d years
between the original of Joinville and the earliest MS. which we possess.
But in those hundred years the French language did not remain stationary.
Even as late as the time of Montaigne, when French has assumed a far
greater literary steadiness, that writer complains of its constant change.
"I wrote my book," he says in a memorable passage ("Essais," liv. 3, c.
9)--

"For few people and for a few years. If it had been a subject that
ought to last, it should have been committed to a more stable
language (_Latin_). After the continual variation which has
followed our speech to the present day, who can hope that its
present form will be used fifty years hence? It glides from our
hands every day, and since I have lived it has been half changed.
We say that at present it is perfect, but every century says the
same of its own. I do not wish to hold it back, if it will fly
away and go on deteriorating as it does. It belongs to good and
useful writers to nail the language to themselves" (_de le clouer
a eux_).

On the other hand, we must guard against forming an exaggerated notion of
the changes that could have taken place in the French language within the
space of less than a century. They refer chiefly to the spelling of words,
to the use of some antiquated words and expressions, and to the less
careful observation of the rules by which in ancient French the nominative
is distinguished from the oblique cases, both in the singular and the
plural. That the changes do not amount to more than this can be proved by
a comparison of other documents which clearly preserve the actual language
of Joinville. There is a letter of his which is preserved at the Imperial
Library at Paris, addressed to Louis X. in 1315. It was first published by
Du Cange, afterwards by M. Daunou, in the twentieth volume of the
"Historiens de France," and again by M. de Wailly. There are, likewise,
some charters of Joinville, written in his _chancellerie_, and in some
cases with additions from his own hand. Lastly, there is Joinville's
"Credo," containing his notes on the Apostolic Creed, preserved in a
manuscript of the thirteenth century. This was published in the
"Collection des Bibliophiles Francais," unfortunately printed in
twenty-five copies only. The MS. of the "Credo," which formerly belonged
to the public library of Paris, disappeared from it about twenty years
ago; and it now forms No. 75 of