The following are instances in which the Norman-French has contributed to our grammatical forms :

1. The Anglo-Saxon compared Adjectives by terminations; the Norman-French, by Auxiliary Adverbs. The English adopts both; as, (1.) shorter; (2.) more beautiful.

2. The Anglo-Saxon Genitive had as its sign the termination es, &c.; the Norman-French had the Preposition de. English adopts both; as, the man's hat = hat of the man.

3. The Anglo-Saxon Infinitive ended chiefly in an. The Norman-French Infinitive sign was the Preposition pour. English used the latter; as, (Old Form) for to go; (New Form) to go.

In Layamon's Brut there constantly occurs the addition of n to Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, &c., to which such an ending does not properly belong. This nunnation is probably a device for securing euphony.

EARLY ENGLISH,

(1258 A.D.-1362 A.D.)

The Third Stage of our language, extending from the reign of Henry III. to that of Edward III., lasted about a century, and witnessed the triumphant close of that struggle between the Norman-French and the native language, in which the former was beaten from the field, though not without leaving rich spoils to the victor. The words, added to the English Language by the usurpation of the Normans, relate, as might be expected, to war, chivalry, heraldry, hunting, law, and court-life.

The French wars of Edward III., by fostering an antiFrench spirit in England, contributed to overthrow this

exotic language, whose roots had been already loosened by the Barons' Wars. Two incidents mark its downfal particularly :

1. Immediately after the first Great Plague-the Black Death of 1349-a schoolmaster named John Cornwall, and his pupil Richard Pencrich laid aside the use of French and began to teach in English.

2. In 1362 an Act of Parliament was passed, ordering trials in the King's Courts to be conducted in English, not in French, because the people had come to understand little of the latter tongue.

This same statute commanded pleas to be enrolled in Latin-another hit at the decaying Anglo-Norman.

In Parliamentary transactions the use of French lingered much longer. The first statute in English is in 1485; but it is written also in French. Three years later, English alone began to be used.

Early English Literature.-The chief works of the Early English Period are :—

1. Henry the Third's Proclamation to Huntingdonshire, 1258 A.D., generally considered the first existing document in English, as distinguished from SemiSaxon. It was an important state-paper, and copies. were sent to every shire in the land. Inflections are freely disregarded; and the positional Syntax of English may be regarded as fixed.

2. The Romance of King Alisaunder, a poem in irregular rhymes, translated from the French, and therefore containing a good many words of French origin.

3. The Geste of King Horn, a romantic poem.
4. A Metrical Version of the Psalms, published by

the Surtees Society. A marked peculiarity of its grammar is the use of s for th in the 3d Singular Present and other parts of the Verb.

Marsh considers this change to have arisen from the difficulty Frenchmen had, and still have, in pronouncing th, combined with the fact that the chief Verb, To Be, bad the 3d Singular in s (is and waes.)

5. Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle of England, from the siege of Troy to 1272 A.D.; and his Lives and Legends of the English Saints, a more popular work in which Romance words are more freely used. He uses th in the 3d Singular Present of Verbs, and generally adopts the Saxon form of the Personal Pronoun.

6. Robert Manning of Brunne (Bourne in Lincolnshire) wrote a Chronicle or Rhyming History of Britain, translated from Wace and Langtoft. It extends to the death of Edward I. He uses s for the 3d Singular Present of the Verb; and has scho (she) for the AngloSaxon heo-thei (they) and ther (their) instead of hi and hira.

Early English Vocabulary.-During this period French words continued to flow steadily into our language, which, being as yet weak and broken, gladly received these accessions of strength from a former rival. This flow of French was mainly due to the translations of the time, especially such French Romances and Chronicles as were done into English.

The fact that the Clergy spoke and wrote Latin largely during the centuries immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest, enriched the English tongue with many theological and philosophical terms. This is the third stage of Latin influence.

Early English Grammar.-The characteristic difference between the Early English and the Semi-Saxon lies in the use of a single termination e in the inflection of Nouns and Verbs instead of the three Anglo-Saxon vowel-endings a, e, u; as,

The dropping of this final e, which was written but not always sounded, marks the transition of Early into Middle English.

The Anglo-Saxon th became on, and, being without accent, en in the 1st and 2d Persons Plural of the Verb. This probably arose from the French using, then as now, nous aimons (with a silent s) in the 1st Plural. Unable to form th correctly, and finding on in the Past Indicative, and in both Tenses of the Anglo-Saxon Subjunctive, they adopted it as more convenient. The on changed into en―the n fell off-the e ceased to be pronounced-and so the modern English form of the verbal plural arɔse.

MIDDLE ENGLISH.

(1362 A.D.-1558 A.D.)

There were three dialects of Anglo-Saxon, distinguished as the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern. The Midland dialect-i.e., the Anglo-Saxon of Mercia, spoken from Trent to Thames, is regarded as the parent of our literary English.

Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Huntingdonshire have all been named as the source of the purest English. Guest favours the notion that the first-Latham, the notion that the last-of these three counties was the cradle of our Classical English.

The introduction of Printing into England by Caxton, probably in 1474 A.D., exercised an incalculable influence on the English language and literature. Owing to the consequent multiplication of books, the Spelling and the Grammar of our tongue became gradually fixed. In the days of manuscripts alone, sound being the only guide in spelling, a word was often written in several different ways on one page.

An immediate result of the multiplication of books by printing was the diffusion of a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages. The fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Turks in 1453 A.D. scattered Greek scholars and Greek manuscripts over all Europe. The Reformationstruggle turned men's thoughts to the study of those tongues, in which the truths of Sacred Writ were deposited. And thus a number of classical words came to be engrafted on the English language.

How much the English language had at first to contend against, in the presence of a rival like the Latin, strong in both length of reign and sacredness of association, may be judged from Roger Ascham's apology in the Preface of his work on Archery (1545 A.D.,) in which he assigns his reasons for writing in English, instead of in the more excellent Latin tongue.

Middle English Literature.-The chief writers of the Middle English were :—

Writers.

Longlande.

Mandeville.

Wycliffe.

Chaucer.

Works.

Piers Plowman.

Travels.

English Bible.

Canterbury Tales.