routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

78 The Renaissance 1485–1660
Greek words provided a more formal alternative to existing native English
words: for example, cheap: inexpensive; mean: parsimonious; dig:
excavate. In many cases, however, no suitable English word existed.
A number of controversies were provoked by such changes, one example
being the ‘Inkhorn Controversy’. This controversy involved issues of Latin
and Greek words in English. On the one hand, some writers argued that
Latin and Greek were superior resources and that words derived from these
languages had to be ‘Englished’, that is, made into English words, if a whole
range of new ideas and concepts were to be expressed. On the other hand,
it was argued that such words corrupted the native vernacular by displacing
it with ‘inkhorn’ terms, that is, words coming from the scholar’s horn of ink
and therefore wholly scholarly, frequently polysyllabic and often pedantic.
The arguments were complicated further, however, by a desire to replace
Latin with English as the national language, yet at the same time to continue
to recognise Latin as a repository of cultural values and literary models.
Such paradoxes and tensions continue to influence language choices,
particularly choices in vocabulary in English, and have affected debates
about the nature of literature and of literary language since the sixteenth
century. The resulting lexicon of English is certainly one which is rich in
synonyms and alternative phrasings, allowing switches in formality between
the more written and elevated character of classical vocabulary and the
more spoken, everyday and ‘natural’ English which has grown from more
distinctly Anglo-Saxon roots. Other language notes which deal with
‘standards’ of language (page 182), Wordsworth’s ‘real’ language of men
(page 232), and ‘the fragmenting lexicon (page 355) also deal with issues
raised by the ‘Inkhorn Controversy’ and by the fundamental lexical divisions
brought about by the history of language change and variation in English.
RENAISSANCE PROSE
What is Truth; said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for
an answer
(Sir Francis Bacon, Of Truth)
In prose, the classical influences found in poetry and drama are reflected
in different ways. There is the flowery style of John Lyly’s Euphues
(1578–80). This work gives its name to an over-elaborate style, which
is well exemplified in Euphues’s speech to his beloved: