23. +Latin of the Third Period+ (ii). +Chief Dates+. --The Normans, having utterly beaten down the resistance of the English, seized the land and all the political power of this country, and filled all kinds of offices-- both spiritual and temporal-- with their Norman brethren. Norman-French became the language of the Court and the nobility, the language of Parliament and the law courts, of the universities and the schools, of the Church and of literature. The English people held fast to their own tongue; but they picked up many French words in the markets and other places “where men most do congregate.” But French, being the language of the upper and ruling classes, was here and there learned by the English or Saxon country-people who had the ambition to be in the fashion, and were eager “to speke Frensch, for to be more y-told of,”-- to be more highly considered than their neighbours. It took about three hundred years for French words and phrases to soak thoroughly into English; and it was not until England was saturated with French words and French rhythms that the great poet Chaucer appeared to produce poetic narratives that were read with delight both by Norman baron and by Saxon yeoman. In the course of these three hundred years this intermixture of French with English had been slowly and silently going on. Let us look at a few of the chief land-marks in the long process. In +1042+ Edward the Confessor introduces Norman-French into his Court. In +1066+ Duke William introduces Norman-French into the whole country, and even into parts of Scotland. The oldest English, or Anglo-Saxon, ceases to be written, anywhere in the island, in public documents, in the year +1154+. In +1204+ we lost Normandy, a loss that had the effect of bringing the English and the Normans closer together. Robert of Gloucester writes his chronicle in +1272+, and uses a large number of French words. But, as early as the reign of Henry the Third, in the year +1258+, the reformed and reforming Government of the day issued a proclamation in English, as well as in French and Latin. In +1303+, Robert of Brunn introduces a large number of French words. The French wars in Edward the Third’s reign brought about a still closer union of the Norman and the Saxon elements of the nation. But, about the middle of the fourteenth century a reaction set in, and it seemed as if the genius of the English language refused to take in any more French words. The English silent stubbornness seemed to have prevailed, and Englishmen had made up their minds to be English in speech, as they were English to the backbone in everything else. Norman-French had, in fact, become provincial, and was spoken only here and there. Before the great Plague-- commonly spoken of as “The Black Death”-- of +1349+, both high and low seemed to be alike bent on learning French, but the reaction may be said to date from this year. The culminating point of this reaction