Mr.  Ellis  is  not  so  rash  as  to  place  that  pro-
duction, which  Hickes  and  Warton  removed
to  near  the  Conquest,  earlier  than  the  thir-
teenth century  ;  and  I  believe  it  may  be  placed
even  late  in  that  century.  In  short,  where
shall  we  fix  upon  the  first  poem  that  is  de-
cidedly English  ?  and  how  shall  we  ascertain
its  date  to  a  certainty  within  any  moderate
number  of  years  ?  Instead  of  supposing  the
period  of  the  formation  of  English  to  com-
mence at  II 80  [1185  ?],  and  to  end  at  1216,  we
might,  without  violence  to  any  known  fact,
extend  it  back  to  $eteral  years  earlier,  and
bring  it  down  to  a  great  many  years  later.  In
the  fair  idea  of  English  we  surely,  in  general,
understand  a  considerable  mixture  of  French
wordsf.  Now,  whatever  may  have  been  done
in  the  twelfth  century,  with  regard  to  that
change  from  Saxon  to  English  which  consists
in  the  extinction  of  Saxon  grammatical  inflec-
tions, it  is  plain  that  the  other  characteristic
of  English,  viz.  its  Gallicism,  was  only  begin-
ning in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  English
language  could  not  be  said  to  be  saturated
with  French,  till  the  days  of  Chaucer ;  i.  e.  it
did  not,  till  his  time,  receive  all  the  French
words  which  it  was  capable  of  retaining.  Mr.
Ellis  nevertheless  tells  us  that  the  vulgar
English,  not  gradually,  but  suddenly,  super-
seded the  legitimate  Saxon.  When  this  sudden
succession  precisely  began,  it  seems  to  be  as
difficult  to  ascertain,  as  when  it  ended.  The
sudden  transition,  by  Mr.  Ellis's  own  theory,
occupied  about  forty  years ;  and,  to  all  ap-
pearance, that  term  might  be  lengthened,
with  respect  to  its  commencement  and  con-
tinuance, to  fourscore  years  at  least.
