Ælfric, “the great master of prose in all its forms.” “Ælfric,” says Professor Ker, “works on principles that would have been approved by Dryden.”[1] English even became an official language alongside of Latin at the King’s Chancellery, in a way which cannot be paralleled on the Continent. The Conqueror had to recognize this; we have records of at least twenty-six documents issued by him in English;[2] but of course not a single one in French. After the Conquest English historical prose continued its life, albeit feebly, in some of the monasteries, and did not finally expire at Peterborough till a date later than that to which some students would attribute the composition of the Ancren Riwle. The use of English prose for religious purposes persisted, whilst early Anglo-Norman showed a marked preference for verse.
If then the Ancren Riwle was first written in Anglo-Norman, it was unprecedented, in that it was certainly the most considerable prose work in its own particular kind which, so far as we know, had been written in that language at that date; if it was first written in English it was the culmination of a great and still living tradition. It might conceivably be either; but I should have thought that the a priori probabilities were on the side of the English.
But there is a further consideration. In the two centuries following the composition of the Ancren Riwle, there is of course no doubt that the circumstances changed in favour of French prose. It was one of the most glorious periods of French prose—the age of Villehardouin, Joinville, Froissart, and the prose Lancelot. During this period the a priori probability is that any work, such as “Mandeville,” extant both in French and English prose, was originally written in French. It is not only that official prose was always either Latin or, like Britton’s Epitome of English Law, French. Englishmen habitually wrote their letters in French. If a body of tradesmen or craftsmen met together to draw up the rules of their guild, such rules would be in French rather than English. An official proclamation addressed even to humble people is always in French, if it is not in Latin; it seems to be assumed that, if a man can read or write at all, he can of course read French. Of the documents illustrating citizen life in London during the reigns of Edward I., II., III., which Mr. Riley collected, more than two-thirds are in Latin, the remainder either in French or in French together with
