[Sidenote: Greatly diffused employment of French in that age.]

54. But, after all, the circumstantial evidence that has been adduced from
the texts themselves is the most conclusive. We have then every reason to
believe both that the work was written in French, and that an existing
French Text is a close representation of it as originally committed to
paper. And that being so we may cite some circumstances to show that the
use of French or quasi-French for the purpose was not a fact of a very
unusual or surprising nature. The French language had at that time almost
as wide, perhaps relatively a wider, diffusion than it has now. It was
still spoken at the Court of England, and still used by many English
writers, of whom the authors or translators of the Round Table Romances at
Henry III.'s Court are examples.[7] In 1249 Alexander III. King of
Scotland, at his coronation spoke in Latin and French; and in 1291 the
English Chancellor addressing the Scotch Parliament did so in French. At
certain of the Oxford Colleges as late as 1328 it was an order that the
students should converse _colloquio latino vel saltern gallico_.[8] Late
in the same century Gower had not ceased to use French, composing many
poems in it, though apologizing for his want of skill therein:--

"Et si jeo nai de Francois la faconde
* * * * *
Jeo suis Englois; si quier par tiele voie
Estre excuse."[9]

Indeed down to nearly 1385, boys in the English grammar-schools were
taught to construe their Latin lessons into French.[10] St. Francis of
Assisi is said by some of his biographers to have had his original name
changed to Francesco because of his early mastery of that language as a
qualification for commerce. French had been the prevalent tongue of the
Crusaders, and was that of the numerous Frank Courts which they
established in the East, including Jerusalem and the states of the Syrian
coast, Cyprus, Constantinople during the reign of the Courtenays, and the
principalities of the Morea. The Catalan soldier and chronicler Ramon de
Muntaner tells us that it was commonly said of the Morean chivalry that
they spoke as good French as at Paris.[11] Quasi-French at least was still
spoken half a century later by the numerous Christians settled at Aleppo,
as John Marignolli testifies;[12] and if we may trust Sir John Maundevile
the Soldan of Egypt himself and four of his chief Lords "_spak Frensche
righte wel!_"[13] Gha