XX. Confining ourselves to the history of the English language since the Norman Conquest, we may call the First Century after that date its Infancy; the Second its childhood; the Third its Boyhood; the Fourth and Fifth its Youth, or Adolescence; and the time that has since elapsed its Manhood. Its Infancy and Childhood will thus correspond with what is usually designated the Period of SemiSaxon; its Boyhood with that of Early English; its Youth with that of Middle English; its Manhood with that of Modern English.

It is evident, from what has been stated in the preceding Sections, that the only natural, or scientific, division of the history of the English language in its entire extent is into the three following stages :

1. That of its original form, when it retained intact both the integrity of its Grammar (or inflectional system) and the homogeneousness of its Vocabulary; being that in which it subsisted during the period preceding the Norman Conquest, and in which it is commonly spoken of by modern philologists under the name of the Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon;

2. That of its degradation into an illiterate patois by the breaking up of its Grammar, though without the intrusion of any foreign element into its Vocabulary (corresponding to what is commonly called the Semi-Saxon); being that in which it is found for the first two centuries after the Conquest;

3. That of its acquisition of both a new form and a new spirit or genius by the combination of the original Gothic basis of its Vocabulary with a Latin (Romance, Norman, or French) element; being that in which it still is, and comprehending the periods usually called those of Early English, of Middle English, and of Modern English.

The three successive and distinct states or forms may be most properly designated :-the First, that of Pure or Simple English; the Second, that of Broken or SemiEnglish; the Third, that of Mixed or Compound English.*

But the following Table gives us a convenient enough technical division (convenient to be known, at any rate, as being that currently assumed) of so much of the history of the language as is subsequent to the Norman Conquest, at which date it may be considered to have, as it were, started upon a new career: 十一

* See this scheme of the true History of the Language explained and illustrated in Chapter First of "The Curiosities of the English Language," published in the Dublin University Magazine for July 1857.

The dates in the Table are accommodated to the Kings' reigns; but the Periods and Ages may be most conveniently considered as extending from about the middle of one century to the middle of another, and as therefore consisting in each case of one or more centuries. And, of course, as with the human being to which it is compared, the language was making progress during or within each of the stages into which its history may be thus divided, as much as in passing from one to another of them.

1

ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS.

I. Original English; English Pure or Simple (Saxon, or Anglo-Saxon).

1. From the Voyage of Ohther in Alfred's Translation of Orosius, Book i. :—before A.D. 900.

And thær is mid Estum dheaw, thonne thær bidh man dead, that he lidh inne unforbærned mid his magum and freondum monadh, ge hwilum twegen, and tha kyningas and tha odhre heahdhungene men swa micle lencg swa hi maran speda habbadh; hwilum healf gear that hi beodh unforbærned, and licgadh bufan eorthan on hyra husum. And, ealle tha hwile the that lic bidh inne, thær sceal beon gedrync and plega, odh thone dæg the hi hine forbærnadh.

[And there is with Esthonians a custom, when there is one dead, that he lieth within unburnt with his kinsmen and friends a month, yea sometimes (whiles, Scot.) twain, and the kings and the other highspoken-of men so much (mickle, Scot.) longer as they more wealth (lit. speed) have; sometimes [it is] half a year that they be unburnt, and lie above earth in their houses. And, all the while that the corpse is within, there shall be [it is the custom that there be] drinking and play until the day that they it burn.]

2. From the latter portion of the Chronicle:-about 1100.

A.D. 1087.- Dhissum thus gedone, se cyng Willelm cearde ongean to Normandige. . . He swealt on Normandige on thone nextan dæg æfter nativitas Sce Marie; and man begyrgede hine on Cathum æt Sce [Sci?] Stephanes mynstre... Gif hwa gewilniged to gewitane hu gedon man he was, odhdhe hwilcne wurdhscipe he hæfde, odhdhe hu fela lande he wære hlaford, thonne wille we be him awritan swa swa we hine ageaton; we him onlocodan, and odhre hwile on his hirede wunedon. . . He sætte mycel deorfridh, and he lægde laga thær widh ; that swa hwa swa sloge heort odhdhe hinde thæt hine man sceold blendian. He forbead tha heortas,* swylce eac tha baras. Swa swidhe he lufode tha heodeor swylce he wære heora fæder. Eac he sætte be tham haran that hi mosten freo faran. His rice men hit mændon, and tha earme men hit beceorodan; ac he was swa stidh that he ne rohte heora eallra nidh.

[This thus done, the King William turned again to Normandy. He died in Normandy on the next day after (the) nativity of St Mary (Nativitas Sanctæ Mariæ); and man (Ger. man, Fr. on, anciently homme) buried him in Caen, at St Stephen's minster. . . If any may wish to know how to do man (what kind of man) he was, or what worship he had, or of how many lands he was lord, then will we by (in regard to) him write so as we him knew: we him beheld, and other while in his household wonned (dwelt) . . . He set much deer free-ground (he made many deer-parks), and he laid (down) laws therewith; that whoso slew hare or hind that him man should blind. As he forbade

*We ought, apparently, to read-that hwa swa sloge heort, and Swa he forbead tha heortas. The passage, from He sætte mycel deorfridh is probably in rhyme, although Dr Ingram's proposed substitution of blinde for blendian is inadmissible without a verb in the infinitive after sceold.