I was looking at Robert of Gloucester's Metrical Chronicle (ca.1330 CE), especially the earlier bits he cribbed from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniæ. I was struck by this passage especially:
Quote:
Þo biþoȝte vortiger · mest of alle þinge ·
Hou he miȝte do quoyntelucost · þat he him sulf were king ·
Vor þat was alwei is þoȝt · & þeruore the monek he nom ·
To be king vor he was nyce · & ne couþe no wisdom ·

Then Vortigern understood; above all things;
How he might carry out most cunningly; that he himself were king;
For that was always his thought; and therefore he took the monk;
to be king because he was foolish; and he knew not no wisdom;
Here we have nice meaning 'foolish' and a full-blown double negative.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.