Archaic Grammmar English
Archaic Grammmar English
Archaic Grammmar English
(PART 1)
John H. J. Westlake
October 197.0
University of Birmingham Research Archive
e-theses repository
practic
v C--
e of other German
;"* ',»/''' ' •
High German, Middle High German, Hew High. German. It also
simplifies comparisons between the language of Shakespeare
con$emp6rariBS (Early Ifew English) and the usage of
today (modern * English). This seems more logical and less
clumsy than referring to Early Modern English and Late Modern
-$&•, f
English. The grammatical terms used are those of traditional,
grammar. Despite the objections raised by the new linguists
about their inadequacy the fact remains that they are generally
understood, and since this treatise is intended to be of use
to all students of Shakespeare and not merely professional
grammarians this is a factor of some importance* Where
traditional practice is divided a decision has had to be made
without any compelling reason; hence "noun 11 is preferred to
"substantive 11 , "preterite 11 to "past simple", "perfect" to
"present perfect", "pluperfect" to "past perfect", and
"continuous tense" to *x "expanded tense".
Franz refers frequently to books and articles on grammar
that were available to him. Where it is felt that these are
still cuseful they have been retained. E. A. Abbott's A
Shakespearian Grammar is cited because it is still the only
work on the subject that is easily accessible to English- *
speaking scholars, and social mention should also be made of
E. Matzner*s Englische Grammatik, 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1880-5), '"
which is still helpful as a guide to the history of accidence,
and H. Sweet's A New English Grammar (Oxford, 1892 ead 1898),
a work that; in some respects has not been superseded. However,
many of the* works referred to "by Franz; were of only passing*
interest, so that they do not repay the effort involved in '^J*;-'
tracing them today. Such references have therefore been r
omitted* Franz made few alterations to his references after the
early editions, and it has therefore been necessary to
supplement them from more recent sources* Two works are of
special importance in this connection. Karl Brunner's Pie
englische Sprache. 2nd ed. (TUbingem, I960 a*k 1962) is
derived to a gxcxx great, extent from the work of other "
scholars, but it is most useful as a supplement to Matzner,
particularly in tracing the development of certain features of
>;•.••'••
., their Yoyoes" T
(In the first instance the form voice is required by the"
. ~ verse)
Son. MIX, 3 (1609): "All toungs (the voice of soules) give
thee that end"
Luc:.« 1595 (1594): "Both stood like old acquaintance in a
tranee"
Jf£, 1I« 4i, 181 (? and Q^: "I doe feast to night/ My best
, ., \. , 7 esteemd acq.uaintance" :
Shr., I, 1, 34 (I1): "Balke Lodgicke with acquaintance that
, , .;-* ; ,. you/.have" . - . " ; . - " ' V
II, v, 177 (P)s "I will wash of f grosse acquaintance"
It it t6 (P): "no more oppos'd/ Against Acquaintance,
* KindredL, and Allies" ' J"
2H4, III, ii, 38 (F): "and to see how many of mine olde
^ -, . Acquaintance are dead?" , *
H8, I, ii,. 47. (F) *• "those which would not know them, and yet
, f must/Perforce be their acquaintance 11
Oth., II, i, 205. (P): "How do's my old Acquaintance of this
^.^
'tl' , v , Isle?" ., l *, c u *i 7"
(<?,); " How Jlo^ oto'-oleL *x«|^Uk^u. »V »* Xsl« r
(The singular verb shows that acouMntance must be
interpreted ae a collective here|;f fcUfUlo reJu1^ is
L^, V, ii, 50;j(^ and Q|): "Some thousand Verses"
Tro., III t ii, 189 (#)* "As true as Troylus, shall crowne up
the Verse,/And sanctifie the numbers"
- 15 -
Sttjti f XVil, 1 (I6b9)s *Who will beleeve my verse in time to
'.*" . " * come 1'' : "*
Son. * IX3EVI a 1 (1609): "Why is my verse so barren of new. pride?"
-Y§v jrf
thought"
- 22 -
Riches is still used as a singular, corresponding to the
French richesse. In Shakespeare, however, it is also found as
a plural. A^s is used as a singular, but whether it also
occurs as a plural, as it still does occasionally today,
cannot be ascertained with certainty from the examples. The
0£D gives examples of alms used as a plural from about the
middle of the 16th century* As well as the original singular
form mean 'opportunity 1 , which is now obsolete, there is the
new formation means, which is used, as both singular and plural.
News can. be used as either- a singular or plural, and in the
same way tidings can be used, in the singular. The plural.
businesses, meaning 'affairs', is now obsolete. Pain (in the
physical sense) forms a plural pains. which still occurs,
though it is rare in ordinary speech; in the abstract sense
of 'trouble' the form pains, which is always singular, occurs
alongside pain; on the other hand pains 'efforts' is formed
from pain 'a single effort.' .Thanks, now in use only as a
plural, is, apart from a thousand thanks, always used as a
singular; thank, the old singular, survives in pick-thank.
Odds, now plural, occasionally occurs as a singular in
Shakespeare* Wit used as a singular has a wide variety of
meanings in Shakespeare, cf. A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon
under wit. *H > "; .
Son. LXXXVII, 6 (1609); "And for that ritches where is my
deserving?"
Oth». II, i, 83 (F): "The Riches of the Ship is come on
shore"
Tim., IV, ii, 32 (?): "Since Riches point to Misery and
.... Contempt?"
TGrV, IV, i t 13 (?): "My riches, are these poore habiliments"
Cor.. Ill, ii, 120 (?): "That-hath receiv'd an Almes"
Shr«.
c''-y: IV, iii, 5 (?): "Beggers**...Upon, intreatie have a
.- :" ,'••'•
present, almes"^
II, vii,, 5 (?): "tell me some good meane/ How with niy
honour I may undertake/ A iourney to
my loving Protheus"
, , . 23 - .
.» I. il, 18 (?): "having so good a meane"
II, i, 19 (P and Q-)s "who win(ne)s me by that meanes I
told you"
2H4, III, i, 29 (P and-Qvj): "With al(l) appliances(,) and
meanes to boote"
2H4. I, i, 137 (P): "this, newes"
(Q.j): "these newes"
*Jj|*f V, vli, 65 (P): "You breath these dead newes in as
dead an eare"
1H4'i I, i, 58 (P and Q 1 ): "the newes was told"
R2, III, iv, 80 (P): "this ill-tydings?"
Jru, IV, ii, 115 (P)s "The tydings comes"
Jn., IV, ii, 132 (P): "these ill tidings"
AOT, III, vil, 5 (P): "Nothing acquainted with these Si-' $"
businesses"
Jn., IV, iii, 138 (P): "Let hell want paines enough to
torture me"
Tit,, IV, ii, 47 (P and, Q^: "our beloved mother in her
paines"
Son. XXXVIII, 14 (1609); "The paine be mine, but thine shal
be the praise"
H8, III, ii, 72 (P): "This same Cranmer's/ A worthy Pellow,
* i "-
and hath tane much paine/ In the
Kings businesse"
Shr., IV, iii, 43 (P): "And all my paines is sorted to no
proofe"
R3. I, iii, 117 (P): ; IM Tis time to speake,/My paines are
quite fbrgot"
Cor., V, i, 46 (P): "Yet your good will/ Must have that
thankes from Rome"
Ant., II, vi, 48 (P): "well studied for a liberall thankes"
H8, I, iv,. 74 (P): "Por which I pay f em a thousand thankes"
1H4, -III, ii, 25 (P): "Which oft the Bare of Greatnesse
' needes must heare,/ By smiling
, , ; " Pick-thankes"
luke, VI, 32 (1611): "Por if yee love them which love you,
; what thanke have ye?"
- 24 -
, IV, iii, 5 (F): "'tis a fearefull oddes"
I, it, 19,1/(F and Qj: "Devise Wit, write Pen"
• .', '• •''-.. i» j- ' V -. . , • I- '
( as imagination)
|gV f I, i, 47 (S): "by ItQve, the yong, and tender wit/ Is
turn f d to folly" (. = sense)
Ml,"II, i, 282 (F): "few of any wit in such matters"
> " ( = understanding)
, IV, vii, 61 (F): King Edward: "...'tis wisdome to
conceale our meaning."
Hastings: "Away with scrupulous Wit,
now Armes must rule."
» wisdom)
> 25;- .
§ 9 fhe plural wars, which as a• general idea has the same
meaning and use as the singular war, is peculiar, hence also
the double forms in set phrases like to make war(s), to go to
war(s) t at war(s) (cf. A. Schmidt., Shakespeare-Lexicon under
war). The plural seas is especially common; in some cases it
can "be replaced by another plural such as floods or wa.ves,
though this meaning does not always fit (cf. N.E. the seas
'•kept breaking over the vessel) • Letters often occurs when it
does not follow from the context that more than one epistle
is concerned; here there is a possible Latin influence
(literae). The plural moneys is used by Shylock several times
as a singular (cf. A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon under
money). This form is found in Wyclif's Bible, first, version,
2 Msec., III, 6, Bacon's essay Of Usury (1625K and Lithgow's
Rare Adventures. IV, 140 (1632), where it obviously has no
Jewish, association. According to the OED it acquired this
association only from Shakespeare onwards,
2H4, I, ii, 85 (?): "Is there not wars?" , ±.
Cor*. I 9 iii, 112 (?): "they nothing doubt prevailing, and
-'" N to make it breefe Warres" ^
.'.MM, II, ii, 32 (?): "but that I am/At warre, twixt will,
and will not"
•'. 2H4. Ill, i, 60 (?): "and in two yeeres after,/Were they
at Warres"
; AW, II, iii, 295 (?) * "too'th warrs my boy, too f th warres"
AW. II, iii, 302 (F): "too ! th warre"
R2 1 III, ii, 3 (?)J "After your late tossing on the breaking
Seas?"
3H6. IV, viii, 3 (?): "Edward from Belgia...Hath pass'd in
safetie through the Narrow Seas"
IV, iv, 463 (? and Q1 ): "Richmond is on the Seas"
[9 P", iv, 474 (P): "what makes he upon the Seas?"
.(Q-j)s "what doeth he upon the sea?"
IV, v, 91 (P): "I have letters that ray sonne will be
•••".fr night"
heere to
M, IV, iii, 97 (P): "Now wil I write Letters to Angelo"
- 26 -
IT, I, iii, 120 (F and Q t )t "moneyes is your su(i)te"
w* I s .
jfe'«i-r/v, - / . , , _ .
/o 33.doip New English shows a strong tendency to use abstract
doncepta In th® Murals rages, revenges. Cf. T. I. 0. Dairies,
(London, 1675), pp. 34-5 for examples from the
Bible o:f 1611.
&>r>. "V,'ill, 85 (P): "Desire not t 1 allay/My Rages and
Revenges, with your colder reasons"
MV. II, vl, 41 (t): "must I hold a Candle to my shames?"
1E4, III, ii, 144 (P and 'Q«)s "on my head/ My shames
' *v redoubled"
# ''- & ' " ^ *
JC. I, ii, 42 tF): "Conceptions onely proper to my sel£e,/
Which give some soyle (perhaps) to my
Behaviours"
Jxu. V, i, 51 (P): "So shall inferior eyes/ That borrow
their behaviours from the great,/ Grow
great by your example"
ffote. P. T. Vlsser (English Studies. XXVI (1944-5), 16)
suggests that' the same phenomenon is found with forms in
"-ing" as in: "
MM. I, iv, 54 (P),: "His giving-out, were of an infinite
distance/ Prom his true meant designe" .
JC, III, i, 36 (P): "These couchings, and these lowly " ...
courtesies" • . -.
K8, IV, i, 87 (P): "She had alX the Royall makings of a
' Queene"
§11 Thyft flurai ei£8 is used in Shakespeare chiefly to address
people of the lower classes or those who are beneath the rank
of <tbe speaker; the original meaning of this form of address
has become so weakened that it is even occasionally applied
to women, cf. A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon under sir. The
modern written language uses Sirs, together with an adjective,
only in letter headings, but it is-still very common in.
Scotland, cf. J. Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the
Scottish Language, new ed., ed. by J. Longmuir and D.
Donaldson, Vol. IV (Paisley, 1882), 227.
1H4-. II, ii, .62 (Q^s Princes "Sirs you foure shall front
.-_ -'..". * them in the narrowe lane"
Wrv.t I, iii, 34 (P.): Palstaffs "Well sirs, I am almost out
-• i'.•. : *.« . 7t, *. , ", ,-•%~ ,. .,s. , at heeles."
,-, . -.' - Pistols- "Why then let Kibes ensue"
Shr.. Ind»> i, 66 (P):- "This do, and do it kindly, gentle
" f . sirs" . . " *
(The Lord is speaking to his servants)
Ant.. IV, xv, 85 (P): "Ah Women, women! Looke/ Our Lampe is
,: « 41,.. spent, it's out. Good sirs, take
: *. he art,/Wee'1 bury him" "!'
LLL. IV,'i|i, 212 (P and Qn ); "Hence sirs, away."
* (She King is addressing Jaquenetta and Costard)
- 29 -
§ ii, Elizabethan English shares with other languages the tendency
to express a personal concept by a corresponding abstract if
it is intended to represent the person as a supreme e:c ample
of the latter. In the case of titles (y_our 5xce 113n^v, 7^o".r
Grace) the usage has become traditional. In Shakespeare's
time the abstract could be used to express not only a cor.plir.^
or external distinction but also the humour or imagination of
the speaker. Thus Prospero jovially calls Ariel, v;ho has
performed a commission efficiently and quickly, my diligence
(Tm£., V, i, 241 (?)), and rewards him \vith his freedom. The
exasperated Capulet calls the Nurse Good Prudence (Rom., Ill,
v, 172 (P and Q 2 )) when she takes Juliet ! s side, and tells her
to keep silent. Occasionally abstract irony increases the
sarcasm, as in the conversation between Doll Tearsheet and
Palstaff, who calls her my poore Vertue (2H4, II, iv, 51 (?}).
She use of the abstract was formerly quite common in
offensive and insulting expressions:
1H4. Ill, ii, 99 (P): "thou, the shadow of Succession"
( = thou shadow of p-succassor)
Oth., V, ii, 231 «(F): "Pilth,. thou lyest" (lago to L'milia) .
V/iv *, II, ii, 21 (?) : "thou unconfinable basenesse"
(Palstaff to Pistol)
Tmp,, V, i, 218 (P): "blasphemy 17 ( = blasphemer)
Many more examples of Shakespeare's use of the abstract for
the concrete are given in A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon,
pp. 1421-3.
- 30 -
Genitive
(Cf. here 0. Jespersen, Progress in Language (1894), pp. 279-32?)
§ 13 The "s" of the so-called Saxon genitive has ceased to be a
true inflexion in New English, since it has no influence oil
the word-stem: wife ! s (cf. on the other hand the plural u -s"?
v/ife - \vives); in addition it can stand at the end of a plirsse
(my sister-in-lp.w' s house), which thus acquires a genitive
character as a whole. It is therefore no\v a free case-suffix.
Its modern use developed gradually, and traces of the old
manner of use still appear in Shakespeare in the word order
and in the occasional omission of the inflexion, cf. 0«
Jespersen, Progress in Language, p. 309f. Old genitives like
wives, lives are still found in Shakespeare, "but were no
longer accepted by the beginning of the 18th century. 'j?h.e
modern form of the genitive of nouns ending in a voiceless
consonant in which "-'s 11 is added to the uninflected singular
form first appears about 1650, which was also the time when,
the apostrophe first came into use with the genitive, cf.
Karl Brunner, Die englische Sprache, II, 15-
T[iv., IV, ii, 1?1 (P): "his wives Lemman"
Jn., IV, iii, 106 (P): "his sweete lives losse"
AW, V, iii, 91 (I1 ): "At her lives rate"
Iji .:,$(**! genitives pdT wprdf which end in an "s" sound ?
•*• ^^.v-Tfc'Wvv.'i.'v'-'-'i-'.... •• -,, >•• •. 'iil.. •*•»- ..... '. "'* ' ' -.•••,, -. ^
time
self-will
winter
; - <-, . '• wish
Son. IXj 13-H (1609); "No love, toward others in that "bo some
sits/ That on himselfe such murdrous
shane commits 11
XXVIII, 9 (1609): V 1 tel^ the ^^ *Q please him thou
,,; art bright"
Son. CVli, 10-11 (1609) : "death to me subscribes,/ Since
spight of him lie live in this
poore rime"
Mac^.V IX» liif 44 (P): "I requited him for his Lye" ( * drink)
grr.> I, ii, 35-38 (P),: "I to the world am like a drop of
water,/ That in the Ocean seekes
another drop,/ Who falling there
to finde his fellow forth, /
ITnseene, inquisitive) confounds
himself e"
, 173-175 (1594): "But honest feare, bewicht with lustes
foule charme,/ Doth too too oft
betake him to retire,/ Beaten away
by brainesicke rude desire"
- 43 -
t V, vii, 60 (F): "heaven he knowes how we shall ansv,r er
him"
, II, li f 68-69 (F): "I will dispaire, and be at enmitle/
vrith couzening hope; he is a Flatterer"
Ven., 793-796 (1593): "Call it not love, for love to heaven
is fled,/ Since sweating lust on ear-ch
usurpt his name,/ Under whose simple
semblance he hath fed,/ Upon fresh
beautie, blotting it. with blame"
Gym., V, iv, 123-125 (F): "Sleepe, thou hast bin a Grandsire,
and begot/ A Father to me: and
thou hast created/ A Mother, and
two Brothers"
Ven., 861-862 (1593): "From whom ech lamp, and shining star
doth borrow,/ The beautious influence
that makes him bright"
R2, V, iii, 62-63 (F and Q^): "From whence this strearne,
through muddy passages/ Hath
had his current, and defil(')a
himselfe"
Err., IV, ii, 58 (F): "Time is a verie bankerout, and owes
more then he's worth to season"
Luc, t 707 (1594): "Till like a lade, self-will himselfe
doth tire" -
Jru, V, vii, 36-37 (F): "And none of you will bid the winter
come/ To thrust his ycie fingers in.
my maw"
2H4, IV, v, 93 (F): "Thy wish was Father (Harry) to that
*
thought"
S. masculines which occur as feminines:
kingdom
moon
H5, II, ii, 175-177 (F): "we our Kingdomss safety must so
tender,/ Whose ruine you sought,
that to h.er Itawes/ Y/e do driver
you"
ILL, ?, Hi 2Hv. C^X* MYou tooke the Moone at full, but now
ehee's changed?"
T 45 -
2.2- 0.2. feminines which occur as such:
church
•^^MMMMM^ ^,,
deed
earth
hardness
mind
night
nightmare
shore
world
youth
Jn. t III, i, HI-142 (P): "Why thou against the Church, our
holy Mother,/ So wilfully dost
spurne"
V/T. I, ii, 97-99 (P): "My last good deed, was to. entreat his
stay*/ What was<S my first? it ha's an
elder Sister,/ Or I mistake you: 0,
would her Name were Grace"
AYL, I, ii, 212-213 (F): "where is this yong gallant, that
is so desirous to lie with his
mother earth?"
Gym,. Ill, vi, 21-22 (P): "Plentie, and Peace breeds Cowards:
Hardnesse ever/ Of Hardinesse is
Mother"
Luc>, 1656-1659 (1594): "Immaculate, and spotlesse is my mind,/
That was not forc'd, that never, was
inclind/ To accessarie yeeldings,
but still pure/ Doth in. her poyson'd
closet yet endure"
Luc,. 117-119 (1594): "Till sable Night mother of dread and
feare,/ Upppon the v/orld dim darknesse
d.oth displaie,/ And in her vaultie
prison, stowes the daie"
Lr., Ill, iv, 126-128 (P): "He met the Night-Mare, and her
nine-fold;/ Bid her a-light, and
her troth-plight"
Jn v, II, i, 23-25 (P): "together with that pale, that
vmlte-fac'd shore,/ Vhose foot srjurr.es
backe the Oceens roaring tides,/ A:id
coopes from other lands her Ilanders"
Son, IX, 4-5 (1609): "The world will waile thee like a
raakelesse wife,/ The world wilbe thy
widdow"
Ham., Ill, iv, 82-85 (P); "Rebellious Hell,/ If thou canst
mutine in a Matrons bones,/ To
flaming-youth, let Vertue be as
waxe,/ And melt in her owne f&re"
O.E. feminines which occur as masculines:
heart
law
pine
sin
*
sorrow
sun
tide
wickedness
Son. XLVI, 5 (1609): "My heart doth plead th.at thou in him
doost lye"
1H4, I, ii, 69 (P): "old Father Anticke the Law?"
Gym., IV, ii, 173-176 (P): "and yet, as rough....as the rud'st
winde,/ That by the top doth take
the Mountaine Pine,/ And make him
stoope to th'Vale"
Luc* f 629-630 (1594): "Y/hen patternd by thy fault, fowle sin
may say,/ He learnd to sin, and thou
?
didst teach the way"
Luc», 913-914 (1594): "sinne nere gives a fee,/ He gratis cones"
Per., I, iv, 63-64 (Q-j): "One sorrowe never comes but brings
an heire,/ That may succcede as
his inherlt,or"
Err., II, ii, 30-31 (P): "When the sunne shines, let foolisn
gnats make sport,/ But creepe in
crannies, when he hides his beames"
-•47. -
#''* ; ' '. i'.," 1 •
fleah
life
light
aurder
war
Son., XLVI, 5-8 (1609): -"My heart, doth, plead that thou in him
doost lye, /...But the defendant doth
that, plea deny,/ And sayes in him
their faire appearance lyes"
(the defendant is mine eye)
Son. CLI, 10-11 (1609): "proud, of this pride,/ He is contented
thy poore drudge to "be" ( = flesh)
Tim.. IV, iii, 382-384 (F) : "0 thou sweete King-killer, and
deare divorce/ Twixt naturall
Sunne and fire: thou "bright
defiler/ ^of Himens purest "bed,
thou valiant Mars"
(addressed to the gold)
AYL, III, ii, 137-140 (?) : "how briefe the Life of man/ runs
his erring pilgrimage,/ That the
stretching of a span,/ buckles
in. his sunme of age"
Son. VII, 1-10 (160§): "Loe in. the Orient when the gracious
light/ Lifts up his burning head...
But when from high-most pich with
wery car,/ Like feeble age he reeleth
from the day"
Jn. t IV, iii, 37 (P) : "Murther, as hating what him selfe
hath done"
R3, I, i, 9-13 (P): "Grim-viaag'd Warre, hath smoothed his
wrinkled Front.:/ And now, in stead of
mounting. Barbed Steeds,/ To fright the
Soules of fearfull Adversaries,/ Ee
- 49 -
Capers nimbly in a Ladies Shr.r.bor,/ .0
the lascivious pleasing of a Lute"
0,E. neuters which occur as feminines:
brain
ivy
land .
sail
ship
silver
welkin
, year
H2t V, v, 6-8 (P) : "My Braine, lie prove the Female to my
Soule,/ My Soule, the Pather: and these
two beget/ A generation of still breeding
Thoughts"
iv, i, 46-47 (?)«
(P and Q- ) : "the female Ivy so/ Enrings
the barky fingers of the Elme"
R2, II, i, 57-59 (P) : "This Land of such deere soules, this
deere-deere Land,/ Deere for her
reputation through^ the world,/ Is
now Leas'd out"
MNP, II, i, 128-129 (P): "When we have laught to see the
sailes conceive,/ And grow big
bellied with the wanton winde 11
LLL, V, ii, 549 (P)= "The ship is under saile, and fc-sTr:"?: here
she corns amain"
MV, ,11, vii, 22 (P): "What, saies the Silver with her virgin
hue?"
Y/iv. , I, iii, 101 (P): "By Welkin, and her Star'.'
2M4, Ind., 13-14 (P) : "Whil'st the bigge yeare, swolne with
some other grlefes,/ Is thought wirth
childe, by the sterne Tyrant,
- 50 -
is usually masculine, "but in the following examples it
is neuter:
H8, I, i,' 54-57 (P): "I wonder,/ That such a Keech ca.nA v:ith
"
his very bulke/ Take up the Rayes
o'th'beneficiall Sun,/ And keepe it
from the Earth"
Son. CXLVIII, 12 (1609): The sunne it. selfe sees not, till
heaven cleeres"
Similarly moon is usupJLly feminine, but in the following
example it. is neuter:
MND, III, i, 52-56 (P): Snout: "Doth the Moone shine that
night wee play our play?"..*
Quince: "Yes, it doth shine that night."
Ship is feminine, but it is also found as a neuter:
TGV, III, i, 281 (P): "my'Mastership? why, it is at Sea"
\7T, III, iii, 93-100 (P); "Now the Shippe boaring the Moone
«. with her maine Mast, and anon
swallowed with yest.and froth..*
But to make an end of the Ship,
to see how the Sea flap-dragon'd it"
It also appears once as a masculines
Per., V, Prol., 18-20 (Q-): "Lysimachus our Tyrian Shippe
espies,/ His banners Sable,
trim'd with rich expence,/ And
to him in hin Barge with former
hyes"
Vessel and bark are normally feminine, but they are also
found as neuters, and bark also occurs as a masculine:
Tmp.. I, ii, 6-7 (P): "A brave vessel!/ (Who had no doubt
some noble creature in her)
Tit., I, i, 71-73 (P): "the Barke that hath discharg'd his
fraught,/ Returnes with precious
lading to the Bay,/ Prom v/hence at
first she wegih'd her Anchorage"
Ant.» I, iv, 53-54 (P): "No Vessell can- peepe forth: but 'tis
as soone/ Taken ao seene"
- 51 -
Mrc., I, iii, 24-25 (P) : "Though his Barke cannot ca Ic-.t,/
\
Yet it shall "be Tempest-tost"
In the same way the name of a ship is feminine:
MV, I, i, 27-29 (P): "And see my wealthy Andrew docks in
sand,/ Vailing her high top lower then
her ribs/ To kisse her buriall"
Of. G. Stern, tTber das personliche Geschlecht unpersonlicher
Substantivp- bei Shakespeare, ft?eg*wmfl (Dresden, 1881), pp. 31-2.
I\T ote. The use of the masculine
2.? for ———————
oottle, ——————
stone, ——————
drink, and
fly (for exr-raples see § -945-) is usually suggestive of the type
of personification now found in popular speech.
Tmp., II, ii, 180-181 (P): "Here; beare my Bottle: Pellow
Trinculo; we 1 11 fill him by and
by againe"
AYL, II, iv, 46-49 (P)i "I remember v;hen I was in love, I
broke my sword upon: a stone, and
bid him take that for comming a
night to lane Smile"
Mac., II, iii, 43 (?): "I requited him for his Lye" ( = drink)
- 52 -
Romance Vocabulary
French masculines which occur as suchs
air
age
current,
danger
desire
vice
Tim., IV, iii, 221-223 (F): "what think f st/ That the bleake
ayre, thy boysterous Ghamberlaine/
Will put, thy shirt on warms?"
Son. LXIII, 9-12 (1609): "For such a time do I now fortifie/ ,
Agpinst confounding Ages cruell
knife,/ That he shall never cut
from memory/ My sweet loves beauty,
though my lovers life"
TGV, II, vii, 25-28 (F): "The Current, that with gentle Murmure
glides/ (Thou know'st) being atop'd,
impatiently doth rage:/ But v;hen his
faire course is not hindered,/ He
make s swe e t musi cke wi th th'ename14
stones 11
JC, II, ii, 44-45 (F): "Danger knowes full well/ That Caesar
is more dangerous then he"
Luc., 703-704 (1594): "Drunken Desire must, vomite his
receipt/ Ere he cen see his owne
.abhomination"
HI, V, ii, 314-316 (F): "I cannot so coniure up the Spirit
of Love in her, that hee. will
appeare in his SXKE true likenesse"
Ham., Ill, iv f 153-155 (F): "For in the fatnesse of this
1; pursie times,/Vertue itsalfe,
**',-'" »A ;.
jealousy
knavery
lechery
letter
luxury
minute
necessity
pregnancy
prosperity
reason
repentance *
study
traffic
tyranny
Luc., 271 (1594): "Affection is my Captaine and he leadeth"
Lr. , I, iv, 29-32 (?) : Kent: "you have that in your
countenance, which I would
if
faine call Master."
Lear: "What's that?"
Kent: "Authority."
H5, IV, i, 257-258 (P) : "what art thou, thou Idol! Ceremonie?/
What kind of God art thou?"
Jru , II, i, 573 (F) : "That smooth-fac f d Gentleman, tickling
commoditie"
Ham. , III, iv, 16"1-164 (C^) : "'That monster custome...is angell
yet. in this/ That to the use of
actions faire and good,/ He
likewise gives a froclc or Livery"
- 54 -
jldo, III, iii, 139-142 (P): "3eest thou not (I say) v;hat a
deformed thiefe this fashion
is, how giddily a turnes. about
all the Hot-blouds, betv/eene
foureteene & five & thirtie"
R2, I, iii, 168-169 (P and Q 1 ): "dull(,) unfeeling(,) barren
ignorance(,)/ Is zaade my
*•
Gaoler to attend on me"
Ham., V, i, 224-226 (P): "Why may not" Imagination trace the
IToble dust, of Alexander, till he
find it stopping- a bunghole"
Ten., 64-9-650 (1593): "For where love raignes, disturbing
iealousie,/ Doth call him selfe
affections centinell"
Ado, II, iii, 124-125 (P and Q-): "knavery cannot sure hide
himself(e) in such reverence"
Mac., II, iii, 34-36 (P): "much Drinke may be said to be an
Equivocator with Lecherie: it
makes him, and it: marres him"
Wiv., II, i, 73-74 (P): "heere's the twyn-brother of thy
Letter"
Tro. , V, ii, 55-56 (P and Q 1 ): "How the divell Luxury with
his fat, rumpe and potato
finger, tickles (these)
together"
2H4, I, i, 7-8 (P): "Ev'ry minute now/ Should be the Pather
of some Stratagem"
R2 t V, i, 20-22 (P): "I am sworne Brother (Sweet)/ To grim
Necessitie; and hee and I/ Will keepe
a League till Death"
2H4, I, ii, 192-194 (P): "Pregnancie is made a Tapster, and
hath his quicke wit. wasted in
giving Recknings"
Cor., I, v, 24 (P): "Prosperity be thy Page"
Son. CXLVII, 5 (1609): "My reason the Phisition to my love"
Aao t ii i p 81-83 (P): "then comes repentance, and with his
bad legs falls into the cinque-pace
> 55 -
faster and faster,, till he sinkes
into his grave"
'.LIL, TV, ii, 113 (F ant Q^): "Studie his byas leaves, and
•SFW»*
makes his booke thine eyes"
£
calamity
chastity
cit?/'
corner
is>
c ountry
courtesy
e cho
envy
fame
fortune
frailty
justice
melancholy
misfortune
music
nature
occasion
patience •
peace
plenty
policy
riches
virginity
virtue
Rom,, III, iii, 1-3 (Q.2 ) *• "Borneo come forth, come forth thou
fearefull man,/ Affliction is
enamourd of thy parts:/ And ~hou
art wedded to calamitie."
Per., II, iii, 15-17 (Qt ) ' "In framing an Artist, art hath
thus decreed,/ To makeft some good,
but others to exceed,/ And you
- 57 -
are her labourd scholler"
WT, IV, iv, 92-95 (P): "you see (sweet Maid) V7e marry/J_
gentler oien, to the wildest Stocke,/
And make conceyve a barke of baser
kinde/ By bud of Nobler race"
Son. CXXXII, 15 (1609): "Then will I swears beauty her selfe
is blacke"
Rom., Ill, iii, 5 (p and Q2 ): "thou art. wedded to calamltle"
(refers to Romeo)
LUG., 692 (1594): "Pure chastitie is rifled of her store 11
Tro.. IV, v, 211-212 (P): "I wonder now, how yonder City stands,/
V/hen we have heere her Eese and
pillar by us."
Jru, II, i, 29-50 (P): "Even till that utmost corner of the
Vfest/ Salute thee for her King"
Cor.. II, iii, 94-98 (P): Pirst Citizen: "You have deserved
Nobly of your Countrey,
and you have not
deserved Nobly."
Coriolanus: "Your AEnigmaV
Pirst. Citizen: "You have bin a
scourge to her
enemies, r:a: you jsi^r
hpve bin a Bod to.
her Friends"
Ado, I, i, 125-124 (P and Q^); "Curtesie it selfe must, convert
t;o Disdaine, if you come in
her presence"
Rom., II, ii, 162-165 (P and Q^): "Else would I teare the Cave
where Eccho lies,/ And make
'• her ayrie tongue more
hoarse"
£l^-v 2H6, III, ii, 514-515 (P): "With full as many signes of
deadly hate,/ As leane-fac f d
envy in her loathsome cave"
Tro., Ill, iii, 210 (P): "When fame shall in her Hand sound
her truinpe"
- 58 -
(Q.J): "When fane shall in our Hands
sound her trumpe"
1H4, I, i, 83 (F)i "'.'/ho is sweet Fortunes Minion, and her
Pride"
Haau , I, ii, 146 (P): "Frailty, thy name is woman"
Tit., IV, iii, 39 (F): "for iustice she is so imploy'd"
Shr*, Ind., ii, 135 (F): "melancholly is the Nurse of frenzie"
MY", II, iv, 36-38 (F and Q-I: ) : "And never dare misfortune
crosse her foote,/ Unlesse
she doe it under this excuse,/
That, she is issue to a
faithlesse Iew(e)"
Rom., IV, v, 145-146 (F); "Then Musicke with her silver sound,
with speedy helpe doth lend
redresse" J."
MV, I, i, 51 (F and Q^: "Nature hath fram(^)d strange
fellov/es in her time"
Ant. , II, vi, 139-140 (F) : "Hee married but his occasion heere"
2rr . , II, i, 52 (F): "Patience unmov'd, no marvel though
she pause"
2H4, IV, iv, 87 (F) : "But Peace puts forth her Olive every
where"
Per., I, iv, 52-54 (Q-j): "0 let those Cities that of plenties
cup,/ And her prosperities so
largely taste,/ With their
superfluous riots heare these tesres"
"~ I,, iii, 108-109 (F) : "Never did "base
TH4,
"*— / and rotten Policy/
Colour her working with such
deadly wounds"
Per. , I, iv, 23 (Qi ) : "For riches strev/ f de her selfe even in.
her streetes"
AWW, I, i, 169-170 (F); "Virginitie like an olde Courtier,
weares her cap out of fashion"
HPITU, III, ii, 26-27 (F) : "to shew Vertue her owne Feature"
French masculines which occur as feminines:
autumn
choice
pardon
report
" - '"" • vessel • • «
Son.. XCVII, 6 (1609): "The teeming Autumne big with ritch
" increase"
Tro., I, iii, 348-349(?): "choise,..Makes Merit her election"
MM, II, i, 298 (P): "Pardon is still the nurse of second woe"
III, i, 7-8 (P and. Q 1 ): "if my gossip(s) report be an
, , honest woman of her word"
I, i, 32-33 (P): "Which touchi ng but my gentle Vesse
f
r ^ ls side/
-t;
Would Scatter all her spices on the streame"
- 60 -
Double genders:
body
c onmonwealth
h^nd
honour
love
morning
saying
sea
soul
Son. CLI, 7-8 (1609): "My soule doth tell my body that he
may,/ Triumph in love"
Tit., II, iv, 16-18 (F): "Speake gentle Neece, whgtt sterne
ungentle hands/ Hath Iopt, and
hew f d, and made thy "body bare/ Of
her two branches"
1H4, II, i,"87-91 (F): "for they pray continually unto their
Saint the Commonwealth; or rather,
not to pray to her, but prey on her:
for they ride up & dov/ne on her, and
make hir their Boots"
2H4, IV, i, 94-96 (Q-i)- "My brother Gene rail, the common
wealth/ To brother borne an houshold
cruelty./ I make my quarrel! In
particular."
H2, III, iii, 79-81 (P) : "no Hand of. Blood and Bone/ Can
gripe the sacred Handle of our
Scepter,/ Unlesse he doe prophane,
steale, or usurpe"
MSSTD» III, ii, 143-144 (P and Q 1 ) • "thy hnnd. 0 le^ me kisse/
This Princesse of pure
white, this seale of blisse"
Horn• t III, ii, 93-^94 (P) • "where Honour may be Cro\vn ! d/ Sole
Monarch of the universe.il earth"
1H4, I, iii, 205-207 (P): "plucke up dro\vned Honor by the
Lockes:/ So he that doth redeeme
- 61 -
her thence, might v/er-re/ Vithout
Co-riV3.ll, ell her Dignities"
JFGV, I, i, 39 (F) : "Love is your master, for he masters you"
Err., Ill, ii, 52 (F): "Let Love, being light, be drowned.
if she sinke"
3H6, II, i, 21 (F): "See how the Morning opes her golden Gates"
Son. XXXIII, 1-7 (1609): "Full many a glorious morning have
v >'•! seene,/ Flatter the mountains
tops with soveraine eie...Anon
permit the basest cloud's to ride,/ -
T:ith ougly rsck on his celestiall
face,/ And from the for f -crne world
his visage hide"
LLL, IV, i, 121-127 (F): Rosaline: "Shall I come upon thee
with an old saying, that
was a man when King Pippin
of France was a little
. "boy, as touching the hit it."
Boyet: "So I may answere thee v/ith
one as old that v,7 as a woman
when Queene Guinover of
Brittaine was a little wench,
as touching the hit it."
Tit., Ill, i, 223-224 (F): "If the windes rage, doth not the
Sea wax mad,/ Threatning the
welkin with his big-swolne face?"
Tro., I, iii, 34-36 (F): "The Sea being smooth,/ How many
shallow bauble Boates dare saile/
Upon her patient brest"
jftU, III, iii, 20-21 (F): "within this well of flesh/ There
is a soule counts thee her Creditor"
R2, V, v, 6-7 (F): "My Braine, lie prove the Female to my
Soule,/ My Soule, the Father"
•Of. 0, A^ Lurnggfron. Tho poo-ticnl ponder of tho
in tho worko of Ben Jonaon (Lund» 18Q2), p» 50.
- 62 -
Sender of animals
I-Iasculine:
horse (also neuter)
courser
dog (also neuter)
greyhound
lion
v/olf
(hear)
calf
baboon
serpent
, humble-bee
cuckoo
porpus
whale
Tim. , II, i, 7-9 (F) : "If I would sell my Horse, and buy
twenty moe/ Beiter then he; why give
ray Horse to Timon./ Aske nothing,
give it- him."
1H4, II, ii, 73-74 (F and Q^ ) : "thy horse st.and(e)s behinde
the hedg(e), when, thou
need( f ) st him"
Cor. , I, iv, 5 (?): Lartiua: "3o, the good Eorse is mine."
Marcius: "lie buy him of you."
fflt f I, ii, 165-166 (P) : "that; it may know/ He can command;
lets it strait feele the spur"
( =• horse)
Per., II, i, 1.64-165 (Q^ ) : "a Courser, whose delight steps,/
Shell make the gazer ioy to see
him tread"
Lr . , IV, vii, 36-37 (P) : "Mine. Enemies dogge, though he had
bit me"
Tim., II, i, 5-6 (P) : "stcale but a beggers Dogge,/ And give
it Timon"
- 63 -
T7iv. , I, i, 307-308 (F) : "I have seene b'eckerson loose, t.'.ve:v;y
times, and have taken him. "by the
Chaine" (refers to a h
Tit., IV, i, 100 (F and Q1 ) : "when he sleepes(,) \vill she(e)
do(e) what she list"
(refers to a lion)
MV, II, i, 30 (F) : "Yea, mocke the Lion when he rores for
pray"
Luc. , 878 (1594): "Thou sets the v/olfe vhere he the lambe
may get"
r.'iv. , I, i, 91-92 (F): "How do f s your fallow Greyhound; Sir,
I heard say he was out-run on Cotsall"
Ado, III, iii, 76 (F and Q1 ) : "a calfe when he bleates"
Per., IV, vi, 189 (Q^ ) : "a Baboone could he speak"
Tro. , V, i, 96-98 (?) : "I will no more trust him when hee
leeres, then I will a Serpent when
he hisses"
AYL, IV, i, 54-55 (F): "I, of a Snaile : for though he comes
slowly, hee carries his house on
his head" H
Cor., II, i, 9-10 (?): Sicinius: "The Lambe."
Menenius: "I, to devour him"
Tit., Ill, ii, 65 (F): "thou hast kil'd him" ( = fly)
Trol , V, x, 42-43 (F and Q1 ) : "Full merrily the humble Bee
doth aeis sing,/ Till he hath
lost his hony(,) and his <r~-'^~"
ILL, V, ii, 908-910 (F and Q. ) : "The Cuckow then. ..thuc-
s ing (e)s he(e),/ Cuckow "
Per., II, i, 26 (Q.,): "the Porpas how he bounst"
Per. , II, i, 34 (Q-): "a Whale; a playes and tumbles"
Feminine:
f pic on
phoenix
swan
nightingale
- 64 -
cony
bee
adder
serpent (also masculine)
snake
apider
fish
WT, IV, iv, 15-16 (P): "IZhen my good Falcon, made her flight •
a-crosse/ Thy Fathers ground"
Shr.. IV« i, 194 (?): "til she stoope, she must not be full
gorg'd" ( = falcon)
Ten., 55-56 (1593): "Even as an emptie Eagle.. .-Tires with
her beake on feathers, flesh, and bone"
Son. XIX, 4 (1609): "burne the long liv'd Phaenix in'her blood"
Tit.. IV, ii, 101-103 (P): "All the water in the Ocean,/ Can.
never turne the Swans blacke
legs to white,/ Although she
la.ve them hourely in the flood"
1H6, V, iii, 56 (P): "So doth^ the Swan her downie Signets
save"
PP, 381 (1612): "She (poore Bird) as ?11 forlorne"
( =
AYL, III, ii, 356-357 (P); "As the Gonie that you see dwell
where shee is kindled"
2H4« IV, iv, 79 (P): "When, the Bee doth leave her Conbe"
Tit., II, iii, 35-36 (-P): "Even as an Adder when she doth
unrowle/ To do some fstall
execution?" *
3H6, II, ii, 15-16 (P): "V/hb scapes the lurking Serpents
mortall sting?/ Not he that sets
tiis foot upon her backe"
Mac., Ill, ii, 13-15 (P): "V/e have scorch 1 d the Snake, not
kill'd it:/ Shee'le close, and be
her selfe, whilest our poore I-Iallice/
Renaines in. danger of her former
Tooth"
_ '65 ~
the snn.ke throwes her
Ktttj,
•~ 1 II,,- "i t , 255 . t • "there
" , and . 4i)
. - (P
enammel(')d skinne"
Jn., IV, iii, 127-128 (F): "the smallest thred/'That ever
Spider twisted from her wombe"
Ado, III> i, 26-27 (E and. Q1 ): "The pleasant( f ) st angling is
to see the fish/ Gut vath
her golden ores the silver
streame"
- 66 -
>L<| The sex of an animal can be expressed by combining the <vord
with another that indicates this:
she-bear
bitch-wolf
dog-fox
filly-foal
cock-pi/re on
bull-calf
boar-pift
male-child
man-child
maid-child
MV,. II, i 29 (P and Q1 ): "Pluck(e) the yo(u)ng sucking Cubs
from the she Benr(e)"
Tim., IV, iii, 273 (P): "shee-Begger"
Similarly she-angel, she-foxes, she-lamb, she-Mercury, she-knight
errant, she-wolf, cf. A. Schniidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon under
she, p. 1045.
Tro», II, i, 11 (P): "Thou Bitch-V/olfes-Sonne"
Tro«, T, iv, 12-13 (P and Q1 ): "that same dog(ge)-foxe Ulisses"
MD, II, i, 46 (P and Q1 ): "a filly fo(e)le"
AYL, IV, i, 150-152 (P): "I will bee more iealous of thee,
then a Barbary cocke-pidgeon,'*.,, over
his hen" §
1H4. II, iv, 288 (P): "Bull-Calfe"
2H4. II, iv, 250-251 (P): "thou whorson little tydie
Bartholmev/ Bore-pigge"
H8, II, Iv, 189 (P): "a male-child$"
Cor., I, iii, 19 (P): "a Man-child."
Per., V, iii, 6 (Q 1 ): "a Mayd child calld Marina"
- 67 -
Proper names
3o The use of the feminine for the names of countries, counties,
and towns commonly reveals a. strong emotion (patriotism,
admiration, sympathy), which may, however, be quite transitory
(see also § ttj) *
If, Hi it 57-66 (P): "this deere-deere Land,/ Deere for her
reputp.tion through the world...That
England, that was wont to conquer
others,/ Hath made a shamefull
conquest of it selfe"
•&
(the change of gender here is characteristic)
Jn., V, viij 112-114 (?): "This Snglnnd never did, nor never
shall/ Lye at the proud foote of
a Conqueror,/ But when it first
did helpe to wound it selfe"
Gym., V, v, 14-15 (?): "you (the Liver, Heart, and Braine of
Britaine)/ By whom (I grant) she lives"
2H6, IV, x, 78-79 (?): "Tell Kent from me, she hath lost
her best man"
1H6. Ill, iii, 49-51 (?): "see the pining Mnladie of Prance:/
Behold the bounds...Which thou thy
selfe hast given her v/ofull Brest"
HJ>, V, ii, 182-184 (?): "I love France so well, that I will
not part, with a Village of it"
Cor., V, iii, 207-209 (?): "All the Swords/ In Italy, and
her Confederate Armes/ Could not
Jiave made this peace"
Hg, V, Prol., 24 (?): "How London doth pov:re out her Citizens'1
JJ5, I, ii, 154-157 (?): "When could they say (till now) that
talk'd of Rome, / That her vide
V'.'alkes incompast but one man?/ How
is it Rome indeed, and Roome enough/
t/hen there is in it but one ouely
man" (a characteristic change of gender)
Tro., IV, v, 211-212 (P): "I wonder now, how yonder City stands,/
When we have he ere her Base and
pillar by us." ( = Troy)
- 68 -
In the vocative:
Tit.. I, i, 431 (F and Q1 ) s "at my sute (sweet(e)) pardon.
what is past"
- 91 -
Ant,, IV, XY, 47 (P): "Gentle heare me"
2H6. Ill, ii, 70 (P): "Aye me unhappie"
Tit,. V, iii, 48 (P): "What hast done, unnaturall and
unkinde?"
(Q-j): "\Yhat hast thou done, unnaturall and
unkinde«"
Ronu, IV, ii, 16 (P and Q 2 ): "How now my headstrong"
Tro., I, iii, 69 (P): "let it please both/ (Thou Great, and.
Wise) to heare Ulysses speake"
R3t I, ii, 81 (P and Q-): "Pairer then tongue can name thee w
JO, III, i, 199 (P): "Shaking the bloody fingers of thpr
Poes?/ Most Noble, in the presence of
thy Coarse"
b) Substantival personal adjectives in the plurals
H8, V, v, 28 (P): "all the Vertues that attend the good"
3H6. II, ii, 32r (P): "Offering their owne lives in their
yongs defence?"
2H4, IV, iii, 60 (P); "beleeve not the Word of the tfoble"
H£, III, v, 55 (P): "This becomes the Great."
Cor., I, i, 155 (P): "Touching the Weale a'th Common*1
Cor., Ill, i, 29 (P); "Hath he not pass f d the Noble, and
the Common?"
(The form commons is more usual, cf. A» Schmidt, Shakespeare-
Lexicon, p. 223)
2H4, II, ii, 155 (P): "the spirits of the wise, sit in the
clouds, and mocke us"
ILL. II, i, 241 (P and Q1 ); "looking on fairest of faire"
AYL, IV, i, 199 (^)s "the grosse band of the unfaithfull"
TN, I, iii, 34 (I?): "'tis thought among the prudent"
Wiv., II, i, 117-118 (P): "He wooes both high and low, botli
rich & poor, both yong and old"
Lll, III, ii f 145 (^)= ""the greater file of the subiect held
the ]>uke to be wise"
Mac., IV, iii, 83 (P) • "the Good and Loyall"
IUG,» 902 (1594): "The poore, lame, blind, hault, creepe,
cry out. for thee"
3H6. IV, i, 71 (P): "meaner then my selfe have had like
fortune"
' ~ 92 -
Rom., I, iii t 69 (F); "yonger then you...Are made already
Mothers"
1H4, IV, ii, 73 (F): "they'le fill a Pit, as well as better"
1H4» IV, iii, 68 (F): "The more and lesse came in. with Cap
and Knee"
Mac», V, iv, 12 (F): "Both more and lesse have given, him
the Revolt"
H8, V, i, 33 (F): "two/ The most remark'd i f th f Kingdome"
Mac,., II, ii, 53 (F): "the sleeping, and the dead,/ Are but
as Pictures"
LLL, V, ii, 366 (F and Q-): "My Ladie...In curtesie gives
undeserving praise"
Note. There is a survival of an inflected adjectival form in
enow, which occurs ten times alongside the more usual enough*
Similarly alder in alderliefest, which was archaic even in
Shakespeare's time and is found only once, is derived from
the 0»E, genitive plural aira from O.E* all.
MV, III, v, 24 (F and Q-): "we were Christians enow before"
2H6, I, i, 28 (F): "mine Alder liefest Soveraigne"
- 93 -
Many adjectives of Romance origin take the plural ending
"s" and so become true nouns. Cf. Karl Brunner, Die englische
Sprache, II, 78. A considerable number of those describing
persons have become obsolete since Shakespeare's time
(opposites, vulgars, patents, resolutes, discontents,
severals, gentles)« Some comparatives and participles also
form the plural with "s" when they are used as nouns, but
this applies only to comparatives like superiors, inferiors,
and betters, and to IJast participles like resolutes and
revolts 3 |cf. P. T. Visser, English Studies, XXVI (1944-5),
19?. Since there are two ways of nominalizing an adjective to
have a plural meaning (the good - the opposites) double forms
U-^
arise (see the examples in § 555 under b)), which sometimes
have specialized and different meanings; the fair, the fairs;
the innocent, the innocents (the innocents can also have a
special reference to the children martyred by King Herod);
the vmlgar, the vulgars; the noble, the nobles (the latter is
the usual form) 'the peerage' - the noble 'those of noble
birth'; the common, the commons (the latter form is more
common) 'the common people'; the forms nobles and- commons
were later used to express the contrast between 'peerage' and
'non-peerage'; besides subjects there is an older plural ,
subject. Cf. Abbott, § 433.
Personal adjectives with the plural in "s":
Lr•, V, iii, 42 (P and Q-): "the opposites of this dayes
strife"
FT, II, 1, 94 (P): "as bad as those/ That Yulgars give
bold'st Titles" ( a. the common people)
H5, IV, vii, 80 (?): "So do our vulgar drench their peasant
limbes/ In blood of Princes"
JO, in, ii, 135 (P)^ "Let but the Commons heare this
Testament" ( - the common •osople)
Tro., II, ii, 209 (P and Q-): "The dull and factious nobles
of the Greekes"
Ant.. II, v, 77 (P): "Some Innocents scape not the thunderbolt"
= innocent persons)
- 94 -
1H6. V, iv, 44 (P): "Stain'd v/ith the guiltlesse blood of
Innocents"
jftu, II, i, 558 (P): "backe to the stained field/ You equal!
Potents, fierie kindled spirits"
Ham,, I, i, 98 (P): "a List of Landlesse Resolutes"
(Qp)s "a list of lawelesse resolutes"
( = desperadoes)
1H4i V, i, 76 (P): "fickle Changelings, and poore Discont.en.ts"
( =• malcontents)
WT., I, ii, 226 (P): "Not noted, is ! t,/ But of the finer
Natures? by some Severails/ Of Head-
peece extraordinarie?" ( = individuals)
LLL, IV, ii, 172 (P and Q 1 ): "the gentles are at their game"
( = gentlefolks)
Gym.» IV, iv, 6 (P): "barbarous and unnatural! Revolts"
( » deserters; a nominalized participle)
LLL, V, ii, 37 (P): "twenty thousand fairs"
LC, 148 (1609): "as some my equals did"
Shr». II, i, 7 (P)s "I know my dutie to my elders"
TN, I f. iii, 125 (P): "under the degree of my betters 1*
Cym», II, i, 32 (P): "offence to ny inferiors"
., 42 (1594r): "That golden, hap which their superiors
want"
- 95 -
£he nominalization of adjectives by the addition of rn?
men, where in. verse the adjective carries the stress, and
which in the older editions is either hyphenated or sho77n a^
one word, is of special Interest:. Gentleman, nobleman, nadznan
are examples of this phenomenon to be found in the modern:
language.
a) In verse;
1H6. II, iv, 24 (P): "it will glimmer through a blind-mams
eye"
Gym,, V, iii, 12 (P): "deadmen, hurt behinde"
Oynut II, iii, 77 (P): "both Theefe, and True-man"
Cor.. I, i, 182 (P): "A sickmans Appetite"
Cor., I, i, 212 (P): "Gorne for the Richmen onely"
Lr., III, ii, 13 (P): "heere's a night pitties neither
Wisemen, nor Pooles"
(Q-)s "Heers a night pities nether, wise
man nor foole"
b) In prose: .
AYL, V, i, 35 (P): "the wiseman knowes hiaselfe to be a
Poole" '
JC, III, ii, 26 (P): "to live all Free-men?»•
- 96 -
The nominal use of the adjectives nev/s t evils, wrongs, ills,
sweets, delicates (extant since M.E.) is already common, in.
Shakespeare. Sours occurs only once: "The sweets we wish foiv.
turne to lothed sours" (rhyme: ours) (Luc» , 867 (1594))*
Similarly significants is found only once: "In dumbe significant
proclayme your thoughts" (1H6, II, iv, 26 (P)) ( = signs).
The form simples appears once: "it is a melancholy of mina
owne, compounded of many simples" (AYL, IV, i, 17 (P)).
Jxu, V, vii, 65 (P): "Which holds but till thy newes be
uttered"
AWW, I, i, 113 (P): "these sixt evils sit so fit. in him"
MM, V, i, 26 (P): "Relate your wrongs"
Ant., I, ii, 133 (P): "Ten thousand harmes, more then the
illes I know"
Ham.. V, i, 266 (P and Q2 ): "Sweets(,) to the sweet"
3H6, II, v,' 51 (P): "farre beyond a Princes Delicates"
Further examples in A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon.
Note. Letters-patents 'writings by which some rights are
granted' (literae patentes) is a technical term in legal
language and was in common use in Shakespeare's time (cf. P. T.
Visser, English Studies. XXVI (1944-5), 19): "Ti'de it by
Letters Patents" (H8, III, ii, 250 (P))„
- 97 -
In the modern spoken language the use of neuter adjectives
as nouns, whether they indicate pure abstracts or ideas
verging on the concrete, is confined to a small number of
words whose employment in this manner is aanctioned by cue to:-;
some are found only in set phrases: the long and the short c:r
it, in the dead of night, handsome is that handsome does, to
touch to the quick. Adjectives used as nouns occur more
frequently in high style than in colloquial English (the div:'.r.e,
the sublime, the ornamental) * Of* Karl Brunner, Die engljische
Sprache, II, 77. Elizabethan English is very free in its vuse
of comparatives and superlatives as nouns (examples under b)).
Cf. Or. Krtiger, Syntax der englischen Sprache, 2nd ed-. (Dresden
and Leipzig, 1914-1917), § 395 ff•
a)
Tit.. I, i, 208 (F): "interrupter of the good/ That Noble
minded Titus meanes to thee"
TGV, II, vi, 13 (P): "t'exchange the bad for better"
H£, II, i, 129 (F): "thou hast spoke the right"
MM, II, iv, 170 (F): "Say what you can; my false, ore-wei^^
your true"
Ado. II, ill, 106 (P and Q 1 ): "it is past the infinite of
thought"
Lue•, 530 (1594): "The poysonous simple sometime is
compacted/ In a pure compound."
Cor,, IV, 1, 32 (P): "your Sonne/ Will or exceed the Common,
or be caught/ With, cauteLous baits
and practice"
2H6, I, iv, 19 (F): "the silent; of the Night'-
2E5, I, 1, 208 (P): "lets make hast away,/ And^ looke unto
the maine" -~-
AYL, III, v* 42 (P): "I see no more in you then in '^.s
ordinary/ Of Natures sale-worke?"
JC, V, i, 19 (P): "Why do you. crosse me. in this exigent."
C = exigence)
TN, III, iv, 100 (£): "let me enioy my private" ( = privacy)
Tro.. Ill, i, 46 (P and Q-): "Paire be to you my Lord"
- gs - i
H8, V, v, 33 (P): "Good growes with her"
LLL, I, i, 86 (P and Q-): "Small have continuall plodders
ever wonne"
LC, 95 (1609): "on that termlesse skin/Y/hose bare out-brag'd
the web it seen'd to were"
Ven., 589 (1593): "whereat a suddain pale.. .Usuries her
cheeke"
(cf. N.E» the dark, the white, the yellow)
jJC, II, i, 12 (P): "I know no personall cause, to spurne a'«,
him,/ But for the generall"
( = the public body)
Tmp.. I, i, 25 (P): "the peace of the present",
( = the present time, cf, H.E. for the present)
b)
H8, IV, i, 46 (P): "Our King has all the Indies in his
Armes,/ And more, and richer" •"$
R£, III, v, 50 (P): "I never look'd for better at his hands"
2H6.» III, ii, 322 (P): "Poyson be their drinke./ Gall, worse
then Gall, the daintiest that they
taste"
MV, III, ii, 165 (P): "Happiest of all, is that her gentle
spirit/ Commits it selfe to yours to
be directed"
gmp«, II, ii, 77 (P): "He's in his fit now; and. doe f s not
talke after the wisest"
( - infche wisest fashion)
WT, III, ii, 217: (P): "I have deserv'd/ All tongues to talke
their bittrest"
Note. The use of thin^ to form nouns from neuter co^je^ts is
not uncommon in Shakespeare. Cf. Karl Brunner, Die engllsche
Sprache. II, 77.
3H6. IV, iii, 62 (P): "that's the first thing that we have
to do"
1H4. Ill, iii, 205 (P); "Rob me the Exchequer the f^rst
thing thou do'st"
TGV, IV, iv, 11 (P): "'tis a foule thing, when a Cur cannot
keepe himselfe in all companies"
- 99 -
ATL, III, v, 115 (F)s "the best thing in him/ Is his
"•WrtMPP^ V .- . .-•- ^' f . ^ i. - - . .....
complexion"
- 100 -
49 2&e use of one to form nouns increased spectacularly at the
turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. V/hereas in Titus Andronlcus
there is only one example, it occurs in Henry VIII 21 times?
either the adjective is used absolutely or one refers back MO
a noun mentioned previously. The adjective and the indefinite
article without one occurs, chiefly in the following period,
when the noun immediately precedes the. adjective and is
connected to it by and; "an honest Gentleman,/ And a courteous,
and a kind, and a handsome" (Rom,. II, v, 56-58 (P)), and
this usage is still found in the modern literary language,
though it is now rather archaic. After it became impossible in
the 15th century to differentiate between singular and plural
because the inflexions had disappeared, one was found to be
very useful for forming nouns from personal adjectives because
it was applicable to both sexes, an advantage not possessed by
man, woman, which were the usual words in M.B.; it was also
easy to form the plural ones. Such nominalizations originally
de-scribed living creatures. This construction first appears
after about 1200 in the case of superlatives and with other
adjectives in the 14th century (cf. E. Einenkel, "Das englische
Indefinitum," Anglia, XXVI (1903), 497* It later became fully
established in the literary language* Apart from this one is
used to refer back to a noun previously mentioned. Its use in.
this manner became much ?/ider in the second half of the 16th
century and it could then refer to concrete objects and (
abstracts. Cf. Karl Brunner, Die englische Sprache, II, N 75-6,
77; 0. Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, II, 245ff*
a)
Tit., II, iii, 142 (P) t "\7hen, did the Tigers young-ones
, . teach the dam?"
(Q-); "When did the Tigers young ones
teach the dam"
H8. I, i, 11-12 (P): "What foure Thron'd ones could have
weigh'd/ Such a compounded one?"
HS. I, iii, 7 (P): "they are shrewd ones"
H8, I, iv, 14 (P): "They are a sweet society of faire ones"
- 101 -
H8, I, iv, 94 (P): "she is a dainty one"
H8, V, iii, 180 (P)s "I long/ To have this young one made a
Christian"
H8, V, v, 77 (F): "This Little-One shall make it Holy-day"
MM, II, iii, 19 (P): "Repent you (faire one) of the sin. you
carry?"
Cym.. IV, il, 360 (P): "Young one,/ Informe us of thy
Fortunes"
Ham., Ill, i, 196 (P): "Madnesse in great Ones, must not
unwatch'd go"
2H6, III, i, 215 (P) s "the way her harmelesse young one went"
Cynu, I, i, 143 (P); "0 thou viide one!"
2H6. II, i, 186 (P): "what mischiefes work the wicked ones?"
Iir.., II, iv t 75 (Q.j)s "but the great one that goes up the
hill, let, him draw thee after"
WT, IV, iv, 63 (P)s "You are retyred,/ As if you were a
feasted one: and not/ The Hostesse of
the meeting"
Aftt,, IV, jtiv, 26 (?) s "she hath betraid me,/ And shall dye ,
the death"
MND t I, i, 65 (P)s "Either to dye the death, or to abiure/
For ever the society of men"
Err,, I, i, 147' (F): "though thou art adiudged to the.death*1
Oth., II, iii, 164 (P): "I Meed still, I am hurt to th'death"
—— (9,y, - r IW jfr.vt i ^ k^t fc» KJTeAR"
2H4t I, i, 14 (P and Q^); "The King is almost wounded to
• '. the death"
Of. also Jn., I, i, 154 (5*)s "He follow you unto the death"
- 12!$ -
The use of the article before parts of the body is still
common in Shakespeare in cases where modem usage requires
the possessive pronoun. It also occasionally appears in
other instances where the possessive pronoun is now used.
Ada. II, i, 377 (P and Q^: "Gome, you shake the head at
so long a breathing"
: * J£9L«» IV > Vf 15 (F): "'Tis he, I ken the manner of his
* * > \ gate,/ He rises on the toe"
'|ro.. Ill, i, 152 (F)-c * and Q 1 ) s "He hangs the lippe at
•, - . ; * *, , . • : ; : • - , something"
grr*. II, ii, 206 (P): "no longer will I be a foole,/ To
put the finger in the eie and weepe"
* RJ, If, ii» 27 (P): "The King is angry, see he gnawes his
Lippe"
(Q-): >M The king is angrie, see, he bites
. • the lip"
Ant., Ill, vi , 5 (E)j "I f th f Market-place on a Tribunal!
silver f d/ Cleopatra and himselfe
in Chaires of Gold/ Were publikely
enthron'd: at the feet, sat/ - *
Gaesarion"
| ?r The names of rivers could dispense with the article in.
Shakespeare^s'tiine, as they still can today in poetry. Of.
• ••T' 'i ,'"V ' - i. , '; ' '- ' r - ; ••. ;.' v • ' .;. ^.. -' - , . ...
withstand. withstood
wring wrung wrung
write writ, wrote (3) writ, written, -wrote (3)
- 184 -
Auxiliary (Verbs ,
jj The Present tense of to be usually has the forms Sing, ar:,
art, is, Plur. are, but the parallel forms Sing, bs, beest
(be f st) , be, Plur, be are also found occasionally. The last
is comparatively common as an Indicative, but be is very rare
in the Singular. It is found, however, after think . Here it
can hardly be regarded as being any longer a Subjunctive, "out,
as is pointed out by Abbott (§ 299 )> it tends to express some
notion of doubt, question, or thought both here and (in the
plural) in questions. The form beest (be *st) is generally
found only after if (see A. Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon,
p. 83). This may be because be, beest were used in O.B.
generally in a future sense. Since the future and Subjunctive
were closely connected in meaning be, beest. tended to acsune
a Subjunctive use. Hence they are often used (after though ,
fi£ jLf, and other words that frequently take the Subjunctive)
without having the full force of the Subjunctive, and where
if any other verb were used it would be in the Indicative.
See Abbott, § 298,
Plural :
\7iv., I, i, 298 (P): ^lender: "bo there Beares ith 1 Towne?"
Anne: "I thinlie there are"
Lr . , I, v, 36 (P) : "Be my Horsses ready"
TGV, III, i, 55 (P): "Be they of much import?"
•Jim,. I, ii, 171 (?) : "Where be our Eien?"
Tmo . , III, i, 1 (P) : "There be some Sports are painfull"
Tro . , II, i, 109 (!<•)• "else there be Liars"
Shr . , I, i, 132 (P) : "there bee good fellowes in, the world"
Oth., IV, iii, 63 (P) : "There be some such, no ^J
i^, IV, iii f 3 (P) : "heere be manie of her clde
TGV, III, i, 111 (P) : "the doores be lockt"
Cor., Ill, i, 228 (P) : "you ±,!rz that be noble" I
Wiv . , II, i, 182 (P): "now they be out of service"
Wiv. , I, iii, 98 (P) : "I have opperat-^.is, \7iiich be humors
of revenge"
- 185 -
9 ) Singular:
AIL, II; vii f 1 (F): "I thinke he be transform»d into a
beas-^/ For I can no where finde
like a man"
1H6, II, i, 46 (F): "I thinke this Talbot be a Fiend of Hell"
Err,, V, i, 378 (F): "I thinke it be sir, I denie it not"
Tmp., II, ii, 104 (F): "if thou beest Stephano touch me,
and speake to me"
Tmp,, V, i, 134 (F): "If thou beest Prospero/ Give us
particulars of thy preservation" *
Tmp., III, ii, 25 (F): "Moone-calfe, speak once in thy
life, if thou beest a good Moone-
calfe"
Err. * V, i, 341 (F): "Speake olde Egeon, if thou bee'st.
the man/ That hadst a wife once
call'd Aemilia"
Ifote. There is one certain example in Shakespeare (see A,
Schmid'c, Shakespeare-Lexicon, p» 84) of the form beer. = a^j
(see QED, p. 716), originally Midland, which became obsolete
about the middle of the 16th century: "Where when men been
(9,)
there ! s seldome ease", Pericles, II, Prol., 28?. E (Of. §
This occurs in a passage thao is delib£_ately arcliaici.
- 186 -
fne following forms of the Imperfect Indicative ?.re fou
Sing. 1st Pers. was (in dependent clauses Subjunctive rere
2nd Pers. wert (the normal form in Shakespeare). The latter
first appears in the 16th century and survived in the liter-*
ary language until the 19th century. The corresponding nev*
form, wast, also appears for the first tine in the 1 6th
century and achieved
*
pre-eminence on account of its use in
the translation of the Bible (Karl Brunner, Die englische
Sr>rache , II f£tfotegen, 1 96g->» 280). It is quite rare in the
Quartos and for the most part appears only in the'J?olio%
(see OED under be) . The 3rd Pers. is was (sometimes were;
were in dependent clauses is Subjunctive) ; in the 3rd Pers.
Plur. was is found several times alongside the more normal
were* It appeared in, the 14th century, and you was was in
use in the literary language as a singular until the latter
half of the 18th century (see OED and Karl Brunner, Die
englische Sprache , II, 280).
Ingular :
2H6 t I, i, 197 (?): "Wiien thou wert Regent for our Soveraigne 1*
R3, It iv, 213 (?) : "Whom tl.ou was't sworne to cherish and
defend'1
(Qj): "Whom thou wert sworne to cherish and
defend"
"3, II, iv* 33 (?) : "she was dead, ere f wast borne"
(CL): "she was dead ere thou wert borne"
\: lo, I, i, 236 (?) : "Thou wast ever an obstinate iiei-etiq/ae
in -JIG despight of Beautie"
ilio, I, iv, 50 (?): "So grea'* fec.re of my Hame V^on^st
theL. were spread"
, V, iii, 99 (?) . "And they it were tha'c ravished our-
2£VD., II, ii, 94-96 (P): "his forward voyce now .is to speake
well of his friend; his backward
voice, is to utter foule speeches,
and to detract"
Jg, 1, iii, 40 (P): "This disturbed Skie is no'G to walke in"
Ilo-oe 1. Be sometimes cxp^os&£~ the idea of continuous
activity,
Oth., V, i, 81 (P): I3 I am sorry to finde you thus;/ I have
leene t:o seeke you."
AYL, II, v, 34-35 (P): Aliens: "he hath bin all this day -jo
looke you«"
Jacques: "And I have bin all this d^y
to avoid him"
A'.7,v, II, i, 9f (P): "He fit you,/ An-, not be all day neither"
Uote 2. Shakespeare U-QS bja as a principal verb to indicate
existence (examples under a,), belonging (examples under - b)),
ana topicality (examples under c)), the last chiefly in the
formula were it not that and in being used as ^ coii^unc *io:i.
a)
Art•, I, iii, 67 (P): "The purposes I beare: which are, or
cease,/ As you shall give th : advice"
So:;, LIX, 1-2 (1609): "that which is,/ Hath w*^e before-1
- 193 -
Cyn* , I, iv, 82 (F) : "the most pretious Diamond that is
: $:
Wiv., II. ii, 73 (P): "I had my selfe twentie Angels giver.
' .
me this morning"
Lr», I, iv, 236 (?): "the Hedge-Sparrow fed the Cuckoo so
- long, that it's had it head hit off
;s " :- m by it young" . t
Note. Get, which is now very common in speech as a causative
verb, is also found with this function in. Shakespeare, but it
is not nearly so developed in other us§s as it is now (cf. A*
Schmidt, Shakespeare-Lexicon under .get)'»
, Shr., I,, ii, 38 (P): "I...could not get him for my heart to
do it"
Lr., III, vii,, 103 (Q1 ): "get the bedlom/ To lead him where
he would"
- 199 -
§ Ho The ?res* Sing, forms of do are: 1st Pers. do, 2nd Pers.
dost, doest (both forms are equally common), 3rd Pers. does
(do's), doth. This last form is quite common; for example, it
occurs three times in the first two acts of The Merry Wives
of Windsor and seven times in the first act of Hamlet. Doth
is also used in the plural (as well as do) ; in this role it
Tint:
is especially common in the^Polio$, see also the section on
Congruence. Diddest (two. syllables) occurs once as the 2nd
S'*4. i H±J-. . "QT*' "/ S'Trfr))
Pers. Imperf./, elsewhere the form didst is used, see A. Schmidt,
Shakespeare-Lexicon, p. 323*
Singular:
Oth,, III, iii, 117 (P): "I thinke thou do f st"
b) Intensity of emotions
Earn*, III, iv, 173 (P): "Por this same Lord,/ I do repent*1
2H4, II, ii, 138 (Q 1 ): "I say to you I do desire deliverance
from these officers, being upon hasty
imployment in the Kings affayres"
f P) J "I say to you, I desire deliv'rance
from these Officers being, upon hasty
employment; in the Kings Affaires"
Tit,, V", iii, ISO (f); "If one gooi Deed in all my life I
:s « did,/ I do repent; it from my very
'•^ - ' ' Soule" ' "> „ '
Pact, reali-tys
Hao», V, v, 47 (P): "If this which he avouches, do's
appeare,/ There is nor flying hence,
: nor tarrying here"
JO. II, ii, 23-24 (P): "Horsses do neigh, and dying men did
i; ^
. grone,/ Andl Ghosts did shrieke and
,
language . "
•. Cromwell: "Doe*/ Remember your boia
life too"
Mote. In Shakespeare the imperative dp^ also occurs alone in
the sense of f go on! 1 , but this is now obsolete,
JroV, II, "i, 58 (F and Q 1 ) : "do rudenes(se), do Camel(l),
Genius can"
Lr« , IV, iv, 8 (P) : "What can mans wise dome/ In the
restoring his bereaved Sense"
TGV, II, iv, 165 (J?)s "all I can is nothing,/ To her,
whose worth, make other worthies
nothing" .
Ham*, IV, vii, 85 (Q2) : ""they can well on horsebacke"-
(P) s "they ram well on. liorsebacke"
of
vr "
C^uxo cj>tc U (L {i/Je. Ik 1 '
- an -
§ 122 In Shakespeare may (Pret. might, mought) still retains its
original meaning f to be able, to be capable 1 , even in the
indicative (examples under a)); in this sense, it- was
subsequently replaced by can, be able. It is also connected
with can in its modern use to express the limit of a ;
^possibility (examples under b)). Cf, Karl Brunner, Die
englische Sprache, II, 319; Abbott, §§ 309, 312; P. T,. Visser,
Syntax. §§ 1653-5. : i
. *
' : *
a) ' , '
MND, V, i, 2 (P): "I never may beleeve/ These anticke
fables, nor these Fairy toyes" .
R£, III, i, 187 (P): ''Buckingham; "Good Catesby, goe effect
this businesse soundly. 11
Catesby: "My good Lords both, with
all the heed I can." i
(Q-): Buckingham: "Good Catesby effect
* * this busines soundly." -
Catesby: "My good Lo: both, with all
the heede I may." • ~.
HV, I, iii, 7 (P and. Q 1 ): "lay you sted me?£ . ' *
Oth., II, iii, 236 (P): "Which till to night/ I nere might
, ' » say
•.'.'-;•:
before" ,.;,•
'*&£
LLL, DVii, 712-714 (F)s Dumain: "You may not denie it,
•- 4 . Pompey hath made the
challenge."
Armado: "Sweet bloods, I both may,
%*%& and w&liy
Err., Ill, ii, 92 (?):. "such a one, as a man may not speake
of* without he say sir reverence"
LLL, II, i, 24 (P): "No woman may approach his silent Court"
ILL, II, i, 172 (P): "Jou may not come faire Princesse in
my gates"
«
CyflUt II, i, 4 (3?): "I had a hundred gound on't: and then a
whorson. lack-an-Apes, must take me up :*
" for swearing"
£er» t If iv f 40 (Q^): "Those pallats'who not yet too savers
younger,/ Must have inventions to
delight the tast,/ Would now be
glad of bread"
Mac*, IV, iii, 212 (F): "And I must be from thence?"J|
AYL, III, v, 40 (P): "Must you be therefore prowd and
pitilesse?"
l@2, f III, ii, 150 (P and Q^): "Can you not hate me(e), as I
: ' , know you doe,/ But you must
loyne(,) in soules(,) to
- 224 -
mocke me(e) to?"
W£, \fV, Iv, 248 (?): "Is there not milking-time.. .but you
must be tittle-tatling, before all
our guests?"
KP, 105 (1612): "Then must the love be great twixt thee and'
me"
gmjD •» II, i, 41 (F): "It must needs be of subtle, tender,
and delicate temperance*"
Ham., Ill, ii, 183 (?): "Faith I must leave thee Love"
Lr., I, i f 24 (F and Q.): "the (w)hor(e)son must be
acknowledged"
R3, III, i, 106 (F and Q 1 ): "I must not say so"
Son. XL, 14 (1609): "we must not be foes"
Son* LXXXIX, 14 (1609)s "I must nere love him, whom thou dost
hate "
§ 127 Modern English does not permit the use of must as a Pret.
Ind, in a clause which is fully independent in. form and
content. In. Shakespeare's time there was greater freedom in
this respect (see the quotations in § 126 from Coriolanus,
Cymbeline, x Pericles, and Maobeth)•
-226 -
Must indicates any kind of necessity (examples under a)). In
Shakespeare the negative use is not so common as it is today
(examples f
under b)), ft. 9
since at that time ——— not could
mayH——————— J;L3
still
"be used instead to express a prohibition (see §
Occasionally must expresses the idea of future destiny and in
this case it is more aptly paraphrased in the modern, language
by be_ + the infinitive with to (examples under c)). On. must
aa a Preterite /Z/J
indicative and its development as i~H a Present
tense see § 1^; on must as a subjunctive see § <6-56. Cf» Karl
Brunner, Pie englische Sprache. II, 320-3; Abbott, §
a) necessity: •
Tmp», III, iii, 4i (P) : "I needes must rest me"
TGV. I, iii, 75 (P): "to morrow thou must goe" " .
Tmp. t V f i, 312 (P) : n l long/ To hear e the story of your
life; which must/ Take the eare :
starngely"
b) Kegative use :
Ven. , 573 (1593): "Poule wordes, an& frownes, must, not repell
.-: . . . ••.'••.: a lover11 ,- ., l r - 4 ^
Son. XL, 14 (1609) s "we must. no't. be foes"
c) •>' .. VJ: . . , • .
Tro., Ill, iii f 247 (F and Q t ): "He(e) must fight singly to
„•>-*•....•„'•* morrow with Hector"
4@^ MV, II, vi, 40 (P and Q.J): "Descend, for .you, must 1>e my
v , s torch-bearer"
Tro., II, ii, 109 (P and Qj)s "Troy must not be(e), .nor,
goodly Il(l)ion stand"
~ 227 -
§ 12-T Besides its use with its modern meaning ought occurs once '
in.the sense owed: "You ought him a thousand pound" (1H4, -III,
iii, 152^ (P and Q^)) - as spoken by Mistress Quickly. This use
.of•ought has been displaced by the new formation owed. Owe
means-.'to be indebted 1 and O.E. a3an, from which it is. derived,
'to possess^. The question is now such a peculiar shift of
meaning is to be explained. In early M.E. the verb was used
as an auxiliary and so had the function of have as in N.2±. £.
you have to do this. It is also found in impersonal construct
ions and then means 'it is incumbent on him 1 , which is closely
related to 'it belongs to him 1 . The connection is even closer-
in the Pret. Subj., where 'he would have had to do this 1 is
nearly the same as 'it would have belonged to him 1 . The.
specifically ethical .sense became attached to ought t since /
, here the personal and impersonal constructions both have the
same meaning. The concept 'to be indebted 8 originated in
general from this. The Pret. owed, alternative form of ought,
was differentiated from the latter in that it acquired the
meaning ^to be indebted* in the ^material sense, and the., other
forms followed from this. This!explains the peculiar change ,
from 'to possess' to 'to be indebted'. Of. Karl Brunner,
Die englische Sprache* II, 269-270. The approximation in
meaning between ought and should is expressed in the omission
of to before the Infinitive, which occurs once in Shakespeare:
"you ought not walke/ Upon a labouring day, without the signe/ '
' Cf F.T.T.'s'tcj^jKx fmiif,/-^.
. Of your Profession" (JC, I, i, 3, F).j^The notional independ
ence which the form ought has acquired, in popular speech is
demonstrated by its periphrasis with do: "You doen't ought to
hear it" (Englische Studien, XII, 221). Ov/e in the sense of
'have, possess' is still very common in Shakespeare; it was
.Later displaced,, by own. Cf. FT-Vi>/} %*b^ § |7-|(.
Err., Ill, i, 42 (P): "What art thou. that keep'st aee from
, * * • the howse I ov/e?"
Numerous examples in A* Schmidt f Shakes-peare-Lexicon, ,p. 826.
- 228 -
§ 150 Dare with the meanings 'to risk, to hazard* and 'may, can 1
has two forms of the 3rd P. Sing. Pres., dares and dare, which
enjoy equal status; with them is found the Pret. durst. Dare
1 to challenge', on the other hand, has only dares in the 3rd
P. Sing. Pres. The Pret. dared appears for the first time in
a »
1590 in the form darde (QED under dare). Sometimes the Subj.
form durst occurs with a Pres. meaning (cf. it would seem*
and see also OED under dare). Cf. Karl Brunner, Die englische
Sprache. II, 272; F. T. Visser, Syntax t §§ 1361, 1362. :
Wiv., II, i, 25 (F): "that he' dares In this manner assay me?"
Wiv., II, ii, 253 (F) z "the folly of my soule dares not
present, it selfe"
, Mac., I, vii, 47 (F): "I dare do all that may become, a man,/
Who dares no more, is none"
Gym.. IV, i, 27 (F): "the Fellow dares not deceive me 11
Gym.. Ill, iii, 34 (F): "a Debtor, that not dares/ To stride
... . " *'•** a limit" ' • ' -
Ado. Ill, ii, 12 (F and Q^): "the little hang-man dare not
•*"* • * shoot at him" *
MV, III, i, 47 (F end Q^); "a prodigall, who dare scarce
shew(e) his head on the Ryalto"
- -M> V§ if 315-317 (F): "the Duke dare/ No more stretch this
finger of mine 9 then he/ Dare racke
his ov/ne"
Mac.. V, iii, 28 (F): "Curses, not lowd but deepe...Which
, (f . the poore heart would faine deny, and
dare not" f|
Ant., Ill, iii, 3 (F): "Herod of lury dare not looke upon
you"
AYL. V, ii, 89-90 (F): »I durst go no further then the lye .
•*- circumstantial: nor he durst not
give me the lye direct"
* AW. Ill, vi, 96 (F): t! (ne) dares better be damnd then to
doo't" ( = would rather)
Tro*. V, x, 25 (F): "let Titan rise as early as he dare"
~ 229 -
jr II, ii, 76 (P and Q 1 ) $ "she durst not lye(,)/ Ueere
this lack(e)-love"
Xdo," V, i, 99 (P and Q^): "How they might hurt their ,
enemies, if they durst"
^ *'" "- { a. if they liked)
Ant,. Ill, vii, 36 OP).: "he dares us too f t"
12» I, iii, 109 (F and Qj): "And dares him to set forwards
to the fight" " *§ .
H8, YV i> 17 (?): "My Lord, I love you;/ And durst commend
a secret to your eare" (Present)
Qth« t IV, ii, 12 (P): "I durst (my Lord) to wager, she is
»•• - honest"
;
.4*--
'^.,r
Cym^i I, iv, 122 (P): "I durst attempt it against any Lady
in the world"
JToteV I dare say is found with its modern meaning in Shakespeare.
Of. P.'T. Visser, Syntax. § 1357.
'H^, IV^ i, 129 (P) s "I dare say, you love him not so ill,
, •' - ^ if
Ado, I, 1, 312 (Q-): "I wil breake with Mr, and with her
father,/ And thou shalt have her"
Tap,. II, ii, 77 (F) s "hee shall taste of my Bottle"
Ado. II, i, 379 (F and Q^): "I warrant thee Claudio, the
time shall not go(e) dully by us"
Tit.. IV, iv, 107 (F and C^): "Your bidding shall I do(e)
effectually 1.'
LLL, V, ii, 155 (F and Q^): "So shall we stay mocking
entended game"
MV fc I, ii, 97 (F and Q^z "I hope I shall make shift to goe
without him"
MV, III, iv, 11 (F)s "I never did repent for doing good,/
lor shall not now" * -
" • III, iv, 36 (F and Q I '): "I shall obey you"
. MV,
e)
<Jn«, V, ii, 78 (F): "Your Grace shall pardon me"
Shr», III, ii, 155 (F): "'tis a groome indeed,/ A grumlling
, groome, and ths* the girle shall
• finde" ? '-
MV t II, viii, 26 (F): "Let good Anthonio looke he keepe his
day//0r he shall pay for this"
Tmp,i I, ii, 476 (F): "One word more/ Shall make me chide ,
•* thee"
• f ,
AYL, ii i, 134 (F): t! hee that escapes me without some broken
* v *-i* r *' * . limbe, shall acquit him well"
Ir., II, iv, 289 (F): n O Foole, I shall go mad"
• ',
Ado, II, i, 396 (F and Q 1 ): "I will teach you how to humour
1T*P'W" • -'• ' • « • : ' *
--•—&&*'t **, 1, 118 (^): "She gives it out(,) that you shall
marry her11
Trq.. II, iii t 131 (P and ^3: "you shall not sinne,/ If
you do(e) say, we thinke
him over(-)proud11
1H6» I, i, 18 (p): "Henry is dead, and never shall revive"
Tro* f II, i, 110 (P): "Hector shall have a great catch, if
he too eke out either of your braines"
TGV, II, v, 15; (P): l! But shall she marry him?"
2H4. Ill, it, 39 (P)s "Wee shall all follow (Cousin.)"
H£ t I, ii» 141 (P); "They of those Marches, gracious ,
Soveraigri,/ Shall be a Wall sufficient
to defend/ Our in-land from the
pilfering Borderers"
III, ii, 42 (F): "all shall dye" ] 33 •
After what has been said on the nature of shall in § ^Q8a it
is obvious that the examples given there cannot be rigidly
separated from those above: they are, indeed, connected*
- 239 -
§ )3(> Corresponding to the use-of shall in the formation of the
2nd and 3rd persons of the Future, should was fonnarly used
in the 2nd and 3rd persons of the Conditional. Cf» Karl
Brunner, Die englische Sprache, II, 314,316; Richard Platter,
"Bulinensprachliche und andere Eigenheiten der Diktion
Shake spear es3w i« Wiener Beitrage zur englischen Philologie,
LXII (1955), 45-6, F'TV;3i , r/ i^K*,§§15-32,i«i.
Should used in the formation of the Conditional:
W> I, ii, H2
,flp>***^ • •
(P): "If I could bid the fift welcome with*^
so good heart as I can bid the other
. . • foure farewell, I should be glad of
his approach" -
Earn.. I, v, 32 (?): "duller should f st thou be then the fat
weede/ That rots it selfe in ease^ on
Lethe Wharfe,/ Would*st thou not stirre
, in .this 11 -.,. * » - s.*i • •- • *••
AYL, I, ii, 239 (P): "Thou should'st have better pieas f d me
with this deede,/ Hadst thou descended
»•"-- *•••-- * ., •
from another house"
• " - ' *
1^
H| f III, iv, 20 (P and Q-): "thou should( f )st please me
m ' '
better, would( f )st thou weepe"
gf» I, ii, 100 (F): "If he should offer to choose, and
choose the right Casket, you should .',
, refuse to performe your Fathers will,
if" you should refuse to accept..him"
Son* XI, 7 (1609)* "If all were minded so, the oimes should
eease,/ And threescoore yeare would
make the world, away"
Cor., I, iii, 10 (P): "when for a day of Kings entreaties,
a Mother should not sel him an houre
from her beholding" ,
:£th», III, iii> 222 (P|s "Should, you do so (my Lord)/ My
speech should fall into such
yilde successe,/ V*nich my Though us
a^ym'di not" ^
GOT., II, iii, 25 (^)s "if all our wittes were to issue out
~ 240 -
of one Scull, they would flye East,
West, North, South, and their
consent of one direct way, should
be at once to all the points o'th
Gompasse"
Cor*, II, i, 47 (F): "Why then you should discover a brace'
of unmeriting, proud, violent, testae
Magistrates"
G?ro>. I, iii, 111-114 IF): "The bounded. Waters,/ Should Iift
their bosomes higher then the
Shores,/ And make a soppe of all
this solid Globe:/ Strength
should be Lord of imbecility"
JC, II, ii, 42 (F)s "Caesar should be a Beast without a
heart/ If he should stay at home"
Wiv». II, i., 52. (F): "these Kndights will hacke, and so thou
shouldst not alter the article of thy
Gentry"
Wiv*, f, v, 207 (F): "Did not I tell you how you should?, know
$&& * . • my daughter, By her garments?"
fro«, t II, ii, 48 (F): "Manhood, and Honor/ Should have hard
hearts, wold they but fat their • *
thoghts/ With this cra-im'd reason"
R2, IV, i, 233 (P)s "There should; 1 st thou finde one heynous
Article,/ Contayning the deposing o£ a
King"
II, ii, 205 (F): "your selfe Sir, should be old as I
? a am, if like a Crab you ooulcL go
backward"
(Q-): "your selfe shalbe olde as I am,/ If
like Crabbe, you could goe backeward"
» ^ (QpK "your selfe sir shall growe olel as *-
• I ams if like a Crab you could goe
backward"
V, 1, 27 tP)s "if this had no-c beene a Gentlewoman,
shee should have beene buried out of ,
- 241 -
Christian Buriall"
Ham*. Ill, ii, 316 (P): "Your wisedome should shew it selfe
more richer, to signifie this to
his Doctor"
Mac., I, ii, 46 (P)s "So should he looke, that seeemes to
• *.^ " speake things strange" ^
.Mac., Ill, vi, 19 (P): "I do thinke,/ That had he Duncans
Sonnes under his Key...they should
finde/ What f twere to kill a Father"
'..Mac., V, v, 17 (P): "She should have dy'de heereafter"
Jn.t IV, i, 68-70 (F): "And if an Angell should have come to
me,/ And told me Hubert should put
out mine eyes,/ I would not have
f V
^eleev'd him"
2!GV, Illf i, 15 (F): rtAnd should she thus be stolne away from
you,/ It would be much vexation to
your age"
ITote. A person who makes a statement about the future as it
concerns himself uses the shall form (or the should form in
the Conditional) since here the speaker and the protagonist
are identical. 1
..JO. V, iii, 49-50 (F): "Farre from this Country Pindarus ,
shall run f / Where never Roman shall
take note of him"
(Pindarus is speaking)
III, i, 21 (P) 2 "If this be knowne,/ Cassius or Caesar
never shall turne backe,/ For I will
• , /•*>. slay my selfe" (Cassius is speaking)
|C, II, ii, 42-48 (P): "Caesar should be a Beast without a
heart/ If he should stay at home to
day for feare:/ No Caesar shall not
...Caesar shall go foorth"
(Caesar is speaking)
- 242 -
§137 If , shall is used to. express not a definite personal wish,
order, or command, but an action that is only generally
intended,* and if the subject acts or suffers something not
because he feels a moral duty but because the future action
is dependent on some arrangement or agreement, or is determined
by the circumstances, then it is now usually replaced by be
with the infinitive. The same is true of should, The force of
should is very much weakened in the set phrase (now obsolete):
as who should say f as if he were going to say 1 . Cf» P. TLv
Visser, Syntax, §§ 1488, 1528, 1559*
Ado. II, ii, 1 (P and Q 1 ): "the Count(e) Claudio shal('l)
marry the daughter of Leonato'J
AYL, II, iv, 88 (P); "^hat is he that shall buy his flocke
. and pasture?"
WT, IV, iv, 795-796 (P): "the Curses he shall have,.the
Tortures he shall feele, will
breake the back of Man"
Wiv., IV, iv, 45 (P): "What shall be done with him? What is
your plot?"
Wiv», III, i, 70 (P)s "I warrant you, hee's the man. should
fight, with him"
Ado;, I, iii, 64 (P) s "there heard it agreed upon, that the
Prince should wooe Hero" f ".
Shr» t III, ii, 161 (?): "when the Priest/ Should aske if
* * Katherine should be hi^ wife"
MM, I, ii, 182 (P): "This day, my sister should the
Cloyster enter"
R2, V, iv, 8 (P): "And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me,/
As who should say, I would thou wer't the
-*
man,/ That, would divorce this terror from
my heart"
1H6. I, iv, 93 (P): "He beckens with his hand, and smiles
on me:/ As who should say, When I am
dead and gone,/ Remember to avenge me
on; the French"
Tit . , IV, ii, 121 (F): "Ldoke how the blacke slave smiles'
upon the father;/ As v;ho should say,
old La.d I am thine owne"
~ 244 -
§ 138 A subjective doubt that arises because there are factors that
contradict a judgment formed in accordance with the observation
of..,..)•the ••••...facts, or an uncertainty connected with inadequate or
•'••'•-'•_,
incomplete observation was formerly expressed, as it occasionally
is today, by the hypothetical should, It should seem (appear)
is now replaced by it would seem (appear)• Cf. P. T. Visser,
jSyntax. §§1530, 1535.
MND, III.
..,,..-..ii, 57 (Q.):
i "So
• should a murtherer looke; so <>
" dead, so grimme"
Mac * , I, iii, 45 (P) • "you should be Y/omen,/ And yet your
Beards forbid me to interprete/ That /
•i *-- • ^
you are so" **" , ,
E8, I, iv f 78 (P): "There should be one amongst 1 em by his I
person/ More worthy this place then my
t v. '','.*''. * , selfe" -\ .
Tim., V, iii f 1 (P): "By all description this should be the
, . : place" I
Rom., V, ii, 2 (P) s "This same should be the voice of Prier
lohn"
Tmp., II, ii, 90 (i1 ): "I should know that voyce: It'should
be, But hee is dround"
Oth.. IV, i, 164 (P): "By Heaven, that should be my
Handkerchiefe." .
Rom., V, i, 55 (P and Q 2 ) : "-^s I remember(,) this should be ,
*
the house"
H8, IV, i, 40 (P): "That should bee/ The Duke of Suffolke"
H8 t IV, ii, 109 (P)j !! You should be Lord Ambassador from „
fc ' the Emperor"
H8 t V, iv, 42 (P): "he should be a Brasier by his face"
MV f II, ii, 102 (P and Q^): "It should seeme then that
Dobbins taile growes back(e)ward"
Tro., III, i, 39 (P)s "It should seeme fellow, that thou
hast not seen the Lady Cressida"
, III, ii, 275 (P); "Besides, it should appeare, that if
he laad/ The present money to discharge
the lew,/ He would not take it 11
,~ 245 - •
372 (P): "this ancient Sir, whom (it should
* * Fll"s - seeme)/ Hath sometime lov'd"
Note; In questions, should with the meaning discussed above
is connected with can and could, since here a question is
asked about a possibility in the widest, sense. Should in this
sense is found as early as the beginning of the 16th century.
T. Visser, Syntax, § 1536.
ffmp •. II, ii, 69 (F): "where the divell should he learne
our language?"
Wiv,, I?, iii, 5 (P):. "What Duke should that be comes so
«*- -""' - * secretly?" ' - ".
Tmp. . I, ii, 387 (F): "Where shold. this Musick be?' .
£C, I, ii, 142 (P); "What should be in that Caesar?"
TN, II, v, 105 (?): "To whom should this be?" .
H8, III, ii, 203 (P)? "What; should this meane?"
-246 - *
somebody other than the speaker, for which the latter takes
n\0 responsibility, has become extremely rare, probably
because of its ambiguity. It is now usually replaced by was
said to, Cf. F.T,V:»*o ^4*, $'*>?•
. AYE. Ill, ii, 182 (*): "But didst thou heare without
wondering, how thy name should be
hang f d and carved upon these trees?"
: II, IV, iv, 794.(P): %"So 'tis said (Sir:) about his Sonne,
that, should have marryed a Shepheards
Daughter*" • '
. Cym., V, t v, 51 (P): "She did confesse she had/ For you a
mortal! Minerall, which being tooke,/
Should by the minute feede on life"
1- L . *; ':-*-*,. <** _ ., ., ;
Son> LXV, 3 (1609): "rlow witli this rage Lliali beautie hold.
'• "*
„ a PJ.WCW
" . Q ?O
*
-'.'- l!
- 249 -
§ fzftt "'IJhou^se is used once instead "of thou shalt. and I'se (ic
appears once instead of I shall. Both contractions are
. . \ . t*^*^*um^*i^*—mr ^
Wiv. , IV, v f 40 (P) s "I would I could have spoken with the
Woman her selfe"
, IV, iv, 35 (P): "would yet lie had. lived"
IVjTiii, 373 (P): "Would thou would 'st burst"
I, ii,,^2 <P): "Would I were with ip.m"
f iii, 140 (P): "I would to God my Heart were Plint"
~ 258 -
A•~ ^end& or dispo
ricy3.'.(• sitio*- n in any direction usually reveals
. '••-
Itself in a" defini-pb course of action if certain conditions
exist. This' is often expressed by a stressed will (children
will play ) , showing the definite nature of the character and
emotion,, and indicating independence, obstinacy, or pertinacity*
Similarly, will can be used with a lesser stress to express a
routine action which arises from this characteristic temperament
'O
t,il|e rw4.tli. the meaning '.desire, wish for, want 1 (examples under
.
TN, V, i, 295 (P): "it skilles not much when they are
deliver ! d"
( = it matters not greatly, c.f. W» W* Skeat, Etymological
Dictionary under skill)
2E6. Ill, i, 281 (P): "It skills not greatly who impugnes
our doome"
Cynu , V, v, 80 (P): "Sufficeth,/ A Roman, with a Romans
hearu can suffer"
H5, TV, iii, 26 (P) : "It yernes me not, i;r men my Garmen-js
weare" ( =: it grieve 3 me not)
Like ;
Tro. , V, ii, 101-102 (Q-j): Diomedes: "I doe not like thio
fooling'.1
Thersites; "IT or I by Pluto; tut:
•chat that likes not
you., pleases me bes'v
^nv, II, i, 533 (P): "It likes us well youn~ Princes: close
your hands"
- 274 -
LM, II, i, 33 (P): Jlngelo: "V/here is the Provost?"
Provost:; "Here if it like your honour,"
Like is found in personal constructions as early as the middle
of the 14th century. See U. van der Gaaf, The Transition fror.
the Impersonal to the Personal Construction in Middle" En^iis?r^' Vy
^^•••MHN*MVnMM^M^HHM^HHMMMMMBMMIMMMMHaMMMMMBMHMV^^B«««l^HBa*a«MMM«^HMM«>MHMi«>l«HBM«^IHBM^BI««>B^BI \ I
pyooifes"
; I, ii, 171 (F): "Thoughts, that would thick my blood"
- 28 5 >
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
l(j ShsScespeare uses many verbs transitively that are now
intransitive (see. § ; £5®0, but there are comparatively few
instiiii^es where he uses a verb intransitively that is now
regarded as transitive. . ,
Jr., I t ; ii, 179 (F): "it would scarsely alay'^ ( =* abate)
3K6i It iv, 146 (F); "when the Rage allayes, the Raine begins 11
Ant», I, iii, 97 (F): "Since my becommings kill me, when
they* do not/ Eye well to you" ( = look)
TGFT, V, iy, 7 (F): "0 thou that dost inhabit ia my brest"
Err f> IV, iii, 11 (F)i "lapland Sorcerers inhabite here" ,
1 Ham., I, y, 187 (F and Q2 Hi "what so poore a man as |Damlet
, is,/ May doe t'expresse his
love and fr(i)ending to you(,)/
- . t God willing shall not lack(e)"
Mac.., Ill, 11,^53' (F); "Whiles Nights black Agents to their:
;(sl j. s '» <e - •. . ,
Prey's doe rowse" »
V « ilja a
- .--
Cor., V, iii, 13 (F): "Though I shew 1 d sowrely to him" ...
( » appeared)
Jr., I, iv f 265,(F): "this our Gourte infected with their
, manners,/ Shewes like a rio.tous Inne"
Iir.» I, iv, 248 (F): "his Notion weakens" " -r .
1 ^., II, iv, 212 (F): "No, rather I abiure all roofes, and
: chuse/ To wage agains,t. the enmity
oth'ayre"
- 286 -
In contrast to modern usage many verbs in Shakespeare are
combined ctirectly with a noun even when this cannot be the
direct object of a verbal action (examples under a)}. Today
in such cases either a preposition is used, or the verb in
question is now .obsolete in a transitive use (examples under
b')). Furthermore, the number of vsrbs that, can be used
causatively is $much smaller than it was formerly (examples
under c)),
a)
jJG, I, ii, 110 (F): "ere we could arrive the Point proposed"
Cor,. II, iii, 189 (F): "arriving/ A place of Potencie"
Tit., V f iii, 169 (F); "Friends, should associate Friends, *
in Greefe and Wo"
Cor., II, i, 224 (F): "she chats him" ( = of him)
3H6, II, ii, 73 (?)s "I would your Highnesse would depart
the field"
Mac-., V, viii, 13 (F): "Dispaire thy Charme" ( = despair of)
AYL, II, v, 34 (F): "he hath bin all this day to looke you"
( = look for)
l£., Ill, iii, 15 (F): "I will looke him, and privily
relieve him"
(Q-); '"I will seeke him, and/ Privily
releeve him"
R2 t III, i, 3-1 (F and Q-): "your soules must part your bodies"
Per. t V, iii,'37 (Q«): "when wee with teares parted
Pentapolis"
H5, II, ii, 159 (F); "Which in sufferance heartily will
reioyce"
£2, III, ii, 163 (F): "Scoffing his State, and grinning at
his Pompe" (rare)
Lr., II, i:. 9 88 (F): "Smoile you my speeches, as I were a
Foole?" (isolated case) ||
H8, IV, ii, 32: (F): "give me leave to speake him" ( = describe)
Ham., V, i.l, 24 (F and Q2 ): "to stay the grinding of the
Axe" ( = wait for)
''TGV, II, ii, 13 (F): "My father staies my coining"
f\
- 287 -
22. » Ill, ii, 122 (?): "I stay 'Dinner there"
R2, V, i, 46 (P): "the sencelesse Brands will sympathize/
The heavie accent of thy moving Tongue"
Dative not indicated:
Tmp,, I, ii, 122 (P) : "This King of Naples* . .hearkens my
Brothers suit"
£0.9 IV > i» 4'; (P): "and now Octavius,/ Listen great, things"
Ado. Ill, i, 12 (P): "To listen our purpose"
(Q-): "To listen our propose"
Kanu. I, iiij 30 (F) : "you list his Songs"
Lr. , V, iii, 181 (P) : "List a breefe tale"
1K4, II f iv, 525 (P) ; "banish not, him thy Harryes companie"
(Common)
2H4, I, i, 18 (P) : "Yong Prince lohn,/ And Westmerland, and
Stafford, fled the Field"
3H6, II, i., 19 (P): "So fled his Enemies my Warlike Pather"
MO, I, i, 203 (P): "Lysander and my selfe will flie this
place"
1H6. IV, v, 37 (P): "To fight I will, but not to flye tiie Poe"
Note 3 1. The di:-ect combination of a verb of motion with the
object on or about, which the motion takes place is common bo tit
to Shakespeare and the modern language*
H£, II, ii, 122 (P): "If that same Daemon that hath gull'd
thee thus,/ Should with his Lyon-gate
walke the whole world" II
Tit,, II, i,' 7 (P and Q,j ) : "Gallops the :Lodiacke in his
glistering Coach"
TGV, I, i, 26." (P): "you never sworn the Hellespont"
Horn,, II, i, 5 (P and Qg) 2 "He ran this way and leapt this
Orchard wall 4"
Note 4. The causative use of verbs of motion like run,
walk, pace, dance still occurs today and ie; found as early as
Malory, cf. P. T. Visser, English Studies. XXVI (1944-5), 25.
Bound instead of make bound is now obsolete. Cf. £'. 2. Visser,
Syntax • § 133.
, II, i, 127 (P): "The .King hath run bad humors on the
Knight" '
* 291 -
gH.6-i: • 'I •• ' iy • T271 (ft) * "Beggera mounted, runne their Horse to
death11 - * .
IIIV i» 246 •(?•) s "on the marriage bed/ Of smiling peace
to march a bloody hoast"
V II, ii, 316-320 (P); "I will rather trust... a 2heefe
to Walke my ambling gelding"
-H8, V, iii, 2% ($)i "those that tame wild Horses,/ Pace f em
not in their hands to make f em gentle"
Tit., V, iii, 162 (P) : "he danc'd thee on his knee"
H^, V f ii f 146 (F): "if I might... bound my Horse for her
favours"
Kote 5. "He could not sit his Mule" (H8, IV, ii, 16 (F));
this use of sit still survives in the modern language. To sit
a horse la perhaps derived from M.E. to sitte on horse ("Y/el •
koude he sitte on hora and faire ryde", Chaucer, Canterbury
Prol., 94) by the weakening of the preposition, whicii
in. the form, a was regarded as an indefinite article. Cf.
Syntax. § 133*
- 292 -
In- Shakespeare intransitive verbs often form the Preterite
and Pluperfect with "be instead of have (they were arrived for
they had arrived) . The latter, found already in O.E. , r.cv/
predominates in the contemporary spoken language and is a
characteristic feature of the development of N".E. Prom the
beginning the two forms he is come and he has come had
different meanings and applications, and this difference is
often found in Shakespeare. A comparison between "Malcolme,
and Donalbaine. . .Are stolne away and fled" (Mac., II, iv, 26
(P)) and "the Voices with two. several! Powers/ Are entred in
the Roman Territories" (Cor. , IV, vi, 4-0 (P)) on the one hand.
ancl "He... hath stolne him home to bed" (Rom. » II, i, 4 (P and
Q2 )) and "I have not yet/ Entred my house" (MV, V, i, 2-72-273
(P)) on the other shows that- in the first- two. examples a
resulting state is referred to and in the others a completed
action. Cf. P. T. Visser, Engl&sh Studies, XXVI (1944-5), 25.
It should also be noted that with a number of verbs the use
ir?
of the reflexive pronoun became obsolete (see § -6£8) ; I have
retired,
~ derived from I~ ~ ' have retired me, thus "02 came equivalent
to I am retired. It also seems likely that ~:here was inter
action betv/een .synonymous verbs: for example, he has retired
(he has returned) may well have encouraged -;he construction
:n: z he has cnme back (he has gone bac 1 :) . He has
ccTne across them nay be connected with he has met (v.-ith) them.
Once he has com 3 back, h-3 has cone across them v/ere in use. it-
was relatively easy for he has come to becone generally c-onmon*
Come in he is come also has the force of an adverb, just like
gone in he is gone ( = away). It was easier to regard it as a
participle when it appeared in combination with have (he h^s
come) . The use of be in this connection has now been completely
abandoned in conversational speech. Cf. KarX Brunner, Die
englische Sprache, II, 297-9*
Cor., Ill, i, 11 (P): "he is retyred to Antium"
Tim., II, ii, 171 (F) : "I have retyr'd me n
Mac*. II, iv, 26 (P) : "Malcolme, and Donalbaine.. .Are stolne
away and fled"
- 293 -
Bom,, II, i, 4 (P and Q2 ): "He*..hath stolne him home to bad"
Cor., IV, vi, 40 (P): "the Voices with two severall Powers/
Are entred in the Roman Territories"
KV, V, i, 272-273 (P): "I have not yet/ Entred my house"
Err*, V, i, 361 (P): "Which accidentally are met together"
Tmp., V, i, 136 (P): "How thou hast met us heere"
Rom., II, v, 19 (P and Q2 ):' "Hast thou met with him?"
Tmj>., IV, i, 166 (P) ; "We must, prepare to meet with Caliban"
Mac., V, vii:'., 35 (P) • "I would the Priends we misse, were
safe arriv'd"
H5, I, i, 67 (P): "Miracles are ceast"
JC, V, iv, 32 (P): "How every thing is chanc'd"
AYL, I, ii, '6-5 (P): "Are you crept hither to see the
wrastling?"
Cvjn., Ill, vi, 64 (P): "I am. falne in this offence"
TGV, V, • ii, <:7 (P): "whether they are fled"
«
AWW, III, v, 8 (P): "They are gone a contrarie way"
H8, III, i, 86 (P)2 "Though he be growne so desperate to be
honest"
JC, III, ii, 274 (P): "Brutus and Cassius/ Are rid like
Madmen through the Gates of Rome"
H8, I, ii, 110 (P): "I am sorry, that the Duke of Buckingham/
Is run in your displeasure"
Oth., V, i, 113 (P): "Pellowes that are sqap'd"
1H4. IV, i, 91 (P): "The King himselfe in person hath set
forth"
(Q-): "The King himselfe in person is set
forth"
1H4. II, iv, 392-394 (P): "Worcester is stolne away'by ETiglit:
thy Pathers Beard is turn ! d white
with the IT ewes"
Mac., I, iii, 80 (P): "whither are they vanish f d?"
1K4. II, ii, 8 (P): "He is walk f d up to the top of the hill"
Note. The foil owing observations should, be made concerning
the four examples especially included and objected to by A.
Schmidt (Shakespeare-Lexicon at the end of the article on bo»
P. 85):
«. - 294 -
IV, iii, 2 (J»)s M3?he King by this, is set him downe to
sleepe" - him is an. old dative reflexive,
and set is the participle of sit;,
therefore the sentence must; pass- as
grammatically correct.
l^^iVf"-3 W'i "What late misfortune is befalne King
Edward?" - befall is intransitive here,
as elsewhere in Shakespeare (see A* Schmidt,
Shakespeare-Lexicon, p. 94} 9 and King;
Edv;ard is a dative, but because it is a
proper name this is not indicated by the
preposition to.
^3, V, iii, 25 (**): "My life is run his compsisse 11 - this is
similar to he is run a great: distance; 1 ,
compass» like great distance, has the
force of an adverb modifying the verb .
run and hence is not a direct object in,
the usual sense.
Y* iv, 120 (F): "he is enter'd/ His radiant Roofe" - this
may be derived, from the contracted* form
s entered. '!
- 295 -
Constructions in the Passive.
s -*•
Mac., II, ii, 15 (P): "I have done the deed:/ Didst tLou
not heare a noyse?"
, 1, ii, 43 (P): "What do you tremble?"
- 298 -
AYL. I, iii, 47
„
(F) : "if that thou bees t fouacL... Thou dies t
for it" ;
Cym-, • V, iv, 91-92 (F): "Helpe (lupiter) or we appeale,/
and from thy iustice flye" ,
Cym.« III, IT, 83 (F): "Where is thy Lady? In. a word, or else/
Thou art straightway with the Fiends"
. ^^ '.,,, ' '
111 (F): "Helpe me Cassius, or I sinke"
JC, I, ii, •</'...**
gam.. Ill, iil, 73-75> (F): "now lie is praying,/ And now He
dioo^'t, and so hie goes to Heaven,/
And so am I reveng'd,"
Ado. II, ii, 54 (F and Q|): "be cunning in the working this,
and thy fee is a thousand
ducates"
yeeres day"
. t II, ji« 15 (p): "I £id not see you fince you sent me
hence"
J), III, ii f 307-308 (P and Qt ): "I evermore did love you
Hermia,/ Did ever keepe
your counsels, never
* - , , *- , & * •" <>„ _ wrong(e)d
^^ you"
JH6, IV, iii, 37 (P): "This seven yeeres did not Talbot
see ,his sonne"
Cym,. IV, iii, 36 (P): "I heard no Letter from my Master,
* * since/ I wrote him Imogen was slaine"
b)
Oth., V, ii, 137 (P.)': "I were damn'd beneath all depth in
hell:/ But that I did proceed upon;
iust grounds/ To this extremity 11
- 319 -
*, I, iii, 75-77. (P)s "Troy yet ujpon his basis had bene
downe,/ And the great Hectors
sword had lack'd a Master/ But
for these instances"
Mac. t II, ii, 14 (P): "Had he not resembled/ My Father as
he slept, I had don't" \
•jg. Ill, i, 58 (P): "I could be well mov'd, if I were as
you"
1Ten«. 137 (1593): "V7ere I hard-favourd, foule, or wrinckled
old,.* The mightst thou pause, for the I
were not for thee"
AW, III, v, 83 (P) s "if he were honester/ He were much
goodlier"
-.320 -
^he subjunctive is occasionally found after think , .hope §
vTonder if the content of the dependent clause is regarded as
being the thought of the speaker so that there is some doubt
about its objective validity. In Shakespeare, however, the
usual ©ood after these verbs is the indicative, and this is
now the only one possible. See examples under a*)» Formerly
the subjunctive wa^p more widely used than now in -indirect
questipng. See examples under b). The subjunctive is possible
in. a dependent clause after a concept of fear even when it
is not governed by a conjunction. See examples under c)«
Of. F. T. Visser, Syntax. §§ 872,875-
: G-reekes"
Note, "'tis hie time that I were hence"% (Err., Ill, ii, 162''
'(Pj)f "'tis more then time that Iw©re I were there"(1H4, IV*
ii, 60-61 (F)); "Tis time I were choak f dwith a peece of
toasted Cheese" (Wiv., V f v, 146-147 (P)).* The Preterite
subjunctive, still used in this way, is here simply the
expression of an unfulfilled wish* Cf. P« T. ^ Visser, Syntax,
§ 816.
- 324 -
177 &1 final and consecutive clauses periphrasis by shall, should,
may t and might is very common, but the use of the subjunctive
is rarer. Of. Karl Brunner, Die englische Sprache, II, 317;
f. Tr-Visser, Syntax. §§878, 1524-5, 1556-7, 1676.
Mac.. I, v, 53'(F): "Come thick Night,/ And pall thee in
the dunnest smoake of Hell,/ That my
keene Knife see not the Wound it makes"
WT, IV, iv, 215 (P): "Porewarne him, that he use no
scurrilous words in's tunes"
Tro., II, iii, 87 (P): "so perchance he thinke/ We dare
not move the question of our place" •
(Q«): "least perchance he thinke,/We Idare
not move the question of our place"
R3, IT, iv, 253-254 (P)s "Be breefe, least that the
processe of thy kindnesse/ Last
longer telling then thy kindnesse
date"
R2, V, iii, 36-37 (P)s "Then give me leave, that I may
turne the key,/ That no man enter,
till my tale be done"
TGV, V, iv, 8-10 (P): "Leave not the Mansion so long
Tenant-lesse,/ Lest growing ruinous,
• the building fall,/ And leave no
memory of what it was"
TN, III, iv, 145 (P): "Nay pursue him now, least the device
take ayre, and taint"
Lr t> IV, vi, 237 (P) * "Hence,/ Least that th'infection of ,
his fortune take/ Like hold on thee.
Let go his arme"
Wiv. t IV, ii, 54 (?): "three of Mr . Pords brothers watch
the doore with Pistols, that, none *
shall issue out"
Tro,, V, ii, 37 (P); "let us depart I pray you,/ Lest your
displeasure should enlarge it selfe/
•j To wrathfull tearmes"
Tro,, III, ii, 217 (P): "which bed, because it shall not
-325- .
spsake of your.prettie encounters,
presse it to death: away"
JH6, V, iii, 12 (P): "Helpe me this once, that Prance may
get the field"
RJ, IV, iv, 78 (P): "Cancell his bond of life, deere God I
pray,/ That I may live and say, The
Dogge is dead"
(Q|)j "Cancell his bond of life, deare God I
pray,/ That I may live to say, the
4 , dog is dead"
2H6, IV, i, 133 (P); "shew what cruelty ye can,/ That this
my death may never be forgot"
1H6, H% v, 3 (P): "I did send for thee...That Talbots
name might be in thee reviv'd"
A conjunction
'*"«***«• •--
is not absolutely necessary:• ,
" "*'*•"
1H6, II, v, 3^7 (P) ! "Direct mine Armes, I may embrace his
Neck"
- 326 -
:3NKaporal clauses introduced .by before generally require
the subjunctive in the Present tense, the indicative being
•*'. -
f ound .much more rarely. -The indicative also occurs alongside
the subjunctive v/ith ere (or ere). Till (until) introducing
a ^clause that limits -the action of the main clause in time
can be combined with the Present indicative even when it is
obvious that the action is intentional* Both moods can be used
with against . Cf. F. T. Visser, Syntax, §§746,879-
a) Subjunctive: , .* - ,
MV, IV, i, 369 (Fj* and Q t ); rt l pardon thee thy life before
thou aske it"
: 1H6. V, iii, 76 (?) : "How canst thou tell she will deny
.' . thy suite,/ Before thou make a triall
of her love?"
ghr.'i III, ii, 192 (F) : "I must away to day before night
come"
1H6, V, iii, 23 (i1 ) ; "take my soule; my body, soule, and
all,/ Before that England give the
French the f oy le " ' ' « '
R2, I, iv, 192 (F): "Before I be convict by course of Law?/
To threaten me with death, is most
unlawfull"
"— — , III>.-iii p 167 (F and Q0 ): "be gone before the v/atch
-Rom.
1H6, II, v, 111 (F); "Mourne not, except thou sorrow for
•-, . my good" ' - - .••••,
2H6 t V f i, 9 (F): "I cannot give due action to my words,/.
Except a Sword oy Scepter ballance it" ,.
g5, I?, iv, 10 (F)? "thou dyest on point of Fox, except 0-"." "
Signieur thou doe give to me egregious
Eansome" * - , • " ^ -(
Err,, V, i, 55 (F): Jlbbess: "...Which of these sorrowes is ,,
, - he subiect too?" ; , .
Adriana: "To none of these, except it ',
be the last" _. ,
|g7, II, iv, 140 (F): l¥How, no discourse, except it be of
: r I.P * «-.""r , " " love" . " '•/" , " - *. •
jECrY» III, i, 178 (F): "Except I be by Silvia in the night,/
c ,„ : -» ,
*f.^ t. * *
;. ,-,,
#y •
•- • There is no musicke in the Nightingale"
a _. ^ ,
,T.mp,"»""I, ii, 4-5 (P) • "The skye it seemes would powre down
stinking pitch,/ But that the Sea.*.
- '• • -• . ? ? I"',
Dashes the fire out"
|ro., IV, ii, 8-9 (^Q^: "but that the busie day/Wak't by
the Larke^hath rouz'd the ribal.d
Growes,/ And dreaming night will
hide our ioyes no longer,/ I
would not from thee"
Note 1, When the condition lies in the future (or is regarded,
as being in the future), the doubt concerning its fulfilment .
is sometimes expfcessecb in Shakespeare, as it still is in. the
literary language, by sha11, whichjwas formerly applicable .*
in the future to all persons (§ -&H-) and was very common, in
temporal clauses (§ -64-9). Cf- F.T V.'i^ Ij^^ ir/?. * .
JM, III, i, 209-210 (P): "and much please the absent Duke,
if. peradventure he shall ever
returne"
But.: MM. Ill, i, 197-198 (P): "if ever he returne, and I can
speake to him"
(1594): "If all these pettie ils shall change thy
good,/ The sea within a puddels wombe
is hersed"
- 354 -
V, iii, 124 (F):."If you shall prove/ This Ring was ever
hers, you shall as easie/ Prove that
I husbanded her bed in Florence"
WO?, I, i, 1 (F): "If you shall chance...to visit Bohemia..,
-**•••
«. , ,.: you shall see...great
-
difference" • ,
Note 2. The Preterite subjunctive (which has a distinctive form
only in were) is never replaced by'the indicative in.
Shakespeare. , , .. . . . • •
TGV, IV, ii, 127 -.(I?): "If 'twere a substance you would sure
deceive it"
jHjrV, IV, i, 30 ' (F): "nere repent it, if it were done so"
Note 3. Sentences that contain a comparison with a supposed
cbnditioa require the subjunctive for the latter (in. so far
as it can be recognized as a subjunctive). As if, as
(sometimes with the inversion of the subject), as though
(also like as) are the conjunctions used in such sentences.
Of. .P. T. Visser,. Syntax, § 890. \
Oth.. Ill, iii, 4 (P): "I warrant it" greeves my Husband//
As if the cause were his"
Ham., II, i, 83 (?); "wit&;:a looke so pitious in purport,/
As if he had been loosed out of hell,/
: To stjoeake of &orrors; he comes before
me"
Lr. , V, iii, 201 (P and Q-j ) s "You looke as you had something
' • more to say" , ' .-'
ghr.t V, i, 17 (i1 ): "What's he that knockes as he would
beat downe the gate?" ;. •
Inversion of the subject:
Shr»» Hf if 1s 50 ,(P) '• "with twentie suph vilde tearmes,/
fe •As - had she studied to misuse me so"
>, II, i f 179 (?) : "It she do. bid me packe, lie give
her thankes,/ As though she bid me
.. stay by her a weeke"
Tro , ,: JE, ii, 7 (5*): "like as thjere were husbandry la ^arre/
Before the Sunne rose, hee was harnest
T 535 -
Note 4. The inversion o,f the subject in order to show a
conditional clause is used extensively in Shakespeare. In
the modern language it is much less common than formerly and
is "possible with modal verbp only in the Preterite and
Pluperfect (were he = if he were; had he been; could he but
do this; *. . -•- should
- -
he ever-come), and although it is used with
principal verbs in the Pluperfect, in the Preterite it is
found only to-a limited extent in the periphrastic form with
do (did he but go there), apart from the verbs be and have
(were you my true friend,'had.you the feelings of a gentleman)«
Inverted clauses like meet I, sat they for if I meet, if they .
sat are no longer"accepted. Of. P. T. Visser, Syntax, § 882.
•.•jjjgr.f' III, ii, 127 (P): "We will perswade him be it possible,/
To put on better ere he goe to Church"
Shr., II, i, 125 (P): "lie assure her of/ Her widdow-hood,
be i,t that she survive men *"
Tro., II, ii, 195 (P) '• "Were it not glory that we more
- £ , I -* : W>. - '* >' , '
difficulties...Paris
should ne(')re retract(,)
what he hath done"
216, III, i, 305 (P)J "Xfcy fortune, Yorke, hadst thou beene
Regent there,/ Might happily have
prov'd farre worse then, his"
J6> III, i, 200 (P): "Had I as many eyes, as thou hast
wounds,/ Weeping as fast as they
/ streame forth thy blooxi,/ It would
become me better"
TgV« V, iv, 110 (P): "were man/ But Constant, he were
f "' perfect"
III, i, 22 (P)! ,*,•?'And
/
should
'
you fall, he is the next
will mount,"
- 336 -
AYL, V, iv, 12 (P): "That will I, should I die the houre
after"
2H6, V, i, 201 (P): "And that He write upon thy Burgonet,/
Might I but know thee by thy housed
Badge"
2H6, III, ii, 60-61 (?): "Might liquid teares, or heart-
offending groanes,/ Or blood-
consuming sighes recall his Life;/
I would be blinde with weeping,
sicke with grones"
2K6. V, ii, 57 (F) : "Meet I an infant of the house of Yorke,/
Into as many gobbits will I cut it"
Ant., IV, vi, 6 (F): "Prove this a prosp'rous day, the
three nook f d world/ Shall beare the
Olive freely"
M, III, ii, 61 (P and Q^: "Live thou, I live"
Cyru, IV, iii, 30 (P): "Gome more, for more you're ready"
LIV, III, ii, 20 (P and Q 1 ): "(prove it so)/ Let Portune
goe to hell for it, not I"
Err. t I, ii., 27 (P) ; "soone at five a clocke ? / Please-you,
lie meete with you upon the Kart."
Ado,
~ II, ii, 52 (P and-Q.):\ "Grow this to what adverse
issue it can, I will put it
• in practise"
Oth., V, i, 14 (P): "Live Rodorigex, / He call.es me to a
restitution large/ Of Gold, and lewels,
* that I bob'd from him"
Mac., III, i, 26 (P): "Goe not my Horse the better,/ I
must become a borrower of the Nighv
Indicative (once):
Err., IV, i, 12 (P) : "Pleaseth you v/alke with me aowne to
his house,/ I will discharge ny bond ;
and thanke you too" (it is suppressed)
b)
jfflf t III* v£ r 26 (P) : "wee will binde and hoodwinke him so,
that he shall suppose no other but
vt tjiat he is carried into the Lep.ger
of the adversaries"
£Cf, Tl, ii, 124-125 (P): "so neere will I be,/ That your
best Friends shall wish I had
beene further"
-342-
Aft.er. m^in :! clauses that contain a statement of voli-tioh,
whether it is expressed directly "by an appropriate verb or
indirectly, there is a subjunctive in the object clause
(examples under a)). ;After verbs of asking and wishing the
periphrasis with nay is very common (examples under b))»
Of. Karl Brunner, Die englische Sprache, II, 310; F. T.
Visser, Syntax, § 869*
a);./, ' :, ,. •••->•. '. -: - - - '-. . - .• :
2H6, V, i, 80 (P): "We give thee for reward a thousand
I
y,
*
AYIi, II, iv, 64 (P): -"I pray you, one of you question
yon'ci man"
1H4. Ill, iii, 171 (Q t>: "I pray God my girdle breake"
Mac.., II, i, 31-32 (P): "Goe bid thy Mistresse, v/hen.my •
drinke is ready,/ She strike upon
. the Bell" >.
Cym. t IV, ii,, 108 (F): "I wish my Brother make good time
with him"
TO, I, ±i, 400-402 (P): "I coniure thee...that thou declare"
Oth., Ill, iii, 359 (P.): "Villaine, be sure thou pro^euiy
v.- ,*. ,." •'•" '• -'.love a Whore"
H8. II, ii, 78-79 (?): "have great care,/ I be not found a
• * • Talker"
.. I, ii, 452-453 (P): "I charge thee/ That thou attend
, - .
=) 'i 3*
me '* » "' .. ^ ,
--* ' ^J*
• •*'•• «•
, V, i, 48-50 (P): "I coniure thee.. .That thou neglect me not 11
~ 343 - i
JC, III, ii, 65 (F): "I do intreat you, not a man depart"
rmp•, Y, i, 118-119 (I1 ): "I resigne, and doe entreat/ Thou
pardon me my wrongs"
tof, II, ii» 19 (F); "Fortune forbid iny out-side have not
charm f d her"*
WT, IV, iv, 215 (F): "Forewarne him, that he use no
scurrilous words"
R3, II, i, 91-94 (F): "God grant, that some lesse Foble.,*
*
Deserve not worse then wretched
Clarence did,/ And yet go currant
from Suspition"
MM, I, ii, 185 (F): "Implore her...that she make friends/
To the strict deputie"
Rom.*, Til, ill, 148 (F and Q 2 )s "But loofce thou stay not
, till the watch be set"
RJ, III, iv, 80 (F); "Lovell and Ratcliffe, looke that it
be done" " fc - ,,;-
MM, II, «ii, 125 ('?): "Pray heaven she win him"
H8, II, ii, 64 (F): "Pray God he be not angry"
Rom., V, iii, 24 (F)-* *and Q2 ); "See thou deliver it"
Ham., I, iii, 59 t^)s "And these few Precepts in thy
memory,/ See thou Character" f :
(Q 2 )5 "And these fewe precepts in thy t.
•¥••• •
memory/ Looke thou character"
Shr., III, i, 44 (F): "take heede he heare us not"
R3, I, iii, 140 (F): "I would to God my heart were Flint"
Jli*, III, iv, 48 (F): "I am not mad, I would to heaven I
were"
JC, II, i, 4 (F): "I would it were my fault to sleepe so
soundly" - - * " .
MV, II, viii, 32 (F):."! thought upon Anthonio when he told
me,/ And wisht in silence that it
were not his"
Ham,, III, i, 38-40 (F)5 "I do wish/ That your good Beauties
, "be the happy cause/ Of Hamlets
wildenesse"
~ 544 -
AWf » I, iii f 70 (F): "May it please you Madam, that hee
4 " ' '
bid Hellen come to you"
ft ""a ~ ,.....; .- . fjr , •• _ - •
2H5, IV, i, 140 (F): "It is our pleasure one of them .depart 11
WT, III, ii, 9-10 (F); "It is his Highnesse pleasure, that
-'•' " '• ' * '):
JO, III, i, 13 (F); "I wish your enterprize to day may thrive"
JO, III, i, 52-54 (F): "I kisse thy hand, but not in
flattery Caesar:/ Desiring thee,
that Publius Cyraber may/ Have an,
immediate freedorae of repeale"
1j|6, III, i, 200-201 (F): "Exeter doth wish,/ His dayes
may finish, ere that haplesse
time"
Jn., III, i, 90 (F): "let wives with childe/ Pray that .
their burthens may not fall this day"
*. Ado,
•^•r •' . I, i, 151>/t (F^nd Q-): E "he heartily
• praies - some •
occasion may detaine us longer"
Note. „.,.' The • • "-use
- .* of the Preterite subjunctive after a Present (or
Preterite subjunctive) in the main clause (which nay also* be
elliptical) formerly indicated, as.it still.does, that some ,
difficulty stands in the way of the realization of a wish or
that this is impossible in the circumstances or inherently.
Err., IY, Iv, 154 (F): "I long that we were safe and sound,
aboord"
Mac., V, v f 50 (F): "I...wish th 1 estate o'th 1 world were -',
now undon"
:,: AYL. II, iv, 75-77 (F): "I pittle her,/ And wish...My .
• * fortunes were more able to releeve
her"
AYL t II, vii, 42 (f): "0 that I were a foole"
JC, V, i, 123 (F): "0 that a man might know/ The end of
this dayes businesse, ere it come"
AYL, I, ii, 223 W - !f.I would I were invisible"
I* i» 24 (F): "Would for the Kings sake hee vrnre living11
- 345 - ' -
-Y---15&4 subjunctive ia also possible in relative clauses that"
express a wish, .(examples under a)), an assumption (subjective
statement of opinion or rhetorical question) (examples under
1?)), or that belong to a hypothetical complex sentence
X (examples under c) ); -however this use is not common. Cf* , *
.Yisser, 'Syntax. •"§. 876.
F. T." ......
.Ti£u , IV, iii, 346 (P) : "Y/hat Beast coul'd'st thou bee,
t- ; : . • ,% . , th,at were not subiect to a Beast"
MM, I, ii, 16 (F)s "There's not a Souldier of us all, tha% %
in the thanks-giving before meate, do -
a s' sis--
- '- rallish the petition well, that praies
'• ^ ' ^_
for peace" • « :
Cym. , Y, iv,
•*•••*•••* ._», .
178
-
(P)
, •
: "a man that".
were
"»#t, •
to • sleepe
. •
your
-' •
sleepe"
c)
,, I. i, 91 (P) : "a Moity. . .which had return 1 d/ To. the :
_. Inheritance of Fortinbras,/ Had he
bin Vanquisher"
' . ,., * • • - - '», ,
, II, ii, 120 (F); "which for my part I will not be,
though I should.win your displeasure
to entreat me too't"
- 372 -
§ I73L The perfect infinitive has long been used after the
preterite to express the •hbn-realisntion of p. hope or the
.non-fulfilment
;- ••- -,
of a wish; it is -now used chiefly after verbs'
'f'
like 'intend, wi'sh, hope ; he intended to hr.ve written means
'he had the intention to "/rite, but (for some reason or
other) he did not v?rite' f whereas he intended to write, does
not necessarily involve the idea that he failed to carry out
the plan. The construction is found as early as the 13th
century and is quite common in Chaucer and Yfyclif. It may
have originated because the form hie would h^ve written is
ambiguous on account of the alternative meanings of would
(see the example under a)). If would is interpreted as a
principal verb in the preterite subjunctive hpve becomes .
more closely connected with the participle, thus forming a
perfect infinitive. If preterites related in meaning to -
would, like wished, ho--ped , intended, are substituted for it,
then we arrive at the modern construction in which the idea
of the non-realization of something expected or desired was •
originally connected^-with the subjunctive of the elliptical
hypothetical sentence : he had written (if he hafl had an
opportunity of doing: so). There is P.lso a simpler explanation
of this construction. The pluperfect subjunctive vras formerly
used r in a dependent clause to express the falseness of an
assumption: "I thought your Honour had already beene at
Shrewsbury" (1H4, IV, ii> 58 . (P) ) ; further examples under b).
If in such cases the subordinate clause is expressed by an.
infinitive (I believed your honour to ha-fee been at Shrewsbury)
the result is the perfect infinitive, which expresses non-
realization in the same way as it does today. Cf. Karl
Brunner, Die englische Sprache , II,
.
did thinke
Ado, V, iv, 11-2 (P): rt l to have beaten thee, ,
• but in that thou art like to be my ,
,f . kinsman, live unbruis'd"
jvgll), I, i, 112' (P): "I must confesse, that I have heard so
much,/ And with Demetrius thought to
- 373 -
have spoke thereof:/ But being
over-full of selfe-affaires,/ My
: minde did lose it"
Q'th», I, ii, ,5 (?):"! lacke Iniquitie/: Sometime to do me .
, service. Ifine, or ten. times/ I had'
thought t'have yerk'd him here under
the Ribbes"
WT, I,-ii, 28 (F): "I had thought (Sir) to have held iny
peace, untill/ You had drawne Oathes
from him, not to stay"
gam., V, i, 268-269 (F) : "I thought thy Bride-bed to have
deckt (sv/eet Maid)/ And not .>
t'have strew'd thy Gr?ve"
(Qo) : "I thought thy bride-bed to have-
deckt sweet maide,/ And not
.have strew'd thy grave"
Ant., II, vi, 50 (F): "I did not thinke Sir, to have met
you heere" ; , - . -
MV, III, ii, 230 (P): "My purpose was not to have seene you
heere"
.MITD, IV, i, 156 (F and Q 1 ): "Our intent/ V'as to be gon(e)
t
from Athens" ;
2H4, V, iii, 40 (F): "I did not thinke M* Silence had "bin
,« , r „ a man of this Mettle"
, II, vii, 107 (P): "I thought that all things had bin
. savage heere"
- 375 -
. The .construction of the nominative with the infinitive has
various sources. It is derived from the accusative and the
infinitive, which is the logical subject of an impersonal.
clause, because the old accusative case came to be regarded
as a nominative as a consequence of the decline of the
substantival inflexion, which made its case indistinguishable,
as can be seen from the use of pronouns in the nominative
(examples under a)). It occasionally appears as a means of
abbreviating a sentence and of varying the construction
(examples under b)). It also occurs when the psychological
subject takes the place of the grammatical object (examples
under c)). In these examples the use of the nominative with,
the infinitive is a linguistic development that has disappeared
ftgain with, the increasing influence of the literary language.
However it still survives in a use that seems to be similar
to the case first mentioned in that a sentence likes "She
give it Cassio?" (Oth.. V, ii, 230 *(#)) can be regarded as
the logical subject of an impersonal sentence of the type it
is monstrous to think. This sentence can be surmised from the
context and,from the tone and mood of the speaker. This
construction is often, used for emotional exclamations
expressing surprise, astonished doubt, disagreement, or
disapproval: I stand this?l >«TPJT he fight him?! she accept.
kirn.?! (examples under d)). Of. H. Sweet, ^Fgte*-, §2321;
WKellner, Preface to Caxtoxt's Blanchardyn- and Eglantine
/
|E.E.T.S.j, (London, (1890), p. frtfefory Ixviff»; 0. Jespersen*
Progress in Language 4ite«4onii 18Q4Q. p» 206f.; E. Uatzner,
Ensrlische flrammatik, Jrd-ed^ III f ,52f.| P. T. Visser,
Syntax. § 985-
a); _ _. . ,. .' ,r , ' . .:
TGT, V r iv f 109 (F)s "It ia the lesser blot modesty findes,/
Women to change their shapes, then,
men, their minds"
WT, V, i, 42 (P): "Which, that it shall,/ Is all as monstrous
to our humane reason.,/ As my Antigonus
"(ftp breake his Grave"
- 376 -
II, i, 185 (P)s "Shou this to hazard, needs must
Intimate/ Skill infinite, or
*
1 monstrous desperate"
, IV, iii, 266 (P): "I to beare this,/ That never Inic^
but better, is some burthen."
._---.-. ..*,-::•
AYE. Ill, ii, 162 (P); "Heaven would that shee these gifts
* • , ^ should have,/ and I to live and
die her slave"
( - and that I were to live and die her slave)
3Brr«, I, t
i, 33 (P): "A hevvier
•
take could not have beesie ? , s»,
impos'd,/ Then I to speake my grief@s
unspeakable" ( « than that I should; speak)
c) %
AYL, I t. ii, 279 (E)« "The Duke is humorous, what h@ is
indeede/ Mo^
A»
suites you to conceive,,
then I to speake of"
( = me to speak of; the psychological subject; replaces
the grammatical one)
Cor», III* ii, 83 (P): "being bred in. brGyles,/ Hast not the
soft way, which thou-do'st confesse/
Were fit for thee to use, as they v
to clayme 11
d)
.Qth» ft Y, ii, 152 ^E): "My Husband say she was false?"
LLL, III,. 1, 191 T^)s "What? I love, I sue, I seeke a wife, 11
Rom«« I> v f 1 (P): "Where 1 s Potpan, that he helpes not. to
^is*
take away? He shift a .Trencher? he
scrape a Trencher?"
Bit IIf. ii, 5> (?) • "All Sects, all Ages smack of this vice,
and he/ To die for't?"
jfyr'^ III, i, 37 (P and Q^: "My owne ilesh and blocd to rebell"
III, i, 202 (P and Qt ): "And I to sigh for her, to
. .- ^ watck for her,/ To pray for
- .- -. her, go to"
, I, vii, 59 (P)s Mac.5 "Ix we should faile?"
Lady ^iac.s "We faile?"
-377 -
(It la.not necessary to emend the second question-mark in
.this example.^ :
,.Tt iii, 96-98 (F): "she, in spight of Mature...2o
fall in Love, with, what she fear'd
to lopjce on"
^ II. j. .37 (P): "A Stranger, and I ztot know on't?"
- 378- -
§194 The construction of for; with.-the accusative and the
infinitive goes back to Chaucer: "it is no maystrye for a lord/
To dampne a man withoute answere of word" (The Legend of Good
Women (Text G), 386), The original construction was of the
form: "it is good us to be here" (Wyclif's Bible, first
version, Matthew, XVII, 4). This became obsolete, and the
dative us was linked to the predicative adjective by for or
to, so that the sense of the sentence was somewhat altered,
!Che new form is found as early as Man d evi11e's Travels (c. 1400),
831 24: "Lord it is gode for us to ben here". Tliis development
was encouraged by similar sentences, in which a dative with to
is followed by an infinitive: "It is hard to thee, for to kyke
a^ens the pricke" (Wyclif's Bible, first version, Act-s, IX, 5)»
If in the sentence "it is good for us to be here", good is i
replaced by adjectives like possible, impossible, necessary,
needful, easy, expedient, better, the result is the
construction as found today (examples under a)). If for with
the accusative and the infinitive comes at the beginning of
the sentence the relationship between the dative and the
predicate is greatly weakened, and the construction often
becomes fully equivalent to a clause introduced by that. This
stage had already been reached by Shakespeare 1 s time (examples
under b)). Because of its position at the beginning of the
clause the preposition, either loses its grammatical function
completely or is felt only obscurely. The use of the
construction later spread to cases where originally there was
'.."". *^*4^' .
to th 'Market place"
Per., I, iii, 19-21 (Q 1 ): "beeing at Antioch.*.RoyalX
Antiochus.eVbooke sone displeasure
at him"
Cvm«, I, vi, 189-192 (P) : "'tis Plate oxt rare device, and
lewels/ Of rich, and exquisite
forme, their valewes great,/ And
I aim something curious, being
strange/ To have them in safe
. / stowage"
JSrr . , I, ii, 76 (F): »*My Mistris and her sister staies for
i,*-
f if * >. «'.'-'
, ":' t you"
"
Mac., Ill, ii, 37 (F): "Thou Imow'st, that Banquo and his
r_,> Fleans lives"
, III, iv, 34-35 (F) : "The which my love and some
necessity/ Now layes upon you"
(Q/): "the which my love and some
necessity/ now layes upon you"
**» ix > 83 (^ and Q.J): "Hanging and wiving goes by
destinie"
TH, III, i, 143 (P)s "v/hen wit and youth is come to harvest"
jBtt H, V| 174 (F) : "daylight, and champi an- discovers not
more"- - » >
Wf I, iii, 10 (P): "Where youth, and cost:, witlesse .
bravery keepes"
Per., II, i, 2-3 (Q|); "Wind, Raine, and Thunder, remember
earthly man/ Is but a substaunce
-«
that; must yeeld to you"
Ham., IV, iiA, 25 (F) s "Your fat; King, and your leane Begger
is but variable service 11
(Q 0 ): "y.our fat .King and your leane begger
£ 15 6i^k Va.r.'xtJt $eTvicfc"
1H6. Ill, i, 115-116. (P): "You see what Mischief e, and what
Murther too,/ Hath beene enacted
, through your enmitie"
. A7/W . II, iii, 176-177 (F) : "What great creation, and what
dole of honour/ Flies where you
&e&st f
.. K
* . bid It"
H2, II, ii, .115 (F and Q^s "Whom conscience, and my
' kin(d)red bids to right"
B2, II, i, 12-13 (F): "The setting Sun, and Musicke is the
close/ As the last taste of 'sweetes,
is sweetest last"
(Q- ) : "The setting Sunne, and Llusicke at
the close,/ As the last taste of
- 415 -
sweetes is sweetest last"
1H6, IV, ii, 3 (P): "But see where Somerset and Clarence
comes"
2H6, IV, i,•». 101-102 (]?): "Reproach and Beggerie,/ Is crept
into the Palisce of our King"
R2, II, i, 258 (P and Q 1 ): "Repro(a)ch and dissolution
hangeth over him"
Jn. f IV, iii, H4-H5 (P): "The life, the right, and truth
of all .this Realme/ Is fled to
heaven"
WT, II, i, 168-170 (P): "the matter,/ The losse, the gaine,
the ord f ring on't,/ Is all properly .
ours"
H5, V, ii, 44-46 (P): "her fallow Leas,/ The Darnell, Hemlock,
and ranke Femetary,/ Doth root upon"
3H6, V, ii, 8-9 (P) • "My blood, my want of strength, my
«. " - * - sicke heart shewes,/ That I must yeeld
my body to the Earth."
WT, I, ii, 252-254 (P): "his negligence, his folly, fear*...
MMM"** .•*iy
J.IND, II, i, 34-37 (F and Q^)J "Are you not hee,/ That frights
the maidens of the Villag(e)ree,/
Skim mi Ike, and sometimes
labour in. the querne,/ And
booties se make the bres-thlesse
huswife cherne"
(frifrhts agrees with he; skim, labour, make agree with
you}•> &&s
... n
.^riffnt,
—y.rn • A\ *—T.;r^--i A i'lia
~1- -t-____A.__.T..T-4 A g