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THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ITS GKAMMAK, HISTORY, AND

LITERATURE

WITH OHAFTEBS ON

COMPOSITION, VERSIFICATION, PARAPHRASING,

AND PUNCTUATION

->•*.* J -' - .

s ^ ^ i 1 ^ " w

- • ^ • ■ •'••-.• -*L- r .

J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN, M.A.

PKorssaoR of thx thxort, histobt, and p&Aoricx of xducatxoh

Ilf THB UKIYKBSmr OF 8T. ANDBKWB

THIRTT-THIBD EDITION

■NLABQBD WITH BXBBOISES, ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS, AND BXAMFLB8

OF FALSE OB DOUBTFUL SYNTAX

LONDON
MEIKLEJOHN AND SON LTD.

11 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.C.
1920

\All B.iqkU JieMrved]

• •

• * •

PREFACE

This book, it is hoped, will be found useful in Training
Colleges, in Secondary Schools both for boys and girls, to
candidates for Local and Matriculations Examinations, and
to other classes of students.

Only the most salient features of the language have been
described, and minor details have been left for the teacher
to fill in. Even in the text as it stands, the experienced
teacher will easily be able to point his pupils towards those
portions of the book which should be mastered first, leaving
other portions of it (such as the Grammar of Verse, for
instance) to be subjects of later study. The utmost clear-
ness and simplicity have been the aim of the writer, and he
has been obliged to sacrifice many interesting details to this
aim.

The study of English Grammar is becoming every day
more and more historical — and necessarily so. There are
scores of inflections, usages, constructions, idioms, which can-
not be truly or adequately explained without a reference to
the past states of the language — to the time when it was a
synthetic or inflected language, like German or Latin.

The Syntax of the language has been set forth in the form
of Rules. This was thought to be better for young learners,
who require firm and clear dogmatic statements of fact and
duty. But the skilful teacher will slowly work up to these
rules by the interesting process of induction, and will — when

462407

17 PREFACE.

it is possible — induce his pupil to draw the general con-
clusions from the data given, and thus to make rules for
himself. Another convenience that will be found by both
teacher and pupil in this form of rales will be that they can
be compared with the rules of, or general statements about,
a foreign language — such as Latin, French, or German.

It is earnestly hoped that the slight sketches of the History
of our Language and of our Literature may not only enable
the young student to pass his examinations with success, but
may induce him to study the original works for himself.

The sixty pages of exercises and examination papers will
be found useful by both pupil and teacher alike.

The Index will be of assistance in preparing the parts of
each subject, as all the separate paragraphs about the same
subject will be found there grouped together.

I beg to thank very warmly those able Teachers who have
been kind enough to give me hints and suggestions towards
the improvement of this book ; and I am also glad to note
here the fact that Modern Teaching is every day tending
more and more towards clearness and simplicity.

J. M. D. M.

The present edition contains a number of carefully selected
examples of false, doubtful, or genuine syntax, with hints
towards their correction or defence. These examples are taken
from papers set at the London Matriculation, the College of
Preceptors*, the Civil Service, and various other public ex-
aminations.

CONTENTS

PART L

PAQB

LANOUAOE . . • .

• • •

ORTHOORAPHT

■ • • <

ETTMOLOQT

1 • •

N0UK8

• « .

PRONOUNS ,

> . •

. 23

ADJECTIYES

> • t

. 28

VRRBB

• • a 1

ADVSRR8

• . •

PREPOSITIONS

• « ■ i

CONJUNCTIONS

I • • <

. 60

INTERJECTIONS

• • «

WORDS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS .

, (

• • • 1

SYNTAX ....

1 . • <

»OUN

• • • 1

NOMINATIVE CASE

> . . <

POSSESSIVE CASE

K . • ■

OBJECTIYB CASE

t . » «

DATIVE CASE ,

> • . <

ADJECTIVE .

t 1

1* • . «

PRONOUN .

1 •

> • . <

VERB

> 1

1 . • •

ADVERB

t «

• • • «

PREPOSITION AND CONJUNCTION .

• •

83-84

EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, <

)R GENUINE SYNTAX

86(a)

ANALYSIS

i • • 1

. 86

SIMPLE SENTENCE .

1 • • I

FORMS OF SENTENCES

9 • • *

. 87

PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

» • • 4

NOMINATIVE OF ADDRESS

• • ■ •

COMPLEX SENTENCE

9 % • *

. 103

CAUTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF CO]

If PLEX SENTENCES

. 107

THE MAPPING OUT OF COMPLEX SI

NTENCES

109

COMPOUND SBNTEifCE

• • • <

. Ill

CO-ORDINATE SENTENCES

» • 9 *

. 112

PARENTHETICAL SENTENCES

• • « *

. 115

WORD-BUILDINO AND DERIVATION

• • * *

. 116

COMPOUND N

OUNS

•

» • • 4

. 116

CONTENTS.

woRD-BUiLDiNO AND DERIVATION — Continued,

COXFODND ADJECTIVES

COMPOUND VERBS .

COMPOUND ADVERBS

PREFIXES AND SUTFIXES

ENGLISH PREFIXES

LATIN PREFIXES

GREEK PREFIXES

ENGLISH SUFFIXES

LATIN AND FRENCH SUFFIXES

GREEK SUFFIXES
WORD-BRANCHINO

ENGLISH ROOTS

LATIN ROOTS

GREEK ROOTS
WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS
WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES
WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM
WORDS THAT HAVE CHANGED IN MEANING

PART II.

COMPOSITION

PUNCTUATION

FIGURES OF SPEECH

PARAPHRASING .

PROSODY .

EXERCISES

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

PART III.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, AND THE FAMILY TO WHICH

BELONGS .....
THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH
HISTORY OF THE VOCABULARY .
HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS
MODERN ENGLISH ....

LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PART IV.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

117

118
118
119
120
123
126
128
134
141
143
144
147
162
154
158
161
168

175
187
189
192
194
207
243

271
276
280
317
328
336
344

349
445

INDEX

459

PART L

THE GRAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

- » * *■ » ' ^

, - . •

INTEODUCTIOK

L Wliat a Language is. — ^A Language is a number of con-
neeted Bounds which convey a meaning. These somids, car-
ried to other persons, enable them to know how the speaker
is feeling, and what he is thinking. More than ninety per cent
of all language used is spoken language ; that which is written
forms an extremely small proportion. But, as people grow more
and more intelligent, the need of written language becomes more''
and more felt ; and l^ence all civilised nations have, in course
of time, slowly and with great difficulty made for themselves a
set of signs, by the aid of which the sounds are, as it were,
indicated upon paper. But it is the sounds that are the
language, and not the signs. The signs are a more or less

, artificial, and more or less accurate, mode of representing the
language to the eya Hence the names language, tongue,
and speech are of themselves sufficient to show that it is the
spoken, and not the -written, language that is the language, —
that is the more important of the two, and that indeed gives
life and vigour to the other.

J 2. The Spoken and the Written Language. — ^Every civilised
language had existed for centuries before it was written or;
printed. Before it was written, then, it existed merely as
a spoken language. Our own tongue existed as a spoken
language for many centuries before any of it was committed
to writing. Many languages — such as those in the south of
Africa — ^are bom, live, and die out without having ever been
written down at all. The parts of a spoken language are
called SQiiJ^d^: tfte sgiaUest parts of a written language are

i / .OTi.MMAJ^ .OF THB .ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

• '. ' • . ♦ •

called letters. The science of spoken sounds is called Pho-
netics ; the science of written signs is called Alphabetics.

3. The English Language. — ^The English language is the
language of the English people. The English are a Teutonic
people who came to this island from the north-west of Europe
in the fifth century, and brought with them the English tongue
— but only in its spoken form. The English spoken in
the fifth century was a harsh guttural speech, consisting of a
few thousand words, and spoken by a few thousand settlers
in the east of England. It is now a speech spoken by more
than 150 millions of people — spread all over the world; and
it probably consists of a hundred thousand words. It was once
poor; it is now one of the richest languages in the world:
it was once confined to a few corners of land in the east of
England ; it has now spread over Great Britain and Ireland, fhe
whole of North America, the whole of Australasia, and parts of
Asia, South America, and Africa.

4. The Orammar of English. — ^E very, language grows. It
changes as a tree changes. Its fibre becomes harder as it grows
older ; it loses old words and takes on new — as a tree loses old
leaves, and clothes itself in new leaves at the coming of every
new spring. But we are not at present going to trace the
growth of the English Language; we are going, just now, to
look at it as it is. "We shall, of course, be obliged to look back
now and again, and to compare the past state of the language
with its present state ; but this will be necessary only when we
cannot otherwise imderstand the present forms of our tongue.
A description or account of the nature, build, constitution, or
make of a language is called its Grammar.

5. The Parts of Qrammar. — Grammar considers and exam-
ines language from its smallest parts up to its most complex
organisation. The smallest part of a written language is a let-
ter; the next smallest is a word; and with words we make
sentences. There is, then, a Grammar of Letters ; a Grammar
of Words ; and a Grammar of Sentences. The Grammar of Let-
ters is called Orthography ; the Grammar of "Words is called
Gtymology ; and the Grammar of Sentences is caUed Syntax.

THE GBAMMAB OF LETTEBS. 5

There is also a Grammar of musically measured Sentences;
and this grammar is called Prosody. '

(i) Orthograpliy comes from two Qreek words: oriho$, right; and
grapJiif a writing. The word therefore means correct wxtttng.

(ii) Etyinologyi comes from two Qreek words: eUtmos, true; and logos,
an account. It therefore means a true account of words.

(iii) Syntax comes from two Greek words: «m, together, with; and
taxis, an order. When a Qreek general drew up his men in order of
battle, he was said to have them ** in syntaxis" The word now means
an account of tlie build of santenoos.

(iv) Prosody comes from two Qreek words: pros, to; and Sdi, a song.
It means the meararemMit of Tirae.

1 The term Sttmoloot is also used to denote the process which traces the origin
or derivation of a word.

THE GRAMMAR OF SOUNDS AND LETTERS,

OB ORTHOGRAPHY.

6. The Granmiar of Sounds. — ^There are two kinds of sounds
in our language : (i) the open sounds ; and (ii) the Btopi>ed
sounds. The open sounds are called vowels; the stopped
sounds consonants. Vowels can be knovm by two tests — a
negative and a positive. The negative test is that they do not
need the aid of other letters to enable them to be sounded ;
the positive test is that they are formed by the continuous
passage of the breath.

(i) Vowel comes from Fr. voydle; from Lat. vifcdlis, soimding.

(ii) Conflonaat comes from Lat. con, with; and sUno, 1 sound.

(iii) Two vowel-sounds uttered wltboat a break between them are
called a diphthong. Thus oi in hoU ; ai in aide are diphthongs. (The
word comes from Greek dis, twice ; and phthongS, a sound.)

7. The Grammar of Consonants: (1) Mntes. — ^There are
different ways of stopping, checking, or penning-in the con-
tinuous flow of sound The sound may be stopped (i) by the
lips — as in ib, ip, and im. Such consonants are called Iiabials.
Or (ii) the sound may be stopped by the teeth — as in id, it,
and in. Such consonants are called Dentals. Or (iii) the
sound may be stopped in the throat — as in ig, ik, and ing.

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE.

These consonants are called Qntturals. The above set of sounds
are called Mutes, because £he sound comes to a full stop.

(i) Labial oomeB from Lat. labtnni, the lip.

(ii) Dental comes from ha,t dens (dents) a tooth. Hence also dentUt,
(iii) Onttnral comes from Lat. guXtax, the throats
(iv) Palatal comes from Lat. palfttnm, the palate.

8. The Grammar of GonBonants : (2) Spirants. Some con-
sonants have a little breath attached to them, do not stop the
sound abruptly, but may be prolonged. These are called
breathing letters or spirants. Thus, if we take an ib and
breathe through it, we make it an iv — ^the b becomes a v. If
we take an ip and breathe through it, it becomes an if — ^the p
becomes an £ Hence v and f are called spirant labials. The
following is a complete

TABLE OF CONSONANT SOUNDS.

HUTEd.

SPIRANTS.

Flat
(or Soft).

Sharp
(or Hard).

Nasal.

Flat
(or Soft).

Sharp
(or Hard).

Trillsix

GUTTITRALS

(in gig)

« •«

• ••

Palatals .

(church)

• • •

(yea)

4
• • •

• • •

Palatal \
Sibilants f

• • •

• ••

(azure)

(sure)

Dental \
Sibilants j

• • •

Z
(priae)

Dentals .

(bathe)

(bath)

• • •

Labials

VA W

f &wh

• • •

(i) The above table goes from the throat to the lips — ^from the back to
the front of the mouth.

(ii) b and d are pronounced with lesB effort than p and t. Hence b and
d, etc, are called soft or flat : and p and t, etc., are called hard or sliarp.

THE GRAMMAB OF LETTERS. 7

9. The Grammar of Letters. — Letters are oonrentional
wigna or symbolB employed to represent sounds to the eye.
They have grown out of pictures, which, being gradually pared
down, became mere signs or letters. The steps were these:
picture ; abridged picture ; diagram ; sign or symboL The
sum of all the letters used to write or print a language is called
its Alphabet. Down to the fifteenth century, we employed a set
of Old English letters, such as a b t — ^X ^ J, which were the
Eoman letters ornamented ; but, from that or about that time,
we have used and still use only the plain Eoman letters, as
a b c — ^x y z.

The word alphabet comes from the name of the first two letters in
the Greek language : o^Aa, beta.

10. An Alphabet. — An alphabet is, as we have seen, a code
>f signs or signals. Every code of signs has two laws, neither
of which can be broken without destroying the accuracy and
krustworthiness of the code. These two laws are :

(i). One and the same sound must be represented by one and
the same letter.

Hence: No sound should be represented by more than one letter.

(ii) One letter or set of letters must represent only one and
the same sound.

Hence : No letter should represent more than one sound.

Or, put in another way :

(i) One sound must be represented by one distinct symboL
(ii) One symbol must be translated to the ear by no more
than one sound.

(i) The first law is broken when we represent the long sound of a in
eight different ways, as in — ^fate, braid, say, great, neigh, prey, gaol,
gange.

(ii) The second law is broken when we give eig^ht different sounds to
the one symbol ongh, as in — ^bongh, cough, dough, hiocongh (=cap),
hough (=hoek), tough, throngh, thorough.

11. Our Alphabet. — ^The spoken alphabet of English contains
forty-three sounds ; the written alphabet has only twenty-six
aymbola or letters to represent them. Hence the English al-

8 GRAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

phabet is very deficient. But it is also redundant. For it
contains five superflnous letters, c, q, x, w, and y. The work
of the letter c might be done^ by either k or by 8/ that of q
hj k; X is equal to ka or ga ; w could be represented by oo ;
and much that y does could be done by i. It is in the vowel-
sounds that the irregularities of our alphabet are most discern-
ible. Thirteen vowel-sounds are represented to the eye in more
than one hundred different ways.

(i) There are twelve ways of printmg a short t, as in sit^ Cyril, busy,
women, eta

(ii) There are twelve ways of printing a short «, as in sdi, any, bury,
broxd, eta *

(iii) There are ten ways of printing a long ^, as in mete, martne, med^
meat, key, etc.

(iv) There are thirteen ways of printing a short i«, as in Imd, love,
berth, rotigh, flood, eta

(v) There are eleven ways of printing a long u, as in rude, move, blettv
true, etc.

THE GRAMMAE OF WORDS, or ETYMOLOGY.

There are eight kinds of words in our language. These are
(i) Names or Nouns, (ii) The words that stand for !N'ouns are
called Pronouns, (iii) !N'ext come the •words-that-go-with-
Nouns or Adjectives, (iv) Fourthly, come the •words-that-
say-Bomething-of-N'oiLns or Verbs, (v) Next, the words that
qualify any part of speech except a pronoun are called Adverbs,
(vi) The words that-shcw-relation are called Prepositions;
(vii) those that -join -Words -and -join -Sentences are called
Conjunctions. Lastly (viii) come Intellections, which are
indeed mere sounds without any oi'ganic or vital connection
with other words ; and they are hence sometimes called extra-
grammatical utterances. IN'ouns and Adjectives, Verbs and
Adverbs, have distinct, individual, and substantive meanings.'
Pronouns have no meanings in themselves, but merely refer to
nouns, just like a %^ in a book. Prepositions and Conjunctions

THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS. 9

once had independent meanings, but have not much now : their
chief use is to join words to each other. They act the part
of nails or of glue in language. Interjections have a kind of
meaning ; but they never represent a thought — only a feeling,
a feeling of pain or of pleasure, of sorrow or of surprise.

NOUNS.

L A Noun is a name, or any word or words used as a
najna

JBaUf Jiouse, Jish, John, Mary, are all names, and are therefore noimB.

" To walk in the open air is pleasant in summer evenings." The two

words to walk are used as the name of an action ; to walk is therefore

a noun.

The word noun comes from the lAtin nonun, a name. From this word we have
also wminaLt denominaiet de^tomina^on, etc

THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS.

2. Nouns are of two classes — Proper and Common.

3. A proper noun is the name of an individual, aa an in*
dividual, and not as one of a class.

John, Mary, London, BirmvngJiam, Shakespeare, Milton, are all proper
nouns.

The word proper comes firom the Latin propritu, one's own. Hence a
proper noun is, in relation to om person, one*8 own name. From the same word
we hzYe appropriaiet to make one's own ; expropriate, etc.

(i) Proper nouns are always written with a capital letter at the
beginning ; and so also are the words derived from them. Thus we
write Prance, French, Frenchified; Milton, Miltonic; Shakespeare, Shake-
tpearia/n.

(ii) Proper nouns, a« such, have no meaning. They are merely marki
to indicate a special person or place. They had, however, originally a
meaning. The persons now called Armstrong, Smith, Cfreathead, no
doubt had ancestors who were strong in the arm, who did the work of
Bmiths, or who had large heads.

(iii) A proper noun may be used as a common noun, when it is em-
ployed not to mark an individual, but to indicate one of a cUtss. Thus
we can say, "He is the Milton of his age," meaning by this that he
possesses the qualities which all those poets have who are like Milton.

(iv) We can also speak of " the Howards," " the Smiths," meaning a
number of persons who are called Howard or who are called Smith.

10 GlUkMMAR OF THfi SKGLtSH LAKGtJAGS.

4. A common noun is the name of a person, place, or thing,
considered not merely as an individual, but as one of a class.
HorsBy town, boy, table, are common nouns.

The word common comes from the Lat. eommimit, "shared by seyeral" ; and
we find it also in community , oommonaUy, etc.

(i) A common noun ia so called because ib belongs in common to all
the persons, places, or things in the same class.

(ii) The name rahbU marks o£f, or distinguishes, that animal from
all other animals ; but it does not distinguish one rabbit from another —
it is common to all animals of tlie class. Hence we may say : a com-
mon noun distinguishes from without ; but it does not distinguish within
its own bounds.

(iii) Common nouns have a meaning; proper nouns have not. The
latter may have a meaning ; but the meaning is generally not appro*
priate. Thus persons called Whitehead and Longshanlcs may be dark
and short. Hence such names are merely signs, and not significant marks.

5. Common nouns are generally subdivided into—

(i) Class-names.

(ii) Collective nouns.

(iii) Abstract nouns.

(i) Under class-names are included not only ordinary names, but
also the names of materials — as tea, tugar, wheat, waiter. The names
of materials can be used in the plural when different kinds of the
material are meant. Thus we say ** fine teas," " coarse sugars," when
we mean fine kinds of tea, etc.

(ii) A coUectlve noim is the name of a collection of persons or
things, looked upon by the mind as one. Thus we say commUtee,
parliament, crowd; and think of these collections of persons as each
one body.

(iii) An ahstract noun is the name of a quality, action, or state,
considered in Itself, and as abstracted from the thing or person in
which it really exists. Thus, we see a number of lazy persons, and
think of laziness as a quality in itself, abstracted from the persons.
(From Lat. abs, from ; tractuSf drawn.)

(a) The names of arts and sciences are abstract nonns, because they are the
names of processes of thought, considered apart and abstracted from the
persons who practise them. Thus, miuic, pa4nHng, grammar, ishemistryf
aitronomyf are abstract nouns.

(iy) Abstract nouns are (a) derived from adjectiyes, as Jiardness,
didness, doth, from hard^ duU, and slow; or (6) from yerbs, as growth,
ihought, from grow and thir^

THE INFLEXIONS OF NOUNS 11

(v) Abstract nouns are sometimes used as oollectiTe nouns. Thus
we say "the nobility and gentry" for '' the nobles and gentlemen''
of the land.

(yi) Abstract nouns are classed under common nouns, because they
stand for every instance of the action, state, or quality they denote.

6. The following is a summary of the divisions of nouns : —

NOUNS.

Proper. Ckmmum.

GUun-Names. Collective Nouns. Abstract NounsL

THE INFLEXIONS OP NOUNS.

7. Nouns can be inflected or changed. They are inflected to
indicate Gtender, Number, and Case.

We must not, however, forget that differences of gender,
number, or case are not always indicated by inflexion.

InfiMio is s Latin word which means hmdA^. An inflexion, therefore, is s
bending sway from the ordinary form of the word.

Gbndbr.

.8. Gender is, in grammar, the mode of distinguiBhizLg sex by
the aid of words, prefixes, or suf^es.

The word gender comes from the Lat. genus, generis (Fr. gewre)^ a
kind or sort. We have the same word in generic, general, etc. (The
d in gender is no organic or true part of the word ; it has been in-
serted as a kind of cushion between the n and the r.)

(i) Names of males are said to be of the mancnltne gender, as matUr,
lordf Barry, Lat. mas, a male.

(ii) Names of females are of the feminine gender, as mistress, lady,
Harriet. Lat. femina, a woman. (From the same word we haye
effeminate, etc.)

(iii) Names of things without sex are of the neater gender, as head,
tree, London, Lat. neuter, neither. (From the same word we have
neutral, neutrality,)

(iy) Names of animals, the sex of which is not indicated, are said to
be of tlM common gender. Thus, eheep, bird, hawk, parent, servasU, are
common, because they may be of ettber gender.

12 GRAMMAR OF THE BNGLISH LAKGtJAGE.

(v) We may sum up thus : —

Gbndbb.

I I I ^

Maaenllne. Feminine. Neater. Commoii.

{NeUher) {EUher)

(vi) K we pertonify things, passions, powers, or natural forces, we may
make them either masculine or feminine. Thus the Simy Time^ the
Ocean, Anger, War, a river, are generally made masculine. On the other
hand, the Moon, the JSarth (" Mother Earth "), Virtue, a ahip, Itdigion,
Pity, Peace, are generally spoken of as feminine.

(vii) iBex is a distinction between animals ; gender a distinction be*
tween noons. In Old English, nouns ending in dom, as freedom, were
masculine ; nouns in ness, as good/nesa, feminine ; and nouns in en, 9a
maiden, cKiclcen, always neuter. But we have lost all these distinctions,
and, ax modem English, gender always foUowB sex.

9. There are three ways of marking gender : —

(i) By the use of Suffixes.

(ii) By Prefixes (or by Composition).

(iii) By using distinct words for the names of the male and
female.

L Gbndbr marked bt Suffixes.

A. Purely English or Teutonic Suffixes.

10. There are now in our language only two purely English
suffixes used to mark the feminine gender, and these are used
in only two worda The two endings are en and ster, and the
two words are vixen and spinster.

(i) Vlzen is the ftaiinine of fox; and spinster of epiimer {tpvnder or
tpinther, which, later on, became 'spider). King Alfred, in his writings,
speaks of '* the spear-side and the spindle-side of a house " — meaning the
men and the women.

(ii) Ster was used as a feminine suffix very largely in Old English.
Thus, wd>8ter was a vfoman-wmver ; haxter (or hagster), a female haher ;
hoppetter, a woman-dancer; redester, a iD€mam,-reader ; huckster, a female
hawker (travelling merchant) ; and so on.

(iii) In Ancient English (Anglo-Saxon) the masculine ending was a,
and the feininine e, as in vneea, wicce^ witch. Hence we find the names
of many Saxon kings ending in a, as Ida, Offa, Penda, etc.

GENDER INDICATED BY SUFFIXES AND PREFIXES.

B. Latin and French Suffixes.

IL The chief feminine ending which we have received from
the French is ess (Latin, issa). This is also the only feminine
suffix with a living force at the present day — ^the only suffix we
could add to any new word that might be adopted by us from
a foreign source.

12. The following are nouns whose feminines end in ess : —

Mabculink.

FEMnmn.

MAflcnuinc.

Feviniks.

Actor

ActlQOO.

Host

Hostess.

Baron

Baronesi.

Lad

Lass (=ladess).

Caterer

Catereas.!

Marquia

Marchioness.

Count

CountesB.

Master

Mistress.

Duke

Duchess.

Mayor

Mayoress.

Emperor

Empress.

^ Murderer

Murderess.

It will be noticed that, besides adding ess^ some of the
letters undergo change or are thrown out altogether.

There are other feminine suffixes of a foreign origin, such as
ine, a» and triz.

(i) Ine is a Greek ending, and is found in lierolne. A similar ending in
landgravine and margravine, the feminines of landgrave (a German
count) and margrave (a lord of the Marie or of marche9\ is German.

(ii) a is an Italian or Spanish ending, and is found in donna (the
feminine of Don, a gentleman), infioita ( — t/^ child, the heiress to the
crown of Spain), snltana, and slgnora (the feminine of Signor, the
Italian for Senior, elder, which we have compressed into Sir).

(iii) triz is a purely Latin ending, and is found only in those words

that have come to us cUrecUyfrom Latin; as testator, testatrix (a person

who has made a will), exectUor, executrix (a person who carries out the

directions of a will).

1 Obsolete.

II. Gbndbr indioated by Prefixes (or by Composition).

13. The distinction between the masculine and the feminine
gender is indicated by using such words as man, maid — bnll,
cow — ^he, she — cock, hen, as prefbces to the nouns men-
tioned. In the oldest English^ carl and cwen ( = queen) were
employed to mark gender ; and carl-fugol is = cock-fowl, cwen-
fugol « hen-f owL

ORAMMAB OF THS ENGLISH LAKGUAGE.

14. The following are the most important words of this
kind: —

Hasculinb.

FEMimvi:.

Masculikb.

Feminine.

Man-servant

Maid-servant.

Bull-calf

Cow-calf.

Man

"Woman ( =

: wife-man).

Cock-sparrow

Hen-sparrrow.

He-goat

She-goat.

Wether-lamb

Ewe-lamb.

He-asB

She-ass.

Pea-cock

Pea-hen.

Jack-asB

Jenny-ass.

Turkey-cock

Turkey-hen.

Buck-rabbit

Doe-rabbil

Tom-cat

Tib-cat.

(i) In the time of Shakespeare, he and she were used as nouns. We
find such phrases as " The proudest he," " The fairest she," '* That not
impossible she."

IIL Gender indicated by Different Words.

15. The use of different words for the masculine and the fem-
inine does not really belong to grammatical gender. It may be
well, however, to note some of the most important : —

Masculine.

Feminine.

Masculine. Feminine.

Bachelor

Spinster.

Husband Wife.

Boy

GirL

King Queen.

Brother

Sister.

Lord Lady.

Foal

Filly.

Monk Nun.

Drake

Duck.

Nephew IQece.

Drone

Bee.

Bam (or Wether) Ewe.

Earl

Countess.

Sir Madam.

Father

Mother.

Sloven Slut.

Gander

Goose.

Son Daughter

Hart

Hind.

Uncle Aunt.

Horse

Mare.

. Wizard Witch.

(i) Bachelor (lit., a cow-boy), from Low Lat. haccalarmt ; from hacca^
Low Lat. for yaoca, a cow. Hence also wicciruUion,

(ii) Oirl, from Low German gSr^ a child, by the addition of the
diminutiye L

(iii) Filly, the dim. of foal, (When a syllable is added, the previous
vowel is often modified : as in cat, Icitten; cock, chicken; cook, kitch,en,)

(iv) Drake, a contraction of ened-rake, from the A.S. enedy a duck.
It has been stated that *' rake " means ** master," but this is quite un-
certain. The word duck simply means the bird that ducks or dives.

(v) Drone, from the droning sound it makes.

(vi) Earl, from A.S. early a warrior. Countess comes from the
French word conUesae.

GENDBB. 15

(vii) T9Xh»r=feeder ; cogDKte of fat, food, feed, fodder, foiter, eto,

(viii) Qoose; in the oldest A.S. gant; Gandr-a (the a being the sign
of the masc.). Hence gander, the d being inserted as a cushion be-
tween n and r, as in thuntler, gender, etc.

(iz) Hart = the homed one.

(z) Mare, the fern, of A.S. metvrh, a horse. Hence also mwrthaL, which
at first meant horse-servant.

(zi) Hosliaiid, from Icelandic, huihondi, the master of the house. A
farmer in Norway is called a tender,

(zii) King, a contraction of A.S. cynlng, son of the kin or tribe.

(ziii) Lord, a contraction of A.S. Utford — from "hMl, a loaf, and
weard, a ward or keeper.

(ziy) Lady, a contraction of A.S. lila^dlge, a loaf-kneader.

(zv) The old A.S. words were nefa, wee.

(zvi) Woman = wife • man. The jtrotmnciaiion of vfomen (vfvmmen)
comee nearer to the old form of the word. See note on (iii)

(zvii) Sir, from LAt. tefUor, elder.

(zviii) Madam, from LAt. Mea domlna (through the French Ha dame)
-Biny lady.

(ziz) Daughter = milker. Connected with dug,

(zz) Wizard, from old French guUcaH, prudent. WUeh has no con-
nection with toizard.

16. All feminine nouns are formed from the masculine, with
four exceptions : bridegroom, 'VTidower, gander, and drake,
which come respectively from bride, widow, goose, and duck.

(i) Bridegroom was in A.S. brydguma=^the bride's man. {Ovma is a
cognate of the Lat. hom-o, a man — whence KumanU/y,)

(ii) Widower. The old masc. was wid/awa ; the fem. widuwe. It was
then forgotten that totduwa was a masculine, and a new masculine had
to be formed from loidmpe.

KUMBBB.

17. Number is, in nouns, the mode of indicating whether we
are speaking of one thing or of more.

18. The English language, like most modem languages, has
two numbers : the singular and the pluraL

Plural.

Singula B.

Plurau

Boxes.

Beef

Beeves.

GttseB.

Loaf

Loaves.

Witches.

Shelf

Shelves.

Heroes.

Staff

Staves.

lAdies.

Thief

Thieves.

16 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(i) Bingnlar come from the Lat. sinfftdi, one by one ; plnral, from
the Lat. plures, more (than one).

(ii) Mr Barnes, the eminent Dorsetshire poet, who wrote an ex-
cellent grammar, called ** Speech-oraft,*' calls them onely and namely.

19. There are three chief ways of forming the plural in
English: —

(i) By adding es or s to the singular,
(ii) By adding en.
(iii) By changing the voVelnaound.

20. First Mode. — ^The plural is formed by adding es or s.
The ending es is a modem form of the old A.S. plural in o^^as
stancLSy stones. The following are examples : —

Binoular.

Box

Gas

\^tch

Hero

Lady

(i) It will he seen that e» in heroes does not add a syllable to the sing.

(ii) Nouns ending in f change the sharp f into a flat ▼, as in beeves^
etc But we say roof a, d\ffa, dwarf a, chiefs, eta

(iii) An old singular of lady was ladie; and this spelling is preserved
in the plural But there has arisen a rule on this point in modem
English, which may he thus stated : —

isr (a) T, with a tow^ before it, is not changed in the plural
Thus we write keys, vaUeys, chlnmeyB, dayv, etc.

(5) T, with a oonaonaiLt before it, is changed into le when 8 is
added for the plural. Thus we write ladiea, rulnea, and also soUUh
guies,

(iy) Beef is not now used as the word for a single ox. Shakespeare
has the phrase " beef-witted "= with no more sense than an ox.

21. Second Mode. — The plural is formed by adding en or
ne. Thus we have oxen, children, brethren, and kine.

(i) Ohildren is a double plural The oldest plural was cUd-r-u, which
became (fliilder. lb was forgotten that this was a proper plural, and en
was added. Brethren is also a double plural En was added to the old
Northern plural brother — the oldest plural being brothr-u.

(ii) Klne is also a double plural of cow. The oldest plural was c^,
and this still existB in Scotland in the form of kye. Then ne was
added.

NUMBER.

22. Tliird Mode. — The plural is formed by ohanging the
vowel-Bound of the word. The following are examples : —

SlNOULAK.

Pluiul.

Bdtoulab.

PLUKiLL.

Man

Men.

Tooth

Teeth.

Foot

Feet.

Mouse

Mice.

Goose

G^eeae.

Louse

Lioe.

(i) To understand this, we must observe that when a new syllable is
added to a word, the vowel of the preceding syllable is often weakened.
Thus we find nfttlon, n&tlonal ; fox, ylzen. Now the oldest plurals of
the above words had an additional syllable ; and it is to this that the
change in the vowel is due.

23. There are in English several nouns with two plural
forms, with different meanings. The following is a list : —

SiNouLAB. Plural.

Brother brothers (by blood)

doth cloths (kinds of cloth)

Die dies (stamps for coining)

FIflh fishes (looked at separately)

GenlUB geniuses (men of talent)

Indeoc indexes (to books)

Pea peas (taken separately)

Penny pennies (taken separately)

Shot shots (separate discharges)

Plubal.
brethren (of a community),
clothes (garments),
dice (cubes for gaming),
fish (taken collectively),
genii (powerful spirits),
indices (to quantities in algebra),
pease (taken collectively),
pence (taken collectively),
shot (balls, collectively)

(jl) Pea is a false singular. The s belongs to the root ; and we find in
Middle English *' as big as a pease," and the plurals pesen and pesei.

24. Some nouns have the same form in the plural as in the
singular. Such are deer, sh3ep, cod, trout, mackerel* and
others.

(i) Most of these nouns were, in Old English, neuter.

(ii) A special plural is found in such phrases as : A troop of horse;
a company of foot ; ten sail of the line; three brace of birds ; six gross of
sUd pens; ten stone weighty etc. In fact, the nameR of numbers,
weights, measures, etc., are not put into the plural form. Thus we say,
ten hundredweight, five score, five fathom, six bra>ce. In Old English we
also said /orfy yea^', sixty Vfinterj and we still say, a twdvemonth, a fort-
night (=%fourteen nights).

25. There are in English several false plurals — that is, real
singulars which look like, and are now used as, plurals. • These
are abns, riches, and eaves.

18 GRAMMAR OF THS SNCLISH LANatTAGE.

(i) llmi ia a compresfled form of the A«S. aalmeiM (which is from the
Greek deSnumme), We find in Acts iii 3, ''an alms." The adjectiye
connected with it is deemosynary.

(ii) Riches comes from the French rldieise.

(iii) Eaves is the modem form of the A«S. •fete, a margin or edge.

26. There are in English several pliiral forms that are re-
garded and treated as singulars. The following is a list : —

Amends. Odds. Smallpox.

GkkllowB. Pains. Thanks.

News. Shambles. Tidings.

(i) Smallpox = small pocks.

27. There are many nouns that, from the nature of the case,
can be used only in the pluraL These are the names of
things (a) That consist of two or more parts ; or (b) That are
taken in the mass.

(a) The following are examples of the first :: —

Bellows. Pincers. Shears. Tweezers.

Drawers. Pliers. Snuffers. Tongs.

Fetters. Soissors. Spectacles. Trousers.

(6) The following are examples of the second : —

Annals. Dregs. Hustings. Oats.

Archiyes. Embers. Lees. Staggers.

Ashes. Entrails. Measles. Stocks.

Billiards. Glanders. ' Mumps. Victuals.

tffT It must be noinced that seyeral nouns — some of them in the
above class — change their meaning entirelj when made pluraL Thus —

SlNQULAR. PlUBAL.

Beef Beeves.

Copper Coppers.

Good Gk>od8.

SnrcuLAB. Plural.

Iron Irons.

Pain Pains.

Spectacle Spectacles.

28. The English language has adopted many foreign plurals.
These, (a) when fully naturalised, make their plurals in the
usual English way ; (b) when not naturalised, or imperfectly,
keep their own proper plurals.

(a) As examples of the first kind, we have —

BandUs, elierubs, dogmas, indexei, memontndumSf foetuei, formulat,
termvnusei, eta

CASE.

(6) As examples of the second, we find —

Singular. Plubal. Binoular.

Animalculum Aninurlcula.

(1) Latin

(2) Greek

Datum

Formula

QenuB

Analysis

Axis

Miasma

(8) French Monsieur

(4) Italian Bandit

Dilettante

(5) Hebrew Cherub

Data.

Formulas.

Genera.

Analyses.

Axes.

Miasmata.

Messieurs.

BandittL
Dilettanti

Cherubim.

Radix
Series
Species
Stratum

Ellipsis

Parenthesis

Phenomenon

Madam

Libretto
Virtuoso

Seraph

PlurJl.
Kadices.
Series.
Species.
Strata.

Ellipses.

Parentheses.

Phenomena.

Mesdames.

LibrettL
Virtuosi.

Seraphim.

(i) The Greek plurals acoustics, ethics, mathematics, optics, politics, etc,
were originally adjectives. We now say logic — ^but logics, which still
survives in the Irish Universities — was the older word.

29. Compounds attach the sign of the plural to the leading
word, especially if that word be a noun. These may be divided
into three classes : —

(a) When the plural sign is added to the Noun, as : sons-in-law^
hangers-on, lookers-on, courts-martial, etc.

(5) When the compound word is treated as one word, as : aUomeif-
generals, major-generals, spoonfuls, handfuU^ etc.

Case.

30. Case is the form given to a noun to show its relation to
other words in the sentence. Our language has lost most of
these forms; but we still use the word case to indicate the
function, even when the form has been lost.

(i) The word case is from the lAtin
eoMU, and means a falling. The old gram-
marians regarded the nominative as the
upright case, and all others as faUvngs
from that. Hence the use of the words
decline and decUnsion, (Of course the
nominative cannot be a real case, because

it is upright, m^ uo^ tk/aUyn^.)

20 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

31. We now employ five cases; Nominative, PosseBBive,
Dativor, Objective, and Vocativa

(i) In Nonns, only one of these ia Inflected, or has a case-ending — the
Poesessiye.

(ii) In Pronouns, the PosseBsive, Dative, and Objective are inflected.
But the inflexion for the Dative and the Objective is the same. Him
and tbem are indeed true Datives : the old inflection for the Objective
was lilne and hi.

32. The following are the definitions of these cases : —

(1) The Nominative Case is the case of the Bubject.

(2) The PoBseBsive Case indicates posseBsion, or some sim-
ilar relation.

(3) The Dative Case is the case of the Indirect Object,
and also the case governed by certain verbs.

(4) The Objective Case is the case of the Direct Object.

(5) The Vocative Case is the case of the person spoken
U>. It is often called the IN'ominative of Address.

(i) Nominative comes from the Lat. nomindre, to name. From the
same root we have nominee.

(ii) Dative comes from the Lat dativiUf given to.

(iii) Vocative comes from the Lat. voaativus^ spoken to or addressed.

33. The Nominative Case answers to the question Who ? or
What P It has always a verb that goes with it, and asserts
something about the subject.

34. The Possessive Case has the ending 'b in the singular ;
's in the plural, when the plural of the noun ends in n ; and '
only when the plural ends in b.

(^r The possessive case is kept chiefly for nouns that are
the names of living beings. We cannot say 'Hhe book's
page'' or "the box's lid," though in poetry we can say "the
temple's roof," etc. There are many points that require to be
specially noted about the possessive : —

(i) The apostrophe (from Qr. apoy away, and ttropkif a turning) stands
in the place of a lost e, the possessive in O.E. having been in many
cases 08. In the last century the printers always put Iwp^d^ walk'd,
etc., for hoped, walked^ etc, The use of the apostrophe is quite modem.

CASE. 21

(li) If the singular noun ends in t, we often, but not always, write
Moaei rod, for eanaeiene^ iaJee, PhxbuM^ fire; and yet we say, and ought
to say, Jones' a books, Wilkvns^s TuU, 8t James's, Chambers's Journal, etc.

(iii) We find in the Prayer-Book, <' For Jesus Christ his sake." This
arose from the fact that the old possessiye in 68 was sometimes written
is ; and hence the corruption into his. Then it came to be fancied tiiat
*% was a short form of his. But this is absurd, for two reasons : —

(a) We cannot say that " the girl's book " Ui=the girl his hook.
(6) We cannot say that " the men's tools *' is=^A« men his tools.

35. How shall we account for the contradictory forms Iiord's-
day and Iiady-day, Thiirs-day and Fri-day, Wedn-es-day and
Mon-day, and for the curious possessiye Witenagemot P

Lady-day and Friday are fragments of old possessiyes. Thus the
possessive of lady was in M.E. ladle (cf. Chaucer, C.T. 88, '*in his
lady grace "= in his lady's favour). So Friday =Frige-daeg (from
A.S. Frige, possessive of Friga, the goddess of lovo), Monday is con-
tracted from Monaiiday, imman being the A.S. poss. of the masc. sb.
mona, the moon. The word wltenagemot means the meet or meeting
of the wltan ( = wise men], the possessive of which was witSna.

36. The Dative Case answers to the question For whom?
or To 'v^hom P It has no separate form for iN'ouns ; and in
Pronouns, its form is the same as that of the Objective. But
it has a very clear and distinct ftmction in modem English.
This function is seen in such sentences as —

(1) He handed the lady a chair.

(2) Make me a boat !

(3) Woe worth the day ! ( = Woe come to the day !)

(4) Heaven send the Prince a better companion !

(5) Heaven send the companion a better Prince !

(6) '^ Sirrah, knock me at this gate,
Eap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly."

(Shakespeare, " Taming of the Shrew," I. iL 31.)

(7) Methought I heard a cry I ( » Meseems.)

(8) Hand me the salt, if you please.

Some grammarians prefer to call this the Oase of the In-
direct Objeot ; but the term will hardly apply to day in (3), to
me in (7), or to you in (8). In all the other sentences, the
dative may be changed into an objective with the prep, to or for.

22 GBAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

(i) In the sixiih sentenoe, the me's are sometimes called £thical
Datives,

(ii) In the seventh sen^nce, methotight ia^meaeems, or U seems to me.
There were in O.E. two yerbs — tkinea/n, to seem ; and th>enc<m, to think

(iii) In the eighth sentence the phrase if you please is -^ if it please
you, and the you is a dative. If the you were a nominative, the phrase
would mean if you are a pleasvng person, or {/ you please me.

37. The Objective Case is always governed by an active-
transitive verb or a preposition. It answers to the question
Whom P or What P It is generally placed after the verb. Its
form is different from that of the Nominative in pronouns ;
but is the same in nouns.

(i) The direct object is sometimes called the reflexive object when
the nominative and the objective refer to the same person — as, " I hurt
mysdf;" " Turn {tJiou) thee, 0 Lord ! " etc.

(ii) When the direct object is akin with the verb in meaning, it is
sometimes called the cognate object. The cognate object is found in
such phrases as : To die the deaih ; to run a race ; to figlU a fi^M, etc

(iii) A second object after such verbs as make, create, appoint, think,
believe, etc. , is often called the factitive object. For example : The
Queen made him a general ; we thought him a good man, etc. The
factitive object "makes up "or complements the sense; without it
the predication would be incomplete. ^

FactUiw comes from the Latin fac&re, to make.

38. The difference between the Nominative and the Vocative

eases is this : The Nominative case muBt always have a verb

with it ; the Vocative cannot have a verb. This is plain from

the sentences : —

(1) John did that,
(ii) Don't do that, John !

39. Two nouns that indicate the same person or thing are
said to be in apposition ; and two nouns in apposition may be
in any case.

(i) But, though the two nouns are in the same case, only one of
them has the sign or inflection of the case. Thus we say, " John the
gardener's mother is dead." Now, both John and gardener are in the
possessive case; and yet it is only gardener that takes the sign of
the possessive.

PRONOUNS. 23

PRONOUNS.

1. A Pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun«
We say, " John went away yesterday ; he looked quite happy."
In this case the pronoun he stands in the place of John.

(i) The word pronoun comes from the Latin proy for ; and nomeni
a name.

(ii) The above definition hardly applies to the pronoun /. If we say
I write, the / cannot have John Smith substituted for it. We cannot
say John Smith write. I, in fact, is the universal pronoun for the
person speaking ; and it cannot be said to stand in place of his mere
ruime. The same remark applies to some extent to thou and you.

2. The pronouns are among the oldest parts of speech, and
have, therefore, been subject to many changea In spite of
fchese changes, they have kept many of their inflexions ; while
our EngHsh adjective has parted with all, .aad our noun with
most.

3. There are four kinds of pronouns: Personal; Inter^
rogative ; Relative ; and Indefinite. The following is a
table, with examples of each: —

PRONOUNa

I ^ \ I

PerBonaL Interrogative. Relative. Indefinite.

I. Who? Wha One.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS.

4. There are three Personal Pronouns : The Personal Pro-
noun of the First Person ; of the Second Person ; and of the
Third Person.

5. The First Personal Pronoun indicates the person speak-
ing; the Second Personal Pronoun, the person spoken to;
and the Third, the person spoken o£

6. The First Personal Pronoun has, of course, no distinc-
tion of gender. It is made up of the following forms, which
are fragments of different words :'^

24 GBAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

BnrouLAB.

Plural.

NamifuUive

We.

Pot$easive

Mine (or My)

Our {or Ours).

Dative

Us.

Objective

Us.

(i) We is not = I + 1 ; because there can be only one / in all the world
We is really=I + he, I + you, or I + they.

(ii) / can have no vocative as such. If you address yourself, you
must say Thou or Ton.

(iii) The dative is preserved in such words and phrases as ''He
tlilnks " C it seems to me" — where the think comes from thincan, to
seem, and not from (heneetn, to think); ''Woe is me;" "He-lists (it
pleases me) ; " " If you please," etc.

7. The Second Personal Pronoun has no distinction of
gender. It has the following forms : —

SmOUbAJU

Plural.

NomifMtive

Thou

You (or Ye).

Poetessive

Thine (or Thy)

Your {or Yours).

Dative

Thee

You.

Objective

Thee

You.

Vocative

Thou

You {or Ye).

(i) Te was the old nominative plural; yon was always dative or
objective. " Ye have not chosen me ; but I have chosen you."

(ii) Thon was, from the 14th to the 17th century, the pronoun of
affection, of familiarity, of superiority, and of contempt. This is still
the usage in France of tu and toL Hence the verb tutoyer,

(iii) Hy, Thy, Onr, Tour are used along with nouns; Hine, Tblne
Oom, and Tours cannot go with nouns, and they are always used alone.
Mine and Tliine, however, are used in Poetry and in the English Bible
with nouns which begin with a vowel or silent A.

8. The Third Personal Pronoun requires distinctions of
gender, because it is necessary to indicate the sex of the person
we are talking of ; and it has them.

SnrOULAR.

PLUKAT4.

ICasculink.

FBioiriNt.

NXUTXR.

All Okmdkrs.

Nom.

She

They.

Poe$,

His

Her {or Hers)

Its

Their (or Theirs).

Dot.

Him

Her

Them.

Obj.

Him

Her

Them.

mTSSHROGAl'lVE tBONOTJNS. 26

(i) She is really the feminine of the old demonstnitiye ae, teo, thaet j
and it has supplanted the old A.S. pronoun h,eo, which still exists in
Lancashire in the form of Jioo.

(ii) The old and proper dative of It is him. The old neuter of lie was
bit, the t being the inflection for the neuter (still used in Scotland).

(iii) Flm, the dative, came to be also used as the objective. The
oldest objective was hlne.

9. The Personal Pronouns are often used as Seflexive
Pronouns. Keflexive Pronouns are (i) datives ; or (ii) objec-
tives ; or (iii) compounds of self with the personal pronoun.
For example : —

(i) Dative : " I press me none but good householders," said by Fal-
staff, in " King Henry IV.," I. iv. 2, 16.

" I made me no more ado," I. it 4, 223.

"Let every soldier hew him down a bough." — Macbeth, V. iv. 6.

(ii) ObJecUye : Shakespeare has such phrases as / whipt me ; I disrobed
me; I have lemmed m^. In modem English, chiefly in poetry, we have :
He tat him down; Oct thee hevice I etc.

(iii) Compounds : / hethofwghJb myzdf ; He wronged himtdf; etc

• INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.

10. The Interrogative Pronouns are those pronouns which
we use in asking questions. They are who, which, what, and
whether.

(i) The word interrogative comes from the lAtin interrogdre, to ask.
Hence also interrogation, interrogatory, etc

11. Who is both masculine and feminine, and is used only of
persons. Its neuter is what. (The t in what, as in that, is
the old sufl&x for the neuter gender.) The possessive is whose ;
the objective whom. The following are the forms : —

SlNOULAB AND PlUBAL.

IfAScuLnac.

FXMIinKE.

Nbutxs.

Nominative

Who

What.

Pometnve

Whose

[Whose.]

OlieoHve

Whom

What

26 OKAMHtAB 0^ THS fiKonSH LANGtTAGfii.

(i) Who-m is veally a dative, like bl-m. But we now use it only as an
objective.

(ii) WbOBe may be used of neuters ; but it is almost invariably em-
ployed of persons only.

12. Which — formerly hwilc — is a compound word, made up
of hwi, the instr. case of the Old English hwa, who, and
lie = like. It therefore really means, Of what sort? It now
asks for one out of a number j as, " Here are several kinds of
fruits : which will you have 1 " '

13. Whether is also a compound word, made up ^i who +
ther ; and it means, Which of the two ?

(i) The ther in whether is the same as the ther in neUher, etc.

EELATIVE OR CONJUNCTIVE PRONOUNS.

14. A Relative Pronoun is a pronoun which possesses two
functions : (i) it stands for a noun ; and (ii) it joins two sen-
tences together. That is to say, it is both a pronoun and a con-
junction. For example, we say, " This is the man whose apples
we bought" This statement is made up of two sentences : (i)
"This is the man;" and (ii) "We bought his apples." The
relative pronoun whose joins together the two sentences.

(i) Relative Pronouns might also be called oonjunctive pronoimg.

(ii) Whose, in the above sentence, is called relative, because it relates
to the word man, Man is called its anteoedent, or goer-before.
The word antecedent comes trom the Lat. ante, before ; and eedOj I go.

15. The Relative Pronouns are that; who, which; what.
As and but are also employed as relatives.

(i) Who, which, and what are also combined with so and ever, and
form Compound Relatives; such as whoso, whosoever, whatsoever,
and whichsoever.

(ii) That is the oldest of our relative pronouns. It is really the neuter
of the old demonstrative adj., te, teo, thaet. It differs from who in two
respects : {a) It cannot be used after a preposition. We cannot say,
** This is the man with that I went." (6) It is generally employed to
limit, distinguish, and define. Thus we say, " The house that I built is
for sale." Here the sentence thoit I buUt is an adjective, limiting or de-
fining the noun hotisc Hence it has been called the defining relative.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 27

Who or which may introduce a new fact about the antecedent ; that
only marks it oflf from other nouns.

(ui) Who has whose and whom in the possessive and objective — ^both
in the singular and in the plural

(iv) Which is not to be regarded as the neuter of who. It is the form
used when the antecedent is the name of an animal or thing. After a
preposition, it is sometimes replaced by where; as wherem = in which ;
whereto — to which,

(v) What performs the function of a composite pronoun =that + which.
If we examine its function in different sentences, we shall find that it
may be equivalent to —

(a) Two Nominatives ; as in * This is what he is " (=the person that).

(6) Two Objectives ; as in " He has what he asked for " ( = the thing that)L

{d) Obj. and Nom.; as in " I know what he is " (=the person that).

(vi) As is the proper relative after the adjectives such and same. As
is, however, properly an adverb. " This is the same as I had " is= " This
is the same as tJuU which I had."

(vii) But is the proper relative after a negative ; as " There was no
man but would have died for her." Here hut = who + not. (This is
like the Latin use of quin « qm + ne),

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.

16. An Indefinite Pronoun is a pronoun that does not stand
in the place of a noun which is the name for a definite person
or thing, but is used vaguely, and without a distinct reference.

17. The chief Indefinite Pronouns are one, none; any;
other; and some.

(i) One is the best instance of an indefinite pronoun. It is simply the
cardinal one used as a pronoun. In O.E. we used man; and we still find
one example in the Bible — Zech. xiu. 5 : " Man taught me to keep cattle
from my youth." One, as an indefinite pronoun, has two peculiarities.
It (a) can be put in the possessiye case; and (6) can take a plural
form. Thus we can say : (a) " One can do what one likes with one's own ; "
and (6) " I want some big ones."

(ii) None is the negative of one. " None think the great unhappy
but the great." But none is mostly plural. No (the adjective) is a
short form of none; as a is of on; and my of mine.

(iii) Any is derived from an, a form of one. It may be used as an
adjective also — either with a singular or a plural noun. When used as a
pronoun, it is generally plural

28 GRAMMAB 07 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(iy) OtlMT 18 — an t]i«r. The t!hM is the same as that in either,
whether; and it always indicates that one of two is taken into the
mind.

(y) Some is either singular or plural It is singular in the phrase
Some one; in all other instances, it is a plural pronoun.

ADJECTIVES.

1. An Adjective is a word that goes with a noun to describe
or point out the thing denoted by the noun — and hence to limit
the appKcation of the noun ; or, more simply, —

AcUectives are noun-marking -words.

(i) Adjectives do not assert explicitly, like yerbs. They assert Un-
l^lldfly. Hence they are Implicit predicates. Thus, if I say, " I met
three old men/' I make three statements : (1) I met men ; (2) The men
were old; (3) The men were three in number. But these statements
are not explicitly made.

(ii) Adjectives enlarge the content, birt limit the extent of the idea
expressed by the noun. Thus when we say "whUe horses/' we put a
larger content into the idea of horse; but, as there are fewer whiU
horses than horses, we limit the extent of the notion.

2. An adjective cannot stand by itsel£ It must have with
it a noun either expressed or understood. In the sentence
"The good are happy," persons is understood after good,

3. Adjectives are of four kinds. They are (i) Adjectives of
Quality; (ii) Adjectives of Quantity; (iii) Adjectives of
!N'umber ; (iv) Demonstrative Adjectives. Or we may say, —
Adjectives are divided into

ADJECTIVES

l_ I I ^

Qnalltatiye. Qoftntltatlve. Nnmberlng. Demoiistrativo.

These four answer, respectively, to the questiojis —
(i) Of wliAtsort? (ii) How much? (iii) How many? (iy) Wlilch?

4. Qualitative Adjectives denote a quality of the subject or
thing named by the noun; such as blue, white; happy ^ sad;
Ugy little,

(!) The word sKoZifarfiM oomes from the Lat. qmiismot what sort
(ii) Mott of these adjectivei admit of degrees of oGmpariMii.

ADJEcnvss. 29

5. QoantitatiTe Adjectiyes denote either qiuuitily or in-
definite number ; and they can go either (i) with the singxdar,
or (ii) with the plural of nouns, or (iii) with both. The follow-
ing is a list : —

Any. Certam. Few. Much. Some.

AIL Diyero. little. No. Whole.

Both. Enough. Many. SereraL

(i) We find the phrases : LiUU need; UUU wool; muehpUature; more
Bense; tome deep^ etc.

(ii) We find the phrases : AU men; isny per$ont; hath boyi; teveral
poundt, etc.

(iii) We find the phrases: Any man and any men; no man and no
men; enough com and »oldier» enough; some hoy and aome hoys, etc.

6. Numbering or Numeral Adjectives express the number of
the things or persons indicated by the noun« They are generally
divided into Cardinal Numerals and Ordinal Numerala
But Ordinal ^Numerals are in reality Demonstrative Adjectives.

(i) Numeral comes from the Lat. numeruSf a number. Hence also
come numerous, numerieal, and wumher (the 6 serves as a cushion between
the m and the r).

(ii) fJanllTial comes from the Lai eardo, a hinge.

(iii) Ordinal comes from the Lat ordo, order.

7. Demonstrative Adjectives are those which are used to
point out the thing expressed by the noun ; and, besides indi-
cating a person. or thing, they also indicate a relation either to
the speaker or to something else.

(I) Demonstrative comes from the Lat. demonstro, I point out. From the same
root come monster, monstrout, ke,

8. Demonstrative Adjectives are of three kinds : (i) Articles ;
(ii) Adjective Pronouns (often so called) ; and (iii) the Ordinal
H'umerals.

(i) There are two artietos (better call them dlsttsgniBhing a<Ueotlv«s)
in our language : a and the. a is a broken-down form of ane, the
northern form of one; and before a vowel or silent li it retains the n.
In some phrases a has its old sense of one; as in '^ two of a trade ; " "all
of a siee," etc.

"An two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind."

Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing, III. v. iO)b

30 QBAMMAR OF THE EKGLISH LAKGUAGE.

(ii) We must be careful to diatingulBh the article a from the broken*
down preposition a in the phrase ** twice a week/' This latter a is a
fragment of on; and the phrase in O.E. was "tuwa on wucan." Simi-
larly, the in " the book " is not the same as t^ in " the more ihe merrier."
The latter is the old ablative of timet; and is=b7 that.

(iii) Adjectiye Pronomui or Pronominal AdJectlYeB are so called be-
cause they can be used either as adjectives with the noim, or as
pronouns for the noun. They are divided into the following four
classes: —

(a) DemonstratiYe Adjeottve Pronouns — This, these ; that, those ;
yon, yonder.

(6) Interrogatiye Adjectiye Pronouns — ^Which? what! whether (of
the two) ? — as in ''whether side ? " (now an archaic use).

{d) PoBsesBlYe Adjectiye Pronouns — My, thy, his, her, etc. (These
words perform a double function. They are adjectives, because they
go with a noun ; and pronouns, because they stand for the noun oi
name of the person speaking or spoken of.)

(iv) The Ordinal Numerals are : First, second, third, etc

9. Some adjectives are used as nouns, and therefore take a
plural form. Thus we have Eomans, Christians, superiors,
elders, ones, others, nobles, etc. Some take the form of the
possessive case, as either^s, netther^s.

(i) The plural of one as an adjective is two, three, ett, ; of one as a
noun, ones. Thus we can say, " These are poor strawberries, bring me
better ones" Other numeral adjectives may be used as nouns. Thus
Wordsworth, in one of his shorter poems, has —

''The sun has long been set ;

The stars are out by twos and threes ;
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bashes and trees."

(ii) Our language is very whimsical in this matter. We can say
Romans and Italians; but we cannot say Frenches and Dutches, Milton
has (Paradise Lost, in. 438) Chineses,

NUMERALS.

10. Cardinal Numerals are those which indicate numbers
alone. Some of them are originally nouns, as dozen, hun-
dred, thousand, and million/ but these may also be used as
adjectivea

NUMERALS. 31

(i) One was in A.S. an or one. The pronunciation wun is from a west-
ern dialect. It is still rightly sounded in its compounds atone, alone,
Umdy. None and no are the negatives of one and o (=an and a).

(ii) Two, from A.S. twegan maa. ; twa fenL The form twegen appears
in tVHM/n and twin, the g having been absorbed.

(iii) Eleven = en (one) + llf (ten). Twelve = twe (two) + Uf (ten).

(iv) Tlilrteen= three + ten. The r has shifted its place, as in third,

(v) Twenty =twen (two) + tig (ten). Tig is a noun, meaning "a set
of ten." The guttural was lost^ and it became ty,

(vi) Score, from A.S. acera/n, to cut. Accounts of sheep, cattle, etc.,
were kept by notches on a stick ; and the twentieth notch was made
deeper, and was called the cut — the score.

11. Ordinal Numerals are Adjectives of Relation formed
mostly from the Cardinals. They are : First, Second, Third,
Fourth, etc.

(i) First (A.S. fyrst) is the super!, of fore, with vowel change.

(ii) Second is not Eng. but lAtin. The O.E. for teij^nd was other.
Second comes (through French) from the Latin, tecunduSf following—
that is, following the first. A following or favourable breeze (" a wind
that follows fast ") was called by the Romans a ^' secundus ventus."
Secundus comes from Lat. sequor, I follow. Other words from the
same root are teqttd, consequence^ 'etc.

(iii) Third, by transposition, from A.S. thridda, A third part was
called a thriding (where the r keeps its right place) ; as a fourth part
was a fourthing or farthing. Thriding was gradually changed into Riding y
one of the three parts into which Yorkshire was divided.

(iv) In elgli-tli, as in eigh-teen, a t has vanished, though still sounded.

THE INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES.

12. The modem English adjective has lost all its old inflexions
for gender and case, and retains only two for ntunber. These
two are these (the plural of this) and those (the plural of that),

(i) The older plural was thise — ^pronounced these, and then so spelled.
In this instance, the spelling, as so seldom happens, has followed the
pronunciation. In general in the English language, the spelling and the
pronunciation keep quite apart, and have no influence on each other.

(ii) Those was the oldest plural of this, but in the 14th century it
came to be accepted as the plural of that.

32 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

13. Most acyectives are now inflected for purposes of com-
pajrison only.

14. There are three Degrees of Comparison: the Posi-
tive ; the Comparative ; and the Superlative.

(i) The word degree comes from the French degri^ which itself comes
from the Latin grad/at^ a step. From the same root come grade, gradr
ual, degrade, etc.

15. The Positiye Degree is the simple form of the adjec-
tive.

16. The Comparative Degree is that form of the adjective
which shows that the quality it expresses has been raised one
step or degree higher. Thus we say sharp^ sharper ; cold,
colder; brave, braver. The comparative degree brings together
only two ideas. Thus we may speak of " the taller of the two,"
but not " of the three."

Compar^tlTe comes from the Lat. comp&ro, I bring together.

17. The Comparative degree is formed in two ways : either
(i) by adding er to the positive ; or (ii) if the adjective has more
than two syllables, and in the case of most dissyllabic adjectives
ending in a consonant, with the help of the adverb more.

Rnucs : I. A silent e is dropped ; as brave, braver,

II. A y after a consonant is changed into 1 before er, etc. ; as
happy, happier,

III. A final consonant after a short vowel is doubled ; as red,
redder; cruel, crueller,

IV. In choosing between er and more, sound and custom seem to
be the safest guides. Thus we should not say eelecter, but more select ;
hut plea^anter is equally as good as more pleasant, Carlylehas beauti-
fullest, etc. ; but his is not an example to be followed.

18. The Superlative Degree is that form of the adjective
which shows that the quality it expresses has been raised to the
highest degree. The superlative degree requires that three
things, or more, be compared. Thus "He is the tallest of the
two " would be incorrect.

Qaperlative comes from the Lat. tuptrlativw, lifting up above.

ADJECTIVES.

19. The Superlative degree is formed in two ways : either (i)
by adding est to the positive ; or (ii) if the adjective has more
than two syllables, and in the case of most adjectives of two
syllables ending in a consonant, by using the adverb most.

(i) Sappiest, (ii) Most recent ; most beauti/iU,

20. Some adjectives, from the very nature of the ideas they
express, do not admit of comparison. Such are golden, wooden;
lefty right; square, triangular; weekly, monthly; eternal, per-
pettud, etc.

2L The most frequently used adjectives have irregular
comparisons. The following is a list : —

POB-

COM-

Super-

Pos-

Com-

Super-

rnvK.

PARATIVIB.

LATIVS.

itive.

parative.

lative.

Bad

worse

worst.

Late

later

latest.

Evil

worse

worst.

Late

latter

last.

Til

worse

worst.

Little

less

least

Far

farther

farthest.

Many

most

[Forth]

further

furthest

Much

most.

Fore

former

foremost.

Nigh

nigher

nighest (next).

Good

better

best.

Old

older

oldest.

Hind

hinder

hindmost.

Old

elder

eldest

[Rathe] rat

her

[rathest.]

(i) Worse and worst come, not from bad, but from the root tears, to
twist ( Waa* comes from the same root. ) The s in worse is a part of the
root ; and the full comparative is really worser, which was used in the
16th century (Shakespeare, "Hamlet," III. iv. 157). Worst =w(yrsest,

(ii) The til in farther is intrusive. Fwrther is formed on a false anal<
ogy viiih further ; as eould (from can) is with wovld (from wiU). Far^
iher is used of progression in space; further, of progression in rearming.

(iii) Former was in A.S. forma (= first). It is a comparative sense made
from an old superlative.

(iv) Better comes from A.S. 6c^=good — a root which was found in
hetan, to make good, and in the phrase to hoot=" to the good."

(v) Later and latest refer to time ; latter and last to position in
space or in a series. Last is as by assimilation from latst ; as best is from
betst.

(vi) Less does not come from the lit in little; but from A.S, laSs-sa,
from the base las, weak. Least =laese8t.

(vii) Nighest is contracted into next ; as highest was into hext. Thus
2rh + 8=k+8=x.

34 GKAJiMAR OF THS; ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(viii) We say '' the oldest man that ever lived, " and " the eldest of
the family." Older and oldest refer to mere number ; elder and eldest
to a family or corporate group.

(iz) Bathe is still found in poetry. Milton has *' the rathe primrose,
that forsaken dies ; " and Coleridge, " twin buds too rathe to bear the
winter's unkind air." The Irish pronunciation raytker is the old Eng-
lish pronunciation.

(z) Hind is used as an adjective in the phrase " the hind wheels."

22. The following are defective comparatives and superla-
tives : —

Positive. Comparativk. Supkrlativi.

[Aft] after

[In] inner innermost.

[Out] *" outer (or utter) outermost (or uttermost).

nether nethermost.

over

[Up] upper uppermost.

(i) After, as an adjective, is found in aftermathy afterthought^ etc.

(ii) In is used as an adjective in the word in- side; and as a noun in
the phrase " the ins and outs " of a question.

(iii) In the inns of law, the utter-bar (outer-bar) is opposed to the
Inner-bar.

(iv) The neth in nether is the same as the neatli in heneaZK

(v) The OY in over is the ove in above, and is a dialectic form of up.
It is still found in such names as Over Leigh in Cheshire, and Over
Da/rwen in Lancashire.

(vi) Hindmost, uttermost, are not compounds of most, but are
double superlatives. There was an old superlative ending ema, which
we see in Lat. extrewuSy supremu^s, etc It was forgotten that this was
a superlative, and est or ost was added. Thus we had hindema, mid'
ema^ These afterwards became hindmott and midmost

THE VERB.

1. The Verb is that "part of speech" by means of which
we make an assertion.

It is the keystone of the arch of speech.

(i) The word verb comes from the Lat. verbum, a word. It is so
called because it is the word in a sentence. If we leave the verb ou^
of a sentence, all the other words become mere nonsense. Thus we can

THE VERB.

Bay, " I saw him crofls the bridge." Leave out wa/w, and the other words
have no meamng whatever.

(ii) A verb has sometimeB been called a telUnir word, and this is a
good and simple definition for young learners.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS.

2. Verbs are divided into two classes — Transitive and
Intransitive.

3. A TraositiTe Verb denotes an action or feeling whicli,

as it were, passes over from the doer of the action ,to the

object of it. " The boy broke the stick j " " he feUed the

tree ; " " he hates walking."

In these sentences we are able to think of the aetton of breakiiig and
foUlng as pasiing over to the stick and the tree.

TrcmsUive comes firom the Lat verl> tranAn, to pass over.

The more correct definition is this : —

A Transitive Verb is a verb that requires an object.

This definition covers the instances of have, <yum, possess, inherit, etc.,
as well as break, strike, fdi, etc.

4. An Intraasitive Verb denotes a state, feeling, or action
which does not pass over, but which terminates in the doer oi
agent. " He sleeps ; " " she walks ; " " the grass grows."

5. There is, in general, nothing in the look or appearance
of the verb which will enable us to tell whether it is transitive
or intransitive. A transitive verb may be used intransitively ;
an intransitive verb, transitively. In a few verbs we possess
a causative form. Thus we have : —

XHT&AirSITXVS.

Oausativx

iNTRANSrnVK.

Oausativx.

Bitei

Bait.

Quail

Quell

Deemi

Doom (verb).

Quoth

Bequeathe.

Drmki

Drench.

Rise

Raise.

Fall

Fell.

Sit

Set.

Lie

Lay.

Watch 1

Wake.

1 These are also used transitively.

The following exceptional usages should be diligently

poted : —

L Intransitive verbs may be used transitively. Thus —

^i) (a) He walked to London, (6) He walked his horse.

\a) The eagle flew. ^ (6) The boy flew his kite.

36 GRAMMAR OF THK ENGLISH LANGUAGB.

(ii) When the intransitive verb is compounded with a pre-
position either (i) separable, or (ii) inseparable.

(i) (a) He laughed. (b) He Imighed-ftt me.

(ii) (a) He came. (6) He overoame the enemy.

(iii) (a) Hft spoke. (5) He beepoke a pair of boofcs.

Suck verlM are sometimei called " Frepoiitioiial Verbs."

II. Transitive verbs may be used intransitively —
(i) With the pronoun itself understood : —

(a) He broke the dish. (5) The sea breaks on the rocks,

(a) She shut the door. (5) The door shut suddenly.

(a) They moved the table. (6) The table moved.

(ii) When the verb describes a fact perceived by the senses : —

(a) He cut the beef. (6) The beef cuts tough,

(a) He sold the books. (6) The books sell welL

(a) She smells the rose. (6) The rose smells sweefc.

The following is a tabular view of the

KINDS OF VEItBS.

INTRAKSITIVE. TRANSITIVE.

I — ' — I I — ^ — I

Of State. Of aotion. Active. Passive.

(Sleep.) (Bun.) (Wound.) (Bs Yronnded.)

THE INFLEXIONS OF VERBS.

6. Verbs are changed or modified for Voicd» Mood, Tense,
iErtunber, and Person. These changes are expressed, partly by
inflexion, and partly by the use of auxiliary verbs.

(i) A verb is an auxiliary veil) (from Lat. a/WDUvumy aid) when its
own full and real meaning drops out of tigJU, and it aids or helps the
verb to which it is attached to express Us meaning. Thus we say, " He
works hard that he may gain the prize ; " and here may has not its old
meaning of power, or its present meaning of permission. But —

(ii) If we say " He may go/' here may is not used as an anzQlaiT,
but is a BOtlMial verb, with its full msaning; and the sentence is=
** He ha* leaTe to go.'

THE VEKB. 37

VoicaiL

7. Voice is tiiat form of the Yerb by which we dhow
whether the subject of the statement denotes the doer of the
action, or the object of the action, expressed by the verb.

8. There are two Voices : the Active Voice, and the Faasive
Voice.

(i) When a verb is used in the actlye TOlce,

the subject of the sentence stands for

the doer of the action. '* He killed the mouse."

(ii) When a verb is in the pasaiTe yeice, .

the subject of the sentence stands for

the object of the action. ** The mouse was killed."

Or we may say that, in the i>assive voloe
the gTammatical subject denotes the real
object

(iii) There is in English a kind of middle TOioe. Thus we can say,
"He opened the door" (actiye); "The door was opened" (passive);
" The door opened " (middle). In the same way we have, " This wood
cuts easily ; " " Honey tastes sweet ; " " The book sold well," etc

9. An Intransitive Verb, as it can have no direct object,
cannot be used in the passive voice. But, as we have seen,
we can make an intransitive into a transitive verb by adding
a preposition ; and hence we can say : —

AonvE. Fassiyb.

(a) They laughed at him. (6) He was laughed at by them.

(a) The general spoke to him. (&) He was spoken to by the general.

IOl In changing a verb in the active voice into the passive,
we may make either (i) the direct or (ii) the indirect object
into the subject of the passive verb.

AcnviE. Passiys.

1. They offered her a chair. (i) A chair was offered her.

(ii) She was offered a chair.

2. They showed him the house. (i) The house was shown him.

(ii) He was shown the house.

3. I promised the boy a coat. (i) A coat was promised the boy.

(ii) The boy was promised a coat.

The object after the pasRive verb ia not the real oliject of that verb, for
a pMsive verb cannot rightly take an otject. It is 2</t ovmr, as it were, firom the
acttTe verb, and is henee sometimes called a Retained or Hesidnary Object.

38 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

11. The pa4MdYe voice of a verb is formed by using a pan
of the verb to be and the past participle of the verb. Thus
we say —

AcnVB. Passiye. Actiyb. s. PAflcnyc.

I beat. I am beaten. I have beaten. I have been beaten.

(i) Some IntraiiBitiTe yerbe form their perfect tenses by means of the
verb to be and their past participle, as '' I am come ; " '' He is gone."
But the meaning here is quite different^ There is no mark of anything
done to the subject of the verb.

(ii) Shakespeare has the phrases: is run; is arrived; are marehed
forth ; is entered into ; is stolen away.

Mood.

12. The Mood of a verb is the manner in which the state-
ment made by the verb is presented to the mind. Is a
statement made directly? Is a command given? Is a state-
ment subjoined to another] Ail these are different moods or
modes. There are four moods : the Indicative ; the Impera-
tive ; the Subjunctive ; and the Infinitive. %

(i) IndloatlYe comes from the Lat indiedre, to point out.

(ii) Imperative comes from the Latw vmperdre, to command. Hence
also emperor, empress, etc. (through French).

(iii) Snbjnnotive comes from Lat^ subjung}Sre, to join on ta

(iy) Infinitive comes from Lat vr^Uiis, unlimited ; because the verb
in this mood is not limited by person or by number.

13. The Indicative Mood makes a direct assertion, or puts
a question in a direct mannes. Thus we say : ** John is ill ; "
"Is John iU?"

14. The Imperative Mood is the mood of command,
request, or entreaty. Thus we say : " Go ! " " Give me the
book, please ; " " Do come back ! "

(i) The Imperative Mood is the simple form of the verb without any i

inflexion. '

I
(fi) It has in reality only one person— the second.

15. The Subjunctive Mood is that form of the verb whi<ih i
is used mainly in . a sentence subjoined to a principal

THE VERR 39

sentence, — and which does not express a fact directly, but
only the relation of a fact to the mind of the speaker.
Most often it expresses both doubt and futurity. Thus we
say: (i) "O that he were here!" (ii) "Love not sleep, lest
thou come to poverty.*' (iii) "Whoever he he, he cannot be
a good man."

(i) In the first sentence, the person is not here.

(ii) In the second, the person spoken to has not come to poverty ;
but he may.

(iii) In the third, we do not know who the person really is.

(iv) The Subjunctive Mood is rapidly dying out of use in modern
English.

16. The Infinitive Mood is that form of the verb which
has no reference to any agent,' and is therefore unlimited by
per^n, or by number. It is the verb itself, pure and simple.

(i) The preposition to is not an essential part nor a necessary sign of
the infinitive. The oldest sign of it was the ending in an. After may,
ecm, shall, vnU, must, hid, dare, doy let, make, hear, see, fed, need, the
simple infinitive, without to, is still ui&ed.

(ii) The Infinitive is really a noun, and it may be (a) either in the
nominative or (6) in the obj. case. Thus we have : (a) " To err is
human ; to forgive, divine ; " and (6) " I wish to go."

(iii) In O.E. it was partly declined ; and the dative case ended
in anne or enne. Then to was placed before this dative, to indicate
purpose. Thus we find, ** The sower went out to sow," when, in O.E.
to sow was to somenne. This, which is now called the gerundial infinitive,
has become very common in English. Thus we have, "I came to see
you ;" "A house to let." "To hear him (= on hearing him) talk, you
weuld think he was worth millions."

(iv) We must be careful to distinguish between {a) the pure InflnltlYe
and (&) the gerundial InflnltlYe. Thus we say —

(a) I want to see him. (6) I went to see him. The latter is the
gerundial infinitive — ^that is, the old dative.

(1) Bread to eat; water to drmk; a house to sell,

(2) Wonderful to rdate; quick to take offence; eager to go,

17. A Qenind is a noun formed from a verb by the addition
of ing. It may be either (i) a subject ; or (ii) an object ; or

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(iii) it may be governed by a preposition. It has two functions ;
tliat of a noun, and that of a verb — that is, it is itself a noun,
and it hoB the governing power of a verb.

(i) Reading books is pleasant, (ii) I like reading books, (iii) He
got off by crossing the river. In this last sentence, crossing is a noun
in relation to by, and a verb in relation to river.

The chief modern distinction between a gerund and a verbal noun is
that the gerund (if of a transitive verb) governs an object ; the verbal
noun cannot govern an object under any circumstances, and it is
generally preceded by ** the" and followed by ** of."

(ii) The Genmd must be carefully distinguished from three other
kinds of words : (a) from the verbal noim, which used to end in tmg ;
(6) from the present pariieiple ; and (c) from the infinitive with ta
The following are examples: —

(a) " Forty and six years was this tem-
ple in building." Here buiULing is a
verbal noun.

(b) "Dreaming as he went along, he
fell into the brook." Here d/naming is
an adjective agreeing with ^, and is there,
fore a participle.

(c) "To write is quite easy, when one
has a good pen." Here to vnite is a pres-
ent infinitive, and is the nominative to i».
(It must not be forgotten that the oldest
infinitive had no to, and that it still exists
in this pure form in such lines as " Better
d/wM in the midst of alarms, than reign
in this horrible place."

(a) "He was pimlshed for robbing the
orchard." Here roVbing is a gerund, be-
cause it i« a noun and also governs a noun.

Q)) "He was tired of dreaming «uch
dreams." Here dreoming is a gerund,
because it i« a noun and giywrns a noun.

(e) " He comes here to write his letters.''
Here towrUe is the gerundial infinitive;
it is in the dative case; and the O.K
form was to vnitanne. Here the to hai
a distinct ftinction. This is the so*
called "infinitive of purpose;" but it is
a true gerund. In the seventeenth cen-
tury, when the sense of the to was weak-
ened, it took a for, — "What went ye out
fortoseeT*

(iii) The following three words in iaig have each a special function : —
(a) He is reading about the passing of Arthur (verbal noun).
(6) And Arthur, pcusing thence (participle), rode to the wood.
*c) This is only good for passing the time (genmd).

18i A Participle is a verbal adjective. There are two par-
ticiples : the Present Active and the Perfect Passive. The
former (i) has two functions : that of an adjective alid that
of a verb. The latter (ii) has only the function of an adjective.

(i) '' Hearing the noise, the porter ran to the gate." In this sentence^
hearing is an adjective qualifying porter, and a verb governing n<nse.

(ii) Defeated and discouraged, the enemy surrendered.

tS' 1. We must be very careful to distinguish between (a) the genmd in
ing, and (6) the partielj(de in ing. Thus running in a '' running stream **

THS VERB. 41

is an adjective, and therefore a participle. In the sentence, "he was bnrt
in running the race," it is a noun, and therefore a gerund. Milton says —

** And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs ! "

Here eaMmg is an adjectiYe, and means fretting ; and it is therefore a
participle. But if it had meant cores about eating, eating would have
been a noun, and therefore a gerund. So a fithvng-rod is not » rtd
that fishes; a frying-pan is not a pa/n that fries; a wdtking-stieh is not
a stick that walks. The rod is a rod for fishing ; the pan, a pan for
frying; the stick, a stick for walki/ng ; and therefore fishing, frying,
and walking are aU gerunds.

2. The word participle comes from Liat. partieipdre, to partake ol
The participle partakes of the nature of the vfirh. (Hence also par-
ticipate,)

Tense.

19. Tense is the form which the verb takes to indicate time.

There are, in human life, three times : past, present, and

future. Hence there are in a verb three chief tenses : Fast,

Present, and Future. These may be represented on a

straight line: —

TENSES.

I i 1

Past VresaiLt Fntara.

I wrote. I write. I shall write.

(i) The word tense comes to us from the French temps, which is from
the Lat. tempos, time. Hence also temporal, temporary, etc. (The modem
French word is temps; the old French word was tens.)

20. The tenses of an English verb give not only the time of
an action or event, but also the state or condition of that
action or event This state may be complete or incomplete,
or neither — that is, it is left indeflnita These states are
oftener called perfect, imperfect, and indefinite. The con-
dition, then, of an action as expressed by a verb, or the con-
dition of the tense of a verb, may be of three kinds. It may
be—

(i) Complete or Perfect, as Written.

(ii) Incomplete or Imperfect, as Writing,
(iii) Indefinite, as Write.

42 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

We now have therefore —

TENSES.

Past.

I
Fating.

Perfict. Indef. Imperf. PerJM. Indef. Imperf. Perfect. Indtf. Imperf.

Had Wrote. Was Haye Write. Am Shall ShaU Shall be

written. writing. written. writing. have write, writing.

written.

(i) The only tense in our language that is formed by inflexion is the
past indefinite. All the others are formed by the aid of auziHaries. .
(a) The imperfect tenses are formed by be + the imperfect

participle.
(6) The perfect tenses are formed by baye + the perfect par-
ticiple.

(ii) Besides had written, Jiave toritten, and wUl have written, we can say
had been writimg, have been writing, and wiU have been writing. These
are sometimes called Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Ck)ntlnnoii8, Perfect
Gontlnnons, and Fatore Perfect Oontlnnoiu.

(iii) '' I do write/' " I did write," are called Emphatic forms.

ITUMBER.

21. Verbs are modified for Nnmber. There are in verbs
two numbers : (i) the Singular and (ii) the FluraL

(i) "We say, ** He writes '* (with the ending s).

(ii) "We say, " They write " (with no inflectional ending at all).

Person.

22. Verbs are modified for Person — ^that is, the form of the
verb is changed to suit (i) the first person, (ii) the second
person, or (iii) the third person.

(i) " I write." (ii) " Thou writest" (iii) " He writes."

Conjugation.

23. Oonjugation is the name given to the sum-total of all the
inflexions and combinations of the parts of a verb.

The word eor^ugate comes from the Latw conjugare, to bind together.

THE YBRB. 43

24. There are two conjugations in English — ^the Strong and
the Weak. Hence we have : (i) verbs of the Strong Con*
jugation, and (ii) verbs of the Weak Conjugation, which
are moxfi usually called Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs.
These verbs are distinguished from each other by their way
of forming their past tenses.

25. The past tense of any verb determines to which of these
classes it belongs ; and that by a twofold test — one positive and
one negative.

26. (i) The positive test for the past of a Strong Verb
is that it changes the vowel of the present, (ii) The nega-
tive test is that it never adds anything to the present to make
its past tensa

(i) Thus we say write, wrote, and change the voweL
(ii) But in wrote there is nothing added to write.

27. (i) The positive test for the past tense of a Weak Verb
is that d or t is added to the present, (ii) The negative test is
that the root-vowel of the present is generally not changed.

(i) There are some exceptions to this latter statement. Thus tell,
told ; buy, Ixrai^t ; sell, sold, are weak verhe. The change in the vowel
does not spring from the same cause as the change in strong verbal
Hence —

(ii) It is as well to keep entirely to the positlYe test in the case of
weak verbs. However " strong " or " irregular " may seem to be the
verbs teaob, taught ; seek, sought ; say, said, we know that they are
weak, because they add a d or a t for the past tense.

(iii) In many weak verbs there seems to be both a change of vowel
and al^ an absence of any addition. Hence they look very like strong
verbs. In fact, the long vowel of the present is made short in the past.
Thus we find meet, met ; feed, fed. But these verbs are not strong.
The old past was mette and fedde ; and all that has happened is that
they have lost the old inflexions te and de. It was owing to the addi-
tion of another syllable that the original long vowel of the verb was
shortened. Compare no^ton, national, please, pleasure.

(iv) The past or passive participle of strong verbs had the sufiSx en
and the prefix ge. The sufi&x has now disappeared from many strong
verbs, and the prefix from alL But ge, which in Chaucer's time had
been refined into a y (as in yeomen, yronnen), is retained still in that
form in the one word yciUspt, Milton's use of it in star-y-pointing is a
mistake.

6RAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

28. The following ifi an

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STRONG VERBS.

(All strong verbs except those which have a pr^ are monosyUabia)

The forms in italics are weak.

Pres.

Past.

Pom. Part,

Prcs.

Poet.

Pass. Part

Abide

abode

abode.

Fly

flew

flown.

Arise

arose

arisen.

Forbear

forbore

forborne.

Awake

awoke

Forget

forgot

forgotten.

(awaked) {awaked).

Forsake

forsook

forsaken.

Bear

bore

bom.

Freeze

froze

frozen.

(bring forth)

Get

got

got, gotten.

Bear

bore

borne.

Give

gave

given.

(carry)

went

gone.

Beat

beat

beaten.

Grind

ground

ground.

Begin

began

begun.

Grow

grew

grown.

Behold

beheld

beheld (be-

Hang

hung{ha7iged)h.xmg(hanged).

holden).

Hide

hid

hidden, hid.

Bid

bade, bid

bidden, bid.

Hold

held

held.

Bind

bound

boimd.

Know

knew

known.

Bite

bit

bitten, bit.

Lie

lay

lain.

Blow

blew

blown.

Ride

rode

ridden.

Break

broke

broken.

Ring

rang

rung.

Burst

burst

burst.

Rise

rose

risen.

Chide

diid

chidden,

Run

ran

run.

chid.

See

saw

seen.

Choose

chose

chosen.

Seethe

aod{8eethed) sodden.

Cleave

clove

cloven.

Shake

shook

shaken T

(spHt)

Shine

shone

shone.

Climb

clomb

{dimbed).

Shoot

shot

shot. ,

Cling

clung

clung.

Shrink

shrank

shrunk.

Come

came

come.

Sing

sang

sung.

Crow

crew

crovfu{obsol,).

Sink

sank

sunlc,

{crowed)

(crowed).

sunken.

I>i«

dug

dug.

Sit

sat

sat .

did

done.

Slay

slew

slain.

Draw

drew

drawn.

SUde

sUd

slid.

Drink

drank

drunk.

Sling

slung

slimg.

drunken.

Slink

slunk

slunk.

Drive

drove

driven.

Smite

smote

smitten.

Eat

ate

eaten.

Speak

spoke

spoken.

Fall

fell

fallen.

Spin

spun

spun.

Fight

fought

fought.

Spring

sprang

sprung.

Find

found

found.

Stand

stood

stood.

Flmg

flung

flung.

Stave

stove

staved, stove

THE

VERB.

Pru.

Past.

Pa$s. PaH.

PreM,

Pa$t,

Pats. Part

Steal

stole

stolen.

Thrive

throve

thriven

Stick

stuck,^

stuck.

(ikrived)

{thrived).

Sting

stung

stung.

Throw

threw

thrown.

Stink

stank

stunk.

Tread

trod

trodden,

Stride

strode

stridden.

trod.

Strike

struck

struck.

Wake

woke

{wOsed).

String

strung

strung.

{wktd)

Strive

strove

striven.

Wear

\9ore

wonj.

Swear

swore

sworn.

Weave

wove

woven.

Swim

swam

swum.

Win

won

won.

Swing

swung

swung.

Wind

wound

wound.

Take

took

taken.

Wring

wrung

wrung.

Tear

tore

torn.

Write

wrote

written.

It is well for the young learner to examine the above verbs
closely, and to make a classifioation of them for his own use.
The following are a few suggestions towards this task : —

(i) Collect verbs with vowels a, e, a ; like fall, fell, fallen,
(ii) Verbs with o, e, o ; like throw, threw, thrown,
(iii) Verbs with 1, a, n ; Uke begin, began, begun,
(iv) Verbs with 1, n, n ; like fling, flung, flung,
(v) Verbs with 1, on, oa ; Hke find, found, found,
(vi) Verbs with ea, 0, o ; like break, broke, broken,
(vii) Verbs with i, a, i ; like give, gave, given,
(viii) Verbs with a, o or oo, a ; like shake, shook, shaken,
(ix) Verbs with i (long), 0, i (short) ; like drive, drove, driven.
(x) Verbs with ee or oo, o, o ; like freeze, froze, frozen ; or <^oobi^
chose, chosen.

29. Weak Verbs are of two kinds: (i) Irregular Weak;
and (ii) Begular Weak. The Irregular Weak are such verba
as telC told; buy, baught. The Eegular Weak are such
verbs as attend, attended ; dbej, obeyed.

(i) The Irregular Weak verbs are, with very few exceptions, mono-
syllables, and are almost all of purely EngUsh origin.

(ii) The Regular "Weak verbs are generally of Latin or of French origiiu
Since the language lost the power of changing the root- vowel of a verb,
every verb received into our tongue from another language has been
placed in the Regular Weak conjugation.

^ The past tenses of dig and stick were formerly weak ; so were the pas
■ive participles of hide^ roty show, strew, saw.

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(iii) The ed or d is not a shortened form of did, as was once
believed. It simply represents the A.S. -de, one of the past suffixes
of Weak Verbs.

30. Irregular Weak verbs are ^themselves divided into two
classes : (i) those which keep their ed, d, or t in the past
tense; (ii) those which have lost the d or t. Thus we find
(i) sleep, slept ; teaoh, taught. Among (ii) we find feed, fed,
which was once fed-de ; set, set, which was once set-te.

It is of the greatest importance to attend to the following
changes : —

(i) A sharp consonant follows a sharp, and a flat a flat. Thus p in
deep is sharp, and therefore we cannot say deeped. We must take the
sharp form of d, which is t, and say dept. So also felt, burnt, dreamt,
etc.

(ii) Some verbs shorten their voweL Thus we have hear, heard ; flee^
fled ; sleep. Slept, etc.

(iii) Some verbs have different vowels in the present and past: as
tell, told; buy, bought; teach, taught; work, wrought But it is not
the past tense, it is the present that has changed. Thus the o in tdd
represents the a in tale, etc.

(iv) Some have dropped an internal letter. Thus made issmakede;
paid=payedd; had=hadd8.

(v) Some verbs change the d of- the present into a t in the past. Thus
we have bnild, built ; eend, sent

(vi) A large class have the three parte — present^ past, and passive
participle— exactly aHke. Such are rid, set, etc.

The foUowing is an

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF IRREGULAR WEAK VERBS.

Class I.

Pres.

Pott,

Pcua. Pa/rt.

Pret,

P(Mt.

Pass, Part,

Bereave

bereft

bereft.

Dwell

dwelt

JDwDGOCil

besought

besought.

Feel

felt

Bring

brought

Flee

fled

fled.

Bum

burnt

burnt.

Grave

graved

graven.

Buy

bought

bought.

Have

had

had.

Catch

caught

caught.

Hew

hewed

hewn.

Cleave

cleft

Keep

kept

Creep

crept

Kneel

knelt

Deal

dealt

Lay

laid

laid.

Dream

dreamt

Lean

leant

THE

VKRB.

Pru,

Pott.

PatMPart,

Prei,

Poit.

P<u$.ParL

Learn

learnt

Shear

sheared

shorn.

Leap

leapt

leapt.

Shoe

shod

shod.

Leave

left

left.

Show

showed

shown.

Lose

lost

lost.

Sleep

slept

Make

made

made.

Sow

sowed

sown.

Mean

meant

meant.

Spell

spelt

Pay

paid

paid.

Spai

spat

Pen

pent

pent.

Strew

strewed

strewn.

(penned)

Sweep

swept

Rap (to

rapt

rapt.

Swell

sweUed

swoUen.

transport)

Teach

taught

Rive

rived

riven.

Ten

told ,

told.

Hot

rotted

rotten.'

Think

thought

Say

said

said.

Tie

tied .

tight'

Saw

sawed

sawn.

Weep

wept

Seek

sought

sought.

Work

wrought

wrought'-

SeU

sold

sold.

worked

worked.

Shave

shaved

shaven.

^ Rotten^ tight, and wrought are

now used

as adjectives, and not

passiTe

participles ;

cp. wrought iro

n, a tight knot, rotten wood.

Claa

a IL

Pres,

Pott,

Pass, Part.

Pres.

Poit.

Pate. Part

Bend

bent

bent.

Meet

met

Bleed

bled

bled.

Put

put

Blend

blent

blent.

Bead

read

read.

Breed*

bred

bred.

Rend

rent

Build

built

Rid

rid

rid.

Cast

cast

cast.

Send '

sent

Clothe

dad

clad

Set

set

(clothed) (clothed).

Shed

shed

shed.

Cost

cost

cost.

Shred

shred

Cut

out

cut.

Shut

shut

Feed

fed

fed.

SUt

sUt

Gild

gat

gat (gaded).

Speed

sped

sped.

(gaded)

Spend

spent

spent.

Gud

girt

Spit

spit, spat

spit

Hear

heard

heard.

SpHt

split

Hit

hit

hit.

Spread

spread

spread.

Hurt

hurt

Sweat

sweat

Knit

knit

Thrust

thrust

Lead

led

led.

Wend

wended

wended.

Lend

lent

or went

Let

let

Wet

wet

Li^t

Htdightec!

DHt (lighted).

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

31. Before we can learn the ftill conjugation of a verb, we
must acqnaint onrselves with all the parts of the auxiliary
verbs — Shall and Will; Have and Ba

(i) If be means existence merely (as in the sentence God is), it is
called a notional verb; if it is used in the formation of the passive
voice, it iflL an anxUlary yerb. In the same way, have is a notional
verb when it means to poBsen, as in the sentence, '' I have a shilling."

32. The following are the parts of the verb Shall : —

Indioatiyb Mood.

Freient Tense.

Singvlar,

1. IshalL

2. Thoushal-t.

3. HeshalL

Singular,

1. I ettonl-d,

2. Thou shoul-(2-Bt
8. He shouI-(2i

Fait Tense.

Imp. Mood

Int. Mood

Plwral.

1. We shall.

2. You shalL

3. They shall.

PIamtoI,

1. "We shoul-<2.

2. You shoul-d

3. They shoul-d

-. Pabticiflbs

(Slipnld comes from an old dialectic form acholde)
33u The following are the parts of the verb Will : —

Im^ioATiVB Mood.

Present Tense.

8vngula/r,

1. IwiU.

2. Thou wil-t.
8. He will

Singtdar,

1. I woul-d.

2. Thou woul-c£-st.

3. He woul-dL

Fast Tense.

Imp. Mood

Inf. Mood

PlvraL

1. WewilL

2. You will

3. They will

Plural.

1. We wonl'd,

2. You woul-d
8. They woul-dL

Pabticifleb

(i) BhaU and will are used as Tense^anxiliarles. As a tense-auziliary,
shall is used only in the first person. Thus we say, I sball write ;
thou wilt write ; he will write — ^wh«n we speak merely of fbture time.

THE YEBB. 49

(ii) Shant is=BhaU not. Wont i8=wol not, tool being an older form
of foUL We find tocl also in wolde — an old spelling of would.

(iii) Shall in the Ist person expresses simple fatuity ; in the 2d and
3d persons, anthorlty. Will in tiie Ist person expresses determination ;
in the 2d and 3d, only fatnrltj.

34. The following are the parts of the verb Hare : —

Indicativb Hood.

Present Indefinite Tense.
Singular, Plural,

1. I hayer 1. We hay&

2. Thou ha-st. 2. You have.

3. He ha-8. . 3. They have.

Present Perfect Tense.

Singular, Plural.

1. I have had. 1. We have had.

2. Thou hast had. 2. You have had.

3. He has had. 3. They have had.

(i) Hast=liavest. Compare e'en and et7en. (ii) Had=liadde.

Past Indefinite Tense.

Singular, Plural.

1. I had. 1. We had.

2. Thou had-st. 2. You had.

3. He had. 3 They had.

Fast Perfect (or Flnperfect) Tense.

Singular, Plural,

1, I had had. 1. We had had.

2. Thou hadst had. 2. You had had.
8. He had had. 3. They had had.

Fntnre Indefinite Tense.

Singular, Plural.

1. I^hallhave. 1. We shall have.

2. Thou wilt hare. 2. You will have.

3. He will have. 8. They will have.

Fatnre Perfect Tense.

Svngul€br, PluraL

1. I shall have had. 1. We shall have had.

2. Thou wilt have had. 2. You will have bad.
8. He will have had. 3. They will have had.

60 6BAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANOUAGE.

SuBJUNonYB Mood.

FreseBt Indefinite Tenie.

Singular. PluraL

1. I have. 1. We have.

2. Thou have. 2. Tou haye.

3. He have. 3. They have.

Freient Perfect Tense.

Sinffular. PluraL

1. I have had. 1. We have had.

2. Thou have had. 2. You have had.

3. He have had. 8. They have had.

Past Indefinite Tense.

Same in form as in the Indicative ; hut with no inflexion in the
second person.

Fast Perfect Tense.

Same in form as in the Indicative ; but with no inflexion in the
second person.

Past Indefinite Tense.

Singular, Pl/urdl,

1. I had. ' 1. We had.

2. Thou had. 2. You ha/d.

3. He had. 3. They had.

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense.
Singular. Phiral.

1. I had had. 1. We had had.

2. Thou had had. 2. You had had.

3. He had had. 3. They had had.

Imfbbativx Mood. — Singular : Have ! Pf^iral : Have !

iNTTNinvB Mood. — ^Present Indefinite : (To) have. Perfect : (To) have had.

Pabticifleb. — Imperfect : Having. Past (or Passive) : Had.

Oomponnd Perfect {Active) : Having had.

35. The foUowing are the parts of the verb Be : —

Indioativb Mood.

Present Indefinite Tense.
Singular. PluraL

1. I a-m. 1. We are.

2. Thou ar-t 2. You are.

3. He is. 3. They are.

THE VEBB.

ProMiiA Ptffeet T«iim.

Si/nffvlar. PI^atoL

1. I have been. 1. "We have been.

2. Thou hast been. 2. Tou have been.

3. He has been. 3. They have been.

Past X&dttttBlte Tenia.

Singular, PlwraL

1. I was. 1. We were.

2. Thou wast or wert. 2. You were,

3. He was. 3. They were.

Fast Pezfect (Plaperfect) T«iuie.

SmguUur, Plural.

1. I had been. 1. We had been.

2. Thou hadst been. 2. Tou had been.

3. He had been. 3. They had been.

Fatnre Indefinite Tense.
I shall be, etc.

Future Perfect Tense.
I shall have been, etc.

Singular.

1. I be.

2. Thou be.

3. Hebe.

SuBJUvonvB Mood.

Present Indefinite Tense.

PlUfral,

1. We be.

2. You be.

3. They be.

Present Perfect Tense.

Smgula/r. Plural.

1. I have been. 1. We have been.

2. Thou have been. 2. You have been.

3. He have been. 3. They have been.

Singular,

1. I were.

2. Thou wert.

3. He were.

Past Indefinite Tense.

Plural.

1. We were.

2. You were.

3. They were.

Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense.

Singular.

1. I had been.

2. Thou had beei^.

8- B«l>*<i^n:

Plural.
1^, We had beex^.

2. You had bee^.

3. They had beej^,

52 ORAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Past Indefinite (Compoiind Form).

Singular. Phtral.

1, I should be. 1. We should be.

2. Thou should be. 2. You should be.
8. He should be. 8. They should be.

Fntnre Perfeet (Compound Form).

Singular, Plural

1. I should haye been. 1. We should haye been.

2. Thou should haye been 2. You should haye been.
8. He should haye been. 3. They should haye been.

Impbrativb Mood. — Singular : Be I Plural : Be I

LyymiTiva Mood.— Present Indefinite : (To) be. Present Perfect :

(To) haye been.

Pabtioiflbs.— Present : Being. Past: Been. Compound: Haying been.

We find the short simple form Bb I in Coleridge's line —

" Be, rather than be called, a child of Ood ! "

(i) It is plain from the above that the yerb Be is made up of fragments
of three different yerbs. As when, in a battle, several companies of a
regiment have been severely cut up, and the fragments of those that
came out safely are afterwards formed into one company, so has it boen
with the verb be. Hence the verb ought to be printed thus : —

was

been.

(ii) Am is a different verb from was and been. The m in am is the
same as the m in me, and marks the first person. The t in art is the
same as the th in thou, and marks the second person. Compare irtZ-t
and thal't. Is has lost the suffix th. The Germans retain this, and say
ist. Are is not the O.E. plural, which was sind or tindon. The word
are was introduced by the Danes. [The Danish word to this day is er,
which we have learned to pronounce ar, as we do the er in elerk and
Derbjf,]

(iii) Was is the past tense of the old verb wesan, to be. In some of
the dialects of England it appears as war — the German form.

(iv) Be is a yerb without present or past tense.

(y) (a) Be is a notional or principal yerb when it means to exitt, as
" God is." (5) It is also a principal verb when it is used as a joiner or
copula, as in the sentence, '* John is a teacher," where the is enables us
to connect John and teacher in the mind. In such instances it is called
a Copulative Verb or Copiila«

THE VERB. 53

AUXILIARY VERBS.

36. Auxiliary Verbs are Verbs which are used to modify
the sense of other verbs or to assist them in expressing a
meaning, the verbs to which they are attached being termed
Principal Verbs.

i^ Every Auxiliary Verb is also capable of being used as a
Principal Verb.

Auxiliary Verbs may be classified as Auxiliaries of Voice,
of Tense, of Mood, and of Form.

(a) Auxiliary of Voice. Be is the only Voice Auxiliary,

and it is used to enable us to form the Passive Voice.

Active Voice. Passive Voice,

They build a ship. The ship is built.

He reared a monument. A monument was reared.

(b) Auxiliaries of Tense. The Tense Auxiliaries, in the
order of their importance, are Have, shall, will, and be.

(i) Have is used to form the Perfect Tenses — (a) Present
(b) Past, and (c) Future Perfect.

(a) He has been, (b) They had gone, (c) She will have returned.

(ii) Shall and will are used to form the Future Tense.

The boy wtU go. I shaU return.

1^* In old English there was no separate form for the future tense ;
the present tense was made to do duty for the future, an Adverb
sometimes assisting the process. This usage still survives in such
sentences as : **We return to-morrow," where a future meaning is
imparted to the Verb by the Adverb. 8haU and wlU, originally
principal verbs only, gradually crept into use as tense-auxiliaries.

Be is used optionally with Have, to form the Perfect
Tenses of Intransitive Verbs of motion, as go, come, rise, fall,
arrive, depart, ascend, descend, pass, escape, return, enter.

He M arrived (Present Perfect). He was gone (Past Perfect).

Examples of the uses of these are given on pages 53(c) and

53(d).

1^ L»t, though sometimes regarded as an Auxiliary of the
Imperatiye Mood (third person), is better taken as a Principal Verb.

53(a) GRAMMAR OF THE BNGLI8H LANGUAGE.

(d) Auxiliaries of Form. Be, do.

(i) Be is an auxiliary of the Progressive Form of the pre-
sent, the past, and the future tenses.

I am going is the progressive form of I go.

He was writing „ „ ,, He wrote.

James will be starting ,, „ „ James will start.

(ii) Bo, as an auxiliary, may be employed to assist in

expressing ;

(a) Emphasis. He does know his work.

(6) Interrogation. Do you see ?

1^* In the first of these three sentences ''does" lends additional
force or emphasis to the word know; in the second and third
sentences it lends no emphasis, but is simply used to express the
more usual and idiomatic of two alternative forms.
In sense ** Do you see ? " is the exact equivalent of '' See you ? "
and ''I do not see it" „ „ „ "I see it not.*'

The alternative forms are quite correct in grammar ; but they are
not usual or idiomatic.

DEFECTIVE VEEBS.

37. Defective Verbs are such as are wanting in one or more
of their parts. Most, if not all, of them were at one period
complete, but, through modification of their use or from some
other cause, part of the verb has fallen into disuse, and thus
gradually disappeared. The principal Defective Verbs are —

Present Tense. Past Tense. Past Participle.

Beware —

Can Could 1

Dight

Forego ^ Foregone

Hight» Hight ♦

May Might

Melists^ Melisted

Meseems Meseemcd

Methinks Methought —

1 Oovid (In O.E. cu-the) is a weak form. The 1 is intrusive, and came in
from a false analogy with should and would,

> This ought to be spelled ftirgo. The /or in this word is a prefix of
negation, sa in forget, forgive, etc.

' Eight (=is or was called) is the only instance in our language oi a pure
passive verb. ^ Htm lifted is also found.

THE TEXB. 53(b)

Present Tense, Past Tense. Past Participle,

Muat-i

Ought

Quoth

Shall Should
Will Would
Wot {Inf. to wit)* Wist
Worth 8

Yclept

ANOMALOUS VERBS.

38. Anomalous Verbs are such as are made up of two or more
quite distinct Verbs. The Anomalous Verbs are Be and G-o.

(i) Be. This verb contains three distinct roots. The Pre-
sent Indicative is from the root as ; the Present Subjunctive,
Imperative, Infinitive, and Participles are from the root be ;
the Past Indicative and Past Subjunctive are from the root
wesan (see page 52).

(ii) Go. This verb contains two distinct roots. The Present

tense is from the root go ; the Past tense is from the root

wend, which is still occasionall j used both in prose and verse.

1^* These verbs cannot be classed as either weak or strong, sinor
the ordinary tests do not apply to them.

REMARKS ON PECULIAR VERBS.

CAN, MUST.

39. Can (or its past tense Could) and Most are always and
invariably Principal verbs. They are Principal Verbs because
in every instance in which they are used, a distinct and inde-
pendent meaning of power, possibility, or obligation attaches to
them apart from the Infinitive Verb which follows them.

I can nm=I have the power to run.

I could see at one time = I had the power to see, etc.

I could have gone, if I had been present = I had the opportunity^ etc.

He must depart <= He is obliged or compelled to depart.

They differ, however, from ordinary Verbs in this respect, viz. :
that tiiey can take only an Infinitive Verb as object after them ;
they are never followed by a Noun or Pronoun as object.

1 Mut was originally the past tense of the old verb motui (=to be able
or to be obliged). Mot was=may ; and nMt=might, etc. Man or maim takes
the place of must in the North of England and in Scotland.

> This verb has also a present participle vittiag, which is found in wittingly
and wiwittii^, ' In such phrases as " Woe worth the day 1 "

53(c) GRAMMAR OF THE XNOII8H LANGFUAGE.

MAY, SHALL, WILL.

40. (i) Kay (with its past tense might), shall (with its past
tense should), and will (with its past tense would) are some-
times Principal and sometimes Anxiliary Verbs.

(a) May is a Principal Verb when it denotes permission.

The boys may go out to play ( =are allowed).

(b) It is an Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood when it
denotes uncertainty.

He may sucoeed, if he takes pains.

(ii) Might is (a) a Principal Verb when it denotes ^T^rmis-

sion or ability.

She might have gone, but preferred to remain ( = She had the
power to go).

(b) It is an Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood when it
denotes uncertainty.

I thought he might call

(iii) Shall is (a) a Principal Verb when it denotes comjml
sion (or, occasionally, leave), and when used with the Second
and Third Persons.

Tou 8?uiU depart. Rome shall perish.

(b) It is an Auxiliary of Tense, and denotes simply futurity,
when used with the First Person.

I sTiall soon go. We shall remain.

(iv) Should is (a) a Principal Verb when it implies obligation.
Children sJiould obey their parentSi

(b) It is an Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood when it
denotes uncertainty.

If he should appear (or Shovld he appear), I vt'Oll admit him.

(v) (a) Will is a Principal Verb, denoting volition or deter^
minathn, when used with the First Person.

I vnU remove it.

In some of these cases, howerer, it is to all intents and
purposes an auxiliary verb, the idea of volition being absent, and the
word indicating nothing beyond mere futurity. The context usually
indicates the amount of force attaching to *' wilL"

THX TSRB. 53(d)

(b) It is an Auxiliary of Tense, simply denoting futurity^
when, used with the Second and Third Persons.
You will keep this. They wUl soon return.

(vi) (a) Would is a Principal Verb when it expresses deter-
minatian.

He would go in spite of my entreaties,
(b) It is an Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood when it
implies uncertainty.

If he applied himself more vigorously, he would succeed.
^r Notico hero that both verbs of this complex sentence are in
the Subjunctive Mood. "Would" is oocasionaUy used practically
as an Auxiliary of Tense indicating a habitual repetition of the action.
" His listless length at noontide wovld he stretch," i e. wcLsaccuMtomed
to etretch.

OUGHT,

41. (vii) Ought is an old preterite (or past tense) of owe. It
is now used as a present, and it possesses the exceptional priyi-
lege of being allowed to violate the sequence of tenses. The
past tense of any other verb when followed by an Infinitive
has to take the Infinitive in the simple form, thus :

She wished to have.
Ought, however, takes the Perfect Infinitive :

Tou ought to have gone.
The reason of this is that, since ouglit is now a present form witl
no past, we signify the past idea through the medium of the
Infinite, instead of by the preceding verb, as is otherwise the
universal rule.

IMPEESONAL VERBS.

42. Impersonal Verbs are such as have a non-personal sub
ject. They may be divided into two classes.

(a) Old Impersonal Verbs, whose subject is a sentence
following the verb, and whose dative (or indirect) object is
attracted to the vero.

Methinks he doth protest too much.
Meseems they have gone.
Mdisteth they will follow.
M^ Kelists and meseems are obsolete, methlaks is obsolescent.

(b) Verbs following a personal pronoun used in a purely

indefinite and impersonal sense.

It rains, it snows, etc.
In the above sentences, if it stards for. anything, it stands for rain^
snow, etc "The rain rains." *' The snow snows." etc.

GBAMMAB OF THE ENaLISH LANGtJAd«.

43. The following is the full conjugation of a verb :—

ACTIVE VOICK

Indioativb Mood.

L Present Indefinite Tense.
I strike.

Present Perfect Tense.
I have struck.

Present Imperfect Tense.
I am striking.

Present Perfect Continnons.
I have been striking.

n. Past Indefinite Tense.
I struck.

Past Perfect (or Pluperfect)
Tense.

I had struck.

m. Fntnre Indefinite Tense.
I shall strike.

Fntnre Perfect Tense.
I shall have struck.

Past Imperfect Tense.
I was striking.

Past Perfect (or Pluperfect)
Continuous.

I had been striking.

Future Imperfect Tense.
I shall be striking.

Future Perfect (continuous.
I shall have been striking.

SUBJUNOTIVB MoOD.

I. Present Indefinite Teiise.
(If) I, thou, he strike.

Present Perfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he have struck.

II. Past Indefinite Tense.

(If) I, thou, he struck.

Past Perfect (or Pluperfect)
Tense.

(If) I, thou, he had struck.

in. Future Indefinite Tense.
(If) I, thou, he should strike.

Future Perfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he should have struck.

Present Imperfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he be striking.

Present Perfect Continuous.

(If) I, thou, he have been striking.

Past Imperfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he were striking.

Past Perfect (or Pluperfect)
Continuous.

(If) I, thou, he had been striking.

Future Imperfect Tense.

(If) I, thou, he should be striking.

Future Perfect Continuous.
(If) I, thou, he should have been

striking.

(The Future Subjunctire, when not preceded bj a Conjunction, is some-
' times called the Conditional Mood, " I should strike him if he were to
hurt the child.''3

THE YEltB. 55

Imperative Mood.

I. Present Tense.
Singular 2. Strike (thou) ! Plural. 2. Strike (ye) I

n. Fast Tense.
(None.)

m. Futnre Tense.
2. Thou shalt strike. 2. You shall strike.

Infinitivb Mood.

1. PrcseiiA Indefinite, (To) strike.

2. Present Imperfect, (To) be striking.

3. Present Perfecti . (To) have struck.

4. Present Perfect Continnous, (To) have been striking.
6. Fittnre Indefinite, (To) be about to strike.

Pabtioifles.

1. Indefinite and Imperfect, Striking.

2. Present Perfect, . . . Having struck.

3. Perfect Ckmtinuoas, . Having been striking.

4. Fnture, Going or about to strike.

1. Striking. 2. To strike.

PASSIVE VOICE.

Indicativb Mood.

L Present Indefinite Tense. Present Imperfect Tense.

I am struck. I am being struck.

Present Perfect Tense. Present Continnous.

I have been struck. I am being struck.

n. Past Indefinite Tense. Past Imperfect Tense.

I was struck. I was being struck.

Past Perfect Tense. Past Ckmtinnons.

I had been struck. I was being struck.

in. Fntnse Indefinite Tense. Futnre Imperfect Tensei

I shall be struck. (None. )

Fatnre Perfect Tense. Future Ckmtinuons.

I shall have been struck. (None. )

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

SuBJUNOTivB Mood.

L Present Indefinite Tenie.
(If) I, thou, he be struck.

Present Perfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he have been struck.

n. Past Indefinite Tense.
(If) I, thou, he were struck.

Past Perfect Tense.

(If) I had been struck.

m. Fatnre Indefinite Tense.
(If) I, thou, he should be struck.

Fatnre Perfect Tense.
(If) I, thou, he should have been

Present Imperfect Tense.
(None.)

Present Perfect Ckmtinnons.

(None.)

Past Imperfaet Tense.
(If) I, thou, he were being struck.

Past Perfect Ckmtinnons.

(None.)

Fatnre Imperfaet Tense.

(None.)

Fatnre Perfect Ckmtinnons.

(None. )

struck.

(This tense, when used without a preceding conjunction, is sometimes
called the Ckmditional Mood. " I tJiould be struck were I to go there.*')

Ihperativb Mood.

I. Present Tense.
Singular, 2. Be struck I PluraL 2. Be struck I

n. Past Tense.
(None.)

m. Fatore Tense.
Singular.

2. Thou shalt be struck.

PluraL
2. You shall be struck.

Infinitive Mood,

1. Indefinite,

2. Imperfect,

8. Present Perfect,

1. Indefinite,

2. Imperfect,

8. Present Perfect,
4. Fatore, .

(To) be struck.

(None.)

(To) have been struck.

Participlbs.

struck.

Being struck.

Having been struck.

Going or about to be struck.

Gerunds.
(None.)

ADVERBS. 57

ADVBRBa

1. An Adverb is a word which qualifies any part of speech
except a pronoun.

(i) He writes badly (badly modifies the verb imfe«).— The san is very hot
(very qualifies the adjective hot).— She writes very rapidly (very qualifies
rapidly, and rapidly qualifies torites).

(ii) Adverbs modify prepositions as in " He came lon^T ^ore the time " ;
or conjunctions as in " He is unhappy, even though he \b rich" ; or even
nouQS^ as in **Even Homer sometimes nods."

THE CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS.

2. Adverbs — ^so far as their function is concerned — are of
two kinds : (i) Simple Adverbs and (ii) Conjunctive Adverbs,
(i) A Simple Adverb merely modifies the word it goes with.
A Conjunctive Adverb has two functions: (a) it modifies,
and (V) joins one sentence with another. Thus, if I say " He
came when he was ready," the adverb when not only modifies
the verb came, and shows the time of his coming, but it joins
together the two sentences " He came " and " he was ready."

3. Adverbs — so far as their meaning is concerned — are of
several kinds. There are Adverbs : (i) of Time, (ii) of Flaee»
(iii) of I^'umber, (iv) of Manner, (v) of Degree, (vi) of

Assertion, (vii) of Seasoning, (viii) Interrogative.

(i) Of Time : Now, then ; to-day, to-morrow ; by-and-by, etc
(ii) Of Place : Here, there ; hitiier, thither ; hence, thence, etc
(iii) Of Number f Once, twice, thrice ; singly, two by two, etc
(iv) Of Manner : Well, ill j slowly, quickly ; better, worse, etc
(v) Of Degree : Very, little ; almost, quite ; all, half, etc
(vi) Of ABsertion : Nay, yea ; no, aye ; yes, etc.

(vii) Of Beasonlng : Therefore, wherefore ; thus ; consequently.

(viii) Interrogative: Why? How? Where? When? etc

THE COMPARISON OF ADVERBS.

4. Adverbs, like adjectives, admit of degrees of comparison.
Thus we can say, John works hard; Tom works harder; but
William works hardest of alL

6RAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

5. The following are examples of

Ibbbqulab Cohpabison nr Advebb&

Positiye.

Comparatiye.

Superlative.

HI (or Badly)

worse

worst.

Well

hetter

hest.

Much

most.

Little

less

least.

Nigh {or Near)

nearer

next.

Forth

further

furthest.

Far

farther

farthest.

Late

later

last

latter

latest.

(Rathe)

rather.

(i) Worse comes from A. S. adv. wyrs, Shakespeare has worser,

(ii) Much is an adverb in the phrase much hetter.

(iii) Little is an adverb in the phrase little indined,

(Iv) Next=nighest ; and so we had also hext= highest. Near is
really the comparative of nigh.

(v) Fairer would be the proper comparative. Chaucer has faire,
and this is still found in Yorkshire. The th in farther comes from a
false analogy with forth, farther, farthest.

(vi) Late is an adverb in the phrase ffe arrived late,

(vii) " Till rathe she i*ose, half -cheated in the thought.*' — Tennyson
(' Lancelot and Elaine ').

CONNBOTIVBS.

1. There is, in grammar, a class of words which may he
called joining 'words or connectives. They are of two classes :
(i) those which Join nouns or pronouns to some other word ;
and (ii) those which join -words or sentenoes. The first
class are called Prepositions ; the second Conjunctions.

PREPOSITIONS.

2: A Preposition is a word which connects a noun or pro-
noun with a verb, an adjective, or another noun or pronoun.
(It thus shows the relation between things, or between a thing
and an action, etc.)

(i) He stood on the table. Here on .loins a Torb and a noon.

CONNBCnVBS. 5^

(ii) Mary is fond of muBie. Here of joiifti an a^lMfeiTe and a noun.

(iii) The man at the door is waiting. Here at joins two nonna.

The word preposition eomes from the Lat. prxe, before, and posUiu, placed.
We haye similar compounds in composition and deposition.

3. The noTin or prononn which follows the pieposition is in
the objective case, and is said to be governed by the prepo-
sition.

(i) But the preposition may come at the end of the sentence. Thus
we can say, " This is the house we were looking at." But at still gov-
erns which (understood) in the objective. We can also say, " Whom
were you talking to 7 "

4. Prepositions are divided into two classes : (i) simple ;
and (ii) compound.

(i) The following are simple prepositions : at, by, for, in, of, off, on,
out, to, with, up.

(ii) The compound prepositions are formed in several ways : —

(a) By adding a comparative suffix to an adverb : c^fler, over, under.

(b) By prefixing a preposition to an adverb : above, ahout, before, behind, be*
neath, &ut(=be-oatX throughout, within, etc.

(e) By prefixing a preposition to a noun : aboard, acro88, around, among, &«•
tide, outride, etc.

(d) By prefixing an adverb or adverbial particle to a preposition : into, upon,
until, etc

(iii) The preposition but is to be carefully distinguished from the con-
junction but. " All were there but him." Here but is a preposition.
" We waited an hour ; but he did not come." Here but is a conjunction.
Bat, the preposition, was in O.E. be-Htan, and meant on the outside of,
and then toUIumt : but, the conjunction, is from the same word. The old
proverb, "Touch not the cat but a glove," means "without a glove."

(iv) Downwtsadown=ofdovm=offth6doumorhiU.
(v) Among was = on gemong, in the crowd.

(vi) There are several compound prepositions made up of separate
words : inttead of, on account of, in spite of, eta

(vii) Some participles are used as prepositions : nottoitJistanding, eon-
eeming, respecting. The prepositions exeqat and save may be regarded
as Imperatives, or as past participles used absolutely.

8. The same words are used sometimes as adverbs, and some-
times as prepositions. We distinguish these words by their
fonction. They can also be used as notins or as adjectiveQ,

60 GRAMMAR OF THS ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(i) Thus W6 find the following words used either as

AdTtrtw or as Pwpoiltlong.

(1) Stand up ! (1) The boy ran up the hilL

(2) Come on 1 (2) The book lies on the table.

(3) Be off ! (3) Qet off the chair.

(4) He walked quickly past (4) He walked past the church.

(ii) Adverbs are sometimes used as nouns, as in the sentences, " 1
have met him before now." " He is dead since then."

(iii) In the following we find adverbs used as adjectiyes: "thine

often infirmities ; '' '* the then king," etc.

(iv) A phrase sometimes does duty as an adverb, as in " from beyond
the sea ; " " from over the monntains," etc.

CONJUNCTIONS.

6. A Ooiviimctioii joins sentenoes or words together.

(i) The word and, besides joining sentences, possesses the additional
power of joining nouns or other words. Thus we say, " John and Jane
are a happy pair ; " '' Two and three are five."

7. Conjunctions are of two kinds : (i) Co-ordinative ; and
(ii) Subordinative.

(i) CkMnrdinatire CkmjnnctionB are those which connect co-ordinate
sentences and clauses — ^that is, sentences neither of which is dependent
on the other. The following is a list : And, hoth^ but, either — or, neither
— nor, still, yet, nevertheless, whereas, therefore, then, and/or (v. p. 115).

(ii) Subordinatiye Ck>njanction8 are those which connect subordinate
sentences with the principal sentence to which they are subordinate.
The type of a subordinative conjunction is that, which is really the
demonstrative pronoun. '* I know that he has gone to London " is =
''He has gone to London : I know that."

(iii) The following is a list of subordinative conjunctions : After,
hffore; ere, till; while, since; lest ; because, as; for; if; unless;
though ; whether — or ; than ; as if; why ; wJien ; where, whence ; how,

INTERJECTIONS.

L Inteijections are woids which have no meaning in them-
selves, but which give sudden expression to an emotion of
the mind. They are no real part of language ; they do not
enter into the build or organism of a sentence. They have no
grammatical relation to any word in a sentence, and are there-

WORDS KNOWN BY THEIR FUNCTIONS. 61

fore not, strictly speaking, " parts of speecL" Thus we say, Oh !
All ! Alas ! and so on ; but the sentences we employ would be
just as complete — in sense — without them. They are extra-
grammatical utterances.

(i) The word irUerjeetion comes from the Lat. inter, between, and
jaetu8f thrown.

(ii) Sometimes words with a meaning are used as interjections. Thus
we say, Welcome I for " Tou are well come. " Good-bye I for Ood be with
y<yu / The interjection '' Now then ! " consists of two words, each of
which has a meaning ; but when employed inter jectionally, the compound
meaning is very different from the meaning of either.

(iii) In written and printed language, interjections are followed by the
mark (!) of admiration or exclamation.

WORDS KNOWN BY THEIR FUNCTIONS,
AND NOT BY THEIR INFLEXIONS.

1. The Oldest English. — ^When our language first came over
to this island, in the fifth century, our words possessed a large
number of inflexions ; and a verb could be known from a noim,
and an adjective from either, by the mere look of it. Verbs
had one kind of inflexion, nouns another, adjectives a third;
and it was almost impossible to confuse them. Thus, in O.E.
(or Anglo-Saxon) thunder^ the verb, was thunrian — with the
ending an/ but the noun was thunor, without any ending at
alL Then, in course of time, for many and various reasons,
the English language began to lose its inflexions; and they
dropped off very rapidly between the 11th and the 15th cen-
turies, till, nowadays, we possess very few indeed.

2. Freedom given by absence of Inflexions. — In the 16th
century, when Shakespeare began to write, there were very
few inflexions; the language began to feel greater liberty,
greater ease in its movements ; and a writer would use the same
word sometimes as one part of speech, and sometimes as another.
Thus Shakespeare himself uses the conjunction hut both as a
verb and as a noim, and makes one of his characters say, '' But

62 OBAJOCAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

me no buts ! ** He employs the adverb askance as a verb, and
says, ^ From their own misdeeds they askance their eyes/' He
has the adverb backward with the function of a noun, as in
the phrase '' The backward and abyss of time." Again, he gives
us an adverb doing the work of an adjective, as in the phrases
"my often rumination," "a seldom pleasure." In the same
way, Shakespeare has the verbs " to glad " and " to mad." Very
often he uses an adjective as a noun; and " a fair " is his phrase
for "beauty," — "a pale" for "a paleness." He carries this
power of using one " part of speech " for another to the most
extraordinary lengths. He uses happy for to make happy ;
unfair for to deface; to climate for to live; to bench for to sit;
to false for to falsify; to path for to walk; to verse for to speak
of in verse; and many others. Perhaps the most remarkable is
where he uses tongue for to talk of and brain ioi to think of. In
" Cjrmbeline " he says : —

*' 'Tis still a dream ; or else such stuff as madness
Will tongue, and brain not. ..."

3. Absence of Inflexions. — ^At the present time, we have lost
almost all the inflexions we once had. We have only one for
the cases of the noun ; none at all for ordinary adjectives (ex-
cept to mark degrees) ; a few in the pronoun ; and a few in the
verb. Hence we can use a word sometimes as one part of
speech, and sometimes as another. We can say, " The boys had
a good run ; " and " The boys run very well." We can say,
" The train travelled very fast," where fast is an adverb, modi-
fying travelled ; and we can speak of " a fast train." We can
use the phrase, "The very man," where very is an adjective
marking man ; and also the phrase " A very good man," where
very is an adverb modifying the adjective good.

4. Function. — ^It follows that, in the present state of our
language, when we cannot know to what class a word belongs
by its look, we must settle the matter by asking ourselves what
is its function. We need not inquire what a word is ; but we
miost ask what it does. And just as a bar of iron may be used
as a lever, or as a crowbar, or as a poker, or as a hammer, or as

WORDS KNOWN BY THEIK FUNCTIONS. 63

a weapon, so a word may be an adjective, or a noun, or a verb,
— just as it is used.

5. Examples. — ^When we say, "He gave a shilling for the
book," for is a preposition connecting the noun hook with the
verb gave. But when we say, " Let us assist them, for our case
is theirs," the word /or joins two sentences together, and is hence
a conjunction. In the same way, we can contrast early in the
proverb, "The early bird catches the worm," and in the sentence
" He rose early." Hard in the sentence " He works hard " is an
adverb; in the phrase "A hard stone " it is an adjective. Righi
is an adverb in the phrase " Eight reverend ; " but an adjective
in the sentence " That is not the right road." Bojck is an adverli
in the sentence " He came back yesterday ; " but a noun in the
sentence " He fell on his back." Here is an adverb, and wlver^
an adverbial conjunction ; but in the line —

" Thou losest here, a better where to find,"

Shakespeare employs these words as nouns. The^ in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred, is an adjective ; but in such phrases as
" The more, the merrier," it is an adverb, modifying merrier and
more. Indeed, some words seem to exercise two functions at
the same time. Thus Tennyson has —

'' Slow and sure comes up the golden year," —

where slow and sure may either be adverbs modifying corner, or
adjectives marking year ; or both. This is also the case with
the participle, which is both an adjective and a verb ; and with
the gerund, which is both a verb and a noun.

6. Function or Form ? — From all this it appears that we are
not merely to look at the form of the word, we are not merely
to notice and observe; but we must think — we must ask our-
selves what the word does, what is its Amotion P In other
words, we must always — when trying to settle the class to which
a word belongs — ask ourselves two questions —

(i) What other word does it go with 1 and
(ii) "^V^at 4oef it dg to that wordi

63(a)

WOBDB IN COMMON USE, WITH DIPPBEBNT
FUNCTIONS (OR AS DIFFERENT PARTS OP SPEECH).

About

After

Alone

2. Preposition

1. Adjective

2. Adverb

3. Prei)osition

4. Conjunction

1. Noun

1. Adverb—

(a) (Manner) : He stopped, then turned him oMut.

(b) (Degree) : The man was about forty years old.

Then swarmed they <ibout him like

bees.

And in the after ages shall men sing
thy praise.

^* Be thus when thou art dead, and I
will kill thee
And love thee after" (ShakMpeare.)

The boy ran after his father.

We resumed our walk after the pro-
cession had passed.

''I dare do oZI'that may become a
man." (Shakespeare.)

2. Adjective—

(a) Of Quantity, Definite :

"And all this throve, until I wedded

thee." (Tennyson.)

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

" Ah '. when shall all men's good

Be each man's rule ? " (Tennyson.)
"Life piled on life were all too
little." (Tennyson.)

And he oZone remains to comfort me.

" She never feared to enter the church

alone at night." (Dickens.)

Teach me amothen^s griefs to share.

" So she, like many another babbler,

hurt

Whom she would soothe."

(TenayaoB.)

3. Adverb

1. Adjective

2. Adverb*

Another 1. Noun

2. Adjective

WORDS IN COMMON USE, WITH DIFFERBNT FUNCTIONS. 6S(b)

Any 1, Adjective—

(a) Of Qoantitj :

We fail to see any trath in his arga-
ment.

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

Have yon any books for me t
2. Pronoun (Indefinite) —

Any who have finished may go now
8. Adverb Can yon not write any better ?

As 1. Pronoun (Relative) —

*' Such as sleep o' nights.**

(8hakespMitt4

2. Adverb She is a* good as she is b^utifuL

8. Conjunction (or Conjunctive Adverb) —

'* I am not all so wrong
As a bitter jest is dear." CTennyson.)

Besides 1. Adverb He taught, and studied besides.

2. Preposition I have other strings to my bow

besides this.

8. Conjunction The king will pardon us ; besides, we

have your written promise.

Both 1. Adjective (Definite Numeral) —

*' He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled."

(Tennyson.)

2. Pronoun (Indefinite)—

He carried away both.

But 1. Noun Tou always meet me with a but

2. Pronoun (Belative, Negative) —

" There breathes not clansman of thy
line
But would have given his life for
thine." (Soott)

8. Verb " Bvi me no huts." (ShakMpeftre.)

4. Adverb "'Tis hU a little way that I can bring

you." (Shakespeare.)

5. Preposition All but £ate had gone out.

0. Conjunction ''Knowledge comes, but wisdom

lingers." (Tennjaon.)

63(c)
Either

Else

Enongh

Even

Except

Per

jr^^f

GRAMMAR OF TH1B ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. Adjective On eUiher hand the hiwns and

meadow ledges midway down
Hang rich in bloom." (Tennyson.)

2. Conjunction Either go at once or stay for ever.

" Him destroyed, all tUe will follow."

(MUton.)

He would else haye paid the debt
8. Conjunction She has had many visitors, ehe she

would have written.

" Enough is as good as a feast"

L Adjective
2. Adverb

1. Noun

2. Adjecti''

(a) Of Quantity :

Have you money enatigh for the
journey ?

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

We have erumgh books already.
He is strong enough for this work.

Do you know how to play odd and

even'i
The edges are now even.
It is necessary first to even the sides.
'' And even then he turned."

8. Adverb
L Noun

2. Adjective
a Verb
4, Adverb

1. Verb

2. Preposition

When making your list, except those

named herein.
All were early except my brother and

me.

8. Conjunction "I will not let thee go, except thou

bless me."

1. Preposition "She gave me /or my pains, a world

of sighs." (Shakespeare.)

2. Conjunction " Call me early, mother dear,

For 1 would see the sun rise."

(Tennyson.)

1. Noun

2. Adjective
8. Adverb

The hcU/ot my goods I give to the

poor.

^a{/' measures are worse than useless

in such cases.
''So saying, from the pavement he

hcU/roae." (Tennyson.)

WORDS IN COMMON USE, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. 63(d)

Least 1. Noun The leout of them would sujQ&ce.

2. Adjective The Ucut child in the room knows so

much.

3. Adverb This is the lecut praiseworthy.

Less 1. Noun Oiye me les8.

2. Adjective Of two dangers choose the less.

8. Adverb " I warrant you love me less than I

love thee." (Shakespeare.)

Like 1. Adjective As like as two peas.

2. Adverb Like as a father pitieth his children.

3. Verb and He liked to fight like a lion.

preposition

4. Noun " His living like saw never living eye."

Little 1. Noun ^ To whom little is forgiven, the same

loveth little."

2. Adjective —

(a) Of Quantity:

He takes but litUe heed of such idle
tales.

(b) Of Quality :

" A litUe thing may harm a wounded
man." (Tennyson.)

3. Adverb " A UtUe more than kin and less than

kind." (Shakespeare.)

More 1. Noun I need more than you.

2. Adjective —

(a) Of Quantity :

Have you no more complaint to
make?

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

There were more ants than one could
count.

3. Adverb "Once more unto the breach, dear

Mends." (Shakeapeare.)

Most 1. Noun The youngest boy knew most

2. Adjective —

(a) Of Quantity :

Most wool is brought to London.

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

Most people would prefer this.

3. Adverb The Duke spoke most loudly.

Hndl 1. Noun We saw mnieh which was worthy of

pndse.

63(e) GRAMMAR Of THE XNGLISH LANGUAOS.

2. Adjective (of Quantity)—

Portia needed much comfort.
8. Adverb The wise speak less, but think much

more than the foolish.

Neitlier 1. Adjective Neither book is yeiy expenaiye.

2. Gonjnnctioii " Neither a borrower nor a lender be.''

Next 1. Adjective The next moment we lost sight of her.

2. Adverb Who comes next ?

3. Preix>sition Will you sit next me ?

No 1. Adjective —

(a) Of Quantity :

Such people need no encouragement.

(b) Of Number, Definite :

No books can teach like experience.
2. Adverb "We no longer belieye in St.

Edmund." (Buskin.)

Notwith- 1. Preposition Notwithstanding the justice of your
standing plea, I cannot consent.

2. Conjunction Notunthstomdvng they had arrived, we

left without seeing them.
Off 1. Adjective A gentleman got down from the off

side.

2. Adverb Othello has earned offmj daughter.

3. Preix>sition Antonio's argosy was wrecked off

Tripolis.
One 1. Adjective (Numeral, Definite) —

''All worldly joys go less, to the one
joyof doing kindnesses." (HeriMrt.)
2. Pronoun (Indefinite)—-

"I fled into the castle like one
pursued."
Only^ 1. Adjective Thou art my only hope.

2. Adverb She is onZy a child.

8. Conjunction Tou may go, only return quickly.
Other !• Adjective ''Among new men, strange faces,

other minds." (Tennyson.)

2. Pronoun (Demonstratiye) —

" Then that other, left alone.
Sighed, and began to gatiier heart
again.'' (Tennyson.)

1 ir.jB.— Perhaps no word is so often misplAced in composition as the word only. The
correct rule ia to place it as near as practicable (not necessarily to the verb, but) to the
word or phrase which it modifies.

WORDS IN COMMON USB, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. 63(f)

Bound 1. Noun " The triyial rmmd, the common task,

Will furnish all we need to ask."

2. Adjective He owns a round table.

3. Verb He rounds his phrases welL

4. Adverb Bound goes the wheel

5. Preix>sition A moat ran round the castle wall

Save 1. Verb 8<we the women and children first

2. Preposition " And «at;e his good broadsword.

He weapons had none." (Soott)

8. Conjunction Who could do such deeds save God

were with him ?

Since 1. Adverb They have not written iinet.

2. Preposition She has not been out alone since

Easter.

3. Conjunction Further advice is useless since joxt

are already determined what to da

So !• Adverb "iSfo work the honey-bees."

2« Conjunction My father is away ; sol must stay at

home with mother.

Sonud 1. Adjective—

(a) Of Quantity :

^ Whose least distinguished day
Shines with some portion of
heavenly lustre."

(b) Of Number, Indefinite :

"Sofne men are bom great '^
2. Adverb There was an earthquake th^re some

four years ago.

Somowhat 1. Noun I know someu^iai of the matter.

2. Adverb Tou were somewhat late to-day.

Tbat L Adjective (Demonstrative)—

" My loyalty shall be growing,

Till death, that winter, kill it."

(Shakeapeare.)

2. Pronoun —

(a) Relative ** He VkU has humanity will tread

aside."

(b) Compound "We speak ^^ we do know.^

" Thai 's news indeed."
8* Conjunction "We eat thai we may live."

i^g) GRAltMAB OF tHE ENGLISH LAKotrAOfi.

Then 1. Adverb " Then shall man's pride and dulnes*

comprehend
His actions', passions', being's use
and end."

2. Ck>njiinctio]i Did he saj so ? then it most be true.

Therefore 1. Adverb "God made him, and <A«r«/or« let him

pass for a man." (BhakeBpemre.)

2. Conjunction (or Conjunctive Adverb)—

^* Thou hast not left the value of a
cord.
Therefore thou must hang at the
State's charge." (Shakespeim.)

Well !• Noun Leave ire^ alone.

2. Adjective "I am not m>«ZZ."

3. Adverb "I know how well I have deserved

the ring." (Shakespeare.)

4. Interjection WeU, peace be with you !

What 1. Adjective (Demonstrative) —

" And both together heard
What time the grey-fly winds her

^ ^ sultry horn." (Mflton.)

2. Pronoun—

(a) Interrogative : " What doest thou here, Elijah ? "

(b) Composite : ** Tell me wJiat you want."

3. Adverb What with one thing, and what with

another, I am almost undone,

4. Interjection What! not gone yet?

Wherefore 1. Noun I wished to know the wherefore of hb

action.
2. Adverb Wherefore do ye rebel ?

Whether 1, Pronoun (Interrogative) —

Whether is easier : to say "Thy sins
be forgiven," or to say "Arise
and walk"?

2. Conjunction "To be resolved whether Brutus so

unkindly knocked."

Words in common use, with different FUNcmoNS 63(h)

Which

Why

Wont

Tet

1. Adjective Did yon see which way the boy ran ?

2. Pronoun —

(a) Belatiye :

" That which yon haye touched."
(6) Interrogative :

" W^ic^ is yonrs ? »

I don't consider the why and the

wherefore.
Why are the days longer in summer

than in winter ?
This is the reason why I spoke.
" How doth the king ? Why, well 1»'

" It is not his wont to be the hind-
most man.'' (Shakespeare.)

" Come I but keep thy wonted state."

(Milton.)

" Beneath whose shade

I loont to sit and watch the setting

sun." (Soathey.)

" As when men, wont to watch

On duty, sleeping found . . . rouse

and bestir themselves." (HUton).

" Old age hath yet his honour and his
toil." (TennyBon.)

" Tet I thy best will all perform at
fulL" (TennyBon.)

1. Noun

2. Adverb

3. Conjunction

4. Interjection

1. Noun

2. Adjective
8. Verb

4. Participle

1. Adverb

2. Conjunction

SYNTAX.

INTRODUCTORY.

1. The word Ssmtax is a Greek word which means arrange-
ment Syntax, in grammar, is that part of it which treats of
the relations of words to each other in a sentence.

2. Syntax is usually divided into two parts, which are called
Concord and Qovemment.

(i) Concord means agxeemeiit. The chief ooncords in grammar ar«
those of the Verb with its Subject ; the AdjectiYe with its IToim r one
Noon with another Noon ; the Pronoun with the Noun it stands for ;
the BelatiTe with its Antecedent.

(ii) Goyemment means the influence that one word has upon another.
The chief kinds of Qovemment are those of a Transitive Verb and
a Noun ; a Preposition and a Noun.

L— SYNTAX OF THE NOUl^.

1.— THE NOMINATIVE CASE.

Bulb L — The Subject of a sentence is in the 19'ominative
Case.

Thus we say, I write ; John writes : and both / and John — the sub-
jects in these two sentences — are in the nominatiye case.

Bulb II. — ^When one noun is used to explain or describe
another, the two nouns are said to be in Apposition ; and they
are always in the same case.

STNTAX OF THI HOUK. M

Thus we find in Shakespeare's Heniy Y., L 2. 188 :—

" So work the honey-bean^
GreatoTM that by a rule in Nature teadi
The art of order to a peopled kingdom."

Here bees is the nominatiTe to work ; ereaiom is in imposition with
bees, and henoe is also in the nominative case. (Of conrse, two nouns
in apposition may be in the objectire caae^ as in the sentence, " We met
John the gardener.")

(i) The words in imposition may be separated from each other, as in
Cowper's well-known line about the postman : —

" He comes, the herald of a noisy world."

Bulb III. — The verb to be, and other verbs of incomplete pre-
dication, take two nominatiYea — one before and the other after.

Thus we find such sentences as —

(i) General Wolseley is an able soldier.

(ii) The long-remembered beggar mm his guest.

In the first sentence Woletiey and adUUer refer to the same person ;

beggar and gaest refer to the same person ; and all that the verbs is

and waa do is to connect them. They haTe no influence whatever upon

either word. When is (or are) is so used, it is called the oo]nda»

iV If we call the preyiooB kind of apposition ninm-appocitioii, this might be
called Terb-apposition.

Bulb IY. — The verbs of incomplete predication — ^become,
live, tnm-ont^ prore, remain, seem, look, and others, like the
verb to be, take a nominatiye case after them as well as
before them«

Thus we find : —

(i) Tom became an arehitdct.
(ii) The boy is called Jtfhn.
(iii) He turned out a dull fellow,
(iv) She moves a goddess ; and she looks a queen.
On examining the verbs in these sentences, it will be seen that they
do not and cannot govern the noun that follows them. The noun be-
fore and the noun after designate the same person. Hence the second
is called the oomplementary nominative, being necessary to complete
the subject.

The complementary nominatiTe ako follows the passive voice of
factitive verbs, such as make, create, appoint, and verbs of naming,
calling, etc

BULE V. — ^A Noun and an Adjective, or a Noun and a Par-
ticiple, or a Noun and an Adjective Phrase, — not syntactically

66 GRAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

connected with any other word in the sentence, — are put in the
19'omiiLative Absolute.
ThuB we haye : —

(i) " She earns a scanty pittance, and at night

Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light." — Cowfbb.

(ii) The wind ehiftiag, we sailed slowly.

(iii) " Next Anger rushed, his eyes on fire." — CoLLura.

(iy) Dinner over, we went up-stairs.

The word absolutta means fned; and the absolute case has been freed from,
and is independent of, tiie construction of the sentence.

EsMABKB. — 1. In the oldest English (or Anglo-Saxon), the
absolute case was the Dative ; and this we find even as late as
Milton (1608-1674), who says—

"Him destroyed,

All else will follow."

2. OaHtionl In the sentence, "Pompey, haying been de-
feated, fled to Africa," the phrase having l)een defeated is at-
tributive to Pomjpey^ which is the noun to fled. But, in the
sentence, " Pompey having been defeated, his army broke up,"
Pompey — ^not being the noun to any verb — is in the nomina-
tive absolute. Hence, if a noun is the nominative to a verb,
it cannot be in the nominative absolute.

Ebicabks ok Exobftions.

1. The pronoun It is often used as a Freparatoxy 19'omina-
tive, or — as it may also be called — a Bepresentative Subjects
Thus we say, " It is very hard to climb that hill," where it
stands for the true nominative, to-olimb-that-hilL

2. In the same way, the demonstrative adjective that is often
used as a Bepresentative Subject. '^That (he has gone to
Paris) is certain." What is certain ? That. What is that P
The fact that he has gone to Paris.

3. Still more oddly, we find both it and that used in one
sentence as a kind of Joint-Bepresentative Subject. Thus
we have : (i) ** It now and then happened that (he lost his
temper) ; " and, in Shakespeare's " Othello " —

SYNTAX OF THE NOUN. 67

(ii) " That (I have ta'en away this old man's daughter)
It is most true."

What is most trae ? It WhatisitP That Whatisthatl^
That (I have taken away, etc.) Here the verb is has really
three subjects, all meaning the same thing.

1 ggr It must be observed that tiie demonstrative Xhat has by use gained the
force, and exercises the ftinction, of a conjunction joining two sentences.
It here joins tiie two sentences "It is most true," and "I have taken
away," etc.

4. The nominative to a verb in the Imperative Mood is often
omitted. Thus Come along ! = Come thou (or ye) along !

2.— THE POSSESSIVE CASE.

Bulk VI. — ^When one iNoun stands in the relation of an
attribute to another ^JSToun, the first of these nouns is put in
the Possessive Case.

(i) The Possessive Case originally denoted mere poBseBsioB, as John's
book ; John's gun. But it has gradually gained a wider reference ; and
we can say, " The Duke of Portland's funeral," etc.

(ii) The objective case with of = the possessive ; and we can say,
'^ The might of England," instead of '' England's might. '

RuijBS VII. — ^When (i) two or more Possessives are in apposi-
tion, or (ii) when several nouns connected by and are in the
possessive case, the sign of the possessive is affixed to the
last only.

(i) Thus we find: (i) For thy servant David's sake, (ii) Messrs
Simpkin & Marshall's house.

iST The &ct is, that Messrs Simpkin-^'lifarshdll, and other snch phrases,

are regarded as one coxnpoimd phrase.

(ii) The sentence, **Thi8 is a picture of Turner's," =** This is one
of Turner's pictures." The of governs, not Tume'r'a, but pictures.
Hence ''of Turner's" need not be considered a double possessive,
though it Iboks like it. So also may be explained ' ' a friend of mine "
( = ''one of the friends of me"), but not ''that handsome face of
John's " or " that sacred head of thine " (Milton). Here "of John's"
and " of thine " are probably double possessives — an idiom which was
used as early as Chaucer. Cy. " an old f elawe ofyoures. " ( Pard. Tale, )

68 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

S.— THE OBJECTIVE CASE.

1. The OlDJeotlTe Case is that case of a noun or pronoun
that is " governed by " a transitive verb or by a preposition.

j|7 It is only the pronoim that has a special fonn for this case.
The English noun formerly had it» but lost it between the yean 1066
and 1300.

2. The ObjeotiTe Case is the case of the Direct Object;
the Dative Case is the case of the Indirect Object — and
something more.

(i) The Direct Object answers to the question Whom T or What T

(ii) The Indirect Object answers to the question To whomT To whatT
or For whom T For what T

3. The object of an active-transitive verb must always be a
IToun or the Equivalent of a 19'oun.

EuLE VnL — The Direct Object of an Active-Transitive
Verb is put in the Objective Case.

Thus we read : (i) We met the man (Noun), (ii) We met him
(Pronoun), (lii) We saw the fightings (Verbal Noun), (iv) I like to
work (Infinitive), (v) I heard that he bad left (Noun sentence).

KuLE IX. — Factitive Verbs, such as making, appointing,
creating, etc., and verbs of naming and calling, take two objects.

Thus we say: (i) They made him manager, (ii) The Queen
appointed him Treasurer.

The second is caUed the complementazy or fSnctitiYe object; See
Bole XXXIII.

EuLB X. — Some Intransitive Verbs take an objective case
after them, if the objective has a similar or cognate meaning
to that of the verb itself.

Thus we find : (i) To die the death, (ii) To sleep a sleep, (iii) To
go one's way. To wend one's way. (iv) To run a race, (t) Dreaming
dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

gW Such ottJects are called cognate objects.

Bulb XL — The limitations of a Verb by words or phrases
expressing spaoe» time, measure, etc., are said to be in the

SYNTAX OF THE NOUN. 69

olideetdTe case ; as (i) he walked three miles ; (ii) he traTelled
all night ; (iii) the stone weighed three pounds.

Wr 1. Because these words limit or modifjr the verbs to which they
are attached, they are sometimes called Adyerbial Objects.

2. The following are adyerbial phrases of somewhat the same kind :
(i) They bound him hand and foot, (ii) They fell upon him tooth and
nalL (iii) They turned out the Turks, bag and baggage. Such
phrases are rightly called adverbial, because they modify 6oufu2, /eS,
and iiwrMd; and show how he was bound, how they fell upon him, etc.

Words used in this way represent various cases in Old English,
the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative.

Ebmabks ox ExGBPnON&

1. The same verb may be either Intransitive or Transitive,
according to its use. Thus —

Intransitive. Transitive.

(i) The soldier ran away. (i) The soldier ran his spear into

the Arab.

(ii) The man works very hard. (ii) The master works his men too

hard.

(iii) We walked up the hill. (iii) The groom walked the horse

up the hiU.

2. An Intransitive verb performs the function of a Transi-
tive verb when a preposition is added to it. Thus —

Intransitive. Transitive.

(i) The children laughed. (i) The children laughed at the clown,

(ii) The man spoke. (ii) The man spoke of wild beasts.

3. The preposition may continue to adhere to such a verb,
so that it remains even when the verb has been made passive.

Thus we can say : (i) He was laughed-atb (ii) Whales were spoken-of.
(iii) Prosecution was hinted-atb And this is an enormous convenience
in the use of the English language.

4.— THE DATIVE CASE.

L The Dative is the case of the Indirect Object.

Thus we say : He handed her a chair. She gave it me.

70 GRAMMAR OF THE BNGLISH LANGUAGE

2. The Dative is also to be found with certain impersonal
verbs, such as list, seem, please, think {=s3eem); the verb
worth; and with the prepositions like and near (*'like me,"
" near the house "). Kule XXXV.

Thus we hare the phrases, maseema ; if joa please (=if it please
yon) ; methonght (=it seemed to me) ; and, she is likebim ; he was
near us.

** Woe worth the chase ! woe worth the day
That cost thy life, my gallant grey 1 ''

— " Lady of the Lake."
" When in Salamanca's cave
Him listed his magic wand to wave,

The bells would ring in Notre-Dame."

— << Lay of the Last Minstrel"

3. The Dative is sometimes the case of possession or of
benefit.

As in. Woe is ma I Well is thee 1

. * * Fare thee well " ( = fare well /or thystHf),

EuLB XII. — Verbs of giving, promising, telling, showing,
teaching, asking, etc., take two objects; and the indirect
object is put in the dative case.

Thus we say : He gave her a fan. She promised ma a book. Tell QS
a story. Show me the picture-book.

EuLB XIII. — ^When such verbs are turned into the passive
voice, either the Direct or the Indirect Object may be turned
into the Subject of the Passive Verb. Thus we can say
either —

Direct Object used as Subject. Indirect Object used as Subject

(i) A fan was given her. (i) She was given a fan.^

(ii) A book was promised ma (ii) I was promised a book.^

(iii) A story was told us. (iii) We were told a story.*

• (iv) The picture-book was shown (iv) I was shown the picture-book.*
me.

* This has sometimes been called the Retained Object The words
fan, etc., are in the objective case, not because they are governed by the
passive verbs was given, etc., but because they still retain, in a latent
form, the influence or government exercised upon them by the actilTa
verbs, give, promise, etc.

SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVK. 71

Eemabks on Exoeftions.

1. The Dative of the Personal Pronoun was in frequent use
in the time of Shakespeare, to add a certain liveliness and in*
terest to the statement.

Thus we find, in several of his plays, such sentences as —

(i) " He plucked me ope his doublet"
(ii) ''Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, and rap me well."
(iii) " Your tanner will last you nine year."

Qrammarians call this kind of dative the ethical dative.

2. The Dative yeas once the Absolute Case.

They have stolen away the body, ub sleeping."

Wyclifs Bible.

IL— SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVE.

1. In our Old English^-tiie English spoken hef ore the coming
of the Normans, and for some generations after — every adjec-
tive agreed with its noun in gender, niunber, and ease ; and
even as late as Chaucer (1340-1400) adjectives had a form for
the plural number. Thus in the Prologue to the * Canterbury
Tales/ he writes —

** And nruiU f owles maken melodie,"

where e is the plural inflexion.

2. In course of time, partly under the influence of the Kor-
mans and the Norman language, all these inflexions dropped
off; and there are now only two adjectives in the whole lan-
guage that have any inflexions at all (except for comparison),
and these inflexions are only for the plural number. The two
adjectives that are inflected are the demonstrative adjectives
this and that, which make their plurals in these (formerly thise)
and those.

(i) The, which is a broken-down form of that, never changes at alL

(ii) When an adjective is used as a noim, it may take a plural inflec-
tion ; as the hlacJct, goods, equals, edibles, wmuals, monthlies, weeklies, etc.

3. Most adjectives are inflected for oomparison.

72 ORAMMAB OF THS ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

4. Every adjective is either an explicit or an implicit predi-
cate. The following are examples : —

A4]MtivM used as Explicit Predicates.

1. The way was long ; the wind was cold.

2. The mmstrel was infixni and old.
8. The duke is very rich.

A4]«etiTes used as Implicit Predicates.

1. We had before us a long way and a cold wind.

2. The infirm old minstrel went wearily on.

3. The rich duke is very niggardly.

5. When an adjective is used as an expUcit predicate, it is
daid to be used predicatively ; when it is used as an implicit
predicate, it is said to be used attributively.

Adjectives used predicatively.

1. The cherries are ripe.

2. The man we met was very old.

AdJeotivM used attributively.

1. Let us pluck only the ripe cherries.

2. We met an old man.

EuLB XIV. — An adjective may qualify a noun or pronoun
predicatively, not only after the verb be, but after such in-
transitive verbs as look, seem, feel, taste, etc

Thus we find : (i) She looked angry, (ii) He seemed weary, (iii) He
felt better, (iv) It tasted lonr. (v) He fell ill.

EuLB XY. — ^After verbs of making, thinking, coneidering,
etc., an adjective may be used factitively as well as predica-
tively.

Thus we can say, (i) We made all the young ones happy, (ii) All
present thought him odd. (iii) We considered him very <deyer.

This can be called a complementary use of the adjective (see
Bule ix).

EuLB XVI. — An adjective may, especially in poetry, be used
as an abstract noun.

Thus we speak of *' the True, the Good, and the Beautiftil • " '< the
sublime and the ridiculous ; " Mrs Browning has the phrase, "from the
depths of God's divine ; " and in Shakespeare we find
" Say what you can, my falM o'erweighs your true."

SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVIB. 73

Rule XVII. — An adjective fonn may be used as an adverb
in poetry.

Thus we find in Dr Johnson the line —

** Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed ; "

and in Scott —

** Trip it deft and merrily ; "

and in Longfellow —

** The green trees whispered low and mild ; *

and in Tennyson —

** And slow and sure comes up the golden year."

(i) The reason for this is that in O.E. adverbs were formed firom adjectives by
adding e. Thus brightS •waa=birightly, and deepe=deep2y. But in course of
time the e fell off, and an adverb was Just like its own adjective. Hence we still
have the phrases : *' He works hard ; "Run quick I" " Speak louder I " "Run
fasti" "Right reverend," etc

(ii) Shakespeare very frequently uses adjectives as adverbs, and has such sen-
tences as : " Thou didst it excellent 1 ' *"Tis noble spoken I" and many more.

KuLB XYIII. — A participle is an adjective, and as such
agrees with its noun.

Thus, in Pope —

** How happy Is the blameless vestal's lot.
The world forgetting, by the world forgot ! "

where forgetting, the present active participle, and forgot, the past

passive participle, both agree with vestal (** the vestal's lot" being =

the lot of the vestal).

(i) But while a participle is thus an adjective, it also retains one ftinction of a
verb— the power to govern. Thus in the sentence, " Respecting ourselves, we
shall be respected by the world/' the present participle retpecHng agrees with
toe, and governs ourselves.

Rule XIX. — The oomparative degree is employed when
tw^o things or two sets of things are compared ; the superla-
tive when three or more are compared.

Thus we say " James is taller than I ; but Tom is the tallest of the
three."

(i) Than is a dialectic form of then. " James is taller ; then I (come).**

(ii) The superlative is sometimes used to indicate superiority to all others.
Thus Shakespeare says, " A little ere the mightiest Julius fell ; *' and we use such
phrases as, "Truest IHend and noblest foe. This is sometimes called the
"superlative of pre-eminence."

(iii) Double comi>aratives and superlatives were mu^ used in O E., and
Shakespeare was especially fond of them. He gives us such phrases as, "a
more larger list of sceptres," "more better," "more nearer," "most worst,"
"most unkindest cut of alL" etc. These cannot be employed now.

74 GBAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAOB.

EuLE XX. — ^The distributive adjectives eaeky every, eiiher,
neither, go with sincpilar nouns only.

Thus we say : (j) Each boy got an appla (ii) Every noun is in its
place, (iii) Either book will do. (iy) Neither woman went.

Neither is a dialectic form of notlier, which was afterwards com-
pressed into nor. It has altered under the influence of eitlMr.

Eemares on Exceptions.

1. There are some ac^ectives that cannot be used attribu-
tively, but only predicatively. Such are -well, iU, -ware,
aware, afraid, glad, sorry, etc. (But we say " a glad heart,"
and — in a different sense — " a sorry nag.")

(i) We say '* He was glad ; " but we cannot say " A glad man." Tet
Wordsworth has —

" Glad sight whenever new and old
Are Joined thro' some dear home-bom tie."

We also speak of "glad tidings."

(ii) We say " He was sorry ; " but if we say " He was a sorry man,"
we use the word in a quite different sense. The attributive meaning of
the word is in this instance quite different from the predicative.

2. The phrase ** the first t-wo " means the first and second
in one series ; ^' the two first *' means the first of each of two
serie& .

m.— SYNTAX OF THE PEONOUK".

EuLE XXI. — Pronouns, whether personal or relative^ must
agree in gender, number, and person with the nouns for
which they stand, but not (necessarily) in case.

Thus we say : ''I have lost my umbrella : it was standing in the

comer."

(i) Here it is nentor, singular, and third person, becaose umbrella is neater,
singular, and third person.

(ii) Umbrella is in the objective ease governed by hxw lo$t; but it is in the
nondnative, because it is the subject to its own verb vxu ttanding,

EuLB XXII. — Pronouns, whether personal or relative, take
their case from the sentenoe in which they stand.

SYNTAX OF THE PRONOUN. 75

Thus we say : '' The sailor whom we met on the beach is OL" Here
sailor is in the nominatiye, and whom, its pronoun, in the objectiye.

(i) Whom is in the objectiye, becanse it is governed by the verb met in its
own sentence. " The sailor is ill " is one sentence. " Him (whom^and "Mm)
we met" is a second sentence.

(ii) The relative may be governed by a preposition, as " The man on whom I
relied has not disappointed me."

EuLB XXIII. — ^Who, whom, and whose are used only of
rational beings; which of irrational; that may stand for
nouns of any kind.

(i) In poetry, whose may be used for of which. Thus Wordsworth, in
the ' Laodamia,' has —

** In worlds whose course is equable and pure."

KuLE XXIV. — The possesslves mine, thine, ours, yours, and
theirs are used when a verb separates the possessive and the
qualified noun ; or when the noun is not expressed ; or after " of."

Thus we say ; " This 13 mine. " ** Mine is larger than that of yours. "
But mine and thine are used for my and thy before a noun in poetry
and impassioned prose : '* Who knoweth the power of thine anger?"

EuLB XXY. — ^After such» same, so m.aolu so great, etc,
tne relative employed is not who, but as.

Thus Milton has —

'* Tears such as angels weep."

(I) Shakespeare uses as eren after that —

'* That kind of fimit as maids call medlars."

This usage cannot now be employed.

N. 6. — The main use of the Bdlative Pronoun is restrictive, that is, to
hmit the antecedent. It has also a conjunctive use, to introduce an
additional statement : I met a friend, who knew me at once. Who
and which are both so used ; but that is never used as a conjunctive.

Ebmares on Exceptions.
1. The antecedent to the relative may be omitted.

Thus we find, in Wordsworth's ** Ode to Duty "—

"There are /^ who ask not if thine eye
Be on them.*'

76 ORAMMAB OF THB ENGLISH LANGUAOS.

2. The relative itself may be omitted.

(i) Thus Shelley has the line—

" Men must reap the things A they sow."

(ii) And such phrases as, ''Is this the book A you wanted ? " are very
common.

3. The word but is often used for who + not. It is some-
times called the negatlTe-relatiTe.

Thus Scott has—

** There breathes not clansman of my line
But (=who not) would have given his life for mine."

4. The peisonal pronouns, when in the dative or objective
case, are generally without emphasia.

(i) If we say '' Give me your hand/' the me is unemphatic. If we say
" Give me your hand ! " the m£ has a stronger emphasis than the give^
and means «n«| and not any other person.

(ii) Very ludicrous accidents sometimes occur from the misplacing ot
the accent. Thus a careless reader once read : " And he said, ' Saddle
me the ass ;' and they saddled him," Nelson's famous signal, "Eng-
land expects every man to do his duty," was once altered in em*
phasis with excellent efifect. A midshipman on board one of H.M.'fl
ships was very lazy, and inclined to allow others to do his work; and the
question went round the vessel : ** Why is Mr So-and-so like England ?'*
'' Because he expects every man to do hii duty.'

IV.— SYNTAX OF THE VEKB.

1.— eONGORD OF VERBS.

We cannot say / writeSf or He or The man torUe, We always say / Vfrite,
He vfTfteSf and The man writes. In other words, certain pronouns and
nouns require a certain form of a verb to go with them. If the pronoun
is of the first person, then the verb will have a certain form ; if it is of the
third person, it will have a different form. If the noun or pronoun is sing-
ular, the verb will have one form ; if it is plural, it may have another form.
In these circumstances, the verb is said to agree with its subjects

All these facts are usually embodied in a general statement, which may
also serve as a rule.

Bulb XXYI. — A Finite Verb must agree with its subject

8TNTAX OF THE WKB. 77

in Number and Person. Thus we say: "He calls," "They
walk."

(i) The subject answers to the question Who t or What t

(ii) The subject of a finite verb is always in the nominatiye case.

Or and nor are conjunctions which do not add the things mentioned
to each other, but allow the mind to take them separately — ^the one
excluding the other. We may therefore say : —

EuLB XXVIL — ^Two OP more singular nouns that are subjects,
connected by or or nor, require their verb to be in the singular.
Thus we say : " Either Tom or John is going." " It was either
a roe-deer or a large goat 1 "

On the other hand, when two or more singular nouns are connected
by and, they are added to each other ; and, just as one and one make
two, so two singular nouns are equal to one plural We may therefore
lay down the following rule : —

Rule XXVIII. — ^Two or more singular nouns that are sub
jectSy connected by and, require their verb to be in the plural
We say: "Tom and John are going." "There were a roe
deer and a goat in the field."

Cautiona. — (i) The compound conjunction as well as does not require
a plural verb, because it allows the mind to take each subject separately.
Thus we say, "Justice, as well as mercy, allows it." We can see the
truth of this remark by transposing the clauses of the sentence, and
saying, " Justice allows it, as well as mercy [allows it]."

(ii) The preposition with cannot make two singular subjects into one
plural We must say, '* The Mayor, with his attendants, was there."
Transposition will show the force of this remark also : '* The Mayor was
there with his attendants."

RuLB XXIX. — Collective IQ'ouns take a singular verb or
a plural verb, as the notion of unity or of plurality is upper-
most in the mind of the speaker. Thus we say : " Parliament
was dissolved." "The committee are divided in opinion."

(i) When two or more singular nouns represent one idea, the verb is
singular. Thus, in Milton's ** Lycidas," we find —

" Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear
Compels me to disturb your season due."

78 aSAMKAR Ot TH2 ENGLISH LANGUAGB.

And, in Shakespeare's ''Tempest" (t. 104), we read—

'' All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement

Inhabits here.

In this case we may look upon the statement as=" A condition which
embraces all torment," etc.

(ii) When the verb precedei a number of different nominatives, it is
often singular. The speaker seems not to have yet made up his mind
what nominatives he is going to use. Thus, in the well-known passage
in Byron's " Childe Harold " we have —

" Ah I then and there was hurrying to and fro;
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress."

And so Shakespeare, in " Julius CsBsar," makes Brutus say, " There is
tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honour for his valour, and death
for his ambition." And, in the same way, people sayj " Where is my
hat and stick?"

EuLB XXX. — ^The verb to be is often attra,oted into the same
number as the nominative that follcw-s it, instead of agreeing
with the nominative that is its true subject. Thus we find :
"The wages of sin is death." "To love and to admire has
been the joy of his existence." "A high look and a proud
heart is sin."

2.— GOVERNMENT OF VERBS.

EuLE XXXL — A Transitive Verb in the active voice
governs its direct object in the objective case. Thus we say :
« I like Mm ; " « they dislike her."

The following sub-rules are of some importance : —

(i) The participle, which is an adjective, has the same goreming
power as the verb of which it is a part — as, *' Seeing the rain, I remained
at home" — where seeing agrees with I as an adjective, and goyems
rain as a verb.

(ii) The genmd, which is a noun, has the same governing power as
the Terb to which it belongs. Thus we say : '* Hating one's neighbour is
forbidden by the Gospel," where hating is a noun, the nominative to
it forhiddenf and a gerund governing neighbour in the objective.

HuLB XXXIL — Active-transitive Verbs of giving, promis-
iikgf offeriHg, and suchlike, govern the Direct Object in the

SYNTAX OF THE VERB. 7*

objective case, and the Indirect Object in the dative. ''T
gave HiTn an apple." "He promises me a book."

(i) In turning these active verbs into passive, it is the direct Object
that should be turned into the Bubject of the passiye verb ; and we
ought to say, ** An apple was given me." But custom allows of either
mode of change ; and we also say, " I was given an apple ; " "I was
promised a book." Dr Abbott calls the objectives appfe and book
retained objects, because they are retained in the sentence, even
although we know that no passive verb can govern an objective casei

EuLB XXXIII. — Such verbs as make, create, appoint^
think, believe, etc., goyem two objects — the one direct, the
other complementary. Thus we say : ** They made him king ; "
*Hhe king appointed him governor;" "we thought her a
clever woman."

(i) The second of these objectives remains with the passive verb,
when the form of the sentence has been changed ; and we say, ** He
was made king ; " * ' he was appointed governor. " But the old objec-
tives king and governor have now become subjective or complemen-
tary nominatives.

EuLE XXXIV. — One verb governs another in the Infinitive.
Or,

The Infinitive Mood of a verb, being a pure noun, may be
the object of another verb, if that verb is aetive-transitive.
Thus we say : " I saw him go ; " " we saw the ship sink ; "
"I ordered him to write."

(i) In the first two sentences, him and ship are the subjects of go
and shik But the subject of an infinitive is always in the objective
case. The infinitives go and sink have a double face. They are yerbs
in relation to their subjects him and go ; they are nouns in relation to
the verbs that govern them.

(ii) In the sentence, " I ordered him to write," him is in the dative
case ; and the sentence is=''I ordered writing to him." To write is
the direct object of ordered.

0ii) Ckmdusion from the above: An Infinitive is always a noun,
whether it be a subject or an object. It is (a) a subject in the
sentence, " To play football is pleasant." It is (b) an objeet in the
sentence, " I like te play footbaa"

BuLE XXXY. — Some Verbs are followed by the DativQ

90 GRAMMAR OF THS EMGUSH LANGUAGE.

Case. Thus we have " "hUethoughty^ " me«ccm«," " Woe vxyrth
the day!" "Woewxnel" " If you jt>/«i«e / " (Rule XI,)

(i) Worlli ii the imperative of an old English verb, wtorthan^ to
become. (The German form of this verb is werden. )

(ii) Shakespeare even construes the verb looh with a dative (some-
times called the ethio dative or dative of interest). In ** Cymbeline,'
iii. 5, 32, he has —

She look^ TUi like
A thing more made of malice, than of duty.

3.— MOODS OF VERBS.

1. The Indicative Blood is the mood of direct assertion or statement,
and it speaks of actual facts. The 8abjimctiv« Mood is the mood of as-
sertion also, but with a modification given to the assertion by the mind
through which it passes. If we use the term dbjeetive as describing what
aetuaUy exUts independently of our minds, and rdbjeetive as describing
that which exists in the mind of the speaker, — whether it really exists
outside or not, — we can then say that —

(i) The Indicative Mood is the mood of 6bjective assertion.

(ii) The Subjunctive Mood is the mood of sdbjective assertion.

Tb« Indicative Mood may be compared to a ray of light coming straight
through the airi the Subjunctive Mood to the effect produced by the water on
the same ray — the water deflects it, makes it form a quite different angle, and
hence a stick in the water looks broken or crooked.

% The Imperative Mood is the mood of command or of request.

3. The Infinitive Mood is the substantive mood or noun of the

verb. It is always equal to a noun ; it is always either a subject or an
object ; and hence it is incapable of making any assertion.

4. The old form of the Svl^u&etlve Mood has practically fallen into
disuse. Few writers, and still fewer speakers, use it. Good writers
are even found to say, "If he was here, I should tell him." But a
knowledge of the uses of the subjunctive mood is necessary to enable
us to understand English prose and verse anterior to the present gener-
ation. Even so late as the year 1817, Jane Austen, one of the best
prose- writers of last century, used the old subjunctive form in almost
every dependent clause. Not only does she use it after (/"and though,
but after such conjunctions as tUl, urUilf because, and others.

ilULS XXXVI.— The Subjunctive Mood is used— and
must be used — to express doubt» possibility, supposition,
consequence (which may or may not happen), or wish, all as
moods of the mind of the speaker.

SYNTAX OF THE VKRB. 81

(i) " * Coma weal, come woe, by Bmce's side,'

Replied the chief, ' will Donald bide. ' " (Doubt. )

(ii) " Buy us a little food, that we die not" (Purpose.)

(ill) " Tet if one heart throb higher at its sway.

The wizard note has not been touched in vain." (SuppositioB.)

(iv) " Qet on your night-gown, lest occasion call us
And show us to be watchers.*' (Consequence.)

(t) *' I would my daughter wore dead at my foot, and the jewels in her
ear I " (Wish.)

t^ In all of the abore sentences, the clauses with subjunctiyes do not state fkcts,
but feelings or notions of what may or might be.

RuLB XXXVII. — The Subjunctive Mood, being a subjoined
mood, is always dependent on some other clause antecedent
in thought, and generally also in expression. The antecedent
clause, which contains the condition, is called the conditional
clause ; and the clause which contains the consequence of the
supposition is called the consequent clause.

(i) If it were so, it was a grievous fault.
Condition. Consequence.

(ii) If it were done when 'tis done,

Condition.

Then 'twere well it were done quickly.
Conuquenee,

Ebmareb on Exobptionb.

1. Sometimes the conditional clause is suppressed. Thus we
can say, " I would not endure such language " [if it were ad-
dressed to me = conditional clause].

2. The conjunction is often omitted. Thus, in Shakespeare's
play of " Julius Ceesar," we find —

" Were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits."

EuLB XXXVIIL— The Simple Infinitive— without the sign
to — is luied with auxiliary verbs, such as may» do, shall, will,
eta ; and with such verbs as let» bid» can, must. Bee, hear,
make, fbel, observe, have, kno-w, etc

82 OEAMMAB OF THB ENGLISH LAKOUAGK.

(i) Let darknefls keep her rayen glofls.
(ii) Bid the porter oome.
(iii) I saw him nm after a gilded butterfly,
(iy) We heard him cry.
(y) They made him go, etc., etc.

It was the Danes who introduced a preposition before the infinitiye.
Their sign was at, which was largely used with the infinitiye in the
Northern dialect.

EuLB XXXIX. — ^The Qerund is both a noun and a verb.
As a noun, it is governed by a yerb or preposition ; as a
verb (if tiansitiye), it governs other nouns or pronouns.

There are two gerundial forms — (i) one with to ; and (ii) one
that ends in ing.

(1) The first is to be carefully distingnished from the ordinary in-
finitive. Now the ordinary infinitive never expresses a pnrpoee; the
gerundial form with to almost always does. Thus we find —

** And fools who came to scoff remained to pray."

(ii) The gerund is to be distinguished from the present participle in
ing, and very carefully from the abstract noun of the same form. The
/present participle in lug, as loving, hating, walking, etc., is always an
adjective, agreeing with a noun or pronoun. The gerund in ing is
always a noun, and may govern an object. " He was very fond of playing
cricket." Here playing is a norm in relation to of; and a verb govern-
ing erichet in the objective In the words walJcing-9tick, frying-pan, etc.,
walking and frying are nouns, and therefore gerunds. If they were ad-
jectives and participles, the compounds would mean the stick that walks,
the pan thai fries,

(iii) The gerund in Ing must also be distinguished from the verbal
noun in ing, which is a descendant of the verbal noun in nng. '* He
went a hunting" (where a=the old an or on) ; ** Forty and six years
was this temple in building ; " " He was very impatient during the
reading of the will." In these sentences hunting, building, and read-
ing are all verbal nouns, derived from the old verbal noun in nng, and
are called dbitraot nouns. But if we say, " He is fond of hunting deer; "
'* He is engaged in building a hotel; " '' He likes reading poetry,'* — then
the three words are gerunds, for they act as verbs, and govern the three
objectives, deer, hotd, and poetry,

ExTLB XL. — ^The Qerundial Infinitive is frequently con-
strued with nouns and adjectives. Thus we say : " A bouse

SYNTAX OF THE ADVERB — ^AND PBBPOSITION. 83

to sell OP let;" "Wood to b\im;" "Deadly to hear, and
deadly to tell ; " " Gk)od to eat."

v.— SYNTAX OF THE ADVERB.

EuLB XT J. — The Adverb ought to be as near as possible to
the word it iiiodifie& Thus we ought to say, " He gave me
only three shillings," and not " He only gave me three shil-
lings," because ordy modifies three, and not gave.

This rule applies also to compound adverbs, such as at least, in like
maimer, at random, in part, etc.

Rule XLIL — Adverbs not only modify verbs, adjectives,
and other adverbs, but also prepositions, oonjunotions, and
even nouns. Thus we have the combinations out from, up
to, down to, etc.

In the sentence, "He walked up to me," the adrerb np does not
modify vjolhed^ but the prepositional phrase to me.

VI.— SYNTAX OF THE PKEPOSITIOK

Bulb XLUL — All prepositions in the English language
govern nouns and pronouns in the objective oaae.

The prepositions Mive and exoept are really verbs in the imperative
mood.

EuLB XLIV. — Prepositions generally stand before the words
they govern ; but they may, with good effect, come after them.
Thus we find in Shakespeare —

" Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed npon."
" Why, then, thou knowest what colour jet is of."

And, in Hooker, with very forcible effect —

'' Shall there be a Gk)d to swear by, and none to pray to 7 "

Rule XLV. — Certain verbs, nomis, and adjectives require
special prepositions. Thus we cannot say, ^'This is different
to that," because it is bad English to say " This differs to that."
The proper preposition in both instances is firom.

ORAMICAB OF THS ENGLISH LAKGUAaS.

The following is a list of some of these

Speoial prepositionB: —

Abfolve firom.

Abhorrence for.

Accord with.

Acquit of.

AAnity botwMn (or for).

Adapted to (intentionally).

Adapted for (by nature).

Agree witb (a person).

Agree to (a proposal).

Bestow apon.

CThange for (a thing).

Change witb (a person).

Confer on (=give to).

Confer witb (=talk with).

Confide in (= trust in).

Confide to (= intrust to).

Conform to.

In conformity with.

Comply with.

Convenient to (a person).

Convenient for (a purpose).

Conversant with.

Correspond with (a person).

Correspond to (a thing).

Dependent on (but independent of).

Derogatory to.

Differ from (a statement or opinion).

Differ witb (a person).

Difibrent firwn.

Disappointed of (what we cannot

get).
Disappointed in (what we have

got).
Dissent from.
Exception from (a rule).
Exception to (a statement).
Glad of (a possession).
Glad at (a piece of news).
Involve in.
Martyr for (a cause).
Martyr to (a disease).
Need of or for.
Part from (a person).
Part witb (a thing).
Profit by.

Reconcile to (a person).
Reconcile witb (a statement).
Taste of (food).
A taste for (art).
Thirst for or after (knowledge).

VII.— SYNTAX OF THE CONJUNCTION

HuLB XL VI. — The CoiiJiLnction does not interfere with the
action of a transitive verb or preposition, nor with the mood or
tense of a verb.

(i) This rule is usually stated thus : " Conjunctions generally connect
the same cases of nouns and pronouns, and the same moods and tenses
of verbs, as ' We saw him and her/ ' Let either him or me go I ' " But
it is plain that 9omo governs Aer as well as him; and that or cannot
interfere with the government of let. Such a rule is therefore totally
artificial

(ii) It is plain that the conjunction and must make two singulars =
one plural, as " He and I are of the same age."

Bulb XL VII. — Certain adjectives and conjunotions take

SYNTAX OF THl: CONJUNCTION. 85

after them certain special oonjunotions. Thus, such (adj.)
requires as, both (a4j.)» and ; so and as require as ; though,
yet; -whether, or; either, or; neither, nor; nor, nor; or,
or. The following are a few examples : —

(i) " Would I describe a preacher such as Paul ! "

(ii) " Though deep, yet clear ; tlipugh gentle, yet not dulL"

EuLB XLVIIL — The subordinating conjunction that may be
omitted. Thus we can say, "Are you sure he is hereV
Shakespeare has, " Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ! ^

85(ay

EXAMPLES OP FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE
SYNTAX FOR OORRBOTION OR DEFENCE.

[Not all the examples given %elow contain false syntax. Some do
exemplify sheer blunders ; these should be corrected, and
reason for correction should be given. Some contain instances
of doubtful usage ; these should either be corrected, or good
reasons should be given for accepting them as they stand. Some
instances of correct usage occur ; it should be explained how
or why these are correct. The last two classes are marked by an
asterisk. Very brief hints are given for the explanation of
some of the passages. The figures at the end of others refer
to the pages of this book.]

1. Homer, as well as Vergil, were studied on the banks of the Rhine
(77).

2. He was a man of ability and who never spared himself.

[Analyse this sentence, and the error — a very common one — ^is
obvious. ]
8. Nothing but serious studies delight him.

4. Without you agree, nothing can be done.

[it is doubtful whether "without" can be used as a conjunction
in good modern prose. It is not, however, doubtful that
" like" {e.g. **like I did") cannot be used as a conjunction.]

5. He promised much to whomsoever would assist him (64).

6. Men are put in the plural number, because they mean many.

[What is the tme nominative here ?]

7. We sorrow not as them that have no hope.

8. He was vexed at me quitting the house.

[What part of the verb is * * quitting " ? A participle or gerund ?]

9. She fell a-laughiug like one out of their right mind. •

10. He had then three alternatives before him.

[What is the derivation of " alternative " ?]

11. This doctrine was held by one of the greatest minds that has ever
existed.

[*« One "of what?]

EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX. 86(b)

12. Those sort of books are useless (76-7).

13. In France the peasantry goes barefoot.

[Which idea is uppermost — that of plurality or singularity ?]
*14. The crew were all to pieces.
*13. The crew was pulling as one man.
*16. Art thou the man that comest from Egypt? (74).
17. They who have the courage always to speak the truth choose for
thy friends.

[How has " they " crept in ?]

*18. Not enjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end or way.

[Are "enjoyment" and "sorrow" thought of separately or
together?]
*19. Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear

Compels me to disturb yBur season due.
*20. He is stronger than me.

[Milton has "than whom," and cf. Pope, SoA, viii. 275.
"And lin'd >rith Giants mightier than 'em all."]

*21. Which of these do you like best ?

[What would have to be done if " two " followed * * these " ?]
*82. And many a holy text around she strews,

That teach the rustic moralist to die.
[See query on 13.]
88. What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown,

While others sleep, thus range the camp alone?
[Cf. Example 16.]
84. Sense, and not riches, win esteem.
*86. About an eight days after these sayings.

[Cf. " a fortnight," *♦ a sennight."]
86. I knew it to be he. ^

[What case is "it"?]

^87. They all slept sound save she who loved them both.
[Cf. God and his Son except.

Created thing naught valued he nor shunned (Milton).
And Shakespeare's — "All the conspirators save only he."
Is "save" to be considered as a preposition? See p. 65, Rule v.]
^*88. They are the two first boys in the class.

[Is there more than one " first " boy ? But cf. Example 222.]
*89. Nor want nor cold his course delay.

[Axe "want " and " cold " thought of separately or together ?]
*80. Nor yew nor cypress spread their gloom.
31. Hoping to see you soon, believe me, yours, etc.

[A very common and a very gross error. Supply the subject
of "believe."]

88. Repulsed at all points, the retreat began.

88, I never have and nev^r wiU believe it.

85(c) GRAHMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

S4. The sons of false Antimachus were slain ;

He who for bribes his faithless counsels sold (64-5).
*80. I am averse from him going.

[Macaulay and Burke both wrote ** averse from." How would
you justify it? What real error does this sentence
contain ?]
86. Thersites' body is as good as Ajax, when neither are alive.

[Comment on the word **Ajax," Cf. **a8 thick as Ajax'
sevenfold shield."]
37. Nor do I know any one with whom I can converse more pleasantly
or would prefer as my companion.

S8. Take arms against a sea of troubles (185).

89. He blew his brains out after bidding his wife good-bye with a
gun. •

40. Nobody shall save me ; I will be drowned.

41. We wish to most heartily congratulate you.

[No good writer uses the split infinitive, and all who aim to
write well should avoid it.]

42. Sarai her name is changed.

[For an analogous usage see p. 21.]
*43. How happy is the blameless vestal's lot.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
[Note the word " vestal's."]
*44. When or you or I are made,

A fable, song, or fleeting shade.
[See query in Ex. 29.]

46. The French press know little of the actual facts.

*46. The name and personality of Gladstone was something sacred.

47. Bazaine with all hi^^soldiers were captured at Metz.
*48. Let us go to Macmillan's, the publisher's.

[Is this instance to be pronounced wrong in accordance with
Rule vii. 67 ? or does it admit of explanation as it stands?
Assume the last two words were not there.]
*49. All of ns went.

[iVT.^.— '*Six of us went."]
*50. Honour, justice, religion itself is dreaded by such a policy.

[Note the emphasis on "religion itself."]
51. Much blood and treasure was wasted in this war.

[Consider the relation of ** much " to ** blood and treasure."]
*52. He was hanged — a well-deserved punishment.

[Is this passage susceptible of strict analysis ?]
68. His career was cut off in the height of his popularity, having been
killed in a dueL
64. These were the men, whom he thought were far away.
66. The point was not the hanging of the culprit, but the sparing
him (40).

EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX. 85(d)

56. Did ever man put God to the proof on that promise, and found it
broken ?

57. Homer was not only the maker of a nation, but of a language
and of a religion (185).

* 58. You can keep this letter and show it to whoever you like.
[Cf. Ex. 5. How does this example differ from it ?]

59. She is a monument of what a human being in infirm health is
capable.

[What preposition should follow " capable " ?]

60. These circumstances may lead to your ladyship quitting the
house.

61. I was happy to hear that it was his horse, and not himself, who
fell in the combat (75).

62. Everybody was on deck amusing themselves as they could.

63. We took the wrong path, and certainly the steepest I had ever
climbed before.

[Had he climbed the path in question before ?]

64. I was never so long in company with a girl in my life — trying to
entertain her — and succeed so ilL

65. Sully bought one of the finest Spanish horses that ever was seen.

66. It is not fit for such as us to sit with the rulers of the land.

67. The army, whom its chief had abandoned, pursued their miserable
inarch.

68. He is a boy of nine years old.

[How has this solecism arisen ?]

69. I walk like Charles and not like you do.

*70. Who spills the foremost foeman's life,

His party conquers in the strife.
[How could you resolve ** his party " ?]

71. He is not the man who he professes to be.

72. What do you think of me studying Latin ?

[See query on Ex. 8.]

73. His is a style strong, vivacious, clean-cut, and which never
transgresses the bounds of literary propriety (186, 9).

74. I differ with you entirely (84).

*75. There are still a few doubtful points.

[A feD^=some.]
*76. Who are you calling for ? Is it me ?

[Sentences wrong according to exact syntax. How might
** who " and ** me " be justified ?]
*77. Whom say ye that I am ?
*78. The boys have a dozen tennis balls.
79. He told her to try and lay down.

[A double, and a common, vulgarism.]
*80. Twice one is two.
*81. Than whom no one is kinder. (Cf. Ex. 20.)

85(e) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

*82. This day have I begot whom I declare My only Son.

*83. I am verily a man who am a Jew.

[In strict grammatic justice this sentence is indefensible;
what, however, is there to be said for ''am" from the point
of view of grammatic " equity " ?]
M. Too great a variety of studies distract the mind.
*66. I am to blame, not you.

*86. Whoever the King favours

The Cardinal will find employment for.
[How would the ''correct" grammatical construction sound
here?]

87. Neither of them are remarkable for foresight.
*88. It must be confessed that a lampoon or a satire do not carry in
them robbery or murder.

[Pit sense against grammar here, and note the word " them."]

89. Whose own example strengthens all his laws.

And is himself the great sublime he draws.

*90. There were no less than five persons concerned.

[Parse "less " by itself, or "no less than " together.]

*91. Neither he nor we are disengaged.
92. And since I never dare to write

As funny as I can.

'^93. laying the suspicion on some one, I know not who.
*94. Neither he nor I have any doubt of his success.
96. I am one of those who cannot describe what I do not see.

96. Nobody ever put so much of themselves into their work.

97. Such are a few of the many paradoxes one would cite from hii
writings, and which are now before me.

98. The Daily Howler enjoys the largest circulation of any news-
paper.

99. A rise in rents and wages always seems to go together.

[How many "rises'* are referred to here?]

100. The view was maintained by one of the greatest writers that
has appeared in this country.

*101. The administration of so many interests, and of districts so
remote, demand no common capacity.
[Contrast Ex. 99.]

102. He having none but them, they having none but he.

[Constructions are not parallel here. How has the confusion
arisen ?]

103. Breaking a constitution by the very same errors that so many
have been broke before.

104. Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

106. Luckily the monks have recently given away a couple of dogs

EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX 85(f)

which were returned to them, or the breed would have been lost
(187.12).

106. Having perceived the weakness of his poems, they now reappear
to us under new titles.

107. Whom they were I really cannot say.

108. He was shot by a secretary under notice to quit, with whom he
was finding fault — very fortunately without effect (187).

109. It is characteristic of them to appear but to one person, and he
the most likely to be deluded (64-5).

110. I think it may assist the reader by placing them before him in
chronological order.

111. Image after image, phrase after phrase, starts out vivid, harsh,
und emphatic.

[Contrast Ex. 50.]

*112. Few people learn anything thkt is worth learning easily.
[Depends on correct reading. ]

113. My resolution is to spare no expense in education ; it is a bad
calculation, because it is the only advantage over which circumstances
liave no control (184, 2 (i.)).

114. This is the book that I am going to sit down and read.
116. He preferred to know the worst than to dream the best.

116. The Moor, seizing a bolster, full of rage and jealousy, smothers
her.

117. Books that we can at a glance carry off what is in them are worse
than useless for discipline.

*118. They drowned the black and white kittens.

[How many colours of kittens did they drown ?]

119. The Ministry were unanimously in favour of the bilL

120. The Ministry was divided as to accepting the bill.

121. The Duke of Wellington is one of those who never interfere with
matters over which he has no control.

*122. The people is one ; they have all one language.

123. Being early killed, I sent a party in search of his mangled body.

124. Thinking of them, my pen tarries as I write.

125. The further he went, the colder he grew.

*126. After the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

127. The field of turnips was absolutely decimated by the frost;
scarce a root was left untouched.

[What is the derivation of "decimate " ?]

128. Our mutual friend.'

[Cf.* "Common enmities are said to cement friendship."
What in this case would be the result of substituting
"mutual" for "common"? Cf. also " Probably nothing
draws us closer to each other than mutual ill-health."
Look up the meaning of "mutual. "]

85(g) GRAMlfAR OF THIS ENGLISH LANGUAGB.

139. The showers came on continuously.

[Gf. '* The adoption of continuotts brakes upon the British rail-
ways is becoming general. Let us hope that the result
may be by means of the continuous brakes to avoid the
continual smash." — Judy, Oct. 1879.]

130. A phenomena common to a number of diseases (19).

131. The climate of the Riviera is perhaps the best suited to invalids
of any other spot in France.

*132. The prophets, do they live for ever ?

133. Mr. A. presents his compliments to Mr. B. I have got a hat
which is not his ; if he have got a hat which is not yours, no doubt they
are the missing one.

[Apart from solecisms, what do you make of the second have ?]

134. Mr. Carlyle has taught us that silence is golden in thirty
volumes.

136. The house, now that it is furnished, presents a cosy appearance,
and it really is so.

136. The boy replied that he had met no one, or, if he had, that they
had passed him unnoticed.

137. The child had a scratch on the arm, which the mother could not
account for, and took a long time to heal.

138. Cheops built the largest pyramid in Egypt which bears his name.

139. We are both agreed that the sentence is wrong (185).

140. It follows as a consequence that he who runs may read.
*141. Being a lawyer, we may suppose that he knows some" law.

142. We did no more than it was our duty to have done.

[In this case the "doing*' should belong to the time of the
duty.]

143. The statement may be to some extent perfectly true.

144. A fondness for display is of all other follies the most ridiculous.
146. I saw the man whom we thought was dead.

146. We met Mr. Smith, who we thought a very delightful person.

147. Ask the murderer, he who has steeped his hands in the blood of
another.

148. If fresh milk docs not seem to agree with the child, boil it.

149. Some one was mentioned — I forget whom.

160. Scarcely had he spoken than the fairy disappeared.
*161. She is prettier, but not so amiable as her sister.

162. St. Paul's is the greatest of all other London churches.

163. To him death was not so much as lifting of a latch (40).
*164. I was made a present of a book.

[Turn sentence Into active voice. See pp. 78-9, rule xzzii.]
*166. Is it me you wish to see ?

[Cf. c*e8t mot, est-ce lui? etc.]
*166. The wages of sin is death (78).
167. A river winds between the old and new plantation.

EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX. 85(ll)

168. I hold a different opinion to yours (84).

159. The lowest strata of all was chalk.

160. The river has overflown its banks.

161. Fresh air is the best medicine, which, if more widely known,
men would be the better of it.

162. A man may smoke and drink till he is unable to live without
them.

*163. I 'U go back there — no, never.
164. They should try and improve themselves, so that they might
command better wages.

166. I have heard that story no less than a dozen times.

166. There was not a shadow of a whisper heard (185, 8).

167. He enjoys the universal esteem of all (18.), 1).

168. His father was opposed to him entering the army.

169. Each of the children have their own peculiar traits.

170. Go with mean people, and we think the world mean.

171. Eat it with a spoon like you would custard.

172. She neither moved, spoke, or wept during all those sad days.

[See the meaning of the suffix ther, 28, iv.]

173. No sooner had James ascended the throne, but he began . . .

174. The life husband and wife lead influence the children.
*175. Measles is not commonly a dangerous disease.

176. He not only found her employed, but pleased and tranquil.

177. I cannot reconcile your statement to his (84).

*178. It was the necessity which made me a quarrier, that taught me
to be a geologist (26, 15).

179. The crisis is one of the most singular which have ever
occurred (26).

180. The old gentleman proposed a walk to Vauxhall, a place of
which, he said, he had heard much, but had never seen it.

181. They carry as tribute to Pekin furs and gold-dust, which they
collect from the sands of their rivers.

182. The farmstead was always the white-painted house, of which the
small country towns are composed.

188. Gordon, whose own business not requiring much attention, often
left his more immediate concerns.
*184. He dare not come (39).

*186. This picture was not mine but my brother's — an artist himself
and a great connoisseur.

[Would you be inclined to apply the strict rules of apposition
here ?]
*186. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon 7
*187. The whole of the orchard was ruined.

[Why " whole o/" ?]
*188. Yon are no soldier.

[How would you parse ** no " ?]

85(i) GRAMMAR OF TRE EKCLtSH LANGtUACE.

*189. The sight of his blood, whom they deemed invulnerable, shook
the courage of the soldiers.

190. Amazed at the alteration in his manner, every sentence that he
uttered increased her embarrassment.
*191. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night.
*192. The majority of the inhabitants are ready to petition against his
return.
*198. The stork assembly meets.

Consulting deep and various ere they take
Their arduous voyage thro' the liquid sky.

194. Depend upon it, he would not like to have his charade slighted
much better than his passion.

195. Directly Louis xvi. came to the throne, Vergennes became a
Minister.

*196. And was not this the Earl ? 'Twas none but he.

[BtU is radically and originally a preposition ; it came, in time,
to be used as a conjunction. ]

197. The French Celt, he maintained, would never become a colonist
in Algeria, and that he did not thrive in Corsica.

[Is ** he maintained '' parenthetical or no ?]

198. I had a sensation as though I had been walking through long
dark alleys in a subterranean coal-cellar, and that I now through an
opening saw the light of day.

*199. He more than hesitated, he refused.

[How is **more than*' to be parsed? Cf. Byron's "Gfo! let
thy less than woman's hand assume the distaff."]

*200. Theirs is the fault, who began the quarrel.

201. You seldom or ever see a hale or hearty man or woman vending
watercresses.

202. The cabin was superior in comfort and more dignified in appear-
ance to the generality of the hovels.

203. I so greatly prefer hearing you than speak myself.

204. I have a book printed at Antwerp, and which was once possessed
by Adam Smith.

[This kind of error is sometimes called '* the sin of which-cra/t.**]

205. The greatest variety of forms, with the least meaning in them,
were its excellences.

*206. Sacred and profane wisdom agree in declaring that '* pride goeth
before a fall. "

207. I beg you to carefully execute my order.

[A gross fault of style, though not of grammar.]

208. Remain single and marry nobody, let him be whom he may.

209. Every man of the boat's crew save Amyas were down with a
raging fever.

210. No one should marry unless they have the certain means of
supporting their children.

EXAMPLES OP FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX 85(k)

211. I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes and
cheating a person of their premeditated contempt.

*212. In this state Frank found her, she trembling, they loud and
insolent.
213. He gave away his fortune to the Lord knows who.
*214. Nobody had any control over him but her.
216. If there 's any one embarrassed, it will not be me and it will not
be she.

216. Erected to the memory of John Phillips, accidentally shot as a
mark of affection by his brother.

217. John Keats, the second of four children, like Chaucer and
Spenser, was a Londoner.

218. I am neither an ascetic in theory or practice.

[From a speech of an ex-Vice-President of the Committee of
Council on Education.]

219. I never remember to have seen so ugly a face.

[" Never remember *' = ** always forget. "]

220. His last journey whence he was never destined to return.

221. Bats and gentlemen catched and waited on and all other jobs
performed by Solomon Gundy (Advt.).

*222. His two eldest sons were there.

[Could this be put differently ? Cf . Example 28. ]

223. I believe that when he died the Cardinal spoke at least fifty
languages.

224. The guilelessness of his own heart led him to suspect none in
others.

226. The death is announced of Sir W A , a Nova Scotia

baronet, whose creation dates from 1694.

226. Few of his friends except myself knew of him being there.

227. The sad faces and joyous music formed an incongruous sight.

228. The bullet fortunately indented a coin in his pocket, thus saving
his life.

229. The moon rose like a silver shield, raining her bright arrows on
the sea (190, 4, iii. ).

280. A duty too rigidly insisted on will make it odious.
831. The trade in seal-skins is large, but I saw none in crossing ; the
steamers have frightened them away.
232. One of the duellists was unhurt, and the other sustained a wound
\ in the arm of no importance.

[Which arm was this?]

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.

1. Words are gregarious, and go in groups. When a group
of iin^rds makes oomplete sense, it is called a sentence. A
sentence is not a chance collection of words ; it is a true
organism, with a heart and limbs. When we take the limbs
apart from the central core or heart of the sentence, and try to
show their relation to that core, and to each other, we are said
to analyse the sentence. The process of thus taking a sen-
tence to pieces, and naming and accounting for each piece, is
called analysis.

(i) AnalyBls is a Greek word which means breaking up or talcing
apart : its opposite is SyntheBls, which means making up or ptUting
together.

(ii) When we ezamine a sentence, and divide it into its component
parts, we are said to analyse the sentence, or to perform an act of
analyslB. But when we put words or phrases together to make a
sentence, we perform an act of composition or of Byntbesis.

2. A sentence is a statement made about something, as,
The horse gallops.

(!) The Bometbing (horse) is called the Subject,
(ii) The statement (gallops) is called the Predicate.

3. Every sentence consists, and must consist, of at least t^wo
parts. These two parts are the thing we speak about and
what -we say about that thing.

(i) The Subject is wbat we tqseak about.

(ii) The Predicate is wbat we say about the subject.

(i) There is a proverb of Solomon which says: "All things are doable one
•gainst another." So there are the two necessarily complementary ideas of •▼•&
and odd ; of ri^t and left; of north and south ; and many more. In language, the
two ideas of Bnl^oct and Predicate are necessarily coexistent ; neither oan exist
without 'the other; we cannot even ^ink the* one without the other. They are
the two poloa of thought.

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 87

(ii) Sometimes the Subject is not expressed in impentive sentences, as in "Go I"
= "GoyouI"

(iii) Except in a contracted componnd sentenee, the Predicate can nerer be
suppressed ; it must always be expressed ; otherwise nothing at all would be said.

4. There are four kinds of sentences: Simple, CompleZy
Compoimd, and Mixed.

(i) A simple sentence contains only one subject and one predicate.

(ii) A complex sentence contains a chief sentence, and one or
more sentences that are of subordinate rank to the chief sentence.

(iii) A componnd sentence contains two or more simple sentences
of equal rank.

(iv) A mixed sentence contains two or more chief co-ordinate
sentences, and one or more subordinate sentences.

I.— THE SIMPLE SENTENCE.

5. A Simple Sentence is a sentence which consists of one
subject and one predicate-

(i) A Simple Sentence contains, and can contain, only one finite
verb. If we say, ** Baby likes to dance, " there are two verbs in
this simple sentence. But to dance is not a finite verb ; it is an
InflnitiTe ; it is practically a pure nonn, and cannot therefore be a
predicate.

(ii) If we say, " John and James ran off," the sentence is= ** John
ran off **+ "James ran off.'* It is therefore a compound sentence
consisting of two simple sentences, with the predicate of one of them
suppressed. Hence it is called a contracted oompound sentence-
contracted in the predicate.

In this case the sentence may be treated as Simple, " James
and John" forming a Compound Subject to the Predicate
"ran off."

FORMS OF SENTENCES.

6. Sentences differ in the Form which they take. As re-
gards form they may be classified as follows : —

(i) Assertive —

(a) Positive : — The night grows cold.

(b) Negative : — I am not going.

Not a drum was heard.
They caught never a one.

88 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(ii) Interrogative : — Whom seek yel

(iii) Exclamatory : — How swiftly the river flows I

In the cases of Interrogative or Exclamatory sentences, in
which the usual order of the words is changed for the sake of
emphasis or effect, the sentences should be put in assertive
straightforward order for the purpose of analysis, thus : —

Ye seek whom ?

The river flows how swiftly.

(iv) Imperative : — Sir, look to your manners.

In imperative sentences the subject is usually omitted. In
this sentence " Sir " is really a nominative of address, and the
real subject '* you " is not expressed.

' (v) Optative, expressing a wish or invocation : —

** God bless us every one I "
" Oh, could I flow like thee ! "

In Greek there is a special mood of the verb, called the
optative, for expressions of this kind, but in English the verb
is in the subjunctive.

Note how the Optative diflers from the merely Assertive. Com-
pare : —

€rod bless us, Le. May God bless us (Optative) ; and
God blesses us (Assertive).

PARTS OF THE SENTENCE.

7. The Subject of a sentence is what we speak abouti
What we speak about we must name.

If we name a thing, we must use a name or noun.
Therefor© the subject must always be either —

(i) A noun ; or

(ii) Some word or words equivalent to a noun.

8. There are eight kinds of Subjects —

(i) A iN'oun, as, England is our home,
(ii) A Pronoun, as. It is our fatherland.

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 89

(iii) A Verbal IN'oun, as, The reading of the will

proceeded,
(iv) A Gerund, as, Catching fish is a pleasant pastime,
(v) An Infinitive, as, To swim is quite easy
(vi) An Adjective, with a noun understood, as. The

prosperous are sometimes cold-hearted,
(vii) A Quotation, as, "Ay, ay, sir!" burst from a

thousand throats,
(viii) A IN'oun-clause, as, That he "was a tyrant is

generally admitted.

(a) The verbal noun, as we have seen, originally ended in nng.

See page 40.

(b) CatcUng is a gerund, because it is both a noun (nomin-
ative to is) and a verb, governing >{«A in the objective.

ffOTX (i) The Subject is sometimes composite — consisting of two or
more words.

The houe, the homertMMl, the Ttiy fencM, all were destroyed.
To mIm my gun and (to) Are was the work of a moment.
To them Ua heart, hia love, hla griefs were given.

(ii) The Subject sometimes stands in apposition to "it*' or
"this." Thus in the sentence : — '* It is my resolve to succeed,"
the effective subject is "to succeed."

Similarly in the sentence : — "This ruined him, his inordinate love of riches," the
effective subject is " Hla inordinate love of rlehea." Compare also : — " That was their
sole reward, the approval of their king. "

In these cases, "it," "this," and "that" are simply temporary sul^ects, the real
8ul\)ect coming afterwards out of its natural order. " It," or any word thus used,
is called the Provliional SuhJeet.

(iii) Sometimes, especially in poetry, an umeoessary or redundant
pronoun is put in with the Subject, and may be regarded as forming
part of it.

My liauks, they are f.iniiKhed with bees.

Tired Nature's sweet restorer, bahny sleep.
He, like the world, his ready visit pays
Whero fortune smiles.

9. The Predicate in a sentence is what we say about the
subject. If we say anything, we must use a saying or telling
word. Now a telling word is a verb.

Therefore the Predicate must always be a verb, or
some word or words equivalent to a verb.

90 GRAMMAR OF THB ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

10. There are six kinds of Fredicate-

(i) A Verb, as, God is. The stream runs,
(ii) '* To be ** + a noun, as, He is a carpenter,
(ill) *• To be ** + an adjective, as, They are idle,
(iv) " To be " + an adverb, as, The books are there.

(y) ** To be " + a phrase, as, She is in good health.

(vi) " To be " + a clause or sentence, as. His cry was,
I die for my country.

NOTX (i) Only Finite or Complete Verbs can form Predicates. When
the Verb is incomplete or infinite, as in the case of —

(a) 1. Participle,

(b) An InflniUve,

it cannot form the Predicate of a sentence except by the addition
of other completliiir words. Thus * Moving" or ''to love" could
never form a predicate, although "loving," when converted into a
finite verb by prefixing '* was," may form a predicate.

(ii) The Verb is sometimes modified by an Adverb or Preposition
which is elosely attached to it, and which for the purpose of analysis
may be regarded as part of the Predicate.

They a^n^ed to (= accepted) my proposal
The subject was well tiirashed out (= debated).
The pirates stOYe in (= broke) the cabin-door.

11. Cautions: —

(i) There is a large class of verbs known as Copulative

Verbs, which being connective rather than notional

in their character, require another word or phrase

to be associated with them to make the predicate

complete. Thus : —

He appears healthy.

The apprentice became a merdiant

The girl grew talL

The poor creature seems to be dying.

John stands six feet.

NOTE. — Some of these verbs are also used transitively, and then take
an object like other transitive verbs : — Stand it on the table.

(ii) The frequently occurring verb '" to be " (except in
the few cases where it means " to exist ")> ^^'^ some

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 91

other copulative verbs, as, to seem, to become,
eta, can never form predicates by themselves.

(iii) Beware of associating two dissimilar verbs as predi-
cate. Thus in the sentence : " He refdsed to leave
the ship," the predicate is not "refused to leave,"
but simply ** peftised.**

12. When the predicate consists of an active -transitive
verb, it requires an object after it to make complete sense.
This object is called either the object or the completion. As
we must name the object, it is plain that it must alwaj^s, like
the subject, be a noun, or some word or words equivalent to a
noun.

13. As there are eight kinds of Subjects, so there are eight
kinds of Objects or Completions. These are : —

(i) A IN'oun, as, All of us love England.

(ii) A Pronoun, as. We saw him in the garden,
(iii) A Verbal I^oun, as^ We dread the gathering of

tljo clans,
(iv) A Gerund, as, The angler prefers taking large fish.

(v) An Infinitive, as, We hate to be idle.

(vi) An Adjective with a noun understood, as, Good
men love the good.

(vii) A Quotation, as. We heard his last "Good-bye,
Tom ! "

(viii) A 19'oun- clause or sentence, as, I knew what
was the matter.

NOTE (i) The words it, tbis, and that may form ProTisio&al Objects,
just as they form Provisional Subjects : —

They consider it infamous to desert.
This I command, no parley with the foe.
That he abhors, the sale of flesh and blood.

(ii) The Object, like the Subject, may consist of an unlimited
number of these parts of speech.

At noon the outlaw reached his glen,
His gathered spoils, his merry men.

At twelve the poor lad began to learn a trade and (to) help hif
pamite.

92 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

14. Verbs of giving, promising, offering, handing, and
many such, take also an indirect ohject^ which is sometimes
called the dative object.
There are several kinds of Indirect Oldecta : —
(i) A Nonn, We gave the man a shilling,
(ii) A Pronoun, We offered him sixpence,
(iii) An Infinitive : —

after the Direct Object : I saw him (to) nm.

Some authorities prefer to regard such a case as *' him run"
as a Compound Object, treating as a whole the two or more words
forming the object.

15. The following may be regarded as special kinds of
Objects : —

(i) A Factitive or Oomplementary Object : —

They made him President.

Milton did not hesitate to call Spenser a better teacher than
Socrates or Aquinas.

It should be noted that the words ''made" and
''call" have a more restricted meaning than
when followed by ordinary simple objects.

Compare: — "They made him President" with "They made a
boat," "MUton . . . Aquinas," with "Call them quickly."

In the latter cases "made" and "call" have a fuller meaning
than in the former.

(ii) A Prepositional Complementary Phrase: — I took
him for a sailor. And therefore think him as a
serpent's egg.

KOTE. — Sometimes the complementary object may appear as an
Adjective with a Noun understood.

Exercise made him strong ( =a strong man).
They painted the house white ( =a white house).

(iii) A Cognate Object, in which the Predicate is followed
by an Object akin in meaning to the verb itself :—

Let me die the death of the righteous.
He ran his godly race.

THE ANALYSIS OF RENTENGBS. 93

(iv) When an active verb with two objects is changed
into the passive form, that object which is retained
while the other becomes the subject is termed the
Retained Object : —

A shilling was given the man.
The door was denied him.

Id Cautions : —

(i) Special care is needed in dealing with the Indirect
Object There is a tendency on the part of many
young students to put down any word or phrase
which they cannot easily classify as "Indirect
Object." Thus words or phrases which are Exten-
sions of the Predicate or Enlargements of the
Object are often wrongly classed as Indirect Object.

Compare : —I heard him read (him read = Compound Object).

I heard him reading (reading = Enlargement of

Object).
I sent him for the master (for the master = Extension
of Pred.).

(ii) The Indirect object must be carefully distinguished
from the Complementary object after verbs of incom-
plete predication. One test is that it is often possible
to make sense by using the Indirect Object by itself.
Thus we can say, " I forgave him (I. O.) his faults,"
or simply " I forgave him." But in the sentence " the
judge set him free," if you omit " him " or " free," you
produce nonsense. Verbs of incomplete predication
must have both object and complementary object to
make sense. Strictly speaking, this complementary
object, as it cannot be used by itself, is not a true
object.

17. The Subject or the Olnject must always be either —
(i) A Noun : or

(ii) Some word or words eiluiyalent to a noun*
A Noun may have attached to it any number of adjectives
or adjectival phrases. An adjective or adjectival phra.se that

94 ORAHBIAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

goes with a subject or with an object is called, in Analysis, an
Enlargement.

It is so called because it enlarges our knowledge of the subject.
Thus, if we say, "The man is tired/' we have no knowledge of
what kind of man is spoken of ; but if we say, * * The poor old man
is tired,*' our notion of the man is enlarged by the addition of the
facts that he is both poor and old,

18. There are seven kinds of Enlargements : —

(i) An Adjective — one, two, or more — That big old
red book is sold.

(ii) A Noun (or nouns) in apposition, William the
Conqueror defeated Harold.

(iii) A Ifoun (or pronoun) in the Possessive Case,
His hat flew oK

(iv) A Prepositional Phrase, The walk in the fields
was pleasant.

(v) An Adjectival Phrase, The boy, ignorant of his
duty, was soon dismissed.

(vi) A Participle (a), or Participial Phrase (b) —
Sobbing and weeping, she was led from the
room (a). The merchant, having made a fortune,
gave up business (b).

(vii) A Gerundial Infinitive — Anxiety to succeed ( =« of
succeeding) wore him out Bread to eat ( = for
eating) could not be Lid anywhere.

19. It is plain that all these seven kinds of Enlargements
may go with the Object as well as with the Subject.

20. An Enlargement, being a word or phrase that goes
with a noun or its equivalent, must always be an adjective
or equivalent to an adjective.

KOTB (i) An Enlargement may itself be enlarged by the same parts
of speech as form the primary enlargements.

(a) The handle of this sword forged by Indian is richly Jewelled.

(b) The Romans crossed a stream fed by a glacier of the SoutlMni Alp*.

The phra8e9 ''forged by Indians," and " oi the Southern Alps,"

THX AHALTSOS OF SENTBNCBS. 96

are enlargements of "sword" and "glacier'* respectiyely, which
are themselves parts of qualifying phrases.

(ii) A Subject or Object may have an unllmltiH! number of
enlargements of various kinds : —

The poor King, an outcast tnm his own domain, suflRBrtng the pangi
of hunger and stuni: 1^ bitter reproaches, ended his days in misery.
Here King is enlarged by —

(m) An Adjectivo.

(b) A Noon in Apposition.

(o) Two Participial phzsses.

21. The Fredioate is always a Verb, standing alone if
complete, or accompanied by other words if a verb of in-
complete predication.

The part of the sentence that goes with the verb is either a
simple adverb, a compound adverb, or a phrase adverbial
in its character.

22. The adverbs or adverbial phrases that go with the predi-
date are caUed, in Analysis, the Extensions of the Predicate.

23. There are seven kinds of Extensions : —

(i) An Adverb, as, The time went slowly,
(ii) An Adverbial Phrase, as, Mr Smith writes now

and then,
(iii) A Prepositional Phrase* as. Mi Smith spoke with

great effect,
(iv) A If onn Phrase* acf, We walked side by side,
(v) A Participial Phrase, as, The mighty rocks came

bounding down,
(vi) A Oerundial Phrase, as, He did it to insult us

( = for insulting us),
(vii) *An Absolute Infinitive Phrase, as. To tell you
the truth, I think him very stupid.

i^ Under (v) may come also the Absolute Participial Phrase, such
as, " The clock having struck, we had to go."

24. Extensions of the predicate are classified in the above
section from the point of view of grammar ; but they are also
frequently classified from the point of view of distinction in
thought.

96 6RA10CAR OF THE ENGLISH LANOTJA6E.

In this latter way Extennons are daudfied as extensions of—
(i) Time, as, We lived there three years,
(ii) Plaoe, (a) Whence, as, We came tnun. York.

(b) Where, as, He lives over the way.

(iii) Manner (a) Manner : He treads firmly.

(b) Degree : She writes better.

ward nnder a heavy fire.

(iv) Agent : James was represented 1^ his minister,
(v) Instmment : They ravaged the land with fire and sword.
(vi) Uagnltade (a) Order : He stood first In his class.

(b) Number : The field measured ten acres,
(vii) Mood (a) Afllrmatlon : He certainly returned.

(b) Negation ; The enterprise will never succeed.

H^ Never is here a more emphatic form of not,
and therefore comes under the head of Nega-
tion rather than of Time.

(viii) Cause : The clerk was dismissed for Idleness,
(ix) Purpose : They went abroad to better their condition,
(x) Condition : Without me ye can do nothing,
(xi) Concession : With all thy faults, I love thee still.

Here the sense is obviously *' Notwithstanding all thy faults," etc.

25.

NOTE (i) Just as a Subject or Object may have an unlimited number
of Enlargements, so a Predicate may have any number of Exten-
sions.

rw tbTM yaan the widow dwelt quietly in th« loMly eottas«. Here we have three
extensions of time, manner, and place respectively. Care should be taken to keep
the various extensions quite distinct in analysing; the student should letter or
number them (a), (b), (c), etc.» or (1), (2), (3), etc., and state after each its kind.

(ii) Where two or more extensions of the same class appear they
should be kept distinct. At nlghtfiall, during a heavy snowstorm,
they wandered forth.

Here the two extensions of time should be taken separately.

26. Cautions: —

(i) The same word may be used as Object or as an
Extension of the Predicate.

THB ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 97

Compare : — I care nothinfif for your threats. (Extension of Degree. )
He gave me nothing:. (Object. )

<< Nothing ** in the first sentence simply shows to what txtant
you are affected by the threats ; " nothing " in the second sentence
is obviously the Direct Object of ** gave," expressing what he gave.

Compare : — ^Wliat did you see? (Object. )

Wliat recks he of his daily duty ? ( Extension — Degree. )

*' What " in the first sentence is evidently the Direct Object of the
interrogation *' did see" ; in the second sentence '* what " expresses
the extent to which he is affected by considerations of his daily
duty.

Compare with the latter the sentence : — '* Wliat with war and
what with famine, the nation was almost exterminated." Where
the two '*whats" are evidently adverbial in their nature, and the
phrases they introduce are txtansions of the predicate.

(ii) The same phrase may be an Enlargement (of the
Subject or Object) or an Extension of the Predi-
cate.

Compare : — Exercise In the open air is healthy. (Enlargement of
Subject.)

He takes his exercise in the open air. (Extension — Place. )

In the first sentence the phrase "in the open air" qnalifles or
limits the word " exercise," indicating a particular form of exercise ;
in the second sentence '* in the open air " indicates the place where
he takes his exercise, and hence it is an Extension of the Predicate.

NOMINATIVE OP ADDRESS.

27. The Nominative of Address may relate to—

(a) The Subject : Milton I thou shouldst be living at this

hour.

(b) The Objeot : I welcome you, good Masters.

Knight.

Or it may be detached, The castle keep, my Iiord, I hold.

The Nominative of Address is inteijectional in its nature,
and just as the Interjection is a part of speech standing apart
from the family formed by the others, so a Nominative of

98 ORAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Address really forms no part of the logical sentence. Eegarded
as somewhat appositional, it may be placed with that part of
the sentence to which it Bpeoially belongs, or the role may be
adopted of placing it in the same column as the Subject, care
being taken to indicate that it forms no part of the logical
subject.

28. The following cautions are of importance : —

(i) The Noun in an absolute clause cannot be the
Subject of a simple sentence. We can say, " The
train having started, we returned to the hotel"
Here we is the subject.

The phrase " the train having started " is an adverbial phrase
modifying retumedf and giving the reason for the returning.

(ii) A subject may be compound, and may contain an
object, as, " To save money is always useful" Here
the subject is to save money, and contains the
object money — the object of the verb "to save."

An object may also contain another object, which is not the
object of the sentence. Thus we can say, ** I like to save money/'
when the direct object of like is to save, and money is a part only
of that direct object.

(iii) An Absolute Participial Phrase (or ]^ominative
Absolute) is always an Extension of the Predicate,
and may express —

(a) Time : The clock bavinir struck one, we proceeded.

(b) Cause : Darkness coming on, the wanderers quick-

ened their pace.

heavily.

(iv) "Not usually forms an Extension of the Predicate,
but it may also form —

(a) Part of the Subject : Not a drum was heard. (Nega-

tive Enlargement.)

(b) Part of the Object : We carved not a Une. (Negative

Enlargement. )

They heard never a seand. (Negative Enlargement. )

THE ANALYSIS OV SEKTlSKOSd. 9d

I^ As an Extension of the Predicate, not is usually independent of
other extensions, as,

They moved ^'^^ (Negative Extension)

( during the storm (Extension of Time)
but sometimes it simply negatives another Extension, and must not
be dissociated from it ; as. Not in Tain he wore his sandal-shoon.

(v) There is generally —

(a) An Extension of Place : There they rested.
But it is sometimes^ —

(b) An Indefinite Extension (a mere Expletive).

There were twenty present.

The shadowy and vague character of there is shown by the
paraphrase ''Twenty were present," and also by the fact that in
translating the sentence into many languages no equivalent would
be put for ** there."

(vi) Distinguish between various uses of the Infinitive.

(a) Subject : To quarrel is not my wish.

(b) Part of the Predicate : He might (to) win the shield.

US' Those who regard might as being always a
Principal Verb would put win as part of the
Object.

(d) Extension of the Predicate : She came to learn.

In this case *' to learn " is not an ordinary infinitive, but a ger-
nndlal infinitive or infinitive of purpose, and is equivalent to '* for
learning." See p. 40.

(vii) Care must be taken to distinguish between the
same word when used as —

(a) An Adjective, forming part of the Predicate with an
Intransitive Copulative Verb —

The king looks w«n,
This apple tastes swMt,

or (b) An Adverb, forming an Extension of the Predicate after a

Verb—

The king eats vtll.

How swMt the moonlight sleeps npon this hank.

Students must be very careful to discriminate between these
cases. Where the word indicates quality, it is adjectival in nature,
and will form part of the Predicate ; where it indicates manner, it is
adverbial in nature, and forms an Extension of tlie Predicate.

100 GRAMMAR Of THE fiNOLISH LANOtTAOK.

(viii) In the case of qualifying or limiting phrases
(especially participial phrases), it is sometimes difl&-
cult to determine whether they are simple Enlarge-
ments of the Subject or Extensions of the Predi-
cate.

J then the bolt he drew.
A widow bird sat movmiiic for her lov«.

In the first sentenoe ''returning '* is an enlar^rement of <'he" ; in
the second sentence mourning does not enlarge ** bird," but shows
how it sat. It sat mourning', i.e. sadly, sorro'wfully.

The safest plan in cases of this kiud is to determine what principal
part of the sentence the qualifying or limiting word or phrase is
most closely connected with. If it is essentially qualifying in nature,
it is probably an Enlargement of the Subject or Object ; if, on the
other hand, it expresses some modification of, or condition in respect
to, the Predicate, it is an Extension of the Predicate.

THE MAPPING-OUT OP SIMPLE SENTENCES.

29. It is of the greatest importance to get the eye to help the
mind, and to present to the sight if possible — either on paper
or on the black-board — the sentence we have to consider. This
is called mapping-out.

Let us take two simple sentences : —

(i) ** From the mountain-path came a joyous sound of some person
whistling."

(ii) ** In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pr6
Lay in the fruitful valley."

30. These may be mapped out, before analysing thenu in the
following way : —

Joyona
(i) A SOUND CAME

some person whistUn^r the monntaln path.

(ii) distant, aedlnaed, stiU. ,

Uttlt

r • * « "

« • •> r

THE ANALY&Isi^.8KKTeElbE§.''-' '- • '' 101
THe VILLAGE LAY

&7 \%

the finxitflil yaJl«7.

Orand-Pri the Acadian land the shores ofthe Basin, etc.

31. Such a mapping-out enables us easily to see, with the
bodily as well as with the mind's eye, what is the main purpose
of aU analysis — to find out which words go with which, and
what is the real build of the sentence. Hence, unless we see
&i a glance the build of the sentence we are going to analyse,
we ought, before doing so, to set to work and map it out.

FORMS OF ANALYSIS.

92. The sentences may then be analysed in either—

(a) the Detailed form,
or (b) the Talmlar form,

(a) The Detailed form is analogous to that adopted for pandnff,
and gives us scope for subdividing the sentence to an unlimited
extent, and giving the ^^'Hmnm amount of detail.

(b) The Tabular form does not provide for so much detail, but it
has the advantage of great clearness, and, as it greatly facilitates
the examination of an exercise, it is the form usually preferred by
public examiners.

sa Detailed Analysis.

(i) a, A sound Subject.

b. joyous Adjectival Enlargement of Subject.
c of some person whistling Prepositional Phrase, Enlargement

of Subject.

d. came Predicate.

e. from the path Extension of Predicate. Place

whence.
/, mountain Adjectival Enlargement of e,

(ii) a. Tlie Tillage Subject.

h. Iktle Adjectival Enlargement of Subject

c. distant ^

d. secluded I ComplementarypartofthePredicate.

e. BtiU J

102

SRkltiL'AR O^ XHh XXaiilSH LANGUAGB.

/ o£Grand-Pr6

^.lay

A. in the land

i. Acadian

y. on the shores

L of the basin
L of Minas
m. in the valley

n. fruitful

Prepositional Phrase, Enlargement

of Subject.
Predicate.
Extension of Predicate. Place

where.
Adjectival Enlargement of A.
Extension of Predicate. Place

where.

Prepositional phrase, enlarging j.

h
»> »» »» *•

Extension of Predicate. Place

where.
Adjectival Enlargement of m.

34.

Tabular Analysis.

Subject.

Eklabok-

MBNT or
BUBJBCT.

Pbsdicatx.

Object.

Enlabob-
MRNT or
Object.

KXTBNBION

or
Predicate.

A sound

(a) joyous

(b) of some
person

whistling

came

from the
mountain
path {place
whence)

The village

(a) little

(b)of

Grand-PrtS

(distant,
secluded,
still)

(a) in the
Acadian
land
{place
where)

(b) on the
shores of
the Basin
of Minas
{phioe
where)

II.— THE COMPLEX SENTENCE.

35. A Ck>xnplex Sentence is a statement whicli contains one
Frinoipal Sentence, and one or more sentences dependent upon
it^ whicli are called Subordinate Sentences. There, are three

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.-- 103

kinds — and there can only be three kinds — of subordinate
sentences — Adjectival, IN'oiin, and AdverbiaL
A subordinate sentence is sometimes called a claiue.

36. A Subordinate Sentence that goes with a IN'oun or
PronouzL fulfils the function of an Adjective, is equal to an
Adjective, and is therefore called an Adjectival Sentence.

'* Darkness, which might be felt, fell upon the city." Here the
sub-sentence, '* which-might'be-felt/' goes with the noun darkxiesi,
belongs to it, and cannot be separated from it ; and this sentence is
' therefore an adjectival sentence.

37. A Subordinate Sentence that goes with a Verb fulfils
the function of an Adverb, is equal to an Adverb, and is
therefore called an Adverbial Sentence.

** I will go whenever you are ready." Here the sub-sentence,
''whenever you are ready," is attached to the verb go, belongs to
it, and cannot be separated from it ; and hence this sentence is an
adverbial sentence.

38. A Subordinate Sentence that forms the Subject of a
Predicate, or the Object, or that is in apposition with a noun,
fulfils the function of a Noun, and is therefore called a If oun
Sentence.

'* He told me that his cousin had gone to sea." Here the sub-
sentence, '* his cousin had gone to sea," i^ the object of the transi-
tive verb told. It fulfils the function of a noun, and is therefore a
nonn sentenoe.

39. An Adjectival Sentenoe may be attached to —

(i) The Subject of the Principal Sentence ; or to
(ii) The Object of the Principal Sentence ; or to
(ui) Any 13'oiin or Pronoun.

(i) The book that-I-bonglit is on the table : to the subject.

(ii) I laid the book-I-bought on the table : to the object:

(iii) The child fell into the stream that-runs-pastthe mlU : to the
noun stream — a noun in an adverbial phrase.

40. NOTE. — (i) As may in certain cases be regarded as a relative

introducing an Adjectival Sentence. In such cases
it is usually a correlative of such, or sama

I never saw such fish as he caught in the Avon.
% This is the same bag as you gave me last year.

104 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(ii) But in certain cases may be taken as a negative rela-
tive introducing an Adjectival Sentence.

(a) There is no man here bnt loves you.
Thiss ** There is no man here wbo does not love you. '*

(b) " No land Imt listens to the common calL*'
" But " is equivalent to "which does not."

41. An Adverbial Sentence may be attached to —

(i) A Verb ;

(ii) An Adjective ; or to

(iii) An Adverb.

(i) To a Verb. It does not matter in what position the verb is.
It may be (a) the Predicate, as in the sentence, ''I walk when I
can." It may be (b) an Infinitive forming a subject, as, *' To get up
when one is tired is not pleasant. ** It may be (c) a participle, as in
the sentence, *' Haying dined before he came, I started at once. *'

(ii) To an Adjective. " His grief was such that all pitied him."
Here the sub-sentence " that all pitied him ** modifies the adjective
snch.

(iii) To an Adverb. " He was so weak that he conld not stand."
Here the sub-sentence "that he could not stand" modifies the
adverb so, which itself modifies the adjective weak.

42. Just as there are many classes of Adverbs, so there are
many different kinds of Adverbial Sentenoe&

(i) Time. I will go, -when you return,
(ii) Place. Where the bee sucks, there suck L
(iii) Manner. He strode, as though he -were in pain,
(iv) Degree. I spoke as loudly as I could (speak),
(v) Proportion. The sooner you oomplete your

task tbe sooner you can leave,
(vi) Condition. If you stand by me, I will oppose

him.
(vii) Concession — Provided this is done, I will consent,
(viii) Cause. Avoid bim, because he is dishonest,
(iz) Effect or Consequenoe. He worked so hard,

that he was certain to do -welL
(z) Purpose. He worked very hard, for he w^ished
to do welL

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES 105

Cautions : —

(i) In nearly every case the word introducing the ad-
verhial sentence, as when, where, if, etc., helps
us to recognise it, but occasionally there is no
introductory word, and we must judge by the
sense alone.

In the sentence —

" Pass that Una, and I fire upon you,"
it is evident that the first clause is Adyerbial, and that the real
meaning would be accurately expressed by the form ' ' If you pass
that hue," etc.

(«)

" Ye meaner fowl, give place,
I am all splendour, dignity, and grace."

Here the second sentence is Adyerbial to the first, and sense
demands ''for,** *' because," or ''since," as a connecting word.

(iii) Avoid the mistake of calling a sentence Adverbial
simply because it begins with an adverb.

"First (he) loves to do, then loves the good he does.'*

The second sentence is not adverbial, but co-ordinate with the
first.

43. Adjectival and Adverbial Sentences are easily recognised
from the fact that they have no complete meaning in them-
selves apart from the Principal Sentence to which they are
attached. Of some Principal Sentences — as, e.g., those begin-
ning with who, which, etc.— the same thing may be said, but
in the vast majority of cases a Principal Sentence is independent
in sense and self-contained in meaning.

Take two of the sentences given above.

' ' Which might be felt. " (Adjectival. )
" When I can. " (Adverbial. )

Their incompleteness is at once perceived. Their function is
to quali^Ti extend, modify, or limit the master sentence to
which they are attached ; they are distinctly subordinative.

The subordinate character of Koun-sentences is best per-
ceived when they are introduced by their ordinary connective
"th.at"; in other cases their true nature maybe recognised
from their relationship to the principal sentence.

106 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

44 A Noun Sentence may be —

(i) The Subject of the Principal Sentence ; or
(ii) The Object of the main verb ; or
(iii) The Nominative after is ; or
(iy) In Apposition with another iN'oun.

(i) " T1iat-be-lB-1)etter cannot be denied": the subject. Here
the trae nominative ia tbat. "That cannot be denied.'' What?
" That = he ia better." (From naage that in such sentences acquires
the function and force of a conjunction. )

(u) "I heard that-he-was-hetter : " the object.

(iii) *< My motive in going was that-I-mlght-be-of-nse " : nomiiia-
tlTe after was.

(iv) " The fact tliat-he-yoted-agaliut-hiB-party is well known " :
in apposition with fact.

Impersonal Constmctlon —

And methought, while s^e liberty sang,

'Twas liberty only to hear.
<"Twas-liberty-only-to-hear " is a Noun sentence, subject to the
impersonal verb "methought," and forming with it a principal
sentence.

45. Any number of Subordinate Sentences may be attached
to the Principal Sentence. The only limit is that dictated by
a regard to clearness, to the balance of clauses, or to good taste.

The best example of a very long sentence, which consists entirely
of one principal sentence and a very large number of adjective
sentences, is ''The House that Jack built." "This is the house
that- Jack-built. " " This is the malt that-lay-in-the-house-that- Jack-
built," and so on.

Co-ordinate Subordinate Sentences. Two or more subor-
dinate sentences of the same kind may be attached to the
same principal sentence.

Type of the wise, who soar but (who) never roam.
If the day be fine and (if) I am Cree, I will go over the common.
John knew that the fanner had cut his com and (that he had)
stacked it.

In the first sentence we have two Adjectival sentences, subordin-
ate to the principal and co-ordinate with one another. In the other
sentences we have Adverbial and Noun-sentences of a corresponding
character. The words in brackets are understood and should be
shown in your analysis*

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 107

46. Principal and Subordinate. The same sentence may
be subordinate to a principal sentence, and at the same time
principal to another sentence.

The man wbo hesitateB when danger is at hand, is lost.

The sentence "who hesitates" is adjectival to the principal
sentence, and principal to ** when danger is at hand.''

The sentence would not be properly analysed unless its twofUd
character and relationship were fully shown.

Compare : — ^Tell her that wastes her time and me.
That now she Imows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.

47. Connectives: —

(i) Care must be taken to associate introductory and

connective "words with their proper sentences ;

otherwise confusion will result and the nature

of the sentences may be misunderstood.

Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king.

The Principal sentence here is ** Yet he is more a king."

Thus, while I ape the measure wild
Of tales that charmed me as a child.
Rude though they be, still with the chime
Return the thoughts of early time.

" Thill " in the first line introduces the principal sentence " Still
, . . time."

Note the inversion in "Rude though they be," and remember
that inyersions are yery common in poetry.

CAUTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX

SENTENCES.

48. (i) Find out, first of all, the Principal Sentence,
(ii) Secondly, if the sentence is complicated or of

more than average difficulty, look out the finite
verbs ; these are the kernels of the various sen-
tences ; remember that each finite verb means
a sentence. When you are sure of your verbs
you will be able to connect with each its sub-
iect, object, and extensions.

108 6RAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(iii) Thirdly, look for the sentences, if any, that attach
themselves to the Subject of the Principal Sen-
tence.

(iv) Fourthly, find those sentences, if any, that belong
to the Object of the Principal Sentence, or to
any other Noun or Pronoun in it

(y) Fifthly, look for the subordinate sentences that
are attached to the Predicate of the Principal
Sentence.

When a subordinate sentence is long, quote only the first and last
words, and place dots .... between them.

49. The following Cautions are necessary : —
(i) A connective may be omitted.

In Shakespeare's " Measure for Measure,'* Isabella says —

'* I have a brother is condemned to die."

Here wlio is omitted, and "who • . . die " is an adjectival mmi*
tence qualifying the object brotber.

(ii) Do not be guided by the part of speech that in-
troduces a subordinate sentence. Thus : —

(a) A pronoun (interrogative) may introduce a noun sentence, as,
" I do not know who-he-ia '' ; or a pronoun (relative) may introduce an
adjectival sentence, as, ''John, who-was-a-soldier, is now a gardener."

(b) An adverb may introduce a noun sentence, as, "I don't
know where it has gone to ; " or an adjectival sentence, as, " The
spot where he lies is unknown." In the sentence, " The reason why
so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time
in making nets, not in making cages " — the subordinate sentence
** why . . . happy " is — though introduced by an adverb — in appo-
sition to the noun reason, and is therefore a noun sentence.

(iii^ It is sometimes difficult to decide whether a given
sentence is Adjectival or Noun.

Whoever first reaches the fort gains the prize.
I will reward whoever first reaches the fort.

In these sentences some would prefer to regard the subordinate

sentence as qualifying "he*' or "him,'' and would class them as

adjectival, but, inasmuch as they staud in the one case for subject

and in the other for object, it is preferable to take them as nomi

sentences.

We speak that we do know.

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.

109

Here, Instead of taking *<that we do know " aa a noun sentence, U
IB better to split np « that *' (a composite relatrve) into ' that whicli "
and take " which we do know " aa an AdJeotlYal santence.

THE MAPPING-OUT OF COMPLEX SENTENCES.
50. Complex Sentences shonld be mapped out on the same
principles as Simple Sentence& Let ns take a sentence from
Mr Morris's " Jason " : —

< < And in his hand he bare a mighty bow,
No man could bend of those that battle now.''

This sentence may be drawn up after the following plan :^rr^
his hand

a mighty

d
bare

bow

:a
t

no man conld bend
thoee

battle now.

(The single line indicates a preposition ; the double line a oon
junction or conjunctive pronoun. )

51. The larger number of subordinate sentences there are,

and the farther away they stand from the principal sentence^

fche larger will be the space that the mapping-out will cover.

Let us take this sentence from an old Greek writer : —

"Thou art about, 0 king! to make war against men who weat
leathern trousers, and have all their other garments of leather; who
feed not on what they like, but on what they can get from a soil
that is sterile and unkindly ; who do not indulge in wine, but drink
water ; who possess no figs, nor anything else that is good to eat. "

This would be set out in the following way : —
Xhoa art about . . . against men

...

trousers

(i)
(ii) have . . . leather

(iii) feed not on that

(a> thjsy like
I

110

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(iy) feed on that
o

(b) they can get from a soil

(b^) is sterile and unkindly
(▼) do not . . . wine
(vi) drink water
(vii) possess no figs
(viii) possess not anything else

62. Sentences may also be pigeon-holed, or placed in marked-
off spaces or columns, like the following : —

" Thro' the black Tartar tents he passed, which stood
Clustering like bee-hives on the low black strand
Of Oxus, where the summer floods o*erflow
When the sun melts the snow in high Pamir."

SxMTKircu.

A. He _

through the
blackTartar
tents

(a) which clus-
tering like
bee • hives
stood on the
strand of
Oxus,

(b) [intheplace]
which the
floods over-
flow

(o) when
melts

KiiTDor
Skntbkck.

A.Prin.
sentence.

(a) Adj.
sen-
tence
to A.

(b) Adj.
sent,
to

' place
under-
stood

SnBjxoT.

which

floods

the sun

Enlabos-

MSNT.

cluster-
ing

the sum-
mer

Pbbdi-

CATB.

stood

o'erflow

EZTBN-

Bioxr.

thro* the
tents

on the
low
black
strand

Objkct.

(which)

melts

when in
high
Pamir

snow

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. Ill

j53. There is a kind of Continuous Analysis, whicli may
often — not without benefit — be applied to longer passages, and
especially to passages taken from the poets. For example : —

"Alas ! the meanest herb that scents the gale,
The lowliest flower that blossoms in the ya^e
Even where it dies, at spring's sweet call renews
To second life its odours and its hues."

1. Alas i an interjection, with no syntactical relation to any word

in the sentence.

2. the meanest, attributive or enlargement to 3.

3. lierl). Subject to 4.

4. renews. Predicate to 3.

5. odours and hues, Object to 4.

6. at . . . call. Extension of renewSf to 4.

7. to . . . life, Extension of renews, to 4.

8. the lowliest, attributive or enlargein.ent to 9*

9. flower, Subject to 10.

10. renews, Predicate to 9.

11. odonrs and hues, Object to 10.

12. at . . . call. Extension to 10.

13. to . . . life, Extension to 10.

ri4.

C 15.
Il6.

ri7.

d]i8.
U9.

14. that. Subject to 15 and connective to 3.
scents. Predicate to 14.
gale. Object to 15.

17. that. Subject to 18 and connective to 9.
blossoms. Predicate to 17.
In the vale, Extension to 18.

(20. even. Adverb modifying 21.

21. where it dies, Extension to 18.

22. it. Subject of 23.

23. dies, Predicate of 22.

ni— THE COMPOUND SENTENCE.

54. A Ck>nipound Sentence is one which consists of two
or more Simple Sentences packed, for convenience' sake, into
one.

Thus, in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Sir Walter Scott writes :—

** The way was long, the wind was cold*
The minstrel was infirm and old."

He might have put a full stop at long and at oold, for the sense ends

112 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGUSH LANGT7AGE.

in these places, and, gramfbatloaUy, the two lines form three
separate and distinct sentences. But becanse In tlionght the three
are connected, the poet made one oomponnd sentence out of the three
umple sentences.

55. A Compoiuid Sentence may be contracted.

(i) If we say, "John jumped up and ran off, the sentence is =3
''John jumped np*'+''John ran off." It is therefore a compound
sentence consisting of two simple sentences, but, for convenience
sake, contracted in the subject.

It may be taken as a Compound Contracted Sentence, and should
be analysed as two connected sentences.

Compare : — And out again I curre and flow
To join the brimming river.

(ii) In the sentence, " £ither a knave or a fool has done this,"
the sentence is contracted in the predicate for the purpose of avoid-
ing the repetition of the verb has done,

(iii) In " The troops caught, and the King executed the rebels,"
the sentence is contracted in the object, "the rebels" being the
object of both sentences.

(iv) Sometimes both Subject and Predicate are omitted, as —

"Who grewest not alone in power
And knowledge ; but from hour to hour
In reverence and in charity."
Here '* who grewest " must be inserted after ** but."

(v) Some sentences require modification or addition before the^
can be satisfactorily analysed.

' * No land but listens to the common call,
And in return receives supply from alL"

This may be rendered

There is no land | which listens not to the common call, |
And which in return receives not supply from all."

Alterations, however, should never be made unless they are un-
avoidable.

CO-ORDINATE SENTENCES.

56. The Principal Co-ordinate Sentences of a Compound
Sentence are connected in various ways by different classes of
Conjunctions. The relationship of a sentence to a co-ordinate
one preceding it is either —

(a) Copulative or continuative.

(b) Disjunctive.

(d) Illative.

THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 113

57. A Copulative Sentence is so connected with a preceding

one that the idea expressed by it agrees 'with or simply carries

Airther the thought going before.

Each phange of many-coloured life he drew, ''

Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new.

The connectives of copulative sentences are : And, also, likewise,
moreover, further, furthermore ; and correlatives such as : both —
and ; not merely — but, etc.

NOTE (i) The 862186 of the sentences and their relationslilp to one
another must be the chief guide in deciding the nature of the con-
nection. In many cases the connecting word in itself is mis-
leading.

We met a man at the gate, who told us the way.

Here the function of the sentence "who told," etc., is not to
qualify the preceding sentence, but to express an additional fact,
which is co-ordinate with the preceding. Who = and ho, and is
really copulatiye.

(ii) He was not at home, which was a great pity.

"Which" does not introduce a subordinate qualifying sentence,
but is really copulative, introducing a co-ordinate sentence. It is
equivalent to " and this."

(iii) Nor and neither, when they are equivalent to " are not," are
copulative.

The enemy will not fight, nor will they even prepare for battle.
They refused to pay, neither did they offer to explain.

(iv) While and whilst are sometimes only copulative —

" The greater number laid their foreheads in the dust, whilst a
profound silence prevailed over all."

The second sentence is noway subordinate to the first ; it is not
used to adverbially modify the first in regard to time, but to
introduce a sentence of equal rank, the two sentences being
co-ordinate.

(v) Sometimes the connective is entirely omitted, but the logical
connection of the sentences shows that the second is co-ordinate with,
and stands in copulative connection with, the first.

Her court was pure ; her life serene ;

God gave her peace ; her land reposed.

58. A DiisQunctive Sentence is a sentence which implies
exoluBion, or presents an alternative to the one before it.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

The breath of heaven must sweirthe sail,
Or all the toil is lost.

114 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

The oonnectiTOB of disjunctive sentences are : Either, or : neither,
nor ; and sometimes " else " and ** othervi'ise. "

69. An Adversative Sentence is one which expresses an
idea in opposition to or in contrast with that of a pre-
ceding one.

To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given ;
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.

The connectives of adversative sentences are : But, however, never-
theless, notwithstanding, only, still, yet ; and such correlatives as :
on the one hand^K>n the other hand, now — then.

NOTE. — Sometimes the connective is not expressed :

They resent your honesty for an instant ; they will thank you for
it always.

60. An Illative Sentence expresses a reason or inference in
reference to one before it, Blatiye sentences may be —

•

(a) niatlve Proper : when the idea expressed is a natural inference

from or implied consequence of what is previously expressed.

The leaves are falling ; therefore the swallows will soon be gone.

(b) OansatlTe : when the idea expressed forma the grounds of a

certain inference expressed in the preceding sentence.

The swallows will soon be gone ; for the leaves are falling.

The oonnectives are (a) Illative Proper : Therefore, hence, so, con-
sequently, etc.

(b) Causative : For.

Caution. — Great care is necessary in distinguishing be-
tween an Illative Sentence and an Adverbial Sentence of
Consequence.

Thus in the sentence. The leaves are falling ; therefore the swallows
will soon be gone, the second sentence is a fair inference from, but not
a neeeeeary consequence of, the first, and is an Illative Sentence.

Whereas in the sentence. The leaves are falling ; therefore the trees
will soon be bare, the second sentence is a necessary consequence of
the first, and is an Adverbial Sentence of Effect or Consequence.

The student may draw for himself a corresponding distinction be-
tween
The swallows will soon be gone ; for the leaves are falling,

and
The trees will soon be bare : for the leaves are falling.

THS ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 115

6L ITote. — (i) In some cases an introductory "for** is

simply a preposition, and the sentence is neither Illative

nor Adverbial

For pathless marsh and mountain cell
The peasant left his lonely shed.

(ii) The connection in the following is exceptional : —

And out again I curve and flow

To join the brimming river ;
For men may come, and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

« For men may come *' is neither an Illative nor an Adverbial
Sentence, but a co-ordinate aentgnee, copulative to the preceding
ones.

In Illative Sentences the connective is very rarely omitted, but
examples are not unknown.

Milton ! thou shouldst be living at this hour :
England hath need of thee ; she is a fen
Of stagnant waters.

The second and third sentences are in illative relationship to the
first ; they give the gronnds of the first statement, and might fitly
begin with for.

PARENTHETICAL SENTENCES.

62. Sometimes sentences are interposed in a way that com-
plicates the analysis.

These are the very people who yon thought were lost.

Here ** who were lost " is really a noun sentence to its principal
"you thought"; but it is an adjectival sentence to the real prin-
eipfil * * These are the very people. " "You thought * ' is therefore best
taken as a jiarenthetlcal sentence, having a principal relationship to
*• who were lost."

In other cases the relationship of the interposed sentence to the
reet of the sentence is less clear.

Then I stood up— and I was scarcely conscious of my surroundings
— and fired my gun.

The interposed sentence may be regarded as principal and oo«
ordinate with the other two, but on account of its loose relationship
it is better taken as simply " parenthetloal"

WORD-BUILDING AND DERIVATION.

1. The primary element — ^that which is the shortest form —
of a word is called its root. Thus tal (which means number) is
the root of the words tale and tell and till (a box for money).

2. The stem is the root + some modification. Thus love
( = lov + e) is the stem of the root lev.

3. It is to the stem that all inflexions are added, and thus to
love we add d for the past tense.

4. If to the root we add a suffix, then the word so formed is
called a derivative. Thus by adding ling to dar ( = dear),
we make darling.

5. In general, we add English prefixes and English suffixes
to English words ; but this is not always the case. Thus we
have cottage, where the Latin ending age is added to the Eng-
lish word cot; and covetousness, where the English ending
nesB is added to the Latin word covetous. Such words are
called hybrids.

6. When two words are put together to make one, the one
word so made is called a compound.

7. The adding of prefixes or of suffixes to words, or the
making one word out of two, is called word-formation.

COMPOUND NOUNS.

8. Compound Nouns are formed by the addition of : —

(i) Noun and Noon, as —

Bandog ( = bond-dog). Brimstone ( = bum-stone).

Bridal (= bride-ale). Bylaw (=law for a &y or town).

OOMPOTJND ABJSIOTIVES.

117

Daisy (= day's eye).

Evensong.

Qarlic (= gar-leek = spear-leek ;

O.E. gd^, spear).
Qospel ( = Qod's spell = story).
Housetop.

Huzzy (= housewife).
Icicle (=is-gicel»ice-jag).

Lapwing (= leap-wing).
Nightingale (= night-singer).
Orchard ( = ort-yard = wort-yard, ».c.,

herb-garden).'
Railway,
Tadpole (= toad-head. Pole = poll, a

head, as in poll-tax).
Wednesday (=Woden*s day).

(ii) Novn and AdJectlTe, as —

Blackbird. Midnight. Quicksilver.

Freeman. Midsiunmer. Twilight (= two lights).

BUu3dbi/rd has the accent on 5todk, and is cne word. A hUuHdli/rd need not be a
}>Uuikfhird\

Qji) Nona and Verb,

Bakehouse.

Cutpurse.

Gk)dsend.

Grindstone.
Pickpocket
Screech-owl.

Spendthrifts

Wagtail

WashtuU

(iv) Noon and AdTerb, as offithoot.

(v) Noun and Preposition, as afterthought.

(vi) Verb and AdTorb, as —

Castaway. Drawback.

Welfare.

Farewell*

Outlook.
Welcome.

COMPOUND ADJECTIVES.

9. Theie are in the language a great maay oompoiind a4]ec-
tivesy such as heart-whole, seorsick, etc.; and these are formed
in a large number of different ways.

Compound adjectives may be formed in the following ways : —

(i) Nona + Adjoctiye, as purse-proud, wind-swift, way-weary, sea-
green, lily-white.

(ii) Nonn-f-froBont Participle, as ear-piercing, death-boding, heart-
rending, spirit-stirring, sea-faring, night-walking, home-keeping.

(iii) Nonn+ Passive Participle, as moth-eaten, worm-eaten, tempest-
tossed, way-laid, forest-bom, copper-fastened, moss-clad, sea-girt

pv) AdTorb -I- Present Participle, as far-darting, everlasting, high-
stepping, well-meaning, long-suffering, far-reaching, hard-working.

(v) AdTorb-f-Passire Participle, as high-bom, low-pitched, well-bred,
thorough-bred, high-strung, ill-pleased.

118 GKAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(▼i) Nonn+Nonn + ed, as hare-brained, dog-diearted, beetle- headed,
periwig-pated, club-footed, lily-liyered, trumpet-tongued, eagle-eyed.

(vii) Adjectire + Noim+ed, as evil-eyed, grey-headed, thin-faced,
empty-headed, tender-hearted, thick-lipped, two-legged, three-cornered,
four-sided, high-minded, bald-pated.

(Tiii) Noon -(- Noon, as lion-heart, iron-side.

(iz) AdTerb-hNonn-f-ed, as down-hearted, under-handed.

COMPOUND VERBS.

10. There are not many compound verbs in the English
language. The few that there are are formed thus : —

(i) Vexb and Noun, as —

Backbite. Hamstring. Hoodwink.

Browbeat. Henpeck. Kiln-dry.

(ii) Verb and Adjective, as—

Dumfound. Fulfil (=fill full). Whitewash.

(ill) Verb and Adverb, as —
Doff ( = do off). Dout ( = do out). Cross-question.

Don (= do on). Dup(=doup). Outdo.

THE FORMATION OF ADVERBS.

11. Adverbs are derived from Nouns, from Adjectives, from
FronounSy and from Prepositions.

a. Adverbs derived from Nouns are either : (i) Old Fosses-

sives, or (ii) Old Datives, or (iii) Compounds of a Noun and

a Preposition : —

(i) Old PosaeBsiveB : Needs = of need, or of necessity. The Calendrer
says to John Gilpin about his hat and wig —

" My head is twice as big as yours,
They therefore needs must fit."

Of the same class are : always, nowadays, betiines.

(ii) Old Datives. These are seldom and the old-fashioned whilom
(=in old times).

(iii) Convpomids : anon = (in one moment), abed (=on bed) asleep,
aloft, abroad, indeed, of a truth, by turns, perchance, perhaps.

h. Adverbs derived from Adjectives are either : (i) Old
Fossessives, or (ii) Old Datives, or (iii) Compounds of an
Adjective and a Preposition : —

(i) Old Possessives: else (ell-es, possessive of aZ= other), unawares,
onoe (=ones), twice, thricC; etc

PBEFIXES.

119

(ii) Old Datives. The old English way of forming an adverb was
simply to use the dative case of the adjective — which ended in S. Thus
we had deepS, brightd, for deeply and brightly. Then the e dropped
away. Hence it is that there are in English several adverbs exactly
like adjectives. These are: fast, hard, right (in "Right Reverend"),
fa/r, tUf late, early, loud, high,

(iii) CkmiponndB of aa AdjecUYe and a Prepofition : on high, in
▼ain, In short, at large, of late, etc.

c. Adverbs derived from Pronouns come from the pronominal
stems : who, the (or this), and he. The following is a table,
and it is important to note the beautiful correspondences : —

Pronominal
Stsmb.

Plack
In.

Plaos
To.

Placs
from.

Tims
In.

Hannsr.

Causx.

Wh-o

Where

Whither

Whence

Whe-n

Ho-w

Wh-y

Th-eorth-ia

The-re

Thi-ther

The-noe

The-n

Th-U8

Th-e

He-re

Hi-ther

He-nce

(i) How and why are two forms of the same word — ^the instrumental
case of who. How = in what way ? Why = with what reason ?

(ii) The, in the last column, is the adverbial the (A.S. th^) before a
comparative. It is the instrumental or ablative case of tJiat or thaet.
" The more, the merrier " =by that more, by that merrier. That is, the
measure of the increase in the number is the measure of the increase in
the merriment.

(iii) Thus is the instrumental case of this, and is=in this manner.

d. Compound Adverbs are formed by adding together —

(i) Noun and Nonn, as lengtiiways, endways,
(ii) Noun and AdjectiYO, as —

Always. Head-foremost. Otherwise.

Breast-high. Meanwhile. Sometimes.

(iii) Preposition and Nonn, as Aboveboard, outside,
(iv) Adverb and Prepositioxi, as —

Hereafter. Therein. Whereupon.

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES.

12. The Prefixes used in our language are of English, French^
Latin, and Greek origin.

(i) French is only a modified Latin. Hence French prefixes fall
naturally under Latin prefixes, as the one is only a form of the other.

120 QRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

13. English Prefixes are divided into Inseparable and
Separable. Inseparable Prefixes are those that liave no mean-
ing by themselves and cannot be used apart from another word.
Separable Prefixes may be used and are used as independent
words.

14. The following are the most important

English Inseparable Prefixes: —

1. A (a broken-down form of O.E. ans=on), as —

Abed. Aloft (=in the lift or sky). A-building.

Aboard. Away. Athwart (= on the croes).

2. Be (an O.E. form of by), which has several functions : —

(i) To add an intensire force to transitive verbs, as —

* Bedaub. Beseech Besmear.

Besprinkle. ( = beseek). Besmirch.

(ii) To turn intransitive verbs into transitive, as —

Bemoan. Bespeak. Belie

(iii) To make verbs out of nouns or adjectives, as —

Befriend. Beguile. Benumb. Betroth.

Besiege (=to take a tiege or seat beside a town till it surrenders).

(iv) To combine with nouns, as —

Behalf. Bequest. Bypath.

Behestw Byname. Byword.

(v) To form part of prepositions and adverbs, as before, besides, eta

3. For (O.E. /or =Lat. per) means thoroughly, and has two func-
tions:—

(i) To add an intensive meaning, as in —

Forbear. Forget. Forswear.

Fordone ( = ruined). Forgive. Forlorn ( = utterly lost).

FonweoT means to stoear <nU and out, to swear to anything, hence fal»ely.
Compare the Latin perjurare; hence onr peffure.

(ii) To give a negative meaning, as in forgo (wrongly spelled /orei^roX
to go without.

4. Fore = before ; as forebode, forecast. (Fore is also used separately.)

5. Gain (O.K gaegn, back, again), found in gainsay (to speak
against) ; gainstand.

PBEFIXES. 121

6. MIfl (O.E. mi$, wrong; utd oonneeted with the verb to miu),
as in —

Misdeed. Mislead. Mistrust. Mistake.

Cantion. — When mis occurs in French words, it is a shortened form
of minus, less ; as in misehief, mischance, miscount, miscreant ( = non-
believer).

7. Th, the base of the third personal pronoun and its cognates, and
indicating something spoken of, as in —

Those. That Thither. They.

This. There. Thence. The.

8. Un=noty as

Unholy. Undo. Unbind.

9. Wan (O.K wan, wanting; and connected with vHmd), which is
found in —

Wanton ( = wantowen, Wanhope ( = despair),

lacking education). Wantrust.

10. With (a shortened form of O.E. wither = back or against) is
found in —

Withstand. Withdraw. Withhold.

JV* It exists also in a latent form in tJis word drawing-roon s vfUkdrawing>^
room.

15. The following are the most important

English Separable Prefixes : —

1. After, which is found in —

Aftergrowth. Aftermath {from mow). Afternoon.

2. All (O.E. al, quite), which is found in-

Almighty. Alone (quite by one*s self). Almost^

8. Fortli, found in forthcoming, forward, etc
i. Fro (a shortened form of from), in froward.
5. In appears in modem English in two forms, as :—
(i) In, in—

Income. Insight. Instep,

Inborn. Inbred. Inlay.

(ii) Bn or «m (which is a Frenchified form), in —

Endear. Entwine* Embolden.

Enlighten. Embitter.

122

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Overhand.

Over-proud.

6. Of or off (which m two speUingn of the lame word), as —

Offiipring. 0£bet.

OfBUioot OttaX (that which faUt off),

7. On, as in onset, onslaught, onward.

8. Out, which takes also the form of nt, as in —

Outbreak. Outside. Utter.

Outcast Outpost Utmost.

9. Orer (the comparative of the ove in ahotfe), which combines :— -
(i) With nouns, as in —

Overcoat. Overflow.

(ii) With adjectives, as in —

Over-bold. Over-merry.

(Shakespeare is very fond of such forms.)

(in) With verbs, as in —

Overthrow. Overspread. Overhear.

10. Thorough or through, two forms of the same word, as in —
Throughout Through-train. Thorough-bred. Thoroughfarei

Shakespeare has ''thorough bosh, thorough biler, tfaorongh flood, thorough fire.

11. Twi=two, in twilight, twin, twist, etc. (The form tict is now
inseparable. )

12. Under, which goes : —
(i) With verbs, as in —

Underlie. Undersell

(ii) With noims, as in —

Underhand. Underground.

(iii) With other words, as in —

Underneath. Underlying.

Undergo.

Undertone

13. Up, which goes : —

(i) With verbs, as in —

Upbear. Upbraid.

(ii) With nouns, as in —

Upland. Upstart

(iii) With other words, as in —
Upright

Uphold.

Upshot

Upward.

PREnxES. 123

16. There are in use in oiir language many Latin Prefixes ;
and many ef them are of great service. Some of them, as
oirciinL (about), come to us direct from Latin ; others, like
counter (against), have come to us through the medium of
French. The following are the most important

Iiatin FrefLses: —

1. A, ab, alM (Fr. a, av), a/way from, as in —

Avert. Abjure. Absent. Abstain.

Avauntw Advantage (which ought to be avantage).

2. Ad (Fr. a), to, which in composition becomes ac, af, ag, al, an, ap,
ar, as, at, to assimilate with the first consonant of the root. The fol-
lowing are examples of each : —

Adapt. Affect. Accord. Agree.

Aggression. Allude. Annex. AppeaL

Arrive. Assimilate. Attain. Attend.

All these words come straight to us from Latin, except cHjrree, arrive, and
attain. The following are also French : Achieve (to bring to a ciuf or head^
amount, acquaint.

8. Amb, am {ambi, about), as in —

Ambition. Ambiguous. Amputate.

4. Ante (Fr. an), before, as in —

Antedate. Antechamber. Ancestor (= antecessor).

5. Bis, bl, twice, as in —

Bisectb Biscuit ( = biscoctus, twice baked).

6. dzomn, olroa, around, as in —

Circumference. Circulate. Circuit.

7. Com, with, in French com, which becomes ool, con, cor, conn, and
00 before a vowel, as in —

Compound. Collect. Content. Correct.

Counsel. Countenance. Coeval. Cooperate.

(i) In cost (from conttare, to "stand"); couth (from coU5oo, I place); cuU
(tram ooUtgo, I collect) ; and cousin (from conxbrvnus, the child of a mother's
sister), the prefix has undergone great changes

(II) Ck>, though of Latin origin, can go with purely English words, as in 00-
vforker, eo-und«rttanding. These are not desirable compounds.

8. Centra (Fr. oontre), against, which also becomes oontro and
oonnter, as in —

Contradict. Controvert. Counterbalance.

(i) In ooufUeno^h and eounteraork we find it in union with EngUsh roots.
(IQ In ffuxmnter we find it converted into a root.

I2i GRAMMAR OP THE BNOLISH LANGUAGE.

t. D* (Fr. de), down, from, about^ as in —

Dedine. Describe. Defer (to a personV

It has also two different functions. It is —

(1) negatire in destroy, deform, desoetade, etc.
0i) intemdTe in desolate, dedccate (to dry npX etc.

10. Dta, dl (Fr. des, de), asunder, in two, as in —

Dissimilar. Disarm. Dismember.

Differ (■ becomes X). Disease. Diyorea

Defy. Defer (k delay). Delay.

(i) Bis is also Joined with English roots to make the hybrids dimum, diaUhi,
diatnutf ditUute,

11. Ez, 6 (Fr. 9B, e), out of, from, as in—

Exalt. Exhale. Expatriate {paina, one's country).

Elect. Evade. Educe.

(1) ez has a privative sense in ex-emperor, etc
(ii) In amend (emendo), aetonieh (itonner\ the • is disguised,
(ill) In acimpZe (short for exomfle), toorch (O. Fr. e$eorcer\ and special (for
eepeddt), the • has fiJlen away.

12. Extra, beyond, as in —

Extraneous. Extraordinary. Extravagant,

(i) In sbremger (O. Fr. eetranger, from Lat. extraneue) the e has ISUlen away.

18. In (Fr. en, em), in, into, which changes into U, im, ir, as in —

Invade. Invent (to eome upon). Infer.

Illusion. Improve. Immigrate.

Imbue. Irrigate. Irradiate.

Enchant. Endure. Envoy.

(i) It unites with English roots to make the hybrids emdody, emhoiden, end$w\
entrust, enlighten, etc.

(ii) In amimeh (Ital. imboscare, to put one's self in a woodX the in is disguised

14. In, not, which becomes il, im, ir, and ig, as in —

Inconvenient. IlliberaL Impious. IiTeleiTant.

Incautious. Illegal. Impolitic. Ignoble.

(i) The English prefix un sometimes takes its place, and fonns hybrids with
Latin roots in unable, unapt, uneomJwUMe,

(ii) Shakespeare has unpoeeiJble, unproper, and many ottten,

15. Inter, Intro (Fr. entre), between, among — as in

Intercede. Interpose. Interfere.

Introduce. Entertain. Enterprise.

16. Male (Fr. man), ill, as in —

Malediction, (contracted through French into)
Malison (opposed to BenUon), Maugre.

PRBFTXES. 1^^

17. Ml8 (Fr. mes, from Latin mlniu), less, m in —
Misadventure. Mischance. Mischiel

CanUon. — ^Not to be confounded with the English prefix mis in mM-
takCf mittrust, etc.

18. Non, not) as in —

Nonsense. Non-existent. Nonsuit.

(i) The initial n has dropped off in unipirtf, formerly numpire=sO. Fr. nonper^B
Lat. nonpar, not equaL

(ii) The n has &llen away likewise fix>m noranget napron (connected with naji-
kin, naperyX etc., by wrongly aleaving to the indefinite article a.

19. Ob, against) becomes oo, of, op, etc., as in —

Obtain. Occur. Offend. Oppose.

20. Feme, almost^ as in —

Peninsula. Penultimate (the last but one).

21. Per (Fr. par), through, which becomes pel, as in —

Pellucid. Perform. Perjure.

Perfect. Permit. Pilgrim.

(i) Pilffrim comes from peregHnuSt a person who wanders per agros, through
the fields,— by the medium of Ital peUegrino,

(ii) Perhap$ is a hybrid.

22. Post, after, as in —

Postpone. Postdate. Postscript.

The poet is much disguised In puny, which comes from the French puis nim
Lat. post nattis, bom after. A "puisne (pwiy) Judge" is a Junior Judge, or a
Judge of a later creation.

23. PrsB, pre (Fr. pre), before, as in—

Predict. Presume. Pretend. Preventw

(i) It is shortened into a pr InjTriM, prison, comprise (all tram prehendo, I sei2e>

(ii) It is disguised in provost (preporitut, one placed over), in preach (from prce-
dieo, I speak beforeX and provender (from pn^eo, I frimish).

24. Prater, beyond, as in —

Preternatural. Preterite (beyond the present). Pretermit.

25. Pro (Fr. pour), which becomes pol, por, pur, as in—

Pronoun. ProconsuL Procure. Protest.

Portray. Portrait. Pursue. Purchase.

26. Re (Fr. re), back, again, which becomes red, as in —

Rebel. Reclaim. . Recover. Refer.

Redeem. Redound. Readmit. Recreant.

0) It is much disguised in rally (=tre^ly), in random (a shortened Fr. form of n-
dsmpHon}, and in runa^aU (^renegade, one who has denied— n«sratrtt— his faith)

(U) It ooin^fs with IBnglirii roots to fiyrrn the hybrids reUvy, reset, recall.

126 GRAMMAS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

27. Betro, baokwardi— m in retrograde, retrospect.

0) It is diigoiied in rmr-guard (O.F. arUrefforde), rear, and arrean.

28. Be (Ft, wk), apart^ which becomes aed, as in —

Secede. Seclude. Seduce. Sedition.

29. Bab (Fr. soob or ion), under, which becomes sue, sn^ and, snin,
•np, mr, and iOi, as in —

Subtract. Succour. Suffer. Suggest.

Summon. Supplantb Surrender. Suspend.

(i) Sab is disgnised in tqjoum (from O. Fr. «^om«r, from Low Latin tvbdiumareX
and in mmUch (from Latin mbUantus).

(ii) It eomUnes with English roots to form the hybrids tuhUtf mXnoorker, nb-
kimgdoM, etc

80. Bnbter, beneath — as in subterfuge.

81. Super (Fr. mr), above, as in —

Supernatural. Superpose. Superscription.

Surface (superficies). Sumama Surtout (over-all).

(i) It is disgoised in iovenign (which Milton more correctly spells m)vran)f fr*om
Low Latin mperanut.

82. Tmu (Fr. tr^a), beyond, which becomes tra, as in—

Translate. Transport. Transform. Transitive.

Tradition. Traverse. Travel Trespass.

(i) It is disgnised in tneuon (the Fr. form of tradUion, trom trado (=tranadoy,
I give npX in betray and traitor (from, the same Latin root), in traries and entrance
(Latin tran$itu»t s passing beyond), and in treette (trom Latin diminutive tranatU-
IvMf a little cross-beam).

83. Ultra, beyond, as in —

Ultra-LiberaL Ultra-Tory. Ultramontane.

(i) In outroife (O. Fr. ouUrage) the uUra is disguised.

84. Ubna, one, which becomes nn and unl, as in —
Unanimous. Uniform. Unicom.

85. Vice (Fr. vice), in the place of, as in —

"^oeroy. Vicar, Vice-chancellor. Viscount.

17. Our language possesses also a considerable number of
prefixes transferred from the Greek language, many of which
are very useful The following are the most important

Greek Prefixes: —

1. An, a (&y, d), nol^ as in —

Anarchy. Anonymous. Apteryx (the wingless). Atheisti

2. AmpM (^i/A^Q, on^both sides, as in —

Amphibious. Amphitheatre.

PREFIXES.

127

Aphelion.

Archetype.
Authentia
Cathedral

8. Ana {ayd), up, again, back, as in —

Anatomy. AnalysiB. Anachronism.

4. Antl (di^O) against or opposite to, as in-^ -

Antidote. Antipathy. Antipodes. Antarctic.

5. Apo {dir6), away from, which also becomes ap, as in —

Apostate. Apostie. Apology.

6. Arch, arcbl, arche {dpx^h chief, as in —

Archbishop. ArchangeL Architect.

7. Auto {avT6s), self, which becomes auth, as in —

Autocrat Autograph. Autotype.

8. Cata, cat (icot<£), down, as in —

Catalogue. Catapult. Catechism.

9. Dia (9td), through, across, as in —

Diameter. Diagram. Diagonal

(i) This prefix Is disguised in dm^firom Gr. diabdloSt the accuser or slanderer,
from Gr. diahoMeint to slander.

10. Dls, dl {His), twice, as in —

Dissyllable. Diphthong. Diglott.

11. DjB (5ws), ill, as in —

Dysentery. Dyspeptic (contrasts with Eupeptic).

12. Ec, ez {4k, i^), out of, as in —

Eccentric. ■ Ecstasy. Exodus.

13. En {iv), in, which becomes el and em, as in —

EncyclicaL Encomium. Ellipse.

14. Epl, ep (^0> upon, as in —

Epitaph. Epiphany. Epoch.

15. En (cS), well, which also becomes 6T, as in —

Euphemism. Eulogy. Evangelistw

16. Heml (^/i/), half, as in—

Hemisphere. Hemistich (half a line in poetry).

17. Hyper {^ip), over and above, as in —

Hyperborean. Hyperbola. Hypercritical.

18. Hypo, hyp {^6), under, as in —

Hypocrite. Hypotenuse. Hyphen.

19. Meta, met (aict(£), after, changed for, as in —

Metaphor. Metamorphosis. Metonymy. Method.

20. Mono, mon {fjtSyos), alone, as in —

Monogram. Monody. Monad. Monk.

Exotic.

Emphasis.

Ephemeral

Hypermetrical

128

GRAMMAR OF THK ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

21. Pan (irai' — stem ravT'), all, aa in—

Pantheist Panacea. Panerama.

Pantomima

22. Para {irapd), by the side of, which beoemes par, as in —

Parody.

Paradox.

Parallel.

• 23. Foil (ircpQ, round, as in —
Perimeter. Period.

Parish.

Perigee.

Periphery.

24. Pro (irp<0» before, as in —

Prophet. Prologue. Proboscis. Problem.

25. Pros {wp6s), towards, as in —

Prosody. Proselyte.

26. Syn {<r^\ with, which becomes syl, aym, and sy, as in —

Syntax. Synagogue. Syllable.

Sympathy. SymboL System.

18. The Suf&xes employed in the English language are much
more numerous than the Prefixes, and much more useful. Like
the Prefixes, they come to us from three sources — from Old
English (or Anglo-Saxon) ; from Latin (or French) ; and fronj
Greek.

19. The following are the most important

English Suf^es to IN'ouns: —

Sluggard. Wizard.

1. Ard or art (= habitual), as in —

Braggart. Coward. Drunkard. Dullard.

Laggard. Niggard.

2. Craft (skill), as in —

Leechcraft (= medicine).
Woodcraft.

Priestcraft. Witchcraft.
Bimecraft (old name for Arithmetic),

8. D, t or th (all being dentals), as in —

(i) Blood (from Uow^ said Blade (from the same),
of flowers).

Flood (flow).

(ii) Drift (drive).
FUght (fly).

Rift (rive).

(iii) Aftermath (mow)
Death (die).
]|£irth (merry).

Seed (sow).

Drought (dry).
Height (high : Milton
uses higlUh),
Theft (thieve).

Berth (bear).
Earth (ear = plough).
91oth (slow).

Deed (do).

Thread (throw).

Draught (draw).
Shrift (shrive).

Weft (weave).

Dearth (dear).
Health (heal).
Tilth (till).

SUFFIXES. 129

4. Dom (O.E. d5m=doom), power, office, from dema/rif to judge, m
in —

Dukedom. Kingdom. Halidom (^holiness).

Christendom. Thraldom. Wisdom.

(1) In O.E. we had hixeopddm (=bishopdom); and Carlyle has adcustomed us
to rascaldom and scoundreldam.

5. En (a diininutiye), as in —

Chicken (cock). Kitten (cat). Maiden.

(i) The addition of a syllable has a tendency to modify the preceding vowel— as
in kitchen (from cook), vixen {from fox), and national (from nation).

6. Er, which has three functions, to denote —
(i) An agent, as in —

Baker. Dealer. Leader. Writer.

(ii) An instmment, as in —

Finger (from O.'E. fangan, to take). Stair (from Higanf to mountX

(iii) A male agent, as in —

Fuller (from fuUian, to cleanse). Player. Sower.

JV* The ending er has become disguised in liar and tailor (not taiUr,
which is a ship). Under the influence of Norman-Frendi, an i or y
creeps In before the r, as in eollitr (from ooaZl, lawyer, glazier (from
glase), etc.

7. Hood (0.£. hftd), state, rank, person, as in —

Brotherhood. Childhood. Priesthood. Wifehood.

(i) In Godhead, this snfilx takes the fozm othead.

8. Ing (originally— «on of) part, as in —

Farthing (/oureA). "Riding {thridingssthirding). Tithing (tenth).

(i) This suffix is found as a patronymic in many proper names, such as Brown-
ing, Harding; and in Kensington, WMtHngton, etc

(ii) Lording (=:the son of a lord) and whiHng (fi^m white) are also diminutives.

(iii) This ing is to be careftilly distinguished ft^m the ing (^Bung) which was
the old suffix for verbal nouns, as eUnGiing, learning, etc.

9. Xln (a diminutive), as in —

Bodkin. Firkin (from fow). Lambkin. Mannikin.

Found also in proper names, as in J)awkin8(si son of little David), Jenkins {=sBon
ot little John), Hawkins (son ot little Hal), Perkins (sgon of litUs Peter),

10. Ling== 1+ing (both diminutives), as in —

Darling (from dear). Duckling. Gosling (goose).

Firstling. Hireling. Nestling.

(i) Every diminutive has a tendency to run into depreciation, as in ground'
ling, underling, vmrldling, etc.

Qi) In some words, ing has been weakened into y or it, as in Johnnie, SiUy,
£0Uy, eto.

130 GBAMMAB OF THE SNGUSH LANGUAGE.

11. Le or 1, as in —

Beadle (from heodan, to bid). Bundle (bind). Saddle (seat).
Settle (seat). KaiL Sail

12. Look (O.E. iSo, gift» sport), which also becomes ledge, as in—

Knowledge. Wedlock. FeohOdc (battle).

(i) This is not to be confttsed with the lock and Hek in the names of plants,
which in O.E. was hoc, and which we find in hemlock, charlock, and garliole
i'B^pear plant), Lde, sport, reappears in Uurky a trick (intrusive r).

18. Van forms abstract nouns from adjectives, as in —

Darkness. Holiness. Weakness. Weariness.

^ WUneu differs from the above in two respects : (a) it comes fh>m a verb—
wUan, to know ; and (b) is not always an abstract nonn.

(ii) This En^ish suffix combines very easily with foreign roots, as in aeute-
nut, eommodioutneu, grae^^Une$$, remoieneta, and many others.

14. Vd (which is the ending of the present participle in O.E.), found
in—

Friend (=the lovinjg; one). Fiend (=:the hating one).

Errand. Wind (from a root vd, to blow).

15. 0<Sk (a diminutiye), as in —

Bullock. Hniock. Ruddock (^redbreast).

0) In hawk (sthe selser. from have) this suffix is disguised.

(ii) It is also found in proper names, as in—

PoUock (from Paul). Maddoat (from MaWuw). WUoox (from WUUamy

16. M or cm, which forms noims from yerbs, as in —

Bloom (from blow). Qualm (from queU),

Gloom (from glow). Seam (from sew).

Gleam (from glow). Team (from tow),

0) This suffix unites with the Norman-French word rial (royaX) to form the
hyMd realm,

17. lied (mode, fashion— and also counsel), as in—

Hatred. Kindred. Sibrede (relationship).

(i) This ending is also found in proper nouns. Thus we have Mildred^mUd
in eounwl; Etiulred^noble in conned, called also CTnfmie, which does not mean
unready, but vHihout eouneel

18. Blo (O.E. rice, power, dominion)— as in bishopric,
(i) In O.E. we had abboMe, heivenricke, and Mngric

19. Ship (O.E. fldpe, shape or form), which is also spelled scape
and ddp, makes abstract nouns, as in —

Fellowship. Friendship. Lordship

Landscape. Workmanship. Worship (sworthship).

(i) Milton writes landtkip for landteape.

20. 8tead (O.E. sUde, place), as in—

Bedstead. Homestead. Hampstead. Berkhamstead.

21. Bter was originally the feminine of er^^e suffix for a male
agent : it has now two fnnctionB : —

(i) It denotes an agent, as in —

Huckster (hawker). Maltster. Songster. Boadster.

Qjl) It has an element of depredation in —

Gamester. Punster. Oldster. Youngster.

0ii) We had^ in Old Boglisb, boater (fern, of haker\ iMftstor (weaver), Irevh
skr^JUheUtre (JULdiUr), Momiutre (Mioer), and even beUsringtitrt (for female heU-
rinierX Most of these are now need as proper names.

0v) Spinster is the fStmlnine of epinner, one form of which was epindert
which then became tpider,

22. Ther, der, or ter denotes the agent or instrument. (Ter and
der sometimes form abstract nouns — as in laughter and murder).

Father. Mother. Sister. Brother.

Bladder (&^oto). Rudder (roti;). Fodder. Lather.

28w Wxli^t (from wozk, by metathesb of the r), as in —

Shipwright. Wainwright (=waggonwright). Wheelwright

24. Ward, a keeper, as in —

Hayward. Steward (^sty-wird). Woodward.

(I) If ard has also the Norman-French form of (Tuord.

(U) In eteward, the word tttgocr tty meant daU for horses, cows, etc

20. The following are the most important

English Suffixes to Adjeotives : —

1. Ed or d, the ending for the passive participle, as in —

Cold (—chilled). Loog-eared. Lauded. Talented.

2. Bn, denoting material, as in —

€k>lden. Silvern. Flaxen. Hempen.

Oaken. Wooden. Silken. linen (from Un, flax);

8. Bn, the old ending for the passive participle, as in —
Drunken. Forlorn. Molten. Hewn.

4. Em, denoting quarter, as in —

Easiwm. Western. Northern. Southern.

6. Fart (O.E. faert, firm), as m—

Steadfast Bootfaat. Shamefast (wrongly thamrfaced),

«. Pbld (O.E. feald), as m—

Twofold. Threefold. Manifold.

^ Simple, from Lat. t(mpU»i has usurped the place of anJMd - on^bftK.

132 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISII LANGUAGE.

7. Fal = ftill, as in-

Hateful. NeedfuL SinfuL WHfoL

8. Ub (O.E. Iso) has three funetioiiB ; it denotes : —
(i) Partaking in the luitiire of, as in-
Boorish. Childish. Churlish. Waspish.

(ii) A milder or sub-form of the quality, as in —

Blackish. Greenish. Whitish. Goodish.

(ill) A patrlal relation as in —

English. Irish. Soottish. Welsh (- TTyltfc).

9. La, with a diminutiTe tenden<7, as in —

Little {lyt). Brittle (from break). fickle {imOeoidy),

10. Leia (O.K leia), loose from, as in-

Fearless. Helpless. Sinless. Toothlan.

11. Like (O.E. lio), softened in ly, as m—

Childlike. Doyelika THfelike. Warlike.

Godly. Manly. Womanly. Ghastly (= ghostlike).

12. Ow (O.E. n and we), as in —

Narrow. Callow. Fallow. Yellow.

(i) FaXUyw la ooimected with the a^J^ot^ V-^ and yeKow with the yo{ In

13. BlSl^t, with the sense of direcUon, as in —

Forthright Downrig^tb Upright.

14. Some (O.E. siim, a form of mme, Uke), as in —

Buxom (from hugtm, Gladsome. Lissom (=litheBome)i

to bend).
Irksome. Gamesome. Winsome.

15. Teen (O.E. tyne) - ten by addition, as in—

Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

0) In ihirUen b three + ten, the r has changed its place by metathesla.
(ii) In J^teen, the hard /has replaced the soft v.

16. Ty (O.E. tig) = tens by multiplication, as in —

Twenty ( = twain-tj). Thirty ( = three-ty), Forlgr.

17. Ward (O.E. weard, from weortlian, to become), denoting dlrM«
Hon, as in —

Froward (from). Toward. Untoward.

Awkward (from a/wh, Forward. Wayward,

contrary).

(i) This ending, ward, has no connection with murd, a keeper. It is connected
with the yerb worth in the line, "Woe worth the ehase, woe worth the day I"

SUFFlXiCS. 133

18. Wise (O.K wis, wise), as in —

Righteous (properly rightwite), Weatherwise.

(i) The English or Teatonic ending wise has got confdsed wifh the Lat. ending
out (ftoia. 09ua — ftill of).

19. T (O.E. Ur, the guttural of which has vanished) forms adjectives
from nouns and verbs, as in —

Bloody. Crafty. Dusty. Heavy (heave).

Mighiy. Silly (soul). Stony. Weary.

21. Tbd following are the most important

English Suf^es for Adverbs : —

1. Brt^ denoting xdaoe in, as in

Here. There. Where.

2. Bs OF B (the old genitive or possessive), which becomes se and CS,
as in —

Needs. Besides. Sometimes. XJnavrares.

Else. Hence. Thence. Once.

Q) <* I must iteecb go" s (^fnud,

8. I^r (O.E. lioe, the dative of lie), as in—

Only(=onrfy). Badly. Willingly. Utterly.

4. ling, long, denotes direction, as in —

Darkling. Grovelling. Headlong. Sidelong.

(i) QnmeUimg is not really a present participle ; it is an adverb, and was Ia
O.B. ifrujlynges,
(ii) Headlong and tiddong were in Middle English hedlingtaid sideling,

5. Heal (O.E. maelnm = at times), as in — .

Piecemeal Limbmeal.

(Q Shakespeare, in ** Gymbdlne,** has the line—

" O that I had her here, to tear her limbmeal."

(!i) Chaucer has sUnmd-meal - hour by honr ; King Alfred has ityJehtmadum
«Bstick-meaI, or here and there.

6. Om (an old dative plural), as in —

Whilom (= in old times). Seldom (from add, rare).

7. Tlier, which denotes place to, as in —

Hitiier. Thither. Whither.

8. Ward or wards, which denotes direction, as in —

Homeward. Homewards. Backwards. Downwards.

9. Wise (O.E. wis, manner, mode), as in —

Anywise. Nowise. Otherwisei Likewiser

"Some people are wise ; and some an ottMrwise.**

134 GSAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

22. The following are the most important

English Suffixes for Verbs: —

1. Le or 1 has two functions : —

(I) FnquentatiTe, as in—

Dabble (dabi Grapple (ffnJb). Waddle (KWkteV

Dribhie (drip). Drizzle (from <Ered«an, to fall). Joatle.

(il) To form verbs of Imitative origin, as In—

Craclcle. Jingle. Rustle.

Gabble. Mamble. Tinkle.

2. Er or r adds a frequentative or intensive force to the original
verb, as in —

Batter (&ea<). Chatter. Glitter (^^010). Flutter (^i<).

Glimmer {gleam). Clatter. Sputter (aptt).

Stagger. Stammer. Stutter. Welter.

Br Yum also the function of making cansatiTe verbs out of adjectives, as U/nger
(lorng), lower, hinder,

8. En or n makes cansatiye yetlw out of nouns and adjectives, as in—
Brighten. Fatten. Lighten. Lengthen.

Broaden. Gladden. Soften. Sweeten.

4. X has a freqnentatiye force, as in —

Hark (Jtear), Stalk (steal). Talk (teO),

5. B or 86 has a cansatiye force, as in —

Cleanse (dea^). Curse. Rinse (from hreinn),

23. The Suffixes of Latin origin are of great importance ; and
they have been of great use for several centuries. Many of
them — ^indeed, most of them — ^have been influenced by passing
through French mouths, and hence have undergone consider-
able change. The following are the chief

Iiatin sjid French Suffixes for IS'oons: —

1. Age (Lat atlcum), which forms either abstract or oollecttye
nouns, as in —

Beverage. Courage. Carnage. Homage.

Marriage. Personage. Vassalage. Vintage.

0) It unites easily with English roots to form hybrids, as in hondagef mileage,
tonnage, poundage^ tiUage, thrinkage,

2. An, aln, or aae (Lat. Snns), connected with, as in —

Artisan. Pagan. Publican. Roman.

Chaplain. Captain. Humane. - Mundane..

Qi) The stdBxis disguised in eovereign (O. Fr. aoverain), which has been wrongly
■apposed to have something to do with reign; in warden, eiHt§n, dean, etc
ICUton always spells iowreign, eovran.

SUFFIXES. 135

8. 11 or A (Lat. Ulf), poBseBsing the qiiality of, as in—

AnimaL Cardinal Canal • Channel

Hospital Hostel Hotel Spital

(i) Canai and channel are two different forms— doablets— of the aame. Bo are
tcUtU and ehatUli (capttalia).

(ii) Hospital, spital, hostel, hotel, are four forms of the one Latin word
hospitaU, (Ostler is a shorter form of hoaUlUr, with a dropped h.)

4. Ant or ent (Latin antem or entem), denotes an agent, as in^

AaaJBtaptt, Servant. Agent. Student.

5. Anoe, aacy, or enoe, enoy (Lat. antia^ entla), form abstract nouns,
as in —

Abundance. Chanca Distance. Brilliancy.

Diligenca Indulgence. Constancy. Consistency.

(0 ChanoB comes firom late Lat. eodentia^an accident. CSotdsnce is a doublet

d. Ary, ry, or er (Lat. arinm), a place where a thing is kept, as in —
Apiary {apUy a bee). Armoury. Granary. Sanctuaiy.
Treasury. Vestry. Larder. Saucer,

(i) The ending ly unites freely with Bnglish words to form hylnids, as in
eooJbaif, piggery, nM>ery,

(U) In Jewry, jewdlery {at Jewelry), poultry , peaeantry, eavalry, the ry has a ooilr
leetlye meaning.

7. Ary, ler, eer^ or er (Lat. azliii), denotes a person engaged in some
trade or profession, as in —

Commissary. Notary. Secretary. Statuaiy.

Brigadier. Engineer. Mountaineer. Mariner,

(i) This ending is disguised in ehai^oeUor (canetUarius), vioa/r, InUUr i=hottierX
Uiher (octiaritM, a doorkeeper^ premier , etc

8. Ate (Lat. atns, past participle ending), becoming in French e or ee,
denotes —

(i) An agents as in—

Advocate. Ourate. Legate. Benegade.

01) The object of an action, as ln~

Grantee. Legatee^ Trustee. Vendee.

In grandee the passive signification is not retained.

9. Ce (Lat dum, tlam, or tia) forms abstract nouns,

Benefice. Prejudice. Sacrifice.

Vice. Service. Grace.

l(k El, le or 1 (Lat ttlns, dlliis, etc.), a diminutive, as in—

Angle (a little comer). Buckle (from iucoa, the cheeky

Castla Chapel Libel Pommel Title. Seal
0) A budtle used to have a cast of the human face.
Qi) Caetle, from Lat. ecutettvm, a little fort, from oattrum, a fort,
(ill) Libel, from Lat UbeUue, a little book (liber).
(iv) Pommel, from Lat pomum, an apple.
(V) 8eal from Lat fiffifium.

1S6 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

11. Bm (Lat Mna), denoting plaoe, as io —

OaTem. CiBtem. Luitem. Tavern.

12. Bt^ ette, and let (Fr. et^ ette) all diminutiyes, as in—

Bassinette. Buffet. Chaplet Coronet

Goblet Gibbet Lancet Leveret

Puppet Trumpet Ticket Turret

<i) Tliel0tis*l + «i.sndiBfofuidlnfrnieeM,>iaa(,«iiel«<,etc It also nnitM
with Bnfl^lsh words to fcom hybrids-^w In hamUt, UaJUt, ringUt, jtrtamiet, etc.

00 This ending is disguised in haUot (a small haUy, ehariat (par), parroi

18. Ess (late Lat Issa), a female agents as in —

Empress. Gk>yemess. Maivliioness. Soroerees.

0) It unites with Aiglidi words to fonn the hybrids mwrdtnu, sempitreu
(The last is a doable feminine, as ieamettn is the old word.)

14. loe, Iso, or ess (Lat tia ; ¥r, esse), as in —

Ayarice. Cowardice^ Justice. Merchandise.

Distress. Largess. Noblesse. Riches.

(i) It is a significant mark of the carelessness with which the English langohge
has always been written, that the rery same ending should appear in three
spellings in Unrgeaty wMuae, rUiiM,

Oi) JSicftet Is a iUse ploxml: it is an oMraet noun, tiieFraneh form being ridkeiw.

15. loe (Lat Icem ace. of nouns in x), which has also the forms of
Ise, ace, as in —

Chalice. Pumice. Mortise. Furnace.

(1) The suffix is much disguised In radUSi (sihe root, firom nuffoem).
(ii) It is also disguised in fartrtdg* trnd judge (judSeem}.

16. I<de (Lat Icnlns, ellns, uliis), which appears also as oel and wtik,
a diminutive, as in —

Article (a little joint). Particle. Beceptada Yersicle.
Parcel (tMrticdla), Morsel (from mordeOf I bite).

Damsel {dominieeUa, a little lady).

(i) The ending is disguised in rule (reguta), ottrbuncle(ttom carbo, a ooal)i vncZe
{avunculus), and veeeel (firom vae).
(H) Parcel and particle are doublets.

17. Ine or In (Lat Inns) related to, as in —

Libertine* Cousin.

(i) Cmui/n is a contraction — throdf^ French-Hif the Latin torudbrimu,
the child of a mother's sister.

(ii) The ending is disguised in pUgrim, firom peregriwue i- tnm per agree,
throuj^ the fields.

18. Ion (Lat. i0nem), which appears also as tton, slon, and, from
French, as son, som, denotes an aetion, as in —

SUFFIXSS. 137

Action. Opinioii. PositieDL VacatMO.

Potion. Poison. Benediction. Benison.

Bedemption. Banaom. Malediction. Malison.

(i) FoHon, poiton, and the thxee other pain are donblets — the first having
come throogh the door of books straight from the Latin, the second through
the month and ear, from French.

(ii) Venison (hunt«A flesh, tram senoNofMSiX tmu^n (mMomss tha sowing
timeX belong to the aboye set.

19. Itatt (Lat. mentam) denotea an iBstnuiMftt w an aet, as in—
Docomentw Imrtmment. Monament^ Ornament.

(i) It combines easily with English words to make hybrids, as tUonunent,
aeienowledgmentf beuntehtneTU, fulJUment,

20. Mony (Lat^ numium) makes abstract nouns,
Acrimony. Matrimony. Sanctimony. Testimony.

21. Oon or on (Fr. on ; ItaL one), an augmentatiye, as in —

Balloon. Cartoon. Bassoon. Saloon.

Flagon. Million. Pennon. Medallion.

Squadron. Galleon. Trombone. Yiolone.

0) Angmentati ves are the opposite of diminutives. Contrast baUoon and haUot :
fftMeon and gailiot (a small galley).

(ii) A baUoon is a large ball ; a cartoon a big carte ; a Ixusoon a large bass in«
stmment ; a scUoon a large hall (salU); flagon (O. Fr. jlascon), a large flask ; mUiion
a big thousand (mille) ; pennon, a large pen or feather ; galleon, a large galley; trom
hone, a large trump-et; vioUms, a double-bass vioL

22. Ory, (Lat orlum), which appears also as or, our, and or, and
denotes plaoo, as in —

Auditory. Dormitory. Bef^tory. Lavatory.

Mirror. Parlour. Dormer. Manger.

(I) Mirror is contracted by the French firom miratorium; parlour firom par-
hUorium; manger from manducatorittm=the eating-place. Dormer is short
for dormitory, from dormitoriwn.

28. Our (Latk or ; ¥r, enr), forms abstnust or oollectlTO nouns, as
in —

Ardour. Olamour. Honour. Savour.

(Q The ending resumes its French form in grandeur,
01) It forms a hybrid in heiha/viowr,

24. Or or our (Lat orem ; Fr. eur) denotes an agent, as in —
Actor. Governor. Emperor. Saviour.

(I) This ending is disguised in interpreter, labouror, preacher, etc

(il) A large number of nouns which used to end la our or or, took er through
the influanoe of the JiatirU>^ Bofllx er. They were "attracted "into that frain.

138 GSAMMAB OF THE SNQUSH LAKGXTAGJE.

25. T (Lat. tu— tlie ending of the past participle) indicates a comidetad
aety as in —

Act Fact. Joint. Suit.

(i) The t in Latin lias the eame origin and performs the same fonction as the d
in Bnglish (as in dead, finuked, and otiier past participles, etc.)

Oi) The ending is disguised in JkcUy which is a doublet of fact, in firwU (Lat.
/rwat-M$), con^ i=eon/eet), eounUrftU (^contrajiiet-um).

26. Ter (Lat ter) denotes a penon, as in —

Master (contracted from moffUUr), Minister.

(i) Magister comes from magigf more, which contains the root of magntu, great ;
miniiter fit>m minui, less.

27. Tery (Lat. tednm) denotes oondltioii, as in—

Mastery. Ministry.

28. Trlx (Lat. trlx) denotes a female agent, as in—

Executrix. Improyisatrix. Testatrix.

(i) This ending is disguised in Mnptvfs (Tr. impinUriee from Lat iimp6Tatria\!
and in nurse (Fr. neurrieet Lat. nuCrte).

29. Tade (Lat. tudo), denotes condition, as in—

Altituda Beatitude. Fortitude. Multitude,

(i) In eiutom, from Lat eoneuaudinemt the ending is disguised.

80. Ty (Lat. tatem ; Fr. t^ makes abstract nouns, as in —

Bounty. Charity. CJruelty. Poverty.

Captivity. Frailly. Feally. Vanity.

(i) Bounty (bonU), poverty (pauvreti), frailty, and featty come, not directly
from Latin, hut through French.

81. Ure (Lat nra) denotes an action, or the result of an action, as

in —

Aperture. Cincture. Measure. Picture.

82. T (Lat la ; Fr. ie) denotes oondition or faculty, as in —
Company. Family. Fury. Victory.

(i) This suffix unites easily with Bnglish words in «r— as bcUkery, fishery, rob'
bery, etc
(ii) It stands for Lat ium in ati^ncry, remedy, study, tvbtidy, etc.
(iii) It represents the Lat ending atus in attorney, deputy, etc.

24. The Latin (or French) suffixes employed in our language
to make Adjectives are very useful The following are tlie
chief

Iiatin Suffixes for ^-djectives.

1. Aoeoiu (Lat aoena) = made of, as in—

AiigiUaceous (dayey). Farinaceous {fiowry\

SXJFFIXSS. 139

2. Al (Lat IllB) = Mtonglng to, as in—

Legal BegaL LojtH Royal

(i) LoyaZ and royal are the same words as legal and regal; bat, In passing
through French, the hard g haa been refined into a y.

3. An, ane, or aln (Lat. anna and aneiu) = connected wltli, as in —

Certain. "ELuman {homo). Humane. Td^g&a {pagusy h

district).

(i) Thiu ending disguises itself in mizzen (medianut); in scrivener (L.*Lat
scribantis) ; and in sexton (contracted fiom sacristan),

(ii) In champaign (Uvet), and foreign (foraneus)^ thia ending greatly disguises
itsiBlf. In strange (fixtraneiu), still more. All have been strongly influenced in
their passage through the French.

4. Ant^ ent (Lat. antem, entem, ace. of pres. part), as iii^

Current (currOf I run). Distant. President. Discordant.

5. Ar (Lat. firls) which appears also as er = belonging to, as in— ^
Regular. Singular. Secular. Scholar.

(i) Scholar Was originally an ac^ective form, but we now use sehdarly as the
adjective.

6. Ary (Lat. ftrlns), which also takes the secondary formations of
arlons and axlan = belonging to, as in —

Contrary. Necessary. Gregarious. Agrarian.

7. Atic (Lat. fttldu) = belonging to, as in —

Aquatic. Fanatic {fcmum). Lunatia

8. Able, ible, ble (Lat ftbUis, dbUls, IblUs) = capable of being,
as in —

Amiable. Culpable. Flexible. Movable.

(i) Feeble (Lat flebiUs, worthy of being wept over)^ comes to us through the
O. Fr. flotble,

(U) This suffix unites easily with.Eng^ish roots to form hybrids, like eatabU,
drinkable, teachable, gvUible, Carlyle has also doable.

9. Fie, ble (Lat plez, from plico, I fold) = the English suffix—fold,

as in —

Simple ( = onefold). Double. Triple. Trebla

10. BB<iae (Lat Isciu ; Fr. esque) = partaking of, as in—

Burlesqua Grotesque {groUo), Picturesque.

(i) This ending is disguised in morris (dance)= Moreseo (or Moorish), The
O.E. patrial ending isc is disguised in French (=Frencisc), etc

11. Ic (Lat. Icu8)= belonging to, as in —
Gigantic. Metallic. Public (populus). Rustic.

(i) This ending is disguised in indigo (trcm Indicia) [colour] s(;ie Indian
colour.)

140 GTlAMMATt OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

12. Id (Lat Uiu) » liaTlnc tbe qoaUty of; as in —

Add. Frigid. Limpid. Morbid.

13. He, U (LaiL iHs), often used as t^pcutive suffix, as in —

Dodle. Fragile. Mobile. CiyiL

(I) Fragile, in pMslng through French, lost the p— which was alwayv Aord-^
and became yVuU

(ii) The suffix iU Is disguised in gentle and nibtU.

(iii) Gentile, genOe, and ^cnteeZ, are all different forms of the same word.

(It) The suffix He has often a depreciatory sense as in puerile, infantile^
and servile (c/ iek),

14. Ine (Lat Xnus) = belonging to, as in —

Canine. Crystalline. Divine. Saline

(i) In marine, the ending, by passing through French, has acquired a French
pronunciation.

15. lye (Lat. Itiu) = indined to, as in —

Abusive. Active. Fugitive Flaintiva

(i) This ending appears also as if, by passing through French, as in eaUif
(s captivus); and in the nouns plaintiff and haUiff,

Oi) It also disguises itself as a y in hasty, joUy, testy, which in O. Fr. were
hastff,Jollif, testifi^ heady),

(Ui) It unites with the Buglish word tdtk to form the hybrid taOMMw.

16. Lent (Lat lentns) = full of, as in-

Corpulent. Fraudulent. Opulent (opts). Violent {vi»)»

17. Ory (Lat Oxlas) ^ ftill o^ as in —

Amatory. Admonitory. Illusory.

18. Ose, one (Lat Osob) = fall of, as in —

Bellicose. Grandiose. Verbose. Curious,

(i) The form in oue has been inliuenced by the Vreath ending emk

19. Ons (Lat us) = belonging to, as in —

Anxious. Assiduous. Ingenuous. Omnivorous.

(i) It unites with Bnglish words to form hybrids like ravencnu, boietennu
(which is a lengthened form of the Bf . E. boietous, from "boitt, noise).

20. Und (Lat undns) ~ ftill of, as in —

Jocund. Moribxmd. Botund.

(i) Botund has been shortened into round. Second is, through French, from
Lat. secimdtu (from eequor, I follow)— the number that foUowe the first Ventue
eeetmdue is a favourable wind, or a "wind ihatfoUowe iSut**

(ii) This ending is slightly modified in veigaboni and eeeond,

21. Uloiu (Lat IUob) = fall of, as in-«

Querulous (full of complaint). Sedulous.

SUFFIXBI. 141

25i The following are the chief

Iiatin Suffixes for Verba

1. Ate (Latb atum, supine), as in —

Complicate. Dilate. Relate. Supplicate.

(i) Amuainate (from the Arabic Juukiah, a preparation of Indian hemp, whow
affects are similar to those of opinin) is a hybrid.

2. Esce (Lat. esco), an Inoeptlve suffix, as in —

Coalesce (to begin to grow together). Effervesce (to begin to boil up. )

& Ty (Lat. fXoo ; Fr. fie— from Lat. faeio)szto make, as in—
Beautify. Magnify. Signify.

i. Wl (connected with Lat. e8Co)=to make, as in —

Admonish. Establish. Finish. Nourish.

6. Ete, Ite, t (Lat. Itum, etum, torn), with an active function, as in—
Completei Delete. Expedite. Connects

26l The sufi&xes which the English language has adopted
from Greek are not numerous ; but some of them are very useful
Most of them are employed to make nouns. The following are
the chief

Greek Suffixes.

1. T (Gr. la), makes abstract nouns, as in —

Melancholy. Monarchy. Necremancy. Philosophy.

<i) Fancy is a eoinpieesed form of phaatai^ (plumtasia » imagination^
(11) In dyspepsia and hydrophobia we get the Greek suffix unchanged.

2. lo (Or. tic(^y)=belanglTig to, as in —

Aromatic Barbaria Frantia Qraphia

Arithmetic. Schismatic. Logic. Musia

(I) With the addltien of the Latin alis, adjectiyes are formed ftem some c4
these words, as logical, MUJieal, etc.

Oi) The plural form of ^some adjectives also makes nouns of them, as in pcUtios,
ethics, physics. In Ireland we find also logics.

Oii) AriihmeHc, logic, and mutie are firom Greek nouns ending in HO.

8. 81« (Or. 0't9)-acttoii, as in —

Analysis. Emphasis. Qenesis. Synthesis.

di) In the foUowing words sis has heeome «y, as hypocrisy, poesy, poky (short
UftpcmiJysis\
(ii) In tha following the if has dropped away altogether— ett^M, pham.

142 GBAMMA& OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

4. Ma or m (Gr. /jm), pasilTtt suffix, as in—

Diorama. Dogma. "Dmntk {iomething done). Schism.

Baptism. Barbarism. Despotism. Egotism.

(i) In diadem and system the a Yum dropped off; in scheme and fkems it has
been changed into an e.

(ii) Sehiem comes from sAigo, I cut. The ending in ismos is ruwt frequent

(iii) This ending unites freely with Latin words to form hyhrids, as in dMiM^
mannerism, pwrism, provinddlism, vulgarism, etc

5. 8t (Gr. <m|;f)— agent, as in —

Baptist. Botanistb loonoolast (image-breaker).

(i) This Bufilx has become a Tory nseftal one, and is largely employed. It fonnt
nomeroos hybrids with words of Latin origin, as abolitionist, exewtiowlst, sduca
tionist, journaUst, protesHonist, jwrist, sooialtst, ^pedahsi, royeUut

6. T or te (Gr. -nys) = agent, as in —

Comet. Planetw Poet. Apostate.

(i) Comet means a long-haired star; pUmet, a wanderer; poet, a maker (in
Northern English poets called themselves ** Makkers '); an apostate, a persiw
who has /aUen avrny,

f'ii) There is a kindred ending ot, also, meaning agent or denoting a title
(Ok. tsTiff ). as in idiot, patriot, zealot,

7. Ter or tre (Gr. rpoy), denotes an inatmment or idacei as in —

Metre. Centre. Theatre.

8. Uk (Gr. lorjces), a dimlnntlye, as in —

Asterisk (a little star). Obelisk (a small spit).

9. lie or Ise (Gr. iM makes fsxstltiTe verbs, as in —

Baptise. Criticise. Judaize. Anglicise

(i) This ending combines with Latin words to form the hybrid* mMmiee
«oa/i«e. etc.

1*3

WORD - BRANOHINO.

•

Whbn our language was young and uninfluenced by othei

languages, it had the power of growing words. These words,

like plants, grew from a root; and

all the words that grew from the 6ame g|

root had a family likeness. Thus

bym-an, the old word for to hum,

gave us brimstone, brown (which is

the burnt colour), brunt» brand,

brandy, and brindle. These we

might represent to ourselves, on the g

blackboard, as growing in this way. £

But, unfortunately, we soon lost this
power. From the time when the Nor-
mans came into this country in 1066, the language became less
and less capable of growing its own words. Instead of produc-
ing a new word, we fell into the habit of simply taking an old
and ready-made word from French, or from Latin, or from
Greek, and giving it a place in the language. Instead of the
Old English word fairhood, we imported the French word
beauty ; instead of forewit» we adopted the Latin word cau-
tion ; instead of licherest, we took the Greek word oemetery.
And so it came about that in course of time we lost the power
of growing our own new word& The Greek word asterisk
has prevented our making the word starkin ; the Greek name
astronomy has kept out star-oraft ; the Latin word omnibus
has stopped our even thinking of folkwain; and the name
vooabulary is much more familiar to our ears than word-
hoard. Indeed, so strange have some of our own native

144

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

English words become to us, that sentences composed entirely
of English words are hardly intelligible; and, to make them
quickly intelligible, we have to translate some of the English
words into Greek or into Latin. It is well, however, for us to
become acquainted with those pure English words which grew
upon our own native roots, and which owe nothing whatever
to other languages. For they are the purest, the simplest, the
most homely and the most genuine part of our language ; and
from them we can get a much better idea of what our language
once was than we can from its present veiy mixed condition.
The following are the most important

ENGLISH ROOTS AND BRANCHES (OR DERIVATIONS).

Ac, an oak— Acton, Uckfleld.

Bac-an, to bake— baker, bazter i (a wonum
baker), batch.

Ban-a» a slayer— bane, baneftil ; ratsbane,
henbane.

Bead-aii, to pray — bedesman ; beadle;
bead (" to bid one's beads " was to say
one's prayers ; and these were marked
off by small round balls of wood or glass
—now called heads — strong upon a
string) ; >brbid.

Beat-an, to strike — beat, bat (a short
cndgel) r battle ; beetle (a wooden bat
for beating clothes with); batter (a kind
of pudding).

Beorg-an, to shelter— burrow, bury (noun
in Canterbury — and verb) ; burgh,
burgher ; burglar (a house-robber) ; har>
bour, Cold Harbour ; s harbinger (a per-
son sent on in front to procure lodg-
ings) ; borrow (to raise money on ieeur-

B6r-an, to bear— bear, bier, bairn ; birth,

berth; brood, brother, breed, bird;l

burden; barrow.
B^an, to make good— better, best ; boot

(In "to boot-«"to the good"), boot

less.
Btnd-an, to bind— band, bond, bondage

bundle ; woodbine ; binduwed.
Bit-an, to bite— bit ; beetle; bait ; bitten
Bla'w-an, to puff— bladder, blain (chil*

blain), blast, blaze (to proclaimX blazoi

(a proclamation), blare (of a trumpet);

blister ; blot, bloat.
Blow-an, to Uossom— blow (said of flow-

en); bloom, blossom; blood, blade;

blowsy.
Breo-an, to break— break, breakers ; brakes

bracken; breach, brick: break -/ut;

brook (=the water which breaks up

through the ground) ; brittle (=brickle

or breakable); bray (where the hard

guttural has been absorbed).
Braow-an, to brew— brew, brewer; broth,

brose; bread (perhaps).

1 Compare breweter, a woman brewer, apUuteTf wibster, and others. Brewrter, BaaBter^
and WthUer are now only used as proper names.

s Cold Harbour was the name given to an inn which provided merely shelter without
provisions. There are numerous places of this name in England. Many of them stand
on the great Roman roads ; and they were chiefly the ruins of Roman villas used by
travellers who carried their own bedding and provisions. Bee Isaac niylor's ' Words
and Places,' p. 256.

s Brid or bird was originally the young of any animal

WORD-BEANCHING.

145

Bng-an, to bend— bow, elbow ;i bough;
bight ; buxom (O.B. bocsmn, flexible or
obedient). The hard g in bugan appears
as a w in bow, as a gh in hough, as a 7
in hay, as a k in htuBom=huk-»om,

Bym-an, to bum— bnm, brown; brunt,
brimstone ; brand, brandy ; brindled.

Catt, a cat— catkin; kitten, kitling; cater-
pillar (the hairy cat, from Lai pUosus,
hairy), caterwaul.

Ceapi-an, to buy — cheap, cheapen; chop
(to exchange) ; a chopping sea ; chap,
chapman; chaffer; Eastcheap, C!heap-
side, Clhepstow (=the market stow or
place), Clhippenham.3

Cenn-an, to produce— kin, kind, kindred ;
kindly; kindle.

Ceow*aii, to chew— chew ; cheek ; Jaw
(=chaw); jowl; chaw-Zxuxm/ cud(Bthe
chewed). Compare sedhe and suds.

deoT-an, to split— cleave, cleaver ; cleft ;
clover (split grass).

Clifi-an,to stick to— cleave; clip (for keep-
ing papers together) ; claw (by which a
bird cleaves to a tree) ; clew (or clue),
original meaning " a mass of thread."

Dnilw-an, to know— ken, know(=ken-ow
— ow being a dim.) ; knowledge.

Cnotta, a knot— knot, knit, net (the k
having be^n dropped for the eye, as well
as for the ear).

Cimn-an, to know or to be able— can, con ;
cunning; uncouth.

(Tweth-an, to say— quoth ; bequeath.

CNric, alive— quick, quicken; quickset;
quick2im«; quicksilver; to eiU to the
quick.

Ditol-aii« to divide— deal (verb and noun),
dole ; dale, dell (the original sense bein^
eUJt, or 8epflrated).

Dem-an, to Judge — deem, doom ; demp-
ster (the name for a judge in the Isle of
Man) ; doomsday ; kingdom.

Deor, dear— dearth ; darling ; endear.

D6an, to act— do ; don, doff, dup (=do
up or op-en) ; dout ( = do out or put out) ;
deed. Compare mow, mead; sow, seed.

Drag-an, to draw — drag, draw, dray

(three forms of the same word) ; draft

(draught) ; drain ; dredge ; draggle ;

drawl.
Drif-an, to push— drive; drove; drift,

adrift.
Drige, dry— dry (verh and adj.) ; drought ;

drugs (originally dried jilants),
Drinc-an, to soak— drink; drench (to

make to drink). Compare sit, set ; fall,

fell, etc.
Drip-an, to drip — drip, drop, droop;

dribble, driblet
Dug-an, to be good for— do (in "How

do you do?" and "That will do")>5

doughty.
"EAc, also— eke (verb and adv.) ; ekename

(which became a nicknaiM ; the n hav-
ing dropped from the article and clung

to the noun).
EAge, eye— Egbert {^hright-eyed); dais]^

(= day's eye) ; window (= wind-eye).
Ezi-an, to plough — ear (the old word foi

plough) ; earth (= the ploughedX
Far-an, to go or travel — far, fare ; welfare,

fieldfare, thoroughfare ; ferry : ford.
Feng- an, to catch— fang, finger, new-

Ikngled (catching eagerly after new

things).
Fe6wer, four— farthing ; firkin ; fourteen ;

forty.
Fle6g-an, to flee— fly, flight; flea; fledged.
Fle<St-an, to float — fleet (noun, verb, and

adj.); float; ice-floe; afloat ^ flotsam*

(fhings found floating on the water ajtw

a wrtiXy.
F6d-a, food— feed; food, fodder, foster;

fkth-er; forage (»>fodderageX forager;

foray (an excursion to get food).
Fre<$n, to love— freond= friend (the pres.

part.) a lover ; Fri-day (the day of Friya,

the goddess of love) ; fHendship, etc.
Gal-an, to sing— gale, yell ; nightingale.^
Gaag-aa, to go — gang, gangway; ago.

(The words gaJU and gait do not come

fjrom this verb, but from get.)
C^nag-an, to bite— gnaw (the g has be-

1 Elbows ell-bow. The ell was the forepart of the arm.

3 The same root is found in the Scotch Ki-pptfi^ and the Danish CioiTen^enB Mer-
chants' Haven.

s " Flotaam and jetaam ** mean the floating things and the things thrown over-
board from a ship. Jetaam comes from Old Fr. jetter, to throw. (Hence also "Jet of
water" ; jetty, etc. Jetaua is a hybrid— eom being a Scandinavian suffix.

4 The n in nightingali» is no part of the word. It is intrusive and non-organic ; as
tt also is in poMtngtr, meseenffer, porHnyer, etc.

146

ORAMMAB OF THE SNGUSH LANGUAGE.

come a to) ; gnat ; nag (to tease); con-
nected with naiL

Onf-an, to dig or cut— grave, groove,
grove (the original seme was a lane cut
through trees) ; graft, engraft ; engrave,
engraver ; carve (which is another form
of the verb graTo).

Orlp-an, to seise — grip, gripe; grasp;
grab; grope.

Gyrd-an, to surround— gird, girdle ; gar-
den, yard, vineyard, hopyard.

Hael-an, to heal — hale; holy, hallow.
All - hallows ; health ; hail ; whole,i
wholesome ; wassail (sWaes h41 l^ss Be
whole I)

Hebb-an, to raise— heave, heave-offering;
heavy (^that requires much heaving);
heaven.

Hlaf; bread— loaf ; lord (hlaford s loaf-
ward) ; lady (= hlaf-dlge, fh)m dig-an, to
knead) ; Lammas (= Loaf-mass, Aug. 1 ;
a loaf was offered on this day as the
offering of the first-fhiits).

Iie4c, a leek— house-leek ; garlic; hem-
lock.

Licg-an, to lie — lie; lay, layer; lair;
outlay.

Loda, a guide — ^lead (the verb) ; lode-star,
lode-stone (also written loadstone).

Mag-an, to be able— may, main (in "might
and main **), might, mighty.

ICang, a mixture — a-mong ; mongrel;
mingle; cheesemonger.

Kaw-an, to cut— mow ; math, aftermath ;
mead, meadow (the places where grass is
mowed).

Mdn-a, the moon — month; moonshine.
(This word comes fh)m a very old root,
ma, to measure. Our Saxon forefathers
measured by moons and by nightSj as
we see in the words fortnightf s^^nnight.)

KaeddrS, a snake — adder. The n has
dropped off from the word, and has ad-
hered to the article. Compare apron,
fh)m napexvn (compare with napkin^
napery) ; umpi9, fi^ni numpire. The
opposite example of the n leaving the
article and adhering to the noun, is
found in newt, from an eft; nickname
trom an ekename.

Nosu, a nose— nose, naze, ness (all three
different forms of the same word, and

found in the Naze, Sheemess, etc.);
nostril s nose-thirl (from t/iirJion, to
bore a hole), nozzle ; nosegay.

Penn-an. to shut up or enclose— pen, pin
(two forms of the same word) ; pound,
pond (two forms of the same word);
impound.

Pic, a point— pike, peak (two forms of the
same word) ; pickets (stakes driven into
the ground to tether horses to); pike,
pickerel (the fish) ; peck, pecker.

BAed-an, to read or guess— rede (advice) ;
riddle; Ethelred (= noble in counsel);
Unready (sUnrede, without counsel);
Mildred (=mild in counselX

KeAf, clothing, spoil ; reafl-an, to rob— rob^
robber; reave, bereave; reever; robe.

Ripe, ripe— reap (to gather what is ripe).

Scad-an, to divide — shed (to part the
hair); watershed.

Sceap-an, to form or feushion— shape ; ship
(the suffix in firiendshipt etc.); scape
(the suffix in landscape, etc.)

Sce6t-an, to throw — shoot, shot, shut
(=to shoot the bolt of the door) ; sheet
(that which is Gtroum over a bed) ; shut*
ter, shuttle ; scud.

Bcer-an, to cut— shear, share, sheer, shire,
shore (all forms of the same word) ; scar,
scare; score (the twentieth notch in
the tally, and made larger than the
others); scarify, sharp; short, shirt,
skirt (three forms of the same word);
shred, polsherd (the same word, with
the r transposed) ; sheriff (=scir-ger6fo,
reeve of the shire) ; scrip, scrap, scrape.
The soft form ah belongs to the southern
English dialects : the bard forms, sc and
sk, to the northern.

Scuf-aa, to push— shove, shovel, shuffle ;
scuffie; sheaf; scoop.

Sett-aa, to set, or make sit— set, seat;
settle, saddle ; Somerset, Dorset.

Slag-an, to strike— slay (the bard g has
been refined into a y), slaughter ; slog,
sledge (in sledge-hammer).

Slii>-an, to slip— slop ; slipper, sleeve (into
which the arm is slipped).

Snic-an, to crawl — sneak, snake, snail
(here the hard guttural has been refined
away).

Spell, a story or message— spell (=s to give

1 The w in whole is intrusive and non-oiganic, as in whoopf and In wun (=one, so
pronounced, but not so written). Before the year 1500 whole was always written hole ;
and in this form it is seen to be a doublet of haU. Hc^i Is simply hole-\-y.

WORD-BRANCHING.

147

an scconnt of or tell the story of the !
letters in a word) ; spell-boimd ; g08i>el |
(s God's spell). .

Stearc, stiff— stark; strong (a nasalised
form of stark); string (that which is
strongly twisted) ; strength ; strangle.

Stede, a place — stead, instead, homestead,
flurm-steading ; steady; steadiiast; be-
stead; Hampstead.

Stie^i-aa, to stick— stick, stitch (two forms
of the same word), stake, stock, stock-
ade ; stock-dove ; stock-fish {dah dried
to keep in <tocfc) ; stock-still.

Stig-an, to dimb— stair; stile; stirrup
(s stigrdp, or rope for rising into the
saddle) ; sty (in pig-sty).

Stow, a place— bestow ; stowage, stowa-
way; Chepstow (- the place where a
cheap or market is held); Bristol (the \,
1 and w being interchangeable).

St;fr-an, to direct— steer, stem ; steerage.

Sundri-an, to part — sunder; sundry;
asunder. (Compare sever and several.)

Sweri-an, to declare— swear, answer (=
andswerian, to declare in opixwition or
in reply to), forswear.

Taec-an, to show — teach, teacher; token
(that which is shown); taught (when
the hard o reappears as a gh).

Tell-an, to count or recount— tell ; tale,^
talk ; toll ; teller.

Teoh-an (or te^n), to draw— tow, tug
(two forms of the same word, the hard
guttural having been preserved in the
one) ; wanton (= without right upbring-
ing). (Compare wanhope » despair;
wantmst = mistrust.

Thaec, a roof— thatch ; deck.

Tred-an, to walk— tread, treadle; trade;
tradesman, trade-wind.

Truwa, good faith— true, truth, troth, be-
troth.

TwA, two — two, twin, twain ; twelve (=c
two-f Zi/, " remainingover "); twenty; be-
tween ; twig ; twiddle ; twine, twist, etc.

Waci-an, to be on one's guard— wake,
watch (two forms of the same word) ;
awake, wakeful.

Wad-an, to go — wade ; waddle ; Watling
Street (the road of the pilgrims). The
Eng. word wade is of the same origin as
the Lat. vade in evade^ invade, etc

Wana, a deficiency — wan, wane; want,
wanton ; wanhope (the old word for
despair),

Wef-an, to weave— weave, weaver; web,
Webster (a woman-weaver) ; cobweb ;
woof, weft (v, b, and f, being all labials).

War, hostility (the French guerre substi*
tales gu for w) — warrior, warfare.

Weard, a guai-ding — wary, aware; ward,
guanl (a Norman-French doublet of
ward); warden, gn^rdian (the same).

Wit-an, to know— wit, to wit ; wise, wis-
dom ; wistful ; witness ; Witena-gemote
(= the Meeting of the Wise) ; y-wis (the
•psLSt participle, wrongly written I wis).

Wraest-an, to wrest — wrest, wrestle;
wrist.

Wring-an, to force— wring, wrong (that
which is wrung out of the right course).

"Wyrc-an, to work— work, wright (the r
shifts its placeX

"Wyrt, a herb or plant— wort ; orchard (=
wort -yard); wart (on the skin); St
John's worty etc

LATIN ROOTS.

Those words with (F.) after tliem have not come to us directly flrom Latin ;

but, indirectly, through French.

Acer (acris), sharp; acrid, acrimony, vine-
gar (sharp wine, F,\ eager (F.)

.£dea, a building ; edifice, edify.

JBqauB, eQUoZ; equality, equator, equi-
nox, equity, adequate, iniquity.

Ager, a JUld; agriculture, agrarian, pere-
grinate.

Ago (actum), I do, act; act, agent, agile,

agitate, cogent.
Alo, I nourish; aliment, alimony.
Alter, the other of ttoo ; alternation, sub*

altem, altercation.
AltoB, high; altitude, exalt, alto (ItX

altar.

1 " And every shepherd tells his tale (= counts his sheep)
Under the hawthorn in the dale"— Mii/rov : V Allegro,

148

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Ambnlo, I walk; amble (F.), perambaUtor.

AmOi I love; amity, amorous, amiablu
(F.), Inimical.

AnguloB, a comer; angle, triangle, quad-
rangle.

Anima, llfi ; animal, aoimata, animation.

A2iimua, mind; magnanimity, equan-
imity, unanimous, animadvert.

Annua, a year ; annual, perennial, bien-
nial, anniversary.

Aperio (apertum), I open ; aperient, aper*
ture, April (the opening month).

Appello, I caU; appellation, appelUnt;
peal (of bells), appeal (F.)

Aqua, •water; aqueduct, aquatic, aqueous,
aquarium.

Arena, a "bow; arch, arc, arcade (Fr. It.)

Ardeo, I "burn; aordent, ardour, arson
(F.)

An (artisX art; artist, artisan (F.X arti-
fice, inert.

Audio, I hear; audience, audible, audi-
tory.

Augeo (auctumX I ImoreoH; augment,
author, auctioneer.

Barba, a heard ; barb, barber, barbel (all
through F.)

B«llu2n, war; rebel, rebellious, bellig-
erent, bellicose.

Bis, twice; biscuit, bissextile, bisect,
bicycle.

Brerls, short; brevity, abbreviate, brief
(F.), breviary, abridge (F.)

Cado(casum). IfaU; casual, accident.

Cssdo (ceesum), I cut, kiU; precise, exci-
sion, decide.

Candeo, / shine; candiduB, white; can-
did, candidate, candle.

Cano (cantum), I Hng; cant, canticle,
chant (F.), incantation.

Capio (captum), I take; captive, accept,
reception (F.), capacity.

Caput, the head; capital, captain, cape,
chapter (F.)

Caro (camis), fiesh; carnal, carnival, car-
nivorous, carnation.

CSansa, a coMse; causative, accuse (F.X
excuse (F.)

Garua, hollow; cavity, cave, excavate,
concave.

Cedo (cesBum), I go^ yield; proceed (F.),
ancestor (F.X secede.

Cemtruxn (Gr. «vTpoi' = a pointX ttintre;
centralise, centripetal, eccentric.

Centum, a hundred; century, centurion,
cent.

Cemo (cretum), to dwCinyuit^; diaeem,
discretion, discreet.

Cingo (cinctum), I gird; dnctore, suc-
cinct, precinct

Cito, I eaU or summon; citation, recite
(F.), excite (F.), incite (F.)

ClTia, a eUizen; city (F.)^ civic, civU, civ-
ilise, civilian.

Clamo, I MhotU; claim (F.), clamour, re-
claim (F.), proclamation.

Clarua, clear; clarify, declare; clarion,
claret (F.)

Claudo (clausum), I shut; clause, dloae
(F.), exclude, seclusion.

Clino, I bend; incline, decline, recline.

Ckdo (cultum), JtiU; cultivate, arboricul-
ture, agriculture.

Cor (cordisX the heart; courage (F.), cor-
dial (F.), discord, record.

Corona, a erown; coronet, coroner, coro-
nation, corolla.

ChnrpuB, tike body; coips, corpse <F.X cor-
pulent, corporation.

CJredo, I believe; credibility, credence (F.X
miscreant (F.), creed, creditor.

Creo, I create; create, creation, recrea-
tion, creature.

Cresco, / grow; increase, decrease (F.);
increment.

Cna. (crucisX a cross; crucial, crudfix,
cruise (F.)

Cubo, / lie down; cubit, incubate, recum-
bent.

Culpa, a Jixult; culprit, culpable, excul-
pate, inculpate.

Coxa, cure; curate, curator, accurate,
secure, incurable.

ChiXTO (cursum), I rv^; current, recur,
excursion, cursory, course (F.X occur.

Decern, ten; decimal, December, deci-
mate.

Dena (dentis), a tooGi; dentist, dental,
indent, trident.

DeuB, God; deity, deifjr, divine.

Dieo (dictum), I say; verdict, dictionary,
dictation, indictment, ditto (Ital.)

Dies, a day : diary, diurnal, meridian.

Dignus, worthy; dignity, dignify, in-
dignant, deign (F.)

Do (datum), J give; date, data, dative,
dation (a law termX

Doceo (doctumX I teach; docile, doctor,
doctrine.

Dominua, a lord; dominion, dominant;
domineer, dame, damsel, madame
(all P.)

WORD-BRANCHINO.

149

Domns, a house; domeetlc, domicile.

Donnio, / sleep; dormitory; dormant,
dormer-window (both F.)

Dnco (dictum), / Uad; induct, educa-
tion, duke(F.X produce.

Duo, ttoo; dual, duel, duplex, double (F.)

£mo (emptumX / ^y; exemption, re-
deem (F.)

BiO (itum), I go; exit, transit, circuit(F.),
ambition, perish (F.)

Erro, / ivander; err, error, aberration.

"Fadmjaface; facial, |acet(F.)> superficial.

Faclo, (faetumX I make; manufacture,
fiictor, fitction, Cushion (F.), feature
(F.Xflict,feat(F.)

Fero (latum), I carry ; infer, suffer, refer-
ence, difference ; relative, correlative.

Vido, I trust; confide, dilfident, infidel (F.)

FUun, a thread; file, defile, profile, fillet
(F.)

Finis, the end; finish (F.), finite, Infinite,
infinitive.

"Firrnxuitfirm; infirm, affirm, confirm.

Flecto(flexum), Ibend; inflect, inflection,
flexible.

Flos (floris), a JUnver; floral, flora, flori-
culture.

Flue (fluxumX / JUno : fluent, fluid, flux,
affluent.

Folium, a let^; foliage, foil(F.), portfolio,
trefoil (F.)

Forma, a form; form, formal, reform,
conformity.

"FoadAn, strong ; fortify, fortitude, fortress,
force (F.)

Frango (fractns), I hreak; firagile (F.),
fragmentary, infhtction, infringe.

Frater, a "brother; fraternal, firatricide,
fHar (F.)

Frona, (Crontis), the forehead; front,
flrontal, frontier, firontispiece.

Fiigio,//fe; ftigitive, refugee(F.), subter-
fuge.

Fnndo (fusum), I powr: fount, foundry
(F.) ; ftisible, diflhsion.

Fondoa, ^"bottom; foundation, profound,
founder (aUF.)

Gens (gentis), a race, people; gentile,
genteel, gentle (all F.) ; congenial.

Gero (geatumX I hear, carry; gesture,
suggestion, indigestion.

Gxadus, a step; gradior (gressus), I go;
grade, degrade, graduate; progress (F.),
gradient.

Gratia, /avoKT, pL ^uxnks; gratitude, in-
gratiate, gratis-

Gravis, heavy ; grave, gravity, grief (F.),
aggrieve (F.)

Hab60(habitum), / have; habit, able (F.X
exhibit, prohibition.

Hosreo (hsesumX I stick ; adhere, adhere
ent, cohesion.

Homo, a vum; homicide, homage (F.X
human, humane.

Ignis, ;lre; ignite, igneous.

Impero, leommand; imperative, imperial ;
empire, emperor (both F.)

Initium, a beginning; initate, initiaL

Insnla, anidand; isle, insular, peninsula.

Jacio (jectum), / throw ; adjective, pro-
ject, injection, object, subject.

Judex O'udicis), a judge; Judgment (F.),
Judicial.

Jungo(junetum), I join; Junction, Junc-
ture, coi^join (F.), adjunct.

Jus (juris), right: Justice (F.), Jury (F.X
injury.

Labor (lapsus), / glide; lapse, relapse,
collapse.

Lapis (lapidis), a stone; lapidary, dilapi-
dated.

Laus(laudis), praise; laud, laudable, laud-
ation, allow (F.)

Lego O^ctum), / gaOterf read; collect,
elector, select; lecture (F.X legend,
legible.

Lego (legatnm), / send; l^ate, delegate,
legacy.

Levis, light; levity, alleviate; relief;
lever, leaven (all F.)

Lex G^gls), a law; legal, legislate, legiti-
mate.

Liber, yViee; liberal, liberty, libertine.

Liber, a hook; library, librarian.

Ligo, / hind; ligament, religion, oblige
(P.), liable (F.)

Linquo(lictum), I leave; relinquish, relict,
relics (P.)

Litera, a letter; literal, literary, litera-
ture.

Locus, a place; local, allocate, dislocate,
locomotive.

Loquor (locutus), / speak; loquacious,
elocution, colloquy.

Ludo(lusum), I play; elude, illusion, in-
terlude, ludicrous.

Lumen, light; illuminate, luminous, lum-
inary.

Luna, the moon; lunar, sublunary. Inn
acy.

Luo (lutum), I wash ; ablution, dilute,
antediluvian.

150

GRAMMAR OF THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE.

Lvz (IucIb), light; lucid, elucidate, pel-
lucid.

Magnus, ifrecrf; magnitude, magnify, mag-
nifioent, magnanimous.

Malua, had ; malady, malice (F.); malaria,
malevolent.

Maneo (mansum), / remain; manse, man-
sion, permanent.

Manus, the hand; manuscript, manual,
manuflftcture, amanuensis.

Mare, the tea; marine, mariner, maritime.

Mater, a moVur; maternal, matricide,
matron, matriculate.

Matums, ripe; mature, immature, pre-
mature.

Medius, the middle; medium, mediate,
immediate, Mediterranean.

Msmixii, / remember; memor, mindftiX;
memory, memoir (F.), commemorate,
immemoriaL

Mens (mentis), fhe mind; mental, de-
mented.

Mergo (mersum), I dip; emerge, immer-
sion, emergency.

Merz (mercisX goode; merchandise (F.),
commerce (F.), merchant (F.)

Miles (milites), a eoldier; military, mili-
tant, militia.

Miror, I admire; admirable, miracle,
mirage (F.)

Mitto (missum), I tend; commit, missile,
mission, remittance.

Modus, a measure; mood (F.), modify,
accommodate.

Moneo (monitum), / adviee; monition,
monitor, monument.

Mons (montisX a mountain; amount (F.),
dismount (F.), promontory, ultramon-
tane.

Mors (mortisX death; mortify, mortal,
immortality.

Moveo (motum), I move; mobile (F),
promote, motor, motive.

Multus, many; multitude, multiple, mul-
tiply.

Munus (muneris), a gift; munificent, re-
munerate, municipal.

Muto, I change; mutable, transmute.

Nascor (natus), to be bom; nascent, natal,
nativity, nature.

NaTls, a ship; navy, naval, navigate,
nave (F.)

Necto (nexum), I tie; connect, connec-
tion, annex.

Nego (negatum), I deny; negative, nega-
tion, renegade (Sp.)

Noceo, I injure; noxious, innocuous, in-
nocent.

K omen, a name ; nominal, cognomen, no-
mination.

Novus, new; novel, renovate, novelty,
innovation.

Nox (noctis), night; nocturnal, equinoc-
tial, equinox.

Nudus, naked; nude, denude, denudation.

Numerus, a number; numeration, in-
numerable, enumerate.

Octo, eight ; octave, octagon, October.

Omnia, aU; omnibus, omnipotent, om-
niscient.

Opus (operis), tmtrk; operation, co-oper-
ate, opera.

Ordo (ordinis), order; ordinal, ordinary,
ordinance.

Oro, I pray ; oration, orator, peroration.

Pando (pansum or passum), I epread ; ex*
pand, expanse; compas8. pace(F.)

Pareo, / appear; appearance, apparent^
apparition.

Paro (paratum), I prepare; repair (P.),
apparatus, comparison (F.)

Pars (partis), a part ; particle, partition ;
partner, parcel (F.)

Pasco (pastum), I feed; pastor, repas^
pasture.

Pater, a fisOier; paternal, parricide (F.)
patrimony.

Patior (passus), I suffer; impatient, pas-
sive, passion.

Pax (pacis), peace; pacify, pacific.

Pello (pulsum), / drive; repel, expel, ex-
pulsion, impulsive.

Pmdeo (pensum), 1 hang; pendant, de*
pend, suspend, suspense, appendix.

Fes (pedis), the Jbot ; pedal, impede, ped-
estrian, biped.

Peto (petitum), I zuk; petition, petulant,
compete, appetite.

Planus, Uvd : plan, plane, plain, ex-
plain (all F.)

Plaudo (plausum), 1 dap the hands; ap-
plaud, plausible, explode (F.)

Pleo (pletum), I JUl ; complete, comple-
tion, supplement.

Plico (plicatum), I fold ; complicated, pli-
able(F.), reply (F.), dismay (F.), simple.

Poena, punishment: penal, repent, pen-
alty, penitent, penance (all F.)

Pono (positum), I place ; deponent, posi-
tion, imposition, post (F.)

Pons (pontis), a bridge; pontifi^ transpon-
tiue.

WORD-BRANCHING.

161

Porto, I carry/ export, deportment, re-
port, portmanteau (F.)

Possum, I am able ; poteng, able ; pos-
sible, potency (F.), impotent.

Prehendo (prchensum), (Fr. jprendre,
pris)f I take; prehensile, comprehend ;
apprise, comprise, apprentice (F.)

Primus, first; primary, primitive, prim-
rose (F.)

Probo, / try, prove ; probe, probable, im-
prove (F.), approve (F.)

PropriuB, one's own; proper, property
(F.) ; appropriation.

Pnngo (punctum), I prick ; pungent, ex-
punge ; punctual, poignant (F.)

Puto (putatum), I cut, think : compute,
count (F. ), amputate, reputation.

Quatuor,/our; quadra, a A^ttaie ; quart,
quarter, quarry (F.) ; quadrant.

Radix, a root; radical, eradicate, radish
(F.)

Bapio (raptum), I seize; raptiure, rapine
(F.), surreptitious.

Rego (rectum), I rule ; rex (regis), o king ;
regal, regulate, regent, rector, interreg-
num, royal (F.), realm (N.-Fr. rial).

Bideo (risum), I laugh; ridicule (F.), de-
ride, ridiculous (F.), risible.

Bogo (rogatum), I ask; rogation, interro-
gation, derogatory.

Bota, a wheel; rotary, rotation, rotund
— contracted into round (F.)

Bnmpo (ruptum), I break ; rupture, erup-
tion, disruption.

Sacer, sacred; sacrament, sacrilege (F.),
sacerdotal, sexton (contracted from
sacristan).

Salio (saltum), / leap; sally, assail, sal-
mon (all F.); salient.

SanctuB, holy ; sanctuary, sanctify, saint
(F.)

Scando (scansum), I climb; scala, a lad-
der; scan, scale, descent, ascension.

Scio, I know; science, scientific, con-
science, omniscient.

Scribo(scriptum), Itori/e; scribe, scrib-
ble, scripture, inscription, postscript.

Seco (sectum), / cut; bisect, dissect, in-
sect, section.

Sedeo (sessum), / set, sit ; sediment, sub-
side, see (F.), residence (F.), insidious.

Sentio, I/M ; sense, sensual, scent (F.) ;
sentiment.

Septem, seven; septennial, September.

Bequor (secutus), I follow ; sequence (F.),
sequel, consequent, prosecute.

Servio, I serve; service (F.), servant, ser-
geant (F.)

Signum, a sign; signify, significant, des-
ignation, Ensign (F.)

Similifl, like; similar, similitude, re-
semble (F.)

Sociiis, a companion; social, society, as>
sociation.

Solus, alone; solitude, sole, solo (It.)

Solve (solutum), I loose; dissolve, resolve,
absolute, resolution.

Specie (spectum), / see ; aspect, spectator,
specimen, spectre (F.)

Spero, I hope; despair (F.), desperate.

Spiro, / breathe; inspire, aspire, con-
spiracy (all F.)

Statao, / set up ; ato (statum), I stand ;
statue, statute, stature (F.); insti-
tute.

Stringo (strictum), / bind; stringent,
constrain (F.), district.

Strao(structum), Ibuild; structure, con-
struct, obstruct, construe.

Sumo (sumptum), I take ; assume, con-
sume, assumption.

Tango (tactum), / touch; tangible, tan-
gent, contact, contagious.

Tego (tectum), I cover; integument, de-
tect, tile (F.) ; from Lat. tegvla.

Tempns (temporis), time; temporal, con-
temporary, extempor&

Tendo (tensum), I stretch ; contend, ex.
tend, attend, tense (F.), tendon.

Teneo (tentum), I hold; tenant, tenet,
tendril, detain (F.), retentive.

Terminus, an end, boundary; terminate,
term(F.) interminable.

Terra, the earth; subterranean, terres-
trial, Mediterranean.

Terreo, I frighten; terror, terrify, deter.

Texo (textum), I weave; textile, text,
texture, context.

Timeo, I fear ; timid, timorous.

Torqueo (tortum), / twist; torture, tor-
ment, contortion, retort.

Traho (tractum), / draw ; traction, sub-
tract, contraction, tract.

Tres (tria), three; trefoil (F.), trident,
trinity.

Tribuo, I give; tribute, tributary, con-
tribution.

Tumeo, / swell; tumulus, a sufelling or
mound; tumult, tumour, tomb(F.)

Tlnus, one; union, unit, unite, uniform,
unique (F.)

TJrba, a city; suburb, urbanity, urbane.

152

GRAMMAR OF THE BNGUSH LAN6UAGK.

Valeo, / am strong; Ttloar, valiant (F.),
prevail (P.)

Yanoit tmpty : vanity, vanish, vain
(a'l F.)

Yeho (vectnm), I convey ; vehicle, con-
veyance (F.X convex

Yenio, / eome; advent; ventore, con-
vene, covenant (F.)

Yerbum, a vH>rd ; verb, adverb, verbose,
verbal, proverb.

Yeorto (versumX / turn ; convert, revert,
divert, versatile.

Yenu, true: verity, aver, verdict (all P.)

Yia, a toay; deviate, previous, triviaL

Yidieo (visum), I§ee; vision, provide, visit
(F.), revise CS*.)

Yinoo (victnm), I eonquer; victor, eon*

vict, victory, convince.
Yitinm, a fault ; vice (F.), vitiate, vicious

(P.)
Yivo (victnm), / live; vivid; revive,

viands, survive (F.)
Yoco (vocatum), I oaU; vocal, vowel (P.),

vocation, revoke (P.), vociferate.
Yolo^ I wWi : volition, voluntary, benev-
olence.
Yolvo (volntum), / roU; revolve, involve,

evolution, volume.
Yoreo (votum), / vow; vote, devote, vow

(P.)
Ynlgns, the common peojde ; vulgar, dio

vulge, vulgate.

GREEK ROOTS.

Agjlbif a eontett; agony, antagonist.

Alios, another; allopathy, allegory.

Angeloa, ametaenger; angel, evangelist

AnthrOpoa, a man; misanthrope, philan-
thropy.

Archo, I begin, rule; monarch, archaic,
archbishop, archdeacon.

Aiitlmioa, number; arithmetic.

Aster or astron, a star ; astronomy, astro-
logy, asteroid, disaster.

Atmos, vapow; atmosphere

Autos, self; autocrat, autograph.

Ballo, / (Tirow; symbol, parable.

Bapto, / dip; baptise, baptist.

Baros, weight; barometer, biuitone.

BiblOB, a book; Bible, bibliomania.

Bioa, liJiB: biography, biology, amphi-
bious.

Gbeir, tks hand; surgeon [older form,
chirurgeon].

Gbole, bile; melancholy, choler.

Chrio, I anoint ; Christ, chrism.

(ThztmoB, time; chronology, chronic, chron-
icle, chronometer.

Daktulos, a finger; dactyl, pterodactyl,
da,te (the fruiCy,

Deka, ten ; decagon, decalogue, decade.

DSmos, the people: democrat, endemic,
epidemic.

Dokeo, I ihink; doxa and dogma, an
opinion; doxol<^^, orthodox, hetero-
dox, dogma, dogmatic.

Drao, I do; drama, dramatic.

Dnwfanla, power ; dynamics, dynamite.

Xidoti^brm; kaleidoscope, spheroid.

Elkon, an image; iconoclast

Electron, amber ; electricity, electrotype.

Ergon, a work; surgeon (=chirurgeon),
energy, metallurgy.

En, well ; eucharist, euphony, evangelist.

Qamoa, marriage; bigamy, monogamist,
misogamy.

Ge^ (Ae eaarO^; geography, geometry, geo-
logy.

Genoa, rac«, kind; genesis, geneal(^y,
hydrogen, oxygen.

Grapho, I write; gramma, a letter; gra-
phic, grammar, telegraph, biography,
diagram.

Haima, Mood; haemorrhage, hoBmorrhoid.

Haireo, I choose; heresy, heretic.

Hecaton, a hundred; hecatomb, hecto-
metre.

Helios, <Ae sun; heliograph, heliotype.

Hemi, ha^: hemisphere.

HieroB, sacred : hierarchy, hieroglyphic.

Hippos, a hone; hippopotamus, hippo-
drome.

H5dos, a way; method, period, exodus.

HSmos, the same; homologue, homo-
g'-ueous.

Hndor, water: hydrauUc, hydrophobia,
hydrogen.

Ichthus, a fish: ichthyology.

Idios, one's own: idiom, idiot, idiosyn-
crasy.

Isos, equal : isochronous, isobaric (of equal
weight), isosceles.

KMliM,beenU{fiU: caligraphy, kaleidoscope.

Kephidfi, the head : hydrocephalus.

WOBD-BBANCHma.

153

SJino, I bend ; clinical, climax, climate.

Kocmoa, order; coamogony, ooamography,
eoametic.

Krino, / jvdfje ; critic, criterion, hypo-
crite.

Knkloa, a eincfo; cycle, cycloid, cyclone.

Kaon (knn-osX a ijog: cynic, cynidam.

I4go, 1 my, dkoose : eclectic, lexicon.

lithoa, a stone . lithograph, aerolite.

IiSgoa, a word, epeech: logic, dialogue,
geology.

Lno, Ilooeen; dialysis, analysis, paralysis,

MSter, a mother: metropolis, metropo*
lltan.

Hetron, a meoewrt! metre, metronome,
diameter, thermometer, barometer.

MSnos, alone : monastery, monogram, mo*
nosyllable, monopoly, monarch.

Morphe, shape : amorphous, dimorphous,
metamorphic.

Nana, a tSdp : nautical, nausea.

Nekioa, a dead body; necropolis, necro-
mancy.

N6mos, a law; autonomous, astronomy,
Deuteronomy.

CMkoa, a hoitae ; economy, economical.

OnAma, a name.; anonymous, synony-
mous, patronymic.

Optdmai, I see; optics, synopticaL

Qrthos, rigJU : orthodoxy, orthography.

Paia (paid-os), aboy; pedagogue [lit a
boy-leader].

Pan, all : puitheist, panoply, pantomime.

Paihoa, fiding ; pathetic, sympathy.

Peaite,;tvev pentagon, pentateuch, Pente-
cost.

Petra, a rodfe / petrify, petrel, Peter.

PhainSmai, I appear; phenomenon, phan-
tasy, phantom, ikntastic, fkncy.

Phero, / bear: periphery, phosphorus
[=the light-beaier].

Phileo, / Iom; philosophy, Philadelphia,
philharmonic.

PhOnd, a sound: phonic, phonetic, eu-
phony, symphony.

Phda (phi6t-os), light ; photometer, photo-
graph.

Phuais, nature; physics, physiology, phy-
sician.

Poleo, I make ; poet, poetic, pharmacopoeia.

Polis^ a city/ Constantinople, metro-
polis.

Pdua, many; poly theist, Polynesia, poly-
anthus, polygamy.

Pons (p5d-0B), afoot ; antipodes, tripod.

VtoUm, first; prototype, protoplasm.

^TLttfire; pyrotechnic, pyre.

Bheo^ I flow; catarrh, rheumatic.

SkSpeo, I see; microscope, telescope,
spectroscope, bishop [from qpiskopos,
an overseer].

Sophia, toisdom ; sophist, philosophy.

Stello, I send : apostle, epistle.

Stratos, an army ; strategy, strategic.

StrSpho, I turn : catastrophe, apostrophes

Technfi, an art; technicaL

T81S, distant ; telegraph, telescope, tele>
phone, telegram.

Tenmo, I cut; anatomy, lithotomy.

Tetra, four; tetrachord, tetrarch.

Theftomal, I see; theatre, theory.

Theoa, a god: theist, enthusiast, theol(^y.

Therme, heat ; thermal, thermometer
isotherm.

Tithemi, I piMse : thSaia, a placing ; syn-
thesis, hypothesis.

Treia, three: triangle, trigonometry, tri-
pod, tridactyl, trichord.

Trdpo, / turn : trophy, tropic, heliotrope.

TupoB, the impress cfa seal : tjrpe, stereo-
type*

Zdon, an a^nimal ; soology, zodiac.

154

WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF

PERSONS, ETC.

Argoiy, from Ragusa, a port in Dalmatia, on the K Coast of the Qulf

of Venice. Properly " Raguey " (a form which was in use in 1577).

Used by Shakespeare, in the " Merchant of Venice," L 1. 9, in the

sense of trading vettcL
AOTniirini, the name of a fanatical Syrian sect of the thirteenth century,

who, under the influence of a drug prepared from hemp, called has-

ehiseht rushed into battle against the Crusaders, and slaughtered

many of their foes.
Atlai, one of the Titans, or earlier gods, who was so strong that he was said

to carry the world on his shoulders.
A-Qgiut, from Augustus Cseear, the second Emperor of Rome.
Bacchanalian, from the festival called BaccJumalia; from Bacchus, the

Roman god of wine.
Boycott (to), from Captain Boycott, a land-agent in the west of Ireland,

who was *^ sent to Coventry " by all his neighbours ; they would neither

speak to him, buy from him, or sell to him — ^by order of the " Irish

Land League."
Chimera, a totally imaginary and grotesque image or conception ; from

ChinuBra, a monster in l^e Greek mythology, half goat, half lion.
Cicerone, a guide ; from Cicero, the greatest Roman orator and writer of

speeches that ever lived. (Guides who described antiquities, etc., were

supposed to be as " fluent as Cicero.")
Crayat, from the Croats or Crabati of Croatia, who supplied an army

corps to Austria, in which long and large neck-ties were worn by the

soldiers.
Dahlia, from Dahl, a Swedish botanist, who introduced the flower into

Europe.
Draconian (code), a very severe code ; from Draco, a severe Athenian legis-
lator, who decreed death for every crime, great or stnalL His laws

were said to have been ** written in blood."
Dnnoe, from Duns Scotne, a great philosopher (or " schoolman ") of the

Middle Ages, who died 1308. The followers of Thomas Aquinas

called '' Thomists," looked down upon those of Duns, who were called

" Sootiats," and in course of time ** Dunces."

WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS. 155

Epieim, a person fond of good living ; from Epicnnui, a great Greek phil-
osopher. His enemies misrepresented him as teaching that pleasure
was the highest or chief est good.

Enphuittic (style), a style of high-flown refinement ; from Enphues (the
well-bom man), the title of a book written in the reign of Elizabeth,
by John Lyly, which introduced a too ingenious and far-fetched way
of speaking and writing in her Court..

Fauna, the collective name for all the animals of a region or country ; from
Fannus, a Roman god of the woods and country. (The Fauni were
minor rural deities of Rome, who had the legs, feet, and ears of a goat^
and the other parts of the body of a human shape.)

Flora, the collective name for all the plants and flowers of a region or
country ; from Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers.

GalTaniam, from Qalyani, an Italian physicist, lecturer on anatomy at
Bologna, who discovered, by experiments on frogs, that animals are
endowed with a certain kind of electricity.

Gordian (knot), the knot tied by Gordius a king of Phrygia, who had been
originally a peasant. The knot by which he tied the draught-pole
of his chariot to the yoke was so intricate, that no one could untie it.
A rumour spread that the oracle had stated that the empire of Asia
would belong to him who should untie the Gordian knot. Alexander
the Great, to encourage his soldiers, tried to untie it ; but, finding
that he could not, he cut it through with his sword, and declared that
he had thus fulfilled the oracle.

Guillotine, an instrument for beheading at one stroke, used in France.
It was invented during the time of the Revolution by Dr Gnillotin.

Hansom (cab), from the name of its inventor.

Hector (to), to talk big; from Hector, the bravest of the Trojans, as
Achilles was the bravest of the Grecian chiefs.

Hermetically (sealed), so sealed as to entirely exclude the outer air ;
from HermeB, the name of the Greek god who corresponds to the
Roman god Mercury. Hermes was fabled to be the inventor of
chemistry.

Jacobin, a revolutionist of the extremest sort ; from the hall of the
Jacobin Friars in Paris, where the revolutionists used to meet.
Robespierre was for some time their chief.

Jacobite, a follower of the Stuart family ; from James IL (in Liatin
JacGbns), who was driven from the English throne in 1688.

January, from the Roman god Janus, a god with two faces, "looking
before and after."

Jovial, with the happy temperament of a person bom under the influence
of the star Jupiter or Jove ; a term taken from the old astrology.
(Opposed to tatymine, gloomy, because bom under the star Saturn.)

July, from Julius, in honour of Julius Caesar, the great Roman general,
writer, and statesman — who was bom in this month.

Laiarttto or Lasar-house, from Lasarus, the beggar at the gate of

156 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Dires, in Luke xyl The word is corrupted into lizard in Liiud-
polnt^ where a lazar-house onoe stood, for the reception of sick people
from en board ship.

Lynoh-Iair, from a famous Judge Lynch, of Tennessee, who made short
work of his trials, and then of his criminals;

Wft^m^^'"*— , to make roads of fragments of stones, which afterwards
cohere in one mass ; from John Loudon Macadam, the inventor, who,
in 1827, received from the Gk>vemment a reward of £10,000 for his
plan.

Kareh, from Mars, the Roman god of war.

Kartlnet, a severe disciplinarian, with an eye for the smallest detaik ;
from General Kartlnet, a strict commander of the time of Louis XIV.
of France.

Kausoleun, a splendidly built tomb ; from KanflSlns, Ki^ of Caria in
Asia Minor, to whom his widow erected a gorgeous burial-chamber.

Mentor, an adviser ; from Mentor, the aged counsellor of Tel^m&chus, the
son of Ulysses.

Mercurial, of light, airy, and quick-spirited temperament, as having been
bom under the planet Mercury (compare Jovial^ SiUwmvne, etc. )

Panic, a sudden and unaccountable terror ; from Pan, the god of flocks
and shepherds. He was fabled to appear suddenly to travellers.

PaxTOt (^lAtUe Peter, or Peterhin), from the French Perrot = Pt«rrol,
from Pierre, Peter. Compare Magpie = Metrgaret Pie; Jaehdaw;
Robin-redbrea^it ; Cuddy (from CuMert), a donkey, etc.

Petrel, the name of a sea-bird that skims the tops of the waves in a storm,
the diminutive of Peter. It is an allusion to Matthew ziv. 29. These
birds are called by sailors " Mother Carey's chickens."

Phaeton, a kind of carriage ; from Phaethon, a son of Apollo, who received
from his father permission to guide the chariot of the Sun for a single
day.

Philippic, a violent political speech directed against a person ; from the
orations made by Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, against
Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Greats

Plutonic (rocks), igneous rocks (created by the action of fire) — ^in oppo-
sition to sedimentary rocks, which have been formed by the depositing
action of water ; from Pinto, the Roman god of the infernal regions.

Protean, assuming many shapes ; from Proteus, a sea-deity, who had
received the gift of prophecy from Neptune, but who was very
difficult to catch, as he could take whatever form he pleased.

Qnixotic, fond of utterly impracticable designs ; from Don Qnixote, the
hero of the national Spanish romance, by Cervantes. Don Quixote is
made to tilt at windmills, proclaim and make war against whole
nations by himself, and do many other chivalrous and absurd
things.

Simony, the fault of ill^;ally buying and selling church livings ; from
Simon Magus. (See Acts via 18.)

WORDS DEBIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS. 167

Stentorian, very loud and itrong ; from Sttntor, whom Homer deecribeB
as the loudest-Toiced man in the Grecian army that was besieging
Troy.

Tantalise, to tease with impossible hopes ; from TUitalns, a king of
Lydia in Asia Minor. He offended the gods, and was placed in
Had^ up to his lips in a pool of water, which, when he attempted to
drink it, ran away ; and with bunches of grapes over his head, which,
when he tried to grasp them, were blown from his reach by a blast of
wind.

Tawdry, shabby — a term often applied to cheap finery ; from St
Ethelreda, which became St Audrey: originally applied to clothes
sold at St Audrey's fair. (Compare TooLey from St Olave ; Ted from
StEdmwnd; etc.)

Volcano and Vulcanite, from the Roman god of fire and smiths, Vulcanns.
A volcano was regarded as the chimney of one of his workshops.

158

WORDS DBRIVBD PROM THE NAMES OP

PLACES.

Academy, from Aoademia, the house of Acad6iiiiis, a friend of the great
Greek philosopher Plato, who was allowed to teach his followers
there. Plato taught either in Academus's garden, or in his own
house.

Artesian (well), from Artois, the name of an old province in the north-
west of France, the inhabitants of which were accustomed to pierce
the earth for water.

Bayonet, from Bayonne, in the south of France, on the Bay of Biscay.
(Compare Pistol from Pistoia, a town in the north of Italy. )

Bedlam, the name for a lunatic asylum — a corruption of the word Beth-
lehem (Hospital).

Cambric, the name of the finest kind of linen ; from Cambray, a tc wn in
French Flanders, in the north-west of France.

Canter, an easy and slow gallop ; from the pace assumed by the Canter-
bury Pilgrims, when riding along the green lanes of England to the
shrine of Thomas k Becket.

CaxTonade, a short cannon ; from Carron, in Stirlingshire, Scotland,
where it was first made.

Cherry ; from Cerasns, a town in Pontus, Asia Minor, where it was much
grown.

Copper and Cypress ; from the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean.

Currants, small dried grapes from Corinth, in Greece, where they are still
grown in large quantities. They are shipped at the port of Patras.

Damson, a contraction of damascene; from Damascus "-the Damascus
plum. (Henoe also damask.)

Dollar, a coin — the chief coin used in America ; from German Thaler
( = DateTf or something made in a dale or valley). The first coins of
this sort were made in St Joachimsthal in Bohemia, and were called
JoachvirCs thaler,

Elysian {used with fields or bliss), from Elysium, the place to which the
souls of brave Greeks went after death.

Ermine, the fur worn on judges' robes ; from Armenia, because this fur
is "the spoil of the Armenian rat."

WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PLACES. 159

Florin, a two-Bhilling piece; from Florence. Profeisor Skeat layi:
" Fiorina were coined by Edward III. in 1337, and named after tbe
coins of Florence."

CkuMxmading, boasting ; from Qascony, a southern province of France, the
inhabitants of which were much given to boasting. One Gascon, on
being shown the Tuileries— the palace of the Kings of France — re-
marked that it reminded him to some extent of his father's stables,
which, however, were somewhat larger.

Oipsy, a corrupt form of the word Egyptian. The Gipsies were supposed
to come from Egypt^ (The French call them Bohemians,)

Guinea, a coin value 21s. now quite out of use, except as a name — made
of gold brought from the Guinea Coast, in the west of Africa.

Hock, tiie generic term for all kinds of Rhine-wine, but properly only the
name of that which comes from Hoebheim, a celebrated vineyard.

Indigo, a blue dye, obtained from the leaves of certain plants ; from the
Latin adjective Indicu8=belonging to India.

Laconic, short, pithy, and full of sense ; from Laconia, a country in the
south of Greece, the capital of which was Sparta or Lacedsemon.
The Laconians, and especially the Spartans, were little given to talk-
ing, unlike their lively rivals, the Athenians.

Lilliputian, very small ; from Lillipnt, the name of the imaginary country
of extremely small men and women, visited by Captain Lemuel
Gulliver, the hero of Swift's tale called * Gulliver's Travels.'

Lumber, useless things ; from Lombard, the Lombards being famous for
money-lending. The earliest kind of banking was pawnbroking ; and
pawnbrokers placed their pledges in the " Lombard-room," which, as it
gradually came to contain all kinds of rubbish, came also to mean and
to be called " lumber-room." In America, timber is called lumber.

Heander (to), to ''wind about and in and out ;" from the IKtoander, a
very winding river in the plain of Troy, in Phrygia, in the north-west
of Asia Minor.

Magnesia and Magnet, from Magnesia, a town in Thessaly, in the north
of Greece.

Milliner, originally a dealer in wares from Milan, a large city in the north
of Italy, in the plain of the Po.

Muslin, from Mosul, a town in Asiatic Turkey, on the Tigris.

Palace, from the Latin palatium, a- building on Mons Palatlnus, one of
the seven hills of Rome. This building became the residence of
Nero and other Roman emperorp ; and hence palace came to be the
generio term for the house of a king or ruling prince. PcUatinun,
itself comes from Pales, a Roman goddess of flocks, and is connected
with the Lat. pater, a father or feeder.

Peach, from Lat. Persicum (malum), the Persian apple, from Persia.
The r has been gradually absorbed.

Pheasant, from the Phasis, a river of Colchis in Asia Minor, at the eastern
end of the Black Sea, from which these birds were firsi* brought.

160 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Port» a wine from Oporto, in PortngaL (Compare Sherry ^ which was
originally ipelt Sherris, from Xeres, in the south of Spain.)

Sbnbarb, from Blia iMurbamm, the wild Rha plant. BTia is an old name
for the Volga, from the banks of which this plant was imported.

Solecism, a blunder in the use of words ; from Soli, a town in Cilicia,
in Asia Minor, the inhabitants of which used a mixed dialect.

Spaniel, a sporting-dog remarkable for its sense ; from Spain. The Old
French for spaniel was " chien e^pagnol ; " the latter word pre<
serves the prefix of .S»9pania, the Latin name for Spain.

Stoic, from Stoa Poikll^, the Painted Porch, a porch in Athens, where
Zeno, the founder of the Stoic School, taught his disciples.

Utopian, impossible to realise ; from Utopia ( = Nowhere), the title of a
story written by Sir Thomas More, in which he described, under
the guise of an imaginary island, the probable state of England, if
her laws and nastoms were reformed.

161

WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM.

When a word is imported from a foreigo language into our
own, there is a natural tendency among the people who use the
word to give it a native and homely dress, and so to make it
look like English. This is especially the case with proper
names. Thus the walk through St James's Park from Bucking-
ham Palace to the House of Commons was called Socage Walk
(that is, shrubbery walk) ; but, as Socage was a strange word to
the Londoner, it became quickly corrupted into Birdcage Walk,
though there is not, and never was, any sign of birdcages in the
neighbourhood. Birdcage is a known word. Socage is not —
t^at is the whole matter. In the same way, our English sailors,
whffTL they captured the French ship Sellerqphon, spoke of it as
the Silly Ruffian; and our English soldiers in India mentioned
Surajah Dowlah, the prince who put the English prisoners into
the Black Hole, as Sir Roger Dowler, The same phenomenon
is observed also in common names — and not infrequently. The
following are some of the most remarkable examples : —

Alligator, from Spanish dl lagarto, t?ie lizard. The article el (from Latin
iUe) has clung to the word. Lat. laeertaf a lizard. (The Arabic
article al has clung to the noun in dUT^emy, algebra, almanac, etc.)

Artichoke (no connection with choke), from ItaL articiocco ; from Arabic
al ha/rtJiaff, an artichoke.

Atonement, a hybrid — at<me being English, and ment a Latin ending.
Atone^to bring or come into one, Shakespeare has "Earthly things,
made even, atone together."

Babble, from ba and the frequentative le ; it means "to keep on saying " ba.

Bank, a form of the word bench, a money-table.

Belfry (nothing to do with bdl), from M. E. berfray ; O. Fr. berfroU, a
watch-tower.

162 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Brimitoiie, from bum. The r is an easily moved letter — as in three, third;

turn, trundle, etc.
Bogle, properly a wild ox. Bugle, in the sense of a musical instrument,

is really short for hu^e-hom, Lat. hueubu, a buUock, a diminutiye

of h09.

Bustard, from 0. Fr. onitaxde, from Latw av%9 tarda, the tardy or slow

bird.
Butcher, from 0. Fr. bocher, a man who slaughters he-goats ; from boc,

the French form of luck,
Bntler, the servant in charge of the bntts or casks of wine. (The whole

collection of butts was called the buttery ; a little butt is a bottle. )
Buxom, stout, healthy; but in O. K obedient^ ''Children, be buxom to

your parents." Connected with how and hough. From A. S. hugan,

to bend ; which gives also how, light, hoat, elbow ( = el-bock), etc.
CSarfax, a place where four roads meet. 0. Fr. eoarrefowrgi ; Latin qua4Aior

fwrcaa, f oiir forks.
Caronae, from German gar aus, quite out. S;x>ken of emptying a goblets
Caterpillar =hairy-cat» from 0. Fr. ehate, a she-cat, and 0. Fr. pdotue,

hairy, Lat. pHonu, Compare wooUy-hear,
Causeway (no connection with way), from Fr. chauaee ; Lat. ccdeeata via, a

way strewed with limestone ; from Lat. calx, lime.
ClOTO, through Fr. don, from Lat. claYUS, a nail, from its resemblance to

a small nail.
Constable, from Lat. comes stabuli, count of the stable ; hence Master ol

the Horse ; and, in the 13th centuiy, commander of the king's army.
Coop, a cognate of cup ; from Lat. cupa, a tub.
Cope, a later spelling of cape. Cop, cape, and cope are forms of the same

word.
Costermonger, properly coita/rd-monger ; from costard, a large apple.
Counterpane (not at all connected with cownter or with pavie, but with

quiU and point), a coverlet for a bed. The proper form is eonire-

poiate, from Low Lat culdta poncta, a punctured quilt.
Country-dance used to be explained as a corruption of the French

contre-danae ; a dance in which each dancer stands contre or contra

or opposite his partner. But it simply means *' a rustic dance."
Coward, an animal that drops his taiL 0. Fr. col and ard ; from Lat%

coiuda, a taiL
Crayfish, (nothing to do with fish), from O. Fr. escremsse. This is really

a Frenchified form of the German word Krels, which is the German

form of our English word eraib. The true division of the word into

syllables is orayf-ish ; and thus the seeming connection with fish dis-
appears.
Custard, a misspelling of the M. E. word erustade, a general name for pies

made with crust.
Daiqr = day*s eye Chaucer says : " The dayes eye or else the eye of

day'

WORDS DISGTJISED IN It)ftM. 163

DandeUon » dent de liim, tiie lion's tooth ; so named from ite jagged

leaves.
Dirge, a funeral song of sorrow. In the Latin service for the dead, one part

began with the words (Pis. v. 8) dlxige, Dominus mens, in conspectu

tuo vitam meam, " Direct my life, O Lord, in thy sight ; *' and dizlga

was contracted into dirge.

Drawing-room = wlt]idrawing-room, a room to which gneats retire after
dinner.

Dropsy (no Connection with drop), from 0. Fr. hydroplsle, from Gv,
huddr, water. (Compare chirurgeon, which has been shortened into
surgeon; example, into sample; estate into state.)

Easel, a diminutive of the word ass, through the Dutch ezei; like the
Latin aselltia.

Farthing = fourthing (Four appears as fir in firkin ; and as for in forti^.

Frontispiece (not couuected with piece), tliat which is seen or placed is
front. Lat. specio, I see.

Gadfly = goad-fly (sting-fly).

Gospel =s God-Bpell, a narrative about God.

(Srove, originally a lane cut through trees. A doublet of groove, and
grave, from A. S. grafan, to dig.

Haft, that by which we have or hold a thing.

Hamper, old form, hanaper; from Low Latin hanaperinm, a large basket
for keeping drinking-cups {hanapi) in.

Handsel, money given into the hand ; from A. S. sdlan, to give.

Hanker, to keep the mind hanging on a thing. Er is a frequentative suffix,
as in hotter, linger, etc.

Harbinger, a man who goes before to provide a harbour or lodging-place
for an army. The n is intrusive, as in porringer, passenger, and mes-
senger. (The ruins of old Roman villas were often used by English
travellers as inns. Such places were called " Cold Harbours." There
are numerous places of this name in England — commonly occurring
on the great Roman roads. )

Hatchment, the escutcheon, diield, or eoat-of-arms of a deceased person,
displayed in front of his house. A corruption (by the intrusion of h)
of atch'ment, the short form of atchievem^nt, the old spelling of
achievement, which is still the heraldic word for 7uUchm,ent.

Hawthorn = hedge-thorn. Saw was m 0. E. haga; and the hard g
became a w; and also became softened, under French influence, into
dg.Haha, older form Hawhaw, is a sunk fence.

Heayen, that which is heayed up ; heavy, that which requires much

heaving.
Horehonnd (not connected with hound), a plant with stems covered with
white woolly down. The M. E. form is hoar-hnne ; and the second
syllable means scented. The syllable hoar means u>hUe, as in hoar-
froH. The final d is excrescent or inorganic— like the d in sound^ hound
(■■ ready to go), eta

164 GEAMMAB OF THE SKOLIdH LANGtJAGlC

Humble-bee (not oonnected with the adjective humiUe), from M. E.
hummelen, to keep humming — a frequentatiye ; the b being in-
organic.

Humble-pie (not connected with the adjective humUe), pie made of
nmblea, the entrails of a deer.

Husband, (not connected with bind), from Icelandic hubiiaiidi, buandi,
being the pres. participle of btta, to dwell ; and lnu, house.

Hnasif (connected with house, but not with i0^e), a case containing needles,
thread, eta From Icelandic, htfei, a case, a cognate of house. The f
is intrusive, from a mistaken opinion that the word was a short form
of housewife.

Hussy, a pert girl ; a corruption of housewife.

Icicle, (the ending cle is not the diminutive) a hanging point of ice. The
A. S. form is isgicel, a compound of is, ice, and giod, a small piece of
ice ; so that the word contains a redundant element. (The ic in icicle is
entirely different from the ic in art-ie4e and in part-ie-le, )

Intoxicate, to drug or poison ; from Low Lat. toxioum, poison ; from Or.
toxon, a bow, plural toxa, bow and arrows — arrows for war being fre-
quently dipped in poison.

Island (not connected with ide) = water-land, a misspelling for Hand (the
spelling that Milton always uses). The s has intruded itself from a
confusion with the Lat. insula, which gives ide.

Jaw, properly chaw, the noim for chew. Cognates are jowl and cTiaps.

Jeopardy, hazard, danger. M. E. jnpartie, from 0. Fr. jen parti, a game
in which the chances are even, from Low Lat. jScus paHUus, a divided
game.

Jerusalem artichoke (not at all connected with Jerusalem), a kind of sun-
flower. Italian girasole, from Lat. gyrus, a circle, and sol, the sun.
(In order to clench the blimder contained in the word Jerusalem,
cooks call a soup made of this kind of artichoke "Palestine soup 1 ")

Elckshaws, from Fr. qnelqnechose, something. There was once a plural
— Jdchshawses,

Kind, the adjective from the noun Un.

Ledge, a place on which a thing lies. Hence also ledger.

Line (to line garments) = to put lixien inside them. {Linen is really an
adjective from the M. E. Un, just like vfooUen, golden, etc.)

Liqnorice (not connected with liquor), in M. E. licoris; from Or.
glykyrrhiza, a sweet root. (For the loss of the initial g, compare
Ipswich and Oyppenswich; enough and genoh; and the loss of go
from all the past participles of our verbs.)

Mead, meadow = a place mowed. Hence also math, aftermath, and moth
(=the biter or eater).

Nostrils =no8e-thirles, nose-holes. Thirl is a cognate of thrtU, driU,
through, etc. (For change of position of r, compare turn, trundle;
work, Wright; wort, root; bride, bird, etc.)

Nonoheon, a corruption of M. E. none-schenche, or noon-drink. Then

WOBDS DISGUISED IN FORM. 165

this word got mixed up with the provincial English word Innchi

which means a lump of bread ; and so we have limchaoii.
Nntmeg, a hybrid compounded of an English and a French word. Meg is a

corruption of the 0. Fr. musge, from Lat. nvuscum, musk.
Orchards wort-yard, yard or garden for roots or plants. Wort is a

cognate of wart and root
Ostrich, from Lat ayia struthio. Shakespeare spells it esbridge in ^* Antony

and Cleopatra," ill 13. 197, *' The dove will peck the estridge." (Avu

is found as a prefix in htutard also. )
Pastimes that which enables one to pass the time.
Pea-jacket (not connected with pea\ a short thick jacket often worn by

seamen ; from the Dutch pije, a coarse woollen coat. Thus the

word jacket is superfluous. In M. E. ^ was a coat ; and we find it

in Chaucer combining, with a French adjective, to make the hybrid

courtqnf, a short coat.
Peal (of bells), a short form of th^ word appeal ; a call or summons.

(Compare penthouse and appentU; sample and example; scuicluon

and escutcheon; squire Bsudi esquire ; etc.)
Penthoase (not connected with house\ in reality a doublet of appendage,

though not coming from it. 0. Fr. appentis, from Lat. appendMiwrn,

from appendia^ something hanging on to. {Pender e^ to hang. )
Periwinkle, a kind of evergreen plant ; formed, by the addition of the

diminutive le, from Lat. pervlnca, from vmetre, to bind.
Fttriwixikle, a small moHuBC with one valve. A corruption of the A. S.

pinewincla.
Pickaxe (not connected with axe\ a tool used in digging. A corruption

of M. £. pickeys, from 0. Fr. picois ; and connected with peak, pike,

hsidpiek,
Poadh=to put in the poke, pocket, or pouch. So poached eggs are eggs

dressed so as to keep the yoke in a pouch. Cognates are pock, smaU-

pox {=pocks), etc.
Porpoise (not connected with the verb poise) ; from Lat. porcnm, a pig,

and piscem, a fish.
Posthmnons (work), a work that appears after the death of the author ;

from Lat. postnmns, the last. The h is an error ; and the word

has no connection with the Lat. humus, the ground.
PriTOtk a half -evergreen shrub. A form of primet, a plant carefully cut and

trimmed ; and hence prim. (For change of m into ▼ (or p), compare

MoUy and PoUy ; Matty and Patty, etc. V and p are both labials.)
Proxy, a contraction of procuracy, the taking care of a thing for another.

Lat. pro for, and eura, care.
Qaiek, living. We have the word in quicJdime, quicksand, quieksUver;

and in tiie phrase ''the quick and the dead.'
Quinsy, a bad sore throat, a contraction of 0. Fr. squinancie, formed, by

the addition of a prefixed and strengthening s, from Gr. kynanchi, a

dog-throttling.

166 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. •

Biding, one of the three divuions of Torkphire. The oldest form h Thrld-

ing (from third and ing, part ; as in /ar^iitn^= fourth part, etc.) The

th seems to have dropped from its similarity and nearness to the th

in north ^nd the t in east ; as in North-thriding, Scut-thriding, etc
Sexton, a corruption of sacristan, the keeper of the sacred vessels and

vestments ; from L^t. saeer, sacred. But the sexton is now only the

grave-digger. (In the same way, aaeristy was shortened into textry,)
Sheaf, a collection shoved together. Shove gives also shovel; and the

frequentatives shuffle and scuffle.
Soup, a cognate of sop and sup.

Splice (to join after spLiUinrj)^ a cognate form of split and splinter.
Squinel, from 0. Fr. escurel; from Low Lat. scuriolus ; from Or. «iha,

a shadow, and oura, a tail. Hence the word means '* shadow-taiL''
Starboard, the steering side of a ship — the right, as one stands looking to

the bow.
Stew, the verb carresponding to stove. (Cf. Scotch stovies^ Bievred

potatoes.)
Steward, from A. S. stiward, from the full form sttgweard; from stige, a

sty, and weard, a keeper. Originally a person who looked after the

domestic animals.
Stirrup, modem form of A. S. stigrap, from stigan, to dimb, and rdp, a

rope. Cognates are sty, stUe, stair.
Straight, an old past participle of stretch, (Strait is a French form of the

word strict, from Lat. strictus, tied up.)
Strong, a nasalised form of stark. Derivatives are strength, strtngihen^

string, etc.
Summerset (not connected either with swmmer or with set), or somersanlt, a

corruption of Fr. sonbresanlt, from Lat. supra, above, and saUum, a

leap. (There is a connection between the b and the m — ^the one

slicUng into the other when the speaker has a cold.)
Surgeon (properly a hamd-worher), a contraction of chimrgeon; from

Or. cheir, the hand, and ergon, work.
Tackle, that which takes or grasps, holding the masts of a ship in their

places. The le is the same as that in settle (a seat), girdle, etc.
Tale, from A. S. talu, number. Derivatives are tdl and tUl (box for

money), but not talk, which is a Scandinavian word.
Tansy, a tall plant, with small yellow flowers, used in medicine ; from

0. F. athanasie; from Gr. athanasia, immortality.
Thorough, a doublet of through, and found in thorough-fare, ihorough-

hred, etc. (The dr, thr, or tr is also found in door, thrill, trill, driU,

nostril, etc.)
Treacle, from M. £. triade, a remedy; from Lat theriaca, an antidote

against the bite of serpents ; from Gr. tJiSrion, a wild beast or

poisenous animal Milton has the phrase ''the sovran treacle of

Boimd doctrine.* (For the position of the r, compare trundle and

turn; hrid and Ifird; etc.)

WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM. 167

Truffle, an underground edible fungus ; from Italian tartufola ; tar
being=3Lat. terroB, of the ground, and tuf8la=tvJ)er, a root. Trijle
is a doublet of trvffle.

Twig, a thin branch of a tree. The tw here is the base of two, and is
found also in Pmnf ttoUigJU, twice, twine; and probably also in tioeak,
twist, twvnMe, etc. (Twit is not in this class ; it comes from at-
witan, to throw blame on.)

VerdigriB (not connected with grease), the rust of brass or copper. From
Latb yiride aeris, the green of brass. (The g is intrusive, and has not
yet been accounted for. )

Walrus, a kind of large seal ; from Swedish vaJlross = a whale-horse.
The older form of ross is found in Icelandic as hross, which is a doub-
let of the A. S. hors. The noise made by the animal somewhat
resembles a neigh.

Wassail, a merry carouse ; from A. S. wes hael = Be well ! Wes is the
imperative of wesam, to be (still existing in was) ; and hael is connected
with haUl hale (Scand.), whole (Eng.), and health.

Whole, a misspelling, now never to be corrected, of hole, the adjective
connected with Kale, heal, health, healthy, etc. The w is r>robably an
intrusion from the S.-W. of England, where they say whoam for home^
woat for oat, etc. If we write whole, we ought also to write wholjf
instead of hdy.

168

WORDS THAT HAVE GREATLY OHANGBD

IN MEANING.

A^bandon, to proclaim openly; to de-
nounce ; then to cast out^ (From Low
Lat bafiduvi, an edict.) The earHer
meaning still surviyeB in the phrase,
"banns of marriage.**

A^dmire, to wonder at.

4U0W, to praise (connected with laud).

^Lmnae, to canse to mnse, to oconpy the
mind of. " Gamillns set upon the Gauls,
w^en they were amused in receiying
their gold," says a writer of the sixteenth
century.

Animosity, hligh spirits; from Lat. ani-
motus, brave.

Artillery (great weai)ons of war), was used
to include bows, crossbows, etc., down
to the time of Milton See P. L. ii. 716 ;
and 1 Sam. xx. 40.

Awkward, going the wrong way. From
M. E. awk, contrary. "The awk end"
was the wrong end. "With awkward
wind " = with contrary wind.

Babe, doll. Spenser says of a pedlar—
" He bore a truss of trifles at his back,
As bells, and babes, and glasses in his
pack-
Blackguard, the band of lowest kitehen
serrants, who had to look after the spits,
I>ots, and pans, etc

Bombast (an inflated and i)omi)ous style
of speaking or writing), cotton- wadding.

Boor (a rough unmannerly feUowX a tiller
of the soU; fh>m the Dutch houwen, bo

tilL (Compound BAighbonr.) In South
Africa, a fkrmer is still called a boer.

Brat (a contemptuous name for a child),
a Celtic word meaning rag. Still used
as a dialect word meaning &piiic^forer

Brave^ showy, splendid. (Ct Scotch Itraw.)

By-and-by, at once.

Carpet, the coTering of tables as well as
of floors.

Carriage (tiiat which earriea) meant for-
merly that whidi vxu carried, or bag-
gage. See Acts xxi. 15.

Cattle, a doublet of chattels, property.
Lat. eapitdlia, heads (of oxen, etc.)
Chaucer says, " The avaricious mui hath
more hope in hJa catel than in Christ."

Censure (blam€l> meant merely opinion;
from the Lat cenaeo, I think. Shake-
si)eare, in Hamlet i. 8. 69, mi^es Folon-
ius say: "Take each man's censure, but
reserve thy judgment."

Charity (almsgiving) meant love; firom
Lat. oartw, dear, through the French.

CJheat (to deceive fbr the purpose of gain)
meant to aeize upon a thing aa escheated
or forfeited.

Cheer, Ikce. " Be of good cheer " » " Put
a good &ce upon it." " His cheer fell "
= " His countenance fell.**

CJhurl (an uncourteous or disobliging per-
son) meant a ooun^ryman. Der. chur*
liah. (Shakespeare also uses Hhe word
in the sense of a miwr.)

WOBDS THAT HAVE GREATLT CHANOED IN MEANING. 169

duxiicj, stiff with cold. "When thoa
donuut with cold,** says Langland (14th
century) s art bentimbed. (Cognates^
eltmp, cramp.)

Gompanion, low fellow. Shakespeare has
snch phrases as " GompanionSy hence I"

Conceit (too high an opinion of one's self)
meant simply thought. Chaucer was
called ''a conceited cl«rk"="a learned
man ftdl of thoughts." From Lat. eon-
ceptusy a number of facts brought to-
gether into one general conception or
idea. Shakespeare has the phrase "pass-
ing all conceit "= beyond all thought.

Count (to number) meant to think (2
with 8, &c)with; flrom Lat. oomp&to,
I compute or think with. Count is a
doublet, through French, of compute.

Cunning, able or skilled. Like the word
eraft, it has lost its innocent sense.

Danger, jurisdiction, legal power over.
The Duke of Venice says to the Mer*
chant, "You stand within his danger,
do you not?" M. V. iv. 1. 180.

Defy, to pronounce all bonds of fiBtith
dissolved. Lat. fides, fidtfa.

DeUdons, too scrupulous or flnicsL A
writer of the seventeenth century says
that idleness makes even "the sober-
est (most moderate; men delidons.'*

Depart, part or divide. The older version
of the Prayer-Book has "till death us
depori ** (now corrupted into do pari).

Disaster, an unfavourable star. A term
tram the old astrology.

Disease, discomfit, trouble. Shakespeare

^ has, " She will disease our bitter mirth ; "

and Tyndale's version of Mark v. 86, is,

" Thy daughtw is dead : why diseasest

thou the Master any fbrther?**

Duke, leader. Hannibal was called in old
Bncfush writers, " Duke of Carthage."

Ebb, shallow. " Cross the stream where
it is dibest,** is a Lancashire proverb.
(The word is a cognate of even.)

, an attempt. The old title of such
a book was not " Essay on '* but " Essay
at." From Lat. sangmm, a weighing.

An older form is iifMiy. Shakespeare has
such phrases as "the assay of arms.**

Explode, to drive out by clapping of the
hands. The op^iosite of applaud. Lat.
plaudo, 1 clap my hands.

Explosion, a hissing a thing off the stage.

Firmament, that which makes firm or
strong. Jeremy Taylor (seventeenth
century) says, "Custom is the firma-
ment of the law."

Fond, foolish. The past participle of
A S. fonnen, to act foolishly.

Frightful, flill of fear. (Compare the old
meaning of dre<u^/W.)

Garble^ to sift or cleanse. Low Lat.
garbeUare, to sift com.

Gaadand, a king's crown ; now a wreath of
flowers.

Qazette (Italian), a magpie. Hence the
ItaL gaxettare, to chatter like a magpie;
to write tittle-tattle. (It was also the
name of a very small coin, current in
Venice, etc.)

Generous, hi|^-bom. Lat. gentu, race
Compare the phrases " a man of fkmily ; '
" a man of rank." Shakespeare has " the
generous citizens" for those of high
birth.

Gossip, sib or related in God ; a godfkther
or godmother. It now means such per-
sonoU talk as usually goes on among such
persons. (Compare the French commkre
and eowmirage,)

Handsome^ clever with the hands.

Harbinger, a person who prepared a har-
bour or lodging.

Heathen, a person who lives on a heath.
(Cfl pagan, person who lives in a pagus,
or country district.)

Hobby, an easy ambling nag.

Idiot (Gr. ididttes), a private person; a
person who kept aloof from public busi-
ness. Cf . idUm ; idiosgnertuy ; etc.

Imp, an engrafted shoot. Chaucer says :
" Of feeble trees there comen wretched

impes.**
Spenser has " Well worthy impe,"

170

GRAMMAR OV THE BNGLI8H LANGUAGE.

ImputHamA, not pflrtalning to the
mattar In hand.

Indiir«r«nt» impartial,
ent to alL"

i«

Ck)d Uindiffar-

Inaoleoitt nnnanal. An old writer praises
Raleigh's poetry as " insolent and pas-
sionate."

Kind, bom, inborn ; natural : and then
loving.

Knave, boy. " A knave child '*=a male
chfld. Bii John Mandeville speaks of
Mahomet as " a poore knave.**

Lace, a snare. Lat laqueuM, a noose.

Livery, that which is given or deUyered,
Fr. livrtr; from. Lat. liberaref to firee.
It was applied both to food and to
clothing. "A horse at livery " still means
a hcnrse not merely kept, but also>^

Magnificent, doing great things; large-
minded. Bacon says, "Bounty and
magnificence are virtnes very regsL**

Maker, a poet.

Manure, to work with the hand ; a doublet
of manoBurre. (Lat. mantw, the hand.)

Mere, utter. Lac. msnMjpnre. Bhi^eepeare,
in "Othello,'* speaks of "the mere per-
dition of the Turkish fleet" "Mere
wine " was unmixed wine.

Metal, amine.

Minute^ something very small. Lat. min-
tUiu, made small; from miwus, less.
Cognates, minor: minish; diminish; etc

Miscreant, an unbeliever. Lat mis (firom
miniM), and credo, I believe; throuj^
0. Fr. meecrfent.

Miser, a wretched person. Lat mwer, mis-
eratde.

Nephew, a grandchild. (Lat. nepot.)

Kioe, too scrupulous or fitstidious. Shake-
speare, in " K. John,** ill. 4. 188, says—

" He that stands upon a slippery idaoe.
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him
up."

Niece, a grandchild. Lat nepHs,

NoreliBt, an innovator. |

OfU, that which is allowed to flail ofL

Offlciou% obliging. In modem diplomacy,
an ojleial communication is one made
in the way of business : an officious com-
munication is a friendly and irregular
one. Burke, in the eighteenth century,
speaks of the French nobility as " very
offidons and hospitable."

Ostlers hosteller. The keeper of a hostel
or hoteL (A comic derivation is that it
is a contraction ot ooUsiealer).

Faiuftil, painstaking. Fuller, in the seven-
teenth century, speaks of Joseph as " a
painful carpenter."

Palliate, to throw a cloak over. Lat pal-
lium, a doak.

Pencil, a small hair brush. Lat peneeUhis^
a little tail

Peeviidi, obstinate.

Penpective^ a glass for seeing either near
or distant things.

Pester, to encumber or dog. From Low
Lat pottorium, a clog for horses in a
pasture

Plantation, a colony of men planted.

Plausible^ having obtained applause.
"Every one received him plausibly,"
says a seventeenth-century writer.

Polite^ polished. A seventeenth-century
writer has "polite bodies as looking-
glasses."

Pomp, a procession.

Prepoaterons, putiang the last first. lat
proB^ before ; and post, after.

Prevaricate^ to reverse, to shufile. Lat
pnBvaricari, to spread the legs apart
in walking.

Prevent, to go before. lat prcs^ before,
and veniOf I come. The Prayer-Book has,
" Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings."

Prodigious, ominous. "A prodigious
meteor," meant a meteor of bad omen.

PvBGinal, attending to small points of
detaiL Lat. punetum; Fr. poUU,

WORDS THAT HiVE GfRKATLY CHANGED IN MEANING. 171

Quaint, skllfUL Proapero, In the "Tern-
pest," oalls Ariel ** My quaint Ariel I *'

Racy, haying the strong and native qual-
ities of the race. Ck)wley says of a i)oet
that he is—
" Fraught with brisk racy yerses, in

which we
The soil firom whencethey come, taste,
smell, and see."

Reduce, to lead bade.

Resent, to be ftilly sensible ot Resent-
ment, grateflil recognition of.

Restiye, obstinate, inclined to rest or
stand still. "To turn rusty" (=resty)
is to torn obstinate.

Retaliate, to give back benefits as well as
iijuries.

Room, space, place at table. Luke xiy. 8.

Rummage, to make room.

Sad, earnest, dark-coloured (of clothes).

Sash, a turban.

Secure, tree from care. Ben Jonson says :

" Men may securely sin ; but safely,
never."

Sheen, bright, pure. Connected with
$hUu.

Shrew, a wicked or hurtftil person.

Silly, blessed.

Sinceiity, absence of foreign admixture.

Soft, sweetly reasonable.

Spices, kinds— a doublet of species. (A
grocer in French is called an ipider.)

Starre, to die. Chaucer says, "Jesus
starved upon the cross."

Sycophant, "a fig-shower" or informer
against a person who smu^^led figs. Or.
ffiiMm, a fig ; and phaino^ I show.

Table, a picture.

Tarpaulin, a sailor ; fh)m the tarred
canvas suit he wore. Now shortened
into tar.

Thews, habits, manners.

Thought, deep sorrow, anxiety. Matthew
vL 25. In "Julius Caesar," iL 1. 187, we
find, " Take thought, and die for Csesar."

Trivial, very common. Lat. trivia^ a
place where three roads meet.

Tuition, guardianship. Lat. tuiiibf pro-
tection.

Uncouth, unknown.

Union, oneness ; or a pearl in which size,
roundness, smoothness, purity, lustre,
were united. See "Hamlet," v. 2.283.
A doublet is onion — so called fh>m its
shape.

Unkind, unnatural.

Urbane, living in a city. Lat urbs, a
city.

Usury, money paid for the use of a thing.

Yarlet, a serving-man. Low Lat. vasaa-
lettus, a minor vassal. Varlet and vaJet
are diminutives of vassal.

Vermin was applied to noxious animals
of whatever size. "The crocodile is
a dangerous vermin." Lat vermis^ a
worm.

Villain, a farm-servant Lat viHa^ a farm.

Vivacity, pertinacity in living ; longevity.
Fuller sx)eaks of a man as " most remark-
able for his vivacity, for he lived 140
years.**

Wit, knowledge, mental ability.

Worm., a seri)ent

Worship, to consider worth, to honour.

Wretched, wicked. A B. torseea, an out-
cast.

PAET 11.

COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, PARAPHRASING

AND PROSODY

HINTS ON COMPOSITION.

1. Composition is the art of putting sentences together.

(i) Any one can make a sentence ; but every one cannot make a sen-
tence that is both clear and neatw We all speak and write sentences
every day ; but these sentences may be neat or they may be clumsy —
they may be pleasant to read, or they may be dull and heavy.

(ii) Sir Arthur Helps says : ** A sentence should be powerful in its
substantives, choice and discreet in its adjectives, nicely correct in its
verbs ; not a word that could be added, nor one which the most fastid-
ious would venture to suppress ; in order, lucid ; in sequence, logical ;
in method, perspicuous.**

2. The manner in which we put our sentences together is
ealled style. That style may be good or bad; feeble, or vigorous;
elear'or obscure. The whole purpose of style, and of studying
style, is to enable us to present our thoughts to others in a clear,
forcible, and yet graceful way.

"Style is but the order and the movement that we put into our
thoughts. If we bind them together closely, compactly, the style be-
comes firm, nervous, concise. If they are left to follow each other
negligently, the style will be difiuse, slipshod, and insipid." — Buffok.

3. Good composition is the result of three things : (i) clear
thinking ; (ii) reading the best and most vigorous writers ; and
(iii) frequent practice in writing, along with careful polishing of
what we have written.

(i) We ought to read diligently in the best poets, historians, and
essayists, — ^to read over and over again what strikes us as finely or nobly
or powerfully expressed, — ^to get by heart the most striking passages in
a good author. This kind of study will give us a large stock of appro-
priate words and striking phrases ; and we shall never be at a loss for
. the right words to ezpreoi our own sanae.

176 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, BTO.

Ben Joxison says : " For a man to write well, there are required
three neoesaarieB : let him read the beet authors ; obserre the best
speakers ; and have much exercise of his own style."

(ii) ** My mother forced me, by steady daily toil, to learn long chapters
of the Bible by heart ; as well as to read it every syllable through, aloud,
hard names and all, from Qeuesis to the Apocalypse, about once a-year:
and to that discipline, — patient, accurate, and resolute, — I owe, not only
a knowledge of the book, but much of my general power of taking pains,
end th£ best part of my taste in literature." — John Ruskin.

(iii) But, though much reading of the best books and a great deal of
practice in composition are the only means to attain a good and vigorous
style, there are certain directions — ^both general and special — ^which may
be of use to the young student^ when he is beginning.

GENERAL DIRECTIOl^S.

4l We must know the subject fully about which we are going

to write.

(i) If we are going to tell a story, we must know all the circumstances *}
the train of events that led up to the result ; the relations of the persona
in the story to each other ; what they said ; and the outcome of the
whole at the close. These considerations guide us to

Practical Rule I. — ^Draw up on a piece of paper a short
skeleton of what you are going to write about

(i) Archbishop Whately says : '^The more briefly this is done, so that
it does but exhibit clearly the heads of the composition, the better ; be-
cause it is important that the whole of it be placed before the eye and
mind in a small compass, and be taken in, as it were, at a glance ; and it
should be written, therefore, not in aenteneeSf but like a table of contents.
Such an outline should not be allowed to fetter the writer, if, in the
course of the actual composition, he find any reason for deviating from
his original plan, — ^it should serve merely as a track to mark out a path
for him, not as a groove to confine him."

(ii) Cobbett says : ** Sit down to write fohai you have thought, and
not to think what you shall write"

5. Our sentences must be written in good Snglish.

Qood English is simply the EngUsh oi the best writers ; and we can
only learn what it is by reading the books of these writers. Good writers

GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 177

of the preyious century are such authors as Charles Lamb, Jane
Austen, Scott, Coleridge, Landor, Macaulay, Thackeray, Dickens*
Matthew Arnold, Froude, Kuskin, and George Eliot.

6. Our sentences must be written in pure English.

(i) This rule forbids the use of obsolete or old-fashioned words,
such as erst, peradventnre, hight, beholdenf sojourn, methinks, etc.

(ii) It forbids also the use of slang expressions, such as awfully,
jolly, rot, bosh, bunk, scoot, see with hoUfan eye, etc.

(iii) It ferbids the employment of technical terms, unless these are
absolutely neoessary to express our meaning ; and this is sure to be the
case in a paper treating on a scientific subject. But technical terms in
an ordinary piece of writing (unless with brief explanations), are
quite out of place.

(iv) In obedience to this rule, we ought also carefully to avoid the use
of foreign words and phrases. Affectation of all kinds is disgusting ;
and it both looks and is affected to use such words as cofnfrbrt, raisofn
d^Ure, amour propre, eongi, etc.

(y) This recommendation also includes the Practical Rule : '' When
an English-English (or * Saxon *) and a Latin-English word offer them-
selves, we had better choose the Saxon."

(vi) The following is from an article by Leigh Hunt : '* In the Bible
there are no Latinisms ; and where is the life of our language to be
found in such perfection as in the translaiion of the Bible ? We will
venture to affirm that no one is master of the English language who is not
well read in the Bible, and sensible of its peculiar excellences. It is the
pure well of English. The taste which the Bible forms is not a taste
for big words, but a taste for the simplest expression or the dearest
m^i/um of presenting ideas, HemarhaUe it is that most of the sublimities
in the Bible are conveyed in mjonosyUdbles, For example, * Let there be
light : and there was light.* Do these words want any life that Latin
could lend them ? . . . The best styles are the freest from Latinisms ;
and it may be almost laid down as a rule that a good writer will never
have recourse to a Latinism if a Saxon word will equally serve his purpose.
We cannot dispense with words of Latin derivation; but there should
be the plea of necessity for resorting to them, or we wrong our English."

(vii) At the same time, it must not be forgotten that we very often
are compelled by necessity to use Latin words. Even Leigh Hunt, in
the above passage, has been obliged to do so while declaiming against it.
This is apparent from the number of words printed in italics, all of
which are derived from Latin. This is most apparent in the phrase
equally serve his purpose, which we could not now translate into " pure "
English.

178

COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

7. Our sentences must be written in accurate Snglish*
That is, the words used must be appropriate to the sense we
wish to convey. Accuracy is the virtue of using "the right
word in the right place."

(i) ** The attempt was found to be impracticable." Now, vm^aeticaUe
means impossible of accomplishments Any one may attempt anything;
carrying it out is a different thing. The word used should have been
design or plarL

(ii) ** The veracity of the statement was called in question." Veracity
is the attribute of a person ; not of a statement.

(iii) Accurate English can only be attained by the careful study of the
different shades of meaning in words ; by the constant comparison of
synonyms. Hence we may lay down the

Practical Rule n. — Make a collection of synonyms, and
compare the meanings of each couple (i) in a dictionary, and
(ii) in a sentence.

The following are a few, the distinctions between which are
very apparent : —

AbstAin

Forbear.

Custom

Habit

Active

Diligent^

Delay

Defer.

Aware

Conscious.

Difficulty

Obstacle.

Character

Reputation.

Strong

Powerful.

Circumstance

Event

Think

Believe.

8. Our sentences should be perfectly clear. That is, the
reader, if he is a person of ordinary common-sense, should not
be left for a moment in doubt as to our meaning.

(i) A Roman writer on style says : '' Care should be taken, not that
the reader may understand if he will, but that he shall understand
whether he will or not"

(ii) Our sentences should be as clear as " mountain water flowing over
a rock." They should " economise the reader's attention."

(iii) Clearness is gained by being simple, and by being brief.

(iv) Simplicity teaches us to avoid (a) too learned words, and (h)
roundabout ways of mentioning persons and things.

(a) We ought, for example, to prefer —
Abuse to Vituperation. Neighbourhood to Vicinity.

Begin M Commence. Trustworthy n Reliable.

Commence n Initiate. Welcome n Reception.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 179

(6) We ought to avoid such stale and hackneyed phraaes as the
" Swan of Avon " for Shakespeare ; the " Bard of Florence " for
Dante ; " the Great Lexicographer *' for Dr Johnson.

(y) Brevity enjoins upon us the need of expressing our meaning in. as
few words as possible.

Opposed to brevity is yerbosity, or wordiness. Pope says —

" Words are like leaves ; and, where they most abound,
Mach fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."

(vi) Dr Johnson says : " Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.'"

9. Our sentences should be written in flowing English*
That is, the rhythm of each sentence ought to he pleasant to
the ear, if read aloud. This axiom gives rise to two rules : —

Practical Bnle lU — ^Write as you would speak !

(i) This, of course, points to an antecedent condition — that you musi
be a good reader. Good reading aloud is one of the chief conditions of
good writing. " Living speech," says a philosophic writer, " is the cor-
rective of all style."

Practical Rnle IV. — ^After we have w ritten our piece of com«

position, we should read it aloud either to ourselves or to some

one else.

Thus, and thus only, shall we be able to know whether each sentence
has an agreeable rhythm.

Practical Bnle V. — " Never write ahout any matter you do
not well understand. If you clearly understand all ahout your
matter, you will never want thoughts ; and thoughts instantly
become words." — Cobbbtt.

" Seek not for words ; seek only fact and thought,
And crowding in will come the words, unsought^" — Hobaos.

" Enow well your subject ; and the words will go
To the pen*s point, with steady, ceaseless flow." — Psntlanb.

10. Our sentences should he compact.

(i) That is, they ought not tx> be loose collections of words, but firm,
well-knit, nervous organisms.

(ii) A sentence in which the complete sense is suspended till the close
is called a period. Contrasted with it is the loose sentence.

180 COMPOSITION, PUNCTU^TIOirr ETC.

(a) Loom Senteneo. — The Puritans looked down with contempt on
the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests.

(6) Period. — On the rich And the eloquent, on nobles and priests,
the Puritans looked down with contempts

(iii) The following is a fine example of a loose sentence : '* Notwith-
standing his having gone, in winter, to Moscow, where he found the cold
excessive, and which confined him, without intermission, six weeks to
his room, we could not induce him to come home." This no more
makes a sentence than a few cartloads of bricks thrown loosely upon the
ground constitute a house.

EMPHASIS.

One object in style is to call the attention of the reader in a
forcible and yet agreeable way to the most important parts of
our subject — in other words, to give emphasis to what is
emphatic, and to make what is striking and important strike the
eye and mind of the reader. This purpose may be attained in
many different ways; but there are several easy devices that
wiU be found of use to us in our endeavour to give weight and
emphasis to what we write. These are : —

1. The ordinary grammatical order of the words in a sentence
may be varied ; and emphatic words may be thrown to the
beg^inning or to the end of the sentence. This is the device
of Inversion.

Thus we have, ''Blessed is he that oometh in the name of the
Lord." " Jesus I know, and Paul I know : but who are ye f " " Some
he imprisoned ; others he put to death.*' "Go he must I " " Do it he
shall I " " They could take their rest, for they knew Lord Strafford
watched. Him they feared, him they trusted, him they obeyed." " He
that tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes ; for, to
maintain one, he must invent twenty more." In the last sei^tence, the
phrase to mainiam one gains emphasis by being thrown out of its
usual and natural position. But

Oantion L — ^Do not go out of your way to invert It has a
look of affectation. Do not say, for example, " True it is," or
"Of Milton it was always said," etc. And do not begin an
essay thus : " Of all the vices that disfigure arid degrade," etc.

EMPHASIS. 181

2. The Omission of CJonjunctions gives, force and emphasis.

Thus Hume writes : ** He rushed amidst them with his sword
drawn, threw them into confusion, pushed his advantage, and gained a
complete victory." We may write : " You say this ; I deny it"

3. The use of the Imperative Mood gives liveliness and
emphasia

Thus we find the sentence : '* Strip virtue of the awful authority
she derives from the general reverence of mankind, and you rob her of
half her majesty." Here strip is equal to If^you strip ; but is much
more forcible.

4. Emphasis is also gained by employing the Interrogative
Form.

(i) Thus, to say " Who does not hope to live long ? " is much more
forcible and lively than "All of us hope to live long."

(ii) This is a well-known form in all impassioned speech. Thus, in
the Bible we find : " Your fathers, where are they ? And the prophets,
do they live for ever ? "

5. The device of Exclamation may also be employed to give
emphasis ] but it cannot be frequently used, without danger of
falling into affectation.

Thus Shakespeare, instead of making Hamlet say, " Man is a wonder-
ful piece of work," etc. — which would be dull and flat — writes, ** What
a piece of work is man 1 " etc.

6. Emphasis may be gained by the use of the device of
Periphrasis.

(i) Thus, instead of saying " John built this house," or " This house
was built by John," we can say : " It was John who built this house ;"
" It was no other than John who," etc.

7. Bepetition is sometimes a powerful device for producing
emphasis ; but, if too frequently employed, it becomes a tire-
some mannerism.

(i) Macaulay is very fond of this device. He says : " Tacitus tells a
fine story finely, but he cannot tell a plain story plainly. He stimulates
till stimulants lose their power." Again : " He aspired to the highest
— above the people, above the authorities, above the laws, above his
country."

182 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

(ii) Its effect in poetry is sometimes very fine : —

'* By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed :
fiy foreign hands thy decent limbs composed ;
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned ;
By strangers honooned, and by strangers mourned.**

8. The device of Suspense adds to the weight and emphasis
of a statement; it keeps the attention of the reader on the
stretch, hecause he feels the sense to be incomplete.

(i) The suspense in the following sentence gives a heightened idea of
the difficulty of travelling: "At last, with no small difficulty, and
after much fatigue, we came^ through deep roads, storms of wind and
rain, and bad weather of all kinds, to our journey's end."

{ii) This device is frequent in poetry. Thus Keats opens his ** Hy-
perion " in this way : —

" Deep in the shady sadness of a Tale,
Far sunken from the healthy breath of mom, '

Far fittm the fiery noon and eve's one star-
Bat grey-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone."

Here the verb is kept to the last line.

9. Antithesis always commands attention, and is therefore a
powerful mode of emphasising a statement. But antithesis is
not always at one's command ; and it must not be strained after.

Macaulay employs this device with great effect. He has: "The
Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain fx> the bear, but
because it gave pleasure to the spectators." Swift was very fond of it.
Thus he says : " The two maxims of a great man at court are, always to
keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.'* Dr Johnson has
this sentence : " He was a learned man among lords, and a lord among
learned men." *' He twice forsook his party ; his principles never."

10. A very sharp, sadden, and unexpected antithesis is called

an Bpigram.

(i) Thus Lord Bacon, speakingof a certain procession in Rome, says that
" The statues of Brutus and Cassius were conspicuous by their absence."
Macaulay says of the dirt and splendour of the Russian Ambassadors :
*' They came to the English Court dropping pearls and vermin.''

(ii) The following are additional instances of truths put in a very
striking and epigrammatic way: '* Verbosity is cured by a large vocab-
ulary" (because when you have a large stock of words, you will be
able to choose the fittest). '* We ought to know something of every-
thing, and everjrthing of something." " He was born of poor but dis-
honest parents." ** When you have nothing to say, say it." *<He

' DISTINCTNESS OF STYLE. 183

had nothing to do, and he did it" ** The better is the enemy of the
good." " One secret in education/' says Herbert Spencer, " is to know
how wisely to lose time.'* "Make haste slowly." "They did nothing
in particular ; and did it very welL"

(iii) But no one should strain after such a style of writing. Such an
attempt would only produce smartness, which is a fatal vice.

DISXmCTNESS OF STYLE.

1. One great secret of a good and striking style is the art of
Specification.

Professor Bain gives us an excellent example of a vague and gen-
eral, as opposed to a distinct and specific style : —

(a) Vague. — " In proportion as the manners, customs, and amuse-
ments of a nation are cruel and bforbarous, the regulation of their
penal codes will be severe. "

(6) Specific. — "According as men delight in battles, bull-fights, and
combats of gladiators, so wiU they punish by hanging, burnings
and crucifying."

2. Specification or distinctness of style may be attained in
two ways : (i) by the use of concrete terms ; and (ii) by the
use of detail.

3. A concrete or particular term strikes both the feelings
and imagination with greater force than an abstract or general
term can do.

(i) Let Us make a few contrasts : —

Abstract. Conckbte.

Quadruped. Horse.

Building materials. Bricks and mortar.

Old age. Grey hairs.

Warlike weapons. Sword and gun.

Rich and poor. The palace and the cottage,

A miserable state. Age, ache, and penury.

" I have neither the necessaries " I have not a crust of bread,

of life, nor the means of pro- nor a penny to buy one."

curing them."

(ii) Campbell says : '* The more general the terms are, the picture is
the fainter; the more special, the brighter." " They sank like Uad in
the mighty waters " is more forcible than " they sank like metaL"

184 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

4. Details enable the reader to form in his mind a vivid pic-
ture of the event narrated or the person described ; and, before
beginning to write, we ought always to draw up a list of such
details as are both striking and appropriate — such details as
tend to throw into stronger relief the chief person or event.

The following is a good example from the eloquent writer and
profound thinker Edmund Burke. He is speaking of the philanthro-
pist Howard : —

'* He has visited all Europe to dive into the depths of dungeons ; to plange
into the infections of hospitals ; to survey the nuuisions of sorrow and pain ;
to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and- contempt ; to
remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and
to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countriee."

GENERAL CAUTIONS.

L Avoid the use of threadbare and hackneyed expressions.
Leave them to people who are in a hurry, or to penny-a-liners.

Imbtbad ov Writi

At the expiration of four years. At the end, etc.

Paternal sentiments. The feelings of a father.

Exceedingly opulent. Very rich.

Incur the danger. Bun the risk.

Accepted signification. Usual meaning.

Extreme felicity. Great happiness.

A sanguinary engagement. A bloody battle.

In the ajQ&rmative. Yes.

2. Be very careful in the management of pronouns.

(i) Gobbett says: "Never put an U upon paper without thinking
well what you are about. When I see many if 8 in a page, I always
tremble for the writer" See also 2 Kings, xix. 85 : ''And when they
arose early in the momiog, behold they were all dead corpses."

(ii) Bolingbroke has the sentence : "They were persons of very moder-
ate intellects, even before they were impaired by their passions." The
last ihey ought to be theMe.

(iii) The sentence, " He said to his patient that if he did not feel
better in half an hour, he thought he had better return," is a clumsy
sentence, but clear enough ; because we can easily see that it is the
patient that is to take the advice.

SPECIAL CAUTIONS. 185

3. Be careful not to use mixed metaphors.

(i) The following is a fearful example : " This is the arrow of convic-
tion, which, like a nail driven in a sure place, strikes its roots downwards
into the earth, and bears fruit upwards."

(ii) Sir Boyle Roche, an Irish member, began a speech thus : " Mr
Speaker, I smell a rat, I see him floating in the air ; but, mark me^
I shall yet nip him in the bud." A similar statement is : *' Lord Eim-
berley said that in t&ing a very large bite of the Turkish cherry the
way had been paved for its partition at no distant day."

4. Be simple, quiet, manly, frank, and straightforward in
your style, as in your conduct. That is : Be yourself I

SPECIAL CAUTION'S.

L Aroid tautology.

Alison says: ''It was founded mainly on the entire monopoly of
the w?iole trade with the colonies." Here entire and wJiole are tauto-
logical ; for monopoly means entire possession, or possession of the whole,
" He appears to enjoy the universal esteem of all men." Here universal
is superfluous.

2. Place the adverb as near the word it modifies as you

can.

" He not only found her employed, but also pleased and tranquil
The not ovdy belongs to employed, and should therefore go with it.

3. Avoid circumlocution

"Her Majesty, on reaching Perth, partook of • breakfast." This
should be simply breakfasted. But the whole sentence should be recast
into : " On reaching Perth, the Queen breakfasted in the station."

4. Take care that your participles are attached to nouns, and
that they do not run loose.

"Alarmed at the news, the boat was launched at once." Here
alarmed can, grammatically, agree with hoai only. The sentence
should be: "The men, alarmed at the news, launched their boat at
once."

5. Use a present participle as seldom as possible.

(i) " I have documents proving this " is not so strong as " to prove
this."

186 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. *

(ii) **He dwelt a long time on the sd vantages of swift steamers, thus
accounting for the increase/' etc. The phrase *' thus accounting " is very
loose. Every sentence ought to be neat, fitm, and compact.

6. Kemember that "who is very often equivalent to and
he or for he ; while that introduces a merely adjectival clause.

" I heard it from the doctor, who told the gardener that-works-fdr-
the-ooUege." Here who^amd he; and thai introduces the adjectival
sentence.

7. Do not change the Subject of your Sentence.

(i) Another way of putting this is: '^PreeeiTe the unity of the
sentence ! "

(ii) ''Archbishop Tillotson died in this year. He was exceedingly
beloved both by King William and Queen Mary, who nominated Dr
Tenison to succeed him.'' The last statement about nomvMUing another
bishop has no natural connection with what goes before. ,

(iii) " After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was
welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kind-
ness." This sentence ought to be broken into two. The first should
end with on shore; and the second begin " Here I was met and, etc."

8. See that who or which refers to its proper antecedent.

" Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a yeoman,
to whom he left his second-best bed." Here the grammatical antece-
dent is yeoman; but the historical and sense-antecedent is certainly
daughter,

9. Do not use and which for which.

(i) " I bought him a very nice book as a present, and which cost me
ten shillingB." The and is here worse than useless.

(ii) If another which has preceded, of course and tohich is right.

10. Avoid exaggerated or too strong language.

Unprecedented, most extraordinary, inealetdable, boundless^ extremdyt
awfully f acandaloutf stupendous, should not be used unless we know that
they are both true and appropriate.

11. Be careful not to mix up dependent with principal
sentences.

''He replied that he wished to help them^ and intended to give
orders to his servants." Here it is doubtful whether intended is co-
ordinate with replied or with wished, U the former is the case, then
we ought to say Ae intended.

PUNCTUATION. 187

12. Be yery careful about the right position of each phrase
or clause in your sentence.

The following are curious examples of dislocations or misplace-
ments : " A piano for sale by a lady about to cross the Channel in an
oak case with carved ^egs." *' I believe that> when he died, Cardinal
Mezzofanti spoke at least fifty languages." " He blew out his brains
after bidding his wife good-bye with a gun. " '* Erected to the memory
of John PhillipSi accidentally shot, as a mark of afifection by his
brother." " The Board has resolved to erect a building large enough
to acconmiodate 500 students three storeys high." "ICr Carlyle has
taught us that silence is golden in thirty -seven volumes."

PUNCTUATION.

. 1. Certain signs, called points, are used in sentences to mark
off their different parts, and to show the relation of each part to
tiie organic whole.

(i) Putting in the right points is called punctnatlon, from the Latin
pwietum, a points From the same word come ptmchial and punetualUy,

2. These points are the fiill stop, the colon, the semioolon,

the dash, the conmia, and the points of interrogation and
admiration.

3. The ftill stop {*) ov period marks the close of a sentence.

4. The colon (:) introduces (i) a new statement that may
be regarded as an after-thought ; or (ii) it introduces a catar
log^e of things ; or (iii) it introduces a formal speecL

(The word col<m is Greek, and means lUnb or member.)

(i) " Study to acquire a habit of accurate expression : no study is
more important."

(ii) " Then follow excellent parables about fame : as that she gathereth
• strength in going ; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her
head in the clouds ; that in the day-time she sitteth in a watch-tower,
and flieth most by night." — Bacon.

(iii) *' Mr Wilson roM) and said : ' Su-, I am sorry/ etc."

5. The semicolon is employed when, for reasons of sound or
of sense, two or more simple sentences are thrown into one.

{Semicolon is Latin-Greek, and means Jialfa colon. )

(i) ** In the youth of a state, arms do flourish : in the middle age of

188 COMPOSITION-, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

a state, learning ; and then both of them together for a time ; in the
declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise." — ^Baook

(ii) Learn from the birds what foods the thickets yield ;
Leam from the beasts the physio of the field ;
Thy arts of building from the bee receiye ;
Leam of the mole to plough, the worm to weave." — ^PoFi.

6. The dash is used (i) to introduce an amplification or ex-
planation ; and (ii) two dashes are often employed in place of
the old parenthesis.

(i) " During the march a storm of rain, thunder, and lightning came
on — a storm such as is only seen in tropical countries."

(ii) "Ribbons, buckles, buttons, pieces of gold-laoe — any trifles he had
worn — were stored as priceless treasures."

7. The comnia is used to indicate a strong pause, either of
sense or of sound.

(i) It is true that the oonmia is the weakest of all our stops; but
there are many pauses which we ought to make in reading a sentence
aloud that are not nearly strong enough to warrant a comma.

(ii) It is better to understop rather than to overstop. For example,
the last part of the last sentence in the paragraph above might have
been printed thus : *' there are many pauses, which we ought to make,
in reading a sentence aloud, that are not nearly strong enough to war-
rant a comma." This is the old-fashioned style ; but such sprinkling of
commas is not at all necessary.

(iii) Two things are all that are required to teach us the use of a
comma : (a) observation of the custom of good writers ; and (b) careful
consideration of the sense and build of our own sentences.

(iv) The following are a few special uses of the comma : —

(a) It may be used in place of and : —

" We first endure, then pity, then emlmuse.'*

(6) After an address : " John, come here.^*

(«) After certain introductory adverbs, as however, at lenffih^ at
last, etc. " He came, however, in time to catch the train."

8. The point of interrogation (P) is placed at the end of a
question.

9. The point of admiration (!) is employed to mark a state-
ment which calls for surprise or wonder ; but it is now seldom
used.

FIGUBBS OF SPEECH. 189

FIGURES OP SPEECH.

1. The mind natuially tends, especially when in a state of

excitement, to the use of what is called figurative language.

It is as if we called upon all the things we see or have seen to

come forward and help us to express our overmastering emotions.

In fact, the external shows of nature are required to express the

internal movements of the mind ; the external world provides a

language for the internal or mental world. Hence we find all

language full of fLguxea of speech. Though we do not notice

them at the time, we can hardly open our mouths without using

them. As Butler says in his famous poem : —

" For Hudibras, — he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope." ^

We speak of a town heing stormed; of a clear head ; a Jiard
heart; mnged words 'j glomng eloquence; virgin snoWj & torrent
of words; the thirsty ground; the angry sea. We speak of
God's Word being a light to our feet and a lamp to our patL

2. This kind of language has been examined, classified, and
arranged under heads ; and the chief figures of speech are called
Simile, Metaphor, Fersonification, Allegory, Synecdoche,
Metonymy, and Hyperbole.

3. A Simile is a comparison that is limited to one point

''Jones fought like a lion." Here the single point of likeness

between Jones and the lion is the bravery of the fighting of

eacL

{SimUe comes from the Latin mnUiSf like.)

(i) ** His spear was like the mast of a ship." ** His salt^ ter^ striken
down like rain/' says Chaucer. "Apollo came like the night," says
Homer. "His words fell soft, like snow upon the ground," are the
words used by Homer in speaking of Ulysses. "It stirs the heart
like the sound of a trumpet" said Sir Philip Sidney in speaking of
the ballad of "Chevy Chase^" Tennyson admirably compares a miller
covered with flour to "a working-bee in blossom-dust.''

^ A trope — ^from Greek trSpot, a turning. A word that has been twmed
from its ordinary and primary use. From the same root oome tropio$
and tropicoL

190 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

4 A Metaphor is a simile witU the words like or as left out
Instead of saying ^' Koderick Dhu fought like a lion," we use a
metaphor, and say " He xoaa a lion in the fight."

(Metaphtyr is a Greek word meaning transference.)

(i) All language, as we have seen, is full of metaphors. Hence lan-
guage has been called "fossil poetry." Thus, even in very ordinary
prose, we may say, '*the wish is father to the thought; " "the news
was a dagger to his heart;" or we speak of the fire of passion; of a
ray of hope ; tkflcuh of wit ; a thought striking us ; anc^so on.

(il) By frequent use, and by forgetfulness, many metaphors have lost
their figurative character. Thus we use the words provide (to see
beforehand), ed^fy (to build up), express (to squeeze out), deteet (to
unroof), ruminate (to chew the cud), without tihe smallest feeling of
their metaphorical character.

(iii) We must never mix our metaphors. It will not do to say : ** In
a moment the thunderbolt was on them, deluging the country with
invaders." " I will now embark upon the feature on which this question
mainly hinges,**

(iv) Metaphors and similes may be mixed. Thus Longfellow : —

\r^i.^rA^r»> I ^® ^7 ^ ^oue ; and the darkness
jneiapnor, .. -^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^j^j^^

Simile J As a feather is wafted downward

» J From an eagle in his flight

(v) A metaphcu; ia a figure in which the objects compared are treated
by the mind as identical for the time being. A simile simply treats
them as resembling one another ; and the mind keeps the two carefully
apart.

5. Penoniilcation is that figure by which, under the influence
of strong feeling, we attribute life and mind to impersonal and
inanimate thinga

(i) Thus we speak, in poetic and impassioned language, of pale Fear ;
gaunt Famine ; green-eyed Jealousy ; and white-handed Hope. The morn-
ing is said to la/ugh; the winds to whisper; the oaks to sigh ; and the
brooks to pratUe,

(ii) Milton, in the ' Paradise Lost,' ix. 780, thus describes the fall of
Eve: —

" Bo saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching t/> the frait, she plncked, she ate f
Earth fiU the wound ; and Nature, from her seat,
Sighing through aU her works, gave signs of woe \

That all was lost"

FI6X7BES OF SPEECH. 191

Shelley's ' dond ' is one long personification.

(iii) When the personified object is directly addressed, the figure is
called Apostrophe. Thus we have, "0 Death, where is thy sting?
0 Grave, where is thy victory ? "

6. An Allegory is a continuous personification in the form of
a story.

(i) The genus is personification ; the dUforentia, a story ; and the
species is an allegory.

(ii) Milton's *• Death and Sin," in the tenth book of the ' Paradise
Lost,' is a short allegory. Spenser's 'Faerie Queene' and Bunyan's
' Pilgrim's Progress ' are long allegories.

(iii) A short allegory is called a F4l>le.

7. Synecdocli^ is that figure of speech by which a part is
put for the whole. Thus we say, in a more striking fashion,
tread instead of /ooti/ 2k cut-throat for a murderer; fifty sail for
fifty ships; all hands at work.

(i) Lear, in the height of his mad rage against his daughters, shouts,
** I abjure all roofs / "

(ii) The name of the material — as a part of the whole production — ^is
sometimes used for the thing made : as ccild tied for the svford ; the
mcirUe speaks ; the cawvat glows.

8. Metonsmiy is that figure of speech by which a thing is
named, not with its own name, but by some accompaniment.
Thus we say, the erovm for the king; the siwrd for physical
force,

(The word metonymy is a Greek word meaning ehange of names.)

We write the ermine for the ben(^ of judges; the mitre for the
bishops; red tape for official rotUine; a long purse for a grectt deal of
mxmey ; the bottle for habits of drunkenness.

9. Hyperbol^ or Exaggeration is a figure by which much
more is said than is literally true. This is of course the re-
sult of very strong emotion.

(i) Milton says : —

" So frowned the mighty c<nnbatantB, that heU
Grew darker at their frown."

(ii) Scott, in ' Eenilworth,' has this passage : " The mind of England's
Elizabeth was like one of those ancient Druidical monuments called

192 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

rooking-stones. The finger of Oupid, boy as he is painted, could put
her feelings in motion ; but the power of Hereuie» could not have de-
stroyed their equilibrium."

10. The following is a smumary of the chief of the. above
statements : —

1. A Figure of Speech employs a vivid or striking image

of something without to express a feeling or idea
within.

2. A Simile uses an external image with the word like.

3. A Metaphor uses the same image without the word like.

4. A Personification is a metaphor taken from a person or

Uving being.

5. An allegory is a continuous i>er8oniflcation.

PABAPHRASma.

1. Paraphrasing is a kind of exercise that is not without
its uses. These uses are chiefly two : (i) to bind the learner's
attention closely to every word and phrase, meaning and shade
of meaning; and (ii) to enable the teacher to see whether
the learner has accurately and fully understood the passaga
But no one can hope to improve on the style of a poem by
turning the words and phrases of the poet into other language ;
the change made is always — or almost always — a change for the
worse.

2. ' Passages from good prose writers are sometimes given out
to paraphrase, but most often passages from poetical writers.
The reason of this is that poetry is in general much more highly
compressed than prose, and hence the meaning is sometimes
obscure, for want of a little more expansion. The following
lines by Sir Henry Wotton, the Provost of Eton College, are
a good example of much thought compressed within a little
space: —

PARAPHRASING. 193

THE HAPPY LIFE.

1. How happy is he bom and taught
That serveth not another's will —
Whose armour is his honest thought.
And simple truth his utmost skill 1

2. Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death^-
Not tied unto the worldly care

Of public fame or private breath I

3. Who envies -none that chance doth raise.
Or vice ; who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise ;
Nor rules of state, but rules of good ;

4. Who hath his life from humours freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat ;
Whose state can neither flatterers feed,
Nor ruin make accusers great

5. Who God doth late and early pray
More of His grace than gifts to lend -,
And entertains the harmless day
With a well-chosen book or friend : —

6. This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall —
Lord of himself, though not of lands ;
And, having nothing, yet hath all.

3. Let us try now to paraphrase these lines — that is, to de-
velop the thought by the aid of more words. But, though we
are obliged to use more words, we must do our utmost to find and
to employ the most fitting. We must not merely throw down
a mass of words and phrases, and leave the reader to make his
own selection and to grope among them f;>r the meaning.

1. How happy, by birth as well as by education, is the man who is not
obliged to be a slave to the will of another — whose only armour is his
honesty and simple goodness, whose best and utmost skill lies in plain
straightforwardness.

2. How happy is the man who is not the slave of his own passioni,
whose soul is always prepared for death, who is not tied to the world
or the world's opinion by anxiety about his public reputation or the
tattle of individuals.

194 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

3. Happy, too,, because he envies no man who has been raised tp rank
by accident or by vicious means ; because he never understood the sneer
that stabs while it seems to praise ; because he cares nothing for rules
of expediency or of policy, but thinks only of what is good and right.

4. Who has freed himself from obedience to humours and to whims,
whose conscience is his sure stronghold ; whose rank is not exalted
enough to draw flatterers, or to tempt accusers to build their own
greatness upon his falL

5. Who, night and morning, asks God for grace, and not for gifts ;
and spends his day in the study of a good book or conversation with
a thoughtful friend.

6. This man is freed from the slavery of hope and fear — the hope of
rising, the fear of falling — ^lord, not of lands, but of himself ; and though
without wealth or possessions, yet having all that the heart of man need
desire.

THE GRAMMAR OP VERSE, OR PROSODY.

1. Verse is the form of poetry ; and Prosody id the part oi
Grammar which deals with the laws and nature of verse.

(i) Verse comes from the Latin vena, turned. Oratio versa was
" turned speech " — that is, when the line came to an end, the reader or
writer or printer had to begin a new line. It is opposed to oratio
prorsa, which means " straight-on speech " — ^whence our word prose. A
line in prose may be of any length ; a line in verse must be of the length
which the poet gives to it.

(ii) It is of importance for us to become acquainted with the laws of
verse. First, because it enables us to enjoy poetry more. Secondly, it
enables us to read poetry better — and to avoid putting an emphasis on
a syllable, merely because it is accented. Thirdly, it shows us how to
write verse ; and the writing of verse is very good practice in composition
— as it compels us to choose the right phrase, and makes us draw upon
our store of words to sulyititute and to improve here or there.

2. Verse differs from prose in two things : (i) in the regular
recurrence of accents; and (ii) in the proportion of un-
accented to accented syllables.

(i) Thus, in the line

In sn'swer nougpif could An'gns speak',
the accent occurs regularly in every second syllabla

TH£ 6BAMMAB OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 196

(ii) But, in the line

Mer'rilj, mer'rily, shall' we live noV,

the accent not only comes first, but there are two unaccented syllables
for every one that is accented (except in the last foot).

3. Every English word of more than one syllable has an
accent on one of its syllables.

(i) Begin,' f commend', attack^ have the accent on the last syllable,
(ii) ffap'pyj lafdy, iod'eome have the accent on the first syllablei

4. English verse is made up of lines ; each line of verse con-
tains a fixed number of a^scents; each accent has a fixed
number of unaccented syllables attached to it.

(i) Let us take these lines from * Marmion ^' (canto v.) ^ —

Each line here contains four accents ; the accented syllable comes last ;
each accented syllable has on« unaccented attached to it.

(ii) Now let us compare these lines from T. Hood's ** Bridge of Sighs " :

Toadi' her not | scom'ftilly,
Think' of her | monrn'Mly.

Each line here contains two accents ; the accented syllable comes first ;
and each accented syllable has two unaccented syllables attached to it.

5. One accented syllable + one or two unaccented, taken
together, is called a foot. A foot is the unit of metre.

Let X stand for an unaccentedy and a for an accented syllable^

6. One accented preceded by one unaccented syllable is
called an Iambus. Its formula is xa. — One accented syllable
followed by one imaccented is called a Trochee. Its formula
is ax.

(i) The following are iambuses : Perhaps' ; eondem/nf ; com/pd' ; v^A-
otti'/ ea/reer^^

(ii) The following are trochees : Oen'tU; rWer; Wdy ; rt^ven; tum'bU.

(iii) The following verse is made up of four iambuses — ^that is, it is
iambic verse : —

Twere long', | and need' | less, here' | to teD'
How to my hand these papers felL

196 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC.

(iv) The following verse is made up of four trochees — that is, it is
trochaic : —

In' his I chamnjer, i weak^ and | dying
Wm the Nonnan baron lying.

(▼) lam' I bics march' | from short' | to long'.

(▼i) Tro'ohee | trips' from | long' to | short' — | .

7. One accented syllable preceded by two unaccented is
called an Anapaset Its formula is xxa^ — One accented syl-
lable followed by two unaccented is called a DaotyL Its
f oimula is

(i) The following are anapessts: Serenadif ; dUappecar' ; eomprehendf ;
irUereed/,

(ii) The following are dactyls : iTap'jH^y; mer^rUy; iim'Uar; biVlowp,

(iii) The following lines are in anapaestic verse : —

I am mon' | arch of all' 1 1 survey'.
My right there is none to dispute.

(iv) With a leap' | and a bound' | the swift an' | apsests throng^ | •

(▼) The following are in dactylic verse : —

Oan'non to | rlghtf' of them |
Can'non to | leff of them (.

(a) The word dactyl comes from the Greek daktiUotf a fingeii
For a finger has on« long and two short joints.

(6) The word a/napcBit comes from two Greek words: pcUo,
strike, and (ma, back ; because it is the reverse of a dactyl.

8. The Anapaest belongs to the same kind or system of verse
as the Iambus ; because the accented syllable in each come« last
— ^The Dactyl belongs to the same kind or system of verse as
the Trochee ; because the accented syllable in each comes first

(ii) But we very seldom see a trochee introduced into an iambic line ;
or an iambus into a trochaic— except in the first foot.

9. An accented syllable with one unaccented syllable on each
Bide of it is called an Amphibrach. Its formula is

The word amphibrach comes from two Greek words : amphij on both
sides ; and hviehusy short. (Compare amphibunu.)

THB GRAMMAR OP ViaiSE, OR PROSODY. 197

(i) The following are amphibrachs : DetpoM^vng; almighfy; tremend^'
9m; deceitffuL

(ii) The following is an amphibrachic line : —

There came' to j the beach' a | poor ex'ile ] of E'rin |.

10. A verse made up df iambuses is called lambio Yerse;
of trochees, Troohaic ; of anapaests, AnapsBstic ; and of dactyls,
Dactylic.

IL A verse of three feet is called TrimSter; of four feet,

Tetrameter ; of five feet, Pentameter ; and of six f eet^ Hex-

ajxxeter.

(i) We find the prefixes of these words in Tricmgle; Tetrarch (a ruler
over A fourth part) ; Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) ; and Hexagon
(a figure with tix comers or angles).

12. By much the most usual kind of verse in English is
lajxxbio Versa

(i) lamlilc Tetrameter (4xa) is the metre of most of Scott's poems ;
of Coventry Patmore's "Angel in the House''; of Gay's Fables, and
many other poems of the eighteenth century.

(ii) Iambic Pentameter (6xa) is the most common line in English
verse. There are probably more than a thousand iambic pentameter
lines for one that there exists of any other kind. Iambic Pentameter is
the verse of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Dryden, of Pope, and
of almost all our greater English poets.

13. Ehymed Iambic Pentameter is called Heroic Verse ; un-
rhymed, it is called Blank Verse.

(i) Any unrhymed verse may be called blank — such as the verse em-
ployed by Longfellow in his ''Hiawatha" — but the term is usually
restricted to the unrhymed iambic pentameter.

(ii) Blank verse is the noblest of • all verse. It aeems the easiest to
write ; it U the most difficult. It is the verse of Shakespeare and Milton,
and of most of our great dramatists.

14. Iambic Trimeter consists of three iambuses; and its

formula is 3xa.

There is very little of this kind of verse in English* .

198 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, BTO.

ISl lunUc Tetrameter consists of four iambuses; and its

foimula is 4xa.

There is a good deal of this verse in English ; and most of it
is by Scott.

16. Iambic Tetrameter with Iambic Trimeter in alternate
lines — ^the second and fourth rhyming — ^is called Ballad Metre.
When used, as it often is; in hymns, it is caUed Servloe Metre.

They set him high upon a cart; = 4xa

The hangman rode below; =3xa
They drew his hands behind his back,=4xa

And bared his noble brow. =3xa

This is the metre of Macaula/s *Lays of Ancient Kome,' of
Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' and many other poems.
Scott mixes frequently, but at quite irregular intervals, the
iambic trimeter with the iambic tetrameter ; and this he called
the "light-horse gallop of verse."

Front, flank, and rear, the squadrons 8weep=4xa
To break the Scottish circle deep, = 4xa

That foughf | around' | their king.'=8xa

17. Iambic Pentameter consists of five iambuses; and its
formula is 5xa.

(i) The following is rhymed iambic pentameter : —

True wlf | is na' | tnre to' | adyan' | taga dreased/ I^Sxa

What off I was thought,' | but ne'er' | so well' | expressed.' |=5xa

(ii) The following is unrhymed iambic pentameter : —

The first extract is from Pope's "Essay on Criticism"; the
second from Shakespeare's " Julius Caesar."

1& Iambic Hexameter consists of six iambuses; and its
fonnula is 9za.

THE GRAMMAR OF VBRSE, OR PROSODY. 199

(i) The following is from Drayton's '* Pol/olbkm " : —

Upon the Midlands now the industrious muse doth fall, |=0xa
That shire which we the heart of England well may call. 1=^6 xa

The objection to this kind of verse is its intolerable monotony.
It pretends to be hexameter ; but it is indeed simply two tri-
meter verses printed in one long line. The monotony comes
from the fact that the pause is always in the middle of the line.
There is very little of this kind of verse in English. The line
of 6xa is also called an Alexandrine, and is used to close the
long stanza employed by Spenser.

19. Trochaic Tetrameter consists of four trochees ; and its
formula is 4 ax,

(i) The following is rhymed trochaic tetrameter : —

When the heathen trumpet's dang- |=4ax
Round beleaguered Chester rang, - |=4ax
Veiled nun and fHar graj- |=4ax
Marched from Bangor's fair abbaye- 1— 4ax

It will be noticed that each line has a syllable wanting to
make up the four complete feet. But the missing syllable is
only an unaccented syllable; and the line contains four ac-
cents. (The above extract is from "The Monks of Bangor's
March," by Scott.)

(ii) The following is unrhymed trochaic tetrameter : —

It will be observed that, in the above lines from Longfellow's
" Hiawatha," each trochee is complete ; and this is the case
throughout the whole of this poem. " Hiawatha " is the only
long poem in the language that is written in unrhymed trochees.

20. Trochaic Octometer consists of eight trochees; and its
formula is Sax.

(i) The chief example of it that we have is Tennyson's poem oi
"Locksley HaU":-

200 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC,

(ii) There is a syllable wanting in each line of ** Locksley Hall " ; but
it is only an unaccented syllable. Each line consists of eight accents.

21. Anapsstic Tetrameter consists of four anapsBsts; and
its formula is 4xxa.

(i) There is very little anapaestic verse in English ; and what little
there exists is written in tetrameter.

(ii) The following lines, from " Macgr^^ors' Gathering/' by Scott, is
in anapaestic verse : —

(iii) It will be observed that the first line begins with an iambus.
This is admissible ; because an iambus and an anapaest, both having the
accented syllable last, belong to the same system.

22. Dactylic Dimeter consists of two dactyls ; and its formula
IS 2axx.

(i) A well-known example is Tennyson's "Charge of the Light
Brigade."

Volleyed and | thun'dered. - | 2axx

(ii) It will be observed that the last two lines want a syllable to make
up the two dactyls. Such a line is said tobe=2axx- (minus).

(iii) Or we may say that the last foot is a trochee ; for a trochee and
a dactyl can go together in one line, both belonging to the same system
— both having their accented syllable flnt.

23. Dactylic Tetrameter consists of four dactyls ; and its for-
mula is 4axx.

(i) Bishop Heber's hymn is one of the best examples : —
Brighf est and | besf of the | sons' of the | mom'ing.

(ii) The last foot here again is a trochee.

(iii) There is very little of this kind of verse in English poetry.

24 Ajnphibrachic Tetrameter consists of four amphibrachs ;
and its formula is 4xax.

THE ORAMMAB OF yIRSE, OB PBOSODT. 201

(i) Campbell's well-known poem is a good example : —
There came' to | the heach' a | poor ex'ile | of B'lin.
(ii) Tkere are very few examples in English of this kind of verse.

25. The following lines by Coleridge give both examples and
descriptions of the most important metres explained in the pre-
ceding paragraphs. It must be observed that Coleridge uses the
term l&ng for accented; and short for unaccented syllables: —

Tro'chee | trips' from | long' to | shorf — |

From long to long in solenu^ sort,

Slow spon I dee^ stalks || strong' foot, yet | ill' able

E'yer to | come' up with | dac'tyl tri | syllable | .

lam' I bics march' | from sho'rt | to long' | ;

With a leap' | and a bound' | the swift an' | apsests throng' | ;

One syVla | ble long' with | one short' at | each side — | <

Amphi'brach | ys hastes' with | a stately | stride.

26. A verse with a syllable ovei and above the number of
feet of which it consists is called Hypermetrioal.

(i) Thus, Coleridge has, in his '* Ancient Mariner " —

As Id I le as I a paint | ed ship |
Upon I a paint | ed o | cean. (huper)

Here the syllables tion and eecm are over from the iambic trimetei
verse, and the line is therefore said to be' hypermetricaL

27. A verse with a syllable wanting to the number of feet
of which it consists is said to be defective.

(i) Thus, in Scott's " Monks of Bangor"—

SlaogVtered | down' by | heath'en | bladeT - | 4ax - '
Ban'gor's | peace'ful | monks' are | laid'. - } 4az-

we find a syllable wanting to each line. But that syllable is an un<
accented one ; and the verse consists of four trochees minus one syllable,
or 4ax-.

(ii) Oantioni — Some persons confuse the defectiye with the hyper-
metrical line. Thus, in the verses —

the syllable tpair is not hypermetricaL An unaccented syllable is
wanting to it ; and the lines are 4ax defective or minus.

^ A tpondee consists of two long or accented syllables. It is a foot not
employed in English ; but it exists in the two words amen iid farewell.

202 COMPOSITIOK, PUNCTUATION, KTCr

RHYME.

28. Bhyme has been defined by Milton as the ''jingling
sound of like endings." It may also be defined as a corre-
spondence in sound at the ends of lines in poetry.

(i) Rhyme is properly spelled rime. The word originally meant vvum-
her; and the Old English word for arithnetio was rime-craft. It
received its present set of letters from a confusion with the Greek word
rhythm, which means 9kfiowvng,

(ii) Professor Skeat says '' it is one of the worst-spelt words in the
language." "It is," he says, "impossible to find an instance of the
spelling rhyme before 1550." Shakespeare generally wrote rime,

29. No rhyme can be good unless it satisfies four eondition&

These are : —

1. The rhyming syllable must be accented. Thus ring'

rhymes with sing'; but not with thirikfing.

2. The vowel sound must be the same — to the ear, that is ;

though not necessarily to the eye. Thus lose and close
are not good rhymes.

3. The final consonant must be the same. {Mix and tricks

are good rhymes ; because x^ks.)

4. The preceding consonant must be difierent.

Beat and feet ; jump and pump are good rhymes.

30. The English language is very poor in rhymes, when
compared with Italian or German. Accordingly, half-rhymes
are admissible, and are frequently employed.

The following rhymes may be used : —

Sun. Love. Allow. Ever, Taste.

Gbne. Move. Bestow. River. Pastb

THE O^SUBA. 203

THE CiESTJRA,

31. The rhythm or musical flow of verse depends on the
varied succession of phrases of different lengths. But, most of
all, it is upon the CsBsuras and the position of the Caesura,
that musical flow depends.

The word ecB$ura is a Latin word, and means a cviting.

32. The Caesura in a line is the rest or halt or break or
pause for the voice in reading aloud. It is found in short as
well as in long lines.

(i) The following ia an example from the short lines of * Marmion '

(vl 382) :—

H More pleased that | in a barbarous age
8| He gave mde Scotland | Virgil's page,

1 Than that | beneath his role he held

2 The bishopric | of fair Dunkeld.

It will be seen from this that Sir Walter Scott takes care to vary the
position of the caesura in each line — sometimes having it after 14 feet,
sometimes after 2 ; and so on.

(ii) The following is an example from the long lines of the ** Lycidas "

of Milton : —

Milton, too, is careful to vary the position of his caesura ; and most of
the music and much of the beauty of his blank verse depend upon the
fact that the caesura appears now at the beginning, now at the middle,
now at the end of his lines ; and never in the same place in two con-
secutive verses.

(iii) Of all the great writers of English verse, Pope is the one who

places the caesura worst — worst, because it is almost always in the

same place. Let us take an example from his ''Rape of the Lock"

(canto I) : —

2 The busy sylphs B surround their darling care,
2 These set the head, | and thesedivide the hair ;
2 Some fold the sleeve, | whilst others plait the gown ;
2 And Betty's praised | for labours not her own.

And so he goes on for thousands upon thousands of verses. The symbol
of Pope's caesura is a straight line ; the symbol of Milton*s is " the line
of beauty " — a line of perpetually varying and harmonious curves.

204 COMPOSITION, PTTNCTUATION, BTa

THE STANZA.
33. A Stanza is a group of rhymed lines.

The word comes from an old Italian word, sUmtUif an abode.

34 Two rhymed lines are called a couplet ; and this may be
looked upon as the shortest kind of stanza.

(i) The most usual couplet in English consists of two rhymed iambic
pentameter lines. This is called the '* heroic oonplet."

35. A stanza of three rhymed lines is called a triplet.

(i) A very good example is to be found in Tennyson's poem of " The
Two Voices," which consists entirely of triplets : —

" Whatever crazy sorrow saith,
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death."

36. A stanza of four rhymed lines — of which the first (some-
times) rhymes with the third, and the second (always) with
the fourth — ^is called a quatrain.

(i) The ordinary ballad metre consists of quatrains — that is, four
lines, two of iambio tetrameter, and two of iambic trimeter.

(ii) A quatrain of iambic pentameters is called Elegiac Verse. Th€i
best known example is Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard."

37. A stanza of six lines is called a sextant.

(i) There are many kinds. One is used in Hood's '* Dream of Eugene
Aram," which is written in 4xa and 3xa ; the second, fourth, and sixth
lines rhyming.

(ii) Another in Whittier's " Barclay of Ury^" which has the first and
second lines, the third and sixth, the fourth and fifth, rhyming with
each other.

(iii) Another in Lowell's "Tussouf," which has the first and third
lines, the second and fourth, and the fifth and sixth rhyming.

38. A stanza of eight lines is called an octave, or ottava
rima.

(Pronounced oUahva reema.)

39. A stanza of nine lines is called the Spenserian stanaa^
because Edmund Spenser employed it in his " Faerie Queene,"

THE STANZA.

205

(i) The first eight lines of this stanza are in 5xa ; the last line, in 6xa.
(ii) The rhymes run thus : abab ; bcbcc.

40. A short poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines — with
the rhymes arranged in a peculiar way — is called a sonnet.

(i) This is a form which has been imported into England from Italy,
where it was cultiyated by many poets — ^the greatest among these being
Dante and Petrarch, both of them poets of the thirteenth century.
The best English sonnet-writers are Milton, Wordsworth, and Mrs
Browning.

(ii) The sonnet consists of two parts — an octave (of eight lines), and
a sestette (of six). The rhymes in the octave are often varied, being
sometimes abba, acca: those in the sestette are sometimes abc, abc,
or ababcc.

(iii) Shakespeare's ** Sonnets " are not formed on the Italian model,
and can hardly be called sonnets at all. They are really short poems of
three quatrains, ending in each case with a rhymed couplet.

(iv) The following is Wordsworth's sonnet on " The Sonnet *' : —

/"Scorn not the Sonnet; critic, you have frowned a

I Mindless of its Just honours : with this key b

< I Shakspeare unlocked his heart ; the melody b

§ / Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound ; a

J A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound; a

With it OamSens soothed an exile's grief; o

The sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf o

^Amld the cypress with which Dante crowned a

Is visionary brow; a glow-worm lamp d

It cheered mild Spenser, called from &iryland e

To struggle through dark ways ; and when a damp d

Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand e

The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew /

Soul-animating strains— alas, too few I " /

EXERCISEa

EXERCISE I. (The Alphabet, p. 5).

1. Show the difference between a rowel and a consonant ; say
which are the Tpwels in the following words : young, wonder, toorih,
hypercritical, ahaUmi&us, ytU, iota; and name the diphthongs, if
any, in eontintums, idea, ehoeing, join; oasis, reason, porous, variety,
spontaneity.

2. How are consonants classified ? Select the dentals and gutturals
from the following words : dog, gate, getUle, truth, thank, hog,
gymnastic, pneumatict drink, conquered; and select the palatals and
labials from the following words: Jch, Benjamin, archiepiscopaie,
bdeliium, method, psalm, yacht,

3. Distinguish between mutes and spirants ; and show which are
the dental and which the palatal spirants in scissors, rush^ shawl,
zealously, laziness, azimuth, zephyr, harass.

4. Change as many as you can of the following into corresponding
sharp sounds : bad, dove, dig, bag, balhe, gad, beg, Jude, dug, Jove,
gab, jug ; and reduce the following sharp sounds to flat : pack, buck,
cat, set, trick, chick, pet,

5. What are the characteristics of a true alphabet? Prove our
alphabet faulty ; and say which are the redundant letters.

EXERCISE IL (Nouns, p. 9).

1. How are nouns classified? Define abstract nouns; and classify
the nouns in the following : —

(a) " Come forth into the light of things,

Let nature be your teacher."-^ Wordsworth,

(b) " Welcome, learn'd Cicero ! whose blessed tongue and wit

Preserves Rome's greatness yet." — Cowley,

(d) *' Poictiers and Cressy tell.

When most their pride did swell." — Drayton.

(e) Parliament was prorogued. The troop returned to barracks.
The jury disagreed.

2. Make abstract nouns of true, noble, young, king, pcUient, man^
lord, intrude, rogue, slave, poor, domain, catechise, exemplify,

207

208 EXEROISES.

EXERCISE IIL (Nouns, ik ay.

Classify the nouns in the following:—

(a) <* Young Henry met the foe with pride ;

Jane followed, f onght ! ah, hapless story I
In man's attire, by Henry's side,
She died for love, and he for glory.'* — T, Dibdiik

(h) " Though I fly to Istamboul,

Athens holds my heart and souL" — Byron,

(c) *< The time I 'ye lost in wooing^
In watching and pursuing
The light that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing." — T, Moore,

{d) '* Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never leam'd to stray.'' — Orap,

EXERCISE IV. (Gender, p. 11).

1. Define gender ; and give the different ways in which gender is
marked.

2. Give the gender of Londoner^ chiefs aehor, actor, debtor, sailor,
kitten, sheep, charity, knave, moon, ant, spouse, bee, laundress.

3. Give the masculine of spinster; doe, slut, ewe, bride, baxter, kus,
czarina, vixen ; and the feminine of widower^ patron, drake, marquis^
■gander, frio/r, sire, benefactor, executor, nephew, earL

EXERCISE V. (Number, p. 15).

1. Define number ; and give the chief ways of forming plurals.

2. Supply the plurals of chUd, chief, cloth, calf, horse, IhUchnan,
German, trout, fly, solo, monkey, index, boot, foot, House of Parliament,
mouse, lily, turkey, gas, box, genius, canto, penny, crisis. Miss Foote,
lady-help, relief, dye, buoy, spoonful,

3. Write the singulars of kine, slieep, radii, series, data, dice,
analyses, cherubim ; and distinguish between pecise and peas, brothers
and brethren, dies and dice, geniuses And genii.

4. Justify the use of each of the following : memorandums, indices,
bandits, funguses, seraplis ; and state the number of each of the nouns
in the following : —

(a) " The audience were too mucl& interested." — Scott,
(6) ** The garrison only bestow a few bolts on it." — Id,
(c) '* The House of Lords were so much influenced." — Hume,
id) ** All his tribe are blind." — Bunyan,

EXERCISES. 209

EXERCISE VI. (Number, p. 15).

State the kind and number of each of the nouns in the
foflowing : —

(a) <* He sees that this great round-about,
The world with all its motley rout, —
Church, army, physic, law,
Its customs and its businesses.
Is no concern at all of his.'' — Cotoper,

{b) ** The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new.

And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears." — SeoUm

(c) " A look of kind Truth, a word of Goodwill,
Are the magical helps on Life's road ;
With a mountain to travel they shorten the hill.
With a burden they lighten the load.*'

-—Eliza Cook.

EXERCISE VIL (Revision).

1. Give the kind and gender of the nouns in the
following : —

(a) " A baby was sleeping, its mother was weeping.

For her husband was far on the wild raging sea." — S, Lover,

(5) " Perhaps that very hand, now pinion'd flat,

Has hob-a-nobb'd with Pharaoh, glass to glass ;

Or dropp'd a halfpenny in Homer's hat.
Or dofiPd thine own to let Queen Dido pass.

Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,

A torch at the great Temple's dedication.'' — Hortice Smith.

2. Give the kind and number of the nouns in the
following : —

(a) '* Britannia needs no bulwark.

No towers along the steep." — Campbell.

(b) ** He spoke of the grass, and flowers, and trees.

Of the singing birds, and the humming bees.

Then talkeid of the haying, and wonderM whether

The cloud in the west would bring foul weather."—^. O. WhUtier,

EXERCISE VIII. (Case, p. 19).

1. Define case ; say for which cases nouns are inflected, and what
determines the nominative case.

2. Define nominative absolute, giving an example ; and show the
two ways of denoting the possessive case.

3. Define cognate object, and say why dative objects are so oalled.
Give examples to illustrate your answer.

4. Give the meaning ot/actUive as applied to the objective case f
and say what is meant by an adverbial object.

210 EXSBOISES.

fiXERCISE IX. (Gate, p. 19). »

Select the nouas in the nominatiye case in the following :—

1. The bloom falls in May.

2. The ostriches' heads were not to be seen. i

3. « The kine," said he, « I'U quickly feed."

4. The kine were fed. i

5. The captain falling ill, the boatswain took charge.

6. A wandering minstrel am I.

7. Here lies tbe body of a noble man.

8. Richard, they say, was cruel. [

9. The bell ringing, the children assembled.

10. Richard, William's son, was killed in the New Forest.

1 1. A number of sheep, losing their way, fell orer the precipice. j

12. Rattle his bones over the stones.

13. The guide falling ill, the trarellers had to rely on his dog.

14. Ah I Charlie, my son, you cheer your old mother !

EXERCISE X. (Case, p. 19).

Write out the nouns in the objective case in each of the
following sentences : —

1. Britannia rules the wares.

2. I beg your pardon.

3. To-night no moon I see.

4. How many birds did they catch ?

5. The king conferred with the generaL

6. The children laughed at the squirreL

7. Let me die the death of the righteous.

8. The crooked oak I '11 fell torday.

9. A liar who can trust ?

10. We know a tree by its fruit.

1 1. He told a good tale.

12. The boy sneered at the idea.

13. Richard slew his godfather, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,
the kingmaker.

EXERCISE XI. (Case, p. 19).

Write the following in the ordinary possessive form :—

1. The bark of a dog.

2. The twitter of the swallows.

3. The books of John.

4. The spades of the workmen.

5. The studies of James.

6. The scissors of Miss Cissy Mosea.

7. The lute of Orpheus.

8. The sword of Achilles.

9. The subscriptions of the ladies.
10. The death of the Marquis of Londonderry,

EXERGISKS. 211

11. The cries of the babies.

12. The mttrriage of Richard, Earl of Cambridge.

13. The innocence of the lilies.

14. The heitd of a sheep.

15. The tails of sheep.

16. The jubilee of Victoria, Queen of England.

17. The sake of my conscience.

EXERCISE XII. (Case, p. 19).

Give particulars of the cases of each of the nouns in the
following ; —

1. Toll for the brave.

2. Flaxen was his hair.

3. Ho, gunners ! fire a loud salute.

4. Give the man a draught from the spring.

5. The parson told the sexton, and the sexton toU'd the belL

6. Boys, you deserve to have a holiday given you.

7. It is very like a whale.

8. In this place ran Cassius* dagger through.

9. He paid him the debt for couscience' sake.

10. The king's baker dreamed a dream.

1 1. The lady lent the boy <' Robinson Crusoe.''

12. Bid your wife be judge.

13. The Count of Anjou became leader.

14. Joan seemed a holy woman.

15. Charles appointed Buckingham commander.

16. Let the actors play the play.

17. John walked two hours and travelled seven miles.

18. How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough.

19. I have a sixpence, but no pennies.

20. Benjamin, Joseph's own brother, Jacob's youngest son, was
kept a prisoner.

EXERCISE XIII. (Case, p. 19).

State fully the cases of the nouns in the following : —

1. The sergeant choosing the tallest, the other recruits dispersed.

2. Old Kaspar's work was done.

3. William, sing a song.

4. She made the poor girl a dress.

5. She knitted all day.

6. The tide floated the vessel.

7< The boy swam his little boat.

8. Let the king be your leader.

9. A small hole will sink a ship.

10. Let bygones be bygones.

11. It rains, it hails, it blows, it snows,
Methinks I 'm wet thro* all my clothes.

212 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XIV. (Nouns).

Parse fully all the nouns occurring in the following i^^

(a) ** Underneath this sable hearse

Lies the subject of all yerse,

Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother." — Ben Jonson.

(b) " His house was known to all the vagrant train ;

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain." — OokUmUK

When He, who all commands,
Shall give, to call Ufe's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands." — C. Dibdin,

EXERCISE XY. (Pronouns, p. 23).

1. Define a pronoun ; give its derivation ; and say what yon
understand by a personal pronoun.

2. What are the only pronouns that can be used in the vocative
case ; and which person alone takes distinction of gender ?

3. Define an interrogative pronoun ; and distinguish between who
and what, ye and you^ thy and thine, and me and myself,

4. Explain the chin which, the m in whom^ the ther in whether, and
the t in it,

5. Define a distributive pronoun ; and say when reflexive pronouns
are used.

EXERCISE XVI. (Pronouns, p. 23).

Give the kind, gender^ number, person, and case of each
of the pronouns below : —

(a) ''I am monarch of all I survey,

My right there is none to dispute.'* — Cowper,

(6) " You yourself are much condemn'd." — Shakespeare,

(d) " You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case." — Shakespeare,

(e) " Each had his place appointed, each his course.*' — MUton,

(J) *' Of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles.*'

^BiUe,

{g) "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides." — Cowper,

lilXERGISES. 213

EXERCISE XVII. (Pronoung, p. 23).

Write in two columns the relatives and antecedents in the
following : —

(a) " To know

That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom." — Milton,

{h) " Who steals my purse steals trash." — Shakespeare,

(e) '* He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things, both great and small" — Coltridge,

{d) ''Freedom has a thousand charms to show.

That slaves, however contented, never know." — Cowper,

(«) ** Vain, very vain, my weary search to find

That bliss which only centres in the mind." — Goldsmith,

(/) *' Be strong, live happy, and love ; but first of all,
Him whom to love is to obey.'' — Milton*

EXERCISE XVIII. (Pronouns, p. 23).

Parse fally the relatives and their antecedents in the
following : —

(a) ** Whoever loVd, that lov'd not at first sight ? " — Shakespeare.

(6) " There were none of the Grograms but could sing a song, or
«f the Marjorams but could tell a story." — Ooldsmith,

{d) " Let such teach others, who themselves excel."— Pop*.

EXERCISE XIX. (Revision).

Parse fully the nouns and pronouns in the following :—

(a) " The place that she hath chosen out.
Herself in to repose,
Had they come down, the gods no doubt
The very same had chose.'' — Drayton,

{b) '*So, Willy, let you and me be wipers

Of scores out with all men, especially pipers :

And, whether they pipe us free from rats or fron^ mice,

If we Ve promised them aught, let us keep our promise."

— Browning.

EXERCISE XX. (Adjectives, p. 28).

1. Define an adjective ; and show, with examples, the twofold
function of an adjective.

2. Name the kinds of adjectives ; and give the derivation of each
name.

214 EXERCISES.

3. Say in what ways quantitative adjectives may be used ; and how
numeral adjectives may be classified.

4. What adjectives are inflected for number ; and what for com-
parison ?

5. State how the comparative is formed ; and distinguislx between
furihtr and farther, older and elder, later and IcUter,

6. Write the ordinals of one^ two, three, four^ fa^tVi eighty twenty^
hundred ^ five, twelve,

^ EXERCISE XXI. (Adjectives, p. 28).

Classify the adjectives in the following: —

1. ''In the body politic, as in the natural body, morbid languor
succeeds morbid excitement." — Ma>caulay,

2. " So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs." — Milton.

3. ** His ain coat on his back is.*' — Old Song,

4. "He was a ready orator, an elegant poet, a skilful gardener,
an excellent cook, and a most contemptible sovereign." — Oibbon.

5. " Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." — Young,

6. " You gave good words the other day of a bay courser I rode."
— Shakespeare,

7. '*The poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the richest
man." — Bunyan,

8. "Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond compare above all
living creatures dear." — Milton,

9. " Fox beat half the lawyers in the House at their own weapons."
— Maeaulay,

EXERCISE XXII. (Adjectives, p. 28).

Parse fully all the adjectives in the following : —

1. "The better part of valour is diseretiost ; in the which better
part I have saved my life." — Shakespeare.

2. " Act well your part ; there all the honour lies.*' — Pope,

3. "The greater the new power they create, the greater seeips
their revenge against the old." — Bulwer,

4. " It was a very low fire indeed for such a bitter night. "--^DicibeffA.

5. " Some three or four of you go, give him courteous conduct to
this place." — Shakespeare,

6. " Many a carol, old and saintly, sang the minstrels." — Longf^Uow,

7. ** The morning comes cold for a July one," — Carlyle,

8. " I *11 fill another pipe."— iSfeme.

EXERCISE XXni. (Adjectives, p. 28).

1. Compare the following adjectives where they admit of it : stotUj
thin, marvellous, ealm, shy, ladylike, gentlemanly, wet, honourable^ dead,
near, full, prim, lovely, clayey, happy, sady solar,

2. Write the positive of next, mxyre, inner, last, least, firsts inmost^
better ; and the superlative of evil, late, much, iU, good.

EXERCISES. 215

EXERCISE XXiy. (Adjectives, p. 28).

Parse fully the adjectives in the following : —

1 . '* That sun that warms you here shall shine on me." — Shakespeare,

2. **Oan the false-hearted boy have chosen such a tool as yonder
fellow ? " — Dickens,

3. ' * Look here, upon this picture, and on this ; the counterfeit
presentment of two brothers." — Shakespeare,

4. '* My father lived at Blenheim then, yon little stream hard by."
— Souihey.

5. ** The oracles are dumb ;
No voice or hideous hum
Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving."^— 3ft Aon.

EXERCISE XXV. (Revision).

Parse the nouns and adjectives in the following : —

(a) " Lord ! Thou dost love Jerusalem,
Once she was all Thy own :
Her love Thy fairest heritage,

Her power Thy glory's throne. "^Jlfoorc.

(6) *'A8 proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather have gone
upon my handiwork." — Shakespeare,

EXERCISE XXVI (Revision).
Parse the pronouns and adjectives in the following : —

(a) " 0, Sir, to wilful men,

The injuries that they themselves procure
Must be their schoolmMters." — Shake$peare,

(b) " True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learned to dance." — Pope,

Who said that thou wert sold?" — Mrs, Norton,

EXERCISE XXVn. (The Verb, p. 34).

1. Befine a verb and a transitive verb ; and name the ways in
which an intransitive verb may become transitive,

2. What is an auxiliary, and why are auxiliaries necessary ? Illui*
trate your answer by examples.

3. Say what you understand by voice; what are the only verbs
that can be in the passive voice ; and how the passive voice is
formed.

216 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XXVIII. (ClasBification of Verbs, p. 35).

Classify the verbs in the following into transitive and in*
transitive : —

(a) " I think, articulate, I laugh and weep,

And exercise all the functions of a man ;
How then should I and any man that lives
Be strangers to each other ? " — Cowper,

(&) '* A thing of beauty is a joy for ever ;
Its loveliness increases ; it will never
Pass into nothingness." — Keats.

^1 things, both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all." — Coleridge,

EXERCISE XXIX. (Classification of Verbs, p. 35).

Arrange the following verbs as prepositional or causative : —

1. The magistrate swore in the constables.

2. The goodness of the soil soon raised a crop.

3. I have spoken to a man who once baited a hook and drew in
a pike.

4. The gardener will fell the tree, and lay out the borders.

5. The pirates having jeered at the threats, sank the ship.

6. Some of the children will fly kites, others swim boats.

7. Tom will run his pony up and down.

8. They glory in little faults, wink at great ones, and cough down
the remonstrances of the wise men.

EXERCISE XXX. (Voices of Verbs, p. 39).

Rewrite the eight sentences in the foregoing exercise in
the passive voice.

EXERCISE XXXI. (Tenses of Verbs, p. 41).

Give particulars of the tense of each of the verbs in the
following : —

(a) '*The king is come to marshal us, all in his armour drest."

— Macaulay,

(6) '' I would not have beUeved it unless I had happened to have
been there." — Dickens,

(d) You are fighting a shadow.

(«) I shall have had enough of this.

EXERCISES. 217

(/) Why came ye Uther ?

{g) Knew ye not what they had lost ?

(A) We know not, neither do we care.

(t) A man who had lost hii way, stopped till a boy came saunter-
ing along.

(k) "Am I in the right road for London? " said the man.

(0 " Yes," was the reply; "but you will not get there till you
have walked twelve miles."

(m) " I have been walking three hours already, and I shall have
been travelling a whole day ere I reach my journey's end."

EXERCISE XXXII. (Moods of Verbs, p. 38).

State the* mood of each of the verbs in the following, and
distinguish between the different sorts of infinitives.

(a) ** I dare do all that may become a man ;

Who dares do more is none." — Shakespeare.

(h) "Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway.

And fools who came to scoff remained to pray." — OoldsmitK

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this." — Shakespeare,

{d) **1 watched the little circles die." — Tenvyson,

{e) **1 am ashamed to observe you hesitate." — Scott,

(/) *' Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands ;
Curtsied when you have, and kissed,
(The wild waves hist)
Foot it featly here and there." — Shakespeare,

EXERCISE XXXIII. (Auxiliary Verbs, p. 48).

Select the auxiliaries from the following sentences, and
show the force of each : —

(a) ** I did send to you for gold." — Shakespeare,

(b) "The lark has sung his carol in the sky,

The bees have humm'd their noontide lullaby." — Sogers,

(e) *' He was — whatever thou hast been.

He is — what thou shalt be." — Montgomery,

[d) 1 shall be drowned if none will save me !

(e) Will he not come again ?

(/) We have been thinking over the matter.

{g) He could have been there had he wished to have been seen by
his old friends.

218 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XXXIV. (Strong and Weak Verba, p. 43).

Arrange the verbs in Exercises XXXII. and XXXIII. as
strong or weak.

EXERCISE XXXV. (Verb "To be, "p. 60).

1. Say of what rerbs the verb be is made up, and give the four
ways in which this verb is used.

2. State the use of 6e in each of the following instances :—

(o) ** Whatever is, is right."— Pope
(6) Thou art the man.
(c) I shall be there.
{d) They are to resign.
(«) David was a bold man.

(/) The men will be chosen by lot. •

{(j) He is gone to his grave.

{h) **Be off! "cried the old man to the boys who were teasing
him.

EXERCISE XXXVL (Mood and Tense AuxUiaries, p. 53).

1. Name the mood auxiliaries and the tense auxiliaries, and give
the limitation of each.

2. Why are can and may called defective verbs ?

3. In what tense is the verb must never us^d? What was the
original meaning of the word, and what is its present idea?

EXERCISE XXXVIL (Adverbs, p. 67).

1. Define an adverb ; and say in what two ways adverbs may be
classified, illustrating your answer by examples.

2. Give the cUssification of adverbs according to their meaning,
and show the twofold function of a conjunctive adverb.

EXERCISE XXXVIII. (Adverbs, p. 67).

Arrange as simple or conjunctive the adverbs in the
following : —

1. Come where the moonbeams linger.

2. Where are you going ?

3. Where the bee sucks, there suck I.

4. Come in.

6. Look out ! Here comes the beadle, so let us run.

6. Who's there?

7. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows.

8. Then out spake bold Horatius.

9. I love my love because my love loves me.

10. Verily here are sweetly scented herbs, therefore will we set xm
down awhile till our friends leisurely return.

EXERCISES. 219

EXERCISE XXXIX. (AdverlMi, p. 57).

Classify the adverbs in the following :— ^

(a) " Once again we '11 sleep Becure.'* — Shakespeare,

{b) ** Mf father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by." — Southey,

The circle of my glory." — SJ^akespeare.

{d) '* Now the great winds shoreward blow,

Now the salt tides seaward flow." — Af, Amokk

(«) " We no longer believe in St. Edmund." — Carlylt.

(/) " What so moves thee all at once ? " — Coleridge.

{g) " Vex not thou the poet's mind." — Ttnnywn,

EXERCISE XL. (Adverbs, p. 67).

t^arse the adverbs in the following : —

(a) '* The solemn peaks but to the stars are knowti, —

But to the stars, and the cold lunar beams." — M. Arnold,

(6) " My life is spaon'd already." — SKaheapeare.

(d) *' Not all the pearls Queen Mary wears.

Nor Margaret's still more precious tears,
Shall buy his life a day." — ScotL

(e) *' Why holds thine eye that melancholy rheum ? "

— Shaktspeare.

(/) A very inquisitive child once saucily asked of an exceedingly
needy-looking man, " Where do you most generally dine ? " Immedi-
ately the all but actually starving man replied somewhat sadly^ though
quite smartly withal, "Near anything I may get to eat."

EXERCISE XU. (Revision).

Parse fully the nounsi verbs, and adverbs in the follow-
ing :—

(a) " Go out, children, from the mine and from the city.
Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do :
Pluck your handfuls of the meadow cowslips pretty,
Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through."

— Mrs* Browning.

{h) <*None of us yet know, for none of us have. yet been taught in
early } outb, what fairy palaces we uiay build of beautiful thought —
proof against all adversity." — Buskin.

220 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XLIL (Prepositions, p. 58).

Select the prepositions in the following, and say what they
connect and govern : —

1. In the comer of the box near the bench behind the door, is the
picture of a man without a coat to his back.

2. Notwithstanding he had returned with wood, they sent for some
more.

3. The lady in violet is in mourning.

4. Respecting the scholars, all but (Suurles read through the chapter
concerning Galileo.

5. Whom are you writing to ?

6. Come in, Puss, to your kittens.

7. That is the book I spoke about.

EXERCISE XUIL (Prepositions, p. 68).

1. Define a preposition ; and say what words are affected by pre«
positions.

2. Give a list of simple prepositions ; and show the composition of
the fallowing prepositions : hut, beside, after, until, aboard, henecUh,
amonQy beyond.

EXERCISE XLIV. (Conjunctions, p. 60).

1. Define a conjunction, and distinguish between co-ordinate and
subordinate conjunctions.

2. Classify the conjunctions in the following : —

(a) *< My hair is grey, but not with years,
Nor grew it white
In a single night." — Byron,

(&) " Neither a borrower nor a lender be." — ShaJceapeairt,

(d) " Man never is, but always to be blest." — Pope,

(e) " Must I then leave you ? " — Shakespeare,

(/) " Wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought." — Young,

{g) '* I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown ; yet it was not a
crown neither." — Shakeapeart,

EXERCISE XLV. (Syntax, p. 64).

1. Define syntax ; and state into what two parts it may be
divided.

2. State the principal concords existing in the English language;
and name the chief instances of government.

EXERCISES. 221

EXERCISE XLVI. (Syntax of Noun, p. 64).

Give full particulars of all nominatives in the following
quotations^ —

(a) " So work the honey bees,

Creatures that by a rule in nature teach

The art of order to a peopled kingdom.'' — Shakespeare,

(6) " A white wall is the paper of a fool." — O, Herbert.

{d) *' Thus now alone he conqueror remains." — Spenser.

(e) " Ho I gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be
bright. " — Macaulay,

EXERCISE XLVII. (Syntax of Noun, p. 67).

Explain the possessives in the following : —

(a) " She sent the deathless passion in her eyes

Thro' him, and made him hers, and laid her mind
On him, and he believed in her belief." — Tennyson.

(b) *' Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend

His actions', passions', being's use and end." — Pope.

Thackeray.

{d) ** Though dark be my way, since He is my guide,

'Tis mine to obey, 'tis His to provide." — J. Newton,

EXERCISE XLVIII. (Syntax of Noun, p. 68).

Give full particulars of all the objectives in the following ; —

(a) '' There were some that ran, and some that leapt
Like troutlets in a pool." — Hood,

(6) '* He has two essential parts of a courtier, pride and ignorance. "

— Ben Jonson.

(e) '' Clearing the fence, he cried ' Halloo ! ' "

{d) '* They made him captain, and he gave them orders to sail the
boat six leagues south of the point."

EXERCISE XLIX. (Syntax of Adjective, p. 71).

Classify the adjectives in the following in accordance with
the two ways in which they are used : —

(a) '* When I was dry with rage and extreme toil.
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd." — STiakespeare,

222 EXERCISES.

(6) " Still more majestic shalt thou rise,

More dreadful from each foreign stroke ;
As the load blast that tears the skies

Serves but to root thy native oak." — Thomson,

EXERCISE L. (Syntax of Adjective, p. 71).

1. In what way is a participle an adjective ; and what function of
a verb does it retain ?

2. Say all that is necessary of the adjectives below : —

(a) ** Each horseman drew his battle blade,

And furious every charger neighed." — Campbell,

(h) " He made me mad

To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet,

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman.'* — Shakespeare,

Nature in her sublimest dress arrayed." — E, FoskeU,

{d) " Into the valley of death

Rode the six hundred." — Tennyson,

(e) *' A form more fair, a face more sweet,

NeVr hath it been my lot to meet." — J, O, Whittier,

EXERCISE LL (Syntax of Pronoun, p. 74).

Show the agreement of the pronouns with the nouns they
represent in the following : —

(a) " On she came with a cloud of canvas.

Right against the wind that blew." — Coleridge,

(b) " Who said that I had given thee up ?

Who said that thou wert sold ?" — Mrs, Norton,

And I lov'd her that she did pity them." — ShaJsespeare/

{d) " The eye — it cannot choose but see ;
We cannot bid the ear be still ;
Our bodies feel, where'er they be.
Against, or with our wHV*:— Wordsworth,

EXERCISE LII. (Syntax of Pronoun, p. 74).

Show the concords of the antecedents and relatives in the
following : —

(a) ** Now glory to the Lord of HMts, from whom all glories are."

— Macaulay.

BXSROISES. 323

(b) *' THis sword a dagger had, his page,

That was bat little for his age." — Butler,

Whosa murmur invites one to sleep." — S?ien$Ume,

{d) ** Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful son

Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun." — Pope.

EXERCISE LIII. (Syntax of Verb, p. 76).

Show the concord of each verb in the following with its
subject, and quote the rule in each case : —

(a) « I sing the birth was bom to-night,

The author both of life and light." — Ben JoMon,

[b) '< Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude. " — ShaJceapeare,

(e) ** Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ?" — Qray,

(d) " Our company were now arrived within a mile of Highgate."

— Fielding.

(e) ** Neither a borrower nor a lender he.^^—ShaJctspeart,

EXEBOISE LIV. (Syntax of Verb, p. 78).

Arrange m two columns the governing verbs and their
objects in the following : —

(a) " He gave to misery all he had, a tear." — Gray.

{h) " They made me queen of the May." — Tennyson,

— Hofuee Smith,

{d) " Past all dishonour,
Death has left on her

Only the beautiful."— - 21 Hood,

(«) ** Methinks we must have known some former state."

— L, E, Landon,

(/) ''To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.

And read their history in a nation's eyes,
Their lot forbade. "—Gfmy.

224 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE LV. (Syntax of Verb, p. 80).

Grive the mood of each verb in the following, adding any
explanatory remark you think necessary : —

(a) ' ' Had I a heart for falaehood framed,
I ne'er could injure you." — Sheridan.

(6) " The good of ancient times let others state ;

I think it lucky I was born so late. " — Sydney SmUh,

(c) '* Oh, then, while hums the earliest bee,
Where verdure fires the plain,
Walk thou with me, and stoop to see
The glories of the lane ! ''—Eb. MlioH.

{d) " They make obeisance and retire in haste.
Too soon to seek again the watery waste :
Yet they repine not — so that Conrad guides,
And who dare question aught when he decides ? " — Byron,

EXERCISE LVI. (Syntax of Verb, p. 81>.

Distinguish between gerundial and simple infinitiyes in the

following : —

(a) ** To gild refined gold, to paint the lily.
To throw a perfume on the violet.
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or With taper light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish.
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." — Shakespeare.

{h) '^ To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold.

Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold :
For this the tragic muse first trod the stage.
Commanding tears to stream through every age." — Pope,

(d) "Man never is, but always to be blest." — Pope,

(e) " Better dwell in the midst of alarms." — Cowper,

EXERCISE LYII. (Syntax of Adverb, Preposition, and

Conjunction, p. 83).

Grive the rules of syntax relating to adverbs, prepositions,
and conjunctions; and use the adverbs, prepositions, and
conjunctions in the following to illustrate your answer : —

(a) ' < A second man I honour, and still more highly : him who is
seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable ; not daily bread, but
the bread of life." — Cdrlyle.

£X£RCIS£S. 225

{b) '* This Only grant me, that my meant may lie

Too low for enyy, for contempt too high." — Condey*

(c) " A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye ;
Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heavens espy." — O, Herbert

ANALYSIS.

EXERCISK r. ^'Analysis — A Sentence, p. 86).

1. Define a sentence ; and say of what two parts it must consist,

2. Of what may the subject of a sentence consist ? Give examples.

3. Define a predicate ; and state what is necessary for the com-
pletion of some predicates.

EXERCISE II. (AnalysiB--The Subject, p. 88).

Arrange in columns the subjects in the following, and say
of what each consists : —

(a) The potato is wholesome.

(b) Eat it.

{d) " Hurrah ! " rang frOm the ranks.

(e) The lazy take most pains.

(/) Thinking leads to action.

(g) To learn meagrely means to beg eagerly,

(h) Who loves not liberty ?

(t) Amassing wealth oft ruins health.

(k) ''Bravo!" shouted the audience.

(Q Laughing is oontagiaus.

EXERCISE III. (Analysis— The Predicate, p. S9),

Select the predicates in the following, and say of what
each consists : —

(a) A cheery old soul lives here.

(b) It rains.

(e) A live dog is better than a dead lion.
(d) 1 am Aot the king.

226 EXERCISES.

(e) The idle procrastinate.

(/) The dead alone are happy.

ig) We are all here.

(A) Charity beareth all things,

(t) Heroes die once.

{k) No one loves a coward.

EXERCISE IV. (Analysis— The Object, p. 91).

Select the objects in the following, and say of what each
consists : —

(a) We loved him dearly.

{h) The preacher cries ** Prepare I **

(d) Cats love to lie basking.

(e) Each man plucked a rose.
(/) Who does not love singing ?'

(g) Friends dislike saying good-bye f

{h) Him they found in great distress.

{%) He destroyed alL

(k) She left none behind.

{I) One sailor saved the other.

(m) One good tarn deserves another

EXERCISE V. (Analysis— The Object, p. 92).

Select the objects in the following, distinguishing between
direct and indirect : —

(a) Give the knave a groat.

(b) Thrice he offered him the crowa*

(e) He handed his daughter down-stairs.

{d) They handed the visitors programmes.

(e) The weather promises the anglers fine sport.

(/) The boatswain taught the midshipman swimming.

(g) Grant us a holiday.

(h) The fox paid the crow great attention.

(t) Thomas posted his uncle a letter.

(k) The sailor-boys often bring their friends curiosities,

if) Play the children a tune.

EXERCISES.

227

FORMS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES

SCHEME I.

Subject.

Predicate.

Ol^ect

The SOD

shines.

The soldiers

were brave.

A good son

obeys

his parents.

Ripe corn-fields

always rejoice

the farmer's heart

The child

appears ill.

SCHEME n.

Snbjeet

Bnlaisvment.

Predicate.

Eztemdon.

Olitlect. BnlazgeBMUt

^omi>Bon

the carpenter

mended

very soon

the gate

broken.

The company

ofhnntsmen

hadtidcen

early next
momiug

departure

their.

The princes

of Europe

have found

recently

apian

better.

Parmenio

the Grecian

had done

onoe

something

pleasing to
the multi-
fcude.

SCHEME in.

1. MandMuller

2. on a summer's day,

3. Kaked

4. the meadow

6. sweet with hay.

1. But

2. knowledge

3. to their eyes

4. her ample
6. page,

6. Rich with the spoils of time

7. did unroll

8. ne'er.

MUenaion of predicate (3).

Predicate,

Object.

Enlargement qfotjeet (4).

(connective word).

Subject.

Extension c/ predicate (7).

Enlargement qf object (6).

Object.

Enlargement of object (5).

Predicate.

ExtwHon qf predicate (7).

228

EXXBCISSa

SCHEME IV.

An&lym: —

" Those who are conversant with books well know how often they
mislead us, when we hare not a living monitor at hand to assist us in
comparing theory with practice. '* — Junius.

Those
who

are conversant witii
books
well
know
how often
they
mislead
us,
when
we
have
not

a living
monitor
at hand

to assist us in comparing
theory with practice.

A, Principal sentence.

B, Adjective sentence to (A) (1).

C. Noun sentence to {A) (6).

D. Adverbial sentence to (0) (9).

Subject (6).

SuJbject (3).

Predicate ( = understand).

Object (3).

Hxtengion of manner (6).

PredicaU,

Extension c/time (9).

Subject (9).

Predicajte,

Object (9).

(Conjunction)*

Subject (13).

Predicate.

Extension o/negaHon (13).

Enlargement (16).

Object (13).

Extejision of place (13).

Enlargement (16).

ili
«

^ III

•i

i 'iJ. ill

8 8ES SS S S

ill ill!

i ■ ii

bh IfPHf

230 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE YI. (Analysis— Revirion).
Analyse the following aocording to Scheme L

a) Cowards fear themselves.

h) Swimming teaches self-reliance.

c) To labour is to pray.

d) " Beware/* said the sentry.
' ) The bells are chiming.
/) Stop. ^
g) Plumbers stop the leaks.
h) The field yields the farmer a fortune.
i) Here we are.

k) The child brought the invalid a garland,
/) Phoebus loves gilding the corn-fields.

EXERCISE VIL (Analysis— Enlargements, p. 94).

Of what may enlargements consist 1 Point out the enlarge-
ments in the following, and say of what kind each is : —

(") A good little girl sat under a tree,

( /) A desire to excel actuates Smith, the foreman.

(d) Feeling sorry, he gave the poor old fellow a hearty meal.

(e) William, the captain of the school, knowing the game, taught

the new scholars the rules.
(/) Remembering your duty, visit the sick.

EXERCISE VIII. (Analysis— Extensions, p. 95).

Select the extensions in the following, and say of what each
consists : —

(a) Sweetly sing soft songs to me.

(6) In a whisper she gave them the order.

(e) Inch by inch the spider travelled.

(d) I come to bnry Caesar.

(e) Listen patiently to hear the nightingale.
(/) The tide came creeping up the beach.
{g) The old man walks with two sticks.

EXERCISES. 231

EXERCISE IX. (Analysia— Kevision).

Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme II. :—

(a) " I will make thee beds of roses." — (7. Marlotoe,

{h) *' Then came the Autumn all in yellow dad." — Spemer*

My staff of faith to walk upon. " — Raleigh

(d) <<Thu8 clad and fortified. Sir Knight

From peaceful home set forth to fight.** — BtUkr,

EXERCISE X. (Analysis— Revision).

Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme II. : —

(a) '*Dear Thomas, didst thou ever pop

Thy head into a tinman's shop ? " — M, Prior,

(&) '* One morning a Peri at the gate

Of Eden stood, disconsolate." — T, Moore*

Shall start from every wave." — Campbell,

{d) ** The castled crag of Drachenfels

Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine." — Byron^

EXERCISE XI. (Analysis— Revision).

Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme
III. :—

(a) ** Sometime we '11 angle in the brook,

The freckled trout to take." — M. Drayton,

(6) " The shepherd swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May morning." — C Mariotoe

On fools and villains ne'er descend." — Johnson,

EXERCISE XII. (Analysis— Revision).

Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme
III. :—

(a) " Through the trembling ayre

Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play." — ^jpeiwer.

{b) '* Close by the regal chair

Fell Thirst and Famine scowl

A baleful smile upon their baffled guest." — Oray.

232 EXERCISES.

Threaded together on time's string,

Make bracelets to adorn the wife

Of the eternal glorious king. " — Oeorge fferhert,

{d) <* With beating heart to the task he went." — SeoU.

EXERCISE XIIL (Analysis— Revision).
Expand the adjectives in the following into phrases : —

{a) A merciful man considers bis beast.
{b) The mistress scolded the lazy servant,
(e) A ragged man went down the lane.
{d) The plague carried off the young ones,
(e) Numerous birds were found dead*
(/) Sailors dislike a dead calm.

EXERCISE XIV. (Analysis— Revision),
Expand the adverbs in the following into phrases :—

(a) Green seldom tries the eye.

(b) The soldiers rested there.

(d) 111 weeds grow apace.
{e) Dead dogs never bark.

(/) Come quickly.

EXERCISE XV. (Analysis— Complex Sentence, p. 102).

1. Define a complex sentence; and state in what three ways
subordinate sentences can occur.

2. Say what is meant by a subordinate sentence, and show how
subordinate sentences can be co-ordinate.

3. Make the following simple sentences complex by expanding the
adjective into an adjectival sentence : —

(a) Empty vessels make the most noise.

(b) The kitchen clock keeps time.

(d) A hard hand often owns a soft heart.

(e) The relentless reaper destroyed the lovely bloom*
(/) A modest violet grew in a shady bed*

EXERCISES. 233

EXERCISE XYI. (Analyau— -Complex Sentence, p. 104).

Make subordinate sentences by the expansion of the adverbs
in the following : —

(a) He writes legibly.

(6) The king behaved shamefully.

{d) Men often think themselves immortal.

(e) Demosthenes gradually be<*ame free of speech,

(/) Stephenson overcame difficulties bravely.

EXERCISE XVn. (Analysis— Complex Sentence, p. 106X

Change the subjects or objects in the following into
sentences : —

(a) To love one's child is natural.

(&) Carelessness brings its punishment.

(e) Being deserving should precede success.

{d) Reigning in peace is more glorious than dying in war«

(e) Borrowing means sorrowing.

(/) Lending is not always befriending.

EXERCISE XVIII. (Analysis— Compound Sentence, p. 111).

1. Define a compound sentence ; and say how co-ordinate sentences
are sometimes contracted ?

2. Analyse the following compound sentences according to Scheme
II. :—

(a) ** Of conversation sing an ample theme,

And drink the tea of Heliconian stream." — Chatterton,

(b) ** Come forth into the light of things.

Let Nature be your teacher.'' — Wordmvorth,

EXERCISE XIX. (Analysis— Compound Sentence, p. 111).

Analyse the following compound sentences according to
Scheme II. : —

(a) *'He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes.

He kissed their drooping leaves." — Longfellow,

{b) '* On piety, humanity is built ;

And, on humanity, much happiness." — Young,

(<•) '*0n the green bank I sat and listened long "^^Dryden.

(d) " O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,

Through all the wide Border his steed was the best.
And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none ;
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. "-^<co<<.

234 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XX. (Analysifl—Reyision).
Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme lY. ;—

(a) " The harp that once through Tura's halls

The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara*8 walls
As if that soul were fled." — Moore,

(b) "The autumn winds rushing

Waft the leaves that are searest.
But our flower was in flushing

When blighting was nearest.'' — SeoU,

And smiled in her face, while she bended her knee,

' Oh ! blessed be that warning, my child, thy sleep adorning,

For I know that the angels are whispering with thee."

•^S. Lover,

EXERCISE XXI. (Analysis— Revision).
Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme Y. : —

(a) " Ah 1 yet, e'er I descend into the grave.

May I a small house and large garden have !
And a few friends, and many books, both true.
Both wise, and both delightful too 1 " — Cowley,

(6) " King ye the bells, ye young men of the town,
And leave your wonted labours for this day :
This day is holy ; do you write it down.

That ye for ever it remember may." — Drayton,

(c) *' This above all — to thine own self be true ;
And it must follow, as the night the day.
Thou canst not then be false to any man." — Sliakespeare,

EXERCISE XXIL (Analysis— Revision).
Analyse, as in the preceding : —

(a) " Take physic, pomp ;

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel ;
That thou may'st shake the superfluz to them,
And show the heavens more just." — Shakespeare.

{h) ** That man is freed from servile bands,
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath alL" — WoUon,

For then we know how vain it was to boast

Of feeling things too certain to be lost." — WaUtr,

EXERCISES. 235

EXERCISE XXIII. (Aiialysu->ReTi8ioii)u
Analyse, as before : —

(a) *' Let me tell the adventurous stranger,
In our calmness lies our danger ;
Like a river's silent running,
Stillness shows our depth and cunning." — Dur/eff,

(&) '* Presently my soul grew stronger ; hesitating then no longer,
* Sir, ' said I, ' or madam, truly your forgiveness I implore ;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tltpt>ing, tapping at my chamber door.
That I scarce was sure I heard you.' "^Poe,

WOED-BUILDING

EXERCISE L (Word-building, p. 116),

1. State exactly what is meant by a root ; and distinguish between
roo^ and stem,

2. What are prefixed and suffixes ? Give a general rule for their use.

3. Define a hybrid, and explain compound as applied to words.
Illustrate your answer by examples.

4. Say of each of the syllables of the following words whether it is
a prefix, a suffix, a root, a derivative, or an inflexion : tm-lavD-fulf
nuUe<hild'ren, dis-lik-tng, sJiorl^ght-ed, ink-stand, man-serv-cmi.

EXERCISE IL (Word-building— Compounds, p. 116).

Show that the following words are compounds of two nouns : —
Monday^ wheatfield, rainbow, homestead, keystone, Ladyday^
Michaelmas, costermonger, steamship, sheriff, viceroy, and drake.

EXERCISE III. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 117).

Of what Part of Speech is each of the words of the following com-
pounds?—

Whetstone, outlay^ shepherd, soft-soap, nightmare, backbone^ scap^
grac^^ lady, whea^tar, fieldfare, upstart, kh^ steward.

EXERCISE IV. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 117).

In the following compound adjectives say to what CIom <f Word
each part belongs : —

Sky blue, stiffnecked, Lord-Mayor4ike, overreaching, stoneeold, siark^
mad, weather-beaten, threadbare, wardrobe, hairsplitting, icebound, awe»
stricken, footsore.

236 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE y. (Word-bnUding— Compounds, p. 118).

Whftt other Parts of Speech hare been used to make np the
following compound verbs ? —

Ou^facCf handcmfi clearstarch, outnumber, whUetoaah, ingaAher,
outbid.

EXERCISE VI. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 118).

Comment on each of the following adverbs : —
Needs, ahoard, ({float, wdl, thither, how, withal, albeit, seldom, rather,
whilst, whence.

EXERCISE YII. (Word-building— English Prefixes, p. 119).

Show the force of each of the prefixes in the following words : —
Unloose, unihanjtfvl, forehead, bewail^ withdrew, misrepresent, begrime,
wanhope, gainsay, behoof, forlorn, benighted, atone.

EXERCISE VIII. (Word-building— English Prefixes, p. 120),

Justify the use of the prefixes in the following by the meaning of
each word : —

Engrave, offcast, overdone, inmost, overland, underpay, outcome^
thoroughfare, embalm, overstep, welfare.

EXERCISE IX (Word-building^Latin Prefixes, p. 120).

Name the prefixes in the following, showing, where necessary, the
assimilation : —

AUure, acdaim, abstract^ absolve, assume, affront, aspire, attract,
arrest, aggravate, address, pardon.

EXERCISE X. (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p^ 123).

Show the force of the prefixes m-^^iped, ambient, circumnavigate,
anticipate, coeval, desuetude, cispontine, transit, countenance, country*
dance, corrode, desiccate, emigrate, extramural.

EXERCISE XI. (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p. 123).

Account for the variations from the original prefix in each of the
following : —

I>iffer, irregular, impending, illiberal, ignoble, embrace, occur, sedition.

EXERCISES. 237

EXERCISE XII. (Word-buUding— Latin Prefixes, p. 128).

Show the value of the prefixes id the following : —

Interlude^ nonpareil ^fnalef actor , international, intramural^ penumhraf

remit, occasion, permeate, oblige, post-obit, predicate, retrovert, preterite^

secure, prevent.

EXERCISE XIII. (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p. 123).

Explain the prefixes, noting the cases of assimilation : —
Vicar, suffer, surfeit^ viscount, traduce, trespass, succeed, unified, sub'
trahend, segregate, succumb, ultramarine, superhuman, svffix, surface,

EXERCISE XIV. (Word-building— Prefixes, p. 123).

Give instances of in becoming il, %r, im, ig ; and of ob becoming oc,
o/, o, op. State a general rule for such changes.

EXERCISE XV. (Word-building— Greek Prefixes, p. 126).

Select the prefixes, and justify the use of each : —

Epidemic, endemic, autonomy, eclectic, dyspepsia, archiepiscopal,

diatonic, cataclysm, apostasy, antipathy, anagram, catastrophe, eccentric,

perimeter,

EXERCISE XVL (Word-building— Greek Prefixes, p. 126).

Show the value of the prefixes in — monologue. Pantheon, syllable^
metathesis, periosteum, hyposulphite, programme, hyperbole, hemiplegia,
euphony, synthesis, Polynesia, monarchy,

EXERCISE XVIL (Word-building— EngUsh Suffixes, p. 128).

Give the root and the suffix in each of the followiug : —
Fodder, trickster, thrift, baxter, penmanship, hammock, loveliness^
straddle, sapling, chippings, sisterhood, carter, starling, collier, sawyer,

EXERCISE XVIIL (Word-building- English Suffixes, p. 128).

Explain fully the suffixes in the following : —

Mitten, earldom, stealth, breadth, handicraft, rimecrnft, drunkard,
laddie, hardship, haft, spindle, shuttle, brazier, whiting, hilt, handle,

EXERCISE XIX. (Word-buUdiug— EngUsh Suffixes, p. 128).

Show the effect of the suffix, by giving the meanings of the follow-
ing words : —

Frolicsome, knotty, drowned, clayey, woollen, leeward, awkward,

scornful, shamefaced, saintlike, knavish, friendly, Spanish^ bootless^

sweetish, scuttled^ glad, left,

238 EXERCISB&

EXERCISE XX. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 128).

In the following adverbs show the force of the suffixes, noting
hybrids in passing : — '

Always, straightway, candidly, dtdy, once, mysUrumdy, nowise,
stdkUy, stealthily, sidelong, seldom, peculiarly.

EXERCISE XXI. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 128).

Show the effect of the suffix in each of the following verbs : —
Sialk, snivel, falter, strengthen, Jlush, twitter, dribble, trundJe, gush,
glister, blush, draggle,

EXERCISE XXII. (Word-bnilding— Latin and French Suffixes, p. 134).

In the following nouns show the value of each suffix : —
Actor, testament, brigandage, librarian, consonant, guttural, resident,
r€uliance, patrimony, tension, lapidary, graduate, conduct, presbytery.

EXERCISE XXIII. (Word-building— Revision).

Explain each of the component parts of the following hybrids : —
Colour, froXLty, bigamy, atonement, oddment, bondage, starvation,
foreigner, bilingualism, unjustly, grandfather, martyrdom, ungrateful,
handkerchief, unconceitedly, falsehood, demigod, witticism, unacted, art-
ful, Cockneyism, BouxUerise, blackguardism^ cerecloth, druggist, surname.

EXERCISE XXrV. (Word-building— Revision).

What are the following pairs of words called ? Potion and poison ;
cadence and chance. Give the corresponding word to each of the
following : benison, chaUels, malediction, channel, hotel, redemption ;
and give the meanings of the suffixes.

EXERCISE XXV. (Word-building— Revision).

Give the meaning of each of the suffixes in the following ad-
jectives : —

Arabesque, ratable, torrid, mundane, sequent, peninsular, riparian,
aromatic, ductile, pedantic, submissive, feminine, virulent, jocose, valC'
dictory, mx>ribund, umbrageous,

EXERCISE XXVI. (Word-buUding— Revision).

Arrange the following words and their doublets in two columns,
distinguishing the French from the Latin ; and explain the suffixes
in the words and the doublets you supply: — Loyal, regal, fragile^
caitiff, second, particle, sample, species.

EXERCISES. 239

EXERCISE XXVII. (Word-buUding— lUvision).

In the following verbs explain the suffixes : —
Amplify, expedite, estimate, coobUtce, deify y publish, paci/y, alienate^
embellish, permeate, extinguish,

EXERCISE XXVIIL (Word-building— Revision).

Show the force of the suffixes in the following, distinguishing
between the Greek and hybrid words : —

AxiomcUic, theorist, philanthropy, witticism, theorist, nepotism, pctrcU'
ysis, deism, pessimist, panorama, minimise.

EXERCISE XXIX. (Word-building— English Roots, p. 144).

Show the derivation of the following, carefully noting hybrids : —
Broth, bough, gnaw, father, bier, brick, know, batch, beetle, kitten,

quickset, beadle, chilblain, net, jetsam, nickname, borrow^ blush, kind,

meadt bakery, dub, bugle, draught, window, eyelet,

EXERCISE XXX. (Word-building— English Roots, p. 144).

Derive the following words : —

Nightingale, orchard, wright, wrong, grove, whole, trade, stock, taught,
twig, till, garlic, lady, lodestar, wake, might, nozzle, stile, scoop, toaddle,
\air, pickerel, scuttle, slog, weft, wanton, reap, scrape, sleeve,

EXERCISE XXXI. (Word-building— Latin Roots, p. 147).

Select from the following Latin words those coming through the
French, and give their derivation : —

Inert, claret, ditto, arcade, precinct, indent, peal, ancestor, DeoefmJber,
courage, city, meridian, cordial, clause, deign, donor, April, excuse,
occur, course, damsel, domineer, chapter, alto.

EXERCISE XXXII. (Word-building— Latin Roots, p. 147).

From the following select those words coming direct from the
Latin, and give their derivation : —

Exculpate, alimony, reception, altercation, deception, chant, agile,
miscreant, agrarian, excuse, equinox, brief, cruise, bissextile, corpse,
clamour, eager, auction,

EXERCISE XXXin. (Word-building— Latin Roots, p. 147).

From the following list select the words coming indirectly from the
Latin, and give their derivation : —

Fount, domiciliary, colloquy, mirage, friar, relict, infringe, liablSf
force, religion, affluent, leaven, flexible, renegade, collapse, dismount,
feat, profile, conjoint, annex, exhibit, facet, grat^ul, memoir*

240 EXERCISES.

EXERCISE XXXIV. (Word-building— Latin Roota, p. 147).

Select the words of direct Latin origin : —

Dormitory,fu8iblej duke, profound, ludicrous, genteel, marue, redeem,
gesture, absolute, aberration, progress, scent, probity, poignant, repair,
quarry, vow, tense, tenable, urbane, insidious, sexton, sacrilege,
plausible,

EXERCISE XXXV. (Word-building— Greek Root*, p. 152).

Give the derivation of each of the following words : —
Date, cosmetic, surgeon, nausea, dogma, economy, dynamite, caiarrk,
hematite, idiot, melancholy, hieroglyphic,

EXERCISE XXXVL (Word-buUding- Greek Roots, p. 152).

Give two roots for each of the following words : —
Hypocrite, aerolite, demagogue, onomatopoetic, litfiotomy, tetrarch^
haleidoscope, hydrophobia, heliotrope, catastrophe, evangelist,

EXERCISE XXXVIL (Word-buUding— Words derived from

Names of Persons, p. 154).

State the origin of the following words : —

Lizard Point, panic, tantalise, petrel, chimera^ cravat, cicerone^
martinet, dunce, euphuistic, saturnine, hermetically.

EXERCISE XXXVIIL (Word-building— Words derived from

Names of Places, p. 158).

Trace the following words to their origin : —

Peach, cherry, damson, rhubarb, pheasant, dollar, florin, guinea,
solecism, pistol, laconic, Utopian, lumber,

EXERCISE XXXIX. (Word-building— Disguised Words, p. 161).

Show the origin of the following words : —

Babble, intoxicate, gadflif, belfry, liquorice, bustard, luncheon, eoAel,
buttery, custard, sheaf, carouse, stirrup, causeway, treacle, crayfish^
verdigris,

EXERCISE XL. (Word-building— Words Changed in

Meaning, p. 168).

Compare the original with the modem meaning of the following
words : —

Sycophant, allow, restive, gazette, amuse, handsome, awkward, knave,
blackguard, mere, brat, painful, censure, cunning, preposterous, silly,
vivacity.

113CEKCIS1SS 241

PLAN FOR PARSING.

When parsing a word observe the following rules : —

(i) Use no abbreviation that is vagae ; avoid the posstbUity of being
misunderstood.

(ii) When any other word is quoted, underline it, or use marks of
quotation.

(iii) Use the following terms, when applicable, and in the order aa
Arranged :

NOUNS. — ^ElIND. Pbopsr; Common; Colleottve; Abstract.

GENDER. Masouune; Fsmikinb; Common; Neuter.

NUMBER. Singulab; Plural.

PERSON. First; Second; Third.

CASE. Nominative, subject of the verb ; in appo-
sition with ; of addi^ess (Vocative);

absolute; after copulative verb •

Possessive, limiting the noun — ^ — ,

Objective, governed directly by the transitive^
factitive, causative, prepositional, or cognate

verb, or the participle ; or indirectly

by the verb or participle (Dative) ; or

adverbial object; or governed by the pre-
position ; or by the governing Adjec-
tive ■ ; or in apposition with .

PB0N0UN8.— KIND. Personal ; Relative, agreeing with its

antecedent in gender, person, and number;
Interrogative ; Indefinite ; Reciprocal ;
Emphatic; Reflexive;

GENDER,

NUMBER, . ^ .

PERSON, ^ ^^^o^

CASK

242 BXEBCISBS.

ADJEOnVES. — KIND. QuALnATiVB, potitiye, comparatiye, or

snperlatiye degree, going with the noun ;

QuANTiTATiyE, indefinite or definite, nu-
meral, cftrdinal, or ordinal, or distributive,

limiting the noun ; DEMONSTBATiyBy

pointing out the noun .

VEBBS. — CLASS. TBANSmTB (actiye or passive Voiob);

iNTBANsrnvs;
V AnxiLiABY, of voice, mood, tense, or emphasis

CONJUGATION. Strong or Wkak.

MOOD. Indicative, assertive or interrogative ;

Impbbattvs; Subjunctive; Infinitive (nomina-
tive, objective, or gerundial).

TENSE. Pbbsbnt; Past; Futubb. Perfect (oompIeteX
imperfect (incomplete), indefinite, continuons
(progressive).

PERSON,
NUMBER.

' > Agreeing with the subject
R. J *^ ^ J

(PARTICIPLE) (AomvB, qualifying the noun or pronoun

y and governing the noun or pronoun

; or Passive).

ADVEBB8.— Of TIME, PLACE, MANNER, ASSERTION, or REA-
SONING, modifying the verb ; of DEGREE

modifying the adverb or adjective .

DEGREE of comparison (Pos. ; Comp. ; Sun.)

PREPOSITIONS.— SIMPLE or COMPOUND, governing the doiib

or pronoun

OONJUNOTIONS.— CO-ORDINATI.

SUBORDINATE

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 243

QUESTIONS SET AT THE ANNUAL GOVEEN-
MENT EXAMINATION OF PUPIL-TEACHEES.

CANDIDATES.
SET A.

( You are adviwd not to spend more than one hour and a quarter over-

this subject.)

Answer thru only of the following four questions. Full marks are Ugher for
Questions 1 and 2 than for any other question.

English Ghammar.

1. Analyse the following passage : —

'* The cry they heard, its meaning hnew^
Could plain their distant comrades view,^

2. Parse the words in italics in the above passage.

3. What part of speech is each of the following words, and what
is the force of the suffix ? — spinster, darkness, foolish, active, danger^
ous, magnify.

4. Explain the following passages : —

(a) " Oh for one hour of Wallace wight

Or well-skiird Bruce, to rule the fight.'*

{b) "And now I watch my armour here.
By law of arms, till midnight 's near/'

Composition.
Describe the Battle of Flodden as told in Marmion.

SET B^iMarmion).

{You are advised not to spend more than one hour over this subject,)

Answer Question 1 and two other questions. Full marks are higher for Questions 2

and 8 than for Questions 4 and 5.

1. Give the substance of Wilton's story, or.

Describe the scene when Marmion was leaving, Tantallon
Castle.

2. Analyse the foUowing passage : —

** With that, straight up the hill there rodt
Two horsemen drenched with gore,
And in their arms a helpless load^
A wounded knight they bore."

244 KXAMINATION QUBSTIONS.

3. Parse the words in italics in the above passage.

4. Give the meaning and use of the suffix in each of the following
words : — likewise^ visitor, maiden, laruheape, brightest, wisdom.

6« Explain : —

(a) *^ More pleased that in a barbarous age
He gave rude Scotland Virgil's page/'

(6) **Won by my proofs, his falchion bright
This eve anew shall dub me knight."

FIEST YEAR PUPIL-TEACHEES.

SETA,

( Tou are advised not to spend more than one hour and a quarter over

this subject.)

Answer fkrts only of the following four qnestlone. Fall marks are highdr for
Questions 1 and 2 than for any other question.

English Grammar.

1. Write, in your own words, the full substance of the following
lines : —

** Thus every good his native wilds impart
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart :
And ev'n those hills, that round his mansion rise,
Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies.
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,
And dear that hill that lifts him to the storms ;
And as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Clings close and closer to the mother's breast,
So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar
But bind him to his native mountains more."

2. Analyse the last four lines, and parse every word in the last line.

3. Explain : —

"Those domes vhere Cffisars once bore sway."

"The canvas glowed, beyond e'en nature warm.
The pregnant quarry teemed with human form."

" While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile.
Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile."

4. Take the following pairs of words of similar meaning and
say which are of native origin and which are derived from a
foreign language, giving the language where you can: — begin,
commence : benediction, blessing : forgather, ancestor : feminine,
womanly: realm, kingdom: horseman, eavcUier.

Composition.

Give a short account of Goldsmith's life, character, friendships,
and works.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 246

SET B— (Goldsmith's Traveller),
( Tou are advised not to spend more than one hour over this subject,)

AiiBWtr Question 1 or Qaestion 2 (not both) and two otker qnestions. Full marks
are higher for Question 8 than for Questions 4 and 6.

1. Giye, in your own words, the character of the Dntch people as
described by Goldsmith.

2. Write, in your own words, the full substance of the following
lines :—

<< To men of other minds my fancy flies,
Embosomed in the deep where Holland lies.
Meihinks her patient sous before me standi
Where the broad ocean leans against the land.
And, sedulous to stop the coming tide.
Lift the tall rampire's artificial pride.
Onward, methinks, and diligently slow.
The firm connected bulwark seems to grow ;
Spreads its long arms amidst the watery roar.
Scoops out an empire, and usurps the shore."

3. Analyse the first four lines of this passage, and parse the words
in italics.

4. Explain : —

(a) " Those transitory flowers alike undone

By proud contempt or favour's fostering sun."

(6) '* That like the circle bounding earth and skies
Allures from far, and, as we follow, flies."

(e) " Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride,
And brighter streams than famed Hydaspes glide."

5. Giye the etymology and meaning of vernal^ grandeur ^ sympathetic,
depopvkuUmy felicity.

SECOND YEAR PUPIL-TEACHERS.

SET A.

( Fott are advised not to spend more than one hour and a quarter over

this subject,)

Answer three only of the following four questions. Full marks are higher for
Questions 1 and 2 than for any other question.

Enolish Grammar.

1. Write, in your own words, the full substance of the following
passage t —

** That yon do love me, I am nothing jealous ;
What you would work me to, I have some aim ;
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter : for this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you.
Be any farther mov'd. What you have said.

246 EXAMINATION QUBSTIONS.

I will consider ; what you have to say,

I will with patience hear, and find a time

Both meet to hear, and answer, such high things.

Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this :

Brutus had rather be a villager,

Than to repute himself a son of Rome

Under these hard conditions, as this time

Is like to lay upon us."

2. Analyse the lines in the above passage, from the beginning down
to ** hereafter," and parse all the words in the first Udo.

8b Give the etymology and meaning of chivalry, ioptivef parlichf
incorporate, er^ranchisemerU, exUHuated, fantasy, slanderous.

4. Re-write in more correct form the following sentences, giving
reasons for any alterations you make : —

(a) We wiU do like they did.

(6) Neither of the three were present.

(d) We wish to very cordially congratulate yoiL

CoicposinoN.
Compare the characters of Brutus and Cassius {Julius Ccesar),

SET B— {Julius Ccesar).

( Tou are advised not to spend more than one hour over this subfeet.)

Answer QaMtlon 1 or Question 2 (not both) and two other questions. Full marks
are higher for Question 8 than for Questions 4 and 6.

1. Give a brief account of Antony\ oration over Caesar's body,
and account for its effect upon the people.

2. Write, in your own words, tte full substance of the following
passage :^

** Cassius. Te gods, it doth amaze me

A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestio world.
And bear the palm alone.

Brutus. Another general shout I

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heaped on C»sav

(Jassius, Why, man, he doth bestride the harrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselvrs dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates :
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
Bat in ourselves that we are underlings.^

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 247

S. Analyse the last three lines, and parse the words in italics.

4. Give the etymology and meaning of aZchemy, choleric, proscrip*
Hon, exorcist, cynic

5. Correct the following expressions and give your reasons :—

(a) Friends am I with you all.

(b) He is stronger than me.

(d) I diflfer with you.

SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION.

SETA.

{TiDO hours arid a hcdf allowed for this paper.)

All Candidates must answer Question 1, to which the highest marks are assigned,
and uiay select five, and^ve only, of the rest.

If you answer more than nx questions, only the six answers coming first on your
paper will be revised.

No abbreviation of less than three letters is to be used in Parsing or Analysis.

Enolish Lanouaob and Litskaturb.
L Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics :—

" The fairest aclion of our human life

Is scorning to revenge an injury;
For wJio forgives without k further strife

His adversary's heart to him doth tie ;
And 'tis a firmer conqv^est truly said

To vnn the heart than overthrow the head.*'

2. Show the force of the Latin prefixes de-, re-, con-, pro-, o&-»
e{ex'), a&- by reference to English words derived from the compounds
oijacio, jactum (I throw ; in composition, -jido, •Rectum).

3. Write the following passage in blank verse :^

**0 Proserpina! for the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st
fall from Dis's waggon I dafibdils, that come before the swallow dares,
and take the winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, but sweeter
than the lids of Juno's eyes, or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses,
that die unmarried ere they can behold bright Phoebus in his strength,
a malady most incident to maidens ; bold oxlips, and the crown-
imperial ; lilies of all kinds, the flower de luce being one."

4. How would you vary the questions in English for Standard IL
so as to avoid monotony 7

6. Explain, by reference to the etymology, the metaphor involved
in the following words :—re(;{uct&/e, precise, conviction (»firm belief),
benediction, conference.

6. Sketch briefly the plot of any play of Shakespeare's not
directly connected with English history, or that of one of Scott's
novels.

248 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

7. " An adjective is a word which describes or points oat a noun."
Discuss this detlnition, and, if yon think it bad, say wlat you would
substitute for it, and why.

8. What new words have been added to the language as a result
of (1) the colonisation of North America; (2) our intercourse with
India and the East 7

9. "P&ne fully the words in italic type below :—

(a) Her eyes were red with toeeping.
{b) He was running at full speed.

(d) On turning round, I ran against him.

(e) Only by selling his horse could he get the money he

wanted.

SETB.

{Ihoo hours and a half allowed for this paper,)

All Candidates vviut answer Questions 1 or 2, not boVi, to which the highest marks
are assigned, and may selective, and^ve only, of the rest.

If you answer more than tia questions, only the six answers coming first on your
ftaper will be revised.

No abbreviation of less than three letters is to be used in Parsing or Analysis.

1. Analyse from the words "There is a tide" to "miseries" in
the passage below, and parse the words in italics : —

** Our legions are brim-full ; our cause is ripe :
The enemy increaseth every day.
We, at the height, are ready to decline.
There ia a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune :
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat ;
And we must take the current when it serves.
Or lose our ventures."

2. Analyse the last four lines of the following passage, and parse
fully the words in italics : —

" Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate.
All but the page prescribed their present state.
From brutes what men, from men wJiat angels know ;
Or who could suffer being here below ?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day.
Had he thy reason would he skip and play ?
Pleased to the last he crops the flowery food.
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood."

3. Define (I) an adjective; (2) an adverb.

Explain the use of the words **brir*-full," "ripe," "afloat" in the
passage contained in Question 1.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 249

4. Make a list of all the Latin and English prefixes and suffixes
in the two passages given in Questions 1 and 2, and explain their
effect.

5. What parts of the principal verb are used together with an
auxiliary in forming the compound tenses 7

Explain the use of the infinitive mood for this purpose.

6. In what two ways are sentences connected by conjunctions?
Give some rule for the use of the conditional mood in subordinate

sentences. Illustrate your answer by examples.

7. ''But little do Men perceive what Solitude is, and how far
it extendeth: for a Crowd is not Company, and Faces are but a
gallery of pictures, and Talk is bvt a tinlding cymbal where there is
no Love." — Bo/Con.

AVrite briefly in your own words the meaning of this passage.

What difference in expression from the current literature of the
present day do yon notice ?

What quotation does the passage contain, and whence was it
taken ?

8. The English language contains many words akin to German
words, and a considerable number derived from Latin words.

Explain this statement (noting especially the words in italics), and
give a few illustrations taken from the passages you have learned to
recite or the works you have been directed to read.

9. Mention some of the works written by four of the following,
and say in what century they lived: — Addison, Bacon, Bunyan,
Cowper, Johnson, Milton, Pope, Scott.

8ET0.

(Two and a half hours allowed for this paper,)

All Candidates must answer Question 1 or 2, not totht to which the highest marks
are assigned, and may selective, and)Eve only, of the rest.

If you answer more than «ia; questions, only the six answers coming first on your
paper will be revised.

No abbreviation of less than three letters is to be used in Parsing or Analysis.

1. Analyse the passage from " Mortals " to the end of the following
passage. Parse the words in italics : —

" But now my task is smoothly done,
I can fly, or I can run
Swiftly to the green earth's end,
Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend.
And from thence can soar as soon
To the corners of the moon.
Mortals tJiat would follow me.
Love Virtue ; she adone is free.
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime ;
Or if virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her."

260 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

2. Analyse the first four lines of the following passage, and parse
the words in italics : —

" This was the noblest Roman of them all :
All the conspirators, save only he.
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ;
He, only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle ; and the elejnents
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the World, ' this was a man ! ' "

3. Define a reUUive pronoun. What is the rule for (a) its numherf
(5) its cflwe? Illustrate by examples from the preceding passages.
Can you give any rule for the use of '* that " instead of <* who " or
« which " ?

4 Write sentences showing the use of each of the followiog words
as (1) an adverb; (2) a preposition; (3) a conjunction, viz. : — after,
before, since,

5. Explain the force of the termination -ing in the following sen-
tences : —

He is building a new house.
The new house is a-building.
He is tired of building houses.

How do you parse the word building in each case ?

6. Give the meaning and the origin of the following prefixes and
suffixes : —

(a) Prefixes:

" a " in away, aware, ago ;

" for " in forsake, forlorn, forgive ;

« un " in uncouth, unto, undo.

(b) Suffixes:

** ment " in parchment, parliament ;
*< some " in handsome, wholesome ;
''ster'Mn spinster, maltster.

7. Distinguish between a compound and a complex sentence.
What are the appropriate connecting particles of the component
members of each kind of sentence ?

Illustrate your answer by references to either of the passages in
Qnestion 1 or 2.

8. '* Revenge is a kind of wild justice which the more men's nature
runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first
wrong, it doth but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong
putteth the law out of office. Certainly in taking revenge a man is
but even with his enemy, but in passing it by he is superior, for it is
a prince's part to pardon." — Bacon,

• Write briefly in your own words the meaning of this passage, and
explain any expressions which appear to you to be obsolete. What
ellipsis follows *' superior " ?

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 251

9. (a) Mention four of the most celebrated anthora of the eighteenth
century, and give an account of any one among their works ;

(5) Name the authors of the passages contained in Questions 1 and
2, and give a short life of one of them.

SET D.

(Two and a haUfhours allowed for this paper.)

All Oandidstes mtut answer Question 1, and may answer «ix qnestiona in all, bat
not more than thrte may be taken from either section.

If yon answer more than Hx questions, only the six answers coming first on your
paper will be revised.

No abbreviation of less than three letters Is to be used in Parsing or Analysis.

SvcnoK I. — Lanouaoe.

1. Analyse one of the following passages, and parse the words in
italics in the passage analysed : —

(a) '* . . . All this tract thai fronts the falling sun
A noble Peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, wUh tempered awe to guide
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms.'' — Comus.

(&) " Who noble ends by noble means obtains.
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed."

— Essay on Jfon, iv.

(c) " Would I hadfalVn upon those happitr days
That poets celebrate : those golden times
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings.
And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose." — l^he Task,

2. Explain, as to a class, sentence by sentence, the meaning of
one of the above passages, and comment on any words and allusions
that call for notice.

3. In what metre is each of the above passages written ? If they
are not alike, point out the difference. Illustrate your answer by
writing a line from each, showing its division into feet.

4. Distinguish, giving examples, between Indicative and Subjunc-
tive mood. Gerund and Participle, Complex and Compound sentence,
Simile and Metaphor.

5. At what periods have Latin words been introduced into
English, either directly or indirectly ? Give a few examples under
each head.

6. Certain nouns, adjectives, and verbs require special preposi-
tions, which in some cases vary according to sense and context.

252 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

What prepositions ar« need with the following? Gire short ssbp-
tences to illustrate their use : — -

Nouns.

Adjectives.

Verbs.

Accord.

Adapted.

Agree.

Affinity.

Convenient.

Confer.

Exception.

Different.

Confide,

Taste.

Glad.

Differ.

SkOTION II. — LiTEBATlTBS.

7. Under what circumstances, and when, was Ovmui written?
Give a short summary of the end of the poem from the invocation of
Sabrina onwards.

8. Write brief notes on the followiug passages : —

(a) " The gray-hooded Even,

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed."

(6) " Scylla wept.

And chid her barking waves into attention.
And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause."

(c) '* Oh foolishness of men ! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub ! "

(<2) ** Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend."

9. Explain shortly the following passages : —

(a) " What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards. "

(6) << Think how Bacon shined.

The wisest) brightest, meanest of mankind."

10. Give in plain prose the meaning of the following passage :— ^

*< 111 fares the traveller now, and he that stalks
In ponderous boots beside his reeking team :
The wain goes heavily, impeded sore
By congregated loads adhering close
To the clogged wheels, and in its sluggish pace
Noiseless appears a moving hill of snow.
The toiling steeds expand the nostril wide,
While every breath, by respiration strong
Forced downward, is consolidated soon
Upon their jutting chests."

11. Give briefly the substance of Cowper's contrast between town
and country life, (/t his account of the winter evening occupations at
Olney.

12. Name Pope's chief works. When and with what object was
the Essay on Man written ? Explain the lines : —

'* Come, then, my Friend I my Genius ! come along ;
Oh master of the poet and the song ! "

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 253

COMPOSITION SUBJECTS.

SETA.

Write a letter, or an essay, on one of the following aubjects : —

(a) Singing birds.

(&) Fairy tales.

{d) Advantages of the study and knowledge of geography.

SET B.

Write a letter, or an essay, on one of the following subjects : —

(a) Your favourite flowers, and the way to cultivate them.
(6) The moral lessons of the microscope and the telescope.

with life in the country.

(d) Examinations.

SETC.

(a) Write a letter descriptive of the town or village in which you
live, or of any famous building in or near it ; or,

(6) Write a short essay on one of these topics : —

(i) Truthfalness, in act and word,
(ii) Poetry,
(iii) The King rules over an Empire on which the sun never sets.

SETD.

Write a short essay on one of these topios t^

(i) A ship on fire.

(ii) Closer union with our colonies.

(iii) A walk round a garden.

SET R

Write a short essay on one of these topics : —
(a) Good manners.

(&) The importance of the telegraph and telephone from a
commercial point of view.

(e) The advantages of a school library for the children. (Name

a dozen good books which should be found in e^tfj
9Uch library.)

25i EXAJONATION QUESTIONS.

SET F.

Write a short essay on one of these subjects : —

(a) Any memorable place, city, castle, or battlefield which you
hare visited.

(5) The nse of pictures in teaching.
(e) Ck>lom6atioiL

SET G.

Write a short essay on one of these subjects !—

(a) Some uses of the electric telegraph.

(6) A court of justice,
(c) Emigration.

SET H.

Write a short essay on one of these subjects c—

(a) The influence of war on a nation ; or,

(6) Fruit trees ; or,

(e) The census.

SETL

Write a short essay on : —

A general election ; or,

Give in substance the contents of any interesting book which
you have reoently read.

SET J.

Write a short essay on one of these subjects :—

(a) Holidays, and the way to use them.

(b) Parliament.

SET K.

Do one of the following, either

(a) Write a short essay on the value of the Study of History ; or,

(6) Write a short essay on "Play" ; or^

SET L.

Write a short essay on one of the following subjects : —

(a) ** Words are like leaves ; and when they most abound

Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."
(6) Your favourite pursuit.

(«) Christmas day on board an English ship in the Polar
Regions.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 255

SET M.

Write a short essay on one of the following subjects :—

(a) ** Hope springs eternal in the human breast ;
Man never is, but always to be blest."

(&) The Japanese.

{c) How may the spirit of patriotism be promoted in elementary
schools?

SETN.

Write a short essay on one of the following subjects : —

(a) How far is it true hat history is the biography of great
men?

(&) Strikes.

(e) Dress as an evidence of character.

SETO.

Write a short composition on one of the following : —

(a) A short life of some great naval or military hero.

(&) <' The darkest day,

Wait till to-morrow, will have passed away.'*

SET P.

Write a short composition on one of the following : —

(a) The pleasures of gardening.

(b) The life of the teacher : its difficulties and its ideals.

(e) The ground of justification for each of the contending
parties in the European War of 1914.

SET Q.

Write a short composition on one of the following subjects : —

(a) A comparison of town and country life (which you would

prefer, Sknd why).

(b) A winter landscape.

Ce) "Great offices will have (t.«. need) great talents." — Cowper,

256 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

LONDON MATRICULATION QUESTIONS.

SET A.
(Not more t?ian ten questiona are to he attempted.)

1. Draw a table showing the position of English in the Germanic
family of languages.

2. What is meant by the distinction between <* learned" and
'* popular " borrowed words ? Under what circumstances have Latin
words at various times been borrowed in Eivglish? Befer in yonr
answer to the above distinction.

3. Show, if possible with a table, what vowel-sounds are used in
ordinary spoken English.

4. Classify nouns according to their meaning, and illustrate the
passage of nouns from one class to another.

5. Write down (i) aix illustrations of Grimm*s Law ; (ii) six
apparent exceptions to it, commenting upon the latter.

6. Give the force of the suffixes which occur in the following
words, commenting upon any anomaly in the form or meaning of
each : — witveas, childhood, girdle^ lawyer ^ gosling, rookery.

7. Give a short account of the comparison of adjectives in
English.

8. Show, accurately, how the following cognate words are dis-
tinguished, and also how they are connected, in meaning : — corps,
coi'pse ; gage, toage; diamond, adamant; cage, cave ; dish, desk, disc,
dais ; priest, presbyter,

9. Enumerate the pronominal and adverbial forms derived from
the stem of here, and show, generally, how each comes to have its
present meaning.

10. Point out any defects in the grammar or style of the
following : —

(a) Homer was not only the maker of a nation, but of a

language.

(b) He is better versed in theology than any living man.

and which are entirely unworthy of him.

(d) Nothing can hinder this treatise from being one of the

most considerable books which has appeared for the last
half -century.

(e) A statute, inflicting the punishment of death, may be, and

ought to be, repealed, if it be in any degree expedient.

11. Analyse the following:— ** So eager was the queen that her
story should be believed, that nothing so much pleased her as an
indication that credit was attached to it."

12. Give iwo examples each of (i) strong verbs which have become
weak ; (ii) weak verbs which have become strong ; (iii) strong par-

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. * 257

ticiples which have been assimilated to the preterite ; (iv) strong
preterites which have been assimilated to the participle.

13. Explain and illustrate the laws or principles involved in the
formation of the following words : — causeway, book-learned, hindmost,
thirteen, piecemeal, darkling.

14. Show, summarily, in what various ways adverbs have been
formed in English.

15. Give a summary view of the various ways in wbich the
vocabulary of a language may be enlarged, with illustrations from
English.

SETB.

(Not more than ten question* are to he attempted,)

1. Classify the Teutonic and Romance words in the following
passage ; comment on your classification, and write brief notes on
the history of &nyjive words : —

'* The cowardly wretches followed the weary travellers demanding
alms. Their menaces revealed their true character, and there was
soon no alternative but to hand them the few remaining possessions ;
the foot-sore pilgrims were not allowed to keep even their meagre
victuals for the day. At all events, starvation would end the
miseries of their toilsome life.''

2. Explain, carefully, what is meant by the following terms: —
(i) Anglo-Saxon ; (ii) Anglo-French ; (iii) Hybrids ; (iv) Alliteration ;
(v) Rhythm ; (vi) Metaphor.

3. Give a brief account of the process of inflexional levelling in
English.

4. Enumerate, with instances, the various ways of indicating
gender in English. Write a careful note on the word ** songstress,"

5. Trace the history of the third personal pronoun, singular and
pluraL

6. Differentiate the following, both as regards usage and origin : —
further, farther; later, latter; older, elder; outer, utter; foremost,
first.

7. Define ; — (i) Infinitive ; (ii) Oerund ; (iii) Participle ; (iv)
Mood; (v) Voice; (ri) Auxiliary Verbs; {yii) Strong-weak Verbs.

8. Account clearly for the present and past tense forms of the
chief auxiliary verbs. Explain the modern use of ** shall ** and
" wUV

9. Classify the weak verbs, and explain the following forms: —
taught, sold, sought, fed, felt,

10. Annotate the following statement : — '* Words originally other
parts of speech aro sometimes used as conjunctions."

11. What are "SynonymA*'^ Account for their origin. Give
some examples, and discriminate their use.

12. Explain the force and origin of the following suffizts :~«Afp,
en, ly, mas, y. Give instwoei.

258 "^ EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

13. Analyse : —

*' So pleafe your majeaty, I M-ould I could
Quit all offeucea with aa clear excuse
As well aa I am doubtless I can purge
Myself of many I am charged withal."

14. In what important respects does the diction of poetry differ
from that of prose? Add brief illustratiye sentences.

15. What is meant by Blank Verse ? Write down and discuss any
ten lines.

SET a

{Not more than ten questions are to be attempted,)

1. Enumerate the principal Indo-European languages, and indicate,
by description or diagram, how English is related to Italian, Sanskrit,
Dutch, Erse.

2. At what periods have Latin words been largely borrowed ?
Give six examples from living English of words so borrowed at each
period, and show what class of the vocabulary was at each period
chiefly affected by such borrowing.

3. Illustrate the borrowing of words either from Celtic or from
Scandinavian sources into English.

4. Give a short account of existing case-forms in English, and also
of some which no longer survive as cases.

5. Explain the italicised letters in the following words : — advan-
tage, scent, de6t, frontispiece, oouM, ancient.

6. What peculiarities, of form or meaning, in the expression of
relations of number, are illustrated by the following ? — score, triple^
hundred, first, second, million.

7. Distinguish, with illustrations, as many as you can of the
different senses of one*

8. Trace the origin of who, which, and tJiat as relative pronouns,
and define their usage in modern English.

9. Distinguish the origin of the sufiix y in the following words : —
jury, body, jolly, army, wordy, jelly.

10. Explain carefully what is meant by the past-present or strong-
weak verbs, giving the reason for each name.

1 1. Analyse the -ing forms in the following sentences : —

The house is building.

He is making his mark.

He is tired of writing letters.

12. Explain the structure and meaning of the following : — each^
every, any, about, either, or,

13. In what different ways are adverbs formed in English ?

14. Illustrate the different senses of with, by, at, of, for. Which
of them are also conjunctions ? Which adverbs T

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS^ 259

16. Illustrate the ways in which literary and educated English has
been recently reinforced by the introduction of words from cUcUecta,
technical terminology^ and elang.

SET D.

(JVb< more than ten questions are to be attempted,)

1. Show briefly that the English language is of Teutonic origin,
and also that during the last thousand years it has been influenced
by certain other Teutonic languages.

2. How has it happened that we have oorrowed so largely from
foreign languages instead of building words for ourselves ? What
home-spun terms might we have had for '* astronomy," ''arithmetic,'*
" autumn," " agriculture," ** libraiy " ?

3. Mention some of our earliest borrowings from the Latin, and
prove by a few examx)les that we have gone on incessantly borrowing
from it

4. Illustrate the influence of Norman-French on our spelling and
our pronunciation. Write down some words that we owe to other
Romance languages.

5. Make a list of some twenty additions made to our vocabulary
during the twentieth century, and point out the movements, or

fashions, or tendencies that have made them necessary.

6. What traces are there in our present grammar of more than
one declension of nouns ? Discuss the apostrophe in such forms as
«* stone's," "chnreh's," "St. James'."

7. Indicate some distinction or distinctions between the uses of the
relatives who and that. What other word has sometimes a relatival
force ? Give examples of the omission of the relative.

8. Mention some verbs now of the weak conjugation that once
were of the strong, and vice versA, Mention also some verbs of
mixed conjugation; show that teU is not so. About how many
strong verbs are there extant ?

9. Mention some verbs that have no change of form in the preterite
and in the past participle ; also some that are defective ; also some
that are irregular.

10. Give some account of the etymology of adverbs. Comment on
the forms rather^ piecemeal^ too, very, farther,

11. Explain the a in aboard, amend, ado, arise, adoum, along, alas,
apace, aware, avert,

12. Derive these words : — lone, street, hing, church, engine, month,
University, degree, college, malriculation,

13. Distinguish, giving examples, the senses and usages of elder
and older, of continuous and continttal, rustic and rural, sensibility and
sensitiveness, temporal and temporary. Are there such things a9
'•■ynonyms"?

S66 EXAMINATION QUKSTlOKS.

14. Describe any English dialect with which you are acquainted,
and state what you know of its origin.

15. Criticise and revise the following sentences : —

(a) Few of his friends, except myself, know of his being in

the kingdom.

(b) The guinea places were better filled than the half-

guinea, and not a jot better.

provided with thankful good humour.

{d) To aim at public and private good are so far from being
inconsistent that they mutually promote each other.

(e) Your Englishman is just as serioua in his sports as in
any act of his life.

(/) He regretted that the pupil-teacher did not prevent the
boys from writing so fast, as he noticed that is done
in the absence of such immediate supervision as the
master, otherwise engaged, would have prevep.ted.

SET E.

{Not more than ten qaestioM are to he attempted,)

Xf Give a summary account of the various sources of English
speech, so far as vocabulary is concerned, and explain carefully why,
in spite of the various elements, the language is grouped with the
Teutonic branch of Indo-European.

2. Explain carefully the following terms : — (i) Anglo-Saxon ; (ii)
Anglo-French ; (iii) synonym ; (iv) homophone ; (v) inflexion ; (vi)
case ; (vii) prosody; (viii) syntax ; (ix) metaphor ; (x) simile.

How do " synonyms " arise, and how may they be differentiated ?
Give instances.

3. (i) Quote ten lines of blank verse ; (ii) underline all the words
borrowed, directly or indirectly^ from Latin ; (iii) write brief etymo-
logical notes on each of the underlined words ; and (iv) on any six
otiber words in the passage quoted.

4. Tabulate the vowel-sounds now used in educated English (using
symbols if possible), and add illustrative words.

5. Classify the chief of the various suffixes which appear in English.
Give illustrative instances.

6. Give an account of the various ways of forming number in
modem English ; comment on the obsolete processes, and account for
the use of « as the ordinary plural inflexion.

7. Write down (i) two comparatives which have no corresponding
positive forms ; (ii) three positives which have no corresponding
comparatives ; (iii) one instance of a comparative used as a positive ;
and (iv) one instance of a double superlative. Explain carefully each
instance.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 261

d. Sketch the history of the Relative Pronouns ; differentiate their
use in m )dern English, adding illustrative sentences.

9; Write historical notes on the following forms : — (i) she ; (ii) its ;
(iii) their; (iv) hers 5 (v) him; (vi) why; (vii) you; (viii) there;
(ix) not.

10. Group, according to any scheme you may prefer, the strong
verb forms existing in modem English. Annotate your instances,
where necessary. Discuss the following :•—

** Sweetly we aangj
and he 8ung too,
but our sweet song
we soon did rue."

11. Explain carefully the various tenses which a verb should be
capable of expressing. In what respects is English deficient ?

12. Distinguish the uses of the ending -in^. Add brief historical
notes.

1 3. In what ways may the different parts of speech be put together
by composition ? Give one instance in each class.

14. Discuss eight words called into existence by recent discoveries
or inventions.

15. Analyse the following : —

'* I am alone the villain of the earth.
And feel I am so most. O Antony,
Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid
My better service, when my turpitude
Thou dost so crown with gold ! **

SET P.

{Do not attempt to answer more than seven of the first ten
questions, or more than three 0/ the last five. Oreat tm-
portance will be attached to clearness and a^cura^ of expres'
sion and style.)

1. Prove from the present state of its vocabulary and grammar
that the English language is of Teutonic origin.

2. Mention words we have borrowed from the Hebrew, the
Chinese, the Modem German, the Arabic, the Portuguese, and the
Russian languages ; and explain how we came to borrow them.

3. In what ways do we now supply ourselves with new words
when they are wanted ? Give instances.

4. Classify consonants according to the organ chiefly used in
sounding them. In what other ways may they be classified ? Explain
the pronunciation of the italicised letters in the words cupboard,
leg«, adjourn, houses, stoopec^.

5. Write down ^re noun forms that though originally plural are
now used as singulars, and five that were originally singulars but
are now used as plurals, and five that are doable plurals.

262 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

6. Mention ten adjectives that are used as nouns and even have
the plural flexion.

7. Attempt some classification of strong verbs. What is noticeable
about the flexions of rotf rndtf lead, hang, clothe, sow ?

8. Give five instances of adverbs used predicatively, and five of
prepositions used verbally.

9. Discuss the words btU and so, and make examples of their
various uses.

10. Derive these words: — sheriff, city, omnibw, street, colony,
sovereign, Wahs^ bishop ^ Icing, England,

11. What seem to you the characteristics of a well-written piece of
composition ?

12. Criticise the following sentences : —

(a) Neither he nor his brother were trained for the ministry.
(6) A convent, a lunatic asylum, a husband — either will do.

(d) Unfortunately, both he and she seemed to have lost their

senses.

(e) On attempting to extract the ball, the patient began

rapidly to sink.
(f) .He won't do more than he can help.

13. Sketch clearly the plot or plots of any of Shakespeare's playa

Or,
Give a brief abstract of any one of the Waverley Novels.

14. Quote any poem or part of a poem not less than twelve lines
in length, and describe the metre in which it is written.

15. What do you know of the life and work of any three of the
following writers : — Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Gray, Wordsworth.

Give the approximate dates of each.

Or,
Give an account of any one poet and any onje prose writer of the
Victorian era.

SET G.

N.B. — Candidates must not break up their answers into scattered
pieces. Great importance will be attached to clearness and accuracy
of expression and style.

I. — Language.

(Not more than seven of these ten questions are to he attempted, )

1. Explain carefully what is meant by the term "grammar."
Give the chief divisions of *' grammar," with definitions and
examples.

2. Comment on the following statements : —

(a) ** To reform Modern English spelling would be to destroy the
life-history of many of our words."

(6) " The spelling of Modern English is little better than a chaot.'?

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 263

3. At what periods, and nnder what conditioDs, have Latin
words been introduced into English directly or indirectly? Give
examples.

4. Derive and explain : — McUrieulaU, parliament, isle, aldennan,
mayor, cricket ; and mention some derivatives from and some cognates
with these words.

5. What is meant by "relative pronouns"? Differentiate the
uses of the relative pronouns in Modern English, giving instances of
each.

6. Write notes on the following words : — toorsCf nearer, butf it,
songstress, riches, alms, ye, first, Wednesday,

7. Classify adverbs, according to their origin And formation, with
instances.

8. How are (i) infinitives, and (ii) participles distinguished from
the other parts of verbs? Write down and discuss six sentences
illustrating various uses of (i) the Infinitive and (ii) the Present
Participle.

9. What is meant by '* defective verbs " ? Discuss the conjugation
of any three,

10. '*To make a revolution every day is the nature of the sun,
because of that necessary course which God hath ordained it, from
which it cannot swerve but by a faculty from that voice which first
did give it motion."

(i) Analyse this sentence ; (ii) underline the words of Latin origin.

XL — LrrsRATURi and Composition.

{Not more than three of these questions are to he attempted,)

1. Explain carefully what you consider the chief differences between
Poetry and Prose.

2. What is meant by *' blank verse," "sonnet," "lyric," "rhyme,"
"alliteration"? Write down any ten lines of ** blank verse,"
explaining the scansion ; or quote any sonnet, explaining the
structure, and telling what you know of its authorship.

3. What do yon know of any ttoo of the following writers: —
Chaucer, Spenser, Scott, Lamb, Tennyson.

4. Give a brief account of any ttoo of the following works : —
"Midsummer Night's Dream," ** Paradise Lost," "Ivanhoe," "Idylls
of the King," "Treasure Island."

5. Say in what works are to be found the following persons, and
briefly describe their characters : — Mr. Burchell, Mercutio, Bailie
Nicol Jarvie, Mr. Greatheart, Mr. Micawber, Friday.

SET H.

N,B, — Candidates must not breaK up their answers into scattered
pieces. The answers to Group I. must be kept distinct from those to
Group II. Great importance will be attached to cleamesf and
accuracy of expression and style.

264 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

I. — Lanouagk.
{Not more than sevea of these ten questions are to he attempted,)

1. Give some account of the coming of the English Language into
this country. In what respect was it different then from what it is
now?

2. How has Latin come to influence our vocabulary so largely
Show tliat it has iafluenced it indirectly as well as directly. Could
we have got on without it ?

3. Mention other languages from which we have borrowed words,
giving instances, and saying whether you think such borrowings were
necessary. f

4. How many sounds has the letter a in English? Quote ex-
amples. Point out that in some cases educated people differ as to the
pronunciation.

5. What are our commonest noun suffixes, and what force have
they ? Distinguish those of Teutonic from those of Romanic origin.

6. What is meant by the grammatical term " accidence " ? Explain
also the terms "case," "tense," **mood," ** participle," "accent.**

7. Mention some of the verbs that are called " anomalous," and
show why they are called so. To which conjugation belong work^
eatchf Jiang, buy, do, strew f

8. Classify verbs according to their syntactical use as distinguished
from their flexional form. What do you understand by a verb " of
incomplete predication "? Mention some verbs that are used so, and
also as " of complete predication."

9. Write short sentences to show the various meanings of the
prepositions with, to, by,

10. How would you express the difference between conjunctions
and prepositions? Show that some conjunctions were originally
prepositions and that some still are so.

II. — Composition and Literature.
{Not more than three of these five questions are to be attempted.)

11. Define the term "metaphor." How does a metaphor differ
from a " simile " ? Why is it a fault in style to mix metaphors ?

12. Write to A. Teacher, Esq., a short letter in the third person
apologising, on the ground of ill-health, for your absence from lecture,
hoping to be quite regular in your attendance for the future, and
asking for information aa to the work done during your absence, and
the work to be done next time.

13. State briefly the theme and name the author of each of the
following poems: — The Inchcape Rock, Lycidas, The Deserted
Village, Tithonus, Herv^ Kiel, The Lady of the Lake.

14. Who are our chief living historians, and what have they
written or are they writing ? Give some account of any one work by
any one of them.

15^ Describe in ten octosyllabic couplets a suniiBe or a aunset.

BXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 265

SET I.

i\r.B. — Candidates must not break up their answers into scattered
pieces. The answers to Group L must be kept distinct from those
to Group II. Great importance will be attached to clearness and
accuracy of expression and style.

I. — Lanouagk.

{Not inore than seven of these ten questiona are to he attempted.)

1. Define exactly the position of English in the Germanic family
of languages.

2. State what is meant by ChimnCs and Vemer^s Laws. Give
examples.

3. Explain and illustrate what is meant by the terms analytic and
synthetic as applied to languages.

4. What is understood by phonetic spelling ? Can modern English
spelling be considered phonetic?

5. Discuss tbe following forms : — songstress, brethren, cdive, elder.
Lady-day, children, viocen, inmost, hearer^ mtthinks,

6. Distinguish between the use of the gerund, the present participle,
and the verbal noun in -ing.

7. How does tbe relative that differ in use from who, whichl
When can the relative be omitted in modem English ?

8. Explain exactly the use of the various tenses of the active voice
in English (both the simple tewes and those formed with the auxiliaries
have and be). Is it correct to say, ''Spain ha^ founded a mighty
colonial empire " ?

9. Define an adverb, and state how adverbs may be classed. Give
the rules regulating the position of the adverb.

10. Analyse : —

'* But where the path we walked began
To slant the fifth autumnal slope,
As we descended following Hope,
There sat the Shadow feared of man."

II.— Composition and Literature.

(Not more than three of these five questions are to be attempted.)

11. Define the terms allegory, antithesis, epigram, euphemism^
caesura, and oMonance.

12. Give a very brief account of the life and works of tufo of the
following authors : — Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, Goldsmith, Shelley.

13.. Say in what works six of the following persons aie to be found,
and sketch briefly their characters : — Jacques, Sir Anthony Absolute,
^fark Tapley, Polonius, Mr. Greatheart, Dandie Dinmont, Friday,
Dr. Primrose.

14. Give some account of any single poem by Wordsworth, Sir
Walter Scott, or Tennyson.

15. Write a short description of any place or building of historical
interest with which you are familiar.

266 ^ EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

TEACHERS' CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION.— FIRST
YEAR PAPERS (Men and Women).

SETA.

{Three hours allowed for this peeper,)

Answer Question 1, and Jive others, of which two at least mast be from those on
Milton's "Tractate.*'

If more than six questions are attempted, only tiie six answers coming first on the
paper will be revised.

£nolish Lanouaob and Literaturb.

1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words italicised: —
" Thus, Mr. Hartlib, you have a general view in writing, as your

desire was, of that which at several times I had discourst with you
concerning the best and noblest way of education ; not beginning as
some have done from the cradle, which yet might be worth many
considerations, if brevity hcui not been my scope, many other circum-
stances also I could have mentioned, but this to such as have the
worth in them to make trial, for light and direction may be enough."

2. Write a short analysis of one of Gray's Odes, showing the
sequence and appropriateness of the thoughts expressed.

3. Write, in plain prose, the meaning of one of the following
extracts, adding a brief explanation of the allusions : —

(a) ** Girt with many a baron bold
Sublime their starry fronts they rear ;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
In bearded majesty, appear.
In the midst a form divine I
Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line :
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face
Attempered sweet to virgin-grace."

(6) ''Nor second He, that rode sublime
Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy
The secrets* of the Abyss to spy :

He pass'd the flaming bounds of Space and Time :
The living Throne, the sapphire-blaze
Where angels tremble while they gaze.
He saw ; but blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night."

4. What is the meaning of "Ode," **Pindaric Ode," and "Elegy"?
Show that these names are properly given to such of Gray's poems
as are so called. Mention, if you can, examples of each kind from
other poets.

6. State why, in your opinion, Gray's "Elegy written in a
Country Churchyard " should (or should not) be considered one of
the masterpieces of English lyrical poetry.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONa 267

6. Explain the allusions in the following passages :—

(a) " Their scaly armonr^s Tjrian hue."

(6) "Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil honr

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plsina."

{d) ** And spare the meek nsurper'ff'holy head."

(e) '* The Attic warbler pours her throat."

7. Explain the epithets in the following passages quoted from
the " Elegy " and discuss their suitability : —

Now fades the glimmering landscape from the sight.

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

The inevitable hour.

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vanlt«

This pleasing anxious being.

The pangs of conscious truth.

The genial current of the soul.

8. What, in Milton's view, is the " end of learning " ? Compare
with views advanced by other writers on Education.

9. By what means did Milton propose to avoid the reproadh of
'* learning mere words," and to secure the "universal insight into
things " ?

10. What suggestions for the conduct of elementary schools can
be drawn from Milton's " Tractate," and what actual practices are
supported by Milton's authority 7

11. Explain the following :— ->

(a) Many modern Janna's and Didactics.

(b) That act of reason which in Ethicks is called Proairesis.

(ci) All our time from Lilly to the commencing, as they term
it, Master of Art.

(e) Their Academics and Lyceum.

(/) Their empty and nnrecrutible colonels.

(g) Pure trifling at Grammar and Sophistry,

Composition Subjects.

{One hour allowed,)

Write in plain prose a short essay on one of the following
subjects : —

(a) '* Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much ;

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." — Oowper»

(6) "Honest labour bears a lovely face." — Dekher,

268 KXAMINATTON QUESllONa

BET B.
(Three hours allowed for this paper,)

Answer Qaestlon 1, and fifte others, of which two mast be from the remaining
qu«>8tion8 in Section I. and three from Section II.

Fall marks are higher for Qaestlon 1 than for any other.

If more than $ix qnestions are attempted, only the gix answers coming first on the
paper will he reyised.

Section I.

1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words italicised:-—
" The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with

darkness than light ; yet let btU a foolieh maid inculcate these often
on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he
shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives ; but
darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas,
and they shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than
the other."

2. Illustrate the various uses of the infinitive form of the verb
in English.

3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a tabular form
for analysis of sentences.

4. Note some changes in idiom and the meaning of words used
which have occurred since the Authorised Version of the Bible was
issued.

5. What has been the influence of false analogy in the formation
of words ? Illustrate from the history of the English language.

6. Give examples of '* doublets" in English, t.«. words which
may be traced to the same original but have now different forms.
Explain how they came into existence.

Sbotion II [The Spectator and Tennyson.)

7« Write brief explanatory notes on the following: —

(a) ** Orestes, in his madness, looked as if he saw something.'*

(&) " The good knight told me my good frioid, his chaplain,
was very well . . . and that the Sunday before he had
made a most incomparable sermon out of Dr. Barrow."

called him) to be a greater man than Scanderbeg."

(d) " I could wish our Royal Society would compile a body ol

natural history, the best that could be gathered together
from books and observations. " .

(e) '*I roust not omit that Sir Roger is a justice of the quorum ;

that he tills the chair at a quarter session with great
abilities. "
8. Sketch the characters of Will Wimble and the chaplain; or^
write a short summary of the '* Scene in a Stage Coach,"

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS 268(a)

9. *' Addison shows im Sir Roger the solid and pecnliar English
character. ... A handred traits depict the times." Expand and
illustrate this criticism.

10. Illastrate, from the ** Selections," Tennyscm's precise obsenri^
tion of nature.

11. Write notes upon the following passages : —

(a) ** Heaven heads the count of crimes

With that wfld oath."

(b) "Or mythic Uther^s deeply-wounded son."

ifi) ** The shrilly whinnying s of the team of Hell."

(d) ** Again their ravening eagle rose

In anger, wheeled on Europe-shadowing wings.
And barking for the thrones of kings."

(«) " Like Herod, when the shout was in his earn,
Strack thro' with pangs of Hell."

(/) " The Abominable, that uninvited came
Into the fair Peleian banquet-hall.

And cast the golden fruit upon the board."

12. How far were Tennyson's religious ideas characteristic of his
age and country ?

SET 0.
{Three Kwira allotped/or thia paper,)

Answer^Qnestion 1 and Jive others, of which (100 most be taken from the renudning
questions m Section I. and thrm from Section II. Full marks are higher for
Question 1 than for any other. If more than »ix qnestions are attempted, only the
•ix answers coming first on your paper will be revised.

SsonoK I.

1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics :—
"He was proud, when I praised; he was submissive, when I

reproved him ; but he did never love me, and what he now mistakes
for justice and kindness for me, is btU the pleasant sensation which
all persons feel at revisiting the scenes of their boyish hopes and
fears ; and the seeing on equal terms the man they were aecuatomed to
look up to with reverence."

2. Daring what periods were French words introduced into our
language ? Give examples of the words introduced at the different
periods.

3. Write a short summary of Qrimm's Law.

4. Give instances of words of Keltic and Scandinavian origin which
are still in use.

5. Illustrate the imperfections of the English alphabet.

Sbotion II.

6. What conclusions about his political views would you draw from
Wordsworth's poems T

268(b) ICXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

7. Account for and illustrate tbe simplicity of Wordsworth's
delineation of Nature ; or

Describe with illustrations from his poems, Wordsworth's views
of the relation between man and nature.

8. Gire examples of the humour and pathos of the "Essays of
Elia."

9. State and discuss Lamb's views on ''Modem Gallantry."

10. Compare Lamb's ''New Schoolmaster" with the teacher of
to-day.

1 1. Annotate these passages : —

(a) " Great is thy name in the rubric, thou venerable Archflamen
of Hymen."

(6) "Lear, thrown from his palace, must divest him of his
garments, till he answer ' mere nature.' "

(e) " His Minerva is bom in panoply."

{d) " The Carthusian is bound to his brethren by this agreeing
spirit of incomraunicativenesB."

(e) "Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year."

C/) " Upon the side

Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)

A knot of spiry trees for ages grew

From out the. tomb of him for whom she died.''

{g) ** What Horace gloried to behold,

What Maro loved, shall we unfold ?
Can naughty Time be just ? "

(A) " They dreamt of a perishable home
Who thus could build."

SET D.
{Three hov/rs allowed for this paper.)

Answer Qaestion 1, and two other qaestions in Section I., and (too qaesttons

firom each of the other Sections.

Section L — English Langfaoe.

1. Analyse one of the following passages, and parse the words in
italics in it : —

(a) " I do not, hrot?ier.

Infer as if I thought my sister's state
Secure without all doubt or controversy ;
Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope rather than fear
And gladly banish squint suspicion."

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(c)

(&) " We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his head,
called the coachman down from the box, and upon his
presenting himself at the window asked him if he smoked ;
as I was considering what this would end in, he bid him
stop by the way at any good tobacconist's, and take in a
roll of their best Virginia."

2. Write brief notes, giving illustrations, on the different uses of
the words both, only, like, what,

3. How are degrees of comparison formed ? Give six instances of
irregular comparison and account for the so-called irregularities.

4. To what group of languages does English belong, and to what
other language is it most nearly related ?

5. During what periods and by what influences were Latin words
introduced into English ? Give examples.

Section II. — Gomus and Lyddas,

6. What were the two objects with which Lycidas was written 1
What reference to current events does the poem contain? Why
does Milton speak of himself in it as a shepherd ?

7. What was the occasion of the writing of Comus ? Describe the
last scene.

8. State what you consider the chief characteristics of Milton's
style, comparing it with that of any other English poet with whom you
are familiar. What is the metre chiefly used in these two poems ?
Illustrate your answer from the lines in the next question.

9. Comment shortly on the following passage^ : —

(a) *' Sisters of the sacred well

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring."

(&) ** For neither were ye playing on the steep

Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie,
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high."

(c) '* Tet some there be that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on the golden key
That opes the palace of eternity."

{d) " The grey hooded even.

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Bose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain."

Section III. — Selections from Addison.

10. When, and for how long, did the Spectator appear ? To what
other periodicals did Addison contribute, and who was his chief
associate ?

11. Describe either : —

(a) Sir Roger de Goverley ; or
(6) Will Wimble ; or
(e) Tom Folio.

268(d) SXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

12. When we eeaae to ttudy Addison as a statesman or a critic,
as a theologian or a moralist, what of him remains ?

13. Give a short analysis of the essay entitled "The Vision of
Public Credit.*' Explain the political or other references in the two
" Dances of Apparitions."

SET EL

( Three Tumrs allowed /or this paper. )

Answer QnestioB 1, end tvfo other questions trom Section I. , and tvfo questions from
each of the other Sections.

If more than <eve» questions as prescribed are attempted, only the prescribed
number of answers in each Section coming first on your pai>er will be revised.

Sectiok I. — EKauBH Lanouaox.

1. Analyse the words in bracket! and parse the words in italics in
one of the following passages : —

(a) {** On superior powers

Wert we to press, inferior might on ours ;
Or in the full creation leave a void
Where, one step broken, the great scale 's destroyed. )
- From nature's ebain whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike."

(5) (*<Many politicians of onr own time are in the habit of
laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no
people ought to be free till tbey are fit to use their free-
dom.) The maxim is worthy of the fool in tbe old story,
who resolyed not to go into the water till he had learnt
to swiuv."

2. As what parts of speech can these words be used i-^-lmt, only,
whai ? Give examples.

3. Account for tbe following double forms : — regal, royal ; gamer,
granoAry ; fidelity, Jealty ; pwrnktj persecute ; benedictum, benison,

4.' *>Tbe troops "w^er^ far from exhausted.**
**The troops were far from being exhausted."

What is tbe precise meaning of the above statements ? Parse the
words in italics in each case.

5. How far ie ii true to say thai English is not an inflected
ianguage ? What traces are tiiere of ita haying formerly been more
inflected?

Skctiok II. — P(WE» JSssety on Man, 1 and 2.

I. Thoroughly explain, with reference to the context in which they
occur, the following passages : —

EXAMINATION QUKBTIONS. 268(e)

(a) " Keason the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titns, if he wilL"

(5) <* Say what the use, were finer optics given.

To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ?
Or touch, if tremblinglj «live all o'er.
To smart and agonise at every pore ? "

{d) ** If plagues or earthquakes break not hearea'a design.
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline? "

2. Give, in plain prose, the meaning of the following passage : —

'* Lo, the poor Indian I whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ;
His soul proud science ne^'er taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way ;
Yet simple nature to his hope has given,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n ;
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold.
No fiends torment, no Ohristiaos thirst for gdd.
To be, contents his natural desire.
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's &re ;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky.
His faithful dog shall bear him company."

3. Enunciate briefly the main thesis of the Iksay tm Man, From
whom did Pope derive his philosophy ?

4. What, according to Pope, are the two great principles in
human nature ? Which is the stronger, and why 7

SsoTiON III. — Maoaitlat's E88ay <m MiUon, and Johnson's

L\fe o/MiUon,

1. Give the chief points of Macaulay*^ comparison of Milton and
Dante.

2. Give the substance of JohnsonNi critieism on Lyei^as, . How
far do you think it just ?

3. " We .think that as civilisation* advances, poetry almost neces-
sarily declines.** How does Haeaulay argue in favour of this proposi-
tion? Why do you think Milton himself said *'he had been bom
an age too late " ?

4. Point out how Johnson's political and religions opinions in-
fluenced his estimate of Milton.

268(f) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

TEACHERS* CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION— SECOND
YEAR PAPERS (Men and Women).

SETA.

{Three hours oXLowtdfor this Paper,)

GftBdidates must not answer more than tix questions.
If more than the prescribed number of questions i
of answers coming first on the paper will be reyised.

English Languagb and Literature.

If more than the prescribed number of questions are attempted, only that number

1. Analyse the following lines, and pane fully the words itali-
cised : —

** Aumerle, thon weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin !
We '11 make foul weather with despised tears ;
Our sighs and they shall lodge the sufnmer corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land*
Or shall we ^lay the wantons with our woes,
And make some pretty match with shedding tears ?
As thus, to drop them still upon one place,
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves
Within the earth ; and, therein laid — Tfiere lies
Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes I "

2. Illustrate from the play of Richard II, the manner in which
Shakespeare treated his authorities in composing his dramas.

3. Comment upon the language of the following lines : —

(a) "Grace me no grace, nor unde me no uncle."

(&) *' Tell me ... if he appeal the Duke on ancient malice."

(e) " Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialise
The unstooping fimmess of my upright souL"

(<Q '* I did confess it, and exactly begged

Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it."

(«) " Norfolk, throw down, we bid ; there is no boot.*

(/) ** We cannot atone you."

{g) " Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him."

{h) ** And yet my letters-patents gave me leave."

4. Explain: —

(a) '' If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights.
Gall in the letters-patents that he hath
By his attorneys-general to sue
His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, i

Ton pluck a thousand dangers on your head. '' i

EXAMINATION QtJESTIONS. 268(g)

(6) " Whilst you have fed upon my signories,

Dispark'd my parks and felled my forest-woods,
From my owu windows torn my household coat,
Razed out my impress, leaving me no sign,
Save men's opinions and my living blood,
To show the '\. orld I am a gentleman."

That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall."

(d) " Our scene is altered from a serious thing,

And now changed to ' The Beggar and the King.' "

(e) "These signs forerun the death or fall of kings."
(/) ** The caterpillars of the commonwealth."

5. Analyse the character of Bolingbroke, or of the Duke of York,
as depicted by Shakespeare.

6. Discuss Shakespeare's use of the supernatural in The Tempest
and Macbeth,

7. Trace in outline the development of Macbeth's character, or
discuss the date of the composition of The Tempest,

8. Write in plain prose the meaning of one of the following extracts
from Gray, adding a brief explanation of the allusions :—

(a) '* Girt with many a baron bold

Sublime their starry fronts they rear ;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old
In bearded majesty, appear.
In the midst a form divine !
Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line :
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face
Attemper 'd sweet to virgin-grace."

(&) " Now second He, that rode sublime

Upon the seraph- wings of Ecstasy
The secrets of the Abyss to spy :

He pass'd the flaming bounds of Space and Time :
The living Throne, the sapphire blaze
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He saw ; but blasted with excess of light.
Closed his eyes in endless night."

9. A critic of some renown says of Gray and the poets of his time :
** They were nearly all . . . lovers of abstraction and allegory, who,
to attain greatness, willingly mounted on stilts." How far, in your
opinion, is this criticism true of Gray ?

10. Explain the allusions in the following passages. Say whether
in your opinion Gray has passed the limits within which allusion is
legitimately confined : —

(a) "Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue."
(&) *' Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains."
(c) " No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred."
(ct) ** And spare the meek usurper's holy head."
(e) ** The Attic warbler poars her throat."

268(h) iXAMINATION QUESTlONa

Composition Subjects.

{One Tuner allowed. )

Write in plain prose a abort essay on one of the following
subjects : — '

(a) *'What should they know of England who only England
know ? " — Kipling,

(b) The spread of the English language.

(e) " Take a straw and throw it up into the air ; yon may see by
that which way the wind is.'' — Selden,

SET B.

{Three Jiours allowed for this paper,)

Candidates must not answer more than »to qnestions, which must include
Questions 1, 6, and at least one question firom the last four.

If more than the prescribed number of questions are attempted, only that number
of answers coming lirst on your paper will be revised.

1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics : —

*' McLcd, What 's the disease he means ?
Mcblc, *Ti8 called the evil :

A most miraculous work in this good king ;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him cfo. How he solicits Heaven,
Himself hevt knows : but strangely- visited people,
AU swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers : and *tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction."

2. What reasons are there for the theory that the play of Mat^th^
as we have it, is not all of Shakespeare's composition ?

3. Analyse the character of Lady Macbeth, and bring out the con-
trast between it and the character of her husband.

4. Explain the following three passages in the light of the different
theories concerning the nature of the witches in Macbeth : —

{a) " First Witch, Where hast thou been, sister ?
Second Witch, Killing swine.*'

(&) <* All hail, Macbeth ! that shalt be king hereafter."

5. Give the full meaning of three of the following passages, bring-
ing out the force of the metaphor. Say also by whom and when the
words were uttered : —

XXAMINATIOK QTJXSTIONS. 268(1)

(a) " Two truths are told,

Ab happj pruloguet to the swelling act
Of the impanal theme."

(f>) "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly ; if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success."

(e) " From this instant

There 'a nothing serious in mortality :
All is bat toys : renown and grace is dead ;
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this yanlt to brag of."

(<Q <* Then comes my fit again ; I had else been perfect,
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock.
As broad and general as the casing air ;
Bat now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears."

6. Set out briefly the various threads in the plot of the Merchani
of VenuXf and show how they are connected.

7. What is a simile ? Give examples of similes from '* The Coming
of Arthur" and "The Passing of Arthur," and carefully analyse one
of them, criticising its appropriateness.

8. Explain the dlusiouB in the following passages : —

{a) ** The sunset bound of Lyonnesse—

A land of old upheaven from the abyss
By fire, to sink into the abyss again."

(5) ** King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,

Wrought by the lonely maiden of the lake.
Kine years she wrought it, sitting in the deep
Upon the hidden bases of the hills."

(d) "Whereat the two,
For each had warded either in the fight,
Sware on the field of death a deathless love."

(e) " The swallow and the swift are near akin.

But thou art closer to this noble prince,
Beii\g his own dear sister."

(/) '* And there I saw Mage Merlin, whose vmst wit
And hundred winters are but as the hands
Of loyal Tassals toiling for their liege, "

{g) " He laugh'd as is his wont, and answered me
In riddling triplets of old time, and said."

{h) *' There at the banquet those gi*eat lords from Rome,
The slowly-fading mistress of the world,
fttrodo in, and clum'd their tribute as of yore."

268(j) SXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

9. '' * 0 King I ' she cried, ' and I will tell thee true :

He found me first, when yet a little maid :

Beaten I had been for a little fault

Whereof I was not guilty ; and out I ran

And flung myself down on a bank of heath,

And hated this fair world and all therein,

And wept, and wish'd that I were dead ; and he^

I know not whether of himself he came,

Or brought by Merlin, who, they say, can walk

Unseen at pleasure — he was at my aide.

And spake sweet words, and comforted my heart,

And dried my tears, being a child with me.

And many a time he came, and evermore

As I grew greater, grew with me ; and sad

At times he seem'd, and sad with him was I. ' **

Explain by reference to these lines the metre of Tennyson's epic
poems. Comment on any variety of rhythm which is introduced ;
compare with the blank verse of Macbeth,

10. How far is *' sense at war with soul" the subject of the two
poems of Tennyson you have studied ?

SET G.

(Three hours aUoioedfor this paper,)

Candidates must not answer more than «to questions, which must include two
questions from each Section. If- more than the prescribed number of questions
are attempted, only that number of answers coming first on your pai>er will be
revised.

Section I. — Hamlet,

1. Show the relation between the various clauses in the following
passage, and parse the italicised T7ords : —

** Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not cxpress'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And thoy in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be ;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend.
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all : to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

2. Discuss the question of Hamlet's sanity.

3. Sketch the character of Polonius.

4. Write full notes upon two of the following extracts : —

(a) ** Her obsequies have been as far enlarged

As we have warranty ; her death was doubtful ;

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(k)

Andy bat that great command o'ersways the order,
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trum))et ; for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her ;
Tet here she is allowed her virgin crants.
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
Of bell and burial."

(&) *< That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on.

For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either master the devil or throw him out
With wondrous potency."

Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law : but 'tis not so above ;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature ; and we ourselves compell'd.
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults.
To give in evidence."

Section II. — Arnold's Wordsuforth,

5. In what poetical qualities was Wordsworth specially eminent ?
Illustrate your answer by quotation.

6. What ideas does Wordsworth express regarding (a) childhood,
(b) freedom, (c) duty, and {d) religion ?

7. Explain the allusions in the following passages : —

(a) " To the wide church door.
Charged with these offerings which thy fathers bore
For decoration in the Papal time,

The innocent procession softly moves : —

The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime,

And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves.''

(b) "Left single, in bold parley, ye, of yore.

Did from the Norman win a gallant wreath ;
Confirmed the charters that were yours before ; —
No parleying now."

That the first Greek who touched the Trojan strand
ShoiUddie."

(d) ** Such was blind
Maeonides of ample mind ;

Such Milton, to the fountain head
Of glory, by Urania led I "

268(1) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

(«) ** Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men f **

(/) « Bo true

Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea,
Wafting your charge to soft Parthenope.'*

Sbctiok III. — Midaummer Night's Drtam.

8. Account for the title, A Midsummer Nights Dream,

9. The fairy mythology of Shakespeare has been described as an
attempt to blend " the EIyos of the Tillage with the Fays of
romance.** Comment on this statement.

10. Give the cast of '' The most lamentable comedy of Pyramns and
Thisbe." How were the difficulties of scenery overcome ?

SET IX

( Thret hours allowed for this paper,)

Oamdldates mast not answer more than sis questions, whi<^ most include one from
each Section.

If more than sis qnestions are attempted, only the sis answers ocnning first on your
paper will be revised.

Seotion I. — King Lear,

1. (a) Divide the following passages into clauses, and show their
relationship to each other.

{h) Give a detailed analysis of *' Those happy smilets — diamondp
dropped.**

'* Patience and sorrow strove
Who should ea^ess her goodliest. You have seen
Sunshine and rain at once : her smiles and tears
Were like a better way. Those happy smilets
That played on her ripe lip, seemed not to know
What quests were in her eyes ; which parted them
As pearls from diamonds dropped. In brief
Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved
If all could so become it."

2. Trace the development of Lear*s madness, showing what stages
in it are indicated by the following utterances : —

'* Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow I **
'* Oh, that way madness lies ; let me shun that."
'* What, have his daughters brought him to this pass ? *'
" Off, off you lendings 1 Come, unbutton here.'*

'.' As I am a man, I think this lady
To be my child Cordelia.**

3. Explain the following : —

(a) " Is it but this, a tardiness in natnrey

Which often leaves the history unspoka
That it intends to do? *'

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(m)

fby *' Let the great gods,

Tbftt keep this dreadful pother o'er our heada^
Find out their enemies now."

(d) "The fishermen that walk upon the beach

Appear like mice.'^

(e) ** The wheel is come full circle."

4. Paraphrase the following passage fully in simple prose :—

* There is division,
Although as yet the face of it be covered
With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall,
Who have — as who have not, that their great stars
Throned and set on high ? Servants, who seem no less,
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state ; what hath been seen,
Either in snuffs and packings of the dukes,
Or the hard rein which both of them have borne
Against the old kind King ; or something deeper.
Whereof perchance thiese are but furnishings ;
But true it is, from France there comes a power
Into this scattered Kingdon^ ; who already.
Wise in our negligence have secret feet
In some of our best ports, and are at point
To show their open banner. **

SxoTioN IL — Selectiooka from. Addison.

5. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics : —

''There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter,
witJumt engaging his assent to one side or the other. Such a hovering
faith as this, which refuses to settle upon any determination, is abso-
lutely necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid errors and pre-
possession. When the arguments press equally on both sides in
matters that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to give up
ourselves to neither,^

6. What does Addison himself state to be *' the great aim of these
my speculations " ? Consider this in relation to the tendencies of the
age in which he lived.

7. What persons, or class of persons^ ai'e depicted under the name
of Tom Folio, the Political Upholsterer, the Ttrmknaker at the Play,
Will Honeyconrt? Give a brief .summary of Addison's description
of one of theuL.

8. Give a short sketch of any one of the Essays which you
remember.

Sbotion III. — As Tau Like It.

9. To what period of Shakespeare's Kterary career does As Ton
Like It belong ? Give reasons for your answer. From where did
Shakespeare obtain the story ?

268(n) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS.

10. Describe either the last scene of As You Like It, or the scene
in which Orlando appears before the Duke and his Lords in the
Forest.

11. Sketch the character of Jacques, referring to passages of the
play in support of your statements.

12. Compare Rosalind with any other of Shakespeare's heroines.

SET £.

( Tliree hours allowed ft/r this paper, )

Candidates must not answer more than iix queations, which most include one from
each Section.

If more than «te qnestions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on
yonr paper will be reyised.

Sbotion I. — King Henry VIII,

1. Explain, as to a class, any difficulties of expression in three only
of the four following extracts, briefly noting the context in which
they occur : —

(a) ** I have been begging sixteen years in court,

Am yet a courtier beggarly, nor could
Come pat betwixt too early and too late
For any suit of pounds. "

(b) "If he know
That I am free of your report, he knows
I am not of your wrong."

(e) "The question did at first so stagger me.
Bearing a state of mighty moment in 't
And consequence of dread, that I committed
The daring'st counsel which I had to doubt."

(d) *' You have scarce time

To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span
To keep your earthly audit ; sure, in that
I deem you an ill husband, and am glad
To haye you therein my companion."

2. Explain the following passages : —

(a) " To-day the French

All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods
Shone down the English ; and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain India.*'

(6) '* Out of mere ambition you haye caused

Your holy hat to be stamped on the king's coin."

The bird of wondtr dies, the maiden Phoenix,

Her ashes new create another heir,

As great in admiration as herself ;

So shall she leave her blessedness to one.''

3. Briefly describe, as presented in this play, the character of
Wolsey, or of King Henry viil.

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(o)

Section II. — Paradise Lostf Books t. and it.

1. Explain, with reference to the context in which they occnr,
with brief notes on any point which seems to you to require it, the
following passages : —

(a) " All is not lost — the nnconquerable will
And study of revenge, immortal hate
And courage never to submit or yield :
And what is else not to be overcome."

(&) " Our torments also, may in length of time
Become our elements, these piercing fires
As soft as now severe, our temper changed
Into their temper, which must needs remove
The sensible of pain."

Directed, no mean recompense it brings
To your behoof, if I that region lost,
All usurpation thence expelled, reduce
To her original darkness and your sway."

2. Explain the following passages : —

(a) " When with fierce winds Orion armed

Hath vexed the Bed Sea Coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry."

(h) " A leper once he lost and gained a king."

When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabbia."

{d) ** Medusa, with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford, and of itself the water flies
In taste of living weight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus."

3. Compare the character of any one of the Spirits, as described in
Book I., with his speech given in Book ii.

Sbotion III. — TJie Tempest, and Lbigh Hunt's Essays,

1. To what period of Shakespeare's life is The Tempest assigned,
and on what grounds ? Mention any historical allusions in the play.

2. What other plays belong to the same period ? State the charac-
teristics of the tone and feeling of these plays, as shown in The
Tempest,

3. Describe tht character of Prospero or Caliban.

4. Give a short account of Leigh Hunt's life. Who were his chief
literary friends and contemporaries ?

5. Give a sketch of the essay on " The Realities of the Imagination,"
or on " Dreams."

6. What characteristic features of Leigh Hunt's work can be illus-
trated from the paper on " Tea-Drinking," or '* Breakfast in Summer,"
or " Shakespeare's Birthday " ?

PART IIL

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGHSH LANGUAGE

271

INTRODUCTION.

1. Tongue, Speech, Language. — We speak of the "English
tongue" or of the "French language"; and we say of two
nations that they "do not understand each other's speech."
The existence of these three words — speech, tongue, language
— proves to us that a language is something spoken, — that it is
a number of sounds; and that the writing or printing of it
upon paper is a quite secondary matter. Language, rightly
considered, then, is an organised set of sounds. These
sounds convey a meaning from the mind of the speaker to
the mind of the hearer, and thus serve to connect man with
man.

2. Written Language. — It took many hundreds of years —
perhaps thousands — before human beings were able to invent a
mode of writing upon paper — that is, of representing sounds
by signs. These signs are called letters ; and the whole set of
them goes by the name of the Alphabet — from the two first
letters of the Greek alphabet, which are called alpha, beta.
There are languages that have never been put upon paper at
all, such as many of the Africain languages, many in the South
Sea Islands, and other parts of the globe. But in all cases,
every language that we know anything about — English, Latin,
French, German — existed for hundreds of years before any one
thought of writing it down on paper.

3. A Language Grows. — A language is an organism or
organic existence. Now every organism lives; and, if it
lives, it grows ; and, if it grows, it also dies. Our language
grows ; it is growing still ; and it has been growing for many

272 mSTORT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

hnndreds of jeara As it grows it loses something, and it gains
something else ; it alters its appearance ; changes take place in
this part of it and in that part, — ^until at length its appearance
in age is something almost entirely different from what it was
in its early youth. If we had the photograph of a man of
forty, and the photograph of the same person when he was a
child df one, we should find, on comparing them, that it was
almost impossible to point to the smallest trace of likeness in
the features of the two photographs. And yet the two pictures
represent the same person. And so it is with the English
language. The oldest English, which is usually called Anglo-
Saxon, is as different from our modem English as if they were
two distinct languages ; and yet they are not two languages, but
really and fimdamentally one coid the same. Modem English
differs from the oldest English as a giant oak does from a small
oak sapling, or a broad stalwart man of forty does from a feeble
infant of a few months old.

4. The KhgHflh Language. — ^The English language is the

speech spoken by the Anglo-Saxon race in England, in most

parts of Scotland, in the larger part of Ireland, in the United

States, in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, in South

Africa, and in many other parts of the world. In the middle

of the fifth century it was spoken by a few thousand men who

had lately landed in England from the Continent : it is now

spoken by about one hundred and. fifty millions of people. Jn

the course of the next sixty years, it will probably be the speech

of three hundred millions.

5. Englisli on the Ck)ntinent.— In the middle of the fifth

century it was spoken in the north-west comer of Europe

befc^ween the mouths of ttie Rhine, the Weser, and the Elbe •

and. in Schleswig there is a small district which is called Angeln

to tHis day. But it was not then called Snglish ; it was more

pPot>aWy called Teutish, or Teutsch, or Deutsoh — ^all words

conrxected with a generic word which covers many families and

languages— Teutonia It was a rough guttural speech of one

or t-wo thousand words; and it was brought over to this country

ty i>lie Jutes, Angles, and Saxons in the year 449. These

INTRODUCmON. 273

men left their home on the Continent 'to iindl^ere fanns to till
and houses to live in ; and they drove the inhabitants of -the
island — ^the Britons — ever farther and farther .west, until they
at length left them in peace in the -more mountainous parts of
the island — in the southern and western r comers, in Cornwall
and in Wales.

6. The British Language. — What language did the Teutonic
conquerors, who wrested the lands from the poor Britons, find
spoken in this island when they .first set ioot'on it? "Not a
Teutonic speech at alL They found a language not one word of
which they could understand The island itself was then called
Britain; and the tongue spoken in it belonged to the Keltic
group of languages. Languages belonging to the Keltic group
are still spoken in Wales, in Brittany (in France), in the High-
lands of Scotland, in the west * of Ireland, and in the Isle of
Man. A few words — ^very few — from the speech of the Britons,
have come into our own English language ; and what these are
we shall see by-and-by.

7. The Family to which English I>elongs.-;-Our English
tongue belongs to the Aryan or Cado-European Family of
languages. That is to say, the main part < or substance of it can
be traced back to the race which inhabited the high table-lands
that lie to the back oft the- western end of (the great -range of the
Himalaya, or '* Abode of Snow.'* This Aryan race grew and
increased, and spread to the south and .west ; and from it have
sprung languages which are now spoken in India, in Peisia, in
Greece and Italy, -in France and Germany, in Scandinavia, and
in Eussia. From this Aryan family -we are sprung; out of the
oldest Aryan ^speech our own language has grown.

8. The Oronp to which Bngliah belongs. — ^The Indo-
European family of languages consists of several groups. One
of these is called the Teutonic Group, because it is spoken by
the Teuts (or the !Fautonio Taod), >if^ho are found in Germany,
in England and Scotland, in Holland, in ^^pasts of Belgium, in
Denmark, in Norway and Sweden, in Iceland, and the Faroe
Islands. The Teutonic group consists of three branches —
High Oerman* Low Oermaa* and SoandinaviaiL High

274 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

German is the name given to the kind of German spoken in
Upper Germany — that is, in the table-land which lies south of
the river Main, and which rises gradually till it runs into the
Alps. Kew High Qerman is the German of books — the
literary language — ^the German that is taught and learned in
schools. Ijow German is the name given to the German
dialects spoken in the lowlands — in the German part of the
Great Plain of Europe, and round the mouths of those German
rivers that flow into the Baltic and the North Sea. Scan-
dinavian is the name given to the languages spoken in
Denmark and in the great Scandinavian Peninsula. Of these
three languages, Danish and Norwegian are practically the same
— their literary or book-language is one ; while Swedish is very
different. Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of Scandina-
vian. The following is a table of the

GROUP OP TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.

TEUTOinO.

I ■ J I

Low GisRMAN. High German. Scandinavian.
\ . \ I

Dutch. Flemish. Frisian. English. Old. Middle. New. Icelandic. Dansk Ferroic Rvenak

(or Norsk). (Swedish^

It will be observed, on looking at the above table, that High
German is subdivided according to time, but that the other
groups are subdivided according to space.

9. English a Low-Gtennan Speech. — Our English tongue is
the lowest of all Ijow-Gernian dialects. Low German is the
German spoken in the lowlands of Germany. As we descend
the rivers, we come to the lowest level of all — the level of the
sea. Our English speech, once a mere dialect, came down to
that, crossed the German Ocean, and settled in Britain, to which
it gave in time the name of Angla-land or England. The Low
German spoken in the Netherlands is called Dutch ; the Low
German spoken in Friesland — a prosperous province of Holland
— ^is called Frisian; and the Low German spoken in Great
Britain is called English. These three languages are extremely
like one another; but the Continental language that is likest

INTRODUCTION. 275

the English is the Dutch or HoUandish dialect called Frisian.
We even possess a couplet, every word of which is both Eng-
lish and Frisian. It runs thus —

Good butter and good cheese
Is good EngUsh and good Fries.

10. Dutch and Welsh — a Contrast. — When the Teuton con-
querors came to this country, they called the Britons foreigners,
just as the Greeks called all other peoples besides themselves
barbarians. By this they did not at first mean that they were
uncivilised, but only that they were not Greeks. Now, the
Teutonic or Saxon or English name for foreigners was Wealhas,
a word afterwards contracted into Welsh. To this day the
modem Teuts or Teutons (or Germans, as we call them) caU
all Frenchmen and Italians Welshmen; and, when a German
peasant crosses the border into France, he says : " I am going
into Welshland."

11. The Spread of English over Britain. — The Jutes, who
came from Juteland or Jylland — now called Jutland — settled in
Kent and in the .Isle of Wight The Saxons settled in the
south and western parts of England, and gave their names to
those kingdoms — now counties — whose names came to end in
sex. There was the kingdom of the East Saxons, or Essex ;
the kingdom of the West Saxons, or Wessex ; the kingdom of
the Middle Saxons, or Middlesex; and the kingdom of the
South Saxons, or Sussex. The Angles settled chiefly on the
east coast. The kingdom of East Anglia was divided into the
regions of the Korth Fo& and the South Folk, words which
are still perpetuated in the names Norfolk and Suffolk, These
three sets of Teutons all spoke different dialects of the same
Teutonic speech; and these dialects, with their differences,
peculiarities, and odd habits, took root in English soil, and
lived an independent life, apart from each other, uninfluenced
by ea^fh other, for several hundreds of years. But, in the slow
course of time, they joined together to make up our beautiful
English language — a language which, however, still bears in
itself the traces of dialectic forms, and is in no respect of one
kind or of one fibre all through.

276

CHAPTEE I.

THE PBRIOIW OF. BN0LI8H.

L Dead and Liviiii: Languages. — A language is said to be
dead when it is no longer spoken. Such a language we know
only in books. Thus, iLatin is a dead language, because no
nation anywhere now speaks it. A- dead language can undergo
no change ; it remains, and must 'remain, as we find it written
in books. But a living language is always changing, just like
a tree or the human body. The human body has its periods or
stages. There is the period of infancy, the period of boyhood^
the period of manhood, and the period of old age. In 'the same
way, a language has its periods.

2. No Sudden Changes — a Caution. — ^We divide the Eng-
lish language into periods, and then mark, with some approach
to accuracy, certain distinct changes in the habits of our lan-
guage, in the inflexions of its words, in the kind of words it
preferred, or in the way it liked to put its words together. But
we must be carefully on our guard against fancying that, at any
given time or in any given year, the English people threw aside
one set of habits as regards language, and adopted another set.
It is not so, nor can it be so. The changes in language are as
gentle, gradual, and imperceptible as the changes in the growth
of a tree or in the skin of the human body. We renew our
skin slowly and gradually ; but we are never conscious of the
process, nor can we say at any given time that we have got a
completely new skin.

THE HBftlODS OF fiNGLISlI. 277

'3. The Periods of EngliiilL — Bearing this caution in mind,
we can go on to look at the chief periods in our Englidi Ian-
guage« These are five in number; and they are as follows : —

L Ancient English or Anglo-Saxon,

449-1100

IL Early English, . . . ,

1100-1250

IIL Middle English,

1250-1485

IV. Tudor English,

1485-1603

V. Modem English, . .

1603-19—

These periods merge very slowly, or are shaded off, so to speak,
intoeach other in the modt gradual way. If we take the Eng-
lish of 1250 and compare iit with that- of 900, we shall find a
great difference ; but if we compare it with the English of 1100
the difference is not so marked. The difference between the
English bf 'tiie nineteenth and the English of the fourteenth
century is very great, but' the difference between the English of
the fourteenth and that of the ^thirteenth century is very small

4. Ancient 'English or Anglo*Saxon, 450-1100. — This formof
English differed from modem English in having a much larger
number of inflexions. The noun had five cases, and there were
several declensions, just as in Latin; adjectives 'were declined,
and had three genders ; some pronouns ^had a dual as well as a
plural number ; and the verb bad a much larger number of inflex-
ions than it 'has now. The vocabulary of the language con-
tained very few foreign elements. The poetry of the language
employed head-rhyme or alliteration, and not end-rhyme, as we
do*now. The works of the poet Caedmon and the great prose-
writer JCing Alfred belong to this Anglo-Saxon period.

'5. Ently English, 1100-1250. — The coming of 'the !N^onnans in
1066 made many (Changes in the land, many changes in the
Church and in the 8tate, and it also introduced many changes
nlto the language. The inflexions of our speech began to drop
off, because they were used less and less; and though we never
adopted new tnj'fericww 'from French or from any other language,
new Frendh ^words began to creep in. In some parts of the
country ^EngliBh 'had ceased to be written in 'books ; the -lan-
guage existed as a spoken language only ; and hence accuracy
in the use of words and the inflexions of words could not be

278 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

ensured. Two notable books — written, not printed, for there
was no printing in this island till the year 1474 — belong to this
period. These are the OrmiQum, by Orm or Ormin, and the
Brut, by a monk called ILayanion or Iiainrenian. The latter
tells the story of Brutus, who was believed to have been the son
of -iEneas of Troy ; to have escaped after the downfall of that
city; to have sailed through the Mediterranean, ever farthei
and farther to the west; to have landed in Britain, settled
here, and given the country its name.

6. Middle English, 1250-1485. — Most of the inflexions of
nouns and adjectives have in this period — ^between the middle
of the thirteenth and the end of the fifteenth century — com-
pletely disappeared. The inflexions of verbs are also greatly
reduced in number. The strong ^ mode of inflexion has ceased
to be employed for verbs that are new-comers, and the weak
mode has been adopted in its place. During the earlier part of
this period, even country-people tried to speak French, and
in this and other modes many French words found theij
way into English. A writer of the fourteenth century, John
de Trevisa, says that country-people "fondeth [that is, try]
ivith great bysynes for to speke Freynsch for to be more y-told
of." The country-people did not succeed very well, as the
ordinary proverb shows : " Jack would be a gentleman if he
could speak French." Boys at school were expected to turn
their Latin into French, and in the courts of law French
only was allowed to be spoken. But in 1362 Edward EEL
gave his assent to an Act of Parliament allowing English to
be used instead of Norman-FrencL " The yer of oure Lord,"
says John de Trevisa, "a thousond thre hondred foure score
and fyve of the secunde Kyng Richard after the conquest, in al
the gramer scoles of Engelond children leveth Freynsch, and
construeth and lemeth an Englysch." To the first half of this
period belong a Metrical Chronicle, attributed to Bobert of
Gloucester; Iiangtoffc's Metrical Chronicle, translated by
Bobert de Brunne ; the Agenbite of Inwit, by Dan Michel
of K'orthgate in Kent ; and a few others. But to the second

1 S«e p. 4a

THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH. 279

half belong the rich and varied productions of QeolErey Chaucer,
our first great poet and always one of our greatest writers ; the
alliterative poems of William Iiangley or Iianglande; the
more learned poems of John Qoinrer; and the translation of
the Bible and theological works of the reformer John Wyclifl

7. Tudor English, 1485-1603. — Before the end of the sixteenth
century almost all our inflexions had disappeared. The great
dramatist Ben Jonson (1574-1637) laments the loss of the plural
ending en for verbs, because wenten and Tiopen were much more
musical and more useful in verse than went or hope; but its
recovery was already past praying for. This period is remark-
able for the introduction of an enormous number of Latin
words, and this was due to the new interest taken in the litera-
ture of the Romans — an interest produced by what is called the
Bevival of Iietters. But the most striking, as it is also the
most important fact relating to this period, is the appearance of
a group of dramatic writers, the greatest the world has ever
seen. Chief among these was William Shakespeare. Of
pure poetry perhaps the greatest writer was Edmund Spenser.
The greatest prose-writer was Biohard Hooker, and the pithiest
Francis Bacon.

8. Modem English, 1603-19—. — The grammar of the language
was fixed before this period, most of the accidence having en-
tirely vanished. The vocabulary of the language, however, has
gone on increasing, and is still increasing ; for the English
language, like* the English people, is always ready to offer
hospitality to all peaceful foreigners — ^words or human beings —
that will land and settle within her coasts. And the tendency
at the present time is not only to give a hearty welcome to new-
comers from other lands, but to call back old words and old
phrases that had been allowed to drop out of existence. Tenny-
son was one ot the chief agents in this happy restoration.

280

CHAPTEE IL

fHE mSIOBT OF THE TOGABULABT OT TBI rarOIISH LAK6UAGK

1. The Bnglfnh HsfcioiL — Tkd En^ish people have for many
centuries been the greatest traToIIers in the world. An Eng^h-
man^— Drake — was among the first to sailronnd the globe ; and
the English have colonised more fmeign lands in every })art
of the world than any other people that erer existed. The
Engliali in this way have been influenced by the world with-
oat. But they have also been subjected to manifold influences
from within — they have been exposed to greater political
changes, and profounder though quieter political revolutions,
than any other nation. In 1066 they were conquered by the
Norman - French ; and for seyeral centuries they had French
kings. Seeing and talking with many different peoples, they
learned to adopt foreign words with ease, and \o give them a
home among the native-bom words of the language. Trade is
always a kindly and useful influence ; and the tnule of Great
Britain has for many centuries been laiger than that of any
other nation. It has spread into every part of the world ; it
gives and receives from all tribes and nations, :&om every
speech and tongue.

2. The English Element in KngliBh, — When the English
came to this island in the fifth century, the number of words in
the language they spoke was probably not over two thousand.
Now, however, we possess a vocabulary of perhaps more than
one hundred thousand words. And so eager and willing

VOOABULAEY OF TH» ENGLISH LAi^GTJAGE. 281

have we been to welcome foreign words, that it may be said
with truth that : The majority of words in the English
Tongue are not English. In fact^ if we take the Latin
language by itself, there are in our language more Iiatin words
than English. But the grammar is distinctly English, and not
Latin at alL

3. The Spoken Language and the Written Language —
a Oaution. — We must not forget what has been said about a
language, — that it is not a printed thing — not a set of black
marks upon paper, but that it is in truest truth a tongue or a
speech. Hence we must be careful to distinguish between the
spoken language and the written or printed language ; be-
tween the language of the ear and the language of the eye ;
between the language of the mouth and ttie language of the
dictionary ; between the moving vocabulary of the market and
the street, and the fixed vocabulary that has been catalogued
and imprisoned in our dictionaries. If we can only keep this in
view, we shall find that, though there are more Latin words in
our vocabulary than English, the English words we possess are
used in speaking a hundred times, or even a thousand times,
oftener than the Latin words. It is the genuine English words
that have life and movement ; it is they that fly about in houses,
in streets, and in markets ; it is they that express with greatest
force our truest and most usual sentiments — our inmost thoughts
and our deepest feelings. Latin words are found often enough
in books ; but, when an English man or woman is deeply moved,
he speaks pure English and nothing else. Words are the
coin of human intercourse; and it is the native coin of pure
English with the native stamp that is in daily circulation.

4. A Diagram of Eugllfth. — If we were to" try to represent to
the eye the proportions of the different elements in our vocab-
ulary, as it is found in the dictionary, the diagram would take
something like the following form :—

282 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

DIAGRAM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Englibh Wobds.

Latin Wobds
(including Norman-French, which are also Latin).

gbxxk wosiw.

ItaUan, Spanish, Porttiguese, Dutch. Hebrew, Arabic, Hindustani.
Persian, Malaj, American, etc etc.

5. The Foreign Elements in onr English Vocabulary. —

The different peoples and the different circumstances with
which we have come in contact, have had many results — one
among others, that of presenting us with contributions to our
vocabulary. We found Kelts here ; and hence we have a
number of Keltic words in our vocabulary. The Romans held
this island for several hundred years ; and when they had to
go in the year 410, they left behind them a few Latin words,
which we have inherited. In the seventh century, Augustine
and his missionary monks from Eome brought over to us a
larger number of Latin words; and the Church which they
founded introduced ever more and more words from Eome.
The Danes began to come over to this island in the eighth
century ; we had for some time a Danish dynasty seated on the
throne of England : and hence we possess many Danish words.
The Norman-French invasion in the eleventh century brought
us many hundreds of Latin words ; for French is in reality a
branch of the Latin tongue. The Eevival of Learning in the
sixteenth century gave us several thousands of Latin words.
And wherever our sailors and merchants have gone, they have
brought back with them foreign words as well as foreign things
— Arabic words from Arabia and Africa, Hindustani words from
India, Persian words from Persia, Chinese words from China^
and even Malay words from the peninsula of Malacca. Let us
look a little more closely at these foreign elements.

6. The Keltic Element in English. — This element is of

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 383

three kinds: (i) Those words which we received direct from
the ancient Britons whom we f oimd in the island ; (ii) those
which the Norman-French brought with them from Gaul ; (iii)
those which have lately come into the language from the High-
lands of Scotland, or from Ireland, or from the writings of Sir
Walter Scott.

7. The First Keltic Element. — This first contribution con-
tains the following words : Bannock^ clout, avck, taper^
dam, di-udge, mug, posset ; dun (brown) ; glen, hassock, knob,
moMock, pool It is worthy of note that the first eight in
the list are the names of domestic — some even of kitchen —
things and utensils. It may, perhaps, be permitted us to
conjecture that in many cases the Saxon invader married
a British wife, who spoke her own language, taught her
children to speak their mother tongue, and whose words
took firm root in the kitchen of the new English house-
hold. The names of most rivers, mountains, lakes, and hills
are, of course, Keltic ; for these names would not be likely to
be changed by the English new-comers. There are two neunes for
rivers which are found — ^in one form or another — in every part
of Great Britain. These are the names Avon and Ex. The
word Avon mecms simply water. We can conceive the children
on a farm near a river speaking of it simply as " the water " ;
and hence we find fourteen Avons in this island. Ex also
means water; and there are perhaps more than twenty streams
in Great Britain with this name. The word appears as Ex in
IBxeter (the older and fuller form being Exanceaster — the camp
on the Exe) ; as Ax in Axminster ; as Ox in Oxford ; as Ux
in IJxbridge ; and as Ouse in Yorkshire and other eastern
countiea In Wales and Scotland, the hidden k changes its
place and comes at the end. Thus in Wales we find Usk ; and
in Scotland, Esk. There axe at least eight Esks in the kingdom
of Scotland alone. The commonest Keltic name for a moimtain
is Pen or Ben (in Wales it is Pen; in Scotland the flatter
form Ben is used). We find this word in Englcmd also under
the form of Pennine ; and, in Italy, as Apennina

8. The Second Keltic Element. — The Normans came from

284 HISTORY OB THE ENGLISH LAKGlTAOBb.

Seandinavia early in the tenth century, and wrested the valley
of. the Seine out of. the handa of Charles, the Simple,, thatheni
king of the French. The language spoken by the people of
France was a broken-down form of spoken. Latin, which is now-
called French; but in this language they had retained many
Gaulish words out of the old Gaulish language. Such are the
words: Bagj bargain^ barter; barrel^ hasirif basket^ budget;
bonnet, garter, ribbon; ear, catd; mutton, govon; mitten,, motley;,
rogue; varlet, vassal; tnumt. The above words were brought
over to Britain by the Normans; and they gradually took an
acknowledged place among the words of our own. language, and
have held, that place ever since.

9. The Third Keltio Elementi^ — This consists of oompasa^
tively few words — such as dan ; daymore (a sword) ; pkUdbeg
(a kind of« kilt), ptarmigan, brogue (a kind of shoe),.^?a/e2'/
pibroch (bagpipe war-music), slogan (a war-cry); and whisky^
Ireland has given us shamrock, gag, log, dog, and brogue — ^in
the sense oft a* mode, ot speech.

10. The Seandinaviaa Element in English. — Towards the
end. of the eighth century — in the year 787 — the. Teutons of
the North, called Northmen, Normans,. or Norsemen — ^but more
commonly, known as Danes — ^made their appearance^ on. the
eastern, coast of Great Britain, and attacked the peaceful^ towns
and quiet settlements of the English. These attacks became so
frequent, and their occurrence was so much dreaded^, that a
prayer was inserted against them, in a Litany o£ the -time —
" From the incursions of the Norttoien, good Lord,.deliveD u«.!f'
In spite of the resistance of the English,, the Danes had; before
the end of the ninth century, succeeded in obtaining a. penna-
nent footing in England ; and, in the eleventh century, a^Danish
dynasty sat upon the English throne from the year 101^ to 1042.
From, the time of King Alfred, the Danes of the Danelagh
were a settled part of l^e population of England.; and hence
we find, especially on the east coast, a.laige number of> Danish
names still in use.

11. Character of the Scandinavian. Elements — The North*
men, as we have said, were Teutons ; a^d Uiey spoke a. dialect

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 285

of the great Teutobic (or German) langnage. The sounds of
the Dfinish dialect — or language, as it must now be called — are
harder than those of the German. We find a k instead of a
ch ; a p preferred to an £ The same is the case in Scotland,
where the hard form kirk is preferred to the softer church..
Where the Germans say Dorf — our English word Thorpe, a
village — the Danes say Drup.

l?j. Scandinavian Words (i). — The words contributed to our
language by the Scemdinavians are of two kinds : (i) Names of
places ; and (ii) ordinary words, (i) The most striking instance
of a Danish place-name is the noun by, a town. Mr Isaac
Taylor^ tells us that there are in the east of England more
than six hundred names of towns ending in by. Almost all of
these are found in the Danelagh, within the limits of the great
highway made by the Eomans to the north-west, and well-known
as Watling Slareet We find, for example, Whitby, or the
town on the white cliffs; G-rimsby, or the town of Grim, a
great searrover, who obtained for his countrymen the right that
all ships from the Baltic should come into the port of Grimsby
free of duty; Tenby, that is Daneby; by-law, a law for a
special town; and a vast number of others. The following
Danish words also exist in our times — either as separate and
individual words, or in composition — ^beck, a stream; fell, a
hill or table-land ; firth or fiord, an arm of the sea — the same
as the Danish fiord ; force, a waterfall ; garth, a yard or en-
closure; holm, an island in a river; kirk, a church; oe, an
island ; thorpe, a village ; thwaite, a forest clearing ; and vik
or wick, a station for ships, or a creek.

13. Scandinavian Words (ii). — The most useful and the
most frequently employed word that we have received from the
Danes is the word are. The pure English word for this is
booth or sindon. The Danes gave us also the habit of using
to before an infinitive. Their word for to was at ; and at still
survives and is in use in Lincolnshire. We find also the fol-
lowing Danish words in our language : blunt, bole (of a tree),
bound (on a journey — properly boun), busk (to dress), cake,

1 Words and Places, p. 158.
X

286 HISTOBT OP IHE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

call, clog, clumsy, curl, out, dairy, daze, dirt, droop, fellcw,
flit, fro, froward, hustings, ill, irk, kid, kindle, loft, odd,
plough, root, scold, sky, tarn (a small mountain lake), "weak,
and ugly. It is in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lin-
coln, Norfolk, and even in the western counties of Cum-
berland and Lancashire, that we find the largest admixture of
Scandinavian words.

14. Influence of the Scandinavian Element. — The intro-
duction of the Danes and the Danish language into England
had the result, in the east, of unsettling the inflexions of our
language, and thus of preparing the way for their complete dis-
appearance. The declensions of nouns became unsettled;
nouns that used to make their plural in a or in u took the
more striking plural suffix as that belonged to a quite differ-
ent declension. The same things happened to adjectives,
verbs, and other parts of language. The causes of this are not
far to seek Spoken language can never be so accurate as writ-
ten language ; the mass of the English and Danes never cared
or could care much for grammar ; and both parties to a conver-
sation would of course hold firmly to the root of the word,
which was intelligible to both of them, and let the inflexions
slide, or take care of themselves. The more the English and
Danes mixed with each other, the oftener they met at church,
at games, and in the market-place, the more rapidly would this
process of stripping go on, — the smaller care would both peoples
take of the grammatical inflexions which they had brought with
them into this country.

15. The Latin Element in English. — So far as the number of
words — the vocabulary — of the language is concerned, the Latin
contribution is by far the most important element in our lan-
guage. Latin was the language of the Eomans ; emd the Eomans
at one time were masters of the whole known world. No won-
der, then, that they influenced so many peoples, and that their
language found its way — east and west, and south and north —
into almost all the countries of Europe. There are, as we have
seen, more Latin than English words in our own language ; and
it is therefore necessary to make ourselves acquainted with the

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 287

cliaracter and the uses of the Latin element — ^an element so
important — in English.^ Not only have the Romfims made
contributions of large numbers of words to the English language,
but they have added to it a quite new quality, and given to its
genius new powers of expression. So true is this, that we may
say — ^without any sense of unfairness, or any feeling of exaggera-
tion— ^that, until the Latin element was thoroughly mixed, united
with, and transfused into the original English, the writings of
Shakespeare were impossible, the poetry of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries could not have come into existence. This
is true of Shakespeare ; and it is stiU more true of Milton. His
most powerful poetical thoughts axe written in lines, the most
telling words in which are almost always Latin. This may be
illustrated by the following lines from " Lycidas " : —

" It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in the eclipse, and rigged with cursee dark,
That sunk so low that sacred head of thine I "

16. The Latin Contributions and their Dates. — The first
contribution of Latin words was made by the Romans — not,
however, to the English, but to the Britons. The Romans
held this island from a,d. 43 to a.d. 410. They left behind
them — when they were obliged to go — a small contribution of
a very few words, but aU of them important. The second
contribution — to a large extent ecclesiastical — was made by
Augustine and his missionary monks from Rome, and their visit
took place in the year 597. The third contribution was made
through the medium of the Norman-French, who seized and
subdued this island in the year 1066 and following years. The
fourth contribution came to us by the aid of the Revival of
Learning — ^rather a process than an event, the dates of which
are vague, but which may be said to have taken place in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Latin left for us
by the Romans is called Ijatin of the First Period; that
brought over by the missionaries from Rome, Ijatin of the

^ In the last half of this sentence, all the essential words — necessary , ae-
qtuzintedf character^ uses, element^ important, are Latin (except character,
which is Greek).

288 mSTOBT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Second Period; that given ns by the Norman-Fiench, Iiatin
of the Third Period ; and that which came to us from the
Bevival of Learning, Iiatin of the Fourth Period. The first
consists of a few names handed down to ns through the Britons ;
the second, of a number of words — ^mostly relating to ecclesias-
tical affairs — ^brought into the spoken language by the monks ;
the third, of a large Yocabulary, that came to us by mouth, and
ear ; and the fourth, of a very large treasure of words, which we
received by means of books and the eye. Let us now look
more closely and carefully at them, each in its turn.

17. Latin of the First Period.— (i) The Eomans held Bri-
tain for nearly four hundred years; and they succeeded in
teaching the wealthier classes among the Southern Britons to
speak Latin. They also built towns in the Island, made splen-
did roads, formed camps at important points^ framed good laws,
and administered the affairs of the island with considerable
justice and uprightness. But, never having come directly into
contact with the Angles or Saxons themselves, they could not
in any way influence their language by oral communication —
by speaking to them. What they left behind them was only
a few words, most of which became merely the prefixes or the
suffixes of the names of place& These words were Castra,
a camp; Strata (tna), a paved road; Colonia, a settlement
(generally of soldiers); Fossa^ a trench; Portus, a harbour;
and Vallum, a rampart.

la Latin of the First Period (ii). — (a) The treatment of
the Latin word oastra in this island has been both singular and
significant. It has existed in this country for nearly nineteen
hundred years ; and it has always taken the colouring of the
locality into whose soil it struck root. In the north and
east of England it is sounded hard, and takes the form of
caster, as in Iiancaster, Doncaster, Tadcaster, and others.
In the midland counties, it takes the softer form of cester,
as in Leicester, Towcester; and in the extreme west and
south, it takes the still softer form of cheater, as in Chester,
Manchester, Winchester, and others. It is worthy of notice
that there are in Scotland no words ending in caster. Though

VOOABULAEY OP THE ENGLISH LAKGUAGE. 289

the Eomans had camps in Scotland, they do not seem to have
been so important as to become the centres of towns, (b) Tlie
word strata has also taken different forms in different parts of
England. While castra is nearly always a sufiix, strata
shows itself constantly as a prefix. When the Eomans came to
this island, the country was impassable by man. There were
no roads worthy of the name, — ^what paths there were being
merely foot-paths or bridle-tracks. One of the first things the
Eomans did was to drive a strongly built military rbeui from
Bichborough., near Dover, to the river Dee, on which they
formed a standing camp (Castra stativa) which to this day
bears the name of Chester. This great road became the high-
way of all travellers from north to south, — was known as
" The Street," and was called by the Saxons Watling Street.
But this word street also became a much-used prefix, and took
the different forms of strat, strad, stret, and streat. All
towns with such names are to be found on this or some other
great Eoman road. Thus we have 8tratford-on-Avon, Strat-
ton, Stradbroke, Stretton, Stretford (near Manchester), and
Streatham (neeu* London). — Over the other words we need not
dwell so long. Colonia we find in Colne, Ijincoln, and others;
fossa in Fossway, Fosbrooke^ and Fosbridge ; portus, in
Portsmouth and Bridport; and vallum in the words wall,
bailey, and bailifFl The Normans called the two courts in
front of their castles the inner cmd outer baileys ; and the officer
in charge of them was called the bailiff.

19. Latin Element of the Second Period (i).-— The story of
Pope Gregory and the Eoman mission to Englcmd is widely
known. Gregory, when a young man, was crossing the Eoman
forum one morning, and, when passing the side where the
slave-mart was held, observed, as he walked, some beautiful
boys, with fair hair, blue eyes, and clear bright complexion.
He asked a bystander of what nation the boys were. The
answer was, that they were Anglea "No, not Angles," he
replied; "they are angels." On learning further that they
were heathens, he registered a silent vow that he would, if
Providence gave him an opportunity, deliver them from the

290 mSTOBT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

darkness of heathendom, and bring them and their relatives into
the light and liberty of the Gospel Time passed by ; and in
the long course of time Gregory became Pope. In his \inlooked-
for greatness, he did not forget his vow. In the year 59T he
sent over to Kent a missionary, called Augustine, along with
forty monks. They were well received by the King of Kent,
allowed to settle in Canterbury, and to build a small cathedral
there.

20. Latin Element of the Second Period (ii). — ^This mission,
the churches that grew out of it, the Christian customs that in
time took root in the country, and the trade that followed in its
track, brought into the language a number of Latin words, most
of them the names of church offices, services, and observances.
Thus we find, in our oldest English, the words, postol from
apostolus^ a person sent ; blaoop, from epiacapus^ an overseer ;
calo, from calixy a cup; dero, from dericus^ an ordained
member of the church; muneo, from mondchus, a solitary
person or monk ; preost, from presbyter, an elder ; aelmesse,
from eleemosuney alms ; predieian, from prcedicare, to preach ;
regoly from regvUa, a rule. {Apostle, bishop, clerk, monk, priest,
and alms come to us really from Greek words — ^but through
the Latin tongue.)

21. Latin Element of the Second Period (iii). — ^The intro-
duction of the Eoman form ,of Christianity brought with it
increased communication with Kome and with the Continent
generally ; widened the experience of Englishmen ; gave a
stimulus to commerce; and introduced into this island new
things and products, and along with the things and products
new names. To this period belongs the introduction of the
words : Butter, cheese ; cedar, fig, pear, peach ; lettuce,
lily ; pepper, pease ; camel, lion, elephant ; oyster, trout ;
pound, ounce ; candle, table ; marble ; mint.

22. Latin of the Third Period (i). — The Latin element of
the Third Period is in reality the French that was brought
over to this island by the Normans in 1066, and is generally
called la'orman-French. It differed from the French of Paris
both in spelling and in pronunciation. For example, Norman-

VOOABULAIIY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 291

French wrote people for peuple; leal for loyal; real for
royal; r^alm for royaume; and so on. But both of these
dialects (and every dialect of French) are simply forms of Latin
— ^not of the Latin written and printed in books, but of the
Latin spoken in the camp, the fields, the streets, the village, and
fche cottaga The Romans conquered Gaul, where a Keltic
tongue was spoken ; and the Gauls gradually adopted Latin as
their mother tongue, and — with the exception of the Bretons
of Brittany — left off their Keltic speech almost entirely. In
adopting the Latin tongue, they had — as in similar cases — taken
firm hold of the root of the word, but changed the pronunciation
of it, and had, at the same time, compressed very much or entirely
dropped many of the Latin inflexions. The French people, an
intermixture of Gauls and other tribes (some of them, like the
Franks, German), ceased, in fact, to speak their own language,
and learned the Latin tongue. The Norsemen, led by Duke
Rolf or RoUo or Rou, marched south in large numbers ; and,
in the year 912, wrested from King Charles the Simple the fail
valley of the Seine, settled in it, euid gave to it the name of
Normandy. These Norsemen, now Normans, were Teutons, and
spoke a Teutonic dialect ; but, when they settled in France,
they learned in course of time to speak French. The kind of
French they spoke is called Norman-French, and it was this
kind of French that they brought over with them in 1066.
But Norman-French had made its appearance in England before
the famous year of '66 ; for Edward the Confessor, who suc-
ceeded to the English throne in 1042, had been educated at the
Norman Court ; and he not only spoke the language himself, but
insisted on its being spoken by the nobles who lived with him
in his Court

23. Latin of the Third Period (ii). Chief Dates.— The Nor-
mans, having utterly beaten down the resistance of the English,
seized the land and all the political power of this country, and
filled all kinds of offices — both spiritual and temporal — with
their Norman brethren. Norman-French became the Icmguage of
the Court and the nobility, the language of Parliament and the
law courts, of the universities and the schools, of the Church

292 HISTORY OF THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE.

and of literature. The English people held fast to their own
tongue ; but they picked up jhodj French words in the markets
and other places "where men most do congregate." But
French, being the language of the upper and ruling classes, was
here and there learned by the English or Saxon country-people
who had the ambition to be in the fashion, and were eager " to
speke Frensch, for to be more y-told of," — to be more highly
considered than their neighbours. It took about three hundred
years for French words and phrases to soak thoroughly into
English; and it was not until England was saturated with
French words and French rhythms that the great poet Chaucer
appeared to produce poetic narratives that were read with
delight both by Norman baron and by Saxon yeoman. In the
course of these three hundred years this intermixture of French
with English had been slowly and silently going on. Let us
look at a few of the chief land-marks in the long process. In
1042 Edward the Confessor introduces I^orman-French into his
Court. In 1066 Duke William introduces Norman-Fiench into
the whole country, and even into parts of Scotland. The oldest
English, or Anglo-Saxon, ceases to be written, anywhere in the
island, in public docimients, in the year 1154. In 1204 we
lost Normandy, a loss that had the effect of bringing the Eng-
lish and the Normans closer together. Eobert of Gloucester
writes his chronicle in 1272, and uses a large number of French
words. But, as early as the reign of Henry the Third, in the
year 1258, the reformed and reforming Government of the day
issued a proclamation in English, as well as in French and Latin.
In 1303, Eobert of Brunn introduces a laige number of French
words. The French wars in Edward the Third's reign brought
about a still closer union of the Norman and the Saxon elements
of the nation. But, about the middle of the fourteenth century
a reaction set in, and it seemed as if the genius of the English
language refused to take in any more French words. The
English silent stubbornness seemed to have prevailed, and
Englishmen had made up their minds to be English in speech,
as they were English to the backbone in everything else.
Norman-French had, in fact, become provincial, and was spoken

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 293

only here and there. Before the great Plague — commonly
spoken of as "The Black Death"— of 1349, both high and
low seemed to he alike bent on learning French, but the reaction
may be said to date from this year. The culminating point of
this reaction may perhaps be seen in an Act of Parliament passed
in 1862 by Edward IIL, by which both French and Latin
had to give place to English in our courts of law. The poems
of Chaucer are the literary result — "the bright consummate
flower " of the union of two great powers — the brilliance of the
French language on the one hand and the homely truth and
steadfastness of English on the other. Chaucer was born c.
1340, and died in 1400; so that we may say that he and his
poems — though not the causes — are the signs and symbols of
the great influence that French obtained and held over our
mother tongue. But although we suxjepted so many words from
our Norman-French visitors and immigrants, we accepted from
them no Jiabit of speech whatever. We accepted from them no
phrase or idiom : the build and nature of the English language
remained the same — ^unaffected by foreign manners or by foreign
habits. It is true that Chaucer has the ridiculous phrase, " I
n'am but dead" ( = no better than, ue, almost, dead) — where
ne-hut is nearly an exact parallel of the French ne-que. But,
though our tongue has always been and is impervious to
foreign idiom, it is prol^bly owing to the great influx of French
words which took place chiefly in the thirteenth century that many
people have acquired a habit of using a long French or Latin
word when an English word would do quite as well — or, indeed,
a great deal better. Thus some people are found to call a good
hotuey a desirable mansion; and, instead of the quiet old English
proverb, " Buy once, buy twice," we have the roundabout Latin-
isms, " A single commission wiU ensure a repetition of orders."
An American writer, speaking of the foreign ambassadors who
had been attacked by Japanese soldiers in Yeddo, says that
" they concluded to occupy a location more salubrious." This is
only a foreign language, instead of the simple and homely Eng-
lish : "They made up their minds to settle in a healthier spot"

294 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

24. Latin of the Third Period (iii). Norman Words (a). —
The Norman-French words were of several different kinds.
There were words connected with war, with feudalism, and
with the chase. There were new law terms, and words con-
nected with the State, and the new institutions introduced by
the Normans. There were new words brought in by the Nor-
man churchmen. New titles unknown to the English were
also introduced. A better kind of cooking, a higher and less
homely style of living, was brought into this country by the
Normans ; and, along with these, new and unheard-of words.

25. Norman Words (b). — ^The following are some of the
Norman - French terms connected with war: Arms, armour;
assault, battle; captain, chivalry; joust, lance; standard,
trumpet; mail, vizor. The English word for armour was
harness ; but the Normsms degraded that word into the armour
of a horse. Battle comes from the Fr. batire, to beat : the
corresponding English word is fight. Captain comes from
the Latin caput, a head. Mail comes from the Latin macula^
the mesh of a net ; and the first coats of mail were made of rings
or a kind of metal network. Vizor comes from the Fr. viser,
to look. It was the barred part of the helmel which a man
could see through.

26. Norman Words (c). — Feudalism may be described as the
holding of Icuid on condition of giving pr providing service in
wfiu*. Thus a knight held land of his baron, under promise to
serve him so many days ; a baron of his king, on condition
that he brought so many men into the field for such and such
a time at the call of his Overlord. William the Conqueror
made the feudal system universal in every part of England,
and compelled every English baron to swear homage to him-
self personally. Words relating to feudalism are, among
others : Homage, fealty ; esquire, vassal ; herald, scutch-
eon, and others. Homage is the declaration oi obedience for
life of one man to another — that the inferior is the man (Fr
homme ; L. homo) of the superior. Fealty is the Norman-French
form of the word fidelity. An esquire is a scutiger (L.), or
shidd'hearer/ for he carried the shield of the knight, when

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 295

they were travelling and no fighting was going on. A vassal
was a " little young man," — in Low-Latin vassallus, a diminu-
tive of vassuSy from the Keltic word gwds, a man. (The form
vaasalehis is also found, which gives us our varlet and valet)
Scutcheon comes from the Lat. acutumy a shield. Then scut-
cheon or escutcheon came to mean coat-of-arms — or the marks
and signs on his shield hy which the name and family of a man
were known, when he himself was covered from head to foot in
iron maiL

27. Norman Words {d). — The terms connected with the
chase are : Brace^ couple ; chase, course ; covert, copse,
forest; leveret, mews; quarry, venison. A few remarks
about some of these may be interesting. Brace comes from
the Old French hracey an arm (Mod. French bras)', from the
Latin brachium. The root-idea seems to be that which encloses
or holds up. Thus bracing air is that which strings up the
nerves and muscles; and a brace of birds was two birds tied
together with a string. — The word forest contains in itself
a good deal of unwritten Norman history. It comes from the
Latin adverb foras, out of doors. Hence, in Italy, a stranger or
foreigner is still called Skforestiere, A forest in Norman-French
was not necessarily a breadth of land covered with trees ; it
was simply land out of the jurisdiction of the common law.
Hence, when William the Conqueror created the New Forest,
he merely took the land out of the rule and charge of the com-
mon law, and put it under his own regal power and personal
cara In land of this kind — ^much of which was kept for hunt-
ing in — trees were afterwards planted, partly to shelter large
game, and partly to employ ground otherwise useless in growing
timber. — Mews is a very odd word. It comes from the Latin
verb mutare, to change. When the falcons employed in hunting
were changing their feathers, or moulting (the word moult is the
same as m>ew8 in a different dress), the French shut them in
a cage, which they called mue — from mutare. Then the stables
for horses were put in' the same place; and hence a row of
stables has come to be called a mews. — Quarry is quite as
strange. The word quarry, which means a mine of stones,

296 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

comes from the Latin qiLodrdre, to make square. But the
hunting term quarry is of a quite diflPerent origin. That comes
from the Latin corium (the hide), which the Old French altered
into ourea When a wild beast was run down and killed, the
heart and entrails, wrapped up in the hide, were thrown to the
dogs as their share of the hunt. — The word venison comes to
us, through French, from the Lat. venari, to hunt ; and hence it
means hunted flesh. The same word gives us venery — the term
that was used in the fourteenth century, by Chaucer among
others, for hunting.

28. Norman Words (e). — The Normans introduced into Eng-
land their own system of law, their own law officers ; and hence,
into the English language, came Norman-French law terms.
The following are a few : Assize, attorney ; chancellor, court;
judge, justice; plaintiff, sue; summons, trespass. A few
remarks about some of these may be useful. The chancellor
{cancdlarms) was the legal authority who sat behind lattice-
work, which was called in Latin cancdli. This word means,
primarily, little crahs ; and it is a diminutive from cancer, a
crab. It was so called because the lattice-work looked like
crabs' claws crossed. Our word cancel comes from the same
root : it means to make cross lines through anything we wish
deleted. — Court comes from the Latin cars or cohors, a sheep-
pen. It afterwards came to mean an enclosure, and also a
body of Roman soldiers. — ^The proper English word for o. judge
is deemster or demster (which appears as the proper name
Dempster)] and this is still the name for a judge in the Isle
of Man. The French word comes from the Latin words, dico,
I point out, and ju8, right. The word jus is seen in the
other French term which we have received from the l<[ormans
— justice. — Sue comes from the Old Fr. suir, which appears in
Modern Fr. as suivre. It is derived from the Lat. word sequor,
I follow (which gives our sequel) ; and we have compounds of it
in ensue, issue, and pursue. — The tres in trespass is a French
form of the Latin trans, beyond or across. Trespass, therefore,
means to cross the bounds of right.

29. Norman Words (/). — Some of the church terms Intro-

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 297

duced by the Nonnan-Fiench are : Altar, Bible ; baptisin*
ceremony; friar; tonsure; penance, relic. — The Konuans
gave us the words title and digpiity themselves, and also
the following titles: Duke, marquis; count, viscount;
peer ; mayor, and otherSi A duke is a leader ; from the
Latin dvx ( = dtic8). A marquis is a lord who has to ride
the marches or borders between one county, or between one
country, and another. A marquis was also called a Lord-
Marcher. The word count never took root in this island^
because its place was aheady occupied by the Danish name
earl ; but we preserve it in the names countess and viscount
— the latter of which means a person in the place of (L. vice)
a count. Peer comes from the Latin par^ an equal. The
House of Peers is the House of Lords — that is, of those who
are, at least when in the House, equal in rank and equal in
power of voting. It is a fundamental doctrine in English
law that every man " is to be tried by his peers" — It is worthy
of note that, in general, the French names for different kinds
of food designated the cooked meats; while the names for
the living animals that furnish them are English. Thus
we have beef and ox; mutton and slieep ; veal and calf ; pork
and pig. There is a remarkable passage in Sir Walter Scott's

* Ivanhoe,' which illustrates this fact with great force and pic-
turesqueness : —

" * Gurth, I advise thee to call off Fangs, and leave the herd to
their destiny, which, whether they meet with bands of travelling
soldiers, or of outlaws, or of wandering pilgrims, can be little
else than to be converted into Normans before morning, to thy
no small ease and comfort'

" * The swine turned Normans to my comfort ! ' quoth Gurth;

* expound that to me, Wamba, for my brain is too dull, and my
mind too vexed, to read riddles.'

« < Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on
their four legs ? ' demanded Wamba.

" * Swine, fool, swine,* said the herd ; * every fool knows
that.'

" * And swine is good Saxon,' said the jester; * but how call

298 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and
hung up by the heels, like a traitor 1 '

" * Pork,' answered the swine-herd.

" ' I am very glad every fool knows that too,' said Wamba ;
* and pork, I think, is good Norman-French : and so when the
brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by
her Saxon name ; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork,
when she is carried to the castle-hall to feast among the nobles ;
what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha 'i '

" * It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got
into thy fooFs pate.'

" * Nay, I can tell you more,' said "Wamba, in the same tone ;
' there is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet,
while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as
thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives
before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him.
Myhneer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like man-
ner ; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Nor-
man name when he becomes matter of enjoyment.' "

30. Gteneral Character of the Norman-French Gontribation&
— ^The Norman-French contributions to our language gave us
a number of general names or class-names ; while the names
for individual things are, in general, of purely English origin.
The words animal and bea43t, for example, are French (or
Latin) ; but the words fox, hound, whale, snake, wasp, and
fly are purely English. — ^The words family, relation, parent,
ancestor, are French; but the names father, mother, son,
daughter, gossip, are EnglisL — ^The words title and dignity-
are French; but the words king and queen, lord and lady,
knight and sheriff, are English. — Perhaps the most remarkable
instance of this is to be found in the abstract terms employed
for the offices and functions of State. Of these, the English
language possesses only one — the word kingdom. Norman-
French, on the other hand, has given us the words realm, court,
state, constitution, people, treaty, audience, navy, army,
and others — ^amounting in aU to nearly forty. When, how-
ever, we come to terms denoting labour and work — such as agri-

VOOABULAKY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 299

culture and seafaring, we find the proportions entirely reversed.
The English language, in such cases, contributes almost every-
thing ; the French nearly nothing. In agriculture, while plough,
rake, harrcw, and very many others are English words, not a
single term- for an agricultural process or implement has been
given us by the warlike l^orman -French. — While the words
ship and boat; hull and fleet; oar and sail, are all English,
the Normans have presented us with only the single word
provir. It is as if all the Norman conqueror had to do was to
take his stand at the prow, gazing upon the land he was going
to seize, while the Low-German sailors worked for him at oar and
saiL — Again, while the names of the various parts of the body
— eye, nose, cheek, tongue, hand, foot, and more than eighty
others — are all English, we have received only about ten similar
words from the French — such as spirit and corpse ; perspira-
tion ; face and stature. Speaking broadly, we may say that all
words that express general notions, or generalisations, are
French or Latin ; while words that express specific actions or
concrete existences are pure English. Mr Spalding observes —
" "We use a foreign term naturalised when we speak of * colour '
universally ; but we fall back on our home stores if we have to
tell what the colour is, calling it * red ' or * yellow,' * white ' or
* black,' * green ' or * brown.' We are Eomans when we speak
in a general way of * moving ' ; but we are Teutons if we * leap '
or ^ spring,' if we * slip,' * slide,' or ' fall,' if we * walk,' * nm,'
' swim,' or * ride,' if we * creep ' or * crawl ' or ' fly.' "

31. Gkdns to English firom Norman-French. — The gains from
the I^Torman-French contribution are large, and are also of very
great importance. Mr Lowell says, that the Norman element
came in as quickening leaven to the rather heavy and lumpy
Saxon dough. It stirred the whole mass, gave new life to
the language, a much higher and wider scope to the thoughts,
much greater power and copiousness to the expression of our
thoughts, and a finer and brighter rhythm to our English
sentences. " To Chaucer," he says, in * My Study Windows,'
" French must have been almost as truly a mother tongue as
English. In him we see the first result of the iN'orman yeast

300 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

upon the home-baked Saxon' loal The flour had been honest,
the paste well kneaded, but the inspiiing leaven was wanting
till the Korman brought it oyer. Chaucer works still in the
solid material of his race, but with what airy lightness has he
not infused it 1 Without ceasing to be English, he has escaped
from being insular." Let us look at some of these gains a little
more in detedL

32. Korman-French Synonynis. — ^We must not consider a
synonym as a word that means exactly the same thing as the
word of which it is a synonym ; because then there would be
neither room nor use for such a word in the language. A
synonym is a word of the same meaning as another, but with
a slightly different shade of meaning, — or it is used under
different circumstances and in a different connection, or it puts
the same idea under a new angle. Begin and eommenoe, "will
and testament, are exact equivalents — ^are complete synonyms^
but there are very few more of this kind in our language. The
moment the genius of a language gets hold of two words of the
same meaning, it sets them to do different kinds of work, — ^to
express different parts or shades of that meaning. Thus limb
and member, luck and fortune, have the same meaning;
but we cannot speak of a limh of the Eoyal Society, or of
the Ivcfc of the Eothschilds, who made their fortune by hard
work and steady attention to business. We have, by the aid of
the Korman-French contributions, flo^wer as well as bloom;
branch and bough; purchase and buy; amiable and
firiendly; cordial and hearty; country and land; gentle
and mild ; desire and -wish ; labour and work ; miserable and
wretched. These pairs of words enable poets and other writers
to use the right word in the right place. And we, preferring
our Saxon or good old English words to any French or Latin
importations, prefer to speak of a hearty welcome instead
of a cordial reception ; of a loving wife instead of an ami-
able consort; of a wretched man instead of a miserable
individual.

33. Bilingualism. — How did these iN'orman- French words
find their way into the language 1 What was the road by which

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLl'SH LANGUAGE. 301

they came ] What was the process that enahled them to find a
place in and to strike deep root into our English soil ? Did the
learned men — ^the monks and the clergy — make a selection of
words, write them in their books, and teaCh them to the English
people 1 Nothing of the sort. The process was a much ruder
one — ^but at the same time one much more practical, more effec-
tual, and more lasting in its results. The two peoples — the
Normans and the English — found that they had to live together.
They met at church, in the market-place, in the drilling field, at
the archery butts, in the courtyards of castles; and, on the
battle-fields of France, the Saxon bowman showed that he could
fight as well, as bravely, and even to better purpose than his lord
— ^the Norman baron. At all these places, under all these cir^
cumstances, the Norman and the Englishman were obliged to
speak with each other. Now arose a striking phenomenon.
Every man, as Professor Earle puts it, turned himself as it were
into a walking phrase-book or dictionary. When a Norman had
to use a French word, he tried to put the English word for it
alongside of the French word ; when an Englishman used an
English word, he joined with it the French equivalent. Then
the language soon began to swarm with " yokes of words " ; oui
words went in couples ; and the habit then begun has continued
down even to the present day. And thus it is that we possess
such couples as will and testament ; act and deed ; use and
viront ; aid and abet. Chaucer's poems are full of these pairs.
He joins together hunting and venery (though both words
mean exactly the same thing); nature and kind; oheere and
face ; pray and beseech ; mirth and jollity. Later on, the
Prayer-Book, which was written in the years 1640 to 1569,
keeps up the habit : and we find the pairs acknowledge and
confess ; ajssemble and meet together ; dissemble and
cloak ; humble and lowly. To the more English part of the
congregation the simple Saxon words would come home with
kindly association ; to others, the words confess, assembley dis-
semhle, and humble would speak with greater force and clearness.
— Such is the phenomenon called by Professor Earle bilingual-
tsm. "It is, in fact," he says, "a putting of colloquial for-

302 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

mulsB to do the duty of a Frencli-English and English-French
vocabulary." Even Hooker, who wrote at the end of the six-
teenth century, seems to have been obliged to use these pairs ;
and we find in his writings the couples " cecity and blindness,"
"nocive and hurtful," "sense and me£ining."

34. Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman-French.
— (i) Before the coming of the Normans, the English language
was in the habit of forming compounds with ease and effect.
But> after the introduction of the Norman-French language, that
power seems gradually to have disappeared ; and ready-made
French or Latin words usurped the place of the home-grown
English compound. -^Thus despair pushed out wanhope ;
suspicion dethroned ^wantrust; bidding -sale was expelled
by auction ; learning-knight by disciple ; rime-craft by the
Greek word arithmetic ; gold-hoard by trea43ure ; book-hoard
by library ; earth - tilth by agriculture ; "wonstead by
residence; and so with a large number of others. — Many
English words, moreover, had their meanings depreciated and
abnost degraded ; and the words themselves lost their ancient
rank and dignity. Thus the Norman conquerors put their
foot — literally and metaphorically — on the Saxon chair,^ which
thus became a stool, or a footstooL Thatch, which is a
doublet of the word deck, was the name for any kind of roof ;
but the coming of the Norman-French lowered it to indicate a
roof of straw. Whine was used for the weeping or crying of
human beings ; but it is now restricted to the cry of a dog.
Hide was the generic term for the skin of any animal ; it is
now limited in modem English to the skin of a beast. — The
most damaging result upon our language was that it entirely
stopped the growth of English words. We could, for
example, make out of the word bum — ^the derivatives brunt,
brand, brandy, brown, brimstone, and others; but this
power died out with the coming in of the Norman -French
language. After that, instead of growing our own words, we

^ Chair is the Norman-French form of the French chaise. The Germans
still call a chair a stuhl; and among the English, stool was the universal name
till the twelfth century.

VOCABULAKY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 303

adopted them ready-made. — Professor Craik compares the
English and Latin languages to two banks; and says that,
when the Normans came over, the account at the English bank
was closed, arid we drew only upon the Latin bank. But the
case is worse than this. English lost its power of growth and
expansion from the centre; from this time, it could only add
to its bulk by borrowing and conveying from without — by the
external accretion of foreign words.

35. Losses of English firom the Incoming of Nonnan-French.
— (ii) The arrestment of growth in the purely English part of
our language, owing to the irruption of Norman-Erench, and
also to the ease with which we could take a ready-made word
from Latiu or from Greek, kUled off an old power which we
once possessed, and which was not without its own use and
expressiveness. This was the power of making compound
words. The Greeks in ancient times had, and the Germans
in modem times have, this power in a high degree. Thus a
Greek comic poet has a word of fourteen syllables, which may
be thus translated —

" Meanly-rising-early-and-hurrying-to-the-tribunal-to-denounce-another-
f or-an-infraction-of -the-law-conceming-the-exportation-of -figs. " ^

And the Germans have a compound like " the-all-to-nothing-
crushing philosopher." The Germans also 8a.y iron-path for rail-
way, handshoe for glovBy and finger-hat for thimble. We also
possessed this power at one time, and employed it both in
proper and in common names. Thus we had and have the
names Brakespear, Shahestaffy Shakespeary Golightly, DolittUy
Standfast ; and the common nouns want-vdt, find-fatdt, mumble-
news (for tale-bearer), pincli-penny (for miser), slugabed. In
older times we had three- foot-stool, three-man-beetle ^ ; stone-
cold, heaven-bright, honey-sweet, snail-slow, nut-brown, lily-livered
(for cowardly)', brand-fire-new; earth-pandering, wind-dried,
thunder-blasted, death-doomed, and many othera But such
words as forbears or fore-elders have been pushed out by ances-

1 In two words, 2^ fig-shower or sycophant,

3 A club for beating clothes, that could be handled only by three men.

304 HISTORY OF JHE ENGLISH XANOUAGE.

tors ; forewit by caution or prudence ; and invrit by conscience,
Mr. Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, much wanted to see these and
similar compounds restored, and thought that we might well
return to the old clear well- springs of "English undefiled,"
and make our own compounds out of our own words. He
even carried his desires into the region of English grammar,
and, for degrees of comparison, proposed the phrase pitches of
suchness. Thus, instead of the Latin word omnibusy he would
have folk-wain ; for the Greek botany, he . would substitute
wort-lore; for aitctiony he would give us bode-sale; globule he
would replace with ballkin ; the Greek word horizon must give
way to the pure English sky-edge ; and, instead of quadrangle,
he would have us all write and qqj four-winMe,

36. Losses of English from the Incoming of Korman-
French. — (iii) When once a way was made for the entrance of
French words into our English language, the immigrations were
rapid and numerous. Hence there were many changes both
in the grammar and in the vocabulary of English from the
year 1100, the year in which we may suppose those English-
men who were living at the date of the battle of Hastings had
died out. These changes were more or less rapid, according
to circumstancea But perhaps the most rapid and remarkable
change took place in the lifetime of William Caxton, the great
printer, who was bom about 1420. In his preface to his transla-
tion of the 'iEneid' of Virgil, which he published in 1490, when
he was seventy years of age, he says that he cannot understand old
books that were written when he was a boy — that "the olde
Englysshe is more lyk© to dutche than englysshe," and that " our
langag© now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and
spoken when I was borne. For we Englysshemen ben borne
ynder the domynacyon of the mone [moon], which is neuer
stedfaste, but euer wauerynge, wexynge one season, and waneth
and dycreaseth another season." This as regards time. — But
he has the same complaint to make as regards place. " Comyn
englysshe that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from another."
And he tells an odd story in illustration of this fact. He tells
about certain merchants who were in a ship " in Tamyse " (on the

VOCABULARY OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 305

Thames), who were bound for Zealand, but were wind-stayed at
the Foreland, and took it into their heads to go on shore there.
One of the merchants, whose name was Sheffelde, a mercer,
entered a house, "and axed for mete, and specyally he axyd
after eggys." But the " goode-wyf " replied that she " coude
speke no frenshe." The merchant, who was a steady English-
man, lost his temper, " for he also coude speke no frenshe, but
wolde have hadde eggys ; and she understode hym not." Fortu-
nately, a friend happened to join him in the house, and he acted
as interpreter. The friend said that "he wolde have eyren;
then the goode wyf sayde that she und^rstod hym wel." And
then the simple-minded but much-perplexed Caxton goes on to
say: " Loo I what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, ^ges
or eyren ] " Such were the difficulties that beset printers and
writers in the close of the fifteenth century.

37. Latin of the Fourth Period. — (i) This contribution differs
very essentially in character from the last, llie Norman-French
contribution was a gift from a people to a people— from living
beings to living beings ; this new contribution was rather a con-
veyance of words from books to books, and it never influenced
— in any great degree — the spoken language of the English
people. The ear and the mouth carried the Norman-French
words into our language; the eye, the pen, and the printing-
press were the instruments that brought in the Latin words of
the Fourth Period. The Norman-French words that came in
took and kept their place in the spoken language of the masses
of the people ; the Latin words that we received in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries kept their place in the written or
printed language of books, of scholars, and of literary men.
These new Latin words came in with the Bevival of Learning,
which is also called the Renascence.

The Turks attacked and took Constantinople in the year
1468; and the great Greek and Latin scholars who lived in
that city hurriedly packed up their priceless manuscripts and
books, and fled to all parts of Italy, Germany, France, and even
into England. The loss of the East became the gain of the
West These scholars became teachers ; they taught the Greek

306 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

and Eoman classics to eager and earnest learners ; and thus a
new impulse was given to the study of the great masterpieces of
human thought and literary style. And so it came to pass in
course of time that every one who wished to become an edu-
cated man studied the literature of Greece and Eome. Even
women took to the study. Lady Jane Grey was a good Greek
and Latin scholar; and so was Queen Elizabeth. From this
time began an enormous importation of Latin words into our
language. Being imported by the eye and the pen, they suffered
little or nc change ; the spirit of the people did not influence
them in the least — neither the organs of speech nor the ear
affected either the pronunciation or the spelling of theuL If we
look down the columns of any English dictionary, we shall find
these later Latin words in hundreds. Opinionem became
opinion; /actionem, faotiou; oraiionem, oration; pungeniein
passed over in the form of pungent (though we had poignant
already from the French) ; pauperem came in as pauper ; and
separatum became separate.

38. Latin of the Fourth Period. — (ii) This went on to
such an extent in the sixteenth and the beginning of the
seventeenth century, that one writer says of those who spoke
and wrote this Latinised English, "If some of their mothers
were alive, they were not able to tell what they say." And
Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) remarks: "If elegancy
(== the use of Latin words) still proceedeth, and English
pens maintain that stream we have of late observed to flow
from many, we shall, within a few years, be fain to learn Latin
to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility
in either." Mr Alexander Gill, an eminent schoolmaster, and
the then head-master of St Paul's School, where, among his
other pupils, he taught John Milton, wrote a book in 1619 on
the English language ; and, among other remarks, he says : " O
harsh lips ! I now hear all around me such words as common^
vices, envy, malice ; even virtue, study, justice, pity, mercy, comr
passion, profit, commodity, colour, grace, favour, acceptance.
But whither, I pray, in all the world, have you banished those
words which our forefathers used for these new-fangled ones }

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LAKGtJAGE. 307

Are our words to be executed like our citizens 1 " And he calls
this fashion of using Latin words " the new mange in our speak-
ing and writing." But the fashion went on growing ; and even
uneducated people thought it a clever thing to use a Latin
instead of a good English word. Samuel Eowlands, a writer in
the seventeenth century, ridicules this affectation in a few lines
of verse. He pretends that he was out walking on the highroad,
and met a countryman who wanted to know what o'clock it was,
and whether he was on the right way to the town or village he
was making for The writer saw at once that he was a simple
bumpkin ; and, when he heard that he had lost his way, he
turned up his nose at the poor fellow, and ordered him to be off
at once. Here are the lines : —

" As on the way I itinerated,
A rural person I obviated,
Interrogating time's transitation,
And of the passage demonstration.
My apprehension did ingenious scan
That he was merely a simplician ;
So, when I saw he was extravagant,
Unto the Obscure vulgar consondnt,
I bade him vanish most promiscuously,
And not contaminate my company."

39. Latin of the Fourth Period. — (iii) What happened in the
case of the Norman-French contribution, happened also in this.
The language became saturated with these new Latin words,
until it became satiated, then, as it were, disgusted, and would
take no more. Hundreds of

" Long- tailed words in osity and ation"

crowded into the English language; but many of them were
doomed to speedy expulsion. Thus words like discerptibility,
supervacaneousnesSy septentrionality^ ludihundness (love of sport),
came in in crowds. The verb intenerate tried to turn out soften ;
and defurpate to take the place of defile. But good writers, like
Bacon and Ealeigh, took care to avoid the use of such terms,
and to employ only those Latin words which gave them the
power to indicate a new idea — a new meaning or a new shade

308 mStORt OF THE 1&KGLI8H LAKGUAGE.

of meaning. And when we come to the eighteenth centniy, we
find that a writer like Addison would have shuddered at the
yery mention of such " inkhom terms.**

40. Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin. — (i) One slight influence pro-
duced by this spread of devotion to classical Latin — ^to the Latin
of Cicero and Livy, of Horace and Virgil — ^was to alter the
spelling of French words. We had already received — through
the ear — ^the French words assatde, aventure, defatU, dette, vitaUlej
and others. But when our scholars became accustomed to the
book-form of these words in Latin books, they gradually altered
them — ^for the eye and ear — ^into assaulty adverUurey de/atdtf
debty and victuals. They went further. A large number of
Latin words that already existed in the language in their
Norman-French form (for we must not forget that French is
Latin "with the ends bitten off" — changed by being spoken
peculiarly and heard imperfectly) were reintroduced in their
original Latin form. Thus we had caitiff from the ITormansj
but we reintroduced it in the shape of captive, which comes
almost unaltered from the Latin capHvum, Feat we had from
the Normans; but the Jj&tin factum, which provided the word,
presented us with a second form of it in the word fact. Such
words might be called Ear-Latin and Sye-Latin; Mouth-
Latiu and Book-Latin ; Spoken Latin and Written Latin ;
or Latin at second-hand and Latin at first-hand.

41. Eye-Latin and Ear-Latin. — (ii) This coming in of the
same word by two different doors — by the Eye and by the Ear —
has given rise to the phenomenon of Doublets. The following
is a list of Latin Doublets ; and it will be noticed that Latin ^
stands for Latin at first-hand — from books ; and Latin * for
Latin at second-hand — through the Norman-French.

Latin Doublets or Duplicates.

Latin.

Latin 1.

Latin*.

Antecessorem

Antecessor

Ancestor.

Benedictionem

Benediction

Benison.

Cadentia (Low Lat. noun}

Cadence

Chance.

CaptiyiiTn

Captive

Caitiff.

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

309

Conceptionem

Conception

Conceit

Consuetudinem

Consuetude

/Custom.
\ Costume.

Cophinum

Coffin

Coffer.

Corpus (a body)

Corpse

Corps.

Debikum (something owed)

Debit

Debt

Defectum (something wanting)

Defect

Defeat.

Dilat&re

DUate

Delay.

Ezemplum

Example

Sample.

Fabrica (a workshop)

Fabric

Forge.

Factionem

Faction

Fashion.

Factum

Fact

Feat

FideUtatem

Fidelity

Fealty.

Fragilem

Fragile

Frail

Gentilis (belonging to a gena or

Gentile

Gentle.

family)

Historia

History

Story.

Hospitale

Hospital

Hotel.

Lectionem

Lection

TjesBon.

Legalem

Legal

LoyaL

Magister

Master

Mr.

Majorem (greater)

Major

Mayor.

Maledictionem

Malediction

Malison.

Moneta

Mint

Money.

Nutrimentum

Nutriment

Nourishment

Orationem

Oration

Orison (a prayer).

Paganum (a dweller in a pagu3

Pagan

Payne (a proper

or country district)

name).

Particulam (a little part)

Particle

Parcel.

Pauperem

Pauper

Poor.

Penitentiam

Penitence

Penance.

Persecutum

Persecute

Pursue.

Potionem (a draught)

Potion

Poison.

Pungentem

Pungenb

Poignant

Quietum

Quiet

Coy.

Radius

Ray.

Re^em

Regal

Royal.

Respectum

Respect

Respite.

Securum

Secure

Sure.

Seniorem

Senior

Sir.

Separatum

Separate

Sever.

Species

Spice.

Statum

State

Estate.

Tractum

Tract

Trait

Traditionem

Tradition

Treason.

Zelosum

Zealous

Jealoufk

310 HISTORY OF THB ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

•

42. Remarks on the above Table. — The word benison, a
blessing, may be contrasted with its opposite, malison, a curseL
— Cadence is the falling of sounds; chance the befalling of
events. — A caitiff was at first a captive — then a person who
made no proper defence, but allowed himself to be taken captive.
— ^A corps is a body of troops. — The word sample is found, in
older English, in the form of ensample. — A feat of arms is a
deed or fact of arms, par excellence. — ^To understand how fragile
became firail, we must pronounce the g hard, and notice how
the hard guttural falls easily away — as in our own native words
naU and hail^ which formerly contained a hard g. — A major is
a greater captain ; a mayor is a greater magistrate. — ^A magister
means a bigger man — as opposed to a minister (from minu8\ a
smaller man. — Moneta was the name given to a stamped com,
because these coins were first struck in the temple of Juno
Moneta, Juno the Adviser or the Warner. (From the same
root — mon — come monition, admonition; monitor; admonish.)
— ^^Shakespeare uses the word orison freely for prayer, as in the
address of Hamlet to Ophelia, where he says, " Nymph, in thy
orisons, be all my sins remembered ! " — Poor comes to us from
an Old French word poure ; the newer French is pauvre. — To
understand the vanishing of the g sound in poignant, we must
remember that the Romans sounded it always hard. — Sever we
get through separate, because p and v are both labials, and
therefore easily interchangeable. — Treason — with its s instead
of ti — may be compared with benison, malison, orison, poison,
and reason.

43. Conclusions from the above Table. — If we examine the
table on page 309 with care, we shall come to several undeniable
conclusions. (i) First, the words which come to us direct
from Latin are found more in books than in everyday speech,
(ii) Secondly, they are longer. The reason is that the words
that have come through French have been worn down by the
careless pronunciation of many generations — by that desire for
ease in the pronouncing of words which characterises aU
languages, and have at last been compelled to take that form
which was least difficult to pronounce, (iii) Thirdly, the two

VOCABULABY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 311

sets of words have, in each case, either (a) very different
meanings, or (b) different shades of meaning. There is no like-
ness of meaning in cadence and chance, except the common
meaning oifall which belongs to the root from which they both
spring. And the different shades of meaning between history
and story, between regal and royal, between persecute and
pursue, are also quite plainly marked, and are of the greatest
use in composition-

44. Latin Triplets. — Still more remarkable is the fact that
there are in our language words that have made three appear-
ances— one through Latin, one through Norman-French, and
one through ordinary French. These seem to live quietly side
by side in the language ; and no one asks by what claim they
are here. They are useful : that is enough. These triplets are —
regal, royal, and real ; legal, loyal, and leal ; fidelity, faith-
fulness,^ and fealty. The adjective real we no longer possess
in the sense of royaL, but Chaucer uses it ; and it still exists
in the noun real-m. Iieal is most used in Scotland, where it
has a settled abode in the well-known phrase " the land o' the
leal."

45. Greek Doablets. — ^The same double introduction, which
we noticed in the case of Latin words, takes place in regard to
Greek words. It seems to have been forgotten that our English
forms of them had been already given us by St Augustine and
the Church, and a newer form of each was reintroduced. The
following are a few examples : —

Greek.

Older Form.

Tjater Form.

Adamanta ^ (the untameable)

Diamond

Adamantw

Balsamon

Balm

Balsam.

Blasphemein (to speak ill of)

Blame

Blaspheme.

Cheirourgon^ (a worker with

Chirurgeon

Surgeon.

the hand)

J The word faith is a true French word with an English ending— the end-
ing th. Hence it is a hybrid. The old French word was fei — from the Latin
fdem; and the ending th was added to make it look more like truth, loeaUht
health, and other purely English words.

3 The accusative or objective case is given in all these words.

312 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Dactiilon (a finger)

Date (the

fruit)

Dactyl

Phantasia

Fancy

Phantasy.

Phantasma (an appearance)

Phantom

Phantasm.

Presbuteron (an elder)

Priest

Presbyter.

Paralysis

Palsy

ParalyHiH.

Scandfilon

Slander

Scandal.

It may be remarked of the word fancy ^ that, in Shakespeare's
time, it meant love or irruigination —

" Tell me, where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head ? "

It is now restricted to mean a lighter and less serious kind of
imagination. Thus we say that Milton's 'Paradise Lost' is
a work of imagination ; but that Moore's ' Lalla Eookh ' is a
product of the poet's fancy.

46. Characteristics of the Two Elements of English. — If
we keep our attention fixed on the two chief elements in our
language — the English element and the Latin element — the
Teutonic and the Romance — ^we shall find some striking qualities
manifest themselvea We have already said that whole sentences
can be made containing only English words, while it is impossible
to do this with Latin or other foreign words. Let us take two
passages — one from a daily newspaper, and the other from
Shakespeare : —

(i) '* We find the functions of such an official defined in the Act. He
is to be a legaUy qualified m&iical prauftitioner of skill and experience, to
inspect and report periodicaUy on the sa^ittiry condition of town or dis-
trict; to ascertain the existence of diseases, more especially epidemics
increasing the routes of mortality, and to point out the existence of any
nuiscmces or other local causes, which are likely to originate and maintain
such diseases, and injuriously affect the health of the inkabibaMts of such
town or district ; to take cognisance of the existence of any eontagiou^s
disease, and to point out the most efficacious means for the ventilation of
chapds, schools, registered lodging -hoxaeR, and other public buildings."

In this passage, all the words in italics are either Latin or
Greek. But, if the purely English words were left out, the
sentence would fall into ruins — would become a mere rubbish-
heap of words. It is the small particles that give life and

VOCABULABY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 313

motion to each sentence. They are the joints and hinges on
which the whole sentence moves. — ^Let us now look at a passage
from Shakespeare. It is from the speech of Macbeth, after he
has made up his mind to murder Duncan ; —

(ii) " Go bid tuy iMMress, when my drink is ready,
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed ! —
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand ? Come ! let me clutch thee !
— I have thee not ; and yet I see thee still."

In this passage there is only one Latin (or French) word — the
word mistress. If Shakespeare had used the word lady, the
passage would have been entirely English. — The passage from
the aewspaper deals with large generalisations ; that from
Shakespeare with individual acts and feelings — with things
that come home " to the business and bosom " of man as man.
Every master of the English language understands well the art
of mingling the two elements — so as to obtain a fine effect; and
none better than writers like Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, and
Tennyson. Shakespeare makes Antony say of Cleopatra: —

" Age cannot wither her ; nor eustom stale
Her infinite vaH^y"

Here the French (or Latin) words custom and variety form a
vivid contrast to the English verb stalsy throw up its meaning
and colour, and give it greater prominence. — Milton makes Eve
say: —

" I' thither went
With inexperienced thought, and laid me down
On the green bank, to look into the dear
Smooth lake, that to me seem'd another sky."

Here the words ineagperienced and clear give variety to the same-
ness of the English worda — Gray, in the Elegy, has this verse: —

*' The breezy call of incense-hre&iinng mom,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,
The cock's shrill clarion or the echmng horn,
No more shall ronae them from their lowly bed."

314 HISTOEY OF THE ENGUSH LANGUAGE.

Here incerigey clariony and echoing give a vivid colouring to the
plainer hues of the homely English phrases. — ^Tennyson, in the
Lotos-Eaters, vi., writes : —

" Dear is the memory of our wedded lives,
And dear the last emhracei of our wives
And their warm tears : but all hath suffered change;
For 9wrdy now our household hearths are cold :
Our sons inherit us : our looks are strange :
And we should come like ghosts to trouUe joy."

Most powerful is the introduction of the French words suffered
change^ mJiet'ity strange, and trouble joy ; for they give with
painful force the contrast of the present state of desolation with
the homely rest and happiness of the old abode, the love of the
loving wives, the faithfulness of the stalwart sons.

47. English and other Doublets. — We have already seen
how, by the presentation of the same word at two different
doors — the door of Latin and the door of French — we are in
possession of a considerable number of doublets. But this
phenomenon is not limited to Latin and French — is not solely
due to the contributions we receive from these languages. We
find it also within English itself; and causes of the most
different description bring about the same results. For various
reasons, the English language is very rich in doublets. It
possesses nearly five hundred pairs of such words. The language
is all the richer for having them, as it is thereby enabled to
give fuller and clearer expression to the different shades and
delicate varieties of meaning in the mind.

48. The souTGes of doublets are various But five different
causes seem chiefly to have operated in producing them. They
are due to differences of pronunciation ; to differences in spel-
ling; to contractions for convenience in daily speech; to
differences in dialects ; and to the fact that many of them come
from different languages. Let us look at a few examples of
each. At bottom, however, all these differences will be found
to resolve themselves into differences of pronunciation. They
are either differences in the pronunciation of the same word by

VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 315

different tribes, or by men in different counties, who speak
different dialects ; or by men of different nations.

49. Differences in Pronunciation. — From this source we
have parson and person (the parson being the person or repre-
sentative of the Church) ; sop and soup ; task and tax (the sk
has here become ks) ; thread and thrid ; ticket and etiquette ;
sauce and souse (to steep in brine) ; squall and squeaL

50. Differences in Spelling. — To and too are the same word
— one being used as a preposition, the other as an adverb ; of
and off, firom and fro, are only different spellings, which repre-
sent different functions or uses of the same word ; onion and
union are the same word. An union ^ comes from the Latin
unus, one, and it meant a large single pearl — a unique jewel ;
the word was then applied to the plant, the head of which is of
a pearl-shape.

51. Contractions. — Contraction has been a pretty fruitful source
of doublets in English. A long word has a syllable or two cut off ;
or two or three are compressed into ona Thus example has
become sample ; alone appears also as lone ; amend has been
shortened into mend ; defend has been cut down into fend (as
in fender); manoeuvre has been contracted into manure (both
meaning originally to work tvith the hand) ; madam becomes 'm
in yes *m ^ ; and presbyter has been squeezed down into priest.^
Other examples of contraction are : capital and cattle ; chirur-
geon (a worker with the hand) and surgeon; cholera and
choler (from cholos, the Greek word for bile); disport and
JBport ; estate and state ; esquire and squire ; Egyptian and

^ In Hamlet v. 2. 288, Shakespeare makes the King say —

" The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breath ;
And in the cup an union shall he throw."

3 Professor Max MUller gives this as the most remarkable instance of
cutting down. The Latin mea domina became in French madame; in
English mxCam; and, in the language of servants, 'm.

' Milton says, in one of his sonnets —

" New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large."

From the etymological point of view, the truth is just the other way
about. Priest is old Presbyter writ small.

316 HISTOBT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

gipsy; emmet and ant; gammon and game; grandfather
and gaffer; grandmother and gammer; iota (the Gieek
letter i) and jot; maximum and maxim; mobile and mob;
mosquito and musket ; papa and pope ; peri-wig and -wig ;
poesy and posy; procurator and proctor; shallop and
sloop; unity and unit It is quite evident that the above
pairs of words, although in reality one, have very different
meanings and uses.

52. Difference of EngUsh Dialects. — Another source of
doublets is to be found in the dialects of the English language.
Almost every county in England has its own dialect ; but three
main dialects stand out with great prominence in our older
literature, and these are the Northern, the Midland, and the
Southern. The grammar of these dialects ^ was different ; their
pronunciation of words was different — and this has given rise to
a splitting of one word into two. In the North, we find a hard
c, as in the caster of Iiancaster ; in the Midlands, a soft c, as
in Iieicester ; in the South, a ch, as in Winchester. We shall
find similar differences of hardness and softness in ordinary
words. Thus we find kirk and church ; canker and cancer ;
canal and channel ; deck and thatch ; drill and thrill ; fan
and van (in a winnowing-machine) ; fitch and vetch ; hale and
whole; mash and mess; naught, nought, and not; pike,
peak, and beak ; poke and pouch ; quid (a piece of tobacco for
chewing) and cud (which means the thing chewed); reave
and rob; ridge and rig; scabby and shabby; scar and
share; screech and shriek; shirt and skirt; 8hufQ.e and
scuffle ; spray and sprig ; wain and waggon — and other pairs.
All of these are but different modes of pronouncing the same
word in different parts -of England; but the genius of the
language has taken advantage of these different ways of pro-
noujicing to make different words out of them, 6tnd to give
them different functi(His, meanings, and uses.

1 See p. 320.

317

CHAPTEE 111

HISTORT OF THE GRAMMAR OF BNOLIBH.

1. The Oldest English Synthetic. — The oldest English, or
Anglo-Saxon, that was brought over here in the fifth century,
was a language that showed the relations of words to each other
by adding diflTerent endings to words, or by synthesis. These
endings are called inflexions. Latin and Greek are highly
inflected languages; French and German have many -more
inflexions than modem English; and ancient English (or
Anglo-Saxon) also possessed a large number of inflexions.

2. Modem KngllBh Analytic. — ^When, instead of inflexions,
a language employs small particles — such as prepositions, auxil'
iary verbs, and suchlike words — to express the relations of
words to each other, such a language is called analytic or non-
inflexionaL When we say, as we used to say in the oldest
English, "God is ealra cyninga cyning," we speak a synthetic
language. But when we say, " God is king of all kings," then
we employ an analytic or uninflected language.

3. Short View of the History of English Grammar. — From
the time when the English language came over to this island, it
has grown steadily in the number of its words. On the other
hand, it h^ lost just as steadily in the number of its inflexions.
Put in a broad and somewhat rough fashion, it may be said
that—

(i) Up to about 1100— one generation after the Battle of Senlac

— ^the Bngliili langiiage wai a Stitthbtic Language.

318 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

(ii) From the year 1100 or thereftbouts, English has been losing Its
Inflexions, and gradually becoming more and more an Analytic
Language.

4. Ganses of this Change. — Even before the coining of the
Danes and the Normans, the English people had shown a
tendency to get rid of some of their inflexions. A similar
tendency can be observed at the present time among the
Germans of the Rhine Province, who often drop an n at the end
of a word, and show in other respects a carelessness about gram-
mar. But, when a foreign people comes among natives, such a
tendency is naturally encouraged, and often greatly increased.
The natives discover that these inflexions are not so very
important, if only they can get their mieaning rightly conveyed
to the foreigners. Both parties, accordingly, come to see that
the root of the word is the most important element ; they stick
to that, and they come to neglect the mere inflexions. More-
over, the accent in English words always struck the root ; and
hence this part of the word always fell on the ear with the
greater force, and carried the greater weight. When the Danes
— who spoke a cognate language — ^began to settle in England,
the tendency to drop inflexions increased ; but when the Nor-
mans— who spoke an entirely different language — came, the
tendency increased enormously, and the inflexions of Anglo-
Saxon began to " fall as the leaves fall " in the dry wind of a
frosty October. Let us try to trace some of these changes and
losses.

5. Gxaminar of the First Period, 450-1100. — The English of
this period is called the Oldest English or Anglo-Saxon. The
gender of nouns was arbitrary, or — it may be — poetical ; it did
not, as in modem English it does, follow the sex. Thus nama,
a name, was masculine ; tunge, a tongue, feminine ; and eage,
an eye, neuter. Like nama, the proper names of men ended in
a ; and we find such names as Ida, Offa, Penda, as the names of
kings. Nouns at this period had four cases, with inflexions for
each ; now we possess but one inflexion — that for the possessive.
— Even the definite article was inflected. — The infinitive of verbs
ended in an; and the sign to — which we received from the

HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OP ENGLISH. 319

Danes — was not in use, except for the dative of the infinitive.
This dative infinitive is still preserved in such phrases as "a
house to let ; " " bread to eat ; " " water to drink." — The present
participle ended in ende (in the North ande). This participle in
time dropped its own proper termination, and accepted ing from
the verbal noun, to which (under the modem name of gerund) it
communicated some of its own syntactical peculiarities. — The
plural of the present indicative ended in ath for all three
persons. In the perfect tense, the plural ending was on. — There
was no future tense ; the work of the future was done by
the present tense. Fragments of this usage still survive in
the language, as when we say, "He goes up to town next
week." — Prepositions governed various cases; and not always
the objective (or accusative), as they do now.

6. Grammar of tlie Second Period, 1100-1250. — The English
of this period is called Sarly English. Even before the coming
of the Normans, the inflexions of our language had — as we have
seen — begun to drop off, and it was slowly on the way to becom-
ing an analytic languaga The same changes — the same simpli-
fication of grammar, has taken place in nearly every Low
German language. But the coming of the Normans hastened
these changes, for it made the inflexional endings of words of
much less practical importance to the English themselves. — Great
changes took place in the pronunciation also. The hard c or k
was softened into ch ; and the hard guttural g was refined into
a y or even into a silent w. — A remarkable addition was made
to the language. The Oldest English or Anglo-Saxon had no
indefinite article. They said qfer stdn for on a rock. But, as
the French have made the article un out of the Latin unus, so
the English pared down the northern ane (= one) into the
article an or a. The Anglo-Saxon definite article was se, seo,
]?aet ; and in the grammar of this Second Period it became ]?e,
]?eo, ]?e. — The French plural in es took the place of the English
plural in on. But kousen and skoon existed^ for many centuries
after the Norman coming; and Mr. Barnes, the Dorsetshire
poet, always deplored the ugly sound of nests and fists, and wanted
to be able to say and to write nesten and fisten, — The dative
plural, which ended in um, becomes an e or an en. The um,

1 Both forms &tiU exist in dialect.

320 HISTOBY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

iiowever, still exists in the form of om in seldom (==at few
times) and whilom ( =in old times). — The gender of nouns falls
into confusion, and begins to show a tendency to follow the sex.
— ^Adjectives show a tendency to drop several of their inflexions,
and to become as serviceable and accommodating as they are
now — ^when they are the same with all numbers, genders, and
cases. — The an of the infinitive becomes en, and sometimes
even the n is dropped. — Shall and will begin to be used as
tense-auxiliaries for the future tensa

7. Oramniar of the Third Period, 1250-1350.— The English of
this period is often called Middle English. — The definite article
still preserves a few inflexions. — Nouns that were once masculine
or feminine become neuter, for the sake of convenience. — The
possessive in es becomes general. — Adjectives make their plural
in e. — The infinitive now takes to before it — except after a few
verbs, like hidy see, hear, etc. — The present participle in inge
makes its appearance about the year 1300.

8. Qrammar of the Fourth Period, 1350-1485. — This may be
called Iiater Middle English. An old writer of the fourteenth
century points out that, in his time — and before it — the English
language was " a-deled a thre," divided into three ; that is, that
there were three main dialects, the Il'orthern, the Midland,
and the Southern. There were many differences in the grammar
of these dialects ; but the chief of these differences is foxmd in
the plural of the present indicative of the verb. This part of
the verb formed its plurals in the following manner : —

NOBTHEBN. Mn)LAND. SOUTHERN.

We hopes "We hopen "We hopeth.

You hop^ You hopen You hopeth.

They hop^s They hopen They hopeth.^

In time the Midland dialect conquered ; and the East Midland
form of it became predominant all over England. As early as
the beginning of the thirteenth century, this dialect had thrown
off most of the old inflexions, and had become almost as flexion-

^ This plural we still find in the famous Winchester motto, *' Manners
maketh man."

HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH. 321

less as the English of the present day. Let us note a few of
the more prominent changes. — ^The first personal pronoim Ic or
Ich loses the guttural, and becomes L — The pronouns him,
them, and whom, which are true datives, are used either as
datives or as objectives. — ^The imperative plural ends in eth.
"Riseth up," Chaucer makes one of his characters say, "and
stondeth by me I " — The useful and almost ubiquitous letter e
comes in as a substitute for a, u, and even an. Thus nam.a
becomes name, sunu (son) becomes sune, and -withutan changes
into withute. — The dative of adjectives is used as an adverb.
Thus we find sofbe, brighte employed like our softly, brightly.
— The n in the infinitive has fallen away ; but the e is sounded
as a separate syllable. Thus we find breke, smite for breken
and smiten.

9. (General View. — In the time of King Alfred, the West-
Saxon speech — the Wessex dialect — took precedence of the rest,
and became the literary dialect of England. But it had not, and
could not have, any influence on the spoken language of other
parts of England, for the simple reason that very few persons
were able to travel, and it took days — and even weeks — for a
man to go from Devonshire to Yorkshire. In course of time
the Midland dialect — that spoken between the Humber and
the Thames — became the predominant dialect of England;
and the East Midland variety of this dialect became the
parent of modem standard English. This predominance was
probably due to the fact that it, soonest of all, got rid of its
inflexions, and became most easy, pleasant, and convenient to
use. And this disuse of inflexions was itself probably due to
the early Danish settlements in the east, to the larger number
of Normans in that part of England, to the larger number of
thriving towns, and to the greater and more active communi-
cation between the eastern seaports and the Continent The
inflexions were first confused, then weakened, then forgotten,
finally lost. The result was an extreme simplification, which
still benefits all learners of the English language. Instead of
spending a great deal of time on the learning of a large number
of inflexions, which are to them arbitrary and meaningless,

322 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

foreigners have only to fix their attention on the words and
phrases themselves, that is, on the very pith and marrow of the
language — indeed, on the language itself. Hence the great
Grerman grammarian Grimm, and others, predict that English
will spread itself all over the world, and hocome the universal
language of the future. In addition to this almost complete
sweeping away of all inflexions, — ^which made Dr Johnson say,
" Sir, the English language has no grammar at all," — there were
other remarkable and useful results which accrued from the
coming in of the Norman-French and other foreign elements.

10. Monosyllables. — The stripping off of the inflexions of
our language cut a large number of words down to the root.'
Hundreds, if not thousands, of our verbs were dissyllables, but,
by the gradual loss of the ending en (which was in Anglo-Saxon
sji), they became monosyllables. Thus bindan, drincan, find-
an, became bind, drink, find ; and this happened with hosts
of other verbs. Again, the expulsion of the guttural, which
the Normans never could or would take to, had the eff'ect of
compressing many words of two syllables into one. Thus
hagrol, t'waegren, and fae^ren, became hail, t'wain, and fain. —
In these and other ways it has come to pass that the present
English is to a very large extent of a monosyllabic character. So
much is this the case, that whole books have been written for
children in monosyllables. It must be confessed that the mono-
syllabic style is often dull, but it is always serious and homely.
"We can find in our translation of the Bible whole verses that
are made up of words of only one syllable. Many of the most
powerful passages in Shakespeare, too, are written in monosylla-
bles. The same may be said of hundreds of our proverbs — such
as, " Cats hide their claws " ; " Fair words please fools " ; " He
that has most time has none to lose." Great poets, like Tenny-
son and Matthew Arnold, understand well the fine effect to be
produced from the mingling of short and long words — of the
homely English with the more ornate Eomance language. In
the following verse from Matthew Arnold the words are all
monosyllables, with the exception of tired and contention (which
is Latin) : —

HISTORY OF THE GHaMMAK OF UNGUSti. 323

'* Let the long contention cease ;
Geese are swans, and swans are geese ;
Let them have it how they will,
Thou art tired. Best be still ! "

Tn Tennyson's " Lord of Burleigh," when the sorrowful hus-
band comes to look upon his dead wife, the verse runs almost
entirely in monosyllables : —

" And he came to look upon her,
And he looked at her, and said :
' Bring the dress, and put it on her.
That she wore when she was wed/ "

An American writer has well indicated the force of the Eng-
lish monosyllable in the following sonnet : —

" Think not that strength lies in the big, round word,

Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak.
To whom can this be true who once has heard

The cry for help, the tongue that aU men speak,
When want, or fear, or woe, is in the throat,

So that each word gasped out is like a shriek
Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange, wild note

Sung by some fay or fiend ! There is a strength.
Which dies if stretched too far, or spun too fine.

Which has more height than breadth, more depth than length ;
Let but this force of thought and speech be mine.

And he that will may take the sleek fat phrase,
Which glows but burns not, though it beam and shine ;

Light, but no heat, — ^a flash, but not a blaze."

It will be observed that this sonnet consists entirely of mono-
syllables, and yet that the style of it shows considerable power
and vigour. The words printed in italics are all derived from
Latin, with the exception of th6 word phrase^ which is Greek.

11. Change in the Order of Words. — The syntax — or order
of words — of the oldest English was very different from that of
Norman-French. The syntax of an Old English sentence was
clumsy and involved ; it kept the attention long on the strain ;
it was rumbling, rambling, and unpleasant to the ear. It kept
the attention on the strain, because the verb in a subordinate
clause was held back, and not revealed till we had come to the

324 HISTOBY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

end of the clause. Thus the Anglo-Saxon wrote (though in
different form and spelling) —

" When DaxiuB saw, that he oyeroome be would."

ifhe newer English, under French influence, wrote —

" When Darius saw that he was going to be oyercome/'

This change has made an English sentence lighter and more
easy to understand, for the reader or hearer is not kept waiting
for the verb ; but each word comes just when it is expected,
and therefore in its " natural " place. The Old English sentence
— which is very like the German sentence of the present day —
has been compared to a heavy cart without springs, while the
newer English sentence is like a modem well-hung English car-
riage. Norman-French, then, gave us a brighter, lighter, freer
rhythm, and therefore a sentence more easy to understand and
to employ, more supple, and better adapted to everyday use.

12. The Expulsion of Qnttnrals. — (i) Kot only did the Nor-
mans help us to an easier and pleasanter kind of sentence, they
aided us in getting rid of the numerous throat-sounds that in-
fested our language. It is a remarkable fact that there is not
now in the French language a single gutturaL There is not an h
in the whole language. The French vrrite an h in several of
their words, but they never sound it Its use is merely to serve
as a fence between two vowels — ^to keep two vowels separate, as
in la hainey hatred. No doubt the Normans could utter throat-
sounds well enough ivhen they dwelt in Scandinavia ; but, after
they had lived in France for several generations, they acquired
a great dislike to all such sounds. No doubt, too, many, from
long disuse, were unable to give utterance to a gutturaL This
dislike they commxmicated to the English ; and hence, in the
present day, there are many people — especially in the south of
England — who cannot sound a guttural at all. The muscles in the
throat that help to produce these sounds have become atrophied
— ^have lost their power for want of practice. The purely Eng-
lish part of the population, for many centuries after the Norman
invasion, could sound gutturals quite easily — just as the Scotch

HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGUSH. 325

and the Germans do now ; but it gradually became the fashion
in England to leave them out.

13. The Expulsion of Qntturals. — (ii) In some cases the
guttural disappeared entirely ; in others, it was changed into or
represented by other sounds. The ge at the beginning of the
passive (or past) participles of many verbs disappeared entirely.
Thus gebr^ht, geboht, geworht, became brought, bought, and
wrought. The g at the beginning of many words also dropped
off. Thus Qyppenswich became Ipswich; gif became if;
genoh, enough. — ^The guttural at the end of words — hard g
or o — also disappeared. Thus halig became holy; eordhlic,
earthly; ga«tlic, ghastly or ghostly. The same is the case in
dough, through, plough, etc. — the guttural appearing to the
eye but not to the ear. — Again, the guttural was changed into
quite different sounds — into labials, into sibilants, into other
sounds also. The following are a few examples : —

(a) The guttural has been softened, through Norman-French
influence, into a sibilant. Thus rigg, egg, and brigg have
become ridge, edge, and bridge.

(b) The guttural has become a labial — f — as in cough,
enough, trough, laugh, draught, etc.

(c) The guttural has become an additional syllable, and is
represented by a vowel-sound. Thus sorg and mearh have
become sorrow and marrow.

(d) In some words it has disappeared both to eye and ear.
Thus maked has become made.

li. The Story of the QH. — How is it, then, that we have in so
many words the two strongest gutturals in the language — g and
h — ^not only separately, in so many of our words, but combined 1
The story is an odd one. Our Old English or Saxon scribes
wrote — ^not light, might, and night, but liht, miht, and niht
When, however, they found that the Norman-French gentlemen
would not sound the h, and say — as is still said in Scotland
— liohi, &c., they redoubled the guttural, strengthened the h
with a hard g, and again presented the dose to the Norman.
But, if the Norman could not sound the h alone^ still less could
he sound the double guttural ; and he very coolly let both alone

326 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

— ignored both. The Saxon scribe doubled the signs for his
guttural, just as a farmer might put up a strong wooden fence in
front of a hedge ; but the Xorman cleared both with perfect
ease and indifference. And so it came to pass that we have the
symbol gh in more than seventy of our words, and that in most of
these we do not sound it at all The gh remains in our language,
like a moss-grown boulder, brought down into the fertile valley
in a glacial period, when gutturals were both spoken and written,
and men believed in the tnithfulness of letters — ^but now passed
by in silence and noticed by no one.

15. The Letters that represent Qntturals. — The English
guttural has been quite Protean in the written or printed forms
it takes. It appears as an i, as a y, as a w, as a ch, as a dge,
as a j, and — in its more native forms — as a g, a k, or a
gh. The following words give all these forms : hail, day, fowl,
teach, edge, ajar, drag, truck, and trough. Now luzil was
hagol, day was claeg, fowl was fugol, teach was taecan, edge was
egg, ajar was achar. In seek, beseech, sought — which are
all different forms of the same word — we see the guttural appear-
ing in three different forms — as a hard k, as a soft ch, as an un-
noticed gh. In think and thought, drink and draught, sly
and sleight, dry and drought, slay and slaughter, it takes
two different forms. In dig, ditch, and dike — which are all
the same word in different shapes — it again takes three forms.
In fly, flew, and flight, it appears as a y, a w, and a gh. But,
indeed, the manners of a guttural, its ways of appearing and
disappearing, are almost beyond counting.

16. Grammatical Besult of the Loss of Inflexions. — When
we look at a Latin or French or German word, we know whether
it is a verb or a noun or a preposition by its mere appearance
— ^by its face or by its dress, so to speak. But the loss of
inflexions which has taken place in the English language has
resulted in depriving us of this advantage — if advantage it is.
Instead of looking at the face of a word in English, we are
obliged to think of its ftinction, — that is, of what it does. We
have, for example, a large number of words that are both nouns
and verbs — we may use them as the one or as the other ; and.

HISTORY OP THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH. 327

till we have used them, we cannot tell whether they are the
one or the other. Thus, when we speak of " a cut on the fin-
ger," cut is a noun, because it is a name ; but when we say,
" Harry cut his finger," then cut is a verb, because it tells
something about Harry. "Wqrds like bud, cane, cut, comb,
cap, dust, fall, fish, heap, mind, name, pen, plaster, punt,
run, rush, stone, and many others, can be used either as nouns
or as verbs. Again, fast, quick, and hard may be used either
as adverbs or as adjectives ; and back may be employed as an
adverb, as a noun, and even as an adjective. Shakespeare is
very daring in the use of this licenca He makes one of his char-
acters say, " But me no buts ! " In this sentence, the first hut is
a verb in the imperative mood ; the second is a noun in the
objective case. Shakespeare uses also such verbs as to glad, to .
mad, such phrases as a seldom pleasure, and the fairest she, Dr
Abbott says, '^ In Elizabethan English, almost any part of speech
can be used as any other part of speech. An adverb can be used
as a verb, * they askance their eyes ' ; as a noun, * the bachvard
and abysm of time'; or as an adjective, *a seldom pleasure.'
Any noun, adjective, or neuter verb can be used as an active
verb. You can * happy ' your friend, * malice ' or * fool ' your
enemy, or * fall ' an axe upon his neck." Even in modem Eng-
lish, almost any noun can be used as a verb. Thus we can say,
"to paper a room"; "to waier the horses"; "to blacJc-ball a
candidate " ; to " iron a shirt " or " a prisoner " ; " to toe the line."
On the other hand, verbs may be used as nouns ; for we can
speak of a loork, of a beautiful print, of a long ivalk, and so on.

828

CHAPTEE IV.

SPEOIMBNS OF BNGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS.

1. Vocabulaxy and Qrammar. — ^The oldest English or Anglo-
Saxon diflTers from modem English both in vocabulary and in
grammar — in the words it uses and in the inflexions it employs.
The difference is often startling. And yet. if we look closely
at the words and their dress, we shall most often find that the
words which look so strange are the very words with which we
are most familiar — words that we are in the habit of using every
day ; and that it is their dress alone that is strange and anti-
quated. The effect is the same as if we were to dress a modem
man in the clothes worn a thousand years ago : the chances are
that we should not be able to recognise even our dearest friend.

2. A Specimen from Anglo-Saxon. — Let us take as an
example a verse from the Anglo-Saxon version of one of the
Gospels. The well-known verse, Luke ii. 40, runs thus in our
oldest English version : —

S<5])lice daet cild weox, and waes gestrangod, wisddmes full ; and Gk)des
gyfu waes on him.

Now this looks like an extract from a foreign language ; but it
is not : it is our own veritable mother-tongue. Every word is
pure ordinary Englif»h ; it is the dress—the spelling and the
inflexions — that is quaint and old-fashioned. This will be
plain from a literal translation : —

Soothly that child waxed, and was strengthened, wisdoms full (=>full of
wisdom) ; and God's gift was on him.

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 329

3. A Comparison. — This will become plainer if we compare
the English of the Gospels as it was written in different periods
of our language. The alteration it. the meanings of words, the
changes in the application of them, the variation in the use of
phrases, the falling away of the inflexions— aU these things
become plain to the eye and to the mind as soon as we thought-
fully compare the different versions. The following are extracts
from the Anglo-Saxon version (995), the version of Wycliffe
(1380) and of Tyndale (1526), of the passage in Luke il
44, 45:—

Akolo-Saxon.

W^ndon daet he on
heora gefere w^re, d^
comoD hig ^68 daeges
faer, and hine 8<5hton be-
tweox his magas and his
ctidan.

Da hig hyne ne ftindon,
hig gewendon to Hierusa-
lem, hine s^cende.

Wyoliffb.

Forsothe thei ges-
singe him to be in the
felowBchipe, camen
the wey of ^ day, and
sou^ten him among
his coe^ns and know-
en.

And thei not f ynd-
inge, wenten a^en to
Jerusalem, sekynge
him.

Ttkdale.

For they supposed he
had bene in the company,
they cam a days iomey,
and sought hym amonge
their kynsfolke and ac-
quayntaunce.

And founde hym not,
they went backe agayne
to Hierusalem, and sought
hynL

The literal translation of the Anglo-Saxon version is as
f oUows :—

(They) weened that he on their companionship were (=wa8), when came
they one day's faring, and him sought betwixt his relations and his couth
(folk = acquaintances).

When they liim not found, they turned to Jerusalem, him seeking.

4. The Lord's Prayer. — ^The same plan of comparison may
be applied to the different versions of the Lord's Prayer that
have come down to us ; and it will be seen from this compari-
son that the greatest changes have taken place in the grammar,
and especially in that part of the grammar which contains the
inflexions.

330

fflSTOBY OF THE BNGUSH LANGUAGE.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

1130.

BxiON or Stephen.

Fader ure, >e
art on heof one.

Sy gebletsod
name )nn,

Cume ])m rike.

Si )}in wil Bwa
swa on heofone
and on eor])an.

Breod ure deg-
wamlich geof us
to daeg.

And f orgeof us
ageltes ura swa
swa we f orgeof en
agiltendum ur-
um.

And ne led us
on costunge.

Ac alys us f ram
yfele. Swa beo
hit.

1260.

Reion
or Henky III.

Fadir ur, that
es in hevene,

Halud thi nam
to nevene ;

Thou do as thi
rich rike ;

Thi will on erd
be wrought, eek
as it is wrought
in heven ay.

Ur ilk day
brede give us to
day.

Forgive thou
all us dettes urs,
als we forgive till
ur detturs.

And ledde us
in na fandung.

But sculd us
fra ivel thing.
Amen.

1380.

WrcLnTE's
Ybbsion.

Our Fadir, that
art in hevenys,

Halewid be thi
name ;

Thi kingdom
come to ;

Be thi wil done
in erthe, as in
hevene.

Give to us this
day oure breed
ovir othir sttb-
staunce,

And forgive to
us our dettis, as
we forgiven to
ojire deUovHs,

And lede us
not into iempta-
doun ;

But ddyvere
us from yvel.
Amen.

1626.

Tyndalb's

YSRSION.

Our Father,
which art in
heaven ;

Halowed be
thy name ;

Let thy king-
dom come ;

Thy wHl be ful-
filled as well in
earth as it is in
heven.

Geve us this
day ur dayly
bred,

And forgeve us
oure dettes as we
forgeve ur det-
ters.

And leade us
not into tempta-
tion,

But delyver us
from evylL For
thyne is the kyng-
dom, and the
power, and the
glorye, for ever.
Amen.

It Avill be observed that Wyclifife's version contains five Eo-
mance terms — substaunce, dettis, dettouris, temptacioun, and
delyvere.

5. Oldest English and Early English. — The following is a
short passage from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under date
1137: first, in the Anglo-Saxon form; second, in Early Eng-
lish, or — as it has sometimes been called — Broken Saxon;

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODa 331

third, in modem English. The breaking-down of the gram-
mar becomes still more strikingly evident from this close
juxtaposition.

(i) Hi Bwencton |>i wreccan menn

(ii) HI Bwencten the wrecce men

(iii) They swmked (harassed) the wretched men

(i) |>aes landes mid castel-weorcum.
(ii) Of-the-land mid castel-weorces.
(iii) Of the land with castle- works.

(i) Da |>^ castelas waeron gemacod,
(ii) Tha the castles waren maked,
(iii) When the castles were made,

(i) |>^ fyldon hi hi mid yfelum mannum.
(ii) th^ fylden hi hi mid yyele men.
(iii) then filled they them with evil men.

6. Comparisons of Words and Inflexions. — Let us take a
few of the most prominent words in our language, and observe
the. changes that have fallen upon them since they made their
appearance in our island in the fifth century. These changes
will be best seen by displaying them in columns : —

Anglo-Saxon.

Early English.

Middle English.

Modern English

heom.

to heom.

to hem.

to them.

aed.

he<5.

ho, scho.

she.

Bweostrum.

to the Bwestres.

to the swistren.

to the sisters.

geboren.

gebore.

ibor^.

bom.

lufigende.

lufigend.

lovand.

loving.

weoxon.

woxen.

wexide.

waxed.

7. Conclusions from the above Comparisons. — We can now

draw several conclusions from the comparisons we have made
of the passages given from different periods of the language.
These conclusions relate chiefly to verbs and nouns ; and they

332

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

may become useful as a key to enable us to judge to what
period in the history of our language a passage presented to us
must belong. If we find such and such marks, the language is
Anglo-Saxon ; if other marks, it is Early English ; and so on.

I.-MARKS OF ANGLO-
SAXON.

Verbs.

Infinitive in an.
Pres. part, in ende.
Past part, with ge.
3d plural pres. in ath.
3d plural past in on.
Plural of imperatives
in ath.

Nouns.

Plurals in an, as, or a.
Dative plural in um.

XL— MARKS OF EARLY
ENGLISH (1100-1250).

Verbs.

Infin. in en or e.
Pres. part, in ind.
ge of past part, turned

into 1 or y.
3d plural in en.

Nouns.

Plural in 68.
Dative plural in 68.

III.— HARKS OF MID>
DLB ENGLISH 0250-1485).

Verbs.
Infin. with to (the 6n
was dropped about
1400).
Pres. part, in Inge.
3d plural in en.
Imperative in eth.
Plurals in 68 (separate
syllable).

Nouns.

Pofisessives in 68 (sepa*
rate syllable).

8. The English of the Thirteenth Century. — In this century
there was a great breaking-down and stripping-off of inflexiona
This is seen in the Ormulum of Orm, a canon of the Order of
St Augustine, whose English is nearly as flexionless as that of
Chaucer, although about a century and a half before him. Orm
has also the peculiarity of always doubling a consonant after a
short voweL Thus, in his introduction, he says : —

" J>iss boc iss nemnmedd Orrmulum
Forr \n. ))att Orrm itt wrohhte."

That is, "This book is named Ormulum, for the (reason) that
Orm wrought it." The absence of inflexions is probably due
to the fact that the book is written in the East-Midland dialect.
But, in a song called "The Story of Genesis and Exodus,"
written about 1250, we find a greater number of inflexiona
Thus we read ; —

" Hunger wex in lond Chanaan ;
And his x sunes Jacob for-6an

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 333

Sente in to Egypt to bringen coren ;
He bilefe at hom f$e was gungest boren."

That is, "Hunger waxed (increased) in the land of Canaan*,
and Jacob for that (reason) sent his ten sons into Egypt to
bring com : he remained at home that was youngest bom."

9. The English of the Fourteenth Century. — The four
greatest writers of the fourteenth century are — in verse,
Chaucer and ILanglajide; and in prose, Mandeville and
Wycliflfe. The inflexions continue to drop off; and, in
Chaucer at least, a larger number of French words appear.
Chaucer also writes in an elaborate verse -measure that forms
a striking contrast to the homely rhythms of Langlande. Thus,
in the " Man of Lawes Tale," we have the verse : —

" 0 queenes, lyvynge in prosperity,
Duchesses, and ladyes everichone,
Hayeth som routhe on hir adversity ;
An emperoures doughter stant allone ;
She hath no wight to whom to make hir mone.
0 blood roial ! that stondest in this drede
Fer ben thy frendes at thy grete nede ! "

Here, with the exception of the imperative in Haveth som
routJie ( = have some pity), start t^ and hen ( == are)^ the grammar
of Chaucer is very near the grammar of to-day. How different
this is from the simple English of Langlande ! He is speaking
of the great storm of wind that blew on January 15, 1362 : —

*' Piries and Plomtres weore passchet tp \e grounde,
In ensaumple to Men ))at we scholde do \e bettre,
Beches and brode okes weore blowen to ]« eor|)e."

Here it is the spelling of Langlande's English that differs most

from modem English, and not the grammar. — Much the same

may be said of the style of Wycliffe (1324-1384) and of Mande-

viUe (1300-1372). In Wychffe's version of the Gospel of Mark,

V. 26, he speaks of a woman " that hadde suffride many thingis

of ful many lechis (doctors), and spendid alle hir thingis ; and

no -thing profitide." Sir John Mandeville's English keeps

many old inflexions and spellings; but is, in other respects,

modem enougL Speaking of Mahomet, he says : " And 3e<9

2 a

;534 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

schulle understonds that Machamete was bom in Arabye, that
was first a pore knave that kept cameles, that wenten with
marchantes for marchandise." Knave ioi boy, and wenten for
went are the two chief differences — ^the one in the use of words,
the other in grammar— that distinguish this piece of Mande-
ville's English from our modem speech.

10. The English of the Sixteenth Oentnry. — This, which is
also called Tudor-English, differs as regards grammar hardly at
all from the English of the nineteenth century. This becomes
plain from a passage from one of Latimer's sermons (1490-1555),
'* a book which gives a faithful picture of the manners, thoughts,
and events of the period." "My father," he writes, "was a
yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of
three or four pound a year at the uttermost, and hereupon he
tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had walk for a
hundred sheep ; and my mother milked thirty kine." In this
passage, it is only the old-fashionedness, homeliness, and quaint-
ness of the English — ^not its grammar — that makes us feel that
it was not written in our own times. When Ridley, the fellow-
martyr of Latimer, stood at the stake, he said, " I commit our
cause to Almighty God, which shall indiflPerently judge alL"
Here he used indifferently in the sense of impartially — that is,
in the sense of making no difference between parties ; and this
is one among a very large number of instances of Latin words,
when they had not been long in our language, still retaining the
older Latin meaning.

11. The English of the Bible (i). — ^The version of the Bible
which we at present use was made in 1611 ; and we might
therefore suppose that it is written in seventeenth-century Eng-
lish. But this is not the case. The translators were com-
manded by James L to " follow the Bishops' Bible " ; and the
Bishops* Bible was itself founded on the " Great Bible," which
was published in 1539. But the Great Bible is itself only a
revision of Tyndale's, part of which appeared as early as 1526.
When we are reading the Bible, therefore, we are reading Eng-
lish of the sixteenth century, and, to a large extent, of the early
part of that century. It is true thftt successive generations of

SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 335

printers have, of their own accord, altered the spelling, and
even, to a slight extent, modified the grammar. Thus we have
fetched for the older /e^, more for moe, soion for sowen, brittle for
brickie (which gives the connection with break), jaws for chaws,
sixth for sixty and sc on. But we still find euch participles as
shined and understanded ; and such phrases as " they can skill
to hew timber " (1 Kings v. 6), " abjects " for abfect persons,
" three days agone ''* for o^o, the " captivated Hebrews " for
"the captive Hebrews,** and others.

12. The EngUsh of the Bible (ii). — We have, again, old
words retained, or used in the older meaning. Thus we find,
in Psahn v. 6, the phrase "them that speak leasing," which
reminds us of King Alfred's expression about "leasum spellum"
(lying stories). Trow and ween are often found; the "cham-
paign over against Gilgal" (Deut. xL 30) means ^^ plain; and a
publican in the ITew Testament is a tax-gatherer, who sent to
the Eoman Treasury or Publicum the taxes he had collected
from the Jews. An " ill-favoured person " is an ill-looking per-
son; and "bravery" (Isa. iii. 18) is used in the sense of finery
in dress. — Some of the oldest grammar, too, remains, as in
Esther viii. 8, " Write ye, as it liketh you," where the you is a
dative. Again, in Ezek. xxx. 2, we find "Howl ye. Woe
worth the day ! " where the imperative worth governs day in the
dative case. This idiom is still found in modem verse, as in
the well-known lines in the first canto of the "Lady of the
Lake " :—

" Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day
That cost thy life« my gallant grey ! "

336

CHAPTEE V.

MODERN BNGLIHH.

1. Grammar Fixed. — From the date of 1485 — that is^ from
the beginning of the reign of Henry VIL — the changes in the
grammar or constitution of our language are so extremely small,
that they are hardly noticeable. Any Englishman of ordinary
education can read a book belonging to the latter part of the
fifteenth or to the sixteenth century without diflScidty. Since
that time the grammar of our language has hardly changed at
all, though we have altered and enlarged our vocabulary, and
have adopted thousands of new words. The introduction of
Printing, the Eevival of Learning, the Translation of the Bible,
the growth and spread of the power to read and write — ^these
and other influences tended to fix the language and to keep it
as it is to-day. It is true that we have dropped a few old-
fashioned endings, like the n or en in silvern and golden;
but, so far as form or grammar is concerned, the English of the
sixteenth and the English of the twentieth centuries are sub-
stantially the same.

2. New Words. — ^But, while the grammar of English has
remained the same, the vocabulary of English has been grow-
ing, and growing rapidly, not merely with each century, but
with each generation. The discovery of the New World in
1492 gave an impetus to maritime enterprise in England, which
it never lost, brought us into connection with the Spaniards,
and hence contributed to our language several Spanish words.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Italian literature

MODEBN ENGLISH.

337

was largely read ; Wyatt and Surrey show its influence in theii
poems ; and Italian words began to come in in considerable
nmnbers. Commerce, too, has done much for us in this way;
and along with the article imported, we have in general intro-
duced also the name it bore in its own native country. In later
times. Science has been making rapid strides — has been bring-
ing to light new discoveries and new inventions almost every
week ; and along with these new discoveries, the language has
been enriched with new names and new terms. Let us look a
little more closely at the character of these foreign contributions
to the vocabulary of our tongue.

3. Spanish Words. — ^The words we have received from the
Spanish language are not numerous, but they are important.
In addition to the iU-fated word armada, we have the Span^ *
ish for Mvy which is Don (from Lat. domimis, a lord), with ita
feminine Duenna. They gave us also alligator, which is oui
English way of writing d lagarto, the lizard. They also pre
sented us with a large number of words that end in o — such as
buffialo, cargo, desperado, guano, indigo, mosquito, mulatto^
negro, potato, tornado, and others. The following is a toler-
ably fuU list : —

Alligator.

Armada^

Barricade.

Battledore.

Bravado.

BufUo.

Cargo.

Cigar.

CochineaL

Cork.

Creole.

Desperado.

Don.

Duenna^

Eldorado.

Embargo..

filibuster.

Flotilla.

Galleon (a ship). Mulatto.

Qrandee.

Qrenade.

Guerilla.

Indigo.

Jennet

Matador.

Merino.

Mosquito.

Negro.

Octoroon.

Quadroon.

Renegade.

Savannah.

Sherry ( = ^eres).

Tornado.

Vanilla.

4. Italian Words. — Italian literature has been read and
cultivated in England since the time of Chaucer — since the
fourteenth century ; and the arts and artists of Italy have for
many centuries exerted a great deal of influence on those of
England. Hence it is that we owe to the Italian language a
large number of words. These relate to poetry^ such as canto,
sonnet, stanaa ; to music, as pianoforte, opera^ oratorio,
soprano, alto» oontralto; to architecture and sctdpture, as

3S8

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

portico, piaaza, cupola, torso; and to painting, as studio,
fresco (an open-air painting), and others. The following is a
list of many words in ^common nso : —

Alarm.

Charlatan.

Incognita

Proviso.

Alert

Citadel

InfluenzA

Quarto.

Alto.

Colonnade.

Lagoon.

Regatta.

Arcade.

Concert

Lav&

Ruffian.

Balcony.

Contralto.

Lazaretto.

Serenade.

BaluBtrade.

Conyersazione.

MacaronL

Sonnet

Bandit

Cornice.

Madonna.

Soprana

Bankrupt.

Corridor.

Madrigal.

Stanza.

Brayo.

Cupola.

Malaria.

Stiletta

Brigade.

Curvet

Manifesto.

Stucca

Brigand.

Dilettante.

Motta

Studio.

Broccoli.

Ditto.

Moustache.

Tenor.

Burlesque.

Doge.

Niche.

Terra-cotta^

Buatu

Domino.

Opera.

Tirade.

Cameo.

Extravaganza^

Oratorio.

Torso.

Canteen.

Fiasco.

Palette.

Trombone.

Canto.

FoUo.

Pantaloon.

UmbrelbL

Caprice.

Fresco.

Parapet.

Vermilion.

Caricature.

Gazette.

Pedant

Vertu.

CamivaL

Gondola.

Pianoforte.

Virtuosa

Cartoon.

Granite.

Piazza^

Vista.

Cascade.

Grotto.

PistoL

. Volcano.

Cavalcade.

Guitar.

Portico.

Zany.

5. Dutch Words. — ^We have had for many centuries com-
mercial dealings with the Dutch ; and as they, like ourselves^
are a great seafaring people, they have given us a number
of words relating to the management ot shipa In the four-
teenth century, the southern part of the German Ocean was
the most frequented sea in the world; and the chances of
plunder were so great that ships of war had to keep cruising
up and down to protect the trading vessels that sailed between
England and the Low Countries. The following are the words
which we owe to the ^Netherlands : —

Ballast

Luff.

Sloop.

Trigger.

Boom.

Reel

Smaok.

Wear (said of a

Boor.

Schiedam (gin).

Smuggle.

ship).

Burgomaster.

Skates.

Stiver.

Tacht

Hoy.

Skipper.

TaffiwL

Yawl

MODERN ENGLISH.

339

6. French Words. — Besides the large additions to our
language made by the Norman-French, we have from time to
time imported direct from France a number of French words,
without change in the spelling, and with little change in the
pronunciation. The French have been for centuries the most
polished nation in Europe; from France the changing fashions
in dress spread over all the countries of the Continent ; French
literature has been much read in England since the time of
Charles IL ; and for a long time all diplomatic correspondence
between foreign countries and England was carried on in French-
Words relating to manners and customs are common, such as
soiree, etiquette, stance, elite ; and we have also the names of
things which were invented in France, such as mitrailleuse,
carte-de-visite, coup d'etat, and others. Some of these words
are, in spelling, exactly like English ; and advantage of this has
been taken in a well-known epigram : —

The French have taste in all they do,

Which we are quite without ;
For Nature, which to them gave goAt,^

To us gave only gout.

The following is a list of French words which have been
imported in comparatively recent times : —

Aide-de-camp.

Carte-de-visite.

Etiquette.

Personnel.

Belle.

Coup-d'dtat

Fa9ade.

Pr^is.

Bivouac.

B^ris.

GoAtu

Programme.

Blonde.

D^ut

Naive.

Prot^

Bouquet.

D^jeilner.

Naivete.

Recherche.

Brochure.

Depot.

Nonchalance.

Stance.

Brunette.

l&slat.

Outrd.

Soir^

Brusque.

EnnuL

Penchantb

Trousseau.

The Scotch have always had a closer connection with the French
nation than England ; and hence we find in the Scottish dialect
of English a number of French words that are not used in South
Britain at alL A leg of mutton is called in Scotland a gigot ;
the dish on which it is laid is an ashet (from amette) ; a cup
for tea or for wine is a tassie (from tasse) ; the gate of a town is

^ GoiU (goo) tiom Latin gusttu, taste

Ukj

History of the English LAKGtJAGS.

caUed the port; and a stubborn person is dour (Fr. dur, horn
Lat durvs) ; while a gentle and amiable person is douoe (Fr.
doucCy Lat. drdcia),

7. Ctonnaa Words. — It must not be forgotten that English is
a Low-German dialect, while the Grerman of books is New High-
German. We have never borrowed directly from High-German,
because we have never needed to borrow. Those modem Ger-
man words that have come into our language in recent times are
chiefly the names of minerals, with a few striking exceptions,
such as loafer, which came to us from the German immigrants
to the United States, and plunder, which seems to have been
brought from Germany by English soldiers who had served under
Gustavus Adolphus. The following are the German words
which we have received in recent times : —

Cobalt.

Landgrave.

Meerschaum.

Poodle.

Felspar.

Loafer.

Nickel

Quartz.

Hornblende.

Margrave.

Plunder.

Zinc.

8. Hebrew Words. — These, with very few exceptions, have
come to us from the translation of the Bible, which is now in
use in our homes and churches. Abbot and abbey come from
the Hebrew word abba, father ; and such words as oabal and
Talmud, though not found in the Old Testament, have been
contributed by Jewish literature. The following is a tolerably
complete list : —

Abbey.

Cinnamon.

Leviathan.

Sabbath.

Abbot

Hallelujah.

Mann&

Sadducees.

Amen.

Hosannah.

Paschal

Satan.

Behemoth.

Jehovah.

Pharisee.

Seraph.

Cabal.

tTUbilee.

Pharisaical.

Shibboleth.

Cherub.

Gehenna^

Rabbi

Talmud.

9. Other Foreign Words. — The English have always been
the greatest travellers in the world; and our sailors always
the most daring, intelligent, and enterprising. There is hardly
a port or a country in the world into which an English ship has
not penetrated ; and our commerce has now been maintained for
centuries with every people on the face of the globe. We
exchange goods with almost every nation and tribe under the

MODERN ENGLISH.

341

Sim. When we import articles or produce from abroad, we in
general import the native name along with the thing. Hence
it is that we have guanoy maize, and tomato from the two
Americas; eoffee, eotton, and tamarind from Arabia; tea,
eongou, and nankeen from China ; calico, chintz, and rupee
from Hindostan ; bamboo, gamboge, and sago from the Malay
Peninsnla ; lemon, musk, and orange from Persia ; boomerang
and kangaroo from Australia; chibouk, ottoman, and tulip
from Turkey. The following are lists of these foreign words ;
and they are worth examining mth the greatest minuteness :—

African Dialects.

Baobah

Qnu.

Karoo.

Quagga.

Caxiaiy.

(Jorilla.

Kraal.

Zebra.

Chimpanzee.

Quinea.

Oasis.

American Tongues. -

Alpaca.

Condor.

Maize.

Racoon.

Buccaneer.

Guano.

Manioc.

Skunk.

Cacique.

Hammock.

Moccasin.

Squaw.

Cannibal.

Jaguar.

Mustang.

Tapioca.

Canoe.

Jalap.

Opossum.

Tobacco.

Caoutchouc

Jerked (beef).

Pampas.

Tomahawk.

Cayman.

Llama.

Pemmican.

Tomato.

Chocolate.

Mahogany.

Potato.

"Wigwam.

Arabic.

(The word al means the.

Thus 9klco7iol=^the

spirit.)

Admiral (Milton

Azure.

Harem.

Salaam.

writes am-

Caliph.

Hookah.

Senna.

miraL

Carat.

Koran (or Al-

Sherbet.

Alcohol

Chemistry.

coran).

Shrub (the

Alcove.

Cipher

Lute.

drink).

Alembic.

Civet

Magazine.

Simoom.

Algebra.

CoflTee.

Mattress.

Sirocco.

Alkali'

Cotton.

Minaret.

Sofa.

Amber.

Crimson.

Mohair.

Sultan.

Arrack.

Dragoman.

Monsoon.

Syrup.

Arsenal

EUxir.

Mosque.

Talisman.

Artichoke.

Kmir.

Mufti

Tamarind.

Assassin.

Fakir.

Nabob.

Tariff.

Assegai

Felucca.

Nadir.

Vizier.

Attar.

Gazelle.

Naphtha.

Zenith.

Azimuth.

Giraffe.

Safiron.

Zero.

342

HISTOBY OF TU£ El^GUSH LANGUAGE.

Chinbsb.

Bohea.

Hyson.

Nankeen.

Souchong.

China.

Joss.

Pekoe.

Tea.

Congou.

Junk.

Silk,

Typhoon,

Hindu.

Avatar.

Cowne.

Pagoda.

Ryot

Banyan.

Durbar.

Palanquin.

Sepoy.

Brahmin.

Jungle.*

Pariah.

Shampoo.

Bungalow.

TiOC (of rupees).

Pimch.

Sugar,

Calico.

Loot.

Pundit.

Suttee.

Chintz.

Mulligatawny.

Rajah.

Thug.

Coolie.

Musk.

Rupee.

Toddy.

HUNOARTAN

Hussar.

Sabre.

MALi

Shako.

Tokay.

Amuck.

Cassowary,

Gong.

Orang-outang,

Bamboa

Cockatoo.

Gutta-percha.

Rattan.

BantaoL

Dugong.

Mandarin.

Saga

Caddy.

Gamboge.

Mango.

Upaa

Persian.

Awning.

Dervish.

Jasmine.

Pasha.

Bazaar.

Divan.

Lac (a gum).

Rook.

Bashaw.

Fu*man.

Lemon.

Saraband.

Caravan.

Hazard.

Lilac.

Sash.

Check.

Horde.

Lime (the fruit).

Scimitar.

Checkmate.

HourL

Musk.

ShawL

Chess.

Jar.

Orange.

TaffetA.

Curry.

Jackal

Paradisa

Turban.

Polynesian Dialects.

Boomerang.

Kangaroo.

Taboa

Tattoa

POBTUGUHaB,

Albatross.

Cocoa-nut.

Lassa

Molasses.

Caste.

Commodore.

Marmalade.

Palaver.

Cobra.

Fetish.

Moidore.

Port ( = Oporto)

Russian.

Czar.

Knout.

Rouble.

Ukase.

Drosky.

Morse.

Steppe.

Verst

Tartar.

Khan.

Turkish.

Bey.

Chouse.

Kiosk.

TuUp.

Caftan.

Dey.

Odalisque.

Yashmak.

Chibouk.

Janissary.

Ottoman.

Yataghan.

MODERN ENGLISH. 343

10. Scientific Terms. — A very large number of discoveries
in science have been made in this century ; and a large number
of inventions have introduced these discoveries to the people,
and made them useful in daily life. Thus we have telegraph
and telegram ; pliotograph ; telephone and even photophane.
The word dynamite is also modem ; and the unhappy employ-
ment of it has made it too widely known. Then passing
fashions have given us such words as athlete and aesthete. In
general, it may be said that, when we wish to give a name to a
new thing — a new discovery, invention, or fashion — we have
recourse not to our own stores of English, but to the vocabu*
laries of the Latin and Greek languages

LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

A.D.

1. The Beownlf, an old Eng^h epic, " written on the mainland " 460

2. Christianity introduced by St Augustine (and with it many

Latin and a few Greek words) .... 506

3. Caedmon—* Paraphrase of the Scriptures,'— first English poem 670

4. Baeda— " The Venerable Bede "—translated into English part

of St John's Gospel ...... 735

5. King Alfred translated several Latin works into English,

among others, Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the Eng-
lish Nation*. ..... (849) 901

6. AelfMc, called Grammaticus, tiuned into English most of the

historical books of the Old Testament . floruit 1006

7. The Norman Conquest, which introduced Norman French

words ....... 1066

8. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, said to have been begun by King

Alfred, and brought to a close in .... 1154

9. Orm or Omnin's Ormuliim, a poem written in the East Mid-

land dialect, about . . . , . . 1200

10. Normandy lost under King John. Norman-English now have
their only home in England, and use our English speech
more and more 1204

IL Layamon translates the 'Brut' from the French of Robert
Wace. This is the first English book (written m Southern
En^lUh) after the stoppage of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . 1205

12. The Ancren Riwle ("Rules for Anchorites") written in the

Dorsetshire dialect. "It is the forerunner of a wondrous
change in our speech." " It swarms with French words " 1220

13. First Royal Proclamation in English, issued by Henry IIL . 1258

14. Robert of Gloucerter'B Chronicle (swarms with foreign terms) 1800

LANDMARKS IN HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 345

16. Bobert Manning, ** Robert <^ Brunn/' oompiles the ' Handlyng
Sjnna' " It contains a most copious proportion of French
words" ....... 1803

16. Ayenbite. of Inwit ( = ** Remorse of Conscience ") . 1340

17. The Great Plague. After this it becomes less and less the

fashion to speak French ..... 1349

18. Sir John Handeyille, first writer of the newer English Prose —

in his ' Travels/ wliich contained a large admixture of French
words. '* His English is the speech spoken at Court in the
latter days of King Edward III." .... 1872

19. EngUflh becomes the language of the Law Courts . . 1862

20. Wickliffe'8 Bible 1380

21. Geoffrey Chanoer, the first great English poet, author of the

' Canterbury Tales ' ; born about 1340, died . 1400

22. William Caxton, the first English printer, brings out (in the

Low Countries) the first English book ever printed, the
'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,' — "not written with
pen and 'nk, as other books are, to the end that every man
may have them at once *' ..... 1474

23. First English Book printed in England (by Caxton), ''The

Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers" . . 1477

24. Lord Bemers' translation of Froissart's Chronicle . .1623

26. William Tyndale, by his translation of the Bible "fixed our
tongue once for alL" " His New Testament has become the
standard of our tongue : the first ten verses of the Fourth
Gospel are a good sample of his manly Teutonic pith " 1526-81

26. Edmund Spenser publishes his * Faerie Queene.* " Now began

the golden age of England's literature ; and this age was to
lastfor about fourscore years" .... 1690

27. Onr English Bible, based chiefly on Tyndale's translation.

"Those who revised the English Bibl? in 1611 were bidden
to keep as near as they could to the old versions, such as
Tyndale's" 1611

28. William Shakespeare carried the use of the English language

to the greatest height of which it was capable. He employed
1 5,000 words. " The last act of ' Othello ' is a rare specimen of
Shakespeare's diction : of every five nouns, verbs, and adverbs^
four are Teutonic" . . (Bom 1664) 1616

29. John Milton, "the most learned of English poets," publishes

his * Paradise Lost,' — " a poem in which Latin words are intro-
duced with great skill ** , . . 1607

346 mSTORT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAG)!..

80. The Pzmyvr-Book revifled and issued in its final form. '' Are

was substituted for be in forty-three pUkoes. This was a
great victory of the North oyer the Soutii " . 1661

81. John Bunyan writes his ' Pilgrim's Progress ' — a book full of

pithy English idiom. '* The common folk had the wit at
once to see the worth of Bunyan's masterpiece, and the
learned long afterwards followed in the wake of the common -
folk" . . . . . (Bom 1628) 1678

82. Sir Thomas Browne, the author of ' Urn-Burial ' and other works

written in a highly Latinised diction, such as the ' Religio
Medici,' written ...... 1642

88. Dr Samuel Johnaoii was the chief supporter of the use of
''long-tailed words in osity and ation," such as his novel
called 'Rasselas,' published, .... 1759

84. Tennyson, Poet-Laureate, a writer of the best English — ''a
countryman of Robert Manning's, and a careful student of
oLl Malory, did much for the revival of pure English
among us" ...... 1809-1892

PART IV.

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

LITERATURE

349

OHAPTEE I.

OUB OLDEST EKGLIBH LITBRATUBB.

1. Literatxure. — The history of English Literature is, in its
external aspect^ an account of the best books in prose and in
verse that have been inrritten by English men and English
women; and this account begins with a poem brought over
from the CJontinent by our countrymen in the fifth century, and
comes down to the time in which we live. It covers, therefore,
a period of over fourteen hundred years.

2. The Distribntion of Literature. — ^We must not suppose
that literature has always existed in the form of printed books.
Literature is a living thing — a living outcome of the living
mind; and there are many ways in which it has been dis-
tributed to other human beings. The oldest way is, of course,
by one person repeating a poem or other literary composition
he has made to another; and thus literature is stored away,
not upon book - shelves, but in the memory of living men.
Homer's poems are said to have been preserved in this way
to the Greeks for five hundred years. Father chanted them
to son ; the sons to their sons ; and so on from generation to
generation. The next way of distributing literature is by the
aid of signs called letters made upon leaves, flattened reeds»
parchment, or the inner bark of trees. The next is by the
help of writing upon paper. The last is by the aid of type
upon paper. This has existed in England for more than four
himdred years — since the year 1477 ; and thus it is that our

libraries contain many hundreds of thousands of valuable books.

350 HISTOEY OF ENGLISH LITBRATURE.

For the same reason is it, most probably, that as our power of
retaining the substance and multiplying the copies of books has
grown stronger, our living memories have grown weaker. This
defect can be remedied only by education — ^that is, by training
the memories of the young. While we possess so many printed
books, it must not be forgotten that many valuable works exist
still in manuscript — written either upon paper or on parchment.
3. Verse, the earliest form of Literatnre. — It is a remarkable
fact that the earhest kind of composition in all languages is in
the form of Verse. The oldest books, too, are those which are
written in verse. Thus Homer's poems are the oldest literary
work of Greece ; the Sagas are the oldest productions of Scan-
dinavian literature; and the Beowulf is the oldest piece of
literature produced by the Anglo-Saxon race. It is also from
the strong creative power and the lively inventions of poets
that we are even now supplied with new thoughts and new
language — that the most vivid words and phrases come into the
language ; just as it is the ranges of high mountains that send
down to the plains the ever fresh soil that gives to them their
unending fertility. And thus it happens that our present Eng-
lish speech is full of words and phrases that have found their
way into the most ordinary conversation from the writings of our
great poets — and especially from the writings of our greatest
poet, Shakespeare. The fact that the life of prose depends
for its supplies on the creative minds of poets has been well
expressed by an American writer : —

" I looked upon a plain of green,

Which Bome one called the Land of Prose,
Where many living things were seen
In moyement or repose.

I looked upon a stately hill
That well was named the Mount of Song,

"Where golden shadows dwelt at will,
The woods and streams among.

But most this fact my wonder bred

(Though known by all the nobly wise),
It was the mountain stream that fed

That fair green plain's ameniUes."

OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 351

4. Onr oldest Englisli Poetry. — The verse written by our
old English writers was very different in form from the verse
as it appears in the writings of Tennyson, or Browning, or
Matthew Arnold. The old English or Anglo-Saxon writers
used a kind of rhyme called head -rhyme oi alliteration;
while, from the fourteenth century downwards, our poets have
always employed end-rhyme in their verses.

"Xightly down ^ping he ^ooBened his helmet."

Such was the rough old English form. At least three words
in each long line were alliterative — two in the first half, and
one in the second. Metaphorical phrases were common, such
as war-adder for arrow, war-shirts for armour, whalers-path or
swan-road for the sea, wave-horse for a ship, tree-vrright for
carpenter. Different statements of the same fact, different
phrases for the same thing — what are called parallelisms in
Hebrew poetry — as in the line —

''Then saw they the sea head-lands — ^the windy walls/'

were also in common use among our oldest English poets.

5. Beowulf. — The Beowulf is the oldest poem in the
English languaga It is our "old EngHsh epic"; and, like
much of our ancient verse^ it is a war poem. The author of
it is unknown. It was probably composed in the fifth century
— ^not in England, but on the Continent — and brought over to
this island — ^not on paper or on parchment — ^but in the mem-
ories of the old Jutish or Saxon vikings or warriors. It was
not written down at all, even in England, till the end of the
ninth century, and then, probably, by a monk of Northum-
bria. It tells among other things the story of how Beowulf
sailed from Sweden to the help of Hrothgar, a king in Jut-
^land, whose life was made miserable by a monster — ^half man,

half fiend — named GrendeL For about twelve years this mon-
ster had been in the habit of creeping up to the banqueting-
hall of King . Hrothgar, seizing upon his thanes, carrying them
off, and devouring thenu Beowulf attacks and overcomes the
dragon, which is mortally wounded, and fiees away to die. The

352 mSTORT OF ENGLISH LTTERATURE.

poem belongs both to the Gennan and to the English literature;
for it is written in a Continental English, which is somewhat
different from the English of our own island. But its literary
shape is, as has been said, due to a Christian writer of !North-
umbria ; and therefore its written or printed form — as it exists
at present — is not German, but English. Parts of this poem
were often chanted at the feasts of warriors, where all sang in
turn as they sat after dinner over their cups of mead round the
massive oaken table. The poem consists of 3184 lines, the
rhymes of which are solely alliterative.

6. The First Native Eni^ybdi Poem. — ^The Beowulf came to
us from the Continent ; the first native English poem was pro-
duced in Yorkshire. On the dark wind-swept cliff which rises
above the little land-locked harbour of Whitby, stand the ruins
of an ancient and once famous abbey. The head of this re-
ligious house was the Abbess Hild or Hilda : and there was a
secular priest in it, — a very shy retiring man, who looked after
the cattle of the monks, and whose name was Caedmon. To
this man came the gift of song, but somewhat late in life.
And it came in this wise. One night, after a feast, singing
began, and each of those seated at the table was to slag in his
turn. Caedmon was very nervous — felt he could not sing.
Fear overcame his heart, and he stole quietly away from the
table before the turn could come to him. He crept off to
the eowshed, lay down on the straw and fell asleep. He
dreamed a dream; and, in his dream, there came to him a
voice : " Caedmon, sing me a song ! " But Caedmon answered :
"I cannot sing; it was for this cause that I had to leave
the feast." " But you must and shall sing 1 " " What must I
sing, theni" he replied. "Sing the beginning of created
things ! " said the vision ; and forthwith Caedmon sang some
lines in his sleep, about God and the creation of tho world.
When he awoke, he remembered some of the lines that had
come to him in sleepf and, being brought before Hilda, he
recited them to her. The Abbess thought that this wonderful
gift, which had come to him so suddenly, must have come from
God, received him into the monastery, made him a monk, and

OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 363

had him taught sacred history. "All this Caedmon, hy re-
membering, and, like a clean animal, ruminating, •turned into
sweetest verse." His poetical works consist of a metrical para-
phrase of the Old and the New Testament. It was written
about the year 670 ; and he died in 680. It was read and
re-read in manuscript for many centuries, hut it was not printed
in a book until the year 1665.

7. The War-Poetry of England. — There were many poems
about battles, written both in Northumbria and in the south
of England ; but it was only in the south that these war-songs
were committed to writing ; and of these written songs there are
only two that survive up to the present day. These are the
Song of Brunanburg, and the Song of the Fight at Maiden.
The first belongs to the date 938 ; the second to 991. The
Song of Brunanburg was inscribed in the Saxon Chronioi^b —
a current narrative of events, written chiefly by monks, from the
ninth century to the end of the reign of Stephen. The song
tells the story of the fight of King Athelstan with Anlaf the
Dane. It tells how five young kings and seven earls of
Anlaf s host fell on the field of battle, and lay there " quieted
by swords," while their fellow-Northmen fled, and left their
friends and comrades to "the screamers of war — the black raven,
the eagle, the greedy battle-hawk, and the grey wolf in the
wood." The Song of the Fight at Maldon tells us of the
heroic deeds and death of Byrhtnoth, 6ai ealdorman of North-
umbria, in battle against the Dcmes at Maldon, in Essex.
The speeches of the chiefs are given ; the single combats between
heroes described ; cmd, as in Homer, the names and genealogies
of the foremost men are brought into the verse.

8. The Pirst English Prose. — ^The first writer of English
prose was Baeda, or, as he is generally called, the Venerable
Bede. He was born in the year 672 at Monkwearmouth, a
small town at the mouth of the river Wear, and was, like
Caedmon, a native of the kingdom of Northumbria. He
spent most pi his life at the famous monastery of Jarrow-on-
Tyne. He spent his life in writing. His works, which were
written in Latin, rose to the number of forty-five; his chief

354 mSTORT OF ENGLISH LTTKRATUBX.

work being an XSoolesiastical History. But though Latin
was the toQgue in which he wrote his books, he wrote one book
in English ; and he may therefore be fairly considered the first
writer of English prose. This book was a Translation of the
GK>Bpel of St John — a work which he laboured at until the
very moment of his death. His disciple Cuthbert tells the
story of his last hours. " Write quickly ! " said Baeda to his
scribe, for he felt that his end could not be far oS. When the
last day came, all his scholars stood around his bed. " There
is still one chapter wanting. Master," said the scribe ; *' it is
hard for thee to think and to speak." '' It must be done," said
Baeda; " take thy pen and write quickly." So through the long
day they wrote — scribe succeeding scribe ; and when the shades
of evening were coming on, the young writer looked up from
his task and said, '* There is yet one sentence to write, dear
Master." " Write it quickly ! " Presently the writer, looking
up with joy, said, "It is finished 1" "Thou sayest truth,"
replied the weary old man ; " it is finished : all is finished."
Quietly he sank back upon his pillow, and, with a psalm of
praise upon his lips, gently yielded up to God his latest breath.
It is a great pity that this translation — the first piece of
prose in our language — ^is utterly lost No MS. of it is at
present known to be in existenca

9. The Father of FiTigliRh Prose. — For several centuries, up
to the year 866, the valleys and shores of JN'orthumbria were
the homes of learning and literature. But a change was not
long in coming. Horde after horde of Danes swept down upon
the coasts, ravaged the monasteries, burnt the books — after
stripping the beautiful bindings of the gold, silver, and precious
stones which decorated them — Skilled or drove away the monks,
and made life, property, and thought insecure all along that once
peaceful and industrious coast Literature, then, was forced
to desert the monasteries of Korthumbria, and to seek for a
home in the south — ^in Wessex, the kingdom over which Alfred
the Great reigned for more than thirty yeara The capital of
Wessex was Winchester; and an able writer says: "As

OUK OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 365

Whitby is the cradle of English poetry, so is Winchester of
English prose." King Alfred founded colleges, invited to
England men of learning from abroad, and presided over a
school for the sons of his nobles in his own Court. He himself
wrote many books, or rather, he translated the most famous
Latin books of his time into English. He translated into the
English of Wessex, for example, the 'Ecclesiastical History'
of Baeda; the * History of Orosius,' into which he inserted
geographical chapters of his own; and the * Consolations of
Philosophy,' by the famous Eoman writer, Boethius. In these
books he gave to his people, in their own tongue, the best
existing works on history, geography, and philosophy.

10. The Anglo-Sazon Chronicle. — The greatest prose-work
of the oldest English, or purely Saxon, literature, is a work —
not by one person, but by several authors. It is the historical
work which is known as The Saxon Chronicle. It seems to
have been begun about the middle of the ninth century ; and
it was continued, with breaks now and then, down to 1164 —
the year of the death of Stephen and the accession of Henry IL
It was written by a series of successive writers, all of whom
were monks ; but Alfred himself is said to have contributed to
it a narrative of his own wars with the Danes. The Chronicle
is found in seven separate forms, each named after the monas-
tery in which it was written. It was the newspaper, the
annals, and the history of the nation. " It is the first history
of any Teutonic people in their own language ; it is the earliest
and most venerable monument of English pixjse." This Chron-
icle possesses for us a twofold value. It is a valuable store-
house of historical facts ; and it is also a storehouse of speci-
mens of the different states of the English language — as regards
both words and grammar — from the eighth down to the
twelfth century.

11. Layamon's Brut. — ^Layamon was a native of Worcester-
shire, and a priest of Emley on the Severn. He translated,
about the year 1206, a poem called Brut, from the French of
a monkish writer named Master Wace. Wace's work itself is

366 HISTOEY OF ENGLISH LITERATUEE.

little more than a translation of parts of a famous " Chronicle
or History of the Britons," written in Latin by Geoffrey of
Monmouth, who was Bishop of St Asaph in 1152. But
Geoffrey himself professed only to have translated from a chron-
icle in the British or Celtic tongue, called the " Chronicle of the
Kings of Britain," which was found in Brittany — ^long the home
of most of the stories, traditions, and fables about the old Brit-
ish Kings and their great deeds. Layamon's poem called the
" Brut " is a metrical chronicle of Britain from the landing of
Brutus to the death of King Cadwallader, about the end of the
seventh century. Brutus was supposed to be a great-grandson
of Mneaa, who sailed west and west till he came to Great
Britain, where he settled with his followers. — ^This metrical
chronicle is written in the dialect of the West of England ; and
it shows everywhere a breaking down of the grammatical forms
of the oldest English, as we find it in the Anglo-Saxon Chron-
icle. In fact, between the landing of the Normans and the
fourteenth century, two things may be noted : first, that during
this time — that is, for three centuries — ^the inflections of the
oldest English are gradually and surely stripped off; and, sec-
ondly, that there is little or no original English literature given
to the country, but that by far the greater part consists chiefly
of translations from French or from Latin.

12. Orm's Ormulum. — Less than half a century after Lay-
amon's Brut appeared a poem called the Omiiiliizn, by a monk
of the name of Orm or Ormin. It was probably written
about the year 1200. Orm was a monk of the order of St
Augustine, and his book consists of a series of religious poems.
It is the oldest, purest, and most valuable specimen of thirteenth-
century English, and it is also remarkable for its peculiar
speUing. It is written in the purest English, and not five
French words are to be found in the whole poem of twenty
thousand short lines. Orm, in his spelling, doubles every con-
sonant that has a short vowel before it ; and he wnteapann for
paiif but pan for pane. The following is a specimen of his
poem: —

OUB OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURK 357

loc hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh I have wended (turned) into English

Goddspelless hallghe lare, Gk>epel's holy lore,

Afflyerr thatt little witt tatt me After the little wit that me

Min Drihhtin hafethth lenedd. My Lord hath lent.

Other famous writers of English between this time and the
appearance of Chaucer were Robert of Gloucester and Robert
of Brunne, both of whom wrote Chronicles of England in
verse.

35»

CHAPTER IL

THB FOUBTEKNTH OENTURY.

1. The opening of tljp fourteenth century saw the death of
the great and able king, Edward L, the '^Hammer of the
Scots," the " Keeper of his word." The century itself — a most
eventful period — witnessed the feeHe and disastrous reign of
Edward II. ; the long and prosperous rule — for fifty years — of
Edward III. ; the troubled times of Richard II., who exhibited
almost a repetition of the faults of Edward IL ; and the
appearance of a new and powerful dynasty — the House of
Lancaster — in the person of the able and ambitious Henry IV.
This century saw also many striking events, and many still
more striking changes. It beheld the welding of the Saxon and
the l^orman elements into one — chiefly through the French
wars ; the final triumph of the English language over French
in 1362; the frequent coming of the Black Death; the vic-
tories of Crecy and Poitiers; it learned the universal use
of the mariner's compass; it witnessed two kings — of France
and of Scotland — prisoners in London; great changes in the
condition of labourers; the invention of gunpowder in 1340;
the rise of English commerce under Edward III. ; and every-
where in England the rising up of new powers and new ideas.

2. The first prose-writer in this century is Sir John Mande-
ville (who has been called the "Father of English Prose").
King Alfred has also been called by this name; but as the
English written by Alfred was very different from that written

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 369

by Mandeville, — the latter containing a laige admixture of
French and of Latin words, both writers are deserving of the
epithet. The most influential prose-writer was John Wyolij^
who was, in fact, the first English Eeformer of the Church.
In poetry, two writers stand opposite each other in striking
contrast — QeofPrey Chaucer and William ILanglande, the first
writing in courtly "King's English" in end-rhyme, and with
the fullest inspirations from the literatures of France and Italy,
the latter writing in head-rhyme, and — though using more
French words than Chaucer — with a style that was always
homely, plain, and pedestrian. John Gk>wer, in Kent, and
John Barbour, in Scotland, are also noteworthy poets in this
century. The EngHsh language reached a high state of polish,
power, and freedom in this period; and the sweetness and
music of Chaucer's verse are still unsurpassed by modem poets.
The sentences of the prose-writers of this century are long,
clumsy, and somewhat helpless ; but the sweet homely English
rhythm exists in many of them, and was continued, through
Wyclif s version, down into our translation of the Bible in
1611.

3. Sir John Mandeville is claimed as ''the first prose- writer in
formed English." Nothing really is known about the man, and all
we can say of him is that he is the ostensible author of a book of
travels bearing his name. It is only certain that the author of
this book (whoever he was) died in 1372, and was buried at
Li^ge under the name of John Mandeville, but this, it is more
than likely, is a fictitious name. The book is a kind of
guide-book to the Holy Land ; but the writer himself went much
further east — reached Cathay or China, in fact. He introduced a
large number of French words into our speech, such as cause, con-
trary, discover, quaiUity, and many hundred others. His works were
much admired, read, and copied; indeed, hundreds of manuscript
copies of his book were made. There are nineteen still in the Brit-
ish Museum. The book was not printed till the year 1499 — that is,
twenty- two years after printing was introduced into this country.
Many of the Old English infiexions still survive in his style. Thus
he says : " Machamete was bom in Arabye, that was a pore knave
(boy) that kepte cameles that wentm with marchantes for mar-
chandise.''

360 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

4. JoBN "Wyclif (his name is spelled in about forty different
ways) — 1324-1384 — ^was bom at HipsweU, near Richmond, in York-
shire, in the year 1324, and died at the vicars^e of Lutterworth, in
Leicestershire, in 1384. His fame rests on two bases — his efforts as
a reformer of the abuses of the Church, and his complete translation
of the Bible. This work was finished in 1383, just one year before
his death. Bift the translation was not done by himself alone ; the
larger part of the Old Testament version seems to have" been made
by Nicholas de Hereford. Though often copied in manuscript^ it
Was not printed for several centuries. Wyclif s New Testament was
printed in 1731, and the Old Testament not until the year 1850.
But the words and the style of his translation, which was read and
re-read by hundreds of thoughtful men, were of real and permanent
service in fixing the language in the form in which we now find it

5. John Gowbr (1325-1408) was a country gentleman of Kent.
As MandeviUe wrote his travels in three languages, so did Gower hia
poems. Almost all educated persons in the fourteenth century could
read and write with tolerable and with almost equal ease, English,
French, and Latin. His three poems are the Speculum Meditantis
("The Mirror of the Thoughtful Man"), in French; the Vox
Clania.nti8 ("Voice of One Crying"), in Latin; and Confessio
Amantis (" The Lover's Confession "), in English. No manuscript
of the first work is known to exist. He was buried in St Saviour's,
Southwark, where his effigy is still to be seen — ^his head resting on
his three works. Chaucer called him " the moral Gower " ; and his
books are very duU, heavy, and difficult to read.

6. William Langlande (1332-1400), a poet who used the old
English head-rhyme, as Chaucer used the foreign end-rhyme, was
bom at Cleobury-Mortimer in Shropshire, in the year 1332. The
date of his death is doubtful. His poem is called the Vision of
Piers the Flowman ; and it is the last long poem in our literature
that was written in Old English alliterative rhyme. From this
period, if rhyme is employed at all, it is the end-rhyme, which we
borrowed from the French and Italians. The poem has an appen-
dix called Do-well, Do-bet, Do-best — the three stages in the
growth of a Christian. Langlande's writings remained in manuscript
imtil the reign of Edward VI. ; they were printed then, and went
through three editions in one year. The English used in the
Vision is the Midland dialect — much the same as that used by
Chaucer ; only, oddly enough, Langlande admits into his English a

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 361

larger amount of French words tlian Chaucer. The poem is a dis-
tinct landmark in the history of our speech. The following is a
specimen of the lines. There are three alliterative words in each
line, with a pause near the middle —

" A voice loud in that light • to Xucifer cried,
' Princes of this ^'alace * jjrest i undo the gat&'s,
For here cometh with crown • the Mug of all glory ! * "

7. Geoffrey Chaucer (1840 - 1400), the " father of English
poetry,'* and the greatest narrative poet of this country, was bom
in London in or about the year 1340. He lived in the reigns of
Edward III., Richard II., and one year in the reign of Henry IV.
His father was a vintner. The name Chaucer is a Norman name,
and is found on the roll of Battle Abbey. He is said to have
studied both at Oxfo'rd and Cambridge ; served as page in the
household of Prince Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of
Edward III.; served also in the army, and was taken prisoner
in one of the French campaigns. In 1367, he was appointed gen-
tleman-in-waiting (vaUttus) to Edward III., who sent him on
several embassies. In 1366 he married a lady of the Queen's
chamber; and by this marriage he became connected with John
of Gaunt, who afterwards married a sister of this lady. While
on an embassy to Italy, he is reported to have met the great poet
Petrarch, who told him the story of the Patient Griselda. In 1382,
he was made Comptroller of Customs in the great port of London —
an office which he held till the year 1386. In that year he was
elected knight of the shire — that is, member of Parliament for the
county of Kent. In 1389, he was appointed Clerk of the iKing's
Works at Westminster and Windsor. From 1381 to 1389 was pro-
bably the best and most productive period of his life ; for it was in
this period that he wrote the House of Fame, the Iiegend of
Good Women, and the best of the Canterbury Tales. From
1390 to 1400 was spent in writing the other Canterbury Tales,
ballads, and some moral poems. He died at Westminster in the
year 1400, and was the first writer who was buiied in the Poets'
Comer of the Abbey. We see from his life — ^and it was fortunate
for his poetry — that Chaucer had the most varied experience as
student, courtier, soldier, ambassador, official, and member of Parlia-
ment ; and was able to mix freely and on equal terms with all sorts
and conditions of men, from the king to the poorest hind in the
fields. He was a stout man, with a small bright face, soft eyes,

1 Quickly.

362 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

dazed by long and liard reading, and with the English passion for
flowers, green fields, and all the sights and sounds of nature.

8. Chaucer's Works. — Chaucer^s greatest work is the Canter-
bury Tales. It is a collection of stories written in heroic metre —
that is, in the rhymed couplet of five iambic feet The finest part
of the Canterbury Tales is the Prologue ; the noblest story is pro-
bably the Knightes Tale. It is worthy of note that, in 1362,
when Chaucer was a very young man, the session of the House
of Commons was first opened with a speech in English ; and in the
same year an Act of Parliament was passed, substituting the use of
English for French in courts of law, in schools, and in public offices.
English had thus triumphed over French in all parts of the country,
while it had at the same time become saturated with French words.
In the year 1383 the Bible was translated into English by Wyclif.
Thus Chaucer, whose writings were called by Spenser " the well of
English undefiled," wrote at a time when our English was freshest
and newest. The grammar of his works shows English with a large
number of inflexions still remaining. The Canterbury Tales are a
series of stories supposed to be told by a number of pilgrims who are
on their way to the shrine of St Thomas (Becket) at Canterbury.
The pilgrims, thirty- two in number, are fully described — their dress,
look, manners, and character in the Prologue. It had been agreed,
when they met at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, that each pilgrim
should tell four stories — two going and two returning — as they rode
along the grassy lanes, then the only roads, to the old cathedral city.
But only four-and-twenty stories exist

9. Chaucer's Style. — Chaucer expresses, in the truest and liveliest
way, ** the true and lively of everything which is set before him ; "
and he first gave to English poetry that force, vigour, life, and
colour which raised it above the level of mere rhymed prose. All
the best poems and histories in Latin, French, and Italian were well
known to Chaucer ; and he borrows from them with the greatest
freedom. He handles, with masterly power, all the characters and
events in his Tales ; and he is hence, beyond doubt, the greatest
narrative poet that England ever produced. In the Prologue, his
masterpiece, Dryden says, " we have our forefathers and great-grand-
dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer^s days." His dramatic
power, too, is nearly as great as his narrative power ; and Mr Marsh
afllrms that he was "a dramatist before that which is technically
known as the existing drama had been invented." That is to say,
he could set men and women talking as they would and did talk in
real life, but with more point, spirit, verve^ and picturesqueness.
As regards the matter of his poems, it mav be sufficient to say that

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 363

Diyden calls him " a perpetual fountaiii of good sense ; " and that
Hazlitt makes this remark : '^ Chaucer was the most practical of all
the great poets, — the most a man of business and of the world. His
poetry reads like history." Tennyson speaks of him thus in his
" Dream of Fair Women " : —

*' Dan Chancer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath
Prelnded those melodious bursts that fill
The spacious times of great Elizabeth,
With sounds that echo still."

10. John Barbour (1316-1396).— The earliest Scottish poet of
any importance in the fourteenth century is John Barbour, who rose
to be Archdeacon of Aberdeen. Barbour was of Norman blood, and
wrote Northern English, or, as it is sometimes called, Scotch. He
studied both at Oxford and at the University of Paris. His chief
work is a poem called The Bruce. The English of this poem does
not differ very greatly from the English of Chaucer. Barbour has
fechtcmd for fighting; pressit for pressed; theretUl for thereto; but
these differences do not make the reading of his poem very diffi-
cult. As a Norman he was proud of the doings of Kobert de Bruce,
another Norman ; and Barbour must often have heard stories of
him in his boyhood, as he was only thirteen when Bruce died.

364

CHAPTEE IIL

THE PIPTBBNTH CBNTURY.

1. The fifteenth century, a remarkable period in many ways,
saw three royal dynasties established in England — ^the Houses
of Lancaster, York, and Tudor. Five successful French cam-
paigns of Henry Y., and the battle of Agincourt ; and, on the
other side, the loss of all our large possessions in France, with
the exception of Calais, under the rule of the weak Henry VL^
were among the chief events of the fifteenth century. The
Wars of the Eoses did not contribute anything to the prosperity
of the century, nor could so unsettled and quarrelsome a time
encourage the cultivation of literature. For this among other
reasons, we find no great compositions in prose or verse ; but a
considerable activity in the making and distribution of ballada
The best of these are Sir Patrick Spans, Edom o* Gk>rdozi,
The Nut-Brown Mayde, and some of those written about
Bobin Hood and his exploits. The ballad was everywhere
popular ; and minstrels sang them in every city and village
through the length and breadth of England. The famous bal-
lad of Chevy Chase is generally placed after the year 1460,
though it did not take its present form till the seventeenth
century. It tells the story of the Battle of Otterbum, which
was fought in 1388. This century was also witness to the
short struggle of Eichard III., followed by the rise of the
House of Tudor. And, in 1498, just at its close, the won-
derful apparition of a new world — of The New World —

THE FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. 365

rose on the horizon of the English mind, for England then first
heard of the discoyery of America. But, as regards thinking
and writing, the fifteenth century is the most barren in our
literature. It is the' most barren in the production of original
literature ; but, on the other hand, it is, compared with all the
centuries that preceded it, the most, fertile in the dissemination
and distribution of the literature that already existed. For
England saw, in the memorable year of 1477, the establishment
of the first printing-press in the Almonry at Westminster, by
William Caxton. The first book printed by him in this country
was called *The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers.' When
Edward IV. and his friends visited Caxton's house and looked at
his printing-press, they spoke of it as a pretty toy; they could not
foresee that it was destined to be a more powerful engine of good
government and the spread of thought and education than the
Crown, Parliaments, and courts of law all put together. The
two greatest names in literature in the fifteenth century are
those of James I. (of Scotland) and William Caxton himself.
Two followers of Chaucer, Occleve and Lydgate are also gen-
erally mentioned. Put shortly, one might say that the chief
poetical productions of this century were its ballads ; and the
chief prose productions, translations from Latin or from foreign
worka

2. James I. of Scotland (1384-1487), though a Scotchman, owed
his education to England. He was born in 1394. Whilst on his
way to France when a boy of eleven, he was captured, in time of
peace, by the order of Henry IV., and kept prisoner in England for
about eighteen years. It was no great misfortune, for he received
from Henry the best education that England could then give in
language, literature, music, and all knightly accomplishments. He
married Lady Jane Beaufort, the grand-daughter of John of Gaunt,
the friend and patron of Chaucer. His best and longest poem is
The King^ Quair (that is. Book), a poem which was inspired by
the subject of it, Lady Jane Beaufort herself. The poem is written
in a stanza of seven lines (called Bime Boyal); and the style is
a close copy of the style of Chaucer. After reigning thirteen years
in Scotland, King James was murdered at Perth, in the year 1437.
A Norman by blood, he is the best poet of the fifteenth century,
t 3 0

366 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITEKATURE.

3. WhiLIAH Caxton (1422-1491) is the name of greateat import-
ance and significance in the history of our literature in the fifteenth
century. He was bom in Kent in the year 1422. He was not merely
a printer, he was also a literary man ; and, when he devoted himself
to printing, he took to it as an art, and not as a mere mechanical
device. Caxton in early life was a mercer in the city of London ;
and in the course of his business, which was a thriving one, he had
to make frequent journeys to the Low Countriea Here he saw the
printing-press for the first time, with the new separate types,
was enchanted with it, and fired by the wonderful future it opened.
It had been introduced into Holland about the year 1450. Caxton's
press was set up in the Almonry at Westminster, at the sign of the
Red Pole. It produced about eighty separate books, nearly all of
them in English, some of them written by Caxton himself. One of
the most important of them was Sir Thomas Malory's History of
King: Arthur, the storehouse from which Tennyson drew the
stories which form the groundwork of his Idylls of the King,

^67

CHAPTER IV.

THB SELTBBNTH OENTUBY.

1. The Wars of the Eoses ended in 1485, with the victory of
Besworth Field. A new dynasty — ^the House of Tudor — sat
upon the throne of England ; and with it a new reign of peace
and order existed in the country, for the power of the king was
paramount, and the power of the nobles had been gradually
destroyed in the numerous battles of the fifteenth century.
Like the fifteenth, this century also is famous for its ballads, the
authors of which are not known, but which seem to have been
composed "by the people for the peopla" They were sung
everywhere, at fairs and feasts, in town and country, at going to
and coming home from work ; and many of them were set to
popular dance-tunes.

''When Tom came home from labour,
And Cis from milking rose,
Merrily went the tabor,
And merrily went their toes."

The ballads of King Iiesjr and The Babes in the Wood are

perhaps to be referred to this period.

2. The first half of the sixteenth cenkiry saw the beginning
of a new era in poetry ; and the last half saw the full meridian
splendour of this new era. The beginning of this era was
marked by the appearance of Sir Thomaa Wyatt (1503-1542),
and of the Sari of Surrey (1517-1547). These two eminent

^68 HISTORY OF ENGUSH LITERATURE.

writers have been called the "twin-stars of the dawn," the
"founders of English lyrical poetry"; and it is worthy of
especial note, that it is to Wyatt that we owe the introduction
of the Sonnet into our literature, and to Surrey that is due the
introduction of Blank Verse. The most important prose-
writers of the first half of the century were Sir Thomas More,
the great lawyer and statesman, and William Tyndale, who
translated the Kew Testament into English. In the latter half
of the century, the great poets are Spenser and Shakespeare ;
the great prose-writers, Bichard Hooker and Francis Baoon.

3. Sir Thomas Mork's (1478-1636) rjhief work in English is the
liife and Beign of Ed'waird V. It is written in a plain, strong,
nervous English style. Hallam calls it " the first example of good
English — pure and perspicuous, well chosen, without vulgarisms, and
without pedantry." His Utopia (a description of the country of
Nowhere) was written in Latin.

4. WiLLiAH Tykdalb (1484-1636)— a man of the greatest signifi-
cance, hoth in the history of religion, and in the history of our lan-
guage and literature — was a native of Gloucestershire, and was
educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. His opinions on religion and
the rule of the Catholic Church, compelled him to leave England,
and drove him to the Continent in the year 1524 He lived in
Hamhurg for some time. With the German and Swiss reformers
he held that the Bible should be in the hands of every grown-up
person, and not in the exclusive keeping of the Church. He ac-
cordingly set to work to translate the Scriptures into his native
tongue. Two editions of his version of the "New Testament were
printed in 1525-34. He next translated the five books of Moses, and
the book of Jonah. In 1535 he was, after many escapes and ad-
ventures, finally tracked and hunted down by an emissary of the
Pope's faction, and thrown into prison at the castle of Vilvoorde,
near Brussels. In 1536 he was brought to Antwerp, tried, con-
demned, led to the stake, strangled, and burned.

5. The Work of William Tyndale. — Tyndale's translation
has, since the time of its appearance, formed the basis of all the
after versions of the Bible. It is written in the purest and simplest
English; and very few of the words used in his translation have
grown obsolete in our modem speech, Tyndale's work is indeed,

THE SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. 369

one of the most striking landmarks in the history of our language.
Mr Marsh says of it : " Tyndale's translation of the New Testament
is the most important philological monument of the first half of the
sixteenth century, — perhaps I should say, of the whole period be-
tween Chaucer and Shakespeare. . . . The best features of the
translation of 1611 are derived from the version of Tyndale.** It may
be said without exaggeration that, in the United Kingdom, America,
and the colonies, about one hundred millions of people now speak
the English of Tyndale's Bible; nor is there any book that has
exerted so great an influence on English rhythm, English style, the
selection of words, and the build of sentences in our English
prose,

6. Edmund Spensbr (1652-1599), " The Poet's Poet," and one of
the greatest poetical writers of his own or of any age, was bom at
East Smithfield, near the Tower of London, in the year 1552, about,
nine years before the birth of Bacon, and in the reign of Edward VI.
He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in London, and at
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. In 1579, we find him settled in his
native city, where his best friend was the gallant Sir Philip Sidney,
who introduced him to his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, then at the
height of his power and influence with Queen Elizabeth. In the
same year was published his first poetical work, The Shepheard's
Calendar — a set of twelve pastoral poems. In 1580, he went to
Ireland as Secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, the Viceroy of that
country. For some years he resided at Kilcolman Castle, in county
Cork, on an estate which had been granted him out of the forfeited
lands of the Earl of Desmond. Sir Walter Raleigh had obtained a
similar but larger grant, and was Spenser's near neighbour. In 1590
Spenser brought out the first three books of The Faerie Queene.
The second three books of his great poem appeared in 1596. To-
wards the end of 1598, a rebellion broke out in Ireland ; it spread
into Munster ; Spenser's house was attacked and set on fire ; in the
fighting and confusion his only son perished ; and Spenser escaped
with the greatest difficulty. In deep distress of body and mind, he
made his way to London, where he died — at an inn in King Street,
Westminster, at the age of forty-six, in the beginning of the year
1599. He was buried in the Abbey, not *ar from the grave of
Chaucer.

7. Spenser's Style. — His greatest work is The Faerie Queene ;
but that in which he shows the most striking command of language
is his Hymn of Heavenly Love. The Faerie Queene is written
in a nine-lined stanza^ which has since been called the Spenserian

370 mSTOBT OF ENGLISH LITERATTJRE.

Stanza, The first eight lines are of the usual length of five iambic
feet ; the last line contains six feet, and is therefore an Alexandrine.
Each stanza contains only three rhymes, which are disposed in this
order: ab abh cb e c, — The music of the stanza is long-drawn out,
beautiful, involved, and even luxuriant. — ^The story of the poem is
an allegory, like the * Pilgrim's Progress' ; and in it Spenser under-
took, he says, " to represent all the moral virtues, assigning to every
virtue a knight to be the patron and defender of the same." ^ Only
six books were completed ; and these relate the adventures of the
knights who stand for HolinesSf Temperance, Chastity^ Friendship,
Justice, and Courtesy. The Faerie Queene herself is called
Qloriana, who represents Glory in his "general intention,'* and
Queen Elizabeth in his " particular intention.*'

8. Character of the Faerie Queene. — This poem is the greatest
of the sixteenth century. Spenser has not only been the delight of
nearly ten generations ; he was the study of Shakespeare, the poet-
ical master of Cowley and of Milton, and, in some sense, of Dryden
and Pope. Keats, when a boy, was never tired of reading him.
"There is something," eays Pope, "in Spenser that pleases one as
strongly in old age as it did in one's youth." Professor Craik says :
" Without calling Spenser the greatest of all poets, we may still say
that his poetry is the most poetical of all poetry." The outburst of
national feeling after the defeat of the Armada in 1588; the new
lands opened up by our adventurous Devonshire sailors ; the strong
and lively loyalty of the nation to the queen ; the great statesmen
and writers of the period; the high daring shown by England
against Spain — all these animated and inspired the glowing genius
of Spenser. His rhythm is singularly sweet and beautiful. Hazlitt
says : " His versification is at once the most smooth and the most
sounding in the language. It is a labyrinth of sweet sounds."
Nothing can exceed the wealth of Spenser's phrasing and expression ;
there seems to be no limit to its flow. He is very fond of the Old-
English practice of alliteration or head-rhyme — " hunting the letter,'*
as it was called. Thus he has —

" In woods, in waves, in wars, she wont to dwell.
Gay without good is good heart's greatest loathinp^."

9. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest dramatist
that England ever produced, was bom at Stratford-on-Avon, in
Warwickshire, on the 23d of April — St George's Bay — of the year
1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a wool dealer and grower.

I This use of the phrase "the same ** is antiquated English,

THE SIXTEENTH CENTlTRY. 371

William was educated at the grammar-school of the town, where he
learned '^ small Latin and less Greek " ; and this slender stock was
his only scholastic outfit for life. At the early age of eighteen he
married Anne Hathaway, a yeoman's daughter. In 1586, at the age
of twenty-two, he quitted his native town, and went to London.

10. Shakespeare's Iiife and Character. — He was employed in
some menial capacity at the Blackfriars Theatre, but gradually rose to
be actor and ^so adapter of plays. He was connected with the
theatre for about five-and-twenty years; and so diligent and so
successful was he, that he was able to purchase shares both in his
own theatre and in the Globe. As an actor, he was only second-
rate : the two parts he is known to have played are those of the
Ghost in Hamlet, and Adam in As Tou Ijike It. In 1597, at
the early age of thirty -three, he was able to purchase New Place, in
Stratford, and to rebuild the house. In 1611, at the age of forty-
seven, he retired (making occasional visits to London, however)
to New Place, where he died in the year 1616. His old father and
mother spent the last years of their lives with him, and died under
his roof. Shakespeare had three children — two girls and a boy.
The boy, Hamnet, died at the age of twelve. Shakespeare himself
was beloved by every one who knew him; and "gentle Shake-
speare ''•was the phrase most often upon the lips of his friends. A
placid face, with a sweet, mild expression; a high, broad, noble,
" two - storey " forehead ; bright eyes ; a most speaking mouth —
though it seldom opened ; an open, frank manner, a kindly, hand-
some look, — such seems to have been the external character of the
man Shakespeare.

11. Shakespeare's Works. — He has written thirty-seven plays
and many poems. The best of his rhymed poems are his Sonnets, in
which he chronicles many of the various moods of his mind. The
plays consist of tragedies, historical plays, and comedies. The
greatest of his tragedies are probably Hamlet and King Lear ;
the best of his historical plays, Bichard. III. and Julius Caesar ;
and his finest comedies. Midsummer Night's Dream and As
Tou Iiike It. He wrote in the reign of Elizabeth as well as
in that of James ; but his greatest works belong to the latter
period.

12. Shakespeare's Styles— Every one knows that Shakespeare
is great ; but how is the young learner to discover the best way
of forming an adequate idea of his greatness? In the first place,
Shakespeare has very many sides ; and, in the second place, he is
great on every one of them. Coleridge says : " In all points, from
the most important to the most minute, the judgment of Shakespeare

St2 tilSTORY OF Ei^GtlSa LItKRAftJEfi.

JB commensurate with his genius — ^nay, his genius reveals itself in
his judgment, as in its most exalted form." He has been called
" meUifluous Shakespeare ; " " honey-tongued Shakespeare ; " " silver-
tongued Shakespeare;" "the thousand-souled Shakespeare;" "the
myriad-minded ; " and by many other epithets. He seems to have
been master of all human experience ; to have known the human
heart in all its phases ; to have been acquainted with all sorts and
conditions of men — high and low, rich and poor ; and to have studied
the history of past ages, and of other countries. He also shows a
greater and more highly skilled mastery over language than any
other writer that ever lived. The vocabulary employed by Shake-
speare amounts in number of words to twenty-one thousand. The
vocabulary of Milton numbers only seven thousand words. But it
is not sufficient to say that Shakespeare's power of thought, of feel-
ing, and of expression required three times the number of words
to express itself ; we must also say that Shakespeare's power of ex-
pression shows infinitely greater skill, subtlety, and cunning than
is to be found in the works of Milton. Shakespeare had also a mar-
vellous power of making new phrases, most of which have become
part and parcel of our language. Such phrases as every inch a hing ;
witch the world; the time is out of joints and hundreds .more, show
that modem Englishmen not only speak Shakespeare, but think
Shakespeare. His knowledge of human nature has enabled him to
throw into English literature a larger number of genuine " char-
acters '' that will always live in the thoughts of men, than any other
author that ever wrote. And he has not drawn his characters from
England alone and from his own time — ^but from Greece and Rome,
&om other countries, too, and also from all ages. He has written in
a greater variety of styles than any other writer. "Shakespeare,"
says Professor Craik, "has invented twenty styles." The know-
ledge, too, that he shows on every kind of human endeavour is as
accurate as it is varied. Lawyers say that he was a great lawyer ;
theologians, that he was an able divine, and unequalled in his know-
ledge of the Bible; printers, that he must have been a printer; and
seamen, that he knew every branch of the sailor's craft.

13. Shakespeare's contemporaries. — But we are not to suppose
that Shakespeare stood alone in the end of the sixteenth and the begin-
ning of the seventeenth century as a great poet ; and that everything
else was flat and low around him. This never is and never can be
the case. Great genius is the possession, not of one man, but of
several in a great age ; and we do not find a great writer standing
alone and unsupported, just as we do not find a high mountain rising

THE SIXTEENTH CENTtTRY. 373

from a low plain. The largest group of the highest mountains in the
world, the Himalayas, rise from the highest table-land in the world ;
and peaks nearly as high as the highest — Mount Everest — are seen
cleaving the blue sky in the neighbourhood of Mount Everest itself.
And so we find Shakespeare surrounded by dramatists in some re-
spects nearly as great as himself; for the same great forces welling
up within the heart of England that made him created also the
others. Marlowe, the teacher of Shakespeare, Feele, and Greene,
preceded him ; Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger
and ForcU Webster, Chapman, and many others, were his con-
temporaries, lived with him, talked with him ; and no doubt each of
these men influenced the work of the others. But the works of these
men belong chiefly to the seventeenth century. We must not, how-
ever, foi^et that the reign of Queen Elizabeth — called in literature
the Elizabethan Feriod — was the greatest that England ever saw,
— ^greatest in poetry and in prose, greatest in thought and in action,
and perhaps also greatest in external events.

14. Chbistopher Marlowe (1564-1598), the first great English
dramatist, was born at Canterbury in the year 1564, two months
before the birth of Shakespeare himself. He studied at Corpus
Chriflti College, Cambridge, and took the degree of Master of Arts
in 1587. After leaving the university, he came up to London and
wrote for the stage. He seems to have led a wild and reckless life,
and was stabbed in a tavern brawl on the 1st of June 1593. " As he
may be said to have invented and made the verse of the drama, so
he created the English drama." His chief plays are Dr Faustus
and iEdward the Second. His style is one of the greatest vigour
and power : it is often coarse, but it is always strong. Ben Jonson
spoke of " Marlowe's mighty line " ; and Lord Jeffrey says of him :
" In felicity of thought and strength of expression, he is second only
to Shakespeare himself

15. Ben Jonson (1574-1687), the greatest dramatist of England
after Shakespeare, was bom in Westminster in the year 1574, just
nine years after Shakespeare's birth. He received his education at
Westminster School. It is said that, after leaving school, he was
obliged to assist his stepfather as a bricklayer ; that he did not like
the work ; and that he ran off to the Low Countries, and there en-
listed as a soldier. On his return to London, he began to write for

374 HISTOKT OF ENGLISH LITERATURK

the stage. Jonson was a friend and companion of Shakespeare's ;
and at the Mermaid, in Fleet Street, they had, in presence of men
like Raleigh, Marlowe, Greene, Peele, and other distinguished
Englishmen, many " wit - combats *' together. Jonson's greatest
plays are Volpone or the Fox, and the Alchemist — both
comedies. In 1616 he was created Poet - Laureate. For many
years he was in receipt of a pension from James I. and from Charles
I. ; bat so careless and profuse were his habits, that he died ia
poverty in the year 1637. He was buried in an upright position in
Westminster Abbey ; and the stone over his grave still hears the
inscription, " 0 rare Ben Jonson ! " He has been called a " robust,
surly, and observing dramatist."

16. Richard Hooker (1553-1600), one of the greatest of Eliza-
bethan prose-writers, was bom at Heavitree, a village near the city
of Exeter, in the year 1553. By the kind aid of Jewel, Bishop of
Salisbury, he was sent to Oxford, where he distinguished himself
as a hard-working student, and especially for his knowledge of
Hebrew. In 1581 he entered the Church. In the same year he
made an imprudent marriage with an ignorant, coarse, vulgar, and
domineering woman. He was appointed Master of the Temple in
1585; but, by his own request, he was removed from that oflBce,
and chose the quieter living of Boscombe, near Salisbury. Here
he wrote the first four books of his famous work. The ILaTva
of SScclesiastical Polity, which were published in the year 1594
In 1595 he was translated to the living of Bishopsbome, near Can-
terbury. His death took place in the year 1600. The complete
work, which consisted of eight books, was not published tiU 1662.

17. Hooker's Style. — His writings are said to " mark an era in
English prose." His sentences are generally very long, very elab-
orate, but full of " an extraordinary musical richness of language."
The order is often more like that of a Latin than of an English
sentence ; and he is fond of Latin inversions. Thus he writes :
" That which by wisdom he saw to be requisite for that people, was
by as great wisdom compassed." The following sentences give us a
good example of his sweet and musical rhythm. " Of law there can
be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her
voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do
her homage ; the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as
not exempted from her power : both angels and men, and creatures
of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner,
yet all, with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their
peace and joy."

THE SIXTEENTH CENTUBY. 376

18. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), a noble knight, a states-
man, and one of the best prose-writers of the Elizabethan age, was
bom at Penshurst, in Kent, in the year 1554. He was educated at
Shrewsbury School, and then at Christ Church, Oxford. At the
age of seventeen he went abroad for three years' travel on the Con-
tinent ; and, while in Paris, witnessed, from the windows of the
English Embassy, the horrible Massacre of St Bartholomew in the
year 1572. At the early age of twenty-two he was sent as am-
bassador to the Emperor of Germany ; and while on that embassy,
he met William of Orange — " William the Silent " — who pronounced
him one of the ripest statesmen in Europe. This was said of a young
man " who seems to have been the type of what was noblest in the
youth of England during times that could produce a statesman."
In 1580 he wrote the Arcadia, a romance, and dedicated it to his
sister, the Countess of Pembroke. The year after, he produced his
Apologia for Poetrio. His policy as a statesman was to side with
Protestant rulers, and to break the power of the strongest Catholic
kingdom on the Continent — the power of Spain. In 1585 the
Queen sent him to the Netherlands as governor of the important
fortress of Flushing. He was mortally wounded in a skirmish at
Zutphen ; and as he was being carried off the field, handed to a
private the cup of cold water that had been brought to quench his
raging thirst. He died of his woundS on the 17th of October 1586.
One of his friends wrote of him : —

" Death, courage, honour, make thy soul to live ! —
Thy soul in heaven, thy name in tongues of men ! "

19. Sidney's Poetry.— In addition to the Arcadia and the
Apologia for Poetrie, Sidney wrote a number of beautiful poems.
The best of these are a series of sonnets called Astrophel and
Stella, of which his latest critic says : " As a series of sonnets, the
Astrophel and Stella poems are second only to Shakespeare's ; as
a series of love -poems, they are perhaps unsurpassed." Spenser
wrote an elegy upon Sidney himself, under the title of Astrophel.
Sidney's prose is among the best of the sixteenth century. " He reads
more modem than any other author of that century." He does not
use " ink-horn terms," or cram his sentences with Latin or French or
Italian words ; but both his words and his idioms are of pure English.
He is fond of using personifications. Such phrases as, " About the
time that the candles began to inherit the sun's c 'fice ; " " Seeing the
day begin to disclose her comfortable beauties," a,ve not uncommon.
The rhythm of his sentences is always melodious, and each of them
has a very pleasant close.

976

CHAPTER V.

THB SBYENTEEITTH OENTUBT.

1. The First Half. — Under the wise and able rule of Queen
Elizabeth, this country had enjoyed a long term of peace. The
Spanish Armada had been defeated in 1588; the Spanish power
had gradually waned before the growing might of England ; and
it could be said with perfect truth, in the words of Shake-
speare : —

"In her days every man doth eat in safety
Under his own vine what he plants, and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours."

The country was at peace ; and every peaceful art and pursuit
prospered. As one sign of the great prosperity and outstretch-
ing enterprise of commerce, we should note the foundation of
the East India Company on the last day of the year 1600. The
reign of James I. (1603-1626) was also peaceful; and the
country made steady progress in industries, in commerce, and in
the arts and sciences. The two greatest prose-writers of the
first half of the seventeenth century were Raleigh and Bacon ;
the two greatest poets were Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

2. Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618). — Walter Baleigh, soldier,
statesman, colonise^, historian, and poet, was born in Devonshire, in
the year 1652. He was sent to Oriel College, Oxford ; but he left at
the early age of seventeen to fight on the side of the Protestants in
France. IVom that time his life is one long series of schemes, plots,

THE SEVKNTBBNTH CENTUEY. 377

adventures, and misfortunes — culminating in his execution at West-
minster in the year 1618. He spent " the evening of a tempestuous
life " in the Tower, where he lay for thirteen years ; and during this
imprisonment he wrote his greatest work, the History of the
World, which was never finished. His life and adventures be-
long to the sixteenth; his works to the seventeenth century.
Raleigh was prohahly the most dazzling figure of his time ; and is
"in a singular degree the representative of the vigorous versatility
of the Elizahethan period.*' Spenser, whose neighbour he was for
some time in Ireland, thought highly of his poetry, calls him " the
summer's nightingale," and says of him—

** Yet semnlingi my songi he took in hand
My pipe, before that semnled of many,
And played thereon (for well that skill he conn'd),
Himself as skilful in that art as any."

Raleigh is the author of the celebrated verses, " Go, soul, the body's
guest ; " " Give me my scallop-shell of quiet ; " and of the lines which
were written and left in his Bible on the night before he was
beheaded : —

*' Even such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have.
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave.
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days :
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
The Lord shall raise me up, I trust ! "

Raleigh's prose has been described as " some of the most flowing
and modern-looking prose of the period;" and there can be no
doubt that, if he had given himself entirely to literature, he would
have been one of the greatest poets and prose-writers of his time.
His style is calm, noble, and melodious. The following is the last
sentence of the History of the World : —

<*0 eloquent, just, and mighty Death ! whom none could advise, thou hast
persuaded ; what none hath dared, thou hast done ; and whom all the world
hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised ; thou hast
drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and am-
bition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words Hicjctcet"

3. Francis Baoon (1561-1626), one of the greatest of English
thinkers, and one of our best prose- writers, was bom at York House,

^ Emulating.

378 HISTORY OF KNGLISH LITERATURE.

in the Strand, London, in the year 1561. He was a grave and
precocious child; and Queen Elizabeth, who knew him and liked
him, used to pat him and call him her " young Lord Keeper " — ^his
father being Lord Keeper of the Seals in her reign. At the early
age of twelve he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, and re-
mained there for three years. In 1582 he was called to the bar;
in 1593 he was M.P. for Middlesex. But his greatest rise in fortune
did not take place till the reign of James 1. ; when, in the year 1618,
he had risen to be Lord High Chancellor of England. The title
which he took on this occasion — ^for the Lord High Chancellor is
chairman of the House of Lords — was Baron Vemlam; and a
few years after he was created ViBCOiint St Albans. His elo-
quence was famous in England ; and Ben Jonson said of him : ^^ The
fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end."
In the year 1621 he was accused of taking bribes, and of giving un-
just decisions as a judge. He had not really been unconscientious,
but he had been careless ; was obliged to plead guilty ; and he was
sentenced to pay a fine of £40,000, and to be imprisoned in the
Tower during the king's pleasure. The fine was remitted ; Bacon
was set free in two days ; a pension was allowed him ; but he never
afterwards held office of any kind. Ha died on Easter-day of the
year 1626, of a chill which he caught while experimenting on the
preservative properties of snow.

4. His chief prose- works in English — for he wrote many in Latin —
are the/!EjSsays, and the^ Advancement of Iieamiiig. His Essays
make one of the wisest books ever \vTitten ; and a great number of
English thinkers owe to them the best of what they have had to say.
They are written in a clear, forcible, pithy, and picturesque style,
with short sentences, and a good many illustrations, drawn from his-
tory, politics, and science. It is true that the style is sometimes
stiff, and even rigid; but the stiffness is the stifhess of a ricUy
embroidered cloth, into which threads of gold and silver have been
worked. Bacon kept what he called a Fromus or Commonplace-
Book; and in this her entered striking thoughts, sentences, and
phrases that he met with in the course of his reading, or that oc-
curred to him during the day. He calls these sentences " salt-pits,
that you may extract salt out of, and sprinkle as you will." The
following are a few examples: —

"That that is Forced is not Forcible."
** No Man loveth his Fetters though they be of Gold."
" Clear and Round Dealing is the Honour of Man's Nature."
" The Arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty Flatterers have intelligence, is
a Man's Self."

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 379

" If Things be not tossed upon the Arguments of Counsel!, they will be tossed
apon the Waves of Fortune."

The following are a few striking sentences from his SSssayB : —

" Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set."

** A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds ; therefore, let him season-
ably water the one, and destroy the other."

*' A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk
but a tinkling cymbal, when there is no love."

No man could say wiser things in pitliier words ; and we may
well say of his thoughts, in the words of Tennyson, that they are —

*' Jewels, five words long,
That on the stretched forefinger of all time
Sparkle for ever."

5. William Shakespeabe (1564-1616) has been already treated
of in the chapter on the sixteenth century. But it may be noted
here that his first two periods — as they are called — fall within the
sixteenth, and his last two periods within the seventeenth century.
His first period lies between 1591 and 1596; and to it are ascribed
his early poems, his play of Richard II., and some other histor-
ical plays. His second period, which stretches from 1596 to 1601
holds the Sonnets, thevMerchant of Venice, the^^erry Wives of
Windsor, and a few historical dramas. But his third and fourth
periods were richer in production, and in greater productions. The
third period, which belongs to the years 1601 to 1608, produced the
play ofvJulius Caesar, the great tragedies of Hamlet, Othello,
Ijear^ Macbeth, and some others. To the fourth period, which
lies between 1608 and 1613, belong the calmer and wiser dramas,
—Winter's Tale,vThe Tempest, andy Henry "VTIL Three
years after — in 1616 — ^he died.

6. The Second Half — ^The second half of the great and
unique seventeenth century was of a character very diflEerent
indeed from that of the first half. The Englishmen bom into
it had to face a new world ! New thoughts in religion, new
forces in politics, new powers in social matters had been slowly,
steadily, and irresistibly rising into supremacy ever since the
Scottish King James came to take his seat upon the throne of
England in 1603. These new forces had, in fact, become so

,380 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

strong that they led a king to the scaffold, and handed over the
government of England to a section of Kepublicans. Charles
L was executed in 1649; and, though his son came back
to the throne in 1660, the face, the manners, the thoughts of
England and of Englishmen had undergone a complete internal
and external change. The Puritan party was everywhere the
ruling party; and its views and convictions, in religion, in
politics, and in literature, held unquestioned sway in almost
every part of England. In the Puritan party, the strongest
section was formed by the Independents — the " root and branch
men '* — as they were called ; and the greatest man among the
Independents was Oliver Cromwell, in whose government John
Milton was Foreign Secretary. Milton was certainly by far
the greatest and most powerful writer, both in prose and in
verse, on the side of the Puritan party. The ablest verse-writer
on the Eoyalist or Court side was Samuel Butler, the unrivalled
satirist — the Hogarth of language, — the author of Hudibras.
The greatest prose-writer on the Eoyalist and Church side was
Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, in Ireland, and the author
of Holy liiving. Holy Dying, and many other works written
with a wonderful eloquence. The greatest philosophical writer
was Thomas Hobbes, the author of the Iieviathan. The most
powerful writer for the people was John Bunyan» the immortal
author of The Pilgrim's Progress. When, however, we come
to the reigns of Charles II. and James IL, and the new influences
which their rule and presence imparted, we find the greatest poet
to be John Dryden, and the most important prose-writer, John
Looke.

7. The Poetry of the Second Half. — ^The poetry of the second
half of the seventeenth century was not an outgrowth or lineal
descendant of the poetry of the first half. No trace of the
strong Elizabethan poetical emotion remained ; no writer of this
half-century can claim kinship with the great authors of the
Elizabethan period. The three most remarkable poets in the
latter half of this century are John Milton, Samuel Butler,
and John Dryden. But Milton's culture was derived chiefly
from the great Greek and Latin writers ; and his poems show

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY. 381

few or no signs of belonging to any age or generation in particu-
lar of English literature. Butler's poem, the Hudibras, is the
only one of its kind ; and if its author owes anything to other
writers, it is to France and not to England that we must look
for its sources. Dryden, again, shows no sign of being related
to Shakespeare or the dramatic writers of the early part of the
century ; he is separated from them by a great gulf ; he owes
most, when he owes anything, to the French school of poetry.

8. John Milton (1606-1674), the second greatest name in Eng-
lish poetry, and the greatest of all our epic poets, was bom in Bread
Street, Cheapside, London, in the year 1608 — five years after the ac-
cession of James 1. to the throne, and eight years before the death of
Shakespeare. He was educated at St Paul's School, and then at
Christ's College, Cambridge. He was so handsome — with a delicate
complexion, clear blue eyes, and light-brown hair flowing down his
shoulders — ^that he was known as the " Lady of Christ^s." He was
destined for the Church ; but, being early seized with a strong desire
to compose a great poetical work which should bring honour to his
country and to the English tongue, he gave up all idea of becoming
a clei^yman. Filled with his secret purpose, he retired to Horton,
in Buckinghamshire, where his father had bought a small country
seat. Between the years 1632 and 1638 he studied all the best
Greek and Latin authors, mathematics, and science; and he also
wrote Ij'Allegro and II Fenseroso, ComuB, Iiycidas, and some
shorter poems. These were preludes, or exercises, towards the great
poetical work which it was the mission of his life to produce. In
1638-39 he toolT a journey to the Continent Most of his time
was spent in Italy ; and, when in Florence, he paid a visit to Galileo
in prison. It had been his intention to go on to Greece ; but the
troubled state of politics at home brought him back sooner than he
wished. The next ten years of his life were engaged in teaching
and in writing his prose works. His ideas on teaching are to be
found in hi^ Tractate on Education. The most eloquent of his
prose-works is his Areopagitica» a Speech for the Ijiberty of
Unlicensed Printing (1644) — a plea for the freedom of the press,
for relieving all writings from the criticism of censors. In 1649 —
the year of the execution of Charles I. — Milton was appointed Latin
or Foreign Secretary to the Government of Oliver Cromwell; and
for the next ten years his time was taken up with official work,
and with writing prose-volumes in defence of the action of the

382 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITBRATUKK

Republic In 1660 the Kestoration took place ; and Milton was at
length free, in his fifty-third year, to carry out his long-cherished
scheme of writing a great Epic poem. He chose the subject of the
fall and the restoration of man. Paradise Iiost was completed in
1665 ; but, owing to the Plague and the Fire of London, it was not
published till the year 1667. Milton's young Quaker friend, Ellwood,
said to him one day : " Thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, what
hast thou to say of Paradise Found?" Paradise Begained was
the result — a work which was written in 1666, and appeared, along
with Samson Agonistes, in the year 1671. Milton died in the
year 1674 — about the middle of the reign of Charles 11. He had
been three times married.

9.' li' Allegro (or "The Cheerful Man") is a companion poem to
II Penseroso (or " The Meditative Man " ). The poems present two
contrasted views of the life of the student. They are written in an
irregular kind of octosyllabic verse. The'^Comus — ^mostly in blank
verse — is a lyrical drama ; and Milton's work was accompanied by
a musical composition by the then famous musician Henry Lawes.
Lycidas — a poem in irregular rhymed verse — ^is a threnody on the
death of Milton's young friend, Edward King, who was drowned
in sailing from Chester to Dublin. This poem has been called " the
touchstone of taste ; " the man who cannot admire it has no feeling
for true poetry. The"l*aradise Iiost is the story of how Satan was
allowed to plot against the happiness of man ; and how Adam and
Eve fell through his designs. The style is the noblest in the English
language; the music of the rhythm is lofty, involved, sustained, find
sublime. " In reading ' Paradise Lost,* " says Mr LoweU, " one has a
feeling of spaciousness such as no other poet gives." v Paradise
Hegained is, in fact, the story of the Temptation, and of Christ's
triumph over the wiles of Satan. "Wordsworth says: "* Paradise
Regained ' is most perfect in execution of any written by Milton ; "
and Coleridge remarks that "it is in its kind the most perfect
poem extant, though its kind may be inferior in interest." v^Sanison
Agonistes (" Samson in Struggle" ) is a drama, in highly irregular
unrhymed verse, in which the poet sets forth his own unhappy fate —

''Eyeless, in Gaza^ at the mill with slaves."

It is, indeed, an autobiographical poem — ^it is the story of the last
years of the poet's life.

10. Samuel Butler (1612-1680), the wittiest of English poets, was
bom at Strensham, in Worcestershire, in the year 1612, four years

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. 383

after the birth of Milton, and four years before the death of Shake<.
speare. He was educated at the grammar-school of Worcester, and
afterwards at Cambridge — ^but only for a short time. At the Resto-
ration he was made secretary to the Earl of Carbery, who was then
President of the Principality of Wales, and steward of Ludlow Castle.
The first part of his long poem called Hudibra« appeared in 1663,
the second part in 1664 ; the third in 1678. Two years after, Butler
died in the greatest poverty in London. He was buried in St PauVs,
Covent Garden ; but a monument was erected to him in Westminster
Abbey. Upon this fact Wesley wrote the following epigram : —

" WhUe Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive,
No generous patron would a dinner give;
See him, when starved to death, and turned to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust.
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown, —
He asked for bread, and he received a stone."

11. The Hudibras is a burlesque poem, — a long lampoon, a
laboured caricature, — in mockery of the weaker side of the great
Puritan party. It is an imaginary account of the adventures of a
Puritan knight and his squire in the Civil Wars. It is choke-full of
all kinds of learning, of the most pungent remarks — ^a very hoard of
sentences and saws, " of vigorous locutions and picturesque phrases,
of strong, sound sense, and robust English." It has been more
quoted from than almost any book in our language. Charles II.
was never tired of reading it and quoting from it —

" He never ate, nor drank, nor slept.
But Hudibras still near him kept" —

says Butler himself.

The following are some of his best known lines : —

" And, like a lobster boil'd, the mom
From black to red began to turn."

" For loyalty is still the same.
Whether it win or lose the game:
True as the dial to the sun,
Altho' it be not shin'd upon."

" He that complies against his will,
Is of his own opinion stilL"

12. John Dryden (1681-1700), the greatest of eur poets in the
second rank, was bom at Aldwincle, in Northamptonshire, in the

384 HISTOBY OF ENGLISH UTERATURE.

year 1631. He was descended from Puritan ancestors on botli
sides of his house. He was educated at Westminster School, and
at Trinity College, Cunbridge. London became his settled abode in
the year 1657. At the Restoration, in 1660, he became an ardent
Royalist ; and, in the year 1663, he married the daughter of a Royalist
nobleman, the Earl of Berkshire. It was not a happy marriage ; the
lady, on the one hand, had a violent temper, and, on the other, did
not care a straw for the literary pursuits of her husband. In 1666 he
wrote his first long poem, the Annus Mirabilis (** The Wonderful
Year "), in which he paints the war with Holland, and the Fire of
London ; and from this date his life is " one long literary labour."
In 1670, he received the double appointment of Historiographer-
Royal and Poet-Laureate. Up to the year 1681, his work lay chiefly
in writing plays for the theatre ; and these plays were written in
rhymed verse, in imitation of the French plays ; for, from the date
of the Restoration, French influence was paramount both in literature
and in fashion. But in this year he published the first part of
Absalom and Aohitophel — one of the most powerful satires in the
language. In the year 1683 he was appointed Collector of Customs
in the port of London — a post which Chaucer had held before him.
(It is worthy of note that Dryden " translated " the Tales of Chaucer
into modem English.) At the accession of James II., in 1685, Dryden
became a Roman Catholic ; most certainly neither for gain nor out
of gratitude, but from conviction. In 1687, appeared his poem of
The Hind and the Panther, in which he defends his new creed.
He had, a few years before, brought out another poem called SeU^o
Iiaici (" A Layman's Faith "), which was a defence of the Church of
England and of her position in religion. In The Hind and the
Panther, the Hind represents the Roman Catholic Church, " a milk-
white hind, unspotted and unchanged," the Panther the Church of
England; and the two beasts reply to each other in all the argu-
ments used by controversialists on these two sides. When the
Revolution of 1688 took place, and James II. had to flee the king-
dom, Dryden lost both his offices and the pension he had from
the Crown. Nothing daunted, he set to work once more. Again
he wrote for the sta^ge; but the last years of his life were spent
chiefly in translation. He translated passages from Homer, Ovid,
and &om some Italian writers; but his most important work was
the translation of the whole of Virgil'd^^ffineid. To the last he
retained his fire and vigour, action and rush of verse ; and some of
his greatest lyric poems belong to his later years. His ode called
Alexander's Feast was written at the age of sixty-six ; and it was
written at one sitting. At the age of sixty-nine he was meditating a

THE SBVENTEBNTH CENTURY. 385

translation of the whole of Homer — ^both the Iliad and the Odyssey.
He died at his house in London, on May-day of 1700, and was buried
with great pomp and splendour in Poets' Comer in Westminster
Abbey.

13. His best satire is the Absalom and Achitophel; his best
specimen of reasoning in verse is The Hind and the Panther.
His best ode is his Ode to the Memory of Mrs Anne KilligreTv.
Dryden's style is distinguished by its power, sweep, vigour, and
"long majestic march." No one has handled the heroic couplet —
and it was this form of verse that he chiefly used — mth more vigour
than Dryden ; Pope was more correct, more sparkling, more finished,
but he had not Dryden's magnificent march or sweeping impulsiveness.
" The fire and spirit of the * Annus Mirabilis,' " says a recent critic,
" are nothing short of amazing, when the difficulties which beset the
author are remembered. The glorious dash of the performance is
his own." His prose, though full of faults, is also very vigorous.
It has " something of the lightning zigzag vigour and splendour of
his verse." He always writes clear, homely, and pure English, — ^full
of force and point

Many of his most pithy lines are often quoted : —

*'Men are but children of a larger growth '^

*^ Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow ;
He that would search for pearls must dive below.*'

''The greatest argument for love is love.'*

''The secret pleasure of the generous act.
Is the great mind's great bribe."

The great American critic and poet, Mr Lowell, compares him to
" an ostrich, to be classed with flying things, and capable, what with
leap and flap together, of leaving the earth for a longer or a shorter
space, but loving the open plain, where wing and foot help each
other to something that is both flight and run at once."

14 Jerbmy Tatlob (1618-1667), the greatest master of ornate
and musical English prose in his own day, was bom at Cambridge in
the year 1613 — just three years before Shakespeare died. His father
was a barber. After attending the free grammar-school of Cam-
bridge, he proceeded to the University. He took holy orders and
removed to London. When he was lecturing one day at St Paul's,
Archbishop Laud was so taken by his *' youthful beauty, pleasant
air," fresh eloquence, and exuberant style, that he had him created

886 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

a Fellow of All Souls* College, Oxford. When the Civil War broke
out, he was taken prisoner by the Parliamentary forces ; and, in-
deed, suffered imprisonment more than once. After the Restoration,
he was presented with a bishopric in Ireland, where he died in
1667.

15. Perhaps his best works are hid^oly Iiiviug and Holy Dying.
His style is rich, even to luxury, full of the most imaginative illus-
trations, and often overloaded with ornament. He has been called
"the Shakespeare of English prose," "the Spenser of divinity,**
and by other appellations. The latter title is a very happy descrip-
tion ; for he has the same wealth of style, phrase, and description
that Spenser has, and the same boundless delight in setting forth his
thoughts in a thousand different ways. The following is a specimen
of his writing. He is speaking of a shipwreck : —

" These are the thoughts of mortals, this is the end and sum of all their
designs. A dark night and an ill guide, a boisterous sea and a broken cable,
a hifrd rock and a rough wind, dash in pieces the fortune of a whole family ;
and they that shall weep loudest for the accident are not yet entered into the
storm, and yet have suffered shipwreck."

His writings contain many pithy statements. The following are
a few of them : —

" No man is poor that does not think himself so."

" He that spends his time in sport and calls it recreation, is like him whose
garment is all made of fringe, and his meat nothing but sauce.

" A good man is as much in awe of himself as of a whole assembly. "

16. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), a great philosopher, was bom
at Malmesbury in the year 1588. He is hence called "the philo-
sopher of Malmesbury." He lived during the reigns of four Eng-
lish sovereigns — Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and Charles II.;
and he was twenty -eight years of age when Shakespeare died.
He is in many respects the type of the hard-working, long-lived,
persistent Englishman. He was for many years tutor in the Devon-
shire family — to the first Earl of Devonshire, and to the third Earl of
Devonshire — and lived for several years at the family seat of Chats-
worth. In his youth he was acquainted with Bacon and Ben Jonson ;
in his middle age he knew Galileo in Italy ; and as he lived to the
age of ninety -two, he might have conversed with John Locke or
with Daniel Defoe. His greatest work is the'^eviathan ; or, The
Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth. His style
is clear, manly, and vigorous. He tried to write poetry too. At

THE SEVENTBENTH CENTURY. 387

the advanced age of eighty-five, he wrote a translation of the whole
of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into rhymed English verse, using
the same quatrain and the same measure that Dryden employed
in his * Annus Mirabilis.' Two lines are still remembered of this
translation : speaking of a child and his mother, he says —

*' And like a star upon ber bosom lay
His beantifal and sbining golden bead.'*

17. John Buntan (1628-1688), one of the most popular of our
prose -writers, was bom at Elstow, in Bedfordshire, in the year
1628 — just three years before the birth of Dryden. He served,
when a young man, with the Parliamentary forces, and was present
at the siege of Leicester. At the Restoration, he was apprehended
for preaching, in disobedience to the Conventicle Act, "was had
home to prison, and there lay complete twelve years." Here he
supported himself and his family by making tagged laces and other
small- wares; and here, too, he wrote the immortal^' Pilgrim's Pro-
gres& After his release, he became pastor of the Baptist congre-
gation at Bedford. He had a great power of bringing persons who
had quarrelled together again ; and he was so popular among those
who knew him, that he was generally spoken of as " Bishop Bunyan."
On a journey, undertaken to reconcile an estranged father and a rebel-
lious son, he caught a severe cold, and died of fever in London, in the
year 1688. Every one has read, or will read, the Pilgrim's Progress ;
and it may be said, without exaggeration, that to him who has not
read the book, a large part of English life and history is dumb and
unintelligible. Bunyan has been called the " Spenser of the people,**
and " the greatest master of allegory that ever lived." His power
of imagination is something wonderful; and his simple, homely,
and vigorous style makes everything so real, that we seem to be
reading a narrative of everyday events and conversations. His
vocabulary is not, as Macaulay said, " the vocabulary of the common
people;" rather should we say that his English is the English of
the Bible and of the best religious writers. His style is, almost
everywhere, simple, homely, earnest, and vernacular — without being
vulgar, Bunyan's books have, along with Shakespeare and Tyndale's
works, been among the chief supports of an idiomatic, nervous, and
simple English.

18. John Locks (1682-1704), a great English philosopher, was
bom at Wrington, near Bristol, in the year 1632. He was educated

S88 fllSTOHY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

at Oxford ; but he took little interest in the Greek and Latin classics,
his chief studies lying in medicine and the physical sciences. Se
became attached to the famous Lord Shaftesbury, under wHom he
filled several public offices— among others, that of Commissioner of
Trade. When Shaftesbury was obliged to flee to Holland, Locke
followed him, and spent several years in exile in that country. All
his life a very delicate man, he yet, by dint of great care and thought-
fulness, contrived to live to the age of seventy-two. His two most
famous works are 'Some Thoughts GoncernJng Sduoatioiiy and
the celebrated ^Sssay on the Human Understanding. The
latter, which is his great work, occupied his time and thoughts for
eighteen years. In both these books, Locke exhibits the very genius
of common-sense. The purpose of education is, in his opinion, not
to make learned men, but to maintain "a sound mind in a sound
body ; " and he begins the education of the future man even from
his cradle. In his philosophical writings, he is always simple ; but,
as he is loose and vacillating in his use of terms, this simplicity is
often purchased at the expense of exactness and self-consistency.

389

CHAPTER VL

THB FIRST HALF OF THE BIGHTEENTH OENTUBT.

1. The Age of Prose. — Tjiq eighteenth century was an age
of prose in two sensea In the first place, it was a prosaic age ;
and, in the second place, hetter prose than poetry was pro-
duced by its writers. One remarkable fact may also be noted
about the chief prose-writers of this century — and that is, that
they were, most of them, not merely able writers, not merely
distinguished literary men, but also men of affairs — men well
versed in the world and in matters of the highest practical
moment, while some were also statesmen holding high office.
Thus, in the first half of the century, we find Addison, Swift,
and Defoe either holding office or influencing and guiding
those who held office ; while, in the latter half, we have men
like Burke, Hume, and Gibbon, of whom the same, or nearly
the same, can be said. The poets, on the contrary, of this
eighteenth century, are all of them — ^with the very slightest
exceptions — ^men who devoted most of their lives to poetry,
and had little or nothing to do with practical matters. It
may also be noted heriB that the character of the eighteenth
century becomes more and more prosaic as it goes on — ^less and
less under the influence of the spirit of poetry, until, about the
close, a great reaction makes itself felt in the persons of CJowper,
Chatterton, and Bums, of Crabbe and "Wordsworth

2. The First Half. — The great prose-writers of the first half
of the eighteenth century are Addison and Steele, Swift and

390 HISTOHY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Defoe. All of these men had some more or less close con-
nection with the rise of journalism in England ; and one of
them, Defoe, was indeed the founder of the modem newspaper.
By far the most powerful intellect of these four was Swift.
The greatest poets of the first half of the eighteenth century
were Pope, Thomson, Collins, and Gray. Pope towers above
all of them by a head and shoulders, because he was much
more fertile than any, and because he worked so hard and so
untiringly at the labour of the file — at the task of polishing and
improving his verses. But the vein of poetry in the three
others — and more especially in Collins — was much more pure
and genuine than it was in Pope at any time of his life — at any
period of his writing. Let us look at each of these writers a
little more closely.

3. Daniel Defoe (1861-1781), one of the most fertile writera
that England ever saw. and one who has been the delight of
many generations of readers, was bom in the city of London in the
year 1 661. He was educated to be a Dissenting minister ; but he
turned from that profession to the pursuit of trade. He attempted
several trades, — was a hosier, a hatter, a printer ; and he is said also
to have been a brick and tile maker. In 1692 he failed in business ;
but, in no long time after, he paid every one of his creditors to the
uttermost farthing. Through all his labours and misfortunes he was
always a hard and careful reader, — an omnivorous reader, too, for
he was in the habit of reading almost every book that came in his
way. He made his first reputation by writing political pamphlets.
One of his pamphlets brought him into high favour with King
William ; another had the effect of placing him in the pillory and
lodging him in prison. But while in Newgate, he did not idle away
his time or " languish " ; he set to work, wrote hard, and started a
newspaper. The Beview, — the earliest genuine newspaper Eng-
land had seen up to his time. This paper he brought out two or
three times a-week; and every word of it he wrote himsell He
continued to carry it on single-handed for eight years. In 1706,
he was made a member of the Commission for bringing about the
union between England and Scotland ; and his great knowledge of
commerce and commercial affairs were of singular value to this Com-
mission. In 1715 he had a dangerous illness, brought on by political
excitement ; and, on his recovery, he gave up most of his political

FIRST HALF OF BIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 391

writiiig, and took to the composition of stories and romances.
Although now a man of fifty-four, he wrote with the vigour and
ease of a young man of thirty. His greatest imaginative work
was written in 1719 — when he was nearly sixty — The Life and
Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of
York, Mariner, . . . written by Himself. Within six years
he had produced twelve works of a similar kind. He is said to have
written in all two hundred and fifty hooks in the course of his
lifetime. He died in 1731.

4. His hest known — and it is also his greatest — work is Robinson
Crusoe ; and this hook, which every one has read, may he compared
with * Gulliver's Travels,' for the purpose of observing how imag-
inative effects are produced by different means and in different ways.
Another vigorous work of imagination by Defoe is the Journal of
the Plague, which appeared in 1722. There are three chief things to
be noted regarding Defoe and his writings. These are : first, that Defoe
possessed an unparalleled knowledge — a knowledge wider than even
Shakespeare's — of the circumstances and details of human life among
all sorts, ranks, and conditions of men ; secondly, that he gains his
wonderful realistic effects by the freest and most copious use of
this detailed knowledge in his works of imagination ; and thirdly,
that he possessed a vocabulary of the most wonderful wealth. His
style is strong, homely, and vigorous, but the sentences are long,
loose, clumsy, and sometimes ungrammatical. Like Sir Walter
Scott, he was too eager to produce large and broad effects to take
time to balance his clauses or to polish his sentences. Like Sir
Walter Scott, again, he possesses in the highest degree the art of
piirticiUarising,

5. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the greatest prose-writer, in
his own kind, of the eighteenth century, and the opposite in most
respects — especially in style — of Addison, was bom in Dublin
in the year 1667. Though bom in Ireland, he was of purely
English descent — ^his father belonging to a Yorkshire family, and
his mother being a Leicestershire lady. His father died before he
was bom ; and he was educated by the kindness of an uncle.
After being at a private school at Kilkenny, he was sent to Trinity
College, Dublin, where he was plucked for his degree at his first
examination, and, on a second trial, only obtained his B.A. "by
special favour." He next came to England, and for eleven years
acted as private secretary to Sir Willimn Temple, a retired states-
man and ambassador, who lived at Moor Park, near Richmond-on-

392 HISTOHY OF ENGLISH LITBEATURE.

Thames. In 1692 lie paid a visit to Oxford, and there obtained the
degree of M.A. In 1700 he went to Ireland with Lord Berkeley as
his chaplain, and while in that country was presented with several
livings. He at first attached himself to the Whig party, but stung
by this party's neglect of his labours and merits, he joined the
Tories, who raised him to the Deanery of St Patrick's Cathedral in
Dublin. But, though nominally resident in Dublin, he spent a large
part of his time in London. Here he knew and met everybody
who was worth knowing, and for some time he was the most im-
posing figure, and wielded the greatest influence in all the best
social, political, and literary circles of the capital. In 1714, on the
death of Queen Anne, Swift's hopes of further advancement died
out ; and he returned to his Deanery, settled in Dublin, and " com-
menced Irishman for life." A man of strong passions, he usually
spent his birthday in reading that chapter of the Book of Job which
contains the verse, " Let the day perish in which I was bom." He
died insane in 1745, and left his fortune to found a lunatic asylum
in Dublin. One day, when taking a walk with a friend, he saw a
blasted elm, and, pointing to it, he said : " I shall be like that tree,
and die first at the top." For the last three years of his life he never
spoke one word.

6. Swift has written verse ; but it is his prose-works that give
him his high and unrivalled place in English literature. His most
powerful work, published in 1704, is the Tale of a Tub — a satire
on the disputes between the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Presby-
terian Churches. His best known prose-work is the Gulliver's
Travels, which appeared in 1726. This work is also a satire; but
it is a satire on men and women, — on humanity. " The power of
Swift's prose," it has been said by an able critic, " was the terror of
his own, and remains the wonder of after times." His style is^trong,
simple, straightforward ; he uses the plainest words and the homeliest
English, and every blow tells. Swiff s style — as every genuine style
does — ^reflects the author's character. He was an ardent lover and a
good hater. Sir Walter Scott describes him as " tall, strong, and
well made, dark in complexion, but with bright blue eyes (Pope said
they were " as azure as the heavens "), black and bushy eyebrows,
aquiline nose, and features which expressed the stem, haughty, and
dauntless turn of his mind." He grew savage under the slightest
contradiction ; and dukes and great lords were obliged to pay court
to him. His prose was as trenchant and powerful as were his man-
ners : it has been compared to " cold steeL" His own definition
of a good style is ^ proper words in proper places."

FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 393

7. Joseph Addison (1672-1719), the most elegant proBe-writer —
as Pope was the mose polished verse-writer — of the eighteenth cen-
tury, was bom at Milston, in Wiltshire, in the year 1672. He was
educated at Charterhouse School, in Lond:n, where one of his friends
and companions was the celebrated Dick Steele — afterwards Sir
Richard Steele. He then went to Oxford, where he made a name for
himself by his beautiful compositions in Latin verse. In 1695 he
addressed a poem to King William ; and this poem brought him into
notice with the Government of the day. Not long after, he received
a pension of ^£300 a-year, to enable him to travel ; and he spent some
time in France and Italy. The chief result of this tour was a poem
entitled A ILetter fi*oin Italy to Lord Halifax. In 1704, when
Lord Godolphin was in search of a poet who should celebrate in an
adequate style the strildng victory of Blenheim, Addison was intro-
duced to him by Lord Halifax. His poem called The Campaign
was the result ; and one simile in it took and held the attention
of all English readers, and of "the town.*' A violent storm had
passed over England ; and Addison compared the calm genius of
Marlborough, who was as cool and serene amid shot and shell as in
a drawing-room or at the dinner-table, to the Angel of the Storm.
The lines are these : —

"So when an Angel by divine command
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
Snch as of late o'er pale Britannia passed,
Calm and serene he drives the farions blast;
And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and<directs the storm."

For this poem Addison was rewarded with the post of Commissioner
of Appeals. He rose, successively, to be Under Secretary of State ;
Secretary for Ireland ; and, finally, Secretary of State for England —
an office which would correspond to that of our present Home
Secretary. He married the Countess of Warwick, to whose son he
had been tutor ; but it was not a happy marriage. Pope says of him
in regard to it, that —

"He married discord in a noble wife."

He died at Holland House, Kensington, London, in the year 1719, at
the age of forty-seven.

8. But it is not at all as a poet, but as a prose-writer, that Addison
is famous in the history of literature. While he was in Ireland,
his friend Steele started The Tatler, in 1709 ; and Addison sent
numerous contributions to this little paper. In 1 71 1, Steele began
a still more &mous paper, which he called The Spectator ; and

394 HISTOBY OF ENGLISH UTERATURK

Addison's writings in this morning journal made ita reputation. His
contributions are distinguishable by being signed with some one of the
letters of the name Clio — the Muse of History. A third paper, The
Guardian, appeared a few years after ; and Addison's contributions
to it are designated by a hand (^T) at the foot of each. In addition
to his numerous prose-writings, Addison brought out the tragedy of
Cato in 1713. It was very successful ; but it is now neither read
nor acted. Some of his hynms, however, are beautiful, and are well
known. Such are the hymn beginning, ''The spacious firmament
on high ; " and his version of the 23d Psalm, " The Lord my pasture
shall prepare."

9. Addison's prose style is inimitable, easy, graceful, full of himiour
— full of good humour, delicate, with a sweet and kindly rhythm,
and always musical to the ear. He is the most graceful of social
satirists ; and his genial creation of the character of Sir Roger de
Coverley will live for ever. While his work in verse is never
more than second-rate, his writings in prose are always first-rate.
Dr Johnson said of his prose : " Whoever wishes to attain an English
style — familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious,
— must give his days and nights to the study of Addison." Lord
Lytton also remarks : " His style has that nameless urbanity in
which we recognise the perfection of manner ; courteous, but not
courtier-like ; so dignified, yet so kindly ; so easy, yet high-bred.
It is the most perfect form of English." His style, however, must
be acknowledged to want force — to be easy rather than vigorous ;
and it has not the splendid march of Jeremy Taylor, or the noble
power of Savage Landor.

10. Richard Steele (ie72-1729X commonly called "Dick Steele,"
the friend and colleague of Addison, was bom in Dublin, but of
English parents, in the year 1672. The two friends were educated
at Charterhouse and at Oxford together ; and they remained friends,
with some slight breaks and breezes, to the close of life. Steele
was a writer of plays, essays, and pamphlets — for one of which he
was expelled from the House of Commons ; but his chief fame was
earned in connection with the Society Journals, which he founded.
He started many — such as Town-Talk, The Tea-Table, Chit-
chat ; but only the Tatler and the Spectator rose to success and
to fame. The strongest quality in his writings is his pathos : the
source of tears is always at his command ; and, althoT:^h himself
of a gay and even rollicking temperament, he seems to have pre-
ferred this vein. The literary skill of Addison — his happy art in

FIBST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 395

the choosing of words — did not fall to the lot of Steele ; but he
is more hearty and more human in his description of character. He
died in 1729, ten years after the departure of his friend Addison.

11. Alexander Pops (1688-1744), the greatest poet of the
eighteenth century, was bom in Lombard Street, London, in the
year of the Revolution, 1688. His father was a wholesale linendraper,
who, having amassed a fortune, retired to Binfield, on the borders of
Windsor Forest. In the heart of this beautiful country young Pope's
youth was spent. On the death of his father, Pope left Windsor
and took up his residence at Twickenham, on the banks of the
Thames, where he remained till his death in 1744. His parents
being Roman Catholics, it was impossible for young Pope to go either
to a public school or to one of the universities ; and hence he was
educated privately. At the early age of eight, he met with a trans-
lation of Homer in verse ; and this volume became his companion
night and day. At the age of ten, he turned some of the events
described in Homer into a play. The poems of Spenser, the poets'
poet, were his next favourites ; but the writer who made the deepest
and most lasting impression upon his mind was Dryden. Little
Pope began to write verse very early. He says of himself —

" As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame,
I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came."

His Ode to Solitude was written at the age of twelve ; his Pas-
torals when he was fifteen. His Sssay on Criticism, which was
composed in his twentieth year, though not published till 1711,
established his reputation as a writer of neat, clear, sparkling, and
elegant verse. The Bape of the ILock raised his reputation still
higher. Macaulay pronounced it his best poem. De Quincey
declared it to be "the most exquisite monument of playful fancy
that universal literature offers." Another critic has called it the
"perfection of the mock-heroic." Pope's most successful poem— if
we measure it by the fame and the money it brought him — w^as his
translation of the Iliad of Homer. A great scholar said of this
translation that it was ^ a very pretty poem, but not Homer." The
fact is that Pope did not translate directly from the Greek, but from
a French or a Latin version which he kept beside him. Whatever
its faults, and however great its deficiency as a representation of the
powerful and deep simplicity of the original Greek, no one can deny
the charm and finish of its versification, or the rapidity, facility, and
melody of the flow of the verse. These qualities make this work
unique in English poetry.

396 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

12. After finishmg the Iliad, Pope undertook a translation of the
OdyBsey of Homer. This was not so successful ; nor was it so well
done. In fiEU^t, Pope translated only half of it himself ; the other
half was written by two scholars called Broome and Fenton. His
next great poem was the Dunciad, — a satire upon those petty writers,
carping critics, and hired defamers who had tried to write down the
reputation of Pope's Homeric work. "The composition of the
* Dunciad ' revealed to Pope where his true strength lay, in blending
personalities with moral reflections.''

13. Pope's greatest works were written between 1730 and 1740 ;

and they consist of the Moral Sssays, the Sssay on Man, and the

Spistles and Satires. These poems are full of the finest thoughts,

expressed in the most perfect form. Mr Ruskin quotes the

couple^ —

** Never elated, while one man's oppressed ;
Never dejected, whilst another's blessed,'* —

as " the most complete, concise, and lofty expression of moral temper
existing in English words." The poem of Pope which shows his best
and most striking qualities in their most characteristic form, is
probably the Spistle to Dr Arbuthnot or Prologue to the
Satires. In this poem occur the celebrated lines about Addison—
which make a perfect portrait, although it is far from being a true
likeness.

His pithy lines and couplets have obtained a permanent place in
literature. Thus we have : —

'' Tnie wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."

" Good-natnre and good-sense must ever join.
To err is human, to forgive divine."

All seems infected that the infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye."

" Fear not the anger of the wise to raise ;
Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.

The greatest conciseness is visible in his epigrams and in his com-
pliments : —

" A vile encomium doubly ridicules :
There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools."

i^ n

" And not a vanity is given in vain.

** Would ye be blest ? despise low joys, low gains,
Disdain whatever Combury disdains,
Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains."

FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 397

14. Pope is the foremost literary figure of his age and century ;
and he is also the head of a schooL He brought to perfection a style
of writing verse which was followed by hundreds of clever writers.
Cowper says of him : —

" But Pope — ^his musical finesse was such,
So nice his ear, so delicate his touch, —
Made poetry a mere mechanic art,
And every warbler has his tune by heart."

Pope was not the poet of nature or of humanity ; he was the poet of
" the town,'* and of the Court. He was greatly influenced by the
neatness and polish of French verse ; and, from his boyhood, his
great ambition was to be " a correct poet." He worked and worked,
polished and polished, until each idea had received at his hands
its very neatest and most epigrammatic expression. In the art of
condensed, compact, pointed, and yet harmonious and flowing verse,
Pope has no equal. But, as a vehicle for poetry — for the love and
sympathy with nature and man which every true poet must feel,
Pope's verse is artificial ; and its style of expression has now died
out. It was one of the chief missions of Wordsworth to drive the
Popian second-hand vocabulary out of existence.

15. James Thomson (1700-1748), the poet of The Seasons, was

bom at Ednam in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in the year 1700. He

was educated at the grammar-school of Jedburgh, and tlien at the

University of Edinburgh. It was intended that he should enter the

ministry of the Church of Scotland ; but, before his college course

was finished, he had given up this idea : poetry proved for him too

strong a magnet. While yet a young man, he had written his poem

of Winter; and, with that in his pocket, he resolved to try his

fortune in London. While walking about the streets, looking at the

shops, and gazing at the new wonders of the vast metropolis, his

pocket was picked of his pocket-handkerchief and his letters of

introduction ; and he found himself alone in London — thrown

entirely on his own resources. A publisher was, however, in time

found for Winter ; and the poem slowly rose into appreciation and

popularity. This was in 1726. Next year. Summer; two years

after. Spring appeared ; while Autumn* in 1730, completed the

Seasons. The Castle of Indolence — a poem in the Spenserian

stanza — appeared in 1748. In the same year he was appointed

Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, though he never visited

the scene of his duty, but had his work done by deputy. He died

at Kew in the year 1748.

398 HISTOKY OF ENGLISH UTERATUKK.

16. Thomson's place as a poet is high in the second rank. His
Seasons have always been popular ; and, when Coleridge fonnd a
well-thumbed and thickly dog's-eared copy lying on the window-sill
of a country inn, he exclaimed " This is true fame ! " His Castle
of Indolence is, however, a finer piece of poetical work than any
of his other writings. The first canto is the best. But the Seasons
have been much more widely read ; and a modem critic says : " No
poet has given the special pleasure which poetry is capable of giving
to so large a number of persons in so large a measure as Thomson.''
Thomson is very unequal in his style. Sometimes he rises to a great
height of inspired expression ; at other times he sinks to a dull dead
level of pedestrian prose. His power of describing scenery is often
very remarkable. Professor Craik says : " There is no other poet
who surrounds us with so much of the truth of nature ; " and he
calls the Castle of Indolence " one of the gems of the language."

17. Thomas Gray (1716-1771), the greatest elegiac poet of the
century, was bom in London in 1716. His father was a "money-
scrivener," as it was called ; in other words, he was a stock-
broker. His mother's brother was an assistant - master at Eton ;
and at Eton, under the care of this unde. Gray was brought
up. One of his schooKellows was the famous Horace Wal-
pole. After leaving school, Gray proceeded to Cambridge ; but,
instead of reading mathematics, he studied classical literature,
history, and modem languages, and never took his degree. After
some years spent at Cambridge, he entered himself of the Inner
Temple ; but he never gave much time to the study of law. His
father died in 1741; and Gray, soon after, gave up the law and
went to live entirely at Cambridge. The first published of his
poems was the Ode on a Distant Prospect of Ston College.
The lEilegy written in a Country Churchyard was handed about
in manuscript before its publication in 1751 ; and it made his
reputation at once. In 1755 the Progress of Poesy was published ;
and the ode entitled The Bard was begun. In 1768 he was ap-
pointed Professor of Modem History at Cambridge ; but, though he
studied hard, he never lectured. He died at Cambridge, at the age
of fifty-four, in the year 1771. Gray was never married. He was
said by those who knew him to be the most learned man of his time
in Europe. Literature, history, and seversd sciences — all were thor-
oughly known to him. He had read everything in the world that
was best worth reading ; while his knowledge of botany, zoology,
and entomology was both wide and exact.

FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 399

18. Gray*8 Elegy took liim seven years to write ; it contains thirty-
two stanzas ; and Mr Palgrave says " they are perhaps the noblest
stanzas in the language." General Wolfe, when sailing down to
attack Quebec, recited the Elegy to his officers, and declared, " Now,
gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take
Quebec." Lord Byron called the Elegy " the comer-stone of Gray's
poetry." Gray ranks with Milton as the most finished workman in
English verse ; and certainly he spared no pains. Gray said himself
that " the style he aimed at was extreme conciseness of expression,
yet pure, perspicuous, and musical ; " and this style, at which he
aimed, he succeeded fully in achieving. One of the finest stanzas
in the whole Elegy is the last, which the writer omitted in all the
later editions : —

" There scattered oft, the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen, are showers of violets found ;
The red-breast loves to build and warble there,
And Uttle footsteps lightly print the ground."

19. William Collins (1721-1759), one of the truest lyrical poets
of the century, was bom at Chichester on Christmas-day, 1721.
He was educated at Winchester School; afterwards at Queen's,
and also at Magdalen College, Oxford. Before he left school he
had written a set of poems called Persian Eclogues. He left
the university with a reputation for ability and for indolence ;
went to London " with many projects in his head and little money
in his pocket;" and there found a kind and fast friend in Dr
Johnson. His Odes appeared in 1747. The volume fell still-
bom from the press : not a single copy was sold ; no one bought,
read, or noticed it. In a fit of furious despair, the unhappy author
called in the whole edition and burnt every copy with his own
hands. And yet it was, with the single exception of the songs of
Bums, the truest poetry that had appeared in the whole of the
eighteenth century. A great critic says : " In the little book there
was hardly a single false note : there was, above all things, a purity
of music, a clarity of style, to which I know of no parallel in
English verse from the death of Andrew Marvell to the birth of
William Blake." Soon after this great disappointment he went to
live at Richmond, where he formed a friendship with Thomson
and other poets. In 1749 he wrote the Ode on the Death, of
Thomson, beginning—

"In yonder grave a Druid lies" —
one of the finest of his poems. Not long after, he was attacked by a

400 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITEBATX7RE.

disease of the brain, from whicli he suffered, at intervals, during the
remainder of his short life. He died at Chichester in 1759, at the
age of thirty-eight

20. Collins's best poem is the Ode to Svening ; his most elab-
orate, the Ode on the Passions; and his best known, the Ode
beginning—

" How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blessed ! "

His latest and best critic says of his poems : *' His range of
flight was perhaps the narrowest, but assuredly the highest, of
his generation. He could not be taught singing like a Imch, but
he struck straight upward for the sun like a lark. . . . The direct
sincerity and purity of their positive and straightforward inspiration
will always keep his poems fresh and sweet in the senses of all men.
He was a solitary song-bird among many more or less excellent
pipers and pianists. He could put more spirit of colour into a single
stroke, more breath of music into a single note, than could all the
rest of his generation into all the labours of their lives.''

401

CHAPTEE VII.

THB BBOOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

1. Prose - Writers. — The four greatest prose-writers of the
latter half of the eighteenth century are Johnson, G^oldsmith,
Burke, and Gibbon. Dr Johnson was the most prominent
literary figure in London at this period ; and filled in his own
time much the same position in literary circles as Carlyle held
later on. He wrote on many subjects — but chiefly on literature
and morals; and hence he was called "The Great Moralist."
Goldsmith stands out clearly as the writer of the most pleasant
and easy prose ; his pen was ready for any subjec'- ; and it has
been said of him with perfect truth, that he touched nothing
that he did not adorn. Burke was the most eloquent writer
of his time, and by far the greatest political thinker that
England has ever produced. He is known by an essay he
wrote when a very young man — on " The Sublime and Beauti-
ful " ; but it is to his speeches and political writings that we
must look for his noblest thoughts and most eloquent language.
Gibbon is one of the greatest historians and most powerful
writers the world has ever seen.

2. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the great essayist and lexico-
grapher, was bom at Lichfield in the year 1709. His father was a
bookseller ; and it was in his fathei^s shop that Johnson acquired
his habit of omnivorous reading, or rather devouring of books. The
miBtress of the dame's school, to which he first went, declared him

402 fflSTOBY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

to be the best scholar she ever had. After a few years at the free
grammar-school of Lichfield, and one year at Stourbridge, he went
to Pembroke College, Oxford, at the age of nineteen. Here he did
not confine himself to the studies of the place, but indulged in a
wide range of miscellaneous reading. He was too poor to take a
degree, and accordingly left Oxford without graduating. After
acting for some time as a bookseller's hack, he married a Mrs Portei
of Birmingham — a widow with £800. With this money he opened a
boarding-school, or " academy " as he called it ; but he had never more
than three scholars — the most famous of whom was the celebrated
player, David Garrick. In 1737 he went up to London, and for
the next quarter of a century struggled for a living by the aid of
his pen. During the first ten years of his London life he wrote
chiefly for the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' In 1738 his Iiondon —
a poem in heroic metre — appeared. In 1747 he began his famous
Dictionary; it was completed in 1755; and the University of
Oxford conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A In 1749 he
wrote another poem — also in heroic metre — the * Vanity of Human
Wishes.' In 1750 he had begun the periodical that raised his fame
to its full height — a periodical to which he gave the name of The
Bamibler. It appeared twice a-week; and Dr Johnson wrote
every article in it for two years. In 1759 he published the short
novel called Rasselas : it was written to defray the expenses of his
mother's funeral ; and he wrote it " in the evenings of a week.**
The year 1762 saw him with a pension from the Government of
£300 a-year ; and henceforth he was free from heavy hack-work and
literary drudgery, and could give himself up to the largest enjoy-
ment of that for which he cared most — social conversation. He was
the best talker of his time ; and he knew everybody worth knowing
— Burke, Goldsmith, Gibbon, the great painter Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and many other able men. In 1764 he founded the " Literary Club,"
which still exists and meets in London. Oddly enough, although a
prolific writer, it is to another person — to Mr James Boswell, who
first met him in 1763 — that he owes his greatest and most lasting
fame. A much larger number of persons read Boswell's Iiife of
Johnson — one of the most entertaining books in all literature —
than Johnson's own works. Between the years 1779 and 1781
appeared his last and ablest work, The ILives of the Poets, which
were written as prefaces to a collective edition of the English Poets,
published by several London booksellers. He died in 1784.

3. Johnson's earlier style was full of Latin words ; his later style
is more purely English than most of the journalistic writing of the
present day. His Bambler is fall of " long-tailed words in 09ity and

SECOND HAU* Olf EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 40J

ation;" but his * Lives of the Poets ' is written in manly, vigorous, and
idiomatic English. In verse, he occupies a place between Pope and
Goldsmith, and is one of the masters in the ^'didactic school" of
English poetry. His rhythm and periods are swelling and sonorous ;
and here and there he equals Pope in the terseness and condensation
of his language. The following is a fair specimen : —

'* Of all the griefs that harass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest ;
Fate never .wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart"

4. Oliveb Gk)LDSMiTH (1728-1774), poet, essayist, historian, and
dramatist, was bom at Pallas, in the county of Longford, Ireland, in
the year 1728. His father was an Irish clergyman, careless, good-
hearted, and the original of the famous Dr Primrose, in The Vicar
of Wakefield. He was also the original of the " village preacher ^
in The Deserted Village.

" A man he was to all the country dear,
And passing rich with forty pounds a-year."

Oliver was educated at Trinity College, Dublin ; but he left it
with no fixed aim. He thought of law, and set off for London, but
spent all his money in Dublin. He thought of medicine, and resided
two years in Edinburgh. He started for Leyden, in Holland, to
continue what he called his medical studies ; but he had a thirst to
see the world — and so, with a guinea in his pocket, one shirt, and a
flute, he set out on his travels through the continent of Europe. At
length, on the 1st of February 1756, he landed at Dover, after an
absence of two years, without a failhing in his pocket. London
reached, he tried many ways of making a living, as assistant to an
apothecary, physician, reader for the press, usher in a school, writer
in journals. His first work was 'An Inquiry into the State of
Polite Learning in Europe/ in 1769 ; but it appeared without his
name. From that date he wrote books of all kinds, poems, and
plays. He died in his chambers in Brick Court, Temple, London, in
1774.

5. Qoldsmith's best poems are The Traveller and The Deserted
Village, — both written in the Popian couplet His best play is
She Stoops to Conquer. His best prose work is The Vicar of
Wakefield* 'Hhe first genuine novel of domestic life." He also
wrote histories of England, of Home, of Animated Nature. All
this was done as professional, nay, almost as hack work ; but

464 MSTORT OF KNGLISH UTEtlATtTltS.

always in a very pleasant, lively, and readable style. Ease, grac6)
charm, naturalness, pleasant rhythm, purity of diction — ^these were
the chief characteristics of his writings. '^ Almost to all things could
he turn his hand " — ^poem, essay, play, story, history, natural science.
Even when satirical, he was good-natured ; and his Retaliation is
the friendliest and pleasantest of satires. In his poetry, his words
seem artless, but are indeed delicately chosen with that consummate
art which conceals and effaces itself : where he seems most simple
and easy, there he has taken most pains and given most labour.

6. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was bom at Dublin in the year
1729. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin; and in 1747
was entered of the Middle Temple, with the purpose of reading
for the Bar. In 1765 he was so fortunate as to enter Parliament
as member for Wendover, in Buckinghamshire ; and he sat in
the House of Commons for nearly thirty years. While in Par-
liament, he worked hard to obtain justice for the colonists of
North America, and to avert the separation of them from the
mother country; and also to secure good government for India.
At the close of his life, it was his intention to take his seat in the
House of Peers as Earl Beaconsfield — the title afterwards assumed by
Mr Disraeli ; but the death of his son, and only child — for whom
the honour was really meant and wished — quite broke his heart,
and he never carried out his purpose. He died at Beaconsfield in
the year 1797. The lines of Goldsmith on Burke, in his poem of
" Retaliation," are well known ; —

" Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, bom for the universe, narrowed his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind;
Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining,
And thought of convincing while they thought of dining."

7. Burke's most famous writings are Thoiiglits on the Cause of
the present Discontents, published in 1773 ; Reflections on the
French Revolution (1790) ; and the Iietters on a Regicide
Peace (1797). His " Thoughts " is perhaps the best of his works in
point of style ; his " Reflections," are full of passages of the highest
and most noble eloquence. Burke has been described by a great critic
as " the supreme writer of the century ; ^ and Macaulay says, that
" in richness of imagination, he is superior to every orator ancient
and modern.'' In the power of expressing thought in the strongest,
fullest, and most vivid manner, he must be classed with Shakespeare

SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 406

and Bacon — and with these writers when at their best. He indulges
in repetitions ; but the repetitions are never monotonous ; they serve
to place the subject in every possible point of view, and to enable us
to see all sides of it. He possessed an enormous vocabulary, and had
the fullest power over it; ''never was a man under whose hands
language was more plastic and ductile." He is very fond of met-
aphor, and is described by an able critic as " the greatest master of
metaphor that the world has ever seen.''

8. Edward Gibbon (1787-1704), the second great prose-writer
of the second half of the eighteenth century, was bom at Putney,
London, in 1737. His father was a wealthy landowner. Young
Gibbon was a very sickly child — ^the only survivor of a delicate
family of seven ; he was left to pass his time as he pleased, and
for the most part to educate himself. But he had the run of
several good libraries ; and he was an eager and never satiated reader.
He was sent to Oxford at the early age of fifteen ; and so full was his
knowledge in some directions, and so defective in others, that he
went there, he tells us himself, "with a stock of knowledge that
might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a
schoolboy would have been ashamed." He was very fond of dis-
putation while at Oxford; and the Dons of the University were
astonished to see the pathetic " thin little figure, with a large head,
disputing and arguing with the greatest ability.^' In the course
of his reading, he lighted on some French and English books that
convinced him for the time of the truth of the Eoman Catholic
faith; he openly professed his change of belief; and this obliged
him to leave the University. His father sent him to Lausanne,
and placed him under the care of a Swiss clergyman there, whose
arguments were at length successful in bringing him back to a
belief in Protestantism. On his return to England in 1768, he
lived in his father's house in Hampshire ; read largely, as usual ;
but also joined the Hampshire militia as captain of a company, and
the exercises and manoeuvres of his regiment gave him an insight
into military matters which was afterwards useful to him when
he came to write history. He published his first work in 1761. It
was an essay on the study of literature, and was written in French.
In 1770 his father died ; he came into a fortune, entered Parliament,
where he sat for eight years, but never spoke ; and, in 1776, he
began his history of the Decline and Fall of the Boman Em-
pire. This, by far the greatest of his works, was not completed till
1787, and was published in 1788, on his fifty-first birthday. His

406 HISTORY OF BKGLISH LITERATURE.

account of the completion of the work — it was finished at Lausanne,
where he had lived for six years — is full of beauty : " It was on the
day, or rather night, of June 27, 1787, between the hours of eleven
and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last "p&ge in a summer-
house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several
turns in a covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of
the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate,
the sky was serene. The silver orb of the moon was reflected from
the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not describe the first
emotion of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the
establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and
a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had
taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and
that, whatever might be the future fate of my history, the life of
the historian must be short and precarious." Gibbon died in 1794,
about one year before the birth of another great historian, Qrote, the
author of the * History of Greece.'

9. Gibbon's book is one of the great historical works of the world.
It covers a space of about thirteen centuries, from the reign of
Trajan (98), to the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453 ; and the
amount of reading and study required to write it, must have been
almost beyond the power of our conceiving. The skill in arranging
and disposing the enormous mass of matter in his history is also
unparalleled. His style is said by a critic to be " copious, splendid,
elegantly rounded, distinguished by supreme artificial skill." It is
remarkable for the proportion of Latin words employed. While
some parts of our translation of the Bible contain as much as 96
per cent of pure English words. Gibbon has only 58 per cent : the
rest, or 42 per cent, are words of Latin origin. In fact, of all our
great English writers. Gibbon stands lowest in his use of pure English
words ; and the two writers who come nearest him in this respect
are Johnson and Swift. The great Greek scholar, Professor Porson,
said of Gibbon's style, that " there could not be a better exercise for
a schoolboy than to turn a page of it into English."

10. Poets. — ^The chief poets of the latter half of the eighteenth
century belong to a new world, and show very little trace in
their writings of eighteenth-century culture, ideas, or prejudices.
Most of the best poets who were bom in this half of the eight-
eenth century and began to write in it — such as Crabbe and
Wordsworth — are true denizens, in the character of their minds
and feelings, of the nineteenth. The greatest poets of the

SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 407

period are Cowper, Crabbe, and Burns ; and along with these
may be mentioned as little inferior, Chatterton and Blake,
two of the most original poets that have appeared in any
literature.

11. William Cowper (1781-1800), one of the truest, purest, and
sweetest of English poets, was bom at Great Berkhampstead, in
Hertfordshire, in 1731. His father, Dr Cowper, who was a nephew
of Lord Chancellor Cowper, was rector of the parish, and chaplain
to George II. Young Cowper was educated at Westminster School ;
and **the great proconsul of India," Warren Hastings, was one
of his schoolfellows. After leaving Westminster, he was entered
of the Middle Temple, and was also articled to a solicitor. At the
age of thirty-one he was appointed one of the Clerks to the House of
Lords ; but he was so terribly nervous and timid, that he threw up the
appointment. He was next appointed Clerk of the Journals — a post
which even the shyest man might hold ; but, when he found that he
would have to appear at the bar of the House of Lords, he went home
and attempted to commit suicide. When at school, he had been ter-
ribly and persistently bullied ; and, about this time, his mind had
been somewhat affected by a disappointment in love. The form of
his insanity was melancholia ; and he had several long and severe
attacks of the same disease in the after-course of his life. He had to
be placed in the keeping of a physician; and it was jonly after fifteen
months' seclusion that he was able to face the world. Giving up all
idea of professional or of public life, he went to live at Huntingdon
with the Unwins ; and, after the death of Mr Unwin, he removed
with Mrs Unwin to Olney, in Buckinghamshire. Here, in 1773,
another attack of melancholia came upon him. In 1779, Cowper
joined with Mr Newton, the curate of the parish, in publishing the
Olney Hymns, of which he wrote sixty-eight. But it was not tiH
he was past fifty years of age that he betook himself seriously to the
writing of poetry. His first volume, which contained Table-Talk,
Conversation, Retirement, and other poems in heroic metre, ap-
peared in 1782. His second volume, which included The Task and
John Gilpin, was published in 1785. His translation of the Iliad
and Odyssey of Homer — a translation into blank verse, which he
wrote at the regular rate of forty lines a-day — was published in 1791.
Mrs Unwin now had a shock of paralysis ; Cowper himself was again
seized with mental illness ; and from 1791 till his death in 1800^
his condition was one of extreme misery, depression, and despair.
He thought himself an outcast from the mercy of Gkxl. " I seem to

408 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. -

myself/* he wrote to a friend, " to be scrambling always in the dark,
among rocks and precipices, without a guide, but with an enemy ever
at my heels, prepared to push me headlong." The cloud never lifted ;
gloom and dejection enshrouded all his later years ; a pension of
£300 a-year from George III. brought him no pleasure ; and he died
insane, at East Dereham, in Norfolk, in the year 1800. In the poem
of The Castaway he compares himself to a drowning sailor : —

" No voice divine the storm allayed,

No light propitious shone,
When, far from all effectual aid,

We perished — each alone —
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in blacker gulfs than he.'*

12. His greatest work is 7he Task; and the best poem in it is
probably " The Winter Evening." His best-known poem is John
Qilpin, which, like "The Task,** he wrote at the request of his
friend, Lady Austen. His most powerful poem is The Castaway.
He always writes in clear, crisp, pleasant, and manly English. He
himself says, in a letter to a friend : " Perspicuity is always more
than half the battle. . . A meaning that does not stare you in the
face is as bad as no meaning ; " and this direction he himself always
carried out. Cowper*s poems mark a new era in poetry ; his style
is new, and his ideas are new. He is no follower of Pope ; Southey
compared Pope and Cowper as ** formal gardens in comparison
with woodland scenery." He is always original, always true —
true to his own feeling, and true to the object he is describing.
" My descr ptions," he writes of " The Task," " are all from nature ;
not one of them second-handed. My delineations of the heart are
from my own experience." Everywhere in his poems we find a
genuine love of nature ; humour and pathos in his description of
persons ; and a purity and honesty of style that have never been
surpassed. Many of his well-put lines have passed into our common
stock of everyday quotations. Such are —

" God made the country, and man made the town.

" Variety's the very spice of life
That gives it all its flavour."

" The heart
May give a useful lesson to the head.
And Learning wiser grow without his books.''

Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have passed away."

SECOND HALF OF BIGHTEBNTH CENTURY. 409

13. George Crabbe (1754-1832), the poet of the poor, was bom
at Aldborough, in Suffolk, on Christmas Eve of the year 1754. He
stands thus midway between Goldsmith and Wordsworth — mid-
way between the old and the new school of poetry. His father
was salt-master — or collector of salt duties — at the little seaport.
After being taught a little at several schools, it was agreed that
George should be made a surgeon. He was accordingly apprenticed ;
but he was fonder of writing verses than of attending cases. His
memory for poetry was astonishing ; he had b^un to write verses
at the age of fourteen ; and he filled the drawers of the surgery with
his poetical attempts. After a time he set up for himself in practice
at Aldborough ; but most of his patients were poor people and pool
relations, who paid him neither for his physic nor his advice. In
1779 he resolved "to go to London and venture all." Accordingly,
he took a berth on board of a sailing-packet, carrying with him a
little money and a number of manuscript poems. But nothing suc-
ceeded with him ; he was reduced to his last eightpence. In this
strait, he wrote to the great statesman, Edmund Burke ; and, while
the answer was coming, he walked all night up and down AVest-
minster Bridge. Burke took him in to his own house and found
a publisher for his poems.

14. In 1781 The Library appeared ; and in the same year
Crabbe entered the Church. In 1783 he published The Village—
a poem which Dr Johnson revised for him. This work won for him
an established reputation ; but, for twenty-four years after, Crabbe
gave himself up entirely to the care of his parish, and published
only one poem — The Newspaper. In 1807 appeared The Parish
Register; in 1810, The Borough; in 1812, Tales in Verse;
and, in 1819, his last poetical work. Tales of the HalL From this
time, till his death in 1832 — thirteen years after — he produced no other
poem. Personally, he was one of the noblest and kindest of men ;
he was known as " the gentleman with the sour name and the sweet
countenance ; '' and he spent most of his income on the wants of others.

15. Crabbe's poetical work forms a prominent landmark in
English literature. His style is the style of the eighteenth century
— with a strong admixture of his own ; his way of thinking, and the
objects he selects for description, belong to the nineteenth. While
Pope depicted " the town," politics, and abstract moralities, Crabbe
describes the country and the country poor, social matters, real life —
the lowest and poorest life, and more especially, the intense misery
of the village population of his time in the eastern counties —

"the wild amphibious race
iV^ith sullen woe displayed in every foce."

410 mSTOBY OF ENGLISH LITKRATURE.

He does not paint the lot of the poor with the rose-coloured tints
used by Qoldsmith ; he boldly denies the existence of such a village
as Auburn ; he groups such places with Eden, and says —

"Aubam and Eden can be found no more ;"

he shows the gloomy, hard, despairing side of English country life.
He has been called a " Pope in worsted stockings," and " the Hogarth
of song." Byron describes him as

"Nature's sternest painter, yet the best."

Now and then his style is flat, and even coarse ; but there is every-
where a genuine power of strong and bold painting. He is also
an excellent master of easy dialogue.

All of his poems are written in the Popian couplet of two ten-
syllabled lines.

16. Robert Burns (1759-1796), the greatest poet of Scotland, was
bom in Ayrshire, two miles from the town of Ayr, in 1769. The
only education he received from his father was the schooling of a
few months ; but the family were fond of reading, and Robert was
the most enthusiastic reader of them alL Every spare moment he
could find — and they were not many — he gave to reading ; he sat at
meals "with a book in one hand and a spoon in the other;'' and in
this way he read most of the great English poets and prose-writers.
This was an excellent education — one a great deal better than most
people receive ; and some of our greatest men have had no better.
But, up to the age of sixteen, he had to toil on his father's farm from
early morning till late at night. In the intervals of his work he con-
trived, by dint of thrift and industry, to learn French, mathematics,
and a little Latin. On the death of his father, he took a small farm,
but did not succeed. He was on the point of embarking for Jamaica,
where a post had been found for him, when the news of the success-
ful sale of a small volume of his poems reached him ; and he at once
changed his mind, and gave up all idea of emigrating. His friends
obtained for him a post as exciseman, in which his duty was to
gauge the quantity and quality of ardent spirits — a post full of
dangers to a man of his excitable and emotional temperament. He
went a great deal into what was called society, formed the acquaint-
ance of many boon companions, acquired habits of intemperance that
he could not shake oflF, and died at Dumfries in 1796, in his thirty-
seventh year.

17. His best poems are lyrical, and he is himself one of the fore-

SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 411

most lyrical poets in the world. His songs have probably been more
sung, and in more parts of the globe, than the songs of any other
writer that ever lived. They are of every kind — songs of love, war,
mirth, sorrow, labour, and social gatherings. Professor Craik says :
" One characteristic that belongs to whatever Burns has written is
that, of its kind and in its own way, it is a perfect production. His
poetry is, throughout, real emotion melodiously uttered, instinct with
passion, but not less so with power of thought, — full of light as well
as of fire." Most of his poems are written in the North-English, or
Lowland - Scottish, dialect. The most elevated of his poems is
The Vision, in which he relates how the Scottish Muse found him
at the plough, and crowned him with a wreath of holly. One of
his longest, as well as finest poems, is The Cottar's Saturday
Night, which is written in the Spenserian stanza. Perhaps his
most pathetic poem is that entitled To Mary in Heaven. It is
of a singular eloquence, elevation, and sweetness. The first verse
runs thus —

'* Thou lingering star, with lessening ray,

That lov'st to greet the early mom,
Again thou usher'st in the day

My Mary from my soul was torn.
0 Mary! dear departed shade!

Where is thy place of blissful rest?
See'st thou thy lover lowly laid?

Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?"

He is, as his latest critic says, " the poet of homely human nature ; "
and his genius shows the beautiful elements in this homeliness ; and
that what is homely need not therefore be dull and prosaic.

18. Thomas Chattbrton and William Blake are two minor
poets, of whom little is known and less said, but whose work is of
the most poetical and genuine kind. — Chatterton was bom at Bristol
in the year 1752. He was the son of a schoolmaster, who died before
he was born. He was educated at Colston's Blue-Coat School in
Bristol ; and, while at school, read his way steadily through every
book in three circulating libraries. He began to write verses at the
age of fifteen, and in two years had produced a large number of poems
—some of them of the highest value. In 1770, he came up to Lon-
don, with something under five pounds in his pocket, and his mind
made up to try his fortune as a literary man, resolved, though he
was only a boy of seventeen, to live by literature or to die. Accord-
ingly, he set to work and wrote every kind of production — poemn

412 mSTORT OF ENGLISH LITEBATUBB.

essays, stories, political articles, songs for public singers ; and all the
time he was half starving. A loaf of bread lasted him a week ; and it
was *' bought stale to make it last longer." He had made a friend of
the Lord Mayor, Beckford ; but before he had time to hold out a band
to the struggling boy, Beckford died. The struggle became harder
and harder — more and more hopeless ; his neighbours offered a little
help — a small coin or a meal — he rejected all ; and at length, on the
evening of the 24th August 1770, he went up to his garret, locked
himself in, tore up all his manuscripts, took poison, and died. He
was only seventeen.

19. Wordsworth and Coleridge spoke with awe of his genius;
Keats dedicated one of his poems to his memory ; and Coleridge
copied some of his rhythms. One of his best poems is the Min-
strel's Boundelay —

" 0 sing unto my roundelay,

0 drop the briny tear with me,
Dance no more on holy-day,
Like a running river be.
My love is dead,
Gone to his death-bed
All under the willow-tree.

*' Black his hair as the winter night,
White his skin as the summer snow^
Red his face as the morning light.
Cold he lies in the grave below.
My love is dead,
Gone to his death-bed
All under the willow-tree."

20. William Blake (1757-1827), one of the most original poets
that ever lived, was bom in London in the year 1767. He was
brought up as an engraver ; worked steadily at his business, and
did a great deal of beautiful work in that capacity. He in fact
illustrated his own poems — each page being set in a fantastic design
of his own invention, which he himself engraved. He was also
his own printer and publisher. The first volume of his poems was
published in 1783 ; the Songs of Innocence, probably his best,
appeared in 1789. He died in Fountain Court, Strand, London,
in the year 1827.

21. A recent critic says of Blake : " His detachment from the
ordinary currents of practical thought left to his mind an unspoiled
and delightful simplicity which has perhaps never been matched in
English poetry." Simplicity — ^the perfect simplicity of a child —

SECOND HALF OF BIGHTEENTH CENTUBY. 413

beautiful simplicity — simple and childlike beauty, — such is the chief
note of the poetry of Blake. " Where he is successful, his work has
the fresh perfume and perfect grace of a flower." The most remark-
able point about Blake is that, while living in an age when the poetry
of Pope — and that alone — was everywhere paramount, his poems
show not the smallest trace of Pope's influence, but are absolutely
original. His work, in fact, seems to be the first bright streak of the
golden dawn that heralded the approach of the full and splendid
daylight of the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, of Shelley and
Byron. His best-known poems are those from the * Songs of Inno-
cence'— such as Piping down the valleys 'Wild ; The Lamb; The
Tiger, and others. Perhaps the most remarkable element in Blake's
poetry is the sweetness and naturalness of the rhythm. It seems
careless, but it is always beautiful ; it grows, it is not made ; it
is like a wild field-flower thrown up by Nature in a pleasant green
field. Such are the rhythms in the poem entitled 19'ight : —

" The Sim descending in the west,
The evening star does shine;
The birds are silent in their nest.
And I must seek for mine.
The moon, like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.

" Farewell, green fields and happy grove.
Where flocks have ta*en delight ;
Where lambs have nibbled, silent move
The feet of angels bright :
Unseen they pour blessing,
And joy without ceasing,
On each bud and blossom,
On each sleeping bosom."

414

CHAPTER VIII.

THB FIRST HALF OF THB NINBTBENTH CBNTUBY.

1. New Ideas. — ^The end of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth century are alike remarkable for the new
powers, new ideas, and new life thrown into society. The
coming up of a high flood-tide of new forces seems to coincide
with the beginning of the French Eevolution in 1789, when
the overthrow of the Bastille marked the downfall of the old
ways of thinking and acting, and announced to the world of
Europe and America that the old regime — the ancient mode
of governing — ^was over. Wordsworth, then a lad of nineteen,
was excited by the event almost beyond the bounds of self-
controL He says in his "Excursion" —

" Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.
But to be young was very Heaven ! "

It was, indeed, the dawn of a new day for the peoples of
Europe. The ideas of freedom and equality — of respect for
man as man — were thrown into popular form by France ; they
became living powers in Europe; and in England they ani-
mated and inspired the best minds of the time — Bums, Cole-
ridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron. Along with this high
tide of hope and emotion, there was such an outburst of talent
and genius in every kind of human endeavour in England, as
was never seen before except in the Elizabethan period. Great
events produced great powers ^ and great powers in their torn

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 415

brought about great events. The war with America, the long
struggle with Napoleon, the new political ideas, great victories
by sea and land, — all these were to be found in the beginning
of the nineteenth century. The English race produced great
men in numbers — almost, it might be said, in groups. We had
great leaders, like Nelson and Wellington; brilliant generals,
like Sir Charles Napier and Sir John Moore ; great statesmen,
like Fox and Pitt, like Washington and Franklin; great en-
gineers, like Stephenson and Brunei; and great poets, like
Wordsworth and Byron. And as regards literature, an able
critic remarks : " We have recovered in this century the Eliza-
bethan magic and passion, a more than Elizabethan sense of
the beauty and complexity of nature, the Elizabethan music of
language."

2. Qreat Poets. — ^The greatest poets of the first half of the
nineteenth century may be best arranged in groups. There
were Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey — commonly, but
unnecessarily, described as the Lake Poets. In their poetic
thought and expression they had little in common; and the
fact that two of them lived most of their lives in the Lake
country, is not a sufficient justification for the use of the term.
There were Scott and Campbell — ^both of them Scotchmen.
There were Byron and Shelley — both Englishmen, both brought
up at the great public schools and the universities, bat both car-
ried away by the influence of the new revolutionary ideas.
Lastly, there were Moore, an Irishman, and young Keats, the
splendid promise of whose youth went out in an early death.
Let us learn a little more about each, and in the order of the
dates of their birth.

3. William Wordsworth (1770-1860) was bom at Cocker-
mouth, a town in Cumberland, which stands at the confluence of
the Cocker and the Derwent. His father, John Wordsworth, was
law agent to Sir James Lowther, who afterwards became Earl of
Lonsdale. William was a boy of a stiff, moody, and violent temper ;
and as his mother died when he was a very little boy, and his father
when he was fourteen, he grew up wilh very little care from his

416 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

parents and guardians. He was sent to school at Hawkshead, in the
Yale of Esthwaite, in Lancashire ; and, at the age of seventeen, pro-
ceeded to St John's College, Cambridge. After taking his degree of
B.A. in 1791, he resided for a year in France. He took sides with
one of the parties in the Eeign of Terror, and left the country only
in time to save his head. He was designed by his uncles for the
Church ; but a friend, Raisley Calvert, dying, left him ^£900 ; and he
now resolved to live a plain and frugal life, to join no profession, but
to give himself wholly up to the writing of poetry. In 1798, he
published, along with his friend, S. T. Coleridge, the Iiyrical
Ballads. The only work of Coleridge's in this volume was the
"Ancient Mariner." In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson, of
whom he speaks in the well-known lines —

" Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair,
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair ;
Bat all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerfal dawn."

He obtained the post of Distributor of Stamps for the county of
Westmoreland; and, after the death of Southey, he was created
Foet-Ijaureate by the Queen. — He settled with his wife in the
Lake country ; and, in 1813, took up his abode at Rydal Mount,
where he lived till his death in 1850. He died on the 23d of April
— the death-day of Shakespeare.

4. His longest works are the Excursion and the Prelude — both
being parts of a longer and greater work which he intended to write
on the growth of his own mind. His best poems are his shorter
pieces, such as the poems on Iiucy, The Cuckoo, the Ode to Duty,
the Intimations of Imniortality, and several of his Sonnets. He
says of his own poetry that his purpose in writing it was " to console
the afflicted; to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy
happier; to teach the young and the gracious of every age to
see, to think, and feel, and therefore to become more actively and
securely virtuous." His poetical work is the noble landmark of a
great transition — ^both in thought and in style. He drew aside
poetry from questions and interests of mere society and the town
to the scenes of Nature and the deepest feelings of man as man.
In style, he refused to employ the old artificial vocabulary which
Pope and his followers revelled in ; he used the simplest words he
could find ; and, when he hits the mark in his simplest form of ex-
pression, his style is as forcible as it is true. He says of Ids own
verse —

FIRST HALF OF KINFTEENTH CENTURY. 417

" The moving accident is not my trade^
To freeze the blood I have no ready arts;
Tis my delight, alone, in summer shade.
To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts."

If one were asked what four lines of his poetry best convey the feel-
ing of the whole, the reply must be that these are to be found in his
" Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle," — ^lines written about " the
good Lord Clifford."

" Love had he found in huts where poor men lie,
His daily teachers had been woods and rills, —
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills."

5. Walter Scott (1771-1882), poet and novelist, the son of
a Scotch attorney (called in Edinburgh a W.S. or Writer to H.M.'s
Signet), was bom there in the year 1771. He was educated at the
High School, and then at the College — now called the University
— of Edinburgh. In 1792 he was called to the Scottish Bar, or
became an "advocate." During his boyhood, he had had several
illnesses, one of which left him lame for life. Through those long
periods of sickness and of convalescence, he read Percy's * Reliques
of Ancient Poetry,' and almost all the romances, old plays, and epic
poems that have been published in the English language. This
gave his mind and imagination a set which they never lost all
through life.

6. His first publications^ were translations of Carman poems. In
the year 1805, however, an original poem, the Lay of the Iiast
Minstrel, appeared ; and Scott became at one bound the foremost
poet of the day. Marmion, the Iiady of the Iiake, and other
poems, followed with great rapidity. But, in 1814, Scott took it
into his head that his poetical vein was worked out ; the star of
Byron was rising upon the literary horizon ; and he now gave him-
self up to novel-writing. His first novel, Waverley, appeared
anonymously in 1814. Guy Mannering, Old Mortality, Bob
"Roy, and others, quickly followed; and, though the secret of the
authorship was well kept both by printer and publisher, Walter
Scott was generally believed to be the writer of these works, and he
was frequently spoken of as " the Great Unknown." He was made
a baronet by GJeorge IV. in 182CL

7. His expenses in building Abbotsford, and his desire to acquire
land, induced him to go into partnership with Ballantyne, his printer,
and with Constable, his publisher. Both firms failed in the dark

418 HISTOBT OF ENOUSH LITERATUBE.

year of 1826 ; and Scott found himself unexpectedly liable for the
large sum of £147,000. Such a load of debt would have utterly
crushed most men ; but Scott stood clear and undaunted in front of
it. ^ Gentlemen/ he said to his creditors, " time and I against any
two. Let me take this good ally into my company, and I believe
I shall be able to pay you every farthing." He left his beautiful
country house at Abbotsford ; he gave up all his country pleasures ;
he surrendered all his property to his creditors ; he took a small house
in Edinburgh ; and, in the short space of five years, he had paid off
;£1 30,000. But the task was too terrible ; the pace had been too hard ;
and he was struck down by paralysis. But even this disaster did not
daunt him. Again he went to work, and again he had a paralytic
stroke. At last, however, he was obliged to give up ; the Govern-
ment of the day placed a royal frigate at his disposal ; he went to
Italy ; but his health had utterly broken down, he felt he could get
no good from the air of the south, and he turned his face towards
home to die. He breathed his last breath at Abbotsford, in sight of
his beloved Tweed, with lus family around him, on the 21st of Sep-
tember 1832.

8. His poetry is the poetry of action. In imaginative power he
ranks below no other poet, except Homer and Shakespeare. He
delighted in war, in its movement, its pageantry, and its events:
and, though lame, he was quartermaster of a volunteer corps of
cavalry. On one occasion he rode to muster one hundred miles in
twenty-four hours, composing verses by the way. Much of " Marmion *'
was composed on horseback, " I had many a grand gallop," he says,
" when I was thinking of * Marmion.' " His two chief powers in verse
are his narrative and his pictorial power. His boyhood was passed
in the Borderland of Scotland — " a district in which every field has
its battle and every rivulet its song ; " and he was at home in every
part of the Highlands and the Lowlands, the Islands and the Borders,
of his native country. But, both in his novels and his poems, he was
a painter of action rather than of character.

9. His prose works are now much more read than his poems ; but
both are full of life, power, literary skill, knowledge of men and
women, and strong sympathy with all past ages. He wrote so fast
that his sentences are often loose and ungrammatical ; but they are
never unidiomatic or stiff. The rush of a strong and large life goes
through them, and carries the reader along, forgetful of all minor
blemishes. His best novels are Old Mortality and Kenilworth ;
his greatest romance is Ivanhoe.

10. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-18d4), a true poet» and

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 419

a writer of noble prose, was bom at Ottery St Mary, in Devonshire,
in 1772. His father, who was vicar of the parish, and master
of the grammar - school, died when the boy was only nine years
of age. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, in London, where
his most famous schoolfellow was Charles Lamb ; and from there
he went to Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1793 he had fallen into
debt at College ; and, in despair, left Cambridge, and enlisted
in the 15th Light Dragoons, under the name of Silas Tomkins
Comberbatch. He was quickly discovered, and his discharge soon
obtained. While on a visit to his friend Robert Southey, at
Bristol, the plan of emigrating to the banks of the Susquehanna, in
Pennsylvania, was entered on ; but, when all the friends and fellow-
emigrants were ready to start, it was discovered that no one of them
had any money. — Coleridge finally became a literary man and jour-
nalist. His real power, however, lay in poetry ; but by poetry he
could not make a living. His first volume of poems was published
at Bristol, in the year 1796 ; but it was not till 1798 that the Bime
of the Ancient Mariner appeared in the * Lyrical Ballads.' His
next greatest poem, Chris tabel, though written in 1797, was not
published till the year 1816. His other best poems are Iiove;
Dejection — an Ode; and some of his shorter pieces. His best
poetry was written about the close of the century : " Coleridge,"
said Wordsworth, "was in blossom from 1796 to 1800." — As a critic
and prose- writer, he is one of the greatest men of his time. His best
works in prose are The Friend and the Aids to Reflection. He
died at Highgate, near London, in the year 1834.

11. His style, both in prose and in verse, marks the beginning of
the modem era. His prose style is noble, elaborate, eloquent, and
full of subtle and involved thought ; his style in verse is always
musical, and abounds in rhythms of the most startling and novel —
yet always genuine — ^kind. Christabel is the poem that is most
full of these fine musical rhythms.

12. Robert Southbt (1774-1843), poet, reviewer, historian,
but, above all, man of letters, — the friend of Coleridge and
Wordsworth, — was bom at Bristol in 1774. He was educated at
Westminster School and at Balliol College, Oxford. After his mar-
riage with Miss Edith Fricker — a sister of Sara, the wife of Cole-
ridge— ^he settled at Greta Hall, near Keswick, in 1803 ; and resided
there until his death in 1843. In 1813 he was created Poet-
Iiaureate by George III. — He was the most indefatigable of writers.
He wrote x>oetry before breakfast; history between breakfast and

420 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITBRATUEE;

dinner ; reviews between dinner and supper ; and, even when taking
a constitutional, he had always a book in his hand, and walked along
the road reading. He began to write and to publish at the age of
nineteen ; he never ceased writing till the year 1837, when his brain
softened from the effects of perpetual labour.

13. Southey wrote a great deal of verse, but much more prose.
His prose works amount to more than one hundred volumes ; but his
poetry, such as it is, will probably live longer than his prose. His
best-known poems are Joan of Arc, written when he was nineteen;
Thalaba the Destroyer, a poem in irregular and unrhymed verse;
The Ctirse of Kehama, in verse rhymed, but irregular ; and
Soderioky the last of the Ooths, written in blank verse. He
will, however, always be best remembered by his shorter pieces,
such as The Holly Tree, Stanzas written in Hy Iiibrary, and
others. — His most famous prose work is the Tilfe of Kelson. His
prose style is always firm, clear, compact, and sensible.

14. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), a noble poet and brilliant
reviewer, was bom in Glasgow in the year 1777. He was educated
at the High School and the University of Glasgow. At the
age of twenty-two, he published his Pleasures of Hope, which at
once gave him a place high among the poets of the day. In 1803
he removed to London, and followed literature as his profession ;
and, in 1805. he received a pension of ;£200 a -year from the
Government, which enabled him to devote the whole of his time to
his favourite study of poetry. His best long poem is the Gertrude
of Wyoming, a tale written in the Spenserian stanza, which
he handles with great ease and power. But he is best known,
and will be longest remembered, for his short lyrics — which
glow with passionate and fiery eloquence — such as The Battle of
the Baltic, Ye Mariners of Snglahd, Hohenlinden, and
others. He was twice Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow.
He died at Boulogne in 1844, and was buried in Poets' Comer,
Westminster Abbey.

16. Thomas Moore (1779-1862), poet> biographer, and historian
— ^but most of all poet — ^was bom in Dublin in the year 1779.
He began to print verses at the age of thirteen, and may be said,
like Pope, to have "lisped in numbers, for the numbers came."
He came to London in 1799, and was quickly received into
fashionable society. In 1803 he was made Admiralty Registrar

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 421

at Bermuda ; but he soon gave up the post, leaving a deputy
in his place, who, some years after, embezzled the Government
funds, and brought financial ruin upon Moore. The poet's friends
offered to help him out of his money difficulties ; but he most
honourably declined all such help, and, like Sir W. Scott, re-
solved to clear off all claims against him by the aid of his pen alone.
For the next twenty years of his life he laboured incessantly; and
volumes of poetry, history, and biography came steadily from his
pen. His best poems are his Irish Melodies, some fifteen or six-
teen of which are perfect and imperishable ; and it is as a writer
of songs that Moore will live in the literature of this country.
He boasted, and with truth, that it was he who awakened for this
century the long-silent harp of his native land —

((

Dear Harp of my Country ! in darkness I found thee.
The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long,

When proudly, my own Island Harp, I unbound thee,
And gave dl thy chords to light, freedom, and song."

His best long poem is Iialla Bookh. — His prose works are little
read nowadays. The chief among them are his Life of Sheridan,
and his Iiife of Ijord Byron. — He died at Sloperton, in Wiltshire,
in 1852, two years after the death of Wordsworth.

16. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), a great English
poet, was bom in London in the year 1788. He was the only child
of a reckless and unprincipled father and a passionate mother. He
was educated at Harrow School, and afterwards at Trinity College,
Cambridge. His first volume — Hours of Idleness — was published
in 1807, before he was nineteen. A critique of this juvenile work
which appeared in the * Edinburgh Review ' stung him to passion ;
and he produced a very vigorous poetical reply in EngUsh Bards
and Scotch "ReviewerB. After the publication of this book, Byron
travelled in Germany, Spain, Greece, and Turkey for two years ;
and the first two cantos of the poem entitled Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage were the outcome of these travels. This poem at once
placed him at the head of English poets ; " he woke one morning,"
he said, " and found himself famous." He was married in the year
1815, but left his wife in the followiug year ; left his native
country also, never to return. First of all he settled at Geneva,
where he made the acquaintance of the poet Shelley, and where he
wrote, among other poems, the third canto of Childe Harold and
the Prisoner of Chillon. In 1817 he removed to Venice, where he

422 mSTOBY OF ENGLISH LITERATUBE.

composed the fourth canto of Childe Harold and the Iiament of
Tasao ; his next resting-place was Ravenna, where he wrote several
plays. Pisa saw him next ; and at this place he spent a great deal
of his time in close intimacy with Shelley. In 1821 the Greek
nation rose in revolt against the cruelties and oppression of the
Turkish rule ; and Byron's sympathies were strongly enlisted on the
side of the Greeks. He helped the struggling little country with
contributions of money ; and, in 1823, sailed from Genoa to take a
personal share in the war of liberation. He died, however, of fever,
at Missolonghi, on the 19th of April 1824, at the age of thirty-six.

17. His best-known work is Childe Harold, which is written in
the Spenserian stanza. His plays, the best of which are Manfred.
and SardanapSluB, are written in blank verse. — His style is re-
markable for its strength and elasticity, for its inunensely powerful
sweep, tireless enei^, and brilliant illustrations.

18. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), — who has, like Spen-
ser, been called "the poet's poet," — was bom at Field Place, near
Horsham, in Sussex, in the year 1792. He was educated at Eton,
and then at University College, Oxford. A shy, difl&dent, retiring
boy, with sweet, gentle looks and manners — ^like those of a girl —
but with a spirit of the greatest fearlessness and the noblest in-
dependence, he took little share in the sports and pursuits of his
schoolfellows. Obliged to leave Oxford, in consequence of having
written a tract of which the authorities did not approve, he married
at the very early age of nineteen. The young lady whom he
married died in 1816 ; and he soon after married Mary, daughter
of William Godwin, the eminent author of 'Political Justice.' In
1818 he left England for Italy, — like his friend, Lord Byron, for
ever. It was at Naples, Leghorn, and Pisa that he chiefly resided.
In 1822 he bought a little boat — ** a perfect plaything for the sum-
mer,** he calls it ; and he used often to make short voyages in it, and
wrote many of his poems on these occasions. When Leigh Hunt
was lying ill at Leghorn, Shelley and his friend Williams resolved
on a coasting trip to that city. They reached Leghorn in safety ;
but, on the return journey, the boat sank in a sudden sqiudl.
Captain Roberts was watching the vessel with his glass from the
top of the Leghorn lighthouse, as it crossed the Bay of Spezzia : a
black cloud arose; a storm came down; the vessels sailing with
Shelley's boat were wrapped in darkness ; the cloud passed ; the
sun shone out, and all was clear again ; the larger vessels rode on ;
but Shelley's boat had disappeared. The poet's body was cast on

FIKST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 423

shore, but the quarantine laws of Italy required that everything
thrown up on the coast should be burned : no representations could
alter the law ; and Shelley's ashes were placed in a box and buried
in the Protestant cemetery at Home.

19. Shelley's best long poem is the Adonais, an elegy on the death
of John Keats. It is written in the Spenserian stanza. But this
true poet will be best remembered by his short lyrical poems, such
as The Cloud, Ode to a Skylarl^ Ode to the West Wind,
Stapzas written in Dejection, and others. — Shelley has been
called " the poet's '^)oet," because his style is so thoroughly transfused
by pure imagination. He has also been called " the master-singer
of our modem race and age ; for his thoughts, his words, and his
deeds all sang together." He is probably the greatest lyric poet of
this century.

20. John Keats (1796-1821), one of our truest poets, was
bom in Moorfields, London, in the year 1795. He was educated
at a private school at Enfield. His desire for the pleasures of
the intellect and the imagination showed itself very early at school ;
and he spent many a half-holiday in writing translations from
the Roman and the French poets. On leaving school, he was
apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton — the scene of one of John
Gilpin's adventures ; but, in 1817, he gave up the practice of surgery,
devoted himself entirely to poetry, and brought out his first volume.
In 1818 appeared his Endymion. The ' Quarterly Review ' handled
it without mercy. Keats's health gave way ; the seeds of consump-
tion were in his frame ; and he was ordered to Italy in 1820, as the
last chance of saving his life. But it was too late. The air of Italy
could not restore him. He settled at Rome with his friend Severn ;
but, in spite of all the care, thought, devotion, and watching of his
friend, he died in 1821, at the age of twenty-five. He was buried
in the Protestant cemetery at Rome ; and the inscription on his
tomb, composed by himself, is, " Here lies one whose name was torit
in waier.*^

21. His greatest poem is Hyperion, written, in blank verse, on
the overthrow of the " early gods " of Greece. But he will most
probably be best remembered by his marvellous odes, such as the
Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, To Autumn,
and others. His style is clear, sensuous, and beautiful ; and he has
added to our literature lines that will always live. Such are the
following : —

" A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

424 fflSTOEY OF ENGLISH LITERATUEE.

** Silent, upon a peak in DaHen."

" Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken/'

*' Perhaps the self -same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien com/'

22. Prose-Writers. — We have now to consider the greatest
prose-writers of the first half of the nineteenth century. First
comes Walter Scott, one of the greatest novelists that ever
lived, and who won the name of " The Wizard of the North "
from the marvellous power he possessed of enchaining the
attention and fascinating the minds of his readers. Two other
great writers of prose were Charles Iiamb and Walter Savage
Iiandor, each in styles essentially different. Jane Austen,
a young English lady, has become a classic in prose, because her
work is true and perfect within its own sphere. De Quincey
is perhaps the writer of the most ornate and elaborate English
prose of this period. Thomas Carlyle, a great Scotsman, with
a style of overwhelming power, but of occasional grotesqueness,
like a great prophet and teacher of the nation, compelled states-
men and philanthropists to think, whUe he also gamed for him-
self a high place in the rank of historians. Macaulay, also of
Scottish descent, was one of the greatest essayists and ablest
writers on history that Great Britain has produced. . A short
survey of each of these great men may be useful Scott has
been already treated of.

23. Charles Lamb (1775-1884), a perfect English essayist,
was bom in the Inner Temple, in London, in the year 1775.
His father was clerk to a barrister of that Inn of Court. Charles
was educated at Christ's Hospital, where his most famous school-
fellow was S. T. Coleridge. Brought up in the very heart of
London, he had always a strong feeling for the greatness of the
metropolis of the world. "I often shed tears," he said, "in the
motley Strand, for fulness of joy at so much life." He was, indeed,
a thorough Cockney and lover of London, as were also Chaucer,

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 425

Spenser, Milton, and Lamb's friend Leigli Hunt. Entering the India
House as a clerk in the year 1792, he remained there thirty- three
years ; and it was one of his odd sayings that, if any one wanted to
see his " works," he would find them on the shelves of the India
House. — He is greatest as a writer of prose ; and his prose is, in
its way, unequalled for sweetness, grace, humour, and quaint terms,
among the writings of this century. His best prose work is the
Essays of Mia, which show on every page the most whimsical and
humorous subtleties, a quick play of intellect, and a deep sympathy
with the sorrows and the joys of men. Ver}*^ little verse came from
his pen. " Charles Lamb's nosfegay of verse," says Professor Dowden,
"may be held by the small hand of a maiden, and there is not in it
one flaunting flower." Perhaps the best of his poems are the short
pieces entitled Hester and The Old FamiUar Faces. — He retired
from the India House, on a pension, in 1826, and died at Edmonton,
near London, in 1834. His character was as sweet and refined as his
style ; Wordsworth spoke of him as " Lamb the frolic and the
gentle ; " and these and other fine qualities endeared him to a large
circle of friends.

24. Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), the greatest prose-
writer in his own style of the nineteenth century, was bom at
Ipsley Court, in Warwickshire, on the 30th of January 1775 — the
anniversary of the execution of Charles I. He was educated at
Rugby School and at Oxford ; but his fierce and insubordinate
temper — which remained with him, and injured him aU his life —
procured his expulsion from both of these places. As heir to a
large estate, he resolved to give himself up entirely to literature ;
and he accordingly declined to adopt any profession. Living an
almost purely intellectual life, he wrote a great deal of prose
and some poetry ; and his first volume of poems appeared before the
close of the eighteenth century. His life, which began in the reign
of G^eorge III., stretched through the reigns of George IV. and
William IV., into the twenty-seventh year of Queen Victoria ; and,
in the course of this long life, he had manifold experiences, many
loves and hates, friendships and acquaintanceships, with persons of
every sort and rank. He joined the Spanish army to fight Napo-
leon, and presented the Spanish Government with large sums of
money. He spent about thirty years of his life in Florence, where
he wrote many of his works. He died at Florence in the year 1864.
His greatest prose work is the Imaginary Conversations ; his best
poem is Count Julian ; and the character of Count Julian has been

426 BISTORT OF ENGLISH LTTERATURE.

ranked by De Qoincey with the Satan of Milton. Some of his

smaller poetic pieces are perfect ; and there is one, Bose Aylmer,

written about a dear young friend, that Lamb was never tired of

repeating : —

" Ah ! what avails the sceptred race !
Ah ! what the form divine !
What every virtue, every grace !
Rose Aylmer, aU were thine 1

" Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
Shall weep, but never see !
A night of memories and sighs
I consecrate to thee."

25. Jane Austen (1T76-1817), the most delicate and faithful
painter of English social life, was bom at Steventon, in Hamp-
shire, in 1776 — in the same year as Landor and Lamb. She wrote
a small number of novels, most of which are almost perfect in
their minute and true painting of character. Sir Walter Scott,
Macaulay, and other great writers, are among her fervent admirers.
Scott eays of her writing : " The big bow-wow strain I can do myself,
like any now going ; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary
commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the
description and the sentiment, is denied to me." She works out her
characters by making them reveal themselves in their talk, and by
an infinite series of minute touches. Her two best novels are £innia
and Fride and Prejudice. The interest of them depends on the
truth of the painting ; and many thoughtful persons read through
the whole of her novels every year.

26. Thomas De Quincet (1786-1859), one of our most brilliant
essayists, was bom at Qreenheys, Manchester, in the year 1786.
He was educated at the Manchester grammar-school and at
Worcester College, Oxford. While at Oxford he took little share
in the regular studies of his college, but read enormous numbers
of Greek, Latin, and English books, as his taste or whim sug-
gested. He knew no one ; he hardly knew his own tutor. " For
the first two years of my residence in Oxford," he says, "I com-
pute that I did not utter one hundred words." After leaving
Oxford, he lived for about twenty years in the Lake country ; and
there he became acquainted with Wordsworth, Hartley Coleridge
(the son of S. T. Coleridge), and John Wilson (afterwards known as

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 427

Professor Wilson, and also as the " Christoplier North " of * Black-
wood's Magazine '). Suffering from repeated attacks of neuralgia, he
gradually formed the habit of taking laudanum ; and by the time he
had reached the age of thirty, he drank about 8000 drops a-day.
This unfortunate habit injured his powers of work and weakened his
wilL In spite of it, however, he wrote many hundreds of essays and
articles in reviews and magazines. In the latter part of his Ufe, he
lived either near or in Edinburgh, and was always employed in dream-
ing (the opium increased his power both of dreaming and of mus-
ing), or in studying or writing. He died in Edinburgh in the year
1859. — Many of his essays were written under the signature of ^^ The
English Opium-Eater." Probably his best works are The Confes-
Bions of an Opium-Eater and The Vision of Sudden Death.
The chief characteristics of his style are majestic rhythm and elabo-
rate eloquence. Some of his sentences are almost as long and as sus-
tained as those of Jeremy Taylor ; while, in many passages of
r^hsoning that glows and brightens with strong passion and emotion,
he is not inferior to Burke. He possessed an enormous vocabulary
— in wealth of words and phrases he surpasses both Macaulay and
Carlyle ; and he makes a very large — ^perhaps even an excessive— use
of Latin words. He is also very fond of using metaphors, personifi-
cations, and other figures of speech. It may be said without exaggera-
tion that, next to Carlyle's, De Quincey's style is the most stimulating
and inspiriting that a yoahg reader can find among modem writers.

27. Thomas Carltle (1795-1881), a great thinker, essayist,
and historian, was bom at Ecclefechan, in Dumfriesshire, in the
year 1795. He was educated at the burgh school of Annan,
and afterwards at the University of Edinburgh. Glassies and the
higher mathematics were his favourite studies ; and he was more
especially fond of astronomy. He was a teacher for some years after
leaving the University. For a few years after this he was engaged
in minor literary work; and translating from the German occupied a
good deal of his time. In 1826 he married Jane Welsh, a woman
of abilities only inferior to his own. His first original work was
Sartor Besartus (''The Tailor Repatched"), which appeared in
1834, and excited a great deal of attention — a book which has proved
to many the electric spark which first woke into life their powers of
thought and reflection. From 1837 to 1840 he gave courses of lec-
tures in London ; and these lectures were listened to by the best and
most thoughtful of the London people. The most striking series
afterwards appeared in the form of a book, under the title of Heroes

428 fflSTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

and Hero-worship. Perhaps his most remarkable bcx^ — a book
that is unique in all English literature — is The French Bevolu-
tion, which appeared in 1837. In the year 1845, his Crom'v^ell's
IietterB and Speeches were published, and drew after them a large
number of eager readers. In 1865 he completed the hardest piece of
work he had ever undertaken, his History of Frederick IL, com-
monly called the Great. This work is so highly regarded in
Germany as a truthful and painstaking history that officers in the
Prussian army are obliged to study it, as containing the best account
of the great battles of the Continent, the fields on which they were
fought, and the strategy that went to win them. One of the crown-
ing external honours of Carlyle's life was his appointment as Lord
Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 1866 ; but at the very time
that he was delivering his famous and remarkable Installation Ad-
dress, his wife lay dying in London. This stroke brought terrible
sorrow on the old man ; he never ceased to mourn for his loss, and to
recall the virtues and the beauties of character in his dead wife ;
" the light of his life," he said, " was quite gone out ; " and he wrote
very little after her death. He himself died in London on the 5th
of February 1881.

28. Carlyle's Style. — Carlyle was an author by profession, a
teacher of and prophet to his countrymen by his mission, and a
student of history by the deep interest he took in the life of man.
He was always more or less severe in hi»judgments — ^he has been
called " The Censor of the Age," — ^because of the high ideal which
he set up for his own conduct and the conduct of others. — He shows
in his historic writings a splendour of imagery and a power of dra-
matic grouping second only to Shakespeare's. In command of words
he is second to no modern English writer. His style has been highly
praised and also energetically blamed. It is rugged, gnarled, dis-
jointed, full of irregular force— shot across by sudden lurid lights of
imagination — full of the most striking and indeed astonishing
epithets, and inspired by a certain grim Titanic force. His sen-
tences are often clumsily built. He himself said of them : " Perhaps
not more than nine-tenths stand straight on their legs ; the remainder
are in quite angular attitudes ; a few even sprawl out helplessly on
all sides, quite broken-backed and dismembered." There is no
modem writer who possesses so large a profusion of figurative lan-
guage. His works are also full of the pithiest and most memorable
sayings, such as the following : —

'' Genius is an immense capacity for taking pains."

'' Do the duty which lies nearest thee ! Thy second duty will abeady have
become clearer."

FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTCJRY. 429

" History is a mighty drama, enacted upon the theatre of time, with sung
for lamps, and eternity for a background."

"All true work is sacred. In all true work, were it but true hand-labour,
there is something of divineness. Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in
heaven."

'Remember now and always that Life is no idle dream, but a solemn
reality based upon Eternity, and encompassed by Eternity. Find out your
task: stand to it: the night comets when no man can work."

29. Thomas Babington Macaxjlat (1800-1859), the most popu-
lar of modem historians, — an essayist, poet, statesman, and orator,
— was bom at Rothley Temple, in Leicestershire, in the year 1800.
His father was one of the greatest advocates for the abolition of
slavery; and received, after his death, the honour of a monument in
Westminster Abbey. Young Macaulay was educated privately, and
then at Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied classics with great
diligence and success, but detested mathematics — a dislike the conse-
quences of which he afterwards deeply regretted. In 1824 he was
elected Fellow of his college. His first literary work was done for
Knight's 'Quarterly Magazine'; but the earliest piece of writing
that brought him into notice was his famous essay on Milton,
written for the * Edinburgh Review ' in 1825. Several years of his
life were spent in India, as Member of the Supreme Council ; and, on
his return, he entered Parliament, where he sat as M.P. for Edin-
burgh. Several ofiiceS were filled by him, among others that oi
Paymaster-General of the Forces, with a seat in the Cabinet of Lord
John RusselL In 1842 appeared his Iiays of Ancient Rome,
poems which have found a very large number of readers. His
greatest work is his History of England f^om the Accession
of James II. To enable himself to write this history he read
hundreds of books. Acts of Parliament, thousands of pamphlets,
tracts, broadsheets, ballads, and other flying fragments of literature ;
and he never seems to have forgotten anything he ever read. In
1849 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow ; and
in 1857 was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Macaulay
of Rothley — the first literary man who was ever called to the House
of Lords. He died at Holly Lodge, Kensington, in the year 1859.

30. Macaulay's Style. — One of the most remarkable qualities in
his style is the copiousness of expression, and the remarkable power
of putting the same statement in a large number of different ways.
This enormous command of expression corresponded with the extra-
ordinary power of his memory. At the age of eight he could repeat

3 Q

430 HISTOBT OF ENGLISH UTSBATUSE.

the whole of Scotf s poem of *' Mannion." He was fond, at thia early
age, of big worcLs and learned English ; and once, when he was asked
by a lady if his toothache was better, he replied, " Madam, the agony
is abated ! " He knew the whole of Homer and of Milton by heart ;
and it was said with perfect truth that, if Milton's poetical works
could have been lost, Macaulay would have restored every line with
complete exactness. Sydney Smith said of him : *' There are no
limits to his knowledge, on small subjects as on great ; he is like a
book in breeches." His style has been called ^' abrupt, pointed, and
oratoricaL*' He is fond of the arts of surprise— of antithesis — and of
epigram. Sentences like these are of frequent occurrence : —

''CriLiimer could vindicate himself fh)m the chaige of being a heretic only
by aigoments which made him out to be a murderer. " •

'* The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but
because it gave pleasure to the spectators."

Besides these elements of epigram and antithesis, there is a vast
wealth of illustration, brought fix)m the stores of a memory which
never seemed to forget anything. He studied every sentence with
the greatest care and minuteness, and would often rewrite para-
graphs and even whole chapters, until he was satisfied with the
variety and clearness of the expression. **He could not rest,** it
was said, ''until the punctuation was correct to a comma, until
every paragraph concluded with a telling sentence, and every sen-
tence flowed like clear running water." But, above all things, he
strove to make his style perfectly lucid and immediately intelligible.
He is fond of countless details ; but he so masters and marshals these
details that each only serves to throw more light upon the main
statement His prose may be described as pictorial prose. The
character of his mind was, like Burke's, combative and oratorical ;
and he writes with the greatest vigour and animation when he is
attocking a policy or an opinion.

t»l

CHAPTER IX.

THB SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUBY.

1. Science. — The second half of the nineteenth century is
distinguished by the enormous advance made in science, and in
the application of science to the industries and occupations of
the people. Chemistry and electrical science more especially
made enormous strides. Within»>the century's last twenty years,
chemistry remade itself into a new science ; and electricity took
a very large part of the labour of mankind upon itself. It
carries our messages round the world — ^under the deepest seas,
over the highest mountains, to every continent, and to every
great city ; it lights up our streets and public halls ; it drives
our engines and propels our trains. But the powers of imagina-
tion, the great literary powers of poetry, and of eloquent prose,
— especially in the domain of fiction,— did not decrease because
science increased. They have rather shown stronger develop-
ments. We must, at the same time, remember that a great deal
of the literary work published by the most important writers who
were still living in the latter half of this century, was written in
the former half. Thus, Longfellow was a man of forty-three,
and Tennyson was forty-one, in the year 1850 ; and both had by
that time done a great deal of their best work. The same is
true of the prose-writers, Thackeray, Dickens, and Ruskin.

2. Poets and Prose- Writers.— The six greatest poets of the
latter half of this century are Longfellow, a distinguished
American poet, Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, Robert Brown-

432 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

ing, William Korris, and Matthew Arnold. Of these, Mrs.
Browning was first to go in 1861, and all are now dead, William
Morris, the last, surviving till 1896, — The four greatest writers
of prose are Thackeray, Dickens, George Eliot, and Buskin.
Of these, too, not one is left alive.

3. Henrt Wadsworth Lonqfellow (1807-1882), the most
popular of American poets, and as popidar in Great Britain as he
is in the United States, was bom at Portland, Maine, in the year
1807. He was educated at Bowdoin College, and took his degree
there in the year 1825. His profession was to have been the law ;
but, from the first, the whole bent of his talents and character was
literary. At the extraordinary age of eighteen the professorship of
modem languages in his own college was ofifered to him ; it was
eagerly accepted, and in order to qualxfy himself for his duties, he
spent the next four years in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
His first important prose work was Outre-Mer, or a Pilgrimage
beyond the Sea. In 1837 he was offeied ^he Chair of Modem
Languages and Literature in Harvard University, and he again paid
a visit to Europe — this time giving his thoughts and study chiefly to
Germany, Denmark, and Scandinavia. In 1839 he published the
prose romance called Hyperion. But it was not as a prose- writer
that Longfellow gained the secure place be has in the hearts of the
English-speaking peoples ; it was as a poet. His first volume of
poems was called Voices of the Night, and appeared in 1841 ;
Evangeline was published in 1848 ; and Hiai^atha, on which his
poetical reputation ia perhaps most firmly based, in 1855. Many
other volumes of poetry — both original and translations — have also
come from hia pen ; but these are the best. The University of Ox-
ford created him Doctor of Civil Law in 1869. He died at Harvard
in the year 1882. A man of singularly mild and gentle character, of
sweet and charming manners, his own lines may be applied to him
with perfect appropriateness —

" His gracious presence upon earth
Was as a fire upon a hearth;
As pleasant songs, at morning sung,
The words that dropped from his sweet tongue
Strengthened our hearts, or — ^heard at night —
Made all our slumbers soft and light"

4. Iiong^ellow's Style. — In one of his prose works, Longfellow
himself says, " In character, in manners, in style, in all things, the

SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CBNTUKY. 433

Bupreme excellence is simplicity." This simplicity he steadily aimed
at, and in almost all his writings reached ; and the result is the
sweet lucidity which is manifest in his best poems. His verse has
been characterised as "simple, musical, sincere, sympathetic, clear
as crystal, and pure as snow." He has written in a great variety
of measures — in more, perhaps, than have been employed by
Tennyson himself. His "Evangeline" is written in a kind of
dactylic hexameter, which does not always scan, but which is almost
always musical and impressive —

" Fair was she and young, when in hope began the long journey ;
Faded was she and old, when in disappointment it ended."

The " Hiawatha," again, is written in a trochaic measure — each verse
containing four trochees —

" ' Farewell ! ' said he, " Minnehaha,
Farewell, 0 my laughing water 1
All my heart is buried with you.
All' my I thou'ghts go I on'ward | wi'th you ! ' *'

He is always careful and painstaking with his rhythm and with the
cadence of his verse. It may be said with truth that Longfellow
has taught more people to love poetry than any other English writer,
however great.

5. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), who continued writing
beautiful poetry for close on seventy yeard, was born at Somersby,
in Lincolnshire in the year 1809. He was the youngest of three
brothers, all of whom were poets. He was educated at Cambridge,
and some of his poems have shown, in a striking light, the foi^otten
beauty of the fens and flats of Cambridge and Lincolnshire. In 1829
he obtained the Chancellor's medal for a poem on " Timbuctoo." In
1830 he published his first volume, with the title of Poems chiefly
XiSrrical — a volume which contained, among other beautiful verses,
the " Recollections of the Arabian Nights " and " The Dying Swan."
In 1832 he issued another volume, called simply Poems ; and this
contained the exquisite poems entitled " The Miller's Daughter" and
" The Lotos-Eaters." The Princess, a poem as remarkable for its
striking thoughts as for its periection of language, appeared in 1847.
The In Memoriam, a long series of short poems in memory of his
dear friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, the son of Hallam the historian,
was published in the year 1860. When Wordsworth died in 1850,
Tennyson was appointed to the office of Poet-Laureate. This office,
from the time when Dryden was forced to resign it in 1689, to the

434 HISTORY OF KNGUSH LITEKATURE.

time when Southey accepted it in 1813, had always been held by third
or fourth rate writers ; now once more it was held by the man who
had done the largest amount of the best poetical work. The Idylls
of the King appeared in 1859. This series of poems — ^perhaps his
greatest — contains the stories of '* Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table." Many other volumes of poems were presented by him
to the world. In his old age he turned to the writing of ballads
and dramas. His ballad of The Bevenge is one of the noblest
and most vigorous poems that England has ever seen. The dramas
of Harold, Queen Mary, and Beoket, are perhaps his best ; and
the last was written when the poet had reached the age of seventy-
four. In the year 1882 he was created Baron Tennyson, and called
to the House of Peers. He died at Aid worth, Haslemere, in 1892.

6. Tennyson's Style. — Tennyson was to two generations of
Englishmen the national poet and teacher of poetry. He tried
many new measures ; he ventured on many new rhythms ; and
he succeeded in them alL He is at home equally in the slowest,
most tranquil, and most meditative of rhythms, and in the rapidest
and most impulsive. Let us look at the following lines as an
example of the first. The poem is written on a woman who is
dying of a lingering disease —

'* Fair in her cottage in its place,

Where yon broad water sweetly slowly glides:
It sees itself fh)m thatch to base
Dream in the sliding tides.

" And fairer she : bnt, ah 1 how soon to die !
Her quiet dream of life this hour may cease :
Her peaceidl being slowly passes by
To some more perfect peace."

The very next poem, " The Sailor Boy," in the same volume, is —
though written in exactly the same measure — driven on with the
most rapid march and vigorous rhythm —

" He rose at dawn and, fired with hope,
Shot o'er the seething harbour-bar,
And reached the ship and caught the rope
And whistled to the morning-star."

And this is a striking and prominent characteristic of all Tennyson's
poetry. Everywhere the sound is made to be " an echo to the sense ";
the style is in perfect keeping with the matter. In the " Lotos-
Eaters," we have the sense of complete indolence and deep repose
in—

SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 436

" A land of streams ! Some, like a downward smoke,
Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go."'

In the " Boadicea," we have the rush and the shock of battle, the
closing of legions, the hurtle of arms and the clash of armed men —

*' Phantom sonnd of blows descending, moan of an enemy massacred,
Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinons agonies."

Many of Tennyson's sweetest and most pathetic lines have gone right
into the heart of the nation, such as —

** But oh for the touch of a vanished hand.
And the sound of a voice that is still I "

All his language is highly polished, ornate, rich — sometimes Spen-
serian in luxuriant imagery and sweet music, sometimes even Homeric
in massiveness and severe simplicity. Thus, in the " Morte d* Arthur,"
he speaks of the knight walking to the lake as —

" Clothed with his breath, and looking as he walked,
Larger than human on the iirozen hills.'*

Many of his pithy lines have taken root in the memory of the Eng-
lish people, such as these —

" 'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all."

" For words, like Nature, half reveal.
And half conceal, the soul within."

" Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."

7. Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, afterwards Mrs Browning, the
greatest poetess of this century, was bom in London in the year
1806. She wrote verses "at the age of eight — and earlier," she
says ; and her first volume of poems was published when she was
seventeen. When still a girl, she broke a blood-vessel upon the
lungs, was oidered to a warmer climate than that of London ; and
her brother, whom she loved very dearly, took her down to Tor-
quay. There a terrible tragedy was enacted before her eyes. One
day the weather and the water looked very tempting ; her brother
took a sailing-boat for a short cruise in Torbay ; the boat went down
in front of the house, and in view of his sister ; the body was never
recovered. This sad event completely destroyed her already weak
health ; she letumed to London, and spent several years in a dark-
ened room. Here she "read almost every book worth reading in

436 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATUKB.

almost every language, and gave herself heart and soul to that
poetry of which she seemed bom to be the priestess." This way of
life lasted for many years : and, in the course of it, she published sev-
eral volumes of noble verse. In 1846 she married Robert Browning,
also a great poet In 1856 she brought out Aurora Iieigli, her
longest, and probably also her greatest, poem. Mr Buskin called
it " the greatest poem which the century has produced in any lan-
guage ; " but this is going too far. — Mrs Browning will probably be
longest remembered by her incomparable sonnets and by her lyrics,
which are full of pathos and passion. Perhaps her two finest poems
in this kind are the Cry of the Children and Cowper'a Qrave.
All her poems show an enormous power of eloquent, penetrating, and
picturesque language ; and many of them are melodious with a rich
and wonderful music. She died in 1861.

8. Robert Browning, the most daring and original poet of the
century, was born in Camberwell in the year 1812, and died at Venice
in 1889. He was privately educated. In 1835 he published his
poem ParaoelsuB, which many wondered at, but few read. It was
the story of a man who had lost his way in the mazes of thought
about life, — about its why and wherefore, — about this world and the
next, — about himself and his relations to God and his fellow-men.
Robert Browning produced many plays, but they are more fit
for reading in the study than for acting on the stage. His greatest
work is The Bing and the Book ; and it is most probably by this
that his name will live in future ages. Of his minor poems, the best
known and most popular is The Pied Piper of Hamelin — a poem
which is a great favourite with all young people, from the pictur-
esqueness and vigour of the verse. The most deeply pathetic of his
minor poems is Evelyn Hope : —

** So, hush, — I will give you this leaf to keep —
See, I shut it inside the sweet cold hand,
There ! that is our secret 1 go to sleep ;
You will wake, and remember, and understand.

9. Browning's Style. — Browning's language is almost always
very hard to understand ; but the meaning, when we have got at
it, is well worth all the trouble that may have been taken to reach
it His poems are more full of thought and more rich in experience
than those of any other English writer except Shakspeare. The
thoughts and emotions which throng his mind at the same moment
so crowd upon and jostle each other, become so inextricably inte^
mingled, that it is very often extremely difficult for us to make out

SECOND HALF OP NINETEENTH CENTURY. 437

any meaning at all. Then many of his thoughts are so subtle and so
profound that they cannot easily be drawn up from the depths in
which they lie. No man can write with greater directness, greater
lyric vigour, fire, and impulse, than Browning when he chooses —
write more clearly and forcibly about such subjects as love and war ;
but it is very seldom that he does choose. The infinite complexity
of human life and its manifold experiences have seized and im-
prisoned his imagination ; and it is not often that he speaks in a
clear, free voice.

10. Matthew Arnold, one of the finest poets and noblest stylists of
the age, was bom at Laleham, near Staines, in the year 1822, and died
in 1883. He was the eldest son of the great Dr Arnold, the famous
Head-master of Bugby. He was educated at Winchester and Rugby,
from which latter school he proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford.
The Newdigate prize for English verse was won by him in 1843 —
the subject of his poem being CromwelL His first volume of
poems was published in 1849. In the year 1851 he was appointed
one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools ; and he held that office up to the
year 1885. In 1867 he was elected Professor of Poetry in the Uni-
versity of Oxford. In 1868 appeared a new volume with the simple
title of New Poems; and, after that, Arnold produced a large
number of books, mostly in prose. He is no less famous as a
critic than as a poet ; and his prose is singularly beautiful and
musical.

11. Arnold's Style. — The chief qualities of his verse are clear-
ness, simplicity, strong directness, noble and musical rhythm, and a
certain intense calm. His lines on Morality give a good idea of his
style : —

" We cannot kindle when we will

The lire that in the heart resides:

The spirit bloweth and is still

In mystery onr sonl abides:

But tasks in hours of insight willed
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.

" With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone ;
We bear the burden and the heat
Of the long day, and wish 'twere done.

Not till the hours of light return,

All we have built do we discern."

His finest poem in blank verse is his Sohrab and Bustum — a tale

438 HISTOBY OF ENGLISH LITBRATUBE.

of the Tartar wastes. One of his noblest poems, called Bugby
Chapel, describes the strong and elevated character of his father,
the Head-master of Rugby. — His prose is remarkable for its lucidity,
its pleasant and almost conversational rhythm, and its perfection of
language.

12. William Morris, a great narrative poet, was bom near London
in the year 1834. He was educated at Marlborough and at Exeter
College, Oxford. In 1858 appeared his first volume of poems. In
1863 he began a business for the production of artistic wall-paper,
stained glass, and furniture ; he had a shop for the sale of these
works of art in Oxford Street, London ; and he devoted most of his
time to drawing and designing for artistic manufacturers. His
poem, The Iiife and Death of Jason, appeared in 1867 ; and his
magnificent series of narrative poems — The Earthly Para-dise—
was published in the years from 1868 and 1870. *The Earthly
Paradise ' consists of twenty-four tales in verse, set in a framework
much like that of Chaucer's * Canterbury Tales.* The poetic power
in these tales is second only to that of Chaucer ; and Morris con-
stantly acknowledged himself to be a pupil of Chaucer's —

"Thou, my Master still,
Whatever feet have climbed Pamasi^us' hill."

Mr Morris also translated the ^Eneid of Virgil, and several works
from the Icelandic. He died in the year 1896,

13. Morris's Style. — Clearness, strength, music, picturesqueness,
and easy flow, are the chief characteristics of Morris's style. Of the
month of April he says : —

** 0 fair midspring, besnng so oft and oft,
How can 1 praise thy loveliness enow?
Thy sun that bums not, and thy breezes soft
That o'er the blossoms of the orchard blow,
The thousand things that 'neath the young leaves grow
The hopes and chances of the growing year.
Winter forgotten long, and summer near."

His pictorial power — the power of bringing a person or a scene fully
and adequately before one's eyes by the aid of words alone — is as
great as that ol Chaucer. The foUowing is his picture of Edward
III. in middle age : —

** Broad-browed he was, hook-nosed, with wide grey eyas
No longer eager for tiie coming prize.

SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 439

But keen and steadfast : many an ageing line,

Half-hidden by his sweeping beard and hne,

Ploughed his thin cheeks ; his hair was more than grey,

And like to one he seemed whose better day

Is over to himself, though foolish fame

Shouts louder year by year his empty name.

Unarmed he was, nor clad upon that mom

Much like a king: an ivory hunting-horn

Was slung about him, rich with gems and gold,

And a great white ger-falcon did he hold

Upon his fist ; before his feet there sat

A scrivener making notes of this and that

As the King bade him, and behind his chair

His captains stood in armour rich and fair."

Morris's stores of language are as rich as Spenser's ; and he has much
the same copious and musical flow of poetic words and phrases.

14. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811.1868), one of the
most original of English novelists, was bom at Calcutta in the year
1811. The son of a gentleman high in the civil service of the East
India Company, he was sent to England to be educated, and was
some years at Charterhouse School, where one of his schoolfellows
was Alfred Tennyson. He then went on to the University of Cam-
bridge, which he left without taking a degree. Painting was the
profession that he at first chose ; and he studied art both in France
and Germany. At the age of twenty-nine, however, he discovered
that he was on a false tack, gave up painting, and took to literary
work as his true field. He contributed many pleasant articles to
' Eraser's Magazine,' under the name of Michael Angelo Titmarsh ;
and one of his most beautiful and most pathetic stories. The Great
Hoggarty Diamond, was also written under this name. He did
not, however, take his true place as an English novelist of the first
rank until the year 1847, when he published his first serial novel,
Vanity Fair. Readers now began everywhere to class him with
Charles Dickens, and even above him. His most beautiful work is
perhaps The Newcomes ; but the work which exhibits most fully
the wonderful power of his art and his intimate knowledge of the
spirit and the details of our older English life is The History of
Henry Esmond — a work written in the style and language of the
days of Queen Anne, and as beautiful as anything ever done by
Addison himself! He died in the year 1863.

15. Charles Dickens (1812-1870), the most popular writer of

440 HISTORY OF BNGU8H LITERATURE.

tliis century, was bom at Landport, Portsmouth, in the year 1812.
His delicate constitution debarred him from mixing in boyish sports^
and very early made him a great reader. There was a little garret
in his father's house where a small collection of books was kept ;
and, hidden away in this room, young Charles devoured such books
as the * Vicar of Wakefield,' ' Eobinson Crusoe,' and many other
famous English books. This was in Chatham. The family next
removed to London, where the father was thrown into prison for
debt The little boy, weakly and sensitive, was now sent to work
in a blacking manufactory at six shillings a-week, his duty being to
cover the blacking-pots with paper. " No words can express," he
says, " the secret agony of my soul, as I compared these my everyday
associates with those of my happier childhood, and felt my early hopes
of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man crushed in my
breast. . . . The misery it was to my young heart to believe that,
day by day, what I had learned, and thought, and delighted in, and
raised my fancy and my emulation up by, was passing away from
me, never to be brought back any more, cannot be written." When
his father's affairs took a turn for the better, he was sent to school ;
but it was to a school where " the boys trained white mice much
better than the master trained the boys." In fact^ his true educa-
tion consisted in his eager perusal of a large number of miscellaneous
books. When he came to think of what he should do in the world,
the profession of reporter took his fancy ; and, by the time he was
nineteen, he had made himself the quickest and most accurate — that
is, the best reporter in the Gallery of the House of Commons. His
first work. Sketches by Boz, was published in 1836. In 1837 ap-
peared the Pickwick Papers ; and this work at once lifted Dickens
into the foremost rank as a popular writer of fiction. From this time
he was almost constantly engaged in writing novels. His Oliver
Twist and David Copperfield contain reminiscences of his own
life ; and perhaps the latter is his most powerful work. " Like
many fond parents," he wrote, "I have in my heart of hearts a
favourite child ; and his name is David Copperfield" He lived with
all the strength of his heart and soul in the creations of his imagina-
tion and fancy while he was writing about them ; he says himself,
" No one can ever believe this narrative, in the reading, more than I
believed it in the writing ; " and each novel, as he wrote it, made
him older and leaner. Great knowledge of the lives of the poor, and
great sympathy with them, were among his most striking gifts ; and
Sir Arthur Helps goes so far as to say, " I doubt much whether there
has ever been a writer of fiction who took such a real and living

SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 441

interest in the world about him." He died in the year 1870, and
was buried in Westminster Abbey.

16. Dickens's Style.— His style is easy, flowing, vigorous, pictur-
esque, and humorous ; his power of language is very great ; and,
when he is writing under the influence of strong passion, it rises
into a pure and noble eloquence. The scenery — the external cir-
cumstances of his characters, are steeped in the same colours as the
characters themselves ; everything he touches seems to be filled with
life and to speak — to look happy or sorrowful, — ^to reflect the feelings
of the persons. His comic and humorous powers are very great ;
but his tragic power is also enormous — his power of depicting the
fiercest passions that tear the human breast, — avarice, hate, fear,
revenge, remorse. The great American statesman, Daniel Webster,
said that Dickens had done more to better the condition of the
English poor than all the statesmen Great Britain had ever sent into
the English Parliament.

17. John Ruskin (1819-1900), a master of musical EngUsh prose,
art-critic, and thinker, was born in London in the year 1819. In
his father's house he was accustomed ^* to no other prospect than
that of the brick walls over the way ; he had no brothers, nor
sisters, nor companions." To his London birth he ascribed the
great charm that the beauties of nature had for him from his boy-
hood : he felt the contrast between town and country, and saw
what no country-bred child could have seen in sights that were
usual to him from his infancy. He was educated at Christ Church,
Oxford, and gained the Newdigate prize for poetry in 1839. He
at first devoted himself to painting ; but his true and strongest
genius lay in the direction of literature. In 1843 appeared the
first volume of his Modem Painters, which is perhaps his great-
est work; and the four other volumes were published between
that date and the year 1860. In this work he discusses the qualities
and the merits of the greatest painters of the English, the Italian,
and other schools. In 1851 he produced a charming fairy tale,
* The King of the Golden River, or the Black Brothers.' He has
written on architecture also, on political economy, and on many
other social subjects. He was the founder of a society called " The
St. George's Guild," the purpose of which was to spread abroad sound
notions of what true life and true art are, and especially to make
the life of the poor more endurable and better worth living. He
died at Brantwood, near Coniston Lake, in 1900.

18. Buskin's Style. —A glowing eloquence, a splendid and full-

442 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITBaElATURE.

flowing music, wealth of phrase, aptness of epithet, opulence of
ideas — all these qualities characterise the prose style of Buskin.
His similes are daring, but always true. Speaking of the countless
statues that fill the innumerable niches of the cathedral of Milan, he
says that " it is as though a flight of angels had alighted there and
been struck to marble." His writings are full of the wisest sayings
put into the most musical and beautiful language. Here are a
few :—

" Every act, every impulse, of virtue and vice, affects in any creature, face,
voice, nervous power, and vigour and harmony of invention, at once. Perse-
-ferance in rightness of human conduct renders, after a certain number of gen-
erations, human art possible ; every sin clouds it, be it ever so little a one ; and
persistent vicious living and following of pleasure render, after a certain number
of generations, all art impossible."

" In mortals, there is a care for trifles, which proceeds from love and con-
science, and is most holy ; and a cars for trifles, which comes of idleness and
frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from.
dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base."

. His power of painting in words is incomparably greater than that of
any other English author : he almost infuses colour into his words
and phrases, so full are they of pictorial power. It would be impos-
sible to give any adequate idea of this power here ; but a few lines
may suflice for the present : —

** The noonday sun came slanting down the rocky slopes of La Kicda, and
its masses of enlarged and tall foliage, whose autumnal tints were mixed with
the wet verdure of a thousand evergreens, were penetrated with it as with rain.
I cannot call it colour ; it was conflagration. Purple, and crimson^ and scarlet,
like the curtains of God's tabernacle, the rejoicing trees sank into the valley in
showers of light, every separate leaf quivered with buoyant and burning life ;
each, as it turned to reflect or to transmit the sunbeam, first a torch and then
an emerald."

19. George Eliot (the literary name for Marian Evans, 1819-
1880), one of our greatest writers, was bom in Warwickshire in the
year 1819. She was well and carefully educated ; and her own
serious and studious character made her a careful thinker and a
most diligent reader. For some time the famous Herbert Spencer
was her tutor ; and under his care her mind developed with surpris-
ing rapidity. She taught herself German, French, Italian — studied
the best works in the literature of these languages ; and she was also
fairly mistress of Greek and Latin. Besides all these, she was an
accomplished musician. — She was for some time assistant-editor of
the * Westminster Review.' The first of her works which called the

SBCOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 443

attention of the pablic to her astonishing skill and power as a
novelist was her Scenes of Clerical Iiife. Her most popular
novel, Adam Bede, appeared in 1859; Romola in 1863; and
Middlemarch in 1872. She has also written a good deal of poetry,
among other volumes that entitled The Iiegend of Jubal, and
other Poems. One of her best poems is The Spanish Qypsy.
She died in the year 1880.

20. Qeorge lEUiot's Style. — Her style is everywhere pure and
strong, of the best and most vigorous English, not only broad in its
power, but often intense in its description of character and situation,
and always singularly adequate to the thought. Probably no novelist
knew the English character— especially in the Midlands — so well
as she, or could analyse it with so much subtlety and truth. She
is entirely mistress of the country dialects. In humour, pathos,
knowledge of character, power of putting a portrait firmly upon the
canvas, no writer surpasses her, and few come near her. Her power
is sometimes almost Shakespearian. Like Shakespeare, she gives us
a large number of wise sayings, expressed in the pithiest language.
The following are a few : —

" It is never too late to be what you might have been."

'' It is easy finding reasons why other people should be patient*'

*' G^nins, at first, is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline."

*' Things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, half owing
to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

** Nature never makes men who are at once energetically sympathetic and
minutely calculating.'*

*' To tlie far woods he wandered, listening,
And heard the birds their little stories sing
In notes whose rise and fall seem melted speech —
Melted with tears, smiles, glances — that can reach
More quickly through our frame's deep-winding night,
And without thought raise thought's best fruit, delight."

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITEMTUEE.

WRITUtS.

{Author unkncvm.)

CABDMON.
A secular monk
Whitby.
Died about 680.

Works.

BAEDA.

672-735.

"The Venerable
Bede," a monk of Jar-
row-on-Tyne.

ALFRED THE
GREAT.

849-9OZ.

King ; translator ;
prose-writer.

Compiled hj monks
in yanous monaster-
ies.

ASSER
Bishop of Sher-
borne. Died 909 (Q

(Author unknown,)

^^^Beownlf (brought over by
Saxons and Angl&s from the
Continent).

Poems on the Creation and
other subjects taken from
the Old and the New Testa-
ment.

An Ecclesiastical History in
Latin. A translation 01 St
John's Gtospel into English
(lost).

Translated into the English
of Wessex, Bede's Ecclesi-
astical History and other
Latin works. Is said to
haye begun the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875-
1164.

LAYAMON.

fl, Z200.
A priest ef Bmley-

Life Of King Alfred.

A poem entitled The Oravo.

The Bmt (1205), a poem on
Brutus, the supposed first
settler in Britain.

g0mt8mporary
Events.

Edwin (of Deira),
King of the
Angles, baptis-
ed 627.

First landing of
the Danes, 787.

Cen-
turies.

500

600

700

The University
of Oxford is
said to have
been founded
in this reign.

John ascended
the throne in
1199.

800

900

1000

1100

446 «

TABLES OF ENGLISH LXTEEATURE.

WRITBBa.

ORM OB OBMIN.
fi. 1200 (?)
A canon of the Order
ofBt^AngusUne.

ROBERT OF
GLOUCESTER.

fi. 1260-1300.

WOBKB.

The Ormnlimi, a set of re-
ligious services in metre.

ROBERT OF
BRUNNE.

ft, Z288-za3S.

(Robert Manning of
Bourne in Lines.)

OOHTSKFOBABT
BVKMTS.

Chronicle of Englnad in
rhyme •

Chronicle of England in
rhyme ; Hcmdlyng Sinne
(1803).

TUBIl

SIR JOHN

MANDEVILLB.

d. 1372.
Fictitious name ;
perhaps one John
Burgoyne.

JOHN BARBOUR.

X316-X395.

Archdeacon of
Aberdeen.

JOHN WYOLIP.

1324-1384.

of Lutter-
in Leicester-

Vicar

wortii,
riiire.

The Yoyftige and Trayaile. Edward IL as

Travels to Jerusalem, India,
and other countries, written
in Latin, French, and Eng-
lish. The first writer "in
formed English."

Magna Charta,
1215.

Henry HI. as-l
cends the
throne, 1216.

University of
Cambridge
founded, 1281.

Edward L as-
cends the
throne, 1272.

1200

Conquest
Wales, 1284.

The Bruce (1376), a poem
written in the Northern Eng-
lish or " Scottish " dialect

JOHN GOWER.
1325-1408.

A country gentle-
man of Kent; prob-
ably also a lawyer.

WILLIAM
LANGLANDE.

1332-1400.

Bom in Shropshire.

Translation of the Bible from
the Latin version ; and many
tracts and pamphlets on
Church reform.

Vox ClamantiB, Confessio
Amantis, Specnlnm Hedi-
tantis (1393); and poems
in French and Latin.

Vision concerning Piers the
Plowman — three editions
(1362-92).

cends the
throne, 1807.

Battle of Ban-
nockbum, 1814.

Edward IIL
ascends the
throne, 1827.

Hundred Tears'
War begins,
1838.

Battle of Crecy,
1846.

1300

1860

'^DeSh*]'««l'
^^^ ' 1869.

Battle of Poitien,
1856.

First law-plead-
ings in English.
1862.

TABLES OF ENGLISH LTTEBATTmE.

447

Writbrs.

GEOFFREY
CHAUCER.

Z340-Z400.

Poet; courtier;
soldier; diplomatist;
Comptroller of the
Customs : Clerk of the
Eini^s Works ; M.P.

JAMES I. OF
SCOTLAND.

X3M-I437.

FrisoDfif in Eng-
land, and educated
there, in 1405-34.

WILLIAM
CAXTON.

Z4Z2-Z49I.

Mercer ; printer ;
translator ; prose-
writer.

WILLD^M
DUNBAR.

I465(?)-IS30(?)

Frandacan or Grey
Friar; Secretary to
a Scotch embassy to
France.

GAWAIN
DOUGLAS.

Z474-Z522.

Bishop of Dunkeld,
in Perthshire.

WILLIAM
TYNDALE.

Z484-ZS31

Student of theology;
translator. Burnt at
Antwerp for heresy.

Wouu.

^^e CaatorbiixT Tales (1884-
98), of which the best is the
Knightes Tale. Dryden
called him '^a perpetual
fountain of good sense."

contxmpobaby

Events.

The "Kin^n Qnair (=^Book),
a poem in the style of Chau-
cer.

Tbe Dictea and Sayinga of
the Philoaophera (1477)
the first book printed in
England ; Llvea of tbe
Fauiera, "finished on the
last day of his life;" and
many other works*

The Ctolden Terge; the
Dance of the Seven Deadly
Sins; and other poems.
He has been called **the
Chaucer of Scotland.**

Palace of Bononr ; transla-
tion of VirgU'8 Jbieid—
the first translation of any
Latin author into verse.
Douc^las wrote in Northern
EngliBh. . .

Vew Testament translated
(1526-84); the Five Books
of Hoies translated (1590).
This translation is the basis
of the Authorised Version.

Richard II. as-
cends . the
throne, 1S77»

Wat Tyler's insur-
rection, 1S81.

Henry IV. as-
cends the
throne, 1899.

Cur-

TURIXB.

Henry V. as-
cends . the
throne, 1415.

Battle of Agin-
court» 1415.

Henry VI. as-
cends the
throne, 1422.

Iktkntiok of
Printinq, 1488-
45.

Jack Cade's in-
surrection, 1450.

End of the Hun-
dred Years' War,
1453.

Wars of the
Roses, 1455-86.

Edward IV. as-
cends the
throne, 1461.

Edward V. king,
1488.

1400

1450

448

TABLES OF ENGLISH LFTBRATURE.

SIR THOMAS
MORE.

X478-XS3S

Lord High Chftnoel-
lor ; writer on socUl
topiM ; hlitoriui.

SIR DAVn)
LYNDB8AY.

X490-X555-

Tutor of Prince
Jamei of SootUnd

IJamei Y.); "Lord
jjon Klng-at-Arms ; "
poet.

ROQER ASCHAM.

X5X5-X568.
Lecturer on Greek
at Cambridge ; tntor
to Qneen Eluabeth.

JOHN FOXE.

X5Z6-Z587.

An English clergy-
man. Oorreetor for
the preea at Rule;
Prebendary of Salis-
bary Oathedral;
prose- writer.

EDMUND
SPENSER

XS5»-XS99.

Secretary to Viceroy
of Ireland; political
writer; poet.

SIR WALTER
RALEIGH.

1552-1618.

Oonrtier ; states-
man; sailor; colon-
iser; historian.

RICHARD
HOOKER.

z553-z6oa

English oleigyman ;
Master of the Temple ;
Rector of Bosoombe,
in the diocese of Sails-
bury.

WoBxa.

HiBtOfj ttf »■« ldw«rd T.,
aad M liii brother, and of
BifihMd m. (1618) M^topia
(»"The Land of No-
where "), written in Latin ;
and other prose worlu.

L7adMaj'sl>reaBi(1528); The
Conplaint (1629) ; A Satire
oftiie Three litatei (1585)
—a "morality-play.**

Toiophilu (1544), a treatise
on shooting with the bow ;
The Beholeiiuuitre (1570).
" Ascham is plain and strong
in his style, but without
gnoe or warmth.

The Book of Martyrs (1563),
an account of the chief Pro-
testant martyrs.

Shepheard'a Calendar (1579) ;
vFaerle (Mieene, in six books
(1590-96).

Hittory of the World (1614),
written during the authors
imprisonment in the Tower
of London.

Laws ef Eeeleeiastical Polity
(1594). This book is an elo-
quent defence of the CSiurch
of England. The writer,
from his excellent judgment,
is generally called "the
judicious Hooker.**

OoWTBlfPOaABT

Etsmts.

Richard III.
cends the
throne, 1488.

Battle of Bos-
worth, 1485.

Henry YII. as-
cends the
throne, 1486.

Oreek bemn to
be taogfat in
England about
1497.

Henry YIII. as-
cendp the
throne, 1509.

Battle of Plod-
den, 1518.

Wolsey Cardinal
and Lord High
Chancellor,
1515.

Sir Thomas More
first layman
who was Lord
High Chancel-
lor, 1529.

Reformation in
England begins
about 1534.

Edward VI. as-
cends the
throne, 1547.

Mary Tudor
ascends the
throne, 1553.

Cranmer burnt,
1550.

TURi:

1600

1660

Elisabeth as-
cends the
throne, 1558.

TABLEB OF ENQLIEIH LITXBATDBI.

FRANCIS BACON.
1561-163&

Vifoonnt Bt Al-
buu ; Lord High
CluD«I1or oT Itog-
Iwid; livyar; phllo-
■ophn; HRAjut

Wn.T.TAM

SHAKESPEARE.
1564-ltiUS.

tlustre: pb^'WrlUt;
poal Bom uddM

kt SmtK^HHI-ATDIL

BEN JONSON.
1574^1637-
Dimiutlit; poM;
pTOW-initer.

WILLIAM
DBOHHOND ("oF
Hawthorhdih "}.

1585-1649-

BoDttiih ■pott;
ftftnd of Ban JoniKia.

THOUAS H0BBE8.
1588-1679.

FhUoaophti : prcM-
WTitar; tnnuHor of

Ann (IG97);'adnBiw

of LmthIhk (I(l06)f/SaTiuii
OrgMHUn (I^) ; and other
works on methodi of inquiry

Thirty • seven plays. Bli
KTsUeet tr«C*diM uWf on-
bti'Ltiar, taiAMdio. Uii
brat ooiMdiN §m-Vidtum-
mer Night'* Dnam, •^Tht
MtrchiaU of Venice, tui/At
YimLikeft His best Ui-
torieftl playl are v'/ufius
Ceaar and vJtii^AanJ ///.
Many minor poeroM — chiefly
MMmati. He wrot« no prou.

Tngadlei and oomsdlei. Best
^ys; V<)l^oat or Uie Fox ;
^tiry Man in hie Hvmour.

'the Larlathau (ISfil),
worii cm politics and mori
philoi^y.

HawUni begins 16B0

lur, Chuppu
Pletcher, Pui

otiier dnin
Shuipeare.

BaUngton'i Plot,
BpuiLih Aniada,

Battle of In;,

450

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITEBATUBE.

WRinBBfl.

SIR THOMAS
BROWNR

2605-1682.

Ph]^eiAn at Nor-
wich.

JOHN MILTON.

2608-1674.

Btadent ; political
writer; poet; For-
eign (or " Latin **)
Secretarv to Crom-
welL Became blind
from over-work in
1654.

SAMUEL BUTLER.
26z2-i68a

Literary man;
secretary to the Earl
of Oarbery.

JEREMY TAYLOR.
Z6Z3-Z667.

English clergyman :
Bishop of Down and
Connor in Ireland.

JOHN BUNYAN.
Z628-Z688.

Tinker and travel-
ling pieacher.

JOHN DRYDEN.

Z63Z-Z700.

Poet • Laureate
and Historiographer-
Royal ; playwright ;
poet; prose- writer.

Aeli^o Xodici(="The Re-
Ugion of a Physician");
vm - Burial ; and other
prose works.

Works.

Minor Poems; "^Paradise

Lost; «ParadiM Regained;
'fbunson AgoniBtoi. Many

prose works, the best being
v^recpagitica, a speech for

the Liberty of Unlicensed

Printing.

Hndibrae, a mock - heroic
poem, written to ridicule
the Puritan and Parliament-
arian party.

Molj Idying and Holy Dy-
ing (1649) ; and a number
of other religious books.

^^he Pilgrim's Progress
(1678) ; the Holy War; and
other religious works.

Annul Xirabilis (="The
Wonderful Year/' 1665-66,
on the Plague and the Fire
of London); Absalom and
Achitophel (1681), a poem
on political parties; Hind
and Panther (1687), a re<
ligious poem. He also
wrote many plays, some
odes, and a translation of

VVirgil's JEneid. His prose
consists chiefly of prefSaces
and introductions to his
poema

GoiSTBliPORABT

Btshtb.

Australia dis-
covered, 1<X)1.

James I. as-
cends the
throne in 1608.

Hampton Court
Conference for
translation of
Bible, 1604-11.

Onnpowder Plot,
1605.

Execution of
Raleigh, 1618.

CADBC

1600

1610

Charles I. as-
cends the
throne in 1625.

Petition of Right,
1628.

No Parliament
ttom 1629-40.

Scottish National
Covenant, 1638.

Long Parliament,
1640-58.

MarstonMoor,
1644.

Bzecution of
Charles L, 1040. 1

1620

1630

1640

TAfiliSS 0:P SKOLtsa LtTERATtJltlE.

461

Writers.

Works.

JOHN LOCKE.

1652-2704.

Diplomatist; Secre-
tary to the Board of
Trade; philosopher;
prose-writer.

DANIEL DEFOE.
z66x-z73Z.

Literary man ;
Munphleteer; Joumal-
ut ; member of Com-
mission on Union
with Scotland.

JONATHAN
SWIFT.

1667-174S

English clergyman ;
litawy man; satir-
ist; prose-writer;
poet : Dean of St Pat-
rick's, in Dublin.

SIR RICHARD
STEELE.

26734729.

Soldier; literary
man : courtier ; Jour-
nalist ; K.P.

JOSEPH ADDISON.
2672-2729.

Essayist; poet; Sec-
retary of State for the
Home Department.

Essay eonceminfl: the Hu-
man Understantung (1690) ;

rThouglits on Education;
and other prose works.

The True-hom Englishman
;yiRohinson Crusoe
; Journal of the

le (1722) ; and more
than a nundred books
all.

Oontejcporxry

BVBNTS.

ALEXANDER
POPE.

1688-2744.

Poet

Battle of the Books yl^ale of
a Tub (1704), an allegory on
the Churches of Rome. Eng-
land, and Scotland /Gulli-
ver's Travels (1726) ; a
few poems ; and a number
of very vigorous political
pamphlets.

Steele founded the 'Tatler,*
'Spectator,' 'Guardian/ and
other small journals. He
also wrote some plays.

Essays m the 'Tatler/
'Spectator/ and 'Guardian.'
Cato, a Tragedy (1718).
Several Poeins and Hymns,

vf Essay on Criticiim (1711);
vBape of the Lock (17U);
I^Translation of Homer's

Hiad and Odyssey, finished

in 1726; Dunciad (1729);
/ Essay on Xan (1789). A

few prose Essays, and a

volume of Letters,

The Common-
wealth, 1649-60.

Cromwell Lord
Protector, 1668-
68.

Restoration, 1660.

First standing
army, 1661.

Unit newspaper
in England,
1663.

The Revolution,
1688-9.

Death of Anne
and Accession
of George I.,
1714.

Charles II., pen-
sioned hy Louis
XIV. of France,
1674.

Marlborough's
Campaigns,
1702-U.

CADKS.

1650

James n. as-
cends the
throne in 1686.

Revolution of
1688.

William m. and
Mary II. ascend
the throne, 1689.

Battle of the
Boyne, 1600.

1660

1670

1680

1690

462

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATTTBE.

Writbbs.

JAMES THOMSON.
1700-1748.
Poet

HENRY FIELDING.

XW-X754-

Police • magistrate ;
Journalist; novelist.

DR SAMUEL
JOHNSON.

1709-1784.

Schoolmaster ; lit-
erary man; essayist;
poet; dictionary-
maker.

DAVID HUME.

17XI-X776.

Librarian ; Secret-
ary to the French Em-
bassy ; philosopher ;
literary man.

THOMAS GRAY.

X716-1771.

Student; poet; let-
ter-writer; Professor
of Modem History in
the University of
Oambridge.

TOBIAS GEORGE
SMOLLETT.

1721-1771.

Doctor; pamphlet-
eer ; literai7 hack ;
novelist.

^^e Seasoiu ; a poem in blank
verse (1730) : The Castle of
Indolence; a mock-heroic
poem in the Spenserian stan-
za (1748).

aoieph Andrews (1742);
Amelia (1751). He was
"the first great English
novelist"

WOBKB.

OLIVER
GOLDSMITH.

X728-X774.

Literary man; play-
writer ; poet.

London (1738)|^The Vanity
of Human wishes (1749) ;
Dictionary of the English
Language (1755); ^Aasse-
las (1759) ; ^Idves of the
Poets (1781). He also
wrote The Idler, The Ram-
bler, and a play called Iren6.

History of England (1754-
1761) ; and a number of
philosophical Essays. His
prose IS singularly clear,
easy, and pleasant

(KLes ;>i Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard (1751)
— one of the most perfect
poems in our language. He
was a great stvlist, and an
extremely carenil w<»:kman.

Roderick Random (1748) ;

vHumnhrey Clinker j[1771).
He also continued Hume s
History of England. He
published also some Plays
and Poems,

vThe Traveller (1764); The
, Vicar of Wakefield (1766) ;
V The Deserted Village (1770);
^8he Stoops to Conquer— a
Play (1778); and a large
number of books, pam-
phlets, and compilations.

COMTKMPOBART
EVEMTB.

Censorship of the
Press abolished,
1695.

Qneen Anne
ascends the
throne in 1702.

The Jacobite Be-
beUion of 1745.

Db-

CADSB

1700

Union of Eng-
land and Bcot-
htnd, 1707.

Qeorge I. ascends
the throne in
1714.

Rebellion in Scot*
land in 1715.

1710

Rise of Method-
ism, Seven
Years* War,
1766-68.

George IL as-
cends the
throne, 1727.

1720

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

453

WRiTsita.

ADAM SMITH.

X7?3-I790.

Professor In tlie
University ofOIasgow.

Theory of Moral Sentiments
(1759);v^Inqnir7 into the
Mature and Canses of the
Wealth of Nations (1776).
He was the founder of the
science of political economy.

EDMUND BURKE.'

Z729<-Z797.

M.P. ; statesman ;
*' the first man in the
House of Commons ; "
orator ; writer on po-
litical philosophy.

WILLIAM
COWPER.

Z73Z-Z800.

Commissioner in
Bankmptcy; Clerk of
the Journals of the
House of Lords ; poet.

Works.

>'liSBay on the Sublime and
Beantifol (1757) x Reflec-
tions on the Revolution of
France (1790) ; Letters on
a Regicide Peace (1797);
and many other works.
''The greatest philosopher
in practice the world ever
saw."

r^hle Talk (1782) ; John Gil-
pin (1785) : A Translation
of Homer (1791); and many
other Poems. His Letters,
like Gray's, are among the
best in the language.

EDWARD GIBBON.

1737-1794-

Historian ; M.P.

/Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire (1776-87).
''Heavily laden style and
monotonous balance of
every sentence."

ROBERT BURNS.

Z759-Z796.

Farm -labourer;
ploughman; ftrmer:
ezdM-offloer ; lyrical
poet.

Poems and Son^s (1786-96).
His prose consists chiefly of
Letters. " His pictures of
social life, of quaint humour,
come up to nature; and
they cannot go beyond it."

COMTEMFOaABT

EVKMTS.

Oarron Iron
Works, Stir-
ling, estab-
lished, 1758.
Mnle-jenny for
cotton-spin-
ning, 1779.

Db-

OADM

Outbr«ak of
French Revoln-
tion, 1789.

First Census,
1801.

Reports of Par-
liamentary De-
bates allowed,
1771. Penal
law of 1699
against Catho-
lics repealed,
1778.

James Watt's
steam > engine,
1769.

Vaccination by
Jenner, 1799.

1730

1740

1750

454

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

▼bi

WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH.

1770-2850.

Distributor of
StainiMi for tlie coun-
ty of WettmoreUnd;
poet; poet-knreAte.

SIR WALTER
SOOTT.

X77x-z83a.

Clerk to the Gourt
of Session in Edin-
bnilEl^; Scottish hsr-
rister ; poet ; norelist.

8AMX7EL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE.

i77»-x834.

Private soldier;
Jonmslist ; literary
man ; philosopher ;
poet

ROBERT
SOUTHEY.

1774-1843.

Literary man;
<)i]arterly Reviewer;
historian; poet -lau-
reate.

CHARLES LAMB.

1775-1834-
Clerk in the East
India House; poet;
prose-writer.

WALTER SAVAGE
LANDOR.

1775.X864.
Poet; prose* writer.

Works.

Lyrical Ballads (with Cole-
ridge, 1798) ; The Ezcvnion
(1814) ; Yarrow BeTisited
(1835), and many other
poems. The Prelude was
published after his death.
^lis prose, which is very
good, consists chiafl^ of
Prefaces and Introductions.

Lay of the Last Minstrel
(1805); Marmion (1808);

'OAdy of the Lake (1810) ;

vWaverlej— the first of the
* ' Waverley Novels *' — ^was
published in 1814. The
"Homer of Scotland." His
prose is bright and fluent,
but very inaccurate.

^^e Ancient Mariner (1798) ;
CliriBtabel (1816) ; /The
Friend— a Collection of Es-
says (1812) vAids to Reflec-
tion (1825). His prose is
ircry fall both of thought
and emotion.

^oan of Arc (1796); Thalaba
the Destroyer (1801) ; The
Curse of Kehama (1810) ; A
History of Brasil; The
Doctor— a Collection of Es-
says ;vliife of Nelson. He
wrote more than a hundred
volumes. He was "the most
ambitious and the most vol-
uminous author of his age."

Poems (1797) ; ^^Tales from
Shakespeare (1806);vThe
Essays of Elia (1828-1833).
One of the finest writers of
prose in the English lan-
guage.

Gebir (1798) ; Count Julian
(1812) ; Imaginary Conver-
sations (1824-1846); Dry
Sticks Fairgoted (1858). He
¥rrote books for more than
sixty years. His rtyle is
fall of vigour and sustained
eloquence.

COHTBMPORABT

Evmrs.

George IIL as-
cends the
throne in 1700.

Napoleon and
Wellington
bom, 1709.

Warren Hastings
in India, ITTI-
86.

American De-
claration of
Independence^
1776.

Alliance of
France and
America, 1778.

Dx-

1760

1770

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE,

455

Writkbs.

THOMAS
CAMPBELL.

1777-X844.

Poet; literary man;
editor.

HENRY HALLAM.

X777-X859-

Historten.

Works.

The Pleasures of Hope (1799);
Poems (1803); Gertrude of
Wyoming. Battle of the
Baltic, fiohenlinden, etc.
(1809). He also wrote some
Historical Works.

THOMAS MOORE.
1779-1852.

Poet; prose-writer.

View of Europe during the
Middle Ages (1818) ; Con-
stitutional History of Eng-
land (1827); Introduction
to the literature of Europe
(1839).

Odes and Epistles (1806);
h^Lalla Bookh (1817); His-
tory of Ireland (1827); life
of Byron (1830); Irish
Melodies (1834) ; and many
prose works.

THOMAS
DE QUINCEY.

1785-1859.

Essayist.

/Confessions of an English
Opium-Eater (1821). He
wrote also on many subjects
—philosophy, poetry, clas-
sics, history, politics. His
writings fill twenty volumes.
He was one of the finest
prose-writers of the 19th
century.

LORD BYRON
(Gbobgb Qobdon).

1788-1824.

Peer; poet; volun-
teer to Greecei

Hours of Idleness (1807);
English Bards and Scotch
Beviewers (1809) ; vChilde
Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-
1818); Hebrew Melodies
(1815): and many Plays.
His prose, which is full of
vigour and animal spirits, is
to be found chiefly in his
Letters.

gohtbmpoiiabt
Events.

Encyclopfledia
Britannica
founded in 1778.

Liverpool and
Manchester
Railway, 18B0.

United Irish-
men's Rebel-
lion. French
land in Ireland,
1798.

Dx-

OADKS.

The Times pub-
lished, 1785.
Oas first used
in London
streets, 1807.

1780

Greek War of
Independence
against the
Turks, 1822-9.

456

TABLES OF ENGLISH LITEBATURE.

W&ITBBa.

PERCY BY8SHB
SHELLEY.

1792-Z822.
Poet

JOHN KEATS.
Z795-Z82Z.

Poet.

THOMAS
CARLYLE.

z795-z88z.

Literary man;
poet; translator;
essavist ; reviewer ;
political writer; his-
torian.

LORD

MAOAULAY

(Thomas Babinotok).

Z800-Z859.

Barrister; Edin-
burgh Reviewer;
M.P. ; Member of the
Supreme Council of
India; Cabinet Minis-
ter; poet; essayist;
historian; peer.

W0RK&

anaen Xab (1810) ;'^Prome-
theiu Unbound— a Tragedy
(1819)M)deto the Skylark,
The Clond (1820) ; Adonais
(1821), and many other
poems; and several prose
works.

CoimifpoaART I Da-

BVSMTS. CAIW

Poems (1817); Endymion
(1818) ; >^yperlon (1820).
^'Had Keats Uved to the
ordinary age of man. he
would have been one of the
greatest of all poets."

German Bomances— a set of
Translations (1827) ^^artor
Besartns — " The Tailor
Repatched " (1834) ; ^'^e
French Bevolntion (1837) ;

vHeroes and Hero-Worship
(1840);>^ast and Present
(1843); Cromwell's Letters
and Speeches (1845) ; Life
of Frederick the Oreat
(1868-66). "With the gift
of song, Carlyle would have
been the greatest of epic
poets since Homer."

^^Kilton (in the 'Edinbni^
Review,* 1825); Lays of
Ancient Bome (1842) ; His
tory of England—unfinished
(1849-69). " His pictorial
faculty is amazing.'^

Cape of Good
Hope taken,
1795.

Bonaparte in
Italy, 1796.

Battle of the
Nile, 1798.

Union of Great
Britain and Ire-
land, 1801.

Trafalgar and
Nelson, 1805.

1780

Peninsular
1806-14.

War,

Napoleon's Inva-
sion of Russia ;
Moscow bomt,
1812.

War with CJnited
States, 1812-14.

Battle of Water-
loo, 1815.

George IV. as-
cends the
throne, 1820.

Gas first mann-
fitctnred, 1792.

Catholic Eman-
cipation, 1829.

German Empire
re-established,
1871.

William IV. as-
oends the
throne, 1880.

The Reform BilL
1882.

Total AboUtion
of Slavery,
1884.

1800

1810

1820

1880

TABLES OF ENGLISH LTTEBATURE.

457

Wrxtkbs.

LORD LYTTON
(Edwabd Bulwxb).

1803-1873.

Novelist; poet;
dramatist; If. P.;
Oabiii>t Minister;
peer.

JOHN STUART
MILL.

1806-1873.

Clerk in the East
India House ; philos-
opher; political
writer ; M. P. ; Lord
Bector of the iJniver-
ait J of St Andrews.

> 'System of Logic (1843) /Prin-
ciples of Political Economy
(1848) ;>/E8say on Idber^
(1859) ;\/Autobiography
(1873). "For judicial calm-
ness, elevation of tone, and
freedom from personality,
Mill is nnrivallea among the
writers of his time."

HENRY W.
LONGFELLOW.

1807-1882.

Professor of Hod-
em Languages and
Literature in Harvard
University, U.S.;
poet; prose-wiiter.

LORD

TENNYSON

(Alfrbd Tennyson).

1809-1892.

Poet; poet -lame-
ate; peer.

ELIZABETH B.
BARRETT
(afterwards

Mrs Bbownino).

1806 -x86z.

Poet : prose-writer ;
translate:.

W0&X8.

Ismael and Other Poems
(1825) ; Eugene Aram
(1832) yLast Bays of Pom^
peii (1834); The Caztons
(1849); My Novel (1853);

(1849); My 1
Poems (1865).

(hitre-Mer— a Story (1835)
Hyperion— a Story (1839)
Toices of the Night (1841)

V Evangeline (1848); Hia

watha (1855) ; vArtermath

(1873). "His tact in the

nse of language is probably

the chief cause of nis suc-

cess.

Poems (1830) ^rln Memoriam
(1850); Mand(1855)yIdyUs
of tbe Xing (1859-85) ; (^een
Mary-— a Drama (1875);
Becket— a Drama (1884);
The Foresters— a Drama
(1892).

/Promethens Bonnd— trans-
lated from the Greek of
JSschylus (1833); Poems
(1844) ; ^'Aurora Leigh
(1866); and Essays con-
tributed to various maga-
zines.

OOMTSMPOBABT

BVKNTS.

0ADX8.

Queen Victoria
ascends the
throne, 1887.

Irish Famine,
1845.

1840

Repeal of the
Corn Laws,
1846.

Revolution in
Paris, 1851.

1850

Death of Welling-
ton, 1852.

Napolleon III.
Emperor of the
French, 1852.

Russian War,
1854-56.

Franco -Austrian
War, 1869.

Emancipation of
Russian serfs,
1861.

1860

Austro- Prussian
"Seven Weeks'
War,*' 1866.

Suez Canal fin-
ished. 1860.

458

TABLES 07 ^GLISH LITSRATURB.

Wbitsbs.

WILLIAM

MAKEPEACE

THACKERAY.

X8ZZ-Z863.

Novelist ; writer in
■Punch'; artist.

CHARLES
DICKENS.

28x2^x870.

Novelist.

ROBERT
BROWNING.

X8X2-X889.

Poet

JOHN RUSKIN.
X819-X900.

Ar\rcnt\c ; essay-
ist; teacher; literary
man.

GEORGE ELIOT.

X819-X880.

Novelist; poet;
essayist

ALGERNON

CHARLES

SWINBURNE.

X837-X9Z2.

Lyric poet ; drama-
tist; prose-writer.

W0BK8.

The Parii 8ketch-Book
(1840) ;Waaitj Pair (1847) ;

vSsmond (1862) ; The Kew-
comee (1865); The Vir-
ginians (1857). The great-
est novelist and one of the
most perfect stylists of the
19th cent. "The classical
English humorist and sat-
inst of the reign of Queen
Victoria."

Sketches l7Boz(1836)yThe
Pickwick Papers (1837);

"^ OUTerTwi8t(1838)Vincho-
las MiCUel^ (1838); and
many other novels and
workfi'^reat Expectations
(1800). The most popular
writer that ever lived.

Pauline (1882); Paracelsus
(1835) ; Poems (1865) vThe
Ring and the Book (1869) ;
and many other volumes of
poetry.

Modem Painters (1843-60) ;
The Stones of Venice (1851-
53J ; The Queen of the Air
11869); An Autobiography
(1885) ; and very many other
works. "He has a deep,
serious, and almost fanatical
reverence for art."

Scenes of Clerical Life (1858) ;

>JUlam Bede (1859); and
many other novels down to
Daniel Deronda (1876);
Spanish Gypsy (1868) ; Le-
gend of Jnbal (1874).

Atalanta in Calydon (1864) ;
Poems and Ballads (three
series— 1864, 78, and '87),
and many other poems.
"The greatest metrical in-
ventor in English litera-
ture." "His music is like
no other man's."

OOMTEKPOBARY

KVXMTB.

Assassination of
Alexander II.,
1881.

Arabl Pasha's Re-
bellion, 1882-88.

War in the Sou-
dan, 1884.

Murder of Gor-
don, 1885.

New Beform Bill,

1885.

War In S. AMca,
1899.

Death of Queen
Victoria, 1901.

Franco • Pnissian
War, 1870-71.

Third French Re-
puDlic, 1870.

William I. of
Prussia made
Emperor of the
Qermans at Ver-
sailles, 1871.

Borne the new
capital of Italy,
1871.

Bnsso • Turkish
War, 1877-78.

Berlin Congress
and Treaty,

1878.

Leo XIII. made
Pope in 1878.

CAI>SS.

1870

1880

1900

INDEX

459

INDEX.

PART L

▲biolmto, nominaidye, M.
A4)ectiTM, 28.

comparison of, 82.
defective, 84.
iiregalar, 88.
compound, fonnation of, 117.
demonstrative, 20.
inflection of, 81.
nnmeral, 29.
qnalitative, 28.
quantitative, 29.
sofllxes to, English, 181.

Latin and Fzench, 188.
syntax of, 7L
A4)6CtiTe pronoons (so^salledX 29, 8a
AdTwrba, 67.

dassiflcation of, 57.
OQmparison of, 57.
Irregnlar, 58.
fonnation of, 118.
syntax of, 88.
Alphabet, what it is, 7.
(Sonditions of a perfect, 7.
the English, very defective, 7, 8.
Aaalyiia of sentences, 86-115.
complex sentence, 102.
(caationsX 107.
mapping-oat of, 109.
compound sentence, IIL
" omtinnous'* method of. 111.
"^pigeon-hole** method o^ 110.
simple sentence, 87.
(cautionsX 98.
mapping-out of, 100.
Anomaloiu verbs, U,
Antecedent, 26.
Appoaitten, 22.
ArtidM (so-calledX 29.
AnxlUaxy verba, 48, 58.

Bet copjngation of, 60.
Branching of words, 148-158.

CSardinal numerals, 80.
Case, 19.

dative, 21.

diflTerent cases, with their uses, 20.

nominative, 20.

ol:tjective, 22.

possessive, 20.

vocative, 20, 22.
Cognate object, 22.
Gomparisen of a<^ectives, 82.
defective, 84.
irregular, 88.
of adverbs, 67.
irr^^lar, 58.
Compound a<^ectives, formation of, 117.

adverbs, formation of, 119.

nouns, formation of, 116.

verbs, formation of, 118.
Concord, rules of, 76.
Conjugation of verbs, 42.

specimen of fall, 54.
Conjunctions, 60.

syntax of, 84.
ConjonctiTe (or relative) pronouns, 26.
Connectives, 58.
Consonant, 6.

sounds, table of, 6.

Datiw case, 21.

syntax of, 69.
DemonstratiTe ac^ectives, 29.
Dentala, 5, 6.

Derivation, word-bnlldlng and, 116-171.
Derivations from English roots, 144.

from Greek roots, 152.

Ih»m Latin roots, 117.

460

INDEX.

DarlTfttiOBi from namet of penoni, etc. ,
164.
from names of pUcee, 158.
of wordi diagniaed In form, 181.
of words greatly changed in meaning,
188.
IMpkthiuiga, 8.

IBwgMak InaeparaUe preflzea, ISO.
roots and branches, 144.
aeparable prefixes, ISL
snfflzes to a4Jeetives, 181.
to adverba, 188.
to noons, 128.
to Terbs, 184.
IBngllab language, grammar of, 4.
<»igln and development of, 4.
■tjmologj, 6, 8-88.
Kztenaion of predicate, 95.

FaeiitlTe oliiject, 22.

French derivationa, etc, ineluded under

Latin.
fnaotiona, words known by their, 81.

Gender, 11.

indicated hy dilTerent words, 14.

indicated by prefixes, 18.

indicated by snflSxes, 18.

Latin and French suflUxM ol^ 18.
Ctanuid, 89.
Ctenmdial infinitive, 82.
Cknrenunent of verbs, 78.
GnuBimar, 4.

of letters, 7.

of sonnds, 5.

of words, 8-88.

parts of; 4.
Greek preiixes, 198.

roots, 152.

sofllxes, 141.
0«ttnxBls, 5, 8.

Ham, coi^Jngation of, 49.

Inflexion of adjectives, 81.

of noons, 11.

of pronoons, 24, 25.

of verbs, 86.
Inseparable pfefixes, English, 120.
Interjections, 60.
IntcrrogatiTe pronoons, 25.
IntnuuitlYe verbs, 85.
Iixegnlar weak verbs, 48.

Kinds of words, 8.

known by fonctlons, 61.

Labials, 8, 8.
Language, what it is, 8.

spoken and written, 8.
Latin prefixes, 128.

roots, 147.

soffixes to ac^ectives, 188.
to noons, 184.
to verbs, 141.
Letters, granunar of, 7.

redondant, 8.

Moods, 88.

syntax of, 80.
Matea, 5, 8.

KominatiTe case, 20.

absolote, 86

of address, 97.

syntax of, 64.
Konns, 9.

abstrut, 1^.

dassiflcation of, 9.

class-names, 10.

collective, 10.

common, 10.

compoond, formation of, 118.

English sofllxes to, 128.

inflexions of, 11.

Latin and French soflSxas to, 184

proper, 9.

syntax of, 84-71.
Kmnber of noons, 15.

of verbs, 48.
Komeral ac^ectives, 29.
Kmnerals, 80.

Object, cognate, 22.

factitive, 22.

reflexive, 22.
ObJectiTe case, 22.

syntax of, 68.
Ordinal nomerals, 81.
Orthography, 5.

Palatala, 8.

Participle, 40.

FaasiTe voice, 87.

Peraon of vorbs, 42.

Persona, words derived firam names oi;

154.
Places, words derived firom names o(

158.
Flozala, iUse, 17.

foreign, 18.

modes of framing, 19.

of compoond words, 19.

treated as singolars; 18.

IMDKX

461

Plnnls, words nied only in their, 18.

words with two, 17.
PossessiTe case, 20.

syntax of, 67.
Predicate of sentence, 89.
Preflxes, 103.

BngUsh inseparable, 120.

English separable, 121.

Greek, 126.

Latin, 123.

to indicate gender, 18.
PrepoaitioinB, 68.

list of special, 84.

syntax of, 88.
Prononiu, S3.

indefinite, 27.

inflexions of, 84, 26.

interrogatiTe, 26.

personal, 28.

reflexiTe, 25.

relatiTe (or coi^jnnctiTeX 26.

syntax of, 74.

QwaitatiTB a4)ectiTes, 28.
QwuititatiTe a4jectiyes, 29.

BeflflxiTe pronouns, 25.

RelAtive (or coi^junctive) prononns, 26.

Roote and branches, 143-168.

English. 144.

Greek, 162.

Latin, 147.

Sentenoes, analysis ot 86-116.
contracted, 87.
. complex, 102.
oompoond. 111.
simple, 87.
BepMable prefixes, English, 121.
SkoU, conjugation of, 48.
Sounds, grammar of, 6.
Spixaiite, 0.

BMkitt co^jogation of, 64.
Strong and weak Terbs, 48.
Strong verbs, list of, 44.
Subject, what it may consist of, 88.
SniBxea, 128.

English, to adjectiyes, 181.
to adyerbs, 188.
to nonns, 128.
to verbs, 184.
Greek, 141.

Latin, to adjectives, 188.
to indicate gender, 18.
to nonns, 184.
to verbs, 141. .
to indicate gender, IS.
■vptrifttiTe degree, 8S.

Syntax, 6, 64-85.

of the adjective, 7L
of the adverb, 88.
of the conjunction, 84.
of the dative, 60.
of the nominative, 64.
of the noun, 64.
of the otijective, 68.
of the possessive, 67.
of the preposition, 83.
of the pronoun, 74.
of the verb, 76.

Syntax, examples of falseordoubtfiil(85a>

Tense, 41.

Transitive and intransitive verbs.

Verbe, 84.

auxiliary, 36, 48.

dassiflcation of, 86.

compound, formation of, 118.

concord of, 76.

conjugation of, 42.

specimen of full, 64.

defective, 63.

government of, 78.

inflexions of, 36.

moods of, 88, 80.

notional, 48.

number of, 42.

person of, 42.

strong and weak, 48.

strong, list of, 44.

suffixes to, English, 184.
Latin, 141.,

syntax of, 76.

tense of, 41.

voice of, 87.

weak and strong, 48.

weak, list of irregular, 46.
two kinds of, 46.
VocatiTe case, 20, 22.
Voice, active, 87.

passive, 87.
Vowel, 6.

Weak and strong verbs, 43.
Weak verbsk irregular, 46.

two kinds of, 46.
TTiU, conjugation of, 48.
Word-branching, 143-163.

firom English roots, 144.

firom Greek roots, 162.

firom Latin roots, 147.
Word-building and derivation, 116-17L
Words, grammar of (BtymologyX 8-68.

kinds of, 8.

known by their Amotions, 61.

462

INDEX.

PART 11.

Alwtnwi vertus concrete, 183.

Aocenta in vene, IM, 195.

Aoenrate English, 178.

Admixation, point of, 188.

Adverb, position of the, 185.

Alexandrine, 199.

AUefory, 191.

AmphilxraGh, 196.

Amphibrachic tetrameter, 200.

Anapaest, 196.

AnapsBStie tetrameter, 200.

And vfhich, 186.

Antecedent and Relatiye, to be clearly

connected, 186.
AntithesU, 182.

Ballad metre, 198.
Blank verse, 197.
Brevity, 179.

GsBSiixa,

CLrcnmlocntion, 185.

Clearness, 178.

Coleridge^s examples and descriptions of

different metres, 201.
ColQn,187.
Comma, 188.
Compactness, 179.
Comporition, hints on, 175.

cautions, general, 184.
special, 185.

directions, general, 176.
Concrete versus abstract, 183.
Conjunctions, omission of, 181.
Couplet, 204.

Dactyl, 196.
Dactylic dimeter, 200.

tetrameter, 200.
Dash, 188.
Defective lines, 201.
Dependent, and principal sentences, not

to be mixed up, 186.
DetaU, 184.
Dimeter, dactylic, 200.
Distinctness of sl^le, 183.

Bl^^iac verse, 204.
Emphasis, 180.
English, accurate, 178.

flowing, 179.

good, 176.

pure, 177.

Epigram, 182.
Exaggerated language, 186.
Exaggeration (hyperboleX 191.
Exclamation, mark of, 18L

Fignxee of speech, 189.
Flowing English, 179.
Foot (in verse), 196.
Full stop, 187.

Good English, 176.

Hackneyed phrases, 184.
Half-rhymes, 202.

*' Happy Life, The^"— paraphrased, 19&
Heroic couplet, 204.

verse, 197.
Hexameter, 127.

iambic, 198.
Hyperbole (exaggerationX 191
Hypermetrical lines, 201.

Iambic hexameter, 198.

pentameter, 197, 198.

tetrameter, 197, 198.

trimeter, 197.
Iambus, 195.
Imperative mood, the use of, in ocHnpooi-

tion, 18L
Interrogation, point of, 188.
Interrogative form (for emphasisX 181.
Inversion, 180.

Loose sentoice, 164, I8O1.

Metaphor, 190.

Metonymy, 191.

Metres, examples and descriptions of the

different, by Coleridge, 201.
Misplaced phrases, 187.
Mixed metaphors, 185.

Octave (ottava rima), 204.

(in the sonnetX 205.
Octometer, trochaic, 199.

Paraphrase of " The Happy Life," 108.

Paraphrasing, 192.

Parenthesis, 188.

Participles, management of, 185.

present, 185.
Pentameter, 197, 198.
Period (ftill stop), 187.

INDEX.

463

Period (sentenoeX 179, 180.

PeriiilinaU, 181.

PenonUleatioii, 190.

PrindiMd and dependent sentences, not

to be mixed up, 186.
Ptonmuis, management of, 184.
Plrosody (grammar of Terse^ lM-201.
PimetiiAtion, 187.
Pure English, 177.

QoAtraia, S04.

SelAtiTe and antecedent, to be clearly

connected, 186.
BapeUtion, 181, 182.
Rhyme, aoo.
Rhythm, to be coltivated by reading

aload, 17ft.

Semicolon, 187.

Serrioe metre, 198.

86d«tte,205.

Bertaat, 204.

Simile, 189.

Simplicity, 178.

Skeleton of theme to be written, 176.

Sonnet, 205.

Spedftcation, 188.

Spenserian stanza, 204.

Spondee, 20L

Stwua,20*.

Subject of sentence, not to be changed,

186.
Suspense, 182.
Synecdodie, 191.
Synonyms, 178.

Tautology, 186:
Tetrameter, 197.

amphibrachlc, 200.

anapaestic, 200.

dactylic, 200.

iambic, 197, 198.

trochaic, 199.
Thai and vho distingoished, 186.
Trimeter, 197.
Triplet, 204.

tetrameter, 204.
Trochaic octometer, 199.
Trochee, 195.

TJnrhymed (blank) yerse, 197.

Vague sentence, contrasted with specific,

183.
Verbosity, 179.

Verse, different firom Prose in two things,
194.
grammar of (Prosody), 194-201.

Which and and which, 186.
Who and thai distinguished, 186.

PART III.

AfHcMi words in English, 841.
American words in English, 841.
Analytic English (=modem), S17.
Ancient English, 277.

synthetic, 817.
Anflo-Saxon, specimen ftom, 828.

contrasted with English of Wyclif
and Tyndale, S29.
AnUe words in EngUsh, 841.
Aryan flmiily of languages, 273.

BlUe, English of the, 834.
WHwgnaliam, 80a

CSiangaa of language, nerw sudden, 276.
CSdneM words in EngUsh, 842.

Dead and living languages, 276.

Dialects of English, 816.

Doublets, EngUsh and other, 314-816.

Greek, 811.

Latin, 308-311.
Dutch and Welsh contrasted, 275.

words in English, 888.

English, 272.

a liOW-Oerman tongue, 274.

diagram of, 281.

dialects of, 816.

early and oldest, compared, 880.

elements of, characteristics of the

two, 812-814.
English element in, 280.

464

INDEX.

^»f^A for«ign demtnts in, S82.
gnmrnu of, its hiatory, 817-827.
its apread oTer Britain, 276.
modern, 886-848.
nation, 280.
ofthe Bible, 384.
of the thirteenth oentmy, 882.
of the fourteenth oentory, 888.
of the sixteenth centory, 884.
. on the Continent, 272.
periods of, 276-279.

marks which distin^^h, 882.
syntax of, changed, 828.
the Ikmily to which it belongs, 278.
the gronp to which it belongs, 278,

274.
▼ocaboiary of, 280-816.

Foraign elements in English, 282.
Fnokch. (new) words in Engjish, 889.
(Norman), see Norman-French.

Gennioi words in English, 810.
Gfamnuur of English, 817-827.

comparatiTely fixed (since 1485), 886.

First Period, 818.

general view of its history, 821.

Second Period, 819.

short view of its history, 817-821.

Third Period, 820.

Fourth Period, 820.
Greek doublets, 811.
Outtorals, expulsion of, 824-826.

Hebrew words in English, 840.
Hindu words in English, 842.
History of English, landmarks in, 844.
Hvngariui words in English, 842.

Indo-Eoropeaa &mily, 278.
InilexionB in different i)eriods, compared,
881.

loss of, 817, 818.

grammatical result of loss, 826.
Italian words in English, 887.

Keltic element in English, 282-284.

Landmarka in the history of Englishi

844.
Language, 271.

changes of 276.

growth of, 271.

living and dead, 276.

spoken and written, 281.

written, 271.
Latin contributions and their dates, 287.

Latin doublets, 808-811.

element in English, 286-81L
of the eye and ear, 808.
of the First Period, 288.
Second Period, 289, 290.
Third Period, 290-305.
Fourth Period, 805-808.
triplets, 811.
Lord's Prayer, in four versions, 829,
880.

KaUy words in English, 842.
Middle English, 278.
Modem English, 279, 886-848.

analytic, 817.
Monoayllablea, 822.

Kew words in English, 886-848.
Kormaa-FrBnch, 290.

biUngualism caused by, 800.

contributions, general character ol^
298.

dates of, 291-298.

element in English, 290-806.

gains to English from, 299-802.

losses to English from, 808-805.

synonyms, 800.

words, 294-298.

Oldest and early English compared, 880.
Order of words in English, dianged, 828.

Periods of EngUsh, 276-279.
Ancient, 277.
Early, 277.
Middle, 278.
Tudor, 279.
Modem, 279.
grammar of the diflTerent, 817-827.
marks indicating different, 832.
specimens of different, 828-385.
Persian words in English, 842.
Polynesian words in English, 842.
Portuguese words in English, 842.

Renascence (Revival of Learning)^ 805
Russian words in English, 842.

Scandinavian element in English, 284-

286.
Scientiilo terms in English, 848.
Spanish words in English, 837.
Specimens of English of different periods,

828-885.
Spoken and written language, 281.
Syntax of English, change in, 828.
Synthetic English (s«aneientX 817.

INDEX.

465

Tartar wordB in English, 84S.
Tratonic group, 278.
Tndor English, 279.
Tuldsh words in English, 842.
Vy Bdale'B English, compared with Anglo-
Saxon and Wyclif, 829.

Vocabvlary of the English langnage, 280-
818.

Walah and Dutch contrasted, 278.
Words and inflexions in different periods,
compared, 8S1.
new, in EngUsh, 888-848.
Written language, 271.

and spoken, 281.
Wjrdif s English, compared with 1^-
dale's and Anglo-Saxon, 829.

PART IV.

Addison, Jose]^ 898.
Alfred, 854.

AngUhSatum Oknmicls, 864
Arnold, Matthew, 487.
Anaten, Jane, 428.

BaOon, Francis, 877.

Bnda (Venerable BedeX 888.

Barbonr, John, 868.

Beowulf , S6l,

Blake, William, 412.

Browning, Robert, 480.

Browning, Mrs., 485.

Brunanhwrgf Sang qf, 858.

Bninne, Robert of, 857.

Bnil, 855.

Bnnyan, John, 887.

Bnxke, Edmund, 404

Bams, Robert, 410.

Bvtlar, Samuel, 882.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 42L

Clbdmon, 852.
Oainpbell, Thomas, 420.
Garljle, Thomas, 427.
Oaixton, William, 888.
Cfbatterton, Thomas, 41L
CSiMioer, Geoffrey, 861.

followers of, 865.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 418.
Collins, William, 899.
Cowper, William, 407.
CniblMb George, 409.

Defo«, Daniel, 89a
De Qnino^y, Thomas, 42&
Dickans, Charles, 489.
Dryd«, John, 888.

Eliot, George, 442.

Gibbon, Edward, 406.
CHonoester, Robert of, 857.
Ooldamith, Oliver, 408.
Oower, John, 860.
Gray, Thomas, 898.

Hobbes, Thomas, 886.
Hooker, Richard, 874.

Jamea I. (of ScotlandX 865.
Johnson, Samuel, 401.
Jonson, Ben, 878.

Keata, John, 428.

Lamb, Charles, 424.

Landor, Walter Sarage, 426.

Tianglande, Williani, 860.

Layamon, 865.

Locke, John, 887.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 482.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 429.
Maldon, Song of the Fight at, 868.
Manderille, Sir John, 859.
Harlowe, Christopher, 878.
Milton, John, 881.
Moore, Thomas, 42a
More, Sir Thomas, 868.
Mozzis, William, 488.

Onn's Ormfihm, 856.

Pope, Alexander, 895, 897.

Rnleigh, Sir Walter, 876.
Buskin, John, 44L

466

INDEX.

Sooti, Sir Walter, 417.
Shakaq^Mn, WillUun, 870, 879.

ooDtemporaries of, 372.
SlMll«gr, Percy BysBbe, 4S2.
SidMsr, Sir FhUip, 876.
8oath«7, Robert, 419.
^peoMr, Edmund, 869.
Steele, Richard, 894.
Siirrqr, Earl of, 807.
Swift, Jonathan, 89L

Tajlar, Jeremy, 836.
Tennywm, AUked, 4ML
Thackaray, WiliLim Hahepeaoe, 4S9L
Thomaon, James, 897, 898.
Tyndale, William, 808.

Wordfworth, WOliam, 415.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 867.
Wydii; John, 80a

Printed by T. and A. GoNflTABLX, Printeia to Hia Mi^eaty,
at the Edinburgh Univeraity Press

YB 36419

462407

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