Ac we witun þe bilewitne wesan & nellan onbelæden swincgla us, buton þu bi togenydd fram us. Wille beswungen on leornunge? Leofre ys us beon geswungen for lare þænne hit ne cunnan. Hwæt wille ge sprecan? Hwæt rece we hwæt we sprecan, buton hit riht spræc sy & behefe, næs idel oþþe fracod. We cildra biddaþ þe, eala lareow, þæt þu tæce us sprecan forþam ungelærede we syndon & gewæmmodlice we sprecaþ. Sed scimus te mansuetum esse et nolle inferre plagas nobis, nisi cogaris a nobis. Uultis flagellari in discendo? Carius est nobis flagellari pro doctrina quam nescire. Quid uultis loqui? Quid curamus quid loquamur, nisi recta locutio sit & utilis, non anilis aut turpis. Here are the Latin text, the Old English gloss, and a modern translation: Nos pueri rogamus te, magister, ut doceas nos loqui latialiter recte, quia idiote sumus & corrupte loquimur. The partial page above shows the beginning of the Colloquy (a section not found in the Guide ). Ælfric wrote the Colloquy in Latin, but an anonymous teacher (probably working at Canterbury) supplied this copy of the text with a nearly continuous interlinear gloss, and the gloss, with its word-order changed from Latin to Old English, appears in Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English as an aid to modern students learning Old English. In the schoolroom, the students would presumably take the parts of various agricultural workers, tradesmen, and so on, and this role-playing would lighten the drudgery of language study while the students learned useful vocabulary. Old English - Ælfric’s Colloquy on the Occupations 1 Ælfric (author of the Catholic Homilies ) wrote the Colloquy on the Occupations as an aid to students learning Latin.
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