George Puttenham The Arte of English Poesie (1590)

Now also wheras I said before that our old Saxon English for his many monosillables did

not naturally admit the vse of the ancient feete in our vulgar measures so aptly as in

those languages which stood most vpon polisillables, I sayd it in a sort truly, but now I

must recant and confesse that our Normane English which hath growen since William the

Conquerour doth admit any of the auncient feete, by reason of the many polysillables

euen to sixe and seauen in one word, which we at this day vse in our most ordinarie

language: and which corruption hath bene occasioned chiefly by the peeuish affectation

not of the Normans themʃelves, but of clerks and scholers or secretaries long since,

who not content with the vsual Normane or Saxon word, would conuert the very Latine

and Greeke word into vulgar French, as to say innumerable for innombrable, reuocable,

irreuocable, irradiation, depopulatio & such like, which are not naturall Normans nor yet

French, but altered Latines, and without any imitation at all: which therefore were long

time despised for inkehorne termes, and now be reputed the best & most delicat of any

other.

George Puttenham The Arte of English Poesie (1590)

But after a ſpeach is fully faſhioned to the common vnderstanding, & accepted by conſent

of a whole countrey & natiō, it is called a language, & receaueth none allowed alteration,

but by extraordinary occaſions by little & little, as it were inſenſibly bringing in of many

corruptiōs that creepe along with the time: of all which matters, we haue more largely

ſpoken in our bookes of the originals and pedigree of the EnEnglish tong. Then when I say

language, I meane the ſpeach wherein the Poet or maker writeth be it Greek or Latine or

as our case is the vulgar English, & when it is peculiar vnto a countrey it is called the

mother ſpeach of that people: the Greekes terme it Idioma: so is ours at this day the

Norman English. Before the Conquest of the Normans it was the Anglesaxon, and before

that the British, which as some will, is at this day, the Walsh, or as others affirme the

Corniſh: I for my part thinke neither of both, as they be now ſpoken and pronounced.

This part in our maker or Poet must be heedyly looked vnto, that it be naturall, pure,

and the most vſuall of all his countrey: and for the ſame purpoſe rather that which is

ſpoken in the kings Court, or in the good townes and Cities within the land, then in the

marches and frontiers, or in port townes, where ſtraungers haunt for traffike ſake, or yet

in Vniuerſities where Schollers vſe much peeuiſh affectation of words out of the primatiue

languages, or finally, in any vplandiſh village or corner of a Realme, where is no reſort

but of poore ruſticall or vnciuill people: neither ſhall he follow the ſpeach of a craftes man

or carter, or other of the inferiour ſort, though he be inhabitant or bred in the beſt town

and Citie in this Realme, for ſuch persons doe abuſe good ſpeaches by ſtrange accents or

ill ſhapen ſoundes, and falſe ortographie. But he ſhall follow generally the better brought

vp ſort, ſuch as the Greekes call [charientes] men ciuill and graciouſly behauoured and

bred. Our maker therfore at these dayes ſhall not follow Piers plowman nor Gower nor

Lydgate nor yet Chaucer, for their language is now out of vſe with vs: neither ſhall he

take the termes of Northern-men, ſuch as they vſe in dayly talke, whether they be noble

men or gentlemen, or of their beſt clarkes all is a matter: nor in effect any ſpeach vſed

beyond the riuer of Trent, though no man can deny but that theirs is the purer English

Saxon at this day, yet it is not ſo Courtly nor ſo currant as our Southerne English is, no

more is the far Weſterne mās speach: ye ſhall therfore take the vſuall speach of the

Court, and that of London and the ſhires lying about London within lx. myles, and not

much aboue. I ſay not this but that in euery ſhyre of England there be gentlemen and

others that ſpeake but ſpecially write as good Southerne as we of Middlesex or Surrey

do, but not the common people of euery ſhire, to whom the gentlemen, and also their

learned clarkes do for the most part condeſcend, but herein we are already ruled by

th'English Dictionaries and other bookes written by learned men, and therefore it

needeth none other direction in that behalfe.

About the text and the author

George Puttenham is saying that language should be normal everyday language “the natural, pure and most usual of all his country”He's against inkhorn terms (foreign borrowings mostly from Latin and French). Norman English has grown but it's contaminated with all those terms used by scholars and clerks that have come into language artificially.

What he's doing is giving instructions about what should be a good English.

He's putting wether geographical limits and social limits (it's right for him to speak like people in London and the shires but not like the workings class) He says.”the poet shall therefore that usual speech of the court, and that London and the shires lying about London, within 1x miles, and not much about”(Putthenham 1936: 144-5)