Sources and Growth of the English Language. (Continued from page 109.)

Wordsworth, William, first of the "Lake Poets," and friend of Coleridge, was born at Cockermouth in 1770. His best works are "The Prelude," "The Excursion," "The White Doe of Rylstone." Some of his writings are exceedingly puerile, especially "Peter Bell." He was made Poet Laureate in 1843.

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, headed a rebellion against Queen Mary on her projected marriage with Philip of Spain, 1553. This was unsuccessful, and brought about the execution of Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley.

Wycliffe, John, born 1324, and educated at Oxford, was made Rector of Lutterworth in 1375. He was tried for heresy in 1377, but, backed up by powerful friends, escaped persecution. He was again summoned for trial, and condemned in default in 1381, but continued in his work at Lutterworth, where he died in 1384. By a decree of the Council of Constance in 1428, his bones were burnt, and the ashes thrown into the Swift (tributary of the Stratford Avon). His chief works were "The Last Age of the Church," and the Bible, translated into the mother tongue. This was done from the Latin Vulgate about 1380. His other works were attacks against the abuses of the begging friars, and against the Papal supremacy, whence he is called the Morning Star of the Reformation, preceding the fuller dawn of the time of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. He was supported by John of Gaunt, son of the Duke of Lancaster, but his followers, called Lollards, were afterwards much persecuted. He was also the author of "Apology" (for the Lollards), and "Harmony of the Gospels."

Burton, Robert, was born in Leicestershire, in 1576, educated at Oxford, and took orders. He had two livings, but spent his life at Christ's College. He was a firm believer in astrology, and is said to have hastened his own end in order that his horoscope might be fulfilled. His chief work is the "Anatomy of Melancholy," in which he describes the different kinds of melancholy, points out the symptoms, and the means of cure. It is a very pedantic and curious work, but also fascinating to many readers. Burton died in 1640, and his tomb bears this inscription:-"Hic jacet Democritus junior cui vitam dedit, et mortem Melancholia" (Here lies the younger Democritus, to whom, melancholy gave both life and death).

Cadmon. This, the earliest of the English poets, is said to have been a cowherd, until moved in a dream to sing the "Creation." On awaking he went to the Reeve of Whitby, who introduced him to the Abbess Hilda, at whose advice he became a monk. In the "Creation," "the pride, rebellion, and punishment of Satan and his princes have a resemblance to Milton's 'Paradise Lost' so remarkable that most of these portions might be almost literally translated by a canto of lines from the great poet."- Conybeare: "Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry."

Caxton, William, born about 1412, a London merchant, introduced into England the art of printing 1474, and wrote or printed 63 works,

mostly English, at the press at Westminster, among which was the "Game of Chess."

33

Chaucer, Geoffrey, was born in London, 1328, and wrote a few prose and many poetical works. He was supported by John of Gaunt, and for a time held court offices, but afterwards became poor. Among his poems, many of which are from Italian and French sources, are the following: "The Romance of the Rose," from the French; "The Court of Love" "The Assembly of Fools;" "Troilus and Cressida," from the Italian of Boccaccio; The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; "Legend of Good Women," from Ovid; "The House of Fame;" and "The Flower and the Leaf.". "The Canterbury Tales" are twenty-four stories told by pilgrims going to visit the shrine of Thomas-a-Beckett at Canterbury, consisting of 17,000 lines of poetry, and two prose tales, exquisite as pictures of English life of the period, contained in sketches by a knight, squire, host, yeoman, franklin, ploughman, miller, prioress, monk, friar, priest, clerk, doctor, merchant, wife of Bath, &c. The sketches are unfortunately coarse in the language and manners described.

Crashaw, Richard, was born in 1620. He was brought up in the Anglican Church, but became a Roman Catholic, and was made Canon of Loretto. He was an imitator of Herbert, and took a similar title for one of his works, viz., "Steps to the Temple," published in 1646. He died in 1650.

Gower, John, contemporary and friend of Chaucer, was born about 1320, and is chiefly remarkable for his English work "Confessio Amantis"-a collection of stories and reflections of a tedious character written on the seven deadly sins. He also wrote in French and Latin.

Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey, born 1516, courtier of Henry VIII. He celebrates his ladylove under the title of the "Fair Geraldine." With his father, the Duke of Norfolk, he was thrown into the Tower by Henry VIII., and the former was executed 1547.

James I., of Scotland, born 1395. To escape the machinations of his uncle Albany, his father sent him to the court of France when only 11 years of age. He was captured en route by an English ship, and although a trace existed between this country and Scotland at the time, he was retained prisoner at Windsor Castle by Henry IV., who, however, saw that he was well educated. He was subsequently allowed to return to Scotland with his bride, on ransom, but fell the victim of conspiracy at Perth. He wrote the "King's Quair"-quire or book, a poetical description of his courtship (in the Tower) of Jane Beaufort, grand-daughter of John of Gaunt.

Langland, Robert, was the author of the famous "Visions of Piers Plowman," 1362, a series of allegorical satires on the church abuses of the time, written in the manner of the "Pilgrim's Progress. The work is divided into (1) "The Vision of Piers [Peter] Plowman," traditionally ascribed to Langland, and in this all classes of society are described; (2) "The Creed of Piers Plowman" was written about thirty years after the preceding, and in imitation of it, by a follower of Wycliff; (3) the "Complaint of Piers Plowman was written about fifteen years subsequent to 2, and is a political satire. These three were very popular when printed in 1550, and helped on the Reformation, and

moulded the character of Spenser and others. "This poem is the popular representative of the doctrines which were silently bringing about the Reformation, and it is a peculiarly national poem not only as being a much purer specimen of the English language than Chaucer, but as exhibiting the revival of alliteration."-Chambers.

Lydgate, John, monk of Bury St. Edmunds, died about 1460, wrote"The Fall of Princes," a translation; "The Story of Thebes," a translation; and "Troy," a translation. "His muse was of universal access, and he was not only the poet of the monastery, but of the world in general; if a mask, a maygame, a mumming, a procession of pageants, a card for the coronation was wanted, Lydgate was consulted, and gave the poetry."-Warton.

(

Spencer, Edmund, born in London, 1553, was educated at Cambridge. He was patronized by Sir Philip Sydney and by the Earl of Leicester, the latter securing him an appointment as secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, the former a grant of land out of the forfeited estates of the Irish rebels. Queen Elizabeth gave him a small pension, but Burleigh stood in his way. The Castle of Kilcoman, which had been given him as an Irish residence, was burnt in Tyrone's insurrection, and one of Spencer's children perished in the fire. His allegorical heroes "want flesh and blood; a want for which nothing can compensate."-Ellis. But "his versification is the most smooth and most sounding in the language-it is the perfection of swelling harmony dissolving the soul in pleasure."-Hazlitt.

MODERN ENGLISH, 1509-1879.

The two great events of the English Reformation and the revival of learning at the beginning of this period had a great effect on the language and literature of this country, but not till after the events themselves took place.

Among the classical scholars of the period were-
Thomas Linacre, the physician.

William Lily, the first teacher of Greek in England.

Roger Ascham, tutor of Queen Elizabeth, author of the "Schoolmaster," dealing with discipline, punishment, teaching, training of youth, with a ready way to the Latin tongue.

Sir Thomas More, author of "Utopia;" this latter work described an imaginary common-wealth based on community of property.

Besides works in the classical languages, were others in English, and especially translations of the Scriptures; among these were

William Tyndale's New Testament, printed at Antwerp in 1526, and smuggled into England. This was revised in 1534, and reprinted in England in 1536. The author was strangled and burned as a heretic the same year. Miles Coverdale, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, translated the whole Bible into English in 1537.

up of the results

Matthew's Bible was edited by Rogers in 1537, made of the labours of the editor, Tyndale, and Coverdale. The Great Bible, or Cranmer's, appeared 1539 or 1540.

Among the poets of the early period were

Skelton, rector of Diss, in Norfolk, tutor of Henry VIII., and satirist

(as in "Colin Clout") of the church, especially of Wolsey. He is styled a "rude, rayling rimer" by Pattenham.

Earl of Surrey, Henry Howard, the first writer of sonnets, and first blank-verse writer; translator of part of the Eneid, in close imitation of the Italians.

Sackville, writer of the better portion of the "Mirror for Magistrates.' Sir Thomas Wyatt, born 1503, writer of love lyrics on Ann Boleyn. (To be continued.)

School Method and management.
(BY THE EDITOR.)

(Continued from page 114.)

The difficulties of teaching to read the English language, because of its irregularities, are due to the fact that it is a composite language, mainly made up of Saxon, Norman-French, and Classic forms. The latter are regular in their pronunciation, being like the German, purely phonic-being sounded as they are spelt; but being names of abstract ideas, mental processes and relations, &c., they do not come within the compass of a young child's life.

There remain, therefore, the Saxon and Norman-French; but really there were several dialects of the Saxon (see Notes of Lessons on Dialects), and instances of all three are retained in our pronunciation, which is quite as parti-coloured and mosaic as the structure of the language itself is. Thus the normal pronunciation of one in alone, only, atone, &c., is ōhn; but in one it is wun, borrowed from the dialect of the south, just as in Sussex the peasantry called oats, wuts.

Since these several Saxon dialects were subsequently mixed with modes of pronunciation borrowed from the Danish and Norman-French, and later from modern French, German, &c., we have at last a confusion of pronunciation that is bewildering.

If the alphabet were perfect, (1) each letter would be the visible sign of one sound only; and (2) each sound in the language would have its corresponding sign, and one only; in other words, the eye and the ear would never deceive each other.

As instances of the want of this, take the following:

(1) (a) Where one letter has five sounds

a in any (ě), fat (ă), fate (ā), father (ah), fall (au).

(b) e in mete, where the first is ē, and in the second case silent; and in met, where it is ě.

These instances might be illustrated through all the vowels and consonants, when it would be seen that really we require an alphabet of at least sixty-six different signs instead of twenty-six.

But the remark is also true of combinations which have no fixed value, but differ in different connections, as ea in mean (e), yea (ā, and yet we say nay, not nea), instead (ě), hearth (ah), earth (with the sound of i in bird), beefsteak (where the ea is not quite so long as in yea). In fact, these vowel changes which are rung on the visible signs, run into one another in almost an arbitrary manner; till eye and car give the lie to each other.

[Moreover, many of these 26 letters of our alphabet are redundant, as c, k, q, are in some cases alike in use; as are s and c, s and z, g and j, i and y.]

(2) But each sound has not its corresponding sign: Thus the long sound of a may be represented by a, eigh, ey, ai, ay; while we have au, aw, a; eo, ou, ow, eu, ew, ō, eau, oh, oa, and oe; ee, ea, eo, ei, ie, i, oo, and u; eu, ew, ieu, eau, ui, and ue; ou and ow; oi and oy; i, uy, eye, ui, igh, y, and ie; sh and ch; f and ph; to represent respectively the same sounds.

As a typical picture of the incongruity of our language in this respect, the following group of inconsistencies is generally given :

After this well might one say "the spelling (and pronunciation) of English is an aid to faith; for when a man has once realized the above, he is in a condition of mind to believe anything."

With such a state of things no wonder that the child is drawn to a Look-and-Say method of his own from the very first page of ninetenths of the primers, the writers of which have conceived that in giving short words they have given easy ones, whereas it is the short words, and those most commonly used, that are the hard ones of the language: as they (where ea, and y is silent); on, no, to (where o has a different sound in each case), and so on.

Many of the letters and combinations have no use so far as fixing the pronunciation is concerned-they are silent letters and combinations and this is represented to the child in Daldy and Isbister's Sheets by hollow letters, together by a line drawn through the letters; and in Robinson's Phonic method by the use of italics, as though. The latter plan is exceedingly useful in practice, and requires no special type, the child in dictation crossing out the silent letter or letters on his slate. This silent gh is found in seventy-five words in the language; as after i (nigh), ou (bough), au (naught), ei (eight), &c.

Damaging comparisons are often made between the state of elementary education in England and in Germany, but if we had a Phonic language like that in the latter country, and a decimal system of arithmetic, three-fourths of the time spent in an English school would be saved, as it is on the Continent. As it is, learning to read English on the ordinary Look-and-Say and Alphabetic methods is, to a great extent, like learning written Chinese, where each separate symbol has a separate meaning. This is true at least to the extent of 1300 of the words of the language: and of these 800 are monosyllables, and stand at the threshold of learning to read.

The remedy for this must be :

1. Teaching the child one function of a letter only at a time. 2. Diacritical marks to point out the different functions. Moreover (1), the child is set to learn two different kinds of printed letters in the same function, viz., small and capitals; and (2), there is (a) in script and (b) in print (or rather several print) characters as M and m.