LATIN—LATINER.
(Vol. vii., p. 423.)
Latin was likewise used for the language or song of birds:
"E cantino gli angelli
Ciascuno in suo Latino."
Dante, canzone i.
"This faire kinges doughter Canace,
That on hire finger bare the queinte ring,
Thurgh which she understood wel every thing
That any foule may in his leden sain,
And coude answere him in his leden again,
Hath understonden what this faucon seyd."
Chaucer, The Squieres Tale, 10746.
Chaucer, it will be observed, uses the Anglo-Saxon form of the word. Leden was employed by the Anglo-Saxons in the sense of language generally, as well as to express the Latin tongue.
In the German version of Sir Tristram, Latin is also used for the song of birds, and is so explained by Ziemann:
"Latin, Latein; für jede fremde eigenthümliche Sprache, selbst für den Vogelgesang. Tristan und Isolt, 17365."—Ziemann, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch.
Spenser, who was a great imitator of Chaucer, probably derives the word leden or ledden from him:
"Thereto he was expert in prophecies,
And could the ledden of the gods unfold."
The Faerie Queene, book iv. ch. xi. st. 19.
"And those that do to Cynthia expound
The ledden of straunge languages in charge."
Colin Clout, 744.
In the last passage, perhaps, meaning, knowledge, best expresses the sense. Ledden may have been one of the words which led Ben Jonson to charge Spenser with "affecting the ancients." However, I find it employed by one of his cotemporaries, Fairfax:
"With party-colour'd plumes and purple bill,
A wond'rous bird among the rest there flew,
That in plain speech sung love-lays loud and shrill,
Her leden was like human language true."
Fairfax's Tasso, book xvi. st. 13.
The expression lede, in lede, which so often occurs in Sir Tristram, may also have arisen from the Anglo-Saxon form of the word Latin. Sir W. Scott, in his Glossary, explains it: "Lede, in lede. In language, an expletive, synonymous to I tell you." The following are a few of the passages in which it is found:
"Monestow neuer in lede
Nought lain."—Fytte i. st. 60.
"In lede is nought to layn,
He set him by his side."—Fytte i. st. 65.
"Bothe busked that night,
To Beliagog in lede."—Fytte iii. st. 59.
It is not necessary to descant on thieves' Latin, dog-Latin, Latin de Cuisine, &c.; but I should be glad to learn when dog-Latin first appeared in our language.
E. M. B.
Lincoln.