Excerpt from An Old and Middle English Reader: On the Basis of Professor Julius Zupitza's Alt-Und Mittelenglisches ÜbungsbuchWhat Icelandic is to the modern Scandinavian and Latin to the Ital ians. Even Dr. Johnson was aware of this.For one interested only in the history of the English language this collection Of specimens, representing the chief dialects, and the chronological arrangement of the selections reveal the changes of seven hundred years.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.