And Marye seyde mi soule magnyfieth the lord. And my spirit hath gladid in God myn helthe. For he hath behulden the mekeness of his handmaiden; for lo for this alle generaciouns schulen seye that I am blessid; for he that is mighti hath don to me greet thingis, and his name is holi, and his merci is fro kynrede into kynredis; to men that dreden hym. Till at the last, among the bowes glade Like quickesilver in his streams yran, Of which the gravel and the brighte stone, As any gold, against the sun y-shone. SIR JOHN FORTESCUE. 1430-1470. It is cowardise and lack of hartes and corage that kepith the Frenchemen from rysyng, and not povertye; which corage no Frencheman hath like to the English man. It hath ben often seen in England that iij or ij theves, for povertie hath sett upcn vij or viij true men, and robbed them al. But it hath not been seen in Fraunce that vij or viij theves have ben hardy to robbe iij or iv true men. Wherfor it is right seld that Frenchemen be hangyd for robberye, for that they have no hertys to do so terrible an acte. There be therefor mo men hangyd in England in a yere for robberye and manslaughter than ther be hangyd in Fraunce for such cause of crime in vij yers, &c. University of MICHIGAN RAL LIBRARY STAGES AND PERIODS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. GAVIN DOUGLASS. 1474-1522. Dame Nature's minstrals, on that other part, And all small fowlis singis on the spray, Welcome be thy bright beamis gladdand all. WILLIAM CAXTON. 99 In 1471 he printed the first book in the English language. In a note to this publication, Caxton says: "For as much as age creepeth on me daily and feebleth all the bodie, and also because I have promised divers gentlemen, and to my friends, to address to them, as hastily as I might, this said book; therefore I have practised and learned, at my great charge and dispence, to ordain this said book in print, after the manner and form as ye may here see, and is not written with pen and ink, as other books ben, to the end that all men may have them at once; for all the books of this story, named The Recule of the Historeys of Troyes, thus emprinted, as ye here see, were begun in one day and also finished in one day." EARL OF SURREY. 1516-47. Martial, the things that do attain The happy life, be these I find, The fruitful ground, the quiet mind. The equal friend; no grudge, no strife, The household of continuance. The mean diet, no delicate fare, True wisdom joined with simpleness; The night discharged of all care, Where wine the wit may not oppress. Mistress Alice, in my most heartywise I recommend me to you. And whereas I am informed by my son Heron of the loss of our barns and our neighbors'.also, with all the corn that was therein; albeit (saving God's pleasure) it were great pity of so much good corn lost; yet since it has liked him to send us such a good chance, we must, and are bounden not only to be content, but are also glad of his visitation. He sent us all that we have lost; and since he hath by such a chance taken it away again, his pleasure be fulfilled! Let us never grudge thereat, but take it in good worth, and thank him heartily as well for adversity as for prosperity. And peradventure we have more cause to thank him for our loss than for our winning, for his wisdom better seeth what is good for us than we do ourselves. Therefore I pray you, be of good cheer, and take all the household with you to church, and there thank God, both for that he has given us, and for that which he has taken from us, and for that he hath left us; which, if it please him, he can increase when he will, and if it please him to leave us yet less, at his pleasure be it. He, making speedy way through spersed ayre, And low, where dawning day doth never peepe, His dwelling is, there Tethys his wet bed Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe In silver deaw his ever drouping hed, Whiles sad Night over him her mantle black doth spred. Whose double gates he findeth locked fast, The one fayre fram'd of burnished yvory, The other all with silver overcast ; And wakeful dogges before them farre doe lye, Watching to banish care their enimy, Who oft is wont to trouble gentle sleep. By them the sprite doth pass in quietly, And unto Morpheus comes, whom drouned deepe, § 82. SPECIMENS OF MODERN ENGLISH. There were hills which garnished their proud heights with stately trees; humble valleys, whose base estate seemed comforted with the refreshing of silver rivers; meadows, enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers; thickets, which being lined with the most pleasant shade, were witnessed so to by the cheerful disposition of many well-tuned birds; each pasture stored with sheep, feeding with sober security, while the pretty lambs, with bleating oratory, craved the dam's comfort; here a shepherd's piping, as though he should never be old; there a young shepherdess knitting, and withal singing; and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her voice music. GEORGE HERBERT. 1593-1632. RELIGION. All may of thee partake; Nothing can be so mean, Which with this tincture, for thy sake, This is the famous stone That turneth all to gold, For that which God doth touch and own Can not for less be told. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618. The Strength of Kings. They say the goodliest cedars which grow on the high mountains of Libanus thrust their roots between the clefts of hard rocks, the better to bear themselves against the strong storms that blow there. As reason has instructed those kings of trees, so has reason taught the kings of men to root themselves in the hardy hearts of their faithful subjects; and as those kings of trees have large tops, so have the kings of men large crowns, whereof, as the first would soon be broken from their bodies were they not underborne by many branches, so would the other easily totter were they not fastened on their heads by the strong chains of civil justice and martial discipline. : ROBERT HERRICK., Born 1591. TO FIND GOD. Weigh me the fire; or canst thou find And taste thou them as saltless there Tell me the motes, dusts, sands, and spears Language most shows a man: speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech. Nay, it is likened to a man; and as we consider feature and composition in a man, so words in language, in the greatness, openness, sound, structure, and harmony of it. Some men are tall and big, so some language is high and great. Then the words are chosen, their sound ample, the composition fair, the absolution plenteous, and poured out, all grave, sinewy, and strong. Some are little and dwarfs; so of speech, it is humble and low, the words poor and flat, the members and periods thin and weak, without knitting or number. The middle are of a just stature. There the language is plain and pleasing; even without stopping, round without swelling; all well turned, composed, elegant, and accurate. The vicious language is vast and gaping, swelling and irregular; when it contends to be high, full of rocks and mountains, and pointedness; as it affects to lie low, it is abject, and creeps full of bogs and holes. Light, that makes things seen, makes some things invisible. |