In search of a prose style

Abstract

The main tide of humanism did not reach England until the early sixteenth century, and even then it advanced slowly, one obstacle to its progress being the state of the English language. French had long been, with Latin, the language of international diplomacy, and Italian, with a tradition reaching back uninterruptedly to the period of ancient Rome, possessed the range and vocabulary requisite for the various genres of literature. But English remained in many ways unformed. The distinguished literature it had produced, including the poetry of Chaucer and, more recently, the prose of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur (1470), had relied for its effect on a simplicity and directness of style which English even in its less developed form was able to supply. Queen Guenever’s parting from Launcelot is moving in its elemental purity of diction, employing mainly monosyllabic words in a series of loosely joined and unsubordinated sentences:

Therefore, Sir Launcelot, go to thy realm, and there take thee a wife, and live with her with joy and bliss, and I pray thee heartily pray for me to our Lord, that I may amend my mis-living. Now, sweet madam, said Sir Launcelot, would ye that I should return again unto my country, and there wed a lady? Nay, madam, wit you well that shall I never do; for I shall never be so false to you of that I have promised. [XXI, ix].