A. Much less than might have been expected, for the Danish, like the Saxon tongue, being of Gothic origin, was only a different dialect of the same lan guage, and, with the exception of checking its improvement, had little effect in altering the speech of the country.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE EFFECTS OF THE DANISH CONQUEST.

Q. What was the first event that produced much effect upon the Saxon language?

A. The great intercourse which began to take place between Britain and Normandy, in part directly, but still more indirectly, was the first thing that tended to affect the language to any great degree.

Q. To what was this intercourse chiefly owing?

A. To the circumstance of so many of the Saxon princes and nobility having taken refuge in that country during the period of Danish sway in Britain.

Q. What individual in particular showed great partiality for every thing Norman ?

A. Edward the Confessor, who, being descended from Ethelred the Second, a Saxon refugee, had been brought up at the court of Normandy, and therefore took every opportunity of testifying his attachment to his benefactors.

1

Q What effect had his example upon the rest of the country? A. It caused the nobility, and those possessed of wealth, to send their sons into Normandy to be educated, which in time produced, in the higher classes a strong partiality to the Norman, and a sad disregard to their own language.

Q. What sort of language was the Norman ?

A. A language which had arisen from the admixture of the Latin as spoken in France, and of that dialect of the Gothic which was spoken by the Northmen and other warlike tribes, who had overrun and conquered that fine country.

Q. In what respects did the new language resemble or differ from those from which it had sprung?

A. It retained a greater resemblance to the Latin in the words of which it was composed; but seemed more akin to the Gothic or Teutonic in its general structure, and in the arrangement of its words into

sentences.

Q. What motive had the English nobility to prefer the Norman language to the Saxon?

A. Probably the vanity, in part, of being thus farther distinguished from the common people; though the consideration of the Norman being regarded as a more refined and cultivated language, must have had no slight influence.

Q. What was the indirect consequence to the language of this great intercourse with Normandy?

A. It paved the way for the Norman conquest, an event which happened in the year 1066, and which ultimately produced a complete revolution in the lan. guage, the literature, and the institutions of the coun

try.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE EFFECTS OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST. Q. To what barbarous policy had the Norman conquerors re course, the better to strengthen their usurped power?

A. To the dire expediency of endeavoring to extirpate the very language of the people, in order that, by making them forget their Saxon lineage, they might more reconcile them to the Norman yoke.

Q. What measures were taken the better to effect this purpose? A. All offices of honor, of trust, and of emolument, were filled by the foreigners, and the Norman tongue was enjoined as the language to be used at court, in the enactment of laws, and in all legal proceedings. Q. Whom did the Normans easily get to obey these harsh edicts?

A. The nobility or higher classes, who had not been ejected from their estates, though of this description of persons the number was very small; and the Nor mans, who became masters of the country had na motive to abandon their original speech

[As an evidence that the English language was wholly foreign to the English court, D'Israeli relates a ludicrous anecdote of the chancellor of Richard the First. This chancellor, in his flight from Canterbury, disguised as a female hawker, carrying under his arm a bundle of cloth, and an ell measure in his hand, sat by the sea-side waiting for a vessel. The fishermen's wives inquiring the price of the cloth, he could only answer by a burst of laughter; for this man, born in England and chancellor of Eng land, did not know a single word of English!]

Q. How many languages, then, were for a time spoken in the country?

A. Two: the Norman, among all who aimed at being genteel, and the Saxon, by all the common peo ple; while the Latin still continued to be the language of the learned, and of the Church service.

Q. What was ultimately the result of this distinction?

A. For a time, these two languages kept perfectly distinct, but at last they began to coalesce, and then sprung up that noble tongue which we now call English.

Q. At what time did this result begin to take place?

A. The precise period can not now be ascertained; but it is likely to have been early; for, as the common people could not speak the Norman, nor the higher classes the Saxon, they would soon see the propriety of compromising the matter, by each party, for the sake of being understood, adopting more or less of the language of the other.

Q. Which language ultimately prevailed over the other?

A. They were probably nearly on a par as to the number of words adopted from each; but the Saxon retained the decided ascendency as to the terminational distinctions and the grammatical construction of the words into sentences.

Q. What are the kinds of words in our language that are chiefy of Saxon origin?

A. Most of those that are short, and are used to express common objects and common events.

Q. What was the nature of those words derived from the Nor man French?

A. They were chiefly those of a Latin origin, and which, being generally words of more syllables than one, are used to express less common objects and oc

currences.

Q. With what two languages has this union chiefly allied the English?

A. With the original Saxon, and with the Latin through the medium of the Norman French.

Q. What peculia: characters does it receive from each?

A. From the former strength and vivacity, with sometimes considerable harshness of sound; from the at er smoothness, harmony, and greater pomp and lignity.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE MODERN HISTORY OF OUR LANGUAGE.

Q. What length of time did the Saxon and Norman French take to fuse and form themselves into the new language?

A. A period of nearly three hundred years; for, though the process was early begun, it required this long time to bring it to completion; so slow is the progress of human affairs in rude periods of society. Q. Were there many writers during this period?

A. A considerable number, though none of any very nigh reputation.

Q. Of what kind were they chiefly?

A. They consisted principally of the learned, who composed mostly in Latin, and upon religious and philosophical subjects; and of chroniclers and poets called minstrels, who wrote chiefly in the popular language of the country.

Q. Do the latter exhibit much uniformity of style?

A. Far from it; for the character of their composi tions seems to vary not only according to the time. but even to the part of the country in which they lived and wrote.

Q. In whose reign might the change of language be said to nave been completed?

A. In the reign of Edward the Third, which began in 1326, and ended in 1377.

Q. In what manner did he accelerate this event?

A. By making English the language of his court, and by discontinuing the Norman in all law proceedings.

Q. Who may be regarded as the earliest writer of genuine English poetry?

A. Geoffrey Chaucer, who was born in 1328, and died in 1400, leaving behind him many monuments of his noble genius, the principal of which are the Can terbury Tales.

Q. Who were the principal prose writers of that period?

4. Sir John Mandeville, a distinguished traveler. and John Wicliffe, who is often regarded as the father of the Reformation.

Q. After the great celebrity of Chaucer, did English writers suc ceed each other in rapid succession?

A. Very much so indeed; though none gained such high reputation as Chaucer, prior to the period of Elizabeth.

Q. What were the principal changes which took place in the language during the 150 years from Chaucer's time?"

A. It became for one thing more regular in its orthography, many of the old words were suffered to drop out of use, and new ones, chiefly from the Latin, were introduced; and altogether the language became more elegant, copious, and refined.

Q. What class of writers took the lead in this improvement? A. The poets chiefly, and of these Scotland car boast of more than her due proportion.

Q. What event tended to secure past and promote future im provements in the language?

A. The art of printing, which was invented in Hol land early in the fifteenth century, and introduced into England by William Caxton, in the year 1474

CHAPTER IX.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUed.

Q. In w.rose reign did the English language and literatu make greatest progress?

A. In that of Elizabeth, and cf her successor James.

Q. What characters did the language then assume?

A. Those of great copiousness, flexibility, vigor, and grandeur; and it acquired farther the character of a more regular orthography.

Q. To what had diversity of spelling been previously owing?