Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/151

122 ringinde (page 140), whence our ranging. In page 128, we are told that a false nun ‘chefleð of idel;’ hence have arisen to chatter and to chaff. Torple (cadere) seems to be formed from top (caput). The ending ful is freely used for adjectives, as dredful and pinful; other endings are driven out by it. The old eallunga is now replaced by utterly; and bœlg is turned into bag; beggar is now first found.

In page 398, we see an instance of the revived use of the entreating do, before an Imperative; the writer asks for a reason, adding, ‘do seie hwui.’ In page 64 may be found the first use of our indefinite it, prefixed to was; ‘a meiden hit was. . . eode ut vor to biholden.’ A pithy phrase was once applied to our two last Stuart Kings: it was said of Charles that ‘he could if he would;’ of James, that ‘he would if he could.’ On looking to the Ancren Riwle, p. 338, we read, ‘he ne mei hwon he wule, þe nolde hwule þet he muhte.’ This seems to have been a byword well known in 1220.

The East Midland dialect was pushing its conquests into the South, for many Norse words are found for the first time in this work; as,