Chaucer, 3d book of Troilus:

Then wot I well, she might never fail.
For to been holpen, what at your instance,
What at your other friends governance.
That is used for a relative:

Sir John Cheek:

Sedition is an aposteam, which, when it breaketh inwardly, putteth the state in great danger of recovery; and corrupteth the whole commonwealth with the rollen fury, that it hath pu trified with. For, with which.

They, and those, are sometimes taken, as it were, for articles:

Fox, 2d volume of Acts, &c.

That no kind of disquietness should be procured against them of Bern and Zurick.

Gower, lib. 2:

My brother hath us all sold

To them of Rome.

The pronoun, these, hath a rare use, being taken for an adjective of similitude: It is neither the part of an honest man to tell these tales; nor of a wise man to receive them.

Lidgate, lib. 5:

Lo, how these princes proud and retchless,

Have shameful ends, which cannot live in peace. Him, and them, be used reciprocally for the compounds, himself, themselves.

Fox: The garrison desired that they might depart with bag and baggage.

Chaucer, in the Squire's Tale:

So deep in grain he dyed his colours,
Right as a serpent hideth him under flowers.

His, their, and theirs, have also a strange use; that is to say, being possessives, they serve instead of primitives:

Chaucer:

And shortly so far forth this thing went,

That my will was his will's instrument.

Which in Latin were a solecism: for there we should not say, sua voluntatis, but voluntatis ipsius.

Pronouns have not the articles, a and the going before; the relatives, which, self, and same only excepted: The same lewd cancred carle, practiseth nothing, but how he may overcome and oppress the faith of Christ, for the which, you, as you know, have determined to labour and travel continually.

The possessives, my, thy, our, your, and their, go before words; as my land, thy goods; and so in the rest mine, thine, ours, yours, hers, and theirs, follow as it were in the genitive case; as, these lands are mine, thine, &c.

His doth infinitely go before, or follow after: as, his house is a fair one; and, this house is his.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives of quality are coupled with pronouns

accusative cases.

Chaucer:

And he was wise, hardy, secret, and rich,
Of these three points, nas none him lych.

Certain adjectives include a partition: From the head doth life and motion flow to the rest of the members. The comparative agreeth to the parts compared, by adding this preposition, than:a

Chaucer, 3d book of Fame:
What did this Eolus, but he

Took out his black trump of brass,
That blacker than the divel was.

d

The superlative is joined to the parts compared by this preposition of.

Gower, lib. 1:

Pride is of every miss the prick:

Pride is the most vice of all wick. Jewel:

The friendship of truth is best of all.

Oftentimes both degrees are expressed by these two adverbs, more, and most: as more excellent, most excellent. Whereof the latter seemeth to have his proper place in those that are spoken in a certain kind of excellency, but yet without comparison: Hector was a most valiant man; that is, inter fortissimos.

Furthermore, these adverbs, more and most, are added to the comparative and superlative degrees themselves, which should be before the positive: Sir Thomas More:

Forasmuch as she saw the cardinal more readier to depart than the remnant; for not only the high dignity of the civil magistrate, but the most basest handicrafts are holy, when they are directed to the honour of God.

The Latins comparative governeth an ablative; their su perlative a genitive plural. The Greeks both comparative and superlative hath a genitive; but in neither tongue is a sign going

between.

And this is a certain kind of English atticism, or eloquent phrase of speech, imitating the manner of the most ancientest and finest Grecians, who, for more emphasis and vehemencies sake, used so to speak.

Positives are also joined with the preposition of, like the superlative:

Elias was the only man of all the prophets that was left alive.

Gower, lib. 4:

The first point of sloth I call
Lachesse, and is the chief of all.

CHAP. V.

OF THE SYNTAX OF A VERB WITH A NOUN.

Hitherto we have declared the syntax of a noun: the syntax of a verb followeth, being either of a verb with a noun, or of one verb with another. The syntax of a verb with a noun is in number and person; as

I am content.

You are mis-informed.

Chaucer's 2d book of Fame:

For, as flame is but lighted smoke;
Right so is sound ayr ybroke.

I myself, and ourselves, agree unto the first person: you, thou, it, thyself, yourselves, the second: all other nouns and pronouns (that are of any person) to the third. Again, I, we, thou, he, she, they, who, do ever govern; unless it be in the verb am, that requireth the like case after it as is before it,

me, us, thee, her, them, him, whom, are governed of the verb. The rest, which are absolute, may either govern, or be governed.

A verb impersonal in Latin is here expressed by an English impersonal, with this article it going before; as oportet, it behoveth; decet, it becometh. General exceptions:

The person governing is oft understood by that went before: True religion glorifieth them that honour it; and is a target unto them that are a buckler unto it. Chaucer:

Womens counsels brought us first to woe,

And made Adam from Paradise to go.

But this is more notable, and also more common in the future; wherein for the most part we never express any person, not so much as at the first: Fear God, honour the king.

Likewise the verb is understood by some other going before :

Nort. in Arsan.

When the danger is most greal, natural strength most feeble, and divine aid most needful. Certain pronouns, governed of the verb, do here abound.

Sir Thomas More:

And this I say although they were not abused,
as now they be, and so long have been, that I
fear me ever they will be.

Chaucer, 3d book of Fame:
And as I wondred me, ywis
Upon this house.

Idem in Thisbe:

She rist her up with a full dreary heart:
And in cave with dreadful fate she start.

Special exceptions.