Chapter 6. Early Modern English: 1500-1700 Much like the Cely letters, the collection of letters written to and by Lord Lisle, his family, friends, and staff, provide valuable linguistic information. Lord Lisle was Governor of Calais for Henry VIII from 1533 to 1540. The French town was at that time an English possession. The first text below is by the 14-year old George Bassett, Lady Lisle’s son by her first marriage who was being educated in the household of Sir Francis Bryan. The letter of 1539 is purely formal: the boy has nothing to say and he says it in the approved Tudor manner. George Bassett to his parents Lord and Lady Lisle, 1 July 1539 Ryht honorable and my most dere and singler goode lorde and ladye / in my most humble man[ner] I recõmaunde me unto yow besechynge to have yor dailye blessynge / and to here of yor goode and prospus helth / fore the conservatione of which / I praye dailye unto almyghty godde. I certifye youe by theys my rude l[ett]res that my Maister and my Ladye be in goode helthe / to whome I am myche bounde. ffurthermore I beseche yor lordshipe and ladieshipe ever in goode / longe / and prosperus helthe wt honor. ffrom Woburn the first daye of Julye By yor humble and owne Son George BassetteThe next letter of 1533 is from Sir William Kingston, who was a member of the King’s Privy Council and Constable of the Tower of London at the time. It is an example of an educated man’s style of writing which, at first glance, would be unacceptable today in its presentation because there is no punctuation. Several names of birds used in hawking or falconry are mentioned. Sir William Kingston to Lord Lisle, 26 September 1533 my lord to advertyse you of newes here be nonne 3it or now that be abowt the pesse (= peace) in the marches of scotland & with goddes grace all shalbe well & as 3it the kynges grace hathe hard now word from my lord of Wynchester & so the kyng hawkes evry day with goshawkes* & other hawkes that ys to say layners,* sparhawkes* and merlions* both affore none & after yf the wether serve I pray you my lord yf ther be hony gerfawken* or yerkyn* to help ^me to both yf it may be & for lak of bothe to have wun & to send me worde of the charges ther of & then your lordshyp dose meche for me I & my wyfe both ryght hartely recõmaunde hus unto my gud lady & we thanke my lady for my token for it cam to me in the church of the blake freres (= friars) & my wyf was desposed to have offerd it to saynt loy (= St Eligius) (th)at hyr horse shuld not halt & he never went up ryght syne (= since) I be(see)che your lordshyp to have me in your reymembrance to master porter & my lady & to master mershall & my lady … * Goshawks, lanners (southern European falcons), sparrowhawks, merlins (small falcons), gyrfalcons (large falcons), and jerkins (male gyrfalcons), respectively. Exercise Using the two passages, describe the ‘approved Tudor manner’. Is the spelling significantly irregular or inconsistent? How many words have more than one spelling? What do the phrases to advertise you of newes and yf the wether serve mean? An example of formal written language contemporary with the Lisle Letters is Sir Thomas Elyot’s The boke named the Gouernor, printed in London in 1531 and dedicated to Henry VIII. Elyot’s purpose was ‘to describe in our vulgare tunge/the fourme of a iuste publike weale (= welfare or prosperity)’. He wrote in English but regarded Latin as the essential language of education and learning. In the second and third passages, Elyot sets out a programme for young noblemen in which learning Latin begins before the age of seven.Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Gouernor, 1531 (i) Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Gouernor, 1531 (ii) The ordre of lernyng that a noble man shulde be trayned in before he come to thaige of seuen yeres. Cap. v. (= Chapter 5)Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Gouernor, 1531 (iii) Exercise 1. Explain the few alternative spellings in the texts: hit/it, latin/latine/latyne, onely/only, shal/shall, significacions/signification, ther/there, thinge/thyng, which/whiche. 2. What was the meaning of the following words in the 1530s: common, vulgare, astates, equite, diuers, betoken, abused, discrepance, sensualite? 3. Do any verb inflexions differ from those of Standard English today? During the sixteenth century, writers were responding to a growing sense that the language needed an agreed form of spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, just as Latin had. People saw that the letters of the alphabet were too few to match the sounds of English, and that the spelling of many words did not match their pronunciation. A common description was that it was ‘corrupted’. One of the earliest books which advocated a reform of English spelling was John Hart’s An Orthographie, published in 1569. In the following extract, he is justifying the need for his new spelling system, ‘the new maner’. An example of the system he devised is given below.John Hart’s An Orthographie, 1569 (i) John Hart’s An Orthographie, 1569 (ii) Version with Modern English Spelling An exercise of that which is said: wherein is de- clared, how the rest of the consonants are made by th’instruments of the mouth: which was omitted in the premisses, for that we did not much abuse them. Chapter vii. In this title above-written, I consi-der of the <i> in exercise, & of the<u>, in instruments: the like of the<i>, in title, which the common man,and many learned, do sound in thediphthongs <ei>, and <iu>: yet I would not think it meet to write them, in thoseand like words, where the sound of the vowel on-ly, may be as well allowed in our speech, as that ofthe diphthong used of the rude: and so far I allowobservation for derivations. ~ / Whereby you mayperceive, that our single sounding and use of let-ters, may in process of time, bring our whole nationto one certain, perfet and general speaking. ~/ Wherein she must be ruled by the learned fromtime to time. ~ / And I can not blame any manto think this manner of new writing stange, forI do confess it is strange to my self, though before I have ended the writing, and you the reading ofthis book, I doubt not but you and I shall thinkour labours well bestowed. ~ / And not-with-stan-ding that I have devised this new manner of wri-ting for our /English, I mean not that /Latinshould be written in these lettes, no more then the/Greek or /Hebrew, neither would I write t’anyman of strange nation in these letters, butwhen