THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.

And aaron held up his hond	And Aaron held up his hand
to ðe water and ðe more lond;	To the water and the greater land;
ðo cam ðor up ſwilc froſkes here	Then came there up such host of frogs
ðe dede al folc egipte dere;	That did all Egypt's folk harm;
Summe woren wilde, and ſumme tame,	Some were wild, and some tame,
And ðo hem deden ðe moſte ſame;	And those caused them the most (greatest) shame;
In huſe, in drinc, in metes, in bed,	In house, in drink, in meats, in bed,
It cropen and maden hem for-dred;	They crept and made them in great dread;
Summe ſtoruen and gouen ſtinc,	Some died and gave (out) stink,
And vn-hileden mete and drinc;	And (others) uncovered meat and drink;
Polheuedes, and froſkes, & podes ſpile	Tadpoles and frogs, and toad's venom
Bond harde egipte folc un-ſile.[^[8]]	Bound hard Egypt's sorrowful folk.
	—(ll. 2967-2978.)

The reader must not be disappointed if he fails to find many traces in this work of our pious author's poetic skill; he must consider that the interest attaching to so early an English version of Old Testament History, as well as the philological value of the poem, fully compensates him for the absence of great literary merit, which is hardly to be expected in a work of this kind. And, moreover, we must recollect that it is to the patriotism, as well as piety, of such men as our author, that we owe the preservation of our noble language. The number of religious treatises written in English during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries proves that the dialect of religion approached more closely to the speech of the people than did the language of history or romance. And it is a curious fact that the most valuable monuments of our language are mostly theological, composed for the lewed and unlearned, who knew no other language than the one spoken by their forefathers, and who clung most tenaciously to their mother tongue, notwithstanding the changes consequent upon the Norman invasion, and the oppression of Norman rule, which, inasmuch as it fostered and kept up a patriotic spirit, exercised a most important and beneficial influence upon Early English literary culture and civilization.