A work commonly assigned to the time of Layamon is "The Ormulum," from its writer's name which is variously given as Ormin or Orm. This is a metrical work of some length, consisting of a series of homilies based upon the New Testament. The following lines, selected from the Dedication to the author's brother Walter, are interlined with Modern English as an aid to comparison.

Nu, brotherr Wallterr, brotherr min
Now, brother Walter, brother mine
Affterr the flaeshes kinde;

After the flesh's kind

Annd brotherr min i Crisstenndom

And brother mine in Christendom
Thurrh fulluhht and thurrh trowwthe;
Through baptism and through truth
Annd brotherr min i Godess hus,
And brother mine in God's house

Yet o the thride wise,

Yet of the third wise

Thurrh thatt witt hafenn takenn ba
Though that we two have taken both

An reghellboc to folghenn,

One rule-book to follow

14 Turned.

Unnderr kanunnkess had and lif,
Under canonic's rank and life
Swa summ Sannt Awwstin sette;
So as St. Austin set

Icc hafe don swa summ thu badd
I have done so as thou bade
Annd forthedd te thin wille;
And performed thee thine will
Icc hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh
I have wended14 into English
Goddspelless hallghe lare,
Gospel's holy lore

Affterr thatt little witt tatt me
After that little wit that me
Min Drihhtin hafethth lenedd.
My Lord hath lent

Thu thohhtesst tatt itt mihhte well

Thou thoughtest that it might well
Till mickell frame turrnenn

To mickle15 profit turn

Yiff Ennglissh follk, forr lufe off Crist,
If English folk for love of Christ

Itt wollde yerne lernenn,

It would earnestly learn

Annd follghenn itt, and fillenn itt

And follow it, and fulfil it

Withth thohht, withth word, withth dede.
With thought, with word, with deed
Annd forrthi gerrndesst tu thatt ice
And because thou desiredest that I
Thiss werre the shollde wirrkenn;
This work thee should work
Annd ice itt hafe forthedd te,
And I it have performed thee
Acc all thurrh Cristess hellpe;
But all through Christ's help

15 Much.

Annd unne birrth bathe thannkenn Crist
And us two it becomes both [to] thank Christ
Thatt itt iss brohht till ende.

That it is brought to end

3. THE LATE MIDDLE ENGLISH OR CHAUCERIAN PERIOD

During the early years of the Chaucerian Period the language of the English people was fostered by the minstrels and the monks. In feudal times minstrels were attached to noble houses, and as appreciated guests sang their ballads of love and war in the dining-hall after the meal had been served and the mead began to flow. These men bore as a badge of office a wrest or tuning-key. There were also minstrels of another class who roamed over the land, spreading the language from hall to hall or from inn to inn-singing, juggling, and miming for their bed and board. Often they traveled in groups of two or three, then the minstrel provided the music, the poet sang, and the juggler (French jongleur) mimed to the great delight of the people. Except at the monastery gates the minstrels always found welcome. They were unpopular with the monks because their songs often showed scant respect for the men of the cloister, whom they decried and ridiculed until the churchmen, roused by the vicious doggerel which the minstrels sang or droned in the public market-places, determined to check their pernicious influence by introducing mystery-plays-plays founded upon incidents in the Bible. These were the earliest English plays.

In those days the monks were the scholars and monasteries were centers of learning. The cowled transcriber was a silent, assiduous, painstaking worker, who spent hours alone in the scriptorium in translating or transcribing the

Holy Scriptures, or in illuminating with brilliant colors some Missal or Psalter which has since come down to us as a triumph of bygone ages.

In the meantime the blending of the French and the English tongues had progressed slowly yet steadily from the thirteenth century, when translators began to introduce in their works French words that were currently intelligible. It was not long thereafter that the best of French books issued were translated into English despite the opposition to this course from such men as Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, who strove, but in vain, to have French retained as the literary language and English relegated to the inferior position of a dialect for use in intercourse with the common people-a language to be shunned by the polite society of his day. To speak French was then the "craze" of the day, but according to John de Trevisa, after the year of the "grete deth" (1348), there came a sudden change which was due probably to the French War, which began with the battle of Cadsant (an islet between Flushing and Sluys), in 1337, and terminated with the Peace of Bretigny in 1360.

Englishmen, under the command of the Black Prince, then crossed the Pyrenees, through the Pass of Roncesvalles, and fought the Spaniards at Navarretta in 1367. From this event dates the beginning of the entrance of the direct Spanish element into English. It is possible, of course, that even before this date some Spanish words found their way into English through the French. It is possible, also, that the Crusades in which English soldiers took part may have had some influence on the language. For it is inconceivable that any large body of men could travel to and from the Holy Land, remain there a twelvemonth or more,

come into contact with foreigners, and not bring back with them some terms for which they had no equivalent in their native tongue. Certain it is that in the language to-day we have a number of words derived from the Arabic, and others which have been borrowed from the Turkish.

To King Henry IV. of England, who spent years of exile in Prussia, but returned to England, deposed his cousin Richard II., and ascended the throne in 1399, as well as to his retainers, we may, perhaps, attribute the introduction of certain Prussian words into English.

The great writers of the Chaucerian Period were Jehan de Mandeville, reputed in English literature; "Sir John de Mandeville," described as the earliest writer of English prose; John de Wycliffe, translator of the Bible; Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry; John Gower, his friend, and the ill-fated King James I. of Scotland.

Sir John de Mandeville, of whose identity some authorities express doubt, is stated to have been born about 1300, and to have died in 1372. In 1356, or thereabouts, he is said to have returned from a journey to distant and strange lands on which he had set out in 1334, and written a "Narrative of his Travels" 16 in Latin. This work was subsequently translated into French, and therefrom into English. In the writer's own words the reader is told in the introduction to this book that:

I have put this book out of Latin into French, and translated it agen out of French into English, that every man of my nation may understand it But lords and knights, and other noble and worthy men, that con Latin but little, and han ben beyond the sea, knowen and understonden gif I err in devising, for for

16 "It is in fact beyond reasonable doubt that the travels were in large part compiled by a Liége physician, known as Johains à le Barbe or Jehan à la Barbe, otherwise Jehan de Bourgogne."-"Encyc. Brit.," XVII, p. 561.