records, left us relative to the same supposed events, they afford a very striking testimony to the truth of Sacred Historic Narrative. So, then, in the following pages I have endeavoured to throw a 1 This amalgamation took place in effect about a.d. 1258, in the reign of Henry III. What was written after this period may be called English. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 taper light on one of those sepulchral tablets, which lie, mouldering and forgotten, in the dank catacombs of the past, and will, mayhap, reveal an inscription not altogether uninteresting or uninstructive to repay the toil of deciphering it. Such at least I hope will be the case. What I have done, I have done in good faith, and with the desire not so much to make any new discovery, as to call attention to that most impor- tant of all a nation's studies, the study of its own language. I have already alluded to this subject in my preface, though briefly. Permit me, before going further, to revert to it in a more explicit manner. I will begin by relating my own experience so far as it bears on this subject. I was educated at one of our largest schools, which, though not public in the strict sense of the w*ord, is, yet, I am well assured, inferior to none of those which are, until it was time for me to enter upon my academic course at Cambridge. I am bound to confess, and in doing so I feel convinced I shall not in the least degree be disparaging, in comparison with other public schools, an institution which has claims on my affec- tion, second only to these of Alma Mater, that not till long after I had assumed the "toga virilis" did I obtain any adequate conception of the nature and constitution of my mother tongue. I do not believe mine is by any means a solitary example; for I do not know of a single school in this kingdom where any attempt is made to impart a fundamental knowledge of English Classics. English Classics! What do they mean? The notion of a classic knowledge of English seems absurd. Greek and Latin form the only classics which come within the range of School-boy 1 experience. As for English, it 1 It will be understood that by School-boys I refer principally to that large and important (prospectively important) class who fill the upper benches at our large Public Schools. 6 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. will do for the forms of the lower School, but is beneath the notice of those of the upper. Indeed, so long as the Iambics and Latin prose are forthcoming at due time, it is no concern of the scholastic economy to look after English grammar. I do not speak with regard to English composition; for it is impossible to have better preceptors than the Greek and Latin authors; but with regard to the anatomy, and consti- tution of English. How strange it seems that we should so ignore our own language, while a little life-time is devoted ungrudgingly to the acquirement of Latin and Greek. Is it that there is really nothing in English to learn but what every body knows ; and, that what there is to learn can best be learned, — nay some would even say, can only be learned — by studying the Greek and Latin languages? It is to afford an answer to these two important questions that I have written the following pages. I should be sorry to assert that there is a great lack of means necessary for acquiring the information I speak of. On the contrary, there are several excellent books on this subject, written by men in every way fitted for their task. Still one swallow does not make summer; nor do one or two volumes, accessible only to the means and education of the wealthy, unknown in our public, much more in our private schools, suffice to disseminate that knowledge of English, which, it is not too much to say, every man of even moderate edu- cation ought to possess. Better far would it be to lay no claim to the teaching of the English language than make it the subject of such a miserable burlesque as is the case at present. Let us hope the time is not far distant when we shall awake from our torpor, and Eng- lishmen will remove the stigma, that they know and can learn all languages but their own. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 The investigations of some of the following chapters are I hope calculated to shew, not by mere ipse dixits, Or random asseverations, but by the irrefrangible proof of fact the validity and justice of the foregoing remarks. I have not yet given my reasons for taking the Breeches, or Genevan version of the bible, as my pioneer. I will now do so. I am unable to regard it otherwise than as a strange coincidence, that a Bible which belonged to my family, probably two centuries ago, should after an exile of a hundred and fifty years find its way back again. Such however has been the case. How this came to pass, it will excite no surprise, that I do not feel entirely at liberty to state, any further than that it appeared to be in the most fortuitous manner possible. To borrow a simile from antiquity; picture to your- self the heathen who had omitted to insert in the mouth of his deceased parent the small coin necessary to secure him a passage across the Styx, and avert the calamity of wandering for ever and ever up and down its muddy shores ; picture the joy which such a son, were he a pious one, would learn that Charon had at length consented to exert his kindly office, and convey the weary shade to the House of Hades. Such a joy was mine in being able to welcome back the old family Bible to its own rightful resting place, after long years of weary travail up and down this wide world. The remarks of Dean Trench respecting our present version of the Bible are, I conceive, no less applicable to the Genevan version. The following are his words : he is speaking of the composite nature of the English language. " I do not know where we could find a happier example of the preservation of the . golden mean in this matter than in our authorized version of the Bible. One of the chief among the minor and secondary blessings which that version has conferred 8 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. on the nation, or nations drawing spiritual life from it — a blessing not small in itself, but only small by comparison with the infinitely higher blessings whereof it is the vehicle to them, — is the happy wisdom, the instinctive tact, with which its authors have steered between any futile mischievous attempts to ignore the full rights of the Latin part of the language on the one side, and on the other, any burdening of their version with such a multitude of learned Latin terms as should cause it to forfeit its homely character, and shut up great portions of it from the understanding of plain and unlearned men." 1 And I think this testimony is applicable to the Genevan version no less than onr own, because it was the same spirit, the same thirsting after the word of God by the people of England, that called both the versions, especially the former, into existence. It was essentially the demand of the people that called forth the Genevan Translation ; and it was under- taken by men who knew, that to succeed in their work, they must have, not only learning and piety, but also be actuated by a firm determination to put the result of their labours in such a form as to be within the reach of the humblest reader. On this account I think the Genevan version of the Bible is peculiarly fitted to become the exponent of the English language at the time it was written. We shall do well to recollect that it would then recommend itself to every peasant in the land; to him it would present no difficulties in English ; and all those words and phrases which old father Time has somewhat caricatured to us, would be simple and intelligible enough to him. I would observe that we have here no obscure author, or anti- quated poet, in whose pages the occurrence of strange words and phrases to us, might, or might not, be indicative of the then condition of the language; but the Book of Life itself, that Book which beside being the only source of true wisdom and happiness here, and our sole guide to heaven hereafter, was for a long time 1 " English, Past and Present," p. 31. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 the cherished and favourite version in many a humble cot, and has, therefore, peculiar claims to our affection- ate regard. Nor must it be supposed that the difference existing between the Genevan and our present one is very wide. The Text as a whole so nearly resembles our own, that a cursory glance might fail to detect the difference. It is only here and there; now perhaps, by the antique spelling, by a curious contraction; or, now, by a word that does not seem to fit the eye, or suggest a meaning to the mind, that this difference is forced upon us. The staple is the same as our own version ; a fact which will be the more easily credited, when I say that I read through the whole Book of the Prophet Jeremiah without finding above two or three instances of material alteration, either with regard to spelling, in the words themselves, or in general diction. Indeed, so much was this the case that for a time I questioned whether my somewhat laborious task would not in the end prove a fruitless one. I think, therefore, not to speak of internal evidence, the remarks of Dean Trench quoted above are as applicable to the Genevan or Breeches version as our own. . For the information of those who are not already aware of it, I will state the reason why the Genevan version came to be called the Breeches Bible. If we turn to the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, verse 7, we read as follows : " Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed figge tree leaves together, and made themselves breeches" Such then is the simple reason why this version came to receive the forcible, rather than elegant, epithet of the " Breeches Bible." The next chapter I have devoted to the brief con- sideration of the historic records respecting this Book ; to that I refer my reader for further particulars. It will be 10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. seen there, that the translation was completed in a, d. 1560; my copy however bears the date of 1008, so that it would not be an early edition. I have not had an opportunity of consulting one of the earliest copies pub- lished, and, therefore, I cannot say whether any material alterations had taken place between 1560 and 1608. I do not think it is likely, judging at least from my copy. However, such are the facts of the case. For enquirers who can approach their task with a spirit of reverence, I imagine it would be difficult to find any single book whose claims to represent, fully and impartially, our written and spoken language, rest on a more substan- tial foundation than the Bible, and this on account of the ample scope it affords for the play of language. In no other is the relationship to time and circum- stance so varied, and, consequently, in no other is there so great a demand for variety of style and diction. All phases of life ; all classes and conditions of men ; all aspects of society, and forms of government, are there, more or less fully, represented. We have the terse sentences of the annalist; the plain and simple directions of the lawgiver; the calm reflection, the ecstatic fervour of the moralist and poet : and, above all, the thrilling accents of Him who spake as never man spake. At one time, we enter with the train of kings into palaces of the utmost magnificence, and view with daz- zled eyes the fabled splendor of the east ; at another we behold the beggar who lies at the gate of the rich man desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fall from his table. Now we listen to the triumphal posans of a victorious army ; again we are called to mourn over a dismantled city, or watch the gaunt forms of its inhabitants as they sorrowfully commence their journey to a foreign land. Such are some of the scenes depicted. Surely these, and there are many others like them, afford scope enough for language. Nor is the opportunity for INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 11 pourtraying and preserving the colloquial scarcely less than that for registering the written portion of the language : — that portion which lived from day to day in the domestic scenes and the familiar intercourse of man with man. May we not listen to the dialogues of our master as he disputed with learned doctors of the law ; or to his precepts as He taught his hum- ble followers,, only Himself more humble, the simple elements of that Divine philosophy whose very foolish- ness was to confound the wise ? Or we may even attend them as they "sit at meat," and almost, as it were, enter with them into their varied discourse. By tracing a river from its confluence with the ocean we may, if we are patient enough, at length discover its source. Or, should the difficulties which oppose the investigation prove insurmountable, and not permit us to ascend further than the mountain torrent, or the subterraneous exit, yet we shall, in all proba- bility, be able to trace it far enough to have our conceptions of its origin and natural history widely enlarged. Language, then, I would compare to such a, river, whose source, or sources, it is our wish to inves- tigate ; — a poor and thread-bare simile enough, I am ready to admit ; yet, sufficient for my purpose, if it assist in explaining my meaning. As, in the case of the natural stream, by carefully following its course, as it winds along the foot of the distant hills, we shall at length reach the mountain pass, whence we may behold the little streamlet, swollen by successive contri- butions, winding its way through the sloping valleys beneath; so, by tracing the course of language up to the distant hills behind us, and following its banks as they become narrower, and the waters they contain more precipitate, we gain an insight into its origin and nature, which this laborious method alone can afford. Not that I have, in the following chapters, con- ducted you, reader, to these hills, — those peaks which loom in undefined outline through the surrounding mists 12 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. of the past, — nay, we shall scarcely leave the plain, or rather, we shall but mount another step. The river will still flow in mighty span at our feet, though its waters may be somewhat more turgid. Here and there we may perceive a whirling eddy indicative of some antagonistic and inharmonious agency; some inequality, it may be, in the river-bed ; or, some tributary stream whose waters have not yet blended with those that receive them. This is not the place to offer any remarks upon the character of the spelling at the time we are about to consider : they will be found in their proper place. Still there is one conclusion, which I think it will not be amiss here to anticipate. It is the apparent absence of all fixed rules to determine the orthography of words. On this account alone, would it have been unadvis- able to take an earlier version of the Bible. As it is, I have not entirely escaped the inconvenience arising from extreme laxity of spelling ; and I have sometimes fancied I have seen an etymology shadowed forth in a peculiar mode of spelling, which, on further investiga- tion, has proved a mere ignis fatuus. So that sometimes a word has given rise to two questions ; first, does the spelling indicate anything, or is it to be attributed to the caprice (if that can be called caprice where there is apparently no design) of the age ; secondly, if it does suggest anything, what is it ? I hope, however, 1 shall not be found guilty of making capital on this score, or of dis- turbing my neighbours by the false alarm of " Fire, Fire/' CHAPTER II. THE GENEVAN VERSION. The short respite which the Reformed Church of England enjoyed during the reign of Edward VI. was like the calm which preludes the storm. Scarcely had Mary ascended the throne before she issued a procla- mation, which materially altered the condition, and blighted the hopes of the Protestants of this country. This act, which was passed in the October of 1553, suppressed King Edward's Liturgy and, in effect, re- stored ecclesiastical matters to pretty much the same state they were in during the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII., when the Scriptures seem almost to have been denied to the people by the prohibition of both Coverdale's and Tyndale's versions. It was the reinforcement of this Act, and conformity to the injunction of their great Master, who told them, when persecuted in one city to flee unto another, that many of those, who had taken an active part in pro- moting the Reformation in England, sought to escape the impending storm by voluntary exile. Germany and Switzerland, that land of classic liberty, afforded a temporary home for these pious men. Frank- fort appears to have been chosen at first; and here they might have settled down in peaceful enjoyment of their religion, had not internal dissentions respecting the English Liturgy and other matters of ritual, arisen to disturb that unity. But alas! how often are a man's bitterest foes they of his own household. Here, in 14 THE GENEVAN VERSION. common with the French Protestant Refugees, they had the use of one of the city churches for the per- formance of their services; but party feeling at length became so strong, that the Puritans found it necessary to seek a fresh home. This they did in the city of Geneva, and here it was that the Breeches Bible, or the Genevan version was compiled. Whatever may have been the faults of the Puritan party, and doubtless there were faults on both sides, there is no doubt it was composed of men of strictly conscientious views ; and it is very pleasant to picture to ourselves these poor exiles from their native country for the sake of religion, finding a peaceful retreat on the shores of the beautiful lake Leman. We can ima- gine how they would rejoice, that at last, even on earth, they had found an asylum, where the hand of persecution could not reach them, and where above all they could sweetly meditate on the words of their Master. Still, in this their peaceful retreat, they were not un- mindful of the spiritual wants of their brethren. They saw the urgent demand there was for a new and entire version of the Scriptures; and, like men actuated by holy purpose, they set to work at once to supply the want of their age. Surely we cannot wonder, that under such circum- stances, the blessing of God richly attended their la- bours, or that the result of them was to furnish a Bible which would be disseminated through the length and breadth of England, leavening the people, as it were, with its spirit, and, finally, in a great measure, reproducing itself in the very Bible which is now the precious treasure of many an English heart. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from 1560 to 1603, no less than one hundred and thirty distinct issues of the Bible were made ; and of these ninety were of the Genevan version. This fact affords sufficient evidence of the favour and popularity it enjoyed. THE GENEVAN VERSION. 15 The men principally engaged in making the Genevan version were, William Whittingham, Thomas Sampson an Oxford man, and Anthony Gilly a Cambridge man, who sought refuge on the continent at the commence- ment of Mary's reign. It is not certain that Coverdale assisted in the work of translation. If he did, it could but have been for a very short time; as he was at Geneva only during parts of the years 1558 and 1559, while it was being made. William Whittingham, who, it must not be forgotten, had previously, in 1557, published alone a translation of the New Testament, called the Genevan Testament, was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was appointed to a fellowship at All Souls' in 1545. He took part in the Frankfort controversies, and adhering to the Puritan side, accompanied those who held the same opinions to the city of Geneva, and became the minister of the congregation that was presently formed there. The Genevan Bible was completed in April, 1560, and, hence, and from the preface it will appear, it must have been commenced in 1558. Let us listen for a moment while these pious earnest men tell us of their labours. " Now, forasmuch as God's glory is chiefly attained by the know- ledge and practising of the worde of God (which is the light to our pathes, the key of the kingdome of heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdome, the glasse wherein we beholde God's face, the testimony of his favour, and the onely foode and nourishment of our soules) we thought we could bestowe our labours and studie in nothing, which could bee more acceptable to God, and comfortable to his Church, than in the translating of the holy Scriptures into our native tongue, the which thing, albeit that divers heretofore have indeavoured to atcheive : yet considering the infancy of those times and imperfect knowledge of the tongues, in respect of this ripe age and cleare light which God hath now reveiled, the translations required greatly to be perused and reformed. Not that we vendicate anything to ourselves above the least of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and tremb- ling we have bene for the space of two yeeres and more, day 16 THE GENEVAN VERSION. and night, occupied herein) but being earnestly desired, and by divers whose learning and godlines we reverence, exhorted, and also incouraged by the ready willes of such, whose hearts God likewise touched, not to spare any charges for the further- ance of such a benefit and favour of God toward his church (though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution sharpe and furious) we submitted ourselves at length to their godly judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and occasions which God presented to us in his church, by reason of so many godly and learned men, and such diversities of translations in divers tongues : we undertooke this great and wonderful worke (as in the presence of God, as intreating the worde of God, whereunto we think ourselves insufficient) which now God, according to his divine providence and mercy hath directed to a most prosperous end." We may feel somewhat inclined to smile, when we hear these good and simple hearted men talk of their "own ripe age and cleare light :" yet, we shall do well to bear in mind that each age is only ripe in comparison with those which have preceded it, and the time will probably come when the boasted enlight- enment of the present generation will appear equally ridiculous and vain. We cannot well over-estimate, not only the candour and self denial, but also the learning and piety of these men. We ourselves are reaping the fruits of their labours, and can ill afford to jest at their expense. But indeed this was no idle boast, after all on their part, for the age in which they were living presented a remarkable contrast to those which preceded it. The minds of Englishmen were now being eman- cipated from the galling chains of religious despotism; awaking to a sense of their degraded position, they became clamorous for the restoration of their invaded rights and privileges. Literature and science, too, were making rapid progress, and, hand in hand with religion, fast putting to flight the dark shade of ignorance and superstition, which had brooded, like a foul nightmare, for centuries past over Europe at large. The thirst for knowledge of all kinds — of religious knowledge in particular — had been excited, and now no barriers were able to repress it. Version after version THE GENEVAN VERSION. 17 testify to the impatience which men felt to obtain for themselves the Book of Life. The Great Bible, under the superintendance of Coverdale and the patronage of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was printed at Paris in 1538-39, in spite of the opposition manifested by the Inquisition, 1 which caused those who were engaged in this work to delay their labours for a time. This Bible — the Great Bible — was a revision of Matthew's, or Tyndale's version. In the following year, 1540, another version was issued, which goes by the name of Cranmer's Bible, because it has a preface by Cranmer. In 1541 appeared another edition, "oversene and perused at the commandemet of the Kynges hyghnes, by the right reverend Fathers in God, Cuthbert, Byss- hop of Duresme, and Nicholas, Bishop of Rochester." The year previous to his decease, Henry VIII. pro- hibited both Coverdale's and Tyndale's versions. Death however annulled the decree, and opened out the bible again to its anxious enquirers. During the short reign of Edward VI. embracing a period of only six years and a half, no less than fifty editions of the bible were published, and all by the people themselves. Still, no new entire translation was made, till we come to the Genevan version, though at one time it appears to have been in contemplation. Men were now at liberty to exercise their own judgment, and were left to their own consciences as a guide. And, indeed, so good was their will that there was little need of any coercive 1 Coverdale and his party were summoned to appear before the In- quisition, but, knowing the partiality and religious intolerance of that tribunal, they preferred to secure their safety by flight. In doing so they were compelled to leave a large portion of their work behind them, consisting of sheets already printed. These sheets were seized by the In- quisition and some of them were burned. How any of them escaped appears little short of a miracle, yet, we are told that "four great dry flats full " were sold to a haberdasher " to lap his caps in." They were afterwards recovered by Grafton. c 18 THE GENEVAN VERSION. influence. They Lad at last obtained the boon they had longed for, and with a keen appetite they were regaling themselves to the full on the rich repast. But Mary succeeded to the throne, and this brings us to the subject we are more particularly considering, and from which we started. The style of the Genevan Bible is purely English throughout; so far, that is, as English can ever be called pure : by which I mean, that there is no attempt, as in the Rheimish version, to introduce words which would not be understood by every English reader. In the Bheimish version, which, we must recollect, was prepared in self defence by the popish exiles, we find such words as "pasche" " azymes" "neophyte," and others, the only object of which could be to obscure the true meaning of the text, and, so virtually, render it useless. A similar attempt was made even in Henry's reign by Gardiner, to revise the New Testament, that certain majestic words which are found in the Latin Vulgate 1 might be transferred to the New version. His mean design was frustrated by Cranmer. In the Genevan version, however, we have a faithful portrait of the English language as written and understood at this time. Indeed, when we consider the disadvan- tages it had to contend with, the obstacles which stood in the way of its ever becoming the popular version in this country, as we know it did, the conclusion forces itself upon us, that there must have been some secret chords of sympathy to knit it so closely to the hearts of our forefathers. We have already observed that the translation was completed in 1560; still for fifteen years after no edition 1 Fuller says "Gardiner's design plainly appeared in stickling for the preserving of so many Latin words to obscure the Scripture, who, though wanting power to keep the light of the Word from shining, sought out of policy to put it into a dark lantern, contrary to the constant practice of God in Scripture, levelling high hard expressions to the capacity of the meanest." Our Bng. Bible, p. 116. THE GENEVAN VERSION. 19 of this version was published in England. What was the real cause of this, it is difficult now to determine. By some it is supposed that Archbishop Parker opposed the obstacle by wishing to exercise a control over its publication, to which Bodley, who had obtained from Queen Elizabeth the patent for printing the same for seven years, would not submit. Whatever may have been the cause, there is no doubt that, in spite of the difficulty, this version speedily became the favourite with the common people of England. The "Bible of the greatest volume" which would in all probability be the Great Bible, was that specified in the Queen's injunction, to be provided for every parish church. Still, we are assured that the Genevan version was the one preferred for private and family use. We must guard against the error of supposing that our Translation was the result of a single welkorganized attempt. On the contrary, we may safely look upon it as but a revision, with some corrections and amendments it is true, of all the previous versions. At the time we are considering, it is probable that the people and the clergy were conscious they did not yet possess any single version worthy of their entire confidence. On this account it was not deemed advisable to stereotype any that had yet appeared by the royal assent; but, rather to allow each person a discretionary power of his own. This fact seems further borne out by Queen Elizabeth granting to Bodley, the father of the celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley, who founded the magnificent library at Oxford, which bears his name, the patent for printing the Genevan version for seven years. As Archbishop Parker was either unable, or unwilling to countenance the Genevan version, prejudiced perhaps by the Calvinistic principles of its compilers, he set about producing a new one, which, on account of its being the joint work of several of his episcopal brethren, he called the Bishops' Bible. This Bible was published in 20 THE GENEVAN VERSION. 1568. Whatever may have been its merits, one thing is certain, that it never enjoyed the popularity of the Genevan version. At the time of the compilation of our present Bible the Bishops' Bible was that used in churches, and appointed to be generally followed. Still in cases where the superiority of other versions, as Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Matthew's, "Whitchurch's, the Genevan, was manifest, the latter were to be followed by our translators : and I cannot but think, from a careful perusal of the Gene- van version, that our translators must have derived material assistance from it. It is remarkable, that long after the publication of our authorized version, which did not take place till 1611, the Genevan version had rooted itself so strongly in England, that it refused for some time to give way. I believe I have good authority for stating that it con- tinued to be printed so late as the year 1641. 1 But now having exceeded the limits which I origin- ally marked out for this portion of my subject, and having said more than my reader had any right to expect, my book shall henceforth speak for itself. 1 1 will here relate an incident which occurred to me some little time ago, which, though trivial, is, still, in my mind indicative of the esteem in which the Breeches Bible is held. I happened to be looking over some old books in a stationer's shop when the bookseller shewed me a veritable Breeches Bible, which, as he said, he laid great store by. Having examined it, he brought me another, to all appearance, of still greater antiquity. In haste I turned to see if it were also a Breeches Bible, when to my surprise I found the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis missing. On further examination, it turned out to be merely an early copy of our present version, and of little more value, in an antiquarian point of view, than a tenpenny Bible. I have little doubt, that it had been thus mutilated for the purpose of being palmed off on some unwary individual as a Breeches Bible. CHAPTER III. EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 1 How the meanings of words may frequently be arrived at by merely tracing them a step or two back- wards, nearer their origin, has already been indicated. Proceeding, then, in conformity with this theory, I have collected in this chapter such words as appear to support it. It is the pride of a mere curiosity seeker, hardly deserving the name of Antiquary, to drag to the light of day relics of the past, which can in no way serve the uses of the present and future. Such, how- ever, is not my intention, in this place at least. It would be quite possible, I doubt not, for any one, who felt so inclined, to string together a number of words entirely strange to men of the present age. I hope, however, the examples adduced in the following pages will not be of barren character, but will contain some lesson, expressed, or understood, that will admit of application to our own wants, and our own times. In this way alone can the exploration of the past be of any service. Words, indeed, unlike the men whose deeds they chronicle, need no historians; they are their own annalists, and tell a story incapable either of falsifi- cation, or misconstruction. It needs but that we treat them fairly; that we summon them before us in their natural costume, to learn from them all they can teach us. They will tell their tale in a manner not the less eloquent because silent, nor convincing because brief. 1 An Etymon is the true origin of a word. 22 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING Before entering, however, on the consideration of the following chapters, there is one remark I wish to make ; applicable, not to them alone, bnt to the wide subject of etymology generally : namely, that on no person does a dogmatic spirit sit with so ill a grace as the etymolo- gist ; because, in no other subject is there such wide room for difference of opinion. For the explanations which the following pages contain I lay claim to little merit. If I have found a difficulty I could not myself solve, I have had recourse, in all cases, to the best authorities I could procure. On further perusal, my reader will find to how great an extent I have availed myself of the previous labours of Mr. Home Took, not that in all cases I have adopted his views, but because his explanations are, I think, on the whole, the most rational and trustworthy. CHARET. " And hee said, this shall bee the maner of the King that shall reigne ouer you : hee will take your sonnes, and appoint them to his ckarets, and to be his horsemen, and some shall runne before his charet." — 1 Samuel, viii. 11. I am not sure whether our modern form chariot occurs at all in the Breeches Bible ; certainly charet is by far the more common. It appears almost impos- sible to see this older form, evidently connected with the more modern one now in use, without asking the question, what does this close resemblance, and yet this difference, intimate ? Why is there any difference at all ? Home Took says : " Car, Cart, Chariot, &c. and the Latin Carrus are the past participle Cy'ren of the Anglo Saxon verb Cy'r-an, to turn. This word was first introduced into the Roman language by Caesar, who learned it in his war with the Germans." But this is a very bold assertion; for, in the first place, it is more likely that Csesar first met with the word among the Gauls, than among the Germans; in which case the word would be Celtic; and, in the SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 23 second place, the absence of several of these words, chariot for instance, from the Anglo Saxon, renders it next to impossible that they should be derived from, or even through, it by immediate descent. The passage above affords a suggestion we shall do well to notice. Who could see the two words charet and charette, the one English and the other French, without being at once convinced that they are the same word; — the former the Anglicised counterpart of the latter. The resemblance is so striking ; the foreigner had at this time altered his appearance and dress so little, that it is impossible not to distinguish him. But with our present form chariot, the resemblance is not nearly so striking, and a doubt might reasonably be entertained respecting the parentage of the word. It is clear, the word was French before it was English, and this remark is also applicable to some others, which have been deduced in too great haste from the Anglo Saxon. Our word car is undoubtedly a French word. Though, it is not impossible that cart may be nothing more than the Anglo Saxon word crcet, a cart, so altered by transposition. Not only is char, a good French word to this day, but we have evidence to shew that this was the exact form in which it first appeared in our language. "And as the guise was in his contree, Full high upon a char of gold stood hee, With four white bolles in the trais. Instede of cote-armure on his harnais, With nayles yelwe, and bright as any gold, He had a beres skin, cole-blake for old." Canter-bury Tales, 2138. But whatever may be the root of the words car and chariot, whether it be Celtic 1 or Teutonic, for it 1 Having insinuated a doubt as to the truth of Mr. Home Took's assertion, that the word earns was introduced into the Latin language by Csesar, who learned it in his war with the Germans, I feel bound to say something in support of this opinion. In the First Book of Caesar's Commentaries, De Bello Gallico, and at the beginning of the third section, the following passage occurs : 24 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING is almost impossible now to ascertain, there is no doubt that the Saxon verb Cyr-an has bequeathed to posterity a large and valuable legacy. Thus char with its compounds charcoal, charwoman, churworm; chair, with its compound chairman; churn, cardinal, perhaps cart, and the verb to jar, as well as ajar, may all be referred to this root. In each the radical meaning of the verb is implied. A char means any odd job to which a person may turn for a short time; and in the Anglo Saxon it signified exactly what we mean when we use such ex- pressions as " doing a man a good turn," " one good "His rebus adducti, et auctoritate Orgetorigis permoti, constituerunt, ea, quee ad proficiscendum pertinerent, comparare; jumentorum et car- rorum quam maximum numerum ccemere; sementes quam maximas facere, ut in itinere copia frumenti suppeteret; cum proximis civitatibus pacem et amicitiam confirmare." Again section 26: "Alteri ad impedimenta et carros suos se contulerunt." Now it is very evident, from the context of these passages, that it was not the Germans with whom Caesar was now carrying on war. It was in fact the Helvetii of whom Caesar himself tells us "they excel the rest of the Gauls in valour because they are engaged in almost daily conflicts with the Germans, whether it be in warning them from their own territory, or making warlike incursions on theirs." So far, then, from Caesar borrowing this word from the Germans, the above passages would prove the exact reverse; namely, that it was a nation which waged con- tinual warfare with the Germans, amongst whom he first found it; granting this to be the first time. Evidence therefore would point, rather to a Celtic, than a Teutonic origin. But the fact is, that in nothing more than in questions of this kind, ought we to be mindful of the maxim "Est quadam prodire tenus si non datur ultra." Was Mr. Home Took aware of the Greek Kuppov, which signified a chariot or car, when he referred all these words to the Anglo Saxon verb Cyr-an? It is an error into which we are perhaps too apt to fall, to suppose that, beyond the pale which separates the great families of language from each other, we must not expect to find the traces of affinity. We should rather remember that, even the great branches of language themselves are all related to one great prototype ; all ascend from one common stock ; and that, it is pure speculation to attempt to define the limits of that confusion, which was the sufficient cause of the dispersion of men at the tower of Babel. SUGGESTIVE OP ETYMONS. 25 turn deserves another," &c. It also signified a choice, a 'will, because the thing, on which a choice was to be made, was turned over and over in the mind. A churn is a vessel in which milk is turned until the butter is separated. "A chair " says Home Took "is a species of seat," "turned about, and returned at pleasure." To set a door ajar, or, as it was formerly written, on cliar, is to place it so that it may be turned quite open, or returned shut. Some have supposed that the char fish is so called because it turns itself very rapidly in the water, though this, to be sure, might be said with equal truth of many other kinds of fish. It is not unworthy of notice, that the Latin word carruca, which would, perhaps, resemble a basket car- riage of the present day, was also a foreign word borrowed, probably, from the Celts or Gauls. The different uses, which this word has been made to serve, are also curious. If we are right in supposing the French word charrue, a plough, to be the word which the Romans altered into carruca, it is then difficult to see how it came to signify a carriage for ladies to ride in; and, probably, could we but know it, there is some little episode connected with this singular cir- cumstance, to account for it. But carruca in Domesday Book has a signification very different to the former, and tending rather to confirm the conjecture, we have hazarded as to its etymology. It seems to have been equivalent to the old ploughland. "The ploughland or carrucate 1 in 1 Habet O VI. boves in dominio et villain aliain terram et II. boves. Supp. 224— Ibi est I. carruca G. D. 124. Les dames de Caen attelaient 8 betes a chacune de leurs charrues d' outre-mer: ainsi, elles avaient a Avelingues, 8 charrues chacune de 8 bceufs. M. Delisle, 304, 204.— .£%. under the Normans, Note to p. 30. An oxgange, or an oxgate of land, was as much as an ox could till. In Domesday, from 10 to 15 acres make an oxgange ; therefore eight oxen would till from 80 to 120 acres; a quantity which may easily have cor- responded to the ploughland. 26 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING Domesday is called 40, 60, 80, or 95 acres: and so in other documents we meet with ploughlands 60, 72, or 80 acres." — England under the Normans, p. 33. GLAIN. "And the Israelites glained of them by the way five thou- sand men, and pursued after them unto Gidom and slew two thousand men of them." — Judges xx. 45. Beyond that, the passage here presented to ns affords a sort of connecting link between our English verb glean, and the French verb glaner, I do not know that it contains anything worthy of notice in a philo- logical point of view. It does this, however, and therefore I thought it not unworthy of notice. In some parts of England the custom of picking up the loose ears of corn is not called gleaning, but leasing. In Shrop- shire, I believe, this is the case. It is a curious explanation which is given of this fact : curious because, if true, it shews how words, springing from the same source, and each flowing, as it were, for a long period through a separate channel, may, at length, so nearly converge as to become in a language strange to both, synonymous in meaning. Both glean and lease, are supposed to spring from the Gothic verb galisan ; the first form being per- petuated by some of the Teutonic tribes, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks, 1 who, with the ex- ception of the Normans, were the last settlers in France ; and the second form lease, being perpetuated by the Saxons, who invaded England, and introduced it into this country. To lease 2 is an English verb because it was a 1 See chapter on the "Norman Element." 2 At the bottom of page 13G, "Diversions of Purley" there is the following note: " Leasing, i.e. loosing, i.e. picking up that which is loose, separate or detached from the sheaf." There is surely no occasion for such straining after an explanation, when Dr. Bosworth gives the verb Les-an, signifying even in the Saxon itself, be it observed, to gather, choose, lease. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 27 Saxon one first; but, To glean which has almost sup- planted it, is, properly speaking, a French verb, though both are descendants from a common parent, trans- planted to different soils. How truly have they preserved the family likeness ! In the vision of Pierce Ploughman, when Perkyn determines to " apparaille " himself " in pilgrymes wise " and set out on a search after Truth, he says: " A busshel of bred corn Brynge uie therinnee For I wol sowe it myself, And sitlienes wol I wende To pilgrymage, as palmeres doon, Pardon for to have. And who so helpeth me to erie And sowen here er I wende, Shall have leve by our Lorde ! To lese here in hervest, And make hem murie thermyd, Maugree who so bi-gruceheth it." Pierce Ploughman, 3919. ROUME. This mode of spelling Boom appears to have been quite common at this time. It occurs very frequently, and is found also in Chaucer in his Legend of Ariadne. " For in the prison, here as he shall discend, Ye wote well, that the beast is in a place That is not derke, and hath roume and eke space To weld an axe or swerde, staffe or knife, So that me thinketh he should save his life, If that he be a man, he shall do so." Chaucer, 1995. The nearer we trace words to their origin, the nearer does their resemblance to that origin become. Our word Room is the Saxon Rum, connected with the verb Ry'man, to increase, to enlarge, from which, it is not improbable, that we derive the substantives Rim, Brim, Brink, Brow. 28 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING CARKEIS. I do not adduce this old form of spelling carcass as more correct than our own : for, indeed, the reverse is the case, but simply because it seems to say to us What am I? and what is my history? Let us try to find out. There is no doubt that it is the French word carcasse; but what is the French word carcasse? It is most probable a Latin compound (caro cassa) signifying useless flesh. 1 The French borrowed it, or manufactured it, from the Latin, and we have borrowed it from the French ; as has been the case with such a number of other words, now passing for English. SOWRE. "Who put darknes for light and light for darknesse, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for soure" — Isaiah v. 20. This method of spelling, instanced in the word sowre, is one which much prevailed at this time. Thus we find, Powre for Pour; Flowre for Flour; Towre for Tower, and many others of a similar kind. Let us just transpose the r and the w in the word here spelt sowre, and compare it, then, with the word printed in italics in the following quotation : "And I thanked hym tho, And siththe I hym tolde How that Feith neigh awey, And Spes his fellawe bothe, For sighte of that soriveful man That robbed was with theves." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 11542. Now, the metathesis, of which this is an example, is common enough. In fact, my reader has already had the opportunity of seeing one other instance of 1 Lumine cassus, in Virgil, means a deceased person, one deprived of the light of day. Taken in this sense, carcass becomes peculiarly ex- pressive: caro cassa lumine, a body deprived of the light— of day, or of life. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 29 it, in yelwe written for yellow, though, in that case, the consonant was I instead of r. Similarly Sparrow was written Sparwe. Arrow ,, „ Arwe. Sorrow „ „ Sorwe. &c. &c. Sowre has undergone another alteration, and is now written sour. Whence, then, do we derive all these words ? Sorrow ^ Sorry They are all derived from the Anglo Sore - Saxon Substantive and Adjective (for it Sour is both) Sar, a wound. Surly ) The word Sar, very variously written and pronounced, signified a wound, sore, pain, sorrow, grief. It is con- nected with the verb sargian, to give pain. 1 1 Mr. Home Took refers this family of words to syrwan, which he says made for its past participle sorw ; how this could be I cannot under- stand, for neither syrw-an nor Sarg-ian could possibly make a past participle sorw, or anything the least resembling it. I do not think we are one iota nearer the root of a word, when we have traced it to a verb, than we are when we have traced it to a noun, which, in all probability, is the root of the verb itself. It is a great mistake to suppose that, nouns must be parts of verbs and formed from them ; because it is well-known that verbs in numberless cases are formed from nouns, which in fact, constitute, and are still clearly distinguished in, the roots of those verbs. On this point I will quote Sharon Turner's words in his history of the Anglo Saxons, vol. II. p. 424, he says : " Qan is the verb of motion to go, or the verb agan to possess, and -an seems to be (I) give, from unnan to give. Thus Deagan, Deagian to tinge, appears to be from Deag, a colour, and -an (I) give; Dsel-an, to divide; Dsel-an, I give a part. Blostmian to blossom, is Blostmagan, to have a flower : By an, to inhabit, is By'-agan, to have a habitation." Now let us apply this simple rule to the two verbs Syrwan and Sargian, in the first the root is Syrw, which is clearly nothing more or less than the substantive Syru, with the last vowel reduplicated for the sake of euphony, and signifies a snare; giving us, as we should expect when made into a verb by the addition of the verbal termination -an, the verb Syrwan, to ensnare, to entrap, but not to vex or molest, as Mr. Took affirms. In the second verb Sargian, the root is clearly sar, a wound, a sore, and thus, when made into a verb by the addition of the verbal termination, dU EARLIER FORMS OP SPELLING Thus, one little Saxon monosyllable have we managed to split np into no less than four words, distinct from each other, both in spelling and signification; though, it must not be forgotten, that the form corresponding to sorry is also found in the Anglo Saxon. Sorrow and sorry, had formerly a meaning somewhat different to that which they have now acquired; that is, they had reference more to the outward sore on the body, than to its corroding effect on the mind. Thus, in an old translation of the New Testament we find the following passage : " And Ihesu enuyrownyde al Galilee, tecliynge in the syna- gogis of hem the gospel of the rewme, and heeling al sorewe, ether ache, and sikenesse in the peple." This meaning still survives in such expressions as "a sorry fellow," "a sorry case/' &c. SHAMEFASTNESSE. "Likewise also the women that they aray themselves in comely apparel, with shamefastnes and modesty, not with broyded haire, or gold, or pearles, or costly apparell." 1 Tim. ii. 9. Skamefast is one of those words noticed by Dean Trench in his " English past and present." There will, therefore, be the less occasion for me to dwell on it, to any great length. I cannot do better, than quote what he says on this subject. " Least of all should our modern editors have given in to the corruption of shamefastness (1 Tim. n. 9.) and printed shame- facedness, as now they do, changing the word which meant once Agan, gives us Sargian, which signifies to have a wound, or sore, and, therefore, to be in pain or sorrow, which, when long continued, sours the temper of the unhappy sufferer. I think, however, Mr. Took may be right in supposing shreiv and shrewd to come from the verb Syrwan, as they easily may, though it requires a powerful stretch of imagination to believe, that they can come from the same root as sorrow, and its kindred words do. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 31 a being established firmly and fast in honorable shame, into the mere wearing of the blush of shame upon the face; cf. JEcchis. xxvi. 15. 25; xxxn. 10; xli. 16,24; in all which passages the later editions have departed from that which ought to have been exemplary to them. Shamefast is one of a group and family of words, in all which fast constitutes the second syllable, thus steadfast [A. S. StaSolfaest] wordfast ; and those good old words rootfast and rootfastness, which we have now let go." Page 245, note. What says the great arbiter of our language on this point ? Surely his word must be law. Can it be that the word does not exist in his vocabulary! No, it is not to be found; the nearest approach is shamefaced, which he tells us, and truly too, is compounded of shame and face, and signifies "modest, bashful, easily- put out of countenance." Who, we would ask, is responsible for this gross perversion? It would be hard to saddle the great Doctor with it, though it is difficult to excuse him, for not having entered a protest against such a barbarism, even, while com- pelled, let us hope against his will, to sanction it. Little wonder the error should be perpetuated, since the great lexicographer, from whom there is no appeal to a higher tribunal, has affixed his imprimatur to it. QUADRIN. "And there came a certaine poore widow, and she threw in two mites which make a quadrin." — Mark xn. 42. I am not aware the quadrin was ever an English coin; nor does its appearance here, in an English translation, at all imply the necessity of thinking it was. The word in the original Greek was borrowed from the Romans, and the very fact of its appearance there affords an undesigned coincidence, that the Jews had at this time passed under the Roman yoke, and become to some extent familiarized with Roman coins, and Roman customs. 1 1 Instances of Latin words taking a place in the Greek are by no means rare. ZovSdpiov is simply the Hellenistic form of the Latin sudarium, a 32 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING The Roman Quadrans, or Teruncius, was equivalent to about three fourths of our farthing, but like our farthing signified, not only the fourth part of a coin (the As) but also, the fourth part of many other things. 1 Indeed, this range of meanings, running, as it were, parallel to each other in the two languages, is rather striking. Thus in both was it used to signify a portion of land ; though, how much, it is not perhaps so easy to determine. In Domesday Book the Ferding is the Farthing, or fourth part of the Virgate. *' In Cornwall thirty acres made a farthing land, and nine farthings, on the average, made one Cornish acre 2 or entire field of 270 common acres. 5 ' — England under the Normans, p. 40. Indeed, in both languages, it is only the fourth part that is signified, without any reference to the thing to be divided. It is scarcely necessary to caution any- one against supposing, that the word Farthing is com- pounded of Fourth and thing. This would be, really, as great an error in itself, though not perhaps quite so serious in its results, as that we lately observed in the word shamefaced. The Saxon had not only the form which has given us farthing, but also, that which would have given us i&rthling ? As there was formerly a farthing 4 of land, as well as of money, so was there a minute of money, as well as a minute of time, and its value was about half towel ; so also Kevrvpi&v k?>ctos, S^vapiov are words of Latin origin, intro- duced by the Romans, and permanent witnesses of their dominion. 1 As a coin it was the price of a bath among the Romans. No wonder they were so fond of bathing, when they could indulge in the luxury at so moderate a cost. 2 "It must be borne in mind that in the Cornish Domesdays acra and ager mean a large field." — England wider the Normans. 3 The Saxon word for farmer is Eorfcling, Earthling. 4 In our antient Law Books, a Farding-deale of land means the fourth part of an acre, the rent of which was in Richard the Second's time so restrained, that for a Parding-deale of land they paid no more than one penny .— Walsingham, p. 270. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 33 a farthing. The existence of the Anglo Saxon word mite forbids us supposing, that the English word mite is but a contraction of this old word minute. " Ihesu sitting agens the tresorie bihelde how the company castide money into the tresorie, and many riche men castiden manye thinges ; sotheli whanne o pore widewe hadde come, she sent twey Mynutis, that is a Farthing." — Mark xn. 42. MURTHERER. " But let none of you suffer as a murtherer, or as a thieffe, or an evill doer, or a busibody in other mens matters." 1 Pet. iv. 15. 11 For-thi God of his goodnesse The first gome (man) Adam Sette hym in solace, And in sovereign murthe ; And siththe he suffred hym synne, Sorwe to feel, To wite what well was Kyndeliche and know it." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, p. 382. "And as the weke (wick) and fir, Wol maken a warm flaumbe, (flame) For to murthen men myd, (with) That in the derke sitten : So wole Crist of his curteisie, And men cry hym mercy, Both forgive and forgete, (forget) And yet bidde (pray) for us To the Fader of hevene Forgifness to have." Ibid, p. 362. My reader will have the kindness to observe the words written in italics in the above passages. We have murtherer, murthe and murthen. How comes it to pass that there is such a hateful likeness between these words? Is it all chance; the casual effect of mere caprice, or is there something besides this; something which has its seat in the deep recesses of human feeling and human experience? Can these two children, like Cain and Abel, so different in disposition, claim descent from common parents? Apparently so. D 34 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING " Mirth " says Home Took " that which dissipateth : viz. care, sorrow, melancholy, the third person sin- gular of the indicative of Myrran." — Div. Pur. p. 614. " The Anglo Saxons," he goes on to say, " likewise used morS, morSe, mors, (death), i. e. that which dis- sipateth (life understood) ; the third person of the same verb myrr-an, to mar, &c, and having itself the same meaning as mirth; but a different application and subandition. Hence from morSe, murther, the French meurtre, and the Latin mors." This explanation leaves but little to be said. Reason- ing from analogy, there is good ground for supposing that the Anglo Saxon words, myrS, mirth, mor$, death, and myr$ra, a murderer, are all connected with the verb myrr-an; whether or not, we agree with Mr. Home Took in supposing that morn, morning, morrow, 1 are to be referred to the same root. 1 For the benefit of those who are not able to refer to the original, I have here inserted, without comment, what Mr. Home Took has written on the etymology of these words : "Morrow, therefore, and morn, the former being the past tense of myrr-an without the participial termination en; and the latter being the same past tense, with the addition of the participial termination en) have both the same meaning, viz., dissipated, dispersed. And, whenever either of these words is used by us, Clouds or Darkness are suband. Whose dispersion (for the time when they are dispersed) it expresses." " Myrrende is the regular present participle of myrr-an : for which we had formerly morewende. The present participial termination ende is in modern English, always converted to ing. Hence morewing, morwing, (and by an easy corruption) morning." — Div. Pur. p. 462. " And if the night, Have gathered aught of evil or concealed, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark ! " Milton's Paradise Lost, Book 5. "To Flandres wol I go to-morwe at day, And come again as soon as ever I may: For which, my dere wif, I thee beseke To be to every wight buxom and meke, And for to kepe our good be curious, 1 And honestly governe wel our hous." Cant. Tales. — The S7iipmannes > Tale. So murrain, Anglo Saxon myrring, is a Avasting [disease understood] which squanders or dissipates life. The formation of verbal substantives will be again alluded to in the Appendix. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 35 Yet, from the way in which, murderer and mirth are at present spelt, who might not well be excused, if he failed to see any connection between the two ? There is, apparently, no cause to be assigned for the change, which has so altered their appearance beyond that slow and silent one, the course of time. • CHAPMAN. CHEAP. "Who have decreed this against Tyrus, (that crowneth men) whose marchants are princes? Whose chapmen are the nobles of the world?" — Isaiah xxiii. 8. If I am not mistaken, we have a word here which is fast becoming obsolete. True, on completing a bargain we receive, what is still called, in some parts of the country, "chapman luck/' yet the word is evidently not in vogue as it used to be, when the chapman, in Chaucer, tells his " wif," " Thee lacketh non array ne no vitaille ; Of silver in thy purse shalt thou not faille, And with that word his contour 1 dore he shette, And down he goth ; ne lenger wold he lette ; And hastily a masse was ther saide, And spedily the tables were ylaide, And to the dinner faste they hem spedde, And richly this monk the chapman fedde." Canterbury Tales, 13141, " Both my gees and my grys, 2 His gadelynges 3 feccheth, I dare noght for fere of hem Fight ne chide. He borwed of me Bayard, He brought him horn nevere, Ne no ferthying therefore, For ought I koude plede. He maynteneth hise men, To murthere myne hewen 4 , Forstalleth my feires (fairs), 1 What we now call a "counting-house," from the French comptoir ; from the Latin computare; whence also comes our word accounts, formerly spelled accompts. 2 Pigs. 3 Vagabonds. * Workmen. 36 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING And fighteth in my chepyng, And breketh up my bernes 1 dore, And bereth awey my whete, And taketh me but a taille, For ten quarters of otes." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, p. 68. It is true, the family of words springing from the Anglo Saxon verb, cyp-an, To sell, has, in one form or another, taken too firm a hold on our language, ever to become totally extinct; yet, not only are some of these words falling into disuse, but others of them, though still used, have undergone material changes in their acquired meaning. We shall best understand this by following the radicle, from its earliest point of view. Cyp, in Anglo Saxon, signified a measure; thence, by the process of verbal formation, comes Cy'p-an, To sell, because things are sold by measure. From the verb thus formed, or perhaps from the original Cyp, the Saxons formed the following substantives : Cy'peman, A merchant, a chapman. Cy'ping, A bargaining. Cy'p-inga, A market, still surviving in Chipping-Nor- ton, Chipping-Barnard, Chippenham, and others. Cea'p, A bargain, anything for sale, a price; whence, from conjunction with Stow, (a place) comes Cea'p-stow, A market-place, which is still preserved in the name Chep-stowe; Cheap-side, East-cheap, &c, are all connected with this word. Now, where, I would ask, in this list, embodying the principal uses and meanings of cheap and its com- pounds, have we the faintest indication of its present signification? The truth is, that the word cheap has now lost nearly all trace of its original meaning, and, instead thereof, has assumed one which is but as an adjunct to its former self. Let us not forget that there were influences to account for this degradation. On the derivation of this word, see Appendix. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 37 Yet this change was not made all at once; the step was too great to be taken at a single bound; and, therefore, we find a kind of half-way house, where the word seems to have halted for a time in its down- ward course. Formerly, the expressions good-cheap and bad-cheap, were used to characterize good and bad bargains. " The sack that thou hast drunk me, would have bought me lights as good cheap, at the dearest chandlers in Europe." 1st Part Henry 4th, Act 3, sc. 3. Bad-cheap is now entirely disused, and cheap has come to mean what was formerly meant by good-cheap. "Chap" is sometimes used for "chapman." The use of the verb Gy'pan still exists in the expression, " To chop and change" The verb To cheapen formerly signified, To attempt to buy, To bid for a thing. " She slipt sometimes to Mrs. Thody's, To cheapen tea." — Prior. BEAST. "Rejoice yee heauens: for the Lord hath done it: showt, ye lower parts of the earth : brast foorth into praises yee mountaines, O forest and every tree therein." — Isaiah xlvi. 23. It does not always follow, that the older form, or forms of a word, must necessarily be the more correct. An instance of this fact is afforded us by the above passage. Brast is certainly a very powerful word, but it is not so correct as our more modern and weaker word burst. The Anglo Saxon verb, of which they are only metathesized forms, is Berstan, To burst. But this liberty of metathesis is one extensively indulged in, not only in Anglo Saxon, but in language generally. There seems to be a peculiar pleasure in doing so, and, only by a knowledge of this habit, can the ety- mology of many words be explained. Our English word Burnt was formerly written Brent : and this earlier, and more correct form, is still 38 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING retained in the words brown, brand, brandy, bronze, brunt. Brown is the colour produced by burning, and brunt is the burnt, and, therefore, the hot part of anything. " For smoke and smolder, Smyteth in hise eighen, Til he be bler-eighed. or blynd, And hoors in the throte, Cogheth, and curseth. That Crist gyve hem sorwe, That sholde bringe in bettre wode, Or blow it till it brende." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 12014. " The fires brenne upon the auter elere, YVhile Emelie was thus in hire praiere : But sodenly she saw a sight queinte. 1 For right anon on of the fires queinte, 2 And quiked again, and after that anon, The other fire was queinte, and all agon : And as it queinte it made a whisteling, As don these brondes 3 wet in hir brenning, And at the brondes end outran anon, As it were blody dropes many on: For which so sore agast was Emehe, That she was wel neigh mad, and gan to cry, For she ne wiste what it signified." Canterbury Tales, 2335. In like manner : Bird was formerly written Brid. Grass „ „ Gers. Cress „ „ Cerse or Kerse. Nostril „ „ Xeisthyrl. kc. occ. "Wisdom and wit now, Is noght worth a kerse, But if 4 it be carded with coveitise. As clotheres kemben hir wolle." n of Pierce Ploughman, 5628. The ignorant abuse of this harmless word kerse, or cress, in the above expression, which, in fact, is pretty much the same as " I don't care a straw," " nought worth : Vanished. 3 Torches. * Except. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 39 a pease/' Spens. Sliep. Gal. Oct., has given rise to the corruption, now so common, "I don't care a curse," which has, in its turn, been also changed into the still more objectionable form, "I don't care a damn." But, to return to the word brast, it should be ob- served, that, though it cannot be called correct, there is the testimony of antiquity in its favour. " He buffeted the Bretoner About the chekes, That he looked like a lanterne, Al his lif after. He bette hem so bothe, He brast ner hire guttes." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 4147. So that, at this time, brast may be said to have been good English, because usuage had made it so. The time, however, was now fast approaching, when it was destined to lose its place, at least, in the written language. It still survives in the somewhat altered form brust, a great favourite with the agricultural la- bourers of some parts of England, though, entirely scouted by all those who wish to talk what they consider correct English. The word is, perhaps, worthy of a better place, like many others, which have retired to drag out the remainder of their days in the humble cottage of the peasant, previous to their total extinction, as members of the living tongue. But this we must expect. As in animated nature, the processes of secretion and excretion are continually going forward, so neither does language, the vehicle of thought, form an ex- ception to nature's general law. HURLYBURLY. "And as they( c ) cried and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the aire." " The chief captaine commanded him to be led into the castle, that he might know wherefore they cried so on him." ( c ) " The description of a seditious hurlyburly, and of an hare-brained and mad multitude." Acts xxn. 23, 24, and note. 40 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING The word hurlyburly, though now rarely met with, in this exact form at least, has been rendered immortal by a place in Shakespeare's celebrated Witches' scene. First Witch. " When shall we three meet again ? Second Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, When the battle 's lost and won. Third Witch. That will be ere th* set of sun." Had it not been for this passage, it is difficult to say what might have been the fate of the word. Mac- beth has snatched it from oblivion. It may be asked, what object I have in noticing this word? I have two reasons. The first is, to shew that so late as the beginning of the 17th century, the word was in familiar use; the second is, that it will afford me a pretext for enquiring into its real meaning and etymology, so far as this is possible. It will be observed, that the word does not occur in the text of the Breeches Bible, but in one of the marginal 1 notes. This, however, does not in the least affect its authenticity. It is, indeed, possible, that a word in the original, which happened to have no exact counter- part in English, might be represented by some conven- tional compromise, some foreign word, or fictitious coinage, (as was probably the case with quadrin ;) but, in the case of an explanatory note, such a thing is, to say the least, highly improbable, if not altogether impossible. We may, then, I think, fairly conclude, that the word hurlyburly was at this time a perfectly familiar one. But what then is the meaning of the word? I mean its intrinsic meaning, for, of course, every one knows that, its acquired meaning is a tumult or riot. It is, in fact, a French word, which exists at this day, though, of course, spelt and pronounced somewhat 1 It is not certain that these marginal notes, which are very copious, and, generally speaking, valuable, were not one of the offending causes, which ultimately prejudiced the minds of those who desired a new version. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 41 differently in French, to what it is in English. It be- comes, therefore, a question of French, rather than English etymology. The French word is hurluberlue, which, it is necessary to observe, is not only a noun substantive, but also a noun adjective; in which latter sense, it signifies abruptly, bluntly. The following, then, I take to be the composition of the word : hurler, to howl, or roar ; and berlue, a glare. "Avoir la berlue," is to have a dimness of sight, to see double. Hence hurluberlue would appear, as composed of these elements, to mean a "hare-brained" fellow, to whom excitement, and tumults make things appear in one continual glare of bewilderment. It appears that the word, in passing over from the French, has undergone a material change. In the French it is used to designate a person, but when it becomes - Eng- lish, it designates, no longer a person, but a thing. It is not impossible, that it may have acquired its meaning from having, at first, signified collectively, what the French word does individually; meaning a collection of u harebrained" fellows ; and thence, as a natural consequence, a riot, or tumult. The French word hurler, and the English words howl, owl, and yell, are in all probability connected with the Anglo Saxon gyll-an, to yell. And now comes the question, has the word really seceded from our spoken language? We think not. There is a word sometimes met with on the outskirts of society, for the mention of which, it might be expected, I should make an apology, but which, however, I do not intend to do; a word, which, like a decayed old gentleman, who, is no longer able to keep up appear- ances, has slunk away into the filthy alleys and narrow bye-ways of society, there, if possible, to bury past re- collections, as well as to lose sight of present degradation. The word to which I refer is pronounced as though it were spelt hullabaloo. I do not recollect ever to have 42 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING seen the word in print; though I have frequently heard it used. It would but little surprise me to be told, the word is merely slang, unworthy of consideration, and beneath the notice of good society and good breeding. There are some slang words, of which it may with absolute truth be affirmed, that they have no etymology whatever, and, were it desirable, it would be easy to afford examples enough. But, I think the word hullabaloo is not one of these words. I believe it to be a corruption of hurlyburly ; and in this conjecture I am, I think, strengthened by the existence in the Swedish tongue of the word hullerhuller, which, I am told, is used in precisely the same sense. If this conjecture is a correct one, then, the instance of corruption, which this word affords us, is only one more added to an already long list, imported like slippings, from abroad, and grafted on to the old stock at home : words, which analogy should teach us, must undergo serious modification, before they can become acclimatized. Not unfrequently, they become misshapen and twisted, in such a way, that their original meaning and derivation is, either obscured, or entirely lost. If men do not see the meaning of a strange word, which, either by custom or convention, or for convenience, they find themselves compelled to use, they will presently alter it, so as to bear a meaning, of their own, or if not a meaning, at least a national sound. Nor is this a trait by any means peculiar to one race of people : it is common to all nations, whose language admits into its texture words of foreign growth. We know it was so amongst both the Greeks and Romans; several instances of which have been already noticed by Dean Trench, in his " English, past and present/' 1 1 "Thus fiovrvpov, from which, through the Latin, our 'butter' has descended to us, is borrowed, as Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxviii. 9.) tells us, from a Scythian word, now to us unknown ; yet, it is plain that the Greeks SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 43 There is a strong intolerance of foreigners amongst us, and unless they quickly become naturalized, and settle down quietly, adopting our dress and customs, the proba- bility is, their sojourn will be short. We know to how great an extent certain writers of the present day, love to interlard their periods with French words, as though the English language were incapable of doing justice to their sentiments. Yet, how very few of these words ever get any farther than the page of the novelist, or succeed in making a permanent settlement amongst us. One cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable contrast, in this respect, which occurs between words which have now long since become part and parcel of our spoken, and written language, and words of recent importation. While, in the first instance, a word is intolerable until it can speak for itself, and lay aside its foreign costume ; as time advances, it looses its need of intrinsic meaning, lives no longer by sufferance, but, as it were, by virtue of citizenship, acquired through long continued residence amongst us. Such words are metcecs. If we detect a bright coin amongst the pieces that are paid us, our first impulse is carefully to ex- amine the stranger, and the date and impress it bears. Our friend, the grocer, would strike it down on his counter, while our other friend, the grazier, would toss it from his finger and thumb into the air, to ascertain its "ring." But if, instead of being a new coin, with a finely chiseled bust, and the date of last year struck upon it, it happen to be an old silver sixpence, bald and smooth with age, no curiosity is then excited, nor any doubts expressed of its being current money so shaped it, and spelt it, as to contain apparent allusion to cow and cheese ; there is in fiovrvpov an evident feeling after /3ovs and n-vpov." So bozra, meaning a citadel, in Hebrew, becomes fivpfj i secretly). SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 63 Saxon crepel? But, remember, the Anglo Saxon word crepel, means a little creeper, or crawfish, and creqpere is really the Saxon word which corresponds to our word cripple. This being the case, I think we shall not be guilty of a great error, if we accept Dr. Johnson's sug- gestion, now that we have fortified him with a quotation. BANKET. " And his sonnes w#nt and banketed in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called their three sisters, to eate and drinke with them." — Job i. 4. The word banket does not appear quite well pleased at being aroused from its long slumber, to display its quaint costume of the 16th century. But it is not mere curiosity that invokes the shade. Banket differs from the more modern banquet, inas- much as, while the former is cast in a Teutonic, or German mould, the latter bears evident tokens of French influence; it is, in short, nothing but a pure French word. Of course, both spring from the same Teutonic root, bank, Anglo Saxon bene, a bench, a table ; and the changes, that have taken place, are only such as may be attributed to the national pro- nunciation in each case. FET. " For as long as the sonne of Ishai liueth upon the earth, thou shalt not be stablished, nor thy kingdome : wherefore, now send and fet him unto me, for he shall surely die." 1 Samuel xx. 31. The word fet } which occurs in this passage, and elsewhere, has now fallen into such entire disuse, as scarcely any longer to suggest a meaning to the mind, and almost to make us doubt its right to the pa- rentage of our modern word fetch. How many times might the latter form occur to us without once exciting our curiosity; yet, who could meet with the former, without immediately desiring to know more about it ? 64 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING " Fetch/' says Mr. Took, " (Anglo Saxon faec) is the past tense and past participle of fecc-an, fraude acquirere, adducere, To obtain by stealth." Does Mr. Took mean by this, to say, that faec is the past tense and past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb feccan, To fetch? Scarcely, I should think; for he must have known that feahte is the past tense of that verb. Fsec is no more its past tense, or past participle, than )?3ec is of the verb feccan, To thatch, or thack. Verbal substantives they may be, yet there is a looseness in Mr. Took's way of putting it, that is very liable to mislead. And again, the Anglo Saxon word fcec does not, in either of its meanings, corres- pond with, however much it may outwardly resemble, our word fetch. It signifies, firstly, an interval of space, or time; secondly, suspicion. How the verb fecc-an may be connected with either of these, is perhaps too subtle a question for speculation. 1 Let us first consider fetch as a verb, and this, perhaps, will facilitate the consideration of it as a sub- stantive. " And cart-sadle the commissarie, Oure cart shal he lede And fecchen us vitailles At fornicatores." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 1242. Here we have a very early form of the word, scarcely differing from the original Saxon. " Thaune sikede 2 Sathan And seide to hem alle, Swich a light ayeins our leve Lazar out fette ; Care and encombraunce Is comen to us alle ! If this kyng come in, Mankynde wole he fecche, And lede it ther hym 3 liketh, And lightliche me bynde." Ibid, 12608. 1 Facen, deceit, fraud, is more likely to be the root of feccan, To fetch. 2 Sighed. 3 It liketh him. SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 65 In this passage, fecche would certainly convey the notion of deceit, as also in the following, in which Christ is represented as addressing Lucifer : " Thow fettest inyne in my place Ageins alle reson, Falsliche and felonliche; Good feith me it taughte, To recovere hem thorugk raunson, And by no reson ellis. So that thorugh gile thow gete, Thorugh grace it is y-wonne. Thow Lucifer in liknesse Of a luther' addere Getest by gile Tho 2 that God lovede." Ibid, 12783. It would seem, then, that our more modern form, fetch, is a sort of compromise between the two, fecche and fet? The substantive, fetch, which still retains the ele- ment, and gives the notion, of deceit, and cunning, is extant in such passages as the following : " Yet since so obstinate grew their desire, On a new fetch (t'accord them) he relide." Godfrey of Bulloigne, cant 5, st. 72. " With this fetch he laughs at the trick he has played me." Stillingfieet. " It is a fetch of wit You laying these slight sullies on my son, As t' were a thing a little soiled i' th' working." Hamlet. 1 Wicked. 2 Those. 3 The following parts of this verb occur in the vision and creed of ""Pierce Ploughman:" Present Singular. I fecche, Thou fettest. Perfect Singular. Fet, fette ; this form also occurs in the Breeches Bible. Perfect Plural. Fetten. Participle Past. Fet. 66 FORMS OF SPELLING SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. The following are words of analogous formation : Thack f ^ rom ^ n S^° Saxon pecc-an. Lack Latch Clutch Latch from Anglo Saxon Lsecc-an, Gelseccan. S ' \ I ^ rom Anglo Saxon Speccan. " The indifferent pronunciation of ch, or cJe, pervades the whole Anglo-Saxon language." — Div. Pur. p. 567. Of course many other examples, besides those above, might be quoted. CHAPTER IV. WORDS ALTEE THEIE MEANING. Not only do words alter as to their external ap- pearance, from time to time, bnt the signification they bear is likewise modified. While, on the one hand, words, which were originally nsed to designate an effect, come, insensibly, to denote the cause; so, on the other, words, which at first signified the cause, have, through the lapse of years, come to designate the effect. Words have a metaphysical history, and cannot be rightly con- sidered apart from moral and metaphysical causes. So intimately, indeed, are they connected with the ma- chinery of the mind, that they -may be truly considered to form an index of its working; — a mirror, in which are reflected those ever-changing images, with which it is conversant, whether considered as animating the in- dividual, or as they are developed in the more collective form of public opinion. Indeed, the ceconomy of words is not a simple sub- ject, nor one to be comprehended within moderate limits. I shall, therefore, content myself with quoting the ex- amples which the Breeches' Bible has afforded me, and leave my reader himself to follow out the conclusions to which they point. CAUSE. " And the title of his cause was written above, that King of the Jews." — Mark xv. 26. The primary meaning of causa 1 among the Romans, whence, I need not say, comes the English word cause, 1 The root, I supppose, of causor, accuso, causidicus, 8fc. 68 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. was " a suite at law, a judicial process." From this its original, it soon acquired the additional signification of an indictment or accusation. The use, therefore, of cause in the above sense would be quite correct ; though it is needless to point out, that it no longer bears this meaning with us. The following passage is strongly illustrative of the different meanings the same word, used by different people at different times, may come to bear. CRIME. " Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no crime of such things as I supposed." — Acts xxv. 18. A crime is now understood to mean an offence, whether against the law of God, or man. But this meaning is one arrived at by the method of induction, and not an intrinsic one. Now, amongst the Greeks, back to whom we must trace this word, it simply ex- pressed the completion of a judicial process; namely, a sentence, whether of condemnation, or acquittal. The Romans borrowed the word from the Greeks, but mo- dified its meaning; so that with them it no longer signified a sentence, or verdict simply, but, inasmuch as persons are not generally brought to trial, unless there be fair grounds of suspicion gn which to found an accusation, it came to signify the accusation, or charge of an offence: and thence, the offence itself, by a logic somewhat similar to that contained in the old adage, "give a dog a bad name and hang him." But it will be observed, that in the above passage the word crime has the more classic meaning of an accusation, and not the superinduced signification — a prejudiced one truly — of the offence itself. In this sense the word is now obsolete; yet we have evidence here, that it has only become so during the last two cen- turies and a half. It appears, then, that this word, WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 69 originally springing from Greece, centuries before the commencement of the Christian Era, survives to the present day; that during its existence it has been a Greek, a Latin, and an English word; and has gener- ally borne a different meaning in each. Amongst the Greeks it signified a judgment ; amongst the Latins an accusation ; and, finally, amongst ourselves, the offence itself. What a strange process is here; what curi- ous reasoning ! We start from the verdict, next we come to the accusation, and finally to the crime, which ought to be the root, and origin of all. Yet, so it is. DISEASE. " Thy daughter is dead, why diseasest thou the master any further?"— Mar k v. 35. This use of the verb, To disease, is somewhat strange to us. Yet, it is not uninstructive, inasmuch as it reveals the kind of reasoning whereby the word has come to receive its present signification. As a verb, disease is now but rarely used, and, when it is, its meaning is quite different from that which it originally possessed. The past participle, diseased, is still common enough, to intimate a con- dition of ill health*, but with this sense only. Now, it will be observed, from its use in the above passage, that, formerly, its meaning was simply the reverse of ease, comfort, or convenience; and thus it seems to have been used, so late as the middle of the 17th century, if not later. " Though great light be insufferable to our eyes, the highest degree of darkness does not at all disease them." 1 Locke. 1 This observation is certainly incorrect; for intense darkness is ex- tremely painful to the eyes. 70 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. Disease, then, up to this time, signified that con- dition of restlessness, which would be caused by trouble, sorrow, or sickness of any kind : bnt with reference only to the result, and not to the producing cause. Now, however, the word, instead of designating the effect, has been transferred to denote the cause, and is used, I believe solely, to express a malady in its substantival use; and to affect with a malady in its verbal use. DISDAINE. "And when the ten heard it, they begun to disdains at James and John." — Mark x. 41. " Therefore some disdained amongst themselves, and said, &c." Ibid xiii. 4. These passages, in our present version, read as follows : " And when the ten heard it, they began to be much dis- pleased with James and Jolin." "And there were some that had indignation within them- selves, and said, &C." 1 The following passage illustrates the meaning this word bore in Chaucer's time: "The second cause that ought to make a man to have dis- deigne of sinne is this, that, as saith Seint Peter, whoso doth sinne is thral to sinne, and sinne putteth a man in gret thral- dom. Certes, wel ought a man have disdeigne of sinne, and withdraw him fro that thraldom and vilany." Persones Tale, Cant. Tales. What, then, are the changes time has wrought in the meaning of this word? It would appear, that the tendency has been to weaken its original force and vigour. What its meaning is now we all know well enough. By disdain, we understand rather that con- tempt and scorn for a thing, — that loathing, somewhat 1 It should be observed that the word in the original, in both pass- nges, is the same: namely, kyavaKTeZv, to be grieved, or indignant, which expresses a more powerful emotion than that of mere contempt or scorn. WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 71 akin to pride, whether proper or improper, — which cannot stoop, — than real anger, and indignation, which, resulting from supposed sufficient causes, produces dis- pleasure and aversion to a particular person, or thing. So that, if this be true, the morale of the word has suffered depreciation, and the word itself, by this very- depreciation, become better adapted to a more artificial state of society. The use of pestilences for wicked men, though it sounds somewhat uncouth in our modern ears, has, nevertheless, a moral force, and vigour about it, which cannot be misunderstood. PASSE. BASE. In that most touching of all farewell sermons, which the Apostle St. Paul preached to his converts, at Miletum, previous to his final departure, after telling them, that bonds, and afflictions awaited him in every city, he goes on to say " But I passe not at all, neither is my life deare unto myself, so that I may fulfil my course with joy i" thereby intimating, as the Greek has it, "I make no account of any thing ;" and our own version "But none of these things move me/ 5 How entirely has this word pass changed its mean- ing : even passion, though its old meaning is still, and may it long be, consecrated to us by our Church Liturgy, has in the familiar intercourse of society re- linquished its original signification of suffering, and, in its place, come to denote, rather the effect of that suffering, or emotion, as it is manifested by external signs. We still talk of "the passions of the mind;" of " a passive verb ;" or, of " sl person remaining passive ;" where the old meaning still survives; yet passion no longer means suffering, but rather intemperate anger; and a passionate man, not a suffering man, but one who can ill abide suffering. There is another instance afforded us in the ancient 7:2 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. use of the word base, which strongly illustrates the power of the mind in changing the signification of words. " Which remembered us in our base estate, for his mercy endureth for ever." — Psalm cxxxvi. 23. And again, in that beautiful metaphor of old age: " And when the doors shall be shut without by the base sound of the grinding." — Ecclesiastes xn. 4. From these passages, it is plain to see, that, at this time, the adjective base was merely one of position, and had not as yet received the inferential meaning of turpitude, which is now attached to it. This was the work of time. It was only by degrees, that men came to the conclusion, that what is low and degraded generally, though not universally, indicates a depraved morality. Yet, this has been done effectually enough at last. As an adjective, base may be said to have lost its simple original meaning (for the two, •'. e., the old and the new, are to a certain degree antagonistic), and have adopted in its place a purely inferential, and moral one. A man formerly might be base, either through misfortune, or fault ; he can now only be so through the latter. BENEFICIALL. "Bring my soule out of prison, that I may praise thy Name : then shall the righteous come about me, when thou art beneficiall unto me." — Psalm cxlii. 7. The use of beneficiall for merciful is somewhat strange to us, and does not exactly correspond to that which obtains in the present day. COMMODITIE. " Cause not your commoditie to bee evill spoken of." Romans xiii. 16. Modern reading : " Let not then your good 1 be evill spoken of." 1 The word in the original, thus rendered, is to dtyadov. WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 73 TERME. " Thou hast caused thy daies to draw neere ; thou art come unto thy terme" These are the words used by the prophet Ezekiel when uttering his curse against the city of Jerusalem. There is little need for any remark on the use of term, in this passage. My reader will see for himself, that terme, at this time, was equivalent to end ; or, as we should now say, termination. The word, terme, has lost this meaning — its true, and more correct meaning of limit — and is now used to indicate, not the termi- nation of a thing, but rather its duration. INCONTINENTLY. " And al the devils besought him saying, send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. "And incontinently Jesus gave them leave." — Mark v. 12, 13. Incontinently has here the force of immediately. In this sense I do not recollect ever to have heard it used ; although, it still finds a place in our dictionaries. It is very rarely met with, now, with any other meaning than that of intemperance, or licentiousness; probably, this change has only recently taken place. IMPROVE. " Be instant in season and out of season : improoue, 1 rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. — 2 Tim. iv. 2. Perhaps, it would be difficult to find a word whose meaning has so entirely changed as the above ; for it has not merely adopted some inferential, or side meaning, 1 The word in the original is eXey&u. 74 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. which is pardonable, and easy to be accounted for, but it has come, at length, to signify as nearly the reverse of what it formerly did, as possible. 1 And, although it is not of so great importance in practice, that is, experience, what the meaning of a word may be, or whether that meaning be the correct one, so long as it is uniformly one, and the same ; yet, when the word occurs in old writings, with a meaning very different from its present one, it is then the real difficulty arises. Take for instance the following passage : " Now, Sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle, hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes, For food and diet to some enterprise, That hath a stomach in it." Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1. Listen to what poor Shakespeare's commentators say. "Warburton takes unimproved to mean *' unrefined ; " Edwards, "improved," and Johnson, with the approbation of Malone, says Mr. Tooke, thinks it means' "not regu- lated, nor guided by knowledge, or experience," whereas, it simply means u unimpeached," or " unblamable." Oh, save me from my friends ! I notice this case of mis- interpretation, not so much for its own intrinsic value, as because it affords a striking instance of the errors the best are liable to fall into, when they dare to ignore 1 It is perhaps mere useless speculation to try and trace this word beyond the Latin improbo, to the Greek Trpe-rreiv, to be fit, or becoming : sufficient for our present purpose, which is rather that of ascertaining the acquired, than the etymological meaning, that it is derived to us directly from the French verb improuver, to disapprove, to blame, a meaning which is still retained. "Elles croient que le corps et le sang sont vraiment distribues a ceux qui mangent; et improuvent ceux qui enseignent le contraire." Bossuet des Variat des JEglises, Prot. " La bourgeoisie de Geneve a droit de faire de representations dans toutes les occasions, oil elle croit les loix lesees, et ou elle improuve la conduite de ses magistrats."— Rousseau, vol. II. p. 440. WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. iO the past, and consult the feelings, and dictates of the present only. Words are far too capricious to be safely- investigated by any other guide, than that of experience. Here, even the etymologist finds himself at fault, and though, perhaps he may be able to indicate which way the fox ought to have gone, yet it by no means follows that his suggestions are to be relied on. It is unnecessary to point out that, instead of improve in the passage which suggested these remarks, our present Version reads re- prove. The difference is only that of a syllable, yet how strange it would sound now to hear the old reading " improve, rebuke, exhort." The following appears the rationale of this singular change in the meaning of the verb To improve. That which is faulty, or vicious, requires to be reproved. (I use the words advisedly, with their present meaning) ; and that which is reproved, ought, if the reproof have its legitimate effect, to be improved. Here again, is the same transposition of cause, and effect; and here, again, is afforded us a glimpse at that myste- rious logic, which is ever at work in the secret labora- tory of human thought, and human feeling; which, snatching the very words out of our mouths, and re- casting them in a new model, reproduces them again, after a time, in such a shape that they can scarcely be recognised. 1 1 I am not sure that the verb, To reprove, as used by our Bible Translators, in the passage "reprove, rebuke, exhort," had the same meaning as that we now attach to it. I am rather inclined to think the animus of the word, as they used it, was conviction; which implies, not only impeachment, but also that bringing of a man's offence home to him, so as to cause him serious apprehension of punishment, and thus lay him under a greater moral obligation to reform his life. What is the difference in our day, between a rebuke and a reproof? I doubt if there be any attached difference. Yet, we are bound to accept one of two conclusions : either, that our Bible Trans- lators rendered two essentially different words in the original, e\ey£ov and e-mTifirja-ov (the former, signifying to convince, the latter, literally to set an additional price on a thing, and thence, to rebuke), by synonymous words in English ; or else, that the words they used, at the time they used them, were not synonymous ; which appears to me far the more rational of the two. 76 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. PROFIT. " Now the childe Samuel profited, and grew, and was in favor with the Lord, and also with men," — 1 Samuel n. 26. The verb, to profit, is not now used in the sense of thriving, as it appears by the above passage, and many others that I could mention, to have been formerly. AVOYDED. The employment of this word in the sense of empty- ing is somewhat curious. I have, unfortunately, taken down the reference to the passage incorrectly, and must therefore, ask my reader to trust to my fidelity. It is but a fragment, but it is sufficient to shew in what sense the word was formerly used. " When the priests avoyded the ashes." Void is still used with this meaning of making empty ; but not, so far as I am aware, avoid, WANT. " If he be lost, and want, thy life shall go for his life." 1 Kings xx. 39. In the sense in which this word is here used, it is now rarely found ; still, there are a few homely phrases where it survives, such for instance as "it wants ten minutes to twelve ;" that is "there are wanting ten minutes from twelve o'clock." There is another remarkable usage of the verb To want, which we seem to have entirely lost. It occurs in Clement Ellis's " Character of the true Gentleman." " He scorns and is ashamed of nothing but sin. He lives in the world as one that intends to shame the world out of love with itself, and he is, therefore, singular in all his actions, not because he affects (loves) to be so, but because he cannot meet with company like himself, to make him otherwise. In a word, he is such, that (could we want him) it were pity but that he were in heaven ; and yet, I pity not much his continuance here, because he is already so much in heaven to himself." WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 77 What interpretation are we to put upon want in this passage? The sense would seem capable of but oue. It appears to be equivalent to To spare, To do without. And there is another passage, only a little further on, which seems to confirm this. " Honours lie civilly accepts when paid him, but seldom challenges when delayed or with-held ; so far I mean, as they concern his person, not his office. For though it be one honour to deserve, yet it is another contentedly to want them." Clement Ellis lived about the middle of the 17th century, or pretty nearly a century after the Genevan Version was published. It appears, then, that since the beginning of the 17th century the verb, To want, has borne no less than three different meanings. 1st, with the sense of To he wanting. 2nd, „ „ To spare or do without. 3rd, „ „ In our own time, To desire. 1 With respect to the verbal formation of want, it will be prudent to speak cautiously. The substantive want, and wand, we know well enough to be the past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb wanian, To diminish, To take away, with an active signi- fication : then, To wane, To decrease, To decay, with a 1 The Latin verb, desidero, with its derivative, desiderium, seems to afford a somewhat parallel instance to the above. The word desiderium was originally an astronomical term, used to denote the absence of a particular star from a constellation, without implying any notion of regret for that absence. Yet, this word, desiderium, being a compound Latin word, and, therefore, as a word, incapable of being traced further back, is the root of the French desire, and our English desire. But, long previous to this, it had lost its original meaning, even amongst the Eomans themselves, and signified, first regret, and thence, as a natural consequence, since we always more or less desire that for which we feel regret, it came to mean desire or longing for a thing ; so that the changes, this word has undergone, somewhat re- semble those of our English verb To want. 78 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. neuter signification: as also, from the same verb, with the prefix ge, ge-wanian, comes the noun adjective gaunt. 1 But whence comes the verb To want? There seems no alternative but to suppose it is formed from the noun substantive, by simply prefixing the English verbal particle, (if so I may be permitted to call it) to, of which more hereafter. If such be its formation, whether regular or irregular, let us not at present decide, we cannot be surprised, that its meaning has varied from time to time ; changing rather in accordance with the prevailing under-current of feeling, than with any rule to be found in the nature of things. Yet, how many verbs there may be, which are as loose in their construction as this, we shall probably never know. There are two, which occur to me at this time. They are the verbs To twist, and To tilt. 2 The former is supposed to be the contracted form of twiced, twic'd. or, as it was formerly written, twis'd, whence twist, and the verb To twist. The latter is "the past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb tilian, 5 i. e. To raise, or To lift up. To till the ground, is to raise it, To turn it up. Atilt is well said of a vessel that is raised up; but we ought to say To till, and not to tilt a vessel." This concluding remark of Mr. Tooke's is, I appre- hend, equally applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the case we are considering : namely, the verb, To want. But, to pursue this question further, will be to anticipate the subject of a future chapter. 1 So that from the same part of the same verb we obtain, first a noun substantive want ; second, a noun adjective gaunt ; and third, as we shall presently see, in all probability, the verb to want. See JDiv. Pur. p. 351. 2 Perhaps the verb To hoist is another. 3 Whence comes the verb To till, and the substantive tilth. WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 79 MOE. MOST. " O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy wonderful! workes so many, that none can count in order to thee thy thoughts towards us : I would declare and speak of them, but they are moe than I am able to express." — Psalm xl. 5. Mr. Home Tooke's hypothesis of the meaning, and origin of more is ingenious, but, we fear, untenable. In order that I may not misconstrue Mr. Tooke's meaning he shall speak for himself: " Though there appears to be, there is in reality no irre- gularity in much, more, most; nor, indeed, is there any such thing as capricious irregularity in any part of language. In the Anglo Saxon the verb ma'wan, metere, (To cut), makes regularly the prseterperfect mow, or mowe, (as the praeterperfect of slag an is sloh), and the past participle, mow en, or Saxon meoiven, by the addition of the participial termination en to the praeterperfect. Omit the participial termination en (which omission was, and still is, a common practice through the whole language, with the Anglo Saxon writers, the old English writers, and the moderns 1 ), and there will remain Saxon mowe, or English mow ; which gives us the Anglo Saxon moive, and our modern English word mow; which words mean simply, — that which is mowed, or mown. And as the hay, &c, which was mown, was put together in a heap ; hence figuratively, mowe was used in Anglo Saxon to denote any heap : although, in modern English, we now confine the application of it to country pro- duce, such as hay-mow, barley-mow, &c. This participle or sub- stantive, (call it which you please, for, however classed, it is still the same word, and has the same signification), mow, or heap, was pronounced (and therefore written) with some variety ma, mce, mo, mowe, mow, which regularly compared, give Saxon, ma ma-er, (i. e. S. mare) ma-est (i. e. S. moest). Saxon, moe mce-er, (i. e. S. mcere) mce-est (i. e. S. mcest). Saxon, mowe...mow-er, (i. e. S. more) mow-est (i. e. S. most). Englishmo mo-er, (i. e.E. more) mo-est (i. e. E. most)." But there are serious objections to this process. For, in the first place, the past participle of ma'wan is not 1 I very much doubt, whether what Mr. Tooke conceives to be fie past participle divested of the participial termination (without which it is not a participle at all) is, in reality, anything more than the root of the verb. But Mr. Tooke was not in the habit of looking on verbs in this light. 80 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. meoioen, but simply ma' wen, 1 just as the past participle of sa'wan, To sow, is sa'wen; consequently, if we do reject the participial termination en, we have, not mowe, but maw. 2 But this objection is trivial compared with the next : namely, that ma and mos never did signify a heap in the Saxon, or, indeed, anything else, besides a comparative degree, which we render in English by the word more. So that, in fact, Mr. Tooke starts by comparing a word, which, whatever be its positive, is already in the comparative degree. Had he been con- tent with comparing the substantive mowe, and then tried to persuade us that ma, mas, (for mo has no ex- istence in the Saxon) are contracted forms of this comparative, we should still have dissented, though we should not have felt that so great an outrage on com- mon sense had been committed. No doubt most (Saxon mo3st) is the superlative of the comparative more, but what the positive may have been, we dare not hazard a conjecture. Mr. Tooke goes on to say, though I warn my reader to use him cautiously : "Mo (mowe, acervus, heap), which was constantly used by all our old English authors, has with the moderns given place to much: z which has not (as Ju- 1 Perhaps I ought to state my authority for this assertion : it is Dr. Bosworth's Anglo Saxon Dictionary. 2 We ought to recollect too, that mead, Saxon meed, is, as Mr. Tooke himself asserts, p. 585, a verbal substantive, probably of irregular formation from the same past participle ; as also seed, Saxon seed, from the past par- ticiple sa'wen, of the verb sa'wan To sow ; deed, Saxon doed, from don To do, &c. Mowe may perhaps be the root of the verb ma'w-an, To mow, or cut; but I do not see how it can be formed from the past participle: otherwise, where must we look for the root of the verb ? 3 If by mo Mr. Tooke means the adjective or adverb more, he is certainly wrong. How would it do to substitute much for mo in the following passage ? "There was also a reve, and a millere, A sompnour (apparitor) and a pardoner also, A manciple, (baker) and myself, ther n'ere no mo." Prologue to Cant. Tales. WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 81 nius, Wormius, and Skinner imagined of Miekle) been borrowed from fieyakos, bnt is merely the diminutive of mo." Let this stand for what it is worth, I do not think it is much. The fancied victories of a too presumptive boldness are, in my mind, more to be dreaded, than either the apathy of ignorance, or the humbler successes of a more diffident enquiry. Men, who will see difficulties nowhere, and even concoct a solution, if they cannot find one, are dangerous partisans, and render but poor service to the cause they espouse ; inasmuch as, by so doing, they lay it open to an undiscriminating suspicion. He who at- tempts to explain, by some conceit of his own, secrets which lie buried far too deep in the tomb of the past ever to be perfectly investigated now, should, at least, do so in a spirit of modesty, and not attempt to dogmatise over the faith of other men. If in the Sanscrit malia, great, the Persian mih, and the Gothic mar> much, we see, or fancy we see, the word more 1 dimly foreshadowed, then it becomes idle to listen to arguments, which endeavour to fix the date of the word no farther back, than its fancied invention by the Saxons. Favete Unguis. MOST. "Yea they worship beasts also, which are their most enemies, and which are the worst, if they be compared unto others, because they have none understanding." Wisdom of Salomon. "Yet peinted was a little furthermore, How Athalante hunted the wild bore, And Meleagre and many other mo For which Diane wrought hem care and wo." Knighte's Tale. 1 Thompson in. his " English Etymons," says, more is contracted from the Gothic marer, as Gothic mar, mer, signified much or great, and cor- responds with Persian mihtar, from mih, Sanscrit maha great. 82 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. We have here an instance afforded us of the obsolete use of most, in the sense of greatest; but until we are better acquainted with the nature and origin of the words much, more, and most, we cannot with propriety- discuss the question, as to whether this use be correct. Dr. Johnson tells us, that in his time, most, in the sense of greatest, had already become obsolete. But, although most is no longer used in this par- ticular sense, its meaning and name are still so ill denned, that, perhaps, a word or two respecting them may not be out out of place. If we say " A man is capable of doing most good in his own sphere ; " we mean by "most good," the "largest amount of good;" in which case, most appears to be a noun sub- stantive, and expresses, as an accident of its nature, the quantity, or degree to which that amount reaches. Again : " Men are ready enough to acknowledge that virtue is most efficacious to secure true happiness." In this case, what can we call most but a noun adjective ? Again : " He executed the business most faithfully." "What noun is most in this case? It is not a noun substantive, nor a noun adjective. Indeed, it is difficult to say what it is, unless it be a noun adverb. " Faith- fully" expresses the manner in which the business was executed ; and as most qualifies faithfully, it ought, per- haps, rather to share the nature of that adverb. Indeed, most, as well as much, and more, seem to be reflexive words, on which are reflected the nature of other words, be they substantive, adverb, or adjective, expressed, or understood, to which they happen to be joined. I do not know that we ought to wonder at this. Indeed, the more we meditate on the accidental condi- WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 83 tion — I had almost said the nature — of our language — how by artificial, and in some cases jejune expedients, we have sought to remedy the losses it has sustained, the less will the ambiguous, and irregular use of such words as the above excite our surprise. We must re- collect, that previous to the Norman invasion, the Saxon language was like a stately bark, fully manned, and amply equiped, the discipline good, and containing every resource within itself. Thus did it encounter the tempest which burst over it from the south. But when again, the storm cloud had dispersed, and the bright blue sky appeared, our gallant bark lay motionless on the water, all her delicate tracery gone, her masts splintered and broken, her sails tattered and torn, — a mere wreck of her former self. In a future chapter, I hope to investigate more closely the real amount of damage done, and the manner in which this damage has been repaired. CHAPTER V. OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS, AND FORMS OF WORDS. That department of Philology, whose concern it is that defunct members of Language shall not he entirely forgotten, presents, it may be, as few claims as any to real interest and utility. Still, however, there is a sort of idle curiosity, (pretty much akin, I suppose, to that which is felt in walking through a museum), which is not unpleasantly gratified by gazing for a while on those antiquated forms, which were once living words in the mouths of those who spoke them. They have passed away from this earthly stage ; their influence is no longer felt, and other men, and other words, have risen to supply their places. Still, though it may be little more than mere curiosity, which prompts us to dig up, and examine those old fossils, so far, that is, as any direct benefit is to be expected from them ; yet, in as much as, while we are thus engaged, we are simultaneously, and almost un- consciously, forming an approximate estimate of the drift of our language during the last three centuries, the investigatiou, as to its result, cannot be called, altogether idle. It is only by thus casting the log, while our ship is in motion, that we can obtain a true estimate of her progress. I have met with comparatively few words in the Breeches Bible, which, since the time it was written, namely, the middle of the sixteenth century, have en- tirely died out. They are scarcely worthy of a separate chapter; nevertheless, to avoid confusion, I have given OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS. 85 them a small corner to themselves. In the next chap- ter I have recorded such obsolete forms of past tenses, and past Participles of Verbs, as seemed worthy of notice. FRAILES. " Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred cakes, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five mea- sures of parched corn, and an hundred frailes of raisins, and two hundred of figs, and laded them on asses." — 4 Samuel xxv. 18. Dr. Johnson gives two meanings to the word frail. It would not therefore be obsolete in his time. He says it means : Firstly : A basket made of rushes. Secondly: A rush for weaving baskets. In the following passage, we meet with the word in an earlier form: Piers the Plowman is invited by Conscience to dine with Clergie, where he meets Pacience. While the learned Doctour, however, was eating "mortrews 1 and potages," and drinking wine, Pacience and Piers are put to be macches "at the side bord," where, as they can get 1 A kind of soup : — " He eet manye sondry metes, Mortrews and puddynges, "Wombe-cloutes and wild brawen, And egges y-fryed with grece." "Wombe-cloutes" was what we now call tripe. The Coke, in the prologue to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," is thus described : "A Coke they hadden with them for the nones, To boile the chickenes and the marie (marrow) bones, And poudre marchant, tart and galingale, "Wei coude he know a draught of London ale. He coude roste and seethe and broile and frie, Making mortrewes, and wel bake a pie. But gret harme was it, as it thoughte me, That on his shinne a mormal (cancer) had he For blanc manger that made with the best." 86 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT nothing to eat, they pass the time by conversing on the disgusting behaviour of the Doctour. At length Pacience says, " For now he hath dronken so depe, He wole devyne soone, And preven (prove) it by hir Pocalips And passion of Seint Avereys, That neither bacon ne braun, Blanemanger 1 ne mortrews, Is neither fissh nor flesshe, But fode for a penaunt 2 And thanne shall he testify to the Trinite, And take his felawe to witnesse, What he fond (found) in a frayel, After a freres lyvyng ; And but he first lyre be lesyng, Leve (believe) me nevere after." Lines 8215. On the word fray el, Mr. Thomas Wright has the following note : " The second Trinity Coll. M.S. has " in a forell." Forel is the Low-Latin forellus, a bag, sack, or purse: &frayel (fraellum) was a little wicker basket, such as were used for carrying figs or grapes." In the Romance of " Richard Coeur de Lyon," the Word also occurs. "Richard annswereth with herte free Of froyt there is gret plente ; Fyggys, raysyns, in fray el, And notes (nuts) may serve us fol wel." It is hardly necessary to observe, that fraile is only a contraction of the earlier form, frayel. 1 It must not be supposed, that the blanemanger, here mentioned, bore any resemblance to the viand which now bears that name. There is a receipt for making it in MS. Harl. n. 4016. One of the components is " the brawne of a capon, tesed small." 2 I know not what this means, unless it be " one who is doing penance." This satire on the luxurious life of the clergy is very severe. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 87 FARDEL. "And after those days we trussed up our fardels, and went up to Hierusalein." — Acts xxi. 15. In our authorized version this passage reads as follows : " And after those days we took up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem." I should much like to know, which of these two ren- derings is most intelligible to the general reader of the present day. Both, I suspect, would be about equally sig- nificant. In the first rendering, we have a word, which has now nearly, if not quite, become obsolete; in the second, a word, which, though not obsolete in outward form, is, nevertheless, in the sense which our translators attached to it, namely, that of goods and chattels carried during a journey, unpacked ^hen the traveller stops, and packed, or trussed up, when he again sets out. 1 However, it is not our object, or intention, here at least, to draw comparisons between the renderings of our own and bye- gone versions. Instances, where this difference of render- ing appeared to me deserving of notice, will be found in another portion of this work. At present, we have to consider the word fardel. Dr. Johnson refers us to the Italian fardello, and most likely, had it occurred to him, would have traced the word a step higher, to the low, or barbarous Latin, fartellum, which, no doubt, sprang from fartum, the past participle of the Latin verb far do, To stuff, or cram, and as such, signified that which is stuffed or crammed into anything. But by some the word fardel has been referred to a very- different origin to the above, and it will be remembered, that on page 48, it was said the substantive fardel might, 1 The word in the original is airoa-Kevaa-dfxevoL, literally, "having packed up then goods." 88 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT perhaps, he connected with the Anglo Saxon verb far-an, To go. Yet, though there is something plausible in sup- posing fardel, like bundle, to be compounded of a verb (in the first instance far-an, To go, in the second, bind-an, To bind) and the Anglo Saxon substantive, still an English one, dee I, a division, or part, I fear the explanation, ad- mirable on account of the ingenuity it displays, has, nevertheless, no further claims to our credit. But, why must this natural and pleasant hypothesis be rejected? why must our faith in Mr. Tooke, for I scarcely need say that the hypothesis is his, be so rudely shaken? Be- cause, it is not supported by the testimony of facts, nor borne out by the analogy of the language. It is far more pleasant, than safe to speculate in etymology. Indeed, etymology does not even open a field to invention, pro- perly so called, but only to investigation. And it is this misconception, which has already laid the foundation of many blunders, which it is only in the power of a more extended, and fundamental knowledge of the component elements of our language to remove. This is the cause to which we must attribute those remarkable blunders — pleasing from their very ingenuity — which Mr. Home Tooke has made. He, who so unmercifully castigated the failings and mistakes of other men ; so unsparingly tore down the veil, with which they had succeeded in hiding the truth, was himself scarcely more successful than they, when he attempted to finish their task by his own unaided imagination. He preferred rather to solve his difficulties by an ingenious fiction, (take for instance, his explanation of the words barn, and bread) than to seek for a solution, where a true one could alone be found, namely, in the archives of the language itself. And thus it came to pass, that, while by his labours he has conferred a greater blessing on the literature of his country, than perhaps any man before, or after him, he has by his very ingenuity and independence, introduced not a few errors, which still remain to be dissipated. Not that ingenuity is unnecessary in the pursuit of WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 89 etymological enquiry ; on the contrary, it is highly neces- sary. Yet, it is that ingenuity which is of a subordinate character, which is employed, not so much to assist the flights of speculation, and conjecture, as in detecting the radicle formation of words beneath those altered forms, which, through the course of time, and the agency of other influences, they have at length assumed. And, such being its nature, it is needless to observe, how indispensable is a knowledge of the radicle forms themselves, as well as of the principles of verbal formation. We have said, that the formation of bundle and fardel, as compounded of parts of verbs, with the Saxon substantive dee I, a part, or division, cannot be defended, either by the testimony of facts, or the analogy of the Saxon. For, if bundle be compounded of a verb (bind-an. To bind,) and the Saxon substantive dee I, a part, then girdle, beadle, &c. may be explained in the same way. But we know that the latter are verbal substantives, formed by the addition of the terminal syllable el, — a formation very common in the Saxon language ; — and there can be no doubt, that bundle, the Gothic bindle, and Saxon bindele, 1 is of precisely ana- logous formation. Indeed, I do not find that the sub- stantive dcel is ever compounded with verbs, or parts of them ; though it frequently is with substantives, and particles, if I may use so vague a term. It is true that very few of these compounds of dad, a part, have survived to our time ; yet there is one, ordeal, which is still common, though not with precisely the same meaning as it obtained in the Saxon. The Saxon or dad, signified "a just judgment," or, "a judgment based on the true principles of equity ;" with us it has come to signify any trying position in which a man may be placed. As for the word fardel, since it does not occur in the Saxon, nor, so far as I am aware, in the earlier 1 It should, however, be observed, that the Saxon bindele, signifies rather the act of tying , a binding ; and bunda is used to designate bundles. 90 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT Gothic, there seems no alternative but to accept the explanation of it given above. 1 GEIECES. " And when he came into the grieces, it was so that he was borne of the souldiers, for the violence of the people. "And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the grieces, and beckoned with the hand unto the people." Acts xxi. v. 35 and 40. This word is spelt in almost every possible way. We find in Johnson, greece, greeze, grieze, and grice ; but which of the four is correct I do not undertake to say. Johnson himself, seems to think greece is, for he refers all the other forms to it. He calls ' ' it a neuter substantive, [corrupted from degrees] ; a flight of steps. Obsolete." 1 Words, suck as the last two we have been considering, fardel, from the Latin fartellum, fartum, and fraile, fray el, from fraellum, &c, suggest a remark of general importance, since it concerns, not them only, but also that large class of words, which are not to be traced to any primitive stock, but are the creation of languages themselves not primary. Most languages have, to a certain extent, a creative power of their own. How many Avords have we now in use, which are the coinage of the times ! How fond we are of modifying the form of a word which already suggests one idea to the mind, so that it shall, in its altered form, suggest another idea ! Examples of this process are afforded by that numerous class of nouns in age; as windage, leakage, &c. And, although this crea- tive faculty is principally limited to the modification (sometimes by the addition of terminal syllables) of nouns, already existing, still it is easy to imagine, indeed we know it to have been the case, that during late years, when the arts and manufactures have been making such rapid progress, there have been new words invented to meet the growing ne- <;essity. In etymological investigation, the superficial method of merely finding the same word in a cognate language, instead of tracing it to its proper and true source, has been censured; and I make this remark to ward off a charge of inconsistency. It will be understood, now, that there is a class of words, which rightly forms an exception to the general rule; namely, those, which are the creation of the language where they are found, and as entire words, taking their origin thence, albeit the root, as in the case of fartum, may have to be sought for much further back. As a further illustration of this creative power, I would refer to that large, and still increasing class of substantives in ee; as trustee, legatee, and even payee ! WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 91 . Thompson, in his " English Etymons," says, respecting it, " a flight of steps : French, gres, 1 from the Latin gradus." Johnson's derivation is rather too transparent, and artificial, to be accepted as at all probable. I think the following passage from Chaucer's '* Canterbury Tales," which I have taken the liberty to quote at some length, for reasons, which I hope will be sufficiently evident, may do more towards settling the difficulty than pages of discussion about it : " There n' is no thing 2 in gree suprlatif (As saith Senek) above an humble wif, Suffer thy wives tong, as Caton bit (biddeth) She shall command, and thou shalt suffren it, 1 I am not prepared to deny that the French word gres, formerly signified " a flight of steps," and so gave rise to the word greece ; yet it is unfortunate, that the only meaning, which is given in modern French Dictionaries to the word gres, is " a sort of brown free-stone." However, it is fair to observe that les degres, is still used in French to denote " the steps of a public edifice ; " and it is just possible that greece, may be a corruption of this French word degres, though not of the English degrees. 2 Lest the reader should suppose, that here, at least, is a remnant of French negative construction, I have appended the following short passage to shew that the usage of a double negative is strictly in accordance with the rules of Saxon construction. Indeed, to them, as to the Greeks, the rule of our modern English grammarians, that two negatives destroy each other, or make a positive, was unknown. Mid go'dum mannum nis na$er ne gold ne seolfer wis go'des mannes freo'ndscipe wifcme'ten. "Which rendered literally would read as follows : " With good men, neither nor gold, nor silver is not to be compared to the friendship of a good man." Nis in the above passage is simply the contraction of Saxon ne, not, and is, or ys, is. And there are not a few other words, which were formed in the same way in the Saxon ; some of which, we still retain, though per- haps, unconscious of their etymology. Thus naught is compounded of the Saxon ne, not, and aht, anything: neither of ne, not, and a$or, either; need of ne and ea'd. Ea'd signifies prosperity, or happiness, and need as 92 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT And yet she woll obey of curtesie. A wif is keeper of thin husbondrie : Wei may the sike man bewaile and wepe, Ther as ther is no wif the hous to kepe. I warne thee, if wisely thou wilt werche (work) Love wel thy wif, as Christ loveth his cherche. If thou lovest thy self, love thou thy wif. No man hateth his flesh, but in his lif He fostreth it, and therefore bid I thee Cherish thy wif, or thou shalt never the. 1 Husband and wif, what so men jape or play, Of worldly folk holden the siker 2 way, They ben so knit, ther may non harm betide, And namely upon the wives side. # # * * With face sad, his tale he hath hem told, He sayde, frendes, I am hore and old And almost (God wot) on my pittes brinke, Upon my soul somewhat most (must) I think. I have my body folily dispended, Blessed be God that it shal ben 3 amended: For I wol ben certaine a wedded man And that anon in all the haste I can." Marchanfs Tale. compounded of ne and ea'd signifies the absence, or reverse of prosperity ; and hence adversity, or want. Ea'd also enters into the composition of the Christian or Baptismal names, Edward (happy keeper), Edmund (happy protection), Edwin (happy in war), &c. 1 " Cherish thy wif or thou shalt never the." i. e. prosper. The verb To the, which appears to have been common enough in Chaucer's time, though it has since died out, is the relic of the Saxon verb beo'n, To thrive, To flourish, or grow. It occurs in several other passages : " Because our fire was not made of beche That is the cause and non other, so the ich." i. e. So may I prosper." I may have occasion to refer to this verb hereafter. 2 Siker, means sure. 3 "Blessed be God that it shall ben amended." It is impossible to read this line without asking the question, why there are the two forms be and ben, when, in our time, the former would have been quite sufficient. The fact is, we have here a vestige, not quite obliterated, of Saxon syntax. The Saxons had no future tense to their verbs, neither have we, however sur- WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 93 I think there is no doubt, but that the first line affords us the true clue to the word greece. It is easy to understand, how the early English word gree, signi- fying a step, in the singular number, would become grees, greeze, and finally, greece, in the plural, to signify a col- lection, or flight of steps. In the same manner, we have degree, from the French degre. It might be thought mere excess of caution, were I to hesitate to refer the French word, whatever it may have been, which gave us gree, to the Latin noun sub- tantive gradus ; and as the subject, to which the question properly belongs, will be considered in a subsequent chap- ter, I will at present do no more than observe, that there is in the Saxon, a substantive grad, signifying a step, and offer, as a conjecture, that from this root may possibly be derived the Latin words gradus, and gradior. IAKES. " And the king answered and said to the Caldeans, the thing is gone from me. If ye will not make me understand the dreame with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be drawen in pieces, and your houses shall be made a iaJces. Daniel u. 5. " Therefore, I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speake any blasphemie against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be drawen in pieces, and their houses shall be made a takes, because there is no god that can deliver after this sort." — Daniel in. 29. I have been able to obtain very little trustworthy infor- mation respecting this word. I do not know, that it occurs prising the assertion may be, in English. What we call the future tense is in reality the conjunction of two verbs : the first, shall, which expresses obligation, or duty, and is really a present tense : the second, that which denotes the action, (as love, in " I shall love") and is nothing more than the infinitive mood. I shall love, signifies, I owe, I must, or am obliged to love ; and only by a kind of acquired usage, expresses the intention of loving at some future time. So ben in the passage above is the Saxon infinitive (almost unaltered), of the verb beon, To be. 91 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT in any other passages, than the two already quoted ; nor, have I met with it elsewhere. It is properly a corruption of the barbarous, or low Latin word jactio, a casting, from the verb jacto, To cast, or throw. Consequently, if this be correct, the substantive takes 1 would signify a place where refuse matter of any kind is cast. GKENNE. "The proude have laide a snare for me, and spread a net with cordes in my pathway, and set grennes for me." — Psalm cxl. 5. " Keep me from the snare, which they have layd for me, and from the grennes of the workers of iniquitie." — Psalm cxl. 9. It is needless for me to remark, that for grennes, in the above passages, our present version has gins. The difference to the eye is not great, and as I had never met with the word grenn elsewhere, I thought it not unlikely, taking into consideration the laxity of spelling which still prevailed, that it was a corruption, or misprint for the 1 The word dunghill, by which it has been replaced in our version, has the same meaning; in all probability, dung being connected with the verb dencgan, To knock, To ding ; whence come the substantives din, dint, and the verb to ding. "Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell Hark, now I hear them,— ding— dong, bell." The following are Mr. Tooke's words: "Bung (or as it was formerly written dong) by the change of the characteristic letter y to o, or to u, is the past tense, and therefore past participle of the verb dyngan, dejicere, To cast-down." But dyngan only means To dung, to manure, and is rather a verb formed from the Saxon word dincg, (which means not only dung, but also new-broTcen, or fallow-land) than the verb, whose past tense gives us the substantive dung. Still, in a subject like this, the truth of which is buried so deep in the remote ages of the past, it well becomes us to eschew anything that savours of prejudice, or dogmatism, and to bring to its consideration only a spirit of candour and docility, which will thankfully accept so much of the truth as is now within our reach, but not be angry, that a portion is for ever lost. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 95 word gin. But a little further investigation quickly shewed me, that this was not the case, though I believe the opinion is still upheld by some. The word does not occur in Dr. Johnson's dictionary ; we may therefore fairly presume, it had in his time already become obsolete. Yet, it is well worthy our notice, if not for its own sake, at least on account of its close relation- ship to several other words, which are still, and, so long as English continues to be spoken, will be current amongst us. Through the long lapse of time these words have become so altered in appearance and signification — have, as it were, so receded from each other — that the family likeness can no longer be traced in their outward form. They have now, to speak familiarly, set up on their own account, and disclaim all connection with their quondam relations. It may appear somewhat bold to assert, that this old, and now obsolete word, grenn, is own brother to the words yard, yarn, garb and many others ; yet it is more than probable that such is the case. Indeed, there can be little doubt that Grenn, Yarn, are all closely connected with the old Saxon verb, variously spelt and pro- Garb, nounced, geanvian, to make ready ; to Gear, prepare ; to procure ; to supply. To Gar, Perhaps Yore.-* I think it will be easy to shew, that in most of these words, if not in all, the vital energy of the verb is still discernible. Grenn, is the old Saxon word gryn, and signifies a contrivance, prepared to catch living creatures. Yarn 1 and yard are simply yar-en and yar-ed, the two forms of the past participle. 1 "Diversions of Purley," p. 357. Yard, Yare. > 96 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT Yarn is wool, or cotton prepared for weaving ; formerly wool only. Yard, The constant use of this word alone has led us to forget its real meaning of something, anything, pre- pared ; and it seems natural to look upon it, not as a participle, but as a substantive proper. Habit has caused this inaccuracy. Our Saxon ancestors avoided it by pre- fixing the word mete, To gyrd ; thus producing metegyrd, 1 a measuring rod. And, in later times, the participle yard was not used alone, but in connection with the vir- tual, and conventional substantive wand ; though this is in reality, nothing more than the past participle wan-ed, of the Anglo Saxon verb wanian, To diminish.* Even in our day this use of yard, in its more general and less definite sense of anything prepared, is, I suppose, pre- served in the common word steelyard; that is, a steel instrument prepared, not to determine the length in this case, but the weight of any material. So, also, formerly there was the yard-land, or gyrd-landes, (lit. yard of land) which varied in different parts of England, but signified in each place a portion of land marked out by the gyrd, or prepared measuring wand, 3 Of course it is impossible to assign a reason why yard should now denote a measure of length onlyj instead of area, weight, capacity, or what not. It would be quite as rational to talk of a yard of beef, 4 as a yard of tape, insomuch as the word contains no reference at all to anything. Yare, as an English word, is used both as an im- perative, and a past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb 1 I am not aware whether the length of the Saxon mete-gyrd was the same as our yard wand. The prefixed syllable mete is part of the verb metan, to measure. 2 See p. 77. 3 The ycvrdland, or vvrgate, was usually the fourth part of the Tiyde, and would, therefore, contain about thirty acres. In some places, it con- sisted of seven acres of plough land and pasture for two oxen, one cow, and six sheep. 4 See Appendix to this page. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 97 gearwian, To prepare. Thus, in " Antony and Cleopatra," it occurs as an imperative : "Yare, yare, good Iras." while in Chaucer and Gower, it is frequently used as a past participle : "The wind was good the ship was yare Thei toke her leve., and forth thei fare." Gower, lib. 5, fol. 101, p. 2, col. 1. " This Tereus let make his shippes yare And unto Greece himself is forth yfare, Unto his father-in-law gan he pray, To vouchsafe that for a month or tway That Philomene his wives suster might On Progne his wife but ones have a sight, And she shall come to you again anon, Myself with her I will both come and gon, And as my hertes life I will her kepe." Legend of Fair Women, Cant. Tales, line 2267. GARB. GEAR. Garb, gear, proceed from the same Gothic word gi- crva; Saxon gearwa, or geara. The reason for the difference is simply this ; garb has descended to us indirectly, through the French, a fact which sufficiently accounts for the change it has undergone; while gear is nothing more nor less than the Saxon word itself, descended directly from the Gothic. Even in French, the word garbe, which is the parent of the English word garb, does not signify dress, or outward appearance, so much as the "make and rigging' 5 of a thing, in which sense it answers more nearly to the English word gear 9 which signifies an equipment, or outfit. It would, how- ever, be too much to expect, that a word from the French, could settle down in a strange land without undergoing some modification in its meaning. ii 9© OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT But, to return to the word which has suggested these remarks, it may be asked, how it came to pass that the good old Saxon word gren, fell into disuse ? Exactly for this reason, that there was another word, perhaps a little more euphonious, to supply its place. Indeed, we have at this time, a.d. 1600, two words very much alike in out- ward form, to express the same idea : the wonder is, that both had survived so long. Gin, which is substituted in our version for gren, has the same meaning as the latter : " The gins of the workers of iniquity Hell yawneth upon them." " For Gigas the geaunt With a gyn hath engyned To breke and to bete a-down That ben aj'iens Ihesus." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line ]2581. " He that it wrought he coud many a gin ; He waited (watched) many a constellation, Or (before) he had done this operation, And knew ful many a sele and many a bond." Cant. Tales, line 10442. Whether the word be called Norman, or Saxon, is merely, I take it, a matter of precedence; for there can be little doubt, that the root of the word gin is to be found in the Saxon word "gin," 1 an expanse, opening, abyss. It will be seen that, amongst the Saxons, it had not yet obtained the meaning of deceit, or guile, which it afterwards came to do amongst the French and our- selves. Dr. Johnson supposes gin to be derived from engine. The absurdity of such a conjecture needs no demonstration. It is equivalent to saying, that a simple word may be derived from its compound, and, if this were the case, as well might trance be called a derivative of entrance, wrap of enwrap, &c. 1 Whence comes the Saxon verb gman, which is simply the English verb To yawn. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 99 PILL. " Did \inll you by any of them whom I sent vnto you ? " I haue desired Titus, and with him I haue sent a brother did Titus pill you of anything?"— 2 Cor. xn. 17, 18. It may, perhaps, be questioned, whether the word pill is strictly entitled to a place in this chapter; inas- much as, though it has certainly become obsolete during the last two centuries, there are one or two shoots from the same stock nourishing, even in the present day, of which I may mention pillage as one. The following seems the genealogy of the word : The Saxon word pil, a pile, or dart (whence the Saxon verb pi' Ian, to beat with a pestle), gave rise in the Latin to pilum, a dart, and, I think, to the verb pilo, To plunder. The Latin verb pilo, became piller in the French, whence arose the substantives pillage, pillour} both of which were once English words, though the former of them only has maintained its ground. But, observe, there is in the fFrench not only the verb piller, To plunder, but also^i'Zer, To pound, (exactly corresponding to the Saxon verb above, pilan), and the substantives pilier, a pillar ; pilon, a pestle, and pilori, whence comes our word pillory. Thus, it seems highly probable that the Saxon ^7, — nay, let us call it, as it is, the English word pile (for the accent in the former, and the affixed e in the latter, are only different ways of lengthening the %), has given words to the Latin and French independently; and also to the French, and thence again to the English, other words through the medium of the Latin. The following plan may serve to make this more plain : — 1 Also pillard, a pilferer ; pillerie, robbery. One is strongly tempted to think pilfer must have some connexion with the same root as the above. 100 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT Saxon pi'l, a pile or dart. 1 Latin. Pilum, and probably, pilo, to plunder. 1 , ^ 1 French. Piller, pillage, pillour. 1 A r— ^ \ English. Pile. r ~\ French. Filer, to bruise ; pilier, pilori. 1 English. Pillar, pillory. English. To pill, and pillage. " And God amend the Pope ! That pileth holy kirke, And clymeth bifore the kynge, To be keeper over cristene ; And counteth noght though cristene ben Killed and robbed." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 13845. " ' Thanne is many a man lost,' Quod l a lewed-vicory. 2 ' I am a curatour of holy kirke, And cam nevere in my tj*me Man to me that me kouthe (could) tell Of cardinale vertues, Or that accounted conscience At a cokkes (cock's) fethere, or an hennes. I knew nevere cardynal, That he ne came fro the Pope ; And we clerkes whan thei come For hir (their) communes (commons) paieth For hir pelure (fur), and hir palfreyes mete, And pilours that hem folweth.'" 3 1 Quoth. 2 A lay-vicar. I do not know that any single passage could give a clearer insight into the ancient meaning of lewd, than this. It shews How much the past differed from the present signification, which suggests, not so much simplicity, and ignorance, as vice and licentiousness. 3 "And pilours who follow them." Perhaps the reader is not aware, that all the persons in the plural number indefinite tense, indicative mood of Saxon verbs, end in $ or th. At the time when the above quotation was written, about a.d. 1362, this inflection had not been dropped. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 101 HARBEROUS. " For a Bishop must be unreprouable as Gods steward, not froward but harberous" — Titus i. 7, 8. 11 Bee ye harberous one to another, without grudging." 1 Pet. iv. 9. This word has fallen into disuse from much the same reason, I suppose, as the word gren — namely, redun- dancy. The same idea of the mind requires but one word to express it, provided it is always the same ; and as gren and gin were not both requisite, and consequently the former yielded to the latter, so harberous and hospitable intimate too nearly the same qualification to require separate ex- pressions; in consequence, harberous has disappeared and hospitable alone remains on duty. It is remarkable, that in both cases, good old Saxon words have been relin- quished for words which, if not newer, would at least be fresher than those they supplanted. The verb, To harbour, and the substantive Harbour, were formerly spelt herberwe. n Herberwed hym at an hostrie, 1 And to the hostiler 2 called, And seide 'haue kepe this man Til 1 come fro the justes; And lo! here silver,' he seide, •For salve to his woundes.'" Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 11514. "Befelle, that, in that seson on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage To Canterbury with devoute corage, At night was come in that hostelrie Wei nine and twenty into a compagnie Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle In felawship, and pilgrimes were they alle, That toward Canterbury wolden ride. 1 A hostelrie or inn. 2 The inn-keeper; hence probably conies hostler, a man who has charge of the inn stables. 102 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT Grete chere made oure hoste us evcricli on And to the souper sette he us anon : And served us with vitaille of the beste. Strong was the wine, and wel to drink us lest 1 A seinely man our hoste was with alle For to han ben a marshal in an halle A large man he was with eyen stepe, A fairer burgeis 2 is there non in Chepe : Bold of his speche, and wise and Avel ytaught, And of manhood him lacketh righte naught. Eke therto was he righte a mery man, And after souper plaien he began, And spake of mirthe amonges other thinges, Whan that we hadden made our rekeninges; And saide thus ; now, lordinges, trewely Ye ben to me welcome right hertily : For by my trouthe, if that I shall not lie, I saw nat (not) this yere swiche a compagnio At ones in this herberwe, as is now." Prologue to Cant. Tales. But we may make a still nearer approach to the root of this word, which is again to be found in the Saxon. " The coke (cook) of London, while the Beve spake, For joye (him thought) he clawed him on the bak: A ha (quod he) for Cristes passion, This miller had a sharp conclusion, Upon this argument of herbergage." Prologue to the Cokes Tale. Now herbergage is a French word ; that is, intro- duced by the Normans, and signifies a lodging. It approaches very nearly to what we must consider the root of this family of words, namely, the Saxon com- pound Here-berga, a station, where an army rested on its march, and thence a harbour. Here-berga, a har- bour, and liere-bergan, To harbour, are compounded of 1 "And wel to drink us lest It pleased us wel to drink." So " Him lust to ride." " It pleased him to ride." Leste, liste, luste, is an impersonal verb, signifying " it pleaseth," like the Latin jurat, libel. It is the Saxon verb lyst-an, To wish, (from the root lyst, love, admira- tion, desire), but it does not appear to have been used in a bad sense as it has come to be now. 2 Hence I suppose, burgess, in burgess-constable. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 103 the Saxon substantive Here, an army, and the verb Beorgan or Bergan, To protect, To shelter, (from the root beorg, & hill, a burrow, or barrow). But, besides this substantive herbergage, which does not seem to have been of much use to us, we have to thank our French neighbours for another word of very- considerable value. " The fame anon thurgout the town is born How Alia King shall come on pilgrimage, By herbergeours that wenten him before." The Man of Laives Tale, line 5415. From the word herberg, closely resembling the Saxon Hereberga, our ingenious French cousins made two other substantives, Herbergage, a lodging ; and Herbergeour, one who goes before to provide lodging. From the latter of these we are indebted for our pretty word harbinger. It does not appear, that the form harbour has been modified by any foreign influence. I believe we have ourselves transformed the Saxon hereberga into the English harbour. In that pleasing description of a summer garden in Chaucer's " Bomaunt of the Bose," it is written herborow. " Into that gardin well yrought, Whoso that me coud have brought, By ladders or else by degree, It would well have liked mee, For such solace, such joy, and pleie, I trow that never man ne seie, As was in that place delicious: The gardin was not daungerous, 1 To herborow birdes many one, So rich a yere was never none 1 "The gardin was not daungerous To herborow birdes." That is, was not sparing.- Daungerous occurs in one or two other passages in this sense. The construction "daungerous to herborow birdes," seems to remind us of that of the Latin supine "mala tactu vipera." A viper dangerous to handle. 104 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT Of birdes song and braunches grene, Therein were birdes mo (more) I wene, Than been in all the realme of Fraunce : Full blisful was the accordaunce, Of swete pitous song they made, For all this world it ought glade." GARD. " And the imbroidered gard of the same ephod, which shall be upon him, shall be of the selfe same worke and stuffe." Exodus xxvi it. 8. Gard is, I suppose, either a contraction of girdle, Saxon gyrdel, or, more probably, the Saxon word geard, an enclosure, itself, which is the root not only of girdle, but also gives us, or enters into the compositon of, the substantives Yard. Garden. Garter. Girder. Garland. Orchard. 1 SPARSE. 11 As it is written. He hath sparsed abroad, and hath given to the poore: his benevolence remaineth for ever." — 2 Cor. rx. 9. The loss we have sustained here is certainly not a serious one. The verb To sparse, besides being very ill-sounding, would be redundant, while we have the more euphonious compound disperse, and the Saxon verb To scatter. PIGH. " Who is a minister of the sanctuaiy, and of that true tabernacle which the Lord pight and not man." — Heb. vm. 2. Pight is the past tense of the verb To pigli, now spelt pitch* The word occurs under the same form in Chaucer : — " Out of the ground a furie infernal sterte, From Pluto sent at requeste of Saturne, 1 Orchard is the Saxon ort^geard, or wyrt-geard, i. e. a icyrt-yard, or enclosed space for the cultivation of herbs; and then secondarily of fruit trees. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 105 For which his hors for fere gan to turne, And lept aside and foundred as he lepe : And er that Arcite may take any kepe He fight him on the pomel 1 of his hede, That in the place he lay as he were ded, His brest to-brosten with his sadel bow. As black he lay as any cole or crow So was the blood grounen in his face." The Knightes Tale. The etymology of the verb To pitch is somewhat doubtful ; nor do I see that this more ancient mode of spelling it affords us any further clue. It is worthy of remark, that this older form was at this time rapidly falling into disuse. Of the many passages in the Bible where it might have occurred, I believe this is the only one where it does. GHEST. " But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her ghests are in the depth of Hell." — Proverbs rx. 18. " So those seruants went out into the highwayes, and gathered together all that euer they found, both good and bad: so the wedding was furnished with ghests. " Then the King came in, to see the ghests, and saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment." — Matth. xxn. 10, 11. It was only the spelling of this word which attracted my attention, and induced me to notice it here. Its resemblance to the word ghost struck me as remarkable, and suggested a train of ideas, which I hope may not be found altogether impertinent to the general character of my subject. After all, the resemblance between ghest and ghost — and, to trace them still further back, between the Saxon gcest and ga'st, whence they respectively spring ; a resemblance which to my eye seemed indicative not only of a common parentage, but also of a common animation — may be only fortuitous and imaginary. This, however, I shall leave with my reader to decide. 1 A pomel was anything round. It is now, I believe, used only with reference to saddle. 106 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT The earliest form in which the word guest, Saxon gcest, appeared as an English word was gest. Thus : " Antony a dayes Aboute noon tyme Hadde a brid (bird) that brought hym breed. That he by lyvede; And though the gome 1 hadde a gest, God fond hem bothe." Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 10181. It occurs again in Chaucer's touching story of "Patient Grisilde :" " A few sheep spinning on the field she kept, She wolde not ben idel til she slept. And when she homward came she wolde bring Wortes and other herbes times oft, The which she shred and sethe for hire living And made hire bed ful hard and nothing soft : And aye she kept hive fadres life on loft With every obeisance and diligence, That child may don to fadres reverence." When the noble Markis visits her humble cot, and asks her " fadre " to take him " as his son in lawe," the story goes on to say: " No wonder is though that she be astonied, To see so gret a gest come in that place, She never was to non swiche gestes woned 2 For which she loked with ful pale face." But, indeed, neither guest nor ghost appear to have been originally spelt with h. In the "Vision of Pierce Ploughman," ghost is frequently written goost ; while in Chaucer we find repeatedly gost, for ghost or spirit. When the cup of poor " Grisilde V sorrow was well nigh full to overflowing with the seemingly heartless treatment of her husband, she says to him : "Ne shall the gost within myn herte stent 3 To love you best with all my trewe intente : 1 Gome, a man. See Appendix to this page. 2 Accustomed. 3 Desist. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 107 And with that word she gan the hous to dight, And tables for to sette and beddes make, And peined her to don all that she might, Praying the chambereres, for Goddes sake, To hasten hem, and fast swepe and shake, And she the most servicable of all, Hath every ehamber arraied, and his hall." Ibid. Again : "It liketh hem to be clene in body and gost : Of min estat I wol not maken bost. For wel ye know a lord in his household Ne hath nat every vessell all of gold : Som ben of tree; and don hir lord service. God clipeth folk to him in sou dry wise, And everich hath of God a propre gift, • Som this, som that him liketh shift." The Wif of Bathes Tale. There is no more reason for spelling ghost with h } than nor, indeed, any reason for either. As guest is the Saxon goest, so ghost is the Saxon gdst, signifying first, the breath, and secondly, a spirit, a ghost. Now, is not the sonl or spirit the guest of the body ; and may not the body be considered as the earthly house, where a spiritual visitor, or guest is, for a short time, en- tertained and lodged, before it wings away its flight to its final home — its last abiding place of everlasting joy or misery ? Such a notion would not be strange to, or even un- paralleled amongst the Saxons. The word said (our word soul) is a verbal substantive, derived from the verb sdw-an, To sow, because the soul is the germ, or seed, sown by the Creator of spirits in the bodies of men. 1 And this metaphor was further prettily carried out by the Saxons in their substantives sdwl-hord, 1 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. — Genesis II. 7. 108 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT sdwl-hus ; both which were used by them to denote the body, as being the repository or chamber of the soul. So that we see the idea of the ghost or spirit, as the guest of the body, was familiar to them, whether, or not, there be anything beyond mere conjecture in the external resem- blance of ghest to ghost. If, indeed, it be that there is, may we not learn a lesson, that our bounden duty is to treat our spiritual guest well, and ensure for it, so far as lays in our power, a better home above — an entrance into a happier abode, when that stern bailiff, Death, shall have laid his distraint on this earthly tenement, and placed our goods in se- questration. 1 I hope I shall be pardoned for transcribing the follow- ing somewhat lengthy dialogue from the " Colloquies of Erasmus." It pursues, and forms, to my idea, no inapt comment to the train of thought which I have alluded to above. " Chrysoglottus. Although the philosophical books of Cicero seem for the most part to breathe a sort of divinity, yet that which he wrote when now an old man, concerning Old Age, certainly seems to me a kvkvciov acr/xa (a swan-like song), as the Greek proverb has it. I have been reperusing it to-day, and this passage I committed to memory, because it stands forth pre- eminently beyond the rest : ' But if the Deity should bestow on me the power to become a little child, and utter my baby cradle- notes again, I would certainly refuse the proffered boon : nor, indeed, could I wish, now that my course is as good as run, to be recalled from the goal to the starting place. For what advantage does this life afford which is not rather counteracted by trouble ? Or, if not by absolute trouble, at least by a feeling of satiety or disappointment. For I would not bewail my life as many, and they learned men, have often done. Nor does it grieve me to have lived; since I have so lived that I may not think it has been in vain. And I depart this life as it were from an Inn, not as from my Home. For Nature has furnished for us a chamber where we may sojourn for a time, but which we must not look upon as our permanent abode. Oh ! for that illustrious day, when I shall set out to join that congregation and assembly 1 Previous to this inspiration the body of man would resemble a new house not yet inhabited. WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 109 of spirits, and leave this medley of all kinds of vice.' Thus much Cato. What sentiment more holy than this could have been ex- pressed even by a Christian? ***** " Theophilus. Probably so; yet permit me to make an obser- vation, which occurred to me while you were reciting that pas- sage. I have often wondered with myself, seeing how all men desire long life, and shrink from death, although scarcely any one is known so happy, I will not say in old age, but in advanced life, who, being asked whether, if he might, he would become young again, knowing that the same good and evil fortune, in every respect, would have to be endured, as had already happened to him in life, would have made the same reply as Cato; es- pecially, were he to consider all the sorrow or joy that had befallen him in the years recalled. For frequently even pleasing recollections are marred by a certain feeling of shame or re- morse, and thus become no less painful to the mind than sorrow- ful ones. This, I imagine, the very best poets have referred to, when they say, that not until the soul has drunk deep at the oblivious stream of Lethe does it feel any regret for the deserted body. 11 Uranius. That sentiment is certainly a beautiful one ; nor does it appear to me to admit of doubt. But how much that expression, ' It does not grieve me that I have lived,' pleased me ! Yet how few Christians so regulate this life as to be able to say this of themselves ! The majority of men think they have not lived in vain if, when they come to die, they can leave behind them riches heaped together, either honestly or dis- honestly, it matters not which. But Cato thinks that he has not been born in vain, because, as an upright and pious citizen, a faithful magistrate, he had lived for the Republic ; because he had left to posterity the monuments both of his virtue and industry. What could have been said more beautiful than this, * I depart as it were from an Inn, not as from my Home.' We may lodge for a time at an inn until the host bid us take our departure. A man is not easily driven from his own house. And yet downfall, or fire, or any other accident whatsoever frequently does effect his expulsion. And, even should none of these ills befall, yet to an old man the collapsing walls of his tenement ought to admonish him that he must presently leave it. Not less elegant is that expression of Socrates in Plato, that the human soul is placed in this body as in a garrison, whence it is unlawful to depart without the permission of the Commander, or to spend any longer time in it than appears good to Him, who appointed us to keep it. The meaning in Plato is more significant, inasmuch as he has used the figure, or simile of the garrison, instead of the house : if, indeed, we do but sojourn for a time in the house, in the garrison we have our proper duties, which our Commander 110 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS. has appointed us to perform : a simile by no means repugnant to Scripture, which, at one time, compares the life of a man to a warfare, at another, to a contest. " Uranius. But to me at least this speech of Cato's seems beautifully to correspond with that of St. Paul's, who, writing to the Corinthians, calls that heaventy mansion, which we expect after this life oiiciav and ohcrtrnptew] that is, a house or domicile. But this body he calls a tabernacle, (Graece o-ktjvo?) a tent. For we who are in this tabernacle, says he, groan, being burdened. And the same figure is carried out by St. Peter, when he says, 4 But I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle to put you in remembrance, knowing that I must speedily la}'- aside my tabernacle.' But indeed what else is that which Christ himself tells us, when he say, ' that we should so live in watchfulness as those who may be on the point of death ; should so be engaged in all virtuous deeds as those who will live for ever.' " CHAPTER VI. OBSOLETE FORMS OP THE PAST TENSE AND PAST PARTICIPLE. Except that the double forms of the past participle in en and ed, seem to have been at this time indifferently used, it does not appear that the past three centuries have chronicled many striking alterations in the inflection of verbs. The past tenses which are in use now, were, for the most part, in use at the time we are considering. Still, there are a few noteworthy exceptions to this general rule, which we are bound to notice. They are but few and require but little comment. STROOK. STROKE. The verb To strike, which now forms its past tense, and generally its past participle in struck, had formerly two other forms, neither of which correspond exactly with our own. "And always, both night and day, hee cryed in the moun- taines and in the graues, and stroole himself with stones. Mark v. 5. " Nevertheless, it satisfieth them not that we are in bitter captiuitie, but they have stroken hands with their idols." Esther (additional portion) ch. xiv. 3. The past tense, corresponding to stroken, would be stroke. Possibly our substantive stroke, a Moiv, may ha^e 112 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE originated from this form stroken, though we must hear in mind, that the verbs To strike, and To stroke, i. e. to make smooth, were distinct, even in the Saxon. 1 WAN. " Thus Antiochus wan many strong cities in the land of Egypt, and took away the spoyles of the land of Egypt." 1 Mace. i. 20. Wanne is also found "Simon wanne the citie of Joppa." Both these forms are more correct than that at present in use. The verb To win, if properly conjugated would re- semble the verb To hegin, making the past tense wan and the participle wun. Why the past participle ever came to be spelt won I know not, unless for sake of euphony in spelling. The Saxon verb Winn-an is formed from the root winn, contention, war, labour, trouble. It is by a purely inductive method of reasoning, that the verb To win has acquired the signification it now implies, namely that of victory, or superiority. And this in the following way : Winn-an, as formed from the root winn, signifies To contend, To make war, To struggle with labour, pain, or anxiety, for a thing : thence, since what is energetically laboured for is in the end generally obtained, it comes to signify To obtain, To acquire, To win, subdue, conquer. 3 1 The Saxon verb Strecc-an, To make prostrate, whence come our verbs To stretch: — "Hee streched out his hand to the drinke offering." Eccles. L. 15. And To strike, is formed from the root strec, violence, a stretch; while Stracian, To stroke, is formed from the root strac, straight, and therefore signifies "to make straight," or "smooth." 8 Proper names in -win, contain this root: as Baldwin, bold in war: Edwin, happy in war, &c. Winning, however, in the sense of pleasing, and winsome are compounded of the Saxon word win or wyn, pleasure. "Shall we never more behold thee; Never hear thy winning voice again? When the spring-time comes, gentle Annie, When the wild flowers he scattered o'er the plain." Ballad. AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 113 FET. Fet is frequently used as the past tense of the verb To fet, or as we now write it, fetch. HOLPE. "And after lie was come thither, he holpe them much, which had beleeued through grace." — Acts xvm. 27. This form is still retained in our Church service : " He remembering his mercy, hath holpen his servant Israel." Holpen is exactly the old Saxon form of the past par- ticiple, and it is matter of regret that we have suffered it to fall into disuse. OUGHT. This is another instance where time and usage have reconciled us to error ; or rather, perverted our eyes till we no longer recognise it as such. Ought is in reality the past tense of the Saxon verb A'gan, 1 To own, or Have. It is remarkable, that the signi- 1 The past tense of dgan is spelt a'ht, which is very correctly denoted in sound by the way in which ought is pronounced in English. The a' has the broad sound of a, somewhat resembling the pronunciation of o, in bone, home, stone ; oa in broad, Saxon bra'd, boar, Saxon bar : and oe in foe, Saxon fa', doe, Saxon da', &c. The following passage, from the Eomance of " Sir Guy," may tend to throw some light on the meaning which the verb To owe obtained in early English. It will be found, I think, closely to resemble the Saxon verb dgan, To possess, in the signification it at first bore. "To the pallaice he yode (went) anon And lyghted down of his steede full soone. Through many a chamber yede Baynborne, A knight he found in dongeon, Baynborne grete hym as a knight courtoise 'Who otoeth' he said 'this fayre pallaice?'" Indeed, it seems highly probable, that not only the verb ought, but also the verb To own, are of modern, and when I say modern I mean English, coinage: the first from the past tense a'ht, the second from the past participle dgen of the Saxon verb agan, To oivn. On the probable derivation of the noun substantive, see Appendix to this page. I 114 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE fication of duty, devoir, fyc, does not appear to have be- longed to this verb originally, but, that it has acquired it by a kind of inductive reasoning, similar to that noticed above in the case of the verb To win. The past participle of Saxon A'g-an, To own, is a'gen; whence comes the possessive adjective own, which is affixed to the possessive pronouns my, thy, his, &c. " Thou sayest, that dropping houses and eke smoke, And chiding wives maken men to flee Out of hire oicen hous." Wife of Bathes Tale. "Also we forgive the ouersights, and faults committed vnto this day, and the crown tax that ye ought us." 1 Mace. xiii. 39. " But when the servant was departed he found one of his fellow-servants which ought him an hundred pence, and he layed hands on him, and thratled him, saying, pay me that thou owest." Matt, xviii. 28. Use has seized upon this past tense, and converted it into an independent verb, to signify the obligation, gen- erally moral, by which a man is bound to a certain course of conduct ; while, to disguise this perversion, a fresh per- fect tense, oiced, has been coined to supply the place of the missing one. Though no considerations can make that right, which, is radically wrong, still there are reasons which go far in extenuation of this violent procedure. And foremost amongst them would be that need which was felt for such a verb as we now have in ought. 1 " I owe to do a thing " sounds awkward, though expressive and correct enough. Even still, our language is somewhat poverty stricken for a substantive to express what is some- times called "his duty," but which is frequently better expressed by the French word, "devoir ;" though this word is as much English as, and more right to be so, than many others, which now pass unchallenged amongst us. 1 The verb is only used in those tenses where it is required : namely, the present, and pagfc. AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 115 STALE. " But Jehosheba took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stqle him from among the kinges sonnes, that should be slain, both him and his nource." — 2 Kings xi. 2. SWOMME. " Then the souldiers counsel was to kil the prisoners, lest any of them, when he had swomme out, should flee awa}'." Acts xxvn. 42. This form of the past participle is undoubtedly more correct than our own : there is no authority, besides that of usage, for swum, except in the past tense, and even there, swam is more correct. 1 FOUGHTEN, As the past participle of the verb To fight, is strictly correct ; it is found once or twice, 2 Mace. xn. 36. HURTED. " Thou madest the sun that it liurted not them in their honourable journey." — Wisdom of Salomon, xviii. 3. This is the last example I have to notice. It is but fair to inform my reader, that the above forms of the past tense, and past participle, though they do occur, and some of them not unfrequently, in the Breeches Bible, are still the exception rather than the rule. They appear but as the lingering remnants of declining usages, — but as the last descendants of a race, which was rapidly becoming extinct. It will not have escaped observation, that in almost every case above noticed the change, which time has produced, has been to abolish what are called the strong forms of the past tense, and past participle, and substitute weak forms in their place. 2 This is much to be regretted, 1 The changes which have taken place in the verb To win, noticed on page 112, will occur to my reader. 2 Weak forms are those where the past tense and past participle are formed by the addition of the syllable ed to the present, as love, loved; strong forms those, where the past tense and past participle are formed by the change of a radical vowel of the verb: as drink, drank, druvlc. 116 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE inasmuch as the creative power of the language is now gone, and any defection is not only permanent, but does not admit of replacement. We occasionally hear sew used as the past tense of the verb To sow ; " I sew my barley last week." Now I never heard anyone do this, who knew why he did so, or, indeed, for any other reason, than because it seemed an easy natural way of speaking. Nay, further, I have observed men of fair education, who ought to know good English from bad, titter when they heard this word used ; and in some instances it has been remarked to me afterwards, in private, " Mr. Mangles must be a very illiterate man, for did you observe he made use of sew as the past tense of the verb To sow." 1 Strange, that the man who left school when a boy at fourteen, who has done nothing ever since but ride young horses, and attend the markets, should, as it were by instinct, speak his own language more correctly, than those whose lifetime has been spent in misguided attempts to learn it. Nature, in this case, seems a truer guide than education ; because education does not touch the sore, and, therefore, till it does, can never effect a cure. Language is not independent of the physical constitution of a people. We are in the main but the descendants of those, who in past time assisted to form the language we speak ; and instances like the above are but the voice of nature re-asserting her invaded rights. Already has the study of Saxon — the only language which can give us a thorough acquaintance with English — been too long neglected. Already has this neglect produced evils, which, we fear, it is beyond the power of time to remedy. It remains to be seen, whether Englishmen will at length awake to a sense of their true position, and, though late, take such steps as can alone check the pro- gress of that decay, which, is slowly, but surely undermining the vital energy of our language. 1 In one of the very early Saxon translations of the Gospels, this past tense occurs in the parable of the Sower, "Behold a man went forth to sow, and as he sowed," — "and ba he sew, &c." AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 117 Another parallel case to the last is afforded in the past tense of the verb To mow. He would be a bold man, who would knowingly use mew instead of mowed. Yet, I have heard it done ; not, indeed by men, who know why they did it, but, as before, because it seemed natural. How perfectly arbitrary all this is, will perhaps be rendered more apparent by considering a verb where we have suffered the strong perfect to remain unaltered. The verb To grow, is to the point. How harsh would it sound to hear any one use such an expression as "he growed very tall;" "the grass growed fast after the rain ;" and so forth ! Yet, this would not be a whit less correct than sowed, &c, except that use has established the error in one case, but not in the other. Such corruptions as these can only have had their birth in the grossest ignorance of the grammar of our language, and, if they are to be prevented for the future, it will only be prevented by a simple recurrence to the only trust- worthy authority in all points of grammatical inflection, namely the Saxon language. While we confess the truth of those prophetic words (with which we shall close this chapter) uttered nearly two thousand years ago, by a great arbiter of his own language, we should recollect, that the changes which time produces ought not to run counter to, but in harmony with, the true principles of a nation's language. We willingly acknowledge, not only the necessity, but also the con- venience of that power of modifying, altering, or even inventing words adapted to the particular requirments of each successive age, and we shall only be justified in com- plaining, if, in these changes, the vital energy is found to suffer, or the true and essential principles of our language to be violated, through mere ignorance, and culpable neg- lect in acquainting ourselves with them. " It always has been, and always will be, lawful to coin a word, stamped with the impress of the current age. When the woods lose their leaves at the decline of the year, the oldest drop off first : just so is it with regard to words, those of great antiquity perish, and those of more 118 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE. recent date, like young men, nourish and grow strong. Death claims both us and ours : the greatest achievements of mortals will perish, much less may the integrity and grace of their speech escape. Many words, which have already fallen into disuse, will hereafter be revived, and those which are now held in high esteem rejected, if only usage shall decree it — usage in whose power alone it is to act as arbiter on the laws and forms which regulate our speech." 1 1 Hor. Ep. ad. Pisones. CHAPTER VII. LITEEAL CONTEACTIONS.-APOSTROPHAL GENITIVE.— EE- MAEKS ON SOME OF THE CHAEACTEEISTIC FEATUEES OF THE GENEVAN TEANSLATION AS COMPARED WITH OUE OWN. Wisdoms of Salomon, Chapter hit. " But though the righteous be preuented with death, yet fhall he be in reft. " For the honourable age is not that which is of long time, neither that which is meafured by the number of yeeres. " But wifdome is the gray haire, and an vndefiled 1 life is the old age. " He pleafed God and was beloued of him, fo that wheras he liued among imners, he tranllated him. " He was taken away, left wickednef fhould alter his vnder- ftanding, or deceit beguile his mind. " For wickedneiTe by bewitching obfcureth the things that are good, and the unftedfaftneffe of concupifcence peruerteth the fimple minde. " Though he was foone dead, yet fulfilled he much time. " For his foule pleafed God : therefore hafted he to take him away from wickedneiTe. " Yet the people fee and. underftand it not, and conlider no fuch things in their hearts, how that grace and mercie is vpon his Saints, and his prouidence ouer the elect. " Thus the righteous y* is dead, codemneth the vngodly which are liuing : and the youth y* is foone brought to an end, the long life of y e vnrighteous. " For they see the end of the wife but they underftand not what God hath deuifed for him, and wherefore the Lord hath preferued him in fafetie. 1 The reader will observe the transposition of u and v. 120 LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. " They fee him and defpife him, but the Lord will laugh them to fcorne. " So that they {hall fall hereafter without honour, and lhall haue a fhame among the dead, for euer more : for without any voice ihall he burft them and caft them down, and {hake them fro the foundations, Co that they {hall be vtterly Avafted, and they {hall be in forrow, and their memoriall {hall perifh. " So they being afraid, {hall remember their fmnes, and their owne wickednes {hall come before them to conuince them." Portion of Chapter vn. " God hath granted me to fpeake according to my minde, and to iudge worthily of the things that are giuen me : for he is the leader vnto wifdome, and the directer of the wife. " For in his hand are both we and our words and all wifdom, and the knowledge of the workes. " For hee hath giuen me the true knowledge of the things that are, so that I knowe how the world was made, and the powers of the elements. " The beginning and the end and the mids of the times, how y e times alter, and the change of y e feafons. " The courfe of y e yere, the fituation of the ftars. "The nature of liuing things, & the furioufnefof beafts, y e power of y e winds, & the imaginatios of men, y e diuerfities of plants, & the vertues of roots. " And all things both fecret and knowen do I know ; for wife- dome the worker of all things, hath taught me it. " For in her is y e {pirit of vnderftanding, which is holy, the only begotte, manifold, subtil, moueable, clere, vndefiled, euiclet, not hurtfull, louing the good, {harp which cannot be letted, doing good." EzeTciel xvi. 9. " I clothed thee alfo w* broydered worke, and {hod thee with badgers {kin." Salomon a Song, vi. 3. " Thou art beautifull, my loue, as Tirzah, comely as Jerufale, terrible as an army w* banners." I think the above quotations afford examples of all the contractions, or methods of contraction, which are to be found in the Breeches Bible, and which, consequently, we may fairly presume to have been in general use at this LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. 121 time. There is no need for comment on them, being curious and arbitrary rather than instructive. The custom of dropping the consonants m or n, after a vowel, (the omission being marked by a hyphen placed over the vowel) sometimes so alters the appearance of a word as almost to prevent our recognizing it. Thus : — Strager for Stranger, Woma for Woman, The for Them and then, C ousel for Counsel, Amed for Amend, ard many others which might be named, strike the eye as very strange words. 1 All these contractions, as they had no root in the fundamental principles of the language, but were the spurious invention of a corrupt age ; so, neither have they been able to maintain their ground. The same caprice, which called them into being in one age, swept them away in the following, and they have now entirely disappeared. But not the spirit itself. It still remained behind, one proof of which has, I dare say, already presented itself to my reader. He must have observed, that no instance of the apostrophal, or syncopated form of the possessive or genitive case of nouns substantive has occurred in the quo- tations I have made so far from the Breeches Bible. In fact there is not one to be found. Thus we learn incidentally, that the apostrophal, or contracted genitive, dates at least no further back than the close of the 16th century; and that, so far from being founded on any fundamental prin- ciple of our language, it is, like the contractions noticed above,, a mere capricious usage, (not, indeed, without its recommendation), and so liable, like them, to be again 1 "What may have given rise to these contractions I am unable to say, unless it may have been the desire for brevity in writing. It is scarcely probable, that they had anything to do with the pronunciation of the words so contracted. 122 LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. swept away by the whim of posterity. 1 Let us briefly consider the nature and object of this contraction. THE APOSTROPHAL FORM OP THE POSSESSIVE CASE. The termination es, or s, affixed to nouns substantive, to indicate possession, or procession, is a traditional rem- nant of Anglo Saxon inflexion; a large body of nouns substantive, in that language, forming their genitive, or possessive case in this manner. When, in the confusion which succeeded the Norman Conquest, the distribution of substantives according to their proper declensions was forgotten, the casual terminations, which distinguished those declensions, likewise disappeared, with the exception of the genitive case of one of them. And this sole survi- ving termination of the genitive, or possessive case, from having belonged in the Anglo Saxon, to a certain class of what are now called nouns substantive only, came at length to be applied indiscriminately to all. 2 Thus, it may appear as correct to speak of " a week's suspense," as " a kingdom's wealth :" of " a youth's intemperance," as " a 1 " Payrest of fayre, O lady min, Venus Daughter of Jove and spouse of Vulcanus, Thou glader of the mount of Citheron, Por thilke love thou haddest to Adon Have pitee on my bitter teres smert, And take myn humble praier to thin herte." The Knightes Tale, line 2224. 2 In Prance, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where the languages are a compound of the Teutonic and Latin elements principally, the inflexion of nouns has been still more effectually destroyed. Not only are there no ob- lique cases, but even the nominative case of the noun itself is formed, in many instances, from an oblique case of the Latin noun. The Italians have, it is true, preserved, in a more or less faithful manner, the Latin nominative. But the Spaniards and Portuguese have adopted the accusative form ; while in the Provincal, M. Raynouard has endeavoured to shew, that the nouns were formed from Latin substan- tives by depriving them of those terminations which marked their cases; THE USE OF THE APOSTROPHE. VJ3 smith's anvil/' &c. : and so indeed in English it may be; yet, from the analogy and teaching of the Anglo Saxon, it appears, that only the latter, in each of the above com- parisons, is correct; the nouns "week" and "youth," &c, never having made their genitive in s, or es. Nor must we suppose, that the older and uncontr acted forms of the genitive, such for instance as " smithes," " kingdomes," &c, as they would have been written in the Breeches Bible, are a whit less correct, than bur apostrophal form now in use. For the principal utility of the apostrophe seems to lie in its enabling the eye at once to detect whether the genitive singular, or plural, is intended. 1 It does not appear to influence the pronunciation, and can, therefore, be of no that is, from the root. Thus, from abbat-em was formed abb at ; from infant-em, infant, &c. I have no acquaintance with either the Spanish or Portuguese languages, and am indebted to M. de Sismondi for what I have said respecting them, as also for the following examples which will serve as illustrations : Latin. Italian. Spanish. Portuguese. Oculi occhi ojos (oculos) oilhos. Cceli cieli cielos ceos. Gaudium gioia gozo gozo. 1 If it could be shewn, that, previous to the introduction of the Apos- trophe, the universal and acknowledged form of the genitive had been in es, and not s, then it might have been urged, that the apostrophe was introduced for the purpose of abbreviation. Thus, if the genitive of camel, &c, had been cameles, then certainly it would have been both more convenient and euphonious to have spoken of "camel's hair," than " cameles hair." But this was not the case, as the following passage from the Genevan Version will show : "And this John had his garment of camels haire, and a girdle of skinne about his loynes."— Matt. in. 4. Euphony had been consulted long previous to the invention of the apostrophal form of the genitive; its invention therefore did not confer any advantage in this respect. "Where the old genitive in es is found, as in kingdomes for kingdoms, it is because the nominative case was spelt with the final e, and not because the genitive was formed by adding another syllable to the noun. The es would not be pronounced in kingdomes any more than in our more modern kingdom's. 12-4 THE USE OP THE APOSTROPHE. assistance to the ear. 1 For instance, if we speak of " the Church's Ritual/' the syncopated e is not the less sounded in the pronunciation of Church's, because it is syncopated ; nor, on the other hand, in such instances as these, "a man's actions," " a woman's fidelity," does the apostrophe indicate the omission of e; for this simple reason, the e was not according to English usage, previous to the intro- duction of the apostrophe, missing. 2 The use of the apostrophal genitive is, no doubt after all, of some value as an artificial adjunct to our Language. Alas ! that it should require so miserable a shift as this to repair the damage it has sustained. But, since we have had the ill luck to lose our Donet, let us be thankful, that artifice has in some measure made up for our loss. Only let us be chary, as well as charitable, in what we say about 1 For example, " the princes power," " his friends advice," would beget an ambiguity as to number, which the apostrophe would at once dispel; since its position before, or after the final s at once indicates whether the singular or plural number be intended. 2 The following is what Mr. Thomas Tyrwhitt says on the use of the apostrophal genitive in some words:— "As to the present method of expressing the genitive cases of nouns ending in s, by adding another s, with a mark of syncope, as Peneus's, Theseus's, Venus's, &c. It seems absurd, whether the addition be intended to be pronounced, or not. In the first case, the e should not be cut out; in the second, the s is quite superfluous. But the absurdity of this practice is most striking, when the genitives of monosyllable nouns are thus written : an ox's horns ; an ass's ears ; a fish's tail ; St. James's Park ; notwithstanding that the e, which is thus directed to be cut out, is constantly and necessarily to be pronounced, as if the several words were written at length: oxes, asses, fishes, Jameses." This is quite true; but Mr. Tyrwhitt escapes the question of am- biguity by the preposition of the singular article, or by the nature of his examples otherwise. Let us reject the indefinite article (in this case defi- nite as to the number of the substantive) and take, either no article, or the article the : we shall then see, that an ambiguity arises both to the eye and the ear. "The asses ears," may mean the ears of one ass, or more. " The fishes (for fishes is as correctly the plural of fish as dishes of dish) scales," the scales of one fish, or of more. In these, and similar instances, the utility of the apostrophe is apparent; though, at the same time, I should think it doubtful whether this was the true motive of its introduc- tion into our language. THE USE OF THE APOSTROPHE. 125 English Grammar. Let us not be told what is right and wrong in speaking and writing by dogmatic pedagogues, who, having lived only in their own days, have no con- science of better, and would fain have us believe, that usage imparts to their doctrines the sanctity of truth. To usage, indeed, we must and do conform, for it has become our inexorable fate; but let us not take usage for our standard in the investigation of essential truth, nor suffer necessity to assume the garb of reason. Rather like the captain, whose vessel having slipped her cable is now borne by the force of the current he scarce knows whither, let us candidly acknowledge our unfortunate position, but still do our best to keep our craft together, and repair, so far as possible, in the calm the damage it sustained in the storm. OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENEVAN VERSION IN POINT OE TRANSLATION. I believe, though I am not quite certain, that I pro- mised my reader some remarks on the comparative merits of the Genevan and our own Version in point of transla- tion. I could well wish to have avoided this invidious task altogether; and that for several reasons. I am not afraid, indeed, that our own Version might suffer from the com- parison on the whole ; but I think, that anything which tends unnecessarily, or unprontably, to throw the slighest discredit upon it, and so undermine the reverence and authority it has so justly earned, is a thing of itself to be specially avoided. It would be a mere idle conceit on our part to attempt to add to, or detract from, the reputation our present Version enjoys, either in point of translation, or composition ; for the subject is one now beyond the reach of individual criticism. But, in addition to all this, my reader must long ago have detected the real object I have had in view in perusing my old Bible ; he must have seen, that it has been rather to draw out a comparison between the English in that day and our own, than between the relative merits of two Bible translations ; and that consequently I should be likely to pay but small at- tention to passages which presented nothing akin to the object of my search. 126 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES From the brief and disconnected nature of the extracts I have made from the Genevan Version, it would be too great an assumption to suppose, that any very clear concep- tion of its general character could have been gained. Yet I think the reader cannot fail to have been struck with a clumsiness of style, and a want of finish, from which our Version is nearly, if not quite, free. Nor should this sur- prise us, when we take into consideration the hurried manner in which the Genevan Version was executed, and the difficulties which attended that execution; that it was the work of a very few men, and they intent rather on supplying spiritual food to the half-famished legions, who had just broken from their necks the slavish yoke of Rome, and were now crying out for the bread of Life, than to produce a translation whose literary merits might stamp it a master-piece of the English language. This being the case, we can be neither surprised nor disappointed, that its style of composition is less elaborate and polished, than that of our own. But leaving this conclusion, which after all is one of trivial importance to us, to be supported by the extracts already given, we turn to consider another point, in which it seems to us the Genevan Version con- trasts favourably with our own. It is in point of translation. The passages I intend to bring forward in support of my position, though few, are still, I think, sufficient to support it. I would have them regarded, not so much for their intrinsic importance above others which might be adduced in support of the same argument, as for their generic cha- racter, and as typical of that spirit which actuated the labours of the translators. In the gospel of St. Mark, ch. ix. 47., I find a render- ing which seems far less likely to create misunderstanding, I do not say in the minds of educated people, but of the mass of readers generally, than the rendering of the same passage in our own Version. It runs thus : — "And if thine eie cause thee to offend, plucke it out: it is better for thee to goe into the kingdome of God with one eie, than hauing two eies to be cast into hell fire." OF THE GENEVAN VERSION. 127 No misconception could possibly arise here: while the passage as it reads in our Version "if thine eye offend thee" only yields its true meaning by a wordy explanation that to offend means, to cause thee to offend. Some of my readers are doubtless aware, that the word in the original, rendered by " offend," signifies to place a stumbling block in the way, and so to occasion a fall. 1 Now, whatever may have been the acquired meaning of the verb, To offend, when our translators used it, (and from that which it bore in the earlier quotation above, it seems fair to infer, that its meaning did not differ much from the present one) it is at least certain, I think, that neither its classical meaning, nor that of our own day, justifies the use to which it is put in our own Version. The following instance is one of a similar nature to the last, and seems to me strongly indicative of the different characters of the two translations. I place them in juxta position, that the reader may himself strike the com- parison. 2 Present Rendering. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." — Matt. vi. 34. Genevan Rendering. " Care not then for the morow for the morow shall care for it felfe : the day hath enough with his owne griefe." — Ibid. 1 2/cai/oaXi^tt), from a-KavSaXov, a stumbling block, or cause of offence, from o-zcd^a), To limy. Is it possible, that the translators attempted to transfer, for the first time, the rich meaning of the Greek word, to another, which, neither as a Latin word (offendo), nor an English one To offend, could legitimately receive it ? If so, the attempt was a failure, or at least has become one. 2 Orig. Mil ovv p.epL/ui.vrionne sume habbon." Translation : Some stars have a shorter revolution than others. " Gebeorhlicre ys me faran to ea mid scype rnynuni home faran mid manegum seypum on huntinge hranas. " For hwi swa ? " For>am leofre ys me gefon fisc \>mne ic moeg ofslean, &o." Translation : It is safer for me to go on the river with my ship, than (J?cenne) to go with many ships hunting whales. For why so ? Because I would rather take a fish which (>cene) I am able to kill, &o. 1 It is worthy of remark, that the form "then" is rarely met with, (I dare not say never) either in the " Vision and Creed of Pierce Ploughman," or in Chaucer. Its place is supplied at one time by than, at another by tJw. 138 ON THE MEANING AND There are other uses to which fcenne, or fonne, our English than, was put in the Anglo Saxon, but I wish to avoid confusion, and therefore decline to notice them in the text at present. 1 But now conies the question, what is the Saxon word foenne, or fonne ? for of course no one in his senses will for a moment question, that here we have the etymology of the word than. The Anglo Saxon article is thus declined : — Mas. Fern. Neut. Nominative... Se Seo' foet. Genitive fees ]?cere fees. Dative fa'm fcere fa'm. Accusative ... fone or fcene )?a' feet. But the Article se, seo', feet, was used, not only as we now use the definite article the, but also relatively, where we should now use the pronouns who, ivhich, or what. 2 Indeed, the second of the above extracts affords an in- stance of this relative use of the article. This is the inflexion usually followed. 3 Now, referring to the masculine accusative, we find ]?one, or foene, which the Saxons slightly altered for the purpose of distinction, by doubling the n, and then used in exactly the same manner as we now use then and than. 1 See Appendix to this page. 2 " The article or definitive Se, Seo', >oet, are generally used for the relative who, which."— Dr. Bosworth's Anglo Saxon Grammar, §. 33. 3 Professor Rask also gives, what he considers a separate ablative case, " >y seems justly to be received as a proper ablativus instrutnenti, as it occurs so often in this character, even in the Masculine gender, as mid >y, a>e, with that oath L. In. 53; and in the same place, in the dative, on >oem, a^e in that oath." Mas. Fern. Neut. Ablative.... \>y >cere >y. Mr. Thorpe's Translation, §. 147. CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 139 . It is very clear, therefore, that we must not seek any explanation of the grammatical structure of than on Eng- lish ground solely. The question is now become one of abstract grammatical structure. We have shown, I think, that the word than is the same word, used in the same manner, as the Anglo Saxon ]?oenne, which is the accusa- tive of the relative pronoun se, seo', ]?oet, answering to our ivho or which. We have now to investigate the construc- tion of this Relative Pronoun, — the reason why it ever came to be used for the purpose of comparison. It will be observed, that we are not now pursuing an etymological enquiry as to the origin and meaning of ]?cet, or ]?cenne, this Mr. Tooke has already attempted, with what success my reader shall presently judge for himself. It is our present object to discover what operation of the human mind it was, — what method of reasoning, — which led to the Relative Pronoun boenne, and, consequently, our Eng- lish than, being put to the use we find them. And this object, I apprehend, will be best attained by taking some example and operating upon it, in such a manner as the above considerations suggest. I will take the simplest instance I can find to begin with. Example 1. Where the relative than relates to a substantive : " Virtue confers more happiness than riches" Now let us substitute for than (or ]?cenne as it would have been written in Anglo Saxon) its meaning as a Relative Pronoun. The sentence becomes, if we transpose the clauses, "Than (i. e. which happiness understood) riches (confers understood) virtue confers more happiness." 1 Here it will be seen, that the Relative Pronoun than agrees with the noun Substantive happiness, that being the quality compared, and that both are in the Accusative or Objective case, governed, as it might seem, by the verb 1 In this and the following examples, it will be found, that, on leaving out the words between the brackets, the sentence remains exactly as before, except for the transposition. 110 ON THE MEANING AND confers, which is understood from the other clause. But the example I have taken is one of the simplest, and easiest kind, and it will, perhaps, be objected, that this process of manipulation could not be applied in every case. Before entering on the consideration of other examples, where certainly the construction is less easy, and the applied reasoning less perspicuous, I would say, once for all, that I do not think there is any obligation to account for all those usages, which, like an after or second growth, have sprung up in the course of time from the original stock. We know how arbitrary custom occasionally is ; and it ought not to surprise us, that we do not always find in this second offspring the same individuality of character, the precise lineaments, which marked the parent. We know this is the case in the natural world, why should it not be the same in the metaphysical. But we do not say this by way of deprecation ; nor do we intend to shirk the question, because it is, in some of its aspects, rather a difficult one. It shall, so far as lies in our power, be faith- fully put : the reader himself must use his discretion, and honestly test the weight of our arguments. I do not say, that in every usage of the word than the above reasoning is equally applicable, for there are some, where the usage is, we think, incorrect. Such are those where than is written for except, or but (both verbs), for example : — " Of all his friends lie chose none other than the man whose friendship had been tested by adversity." Here than, it should seem, is incorrectly 1 written for but, except, or besides. Yet, generally speaking, I think the same train of reasoning, more or less perfectly conceived, will be found to lie at the bottom of all constructions in which than has rightly a place. Of course, it is of essential 1 By incorrectly, I only mean, that in such case the construction does not seem favourable to the use of than. In other words, it would be better if than were replaced by except, or but; for then the construction would be perfectly simple. Thus : " Except (*. e. take out) the man whose friend- ship had been tested by adversity, he chose none other of all his friends." CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 141 importance, that the objects, or qualities, of comparison be kept clearly in view : otherwise, we shall lose sight of that to which the relative, than, has reference ; and, if this be the case, the point of the construction is lost. It would, perhaps, be tedious to endeavour to obtain types of all the different forms of speech, in which than is found. The examples, I have given below, have been taken at random, from amongst many others, to all of which I found the reasoning no less applicable. Example 2. Where the relative than, relates to an adjective : " The pomj) of death is more terrible than death itself" Bacons Essays. Of Death. Here the quality compared, or presented for com- parison in the antitheses, "the pomp of death," and "death itself," is, to use a barbarism, terribleness. To this quality, then, the relative than, relates. We may see this more clearly, if we put it thus : — Than (i. e. how terrible sover, or to ichat pcenne degree terrible is) death itself, the pomp of death is more terrible. In the following example, the comparison is what might, perhaps, not inaptly, be called a comparison of impersonals. Example 3. W r here the relative of than, relates to an adverb : 11 It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him" Bacons Essays. Of Superstition. Here the advantages, or disadvantages, of entertaining certain opinions respecting the Deity are contrasted, and, at the same time, an assertion is made with regard to them. Bearing this in mind, and making the requisite subau- dition to which than (]?cenne, )?oene, which, or what) relates, namely advantage, or position, the sentence be- comes, " Than (i. e. what advantage it would be to have) such an opinion (of God) as is unworthy of Him, it were better to have no opinion of God." 143 ON THE MEANING AND It were easy to multiply examples, but these, I think, are sufficient to serve the purpose of illustration. I leave my reader to amuse himself by applying the same method in other cases, which may occur to him; that so he may test the truth of a theory, which in its application to the more simple constructions of than, (such as that afforded in Example 1), cannot admit of doubt; nor, indeed, in others more complicated, if we allow those considerations their due weight, which are concomitants of both the early growth, and more mature developement of language. But let us turn for a moment to analyse the construc- tion we have attributed to than in the preceding examples. Of what does it consist? We shall find, that it divides itself into two separate clauses. 1st. The Absolute Clause. 2nd. The Assertive Clause. The Absolute Clause serves to introduce a certain con- dition, or position. The Assertive Clause, referring to the Absolute Clause, makes an assertion with respect to it. But this will appear clearer by experimenting on some example. Take the following : — " The ditties of the ancient poets, had no greater dispro- portion with their subject, than our songs of famous victories have with theirs ; or other passionate ditties, with their com- poser's affections ; albeit, he that hath experience of love, or abundant grief, or joy, will speak in another dialect than ordi- narily he useth, without any touch of affectation." Dr. Jackson on " The Sacred Origin and Right Use of Poetry, with the Manner of its Corruption by the later Poets." • Transposing, and substituting as before, the passage becomes, Than (i. e. ]?cenne, )?cene, which or what disproportion, understood) our songs of famous victories have with theirs, ABSOLUTE CLAUSE. The ditties of the ancient poets had no greater dispro- portion with their subject. — assertive clause. CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 143 And so in other examples, where the relative than refers, not to a Substantive, as in this case to dispropor- tion understood from the second clause, but to a noun, Adjective, or Adverb, so introducing a condition of quality or advantage. It does not affect the above reasoning whether, or not, we accept Mr. Tooke' s theory respecting the demonstrative pronoun, and conjunction that. As we have before re- ferred to it, our reader may feel some curiosity to know more respecting it. I shall give Mr. Tooke the oppor- tunity of speaking for himself. These are his words : — " That (in the Anglo Saxon, Dcet, i. e. Dead, Beat) means taken, assumed ; being merely the past participles of the Anglo Saxon verb Dean, Degan, Dion, Dicgan, Digian. 1 To the, To get, To take, To assume" " I'll mote he the That caused me To make myself a frere." Sir Thos. Mores WorJees, p. 4. I have no desire to enter on a discussion with Mr. Tooke on a point so abstruse as the derivation of the Saxon ]?cet, and the English that. He may, or may not, be right ; though at the same time, I do not see that he shows the slightest grounds on which to support this fiction of his imagination. Nor would I be inclined to deny, that the verbs Dion, and Dicgan, may not originally have sprung from the same root; yet this at least is certain, that they soon acquired in the Anglo Saxon very different meanings; Dion, or Deon, signifying To flourish, To thrive ; whence comes the verb To the ; and Dicgan, To take, To receive, To eat, whence comes our word Thane, a nobleman. But if indeed that really mean taken, or assumed, then than must mean the same, and we may, if it be thought worth while, substitute this signification in the above examples or any others. 1 I do not know, that the form Digian has any existence, and the past participle of the other forms would, since they are verbs of strong forma- tion, end in en, and not ed, or od. 1 1 1 ON THE MEANING AND T chanced to enter the cottage of a peasant's wife the other day. A respectable woman she was, and kept a cow. As may readily be imagined of a good housewife, it was not long before she got talking to me about her dairy, and in the course of her conversation she made a remark which struck me, not indeed for its shrewdness, but for the way in which it was worded. " Some kye," said she, u will give as much more butter than other some." Why, thought I, the woman talks Saxon. I turned on my heel, thanked her for her useful information, and jotted down her little speech in my note book, lest I should forget it. Let us operate on this almost Anglo Saxon sentence. 1 " Than {i. e. according to Mr. Tooke, taken or assumed, the butter understood) other some (kye will give understood) — absolute clause. — Some kye will give as much more. — ASSERTIVE CLAUSE." It will thus be seen, that whatever credence we may be inclined to give to Mr. Tooke's theory, respecting the meaning and origin of that, and consequently of than, can in no way invalidate, while it may confirm, the truth of the above conclusions respecting the construction of than. One more example and we have done : — " Quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. The reason was because the religion of the heathen consisted rather (i. e. sooner or more) in rites and ceremonies, than in any constant belief; for you may imagine what kind of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors and fathers of their church were the -poets"— Bacons Essays. Of Unity in Religion. Transposing and substituting as before : — Than (i. e. taken or assumed, the degree to which the religion of the heathen consisted) in any constant belief, — absolute clause — the religion of the heathen consisted rather (i. e. to a greater degree) in rites and ceremonies. — ASSERTIVE CLAUSE. 1 This woman, though she had certainly no English School Mistress to thank for it, spoke a dialect more nearly approaching Anglo Saxon than any thing we ever recollect hearing. So true is it that the real remnants of our Language are to be sought and found amongst our rustic population. CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 145 Such, then, is the method whereby we would seek to explain the meaning, and construction of than. We are aware, that it is not entirely beyond the reach of cavil ; that, specially against the latter examples, it may be urged we introduce than in the Accusative, or Ob- jective case, without any verb, or word to govern it in that case, since only in examples of the first class was there anything to account for such an usage. Is, then, this objection one of vital consequence, and, therefore, fatal to the theory we have imperfectly sketched out ? To us it would seem not. And, however repugnant our Reader may at first be to admit such irregular construc- tions, in proof of any theory whatsoever, we think, that a more mature consideration of the whole subject will not fail to remove his objections, and cause him to see in such examples, and apparently irregular constructions as the latter, merely the extension of an idiomatic usage. He will remember, that there are instances, like Example I, where the position and government of than in the objective case, seem sufficiently well accounted for. When, further, he considers, that such examples are of the simplest kind; those which were most likely to have occurred in the early intercourse of man with man, and so, in all probability, to have originated this method of comparing one thing with another; it will not strike him as in any way singular, that a common colloquial expression, though somewhat confined in its application, at first, should hereafter have had its bounds increased, albeit with some loss of its original grammatical accuracy. We are conscious, that a question, relating, not so much to any particular language, as to an operation of the mind, which must reproduce itself in language generally, ought scarcely to be discussed on grounds so narrow as those on which we have ventured to discuss it. We know, that by so doing, we lose sight of the arguments from analogy, which are frequently of much 146 ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. importance ; but we could not transfer our reasoning to a stage beyond the reach of the general reader without in a measure violating the tacit engagement we had entered upon. In the appendix, however, to this page, we felt ourselves less constrained, and there the reader will find, if he care to consult them, some of the arguments drawn from analogy, as well as a more general view of the entire subject. 147 CHAPTER IX. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPELLING IN THE BREECHES BIBLE : — TENDENCY OE ENGLISH AS ILLUSTRATED THEREBY. We have now detailed all those characteristics in the English of the 16th century, as chronicled in the Breeches Bible, which, either on account of the contrast they present to the usages of our own day, or for other reasons, seemed deserving of our attention. The mate- rials now in our possession, for striking a comparison between the English of that and the present day, and for estimating the nature of those changes which have taken place during the intervening period, are, we must admit, of a less general character, than could have been desired. But it was easy to see from the beginning, that this must have been the case, where it was sought from one book alone, albeit the fittest and most comprehensive for the purpose, to obtain general views, and deduce general conclusions as to the nature of the English Language at that time. Thus much, however, must be allowed, that the comparison, however it may be deficient as to detail, or generality, will be one based, so far as it goes, essentially on facts, and the rigid teaching of past experience. We have purposely abstained, hitherto, from commenting, or attempt- ing to theorize, on the facts which from time to time have been presented to us. We have preferred to let those facts speak for themselves, though, now that we have heard their evidence, it cannot be thought premature to seek out the conclusions to which they point, and the lessons they would teach us. To some extent this has, perhaps, already been 148 CAUSES WHICH RETARDED done by the reader himself, nor do we at all wish to question his ability to do so as well as ourselves. Yet, there are some conclusions, which, we apprehend, it would be almost presumptuous to suppose he could have arrived at from the mere perusal of the brief and disconnected extracts, such as have alone been submitted to him. And particularly does this remark apply to the spelling — for I will not call it Orthography — of the period we are con- sidering; so far, that is, as we may be guided thereto by the character of the spelling found in our Text Book. There may be, and have been periods in a nation's history when, from anomalous causes, it becomes necessary to look with distrust, or at least excessive caution, on the form its written language assumes. At such a time, spelling may, or may not, be a safe guide in investigating the Etymology, and meaning of words. And this evil is still further aggravated wheu, as was the case with our own, the language has been subjected to foreign influence and modification. Such, to a great extent, seems to have been the period we are considering, and, to a still greater, the century immediately preceding it. Let us explain our meaning more fully. It is well known, that during the middle ages, both in England and on the Continent, literature, learning, and science found but a poor asylum in the ancient monas- teries, and religious houses. Had it not been for the Church, in those dark ages of ignorance, and superstition, answerable though, no doubt, she was to a great extent, for bringing about those very evils which she prevented from lapsing into extremity, it is fearful to think what might even now have been the condition of England. The only records which have been handed down to us of these ages, seem to have been those which alone were kept ; namely, the meagre monastic chronicles, and these written more frequently in Latin than in the mother tongue. Several causes contributed to this dearth of literary productions, amongst which must be specially THE PROGRESS OF ORTHOGRAPHY. 149 mentioned the extreme scarcity of writing materials. Parchment was enormously dear, the Egyptian papyrus had ceased to be imported into Europe after the victories of the Arabians, and paper was not yet invented, or had not yet been introduced by commerce into the West. 1 Some idea may be formed of this extreme scarcity from the fact, that in the archives of the Tower of London, in " the Eolls of fines," each contract for sale of lands never occupied more than a single line. But, though the scar- city of writing materials is sufficient to account in a great measure for the low state of literature, and the small progress in civilization which was made during the middle ages, we must carefully bear in mind, what we have already hinted at, that the land was wrapt in ignorance, and its people enslaved by the most degrading superstition; that priestly intolerance had reduced them to the deepest moral and intellectual degradation, and that very Institution, which, to serve its own purpose, just kept alive the few dying embers, the memorial of past rather than the proof of present learning, was also, in the main, the cause which compelled literature to seek so mean a refuge. It can excite but little surprise, then, that, while such was the condition of the people even up to the time of the Reformation, the art of writing, and, as a natural consequence, that of spelling, suffered severely from neg- lect. Since the time of the Norman Conquest no oppor- tunity had been afforded Englishmen to remodel their language, and to reduce its incongruous elements to something like harmony. 1 Literature of the South of Europe : Vol. I, p. 3G. " All the rude chronicles in which passing events were at distant intervals registered, were written in Latin. All contracts of marriage, or of purchase, lending, or exchange, were in the same tongue, or rather in that barbarous jargon as far removed from the written as the spoken language." Ibid. "Prom the eighth to the tenth century, all annals of the Pranks, written in the convents, followed the same rule, and, whatever the number, or importance of events, the same annalist was bound not to exceed the line for each year." Ibid, p. 37, note. ■— ^— ^— — 150 TRANSITION PERIOD. It was not the work of a day, nor yet of a generation, to classify all those words, which had now obtained too firm a footing in the Language to be easily displaced, and to regulate the spelling, or orthography of those words accord- ing to the rules which obtained in the particular languages whence they sprang. Still more difficult would this task be amongst a people who did not enjoy the facility of writing, and reading, and whose minds, moreover, were crushed with the fetters of Romish priestcraft. But the morning star had already risen, and soon the foul bird which for so long a time, had brooded, like a night- mare over the face of the country, shook its dank plumage, and, winging away its heavy flight before the dawn of day, was soon seen as but a speck in the far distant horizon. And, though from that day dates the birth of intellectual and religious freedom for Englishmen, the progress for some time was slow. As, when the invalid is recovering from the delirium of a fever, his exhausted frame seems at first unable to put forth its energies, or his baffled mind to collect itself in steady thought; so the people of England, when at length it pleased God they should be recalled from that state of religious delirium into which they had fallen, felt at first incapable of exerting to the full those powers, whose very possession long tyranny had almost rendered them unconscious of. And thus it came to pass, that, when this long-neglected power of writing was restored, we have the singular anomaly presented to us of a people writing a language they but very imperfectly under- stood. The English Language at this time seems to have been in its embryo state. That extensive class of foreign words, introduced by the means of the Normans, yet retained their own strange accent and costume, and imparted to the language, spoken and written, a motley appearance equally removed from Saxon, and French. The following extract from a manuscript translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and part of that of St. Mark, TRANSITION PERIOD. 151 made by Sir John Cheeke about the middle of the 16th century, and now lying in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, will further illustrate the unsettled state of spelling at this period. " When Jesus was boorn in Beethleeni, a eiti in King Herods dais, lo there the wisards came from the 'est parties to Jeru- salem and asked whier the King of Jews was y* was new boorn. For we saw his sterr in the 'est, and we cam to worship him. When K. Herod herd this, he was trobled, and al Jerusale's with him : and he gatherd together al y e hei priests, and scribes of y e people and asked of them wheer Christ shold be born. And thei answerd in Bethleem of Juda, for so it is written by y e prophet ; and thou Bethleem of Juda, thou art no wais y e lest among the princes of Juda, for out of y e schal come a ruler y* shall feed Isfl mi people." In this short extract we have whier and wheer, came and cam; y e for both the and thee; schal and shal ; Beethleem and Bethleem. Indeed, from the time of the invention or introduction of printing, about the middle of the 15th century, down to the close of the 16th, may be considered especially the period when the principles of Orthography first began to receive attention. It is exactly during such transition periods as these, when the written expressions of a nation's language require to be received with caution. For, accustomed only to speak, and not to write their language, the people lose sight of the true origin and parentage of words; and, since Etymology is the only true guide to Orthography, fall into all kinds of fanciful, and phonetic methods of spelling. And thus it will not unfrequently happen, that the spelling of one age will serve but to confuse, if not actually to mislead, the enquirer of the next. The question, then, which more immediately concerns us, is whether this uncertainty prevails in the Genevan Bible, and, if so, whether to such an extent as to render fallacious any conclusions, etymological or otherwise, which we may fancy ourselves able to draw. Our answer must be a qualified one. For, on the one hand, it is impossible 152 SPELLING — EARLY ENGLISH. to deny, that the spelling throughout bears most evident marks of the laxity, and entire want of uniformity which at this time prevailed. Indeed, it is in this respect that we conceive our Text Book to be peculiarly valuable; namely, because it affords us so true an index, not only of the peculiar texture of English at the time, but also of that phase through which it was passing. And again, on the other hand, it does not appear, that this informity ought to mislead the discriminating enquirer, for as soon as he has become conscious of it his greatest danger is over, and a knowledge of the parent tongues, the Anglo Saxon and French, ought to afford a sufficient safeguard, and enable him to discern at once, whether a particular form of spelling ought to be attributed to corrupt usage, or a closer approximation to one of the su- perior tongues. It will be found from the specimens given below, that, at this time, the French element in our language had undergone but slight modification, and still bore a close resemblance to what we find it to have been in Chaucer's time. It is this constituent element which we purpose now to consider, and also, more particularly, those changes which have assimilated it to the rest of the English Language. We take our stand, then, at this time, on an eminence, as it were, from which we can look down on the conflict being waged at our feet. We see before us a written tongue, in which Orthography, if not entirely unknown, resembled but a spar floating on the ocean, and tossed to and fro by every wave of caprice and whim ; and we watch till we see, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and in our own authorized Version, most of these discordant members reduced to harmony and subjection, and our Language presenting for the first time some appearance of uniformity. Of the extreme uncer- tainty which still prevailed in spelling, the verb To weigh, affords an excellent example. It occurs in no less than four different forms ; namely, wet, ivey, waigh, and lastly, SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. 153 that to which use has affixed its sanction, weigh. 1 Fre- quently, in the same verse, a word is spelt in two different ways. SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. Of words derived to us through the French, those now ending in y, formerly ended in ie. Thus, we find glorie for glory ; envie for envy ; vanitie for vanity ; prudencie an&prudency for prudence, &c, &c. Still the use of y for ie, in such words as these, was already known, and frequently adopted. In the class of words, of which joyne and poynte are examples, the use of y for i, where even etymology did not require it, should seem to indicate the French pronun- ciation, which such words still retained. 2 Having been spoken long before they were written, it was not unnatural, that when they came to be expressed in writing, they should exhibit some trace of their pronunci- ation. Another important class of words, w r hich we find in the Breeches Bible, is composed of those ending in our. Important, we think, as showing the tendency of the English Language to retrace words hack to their Latin roots, in preference to retaining the Gallicized, or French form. As examples of this class, we may notice the words Creditour (Fr. crediteur,) modern creditor, (Lat. creditor.) Oratour, (Fr. orateur,) " orator (Lat. orator.) Errour (Fr. erreur,) " error (Lat. error.) Governour (Fr. gouverneur,) " governor (Lat. guhernator.) &c. &c. &c. &c. 1 Here we have an instance of the formative process, the birth throes, as it were, of our English verb To iveigh, from the Anglo Saxon weg-an. This verb, derived apparently from the Anglo Saxon substantive toeg, a way or passage, signifies first To bear, To cowry, To move ; secondly, To weigh, To weigh anchor. 2 But the substitution of y for i was very common. Thus we find anoynt for anoint; oyntment for ointment ; yce for ice ; yles (French, He) for isles, gyant, ayre, &c. 154 SETTLERS FROM FRANCE ENDEAVOR. In all these instances, and many others might be noticed, the French, or semi-French termination in -our has given way to the more simple Latin one in -or. This process is not yet universally applied. We still occa- sionally meet with such words as honour, labour, endea- vour, 1 &c, where the French termination is still apparent. And there is even one example where the Latin termination -or, having been adopted, the French -our has again been taken up. This is the word Saviour, which is found written Savior. But here the laws of Euphony have evidently interposed to control the undoubted tendency with regard to words of this class. The spelling of the following, and like words, shews, not only the source whence they were derived, but also, it 1 This word, in this form occurs two, or three times in the Breeches Bible. I need not say it is in its older meaning, still to be found in the Collect for the second Sunday after Easter : " Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life." Some, perhaps, not aware of the old meaning, and construction of the verb To endeavour, may read the latter clause, as though it were written, and meant nothing more than, " may ourselves daily endeavour, &c." So, in the following passage, the use is the same. " Brethren I count not myself that I have attained to it ; but one thing I doe, 1 forget that which is behinde, and endeuour myself vnto that which is before -"—Phil. in. 13. But the old meaning was very different from that which obtains in the present day ; and this difference may perhaps be best expressed by saying, that, while in the first instance, To Endeavour, was an active verb, derived immediately from the French verb JEndever, " to be in a rage," and governing an accusative case of the person, who put himself into a rage ; it has now lost its active signification, and bears a kind of neuter signification, (though it may still be said to govern a sort of verbal accusative.) By this change the verb has lost much of its original force, since " to endeavour oneself to do a thing" expresses the act of arousing, or stimulating oneself to a pitch of indomitable determination, for the accomplishment of the object proposed ; while " to endeavour to do a thing" only expresses an intention on our part, without at all denoting its intensity. So that the present force of the verb To endeavour, is merely equivalent to the verb To strive. SETTLERS FROM FRANCE RENOWME. 155 should seem, the way in which they were for a length of time pronounced. We have coupled the old form of spelling with the French verb, that the connexion may be more apparent. Old form. French. Modern form Reteined. Retenir. Retained Marveil. Merveille. Marvel. Restreined. Restreindre. Restrained Traveil. Travail. Travail. Reveil. Reveler. Reveal. Ordein. Ordonner. Ordain. Renue. Renouer. Renew. &c. &c. &c. Although in this class of words it can scarcely, in some cases at least, be said, that the tendency has been to retrace the form of the Latin root, for the dissimilarity between the Latin and French is sometimes too great to permit this, yet the tendency has been clearly to leave the French form, both in writing and pronunciation. The following examples are of a more specific nature, and must be considered by themselves. RENOWME. REPROCH. "And (I) will raise up for them a plant of renowme, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither beare the repvocli of the heathen any more." Ezekiel, xxxiiii. 29. Of the two words in italics in this passage, the latter, Reproch, is merely the French reproche, with the final e dropped ; probably to intimate to an English eye, that the o was to be pronounced short. The former Renovjme, requires more careful consider- ation, because to this word we are indebted for our substantive Renown. Renowme was the form which the French substantive Renom (from the verb Renommer, to give repute), assumed when it first began to take its 156 DOUBLE FORMS. place in the English language. The remarkable change it has since undergone, — a change, which has produced Renown, — affords an example in which Euphony has tri- umphed over Etymology. Renown, though a pleasant word enough to the ear, is, nevertheless, a deformity whose construction will not bear investigation. 1 PERFITE. " O Tyrus, thou hast sayd I am of perfite beauty." Ezek. xxvii. 3. Perfite is evidently the French parfait, from the Latin perfectus. Here, as in so many other instances, modern usage has shown its preference to Latin over French forms. The double forms of spelling French words are sufficiently indicative of the uncertainty which prevailed, as also of the change which was now taking place. And, according to the prevalence of the French, or Latin form over each other, we may form, I apprehend, some just estimate of the progress of that change in par- ticular words. Thus the French form domage, though occasionally found, was rapidly giving way to our present form, damage, which leans more to the Latin. The same applies to the French form marchants (Fr. marchand) , victuals, were as yet generally written after the French method vitailes ; 2 though the Roman form victuals, was evidently coming into use. Virtue was at this time commonly written vertue. Licour (Fr. liqueur) had not receded before the Latin form liquor. 1 As, however, noun is a contraction of the Latin nornen, so some may he content to see in the last syllahle of renown a similar contraction, rather than be compelled to adopt the above ungrateful conclusion. Not- withstanding, we fear this is not the real clue to its formation. 2 The French word for victuals is vlvres, but the above form is still extant in the words avita'dler, To victual, and Avitailleur, a Victualler. SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. 157 Maister (Fr. Maitre) still survived in places ; though the present form master, more nearly approaching the Latin magister, was generally used. Fashion, if possible, shewed a still closer .affinity with France, than even in our own day. This word is usually spelt facion, from the French faqon, faqonner, To form. " Who received them at their hands and facioned it with y e grauing toole, and made of it a molten ealfe." Ezekiel xxxn. 4. Chapiter is found for chapter ; route for roll ; proces for process; maner (Fr. manier, to handle) for manner ; and many others, which it would be tedious to notice in detail, but which all appear to support directly, or indirectly, the theory we have advanced of an innate preference in our language of Latin over French forms. The form ancre (Fr. ancre) for anchor, prompts us to ask the question, why, in retracing the Latin ancora, the letter h has been inserted, since its insertion cannot be either required by pronunciation, or defended by Etymology ? 1 "And fearing lest they should haue fallen into some rough places, they cast foure ancres out of the sterne, and wished that the day were come." — Acts. xxvn. 29. The French word harnais had not as yet assumed its modern Anglicised form harness, but is found written harneis. " Let not him that girdeth his harneis boast himself as he that putteth it off." — 1 Kings, xx. 11. Fauchin, the Roman ensis falcatus, or curved swcrd, was still written after the French form, preserved in the words faucher, to mow, an&faucheur, a mower. " And she came to the post of the bed, which was at Holofernes head, and tooke down his fauchin from thence." Judeth, xni. 6. 1 We are assuming here, that we have retraced the Latin Anchora through the French ancre; though there is no necessity for such an assump- tion since we might derive the word immediately from the Anglo Saxon Ancor, an Anchor. 158 PUISSANT. But it is needless to multiply examples ; the above will amply suffice to shew how these strangers were being dealt with, and how at length the great mass of French words have become domesticated amongst us. Before, however, dismissing this branch of the subject it may be well to anticipate a question, which may be put, as to whether any large proportion of these French words have disappeared altogether from our language since the time we are considering? In answer to this question, it may be said, that very few of them seem to have so disappeared. Indeed, they had already been copiously thinned. Since Chaucer's time, numbers of them had become obsolete ; not even his illustrious sanction was able to enfranchise them. True, those that did remain still retained pretty much of their primitive costume, but, nevertheless, a silent agency was at work j first it thinned the bed of seedlings ; then, when this was done, it set to work at training, and trim- ming the remainder. The first of these operations may be said to have occupied the fifteenth century ; the second the sixteenth; while in the seventeenth century the class of words they had been manipulating became kneaded up with the rest of the language, an integral, and, to a certain extent, a homogeneous portion of it. We recollect to have found but one instance which properly comes under this category; still it is not im- possible a few others may exist, which have escaped either our eye or our memory. It is the word Puissant — " Thou art more bright and puissant than the mountaines of pray." — Ps. lxxvi. 4. SPELLING OF SAXON WORDS AND OTHERS. But we now pass on to consider some of those changes which were taking place in words of a more strictly English, that is, Anglo Saxon, character. Already had this portion of the language, the base as it were of the English tongue, received its present stereotyped form, as regards grammar, and construction. The changes SAXON WORDS — LAXITY OF SPELLING. 159 which may be said to have converted Saxon into English, took place in Chaucer's time, about the year 1350, when the declensions of Substantives were reduced from six to one, and the case endings from four to one, or two. Yet, even Chaucer's phraseology differs from that of the Breeches Bible, not only in containing a much larger proportion of French words, but also considerably more of Saxon inflection. By the middle of the 16th century, these remnants of Saxon grammar had entirely disappeared, and given place to that construction, which must now be considered permanent in the English Language. It is, then, with the spelling alone of Saxon words that we are now concerned. For, as soon as a certain set of rules came to be generally recognized, — call those rules grammar if you will, — and the language had received pretty nearly its complement of words, it remained but that some uniform method of writing and pronouncing those words should also be adopted. We have already remarked, the Breeches Bible affords abundant evidence, that no such unanimity as yet existed ; though, at the same time, it is clear this subject was receiving attention, ^hich hereafter developed such a code of spelling, or orthography, as, in the main, obtains in our own day. It is hoped, that the reader has been enabled to form some adequate conception of the manner in which English was written and spelt, about this time^ from the examples, which, short and disconnected though they were, have already been adduced. In that case, there will be the less necessity to enter minutely into the investigation of a subject, which, apart from affording us a measure of the changes that have been instrumental in imparting to English words their present form, seems to possess no particular interest. Indeed, the task would have been both a laborious and a tedious one to have attempted a detailed examination of all the grotesque, double, and often triple forms of spelling, which prevailed at this time. 1 160 LAXITY OF SPELLING. Scarcely a single word is always spelt in the same manner ; and even terminating syllables, such for instance as -ness, -ly, -full, &c. follow no general rule. Indeed, such was the want of uniformity, that it is impossible to find out a single rule which seems to have been generally recognized. The most, then, we can do is to specify which of these various forms was the most common ; though it is frequently difficult to do even thus much. The termination -ness, is generally written -nesse, sometimes nes, but very rarely -ness. Thus we find darhnesse, and darknes ; businesse and busines, &c. but not darkness, nor business. Monosyllables, whether verbs or substantives, now ending with a consonant, generally doubled the final consonant, and added e. Sometimes, however, the present form of spelling such words is found, indicative of the change, which was beginning to take place. Thus, we find, dogge, warre, wanne, ranne, ramme, &c. ; for dog, war, &c. Words now ending in double I, generally, but not always, appear with a single I ; as wel for well ; wel, hel, shal, Ml, &c. for will, hell, shall, hill, &c. S is frequently used for c, and c for h. Thus tivise for twice ; mise for mice ; miming for mincing, &c. ; shout for scout ; carkeis for carcase ; joatriark for patriarch, &c. I and y, seem to have done duty alternately. Thus we find eie, and eye ; syrs and sirs. Yce and Ice, &c, &c. Such were some of the peculiarities which affected the language generally. The following examples are of a more specific nature : Been, that word which has now come to be looked upon as the past participle of the verb To Be, though incorrectly so, occurs in no less than three forms, differing from our own, namely, bin, bene, and beene. DOUBLE FORMS. 161 Year appears in four forms; yere, yeere, yeer, and year. Prease is commonly found for press, and prest {presto of the conjuror) for present. Mids, middes, 1 and middest, apparently a kind of superlative form, at length verged into midst, are all found. " And he made the middest barre to shoote through the board es, from the one side to the other." Exod. xxxvi. 33. Hearbs, and herbs ; hundreth, and handred, are both found. " Then the King of Israel gathered the Prophets upon a four hundreth men, &c. — 1 Kings, xxn. 6. Utter frequently occurs for outer. Wiers for wires. None for noon. Overthwart (twisted over) for athwart. The personal pronouns me, he, she, thee, ye, were generally spelt with the double e, as we now spell thee, though occasionally with the single e. It is difficult now to conjecture, ^uch more to ascertain, what was the cause which lea to this method of spelling these words ; a method which has since been dropped, excepting in the case of thee, where its retention is desirable, if only for the purpose of distinction between it and the definite article the. There are two or three instances of spelling, which, contrary to the principle some time ago laid down, time seems to have altered for the worse. Vineger, the form constantly found in the Breeches Bible, should seem more correct, as derived from the 1 Anglo Saxon midden, the genitive case singular of midd, middle, con- nected probably with the Anglo Saxon verb Midan, To hide. M 162 TENDENCY TO RETRACE French Vin aigre, (sour wine) than our modern form vinegar. So also the form Tentation seems better than the modern one Temptation. Fornace, as it was commonly spelt, showed a closer affinity to the Latin fornax, than our present form furnace^ which seems rather to resemble the French form four- naise. But the change which has taken place in these words, and, it may be, in one or two others, will, since they are the exceptions, only serve to confirm the general rule which has been applied to the mass of French words, and which abundantly shows the innate preference in our language for the Latin over the French type. And it is well that such a preference not only mani- fested itself, but that there was no cause to prevent its being carried into effect. For had either the choice or the opportunity been' wanting, it seems tolerably certain, that English, considering the various discordant elements which it would have contained, could never have been written with that exactitude, and almost classic precision, of which it is now capable. Not that the losses it sustained can either be replaced, or ever cease to be deplored, but having been already incurred, this retrograde movement served to restore a character of precision and integrity which must otherwise have been sought for in vain. Suppose for instance, our language, instead of referring back to their Latin models the extensive class of French words, with which it was formerly inundated, had retained those words in the corrupt and mutilated forms they at first assumed, what would have been the character of English now ? Instead of preserving in the roots of many of its words a close resemblance and affinity to the Latin, the Latin element would have undergone a second dilution, and the probable consequence would have been, that this likeness and affinity would have been THE LATIN TYPE. 163 generally weakened, and sometimes entirely lost. If we now wrote debts, as it is commonly written in the Breeches Bible, defies, and as it is even now written in French, how obscure would become the connexion be- tween this word, and the Latin form from which it springs, debit um. We are compelled to pronounce the word as before, yet we have done our best to show that we are conscious of its antecedents, as well as of those events which transferred it to English soil. On this account it is that English Orthography presents such difficulties to the foreigner, because, while the pronunciation of French words has undergone but slight change, the retrogression from a French to Latin type, in spelling, has considerably modified the aspect of the written language. Where there is no law there can be no transgression, consequently we should not be justified in stigmatizing the spelling of Saxon and French words at this time as vicious, or faulty. For, as not even the slightest pretence to any uniformity was made, so was it impossible that anything like uniformity should exist. The language, with regard to its spelling, was in a state of transition and re-formation. Yet, even at this time, there was a class of words whose violated orthography it is difficult to excuse ; those words we mean which bear on their surface unmistakeable tokens of their etymology. True, though instances which come under this class are not numerous, yet, as examples of the spelling of this period, they must not be omitted. We have observed Prophane for profane, (Lat. prof amis). Preheminence for pre-eminence. Abilliments for habiliments, (Fr. habillement) . Saciety for satiety, (Lat. satietas). Wain for wean, (Anglo Saxon toenail). Prease for press, (Lat. pressus) . Ballance for balance, (Fr. balance), &c. This is the only class of words whose spelling may be termed reprehensible. For here it is no longer possible 1G4 FAULTY SPELLING. to plead those peculiar circumstances, which entirely pro- hibit hostile criticism in regard to the main body of the language. Such instances as the above could but have arisen from . ignorance, • or forgetfulness, of the roots whence they sprang, not from any uncertainty or vari- ableness in the words themselves. But, while on this topic, we may even ask ourselves, whether the usage of our own day is in all cases correct and well informed; for, if not, we should be cautious how we inculpate that of the past. Is it pro- bable, that in some remote period, when our present Version shall perhaps have become old and obsolete, like that which now lies before us, some curious investigator shall open its yellow worm-eaten pages, and be able to point out here and there instances, as he will call them, of faulty spelling ; instances which will shew, that the principles we have observed in the Breeches Bible have not as yet received their full recognition, nor our language its greatest polish and information ? It should seem that such an event is not altogether improbable ; for there yet linger amongst us some few words whose spelling can scarcely be defended. It is no part of our duty, now, to ransack the English of the day in search of such examples ; yet one, or two, occur to us, which we may be pardoned for noticing. Those verbs com- pounded from the Latin verb cedo, To go, appearing again in the French under the form ceder, afford us a case to the point. It is true, indeed, that each individual compound formed from this root (to use the term for convenience) is spelt, not in two, or three, different ways, but uniformly the same ; yet, what amounts to precisely the same thing, the identical common part, as it enters into different compounds, is spelt in different ways. Thus we spell Proceed, To go forward, with the double e; while the verb To recede, To go backward, differing only in the prefix re, we have thought proper to spell with FAULTY SPELLING. 165 a single e. Similarly concede, intercede, precede, &c. after the French model cider, preceder, &c. It is not certainly a matter of much importance, which of these forms we adopt, so long as we consistently abide by the choice we make; but to use one form with one prefix and another with another set of prefixes, argues incon- sistency at the least, and is, moreover, apt to mislead as to the identity of the verbal compound in such words. Present custom seems rather in favour of the French form -cede, if we may judge from the majority of compounds ; if so, why should not proceed, succeed, and the rest, conform to usage, and be spelt procede, succede, &c? or else let all such verbs be spelt with the double e. Proffer, we are accustomed to write with the double f while prefer, and defer, compounds of the same Latin verb, and differing 1 only from the first, in having the prepositions pre and de instead of pro prefixed to the verb fero, are rightly written with the single/! This, too, seems inconsistent. What would the world think of a man who wrote agression instead of aggression f Would it not immediately set him down as ignorant and ill informed ? Yet such a man would be guilty of no error, which is not committed every day by those who write agreeable with a single instead of a double g. The former, it is true, has the sanction both of the French word agreable, and also of long usage ; yet, neither the one, nor the other, makes it essentially correct ; nor, as it seems to us, affords any satisfactory reason, why the more correct forms, aggree and aggreeable, should not be restored. Restored, we say, because the earliest form of the word, and that from which the French borrowed theirs, was aggradevole in the Italian. For changing this into agreable, the French language may have had reasons, the validity of which we are perhaps 1 Differ and difference are rightly spelt with the double/, because the Latin verb, as compounded of dis and fero, is so written. 166 SPELLING. scarcely competent to dispute ; but, at any rate, the same reasons cannot be urged in its defence any longer when it became an English word. It is hoped, that these few general and cursory remarks on English spelling, may serve to throw some light on the steps by which we have at length arrived at the orthography of our own day. The spectacle we have had presented, it should seem, leaves us but little room for boastful satisfaction. Nay, rather, when we consider how much of what is purely arbitrary, and fortuitous, entered, and still enters, into our standard of right and wrong, we ought to feel humbled, and learn, that bad spelling is rephrehensible, not so much because it implies ignorance of the roots and composition of our language, as because it betokens habits of inattention, and disrepect to the general consent of good society, whose decision, after all, must in the main be final. Here we bring to a close the remarks which have been suggested to us by the English of the Breeches Bible. In the two remaining chapters we propose to take a brief survey of the European Languages, and more especially to consider the bearing of the Anglo Saxon on the English Language. CHAPTER X. COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY.-INDO - GERMANIC TAMIL Y.- LATIN AND GREEK; THEIR ORIGIN AND AFFINITY WITH THE GERMAN FAMILY.-PEDIGREE OF ENGLISH. -THE ROMANCE WALLON ; - ITS INFLUENCE. — THE CLAIMS OF LATIN AND ANGLO SAXON COMPARED. The analogy which exists between Philology and Geology is of so striking and patent a character, and has, moreover, been so frequently insisted on, that we feel ashamed again to resort to this trite simile for an illustration. Yet, hackneyed as it has now become, it is one in which there is a parallelism of truth, extending even to the primaeval world, an(J embracing in its area kindred problems, whose solution is of the highest interest and import to man. Both are studies of comparatively recent birth, and in both the ground as yet explored is as nothing to that which remains. As in Geology we find a volume in which the natural history of the world has been chronicled, in charac- ters not to be misunderstood ; so in Philology we find a second volume, devoted to the history of the lord of that world, — God's highest creation, man. The former is not more definite and intelligible than the latter, nor more infallible in its teaching. Neither must be read alone, though each independently; and the results must be compared not so much with themselves, as made to throw their combined light on that third Volume, given to us by that God of nature Himself whose existence and identity has received such proof in the person of Jesus Christ, as must compel the assent of man so long as he is a reasonable creature. 168 COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. " External probability, arising from the study of comparative Philology," says the most celebrated linguist and philologer that England has ever produced, the late Dr. Donaldson, "leads us to the conclusion, that the varieties we distinguish, as well in the form as in the language of man, must have been produced by some violent dispersion of the human race over the whole surface of the Earth, and by the subsequent operation of the multifarious causes to which the different parts of the separated family would be exposed. The result of investigations of this nature is generally more satisfac- tory to our inquisitive spirit than any written testimony, however authenticated with regard to the creation and early state of man : for the facts to which such a tes- timony relate occurred long before the invention of writing; they are traditions handed down by word of mouth from father to son, beginning with the first man, and so going on to the man who wrote them down, and of which even the earliest narrator could have known but little without direct and immediate inspiration." 1 Again, the same writer says "It is time that some attempt were made to show that the philosophy of language is so far from ministering to materialism and scepticism, that it actually stands forth as the chief confirmation of those systems which form the basis of all that human reason has ventured to contribute to the support of religion and morality." 2 Such is the pleasing testimony of one, who on this point speaks with an authority which few will care to dispute. At the outset, then, the subject of comparative philology affords the student this pleasing reflection, that he is entering on a study, whose direct tendency hither- to has been to strengthen the claims which the inspired Writings have over his belief. And this, surely, is no trivial consideration in the present day, when a spirit of 1 " The New Cratylus," p. 43. 2 Ibid, p. 73. COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 169 bold criticism has been set afoot, which has not hesitated to impugn the most sacred objects of our faith. Surely we can afford to lose not one iota of evidence, which tends to the support of Christian Philosophy against the rash, the ill-grounded, and, it is scarcely too much to say, the blasphemous speculations of the present day. Already, within the last half century, the study of comparative philology has done much to impart to our belief, in certain parts of the Scripture narrative, a rationality, which cannot but place that belief on more substantial, because more intellectual grounds, than it has hitherto held. We are now beginning to recognize the fact of the common parentage of men, and languages, not only be- cause Scripture assures us of it, but because in a multitude of instances we can trace the relationship for ourselves. Yet, it is, after all, very few who have ability, time, and opportunities, such as to render them capable of becoming original explorers in this wide and rich field of discovery. The great majority of us must be content to enjoy the fruits of others labours, and tread the ground already cleared by such pioneers as Donaldson, and men of similar attainments. But is it not so in other branches of study beside this ? How few, compared with the number of those who read mathematics, are able to enlarge the boundary of that science. Yet this is no argument against reading mathematics. And so in like manner should it be with regard to the study of comparative philology. We may not indeed be able to render our names famous by making fresh discoveries, or pushing our researches into regions as yet unexplored; yet the ac- quisition of sound and practical information on a subject, which ought at least to be interesting to each of us, the history of our race — and Comparative Philology 170 ON THE STUDY OF is nothing less — should afford a sufficient inducement to bestow more attention to the subject than has hitherto been given. But, beside these general incentives, the very nature and composition of our own language is such as to demand some knowledge of this subject, before we can rightly understand the relative bearing of English to the other languages of Europe. A few men here and there devote themselves to it, but as yet it has received no public recognition ; our public schools, and even our Universities ignore it, nor does there appear at present any symptoms of their awaking to a sense of its importance. Our surprise may, indeed, be somewhat lessened, when we recollect, that Comparative Philology, like Geology, was, as a separate study, unknown to the Greeks and Romans. As colonists, in the wider sense of the term, their time was in the early ages of their settlement employed in establishing themselves in their new homes, in organizing their constitutions, and in subduing their enemies. And when, at length, their institutions had acquired a permanent consistency, their natural genius preferred, and justly so, to soar on the free and unfettered wings of fancy, rather than to tie itself down to the tedious investigation of the past, or, to them, the monotonous study of themselves. Indeed, to them there would be no past ; all would be present and future. " At the period," says Sismondi, 1 "when nations yet in their infancy are animated by a creative genius, which endows them with a poetry and literature of their own, while it renders them, at the same time, capable of splendid enterprises, susceptible of lofty passions, and disposed to great sacrifices, the literature of other nations is unknown to them. Each draws from its own bosom that which best harmonizes with its nature." And thus it was with the nations of ancient Greece and Rome. Their languages so speedily diverged from those, which, even to this day, betray unmistakable signs 1 "Literature of the South of Europe/' vol. 1, p. 25. COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 171 of affinity ; so soon acquired a character and individuality each of its own, that this very affinity seems to have been ignored ; nor does a consciousness of the position they held, relative to the remaining members of the same great family, ever appear to have returned. Besides, a suc- cession of prosperous circumstances, or circumstances calculated to develop their intellectual and warlike capacities, by raising them above the level of the nations by whom they were surrounded, at the same time severed those bonds of sympathy which should have connected them with the rest of mankind. It may be doubted, whether they would not have repelled with disdain the notion, that a common brotherhood, and, in some sort, a common language existed between themselves and the nations who bowed in subjection at their feet, or whose conquered princes served often but to increase the magnificence of a triumphal procession. And thus, to a great measure, has it been with ourselves hitherto. We have been too deeply engrossed with topics of a religious, political, or civil character, to think much upon ourselves and our language. Yet the time seems now to have arrived when our attention may not unfitly be turned to these and kindred studies, which demand for their consideration, not so much the romantic and impulsive energy of a nation's youth, as the sober thoughtfulness of its manhood. Already, on the continent, have these studies received considerable atten- tion, and Germany more particularly has become famous by the number and ability of her philologers. Of the few in England who have devoted themselves to the subject of comparative philology, there is none to whom it is more indebted than the late Dr. Donaldson, and for the convenience of those who are unable to consult his works for themselves, we have ventured to draw, in rough outline, a sketch of his theory — perhaps better, the results which his labours enabled him to arrive at respecting the great Iudo-European family of languages. We simply desire to widen the bed over which the streams of his 172 THREE GREAT CLASSES OF LANGUAGES. information flow, or by diverting them into smaller, albeit shallower, channels, bring that information within the reach of those who otherwise would not obtain it. Dr. Donaldson, then, divides all known languages into three great classes. 1st. Languages with monosyllabic roots, incapable of composition, and therefore without Grammar, or Organization. To this class belongs the Chinese. 2nd. Languages with monosyllabic roots capable of composition. To this class belong the Sanscrit family, and all other languages not included under classes 1 and 3, preserved in such a state, that the forms of the words may be resolved into their simplest elements. 3rd. Languages consisting of dissyllabic verbal roots, and whose grammatical forms are produced, not merely by composition, as in class 2, but also by a simple modification of the roots themselves. This class contains the Semitic Languages only : that is TT , fChaldee. Hebrew^ c • ^syriac. Arabic. Aramaic, &c. Of these three classes, the second, as embracing all the languages now spoken in Europe, is by far the most important to us, and to this therefore we shall confine our attention. It has been variously called the Sanscrit, Indo-Germanic, or Indo-European. Of these the second, or Indo-Germanic, is the most significant, inasmuch as it implies the connexion existing between the Indian and Teutonic Languages. The nursery, if not the birthplace of this great family, seems to have been a country in Asia, called Iran, bounded on the North by the Caspian Sea, on the South THE INDO-GERMANIC FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 173 by the Indian Ocean, on the East by the Indus, and on the West by the Euphrates. The people inhabiting this district appear to have spoken two languages, which bore the same relation to one another as the High and Low German of the present day ; namely, Low Iranian, spoken by those who dwelt in the low countries to the North and East ; and High Iranian, by those on the mountainous districts of the South. When the population of this country became too numerous to be confined any longer within its comparatively narrow limits, the Eastern and Northern tribes sent off migrations to the South-East and North-west, the latter driving before them, as is usually the case, the tribes, and amongst them the Low Iranians, by whom they were hemmed in. Thus, there went forth a band of High Iranians to the South-east, who succeeded in mastering the Northern part of Hindostan, and perhaps some of the Polynesian Islands ; and also a band of emigrants to the North-west who stayed not till they reached the shores of the Atlantic, carrying along with them their Low Iranian dialect, and spreading it over a great portion of Asia, the whole of Europe, even to the Islands of the West. The proof of this colonization of Europe and Northern India, by the inhabitants of Northern and Eastern Iran, rests upon the agreement of the languages spoken by the oldest inhabitants of India and Europe, and on the obvious derivation of the names of the earliest tribes in both, from the country which afterwards became Media. 1 From these Low Iranian migrations, probably following 1 New Cratylus, p. 83. Again, p. 84. "The argument from the Lan- guage is decisive of the whole question. The resemblances between the old Low German dialects, (Gothic, Saxon, &c.) and the Sanscrit, even after a separation for thousands of years are so striking that an eminent Philologer (Bopp) has said " when I read the Gothic of Ulphilas, I could believe I had Sanscrit before me." On the whole, then, we consider it as nearly certain, that the Hindus in India, and the Low Germans in Europe, are emigrants from the country about the Southern extremity of the Caspian Sea." 174 THE IN DO-GERMANIC each other at widely distant intervals of time, arise, not only those languages called Low German, because spoken in the low countries of Northern Europe, but also, Dr. Donaldson is of opinion, arguing from what he knew of the Etymology and Grammatical structure of those languages, the Low Celtic or Erse, the Lithuanian, and the Sclavonian languages. It would appear, then, that from the Low Iranian migrations have sprung the following languages : 1. The Low or Old Celtic, comprising The Erse of Ireland. The Gaelic of Scotland. The Manx of the Isle of Man. 2. Low German, including three divisions ; I. The Scandinavian family ; viz. Icelandic. Swedish. Danish. II. The Low German dialects proper; viz. Saxon, and Anglo Saxon. Frisian. Flemish. Dutch. III. The Old or Maeso-Gothic ; or, as Bopp calls it, the German Sanscrit. 3. The Sclavonic, the most widely extended of the In do-Germanic family, spoken more or less over that tract of country bounded by the Pacific on the East, the Baltic on the West, the Arctic sea on the North, and the Adriatic on the South ; and in Europe, by the Russians and Rusniaks, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, Dal- matians, Croats, the AVends and Sorbs in Lusatia and FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 175 Saxony, the Slowaks in Hungary, the Bohemians, Moravians, Poles and Silesians. 1 4. The Lithuanian Languages ; viz. Lithuanian Proper. Lettish. Old Prussian. Such, according to Dr. Donaldson, are the offspring of the sucessive Low Iranian migrations into Europe. The order in which these migrations took place may be inferred from the present position in Europe of the people who speak their respective languages. The Celts, no doubt connected to some extent with the Finns, 2 were the first emigrants into Europe, and it is thought, that by them the British Isles were peopled so early as b.c. 1200. The Teutonic and Scandinavian family was the next to follow, pressing on the Celtic as closely as possible, and detruding them to the utmost limits of the west. They are supposed to have entered Europe by the Kimme- rian Bosphorus, about b.c 680. The Sclavonians were the last in order, and conse- quently occupy the eastern parts of Europe. But, besides the Low Iranian migrations, Dr. Donald- son is of opinion, that there was another Iranian migration of mixed character, to which he would attribute what he calls the High German, and High or New Celtic dialects. This migration he supposes to have followed, and been caused by, the subjugation of the Medes, a Low Iranian, by the Persians, a High Iranian people. 1 " The different tribes who spoke this language were known to the Ancients under the names Rhoxolani, Krobyzi, Sarinatse, Sauroinatse, Pan- nonians, and Venedi, or Wenidae."— Ibid. 2 The Danes, or Northmen, members of the great Scandinavian family, and second migratory wave which rolled over Europe from the East, encountered them in the North of Europe, about the same time that the Saxons and Angles encountered the Celts in Britain, m 176 THE COMPOSITION OF The Median and Persian languages, that is to say the Low and High Iranian dialects, thus becoming fused, there resulted the mixed language, which constituted the speech of those Persians with whom the Greeks had so much to do, and the connexion of which with modern High German was long ago perceived. 1 If this be so, then to this mixed Iranian migration are due the High German, and High Celtic languages. The former is divided into three classes, the Old, Middle, and New High German, the latter of which is now the written language of all Germany, and owes its position to the influence of Luther, who was from Upper Germany. The New or High Celtic comprises Welsh. Cornish. Breton Idioms. Such is an extremely rough outline of the parentage of those languages boasting a pure descent, and of their family connexions with each other, which are now spoken in Europe. It may seem strange to some, that even so rough an outline as this should refuse to pay the slightest regard to the classic languages of Greece and Rome. Yet such is undoubtedly the case, and we are, therefore, left to conclude, that these languages must either have presented no affinity with the Indo-European family, or, otherwise, they have forfeited their claim to be considered as the pure descendants of any one branch. The influence of these two languages has been so great, not only, as we have already had occasion to see, on our own English, but also on the languages of Southern Europe, where the Latin, in conjunction with the primaeval dialect, has given birth to that important family called 1 New Crat. p. 87. " It was to one of the tribes of the Persians, the TepfxdvLoi, mentioned by Herodotus, I. 25, that the Germans owe their name." 2 Ibid, p. 80. LATIN AND GREEK. 177 the Romance tongues, 1 that a short time occupied in considering them cannot we think be mispent. Proudly as they stand aloof from the great representatives of the Indo-European family, they are yet no heaven-born offspring, and though, as it were in disdain, they refuse to disclose, or disclose only by obscure fable and shadowy legend, the manner of their birth, and their family connexions, yet Philology refuses to be hoodwinked, and lays bare with unsparing hand the secrets of their formation. There is an opinion, which has long been, and, for aught we know, is still widely prevalent; an opinion which dates at least from the time, and has no less authority than that of Mr. Home Tooke, that "the bulk and foundation of the Latin language is Greek." 3 Yet in spite of such high authority, it appears we must now learn to look upon this opinion as erroneous. Other and better Scholars and Philologers than Mr. Tooke take now a different view of the subject. Dr. Donaldson considers (for his intellect still lives) that the Latin is of at least equal antiquity with the Greek, and not derived from it; that the similarity existing between them, which has caused us to think so, is fully accounted for by the same people, the Pelasgians, probably of the Sclavonic stock, settling simultaneously in Italy and Greece; while the difference, which afterwards sprung up, and caused A.D. 1 Namely : 1. The Provenfal, established at the Court of Bozon, King of Aries, 877—887 2. The Langue d'Oil, or d'Oui, Romance Wallon, or Norman French, from the mixture of which with the Anglo-Saxon has resulted our own English, at the Court of "William Lonque-Epee, the son of Hollo duke of Normandy, between the years 917 — 943 3. The Castilian, in the reign of Ferdinand the Great 1037—1065 4. The Portuguese, under Henry the founder of the Monarchy 1095—1112 5. The Italian, under Roger I. King of Sicily 1129-1161 2 " Diversions of Purley," p. 402. 1857. N 178 THE COMPOSITION OF LATIN AND GREEK. Latin and Greek to be regarded as separate languages, or connected only by descent, was due to the difference of those lingual elements, which were hereafter superimposed and amalgamated with the original and common base. Our own opinion, we are quoting the words of the same writer, drawn purely from philological and geogra- phical considerations, is, that the first population of both Italy and Greece, was Erse, or Low Celtic. After them came the Sclavonian (Pelasgian) element in each country, and then a Lithuanian element was added in Italy, and a Persian, High German, High Celtic, or to speak generally, High Iranian in Greece. 1 He founds thus much of his argument on the facts, that the Sclavonian, the most widely extended branch of the Low Iranian family, may be traced to the immediate neighbourhood of Greece and Italy, as there are singular coincidences between Latin and the oldest, or iEolian Greek, on the one hand, and even the modern Sclavonian languages on the other ; and, as the Greek traditions point to the Hyperborean regions, we may safely call the Pelas- gians by a name which, though now restricted, properly describes all those Low Iranian tribes, that came into im- mediate contact with the people of whom we are speaking. 3 From what has been said, then, it should appear probable, that Latin and Greek possess two elements in common, namely, the Celtic and the Sclavonian, or Pelas- gian ; and, therefore, that the difference which has since sprung up between them was caused by the supervention of a Persian or High German dialect in Greece, and a Low German, probably Lithuanian, in Italy. But this 1 New Crat. p. 90. 2 " That the Pelasgians were of Sclavonic origin is pretty clear (not to speak of historic probability) from the agreement of even modern Sclavonic with Latin, and the oldest element of Greek. The resemblance of Eussian to the Latin is so striking, that a modern traveller has not hesitated to assert that the founders of Rome spoke the Russian language ."—New Crat. p. 91. THEIR AFFINITY WITH THE GERMAN FAMILY. 179 theory, though probably true in its general outline, is still only a very rough approximation towards the ascertain- ing of the real constitution of these languages. Much, as it seems to us, is still left for the investigation of modern scholars ; much that nothing but great versatility in modern languages, as they are sometimes called, can hope to elucidate. That the Latin language bears evident traces of Low German influence, it is impossible for a moment to deny ; for the merest tyro in Latin and Anglo Saxon cannot fail to perceive them. The question rather is, what was the exact nature, — the particular dialect — of this Low German element, and in what relative order to the other components of the Latin tongue was its agency felt ? The similarity which exists between many Anglo Saxon and Latin words, and, in many cases, the identity of the radicle, seems to point, if not to the Saxon itself, at least to a dialect closely akin to the Saxon, and not improbably the Gothic. We, however, must content ourselves at present with calling the attention of others to the striking similarity which exists between a large body of Anglo Saxon and Latin words. Not, indeed, that we wish to pride ourselves on this, as a new discovery, but simply, because it seems, that we have here a vein which has by no means been worked out. Nor will this investigation be altogether an easy one, or free from biassing influences. For instance, the ecclesiastical subjection of this country to Rome, which took place at a comparatively short period after the settlement of the various German tribes in this island, had, no doubt, the effect of introducing many Latin words, particularly ecclesiastical words into the Saxon of this country. Five, says the venerable Bede, was the number of languages spoken in this island in his day, the Angle, the British, the Scottish, (Lowland Scotch) the Pictish, and the Latin, which by the study of the Scrip- tures has become common to all the rest. 1 And, as a natural 1 Hsec in prsesenti, juxta numerum librorum quibus lex divina script a est, quinque gentium Unguis unam eandemque summae veritatis et vera? 180 ECCLESIASTICAL WORDS consequence, nearly all the ecclesiastical words in Anglo Saxon are of Latin or Greek formation. As for instance, the Greek eVtV/co7ro?, An Overseer, which became in the Latin Episcopus, and when transferred to French soil assumed the form Evesque, and finally, Eveque, took up its position in this country as a Saxon word, under the form Biscop. So the Latin Clericus produced the Saxon Cleroc, or Clerc, a clerk, that is a priest. 1 Again, our word Kirk, or Church, is the Anglo Saxon Cyricea, most probably 2 formed from the Greek to Kvpiaicov, (Eccl.) the Lord's house. The Saxon word Sacred, A priest, is probably connected with (per meta- thesin) the Latin word Sacerdos. And the same remark applies to a number of other words, which have found a place in the Anglo Saxon, such as Discipul, A disciple ; Diacon, A deacon; Canon, A canon; Biblioftece, A library ; Capitul, A chapter ; Cantic, A song, &c. These and similar examples shew, that, in striking a comparison between Anglo Saxon and Latin words, care is requisite to avoid all such as are likely to have owed their existence in the Anglo Saxon to the influence of the eccle- siastical Latin, which, in the words of the venerable Bede, became common to the other tongues spoken in Great Britain, ' ' meditatione scripturarum," by the study of the Scriptures. Such examples of similitude, or resemblance, in the two languages prove nothing as to their prior relationship, or their relative antiquity. Nor, indeed, is there the least necessity to choose such words, for others exist in great sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur, Anglorum videlicet Brit- tonum, Scottorum, Pictorum, et Latinorum, quae meditatione seripturarum, caeteris omnibus est facta communis.— Hist. Eccl. lib. I. c. 1. 1 The use of clerk, in its modern acceptation of a writer, arose from the fact, that for a length of time during the middle ages the clergy, priests, or clerici, were nearly the only persons who possessed the power of writing. 7 We say probably, because some have been pleased to look to the Saxon verb Ceosan, To choose, for the root of Church. IN ANGLO SAXON. 181 abundance against which no such objection as the above can be urged. A few such instances, which seem to be trustworthy, and point clearly to the close affinity which existed at some former time between the Latin, and, we do not say the Anglo Saxon precisely, but, at any rate, some Low German dialect, will be found collated in the Appen- dix to this page. One cannot see two such words as Erian and Arare, both answering to the same English verb To plough, without being satisfied, that both must have had a common origin. Again, the very names of man and woman are radically the same in both Latin and Anglo Saxon. In the latter they appear as Ver and Foemne, while in the former, the Latin, they take the form almost unchanged of Vir and Fcemina. 1 But it is no part of our intention to pursue this inves- tigation here, and our object in alluding to it at all is merely to point out the true relationship existing between Latin and Anglo Saxon, and, as a necessary consequence, between Latin and our own English. There seems the greater necessity that this should be done, because there is prevalent a vicious method of referring English words to what are falsely called Latin roots, when in reality the root both of the English and Latin is to be found in some Low German dialect. After what has been said of the nature and composition of the Latin language, it is almost needless to add, that, in the pursuit of etymological en- quiry, even with respect to our own language, the Latin occupies a mediate and subordinate position. It is itself a compound tongue whose elements will be found, so far as it is now possible to find them, in extraneous sources. There is considerable danger of confounding together, what we shall call the ultimate and proximate elements of 1 The word in the old Scandinavian is feima : in Saxon fehmea,fadmia ; in Frisian, fdmne, fomne, fovne. Ettmuller makes the following almost superfluous remark on the origin of the word:— "Vox fcemne ex Latina voce faemina, an originem sumpserit, dubito ; neque fam et foemne ad faban referri posse videntur, etsi Sax. Fadmia et Anglo-Sax. Fafcu, amita, cum verbo fa>an (alere, amplecti) congruant." 182 ENGLISH PEDIGREE. a language. 1 No one will deny, that French is an element in the English language; or again, that Latin is an ele- ment in the French language; yet in neither of these cases have we an ultimate element. The French is formed hy the amalgamation of the old Gallic Latin with the Ger- man, or Teutonic dialect spoken by the Franks, who invaded, and settled in northern France about the middle of the fifth century of this era ; while the Latin, as we have seen, is also compounded of a Low German and some other element, whose exact nature is less easily defined. And thus it appears, that neither the French, nor the Latin, have any claim to be considered as themselves ulti- mate elements of our English. We have attempted, by the aid of the following rough chart, to illustrate the suc- cessive steps in that process, which have led to the forma- tion of the English tongue; as also, to show in what relative order the various dialects of which it is composed entered into its composition. Celtic and Lithuanian, Sclavonian. or some v y ' Low Ger- man Dialect. Latin Franco-Theotisque, or Frantic, the parent of the Platt-Deutsch spoken by the Franks, who set- tled in the provinces of France north of the river Loire. Anglo Saxon The Romance Wallon, Langue d'Oil, Langue d'Oui, or Norman French. ENGLISH. 1 If we may be pardoned for borrowing a simile from the laboratory in illustration of the meaning of ultimate and proximate, we would say, that, while albumen, casein, and fibrin are the proximate elements of food, because they approximate nearest to those substances which our digestive organs can receive and operate upon ; the ultimate elements are those, of which albumen, casein, fibrin, are themselves compounded, namely, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. THE PRANKS IN GAUL. 183 Such appears to be the pedigree of the English language. Of its nearest relation, and that to which it still bears the strongest family likeness, we will not speak particularly here, but a word, or two, respecting those diverse elements, which have entered into its composition through the French side, may not perhaps be superfluous. With regard to the assumed constitution of the Latin it will at once be seen, that we have followed Dr. Donaldson. Of the exact nature of the old Fran- cic, the combination of which with the Latin gave rise to the Romance Wallon, but little is known. It presents a closer affinity to High German, than either the Old Saxon, the Anglo Saxon, the Dutch, or the Frisian. Its original locality, and that from which it spread, by means of the conquests of the Carlovingian Franks through a large extent of Germany and France, were the parts on the Lower and Middle Rhine about Cologne. The written language of Germany, and the language of literature, at this day, is High German. Yet it is remarkable, that the districts, where the Highest German is spoken, are Hanover and Brunswick, Platt- Deutsch districts. 1 For some length of time after the subjugation of Northern France by the Franks, both the old Latin, spoken by the Gauls, who affected the name of Romans, and the Francisque existed as separate tongues. The settlement of the Franks in upper Gaul took place about the middle of the fifth century; yet the historian tells us, that Charlemagne, who was declared Emperor of the West in the year a.d. 800, or three centuries and a half later, still spoke the "patrium ser- monem," or language of his ancestors. The fact is, that no less than three languages were in use during this period; for while the Francisque, or German, continued to be employed in the court, in conversation and in martial and historic poems, the Latin was still the WTitten language, and the rustic population spoke a kind of ^ patois which partook, more, or less, of the nature of both the German and the Latin. As time advanced, however, 1 Dr. Latham's " English Language." Vol. I. pp. 135—137- 184 THE ROMANCE WALLON. WAELCHS. this compound of the Latin and German gained ground amongst the people, until at last its existence became formally rocognized by the Council of Tours a.d. 813, which directed, that the Bishops should translate their homilies into the two languages of the people, the Romance and the Theotisque, or German, 1 instead of delivering them in Latin as had heretofore been the case. 2 It was not, however, until a century later that this new tongue received its full developement and recognition. Rollo, the Dane, acquired the Dukedom of Normandy in the year a.d. 912, and, strange though it may seem, William Longue-Epee, his immediate descendant, by adopting and introducing it at his court, gave to it a status and stability which, otherwise, it might never have possessed in his province. While the inhabitants of southern France prided them- selves on their nearer connexion with Rome, and called themselves Romans Provenqaux, that is, Romans of the Province, and their language the Provincial Roman, or Romance Provencal; the Celtic population of the north were known to the Franks by the name of Waelchs, 3 1 Sismondr's " Literature of the South of Europe," Vol. I. p. 188. 9 This historic fact is worthy of notice, because it shows that the Romish Church in the earlier period of its existence, never contemplated the monstrous imposition of administering her religious ordinances in a tongue which the common people could not understand. 3 So in England, the Celtic population were called Wealhas, (a word signifying foreigners), modern Welsh, though the name was applied, not to the Welsh only, but also to the British inhabitants of Wessex, and those who took refuge in Cornwall. Had we not known from other sources, that the conquered Britons sought and found an asylum in this corner of the country, the name alone, which it bore amongst the Saxons, would have afforded a sufficient indication of the fact. It was called by them Comwealas, a name, which might be freely translated " the Welsh of Com" As to the meaning of this word Corn, in the absence of any other hypothesis known to us, we feel inclined by a somewhat ambiguous remark of Thierry's in his " Norman Conquest," Vol. I. p. 16, and Note (2) thereto, to consider it a contraction of the Latin word Cornu, a Horn. Thierry says, that Cornu Gallia is the same name with that of the westernmost county of England, Cornwall. It seems, indeed, probable enough, that the first syllable Corn is ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND — TROUBLE. 185 or Walloons, and their language by that of the Romance Walhn. And such was the language introduced into this country by William the Conqueror, and such its composition. It is thus, that the Latin occupies the important position it does in the English language. To the other, the Francisque element, little attention has hitherto been directed in this country. In its nature it bears a somewhat close resemblance to the other Low German element and main constituent of our tongue, the Anglo Saxon. We have had occasion in a former part of this book to notice English words, which may be traced to Germany, either through Anglo Saxon, or the Francisque. In some cases a word will be found to have existed in both, and yet to have transmitted no offspring, or representative, to our English. The Anglo Saxon Orgel, and the modern French Orgueil, both signifying Pride, is an example to the point. It might perhaps too be considered a debatable question, whether the word Trouble has any just claim to be considered a German word on the Francic side. Mr. Home Tooke, indeed, would make it one on the Anglo Saxon ; carelessly assuming, that because Trouble is an English word, and the Anglo Saxon verb Tribul-an, sounds very like it, the former must necessarily be the offspring of the latter ; never stopping for a moment to ask, whether such a substantive as Trouble or its like, ever existed in the Anglo Saxon. Dean Trench, if we recollect rightly, considers it as nothing more than the old Latin word Tribulum, a kind of threshing machine, or roller with which the ancients beat out their corn, used in a meta- phorical sense ; and, therefore, to this extent a new word. This hypothesis seems far the most likely; for although in the old Francic there may have been, not only a verb corresponding to the Anglo Saxon Tribulan (doubtless connected with the Latin Tribulo Tero, &c.) but also, that a contraction of the Latin Cormi, but, if Thierry's remark implies further, that the second syllable, -mall, is a contraction, or rather a corruption, of Gallia, then we must decline to acquiesce, since the Saxon termination Wealas seems to us decisive on this point. 186 FRENCH AND ENGLISH. which in the Anglo Saxon is wanting, a substantive answering to Trouble; yet, in the absence of any proof of this, it is far more probable, and credible, that the French and consequently the English word Trouble (for it never was Anglo Saxon) is the easily modified form of the Latin Tribulum used figuratively. This is a digression, yet it may perhaps serve the pur- pose of impressing on the mind, that, besides the Latin, another German element, of which we will not say more, than that it closely resembled and was ultimately con- nected with the Anglo Saxon, crept into our language along with the French. Both Saxons and Franks left the homes in which we first find them, — and those homes not far remote from each other — not more so than the rivers Elbe and Rhine — about the same time ; and it is by no means certain, that the Germans, who settled in Kent, were not, to some extent at least, of Frankish origin. Thus it appears, that at the Norman invasion, there was another accession of the German element to our lan- guage, along with the Latin which had absorbed it. True, that element occupies but a subordinate place in the com- position of the French language, pretty much the same, indeed, as the French itself does in the composition of the English; yet, nevertheless, it exercised a very decided in- fluence on the character of the Latin language, which had previously been spoken in France. And this, too, in a manner precisely similar to that in which the Norman French affected the Saxon ; namely, in destroying the pre- existent organization of the national tongue, and leaving it in that condition, without making any attempts to restore the devastation it caused. The resemblance of the present French verbal conjugation to the Latin, is perhaps, more minute and striking, than that of the English to the Saxon; yet the inflexions of Nouns Substantive, the comparison of Adjectives and Adverbs, and, perhaps generally, the useful conventionalities of language have been every whit as severely dealt with in the old Latin as in our old Saxon. COMPARATIVE CLAIMS OF LATIN AND ANGLO SAXON. 187 Still, as in English, the character and bulk of the language is Saxon, so in French the character and bulk is Latin. 1 So far, then, as relates to our own language and the fresh constituents which have had access to it through the French, we may confine our attention generally speaking to two only, the Latin and the Anglo Saxon, or rather the Anglo Saxon and Latin, for the former has in several respects prior claims to our own consideration. These claims are founded; first on the ground of the intrinsic linguistic importance of the Anglo Saxon — its great anti- quity and its freedom from adulteration ; secondly, on the ground of its relative importance to us as the only descen- dants of those whose language it formerly was. On these grounds the claims of Anglo Saxon far exceed those of the Latin language. It seems, that our long con- tinued connexion with Rome, whether that connexion have been of a military, ecclesiastic, or literary nature, has had the effect of concealing this great fact from our eyes and leading us almost unconsciously to assign to her language a position of importance, which is due from us rather to the Anglo Saxon. We wish it to be clearly understood, that we are speaking of Latin, not as a medium of litera- ture, not as it has been adorned by men of the greatest genius, and refined by writers the most brilliant, and orators the most eloquent that the world has ever seen; but we are speaking of Latin as a language, and in its re- lation to the other members of the great European family. So much of Latin etymology has been lost, or, if not lost, has, at least, not yet been investigated ; the process and rationale of its construction is so obscure; that it can occupy but a secondary position in the rank of those lan- guages, which are fitted to throw light on the earliest operations of the mind as they developed themselves in the form of speech. Nor need we be surprised at this. Cast but a pebble on the smooth surface of the brook and the trembling agitation is borne in a thousand concen- 1 See Appendix to this page. 188 MIGRATION AND ITS EFFECTS. trie annulations to the surrounding waters ; cast in another, and immediately the pleasing regularity is lost, and a hopeless confusion succeeds. Or, watch the waves of the ocean as they break in regular succession on the shingly beach of some sheltered bay, and then ascend some beetling crag which overlooks the seething caldron fathoms below. Watch those furious waves as they rush on like crested warriors to storm the rock-bound coast, watch how they lash its basement, leap up its sides for a moment, and then repulsed return but to carry confusion amongst their yet advancing comrades. And the history of the population of the world, as it has been accomplished by successive waves of migration transmitted apparently from one common centre, seems but to find a parallel in the above simile. CHAPTER XI. THE VALUE OF ANGLO SAXON-FIRST, AS ILLUSTRATING THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE GENERALLY, AND OF ENGLISH IN PARTICULAR —SECONDLY, AS DISCOVER- ING THE TRUE MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS.— EXAMPLES.— CONCLUSION. The Sanscrit is a language which admits of complete analysis, the most perfect and symmetrical of any now in existence. The reason why it is so is obviously because no ulterior circumstances have occurred to disarrange those forms of thought in which the human mind at first disposed itself. And doubtless the fewer the causes which at any past time have tended to disturb the original shape and disposition of a language, the more correctly will that language register the history of its formation. Of course this amounts to the same thing as saying, that the purer the descent the clearer will be the insight afforded into the logic of the formation of language. In this respect the Anglo Saxon has pre-eminently the advantage over both Latin and Greek. Its descent is much purer, and conse- quently its antiquity is greater. Like the Sanscrit it has had fewer catastrophes to modify, or destroy its primaeval articulation, and it, therefore, more clearly reveals the suc- cessive processes of human thought engaged in its construc- tion. It admits of a very tolerable analysis, too, which has not, perhaps, even yet been pushed to its extreme limits. Give us the monosyllabic portion of the language, two, or three, primary verbs ; tell us the meaning of a few ter- minal forms — these probably will turn out to have been, or to be, monosyllabic substantives too — and we may be said to possess the materials out of which the language has been formed. We can do little more than call attention to this remarkable characteristic in the construction of the Anglo 190 ANGLO SAXON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. Saxon language; a characteristic, which, while it creates a broad line of distinction between the Saxon and those other languages with which Englishmen usually come in contact, does at the same time exalt it far beyond them in point of illustrating the principles on which language generally, and our own in particular, has been constructed. At the risk of being thought tedious, however, we will, by way of illustrating this position make a few extracts, prin- cipally from Dr. Bosworth's larger Anglo Saxon grammar, to the chapters on the Verb and Noun in which we must refer the reader, if he wish to see the subject more fully discussed. ANGLO SAXON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. We start, then, from the Noun, or Noun Substantive, the most important and essential part of speech. Anglo Saxon Substantives are of two kinds, Simple and Compound. The former, as their name would imply, are monosyllabic in form • the latter are formed by com- bining two, or more, of the simple Substantives together. Thus, from Ac, An oak, and Corn, Corn, is formed the substantive Acorn, An acorn ; from Wig, An idol, or temple, and Crseft, An art, is formed Wigcroeft, Witchcraft, &c. Besides the casual combination of substantives, there are other terminal syllables, which either are, or have been independent substantives. The following are some of these together with their real, or supposed, signification, and the English forms they have bequeathed to us. Dom, Judgement, Power, surviving in the English Doom, and -dom. As from Cyne, A king, by the addition of this syllable, is formed the substantive Cynedom, a kingdom ; from Freo, A lord, or Freeman, the substantive Freodom, Freedom, &c. Rice, Power, Dominion. Example : Bisceop-rice, A bishopric, i. e. the dominion of a Bishop. 1 1 Though this is the only compound of Rice, which seems to have survived to our time, in the " Vision of Piers Ploughman," we find Kyng-ryche. and Hevene-riche. NOUN SUBSTANTIVE. 191 Had, A person, habit, sex, state, order, degree. This substantive survives in the English termination -hood ; or, as it is generally written by Chaucer, -hade, a form still more closely resembling the Saxon model. Examples: Bro$or-had, Brotherhood; Mseden-had, Mai- denhood; Man-had, Manhood ; Preost-had, Priesthood, &c. Scir, A share, or part cut off, A shire, or district. Ex- amples : Preost-scy re, the Priest's shire, or Parish^ Scir-gerifa, A shire-reeve ; i. e. by contraction A sheriff. 1 The attempt has been made, as it seems to me without sufficient grounds, to derive the word garish from the Anglo Saxon preost-sc'yre, by con- traction. If it is so derived, then the contraction is at least an extraordinary one. But, indeed, the earlier forms in which the word occurs, as for instance in " the Vision of Piers Ploughman," and in Chaucer, seem to point rather to a Norman, than a Saxon origin, as the following quotations will show : — " And yyele {evil) in this y-holde In parisshes of Engelonde ; Eor persons (parsons) and parish-preestes That sholde the people shryve, Ben curatours (Curates) called, To know and to hele All that ben hir parisshens, Penaunce to enjoigne." Lines 14483—14490. And again, in Chaucer's graphic description of the Persone, one of the guests at " the Tabard," who contributed various homilies on religious and moral subjects for the edification of his fellow pilgrims, and as his share towards their mutual divertisement. " A good man there was of religioun, That was a poure persone of a toune But rich he was of holy thought and werk, He was also a lerned man, a clerk, That Cristes gospel trewely wolde preche. His parishens (parishioners) devoutly wolde he teche. Benigne he was and wonder diligent, And in adversite full patient : And swiche he was ypreved often sithes, Pul loth were him to cursen for his tithes, But rather wolde he yeven out of doute, Unto his pour parishens about, Of his offring, and eke of his substance. He coude in litel thing have suffisance. Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder, But he ne left nought for no rain ne thonder In sikenesse and in mischief to visite The ferrest in his parish, moche and lite, Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf." Prologue to Cant. Tales, line 469. If parish had been contracted from the Saxon preost-sc'yre, these early 192 VERBAL FORMATION. Scip, A shape, form, state, dignity, answering to the English termination -ship. Examples : Freond-scip, Friend- ship) ; WeorS-scip, Worship. -er, or -ere, from the Saxon Wer, A man, corresponding to our termination -er. As, for example : Writ-ere (i. e. Writ-wer) A man who writes, A writer. Fiscere (i. e. Fisc- wer) A man who fishes ; A fisherman. Such are some of the terminating syllables and their meanings. Others there are besides, whose signification is more obscure; such are -ing, -ling, -incle, -els, -el, -a, &c. But we must pass on to take a hasty glimpse at the construction of the Saxon verbs. SAXON VERBAL FORMATION. The mental operation, which has been engaged in the formation of the next important part of speech, the Verb, is, if we assume the truth of the theory propounded by the best Anglo Saxon scholars, and in itself highly probable on account of its simplicity, no less conspicuous, than that in the formation of the compound substantives. Indeed, the process seems little more, than converting Substantives into Verbs by the simplest method possible, — that of affixing to them one of the three " almost pri- mitive" verbs Unnan, or An, To give, Gangan, or Gan, To go, and Agan, To have, or possess. By the aid of these transforming elements the vast class of Saxon verbs has been constructed out of the Substan- tives. What could be more simple ? there is here no fresh forms of it would have exhibited a closer resemblance to the Saxon than they do. But the resemblance of parish and parishens to the French forms paroisse and paroissien, seem to us conclusive, that at least no Saxon root is involved. Whence comes the French paroisse we cannot now stop to enquire. VERBAL FORMATION. 193 call for ingenuity, or invention, and no waste of intellec- tual resource. 1 The meaning of the verb varies slightly, according as the substantive is verbalized by one or other of these primary verbs. The following examples will sufficiently illustrate the method of verbal formation. The verb Unnan, or An, To give, affixed to the sub- stantives : Cnott, A knot,'] f Cnytt-an, To give a knot, To -j knit. Coss, A kiss, l + -u J Coss-an, To give a kiss, To , kiss. vpvhs D eel- an, To give a part, To ^- deal, or divide. &c. &c. The verb Gan, To go, affixed to/the substantives Bse^-ian, To go to a bath, Dael, A part, J BseS, A bath, produces To wash. Bidde, A prayer, , fa Q Bidd-an, To go to Prayer, Cid, A quarrel, verbs To pray. Cid-an, To go to a quarrel, To quarrel. The verb Agan, To have, possess, acquire, affixed to the substantives 1 The following is part of Dr. Bosworth's note on the formation of verbs, p. 134:— " Anan, which in its simplest form is An, makes end, and, &c., for anend (in the present participle) ; and, ad, od, &c. for anad : gangan, which is only gan doubled, makes gend, gand, &c., and ged, gad, &c. for gangend, and gangad" 2 It may seem that the verbs compounded of Gan terminate the same as those of An, and that, therefore, the distinction is fanciful rather than real. It is not so, however ; for the older forms of verbs compounded of Gan, To go, end in -gan and not -an. The earlier forms of the examples above given were Bsefc-gan, Bidde-gan, Cid-gan. See " Bosivorth's Anglo Saxon Gram- mar" p. 135, note. O 194 FORMATIVE PROCESS. — SUBSTANTIVES. Blostm, A flower, 7\ fBlostrn-ian, 1 To have a flower, | produces | to blossom. Car, Care, y the ] Can, (Keltic), A head. Cenn-an, To procreate, J & l^Con, (Icelandic), A woman. When words had been formed to express action of various kinds, nothing is easier to conceive, than that those parts of the verb which express the continuation, or state of action, and the completion, or effect of action, which parts are the 3rd person singular of the indefinite, or present tense, and the past participle (probably, little else than the past participle of one of the three primary verbs above noticed, affixed to the radicle or substantive portion of the verb), should in turn be used to designate; first, agents, or objects, in which the main idea of the verb is prevalent ; secondly, things, which are the result of the completed action of the verb; and thirdly, states, conditions, qualities, &c, which are intimated to us by such action. Hence we arrive, by means of the verb, at the three following classes of words : 1st. At a class of Substantives ending in the Anglo Saxon in -ft, and in English in -th, examples of which, as filth, health, wealth, &c, may be found on page 49. 1 Earlier forms— Blostm-agan, Car-agan, Luf-igan. FORMATIVE PROCESS. ADJECTIVES. 195 2nd. At another class of Substantives, formed from the past participle ending in -d, -t, or -n, in examples of which, such as bread, head, weft, haft, welkin, yarn, &c, the whole language is sufficiently abun- dant. 3rd. At a class of adjective words, descriptive of state, condition, or quality, ending, as in the last class, in -d, -t, or -n; examples of which are lost, ovm, forlorn, afeard, 1 &c. So much for the Verb, its formation and the functions it discharged in enriching and furnishing language. The third class of verbal derivatives naturally leads us to the consideration of descriptive, or adjective words gener- ally, and the methods by which the want of such words, in any but the most barbarous societies of men, was supplied. ADJECTIVAL FORMATION. The first form in which we meet with the Adjective is the same as that of the Substantive ; that is, the same word was used to express, not only a substance, or thing, but also the nature, or quality of that substance, or thing. Thus, the same word, both in Anglo Saxon and English is used to express both the Substantive Light, and the quality or nature of Light. So also with the word Deep, or The deep, the same word expressed both. The next step in the formation of Adjectives was to append to the monosyllabic Substantives, whether those Substantives appear as the roots of Verbs, or otherwise, one of the terminations -ed, -en, end, or -ig. The former three of these terminations are Participles past and present of the verb Unnan, To give, or To add ; the latter -ig, is from lean, To increase or add, and in meaning, therefore, 1 Though we have given examples in English only, the originals in all cases are to be found in the Anglo Saxon. 196 ADJECTIVES. closely resembling the others, -ed and -en. The termina- tion -end answers to the English present participle in -ing, as Anglo Saxon Lung-end, Loving, &c. The termination -ig has been merged into the English termination -y ; as Blod-ig, Bloody, iEn-ig, Any, Crseft-ig, Crafty, &c. The syllables -en, -ed, in conjunction with Substantives proper, appear in the words : — Bece, beech Bucene, beech-en. Braes, brass Brsesen, braz-en. Wulle, wool Wull-en, wooll-en} Gold, gold Gyld-en, gold-en, Ly'n, flax Lin-en, linen. &c. &c. Ecge, edge Ecg-ed, edg-ed. Sceo', a shoe Ge-sceod, shod. Hyrne, a horn Hyrn-ed, horn-ed. &c. &c. The meaning of these syllables, which convert the ori- ginal monosyllabic Substantives into Adjectives, (as before, by the aid of the primitive Verbs, they were converted into Verbs), is simply that of addition to some other Substantive, whose nature and quality it is thus intended to subjoin. A " linen shirt," then, only means, if we thoroughly analyze the construction, u flax add shirt ;" "brazen goblets," "brass add goblets ;" &c. But, besides these verbal terminations, there are also substantive terminations, which, when affixed to other Substantives, are made to denote quality, and thus produce Adjective Words. Such for instance are the Substantives Lie, A form, figure, body, (English -ly) ; Sum, A part, or portion of a thing; Fyll {plenitudo), The fill, plenty (English -full). Examples, God, God God-lie, Godlike. Freo, A Lord Freo-lic,/ree. 1 I question the propriety of doubling the final consonant in this and similar words. ANGLO SAXON. 197 Wynne, pleasure Winsum, pleasing. Woh, woe Woh-full, injurious . Tung, tongue Tung-full, loquacious. Weorc, work Weorc-sum, worksome, i. e. irksome. Bug-an, To bow Boc-sum, flexible, obedient, buxom. Other terminations, too, there were used by the Anglo Saxon, which, as they have transmitted no descendants to us, we need not stop to mention here. 1 Of course the method of analysis, or synthesis we rather ought to say, which we have briefly applied to the construction of the Substautive, the Verb, and the Adjective, is capable of a much more extended application. But we have pursued this subject far enough for our present purpose. We are making no new discoveries. All we have said, and very much more we might say, has been known for years. Our object is simply to afford some insight into the constructive principles of the Anglo Saxon, and thence, as a necessary consequence, of the English Language. And there are two characteristics which seem to us particularly striking in the formative processes we have been considering. These two characteristics are ceconomy and intelligence. Starting with nothing more than a few monosyllabic roots, and two, or three, primitive verbs, we have seen how the mind of man has raised a superstructure of Substantive, Verb, and Adjective ; and formed a surface, as it were, capable of receiving every impress, and registering the most varied conceptions of which that mind was capable. When we see for ourselves how replete with meaning, how full of life and individuality words become when 1 The Saxon termination -fsest, has, however, transmitted two which have been already noticed. They are Stafcol-fsest, steadfast, and Scam-faest, shamefast. 198 ITS VALUE AS A REFEltEE. considered from this primaeval point of view, it is no longer difficult to credit the assertion, that there is not in language, — that is in language where the plastic moulding of the mind has not been defaced by subse- quent catastrophe, — that there is not in such language anything arbitrary, or any such thing as capricious usage. Yet who dare assert this of our own language, or indeed of half the languages of southern Europe ? Would the Eng- lish of to day, bear the rigid test which the Anglo Saxon will sustain with such unflinching firmness? Certainly not. Yet still it is possible, by recurring to the source whence so many of our words and terminations have sprung, to restore to them some portion of the life and vitality they have now lost. And be it observed, that the Anglo Saxon is the only source whence we can derive information on these and kindred points ; and be it further observed, that when once words and terminations have lost the in- telligent spirit, which at first called into being and ani- mated them, from that time forth, the tie which coupled them with, and, when pronounced, recalled a particular emotion of the mind, is dissevered ; henceforth they be- come, to all intents and purposes, mere arbitrary sounds, significant indeed to the ear, and, for a while it may be, suggestive of the same emotion as before to the mind, but fluctuating in their character, and uncertain in their mean- ing, because the clue which alone could conduct us aright has been dropped. The immense majority of Saxon words in the English language has been referred to ad nauseam, and it may perhaps be considered superfluous to call atten- tion to those few unhappy remnants of Inflexion and Syntax to which we are still pleased to assign the name of English Grammar. If we do so, it is merely to point out, that these remains are of a strictly Anglo Saxon character. Indeed, it seems a remarkable fact, that when our lan- guage was swarming with French words, and our country with Frenchmen— no not Frenchmen — that our English should be so remarkably free from French inflexion, or construction ; so free, indeed, that we cannot call to mind a single instance of either. THEN, THERE, ETC. 199 After the complaint of Robert Holcot, that it was the custom for children in those days 1 first to learn French, and from the French the Latin language, this seems very strange. Yet it is no more strange than true. And here we have a strong argument too in favour of the Anglo Saxon over every other language ; because it gives us the key to our own Syntax and Grammatical con- struction, and affords us a full and entire view of that symmetrical structure, of which the English Language can only be considered the decayed and dismantled ruins. Neither French, nor Latin are of any assistance to us in this respect; German, it is true, is much more so, though the claims of German are not to be compared with those of the Anglo Saxon. Consider for a moment the words Then, There, When, Where, Wherefore, &c. Will French, or Latin (or even the German directly) assist us at all in investigating the nature and meaning of these words ? And what say our Grammarians ? Oh ! they call them Adverbs of time, or place; or Inter- rogatives, or something else equally vague, but equally useful and effective in concealing their own ignorance. While the fact is, that these words are as definite in their nature, and concise in their meaning, as the Latin correlatives Eo, here, In that place ; Qua, (sc. parte) Where ; Quare, Wherefore ; &c. There, is nothing more than the regular dative of the Article, or relative pronoun, we have already had 1 Namely, at the beginning of the Eeign of Edward III. the following passage, on the education of children in England, is taken from Trevisa's Translation of " Hygden's Polychronicon :" " Children in Scole against the usage and maner of all other nations beeth compelled for to leve hire owne langage and for to construe hir lessons, and hire thynges in Erenche: and so they have sethe Normans came first into Engelond. Also gentilemen children beeth taught to speke Erensche from the time that they bith rokked in hire cradell and kunneth speke and play with a childes broche. And uplondissche men will likne himself to gentylmen, and fondeth with greet besynesse for to speke Erensche to be told of. This manner was moche used to for first deth (time) and is sith some dele changed. So that now the year of our Lord a thousand thre hundred and four score and five, and of the second Kyng Richard after the Conquest nyne and in alle grammere scoles in Englond children lereth Erensche and eenstrueth." 200 THEN, THERE, ETC. occasion to notice in the chapter on than, and was originally used, not alone, but in conjunction with the substantive Stowe, A place, just as the Latin Eo was with Loco. And "j?8ere stowe" exactly corresponded to the Latin Eo loco, in that place. Then, when by frequent use and for the sake of brevity, the Stowe in the former, and the Loco in the latter were dropped, we have left the two Relative Pronouns " ^aere" in the Saxon {There, English,) and Eo in the Latin. And so, had we time, it would be easy to show, that the other words of this class are equally definite in their meaning and construction. 1 But, indeed, it is not one class of words alone but the whole language, more or less, which has suffered, and still suffers from our neglect. Words are but the paintings of the mind, and like other paintings they are liable to become obscured by neglect and time. Yet, to take down these pictures from the dark corners where they have been too long suspended, to brush away the cobwebs, to remove from them some of the dust and dirt of ages, and bid them stand out from the canvass with somewhat of their old expression and vivacity, seems to be one of the highest aims of practical philology. For the sake of illustration, we have gathered a few miscellaneous words together, whose meaning seems to receive fresh light by referring them to their Anglo Saxon sources. 1 It is more than probable, that what we are now compelled to call the definite Article, in such constructions as "the more the merrier," is in reality the Ablative, or Instrumental case of the same pronoun Se, Seo, )>oet, and corresponds exactly to the use of quo eo in similar constructions. " The second condition of veray confession is, that it be hastily done : for oertes, if a man hadde a dedly wound ever the lenger that he taried to warishe himself, the more wold it corrupt and haste him to his deth, and also the wound wold be the werse for to hole." The Fersones Tale. EXAMPLES. WOMAN, WORLD. 201 A. S. Wif, 1 a Woman, a Female, Wife. This word in the Anglo Saxon had a much wider application than it has in English. It was in fact a feminine affix, used to denote the female gender. Ac- cordingly, we find Wifcild, i. e. A female child, a girl, Wifeynn, The female kind, Wiflac, Matrimony, as well as Wifmann; i. e. A female specimen of the Human species, (Fcemina homo) whence by contraction comes the word Woman. In the Anglo Saxon, however, Wif- mann signified, not only A woman, but also a Lay Person who was permitted to marry. A. S. Wer, (Lat. Vir), a Man, still enters into the composition of the following words : — Canterbury, i.e. A. S. Cantwaraburh, The town of the men of Kent. Wer-wolf, The man-wolf, or devil. World, The world, 1 An age, or generation of men. A. S. How- an, To row. Ro$er, An oar. From the latter of these comes the word Rudder, that part by which a ship is steered. How it has come to have this signification is fully explained by its own ety- 1 Some of the German writers on Anglo Saxon ignore the letter W, and write V in its place. Yet, it should seem they are scarcely justified in doing so, unless, indeed, as is not likely, they pronounce the V like our W. We cannot but think, that the pronunciation of our provincial English must be a surer guide to the pronunciation of Anglo Saxon, than that of the present High German spoken on the continent. 1 Qui cum viro aliquo una eodem tempore vivunt. — Ettmuller, sub voce. 202 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS mology, and by the fact, that the earliest method of steering ships was by means of the oars (for I believe there were two) placed near the stern of the vessel. A. S. Stig, A way, A path. Stig-an, 1 To ascend. Hence are derived, Stair or Stairs, from Anglo Saxon Stae'ger, A step, degree. Stee, the provincial word for, A ladder. Stile, Anglo Saxon Stigel, A step, a ladder. Stirrup, from the combination of the above root Stig with the Anglo Saxon Rap, a rope. A stirrup, there- fore, is nothing more than a Stee-rope, or ladder of rope, for the purpose of ascending the saddle. But, indeed, there is no occasion to go so far back as the Anglo Saxon Stig-rap. In the " Romance of King Richard/' the word occurs in a form but slightly different : " In his shield verament Was paynted a serpent, Wyth the spere that Richard held. He bare him thorugh under his shelde, Non of hys armour might him last, Brydell and peytrell all to-braste, Hys gyrthes and his steropes also. Hys mare to ground whent tho." A. S. Georn, Eager, anxious. Geornian, To desire. Hence have descended to us, Earnest, which is merely the Saxon Geornest, that is, the superlative of the above Adjective; and the verb To yearn, or long for. A. S. Gise, Gese, Yes. According to Ettmuller, this particle of affirmation is composed of the Anglo Saxon Gea, Even so, and Si, Let 1 See also " Tooke's Diversions of Purley," p. 509. DISC OVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON CORN, FINGER, ETC. 203 it be. Yes, therefore, implies assent, not from any arbi- trary usage, or conventional signification, but because it contains within itself the true condition of assent. A. S. Ceosan, To choose. Corn, Anglo Saxon Corn, i.e. the Past Participle of the above Verb Cor en, Chosen. Corn, therefore implies by its very name that part of the plant which is chosen, or separated from the straw and chaff. Cyrnel, is probably a verbal derivative from the same source and with the same meaning as Corn. A. S. Fangan or Fo'n, To take, Seize, Receive, Undertake. The following important words seem undoubtedly connected with Fangan, or Fo'n, To take: Finger, Anglo Saxon Finger; that is, the part which takes or receives a thing. Fang, Anglo Saxon Fang, A taking, or grasp. This word, however, may perhaps be the root of the verb itself. Although one feels strongly inclined to look to this verb as that from which we have derived the word faith, we fear the objections against such a derivation are too strong to be overcome. Mr. Home Tooke, indeed, attempted long ago to set the matter at rest, but his theory, though plausible enough, in outward appearance, will be found to fail when put to the test. He says iC Faith, Anglo Saxon Fasg$ — That which one covenant- ed or engageth. It is the third person singular of the indicative of Fagan, Pangere, Pagere, To engage, To cov- enant, To contract^ Unfortunately for Mr. Tooke the only meaning of Fseg$, or Fgehft, (for it is written in 201 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS both ways) in the Anglo Saxon is A feud, or quarrel, and is a derivative, not of the verb Faegan, 1 To plant, To fix, but of Fian, To hate, which is also, as Mr Tooke has shown, connected with Fiend, Anglo Saxon Feond, and Foe, Anglo Saxon Fah, the former being the Present Participle, the latter the Past Tense of the same verb. Indeed, the verb Faegan has not produced any verbal substantive in -3. And the same objection lies against looking for a solution to the verb Fo'n, To take ; because neither has thus transmitted a Substantive, which, either in sound or meaning, could possibly have given birth to the word Faith. If the Anglo Saxon Fset Pater noster, nu we wyllaft secgan eow >one geleafan \>e on >am Credan stent, swa swa se wisa Augustinus, be J?sere Halgan >rynnysse trahtaode." Homilies of Mlfric. De fide Catholicd. DISCOVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON. — HAND, HOUND, ETC. 205 Handle, (A. S. handel), that by which a thing is handled. Hunter, (A. S. hunta), verbal substantive in -a, (sig- nifying An agent, or actor), one who takes prey by pursuit. For the same reason, Hound, (A. S. hund), a dog which takes prey by running it down, is so called. 1 A. S. Here, An army. We have already had occasion to notice this word as entering into the composition of Harbour, and Harbinger. Besides these, however, and another of its compounds, Herepath, (A. S. Herepse^S, An army -path), which survives only as a family name, there is another interesting little word which hence derives its origin. 1 Although we can quote no authorities in favour of such an hypo- thesis it seems far from improbable that the Anglo Saxon and Mseso- Gothic hund, A hundred, is also connected with this family of words. And what seems rather to make in favour of this supposition, is the peculiar use of the word in Anglo Saxon and Gothic computations. The Saxons prefixed this word hund to numerals, from 70 to 120. The Goths postfixed the same word. Thus, after sixtig, sixty, the Saxons wrote hund- seofontig, seventy, &c. up to HUNDtwelftig, a hundred and twenty. Both Junius and Ettmuller think the word hund a mere expletive, yet may it not rather indicate the method by which the Saxons performed their arithmetical calculations, namely, by their hands and fingers ? The number ten of the fingers (for the thumb, if our derivation be correct, is also a finger) is generally allowed to account for the universal prevalence of the denary scale of notation, we surely, then, cannot be surprised if we find the word hand occurring also. If we suppose the hand to have been closed when the first ten was completed, and as indeed its probable Ety- mology from A. S. Ty'nan, To shut, or close, renders it easy to do, and a finger of the other open hand to have been successively bent to denote each successive ten, and then this hand itself to have been entirely closed to denote the last, or seventh ten, (or some similar process adopted), we shall then perhaps, be better able to understand why hund was prefixed to numerals from 70 to 120, and also why hundred (100) being the tens marked, or reckoned by the closing of the five digits on both hands, is so called. But of course this is hypothetical. 206 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS The Herring is only the Anglo Saxon Hering, 1 that is, the Shoal, or Army fish, because it is accustomed to swim in large shoals. Here then we may learn a lesson in Natural History, as well as in Etymology. Lisan, To trace, To apprehend, To know. (Secutus, Consecutus sum, Accepi Scio. 2 ) The past participle of this verb, Lisen, by the change of s into r becomes liren. Hence we have obtained the following words : Lore, A. S. L&r, doctrine, instruction ; Last, A cobbler's last, (A. S. Last, A trace, A footstep). So, then, even the cobbler's Last has a meaning of its own, and is not without reason applied to denote the foot- model so necessary to the shoe-maker. Indeed, the very name of shoe-maker in the Anglo Saxon is Last-wyrhta, i.e. Last-worker. Often as we had heard of the cobbler's last we are not ashamed to confess, that it was a mere sound, whose very object was unknown to us, until it sprung into life an Anglo Saxon word. Are we alone in this respect? There is another old Verb which may properly come under our notice here. It is now obsolete, and would, perhaps, be scarcely deserving of notice were it not that another Verb, still in common use, is, or rather has been, liable to be confounded with it. We mean the verb To lere, (Anglo Saxon Lser-an, To teach). This verb, being formed regularly, according, to the law of Saxon verbal formation, as already indicated, namely, from Lar, Doctrine, Instruction, and one of the primitive verbs, must and did in the Saxon signify To give instruction, To teach. The root of the second verb Leorn-ian, which enters also into the com- position of Leorn-ere, A learner, or scholar, and Leornung, Learning, is undoubtedly connected with Lar, Doctrine, 1 The aptitude of the name must at once commend itself to anyone, who has had the good fortune of being out at sea, when the herrings were on the water. 2 These are the meanings which Ettmiiller attaches to the word. It is somewhat difficult to render them accurately and yet intelligibly in English. DISCOVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON. LORE, ETC. 207 Instruction ; but the Verb Leom-ian, which is formed from it, signifies the act of obtaining instruction, in contradistinc- tion to that of imparting it. Even in Chaucer's time, both these verbs were used, though it should seem indifferently, and without a just appreciation of their different meanings, as the following passage will show : — " This cursed craft whoso wol exercise, He shal no good have, that him may suffice, For all the good he spendeth thereaboute He lesen shal, therof have I no doute. Whoso that listeth uttren his folie, Let him come forth and lernen multiplie : And every man that hath ought in his cofre, Let him appere and wex a philosophre, Ascaunce that craft is so light to lere. Nay, nay, God wot, al be he monk or frere, Preest, or chanon, or any other wight, Though he sit at his book both day and night In lerning of this elvish nice lore, All is in vain, and parde mochel more To lerne a lewed man this subtiltee." The Chanon Yemannes Tale. In this short quotation, the verb To learn, seems used for both To learn, and To teach ; and not only so, but the Verb To lere seems to have dropped its true signification of teaching, and to be used in the same loose way as the verb To learn. 1 In the "Vision of Piers Ploughman," however, the dis- tinction between the two verbs To lere, and To learn, is somewhat more carefully preserved ; though even at this early date the Verb To learn, seems to have been used to signify either To lere, (i. e. To teach), or To learn. Thus, in the following passage : — " ' I shal cessen of my sowyng,' quod Piers, And swynke noght so harde Ne about my bely joye, So bisy be na-more; And but if Luc lye, 1 Cf. in French the use of Apprendre. Apprenez-vous le Franqais ? Do you learn French ? II m' apprend a lire. He teaches (learns) me to read. Though Fnseigner is more correct and usual than Apprendre in the latter sense. H. N. 208 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS He lereth us by foweles; 1 We sholde noght be to bisy About the worldes blisse ; * * * * 'What,' quod the preest to Perkyn, 1 Peter ! as me thynketh, Thou art lettred a litel: — Who lerned thee on boke?'" Piers tells us how Grace gave each man some gift to guide himself wherewith, " That ydelnesse encombre bym noght, envye ne pride." He says : "And some he lered to laboure, A lele 2 life and a trewe ; And some he taughte to tilie, To dyche and to thecche, To wynne with her 3 liilode Bi loore 4 of his teehynye." "And some he lered to lyve In longynge to ben hennes ; 5 In poverte and in penaunce, To preie for alle Cristene, And all he lered to be lele, And ech a craft love ootlier." But the verb To lere, is now entirely obsolete, and pro- bably, has been so for a great length of time. The use of its survivor, the verb To learn, is now pretty clearly denned, though it would appear that it has only recently become so. In the Prayer Book version of the Psalms, it frequently occurs in the sense of teaching. Thus, in Psalm xxv. 8, " Such as are gentle them shall he learn his way." Psalm cxix. 66, "O learn me true understanding and knowledge." 6 1 The fowles of the air. 8 Loyal. 3 Their. * Lore. 5 Hence. 6 I have not found any instances of this usage in our authorized Version; so that it would appear the error was discovered and rectified previous to the publication of that Version about the year a.d. 1611. DISCOVERED BY THE ANG. SAX. BOOK, YULE, &C. 209 Hornet is the A. S. Hyrnet, i. e. Hyrn-ed, The horned one. Beech, booh. Both these words spring from the same Anglo Saxon root Boce or Bece, A beech tree. Here again Philology becomes our instructor, not in natural history this time, but in the manners and customs of our early ancestors. It teaches us in a word, that the first Booh was the Beech Tree; that on its bark, or on tablets made out of its trunk, our ancestors were in the habit of incising their rude Staves or Runes, long before the letters of Greece and Rome became known to them, or, perhaps, even before those letters were invented. The simple connection of these two words is sufficient to tell us all this, even had we no other direct testimony, and even had not the Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished about the 12th century of this era, spoken of "letters carved on wood." 1 Threshold. Anglo Saxon ]?aersc-wald (Wald, or Weald, Wood.) It is less easy to discover not the meaning, but the rationale of the word Threshold. What is the story of its formation, and why is it so called? Assuming the above Etymology to be correct, what should it indicate or imply? The Saxon Verb J?aersc-an signifies To beat, To strike, To thrash, To hnoch at. Does the Thresh-old, the Thrash-wood, then, mean the wood which must be knocked at in order to obtain admission into the house ? If not, what does it mean ? Yule is the Geol, or Merry Feast of our Saxon ancestors, so called from Gal, merry, pleasant, &c. The same word, slightly modified, was used by them to denote the months answering to our December and January. The former was called, " Se ae'ra Geola," The first Yule ; the latter, " Se aeftera Geolu," The after, or second Yule. r Literas ligno insculptas secum portarunt." Sax. Gramm. in. p. 52. P 210 WEDLOCK — FARM WELKIN. Wedlock. I much doubt whether the composition and meaning of this word are understood by half who use it. As the Saxon Wed-lac, compounded of the Substan- tives Wed, A pledge, promise, or agreement, and Lac, A gift, it signified first, and literally, A pledge-gift (pignus faederis) and was used, not in the narrow and contracted way it now is, to designate the matrimonial pledge, but way plight or treaty. So says Chaucer in the " Knightes Tale i" " Let liirn beware his nekke lieth to uedde." That is if Arcite were found, " ever in his lif, by day or night o stound in any countrie of this Theseus" his nekke would be forfeited in consequence. Farm. Here we have a word so simple and so common, that we should be ashamed to notice it, were it not that its original signification, and the reason of its present application seem to have been forgotten. Farm is the Anglo Saxon Feorm, 1 food, provision. The Saxon verb, Feormian, whence comes our verb To farm, signified To procure food, To feed, To support, To entertain. From this its original signification it is easy to conceive how its second arose ; — how, from being used to denote food, support, &c, it afterwards came to denote An establish- ment on which food of various kinds is raised. Welkin. We have a faint recollection of reading somewhere in Lucretius how that the term Universe first came to designate the heaven with all its starry multitude, from the supposition, that by one turn, or revolution, every point in it was successively brought before the gaze of the observer. If so, then the word welkin is very similar in its construction to the word Universe. The Saxon Wealc, signifies A revolving, or revolution of the heavenly bodies, and the verb Wealcan, making the past participle Wealcen, signifies To turn, revolve, roll. 1 Connected probably with Anglo Saxon Feorh, life. CONCLUSION. 211 Welkin (Anglo Saxon wolken), therefore, simply means, that which is rolled over our heads, whether as applied to the clouds only, or, more generally, to the whole visible area of heaven. Such are a few of the words we have stumbled across, whose early history and true meaning seem to have become buried in oblivion. We forbear to pursue the enquiry further, not because examples and instances are wanting, — for our whole language abounds with them, — but because our object is simply to call attention to the importance of this subject, to illustrate it further by a few examples to the point, but by no means to ex- haust the subject, or to diminish either the obligation, or the interest attaching to a personal investigation. When a people, who have once possessed a language of their own, and that language too, as was the case with the Anglo Saxons, of a very early type and pure origin, are called to pass through an ordeal so severe as that which it was the lot of this country to pass through, in consequence of the Norman Invasion, it can excite but little astonish- ment that results of the most vital importance, both to the people and their language, ensue. And the case before us forms no exception to this general rule. As regards the people, history speaks in a voice of thrilling interest, in tones which cannot fail to excite in the breast of every impartial man amongst us, be he Norman, or Saxon, an agony of sympathy for the sufferers, and of indignation at the profound injustice and inhuman barbarity of their oppressors — whom it were shame to call conquerors. And, as regards their language, there needs not the testimony of history to inform us, for itself is its own chronicler. The effect of that terrible ordeal was as it were to ossify, or convert it to stone. As it entered, so, indeed, in the main as to external form did it emerge. But how changed in other respects ! Its vitality destroyed, its animation suspended, its delicate machinery broken and deranged ; in a word, the spirit 212 CONCLUSION. had fled from the body it had formerly quickened, and left it deserted and lifeless. Words which before had been instinct with life, nay, glowing with their early force of meaning, were now mere sounds, depending for their very existence and meaning on the thin superficial soil of diurnal usage. And so have they continued even up to our own time. No satisfactory attempt has as yet been made to catch up again the clue which has so long lain unheeded at our feet, or to restore to the body of our language that intelligent spirit by which it was formerly animated. Yet the body is there, and the limbs are there, only the soul is wanting to quicken and make them live again. Surely it is not the part of an intelligent people to treat this subject any longer with such apathetic indiffer- ence; — a people who, like ourselves, have been called by Eternal Providence to occupy so high a place in the scale of nations, and discharge so many a heaven-sent task in civilizing and christianizing the world; — a people endowed with energy, which has carried them to the frozen north and the torrid belt, and, whithersoever it has carried them, has earned for them a name of glory and renown, until at length their home may be said to be not so much England as the world at large. If, indeed, il the welfare of the coming world is now the proper care of the Anglo Saxon race/' 1 then at least the duty is incumbent on us to make the language of the coming world our proper care also. We must not forget, that still to the old mother country will the eyes of our children in every foreign land be turned for their patterns of excellence and truth in speaking and writing the English language. Surely, then, we cannot be too jealous of its integrity, nor bestow too much pains in increasing its intelligence and preserving its force and accuracy. There seems to us but one way in which this can be effectually and certainly done, and that way is by keeping our eyes steadily fixed on the great model of our language, the Anglo Saxon. 1 " The West Indies and the Spanish Main." By Anthony Trollope, p. 85. CONCLUSION. 213 But, if after all the importance of this subject fail to receive public recognition, and be left as heretofore to the regard of private and adult individuals only, then all hope of national progress must for the present be abandoned. The time, we feel assured, will come, sooner or later, when we shall look back with wonder and with shame on the hollow disregard wherewith we are now treating our own language. If on the contrary the time has now arrived, when we are prepared to admit the national importance of in- creased attention to the study of Auglo Saxon, not so much, perhaps, on its own account as on its intimate bear- ing on the language we speak and write, then the plan we would humbly advocate is, that the study of Anglo Saxon be introduced into our public and private schools as soon as possible ; that there, it should form the first language, after the rudiments of English are acquired, to which the attention of pupils is directed. It should be looked upon not as a fresh study, nor yet the study of a foreign language, but as a continuation of the study of English, and as the means — the only means — whereby a sound and accurate knowledge of the same may be obtained. It should be allowed to take the precedence, not only of the modern languages, which are so called, but also, as by its antiquity, the peculiar nature of its consti- tution and the purity of its origin it is so well calculated to do, of the languages of Greece and Rome. Its inflections being more perfectly developed than in the English, it admits of a more perfectly organized syntax, and a greater choice in arrangement than is the case with English com- position. In these respects, too, which it may be observed are merely supplemental to its grand object, it is admirably adapted to form a stepping stone — to abridge the wide chasm — between English and the still more elaborate and complicated structures of the Latin and Greek languages. APPENDICES. Page 34. Verbal Substantives. Vebbal Substantives are of two kinds,* those formed from the third person singular of the present, or indefinite lense of the Indicative Mood, and those from the past participle, Anglo Saxon verbs have but two tenses, the Indefinite and the Definite. The Indefinite, as the name implies, does not define any particular time, Avhether present, or future, but may refer to either ; accordingly, there is no future tense in the Anglo Saxon, nor. is there any, properly speaking, in English verbs, though we have got into the habit of supposing there is. "I will love" is nothing more than " I wish to love" I will, being the first person singular Indefinite, or Present Indicative of the Saxon verb Willan, To Wish, or Will, which makes its definite or past tense Wolde, thus also giving us the auxiliary would, as in "7 would love." So also the forms shall, should, are nothing more than the Indefinite, or present, and the Definite, or past, tenses of the Saxon verb Sceal, I must, I ought, I am obliged, frequently followed by -an Infinitive Mood, which in English escapes our notice when To, the only sign which distinguishes the Infinitive from the Indicative Mood, is omitted, as it frequently is. " I shall love," is simply " I must love." Neither was there a Passive Voice in Anglo Saxon any more than there is in English at the present day. The Anglo Saxons wrote " he is lufod." But he is is only the Indicative Mood Indefinite tense of the neuter verb Wesan, To be, and Lufod is the past participle of the active verb Lufian, To love. It may be very convenient to say, that " I may be loved" is the Poten- tial Mood Passive Voice of the verb "to be loved"; but it is nothing of the kind. The Saxons would have written it thus " Ic mseg beon lufod," where "Ic mseg," I may, would be properly referred to the verb Magan, To be able, (making its past tense Mihte, might) ; Beon would be the Infinitive Mood governed by Mseg, and Lufod, as before, the past participle of the verb Lufian, To love. The Definite Tense defines past time. Anglo Saxon Verbs, though they might almost be called English, are divided into two classes, Regular and Irregular. The Regular verbs form the past tense and the past participle in the same manner as our own regular verbs, such as To love, which makes the past tense and the past participle loved. 216 VERBAL DERIVATIVES. BREAD. The Irregular verbs form the past tense by a change in the vowel of the root; and the past participle of these verbs end in en instead of ed; as Sine-an, (root, sing.), past tense Sang ; past participle Gesung-en ; or, in English, sing, sang, sung. With regard to the personal terminations of Anglo Saxon verbs it will be sufficient for our present purpose to say, that generally speaking, the third person singular of the Present or Indefinite Tense ends in $ : and hence are supposed to arise that large class of Anglo Saxon and English Substantives, which like mirth, birth, filth, are of such constant use. Scarcely less numerous, or important, are those substantives which have been derived from the various forms of the past participle. I have collected a few of them by way of example only, as it would occupy far too much space to attempt to do more. Bread. Broth. Cloth. The Saxon verb Breowan, or Briwan, To brew, gives us from the third person Singular of the Indefinite Indicative the Anglo Saxon Substantive BroS, 1 English Broth; and from the past participle (though not the regular past participle, which is Browen, but with participial ending ed) the Anglo Saxon Substantive Bread, English, Bread. It is strange that, while Mr. Home Tooke derives Broth from this verb, of Bread he says " it is the past participle of the verb to Bray (French, Broyer), i. e. To pound, or To beat to pieces : and the subandition is corn, or grain, or any other similar substances, such as chestnuts, acorns, &c." But this is both absurd and incorrect. It is absurd, because we know that the Anglo Saxon word Bread could not be derived from the verb To Bray, (French, Broyer), To pound, inasmuch as the word Bread was in existence in England, long before To bray was an English verb ; and being absurd, it must be incorrect. Indeed, the verb To bray, coming to us as it does through the French Broyer, has a Celtic origin, and it is a sheer impossi- bility that the Anglo Saxon word Bread can be referred to it. Mr. Tooke's very ingenuity is too much for him, and frequently, instead of assisting, only betrays him into error. Surely he could not have known, or, if he knew, could not have thought of the Saxon word (for such we may call it) Bread, when he made this wonderful discovery. For had he known it, he must have seen, that the onus of his task still rested upon him. 1 Cf. with Broth and Malt the word meltith in the following passage : " If ye be thinking of the wreck wood that the callants brought in yesterday, there was six unces of it gaed to boil your parritch this morning, though I trow a carefu' man wad have ta'en drammock, if breakfast he behoved to have, rather than waste baith meltith and fuel in the same morning." The Pirate, vol. i. p. 95. VERBAL DERIVATIVES. CLOTH. 217 Iii nothing is speculation more unsafe and deceptive than in Etymology. True, the temptation is sometimes a strong one to connect words together, and thence to seek an explanation, on the ground of mere similarity of sound. Yet the principle is a false one, and will generally lead to false results, or, at best, results on which no real dependence can be placed. In Etymological, as in every other branch of investigation, there are certain rules to regulate the enquiry, which can on no account be violated without fatal consequences. In many of his derivations Mr. Tooke appears to ignore the fact, though it is he himself who asserts it, that English is essentially and substantially Anglo Saxon, and to have prosecuted his labours, the great value of which no one can for a moment deny, too much under the impression that English dates only from the time it has been spoken. I shall give one more example by way of illustration, for the subject is one extensive enough to fill a whole volume, and this I shall take from the Anglo Saxon Yerb Hlid-an, To cover. This Yerb, of which the root is Anglo Saxon Hlid, 1 A lid, or Cover, makes the past participle Gehlidad, or Gehlyd, Covered. This word, slightly altered in spelling (Gehleod), signified in Anglo Saxon, A vault as of the heavens, from which, with some slight alteration of meaning, perhaps might come the English word Cloud. Mr. Tooke, indeed, would derive, not Cloud only, but those similarly sounding words, Glade, Mot, Lot, also, from this Yerb, Hlidan, or its compounds. Without absolutely denying that such is really the case, we would say, that Mr. Tooke brings forward nothing to support his hypothesis beyond mere conjecture. While he was on the subject, he might as well have included Blood amongst the rest (for it is at least probable that Blot and Blood were the same word originally), and we could as readily have believed him. With the exception of Lid and Lot, which really were Anglo Saxon words with the same meaning as they now bear, there is not an iota of evidence to show that these words are derived from the Anglo Saxon Hlidan, To cover; and it is by no means certain even that the Anglo Saxon word Hlot (sors), English Lot, is so derived. But there is another Anglo Saxon word Gehlifc, A covering, which is unquestionably a derivative from this Yerb, Hlidan, To cover. And this word it was, I suspect, which the Saxons afterwards contracted into the monosyllable Cla$, which is nothing more nor less than our English Cloth. So then, following out the analogy of Yerbal Substantives in ft(th), Cloth is no arbitrary word, with a mere conventional and usual meaning, but one 1 A compound of this word Hlid, amongst the Saxons, was Hlid-geat, A postern-gate, A back-door. — Query: Is Ludgate a corruption of this compound? 218 VERBAL DERIVATIVES HELM, HOLSTER, HELL, &C. for whose formation the very best of reasons can be given ; namely, that it essentially denotes that which clotheth, or cover eth, the body. But, indeed, the Verb, Hlidan, might almost be called an English word, since it occurs so late at any rate as the 14th Century. In Adam Davie's " Life of Alexander," unless we are mistaken, a corrupt form of the Anglo Saxon Verb, Hlidan, occurs : " Hire yalewe har (hair) was fayre attired, Mid rich strenge of golde wyred (twisted), It helyd hire abouten al To hire gentil myddle smal. Bright and shine was hir face Everie fairehede in her was." In this charming description of Dame Olympias, helyd is certainly to be referred to the above Yerb, Hlidan, or else to the Anglo Saxon Verb with the same meaning, Helan, To cover, from which also have descended such a numerous progeny. Let us consider for a moment what words this Anglo Saxon Verb, Helan, To hide, or cover, has bequeathed to us. This Verb, then, produced : (a) A. S. Helm, Something that covers. Hence we have obtained, 1. Helm, or helmet, That which covers the head. Again, as applied to trees, the A. S. Helm, signified the foliage, or covering. Hence, I suppose, 2. Haulm, or Halm; and 3. The Holme, or evergreen oak. (b) A. S. Hoi, A hiding place, cavern, den ; whence descend 4. Hole and Hollovj. (c) A. S. Holt, A covered place. Hence, 5. Holt, as Osier holt. (d) A. S. Heolster, A hiding place, a cave. Hence, 6. Holster, A cover, or case for a horseman's pistol. (e) A. S. Hule, The husk, or covering of anything, as of corn. Hence, 7. Hull (of a vessel). (/) A. S. Hell, A concealed place; also, used by the Anglo Saxons to denote, The grave. Hence, 8. Hell. Berne, Barn} Page 36. Earlier forms of this word are Beren, Berern, that is Bere-ern. Now Bere-ern is an Anglo Saxon word, compounded of Bere, Barley, and Em, or jErn, A place, A closet. 1 I forget whether Mr. Tooke's derivation of Barn from Bar-en, (the p. p. of the Verb To Bar) i.e. A place barred up to keep thieves, 8{c. out, has been noticed. Of course it is quite unnecessary to ofler any comment upon it. BERE, BIRTH, BARN, BARM, BEER, &C. 219 Bere x , or Barley, was a grain much grown by our Saxon Ancestors in England : we read, of the Bere-hlaf, or Barley-loaf, but not of Wheat-loaf. And I suspect its evident connexion with the Anglo Saxon verb Beran, To produce, To bear (and afterwards) To excel, is to be traced to the fact, that Bere, or Barley, was that produce of the earth on which our Ancestors mainly depended for their sustenance. It makes no essential difference to our present investigation, whether we assume the above word Bere, or with Dr. Bosworth the Eranco-Theotisc Bar, Fruit, Any produce of the earth, to be the root of the Anglo-Saxon verb Beran. Undoubtedly, if Bere and Bar be not the same word, one of them is the root, and it matters not which. The following words, then, Anglo Saxon and English, constitute the members of this family. (a) Verbal Derivatives from the Anglo Saxon verb Ber-an, To bear, produce, carry. 1. Birth, Anglo Saxon Ber5, third person Singular, A bringing forth. 2. Beam, 2 Anglo Saxon Beam, One born, A child. Erom this word according to Wachter is derived 3. Baron. 4. Barm, or Yeast; that which is borne up, Anglo Saxon Bearme. 5. Bier, Anglo Saxon Bser, A portable bed. 6. Bird, 3 (perhaps). Anglo Saxon Brid, the young of any animal. (6) Anglo Saxon and English words connected with Bere, Barley. 1. Bam, Anglo Saxon Bern, i. e. Bere-sern, A storehouse, or recep- tacle for Barley ; iErn, signifying A place. 2. Barton, Anglo Saxon Bere-tun, in connexion with Anglo Saxon Tun, An enclosure; similarly we have Berwic in connexion with VFic, A dwelling. 3. Beer, Anglo Saxon Beor, 4. Berry, Anglo Saxon Berie. 1 " Now good be gracious to us," said Triptolemus, as he sate thumbing his old school copy of Virgil, ".here is a pure day for the bear seed." Pirate, vol. I. p. 83. 2 Also written "Bern." Thus in the " Pirate," "He remarked moreover that the hern preferred home-brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never quitted hold of the tankard with so much reluctance as when there had been by some man- oeuvre of Jasper's own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the brewing, &c." Vol. i. p. 67. 3 This is Dr. Bosworth' s derivation, but, if Bird and Brood were originally the same word, then we must refer both, as Breed also, to the verb Brceden, To hatch. 4 Though there are several towns in England of this name, there is one on the south shore of the Humber in North Lincolnshire, through which the great North Street passes, famous to this day as a corn growing district. 220 STRENGTH, MOULD. The Anglo Saxon word .Era, of which together with Bere Barn is compounded, enters into the composition of a few other words. Dom-ern, with the Anglo Saxons, signified A place of Judgment ; Carc-ern, A prison, or place of care, x i. e. trouble and labour. It is supposed to survive in the English words Northern, Southern, &c, with the signification of towards the North, South, &c. Strong, Strength. Page 46. Neither is Strong the past participle, nor is Strength the third singular of the Verb, To siring. This method of deriving Saxon words from English Verbs, is highly reprehensible. It cannot be denied that the Verb To string, did at one time make its past participle Strong, which is only another form of Strung ; but from this mere outward resemblance, to assert, that hence is derived the Adjective Strong, is simply childish. If the Adjective Strong is the past participle of the Verb, To string, to what must the Saxon word Streng, Strong, be referred ? similarly with regard to Strength, and Anglo Saxon Strengfc ? The Anglo Saxon Substantive Streng, or String, A string, produced the Verb String-an, To compress, or bind together ; thence To make strong. This Verb makes the past tense Strang, and past participle Strungen. From the former of these arose the Anglo Saxon Adjective Strang, or Strong, which is our English Adjective Strong ; while Strength is simply Anglo Saxon Strengfc, the verbal Substantive formed from the third person Sin- gular of the same verb. Mould, Mouldij. Page 53. The question of the parentage, whether Saxon, or Norman, is not very easy to decide. Mr. Tooke so rudely shakes the faith we might otherwise be inclined to repose in him, by his preposterous derivation of Malt,' 2 that it is impossible for any further remarks of his on this subject to have the weight of a straw in influencing our decision. Mr. Tyrwhitt says the word is Saxon, as it occurs in the following passages of Chaucer :— " But ike am old ; me list not play for age ; Gras time is done, my foddre is now forage. This white top writeth min olde yeres ; Min herte is also mouled as min heres." The Reves Prologue. 1 Care is the Anglo Saxon word for care ; hence the expression " carking- care," is simply a tautology. 2 See page 52. YARD, GOME;, GROOM. 221 " Let us not moulen thus in idlenesse." The Man of Lawes Prologue. Mr. Thomas Wright, on the contrary, calls the word Anglo Norman ; though on what grounds we do not know. The following passages, assuming as I think we may do, that the same root is contained both in moled and moles, would certainly point us to the Anglo Saxon Substantive Mai, A mole, spot, mark, blot. " I tooke good kepe, by Crist ! And Conscience bothe, Of Hanky n the actif man, And how he was y-clothed. He hadde a cote of Cristendom, As holy kirke bileveth ; And it was moled in many places With many sondry plottes." Then shortly after in speaking of this self-same coat— * "By Crist !" quod Conscience tho, Thi beste cote Hankyn Hath many moles and spottes, It moste ben y-wasshe." Yard of Beef. Page 96. " 1 did purpose to have fasted this morning, as well to save victuals as on a religious score ; but the blessings of the saints must not be slighted.— Sir Cook, let me have half a yard or so of broiled beef presently; bid the pantler send me a manchet, and the butler a cup of wine. I will take a running fast on the western battlements."* * " Old Henry Jenkins, in his recollections of the Abbacies before their dissolution has preserved the fact, that roast beef was delivered out to the guests, not by weight, but by measure." The Betrothed. Page 124 and Note. Gome. Page 106. Gome is clearly the Anglo Saxon word Guma, A man. But whence comes the word Groom, so much resembling it? Mr. Tooke thinks that Groom is simply a corruption of Gome ; yet, if it be, it must have been a very early one, since both the words, both Gome and Grom, occur in the " Vision of Piers Ploughman," as early as the fourteenth century : "I Gloton, quod the grom, Gilty me yelde That I have trespassed with my tonge I can noght telle how ofte." Lines, 3221—3224. 222 AUGHT, THAN. It is difficult to account for the insertion of the letter r, as it does not appear either in the Anglo Saxon, or in any of the cognate languages— the Gothic, German, Dutch, Danish, or Swedish — where we should have expected, or not have been surprised, to find it. The Anglo Saxon word corresponding to, if not identical with, the word Bride-groom, is Bry'd-gunia. Aught. Page 113. The Substantive Aught, is the Anglo Saxon A'ht, Aught, Anything, Something. The question then resolves itself into this ; what is the Anglo Saxon A'ht ? That this also is a derivative from the Verb A'gan, To Own, or Possess, is highly probable, not only because it is literally the past tense of that Yerb, A'ht, but also from the further consideration of this perfect, which in the 3rd person singular is written iEhte, appearing again as the Substan- tive A'ht, with a signification to all intents and purposes the same as that of JE'ht, Aught, namely, Property of any kind, Lands, Goods, Riches, Cattle, &c. Of course Naught is the Anglo Saxon Naht, i. e. Na-a'ht, N-a'ht, Nothing. Another example of the old meaning of the verb Aught will be found in " Red Gauntlet," Vol. II. p. 62. " God forbid Mr. Fairford ! I who have done and suffered in the forty- five ! I reckon the Highlandmen did me damage to the amount of £100. Scots, forby all they ate and drunk.— No, no, Sir ; I stand beyond challenge ; but as for plaguing myself with county business, 'let them that aught the mare shoe the mare." 5 Than. Pages 138, 146. There is no difference between than and then, except that which usage and convention have begotten. We might gather thus much even from the ambiguous usage of the two words in the Breeches Bible, and when we ascend still higher to the Anglo Saxon, the question is settled at once by their entire coincidence. The following, according to Ettinuller, are the various meanings in which this Relative Pronoun was used by the Anglo Saxons : — 1. Adverb. Tunc, Turn, Then. Example : " And >onne com J>u sifiSan and bring J?inu lac :" And then come thou afterwards and bring thy gift. 2. Conjunction : (a) Quam, Than, after a comparative. Example : " SoSlice ic secge eow. Buton eower rihtwisnys mare sy >onne J>sera writera and sundor-halgena. Na ga ge on heo- fenan rice." Matth. v. 20. " Truly, I say to you, unless your righteousness be more than (that) of the Scribes and Phari- sees " &c. THAN. 223 (b) Ergo, Antem, Igitur, Therefore. Example : " Hu mseg J>onne his rice standan." How therefore may his kingdom stand." Matth. xv. 26. (c) Nam, i^or. (d) 2%ew, in introducing a conclusion. (e) Si, J/. (/) Quando, TPAerc. Example : " Se mona hwil-tidum bonne he full byS." (g) Quam si, Than if. Example : " Hwelc is wyrsa w61 oftfte seninum men mare darn, J?onne he hsebbe feond on freondes anlicnesse." "What is a greater calamity or more mischievous to any man, than if he have an enemy in the disguise of a friend ? " Such were the meanings and uses of the word J?onne, or >enne, or >8enne, for, though spelt in all these different ways, it is still the same word amongst the Saxons. But it is more particularly its function in enabling us to com- pare one thing with another which we have now to consider, and the argu- ments which may be adduced from the analogy of other languages in defence of the theory we have already laid down. We will begin, then, by asking what is the verdict of Latin ? What is the word Quam, that word which is precisely analogous to the J?senne in the Anglo Saxon ? What is Quam, but the same case of the same Relative Pronoun; that is, the corresponding Eelative Pronoun in the Latin Tongue ? The only difference seems to be, that instead of taking the masculine gender, as was the case in the Anglo Saxon, the Latins have taken the feminine gender ; simply, no doubt, because with them the original Substantive which was afterwards dropped, was of the feminine gender. Again, is the method of instituting comparisons in the Greek language likely to assist us at all? True, it is impossible to speak with the same certainty of the nature and origin of the comparative particle v, as we can of the corresponding particles Quam and Than, in Latin and English. Yet, is it highly improbable, that even the Greek particle v, should have been, in the early period of the language, a relative Pronoun ? On this point, how- ever, we do not insist, but pass on to consider another peculiarity in the construction of comparative clauses in Latin and Greek, and even English too. Every schoolboy knows, that in the former two a comparison may be expressed by using one of the particles, Quam, or v, as the case may be, or, otherwise, by placing the second Substantive, that with which the principal Substantive is compared, in the Ablative Case in Latin, or in the Genitive case in Greek. Now what are these but Genitives, or Ablatives absolute ? Tacitus says, " Ees prosperse acriore stimulo animos explorant quam adversae ; quia miserise tolerantur felicitate corrumpimur." 224 ANGLO SAXON AND LATIN. which we may render for the sake of comparison " Prosperity tries the dis- position with a keener probe than adversity ; because the latter is endured, by the former we are corrupted." Here it will be observed, that quam adversce, exactly corresponds to than adversity, and, were we to supply, or complete the ellipsis, we should read, " Quern (for Quam) stimulum"— ">onne (for )>one) gad," — " Which probe" — Adversity tries the disposition with. Where " Quern stimulum" "^>onne (i. e. J>one) gud," and " Which probe" are ungoverned accusatives, introduced, not as Agents, but, if we may so speak, as dummies for the purpose of com- paring something else with them. But the comparison, in the Latin, might have been otherwise expressed, instead of by quam adversce, by adversis. And in that case what would adversis be but an Ablative Absolute, standing by implication for "adiiersis rebus acri stimulo animos explorantibus." Which, in reality, is only another method of introducing the dummy. And similarly, in the Greek the particle v, might have been replaced by the Genitive Abso- lute. Of course it is useless to apply to the Romance Languages for further information, as they would only dimly reflect the light already borrowed from the Latin. We may, however, observe that the Dutch Dan, and the German Denn (the Accusative Masculine of the Article, or Relative Der, Die, Das, just as J?onne is of Se, Seo, >set) afford additional strength to our arguments. It is true, there are other particles for expressing comparison, both in German and English, which, like angry creditors will not accede to the terms of our composition. Such are the German Als, and the provincial English (I scarce know how to spell the word) Nor : " He is no better nor he ought to be." What the word nor may be, and why it is thus used, I have hitherto been unable to ascertain. Anglo Saxon and Latin Words indicating original connexion. Page 181. The following examples, which seem to point clearly to the connexion between, and in some sort the common origin of, the Anglo Saxon and Latin languages, have been selected from amongst many others, and it is hoped are examples against which no objection can be urged on the score of Latin in- fluence on Anglo Saxon, posterior to the introduction of the latter into this country. We have but to remind the reader of that important principle in Phonetics, we might almost call it, which is so important an agent in diversi- fying, though in reality of shewing the connexion between apparently dif- ferent dialects, or even languages. We refer, of course, to the interchange amongst themselves respectively of the consonants which form the three principal classes of sound ; namely, the Jc, p, and t sounds. The consonants AXGLO SAXON AND LATIN. 225 pronounced with the throat, and therefore called Gutter als, or h (c hard) sounds are c, g, h (a;) ; those with the tongue, and therefore called Linguals, or t sounds, are t, d, th (J>, ft) and (z) ; lastly, those with the lips, hence called Labials, or p sounds, are p, b,f. As a simple illustration of this interchange, take the English word Seven. In the Gothic it appears as Sibun; in the Anglo Saxon as Seofon; in the Latin as Septem; and in the English (from the Saxon) Seven. Other phonetical laws, and scarcely less important than this for the in- fluence they have had in modifying the external appearance— the dress of a language, so to speak, without destroying the generic characteristics, we must not stop, nor is this the place, to consider. The following, then, are the examples we have selected :— Anglo Saxon. Latin. Fefer, A Fever Febris, Ferveo. Feorm, Food Frumentum. • Brucan, To Use, Enjoy Fruor. Metan, To Measure Metior. Midde, Middle Medius. Micg-an, To Water Ming-cre. Misc-an, To Mix Misc-cre. Tribul-an, To Beat, Pound Tribulo. Grada, A Step Gradus. Geot-an, To pour \ I Gutta. Geota, A Pourer Y -j Guttur. Gyte, A Pourinp j 1 Guttus. Ssel, Health Salus. Spiw-an, To Spue Spu-ere. Man-ian, To Advise Mon-ere. Mynd, (Gothic, Munds) Mind Mens. Cyste, Virtue i Cost, Approved J Ange, Trouble, Anguish Angor, Anxius. Sitt-an, To Sit Sed-eo. Eorre, Anger Ira. Cear, Care Cura. Tihtle, An Accusation, from ) J Titulus. Teon, To Say, To Point to / ( Titulo. Pin, Pin, Punishment Poena. c ' i To Such Sug-ere. Sug-an, ) ° Scort, Short Curtus. "Widewe, A Widow Viduus. &c. &c. Q 226 NORMAN FRENCH. Romance Wallon. Page 187. " Frankes spech is cald Eomance So say clerkes and men of France." Robert de JBrunne. As in studying the English language, the nearer we approach the times of Saxon domination, the closer does the resemblance of English to the Anglo Saxon tongue become; so in the French, the greater the antiquity, within certain limits, the more closely does the Eomance Wallon resemble the Latin. As English tends towards, and is finally merged into Anglo Saxon, so does French tend towards, and finally coincide with Latin. Of course, this Latin was not the language of Classic Some, but rather the barbarous and corrupted dialect of the far distant provinces of Gaul. Still, it was Latin; the vocabulary Latin, the inflexion Latin. It would be quite impossible, as well as out of place, to attempt to give any detailed account here of the rise and progress of this language. Those who are desirous of such information, we may confidently refer to Chapters vn. and vni^of " Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe," "Vol. I., and for an account of its connexion and influence with the Anglo Saxon, whence in the course of time the English Language sprang, we may as confidently refer the reader to Dr. Wharton's " History of English Poetry," Vol. i., where he will find the whole subject most fully and ably discussed. There is, however, one leading fact, which cannot fail to attract the attention of the most superficial student of these times, on account of the paramount influence it must have had in modifying the Saxon, and so giving birth to the English. We refer to the prevalence of the Prench metrical Eomances in this country during the earlier period of the Norman sway. By means of these metrical Eomances, and the English Translations which were presently made of them, we apprehend, the Eomance Wallon must mainly have made its influence felt. Had the Norman Conquest been only, what it was, the successful subju- gation of a stubborn people to a foreign yoke, the Saxon language would never have yielded to external influence, even to the extent it did. But the Conquest was not merely such a subjugation; and the Norman Kings, in inviting over from Normandy the composers of the Metrical Eomances and the Gestours, adopted, perhaps unconsciously, the very surest means of giving to the Eomance Language a footing in this country. And how nearly these measures had succeeded we may have some idea from the facts, that Gower, the English Poet, wrote some of his earlier works in French, and that Chaucer was the first who had the courage " to emancipate the muse from the trammels of French in which at his time it Avas the prevailing fashion to write." In some copies of Bishop Grosthead's French Eomance, called " Chateau d' Amour" there is the following apology for the poem NORMAN FRENCH. 227 being written in- French : " And although the Eomance Tongue is looked upon with distaste by the learned, yet, for the sake of the laity, who are less educated, the work has been written in that Tongue. 1 "It was undoubtedly," says Dr. "Wharton, "a great impediment to the cultivation and progressive improvement of the English language, at these early periods, that the best authors chose to write in French." Beyond a few ballads, which were sung, or recited, by strolling minstrels, at the]village ale-bench, or the country manor-house, we meet with no original productions in English for some centuries after the Conquest. Those who alone had the power of cultivating and rewarding the muse, as well as of en- joying and appreciating her during these troublesome times, were of Norman extraction ; they spoke the Norman Tongue, and affected to despise the manly, though less sweetly flowing, accents of the Anglo Saxon. When at length time burnt out from the minds of the Saxon population the bitter recollection of past suffering and degradation, and they began to awake to the consciousness, that life had still its blandishments to offer them, they emulated the example of their Norman Masters, and sought and found recreation in the recital of those same metrical Romances, not indeeed in the original Romance dialect, but translated into their own tongue. Nearly all the tales of Adventure and Knight-Errantry with which our language presently swarmed were nothing more than translations from the French : and there can be no doubt, it was mainly through the means of these translations, that the Saxon became impregnated with so vast a mass of Norman, that is, French words. 1 "Et quamvis lingua Romana coram clericis saporem suavitatis non habeat, tamen pro laicis qui minus intelligunt, opusculum illud aptum est." The reader will observe that the textual rendering is not altogether literal. FINIS. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Oct. 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 Hi HI H gSS| HEB ■ ■ Hi ■ ,r&n H^^H ft* b HHSmmH Ml BHBH em mm