which to base my statements, have resulted in a failure in the case of wanten. I have not succeeded in finding more than five instances proving that the D construction was actually used in M. E. They are: c. 1350 Will. of Pal. 4905, noþing wanted pei þat þei wold haue, þat þei nere semli seruid. Ibid. 5153, sche ne schal want in no wise what þe hert likes. c. 1372 Chaucer, Compl. unto Pite 76, And certes, if ye wanten in thise tweyne The world is lore. c. 1382 Id., Parl. of Foules 287, I touche shal a fewe (stories), as of Calixte and Athalaunte, And many a mayde, of which the name I wante. 14 Hamp. Works II 373 (Pieces from MS. Harl 1706; not by Hamp.), Be not aschamed to speke þat þat þou canste welle defende; þat þat pou wanteste of kunnynge, aske of oper men. It seems that the new construction did not gain the upper hand till after 1500. In Elizabethan English it occurs frequently enough. The two meanings of Mod. E. want (cf. He wants the necessary energy' with 'I want the book at once') are of course accounted for by the fact that already in M. E. me wanteþ could mean 'I desire, I require' (cf. § 31). In 'the rascal wants his ears boxing' we have a further development of the secondary sense. The impersonal construction survives in 'it only wants two minutes to twelve.' B. Verbs that have preserved the methinks construction. I. Eilen. 153. We have here a remarkable instance of a type A verb that at one time seemed to be in a fair way to adopt the D construction to the exclusion of the older one, but having once entered upon the amphibious stage, through which all type A verbs had to pass, it went no further. In the 15th century instances of D constructions are pretty numerous but there is even a far earlier one, viz.: c. 1250 Gen & Exod 380p Get är rglen on here red. Mätzner remarks that the verb may mean here hesitate', which is possible but not likely, since eylen very often means 'trouble, be disturbed see NED The following instances all belong to the 15th century: c. 1440 La Tour Landry Sc 6, je alle sumwhat on the 1450-60 Merlin 26: 31, telle vs what thou elest, and whi Ibid. 262 13. speke to me and telle me what zhoto Ibid. 585 32, he asked hem what thei eiled. c. 1489 Caxton, Aymon 66 2, the duke knew well what ske yeelde. 154. In Elizabethan English one often meets with the D construction; in fact, it must have been quite usual till about 1700. c. 1590 Marlowe, Jew of Malta III ш 6, Why, what ayi̇st 1593 Peele, Edward I; p. 395, Never rave nor rail, Nor 1595 Daniel, Civil Wars b III, And much he ails, and 159— Shakespeare, All's Well II IV 6, If she be verie 16— Yorkshire Tragedy (Doubtf. Pl. of Will. Sh.) p. 1612 Webster, The White Devil IV II (Works II, p. 86), What do you ail, my love? Why do you weep? 1635 Quarles, Emblems II v 82, Thow ask'st the Conscience what she ails. (quoted in N. E. D.) H 1676 Bunyan, Pilgr. Progr. II p. 169, Her mother-in-law then asked what she ailed. 1702 Pryme in Phil. Trans XXIII 1076, I know not what I ail, says he, I cannot swallow my Beer (-quoted in N. E. D.) bef. 1713 Ellwood, Autobiography 20, I knew not what I ayled, but I knew I ayled something more than ordinary (quoted in the N. E. D.) 155. At present ail is no longer used in educated speech; it is decidedly dialectical and belongs to the North (see Dial. Dict. and also Sweet's remark in Storm, Engl. Phil. p. 636). The most peculiar thing about this verb is, however, that the D construction seems to have got into disuse again although the N. E. D. quotes an instance from the Pall Mall Gaz. 18 Aug. 1869. Jespersen thinks that this is probably owing to the frequency of questions like "what ails him, her' (Progress p. 224). A. look at the passages quoted in the preceding § will show that at one time the nominative was often used in such questions, — still I think Jespersen's suggestion hits the nail on the head. The instances given in the Dialect Dictionary are nearly all questions, so that all we have to do is to try and find out why in what ails him the objective kept its ground. Although in early Mod. Eng. we find what ail you? what do you ail? etc. occasionally, still this form of the question was not likely to gain the upper hand, not because it was illogical (the English language is teeming with illogical idioms!), but because it was unique; cf. what hinders him? what troubles him? What is the matter with him? What prevents him? All these questions bear on outward influences, and so does ail, so that the preservation of what ails him is due to the force of analogy. 156. In Scotch there is a peculiar idiom: to ail at, 'to have something against': Hogg, Tales and Sk. II 191, "What can the fool mean?" said old Richard, "what can he ail at the dogs? (quoted in the N. E. D.) with which compare: Bell, Geordie Young 5 (in the Scottish Minstrel), What ails ye at the minister? See also the Dial. Dict. This idiom can be instanced from M. E.: Cant. T. B 1975, What eyleth this love at me To binde me so sore? Cf. Cantic. de Creat. 235 (Alteng. Leg.), What cylep þe azens vs. 2. Greven. 157. This verb has, generally speaking, preserved the signification it had in M. E., and as far as I have been able to ascertain, the shifting process did not begin till after the end of the M. E. period. Only in Chaucer there is a passage which may be interpreted as being the first instance of a D construction, viz. Troil. and Cris. I 343. But, tolde I yow the worste poynt, I leve, Al seyde I sooth, ye wolden at me greve. Skeat explains this greve by 'feel vexed, grumble’. In Mod. E. we never find the A construction, when grieve is followed by at or for (cf. Ferumbras 1061 Me greuep more for Olyvere; þan of my owe penaunce); see N. E. D. There is another case, not mentioned in the N. E. D., in which the D construction is now always used, viz. when the verb is not followed by any adjunct: Sir Aldingar (Percy) 125, Why grieve you, damselle faire, he sayd (this poem must be very old, as it contains the word sweven in 1. 67 and 1. 69). Gascoigne, Compl. of Philomene, p. 99, Thou foilst vs. al, and eke thy selfe, We grieved, and thou vniust. Peele, Jests, Works p. 618, All the company much grieved. Byron, Childe Harold III, XXVII, And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves...... Grieving, if aught inanimate e 'er grieves, over the unreturning brave. When an infinitive follows, the D construction is optional: I grieve to see such waste' and 'it grieves me to see such waste'. Here is a rather early instance of the former construction: Com. of Faire Em II I 107, I grieve to see my Manuilus ielousie. 3. Plesen. 158. That the objective accompanying plesen was a da tive, appears to have been lost sight of towards the end of the 14th century, as the passive form plesed ben came to be em ployed. In the 15th century this form got very usual, and it 19 quite likely that the frequent occurrence of a nominative be fore a form of plesen may have cooperated with the genera tendency to replace pre-verbal datives and accusatives by nominatives. Plesen was not affected by this general tendency till to wards the end of the M. E. period. The reason is, no doubt that it was not very much used, liken and list being generally preferred. Except in the phrase if it plese yow, if yow plese this verb does not seem to have been employed in colloquial English, and even this phrase always has an air of formality about it. Plesen, like so many other words of Romance origin did not find favour in the eyes of the middle and lower classes, who, after all, make and mar a language. Plesen was the word employed in formal address; 'may it please Your Majesty' were (and are!) the words of the petitioner; it was used by the fawning courtier, by the servile hanger-on of the nobility when endeavouring to ingratiate himself with his patron or to get some thing out of him (e.g. Chaucer, Cant T A 610, His lord wel coude he plesen subtilly, To yeve and lene him of his owne good, And have a thank, and yet a cote and hood). I have never been more forcibly struck with this than when reading Ascham's letters (first 3 vols. of his Works). The great scholar uses list, like, when writing familiar, chatty letters to his friends, but when addressing his patrons and asking favours of them, he repeatedly employs please (see vol II XXVII to Cecil; LIX to Leicester; LXXXVII to Queen Elizabeth). Plesen being thus restricted to formal style, it was not very liable to what was perhaps at first a 'vulgar' tendency, for there is no characteristic of 'official' language so prominent as its conservatism. 159. The following passage contains the only D construction of plesen I have hitherto observed in M. E.: 1450-'60 Merlin, 60/5, Sir, loke where ye plese beste that it be sette. |