"miracle plays," and in particular _The Towneley Mysteries_ or plays
acted at or near Wakefield in Yorkshire, and _The York Plays_, lately
edited by Miss Toulmin Smith. Examples of Southern English likewise
come to an end about the same time; it is most remarkable how very
soon, after the death of Chaucer, the Midland dialect not only assumed
a leading position, but enjoyed that proud position almost alone. The
rapid loss of numerous inflexions, soon after 1400, made that dialect,
which was already in possession of such important centres as London,
Oxford, and Cambridge, much easier to learn, and brought its grammar
much nearer to that in use in the North. It even compromised, as it
were, with that dialect by accepting from it the general use of such
important words as _they_, _their_, _them_, the plural verb _are_,
and the preposition _till_. There can be little doubt that one of the
causes of the cessation of varying forms of words in literary use was
the civil strife known as the Wars of the Roses, which must for a
brief period have been hostile to all literary activity; and very
shortly afterwards the printing-presses of London all combined to
recognise, in general, one dialect only.

Hence it came about, by a natural but somewhat rapid process, that the
only dialect which remained unaffected by the triumph of the Midland
variety was that portion of the Northern dialect which still held its
own in Scotland, where it was spoken by subjects of another king. As
far as literature was concerned, only two dialects were available, the
Northumbrian of Scotland and the East Midland in England. It is
obvious that the readiest way of distinguishing between the two is to
call the one "Scottish" and the other "English," ignoring accuracy for
the sake of practical convenience. This is precisely what happened in
course of time, and the new nomenclature would have done no harm if
the study of Middle English had been at all general. But such was not