Salomon and Saturn, and a collection of Gnomic verses in the poetry. Light literature is represented by a collection of about eighty riddles in verse. Freer from foreign influence than any of the preceding, and better shewing the spirit of the native poetry, are the short poems, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Ruin, Deor's Lament, The Wife's Lament, and the fragment The Fight at Finnesburg. A literature that contains so much as is given in the above lists (which do not profess to be exhaustive) may, taking all the circumstances into account, fairly claim to be spoken of as considerable, and may be expected to afford material from which a knowledge of the language, in which it is written, can be gained. 14. It must be remembered, however, that this language Kentish, Mercian, and Northumbrian specimens. was not the form of speech everywhere current in England. It is the language of Wessex that they represent. In other parts of the country different forms were to be found, and of them specimens, though comparatively scanty ones, have been preserved. For instance, there are specimens of a Kentish dialect in some charters, and in some glosses on the book of Proverbs; the dialect of Mercia is seen in interlinear glosses of the Psalms and of some hymns; in the dialect of the North are written interlinear glosses of the Gospels and of the Durham Ritual, a few verses of Bede, and some Runic inscriptions. There are some other works which do not belong to Wessex, but those mentioned may be enough to suggest the existence of dialects and the comparative extent of the specimens belonging to them. 15. In the preceding paragraphs an attempt has been made to give some idea of the extent of the Old English specimens; the importance to Modern English of the material they contain may be appreciated, if it be noticed how great an amount of that material still forms part of the vocabulary. The retention of the Old English vocabulary in that of Modern English from the works of Alfred and Elfric. The point may be illustrated by reference to the illustration passages from Alfred's translation of Boethius and from Ælfric's preface to Genesis, which are quoted in this chapter. In them, words no longer in use are italicised, and it will be seen at a glance that such words are in a minority. Moreover in the case of several even of these, though no modern forms can be directly traced to them, yet the material they contain is still living. This may be seen in the following instances;1 The passages fairly represent Old English in respect to the point under consideration, so it may be seen that much of the material used by Alfred and Ælfric is, of course with more or less modification, used by Englishmen to-day. 1 Only the root parts of the words are noted, but the prefixes and suffixes would equally illustrate the point, 16. But the Old English appeals to later times not only because so large a proportion of it is preserved by them, but also because so much of the work done by the language is done by the Old English element in it. A few figures quoted from the Student's English Language will illustrate the The employment of the Old English element by later writers illustrated. second point. In the vocabulary of the English Bible sixty per cent. of the words are native; in that of Shakspere the proportion is very nearly the same; while of the stock of words employed in the poetical works of Milton, less than thirty-three per cent. are Anglo-Saxon. But when we examine the proportions in which authors actually employ the words at their command, we find that, even in those whose total vocabulary embraces the greatest number of Latin and other foreign vocables, the Anglo-Saxon still largely predominates. Thus: Piers Ploughman, Introduction, contains 88 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales, first 420 verses 88 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Chaucer, Nonne Preestes Tale, 93 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. ii. Canto vii. 86 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. S. John's Gospel, A.V., Chaps. I., IV., XVII. 96 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Shakspere, Henry IV., Part I., Act ii. 91 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Milton, L'Allegro, 90 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Addison, several numbers of Spectator, 82 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Pope, First Epistle, and Essay on Man, 80 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Swift, John Bull, several chapters 85 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Johnson, Preface to Dictionary, 72 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. 1. Chap. vii. 70 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. 1 The Student's English Language, by George P. Marsh, pp. 91-3. For a much fuller list, and for a discussion of the points illustrated by the figures, reference can be made to the lecture from which the quotation is made. Macaulay, Essay on Lord Bacon, 75 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Mrs Browning, Cry of the Children, 92 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Robert Browning, Bishop Blougram's Apology, 84 per cent. of AngloSaxon words. Tennyson, The Lotus Eaters, 87 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Tennyson, In Memoriam, first twenty poems 89 per cent. of AngloSaxon words. Ruskin, Elements of Drawing, first six exercises 84 per cent. of AngloSaxon words. These figures may shew that, looking only to the vocabulary, the Old English element is of the highest importance to the modern speech, that, as Dr Morris says, 'in the works of our greatest writers the English element greatly preponderates'; while if the grammatical forms be also taken into account it will be found that the Old English element is absolutely indispensible, that, to quote the same writer, 'if we endeavour to speak or write without making use of the native element (grammar or vocabulary), we shall find that such a thing is impossible.' The grammatical forms of modern English, indeed, are all of them native, and it is of the older forms from which they are derived, that a brief notice must now be given to complete our survey of the earliest stage of the language. 16. But the Old English appeals to later times not only because so large a proportion of it is preserved The employment of the Old English element by later writers illustrated. by them, but also because so much of the work done by the language is done by the Old English element in it. A few figures quoted from the Student's English Language will illustrate the second point.1 In the vocabulary of the English Bible sixty per cent. of the words are native; in that of Shakspere the proportion is very nearly the same; while of the stock of words employed in the poetical works of Milton, less than thirty-three per cent. are Anglo-Saxon. But when we examine the proportions in which authors actually employ the words at their command, we find that, even in those whose total vocabulary embraces the greatest number of Latin and other foreign vocables, the Anglo-Saxon still largely predominates. Thus: Piers Ploughman, Introduction, contains 88 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales, first 420 verses 88 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Chaucer, Nonne Preestes Tale, 93 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. ii. Canto vii. 86 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. S. John's Gospel, A.V., Chaps. I., IV., XVII. 96 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Shakspere, Henry IV., Part I., Act ii. 91 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Milton, L'Allegro, 90 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Addison, several numbers of Spectator, 82 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Pope, First Epistle, and Essay on Man, 80 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Swift, John Bull, several chapters 85 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Johnson, Preface to Dictionary, 72 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. 1. Chap. vii. 70 per cent. of Anglo-Saxon words. 1 The Student's English Language, by George P. Marsh, pp. 91-3. For a much fuller list, and for a discussion of the points illustrated by the figures, reference can be made to the lecture from which the quotation is made. |