DISSERTATION II.

The Scotish a purer language than the English-Caufes of the devi ation of the English from the original standard attributed to translations and poetry—The fùperior melody of the Scotish language, and particularly its fitnefs for paftoral writing-Caufes of the fuppofed vulgarity of that dialect, and objections to the use of it answeredReafons of the ftyle of the following Paftoral approaching fo nearly to the English-Of Ramfay and Burns.

Sur le ton des Français, il faut chanter en France.

Nous avons l'habitude

De rediger au long de point en point,

Voltaire.

Ce qu'on pensa; mais nous ne pensons point.

Id.

I

PROCEED now to the second object of this introductory essay, which is to justify my adoption of the Scotish dialect in the following Drama: And this apology will rest on two propositions which, as they may be repugnant to the opinions of the English reader, I shall be at some pains to establish. The first is, that the Scoto-Saxon dialect is superior to the Anglo-Saxon in point of purity; and the second is, that it surpasses the latter in melody or sweetness of sound.

When two dialects spring from a common source, that certainly is most corrupted which deviates most from the original standard. That the English language deviates more than the Scotish from the Saxon can bear no dispute (a). Indeed no nation seems ever to have been so eager as the English to adopt adventitious terms, while they rejected, to make way for them, many native words of far superior sweetness and energy.

The writers of the age of Queen Elisabeth are considered by S. Johnson as the pure and genuine sources of our language; and he observes that, from them, "a speech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance." In no period, however, was a language made " a gallimaufrey, or hodge-podge of all other speeches," so speedily as the English was at that time; and the innovations it suffered from the Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin, is a frequent subject of complaint with many of the writers of that age: Thus Marston says in one of his Satires,

I cannot quote a motte Italianate,

Or brand my fatires with a Spanish term.

Proeme, b. 2.

Carew, in a letter to Camden, says, "We, within these sixty years, have incorporated so many Latin and French words, as the third part of our tongue consisteth now in them." And Camden himself, having given us a specimen of the Lord's Prayer in Old English, has these words: "Hitherto will our sparkfull youth laugh at their great-grandfathers' English, whọ had more care to do well than to speak minion like, and left more glory to us by their exploiting great

actes, than we shall by our forging new words and uncouth phrases." (b)

This sophistication of the English language at that period (for I do not speak of the consequences of the Norman conquest) was principally owing to two causes. The first was the vast number of translations which were then made, and which, unless the greatest care be used, affect both the idiom and words of the translator. The second cause was a kind of poetical necessity, induced by the constraint of verse, and the absolute nced a person sometimes has for a rhyme. The author of an old Arte of English Poesie says of Gower, that, to "make up his rime, he would for the most part write his terminant syllable with false orthographie, and many times not sticke to put a plaine French word for an English, and so by your leave do many of our common rimers at this day."

Spencer, praising the style of Chaucer, calls him "Dan Chaucer well of English undefilde." But Skinner, a better judge, tell us that "Chaucer (pessimo exemplo) imported waggon-loads of French words into our language, and deprived of all native grace and beauty a tongue already adulterated by the consequences of the Norman conquest." Much indeed cannot be said for the English style of a writer who, telling us that a person's boots were of tanned leather, says,

His jambeux were of cure buly.

Rime of Sir Thopas, -3380.

Ses jambeux etoient de cuir boailli.

Spencer himself, urged by the constraint of his stanza, was not only compelled to alter old words (like Procrustes to his guests, sometimes lopping, at other times stretching) but he was occasionally forced to coin new words, or at least adopt them from other languages. Hence Jonson says, in what he calls his Discoveries, "Spencer, in affecting the ancients, writ no language." The new words of that poet are ingeniously observed, by T. Warton, to be at the end of his lines; and probably they are in that part of the stanza where English materials being exhausted, recourse was had to foreign ones, in order to enable the architect to build the lofty rhyme.

Nor have the English here ended their innovations, but since the age of Queen Elisabeth, they have gone on introducing words from foreign languages, snatching at the possessions of others, while they rejected, like the dog in the fable, what they possessed themselves, though more valuable. It follows from this, that many of the words used by the mos: illustrious writers in Queen Elisabeth's time (though perfectly familiar in this country) cannot, by an Englishman, be understood without a glossary. Hence it has often been observed, that a Scotsman is apt to behold with contempt and wonder the erudition which has been expended by the commentators of Shakespeare, in explaining words familiar to him, but which they have often mistaken. Perhaps there are not many tolerably ingenious Scotish schoolmasters who would not have succeeded better, as interpreters of that great dramatist than Warburton or Pope (c).

It would lead me beyond the limits which I have prescribed to myself in this Preface, to enter into a

particular comparison of the Scotish and English dialects, and besides there is a dissertation of considerable merit, by Dr Geddes, on this subject, in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland. I shall just (viewing the subject in a poetical way of consideration) write down a few remarks with respect to the melody of the two languages, a circumstance which must depend on the sweetness of the vowel sounds and the combination of the consonants.

"It is my opinion (says Dr Geddes in the dissertation just mentioned) that the vowel sounds that predominate in the Scotish dialect are of themselves more harmonious than those which are the most prevalent in England. That the open or broad a, for example, (as in the word law) is one of the most harmonious vocal sounds, is clear, from its being the most common in almost all known languages, European and Asiatic, from the Italian to the Hindoo. Yet this sound rarely occurs in English, but in Scots is extremely common even now, and was formerly still more so. Not only did it take place of the English open short a, (as in hand, man, mass,) but even of the long slender a, (as in same, lame, awake, take). It was also retained in a number of Saxon words, in which we have gradually changed it into a long, as snaw, craw, blaw, for snow, crow, blow (d)."

"Nor will it be denied (Mr Geddes in another place observes), that the Italian i, or English ee, is more liarmonious than i English. Now the Scots said surveev, admeer, &c. instead of survive, admire.”

The other circumstance on which the sweetness of a language depends, is the combination of the consonants, which are in general much less harsh in the