ts no longer understand each
other. In 1362, a statute ordains that henceforward all pleas shall be
conducted in English, and they shall be enrolled in Latin; and that in
the English law courts "the French language, which is too unknown in the
said realm,"[393] shall be discontinued.

This ignorance is now notorious. Froissart remarks on it; the English,
he says, do not observe treaties faithfully, "and to this they are
inclined by their not understanding very well all the terms of the
language of France; and one does not know how to force a thing into
their head unless it be all to their advantage."[394] Trevisa, about
the same time, translating into English the chronicle of Ralph Higden,
reaches the passage where it is said that all the country people
endeavour to learn French, and inserts a note to rectify the statement.
This manner, he writes, is since the great pestilence (1349) "sumdel
i-chaunged," and to-day, in the year 1385, "in alle the gramere scoles
of Engelond, children leveth Frensche and construeth and lerneth an
Englische." This allows them to make rapid progress; but now they
"conneth na more Frensche than can hir (their) lift heele, and that is
harme for hem, and (if) they schulle passe the see and travaille in
straunge landes and in many other places. Also gentil men haveth now
moche i-left for to teche here children Frensche."[395]

The English themselves laugh at their French; they are conscious of
speaking, like Chaucer's Prioress, the French of Stratford-at-Bow, or,
like Avarice in the "Visions" of Langland, that "of the ferthest end of
Norfolke."[396]

There will shortly be found in the kingdom personages of importance,
exceptions it is true, with whom it will be impossible to negotiate in
French. This is the case with the ambassadors sent by Henry IV., that
same Henry of Lancaster who had claimed the crown by an English speech,
to Flanders and France in 1404. They beseech the "Paternitates ac
Magnificentias" of the Grand Council of France to answer them in Latin,
French being "like Hebrew" to them; but the Magnificents of the Grand
Council, conforming to a tradition which has remained unbroken down to
our day, refuse to employ for the negotiation any language but their
own.[397] Was it not still, as in the time of Brunetto Latini, the
modern tongue most prized in Europe? In England even, men were found who
agreed to this, while rendering to Latin the tribute due to it; and the
author of one o