s
Quod te Tullensi proxime magnum in urbe vidimus.
Multis me tuis artibus laetificabas antea,
Sed nunc fecisti maximo me exultare gaudio.

[493] Chilpericus rex ... confecit duos libros, quorum versiculi debiles
nullis pedibus subsistere possunt: in quibus, dum non intelligebat, pro
longis syllabas breves posuit, et pro brevibus longas statuebat. 1. vi.
c. 46.

[494] Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, t. xvii. Hist. Litteraire de
la France, t. ii. p. 28. It seems rather probable that the poetry of
Avitus belongs to the fifth century, though not very far from its
termination. He was the correspondent of Sidonius Apollinaris, who died
in 489, and we may presume his poetry to have been written rather early
in life.

[495] One stanza of this song will suffice to show that the Latin
language was yet unchanged:--

De Clotario est canere rege Francorum,
Qui ivi pugnare cum gente Saxonum,
Quam graviter provenisset missis Saxonum,
Si non fuisset inclitus Faro de gente
Burgundionum.

[496] Praecavendum est, ne ad aures populi minus aliquid intelligibile
proferatur. Mem. de l'Acad. t. xvii. p. 712.

[497] Rustico et plebeio sermone propter exemplum et imitationem. Id.
ibid.

[498] Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. iii. p. 5. Mem. de l'Academie,
t. xxiv. p. 617. Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique, t. iv. p. 485.

[499] Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. vii. p. 12. The editors say that
it is mentioned by name even in the seventh century, which is very
natural, as the corruption of Latin had then become striking. It is
familiarly known that illiterate persons _understand_ a more correct
language than they use themselves; so that the corruption of Latin might
have gone to a considerable length among the people, while sermons were
preached, and tolerably comprehended, in a purer grammar.

[500] Mem. de l'Acad. des Insc. t. xvii. See two memoirs in this volume
by du Clos and le Boeuf, especially the latter, as well as that
already mentioned in t. xxiv. p. 582, by M. Bonamy.

[501] Muratori, Dissert. i. and xliii.

[502]
Usus Francisca, vulgari, et voce Latina.
Instituit populos eloquio tripici.

Fontanini dell'Eloquenza Italiana, p. 15. Muratori, Dissert. xxxii.

[503] Histoire Litteraire de la France, t. vi. p. 20. Muratori, Dissert.
xliii.

[504] Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique, t. ii. p. 419. This became, the
editors say, much less unusual about the end of the thirteenth