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English tongue', was passed in the 36th of Edward III; and it is the opinion of Tyrwhitt, stated in his introduction to the Canterbury Tales, that at the commencement of that monarch's reign, the French and English languages subsisted together throughout the kingdom, the higher orders, both clergy and laity, speaking almost universally French, the lower retaining the use of their native tongue, but also frequently adding to it a knowledge of the other.' Edward III, then, was the first King since the Conquest, who by law discountenanced the farther propagation of the French language in this country; and it will not fail to strike the reader that Higden's endeavour (according to our conjecture) to procure the representation of the Chester Miracle-plays in English,1 was accomplished in 1338, when Edward III had been eleven years on the throne.

2

After what Tyrwhitt has advanced upon the point, it is not necessary to enter into a discussion of the manner in which, subsequent to the Conquest, the Norman kings and nobility endeavoured to bring the French language into common use among all classes in this country. Prelates from Normandy were placed in all the richest sees of the kingdom,

1 1 It is a circumstance deserving attention, that Higden himself, in his Polycronicon, b. i, c. lix, laments the manner in which the English language had been impaired, and thus accounts for it :

'This apayringe of the birthe tonge is by cause of tweye thinges: oon is for children in scole, azens the usage and maner of alle other nacions, beth compelled for to leve her owne langage, and for to constrewe her lessouns, and her thingis a Fransche, and haveth siththe that the Normans come first into England. Also gentil mennes children beth ytauzt for to speke Frenshe from the tyme that thei beth rokked in her cradel, and cunneth speke, and playe with a childes brooche. And uplondish men wole likne hem self to gentil men, and fondeth with grete bisynesse for to speke Frensche for to be the more ytold of.'

2. Vide his Essay on Chaucer, part 1.

and they in turn chose the abbots from their countrymen, while (as Tyrwhitt has remarked), the abbots were not less industrious to stock their convents with foreigners whom they invited from the continent'. It is a striking circumstance, already noticed, that the author of the oldest Miracle-play of which we have any trace in our history, was a Norman monk, who had been so invited by the Abbot of St. Alban's, in the commencement of the twelfth century. How importantly the object of the court, nobility, and clergy in this respect, would be aided by the representation among the people of dramatic performances in French, requires no proof.

The Chester Miracle-plays themselves contain some internal evidence which, strange to say, has hitherto escaped notice. Small portions have been handed down to us in French: some sentences of the speech of Augustus Cæsar in the sixth play, and part of the dialogue between the three Kings in the eighth play, are still preserved in that language in the MSS.; and there could have been no possible reason for converting them into French, if they had been originally composed in English or in Latin. They are most probably relics of the ancient structure, retained in the current transcripts, although Higden might not think them necessary for the performance, and therefore did not include them in his version.1

1 To Mr. Sharpe's accurate, circumstantial, and curious Dissertation on the plays of the same kind, performed by the Trading Companies of Coventry, at the feast of Corpus Christi, is added the piece represented by the Tailors and Sheermen, as late as the year 1534; and it contains a speech by a Nuntius, which is in French, and possibly for the same. reason. The word nouvelles also occurs in it, instead of 'tidings', by which it was usually rendered. Excepting upon this supposition, how can we account for the conclusion of Herod's speech in the 15th of the plays in the Townley MS., 'I can no more French'? The translator found it in the original, and rendered it literally into English; and it would not be unnatural for this 'Paynim', who was made to speak French

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But this point does not depend upon inference only: some positive testimony may be brought forward, establishing the connexion between the Miracle-plays of this country, and the Mistères of France.

In Le Mistère du viel Testament par personnages, joué à Paris, printed by Antoine Verard about 1490, but acted at a much earlier date, and in that part of it which treats of La créacion d'Adam et d'Eve, the following passage is put into the mouth of the first man.

Học nunc os de ossibus meis,
Et caro de carne mea.

Ses os sont de mes os formez,

Et sa chair de ma chair venue:

Car tout d'un sang sont conformez,

Selon quelle est de moy cogneue.

Dont pourtant quelle est d'homme yssue

Sera appellee virago,

Pource que je lay apperceue,

Quia sumpta est de viro.'

In the second of the Chester series of plays, on the same occasion, namely, after the Deity has taken Eve out of the side of Adam, the later observes:

'I see well, Lorde, through thy grace,
Bone of my bone thou has her mase,1
And fleshe of my fleshe she hase,
And my shape through thy sawe.2

for the purpose of the play, to stop short on such an account, especially as it gave the author an opportunity, which he seems to have wanted, of bringing the piece to a short conclusion. This point is further considered in a note upon the passage itself in the course of the ensuing examination of Miracle-plays.

1 Mase] Made.

2 Sawe] Saying or Speech.

Wherefore she shalbe called, I wysse,

Virago, nothing amisse,

For out of man taken she is,

And to man she shall drawe.'

It must be admitted, that this passage looks more like a direct translation, than it perhaps really was; for in the Latin version of the Bible by St. Jerome, formerly held in such high veneration, the part of the second chapter of Genesis, which relates to the creation of Eve, is thus given— Hoc nunc os de ossibus meis, et caro de carne mea: hæc vocabitur virago, quoniam de viro sumpta est. At the same time there are points of resemblance between the French and the English, which are not to be found in the Latin.1 Another instance, apparently of translation, is to be found in the same play in the French, before Cain kills Abel, he says:-'Si feray je le coup, et la follye,

Dieu ne scauroit de ce fait m'arrester,
Ne le paillart dentre mes mains oster:'

which is thus rendered in the Chester play :

'Though God stoode here in this place,

For to help thee in this case,

Thou should dye before his face.'

This is hardly so literal as the following from the fourth play. In the French, Abraham being in the act of sacrificing his son, Isaac exclaims,

'Mais vueillez moy les yeulx cachier,

Affin que le glaive ne voye ;

Quant de moy vendres approchier,

Peult étre que je fouyroye.'

'For the reference to St. Jerome's Bible, we are indebted to the late Mr. Douce, who, from a valuable MS. in his possession, also pointed out the manner in which Wickliffe translated the passage:-'Now bone of my bonys and fleshe of my fleshe, this shall be clepyd manny's dede, for she is taken of a man.'

Higden (on the supposition that he was the translator) rendered the lines as follows:

Also, father, I pray you, hyde my eyen,

That I see not your sworde so keene;

Your stroke, father, I would not see,
Least I against it grill.”

The fifth play of the Chester collection affords still further evidence to the same point: it relates to King Balak, and Balaam the prophet. In the French Mistère, the Ass, sorely beaten, thus addresses his rider :

'Balaam, suis je pas ta beste,

Sur qui tu a tousjours este,
Tant en yver comme en este?

Te feiz jamais tell chose?'

In the Chester play the passage occupies one line more :— 'Ame not I, master, thyne owne asse,

To beare thee whether thou wilte passe,

And many winters ready was?

To smyte me it is shame...

Ney, never yet so served I thee.'

If it be here said, that the Bible was employed by both authors, and that the words of Scripture are by both closely followed, it may be answered, that the word 'winter', which is found in the French and English, is not in Numbers xxii, 30; and that this circumstance is evidence that one was probably a translation from the other, unless some common original can be brought forward, containing the same peculiar expression. If any such common original were discovered, it would militate against the positions, that England was in the

* Grill is used by Chaucer as an adjective, and it means, horrible or grim; but here it is employed as a verb, and with great poetical force : the meaning of the line therefore is—' Lest I shrink from it with terror'.

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