A History of English Language

The reestablishment of english, 1200-1500 139
and haueþ þerby auauntage in oon side and disauauntage in anoþer side;
here auauntage is, þat þey lerneþ her gramer in lasse tyme þan children
were i-woned to doo; disauauntage is þat now children of gramer scole
conneþ na more Frensche þan can hir lift heele, and þat is harme for hem
and þey schulle passe þe see and trauaille in straunge landes and in many
oþer places. Also gentil men haueþ now moche i-left for to teche here
children Frensche.
By a fortunate circumstance we know that there was a John Cornwall licensed to teach
Latin grammar in Oxford at this time; his name appears in the accounts of Merton in
1347, as does that of Pencrich a few years later. 92 The innovation was probably due to a
scarcity of competent teachers. At any rate, after 1349 English began to be used in the
schools and by 1385 the practice had become general.
107. Increasing Ignorance of French in the Fifteenth Century.
The statement already quoted (page 145) from a writer of the beginning of the fourteenth
century to the effect that he had seen many nobles who could not speak French indicates
a condition that became more pronounced as time went on. By the fifteenth century the
ability to speak French fluently seems to have been looked upon as an accomplishment. 93
Even the ability to write it was becoming less general among people of position. In 1400
George Dunbar, earl of March, in writing to the king in English, says: “And, noble
Prince, marvel ye not that I write my letters in English, for that is more clear to my
understanding than Latin or French.” 94 Another very interesting case is offered by a letter
from Richard Kingston, dean of Windsor, addressed to the king in 1403. Out of deference
to custom, the dean begins bravely enough in French, but toward the close, when he
becomes particularly earnest, he passes instinctively from French to English in the middle
of a sentence. 95
An incident that occurred in 1404 seems at first sight to offer an extreme case. The
king of France had refused to recognize Henry IV when he seized the English throne, and
his kinsman, the count of Flanders, supported him in
92
W.H.Stevenson, “The Introduction of English as the Vehicle of Instruction in English Schools,”
Furnivall Miscellany (Oxford, 1901), pp. 421–29.
93
Cf. the case of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, mentioned by Kingsford, Eng. Hist. Lit., p.
195.
94
Royal and Historical Letters during the Reign of Henry IV, I, 23–25 (Rolls Series).
95
Ibid., pp. 155–59. The letter ends in a strange mixture:
“Jeo prie a la Benoit Trinite que vous ottroie bone vie ove tresentier sauntee a treslonge durre, and
sende sone to ows in helþ and prosperitee; for, in god fey, I hope to Al Mighty God that,
come owne persone, schulle have the victorie of alle enemyes.
“And for salvation of Schire and Marches al aboute, treste nought to no Leutenaunt.
“Escript a Hereford, en tresgraunte haste, a trois de la clocke apres noone, le tierce jour de
Septembre.”