[] One stanza of this song will suffice to show that the Latin language was yet unchanged:—
De Clotario est canere rege Francorum,
Qui ivi pugnare cum gente Saxonum,
Quam graviter provenisset missis Saxonum,
Si non fuisset inclitus Faro de gente
Burgundionum.
[t] Præcavendum est, ne ad aures populi minus aliquid intelligibile proferatur. Mém. de l'Acad. t. xvii. p. 712.
[] Rustico et plebeio sermone propter exemplum et imitationem. Id. ibid.
[x] Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. iii. p. 5. Mém. de l'Académie, t. xxiv. p. 617. Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique, t. iv. p. 485.
[y] Hist. Littéraire de la France, t. vii. p. 12. The editors say that it is mentioned by name even in the seventh century, which is very natural, as the corruption of Latin had then become striking. It is familiarly known that illiterate persons understand a more correct language than they use themselves; so that the corruption of Latin might have gone to a considerable length among the people, while sermons were preached, and tolerably comprehended, in a purer grammar.
[z] Mém. de l'Acad. des Insc. t. xvii. See two memoirs in this volume by du Clos and le Bœuf, especially the latter, as well as that already mentioned in t. xxiv. p. 582, by M. Bonamy.
[a] Muratori, Dissert. i. and xliii.
Usus Franciscâ, vulgari, et voce Latinâ.
Instituit populos eloquio tripici.