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From The North British Review.

REVOLUTIONS IN THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH. THE standard language of literature and life is appropriately termed the Queen's English, from having upon it the stamp of national currency and use. It is the medium of oral and written intercourse through the length and breadth of the land, just as the royal currency or coin of the realm is the medium of commercial exchange. The words of the standard vocabulary, like the issues of the royal mint, have on them the image and superscription of national authority, of which the Sovereign is the natural head and representative, and hence the apt designation, "Queen's English." But, taking a wider view of the matter, there is really more significance in the epithet Queen's, as applied to the language, than that arising from the accidental circumstance of the reigning monarch being a princess rather than a prince. A second reason of its special appropriateness is to be found in the fact that the most important changes in the language, or rather in the vocabulary of the language, have taken place under the three great English queens, Elizabeth, Anne, and Victoria. If we throw out of account Queen Mary, who was hardly English either in character or policy, the reigns of the three English queens are identified with the most influential revolutions in the history of the English language. The Elizabethan age was the era of its fullest spontaneous development; the so-called Augustan age of Anne that of its critical restriction and refinement; while the Victorian age is the era of its reflective expansion, its conscious growth and re-invigoration. Each of these periods is heralded by half a century of preparation, in which the influences, literary and political, that helped to produce the change, were gradually acquiring direction, unity, and power.

uberant vitality. But the next consider-
able epoch, that of the Revolution, which
reached some of its most expressive forms
during the reign of Queen Anne, has a
character of its own, equally marked, though
perhaps not so fully recognized. If the era
of the Reformation was the creative, the
productive epoch of our literature, that of
the Revolution, extending over the greater
part of the eighteenth century, is character-
ized by the predominant activity of the reg-
ulative, co-ordinating, or legislative faculty.
It is pre-eminently a critical age -
the age
in which criticism appeared for the first time
as a modifying power in our national life
and literature. The Revolution Settlement
itself was a criticism of the Constitution, a
resolute and successful effort to reduce to
precise terms, fix in definite propositions,
and establish on a legal basis the political
rights and liberties which had gradually as-
serted themselves amidst the vigorous but
irregular growth of the nation's corporate
life. In almost every department of nation-
al activity the working of the same critical
impulse may be clearly traced. There is
manifestly, on all hands, a strong desire and
persistent effort to measure in some way
the achievements of the prolific past; to
take stock, as it were, of the intellectual
wealth the nation had so rapidly accumula-
ted, and estimate according to some rule or
principle the results of its enormously pro-
ductive energies.

Very naturally, however, the working of this critical movement is especially seen in the literature of the time, and the contrast between the two periods in this respect is well illustrated in the early productions of their typical poets. This kind of index is peculiarly significant, because men of genius instinctively reflect, if they do not even anticipate, the foremost intellectual tendencies of their own time. In his early youth, The first of these periods, that of the Ref- Shakespeare, the representative of the first ormation, commencing with the earlier half period, was exercising his fervid poètical of the sixteenth century, culminating in the imagination, his tender and passionate senElizabethan age, and lasting in its charac-sibilities, in the glowing imagery and musiteristic influences till the middle of the sev- cal verse of Venus and Adonis. Pope, the enteenth century, is justly regarded as the typical poet of the second period, while still great creative period of English literature. in his teens, was reading Boileau, and conIt is the period in which the latent genius densing into the smooth couplets of his Esof the nation was manifested for the first say on Criticism the sagest maxims of accutime in all its freshness, strength, and ex-mulated literary wisdom, mingled with the

shrewd observations of his own keenly pre- and poured into the national exchequer of cocious mind. Great original works of im- words through a multitude of obscure and aginative genius were no longer produced. unnoticed channels. The powerful influIn place of these, critical editions of the great ence which thus developed for the first time poets were for the first time undertaken, and the resources of the mother tongue was that critical dissertations on their special merits, of awakened nationality, of which the Refas well as critical theories of poetry and lit-ormation itself, in its early stages, may be erature in general, attempted. No doubt regarded as the concentrated and energetic these theories were superficial and one-sided, expression. The working of this national the critical judgments often shallow, and the spirit, and its effect both on the language rule employed for the measurement of the in- and the literature, is indeed clearly traceatellectual giants of the previous age some-ble as early as the fourteenth century. By times ludicrously inadequate for the purpose. But the important fact remains, that in every sphere of intellectual activity rules and principles of judgment were honestly sought for. Amidst the hard things that are often said against the eighteenth century, it must be remembered that its leading minds, if comparatively cold and unimaginative, were consciously animated by the desire of finding in every department of inquiry a critical or rational basis, and that in some departments, such as those of history, philosophy, and political science, this effort produced results of permanent value.

the middle of that century the brilliant foreign wars and successful reign of Edward III. had very much effaced the bitter antipathies of rank and race produced by the Conquest, impressed on the national mind an exulting sense of unity and power, and diffused amongst all classes the proud glow of genuine patriotism. The effect of this awakened spirit on the language is seen in its immediate recall to the courts of justice, and other positions of dignity and honour, from which for three centuries it had been banished, while its intellectual reflex may be traced in the noble early literature of What is true of the literature during these which Chaucer, Gower, and Wycliffe are two periods is equally true of the language. the foremost representatives. In the fifThe epoch of the Reformation was the great teenth century the gallant but disastrous period of the language as well as of the lit-wars of Henry v. dissipated the vain dream erature the age in which its latent stores of extended foreign empire which had so of phrase and diction were for the first time brought out, and rendered available for the higher purposes of literature by current use. Then, too, the various tributary streams, Celtic and Scandinavian, Romance and Classical, that at different times have enriched our native tongue, may be said to have flowed together, and poured their currents into the broad and deepening river of our recognized and central English. But these secondary elements of copious and ex-al unity and power consolidated themselves; pressive diction, left as a heritage by races that had helped to give dignity and grace to the robust English character, were by no means the most important contributions made during this era to the standard national vocabulary. The scattered wealth of neglected words belonging to the root-elements of the language, the forcible and idiomatic Angle and Saxon terms, hitherto almost restricted to local use, were now, under the working of an irresistible influence, collected from their provincial sources,

long dazzled the imagination of the nation, and helped to fix its attention on domestic interests, while the Wars of the Roses indirectly advanced the cause of the people by destroying the most offensive incidents of the feudal system, and relieving the nation at large from the incubus of a turbulent and ambitious feudal aristocracy. During the long, prudent, and successful reign of Henry VII., the growing elements of nation

and under favourable conditions of peace and public security the country steadily advanced in social comfort, political strength, and material prosperity. When Henry VIII. ascended the throne, he had to lead a highspirited and self-reliant people, proud of a European position gained by past achievement in arms, confident of its future progress, and resolved, if need were, to secure the conditions of that progress at the point of the sword. The very subserviency the early Parliaments showed on home affairs

to, triumphed; and it is almost impossible even at this distance of time, to estimate the magnitude of the result. The destruction of the Armada at once broke the ag

them back to their continental seats, flushed
with an exulting sense of victory the nation,
that almost single-handed had ventured on
such an unequal conflict, and crowned with
European fame

"This scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,

arose indeed, in part, from the strong feeling in favour of an energetic foreign policy, and the resolve of the nation to maintain at all hazards its position in Europe. The Reformation was just the movement to stim-gressive power of Rome and Spain, beating ulate that resolve, as it appealed directly on its political side to the independent spirit of the people. In its early stages, indeed, as far as the people at large, or rather the town populations - the mercantile, trading and professional classes, who alone took an active interest in public affairs, - were concerned, the English Reformation was a national and political, much more than a religious or ecclesiastical movement. It was a national revolt against the authority of a foreign potentate, whose arrogant pretensions, haughty bearing, and arbitrary exactions of tribute had come to be regarded as alike insulting and oppressive. As the area of the conflict enlarged This and its issues expanded, the great interest at stake stirred the heart of the nation to its very depths, and roused all its nobler ele- This ments of character to a pitch of intense and sustained enthusiasm. This enthusiasm reached its highest point in the tremendous struggle with Spain as the armed champion of Roman domination in Europe, the ruthless military representative of the despotic principle both in Church and State.

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blessed spot, this earth, this realm, this England,

land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,

Dear for her reputation through the world."

Shakespeare had come to London two years before the destruction of the Armada, and the intense feeling of national exultation it produced beats with a full pulse not only in this passage, but throughout the On the eve of that gallant struggle against whole of his historical plays. Britain, as such overwhelming odds, Queen Elizabeth, champion of the Reformation, had, however, with the sure instinct of political genius, not only defeated Catholic Europe, and struck the key-note of the excited national reached a position of peerless renown in the mind in her stirring address to the army: - Old World. She had become mistress of Let tyrants fear! I have always so be- the seas, and thus commanded the oceanhaved myself that, under God, I have paths to the New World, the El Dorado in placed my chiefest strength and safeguard the far golden West, which successful mariin the loyal hearts and goodwill of my sub-time adventure had revealed, and whose jects; and therefore I am come amongst untold treasures daring English navigators you, as you see, at this time, not for my own recreation and disport, but having resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all to lay down, for God and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm." The national spirit, thus appealed

were beginning to explore. This acted as a powerful stimulus to the intellect and imagination of the nation. It enlarged men's minds, widened their moral horizon, and inspired them with the confident hope of destroying established forms of error, and discovering new continents of truth. The strong and sustained intellectual reaction of the whole movement produced, in the short space of a quarter of a century, those unrivalled masterpieces of literature which constitute the glorious Elizabethan age.

The direct connection of the whole Ref

66

had

ormation movement with the great produc- these discussions being a popular one, tive period of our literature is well known, a twofold effect on the language, helping and has been pretty fully investigated; but both to simplify its structure and to give its influence on the language has never yet prominence to the strictly vernacular elebeen traced with anything like careful accu- ments of the vocabulary. Sir Thomas More, racy and minuteness. Mr. Marsh, indeed, and John Bale, bishop of Ossory, represent in his excellent work on The Origin and the extremes of this controversial literature, History of the English Language, points out the former being a bigoted Romanist, and one of its immediate effects in the numerous the latter a rabid Protestant. In point of translations of theological and other works, taste and temper there is perhaps not a pin to by continental reformers, scholars, and di- choose between them, both being singularly vines, which appeared in rapid succession; eloquent in the coarse rhetoric of vituperabut his general description of these versions tion and unmeasured personal abuse. Nor is hardly accurate, while his estimate of are they without points of resemblance in their effect on the language is, to say the other and higher respects. The English Chanleast, one-sided and erroneous. He de- cellor is the more quick-witted, learned, scribes them as bringing in a 'flood of and accomplished disputant, as well as the Latinisms," as introducing new words and more voluminous writer. In his great poideas, a special technical phraseology, which lemic against Tyndale he discusses the points made at once a very considerable acces- at issue with an exhaustive minuteness of sion of Latin words to the vocabulary of detail that would become wearisome but for English." There is, indeed, a certain amount the lively play of fancy, the grave wit and of truth in this statement. The new con- fertility of humorous illustration that relieve ceptions and forms of doctrine which the the tedium of his argument and soften the Reformation produced required a language bitterness of his invective. He is, moreover, of their own, and in some of the early Eng- naturally fond of argument, cunning of loglish translations of foreign theological works ical fence, and displays even a kind of schoa glossary of such terms is given at the end lastic subtlety in defending against his opof the volume. But the remarkable feature ponent the use of images, modern Romish about the translations, as a whole, is not miracles, and the doctrine of the sacraments. their Latinisms, not their specially theolog- The Irish bishop has none of More's dialecical dialect, but their extraordinary wealth tical skill, and hardly attempts anything like of genuine English words. To take a sin- serious or sustained argument, his numerous gle illustration, we would refer any one cu- polemical writings consisting rather of hisrious on this point to the versions of Nich- torical facts and loose declamation, passing olas Udall, an accomplished scholar, author not unfrequently into coarse but vigorous of the earliest comedy in the language, and invective. But More and Bale have in successively head-master of Eton and West- common certain rhetorical characteristics minster. Amongst his other labours, at that will entitle them to a place in the histhe instance of Queen Catherine Parr, Udall tory of English prose during the first half undertook a translation of Erasmus's volu- of the sixteenth century. They both posminous paraphrase of the New Testament, sess a great command over the resources of and executed a large part of it himself. colloquial and idiomatic English, and write The work is not only clear and vigorous in with an ease, animation, and freedom which style, but rich in English idioms, in expres- is very rarely to be found at this early perisive colloquial phrases, and pithy Saxon od. The necessity of popular appeal gives terms; and is accordingly frequently quoted to their style a flexibility and directness in illustration of such words, both in Rich- that brings the written language much nearer ardson's Dictionary and by Dr. Latham in to the spoken tongue than had hitherto been his new edition of Johnson. Curiously the case. The change is complete in those enough, Mr. Marsh does not even mention of the reformers who, like Latimer, helped Udall, although from his translation alone the movement chiefly by oral discourse. a list of Saxon words might be collected, What is true of More and Bale is true in a in some respects more complete than is to degree of the other early writers who took be found in any existing dictionary or glos- a leading part in the struggle, such as Frith sary of English. and Barnes, Ridley and Tyndale; but none of their works- not even those of Tyndale, who writes with unfailing purity and vigour

Another way in which the Reformation had a direct effect on the language was by the amount of controversy it provoked, by the extensive literature of attack and reply, of polemical dissertations, pamphlets, and broadsides it produced. The appeal in

have the vivacity and popular interest which belong to the style of More and Bale.

The important fact, however, is that in the whole controversy, as indeed in all the

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