when the conquerors and the conquered became confounded in the fame mafs, by intermarriages, and by a general unity of intereft. Hence, the Norman and Anglo-Saxon, which for fome time exifted in England as diftinct and rival tongues, have long fince difappeared; while, from a series of oppofite causes, the Welsh has continued to the prefent day; and it is probable that, by a careful examination of our political and legal history alone, we might be able to trace the gradations of our language with tolerable accuracy. In the mean time, it is impoffible not to fee, that a great deal too much has been attributed to the perfonal character of the Conqueror, and that hiftorians have afcribed to particular parts of his policy, effects directly oppofite to thofe which they were naturally calculated to produce. code of laws which placed his power on a military bafis; and he introduced it in the language in which it was originally compiled, and which was familiar to that army to which he looked for his fecurity. By encouraging the study of French in the fchools, he gave his fubjects the means of understanding the laws which he expected them to obey. He did this, perhaps, tyrannically and harshly; but it is not proved that he did it with the view of making the Norman the univerfal language of his fubjects, or that he expected them, at their return from school, to talk French in their own families: he might, with equal wisdom, have fuppofed that they would converfe habitually in Latin, which they learnt in the fame fchools. Even during the reign of Edward the Confeffor, the Anglo-Saxon had ceased to be We are told, for inftance, that cultivated; and after the conqueft, it William hated and determined to e- was fure to become more and more radicate the language of this ifland, barbarous, because it was the lanand to introduce the Norman in its guage of an oppreffed and enslaved place; and this has been so often re- people; but it continued to exist. peated, that Mr Tyrwhitt has thought Indeed, the obfcurity of our earliest it neceffary to refute the affertion by poets is well known to arife from the authority of Ordericus Vitalis, a this fource; and the great influx of contemporary hiftorian, who tells us, French words which was ultimately that William had, in fact, taken introduced, and thus formed the Angreat pains to acquire the Anglo- glo-Norman or English language, was Saxon. But furely the abfurdity of fo far from being a confequence of the charge is its beft refutation. Wil- the tyrannical policy of the Conquerliam must have known, that the or, that it was moft rapid at the Franks who conquered Gaul, and very period when that policy was a his own ancestors' who fubdued Neu- bandoned; that is to fay, a little beftria, had not been able to fubftitute fore the time of Minot, Gower, and the Teutonic for the Romance lan- Chaucer; and was the natural result guage in their dominions; that the of increafing intercourfe between the measure was not at all neceffary to Norman nobles and their English vafthe establishment of their power; and fals. that fuch an attempt is, in all cafes, no lefs impracticable than abfurd, because the patient indocility of the multitude muft ultimately triumph over the caprice and tyranny of their armed preceptors. But, having conquered a kingdom, and wifhing to retain his conqueft, he introduced a Though the minstrel character be now loft both in England and France, the traces of it are not univerfally effaced. In Wales, the modern harper is occafionally found to poffefs the accomplishments of the ancient bard; and among the Italians, the improvifatori of Rome and Florence who who are ufually ready to attend the table of a traveller, and greet him with an extemporary poem on any fubject which he fhall prefcribe, and protracted to a length which is only measured by his patience, are no bad reprefentations of the antique min ftrels; particularly when they are accompanied (as frequently happens) by an attendant mufician, who gives the tone to their recitative, and fills up the pauses between the ftanzas by a few notes on his inftrument. The third character, or difour, is alfo to be found in many parts of Italy, but particularly at Venice; where, mounted on a temporary fcaffolding, or fometimes on a tool or barrel, he recites, from memory, whole cantos of Ariosto. The fituation of a minstrel prescribed to him the choice of his fubject. Addreffing himself to an audidence who lived only for the purpofe of fighting, and who confidered their time as of little value when otherwife employed, he was fure of being liftened to with patience and credulity, fo long as he could tell of heroes and enchanters and he could be at no lofs for either, because the histories of all the heroes and enchanters that the world had produced, were to be found in a few volumes, of eafy accefs. As vanity is not eafily fubdued, a people who are not quite fatisfied with their prefent infignificance, will often be tempted to indemnify themfelves by a retrospective warfare on their enemies and will be the more prodigal in affigning triumphs to their heroic ancestors, becaufe thofe who in former ages contested the battle, can no longer be brought forward to difpute the claim of victory. This will explain the numerous triumphs of King Arthur: we have already feen, that a book containing the relation of his exploits, and of thofe of his knights of the round table, and of his faithful enchanter, Merlin, to gether with the antecedent history of the British kings, from the deftruction of Troy, was purchased in Brittany, about the year 1100, by Walter, archdeacon of Oxford, a learned antiquary of thofe days, and confided to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welfh Benedictine monk, who tranflated it into Latin, with fome additions and interpolations. The French tranflations of Wace and Rufticien de Pife, and the Saxon and English verfions of Layamon and Robert de Brunne, laid open this mafs of history to readers of every defcription. A fecond work, equally abounding in marvellous adventures, and apparently written about the fame time with Geoffrey of Monmouth's chronicle, is the history of Charlemagne and the twelve peers of France, forged under the name of Turpin, a monk of the eighth century, who, for his fervices against the Saracens, was raised to the archbishopric of Rheims. The real author was perhaps a Spaniard. This work was tranflated from Latin into French, by Michael de Hains, in 1207. The third fource of romantic fiction, was the hiftory of Troy. Homer's works were unknown at the period of which we are fpeaking, but the ftory was kept alive in two Latin pieces, which paffed under the names of Dares Phrygius, and Dictis Cretenfis; and from thefe, as we have already feen, a French poem on the Trojan war had been compiled by Benoit de St. More, the contemporary and rival of Wace. A more improved compilation from the fame fources, under the title of Hiftoria de Bello Trojano, comprehending the Theban and Argonautic ftories, from Ovid, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus, was written by Guido de Colonna, a native of Meffina, about the year 1260. Alexander the Great was known to the writers of romance, not only by by tranflations from Quintus Curtius, a writer much admired in the middle ages, but also by a history much better fuited to the purposes of the hiftorians of chivalry, originally written in Perfic, and tranflated into Greek, under the affumed name of Califthenes, by Simeon Seth, keeper of the wardrobe at Conftantinople, under the Emperor Michael Ducas, about the year 1070. Such a narrative could not fail of obtaining a very general circulation. A Latin tranflation of it is quoted by Giraldus Cambrenfis; and the famous Roman d'Alexandre, written (as Fauchet tells us) about the year 1200, by four confederates "en jonglerie," ap pears to be partly a paraphrase of that tranflation. Thefe four works may be confidered as the foundation on which was erected the vaft Gothic fabric of romance; and materials for the fuperftructure were readily found in an age when anecdotes and apologues were thought very neceffary even to difcourfes delivered from the pulpit, and when all the fables that could be gleaned from ancient writ ings, or from the relations of travellers, were collected into ftory-books, and preferved by the learned for that purpose. ON THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE ENGLISH DURING THE REIGN OF ΤΗ HENRY VI. From the Same. would prove a difagreeable interruption to the reader. To begin with the lower claffes of fociety. It is generally agreed, that before the Norman conqueft, and for a long time after, nearly all the lands of the kingdom were cultivated by ferfs, whofe fituation was, in many refpects, fcarcely diftinguifhable from abfolute flavery. It may, however, be inferred from the very curious extract already quoted from Pierce Ploughman, that about the middle of the four. teenth century, and probably much earlier, the labouring poor, though ftill ferfs with refpect to their feudal lords, were perfectly free, with refpect to their immediate employers. The poet fays, HAT we may not be encumber. ed by the accumulation of our materials, it is obviously neceffary to take fome opportunity of reviewing those which we have collected; of comparing them with such defcriptions of national manners as are furnished by our profeffed hiftorians; and of connecting them with fuch farther particulars, as are to be gleaned from fources of incidental information. For this neceffary digreffion, there is no period more convenient than that on which we are now entering; because the interval between the reigns of Henry V. and Henry VIII. which comprehends near a century, although uncommonly rich in Scotch poets of diftinguifhed excellence, does not furnish us with a Jingle name among the natives of Eng-"Labourers that have no land to live land deferving of much notice. Our furvey muft, of course, be very rapid, and rather defultory, but it will at leaft break the monotony of the narrative, and preclude, for the future, the neceffity of introducing many detached obfervations, which, when our extracts become more amufing, on, but their hands "But if they be highly hired elfe will they chide." During a great part of the year, indeed, they were glad to work for a mere fubfiftence; but when provifions were plentiful, they could only be induced to work at all, by the temptation temptation of exceffive wages. A- the return of the harveft again enab gainst this indolence, the author inveighs with great vehemence; but his remonstrances were probably ineffectual, because a stupid infenfibility, and a heedlefs profufion, are the natural characteristics of an oppreffed and degraded people. Befides, their conduct feems to have arisen, in some measure, from the imperfect state of agriculture. Animal food formed a confiderable part of the fupport of the people; but as the whole of the manure was afed on the arable lands, and it was impoffible that large numbers of cattle could fubfift during the cold feafon on the natural paftures, they were flaughtered and falted in autumn for a winter provifion. This is a reafon adduced by Sir John Fortefcue for rejecting the gabelle or falt-tax, as a fource of revenue for England. "In "France," fays he, "the people fal"ten but little meat, except their "bacon, and therefore would buy "little falt; but yet they be artyd "(compelled) to buy more falt than "they would.—This rule and order "would be fore abhorred in Eng"land, as well by the merchants, "that be wonted to have their free "dom in buying and felling of falt, as by the people, that ufen much more to falt their meats than do "the Frenchmen." (Fortefcue on Monarchy, cap. x.) But it appears, that, partly from the improvidence ufual to a barbarous state of society, and partly from the want of those internal means of communication, which tend to diffufe general abundance, thefe ftores of animal food, as well as the grain, were often confumed before the reproduction of a fresh ftock. Hence, in the above-mentioned extracts from Pierce Ploughman, the poor are reprefented as reduced to "loaves of "beans and bran," and to "feed "hunger with beans and baken ap"ples, chyboles and charvell," until led them to waste their time in idlenefs and profufion. Even the farmers themfelves, the order to which Pierce the Ploughman apparently belonged, do not feem to have fared very sumptuously, during fome part of the year; for he declares, that his whole provifion confifts in "two green cheefes, fome "curds and cream, and an oat cake :" but he adds, that " after Lammas he "might dight his dinner" as he likes. The particulars of his wealth are, a cow and calf, and a cart-mare, which he keeps for the purpose of carrying manure upon his land. These articles, perhnps, were defigned to give an exact statement of his condition in fociety; for they seem to agree with what Sir John Fortescue confiders as fufficient for the maintenance of a yeoman. It is very honourable to the good fenfe of the English nation, that our two beft early poets, Chaucer, and the author of Pierce Ploughman, have highly extolled this ufeful body of men, while the French minstrels of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, univerfally feem to approve the fupercilious contempt with which the nobles affected to treat them. The abfurd prejudices of chivalry on this fubject are not ill expreffed by Lydgate, where he makes Achilles exprefs his apprehenfion that, In this rage furious and wood, And a rural folk (and that were great Shall have lordship, and wholly goverpity,) nance: And churlis eke, with forrow and mifchance, In every land fhall lordis be alone, When gentlemen fhall flayen be each one. There is a curious chapter in Sir John Fortefcue's Treatife de Laudi bus bus Legum Angliæ, which feems to prove that the fmaller landholders in England ufually enjoyed more comforts than, from the general language of hiftorians, we fhould be led to imagine; for he afferts, that "there "is fcarce a fmall village in which you may not find a knight, an ef "quire, or fome fubftantial house"helder, commonly called a fankleyne, "all men of confiderable eftates: "there are others who are called "freeholders, and many yeomen, of "eftates, fufficient to make a fub«ftantial jury." (Chap. xxix.) This wealth he attributes principally to the enclosure of our patture lands. 66 66 The fame writer thus defcribes the comparative poverty of the French common people: "The fame com"mons be fo impoverished and de"ftroyed, that they may unneth "(fcarcely) live. They drink wa"ter: they eat apples, with bread right brown, made of rye. They They "eat no flesh, but if be feldom a lit"tle lard, or of the entrails or heads "of beafts flain for the nobles and "merchants of the land. They "wearen no woollen, but if it be a poor coat under their outermoft garment, made of great canvafs, "and call it a frock. Their hofen "be of like canvafs, and paffen not "their knee, wherefore they be gar"tered, and their thighs bare. Their "wives and children gon barefoot; "they may in none other wife live. "For fome of them that was wont "to pay to his lord for his tenement "which he hireth by the year, a fcute "(a crown,) payeth now to the king, over that fcute, five fcutes. "wherethrough they be artyd (compelled) by neceffity fo to wacth, "labour, and grub in the ground for "their fuftenance, that their nature "is much wafted, and the kind of "them brought to nought. They 66 66 * The upright beams. Sax. . gon crooked, and are feeble, not "able to fight, &c." (Fortescue on Monarchy, chap. iii.) But though the lower orders of people in England were fo advantageoufly diftinguifhed from those of other nations, by a fuperiority in food and clothing, their domestic buildings feem to have been much inferior to thofe on the continent; and this inferiority continued even down to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as appears from the confeffion of Harrison : "In old time," fays he, "the "houfes of the Britons were flightly "fet up with a few pofts, and many "raddles (hurdles,) with stable and "all offices under one roof; the like "whereof almost is to be seen in the "fenny countries and northern parts, "unto this day, where, for lack of "wood, they are enforced to continue this ancient manner of build"ing. So in the open and champain "countries, they are enforced, for "want of stuff, to ufe no studs * at "all, but only frank-pofts, and fuch principals; with here and there a 'girding, whereunto they fasten their 66 66 fplints or raddles, and then cast it "all over with thick clay, to keep "out the wind, which otherwise "would annoy them. Certes, this "rude kind of building made the " Spaniards, in Queen Mary's days, "to wonder, but chiefly when they "faw what large diet was used in "many of thefe fo homely cottages; "infomuch, that one of no fmall re"putation amongst them, faid after "this manner : Thefe English," "quoth he, have their houses made "of fticks and dirt, but they fare "commonly fo well as the king." (Harrifon's Defcription of England, prefixed to Holinfhed, p. 187. We have already feen that glazed windows † are always mentioned by our Anderfon (Hiftory of Commerce, vol. i. p. 90, edit. 1764) fays, that they were first introduced into England A. D, 1180, |