THE DIALECTS OF NORTHUMBRIA; A.D. 1300-1400
A little before 1300, we come to a _Metrical English Psalter_,
published by the Surtees Society in 1843-7. The language is supposed to
represent the speech of Yorkshire. It is translated (rather closely) from
the Latin Vulgate version. I give a specimen from Psalm xviii, 14-20.
14. He sent his arwes, and skatered tha;
Felefalded levening, and dreved tham swa.
15. And schewed welles of watres ware,
And groundes of ertheli world unhiled are,
For thi snibbing, Laverd myne;
For onesprute of gast of wreth thine.
16. He sent fra hegh, and uptoke me;
Fra many watres me nam he.
17. He out-toke me thare amang
Fra my faas that war sa strang,
And fra tha me that hated ai;
For samen strenghthed over me war thai
18. Thai forcome me in daie of twinging,
And made es Layered mi forhiling.
19. And he led me in brede to be;
Sauf made he me, for he wald me;
20. And foryhelde to me Laverd sal
After mi rightwisenes al.
And after clensing of mi hende
Sal he yhelde to me at ende.
The literal sense is:--"He sent His arrows and scattered them;
multiplied (His) lightning and so afflicted them. And the wells of
waters were shown, and the foundations of the earthly world are
uncovered because of Thy snubbing (rebuke), O my Lord! because of the
blast (Lat. _inspiratio_) of the breath of Thy wrath. He sent from
on high, and took me up; from many waters He took me. He took me out
there-among from my foes that were so strong, and from those that
alway hated me; for they were strengthened together over me. They
came before me in the day of affliction, and the Lord is made my
protection. And He led me (so as) to be in a broad place; He made me
safe, because He desired (lit. would) me; and the Lord shall requite
me according to all my righteousness, and according to the cleanness
of my hands shall He repay me in the end."
In this specimen we can already discern some of the chief
characteristics which are so conspicuous in Lowland Scotch MSS. of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The most striking is the
almost total loss of the final _-e_ which is so frequently required
to form an extra syllable when we try to scan the poetry of Chaucer.
Even where a final _-e_ is written in the above extract, it is wholly
silent. The words _ware_ (were), _are_ (are), _myne_, _thine_, _toke_,
_made_, _brede_, _hende_, _ende_, are all monosyllabic; and in fact
the large number of monosyllabic words is very striking. The words
_onesprute_, _forcome_, _foryhelde_ are, in like manner, dissyllabic.
The only suffixes that count in the scansion are _-en_, _-ed_, and
_-es_; as in _sam-en_, _skat'r-èd_, _drev-èd_, _hat-èd_, etc., and
_arw-ès_, _well-ès_, _watr-ès_, etc. The curious form _sal_, for
"shall," is a Northern characteristic. So also is the form _hende_ as
the plural of "hand"; the Southern plural was often _hond-en_, and the
Midland form was _hond-ès_ or _hand-ès_. Note also the characteristic
long _a_; as in _swa_ for _swo_, so; _gast_, ghost; _fra_, fro;
_faas_, foes. It was pronounced like the _a_ in _father_.
A much longer specimen of the _Metrical English Psalter_ will be
found in _Specimens of Early English_, ed. Morris and Skeat, Part II,
pp. 23-34, and is easily accessible. In the same volume, the Specimens
numbered VII, VIII, X, XI, and XVI are also in Northumbrian, and can
easily be examined. It will therefore suffice to give a very brief
account of each.
VII. _Cursor Mundi_, or _Cursor o Werld_, i.e. Over-runner of the
World; so called because it rehearses a great part of the world's
history, from the creation onwards. It is a poem of portentous length,
extending to 29,655 lines, and recounts many of the events found in
the Old and New Testaments, with the addition of legends from many
other sources, one of them, for example, being the _Historia
Scholastica_ of Peter Comestor. Dr Murray thinks it may have been
written in the neighbourhood of Durham. The specimen given (pp. 69-82)
corresponds to lines 11373-11796.
VIII. _Sunday Homilies in Verse_; about 1330. The extracts are taken
from _English Metrical Homilies_, edited by J. Small (Edinburgh, 1862)
from a MS. in Edinburgh. The Northern dialect is well marked, but I do
not know to what locality to assign it.
X. Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near Doncaster, wrote a poem called
_The Prick of Conscience_, about 1340. It extends to 9624 lines,
and was edited by Dr Morris for the Philological Society in 1863.
The Preface to this edition is of especial value, as it carefully
describes the characteristics of Northumbrian, and practically laid
the foundation of our knowledge of the old dialects as exhibited in
MSS. Lists are given of orthographical differences between the
Northern dialect and others, and an analysis is added giving the
grammatical details which determine its Northern character. Much of
this information is repeated in the Introduction to the _Specimens
of English_, Part II, pp. xviii-xxxviii.
XI. _The Poems of Laurence Minot_ belong to the middle of the
fourteenth century. He composed eleven poems in celebration of events
that occurred between the years 1333 and 1352. They were first printed
by Ritson in 1795; and subsequently by T. Wright, in his _Political
Poems and Songs_ (London, 1859); and are now very accessible in the
excellent and cheap (second) edition by Joseph Hall (Oxford University
Press). There is also a German edition by Dr Wilhelm Scholle. The poet
seems to have been connected with Yorkshire, and the dialect is not
purely Northern, as it shows a slight admixture of Midland forms.
XVI. _The Bruce_; by John Barbour; partly written in 1375. It has
been frequently printed, viz. in 1616, 1620, 1670, 1672, 1715, 1737,
and 1758; and was edited by Pinkerton in 1790, by Jamieson in 1820,
and by Cosmo Innes in 1866; also by myself (for the Early English Text
Society) in 1870-89; and again (for the Scottish Text Society) in
1893-5. Unfortunately, the two extant MSS. were both written out about
a century after the date of composition. Nevertheless, we have the
text of more than 260 lines as it existed in 1440, as this portion
was quoted by Andro of Wyntown, in his _Cronykil of Scotland_,
written at that date. I quote some lines from this portion, taken
from _The Bruce_, Book i, 37-56, 91-110; with a few explanations in
the footnotes.
Qwhen Alysandyre oure kyng wes dede,
That Scotland had to stere{1} and lede,
The land sex yhere and mayr perfay{2}
Wes desolate efftyr his day.
The barnage{3} off Scotland, at the last,
Assemblyd thame, and fandyt{4} fast
To chess{5} a kyng, thare land to stere,
That off awncestry cummyn were
Off kyngis that aucht{6} that reawté{7},
And mast{8} had rycht thare kyng to be.
But inwy{9}, that is sa fellowne{10},
Amang thame mad dissensiown:
For sum wald have the Ballyolle kyng,
For he wes cumyn off that ofspryng
That off the eldest systere was;
And other sum nyt{11} all that cas,
And sayd, that he thare kyng suld be,
That wes in als nere{12} degre,
And cummyn wes off the nerrast male
In thai{13} brawnchys collateralle...
{Footnotes:
1: _govern_
2: _more, by my faith_
3: _nobility_
4: _endeavoured_
5: _choose_
6: _possessed_
7: _royalty_
8: _most_
9: _envy_
10: _wicked_
11: _others denied_
12: _as near_
13: _those_ }
A! blynd folk, fulle off all foly,
Had yhe wmbethowcht{14} yowe inkkyrly{15}
Quhat peryle to yowe mycht appere,
Yhe had noucht wroucht on this manèr.
Had yhe tane kepe{16}, how that that kyng
Off Walys, forowtyn sudiowrnyng{17},
Trawaylyd{18} to wyn the senyhowry{19},
And throw his mycht till occupy
Landys, that ware till hym marchand{20},
As Walys was, and als Irland,
That he put till sic threllage{21},
That thai, that ware off hey parage{22},
Suld ryn on fwte, as rybalddale{23},
Quhen ony folk he wald assale.
Durst nane of Walis in batale ryd,
Na yhit, fra evyn fell{24}, abyde
Castell or wallyd towne within,
Than{25} he suld lyff and lymmys tyne{26}.
Into swylk thryllage{27} thame held he
That he owre-come with his powsté{28}.
{Footnotes:
14: _bethought_
15: _especially_
16: _taken heed_
17: _without delay_
18: _laboured_
19: _sovereignty_
20: _bordering_
21: _such subjection_
22: _high rank_
23: _rabble_
24: _after evening fell_
25: _but_
26: _lose_
27: _thraldom_
28: _power_ }
In this extract, as in that from the _Metrical Psalter_ above, there
is a striking preponderance of monosyllables, and, as in that case
also, the final _-e_ is invariably silent in such words as _oure_,
_stere_, _lede_, _yhere_, _thare_, _were_, etc., just as in modern
English. The grammar is, for the most part, extremely simple, as at
the present day. The chief difficulty lies in the vocabulary, which
contains some words that are either obsolete or provincial. Many of
the obsolete words are found in other dialects; thus _stere_, to
control, _perfay_, _fonden_ (for _fanden_), _chesen_, to choose,
_feloun_, adj. meaning "angry," _take kepe_, _soiourne_, to tarry,
_travaile_, to labour, _parage_, rank, all occur in Chaucer;
_barnage_, _reauté_, in _William of Palerne_ (in the Midland dialect,
possibly Shropshire); _oughte_, owned, possessed, _tyne_, to lose, in
_Piers the Plowman_; _umbethinken_, in the _Ormulum_; _enkerly_ (for
_inkkyrly_), in the alliterative _Morte Arthure_; _march_, to border
upon, in _Mandeville_; _seignorie_, in _Robert of Gloucester_. Barbour
is rather fond of introducing French words; _rybalddale_ occurs in no
other author. _Threllage_ or _thryllage_ may have been coined from
_threll_ (English _thrall_), by adding a French suffix. As to the
difficult word _nyt_, see _Nite_ in the _N.E.D._
In addition to the poems, etc., already mentioned, further material
may be found in the prose works of Richard Rolle of Hampole,
especially his translation and exposition of the Psalter, edited by
the Rev. H.R. Bramley (Oxford, 1884), and the Prose Treatises edited
by the Rev. G.G. Perry for the Early English Text Society. Dr Murray
further calls attention to the Early Scottish Laws, of which the
vernacular translations partly belong to the fourteenth century.
I have now mentioned the chief authorities for the study of the
Northern dialect from early times down to 1400. Examination of them
leads directly to a result but little known, and one that is in direct
contradiction to general uninstructed opinion; namely that, down to
this date, the varieties of Northumbrian are much fewer and slighter
than they afterwards became, and that the written documents are
practically all in one and the same dialect, or very nearly so, from
the Humber as far north as Aberdeen. The irrefragable results noted by
Dr Murray will probably come as a surprise to many, though they
have now been before the public for more than forty years. The Durham
dialect of the _Cursor Mundi_ and the Aberdeen Scotch of Barbour
are hardly distinguishable by grammatical or orthographical tests; and
both bear a remarkable resemblance to the Yorkshire dialect as found
in Hampole. What is now called Lowland Scotch is so nearly descended
from the Old Northumbrian that the latter was invariably called
"Ingliss" by the writers who employed it; and they reserved the name
of "Scottish" to designate Gaelic or Erse, the tongue of the original
"Scots," who gave their name to the country. Barbour (_Bruce_, IV 253)
calls his own language "Ynglis." Andro of Wyntown does the same, near
the beginning of the Prologue to his _Cronykil_. The most striking
case is that of Harry the Minstrel, who was so opposed to all
Englanders, from a political point of view, that his whole poem
breathes fury and hatred against them; and yet, in describing
Wallace's French friend, Longueville, who knew no tongue but his
own, he says of him (_Wallace_, IX 295-7):
Lykly he was, manlik of contenance,
_Lik to the Scottis_ be mekill governance
_Saiff off his tong_, for _Inglis_ had he nane.
Later still, Dunbar, near the conclusion of his _Golden Targe_,
apostrophises Chaucer as being "in _oure Tong_ ane flouir imperiall,"
and says that he was "_of oure Inglisch_ all the lycht." It was not
till 1513 that Gawain Douglas, in the Prologue to the first book of
his translation of Virgil, claimed to have "writtin in the langage of
Scottis natioun"; though Sir David Lyndesay, writing twenty-two years
later, still gives the name of the "Inglisch toung" to the vulgar
tongue of Scotland, in his _Satyre of the three Estaitis_.
We should particularly notice Dr Murray's statement, in his essay on
_The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland_, at p. 29, that
"Barbour at Aberdeen, and Richard Rolle de Hampole near Doncaster,
wrote for their several countrymen in the same identical dialect." The
division between the English of the Scottish Lowlands and the English
of Yorkshire was purely political, having no reference to race or
speech, but solely to locality; and yet, as Dr Murray remarks, the
struggle for supremacy "made every one either an Englishman or a
Scotchman, and made English and Scotch names of division and bitter
enmity." So strong, indeed, was the division thus created that it
has continued to the present day; and it would be very difficult even
now to convince a native of the Scottish Lowlands--unless he is a
philologist--that he is likely to be of Anglian descent, and to have
a better title to be called an "Englishman" than a native of Hampshire
or Devon, who, after all, may be only a Saxon. And of course it is
easy enough to show how widely the old "Northern" dialect varies from
the difficult Southern English found in the Kentish _Ayenbite of
Inwyt_, or even from the Midland of Chaucer's poems.
To quote from Dr Murray once more (p. 41):
"the facts are still far from being generally known, and I have
repeatedly been amused, on reading passages from _Cursor Mundi_ and
Hampole to men of education, both English and Scotch, to hear them
all pronounce the dialect 'Old Scotch.' Great has been the surprise
of the latter especially on being told that Richard the Hermit [i.e.
of Hampole] wrote in the extreme south of Yorkshire, within a few
miles of a locality so thoroughly English as Sherwood Forest, with
its memories of Robin Hood. Such is the difficulty which people
have in separating the natural and ethnological relations in which
national names originate from the accidental values which they
acquire through political complications and the fortunes of crowns
and dynasties, that oftener than once the protest has been made--
'Then he must have been a Scotchman settled there!'"
The retort is obvious enough, that Barbour and Henry the Minstrel and
Dunbar and Lyndesay have all recorded that their native language was
"Inglis" or "Inglisch"; and it is interesting to note that, having
regard to the pronunciation, they seem to have known, better than we
do, how that name ought to be spelt.