1380984377.3491A History of English Language

A history of the english language 132
Understand quat I wil say;
For laued men havis mar mister
Godes word for to her
Than klerkes that thair mirour lokes,
And sees hou thai sal lif on bokes.
And bathe klerk and laued man
Englis understand kan,
That was born in Ingeland,
And lang haves ben thar in wonand,
Bot al men can noht, I-wis,
Understand Latin and Frankis.
Forthi me think almous it isse
To wirke sum god thing on Inglisse,
That mai ken lered and laued bathe. 57
57
North English Homily Cycle, ed. John Small, English Metrical Homilies from Manuscripts of the
Fourteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1862), pp. 3–4:
Therefore will I of my poverty
Show something that I have in heart
In English tongue that all may
Understand what I will say;
For laymen have more need
God’s word for to hear
Than clerks that look in their Mirror
And see in books how they shall live.
And both clerk and layman
Can understand English,
Who were born in England
And long have been dwelling therein,
But all men certainly cannot
Understand Latin and French.
Therefore methinks it is alms (an act of charity)
To work some good thing in English
That both learned and lay may know.
The allusion to clerks that have their Mirror is probably a reference to the Miroir, or Les Evangiles
des Domees, an Anglo-French poem by Robert of Gretham.