Chapter 148

ON THE VOICES OF VERBS.

§ 490. In English there is neither a passive nor a middle voice.

The following couplet from Dryden's "Mac Flecnoe" exhibits a construction which requires explanation:--

An ancient fabric, raised to inform the sight, There stood of yore, and Barbican _it hight_.

Here the word _hight_ = _was called_, and seems to present an instance of the participle being used in a passive sense without the so-called verb substantive. Yet it does no such thing. The word is no participle at all; but a simple preterite. Certain verbs are _naturally_ either passive or active, as one of two allied meanings may predominate. _To be called_ is passive; so is, _to be beaten_. But, _to bear as a name_ is active; so is, _to take a beating_. The word, _hight_, is of the same class of verbs with the Latin _vapulo_; and it is the same as the Latin word, _cluo_.--_Barbican cluit_ = _Barbican audivit_ = _Barbican it hight_.

* * * * *