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Earliest 'Could' With An L
- Richard Pace wrote home about Alpine marches and used the spelling "could" with an L in 1524.
- That letter is the earliest known example of the modern "could" spelling.
Analogy Drove 'Could' Spelling Change
- The l in would/should is historical; speakers regularized could to match them by analogy.
- Orthography changed through analogy among related modal verbs, producing modern spellings.
Tyndale Fled England To Translate
- William Tyndale sought Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall's permission to translate the Bible into English and was refused.
- He then fled to Germany to work protected by sympathetic princes and printers.