past time continued to be formed, as the past time itfelf was, in ed, as loved, or in fome contraction of ed (53), except among the irregular verbs (34), (33) The methods by which the final ed of the paft tenfe, and its participle, was contracted or abbreviated in the age of Chaucer were chiefly the following:

1. By throwing away the d.--This method took place in verbs whofe laft confonant was t, preceded by a confonant; thus cafe, cofte, burte, putte, flitte, were ufed inftead of cafted, coffed, burted, putted, flitted.- 2. By tranfpofing the d. This was very generally done in verbs whofe laft confonant was d, preceded by a vowel; thus inttead of reded, leded, spreded, bleded, feded, it was ufual to write redde, ledde, ffredde, bledde, fedde.---And this fame method of tranfpofition, I apprehend, was originally applied to thorten thofe words which we now contract by fyncope, as lov'd, liv'd, fmil'd, bear'd, fear'd, which were anciently written iovde, livde, fmilde, berde, ferde.---3. By tranfpofing the d and changing it into t

This method was ufed, 1. In verbs whose laft confonant was t, preceded by a vowel; thus leted, fweted, meted, were changed into lette, fette, mette,-2. In verbs whofe laft confonant was d, preceded by a confonant; thus bended, bilded, girded, were changed into bente, bilte, girte.---And generally in verbs in which d is changed into t I conceive that d was first tranfpofed, fo that drwelled, passed, dremed, feled, keped, fhould be supposed to have been first changed into devellde, paffde, dremde, felde, kepde, and then into deelte, pajie, dremte, felte, kepte.------4. The laft method, together with a change of the radical vowel, will account for the analogy of a fpecies of verbs, generally reputed anomalous, which form their paft time and its participle (according to modern orthography) in ght. The process feems to have been thus, Bring, bringed, brongde, brodge, brogte; Think, thinked, thonkde, thokde, thokte, Teche, teched, tachde, tachte, &c.; only fought, from fighted, seems to have been formed by throwing away thed, (according to method 1.) and changing the radical vowel. See inftances of fimilar contractions in the Francic language, Hickes, Gram. Fr. Th. P. 66.

.

(34) I confider thofe verbs only as irregular in which the

where for the most part it terminated in en, as bounden, founden.

The greatest part of the auxiliary verbs were only in ufe in the present and past tenfes of their indicative and fubjunctive modes: they were inflected in thofe tenfes like other verbs, and were prefixed to the infinitive mode of the verb to which they were auxiliary; I shall loven, I will or well loven, I may or mow loven, I can or con loven, &c.; we fullen loven, we willen or wollen loven, we mowen loven, we connen loven, &c. In the past tenfe I (35) fhulde loven, I zolde loven, I might or moughte loven, I coude loven, &c.; we fhulden, we wolden, we mighten or maughten, we cour den, loven, &c.

The auxiliary to haven was a complete verb, and being prefixed to the participle of the past time was

paft time and its participle differ from each other. Their var rieties are too numerous to be particularly examined here, but I believe there are scarce any in which thedeviations from the regular form will not appear to have been made by fome method of contraction or abbreviation similar to those which have been pointed out in the last note among the regular verbs. The common termination of the participle în en is clearly a fubftitution for ed, probably for the fake of a more agreeable found, and it is often thortened, as ed has been thewn to be, by transpofition; thus drawen, knowen, boren, stolen, were changed into drazone, knozne, borne, Aolne.

(35) Shulde and wolde are contracted from shulled and wolled, by tranfpofing the d according to method 2. Mighte and moughte are formed from maghed and moghed, according to method 3.maghed, maghde, maghte; Moghed, maghde, mogbte. ---Coude is from conned, by tranfpofition of the d, and foftening the n into u; it is often written cauthe, and always fo, I helieve, when it is used as a participle. In the fame manner Bifhop Douglas and other Scottish writers ufe begouth as the preterit of begin; begonned, begonde, begoude, begouthe.

ufed to express the preterperfect and preterpluperfat tenfes; I have loved, thou haveft or haft loved, he haveth or bath loved; we haven or han loved, &c.; I hadde (36) loved, thou haddeft loved, he badde loloved; we, ye, they, hadden loved.

The auxiliary to ben was alfo a complete verb, and being prefixed to the participle of the past time, with the help of the other auxiliary verbs, fupplied the place of the whole paffive voice, for which the Saxon language had no other form of expreffion; I am, thou art, he is, loved; we, ye, they, aren or ben loved; I was, thou tuaff, he was, loved; we, ye, they, averen loved (37).

5. With refpect to the indeclinable parts of speech, it will be fufficient to obferve here that many of them ftill remained pure Saxon: the greatest number had undergone a flight change of a letter or two, and the more confiderable alterations by which fome had been disfigured were fairly deducible from that propenfity to abbrevation for which the inhabitants of

(36) Hadde iscontracted from haved, as made is from maked. See Hickes' Gram, Fr. Th. p. 66.

(37) The verb to do is confidered by Wallis and other later grammarians as an auxiliary verb. It is so used, though very rarely, by Chaucer, [See ver. 14742,4.] He more commonly ufes it tranfitively; [ver. 10074. Do fripen me, Faites me defouiller ver. 10075. Do me drenche, Faites me noyer ;] but ftill more frequently to fave the repetition of a verb, [v. 26. ; His ey en twinkled in his head aright,

As don the terres in a frofty night.]

Dr. Hickes has taken notice that do was used in this laft manner by the Saxons, [Gr. A. §. p. 77,] and fo was faire by the French, and indeed is ftill. It must be confessed that the exact power which do, as an auxiliary, now has in our language is not eafy to be defined, and ftill lefs to be accounted for from analogy.

this ifland have been long remarkable, though perhaps not more juftly fo than their neighbours.

$4. Such was in general the state of the Saxon. part of the English Language when Chaucer began to write. Let us take a fhort view of the acceffions which it may be fuppofed to have received at different times from Normandy.

As the language of our ancestors was complete in all its parts, and had served them for the purposes of difcourfe, and even of compofition in various kinds, long before they had any intimate acquaintance with their French neighbours, they had no call from neceffity (and confequently no fufficient inducement) to alter its original and radical conftitutions, or even: its customary forms; accordingly we have juft feen that in all the effential parts of speech the characteriftical features of the Saxon idiom were always preferved, and we shall fee prefently that the crowds of French words which from time to time were imported were themselves made fubject, either immediately or by degrees to the laws of that idiom.

$5. The words which were thus imported were chiefly nouns fubftantive, adjectives, verbs, and participles. The adverbs which are derived from French adjectives seem to have been formed from them after they were anglicifed, as they have all the Saxon termination lich or ly (38), instead of the French ment. As to the other indeclinable parts of speech, our language, being fufficiently rich in its own ftores, has borrowed nothing from France except perhaps an interjection or two.

(38) As rarely, continually, veraily, bravely, &c. which cor refpond to the French adverbs rarement, continueilėment, ve raiment, bravement,

c.

tain, but it feems equally certain that their compos fitions of that kind were neither divided into verfes of a determinate number of syllables, nor embellish ed with what we call rhyme (40). There are no traces,

"

dered leop--leop songer, orsonger--and pers; and ars canendi is tranflated leop craft or rang chæft.—Asser alfo, in his life of Alfred, speaks of Saxonica poemata, and Saxonica carmina, [p. 16,43,] and moft probably the Cantilene per fucceffiones temporum detrite, which Malmefb. cites in his Hift. 1. ii. p. 52, were in the Saxon language. The fame writer [1. v. de Pontif. ed. Gale,] mentions a carmen triviale of Ald helm (the author of the Latin poem de Virginitate, who died in 709) as adhuc vulgo 'cantitatum; and he quotes the tefti mony of King Alfred, in his Liber Manualis, or Hand-boc, as faying that no one was ever equal to Aldheim in Englishi poetry."

66

(40) Both these circumstances are evident from the most curfory view of the several specimens of Saxon poetry which Hickes has exhibited in his Gram. Ang. Sax. c. xxi, and they are allowed by that learned writer himself. Unwilling however, as it should feem, to leave his favourite language without fome fyftem of Verfification, he supposes that the Saxons observed the quantity of fyllables in their verfes, "tho' per

haps," he adds, "not fo frictly as the heroick Greek and "Latin poets."-He gives three reafons for this fuppofition; 1. Because they did not use rhyme. 2. Because they tranfpofed their words in fuch an unnatural manner; "Hoc autem cur "facerent Anglo-Saxonum põetæ, nulla, ut videtur, alia af"fignari caufa poteft, quam quæ, ut idem facerent, Græcos "et Latinos poetas coegit; nempe metri lex." 3. Because they had a great number of diffyllable and polysyllable words which were fit for metrical feet. However fpecious these reasons may appear they are certainly far from conclufive, even if we had no monuments of Saxon poetry remaining; but in the prefent cafe, Happrehend, the only fatisfactory proof would have been to have produced, out of the great heap of poetical compofitions in the Saxon language, fome regular metrical