[377] Examples of "estrifs," debates or "disputoisons": "The Thrush and the Nightingale," on the merits of women, time of Edward I. (with a title in French: "Si comence le cuntent par entre le mauvis et la russinole"); "The Debate of the Carpenter's Tools" (both in Hazlitt's "Remains," vol. i. p. 50, and i. p. 79); "The Debate of the Body and the Soul" (Matzner's "Altenglische Sprachproben," part i. p. 90), same subject in French verse, thirteenth century, "Monumenta Franciscana," vol. i. p. 587; "The Owl and the Nightingale" (ed. Stevenson, Roxburghe Club, 1838, 4to). This last, one of the most characteristic of all, belongs to the thirteenth century, and consists in a debate between the two birds concerning their respective merits; they are very learned, and quote Alfred's proverbs, but they are not very well bred, and come almost to insults and blows. [378] Litanies of love: Love is wele, love is wo, love is geddede, Love is lif, love is deth, &c. Th. Wright, "Anecdota Literaria," London, 1844, 8vo, p. 96, time of Edward I., imitated from the "Chastoiement des Dames," in Barbazan and Meon, vol. ii. [379] Th. Wright, "Specimens of Lyric Poetry, composed in England in the reign of Edward I.," Percy Society, 1842, 8vo, p. 43. [380] They wrote in French, Latin, and English, using sometimes the three languages in the same song, sometimes only two of them: Scripsi haec carmina in tabulis! Mon ostel est en mi la vile de Paris: May y sugge namore, so wel me is; Yef hi deye for love of hire, duel hit ys. Wright, "Specimens of Lyric Poetry," p. 64. [381] Femmes portent les oyls veyrs E regardent come faucoun. T. Wright, "Specimens," p. 4. [382] Heo hath a mury mouth to mele, With lefly rede lippes lele Romaunz forte rede. Ibid., p. 34. [383] Ibid., p. 51. BOOK III. _ENGLAND TO THE ENGLISH._ CHAPTER I. _THE NEW NATION._ I. In the course of the fourteenth century, under Edward III. and Richard II., a double fusion, which had been slowly preparing during the preceding reigns, is completed and sealed for ever; the races established on English ground are fused into one, and the languages they spoke become one also. The French are no longer superposed on the natives; henceforth there are only English in the English island.