FEMALE WRITERS.

Large and valuable contributions to our present store of English literature have been derived from the performances of eminent female writers, some of whom are distinguished for elegance of language, beauty of imagery, and fertility of invention. And passages are to be found in their writings, which have been esteemed some of the happiest specimens extant of lively and entertaining narrative.

A treasury of useful knowledge, and a beautiful variety in subject and style, will be found in the works of the following writers.

BRITISH AUTHORS WHO WROTE THEIR PRINCIPAL WORKS IN LATIN.

FLOURISHED

WRITERS

ABOUT A.D.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

A History of the Britons, and an Epistle to
the Tyrants of Britain.

On the Eight Principal Virtues, the Praise of
Virginity, and other works.

An Ecclesiastical History of the English Na-
tion to his own time.

Homilies, Lives of Saints, Commentaries,
Poems, Letters, &c.

A History of Britain down to the 8th century.
The Life and Annals of King Alfred.
The History of Croyland Abbey, which is
still extant.

A History extending from the Creation to his
own time.

A History of the Conqueror, Rufus, and 22
years of Henry I.

An English History from the Arrival of the
Saxons to 1142.

A Chronicle of Britain, and a Life of the Cale-
donian Merlin.

A Genealogy of English Kings, the Life of
Edward the Confessor, &c.

A History of England to the year 1154.
An Epic Poem on the Trojan War, and other
works.

The Life of Thomas à Beckett, the Polycrati-
con, Letters, &c.

An English History from the Conquest to his own time.

An English History from the year 732 to

1192.

Commentaries on the Psalms, and several
other works.

A Chronicle extending from the Creation to
Henry III.

A Commentary on the Four Books of the
Sentences.

A History of English Affairs from the Con-
quest to the 43rd of Henry III.

Works on Chemistry, Mathematics, and Mechanics.

A mass of writings, comprising 12 volumes, chiefly on Disputations.

The Polychronicon, afterwards translated
into English by Trevisa.

A History of the Church at Durham, and a
Chronicle of English Affairs.

A History of British and Anglo-Saxon Anti-
quities.

A History of the Ancient Britons, Annals of
Queen Elizabeth, and other works.

The productions of modern writers are chiefly in English. A few of them, however, wrote part of their works in Latin. Of this class were Lord Bacon, Milton, and Sir Isaac Newton; whose works are part English and part Latin.

15

II. PROGRESS OF THE LANGUAGE,

WITH SPECIMENS.

ROMAN

ITALIC

CAPITALS SMALL CAPITALS SMALL

J

ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPCRSE

Ꭰ

d

А a Α
В b

α

В

b

ABCDE

с

d

e

F

f

G

H

Ι i

К

Q

q Q

Ꭱ

ORSE

T

t

(Wanting, corresponds to the sound of th as in thine) (Wanting, corresponds to the sound of th as in thick)

U

(wanting)

u

The Writing Characters.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

In the Anglo-Saxon alphabet several of the letters are similar in form to the Roman letters of the present day, and have the same names and powers; a few others differ both in shape and character. There are also many abbreviations almost peculiar to the Saxon language, of which the two following are the most common:—the character J used for 'and,' and the mark for that.' The Saxon alphabet was used prior to the Norman conquest, but from that period its use gradually declined in England.

The OLD ENGLISH or Black letter descended from the Gothic characters it is called Gothic by some, and Old English by others; but printers term it Black letter, on account of its taking a larger compass than either Roman or Italic, the full and spreading strokes thereof appearing more black upon paper. This alphabet displaced the Saxon letter about the time of the Norman Conquest, and was generally used in the writing of manuscripts till the invention of the art of printing. On the introduction of the Roman character, its use began to decline, and it was seldom used except in Law works, particularly Statute law; it was at length expelled from these, and only made its appearance in the heads of statutes, &c. For ornamental works, however, and for the reprint of ancient books, the Black character is still occasionally used.

The Roman letter has long been held in the highest estimation, and is the national character not only of England, but also of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. This alphabet owes its origin to a native of Romehence its name though the forms of the modern and the ancient Roman letters materially differ, from the improvements they have undergone at various times. Some learned writers are of opinion that the Roman character will be universally employed in all civilised states. In Germany, and the kingdoms and states which surround the Baltic, letters are used which owe their foundation to the Gothic character; but even in those nations works are printed in their own language with Roman letters. The Dutch still adhere to the Black letter in printing their books of devotion and religious treatises, while they make use of the Roman in their curious and learned works.

For the invention of the Italic letter we are indebted to Aldus Manutius, a printer of Italy, who erected a printing-office in Venice about the year 1480, where he gave birth to that beautiful letter which is known to most of the nations of Europe by the name of Italic. In the first instance it was termed Venetian, from Manutius being a resident of Venice, where he brought it to perfection; but not long after it was dedicated to the state of Italy, to prevent any dispute that might arise from other nations claiming a priority, as was the case concerning the first inventor of printing. Italic was originally designed to distinguish such parts of a book as might be considered not strictly to belong to the body of the work, as Prefaces, Introductions, Annotations, &c. At present it is used more sparingly, the necessity being supplied by the mode of introducing extracts within inverted commas, and poetry and annotations in a smaller-sized type. It is often serviceable in displaying a title-page, or distinguishing the head or subject-matter of a chapter from the chapter itself. Its utility must be allowed also in critical and satirical works, &c., where the sense requires a distinguishing mark on a particular word or subject. And by retaining both the Italic and Roman letters in our printed books, we have the advantage of giving extraordinary effect to words which we particularly wish to distinguish. The writing letters gradually grew out of the Italic, from the great ease and rapidity with which they can be formed.

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

If the Anglo-Saxon language of the ninth century be compared with the present English of the nineteenth, the following points of difference will be observed: :

It had letters and words which are now obsolete, and we have letters and words which were not then in use. The spelling, the pronunciation, and the arrangement of words in a sentence, differ materially from the present mode. Many plurals then formed by n or en, are now formed by s or es: as, treen, trees; housen, houses. The comparatives of many adjectives, then ending in re, now terminate in er: as, strengre, stronger. The present participle of verbs, now ending in ing, then terminated in ende or ande. The infinitive mood, now chiefly distinguished by the sign to, was then formed by the termination an or en.

In the Anglo-Saxon, number, case, and person were distinguished by inflection or change in the vowel of the final syllable; in modern English the vowels do not change, and prepositions serve instead of the lost inflections.