THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

The subject of the last chapter was one of great importance. When it
is once understood that, down to 1400 or a little later, the men of
the Scottish Lowlands and the men of the northern part of England
spoke not only the same language, but the same dialect of that
language, it becomes easy to explain what happened afterwards.

There was, nevertheless, one profound difference between the
circumstances of the language spoken to the north of the Tweed and
that spoken to the south of it. In Scotland, the Northumbrian dialect
was spoken by all but the Celts, without much variety; the minor
differences need not be here considered. And this dialect, called
Inglis (as we have seen) by the Lowlanders themselves, had no rival,
as the difference between it and the Erse or Gaelic was obvious and
immutable.

To the South of the Tweed, the case was different. England already
possessed three dialects at least, viz. Northumbrian, Mercian,
and Saxon, i.e. Northern, Midland, and Southern; besides which,
Midland had at the least two main varieties, viz. Eastern and Western.
Between all these there was a long contention for supremacy. In
very early days, the Northern took the lead, but its literature was
practically destroyed by the Danes, and it never afterwards attained
to anything higher than a second place. From the time of Alfred, the
standard language of literature was the Southern, and it kept the lead
till long after the Conquest, well down to 1200 and even later, as
will be explained hereafter. But the Midland dialect, which is not
without witness to its value in the ninth century, began in the
thirteenth to assume an important position, which in the fourteenth
became dominant and supreme, exalted as it was by the genius of
Chaucer. Its use was really founded on practical convenience. It
was intermediate between the other two, and could be more or less
comprehended both by the Northerner and the Southerner, though these
could hardly understand each other. The result was, naturally, that
whilst the Northumbrian to the north of the Tweed was practically
supreme, the Northumbrian to the south of it soon lost its position
as a literary medium. It thus becomes clear that we must, during
the fifteenth century, treat the Northumbrian of England and that of
Scotland separately. Let us first investigate its position in England.

But before this can be appreciated, it is necessary to draw
attention to the fact