It is not used exactly as a relative, as in modern English, but is joined with that; as 'Hem whiche that wepith;''His love the which that he oweth.'

(b) What is occasionally used for why (cp. Lat. quid, Ger. was):

'What sholde he studie. and make himselven wood??

'What sholde I alday of his wo endyte??

(Prol. 1. 184.)

(Knightes Tale, 522.)

6. That is a relative pronoun, but it is often used with the personal pronouns, in the following manner :

(a) That he who.

'A knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the tyme that he first began

To ryden out, he loved chivalrye.'

(Prol. ll. 43-45.)

'Al were they sore y-hurt, and namely oon,
That with a spere was thirled his brest-boon.'
(Knightes Tale, ll. 1851-52.)

'I saugh to-day a corps yborn to chirche
That now on Monday last I saugh him wirche.'
(Milleres Tale, 1. 243.)

This construction occurs in A.S. writers. Cp. That næs ná eówres pances ac thurh God, þE ic purh HIS willan hider ásend wæs = that was not of your own accord but through God, through whose will I was sent hither. (Gen. xlv, 8.)

7. The words who and who so are used indefinitely; as, ́ As who seith' as one says; 'Who so that can him rede' (Pròl. 1. 741)=if that any one can read him.

8. Me and men are used like the French on, English one.

Me, which must be distinguished from the dative me, was in use as an indefinite pronoun much later than is usually considered by English grammarians :

And stop me (= let any one stop) his dice, you are a villaine.' (Lodge, 'Wits Miserie.')

=

1. In some manuscripts the t of the 2nd person sing. present tense is sometimes dropped, as in the Harl. MS. dos — dost, has = hast. This has been considered by some as a mere clerical error; but in the East Midland dialects, there was a tendency to drop the t, probably arising from the circumstance of the 2nd person of the verb in the Northumbrian dialects terminating always in -es.

2. Verbs of Saxon origin, which have d or t for the last letter of the root (and one or two that have s), sometimes keep the contracted form in the 3rd sing. as sit = sitteth, sits; writ = writeth, writes; fint=findeth, finds; halt-holdeth, holds; rist= riseth, rises; stont = stondeth=stands.

3. We often find -th instead of -eth, as spekth=speaketh a. 4. In some MSS. of the Cant. Tales, the plural of the present indicative occasionally ends in -eth (-th), which was the

z In this edition I have often given the full form of the preterite in -ede, although the MSS. mostly write -ed; but in the best MS. of Chaucer's prose translation of Boethius the preterite ends in ede (-ed, -te), very seldom in -ed (-d, -t). Either the medial or the final e was frequently dropped. a This contraction occasionally takes place in the imperative plural. See Nonne Prestes Tale, 1. 620, where'read Tak'th.

ordinary inflexion for all persons in the Old English Southern dialects.

And over his heed ther schyneth two figures.'

(Knightes Tale, 1. 1185, Harl. MS.)

5. There are two other classes of the weak conjugation which form the past tense by -de or -të. To the first class belong

Some few verbs have a change of vowel in the past tense; as

If the root ends in d or t, preceded by another consonant, ë only is added, as—

1. These verbs have a change of vowel in the past tense, and the past participle ends in -en or -ë; as sterven, to die; pret. starf; p.p. storven or storve. (See Participles, p. xxxix. 3.)

2. Some few strong verbs take the inflexions of the weak verbs, so that we have double forms for the past tense, as—

Slepen, sleep, slep, and slep-te.
Crepen, creep, crep, and crep-te.
Wepen, weep, wep, and wep-te.

3. The 1st and 3rd persons of the past indicative of strong verbs do not take an -e in the singular number; the addition of this syllable turns them into plurals. Cf. 6 (below.)

4. The East Midland dialect, in the Early English period, dropped the -e in the 2nd person past indicative; and we find in Chaucer 'thou bar,'' thou spak,' 'thou dronk' (O. E. thou ber-e, thou spek-e, thou drunk-e),=thou barest, thou spakest, thou drankest. But these forms may be due merely to the scribes.

Occasionally we find -est, as in modern English; as bygonnest, knewest, &c.

5. The plural indicative ends in -en or -e.

6. Some few verbs, as in the older stages of the language, have a change of vowel in the past tense plural, as

1. The present subjunctive, singular number, terminates in -e, the plural in -en; the past (of weak verbs) in -ede, -de, -te, the plural in -eden, -den, -ten, through all persons.

2. Such forms as speke we, go we, let us speak, let us go.

IMPERATIVE MOOD.

1. Verbs conjugated like loven and tellen have the 2nd person sing. imperative in -e; as love thou, telle thou. All other verbs have properly no final e, as 'her thou'=hear thou, “ches thou' =choose thou.

2. The plural terminates usually in -eth, but sometimes the -th is dropped.

INFINITIVE MOOD.

The infinitive ends in -en or -e; as speken, speke, to speak. The -n was dropped at a very early period in the Southern English dialect of the fourteenth century, and -e is preferred to -en.

The gerundial infinitive, or dative case of the infinitive (preceded by to), occasionally occurs, as to doon-e (=to don-ne), tỏ sen-e (=to sen-ne), to do, to see. (See Kn. Ta. 177.)

PARTICIPLES.

1. The present participle ends usually in -ing. The A. S. suffix was ende, which is used by Gower; but in the Southern dialect of Early English we find -indeb, which has evidently given rise to -inge, of which -ing is a shorter form; but the longer -inge is occasionally employed by Chaucer, to rhyme with an infinitive verb in -e.

The suffix -ing, of nouns like morning, was -ung in the older stages of the language.

2. The past participle of weak verbs terminates in -ed, -d, and occasionally in -et, -t; that of strong verbs in -en or -e.

3. The prefix y- or i- (A. S. ge-) occurs frequently before the past participle, as y-ronne (run), i-falle (fallen), &c.

ANOMALOUS VERBS.

1. Ben, been, to be:-1st sing. pres. indic. am; 2nd art; 3rd beth, is; pl. been, ben, aren, are; past, 1st and 3rd was; 2nd were. Imperative pl. beth; p.p. been, ben.

2. Conne, to know, be able :-pres. indic., 1st and 3rd can; 2nd can, canst; pl. connen, conne; past, 1st and 3rd couthe, cowthe, cowde; p.p. couth, coud.

3. Daren, dare :-pres. indic. sing., 1st and 3rd dar; 2nd darst; pl. dar, dorre; past dorste, durste.

4. May:—pres. indic. sing., 1st and 3rd mow, may; 2nd mayst, maist, might; pl. mowe, mowen; pres. subjunctive mowe; past tense, 1st and 3rd mighte, moghte, 2nd mightest (Kn. Ta. 797).

5. Mot, must, may :-indic. pres. sing., 1st and 3rd mot, moot; 2nd must, moot; pl. mooten, moote; past moste.

b The Northern form of the participle was -ande, -and, which occasionally occurs in the Romaunt of the Rose, as lepand, leaping. The East Midland dialect had the double forms -end and -and.