Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/365

 often omitted by the poets, ought still perhaps to be considered grammatically necessary, whenever they can be uttered, agreeably to the notion of our tuneless critics. The critical objection to their elision, however, can have no very firm foundation while it is admitted by some of the objectors themselves, that, "Writers generally have recourse to this mode of expression, that they may avoid harsh terminations."-- Irving's Elements of English Composition, p. 12. But if writers of good authority, such as Pope, Byron, and Pollok, have sometimes had recourse to this method of simplifying the verb, even in compositions of a grave cast, the elision may, with tenfold stronger reason, be admitted in familiar writing or discourse, on the authority of general custom among those who choose to employ the pronoun thou in conversation.

"But thou, false Arcite, never shall obtain," &c. --Dryden, Fables.

"These goods thyself can on thyself bestow." --''Id., in Joh. Dict.''

"What I show, thy self may freely on thyself bestow." --Id., Lowth's Gram., p. 26.

"That thou might Fortune to thy side engage." --Prior.

"Of all thou ever conquered, none was left." --Pollok, B. vii, l. 760.

"And touch me trembling, as thou touched the man," &c. --Id., B. x, l. 60.

OBS. 33.--Some of the Friends (perhaps from an idea that it is less formal) misemploy thee for thou; and often join it to the third person of the verb in stead of the second. Such expressions as, ''thee does, thee is, thee has, thee thinks'', &c., are double solecisms; they set all grammar at defiance. Again, many persons who are not ignorant of grammar, and who employ the pronoun aright, sometimes improperly sacrifice concord to a slight improvement in sound, and give to the verb the ending of the third person, for that of the second. Three or four instances of this, occur in the examples which have been already quoted. See also the following, and many more, in the works of the poet Burns; who says of himself, "Though it cost the schoolmaster some thrashings, I made an excellent English scholar; and, by the time I was ten or eleven years of age, I was a critic in substantives, VERBS, and particles:"--"But when thou pours;"--"There thou shines chief;"--"Thou clears the head;"--"Thou strings the nerves;"--"Thou brightens black despair;"--"Thou comes;"--"Thou travels far;"--"Now thou's turned out;"--"Unseen thou lurks;"--"O thou pale orb that silent shines." This mode of simplifying the verb, confounds the persons; and, as it has little advantage in sound, over the regular contracted form of the second person, it ought to be avoided. With this author it may be, perhaps, a Scotticism: as,

"Thou paints auld nature to the nines,   In thy sweet Caledonian lines."--Burns to Ramsay.

"Thou paintst old nature," would be about as smooth poetry, and certainly much better English. This confounding of the persons of the verb, however, is no modern peculiarity. It appears to be about as old as the use of s for th or eth. Spenser, the great English poet of the sixteenth century, may be cited in proof: as,

"Siker, thou's but a lazy loord,   And rekes much of thy swinke."--''Joh. Dict., w. Loord''.

OBS. 34.--In the solemn style, (except in poetry, which usually contracts these forms,) the second person singular of the present indicative, and that of the irregular preterits, commonly end in est, pronounced as a separate syllable, and requiring the duplication of the final consonant, according to Rule 3d for Spelling: as, I run, thou runnest; I ran, thou rannest. But as the termination ed, in solemn discourse, constitutes a syllable, the regular preterits form the second person singular by assuming st, without further increase of syllables: as, I loved, thou lovedst; not, "lovedest," as Chandler made it in his English Grammar, p. 41, Edition of 1821; and as Wells's rule, above cited, if literally taken, would make it. Dost and hast, and the three irregular preterits, wast, didst, and hadst, are permanently contracted; though doest and diddest are sometimes seen in old books. Saidst is more common, and perhaps more regular, than ''saidest. Werest'' has long been contracted into wert: "I would thou werest either cold or hot."--W. Perkins, 1608.[251] The auxiliaries shall and will change the final l to t, and become shalt and wilt. To the auxiliaries, may, can, might, could, would, and should, the termination est was formerly added; but they are now generally written with st only, and pronounced as monosyllables, even in solemn discourse. Murray, in quoting the Scriptures, very often charges mayest to mayst, mightest to mightst, &c. Some other permanent contractions are occasionally met with, in what many grammarians call the solemn style; as bidst for ''biddest, fledst for fleddest, satst for sattest'':

"Riding sublime, thou bidst the world adore,   And humblest nature with thy northern blast." --Thomson.

"Fly thither whence thou fledst." --Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 963.

"Unspeakable, who sitst above these heavens." --Id., ib., B. v, l. 156.

"Why satst thou like an enemy in wait?" --Id., ib., B. iv, l. 825.

OBS. 35.--The formation of the third person singular of verbs, is now precisely the same as that of the plural number of nouns: as, ''love, loves; show, shows; boast, boasts; fly, flies; reach, reaches''. This