Year: 1905
Type: article
Abstract: French as spoken by an English mouth has been proverbial since Chaucer humorously described the language of his prioress as French After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe.Yet similar pleasantries had been current long before him.Already Gautier Map in his work,' De nugis curialium, relates an anecdote in which he laughs at the English pronunciation of French, adding the explanation that "apud Merleburgam fons est, quem si quis, ut aiunt, gustaverit, gallice barbarizat; unde cum viciose quis illa lingua loquitur, dicimus eum loqui gallicum Merleburgae."Various instances of this French of Marlborough have been preserved in Old French literature, and the intrinsic interest which they present prompts me to collect them here.Langlois called attention to several of them in an article entitled "Les Anglais du moyen Age d'apris les sources frangaises," in the Revue historique, 1893, pp.298 ff., and some have been briefly commented upon by the editors of the texts in which they occur.The collection is probably incomplete, but, such as it is, it may induce others more favorably situated to add similar examples that have escaped my notice.I am able to cite three strictly literary instances of the use of this French of Marlborough, belonging in round numbers to the thirteenth century: the Fabliau de deux Angloys et de l'anel 2 the story of Renart disguised as an English jongleur,3 and the language of the Duke of Gloucester in Philippe de Beaumanoir's poem Jehan et Blonde.4To the same general period belong two political documents: the "Song of the Peace with England," IPublished by Thomas Wright (Camden Society, 1850) p. 236.
Source: Modern Philology
DOI: 10.1086/386665
Author: John E. Matzke
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1992584985