lating; he therefore produced English by no means equal to that of the year 1000. Thus he will not say, that ‘it thundered,’ as the English writer of the Tenth Century wrote; but puts, ‘the cumpany seide thundir to be maad.’ One of his most un-Teutonic idioms is, ‘he seith, I a vois of the crying in desert.’ Again, Wickliffe writes, ‘Jhesu convertid, and seynge hem suwynge him.’ Tyndale handles this far better: ‘Jesus turned about, and sawe them folowe.’ We now happily keep sue to the law courts; and we may also rejoice that the earlier Reformer's diction was improved upon in other respects a hundred and fifty years later; we have thus been saved from such phrases as, ‘I am sent to evangelise to thee thes thingis;’[1] ‘to ʓyve the science of helthe to his peple;’ ‘if I schal be enhaunsid (lifted up) fro the erthe;’ ‘it perteynede to him of nedy men;’ ‘Jhesus envyraunyde (went about) al Galilee;’ ‘Fadir, clarifie thi name;’ ‘he hath endurid (hardened) the herte;’ ‘my volatilis (fatlings) ben slayn;’ ‘he that hath a spousesse (bride).’ On the other hand, we have preferred Wickliffe to Tyndale in sundry passages.
| Wickliffe. | Tyndale. |
| Sone of perdicioun. | That lost chylde. |
| It is good us to be here. | Here is good beinge for us. |
| Entre thou in to the joye of thi lord. | Go in into thy master's joye. |
| I shulde have resceyved with usuris. | Shulde I have receaved with vauntage. |
| Thou saverist nat tho thingis, &c. | Thou perceavest nott godly thynges. |
- ↑ This first brought in the Greek ending ize, of which we have become so fond. What a mongrel word is proctorize!
