Paul Studer

“ But I would plead that the Middle Ages should be better known, especially that period of the Middle Ages in which France and England shared a common language and a common literature, and took part in the same social and religious activity. The study of Anglo-Norman, revealing, as it must, the points of contact as well as the differences between the two nations, will lead to surer knowledge and greater mutual appreciation. ”

“ Recent history furnishes us with an example not less striking. Men from various parts of the British Isles have taken to the Colonies their peculiarities of speech, but they in their own lifetime, or at all events their descendants, have gradually discarded those peculiarities, and adopted the characteristic pronunciation and phraseology which enables us to tell the Australian from the Anglo-Indian, the Cape Colonist from the Canadian. ”

“ Until the middle of the fourteenth century Anglo-Norman remained in every sense of the term a 'living' language, and the natural medium of expression of a considerable portion of the population, of the king's household, the nobility, the clergy, and even the merchants. ”

“ A recent investigation [21] has shown that before 1300 few letters were written in Anglo-Norman except by members of the aristocracy, but fifty years later all but the lowest classes of the community conducted their correspondence in that language. But bilingualism, the severance of intimate intercourse with Normandy (after 1204) , and the gradual absorption of the Norman element in the population accelerated the decay of Anglo-Norman. For a long time, however, it maintained itself as the language of the aristocracy. ”

“ Allowance must be made also for those 'uplondisshe men' who, like William of Wadington, were reared in the country, where there was neither burg ne cité, and wrote a language of which they readily admitted they had but an imperfect knowledge. The rise of Paris as a seat of learning and the home of a brilliant court finally established for all times the superiority of Parisian French over other dialects, even over Provençal and Anglo-Norman, and made it the literary language of the whole of France. ”

“ A true appreciation of Anglo-Norman literature is hardly possible until more texts have been edited, and several of the existing editions revised and corrected. Here is a great opportunity for young philologists desirous of acquiring useful experience. The careful editing of a text affords an excellent exercise. It stimulates the initiative and sharpens the critical faculties. Moreover the field is wide and provides for a variety of tastes. Some texts offer a purely linguistic interest; others can best be studied in connexion with the Middle-English works derived from them. ”

“ The desirability of arriving at an agreement must be obvious to every one, and I trust I have given adequate reasons for preferring 'Anglo-Norman'.
In my attempt to show that Anglo-Norman was a homogeneous language with distinctly Norman characteristics, I have broadly outlined its history down to the close of the fourteenth century. There remains the more difficult and delicate task of forming an estimate of the value (literary or linguistic) of the records which have been preserved. So many works are accessible only in MSS. or in faulty editions that a final verdict cannot yet be passed. ”

“ They can hardly be reckoned as specimens of literature, but they give us a comprehensive view of the beliefs and superstitions which were current in their days, and of the naïve theories which accounted for natural phenomena, and explained their inner and higher significance. History proved equally attractive to the Normans. Whilst in France, with a few notable exceptions, it continued to be written in Latin down to the time of Froissart, England was flooded with a mass of chronicles rhymed in French. ”

“ We possess in our libraries the products of their labour, the books which they wrote, numerous manuscripts which have been thumbed by compilers of catalogues or foreign palaeographers, but which have never been adequately studied. Like the ancient buildings that house them they are a rich legacy of the past, which it is our privileged duty not only to hold in trust, but to utilize for the benefit of sound learning. ”

“ Other tales there were of a mysterious passion which the world had never before experienced. It was not the sensuous love of the Frenchman, nor the elemental passion of the Saxon, neither was it the lip-worship proffered by the troubadours, nor yet the fateful spell known to the ancients. ”

“ Tanquerey's study of the evolution of the verb in Anglo-Norman [56] is more exhaustive. It is a praiseworthy attempt to solve a most intricate problem. Although some of the conclusions may have to be revised in the light of fuller knowledge, a great part of the work will prove of permanent value. The comparative study of Middle-English and Anglo-Norman philology has already yielded interesting results, [57] but there is ample room for further investigation. The abundant material supplied by Professor Wright's Dictionary of English Dialects should be carefully explored. ”

“ On the other hand scientific works—as science was then understood—were in great demand. It was among the Normans of England that the Physiologus, the mediaeval text-book on natural history, was first translated into the vernacular (Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaun) . The earliest French versions of Lapidaries appear also to be the result of their efforts. [40] Almanacs, prophecies, charms, medical recipes, cookery-books were plentifully supplied in prose and verse. Encyclopaedias, running to thousands of lines, were specially written for those unskilled in Latin. ”

“ Modern scholarship, too, has greatly strengthened our case. A careful study of the vocabulary of Middle-English led Professor Behrens [34] to the conclusion that the French words taken up by the English language before the end of the fourteenth century point, almost without exception, to a Norman origin. This view has been confirmed by recent investigations, e.g. those of J. M. Booker on The French inchoative suffix in Middle-English, [35] and of Zachrisson on the Anglo-Norman influence on English Place-Names. ”

“ But the majority of their countrymen were quite content with the knowledge of what was still a fashionable and aristocratic language. John Peckham (†1292) , a distinguished Oxford teacher, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, continued to write his letters in Anglo-Norman, although he had studied and taught many years in the University of Paris. [32] Even in the fourteenth century, when Parisian French had long outdistanced other dialects as a literary medium, the French language spoken in England was still fairly uniform. ”

“ More recent critics have seldom followed their good example. The Cambridge History of English Literature devotes special chapters to Anglo-Saxon and to the Latin literature produced in England, but refers only incidentally to Anglo-Norman production. ”

“ A spirit of adventure and enterprise, sound statesmanship and business capacity, an appreciation of art and literature, and above all a lively curiosity were grafted upon a nation which had grown effete and unnerved.
Norman literature, which had begun on the Continent with works of the highest promise, continued productive in England. La Chanson de Roland and Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne have been preserved in Anglo-Norman. MSS., and both were translated or imitated in English. Richard Cœur-de-Lion, Fulk Fitz Warin, King Dermot became the heroes of new epic legends. ”

“ By breaking down racial barriers it fostered an active interchange of ideas between nations which had kept aloof from one another. It engendered a true cosmopolitan spirit, a catholicity of taste, which yielded a plentiful harvest. Men and ideas were esteemed for their intrinsic value, or their personal qualities. ”

“ In the fourteenth century it was used by William Twich in his Art de Venerye (a treatise on hawking) , by Sir Thomas Gray in his Scalacronica (1355) , and in many satires and political songs. The regulations of this University were drawn up in Latin and French, [22] and students were forbidden to converse in any other language; [23] and when Bishop Stapeldon wished the nuns of Polsloe Priory fully to understand his meaning, he drew up his injunctions not in English but in Anglo-Norman. [24] When native production began to run thin, continental writers lent their good offices. ”

“ The legends that gathered round the names of saints are often very strange: orthodox teaching blends with ill-concealed pagan worship; true Christian piety and crude superstition are inextricably mingled. ”

“ They hardly commend themselves as food for the soul, but as a rich mine of myth and folklore they would repay more careful study. [44] Closely connected with the Church was also the incipient Drama. The honour of producing the oldest extant play [45] in the vernacular belongs to an Anglo-Norman poet endowed with real dramatic skill and instinct. Religious spectacles with their impressive display could scarcely fail to become popular and were continued in English when French went out of use. ”

“ Sprache in England, Annaberg, 1880, p. 28. ↑ It has been pointed out that the vernacular of English Jews remained French up to the time of their expulsion, 1290 (cf. Schofield, English Literature, p. 64) . In Southampton, French remained the official language of the Guild Merchants until the middle of the fifteenth century (cf. Studer, Supplement to Oak Book, pp. 8, 9) . ↑ F. J. Tanquerey, Recueil de lettres anglo-françaises, Paris, 1916. ”

“ E. Löseth, Le roman en prose de Tristan, Paris, 1891, p. 2. ↑ Mr. A. Rowlands of Jesus College has in preparation an edition of this poem. ↑ F. J. Tanquerey, Recueil de lettres anglo-françaises, Paris, 1916, p. xvi. ↑ P. Meyer, Romania, xxxii, pp. 49 sq. ↑ Französische Studien, v, pp. 105 sq., 309 sq., and Paul's Grundriss, i, pp. 960 sq. ↑ Dissertation, Heidelberg, 1912. ↑ R. E. Zachrisson, A contribution to the Study of A.-N. Influence on English Place-Names, Lund, 1909. ”