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Nicholas Bishop, an Exemplar of the Oxford Dialect of the Fifteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Nicholas Bishop was a well-to-do brewer of Oxford. As he tells us in the first passage printed below, he was the son of a citizen of that place, Bartholomew Bishop, and of his wife, Isabelle, the daughter and heir of Walter Gregory of Watford. He was a litigious man. In furtherance of his actions at law, he compiled with his own hand a volume of annotated transcripts of deeds from various sources, now Cambridge University MS. Dd. xiv. 2. This volume, although mainly in Latin, contains some very interesting specimens of Oxford English, namely: two passages concerning a litigation of Bishop's with the Abbot of Oseney, a version of the Short Metrical Chronicle made to conform more or less to Bishop's dialect, and a series of historical notes following it, presumably composed by him. A note in the manuscript gives its date:
Memorandum quod in Vigilio Sancti Martini in Anno domini MoCCCCmoxxxij: Anno que rregni henrici vjti Istud librum primitus fuit ffinitum. per Nicholaum Bysshop de Oxon “filium & heredem Bartholomei Bysshopp.”
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934
References
1 Fol. cccxxixa (312a).
2 H. E. Salter, Eynsham Cartulary, ii (Oxf. Hist. Soc., li. [1908]), 222–239.
3 New Palaeographical Society, Series ii, Plate 112.
4 I shall use a transcript by Mr. H. Pink.
5 For an account of the manuscripts of the Chronicle, see Sternberg, ESt, xviii, 1 ff.; and Carroll and Tuve, PMLA, xlvi, 115 ff. Sternberg's statements about Cambridge Dd. xiv. 2 are vague and incorrect.
6 Ibid.
7 The spellings are those of Camb. Dd. xiv. 2.
8 I have not cited in evidence the rime of lemmon with fom (Royal 75–76), since it occurs in one manuscript only. Neither have I cited any rimes involving the preterits of come and nim nor the rime of man with Aþelstan (Royal 577–578, Auch. 1582–83, Camb. fol. cclxxxviiib) because of their ambiguity.
9 Moore, Meech, and Whitehall, “The Middle English Dictionary,” PMLA, xlviii, 287.
10 I have not counted rimes involving much and such.
11 Moore, Meech, and Whitehall, ibid. 287.
12 Be, see, free occur in rime, but are of little significance since final [eo:] seems to have become [e:] universally at an early date.
13 The word yet is left out in the Camb. MS. but is demanded by the sense.
14 Moore, Meech, and Whitehall, ibid. p. 287.
15 See H. E. Salter Cartulary of Oseney Abbey, i (Oxf. Hist. Soc., lxxxix [1929]), xii–xvi for lists of the Abbots. Thomas Cudelyngton was elected July, 1330; his successor Iohn Bocland, May, 1373; his successor William Wendover, March, 1404; and his successor Thomas Hooknorton, 1430.
16 H. Hurst Oxford Topography (Oxf. Hist. Soc., xxxix [1898]), 63, 69, 139, 152, and 171. The lane, which was the focus of the dispute, no longer exists nor is its course exactly determined. Its southern terminus was on the High Street between the western boundary of All Saints Parish and the Mitre; its northern one at some point on Cornmarket Street.
17 Ll. 178 ff.
18 See below on horn.
19 Kyng is of no significance for dialect, since it does not occur in ME with spellings indicating rounding even in areas where [y] retained its rounding. u-spellings in wuch, 7 ff., pulk, 39, and muche, 38, are of no significance, see Jordan, Handbuch der me. Grammatik, p. 67.
20 Hereafter I shall refer to the Chronicle to Edward II simply as the Chronicle and I shall refer to the continuation to 9 Henry in the Cambridge MS., simply as the Continuation.
21 Some instances from the Godstow Register are: furst 26.26,? put 277.15; kochyn 521.8; vnchis 495 rubric. Furst is not very significant since this form occurs freely in ME documents in areas in which OE [y] certainly did not remain rounded. The rounding appears in the field-names in this register ending in hill and mill,—see pp. cxxxix and cxli.
In the Oseney Register, we have the spelling brugge, 49.18 and u-spellings in field-names ending in bridge, hill, and mill,—see pp. lvii, lix–lxi.
22 E-spellings for final [eo:] are not counted, since I believe final [eo:] to have been everywhere unrounded at this time.
23 Moore, Meech, and Whitehall, ibid., p. 287.
24 F-spellings are of course preponderant in the Cambridge MS. At Thame (Oxon), twelve miles east of Oxford, we have practically contemporary evidence for the voicing of initial [f] in the church-wardens' accounts (published serially in the Berks Bucks and Oxon Archaeol. Journal, vii [1901] and subsequent volumes) which begin in 1442. Fathom is spelled vedum, viii. 75; and font, va'te, viii. 56. Reverse spellings (fise and fyse for vice, viii. 117, viii. 29.30, and festeme't, festemety for vestment viii. 29.76) also occur. I am indebted to Mr. Moore for these spellings gleaned from the accounts, 1442–50.
25 I have left same out of consideration.
26 Moore, Meech, and Whitehall, ibid., p. 287.
27 It must be stated that we led this line through Oxford, as we did the line for the rounded pronunciation of OE [y], [y:] and [eo], [e:o] on the evidence of Bishop's notebook.
28 Skeat “On the Dialect of Wycliffe's Bible,” Transacts. of the Philol. Soc. (1895–8), pp. 212–219.
29 In the De Diversis Querelis, for example, is in the genitive singular and in the plural of nouns is more common than es; id in preterits and past participles of weak verbs is more common than ed; and iþ occurs once in the pres. ind. sing. beside four eþ's.
30 Upsala, 1900, Pt. I.
31 Studies, p. 20.—The principal features noticed are: (a) development of a glide after a and e before sc, (b) occasional change of [į] to [ę] and of [ę] to [į], (c) u-spellings for OE[ų] before n-combinations instead of o-spellings, (d) fewer e-spellings for OE[y] then in the charters and Chaucer.
32 E.E.T.S., 164, xxiv. ff.
33 At the top of each subsequent page of De Diversis Querelis, there is a short Latin heading. The heading of fols. 32a–35a is “De Abbate Oxeney. 1. Cave de eo”; that of fol. 35b is De abbate.“ The heading of fol. 36a is illegible in the rotograph.
34–34 Words between these numbers are written above the line in the MS.
35–35 Words between these numbers are struck through in the MS.
36–36 Words between these numbers are interlineated in the MS.
37–37 Words between these numbers inserted at the end of line 51 and above line 52.
38–38 Words between these numbers written in the left margin.
39 Faded.
40 Lacuna in MS. before sloo, 3 to 5 letters gone.
41 This is apparently to be identified with New Inn, see H. Hurst, Oxford Topography, pp. 63–64.
42 For information about Gloucester College, Hincksey Hall and Haberdasher's Hall see H. Hurst, Oxford Topography, the index.
43 This heading is also at the top of fol. 49b.
44–44 Written above the line.
45 Here Bishop writes first to the left and then to the right of a short slanting fissure in this leaf.
46 An X is drawn through the left extremities of lines 1–6.