Alas, Eugene narrowly beat me to the Mirror of Justices post. I mention the Mirror in my article n guilty men, 146 U. Pa. L. Rev. 173 (1997), at footnote 51. In Anglo-Norman, the part I quote goes:
[Alfred] pendi Freberne pur ceo qil jugea Harpin a la mort ou les jurours furent en dote de lur verdit. Car en doutes deit len einz ces sauver qe dampner.
Speaking of “narrowly beat me,” case reports were written in Law French back in English Historical Times, and as these guys lost connection with their French Homeland (England lost France in the 13th century, and permanently lost it in the 15th century), they stopped being able to speak French at all, so their Law French became more like French prepositions with English words thrown in, like in the following case:
Probably the most notorious example of what brought on [Pollock and Maitland’s] dismissive tone [toward Law French] is the 1621 report of the prisoner “condemne pur felony que puis son condemnation ject un brickbat a le dit justice que narrowly mist, et pur ceo immediately fuit Indictment drawn per Noy envers le prisoner, & son dexter manus ampute & fix al Gibbet sur que luy mesme immediatement hange in presence de Court.”
[That is, he was “condemned for a felony and upon his condemnation threw a brickbat at the said justice, which narrowly missed, and for this Noy immediately drew up an indictment against the prisoner, and his right hand was chopped off and fixed to the gibbet where he himself was immediately hanged in the presence of the court.”]
“Que narrowly mist.” Aww, yeah.
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