IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
EMPLOYMENT OF TILE FRENCII LANGUAGE 87
Romances at Henry III.'s Court are examples.* In 1249
Alexander III. King of Scotland, at his coronation spoke in
Latin and French ; and in 1291 the English Chancellor address-
ing the Scotch Parliament did so in French. At certain of the
Oxford Colleges as late as 1328 it was an order that the students
should converse colloquio latino vel saltem gallico.1- Late in the
same century Gower had not ceased to use French, composing
many poems in it, though apologizing for his want of skill
therein :
"Et si jeo nai de Francois la faconde
* *
* *
ol
Jeo suis Englois ; si quier par tiele voie Estre excusé.".;
Indeed down to nearly 1385, boys in the English grammar-
schools were taught to construe their Latin lessons into French.§
St. Francis of Assisi is said by some of his biographers to have
had his original name changed to Francesco because of his early
mastery of that language as a qualification for commerce.
French had been the prevalent tongue of the Crusaders, and was
that of the numerous Frank Courts which they established in the
East, including Jerusalem and the states of the Syrian coast,
Cyprus, Constantinople during the reign of the Courtenays, and
the principalities of the Morea. The Catalan soldier and
chronicler Ramon de Muntaner tells us that it was commonly
said of the Morean chivalry that they spoke as good French as
at Paris.II Quasi-French at least was still spoken half a century
later by the numerous Christians settled at Aleppo, as John
Marignolli testifies ;1[1- and if we may trust Sir John Maundevile
the Soldan of Egypt himself and four of his chief Lords "spak
Frensclze righte wel !" . Gházán Kaan, the accomplished
Mongol Sovereign of Persia, to whom our Traveller conveyed a
•
* Luces du Gast, one of the first of these, introduces himself thus :—` ` Je Luces, Chevaliers et Sires du Chastel du Gast, voisins prochain de Salebieres, comme chevaliers amoureus enprens â translater du Latin en François une partie de cette estoire, non mie pour ce que je sache gramment de François, ainz apartient plus ma langue et ma parleure à la manière de l'Engleterre que á celle de France, comme cel qui fu en Engleterre nez, mais tele est ma volentez et mon proposement, que je en langue française le translaterai." (Hist. Litt. de La France, xv. 494.)
t Hist. Litt. de la France, xv. 50o. + Ibid. 508.
§ 7ÿrwliitt's Essay on Lang., etc., of Chaucer, p. xxii. (Moxon's Ed. 1852.)
II Chroniques Etran~; ères, p. 502.
1f " Loquuntur linguam quasi Gallican, scilicet quasi de Cipro." (See Cathay,
P. 332.) ** Page 138.
,j
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.