Part 29

In later texts, _which_, properly an interrogative, appears commonly as a relative, both with personal and impersonal antecedents, e.g. _Alceone... ~which~... him loveth_ XII _a_ 3 ff.; _þat steede... fro ~whilke~ þe feende fell_ XVI 13 f. Under the influence of French _lequel_, &c., _which_ is often compounded with the article _þe_, e.g. _a gret serpent... ~the which~ Bardus anon up drouh_ XII _b_ 72 f.; _no thing of newe, in ~the whiche~ the hereres myghten hauen... solace_ IX 275 f. Further compounding with _þat_ is not uncommon, e.g. _the queen of Amazoine, ~the whiche þat~ maketh hem to ben kept in cloos_ IX 190 f.

More restricted is the relative use of _whos_, _whom_, which are originally interrogatives, though both are found very early in ME. as personal relatives. Examples of the objective after prepositions are: _my Lady, of ~quom~..._ VI 93; _God, fro ~whom~ ..._ IX 328 f.; _my Sone... in ~whome~_ XVI 81 f. The possessive occurs in _Seynt Magne... yn ~whos~ wurschyp_ I 90 f.; _I am ... the same, ~whos~ good_ XII _b_ 78 f.; and, compounded with the article, in _Morpheüs, ~the whos~ nature_ XII _a_ 113. The nominative _who_ retains its interrogative meaning, e.g. _But ~who~ ben more heretikis?_ XI _b_ 77 f.; or is used as an indefinite, e.g. _a tasse of grene stickes... to selle, ~who that~ wolde hem beie_ XII _b_ 22 ff.; but it is never used as a relative; and probably _what_ in XVI 174 is better taken as in apposition to _myghtis_ than as a true relative.

§ 13. VERB. Syntactically the most interesting point in the history of the ME. verb is the development of the compound tenses with _have_, _be_, _will_, _shall_, _may_, _might_, _mun_, _can_, _gan_. But the flexional forms of the simple tenses are most subject to local variation, and, being relatively common, afford good evidence of dialect. Throughout the period, despite the crossings and confusions that are to be expected in a time of uncertainty and experiment, the distinction between strong and weak verbs is maintained; and it will be convenient to deal first with the inflexions common to both classes, and then to notice the forms peculiar to one or the other.

(i) #The Infinitive# had already in Northumbrian OE. lost final _-n_: _drīfa_ 'to drive'. Hence in ME. of the North and N. Midlands the ending is _-e_, which becomes silent at varying rates during the fourteenth century; e.g. _dryue_ I 171, _to luf_ IV _a_ 17. In the South and S. Midlands the common ending is _-e_, e.g. _telle_ III 3, which usually remains syllabic to the end of the century; but _-(e)n_ is also found, especially in verse to make a rime or to avoid hiatus: e.g. _sein_ (: _aȝein_) XII _a_ 27; _to parte and ȝiven half his good_ XII _b_ 201.

(ii) #The Present Participle# (OE. _drīfende_) in the North and N. Midlands ends in _-and(e)_, though _-yng(e)_, _-ing(e)_ is beginning to appear in V, VII, XVI, XVII. In S. Midlands the historical ending _-ende_ still prevails in Gower; but Chaucer has more commonly _-yng(e)_; and in IX, XI, both late texts, only _-yng(e)_ appears. In the South _-yng(e)_ is established as early as the beginning of the century, e.g. in II.

N.B. Carefully distinguish the verbal noun which always ends in _-yng(e)_. Early confusion resulted in the transference of this ending to the participle.

(iii) #Present Indicative.#

(_a_) Singular: OE. 1 _drīfe_, 2 _drīf(e)s(t)_, 3 _drīf(e)ð_ (late Northumbrian _drīfes_).

In ME. _-e_, _-est_, _-eþ_ are still the regular endings for the South and most of the Midlands. Shortened forms like _fint_ = _findeþ_ II 239; _stant_ = _standeþ_ XII _a_ 74 are commonest in the South, where in OE. they were a feature of West Saxon and Kentish as distinguished from Anglian. Distinct are the Northern and N. Midland _mas(e)_ 'makes', _tas_ 'takes', with contracted infinitives _ma_, _ta_; and _bus_ 'behoves', which Chaucer uses in his imitation of Northern English, _Reeves Tale_ 172.

In N. Midlands the modern 3rd sg. _-(e)s_ is common (V, VI, but not in earlier I). Farther North it is invariable (IV, X, XVI, XVII). The distribution of _-es_ as the ending of the 2nd sg. is the same, and it is extended even to the 1st person.

(_b_) Plural: OE. _drīfað_ (late Northumbrian _drīfas_).

Only Southern ME. retains the OE. inflexion as _-eþ_ (II, III, XIII). The Midland ending, whence the modern form derives, is _-e(n)_; though in the N. Midlands _-es_ occasionally appears. Northern has regularly _-es_, _unless the personal pronoun immediately precedes_, when the ending is _-e_, as in the Midlands, e.g. _þei make_ XVI 103.

N.B. In applying this test, care must be taken to exclude inversions, which are subject to special rules; to distinguish the subjunctive (e.g. _falle_ XIII _a_ 52, _drawe_ XIII _b_ 6) from the indicative; and, generally, to choose examples that are syntactically free from doubt, because concord of number is not always logical in ME.

SUMMARY.

OE.

1. sg. _drīf-e_ 2. _drīf-es(t)_ 3. _drīf-eð_ (Nth. _-es_) pl. _drīf-að_ (Nth. _-as_)

ME. South S. Midl. N. Midl. North 1. sg. _-e_ _-e_ _-(e)_ _-(e)_ or _-(e)s_ 2. _-est_ _-est_ _-es(t)_ _-es_ 3. _-eþ_ _-eþ_ _-eþ_ or _-es_ _-es_ pl. _-eþ_ _-e(n)_ _-e(n)_ or _-es_ _-es_ or _-(e)_

(iv) #The Imperative Plural# might be expected to agree with the pres. ind. pl. In fact it has the ending _-eþ_ not merely in the South, but in most of the Midlands, e.g. I, VIII, Gower and Chaucer. Northern and NW. Midland (V, VI, XIV _b_, XVI) have commonly _-es_. But Chaucer, Gower, and most late ME. texts have, beside the full inflexion, an uninflected form, e.g. _vndo_ XVI 182.

(v) #Past Tense.#

(_a_) Strong: The historical distinctions of stem-vowel were often obscured in ME. by the rise of new analogical forms, the variety of which can best be judged from the detailed evidence presented in the _New English Dictionary_ under each verb. But, for the common verbs or classes, the South and S. Midlands preserved fairly well the OE. vowel distinction of past tense singular and plural; while North and N. Midlands usually preferred the form proper to the singular for both singular and plural, e.g. _þey bygan_ I 72; _þey ne blan_ I 73; _thai slang_ X 53, where OE. has sg. _gan_: _gunnon_; _blan_: _blunnon_; ON. _slǫng_: _slungu_.

(_b_) Weak: In the South and Midlands the weak pa. t. 2nd sg. usually ends in _-est_ (N. Midland also _-es_): _hadest_ II 573; _cursedest_ I 130; _kyssedes_, _raȝteȝ_ V 283. In the North, and sometimes in N. Midland, it ends in _-(e)_: _þou hadde_ XVI 219. The full ending of the pa. t. pl. is fairly common in the South, S. Midlands, and NW. Midlands: _wenten_ II 185, _hedden_ III 42, _maden_ XII _b_ 196, _sayden_ VI 174.

(vi) #Past Participle (Strong)#: OE. _(ge)drĭfen_.

In the North and N. Midlands the ending _-en_ is usually preserved, but the prefix _y-_ is dropped. In the South the type is _y-driue_, with prefix and without final _n_. S. Midland fluctuates—for example, Gower rarely, Chaucer commonly, uses the prefix _y-_.

(vii) #Weak Verbs with -i- suffix#: In OE. weak verbs of Class II formed the infinitive in _-ian_, e.g. _acsian_, _lufian_, and the _i_ appeared also in the pres. ind. and imper. pl. _acsiað_ and pres. p. _acsiende_. In ME. a certain number of French verbs with an _-i-_ suffix reinforced this class. In the South and W. Midlands the _-i-_ of the suffix is often preserved, e.g. _aski_ II 467, _louy_ V 27, and is sometimes extended to forms in which it has no historical justification, e.g. pp. _spuryed_ V 25. In the North and the E. Midlands the forms without _i_ are generalized.

PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

CORRIGENDA

To Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_

p. xlv, l. 7: _for_ carat _read_ caret

p. xlvii: _for_ Jessop _read_ Jessopp

p. 21, l. 259: _for_ be _read_ he

p. 28, l. 493: _for_ enn _read_ en

p. 43, foot-note to l. 69: _omit_ 'for:'

p. 62, l. 100: _for_ tyste _read_ t yste (_Morris_); _and adjust note at p. 225_.

p. 103, l. 254: _for_ largeand _read_ large and

p. 175, l. 1: _for_ Daib. _read_ Diab.

p. 214, note to _a_: _for_ 'The best... are' _read_ 'This poem is largely a translation of sentences excerpted from Rolle's _Incendium Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. Review_ for 1919, p. 320). Useful commentaries are'

p. 226, note to l. 153: in l. 8 for _tǫ_ read _tǭ_

p. 243, n. to ll. 5-6: _for_ 'external covering' _read_ 'covering over it'

p. 291, table, last column, 1 sg.: for '_-e_ or _(e)s_' read '_-(e)_ or _-(e)s_'

[Transcriber's Note: A number of editorial corrections are without Footnotes or Notes. The manuscript readings for these are here supplied by the transcriber from the editions of Hamelius and England & Pollard:

IX 166 Sy_t_hye] Sychye _MS._ IX 270 i_t_] is _MS._ IX 287 gr_e_uous] grouous _MS._ XVII 85 displeas_es_] displeasse _MS._ XVII 472 th_ou_] thi _MS._

The CORRIGENDA to Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ (see above) from the end of the accompanying vocabulary volume has been moved here. All items listed have been corrected, except

p. 62, l. 100: [...] _and adjust note at p. 225_

which remains unadjusted.

The line numbering has been regularised to multiples of 5. Lines of prose have their line numbers in {braces} within the text. The companion volume, _A Middle English Vocabulary, designed for use with SISAM's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, by J. R. R. Tolkien is available at PG #43737.]

End of Project Gutenberg's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various