An old meaning of self was same. truth" (Becon), and "self-same."

Cp. "the self

"The same self time."

BALE'S Works, Park. Soc. p. 23.

"For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,
With self-same hand, self reasons, and self right,
Would shark on you."

SIR T. MORE, ed. Shak. Soc. p. 27.

III. Adjective Pronouns.

133. The Adjective Pronouns, sometimes called Possessive Pronouns, were formed from the genitive case of the personal pronouns, and were declined like ordinary adjectives.

In modern English the possessive pronouns, though only used adjectively, are identical in form with the old genitives of the personal pronouns.

Sing.-Mine, my; thine, thy; his, hers, its. Plural.-Our, ours; your, yours; their,

theirs.

Mine, my; thine, thy. The original forms were mine and thine (O.E. mîn, thin). The final e is no inflexion, and only marks the length of the preceding vowel.

The -n in mine and thine is an old genitive suffix. My and thy are formed from mine and thine by the loss of n, as no from none, a from an.

Mine and thine are occasionally used before a noun beginning with a vowel, or h; but this usage is confined to poetry and the solemn style.

It is very common in the Bible, and in our old dramatists: :

"Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice." Hamlet, I. 3.

"Conduct me to mine host."- Macbeth, 1. 7. Sometimes mine and thine are used when they follow the substantive, as,

66

Lordyng myne."—Gest. Rom. p. 32. "Master mine."

Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1. 163.

Hi-s is a true genitive of the root hi.

He-r (O.E. hi-re), contains a genitive suffix fem. -r. Its (O.E. his). This is quite a modern form, not much older than the end of the sixteenth century. It does not occur in the Bible; it was not used by Spenser, rarely by Shakspeare and Bacon, but is more frequently employed by Milton, and had quite established itself in Dryden's time as the regular form. The true genitive of it is his.

"Put up again thy sword into his place."—Matt. xxvi. 52. "Learning has his infancy, when it is but beginning, and

almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust."-BACON, Essays, 58.

In the fourteenth century we find hit

= its. This form was

kept up as late as the seventeenth century.

"Of it own accord."-Levit. xxv. 5.

"It knighthood shall do worse....it shall fright all it friends." BEN JONSON, The Silent Woman, ii. 3.

The own = its own, occurs as early as the fourteenth century, and was in use in the sixteenth century.

"And albeit their trumpery be built up, and reared as high as

the sky, yea even in a moment, and as it were of the own self, falleth it down again.”—Translation of Jewel, ed. Jelf, p. 153.

Ou-r, you-r (O.E. ur-e, eow-er.)

These forms contain a suffix -r, which belongs also to the genitive plural of adjectives. See note on Alderliefest, § 111, p. 88.

Thei-r has this genitival suffix -r, which also appears in O.E. hi-re, heo-re; M.E. he-r. See table, p. 106.

IV. Independent or Absolute Possessives.

134. Mine, thine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, are used without a following noun.

"Be thine despair and sceptred care;

To triumph and to die are mine."

GRAY, The Bard.

Ours, yours, theirs are double genitives, containing a genitive plural suffix -r + a singular suffix Hers is also a double genitive.

-S.

These genitives in -s are not found in the oldest English; they made their first appearance in the Northern dialects of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and are due to Scandinavian influence. Cp. Swed. (old style) mins, dins, mine, thine; värs ours, ers, = yours.

=

The more ordinary forms in the Southern dialects were hire, hir (hers), oure, our (ours), &c. Sometimes we find ouren = ours, heren = theirs.

II. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS.

135. The Demonstratives are the, that, this, such, so, same, yon, (yond, yonder).

The (usually called the Definite Article), was formerly declined like an adjective for number, gender, and case; it is now indeclinable.

Gen.

the

Dat.
Acc.

thai)

thâ

tha-re, the-re, the-r thâ-ra, thæ-ra the, (tha, tho, tha-re, the-re, the-r thâ-m, thæ-m tha, tho, the

In the second period the article is flexionless in Northern writers.

The old form tho, the plural of the, is used as late as Warner's time. They is occasionally found in Tudor English as the plural of the.

The, before comparatives, as, "the more the merrier," is a remnant of the old instrumental case thi. Cp. O.E. thi mare = Lat. eo magis. It must be parsed as an adverb when used in this way.

136. That was originally the neuter of the. In Northern dialects it replaced the demonstrative thilk, and was used before nouns of all genders. Its plurals were (1) tho (or tha) the pl. of the def. art. ; (2) thos (or thas) the old plural of this.

The tin that is the old neuter suffix. Cp. it, what.

Those (O.E. thâs), was at first the plural of this. It had established itself as early as the middle of the fourteenth century, as the plural of that.

137. This was originally neuter. As late as 1387 we find thes (masc.), theos (fem.), this (neuter), Lat. hic, hæc, hoc.

This is more emphatic than the, ard was originally equivalent to the-the. Cp. Fr. ce-ci, ce-la.

These (O.E. thas, thâs, E. E. thas, theos, thos, thes, these, M.E. thes, thees, thise, these).

The final e in these, marks the length of the preceding vowel; it is not an inflexion.

The form these in M. E. may have been a new plural formed from this, and therefore commonly spelt thise.

This and that sometimes replace the former and the latter (O.E. se arra and se aftera) see $ 116, p. 95.

This usually refers to the latter of two things mentioned, that to the former.

"Two principles in human nature reign;
Self-love to urge, and Reason to restrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call."

POPE, Essay on Man, ii. 2.