RITSON’S ANCIENT 
son had explained in what the superi- 
ority of the Norman language to the 
Saxon jargon consisted, and what be- 
__ nefit would have accrued to the English 
from exchanging the rah ange of their 
forefathers for that of their tyrants.— 
Till this be satisfactorily explained, we 
must be allowed to bless the stupidity of 
_ the Saxon peasants, and to thank God 
that our mother tongue is the language 
‘of Shakespere and of Milton, not of Ra- 
cine and Voltaire; we must be allowed 
to thank God for this especial blessing, 
_ and for the numberless blessings which 
have arisen from tt. Whatever is valu- 
_ able in the laws and constitution of Eng- 
land, is of Saxon origin; the grievous 
bi Oppressions of the feudal system, and the 
- law of primogeniture, the main branch 
of that upas, were left us by the Nor- 
mans. It is absurd to assert, that like 
' the Picts, the Saxons “‘seem to have 
~ been cut off all at once by a single blow, 
~ without any progeny being left to repre- 
sent them.’? Let Mr. Ritson take up a 
common directory and see what propor- 
tion of the names of Englishmen are of 
_ Saxon derivation. Let him remember 
_ too the Plantagenets, and that our Ed- 
ards and Henrys were of the Saxon 
line. 
Inthe reign of Henry the second 
¢¢ Jt is most probable, Layamon, the 
priest, made his translation, in the style of 
axon poetry without rime, trom the Brut 
of maistre Wace; which affords a strange 
and singular mixture of the Saxon and Nor- 
man idioms, both apparently much cor- 
_ rupted. This curious work exhibits the pro- 
_ gress of the Engleish language, properly so 
_ call’d, as we now have it, in its dawn or 
infancy, if one may use such an expression.” 
The Society of Antiquaries, as to the 
_ shame of England we have no academy, 
_ should publish this valuable specimen of 
our earliest language.: Ninety years 
_ elapsed between the completion of Lay- 
-amon’s work, and of Robert of Glou- 
_ cester’s chronicle; and in that time the 
language had rapidly improved. In 
1362, the tamous statute was passed, 
enjoining all law proceedings to be 
a 
ich was incapable of dischargeing its 
ENGLISH ROMANCES. 528 
pleaded in English, and enrolled in 
Latin. A more immediate and more 
lasting effect was produced by Geoffrey 
Chaucer, one of the great men of Eng- 
land; and thus was established, that 
language which is now spoken in Ame- 
rica, and in New Holland, and which, 
whatever may be the fate of empires, 
will continue to be read as long as the 
human race shall be capable ot appre- 
ciating the works of human genius. 
We have now arrived at the third sec- 
tion, which treats of the English ro- 
mances. ‘There are not above two ‘or 
three originally English, Mr. Tyrwhitt’s 
conjecture, however, is extremely pro- 
bable, that many of these, though writ- 
ten in French, were composed in Eng- 
land, and perhaps by Englishmen. 
While French was the court language, 
the poems designed for the amusement 
of the nobles must necessarily have been 
composed in French. Before, however, 
the origin of these rules can be ascer- 
tained, much must be done. The Ger- 
man metrical romances must be exa- 
mined, of which a large collection was 
published in 1785; but above all, to ex- 
plain the romantic history of Arthur, the. 
Mabinogion must be translated. Mr. Rit- 
son’s opinion is thus well summed up. 
. ‘€ That the Engleish acquire’d the art of 
romance-writeing from the French seems 
clear and certain, as most of the specimens 
of that art, in the former language, are pal- 
pable and manifest translations of those in the 
other, and this, too, may serve to account 
for the origin of romance in Italy, Spain, 
Germany, and Scandinavia: but the French 
romanceés are too ancient to be indebted for 
their existence to more barbarous nations. 
It is, therefor, a vain and futile endeavour 
to seek for the origin of romance: in all 
ageés and all countrys, where literature has 
been cultivateéd, and genius and taste have 
ini ds whether in India, Persia, Greece, 
Italy, or France, the earlyest product of 
that cultiyation, and that genius and taste, 
has been poetry and romance, with recipro- 
cal obligations, perhap, between one coun- 
try and another. ‘’he Arabians, the Persians, 
the Turks, and, in short, almost every na- 
tion in the globe, abound in romanceés of 
their own invention.” 
) boast, that, after they had lost the succession of their native sovereigns, their laws, their 
ssessions, their estates and property, and every thing, in short, that was really valuable, 
y were permited to preserve their Aneuaee, 
and continue a meagre, and batien jargon, 
unctions; this, in fact, was the only measure of the 
man tyrants which was adapted to the benefit of their conquer’d subjects, and in this 
e they were unsuccessful ; neither, on the contrary, did the Saxon commonalty retain 
their primitive tongue: they got, indeed, a barbarous mixture of Saxon, Danish, Norman, 
nd one knows not what, which was no more Saxon than French, and is now known by the © 
pame of Engleish, a term formerly synonimous with Saxon.” : ae 
