A History of English Language

The renaissance, 1500-1650 203
they want suche farre fetched vocables, than serche they out of some
rotten Pamphlet foure or fyve disused woords of antiquitee, therewith to
darken the sence unto the reader, to the ende that who so understandeth
theim maie repute hym selfe for more cunnyng and litterate: and who so
dooeth not, shall so muche the rather yet esteeme it to be some high
mattier, because it passeth his learnyng.
The strongest objection to the new words, however, was on the score of their obscurity.
The great exponent of this view was Thomas Wilson, whose Arte of Rhetorique (1553)
was several times reprinted in the course of the century and was used by Shakespeare. In
a classic passage on “Plainnesse, what it is” he makes a savage attack on inkhorn terms
and illustrates the fault by a burlesque letter overloaded with them:
Among all other lessons this should first be learned, that wee never affect
any straunge ynkehorne termes, but to speake as is commonly received:
neither seeking to be over fine, nor yet living over-carelesse, using our
speeche as most men doe, and ordering our wittes as the fewest have
done. Some seeke so far for outlandish English, that they forget altogether
their mothers language. And I dare sweare this, if some of their mothers
were alive, thei were not able to tell what they say: and yet these fine
English clerkes will say, they speake in their mother tongue, if a man
should charge them for counterfeiting the Kings English. Some farre
journeyed gentlemen at their returne home, like as they love to goe in
forraine apparell, so thei wil pouder their talke with oversea language. He
that commeth lately out of Fraunce will talke French English and never
blush at the matter. An other chops in with English Italienated, and
applieth the Italian phrase to our English speaking, the which is, as if an
Oratour that professeth to utter his mind in plaine Latine, would needes
speake Poetrie, and farre fetched colours of straunge antiquitie….The
unlearned or foolish phantasticall, that smelles but of learning (such
fellowes as have seen learned men in their daies) wil so Latin their
tongues, that the simple can not but wonder at their talke, and thinke
surely they speake by some revelation. I know them that thinke
Rhetorique to stande wholie upon darke wordes, and hee that can catche
an ynke horne terme by the taile, him they coumpt to be a fine
Englisheman, and a good Rhetorician. And the rather to set out this foly, I
will adde suche a letter as William Sommer himselfe, could not make a
better for that purpose. Some will thinke and sweare it too, that there was
never any such thing written: well, I will not force any man to beleeve it,
but I will say thus much, and abide by it too, the like have been made
heretofore, and praised above the Moone.
A letter devised by a Lincolneshire man, for a voyde benefice, to a
gentleman that then waited upon the Lorde Chauncellour, for the time
being.