Series ^be English Ljingujige •nhN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE u ITS GRAMMAR, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE WITH CHAPTERS ON COMPOSITION, VERSIFICATION, PARAPHRASING, AND PUNCTUATION J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN, MA. PROFESSOR OF THE THEORY, HISTORY, AND PRACTICE OF EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS THI11 T Y-F I R ST KDITIO N ENLARGED WITH EXERCISES, ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS, AND EXAMPLES OF FALSE OR DOUBTFt'I. SYNTAX [ Thoroughly Revised] LONDON MEIKLEJOHN AND SON LTD. 11 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.C. 1915 [All Rights Reserved] 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 lie 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 Kules. 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 IV 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 rules 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. 1). 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 I. PAGE LANGUAGE ..... 1 ORTHOGRAPHY 5 ETYMOLOGY 8 NOUNS !) TRONOUNS . 23 ADJECTIVES . , 28 VERBS 34 ADVERBS 57 PREPOSITION s 58 CONJUNCTIONS . 60 INTERJECTIONS . 60 WORDS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS . 61 SYNTAX . . 64 NOUN 64 NOMINATIVE CASE . 64 POSSESSIVE CASE 67 OBJECTIVE CASE 68 DATIVE CASE . 69 ADJECTIVE . 71 PRONOUN 74 VERB 76 ADVERB 83 PREPOSITION AND CON J UN C rivx . 83-84 EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, OR GENUINE SYNTAX 85(a) ANALYSIS ...... 86 SIMPLE SENTENCE . 87 FORMS OF SENTENCES 87 PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 88 NOMINATIVE OF ADDRESS 97 COMPLEX SENTENCE 103 CAUTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX SENTENCES l<)7 THE MAPPING OUT OF COMPLEX SENTENCES 109 COMPOUND SENTENCE .... 111 CO-ORDINATE SENTENCES .... 112 PARENTHETICAL SENTENCES 1 15 WORD-BUILDING AND DERIVATION 116 COMPOUND N OUNS . 116 VI CON CENTS. word-building and hi-.iti\ ation — Continued rPODND ADJECTIVES COMPOUND VERBS . COMPOUND ADVERBS PREFIXES AND SI FFIXI I < POLISH PREPIXES LATIN PREFIXES GREEK PREFIXES ENGLISH SUFFIXES LATIN AND FRENCH Bl I 1 [XES GREEK SUFFIXES WORD-BRANCHING ENGLI8H HOOTS LATIN ROOTS GREEK ROOTS DS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF P] WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM WORDS THAT HAVE CHANGED IN MEANING PART II. COMPOSITION PUNCTUATION FIGURES OF SPEECH PARAPHRASING . PROSODY . EXERCISES EXAMINATION QUESTIONS PART in. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, AND THE FAMILY TO WHICH IT HELONGS .... THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH HISTORY OF THE VOCAB1 LAR1 BISTORT OF THE GRAMMAR SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH 01 DIFFERENT PERIODS ■ K.N (.1.1 SI I LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORI 01 PHE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PART IV. HISTORY 01 ENGLISH LITERATI ... TABLES OF ENGLISH LITER VTURE 349 I 15 1 N | i 1 \ 459 PAET I. THE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INTRODUCTION. 1. What a Language is. — A Language is a number of con- nected sounds which convey a meaning. These sounds, 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 mure felt; and hence 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 arc, 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 eye. 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. 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 born, live, and die out without having ever been written down at all. The parts of a spoken language are called sounds ; the smallest parts of a written language are 4 GRAMMAR OF THE 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 — hut 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 1 50 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, the whole of North America, the whole of Australasia, and parts of Asia, South America, and Africa. 4. The Grammar of English.— Every 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 understand 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 Grammar. — 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 ( Jrammar of Sentences. The Grammar of Let- ters is called Orthography ; the Grammar of Words is called Etymology ; and the Grammar of Sentences is called Syntax. THE GRAMMAR OF LETTERS. 5 There is also a Grammar of musically measured Sentences; and this grammar is called Prosody. (i) Orthography comes from two Greek words: orthos, right; and graphs, a writing. The word therefore means correct writing. (ii) Etymology 1 comes from two Greek words: ctumos, true; and logos, an account. It therefore means a true account of words. Syntax comes from two Greek words : sun, together, with ; and taxis, an order. When a Greek general drew up his men in order of battle, lie was said to have them " in syntaxis." The word now means an account of the build of sentences. (iv) Prosody comes from two Greek words : pros, to ; and ode, a song. It means the measurement of verse. 1 The term Etymology is also used to denote the process which traces the origin or derivation of a word. THE GRAMMAR OF SOUNDS AND LETTERS, or ORTHOGRAPHY. 6. The Grammar of Sounds. — There are two kinds of sounds in our language : (i) the open sounds ; and (ii) the stopped sounds. The open sounds are called vowels ; the stopped sounds consonants. Vowels can be known 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. voyelle ; from Lat. vftcdlis, sounding. (ii) Consonant comes from Lat. con, with ; and sSno, I sound. (iii) Two vowel-sounds uttered without a break between them are called a diphthong. Thus oi in boil; ai in aisle axe diphthongs. (The word comes from Greek dis, twice ; and phthonge, a sound.) 7. The Grammar of Consonants: (1) Mutes. — 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 Labials. 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 ENGLISH LANGUAGE. These consonants are called Gutturals. The above set of sounds are called Mutes, because the sound comes to a full stop. (i) Labial conies from Lat. labium, the lip. (ii) Dental comes from Lat. dens (dents) a tooth. Hence also dentist. (iii) Guttural comes from Lat. guttur, the throat. (iv) Palatal comes from Lat. palatum, the palate. 8. The Grammar of Consonants : (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 f. Hence v and f are called spirant labials. The following is a complete TABLE OF CONSONANT SOUNDS. MUTES. SPIRANTS. Flat (or Soft). Sharp (or Hard). Nasal. Flat (or Soft). Sharp (or Hard). Trilled. Gutturals g (w» g'g) k ng h Palatals . J eh (church) y (yea) Palatal \ Sibilants / zh (azure) sh (sure) r Dental \ Sibilants f Z (prize) S 1 Dentals . d t n th (bathe) V & W th (bath) Labials b P m f & wh l (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 less effort than p and t. Hence b and d, etc., are called soft or flat ; and p and t, etc., are called bard or sharp. THE GKAMMAR OF LETTERS. 7 9. The Grammar of Letters. — Letters are conventional signs or symbols 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 & r, — X g $, 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 : alpha, beta. 10. An Alphabet. — An alphabet is, as we have seen, a code of signs or signals. Every code of signs has two laws, neither of which can be broken without destroying the accuracy and trustworthiness 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, gauge. (ii) The second liv. is broken when we give eight different soundi to the one symbol ough, as in — bough, cough, dougn, hiccough ( = cup), hough ( = hock), tough, through, thorough. 11. Our Alphabet. — The spoken alphabet of English contains forty-three sounds; the written alphabet has only twenty -six symbols or letters to represent them. Hence the English al- 8 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. phabet id very deficient. I Jut it is also redundant. For it contains five superfluous letters, c, q, x, iv, and y. The work of the letter c might be clone by either k or by s; that of q by k; x is equal to fcs or grs/ w> could be represented by oo ; and much thai 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 tlum one hundred different ways. (i) There are twelve ways of printing a short i, as in sit, Cyril, busy, women, etc. (ii) There are twelve ways of printing a short e, as in set, any, bury, bread, etc. (iii) There are ten ways of printing a long e, as in mete, marine, meet, meat, key, etc. (iv) There are thirteen ways of printing a short u, as in bad, love, berth, rough, flood, etc. (v) There are eleven ways of printing a long u, as in rwde, move, blew trwc, etc. THE GKAMMAK 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 Nouns are called Pronouns, (iii) Next come the words-that-go-with- Nouns or Adjectives, (iv) Fourthly, come the words-that- say-something-of-Nouns or Verbs, (v) Next, the words that qualify anj moun are called Adverba (vi) The words tliat-show-relation are called Prepositions; (vii) those that-join-Words-and -join -Sentences are called Conjunctions. Lastly (viii) come Interjections, which are indeed mere sounds without any organic or vital connection with other md they are hence sometimes called extra- grammatical utterances. Nouns and Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs, have distinct, individual, and substantive meanings. ins have no meanings in themselves, but merely refer to nouns, just like a [g£T 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 ; hut they never represent a thought — only a feeling, a feeling of pain or of pleasure, of sorrow or of surprise. NOUNS. 1. A Noun is a name, or any word or words used as a name. Ball, house, fish, John, Mary, are all names, and are therefore nouns. " 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 nomen, a name. From this word we have also nominal, denominate, denomination, etc. THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS. 2. Nouns are of two classes — Proper and Common. 3. A proper noun is the name of an individual, as an in- dividual, and not as one of a class. John, Mary, London, Birmingham, Shakespeare, Milton, are all proper nouns. The word proper comes from the Latin proprius, one's own. Hence a proper noun is, in relation to one person, one's own name. From the same word we have appropriate, 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 France, French, Frenchified ; Milton, Miltonic ; Shakespeare, Shake- spearian. (ii) Proper nouns, as such, have no meaning. They are merely marka to indicate a special person or place. They had, however, originally a meaning. The persons now called Armstrong, Smith, Greathead, no doubt had ancestors who were strong in the arm, who did the work of smiths, 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 class. Thus we can say, " He is the Milton of his age," meaning by this that be possesses the qualities which all those poets have who are like Hilton. (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 GKAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 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. Horse, town, boy, table, are common nouns. The word common comes from the Lat. communis, "shared by several"; and we find it also in community, commonalty, etc. (i) A common noun is so called because it belongs in common to all the persons, places, or things in the same class. (ii) The name rabbit marks off, or distinguishes, that animal from all other animals ; but it does not distinguish one rabbit from another — it is common to all animals of the 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 Longshanks 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, sugar, wheat, water. 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 collective noun is the name of a collection of persons or things, looked upon by the mind as one. Thus we say committee, parliament, crowd; and think of these collections of persons as each one body. (iii) An abstract 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 : as a quality in itself, abstracted from the persons. (From Lat. abs, from ; tractus, drawn.) (") The names "f arts and sciences are. abstract nouns, because they are the names of processes of thought, considered apart and abstracted from (lie persons who practise them. Thus, music, painting, grammar, chemistry, astronomy, are abstract nouns. (iv) Abstract nouns are (a) derived from adjectives, as hardness, dulness, doth, from hard, dull, and slow; or (b) from verbs, as growth, thought, from grow and think, THE INFLEXIONS OF NOUNS 1 1 (v) Abstract nouns are sometimes used as collective nouns. Tims we say "the nobility and gentry " for "the nobles and gentlemen" of the land. (vi) 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. I I Proper Common. Class-Names. Collective Nouns. Abstract Nouns. THE INFLEXIONS OF NOUNS. 7. Nouns can be inflected or changed. They are inflected to indicate Gender, Number, and Case. "We must not, however, forget that differences of gender, number, or case are not always indicated by inflexion. Inflexio is a Latin word which means bending. An inflexion, therefore, is a bending away from the ordinary form of the word. Gender. 8. Gender is, in grammar, the mode of distinguishing sex by the aid of words, prefixes, or suffixes. The word gender comes from the Lat. genus, generis (Fr. genre), 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 masculine gender, as master, lord, Harry. Lat. nuts, a male. (ii) Names of females are of the feminine gender, as mistress, lady, Harriet. Lat. femina, a woman. (From the same word we have effeminate, etc.) (iii) Names of things without sex are pf the neuter gender, as head, tree, London. Lat. neuter, neither. (From the same word we have neutral, neutrality.) (iv) Names of animals, the sex of which is not indicated, are said to be of the common gender. Thus, sheep, bird, hawk, parent, servant, are common, because the} - may be of either gender. 12 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (v) We may sum up thus : — Gender. | , I n i f Masculine. Feminine. Neuter. Common. {Neither) (Either) (vi) If we personify things, passions, powers, or natural forces, we may- make them either masculine or feminine. Thus the Sum,, Time, the Ocean, A nger, War, a river, are generally made masculine. On the other hand, the Moon, the Earth ("Mother Earth"), Virtue, a ship, Religion, Pity, Peace, are generally spoken of as feminine. (vii) Sex is a distinction between animals ; gender a distinction be- tween nouns. In Old English, nouns ending in dom, as freedom, were masculine ; nouns in ness, as goodness, feminine ; and nouns in en, as maiden, chicken, always neuter. But we have lost all these distinctions, and, m modern English, gender always follows 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. I. Gender marked by 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 words. The two endings are en and ster, and the two words are vixen and spinster. (i) Vixen is the feminine of fox ; and spinster of spinner (spinder or spmther, 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 u Feminine suffix very largely in Old English. Thus, webster v.. i-weaver ; baxter (or bag ster), a female baker ; hoppester, a woman-dancer ; redester, a woman-reader ; huckster, a female hawker (travelling merchant) ; and so on. it English bhe masculine ending was a, and the feminine e, as iti wicca, wicce, witch. Hence we find the names of many Saxon kings ending in a, as Ida, Offa, Pcnda, etc. GENDER INDICATED BY SUFFIXES AND PREFIXES. 13 B. Latin and French Suffixes. 11. 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 : — Masculine. Feminine. Mascui.ini:. Feminine. Actor Actress. Host Hostess. Baron Baroness. Lad Lass ( = ladess) Caterer Cateress. l Marquis Marchioness. Count Countess. 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 trix. (i) ine is a Creek ending, and is found in heroine. A similar ending in landgravine and margravine, the feminines of landgrave (a German count) and margrave (a lord of the Mark or of marches), is German. (ii) a is an Italian or Spanish ending, and is found in donna (the feminine of Don, a gentleman), infanta ( = the child, the heiress to the crown of Spain), sultana, and signora (the feminine of Signor, the Italian for Senior, elder, which we have compressed into Sir). (hi) trix is a purely Latin ending, and is found only in those words that have come to us directly from Latin ; as testator, testatrix (a person who has made a will), executor, executrix (a person who carries out the directions of a will). i Obsolete. II. Gender indicated by Free i: sbs (or by Composition). 13. The distinction between the masculine and the feminine gender is indicated by using such words as man, maid — bull, cow — he, she — cock, hen, as prefixes 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- fowl- 14 GRAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 14. The following are the most important words of this kind : — Man-eervant Man He-,L' Jack : Maid-servant,. Woman wife-man) '< >at. She-ass. Jenny-ass. Buck-rabbit 1 >oe-rabbit. Bull-calf Cock-sparrow Wether-lamb Pea-cock Turkey-cock Tom-' i Cow-calf. Hen-sparrrow. Ewe-lamb. Pea-hen. Turkey-hen. Tib-cat. (i) In the time of Shakespeare, he and she were used as nouns. We find Buch phrases as "The proudest he," "The fairest she," "That not impossible she." III. Gender indicated by Different Words. 15. The rise of different words for the masculine and the fem- inine does not really belong to grammatical gender. It may bo well however, to note some of the most important: — Mascclink. '.INK. 'LINE. Feminine. Bachelor Spinster. 1 1 usband Wife. Boy GirL King Queen. Brother tor. L< >rd Lady. Foal Filly. Monk Nun. Drake Duck. phew N iece. Drone Bee. Ram (or Wether Ewe. Earl < 'euntess. Sir Madam. Mother. SI nven Slut, Gander Goose. Son 1 laughter Hind. Uncle Aunt. Horse Marc. Wizard Witch. (i) Bachelor (lit., a cow-Inn , from Low Lat. baccalarius ; from bacca, Low Lat. for vacca, a cow. Hence also vaccination. (ii) Girl, from Low German gdr, a child, by the addition of the diminutive I. Filly, the dim. of foal. (When a syllable is added, the previous d : as in cat, kitten : cock, chicken ; cook, hitch (iv) Drake, a ion of ened-rake, From the A.S. ened, a duck. I t iiat " rake mean bui this is qui! ■ ii. The word duck simply means the bird t hat ducks or dives. (v) Drone, from the droning sound it make;. I Earl, from A.S. tori, a warrior. Countess comes from the French woi I GENDER. 15 (vii) Father = feeder ; cognate of fat, food, feed, fodder, foster, etc. (viii) Goose; in the oldest A.S. gans ; Gandr-a (the « being the sign of the masc). Hence gander, the d being inserted as a cushion be- tween n and r, as in thunder, gender, etc. (ix) Hart = the horned one. (x) Mare, the fem. of A.S. mearh, a horse. Hence also marshal, which at first meant horse-servant. (xi) Husband, from Icelandic, hushondi, the master of the house. A farmer in Norway is called a bonder. (xii) King, a contraction of A.S. cynlng, son of the kin or tribe. (xiii) Lord, a contraction of A.S. hlaford — from hl£f, a loaf, and weard, a ward or keeper. (xiv) Lady, a contraction of A.S. hlaefdige, a loaf-kneader. (xv) The old A.S. words were nefa, nece. (xvi) Woman = wife - man. The pronunciation of xoomen (ivimmen) comes nearer to the old form of the word. See note on (iii.) (xvii) Sir, from Lat. senior, elder. (xviii) Madam, from Lat. Mea domina (through the French Ma dame) -my lady. (xix) Daughter = milker. Connected with dug. (xx) Wizard, from old French guiscart, prudent. Witch has no con- nection with wizard. 16. All feminine nouns are formed from the masculine, with four exceptions : bridegroom, widower, gander, and drake, which come respectively from bride, widow, goose, and duck. (i) Bridegroom was in A.S. brydguma = t\\e bride's man. {Gurna is a cognate of the Lat. hom-o, a man — whence humanity.) (ii) Widower. The old masc. was widuwa ; the fem. widmiie. It was then forgotten that widuwa was a masculine, and a new masculine hud to be formed from iciduwc. Number. 17. Number is, in nouns, the mode of indicating whether we are speaking of one thing ot of more. 18. The English language, like most modern languages, has two numbers ; the singular and the plural. Plural. Singular. Plural. Boxes. Beef Beeves. Gases. Loaf Loaves. Witches. Shelf Shelves. Heroes. Staff Staves. Ladies. Thief Thieves. 1C GRAMMAB OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (i) Singular come from Ihe Lat. singuli, one by one ; plural, from the Lat. plures, more (than one). (ii) Mr Barnes, the eminent Dorsetshire poet, who wrote an ex- cellent grammar, called " Speech -craft," calls them onely and 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 vowel-sound. 20. First Mode. — The plural is formed by adding es or s. The ending es is a modern form of the old A.S. plural in as, as stanas, stones. The following are examples : — Singular. Box Gas Witch Hero Lady (i) It will be seen that es in heroes does not add a syllable to the sing. (ii) Xouus ending in f change the sharp f into a flat v, as in beeves, etc. But we say roofs, cliffs, dwarfs, chiefs, etc. (iii) An old singular of kuhj was ladle ; and this spelling is preserved in the plural. But there has arisen a rule on this point in modern English, which may be thus stated : — B3T (a) Y, with a vowel before It, is not changed in the plural. Thus we write keys, valleys, chimneys, days, etc. (6) Y, with a consonant before it, is changed into ie when s is added for the plural. Thus we write ladies, rubies, and also solilo- quies. (iv) 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) Children is a double plural. The oldest plural was cild-r-u, which became childer. It 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 brether — the oldest plural being brothr-u. (ii) Kine is also a double plural of cow. The oldest plural was c£, and this still exists in Scotland in the form of kye. Then ne was added. NUMBER. 17 22. Third Mode. — The plural is formed by changing the vowel-sound of the word. The following are examples : — Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural Man Men. Tooth Teeth. Foot Feet. Mouse Mice. Goose Geeae. Louse Lice. (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 nation, national ; fox, vixen. Now tlic 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 : — Singular. Plural. Brother brothers (by blood) Cloth cloths (kinds of cloth) Die dies (stamps for coining) Fish fishes (looked at separately) Genius geniuses (men of talent) Index indexes (to books) Pea peas (taken separately) Penny pennies (taken separately) Shot shots (separate discharges) Plural. 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) (i) Pea is a false smgular. The s belongs to the root ; and we find in Middle English "as big as a pease," and the plurals pesen and peses. 24. Some nouns have the same form in the plural as in the smgular. Such are deer, sheep, 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 hrace of birds ; six gross of steel pens; ten stone weight, etc. In fact, the names of numbers, weights, measures, etc., are not put into the plural form. Thus we say, ten hundredweight, jive score, five fathom, six brace. In Old English we also said forty year, sixty winter j and we still say, a twelvemonth, a fort- night { = fourteen nights). 25. There are in English several false plurals — thai is, real singulars which look like, and arc now used as, plurals. These are alms, riches, and eaves. 18 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (i) Alms is a compressed form of the A.S. aelmesse (which is from the Greek eleemosune). We find in Acts iii. 3, "an alms." The adjective connected with it is eleemosynary. (ii) Riches comes from the French richesse. (iii) Eaves is the modern form of the A.S. efese, a margin or edge. 26. There are in English several plural forms that are re- garded and treated as singulars. The following is a list : — Amends. Odds. Smallpox. Gallows. Pains. Thanks. News. Shambles. Tidings. (i) Smallpox = small pocks. 27. There are many norms 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. Draw Pliers. Snuffers. Tongs. Fetters. Scissors. Spectacles. Trousers. (6) The following are examples of the second : — Annals. Dregs. Hustings. Oats. Archives. Embers. Lees. Staggers. Ashes. Entrails. Measles. Stocks. Billiards. Glanders. Mumps. Victuals. j8®" It must be noticed that several nouns — some of them in the above class — change their meaning entirely when made plural. Thus — Singular. Plural. Beef Beeves. Copper Coppers. Singular. Plural. Iron Irons. Pain Pains. Good Goods. 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 — Bandits, cherubs, dogmas, indexes, memorandums, focuses, formulas, terminuses, etc. CASK. 19 (b) As examples of the second, we find — Singular. Plural. Singular. (1) Latin (2) Greek Animalculum Datum Formula Genus Analysis Axis Miasma (3) French Monsieur (4) Italian Bandit Dilettante (5) Hebrew Cherub Animclcula. Data. Formulae. Genera. Analyses. Axes. Miasmata. Messieurs. Banditti. Dilettanti. Cherubim. Radix Series Species Stratum Ellipsis Parenthesis Phenomenon Madam Libretto Virtuoso Seraph Plura-l. Radices. Series. Species. Strata. Ellipses. Parentheses. Phenomena. Mesdames. Libretti. 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. (1) When the compound word is treated as one word, as : attorney- generals, major-generals, spoonfuls, haudfuls, etc. (c) When both parts of the compound take the plural sign, as : men- servants, knights-templars, lords- justices, 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 casus, and means a falling. The old gram- marians regarded the nominative as the upright case, and all cithers as fallings from that. Hence the use of the words decline and declension. (Of course the nominative cannot be a real case, because it is upright and not & falling.) B 20 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 31. We now employ five cases ; Nominative, Possessive, Dative, Objective, and Vocative. (i) In Nouns, only one of these is inflected, or has a case-ending — the Possessive. (ii) In Pronouns, the Possessive, Dative, and Objective are inflected. But the inflexion for the Dative and the Objective is the same. Him and them are indeed true Datives : the old inflection for the Objective was nine and hi. 32. The following are the definitions of these cases : — (1) The Nominative Case is the case of the subject. (2) The Possessive Case indicates possession, or sonic 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 ease of the person spoken to. It is often called the Nominative of Address. (i) Nominative comes from the Lat. nomindrc, to name. From the same root we have nominee. (ii) Dative comes from the Lat dativus, given to. (iii) Vocative comes from the Lat. vocativus, spoken to or addressed. 33. The Nominative Case answers to the question Who? or What? It has always a verb that goes Avith it, and asserts something about the subject. 34. The Possessive Case has the ending 's in the singular ; 's in the plural, when the plural of the noun ends in n ; and ' only when the plural ends in s. iggT The possessive case is kept chiefly for nouns that are the names of living beings. We cannot say "the book's page" or "the box's lid," though in poetry we can say "the hi ii] >le's roof," etc. There are many points that require to be specially noted about the possessive : — (i) The apostrophe (from Gr. apo, away, and strophe, a turning) stands in the place of a lost c, the possessive in O.E. having been in many cases es. In the last century the printers always put hop'd, walk'tl, etc., for hoped, walked, etc. The use of the apostrophe is quite modern. CASE. 21 (ii) If the singular noun ends in s, we often, but not always, write Moses' rod, for conscience' sake, Phoebus' fire ; and yet we say, and ought to say, Jones s books, Wilkins's hat, St 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 possessive in es was sometimes written is ; and hence the corruption into his. Then it came to be fancied that 's was a short form of Jiis. But this is absurd, for two reasons : — (a) We cannot say that " the girl's book " is = the (jirl his book. (b) We cannot say that " the men's tools" is = the men his tools. 35. How shall we account for the contradictory forms Lord's- day and Lady-day, Thurs-day and Fri-day, Wedn-es-day and Mon-day, and for the curious possessive Witenagemot ? Lady-day and Friday are fragments of old possessives. Thus the possessive of lady was in M.E. ladie (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 love). Monday is con- tracted from Monanday, monan being the A.S. poss. of the masc. sb. mona, the moon. The word witenagemot means the meet or meeting of the witan ( =wise men), the possessive of which was witena. 36. The Dative Case answers to the question For whom ? or To whom? It has no separate form for Nouns; and in Pronouns, its form is the same as that of the Objective. But it has a very clear and distinct function in modern 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, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly." (Shakespeare, "Taming of the Shrew," I. ii. 31.) (7) Methought I heard a cry ! ( = Meseems.) (8) Hand me the salt, if you please. Some grammarians prefer to call this the Case of the In- direct Object ; but the term will hardly apply I" 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. l<> or fur. 22 GEAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (i) In the sixth sentence, the me's are sometimes called Ethical Datives. (ii) In the seventh sentence, methought is = meseems, or it seems to me. There were in O.E. two verbs — thincan, to seem ; and thencan, 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 {/ you are a pleasing person, or if you please me. 37. The Objective Case is always governed by an active- transitive verb or a preposition. It answers to the question "Whom ? or What ? 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, " / hurt myself;" "Turn (thou) thee, 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 death ; to run a race ; to fight a fight, 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 complement^ the sense; without it the predication would be incomplete. Factitive comes from the Latin facgre, to make. 38. The difference between the Nominative and the Vocative cases is this : The Nominative case must always have a verb with it ; the Vocative cannot have a verb. This is plain from the sentences : — (i) John did that, (ii) Don't do that, John ! 39. Two nouns that indicate the same person or thing are said t<> be in apposition; and two nouns in apposition may be in any case. (i) But, though the two nouns arc 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 pro, for ; and nomen, 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 ■name. 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 changes. In spite of these changes, they have kept many of their inflexions ; while Dur English adjective has parted with all, and 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 : — PRONOUNS. Personal. Interrogative. Relative. Indefinite. L Who? Who. 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 of. 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 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. SlNOULAR. Plural. Nominative I We. Possessive Mine (or My) Our (or < turs) Dative Me Us. Objective Me 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) I can have no vocative as such. If you address yourself, you must say Thou or You. (iii) The dative is preserved in such words and phrases as "Me thinks" ("it seems tome," — where the think comes from thincan, to seem, and not from th'encan, to think); "Woe is me;" "Me-lists (it pleases me) ; " ,; If you please," etc. 7. The Second Personal Pronoun has no distinction of gender. It has the following forms : — Nominative Possessive Dative Objective Vocative Singular. Thou Thine (or Thy) Thee Thee Thou Plural. You (or Ye). Your (or Yours). You. You. You (or Ye). (i) Ye was the old nominative plural; you was always dative or objective. " Ye have not chosen me ; but I have chosen you." (ii) Thou 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 toi. Hence the verb tutoyer. (iii) My, Thy, Our. Your are used along with nouns ; Mine, Thine, Ours, and Yours cannot go with nouns, and they are always used alone. Mine and Thine, however, are used in Poetry and in the English Bible with nouns which begin with a vowel or silent h. 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. Singular. Plural. Masculine. Feminine. Neuter. All Genders. Nom. He She It They. Poss. His Her (or Hers) Its Their (or Theirs), Dat. Him Her It Them. Obj. Him Her It Them. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS. 25 (i) She is really the feminine of the old demonstrative se, seo, thaet , and it has supplanted the old A.S. pronoun heo, which still exists in Lancashire in the form of hoo. (ii) The old and proper dative of it is Mm. The old neuter of he was hit, the t being the inflection for the neuter (still used in Scotland). (iii) Him, the dative, came to be also used as the objective. The oldest objective was hine. 9. The Personal Pronouns are often used as Reflexive Pronouns. Eeflexive 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. ii. 4, 223. " Let every soldier hew him down a bough. " — Macbeth, V. iv. 6. (ii) Objective : Shakespeare has such phrases as / whipt me ; I disrobed me ; I have learned me. In modern English, chiefly in poetry, we have : He sat him down ; Get thee hence ! etc. (iii) Compounds : / bethought myself ; He wronged himself ; 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 interrogare, to ask. Hence also interrogation, interrogator)/, 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 suffix for the neuter gender.) The possessive is whose ; the objective whom. The following are the forms : — Singular and Plural. Masculine. Feminine. Neuter. Nominative Who Who What. Possessive Whose Whose [Whose.] Objective Whom Whom What 26 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (i) Whom is really a dative, like hi-m. Rut we now use it only as au objective. (ii) Whose 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 of who + ther ; and it means, "Which of the two ? (i) The ther in whether is the same as the ther in neither, etc. RELATIVE OE 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, Ave 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 conjunctive pronouns. (ii) Whose, in the above sentence, is called relative, because it relates to the word man. Man is called its antecedent, or r/ocr-bcfore. The word antecedent comes from the Lat. ante, before; and cedo, 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., se, seo, 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." (b) It is generally employed to limit, distinguish, and define. Thus we say r , "The house that I built is for sale." Here the sentence that I built is an adjective, limiting or de- fining the noun house. Hence it has been called the denning relative. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 27 Who or which may introduce a new fact about the antecedent; that only marks it off' from other nouns. (iii) Who lias 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 wherein = 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 lie asked for " ( = the thing that). (c) Nom. and Obj. ; as in " This is what he asked for " ( = the thing that). (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 that which I had." (vii) But is the proper relative after a negative ; as " There was no man but would have died for her." Here but = who + not. (This ia like the Latin use of quin = qui + 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. xiii. 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 possessive case ; and (b) 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 an ; 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 GRAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (iv) Other is = an ther. The ther is the same as that in either. whether; and it always indicates that <>ne <>f two is taken into the mind. (v) 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 application of the noun ; or, more simply, — Adjectives are noun-marking -words. (i) Adjectives do not assert explicitly, like verbs. They assert im- plicitly. 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, but limit the extent of the idea expressed by the noun. Thus when we say "white horses," we put a larger content into the idea of horse ; but, as there are fewer white horses than horses, we limit the extent of the notion. 2. An adjective cannot stand by itself. 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 Number ; (iv) Demonstrative Adjectives. Or Ave may say, — Adjectives are divided into ADJECTIVES 1 f ~T~ I I Qualitative. Quantitative. Numbering. Demonstrative. These four answer, respectively, to the questions — (i) Of what sort? (ii) How much? (iii) How many? (iv) Which? 4. Qualitative Adjectives denote a quality of the subject or thing named by the noun ; such as blue, ivhite ; happy, sad ; big, little. (i) The word qualitative comes from the Lat. qualis = of what sort, (ii) Most of these adjectives admit of degrees of comparison. ADJECTIVES. 29 5. Quantitative Adjectives denote either quantity or in- definite number ; and they can go either (i) with the singular, or (ii) with the plural of nouns, or (iii) with both. The follow- ing is a list : — ■ Any. Certain. Few. Much. Some, All. Divers. Little. No. Whole. Both. Enough. Many. Several. (i) We find the phrases : Little need ; little wool ; much pleasure ; more sense; some sleep, etc. (ii) We find the phrases: All men; any persons; both boys; several pounds, etc. (iii) We find the phrases: Any man and any men; no man and no men; enough corn and soldiers enough; some boy and some boys, 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 Numerals, But Ordinal Numerals are in reality Demonstrative Adjectives. (i) Numeral comes from the Lat. numerus, a number. Hence also come numerous, numerical, and number (the b serves as a cushion between the m and the r). (ii) Cardinal comes from the Lat. cardo, 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. (S) Demonstrative comes from the Lat. demonstrc, I point out. From the same root come monster, monstrous, &c. 8. Demonstrative Adjectives are of three kinds : (i) Articles ; (ii) Adjective Pronouns (often so called) ; and (iii) the Ordinal Numerals. (i) There are two articles (better call them distinguishing adjectives) 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 h it retains the n. In some phrases a has its old sense of one; as in "twe of a trade ;" "all of a size," etc. "An two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind." Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing, III. v. iQ\ 30 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (ii) We must be careful to distinguish the article a from the brotren- down preposition a in the phrase " twice a week." This latter a isa fragment of mi ; and the phrase in O.E. was " tuwa on wucan." Simi- larly, tin in " the boob " is not the same as theia " the more the merrier." The latter is the old ablative of thad ; and is = by that. (iii) Adjective Pronouns or Pronominal Adjectives are so called be- cause they can be used either as adjectives with the noun, or as prououus for the noun. They are divided into the following four classes : — ■ (a) Demonstrative Adjective Pronouns — This, these; that, those; yon, yonder. (b) Interrogative Adjective Pronouns— Which ? what ? whether (of the two) ? — as in !: whether side ? " (now an archaic use). (c) Distributive Adjective Pronouns— Each, every, either, neither. (d) Possessive Adjective 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 01 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 Romans, Christians, superiors, elders, ones, others, nobles, etc. Some take the form of the possessive case, as cither's, ?ieither , s. (i) The plural of one as an adjective is two, three, etc. ; 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 bushes 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, iii. 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 he used as adjectives. NUMERALS. 31 (i) One was in A.S. an or ane. The pronunciation wun is from a west- ern dialect. It is still rightly sounded in its compounds atone, alone, lonely. None and no are the negatives of one and o ( = an and a). (ii) Two, from A.S. twegen mas. ; twa fern. The form twegen appears in twain and twin, the g having been absorbed. (iii) Eleven = en (one) + lif (ten). Twelve = twe (two) + lif (ten). (iv) Thirteen = 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. sceran, 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 i A.S. fyr&t) is the superl. of fore, with vowel change. (ii) Second is not Eng. but Latin. The O.E. for second was other. Second comes (through French) from the Latin, secundus, 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 sequel, 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 Hiding, one of the three parts into which Yorkshire was divided. (iv) In eigh-th, as in eigh-tecn, a t has vanished, though still sounded. THE INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES. 12. The modern English adjective has lost all its old inflexions for gender and case, and retains only two for number. These two are these (the plural of this) and thost (the plural of th'it). (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, (he spelling and the pronunciation keep quite apart, and have no influence 'ut not "of the three." Comparative comes from the Lat. comparo, 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. 1 1 1 lks : I. A silent e is dropped ; as brave, brar< r. II. A y after a consonant is changed into i before er, etc. ; as haj)pi/, happit r. III. A final consonant after a short vowel is doubled ; as r< s out of sight, and it aids or helps the verb to which it is attached to express its 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 auxiliary but is a notional verb, with its full meanirp : and the sentence ia^ " He has leave to go." THE VERB. 37 Voice. 7. Voice is that form of the Verb by which we show 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 Passive Voice. (i) When a verb is used in the active voice, the subject of the sentence stands for the doer of the action. " He killed the mouse." (ii) When a verb is in the passive voice, the subject of the sentence stands for the object of the action. " The mouse was killed." Or we may say that, in the passive voice the grammatical subject denotes the real object. (iii) There is in English a kind of middle voice. Thus we can say, "He opened the door" (active); "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 : — Active. Passive. (a) They laughed at him. (h) He was laughed at by them. (a) The general spoke to him. (b) He was spoken to by the general. 10. In changing a verb in the active voice into the passive, Ave may make either (i) the direct or (ii) the indirect object into the subject of the passive verb. Active. Passive. 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 passive verb is not the real object of that verb, for a passive verb cannot rightly take an object. It is left over, as it were, from the active verb, and is hence sometimes called a Retained or Residuary Object. 38 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGK. 11. The passive voice of a verb is formed by using a part of the verb to be and the past participle of the verb. Thus we say — Active. Passive. Active. Passive. I beat. I am beaten. I have beaten. I have been beaten. (i) Some intransitive verbs form their perfect tenses by means of the verb to be and their past jjarticiple, as "I am come ;" "He is gone." But the meaning hero 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 marched 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 1 ? Is a command given] Is a state- ment subjoined to another 1 ? All these are different moods or modes. There are four moods : the Indicative ; the Impera- tive ; the Subjunctive ; and the Infinitive. (i) Indicative comes from the hat. indicelre, to point out. (ii) Imperative comes from the Lat. imperare, to command. Hence also emperor, empress, etc. (through French). (iii) Subjunctive comes from Lat. subjunge're, to join on to. (iv) Infinitive comes fn n ii Lat. infimtus, unlimited ; because the verb in this mood is not limited by person or by member. 13. The Indicative Mood makes a direct assertion, or puts a question in a direct manner. Thus we say : " John is ill ; " "Is John ill?" 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 inflexion. (ii) It has in reality only one person— the second. 15. The Subjunctive Mood is that form of the verb whi'h is used mainly in a sentence subjoined to a principal THE VERB. 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 be, 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 conic 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 person, 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, can, shall, will, must, bid, dare, do, let, make, hear, see, feel, need, the simple infinitive, without to, is still u (iii The Infinitive -is really a noun, and it may be (a) either in the nominative or (b) in the obj. case. Thus we have : (a) " To err is human ; to forgive, divine ; " and (b) " 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 sawenne. This, which is now called the gerundial infinitive, has become very common hi English. Thus we have, " I came to see you;" "A house to let." "To hear him ( = on hearing him) talk, you would think he was worth millions." (iv) We must be careful t<> distinguish between (a) the pure Infinitive and ('() the gerundial Infinitive. Tims we say — ('») I want to see him. {!>) 1 went to see him. The latter ia the gerundial infinitive— that is, the old dative. (c) The gerundial infinitive is attached (1) to a noun ; and (2) to an adjective. Thus we have such phrases as — (1) Bread to cat; water to drink ; a house to sell. (2) Wonderful to relate ; quick to take offence ; eager to go. 17. A Gerund is a noun formed from a verb by the addition of ing. It may be either (i) a subject ; or (ii) an object ; or 40 GRAMM \i: OF I HE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (iii) it may be governed by a preposition, it has two functions; that of a noun, and thai of a verb — that is, it is itself a noun, and it 1ms 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, ami a verb in relation to river. The chief modern distinct inn between a gerund and a verbal noun is that the gerund (if of a transitive verb) governs an objed ; the verbal nonn cannot govern an object under any circumstances, and it is generally preceded by "the*' and followed by "of." (ii) The Gerund must he earefully distinguished from three other kinds of words : (a) from the verbal noun, which used to end in ung ; (I) from the present participle; and (c) from the infinitive with to. The following are examples : (.1) "Forty and six years was this tern- I («) "He was punished for robbing the jile In building." Here building is a orchard." Here robbing is a gerund, be- verbal noun. cause it is a noun and also governs a noun. Qj) "Dreaming us he went along, he (6) "He was tired of dreaming such fell into the brook." Here dreaming is an adject i\e agreeing with he, and is there. fore a participle. (<•) "To write is quite easy, when one lias a good pen." Here to write is a pres- ent infinitive, and is the nominative I" is, (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 dwell in the midst of alarms, than reign in this horrible place." dreams." Here dreaming is a gerund, because it is a noun and governs a noun. (c) " ne comes here to write his letters.'' Ib-re to write is the gerundial infinitive; it is in the dative case; and the O.E. form was to writanne. Here the to baa a distinct function. This is the so- called "infinitive <>f purpose;" but it is a true gerund. In the seventeenth cen- tury, when the sens.' of the t'> was weak- ened, it took a for, — "What went ye out for to See '.- " (iii) The following three words in tug have each a special function : — (or) He is reading about the passing of Arthur (verbal noun). (b) And Arthur, passing thence (participle), rode to the wood. >c) This is only good for passing the time (gerund). 18. A Participle is a verbal adjective. There are two par- ticiples: the Present Active and the Perfect Passive. The former (i) lias two functions: that of an adjective and that of a verb. The latter (ii) has only the function of an adjective. (i) " Hearing the noise, the porter rau to the gate." In this sentence, hearing is an adjective qualifying porter, and a verb governing noise. (ii) Defeated and discouraged, the enemy surrendered. tS~ 1. We must be very careful to distinguish between (a) the gerund in ing. and [b) the participle in ing. Thus running in a "running stream " THE VERB. 41 is an adjective, and therefore a participle. In the sentence, "he was hurt 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 eating is au adjective, and means fretting ; and it is therefore a participle. But if it had meant cares about eating, eating would have been a noun, and therefore a gerund. So a fishing-rod is not a rod that fishes ; a frying-pan is not a pan that fries ; a walking-stick is not a stick that walks. The rod is a rod for fishing ; the pan, a pan for frying ; the stick, a stick for walking; and therefore fishing, frying, and walking are all gerunds. 2. The word participle comes from Lat. participdre, to partake of. The participle partakes of the nature of the verb. (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: Past, Present, and Future. These may he represented on a straight line : — TENSES. Past. Present. Future. 1 wrote. I write. I shall write. (i) The word tense comes to us from the French temps, which is from the I/at. tempus, time. Hence also temporal, temporary, etc. (The modern 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 indefinite. 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. Present. Future. Ill III III rer/ect. Indef. Imperf. Perfect. Indef. Imperf. Terfed. Indef. Iimperj. Had Wrote. Was Have Write. Am Shall Shall 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 auxiliaries. (a) The imperfect tenses are formed by be + the imperfect participle. (b) The perfect tenses are formed by have + the perfect par- ticiple. (ii) Besides had written, have written, and will have written, we can .say had been writing, have been writing, and will have been writing. These are sometimes called Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Continuous, Perfect Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous. (iii) " I do write," " I did write," are called Emphatic forms. Number. 21. Verbs are modified for Number. There are in veil is two numbers : (i) the Singular and (ii) the Plural. (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 fur Person- -that, is, the form of the verb is changed fco suit (i) the first person, (ii) the second person, or (iii) the third person. (i) " I write." (ii) " Thou writest" uiii "He writes." Conjugation. 23. Conjugation is the name given to the sum-total of all the inflexions and combinations of the parts of a verb. The word conjugate comes from the Lat. conjugarc, to bind together. THE VERB. 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 more 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 tense. (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, bought ; sell, sold, are weak verbs. The change in the vowel does not spring from the same cause as the change in strong verbi Hence — (ii) It is as well to keep entirely to the positive test in the case of weak verbs. However " strong " or " irregular " may seem to be the verbs teach, taught ; seek, sought ; say, said, we knoiv 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 also 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 niette ami fedde ; and all that has happened is that they have lost the old inflexions te and de. It nvus owing to the addi- tion of another syllable that the original long vowel of the verb was shortened. Compare nation, national, please, pleasure. (iv) The past or passive participle of strong verbs had the suffix en and the prefix ge. The suffix has now disappeared from many strong verbs, and the prefix from all. But gc, which in Chaucer's time had been refined into a y (as in yeomen, yronncn), is retained still in that form in the one word yclept. Milton's use of it in star-y -pointing is a mistake. 44 GRAMMAR OF THK ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 28. The following is an ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STRONG VERBS. (All strong verbs except those which have & prefix are monosyllabic.) The forms in italics are weal Pres. Past. Past, /'art. Pres. Past. Pass. Part. Abide abode abode. Fly flew flown. Arise arose arisen. Forbear forbore forborne. Awake awoke awoke Forget forgot forgotten. (awaked iked) Forsake forsook forsaken. Bear bore born. Freeze froze frozen. (bring forth) Get got got, gotten Bear bore borne. < Jive gave given. (Jo went gone. Beat beat beaten. Grind ground ground. Begin began begun. ( !ro\\ grew grown. Behold beheld beheld (be- Rang hung(Aa ged)h\mg(hai holden). IIi.li> hid hidden, hid. Bid bade, bid bidden, bid Hold held held. Bind bound bound. 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 chid chidden. Run ran run. chid. See saw seen. Chi iose chose chosen. Seethe sod( seethed) sodden. Cleave clove cloven. Shake sliipnk shaken. (split) Shine shone shone. Climb clomb (climbed). Shoot shot shot. Cling clung clung. Shrink shrank shrunk. Come came come. Sing sang sung. Crow crew crown (obsol.). Sink sank sunk, (crowed (crowed . sunken. Dig dug dug. Sit sat sat. M,, did done. Slay slew slain. Draw drew drawn. Slide slid slid. Drink drank drunk, Sling slung slung. drunken. Slink slunk slunk. Drive drove driven. Smite smote smitten. Eat ate eaten. Speak spoke spoken. Fall fell fallen. J Spin spun spun. Fight fought fought. | Spring sprang sprung. Find found found. | Stand stood stood. Fling flung flung. 1 Stave stove staved, stove THE VERB. il Pres. Past. Pass. Part. Pres. Past. Pass. Part. Steal stole stolen. Thrive throve thriven Stick stuck, 1 stuck. (thrived) (thrived). Sting stung stung. Throw threw thrown. Stink stank stunk. Tread trod trodden, Stride strode stridden. trod. Strike struck struck. Wake woke (waked). String strung strung. {waked) Strive strove striven. Wear wore worn. Swear swore sworn. Weave wove woven. Swim swam swum. Win W( >u 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 classification 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 0, e, o ; like throw, threw, thrown, (iii) Verbs with i, a, u ; like begin, began, begun, (iv) Verbs with i, u, u ; like fling, flung, flung, (v) Verbs with i, ou, ou; like find, found, found, (vi) Verbs with ea, o, 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), o, i (short) ; like drive, drove, driven. (x) Verbs with ee or oo, o, o ; like freeze, froze, frozen ; or choose, chose, chosen. 29. Weak Verbs are of two kinds: (i) Irregular Weak; and (ii) Regular "Weak. The Irregular "Weak are such verbs as tell, told ; buy, bought. The Regular Weak are sttch verbs as attend, attended ; obey, obeyed. (i) The Irregular Weak verbs are, with very few exceptions, mono- syllables, and are almost all of purely English origin. (ii) The Regular Weak verbs arc generally of Latin or of French origin, 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. 1 The past tenses of dig and stick were formerly weak ; so were the pas sive participles of hide, rot, show, strew, saw. 4G GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (iii) The ed or d is not a shortened form of did, as waa 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 ; teach, 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 sleep is sharp, and therefore we cannot say sleeped. We must take the sharp form of d, which is t, and say slept. 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 told represents the a in tale, etc. (iv) Some have dropped an internal letter. Thus made is=makede; paid = payede ; had = hadde. (v) Some verbs change the d of the present into a t in the past. Thus we have build, built ; send, seat. (vi) A large class havo the three parte — present, past, and passive participle — exactly alike. Such are rid, set, etc. The following is an ALPHABETICAL LIST OF IRREGULAR WEAK VERBS. Class I. Prcs. Past. Pass. Part. Prcs. Past. Pass. Part Bereave bereft bereft. Dwell dwelt dwelt. Beseech besought besought. Feel felt felt. Bring brought brought. Flee fled fled. Burn burnt burnt. Grave graved graven. Buy bought bought. Have had had. Catch caught caught. Hew hewed hewn. Cleave cleft cleft. Keep kept kept. Creep crept crept. Kneel knelt knelt. Deal dealt dealt. Lay laid laid. Dream dreamt dreamt. Lean leant leant. THE VERB. i Pres. Past. Pass Part. Pres. Past. Pass. Part. Learn learnt learnt. Shear sheared shorn. Leap leapt leapt. Shoe shod shod. Leave left left. Show showed shown. Lose lost lost. Sleep slept slept. Make made made. Sow sowed sown. Mean meant meant. Spell spelt spelt. Pay paid paid. Spill spilt spilt. Pen pent pent. Strew strewed strewn. (penned) Sweep swept swept. Rap (to rapt rapt. Swell swelled swollen. transport) Teach taught taught. Rive rived riven. Tell told told. Rot rotted rotten. 1 Think thought thought. Say said said. Tie tied tight. 1 Saw sawed sawn. Weep wept wept. Seek sought sought. Work wrought wrought. J Sell sold sold. worked worked. Shave shaved shaven. 47 1 Rotten, tight, and wrought passive participles ; cp. wrought are now used as adjectives, and not as iron, a tight knot, rotten wood. Pres. Past. Pass. Part. a 11. Pres. Past. Pass. Part Bend bent bent. Meet met met. Bleed bled bled. Put put put. Blend blent blent. Read read read. Breed bred bred. Rend rent rent. Build built built. Rid rid rid. Cast cast cast. Send sent sent. Clothe clad clad Set set set. (clothed) (clothed). Shed shed shed. Cost cost cost. Shred shred shred. Cut cut cut. Shut shut shut. Feed fed fed. Slit slit slit. Gild gilt gilt (gilded). Speed sped sped. (gilded) Spend spent spent. Gird girt girt. Spit spit, spit. Hear heard heard. Split split split. Hit hit hit. Spread spread spread. Hurt hurt hurt. Sweat sweat sweat. Knit knit knit. Thrust thrust thrust. Lead led led. Wend wended wended. Lend lent lent. or wem Let let let. Wet wet wet. Light lit (lighted ) lit (lighted) 48 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 31. Before we can learn the full conjugation of a verb, we must acquaint ourselves with all the parts "f the auxiliary- verbs — Shall and "Will ; Have and Be. (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 is an auxiliary verb. In the same way, nave is a notional verb when it means to possess, as in the sentence, " I have a shilling." 32. The following are the parts of the verb Shall : — Indicative Mood. Present Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I shall. 1. We shall. 2. Thou shal-t. 2. You shall. 3. He shall. 3. They shall. Past Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I shoul-rf. 1. We shoul-d 2. Thou should st 2. You shoul-c/. 3. He should. 3. They shoul-d. Imp. Mood . Inf. Mood ■ . Participles . (Should comes from an old dialectic form scholde) 33. The following are the parts of the verb Will : — Indicative Mood. Present Tense. singular. Plural. 1. I will. 1. We will. 2. Thou wilt. •_'. You will. 3. He will. 3. They will. Past Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I woul-rf. 1. We woulV. •_'. Thou woul-d-st. 2. You woul-tf. 3. Ho woul-d. 3. They woul-tf. Imp. Mood . Inf. Mood . Participles . (i) Shall and will are used as Tense-auxiliaries. As a tense-auxiliary, shall is used only in the first person. Thus we say, I shall write ; thou wilt write ; he will write -when we speak merely of future time. THE VERB. 49 (ii) Shan't is = shall not. Won't is = wol not, wol being an older form of will. We find wol also in wolde—an old spelling of would. (iii) Shall in the 1st person expresses simple futurity ; in the 2d and 3d persons, authority. Will in the 1st person expresses determination ; in the 2d and 3d, only futurity. 34. The following are the parts of the verb Have : — Indicative Mood. Present Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I have. 1. We have. 2. Thou ha-Bt. 2. You have. 3. He ha-s. 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 ha3 had. 3. They have had. (i) Hast = havest. Compare e'en and even, (ii) Had=hadde. Past Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I had. 1. We had. 2. Thou had-st. 2. You had. 3. He had. 3 They had. Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I had had. 1. We had had. 2. Thou hadst had. 2. Sou had had. 3. He had had. 3. They had had. Future Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I shall have. 1 . We shall have. 2. Thou wilt have. 2. You will have. 3. He will have. 3. They will have. Future Perfect Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I shall have had. 1 . We shall have had. 2. Thou wilt have had. 2. You will have had. 3. He will have had. 8. Thev will have had. 50 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Subjunctive Mood. Present Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I have. 1. We have. 2. Thou have. 2. You have. 3. He have. 3. They have. Present Perfect Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I have had. 1. We have had. 2. Thou have had. 2. You have had. 3. He have had. 3. They have had. Past Indefinite Tense. Same in form as in the Indicative ; but with no inflexion in the second person. Past Perfect Tense. Same in form as in the Indicative ; but with no inflexion in the second person. Past Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I had. 1. We had. 2. Thou had. 2. You had. 3. He had. 3. They had. Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I had had. 1. We had had. 2. Thou had had. 2. You had had. 3. He had had. 3. They had had. IMPERATIVE MOOD. — Singular: Have! Plural: Have! Infinitive Mood. — Present Indefinite : (To) have. Perfect : (To) have had Participles. — Imperfect : Having. Past (or Passive) : Had. Compound Perfect (Active) : Having had. 35. The following are the parts of the verb Be : — Indicative Mood. Present Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1 . I a-m. 1 . We are. 2. Thou art. 2. You are. 3. He is. 3. They are. THE VERB. 51 Present Perfect Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I have been. 1. We have been. 2. Thou hast been. 2. You have been. 3. He has been. 3. They have been. Past Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1 . I was. 1 . We were. 2. Thou wast or wert. 2. You were. 3. He was. 3. They were. Past Perfect (Pluperfect) Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I had been. 1. We had been. 2. Thou hadst been. 2. You had been. 3. He had been. 3. They had been. Future Indefinite Tense. Future Perfect Tense. I shall be, etc. I shall have been, etc. Subjinitivi: Mood. Present Indefinite Tense. Singular. Plural. 1. I be. 1. We be. 2. Thou be. 2. You be. 3. He be. 3. They be. Present Perfect Tense. Singular. 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. Past Indefinite Tense. 1. 2. 3. Singular. I were. Thou wert. He were. Plural. 1. We were. 2. You were. 3. They were. Past Perfect ^Pluperfect) Tense. 1. 2. B. Singular. I had been. Thou had been. He had been. Plural. 1. We had been. 2. You had been, 3. They had beer 52 GRAMMAR OK THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Past Indefinite (Compound Form). Singular, 1'hu-al. 1. I should be. 1. We should be. 2. Thou should he. 2. You should be. 3. He should be. 3. They (should be. Future Perfect (Compound Form). Singular. Plural. 1. [ should have been. 1. We should have been. •2. Thou should have been 2. You should have been. 3. He should have been. 3. They should have been. Imperative Mood. — Singular: Be! Plural: Be ! Infinitive Mood. — Present Indefinite : (To) be. Present Perfect : i To have been. Pakticiples. — Present : Being. Past : Been. Compound : Having been. We find the short simple form Be ! in line— ' Be, rather than be called, a child of God! '! (i) It is plain from the above that the verb Be is made up of fragments of three different verbs. 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 been with the verb be Hence the verb ought to be printed thus : — Am was been. (ii) Am is verb from was and been. The m in am is tha same as the m in me, and marks the firsl person. The t in art is the same as the th in thou, and marks the second person. Compare wil-b and shal-t. Is has lo x th. The Germans retain this, and say ist. Are is not the O.E. plural, which was sind or sindon. The word are was introduced by the Danes. [The Danish word to this, day is er, which we have learned to pronounce do the er in clerk and Dt rby. } (iii) Was is the past tense of the old verb wesan, to be. In some of the dialects of England it appea the German form. (iv) Be is a verb without present or past tense. (v) (a) Be is a notional or principal verb when it means to rxist, as " God is." (6 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 innect ./<) Interrogation. Do you see ? (r) Negation. I do not see it. $-gr 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 arc not usual or idiomatic. DEFECTIVE VERBS. 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, hut, 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 — I'ii st nt Ti nst . Past Tenst . Past Participle, Beware Can Could 1 Dight 1 oi ego 2 Foregone Hight 3 Hight May Might Melists 4 Melisted Meseems Meseemed Methinks Methought i Could (in O.K. eu-the] is a weak form. The 1 is intrusive, and came in from a false analogy with should and would. 3 This ought to lie spelled forgo. The for in this word is a prefix of negation, as in forget, forgive, ete. 8 Hight (— is or was called) is the only instance in our language of a pure passive verb. * Him n»ted is also found. THE VERB. Present Tense. Past Tense. Must 1 Ought Quoth Shall Should Will Would Wot [Inf. to wit) 2 Wist Worth 3 — — 53(b) Past Part triple. 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 Go. (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 occasionally used both in prose and verse. £g* These verhs cannot be classed as either weak or strong, since the ordinary tests do not apply to them. REMARKS ON PECULIAR VERBS. CAN, MUST. 39. Can (or its past tense Could) and Must are always and invariably Principal verbs. They arc 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 run=I have the power to rim. I could see at one time — I had the power to sec, etc. I could have gone, if I had been present = I had th< opportunity, etc. He must departs He is obliged or compelled to depart. They differ, however, from ordinary Verba in this respect, viz. : that they can take only an Infinitive Verb as object after them ; they are never followed by a Noun or Pronoun as object. 1 Must was originally the past tense of the old verb motan ( — to lie able or to be obliged). Mot was — may ; and must = nii^'lit, etc. Mun or maun takes the place of must in the North of England and in Scotland. 3 This verb has also a present participle witting, which is found in wittingly and unwitting. 3 Iu such phrases as " Woe worth the day !" 53(c) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. MAY, SHALL, WILL. 40. (i) May (with its past tense might), shall (with its past tense should), and will (with its past tense would) arc some- times Principal and sometimes Auxiliary 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 una rtainty. He may succeed, if he takes pains. (ii) Might is (a) a Principal Verb when it denotes permis- 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 lie might call. (iii) Shall is (a) a Principal Verb when it denotes compul- sion (or, occasionally, leave), and when used with the Second and Third Persons. You shall depart. Rome shall perish. (b) It is an Auxiliary of Tense, and denotes simply futurity, when used with the First Person. "I shall soon go. We shall remain. (iv) Should is (a) a Principal Verb when it implies obligation. Children should obey their parents. (b) It is an Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood when it denotes uncertainty. If he should appear (or Should he appear), I will admit him. (v) (a) Will is a Principal Verb, denoting volition or deter- mination, when used with the First Person. I will remove it. £g- In some of these cases, however, 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." THE VERB. 53(d) (b) It is an Auxiliary of Tense, simply denoting futurity t when used with the Second and Third Persons. You will keep this. They will soon return. (vi) (a) Would is a Principal Verb when it expresses deter- mination. 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. 43T Notice here that both verbs of this complex sentence are in the Subjunctive Mood. "Would" is occasionally used practically as an Auxiliary of Tense indicating a habitual repetition of the action. " His listless length at noontide would he stretch," i e. was accustomed to stretch. 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 privi- 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 leave. Ought, however, takes the Perfect Infinitive : You ought to hare (/one. The reason of this is that, since ought is now a present form with no past, we signify the past idea through the medium of thft Infinite, instead of by the preceding verb, as is otherwise the universal rule. IMPERSONAL 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 verb. Mi //links he doth protest too much. Meseems they ha\ e gone ifelisteth they will follow. Melists and meseems are obsolete, ruethinks is obsolescent. (b) Verbs following a personal pronoun used in u purely indefinite and impersonal sense. It rains, it 8T10W8, etc In the above sentences, it' it stands for anything, it stands for rain, mow, etc. "The rain rains.'' "The snow snows. 54 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 43. The following is the full conjugation of a verb: — ACTIVE VOICE. Indicative Mood. I. Present Indefinite Tense. I strike. Present Perfect Tense. I have Rtruck. II. Past Indefinite Tense. I struck. Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Tense. I had struck. III. Future Indefinite Tense. I shall strike. Future Perfect Tense. I shall have struck. Present Imperfect Tense. I am striking. Present Perfect Continuous. I have been striking. 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. 1 shall have been striking. Subjunctive Mood. I. Present Indefinite Tense. (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) T, thou, he had 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, lie were striking. Past Perfect (or Pluperfect) Continuous. (If) I, thou, lie had heen striking. III. Future Indefinite Tense. (If) T, thou, he should strike. Future Perfect Tense. (If) I, thou, he should have struck Future Imperfect Tense. (If) I, thou, he should be striking. Future Perfect Continuous. (If) I, thou, he should have been striking. (The Future Subjunctive, when not preceded by a Conjunction, issome- " I should strike him if he were to times called the Conditional Mood hurt the child.") THE VERB. Imperative Mood. I. Present Tense. Singular. 2. Strike (thou) ! Plural. 2. Strike (ye) ! II. Past Tense. (None. ) III. Future Tense. 2. Thou shalt strike. 2. You shall strike. Infinitive Mood. 1. Present Indefinite, 2. Present Imperfect, 3. Present Perfect, . 4. Present Perfect Continuous, 5. Future Indefinite, Participles. (To) strike. (To) be striking. (To) have struck. (To) have been striking. (To) be about to strike. 1. Indefinite and Imperfect. 2. Present Perfect, . 3. Perfect Continuous, 4. Future 1 . Striking. Gerunds. Striking. Having struck. Having been striking. Going or about to strike. 2. To strike. P A S S I V E Indicative I. Present Indefinite Tense. I am struck. Present Perfect Tense. I have been struck. II. Past Indefinite Tense. I was struck. Past Perfect Tense. I had been struck. III. Future Indefinite Tense. I shall be struck. Future Perfect Tense. I shall have been Btruck. V I C E. 5 Moon. Present Imperfect Tense. I am being struck. Present Continuous. I .-(in being struck. Past Imperfect Tense. I was being struck. Past Continuous. I was being struck. Future Imperfect Tense. (None. ) Future Continuous. (None. ) r»c GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Si bjunotivb Mood. I. Present Indefinite Tense. (If) I, thou, he be strut k. Present Perfect Tense. (If) I, thou, lie have been struck. Present Imperfect Tense. (None. ) Present Perfect Continuous. (None.) II. Past Indefinite Tense. (If) I, thou, he were struck. Past Perfect Tense. (If) I had been struck. III. Future Indefinite Tense. (If) I, thou, he should be struck. Future Perfect Tense. (If) I, thou, he should have been Past Imperfect Tense. (If) I, thou, he were being Btruck. Past Perfect Continuous. (None.) Future Imperfect Tense. (None.) Future Perfect Continuous. (None.) struck. (This tense, when used without a [u-oceiling conjunction, is sometimes called the Conditional Mood. " I sho were I to go there.") Imperative Mood. I. Present Tense. Singular. 2. Be struck ! Plural. 2. Be struck ! II. Past Tense. (None.) III. Future Tense. Singular. 2. Thou shalt be struck. Plural-. 2. You shall be struck. [npinitivb Mood. 1. Indefinite, 2. Imperfect, 3. Present Perfect, 1. Indefinite, 2. Imperfect, 3. Present Perfect. 4. Future, . (To) be struck. (To) have been struck. Participles. Struck. Being struck. Having been struck. Going or about to be struck. Gerunds. (None.) ADVERBS. 57 ADVERBS. 1. An Adverb is a word which qualifies any part of speech except a pronoun. (i) He writes badly (badly modifies the verb writes). — The sua Lsveryhot (very qualifies the adjective hot).— She writes very rapidly (very qualifies rapidly, and rapidly qualifies writes). (ii) Adverbs modify prepositions as in ' : He came long before the time " : or conjunctions as in "He is unhappy, even though he is rich " ; or even nouns, -'is 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 lias two functions: (a) it modifies, and (It) joins one sentence with another. Tims, 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 ,s He came" and "he was ready." 3. Adverbs— so far as their meaning is concerned arc of several kinds. There are Adverbs: (i) of Time, (ii) of Place, (iii) of Number, (iv) of Manner, (v) of Degree, (vi) of Assertion, (vii) of Reasoning, (viii) Interrogative. (i) Of Time : Now, then; 1" day, to-morrow; by and-by, etc. (ii) Of Place : Here, there ; hither, thither : hence, thence, etc. (iii) Of Number: Once, twice, thrice ; singly, two by two, etc. (iv) Of Manner: Well, ill ; slowly, quickly ; better, worse, etc, (v) Of Degree: Very, little ; almost, quite ; all, ha] (vi) Of Assertion : Nay, yea ; yes, etc. (vii) Of Reasoning : Therefore, wherefore; thus; consequently (viii) Interrogative : Why.' How? Where? When? etc. THE COMPARISON OF ADVERBS. 4. Adverbs, like adjectives, admil of degrees of comparison. Thus «ve can say, John works hard; Tom works harder; but William works hardest of all. 58 OKAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 5. The following are examples of Irregular Comparison in Adverbs. Positive. Comparative. Superlative. Ill (or Badly ) worse worst. Well better best. Much more must. Little less least. Nigh (or Near) nearer next. Forth further furthest. Far farther farthest. Late later last. latter latest. 1 lathe) rather. (i) Worse comes from A.S. adv. wyrs. Shakespeare has worser. (ii) Much is an adverb in the phrase much bettt r. (iii) Little is an adverb in the phrase Utile inclined. (iv) Next = nighest ; and so wc had also hext — highest. Near is really the comparative of nigh. (v) Farrer would be the proper comparative. Chaucer has farre, and this is still found in Yorkshire. The th in farther comes from a false analogy with forth, further, furthest. (vi) Late is an adverb in the phrase He arrived late. (vii) "Till rathe she rose, half-cheated in the thought." — Tennyson (' Lancelot and Elaine '). CONNECTIVES. 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 sentences. 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 ioins a verb and a noun. CONNECTIVES. 59 (ii) Mary is fond of music. Here of joins an adjective and a noon. (iii) The man at the door is waiting. Here at joins two nouns. The word preposition comes from the Lat. prce, before, and positus, placed. We have similar compounds in composition and deposition. 3. The noun or pronoun which follows the preposition is in the objective case, and is said to he 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 ? " 4. Prepositions are divided into two classes: (i) simple; and (ii) compound. (i) The following are simple prepositions : at, hij, 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 : after, over, under. CO By prefixing a preposition to an adverb: above, about, before, behind, be- neath, but (= be-out), throughout, within, etc. (c) By prefixing a preposition to a noun: aboard, across, around, among, be- side, outside, etc. ( as, tin refon , then, and/or (v. p. 115). (ii) Subordinative Conjunctions are those which connect subordinate sentences with tin' 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, befon : ere, till; ivhUe, sinu : lest; because, as; for; if; though; whetJier — or; than; as if; why; tvhen; where, whence; how. INTERJECTIONS. 1. Interjections are woi'ds which have no meaning in them- selves, hut 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 speech." Thus we say, Oh ! Ah ! 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 Interjection comes from the Lat. inter, between, and jactus, thrown. (ii) Sometimes words with a meaning are used as interjections. Thus we say, Welcome ! for " You are well come. " Good-bye ! for God be with you! 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 ovei to this island, in the fifth century, our words possessed a large number of inflexions ; ami a verb could lie known from a, noun, 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 lime, for many and various reasons, the English language began to lose its inflexions; and they dropped off very rapidly between the I lth and the 15th cen- turies, till, nowadays, Ave 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 pari of speech, and sometimes as another. Thus Shakespeare himself uses the conjunction but both as a verb and as a noun, and makes one of his character.- say, " But 62 GRAMMU: 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 I me kin in I with the function of a noun, as in the phrase "The backward and abyss of time." Again, lie 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 spi h" 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 versa; and many others. Perhaps the most remarkable is where he uses tongue for to talk of, and brain for to think of. In " Cymbeline " 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- cepl 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 hoys 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, Ave must settle the matter by asking ourselves what is its function. We need not inquire what a word is; but we musl 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 THEIR 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 book with the verb gave. But when we say, " Let us assist them, for our case is theirs," the word for 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. Right is an adverb in the phrase "Eight reverend;" but an adjective in the sentence " That is not the right road." Back is an adverb in the sentence " He came back yesterday ; " but a noun in the sentence "He fell on his back." Here is an adverb, and where 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 aa "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 comes, 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 function? 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 ? and (ii) What does it do to that word ? r 63(a) WORDS IN COMMON USE, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS (OR AS DIFFERENT PARTS OF SPEECH). About After All Alone 1. Adverb — (a) (Manner) : He stopped, then turned him about. (b) (Degree - ) : The man was about forty years old. 2. Preposition Then swarmed they about him like bees. 1. Adjective 2. Adverb 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." (Shakespeare.) 3. Preposition The boy ran after his father. 4. Conjunction We resumed our walk after the pro- cession had passed. 1. Noun " I dare do all that may become a man." (Shakespeare.) 2. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity, Definite : "And all this throve, until I wedded thee." (Tennyson.) (1)) 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 alone remains to comfort me. " She never feared to enter the church alone at night." (Dickens.) Teach me another's griefs to share. " So she, like many another babbler, hurt Whom she would soothe." (Tennyson.) 3. Adverb 1. Adject Lve _!. Adverb Another 1. Noun 2. Adjective WORDS IN COMMON USE, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. 63(b) Any 1. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity : We fail to see any truth in his argu- ment. (b) Of Number, Indefinite : Have you any books for me 1 2. Pronoun (Indefinite) — Any who have finished may go now 3. Adverb Can you not write any better ? As 1. Pronoun (Relative) — " Such as sleep o' nights." (Shakespeare.) 2. Adverb She is as good as she is beautiful. 3. Conjunction (or Conjunctive Adverb) — " I am not all so wrong As a bitter jest is dear." (Tennyson.) Besides 1. Adverb He taught, and studied besides. 2. Preposition I have other strings to my bow besides this. 3. 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 You always meet me with a but. 2. Pronoun (Relative, Negative) — " There breathes not clansman of thy line But would have given his life for thine." (Scott.) 3. Verb " But me no buts." (Shakespeare.) 4. Adverb '"Tis but a little way that I can bring you." (Shakespeare.) 5. Preposition All but Kate had gone out. 6. Conjunction " Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." (Tennyson.) 63(c) GRAMMAR of THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Either 1. Adjective On either hand the lawns and meadow ledges midway down Hang rich in bloom." (Tennyson.) 2. Conjunction Either go at once or stay for ever. Else 1. Adjective " Him destroyed, all else will follow." (Milton.) 2. Adverb He would else have paid the debt. 3. Conjunction She has had many visitors, else she would have written. Enough 1 . Noun " Enough is as good as a feast." 2. Adjective— (a) Of Quantity : Have you money enough for the journey 1 (b) Of Number, Indefinite ; We have enough books already. 3. Adverb He is strong enough for this work. Even 1. Noun Do you know how to play odd and even 1 2. Adjective The edges are now even. 3. Verb It is necessary first to even the sides. 4. Adverb "And even then he turned." Except 1. Verb When making your list, except those named herein. 2. Preposition All were early except my brother and me. •'!. Conjunction "I will not let thee go, except thou Mess me. For 1. Preposition "She gave me for my pains, a world of sighs." (Shakespeare, i 2. Conjunction " Call me early, mother dear, For T would sec the sun rise."' I l'> UllVSOII. ) Half 1. NOUII ''The half of my goods I give to the poor." '2. Adjective //a// measures are worse than useless in such cases. 3. Adverb "So saying, from the pavement he half roue." (Tennyson.) WORDS IN CO.uMON USE, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. 63(d) Least 1 . Noun The least of them would suffice. '_!. Adject i\ " The least child in the room knows so much. 3. Adverb This is the least praiseworthy. Less 1. Noun Give me less. 2. Adjective Of two dangers choose the A. s«. 3. Adverb " I warrant you love me less than I love thee." (Shakespeare.) Like 1. Adjective As like as two peas. 2. Adverb Lih 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 Little 1. Noun " To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 2. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity : He takes but little heed of such idle tales. (b) Of Quality : "A little thing may harm a wounded num." (Tennyson.) '■'>. Adverb "A little more than kin and less than kind." (Sbaki More 1. Noun I need more than you. 'J. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity : Save you no more complaint to make / (li) Of Number, Indefinite: There were more ants than one could count. 3. Adverb "Once more unto the breach, dear friends." (Shaki 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. Much 1. Noun We saw much which was worthy of praise. 63(e) GRAMMAR OF Till'. KXGLISH LANGUAGE. 2. Adjective (of Quantity)— Portia needed much comfort. 3. Adverb The wise speak less, but think much more than the foolish. Neither book is very expensive. Neither 1. Adject i\ e 2. Con jimct ion " Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Next The next moment we lost sight of her. Who comes next 1 Will you sit next me ? No 2. Adverb Notwith- 1. Preposition standing Off 1. Adjective 2. Adverb 3. Preposition 1. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity : Such people need no encouragement. (b) Of Number, Definite : No books can teach like experience. "We no longer believe in St. Edmund." (Ruskin.) Notwithstanding the justice of your plea, I cannot consent. Conjunction Notwithstanding they had arrived, we left without seeing them. Adjective A gentleman got down from the off side. 2. Adverb Othello has carried -off my daughter. 3. Preposition Antonio's argosy was wrecked off Tripolis. One 1. Adjective (Numeral, Definite) — "All worldly joys go less, to the one joy of doing kindnesses." (Herbert.) 2. Pronoun (Indefinite) — " I fled into the castle like one pursued." Only 1 I. Adjective Thou art my only hope. 2. Adverb She is only a child. 3. Conjunction You may go, only return quickly. Other 1. Adjective "Among new men, strange faces, other minds." (Tennyson.) 2. Pronoun (Demonstrative) — " Then that other, left alone, Sighed, and began to gather heart again." (Tennyson.) 1 N.B. — Perhaps no worfl is so often misplaced in composition as the word only. The correct rule is to place it as near as practicable (not necessarily to the verb, but) to the word or phrase which it modifies. WORDS IN COMMON USE, WITH DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. 63(f) Round Save Since So Some 1. Noun 2. Adjective 3. Verb 4. Adverb 5. Preposition 1. Verb 2. Preposition " The trivial round, the common task, Will furnish all we need to ask." He owns a round table. He rounds his phrases well. Round goes the wheel. A moat ran round the castle wall. Sa/ve the women and children first. " And save his good broadsword, He weapons had none." (Scott.) 3. Conjunction Who could do such deeds save God were with him ? 1. Adverb They have not written since. 2. Preposition She has not been out alone since Easter. 3. Conjunction Further advice is useless since you are already determined what to do, 1. Adverb "So work the honey-bees." 2. Conjunction My father is away ; so I must stay at home with mother. 1. Adjective — (a) Of Quantity : ; ' Whose least distinguished day Shines with some portion of heavenly lustre." (b) Of Number, Indefinite : "Some men are born great." 2, Adverb There was an earthquake there some four years ago. Somewhat 1. Noun 2. Adverb I know somewhat of the matter. You were somcivhat late to-day. That 1. Adjective (Demonstrative)— "My loyalty shall be growing, Till death, that winter, kill it." (Shakespeare.) 2. Pronoun — (a) ^Relative "He that has humanity will tread aside." (b) Compound " We speak that we do know." (c) Demonstrative : " That 's news indeed." 3. Conjunction "We eat that we may live." 63(g) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Then 1. Adverb " Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend His actions', passions', being's use and end." 2. Conjunction Did he say so? then it must be true. Therefore 1. Advei'b " God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man." (Shakespeare.) 2. Conjunction (or Conjunctive Adverb) — " Thou hast not left the value of a cord, Therefore thou must hang at the State's charge." (Shakespeare.) Well 1. Noun Leave well alone. 2. Adjective " I am not well." 3. Adverb " I know how well I have deserved the ring." (Shakespeare.) 4. Interjection Well, peace be with you ! What 1. Adjective (Demonstrative) — " And both together heard What time the grey-fly winds her sultry horn." (Milton.) 2. Pronoun— (a) Interrogative: " What tloest thou here, Elijah '!" (b) Composite : " Tell me what you want." (c) Indefinite demonstrative : " I'll tell you what. " 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 his 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 FUNCTIONS 63(h) Which 1. Adjective Did you see which way the boy ran ? 2. Pronoun — (a) Relative : "That which you have touched." (b) Interrogative : " Which is yours 1 " Why 1. Noun I don't consider the why and the wherefore. 2. Adverb U^hy are the days longer in summer than in winter ? 3. Conjunction This is the reason ivhy I spoke. 4. Interjection " How doth the king 1 BHiy, well !" Wont 1. Noun " It is not his wont to be the hind- most man." (Shakespeare.) 2. Adjective "Come ! but keep thy loonted state." (Milton.) 3. Verb " Beneath whose shade I wont to sit and watch the setting Sun." (Southey.) 4. Participle " As when men, wont to watch On duty, sleeping found . . . rouse and bestir themselves." (Milton). Yet 1, Adverb " Old age hath yet his honour and his toil." (Tennyson.) 2, Conjunction " Yet I thy he.st will all perform at full." (Tennyson.) 64 SYNTAX. INTRODUCTORY. 1. The word Syntax 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 arc called Concord, and Government. (i) Concord means agreement. The chief concords in grammar are those of the Verb with its Subject ; the Adjective with its Noun ; one Noun with another Noun ; the Pronoun with the Noun it stands for , the Relative with its Antecedent. (ii) Government means the influence that one word has upon another. The chief kinds of Government are those of a Transitive Verb and a Noun ; a Preposition and a Noun. I.— SYNTAX OF THE NoI'N 1.— THE NOMINATIVE CASE. Rule I. — The Subject of a sentence is in the Nominative Case. Thus we say, I write ; John writes : and both / and John — the sub- jects in these two sentences — are in the nominative case. Rulk II. — When one noun is used to explain or describe another, Hie two nouns are said to be in Apposition; and they are always in the same case. SYNTAX OF THE NOtJN. 65 Thus we find in Shakespeare's Henr} r V., i. 2. 188 : — : - So work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom." Here bees is the nominative to work ; creatures is in apposition with bees, and hence is also in the nominative case. (Of course, two nouns in apposition may be in the objective case, as in the sentence, " We met John the gardener.") (i) The words in apposition may be separated from each other, as in Cowper's well-known line about the postman : — " He comes, the herald of a noisy world." Rule III. — The verbto be, and other verbs of incomplete pre- dication, take two nominatives — one before and the other after. Thus we find such sentences as — (i) General Wolseley is an able soldier, (ii) The long-remembered beggar was his guest. In the first sentence Wolseley and soldier refer to the same person ; beggar and guest refer to the same person ; and all that the verbs is and was do is to connect them. They have no influence whatever upon either word. When is (or are) is so used, it is called the copula. &ST If we call the previous kind of apposition noun-apposition, this might be called verb-apposition. RULE IV. — The verbs of incomplete predication — become, live, turn-out, prove, remain, seem, look, and others, like the verb to be, take a nominative case after them as well as before them. Thus we find : — (i) Tom became an architect. (ii) The boy is called John. (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 bo 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 Becond is called the complementary nominative, being necessary to complete the subject. The complementary nominative also follows the passive voice of factitive verbs, such as make, create, appoint, and verbs of naming, calling, etc. Rule V. — A Noun and an Adjective, or a Noun and a Par- ticiple, or a Noun and an Adjective Phrase, — not syntactically 66 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. connected with any other word in the sentence, — are put in the Nominative Absolute. Thus we have : — (i) "She earns a scanty pittance, and at night Lies clown secure, her heart and pocket light." — Cowpeii. (ii) The wind shifting, we Bailed slowly. (hi) "Next Anger rushed, his eyes on fire." — Collins. (iv) Dinner over, we went up-stairs. The word absolutus means freed; and the absolute case lias been freed from and 'is independent of, the construction of the sentence. Ebmakks. — 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. Caution! In the sentence, "Pompey, having been de feated, fled to Africa," tin 1 phrase having been defeated is at- tributive to Pompey, 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 he in the nominative absolute. Remarks on Exceptions. 1. The pronoun It is often used as a Preparatory Nomina- tive, or — as it may also be called — a Representative Subject. Thus Ave say, " It is very hard to climb that hill," where it stands for the true nominative, to-climb-that-hill. 2. In the same way, the demonstrative adjective that is often used as a Representative Subject. "That (he has gone to Paris) is certain." What is certain ? That. What is that ? The tact that he has gone to Pun's. 3. Still more oddly, we find both it and that used in one sentence as a kind of Joint-Representative Subject. Thus we have : (i) " It now and then happened that (he lost his temper) ; " and, in Shakespeare's " Othello " — SYNTAX OF THE NOUN. G7 (ii) "That (I have ta'en away this old man's daughter) It is most true." What is most true 1 It. What is it ? That. What is that 1 > That (I have taken away, etc.) Here the verb is has really three subjects, all meaning the same thing. 1 £3T It must be observed tbat the demonstrative that has by use gained the force, ami exercises the function, of a conjunction joining two seal It here joins the two sentences "It is most true," and "I have taken away," etc. 4. The nominative to a verb in the [mperative Mood is often omitted. Tims Come along! = Come Hem (or ye) along! 2.— THE POSSESSIVE CASE. Rl LB VI. — When one Noun stands in the relation of an attribute to another Xoun, the first of these nouns is pul in the Possessive Case. (i) The Possessive Case originally denoted mere possession, 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 wo can say, "The might of England," instead of "England's might." Rule 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) M Siiflpkiu & Marshall's house. £<■■ The fact is, thai '; . rtpkin-it- Marshall, and other Buch ph] arc regarded as one compound phrase. (ii) The sentence, "This is a picture of Turner's," "This is one of Turner's pictures." The of governs, not Turntr's, but pictures Hence "of Turners'' need not be considered a double possessive, though it looks like it. So also may be explained " a friend of mine" ( = "one of the friends of me"), but not "that handsome I John's" or " that sacred head of thine" (Milton). Here "of John's" and " of thine " are probably double possessives an idiom which w as used as early as Chaucer. Cj. "an oldfelawe q/"youre«." (Pard. TnU.) 68 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 3.—THE OBJECTIVE CASK. 1. The Objective Case is that case of a noun or pronoun that is " governed hy " a transitive verb or by a preposition. «5" It is only the pronoun that has a special form for this case. The English noun formerly had it, but lost it between the years 10G6" and 1300. 2. The Objective 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 ? or What ? (ii) The Indirect Object answers to the question To whom? To what*? or For whom ? For what ? 3. The object of an active-transitive verb must always be a Noun or the Equivalent of a Noun. Rule VIII. — 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), (iii) We saw the fighting (Verbal Noun), (iv) I like to work (Infinitive), (v) I heard that he had left (Noun sentence). Rule 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. £2T The second is called the complementary or factitive object. See Rnle XXXIII. Rule 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, (v) Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. t3T Such objects are called cognate objects. Rule XL — The limitations of a Verb by words or phrases expressing space, time, measure, etc., are said to be in the SYNTAX OF THE NOUN. 69 objective ease ; as (i) he walked three miles ; (ii) he travelled all night ; (iii) the stone weighed three pounds. j9S" 1. Because these words limit or modify the verbs to which they are attached, they are sometimes called Adverbial Objects. 2. The following arc adverbial phrases of somewhat the same kind : (i) They bound him hand and foot, (ii) They fell upon him tooth and nail, (iii) They turned out the Turks, bag and baggage. Such phrases are rightly called adverbial, because they modify bound, fell, and turned; and show how he was bound, how they fell upou him, etc. Words used in this way represent various cases in Old English, the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative. Remarks on Exceptions. 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 hill. 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 bea 3. The preposition may continue to adhere to such ;i verb, so that it remains even when the verb has been made passive. Thus we can say : (i) He was laughed -at. (ii) Whales were spoken-of. (iii) Prosecution was hintcd-at. And tins is an enormous convenience in the use of the English language. 4.— THE DATIVE CASE. 1. 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 ENGLISH LANGUAGE 2. The Dative is also to be found with certain impersonal verbs, such as list, seem, please, think ( = seem); the verb worth; and with the prepositions like and near ("like me," " near the house "). Eule XXXV. Thus we have the phrases, meseems ; if you please (=if it please you) ; methought ( = it seemed to me) ; and, she is like Mm ; he was near us. " Woe worth the chase ! woe worth the day That cost thy life, my gallant grey ! " — " 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 me ! Well is thee ! " Fare thee well " ( = fare well for thyself). Rule 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 me a book. Tell us a story. Show me the picture-book. Eule 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. 1 (ii) A book was promised me. (ii) I was promised a book. 1 (iii) A story was told us. (iii) We were told a story. 1 (iv) The picture- book was shown (iv) I was shown the picture-book. 1 me. 1 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 active verbs, give, promise, etc. SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVE. 71 Remarks on Exceptions. 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." Grammarians call this kind of dative the ethical dative. 2. The Dative was once the Absolute Case. " They have stolen away the body, us sleeping." Wyclifs Bible. II.— SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVE. 1. In our Old English — the English spoken before the coming of the Normans, and for some generations after- — every adjec- tive agreed with its noun in gender, number, 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 smale fowles maken melodie," where e is the plural inflexion. 2. In course of time, partly under the influence of the Nor- 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 arc 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 noun, it may take a plural inflec- tion ; as the blacks, goods, equals, edibles, annuals, monthlies, weeklies, etc, 3. Most adjectives are inflected for comparison. 72 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 4. Every adjective is either an explicit or an implicit predi- cate. The following are examples : — Adjectives used as Explicit Predicates. 1 . The way was long ; the wind was cold. 2. The minstrel was infirm and old. 3. The duke is very rich. Adjectives 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 explicit predicate, it is oaid to be vised predieatively ; when it is used as an implicit predicate, it is said to be used attributively. Adjectives used predieatively. 1. The cherries are ripe. 2. The man we met was very old. Adjectives used attributively. 1. Let us pluck only the ripe cherries. 2. We met an old man. Rule XIV. — An adjective may qualify a noun or pronoun predieatively, 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 sour, (v) He fell ill. Rule XV.- — After verbs of making, thinking, considering, etc., an adjective may be used factitively as well as prediea- tively. Thus we can say, (i) We made all the young ones happy, (ii) All 1 >resent thought him odd. (iii) Wc considered him very clever. This can be called a complementary use of the adjective (see Rule ix). Rule XVI. — An adjective may, especially in poetry, be used as an abstract noun. Thus we speak of " the True, the Good, and the Beautiful ; " "the sublime and the ridiculous y' Mrs Browning has the phrase, "from the depths of God's divine ; " and in Shakespeare we find " Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true." SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVE. 73 Rule XVII. — An adjective form 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 from adjectives by adding e. Thus brighte was = hrightly, and deepe=deeply. But in course of time the e fell oil', and an adverb was just like its own adjective. Hence we still have the phrases : " He works hard ; "Runquick!" " Speak louder ! " "Run fast!" "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 !" and many more. Rule XVIII. — 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 function of a verb — the power to govern. Thus in the sentence, "Respecting ourselves, we shall be respected by the world," the present participle resjtecting agrees with we, and governs ourselves. Rule XIX. — The comparative degree is employed when two 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 i.s 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 friend and noblest foe. This is sometimes called the "superlative of pre-eminence." (iii) Double comparatives and superlatives were much used in O.E., and Shakespeare was especially fond of them. He gives us such phrases as, "a more larger list of sceptres," " ninre better," "more neSrer," "most worst," "most unkindest cut of all," etc. These cannot be employed now. 74 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Rule XX. — The distributive adjectives each, every, either, neither, go with singular nouns only. Thus we say : (i) Each boy got an apple, (ii) Every noun is in its place, (iii) Either book will do. (iv) Neither woman went. Neither is a dialectic form of nother. which was afterwards com- pressed into nor. It has altered under the influence of either. Eemarks on Exceptions. 1. There are some adjectives that cannot be used attribu- tively, but only predicatively. Such are well, ill, 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." Yet Wordsworth lias — " Glad sight whenever new and old Ave 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 two" means the first ami second in one series ; " the two first " means the first of each of two series. III.— SYNTAX OF THE PRONOUN. Rule XXI. — Pronouns, whether personal or relative, must agree in gender, number, and person with the nouns fur which they stand, but not (necessarily) in case. Thus we say : " I have lost my umbrella : it was .standing in the corner." (i) Here it is neuter, singular, and third person) because umbrella is neuter, singular, and third person. (ii) Umbrella is in the objective case governed by have lost; hut it is in the nominative, because it is the subject to its own verb u-tts standing. Rule XXII. — Pronouns, whether personal or relative, lake their case from the sentence in which they stand. SYNTAX OF THE PRONOUN. 75 Thus we say : " The sailor whom we met on the beach is ill." Here sailor is in the nominative, and whom, its pronoun, in the objective. (i) Whom is in the objective, because it is governed by the verb met in its own sentence. "The sailor is ill" is one sentence. "Him (whom = oiuI him) 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." Rule 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." Rule XXIV. — The possessives 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. 33 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?" Rule XXV. — After such, same, so much, so great, etc., the relative employed is not who, but as. Thus Milton has — " Tears such as angels weep." (i) Shakespeare uses as even after that — " That kind of fruil as maids call medlars. This usage cannot now be employed. N.B. —The main use of the Relative Pronoun is restrictive, that is, to limit 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. Remarks 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 P»e on them. " 76 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. t 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 buok A you wanted ? " are very common. 3. The word but is often used for who + not. It is some- times called the negative-relative. Thus Scott has— " There breathes not clansman of my line But ( = who not) would have given his life for mine." 4. The personal pronouns, when in the dative or objective case, are generally without emphasis. (i) If we say " Give me your hand," the me is unemphatic. If we say " Give me your hand ! " the me has a stronger emphasis than the give. and means me, and not any other person. (ii) Very ludicrous accidents sometimes occur from the misplacing of 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 effect. A midshipman on board one of H.M.'a 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 his duty." IV.— SYNTAX OF THE VERB. 1.— CONCORD OF VERBS. We cannot say I writes, or He or The man write. We always say I ivrite, He writes, 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 subject. All these facts are usually embodied in a general statement, which may also serve as a rule. Rule XXVI. — A Finite Verb must agree with its subject SYNTAX OF THE VERB. 77 in Number and Person. Thus we say : " He calls," " They walk." (i) The subject answers to the question Who? or What ? (ii) The subject of a finite verb is always in the nominative 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 : — Rule XXVIT, — -Two or 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 ! " 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« jeets, 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." Cautions. — (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." Rule XXIX. — Collective Nouns 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 Ave 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 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. And, in Shakespeare's "Tempest" (v. 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 precedes 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 ! then and there was hurrying to and fro, And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress." And so Shakespeare, in " Julius Caesar," 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 say, " Where is my hat and stick ?" Rule XXX. — The verb to be is often attracted into the same number as the nominative that follows 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. Rule XXXI. — A Transitive Verb in the active voice governs its direct object in the objective case. Thus we say : " I like him ; " " they dislike her." The following sub-rules are of some importance : — (i) The participle) which is an adjective, has the same governing 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 governs rain as a verb. (ii) The gerund, which is a noun, has the same governing power as the verb to which it belongs. Thus we say : " Hating one's neighbour is forbidden by the Gospel," where hating is a noun, the nominative to is forbidden, and a gerund governing neighbour in the objective. Rule XXXII. — Active-transitive Verbs of giving, promis- ing, offering, and suchlike, govern the Direct Object in the SYNTAX OF THE VERB. 79 objective case, and the Indirect Object in the dative. " J gave him 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 subject of the passive 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 apple and booh retained objects, because they are retained in the sentence, even although we know that no passive verb can govern an objective case Rule XXXIII. — Such verbs as make, create, appoint, think, believe, etc., govern two objects — the one direct, the other complementary. Thus we say : " They made him king ; " "the king appointed him governor;" "we thought her a elever 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. Kule 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 active-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 sink. But the subject of an infinitive is always in the objective case. The infinitives go and sink have a double face. They are verbs 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. (iii) Conclusion 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 object in the sentence, "I like to play football." i!i i.k XXXV. — Some Verbs are followed by the Dative SO GRAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Case. Thus Ave have " M.ethought," " meseems," "Woe worth the day ! " " Woe is me ! " " If you please ! " (Eule XI.) (i) Worth is the imperative of an old English verb, tveorthan, to become. (The German form of this verb is werden.) (ii) Shakespeare even construes the verb look with a dative (some- times called the ethic dative or dative of interest). In " Cymbeline,' iii. 5, 32, he has— She looks us like A thing more made of malice, than of duty. 3.— MOODS OF VERBS. 1. The Indicative Mood is the mood of direct assertion or statement, and it speaks of actual facts. The Subjunctive 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 dbjective as describing what actually exists independently of our minds, and subjective 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 objective assertion. (ii) The Subjunctive Mood is the mood of subjective assertion. Tlie Indicative Mood may be compared to a ray of light coming straight through the air; 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. 2. 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 Subjunctive 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 till, until, because, and others. Eule XXXYI. — 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 VERB. SI (i) " ' Come weal, come woe, by Bruce's side,' Replied the chief, ' will Donald bide.'" (Doubt.) (ii) " Buy us a little food, that we die not." (Purpose.) (iii) " Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway, The wizard note has not been touched in vain." (Supposition.) (iv) " Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers." (Consequence.) (v) " I would rny daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear ! " (Wish.) £3T In all of the above sentences, the clauses with subjunctives do not slate facts, but feelings or notions of what may or might be. IIule 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. Consequence. Eemarks on Exceptions. 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 Caesar," we find — " Were I Brutus, And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony Would ruffle up your spirits." Rule XXXVIII. — The Simple Infinitive — without the sign to — is used with auxiliary verbs, such as may, do, shall, will, etc. ; and with such verbs as let, bid, can, must, see, hear, make, feel, observe, have, know, etc. 82 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (i) Let darkness keep her raven gloss. (ii) Bid the porter come. (iii) I saw him run after a gilded butterfly. (iv) We heard him cry. (v) They made him go, etc., etc. It was the Danes who introduced a preposition before the infinitive. Their sign was at, which was largely used with the infinitive in the Northern dialect. Rule XXXIX. — The Gerund is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it is governed by a verb or preposition ; as a verb (if transitive), it governs other nouns or pronouns. There are two gerundial forms— (i) one with to ; and (ii) our that ends in ing. (i) The first is to be carefully distinguished from the ordinary in- finitive. Now the ordinary infinitive never expresses a purpose; 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 ing, 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 noun in relation to of; and a verb govern- ing cricket in the objective. In the words walking-stick, 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 that fries. (iii) The gerund in ing must also be distinguished from the verba] noun in ing, which is a descendant of the verbal noun in ung. " He went a hunting" (where a = the old an or on) ; "Forty aud 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 ung, and are called abstract 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, hotel, and poetry. Rule XL. — The Gerundial Infinitive is frequently con- strued with nouns and adjectives. Thus we say : " A house SYNTAX OF THE ADVERB— AND PREPOSITION. 83 to sell or let;" "Wood to burn;" "Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell ; " " Good to eat." V.— SYNTAX OF THE ADVERB. Rule XLI. — The Adverb oughi to be as near as possible to the word it modifies. Thus we ought to say, " He gave me only three shillings," and not " He only gave, me three shil- lings," because only modifies three, and not gave. This rule applies also to compound adverbs, such as at least, in like manner, at random, in part, i Rule XLIL— Adverbs not only modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, but also prepositions, conjunctions, and even nouns. Thus we have the combinations out from, up to, down to, etc. lu the sentence, "He walked up to me," the adverb up does not modify walked, but the prepositional phrase to me. VI.— SYNTAX OF THE PREPOSITION. Rule XLIII. — All prepositions in the English language govern nouns and pronouns in the objective ease. The prepositions save and except are really verbs in the imperative mood. Rule 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 upon." " Why, then, thou knowest what colour jet is of." And, in Hooker, with very forcible effect — " Shall there be a ( led to swear by. and none to pray to ? " Rule XLV.— Certain verbs, nouns, and adjei equire special prepositions. Thus we cannol say, "This is different to thai," because it is had English to say "This differs to that." The proper preposition in both instances is from, 84 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The following is a list of some of these Special prepositions:— Absolve from. Abhorrence for. Accord with. Acquit of. Affinity between (or for). Adapted to (intentionally). Adapted for (by nature). Agree with (a person). Agree to (a proposal). Bestow upon. Change for (a thing). Change with (a person). Confer on (=give to). Confer with (=talk with). Confide in ( = trust in). Confide to ( = in trust 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 with (a person). Different from. 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. Tart from (a person). Part with (a thing). Profit by. Reconcile to (a person). Reconcile with (a statement). Taste of (food). A taste for (art). Thirst for or after (knowledge). VII.— SYNTAX OF THE CONJUNCTION. Rule XLVI. — The Conjunction 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 ! ' " But it is plain that saw governs her as well as him; and that or cannot interfere with the government of let. Sucli 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." Kulb XLVTL — Certain adjectives and conjunctions take SYNTAX OF THE CONJUNCTION. 85 after them certain special conjunctions. Thus, such (adj.) requires as, both (adj.), 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 ; though gentle, yet not dull." Eulb XLVIII. — The subordinating conjunction that may be omitted. Thus we can say, "Are you sure he is here?" Shakespeare has, " Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ! " 85(a) EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX FOR CORRECTION OR DEFENCE. [Not all the examples given below contain false syntax. Some do exemplify sheer blunders ; these should be corrected, and reason for correction should be given. Some contain instances «if 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. '/'/<< last two classes are marked by ax asterisk. Very brief hints are given for the explanation of some of the passages. The figures at the end of others refer bo 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. ] 3. 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 trm 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 ?J 9. She fell a-laughing like one out of their right mind. 10. lie 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 ? J EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX. 85(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. *15. 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 oar destined end or way. [Are "enjoyment" and "sorrow" thought of separately or together ?] *19. Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear Compels me to disturb your season due. *20. He is stronger than me. [Milton has "than whom," and cf. Pope, Sat. viii. 275. "And lin'd with Giants mightier than 'em all."] *21. Which of these do you like best? [What would have to be done if "two" followed "these"?] *22. And many a holy text around she strews, That teach the rustic moralist to die. [See query on 13.] 23. What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown, While others sleep, thus range the camp alone? [Cf. Example 16.] 24. Sense, and not riches, win esteem. *25. About an eight days after these sayings. [Cf. "a fortnight," "a sennight."] 26. I knew it to be he. [What case is "it "?] *27. 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.] *28. They are the two first boys in the class. [Is there more than one "first " boy ? But cf. Example 222.] *29. Nor want nor cold his course delay. [Are " want " and " cold " thought of separately or together ? ] *30. 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."] 32. Repulsed at all points, the retreat began. 33. I never have and never will believe it. G 85(c) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 34. The sons of false Antimachus were slain ; He who for bribes his faithless counsels sold (64-5). *35. 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 ?] 36. Thersites' body is as good as Ajax, when neither are alive. [Comment on the word "Ajax." Cf. "as 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. 38. Take arms against a sea of troubles (185). 39. 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.] 45. The French press know little of the actual facts. *46. The name and personality of Gladstone was something sacred. 47. Bazaine with all his 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 us went. [N.B. — "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 ?] 53. His career was cut off in the height of his popularity, having been killed in a duel. 54. These were the men, whom he thought were far away. 55. 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 uation, 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 march. 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 (18(5, 9). 74. I differ with you entirely (84). *75. There are still a few doubtful points. [A few = 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 }-e 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.] *S0. 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 " ?] 84. Too great a variety of studies distract the mind. *85. 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. 95. 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 his 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. 105. 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 (1ST). 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, Mid emphatic. [Contrast Ex. 50.] *112. Few people learn anything that 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 have no control (184, 2 (i.)). 114. This is the book that I am going to sit down and read. 115. 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 cf 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 riiarisec. 127. The field of turnips was absolutely decimated by the frost ; scarce a root was left untouched. [What is the derivation of " decimal e ' 1 128. Our mutual friend. [Cf. "Common enmities are Baid 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) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 129. The showers came on continuously. [Cf. "The adoption of continuous 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 liavt ': ] 134. Mr. Cai'lyle has taught us that silence is golden in thirty volumes. 135. 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. 145. 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 does not seem to agree with the child, boil it. 149. Some one was mentioned — I forget whom. 150. Scarcely had he spoken than the fairy disappeared. *151. She is prettier, but not so amiable as her sister. 152. St. Paul's is the greatest of all other London churches. 153. To him death was not so much as lifting of a latch (40). *154. I was made a present of a book. [Turn sentence into active voice. See pp. 78-9, rule xxxii.] *155. I ii me you wish to see? [Cf. c'eslmoi, est-ce ltd? etc.] *156. The wages of sin is death (78). 157. A river winds between the old and new plantation EXAMPLES OF FALSE, DOUBTFUL, AND GENUINE SYNTAX. 85(h) 158. 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 '11 go back there — no, never. 164. They should try and improve themselves, so that they might command better wages. 165. I have heard that story no less than a dozen times. 166. There was not a shadow of a whisper heard (1S5, 3). 167. He enjoys the universal esteem of all (185, 1). 168. His father was opposed to him entering the army. 169. Each of the children have their own peculiar traits. 170. Go witli 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 (S4). *178. It was the necessity which made me a quarrier, that taught mc to be a geologist (26, 15). 179. The crisis is one of the most singular which have ever occurred (2(J). 180. The old gentleman proposed a walk to Yauxhall, a place of winch, he said, he had heard much, but had never Been 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. 183. Gordon, whose own business not requiring much attention, often left his more immediate concerns. *184. He dare not come (39). *185. 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 uot it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? *187. The whole of the orchard was ruined. [Why '• whole o/"?] *188. You are no soldier. [How would you parse " no "' ?J 85(i) GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. *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. *193. 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. [But 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 "Go! 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- craft."] 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 OF 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. 215. 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. Rats 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. 225. The deatli is announced of Sir W A , a Nova Scotia baronet, whose creation dates from 1694. 228. 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. ). 230. A duty too rigidly insisted on will make it odious. 231. 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, aud the other sustained a wound in the arm of no importance. [Which arm was this?] 86 THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 1. "Words are gregarious, and go in groups. When a group of words makes complete 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) Analysis is a Greek word which means breaking up or taking apart : its opposite is Synthesis, which means making up or putting together. (ii) When we examine a sentence, and divide it into its component parts, we are said to analyse the sentence, or to perform an act of analysis. But when we put words or phrases together to make a sentence, we perform an act of composition, or of synthesis. 2. A sentence is a statement made about something, as, The horse gallops. (i) The something (horse) is called the Subject. (ii) The statement (gallops) is called the Predicate. 3. Every sentence consists, and must consist, of at least two parts. These two parts are the thing we speak about and what we say about that thing. (i) The Subject is what we speak about. (ii) The Predicate is what we say about the subject. (i) There is a proverb of Solomon which says: "All things are double one against another." So there are the two necessarily complementary ideas of even and odd; of right and left ; of north and south ; and many more. In language, the two ideas of Subject and Predicate are necessarily coexistent ; neither can exist without the other ; we cannot even think the one without the other. They are the two poles of thought. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 87 (ii) Sometimes the Subject is not expressed in imperative sentences, as in "Go !" = "Go you ! " (iii) Except in a contracted compound sentence, the Predicate can never be suppressed ; it must always be expressed ; otherwise nothing at all would be said. 4. There are four kinds of sentences : Simple, Complex, Compound, 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 compound 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 infinitive ; it is practically a pure noun, 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 compound 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 he 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 ye ? (iii) Exclamatory : — How swiftly the river flows ! 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 ! " "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 differs from the merely Assertive. Com- pare : — God bless us, i.e. May God bless us (Optative) ; and God blesses us (Assertive). PARTS OF THE SENTENCE. 7. The Subject of a sentence is what we speak about. What we speak about Ave must name. If Ave name a thing, Ave must use a name or noun. Therefore 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 Noun, as, England is our home, (ii) A Pronoun, as, It is our fatherland. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 89 (iii) A Verbal Noun, 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 Noun-clause, as, That he was a tyrant is generally admitted. (a) The verbal noun, as we have seen, originally ended in ung. See page 40. (b) Catching is a gerund, because it is both a noun (nomin- ative to is) and a verb, governing fish in the objective. note (i) The Subject is sometimes composite — consisting of two or more words. The boose, the homestead, the very fences, aU were destroyed, To seize my gun and (to) fire was the work of a moment. To them his heart, his love, his 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 "His inordinate love of riches." Compare also : — " That was their sole reward, the approval of their king. " In these cases, "it," "this," and "that" are simply temporary subjects, the real subject coming afterwards out of its natural order. " It," or any word thus used, is called the Provisional Subject. (iii) Sometimes, especially in poetry, an unnecessary or redundant pronoun is put in with the Subject, and may be regarded as forming part of it. My banks, they are furnished with bees. Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep, He, like the world, his ready visit pays Where 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 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 10. There are six kinds of Predicate — (i) A Verb, as, God is. The stream runs. (ii) " To be " + a noun, as, lie is a carpenter. (iii) " To be " + an adjective, as, They are idle. (iv) " To be " + an adverb, as, The hooks are there. (v) " 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. note (i) Only Finite or Complete Verbs can form Predicates. When the Verb is incomplete or infinite, as in the case of — (a) A Participle, (b) An Infinitive, it cannot form the Predicate of a sentence except by the addition of other completing words. Thus "loving" 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 closely attached to it, and which for the purpose of analysis may be regarded as part of the Predicate. They agreed to ( = accepted) my proposal The subject was well thrashed out ( = debated). The pirates stove 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 he associated with them to make the predicate complete. Thus : — He appears healthy. The apprentice became a merchant. 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 "), and some THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 91 other copulative verbs, as, to seem, to become, etc., can never form predicates by themselves. (iii) Beware of associating two dissimilar verbs as predi- cate. Thus in the sentence : " He refused to leave the ship," the predicate is not "refused to leave," but simply " refused." 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 always, 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 Noun, as, All of us love England, (ii) A Pronoun, as, We saw him in the garden. (iii) A Verbal Noun, as,, We dread the gathering of the 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 Noun -clause or sentence, as, I knew what was the matter. note (i) The words it, this, and that may form Provisional 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 his parents 92 GRAMMAR* OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 14. Verbs of giving, promising, offering, handing, and many such, take also an indirect object, which is sometimes called the dative object. There are several kinds of Indirect Objects : — (i) A Noun, We gave the man a shilling. (ii) A Pronoun, We offered him sixpence. (iii) An Infinitive : — after the Direct Object : I saw him (to) run. &3T 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 Complementary 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," "Milton . . . 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. note.— 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 SENTENCES. 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. 16, 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 Object must always be either — (i) A Noun : or (ii) Some word or words equivalent to a noun. A Noun may have attached to it any number of adjectives or adjectival phrases. An adjective or adjectival phrase that TT 94 GRAMMAR 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, (in) A Noun (or pronoun) in the Possessive Case, His hat flew off. (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 had 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. note (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 Indians is richly jewelled. (b) The Romans crossed a stream fed by a glacier of the Southern Alps. The phrases "forged by Indians," and "of the Southern Alps," THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES, 95 are enlargements of "sword" and "glacier" respectively, which are themselves parts of qualifying phrases. (ii) A Subject or Object may have an unlimited number of enlargements of various kinds : — The poor King, an outcast from his own domain, suffering the pangs of hunger and stung by bitter reproaches, ended his days in misery, Here King is enlarged by — (a) An Adjective. (b) A Noun in Apposition. (c) Two Participial phrases 21. The Predicate 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 called, 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, Mr Smith spoke with great effect. (iv) A Noun Phrase, as, "We walked side by side. • (v) A Participial Phrase, as, The mighty rocks came bounding down. (vi) A Gerundial Phrase, as, lie did it to insult us ( = for insulting us). (vii) An Absolute Infinitive Phrase, as, To tell you the truth, I think him very stupid. £3T Under (v) may come also the Absolute Participial Phrase, such as, "The clock having struck, we had to go." 24. Extensions of the pr<;<1icate 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. 9G GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. In this latter way Extensions are classified as extensions of — (i) Time, as, We lived there three years. (ii) Place, (a) Whence, as, We came from York. (b) Where, as, He lives over the way. (c) Whither, as, Go home ! (iii) Manner (a) Manner : He treads firmly. (b) Degree : She writes better. (c) Accompanying circumstances : They went for- ward under a heavy fire, (iv) Agent : James was represented by his minister, (v) Instrument : They ravaged the land with fire and sword, (vi) Magnitude (a) Order : He stood first in his class. (b) Number : The field measured ten acres. (vii) Mood (a) Affirmation : He certainly returned. (b) Negation ; The enterprise will never succeed. B3T Never is here a more emphatic form of not, and therefore comes under the head of Nega- tion rather than of Time. (c) Doubt : Perhaps you will meet your friend, (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. For three years the widow dwelt quietly in the lonely cottage. 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 nightfall, 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. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 97 Compare :— I care nothing for your threats. (Extension of Degree. ) He gave me nothing. (Object.) " Nothing " in the first sentence simply shows to what extent you are affected by the threats ; " nothing" in the second sentence is obviously the Direct Object of " gave," expressing what he gave. Compare: — What did you see? (Object.) What 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 : — "What 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 extensions 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 Ins exercise in the open air. (Extension — Place.) In the first sentence the phrase "in the open air" qualifies 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 OF ADDRESS. 27. The Nominative of Address may relate to — (a) The 'Subject : Milton ! thou shouldst be living at this hour. (b) The Object: I welcome you, good Masters. (c) An Extension : We .shall pull towards you, Sir Knight. Or it maybe detached, The ca tL keep, my Lord, 1 hold The Nominative of Address is interjectional 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 GRAMMAR 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 specially belongs, or the rule may he 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 returned, 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 Nominative Absolute) is always an Extension of the Predicate, and may express — (a) Time : The clock having struck one, we proceeded. (b) Cause : Darkness coming on, the wanderers quick- ened their pace. (c) Circumstances : I crossed the moor, the enow falling heavily. (iv) Wot 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 line. (Negative Enlargement. ) They heard never a sound. (Negative Enlargement. ) THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 99 £3T A3 an Extension of the Predicate, not is usually independent of other exteusions, as, not (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 vain he wore his sandal-shoon. They moved (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. &3T Those who regard might as being always a Principal Verb would put win as part of the Object. (c) Object : They love to wander. (d) Extension of the Predicate : She came to learn. In this case " to learn " is not an ordinary infinitive, but a ger- undial 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 well, This apple tastes sweet, or (b) An Adverb, forming an Extension of the Predicate after a Verb— The king eats weU. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank. 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 the Predicate. 100 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (viii) In the case of qualifying or limiting phrases (especially participial phrases), it is sometimes diffi- cult to determine whether they are simple Enlarge- ments of the Subject or Extensions of the Predi- cate. Returning then the bolt he drew. A widow bird sat mourning for her love. In the first sentence "returning" is an enlargement of "he" ; in the second sentence mourning does not enlarge "bird," but shows how it sat. It sat mourning, i.e. sadly, sorrowfully. The safest plan in cases of this kind is to determine what principal part of the senteuce 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 OF 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-Pre Lay in the fruitful valley." 30. These may be mapped out, before analysing them, in the following way : — joyous (i) A SOUND CAME some person whistling the mouata in path. in) distant, secluded, still little THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 101 The VILLAGE LAY & ' '■■% the fruitful valley. Grand-Pre the Acadian land the shores of the 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 all analysis — -to find out which words go with which, and what is the real build of the sentence. Hence, unless we see at 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. FOEMS OF ANALYSIS. 32. The sentences may then be analysed in either— (a) the Detailed form, or (h) the Tabular form. (a) The Detailed form is analogous to that adopted for parsing, and gives us scope for subdividing the sentence to an unlimited extent, and giving the maximum 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. 33. Detailed Analysis. (i) a. A sound b. joyous c. of some person whistling d. came e. from the path f. mountain (ii) a. The village b. little c. distant ^ (/. seclude 1 I e. still Subject. Adjectival Enlargement of Subject. Prepositional Phrase, Enlargement of Subject. Predicate. Extension of Predicate. Place whence. Adjectival Enlargement of e. Subject. Adjectival Enlargement of Subject. Complementary part of the Predicate. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. /. of Grand-Pre Prepositional Phrase, Enlargement of Subject. 9- lay Predicate. h. in the land Extension of Predicate. Place where. i. Acadian Adjectival Enlargement of h. 3- on the shores Extension of Predicate. Place where. k. of the basin Prepositional phrase, enlarging^'. I. of Minas 1! >) !» A " m in the valley Extension of Predicate. Place where. n. fruitful Adjectival Enlargement of m. 34. Tabular Analysis. Subject. Enlarge- ment OF Subject. Predicate. Object. Enlarge- ment of Object. Extension of Predicate. A sound (a) joyous (b) of some person whistling came from the mountain path (place whence) The village (a) little (b)of Grand-Pre lay (distant, secluded, still) (a) in the Acadian land (place where) (b) on the shores of the Basin of Minas {place where) (c) in the fruitful valley {place ivhere) II.— THE COMPLEX SENTENCE. 35. A Complex Sentence is a statement which contains one Principal Sentence, and one or more sentences dependent upon it, which are called Subordinate Sentences. There are three THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 103 kinds — and there can only be three kinds — of subordinate sentences — Adjectival, Noun, and Adverbial. A subordinate sentence is sometimes called a clause. 36. A Subordinate Sentence that goes with a Noun or Pronoun 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 darkness, 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 Noun Sentence. "He told me that his cousin had gone to sea." Here the sub- sentence, " his cousin had gone to sea," is the object of the transi- tive verb told. It fulfils the function of a noun, and is therefore a noun sentence. 39. An Adjectival Sentence may be attached to — (i) The Subject of the Principal Sentence ; or to (ii) The Object of the Principal Sentence ; or to (iii) Any Noun or Pronoun. (i) The book that-I-bought 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-past-the mill : 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 same. 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 but loves you. This= " There is no man here who does not love you." (b) " No land but 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, "Having 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 such. (iii) To an Adverb. " He was so weak that be could not stand." Here the sub-sentence "that he could not stand" modifies the adverb so, which itself modifies the adjective weak. 42. Just as tliere are many classes of Adverbs, so there are many different kinds of Adverbial Sentences. (i) Time. I will go, when you return. (ii) Place. "Where the bee sucks, there suck I. (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 complete your task the 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 him, because he is dishonest. (ix) Effect or Consequence. He worked so hard, that he was certain to do well, (x) Purpose. He worked very hard, for he wished to do well. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES 105 Cautions : — (i) In nearly every case the word introducing the ad- verbial 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 line, and I fire upon you," it is evident that the first clause is Adverbial, and that the real meaning would be accurately expressed by the form "If you pass that line," etc. (ii) ' ' Ye meaner fowl, give place, I am all splendour, dignity, and grace." Here the second sentence is Adverbial 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 qualify, extend, modify, or limit the master sentence to which they are attached ; they are distinctly subordinative. The subordinate character of Xoun-sentences is best per- ceived when they are introduced by their ordinary connective "that"; 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 (iv) In Apposition with another Noun. (i) " That-he-is-better cannot be denied": the subject. Here the true nominative is that. "That cannot be denied." What? " That = he is better." (From usage that in such sentences acquires the function and force of a conjunction. ) (ii) "I heard that-he-was-better : " the object. (iii) "My motive in going was that-I-might-be-of-use " : nomina- tive after was. (iv) "The fact that-he-voted-against-his-party is well known": in apposition with fact. Impersonal Construction — And methought, while she 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 free, I will go over the common. John knew that the farmer bad cut bis corn and (that be bad) stacked it. In the first sentence we have two Adjectival sentences, subordin- ate to the principal and coordinate with one another. In the other sentences we have Adverbial and Noun-sentences of a corresponding character. Tne 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 who hesitates 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 twofold character and relationship were fully shown. Compare : — Tell her that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, 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 Avith 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. "Thus " in the first line introduces the principal sentence " Still . . . time." Note the inversion in "Rude though they be," and remember that inversions are very 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- ject, object, and extensions. 108 GRAMMAK 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. (v) 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 who is omitted, and "who . . . die" is an adjectival sen- tence qualifying the object brother. (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-is " ; 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 ichere 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 stand in the one case for subject and in the other for object, it is preferable to take them as noun sentences. We speak that we do know. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES, 100 Here, Jus' ead of taking "that we do know " as a noun sentence, it is better to split up "that " (a composite relative) into " that which " and take "which we do know " as an Adjectival sentence. THE MAPPING-OUT OF COMPLEX SENTENCES. 50. Complex Sentences should be mapped out on the same principles as Simple Sentences. Let us 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 : — his hand .2 a mighty He bare bow o no man could bend °l those battle now. (The single line indicates a preposition ; the double line a con- junction or conjunctive pronoun.) 51. The larger number of subordinate sentences there are, and the farther away they stand from the principal sentence, the larger will be the space that the mapping-out Avill cover. Let us take this sentence from an old Greek writer : — ' ' Thou art about, king ! to make war against men who wear 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 : — Thou art about . . . against men (i) wear . . . trousers (ii) have . . . leather (iii) feed not on that (a) they like I 110 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (iv) feed on that (b) they can get from a soil (b 1 ) is sterile and unkindly (v) do not . . . wine (vi) drink water (vii) possess no figs (viii) possess not anything else (c) is good to eat. 52. 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." Sentences. Kind of Sentence. Subject. Enlarge- ment. Predi- cate. Exten- sion. Object. A. He passed through the black Tartar tents A. Prin. sentence. He passed thro' the tents (a) which clus- tering like bee - hives stood on the strand of Oxus, (a) Adj. sen- tence to A. which cluster- ing stood on the low black strand (b) [intheplace] which the floods o'er- flow (b)Adj. sent, to •place under- stood floods the sum- mer o'erflow (which) (c) when . . . melts (c) Adv. sent, to o'er- floio the sun melts when in high Pamir snow THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. Ill 53. There is a kind of Continuous Analysis, which 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 vaJe Even where it dies, at spring's sweet call renews To second life its odours and its hues." 1. Alas ! an interjection, with no syntactical relation to any word in the sentence. 2. the meanest, attributive or enlargement to 3. 3. herb, Subject to 4. 4. renews, Predicate to 3. 5. odours and hues, Object to 4. 6. at . . . call, Extension of renews, to 4. 7. to . . . life, Extension of reriews, to 4. 8. the lowliest, attributive or enlargement to 9. 9. flower, Subject to 10. 10. renews, Predicate to 9. B^ 11. odours and hues, Object to 10. 12. at . . . call, Extension to 10. 13. to . . . life, Extension to 10. !14. that, Subject to 15 and connective to 3. 15. scents, Predicate to 14. 16. gale, Object to 15. {17. that, Subject to 18 and connective to 9. 18. blossoms, Predicate to 17. 19. in the vale, Extension to 18. f20. even, Adverb modifying 21. E J 21. where it dies, Extension to 18. |22. it, Subject of 23. 123. dies, Predicate of 22. Ill— THE COMPOUND SENTENCE. 54. A Compound Sentence is one Avhich 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." lie might have put a full stop at long and at cold, for the sense ends 112 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. in these places, and, grammatically, the two lines form three separate and distinct sentences. But because in thought the three are connected, the poet made one compound sentence out of the three simple sentences. 55. A Compound Sentence may be contracted. (i) If we say, "John jumped up and ran off, the sentence is = "John jumped up"+"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 curve and flow To join the brimming river. (ii) In the sentence, "Either 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 thej 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. (c) Adversative. (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 further the thought going before. Each change 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 sense of the sentences and their relationship 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 he, and is really copulative. (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 Disjunctive Sentence is a sentence which, implies exclusion, or presents an alternative to the one before it. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. The breath of heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost. 114 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The connectives of disjunctive sentences are : Either, or ; neither, nor; and sometimes "else" and "otherwise." 59. 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 — on 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. Illative sentences may be — (a) Illative 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. (I)) Causative : when the idea expressed forms the grounds of a certain inference expressed in the preceding sentence. The swallows will soon be gone ; for the leaves are falling. The connectives 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 Consecp_ience. 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 necessary 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, anu The trees will soon be bare : for the leaves are falling. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES. 115 61. Note. — (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 sentence, 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 grounds 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 you 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- cipal "These are the very people." " You thought " is therefore best taken as a parenthetical sentence, having a principal relationship to " who were lost." In other cases the relationship of the interposed sentence to the rest 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 co- ordinate with the other two, but on account of its loose relationship it is better taken as simply " parenthetical." 116 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 lov. 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 ness 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 Noun, as — Bandog (= bond-dog). Brimstone ( = burn-stone). Bridal ( = bride-ale). Bylaw ( = law for a by or town). COMPOUND ADJECTIVES. 117 Daisy ( = day's eye). Evensong. Garlic (= gar-leek = spear-leek ; O.E. gar, spear). Gospel ( = God's spell = story). Housetop. Huzzy ( = housewife). Icicle ( = is -gicel = ice - j ag) . (ii) Noun and Adjective, as — Blackbird. Midnight. hap wing ( = leap-wing). N ightiugale ( = night-singer). Orchard ( = ort-yard = wort-yard, i.e., herb-garden). Railway. Tadpole ( = toad-head. Pole = poll, a head, as in poll-tax). Wednesday ( = Woden's day). Freeman. Midsummer. Quicksilver. Twilight ( = two lights). g3T Blackfbird has the accent on black, and is one word. A blackbird need not be a black 1 bird'. (iii) Noun and Verb, as- Bakehouse. Cutpurse. Godsend. Grindstone. Pickpocket. Screech-owl. (iv) Noun and Adverb, as offshoot. (v) Noun and Preposition, as afterthought. (vi) Verb and Adverb, as — Castaway. Drawback. Welfare. Farewell. Spendthrift. Wagtail. Washtub. Outlook. Welcome. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES. 9. There are in the language a great many compound adjec- tives, such as heart-whole, seasick, etc.; and these are formed in a large numher of different ways. Compound adjectives may be formed in the following ways : — (i) Noun + Adjective, as purse-proud, wind-swift, way-wear] . green, lily-white. (ii) Noun t- Present Participle, as ear-piercing, death-boding, heart- rending, spirit-stirring, sea-faring, night-walking, home-keeping. (iii) Noun + Passive Farticiple, as moth-eaten, worm-eaten, tempest- tossed, way-laid, forest-born, copper-fastened, moss-clad, sea-girt. (iv) Adverb + Present Participle, as far-darting, everlasting, high- stepping, well-meaning, long-suffering, far-reaching, hard-working. (v) Adverb + Passive Participle, as high-born, low-pitched, well-bred, thorough -bred, high-strung, ill-pleased. 118 GRAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (vi) Noun + Noun + ed, as hare-brained, dog-hearted, beetle-headed, periwig-pated, club-footed, lily-livered, trumpet-tongued, eagle-eyed. (vii) Adjective + Noun + ed, as evil-eyed, grey -headed, thin-faced, empty-headed, tender-hearted, thick-lipped, two-legged, three-cornered, four-sided, high-minded, bald-pated. (viii) Noun + Noun, as lion-heart, iron-side. (ix) Adverb + Noun + ed, as down-hearted, under-handed. COMPOUND VEEBS. 10. There are not many compound verbs in the English language. The few that there are are formed thus : — (i) Verb and Noun, as — Backbite. Hamstring. Hoodwink. Browbeat. Henpeck. Kiln-dry. (ii) Verb and Adjective, as— Dumfound. Fulfil ( = fill full). Whitewash. (iii) Verb and Adverb, as — Doff ( = do off). Dout ( = do out). Cross-question. Don ( = do on). Dup ( = do up). Outdo. THE FORMATION OF ADVERBS. 11. Adverbs are derived from Nouns, from Adjectives, from Pronouns, and from Prepositions. a. Adverbs derived from Nouns are either : (i) Old Posses- sives, or (ii) Old Datives, or (iii) Compounds of a Noun and a Preposition : — ■ (i) Old Possessives : 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, betimes. (ii) Old Datives. These are seldom and the old-fashioned whilom ( — in old times). (iii) Compounds: anon = (in one moment), abed ( = on bed) asleep, aloft, abroad, indeed, of a truth, by turns, perchance, perhaps. b. Adverbs derived from Adjectives are either : (i) Old Possessives, or (ii) Old Datives, or (iii) Compounds of an Adjective and a Preposition : — (i) Old Possessives: else (ell-es, possessive of al = other), unawares, once ( = ones), twice, thrice, etc. PREFIXES. 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 e. Thus we had deep§, brighte, 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"), far, ill, late, early, loud, high. (iii) Compounds of an Adjective and a Preposition : on high, in vain, in short, at large, of late, etc. e. 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 Stems. Place In. Place To. Place From. Time In. Manner. Cause. Wh-o Where Whither Whe-nce Whe-n Ho-W Wh-y Th-e or th-is The-re Thither The-nce The-n Th-us Th-e He He -re Hi-ther Hence (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. thy) before a comparative. It is the instrumental or ablative case of that 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 Noun, as lengthways, endways, (ii) Noun and Adjective, as — Always. Head-foremost. Otherwise. Breast-high. Meanwhile. Sometimes, (iii) Preposition and Noun, as Aboveboard, outside, (iv) Adverb and Preposition, 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 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 13. English Prefixes are divided into Inseparable and Separable. Inseparable Prefixes are those that have 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. an = on), as — Abed. Aloft ( — in the lift or sky). A-building. Aboard. Away. Athwart ( = on the cross). 2. Be (an O.E. form of by), which has several functions : — (i) To add an intensive 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 siege or seat beside a town till it surrenders). (iv) To combine with nouns, as — Behalf. Bequest. Bypath. Behest. Byname. Byword. (v) To form part of prepositions and adverbs, as before, besides, etc. 3. For (O.E. for = 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) . ggzT Forswear means to swear out and out, to swear to anything, hence falsely. Compare the Latin perjurare; hence our perjure. (ii) To give a negative meaning, as in forgo (wrongly spelled forego), to go without. 4. Fore = before ; as forebode, forecast. (Fore is also used separately.) 5. Gain (O.E. gaegn, back, again), found in gainsay (to speak against) ; gainstand. PREFIXES. 1 2 1 6. Mis (O.E. mis, wrong; and connected with the verb to miss), as in — Misdeed. Mislead. Mistrust. Mistake. Caution. — When mis occurs iu French words, it is a shortened form of minus, less ; as in mischief, 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=not, as Unholy. Undo. Unbind. 9. Wan (O.E. wan, wanting ; and connected with wand), which is found in — Wanton ( = wantowen, Wanhope ( = despair), lacking education). Wantrust. 10. With (a shortened form of O.E. toither — back or against) is found in — Withstand. Withdraw. Withhold. £2T It exists also in a latent form in the word drawing-room = withdraiving* room. 15. The following are the most important English Separable Prefixes : — 1. After, whieh is found in — Aftergrowth. Aftermath {from mow). Afternoon. 2. All (O.E. al, quite), which is found in — Almighty. Alone (cmite by one's self). Almost. 3. Forth, found in forthcoming, forward, etc. 1. Fro (a shortened form of from), in froward. 5. In appears in modern English in two forms, as : — (i) In, in— Income. Insight. Instep Inborn. Inbred. Inlay. (ii) En or em (which is a Frenchified form), in — Endear. Entwine. Embolden. Enlighten. Embitter. 122 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 6. Of or off (which are two spellings of the same word), as — Offspring. Offset. Offshoot. Offal (that which falls off). 7. On, as in onset, onslaught, onward. S. Out, which takes also the form of ut, as in — Outbreak. Outcast. Outside. Outpost. Utter. Utmost. 9. Over (the comparative of the ore in above), which combines : — (i) With nouns, as in — Overcoat. Overflow. Overhand, (ii) With adjectives, as in — Over-bold. Over-merry. Over-proud. (Shakespeare is very fond of such forms. ) (iii) With verbs, as in — Overthrow. Overspread. Overhear. 10. Thorough or through, two forms of the same word, as in — Throughout. Through -train. Thorough-bred. Thoroughfare. Shakespeare has "thorough bush, thorough brier, thorough flood, thorough fire. 11. Twi = two, in twilight, twin, twist, etc. (The form twi is now inseparable.) 12. Under, which goes : — (i) With verbs, as in — Underlie. Undersell. Undergo, (ii) With nouns, as in — Underhand. Underground. Undertone (iii) With other words, as in — Underneath. Underlying. 13. Up, which goes: — (i) With verbs, as in — Upbear. Upbraid. Uphold. (ii) With nouns, as in — Upland. Upstart. Upshot. ^iii) With other words, as in — Upright. Upward. PREFIXES. 123 16. There are in use in our language many Latin Prefixes ; and many of them are of great service. Some of them, as circum (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 Latin Prefixes : — 1. A, ab, abs (Fr. a, av), away from, as in — Avert. Abjure. Absent. Abstain. Avaunt. 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. Arriva Assimilate. Attain. Attend. S3T All these words come straight to us from Latin, except agree, arrive, and attain. The following are also French : Achieve (to bring to a chef or head), amount, acquaint. 3. Amb, am (ambi, about), as in — Ambition. Ambiguous. Amputate. 4. Ante (Fr. an), before, as in — Antedate. Antechamber. Ancestor (= antecessor). 5. Bis, bi, twice, as in — Bisect. Biscuit ( = biscoctus, twice baked). 6. Circum, circa, around, as in — Circumference. Circulate. Circuit. 7. Cum, with, in French com, which becomes col, con, cor, coun, and CO before a vowel, as in — ■ Compound. Collect. Content. Correct. Counsel. Countenance. ' Coeval. Cooperate. (i) In cost (from constare, to "stand"); couch (from colloco, I place); cull (from coll'igo, I collect); and cousin (from consobrinus, the child of a mother's sister), the prefix has undergone great changes (ii) Co, though of Latin origin, can go with purely English words, as in co- worker, co-understanding. These are not desirable compounds. 8. Contra (Fr. contre), against, which also becomes contro ami counter, as in — Contradict. Controvert. Counterbalance. (i) In counterweigh and countenvork we find it in union with English roots. (Ii) In encounter we find it converted into a root. 124 GKAMMAK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 9. De (Fr. de), down, from, about, as iu — Decline. Describe. Defer (to a person). It has also two different functions. It is — (i) negative in destroy, deform, desuetude, etc. (ii) intensive in desolate, desiccate (to dry up), etc. 10. Dis, di (Fr. des, de), asunder, in two, as in — Dissimilar. Disarm. Dismember. Differ (s becomes f). Disease. Divorce. Defy. Defer ( = delay). Delay, (i) Dis is also joined with English roots to make the hybrids disown, dislike, distrust, distaste. 11. Ex, e (Fr. es, e), out of, from, as in — Exalt. Exhale. Expatriate (yatria, one's country). Elect. Evade. Educe. (i) ex has a privative sense in ex-emperor, etc. (ii) In amend {emendo), astonish (etonner), the e is disguised, (iii) In sample (short for example), scorch (O. Fr. escorcer), and special (for especial), the e has fallen away. 12. Extra, beyond, as in — Extraneous. Extraordinary. Extravagant, (i) In stranger (O. Pr. estranger, from Lat. extraneus) the e has fallen away. 13. In (Fr. en, em), in, into, which changes into 11, im, ir, as in — Invade. Invent (to come upon). Infer. Illusion. Improve. Immigrate. Imbue. Irrigate. Irradiate. Enchant. Endure. Envoy. (i) It unites with English roots to make the hybrids embody, embolden, endear, entrust, enlighten, etc. (ii) In ambush (Ital. iniboscare, to put one's self in a wood), the in is disguised 14. In, not, which becomes il, im, ir, and ig, as in — Inconvenient. Illiberal. Impious. Irrelevant. Incautious. Illegal. Impolitic. Ignoble. (i) The English prefix un sometimes takes its place, and forms hybrids with Latin roots in unable, unapt, uncomfortable. (ii) Shakespeare has unpossible, unproper, and many others. 15. Inter, intro (Fr. entre), between, among — as in Intercede. Interpose. Interfere. Introduce. Entertain. Enterprise. 16. Male (Fr. mau), ill, as in— Malediction, (contracted through French into) Malison (opposed to Benison). Maugre. PREFIXES. 125 17. Mis (Fr. mes, from Latin minus), less, as in — Misadventure. Mischance. Mischief. Caution. — Not to be confounded with the English prefix mis in mis- take, mistrust, etc. 18. Non, not, as in— Nonsense. Non-existent. Nonsuit. (i) The initial n has dropped off in umpire, formerly numpire = 0. Fr. nonper= Lat. nonpar, not equal. (ii) The n has fallen away likewise from norange, napron (connected with nap- kin, napery), etc., by wrongly cleaving to the indefinite article a. 19. Ob, against, becomes oc, of, op, etc., as in — Obtain. Occur. Offend. Oppose. 20. Pene, 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) Pilgrim comes from peregrinus, a person who wanders per agros, through the fields, — by the medium of Ital. pellegrino. (ii) Perhaps is a hybrid. 22. Post, after, as in — Postpone. Postdate. Postscript. The post is much disguised in puny, which comes from the French puis ne= Lat. post natus, born after. A "puisne (puny) judge" is a junior judge, or a judge of a later creation. 23. Prse, pre (Fr. pre), before, as in — Predict. Presume. Pretend. Prevent. (i) It is shortened into a pr mprize, prison, comprise (all from prehendo, I .seizr)- (ii) It is disguised in provost (prepositus, one placed over), in preach (from pro?- dico, I speak before), and pro ve ndcr (from prozbeo, I furnish). 24. Praeter, 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. (i) It is much disguised in rally (= re-ally), in ransom (a shortened Fr. form of re- demption), and in runagate ( = renegade, one who has denied— negavit— his faith). (ii) It combines with English roots to form the hybrids relay, reset, recall. K 126 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 27. Retro, backwards — as in retrograde, retrospect. (i) It is disguised in rear-guard (O.F. arieregarde), rear, and arrears. 28. Se (Fr. se), apart, which becomes sed, as in — Secede. Seclude. Seduce. Sedition. 29. Sub (Fr. sous or sou), under, which becomes sue, suf, sud, sum, sup, sur, and sus, as in — Subtract. Succour. Suffer. Suggest. Summon. Supplant. Surrender. Suspend. (i) Sub is disguised in sojourn (from O. Fr. sojomer, from Low Latin subdiurnare), and in sudden (from Latin subitaneus). (ii) It combines with English roots to form the hybrids sublet, subworker, sub- kingdom, etc. 30. Subter, beneath — as in subterfuge. 31. Super (Fr. sur), above, as in — Supernatural. Superpose. Superscription. Surface (superficies). Surname. Surtout (over-all). (i) It is disguised in sovereign (which Milton more correctly spells sovran), from Low Latin super anus. 32. Trans (Fr. tres), beyond, which becomes tra, as in — Translate. Transport. Transform. Transitive. Tradition. Traverse. Travel. Trespass. (i) It is disguised in treason (the Fr. form of tradition, from trado (=transdo), I give up), in betray and traitor (from the same Latin root), in trance and entrance (Latin transitus, a passing beyond), and in trestle (from Latin diminutive transtil- lum, a little cross-beam). 33. Ultra, beyond, as in — Ultra-Liberal. Ultra-Tory. Ultramontane, (i) In outrage (0. Fr. oultrage) the ultra is disguised. 34. Unus, one, which becomes un and uni, as in — ■ Unanimous. Uniform. Unicorn. 35. Vice (Fr. vice), in the place of, as in — Viceroy. 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 (o\v, d), not, as in — Anarchy. Anonymous. Apteryx (the wingless). Atheist. 2. Amphi (a/j. as in — Hemisphere. Hemistich (half a line in poetry). 17. Hyper (virtp), over and above, as in — Hyperborean. Hyperbole. Hypercritical. Hypermetrical. 18. Hypo, hyp (vir6), under, as in — Hypocrite. Hypotenuse. Hyphen. 19. Meta, met (/utTa), after, changed for, as in — Metaphor. Metamorphosis. Metonymy. Method. 20. Mono, mon (fjiSuos), alone, as in — Monogram. Monody. Monad. Monk. 128 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 21. Pan (irav — stem iravT-), all, as in — Pantheist. Panacea. Panorama. Pantomime. 22. Para (irapd), by the side of, which becomes par, as in — Paradox. Parallel. Parish. Parody. 23. Peri (irepf), round, as in — Perimeter. Period. Perigee. Periphery. 24. Pro (irp^), before, as in — Prophet. Prologue. Proboscis. Problem. 25. Pros {Trp6s), towards, as in — Prosody. Proselyte. 26. Syn ( as in — Only ( = onely). Badly. Willingly. Utterly. 4. Ling, long, denotes direction, as in — Darkling. Grovelling. Headlong. Sidelong. (i) Grovelling is not really a present participle ; it is an adverb, and was in O.E. gruflynges. (ii) Headlong and sidelong were in Middle English hailing and sideling. 5. Meal (O.E. maelum = at times), as in — Piecemeal. Limbmeal. (i) Shakespeare, in " Cymbeline," has the line — " O that I had her here, to tear her limbmeal." (ii) Chaucer has stound-meal = hour by hour ; King Alfred has slylckemaelum = stick-meal, or here and there. 6. Om (an old dative plural), as in — Whilom ( = in old times). Seldom (from se?d, rare). 7. Ther, which denotes place to, as in — Hither. 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. Otherwise. Likewise. "Some people are wise ; and some are otherwise." 134 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 22. The following are the most important English Suffixes for Verbs : — 1. Le or 1 lias two functions : — (i) Frequentative, as in— Dabble (dab). Grapple (grab). Waddle (wade), Dribble (drip). Drizzle (from dredsan, to fall). Jostle, (ii) To form verbs of imitative origin, as in — Crackle. Jingle. Hustle. Gabble. Mumble. Tinkle. 2. Er or r adds a frequentative or intensive force to the original verb, as in — Batter (beat). Chatter. Glitter (glow). Flutter (flit). Glimmer (gleam). Clatter. Sputter (spit). Stagger. Stammer. Stutter. Welter. Er has also the function of making causative verbs out of adjectives, as linger (long), lower, hinder. 3. En or n makes causative verbs out of nouns and adjectives, as in — Brighten. Fatten. Lighten. Lengthen. Broaden. Gladden. Soften. Sweeten. 4. K has a frequentative force, as in — Hark (hear). Stalk (steal). Talk (tell). 5. S or se has a causative force, as in — Cleanse (clean). 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 infl uenced by passing through French mouths, and hence have undergone consider- able change. The following are the chief Latin and French Suffixes for Nouns : — 1. Age (Lat. aticum), which forms either abstract or collective nouns.lis in— Beverage. Courage. Carnage. Homage. Marriage. Personage. Vassalage. Vintage, (i) It unites jasnxwith_English roots to form hybrids, as in bondage,j nileage, tonnage, poundage, tillage, shrinkage. 2. An, ain, or ane (Lat. anus), connected with, as in — Artisan. Pagan. Publican. Roman. Chaplain. Captain. Humane. Mundane, (i) The suffix is disguised in sovereign (0. Fr. soverain), which has been wrongly supposed to have something to do with reign; in warden, citizen, dean, etc. Milton always spells sovereign, sovran. SUFFIXES. 135 8. Al or el (Lat. alls), possgssiagjji e qua lity of, as in — "Animal. Cardinal. Sanal. Channel. Hospital. HosteL HoteL Spital. (i) Canal and channel are two different forms— doublets— of the same. So are cattle and chattels (capitalia). (ii) Hospital, spital, liostel, hotel, are four forms of the one Latin word hospilale. (Ostler is a shorter form of hosteller, with a dropped h.) 4. Ant or ent (Latin antem or entem). denotes an agent, as in — Assistant. Servant. Agent. Student. 5. Ance. ancy, or ence, ency (Lat. antla, entia), form abstract nouns, as in — Abundance, Chance. Distance. Brilliancy. Diligence. Indulgence. Constancy. Consistency. (i) Chance comes from late Lat. cadentia=a.n accident. Cadence is a doublet 6. Ary, ry, or er (Lat. arium), a place where a thing is kept, as in — Apiary (apis, a bee). Armoury. Granary. Sanctuary. Treasury. Vestry. Larder. Saucer, (i) The ending ry unites freely with English words to form hybrids, as in cookery, piggery, robbery. (ii) In Jewry, jewellery (or jewelry), poultry, peasantry, cavalry, the ry has a col- lective meaning. 7. Ary, ier, eer, or er (Lat. arius), denotes a person engaged in some trade or profession, as in — Commissary. Notary. Secretary. Statuary. Brigadier. Engineer. Mountaineer. Mariner, (i) This ending is disguised in chancellor (cancellarius), vicar, butler (=bottler), usher (ostiarius, a doorkeeper), premier, etc. 8. Ate (Lat. atus, past participle ending), becoming in French e or ee. denotes — (i) An agent, as in— Advocate. Curate. Legate. Renegade, (ii) The object of an action, as in — Grantee. Legatee. Trustee. Vendee. S3T In grandee the passive signification is not retained. 9. Ce (Lat. cium, tium. or tia) forms abstract nouns, as — Benefice. Prejudice. Sacrifice. Vice. Service. Grace. 10. El, le or 1 (Lat. ulus, ellus, etc.). a diminutive, as in — Angle (a little corner). Buckle (from bucca, the cheek). Castle. Chapel. Libel. Pommel. Title. Seal (i) A buckle used to have a cast of the human face. (ii) Castle, from Lat. castellum, a little fort, from castrum, a fort. (iii) Lib I, from Lat. libellvs, a little book (liber). (iv) Pommel, from Lat. pomum, an apple. (v) Seal from Lat. sigiUv 136 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 11. Ern (Lat. erna), denoting place, as in — Cavern. Cistern. Lantern. Tavern. 12. Et, ette, and let (Fr. et, ette) all diminutives, as in — Bassinette. Buffet. Chaplet. Coronet. Goblet. Gibbet. Lancet. Leveret. Puppet. Trumpet. Ticket. Turret. (i) The let is=l + et, and is found in bracelet, fillet, cutlet, etc. It also unites with English words to form hybrids— as in hamlet, leaflet, ringlet, streamlet, etc. (ii) This ending is disguised in ballot (a small ball), chariot (car), parrot (—per roquet), etc. 13. Ess (late Lat. issa), a female agent, as in — Empress. Governess. Marchioness. Sorceress. (i) It unites with English words to form the hybrids murderess, sempstress (The last is a double feminine, as seamestre is the old word.) 14. Ice, ise, or ess (Lat. tia ; Fr. esse), as in — Avarice. Cowardice. Justice. Merchandise. Distress. Largess, Noblesse. Biches. (i) It is a significant mark of the carelessness with which the English language has always been written, that the very same ending should appear in three spellings in largess, noblesse, riches. (ii) Riches is a false plural : it is an abstract noun, the French form being richesse. 15. Ice (Lat. icem ace. of nouns in x)., which has also the forms of ise, ace, as in — Chalice. Pumice. Mortise. Furnace, (i) The suffix is much disguised in radish (=the root, from radicem). (ii) It is also disguised in partridge and judge (judicem). 16. Icle (Lat. iculus, ellus, ulus), which appears also as eel and sel, a diminutive, as in — Article (a little joint). Particle. Beceptacle. Versicle. Parcel ( varticeUa). Morsel (from inordeo, I bite). Damsel (dominicella, a little lady). (i) The ending is disguised in rule (regula), carbuncle (from carbo, a coal), uncle (avunculus), and vessel (from vas). (ii) Parcel and particle are doublets. 17. Ine or in (Lat. inus) related to, as in — Libertine. Cousin. (i) Cousin is a contraction — through French — of the Latin consobrinus, the child of a mother's sister. (ii) The ending is disguised in pilgrim, from peregrinus = from per agros, through the fields. 18. Ion (Lat. ionem), which appears also as tion, sion, and, from French, as son, som, denotes an action, as in — SUFFIXES. Opinion. Position. Vacation. Poison. Benediction. Benison. Ransom. Malediction. Malison. 137 Action. Potion. Redemption. (i) Potion, poison, and the three other pairs are doublets — the first having come through the door of hooks straight from the Latin, the second through the mouth and ear, from French. (ii) Venison (hunted flesh, from venationem), season (sationem, the sowing time), belong to the above set. 19. Ment (Lat. mentum) denotes an instrument or an act, as in — Document. Instrument. Monument. Ornament, (i) It combines easily with English words to make hybrids, as atonement, acknowledgment, bewitchment, fulfilment. 20. Mony (Lat. monium) makes abstract nouns, as — Acrimony. Matrimony. Sanctimony. Testimony. 21. Oon or on (Fr, on ; Ital. one), an augmentative, as in — Balloon. Cartoon. Bassoon. Saloon. Flagon. Million. Pennon. Medallion. Squadron. Galleon. Trombone. Violone. (i) Augmentativea are the opposite of diminutives. Contrast balloon auiballot; galleon and galliot (a small galley). (ii) A balloon is a large ball ; a cartoon a big f.arte ; a bassoon a large bass in- strument ; a saloon a large hall (salle); flagon (O. Fr. fiascori), a large flask ; million a big thousand (mil If) ; pennon, a.\a.rge pen or feather ; galleon, a large galley; trom- bone, a large trump-ct; violone, a double-bass viol. 22. Ory, (Lat. orium), which appears also as or, our, and er, and denotes place, as in — Auditory. Dormitory. Refectory. Lavatory. Mirror. Paiuour. Dormer. Manger. (i) Mirror is contracted by the French from moratorium; parlour from par- latorium; manger from manducatorium=the eating-place. Dormer is short for dormitory, from dormitorium. 23. Our (Lat. or ; Fr. eur), forms abstract or collective nouns, as in — Ardour. Clamour. Honour. Savour. (i) The ending resumes its French form in grandeur. (ii) It forms a hybrid in behaviour. 24. Or or our (Lat. orem ; Fr. eur) denotes an agent, as in — Actor. Governor. Emperor. Saviour, (i) This ending is disguised in interpreter, labourer, preacher, etc. (ii) A large number of nouns which used to end in our or or, took er through the influence of the English suffix er. They were " attracted " into that form. 138 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 25. T (Lat. tus— the ending of the past particijile) indicates a completed act, as in — Act. Fact. Joint. Suit. (i) The t in Latin has the same origin and performs the same function as the. d in English (as in dead, finished, and other past participles, etc.) (ii) The ending is disguised in feat, which is a doublet of fact, in fruit (Lat. fnict-us), comfit (=confect), counterfeit ( = contrafact-um). 26. Ter (Lat. ter) denotes a person, as in — Master (contracted from magister). Minister, (i) Magister comes from magis, more, which contains the root of magnus, great ', minister from minus, less. 27. Tery (Lat. terium) denotes condition, as in — Mastery. Ministry. 28. Trix (Lat. trix) denotes a female agent, as in — Executrix. Improvisatrix. Testatrix, (i) This ending is disguised in empress (Fr. imp&ratrice from Lat. imperatrix): and in nurse (Fr. nourrice, Lat. nutrix). 29. Tude (Lat. tudo), denotes condition, as in— Altitude. Beatitude. Fortitude. Multitude, (i) In custom, from Lat. consuetudinem, the ending is disgHised. 30. Ty (Lat. tatem ; Fr. te) makes abstract nouns, as in — Bounty. Charity. Cruelty. Poverty. Captivity. Frailty. Fealty, Vanity, (i) Bounty (bonte), poverty {pauvreti), frailty, and fealty come, not directly from Latin, but through French. 31. Ure (Lat. ura) denotes an action, or the result of an action, as in — Aperture. Cincture. Measure. Picture. 32. Y (Lat. ia ; Fr. ie) denotes condition or faculty, as in— Company. Family. Fury. Victory. (i) This suffix unites easily with English words in er — as bakery, fishery, rob- bery, etc. (ii) It stands for Lat. ium in augury, remedy, study, subsidy, 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 the chief Latin Suffixes for Adjectives. 1. Aceous (Lat. aceus) = made of, as in — Argillaceous (clayey). Farinaceous (floury). SUFFIXES. 139 2. Al (Lat. alis) — belonging to, as in — Legal. Regal. LoyaL Royal. (i) Loyal and royal are the same words as legal and regal; but, in passing through French, the hard g has been refined into a y. 3. An, ane, or ain (Lat. anus and aneus) = connected •with, as in — Certain. Human (homo). Humane. Pagan (pagus, a district), (i) This ending disguises itself in mizzen (medianus) ; in scrivener (L. Lat, scribanus); and in sexton (contracted from sacristan). (ii) In champaign (level), and foreign (foranens), this ending greatly disguises itself. In strange (extranens), still more. All have been strongly influenced in their passage through the French. 4. Ant, ent (Lat. antem, entem, ace. of pres. part.), as in — Current (curro, I run). Distant. President. Discordant. 5. At (Lat. aris) which appears also as er = belonging to, as in — Regular. Singular. Secular. Scholar. (i) Scholar was originally an adjective form, but we now use scholarly as the adjective. 6. Ary (Lat. arius), which also takes the secondary formations of arious and arian — belonging to, as in — Contrary. Necessary. Gregarious. Agrarian. 7. Atic (Lat. aticus) = belonging to, as in — Aquatic. Fanatic (fanum). Lunatic. 8. Able, ible, ble (Lat. abilis, gbilis, ibilis) = capable of being as in — Amiable. Culpable. Flexible. Movable. (i) Feeble (Lat. flcbilis, worthy of being wept over), comes to us through the O. Fr. floible. (ii) This suffix unites easily with English roots to form hybrids, like eatable, drinkable, teachable, gullible. Carlyle has also doable. 9. Pie, ble (Lat. plex, from plico, I fold) = the English suffix— fold. as in — Simple ( = on efold). Double. Triple. Treble. 10. Esque (Lat. iscus ; Fr. esque) = partaking of, as in- Burlesque. Grotesque (grotto). Picturesque. (i) This ending is disguised in morris (danct )-Moresco (or Moorish). The O.E. pa trial ending isc is disguisi lt(=Jfrencisc) > etc. 11. Ic (Lat. icus) = belonging to, as in — Gigantic. "Metallic. Public (populus). Rustic. (i) This ending is disguised in indigo (from Indicus) [colour] — the Indian colour.) 140 GKAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 12. Id (Lat. Idus) = having the quality of, as in — Acid. Frigid. Limpid. Morbid. 13. He, 11 (Lat. ilis), often used as a, passive suffix, as in — Docile. Fragile. Mobile. Civil. (i) Fragile, in passing through French, lost the g — which was always hard— and became frail. (ii) The suffix He is disguised in gentle and subtle. (iii) Gentile, gentle, and genteel, are all different forms of the same word, (iv) The suffix tie has often a depreciatory sense as in puerile, infantile, and servile (of. ish). 14. Ine (Lat. Inus) = belonging to, as in — Canine. Crystalline. Divine. Saline. (i) In marine, the ending, by passing through French, has acquired a French pronunciation. 15. Ive (Lat. Ivus) = inclined to, as in — Abusive. Active. Fugitive. Plaintive. (i) This ending appears also as iff, by passing through French, as in caitiff (= captivus); and in the nouns plaintiff and. bailiff. (ii) It also disguises itself as a y in hasty, jolly, testy, which in O. Fr. were hastif, jollif, testif(= heady). (iii) It unites with the English word talk to form the hybrid talkative. 16. Lent (Lat. lentus) = full of, as in — Corpulent. Fraudulent. Opulent (opes). Violent (vis). 17. Ory (Lat. orius) = full of, as in — Amatory. Admonitory. Illusory. 18. Ose, ous (Lat. osus) = full of, as in — Bellicose. Grandiose. Verbose. Curious, (i) The form in ous has been influenced by the French ending euz. 19. Ous (Lat. us) = belonging to, as in — Anxious. Assiduous. Ingenuous. Omnivorous. (i) It unites with English words to form hybrids like ravenous, boisterous (which is a lengthened form of the M. E. boistovs, from boist, noise). 20. Und (Lat. undus) = full of, as in- Jocund. Moribund. Rotund. (i) Rotund has been shortened into round. Second is, through French, from Lat. secundus (from sequor, I follow)— (he number that follows the first. Vcntus sccundus is a favourable wind, or a " wind that follows fast." (ii) This ending is slightly modified in vagabond and second. 21. Ulous (Lat. tilus^ = full of, as in — Querulous (full of complaint). Sedulous. SUFFIXES. HI 25. The following are the chief Latin Suffixes for Verba. 1. Ate (Lat. atum, supine), as in — Complicate. Dilate. Relate. Supplicate. (i) Assassinate (from the Arabic hashish, a preparation of Indian hemp, whoet effects are similar to those of opium) is a hybrid. 2. Esce (Lat. esco), an inceptive suffix, as in — Coalesce (to begin to grow together). Effervesce (to begin to boil up.) 2. Fy (Lat. flco ; Fr. fie — from Lat. facie) = to make, as in — Beautify. Magnify. Signify. 4. Ish (connected with Lat. esco) = to make, as in — Admonish. Establish. Finish. Nourish. 5. Ete, ite, t (Lat. itum, etum, turn), with an active function, as in—. Complete. Delete. Expedite. Connect. 26. The suffixes which the English language has adopted from Greek are not numerous ; hut some of them are very useful. Most of them are employed to make nouns. The following art the chief Greek Suffixes, 1. Y (Gr. ia), makes abstract nouns, as in — Melancholy. Monarchy. Necromancy. Philosophy, (i) Fancy is a compressed form of phantasy (phantasia = imagination), (ii) In dy^epsia and hydrophobia we get the Greek suffix unchanged. 2. Ic (Gr. ik6s)= belonging to, as in — Aromatic. Barbaric. Frantic. Graphic. Arithmetic. Schismatic. Logic. Music. (i) Willi the addition of the Latin alls, adjectives are formed from some of these words, as logical, musical, etc. (ii) The plural form of some adjectives also makes nouns of them, as in politics, ethics, physics. In Ireland we find also logics. (iii) Arithmetic, logic, and music are from Greek nouns ending in ike. 3. Sis (Gr. (tis) = action, as in — Analysis. Emphasis. Genesis. Synthesis. (i) In the following words si's has become sy, as hypocrisy, poesy, palsy (short for paralysis). (ii) In the following the is ha3 dropped awaj altogether — ellipse, pha»e. L 142 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 4. Ma or m (Gr. fj.a), passive suffix, as in — Diorama. Dogma. Drama (something done). Schism. Baptism. Barbarism. Despotism. Egotism. (i) In diadem and system, the a has dropped off; in scheme and theme it has boon changed into an e. (ii) Schism conies from schizu, I cut. The ending in ismos is most frequent. (iii) This ending unites freely with Latin words to form hybrids, as in deism, mannerism, purism, provincialism, vulgarism, etc. 5. St (Gr. 0-T77 ;•) = agent, as in — Baptist. Botanist. Iconoclast (image-breaker). (i) This suffix has become a very useful one, and is largely employed. It formi numerous hybrids with words of Latin origin, as abolitionist, excursionist, educa- tionist, journalist, protectionist, jurist, socialist, specialist, royalist. 6. T or te (Gr. rvs) — agent, as in — Comet. Planet. Poet. Apostate. (.i) Comet means a long-haired star; planet, a wanderer; poet, a maker (in Northern English poets called themselves " Makkers ') ; an apostate., a person who has fallen away. (ii) There is a kindred ending <>t, also, meaning agent or denoting a title (6k. ojTr)?), as in idiot, patriot, ?e<>U,i. 7. Ter or tre (Gr. rpov), denotes an instrument or place, as in — Metre. Centre. Theatre. 8. Isk (Gr. io-Kos), a diminutive, as in — Asterisk (a little star). Obelisk (a small spit). 9. Ize or ise (Gr. t£w) makes factitive verbs, as in — Baptise. Criticise. Judaize. Anglicize (i) This ending combines with Latin words to form the hybrids minimise realise, etc. 143 WORD - BRANCHING. When our language was young and uninfluenced by other languages, it had the power of growing words. These words, like plants, grew from a root ; and all the words that grew from the same root had a family likeness. Thus byrn-an, the old word for to burn, gave us brimstone, brown (which is the burnt colour), brunt, brand, brandy, and brindle. These we might represent to ourselves, on the 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, Ave fell into the habit of simply taking an old and ready-made Avoid from French, or from Latin, or from Greek, and giving it a place in the language. Instead of the Old English word fairhood, Ave imported the French word beauty ; instead of forewit, we adopted the Latin word cau- tion; instead of lieherest, Ave took the Greek word cemetery. And so it came about that in course of time Ave lost the power of growing our own neAv words. The Greek word asterisk has prevented our making the word starkin ; the Greek name astronomy has kept out star-craft ; the Latin word omnibus has stopped our even thinking of folkwain ; and the name vocabulary is much more familiar to our cars than word- hoard. Indeed, so strange have some of our own native 144 GRAMMAE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. English words beeome 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 very mixed condition. The following are the most important ENGLISH ROOTS AND BRANCHES (OR DERIVATIONS). Ac, an oak— Acton, Uckfield. Bac-an, to bake — baker, baxter i (a woman baker), batch. Ban-a, a slayer — bane, baneful ; ratsbane, henbane. Bead-an, 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 leads — strung upon a string) ; forbid. Beat-an, to strike — beat, bat (a short cudgel) ? battle ; beetle (a wooden bat for beating clothes with) ; batter (a kind o f pudding). Beorg-an, to shelter — burrow, bury (noun in Canterbury — and verb) ; burgh, burgher ; burglar (a house-robber) ; har- bour, Cold Harbour ; - harbinger (a per- son sent on in front to procure lodg- ings) ; borrow (to raise money on secur- ity). Ber-an, to bear— bear, bier, bairn ; birth, berth ; brood, brother, breed, bird ; 3 burden ; barrow. Bet-an, to make good — better, best ; boot (in "to boot" — "to the good"), boob less. Bind-an, to bind — band, bond, bondage bundle ; woodbine ; bindweed. Bit-an, to bite — bit ; beetle ; bait ; bitter. Bla'w-an, to puff— bladder, blain (chil- blain), blast, blaze (to proclaim), blazon (a proclamation), blare (of a trumpet); blister ; blot, bloat. Blow-an, to blossom— blow (said of flow- ers) ; bloom, blossom ; blood, blade ; blowsy. Brec-an, to break — break, breakers ; brake, bracken ; breach, brick ; break -fast ; brook ( = the water which breaks up through the ground); brittle (= brickie or breakable) ; bray (where the hard guttural has been absorbed). Breow-an, to brew — brew, brewer ; broth, brose ; bread (perhaps). 1 Compare brewster, a woman brewer, spinster, weuster, and others. Brewster, Baxter, and Webster are now only used as proper names. 2 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 wlio carried their own bedding and provisions. Sec Isaac Taylor's ' Words and Places,' p. 256. s Brid or bird was originally the young of any animal WORD-BRANCHING. 145 Bug-ail, to bend — bow, elbow ; i bough ; bight; buxom (O.E. bocsum, flexible or obedient). The hard g in bugan appears as a w in how, as a gh in hough, as a y in hay, as a k in buxom=buk-som. Byrn-an, to burn — burn, brown ; brunt, brimstone; brand, brandy; brindled. Catt, a cat— catkin ; kitten, kitling ; cater- pillar (the hairy cat, from Lat. pilosus, hairy), caterwaul. Ceapi-an, to buy — cheap, cheapen ; chop (to exchange) ; a chopping sea ; chap, chapman ; chaffer ; Eastcheap, Cheap- side, Chepstow ( = the market stow or place), Chippenham. 2 Cenn-an, to produce— kin, kind, kindred ; kindly ; kindle. Ceow-an, to chew — chew ; cheek ; jaw (=chaw); jowl; ehaw-Sacoi,- cud ( = the chewed). Compare seethe and suds. Cleov-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." Cnaw-an, to know — ken, know (=ken-ow — ovi being a dim.) ; knowledge. Cnotta, a knot — knot, knit, net (the /,: having been dropped for the eye, as well as for the ear). Cunn-an, to know or to be able — can, con ; cunning ; uncouth. Cweth-an, to say — quoth ; beqiieath. Cwic, alive— quick, quicken ; quickset ; quickZime ; quicksilver; to cut to the, quick. Dael-an, to divide — deal (verb and noun), dole ; dale, dell (the original sense be^);_ , cleft, or separated). 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. Doan, 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 (verb and adj.); drought ; drugs (originally dried plants). 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"); doughty. Eac, also — eke (verb and adv.) ; ekename (which became a nickname ; the n hav- ing dropped from the article and clung to the noun). Eage, eye — Egbert (=6 right-eyed); daisy (=day's eye); window (= wind-eye). Eri-an, to plough— ear (the old word foi plough) ; earth (= the ploughed). Far-an, to go or travel — far, fare ; welfare, fieldfare, thoroughfare ; ferry : ford. Feng- an, to catch — fang, finger, new- fangled (catching eagerly after new things). Fe6wer, four — farthing ; firkin ; fourteen ; forty. Fleog-an, to flee — fly, flight ; flea ; fledged. Fle6t-an, to float — fleet (noun, verb, and adj.); float; ice-floe; afloat; flotsam 3 (things found floating on the water after a wreck). F6d-a, food — feed ; food, fodder, foster ; fath-er ; forage (=fodderage), forager ; foray (an excursion to get food). Fre<5n, to love— freond = friend (the pres. part.) a lover ; Fri-day (the day of Friya, the goddess of love) ; friendship, etc. Gal-an, to sing— gale, yell ; nightingale.* Gang-an, to go — gang, gangway; ago. (The words gate and gait do not come from this verb, but from get.) Gnag-an, to bite — gnaw (the g has be- 1 Elbow = ell-bow. The ell was the forepart of the arm. 2 The same root is found in the Scotch Kippen and the Danish Copcnhage>i= Mer- chants' Haven. 3 " Flotsam and jetsam " mean the floating things and the things thrown over- board from a ship. Jetsam comes from Old Fr. jetter, to throw. (Hence also "jet of water" ; jetty, etc. Jetsam is a hybrid — sam being a Scandinavian suffix. 4 The n in nightingale is no part of the word. It is intrusive and non-organic ; as it also is in passenger, messenger, porringer, etc. 14G GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. come a w) ; gnat ; nag (to teast>), con- nected with nail. Graf-an, to dig or cut— grave, groove, grove (the original sense was a lane cut through trees) ; graft, engraft ; engrave, engraver ; carve (which is another form of the verb grave). Grip-an, to seize — 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, 1 wholesome; wassail (=Waes hal !j= Be whole ! ) Hebb-an, to raise — heave, heave-offering; heavy ( = that requires much heaving); heaven. Hlaf, bread— loaf ; lord (hlaford = loaf- ward); lady(= hlaf-dige, from dig-an, to knead) ; Lammas ( = Loaf-mass, Aug. 1 ; a loaf was offered on this day as the offering of the first-fruits). Leac, 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. Mang, a mixture — a-mong ; mongrel ; mingle ; cheesemonger. Maw-an, to cut — mow ; math, aftermath ; mead, meadow (the places where grass is mowed). M6n-a, the moon — month j moonshine. (This word comes from a very old root, ma, to measure. Our Saxon forefathers measured by moons and" by nights, as we see in the words fortnight, se'nnight.) Naeddre, a snake — adder. The n has dropped off from the word, and has ad- hered to the article. Compare apron, from naperon (compare with napkin, napery) ; umpire, from numpire. The opposite example of the n leaving the article and adhering to the noun, is found in newt, from an eft ; nickname from an ekename. Nosu, a nose— nose, naze, ness (all three different forms of the same word, and found in the Naze, Sheerness, etc.) ; nostril = nose-thirl (from thirlian, 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. Rded-an, to read or guess— rede (advice) ; riddle; Ethelred (=noble in counsel); Unready (=Unrede, without counsel) ; Mildred (=mild in counsel). Reaf, clothing, spoil ; reafi-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 fashion— shape ; ship (the suffix in friendship, 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 thrown over a bed) ; shut- ter, shuttle ; scud. Scer-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, ^?oisherd (the same word, with the r transposed) ; sheriff ( = scir-gereTa, reeve of the shire) ; scrip, scrap, scrape. The soft form sh belongs to the southern English dialects: the hard forms, sc and sk, to the northern. Scuf-an, to push— shove, shovel, shuffle ; scuffle ; sheaf ; scoop. Sett-an, to set, or make sit — set, seat ; settle, saddle ; Somerset, Dorset. Slag-an, to strike— slay (the hard g has been refined into a ?/), slaughter ; slog, sledge (in sledge-hammer). Slip-an, to slip— slop ; slipper, sleeve (into which the arm is dipped). Snic-an, to crawl — sneak, snake, snail (here the hard guttural has been refined away). Spell, a story or message— spell (= to give i The w in whole is intrusive and non-organic, as in whoop, 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 hale. Holy is simply hole+y. WORD-BRANCHING. 147 an account of or tell the story of the letters in a word) ; spell-bound; gospel (= 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, farm-steading; steady; steadfast; be- stead ; Hampstead. Stic'i-an, to stick— stick, stitch (two forms of the same word), stake, stock, stock- ade ; stock-dove; stock-fish (fish dried to keep in stock) ; stock-still. Stig-an, to climb— stair; stile; stirrup (= 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 I and w being interchangeable). StyV-an, to direct — steer, stern ; steerage. Sundri-an, to part — sunder ; sundry ; asunder. (Compare sever and several.) Sweri-an, to declare— swear, answer ( = andswerian, to declare in opposition or in reply to), forswear. Taec-an, to show— teach, teacher; token (that which is shown); taught (when the hard c reappears as a gh). Tell-an, to count or recount — tell ; tale, 1 talk ; toll ; teller. Teoh-an (or te6n), 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 ; wantrust = mistrust. Thaec, a roof— thatch ; deck. Tred-an, to walk— tread, treadle; trade; tradesman, trade-wind. Truwa, good faith — true, truth, truth, be- troth. Tw&, two — two, twin, twain; twelve (= two+lif, "remainingover"); twenty; be- t\\ 11 ; 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- t utes gu for w) — warrioj-, warfare. Weard, a guarding — wary, aware ; ward, guard (a Norman-French doublet of ward); warden, guardian (the same). Wit-an, to know— wit, to wit ; wise, wis- dom ; wistful ; witness ; Witena-gemote (= the Meeting of the Wise) ; y-wis (the past 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 place). Wyrt, a herb or plant — wort ; orchard (= wort -yard); wart (on the skin); St John's wort, etc. LATIN ROOTS. Those words with (F.) after them have not come to us directly from Latin ; but, indirectly, through French. Acer (acris), sharp ; acrid, acrimony, vine- Ago (actum), / do, act; act, agent, agile. gar (sharp wine, F.), eager (F.) .flSdes, a building ; edifice, edify. iEquus, equal; equality, equator, equi- nox, equity, adequate, iniquity. Ager, a field ; agriculture, agrarian, pere- grinate. agitate, cogent. Alo, I nourish; aliment, alimony. Alter, the other of two ; alternation, sub» altern, altercation Altus, high; altitude, exalt, alto (It.), altar. " And every shepherd tells his tale (= counts his sheep) Under the hawthorn in the dale.' — M'i-ton : T' Allegro. 14S GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Ambulo, I walk; amble (F.), perambulator. Amo, / lore; amity, amorous, amiable (F.), inimical. Angulus, a corner ; angle, triangle, quad- rangle. Anima, life; animal, animate, animation. Animus, mind ; magnanimity, equan- imity, unanimous, animadvert. Annus, a year ; annual, perennial, bien- nial, anniversary. Aperio (apertum), I open ; aperient, aper- ture, April (the opening month). Appello, / call; appellation, appellant; peal (of bells), appeal (F.) Aqua, water ; aqueduct, aquatic, aqueous, aquarium. Arcus, a low; arch, arc, arcade (Fr. It.) Ardeo, I burn; ardent, ardour, arson (F.) Ars (artis), art; artist, artisan (F.), arti- fice, inert. Audio, I hear; audience, audible, audi- tory. Augeo (auctum), I increase; augment, author, auctioneer. Barba, a beard ; barb, barber, barbel (all through F.) Bellum, war; rebel, rebellious, bellig- erent, bellicose. Bis, twice; biscuit, bissextile, bisect, bicycle. Brevis, short; brevity, abbreviate, brief (F.), breviary, abridge (F.) Cado (casum). I fall ; casual, accident. Caedo (csesum), I cut, kill; precise, exci- sion, decide. Candeo, I shine ; candidus, white ; can- did, candidate, candle. Cano (cantum), I sing; cant, canticle, chant (F.), incantation. Capio (captum), / take; captive, accept, reception (F.), capacity. Caput, the head; capital, captajn, cape, chapter (F.) Caro (carnis), flesh; carnal, carnival, car- nivorous, carnation. Causa, a cause; causative, accuse (F.), excuse (F.) Cavus, hollow; cavity, cave, excavate, concave. Cedo (cessum), I go, yield; proceed (F.), ancestor (F.), secede. Centrum (Gr. xivrpov = a point), centre; centralise, centripetal, eccentric. Centum, a htmdred ; century, centurion, cent. Cerno (cretum), to distinguish; discern, discretion, discreet. Cingo (cinctum), I gird; cincture, suc- cinct, precinct. Cito, I call or summon; citation, recite (F.), excite (F.), incite (F.) Civis, a citizen; city (F.), civic, civil, civ- ilise, civilian. Clamo, J shout; claim (F.), clamour, re- claim (F.), proclamation. Clarus, clear; clarify, declare ; clarion, claret (F.) Claudo (clausum), I shut ; clause, close (F.), exclude, seclusion. Clino, I bend; incline, decline, recline. Colo (cultum), / till ; cultivate, arboricul- ture, agriculture. Cor (cordis), the heart; courage (F.), cor- dial (F.), discord, record. Corona, a crown; coronet, coroner, coro- nation, corolla. Corpus, the body ; corps, corpse (F.), cor- pulent, corporation. Credo, 1 believe; credibility, credence (F.), miscreant (F.), creed, creditor. Creo, I create; create, creation, recrea- tion, creature. Cresco, / grow; increase, decrease (F.); increment. Crux (crucis), a cross; crucial, crucifix, cruise (F.) Cubo, I lie down ; cubit, incubate, recum- bent. Culpa, a fault; culprit, culpable, excul- pate, inculpate. Cura, cure; curate, curator, accurate, secure, incurable. Curro (cursum), I run; current, recur, excursion, cursory, course (F.), occur. Decern, ten; decimal, December, deci- mate. Dens (dentis), a tooth; dentist, dental, indent, trident. Deus, God; deity, deify, 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), / give; date, data, dative, dation (a law term). Doceo (doctum), J teach; docile, doctor, doctrine. Dominus, a lord ; dominion, dominant ; domineer, dame, damsel, madame (allF.) WORTl-P.RANOTIING. 14!) Domus. a house ; domestic, domicile. Dormio, / sleep; dormitory; dormant, dormer-window (both F.) Duco (dictum), / hail ; induct, educa- tion, duke(F.), produce. Duo, two; dual, duel, duplex, double(F.) Eino (emptum), / buy ; exemption, re- deem (F.) Eo(itum), I go ; exit, transit, circuit(F.), ambition, perish (F.) Erro, I wander ; err, error, aberration. Fades, aface; facial, facet (F.), superficial. Facio, (factum), / make; manufacture, factor, faction, fashion (F.), feature (F.), fact, feat(F.) Fero (latum), I carry ; infer, suffer, refer- ence, difference ; relative, correlative. Fido,l trust; confide, diffident, infidel(F.) Filum, a thread; file, defile, profile, fillet (F.) Finis, the end; finish (F.), finite, infinite, infinitive. Firmus, firm; infirm, affirm, confirm. Flecto(flexum), I bend; inflect, inflection, flexible. Flos (Boris), a flower; floral, flora, flori- culture. Fluo (fluxum), I flow ; fluent, fluid, flux, affluent. Folium, a leaf; foliage, foil (F.), portfolio, trefoil (F.) Forma, a form ; form, formal, reform, conformity. Fortis, strong; fortify, fortitude, fortress, force (F.) Frango (fractus), I break; fragile (F.), fragmentary, infraction, infringe. Frater, a brother; fraternal, fratricide. friar (F.) Frons, (frontis), the forehead; front, frontal, frontier, frontispiece. Fugio,/y?ee; fugitive, refugee (F.), subter- fuge. Fundo (fusum), I pour ; fount, foundry (F.) ; fusible, diffusion. Fundus, thehottom; foundation, profound, founder (all F.) Gens (gentis), a race, people; gentile, genteel, gentle (all F.) ; congenial. Gero (gestum), I bear, carry; gesture, suggestion, indigestion. Gradus, a step; gradior (gressus), I go; grade, degrade, graduate; progress (F.), gradient. Gratia, favour, pi. thanks; gratitude, in- gratiate, gratis. Gravis, heai-y ; grave, gravity, grief (!'.), aggrieve (F.) Habeo(habitum), / have; habit, able(F.), exhibit, prohibition. Hoereo (hsesum), / stick ; adhere, adher- ent, cohesion. Homo, avian; homicide, homage (F.), human, humane. Ignis, fire; ignite, igneous. Impero, I command; imperative, imperial ; empire, emperor (both F.) Initium, a beginning ; initate, initial. Insula, an island; isle, insular, peninsula. Jacio (jectum), I throw; adjective, pro- ject, injection, object, subject. Judex (judicis), a judge ; judgment (F.), judicial. Jungo(junctum), I join ; junction, junc- ture, conjoin (F.), adjunct. Jus (juris), right; justice (F.), jury (F.), injury. Labor (lapsus), I glide; lapse, relapse, collapse. Lapis (lapidis), a stone; lapidary, dilapi- dated. Laus(laudis), praise; laud, laudable, laud- ation, allow (F.) Lego (lectuni), I gather, read; collect, elector, select; lecture (F.), legend, legible. Lego(legatum), J send; legate, delegate, legacy. Levis, light; levity, alleviate; relief, lever, leaven (all F.) Lex (legis), a law; legal, legislate, legiti- mate. Liber, free; liberal, liberty, libertine. Liber, a book; library, librarian. Ligo, I bind; ligament, religion, oblige (F.), liable (F.) Linquo(lictum), I leave; relinquish, relict, relics (F.) Litera, a letter; literal, literary, litera- ture. Locus, a place; local, allocate, dislocate, locomotive. Loquor (locutus), / speak; loquacious, elocution, co'.b quy. Ludo(lusum), I play ; elude, illusion, in- terlude, ludicrous. Lumen, light ; illuminate, luminous, lum- inary. Luna, the moon; lunar, sublunary, lun acy. Luo (lutum), I wash ; ablution, dilute, antediluvian. 150 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Lux (lucis), light; lucid, elucidate, pel- Lucid. Magnus, great ; magnitude, magnify, mag- nificent, magnanimous. Malus, bad; malady, malice (F.); malaria, malevolent. Maneo (mansum), / remain; manse, man- sion, permanent. Manus, the hand; manuscript, manual, manufacture, amanuensis. Mare, the sea; marine, mariner, maritime. Mater, a mother; maternal, matricide, matron, matriculate. Maturus, ripe; mature, immature, pre- mature. Medius, the middle ; medium, mediate, immediate, Mediterranean. Memini, / remember; raemor, ■mindful; memory, memoir (F.), commemorate, immemorial. Mens (mentis), the mind; mental, de- mented. Mergo (mersum), I dip; emerge, immer- sion, emergency. Merx (mercis), goods; merchandise (F.), commerce (F.), merchant (F.) Miles (milites), a soldier; military, mili- tant, militia. Miror, / admire; admirable, miracle, mirage (F.) Mitto (missum), I send; commit, missile, mission, remittance. Modus, a measure; mood (!•'.), modify, accommodate. Moneo (monitum), I advise; i lition, monitor, monument. Mons (montis), a mountain; amount (F.), dismount (F.), promontory, ultramon- tane. Mors (mortis), 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. Navis, 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, / injure; noxious, innocuous, in- nocent. Nomen, 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. Omnis, all; omnibus, omnipotent, om- niscient. Opus (operis), ivork; operation, co-oper- ate, opera. Ordo (ordinis), order; ordinal, ordinary, ordinance. Oro, I pray ; oration, orator, peroration. Pando (pansum or passum), I spread ; ex- pand, expanse; compass. pace(F.) Pareo, T appeo,r; appearance, apparent, apparition. Paro (paratum), I prepare; repair (F.), apparatus, comparison I F.) Pars (partis), a part ; particle, partition; partner, parcel (F.) Pasco (pastum), I feed; pastor, repast, pasture. Pater, a father; paternal, parricide (F.) patrimony. Patior (passus), I suffer ; impatient, pas- sive, passion. Pax (pacis), peace; pacify, pacific. Pello (pulsnm), I drive; repel, expel, ex- pulsion, impulsive. Pendeo (pensum), I hang; pendant, de- pend, suspend, suspense, appendix. Pes (pedis), the foot ; pedal, impede, ped- estrian, biped. Peto (petitum), / seek ; petition, petulant, compete, appetite. Planus, level ; plan, plane, plain, ex- plain (all F.) Plaudo (plausum), / clap the hands; ap- plaud, plausible, explode (F.) Pleo (pletum), I Jill ; 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), c bridge; pontiff, trai spon- tine. WORD -BRANCHING. 151 Porto, I carry: export, deportment, re- port, portmanteau (P.) Possum, I am able ; potens, able; pos- sible, potency (F.), impotent. Prehendo (prehensum), (Fr. prendre, pris), £ take; prehensile, comprehend ; apprise, comprise, apprentice (F.) Primus, first; primary, primitive, prim- rose (F. ) Probo, / try, prove ; probe, probable, im- prove (F.), approve (F.) Proprius, one's own; proper, property (F.) ; appropriation. Pungo(punctum), 1 prick; pungent, ex- punge ; punctual, poignant (F.) Puto (pntatum), I cut, think; compute, count (F.), amputate, reputation. Quatuor,/our; quadra, a square ; quart, quarter, quarry (F.) ; quadrant. Radix, a root ; radical, eradicate, radish (P.) Rapio (raptum), I seize; rapture, rapine (F.), surreptitious. Rego (rectum), / rule ; rex (regis), a king ; regal, regulate, regent, rector, interreg- num, royal (F.), realm (N.-Fr. real). Rideo (risum), I laugh; ridicule (P.), de- ride, ridiculous (F.), risible. Rogo (i-ogatum), I ask; rogation, interru- pt ion, derogatory. Rota, a wheel; rotary, rotation, rotund — contracted into round (F.) Rumpo(ruptum), I break ; rupture, erup- tion, disruption. Sacer, sacred; sacrament, sacrilege (P.), sacerdotal, sexton (contracted from sacristan). Salio (saltum), I leap; sally, assail, sal- mon (all F.); salient. Sanctus, 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 (seriptum), / write; scribe, scrib- ble, scripture, inscription, postscript. Seco (sectum), / cut ; bisect, dissect, in- sect, section. Sedeo (sessuni), I set, sit; sediment, sub- side, see (P.), residence (F.), insidious. Sentio, I feel ; sense, sensual, scent (P.) : sentiment. Septem, seven; septennial, September. Sequor (secutus), I follow; sequence! F. I, sequel, consequent, prosecute. Servio, 7 , ,; . rve : service (F.), servant, ser- geant(F.) Signum, a sign; signify, significant, des- ignation, ensign (F.) Similis, like; similar, similitude, re. semble (F.) Socius, a companion ; social, society, as- sociation. Solus, alone; solitude, sole, solo (It.) Solvo(solutum), I loose; dissolve, resolve, absolute, resolution, Specio(spectum), /see; aspect, spectator, specimen, spectre (F.) Spero, I hope ; despair (F.), desperate. Spiro, / breathe ; inspire, aspire, con- spiracy (all F.) Statuo, / set up; sto (statum), / stand ; statue, statute, stature (F.); insti- tute. Stringo (strictum), / bind; stringent, constrain (F.), district. Struo (structum), Ibuild; structure, ((in- struct, obstruct, construe. Sumo (sumptum), J take; assume, con- sume, assumption. Tango (tactum), / touch; tangible, tan- gent, contact, contagious. Tego (tectum), / cover ; integument, de- tect, tile (P.); from I.at. tegvla. Tempus (temporis), time; temporal, con- temporary, extempore. Tends (tensum), / stretch; contend, ex- tend, attend, tense (F.), tendon. Teneo (tentuni), ' 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 (P.), trident, trinity. Tribuo, I give; tribute, tributary, con- tribution. Tumeo, / swell; tumulus, a swel mound; tumult, tumour, tomb (P.) TJnus, one; union, unit, unite, uniform, unique (P.) Urbs, a city ; suburb, urbanity, urbane. GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Valeo, I am strong; valour, valiant (K.>, prevail (P.) V.'ums, empty; vanity, vanish, vain (all F.) Velio (vectum), / convey ; vehicle, con- veyance (P.), convex. Venio, J come ; advent ; venture, con- vene, covenant (F.) Verbum, a word ; verb, adverb, verbose, verbal, proverb. Verto (versum), / turn ; convert, revert, divert, versatile. Verus, trut ; verity, aver, verdict (all F.) Via, a tray ; deviate, previous, trivial. Video (visum), I see ; vision, provide, visit (F.), revise (F.) Vinco (vietum), / conquer; vietor, con- \ ict , victory, convince. Vitiuni, a fault; vice (P.), vitiate, vicious (P.) Vivo (vietum), 1 live; vivid; revive, viands, survive (F.) Voco(vocatum), I call; vocal, vowel (F.), vocation, revoke (F.), vociferate. Volo, I wish ; volition, voluntary, benev- olence. Volvo (volutum), / roll ; revolve, involve, evolution, volume. Voveo (votuni), I row ; vote, devote, vow (F.) Vulgus, the common penph ; vulgar, di- vulge, vulgate. GREEK ROOTS. AgOn, a contest ; agony, antagonist. Alios, another ; allopathy, allegory. Angelos, a messenger; angel, evangelist. Anthrdpos, a man; misanthrope, philan- thropy. Archo, / begin, rule; monarch, archaic, archbishop, archdeacon. Arithmos, number; arithmetic. Aster or astron, a star ; astronomy, astro- logy, asteroid, disaster. Atmos, vapour; atmosphere. Autos, self; autocrat, autograph. Ballo, / throw , symbol, parable. Bapto, I dip; baptise, baptist. Baros, weight; barometer, baritone. Biblos, a book; Bible, bibliomania. Bios, life; biography, biology, amphi- bious. Cheir, the hand; surgeon [older form, chirurgeon], Chole, bile; melancholy, choler. Chrio, I anoint ; Christ, chrism. Chronos, time; chronology, chronic, chron- icle, chronometer. Daktulos, a finger; dactyl, pterodactyl, date (the fruit). Deka, ten ; decagon, decalogue, decade. Demos, the people ; democrat, endemic, epidemic. Dokeo, I think; doxa and dogma, an opinion; doxology, orthodox, hetero- dox, dogma, dogmatic. Drao, I do ; drama, dramatic. Dun Amis, power ; dynamics, dynamite. Eidos, form; kaleidoscope, spheroid. Eikon, an image; iconoclast. Electron, amber; electricity, electrotype. Ergon, a work; surgecn (— chirurgeon), energy, metallurgy. Eu, well ; eucharist, euphony, evangelist. Gamos, marriage; bigamy, monogamist, misogamy. Ge, the earth; geography, geometry, geo- logy. Genos, race, kind; genesis, genealogy, hydrogen, oxygen. Grapho, Iivritc; gramma, a letter; gra- phic, grammar, telegraph, biography, diagram. Haima, blood; hemorrhage, hsemorrhoid. Haireo, I choose; heresy, heretic. Hecaton, a hundred; hecatomb, hecto- metre. Helios, the sun ; heliograph, heliotype. Hemi, half; hemisphere. Hieros, sacred ; hierarchy, hieroglyphic. Hippos, a horse; hippopotamus, hippo- drome. Hodos, a way; method, period, exodus. Homos, the same ; homologue, homo- geneous. Hudor, water: hydraulic, hydrophobia, hydrogen. Ichthus, a fish: ichthyology. Idios, one's own ; idiom, idiot, idiosyn- crasy. Isos, equal; isochronous, isobaric (of equal weight), isosceles. Kalos, beautiful; caligraphy, kaleidoscope. KephalS, the head ; hydrocephalus. WORD-BRANCHING. 153 Klino, / bend ; clinical, climax, climate. Kosrnos, order; cosmogony, cosmography, cosmetic. Krino, I judge ; critic, criterion, hypo- crite. Kuklos, a circle ; cycle, cycloid, cyclone. Kuon (kun-os), a dog ; cynic, cynicism. Lego, / say, choose ; eclectic, lexicon. Lithos, a stone . lithograph, aerolite. Logos, a word, speech ; logic, dialogue, geology. Luo, / loosen; dialysis, analysis, paralysis. Meter, a mother; metropolis, metropo- litan. Metron, a measure ; metre, metronome, diameter, thermometer, barometer. Monos, alone ; monastery, monogram, mo- nosyllable, monopoly, monarch. Morphe, shape ; amorphous, dimorphous, metamorphic. Naus, a ship ; nautical, nausea. Nekros, a dead body; necropolis, necro- mancy. N6mo3, a law ; autonomous, astronomy, Deuteronomy. Oikos, a house ; economy, economical Onoma, a name ; anonymous, synony- mous, patronymic. Optomai, / see ; optics, synoptical. Orthos, right ; orthodoxy, orthography. Pais (paid-os), a boy ; pedagogue [lit. a boy-leader]. Pan, all : pantheist, panoply, pantomime. Pathos, feeling ; pathetic, sympathy. Pente, five ; pentagon, pentateuch, Pente- cost. Petra, a rock ; petrify, petrel, Peter. PhainSmai, I appear; phenomenon, phan- tasy, phantom, fantastic, fancy. Phero, / bear ; periphery, phosphorus [ = the light-bearer]. Phileo, / love; philosophy, Philadelphia, philharmonic. Phone, a sound ; phonic, phonetic, eu- phony, symphony. Phos (phot-os), light ; photometer, photo- graph. Phusis, nature; physics, physiology, phy- sician. Poieo, / make; poet, poetic, pharmacopoeia. Polis, a city; Constantinople, metro- polis. Polos, many; polytheist, Polynesia, poly- anthus, polygamy. Pous (pod-os), afoot ; antipodes, tripod. Protos, first .- prototype, protoplasm. Pur, fin ; pyrotechnic, pyre. Rheo, Iflow; catarrh, rheumatic Skopeo, I see; microscope, telescope, spectroscope, bishop [from episkopos, an overseer]. Sophia, wisdom ; sophist, philosophy. Stello, I send ; apostle, epistle. Stratos, an army ; strategy, strategic. Strepho, / turn; catastrophe, apostrophe Techne, an art ; technical. Tele, distant ; telegraph, telescope, tele- phone, telegram. Temno, / cut ; anatomy, lithotomy. Tetra, four; tetrachord, tetrarch. Theaomai, I see; theatre, theory. J Theos, a god ; theist, enthusiast, theology. i Therme, heat ; thermal, thermometer isotherm. ( Tithemi, I place ; thesis, a placing ; syn- thesis, hypothesis. | Treis, three; triangle, trigonometry, tri- pod, tridactyl, trichord. Trepo, J turn; trophy, tropic, heliotrope. Tupos, the impress of a seal; type, stereo- type. : Zoon, an animal ; zoology, zodiac. 154 WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS, ETC. Argosy, from Ragusa, a port in Dalmatia, on the E. Coast of the Gulf of Venice. Properly " Kagusy " (a form which was iu use in 1577). Used by Shakespeare, in the "Merchant of Venice," i. i. 9, in the sense of trading vessel. Assassins, the name of a fanatical Syrian sect of the thirteenth century, who, under the influence of a drug prepared from hemp, called has- chisch. rushed into battle against the Crusaders, and slaughtered many of their foes. Atlas, one of the Titans, or earlier gods, who was so strong that he was said to carry the world on his shoulders. August, from Augustus Caesar, the second Emperor of Rome. Bacchanalian, from the festival called Bacchanalia ; 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 Chimaera, a monster in the 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.") Cravat, 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 Kurope. Draconian (code), a very severe code ; from Draco, a Bevere Athenian legis- lator, who decreed death for every crime, great or small. His laws were said to have been " written in blood." Dunce, from Duns Scotus, 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 "Scotists," and in course of time "Dunces." WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS. 105 Epicure, a person fond of good living ; from Epicurus, a great Greek phil- osopher. His enemies misrepresented him as teaching that pleasure was the highest or chiefest good. Euphuistic (style), a style of high-flown refinement ; from Euphues (the well-born 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 Faunus, 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. Galvanism, from Galvani, 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 lie 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 Guillotin. 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 Hermes, 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 II. (in Latin Jacobus), 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 born under the influence of the star Jupiter or Jove; a term taken from the old astrology. (Opposed to saturnine, gloomy, because born under the star Saturn.) July, from Julius, in honour of Julius Caesar, the great Roman general, writer, and statesman — who was born in this month. Lazaretto or Lazar-house. from Lazarus, the beggar at the gate of 156 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Dives, in Luke xvi. The word is corrupted into lizard in Lizard- point, where a lazar-house once stood, for the reception of sick people from on board ship. Lynch-law, from a famous Judge Lynch, of Tennessee, who made short work of his trials, and then of his criminals. Macadamise, 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 Government a reward of £10,000 for his plan. March, from Mars, the Roman god of war. Martinet, a severe disciplinarian, with an eye for the smallest details ; from General Martinet, a strict commander of the time of Louis XIV. of France. Mausoleum, a splendidly built tomb ; from Mausolus, King of Caria in Asia Minor, to whom his widow erected a gorgeous burial-chamber. Mentor, an adviser ; from Mentor, the aged counsellor of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses. Mercurial, of light, airy, and quick-spirited temperament, as having been born under the planet Mercury (compare Jovial, Saturnine, etc. ) Panic, a sudden and unaccountable terror ; from Pan, the god of flocks and shepherds. He was fabled to appear suddenly to travellers. Parrot ( = Little Peter, or Peterkin), from the French Perrot = Pierrot, from Pierre, Peter. Compare Magpie = Margaret Pie ; Jackdaw ; Robin-redbreast ; Cuddy (from Cuthbert), 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 xiv. 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 Great. 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 Pluto, 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. Quixotic, fond of utterly impracticable designs ; from Don Quixote, 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 illegally buying and selling church livings ; from Simon Magus. (See Acts viii. 18.) WORDS DERIVED FROM THE NAMES OF PERSONS. 1£>7 Stentorian, very loud and strong ; from Stentor, whom Homer describes as the loudest-voiced man in the Grecian army that was besieging Troy. Tantalise, to tease with impossible hopes ; from Tantalus, a king of Lydia in Asia Minor. He offended the gods, and was placed in Hades 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 roach 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 St Edmund ; etc.) Volcano and Vulcanite, from the Roman god of fire and smiths, Vulcanus. A volcano was regarded as the chimney of one of his workshi M 153 WORDS DERIVED PROM THE NAMES OP PLACES. Academy, from Academia, the house of Academus, 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 frorn 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 a Becket. Carronade, a short cannon ; from Carron, in Stirlingshire, Scotland, where it was first made. Cherry ; from Cerasus, a town in Pontus, Asia Minor, where it w T as 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. (Hence also damask.) Dollar, a coin — the chief coin used in America ; from German Thaler ( = Daler, or something made in a dale or valley). The first coins of this sort were made in St Joachimsthal in Bohemia, and were called Joachim's 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-shilling piece ; from Florence. Professor Skeat says : " Florins were coined by Edward III. in 1337, and named after the coins of Florence." Gasconading, boasting ; from Gascony, a southern province of France, the inhabitants of which were much given to boasting. One Gascon, oh 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. Gipsy, 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, the generic term for all kinds of Rhine wine, but properly only the name of that which comes from Hochheim, a celebrated vineyard. Indigo, a blue dye, obtained from the leaves of certain plants ; from the Latin adjective Indicus= 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 Lilliput, 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. Meander (to), to "wind about and in and out ;" from the Mseander, 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 Palatums, one of the seven hills of Rome. This building became the residence of Nero and other Roman emperors ; and iience palace came to 1 e the generic term for the house of a king or ruling prince. Palatiini^, itself comes from Pales, a Roman goddess of flocks, and is connected with the Lat. pater, a father or feeder. Peach, from Lab. 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 firsr brought. 1G0 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Port, a wine from Oporto, in Portugal. (Compare Sherry, which was originally spelt Sherris, from Xeres, in the south of Spain.) Rhubarb, from Rhabarbarum, the wild Rha plant. Bha 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 espagnol ; " the latter word pre- serves the prefix of iTY.spania, the Latin name for Spain. Stoic, from Stoa Poikile, 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 customs were reformed. 161 WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM. When a word is imported from a foreign language into onr 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 Bocage Walk (that is, shrubbery walk) ; but, as Bocage 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, Bocage is not — that is the whole matter. In the same way, our English sailors, when they captured the French ship Bellerqphon, spoke of it as the Billy Ruffian ; and our English soldiers in India mentioned Surajah Dowlah, the prince who put the English prisoners into the Black Hole, as Sir Roger Doicler. The same phenomenon is observed also in common names — and not infrequently. The following are some of the most remarkable examples : — Alligator, from Spanish el lagarto, the lizard. The article el (from Latin ille) has clung to the word. Lat. lacerta, a lizard. (The Arabic article al has clung to the noun in alchemy, algebra, almanac, etc.) Artichoke (no connection with choir), from Ital. articiocco ; from Arabic al harshaff, an artichoke. Atonement, a hybrid — atone being English, and ment a Latin ending. Atone = to bring or come into one. Shakespeare has " P>arthly 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 bell), from M. E. berfray ; 0. Fr. bcrfroit, a watch-tower. 162 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Brimstone, from burn. The r is an easily moved letter — as in three, third; turn, trundle, etc. Bugle, properly a wild ox. Bugle, in the sense of a musical instrument, is really short for bugle-horn. Lat. buculus, a bullock, a diminutive of bos. Bustard, from 0. Fr. oustarde, from Lat. avis tarda, the tardy or slow bird. Butcher, from 0. Fr. bocher, a man who slaughters he-goats; from boc, the French form of buck. Butler, the servant in charge of the butts or casks of wine. (The whole collection of butts was called the buttery ; a little butt is a bottle. ) Buxom, stout, healthy; but in 0. E. obedient. "Children, be buxom to your parents." Connected with bow and bough. From A. S. bugan, to bend ; which gives also bow, bight, boat, elbow ( = el-bock), etc. Carfax, a place where four roads meet. 0. Fr. carrefourgs ; Latin quatuor furcas, four forks. Carouse, from German gar aus, quite out. Spoken of emptying a goblet. Caterpillar = hairy-cat, from 0. Fr. chate, a she-cat, and 0. Fr. pclousc, hairy, Lat. pilosus. Compare woolly-bear. Causeway (no connection with way), from Fr. chausee ; Lat. calceata via, a way strewed with limestone ; from Lat. calx, lime. Clove, through Fr. clou, from Lat. clavus, 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 century, commander of the king's army. Coop, a cognate of cup ; from Lat. cupa, a tub. Cope, a later spelling of cape. Cap, cape, and cope are forms of the same word. Costermonger, properly costard-monger ; from costard, a large apple. Counterpane (not at all connected with counter or with pane, but with quilt and point), a coverlet for a bed. The proper form is contre- pointe, from Low Lat. culcita puncta, a punctured quilt. Country-dance used to be explained as a corruption of the French contre-danse ; 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. cauda, a tail. Crayfish, (nothing to do with fish), from 0. Fr. escrcvisse. This is really a Frenchified form of the German word Krebs, which is the German form of our English word crab. The true division of the word into syllables is crayf-ish ; and thus the seeming connection with fish dis- appears. Custard, a misspelling of the M. E. word crustade, a general name for pies made with crust. Daisy = day's eye. Chaucer says : " The dayes eye or else the eye of day." WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM. 1G3 Dandelion = dent de lion, the lion's tooth ; so named from its jagged leaves. Dirge, a funeral song of sorrow. In the Latin service for the dead, one part began with the words (Ps. v. 8) dirige, Dominus meus, in conspectu tuo vitam meam, " Direct my life, O Lord, in thy sight ; " and dirige was contracted into dirge. Drawing-room = witndrawing-room, a room to which guests retire after dinner. Dropsy (no connection with drop), from O. Fr. hydropisie, from Gr. hudor, 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 ezel ; like the Latin asellus. Farthing = fourthing. (Four appear? as fir in firkin ; and as for in forty. Frontispiece (not connected with piece ), that which is seen or placed in front. Lat. specio, I see. Gadfly = goad-fly (sting-fly). Gospel = God-spell, a narrative about God. Grove, 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 hanaperium, a large basket for keeping drinking-cups (hanapi) in. Handsel, money given into the hand ; from A. S. sellan, to give. Hanker, to keep the mind hanging on a thing. Er is a frequentative suffix, as in batter, 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 arc numerous places of this name in England — commonly occurring on the great Roman roads.) Hatchment, the escutcheon, shield, 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 atchicrement, the old spelling of achievement, which is still the heraldic word for hatchment. Hawthorn = hedge-thorn. Raw was in 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. Heaven, that which is heaved up ; heavy, that which requires much heaving. Horehound (not connected with hound), a plant with stems covered with white woolly down. The M. E. form is hoar-hune ; and the second syllable means scented. The syllable hoar means white, as in hoar- frost. The final d is excrescent or inorganic— like the d in sound, bound (= ready to go), etc. 164 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Humble-bee (not connected with the adjective hwnble), from M. E. hummelen, to keep humming — a frequentative; the b being in- organic. Humble-pie (not connected with the adjective humble), pie made of umbles, the entrails of a deer. Husband, (not connected with bind), from Icelandic husbuandi, buandi, being the pres. participle of bua, to dwell ; and hus, house. Hussif (connected with house, but not with wife), a case containing needles, thread, etc. From Icelandic, htisi, 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 gicel, 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-ic-le and in part-ic-le.) Intoxicate, to drug or poison ; from Low Lat. toxicum, poison ; from Gr. toxon, a bow, plural toxa, bow and arrows — arrows for war being fre- quently dipped in poison. Island (not connected with isle) — water -land, a misspelling for iland (the spelling that Milton always uses). The s has intruded itself from a confusion with the Lat. insula, which gives isle. Jaw, properly chaw, the noun for chew. Cognates are jowl and chaps. Jeopardy, hazard, danger. M. E. jupartie, from 0. Fr. jeu parti, a game in which the chances are even, from Low Lat. jocus partitus, 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 blunder contained in the word Jerusalem, cooks call a soup made of this kind of artichoke "Palestine soup ! ") Kickshaws, from Fr. quelquechose, something. There was once a plural — kickshawses. Kind, the adjective from the noun kin. Ledge, a place on which a thing lies. Hence also ledger. Line (to line garments) = to put linen inside them. (Linen is really an adjective from the M. E. I'm, just like woollen, golden, etc.) Liquorice (not connected with liquor), in M. E. licoris ; from Gr. glyhjrrhiza, a sweet root. (For the loss of the initial g, compare Ipswich and Gyppenswich ; enough and genoh ; and the loss of ge from all the past participles of our verbs.) Mead, meadow = a place mowed. Hence also math, aftermath, and moth ( =the biter or eater). Nostrils =nose-thirles, nose-holes. Thirl is a cognate of thrill, drill, through, etc. (For change of position of r, compare turn, trundle; work, wright ; wort, root ; bride, bird, etc. ) Nuncheon, a corruption of M. E. none-schenche, or noon-drink. Then WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM. 165 this word got mixed up with the provincial English word lunch, which means a lump of bread ; and so we have luncheon. Nutmeg, a hybrid compounded of an English and a French word. Meg is a corruption of the 0. Fr. musge, from Lat. museum, musk. Orchard = wort-yard, yard or garden for roots or plants. Wort is a cognate of wart and root. Ostrich, from Lat. avis struthio. Shakespeare spells it estridge in " Antony and Cleopatra," iii. 13. 197, "The dove will peck the estridge." (Avis is found as a prefix in bustard also. ) Pastime = 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. py was a coat ; and we find it in Chaucer combining, with a French adjective, to make the hybrid courtepy, a short coat. Peal (of bells), a short form of the word appeal ; a call or summons. (Compare penthouse and appentis ; sample and example; scutcheon and escutcheon; squire and esquire ; etc.) Penthouse (not connected with house), in reality a doublet of appendage, though not coming from it. 0. Fr. appentis, from Lat. appendicium, from appendix, something hanging on to. (Pendere, to hang.) Periwinkle, a kind of evergreen plant ; formed, by the addition of the diminutive le, from Lat. pervinca, from vincire, to bind. Periwinkle, a small mollusc with one valve. A corruption of the A. S. pinewincla. Pickaxe (not connected with axe), a tool used in digging. A corruption of M. E. pickeys, from 0. Fr. picois ; and connected with peak, pike, and pick. Poach — 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, small- pox (=pocks), etc. Porpoise (not connected with the verb poise) ; from Lat. porcum, a pig, and piscem, a fish. Posthumous (work), a work that appears after the death of the author ; from Lat. postumus, the last. The h is an error ; and the word has no connection with the Lat. humus, the ground. Privet, a half -evergreen shrub. A form of primet, a plant carefully cut and trimmed ; and hence prim. (For change of m into v (or p), compare Molly and Polly ; Matty and Patty, etc. V and p are botli labials.) Proxy, a contraction of procuracy, the taking care of a thing for another. Lat. pro for, and cura, care. Quick, living. We have the word in quicklime, quicksand, quicksilver; and in the 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. kynanche, a dog-throttling. 166 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Riding, one of the three divisions of Yorkshire. The oldest form is Thrid- ing (from third and ing, part ; as \\\ farthing — io\irt\i part, etc.) The th seems to have dropped from its similarity and nearness to the th in north and the t in cast ; as in North-thriding, East-thriding, etc. Sexton, a corruption of sacristan, the keeper of the sacred vessels and vestments ; from Lat. saccr, sacred. But the sexton is now only the grave-digger. (In the same way, sacristy was shortened into sextry. Sheaf, a collection shoved together. Shove gives also shovel ; and the frequentatives shvjjle and scuffle. Soup, a cognate of sop and sup. Splice (to join after splitting), a cognate form of split and splinter. Squirrel, from 0. Fr. escurel; from Low Lat. scuriolus ; from Gr. sMa, 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 corresponding to stove. (Cf. Scotch stovics = stewed potatoes.) Steward, from A. S. stiward, from the full form stigweard; from stigr, a sty, and weard, a keeper. Originally a person who looked after the domestic animals. Stirrup, modern form of A. S. stigrap, from stigan, to climb, and rap, ;\ rope. Cognates are sty, stile, 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, strengthen, string, etc. Summerset (not connected either with summer or with set), or somersault, a corruption of Fr. soubresault, from Lat. supra, above, and salt inn, a leap. (There is a connection between the b and the m — the one sliding into the other when the speaker has a cold.) Surgeon (properly a hand-worker), a contraction of chirurgeon ; from Gr. 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 tell and till (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. athanusie; from Gr. athanasia, immortality. Thorough, a doublet of through, and found in thorough- fare, thorough- bred, etc. (The dr, thr, or tr is also found in door, thrill, trill, drill, nostril, etc.) Treacle, from M. E. triacle, a remedy; from Lat. theriaca, an antidote against the bite of serpents ; from Gr. therion, a wild beast or poisonous animal. Milton has the phrase "the sovran treacle of sound doctrine." (For the position of the r, compare trundle and turn; brid and 'bird; etc.) WORDS DISGUISED IN FORM. 107 Truffle, an underground edible fungus ; from Italian tartufola ; tar being =Lat. terrcc, of the ground, and tuf 61a — tuber, a root. Trifle is a doublet of truffle. Twig, a thin branch of a tree. The tw here is the base of two, and is found also in twin, twilight, twice, twine; and probably also in twcaJc, twist, twinkle, etc. {Twit is not in this class ; it comes from at- witan, to throw blame on.) Verdigris (not connected with grease), the rust of brass or copper. From Lat. viride aeris, the green of brass. (The g is intrusive, and has not yet been accounted for. ) Walrus, a kind of large seal ; from Swedish vallross = 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 i.s the imperative of wesan to be (still existing in was) ; and hael i.s connected with hail/ hale (Scand.), whole (Eng.), and health. Whole, a misspelling, now never to be corrected, of hole, the adjective connected with hale, heal, health, health;/, etc. The w is nrobably an intrusion from the S.-W. of England, where they say whoa?n for home, woat for oat, etc. If we write whole, we ought also to write wholy instead of holy. 108 WORDS THAT HAVE GREATLY CHANGED IN MEANING. Abandon, to proclaim openly ; to de- I nounce ; then to cast out. (From Low | Lat bandum, an edict.) The earlier meaning still survives in the phrase, "banns of marriage." Admire, to wonder at. Allow, to praise (connected with laud). A.muse, to cause to muse, to occupy the mind of. " Camillus set upon the Gauls, when they were amused in receiving their gold," says a writer of the sixteenth century. Animosity, high spirits; from Lat, ani- mosus, brave. Artillery (great weapons of war), was used to inciude bows, crossbows, etc., down to the time of Milton. See P. L. ii. 715 ; 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 kitchen servants, who had to look after the spits, pots, and pans, etc. Bombast (an inflated and pompous style of speaking or writing), cotton-wadding. Boor (a rough unmannerly fellow), a tiller of the soil ; from the Butch bouxven, to till. (Compound neighbour.) In South Africa, a farmer is still called a boer. Brat (a contemptuous name for a child). a Celtic word meaning rag. Still used as a dialect word meaning a. pinafore- Brave, showy, splendid. (Cf. Scotch 7>ra?<\) By-and-by, at once. Carpet, the covering of tables as well as of floors. Carriage (that which carries) meant for- merly that which was carried, or bag- gage. See Acts xxi. 15. Cattle, a doublet of chattels, property. Lat. capitalia, heads (of oxen, etc.) Chaucer says, " The avaricious man hath more hope in his catel than in Christ." Censure (blame> meant merely opinion ; from the Lat censeo, I think. Shake- speare, in Hamlet i. 3. 69, makes Polon- ius say: "Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment." Charity (almsgiving) meant love; from Lat. carus, dear, through the French. Cheat (to deceive for the purpose of gain) meant to seize upon a thing as escheated or forfeited. Cheer, face. " Be of good cheer " = " Put a good face upon it." " His cheer fell " = " His countenance fell." Churl (an uncourteous or disobliging per- son) meant a countryman. Der. chur- lish. (Shakespeare also uses the word in the sense of a miser.) WORDS THAT HAVE GREATLY CHANGED IN MEANING. 169 Clumsy, stiff with cold. : 'When thou domsest with cold," says Langlaud (14tli century) = art benumbed. (Cognates, clamp, cramp.) Companion, low fellow. Shakespeare has such phrases as " Companions, hence !" Conceit (too high an opinion of one's self) meant simply thought. Chaucer was called "a conceited clerk"="a learned man full of thoughts." From Lat. con- cepts, 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 3, &e.) with ; from Lat. computo, I compute or tliiuk with. Count is a doublet, through French, of compute. Cunning, able or skilled. Like the word craft, 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 faith dissolved. Lat. fides, faith. Delicious, too scrupulous or finical. A writer of the seventeenth century says that idleness makes even " the sober- est (most moderate) men delicious." Depart, part or divide. The older version of the Prayer-Book has "till death us depart " (now corrupted into do part). Disaster, an unfavourable star. A term from the old astrology. Disease, discomfort, trouble. Shakespeare has, " She will disease our bitter mirth ; " and Tyndale's version of Mark v. 35, is, "Thy daughter is dead: why diseasest thou the Master any further ? " Duke, leader. Hannibal was called in old English writers, "Duke of Carthage." Ebb, shallow. " Cross the stream where it is ebbest," is a Lancashire proverb. (The word is a cognate of even.) Essay, an attempt. The old title of such a book was not " Essay on " but " Essay at." From Lat. exagvum, a weighing. An older form is Assay. Shakespeare has such phrases as "the assay of arms." Explode, to drive out by clapping of the hands. The opposite of applaud. Lat. plaudo, I clap my hands. Explosion, a hissing a thing off the stage. Firmament, that which makes jinn 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, full of fear. (Compare the old meaning of dreadful.) Garble, to sift or cleanse. Low Lat. garbellare, to sift corn. Garland, a king's crown ; now a wreath of flowers. Gazette (Italian), a magpie. Hence the Ital. gazettare, to chatter like a magpie; to write tittle-tattle. (It was also the name of a very small coin, current in Venice, etc.) Generous, high-born. Lat. genus, race. Compare the phrases " a man of family ; '' " a man of rank." Shakespeare has "the generous citizens'' for those of high birth. Gossip, sib or related in God ; a godfather or godmother. It now means such per- sonal talk as usually goes on among such persons. (Compare the French commere and commerage.) Handsome, clever with the hands. Harbinger, a person who prepared a har- bour or lodging. Heathen, a person who lives on a heath. (Cf. pagan, person who lives in a pagus, or country district.) Hobby, an easy ambling nag. Idiot (Gr. ididtes), a private person ; a person who kept aloof from public busi- ness. Cf. idiom; idiosyncragy ; etc. Imp, an engrafted shoot. Chaucer says : " Of feeble trees there comen wretched impes." Spenser has " Well worthy impe." 170 GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Impertinent, not pertaining to the matter in hand. Indifferent, impartial. "God is indiffer- ent to all." Insolent, unusual. Au old writer praises Raleigh's poetry as "insolent and pas- sionate. " Kind, born, inborn ; natural ; and then loving. Knave, boy. "A knave child "=a male child. Sir John Mandeville speaks of Mahomet as "a poure knave." Lace, a snare. Lat. laqueus, a noose. Livery; that which is given or delivered, Fr. livrer; from Lat. liberare, to free. It was applied both to food and to clothing. ' 'A horse at livery " still means a horse not merely kept, but also fed. Magnificent, doing great things ; large- minded. Bacon says, " Bounty and magnificence are virtues very regal." Maker, a poet. Manure, to work with the hand ; a doublet of manoeuvre. (Lat. manus, the hand.) Mere, utter. Lai.merus,pure. Shakespeare, in " Othello," speaks of "the mere per- dition of the Turkish fleet." "Mere wins " was unmixed wine. Metal, a mine. Minute, something very small. Lat. min- utus, made small ; from minus, less. Cognates, minor ; minish ; diminish; etc. Miscreant, an unbeliever. Lat. mis (from minus), and credo, I believe ; through O. Fr. mesa-cant. Miser, a wretched person. Lat. miser, mis- erable. Nephew, a grandchild. (Lat. nepos.) Nice, too scrupulous or fastidious. Shake- speare, in " K. John," iii. 4. 138, says — "He that stands upon a slippery place, Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up." Niece, a grandchild. Lat. neptis. Novelist, an innovator. Offal, that which is allowed to fall off. Officious, obliging. In modern diplomacy, an official 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 officious and hospitable." Ostler = hosteller. The keeper of a hostel or hotel. (A comic derivation is that it is a contraction of oatstealer). Painful, painstaking. Fuller, in the seven- teenth century, speaks of Joseph as " a painful carpenter." Palliate, to throw a cloak over. Lat. pal- lium, a cloak. Pencil, a small hair brush. Lat. penecillus, a little tail. Peevish, obstinate. Perspective, a glass for seeing either near or distant things. Pester, to encumber or clog. From Low Lat. pastorium, 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. Preposterous, putting the last first. Lat. prce, before ; and post, after. Prevaricate, to reverse, to shuffle. Lat. prcevaricari, to spread the legs apart in walking. Prevent, to go before. Lat pro:, before, and venio, 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. Punctual, attending to small points of i detail. Lat. punctum ; Fr. point. WORDS THAT II WE GREATLY CHANGED IN MEANING. 171 Quaint, skilful. Prospers, in the "Tem- pest," calls Ariel " My quaint Ariel 1 " Racy, having the strong and native qual- ities of the race. Cowley says of a poet that he is — " Fraught with brisk racy verses, in which we The soil from whencethey come, taste, smell, and see." Reduce, to lead back. Resent, to be fully sensible of. Resent- ment, grateful recognition of. Restive, obstinate, inclined to rest or stand still. "To turn rusty " (=resty) is to turn obstinate. Retaliate, to give back benefits as well as injuries. Room, space, place at table. Luke xiv. 8. Rummage, to make room. Sad, earnest, dark-coloured (of clothes). Sash, a turban. Secure, free from care. Ben Jonson says : " Men may securely sin ; but safely, never." Sheen, bright, pure. Connected with shine. Shrew, a wicked or hurtful person. Silly, blessed. Sincerity, absence of foreign admixture. Soft, sweetly reasonable. Spices, kinds — a doublet of species. (A grocer in French is called an epicier.) Starve, to die. Chaucer says, "Jesus starved upon the cross." Sycophant, "a fig-shower" or informer against a person who smuggled figs. Gr. suhon, a fig ; and phaino, I show. Table, a picture. Tarpaulin, a sailor ; from the tarred canvas suit he wore. Now shortened into tar. Thews, habits, manners. Thought, deep sorrow, anxiety. Matthew vi. 25. In "Julius Caesar," ii. 1. 187, we find, "Take thought, and die for Csesar." Trivial, very common. Lat. trivia, a place where three roads meet. Tuition, guardianship. Lat. Initio, 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 from its Unkind, unnatural. Urbane, living in a city. Lat. -trbs, a city. Usury, money paid for the use of a thing. Varlet, a serving-man. Low Lat. vassa- lettus, a minor vassal. Varlet and valet 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. villa, a farm. Vivacity, pertinacity in living ; longevity. Fuller speaks of a man as " most remark- able for his vivacity, for he lived 140 years." Wit, knowledge, mental ability. Worm, a serpent. Worship, to consider worth, to honour. Wretched, wicked. A. S. wrecca, an out- cast. PAKT II. COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, PARAPHRASING AND PROSODY HINTS ON COMPOSITION. i. 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 neat. 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 called style. That style may be good or had; feeble or vigorous; clear 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 diffuse, slipshod, and insipid."- — Buffon. 3. Good composition is the result of three things : (i) clear thinking ; (ii) reading the best and most vigorous writers ; and (hi) 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 express our own sense. 76 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. Ben Jonson says : " For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries : let him read the best authors ; observe 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 Genesis 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, and the lest 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 DIRECTIONS. 4. 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 persons 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 : fC 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 sentences, 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 what you have thought, and not to think what you shall write." 5. Our sentences must be written in good English. Good English is simply the English of 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 previous century are such authors as Charles Lamb, Jane Austen, Scott, Coleridge, Landor, Macaulay, Thackeray, Dickens. Matthew Arnold, Froude, Ruskin, 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, per adventure, hight, beholden, sojourn, rnethinks, etc. (ii) It forbids also the use of slang expressions, such as awfully, jolly, rot, bosh, bunk, scoot, see ivith half an eye, etc. (iii) It forbids the employment of technical terms, unless these are absolutely necessary 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 confrere, raison d'Stre, amour propre, conge", etc. (v) 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 translation 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 clearest medium of presenting ideas. Remarkable it is that most of the sublimities in the Bible are conveyed in monosyllables. 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 English 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, impracticable means impossible of accomplishment. Any one may attempt anything; carrying it out is a different thing. The word used should have been design or plan. (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 II.- — 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 (b) roundabout ways of mentioning persons and things. (a) We ought, for example, to prefer — Abuse to Vituperation. Neighbourhood to Vicinity. Begin n Commence. Trustworthy n Reliable. Commence m Initiate. Welcome n Reception. GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 179 (6) We ought to avoid such stale and hackneyed phrases as the "Swan of Avon" for Shakespeare; the "Bard of Florence" for Dante ; " the Great Lexicographer " for Dr Johnson. (v) Brevity enjoins upon us the need of expressing our meaning in as few words as possible. Opposed to brevity is verbosity, or wordiness. Pope says — " Words are like leaves ; and, where they most abound, Much 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 be pleasant to the ear, if read aloud. This axiom gives rise to two rules : — Practical Rule III. — Write as you would speak ! (i) This, of course, points to an antecedent condition — that you must; 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 Rule IV. — After we have v, 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 Rule V. — " Never write about any matter you do not well understand. If you clearly understand all about your matter, you will never want thoughts ; and thoughts instantly become words." — Cobbett. " Seek not for words ; seek only fact and thought, And crowding in will come the words, unsought." — Horace. " Know well your subject ; and the words will go To the pen's point, with steady, ceaseless flow." — Pentland. 30. Our sentences should be compact. (i) That is, they ought not to 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, PUNCTUATION, ETC. (a) Loose Sentence. — 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 contempt. (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 will 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 beginning or to the end of the sentence. This is the device of Inversion. Thus we have, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." " Jesus I know, and Paul I know : but who are ye ? " " Some he imprisoned ; others he put to death. " " Go he must ! " " Do it he shall ! " " 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 sentence, the phrase to maintain one gains emphasis by being thrown out of its usual and natural position. But Caution 1. — 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 and degrade," etc. EMPHASIS. 181 2. The Omission of Conjunctions 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 emphasis. 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 ecmal 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 ! " 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. Repetition 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 : By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed ; By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned ; By strangers honoured, 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, because 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 vale, Par sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Far from the fiery noon and eve's one star — Sat 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 to 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, sudden, and unexpected antithesis is called an Epigram. (i) Thus Lord Bacon, speakingof a certain procession inRome, 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 everything 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. DISTINCTNESS 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 barbarous, the regulation of their penal codes will be severe. " (b) Specific. — "According as men delight in battles, bull-fights, and combats of gladiators, so will fchey punish by hanging, burning, and crucifying." 2. Specification or distinctness of style may be attained in two ways : (i) by the use of concrete terms ; and (ii) by tha use of detail. 3. A concrete or particular term strikes both the feeling3 and imagination with greater force than an abstract or general term can do. (i) Let us make a few contrasts : — Abstract. Concrete. 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 lead 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 plunge into the infections of hospitals ; to survey the mansions 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 countries." GEKEKAL CAUTIONS. 1. Avoid the use of threadbare and hackneyed expressions. Leave them to people who are in a hurry, or to penny-a-liners. Instead of Write At the expiration of four years. At the end, etc. Paternal sentiments. The feelings of a father. Exceedingly opulent. Very rich. Incur the danger. Run the risk. Accepted signification. Usual meaning. Extreme felicity. Great happiness. A sanguinary engagement. A bloody battle. In the affirmative. Yes. 2. Be very careful in the management of pronouns. (i) Cobbett says : " Never put an it upon paper without thinking well what you are about. When I see many it's in a page, I always tremble for the writer." See also 2 Kings, xix. 35 : "And when they arose early in the morning, 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 they ought to be these. (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 oan 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 Kim- berley said that in taking 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 ! SPECIAL CAUTION'S. 1. Avoid tautology. Alison says : " It was founded mainly on the entire monopoly of the whole trade with the colonies." Here entire and whole are tauto- logical ; for monopoly means entire possession, or p>ossession of the whole. "He appears to enjoy the universal esteem of all men." Here univt rsal 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 only 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 boat 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." 18G COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. (ii) : 'He dwelt a long time on the advantages of swift steamers, thus accounting for the increase," etc. The phrase "thus accounting" is very loose. Every sentence ought to be neat, firm, and compact. 6. Remember 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 -for- the-college." Here who = and he; and that introduces the adjectival sentence. 7. Do not change the Subject of your Sentence. (i) Another way of putting this is : " Preserve 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 nominating 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 shillings." The and is here worse than useless. (ii) If another which has preceded, of course and which is right. 10. Avoid exaggerated or too strong language. Unprecedented, most extraordinary, incalculable, boundless, extremely, awfully, scandalous, 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. If the former is the case, then we ought to say he intended. PUNCTUATION. 187 12. Be very 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 legs." " 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 Phillips, accidentally shot, as a mark of affection by his brother." " The Board has resolved to erect a building large enough to accommodate 500 students three storeys high." "Mr 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 the organic whole. (i) Putting in the right points is called punctuation, from the Latin punctum, a point. From the same word come punctual and punctuality. 2. These points are the full stop, the colon, the semicolon, the dash, the comma, and the points of interrogation and admiration. 3. The full stop (.) or 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 cata- logue of things ; or (iii) it introduces a formal speech. (The word colon is Greek, and means limb 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 rose and said : 'Sir, 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 half a 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." — Bacon. (ii) Learn from the birds what foods the thickets yield ; Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave." — Pope. 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 -lace — any trifles he had worn — were stored as priceless treasures." 7. The comma is used to indicate a strong pause, either of sense or of sound. (i) It is true that the comma 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 s 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 embrace." (b) After an address : " John, come here. " (c) After certain introductory adverbs, as however, at length, at last, etc. " He came, however, in time to catch the train." 8. The point of interrogation (?) 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. FIGURES OF SPEECH. 189 FIGURES OP SPEECH. 1. The mind naturally 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 figures 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 being stormed; of a clear head ; a hard heart; winged words ; glowing eloquence ; virgin snow; & 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 path. 2. This kind of language has been examined, classified, and arranged under heads ; and the chief figures of speech are called Simile, Metaphor, Personification, 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 J.ones and the lion is the bravery of the fighting of each. (Simile conies from the Latin similis, like.) (i) " His spear was like the mast of a ship." " His salte teres 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 admirablj T compares a miller covered with flour to "a working-bee in blossom-dust." 1 A trope — from Greek trSpos, a turning. A word that has been turned from its ordinary and primary use. From the same root come tropics and tropical. 190 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. 4. A Metaphor is a simile with the words like or as left out. Instead of saying "Roderick Dhu fought like a lion," we use a metaphor, and say " He was a lion in the fight." {Metaphor 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 ; a flash of wit ; a thought striking us ; and so on. (ii) By frequent use, and by forgetfulness, many metaphors have lost their figurative character. Thus we use the words provide (to see beforehand), edify (to build up), express (to squeeze out), detect (to unroof), ruminate (to chew the cud), without the 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 : — ^ , , ( The day is done ; and the darkness " '" (_ Falls from the wings of night, Simile, As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle in his flight. (v) A metaphor is 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. Personification is that figure by which, under the influence of strong feeling, we attribute life and mind to impersonal and inanimate things. (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 laugh; the winds to whisper; the oaks to sigh; and the brooks to prattle. (ii) Milton, in the ' Paradise Lost,' ix. 780, thus describes the fall of Eve:— " So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate ! Earth felt the wound ; and Nature, from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost." FIGURES OF SPEECH. 191 Shelley's ' Cloud ' is one long personification. (iii) When the personified object is directly addressed, the figure is called Apostrophe. Thus we have, " Death, where is thy sting ? Grave, where is thy victory ? " 6. An Allegory is a continuous personification in the form of a story. (i) The genus is personification ; the differentia, 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 Fable. 7. Synecdoche* is that figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole. Thus we say, in a more striking fashion, bread instead of food ; & cut-throat for a murderer; fifty sail for fiity 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 cold steel for the sword ; the marble speaks ; the canvas glows. 8. Metonymy is that figure of speech by which a thing is named, not with its own name, but by some accompaniment. Thus we say, the crown for the king; the sword for physical force. (The word metonymy is a Greek word meaning change of names. ) We write the ermine for the bench of judges; the mitre for the bishops; red tape for official routine; a long purse for a great deal of money ; the bottle for habits of drunkenness. 9. Hyperbole* 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 combatants, that hell Grew darker at their frown." (ii) Scott, in ' Kenilworth,' has this passage : " The mind of England's Elizabeth was like one of those ancient Druidical monuments called 192 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. roeking-stones. The finger of Cupid, boy as he is painted, could put her feelings in motion ; but the power of Hercules could not have de- stroyed their equilibrium." 10. The following is a summary 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 living being. 5. An allegory is a continuous personification. PARAPHRASING. 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 passage. 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 born and taught That serveth not another's will — Whose armour is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill ! 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 ! 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 for 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 papsions : 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 to 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 OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 1. Verse is the form of poetry ; and Prosody is the part of Grammar which deals with the laws and nature of verse. (i) Verse comes from the Latin versa, 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 comj>osition — as it compels us to choose the right phrase, and makes us draw upon our store of words to substitute 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 an'swer nought' could An'gus speak', the accent occurs regularly in every second syllable THE GRAMMAR OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 195 (ii) But, in the line Mer'rily, merrily, shall' we live now', 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', commend', attach' have the accent on the last syllable, (ii) Hap'py, la'dy, weVcome have the accent on the first syllable. 4. English verse is made up of lines ; each line of verse con- tains a fixed number of accents ; each accent has a fixed number of unaccented syllables attached to it. (i) Let us take these lines from ' Marmion ' (canto v.) : — Who loves' | not more' | the night' | of June' Than dull' | Decern' | ber's gloom' | of noon' 1 Each line here contains four accents ; the accented syllable comes last ; each accented syllable has one unaccented attached to it. (ii) Now let us compare these lines from T. Hood's " Bridge of Sighs " : Touch' her not | scorn'fully, Think' of her | mourn'fully. 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 unaccented, 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 unaccented is called a Trochee. Its formula is ax. (i) The following are iambuses: Perhaps'; condemn' ; compel' ; with out' ; career'. (ii) The following are trochees : Gen' tic ; riv'er; la'dy ; ra'ven ; tum'ble. (iii) The following verse is made up of four iambuses — that is, it is iambic verse : — 'Twere long', | and need' [ less, here' | to tell' How to my hand these papers fell. 19G COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. (iv) The following verse is made up of four trochees — that is, it is trochaic : — In' his | cham'ber, | weak' and | dy'ing Was the Norman baron lying. (v) lam' | bics march' [ from short' | to long'. (vi) Tro'chee | trips' from | long' to | short' — | . 7. One accented syllable preceded by two unaccented is called an Anapaest. Its formula is xxa. — One accented syl- lable followed by two unaccented is called a Dactyl. Its formula is axx. (i) The following are anapaests : Serenade' ; disappear' ; comprehend' ; intercede'. (ii) The following are dactyls : Hap'pily; mer'rily; sim'ilar ; bil'lowij (iii) The following lines are in anapaestic verse : — I am mon' | arch of all' | I survey', My right there is none to dispute. (iv) With a leap' | and a bound' | the swift an' | apaests throng' | . (v) The following are in dactylic verse : — Can'non to | right' of them | Can'non to | left' of them |. (a) The word dactyl conies from the Greek daktulos, a finger. For a finger has one long and two short joints. (b) The word anapwst comes from two Greek words : paio, strike, and ana, back ; because it is the reverse of a dactyl. 8. Tbe Anapaest belongs to tbe same kind or system of verse as the Iambus ; because the accented syllable in each comes last. - — The Dactyl belongs to the same kind or system of verse as the Trochee; because the accented syllable in each comes first. (i) Hence anapaests and iambuses may be mixed (as in ' ' My right' | (here is none' | to dispute' | "); and so may dactyls and trochees (as in " Hark' to the | sum'mons | "). (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 side of it is called an Amphibrach. Its formula is xax. The word amphibrach comes from two Greek words : amphi, on both sides ; and brachus, short. (Compare amphibious.) THE GRAMMAR OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 197 (i) The following are amphibrachs : Despair' ing ; almight'y; tremcnd'- ous; deceitful. (ii) The following is an amphibrachic line : — There came' to | the beach' a | poor ex'ile | of E'rin |. 10. A verse made up of iambuses is called Iambic Verse ; of trochees, Trochaic; of anapaests, Anapaestic; and of dactyls, Dactylic. 11. A verse of three feet is called Trimeter ; of four feet, Tetrameter ; of five feet, Pentameter ; and of six feet, Hex- ameter. (i) We find the prefixes of these words in Triangle; Tetrarch (a ruler over a, fourth part) ; Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) ; and Hexagon (a figure with six corners or angles). 12. By much the most usual kind of verse in English is Iambic Verse. (i) Iambic Tetrameter (4 x a) 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 (5xa) 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. Bhymed 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 seems the easiest to write ; it is 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. The king* | was on' | his throne'; | His sa' | traps thronged' | the hall'; | A thou' | sand bright' | lamps shone' | On that' | high fes' I tival'- There is very little of this kind of verse in English. 198 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. 15. Iambic Tetrameter consists of four iambuses ; and its formula is 4xa. The fire/ | with well' | dried logs' | supplied/ | Went roar' | ing up' | the chim'.| ney wide'; | The huge' | hall-ta' | ble's oak' | en face' | Scrubbed till' | it shone/ | the day' | to grace.' j 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 called Service Metre. They set him high upon a cart; = 4xa The hangman rode below ; = 3x a They drew his hands behind his back, = 4xa And bared his noble brow. =3xa This is the metre of Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Some,' 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 sweep = 4 x a To break the Scottish circle deep, = 4xa That fought' | around' | their king.' = 3xa 17. Iambic Pentameter consists of five iambuses; and its formula is 5xa. (i) The following is rhymed iambic pentameter : — 4 True wit' | is na' | ture to' | ad van' | tage dressed,' | = . r ixa What oft' | was thought/ | but ne'er' | so well' | expressed.' | = 5xa (ii) The following is unrhymed iambic pentameter : — You all' | dofcnow' | this man' | tie ; I' | remem' | ber=5xa The first' | time ev 7 j er Cses' | ar put' | it on'.| = 5xa. The first extract is from Pope's "Essay on Criticism"; the second from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." 18. Iambic Hexameter consists of six iambuses ; and its formula is 6xa. THE GRAMMAR OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 199 (i) The following is from Drayton's " Polyolbion " : — Upon the Midlands now the industrious muse doth fall, | =6xa That shire which we the heart of England well may call. | = 6xa 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 clang- |=4ax Round beleaguered Chester rang, -|=4ax Veiled nun and friar gray- | = 4ax Marched from Bangor's fair abbaye - | = 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 : — Then the | little | Hia | watha | = 4ax Learned of | ev'ry | bird the | language, | = 4ax Learned their | names and | all their | secrets, | = 4ax How they | built their | nests in | summer, |=4ax Where they | hid them | selves in | winter, | = 4ax Talked with | them when | e'er he | met them, | = 4ax Called them | "Hia | watha's | Chickens." | = 4ax 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 poein of " Locksley Hall " ;— 200 COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. Comrades, | leave' me| here' a | lit' tie, | while' as | yet' 'tis | ear'ly | morn'-| = 8ax Leave' me | here', and, | when' you | want' me, | sound' up | on' the | bu'gle | horn'-| = 8ax (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. Anapaestic Tetrameter consists of four anapaests ; 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 " Macgregors' Gathering," by Scott, is in anapaestic verse : — The moon's' | on the lake', | and the mist's' | on the brae', | =4xxa And the clan' | has a name' | that is name' | less by day'. | = 4xxa (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." Can'non to | right' of them, | 2axx Can'non to | left' of them, | 2axx Can'non be | hind' them, - | 2a xx Vol'leyed 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 to be = 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 first. 23. Dactylic Tetrameter consists of four dactyls ; and its for- mula is 4axx. (i) Bishop Heber's hymn is one of the best examples : — Bright'est and | best' of the [ sons' of the | morn'ing. (ii) The last foot here again is a trochee, (iii) There is very little of this kind of verse in English poetry. 24. Amphibrachic Tetrameter consists of four amphibrachs ; and its formula is 4xax. THE GRAMMAR OF VERSE, OR PROSODY. 201 (i) Campbell's well-known poem is a good example : — There came' to | the beach' a | poor ex'ile | of E'rin. (ii) There 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 long for accented; and short for unaccented syllables: — Tro'chee | trips' from | long' to | short' — | From long to long in solemi. sort, Slow spon | dee 1 stalks || strong' foot, yet j ill' able E'ver to | come' up with | dac'tyl tri | syl'lable | . lam' | bics march' | from sho'rt | to long' | ; With a leap' | and a bound' | the swift an' | apaests throng' | ; One syl'la | ble long' with | one short' at | each side — | Amphi'brach | ya hastes' with | a state'ly | stride. 26. A verse with a syllable over and above the number of feet of which it consists is called Hypermetrical. (i) Thus, Coleridge has, in his " Ancient Mariner " — Day af | ter day, | day af | ter day, | We stuck : | nor breath | nor mo | tion, {hyper) As id | le as | a paint | ed ship | Upon | a paint | ed o | cean. (hyper) Here the syllables tion and cean are over from the iambic trimetei verse, and the line is therefore said to be hyper metrical. 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" — Slaugh'tered | down' by | heath'en | blade'- | 4ax- Ban'gor's | peace'ful | monks' are | laid'. - ] 4ax- 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 4 ax -. (ii) Caution ! — Some persons confuse the defective with the hyper- metrical line. Thus, in the verses — Shall' I | wast'ing | in' de | spair', - | Die' be | cause a | wom'an's | fair 1 ?- | the syllable spair is not hypermetrical. An unaccented syllable is wanting to it ; and the lines are 4a x defective or minus. 1 A spondee consists of two long or accented syllables. It is a foot not employed in English ; but it exists in the two words amen and farewell. 20^ COMPOSITION, PUNCTUATION, ETC. EHYME. 28. Rhyme 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 num- ber ; and the Old English word for arithmetic was rime-craft. It received its present set of letters from a confusion with the Greek word rhythm, which means & flowing. (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 conditions. These are : — 1. The rhyming syllable must be accented. Thus ring' rhymes with sing'; but not with tMnlding. 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 = Jcs.) 4. The preceding consonant must be different. 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. Gone. Move. Bestow. River, Past. THE CAESURA. 203 THE C.ESUKA. 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 Caesura, and the position of the Caesura, that musical flow depends. The word ccesura is a Latin word, and means a cutting. 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 is an example from the short lines of ' Marmion ' (vi. 332) :— l£ More pleased that || in a barbarous age 2J He gave rude Scotland || Virgil's page, 1 Than that || beneath his rule 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 1| feet, sometimes after 2 ; and so on. (ii) The following is an example from the long lines of the " Lycidas " of Milton : — 2 Now, Lycidas, || the shepherds weep no more ; 1 Henceforth || thou art the genius of the shore 3 In thy large recompense, || and shalt be good 2h To all that wander || in that perilous flood. 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 || surround their darling care, 2 These set the head, || and these divide 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, PUNCTUATION, ETC. THE STANZA. 33. A Stanza is a group of rhymed lines. The word comes from an old Italian word, stantia, 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 couplet." 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 iambic tetrameter, and two of iambic trimeter. (ii) A quatrain of iambic pentameters is called Elegiac Verse. Th& 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 "Yussouf," 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 ottahva reema.) 39. A stanza of nine lines is called the Spenserian stanza, because Edmund Spenser employed it in his "Faerie Queene." THE STANZA. 205 (i) The first eight Hues 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 cultivated by many poets — the greatest among these being Dante and Petrarch, both of them poets of the thirteenth century. The best English sounet-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 " : — 1 Scorn not the Sonnet ; critic, you have frowned a I Mindless of its just honours : with this key b I Shakspeai e unlocked his heart ; the melody Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound ; a A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound ; a With it Camoens soothed an exile's grief; c The sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf e ^Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned a fHis visionary brow ; a glow-worm lamp d It cheered mild Spenser, called from fairyland 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 ! " / EXERCISES. EXERCISE I. (The Alphabet, p. 5). 1. Show the difference between a vowel and a consonant ; say which are the vowels in the following words: young, wonder, worth, hypercritical, abstemious, yell, iota ; and name the diphthongs, if any, in continuous, idea, shoeing, join, oasis, reason, porous, variety, spontaneity. 2. How are consonants classified ? Select the dentals and gutturals from the following words : dog, gate, gentle, truth, thank, hog, gymnastic, pneumatic, drink, conquered; and select the palatals and labials from tbe following words : Job, Benjamin, archiepiscopate, bdellium, method, psalm, yacht. 3. Distinguish between mutes and spirants ; and show which are the dental and which the palatal spirants in scissors, rush, shaxol, zealously, laziness, azimuth, zephyr, harass. 4. Change as many as you can of the following into corresponding sharp sounds : bad, dove, dig, bag, bathe, gad, beg, Jude, dug, Jove, gab, jug ; and reduce the following sharp sounds to flat : jyack, 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 II. (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." — Wordsivorth. (b) " Welcome, learn'd Cicero ! whose blessed tongue and wit Preserves Rome's greatness yet." — Cowley. (c) " All in the Downs the fleet lay moor'd." — Dibdin. (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, patient, man, lord, intrude, rogue, slave, poor, domain, catechise, exemplify. 207 !08 EXERCISES. EXERCISE III. (Nouns, p. 9). Classify the nouns in the following: — (a) " Young Henry met the foe with pride ; Jane followed, fought ! ah, hapless story ! In man's attire, by Henry's side, She died for love, and he for glory." — T. Dibdin, (b) " Though I fly to Istamboul, Athens holds my heart and soul." — Byron. (c) " The time I've 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 learn'd to stray." — Gray. EXERCISE IV. (Gender, p. 11). 1. Define gender; and give the different ways in which gender is marked. 2. Give the gender of Londoner, chief, se/ior, actor, debtor, sailor, kitten, sheep, charity, knave, moon, ant, spouse, bee, laundress. .'!. (live the masculine of spinster, doe, slut, ewe, bride, baxter, lass, czarina, vixen ; and the feminine of widower, patron, drake, marquis, gander, friar, 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 child, chief, cloth, calf, horse, Dutchman, 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, sheep, radii, series, data, dice, analyses, cherubim ; and distinguish between pease and peas, brothers and brethren, dies and dice, geniuses and genii. 4. Justify the use of each of the following : memorandums, indices, bandits, funguses, serajihs ; and state the number of each of the nouns in the following : — (a) "The audience were too much interested." — Scott. (b) " The garrison only bestow a few bolts on it." — Id. (c) "The House of Lords were so much influenced." — Hume. (d) " 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 following : — (a) " He sees that this great round-about, The world with all its motley rout, — Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its bxisinesses, Is no concern at all of his." — Corvper. (b) "The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears." — Scott. (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 VII. (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. (b) " 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 dofTd thine own to let Queen Dido pass, Or held, by Solomon's own invitation, A torch at the great Temple's dedication."- — Horace 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 talked of the haying, and wonder'd whether The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.'' — ./. G. Whittier. 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 called. Give examples to illustrate your answer. 4. Give the meaning of factitive as applied to the objective case; and say what is meant by an adverbial object. 210 EXERCISES. EXERCISE IX. (Case, p. 19). Select the nouns in the nominative case in the following :— 1. The bloom falls in May. 2. The ostriches' heads were not to be seen. 3. " The kine," said he, " I'll quickly feed." 4. The kine were fed. 5. The captain falling ill, the boatswain took charge. 6. A wandering minstrel am I. 7. Here lies the 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 over the precipice. 12. Rattle his bones over the stones. 13. The guide falling ill, the travellers had to rely on his dog. 14. Ah ! 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 waves. 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 to-day, 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 Moses. 7. The lute of Orpheus. 8. The sword of Achilles. 9. The subscriptions of the ladies. 10. The death of the Marquis of Londonderry. EXERCISES. 211 11. The cries of the babies. 12. The marriage of Richard, Earl of Cambridge. 13. The innocence of the lilies. 14. The head of a sheep. 15. The tails of sheep. 16. The jubilee of A'ictoria, 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 sextou toll'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 conscience' sake. 10. The king's baker dreamed a dream. 11. 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 mv clothes. 212 EXERCISES. EXERCISE XIV. (Nouns). Parse fully all the nouns occurring in the following :— * (a) " Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother." — Ben Jonson. (b) " His house was known to all the vagrant train ; He chid their wand'rings, but relieved their pain." — Ooldsinith. (c) " Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather, When He, who all commands, Shall give, to call life's crew together, The word to pipe all hands." — C. Dibdin. EXERCISE XV. (Pronouns, p. 23). 1. Define a pronoun; give its derivation; and say what you 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 ivho and what, ye and you, thy and thine, and mc and myself. 4. Explain the ch in ivliich, 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. (h) " You yourself are much condemn'd." — Shakespeare. (c) "Who would fill a coward's grave ?" — Burns. (d) " You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case.' - — Shakespeare. (e) " Each had his place appointed, each his course." — Milton. (/') "Of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles." — Bible. (g) "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides."' — Cowper. EXERCISES. 213 EXERCISE XVII. (Pronouns, 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. (b) " Who steals my purse steals trash." — Shakespeare. (c) " He prayeth best, who loveth best All things, both great and small." — Coleridge. (d) " Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know."— Cow/»er. (e) " 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 fully the relatives and their antecedents in the following : — (a) " Whoever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight ? " — Shakespeare. (b) "There were none of the Grograms but could sing a song, or of the Marjorams but could tell a story." — Goldsmith. (c) "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." — Bible. (d) " Let such teach others, who themselves excel.'"' — Pope. 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 from 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. .'!. 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 distinguish between further and farther, older and elder, later and latter. 6. Write the ordinals of one, two, three, four, forty, eight, twenty, hundred, five, twelve. EXERCISE XXL (Adjectives, p. 28). Classify the adjectives in the following : — 1. "In the body politic, as in the natural body, morbid languor succeeds morbid excitement." — Macaiday. 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, au excellent cook, and a most contemptible sovereign." — Gibbon, 5. "Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." — Young. 6. "You gave good words the other day of a bay courser I rode." — Shake* peare. 7. "The poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the richest mau." — Bunyan. 8. "Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond compare above all living creatures dear." — Milton. !). "Fox beat half the lawyers in the House at their own weapons.'"' — Macaulay. EXERCISE XXII. (Adjectives, p. 28). Parse fully all the adjectives in the following : — 1. "The better part of valour is discretion; 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 seems their revenge against the old." — Bulwer. 4. " It was a very low fire indeed for such a bitter night." — Dickens. 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." — Longfellow. 7. " The morning comes cold for a July one." — Carlyle. 8. " I '11 fill another pipe." — Sterne. EXERCISE XXIII. (Adjectives, p. 28). 1. Compare the following adjectives where they admit of it : stout, thin, marvellous, calm, shy, ladylike, gentlemanly, tcet, honourable, dead, near, full, prim, lovely, clayey, happy, sad, solar. 2. Write the positive of next, more, inner, last, least, first, inmost, better ; and the superlative of evil, late, much, ill, good. EXERCISES. 215 EXERCISE XXIV. (Adjectives, p. 28). Parse fully the adjectives in the following : — 1. " That sun that warms you here shall shine on me." — Shakespeare. 2. "Can 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." — Sliakfspeare. 4. " My father lived at Blenheim then, yon little stream hard by." — Southey. 5. "The oracles are dumb ; No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof iu words deceiving." — Milton. 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." — Moore. (/') "As 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 schoolmasters." — Shakespeare. (b) "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learned to dance." — Pope. (c) "Who said that I had given thee up? Who said that thou wert sold?" — Mrs. Norton. EXERCISE XXVII. (The Verb, p. 34). 1. Define 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? Illus- trate your answer by examples. 3. iSay what you understand by voice ; what are the only verbs that can be in the passive voice ; and how the passive voice is formed. 2 1 6 EXERCISES. EXERCISE XXVIII. (Classification 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 ? " — Coivper. (b) " A thing of beauty is a joy for ever ; Its loveliness increases ; it will never Pass into nothingness."' — Keats. (c) " He prayeth best, who loveth best All 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. (b) " I would not have believed it unless I had happened to have been there." — Dickens. (c) "I am, I will, I shall be happy." — Lytton. (d) You are fighting a shadow. (e) I shall have had enough of this. EXERCISES. 217 (/) Why came ye hither ? (;/) Knew ye not what they had lost ? (h) We know not, neither do we care. (?') A man who had lost his way, stopped till a boy came saunter- ing along. (k) "Am I in the right road for London? " said the man. (/) "Yes," was the reply ; "but yon 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. (b) "Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, And fools who came to scoff remained to pray." — Goldsmith. (c) " Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this." — Sliakespeare. (d) " I watched the little circles die." — Tennyson. (e) "I am ashamed to observe you hesitate." — Scott. (f) " 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." — Rogers. (c) " He was — whatever thou hast been, He is — what thou shalt be." — Montgomery. (d) I 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 Verbs, p. 43). Arrange the verbs in Exercises XXXII. and XXXIII. as strong or weak. EXERCISE XXXV. (Verb "To be," p. 50). 1. Say of what verbs the verb be is made up, and give the four ways in which this verb is used. 2. State the use of be in each of the following instances :— (a) " Whatever is, is right." — Pope. (b) Thou art the man. (c) I shall be there. (d) They are to resign. (e) David was a bold man. (/) The men will be chosen by lot. (g) He is gone to his grave. (A) "Be off! "cried the old man to the boys who were teasing him. EXERCISE XXXVI. (Mood and Tense Auxiliaries, 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 used ? What was the original meaning of the word, and what is its present idea? EXERCISE XXXVII. (Adverbs, p. 57). 1. Define an adverb ; and say in what two ways adverbs may be classified, illustrating your answer by examples. 2. Give the classification of adverbs according to their meaning, and show the twofold function of a conjunctive adverb. EXERCISE XXXVIII. (Adverbs, p. 57). 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. 5. Look out ! Here comes the beadle, so let us run. 6. Who 's there ? 7. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows. S. 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 us down awhile till our friends leisurely return. EXERCISES. 219 EXERCISE XXXTX. (Adverbs, p. 57). Classify the adverbs in the following : — (a) "Once again we'll sleep secure." — Shakespeare. (b) " My father lived at Blenheim then, Yon little stream hard by." — Southcy. (r) " Thus have I yielded into your hand The circle of my glory." — Shakespeare. (d) " Now the great winds shoreward blow, Now the salt tides seaward flow." — M. Arnold. (e) "We no longer believe in St. Edmund." — Carlyle_ (f) " What so moves thee all at once ? " — Coleridge. (g) "Vex not thou the poet's mind." — Tennyson. EXERCISE XL. (Adverbs, p. 57). Parse the adverbs in the following : — (a) " The solemn peaks but to the stars are known, — But to the stars, and the cold lunar beams." — M. Arnold. (b) "My life is spann'd already." — Shake speure. (c) "You always put things so pleasantly." — Bulwer. (d) " Not all the pearls Queen Mary wears, Nor Margaret's still more precious tears, Shall buy his life a day." — Scott. (e) " Why holds thine eye that melancholy rheum ? " — Shakespeare. (/) 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 XLI. (Revision). Parse fully the nouns, 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. (b) "None of us yet know, for none of us have yet been taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought — proof against all adversity." — Ruskin. 220 EXERCISES. EXERCISE XLII. (Prepositions, p. 58). Select the prepositions in the following, and say what they connect and govern : — 1. In the corner 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 Charles 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 XLIII. (Prepositions, p. 58). 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 following prepositions : but, beside, after, until, aboard, beneath, among, 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. (b) " Neither a borrower nor a lender be." — Shakespeare. (c) "Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen." — Milton. (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." — Shakespeare. 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. (b) " A white wall is the paper of a fool." — G. Herbert. (c) "I that speak to thee am he." — Bible. (d) " Thus now alone he conqueror remains." — Spenser. (e) " Ho ! 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 Ou 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. (c) " Anything that money would buy had been his son's." — 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. {b) " He has two essential parts of a courtier, pride and ignorance." — Ben Jonson. (c) " 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." — Shakespeare. Q 222 EXERCISES. {b) "Still more majestic shalt thou rise, More dreadful from each foreign stroke ; As the loud blast that tears the skies Serves but to root thy native oak." — Thomson. (c) " They considered themselves fortunate in making the children happy, and in rendering the despairing hopeful." EXERCISE L. (Syntax of Adjective, p. 71). 1. In what way is a participle an adjective ; and what function of a verb does it retaiu ? 2. Say all that is necessary of the adjectives below : — (a) " Each horseman drew his battle blade, And furious every charger neighed." — Campbell. (b) " He made me mad To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet, Aud talk so like a waiting- gentlewoman."— Shakespeare. (c) "Sweet Isle ! within thy rock-girt shore is seen Nature in her sublimest dress arrayed." — E. Foskelt. (d) " Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred." — Tennyson. (e) " A form more fair, a face more sweet, Ne'er hath it been my lot to meet." — J. O. Whittier. EXERCISE LI. (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. (c) " She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd, And I lov'd her that she did pity them."— Shakespeare. (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 will." — Wordsworth. EXERCISE LII. (Syntax of Pronoun, p. 74). Show the concords of the antecedents and relatives in the following : — («) " Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are." — Macaulay. EXERCISES. 223 (h) "This sword a dagger had, his page, That was but little for his age." — Butler. (c) " My banks they are furnished with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep." — Shen stone. (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 born to-night, The author both of life and light." — Ben Jonson. {!>) " Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude." — Shakespeare. (c) " Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ?" — Gray. {d) " Our company were now arrived within a mile of Highgate." — Fielding. (e) " Neither a borrower nor a lender be." — Shakespeare. EXERCISE LIV. (Syntax of Verb, p. 78). Arrange in two columns the governing verbs and their objects in the following: — (a) " He gave to misery all he had, a tear." — Gray. (b) " They made me queen of the May." — Tennyson. (c) " Thou hast a tongue, come, let us hear its tune." — Horace Smith. (d) " Past all dishonour, Death has left on her Only the beautiful." — T. Hood. (e) " 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 uation's eyes, Their lot forbade." — Gray. 224 EXERCISES. EXERCISE LV. (Syntax of Verb, p. SO). Give the mood of each verb in the following, adding any- explanatory remark you think necessary : — (a) " Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you." — Sheridan. (b) " The good of ancient times let others state ; I think it lucky I was born so late." — Sydney Smith. (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. Elliott. (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). ] )istinguish between gerundial and simple infinitives 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 Uuto the rainbow, or with taper light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." — Shakespeare. (b) " 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. (c) " To err is human, to forgive divine." — Pope. (d) " Man never is, but always to be blest." — Pope. (e) "Better dwell in the midst of alarms." — Cowper. EXERCISE LVII. (Syntax of Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction, p. 83). Give 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." — Carlyle. EXERCISES. 225 (b) "This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high." — Cowley. (c) " A man that looks on glass, On it may stay Lis eye ; Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, And then the heavens espy." — G. Herbert, ANALYSIS. EXERCISE I. (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. (Analysis— The Subject, p. 88). Arrange in columns the subjects in the following, and say of what each consists : — (a) The potato is wholesome. (5) Eat it. (c) " Hush ! " said the mother. (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 ? (i) Amassing wealth oft ruins health. (k) " Bravo ! " shouted the audience. (I) Laughing is contagious. EXERCISE III. (Analysis— The Predicate, p. 89). Select the predicates in the following, and say of what each consists : — (a) A cheery old soul lives here. (b) It rains. (c) A live dog is better than a dead lion. (d) I am not the king. 226 EXERCISES. (e) The idle procrastinate. (/) The dead alone are happy, (;/) We are all here. (A) Charity beareth all things. (i) 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. (b) The preacher cries " Prepare ! " (c) Ruskin adored the beautiful. ( ^ w; O • ^ £> -c R aj T3 ? eS ^3 o J3 O 73 J .« _= rl 3 -tf m = - J4 aj 1 ft* 1 ^3 a a ,3 g fi 10 T) « o « « « 11 . to T3 o » j O cd _co 10 >—■ C w -, 0) O 2 -^ >> „ <* fl 5J _ t3 o 25 * g "d w p •=! £^ o s ^ p ^ o is ° P 2 3 = S o ,S m 3 Q> ^ -*-3 -— < c-~ 3 gj* •^ * %° 8 O £> *-* *■"' S 2 Pu !z FT ^ ;- 03 > C ,3 3 ^ -C T3 .3 ~ •= a> ci So *p — , o o o 5 p-* 3 p* 3 .a 43 o 3 3 oo o 00 CD > o "3 S - 2 «3 2° £-3.2 C ■" ^ a>4S 2 g.g S g •cS u -2 .2 £ 230 EXERCISES. EXERCISE VI. (Analysis— Revision). Analyse the following according to Scheme I. : — (a) Cowards fear themselves. (b) Swimming teaches self-reliance, (c) To labour is to pray. (d) " Beware," said the sentry. (e) The bells are chiming. (f) Stop. (g) Plumbers stop the leaks. (h) The field yields the farmer a fortune. (?") Here we are. (k) The child brought the invalid a garland. (I) Phoebus loves gilding the corn-fields. EXERCISE VII. (Analysis— Enlargements, p. 94). Of what may enlargements consist 1 Point out the enlarge- ments in the following, and say of Avhat kind each is : — (a) A good little girl sat under a tree. (b) A desire to excel actuates Smith, the foreman. (c) A ramble on a summer evening restores the drooping spirit. (d) Feeling sorry, he gave the poor old fellow a hearty meal. (e) William, the captain of the school, knowing the game, taxaght the new scholars the rules. (f) 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. (b) In a whisper she gave them the order. (c) Inch by inch the spider travelled. (d) I come to bury 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. (Analysis— Revision). Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme II. : — («) " I will make thee beds of roses." — C. Marlowe. (b) " Then came the Autumn all in yellow clad." — Spenser. (c) "Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon.'" — Raleigh. (d) "Thus clad and fortified, Sir Knight From peaceful home set forth to fight." — Butler. 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. (b) " One morning a Peri at the gate Of Eden stood, disconsolate." — T. Moore. (c) " The spirits of your fathers 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. (b) " The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May morning." — C. Marlowe (c) "Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys, 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." — Spemcr. (b) " Close by the regal chair Fell Thirst and Famine scowl A baleful smile upon their baffled guest." — Gray. 232 EXERCISES. (c) " The Sundays of man's life, Threaded together on time's string, Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal glorious king. "— George Herbert. (d) " With beating heart to the task he went." — Scott. EXERCISE XIII. (Analysis— Revision). Expand the adjectives in the following into phrases {a) A merciful man considers his beast. (b) The mistress scolded the lazy servant. (c) 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. (6) The soldiers rested there. (c) The man answered the charge easily. (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 : — () Carelessness brings its punishment. (c) Being deserving should precede success. (d) Reiguing 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." — ]]'o7'dsworth. 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, ou humanity, much happiness." — Young. (c) "On the green bank I sat and listened long."— Dryden. (d) " 0, 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." — Scott. 234 EXERCISER. EXERCISE XX. (Analysis— Revision). Analyse the following sentences according to Scheme IV. : — (a) "The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's 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." — Scott. (c) "Her heads while she numbered, the baby still slumbered, 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 V. : — (a) " Ah ! 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 ! " — Cowley. (b) " Ring 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." — Shakespeare. EXERCISE XXII. (Analysis— Revision). Analyse, as in the preceding : — (a) " Take physic, pomp ; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel ; That thou may'st shake the superflux 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." — Wotton. (c) " The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er ; So calm are we when passions are no more ; For then we know how vain it was to boast Of feeling things too certain to be lost." — Waller. EXERCISES. 235 EXERCISE XXIII. (Analysis— Revision). Analyse, as before : — (a) " Let me tell the adventurous stranger, In our calmness lies our clanger ; Like a river's silent running, Stillness shows our depth and cunning/' — Durfey. (b) "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 tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you.' " — Poe. WOED-BUILDING EXERCISE I. (Word-building, p. 116), 1. State exactly what is meant by a root ; and distinguish between root and stem. 2. What are prefixes 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: un-laiv-ful, male-child-ren, dis-lik-ing, short-sight-ed, ink-stand, man-serv-ant. EXERCISE II. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 116). Show that the following words are compounds of two nouns: — Monday, wheafjield, 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, shcj>heril, soft-soap, nightmare, backbone, scape- grace, lady, wheatear, fieldfare, upstart, and steward. EXERCISE IV. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 117). In the following compound adjectives say to what Class of }\'ord each part belongs : — Sky blue, stiffhecked, Lord-Mayor-like, overreaching, slonecold, stark- mad, weather-beaten, threadbare, wardrobe, hairsplitting, icebound, aice- stricken, footsore. 236 EXERCISES. EXERCISE V. (Word-building— Compounds, p. 118). What other Parts of Speech have been used to make up the following compound verbs ? — Outface, handcuff, clearstarch, outnumber, whitewash, ingathzr, outbid. EXERCISE VI. (Word-building— Compounds, p. US). Comment on each of the following adverbs : — Needs, aboard, afloat, well, thither, how, withal, albeit, seldom, rather, whilst, whence. EXERCISE VIT. (Word-building— English Prefixes, p. 119). Show the force of each of the prefixes in the following words : — Unloose, unthanJcfid, forehead, bewail, vnthdrew, 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 : — Allure, acclaim, abstract, absolve, assume, affront, aspire, cdtract, arrest, aggravate, address, pardon. EXERCISE X. (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p. 123). Show the force of the prefixes in — biped, ambient, circumnavigate, anticipate, coeval, desuetude, cispontine, transit, countenance, country- dance, corrode, desiccate, emigrate, extramural. EXERCISE XL (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p. 123). Account for the variations from the original prefix in each of the following : — ■ Differ, irregular, impending, illiberal, ignoble, embrace, occur, sedition. EXERCISES. 237 EXERCISE XII. (Word-building— Latin Prefixes, p. 123). Show the value of the prefixes in the following : — Interlude, nonpareil, malefactor, international, intramural, penumbra, 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, suffix, surface. EXERCISE XIV. (Word-building— Prefixes, p. 123). Give instances of in becoming il, ir, im, ig ; and of oh becoming oc, of, o, op. State a genei'al 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, catastroj)he, eccentric, perimeter. EXERCISE XVI. (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 XVII. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 128). Give the root and the suffix in each of the following: — Fodder, trickster, thrift, baxter, penmanship, hammock, loveliness, straddle, sapling, chippings, sisterhood, carter, starling, collier, sawyer. EXERCISE XVII I. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 128). Explain fully the suffixes in the following : — Mitten, earldom, stealth, breadth, handicraft, rimecraft, drunkard, laddie, hardship, haft, spindle, shuttle, brazier, whiting, /dlt, handle. EXERCISE XIX. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 12S). 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. R 238 EXERCISES. 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, duly, once, mysteriously, nowise, sulkily, stealthily, sidelong, seldom, peculiarly. EXERCISE XXI. (Word-building— English Suffixes, p. 128). Show the effect of the suffix in each of the following verbs : — Stalk, snivel, falter, strengthen, flush, twitter, dribble, trundle, gush, glister, blush, draggle. EXERCISE XXII. (Word-building— Latin and French Suffixes, p. I 3 I ). In the following nouns show the value of each suffix : — Actor, testament, brigandage, librarian, consonant, guttural, resident, radiance, patrimony, tension, lapidary, graduate, condxict, presbytery. EXERCISE XXIII. (Word-building— Revision). Explain each of the component parts of the following hybrids : — Colour, frailty, bigamy, atonement, oddment, bondage, starvation, foreigner, bilingualism, unjustly, grandfather, martyrdom, ungrateful, handkerchief, unconceitedly, falsehood, demigod, witticism, unacted, art- ful, Cockneyism, Bowdlerise, blackguardism, cerecloth, druggist, surname. EXERCISE XXIV. (Word-building— Revision). What are the following pairs of words called? Potion and j)oison ; cadence and chance. Give the corresponding word to each of the following : benison, chattels, 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, vale- dictory, moribund, umbrageous. EXERCISE XXVI. (Word-building— 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-building— Revision). In the following verbs explain the suffixes : — Amplify, expedite, estimate, coalesce, deify, publish, pacify, alienate, embellish, permeate, extinguish. EXERCISE XXVIII. (Word-building— Revision). Show tbe force of the suffixes in the following, distinguishing between the Greek and hybrid words : — Axiomatic, theorist, philanthropy , witticism, theorist, nepotism, paral- 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, mead, bakery, club, 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, vake, might, nozzle, stile, scoop, waddle, lair, 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, December, 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 tlie Latin, and give their derivation : — Exculpate, alimony, reception, altercation, deception, chant, agile, miscreant, agrarian, excuse, equinox, brief, cruise, bissextile, corpse, clamour, eager, auction. EXERCISE XXXIII. (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, liable, force, religion, affluent, leaven, flexible, renegade, collapse, dismount, feat, projile, conjoint, annex, exhibit, facet, grateful, memoir. 240 EXERCISES. EXERCISE XXXIV. (Word-building— Latin Roots, p. 147). Select the words of direct Latin origin : — Dormitory, fusible, duke, profound, ludicrous, genteel, manse, redeem, gesture, absolute, aberration, progress, scent, probity, poignant, repair, quarry, voiv, tense, terrible, urbane, insidious, sexton, sacrilege, plausible. EXERCISE XXXV. (Word-building— Greek Roots, p. 152). Give the derivation of each of the following words : — Date, cosmetic, surgeon, nausea, dogma, economy, dynamite, catarrh, hematite, idiot, melancholy, hieroglyphic. EXERCISE XXXVI. (Word-building— Greek Roots, p. 15l>). Give two roots for each of the following words: — Hypocrite, aerolite, demagogue, onomatopoctic, lithotomy, tetrarch. kaleidoscope, hydrophobia, heliotrope, catastrophe, evangelist. EXERCISE XXXVII. (Word-building— 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 XXXVIII. (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, lumbt r. EXERCISE XXXIX. (Word-building— Disguised Words, p. 161). Show the origin of the following words : — Babble, intoxicate, gadfly, belfry, liquorice, bustard, luncheon, cam I, buttery, custard, sheaf, carouse, stirrup, causevmy, treacle, crayfish, verdigris. EXERCISE XL. (Word-building— Words Changed in Meaning, p. 16S). Compare the original with the modern meaning of the following words : — Sycophant, al/on-, restive, gazette, amuse, handsome, awkward, knave, blackguard, mere, brat, painful, censure, cunning, preposterous, silly, vivacity. ff.XEKOISKS. 24 1 PLAN FOR PARSING. When parsing a word observe the following rules : — (i) Use no abbreviation that is vague ; avoid the possibility of being misunderstood. (ii) When any other word is quoted, underline it, or use marks of quotation. (Hi) Use the following terms, when applicable, and in the order as arranged : NOUNS. — KIND. Proper ; Common ; Collective ; Abstract. GENDER. Masculine ; Feminine ; Common ; Neuter. NUMBER. Singular; Plural. PERSON. First; Second; Third. CASE. Nominative, subject of the verb ; in appo- sition with ; of address (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 . PRONOUNS.— KIND. Personal; Relative, agreeing with its antecedent in gender, person, and number ; Interrogative ; Indefinite ; Reciprocal ; Emphatic ; Reflexive ; GENDER, NUMBER, a r As in nouns. CASE. PERSON, ( 242 EXERCISES. ADJECTIVES. — KIND. Qualitative, positive, comparative, or superlative degree, going with the noun : Quantitative, indefinite or definite, nu- meral, cardinal, or ordinal, or distributive, limiting the noun ; Demonstrative, pointing out the noun . VERBS. — CLASS. Transitive (active or passive Voice); Intransitive ; Auxiliary, of voice, mood, tense, or emphasis. CONJUGATION. Strong or Weak. MOOD. Indicative, assertive or interrogative ; Imperative ; Subjunctive ; Infinitive (nomina- tive, objective, or gerundial). TENSE. Present ; Past ; Future. Perfect (complete), imperfect (incomplete), indefinite, continuous (progressive). PERSON, NUMBER. I 1 ' > Agreeing with the subject . R. J 6 6 J (PARTICIPLE) (Active, qualifying the noun or pronoun , and governing the noun or pronoun ; or Passive). ADVERBS.— 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, governmg the nour or pronoun . CONJUNCTIONS— CO-ORDINATE. SUBORDINATE. EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 243 QUESTIONS SET AT THE ANNUAL GOVEEN- MENT EXAMINATION OF PUPIL-TEACHERS. CANDIDATES. SET A. ( You 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. English Gkammar. 1. Analyse the following passage : — " The cry they heard, its meaning knew, 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-skill'd Bruce, to rule the fight." (b) " And now I watch my armour here, By law of arms, till midnight 's near." (c) " Up drawbridge, grooms ! — what, Warder, ho ! Let the portcullis fall." Composition. Describe the Battle of Flodden as told in Marmion. SET B— {Marmion). (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 3 than for Questions i and 5. 1. Give the substance of Wilton's story, or, Describe the scene when Marmion was leaving Tantallon Castle. 2. Analyse the followiug passage : — " With that, straight up the hill there rode Two horsemen drenched with gore, And in their arms a helpless load, A wounded knight they bore." 244 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 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, landscape, brightest, wisdom. 5. Explain : — (a) " More pleased that in a barbarous age He gave rude Scotland Virgil's page." (b) "Won by my proofs, his falchion bright This eve anew shall dub me knight." FIEST YEAR PUPIL-TEACHERS. SET A. ( You 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. 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 where Cesars 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 : forefather, ancestor : feminine, womanly : realm, kingdom : horseman, cavalier. Composition. Give a short account of Goldsmith's life, character, friendships, and works. EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 245 SET B— (Goldsmith's Traveller). ( You are advised not to spend more than one hour over this subject.) Answer Question 1 or Question 2 (not both) and two other questions. Full marks are higher for Question 3 than for Questions 4 and 5. 1. Give, in your own words, the character of the Dutch 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. Methinks her patient sons before me stand, 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." (b) "That like the circle bounding earth and skies Allures from far, and, as we follow, flies." (c) " Where lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride, And brighter streams than famed Hydaspes glide." 5. Give the etymology and meaning of vernal, grandeur, .sympathetic, depopulation, felicity. SECOND YEAR PUPIL-TEACHERS. SET A. ( You 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. English Grammar. 1. Write, in your own words, the full substance of the following passage : — "That you 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 QUESTIONS. I will consider ; what you have to say, I will with patieuce hear, and find a time Both meet to hear, and answer, such liigh 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 line. 3. Give the etymology and meaning of chivalry, captive, particle, incorporate, enfranchisement, extenuated, fantasy, slanderous. 4. Re-write in more correct form the following sentences, giving reasons for any alterations you make: — ■ (a) We will do like they did. (b) Neither of the three were present. (c) This is the best of the two. (d) We wish to very cordially congratulate you. Composition. Compare the characters of Brutus and Cassius [Julius Ccesar). SET B— {Julius Ccesar). {You are advised not to spend more than one hour over this stibject.) Answer Question 1 or Question 2 (not both) and two other questions. Full marks are higher for Question 3 than for Questions 4 and 5. 1. Give a brief account of Antony's oration over Caesar's body, and account for its effect upon the people. 2. Write, in your own words, tt e full substance of the following passage : — " Cassius. Ye gods, it doth amaze me A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world, And bear the palm alone. Brutus. Another general shout ! I do believe that these applauses are For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar Cassius. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates : The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings." EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 247 3. Analyse the last three lines, and parse the words in italics. 4. Give the etymology and meaning of alchemy, choleric, proscrip- tion, exorcist, cynic. 5. Correct the following expressions and give your reasons: — («) Friends am I -with you all. (b) He is stronger than me. (c) The heat was simply phenomenal. (d) I differ with yon. SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION. .SET A. {Two hours and a half allowed for this paper.) All Candidates must answer Question 1, to which the highest marks are assigned, and may selectyiw, and Jive only, of the rest. If you answer more than six 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. English Language and Literature. 1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics : — " The fairest action of our human life Is scorning to revenge an injury ; For who forgives without a. further strife His adversary's heart to him doth tie ; And 'tis a firmer conquest truly said To win the heart than overthrow the head." 2. Show the force of the Latin prefixes de-, re-, con-, pro-, ob-, e.[ex-), ab- by reference to English words derived from the compounds oijacio, j actum (I throw ; in composition, -jicio, -jectum). 3. Write the following passage in blank verse : — - "O Proserpina! for the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall from Dis's waggon ! daffodils, 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 II. so as to avoid monotony ? 5. Explain, by reference to the etymology, the metaphor involved in the following words :— reducible, 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 out a noun.'* Discuss this definition, and, if you think it bad, say what 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 ? 9. Parse fully the words in italic type below :— (a) Her eyes were red with weeping. (b) He was running at full speed. (c) While waiting for the train, I caught a cold. (d) On turning round, I ran against him. (e) Only by selling his horse could he get the money he wanted. SET B. (Two hours and a half allowed for this paper.) All Candidates must answer Questions 1 or 2, not both, to which the highest marks are assigned, and may select five, and five only, of the rest. If you answer more than six 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 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 is 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 what angels know ; Or who could suffer being here below ? The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason woidd 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 (1) an adjective; (2) an adverb. Explain the use of the words " brim-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 ? 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 but a tinkling cymbal where there is no Love." — Bacon. Write briefly in your own words the meaning of this passage. What difference in expression from the current literature of the present day do you 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. SET C. ( Two and a half hours allowed for this paper. ) All Candidates must answer Question 1 or 2, not loth, to which the highest marks are assigned, and may select five, and five only, of the rest. If you answer more than six 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 that would follow me, Love Virtue ; she alone 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." 250 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 elements So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the World, ' this was a man ! ' ' 3. Define a relative pronoun. What is the rule for (a) its number, (b) its case"! Illustrate by examples from the preceding passages. (Jan you give any rule for the use of "that" instead of "who" or " which " ? 4. Write sentences showing the use of each of the following words as (1) an adverb ; (2) a preposition; (3) a conjunction, viz.: — after, be/ore, 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 (b) Suffixes a in away, aware, ago ; ; for " in forsake, forlorn, forgive ; ! un" in uncouth, unto, undo. "ment" in parchment, parliament; "some " in handsome, wholesome ; "ster" in 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 Question 1 or 2. 8. "Revenge is a kind of wild justice which the more mens 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 authors of the eighteenth century, and give an account of any one among their works ; or (b) 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 half hoars allowed for this pajier.) All Candidates must answer Question 1, and may answer six questions in all, but not more than three may be taken from either section. If you answer more than six questions, only the six answers coming first ou your paper will be revised. No abbreviation of less than three letters is to be used in Parsing or Analysis. Section I. — Language. 1. Analyse one of the following passages, and parse the words in italics in the passage analysed : — (a) "... All this tract that fronts the falling sun A noble Peer of mickle trust and power Has in his charge, with tempered aire to guide An old and haughty nation, proud in arms." — Comus. (b) " 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 Man, IV. (c) " Would I hadfalVn upon those happier days That poets celebrate : those golden times And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings, And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose. "—The 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 are used with the following? Give short sen- tences to illustrate their use : — Nouns. Adjectives. Verbs. Accord. Adapted. Agree. Affinity. Convenient. Confer. Exception. Different. Confide. Taste. Glad. Differ. Section II. — Literature 7. Under what circumstances, and when, was Comus written? Give a short summary of the end of the poem from the invocation of Sabrina onwards. 8. Write brief notes on the following passages : — (a) " The gray-hooded Even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed." (6) "Scylla wept, Aud chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Chary bdis 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 ! " (d) " 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. " (b) " Think how Bacon shined, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." (c) " From dirt and seaweed as proud Venice rose." 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 heavity, 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, or 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 ! my Genius ! come along ; Oh master of the poet and the song ! " EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 253 COMPOSITION SUBJECTS. SET A. Write a letter, or an essay, on one of the following subjects : — (a) Singing birds. (b) Fairy tales. (c) Best ways of spending holidays. (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. (b) The moral lessons of the microscope and the telescope. (c) The advantages and disadvantages of town life as compared with life in the country. (d) Examinations. SET C. (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) Truthfulness, in act and word. (ii) Poetry, (iii) The King rules over an Empire on which the sun never sets. SET D. Write a short essay on one of these topics : — (i) A ship on fire, (ii) Closer union with our colonies, (iii) A walk round a garden. SET E. Write a short essay on one of these topics : — (a) Good manners. (b) The importance of the telegraph and telephone from a commercial point of view. (c) The advantages of a school library for the children. (Name a dozen good books which should be found in every such library. ) S 254 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. SET F. Write a short essay on one of these subjects : — (a) Any memorable place, city, castle, or battlefield which you have visited. (b) The use of pictures in teaching. (c) Colonisation. SET G. Write a short essay on one of these subjects : — (a) Some uses of the electric telegraph. {b) A court of justice. (c) Emigration. SET H. Write a short essay on one of these subjects :— (a) The influence of war on a nation ; or, (b) Fruit trees ; or, (c) The census. SET I. Write a short essay on : — A general election ; or, Give in substance the contents of any interesting book which you have recently read. SET J. Write a short essay on one of these subjects : — (a) Holidays, and the way to use them. (b) Parliament. (c) Tragedy and comedy. SET K. Do one of the following, either (a) Write a short essay on the value of the Study of History ; or, (b) Write a short essay on "Play" ; or, (c) Write out briefly the plot of one of Shakespeare's comedies. 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." {b) Your favourite pursuit. (c) 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. " (b) The Japanese. (c) How may the spirit of patriotism be promoted in elementary schools? SET N. Write a short essay on one of the following subjects : — (a) How far is it true that history is the biography of great men? (6) Strikes, (c) Dress as an evidence of character. SET 0. Write a short composition on one of the following : — (a) A short life of some great naval or military hero. (b) "The darkest day, Wait till to-morrow, will have passed away." (c) Give an account of the life and works of the author of the passage you have learned to recite. SET P. Write a short composition on one of the following : — (a) The pleasures of gardening. (J>) The life of the teacher : its difficulties and its ideals, (c) 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, and why). (I>) A winter landscape, (c) "Great offices will have (i.e. ueed) great talents." — Coivper. 256 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. LONDON MATRICULATION QUESTIONS. SET A. (Not more than ten questions are to be 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 English? Refer in your 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) six 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 : — witness, 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, cor ] ise ; gage, wage ; 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. (}>) He is better versed in theology than any living man. (c) Shakespeare frequently has passages in a strain quite false, 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 bo, ami 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 two 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, hind 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 which the vocabulary of a language may be enlarged, with illustrations from English. SET B. (Not more than ten questions are to be attempted.) 1. Classify the Teutonic and Romance words in the following passage ; comment on your classification, and write brief notes on the history of any Jive 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) Gerund : (iii) Participle ; (iv) Mood; (v) Voice ; (vi) Auxiliary Verbs; (vii) Strong -weak Verbs. 8. Account clearly for the present and past tense forms of the chief auxiliary verbs. Explaiu the modern use of "shall'' and " will" 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 arc sometimes used as conjunctions." 11. What are "Synonyms"! Account for their origin. Give some examples, and discriminate their use. 12. Explain the force and origin of the following suffixes : — ship, en, ly, ness, y. Give instances. 258 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 13. Analyse : — " So please your majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse As well as I am doubtless I can purge Myself of many I am cbai-ged withal." 14. In what important respects does the diction of poetry differ from that of prose? Add brief illustrative sentences. 15. What is meant by Blank Verse? Write down and discuss any ten lines. SET C. (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, dett, frontispiece, cou^d, 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 ivho, which, and that as relative pronouns, and define their usage in modern English. 9. Distinguish the origin of the suffix 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. 11. 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 ? EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 259 15. Illustrate the ways in whicli literary and educated English has been recently reinforced by the introduction of words from dialects, technical terminology, and slang. SET D. (Not 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 Dorrowed so largely from foreign languages instead of building words for ourselves ? What home-spun terms might we have had for " astronomy," "arithmetic," " autumn," " agriculture," " library " ? 3. Mention some of our earliest borrowings from the Latin, and prove by a few examples 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," "church'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 versd. Mention also some verbs of mixed conjugation ; show that tell 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, adown, along, alas, apace, aware, avert. 12. Derive these words : — lone, street, king, church, engine, month, University, degree, college, matricidation. 13. Distinguish, giving examples, the senses and usages of elder and older, of continuous and continual, rustic and rural, sensibility and sensitiveness, temporal and temporary. Are there such things as "synonyms" ? 260 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 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. (c) The captain took the good things which the gods 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 serious 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 prevented. SET E. (Not more than ten questions are to be attempted.) L 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 other 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 modern English ; comment on the obsolete processes, and account for the use of s 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 8. Sketch the history of the Relative Pronouns ; differentiate their use in modern English, adding illustrative sentences. 9. Write historical notes on the following forms : — (i) she ; (ii) its ; (iii) their ; (iv) hers ; (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 modern English. Annotate your instances, where necessary. Discuss the following : — " Sweetly we sang, and he sung 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 -ing. 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, Aud feel I am so most. Antony, Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid My better service, when my turpitude Thou dost so crown with gold ! " SET F. (Do not attempt to ansioer more than seven of the Jirst ten questions, or more than three of the last five. Great im- portance, will be attached to clearness and accuracy 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 Modern 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, legs, arZjourn, houses, stooped. 5. Write down five 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 double 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 rot, melt, lead, hang, clothe, soic? 8. Give live instances of adverbs used predicatively, and five of prepositions used verbally. 9. Discuss the words but and so, and make examples of their various uses. 10. Derive these words : — sheriff, city, omnibus, street, colony, sovereign, Wales, bishop, king, 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. (b) A convent, a lunatic asylum, a husband — either will do. (c) He would neither apologise or withdraw. (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. (/) He won't do more than he can help. 13. Sketch clearly the plot or plots of any of Shakespeare's plays. 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 one 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 be 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 chaos." EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 263 3. At what periods, and under what conditions, have Latin words been introduced into English directly or indirectly? Give examples. 4. Derive and explain: — Matriculate, parliament, isle, alderman, 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 : — ivorse, nearer, but, 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) Aualyse this sentence ; (ii) underline the words of Latin origin. II. — Literature and Composition. (Not more than three of these questions are to be 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 you know of any two of the following writers : — Chaucer, Spenser, Scott, Lamb, Tennyson. 4. Give a brief account of any two 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 breajs 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 clearness and accuracy of expression and style. 264 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. I. — Language. (Not more than seven of these ten questions are to be 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 that it has influenced 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. 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, catch, hang, buy, do, strew ? 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 as 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, Hervt5 Riel, 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 sunrise or a sunset. EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 265 SET I. 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 clearness and accuracy of expression and style. I. — Language. (Not more than seven of these ten questions are to he attempted.) 1. Define exactly the position of English in the Germanic family of languages. 2. State what is meant by Grimm's and Verner'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 the following forms : — songstress, brethren, alive, elder, Lady-day, children, vixen, inmost, hearer, methinks. 6. Distinguish between the use of the gerund, the present participle, and the verbal noun in -ing. 7. How does the relative that differ in use from who, ichichl When can the relative be omitted in modern English ? 8. Explain exactly the use of the various tenses of the active voice in English (both the simple tenses and those formed with the auxiliaries have and be). Is it correct to say, " Spain has 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 assonance. 12. Give a very brief account of the life and works of tvo of the following authors : — Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope, Goldsmith, Shelley. 13. Say in what works six of the following persons are to be found, and sketch briefly their characters : — Jacques, Sir Anthony Absolute, Mark Tapley, Polouius, 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). SET A. (Three hours allowed for this paper.) Answer Question 1, and Jive others, of -which two at least must be from those on Milton's "Tractate." If more than six questions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on the paper will be revised. English Language and Literature. 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, ivhich yet might be worth many considerations, if brevity had not been my scope, manj' other circum- stances also I could have mention'd, 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 ! ., Her eye proclaims her of the Briton Line : Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace." (b) " 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. 5. 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 QUESTIONS. 267 6. Explain the allusions in the following passages : — (a) " Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue." (b) "Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains." (c) "No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred." (d) "And spare the meek usurper's 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 : — Nov? 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 vault. 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 reproach 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? 11. Explain the following : — (a) Many modern Janua's and Didactics. (6) That act of reason which in Ethicks is called Proairesis. (c) The Institution of Physick. (d) All our time from Lilly to the commencing, as they term it, Master of Art. (e) Their Academics and Lycseum. (/) Their empty and unrecrutible 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." — Cowper. (b) "Honest labour bears a lovely face." — Dekker. (c) The pleasures of botauising. 268 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. SET B. {Three hours allowed for this paper.) Answer Question 1, and five others, of which two must be from the remaining questions in Section I. and three from Section II. Pull marks are higher for Question 1 than for any other. If more than six questions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on the paper will be revised. Section I. 1. Analyse the following passage, arid parse the words italicised: — " The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with darkness than light ; yet let but a foolish 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, i.e. words which may be traced to the same original but have now different forms. Explain how they came into existence. Section II {The Spectator and Tennyson.) 7. Write brief explanatory notes on the following: — {a) " Orestes, in his madness, looked as if he saw something." (b) "The good knight told me my good friend, his chaplain, was very well . . . and that the Sunday before he had made a most incomparable sermon out of Dr. Barrow." (r) "He looked upon Prince Eugenio (for so the knight always called him) to be a greater man than Scanderbeg." (d) " I could wish our B,oyal Society would compile a body of natural history, the best that could be gathered together from books and observations." (e) "I must not omit that Sir Roger is a justice of the quorum ; that he fills 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. " Addis on shows in Sir Roger the solid and peculiar English character. ... A hundred traits depict the times." Expand and illustrate this criticism. 10. Illustrate, from the "Selections," Tennyson's precise observa- tion of nature. 11. Write notes upon the following passages : — (a) "Heaven heads the count of crimes With that wild oath." (b) "Or mythic Uther's deeply-wounded son." (c) " The shrilly whinny ings 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." (e) " Like Herod, when the shout was in his ears, Struck thro' with pangs of Hell." (/) "The Abominable, that uninvited came Into the fair Peleian banquet-hall, And cast the golden fruit upon the board. " i-. How far were Tennyson's religious ideas characteristic of his age and country ? SET C. (Three hours allowed for this paper.) Answer Question 1 and five others, of which tvn must be taken from the remaining questions in Section I. and three from Section II. Full marks are higher for Question 1 than for any other. If more than six questions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on your paper will be revised. Section 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 but the pleasant sensation which all persons feel at revisiting the scenes of their boyish hopes aud fears ; and the seeing on equal terms the man they were accustomed to look up to with reverence." 2. During 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 Grimm'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. Section II. 6. What conclusions about his political views would you draw from Wordsworth's poems ? 268(b) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 7. Account for and illustrate the 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. Give examples of the humour and pathos of the "Essays of Elia." 9. State and discuss Lamb's views od "Modern Gallantry." 10. Compare Lamb's "New Schoolmaster" with the teacher of to-day. 11. Annotate these passages : — (a) " Great is thy name in the rubric, thou venerable Archflamcn of Hymen." (b) " Lear, thrown from his palace, must divest him of his garments, till he answer ' mere nature.' " (c) " His Minerva is born in panoply." () (" Many politicians of our own time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their free- dom.) The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learnt to swim." 2. As what parts of speech can these words be used : — but, only, ir/iafi Give examples. 3. Account for the following double forms : — regal, royal ; garner, granary ; fidelity, fealty ; pursue, persecute : benediction, benison. 4. " The troops were far from exhausted." "The troops were far from being exhausted." What is the precise meaning of the above statements ? Parse the words in italics in each case. 5. How far is it true to say that English is not an inflected language ? What traces are there of its having formerly been more inflected ? Section II. — Pope, Essay on, Man, 1 and 2. 1. Thoroughly explain, with reference to the context in which they occur, the following passages : — EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(e) (a) " Reason the bias turns to good from ill, And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will." (b) " Say what the use, were liner optics given, To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ? Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, To smart and agonise at every pore?" (c) " With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride." {(I) " If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design, Why then a Borgia or a Catiline ? " 2. Give, in plain prose, the meaning of the following passage : — " Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; His soul proud science never 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 embrae'd, Some happier island in the wat'ry waste, Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. To be, contents his natural desire, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire ; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company." 3. Enunciate briefly the main thesis of the Essay on 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 ? Section III. — Macaulay's Essay on Milton, and Johnson's Life of .Wilton. 1. Give the chief points of Macaulay's comparison of Milton and Dante. 2. Give the substance of Johnson's criticism on Lycidas. How far do you think it just? 3. " We think that as civilisation advances, poetry almost neces- sarily declines." How does Macaulay argue in favour of this proposi- tion ? Why do you think Milton himself said "he had been born an age too late " ? 4. Point out how Johnson's political and religious opinions in- fluenced his estimate of Milton. 268(f) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. TEACHERS' CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION— SECOND YEAR PAPERS (Men and Women). SET A. [Three hours allowed for this Paper.) Candidates must not answer more than six questions. [f more than the prescribed number of questions are attempted, only that number of answers coming first on the paper will be revised. English Language and Literature. 1. Analyse the following lines, and parse fully the words itali- cised : — " Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin ! We '11 make foul weather with despised tears ; Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn, And make a dearth in this revolting land. Or shall we play 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 — There lies Two kinsmen digged their graves with weeping eyes ! " 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 uncle me no uncle." (b) " Tell me ... if he appeal the Duke on ancient malice." (c) " Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood Should nothing privilege him, nor partialise The unstooping firmness of my upright soul." (d) " I did confess it, and exactly begg'd Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it." (e) " 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, Call in the letters-patents that he hath By his attorneys-general to sue His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, You pluck a thousand dangers on your head. " EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(g) (h) " Whilst you have fed upon my signories, Dispark'd my parks and felled my forest-woods, From my own windows torn my household coat, Razed out my impress, leaving me no sign, Save men's opinions and my living blood, To show the world I am a gentleman." (c) " O good ! convey? conveyers are you all, 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." (1>) " 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." (b) " Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains." (c) " No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred." (cZ) "And spare the meek usurper's holy head." (e) " The Attic warbler pours her throat." 2G8(h) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. Composition Subjects. (One hour allowed.) Write in plain prose a short 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. (c) " Take a straw and throw it up into the air ; you may see by that which way the wind i3." — Selden. SET B. (Three hours allowed for this paper.) Candidates must not answer more than six questions, which must include Questions 1, 6, and at least one question from the last four. If more than the prescribed number of questions are attempted, only that number of answers coming first on your paper will be revised. 1. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics : — " Macd. What 's the disease he means ? Male. 'Tis called the evil : A most miraculous work in this good king ; Which often, since my here-remain in England, I have seen him do. How he solicits Heaven, Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, All 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 Macbeth, 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." (b) " All hail, Macbeth ! that shalt be king hereafter." (c) "Hecate. 0, well done! I commend your pains ; And every one shall share i' the gains." 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 :— EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(i) (a) "Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme." (b) "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." (c) " From this instant There 's nothing serious in mortality : All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of." (d) " 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 ; But 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 Merchant of Venice, 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 allusions 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." (b) "King Arthur's sword, Excalibur, Wrought by the lonely maiden of the lake. Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deep Upon the hidden bases of the hills." (c) "The island-valley of Avilion." (d) " Whereat the two, For each had warded either in the tight, Sware on the lield of death a deathless love." {*>) " The swallow and the swift are near akin, But thou art closer to this noble prince, Being his own dear sister." (/) " And there I saw Mage Merlin, whose vast wit And hundred winters are but as the hands Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege." (y) " He laugh'd as is his wont, and answer'd me In riddling triplets of old time, and said." (h) "There at the banquet those great lords from Rome, The slowly-fading mistress of the world, Strode in, and claim'd their tribute as of yore." 2C8(j) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 9. " ' King ! ' 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 side, 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 seeni'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 C. (Three hours allowed for this paper.) Candidates must not answer more than six 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 iirst on your paper will be revised. Section I. — Hamlet. 1. Show the relation between the various clauses in the following passage, and parse the italicised words : — " Costly thy habii as thy purse can buy, But not cxpress'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; For tho apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are most select and generous, chief in that. Neither & 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 obsecpaies have been as far enlarged As we have warranty ; her death was doubtful ; EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 2G8(k) And, but that great command o'ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her ; Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, Her maiden strewments and the bringing home Of bell aud burial." (b) "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." (c) " In the corrupted currents of this world 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 Wordsworth. 5. In what poetical qualities was Wordsworth specially eminent? Illustrate your answer by quotation. (i. What ideas does Wordsworth express regarding (a) childhood, (/<) 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." (h) " 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." (c) " Thou knowest, the Delphic oracle foretold That the first Greek who touched the Trojan strand Should die." (d) " Such was blind Maeonides of ample mind ; Such Milton, to the fountain head Of glory, by Urania led ! " 2G8(T) EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. ('') " Toussaint, the most unhappy man of men ! " (/) "Be true Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea, Wafting your charge to soft Parthenope." Section III. — Midsummer Night's Dream. 8. Account for the title, A Midsummer Night's Dream. 9. The fairy mythology of Shakespeare has been described as an attempt to blend " the Elves of the village with the Fays of romance." Comment on this statement. 10. Give the cast of " The most lamentable comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe." How were the difficulties of scenery overcome? SET D. (Three hours allowed for this paper.) Candidates must not answer more than six questions, which must include one from each Section. If more than six questions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on your paper will be revised. Section I. — King Lear. 1. (a) Divide the following j>assages into clauses, and show their relationship to each other. (b) Give a detailed aualysis of "Those happy smilets — diamond? dropped." (c) Parse the words in italics. "Patience and sorrow strove Who should exp>ress 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 ! " " Oh, that way madness lies ; let me shun that." " What, have his daughters brought him to this pass ? " " Off, off you lendings ! 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 nature, Which often leaves the history unspoke That it intends to do ? " EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(m) (h) " Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads, Find out their enemies now." (c) "Thou simular man of virtue." (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 these are but furnishings ; But true it is, from France there comes a power Into this scattered Kingdom ; who already, Wise in our negligence have secret feet In some of our best ports, and are at point To show their open banner." Section II. — Selections from Addison. 5. Analyse the following passage, and parse the words in italics :— "There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter, without 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, are depicted under the name of Tom Folio, the Political Upholsterer, the Trunkmaker at the Play, Will Honeycourt? Give a brief summary of Addison's description of one of them. 8. Give a short sketch of any one of the Essays which you remember. Section III. — As You Like It. 9. To what period of Shakespeare's literary career does A* You Like It belong ? Give reasons for your answer. From where did Shakespeare obtain the story? 268(h) 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 E, ( Three hours allowed for this paper. ) Candidates must not answer more than six questions, which must include one from each Section. If more than six questions are attempted, only the six answers coming first on your paper will be revised. Section 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 betAvixt too early and too late For any suit of pounds." (h) " If he know That I am free of your report, he knows I am not of your wrong." (c) "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." (cJ) " 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 have 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." (b) " Out of mere ambition you have caused Your holy hat to be stamped on the king's coin." (c) " But as when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden Phcenix, 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 VIII. EXAMINATION QUESTIONS. 268(o) Section II. — Paradise Lost, Books i. and it. 1. Explain, with reference to the context in which they occur, with brief notes on any point which seems to you to require it, the following passages : — (a) "All is not lost — the unconquerable will And study of revenge, immortal hate And courage never to submit or yield : And what is else not to be overcome." (b) " 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." (c) " Direct my course : 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 : — («) "When with fierce winds Orion armed Hath vexed the Red Sea Coast, whose waves o'erthrcw Busiris and his Memphian chivalry." (b) " A leper once he lost and gained a king." (<•) " Or whom Biserta sent from Afric' shore 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. Section III. — The Tempest, and Leigh 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 III. THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH 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 eaeli 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 Avriting 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 alpTia, beta. There are languages that have never been put upon paper at all, such as many of the African 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 cue 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. ( Mir language grows; it is growing still; and it has been growing for many 272 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. hundreds of years. 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 of one, we should find, on comparing them, that it was almost impossible to point to the smallest trace of likeness in the features of tire 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 modern English as if they were two distinct languages ; and yet they are not two languages, but really and fundamentally one and the same. Modern 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 English Language. — The English language is the speech spoken by the Anglo-Saxon rare 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. In the course of the next sixty years, it will probably be the speech of three hundred millions. 5. English on the Continent. — In the middle of the fifth century it was spoken in the north-west corner of Europe — ■ between the mouths of the Bhine, 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 English ; it was more probably called Teutish, or Teutseh, or Deutseh — all words connected with a generic word which covers many families and languages — Teutonic. It was a rough guttural speech of one or two thousand words; and it was brought over to this country by the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons in the year 449. These INTRODUCTION. 273 men left their home on the Continent to find here farms 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 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 foot 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, hi 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 belongs. — Our English tongue belongs to the Aryan or Indo-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 of 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 Persia, in Greece and Italy, in France and Germany, in Scandinavia, and in Russia. From this Aryan family w r e are sprung; out of the oldest Aryan speech our own language has grown. 8. The Group to which English belongs. — The Indo- European family of languages consists of several groups. One of these is called the Teutonic Group, because it is spoken 1 >v the Teuts (or the Teutonic race), who are found in German v, in England and Scotland, in Holland, in parts of Belgium, in Denmark, in Norway and Sweden, in Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The Teutonic group consists of three branches — High German, Low German, and Scandinavian. High 274 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. German is the name given to tlie 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. New High German is the German of hooks — the literary language — the German that is taught and learned in schools. Low 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. TEUTONIC. I I I I Low German. High German. Scandinavian. I I I I I I I III I I I I Dutch. Flemish. Frisian. English. Old. Middle. New. Icelandic. Dnnsk FVrroic. Svensk (or Norsk). (Swedish). It will he 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-German Speech. — Our English tongue is the lowest of all Low-German 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 tins sea. Our English speech, once a mere dialect, came down to that, crossed the German Ocean, and settled in Britain, to Avhich 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 Hollandish dialect called Frisian. We even possess a couplet, every word of which is hoth Eng- lish and Frisian. It runs thus — Good butter and good cheese Is good English 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 modern Teuts or Teutons (or Germans, as ice call them) call 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 Smith Saxons, or Sussex. The Angles settled chiefly on the east coast. The kingdom of East Anglia was divided into the regions of the Worth Polk and the Sotith Folk, words which are still perpetuated in the names Norfolk and Suffolk. Those 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 each 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 PERIODS OF ENGLISH. 1. Dead and Living Languages. — A language is said to be dead when it is no longer spoken. Such a language we know only in books. Thus, Latin 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 PERIODS OF ENGLISH. 277 3. The Periods of English. — Bearing this caution in mind, we can go on to look at the chief periods in our English lan- guage. These are five in number; and they are as follows : — I. Ancient English or Anglo-Saxon, 449-1100 II. Early English, . 1100-1250 III. Middle English, , . 1250-1485 IV. Tudor English, . , . 1485-1603 V. Modern English, . . 1 (>0H- 19 — These periods merge very slowly, or are shaded oil', so to speak, into each other in the most gradual way. If we take the Eng- lish of 1250 and compare it with that of 900, we shall find a great difference ; hut if we compare it with the English of 1100 the difference is not so marked. The difference between the English of the nineteenth ami the English of the fourteenth century is very great, hut the difference between the English of the fourteenth and that of I in' thirteenth century is very small. 4. Ancient English or Anglo-Saxon, 450-1100. — This form of English differed from modern English in having a much larger number of inflexions. The noun had five cases, mid 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 had a much larger number of inflex- ions than it has now. The vocabulary of the language con- tained very few foreign (dements. 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 King Alfred belong to this Anglo-Saxon period. 5. Early English, 1100-1250. — The coming of the Norman.-; in . 10G0 made many changes in the land, many changes in the Church and in the State, and it. also introduced many changes into the language. The inflexions of our speech began to drop off, because they were used less and less; and though we never adopted new inflexion* from French or from any other language, new French words began to creep in. In some pails of the country English 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 '-'78 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. insured. 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 Ormulum, by Orm or Ormin, and the Brut, by a monk called Layamon or Laweman, 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 farther 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 x 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 Trench words found their way into English. A writer of the fourteenth century, John de Trevisa, says that country-people " fondeth [that is, try] with 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 III. gave his assent to an Act of Parliament allowing English to be used instead of Norman-French. "Theyerof oure Lord," says John de Trevisa, "a thousond thre hondred foure score and fyve of the secunde Kyng Bichard after the conquest, in al the gramer scoles of Engelond children leveth Freynsch, and construeth and lerneth an Englysch." To the first half of this period belong a Metrical Chronicle, attributed to Bobert of Gloucester; Langtoft's Metrical Chronicle, translated by Bobert de Brunne ; the Agenbite of Inwit, by Dan Michel of Northgate in Kent ; and a few others. But to the second 1 See p. 43. THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH. 279 half belong the rich and varied productions of Geoffrey Chaucer, our first great poet and always one of our greatest writers ; the alliterative poems of William Langley or Langlande ; the more learned poems of John Gower ; and the translation of the Bible and theological works of the reformer John Wyelif. 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 hopen 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 Lathi 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 Revival of Letters. 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 Richard Hooker, and the pithiest Francis Bacon. 8. Modern 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 of the chief agents in this happy restoration, 280 CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF THE VOCABULARY OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1. The English Nation. — The English people have for many centuries been the greatest travellers in the world. An English- man — Drake — was among the first to sail round the globe ; and the English have colonised more foreign lands in every part of the world than any other people that ever existed. The English in this way have been influenced by the world with- out. 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 several centuries they had French kings. Seeing and talking with many different peoples, they learned to adopt foreign words with ease, and to give them a home among the native-born words of the language. Trade is always a kindly and useful influence; and the trade of Greal Britain has for many centuries been larger than that of any other nation. It has spread into every part of the world ; it gives and receives from all tribes and nations, from every speech and tongue. 2. The English Element in English. — When the English came to this island in the fifth century, the number of words i 7 1 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 VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 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 Latin words than English. But the grammar is distinctly English, and not Latin at all. 3. The Spoken Language and the Written Language — a Caution. — We must not forget what has been said about a language, — that it is not a printed thing — not a set of blade 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 the 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 winds 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 in most thoughts and our deepest feelings. Latin Avoids 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 English. — 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. English Words. Latin Words (including Norman-French, which are also Latin). (iKF.F.K WuKUS Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindustani, Persian, Malay, American, etc. etc. 5. The Foreign Elements in our 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 Avith 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 Rome brought over to us a larger number of Latin words ; and the Church which they founded introduced ever more and more words from Rome. 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 Revival 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 LANOUAOK. 2 S3 three kinds: (i) Those words which we received direct from the ancient Britons whom we found in the island ; (ii) those which the Norman-French brought witli 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, erode, taper, darn, drudge, mug, posset; dun (brown); glen, hassock, knob, mattock, 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 names 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 means 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 Exeter (the older and fuller form being Exanceaster — the camp on the Exe) ; as Ax in Axminster ; as Ox in Oxford ; as TJx in Uxbridge ; and as Ouse in Yorkshire and other eastern counties. 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 are at least eight Esks in the kingdom of Scotland alone. The commonest Keltic name for a mountain is Pen or Ben (in Wales it is Pen ; in Scotland the flatter form Ben is used). We find tins word in England also under the form of Pennine ; and, in Italy, as Apennine. 8. The Second Keltic Element. — The Normans came from 284 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Scandinavia early in the tenth century, and wrested the valley of the Seine out of the hands of Charles the Simple, the then 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 ; hut in this language they had retained many Gaulish words out of the old Gaulish language. Such are the words : Bag, bargain, barter ; barrel, basin, basket, budget ; bonnet, garter, ribbon; car, caul; mutton, gown ; mitten, motley ; rogue ; varlet, vassal ; truant. 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 Keltic Element. — This consists of compara- tively few words — such as clan; claymore (a sword); philabeg (a kind of kilt), ptarmigan, brogue (a kind of shoe), plaid ; pibroch (bagpipe war-music), slogan (a war-cry) ; and whisky . Ireland has given us shamrock, gag, log, clog, and brogue — in the sense of a mode of speech. 10. The Scandinavian Element in English. — Towards the cud 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 of the time — " From the incursions of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us ! " In spite of the resistance of the English, the Danes had, before the end of the ninth century, succeeded in obtaining a perma- nent footing in England ; and, in the eleventh century, a Danish dynasty sat upon the English throne from the year 1016 to 1042. From the time of King Alfred, the Danes of the Danelagh were a settled part of the population of England ; and hence we find, especially on the east coast, a large number of Danish names still in use. 11. Character of the Scandinavian Element. — The North- men, as we have said, Avere Teutons ; and they spoke a dialect VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 285 of the great Teutonic (or German) language. The sounds of the Danish dialect — or language, as it must now he called — are harder than those of the German. We find a k instead of a eh ; a p preferred to an f. 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. 12. Scandinavian Words (i).- — The words contributed to our language hy the Scandinavians 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 1 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, Avithin the limits of the great highway made by the Romans to the north-west, and well-known as Watling Street. We find, for example, Whitby, or the town on the white cliffs ; Grimsby, or the town of Grim, a great sea-rover, 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 beoth 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 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. call, clog, clumsy, curl, cut, dairy, daze, dirt, droop, fellow, 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 countrv. 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 Romans ; and the Romans 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 Ave have seen, more Latin than English words in our own language ; and it is therefore necessary to make ourselves acquainted with the VOCABULAEY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 287 character and the uses of the Latin element — an element so important— in English. 1 Not only have the Romans 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 still more true of Milton. His most powerful poetical thoughts are 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 curses dark, That sunk so low that sacred head of thine ! " 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 all 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 Latin of the First Period; that brought over by the missionaries from Rome, Latin of the 1 In the last half of this sentence, all the essential words — necessary, ac- quainted, character, uses, element, important, are Latin (except character, which is Greek). 285 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Second Period ; that given us by the Norman-French, Latin of the Third Period ; and that which came to us from the Revival of Learning, Latin of the Fourth Period. The iirst consists of a few names handed down to us 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 vocabulary, 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 Romans 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 places. These words were Castra, a camp ; Strata (via), a paved road ; Colonia, a settlement (generally of soldiers) ; Fossa, a trench ; Portus, a harbour ; and Vallum, a rampart. 18. Latin of the First Period (ii). — (a) The treatment of the Latin word castra 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 Lancaster, Doncaster, Tadcaster, and others. In the midland counties, it takes the softer form of cester, as in Leicester, Toweester ; and in the extreme west and south, it takes the still softer form of Chester, as in Chester, Manchester, Winchester, and others. It is worthy of notice that there are in Scotland no words ending in caster. Though VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 289 the Romans had camps in Scotland, they do not seem to have been so important as to become the centres of towns, (b) The word strata has also taken different forms in different parts of England. While eastra i.s nearly always a suffix, strata shows itself constantly as a prefix. When the Romans 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 Romans did was to drive a strongly built military road from Richborough, 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 Roman road. Thus we have Stratford-on-Avon, Strat- ton, Stradbroke, Stretton, Stretford (near Manchester), and Streatham (near London). — Over the other words wc need not dwell so long. Colonia we find in Colne, Lincoln, and others; fossa in Fossway, Fosbrooke, and Fosbridge ; portus, in Portsmouth and Bridport; and vallum in the words wall, bailey, and bailiff. The Normans called the two courts in front of their castles the inner and 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 Roman mission to England is widely known. Gregory, when a young man, was crossing the Roman 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 3 and i tear bright complexion. He asked a bystander of what nation the boys were. The answer was, that they were Angles. " No, not Angles," he replied; "they are angels." On learning further that flu y were heathens, he registered a silent vow that he would, if Providence gave him an opportunity, deliver them from the 290 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. darkness of heathendom, and bring them and their relatives into the light and liberty of tbe Gospel. Time passed by ; and in the long course of time Gregory became Pope. In his unlooked- for greatness, he did not forget his vow. In the year 597 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 ; biscop, from episcopus, an overseer ; eale, from calix, a cup ; clere, from clericus, an ordained member of the church ; munee, from mondchus, a solitary person or monk ; preost, from presbyter, an elder ; aelmesse, from eleemosune, alms ; predician, from prcedicare, to preach ; regol, from regula, 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 Roman form of Christianity brought with it increased communication with Eome 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 tliis island by the Normans in 1066, and is generally called Norman-French. It differed from the French of Paris both in spelling and in pronunciation. For example, Norman- VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 291 French wrote people for peuple ; leal for loyal ; real for royal ; realm, 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 the cottage. 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 Bolf or Rollo or Bou, marched south in large numbers ; and, in the year 912, wrested from King Charles the Simple the fair valley of the Seine, settled in it, and 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 language 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 ENGLISH LANGUAGE. and of literature. The English people held fast to their own tongue ; but they picked up many 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 Erensch, 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 Norman-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 documents, in the year 1154. In 1204 Ave lost Normandy, a loss that had the effect of bringing the Eng- lish and the Normans closer together. Robert 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, Robert of Brunn introduces a large 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 1362 by Edward III., 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 accepted so many words from our Norman-French visitors and immigrants, we accepted from them no habit 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, i.e. almost, dead) — where ne-but 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 probably 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 house, a desirable mansion; and, instead of the quiet old English proverb, " Buy once, buy twice," we have the roundabout Latin- isms, "A single commission will 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 hy 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 (h).— 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 Normans degraded that word into the armour of a horse. Battle comes from the Fr. battre, 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 helmet which a man could see through. 26. Norman Words (c). — Feudalism may be described as the holding of land on condition of giving or providing service in war. 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 shield-bearer; 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 vassus, from the Keltic word gwds, a man. (The form vassaletus is also found, which gives us our varlet and valet.) Scutcheon comes from the Lat. scutum, a shield. Then scut- cheon or escutcheon came to mean coat-of-arms — or the marks and signs on his shield by 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 brace, an arm (Mod. French bras) ; from the Latin bracliium. 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 a forestiere. 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 care. 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 Avere changing their feathers, or moulting (the word moult is the same as mews 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, 29G HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. comes from the Latin quadrare, to make square. But the hunting term quarry is of a quite different origin. That comes from the Latin corium (the hide), which the Old French altered into curee. 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 (cancellarius) was the legal authority who sat behind lattice- work, which was called in Latin eancelU. This word means, primarily, little crabs; and it is a diminutive from cancer, a crab. It was so called because the lattice-work looked like crabs 5 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 cors or cohors, a sheep- pen. It afterwards came to mean an enclosure, and also a body of Eoman soldiers. — The proper English word for a 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 jus, right. The word jus is seen in the other French term which we have received from the Xormans — justice. — Sue comes from the Old Fr. suir, which appeals 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 Gorman-French are : Altar, Bible ; baptism, ceremony; friar; tonsure; penance, relic. — The Normans gave us the words title and dignity themselves, and also the following titles : Duke, mar-quis ; count, viscount ; peer ; mayor, and others. A duke is a leader ; from the Latin dux ( = duc-s). A marquis is a lord who has to ride the marches or borders between one comity, 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 already 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 hi 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 liis^ee?x" — 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 sheep ; 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? ' " ' 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 1 ' " ' It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool's 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.' " vL- 30. General Character of the Norman-French Contributions. — The Norman-French contributions to our language gave us a number of gene ral names or class-name&j while the names for individual things are, in general, of purely English origin. The words animal and beast, 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 English. — 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 all to nearly forty. When, how- ever, we come to terms denoting labour and work — such as agri- VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 299 culture and seafaring, Ave find the proportions entirely reversed. The English language, in such cases, contributes almost every- thing ; the French nearly nothing. In agriculture, while plough, rake, harrow, and very many others are English words, not a single term for an agricultural process or implement has been given us by the warlike Norman -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 prow. It is as if all the Norman concpieror 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 Ave fall back on our home stores if Ave have to tell Avhat the colour is, calling it ' red ' or ' yelloAA*,' ' white ' or ' black,' ' green ' or ' broAvn.' We are Romans when Ave speak in a general way of ' moving ' ; but we are Teutons if Ave ' leap ' or ' spring,' if Ave ' slip,' ' slide,' or ' fall,' if Ave ' walk,' ' run,' ' swim,' or ' ride,' if Ave ' creep ' or ' craAvl ' or ' fly.' " ' 31. Gains to English from Norman-French. — The gains from the Norman-French contribution are large, and are also of very great importance. Mr LoAvell says, that the Norman element came in as quickening leaven to the rather heavy and lumpy Saxon dough. It stirred the Avhole mass, gave new life to the language, a much higher and Avider scope to the thoughts, much greater power and copiousness to the expression of our thoughts, and a liner 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 Ave see the first result of the Norman yeast 300 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. upon the home-baked Saxon loaf. The flour had been honest, the paste well kneaded, but the inspiring leaven was wanting till the Norman brought it over. 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 ;i little more in detail. 32. Norman -French Synonyms. — We must not consider a synonym as a Avord 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 commence, 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 limb of the Royal Society, or of the luck of the Rothschilds, who made their fortune by hard work and steady attention to business. We have, by the aid of the Norman-French contributions, flower as well as bloom ; branch and bough ; purchase and buy ; amiable and friendly ; 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 Norman -French words find their way into the language 1 What was the road by which VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 30 1 they came ] What was the process that enabled them to find a place in and to strike deep root into our English soil 1 Did the learned men — the monks and the clergy — make a selection of words, write them in their hooks, and teach them to the English people 1 Nothing of the sort. The process was a much ruder one — hut 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 wont ; 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 ; cheere and face ; pray and beseech ; mirth and jollity. Later on, the Prayer-Book, which was written in the years 1540 to 1559, keeps up the habit : and we find the pairs acknowledge and confess ; assemble 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, assemble, dis- semble, and humble would speak with greater force and clearness. — Such is the phenomenon called by Professor Earle bilingual- ism. "It is, in fact," he says, "a putting of colloquial for- Y 302 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. mulse to do the duty of a French-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 meaning." 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 Avords 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 ; gcld-hoard by treasure ; 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 almost 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, 1 which thus became a stool, or a footstool. Thatch, which is a doublet of the Avord 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 modern 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 burn — the derivatives brunt, brand, brandy, brown, brimstone, and others ; but this power died out with the coming in of the Gorman -French language. After that, instead of growing our own words, Ave 1 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 hank was closed, and 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 from the Incoming of Norman-French. — (ii) The arrestment of growth in the purely English part of our language, owing to the irruption of Norman-French, and also to the ease with which we could take a ready-made, word from Latin or from Greek, killed 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 modern times have, this power in a high degree. Thus a Greek comic poet has a word of fourteen syllables, which may be thus translated — " Mc;uily-rismg-early-aud-hurrying-to-tlie-tribunal-to-denouiice-anotlier- for-an-infraction-of-the-law-concerning-tlie-exportation-of-figs." 1 And the Germans have a compound like " the-all-to-nothing- crushing philosopher." The Germans also say iron-path for rail- way, handshoe for glove, and finger-hat for thimble. AVe 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, Shakestaff, Shakespear, Golightly, l)<>littl<\ Standfast; and the common nouns want-wit, find-fault, mumble- news (for tale-bearer), pinch-penny (for miser), slugabed. In older times wc had three-foot-stool, three-man-beetle 2 ; stone- cold, heaven-bright, Iwncy-siccct, snail-slow, nut-brown, lily-livered (for cowardly); brand-fire-new; earth-wandering, wind-dried, thunder-blasted, death-doomed, and many others. But such words as forbears or fore-elders have been pushed out by ances- 1 In two words, a,Jig-shower or sycophant. a A club lor beatiug clothes, that could be handled only by three meii. 304 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. tors ; forewit by caution or prudence; and inwit 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 omnibus, he would have folk-wain; for the Greek botany, he would substitute wort-lore; for auction, 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 say four-winkle. 36. Losses of English from the Incoming of Norman- 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 circumstances. But perhaps the most rapid and remarkable change took place in the lifetime of William Caxton, the great printer, who was born about 1420. In his preface to his transla- tion of the ' iEneid ' of Virgil, which he jmblished in 1490, when he was seventy years of age, he says that he cannot understand old books that were Avritten when he was a boy — that " the olde Englysshe is more lyke to dutche than englysshe," and that " our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was vsed and spoken when I was borne. Eor we Englysshemen ben borne ynder the domynacyon of the mone [moon], which is neuer stedfaste, but euer Avauerynge, 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 OF 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 mer& r, entered a house, " and axed for mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys." But the " goode-wyf " replied that she " eoude 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 understod hym wel." And then the simple-minded but much-perplexed Caxton goes on to say : " Loo ! what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egge's 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. The 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 theTniouth carried the Xorman-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 Xorman-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 Avords came in with the Revival of Learning, which is also called the Renascence. The Turks attacked and took Constantinople in the year 1453; 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 Roman classics to eager and earnest learners; and thus a new i in pulse 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 Rome. 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 no 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 them. If we look down the columns of any English dictionary, we shall find these later Latin words in hundreds. Opinionem became opinion; f actionem, faction; orationem, oration; pungentem passed over in the form of pungent (though Ave 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 Lathi 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 : " harsh lips ! I now hear all around me such words as common, vices, envy, malice ; even virtue, study, justice, pity, mercy, com- 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 LANGUAGE. 307 Are our words to be executed like our citizens 1 " And lie 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 Rowlands, 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 translation, 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 consonant, 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 Avere doomed to speedy expulsion. Thus words like discerptibilHy, supervacaneoumess, septentrioncdity, Ivdibundness (love of sport), came in in crowds. The verb intenerate tried to turn out soften ; and deiurpate to take the place of defile. But good writers, like Bacon and Baleigh, 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 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. of meaning. And when we come to the eighteenth century, we find that a writer like Addison would have shuddered at the very-mention of such " inkhorn 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 assaute, aventure, defaut, dette, vita Me, 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 assault, adventure, default, debt, 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 Normans; but we reintroduced it in the shape of captive, which comes almost unaltered from the Latin captivum. Teat we had from the Normans; but the Latin 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 Eye-Latin ; Mouth- Latin 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 Dotiblets ; and it will be noticed that Latin T stands for Latin at first-hand^ from books ; and Latin 2 for Latin at second-hand — through the Norman-French. Latin Doublets or Duplicates. Latin. Latin \ Latin -. Antecessorem Antecessor Ancestor. Benedictionem Benediction Benison. Cadentia (Low Lat. noun) Cadence Chance. Captivum Captive Caitiff. VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 309 Conceptionem Conception Conceit. Consuetudinem Consuetude / Custom. t Costume. Cophinum Coffin Coffer. Corpus (a body) Corpse Corps. Debitum (something owed) Debit Debt. Defectum (something wanting) Defect Defeat. Dilatare Dilate Delay. Exemplum Example Sample. Fabrica (a workshop) Fabric Forge. Factionem Faction Fashion. Factum Fact Feat. Fidelitatem Fidelity Fealty. Fragilem Fragile Frail. Gentilis (belonging to a gens or Gentile Gentle. family) Historia History Story. Hospitale Hospital Hotel. Lectionem Lection Lesson. 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 pagus 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 Radius Ray. Regalern Regal Royal. Respectum Respect Respite. Securum Secure Sure. Seniorem Senior Sir. Separatum Separate Sever. Species Sjpecies Spice. Statum State Estate. Tractum Tract Trait. Traditionem Tradition Treason. Zelosum Zealous Jealous. 310 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 42. Remarks on the above Table. — The word benison, a blessing, may be contrasted with its opposite, malison, a curse. — Cadence i.s 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 frail, we must pronounce the g hard, and notice how the hard guttural falls easily away — as in our own native words nail 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 minus), a smaller man. — Moneta was the name given to a stamped coin, 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 Ave 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 all languages, and have at last been compelled to take that form which was least difficult to pronounce, (iii) Thirdly, the two VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 311 sets of words have, in each case, either (a) very different meanings, or (/>) different shades of meaning. There is no like- ness of meaning in cadence and chance, except the common meaning of fall 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, 1 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. Leal is most used in Scotland, where it has a settled abode in the well-known phrase " the land o' the leal." 45. Greek Doublets. — 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. Later Form. Adamanta 2 (the untameable) Diamond Adamant. Balsa inon Balm Balsam. Blasphemein (to speak ill of) Blame Blaspheme. Cheirourgon - (a worker with Chirurgeon Surgeon. the hand) 1 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 fci — from the Latin fidem ; and the ending th was added to make it look more like truth, wealth, health, and other purely English words. - The accusative or objective case is given in all these words. 312 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Dacttilon (a finger) Date (the fruit 1 >actyl. Phantasia Fancy Phantasy. Phantasma (an appearance) Phantom Phantasm. Presbuteron (an elder) Priest Presbyter. Paralysis Palsy Paralysis. Scandalon Slander Scandal. It may be remarked of the word fancy, that, in Shakespeare's time, it meant love or imagination — " 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 Kookh ' 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 Eomance — we shall find some striking qualities manifest themselves. 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 legally qualified medical practitioner of skill and experience, to inspect and report periodically on the sanitary condition of town or dis- trict ; to ascertain the existence of diseases, more especially epidemics increasing the rates of mortality, and to point out the existence of any nuisances or other local causes, which are likely to originate and maintain such diseases, and injuriously affect the health of the inhabitants of such town or district ; to take cognisance of the existence of any contagious disease, and to point out the most efficacious means for the ventilation of chapels, schools, registered lodging-houses, 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 VOCABULARY 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 thy mistress, 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 custom stale Her infinite variety." Here the French (or Latin) words custom and variety form a vivid contrast to the English verb stale, throw up its meaning and colour, and give it greater prominence. — Milton makes Eve say :— " I thither went With inexperiene'd thought, and laid me down On the green bank, to look into the clear Smooth lair, that to me seem'd another sky." Here the words inexperienced and clear give variety to tin- same- ness of the English words. — Gray, in the Elegy, has this verse: — "The breezy call of wi«ewse-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed." 314 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Here incense, clarion, 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 embraces of our wives And their warm tears : but all hath suffer d change ; For surely now our household hearths are cold : Our sons inherit us : our looks are strange : And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy." Most powerful is the introduction of the French words suffered change, inherit, 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 doub lets^ 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 sources of doublets are various. But five different causes seem chiefly to have operated in producing them. They arc 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 tbis source Ave 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, from 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 1 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 one. 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 with the hand); madam becomes 'm in yes 'm - ; and presbyter has been squeezed down into priest. 5 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 sport ; estate and state ; esquire and squire ; Egyptian and 1 In Hamlet v. 2. 288, Shakespeare makes the King say — " Tlic King shall drink to Hamlet's bettor breath ; And in the cup an union shall he throw." - Professor .Max Miiller gives this as the most remarkable instance of rutting ilown. The Latin mea (lamina became in French madame; in English ma'am; and, in the language of servants, 'm. 3 Milton says, in one of his sonnets — " New Presbyter is but <'M Priest writ lai From the etymological point of view, the truth is just the other way about. Priest is old Presbyter writ small. 316 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. gipsy ; emmet and ant ; gammon and game ; grandfather and gaffer ; grandmother and gammer ; iota (the Greek letter i) and jot ; maximum and maxim ; mobile and mob ; mosquito and musket ; papa and pope ; periwig 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 English 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 Avith great prominence in our older literature, and these are the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern. The grammar of these dialects 1 was different ; their pronunciation of words was different — and this has given rise to a splitting of one word into two. In the North, Ave find a hard c, as in the caster of Lancaster; in the Midlands, a soft c, as in Leicester ; in the South, a ch, as in Winchester. We shall find similar differences of hardness and softness in ordinary words. Thus Ave find kirk and church ; canker and cancer ; canal and channel ; deck and thatch ; drill and thrill ; fan and van (in a AvinnoAving-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 cheAving) and cud (Avhich means the thing chewed) ; reave and rob ; ridge and rig ; scabby and shabby ; scar and share ; screech and shriek ; shirt and skirt ; shuffle and scuffle ; spray and sprig ; wain and waggon — and other pairs. All of these are but different modes of pronouncing the same Avord in different parts of England ; but the genius of the language has taken advantage of these different ways of pro- nouncing to make different words out of them, and to give them different functions, meanings, and uses. 1 See p. 320. 317 CHAPTEE III. HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OP ENGLISH. 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 different 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 modern English ; and ancient English (or Anglo-Saxon) also possessed a large number of inflexions. 2. Modern English 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 has 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 English language was a Synthetic Language. z 318 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. (ii) From the year 1100 or thereabouts, English has been losing its inflexions, and gradually becoming more and more an Analytic Language. 4. Causes of this Change.— Even before the coming 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 he observed at the present time among the Germans of the Ehine 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 meaning 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. M ore- 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. Eet us try to trace some of these changes and losses. 5. Grammar 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 modern 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 tins 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 OF 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 modern 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 the Second Period, 1100-1250.— The English of this period is called Early English. Even before the coming of the JSTormans, 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 language. 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 e 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 ofer stein 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, baet ; and in the grammar of this Second Period it became he, heo, be. — The French plural in es took the place of the English plural in en. But housen and shoon existed 1 for many centuries after the Nofnian coming; and Mr. Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, always deplored the ugly sound of nests a,ndfists, and wanted to be able to say and to write iiesten and fisten. — The dative plural, which ended in um, becomes an e or an en. The um, 1 Both forma still exist in dialect. 320 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. however, 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 tense. 7. Grammar 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 bid, see, hear, etc. — The present participle in inge makes its appearance about the year 1300. 8. Grammar of the Fourth Period, 1350-1485. — This may be called Later 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 thro," divided into three ; that is, that there were three main dialects, the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern. There were many differences in the grammar of these dialects ; but the chief of these differences is found in the plural of the present indicative of the verb. This part of the verb formed its plurals in the following manner : — Northern. Midland. Southern. We hope's We hopen We hopeth. You hopes Ydu hopen You hopeth. They hopes They hopen They hopeth. 1 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- 1 This plural we still find in the famous Winchester motto, "Manners maketh man." HISTORY OF THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH. 32 1 less as the English of the present day. Let us note a few of the more prominent changes. — The first personal pronoun Ic or Ieh loses the guttural, and becomes I. — 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 ! " — The useful and almost ubiquitous letter e comes in as a substitute for a, u, and even an. Thus nama becomes name, sunu (son) becomes sune, and withutan changes into withute. — The dative of adjectives is used as an adverb. Thus we find softe, 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 ami smiten. 9. General View. — In the time of King Alfred, the West- Saxon speech — theWessex 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 modern 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 German grammarian Grimm, and others, predict that English will spread itself all over the world, and become 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 Avords 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 an), 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 effect of compressing many words of two syllables into one. Thus hagol, twaegen, and faegen, became hail, twain, 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 GKAMMAK OF ENGLISH. 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 ! " In Tennyson's " Lord of Burleigh," when the sorrowful hus- band conies 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.' " All 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 all 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 sliows considerable power and vigour. The words printed in italics are all derived from Latin, with the exception of the 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 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. end of the clause. Thus the Anglo-Saxon wrote (though in different form and spelling) — " When Darius saw, that he overcome be would." The newer English, under French influence, wrote — "When Darius saw that he was going to be overcome.'' 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 modern well-hung English car- riage. ]S"orman-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 Gutturals. — (i) Not 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 write 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 hxine, hatred. No doubt the Normans could utter throat- sounds well enough when 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 communicated 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 ENGLISH. 325 and the Germans do now ; but it gradually became the fashion in England to leave them out. 13. The Expulsion of Gutturals. — (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 gebroht, geboht, geworkt, became brought, bought, and wrought. The g at the beginning of many words also dropped off. Thus Gyppenswich became Ipswich; gif became if; genoh, enough. — The guttural at the end of words — hard g or c — also disappeared. Thus halig became holy; eordhlic, earthly; gastlic, ghastly or ghostly. The same is the case in dough, through, plough, etc. — the guttural appearing to tbe 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. 14. The Story of the GH. — 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 — Ueht, &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 Norman 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 truthfulness of letters — but now passed by in silence and noticed by no one. 15. The Letters that represent Gutturals. ■ — 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 hail was hagol, day was daeg, foicl 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 appeal- ing in three different forms — as a hard k, as a soft eh, 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 Result 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 function, — 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 lin- ger," cut is a noun, because it is a name ; but Avhen we say, " Harry cut his finger," then cut is a verb, because it tells something about Harry. Words 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 licence. He makes one of his char- acters say, " But me no buts ! " In this sentence, the first but 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 backward 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 modern Eng- lish, almost any noun can be used as a verb. Thus Ave can say, "to paper a room"; "to ivater the horses"; "to black-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 avc can speak of a work, of a beautiful print, of a long tvalk, and so on. 828 CHAPTER IV. SPECIMEN'S OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 1. Vocabulary and Grammar. — The oldest English or Anglo- Saxon differs from modern English both in vocabulary and in grammar — in the words it uses and in the inflexions it employs. The difference is often startling. And } r et. if Ave 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 — Avords that Ave 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 Ave were to dress a modern man in the clothes Avorn a thousand years ago : the chances are that avc 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 Avell-knoAvn verse, Luke ii. 40, runs thus in our oldest English version : — ■ Su]Jice cfaet cild weox, and waes gestrangod, wisdomes full ; and Codes 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 Avord is pure ordinary English ; it is the dress — the spelling and the inflexions — that is quaint and old-fashioned. This Avill 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 in the meanings of words, the changes in the application of them, the variation in the use of phrases, the falling away of the inflexions— all 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 ii. 44, 45:— Anglo-Saxon. We"ndon daet he on heora gefere waere, ctd comon hig anes daeges faer, and hine sohton be- tweox his rnagas and his cudan. Da hig hyne ne f undon, hig gewendon to Hierusa- lem, hine secende. Forsothe thei ges- singe him to be in the felowschipe, camen the wey of a" day, and sou3ten him among his cosyns and know- en. And thei not fynd- inge, wenten a3en to Jerusalem : sekynge him. Tyndale. For they supposed he had bene in the company, they cam a days iorney, and sought hym amonge their kynsfolke and ac- quayntaunce. And founde hym not, they went backe agayne to Hierusalem, and sought hym. The literal translation of the Anglo-Saxon ,version is as follows : — (They) weened that he on their companionshiji were ( = was), when came they one day's faring, and him sought betwixt his relations and his couth (folk = acquaintances). When they him 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 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. THE LORD'S PRAYER. 1130. Reign or Stephen. Fader ure, }>e art on heofone. Sy gebletsod name Jrin, Cume )>in rike. Si l>in wil swa swa on heofone and on eor]xm. Breod ure deg- wamlieh geof us to daeg. And forgeof us ageltes ura swa swa we forgeof en agiltendum ur- um. And ne led us on costunge. Ac alys us fram yfele. Swa beo hit. 1250. Reign of Henry 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 brecle give us to day. Forgive tlum all us dettes urs, als we forgive till ur detturs. And ledde us in na fandung. But sculd us 1380. Wycliffe's Version. 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 sub- stantia , And forgive to us our dettis, as we forgiven to oure dettouris. And lede us not into tempta- cioun : But delyvere fra ivel thing, us from yvel Amen. Amen. 1526. Tyndale's Version. Our Father, which art in heaven ; Halowed be thy name ; Let thy king- dom come ; Thy will 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 def- ter s. And leade us not into tempta- tion, But delyver us from evyll. For thyne isthe kyng- dom, and the power, and the glorye, for ever. Amen. It will be observed that Wycliffe'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 PERIODS. 331 third, in modern English. The breaking-down of the gram- mar becomes still more strikingly evident from this close juxtaposition. (i) Hi swencton pa" wreccan menn (ii) Hi swencten the wrecce men (iii) They swinked (harassed) the wretched men (i) paes landes mid castel-weorcum. (ii) Of-the-land mid castel-weorces. (iii) Of the land with castle-works. (i) Da pa" castelas waeron gemacod, (ii) Tha the castles war en maked, (iii) "When the castles were made, (i) pa fyldon hi hi mid yfelum mannum. (ii) tha" fylden hi hi mid yvele 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. ae6. hed ho, scho. she. sweostrum. to the swestres. to the swistren. to the sisters. geboren. gebore. ibore. born. 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. II.— MARKS OF EARLY ENGLISH (1100-1250). Verbs. Infm. in en or e. Pres. part, in ind. ge of past part, turned into i or y. 3d plural in en. Nouns. Plural in es. Dative plural in es. III.— MARKS OF MID- DLE ENGLISH (1250-1485). Verbs. Infm. with to (the en was dropped about 1400). Pres. part, in inge. 3d plural in en. Imperative in eth. Plurals in es (separate syllable). Nouns. Possessives in es (sepa- rate syllable). 8. The English of the Thirteenth Century. — In this century there was a great breaking-down and stripping-off of inflexions. 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 nemmnedd Orrmulum Forr })i ]>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 inflexions Thus we read : — " Hunger wex in lond Chanaan ; And his x suncs Jacob for-dan SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 333 Sente in to Egypt to bringen coren ; He bilefe at horn Se was gungest boren." That is, "Hunger waxed (increased) in the land of Canaan 1 , and Jacob for that (reason) sent his ten sons into Egypt to bring corn: he remained at home that was youngest born." 9. The English of the Fourteenth Century. — The four greatest writers of the fourteenth century are — in verse, C hauce r and Langlande ; and in prose, Mandeville and Wyeliffe. 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 : — " queenes, lyvynge in prosperitee, Duchesses, and ladyes everichone, Haveth soni routhe on hir adversitee ; An emperoures doughter stant allone ; She hath no wight to whom to make hir mone. blood roial ! that stondest in this dredo Fer ben thy f rendes at thy grete nede ! ' ' Here, with the exception of the imperative in Haveth som routhe ( = have some pity), start, and ben ( = 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 to \>e grounde, In ensaumple to Men fiat we scholde do ]>e bettre, Beches and brode okes weore blowen to J)e eor|)e." Here it is the spelling of Langlande's English that differs most from modern English, and not the grammar. — Much the same may be said of the style of Wyeliffe (1324-1384) and of Mande- ville (1300-1372). In Wycliffe'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, modern enough. Speaking of Mahomet, he says : " And 3ee 2 A 334 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. schulle nnderstonds that Machamete was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave that kept cameles, that wenten with marchantes for marchandise." Knave for 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 modern speech. 10. The English of the Sixteenth Century. — 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 indifferently 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 I. 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 that 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 fet, more for moe, sown for sowen, brittle for brickie (which gives the connection with break), jaivs for chaws, sixth for sixt, and sc on. But we still find such participles as shined and tmderstanded ; and such phrases as " they can skill to hew timber" (1 Kings v. 6), "abjects" for abject persons, " three days agone " for ago, the " captivated Hebrews " for "the captive Hebrews," and others. 12. The English of the Bible (ii). — We have, again, old words retained, or used in the older meaning. Thus we find, in Psalm 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. xi. 30) means the plain; and a publican in the New Testament is a tax-gatherer, who sent to the Roman 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 modern 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 CHATTER V. MODERN ENGLISH. 1. Grammar Fixed. — From the date of 1485 — that is, from the beginning of the reign of Henry VI L — the changes in the grammar or constitution of pur 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 difficulty. 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 Revival 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 MODERN ENGLISH. 337 was largely read ; Wyatt and Surrey show its influence in their poems ; and Italian words began to come in in considerable numbers. Commerce, too, has done much for us in this way; and along with the article imported, Ave 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 ill-fated word armada, we have the Span- ish for Mr, which is Don (from Lat. dominus, a lord), with its feminine Duenna. They gave us also alligator, which is oiu English way of writing el lagarto, the lizard. They also pre- sented us with a large number of words that end in o — such as buffalo, cargo, desperado, guano, indigo, mosquito, mulatto, negro, potato, tornado, and others. The following is a toler- ably full list :— Alligator. Cork. Galleon (a ship). Mulatto. Armada. Creole. Grandee. Negro. Barricade. Desperado. Grenade. Octoroon. Battledore. Don. Guerilla. Quadroon. Bravado. Duenna. Indigo. Renegade. Buffalo. Eldorado. Jennet. Savannah. Cargo. Embargo. Matador. Sherry ( = Xeres). Cigar. Filibuster. Merino. Tornado. Cochineal. Flotilla. Mosquito. 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, stanza ; to music, as pianoforte, opera, oratorio, soprano, alto, contralto ; to architecture and sculpture, as 338 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. portico, piazza, cupola, torso ; and to painting, as studio, fresco (an open-air painting), and others. The following is a list of many words in common use : — Alarm. Charlatan. Incognito. Proviso. Alert. Citadel. Influenza. Quarto. Alto. Colonnade. Lagoon. Regatta. Arcade. Concert. Lava. Ruffian. Balcony. Contralto. Lazaretto. Serenade. Balustrade. Conversazione. Macaroni. Sonnet. Bandit. Cornice. Madonna. Soprano. Bankrupt. Corridor. Madrigal. Stanza. Bravo. Cupola. Malaria. Stiletto. Brigade. Curvet. Manifesto. Stucco. Brigand. Dilettante. Motto. Studio. Broccoli. Ditto. Moustache. Tenor. Burlesque. Doge. Niche. Terra-cotta. Bust. Domino. Opera. Tirade. Cameo. Extravaganza. Oratorio. Torso. Canteen. Fiasco. Palette. Trombone. Canto. Folio. Pantaloon. Umbrella. Caprice. Fresco. Parapet. Vermilion. Caricature. Gazette. Pedant. Vertu. Carnival. Gondola. Pianoforte. Virtuoso. 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 numher of words relating to the management of ships. 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. Reef. Smack. Wear (said of a Boor. Schiedam (gin). Smuggle. ship). Burgomaster. Skates. Stiver. Yacht. Hoy. Skipper. TaffraiL 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 II. ; and for a long time all diplomatic correspondence between foreign countries and England was carried on in French. "Words relating to maruiers_^nd^u^tQms_ are com mon, such as soiree, etiquette, seance, elite ; and Ave 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 gout, 1 To us gave only gout. The following is a list of French words Avhich have been imported in comparatively recent times : — Aide-de-camp. Carte-de-visite. Etiquette. Personnel. Belle. Coup-d'e*tat. Facade. Precis. Bivouac. De"bris. Gout. Programme. Blonde. De'but. Naive. Protege". Bouquet. Dejeuner. Naivete. Recherche. Brochure. Depot. Nonchalance. Seance. Brunette. Eclat. Outre. Soire*e. Brusque. Ennui. Penchant. 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 assiette) ; a cup for tea or for wine is a tassie (from tasse) ; the gate of a town is 1 Gout (goo) from Latin gustits, taste. 340 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. called the port ; and a stubborn person is dour (Ft. dur, from Lat. durus) ; while a gentle and amiable person is douce (Er. douce, Lat. dulcis). 7. German Words. — It must not be forgotten that English is a Low-German dialect, while the German of books is jSTew High- German. We have never borrowed directly from High-German, because we have never needed to borrow. Those modern 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 Avho had served under Gustavus Adolphus. The following are the German words which we have received in recent times : — Cobalt. Landgrave. Felspar. Loafer. Hornblende. Margrave. Meerschaum. Poodle. Nickel. Quartz. 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 cabal 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. Manna. Sadducees. Amen. Hosannah. PaschaL Satan. Behemoth. Jehovah. Pharisee. Seraph. Cabal. Jubilee. 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 sun. 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 guano, maize, and tomato from the two Americas ; coffee, cotton, and tamarind from Arabia ; tea, congou, and nankeen from China ; calico, chintz, and rupee from Hindostan ; bamboo, gamboge, and sago from the Malay Peninsida ; 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 with the greatest minuteness : — African Dialects. Baobab. Gnu. Karoo. Quagga. Canary. Gorilla. Kraal. Zebra. Chimpanzee. Guinea. 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 slcohol — 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. Coffee. Mattress. Sirocco. Alkali. Cotton. Minaret. Sofa. Amber. Crimson. Mohair. Sultan. Arrack. Dragoman. Monsoon. Syrup. Arsenal. Elixir. Mosque. Talisman. Artichoke. Emir. Mufti. Tamarind. Assassin. Fakir. Nabob. Tariff. Assegai. Felucca. Nadir. Vizier. Attar. Gazelle. Naphtha. Zenith. Azimuth. Giraffe. Saffron. Zero. 342 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Chinese. Bohea. Hyson. Nankeen. Souchong. China. Joss. Pekoe. Tea. Congou. Junk. Silk. Hindu. Typhoon. Avatar. Cowrie. Pagoda. Ryot. Banyan. Durbar. Palanquin. Sepoy. Brahmin. Jungle. Pariah. Shampoo. Bungalow. Lac (of rupees). Punch. Sugar. Calico. Loot. Pundit. Suttee. Chintz. Mulligatawny. Rajah. Thug. Coolie. Musk. Rupee. Toddy. Hungarian. Hussar. Sabre. Shako. Malay. Tokay. Amuck. Cassowary Gong. Orang-outang. Bamboo. Cockatoo. Gutta-percha. Rattan. Bantam. Dugong. Mandarin. Sago. Caddy. Gamboge. Mango. Persian. Upas. Awning. Dervish. Jasmine. Pasha. Bazaar. Divan. Lac (a gum). Rook. Bashaw. Firman. Lemon. Saraband. Caravan. Hazard. Lilac. Sash. Check. Horde. Lime (the fruit). Scimitar. Checkmate. Houri. Musk. Shawl. Chess. Jar. Orange. Taffeta. Curry. Jackal. Paradise. Turban. Polynesian Dialects. Boomerang. Kangaroo. Taboo. Tattoo. Portuguese. Albatross. Cocoa-nut. Lasso. Molasses. Caste. Commodoi e. Marmalade. Palaver. Cobra. Fetish. Moidore. Russian. Port ( = Oporto), Czar. Knout. Rouble. Ukase. Drosky. Morse. Steppe. Tabtar, Khan. Turkish. Verst. Bey. Chouse. Kiosk. Tulip. 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; photograph; telephone and even photophone. The word dynamite is also modern ; and the unhappy employ- ment of it has made it too widely known. Then passing fashions have given us such words as athlete and cesthete. 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. 344 LANDMARKS IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. A.D. 1. The Beowulf, an old English epic, " written on the mainland " 450 2. Christianity introduced by St Augustine (and with it many Latin and a few Greek words) .... 596 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. Aelfric, called Grammaticus, turned iuto English most of the historical hooks 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 Orrmin's Ormulum, 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 11. Layamon translates the 'Brut' from the French of Robert Wace. This is the first English book (written in Southern English) 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 III. . 1258 14. Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (swarms with foreign terms) 1300 LANDMARKS IN HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 345 15. Robert Manning, "Robert of Brunn," compiles the 'Handlyng Synne.' "It contains a most copious proportion of French words" . . . 1303 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 Mandeville, first writer of the newer English Prose — in his ' Travels,' which contained a large admixture of French words. " HLs English is the speech spoken at Court in the latter days of King Edward III." .... 1372 19. English becomes the language of the Law Courts . . 1362 20. Wickliffe's Bible . . • .1380 21. Geoffrey Chaueer ; 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 ink, as other books are, to the end that every man may have th cm at once" ..... 1474 23. First English Book printed in England (by Caxton;, "The Dictcs ami Sayings of the Philosophers" . . . 1477 24. Lord Berners* translation of Froissart's Chronicle . . 1523 25. 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 " 1525-31 26. Edmund Spenser publishes his 'Faerie Queene.' "Now began the golden age of England's literature ; and this age was to last for about fourscore years " . . . .1590 27. Our English Bible, based chielly on Tyndale's translation. "Those who revised the English Bible 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 15,000 words. " The last act of ' Othello ' is a rare specimen of Shakespeare's diction : of every five nouns, verbs, and adverbs, four are Teutonic "... (Born 1564) 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 " . . . . .1667 346 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 30. The Prayer-Book revised and issued in its final form. " Are was substituted for be iu forty-three places. This was a great victory of the North over the South " . . 1661 31. 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 "..... (Eorn 1628) 1678 32. Sir Thomas Browne, the author of ' Urn-Burial ' and other works written in a highly Latinised diction, such as the ' Religio Medici,' written ...... 1642 33. Dr Samuel Johnson was the chief supporter of the use of "long-tailed words in osity and ation." such as his novel called ' Rasselas,' published . . . .1759 34. Tennyson, Poet-Laureate, a writer of the best English — "a countryman of Robert Manning's, and a careful student of old Malory, did much for the revival of pure English among us" ...... 1809-1892 PART IV. OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 349 CHAPTER I. OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 1. Literature. — The history of English Literature is, in its external aspect, an account of the best hooks in prose and in verse that have been written by English men and English women; and this account begins with a poem brought over from the Continent 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 Distribution 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 hundred years — since the year 1477 ; and thus it is that our libraries contain many hundreds of thousands of valuable books. 2 r, 3 50 HISTOEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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 Literature. — It is a remarkable fact that the earliest 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 some one called the Land of Prose, Where many living things were seen In movement 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 anion 5. 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 amenities." OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 351 4. Our oldest English 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 or alliteration; while, from the fourteenth century downwards, our poets have always employed end-rhyme in their verses. "Zightly down Zeaping he loosened 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, loar-sliirts for armour, whale's-path or swan-road for the sea, toave-liorse for a ship, tree-wriglit 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 language. It is our " old English 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 JSTorthum- 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 them. BeoAvulf attacks and overcomes the dragon, which is mortally wounded, and flees away to die. The 352 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. poem belongs both to the German 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 English 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 sing 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 cowshed, 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!" "What must I sing, then ? " 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 the world. When he awoke, he remembered some of the lines that had come to him in sleep, 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. 353 had him taught sacred history. " All this Caedmon, by 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, but it was not printed in a book until the year 1655. 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 Maldon, The first belongs to the date 938; the second to 991. The Song of Brunanburg was inscribed in the Saxon Chronicle — 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, an ealdorman of North- umbria, in battle against the Danes at Maldon, in Essex. The speeches of the chiefs are given ; the single combats between heroes described ; and, as in Homer, the names and genealogies of the foremost men are brought into the verse. 8. The First 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 of 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. work being an Ecclesiastical History. But though Latin was the tongue in which he wrote his hooks, he wrote one hook in English ; and he may therefore he fairly considered the first writer of English prose. This hook was a Translation of the Gospel of St John — a work which he laboured at until the very moment of his death. His disciple Cuthhert tells the story of his last hours. " Write quickly ! " said Baeda to his scribe, for he felt that his end could not be far off. 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 ! " " 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. ]STo MS. of it is at present known to be in existence. 9. The Father of English Prose. — For several centuries, up to the year 866, the valleys and shores of ]STorthumbria 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 — killed 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 Northumbria, and to seek for a home in the south — in Wessex, the kingdom over which Allied the Great reigned for more than thirty years. The capital of Wessex was Winchester; and an able writer says: "As OUK OLDEST ENGLISH LITEKATURE. 355 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 Roman writer, Boethius. In these books he gave to his people, in their own tongue, the best existing works on history, geography, and phdosophy. 10. The Anglo-Saxon 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 1154 — the year of the death of Stephen and the accession of Henry IT 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 prose." 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 1205, a poem called Brut, from the French of a monkish writer named Master Wace. Wace's work itself is 356 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. little more than a translation of parts of a famous " Chronicle or History of the Britons," written in Latin hy 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 iEneas, 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 Kormans 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 Ormulum, 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 spelling. 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 writes pawn for pan, but pan for pane. The following is a specimen of his poem : — OUR OLDEST ENGLISH LITERATURE. 357 Ice hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh I have wended (turned) into English Goddspelless hallghe lare, Gospel's holy lore, Affterr 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 Brnnne, both of whom wrote Chronicles of England in verse. Hub CHAPTEE II THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 1. The opening of the fourteenth century saw the death of the great and able king, Edward I., the "Hammer of the Scots," the "Keeper of his word." The century itself — a most eventful period — witnessed the feeble and disastrous reign of Edward II. ; the long and prosperous rule — for fifty years — of Edward III. j the troubled times of Eichard II., who exhibited almost a repetition of the faults of Edward II. ; 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 Norman 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 tip 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. 359 by Mandeville, — the latter containing a large admixture of French and of Latin words, both writers are deserving of the epithet. The most influential prose-writer was John "Wyclif, who was, in fact, the first English Eeformer of the Church. In poetry, two writers stand opposite each other in striking contrast — Geoffrey Chaucer and "William Langlande, 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 Gower, in Kent, and John Barbour, in Scotland, are also noteworthy poets in this century. The English 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 modern 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 be 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 Liege 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, iu fact. He introduced a large number of French words into our speech, such as cause, con- trary, discover, quantity, 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 inflexions still survive in his style. Thus he says : " Machamete was born in Arabye, that was a pore knave (boy) that kepte cameles that wentcw. with marchantes for mar- chandise." 360 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 4. John Wyclif (his name is spelled in about forty different ways) — 1324-1384 — was born at Hips well, near Richmond, in York- shire, in the year 1324, and died at the vicarage 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. But 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 A\ T as 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 Gower (1325-1408) was a country gentleman of Kent. As Mandeville 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 Clamantis (" 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 dull, 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 born at Cleobury-Mortimer in Shropshire, in the year 1332. The date of his death is doubtful. His poem is called the Vision of Piex-s the Plowman ; 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 until 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 than 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 Zond in that light ■ to iucifer cried, ' Princes of this palace • ^rest 1 undo the gate's, For here cometh with crown • the king of all glory ! ' " 7. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), the "father of English poetry," and the greatest narrative poet of this country, was born in London in or about the year 1340. He lived in the reigns of Edward III., Bichard 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 Oxford 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 (yalettus) to Edward III., who sent him ou several embassies. In 1366 he married a lady of the Queen's chamber; and by this marriage he became connected with Johu 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 King'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 Legend 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 buried in the Poets' Corner 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 hard 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 affirms 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 CENTUEY. 363 Dryden calls him " a perpetual fountain of good sense ; " and that Hazlitt makes this remark : " Chaucer was the most practical of all the great ^oets, — 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 Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath Preluded those melodious bursts that fill The spacious times of great Elizabeth, With sounds that echo still." 10. John Barbour (1316-1395).— 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 fechtand for fighting ; pressit for pressed; theretill 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 Robert 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 CHAPTER III. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 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 V., 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 VI., were among the chief events of the fifteenth century. The Wars of the Roses 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 ballads. The best of these are Sir Patrick Spens, Edom o' Gordon, The Nut-Brown Mayde, and some of those written about Robin 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 Otterburn, 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 CENTUKY. 365 rose on the horizon of the English mind, for England then first heard of the discovery of America. But, as regards thinking and writing, the fifteenth century is the most Darren in our literature. It is the most Darren in the production of original literature ; hut, 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. Eor 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, Oeeleve 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 works. 2. James I. op Scotland (1394-1437), 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 Kings 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 Rime Royal); 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. 366 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 3. William Caxton (1422-1491) is the name of greatest import- ance and significance in the history of our literature in the fifteenth century. He was born 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 Countries. 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. 30? CHAPTEE IV. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 1. The "Wars of the Eoses ended in 1485, with the victory of Bosworth 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 people." 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 Lear and The Babes in the Wood are perhaps to be referred to this period. 2. The first half of the sixteenth century 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 Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), and of the Earl of Surrey (1517-1547). These two eminent 368 HISTORY OF ENGLISH 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 New Testament into , English. In the latter half of the century, the great poets are Spenser and Shakespeare ; the great prose-writers, Richard Hooker and Francis Bacon. 3. Sir Thomas More's (1478-1535) mief work in English is the Life and Reign of Edward 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. William Tyndale (1484-1536) — a man of the greatest signifi- cance, both 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 Hamburg 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 3STew 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 lias, 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 modern speech. Tyndale's work is indeed, THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 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 Spenser (1552-1599), " The Poet's Poet," and one of the greatest poetical writers of his own or of any age, was born 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 r ar from the grave of Chaucer. 7. Spenser's Style. — His greatest work is The Faerie Queene ; but that in wdiich 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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: a b a b b c b c c. — The music of the stanza is lung-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." x Only six books were, completed ; and these relate the adventures of the knights who stand for Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship), Justice, and Courtesy. The Faerie Queene herself is called Gloriana, 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," says 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 tbat 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 loathing." 9. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest dramatist tbat England ever produced, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in Warwickshire, on the 23d of April — St George's Day — of the year 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a wool dealer and grower. 1 This use of the phrase "the same" is antiquated English. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 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 a^e of twenty-two, he quitted his native town, and went to London. 10. Shakespeare's Life and Character. — He was employed in some menial capacity at the Blackfriars Theatre, hut gradually rose to be actor and also adapter of plays. He was connected with the theatre for ahout five-and-twenty years ; and so diligent and so successful was he, that he was ahle 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 You Like 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 Sbake- 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, Richard III. and Julius Caesar ; and his finest comedies, Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like 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 Style.— 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 372 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. is commensurate with his genius — nay, his genius reveals itself in his judgment, as in its most exalted form." He has been called " mellifluous 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, must of which have become part and parcel of our language. Such phrases as every inch a king ; witch the world; the time is out of joint, and hundreds more, show that modern 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 alw T ays 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, from 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 CENTURY. 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, Peele, and Greene, preceded him ; Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger and Ford, "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, forget that the reign of Queen Elizabeth — called in literature the Elizabethan Period — 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. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), 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 Christi College, Cambridge, and took the degree of Master of Arts in 1587. After leaving the university, lie 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 Edward 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 (1574-1637), the greatest dramatist of England after Shakespeare, was born 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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. ; but so careless and profuse were his habits, that he died in poverty in the year 1637. He was buried in an upright position in Westminster Abbey ; and the stone over his grave still bears the inscription, " 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 born 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 office, and chose the quieter living of Boscombe, near Salisbury. Here he wrote the first four books of his famous work, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, which were published in the year 1594. In 1595 he was translated to the living of Bishopsborne, near Can- terbury. His death took place in the year 1600. The complete work, which consisted of eight books, was not published till 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 fall 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 CENTURY. 375 18. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), a noble knight, a man, and one of the best prose-writers of the Elizabethan age, was born 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 w'as said of a young man " who seems to have been the type of wdiat 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 hia Apologie for Poetrie. 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 Apologie 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 modern 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 rising personifications. Such phrases as, " About the time that the candles began to inherit the sun's office ; " " Seeing the day begin to disclose her comfortable beauties," are not uncommon. The rhythm of his sentences is always melodious, and each of them has a very pleasant close. 376 CHAPTEE V. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 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. (1603-1625) 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 Raleigh, soldier, statesman, coloniser, historian, and poet, was born in Devonshire, in the year 1552. 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. From that time his life is one long series of schemes, plots, THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 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 he- long to the sixteenth ; his works to the seventeenth century. Kaleigh was probably the most dazzling figure of his time ; and is " in a singular degree the representative of the vigorous versatility of the Elizabethan 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 semuling 1 my song, he took in hand My pipe, before that semuled 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 ! " \ lieigh'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 bad 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 Hicjacet." 3. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), one of (lie greatesl of English thinkers, and one of our best prose-writers, was born at York House, 1 Emulating. 378 HISTORY OF ENGLISH 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 I. ; 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 Verulam; and a few years after he was created Viscount 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. He 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 Essays, and the Advancement of Learning. His Essays make one of the wisest books ever written ; 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 stiffness of a richly embroidered cloth, into which threads of gold and silver have been worked. Bacon kept what he called a Promus or Commonplace- Book ; and in this he 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 Counsell, they will be tossed upon the Waves of Fortune. " The following are a few striking sentences from his Essays : — " 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 pithier 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 Shakespeare (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, the Merchant of Venice, the Merry "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 of Julius Caesar, the great tragedies of Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, and some others. To the fourth period, which lies between 1608 and 1613, belong the calmer and wiser dramas, — Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII. 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 different indeed from that of the first half. The Englishmen born into it had to face a new world ! New thoughts in religion, new forces in politics, new powers in social matters had been sloAvly, 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 Republicans. Charles I. was executed in 1649; and, though his son came hack 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 Royalist or Court side was Samuel Butler, the unrivalled satirist — the Hogarth of language, — the author of Hudibras. The greatest prose-Avriter on the Royalist and Church side was Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, in Ireland, and the author of Holy Living, Holy Dying, and many other works written with a wonderful eloquence. The greatest philosophical writer was Thomas Hobbes, the author of the Leviathan. 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 II., 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 Locke. 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 ] alter 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 CENTURY. 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. Dry den, 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 (1608-1674), the second greatest name in Eng- lish poetry, and the greatest of all our epic poets, was born in Bread Street, Cheapside, London, in the year 1608 — five years after the ac- cession of James I. 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 clergyman. 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 L'Allegro and II Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, 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 took 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 wdshed. 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 his Tractate on Education. The most elocpient of his prose-works is his Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty 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 ■2 T> 382 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE Republic. In 1660 the Restoration 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 Lost 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 1 " Paradise Regained 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 II. He had been three times married. 9. L'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. Lyeidas — 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 Paradise Lost 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, and sublime. " In reading ' Paradise Lost,' " says Mr Lowell, " one has a feeling of spaciousness such as no other poet gives." Paradise Regained 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." Samson 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 mil] with slaves." It is, indeed, an autobiographical poem — it is the Btory of the last years of the poet's life. 10. Samuel Butler (1612-1680), the wittiest of English poets, was born at Strensham, in Worcestershire, in the year 1612, four years THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 38.°. 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 Hudibras appeared in 1063, 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 Paul's, Covent Garden ; but a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey. Upon this fact Wesley wrote the following epigram : — " While 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 — " Hi- 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 morn 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 (1631-1700), the greatest of eur poets in the seri md rank, was born at Aldwincle, in Northamptonshire, in the 384 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. year 1631. He was descended from Puritan ancestors on both sides of his house. He was educated at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. 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 Achitophel — 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 modern 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 Religio Laici (" 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 ilee 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 stage; but the last years of his life were spent chiefly in translation. He translated passages from Homer, Ovid, and from some Italian writers; but his most important work was the translation of the whole of Virgil's JEneid. 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 SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY. 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' Corner 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 Killigrew. Dryden's style is distinguished by its power, sweep, vigour, and "long majestic march." No one has handled the heroic couplet — and it was tins form of verse that he chiefly used — with 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. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), the greatest master of ornate and musical English prose in his own day, was born 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 386 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 his Holy Living 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 aud sum of all their designs. A dark night and an ill guide, a boisterous sea and a broken cable, a hard 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 born 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 L, 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 Leviathan ; or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth. His style is clear, manly, and vigorous. He tried to write poetry too. At THE SEVENTEENTH 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 her bosom lay His beautiful and sinning golden head." 17. John Bunyan (1628-1688), one of the most popular of our prose -writers, was born 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- gress. 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 Locke (1632-1704), a great English philosopher, was born at Wrington, near Bristol, in the year 1632. He was educated 388 HISTORY 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, lie 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 concerning Education, and the celebrated Essay 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 CHAPTEB VT. THE FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 1. The Age of Prose. — The eighteenth century was an age of prose in two senses. 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, Avhile 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 here 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 Cowper, Chatterton, and Burns, of Crabbe and Wordsworth. 2. The First Half— The great prose-writers of the first half of the eighteenth century arc Addison and Steele, Swift and 390 HISTORY 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 modern 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 (1661-1731), one of the most fertile writers that England ever saw, and one who has been the delight of many generations of readers, was born in the city of London in the year 1661. 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 batter, 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, be 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. lie 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 Review, — the earliest genuine newspaper Eng- land had seen up to his time. Tliis paper he brought out two or three times a-week ; and every word of it he wrote himself. 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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 391 writing, 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 lie 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 luniks in the course of his lifetime. lie died in 1731. 4. His best known — and it is also his greatesl work is Robinson Crusoe ; and this honk, which every one has read, may be 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 arc : 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 particularising. 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 born in Dublin in the year 1667. Though born in Ireland, he was of purely English descent — his lather belonging to a Yorkshire family, and his mother being a Leicestershire lady. His father died before he was born ; and he was educated by the kindness (if 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. " In- special favour." He next came to England, and for eleven yeara acted as private secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired slates- man and ambassador, who lived at Moor Park, near Richmond-on- 392 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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, hut stnng 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 born." 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 li i in 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 strong, simple, straightforward ; he uses the plainest words and the homeliest English, and every blow tells. Swift'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 stern, 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." FIBST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 303 7. Joseph Addison (1672-1719), the most elegant prose-writer — as Pope was the mose polished verse- writer — of the eighteenth cen- tury, was born at Milston, in Wiltshire, in the year 1672. He was educated at Charterhouse School, in London, where one of his friends and companions Avas 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 Letter from Italy to Lord Halifax. In 1704, when Lord Godolphin was in search of a poet who should celebrate in an adequate style the striking 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, Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed, Calm and serene he drives the furious blast ; And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform, Bides 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 1711, Steele began a still more famous paper, which he called The Spectator ; and 394 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Addison's writings in this morning journal made its 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 band (^|p) at the foot of each. In addition to bis 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 hymns, 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 humour — 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 (1672-1729), commonly called " Dick Steele," the friend and colleague of Addison, was born 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, although himself of a gay and even rollicking temperament, he seems to have pre- ferred this vein. The literary skill of Addison — his happy ait in FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 395 the choosing of words — did not fall to the lot of Steele ; but lie 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 Pope (1688-1744), the greatest poet of the eighteenth century, was born 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 Essay 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 Rape of the Lock raised his reputation still higher. Macaulay pronounced it his best poem. De Quincey declared it to lie "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— was his translation of the Iliad of Homer. A great scholar said of this translation that it was "a very pretty poem, but nut 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. 390 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 12. After finishing tlie Iliad, Pope undertook a translation of the Odyssey of Homer. This was not so successful ; nor was it so well done. In fact, 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 Essays, the Essay on Man, and the Epistles and Satires. These poems are full of the finest thoughts, expressed in the most perfect form. Mr Buskin quotes the couplet — " 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 Epistle 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 : — " True wit is nature to advantage dressed, • What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.'' " Good-nature 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 jaundie'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." " And not a vanity is given in vain." " Would ye be blest? despise low joys, low gains, Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains, Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains." FIKST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 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 < ourt. He was greatly influenced by the neatness and polish ot FmicIi 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 born at Ednam in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in the year 1700. He was educated at the grammar-school of Jedburgh, and then 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 174^. J 2E 398 HISTORY 01? ENGLISH LITERATURE. 16. Thomson's place as a poet is high in the second rank. His Seasons have always been popular ; and, when Coleridge found 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 liner 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 modern 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 born 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 uncle, Gray was brought up. One of his schoolfellows was the famous Horace Wal- pole. After leaving school, Gray proceeded to Cambridge ; but, instead of reading mathematics, he studied classical literature, history, and modern 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 Eton College. The Elegy written in a Country Churchyard Avas 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 Avas begun. In 1768 he was ap- pointed Professor of Modern 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. Cray Avas never married. He was said by those who knew him to be the most learned man <>F his time in Europe. Literature, history, and several sciences — all Avere thor- oughly known t<> him. He had read everything in the world thai, was best worth reading ; Avliile his knowledge of botany, zoology, and entomology Avas both Avide and exact. FIRST HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 399 18. Gray's Elegy took him 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 Quehec, 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 corner-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 little footsteps lightly print the ground." 19. William Collins (1721-1759), one of the truest lyrical poets of the century, was born 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 bis bead and little money in bis pocket;" and there found a bind and fast friend in Dr Johnson. His Odes appeared in 17-17. The volume fell still- born from the press : not a single copy was sold ; no one bought, read, or noticed it. In a lit of furious despair, the unhappy author railed in the whole edition and burnt every copj with his own hands. And yet it was, with the single exception of the songs of Burns, the truest poetry that bad 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 ;i Druid lies "— one of the finest of bis poems. Not long after, he was attacked by a 400 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. disease of the brain, from which 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 Evening ; 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 finch, 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." iOl CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 1. Prose -Writers.— The four greatest prose-writers of the latter half of the eighteenth century are Johnson, Goldsmith, 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 subject ; 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 born at Lichfield in the year 1709. His father was a bookseller ; and it was in his father's shop that Johnson acquired his habit of omnivorous reading, or rather devouring of books. The mistress of the dame's school, to which he first went, declared him 402 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. to be the best scholar she ever hud. After a fow years at the free grammar-school of Lichfield, and one year at Stourbridge, lie 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 Porter 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 London — 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 Rambler. 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 Beynolds, 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 Life 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 Lives 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 Rambler is full of " long-tailed words in osity and SECOND HALF OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 403 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, Thau when a blockhead's insult points the dart." 4. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), poet, essayist, historian, and dramatist, was born 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 farthing 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 Incpiiry into the State of Polite Learning in Europe,' in 1759 ; but it appeared without his name. From that date he Avrote books of all kinds, poems, and plays. He died in his chambers in Brick Court, Temple, London, in 1774. 5. Goldsmith'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, "the first genuine novel of domestic life." He also wrote histories of England, of Eome, of Animated Nature. All this was done as professional, nay, almost as hack work ; but 404 HISTOKY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. always in a very pleasant, lively, and readable style. Ease, grace, 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 born 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, born 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 Thoughts on the Cause of the present Discontents, published in 1773; Reflections on the French Revolution (1790) ; and the Letters 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. 405 ami 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 aide critic as "the greatest master of metaphor that the world has ever seen." 8. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), the second great prose- writer of the second half of the eighteenth century, was born 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 Roman 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 1758, 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 Roman 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 400 HISTORY OF ENGLISH 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 •lay, or rather night, of June 27, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page 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, Grote, 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 Avere born 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 (1731-1800), one of the truest, purest, and sweetest of English poets, was born 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 only 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 till 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 God. " I seem to 408 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. myself,' 1 lie 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 The Task; and the best poem in it is probably " The Winter Evening." His best-known poem is John Gilpin, 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 linos have passed into our common stock of everyday quotations. Such are — •' Cod 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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 409 13. George Crabbe (1754-1832), the poet of the poor, was born 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 begun 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 West- 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 w r on 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 With sullen woe displayed iu every face." 410 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. He does not paint the lot of the poor with the rose-coloured tints used by Goldsmith ; he boldly denies the existence of such a village as Auburn ; he -roups such places with Eden, and says — "Auburn ami Eden ran lie 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 ami then his style is Hat, ami even coarse ; but there is everj r - 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- svllabled lines. 1G. Robert Burns (1759-1796), the greatest poet of Scotland, was born in Ayrshire, two miles from the town of Ayr, in 1759. 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 lie 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 lather'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, hut did not succeed, lie 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 lie could not shake off, 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 trie globe, than tbe 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." Must 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 morn, Again thou usher' st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn. O 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 poef 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 Chatterton 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 — poems, 412 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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 hand 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 Roundelay — " sing unto my roundelay, 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 born in London in the year 1757. 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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 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 N"ight : — " The sun 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." 2 F 414 CHAPTEE VIII. THE FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 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 Ee volution 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 — Burns, 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 turn FIKST 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. Great 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, but 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 (1770-1850) was born 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 wii.h very little care from his 416 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. parents and guardians. He was sent to school at Hawkshead, in the Vale of Esthwaite, in Lancashire ; and, at the age of seventeen, pro- ceeded to St John's College, Camhridge. 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 Ids 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 Lyrical 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 ; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn." He obtained the post of Distributor of Stamps for the county of Westmoreland; and, after the death of Southey, he was created Poet-Laureate 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 Lucy, The Cuckoo, the Ode to Duty, the Intimations of Immortality, and several of his Sonnets. He says of his own poetry that his purpose in writing it M r as " 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 M T ork 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 his own verse — FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 117 " 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 (1771-1832), poet and novelist, the son of a Scotch attorney (called in Edinburgh a W.S. or Writer to H.M.'s Signet), was born 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 German poems. In the year 1805, however, an original poem, the Lay of the Last Minstrel, appeared ; and Scott became at one bound the foremost poet of the day. Marmion, the Lady of the Lake, 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, Rob 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 George IV. in 1820. 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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 £130,000. But the task was too terrible ; the pace had been too hard ; and he was struck clown 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 clown, 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 his 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 Horner 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 (1772-1834), a true poet, and FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 419 a writer of noble prose, was born 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 r - 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner appeared in the ' Lyrical Ballads.' His next greatest poem, Christabel, though written in 1797, was not published till the year 1816. .His other best poems are Love: 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 modern 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 Southey (1774-1843), poet, reviewer, historian, but, above all, man of letters, — the friend of Coleridge and Wordsworth, — was born 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- Laureate by George III. — He was the most indefatigable of writers. He wrote poetry before breakfast; history between breakfast and 4 20 HISTORY CF ENGLISH LITERATURE. dinner; reviews between dinner and supper; and, even when taking a constitutional, lie 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 Are, written when he was nineteen ; Thalaba the Destroyer, a poem in irregular and unrhymed verse ; The Curse of Kehama, in verse rhymed, but irregular ; and Roderick, the last of the Goths, written in blank verse. He will, however, always be best remembered by his shorter pieces, such as The Holly Tree, Stanzas written in My Library, and others. — His most famous prose work is the Life of Nelson. His prose style is always firm, clear, compact, and sensible. 14. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), a noble poet and brilliant reviewer, was born 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 England, Hohenlinden, and others. He was twice Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. He died at Boulogne in 1844, and was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. 15. Thomas Moore (1779-1852), poet, biographer, and historian — but most of all poet — was born 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 all thy chords to light, freedom, and song." His best long poem is Lalla Rookh. — His prose works are little read nowadays. The chief among them are his Life of Sheridan, and his Life of Lord 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 born 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 English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. After the publication of this book, Byron travelled in Germany, Spain, Greece, and Turkey Pot two years; and the first two cantos of the poem entitled Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were the outcome of these travels. This poem at on re- 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 following 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. composed the fourth canto of Childe Harold and the Lament of Tasso ; 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 Sardanapalus, are written in blank verse. — His style is re- markable for its strength and elasticity, for its immensely powerful sweep, tireless energy, and brilliant illustrations. 18. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), — who has, like Spen- ser, been called "the poet's poet," — was born at Field Place, near Horsham, in Sussex, in the year 1792. He was educated at Eton, and then at University College, Oxford. A shy, diffident, 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 ,i coasting trip to that city. They reached Leghorn in safety; but, on the return journey, the boat sank in a sudden squall. 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 FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 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 Borne. 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 Skylark, Ode to the West Wind, Stanzas written in Dejection, and others. — Shelley has been called " the poet's poet," because his style is so thoroughly transfused by pure imagination. He has also been called " the master-singer of our modern 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 (1795 - 1821), one of our truest poets, was born 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 Eoman 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 Endyniion. 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 1S20, 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 ivhose name ivas writ in ivater." 21. His greatest poem is Hyperion, written, in blank verse, on the overthrow of the '•'early gods" of Greece. But he will mosl 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. " Silent, upon a peak in Darien." " 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 corn." 22. Prose-Writers. — We have now to consider the greatest prose-writers of the first half of the nineteenth century. First comes "Walter Seott, 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 Lamb and Walter Savage Landor, 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, while he also gained for him- self a high place in the rank of historians. Maeaulay, also of Scottish descent, Avas 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 - 1834), a perfect English essayist, was born 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 CENTURY. 425 Spenser, Milton, and Lamb's friend Leigh 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 Elia, 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. Very little verse came from his pen. " Charles Lamb's nosegay 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 Familiar Faces. — He retired from the India House, on a pension, in 1825, 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 born 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 all 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 George 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. ranked by De Quincey with the Satan of Milton. Some of his smaller poetic pieces are perfect ; and there is one, Rose Aylmer, written about a dear young friend, that Lamb was never tired of repeating : — " Ah ! what avails the sceptred race ! All ! what the form divine ! What every virtue, every grace ! Rose Aylmer, all were thine ! " Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes Shall weep, but never see ! A night of memories and sighs I consecrate to thee." 25. Jane Austen (1775-1817), the most delicate and faithful painter of English social life, was born at Steventon, in Hamp- shire, in 1775 — 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 says 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 Emma and Pride 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 Quincey (1785-1859), one of our most brilliant essayists, was born at Greenheys, Manchester, in the year 1785. 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 " Christopher 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-d.ay. 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 life, 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- sions 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 reasoning 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 young reader can find among modern writers. 27. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), a great thinker, essayist, and historian, was born at Ecclefechan, in Dumfriesshire, in the year 1795. He was educated at the burgh school of Annan, and afterwards at the University of Edinburgh. Classics 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 Resartus ("The Tailor Kepatched"), 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 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. and Hero-Worship. Perhaps his most remarkable book — a book that is unique in all English literature — is The French Revolu- tion, which appeared in 1837. In the year 1845, his Cromwell's Letters and Speeches were published, and drew alter them a large number of eager readers. In 1805 he completed the hardest piece of work he had ever undertaken, his History of Frederick II., 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 Mere 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, ami 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 his 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 modern 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 already have become clearer." FIRST HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTUET. 429 " History is a mighty drama, enacted upon the theatre of time, with suns 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 Macaulay (1800-1859), the most popu- lar of modern historians, — an essayist, poet, statesman, and orator, — was born 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 offices were filled by him, among others that of Paymaster-General of the Forces, with a seat in the Cabinet of Lord John Russell. In 1842 appeared his Lays of Ancient Rome, poems which have found a very large number of readers. His greatest work is his History of England from 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. Tin'- enormous command of expression corresponded with the extra- ordinary power of his memory. At the age of eight he could repeat ■2 G 130 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. the whole of Scott's poem of " Marmion." He was fond, at this early age, of big words 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 : — "Cranmer could vindicate himself from the charge of being a heretic only by arguments 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 from 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 ; an«l he writes with the greatest vigour and animation when he is attacking a policy or an opinion. 431 CHAPTER IX. THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 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 [lowers 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 peels 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 Morris, 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 Ruskin. Of these, too, not one is left alive. 3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), the most popular of American poets, and as popular in Great Britain as he is in the United States, was born 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 modern languages in his own college was offered to him ; it was eagerly accepted, and in order to qualify 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 offered the Chair of Modern 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 he 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 Hiawatha, on which his poetical reputation is perhaps most firmly based, in 1855. Many other volumes of poetry — both original and translations — have also come from his 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. Longfellow'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 CENTUKY. 433 supreme 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, my laughing water ! All my heart is buried with you, All' my | thou'ghts go | 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. • r >. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), who continued writing beautiful poetry lor close on seventy years, 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 forgotten 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 Lyrical — 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 perfection of language, appeared in 1S47. The In Memoriam, a long series of short poems in memory of his dear friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, the son of Hallani the historian, was published in the year 1850. 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 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 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 bad done the largest amount of the besl poetical work. The Idylls of the King appeared in 1859. This series of poems— perhaps his greatest — con tains 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 Revenge is one of the noblest and most vigorous poems that England has ever seen. The dramas of Harold, Queen Mary, and Becket, 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 Aldworth, 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 is her cottage in its place, Where yon broad water sweetly slowly glides: It sees itself from thatch to base Dream in the sliding tides. " And fairer she : but, ah ! how soon to die ! Her quiet dream of life this hour may cease : Her peaceial 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 iu 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. 435 " 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 sound of blows descending, moau of an enemy massacred, Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinous 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 ! " 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 frozen 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 born 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 oi dered 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 returned to London, and spent several years in a dark- ened room. Here she "read almost every book worth reading in 43C HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. almost every language, and gave herself heart and soul to that poetry of which she seemed born 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 184G she married Robert Browning, also a great poet. In 1856 she brought out Aurora Leigh, her longest, and probably also her greatest, poem. Mr Ruskin 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's Grave. 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 181 2, and died at Venice in 1889. He was privately educated. In 1835 he published his poem Paracelsus, which many wondered at, but few read. It was the story of a man Avho 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 Ring 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 ! 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 inter- mingled, that it is very often extremely difficult for us to make out SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 437 any meaning at all. Then many of Lis 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 t Arnold, one of the finest poets and noblest stylists of the age, was born at Laleham, near Staines, in the year 1822, and died in 1888. He was the eldest son of the great Dr Arnold, the famous Head-master of Rugby. 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 1857 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 t>( his style : — " We cannot kindle when we will The fire that in the heart resides : The spirit bloweth and is still In mystery our soul 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 hear 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 Rustum — a tale 438 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. of the Tartar wastes. One of his noblest poems, called Rugby- Chapel, describes the strong and elevated character ol 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 born 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 Life and Death of Jason, appeared in 1867 ; and his magnificent series of narrative poems — The Earthly Paradise — was published in the years from 1868 and 1870. 'The Earthly Paradise' consists of twenty-four tales in Averse, 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 Parnassus' hill." Mr Morris also translated the iEneid 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 : — " fair midspring, besung so oft and oft, How can I praise thy loveliness enow ? Thy sun that burns 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 of Chaucer. The following is his picture of Edward III. in middle age : — " Broad-browed he was, hook-nosed, with wide grey eyes No longer eager for the coming prize, SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 4 39 But keen and steadfast : many an ageing line, Half-hidden by his sweeping beard and tine, 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 morn 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 (1811-1863), one of the most original of English novelists, was born 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 ' Fraser'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 ia perhaps The Newcomes; hut 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 ENGLISH LITERATURE. this century, was born at Landport, Portsmouth, in the year 1812. His delicate constitution debarred him from mixing in boyish eports, 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,' ' Robinson 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 1 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 1 avast. . . . 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 English 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 Modern 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, ami 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. Ruskin's Style. —A glowing eloquence, a splendid and full- 112 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. flowing music, wealth of phrase, aptness of epithet, opulence of ideas — all these cpialities 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- verance in Tightness 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 care 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 w r ould be impos- sible to give any adequate idea of this power here ; but a few lines may suffice for the present : — " The noonday sun came slanting down the rocky slopes of La Riccia, 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 born 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 SECOND HALF OF NINETEENTH CENTURY. 443 attention of the public to her astonishing skill and power as a novelist was her Scenes of Clerical Life. 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 Legend of Jubal, and other Poems. One of her best poems is The Spanish Gypsy. She died in the year 1880. 20. George Eliot'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." " Genius, 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 the 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 LITERATURE. Writers. (Author unknown. CABDMON. A secular monk of Whitby. Died about 680. BAEDA. 672-735. "The Venerable Bode,' a monk of Jar- row-on-Tyne. ALFRED THE GREAT. 849-901. King ; translator ; prose-writer. Compiled by monks in various monaster- ies. Contemporary Evei Beowulf (brought over by -us and Angles from the Continent). Poems "ii the Creation and other subjects taken from the Old and the New Testa- ment. An Ecclesiastical History in Latin. A translation of St John's Gospel into English (lost). Translated into the Knglisli of Wessex, Bede's Ecclesi- astical History ami other Latin works. Is said to have begun the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875- 1154. ASSER. Life of King Alfred. Bishop of Slier- I borne. Died 909 1?) ' Cen- turies. 500 Edwin (of Delra), 600 King of tin Angles, baptis- First. landing ol 700 the Danes. , The University id' Oxford 1 said to have been founded in this reign. 800 900 (Author unknown.) \ poem entitled The Grave. 1000 LAYAMON. fl. 1200. A priest of Ernley- on-Severn. The Brut (1205), a poem nn John ascended Brutus, the supposed firs! the throne in settler in Britain. i 1199 ' _' Jl 1100 446 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. ORM or ORMIN. /. 1200 (?) A canon of the Order of St. Augustine. ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER. fl. 1260-1300. ROBERT OF BRUNNE. fl. 1288-1338. (Robert Manning ol Bourne in Lines.) SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. J. 1372. Fictitious nami' : perhaps one John Burgoyne. JOHN BARBOUR, 1316-1395. Archdeacon of Aberdeen. JOHN WYCLIF. 1324-1384. Vicar of Lutter- worth, in Leicester- shire. JOHN GOWER. 1325-1408. A country gentle- man of Kent ; prob- ably also a lawyer. WILLIAM LANGLANDE. 1332-1400. Born in Shropshire. Works. The Ormulum, a set of re- ligious services in metre. Chronicle of England in rhyme . Chronicle of England in rhyme ; Handlyng Sinne (1303). The Voyaige and Travaile. Travels to Jerusalem, India, and other countries, written in Latin. French, and Eng- lish. The first writer "in formed English." The Bruce (1375), a poem written in the Northern Eng- lish or " Scottish " dialect. Translation of the Bible from the Latin version ; and many tracts and pamphlets on Church reform. Vox Clamantis, Confessio Amantis, Speculum Medi- tantis (1393); and poems in French and Latin. Vision concerning Piers the Plowman — three editions (1362-92). Contemporary Events. Magna Charta, 1215. Henry III. as- cends the throne, 1216. University of Cambridge founded, 1231. Edward I. as- cends the throne, 1272. Conquest of Wales, 1284. Edward II. as- cends the throne, 1307. Battle of Ban- nockburn, 1314. Edward III. ascends the throne, 1327. Hundred Years' War begins, 1338. Battle of Crecy, 1346. The Black Death 1349. 1361. 1 Still. Bafctleof Poitiers, 1356. First law-plead- ings in English, 1362. TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 447 GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 1340-1400. Poet; courtier: soldier ; diplomatist ; Comptroller of the Customs: Clerk of the King's Works ; M.P. JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. 1394-1437- Prisoner in Eng- land, and educated there, in 1405-24. WILLIAM CAXTON. 1422-1491. Mercer ; printer : translator; prose- writer. Works. WILLIAM DUNBAR. I 4 6S(?)-I530(?) Franciscan or Grey Friar; Secretary to a Scotch embassy 1" France. GAWA1N DOUGLAS. 1474-1522. Bishop of Dunkeld in Perthshire. WILLIAM TYNDAL E. 1484-1536. Student of theology ; translator. Burnt at Antwerp for heresy. The Canterbury Tales (1384- 98), of which the best is the Knightes Tale. Dryden called him " a perpetual fountain of good sense." The King's Quair (^Book), a poem in the style of Chau- cer. The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers (1477) the first book printed in England ; Lives of the Fathers, "finished on the last day of his life;" and many other works. Contemporary Events. The Golden Terge ; the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins ; and other poems. He has been called "the Chaucer of Scotland." Palace of Honour ; transla- tion of Virgil's JEneid— the first translation of any Latin author into vei Douglas wrote in Northern English. New Testament translated (1525-34); the Five Books of Moses translated (1530). This translation is the basis of the Authorised Version. Cen- turies. Richard II. as c e n d s t h ' throne, 1: 3 .77. Wat Tyler's insur- rection, 1381. Henry IV. as- cends the throne, 1399 Henry V. as- 1400 cend s the throne, 1415. Battle of Agin- court, 1415. Henry VI. as- cends the throne, 1422. Invention 01 Printing, 1488- 45. Jack Cades in- surrection, 1450 End of the Hun dred Years' Wai 1453. Wars of the Roses, 1455-8(5. Edward IV. as- 1 e ends the throne, 1461. Edward V. king, lis:;. 1450 448 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Writers. Sill THOMAS MORE. I478-I535- Lord High Chancel- lor : writer on social topics ; historian. SIR DAVID L YNDESAY. I490-I555- 'I'u! or of Prince James of Scotland (James V.); "Lord Lyon King-at-Arms ;" poet. ROGER ASCHAM. 1515-1568. Lecturer on Greek at Cambridge ; tutor to Queen Elizabeth. JOHN FOXE. 1516-1587. An English clergy- man. Corrector for the press at Basle ; Prebendary of Salis- bury Cathedral; prose-writer. EDMUND S l'ENSER. I552-I599- Secretary to Viceroy of Ireland; political writer; poet. SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 1552-1618. Courtier ; states- man ; sailor ; colon- iser ; historian. RICHARD HOOKER. I553-I600. English clergyman ; Master of the Temple ; Rector of Boscombe. in the diocese of Salis- bury. History of King Edward V., and of his brother, and of Richard III. (1513) ; Utopia ( = "The Land of No- where"), written in Latin; and other prose works. Lyndesay'sDreain(152S); The Complaint (1529; ; A Satire of the Three Estates (1535) — a "morality-play." Toxophilus (1544), a treatise on shooting with the bow ; The Scholemastre (1570). " Ascham is plain and strong in his style, but without grace or warmth." The Book of Martyrs (1563), an account of the chief Pro- testant martyrs. Shepheard's Calendar (1579) ; Faerie Queene, in six books (1590-96). History of the World (1614), written during the author's imprisonment in the Tower of London. Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594). This book is an elo- quent defence of the Church of England. The writer, from his excellent judgment, is generally called "the judicious Hooker." Contemporary Events. Richard III. as- cends the throne, 1483. Rattle of Bos- worth, 1485. Henry VII. c e n d s the throne, 1485. Greek began fcc be taught in England about 1497. Henry VIII. c, e n d s the throne, 1509. Battle of Flod- den, 1513. Wc tlsey Cardinal and Lord High Chancellor, 1515. Sir Thomas More first layman who was Lord High Chancel- lor, 152V. Reformation in England begins about 1534. Edward VI. as- cends t h e throne, 1517. Mary Tudor ascends the throne, 1553. Cranmer burnt. 1556. Elizabeth as- cends the throne, 1558. TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 449 Writers. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 1554-1586. Courtier ; general romance-writer. FRANCIS BACON. 1561-1626. Viscount St Al- bans ; Lord High Chancellor of Eng- land; lawyer; philo- sopher ; essayist. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 1564-1616. Actor ; owner of theatre ; play-writer ; poet. Born and died at Stratford-on-Avon. BEN JONSON. 1574-1637. Dramatist ; poet ; prose-writer. WILLIAM DRUMMOND ("of Hawthornden "). 1585-1649. Scottish poet ; friend of Ben Jonson. THOMAS HOBBES. 1588-1679. Philosopher; prose- writer ; translator of Homer. Works. Arcadia, a romance (1580). Defence of Poesie, pub- lished after his death (in 1595). Sonnets. Essays (1597); Advancement of Learning \ 1(305); Novum Organum (1620) ; and other works on methods of inquiry into nature. Thirty - seven plays. His greatest tragedies are Ham- let, Lear, and Othello, His best comedies are Midsum- mer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It. His best his- torical plays are Julius Ccesar and Richard ILL Many minor poems — chiefly sonnets. He wrote no prose. Tragedies and comedies. Best plays : Volpone or the Fox ; Ever;/ Man in his Humour. Sonnets and poems. The Leviathan (1651), a work on politics and moral philosophy. Contemporary Events. Hawkins begins slave trade in 1562. Rizzio murdered, 1566. Marlowe, Dek- ker, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Webster, Ben Jonson, and other drama- tists, were con- temporaries of Shakspeare. Drake sails round the world, ar.77. Execution of Mary Queen ol Scots, 15S7. Raleigh in Vir- ginia, 1584. Babington's Ploi , 1586. Spanish Armada, K.ss. Battle oi 1590. Ivry. 4T>0 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. SIR THOMAS BKOWNE. I 605- I 682. Physician at Nor- wich. JOHN MILTON. 1608- 1674. Student ; political writer ; poet ; For eign (or " Latin ") Secretary to Crom- well. Became blind from over-work in 1654. SAMUEL BUTLER. 1612-1680. Literary man ; secretary to the Earl of Carbery. .JEREMY TAYLOR. 1613-1667. English clergyman : Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland. JOHN BUNYAN. 1628-1688. Tinker and travel- ling preacher. JOHN DRYDEN. 1631-1700. Poet - Laureate and Historiographer- Royal ; playwright ; poel ; prose-writer. Religio Medici ( = " The Re- ligion of a Physician ") ; Urn - Burial ; and other prose works. Minor Poems; Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained; Samson Agonistes. Main prose works, the best being; Areopagitica, a speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. Hudibras, a mock - heroic poem, written to ridicule the Puritan and Parliament- arian party. Holy Living and Holy Dy- ing (1649) ; and a number of other religious books. The Pilgrim's Progress (1678); the Holy War ; and other religious works. Annus Mirabilis (-"The Wonderful Year," 1665-66, on t lie 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 Virgil's .ZEneid. His prose consists chiefly of prefaces and introductions to his poems. Contemporary Events. Australia dis- covered, u;oi. James I. as- e e mis the throne in liiOS. Hampton Court Conference for translation of Bible, 1004-11 Gunpowder Plot, L605. Execution Of Raleigh, 1618. Charles I. as- cends t h e throne in 1625. Petition of Right, 1628. No Parliament from 1629-40. Scottish National Covenant, 1688. Long Parliament, 1640-53. Marston M oor, 1644. Execution ofl Charles I., 1649. f TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 451 Writers. JOHN LOCKE. 1632- 1704. Diplomatist; Secre- tary to the Board "I Trade; philosopher; prose-writer. DANIEL DEFOE. 1661-1731. Literary man ; pamphleteer; journal- ist; member of Com- mission on Union with Scotland. JONATHAN SWIFT. 1667-1745. English clergyman ; literary man ; satir- ist; prose-writer ; poet ; Dean of St Pat- rick's, in Dublin. SIR RICHARD STEELE. 1672*1729. Soldier; literary man ; courtier ; jour- nalist. ; M.P. JOSEPH ADDISON. 1672-1719. Essayist; poet; Sec- retary of State for the Home Department. ALEXANDER ROPE. 1688-1744. Poet. Works. Essay concerning the Hu- man Understanding (1690) ; Thoughts on Education ; and other prose works. The True-born Englishman (1701) ; Robinson Crusoe (1719) ; Journal of the Plague (1722) ; and more than a hundred books in all. Battle of the Books ; Tale 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. Contemporary Events. De- cades. The Common- 1650 wealth, 1049-60. Cromwell Lord Protector, 1653- 58. Restoration, 1000. First .standing army, 1661. First newspaper in England, 1663. The Revolution, 1688-9. Death of Anne and Accession of George I., 1714. 1660 Steele founded the ' Tatler, 'Spectator,' 'Guardian,' and J Charles II., pen- other small journals. H< also wrote some plays. sioned by Louis XIV. of Franc 1674. in the ' Tatler,' 'Spectator,' and 'Guardian.' CatO, a Tragedy (1713). Several Poems and Hymns. Essay on Criticism (1711) ; Rape of the Lock (1714) ; Translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, finished in 1726 ; Dunciad (1729) ; Essay on Man (1739). \ few prose Essays, and a volume of Letters. Marlborough's Campaign s, 1702-11. James II. as- 1680 cen ds the throne in 1685. Revolution o f 1688. William III. and Mary II. ascend the throne, 1680. Battle of the 1690 Boyne, 1690. 1670 4 52 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Writers. JAMES THOMSON. 1700-1748. Poet. HENRY FIELDING. 1707-1754. Police - magistrate ; journalist; novelist. DR SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1709-1784. Schoolmaster ; lit- erary man ; essayist ; poet; dictionary- maker. DAVID HUME. 1711-1776. Librarian ; Secret- ary to the French Em- bassy ; philosopher ; literary man. THOMAS GRAY. 1716-1771. Student ; poet ; let- ter-writer ; Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT. 1721-1771. Doctor ; pamphlet- eer ; literary hack ; novelist. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774. Literarymarj ; play- writer ; poet. The Seasons ; a poem in blank verse (1730) : The Castle of Indolence ; a mock - heroic poem in the Spenserian stan- za (1748). Joseph Andrews (1742); Amelia (1751). He was "the first great English novelist." London (1738) ; The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) ; Dictionary of the English Language (1755) ; Rasse- las (1759) ; Lives of the Poets (1781). He also wrote The Idler, The Ram- bler, and a play called Irene. History of England (1754- 1761) ; and a number of philosophical Essays. His prose is singularly clear, easy, and pleasant. Odes ; Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) — one of the most perfect poems in our language. He was a great stylist, and an extremely careful workman. Roderick Random (1748) ; Humphrey Clinker (1771). He also continued Hume's History of England. He published also some Plays and Poems. The Traveller (1764) ; The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) ; The Deserted Village (1770); She Stoops to Conquer a Play (1773) ; and a large number of books, pam- phlets, and compilations. Contemporary Events. De- cades. Censorship of the Press abolished, 1695. Queen Anne 1700 ascends the] throne in 1702. The Jacobite Re- bellion of 1745. Union of Eng- land and Scot- land, 1707. 1 leorge I. ascends 1710 the throne in 1714. Rebellion in Scot- land in 1715. Rise of Method- ism, S e v e 11 Years' War, 1756-63. George II. as- r e n d s the throne, 1727. 1720 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 453 Writers. Works. ADAM SMITH. 1723-1790. Professor in the University of Glasgow. EDMUND BURKE. 1729-1797. M.P. ; statesman; " the first man in the House of Commons ; " orator ; writer on po- litical philosophy. WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800. Commissioner in Bankruptcy; Clerk of the Journals of the House of Lords ; poet. EDWARD GIBBON. 1737-1794- Historian ; M.P. ROBERT BURNS. 1759-1796. Farm - labourer ; ploughman ; farmer ; excise-officer ; lyrical poet. Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) ; Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). He was the founder of the science of political economy. Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) ; 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." Table 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. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-87). "Heavily laden style and monotonous balance of even sentence." Poems and Songs (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." Contemporary Events. De- cades. Can-on Iron Works, Stir- ling, c s ta b- lished, L758. Mule-jenny for cotton -spin- ning, 1779. Outbreak of French Revolu- tion, 1789. First Census. 1801. 1730 1740 icports of Par- liamentary lii bates allowed, 1771. Penal law of 1690 against Catho- lics repealed, 1778. Watt 's steam - engine, 1750 1759. Vaccination by Jenner, 1799. 454 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770- 1850. Distributor of Stumps for the coun- ty of Westmoreland ; poet ; poet-laureate. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 1771-1832. Clerk to the Court of Session in Edin- burgh; Scottish bar- rister; poet; novelist. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834. Private soldier ; journalist ; literary man ; philosopher ; poet. ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843. Literary man ; Quarterly Reviewer ; historian; poet-lau- reate. CHARLES LAMB. I775-I834- Clerk in the East India House ; poet ; prose-writer. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. 1775-1864. Poet; prose-writer. Lyrical Ballads (with Cole- ridge, 1798) ; The Excursion (1814) ; Yarrow Revisited (1835), and many other poems. The Prelude was published after his death. His prose, which is very good, consists chiefly of Prefaces and Introductions. Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) ; Marmion (1808) ; Lady of the Lake (1810); Waver ley — the first of the "Waverley Novels" — was published in 1814. The " Homer of Scotland." His prose is bright and fluent, but very inaccurate. The Ancient Mariner (1798) ; Christabel (1816); The Friend — a Collection of Es- says (1812) ; Aids to Reflec- tion (1825). His prose is very full both of thought and emotion. Joan of Arc (1796) ; Thalaba the Destroyer (1801) ; The Curse of Kehama (1810) ; A History of Brazil; The Doctor — a Collection of Es- says ; Life 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); The Essays of Elia (1823-1833). One of the finest writers of prose in the English lan- guage. Gebir (1798) ; Count Julian (1812) ; Imaginary Conver- sations (1824-1846) ; Dry Sticks Faggoted (1858). He wrote books for more than sixty years. His style is full of vigour and sustained eloquence. Contemporary Events. De- cades. George III. as- cends the throne in 1760. Napoleon and Wellington born, 1769. 1760 Warren Hastings in India, 1772- 85. 1770 American De- j claration ofj Independence, 1776. Alliance of France and America, 1778. TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 455 Writers. Works. (JoNTRMPORARY Events. THOMAS CAMPBELL. 1777-1844. Poet; literary man; editor. HENRY HALLAM. I777-I859- Historian. THOMAS MOORE. 1779-1852. Poet; prose-writer. THOMAS DE MUINCEY. 1785-1859. Essayist. LORD BYRON (George Gordon). 1788-1824. Peer ; poet ; volun tei 1 i" Greece founded in L778. The Pleasures of Hope (1799); ' Kncyclopsedia Poems (1803); Gertrude of Wyoming, Battle of the Baltic, Hohenlinden, etc. (1809). He also wrote some Historical Works. 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) ; Lalla Rookh (1817) ; His- tory of Ireland < 1 827) ; Life of Byron (1830) ; Irish Melodies (1834) ; and many prose works. 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 cenl iirv. Hours of Idleness (1807) ; English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) ; Childe 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. Liverpool and Mane h cs t e v Railway, lS.'.O. De- cades. Unite. 1 Irish- men's Rebel- lion. French land in Ireland, 1708. The Times pub- , 1780 lished. 1785. j Gas first used in 1. 11 11 don streets. 1S07. Jreek War ol Independence against the Turks, 1822-9. 456 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1792-1822. Poet. JOHN KEATS. 1795-1821. Poet. THOMAS CARLYLE. 1795-1881. Literary man ; poet; translator; essayist ; reviewer ; political writer ; his- torian. LORD MACAULAY (Thomas Babington). 1800-1859. Barrister; Edin- burgh Reviewer; M.P.; Member of the Supreme Council of India; Cabinet Minis- ter ; poet ; essayist ; historian; peer. Queen Mab (1810) ; Prome- theus Unbound— a Tragedy (1819) ; Ode to the Skylark, The Cloud (1820) ; Adonais (1821), and many other poems ; and several prose works. Poems (1817); Endymion (1818); Hyperion (1820). " Had Keats lived to the ordinary age of man, he would have been one of the greatest of all poets." German Romances— a set of Translations (1827) ; Sartor Resartus — "The Tailor Repatched " (1834) ; The French Revolution (1837); Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840) ; Past and Present (1843); Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (1845) ; Life of Frederick the Great (1858-65). "With the gift of song, Carlyle would have been the greatest of epic poets since Homer." Milton (iu. the ' Edinburgh Review,' 1825) ; Lays of Ancient Rome (1842) ; His toryof England— unfinished (1849-59). " His pictorial faculty is amazing." Contemporary Events. Cape of Good Hope taken, 1795. Bonaparte in Italy, 1790. Battle of the Nile, 1798. Union of Great Britain and Ire- land, 1801. Trafalgar and Nelson, 1S05. Peninsular War, 1808-14. Napoleon's Inva- sion of Russia ; Moscow burnt, 1812. War with United States, 1812-14. Battle of Water- loo, 1815. George IV. as- e.ends the throne, 1820. Gas first manu- factured, 1792. Catholic EiiKin- cipat ton, 1829. German Empire re-established, 1871. William IV. as- cends the throne, 1830. The Reform Bill, 1832. Total Abolition of Slavery, 1834. TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 457 LORD LYTTON (Edward Bulwer). 1803-1873. Novelist; poet dramatist; M.P. Cabin'et Minister peer. JOHN STUART MILL. 1806-1873. Clerk in the East India House ; philos- opher; political writer; M.P. ; Lord Rector of the Univer- sity of St Andrews. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 1807-1882. Professor of Mod- ern Languages and Literature in Harvard University, U.S.; poet; prose-writer. LORD TENNYSON (Alfred Tennyson). 1809-1892. Poe1 : ] t -laure- ate ; peer. ELIZABETH B. BARRETT (afterwards Mns Browning). 1806-1861. Toet : prose-writer ; translator. Works. Ismael and Other Poems (1825) ; Eugene Aram (1832) ; Last Days of Pom- peii (1834) ; The Caxtons (1849J ; My Novel (1853); Poems (1865). System of Logic (1843); Prin- ciples of Political Economy (1848) ; Essay on Liberty (1859) ; Autobiography (1873). "For judicial calm- ness, elevation of tone, and freedom from personality, Mill is unrivalled among the writers of his time." Outre-Mer— a Story (1835); Hyperion— a Story (1839) ; Voices of the Night (1841) ; Evangelino (1848) ; Hia- watha (1855) ; Aftermath (1873). "His tact in tin- use of language is probably the chief cause of his suc- Poems (1830) ; In Memoriam (1850); Maud (1855); Idylls of the King (1859-85) ; Queen Mary - a Drama (1875) ; Becket a Drama (1884): The Foresters— a Drama (1892). Prometheus Bound trans- lated from the Greek of .Eschylus (1833); Poems (1844); Aurora Leigh (1856) ; and Essays con- tributed to various maca- contemporary Events. Queen Victoria ascends the throne, 1837. Irish Famine, 1845. Re] eal Corn 1846. of th( J. a n s, Revolution in Paris, 1S51. Death of Welling- ton, 1852. Napoleon III. Emperor of the French, 1852. Russian 1854-56. Franco- Austrian War, 1859. Emancipation of Russian serfsj 1861. Austro - Prussian "Seven Weeks' War," 1866. Buoz Canal fin- ished, 1869. De- I UM S. 1840 1850 1860 458 TABLES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Writers. Works. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 1811-1863. Novelist; writer in 'Punch' ; artist. CHARLES DICKENS. 1812-1870. Novelist. ROBERT BROWNING. 1812-1889. Poet. JOHN RUSKIN. 1819-1900. Art-critic; essay- ist; teacher; literary man. GEORGE ELIOT. 1819-1880. Novelist; poet: essayist. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE 1837-1912. Lyric poet ; drama tist ; prose-writer. The Paris Sketch -Book (1840) ; Vanity Fair (1847) ; Esmond (1862) ; The New- comes (lS:'jf>) ; The Vir- ginians ( 1 857). The great - est novelist and one of the most perfect stylists of the 19th cent. "The classical English humorist and sat- irist of the reign of Queen Victoria." Sketches byBoz(lS36); The Pickwick Papers (1837) ; Oliver Twist (1838); Nicho- las Nickleby (1838); and many other novels and works ; Great Expectations (1860). The most popular writer that ever lived. ' Pauline (1832) ; Paracelsus (1835); Poems (1865); The , Ring and the Book (1869); and many other volumes of i I poetry. Modern Painters (1843-60); The Stones of Venice ( 1851 - 53) ; The Queen of the Air ^1869) ; An Autobiography (18S5) ; and very many other works. "He lias a deep, serious, ami almost fanatical reverence for art." Scenes of Clerical Life (185S) Adam Bede (1859); and many other novels down to Daniel Deronda (1876) ; Spanish Gypsy (1868) ; Le- gend of Jubal (1874). Contemporary Events. Franco - Prussian War, 1S70-71. Third French Re- public, 1870. William I. of Prussia made Emperor of the Germans at Ver- sailles, 1871. Rome the new capital of Italy, 1871. Russo . Turkish War, 1877-7S. Berlin Congress and Treaty, 1878. Leo XIII. made Pope in 1878. Assassination <>( Alexander II., 1881. Arabi Pasha's Re- bellion, 1882-83. War in the Sou- dan, 18S4. Winder of don, 1S85. 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." Jsew Reform Bill 18S5. War in S. Africa, 1900 IS"! I. I Death of Queen Victoria, 1901. INDEX 459 INDEX. PART I. Absolute, nominative, &">. Adjectives, 28. comparison of, 32. defective, 34. irregular, 33. compound, formation of, 117. demonstrative, 29. inflection of, 31. numeral, 29. qualitative, 28. quantitative, 29. suffixes to, English, 131. Latin and French, 138. syntax of, 71. Adjective pronouns (so-called), 29, 30. Adverbs, 57. classification of, 57. comparison of, 57. irregular, 58. formation of, 118. syntax of, S3. Alphabet, what it is, 7. conditions of a perfect, 7. the English, very defective, 7, 8. Analysis of sentences, 86-115. complex sentence, 102. (cautions), 107. mapping-out of, 109. compound sentence, 111. " continuous" method of, 111. " pigeon-hole" method of, 110. simple sentence, 87. (cautions), 93. mapping-out of, 100. Anomalous verbs, 53. Antecedent, 26. Apposition, 22. Articles (so-called), 29. Auxiliary verbs, 48, 53. Be, conjugation of, 50. Branching of words, 143-153. Cardinal numerals, 30. Case, 19. dative, 21. different cases, with their uses, 20. nominative, 20. objective, 22. possessive, 20. vocative, 20, 22. Cognate object, 22. Comparison of adjectives, 32. defective, 34. irregular, 33. of adverbs, 57. irregular, 58. Compound adjectives, formation of, 117. adverbs, formation of, 119. nouns, formation of, 116. verbs, formation of, lis. Concord, rules of, 76. Conjugation of verbs, 42. specimen of full, 54. Conjunctions, 60. syntax of, S4. Conjunctive (or relative) pronouns, 20. Connectives, 5S. Consonant, 5. sounds, table of, 6. Dative case, 21. syntax of, 69. Demonstrative adjectives, 29. Dentals, 5, 6. Derivation, word-building and, 110-171. Derivations from English roots, Hi. from Greek roots, 152. from Latin roots, 1 17. •J I 4G0 INDEX. Derivations from names of persons, etc., 154. from names of places, 15S. of words disguised in form, 1,61. of words greatly changed in meaning, 16S. Diphthongs, 5. English inseparable prefixes, 120. roots and branches, 144. separable prefixes, 121. suffixes to adjectives, 181. to adverbs, 133. to nouns, 128. to verbs, 134; English language, grammar of, 4. origin and development of, 4. Etymology, 5, 8-63. Extension of predicate, 95. Factitive object, 22. French derivations, etc., included under Latin. Functions, words known by their, 61. Gender, 11. indicated by different words, 14. indicated by prefixes, 13. indicated by suffixes, 12. Latin and French suffixes of, 13. Gerund, 39. Gerundial infinitive, 82. Government of verbs, 78. Grammar, 4. of letters, 7. of sounds, 5. of words, 8-63. parts of, 4. Greek prefixes, 1 20. roots, 152. suffixes, 141. Gutturals, 5, 6. Have, conjugation of, 49. Inflexion of adjectives, 31. of nouns, 11. of pronouns, 24, 25. of verbs, 36. Inseparable prefixes. English, L20. Interjections, 60. Interrogative pronouns, 25. Intransitive verbs, 35. Irregular weak verbs, 40. Kinds of words, 8. known by functions, 61! Labials, 5, 6. Language, what it is, 3. spoken and written, 3. Latin prefixes, 123. roots, 147. suffixes to adjectives, 138. to nouns, 134. to verbs, 141. Letters, grammar of, 7. redundant, 8. Moods, 38. syntax of, 80. Mutes, 5, 6. Nominative case, 20. absolute, 60 of address, 97. syntax of, 64. Nouns, 9. abstract, 10. classification of, 9. class-names, 10. collective, 10. common, 10. compound, formation of, 110. English suffixes to, 128. inflexions of, 11. Latin and French suffixes to, 134 proper, 9. syntax of, 64-71. Number of nouns, 15. of verbs, 42. Numeral adjectives, 29. Numerals, 30. Object, cognate, 22. factitive, 22. reflexive, 22. Objective case, 22. syntax of, 68. Ordinal numerals, 31. Orthography, 5. Palatals, 6. Participle, 40. Passive voice, 37. Person of verbs, 42. Persons, words derived from names of, 154. Places, words derived from names of, 158. Plurals, false, 17. foreign, IS. modes of forming, 19. of compound words, 19. treated as singulars, 18. INDEX. •1G1 Plurals, words used only in their, i> words with two, 17. Possessive case, 20. syntax of, 67. Predicate of sentence, 8t». Prefixes, 103. English inseparable, 120. English separable, 121. Greek, 126. Latin, 123. to indicate gender, 13 Prepositions, 58. list of special, 84. syntax of, 83. Pronouns, 23. indefinite, 27. inflexions of, 24, 25. interrogative, 25. personal, 23. reflexive, 25. relative (or conjunctive), 26. syntax of, 74. Qualitative adjectives, 28. Quantitative adjectives, 20. Reflexive pronouns, 25. Relative (or conjunctive) pronouns, 26. Roots and branches, 143-153. English, 144. Greek, 152. Latin, 147. Sentences, analysis of, 86-115. contracted, 87. complex, 102. compound, 111. simple, 87. Separable prelixes, English, 121. Shall, conjugation of, 48. Sounds, grammar of, 5. Spirants, 6. Strike, conjugation of, 54. Strong and weak verbs, 43. Strong verbs, list of, 44. Subject, what it may consist of, 8S. Suffixes, 12S. English, to adjectives, 131. to adverbs, 133. to nouns, 128. to verbs, 134. Greek, 141. Latin, to adjectives, 138. to indicate gender, 13. to nouns, 134. to verbs, 141. to indicate gender, 12. Superlative degree, 32. Syntax, 5, of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the , 64-85. adjective, 71. adverb, 83. conjunction, 84. dative, 69. nominative, 64. noun, 64. objective i possessive, 67. preposition, 83. pronoun, 74. verb, 76. Syntax, examples of false or doubtful I S ia) Tense, 41. Transitive and intransitive verbs. Verbs, 34. auxiliary, 36, 48. classification of, 35. compound, formation of, 1 1 I. concord of, 76. conjugation of, 42. specimen of full, S i. defective, 53. government of, 78. inflexions of, 36. moods of, :;- notional, 48. number of, 42. person of, 42. strong and weak, 43. strong, list of, 44. suffixes to, English, 1. 1. Latin, ltl. syntax of, 7''. tense of, 41. voice of, 37. weak and strong, 43. weak, list of irregulai , 16. two kinds of, 4 i. Vocative case, 20, 22. Voice, active. 37. ,. Vowel, 5. Weak and strong verbs, 43. Weak verbs, irregular, 46. two kinds of, 45. Will, conjugation of, 4S. Word-branching, 1 1 from English roots, 144. from Greek roots, 152. from Latin roots, 147. Word-building and derivation, 110-171. Words, grammar of (Etymology), 8-63. kinds of, 8. known by their function.-., 61. 462 INDEX. PART II. Abstract versus concrete, 183. Accents in verse, 194, 195. Accurate English, 178. Admiration, point of, 188. Adverb, position of the, 185. Alexandrine, 199. Allegory, 191. Amphibrach, 196. Amphibracbic tetrameter, 200. Anapaest, 196. Anapaestic tetrameter, 200. And ichich, 186. Antecedent and Relative, to be clearly connected, 186. Antithesis, 182. Ballad metre, 198. Blank verse, 197. Brevity, 179. Caesura, 20?.. Circumlocution, 185. Clearness, 17S. Coleridge's examples and descriptions of different metres, 201. Colon,187. Comma, 188. Compactness, 179. Composition, bints on, 175. cautions, general, 184. special, 185. directions, general, 176. Concrete versus abstract, 183. Conjunctions, omission of, 181. Couplet, 204. Dactyl, 100. Dactylic dimeter, 200. tetrameter, 200. Dash, 18S. Defective lines, 201. Dependent, and principal sentences, not to be mixed up, 186. Detail, 184. Dimeter, dactylic, 200. Distinctness of style, 183. Elegiac verse, 204. Emphasis, 180. English, accurate, 178. flowing, 179. good, 176. pure, 177. Epigram, 182. Exaggerated language, 186. Exaggeration (hyperbole), 191. Exclamation, mark of, 1S1. Figures of speech, 189. Flowing English, 179. Foot (in verse), 195. Full stop, 187. Good English, 176. Hackneyed phrases, 184. Half-rhymes, 202. " Happy Life, The,"— paraphrased, 193. Heroic couplet, 204. verse, 197. Hexameter, 127. iambic, 19S. Hyperbole (exaggeration), 101. Hypermetrical lines, 201. Iambic hexameter, 198. pentameter, 197, 198. tetrameter, 107, 198. trimeter, 197. Iambus, 195. Imperative mood, the use of, in composi- tion, 181. Interrogation, point of, 18S. Interrogative form (for emphasis), 181. Inversion, 180. Loose sentence, 164, 180. Metaphor, 190. Metonymy, 191. Metres, examples and descriptions of the different, by Coleridge, 201. Misplaced phrases, 1S7. Mixed metaphors, 185. Octave (ottava rima), 204. (in the sonnet), 205. Octometer, trochaic, 199. Paraphrase of " The Happy Life," 193. Paraphrasing, 192. Parenthesis, 188. Participles, management of, 185. present, 185. Pentameter, 197, 19S. Period (full stop), 187. INDEX. 463 Period (sentence), 179, 180. Periphrasis, 181. Personification, 190. Principal and dependent sentences, not to be mixed up, 186. Pronouns, management of, 184. Prosody (grammar of verse), 194-201. Punctuation, IS". Pure English, 177. Quatrain, 204. Relative and antecedent, to be clearly connected, 186. Repetition, 181, 182. Rhyme, 200. Rhythm, to be cultivated by reading aloud, 179. Semicolon, 187. Service metre, 198. Sestette, 205. Sextant, 204. Simile, 189. Simplicity, 17S. Skeleton of theme to bo written, 176. Sonnet, 205. Specification, 183. Spenserian stanza, 204. Spondee, 201. Stanza, 204. Subject of sentence, not to be changed, 186. Suspense, 182. Synecdoche, 191. Synonyms, 17S. Tautology, 1S5. Tetrameter, 197. amphibrachic, 200. anapaestic, 200. dactylic, 200. iambic, 197, 19S. trochaic, 199. That and who distinguished, 186. Trimeter, 197. Triplet, 264. tetrameter, 204. Trochaic octometer, 199. Trochee, 195. Unrhymed (blank) verse, 197. Vague sentence, contrasted with specific, 183. Verbosity, 179. Verse, different from Prose in two things, 194. grammar of (Prosody), 194-201. Which and and which, 186. Who ami that distinguished, ISO. PART III. African words in English, 341. American words in English, 341. Analytic English (= modern), 317. Ancient English, 277. synthetic, 317. Anglo-Saxon, specimen from, 328. contrasted with English of Wyclif and Tyndale, 329. Arabic words in English, 341. Aryan family of languages, 273. Bible, English of the, 334. Bilingualism, 300. Changes of language, never sudden, 276. Chinese words in English, 342. Dead and living languages, 276. Dialects of English, 316. Doublets, English and other, 314-316. Greek, 311. Latin, 30S-311. Dutch and Welsh contrasted, 27J. words in English, 338. English, 272. a Low-German tongue, 274. diagram of, 281. dialects of, 316. early and oldest, compared, 330. elements of, characteristics of the two, 312-314. English element in, 2S0. 464 INDEX. English, foreign elements in, 282. grammar of, its history, 317-327. its spread over Britain, 275. modern, 336-343. nation, 280. of the Bible, 334. of the thirteenth century; 332. of the fourteenth century, 333. of the sixteenth century, 334. on the Continent, 272. periods of, 276-279. marks which distinguish, 332. syntax of, changed, 323. the family to which it belongs, 273. the group to which it belongs, 273, 274. vocabulary of, 280-316. Foreign elements in English, 282. French (new) words in English, 339. (Norman), see Norman-French. German words in English, 340. Grammar of English, 317-327. comparatively fixed (since 1485), 336. First Period, 318. general view of its history, 321. Second Period, 319. short view of its history, 317-321. Third Period, 320. Fourth Period, 320. Greek doublets, 311. Gutturals, expulsion of, 324-326. Hebrew words in English, 340. Hindu words in English, 342. History of English, landmarks in, 344. Hungarian words in English, 342. Indo-European family, 273. Inflexions in different periods, compared, 331. loss of, 317, 318. grammatical result of loss, 326. . Italian words in English, 337. Keltic element in English, 282-284. Landmarks in the history of English, 344. Language, 271. changes of 276. growth of, 271. living and dead, "76. spoken and written, 281. written, 271. Latin contributions and their dates, 287. Latin doublets, 308-311. element in English, 286-311. of the eye and ear, 308. of the First Period, 288. Second Period, 289, 290. Third Period, 290-305. Fourth Period, 305-308. triplets, 311. Lord's Prayer, in four versions, 329, 330. Malay words in English, 342. Middle English, 278. Modern English, 279, 336-343. analytic, 317. Monosyllables, 322. New words in English, 336-343. Norman-French, 290. bilingualism caused by, 300. contributions, general character of, 298. dates of, 291-293. element in English, 290-305. gains to English from, 299-302. losses to English from, 303-30... synonyms, 300. words, 294-29S. Oldest and early English compared, 330. Order of words in English, changed, 323. Periods of English, 276-279. Ancient, 277. Early, 277. Middle, 278. Tudor, 279. Modern, 279. grammar of the different, 317-327. marks indicating different, 332. specimens of different, 328-335. Persian words in English, 342. Polynesian words in English, 342. Portuguese words in English, 342. Renascence (Revival of Learning), 305 Russian words in English, 342. Scandinavian element in English, 284- 286. Scientific terms in English, 343. Spanish words in English, 337. Specimens of English of different periods. 328-335. Spoken and written language, 281. Syntax of English, change in, 323. Synthetic English (= ancient), 317. INDEX. 4 or, Tartar words in English, 342. Teutonic group, 273. Tudor English, 279. T urkish words in English, 342. Tyndale's English, compared with Anglo- Saxon and Wyclif, 329. Vocabulary of the English language, 2S0- 316. Welsh and Dutch contrasted, 275. Words and inflexions in different periods, compared, 331. new, in English, 336-343. Written language, 271. and spoken, 281. Wyclifs English, compared with Tyn- dale's and Anglo-Saxon, 329. PART IV. Addison, Joseph, 393. Alfred, 354. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 354 Arnold, Matthew, 437. Austen, Jane, 426. Bacon, Francis, 377. Bseda (Venerable Bede), 353. Barbour, John, 363. Beowulf, 351. Blake, William, 412. Browning, Robert, 436. Browning, Mrs., 435. Brunanburg, Song of, 353. Brunne, Robert of, 357. Brut, 355. Bunyan, John, 387. Burke, Edmund, 404 Burns, Robert, 410. Butler, Samuel, 3S2. Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 421 Caedmon, 352. Campbell, Thomas, 420. Carlyle, Thomas, 427. Caxton, William, 366. Chatterton, Thomas, 411. Chaucer, Geoffrey, 361. followers of, 365. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 418. Collins, William, 399. Cowper, William, 407. Crabbe, George, 409. Defoe, Darnel, 390. De Quincey, Thomas, 4'_v,. Dickens, Charles, 439. Dryden, John, 383. Eliot, George, 442. Gibbon, Edward, 405. Gloucester, Robert of, 357. Goldsmith, Oliver, 403. Gower, John, 360. Gray, Thomas, 398. Hobbes, Thomas, 386. Hooker, Richard, 374. James I. (of Scotlaud), 365. Johnson, Samuel, 401. Jonson, Ben, 373. Keats, John, 423. Lamb, Charles, 424. Landor, Walter Savage, 425. Langlande, Willian., 360. Layamon, 355. Locke, John, 387. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 432. Macaulay, Thomas Babiugton, 429. Maldon, Song of the Fight at, 853. Mandeville, Sir John, 359. Marlowe, Christopher, 373. Milton, John, 381. Moore, Thomas, 420. More, Sir Thomas, 308. Morris, William, 438. Orm's Ormulum, 356. Pope, Alexander, 395, 887. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 376. Ruskin, John. 441. 4G6 INDEX. Scott, Sir Walter, 417. Shakespeare, William, 370,-879. contemporaries of, 372. Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 422. Sidney, Sir Philip, 375. Southey, Robert, 419. Spenser, Edmund, 369. Steele, Richard, 394. Surrey, Earl of, 367. Swift, Jonathan, 391. Taylor, Jeremy, 385. Tennyson, Alfred, 483. Thackeray, William Makepeace, 439. Thomson, James, 397, 398 Tyndale, William, 368. "Wordsworth, William, 415. Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 367. Wyclif, John, 360. Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty, at tire Edinburgh University Press //// THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. - FAC MAY 1.1 197S ) RETUKUED JUMl 5 t9M' H£ID NOV 2£ NOV 5 1835 RETD OCT 18 1985 ^ NOT» JAN 1 3 1997 RETD DEC 12 19961 4 Series 9482 3 1205 00563 1302 P UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 064 377 3