...their speech is to be fashioned to a distinct and clear pronunciation, as near as may be to the italian, especially in the vowels; for we englishmen, being far northerly, do not open our mouths in the cold air wide enough to grace a southern tongue, but are observed by all other nations to speak exceeding close and inward; so that to smatter latin with an english mouth is as ill a hearing as law-french.

from milton's tractate of education,