c. 1400 Destr. of Troy 8711, Hom hade leuer then the lond Ibid. 12813, Hir hadde leuer haue lost all hir lond- c. 1400 Bone Flor. of Rome 1620, Me had levyr to be slayne. c. 1400 Sowdone of Babylone 1417, Him hadde leuer to sworn. The illogical and anti-grammatical character of me had lever seems to have been brought home even to the mediæval Anglo-Saxon, whose syntactical instinct does not seem to have been over-keen; perhaps his sense of right and wrong in matters of grammar had got bewildered in the strife among the various and sometimes conflicting tendencies at work during the process of fusion and moulding his mother tongue was undergoing. Me had lever became obsolete before the end of the M. E. period. 46. It was survived by the other 'blending' I am leef, lever, although this one does not appear to have outlived the 15th century for many years either. 1303 Brunne, Handl. Synne 3017, 5if by prout wurdys make hym wroth Be pou neuer lefe ne loth pou c. 1350 Alex. & Dind. 838. Whi be ze, ludus, so lef to c. 1400? Testament of Love II, X 71, he were lever un knowe. c. 1400? Rom. Rose B 2335, He shal be leef ay for to yeve In Loves lore who so wolde leve. end 14th c. Bev. of Hamt. 75, Lever he were to be dedd. Line 1459 of Bev. of Hamt. affords a striking lustration of the prevailing confusion. Auchinl.: Hire were leuer haue had lasse. Camb.: Leuyr she were to haue had lass. Oxf. printed copy: Leuer she had withouten less c. 1400 Destr. of Troy 11749, I my lyffe were leuer leu in þe plase. 1440 Generydes 5507, lucidas wheder she was lefe c lothe She cowde not haue it for no maner thyng c. 1450 Towneley Plays IV 84, Yit were I leyffer my chile were dede. Ibid. IV 217, I were leuer than all warldly wyr Ibid XII 193, I am leuer etc. c. 1489? Robyn Hood 895, They brought the monk to the lodge door, Whether he were loth or lief. In connection with loth 'I am lief' is often found in 16th eentury texts: Hickescorner (Dodsley I) p. 180, Thou shalt abide whether thou be lief or loth. Sir Th. More, To them that Seke Fortune... but be you liefe or lothe, Hold you content... (Cent. Dict.) Peele, Edward I p. 395, Strike, potter be thou lief or loth. A curious instance is found in Caxton's Blanchardyn: I were me leuer ded than that I sholde byleue nor doo This cursed counceyll (185/32), evidently a blending of I were leuer and were me leuer. 47. The 'me is lever' construction, of which a few instances have been given in ? 40, was doomed to share the fate of type D, so that in Mod. Engl. only constructions with have are met with; have (had) lever (liefer) was in use till about the end of the 16th century; for late examples see N. E. D. sub lief. Shakespeare does not employ I had liefer, but I had as lief occurs a great many times in his works. This phrase is already met with in Chaucer: Cant. T. D. 1574, heer woneth an old rebekke, That hadde almost as lief to lose hir nekke As for to yeve a peny of hir good; cf. Chester Pl. III 99, I had as lief thou sleppit. In Present Eng. I had as soon is more usual than I had as lief, although the latter will probably be in use for a long time to come in the proverb 'I had as lief be killed for a sheep as for a lamb'. In some parts of England in the Midlands, for instance — it is still frequently heard in the spoken language: 'I had as lief stop at home'; 'he said, he had as lief die as do that'. 48. Since Fitzedward Hall published his paper On the Origin of Had rather go (Am. Journ. of Phil. II) and Stoffel his on Had rather and analogous Phrases (Taalstudie VIII) it has been considered indisputable that I had rather is older than I would rather, that the latter, in fact, is only a corruption of the former. Storm says on p. 708 of his Engl. Phil., "Fitzeward Hall und Stoffel haben überzeugend gezeigt, dass I had rather, wie I had liefer, I had as lief, der alte Ausdruck war." Jespersen, Progress p. 226, 227 and Franz, Shakesp. Gramm. p. 346, express the same view; the former observes: "it is interesting to notice how the feeling of the etymological connexion has been lost on account of the phonetic identity of the unstressed forms of had and would [ǝd]". Franz takes this hint and boldly asserts that this phonetic identity led to the substitution of would for had in the phrase in question. See also N. E. D. sub better and lief. 49. It must be owned that this explanation, seems on the face of it, plausible enough; unfortunately it is diametrically opposed to facts. I had rather is not the older phrase of the two. I am in a position to prove that I would rather had been in constant use for about two centuries before I had ather made its appearance. I would rather is nothing but the preterite subjunctive of will rather; instances of this expression are met with from the atter part of the 13th century onward; it occurs several times n Shakespeare. 1280-'90 South Eng. Leg. 99/264, 'mahum', he seide, '3wat schal ich do? hov schal ich bi-leue allone? 5wi neltpou raper fette me panne soffri alle mi men to leose. Ibid. 162/1943-'4, Deth ichulle wel fain take. rapur þane heo (= holi churche) spille. Ibid. 164/2017, rapur ichulle him per-to help so muche so ich mai. 1377 Piers Pl. B IV 5 (= C V. 5), But resoun rede n per-to rather wil I deye. 1379-'83 Chaucer, Troil. & Cris. V 47, Why nil I rath with a man or two Stele hir a-wey? 1386-? Id. Cant. T. B 225, rather than I lese Custand I wol be cristned. c. 1450 Compendious Olde Treatyse, p. 175, Also Pau saith in the same Chapter. I will rather fyue wo des to be spoken to the vnderstanding of men the ten thousand yat they vnderstand not, Cf. Aut Vers. I Corinth. XIV 19, I had rather speak fiv words with my understanding... than... 1481 Caxton, Reynard, p. 18, I wyl rather be the mes sager my self for to goo and paye hym. 1553 Roister Doister p. 38, I will rather haue my Cot twentie times swinged, Than on the naughtie was not to be auenged; cf. Ascham, Works I, II, p. 333, I had rather it ( 1559 Ascham, Works II, 21, I will rather tell you the 1593 Marlowe, Edward the Sec. V VI 52, I will rather Shakespeare, Merry Wives, II II 316, I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter... then my wife with her selfe. Id. Merch. of Ven. I III 156, You shall not seale Va to such a bond for me, Ile rather dwell in my necessitie. Id. First Part Henry Sixth V IV 144, Ile rather keepe That which I haue, than courting for more. Id. Jul. Cæsar V V 7, Ile rather kill my selfe. 50. The following passages show that would rather, far from being a new departure in Shakespeare's time, could even then boast of having been a recognized idiom for three centuries. 1280-'90 S. Eng. Leg. 110/134, And. bote he here weddi wolde: heo nolde christinedom a-fongue, heo seide heo wolde raper tuyrne agen In-to hire owene londe. Ibid. 127/735, Raper he wolde... to martyrdom beon ido, pane holi churche were so bi-neope. Ibid. 153/1620, Raper he wolde deth a-fonge pane polie heore lupere wille. Ibid. 154/1678, Seint Thomas swor þat bi is daize he nolde parof holde non Raper he wolde deth a-fonge. 1369 Chaucer, Book of the Duch. 240-'2, Rather then that I shulde deye... I wolde yive thilke Morpheus... the alder-beste Yift... c. 1372 Id. Compl. unto Pite 46, whan I al this company ther fond That rather wolden al my cause spille Than do me help, I held my pleynte stille. 1379-'83 Id. Troil. & Cris. III 379, rather deye I wolde and determyne... In wrecchednesse. 1386-? Id. Cant. T. A 487, Ful looth were him to cursen for his tythes, But rather wolde he yeven... Un-to his povre parisshens aboute of his offring. Id. Ibid. E 1169, thogh the coyne be fair at ye, It wolde rather breste a-two than plye. 1393 Gower, Conf. Am. IV, 2756, I wolde rapur Atropos..... mi hadde from mi moder cast. 1400-250 Two M. E. Hist. from Hell, II, 43, Man yf thou wyste what hyt were, To take another then by an wife, Thou woldest raper suffer here. (In all 7 MSS.) 1481 Caxton, Reynard, p. 79, I wold alle to gydre avender Gaa f, Transition, 4. |