XXXV. An Account of an unprinted English Poem, written in the early part of the fourteenth Century, by Richard de Hampole, and entitled “Stimulus Conscientiæ,” or “The Prick of Conscience:” Joseph Brooks Yates, Esq. Communicated to the Society by Henry Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. Secretary

Abstract

Of all the important changes produced by the Norman conquest upon the people of England, perhaps none is more remarkable than that which took place with respect to their language. The dialect which at that time prevailed was the Danish Saxon, of which several specimens in verse and prose have been preserved in our manuscript libraries. There is indeed evidence to shew, that even previously to the descent of William, there was among the English considerable affectation of the Norman customs and language; and this circumstance may have facilitated the designs of the invader. Be this however as it may, one of the first efforts of his policy, was to obliterate as much as possible the language of the country. The court became of course wholly French, and so continued for more than two succeeding centuries. A great part of the ancient metrical romances existing in that language, were composed, not for the court of Paris, but for that of London, during this period: and the exploits of the British Princes, Arthur and “Richarde Cœur de Lion,” were sung originally in the verses of French minstrelsy. The laws were ordered to be administered in the same tongue, which was even introduced into schools, to the exclusion of the native language. A barbarous and irregular dialect was in consequence formed, which, as might be expected, does not present a single example of elegant composition either in verse or prose. During this remarkable period, the English language found in Scotland that protection which was denied to it in the southern division of Britain.