Across the table the body of the man in the brown dressing-gown lay amid his burst and gaping brown-paper parcels; out of which poured and rolled, not Roman, but very
modern English coins.
Modern English polite society, my native sphere, seems to me as corrupt as consciousness of culture and absence of honesty can make it.
The different elements contributed to the modern English character by the latest stocks which have been united in it have been indicated by Matthew Arnold in a famous passage ('On the Study of Celtic Literature'): 'The Germanic [Anglo-Saxon and 'Danish'] genius has steadiness as its main basis, with commonness and humdrum for its defect, fidelity to nature for its excellence.
As a direct consequence the resulting language, modern English, is the richest and most varied instrument of expression ever developed at any time by any race.
This victory of the East Midland form was marked by, though it was not in any large degree due to, the appearance in the fourteenth century of the first great modern English poet, Chaucer.
As usual, I will give part of it in the words of the original, translated, of course, into
modern English. You can always tell what is from the original by the quotation marks, if by nothing else.
For when the purchase was about to fail, as usual, the master sud- denly spoke up and said what would be worded thus -- in
modern English:
A lesser "triumph." In
modern English the word is improperly used to signify any loose and spontaneous expression of popular homage to the hero of the hour and place.
Sir Patrick, who had stood apart (while the question of Ratcatcher's relapse was under discussion) sardonically studying the manners and customs of
modern English youth, now came forward, and took his part in the proceedings.
Kant calls it the "inner sense"; sometimes it is spoken of as "consciousness of self"; but its commonest name in
modern English psychology is "introspection." It is this supposed method of acquiring knowledge of our mental processes that I wish to analyse and examine in this lecture.
Each part consists of two chapters: a discussion of theoretical perspectives and early
modern English historical and political contexts, and a case study that applies these perspectives and contexts to interpret a late-Elizabethan English history play.
While witches were indeed portrayed as monstrous, dangerous 'others', as old, infertile, insubordinate, and threatening women, the myth of the bearded witch was confined mostly to the early
modern English stage, and does not appear in witchcraft pamphlets or court records.
Modern English - English since about 1450