seying (seeing) none can knowe either what thei are, or what thei have, without the gift of uttraunce (utterance). Yea, bring them to speake their mind, and enter into talke with soche as are said to be learned, and you shall finde in them soche lacke of uttraunce, that if you judge them by their tong, and expressing of their minde, you must nedes' (needs) saie, thei have no learnyng. Wherein me thinkes thei do like some rich snudges, (misers) that havyng greate wealth, go with their hose (stockings) out at heeles, their showes (shoes) out at toes, and their coates out at both elbowes. For who can tell, if soche men are worth a grote (groat) when their apparell is so homelie, and al their behaviour so base? I can call them by none other name but slovens, that maie have good geare2 (clothes), and neither can nor yet will, ones (once, ever) weare it clenly. What is a good thing to a man, if he neither knowe the use of it, nor yet, though he knowe it, is hable (able) at all to use it? If we thinke it comelinesse and honestie (decency) to set forthe the body with handsome apparell, and thinke them worthie to have money, that bothe can and will use it accordingly, I can not otherwise see, but that this parte deserveth praise, whiche standeth whollie (entirely consists) in setting forthe matter by apte woordes and sentences together, and beautifieth the tongue with great chaunge of colours, and varietie of figures.

2. SIMPLICITY OF STYLE RECOMMENDED.
(FROM THE SAME WORK.)

EMONG (among) all other lessons, this should first be learned, that we never affecte any straunge ynkehorne (pedantic) termes, but so speake as is commonly received; neither seking

(1) Nedes. Some have explained this-Richardson does-as need is; there is, however, little doubt that it is an old gen. case, of need, used adverbially.

(2) Geare, fr. A.S. gearwa, wh. fr. gearwian, to prepare; hence gear signified preparation generally, corresponding almost exactly with Lat. apparatus, and therefore meaning dress, accoutrements, machinery in working order; hence the modern phrase "out of gear."

(3) Handsome. This word was used in very early times, in its modern acceptation, and also in that of handy. Tyndall translates Erasmus's Enchiridion Christiani Militis, by "the hansom weapon of a Christen knight."

(4) Ynkehorne termes, called in another passage of Wilson's, ynkepot termes. Ascham also speaks of changing "straunge and inkhorne tearmes into proper and commonlie used wordes." This epithet implies a censure on those who use fine words in writing, which they would not use in speaking.

to be over fine, not yet living over carelesse, usyng our speache as most men doo, and orderyng our wittes as the feweste (the few) have doen (done). Some seke so farre for outlandishe (foreign) Englishe, that thei forgette altogether their mothers language. And I dare sweare this, if some of their mothers were alive, thei wer not (would not be) hable (able) to tell what thei saie, and yet these fine Englishe clerkes (learned men) wil saie thei speake in their mothers tonge, if a man should charge them for (accuse them of) counterfeityng (debasing) the kynges Engl she. Some farre iournied (well-travelled) gentlemen, at their retourne home, like as thei love to go in forrein" (foreign) apparell, so thei will pouder their talke with oversea (foreign) language. He that commeth lately out of Fraunce, will talk Frenche-English, and never blush at the matter. An other chops in (strikes in) with Englishe Italianated (Italianised) and applieth the Italian phrase to our Englishe speaking, the whiche is, as if an Oratour that proposeth to utter his mynde in plain Latin, would needes speake Poetrie, and farre fetched colours of straunge antiquitie. The Lawier will store his stomache with the pratynge of Pedlers. The Auditour (accountant), in making his accoumpt and rekening, cometh in with sise sould (six sols or solds or sous) and cater denere (quatre deniers) for vis iiiia. The fine courtie (courtier) will talke nothyng but Chaucer. The mistical wisemen and poeticall clerkes (clergymen?) will speake nothyng but quainte proverbes, and blind allegories, delityng moche in their own darkenesse,

(1) Kynges Englishe. This phrase, rendered famous in our own day by the tilting of Dean Alford and Mr. Washington Moon on the "Queen's English," perhaps bears date from Wilson's time.

(2) Forein or forrein, fr. Fr. forain, wh. fr. low Lat. foraneus (non-resident), wh. fr. Lat. foris, outside the door, abroad. The corruption in the spelling-the interpolation of the g-seems to have taken place rather later, along with sovereign for sovran, feign for fain, &c.

(3) Colours. To speak colours sounds strange, but is justified by the early use of the word, for appearance as opposed to reality; or, as here, metaphor as opposed to plain description. (See also p. 77.) Chaucer, in the "Squire's Tale," (for which see "Studies in English Poetry," pp. 243, 251), has:—

"Min English eke is unsufficient,

If muste ben a Rhethor (Rhetorician) excellent

That coude his colours longing for that art (that knew the metaphors of his art), If he shuld hire discriven ony part."

(4) Sol or sold, now sou, the French shilling of that time, "tenne of which," says Cotgrave, "make one of ours;" fr. Lat. solidus, which with denarius, the Fr. denier, supply the s and the d of our famous £. s. d.

especiallie when none can tell what thei doe saie. The unlearned or foolishe phantasticall (fantastical prigs) that smelles but of learnyng (soche felowes as have seen learned men in their daies) will so Latin (Latinize or belatin) their toungues that the simple can not but wonder at their talke and thinke surely thei speake by some revelacion. I know them that thinke Rhetorique (Rhetoric) to stand whollie upon (to consist entirely of) darke woordes, and he that can catche an ynke horne terme by the taile, hym thei coumpt to be a fine Englishman and a good Rhetorician.1

3. THE WISDOM OF POETRY.

(FROM THE SAME WORK.)

THE saiying of Poetes and all their fables are not to be forgotten, for by them we maie talke at large, and win men by perswasion, if we declare before hand, that these tales were not fainid (feigned) of soch wisemen without cause, neither yet continued untill this tyme, and kept in memorie without good consideracion, and thereupon declare the true meaning of all soche writing. For undoubtedly, there is no one tale emong all the Poetes but under the same is comprehended some thyng that parteineth2 (appertaineth, conduces) either to the amendement of maners, to the knowlege of truth, to the settyng foorthe of natures woorke, or els to the understandyng of some notable thyng doen (done). For what other is the painfull3 (laborious) travaile of Ulisses, discribed so largely by Homere, but a lively picture of mannes misery in this life. And as Plutarche saith, and likewise Basilius Magnus (Basil the Great); in the Iliades

(1) Dr. Andrew Borde, a writer of the day (and who is thought by some to be the original" Merry Andrew ") begins a book, published in 1547, tl.us: "Egregious doctours and maysters of the eximious and archane science of Physick, of your urbanite, exasperate not your selve," &c. Such masquerading of words as this was enough to "exasperate " our "egregious doctor" Wilson- and not him alone. (2) Parteinith or perteinith, fr. Fr. appartenir, wh. fr. Lat. adpertinere, to hold to throughout, or keep close to. Both pertein and appertein were simultaneously in use in the 14th century. Wiclif generally uses the former, and Chaucer the

latter.

(3) Painfull, a hybrid word of Fr. and A.S. origin. The Fr. peine means properly trouble, labour, or pains, as in the phrase, "to take pains," and hence a "painfull travaile" is one full of labour or difficulty, and a "painful writer "is one who takes pains in writing. Latimer speaks of "painful (i.e. painstaking) magistrates." See Trench, "English, Past and Present," p. 169, and also his "Select Glossary," where (sub voce) he remarks, "Many things would not be so painful in the present sense of the word, if they had been more painful in the earlier."

are described strength, and valiauntnesse1 (power) of bodie; in Odissea is set forthe a lively paterne of the minde. The Poetes are wisemen, and wisshed in harte (heart) the redress? of thynges, the whiche when for feare thei durst not openly rebuke, thei did in colours (poetical metaphors) painte them out (show them forth) and told menne by shadowes what thei shuld dooe in good soothe (truth), or els bicause the wickid were unworthy to hear the truthe, thei spake so that none might understande, but those unto whom thei please to utter their meanyng, and knewe them to be men of honest conversacion (honourable character).

4. A "MERIE TALE.”

(FROM THE SAME WORK.)

AN Italian having a sute (suit) here in England, to tharchebishoppe (the Archbishop) of York that then was, and commyng to Yorke toune at that tyme when one of the Prebendaries there brake his breade, as thei terme it, and thereupon made a solemne longe diner, the whiche perhappes began at aleven" (eleven) and continued welnighe (almost) till fower in the after noone, at the which diner this bishop was.

6

(1) Valiantnesse, fr. Fr. vaillant, with the addition of the A.S. nesse. In very early English, valiantise, directly fr. Fr. vaillantise, was in use; two centuries later, valiantnesse; and now both are gone, and the simpler word valour has their place. Elyot (see p. 59) speaks of "valiaunte exercise."

(2) Redress. See note 1, p. 26.

(3) Conversacion, fr. Lat. conversari, to dwell or associate with; first used in the 14th century in the sense of behaviour or deportment. Wiclif translates Gal. i. 13, "Ye han herd min conversacioun (i.e. manner of life) in jewrie" (A.V. " in the Jews' religion"). Bacon, later, speaks of "a love and desire to sequester a man's selfe (one's self) for a higher conversation (i.e. course of life)."

(4) Brake his bread. An affected phrase of the time, equivalent to that now used of "taking one's mutton " with a friend.

(5) Solemne, fr. Lat. sollennis, that which takes place every year, regular, and therefore ceremonious and stately, which is the meaning above. Hence to solemnise, to treat ceremoniously and gravely.

(6) Diner. To compare the present usage with the past of three hundred years ago, read the following:-"When foure houres bee past after breakefast, a man may safely take his dinner, and the most convenient time for dinner is about eleven of the clocke before noone."-Cogan's "Haven of Health," published in 1584.

(7) Aleven, a misprint probably for eleven, which was spelt in the 14th century endlevene, endlefte, or ellevent. It is fr. A.S. endleof, endlyfa (M.G. ainlif) and is supposed by most of the authorities (not all) to be for, oneleft, i.e one after counting through the first ten; so twelve, for two left.

It so fortuned (happened) that as they were sette (seated at table) the Italian knockte at the gate, unto whom the porter perceiving his errand, answered, that my lorde Bishop was at diner. The Italian departed and retourned betwixte twelve and one; the porter answered, they were yet at diner. He came againe at twoo of the clocke (o'clock), the porter tolde him, thei had not half dined. He came at three a clocke (o'clock), unto whom the porter in a heate (rage) answered never a worde, but churlishely did shutte the gates upon him. Whereupon others told the Italian, that there was (would be) no speaking with my Lorde almost all that daie, for the solemne diner sake (dinner's sake). The gentilman Italian, wonderyng moche at soche a long sitting, and greatlie greved because he could not then speak with the Bishoppes grace, departed straight towardes London, and leavyng the dispatche of his matters with a dere friend of his, toke his iourney towards Italie. Three yeres after, it happened that an Englisheman came to Rome, with whom this Italian by chaunce falling acquainted, asked him if he knew the Bishop (the Archbishop) of Yorke. The Englisheman saied, he knewe him righte well. I pray you tell me (quoth the Italian) hath that Bishoppe yet dined? The Englishe manne, moche_marvellyng at his question, could not tell what to saie. The Italian up and tolde him (told him at once) all, as I have saied before, whereat they bothe laughed hartelie.

QUEEN MARY I.

MORAL MAXIMS.

(FROM AUTOGRAPH MS. IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.)

GEATE (get) you such riches as, when the shippe is broken1 (wrecked), may swyme away wythe the master. For dyverse chances take away the goods of fortune, but the goods of the soule whych been only the (which are the only) trewe goods nother (neither) fyr nor water can take away.

If you take labour and payne (trouble) to do a vertuous thyng, the labour goeth away and the vertue remayneth.

Yf throughe pleasure you do any vicious thyng, the pleasure goeth away and the vice remayneth.

(1) The shippe is broken. The A.S. word for shipwreck is scipgebrok, like Ger. schiffsbruck. Wiclif has, "Thries I was at shipbrecke" (1 Cor. xi. 25), where the A.V., is "Thrice I suffered shipwreck."

G