may perhaps be seen in an Act of Parliament passed in +1362+ by Edward III., by which both French and Latin had to give place to English in our courts of law. The poems of Chaucer are the literary result-- “the bright consummate flower” of the union of two great powers-- the brilliance of the French language on the one hand and the homely truth and steadfastness of English on the other. Chaucer was born in +1340+, and died in +1400+; so that we may say that he and his poems-- though not the causes-- are the signs and symbols of the great influence that French obtained and held over our mother tongue. But although we accepted so many _words_ from our Norman-French visitors and immigrants, we accepted from them no _habit_ of speech whatever. We accepted from them no phrase or idiom: the build and nature of the English language remained the same-- unaffected by foreign manners or by foreign habits. It is true that Chaucer has the ridiculous phrase, “I n’am but dead” (for “I am quite dead”[4])-- which is a literal translation of the well-known French idiom, “Je ne suis que.” But, though our tongue has always been and is impervious to foreign idiom, it is probably owing to the great influx of French words which took place chiefly in the thirteenth century that many people have acquired a habit of using a long French or Latin word when an English word would do quite as well-- or, indeed, a great deal better. Thus some people are found to call a _good house_, a _desirable mansion_; and, instead of the quiet old English proverb, “Buy once, buy twice,” we have the roundabout Latinisms, “A single commission will ensure a repetition of orders.” An American writer, speaking of the foreign ambassadors who had been attacked by Japanese soldiers in Yeddo, says that “they concluded to occupy a location more salubrious.” This is only a foreign language, instead of the simple and homely English: “They made up their minds to settle in a healthier spot.” [Footnote 4: Or, as an Irishman would say, “I am kilt entirely.”] 24. +Latin of the Third Period+ (iii). +Norman Words+ (_a_). --The Norman-French words were of several different kinds. There were words connected with war, with feudalism, and with the chase. There were new law terms, and words connected with the State, and the new institutions introduced by the Normans. There were new words brought in by the Norman churchmen. New titles unknown to the English were also introduced. A better kind of cooking, a higher and less homely style of living, was brought into this country by the Normans; and, along with these, new and unheard-of words.