its cases, as nom. shour, gen. shoures, plur. shoures-nom. name, gen. names, plur. names.

Some nouns retained the termination en from the second declension of the Saxons, as oxen, hosen, brethren, eyren, (airs.) A few seem to have been always irregularly declined, as men, wimmen, mice, feet.

The nouns adjective had lost all distinction of gender, case, and number.

"To yield Jesu his 'propre rent."

The primitive pronouns retained one oblique case in each number, as mẹ, us; the, you; him, hire, hem, or them.

The genitive cases min, thin, oure, youre, were hardly ever distiguishable from pronouns possessive as in Latin, thus,

"Amor MEI, “The love I bear to myself."

"Amor MEUS," The love I bear to another."

In the plural number the genitive case sometimes retained its proper power.

Our ALLER (of all) house, the house of us all.

Chaucer uses they or he, but never them or their.

The pronouns possessive were in the same state with the adjectives, min, thin, his, hire, oure, youre, hir, or their. The last four of these pronouns were sometimes expressed a little differently, hires, oures, youres, and hirs, or theirs, as they are still used when the noun to which they belong is understood. Whose book is this? We answer, hers, ours, yours, or theirs, or we declare this book is hers, ours, &c.

The interrogative and relative who, had a genitive and accustive case, whose and whom, but no variety of number.

The demonstrative prououns this and that, had a plural expression thise and tho, but no variety of case.

The other words which are often (though improperly) placed in the class of pronouns, were all uudeclined like the adjectives, except eyther, neyther, other, which had a genitive case singular, eytheres, neytheres, otheres; other, another, alius, had a genitive case singular, and a plural number, otheres; and aller, a corruption of EALRA, was in use as the genitive plural of all. Self in the Saxon language, was declined like other adjectives, and joined in construction with personal pronouns and substantives. They said Ic sylf, min sylfes, me sylfne, Peter sylf.

Self, like other adjectives was undeclined, when Chaucer writes

self, selv and selven, those varieties do not denote any distinction of case or number, for he uses indifferently himself and hemselven, hemself and hemselven. Instead of declining the personal pronouns prefixed to self, he constantly uses myself for I-self and me-self; thy-self for thou-self and thee-self; himself and hireself for he-self and she-self; and in the plural number, ourself for we-self and us-self, yourself for ye-self and you-self, and hemself for they-self.

The verb had one mood, the indicative; and two tenses, the present and the past. All the other varieties of mood aud time were expressed by auxiliary verbs. "The grammar of a language is one thing, its capacity of expression is another."

In the inflections of their verbs they differed very little from us in the singular number, I love, thou loves, he loveth, but in the plural, some adhered to the old Saxon form, we loveth, ye loveth, they loveth, others adopted what seems to have been the Tentonick, we loven, ye loven, they loven. In the plural of the past tense the later form prevailed, we loveden ye loveden, they loveden.

The second person plural of the imperative terminated iu eth. The Saxon infinitive in an had been changed into en -to loven to liven, and they were beginning to drop the n-to love, to live. The present participle began to be terminated in ing, as loving, though the old form in ende or ande, was still in use, as lovende, lovande, and the past participle (as it is sometimes called) continued to be formed, as the past tense itself was, in ed, except among the irregular verbs, in which it generally terminated in EN.

The greatest part of the auxiliary verbs were used and inflicted in the present and past tenses of their indicative and subjunctive moods, and prefixed to the infinitive mood of the verb to which they were auxiliary, I woll loven, I mow or con loven, we shullen or willen loven, we mowen or connen loven. the past tense, I shulde loven, I wolde, mighte, or moughte loven, we shulden, wolden, mighten, or moughten, or couden loven.

In

The auxiliary to haven was a complete verb, and prefixed to the participle of the past time, was used to express (what some grammarians are pleased to call) the preterperfect and preterpluperfect tenses.

The anxiliary to ben was a complete verb, and it, prefixed to the same participle with the help of the other auxiliary verb, supplied the place of the whole passive voice.

With regard to the indeclineable parts of speech, they remained either pure Saxon, or abbreviations.

Such was generally the state of the Saxon part of the English Language when Chaucer began to write. Let us now take a brief view of the accession, which it received at different times from Normandy. It appears that the French words imported from time to time, were made subject either immediately or by degrees to the laws of the Saxon idiom. The words imported were chiefly nouns substanitive, adjectives, verbs, and participles. The adverbs derived from French adjectives seem to have been formed from them after they were anglicised, as they have all the Saxon termination lich or ly instead of the French MENT. Thus rarely, continnally, veraily, bravely, which correspond to the French adverds rarement, continuellement, veraiment, bravement.

As to the other indeclinable parts of speech, our language, sufficiently rich in its own stores, had not borrowed any thing from them except an interjection or two. The nouns substantive in the French language had lost their cases long before the time of which we are speaking, such of them as were naturalized seem all to have acquired a genitive case, according to the corrupted Saxon form which has been noticed above, and the French adjectives were reduced to the simple state of the English adjective without case, gender, or number.

The French verbs laid aside their difference of conjugation. Accorder, souffrir, recevoir, descendre were regularly changed into accorden, suffren, receiven, desenden. They did not retain any peculiarity of inflection, which could distinguish them from verbs of Saxon growth. The participle in ING in some verbs appear to have still preserved its original French form, USANT, SUFFISANT, &c. &c. The past participle adopted almost universally the regular Saxon termination in ed, as accorded, suffred, received, descended, it even frequently assumed the particle GE, or y, which among the Saxons was very generally prefixed to this participle. Hence it may be inferred that at the time of Chaucer-the form of the language was Saxon, but the matter partly French.

VERSIFICATION OF CHAUCER.

The offences against metre in an English verse, must arise either from a superfluity or a deficiency of syllables, or from the accents being improperly placed.

With respect to the first species of irregularity, there are not

any superfluities in Chaucer's verses that may not be reduced to just measure by the usual practices of modern poets.

A great number of Chaucer's verses labour under an apparent deficiency of a syllable or two; but this verse may be made correct by adopting, in certain words, a pronouuciation, which we have reason to believe was used in his time, for instance, the genitive case singular and plural of nouns; the regular termination of the past verse and its participle; e, feminine; the infinitive mood and the plural number of verbs, were all pronounced. Thus, shourEs, croppes, shires, lordes, percED, bathED, werED; hosTE, faeE, large; slepen, maken, longen, seken.

Chaucer appears not to have accented the same syllables that we do, on the contrary, in his French words he most commonly Jaid his accent according to the French custom, on the last syllable, or the last but one. In French words ending in e femimine, the pronunciation, we know, is still the very reverse of ours. Thus, licour, corages, reson, viage, visage, usage, manere, laboure, prelat, langage, mariage, contree.

In the same manner he accents the last syllable of the participle in ing, weddING, comING, livING, cryING, bremmING. The old participle of the present tense in and appears to have been originally accented on that syllable. Thus berAND, spryngAND, fleAND, SEAND.

He seems to have followed this practice in the middle of verses, whenever it gave a more harmonious flow to his metre. Thus vertUE, natURE, aventURE, honour.

It is surprising that Chaucer without masters, either French, or Italian to guide him, has so seldom failed to place his accents in such a manner as to produce the cadence best suited to the nature of his verse.

GENITIVE CASE, AND PLURAL NUMBER, IN ES, TO BE PRONOUNCED.
PEES, quod our Hoste, for CHRISTES moder dere,

Tell forth thy tale, and spare it not at all.
In shrift, in preching, is my diligence,
And study, in Peters wordes, and in PAULES.
And more we seen of CHRISTES Secree thing,
Than borel folk, although that they be kings.

OLD INFINITIVE AND PLURAL NUMBER USED.

Thise curates bEN so negligent and slow,
To gropEN tendrely a conscience.

I dare wel saIN that, er than half an hour
After his deth! I saw him borne to blisse.

N SOMETIMES DROPPED.

Came to an hous ther he was want to BE,
Refreshed more than in a hundred places.
To yield our Lord Jesu his propre rent;
To spreade his word is sette all min entent.

E FEMININE PRONOUNCED.

He looked as it were a wilde bare,

And grinte with his teeth, so was he wroth.
Bed-red upon a couche low he lay.

But by your grete goodness by your leve
I wolde
pray you that ye not you greve.

E SOMETIMES SILENT.

Grand mercy, Dame, that have I found alway.
Now by your faith, o dere sire! quod she.

AUXILIARY HAVE, WITH THE INFINITIVE.

I have upon this benche faren ful well,
Here have I etEN many a merry mele.

AUXILIARY SHALL, WILL, COULD, SHOULD, WITH THE INFINITIVE.

O dere maister! quod this sike man,
How have ye farEN sin that March began.

I could of ire say so mochel sorwe,

My tale shulde fasten til to-morwe.
This Cambuscan of which I have you told,
In real vestiments, sit on his deis
With diadem ful high in his paleis,

And holte his feste so solempne and so riche
That in this world ne was there non it liche,
Of which if I shall tellEN all the
array,
Than wold it occupie a somers day.

FRENCH ACCENT EMPLOYED.

And dronkennesse is eke a foule recoRD
Of any man, and namely of a lord.

We live in poverte and in abstinENCE,
And borel folk in richESSE and dispENCE.

God wot, quod he, laboured have I feel sore,
And specially for thy salvaTION
Have I sayd many a precious orison.

CONDITIONAL FORM OF THE VERB.

And after that a roasted pigges hed,
(But I ne wolde for me no beest WERE ded).
As saith Senek, that during his estat,
Upon a day, out ridEN knightes two;
And, as Fortune wold that it WERE SO,
That on of hem came home, that other nought.