ABSTRACT
When all literature is written in dialect, as in the time of Chaucer, the fact is of no literary interest. It is only when a standard form of language is used for literary works that dialectalisms are foregrounded: they obtrude. This was the position when Spenser wrote. By the early sixteenth century, there existed a standard type of both written and spoken English. For a courtly poet to sprinkle his work with dialect was as striking as speaking today of ‘Euclidizing’ the ‘one and one and one’ of the Trinity to ‘nowt but a nowt.’ To assess the contemporary impact of his practice, two things need to be done: the extent of dialect use has to be established, and its inclusion in particular poems explained. Neither is easy.
