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THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN HONG KONG

Diachronic and Synchronic

Perspectives

Stephen Evans

The

English Language in Hong Kong

Stephen Evans

The English Language in Hong Kong

Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives

Stephen Evans

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong

Kong

ISBN 978-1-137-50623-8

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50624-5

ISBN 978-1-137-50624-5 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016949377

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London

For Kerry and Sarah

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is based mainly on data from the following General Research Fund projects funded by the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR: PolyU 542610 (Chaps. 2, 5, and 6), PolyU 542412 and PolyU 541413 (Chap. 3), and PolyU 541808 (Chap. 4). I am very grateful to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for granting me a period of sabbatical leave in the second half of 2015, during which much of the book was written. I am also grateful to Professor Ernesto Macaro, Director of the Department of Education, University of Oxford, for hosting my six-month Visiting Research Fellowship at my alma mater. I would like to thank the following colleagues, advisers, and research assistants for their help and encouragement over the years: Winnie Cheng, Chris Chow, Carmen Chu, Alan Davies, Chris Green, Fiona Ho, Joanna Kwan, Peter Leung, Bruce Morrison, Martha Pennington, Lorna Tam, Ann Wang, and Martin Warren.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CMI Chinese-medium instruction

CUHK Chinese University of Hong Kong

EFL English as a foreign language

ELT English-language teaching

EMI English-medium instruction

ENL English as a native language

ESL English as a second language

GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education

GDP Gross domestic product

HKALE Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination

HKCEE Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination

HKDSE Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education

HKE Hong Kong English

HKU University of Hong Kong

HKSAR Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

IDG Indigenes

L1 First language

L2 Second language

MOI Medium of instruction

PCE Post-colonial English

SCMP South China Morning Post

STL Settlers

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 2.1 Proportion of Chinese and overseas officers at directorate level in the civil service (1963–2015)

Fig. 2.2 Perceived importance of written and spoken codes in the public and private sectors (2008)

Fig. 2.3 Proportion of Chinese and non-Chinese members of the Legislative Council (1843–2016)

Fig. 2.4 Proportion of speeches in English and Cantonese in the Legislative Council (1971–2002)

Fig. 2.5 Proportion of criminal trials conducted in English and Chinese by court (2014)

Fig. 2.6 Proportion of criminal trials conducted in English and Chinese in the High Court (1997–2014)

Fig. 3.1 Change and continuity in Hong Kong’s education system

Fig. 3.2 Medium-of-instruction trends in colonial Hong Kong (1931–1997)

Fig. 3.3 Undergraduates’ self-assessment of English skills by school teaching medium (2013)

Fig. 4.1 Language of written communication by company ownership (2008)

Fig. 4.2 Language of spoken communication by company ownership (2008)

Fig. 4.3 Frequency of English use by rank (2008)

Fig. 5.1 The composition of Hong Kong society (1841–2011)

Fig. 5.2 Place of birth of Hong Kong’s Chinese population (1891–2011)

Fig. 5.3 Usual and additional languages (AL) in Hong Kong (1961–2011) 79

Fig. 5.4 Ability to speak English in the family domain (2010)

Fig. 5.5 Authors of letters to the English press (1850s to 2000s)

Fig. 5.6 Distribution of correspondents to the South China Morning Post (2012)

Fig. 5.7 The composition of jury lists in Hong Kong (1855–2011)

Fig. 6.1 Proportion of Britons in Hong Kong’s non-Chinese community (1871–2011)

Fig. 6.2 First appearance of HKE lexis by decade (1850s to 2010s)

105

CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Exploring the Diffusion and Diversification of English

Abstract This chapter describes the background, motivation, and objectives of this sociolinguistic history of English in Hong Kong. The chapter commences by surveying the recent literature on the globalisation of English and research into the features and functions of the language in particular societal or regional contexts. Having established the research gaps the book seeks to bridge, it proceeds to outline the key frameworks and theories upon which the study draws, namely, Kachru’s (1985) Three Circles of English and Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model. The second half of the chapter discusses the significance of Hong Kong as a site for sociolinguistic research, reviews seminal studies of English in Hong Kong, and describes the types of data presented in the book.

Keywords Dynamic Model • English worldwide • Hong Kong • Postcolonial Englishes • World Englishes paradigm

S. Evans, The English Language in Hong Kong, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50624-5_1

THE GLOBALISATION

OF ENGLISH

One of the most momentous developments in human affairs in recent decades has been the unprecedented, unexpected, and (for many) unwelcome globalisation of the English language. This process commenced in the early seventeenth century with the establishment of British settlements in North America and trading stations in India, and was remarked upon with increasing degrees of fascination and satisfaction in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries1; but it is only in the past 30 years that English has become the unrivalled and perhaps unassailable global lingua franca, as indeed may be gathered from its status as the sole ‘hypercentral language’ in De Swaan’s (2001) global language system and from its characterisation as ‘Globish’ (McCrum, 2010) and the ‘last lingua franca’ (Ostler, 2010) in recent accounts of its evolution from tribal to global tongue. The transformation in the number and nature of the language’s users and the contexts and characteristics of its uses has inevitably raised a myriad of practical and theoretical issues, particularly for individuals and institutions in the domains of education, business, and international relations. In the past three decades, these issues have been the subjects of steadily intensifying research and debate in the language sciences as well as in disciplines such as economics and business which have traditionally eschewed the study of language questions. Scholarly interest in these issues has been manifested in the establishment of major journals, associations, and conferences dedicated to the study and use of English worldwide; the compilation of handbooks (Kirkpatrick, 2010), overviews (Galloway & Rose, 2015), reference works (Mesthrie, 2008), and corpora (Davies & Fuchs, 2015) to assist students and researchers in their academic endeavours; and, not least, the publication of numerous monographs (Northrup, 2013; Saraceni, 2015; Seargeant, 2012) and edited volumes (Collins, 2015; Green & Meyer, 2014; Hickey, 2012) exploring this complex, multi-faceted phenomenon from a range of theoretical, methodological, and geographical perspectives.

A significant strand of this voluminous literature has examined the history, features, and sociolinguistics of English in particular societal or regional settings. Much of this research has centred on the former settlement colonies of North America and Australasia, where English has traditionally been acquired and used as a native language (ENL) and where a well-established academic infrastructure has offered scope for the diachronic and synchronic study of the varieties that have evolved in

different places and among different people over the generations. These investigations have yielded substantial bodies of work on the English language in Canada (Boberg, 2010), Australia (Damousi, 2010), New Zealand (Hay, Maclagan, & Gordon, 2008), and, particularly, the USA (Amberg & Vause, 2009), whose variety was the first of the colonial Englishes to be described and accepted (Mencken, 1936; Pickering, 1816; Webster, 1828) and, in consequence of its homeland’s power and prestige in the twentieth century, now stands at the apex of the global English order (Mair, 2013). This long-standing line of research has also contributed to the production of authoritative dictionaries (the sine qua non of codification) and other reference works on the now-autonomous varieties of the language in Canada (Avis, 1967), Australia (Ramson, 1988), and New Zealand (Orsman, 1997).

In recent decades, this strand of research has broadened to encompass post-colonial contexts in Asia and Africa, where English is typically acquired as a second language (ESL) in the education system or via informal contact or a mixture of the two and, as befits its official status, plays a leading or supporting role in the major institutions of government and in the upper echelons of the business and professional worlds. The indigenised varieties that have evolved in these former trade or exploitation colonies since the Victorian era have been the subjects of considerable empirical research in the past three decades, much of it inspired or framed by Kachru’s (1985) influential world Englishes paradigm. These investigations have generated an ever-growing array of monographs exploring the features and sociolinguistics of these varieties as well as innumerable articles in journals such as English WorldWide , World Englishes , and English Today . The monograph-based literature includes studies of English in contexts in South Asia, such as India (Sailaja, 2009) and Sri Lanka (Bernaisch, 2015); South East Asia, such as the Philippines (Bautista & Bolton, 2008), Malaysia (Rahim & Manan, 2014), and Singapore (Leimgruber, 2013); sub-Saharan Africa, such as Kenya (Budohoska, 2014) and Nigeria (Banjo, 1996); and some of Britain’s former insular possessions in the Caribbean (Deuber, 2014), the Mediterranean (Buschfeld, 2013), and the Pacific (Biewer, 2015) as well as a remote imperial remnant in the Atlantic (Schreier, 2008). This book examines the English language in another of Britain’s erstwhile insular possessions: the one-time Crown colony of Hong Kong (1842–1997) and now Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China.

The study seeks to traverse two conspicuous gaps in the literature on English in post-colonial ESL contexts or, as will presently be discussed, settings in the Outer Circle of Kachru’s (1985) seminal Three Circles of English model. First, these accounts tend to focus on the linguistic features of the variety in question rather than—except at a high level of generality—on its uses and users. Such studies typically provide meticulous descriptions of the variety’s lexical, grammatical, or phonological features, but generally lack empirical evidence of its institutional roles vis-à-vis the principal indigenous language(s) or baseline data on the range and depth of the society’s English-using community. Indeed, in his landmark paper, Kachru (1985) stressed the importance of compiling sociolinguistic profiles of English in the three circles, including studies of ‘the composition of English-using speech fellowships’ (p. 25). Three decades later, there is still a dearth of accurate, up-to-date information of this nature on many post-colonial societies. A prime example in this respect is India, a quintessential Outer Circle context, where, according to Graddol (2010), ‘there is no credible estimate of how many Indians actually know English’ (p. 66) and where there is little hard evidence, in the shape of survey results, case studies, and enrolment statistics (inter alia), of its precise functions in the domains of government, education, and business.

Second, most studies of English in the Outer Circle understandably document and analyse the contemporary characteristics of the variety under investigation, in many cases using specially compiled corpora such as the International Corpus of English. Similarly, those studies that preface their linguistic analyses with an account of the variety’s uses and users quite reasonably concentrate on modern-day developments, and if the historical landscape is depicted at all, it tends to be captured in brisk and broad brushstrokes using an assortment of secondary sources rather than primary data derived from archival research. One reason for the paucity of detailed historical research on Outer Circle contexts and varieties has been the general unavailability of diachronic corpora (Noël, van Rooy, & van der Auwera, 2014). To date, corpus-based research in this area has centred on ENL (or Inner Circle) settings such as Australia (Collins, 2014) and New Zealand (Macalister, 2006). The dearth of diachronic data on Outer Circle Englishes has impeded attempts to test the second major framework to emerge in the field of world Englishes in the past 30 years: Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model of the evolution of post-colonial Englishes (PCE). Like Kachru’s (1985) Three Circles of English, the Dynamic Model forms an important part of the theo-

retical background to the present study, and thus before we narrow our focus to Hong Kong, it is necessary to outline the key characteristics of these two groundbreaking theories.

MODELS AND THEORIES

The transformation of English from an important, though hardly paramount, international language in the aftermath of the Second World War into the pre-eminent global language during the current, accelerated phase of globalisation has inspired scholars to develop a multitude of models and theories to try to describe, represent, or explain this vast, complex phenomenon. The majority of these frameworks have been synchronic categorisations of contexts, varieties, and users, in most cases employing the nation-state as their principal conceptual base. These include Strevens’ (1980) map-and-branch family tree of English, McArthur’s (1987) wheel of world English, as well as the earliest and perhaps best-known framework, the classification of states and students into English as a native language (ENL), second language (ESL), and foreign language (EFL). The latter category (EFL), which essentially corresponds to Kachru’s (1985) Expanding Circle, refers to contexts such as China, Germany, and Brazil where English has traditionally been used for international rather than intra-national communication and learned as a language subject rather than through its use as a teaching medium in the education system.

Kachru’s (1985) Three Circles of English also tends to be treated as a synchronic model, despite being conceived largely in temporal terms, with each circle representing a different period and process of diffusion. However, in the literature, it is often used somewhat simplistically as an alternative to the purely synchronic ENL–ESL–EFL classification, its creator’s broader ideological aim of decolonising the language being increasingly overlooked or downplayed. Like other geopolitical approaches to model design, Kachru’s (1985) framework has been criticised in recent years for its inability to capture satisfactorily the heterogeneity and dynamics of English-using communities in a rapidly globalising world (Yano, 2009). The limitations of such approaches have prompted scholars to shift the basis for categorisation to the different degrees of language proficiency (Graddol, 2006) or communicative competence (Modiano, 1999) possessed by the world’s English users, irrespective of location, nationality, or first language (L1), thereby raising a different set of questions concerning the nature, measurement, and gradations of proficiency and competence.

Although the tightening and thickening web of globalisation has blurred the boundary that once demarcated the Outer and Expanding Circles, a reasonably reliable indicator of a polity’s place in the Kachruvian firmament is the extent to which its politicians, lawyers, and bureaucrats use the language in their official or professional capacities. Although the contemporary phase of globalisation has propelled English as a teaching or business medium into the colleges and corporations of the Expanding Circle (Doiz, Lasagabaster, & Sierra, 2012; Ehrenreich, 2010; Wächter & Maiworm, 2014), its role in the ministries, legislatures, and courts of such contexts is negligible or (more likely) non-existent: be it in Beijing, Berlin, or Brasilia, the national language is the medium in which policies are formulated, laws enacted, and cases adjudicated. This stands in marked contrast to the status quo in many Outer Circle polities, where, in consequence of its official standing, the language of the long-departed colonisers continues to be used in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government (Fishman, Conrad, & Rubal-Lopez, 1996). However, the precise nature of its role in these key domains and its trajectory in the public sphere since the end of colonial rule have been the subjects of surprisingly little empirical research, lacunae which the present study seeks to bridge.

Another indicator of a polity’s position in the Kachruvian order is the degree to which the language has been nativised. The emergence of the world Englishes paradigm and the growth of interest in the so-called ‘new’ varieties of the Outer Circle during the 1980s have prompted what Bruthiaux (2003, p. 168) termed a ‘me too’ rush to recognise the Englishes that are purportedly emerging in Expanding Circle contexts (Stanlaw, 2004), including Hong Kong’s neighbour in the Pearl River Delta, the former Portuguese enclave of Macau (Moody, 2008). Unlike societies in the Outer Circle, such settings were not colonised by the British or Americans and thus have no tradition of using English as an official language in the organs of government, as a lingua franca in informal communication or— until recently—as an instructional medium in education, practices which have been the major motors of the language’s indigenisation in Africa and Asia.2 Thus, in terms of the language’s official role and evolutionary dynamics, Outer Circle and Expanding Circle remain useful shorthand labels for distinguishing societies with markedly different historical trajectories and sociolinguistic conditions. Given these differences, it is hardly surprising that Schneider’s (2014) recent attempt to apply his Dynamic Model to the ‘new’ Englishes of the Expanding Circle proved fruitless.

As noted above, Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model is the second major framework to be devised in the past 30 years, and being the most comprehensive and coherent of all the frameworks and one of the few diachronic models, it provides an especially suitable theoretical backdrop to the present study. Schneider proposes that PCEs evolve by undergoing a uniform process involving a sequence of five phases, namely, (1) foundation, (2) exonormative stabilisation, (3) nativisation, (4) endonormative stabilisation, and (5) differentiation. At each of these stages manifestations of four core parameters can be observed, with a mono-directional causal relationship operating between them. The first parameter—socio-political background—shapes the identity constructions (parameter 2) of the two main parties involved in the process: the indigenous, originally non-English-speaking population (IDG) and the (mainly British) English-speaking settlers (STL) who arrive in the territory before or after the establishment of colonial rule. These identities determine the sociolinguistic conditions (parameter 3), namely, contact settings, language use, and language attitudes, which, in turn, stimulate specific linguistic effects (parameter 4), namely, structural changes at the levels of lexis, grammar, and pronunciation. The five phases are viewed from the competing yet complementary perspectives of the indigenes and settlers, namely, the descendants of the two groups who came into contact in the foundation phase. Schneider contends that PCEs essentially result from an identity-driven process of linguistic convergence between the IDG and STL ‘strands’.

Somewhat controversially, the Dynamic Model applies to both Inner and Outer Circle varieties of English, even though the processes of colonisation and the patterns of language use in the two categories of society were/are significantly different. Schneider’s case studies of the major Inner Circle varieties indicate that they have all reached the final phase of the cycle, whereas the Outer Circle varieties have typically progressed to either phase 3 or 4. In his case study of Hong Kong, Schneider demarcates the evolution of Hong Kong English (HKE) as follows: (1) foundation (1841–98), (2) exonormative stabilisation (1898 to 1960s), and (3) nativisation (1960s to present). Schneider initiates phase 1 in 1841 rather than in 1842, the year generally taken to be the starting point of the colonial period. Although British forces occupied Hong Kong Island for much of 1841 during the First Opium War (Tsang, 2004), it was not until the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in August 1842 that British sovereignty was confirmed. The adjacent Kowloon Peninsula on the Chinese mainland was ceded to Britain in 1860 after the Second Opium War (‘in perpetuity’

like the Island), while the more extensive New Territories were acquired in 1898 on a 99-year lease, the expiry of which at midnight on 30 June 1997 marked the end of colonial rule.

One of the limitations of Schneider’s account of Hong Kong (and this applies equally to his studies of Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines) is that phases 1 and 2 are condensed into one rather brief background section, which inevitably means that the distinctive characteristics of each phase are not fully described and illustrated. While Schneider rightly acknowledges that any analysis based on periodisation and correlated parameters is bound to be imprecise, it would appear that the source of the problem is that, in contrast to more thoroughly researched Inner Circle Englishes, he is unable to draw upon a substantial body of diachronic research to inform his accounts of the early phases in the evolution of Outer Circle varieties (which, as noted above, stems in part from the still apparent dearth of time-deep corpora). The lack of such research can perhaps be attributed to the difficulties of identifying, collecting, and analysing coherent sets of primary data that span the history of the language’s presence in a particular society. Although the present study does not focus on the Dynamic Model, Schneider’s phases and associated parameters provide a useful framework for investigating the development of English in Hong Kong and are therefore discussed at relevant points in the book (notably Chap. 6). Indeed, Schneider (2007) believes that Hong Kong constitutes ‘an interesting test case for the predictive implications of the Dynamic Model and the inherent power of the developmental dynamism which it describes’ (p. 139). Even if this were not the case, Hong Kong would remain a unique and significant setting for sociolinguistic research, as the next section explains.

HONG KONG AS A RESEARCH SETTING

Hong Kong is an especially intriguing context for studying the evolution of English as, for more than 170 years, it has been entangled in the successive processes of colonialism and globalisation that have been the principal drivers of the spread of English. It should be emphasised at the outset that studying the status, functions, and features of English during this period entails analysing the powers, policies, and practices of the language’s users; and since, over the long haul of Hong Kong’s history, the majority of these users have been Chinese, it is neither possible nor desirable to examine the development of English in the

city without considering Cantonese, which is the L1 of around 90 % of the population and a major marker of local identity, Putonghua (also known as Mandarin), which is the national language of China, and standard written Chinese. The use of written and spoken English vis-à-vis Cantonese, Putonghua, and written Chinese is a fundamental feature of the chapters on government, education, and business. As we shall see, language trends in the institutions of government provide evidence of the pace and progress of Hong Kong’s decolonisation/recolonisation since the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984.

The departure of the British from Hong Kong in 1997 marked the end of the era of decolonisation that had commenced 50 years earlier with the partition and independence of India and Pakistan. The fall of the British empire in the mid-twentieth century had significant linguistic consequences. In particular, the newly liberated states of Asia and Africa had to grapple with arguably the most pernicious and yet potentially precious legacy of the empire: the firmly entrenched position of English in the public sphere. The task of assigning roles to English and the indigenous languages was further complicated by the rise of the USA after the Second World War and the consequent emergence of English as the global lingua franca in the late twentieth century. The fluctuations in language policy in Malaysia illustrate the difficulties that post-colonial states continue to experience in achieving a satisfactory balance between English and indigenous languages in an age of rapid economic globalisation (Gill, 2014). Hong Kong has also had to contend with the colonial linguistic legacy, but unlike their counterparts in other former British colonies, policy-makers in the semi-autonomous HKSAR have faced the additional challenge, unparalleled in the annals of post-colonial language planning, of accommodating the world’s leading language in terms of speaker numbers and the putative rival of English on the international stage (Putonghua) as well as a vibrant autochthonous language (Cantonese).

During the 1980s and 1990s, there was considerable speculation about the role that Putonghua would play in twenty-fi rst-century Hong Kong (Pennington, 1998 ). Writing at the turn of the millennium, Bauer ( 2000 ) predicted that, by the middle of the century, Putonghua will have replaced Cantonese in those areas of public life in which it currently holds sway on the Chinese mainland (notably government and education), and that, by the end of the century, the city will have become a predominantly Putonghua-speaking society, with Cantonese becoming a minority and possibly even endangered language in one of

its traditional heartlands. The present study will consider the implications of these possible scenarios for the status and functions of English, but will not engage in detailed speculation as it is primarily concerned with exploring the past and present. This diachronic perspective is a novel aspect of the study because, as discussed below, it has received relatively little attention in the now- copious literature on English in Hong Kong.

STUDIES OF ENGLISH IN HONG KONG

The seminal study of English in Hong Kong—Luke and Richards (1982)—was published in the year that negotiations over the colony’s future commenced and thus offers an account of the language’s status and functions before the onset of the decolonisation process, which was initiated by the promulgation of the Joint Declaration two years later. Luke and Richards’ panoramic article describes the role of English ( vis-à-vis Cantonese) in the domains of government, employment, education, and the media, the extent of English-knowing bilingualism in the city’s Chinese community, and the phonological features of ‘midproficiency’ speakers of English. As may be gathered from their list of references, Luke and Richards were unable to inform their account with evidence from a substantial body of empirical research, and this helps to explain some of their now-dubious arguments and claims. For example, they proposed the term ‘auxiliary language’ to characterise the ‘unique status’ of English in Hong Kong: ‘By this we mean a non-native language which is reserved for certain restricted functions in society and for use by a restricted section of that society’ (Luke & Richards, 1982, p. 55). At this time, as they rather impressionistically report, English was the principal language through which this society was administered, regulated, and educated and thus perhaps merited a soubriquet with a slightly more elevated connotation than ‘subsidiary’ or ‘supplementary’. Another claim, which subsequent research has called into question (Evans, 2009a), was their contention that Hong Kong in the early 1980s constituted ‘a case of societal bilingualism, in which two largely monolingual communities co-exist, with a small group of bilingual Cantonese functioning as linguistic middle men’ (Luke & Richards, p. 51). In these circumstances, there was ‘neither the societal need nor opportunity for the development of a stable Cantonese variety of English’, and thus there was ‘no such thing’ as HKE (p. 55). This claim was endorsed in

the following decade by Li (1999), who asserted that there was ‘no societal basis for a nativized variety of “Hong Kong English”. Instead, the norms of correctness as referenced in the key domains of education, government, business and law follow those of standard English varieties, especially British English’ (p. 95).

Li’s (1999) comments appeared in his important post-1997 update of Luke and Richards’ (1982) pioneering study. Li’s article was published two years after the handover (and probably researched and written in 1997 or 1998) and thus essentially reflects the language situation in Hong Kong in the dying years of colonial rule and in the immediate aftermath of the transfer of sovereignty. As Li notes in his introduction, the intervening years had witnessed a remarkable upsurge of research and debate on the role and use of English in Hong Kong, particularly in the domain of education, but also on issues such as language attitudes, language rights, and linguistic imperialism, which, in consequence of the paucity of research or their lack of topicality, were not covered by Luke and Richards. However, as in the earlier study, Li’s accounts of English in the branches of government and the workplace betray the lack of a solid research base in these key domains. Recognising the inadequacy of the term ‘auxiliary language’ and the socio-economic concerns and needs of Hong Kong Chinese, Li (1999) argued that the epithet ‘value-added language’ more accurately characterised the status of English in fin de siècle Hong Kong. However, given the increasing importance of English as a business and academic lingua franca in the Expanding Circle at this time, this was a status it enjoyed among aspirational individuals in many parts of the world and thus may not be especially helpful in characterising its standing in the HKSAR, as opposed to Hong Kong in the era of the ‘linguistic middle men’ (circa 1840s to 1950s). The present study will not hazard an alternative moniker; for our purposes, the conventional term ‘official language’ will suffice. This book seeks to build on the valuable contributions of Luke and Richards ( 1982 ) and Li ( 1999 ) as well as the impressive body of work on the features and facets of English in Hong Kong that has appeared since the turn of the millennium. Although key studies from this vast literature will be cited at relevant points in the body chapters, this book does not aim to present a synthesis of information and ideas from secondary sources or provide an ‘update’ of Li’s handover-period overview; as the next section explains, its aims are rather more ambitious than that.

THE PRESENT STUDY

This book presents an empirically grounded sociolinguistic history of the English language in Hong Kong. Using a range of diachronic and synchronic primary data, it traces the changing status and functions of English (vis-à-vis Cantonese, Putonghua, and written Chinese) in the key domains of government (Chap. 2), education (Chap. 3), and business (Chap. 4); tracks the rise of the city’s English-using community (Chap. 5); and explores the evolutionary dynamics of Hong Kong English (Chap. 6). The final chapter summarises and assesses the study’s findings and speculates on the future of English in the territory, particularly after 2047 when the ‘one country, two systems’ framework established by the Joint Declaration is dismantled and Hong Kong becomes another populous city in China. The study draws upon a number of substantial sets of quantitative and qualitative data gathered in the past few years. These include the results of large-scale questionnaire surveys, analyses of specially compiled corpora as well as evidence from a range of primary sources, including jury lists, census reports, private papers, memoirs, government reports, and Colonial Office correspondence. In the interest of clarity, full details about the nature, collection, and analysis of these datasets are provided at relevant points in the discussion and the associated endnotes. Some of these datasets are used for different purposes, such as the corpus of Legislative Council proceedings (1858–2012), and thus appear in more than one chapter. It should also be noted that some of the qualitative data have been quantified so that it is possible to depict long-term trends in language choice and use, as indeed will be apparent in the next chapter on the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

NOTES

1. In his famous Minute on Indian Education (1835), Macaulay highlighted the growing importance of English on the subcontinent and in the expanding British empire: ‘In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives in the seats of Govt. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australasia, – communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our

Indian empire’ (reproduced in Zastoupil & Moir, 1999, p. 166). Two years earlier, and almost a decade before the British annexation of Hong Kong, the American missionary Elijah Bridgman (1833) predicted that the learning and use of English would rapidly increase in China during the nineteenth century: ‘The prospect that the English language will be far more extensively used was never fairer than at this hour’ (pp. 1–2). Bridgman was instrumental in establishing Hong Kong’s first English-teaching institution, the Morrison Education Society School, which moved to the Island from Macau in 1842 (Evans, 1998).

2. When considering the depth of this tradition, it might be noted that in colonial India, English gradually replaced Persian as the language of government in the 1830s and 1840s and that English-medium universities were established in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras in the 1850s. It is also worth noting that the Treaty of Nanking (1842), by which Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain, was signed just two years after the Treaty of Waitangi, by which Britain acquired sovereignty over New Zealand. English teaching commenced on Hong Kong Island in 1842 (Evans, 1998, 2008a) and the first fully government-funded English-medium school was established 20 years later (Evans, 2008b).

CHAPTER 2

Language Trends in the Organs of Government

Abstract This chapter examines the changing status and use of written and spoken English vis-à-vis Cantonese, written Chinese, and Putonghua in the organs of government since the mid-1960s. The chapter begins by discussing the political factors behind the rise of Chinese as an official language in the late colonial period and the HKSAR government’s aspiration to nurture a society that is biliterate in Chinese and English and trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua, and English. It then proceeds to analyse recent trends in language choice and use in the Executive Council, the civil service, government-affiliated organisations, the Legislative Council, and the judiciary.

Keywords Decolonisation • Government communication • Language choice • Language policy • Official language

THE CHANGING STATUS OF ENGLISH

The principal functions that English has performed in Hong Kong since the early 1840s have flowed directly or indirectly from its status as an official language. For the greater part of the colonial era, English was the sole official language and was therefore the primary medium of communication and documentation in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The ascendancy of English in these domains

S. Evans, The English Language in Hong Kong, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50624-5_2

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And round about her flocke, like many flies, Whooping, and hallowing[533] on euery part, As if they would haue rent the brasen skies. Which when she sees with ghastly griefful eies, Her heart does quake, and deadly pallid hew

Benumbes her cheekes: Then out aloud she cries, Where none is nigh to heare, that will her rew, And rends her golden locks, and snowy brests embrew.

But all bootes not: they hands vpon her lay; xli And first they spoile her of her iewels[534] deare, And afterwards of all her rich array; The which amongst them they in peeces teare, And of the pray each one a part doth beare. Now being naked, to their sordid eyes

The goodly threasures of nature appeare: Which as they view with lustfull fantasyes, Each wisheth to him selfe, and to the rest enuyes.

Her yuorie necke, her alablaster brest, xlii

Her paps, which like white silken pillowes were, For loue in soft delight thereon to rest; Her tender sides[535], her bellie white and clere, Which like an Altar did it selfe vprere, To offer sacrifice diuine thereon; Her goodly thighes, whose glorie did appeare Like a triumphall Arch, and thereupon The spoiles of Princes hang’d, which were in battel won.

Those daintie parts, the dearlings of delight, xliii Which mote not be prophan’d of common eyes, Those villeins vew’d with loose lasciuious sight, And closely tempted with their craftie spyes; And some of them gan mongst themselues deuize, Thereof by force to take their beastly pleasure. But them the Priest rebuking, did aduize

To dare not to pollute so sacred threasure,

Vow’d to the gods: religion held euen theeues in measure.

So being stayd, they her from thence directed xliv

Vnto a litle groue not farre asyde,

In which an altar shortly they erected,

To slay her on. And now the Euentyde

His brode black wings had through the heauens wyde

By this dispred, that was the tyme ordayned

For such a dismall deed, their guilt to hyde: Of few greene turfes an altar soone they fayned, And deckt it all with flowres, which they nigh hand obtayned.

Tho when as all things readie were aright, xlv

The Damzell was before the altar set, Being alreadie dead with fearefull fright.

To whom the Priest with naked armes full net

Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet, Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme, With other diuelish ceremonies met: Which doen he gan aloft t’aduance his arme, Whereat they shouted all, and made a loud[536] alarme.

Then gan the bagpypes and the hornes to shrill, xlvi

And shrieke aloud, that with the peoples voyce

Confused, did the ayre with terror fill, And made the wood to tremble at the noyce: The whyles she wayld, the more they did reioyce. Now mote ye vnderstand that to this groue

Sir Calepine by chaunce, more then by choyce, The selfe same euening fortune hether droue, As he to seeke Serena through the woods did roue.

Long had he sought her, and through many a soyle xlvii

Had traueld still on foot in heauie armes, Ne ought was tyred with his endlesse toyles[537] , Ne ought was feared of his certaine harmes: And now all weetlesse of the wretched stormes,

In which his loue was lost[538], he slept full fast, Till being waked with these loud alarmes, He lightly started vp like one aghast, And catching vp his arms streight to the noise forth past.

There by th’vncertaine glims of starry night, xlviii And by the twinkling of their sacred fire, He mote perceiue a litle dawning sight Of all, which there was doing in that quire: Mongst whom a woman spoyld of all attire He spyde, lamenting her vnluckie strife, And groning sore from grieued hart entire, Eftsoones he saw one with a naked knife Readie to launch her brest, and let out loued life.

With that he thrusts into the thickest throng, xlix And euen as his right hand adowne descends, He him preuenting, layes on earth along, And sacrifizeth to th’infernall feends. Then to the rest his wrathfull hand he bends, Of whom he makes such hauocke and such hew, That swarmes of damned soules to hell he sends: The rest that scape his sword and death eschew, Fly like a flocke of doues before a Faulcons vew.

From them returning to that Ladie backe, l Whom by the Altar he doth sitting find, Yet fearing death, and next to death the lacke Of clothes to couer, what they[539] ought by kind, He first her hands beginneth to vnbind; And then to question of her present woe; And afterwards to cheare with speaches kind. But she for nought that he could say or doe, One word durst speake, or answere him a whit[540] thereto.

So inward shame of her vncomely case li She did conceiue, through care of womanhood,

That though the night did couer her disgrace, Yet she in so vnwomanly a mood, Would not bewray the state in which she stood. So all that night to him vnknowen she past. But day, that doth discouer bad and good, Ensewing, made her knowen to him at last: The end whereof Ile keepe vntill another cast.

FOOTNOTES:

[521] iii 8 entreat 1596

[522] xi 5 wield 1609

[523] 9 two] tow 1596

[524] xv 3 powned 1609

[525] xvii 6 From] For 1596

[526] xxii 2 account 1609

[527] xxvi 4 with all 1596

[528] xxviii 3 vnwieldy 1609

[529] xxxii 4 nought 1596

[530] xxxiv 1 plaints, 1596

[531] xxxviii 5 since] sith 1609

[532] xxxix 4 daintiest 1609

[533] xl 3 hollowing 1609

[534] xli 2 iewls 1596

[535] xlii 4 sides 1596, 1609

[536] xlv 9 aloud 1609

[537] xlvii 3 toyle 1609

[538] 6 lost] tost Drayton (teste Collier)

[539] l 4 they] shee 1609

[540] 9 awhit 1596, 1609

Cant. IX.

Calidore hostes with Melibœ and loues fayre Pastorell; Coridon enuies him, yet he for ill rewards him well.

Now turne againe my teme thou iolly swayne, i Backe to the furrow which I lately left; I lately left a furrow, one or twayne

Vnplough’d, the which my coulter hath not cleft: Yet seem’d the soyle both fayre and frutefull eft, As I it past, that were too great a shame, That so rich frute should be from vs bereft; Besides the great dishonour and defame, Which should befall to Calidores immortall name.

Great trauell hath the gentle Calidore ii And toyle endured, sith I left him last Sewing the Blatant beast, which I forbore To finish then, for other present hast. Full many pathes and perils he hath past, Through hils, through dales, throgh forests, and throgh plaines In that same quest which fortune on him cast, Which he atchieued to his owne great gaines,

Reaping eternall glorie of his restlesse paines.

So sharply he the Monster did pursew, iii That day nor night he suffred him to rest, Ne rested he himselfe but natures dew, For dread of daunger, not to be redrest, If he for slouth forslackt so famous quest. Him first from court he to the citties coursed, And from the citties to the townes him prest, And from the townes into the countrie forsed, And from the country back to priuate farmes he scorsed.

From thence into the open fields he fled, iv Whereas the Heardes were keeping of their neat, And shepheards singing to their flockes, that fed, Layes of sweete loue and youthes delightfull heat: Him thether eke for all his fearefull threat He followed fast, and chaced him so nie, That to the folds, where sheepe at night doe seat, And to the litle cots[541], where shepherds lie In winters wrathfull time[542], he forced him to flie.

There on a day as he pursew’d the chace, v He chaunst to spy a sort of shepheard groomes, Playing on pypes, and caroling apace, The whyles their beasts there in the budded broomes Beside them fed, and nipt the tender bloomes: For other worldly wealth they cared nought. To whom Sir Calidore yet sweating comes, And them to tell him courteously besought, If such a beast they saw, which he had thether brought.

They answer’d him, that no such beast they saw, vi Nor any wicked feend, that mote offend Their happie flockes, nor daunger to them draw: But if that such there were (as none they kend) They prayd high God him[543] farre from them[543] to send.

Then one of them him seeing so to sweat, After his rusticke wise, that well he weend, Offred him drinke, to quench his thirstie heat, And if he hungry were, him offred eke to eat.

The knight was nothing nice, where was no need, vii And tooke their gentle offer: so adowne They prayd him sit, and gaue him for to feed Such homely what, as serues the simple clowne, That doth despise the dainties of the towne. Tho having fed his fill, he there besyde Saw a faire damzell, which did weare a crowne

Of sundry flowres, with silken ribbands tyde[544] , Yclad in home-made greene that her owne hands had dyde.

Vpon a litle hillocke she was placed viii

Higher then all the rest, and round about Enuiron’d with a girland, goodly graced, Of louely lasses, and them all without The lustie shepheard swaynes sate in a rout, The which did pype and sing her prayses dew, And oft reioyce, and oft for wonder shout, As if some miracle of heauenly hew Were downe to them descended in that earthly vew.

And soothly sure she was full fayre of face, ix And perfectly well shapt in euery lim, Which she did more augment with modest grace, And comely carriage of her count’nance trim, That all the rest like lesser lamps did dim: Who her admiring as some heauenly wight, Did for their soueraine goddesse her esteeme, And caroling her name both day and night, The fayrest Pastorella her by name did hight.

Ne was there heard, ne was there shepheards swayne x But her did honour, and eke many a one

Burnt in her loue, and with sweet pleasing payne

Full many a night for her did sigh and grone: But most of all the shepheard Coridon

For her did languish, and his deare life spend; Yet neither she for him, nor other none

Did care a whit, ne any liking lend: Though meane her lot, yet higher did her mind ascend.

Her whyles Sir Calidore there vewed well, xi

And markt her rare demeanure, which him seemed So farre the meane of shepheards to excell, As that he in his mind her worthy deemed,

To be a Princes Paragone esteemed, He was vnwares surprisd in subtile bands

Of the blynd boy, ne thence could be redeemed By any skill out of his cruell hands, Caught like the bird, which gazing still on others stands.

So stood he still long gazing thereupon, xii

Ne any will had thence to moue away, Although his quest were farre afore him gon; But after he had fed, yet did he stay, And sate there still, vntill the flying day Was farre forth spent, discoursing diuersly

Of sundry things, as fell,[545] to worke delay; And euermore his speach he did apply To th’heards, but meant them to the damzels fantazy.

By this the moystie night approching fast, xiii

Her deawy humour gan on th’earth to shed, That warn’d the shepheards to their homes to hast Their tender flocks, now being fully fed, For feare of wetting them before their bed; Then came to them a good old aged syre, Whose siluer lockes bedeckt his beard and hed, With shepheards hooke in hand, and fit attyre, That wild the damzell rise; the day did now expyre.

He was to weet by common voice esteemed xiv The father of the fayrest Pastorell, And of her selfe in very deede so deemed; Yet was not so, but as old stories tell Found her by fortune, which to him befell, In th’open fields an Infant left alone, And taking vp brought home, and noursed well As his owne chyld; for other he had none, That she in tract of time accompted was his owne.

She at his bidding meekely did arise, xv And streight vnto her litle flocke did fare: Then all the rest about her rose likewise, And each his sundrie sheepe with seuerall care Gathered together, and them homeward bare: Whylest euerie one with helping hands did striue Amongst themselues, and did their labours share, To helpe faire Pastorella, home to driue

Her fleecie flocke; but Coridon most helpe did giue.

But Melibœe (so hight that good old man) xvi Now seeing Calidore left all alone, And night arriued hard at hand, began Him to inuite vnto his simple home; Which though it were a cottage clad with lome, And all things therein meane, yet better so To lodge, then in the saluage fields to rome. The knight full gladly soone agreed thereto, Being his harts owne wish, and home with him did go.

There he was welcom’d of that honest syre, xvii And of his aged Beldame homely well; Who him besought himselfe to disattyre, And rest himselfe, till supper time befell. By which home came the fayrest Pastorell, After her flocke she in their fold had tyde, And supper readie dight, they to it fell

With small adoe, and nature satisfyde, The which doth litle craue contented to abyde.

Tho when they had their hunger slaked well, xviii

And the fayre mayd the table ta’ne away, The gentle knight, as he that did excell In courtesie, and well could doe and say, For so great kindnesse as he found that day, Gan greatly thanke his host and his good wife; And drawing thence his speach another way, Gan highly to commend the happie life, Which Shepheards lead, without debate or bitter strife.

How much (sayd he) more happie is the state, xix

In which ye father here doe dwell at ease, Leading a life so free and fortunate, From all the tempests of these worldly seas, Which tosse the rest in daungerous disease; Where warres, and wreckes, and wicked enmitie Doe them afflict, which no man can appease, That certes I your happinesse enuie, And wish my lot were plast in such felicitie.

Surely my sonne (then answer’d he againe) xx

If happie, then it is in this intent, That hauing small, yet doe I not complaine Of want, ne wish for more it to augment, But doe my self, with that I haue, content; So taught of nature, which doth litle need Of forreine helpes to lifes due nourishment: The fields my food, my flocke my rayment breed; No better doe I weare, no better doe I feed.

Therefore I doe not any one enuy, xxi

Nor am enuyde of any one therefore; They that haue much, feare much to loose thereby, And store of cares doth follow riches store. The litle that I haue, growes dayly more

Without my care, but onely to attend it; My lambes doe euery yeare increase their score, And my flockes father daily doth amend it. What haue I, but to praise th’Almighty, that doth send it?

To them, that list, the worlds gay showes I leaue, xxii And to great ones such follies doe forgiue, Which oft through pride do their owne perill weaue, And through ambition downe themselues doe driue

To sad decay, that might contented liue. Me no such cares nor combrous thoughts offend, Ne once my minds vnmoued quiet grieue, But all the night in siluer sleepe I spend, And all the day, to what I list, I doe attend.

Sometimes I hunt the Fox, the vowed foe xxiii

Vnto my Lambes, and him dislodge away; Sometime the fawne I practise from the Doe, Or from the Goat her kidde how to conuay; Another while I baytes and nets display, The birds to catch, or fishes to beguyle: And when I wearie am, I downe doe lay

My limbes in euery shade, to rest from toyle, And drinke of euery brooke, when thirst my throte doth boyle.

The time was once, in my first prime of yeares, xxiv

When pride of youth forth pricked my desire, That I disdain’d amongst mine equall peares

To follow sheepe, and shepheards base attire: For further fortune then I would inquire. And leauing home, to roiall court I sought; Where I did sell my selfe for yearely hire, And in the Princes gardin daily wrought: There I beheld such vainenesse, as I neuer thought.

With sight whereof soone cloyd, and long deluded xxv

With idle hopes, which them doe entertaine, After I had ten yeares my selfe excluded

From natiue home, and spent my youth in vaine, I gan my follies to my selfe to plaine, And this sweet peace, whose lacke did then appeare. Tho backe returning to my sheepe againe, I from thenceforth haue learn’d to loue more deare This lowly quiet life, which I inherite here.

Whylest thus he talkt, the knight with greedy eare[546] xxvi Hong still vpon his melting mouth attent; Whose sensefull words empierst his hart so neare, That he was rapt[547] with double rauishment, Both of his speach that wrought him great content, And also of the obiect of his vew, On which his hungry eye was alwayes bent; That twixt his pleasing tongue, and her faire hew, He lost himselfe, and like one halfe entraunced grew.

Yet to occasion meanes, to worke his mind, xxvii And to insinuate his harts desire, He thus replyde; Now surely syre, I find, That all this worlds gay showes, which we admire, Be but vaine shadowes to this safe retyre

Of life, which here in lowlinesse ye lead, Fearelesse of foes, or fortunes wrackfull yre, Which tosseth states, and vnder foot doth tread

The mightie ones, affrayd of euery chaunges dread.

That euen I which daily doe behold xxviii

The glorie of the great, mongst whom I won, And now haue prou’d, what happinesse ye hold In this small plot of your dominion, Now loath great Lordship and ambition; And wish the heauens[548] so much had graced mee, As graunt me liue in like condition; Or that my fortunes might transposed bee From pitch of higher place, vnto this low degree.

In vaine (said then old Melibœ) doe men xxix

The heauens of their fortunes fault accuse, Sith they know best, what is the best for them: For they to each such fortune doe diffuse, As they doe know each can most aptly vse. For not that, which men couet most, is best, Nor that thing worst, which men do most refuse; But fittest is, that all contented rest With that they hold: each hath his fortune in his brest.

It is the mynd, that maketh good or ill, xxx

That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore: For some, that hath abundance at his will, Hath not enough, but wants in greatest store; And other, that hath litle, askes no more, But in that litle is both rich and wise. For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize, Sith each vnto himselfe his life may fortunize.

Since then in each mans self (said Calidore) xxxi

It is, to fashion his owne lyfes estate, Giue leaue awhyle, good father, in this shore

To rest my barcke, which hath bene beaten late With stormes of fortune and tempestuous fate, In seas of troubles and of toylesome paine, That whether quite from them for to retrate I shall resolue, or backe to turne againe, I may here with your selfe some small repose obtaine.

Not that the burden of so bold a guest xxxii

Shall chargefull be, or chaunge to you at all; For your meane food shall be my daily feast, And this your cabin both my bowre and hall. Besides for recompence hereof, I shall You well reward, and golden guerdon giue, That may perhaps you better much withall,

And in this quiet make you safer liue. So forth he drew much gold, and toward him it driue.

But the good man, nought tempted with the offer xxxiii

Of his rich mould, did thrust it farre away, And thus bespake; Sir knight, your bounteous proffer

Be farre fro me, to whom ye ill display That mucky masse, the cause of mens decay, That mote empaire my peace with daungers dread. But if ye algates couet to assay This simple sort of life, that shepheards lead, Be it your owne: our rudenesse to your selfe aread.

So there that night Sir Calidore did dwell, xxxiv

And long while after, whilest him list remaine, Dayly beholding the faire Pastorell, And feeding on the bayt of his owne bane. During which time he did her entertaine With all kind courtesies, he could inuent; And euery day, her companie to gaine, When to the field she went, he with her went: So for to quench his fire, he did it more augment.

But she that neuer had acquainted beene xxxv

With such queint vsage, fit for Queenes and Kings, Ne euer had such knightly seruice seene, But being bred vnder base shepheards wings, Had euer learn’d to loue the lowly things, Did litle whit regard his courteous guize, But cared more for Colins carolings

Then all that he could doe, or euer[549] deuize: His layes, his loues, his lookes she did them all despize.

Which Calidore perceiuing, thought it best xxxvi

To chaunge the manner of his loftie looke; And doffing his bright armes, himselfe addrest In shepheards weed, and in his hand he tooke,

In stead of steelehead speare, a shepheards hooke, That who had seene him then, would haue bethought On Phrygian Paris by Plexippus brooke, When he the loue of fayre Oenone[550] sought, What time the golden apple was vnto him brought.

So being clad, vnto the fields he went xxxvii With the faire Pastorella euery day, And kept her sheepe with diligent attent, Watching to driue the rauenous Wolfe away, The whylest at pleasure she mote sport and play; And euery euening helping them to fold: And otherwhiles for need, he did assay In his strong hand their rugged teats to hold, And out of them to presse the milke: loue so much could.

Which seeing Coridon, who her likewise xxxviii

Long time had lou’d, and hop’d her loue to gaine, He much was troubled at that straungers guize, And many gealous thoughts conceiu’d in vaine, That this of all his labour and long paine Should reap the haruest, ere it ripened were, That made him scoule, and pout, and oft complaine Of Pastorell to all the shepheards there, That she did loue a stranger swayne then him more dere.

And euer when he came in companie, xxxix

Where Calidore was present, he would loure, And byte his lip, and euen for gealousie Was readie oft his owne hart to deuoure, Impatient of any paramoure: Who on the other side did seeme so farre From malicing, or grudging his good houre, That all he could, he graced him with her, Ne euer shewed signe of rancour or of iarre.

And oft, when Coridon vnto her brought xl

Or litle sparrowes, stolen from their nest, Or wanton squirrels, in the woods farre sought, Or other daintie thing for her addrest, He would commend his guift, and make the best. Yet she no whit his presents did regard, Ne him could find to fancie in her brest: This newcome shepheard had his market mard. Old loue is litle worth when new is more prefard.

One day when as the shepheard swaynes together xli Were met, to make their sports and merrie glee, As they are wont in faire sunshynie weather, The whiles their flockes in shadowes shrouded bee, They fell to daunce: then did they all agree, That Colin Clout[551] should pipe as one most fit; And Calidore should lead the ring, as hee That most in Pastorellaes grace did sit. Thereat frown’d Coridon, and his lip closely bit.

But Calidore of courteous inclination xlii

Tooke Coridon, and set him in his place, That he should lead the daunce, as was his fashion; For Coridon could daunce, and trimly trace. And when as Pastorella, him to grace, Her flowry garlond tooke from her owne head, And plast on his, he did it soone displace, And did it put on Coridons in stead: Then Coridon woxe frollicke, that earst seemed dead.

Another time, when as they did dispose xliii

To practise games, and maisteries[552] to try, They for their Iudge did Pastorella chose; A garland was the meed of victory There Coridon forth stepping openly, Did chalenge Calidore to wrestling game: For he through long and perfect industry, Therein well practisd was, and in the same

Thought sure t’auenge his grudge, and worke his foe great shame.

But Calidore he greatly did mistake; xliv

For he was strong and mightily stiffe pight, That with one fall his necke he almost brake, And had he not vpon him fallen light, His dearest ioynt he sure had broken quight. Then was the oaken crowne by Pastorell Giuen to Calidore, as his due right; But he, that did in courtesie excell, Gaue it to Coridon, and said he wonne it well.

Thus did the gentle knight himselfe abeare xlv Amongst that rusticke rout in all his deeds, That euen they, the which his riuals were, Could not maligne him, but commend him needs: For courtesie amongst the rudest breeds[553] Good will and fauour. So it surely wrought With this faire Mayd, and in her mynde the seeds Of perfect loue did sow, that last forth brought

The fruite of ioy and blisse, though long time dearely bought[554] .

Thus Calidore continu’d there long time, xlvi

To winne the loue of the faire Pastorell; Which hauing got, he vsed without crime Or blamefull blot, but menaged so well, That he of all the rest, which there did dwell[555] , Was fauoured, and to her grace commended. But what straunge fortunes vnto him befell, Ere he attain’d the point by him intended, Shall more conueniently in other place be ended.

FOOTNOTES:

[541] iv 8 cotes 1609

[542] 9 time] tine conj. Church

[543] vi 5 him] them 1596

[544] vii 8 tyde. 1596

[545] xii 7 fell 1596

[546] xxvi 1 care 1609

[547] 4 wrapt 1609

[548] xxviii 6 th’heauens 1596, 1609

[549] xxxv 8 ev’r 1609

[550] xxxvi 8 Benone 1596, 1609: corr. Hughes

[551] xli 6 clout 1596

[552] xliii 2 masteries 1609

[553] xlv 5 breeds: 1596

[554] 9 bought] sought conj Church

[555] xlvi 5 dwell] well 1596, 1609: corr. 1611

Cant. X.

Calidore sees the Graces daunce, To Colins melody: The whiles his Pastorell is led, Into captiuity.

Who now does follow the foule Blatant Beast, i Whilest Calidore does follow that faire Mayd, Vnmyndfull of his vow and high beheast, Which by the Faery Queene was on him layd, That he should neuer leaue, nor be delayd From chacing him, till he had it attchieued? But now entrapt of loue, which him betrayd, He mindeth more, how he may be relieued With grace from her, whose loue his heart hath sore engrieued.

That from henceforth he meanes no more to sew ii His former quest, so full of toile and paine; Another quest, another game in vew He hath, the guerdon of his loue to gaine: With whom he myndes for euer to remaine, And set his rest amongst the rusticke sort, Rather then hunt still after shadowes vaine

Of courtly fauour, fed with light report[556] Of euery blaste, and sayling alwaies in[557] the port.

Ne certes mote he greatly blamed be, iii

From so high step to stoupe vnto so low.

For who had tasted once (as oft did he)

The happy peace, which there doth ouerflow, And prou’d the perfect pleasures, which doe grow

Amongst poore hyndes, in hils, in woods, in dales, Would neuer more delight in painted show

Of such false blisse, as there is set for stales, T’entrap vnwary fooles in their eternall bales.

For what hath all that goodly glorious gaze iv Like to one sight, which Calidore did vew?

The glaunce whereof their dimmed eies would daze, That neuer more they should endure the shew

Of that sunne-shine, that makes them looke askew.

Ne ought in all that world of beauties rare, (Saue onely Glorianaes heauenly hew

To which what can compare?) can it compare; The which as commeth now, by course I will declare.

One day as he did raunge the fields abroad, v Whilest his faire Pastorella was elsewhere, He chaunst to come, far from all peoples troad, Vnto a place, whose pleasaunce did appere

To passe all others, on the earth which were:

For all that euer was by natures skill

Deuized to worke delight, was gathered there, And there by her were poured forth at fill, As if this to adorne, she all the rest did pill.

It was an hill plaste in an open plaine, vi That round about was bordered with a wood

Of matchlesse hight, that seem’d th’earth to disdaine,

In which all trees of honour stately stood,